Random Thoughts on Wednesday

A few little things that are bothering me, in no particular order:

From CBS News this morning, they are reporting that the cost of housing some 27,000 illegal immigrants (one has to assume pending deportation) will be close to $1 billion dollars next year and given the current stress on the federal penal system, the money is expected to go to private prisons.

I find two things wrong with this. First, that the government is outsourcing its prisons. There is just something wrong with that in my mind. But second, I am bothered by the rather high cost. That works out to roughly $40,000 a year per prisoner. Now, maybe it is just me, but if, as a nation we cannot afford to pay our teachers $40,000 a year, why are we paying that much to house illegal immigrants? The story did not mention if these people were axe wielding sociopaths or if they were just your run of the mill worker looking to make something better of themselves. Clearly the costs do not seem to add up to me.

Some general thoughts on the evacuations from Lebanon. Some US citizens seem upset (at least) about the way they are being treated by the US government when it comes to being evacuated from the country. The first thought that leapt into my head is that the entire region is a powder keg that makes terrorism in the United States seem like little more than violent crime (in fact, more money needs to be focused on the violent crime than the efforts being wasted on terrorism combined, but that is a different discussion). So what sort of preparations did these people take? Clearly, the answer for a large number of them is none. One man talked about crossing to Cyprus, having to sleep on the deck of the car ferry in the rain with no food. I guess he did not get a chance to check out the Be Prepared web sites (Ready.Gov, MakeAPlan). It just baffles me that anyone that voluntarily is going to the region is not prepared with at least six ways to get out of the region. It has not changed in 20 years.

The second thought that leapt to mind is why bother evacuations at all? Aside from a few people that are there on government business (who, again, should be more than well prepared for getting themselves out of harms way), what is to be gained? If you are in the region, you should be able to go to ground like the locals. You do not see them being evacuated do you? I keep scratching my head over this whole mess. After all, 3,000 years of hostility is not going to go away over night.

Sports-Betting Operation Shuts Web Site Jul 18th - 10:00pm By DAVID KOENIG Associated Press Writer FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - An offshore sports-betting operation targeted by U.S. prosecutors shut down its Web site Tuesday night, a day after a federal judge ordered the company to stop letting Americans place wagers. (WTOP News)

This is another area that is just bugging the heck out of me. Rather than wasting precious tax dollars that could be better spent in other areas, why not just make on-line gambling legal, collect taxes from it like the lottery and have done with it. This is like trying to hold back the ocean with a strainer.

People are going to gamble, regardless of the moral tags you put on it and the damage it does to families, etc, etc, etc, ad nausium. Las Vegas has give us the model. Let's use it and get back to more critical problems like crumbling roads and failing power grids.

Finally: I am tired of government waste. I have been a government contractor and I have seen the amount of waste every federal office has. Do I have some ideas on how to improve things? Of course. But I am also a realist. The federal government will not clean itself up until it implodes. Unfortunately, by then, it will be far too late.