While we were out: A crime roundup

--The entire police force in Veracruz,
Mexico, was fired. The force was disbanded because it was rotten with drug
cartel infestation. 

--A guy who had been an Illinois National
Guard major was sentenced to five years in the pokey for accepting
kickbacks on contracts for construction at the Bagram base in Afghanistan. He
also has to pay a cool half million bucks in restitution. That should help the
defense budget for a minute or two.

--The XO
of the USS New York was fired for becoming overly familiar in a consensual
fashion with a female crewmember.

--The Army charged
eight soldiers in the 25th Infantry Division with hazing a fellow
soldier and hounding him toward suicide. This reminded me of our recent
discussion of hazing
at West Point. It is unclear to me how much of it still goes on at the
military academy, but it seems to me that none should be tolerated. Good
military discipline can be achieved without hazing,
and in fact is better without it.