Homeland Insecurity

I opened my electronic copy of the Washington Post this morning and found further proof that the foxes have taken over the hen house. Brian J. Doyle, Deputy Press Secretary for the Dept. of Homeland Security, was caught soliciting a 14 year old girl online for sex at his home in Florida. The Florida Sheriff's Dept. set it up so that they caught him right at the computer waiting for a picture of naked 14 year old girl with lymphoma. Ugh!

Apparently, this is not the first time, according to the article, that a DHS official has been caught out in a sex offense against a minor. There is the case of the Customs official who exposed himself to a teenaged girl in a mall last year.

If the folks who hired these scumbags are the ones in charge of screening for terrorists then I wonder about our safety. I also wonder whether they guy searching me at the airport was hired with the same diligence as these gents....

Sunset for PM

My Thai friend Jiraporn rarely has anything bad to say about anyone. I have noticed that about the Thai people in general that I have met. There is an essential politeness about htem that is cultural in origin. I always caution people going to Thailand to be on their best behavior because the Thai people will always be on theirs.

So when Jiraporn speaks badly of someone, I listen. The person I have ever heard her come out with a diatribe against is Thanksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand. He has just announced that he will step down.

This is a man that made normally mild mannered Thai people stage a protest. Rather than vote for him, they did not vote at all. They showed their disapproval not by violent riots, but by simply staying home.

Good for them.