The mess in and about Arizona and their new law giving law enforcement the ability to ask someone to prove that they are here legally has created such a firestorm of controversy, it begs to have another chip in, don't you think? John Adams said "a government of laws, not of men", when describing this new Country and the Constitution they were creating. Laws, not men, no matter the color of their skin! All of the hokey , generated protesting and everything that goes with it only continues the call to look at these Democrats, or, if illegal, future Democrats, and see them for what they are...people led by the nose to perform on cue! And lets get Al Sharptan and Jesse Jackson to show up, of course, yelling and screaming about 'profiling', and I would bet even money that neither of them has read the bill. It's only 16 pages long, not too much of a challenge.How spontaneous, with all of the professionally made signs and such. Yeah, 5,000 folks just quietly showed up at the same corner, signs in hand, given out at the meeting place. Spontaneity, what a concept!
It is a Federal law that, if here on a visa, you must carry your 'green card' everywhere you go, whether to the corner drugstore, or the other side of the country. And, if, for any reason, within the constraints of the law, you are asked to produce that form of identification, you produce it. Right? Most people here on a visa are happy to be here, and follow the rules. The law. But if you are here illegally, well, police officers ought to have the right to ask for proof that you AREN'T here illegally. And actually, they do--President Clinton signed a law allowing just that very thing, and it applies to any law enforcement officer, not just Federal. However, if the Federal laws aren't being enforced, as they aren't, well, then it falls to the State and Locals to enforce the law. Arizona is desperate-not very long ago they were the 'kidnap' capital of the world! They still might be, but I do know that they have the title in this Country. Between the Mexican drug cartels and MS13, the bloodthirsty gang from Colombia, American citizens of Mexican decent were, being snatched off the street at a rate of more than three a day. A DAY! And it wasn't very long ago, either. There was a 325% increase in kidnappings from 2005 until 2008, the last year that such info is available. That's insane! And the ransom demanded was always high, usually higher than the family could raise, because there was no plan, and they were kidnapping regular, middle-class men,not rich men, as one would expect. They were kidnappings of convenience, not planning. Also, besides all of that, there has been a constant flow of illegals, most staying in Arizona, taxing the abilities of the school systems and the hospitals almost to the breaking point. In Bisbee, AZ, right across the border from Naco, Mexico, the owner expects to have to close in three years because of unpaid medical bills of illegals coming across, being smuggled across, or being transferred from Naco, which has no hospital. And although the numbers of people seeking medical treatment has risen every year, not once has an illegal immigrant paid one dollar on his or her bill. Ever. Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital in Tucson, lost $500,000 last year; Tucson Medical Center closed their trauma center because of uncompensated care; and University Medical Center in Tucson loses close to $1 million a month in unpaid care. How long can any of these hospitals continue to eat such extreme amounts of money in loses and continue to operate? The schools are also having to teach larger and larger numbers of students with little or no increase in budget, forcing more and more cuts to everything. And that is just Arizona, and doesn't count Texas, or California, whose loses are far larger. And Florida is another state with struggling hospitals because of uncompensated care of illegals, and, in their case, elderly.
Arizona was desperate, and the Feds weren't even talking to them, or even trying to help pay for any of the loses. Maybe some banks are "too big to fail", but maybe some hospitals are "too important to fail". Unfortunately for them, the U.S. government is broke now, so they are on their own, I guess.
Back to the original reason for this blog entry... showing that you have the right to be here isn't any different than me, or anyone else, showing their driver's license and insurance papers if asked by a policeman. If I don't co-operate, I go to jail, and cops don't seem to have a sense of humor about the whole thing, either. Why do you insist on hammering about it being 'racial profiling', and illegal discrimination. Hogwash! READ THE BILL!! If you had, you would have seen that profiling is not allowed at all. Besides, we aren't too worried about Swedes, or Russians coming in illegally. By and large, they are Mexicans. And another thing--Jihadists can be made to look like Mexicans, or Central Americans who could be coming with no good intentions, either.
What it boils down to is that the Federal government isn't doing what it's supposed to do--enforce the law! There are all kinds of excuses, none of which matter. Enforce the law! Hire as many Border Patrol Agents as needed, build the fence,(which is the cheapest of the options, by the way), or put crossing junctions at all of the places that most illegals are using. Whatever it takes.Yes, we need the workers, but maybe some of the unemployed millions might be interested in some of those jobs. And if not, well, put in some kind of temp. visa for seasonal workers, construction workers, whatever. Put into law some sort of visa granting people the right to work for citizenship, as long as they pay a fine, get real S.S. cards in their name, learn English, and go to the back of the line of people doing everything the right, legal way. But knock of all of this 'racism' garbage, because it does not apply to this law. Period.
