Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

This made it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.  The Virginia Tech massacre reignited political debate on U.S. gun laws.  The killer, a South Korean who had been in the U.S.A. since age 8, had been declared mentally unsound 2 years before.  

But a judge had allowed him outpatient status so he could attend college, as if he represented no threat to others on the campus.  This mentally unsound killer was able to purchase guns for his historical killing spree.

As New Orleans struggles in the aftermath of horrifying Hurricane Katrina, the drug dealers returned to New Orleans en masse.  There are so many killings going on now in New Orleans that the courts have difficulty keeping up with their case loads.  They used to call New Orleans "The Big Easy."  Now many call it "The Big Sleazy."

50 percent of marriages in the U.S.A. end in divorce.  For the first time, there are more single mother families than married couples with children.

Is this the kind of lifestyle that soldiers are dying for in Iraq?  When the trigger mechanism of weapons of mass destruction allegedly threatening the U.S.A. were never found, the reasons for continuing the Iraq War changed drastically.

Suddenly the defensive war morphed into the crusaders for democracy and freedom for the entire Middle East.  Oil was not mentioned as any motivation for the Iraq War.  However, the U.S. now is trying to get Iraqis to agree to allow 63 of their 80 oil wells to be opened on a lease agreement to foreign investors.  

Geneva Convention war rules are ignored.  Could this lawlessness at the top contribute to the pattern of lawlessness in the U.S.A?

Health authorities in Atlanta, Georgia repeatedly insisted on CNN that they advised Speaker not to fly. They explained that if he did decide to fly in spite of their dire warnings not to do so, he must wear a facemask to protect other passengers from the deadly virus strain he had.

Only two days after reporting to health authorities in Atlanta, Andrew Speaker hastily hopped a plane for Paris.  Speaker did not bother to wear the facemask to protect other passengers.  

Because Andrew Speaker is a personal injury attorney he might decide to represent himself in court if the airlines he traveled on sue him to pay for the cost of testing each passenger on the planes on which he flew to determine if he had infected them.

Andrew Speaker and bride-to-be Sarah were flying to a small Greek island for the idyllic setting for their romantic wedding.  Speaker's joyous wedding journey carrying the deadly TB virus could mean a funeral parlor journey if some unlucky victim contracted it from him.  

Speaker's father-in-law ironically works at the Center for Disease Control in the division of TB elimination.  He has worked there 32 years.  He joined his daughter in the romantic island setting for this wedding.

Speaker's father went on WSB-TV, declaring, "The way he's been shown and spoken about on TV, it's like a terrorist traveling around the world escaping authorities.  It's been blown out of proportion immensely."

Has it?  After flights to Paris, Greek islands and Italy, he was contacted in Italy by health authorities that insisted he not endanger anybody else on any more airplanes.

That did not stop Attorney Andrew Speaker.  He promptly boarded a flight for Montreal.  The Canadian border authorities had been warned emphatically that Speaker was a health risk and that he should not be allowed to return to the U.S.A.

The Canadian border guard who dealt with Speaker got the message.  He ignored instructions, claiming, "Speaker looked healthy to me."  The border guard was not fired, but given another job.  With border guards like that we can all feel safe, can't we?

Speaker's complaining father and father-in-law, the TV prevention employee at the Center for Disease Control (doesn't that make you feel safe from TB infections?) could provide the perfect wedding gift vow!

Speaker's father and father-in-law could pay for all the TB testing for all the passengers on every plane that the happy wedding couple, Andrew and Sarah, flew on during their romantic journeys.