Illegal Immigration

I was watching Lou Dobbs early this morning, and he did a show on illegal immigration. He's one of the few mainstream jouralists who is openly anti-illegal immigrant. One of the stories was about a group of people called the Minutemen who are going to patrol the Arizona/Mexico border. At the end of the show Lou ran some e-mails he had received. One was from a person ranting against the Minutemen. In the course of the rant, he predicted that the Minutemen would hassle the illegal immigrants and commit various other crimes against them. He then ranted about how the Minutemen should then be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Hello?

What the hell about the illegal immigrants? If we were prosecuting them for breaking the law, and shipping their asses back to Mexico, we wouldn't need the Minutemen to patrol the border in the first place. See that's the crux of the problem. The left wing wackos don't understand that crossing the border illegally is a crime, and illegal immigrants are criminals by definition. If we could all just agree on that basic fact, we could easily deal with illegal immigrants.

I'll make the following deal with Mexico or anyone willing immediately.

1) The U.S. will adopt the exact same policies and procedures with regard to border security on it's southern border as Mexico does on it's southern border.

2) The U.S. will adopt the same exact policies as regards translations and accomodations for people who don't speak English as Mexico provides for those who don't speak Spanish.

3) The U.S. will extend the same rights to own property to non-citizens as Mexico does.

4) The U.S. will provide the same amount of social welfare to non-citizens as Mexico does.

Any takers?

Dragon's Blood

I just finished reading the Dragon's Blood. Hmmm.

Well the first 5/6 ths of the book was very enjoyable. There were no jarring inconsistencies in style between the author (Todd McCaffrey) and his mother (Anne McCaffrey) who wrote all but one of the other books in the Pern universe. (Dragon's Kin, the previous book in the universe is credited to both of them) However.... the last 1/6th of the book seemed like it was rushed. The whole pace of the book changed, and not for the better. For instance, one of the ongoing subplots (Tullea's bad attitude) was essential thrown away in a two sentence resolution. It could have easily occupied 100 or more pages. In fact, I could see her story being told in a companion novel, similar to what his mother did with the Moreta/Nerilka books. At the very least the book should have been broken into two books or even three like The Harper Hall Trilogy. I don't know if he came up against a publishing deadline, and had to rush to finish the story; or a page count limit, and had to condense the story. But it was a shame. I'll still re-read the book at some point, and buy the next Pern novel he writes, but this was his first strike.

Martina & Pat

I'm watching CMT right now. There is a concert on with Pat Benatar and Martina McBride. They're singing each other's songs and obviously enjoying themselves. This is what music should be about.

It's funny because they actually look a little bit alike and apparently Martina used to be in a cover band singing Benatar songs.

Sometimes it pays off to channel surf.

Kelly Clarkson

So has she decided to turn hard rock/punk or what? Her new song actually sounded better on SNL tonight than it did in the music video.

She actually has a voice suited for the harder edged songs if that is the way she wants to go. It'll be interesting to see which way she goes.....punk queeen or pop goddess.

British Royals

OK, IMHO Charles just drove the nail in his own coffin. His marriage to Camilia will end any chances he has of becoming king. I hearby predict that Queen Elizabeth will skip Charles and name his son as her successor.

Work

We have a big district test in Social Studies coming up, and I'm working my butt off trying to get the students ready for it. The problem is, very few of them give a damn. In a class of 36, I'm failing 30 students, because they won't turn in any homework. And so few of their parents give a damn either. The problem with public education isn't a lack of money or poor teachers. It's lazy students and apathetic parents.

There's very little self satisfaction to be had throwing pearls before swine.

MUD FIGHT!!!

OK. Two women were mud wrestling (in their underwear) in Iraq. All of a sudden this is a scandal? Why?

We tell women they are equal, and place them in high stress environments like frontline military units, then get all prissy when they blow off some steam?

That is the way soldiers behave. That is the way soldiers have always behaved. Historically it's been much, much worse. We are not so far removed from the days of habitual rape and pillage.

What the hell is the big deal? And why is everyone acting surprised and outraged?

Superbowl Halftime

Sir McCartney wasn't bad. But I much prefer G'n'R's version of "Live and Let Die". I didn't see anything that should get anyone too upset. Too bad the game sucks so bad though.

SoTU

Good speech, not great.

I am way behind the idea of spreading freedom and representative government around the world, by force if necessary. I believe we have a moral responsibility to free people from brutal dictators if possible. We should be (and hopefully are) actively working to topple the regimes in North Korea and Cuba. We should also be supporting "insurrections" in Syria, Iran, China and other less brutal but still repressive regimes.

I personally would abolish Social Security, but at the very least it has to be reformed. Five years ago, during the Clinton administration even the Democrats were willing to admit this. It's only now that a Republican is trying to fix it you hear the cries about there being nothing wrong with the program.

The Democratic response highlighted everything that is wrong with the Democratic party. It was all about being against Pres. Bush and his ideas, with nothing positive to contribute. Sen Reid showed himself to be a shameless hypocrite and Rep. Pelosi was a shrill hack. If this is the best they can come up with, the Republicans are a shoe in in 2008.