DADvocate

Scroll down for update below.

Never forget the sacrifice of those who gave their lives or a portion of their lives so that we can enjoy "blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity..." Band of Brothers has been playing on the History Channel all morning. For an excellent of the experiences of Easy Company in WWII, watch it.

During Memorial Day holidays, I think of people I know or knew that served us. One fellow that comes to mind is Dan. I don't know Dan's last name. I first met him 10 years ago in a Tae Kwondo class at the local YMCA. Dan and his daughter were in the class. Dan has two beautiful daughters. The one is now grown but the other is in my youngest daughter's grade, going into the 6th.

When Dan and I run into each other we always speak and exchange a little small talk. Last time I spoke to him he was in between tours in Iraq as a reservist. Yes, Dan made it back just fine. I've seen his wife since. I'm struck by the sacrifice and risk guys like Dan make. Ordinary, unassuming guys who risk it all. These are the guys on which the strength of our country stands. Not rich, smooth talking politicians, not generals, pundits, journalists or "activists" but those everyday guys and gals who go out and do what mush be done and sometime pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Thanks, Dan and all you others that I've never met and never will.

UPDATE: During the cooler hours of early evening I decided to change the oil in my car. This process involved rummaging around in my garage for the proper tools and a catch pan for the old oil. While doing this I scared up a mouse. Since my garage is detached from my house, I wasn't too concerned, it's nothing like hearing the word "uterus," but decided to do a little checking after I changed the oil.

One box with some random memorabilia seemed a likely place for mice to be hiding. I decided to transfer the contents from it to a plastic, mouse proof container. While doing so I came across an old newspaper clipping from my high school days. The date wasn't on the portion cut out but I know it was May, 1968. The clipping was the announcement of the death of Alvin E. Wiles in Vietnam.

Alvin was a friend of my older sister. We knew him as "Goot." I have no idea where that moniker originated. Goot would be over to our house at times with her other friends. I probably saw him no more than a dozen times but he was always friendly and accepting to my sister's little brother, me. I admired my sister's male friends and lusted after her female friends. Goot was one cool guy in my book.

How completely ironic that I would come across this clipping on Memorial Day. I've kept it nearly 40 years. I'll keep it 40 more if I live that long.

Yes, we do remember. Sometimes because we have no choice.

I'm available. As a straight male, I'm highly qualified for map reading according to this study by researchers at the University of Warwick.

Sexual orientation and gender affects navigation skills, with straight men best at map reading and heterosexual women worst, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Warwick considered how we perform mental tasks in light of sexual preferences, with straight men performing better at map reading than gay men who in turn perform better than lesbians, who in turn do better than straight women.

However, you may want to get someone a little younger than I.

"In all the tasks, older people did worse than younger people, whether male or female. In fact, for some of the tasks, people in their 30s were significantly worse than people in their 20s.

"This is one of the first times that age-related decline has been shown in adults under 40," she said.

"Because of the size of the study, we found reliable effects with ageing.

"Men showed a greater decline with age than women did, irrespective of whether a task favoured men or women."

But when it came to mental rotation, average male performance still stayed ahead of women, though the difference closed.

I'm glad someone finally researched this topic because the other day I needed directions and walked into a bar for help. There was an old man, a gay couple, two lesbians, a just married young man and woman, a priest, a rabbi and the Easter Bunny.....

Gawd! I should have followed my father's advice, got my PhD and become a university professor. Then I could make a living researching stupid things rather than serious consumer research.

BTW - This study is partly old news.

Extreme Mortman is posting on Ron Paul. Check it out.

Browsing through a technorati search, I came across these words, "A special note of thanks to all ?????? readers, contributors, and commenters for your participation and support. The quality and maturity of blog posts and discussion has been increasingly outstanding ..."

Having some familiarity with the blog in question, I can only assume that most if not all of the people to whom this note was addressed are not only adults but well educated, successful adults. I would be insulted if another adult told me I was being "mature." In doing so, the other person assumes to be judge over my maturity.

With my own children, I never accuse them of being immature nor praise them for being mature. I talk with them about appropriate and inappropriate behavior, about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. And, I define which is which. I explain to them, in so many words, that different sets of rules apply for home, school, church, restaurants, etc. If I tell them they are being immature, I am insulting them, and, conversely, telling them they are being mature is a backhanded insult.

I can only imagine what the reaction would be in my company if, during an all employee meeting which we have quarterly, the CEO complimented us for being mature. It would provide laughs for several months.

Communicating with others is certainly a valuable skill. I work very hard at communicating with my children, as a professor once said, "concisely and precisely." My stomach turns when I hear parents try to "reason" and "explain" something to a kids in a too "nice" way. Just tell the kid what's acceptable and what isn't and stand by your words.

I had this conversation with a woman at work today. She agreed with me and claimed to take the same approach. I believe her because her daughter, now in her mid-twenties, is as fine a person as you'll ever meet.

This is one area in which my ex-wife and I work together fairly well. I don't care for her style but she rarely fails to let the kids know where she stands on behavioral expectations, school performance and such. And, her expectations are quite close to mine.

I like to praise my kids but with caution. Give too much praise and it loses its meaning. Give praise for sub-par performance and it damages more than helps. Give praise with too much of a flourish and it becomes an embarrassment. Matter of fact praise seems to work best with my kids. I use words like "great" and "wonderful" but with a moderated tone so as not to over do it.

