I can't see the gun.

President Bush signed the extension to the Voting Rights Act a few days ago, I was looking at the photo accompanying the article and could not for the life of me figure out who had the gun on him.

According to the article:

Bush signed the 25-year renewal of the Voting Rights Act in a ceremony in sweltering heat on the White House's South Lawn, paying homage to civil rights leaders who fought for equality and US lawmakers who approved the new bill.

Bush paid tribute to the heroism of lawmakers who suffered through the Long Walk of Congress before construction of the Congressional Subway. He also hailed the Act as "a victory for the Little People. Not the cute ones from the Wizard of Oz, or the creepy ones from Willy Wonka. I mean the flunkies who cook our meals, clean our homes, and take out our garbage."

Social justice

I was watching one of the network morning pablum shows this morning, and saw a story about a white college kid from a privileged background who robbed a bank to pay debts related to his gambling addiction. [Story here]

It was a real feelgood time. They interviewed the kid, he was going on about how he'd become consumed by gambling but realized he'd done a bad thing and should be punished. But not too badly, because he could do a lot of good educating people about gambling addiction. Everyone from the show's anchor to the janitor in the courthouse seemed to think it was just a sad story, how this poor kid fell victim to the overwhelming power of his apparently sympathetic addiction.

I wanted to punch everyone responsible for the piece right in the face, because there are tens of thousands of addicts doing heavy sentences for mere possession, not to mention the time they got for any ancillary crimes committed to feed the addiction. But we get to hear the tragedy of the poor privileged white boy who got hooked on video poker, and wonder where it all went wrong.