Narco-Mexico

Mexico's President, Vicente Fox, has U.S. lawmakers in a tizzy over new legislation, passed last week by the Mexican Congress, which designates small quantities of heroin, cocaine and other narcotics as drugs that people can use without being prosecuted as criminals.

Mexican authorities say it's an effort to free police from dealing with small-time, petty drug users, while U.S. authorities, fearful of an increase in drug trafficking near the border, and having American citizens turned into narco-tourists, say the bill is an attempt to decimalize narcotics.

The legislation passed by the Mexican Senate would make it legal to possess up to 25 milligrams of heroin, 5 grams of marijuana, or half a gram of cocaine. It would also make it legal to have small amounts of LSD, amphetamines, and up to a kilo of peyote.

With the First Twins well-known penchant for overindulging and then getting arrested, I wonder if their father will be giving them plane tickets to visit his good presidential friend south of the border, or will he just begin bombing Mexico?

Rating School Girls

A local news story that's setting radio talk show phone lines on fire has to do with a list prepared by several less than scrupulous boys, rating the "Top 25 in 2006" high school girls. In spite of its benign, almost complimentary title, the list reaches beyond the mere inclusion of each girl's name, grade, and photo.

Printed and distributed anonymously, the list goes on to present sexually explicit descriptions of each girl in detail. Physical attributes are given letter grades, and body parts as well as faces, are described using the crudest of terms. Along with commentary regarding a person's weight, height, and ethnicity, there are references to the way each might perform vulgar sex acts. Much of it is so vivid that it can't be read on radio or TV. Many of the girls wouldn't attend class for days.

The parents and community, in general, are understandably concerned and simultaneous inquiries are being conducted by both the school board and the local police. What charges might be filed is still being debated. At the same time, a portion of the population is proclaiming that this is merely a matter of boys being boys... that it's only a joke that happens every year, and this is just the first time parents have become aware of it.

Some parents just don't get it. One can only hope that the children they're raising don't grow up and find jobs in important government positions, where their decision making will affect the well-being of others, and their mistakes can be justified with simple bumper-sticker slogans such as, "Boys Will Be Boys."

Happy-Slapping

One of the worst things that ever happened at my high school involved a rule which said students weren't permitted to leave the grounds during lunch. The major scandal one year was when a school "bad-boy" drove his convertible past the front of the building at lunchtime with the top down, his friends yelling and waving while he honked the horn. Teachers were in an uproar, the principal huffed and puffed up and down the halls all day, but the students got a big kick out of it -- we just laughed.

We've come a long way since then. The dangerous and foolish things that pass for pranks, and that young people think are funny, often make me pause and shake my head. Television programs such as Jackass, Dirty Sanchez and Happy Tree Friends have popularized these scenarios and their imagery. Happy-Slapping, or attacking some unsuspecting stranger or acquaintance while recording the still or video images on cell phones is the latest gift to us from those too young and stupid to know any better.

Sometimes staged with friends, but more frequently a tactic akin to a sucker-punch delivered to a stranger, happy-slapping takes many forms, from setting someone on fire, to tossing water on an elderly person on a bicycle from a passing car. Along with injury, rape and even death have occurred... for the fun of it. In some instances, the act has been turned back on the perpetrator.

There was a time when someone would have their house T.P.ed, (toilet papered) usually around Halloween time, or friends would pat you on the back, leaving a "Kick Me" sticky note. One wonders what's left for subsequent foolish generations to do next... tossing babies from roof tops, high-speed head-on collisions with strangers on the highway, or perhaps the ever-laughable neighborhood thermo-nuclear explosion captured by camera phone?

Did He Think He Could Fly?

It was reported late last week that 62-year-old Rolling Stones guitar player, Keith Richards, suffered a mild concussion after falling out of a palm tree while on holiday in Fiji. News accounts said that even after Richards performed his Palm Tree Plunge, he was strong enough to hop on a Jet Ski and involve himself in another accident.

Somehow I wasn't surprised. But, several questions, almost immediately, come to mind.

What was he doing in a palm tree? Should aging rock stars be permitted to drink so much that they begin, (or resume) exhibiting bizarre behaviors that land them in the hospital? And, is it possible that Richards will outlive Mick Jagger?