AZ- Signs of the times (Operation Awareness.com)

Posted with permission.

8-27-2008 Phoenix, AZ:

As the National debt rises, the economy spirals downward, food and gas prices rise to record levels, and the foreclosure rate explodes, the question begs, where shall we cut the fat? The signs are already abundantly clear that the United States is in very big trouble and this is just the beginning. The worst has yet to come. The signs of desperation and the lengths human beings will go to simply to survive the economic crunch are already beginning to rear their ugly head.

*In Lexington, KY a woman is accused of trading sex for $100 gas cards.

*Cities and counties across the nation are battling the theft of manhole covers and storm drain grates being sold for scrap.

*A San Antonio, TX woman and her boyfriend are accused of trying to trade sex with the woman's 5-year-old daughter for an apartment, a used car and child care for the woman's 10-month-old daughter.

*In Chula Vista, CA officials are considering closing a fire station, reducing the police force and closing some libraries one day a week to cut the budget $7.3 million. Chula Vista is not alone as several other states and municipalities across the nation are making and/or considering similar cuts.

*And in California a woman and her two dogs are forced to sleep in her car in a parking lot opened by the city for the homeless due to the inability to afford housing.

Meanwhile, the State of California (and countless others) are dishing out millions of dollars to contract psychologists to keep up with Jessica’s Law*.

This is but one of the hidden astronomical costs of the registering of more than 600,000 (and growing) Americans as sex offenders for crimes ranging from forcible rape to kids playing doctor. No one really knows what the total cost of these laws and their upkeep are but it is certainly well in the billions. After all, the public's “right to know” comes with a price, but is it worth it? There is still no evidence that the registration laws have prevented a single crime.

A 2006 law intended to crack down on sex offenders has proved a bonanza for a small group of private psychologists and psychiatrists, 14 of whom billed California taxpayers last year for a half a million dollars or more each, a Times investigation found.Among the 79 contractors hired by the state to evaluate sex offenders, the top earner was Robert Owen, a Central Coast psychologist who pulled in more than $1.5 million in 2007, according to state records reviewed by The Times. This at a time when California like most other states across America are operating “in the red” with multi-million and even billion dollar deficits.

It’s also no secret that the Feds are operating very deep in the red. Currently, the National deficit is so high that it would take approximately $10,000 dollars for every man woman and child living in the U.S. to pay it off, still the spending continues.

The feds response? Easy, simply print more money. The problem is the more money they print the more the dollar loses it’s value, because there is nothing to back it up. Making it as worthless as the paper it's printed on.

For the first time that I can recall Canadian money is actually worth more than the U.S. dollar! Perhaps that is why our "greenbacks" are being made more “colorful” with pink and purple hues, because in time it will probably be worth about as much as the “monopoly money” it is beginning to mimic.

As the economic climate continues its downward spiral and more Americans feel the pinch, lest we be fooled - this is only the beginning. The signs are already abundant all around us. Many economists are predicting not only a recession but a full blown depression that will make the great depression of the 1940’s look like a cake walk in comparison.

What will be more important to Americans? Keeping a roof over their heads, food on the table, and heat for their homes, or getting some flier in the mail that someone somewhere in a one mile radius of their home (IF they even still have one) committed a sex offense ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago?

Time will tell.

In the meantime, if you can afford gas for your car, be cautious when driving at night lest you accidentally drive over an open manhole.

Source: Copyright 2008 OperationAwareness.com