Political Rhetoric

The US House and Senate have successfully wasted several days to let everyone to know how they feel about the “troop surge”. What a waste of time! Non-binding resolutions mean nothing. They are rhetoric for you to use next year in the heat of your reelection campaigns. They are sound bites so that you can later say, “Look what I wanted, but those evil (democrats/republicans) wouldn't allow it!”

This is not a new topic that you need more time to review the evidence, ponder the consequences, then make your decision. You have had years to study it!

If you think the war should stop, then quit funding it!

Don't stand in front of the American people saying that you don't support the war, but then vote once again to fund it! Quit straddling the fence!

As I am sure most of us have heard before, “Either put up, or shut up!”

The Embarassment of Excellence

One US Navy tradition which I hated was the dreaded trip to the mess decks. This ordeal consisted of young people, new to the Navy, being taken away from their normal duties for ninety days and assigned to keeping the ship's dining area's clean DESPITE the best efforts of the rest of the ship's crew.

I was lucky during my trip to the mess decks, and by lucky, I don't mean 'good' lucky, but rather 'bad' lucky. During my 90-day expedition into the hot and steamy mess-decks, we were fortunate (once again, the 'bad' luck struck) to go through a one week “Supply Management Inspection (SMI)”. This meant that we not only had to maintain the mess decks clean, we also had to make them shine!

Somehow or other, I ended up with the scullery. This job everyone considered the absolutely worst job of all. Everybody hated it. The scullery was 12-14 hours every day in a cramped room operating equipment at 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit, scrubbing the dishes for the entire ship's crew.

When I found out I was assigned to the scullery, I was outraged. I was working as hard as I could to get the job (which I hated) done. I was always on time, always got all of my work done as well as I possibly could, and I THOUGHT that I had earned promotion to being IN CHARGE of the mess! But here I was, being relegated to oblivion and darkness.

I was being punished, sent to the hottest, the hardest and the most hated job of all.

So I did it.

A month later, after the SMI completed, MY scullery, the one that I wouldn't let anyone else in, became the ONLY space on the entire ship that was awarded a grade of “Outstanding” by the inspectors.

Did this make me happy? Of course not. I was embarrassed. How could I, a person who worked on hi-tech equipment and electronics, be told that I made a great “scullery boy”? After my 90-days were done, I fled the mess decks that had shamed me so much.

Several months later, my time in Panama finished, and I transferred to the USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) home-ported in Yokosuka, Japan. About the second week that I was on board, at our morning muster, our department head came out and mustered with us, which was highly unusual. After the muster was complete, and we would normally be dismissed, he stepped up and announced some awards he needed to present.

He then proceeded to read a Letter of Commendation signed by a Rear Admiral about a “scullery boy” who had received a perfect grade for washing dishes. By the time my D.O. reached the end of the letter, I was about ready to try and fling myself over the side of the ship from embarrassment. How could I live knowing that all of these people with whom I worked would think of me like a scullery maid. I slunk up to the D. O., and accepted my letter with bowed head.

Only now, nearly two decades later, do I realize that this award was not something to be embarrassed by, but rather, something to be even more proud of than any of the other awards I received in the Navy. I should be proud because I did something that nobody else could do, and I got the job done despite hating what I was doing. It was hot, it was dirty, it was dreadful. But I didn't just “get by” with doing the job, I can now say proudly that, “I got the job done!”.

If you have to do something, even if you hate it, then do it as best as you can. You never know when the good work you do will come back and bless you.

The Greatness of America

Each year, it is estimated that two to three million people successfully migrate to the United States. Of these immigrants, about 1.2 million come legally while the remainder are illegal immigrants.

Why do these people come to the United States?

If you ask the immigrants, you will receive a myriad of reasons why, but most responses can be summarized as follows:

Reunite a Family
Poverty / Hunger
Persecution / War
Employment
Freedom
It is hard for most Americans to imagine the living conditions that exist for the majority of our planet. Most cannot imagine the utter poverty and despair that hundreds of millions (maybe even billions) of people live in. We see pictures of war, we hear about millions dying of starvation, and we read of religious and racial violence and millions maimed or killed. But most Americans think these situations are rare. Some even think they don't exist outside of the TV ads soliciting money "for the children". But they are real, I have seen them with my own eyes. Can you put yourself in their place?

Imagine your eight or nine year old child having to run out in traffic to wash the windows of cars at a stoplight in the HOPES that the vehicles driver will give them a dime. Of course, many times, the drivers simply start to drive off with a child still hanging off their windshield to avoid giving away that dime.

Imagine your family living on a small lot of land that you have somehow managed to scrape up enough money to buy. No running water, no electricity, no telephone, just a bunch of trees, some rope and some tarps.

Imagine a single mother, left behind by her husband with an infant, a toddler, and nowhere to stay. Living on the street, spending the day sitting on the curb with the hand raised out begging for a little bit of money to feed the children. There is no welfare, no food stamps, no subsidized housing, simply the desire to keep your children alive in the hopes that they will one day have a roof over their heads.

Then imagine that there is another place, a land of opportunity, where you have heard that if you can simply get there, you will be able to give your children a better life. A land where everybody is rich, gets three banquet sized meals a day, drives fancy cars, and wears designer clothes. You hear that the government there welcomes immigrants, even illegal ones, and you are guaranteed a job. You simply need to get there....

What would you do?

The reason people enter the United States in such massive numbers, both legally and illegally, is in search of their dream. The dream of being able to educate their children past second or third grade. The dream of being able to liv in peace. The dream of living without the fear that armed troops are going to enter your house, and dismember the entire family. The dream to be able to watch their children grow up and be successful. The dream of watching your children grow up in a land where the only limit is the ability to dream.

The United States is THE GREATEST country on this planet, and to this day, the poor, the persecuted and the down-trodden from all corners of the world long to come for the opportunity and freedoms we provide. For those naysayers who wish to talk bad about our country, please go spend a year living in ANY other country, living off of their economy and wages, and when you come back, see if we are as bad as you previously thought.

The things that children say!

