If a drunk driver crashed his speeding rental car into your house and killed your spouse, you would be outraged if law enforcers took bribes and refused to give the driver a blood test. If the judge then gave the killer a small fine and ordered you to pay the fine and pay for all the damages, you'd be outraged. If the government then handed the drunk-driver keys to a bigger faster rental car, handed the drunk driver an even bigger bottle of whiskey, and then gave you the rental bill; you'd storm Washington, blizzard elected officials with protests and organize friends and associates to vote these malefactors, the elected officials that betrayed your trust, out of office.

Yet, we've remained largely silent in the face of the same sort of behavior by Wall Street and Washington. Bonus-seeking bankers crashed into Main Street's economy and ran control frauds within banks that would have failed without taxpayer bailouts. Bureaucrats and elected officials bailed them out without demanding consequences. Bankers are revving their engines again in credit derivatives, currency derivatives, and commodities trades. "Financial reform" addresses none of the latter problems.

Isn't it time to ask the simple question: Are not the government folks the actual crooks?

There are times I wonder. Janet then goes on to raise a couple of other excellent points:

When it comes to the type of violent crime referred to by the Superintendent, he has his cause and effects all wrong, and he made it all about racism. He equated gun laws to "government sponsored racism."

If criminals didn't have guns, they would use knives. The killings in our African American communities have nothing to do with racism. These are black-on-black crimes perpetrated by criminals with no respect for authority and no self-respect. They victimize and terrorize decent members of the black community struggling to survive a devastating economic crisis. The Chicago Police Superintendent's pandering and misinformation doesn't make it easy for anyone to respect authority.

Well, actually, gun laws are government-sponsored racism, but not in the way he intimated - it's exactly the opposite.

You see, gun laws were originally all about keeping black people from having the ability to shoot members of the KKK who intended to string them up (often after burning their house down.) It's damn hard to lynch a man who has a rifle and is willing to use it. It's much easier if you first make it illegal for him to have the rifle, and being a law-abiding citizen he doesn't go acquire one illegally....

The same, incidentally, is true of marriage laws. They didn't exist at the founding of America. They were, however, very convenient when it came time to prevent "miscagenation" - that is, black men from marrying white women. Why that's scandalous - and easy to prevent if the couple-to-be has to present themselves and seek permission from the State for what is supposed to be a religious and sacramental event!

Janet also brings up another excellent point: If the Catholic Church is going to enjoy tax exempt status as a religious institution, what is it doing holding political rallies that reinforce a viewpoint that is in fact bigoted and intended to victimize people of color while lying about both the history and current impact of said leftist political positions?

Hmmmmm....