The Mexican Invasion

The number one issue that cost Republicans in last November's elections was obviously the war in Iraq. But perhaps the second biggest issue, among conservatives at least, was the government's refusal to seriously combat illegal immigration. The tremendous influx of illegals from Mexico has brought us to this point: Of everyone alive that was born in Mexico, more than 12% now live in the USA.

Government estimates show that during the 1970s, about 120,000 Mexicans illegally crossed the border into the US every year. During the '80s, that number jumped to 200,000 a year. In the '90s, about 350,000 a year. That figure now is approaching 500,000 illegals a year.

How much American money is winding up in Mexico? The L.A. Times reports that $39 billion was wired from the U.S. to Mexico during 2005, most of it from the 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants working in America.

If you know me, you know I don't buy into conspiracy theories. However, I believe 12 million people streaming across the border constitutes an invasion. Keep this in mind... Mexican President Ernesto Zedilla was in Chicago in July 1997, and told the National Council of LaRaza, "I have proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders." He announced a Mexican constitutional amendment that purports to allow Mexicans to retain their Mexican nationality even though they become U.S. citizens (which is contrary to the U.S. naturalization oath). In 2001, then President Vicente Fox came to the United States. He reiterated this line, proclaiming that "the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders" and includes migrants living in the United States. He called for open borders and endorsed Mexico's new dual citizenship law.

For more on the idea that the Southwestern United States should be returned to Mexico, do a Google search for "Republica del Norte".

Good Or Bad?

The San Diego Chargers play host Sunday to the New England Patriots in the AFC playoffs. The last 1,000 or so tickets went on sale this week, but with a stipulation. Tickets were for local residents only. Payments could be made only by credit card, and the billing address on the cards was checked. Orders with an out-of-area billing address were immediately cancelled.

I can understand the argument that the Cargers wanted to make sure their fans could get tickets, not lose them to Pats fans. This shows (to me, at least) what a weak fan base the Chargers have, that there were still a lot of tickets available the week leading up to a playoff game. It's a sign of weakness and insecurity on the part of the Chargers.

More importantly, couldn't this open the Chargers up to some legal action? Apparently there's no NFL rule that saws tickets have to be made available to everyone. Sure doesn't seem right to me.

Taking It To Them II

Pajamas Media reports that the al Qaeda members U.S. gunships attacked yesterday were on the move from Ethiopian military forces. Apparently, U.S. air and ground forces have been covertly aiding the Ethiopian military since its intervention began on Christmas Day.

So, U.S. boots are on the ground in Somalia. I'm glad to see that the War on Terror continues, despite the cut-and-run Libs gaining control of the Congress.

Taking It To Them

CBS is reporting that a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked members of al Qaeda in Somalia. The targets were the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa

Spiders On Drugs

This absolutely hilarious video shows how different drugs affect the lives of spiders. If it doesn't scare you straight, nothing will!

Hate Crime, But Seemingly No Outrage

This story from the LA Weekly provides a very detailed look at the media response to the brutal beating of three women by a mob on Halloween night. The victims were white, the gang of more than three dozen accused attackers all black and hurling racial insults. The attack led to charges, including hate crime charges, against many of the alleged attackers. There was virtually no media coverage of the incident prior to the trial, which is in its fourth week.

The lack of coverage from the national media, and the lack of outrage from civil rights leaders, could lead one to think there are different levels of hate crime for different color people.

Former CNN Anchor Tells Only Good News

Daryn Kagan spent a dozen years at CNN, but was let go last week. Rather than jump to another network, she's launched her own web site. She's still anchoring, in a sense. More than just a talking head, she's also webmaster and reporter. But she's working the "good news only" beat.

Excuses, Excuses

Stumbled across this story about Texas public schools appealing their ratings from the latest student standardized test scores. The state ratings system is based largely on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test scores of specific subgroups such as black, Hispanic, white and low-income students. A school must produce a given passing rate in each group to earn a certain rating. Among the excuses given by the schools for student failures...

One teenage girl was set to take the state test for special-education students but went into labor before she could. The school argued that it should be able to count her as a passing student.

A fire alarm went off during the social studies TAKS exam... officials argued that the alarm had distracted the school's black students, whose scores had fallen short of the acceptable bar.

A fourth-grader who consistently got good grades had answered "A" to every multiple-choice question on a practice TAKS test. According to school officials, the student's parents had encouraged the child to sabotage the TAKS.

Send In The Clones

The USDA has announced their findings from a study on meat from cloned animals. The results: meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats, and their offspring, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. The assessment was peer-reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health.

The outcry has already begun from religious groups, organics growers, fear-mongers and worry-warts. After searching Google News for stories about the decision, and reaction to it, most of the arguments against the decision seem to go like this: "Nobody wants to eat meat from a cloned animal. Cloning is unethical. How do we know it's safe? Eleven years of study isn't enough. Why do we need cloning. We grow all the animals we'll ever need."

