And this one is a doozy:

I read Radley Balko's foxnews.com article from 1/27/05"Drug War Shrinking Bill of Rights", but I just could NOT get too dismayed about"the chipping away at the criminal justice rights of substance abuse suspects." Rather, that concept appeals to me greatly.

From the connotations of Mr. Balko's article, it seems that he has tremendous consternation over harsher drug and alcohol searches. Could it be simply his libertarian political worldview that does not like government intrusion in general? Or something more personal. Someone famous once said"all politics is local." Balko's vested interest here??

I am very much opposed to kidnapping. I read about private citizens being kidnapped in places like Mexico and Honduras for financial ransoms. Although tragic, and against any country's Bill of Rights, it is an issue far enough away from me that I don't converse about it or advocate for its termination. But if I lived in Mexico City I would.

Perhaps the spectre of drug offenses being policed tightly is an issue that hits" close to home" for Mr. Balko.

If the above inferences are true, Mr. Balko should be terminated from a paid contributing position with FOX. I work in a retail store with mandatory drug testing for all employees. I would hope drug tests are given to all FOX employees, including independently contracted contributors.

The ILLEGAL drug problem in our country is tearing the very fabric of society, and it needs not be defended on FOX. Nor participated in, Mr. Balko.

Phil Faxio
Springfield, VA
fineNgood@netscape.net
www.posteritystruth.com

Phil's right down the road from me. Perhaps I could hop on I-395 and pee in a cup for him.

There is some good news, though. When I started writing for Fox three years ago, email responses to anything I wrote on the drug war were overwhelmingly negative, like Phil's. But that's becoming less and less the case. Reaction to the latest piece was probably 3-1 positive.

Of course, the change could very well be because more and more people already opposed to drug prohibiton have started looking for and reading the column, while people opposed have learned to avoid my byline.

But if you don't mind, I'll just go ahead and flatter myself and pretend it's because I'm actually convincing people.