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I have received came from the tape for Dare To Win by Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield. The advice was to praise your kids and talk highly of them.

But, the advice was to praise and talk highly of your kids to others within earshot of your kids. By doing so, you instill in your kids your faith in them plus set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy because your kids will want to live up to the faith you have in them.

I've rambled but the message is, Be very careful with your words. Praise can become an insult. Intentions can be lost. Or, you can set in motion a series of positive events that may continue past your lifetime.

Rosie O'Donnell has left the view.

ABC said Friday she won't be back on the show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

Rosie is apparently decided to leave the view early due to a spat with Hasselback.

On Wednesday’s show, O’Donnell (who leaves the show for good in three weeks) blasted Hasselbeck for not coming to her defense on the matter. “Do you believe that I think our troops are terrorists, Elisabeth?”

She pressed: “Yes or no? Do you believe it, yes or no?”

“Excuse me, let me speak!” Hasselbeck snapped. “Let me finish!”

At this point, the conversation moved into split screen mode.

“I don’t believe that you believe troops are terrorists. I have said that before,” Hasselbeck continued, “but when you say something like, ‘655,00 Iraqis are dead. We invaded them…who are the terrorists?’…” She trailed off.

O’Donnell repeated: “Do you believe that I think our troops are terrorists, Elisabeth?..You would not even look me in the face, Elisabeth, and say, 'No, Rosie.' "

Hasselbeck shot back: “Because you are an adult, and I am certainly not going to be the person for you to explain your thoughts…Defend your own thoughts!"

But O’Donnell argued that whenever she goes up against her cohost, she's portrayed as a bully. “I defend my thoughts. But every time I defend them, it’s poor little Elisabeth that I’m picking on.”

Read the whole thing. There is also video at the link. Further on O'Donnell added, "Here’s how it gets spun in the media: Rosie – big, fat, lesbian loud Rosie -- attacks innocent, pure Christian Elisabeth." Pretty much describes what happened if you ask me. :-)

The woman has problems beyond her belief that fire can't melt steel.

I'll miss Rosie. She's a female Al Gore, provides lots of easy material at which to poke fun. It's hilarious that the likable but, seemingly, intellectually average Elisabeth Hasselback got the best of Rosie. I have to wonder if Hasselback has been stereotyped because she is an attractive blond. Of course, we know all about dumb blonds, don't we.

I'm hope Rosie continues to be a in the public eye, to provide us with fodder for hilarity. We need liberals like Rosie to keep speaking out to remind us just how removed from reality their beliefs are.

Two items involving high school students caught my eye today. The first involved two girls passing out anti-gay fliers at school.

The fliers show two men kissing — one of them apparently "a male classmate[,] and neighbor of one of the girls[,] with whom they had been feuding" — coupled with the words "God hates fags."

One of the girls is facing a hate crime charge.

(Hat tip to Instapundit.)

The second incident involves a male student secretly video taping his teacher in class.

Kent School District lawyer Charles Lind says the suspension had nothing to do with online criticism of the teacher. Rather, it was punishment for the disruption created by the students secreting a video camera into Joyce Mong's class and dancing in a mocking, disrespectful manner while her back was turned.

Having seen the video (you can see it at the link above), I can tell you that "mocking, disrespectful manner" means simulating having sex with the teacher, i.e. humping. The student wants his suspension from school lifted.

It was a sophomoric online video criticizing the hygiene of a teacher that was at issue in U.S. District Court on Monday, when Gregory Requa, a senior at Kentridge High School, asked a judge to order the lifting of his 40-day school suspension for his supposed involvement in producing and posting the video.

I have one big question. Where are the parents of these kids and what are they doing? I agree with that the girls actions don't rise to the level of criminal and are most likely protected by free speech. The student in the video taping incident is not facing criminal charges, so this isn't an issue for him.

Both incidents do deserve suspension from school, however. It should be abundantly obvious to all students and parents that unrestricted freedom of speech does not exist in schools (or in work places). A student who gets up behind his teacher and pretends to be sexually violating her should expect to be suspended if caught. His parents should be telling him, "You did the crime, now do the time."

The teacher, Joyce Mong, provides the only bright spot in this story.

Mong said Monday that that she never realized she had been videotaped. She called the video's criticism of her hygiene "totally fictitious."

Mong, now retired, said: "When I heard about this, it just made me sick because they don't represent the wonderful kids at the school."

Sounds like a sweet lady.

How in the world the two girls thought passing out anti-gay flies at school would be acceptable baffles me. Once again, the idiocy of this should be abundantly obvious. Wouldn't bother me if they were expelled. But, how did this get this far without their parents stepping in to stop them? Or, did the parents think this was OK? I keep my computer in the family room where I can monitor my children's activities in real time. Sometimes I will install tracking software if I think illicit activities are occurring. Plus, I'm a semi-geek and, unlike many parents, can out smart my kids on the computer.

Yes, kids sometimes do things that go completely against what their parents teach them. But, sometimes I wonder how diligent parents are being in keeping up with what their children are doing.

Watching Al Gore for more than a couple of minutes on Larry King Live last night posed too great a challenge. So I looked up the transcript today rather than go to bed sick. Gore was supposedly promoting his book "Assault on Reason." Pleas help me. I just can't get over a man who has created so much neurotic panic over global warming wrote a book supposedly lamenting the demise of reason.