Critics play up the idea that clones are some kind of scientific Frankenstein animal. Actually, if you look around, you might see a clone today. Don't believe me?

The basic definition of a clone is "one that appears to be a copy of an original form." As far as genetics, a clone is "the aggregate of genetically identical cells or organisms asexually produced by a single progenitor cell or organism; an individual grown from a single somatic cell or cell nucleus and genetically identical to it." Have you ever met identical twins? Also known as "nature's clones", identical twins are exact genetic matches. They're like clones of each other. We don't consider them freakish or ungodly. We don't shun them.

The "eating cloned meat" argument is misleading, because the cloned animals would almost exclusively be used for breeding. Their offspring would not be clones. Animals with the strongest, most beneficial traits could be replicated and used to strengthen herds. If we can locate animals with resistance to diseases, like a BSE ("Mad Cow") resistant cow, they could help breed new herds of cows all resistant to the disease.

The science behind this research is no less relevant or untrustworthy than the science that led to vaccines for diseases, treatments for cancers, brain surgery, in-vitro fertilization, DNA and genome mapping, and so much more. These are not mad scientists, trying to create some genetic abomination. They're working for the greater good, just as most scientists always have. Arguments based of fear, mis-information, even lies, are much more dangerous and unethical than the science of cloning.

Some Fun Stuff To Start Off 2007

Just a few fun sites I've stumbled across recently...

ElfYourself.com
Upload a picture of a friend or co-worker and create a dancing elf with that person's face.

Overheard In New York
Folks overhear the strangest things in New York. At this web site, they share those conversations with the world.

Sportpodcasts
This directory of sports-related podcasts is a must visit for sports fans.

UTOPIA Maps In The News
For the geographically challenged, the maps here help give a reference to the places around the world where news is happening.

Aviation Videos
Some fantastic, some scary and some downright bizarre flying-related videos. My favorite, the guy who's hurled hundreds of feet into air via sling-shot, then parachutes back to earth.

Spreadshirt.com
You design your won t-shirt, andthey create it.

Will It Blend?
These clowns take the strangest assortment of things and, well, try to puree them in a blender. Cell phones, rotisserie chicken, credit cards, even hockey pucks.

Happy New Year Folks!

Here's hoping you all have a splendid 2007. May it be your best year yet.

More Posts To Come?

The last six weeks have made me wonder when, or if, I'll ever have time to keep this blog regularly updated. Since my last post, more important things have dominated my time. My last grandparent, my Granny, passed away Monday last week.. Before that, I'd spent a couple of weeks nursing my wifey through a bout with kidney stones. Before that, out of town with work. Throw in Christmas, visiting relatives and shopping for gifts. I just chose not to even try to post.

From here on, we'll just see what happens.

Hidden Agenda?

An Islamic teacher at a Johnston County, North Carolina high school has resigned after students discovered hidden messages in a class assignment. The student in the Spanish class were given an extra-credit word search that required them to translate vocabulary words and find them in a grid of letters. After seeing the words "terrorist" and "destroy", the students found the following message:

"Sharon killed a lot of innocent people in Palestine. Hamas is not a terrorist group. They have the right to defend their country. This is something that forms part of our freedom and dignity. Allah help destroy this body of evil that is making human life so miserable. Destroy America, a country where evil is sponsored."

"Destroy America" it said. Well isn't that just special! Sounds like the teacher is one of those kind, peaceful Muslims.

Fourth Grader Suspended For Refusing To Answer Exam Question

A fourth grader at Central Park Elementary School in Aberdeen, Washington was suspended for refusing to answer a question on an exam. The test, the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning exam, called WASL, is part of the state's No Child Left Behind test.

The question Tyler Stoken refused to answer was, "While looking out the window one day at school, you notice the principal flying in the air. In several paragraphs, write a story telling what happens." Tyler was afraid to write anything for fear of offending his school's principal. The exam asked students to write the first thing that came to their mind, and the first thing that came into Tyler's mind was that the principal was a witch flying on a broom. He liked the principal, and didn't want to offend her by writing about her as a witch. Apparently offended anyway, the principal suspended him for .

Because Tyler didn't answer the question, (school Principal Olivia) McCarthy suspended him for five days. He recalls the principal reprimanding him by saying his test score could bring down the entire school's performance.

"Good job, bud, you've ruined it for everyone in the school, the teachers and the school," Tyler says McCarthy told him.

McCarthy's May 6, 2005, letter to Tyler's mother detailed her son's suspension. "The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination," McCarthy wrote.

In the letter, she accused Tyler of bringing down the average score of the other 10 students in his class. "As we have worked so hard this year to improve our writing skills, this is a particularly egregious wound," McCarthy wrote.