NOT RACIST NOT VIOLENT NO LONGER SILENT
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
NOT RACIST, NOT VIOLENT, NO LONGER SILENT
I have rarely been accused of being 'silent', but there is such a move on to silence certain groups, or people, I feel like I must respond. It seems that lately, anyone who criticizes our government in any way is accused of being racist, or worse if there is such a thing in our society anymore. The group that is mostly getting this name in blogs and on a few TV shows, is, of course, the tea parties. People on the Left are continuously trying to paint us as racist, violent gun freaks who are just about to erupt into violence at any point in time. None of which is true. The Founders not only made sure that freedom of speech was the First Amendment to the Constitution, they also encouraged the public to speak out against the government if they thought that what the government was doing was wrong. They believed that that was the most important use of the freedom of speech. Ben Franklin said
No such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Our government is supposed to ensure our Liberty, and when they start to forget that, we must remind them that they work for us, period! But we now have a new health care system, consisting of 17 pages of new agencies, new government agencies to take control of our medical care in this country despite the fact that the American public overwhelmingly did not want this bill passed. Yes, the tea party folks will speak out, and speak up as this Administration seeks to fundamentally change us into a European form of government. It is our responsibility to speak up. But when we do, the dinosaur media tries to paint us as radicals, as far to the right as is possible, when nothing could be farther from the truth. The tea parties consist of all sorts of folks, Republican and Democrat, Black and white, rich, and not so rich, but all concerned about the direction this Country is taking with the Obama, Reid, Pelosi Administration in charge. We are, and will be, trying to change the equation in the November elections. Not once has any evidence be presented that a violent act was undertaken by a tea party participant, yet that same dinosaur media is totally silent when speaking about the mobs and rioters that have plagued the Capital in Arizona for the last week. They throw bottles at the police, break windows, and yet it's all explained away by saying that they are angry, they are mad, not a word about 'violent' or being mobs. And where is Bill Clinton, after his speech about "words leading to violence" and linking the tea party movement to Tim McVeigh. Not a peep out of him about the words leading to violence in Arizona. Cowardice, that's what it is, and an inability to see the same behavior that they accuse the right of as coming from their own left of left wing support groups.
Our Founders believed in the power of the individual, and those who are Conservative also believe in the individual. We know that as individuals endowed by our Creator with certain rights, we are also responsible for our actions, and as such, we are more careful of others' rights. The Progressives and extreme left of the Democratic party have created a Party of groups, not individuals. Whether it's the Pinks, or the Greenies, or African-Americans, or college students, everything is geared toward group identity, not individual identity. And as a group, it's much easier to devolve into group mentality. After that, it's also easier to get the group riled up, angry, and violent.
It's now clear that the dinosaur media is a lost cause--they will never go back to being objective reporters of the news. It will always spin to the left. But I guess that's o.k. with the 46 people who still watch or read anything from this media anyway. And the rest of us will get by, don't worry.
Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, The New England Courant, Jul. 9, 1792
No such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. Our government is supposed to ensure our Liberty, and when they start to forget that, we must remind them that they work for us, period! But we now have a new health care system, consisting of 17 pages of new agencies, new government agencies to take control of our medical care in this country despite the fact that the American public overwhelmingly did not want this bill passed. Yes, the tea party folks will speak out, and speak up as this Administration seeks to fundamentally change us into a European form of government. It is our responsibility to speak up. But when we do, the dinosaur media tries to paint us as radicals, as far to the right as is possible, when nothing could be farther from the truth. The tea parties consist of all sorts of folks, Republican and Democrat, Black and white, rich, and not so rich, but all concerned about the direction this Country is taking with the Obama, Reid, Pelosi Administration in charge. We are, and will be, trying to change the equation in the November elections. Not once has any evidence be presented that a violent act was undertaken by a tea party participant, yet that same dinosaur media is totally silent when speaking about the mobs and rioters that have plagued the Capital in Arizona for the last week. They throw bottles at the police, break windows, and yet it's all explained away by saying that they are angry, they are mad, not a word about 'violent' or being mobs. And where is Bill Clinton, after his speech about "words leading to violence" and linking the tea party movement to Tim McVeigh. Not a peep out of him about the words leading to violence in Arizona. Cowardice, that's what it is, and an inability to see the same behavior that they accuse the right of as coming from their own left of left wing support groups.
Our Founders believed in the power of the individual, and those who are Conservative also believe in the individual. We know that as individuals endowed by our Creator with certain rights, we are also responsible for our actions, and as such, we are more careful of others' rights. The Progressives and extreme left of the Democratic party have created a Party of groups, not individuals. Whether it's the Pinks, or the Greenies, or African-Americans, or college students, everything is geared toward group identity, not individual identity. And as a group, it's much easier to devolve into group mentality. After that, it's also easier to get the group riled up, angry, and violent.
