The scene of the once great golfer, Tiger Woods, being marched off to the local jail brings into stark focus the biggest social problem to ever hit America : the abuse of opioids.
Woods was found in his vehicle in Florida in an apparent state of intoxication and arrested. It turned out that the real reason was a mix of prescription drugs that had incapacitated him.
Opioids are a real and fast growing menace in North America resulting in addictions and overdose deaths that have overwhelmed some communities.
Portsmouth, Ohio, for example has seen 700 fatal overdoses in the last year, not from heroin but from the new brand of painkilling drugs called opioids.
These brain-killers are easily accessible, can be manufactured in back street labs or simply sold over the counter. They represent the NEW WAVE of Satan's assault on the youth of America and, looking at the body count, it is a war that America is losing.
Get used to the names of these missiles from Hell.
Hydrocodone, Fentanyl, Duragesic, Acetaminophen, Exalgo, Meperidine, Dolophone and there are lot more besides.
Already the count of death by suicides and overdoses is exceeding that of the VIETNAM WAR.
Two weeks ago Tiger Woods put a public face on this hellish invasion.
If his arrest brings about a drastic change in public thinking and sounds forth the trumpet of alarm, he may well do more good for his country than ever he did on a golf course.
Jubilate.
Ian
Some of the stuff we read these days is almost unbelievable. How does one explain what happened last week off the coast of Japan when a fully loaded container ship almost sank a "fully loaded" American destroyer. I say "fully loaded" because this spy ship, sent to keep its eye on the bad guys in North Korea, was jam packed with all the latest radar, sonar and G.P.S tracking equipment known to man.
Yet, unbelievably, it crashed into a freighter the size of a floating city.
The USS Fitzgerald, on a clear night, in calm seas with little other shipping in the area collided with a vessel three times its size killing seven of its crew and had to be towed back to port.
When all the enquiries have taken place (and there will be many of them) the answer to the question 'how it happened?' will come down to one thing:human error.
One hundred million dollars worth of the most sophisticated navigation equipment rendered useless by one person asleep at the switch.
During my days at sea we posted a look out in the bows and another on the bridge and had only the most rudimentary equipment. Somehow we managed to get to where we were going safely. Nobody fell asleep!
The lesson in all of this is, in days of self drive cars, self drive ships, self drive planes, is that human beings still matter.
Who ever you are and where ever you are, TRUST IN GOD and STAY AWAKE.
Jubilate.
Ian.