I was at my daughter's school delivering some birthday banana cream pie, and found her in the middle of a current events period. When I asked, her teacher permitted me to sit in for a few minutes.

The students had obviously just seen a CNN news report via Internet, and were answering the CNN “Ten Questions” about the news report. On one of the questions, they were discussing President Bush's response to a series of questions, one of the sixth grade students made a very poignant series of comments that went something like this:

Q: How did Mr. Bush respond to these concerns?

A: He started to raise his voice because they (the media) kept asking the same question over and over again.

Q: Why do you think they kept asking the same question over and over?

A: I don't think they were listening, they were doing just like this class does!

It amused me to hear a sixth grade student comparing the White House Press Corp to his sixth grade classroom.

The biggest paycheck!

Every year, I file my tax return as soon as I possibly can. Then I await anxiously for the two weeks it takes for my tax refund to get deposited into my bank account. It is always great to know that we have the best tax system in the world.

Where else in the world could I pay absolutely nothing for my federal taxes, then get a tax “refund” that is the equivalent of 18% of my family's ANNUAL pay.

Thank you to everyone who has to actually pay federal taxes to help me by graciously providing me two months and six days worth of extra salary.

What? You didn't know that I got so much free money from our government? You didn't realize that the working poor got so much back from their Earned Income Credits? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that this was a open secret...

Anyways, I used to pay income tax, a lot of it. The way I figure it, I still have to get my EIC for another eight years before I “earn” back the money I deposited in the Federal Treasury in the best of my working years.

Of course, I forgot to mention the 25% of my family's income that comes through my son's social security disability, so by the time it's all said and done, I really get about 43% of my income from the government.

Of course, it's a good thing that we make as much as we do, otherwise, I could probably push that 43% all the way up to 70% or even 80% by using subsidized housing, food stamps, LIEAP, etc....

But I think that for now, I'll just keep working towards pulling myself out of “poverty”, though I will sorely miss those government paychecks that I get about this time every year.

Multiculturalism – Good? Bad? Or Indifferent?

One of the more politically correct words that I constantly hear is the word “Multiculturalism”. On the face of it, multiculturalism seems to be a good thing. After all, it is never bad to learn about the cultures of other countries. However, when applied in the United States, multiculturalism seems to say that the American Culture must be subsumed by the culture of those immigrants that are coming here to live.

Remember the old saying, “When in Rome? Do as the Romans do!” Obviously this is not the case in the United States anymore. Our schools seem to exalt foreign culture, and to go out of their way to actively promote the cultures of every immigrant student, but what happens to the American culture?

What happened to assimilation? What happened to immigrants entering our country to better themselves AND our country? Why are we now expected to transform our neighborhoods, our towns, and our cities into new versions of the immigrants home countries?

When I was living in Japan, I adopted a Japanese lifestyle. I learned basic Japanese, ate Japanese food, followed Japanese law, and tried to act as “Japanese” as I could.

When I lived in Bolivia, I adopted a Bolivian lifestyle. I became fluent in Spanish, ate Bolivian food, followed Bolivian law, and tried to act as “Bolivian” as I could (and sometimes, that could be a very nice excuse for a two hour lunchtime siesta).

However, here in the United States, we have several million immigrants entering each year, many of which are entering illegally, who decide that it is easier to continue living as if they were in the old country. They have no desire to learn English, they decide which laws they want to live, and expect us, the legal residents of this country to accept them with open arms.

The left says that we must accept this behavior to show how “good” we can be. Even if it means that our culture gets thrown out the window, we must accept their behavior as is, and quit expecting them to “assimilate” and become Americans.

Of course, that's a whole other story...

Separation of Church and State?

Last week, we had an interesting discussion on whether to teach the theory of creationism or intelligent design in our public classrooms when discussing the theory of evolution. One person pointed out that creationism and intelligent design were both based upon religion, and thus, it was prohibited to teach in our public schools due to the legal standard of “separation of church and state”.

Of course, this is not what our constitution says. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" Now I am simply a layman, and not a constitutional expert, but what this tells me is that the government has no authority to tell anybody to practice a specific type of religion, or even to force people to practice a religion. It also means that the government has no authority to stop people from practicing a specific religion. Of course, I also assume this means that they cannot stop people unless they are infringing upon the rights of other people

However, we now have a double standard in our schools. Maybe instead of saying that the standard in use is “separation of church and state”, we should say the standard is “separation of the Christian church and state”.

In our schools, we openly (and at the taxpayers expense) teach about the paranormal/supernatural, “Mother Earth”, Greek/Roman mythology, astrology, etc.... all of which are directly connected to religion either past or present. In fact, some schools are even teaching the religion of Islam to students and hiding it behind the cloak of “cultural education”. These subjects are taught without anyone being concerned about the government “force feeding” religion to students.

So why is it that anything sounding remotely Christian, certain people clamor about the violation of their civil rights? Why can we have classes on voodoo, but not on the ten commandments (as a code of laws, not a religious edict)? Why can we cloak “other” religions under the guise of “culture”? Where are the civil right advocates when this happens?

Our schools are not only permitted, but mandated to teach courses that are completely contrary to my religion, however, I don't file a lawsuit to eliminate the course, I simply opt my children out.

What do you do when you don't agree with the school curriculum? Do you tell your children to walk out? Do you simply accept it and let your child make informed decisions? Or do you run to the nearest lawyer to file a lawsuit?

One last note... The most prominent religion taught in our schools today, is Humanism...

Government Vaccination for STD

Every year, millions of children across the US receive vaccinations to get into school. Our state legislature is now proposing a new and mandatory vaccination for girls only, prior to being permitted into sixth grade.