Gorisms:

And so where the people used to have a greater opportunity to take part in the conversation and talk back in ways where what they said would be heard and listened to, now the act of just sitting motionless in front of the TV set and absorbing all of this stuff, particularly when the majority of it is the Britney and the K-Fed and whether or not Russell Crowe threw a telephone at the hotel concierge, that the ability and the opportunity to participate actively in the processes of self-government are disappearing.

Are we really such motionless lumps that we sit and indiscriminately absorb whatever crap that's on TV? Obviously, someone watches this baloney but TV cable news shows generally receive rather low ratings. While the TV may be on in my house in the evenings, it is a sideshow. Maybe, Al is preparing the ground work for the "Fairness" Doctrine where the government controls what we see and hear on TV and radio.

I also wonder how much "conversation" Mr. Gore wants about global warming. The other day my son came home from school saying they watched part of An Inconvenient Truth in science. I didn't go ballistic or anything. I'm quite confident that I am at least as intelligent as Mr. Gore, any of my son's teachers and sway much more influence over my children. I simply showed my son some websites and printed out some information that showed Mr. Gore's hellfire and damnation message on global warming is inaccurate and exaggerated.

Speaking of global warming:

If Greenland were to break up and slip into the sea or West Antarctica, or half of either and half of both, it would be a 20-feet increase, and that would lead to more than 450 million climate refugees.

The direct impacts on the U.S. have already begun. Today, 49 percent of America is in conditions of drought or near drought. And we have had droughts in the past, but the odds of serious droughts increase when the average temperatures go up, as they have been going up.

Greenland break up? Greenland is a land mass with ice on it. I hope Mr. Gore realizes that. I've pointed out before that Greenland used to be warmer than it is now. That's why the Vikings called it Greenland. With such a great threat to our nation from global warming, we certainly shouldn't be taking in immigrants but rather preparing for Armageddon.

Maybe some where along the line Mr. Gore will have an encounter with true logical, rational reason. But, will he recognize it?

The other thing that bugs me about Mr. Gore is that he is from my home state of Tennessee, but he sure doesn't sound like it. Hillary can fake it better than Al.

UPDATE: The Anchoress analyzes an impressive list of Al Gore, a la Joy Behar, for its lack of reason, i.e. logic and rationality.

The lesson is quite simple, two immigration bills and the problem gets worse after each. Now, Kennedy's pushing a third. Beware!

Most beguiling among those merchants of mendacity is none other than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has been peddling his wares at the Senate bazaar for more than four decades. Kennedy's counterfeit immigration views reach all the way back to his championship of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.

In signing that legislation into law, President Lyndon Johnson promised it would not be revolutionary or affect the lives of millions, even as it overturned 60 years of U.S. immigration policy of national origin quotas and led to the creation of explosive chain migration.

Twenty-one years later, President Ronald Reagan signed into law amnesty for more than three million illegal aliens who had entered the country. President Reagan then promised the new employer sanctions would "remove the incentive for illegal immigration by eliminating the job opportunities," and that the law's amnesty provision would allow millions who were hiding in the shadows to "step into the sunlight."

And now, another 21 years later, we hear the same language as the pro-amnesty and open borders advocates demand that American citizens ignore history, reason and the national interest. They are again marketing the same false assurances about border enforcement and insist there will be no social or economic cost to the taxpayer or the nation. More than four decades of disruptive and destructive immigration policy initiatives should be a sufficient history lesson for all Americans.

A "merchant of mendacity" closely resembles a "notorious prevaricator."

In my last post, I mentioned shmoos, fictional character in the Lil' Abner cartoon strips by Al Capp. Suddenly, shmoos are popping up every where. Instapundit linked to a post by Jonah Goldberg that contains the phrase "infinitely malleable shmoo."

Al Capp died in 1979. I can't remember the last time I heard someone use the word. One would certainly have to be pushing 40, at least, to remember shmoos. I'm 56 and had to look it up to remember the correct spelling. I can't help but wonder, if somehow, Goldberg got a whiff of my shmoo or is it just synchronicity?

Since the announcement of the new immigration bill, many of us have ranted about its evils. While some of us have dissected and analyzed the bill and its ramifications more than others, all that misses the primary problem. We can't trust our federal government to do what is says what will do. We can't trust our federal government to do what it should do. And, we can't trust our federal government to "promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,..."

In basic management and administration classes, we all learn about purpose, goals and objectives. The preamble of the U.S. Constitution states the purpose of the federal government.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In this single, clear sentence lies everything the federal government should be striving to achieve. While the federal government may be meeting some of those goals, it is failing miserably on others.

Justice proves to be more and more elusive. With political correctness, protected classes, etc., the existence of equal justice before the law has, rightfully, become questioned.

But under even greater danger of being totally ignored is "promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,..." Is the federal government promoting the general welfare of those to whom it has its first obligation, the legal residents of this country? Is the federal government securing the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity? I question how many of the politicians in the federal government even care about such things, Republicans and Democrats alike.

The U.S. faces many potential shortages of natural resources in the near future. Shortages of water, the most plentiful substance on Earth as Dennis Miller says, are common in the western United States. Some apparently believe in shmoos and think we are a land of infinite resources. The Social Security system is already in crisis with no solid plan to rescue it.

