Viet-Justice

In earlier posts from my Windows Mobile device I had noted that The Love Shack in John’s Creek will be staying open. Previously a judge had issued orders that could hold the owner, John Cornetta, in contempt if he opened with a “substantial” amount of adult material. Late last night The Love Shack began to make changes to its inventory and it was expected that today it would be in compliance with the judge’s orders by the 3pm deadline. GRIFTDRIF has a really nice bit of coverage as to how the whole event unfolded today. I also went to see what all the fuss was about by the politicians and anti-capitalist community of John’s Creek. The store had some adult items, but it was mainly a tobacco shop (with some fairly nice cigars I might add) and he even sells comic books. The community is upset because someone is making money off tobacco and Spider Man. Brilliant! Let’s call out the attorneys because this guy selling Spider Man comics might corrupt our community, never mind the liquor store next door.

I’m sure the right wing nut jobs were expecting people to be hauled away in hand cuffs and to have a big padlock on the front door. No such luck for the Christian Taliban on this day. Cornetta was able to reduce the amount of adult inventory at his store to around 5% which is less than the 25% he was required to comply with. I am sure most of the people of John’s Creek are nice but the protestors that arrived were not prepared to answer any hard questions and only could repeat their puritanical babble about how their community values are important.

I asked a group of protestors if they felt that shutting down a business was sending the wrong message to immigrants from Communist countries who come to America to start their own business and contribute to our grand capitalistic system. I held out the microphone and asked if anyone wanted to answer the question. Nada, Nope, Không, Non, No! Nobody wanted to debate the issue of the death of true capitalism in America in favor of community values. Instead I heard about the legality of the store’s operation with respect to zoning.

One thing the hillbillies in the North Georgia mountains have down is true free market capitalism. There are a few communities left in North Georgia, and I would have to assume quite a few in South Georgia that do not have zoning or licensing. If you want to turn your property into a junk yard you are free to do so. Your neighbors can not stop you and the only recourse to buy more property so you don’t have to see your neighbor’s land. There is no licensing of professionals. Anyone can call themselves a carpenter and have no training. There is no building code either. If you want your house or business built to a certain specification then you include that in your contract otherwise you’ll get cheap and shoddy. Caveat Emptor! There is nothing wrong with cheap and shoddy. I know one reporter for a station in Atlanta who says he will take lower quality if it means a lower price. Good philosophy to have, especially if it is a disposable asset. Houses burn or rot, but the land is forever.

Next, I asked a few people if the city of John’s Creek would pay the wages of the employees of The Love Shack if the store is closed. That brought some puzzled looks. My argument is in a free market society people can choose their occupation. In the society of John’s Creek the Christian Taliban is attempting to use their political clout to put cashiers and stock clerks out of work. If the government prohibits you from working then the government should provide you with compensation. It’s a simple concept that these people refused to grasp. None of the prudes of John’s Creek wanted to discuss the issue of their willful destruction of the free market system and the inevitable swing to communism or its effects on immigrant minorities from communist countries.

It was interesting speaking to reporters from the AJC. One good fellow wanted to know if I felt that the community would be hurt by The Love Shack opening. I have lived in areas where Cornetta has opened stores. The prestigious Peachtree Corners area of Gwinnett was one of them. There were the same protests arguing the neighborhood would go downhill if an adult shop were to open in our quiet community. Bull! Peachtree Corners is one of the few areas of South Gwinnett that is experiencing immense growth in property values. I never stepped out of my gated community, like so many in Peachtree Corners, to see the world of Mad Max outside the gates where barbarians in funny leather outfits try to rob and kill you. The other simple mathematical argument that property values will not go down if an adult store opens in your neighborhood is that we, as a species, continue to grow in population size; however, there isn’t any new real estate available. Unless we have a pandemic or a major war property values will go up on a constant growth curve. The other problem is that Caucasians and Blacks in America do not look at building wealth over generations. I’m not concerned with my property value during my lifetime. Property values are only important when you sell and a wealthy dynasty is not built by the constant selling of assets from generation to generation.