However, the vaccination is not to protect the girl from a generally communicable disease, but to protect the girl from a sexually transmitted disease. This is from a vaccine that has been available for less than a year, and with considerable financing from the drug manufacturer, has successfully been placed on bills to mandate vaccination in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

I am highly opposed to this for several reasons:
- Our school vaccinations are currently meant to protect from the spread of diseases that are spread via air, touch and/or casual contact. This vaccination is to protect from a disease that is spread only via intimate sexual contact.
- At $402 per person (Three injections at $134 each), the government should not be paying to protect people from sexually transmitted diseases (yes, I am opposed to school supplied condoms as well).
- As this vaccine protects from only a subset of the diseases, it will project an aura of “safety” that makes teenage sexual activity less risky, possibly leading to infection with other diseases.
- What message of morality does this send? Is this the government advocating teenage (and even pre-teen) sexual activity? Why else should girls aged 11-13 be vaccinated?
- If this is an attempt to “eliminate” the Human Papillomavirus, than why aren't boys and girls of all ages being immunized?
Have there been any studies done on long-term effects? Or are we going to find out several years down the road that we have convicted our daughters to something much more serious or risky.
- As this program is being pushed heavily by the vaccine manufacturer, and several other pharmaceutical companies are near to having their own vaccines, is this simply an attempt to “corner the market” and reap maximum profit?

What I would recommend, is that our legislature leave this subject alone. If a parent wants their child to start sexual activity at a young age, than let that parent pay the price, not the taxpayer. If a parent thinks their child might be sexually active, then the parent should take responsibility for protecting their own child by obtaining the vaccination.

The only legislation which might be considered appropriate, after the amendment discussed previously about smoking in a private vehicle with a child present should be considered child abuse, is that any the parents of any child infected via sexual activity with the HPV virus, should be charged with criminal child neglect. Other than that, the government has NO business excusing activity in our children which many parents still consider immoral.

Giuliani for President? Not!

The year was 2001, and the date was September 11. Never before did a mayor of a US city step up and face a disaster as Rudy Giuliani did in New York City. However, the United States is not New York City, and we, as a people, do NOT support illegal immigrants getting a free pass, nor do we all support government financed abortions, and we, the people have voted overwhelmingly against gay marriage.

The largest (or the second largest) challenge facing our nation is illegal immigration. Whether it is the destruction of our social support networks, the increasing crime rates, the importation of poverty, or the contagion of diseases brought in by those who cross the border illegally, it will destroy our country sooner or later.

Rudy Giuliani considers illegal immigrants to be upstanding and honest citizens, DESPITE having broke the law with their first step into our country.

It may already be too late, but at least we must make the attempt to avoid a future of bankruptcy, social decay and possibly even armed revolution. It starts with choosing a leader who will protect the country rather than sell it out for political expediency.

War on Poverty? Where did it go?

When I was growing up, I heard constantly about the ongoing “war on poverty”. I didn't realize it at that time, but I was one of those children that they always talked about as being poor. I never realized just the extent that my mom went through to make sure that we had food on the table, clothes on our back, and pencils and paper for school.

But whatever has happened to the war on poverty? I look around these days, and don't see a bit of what I have thought poverty was. Of course, my perception of poverty may be a bit different after living in South America and seeing how other people live.

Poverty in Bolivia was not the absence of cable TV, or going to Let's Help for a free lunch as your food stamps run out at the end of the month. Poverty wasn't hoping for a government agency to pay your electric/gas bill. Poverty wasn't having a $2000 dollar plasma TV hooked up through an $800 Home Entertainment Center.

Poverty in Bolivia was taking your children down to the local market and digging through the putrid, rotting thrown away fruit in the hopes of finding something edible. Poverty meant that your eight year old child would spend the evenings down at the closest intersection hopping up on the hoods of cars as they stopped at the stoplight, in the hopes of earning a peso (about 16¢) for washing your windshield. Poverty meant that if you could afford the six pesos (about $1) that the local version of a value meal cost, then you could eat some of the fries, take a couple bites out of the hamburger, than take the rest of it home to feed your family. Poverty meant trying to figure out how to take care of your entire family on the equivalent of less than $100/month.

So what did happen to the war on poverty? Who are our poor? Why are they poor?

I saw a sign on a Burger King restaurant last week requesting applications, stating that they were starting at up to $9/hr! What type of person can NOT work at a place like Burger King? Can some of the people who are currently considered living in poverty work at Burger King? How about other jobs around Topeka? Why, if our unemployment rate is low, do so many people live “in poverty”? Or are other employers simply not paying as much as Burger King?

I understand why a small portion of the population could be considered as “living in poverty”. But for the rest of us, what excuse is there? And what can we, as a people, do to eliminate as many of these excuses as we can?

Somebody, please... I want to know!!! I'll be giving my excuses over the next several weeks, but I would like to hear your opinion and more importantly, your solutions!

Theory Vs. Theory

We have been arguing for decades (if not centuries) about the origin of life on Earth. Was life created by God? Or were we all originally amoeba shocked to life by a freak of nature?

Our Kansas State Board of Education is going to be making a decision soon about what our children are taught in school about the origin of our species. Of course, this decision is supposedly going to be made based upon scientific fact vs. religious fantasy. However, to the best of my knowledge, no scientist has EVER been able to claim that evolution is a fact, the same as no pastor can ever claim (based upon scientific theory) that creationism is a fact.

Until one of the theories or the other is proven to be 100% fact, I recommend that we teach both theories equally, and let our children, armed with knowledge, make their own decision about what they believe is the origin of life. When we can scientifically prove there is a God, or when scientists can find the infamous “missing link”, then, and only then can you say that the other side is wrong, and should not be taught in school.

It all boils down to the basis that a theory is a theory and is still simply an opinion until you can find the facts to make it not a theory but the truth!

Getting the Vote Right

According to the latest judicial ruling, Democrat Gene Rardin of Overland Park has won his seat by a margin of two votes. However, his opponent, Republican John Kriegshauser has alleged that three people voted for Mr. Rardin illegally as they did not live in the district. Who will end up as the representative for district 16?

Though the outcome of this particular race doesn't make a significant amount of difference to me personally, it seems to prove that our government, which is supposedly a representative democracy, MUST take steps to reduce and possibly eliminate voter fraud.

Our legislature can do their part by passing the voter identification bill that has been proposed. This bill would require voters to prove US citizenship when they register to vote, and would also require voters to provide identification every time they cast a ballot.

