Birthdays and Cartels

Why the eighteenth and twenty-first birthdays (and the two in the middle) are important:
Eighteen: Voting! Loss of minor status = ability to enlist/get married/everything else without parental permission.
Nineteen: Final year in which you can use the excuse that the irresponsible stuff you do is because you're a teenager.
Twenty: Official adulthood -- no more "-teen" suffix. Same irresponsible stuff without the excuse.
Twenty-one: Loss of dependent benefits. Oh, and drinking. Probably even more irresponsibility.
I turned nineteen today and I can't believe I've been on this planet for almost two decades. And if I'm freaking out now, imagine what I'll be like when I hit twenty-seven and I'm an unmarried workaholic. At least I'm consoled by the fact that Asians tend to age more slowly than everyone else. . . .

The four most prominent drug cartels in Mexico not only have 100,000 foot soldiers, but also "RPG's and law rockets" (FNC). First of all, it irks me that "law" isn't capitalized. LAW is an acronym which stands for "Light Anti-tank Weapon" or "Light Anti-armor Weapon." They are simple to operate and fire from the shoulder. Obama is considering deploying National Guard troops to the border. It'll be like the DMZ . . . minus the "D."