"Man is a marvelous curiosity ... he thinks he is the Creator's pet ... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea."
Mark Twain 1835-1910 Letters from the Earth
12/31/2007
Poll!
This is one of those no brainer polls. Either you get it right, or you have no brain.
When are we going to get serious about these two separate but related issues? The latter is actually the one we need to tackle first. By putting into law exactly the steps, standards and practices expected of those wishing to live here be it for five months, five years or for the rest of their life we can make a lot of things happen. The simplest of them will be to cut down spending on a bloated bureaucracy that like many federal departments probably wastes more money than it gainfully spends. Next is that it would provide a fair, easy to understand set of checkpoints for those moving here with one standard for those coming to America. Making the language clear, and easy to understand would lower confusion on both ends of the immigration process making the jobs of numerous Americans simpler. With a clear, detailed and above all simple immigration policy we would lower the desire for people to risk illegal crossing that is hazardous to their health and could land them in the hands of unsavory employers and importers who are nothing but domestic slavers. Giving people the information they need to live here before they arrive, will make it easier for them to navigate not just criminal law which is information we all hope they never need to apply, but our school systems, property laws, various personal contracts for services like cell phones or medical insurance that probably don't work or don't work the same way in their nation of origin.
Some countries like Germany have a fairly transparent system in place that let's people know in unambiguous terms. Our firmest ally the United Kingdom is working on a bill to enact their own crisp immigration process. Other countries seem to have the type of border security certain segments of the population seem to think ours is or will be if we fortify our own in any way. Not true. With a fair and simple immigration policy that let those with legitimate reasons into the country we could make serious cuts into the smugglers who endanger the lives of the people they bring in, with less criminals attacking the border we would be able to not only better control who does come in, but leave more money where it belongs, in the tax payers pockets.
For half a thousand reasons I don't watch much TV. Today I saw one of those reasons. While i know that i have a greater knowledge of history than most people, there are somethings that i still find dismaying in their shedding light on how badly most people fail to learn. I don't ask that anyone know the order that battles took place in during the Civil War. I don't ask anyone to know how many 'German' principalities there were ten years after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. I certainly don't ask people to be able to translate dates from the Judaic calender to the traditional Chinese one then into the modern one American and most of the world uses. Most of those things are trivial, or just plane useless.
What I do ask for isn't even a firm grasp of history. Just a basic grasp of logic. The statement of the person in question that spurred this was "I don't think anything predates Jesus Christ." Let's examine some of the things wrong with this statement. Even leaving things written into the bible aside, let's see what things there were in the world at the time we are told Christ was born.
There was clothing.
There were cities.
There were domestic animals.
There was written language.
There was the art and science of architecture, as supported by the claim that Jesus was born in a barn.
There was 'the sacrament of marriage'.
Mary.
Now, some of you might have come to the conclusion that this is one Hollywood's teen or twenty somethings that is a victim of the recent breakdown of the American education system. This person is forty years old. Now given their age, and their religious background I am amazed that a person who normally manages to sound intelligent could actually state this. I know that the schools in the North East were still teaching the meaning of "A.D.", and "B.C." after the time this person would have left school. I can't say for sure that the they would have been taught this in school. I can say, that even with out the evidence I've noted that this proves our education system with the whole hearted cooperation of the media and government has succeeded in its primary goal of suppressing any independent thinking, the suppression of active use of logic and reason, and the crushing of any ability to question authority or how things happen independently. In this persons case, the additional burdens of the two religious sects they have followed probably make it nearly impossible for them not to have made this statement under the right circumstances.
I for one, weep with poor Hugo. It's been a tough, tough year for him. First the King of Spain tells him to shut up, and now he finds out he can't make himself King of Venezuela. How horrible. The man who like the guy he has a man crush on:
wants to be president for life can't constitutionally do so. Oh come on Hugo, just go the Mugabe route and use your military to hold power indefinitely. Just think, you can then pillage, rob, rape, extort and support terrorists just like Saudi Arabia and because you have a decent oil supply you won't have to worry about the US doing a thing to you! Just don't invade any of your neighbors or try to assassinate any sitting Presidents or their Daddy and you'll be fine.
...I thought i'd bring back the Spectrum. Yes, I do want to revive Blog Spectrum. The home of democrats, republicans, libretarians, independents, moderates, centrists, liberals, greens, communists, and neo-cons, paleo-conservatives and all the rest all in one place at one time. To do this i need bloggers!
If you fall into one or none of those areas of the spectrum, can be civil, and can put up one post a week on our topic fromstart until at least the election, please email me. TheCasualObserver @ g mail tell me who you are, where you fall and where to find your blog.
I'm an immoderate moderate. My views: Don't like gay marriage? Don't marry someone with the same combination of X's and Y's. Gun Control is hitting what you aim at. Crime control is limiting the actions of criminals. The war sucks, that's how you can tell its war and not a beach party.