The other side of the issue is that The Love Shack is going to generate tax revenue for the new city. If the store does not stay open then the citizens of John’s Creek will have to absorb the loss of revenue themselves. If you believe that the store will cause a loss of property tax value from the surrounding area greater than the revenue it brings to the city you are succumbing to the fear mongering of the Talibaptists. In the preceding paragraph it becomes evident that values will constantly go up as time moves on. If you have fear of short term drops in value you should be more afraid of the housing bubble bursting than some business moving into your community and devaluing your property. Your children will benefit, though you may not live long enough to see that day unless we make great breakthroughs in medical science.

Another concern I have is the Talibanization of Christians in the US when it comes to issues such as these. America is about capitalism and freedom, not forcing your moral values on your neighbor. Some people may consider John Cornetta a smut peddler; however, he is a champion of freedom and a vital ally in The War on Terror. How so? In my article featured at IBLOGA I was able to determine that the enemies of the US love porn. Read the article to understand how we can use porn to westernize the terrorists and the population of those countries. The Christians in this country are attempting to impose their own version of Sharia law on our capitalist system. One can argue that the people of John’s Creek are supporting the vision that Al Qaeda and the Taliban have for our society. I won’t say they’re on the wrong side of the War on Terror, but they aren’t helping. They need to get with the picture and remember what America is all about.

At the end of the day John Cornetta was able to give his victory speech to our camera, the Talibaptists were shut out, and Communism was held at bay for another day until the next court battle.

Pictured Below

Santa Wants Porn Too

Talibaptists

The Talibaptists have lost the battle for now. the love shack was cited for not having a permit for their temporary sign. they were found not in contept of the court order. more to follow later

we’re in John’s Creek covering the convergence of Talibaptists in front of the Love Shack. inspectors are inside looking for some excuse to stamp out the free market. updates will be posted as the scene unfolds.

Now those crazy Arabs are threatening to sue tobacco companies over health problems caused in their countries.

One out of every 10 Saudis smokes, the World Health Organization estimates, though some analysts and groups have questioned this figure, saying that it is closer to 30%.

International lawsuits are very difficult to pull off so I’m not too confident they’re going to get very far here. I wonder if there’s something in the Patriot Act that can be used here. After all they’re trying to inflict damage to the American economy. The good thing is we might be able to reduce the number of terrorists by giving them lung cancer.

This year’s opium crop in Afghanistan sets a new record for drug growers. It is a dismal reminder that the war on drugs is a losing battle and that continuing to fight the war on drugs will cause us to lose the war on terror. Like most illegal enterprises the drug trade fuels the local economy and many depend on the money that their crop brings in.

“It is truly the Achilles’ heel of Afghanistan,” Gen. James L. Jones, the supreme allied commander for NATO, said in a recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. Afghanistan is NATO’s biggest operation, with more than 30,000 troops. Drug cartels with their own armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan, he said. “It would be wrong to say that this is just the Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight,” he added.

Other news articles have pointed out that the opium trade is so profitable that farmers in Afghanistan are refusing to grow corn and other crops because opium is worth more per pound. While General Jones does point out that it is not entirely the Taliban behind the drug trade they do have a large role to play in the black market. Some farmers may sell their crops of the Taliban and the Taliban in turn sell their crop to the international drug cartels.

There is something that can be done to correct this problem and the fact that the Democrats are in power potentially could bring this to pass. Democrats helping the war on terror? Yes, I believe that they are of the key to the entire mess. Are you listening Nancy Pelosi? The first thing that has to happen is all Federal controlled substances acts should be repealed. That’s right all of them. The bible thumping Republican leadership is too busy with trying to save your soul and make sure that you’re sober to be of any help. This is where the Democrats come in. The question of recreational drugs and their legality should be left up to the 50 states and not the federal government. California and other states have already legalized marijuana in certain circumstances contrary to federal law. Alcohol and tobacco continue to be legal at the state level and all other drugs deserve the same consideration or we should go back to prohibition which based on what I’ve read in the history books did not work too well. After legalizing drugs that means there is absolutely no use for the DEA. What do we do with this agency that receives way too much money? Disband the entire organization and fire all the employees. Next, create hundreds of jobs in the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The former DEA agents along with the civilian support staff can apply for the newly created jobs that concentrate on border security. Finally, take the entire budget of $2 Billion and reallocate it to Border Patrol and ICE. By realigning the mission of federal law enforcement we can better improve security at the borders of our country and reduce the value of narcotics to the black market and any potential terrorist middlemen dealing with the cartels. This will also allow the 50 states to decide which drugs they want legalized and allow them to deal directly with international growers which would still allow farmers in Afghanistan and Columbia to grow their crops as they do today or switch to a different type of crop that will continue to feed their families.

