Immigration Enforcement, the American Way

Here is something I am glad to see. In Scottsdale, AZ police have begun routinely asking for proof of citizenship from every suspect they arrest and turning those who are in this country illegally over to federal immigration officials. More cities need to follow suit.

The county I live in is trying to do something about it themselves and are not waiting for the feds to do their job. The legal challenges will determine what our county eventually is able to do but at least they’re doing something about it by scaling down the services that illegal aliens are able to get. It's a start.

And in Scottsdale they are asking everyone about their citizenship status. I’m sure some will be offended but so what. I get asked that question on a daily basis by a lot of the customers and partners I deal with in my job. I politely and proudly say I am a US citizen and go on with my day.

The illegal immigration issue is a complex beast. But like a lot of issues we face the first thing we need to do is enforce the laws that we already have on the books. I don’t know why our politicians think we need new laws. Maybe it's to convince their constituents that they are actually working. Maybe they're graded on the number of legislative initiatives they sponsor.

But the cost that this country incurs paying for services provided to illegal aliens is astronomical. No one should be denied emergency medical services but other social services should not be available to those that are not here legally. I have yet to hear an argument with any merit that causes me to change that view. Talk about something that will and does drain the economy - it’s all of the money we spend on services to people that are here illegally. And they think they’re entitled to it!

How about this for a set of laws for immigrants in our country (this does not apply to legal US citizens):

If you immigrate to our country, you have to speak the our native language.

You have to be a professional or an investor or a skilled worker; no unskilled workers allowed.

There will be no bilingual programs in the schools. The native language will be the only language in which classes are conducted (excluding foreign language classes).

No special ballots for elections. All government business will be conducted in our language.

Foreigners will not have the right to vote — or hold political office. If you’re not a legal citizen in our country, you are not entitled to welfare, food stamps, or other government handouts.

You can come if you invest here: an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. If not, stay home.

But if you want to buy land, it'll be restricted. No waterfront property is allowed to non-citizens. As a foreigner, you must relinquish individual rights to the property.

You don’t have the right to protest. You're allowed no demonstrations, no foreign flag waving, no political organizing, and no bad-mouthing our country, our President or his policies. You’re a foreigner: shut your mouth or get out!

And if you come here illegally, you're going to jail.

Whoa! Harsh, huh?

Well, every one of those laws are actual laws of Mexico today! See how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country. But yet they don’t want us to protect our border or our culture. Sounds like a double standard to me.

So how do we fix it? Here are my thoughts after listening to many discussions from both sides of the aisle.

The first thing I would do is to do whatever it takes to stop illegal aliens from crossing the southern border, or any other avenue of entry. If that means a fence, great. But we need to do whatever it takes.

I don’t want to stop immigration. Legal immigration is vital to the growth of this country and it needs to be promoted. And legal immigrants coming to America need to properly assimilate. We can handle the influx of the right numbers of legal immigrants economically.

Then we should allow more qualified, skilled immigrants like high-tech graduates, specialists and other skilled workers into this country.

The next thing to do is deal with the 11 or 12 million, or however many, illegal aliens that are here now. I'd recognize they're here. I don't know that deporting them is a reality. I'll keep that option open for now.

But we have to do what's necessary to stop more of them from getting in, find the ones that are here, fine them and put them through a process that makes them legal. And that process cannot be any easier than what we make any legal immigrant go through to be here legally or become a US citizen.

If we get tough on the borders, there shouldn't be another 11 or 12 million illegal aliens in the next 20 years, or 200 million the next 20 years. But if you don't have a border you don't have a country, and if we're not going to enforce our borders then why worry about having a country.

So we need to fix our borders first. If you did that you'd have a much easier time coming up with an enforcement plan with which people can agree. As long as that border remains porous and we continue to always have 11 or 12 million illegal aliens that are always here, or more, it's going to continue to be an issue that plagues us on many different fronts….socially, economically and in our national security at a minimum.

As I see it, this is a local as well as a federal issue. Don't all law enforcement officers and public officials raise their right hands and swear to defend the consititution an the laws of the land?

I’m glad to see another city take the bull by the horns and not wait for someone else to do their job. That’s leadership and that’s American.

A-6Dude

For the Christmas Season, here is a good martini recipe:

Gingerbread Apple Martini

1 oz vanilla vodka

2 oz Canton Ginger Liqueur

2.5 oz apple cider

3-4 drops of lemon juice

orange zest

Agave syrup

Line a chilled martini glass lightly with agave syrup. Rim the glass with graham cracker crumbs. Place all ingredients except orange zest n a shaker with ice and shake until the shaker is too cold to hold in your hand. Strain into the martini glass and grate orange zest on drink and serve immediately.

