Stop the Unnecessary Flow of Unnecessary People

The good news is illegal aliens are going home, the bad news is they are leaving because the US economy is in dire straits and they are the first to know.

You of course ask what it is I think drives the economy that the illegal recognizes so readily and we, “the average, middle-class American” do not see or choose to ignore. Simply put, it is housing, and what drives housing? Unfortunately, it is the only remaining real industry and is driven by the US Government’s (read us) open gate policy that allows more LEGAL immigrants into the country each year than any other country would sanely even consider. We have sustained our economy by growth despite any real need other than the political need to increase the tax base.

Consider parts of America (particularly parts of California and the South) with no reason for growth except to substantiate growth. There are no jobs except those that build houses and are created by the filling of those houses… and who is filling those houses? We are not making the babies necessary to substantiate the growth so it has to be the immigrants both legal and illegal.

When do we wake up to the fact that our elected government is killing our country by using the drug of growth to fuel our happiness?

Ecologists rally us to the plight of the forests yet the real villain is not the loggers but the houses we live in. Where we cut trees is actually increasing in wooded land whilst the south is in arrears due housing. The loggers must sustain forests whilst the developers have no reforestation plan, and what of the California developers who simply build on the desert? Again, why is this happening?

Wake up US and close your doors to a reasonable flow be it legal and/or illegal.

Sticks and Stones

I’ve held back too much in past weeks to dam any longer, the fatal breach came when my sister Jerri sent me notice of a “sexual assault” trial in Lancaster County, Nebraska where District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront has banned the victim, Teri Bowen from use of certain words such as “rape”, “victim”, “assailant”, “sexual assault nurse”, etc. I find this action absurd on some levels, outrageous on others, and further wholly intolerable on still more levels. I do not want you to miss the significance of the Judge’s ruling particularly as an affront to women so I have provided the following links (without permission):

Woman says she will try to follow order on words - CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star - Thursday, Jul 12, 2007

Judge Silences Survivor of Rape – CARRIE WOOTEN / G-Spot Magazine – July 13, 2007

Please feel free to be outraged on that level as am I… but that alone is not what has sent me over the preverbal edge, my concern is rooted in the growing belief that words carry significance beyond a reflection of the person who has spoken them. Did Don Imus set race relations back decades by his recent remarks, did Rosie O’Donnell inflict irreparable harm on our troops with her noted comments, did the derogatory comments of Isaiah Washington suggest a general homophobia at ABC, or does the use of insensitive words by an editor at an office party expose a greater intolerance at New York Times? In each case I would argue no, their words simply expose individual insensitivities, prejudices, poor taste or pure personal ignorance. I am not suggesting the ad hominem invalidation of the statements, rather stressing the measure of the person by the statements they make.

We started down this road for the right reasons, to combat racism, sexual harassment, homophobia, etc. but have since fostered an environment of overreaction that has minimized the initial efforts, clouded reason and led to Judge Cheuvront’s conclusion that words wield such great power that they should be removed from the court room to secure the rights of the accused. I ask two simple questions… “Is it not the responsibility of the Judge or Jury to evaluate testimony and measure the validity of witnesses statements, regardless of the words used?”, and… “Is it not the responsibility of the listener to measure a speaker by the words they use?”

Be discouraged by a marginal celebrity’s attempt at humor before a select audience, but do not expand such an insignificant issue by suggesting it is more than a distasteful utterance by an insensitive boob. Elevating such events to the national stage merely inflates the negative influence of the statements and conversely hinders the progress of tolerance whilst creating absurd conditions where words are considered infinitely more damaging than is appreciable, such as the case in Nebraska.

Sent from Perth, Western Australia, July 25, 2007

Where are we Going I

If with every generation we pursue the desire that our offspring have the opportunity for a greater life, is not the result a greater ignorance of what sustains us? How many people do you know who do not know how the beef gets under the cellophane and onto the Styrofoam on the meat counter at the market? As well as providing our children with a college education, are we not also providing them with a level of basic ignorance? My answer is yes, having been the one called to “assist” with simple tasks such as setting up audiovisual systems or adding lights to the yard.

How many flakes of hay/alfalfa does it take to feed a dairy cow each day to ensure milk production? If you don’t know perhaps you’ve evolved too far and your children are doomed to a service life with no knowledge of how they exist.

I end with the question… If we have guided our children on how to survive in today’s world with the hope that it will make them successful in tomorrow’s world, have we failed to remind them of yesterday’s (and today’s hidden) realities?