Talk About A Hostile Work Environment

We tend to take things for granted around here, until something like this pops up in the news.

7 mutilated bodies found in Nuevo Laredo

The mutilated bodies of seven unidentified men were found in an abandoned vehicle Monday morning east of downtown Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Authorities responded to a 9 a.m. call reporting the vehicle and bodies at an intersection one block from a Mexican army base, according to a government official who asked to remain anonymous.

“Their arms, legs and heads were cut off,” the source said.

Actually, this incident wasn't even reported locally. I was totally unaware of it until I read the San Antonio newspaper.

Seven mutilated bodies less than ten miles from my South Texas residence and office.

Reporting of those bodies occurs 200 miles away.

I'm a big critic of the media, but unlike the obama lapdog mainstream media, at least the Mexican and local South Texas media have a damn good reason for forsaking their reporting duties. I doubt if I would splash headlines across the front page with my name in the byline while knowing that at any time I could be kidnapped and executed in a most gruesome manner.

One of the things I try to teach my students is to look beyond the immediate consequences of their decisions, and to be aware of the secondary and tertiary outcomes. For those of you that use drugs (even the so-called victimless marijuana), I could care less what you ingest, or what you consider recreational drugs.

But I do get riled up when the downstream consequences of your drug usage contribute to the power and profits of the cartels.

We can debate whether or not drugs should be legal (FWIW, I'm all in favor of legalization), but if you don't man up and admit that your usage supports at least in part the unholy regimes of those vile and evil cartels then we have little common ground upon which to carry on a dialogue.