Vicious Cycle

Whether it's the conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians or the state of America's judicial system, we go out of our way to make things worse under the guise of trying to make things better.

This happens because we think with our emotions. We've reached a pinnacle of logic deprivation in the United States, and we're doing our best to spread it to the rest of the world.

If an issue requires more than a cursory thought, we default to how we feel. If it makes us feel bad or angry or scared, we demand that something -- anything -- be done about it.

Never mind if the consequences of reacting with our feelings are often worse than if we chose to think logically.

With the situation in Israel once again nearing the breaking point, ask any American what his opinion on the conflict is, and the likely answer is, "Well, I feel that terrorism is wrong, and the Israelis are justified in squashing the Palestinians. So, let's just kill those Arab bastards!"

Kill the lunatics who believe that destroying Israel and its allies gets the thumbs-up from Allah. Because, uh, they won't retaliate and continue directing terrorist acts at the United States.

One's personal feelings on this issue should be irrelevant. It doesn't matter if one supports the Jews, Palestinians or neither. If one is afraid of terrorist attacks, it makes sense to avoid actions that raise the ire of terrorists.

Supporting Israel and the government-sanctioned bombings of areas where terrorists are suspected to live are great ideas if one enjoys turning on the evening news, only to see the aftermath of an explosion at an American embassy. (Count me in.)

How can one side with a group that proves the theory that the first item on the agenda of the newly liberated is to find a group to oppress, only to turn around and make a pouty face when the consequences of that decision bite one in the ass?

It's all about emotions. Arabs make me feel icky. I don't like Arabs. So, no matter what the results of my feelings are, I'm going to side with the group that I feel better about.

Even if it continues a vicious cycle.

Few, if any, groups are more similar than Jews and Palestinians. The world hates and rejects both of them. They're the outcasts, the scapegoats, the dogshit on the bottom of our shoes.

Jews moved to Israel to escape the oppression that followed them everywhere they went. If creating a homeland displaced a few people, so be it. Many Palestinians tried to leave, but no one wanted them, and they followed in the footsteps of the Jews by demanding their own homeland. If that displaces a few people, so be it.

We use Israel as a way to punish Arabs, and Arabs use the Palestinians as a way to punish Israel. Most Americans support the Israeli Jews because they don't like Palestinians, and most Arabs support the Palestinians because they don't like Israeli Jews.

And if it were up to majority vote, both groups would be exterminated.

The Israeli Jews and Palestinians fail to see this commonality. If they stopped their whining and bus bombings and Katusha rocket attacks, they could build a powerful alliance. Jews with nuclear weapons and crazy Palestinians with an eye on eternal rewards would make for a formidable opponent.

But, like Americans, they adore a vicious cycle. Fuck logic. Pass the skullcap and Galil.

Back in the United States, we perpetuate the vicious cycle brought on by the judicial system.

We might not like Palestinians, but they're in the Middle East. Out of sight, out of mind.

In our own backyards, though, are criminals. We hate criminals. We fear criminals, and to make us feel safe, we pass laws that make it nearly impossible for a criminal to overcome his past.

We don't care what you've done, but if you've been arrested, charged or convicted of something, you might as well just kill yourself.

Americans are tough on crime. We want prisons full of brutal guards, anal rape, solitary confinement, and inedible food. Oh, and let's make them wear pink uniforms. That'll teach 'em!

Then we release them back into society -- worse than they were when they went in. To combat the problem, and increase our feeling of safety, we make sentences harsher and prison life rougher.

Hello, vicious cycle.

Once they leave prison, their crimes follow them around for the rest of their lives. Job applications ask the applicant if he's ever been convicted of a crime, and some ask if he's ever just been arrested. Admit the truth, and there's a good chance you'll be back at the local 7-11, waving a gun in Apu's face.

Depending on the nature of one's crime, registering with the local police department and having neighbors know about "the incident" with the 16-year-old lying slut could be in one's future.

Most people are sexually assaulted by people they know and trust, but strange men with big glasses and bad haircuts scare us. We need a posterboy for sex offenders, and sweet Poppa Frank won't cut it -- even if he's nailed almost every female member of his family.

Few people would want to take a chance on a convicted sex offender -- even if the offender's crime was being a 19-year-old man getting head from a 15-year-old girl with low self-esteem -- because, you know, he might unzip his pants and force us to perform oral sex on him at any time.

Where does that leave the offender? Sticking soap crayons up Treysure's virgin bum to relieve the stress of being unemployed, broke and ostracized.

And if a drug offense looms in your past, hold off on moving to Michigan until Representative Eileen DeHart's "Controlled Substance Offenders Registration Act" (House Bill 5796) dies the painful death it deserves. DeHart has proposed a bill that would require all drug offenders who live in or move to Michigan to register with local law enforcement.

This follows on the heels of a federal law that can prevent college students convicted of a drug offense from receiving federal financial aid. This fall, nearly 7,000 college students have had their past drug crimes held against them.

If a person can't afford higher education because the government thinks marijuana possession is deserving of additional penalties, how soon until that person is overdosing on black tar heroin in his Section 8 apartment? Government intervention as a gateway to hard drugs. Novel.

You might want to move on after being convicted of crime, but we won't let you. You scare us. You might hurt our kids. You might throw loud parties. You might try to get a job and turn your life around.

Sure, having a crime thrown in one's face for the rest of one's life might cause one to continue the cycle of crime and supporting a nation that embraces hypocrisy might spur the bombing of another New York City landmark, but damn it, vicious cycles makes us feel good.

And if we aren't feeling good, it means that we're thinking, and we can't have that.

Providing jack-off material for white misogynists since 1997.

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