Wake And Bake

Perhaps the police and the District Attorney's office should spend more time and effort on capturing thieves, rapists and murderers instead of potheads, prostitutes and protesters.  Wasting time and dwindling resources to prosecute victimless crimes trivializes the justice system and lets criminals of greater crimes remain at large because they have better legal representation.  Sentencing a person to jail for three to five years for possession of pot while allowing white collar criminals who bilked millions out of their savings to go free is stupid at best and criminal at worst.  Prisons are so overcrowded that rapists and murderers are allowed to go free so there can be room for people convicted of possession is a miscarriage of justice and shows a disturbing sense of priorities.  One is not soft on crime if a pot smoker is left alone, one is soft on crime when a rapist is allowed to go free so you can incarcerate the pot smoker.

Hung out with the BARBarians on Thursday night for a post victory celebration and several thoughts struck me.  First of all, very few people showed up.  I guess everyone thinks their job is done.  It isn't.  Obama deserves the same scrutiny that we gave Bush, otherwise we are the hypocrites that we accused the hardly ever right of being.

Second, Generik was surprised that I wasn't as emotionally affected by Obama's win and I never got a chance to tell him why.  Yes I'm black, but I'm also a woman and I can honestly say that being female has held me back more often than my skin color.  If Obama had been a woman, I would still be walking around with a smile and my head held high.  As it is, I don't see that things are going to change much under an Obama administration since he has very few women in his inner circle and doesn't seem inclined to step out of his comfort zone.  Unfortunately this is typical of many black men.  Women are rarely seen as equals and society will continue to reflect that unless Obama makes the same effort that Bill Clinton did to put women into decision making roles in his cabinet.  Hopefully I'm wrong but past experience has shown that politics at the top is a major boy's club.

It's rained a little bit and the weather is chilly (for California), so tonight's dinner is going to be Chicken and Dumplings with carrots, onions, rutabaga and turnip.  I can hardly wait.  And since I just typed that, the sun has decided to make a brief appearance and play peekaboo with the clouds.  Not changing my mind, my taste buds are all set for the dumplings and gravy.  Yum!

BBB