The Man At The Gate

The violence in Mexico has come uncomfortably close to home. Last week the guard in our community was kidnapped along with a teenage we was trying to protect. As of today, the boy is still missing and Juan, the guard, was murdered – a good man doing his job sadly paid grave consequences.

He's a good man, Juan,

Always a smile on his face,

A friendly wave to those known,

Stands guard as we sleep in peace.

    So what!

He's a kind man,

Helpful when needed

Giving a feeling of security

Nice to know he's there.

    Who cares?

He works to keep us safe,

To feed his family,

To come home at night

Satisfied by a good job.

    So what!

He stands his guard

In nights of rain or cold,

Or summer evenings

Balmy and warm.

    Who cares?

They came, the evil men

Bringing hating hearts;

A boy dragged into a car;

Juan tried to stop the crime,

Do his job!

Save the boy!

            So what!

Now he spends eternity

Headless and defiled

From barbaric disrespect

Dreams gone, family alone.

    Why?

This time we can't forget,

Can't chalk it up to drug cartels

Killing each other as they

Fight for Border drug trade.

    We must care!

This time it's different

A beloved son snatched

On his home street,

Safe, he thought, as boys do.

    So what?

Guarded by a man with

Simple job, stand and protect

Worthy of great respect

Both taken, one dead for sure.

    Won't someone care?!

Juan, a hero to us all.

And for what purpose

Was this death? This taking?

Just lives for some pesos?

     How dare they!

If we let this go, forget

About the hero and the son

How little value we give!

Who next gifts a life in vain?

    As a world watches

    Saying "So what! Who cares?"

And then, who'll be left

To stand at the gate

And watch a son safely

Ride his bicycle

In front of his father's house?

Curmudgeon Gals podcasts

Curmudgeon Gal web site

Beheaded!

Beheading is the new crime of choice, we have become so inured to violence it takes something horrific to get our attention. The violence of our North American crimes start to make the Somalia pirate and their code begin to look like the good guys.

Here in Baja, Mexico, we've been in the middle of drug cartels duking it out for the last year, headless bodies dumped by roadsides, in school yards, empty lots. They're a symbol of the contempt in which the crime lords hold the government and the public. What's another life or two? Just kill them and dump them like garbage, what a way to instill fear! Talk about terrorism! It's alive and well here on our own continent, we don't have to cross an ocean or a globe to find it.

And the Americans look across the border and think about how dangerous Mexico is. Yes, it's dangerous, but is it really more dangerous than the states? I'm not so sure. It's just more ghastly barbaric, we don't have too many beheadings in the states, just home grown serial killers by the score.

In San Diego, a few weeks ago, a woman in her 60's was kidnapped by a group of kids, a girl included, beaten and stuffed in the trunk of her car as they drove around with her for a day or so. How about the spate of multiple murders - upstate New York a double digit toll in one rampage, Midwestern father annihilated families of five in the blink of an eye, mother's offed their kids, a female Sunday school teacher killed a little girl and is labeled a sexual predator for what she did to the child before she killed her – I don't want to know what she did to the child, too much information that I don't need haunting my dreams, there are enough terrible images already, thank you very much. And the list goes on, hateful crimes, the dead stacked like so many logs waiting winter burning.

But one has come close to me and it took my usual fearlessness away. I live in a Mexican neighborhood, nice, in the center of town. The community pays the salaries of guards who stand at the gate in front and patrol the area at night.

Last week one of the guards tried to stop a kidnapping in front of the guard shack, for his efforts he was snatched along with the boy. The next day, our guard, Juan, a lovely man with a ready smile and earnest manner, was found naked, beheaded, wrapped in plastic and dumped in a stolen car in front of the Municipal Building in our town. His head was in the back seat.

The boy was kidnapped. Juan had a night stick and no chance against cars full of heavily armed kidnappers. In Mexico the bad guys do their dirty work in such large numbers they need two cars – big SUVs. No guard is a match for them. Nothing has been heard about the boy, but in the last several kidnappings, even when payment was made, the victims have been killed and tortured. Mexican kidnappers don't understand the business aspect – in order to get paid the victim is supposed to be returned in one piece, otherwise, why would anyone pay in the future? But there is such a strong cultural tie to the family, loved ones will do anything possible to get them back in one piece, even though they have the sinking feeling their efforts are in vain.

Somehow, violence has become all right. Gangs feel no compunction about beheading and torture. There is less than zero regard for human life and there seems to be enjoyment of acts more and more vicious. Is it a sign of the times?