The Kansas Secretary of State can help as well by performing voter “spot-checks” to validate a certain percentage of voters and to verify that they did indeed vote at their designated location, and that they are authorized to vote in this country.

The sanctity of the ballot box is one of the most important tenets of democracy. When dead people vote, and people who live at non-existent addresses vote, it is not just voter fraud, but is a criminal attack on the democratic foundation of our country.

Shots Fired!!

How many stories have there been lately about “Shots Fired in Topeka”? In the Sunday edition of the Topeka Capital Journal, we read about “Shots fired at mall”, in the Saturday edition, “Basketball player shot at”, "Nine shot in a single day" and the list can go on.

Why does it seem that we are constantly reading about gun violence in Topeka?

Have we become such a violent city that we need to travel armed to protect ourselves? Or have we allowed a violent element to come into our neighborhoods, and force their criminal behavior on us? Is it because of the drug labs? The gangs? Illegal Immigrants? Or is it simply that shooting at others has become something that we consider acceptable?

I was happy to read about the two incidents that have already occurred under our new concealed carry law, whereby a robbery was stopped by private citizens who were authorized to carry weapons. Hopefully, our district attorney will continue this by putting the armed felons who were committing the crimes into prison for a long time,

Regardless of the reasons, our new police chief needs to take a look about what is happening, and what people are behind the constant warfare in our neighborhoods. Let's take a proactive stance, and make our streets safe.

The Cold Truth as Far as Global Warming

I was sitting in my little work booth this morning, fighting desperately to keep the ice cold wind from sneaking through the cracks, when I decided that what this world really needs, is global warming. It may be a selfish desire on my part, but, I'm really tired of having to work outside in single-digit temperatures.

I realize that global warming is going to cause drought, suffering and a significant shift in how we live our lives, but, just for the winter time, when we have record snow fall in some places, and polar bear cold in others, would it really be too much to ask, just to allow a little bit of global warming during the winter months?

If this is really a man-caused phenomenon as I have heard, than I beg of everybody to please, let's work together to schedule our global warming to occur only during the winter months. Single-digit temperatures are fine every once in a while, but the -30º and -40º temperatures I have been hearing of are taking it just a little bit too far.

How to Elect a City Council

Every two years, we hold elections to decide who will be on the Topeka City Council. In our cities' history, we have made some very good choices, and some very bad choices. As election day nears, and as many candidates try to win your vote, how can you tell who is a good candidate and who is a bad candidate?

I have a few rules that help me decide how to cast my vote. Following these rules, unfortunately, I lose the right to complain about my council member after the election (unless my candidate loses of course).

Rule one, “Would I invite this candidate to come over to my house for dinner?” If I am not willing for this person to share a meal with my family, than why should they represent my vote?

The second rule, “Would I like for this person to teach my child?” Once again, if a candidate is not capable of teaching my child, whether it be reading, writing and arithmetic, or teaching my children moral and/or ethical values, than why should they represent my vote?

A third rule, “Would I work with this candidate?” If he/she were my boss, my co-worker, or my employee, would I be looking for a new job? Or, in the latter case, helping him/her look for a new job? If I can't stand working with someone, than why should they represent my vote?

Coming up soon, more rules to selecting your candidate.

America the Beautiful

Over the last four centuries, our country has changed from the unknown “New World” into the greatest country to ever exist on this planet. As explorers braved the wilds of the East coast of what we now call the Americas, it was probably very hard for them to imagine the great nation that was to grow on this newly discovered continent.

The United States has become great through the hard work, the diligence, the perseverance and the “can-do” spirit of the American people. But the strongest factor in making the United States the greatest country ever known was the diversity of experience and knowledge brought in by millions of immigrants.

Immigrants flocked to the United States in search of what we now know as, “The American Dream”.

We should celebrate our immigrant forefathers, and remember that it was their courage and perseverance that allowed us to be Americans.

Don't pay for eminent domain

In the last year, the specter of eminent domain has reared it's head in several controversial cases. We currently find one case where one small business owner, located in East Topeka for 16+ years, is having his property “acquired” by the city to facilitate the construction of a new intersection in the area of Golden Ave, 6th Street and 10th Street.

In this particular case, the issue is not whether the city has the right to utilize eminent domain, the issue is the amount of compensation the city wants to pay this long-term citizen and taxpayer for his property.

In almost every case, even when eminent domain is justified, it seems that there is a dispute over what represents a fair and just compensation for the land owner. The government entity always wants to purchase as cheaply as possible, whereas the land owner will always want more.

One way to address this solution is simply to not pay any money at all!

Woah! This is a radical concept. But yes, I did say it, the city should NOT pay this gentleman any money at all.

Rather, the city should seek out three or four available properties that are similar in location, size and accessibility as the current property, let the owner choose which of the properties he likes, then the city should pay all purchase and relocation costs to get the landowner onto that new property.

In doing this, the issue of how much the original land owners property was worth is moot. The city will pay more, because they are forcing a person to move, and the person being relocated can no longer complain about whether it is “fair” or not.

The simplest solution when government is fighting a citizen over money, is to simply, take the money out of the equation.

More boring Statistics

Last week, it was announced that every day, 12 Americans are murdered by illegal immigrants. The free-border crowd rebuts this with a classic... but 34 Americans are murdered by legal residents each day.

Regardless, simple math now tells us that illegal immigrants, who comprise about 3% of our population (according to the government), commit 26% of the murders in the US.

According to a recent report, 12% of the illegal immigrants that are inside of the United States are wanted for crimes in their own country. Imagine the United States if 12% of our population was classified as criminals. That means that ONE out of Every 8 people is a criminal, wanted by the police for a serious crime.

This country would collapse in a matter of months from the anarchy. At that time, illegal immigration and terrorism would be the least of our problems.

Attributed to Bill Gates - The Rules of Living

I recently received this email:

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.


Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Candidates for President

My Rankings so far on Republican candidates for president, though there are still several possible candidates for me to evaluate:

Economy:

1. Romney
   
2. Mccain
3. Gingrich
4. Giuliani
5. Brownback
   

Security/Terrorism:

1. Mccain
2. Giuliani
3. Brownback
   
4. Romney
   
5. Gingrich

Illegal Immigration:

1. Gingrich
2. Romney
   
3. Mccain
4. Brownback
   
5. Giuliani

Social Issues (i.e. Abortion, Gay Marriage, School Funding, etc..)

1. Romney
2. Gingrich
3. Brownback
4. Mccain
5. Giuliani

Overall

1. Romney - 8
   
2. Mccain - 10
   
3. Gingrich - 11
   
4. Brownback - 15
5. Giuliani - 16

Left vs. Right - Why they will never get along

While listening to one of those famous talk radio shows last night, a thought was triggered in my mind that simply won't let go.

We constantly hear about partisanship, moderation, compromise and bilateral solutions... but tell me, when will our left-wingers and right-wingers ever be able to work together?

A few years ago, I thought that if a few key people would open their minds and listen to each other, many of the conservative and liberal differences could be minimized, and solutions reached to some of our large problems. However, now, I feel that this would be impossible.

The differences between the liberals and the conservatives in this country is actually based upon fundamental differences in what they believe in. Some examples are:

1. A fetus is not a "human" until it is born, vs. a fetus is a "human" from the point of conception. This difference seems minor when you read it, but the impact is millions of babies aborted each and every year in the United States.
2. Rehabilitation vs. Punishment - The thought that we are responsible for teaching criminals to be good citizens vs. the act of punishing people for evil things done. For example, men who sexually abuse girls under the age of ten for several years, than get 60 days in jail because the judge felt they were good citizens or whatever.... What happened to the believe that certain acts that we, as a society, have defined as crimes, MUST be punished?
3. Black and White vs. Gray - Standards are defined, and must be followed? or standards are defined but are simply a guideline which may be changed depending on your individual circumstances? Illegal immigrants get more rights/privileges than LEGAL immigrants, because they "are here because they are poor and desperate, and it's not THEIR fault!"

We are a country rapidly on the road to a revolution. The revolution may be peaceful, or it may become extremely bloody and violent. Until we start meaning what we say, and saying what we mean, than we are simply going to continue down this path. People MUST take responsibility for their actions, and must pay for the harm they do to others!

Crime Statistics

Data I found while looking into some other things...

City-journal.org reports in this story the following data:

• In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.

• A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal; police officers say the proportion is actually much greater. The bloody gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion, and drive-by assassinations, and commits an assault or robbery every day in L.A. County. The gang has grown dramatically over the last two decades by recruiting recently arrived youngsters, most of them illegal, from Central America and Mexico.

• The leadership of the Columbia Lil’ Cycos gang, which uses murder and racketeering to control the drug market around L.A.’s MacArthur Park, was about 60 percent illegal in 2002, says former assistant U.S. attorney Luis Li. Francisco Martinez, a Mexican Mafia member and an illegal alien, controlled the gang from prison, while serving time for felonious reentry following deportation.

Jewish World Review reports on the Washington Sniper Incident:

"Lee Malvo (the 17-year old who was one of the snipers) is an illegal alien from Jamaica who jumped ship in Miami in June 2001. He was apprehended by the Border Patrol in Bellingham, Wash., in December 2001, but was then let go by the INS district in Seattle in clear violation of federal law and contrary to what the arresting Border Patrol officers intended, according to my law enforcement sources."

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

"Perez had been ejected from the club for unruly behavior, said Berkeley Police Captain Bobby Miller. About half an hour later, the suspect returned with a handgun, knocked on the door of the nightclub and shot Nadel once in the head at point-blank range when he answered the door."

"Miller said Perez is believed to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico and had recently been living in homes in Berkeley and Emeryville. Police said the suspect has apparently left the Bay Area, but it is unknown whether he is in Mexico."

Immigrations Human Costs.Org writes:

Simply read the story, it is about the true cost of Identity Theft and what it costs the victims in this "victimless crime".

Illegal Immigrants and Crime

Just a summary of headlines:

Illegal immigrant accused of impregnating 10-year-old girl

Mexican Immigrant Arrested in Boston

16-Year-Old Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter

Gang Terrorizes train in France (not the US, but soon to be arriving here)

44 Indicted for Immigrant Visa Sham

Illegal Immigrant Crime Wave

And there are plenty more. Even here in Topeka, though the Topeka Capitol Journal hasn't bothered saying it, look at the Cabello case. How many of the "recent arrivals" to our town, who didn't speak English, were actually illegal immigrants?

The two people who were killed by Cabello? Cabello himself? the person riding with Cabello?

I could just keep posting more and more headlines, but do me favor... simply do a google search on "Illegal Immigrant Crime" and you will find tons of hits.

Which companies hire illegal immigrants

I have considered long and hard on this topic, and have decided that it is time for me to start a list of the companies in and around Topeka, KS that I know for 100% certain knowingly and willingly utilize illegal immigrants as the bulk of their work force in violation of Federal law.

In some cases, as noted, the employer also will NOT hire a legal immigrant or an American citizen for the "production" line work.

Reser's Foods, Topeka, KS
Concept Foods, Inc. Alma, KS (Contracted through Manpower, and will give any legal resident or US citizen a hard time if asking for an application for work)
Labor Pro, Topeka, KS
Manpower International (Topeka, KS). Though I am unaware of any illegal immigrants hired through the Topeka office, the Alma office dealt exclusively in the hire of illegal immigrants to the exclusion of legal workers. Manpower DID knowingly and willingly hire illegal immigrants, and DID knowingly and willingly discriminate against legal workers.

If you know of any company that KNOWINGLY and WILLINGINGLY hires illegal immigrants, or who simply has a lot of illegal immigrants working there "by accident", post here. This is a moderated topic, so your post will NOT appear, and I will keep all names anonymous. I will need to know the company name, address, telephone number, and I will need a statement of exactly what you personally have witnessed and seen that company do.

