Texas Morality: All Values Deeply Discounted

I was raised with the belief that Chivalry, and not Realpolitik, should guide our behavior toward others. So I've been disturbed by lawmakers and executives claiming some bizarro moral high ground as they do exactly what I'm teaching my son to not do. I call it Texas Morality, or Wal-Mart Morality: All Values Deeply Discounted!

Mercy is a value I was surprised to see expressed by the normally cynical, ruthless and mercurial GOP-controlled Justice Department. It came as a surprise that despite the GOP's strong support for the death penalty and the executive's predeliction toward killing women, crazies and simpletons, a man's life was spared.

He was the star of a popular television show for about 10 years, and he was on the run from authorities in Dukes of Hazzard territory. Acting on principle, this lovable raff affected the lives of people around the world. The show was America's Most Wanted, and the Bush Justice Department handed him a plea deal to prevent the states from executing Eric Rudolph. Remember, he used domestic terror tactics- Bombs, to kill his philosophical opponents. He placed bombs in the middle of the Atlanta Olympics to kill people he disagreed with, with no regard given to the innocent.

His real beef was probably with abortionists, gays, the international community and athletes, but surely he shares with McVeigh the anti-establishment leaning used to justufy the mass murder of strangers in Oklahoma City. But these are both criminals against our society who used indiscriminate weapons to commit capital crimes, crossing state lines in pursuit of their victims.

Bush and his friends have tacitly endorsed his violent behavior toward the rest of us who value liberty and demand the responsibility to make our own decisions. He and Das Republikbureau are preparing to warehouse Mr. Rudolph in a prison at our expense where he will have access to media, a law school, and hero status within the nutso community.

Since the Republicans hired Arthur Anderson (Accenture) to keep the books after AA helped Enron rob their customers and ruin the futures of their employees and stockholders, it is perfectly clear that this deeply-discounted value system and poorly-accounted record keeping is consistent with the Bush Plan to kill random Americans and ruin the futures of the rest. And they lay claim to the moral high ground.