Now the Senate has a "new" plan to solve the illegal immigration "problem." But what is the immigration problem? Is it that millions of citizens come into our country illegally, almost at will? Only partly. The essence of the problem, the "root cause," is that the U.S. federal government does not do its job. It does not meet its purpose.

Why do we need reform of immigration laws? Because the federal government failed to properly enforce the immigration laws if passed in the 1980s. Why did we need new immigration laws in the 1980s? Because the federal government failed to enforce the immigration laws in effect before then. And so forth.

The above explains why, in many ways, this immigration bill doesn't matter. Congress could pass a "perfect" immigration bill and it would probably fail to solve the "problem" because the problem is Congress itself and whomever is President. We have too many career politicians, money grubbers, and power seekers in federal government who could care less about the purpose of this country.

Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,

The federal government is a tool designed to fulfill the purpose and goals outlined in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. Secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Meet those responsibilities first and then let's do everything we can for the rest of the world.

If you want me to support any legislation and believe in you, show me you can do your job. Presently, you're failing miserably.

I have read, primarily at Instapundit, about disappearing honey bees this year. Apparently, for some yet to be discovered reason, bees are disappearing. Many people are concerned about pollination of plants, etc. But, it turns out that 90% of pollination is performed by other insects, etc.

It is a curious phenomena. I can't say that I've seen a single honey bee this year although I spend a lot of time outside. I've planted flower gardens, a vegetable garden and mow my yard weekly. Weird. I'm not sure I've even seen a wasp or hornet either.

A sight I did get the pleasure of the other day was a wild turkey with about 10 chicks. Driving down a residential straight on the outskirts of Maysville, the car in front of me suddenly stopped. Perplexed, but being an extremely safe driver, I stopped also. First, I saw an adult wild turkey walk from in front of the other car. Then the chicks followed behind. They couldn't have been more that a few days old. As they walked into the grass on the other side of the roads, the chicks' heads barely raised above the blades of grass.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get my digital camera out in time to snap a picture. Judging from these pictures, I am correct in that the "poults," as it turns out they are called, are quite young. Quite a sight.

The Southern Poverty Law Center guys are after Lou Dobbs. They claim this statement by a guest, Christine Romans, was false: "there were about 900 cases of leprosy [in the United States] for 40 years," and that "[t]here have been 7,000 in the past three years." Indeed, it is not entirely accurate. But the SPLC wants to argue about the 7000 number. Well, not really, they claim that Dobbs implies there are 7,000 new cases. The actual case is that there were 7,029 new cases reported in the last 30 years.

The real error in the statement seems to be "there were about 900 cases of leprosy [in the United States] for 40 years,..." However, neither of those figures are entirely accurate because because not all cases of leprosy are reported. The origin of the statement came from this New York Times article from 2003.

In the United States, leprosy is usually regarded as a plague of the past, a disease relegated to biblical times or, perhaps, to poor and distant countries. But, in fact, as cases of leprosy have been declining worldwide in recent years, the infection has actually been on the rise in the United States.

While there were some 900 recorded cases in the United States 40 years ago, today more than 7,000 people have leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, as it is now called. ‘‘And those are the ones we know about,’’ said Dr. William Levis, attending physician at Bellevue Hospital’s Hansen’s Disease Clinic. ‘‘There are probably many, many more.’’

Part of the assertion of Dobbs and Romans was that most of the leprosy cases are carried in by immigrants, which they are according to The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Of course, the real reason behind all this is that the SPLC doesn't like Lou Dobbs position on illegal immigration. Like all good left wing facists, they don't discuss the issues, they go after you job and anything els they can do to hurt you. The SPLC even placed an open letter to discredit Mr. Dobbs:

Now, in the ad placed in "The New York Times" and the "USA Today" yesterday, the Southern Poverty Law Center in an open letter to CNN, said, quote, "despite being confronted with undisputed evidence to the contrary, Mr. Dobbs says he stands 100 percent behind the claim that there have been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the United States in recent years."

The other night Dobbs had Richard Cohen and Mark Potok, of the SPLC, on his show. Cohen, in particular and because Potok said little, provided plenty of examples of assault on reason.

Cohen: (jumping for discussion on leprosy): "The reality is that hate crimes occur because people demonize Latinos..." Victimology

Cohen (in the same paragraph as above): "...but you've got to ask yourself why the Council of Conservative Citizens considers you their favorite pundit." Let's not have a logical, reasonable discussion. I'll just accuse you of being a very bad person or whatever. How do you control who likes you?

Cohen: "You know, it's interesting, Lou, that the John Birch Society made the same claim against us..." Now, let's align Dobbs with the John Birch Society. The truth of a claim is not dependent on who makes it or believes it.

Potok (early in the discussion): "It's about, you know, you say things like a third of the federal prison cells are filled with illegal aliens when that is not a provable fact."

An exchange between Dobbs and Cohen later:
COHEN: "... Twenty-seven percent of the persons in federal custody were born on foreign soil, some here lawfully, some not and only 12 percent of those were -- had committed violent crimes. So to suddenly say that 33 percent ...

DOBBS: I thought you said it was an unknowable statistic just a moment ago, Richard?

COHEN: No, I didn't say that.