It's now clear that the dinosaur media is a lost cause--they will never go back to being objective reporters of the news. It will always spin to the left. But I guess that's o.k. with the 46 people who still watch or read anything from this media anyway. And the rest of us will get by, don't worry.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Business Crazies
Man, oh, man. I have to say, first, in the face of full disclosure, that I have no dog in the race, as they say, when it comes to talking about the costs of health care, since the state pays for most of mine. I am fully disabled and get a very small check from SSI. But that in no way means that I don't, or can't, have an opinion when it comes to something that encompasses a sixth of our GDP. And that will fundamentally change the very nature of health care, and the relationships we have with our doctors. I really like my doctor, even though I have to drive a long ways to see him. While he has assured me that he will not change the way he operates no matter what they do, I have some belief that he may not have any choice. And although we will have four years before anything actually occurs, I am still young enough that I hope to be around for about thirty years or more, and that will be quite a few years after this takes place. Actually though, the four years before anyone sees one benefit, well, that doesn't include the taxes that will go up--that will happen right away. How does that grab you? How about you go to buy a new car, and they tell you that the payments will start immediately, but you can't actually have the car for four years. Would you go for that? I doubt it, and this bill is just as foolish. And those of you in the middle class, those who weren't supposed to see any increase in taxes? Just you wait...you will see more money taken out of your checks because there is no other way to really finance this bill. Our children and grand children cannot possibly pay off the debt we are leaving them, and we must get the deficit down as much as we can now, not to mention the fact that the Senate and the House both just passed the 'pay-go' law, saying that they cannot create any new programs, or pass any laws, unless they are payed for. I don't expect that one to last long, but they will have to come up with the money to pay for this new health care regardless, and the methods they are including in the bill are not going to be sufficient. The folks making over $250,000 a year, who are supposedly going to pay for the tax hike are, in most cases, small business owners who just happen to do their business taxes with their personal taxes, and that will absolutely kill any big jump in job creation, since small businesses are most of the employers of other people. And the ultra-rich? Those who don't actually have to work anymore? What's to prevent them from just leaving to live somewhere else, maybe buy an island and stay there? They will eventually get tired of shouldering the burden of all of us who don't actually pay any income tax, as they do now. And those of us who still believe in personal responsibility and personal freedom would certainly not blame them for doing so.
On top of all of that, President Obama is trying to demonize the insurance companies, who make some of the smallest profit margins of any type of big corporation in this country, usually about 3%-4%. That's 3 cents on the dollar, folks, nothing to brag about. And Medicare, by far, denies more claims than ANY of the insurance companies do. And please, tell me of one government program that is in the black most of, or even part of, the time. Medicare will be broke very soon, and Medicaid in most of the states operates in the red at least most of the time. Amtrak is broke, the Post Office is millions in the red. I can't think of a single government program that makes money...not one! Yet some people seem to be willing and even anxious to have the government take over their health care. Talk about Russian Roulette!!
On top of all of that, President Obama is trying to demonize the insurance companies, who make some of the smallest profit margins of any type of big corporation in this country, usually about 3%-4%. That's 3 cents on the dollar, folks, nothing to brag about. And Medicare, by far, denies more claims than ANY of the insurance companies do. And please, tell me of one government program that is in the black most of, or even part of, the time. Medicare will be broke very soon, and Medicaid in most of the states operates in the red at least most of the time. Amtrak is broke, the Post Office is millions in the red. I can't think of a single government program that makes money...not one! Yet some people seem to be willing and even anxious to have the government take over their health care. Talk about Russian Roulette!!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Oh my, long time!
Well, my goodness, it's been a long time since I was here, and so much has happened, or is going on; I'm talking personally, and politically. I have been opening a store on Etsy.com, which is a website for crafters to sell their handmade items, and I had no real idea of how much work was involved! After I retook the pictures to get them clear, I started trying to figure out how to put them on the site. It was far easier than it looked, just time consuming.And very tiring, at that.But it's up and running, and I even made my first sale! YEA!! I also am trying to start an outside business making pendants with the pictures of people's pet on them. I have my business cards now, and some rack cards that I hope to get around to all of the pet stores in Springfield, and then to also hit the dog and cat shows in town this summer. All in all, quite a schedule of activities that I've set for myself this year.