The other night on the news, I heard the Pirates from Somalia have a code. Those they kidnap are not ever to be killed but returned alive and well. Now, they are threatening to kill all the US sailors they capture. It's in retribution for several pirates killed in the rescue of the American captain held for ransom. In an odd way, I understand. They view piracy as a "gentleman's business transaction" just a slight detention for money and no one gets hurt. The USA violated their code by killing them to affect a rescue. We are now obviously a country who doesn't know how to play the game correctly and we must be taught a lesson. It's the rules of engagement, Somalia style.

It would be great if there were rules of engagement in Mexico, but it's simply kill or be killed, and the more violent the better. Now, chills run down my spine when I go through the gate, remembering the brave man who tried to save the boy, and how he was repaid for his efforts. It's a dismal reminder that I live in another country filled with violence.

Then, back at home in California, the television is filled with more mayhem and murder, sexual predators, serial killers, home invasions, family murders, just another day in the life… not really much of a change from Mexico, except it's somehow a little more antiseptic. Bodies are neatly disposed of or hidden in many cases, the reportage is more matter of fact and less angst filled. Ho hummmm. Nothing much to report, just another rampage at a school or office or public building. Not anything to worry about, same old, same old, multiple murders, family killings, child abductions, sexual predators blah, blah, blah!

Maybe we are all desensitized. Too much "No Country for Old Men," "In Bruges" or like another slasher movie, a serial killer like in "Criminal Minds" and don't worry, the FBI, NCIS, BAU, Bones or a local CSI will find the bad guy and put him away. No big deal.

There is a disconnect between reality and fantasy. Sort of like, is 'Survivor' real and does the Bachelor actually marry his lady of choice? Is the news real or is it just another scripted show we're seeing? Are they really 'Lost' on that island or is it just a long reality show?

I think the problem is, life has become so frightening, so complicated; we don't want to distinguish between truth and fiction. The Manson murders were in 1969 and shocked the country. Two years later, Stanley Kubrick's brilliant "Clockwork Orange" was released with it's eerie fantasies, redolent of Manson home invasions. It was terrifying because it's failed solution to the crime problem by aversion therapy only pointed out the unsolvable problem of endemic violence inherent in our society.

It appears we have evolved to the point where the only way someone can get our attention is to make their crimes more and more horrific. Just a plain vanilla murder means nothing. We only pay attention when they are unbelievably violent or in staggering numbers.

Maybe the Somali pirates have it right after all. It might be a gentleman's trade to be a pirate, take something captive, a tanker, cruise ship, cargo ship, hold it for ransom and when you get paid, let the crew go without a scratch on them. Strange as it seems, they might be looking like the good guys these days.

Welfare Queens

At a time when the government is handing out money right and left, it is important for us to realize who the next Welfare Queens really are. You'll be surprised once you really think about it.

Hey, it's tax time again! Been thinkin' about where your tax money's going? I certainly have.

That's coming on the heels of sitting in my doctor's office reading a real estate magazine called "Dream Homes" for San Diego County advertising homes for sale. The cheapest I found was in the high five hundreds. Most of the listings were many millions of dollars, from four million up to thirty something as I recall. There were lots of them for sale too; maybe a couple of hundred and just in the one county.

These houses aren't for ordinary people; they're for the super affluent, the mega rich who can afford those prices. A plain old single digit millionaire won't be buying a house for twenty-three million dollars.

Once again, I'd like to know, who are the people who can afford to buy these homes? I've been asking the same question since 2004 and no one's ready to give me an answer. Are these the homes of the Chargers? Rock stars? Movie stars? Entrepreneurs?

I think more likely they're the homes of the Wall Street guys Mr. Bush so generously bailed out with taxpayers money. Could they also be the homes of real estate developers who made so much money from the predatory lending practices of the banks and mortgage brokers? Or, are they the homes of the real estate agents who raked in huge commissions on outrageous overpriced deals they pushed on greedy buyers.

Maybe they're the homes of the mortgage brokers who hired bullpens to bombard homeowners with telephone calls enticing them to increase their mortgages or take out equity loans. Still, it could be they're the homes of the auto dealers who put up-charges on popular model cars and pushed leases on buyers rather than letting them buy cars they could eventually own without monthly payments if times got tough.

On the other hand, maybe they're the homes of those who "flipped" one house after the other, using the rapidly expanding equity to jump to the next level as they took advantage of the ever more enticing and exotic bank products.

Or perhaps they could just be the homes of movie stars or producers, e-commerce mavens, song writers, successful business owners, computer game programmers, outstanding surgeons or just brilliant geeks who made better gizmos. These guys don't bother me; they earn their wealth by creating something, or at least entertaining us, not just scamming money in a wild ride more devastating than any pyramid scheme – ooops, sorry, forgot about Madoff.

But maybe I'm missing something. Maybe these homes are the correct prices because that's where the demand in the market lies. In the last eight years this country might have produced a continuum of mind boggling affluence no one is really aware of. If so, I'd like to know who these people are, wouldn't you? Are they people we read about in magazines or the tabloids or are they the unsung heroes of commerce, quietly taking their money to the bank in secrecy?

