[fabsroman]

Andy, between Skeeters and your last post, I am laughing pretty good.

At the end of the day, I think the kid that stole the watch should be put up against the wall and egged by all the kids that were detained and searched. After that, he should be cained by the child that he stole the watch from. Honestly, I think we are too easy on crime.

Like Skeeter said, guns and drugs aren't the problem, people are. If we need a troop increase in Iraq, I say we send all the lifers over there to inspect the suspicious looking packages and vehicles. You want to commit a crime, well then you are going to give back to your country instead of receiving free room and board and three meals a day, you will work for your room and board and your food. Val and I might have gotten into an argument about this before, and I think I was on the other side of the fence, but that was before spending several days in Court this year watching criminals get off pretty lightly or watching criminals not really care about being sentenced to a month or a year in prison. One guy was telling me that Montgomery County's jail was a lot worse than DC's, and I think Montgomery County is a country club. They even have cable. Like I said, they should break rocks and dig holes all day long. What I wouldn't give to be able to sleep all day, play basketball, and work out all day, with absolutely no stress and three meals a day. Why would anybody want to leave. Heck, as the hispanic population increases in the prison system, they will probably start to build soccer fields in the prisons. I love soccer, so maybe I'll enroll sometime soon.

I don't care how many jails we need to pay for, we should be extremely tough on crime. Of course, I say this now and then I feel sorry for the poor bastard with 3 kids and a wife that has gotten caught for his 3rd DWI who is facing jail time, the loss of his job, and his wife and kids going hungry. However, maybe, just maybe, if we were tough on crime to begin with, he never would think about drinking and driving. My brother has had 3 DWI's, done a couple of weekends in jail for his third, and he still continues to drink and drive, and I have seen him in such bad shape a bunch of times behind the wheel that I wonder how the hell he actually gets home alive. Luckily, I don't hang out with him much lately because of his new girlfriend, so I worry less about who he is going to kill or whether or not he is going to kill himself (i.e., out of sight out of mind).

As far as being informed about what you are going speak to the principal about, I applaud you. There is nothing better than being completely informed about something beforehand. If I get some time this afternoon, I'll try to do some research to help you out.

Okay, you snuck that last post in while I was typing my book. Yes, you are right, there is a difference between protecting property and protecting life. In my state you cannot kill anybody to protect property, but you can kill them to protect yourself if there is nowhere you can retreat to or you happen to be in your home. The details are a little more complicated regarding the use of deadly force to protect oneself, but that is the only time you can kill somebody. I don't know how I would feel about being stopped and searched for missing property. If the officer took it too far, I am sure I would be pissed. I definitely wouldn't allow an officer to come into my house and search it without a search warrant. Probably wouldn't even open my trunk for the officer if he didn't have probable cause. Probably wouldn't mind a road block if they had a description of a burglar and they were checking cars out to see who was in them. Yeah, that is a small inconvenience, but if they catch the guy I am all for it. The level of the inconvenience compared to what they are trying to accomplish is what I am looking at. If they are looking for a murderer, then I think they should have more latitude than if they are looking for the stolen Hope diamond, than if they are looking for a stolen pack of bubble gum; however, the law doesn't work that way.