Ready, Aim, Fire

Thehim at Reload has a hilarious post at Jesus General. A letter of "support" to Calvina Fay for her courageous stance on drug testing in schools.

Over at his own place, thehim catches this twist on the immigration debate.

In the comments of my Drug War Roundup, a commenter pointed me to this column in the Wall Street Journal by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, which makes the same connection between the war on drugs and the large numbers of Mexicans who have gone north in search of work:

In the debate about Mexican immigration to the U.S. there has been a lot of legitimate criticism about Mexico's failure to create an economically viable environment for its own people. When exporting human capital is a top priority something in the policy mix is dreadfully wrong and there is no doubt that the Mexican political class has a lot to answer for.

But the drug war also figures in the equation. Nobel economist Douglas North taught us the importance of institutions in development economics. Yet prohibition and the war on drugs are fueling a criminal underworld that handily crushes nascent democratic institutions in countries that we keep expecting to develop. Is it reasonable to blame Mexico for what enormously well-funded organized-crime operations are doing to its political, judicial and law enforcement bodies when we know that Al Capone's power during alcohol prohibition accomplished much the same in the U.S.? These are realities of the market, of supply and demand and prices under prohibition that no amount of wishing or moralizing can change.

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Trouble is, and the politicians count on this, most Americans don't know anything about history and they have the attention span of a flea. If people took the time to connect the dots, public opinion would prevent the government from walking all over us.