p thoughts and notices

As reported in our news section, 25 year old drug dealer Welton Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling small bags of pot to an undercover agent while carrying a weapon. Angelos had no prior criminal record and never threatened anyone. To his credit, the judge called this sentence unjust, cruel and irrational, but said he had no choice given the letter of the law (of course, paraphernalia thinks that he should consider quitting the bench, but we suppose it is not a bad job so). Selling weapons to terrorists, detonating a bomb on a plane or beating someone to death are all crimes carrying significantly shorter mandatory minimum sentences.

Mr. Angelos’ sentence was made worse by the fact that he carried a gun while selling drugs (Where is the NRA when you need it???), and under the same humane law, will not be eligible for parole until he is 78, presumably in time to celebrate his son’s 60th birthday.

The drug lunacy prevailing amongst politicians when it comes to drugs is well known. Of course, paraphernalia expects limited changes in the near future. The near certain appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General is likely to produce more of the same legal madness. Gonzo is the “jurist” who wrote the brilliant legal opinion trying to justify the use of torture, putting him close to the legal genius that drafted the Nuremberg Laws back in the 30s. In addition, it appears that former coke user Dubya’s sole strict requirements in appointing new judges to the Supreme Court is that they don’t believe slavery is legal (see Debate 2 on this). More compassion coming to a theater near you…

paraphernalia can only wishes that one of the Bush’s twins get caught doing something similar (how nice would that be!) or that legislators would listen to revolutionary central banker Alan Greenspan, who at least in his youth, understood that “At the bottom of the endless pile of paper work which characterizes all regulation lies a gun.” Then again, they probably know that already…..