News was released today that Diamond Pet Foods was not properly testing for aflatoxin in the dog food they were manufacturing.  Many beloved pets died from the contaminated food.  I wonder if the executives at this company utter the slogan “We eat our own dogfood here”

Here’s something interesting.

Porn is big business. Adult entertainment, including porn videos and films shot mainly in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, racked up estimated sales of $12.6 billion in 2005, according to statistics compiled by AVN.

That compared with U.S. theatrical revenue of $8.9 billion for mainstream Hollywood films, according to figures from box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

I didn’t realize that porn was such a big business making almost $4 billion more than Hollywood in 2005. Now this should, though it won’t, send a message to the holy rollers in Washington that AG Alberto Gonzalez is way off his rocker in the fight against obscenity. I don’t care what anyone says, Larry Flint is no where near the threat to American life as Al Qaeda. If we truly are a capitalist nation then we need to realize that $13 billion in the economy is $13 billion and we shouldn’t care what the product is.

Boortz has an interesting reading assignment today concerning the life story of Charles Heaton. A young man convicted of a felony at the age of 17, who turned his life around after prison and graduated from Young Harris College and Emory University. He can not find a job today because criminal background checks have become so common in the workplace.

As a security professional I can understand the concerns of the businesses; however, I believe that the profession of corporate security and governance has been reduced to the same zero tolerance practices that public schools have adopted. I tend to question “why” with every situation. Recently in my career I have had to argue with a customer who wanted my assurance that we would not hire people with any criminal record. My stance is that as long as the conviction has nothing to do with the position a person will be working in would be acceptable. I told this particular customer that I don’t care if someone has 20 DUI’s if we’re paying them to sit at a computer all day. Fortunately this customer was eventually replaced by someone who incidentally was an ex-cop who saw that my approach to the situation was reasonable, rather than taking the zero tolerance approach because “that’s what our policy manual says”.

Everyone gets in trouble with the law at one point or another, even if it is a minor traffic violation. We also face the over criminalization of many behaviors in America. I hear all too often from people who say “What?! That aught to be a felony.” With more and more crimes going from misdemeanors to felonies I predict that in the next 100 years at least 33% of the workforce will be felons and that eventually a felony conviction will not matter to employers unless it is directly related to a person’s job.

Urban Outfitters has ticked off some people for marketing a shirt that reads “New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular Mexico,” Yeah, whatever! Capitalism is what America is all about and the stink over this less than clean shirt will surely drive sales through the roof.

Jose Quinonez of BlueLatino.org said “They need to remove that T-shirt [from its stores] because it’s offensive and soft racist. What I mean by that is that they don’t outright say it, but they allude to the ‘dirty Mexican.’” I believe Mr. Quinonez is suffering from an affliction that most Americans have. Most Americans seem to think that there is always some hidden meaning in anything that people say. This is why effective business conversation consists of a) saying nothing but jibberish b) being so vague you can easily repudiate your statements if they offend anyone or c) being so vague that you avoid offending others while not communicating your point. If the shirt plainly says “dirty Mexican” then that is what it says, no arguing that. The sad thing is most Europeans and Asians would not be able to find “dirty Mexican” in the caption on the shirt. I certainly don’t see “dirty Mexican” written anywhere unless the new way of spelling it is “New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular Mexico,”

The Anti-Defamation League is calling for a halt to the sales because it implies that Mexico is a dirty place. I hate to break it to the Anti-Defamation League but on an urban scale Mexico is a dirty place. You can’t dispute fact that Mexico City is the most polluted place on the planet. Since Albuquerque can’t be higher than number one the statement that New Mexico is cleaner is more than Regular Mexico is true. For some reason people are offended by the truth.