Mexico Is Not the Holy Land
Tod Robberson, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, draws a contrast between the millions of dollars and years of effort the US government spent prosecuting the Holy Land case here in Dallas and the largely tolerated drug violence happening on our US/Mexican border. He says the Holy Land defendants were accused of funding terrorism in the Palestinian territories whereas the drug cartels are carrying out worse terrorist activities right in our own backyard. Robberson asks why the government shouldn't treat drug violence the same as any other terrorism prosecution.
Before answering his question, let me say that I think the drug violence along our border is a serious problem that ought to be receiving more attention and resources than it has.
But the difference in the two cases, and why Middle East terrorism is treated more seriously, is that Middle East terrorism is an existential threat to America. Only lack of means, not lack of desire, keeps al Qaeda from using weapons of mass destruction in America - nuclear, chemical or biological. The drug traffickers, on the other hand, are driven by the profit motive. As unacceptable as extortion, rape and murder are, they are not existential threats to America as a whole. Killing their market would be counter-productive to drug traffickers. That's no comfort to their victims, but it is a cold fact of life that those responsible for our national security need to factor into their prioritization of our planning and response to terrorist activities.
By the way, if The Dallas Morning News is serious about calling more attention to the dangers posed by drug trafficking, how about naming the drug trafficker this year's Texan of the Year? ;-)
Perhaps a better parallel between drug trafficking and terrorism is what's happening, not in Palestine with Hamas, but in Afghanistan. 90% of the world's opium is produced in Afghanistan. Much of the violence in that country is no longer about religion. It's about money. It's not the Taliban. It's age-old tribal rivalries for control of territory and the opium business. That the US is doing so poorly controlling drug trafficking on our southern border is a very bad omen about our prospects of successfully fighting terrorism half a world away in the border mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Jacquielynn Floyd's Irrational Lottery Advice
Jacquielynn Floyd, in The Dallas Morning News Metro blog, offers this bit of irrational lottery advice.
"I don't buy lottery tickets either, but I was tempted last week - the Lewisville convenience store that sold a $13 million winner the other day is about half-a-mile from my house. The impulse was to run over there and buy a fistful of tickets, quick. Then came the sobering thought that if the odds of hitting are remote, the odds of the same Finamart selling two big winners in a row are pretty much nonexistent."Luckily for her, she's paid for her language skills, not her math skills. Now that that Finamart has hit it big once, the odds of it hitting it big for a second time in a row are exactly the same as every other Finamart's odds of hitting it big in the next drawing. So, go ahead and buy your ticket at that Finamart. Sure, you are most likely throwing your money away, but so would you be if you used that dollar to buy the kind of advice you get from Jacquielynn Floyd in The Dallas Morning News.
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