Is America Going Mad?

"They're coming to take me away, ha ha" ~ Napoleon XIV

In North Carolina, The entire lacrosse season at Duke University has been cancelled due to allegations that three of the players raped a stripper at a party. Now, there are several surface issues that can be dealt with in this story. I will touch on some, briefly.

First of all, what are college kids doing attending a party in which strippers were present? That is a pretty obvious question, and the answer is just as clear. Being terribly irresponsible and short sighted.

Second, strippers make their living off sex. Even the most professional strippers who maintain a modicum of integrity in refusing to take the next step into prostitution can be lured into that situation for the right amount of money. And by the right amount of drugs or alcohol. My ex-wife was a stripper for a time and once, she was offered an obscene amount of money to have sex with a stranger. She got as far as the parking lot of the motel where she was supposed to meet him and bailed out.

Through my ex-wife I have known many strippers personally, and I can tell you from personal knowledge that they do everything for no reason other than money. It is my opinion, given the facts so far presented in this case, that her allegations are false. She was probably stiffed by the players and made the charge of rape out of vindictiveness.

Recent discoveries, one, a video tape proving the stripper received her injuries previous to the party, and the fact that no DNA evidence has been found, has convinced me and almost everyone else, that the players are innocent.

Here is the first indication that America has gone mad: The defense has introduced the evidence that there is no validity to the charges of rape, but the D.A says, "Just because no DNA evidence was found, it doesn't mean nothing happened."

I have been both a juror and a defendant in felony trials and I have learned two basic tenants of jurisprudence:

1. The burden of proof is on the prosecution. The defense does not have to prove innocence.

2. All that is necessary for an acquittal is a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.

The Prosecution has not yet proven the case, and the defense has offered strong evidence that no crime was committed. Hence, reasonable doubt. The Duke players should be released and the case dropped. There is no need to go to the expense of a costly trial.

Further evidence that America has gone, or is in the process of going mad:

The illegal immigration debate.

When this debate first came to the forefront (and it came way too late), it was all about National security. Now it's about offering illegal aliens a thinly disguised amnesty. We wanted to prevent terrorists and other threats to the security of our nation from strolling across the border carrying portable weapons of mass destruction in their handbags.

Now, the debate has shifted. Now, we are preparing to hand those same potential terrorists U. S. citizenship.

Even the President, who I have trusted up till now, is wrong on this one.

What has precipitated this monumental shift in purpose?

I am convinced there are many reasons, but I believe the underlying reason here is money. It means cheap labor for the companies who employ them illegally, and it means potential votes for those who are throwing their support behind the movement. Enough votes brings power. Power brings money.

It is shameful. Selling out the security of Americans across the country for money and power. I believe it was an ancient, increasingly irrelevant prophet named Jesus who said, "What profiteth a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own Soul?"

In the end, all of this indicates America may be going mad.