Is there an editor in the house?

Don't get me wrong, I like the Express-News, the newspaper here in San Antonio, but for the life of me, I don't know what goes through their collective heads sometimes. Do they read everything they print? I'm kind of hoping they don't because thinking about the alternative makes me sad.

The latest item to make me shake my head and sigh is today's lead editorial which says that guns from the U.S. are "fueling the drug wars in Mexico."

Isn't that statement a little strong? I mean, wouldn't money, corruption, or lack of a strong, honest government be more likely candidates for "fueling the drug wars?" Yes, the cartels get most of their guns from North of the border, but if they didn't get them here, they'd get them somewhere else. Do the Iraqi insurgents in the Middle East, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the rebels in the Congo, or the extremists in the Philippines get there guns from the United States? No, they don't. The cartels get most of their guns from us because it's more convenient to get them here. If the supply on this side of the river dried up, they'd get them someplace else.

But if it was just that, I wouldn't have bothered with this post.

The best (worst) part is when Eduardo Medina Mora, the Mexican attorney general is quoted (by the AP, according to the editorial) as saying "it's truly absurd that a person can get together 50 to 100 high-powered arms, grenade launchers, fragmentation grenades and can transport this cargo into our country."

What?! Even Mora didn't know that it's illegal for Americans to possess grenade launchers or fragmentation grenades, you can bet the editor and the person who proofed the piece did. And if they didn't, they have no business working for a newspaper, except as delivery boys. Nowhere in the piece does it state that that is flat out wrong. If the cartels do have those weapons, it proves my first point.

Mistakes happen at newspapers, especially at deadline. This, however, was an evergreen piece without a news peg, so there shouldn't have been a rush to print this.