DOBBS: I misunderstood you.

COHEN: You did. I said 27 percent of the persons in federal custody were born on foreign soil. We do not know how many are here lawfully and how many aren't but we do know that 12 percent of those ..." Technically, Cohen didn't say it was not a provable face, Potok did. Of course, then, Cohen claims to have the provable facts.

The Southern Poverty Law Center hasn't been without its own problems over the years. I wonder if the SPLC has any concern for murders like this brutal rape, torture, murder in Knoxville, TN. I wonder if the demonizing of whites by people like Mr. Cohen increases hate crimes against whites? Or, does Mr. Cohen even believe that's possible? I wonder if the SLPC has labeled me a "racist website" and is tracking my blog.

I do find it encouraging that the SPLC includes The Nation of Islam in their hate group list. The SPLC has this group on their list for Maysville, KY: United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Maysville's a small town of about 10,000 people. I've lived in the area since 1990. My kids go to school there. We go to church there. I've never heard a single thing about this group. Does the SPLC bloat their claims of hate groups to give more importance to their mission?

Is the SPLC's cure worse than the disease?

UPDATE: According to U.S. Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), 12 U.S. citizens are murdered each day by illegal aliens.

The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals.

This is much higher than the fatality rate of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan but you don't hear much about it. The numbers are relatively small compared to the totals but if the perpetrators and victims fit the characteristics SPLC and many others seek, the din of outrage would be deafening. But, instead, these people probably call me racist or worse.

Not happy with the Senate's "solution" to illegal immigration. You're not alone. The solution is simple, first enforce the laws we have and then go from there. Why are Bush and the Senate not interested in enforcing the laws, primarily greed, and then it goes from there. The rich oligarchs want a modern feudal system where the purpose of the 95% is to provide ever greater wealth for the oligarchs.

When will enough middle class working stiffs realize that Ted Kennedy and Company don't care about them and begin electing somebody that does? Kennedy, Arlen Spector and Company have gone so long without a serious threat to their re-election that they are drunk with power.

It wasn't that long ago we were talking about the survival of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party may not survive if this goes the wrong way.

More thoughts....

MIchele Malkin:

The J. Wellington Wimpy immigration plan: Amnesty now, enforcement later

It's here: The Bush-Kennedy amnesty Report: Potential cost = $2.5 trillion

Via Instapundit:

Right Revolt
Conservatives won’t stand for the Bush-Kennedy immigration deal.

It's Up to You

Responding To John McCain's Decree

Build the Fence, All of It

Important Action Alert And Pretty Vicious Rant This includes a plan that just might work:

Every Republican who considers this a sell-out should, within the next week (the quicker the better) change his party affiliation from "Republican" to anything else.

Immigration Déjà Vu

We had less than 1 million illegal aliens when Kennedy began reforming immigration laws. Today we have 12 million. In 40 years, will we have 144 million?

A clever poster by Woody at G. M. Roper "Don't waste time earning what politicians will just give away."

From other sources and every day people:

Immigration Bill...not good

Amnesty will kill America!

No Amnesty for McCain

Who says crime doesn't pay? by angry navy wife

On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44 per day---every day) ...

A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants! Crikey, that's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas.

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These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula. Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal immigrants they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification---no proof of income.

A perspective by a Christian

"Romans 13

1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

The Allegory of the Uninvited Guest.
The same point I made in the comments to comments to this post.

Perhaps what I’ll do is simply break into Steve’s house and stake a claim. After breaking in I’ll clean the house, mow the lawns, and do the dishes and the laundry. You know, all the jobs he doesn’t like to do. When he comes home, he may be upset to find me in his home, but I’ll simply point out all the good honest work I’ve done before he discovered me there, and tell him all I want to do is work and stay in his place until I want to leave.

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By this time I’m kind of on a roll. I need to get a little more assertive in my position of advantage here. Not only am I going to insist that he has to let me stay in his house, but he needs to add me and my family to his insurance plan. He needs to educate my children, and he has to cater to my language of preference.

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I’ll also prey on his emotions, and convince him that he’s a bigot or a racist if he doesn’t accept me with all my conditions.

Illegals (Again!)

Ask them (U.S. Senators and Representatives) if they're familiar with Article 4 Section 4. Then ask why they're thumbing their noses at our Constitution!

Americans are being killed every day, estimated at 12 per day, by illegal aliens,...

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'm tired of hearing our immigration system is 'broken' or 'dysfunctional' when the only sensible solution to the problem is to ENFORCE THE LAWS ALREADY IN PLACE!!!!

This reminds me, why are we fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. if we're just going to give our country away to whomever demands a piece of it? If a foreign country flat out said, "We're sending 12 million or more people into the U.S. to live, etc. so bend over and take it." What would our reaction be?

Immigration Bill: Bad for Blacks, Good for Terrorists

12 million illegals to become legal with a Z-card visa? The immigration deal's unnamed amnesty deal will hurt Savannah's black males who are already marginalized in the workforce.

Not only will this Death-Ride-For-The Republican-Party Bill (any love I held for John McCain has evaporated) create millions of legal immigrants with a stroke of a pen, but with the family immigration provisions, up to a million "families" per year can join an illegal that is already here.

Precisely. Bye, bye, McCain.