Citizen Journalists

I’m not a fan of the ‘mainstream media’. I don’t trust them to report the news accurately or fairly. I believe they have an agenda. And I wish they would just be honest and say what they really believe in and not try to hide it behind the façade of trying to be impartial.

Bloggers, on the other hand, are usually transparent as to their real beliefs. I don’t have to agree with them but at least I find them honest about what they believe.

But we’re not real journalists and we expose the journalist industry to fraud and abuse. We’re dangerous!

That’s what David Hazinski, an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, said in a recent piece in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. I wonder what his students think of his comments. I’m sure that a lot of them are bloggers and users of You Tube and other ‘dangerous’ forms of non-journalistic media.

Although a graduate of that fine institution, I am not a journalist. Nor do I wish to be one. It’s more fun being dangerous and fraudulent! Maybe that’s what Hazinski doesn’t like. And because bloggers are not part of the mainstream media we should be regulated.

After all, bloggers can write opinions and our readers know that they are, in large part, opinions. Too often, the mainstream media write their opinions and try to pass them off as facts and unbiased journalism.

Hazinski writes, “Education, skill and standards are really what make people into trusted professionals. Information without journalistic standards is called gossip.”

Perhaps he hasn’t seen that we don’t trust journalists. CNN, once the go-to station for 24 hour news, has dropped from 42% to 28% in its trust ranking among viewers. That drop occurred in a 6 year period from 1998 to 2004. I looked at several different polls and studies by Pew and others that also show that trust in our mainstream media is sinking lower and lower.

I predict that one day Congress will have approval ratings higher than that of journalists.

But Hazinski offers a solution…regulate us. He thinks citizen journalists offer much but that our work should be verified to prevent having fake stories surface (you mean, like, Dan Rather and his fraudulent documents about George Bush’s National Guard service?). I know, I know. Fact checking takes time. But isn’t that their job?

Of his suggestions on how to regulate us are:

- “[Citizen Media] should clarify and reinforce their own standards and work through trade organizations to enforce national standards so they have real meaning.”

So I am “abusive and fraudulent” and now I have no “real meaning”. The difference here is that I don’t pretend to be something I’m not. I’m not a journalist. I’m a guy that lives at the end of a cul de sac and writes opinions on things I see.

And:

- “Journalism schools such as mine at the University of Georgia should create mini-courses to certify citizen journalists in proper ethics and procedures, much as volunteer teachers, paramedics and sheriff's auxiliaries are trained and certified.”

Journalists are taught ethics and such too. I don’t want to lump all journalists in the category of those I don’t trust but I don’t find many of them truly honest. Outlets like CNN should just say that they are a liberal leaning organization. Then, viewers will truly know what they are getting when they watch. I see FOX News as more balanced but they’re leaning is to the right and they should admit it.

But remember earlier that Hazinski said “…standards are really what make people into trusted professionals” … then he hits the nail on the head with this one:

“Journalists generally don't like any kind of standards or regulation. Many argue that standards could infringe on freedom of the press and journalism shouldn't be regulated. But we have already seen the line between news and entertainment blur enough to destroy significant credibility.”

While he knows that his own profession doesn’t want to be regulated, he feels that, since we are not professionals, the citizen journalists need to be. Maybe he doesn’t like the fact that the citizen journalists often shine the light on the mainstream media’s errors.

“Continuing to do nothing as information flow changes will further erode [credibility]. Journalism organizations who choose to do nothing may soon find the line between professional and citizen journalism gone as well as the trust of their audiences.”

I have news for you David, if you look at the latest approval numbers for the mainstream media you’ll find that we don’t trust journalists. But don’t worry, our approval rating of this Congress is lower – for now!

But typical of liberals, they want more control. So I have another suggestion for you David – move to Iran. The way a lot of the mainstream media cozy up to the enemies of America perhaps you’ll like the solution Ahma-genocide uses takes care of his citizen journalists – shut down the internet cafes. Regulation at its finest!

Yes, citizen journalists serve a purpose as long as we don’t challenge the views of the mainstream media and we support their current action line.

I don’t think most people confuse blogs with real news outlets. But then I don’t confuse real news with reality in most cases, either.

