The Importance of Being Ernest

The other night the entire Mission Viejo City Council treated the United States Constitution like a urinal. It wasn't a pretty sight by any stretch of the imagination. Especially the way beamed with pride as she did her business on the country's founding document. I do apologize if that image is a tad to graphic for you, but, shucks, folks, we're talking about our freedoms here.

It's extremely easy to hate sex offenders. They are complete and utter scumbags. That is why Schlicht picked them. (Actually her handlers picked them; I'm guessing it was Larry Gilbert; he appears to be her campaign manager). And it's an extremely short goose-step from sex offender to homosexuals, Gypsies, and Jews in Schlicht-land.

I remember being a kid and watching as American Citizens were treated worse than dogs in the streets of Birmingham on the CBS Evening News. The injustice, that rancid cloud of bigotry, wasn't just confined to Birmingham…it cast its darkness everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Laws that single out any group and take away rights are a throwback to those days. I'm pretty sure we all know that.

Politicians like Schlicht don't care about your kid's safety. She just wants to win an election. Schlicht stood on the corner with a "No Incumbents" sign as the March Against Drugs walked past during the last election year. If she actually cared about your kid, she would have been in the damn march. And if she was actually anti-incumbent, she wouldn't be running for reelection.

That's the best case scenario, by the way; that Schlicht and the other politicians like her just want to win another election. Worse case is they know what they are doing and they fully intend to take away rights from African Americans, Jews, Mexicans, and everyone who doesn't agree with them. I've never been able to figure out what they're doing. I really do like to think the best of people, but then I see something like the and, well, I'm just not sure.

We all know that a sex crime has nothing at all to do with sex. It's actually a hate crime. You know, like tying a homosexual to the bumper of your pickup truck and dragging him five miles down a dirt road. So why doesn't Schlicht, or Gilbert, or whoever is really calling these shots, decide we should ban all hate groups from parks and city recreational facilities?

Hate groups are actually easier to identify than sex offenders. Lt. Mike Gavin, Chief of Police Services, could very easily provide a list of known gang members, neo-nazis, white supremacists, and the like. All those folks are so stupid and so proud of their medieval ideas that they wear "colors" and have tattoos that scream their allegiance to hate. Last time I looked into it, sex offenders didn't wear colors or have identifying tats.

Sex offenders tend to look like Aunt Cathy or Uncle Eddie. According to the National Institute of Justice, the vast majority of offenders knew their victims well. That's going to make Schlicht's law extremely ineffective as far as keeping your kid safe. But, hey, the law does give us the right to drop a dime on anyone we don't like the looks of and get them harassed. The cops will show up and go into that "show me your papers" routine. Next we can discuss implementing loyalty oaths.

My best guess is that the people who propose these laws don't object to all hate groups. Otherwise they'd propose banning all of them. Or maybe the people who propose these laws are just stupid. Like I say, I really don't know. This I do know: politicians like Schlicht, the Orange County District Attorney, and the other pushers of this dark drug chose targets like sex offenders because they know no elected official will dare vote against their law. Either the other politicians don't believe you can draw a distinction between condoning sex offenders actions and standing up for everyone in order to protect the Republic, or they are cowards.

While it's true that we have undermined education in this country to a stunning degree, I think it's truly insulting to the average voter to believe she or he can't draw that distinction.

Mission Viejo has lost some more of its luster. The politicians are insulting your intelligence and the minute Schlicht opens her mouth and proposes to curtail the rights of the easily vilified it's a done deal. Worst of all the notion of keeping kids safe is merely being given lip service.