[BC] Another site vandalized

[Jerry Mathis]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Jeff Carter <broadcast at hidden-valley.com> wrote:
><snip>

>Two things:  How is it that any part of the "ground plane" can be
>ripped out without causing the impedance-matching to go absolutely
>nuts to the point you're knocked off the air, and how is that there's
>enough resale value for the copper or whatever to make it worth what
>has to be an incredible effort to remove it from the earth?  I though
>scrap copper only brought about three bucks a pound or so.

>What am I missing?

>Jeff

If you're a drug addict, you'll do just about anything to get the money to purchase your next "fix". And it doesn't take all that many feet of #10 copper wire to equal a pound. Of course, they usually go for the easy-to-get-to stuff first, like strap and coax.

The following is my personal opinion, so take it for what you think it's worth. IMO the copper theft problem is, for the most part, a direct result of the country's so-called "war on drugs". This "war" is, was, and has been a dismal failure and a waste of our time and resources. We have not eliminated illegal drugs; the war has barely made a dent in it. But by keeping drugs illegal, we have kept the prices high. Not to mention the drug cartels, deadly violence and human toll, and government corruption. And since there will *always* be people who are drug users, there will *always* be people who steal from people and businesses (like broadcasters) to finance their drug habit.

End the war on drugs. Declare victory or defeat, and pack up and go home. Legalize drugs, regulate and tax them. It won't affect the number of people using them, but it will allow them to purchase their "fix" without resorting to crime. And the losses to businesses like ours will go down to near zero.

--
Jerry Mathis