Did my tax dollars pay for those hideous boots?

When you get off a plane in Mexico there are often Federal troops in full special ops regalia roaming the terminal, maybe with a dog, sunglasses, and a pistol strapped to their thigh looking to pop a cap in your ass.   For me there can be no clearer indication that you are not in a real country.   Geographically maybe, but communally, spiritually, or politically not at all.  The not so tacit admission it seems to me is that this thing could spin completely out of control at any second and you should just get you goddamn luggage and get out while you still can.

Its a lot like that in D. C. now.  No doubt we've always  had the snipers or whatever on strategic roof tops  but now they've come down and are leaning on Doric columns kinda casual like.   Its an odd show of force.  Odd because I don't think it contributes to greater security in any real sense but casts us all as extras in a huge production of public performance art titled I Have A Gun And You Don't. 

If I've got violence in my heart (if!) and a suicidal bent, messianic or bi-polar, am I really going to be less likely to ignore the voices in my head because there's a metal detector in every building and a guy out front in reflective sunglasses?  I don't think so.  Perhaps my mayhem is a good deal less effective and that's not nothing but the daily tradeoff amounts to grown men with guns making damn good and sure you don't sneak a bottle of water or a contraband apple into the Capitol and that's not nothing either.   Its a pain in the ass dressed up like an enhanced security perimeter so  the illusion of safety is created and we just mostly swallow the attendant frustration.  Threat neutralized bitches!