The Fall of the American Dream (or El Sueno Mexicano)

Recently, we have heard daily reports of Hezbollah rocket attacks into the civilian population of Israel. Even those who dislike Israel agree that Israel has not only the right, but the duty to defend it's sovereignity and its citizens.

Hezbollah, as the militant arm of radical Islam, has repeatedly denied Israel's very right to exist, rejected all Israeli attempts at compromise/appeasement, and has provoked/escalated the conflict wherever possible (except during the cease-fires where it has rearmed and reorganized). They have done this while hiding behind innocent and relatively non-violent Palestinian citizens, in an attempt to divert or minimize Israel's ability to conduct counter operations vs. valid military targets.

Many people who support Israel's right to self-defense, regardless of the cost in human life to those who decided that Israel was THEIR enemy, have asked us to consider how we here in the US would react if Mexican/Canadian radicals started to barrage cities inside our borders with deadly rockets.

However, it seems to me that for the last several decades, we have already been suffering from a constant attack by the Mexican government, and to a lesser extent the Chinese government. Up until now, we, the people of the United States, with duly elected representatives, have done absolutely nothing to stop this invasion. Worse, our government and a good percentage of our local employers have seemingly done everything they can to encourage and assist these invaders.

Until now, our federal government has done NOTHING to slow down, much less, stop, this invasion. Every statement/action they have taken has proven in hindsight to be nothing more than empty rhetoric or token actions.

Our state governments haven't done any better. Many encourage illegal immigrants to their state by providing driver's licenses, subsidized upper education, free medical, low-cost housing and of course, completely free education (with breakfast and lunch) to the children.

Our city and county governments act like ostriches burying their head in the sand, while shrugging their shoulders and blaming the federal/state governments, and saying, "There's nothing WE can do!"

We are currently facing major financial difficulties in the areas of education, healthcare, social welfare, and crime, and though these problems were not caused by illegal immigrants, their very presence significantly exacerbates the problems.

We have recently been hit with an extremely large tax increase in Kansas to finance our public education system for K-12. How much of this was caused by the presence of the children of illegal immigrants? Nobody can tell you because it is against the law for our schools to even ask if a person is a legal/illegal immigrant, much less compile statistics.

However, what is publicly available is the fact that a good percentage of our public school budget is being used to support ESL courses. In other words, to teach students who have limited/no proficiency in the English language. In my families experience, that vast majority (possibly 90%+ of the students in these courses) are children of illegal immigrants, or are illegal immigrants themselves. The classes that my step-daughter (a legal immigrant who has a primary language of Spanish) attended in Richardson ISD in Texas, she was the only student among about 30 who had actually migrated legally to the US.

The same problems can be encountered in our medical care system. Our most expensive health care, emergency room assistance, has now become the provider of choice of illegal immigrants for minor medicals issues such as the sniffles, cuts, scrapes, etc... A large percentage of these illegal immigrants than simply disappear leaving the American public to pay higher taxes/health insurance bills to finance their hospital visit. By law, hospitals also cannot ask the immigration status of a potential patient, nor can they refuse treatment for ANY emergency room patient due to the fact that there is no medical emergency present.

Our criminal justice system is also bogged down with crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Best estimates place the number of illegal immigrants as about 13 million people. This number represents about 3% of the US population. So why are approximately 30% of the people incarcerated illegal immigrants? These are criminals. They are not in jail for immigration violations. They are in prison for rape, robbery, murder, armed robbery, assault, etc... Does this mean that illegal immigrants are 10 times more likely to be a felon? Well, since they had to break at least one law to get to the US, it leads me to believe that illegal immigrants have more of a general tendency to break other laws.

Last but not least of our issues, is the financial crush that is placed on our social welfare system by illegal immigrants. Those who fraudulently (or even without fraud) obtain subsidized housing, food stamps, LIEAP, WIC, etc... For example, a family that used to live close to me, comprised of two illegal immigrants (mom and dad), and their two children, of which one was here illegally, and the other was a citizen by birth (yep, an anchor baby) in the US. Through their statements to my wife, they were paying $23/month in rent for their subsidized housing unit, which normally rented for $550. They also received food stamps (for the legal child), WIC, (for the legal child), free education, free busing (because of low income), free breakfast/lunch at school, LIEAP (to help pay the utility bills).

The normal cutoff for these programs for a family of this size is about $2000/month. However... since the adults in this family were here illegally, and thus, not able to "legally" hold a job, they were working under assumed names/SSN. Their actual income was over $2500/month. Of course, when you include the nearly $1000/month in subsidies, this same family was able to drive around in a brand new SUV, have their big-screen plasma TV, and of course, money to live their version of, "The American Dream".

After my wife told them she was going to report them for fraud, they mysteriously disappeared one weekend, and I haven't seen them since.

In another story, the Dallas Morning News recently did a series of articles on the Parkland Hospital located in Dallas. This is basically the community/indigent hospital, though it is most famous for being the hospital where JFK was taken after he was shot. This one story about the Parkland Hospital covered some astounding facts. It was reported that 70% of the obstetrics patients in the first quarter of 2006 were found, via survey, to be illegal immigrants. The estimated costs for pre/post-natal care and baby delivery for this one hospital, for one year, is about $52 million (estimated based upon 2004 statistics). For the year reported (2004), Parkland Hospital received $71 million from the State/Federal/County governments. Patient "donations" came to under $200,000.

Here in Topeka, the recent school finance debate was caused by a lawsuit filed by school districts in Salina and Dodge City. Though I couldn't find any financial information on the Dodge City School District, I was able to find some rather interesting information about the plaintiff district of Salina, USD #305 (https://www.usd305.com).

Over 20% of their school budget is dedicated to bi-lingual education. Rather than me telling you about their ESL costs, and the potential costs of illegal immigrants to our educational system, please read it for yourself in the Salina USD's response to a Kansas Survey.

In summary, the mass of illegal immigrants in the US, and the failure of our government to take ANY steps to slow down this invasion, is helping to run our social support infrastructure into the ground.