But why are there so many for sale? Are the underpinnings of the rich coming loose too? Are they in the shitter as much as the rest of us? Do they want to renegotiate their mortgages instead of facing foreclosure or is it just no longer politically correct to be so obviously arrogantly entitled?

After all, as we bailout the auto companies, the banks, Wall Street, AIG and on and on, don't forget that we're bailing out the rich – like executives, board members who voted for the dangerous and risky moves, shareholders with mega bucks, as well as pension funds, retirement funds, oil sheiks, foreign governments, mutual funds, hedge funds and so on. So far, few of the bank bailouts have filtered down to helping ordinary people in danger of losing their homes. The foreclosures just keep on coming, despite the television advertised scams where companies taking advantage of misery claim to be able to renegotiate mortgages and mortgage balances. Don't you believe it.

I don't have anything against rich people, I'd certainly like to be in that category too if given half a chance. But I really don't get it and think I'm missing something. Has this country progressed to the point where there are so many affluent people who can afford runaway luxury? Think palatial, think chateaux, think lords of the manor… or is it just ordinary folks acting out their fantasies of being so stinking rich they can afford to live well beyond their means? If that's the case, then we, as taxpayers, have the right to know, since we are the ones who'll be bailing them out very shortly in the next wave of prime mortgage failures.

Now I really like the term "bailout." It appeals to my dark sense of humor and is just the kind of bullshit spin we have all been fed for so long it's almost funny.

Really think about it, if we were actually bailing out poor people, then it could be called the "dole." The poor go on welfare and it's shameful.

Bad poor people, how could they be so thoughtless to be poor and cause the other upstanding citizens to have to give them handouts?

The term "welfare queens" used to specifically mean poor women, generally black women or white trash, sitting at home having a lot of kids to increase their welfare payments. We got enraged about it and made sure it wouldn't happen. All us taxpayers wanted to know where our money went since it was hard earned. This is all the vocabulary of giving a helping hand to the disadvantaged or, let's say it openly – the poor!

But it's all semantics. When we put the rich on the dole it's called a "bailout." The truth is the "welfare queens" are now auto makers, bankers and Wall Street brokers, AIG executives to name a few. How times have changed. But no one seems to think of them as on the dole. After all, we're used to thinking of them as the rich. Just get the right mindset pal, and get real. The next time you go to your bank or auto dealer for business, look them in the eye and address them as "you welfare queens." Now, I admit it might get you a punch in the eye, but let's be fair, that's what they are and it's time we make them realize it - even if they don't like it.

I didn't like it when they offered me a car with an up-charge. I think I'm going back to the same Chevrolet dealer and refer to everyone there as welfare queens. What the hell, so what if they don't like it, it is the truth, their salaries are now paid by me and you – the taxpayers of America. And don't forget it when next negotiating to buy a car. They need to drop the arrogance and know who's boss, and it's you! If everyone who went into a car dealership told the management they were going to write to their local congressman or woman to not go along with further bailouts, it might have some effect. And if nothing else, it might put a little humility into the mix. And I'll bet you'll walk out laughing, first good one in months…

When you see the outrageous homes for sale, ask a broker who the owners are. It might give you new insight on the true state of the Union and who is out there with their hands palm up.

It might be the home of someone now on the dole, with salary limited to only $500,000 a year – bad rich person, now on the dole, bad, bad you can only make a half a million a year, bad! They won't be able to afford the upkeep on their five to whatever million dollar home so we have to feel sorry for them. Their mortgage can be foreclosed if they can't dump the place. Be on the watch for short sales on palaces.

This is going to be the next shocker in the mortgage debacle, when the mega million dollar homes get foreclosed, and don't think it isn't now happening. It's just on the horizon, slipping into sight as the new economic stimulus bill comes into being with salary limitations. Then the next round of banks, mortgages, houses hit the foreclosure trail as the triple A mortgages fail. And it won't be pretty.

You'll be able to watch those who thought they were entitled as the new welfare queens hit the road. Ersatz chateau furnishings in moving vans pulling into driveways of ersatz tract châteaux developers sold on the cheap when they couldn't sell for the original seven figure prices they were asking. And the guys next door who bought at the original high price - they'll be moving out for cheaper seats when they realize their mortgage is much higher than the value of their homes.

So, in the future, we of the middle class, the benighted taxpayer class of America, have to keep our eyes on the people we're now supporting – those on the dole - the poor, and the new class of welfare queens who earned their title of nobility by being rich – our class of arrogance and entitlement - bankers, automakers and Wall Street boys. I hope that gives you a nice warm fuzzy feeling when you pay your taxes in a few days.