Immigration Bill Lack of Logic

Wow, this bit of twisted logic almost makes my brain hurt thinking about it. "If they have broken the law while they’re here, they’re not eligible." Lemme see.....let's start with the statement "illegal immigrant". Doesn't that mean they've "broken the law"? Isn't that occurring "while they're here"?

Another question, I understand "ex post facto" in that you can't charge someone with a crime for an action that didn't become a crime until after that person committed the action. Does "ex post facto" work in the other direction? Just because the law has changed, does that decriminalize an action that was a crime when it occurred. It seems it would not. Would not all current illegal aliens still be subject to the laws in effect now?

Cram The Immigration Bill

No. The Congress no longer cares about the opinions of Americans. They arrogantly think that they know what's best for us. Well, Congress, you better get your heads out of your rectums, because you people haven't got a clue what Americans want or don't want. And don't give me that poll watching nonsense either. Polls are an editors view of the world; featuring questions designed to elicit a particular response. In short, polls are b.s.

An Incomprehensible Bill Quoting Fred Thompson:

We've tried the "comprehensive" route before to solve the illegal immigration problem with a bit more care and deliberation, and the results haven't been good. Back in May 1985, Congress promised us that it would come up with a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of illegal immigration and our porous borders. Eighteen months later, in November 1986, that comprehensive plan was signed into law.

Twenty-two years and millions of illegal immigrants later, that comprehensive plan hasn't done what most Americans wanted it to do — secure America's borders. Now Washington says the new "comprehensive" plan will solve the problem that the last comprehensive plan didn't.

Are you going to let Congress fool you again? Fred Thompson's entire post HERE.

Bush's Immigration plan will destroy our Republic A little over the top but probably more true than we want to accept.

A ghost bill

Yet, while I disagree with the “deport them all now” crowd, I’m as outraged as they are about the proposed immigration reform package. Not because it means “amnesty,” but because I don’t know what the hell it means.

That’s because there is no bill! If this report is true, not even members of Congress know what’s in the bill.

From the post at Redstaate that Bob Krumm points to:

Multiple Senate sources tell RedState that there is no actual immigration bill.

Contrary to earlier reports originating with Senator Kennedy, no bill presently exists and probably won't until tomorrow at the earliest. The lawyers are still behind closed doors putting it together.

Most troubling, Senate sources tell RedState that the bill probably will not be online in its final form until *after* the Senate has voted on it.

Talk about open government!! Franz Kafka, your world has arrived!

Please contact your Senators and Congress persons. (Links in column on the left.) Stop this rape of America.

UPDATE: Are they out of touch? Or, do they just not care?

Guaranteed that the Senate agreement on illegal immigration today gives all legal Americans the shaft. The numero uno reason for this amnesty is not amnesty proposal is that the insulated, isolated, protected rich, including "caring" liberal Democrats, want cheap labor for the corporations that finance their campaigns, provide them with private jets and free vacations.

How funny that Time magazine would publish an excerpt from Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason. How funny that Al Gore, known of his emotional tirades on global warming, would write a book on reason. Although he uses the word "logic," perhaps Gore is referring to emotional reasoning which is his style or one of the other cognitive distortions.

Gore makes some excellent points regarding how easily public opinion can be manipulated and why so few seem capable of solid, logical reasoning.

"If you run this ad at this many 'points' [a measure of the size of the advertising buy], and if Ashe responds as we anticipate, and then we purchase this many points to air our response to his response, the net result after three weeks will be an increase of 8.5% in your lead in the polls."

I authorized the plan and was astonished when three weeks later my lead had increased by exactly 8.5%. Though pleased, of course, for my own campaign, I had a sense of foreboding for what this revealed about our democracy.

I wonder about the foreboding part.

In the world of television, the massive flows of information are largely in only one direction, which makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The "well-informed citizenry" is in danger of becoming the "well-amused audience."

I've never agreed with Al Gore more. Witness the "news" channels and how they try to make news entertaining. Indeed, one of my messages to my kids is that you are not on this Earth to be entertained. When they complain of being bored, I tell them it's not my responsibility to entertain them. Go read a book, mow the yard, feed the dog, wash the dishes, do something useful. I hate it that so many people need to be constantly entertained. iPods have brought this to a new level. Videos, music, etc. any time, any where. It's no wonder that being smarter than a 5th grader is now seen as a challenge.

A lack of rationality permeates the illegal immigrant debate. But, one thing is for certain, allowing the continuous violation of the law is unacceptable. President Bush and Congress have failed the American public greatly. The executive branch is supposed to enforce the laws of the country. Bush's performance rates the worst of any president. The legislative branch has failed equally by not ensuring adequate funding, personnel, etc. to enforce the laws it passed.

Instapundit cites a report "hat nobody has an actual bill yet, and that the text won't be available until after it's voted on." How's that for responsible government? Senators are ready to pass a bill that isn't in it's final form.

More good stuff here. Apparently, illegals are unhappy, also. Guess what? Their opinion shouldn't matter. They belong to a group that has a 100% crime rate. They all broke the law by entering the USA illegally.

here’s the line of the day:

“This is what my 9th grade teacher told me government is all about and I finally got to experience it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

That's right, folks. All you need to know about governing the most powerful country in history, you learned in the 9th grade.

Michele Malkin posts her, and others', dissatisfaction with the shafting of America.