The most critical issue facing us in the face of this invasion, is the fact that Kansas, like most states, has NO requirement to prove your citizenship when you register to vote. Thus, an illegal immigrant can move in, show a copy of his water bill, and vote in the next election.

As of about 1.5 years ago, 17% of the registered voters in Kansas could not have their voter registration validated against any other registry in the State Government. In other words, they had no drivers license, no State ID, no Tax Return, etc... How many of these are illegal immigrants?

In 2005, there were 160,000 new voter registration applications filled out. 102,000 of those applications were either completely rejected (60,000), or resulted in new registered voters (42,000) who additionally could not have their name/ssn/driver's license number matched against any other state database.

I remember reading one time from a source that I can't remember, that, "The end of a democracy is guaranteed when the voters learn that they can vote themselves their bread and circuses!" (paraphrased). In other words, if we don't stop illegal immigrants from voting, than they will elect their own politicians, who in turn, will provide more rights/benefits to the illegal immigrants, and eventually, they will take over our political system.

If any of this information scares you, than please, contact ALL of your elected officials, at EVERY level, city/county/state/federal, and beg them to please do something to fight this invasion.

The Future of our Country?

I recently read an article in the Dallas Morning News about Parkland Hospital located in Dallas.

News Story

I was actually shocked when I learned some of the costs associated with the medical care for illegal immigrants in a SINGLE AREA of medicine!

To Summarize...

For the year 2004: Parkland Hospital spent $70.7 Million Dollars on Obstetrics.
The federal government paid $44.1 Million
Dallas County paid $31.3 Million
Other income broke down as follows:

• Patient Pay $0.1 Million
• Commercial Insurance $0.8 Million
• Tobacco Settlement $0.1 Million
• Other Funds $2.1 Million
• Etc...

Surplus at the end of the year was $8 Million dollars

Now... why does this shock me? 70% of the care provided by Parkland Hospital Obstetrics was provided free of charge to illegal immigrants!

In other words, for this ONE hospital, our government paid over $52 Million Dollars so that ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS could have a baby!

Some of the women presented later on in the story actually go so far as to say that they come to the US illegally to HAVE their babies, because it is cheaper and safer than having them in Mexico! Of course, it is cheap for THEM, but who actually pays? It is the rest of us paying through higher taxes, higher health insurance costs, and we simply accept it!

I'm sorry, but America, PLEASE look at what illegal immigration is doing to us!

How I would Reform Immigration - The Summary Version

In case any of you haven't noticed, I am not an expert on all aspects of immigration law, however, here are the steps that I would take to resolve our current problems....

As I see it, there are multiple facets to this issue that must each be addressed in the appropriate order to ensure the sanctity of our borders while also minimizing the theoretical impact of kicking illegals out of the country. Of course, these points are the same as you hear on all the talk-shows, etc... but, I think that my suggestions may actually be effective:

1. Border Management
2. Labor Management
3. Legal Management
4. Rights Management

The first point, border management comes down to a simple issue... How much money are we willing to spend to keep people from illegally crossing our borders. This issue includes both or Northern and Southern land borders, as well as our Eastern and Western Ocean borders. This also needs to include the Gulf of Mexico and issuance of short-term Visas (i.e. Student, Tourist, Business, etc...).

When talking border management, the goal is not only to stop immigrants from illegally crossing, but also to stop the entry of terrorists, illicit drugs and possibly black-market goods.

The second point, labor management needs to address various requirements, both from the US Employers side and the decent treatment of immigrant workers.

The third point, legal management, needs to address several different areas such as the status of illegal immigrants in our country, employers who use (and sometimes abuse) these illegal immigrants, and the possible future options of those same immigrants (i.e. how to stay in the country, when the immigrant must leave, etc...)

The last point covers the rights that immigrants coming to this country should have when coming to this country LEGALLY.

My Plan - The Summarized Version:

1. Utilize a combination of technology and military force (national guard) to make the effort to enter our country illegally becomes more than the benefit of entering our country illegally.
2. Modify existing penalties for employers to include a mandatory fine of $50,000+ PER INCIDENT (i.e. 100 people working for a company would be 100 incidents). The goal being to make companies consider twice before they decide to use illegal labor.
3. Create a employment management division of immigrations, which would basically be a government managed, third-party contracted business of pre-screening applications, and matching up employees with companies who want unskilled labor. This division would be very similar to a current temp employment agency, with the exception that they would also be required to obtain full identification, background checks and health checks prior to matching an employee to an employer.
3a. Employer must provide a reasonable level of health insurance (level to be determined by experts) for all employees utilized.
3b. Employee will not be eligible for citizenship, or in change of Visa Status. Employee will not pay into social security, nor be eligible for social security. Income taxes will be paid as a "single - no dependents" employee via TIN or SSN at the Federal, State and Local taxes.
3c. Visa should be issued for six months, can be renewed ad infinitum as long as the Employer does not change. Employer may ask for employees by name from the screening agency.
3d. Employees with previous experience with an employer have first right for new seasons in areas that have seasonal employment.
3e. Employees cannot sponsor other people's visas, nor can their status be used to provide a guarantor on a visa.
4. Legal immigration MUST be streamlined. A person requesting the immigration of their own children/step-children or a spouse will have a temporary visa issue allowing that family member to enter the country to await the permanent resident visa. Whether the visa is a family visa, working visa, tourist or student visa, it should be much quicker to obtain.
5. Family status will have NO impact on deportation proceedings. A person illegally (or legally) in this country that has a child, which would make the child a US Citizen under current common interpretation of law, is still eligible for deportation. Said child CAN be taken with the illegal alien back to the country of their citizenship.

This is a summary of my views, and for the full version of how I would address the illegal immigrant problem in the US, you will have to wait just a couple more days....

I suicide for illegals?

According to the LA Times in THIS STORY, a 14-yr old boy who skipped school to attend a pro-immigrant rally ended up committing suicide at his home after being suspended for truancy.