A-6Dude

Get Married, Stay Married, Save the Planet

My blog last week was about how my second fridge for beer was contibuting to global warming. I really don’t want to get wrapped up in the farcical premise that man is causing global warming, but this week there was another article that was just too rich to let go by.

We all know that divorce damages families. I’ve watched many friends deal with divorce and hope I never have to deal with it. It's an ugly situation, to say the least.

Though I am not being green because I have a second fridge, I just found out that I am offsetting that environmental sin by the fact that I have been married to the same woman now for 22 years in a row (and I give her the credit). And I should also be well ahead in my 'marriage offsets' since I’ve only had the second fridge less than a year and I have been married for over 22 years.

There are a lot of benefits to being and staying married. Among the things being married should be able to do for my family is to provide a loving, stable home, and I hope to set an example for my kids to follow when they decide to choose a spouse that commitment and hard work can have rewards.

What I wasn’t aware of was that I was saving the environment by all of that commitment and hard work. Out of the UK, in the Times Online, comes an article that describes what divorce is doing to our environment (oh yeah, single people are guilty too)…scientists have finally quantified the effect of divorce on the planet. YGBSM!!!

You mean to tell me that with all of the things that scientists could be researching, some of them sat around and actually thought that this was a useful study? And, even more amazing, someone funded this crap!!

But they did and here’s an excerpt of the article…

“Across America – one of 12 countries studied – divorced households used 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2005 that could have been saved if the families had not split up. That is equivalent to about a fifth of Britain’s consumption.”

Where do they find the statistics? Do they do a cross-check of divorce court records and then hack into the power company’s database to examine utility bills? And, what percentage is that of the total consumption of electricity in America?

But, it doesn’t stop there….

“Broken couples also increase demand for housebuilding and infrastructure such as new roads. “The global trend of soaring divorce rates has created more households with fewer people, has taken up more space and has gobbled up more energy and water,” said Jianguo Liu of Michigan University, who carried out the latest research.”

Perhaps we should create communes for divorced people. This will allow them to still be contributing to the reduction of global warming vice making it worse by being single and living …. alone!

Really, though, I think I’m in the wrong business. With a divorce rate of about 50% in this country I should be a building contractor. These soaring divorce rates are causing a soaring demand for housing. I could just go find the market segment that has the highest divorce rate (that would be Nevada for the latest stats I could find…and I used to live there), build some housing and wait for the profits. Since the average duration of first marriages is less than 8 years I won’t have to wait that long for customers. Evil capitalism at its best!!

I could check the papers for wedding announcements and then show up at the wedding and give them a gift card worth some amount of discount on their housing requirements when they come to see me after the divorce. Hey, with those odds I’ll probably see half of them! And for some reason, they’ll need more rooms.

“The study… found that the average number of rooms per household was between 33% and 95% higher for divorced couples than for married ones.”

I’m sure I’m misinterpreting this but are they really saying that if I get divorced I will move from a 5 bedroom home to a 7 to 9 bedroom home? Am I going to win the lottery? I’ll need to because I’ll be lucky to find a 7’x9’ room that I could afford if I divorce.

So aside from the social and economic impacts, it appears that this divorce stuff also contributes to global warming. I’ve seen things get heated for people during a divorce…but enough to warm the planet??

“Liu also calculated that America now has an extra 38.5[million] rooms in houses and apartments built to meet the demand for more accommodation generated by divorce over the past three decades.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for divorce but….SO WHAT? Are the rooms being rented or owned? Does that not mean the laws of supply and demand are working? Isn’t that what a free economy runs on … supply and demand?

Does any economic or technological growth NOT cause global warming? Why is man so evil?

These people are wackos. There have to be better things to research that will have a more meaningful impact on society than the affect of divorce on global warming. But as I said, as far as marriage goes, I’m GREEN!

Sadly (for purposes of this discussion that is), though, I was not always married. At one time in my past I was single. Like other singles out there, divorced or never married, I was not aware that I was making our planet warmer. I am reformed now. I am married. I am GREEN. HEAR ME ROAR!!

When I got engaged I was in the Navy. I was in Attack Squadron 95 - the Green Lizards. One day our Command Master Chief (these guys were the salty, old sages of the command) came into my office and said, “Lieutenant, I understand you’re getting married.” I replied, “Yes, I am, Master Chief.” He looked at me very gleefully and said, “Well, good. There’s no reason for you to be happy.”