There have been seven illegal alien amnesties passed into law since 1986:

·The 1986 Immigration and Reform Control Act blanket amnesty for an estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens

·1994: The "Section 245(i)" temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens

·1997: Extension of the Section 245(i) amnesty

·1997: The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act for nearly one million illegal aliens from Central America

·1998: The Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti

·2000: Extension of amnesty for some 400,000 illegal aliens who claimed eligibility under the 1986 act

·2000: The Legal Immigration Family Equity Act, which included a restoration of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty for 900,000 illegal aliens]

Guess what? None –not one—of those amnesties was associated with a decline in illegal immigration. On the contrary, the number of illegal aliens in the U.S. has tripled since President Reagan signed the first amnesty in 1986.

Yeah, but who cares? The rich are getting richer, living in gated communities and are largely immune from the chaos which they create and from which they profit. They send a Paris Hilton or Martha Stewart to jail ever so often to placate the masses they abuse.

My advice: invest in Vaseline and KY jelly. Every legal American citizen going to be buying it to ease the pain.

UPDATE: How do real Americans feel about illegal immigration? Here's a clue:

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who gained national prominence by targeting illegal immigrants living in his small northeastern Pennsylvania city, cruised to the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday - and unexpectedly won the Democratic nomination, too.

Barletta trounced GOP challenger Dee Deakos with nearly 94 percent of the vote. And he beat former Mayor Michael Marsicano for the Democratic nomination by staging a last-minute write-in campaign, all but guaranteeing himself another term, unofficial returns showed.

Hat tip to Instapundit.

During my youth, I dreamed of being an wise and powerful journalist. Mike Wallace, who is older than the hills, provided a shining beacon for us aspirants. As I still harbor a small amount of my previous ambition, I still want to emulate Mr. Wallace.

In a 60 Minutes interview last Sunday, Mr. Mike asked Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, if Mr. Romney and his wife had had premarital sex. As Mr. Wallace is a esteemed professional journalist, this is obviously a pertinent question for presidential candidates.

Wanting to be like Mike, I have some questions for presidential candidates, also.

For Joe Biden: Do you ever get your foot out of your mouth long enough to have sex? Have you ever done it in the rear booth of a Dunkin' Donuts?

For John Edwards: When you have sex, do you imagine that you're actually making love to yourself? Have you ever made love without looking at yourself in the mirror?

For Dennis Kucinich: Have you ever actually had sex with this tall redhead you claim is your wife? Judging from appearance only, you seem a rather unlikely couple.

For Barak Obama: Do you exaggerate the number of times you've had sex the same way you you exaggerated the the number of deaths due to the Kansas tornado, approximately 833 to 1?

For Bill Richardson, Mike Gravel, and Christopher Dodd: Who are you and why are you bothering to run for President? Why don't you go home and make love to your wives?

For Hillary Clinton: When was the last time you had sex with Bill? Did he moan the words "Oh, Monica?"

If Mike Wall and 60 Minutes have any gumption, they will pose these questions to the candidates. The public must know.

Hat tip to jau at Just Muttering.

Maybe this explains why Democrats have difficulty carrying Ohio in presidential electins: Both "idiots" and "insane persons" are banned from voting in the Ohio Constitution,.

The article is actually about "Old mental illness terms being purged."

In the last century, "idiotic" and "feeble-minded" were accepted labels. Later, "mental deficiency" was deemed to be more respectful. More recently, "mental retardation" replaced that as less derisive. Today, that phrase is increasingly seen as unacceptable.

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In March, hundreds of disabled adults in Alabama and their advocates and caretakers rallied at the Statehouse in Montgomery to urge legislators to remove the word retarded from state code.

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Amid the concern, the former American Association of Mental Retardation - which changed its own name in January - is making preparations to revise the definition of mental retardation for the 11th time since 1908.

"The self-advocacy community really hates the word 'retarded,' and they've been very vocal about that," said Doreen Croser, executive director of what is now known as the American Association of Intellectual and Development Disabilities.

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Public opinion helps determine when the definition is outdated, as it is now, she said. It is unlikely that changing to the term currently accepted by advocates - "intellectual disability" - will resolve the issue definitively.

The last sentence sums up the problem. When I was a kid, one might call another "retarded" if they did something stupid. Now, I hear kids use the term "developmentally disabled" in the same circumstance. I'm sure "intellectual disability" become a pejorative for kids at some point.

I simply try to make sure my kids treat all other kids with proper respect and abstain for teasing, etc. When it comes to "proper respect," a lot of people of normal or higher intelligence don't necessarily deserve much. But, I frequently I encounter people of limited intelligence who work hard and do the best they can. They deserve much respect.

UPDATE: I heard Jeff Ruby interviewed on WLW radio today and saw him on the Nancy Grace show. O.J.'s attorney is claiming racism and threatening to sue. The catch is that 5 minutes after O.J. left Ruby seated Michael Jordan with a party of 30 in the same room O.J. had just vacated. It seems a lot of people applaud Ruby's actions as much as I do.

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O.J. Simpson visited Louisville, KY this past weekend for the Kentucky Derby. Not everyone was glad to see him. Jeff Ruby, owner of the steakhouse Jeff Ruby’s Louisville, refused service to Simpson and his party of 10 - 12 people.

