Two other matters that have been preying on my mind as 2006 draws to a close involve prisons and diversity. Why do I keep reading that felons are being released from jail after serving only 10 or 20% of their sentences for lack of cells? Instead of wasting good money on campaigns to, say, curtail smoking or provide medical attention for illegals, why aren’t we building more and larger prisons? The silliest excuse I’ve heard is that people don’t want them built in their neighborhoods. Why not? What better way to keep kids law-abiding than to have this constant reminder of the nightmare that awaits them if they stray off the straight and narrow? Besides, inasmuch as most crime is committed by punks in the neighborhood, their loved ones wouldn’t have so far to travel on visiting day.
My problem with diversity, as some of us have come to know and hate it, is that the very people who are the loudest in lauding it are the same knuckleheads who simultaneously insist we’re all alike -- none of us better or worse, smarter or dumber, than anybody else. So, how is it that they’re always pushing for affirmative action, always trying to disguise quotas with a beard and funny glasses? If it isn’t to prevent colleges and universities from winding up with 60% Asians, 30% Jews and 10% Others, why don’t they stop trying to rig enrollments?