Her accusation was wrong, state regulations show. There is no averaging of the writing scores. Each student either meets or fails the state standard.

I hope there's some outrage over this in the Aberdeen community.

More Links

For those of you with a bit of free time, here are a few ways you can waste it...

David Letterman Top Ten List
Recapping the previous night's TopTen list, plus archives.

The Center For The Prevention of Shopping Cart Abuse
"...to help you understand this unspoken threat, to offer counsel to those who cause harm to the Cart and to sing the praises of the silver chariot of the parking lot."

How To Destroy The Earth
Quite an interesting read, actually. Mind you, we're talking the whole planet. Molten core and all. Be sure to read the companion pieces "Why Destroy The Earth?" and "International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board."

Optical Illusion Image Galleries
Just what it says.

What American Accent Do You Have?
Take the quiz and find out. Apparently mine is a "Midland" accent, like southern Indiana or Missouri, but possibly Charleston or Atlanta (how's that for specifics?).

Ignore Spin, The Economy Is Solid

Writing at Bloomberg.com, Kevin Hassett explains why non-political financial experts agree that the economy is very strong, despite what the Left would have you believe.

How Will You Vote?

With election day Tuesday, it seems like everywhere I go in search of news I see headlines predicting the Democrats regaining control of the House and Senate. This is what’s going on, if the media is to be believed: there’s great disenchantment within the GOP; the main voting base of the Republican Party is disgusted with the way the party has handled everything the last six years, and plans to either vote Democratic in protest, or not vote at all; every undecided or independent voter in America will be voting for a Democrat.

Up to a point, the media is correct. There is a fair amount of disappointment in the Republican Congressional leadership. They’ve had every opportunity to be fiscally responsible, to cut spending, eliminate bureaucratic excesses and restrict lobbyist influence peddling. Instead, we got the largest federal budget in history. Government spending on pork projects has grown obscenely. They could have taken serious actions to close the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and move to deport those illegals already in this country. Nothing doing. We get a bill authorizing a 700 mile fence. Nice, except that the fence will be a couple thousand miles short. The broadest base of the Republican Party, those of us in the red states, voted these jokers into office to do those type things. Because they have neglected these duties, there IS a sense of disappointment among Conservatives.

But the Republicans have been doing some things right, some very important things. The most important issue facing this nation right now is security. President Bush and the Republicans have led the fight to keep this nation safe and secure. We haven’t been attacked since September 11th. We’ve liberated the Iraqi people, who now have a government that was freely elected and which represents all of the Iraqi people. The U.S. economy is growing stronger and more vibrant than ever before. We’ve seen record stock market prices, record home ownership levels, lower and lower unemployment, millions of new jobs… it goes on and on. The President’s tax cuts have made a difference, putting more money in everyone’s pockets and, in turn, building the economy. More renewable fuel facilities have been constructed or proposed in the last six years than ever before, to help lessen our dependency on foreign fuels.

What can we expect from the Republicans if they retain control of both houses of Congress? I’d like to be optimistic, but I fear that we’ll see more of the same. But if the Democrats were to gain control of the House or, worse yet, both the House and Senate… you know what we’ll see. The War of Terror will be compromised because the military will be pulled from Iraq, and perhaps Afghanistan too. The tax cuts which have spurred the economy will be eliminated. Our taxes will go back up. The Estate Tax, aka the “Death Tax“, will be rolled back out. Charles Rangel, who could wind up chairing the House Ways & Means Committee, has gone on the record saying there are no Bush tax cuts he wouldn‘t try to overturn. The minimum wage will be increased dramatically. This country will move closer and closer to socialization of medical care. In every aspect, the liberal agenda will be pushed further and further.

It’s a simple thing for those of us who believe in liberty and individual rights and freedoms. We can cast a hopeful vote for the Republican candidate for House or Senate and hope they’ll represent us like we expect them to. Or, we hold our nose and vote for the Democrat. In that case, we get what we deserve.

But The Dems Said Bush Lied About It...

The New York Times reports that Saddam Hussein actually did have a nuclear weapons program and, as of 2002, United Nations inspectors believed the country was on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away. The federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war, and these documents seem to support the belief that Saddam was actually a dangerous leader with programs to build so-called weapons of mass destruction. Go figure...

Georgia Governor Race

The gubernatorial race in Georgia, as seen by political cartoonist...



Credits to Peach Pundit, who took it from The Cherokee Gazette.

Report: Media Coverage Slanted To Dems

The Center For Media And Public Affairs, a media watchdog group, has studied the network news coverage (PDF) for Democratic and Republican candidates during this election season, and found (not so surprisingly) a media bias toward Democratic candidates. Based on 167 mid-term election stories aired on the Big 3 Nets, Democratic candidates and members of Congress received positive evaluations on-air more than 75% of the time. For Republicans, only about 12% received a favorable view.