Told by a customer that the former football player had arrived at the restaurant, 325 W. Main St., Ruby said, he informed Simpson, “I am not serving you.”

“He had a party of 10 or 12 people,” said Ruby, who had served Simpson many times at his Cincinnati restaurants before the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, of which Simpson was acquitted.

Ruby was offended by the attempted publishing last fall of Simpson’s book, “O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened,” and the television interviews scheduled to go with it, all of which were canceled after negative public reaction.

“He continues to torture the lives of the families whose lives he’s ruined,” said Ruby, who pointed out that Simpson has not paid the $33.5 million he owes the Goldman family after being found “criminally liable” in a civil suit.

“This was the only thing I could do for the victims’ families,” said Ruby. He said the 50 or so people in the private room where Simpson had been seated “stood up and applauded me” when Simpson left.

Mr. Ruby owns 5 or 6 restaurants in the Cincinnati area. All are expensive but worth it establishments. He is most well known restaurateur in Cincinnati and is well respected.

I applaud Mr. Ruby, also.

The Ohio Senate recently passed a bill putting strict limits on strippers and strip clubs. The restrictions placed include:

The bill, approved 24-8, prohibits sexually-oriented businesses from staying open between midnight and 6 a.m. Businesses with liquor licenses could stay open during those hours but could not offer sexually-oriented entertainment.

The bill also requires nude or semi-nude performers to be at least six feet away from customers on a stage at least two feet off the floor.

Also, the bill prohibits performers from touching customers or their clothing or touching anybody else who is nude while in the view of customers.

Source: Dayton Daily News

A strippers' group called "Dancers for Democracy" has help protests against the law. My question is "Where are the feminists?" Shouldn't they be supporting the strippers in opposition to this law?

A fundamental cornerstone of feminist thinking is "One of woman’s most basic freedoms is her right to control her own body..." Under such logic, dancing nude, semi-nude or even fully clothed in order to earn money should be considered a basic right by feminists. After all, a "woman’s most basic freedoms is her right to control her own body."

Somebody please call NOW and inform them of this threat to a woman's basic right. The legislation has yet to be passed by the Ohio House. There is still time!!

Maybe, the lack of support of strippers by feminists is because strippers give pleasure to men.

According to this report, Bush is prepared to veto H.R. 1592, the "Hate Crime" bill. Good for him.

As I've stated before, while this is a noble cause, this bill is another fence post that will eventually imprison us if we are not vigilant.

Commenter TimC, used the "fence post" analogy in this thread at samizdat.net. The analogy describes the threats to our freedoms so well it should be a catch term used to describe these threats and the eventual of these threats if not stopped.

Maybe eating those little puffed rice cakes helps you lose weight but in doing so you're destroying the planet, you selfish oaf! Rice paddies are "a main cause of rising methane emissions in the 20th century." OMG!! No more fried rice at the local Chinese restaurant for me!

Methane emissions from flooded rice paddies contribute to global warming just as coal-fired power plants, automobile exhausts and other sources do with the carbon dioxide they spew into the atmosphere.

In fact, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting this week in Bangkok concludes that rice production was a main cause of rising methane emissions in the 20th century. It calls for better controls.

"There is no other crop that is emitting such a large amount of greenhouse gases," said Reiner Wassmann, a climate change specialist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

Yep, looks like those uppity vegetarians are harming the Earth more than us beefetarians.

Swamp gas is primarily methane. Maybe we should drain the Okefenokee and half of Louisiana. Whatever we do, we must do it fast!! The sky is falling!!

Welcome, Instapundit readers! Never imagined a post about rice paddies would get me a mention. But, I'll take it none the less.

Declared "Quote of the Day" by Instapndit:

The problem is, they will outlaw almost everything while enforcing very little. Imprisonment by stealth. People will not know they are encircled until it is too late - like putting in all these very deep, robust fence-posts with no fence panels. All seems open. One day you will wake up and the panels are in, you are trapped and they can decide what law they wish to impose to nail whomsoever they desire.

"Enforcing very little" can be now seen in the illegal immigration fiasco. Yesterday, illegal immigrants marched to remind us how little our government in the form of George Bush and liberal Democrats care about the law or protecting and preserving our country for legal citizens and legal residents.

HR 1592 is being considered currently.

If enacted, the federal government would have authority to prosecute some violent bias-motivated crimes directed against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender-identity, gender or disability.

All this sounds very noble and honorable. "So are they all, all honorable men!" (and women)

Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin wrote the novel "We" in 1921 warning us of totalitarian control by the government. Aldous Huxley followed with "Brave New World" in 1932. George Orwell presented us with "1984" in 1949. He may have been a few years off but his predictions seem to be coming true.

Currently "hate" crime laws supposedly are limited to increasing the prosecutorial powers and use of certain federal agencies for for crime where "hate" is involved. Of course, the intent is to create ever greater powers for special classes of people who some how deserve more "equal" (Orwell's "Animal Farm") protection under the law than others, especially white males. Just as I watched Lou Dobbs tonight and listened to a man make the ludicrous claim the anti-illegal immigration stand was racist, authorities will search for the slightest hint of "hate" when they wish.

Hate crime laws are one of the fence posts, my friend. Don't kid yourself as to the eventual goal: you toe their line or you pay the price. Politicians are a power hungry bunch and many want to have power over you.