Then, of course, we have all of the ridiculous goings on in Washington. D.C. Oh, where to start...Government Health Care; amd don't fool yourself, it is government run health care. The Progressives in D.C. want us to have the same type of health care that they have in France, or England, both of which are imploding under their own weight. France and England are trying to figure out how to switch over to health care more like ours, while Obama tries to take us to Socialized medicine. Actually, almost all of the countries with government run health care is trying to have it become more like ours, as it is now. The Prime Minister of Australia has told his people that he expects it to take around five years for their medical care to become more like that of America. I hope they hurry, as I have a dear friend there who has a form of lymphoma, and she can only get the MRI's needed to gauge the progress of the lymphoma once every year. And her medicine is strictly rationed. Also she has had more than one friend die from breast cancer, even when it was caught early, because the places to get chemo and radiation are so far apart, and the appointments take months to get. Now, I don't know about you, but I am old enough to really be concerned about rationed care, and whether or not some of us would be denied vital care if it were determined that we were a risk for continuing care needs, or that we were too olod to be of use to society any more. Oh, I know...you're going to say that none of that would happen, but if you read and listened to the words of some of Obama's advisers, you would see things differently, trust me. More about them later. But the trend to demonize the insurance companies for health care increases is ludicrous. The profit margin for insurers averages 3%-4%, that's all. Almost every other business has larger margins than that, at least among large corporations. Are there some people making huge bonuses? Yes. Are they all? No. Most of the folks involved in the insurance industry are hard-working, good people, just rying to get by like the rest of us. Maybe the CEOs and the board members make exorbitant salaries, and the top sales people get decent bonuses, but there are a lot of unemployed insurance people, too. Besides, when did it become so awful to do what you love, or what you're good at, and make a lot of money doing that? Isn't that the Great American Dream? To make a lot of money doing what you love, buy a home, work hard and live a good life? I know that I want to make a bunch of money, but if it doesn't happen, I'm still going to be happy, and also be happy for those who do make it in this difficult world. I don't resent rich people, and I don't want to take what they have, whether things, or money. But that seems to be what the government wants to do now, and if they can't tax the rich into poverty, well, then they just demonize them so that society will turn against them. What kind of people do we have in D.C.? Maybe it IS time that they all go home. Next November seems to be shaping up to be very interesting.
Well, I seem to be all over the place tonight, so I'll close this, get some notes together, and be more selective next time. See you then.
artdejour1.etsy.com
Then, of course, we have all of the ridiculous goings on in Washington. D.C. Oh, where to start...Government Health Care; amd don't fool yourself, it is government run health care. The Progressives in D.C. want us to have the same type of health care that they have in France, or England, both of which are imploding under their own weight. France and England are trying to figure out how to switch over to health care more like ours, while Obama tries to take us to Socialized medicine. Actually, almost all of the countries with government run health care is trying to have it become more like ours, as it is now. The Prime Minister of Australia has told his people that he expects it to take around five years for their medical care to become more like that of America. I hope they hurry, as I have a dear friend there who has a form of lymphoma, and she can only get the MRI's needed to gauge the progress of the lymphoma once every year. And her medicine is strictly rationed. Also she has had more than one friend die from breast cancer, even when it was caught early, because the places to get chemo and radiation are so far apart, and the appointments take months to get. Now, I don't know about you, but I am old enough to really be concerned about rationed care, and whether or not some of us would be denied vital care if it were determined that we were a risk for continuing care needs, or that we were too olod to be of use to society any more. Oh, I know...you're going to say that none of that would happen, but if you read and listened to the words of some of Obama's advisers, you would see things differently, trust me. More about them later. But the trend to demonize the insurance companies for health care increases is ludicrous. The profit margin for insurers averages 3%-4%, that's all. Almost every other business has larger margins than that, at least among large corporations. Are there some people making huge bonuses? Yes. Are they all? No. Most of the folks involved in the insurance industry are hard-working, good people, just rying to get by like the rest of us. Maybe the CEOs and the board members make exorbitant salaries, and the top sales people get decent bonuses, but there are a lot of unemployed insurance people, too. Besides, when did it become so awful to do what you love, or what you're good at, and make a lot of money doing that? Isn't that the Great American Dream? To make a lot of money doing what you love, buy a home, work hard and live a good life? I know that I want to make a bunch of money, but if it doesn't happen, I'm still going to be happy, and also be happy for those who do make it in this difficult world. I don't resent rich people, and I don't want to take what they have, whether things, or money. But that seems to be what the government wants to do now, and if they can't tax the rich into poverty, well, then they just demonize them so that society will turn against them. What kind of people do we have in D.C.? Maybe it IS time that they all go home. Next November seems to be shaping up to be very interesting.
Well, I seem to be all over the place tonight, so I'll close this, get some notes together, and be more selective next time. See you then.
artdejour1.etsy.com
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Who Knew???
I'm sure my friend knew...the one who has already done it, but this is WORK!! What am I talking about? I am trying to set up a store on Etsy, which is an on-line store of all handmade or vintage items. I use several types of techniques to make jewelry and other items, and I thought I would try selling a few of them. I didn't realize how much work it took to do just that. I have retaken photos more than once, found a photo-editing program that I could actually use to re-size those photos, figured out how to list them by giving a decent description, and gotten them uploaded to my store. It has taken me two days to get just eight of them actually in the store. But I am getting better. Sort of, I guess. I have so many new pictures to take tomorrow, and I sure do hope that the Sun comes out, at least for a little while. Oh, well, back to the mill...
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