IT'S hard to say which is more surprising, that a white supremacist who illegally obtained bubonic plague was allowed out on probation or that it is possible to obtain bubonic plague through the mail at all. Plague case shows
bugs in systemIt goes a long way to explaining why certain postal employees are a bit on the edgy side. I mean, you're out doing your job and you don't know whether you are delivering a pair of earrings from the QVC network or a vial of bubonic plague. That might tend to make your job a little stressful.
There are lots of things to worry about in this world, but you'd think that wackos being able to order bubonic plague through the mail wouldn't be one of them.
I'm not the most scientifically informed person around, but I have to admit I just sort of assumed bubonic plague had somehow been -- I don't know -- eradicated. How did this one slip off the public health radar? Who was in charge of the bubonic plague? I mean, we're sitting around worrying about whether Clinton had sex with an intern or whether Oprah deliberately insulted the beef industry when maybe we should be finding out who the hell is supposed to be regulating bacteria of mass des-truction from the Middle Ages.
So this guy who has ties to all kinds of racist and militia-type organizations gets caught with bubonic plague. And it turns out that there isn't a law against it. The only thing the feds can bust him for is mail and wire fraud because he used a fake permit number to order stuff. Then some genius in the government allows the guy to plea bargain the case down to one charge of wire fraud. One count of wire fraud. That's like using your phone to trick some old lady out of a couple of welfare checks.
Then (I guess to really drive home the point that he was a very bad boy) the government puts him on probation for 18 months and orders him to perform 200 hours of community service.
I can't help it, but when I hear of these cases, I just have to go back to Hawaii's notorious Carl Ritchie case. Ritchie was sent to prison for 10 years for providing lap dancers at parties on Kauai. Ten years. For lap dancing. Com-munity service and probation for ordering the bubonic plague. What's wrong with this picture?
I've received letters from Ritchie from his Texas prison cell. He's still hoping that common sense will prevail in his case. And while he sits there, he sees cases like the English nanny who killed a baby getting off. And people ordering bubonic plague getting probation. And he's wondering what kind of a country is this? You can kill babies, you can threaten to wipe out millions of people with the black plague, but you can't let your employees dance on somebody's lap, even if there is no sex involved.
I think Gov. Cayetano should take a quick break from his busy schedule to cut Ritchie's sentence to time served, or whatever he has the power to do to let Ritchie out of prison.
It's embarrassing to the state to have Ritchie rotting in prison for what basically was a nonviolent, victimless crime. America is supposed to be a fair place. To give possible racist terrorists a free pass while locking up for 10 years someone involved in the low end of the sex industry is simply unfair.
In the meantime, we will be watching what happens to Mr. Mail Order Bubonic Plague Man. Yes, he was busted for possession of a possible weaponized version of anthrax in Las Vegas last week. Enough anthrax to wipe out an entire city if rel-eased under the right conditions.
He's in deep, deep trouble now. Hell, he might be forced to perform 500 hours of community service. He's just darn lucky he didn't offer to dance in the FBI agents' laps when they arrested him.