According to other reports that I have read in off-line reading (meaning, our morning paper), this child was reported truant because rather than attending the pro-criminal immigration rally, he went to a soda shop, than ended up back in school in time for lunch, after which he left for the day...

So was he truant? did he go to protest? or was he simply taking advantage of the walkout to skip classes?

Personally, I find it a tragedy that this child felt he had to take his own life.

However, rather than blame it on the "school Vice Principal" (even if he did say what he was reported to have said), let's put the blame squarely where it lies. On his own mother and father.

People do NOT commit suicide on a spur-of-the-moment whim.

This may sound cruel, however, this boy obviously had MANY more major issues than the fact that the US legislature was wanting to pass a law that would not directly affect him or his family.

And now, let the illegals and their coordinators try to use this as a "martyr" for their criminality.

Or better yet, simply try to close down American businesses in Mexico by having a short term boycott on them, when you also "walk-out" in the US. Hey, I have an idea, don't go to work at the American stores in Mexico either... and miss that day's pay.... Better yet, take a MONTH off, and see how much we are going to be hurting!

Oh? you can't? because you can't afford to miss that much work? I thought you were willing to sacrifice? Isn't that what this is all about? how much you have "sacrificed" to come here and live an illegal life?

One of the most ignorant comments that I keep hearing is, "If we give them amnesty, we will bring them out into the open! If we try to punish them, we will only drive them deeper underground!" Excuse me, but... aren't the illegals living in the shadows right now? Oh yeah, you're right, because of the liberal viewpoint that they should be supported, illegals are no longer afraid of telling the world about themselves, because they know that immigrations won't do anything about it.

What used to be right and what used to be wrong, is now simply a bunch of grey area that permits criminal to thrive (and puts money into their lawyers pockets).

Letter to Senator Sam Brownback on Immigration Reform

This is a copy and paste version of the e-mail I sent to Senator Sam Brownback:

To the Honorable Senator Sam Brownback:

Sir:

Any position that allows an illegal immigrant to remain in the United States while awaiting a transition to "legal" status is wrong.

When I applied for my wife and step-daughters Visas in 1995, I was in New York, they were in Bolivia. After two years and three months waiting on the Visas, I resigned my position and moved to Bolivia to reunite the family. In 2000, I moved back to the US alone looking for work due to the crash of the Bolivian economy, once again, leaving my wife, step-daughter and son. FINALLY, in December of 2001, the Visa's were finally approved, and in January of 2002, my entire family was reunited in the US.

6.5 years to obtain a Visa for my WIFE, AFTER we had children.

The reason? Well, mainly because the Embassy in Bolivia kept requiring "evidence" that the paperwork we had wasn't "purchased" paperwork for obtaining a Visa using a false name.

As I was born and raised in Kansas, and as I had family here in Kansas, while I was in Bolivia, my family asked of your office for some assistance in clearing the red-tape (late 1998 or 1999 or so), and were told that "he's not one of our constituents".

Well, your support for ILLEGAL immigration and your refusal to support my family trying to immigrate LEGALLY is very disappointing. You have lost a Republican Vote, and I WILL be publicizing this as much as possible.

I would rather have Hillary Clinton supporting me as my Senator, as I would expect this from her.

You Sir are a coward for not standing up for what is RIGHT, and you are a hypocrite for supporting illegal aliens more than American Citizens.

Go get your Mexican flag, and head out to Alma, Junction City and all points West to campaign with all these newfound illegals as voters!

You Hypocrite!

People Protesting for Illegal Immigrants

People make a big deal of how 500,000 people protested in LA to protect the "rights" of the illegal immigrants.

Yes, this is definitely a lot of people!

However, how many of those 500,000 people were illegal immigrants? Who we were going to start calling felons!

How many MORE people would we have protesting if we decided to outlaw Christianity? How many MORE people would we have protesting if we decided that we were going to make people dealing in sexually oriented areas FELONS? How many more people would we have protesting if we decided that the food stamp program should be discontinued?

I dare to say that if any of those situations happened, we would easily exceed the 500,000 protesting in Los Angeles. And we would DEFINITELY have more people across the US protesting!

But the main difference would be, in all of those cases, we would be taking a legal privilege/right, and making it illegal!

In the current protests, we are doing nothing more than emphasizing that illegal behaviour is still illegal behaviour.

Many arguments are thrown out by the protestors:

1. Americans are anti-immigrant
2. Americans are racist against hispanics
3. This country (SW US area) is traditionally Spanish and belongs to us
4. This policy will break apart families

Well, let me address these issues...

1. I am not anti-immigrant, in fact, my wife and step-daughter are both immigrants! I fully support LEGAL immigration.
2. Racist? I love my family, who ALL have at least 1/4 Hispanic and 1/4 Japanese blood. Oh my gosh! My wife is 1/2 Japanese and 1/2 South American Latino! Ruh roh, I've got Irish, English, French and Indian (american type) blood IN ME!!! Better figure which one of those nationalities I am and kick all the rest out!
   
3. Your country? Since when have we had a border dispute with Mexico? Of course, even so, we have it, we hold it, we improved it, so no, it is NOT yours! And if it WAS yours, than the people there would have voted a long time ago to join Mexico. Remember the Mexican/American war? You lost!
   
4. Who cares? Nobody told these immigrants to come here illegally KNOWING that they could be deported at any time, and said, "Hey, fall in love with that person, and marry them!" Children born and raised here? Fine, we are not separating the family, we are simply deporting an illegal immigrant. You can feel free to take your family with you.

These protests are bogus in that I feel that a VERY high percentage are illegals who are simply afraid of the US actually ENFORCING existing laws. They have lived here KNOWING that they are here illegally, and KNOWING that they could be deported at any time, and these protests are simply to show that they won't allow us to enforce our own laws, in our own country, without a fight.

Oh, the school children walking out of school? How many of THEM were illegals?

Immigrants, I welcome you with open arms! Illegals, if they ever allow it, I will shoot you on sight! I detest you, I detest your ignorance, and I detest your mightier than though because I'm getting away with breaking the law!

Vuelve te a su propio pais!!