Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which from The Daily Caller?

Iran sends warships to Gulf of Mexico ...

Flynn cut ties with Trump, indicating possible cooperation with Mueller

[Roy] Moore trumpets president's near endorsement

Fusion GPS founder told Congress Russia has infiltrated NRA

Republican Congressman apologizes for graphic online photo ...

Apple claims bowing to Chinese censorship 'promotes greater openness'

Poll: Plurality support House tax plan, but many expect to pay more

Judge allows lawsuit against Keystone XL to go forward against Trump's objection

THE GREAT LAYOFF: China cuts 2 million ...

Report: NFL considers keeping players in locker took during anthem

Pressure mounts to unmask Hill harassers

Judge: Trump can't halt funding for military sex-change surgeries

BANK OF AMERICA sees end of bull market in '18 ...

Exclusive -- Poll: Roy Moore +6 over Doug Jones

The Wages of Sin

Mexico is rapidly becoming a place of brutal Afghanistan-like anarchy. Recently 72 men and women were massacred in north-eastern Mexico in what is believed to be a mass execution of Central Americans hoping to slip across the United States border. See: Mexican Massacre. These killings are attributed to a Mexican drug cartel branching out into human trafficking. It is believed that the four-year total of deaths attributed to these drug cartels now exceeds 28,000. Mexico, itself, seems unwilling or unable to curb this violence. And we in this country seem conveniently to paper-over this horrendous bloodshed.

Why do we ignore it? I think that many in our ruling class and glitterati find the work of these drug cartels to be quite utile. (By glitterati I mean many in the entertainment and sports industries who have more money than they can possibly rationally spend. And by ruling class, I mean our politicians and industry titans who turn their backs on our illegal immigration problem.) These cartels supply the cocaine that the glitterati (and some in the ruling class) stuff up their noses … and offer the ruling class a steady supply of cheap labor and emotional voters who are useful to their power-hungry purposes.

What is even more galling is that our glitterati and ruling class too often pontificate on how we, who decry this massive illegal immigration and this manic drug abuse are the baddies … and that they are the compassionate ones. Bull hockey! Tell it to the families to these Central American victims.

Optics

These days, television, in particular cable TV, seems to be increasingly able to shape public opinion. Be it the Israeli commandos rappelling down on a Turkish ship running the Gaza blockade … or a live shot of that broken British Petroleum “containment valve” one mile down spewing a cloud of evil oil into the pristine Gulf … or President Obama kneeling down on a Gulf of Mexico beach to examine a tar ball … it is all about the visuals that the news editors can effect on their viewing audience. The term that has gained current popularity for this phenomenon is “optics”. And, I don’t know about you, but I am getting a little tired of seeing that same ten yards of Gulf Coast wetlands with the BP oil slick lapping on its marsh reeds or those same Turkish militants (soon to be martyrs) wailing on the Israeli commandos. And now we are beginning to see oil coated pelicans (pelican?) consigned to bird heaven … covered in immoral BP petroleum.

These visuals can’t be the whole story by any stretch, but the gullible American public seems to be wedded to this form of information pabulum. I may be swimming against the tide here (so to speak), but 45 days into this BP drilling rig explosion, there seems to be remarkably little ecological damage (numerous pelicans die every day from shark attacks) relative to what we have been led to expect by the hysterical video and copy editors. (This morning on Morning Joe they graphically extrapolated the oil slick moving into the Atlantic and polluting shorelines all the way up to Cape Cod.) “A majority of Americans see the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as a major environmental disaster.” (The Pew Research Center on May 11th)

These dire predictions may in fact transpire if this leak is not contained for months to come, but I for one am skeptical … particularly when I see the environmentalist and politicians expeditiously stepping in to take advantage of the publics’ angst. Viz: President Obama has shut down all drilling for oil in the Gulf for six months (a far bigger economic disaster) and the Democrats in Congress are smacking their lips about using this incident to push through their Cap and Trade (read carbon tax) legislation this summer.

May I suggest that famous Clintonista line? “Let’s all step back and take a deep breath.”