What Kind of a Country Are We Becoming?

Ah yes, the War on Drugs marches bravely on. Forty-nine convenience store clerks have been arrested by federal agents in Georgia for selling cold medicine, "charcoal, coffee filters, aluminum foil and Kitty Litter." These items, you see, can be used to make methamphetamine. That's right - convenience store clerks! - among the economically most pathetic people in the country, have been thrown in jail for failing to properly monitor and assess the buying habits of fake customers. They were supposed to spot that these plants were likely methamphetamine manufacturers and then refuse to sell to these scary people. To make things worse, this was a "sting" operation mounted against - yes - convenience store clerks. It's not like the feds were monitoring the activities of actual drug operations and the clerks just got caught up in the net. Nope - it was good old fashioned entrapment. "Prosecutors paid confidential informants - some former convicts, others offered the promise of lighter punishment for pending charges - to buy products in stores in six counties beginning in early 2004, and drop hints that they were making drugs." Wow - so scumbags who actually made and sold methamphetamine were given a break to help the US Government throw harmless store clerks into jail. All they had to do was agree to buy perfectly legal products while muttering something about needing to "finish up a cook." For this, these poor people face 10 years in jail.

I am really beginning to despise the United States government. What kind of a despicable human being is this prosecutor, David Nahmias, to engineer such an abominable entrapment? What kind of a legal system do we have that you can be torn from your home and thrown in jail for selling perfectly legal products? "While those people may not think they're causing any harm, the harm they cause is tremendous," Mr. Nahmias said. "We really wanted to send the message that if you get into that line of business, selling products that you know are going to be used to make meth, you're going to go to prison." What a bastard - an ambitious, loathesome, bully. I'd love to see him clerk in a store and tell some seedy, scary con that he can't buy lighter fluid to "do a cook." God forbid he went after the actual dealers and manufacturers. That would be too much work - too much real detective work - too much actual investigating. Nah, just throw a bone to some low-life dealer, strap on some wires, have the transcripts typed up, and voila! - 49 notches in your belt! What a latter-day Eliot Ness we have here - a real crimebuster!

And where is the outrage. Give credit to the Times for printing this story, but in typical weenie fashion the article focuses on the unfortunate situation of the Indian immigrants caught in the sting for whom a language barrier is an obvious problem. Clearly, if not for the "Cultural Differences," this wouldn't be a story worth printing. As far as the Times is concerned, English-speaking American citizens are fair game in this hunt.

Where's the liberal outrage, great protectors of the underdogs? Oh no, these aren't muslims caught in a global conflagration imprisoned at an American military base, so who cares? Outrage - that's reserved for Ten Commandments displays and theoretical library subpoenas, not for real police-state actions.

What about the libertarians on the right? Hello? Well, unfortunately, the clerks didn't also sell cigarettes and guns to the informers - then we would have had a real brouhaha on our hands.

A couple months ago, in the War on Terror, the feds pulled off another daring sting operation where they got some M.D. to agree to care for wounded men in Saudi Arabia if needed. For this he faces a lifetime in jail.

The War on Terror, the War on Drugs - the downfall of American freedom is written in these words.

UPDATE: I am not alone, thankfully. Scientist/Science Fiction writer Jerry Pournelle has commented on this as well on his Chaos Manor website.