A Kinder, Gentler Nation

In his acceptance speech for the 1988 Republican Nomination for President, George Bush said that he wanted "a kinder, gentler nation." A very nice sentiment. He didn't achieve it, although few doubted that he really wanted it.

And the legacy of his son is much worse. We do not have a kinder, gentler nation. In fact, we won't be gentle with you at all if your telephone records show you've been talking with the wrong kind of people. Oh, never mind, I'll discuss the 4th Amendment and other apparently outdated concepts in another post...

This story of a kinder, gentler nation comes from Tokyo, where it appears that a burglar gave a 35-year-old woman a shoulder massage for several hours after breaking into her apartment in central Tokyo and tying her up. He stole 210,000 yen ($1,900) in cash and her bank cash card, though he later mailed the card to her as she requested after withdrawing 980,000 yen from her account, Kyodo news agency said.

It said Lee Jin-se, 29, a South Korean, admitted the burglary and told police he lingered in the woman's apartment and gave her the massage "to relax her."

George W. Bush the younger will be giving a speech tomorrow night on what we can do to keep that kinder, gentler element out of our fair land. Here's the only kind of shoulder massage we want here in the U.S. of A: