A debate before a voting (adult) audience held at New York University was aired last evening on Bloomberg TV on a program called "Intelligence (mathematical symbol for) squared". The subject of the debate was, "Motion: America is to Blame for Mexico's Drug War". I came in past the middle and did not write down the names of the 6 adult professional TV speaker-type participants, two of whom were Hispanic and who represented solely an "anti-Calderon Drug War" point of view. Before the debate began, the audiences' votes were:

For the Motion: 43%; Against the Motion: 23%; Undecided: 34%

At the conclusion of a tepid debate, featuring eye-rolling by an economics professor from Harvard arguing "For" whenever Asa Hutchison, former Director (or Deputy Director) of the DEA spoke "Against" this amazing proposition, the audience vote had risen to:

For the Motion: 72%; Against the Motion: 22%; Undecided: 6%

I was truly stunned at the overwhelming number voting in support of the motion. Audience members seemed not only willing but eager to believe that drug consumption in the United States (demand from Europe, where illegal drugs also are consumed in large quantities, never was mentioned) had "forced" some people in Mexico who are, in reality, by nature totally uncaring, unprincipled, and highly dangerous, to organize and pursue these extraordinarily profitable drug operations in place of, for example, selling shoes for a living. They also clucked with disapproval after learning from a panel participant that Mexican drug cartels now have branched out into human trafficking, seemingly not over any alarm or disapproval of the actions of the cartel members themselves ("a man has to eat"), but over the fact that actions in and by the United States evidently had "driven" Mexican Drug Cartel leaders to additional desperate measures in order to support themselves and their hosts of "employees".

A depressing less than half hour's viewing.