What is 30 days of your life worth? Perhaps nothing!

Thomas Secrest

21 Dec 2013
Prague, CZ


What is the value of one month of your life? According to the PA state government -- $0.00!


I recently watched a video on The Young Turks network that really struck a cord.

In this little video, a case was described in which 2 people were held without trail for 1 month. They were charged with cocaine possession. They claimed it is soap; however, naturally, the arresting officer claimed he tested it and that it was cocaine. As it turned out, it was, in fact, soap, but it took the state of PA one month to actually test the substance. So 2 people sat in prison for 1 month because bail was set so high that they were unable to buy their way out.

Since soap and cocaine are rather different chemically, it leads me to ask 2 questions (1) did the cop really test the soap (remember it was soap after all) and (2) if he tested the soap and the test identified cocaine, why are they using such a worthless test? Either the cop or the test needs to be suspended.

The drug war has to stop. Being pulled out of your life for 1 month has consequences that can go on and on. The missed birth of a child, a wrecked marriage, being absent during the final days before the death of a loved one, missing final exams at college, being fired from work, missing an important interview ... the list goes continues and is limited only by your imagination. Think of every important day in your life and imagine what your life would have been like if on that particular day you were setting in jail accused of soap possession.

One day, someone is going to be pulled from their life and the consequences of having those 30 days stolen from them will be so horrific that it will lead them to the conclusion that someone must pay for the suffering it caused and the form that payment takes, may or may not be to your liking.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

The Police State vs. The Muslim Brotherhood

Thomas Secrest
15 Aug 2013
Prague, CZ

The Police State vs. The Muslim Brotherhood

It's not very often that we really have to acknowledge that you don't know who to support in a dispute. We may talk about this kind of thing happening on a theoretical basis, but it just doesn't happen very often.

Egyptians came a long way to get rid of Mubarak and to a certain degree they were lucky that the military had allowed a vote to go forward. The military had little to gain and a lot to lose by sitting quietly while the country experimented with democracy.

At least in the near-term I'm sure the military was planning to retain much of their power, while letting citizens enjoy a fair amount of increases personal freedom and liberty. This wouldn't have been a perfect solution and in time the tyranny at the heart of every police state would have had to be thrown off. Whether it could have been done in a more or less peaceful way is anyone's guess. We'll never know.

Unfortunately the Egyptians never got a chance to experience the freedoms and liberties they came so close to having. Instead, through the use of smoke, mirrors and the ballot box, a group of men calling themselves the Muslim Brotherhood took power.

Through ignorance and arrogance they started to create their Islamic state. A state which, if it had gone unchecked, would have been at least as bad and perhaps worse than the Mubarak government. An Islamic state cannot be a democracy and it is regrettable that the world watched and endorsed elections of people who by their nature and religion are anti-democratic. When it comes to what GOD wants, there are usually no options and voting is out of the question.

When Christopher Hitchens wrote "How Religion Poisons Everything" he had no idea how completely Egypt was going to prove his point. In recent history there may be no more glaring example of a situation in which religion grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory.

Those who thought that god spoke to them and had told them how all people should live, rushed in and dashed the precious ember of liberty with the bitter fluid that drips from documents such as the Koran; all while those too childish, too cowardly or too stupid to know better, stood by and cheered. The Islamic sheep of Egypt voted in huge numbers for those who would lead them, by the nose as slaves, into to the promise land.

The military will think twice before experimenting with liberty and democracy again and the Egyptian people, who had fought so hard for liberty and won so much, will once again live with boots on their necks.

Which boots are better? If I had to pick, and I'm glad I don't, I guess I would go with military boots.

Perhaps the meek will inherit the earth, however, it is fairly clear that the sheep shall not.

Doing The Wrong Thing

Prague, CZ
3 Aug. 2013
Thomas Secrest

Doing The Wrong Thing

I was listening to the BBC today. The subject was the trial of Bradley Manning. I listened to a similar program on the BBC a few days ago as well. In total, 6 guests, (who I call the Manning 6) with a variety of political leanings discussed the verdict in the trial. Some were supporters, some not, but they all agreed that the judge did the right thing is dismissing the treason charge. In fact that were almost giddy in their support of the judge, who won high praise from all.

It was both sad and disappointing.

Since I don't know these people, I am going to give them all the benefit of the doubt. I am going to assume that they failed to realize they were being led around by the nose, all the while saying "thank you."

Consider this example:

Suppose you decide to risk jay-walking. You look both ways and when you think it is safe you dart across the street. To your surprise, you are spotted by a police officer who rushes towards you. Oh well, you think; I guess I'm going to get a ticket.  You are about to offer a friendly greeting when the officer shoots you with a Taser gun, ZAP!, which drops you to the pavement. The officer immediately begins kicking you and hitting you with a baton -- all while yelling at you to stop resisting and comply.

You are arrested and charged with jay-walking, attempted suicide and resisting arrest.

At your trial the judge finds you guilty of jay-walking and resisting arrest and fines you $2000. The judges dismisses the more serious crime of attempted suicide, which could have landed you in the nut house for an unspecified period (i.e. until you were no longer suicidal).

You thank the judge for her/his wisdom, pay your $2000 fine and take your broken nose, broken wrist and broken ribs and exit the court room as quickly as possible.

This is what happened to Manning. Now, the Manning 6, and all the rest of the sheep will have to wait and see if he is treated unfairly and given 130 years in prison, or if he is treat fairly and only given a life sentence.