All right, this is going to be in two parts (at least) because I'm tired and I'm sick and it's late and I want to get back to watching "Billy Jack". So, prison reform. First off, an end to the "war on drugs" at least as it is presently being fought. One of the biggest and most obvious problems with the current situation regarding our prisons is that they are over-crowded. The principle reason for the over-crowding is the war on drugs. According to a book that I just spent ten minutes looking for ("Reefer Madness", by Eric something, I will post this information soon) there are more Americans in prison right now for drug crimes then there were Americans in prison in 1970 (hope I have that right). I'm sure some of you would say that they belong there, they broke the law. Well, first of all, we don't put all law-breakers in prison. For instance, traffic law violators rarely even are sentenced to jail time; never prison time. Fines are commonly used here and forfeiture of a privilege or two (like driving). Prisons, in my opinion, should be for violent criminals and some other capital criminals, for instance, people who steal millions of dollars from working people's retirement funds.

Also, in my opinion, there should be no laws prohibiting the possession and/or use of any drug. Unauthorized sale of we'll talk about. Smoking crack is not good for you but if that's all you do, you don't steal to get it or commit crimes while under the influence then knock yourself out. A drug habit/problem shall not be accepted as an excuse for committing some other crime. If you steal from little old ladies to pay for your crack then you should go to jail/prison.

Sorry, that's it for now. I'm falling asleep here.

I was finally ready to get down to some serious blogging, especially as I had a couple comments to respond to, and my ISP started having problems and I couldn't access my own blog! But I'm back now and I'm off to do the aforementioned responding. Tomorrow: a new post! Stay tuned!

Soon to come: some actual new posts. I've just been so tired lately. But, I only work two of the next twelve days so I guess that should help.

Well Tookie Wilson is dead. Everybody feel safer now? Here are some thoughts of mine on the death penalty: It's barbaric, immoral and unnecessary. It is nothing but retribution, is unfairly applied and is an embarrassment to a society which likes to pretend to be civilized. If we are naive enough to assume that it has never been used on an innocent person we can at least admit that it's only a matter of time before that happens. And then what? Oops! Sorry! I guess somebody had to pay the ultimate price so we can all feel safer. More to come...

O.K. I'm back from supper (that's right, I said supper), what did I miss? I should have eaten a little earlier but when I was ready, good and hungry and all done with work I looked and the first thing I saw was a turkey pot pie. Yes! that's what I wanted. Cook time, one hour. Don't want to wait that long. What else is there. Nothing! Nothing that good anyway. All right, get it in there. Will be ready at 4:46 (Central). Nibbled on about five or 6 melon chunks to hold me. The pot pie was wonderful when it was ready, not one of those .$79 ones either (I guess those are probably a buck and a half now, actually) but a Boston Market special. Yum.

All right, to business. Several important, even crucial division games this week-end. First off,

Falcons at Panthers. Panthers have a one game lead and are at home. Falcons won last week after a two game home losing streak and are coming off a mini bye week. Falcons have one last five in series (is that right?) When playing the Falcons, the first order of business is Mike Vick. As in, stop him/contain him/don't let him beat you (choose one). Apparently they haven't come up with the way yet. Supposedly the way was shown to us by the Buccaneers in 2002. Force him to the right thereby limiting his options, bottle him up, make him beat you throwing the ball etc... I think they got in Vick's head a little bit and now he sometimes tries to beat people with his arm and not his feet but against the Panthers he just plays his game and it has been working. Today too. Falcons 31 - Panthers 23. There's also,

The Bengals at Pittsburgh. Everybody seems to like the Steelers. They're at home, they "own" the Bengals, they already won in Cincinnati and did it convincingly, and this game is for the inside track on the division with the loser not looking especially strong for a wild card spot, especially if it's Pittsburgh (so they really need this one). The Steelers are the tough guys, they won last time by running the ball and they will this time too if they can. Unless... Carson Palmer... can make this his game. He's the best the Bengals have had since Boomer Esiason's heyday, he might even be better than Boomer, if not yet then soon, and if he can win the game for the Bengals then there it is. I do think the Steelers will be able to run the ball some. We'll see if Roethlisberger can make them pay when they start committing more guys to the run defense; if he can, the Steelers win. If Palmer has the big day and Roethlisberger is ineffective then I guess the Bengals win. The prediction: Steelers 24-20. A little later in the day we have,

The Broncos at the Chiefs. I feel like the Broncos are a little better right now (at least), the Chiefs have very impressive numbers on their side, at home in December, at home in this series etc... I don't have a strong feeling about this one... Broncos by a point, like 24-23, something like that. Back in the NFC there is,

Cowboys at Giants. The Cowboys have won this year by stopping the run. I think their defense is better than the Giants' right now. The QBs I rate as even. I'm very impressed with Eli Manning's development thus far. The QB could be the deciding factor in this game, otherwise I like the Cowboys on the strength of their defense. How about 21-18? That brings me to the Game Of The Day,

The Packers at Chicago. Has the potential to be an exiting game even for non-Packer/Bear fans. Favre has better numbers in his career vs. the Bears (especially in Chicago) than many, many QBs have for their whole careers. And of course, the Bears are on a roll and are the (much) better team this year. The Packers have twice played four quarters of solid, mistake-free football this year and if they do it again at noon they could make this game very interesting, but, what I see happening is the Packers being totally unable to run the ball and hard-pressed to keep the Bears front four off Favre. Three sacks and at least that many picks; Bears win 20-7, with their defense scoring a TD and setting up everything else. God I hope I'm wrong but that's the way I see it. We shall see.