I have used that line many times on people when I hear they are engaged but now I am going to change it for my nieces, nephews, friends and other single people I know. Now I am going to tell them that they are causing global warming and that marriage is their obligation so that they can help cool the planet (it cools off a lot of other things too…but that’s a different blog). And to help them understand that they must take this seriously and strive to stay married, I will hit them with facts according to the study:

“The growth of single-person households is also damaging the environment. Research published in the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability found that:

- One-person households are the biggest consumers of energy, land and household goods, such as washing machines, refrigerators, TVs and stereos, per capita

- They consume 38% more products, 42% more packaging, 55% more electricity and 61% more gas per capita than four-person households

- People living alone create 1½ tons of waste annually compared with a ton by those in households of four or more.”

All of that seems like ‘fuzzy math’ to me. But if the math is right, then marriage makes us more efficient in all aspects of our lives than if we were single.

And all of that efficiency has given me more time to go to my second fridge to get some olives and brine to enjoy a Dirty Martini and a good cigar.

A-6Dude

And here’s a martini recipe to help us stay green:

Kyoto Martini
6 parts Gin or Vodka
2 parts Melon liqueur
1 part Dry Vermouth
¼ part lemon juice
Mix all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake till too cold to hold the shaker and pour into a cold martini glass. Garnish with a melon ball (green, of course).

Beer Drinking is Destroying the Planet?

I was finally ahead of the curve. As you can tell from the title of my blog, martinis are my drink of choice (and scotch, too). And we here at Dirty Martini ARE green (okay, so it’s just me and green is the color of a lot of my titles and banners).

Based on the article I read today, I am relieved to know that since I quit drinking beer as my predominant adult beverage of choice, I have reduced my contribution to global warming.

And, I am a firm believer in climate change. I see the weather change on a daily basis. I also know from my own research that the earth warms and cools about every 1500 years.

When I saw the headline I thought that the beer story was going to be about the end by-product of carbohydrate fermentation in our intestines (methane). We all have heard how cows and other ruminants are destroying our planet by farting. And when we drink beer – most of us fart too.

But this Canadian government sponsored study didn’t find that it was the consumption and expulsion of the beer that we evil humans do to make our planet warmer. It was worse than that. It appears that some of us actually like to keep our beer cold. Yes, some of us actually have ….. a beer fridge. Not just the one in our kitchens, but some people have a second refrigerator to store beer.

They actually paid someone to survey refrigerator usage!!

But wait! You gotta hear this…. "People need to understand the impact of their lifestyles," British environmental consultant Joanna Yarrow tells New Scientist magazine. "Clearly the environmental implications of having a frivolous luxury like a beer fridge are not hitting home. This research helps inform people — let's hope it has an effect."

Of course, even if beer was my beverage of choice, I would have to fight for space in my “second” reefer with all of the juice boxes that I store for my kids and the neighborhood kids to consume. I can now tell them that they are causing global warming by wanting cold juice boxes in the summer.

Is having a second frig a “frivolous luxury”? I might concede that it is a luxury…but it’s not frivolous. I work hard and if I have some extra money after my bills are paid then who’s to say what is frivolous or not. It's my money!!!

"Sorry kids, there’ll be no more juice boxes. And there’ll be no more fun till morale improves, either."

Of course, I think all of this is garbage. But it would take way too many blog postings to address the farce that I think the man-made global warming issue is.

To hear these people, it seems that the world would be better off without mankind. We are the nature’s biggest enemy. But the last time I looked, we WERE part of nature. But when you hear the wacko environmentalists talk it’s like we are some alien life form that is not of this world and our sole mission to destroy it. Hell, aren't we destroying the planet by exhaling? Isn't that CO2? Aren't we a carbon-based life form?

I definitely am for taking care of our planet. Having been around the world, literally, I can tell you that this is a beautiful place. And there are a lot of sensible things we humans can do. Being good stewards of our planet is the right thing to do. And, as our technolology advances it will allow us to do things more efficiently. But it seems these wackos want to take us back to the days before electricity. Our technological advances are ruining everything. But heck, we could become hunter-gatherers again and we could eat the moose that are dumping 2,100 kilos of CO2 into the environment each year.

But the folks that did the study had a different answer….

“University of Alberta researcher Denise Young, who led the study, suggests that provincial authorities hold beer-fridge buy-backs or round-ups to eliminate the threat — methods that Americans use to get guns off the streets.”

I can see it happening now….government officials storming people’s garages and seizing those ‘frivolous’, beer-can chilling refrigerators. Those old fridges will be chained and carted off to some undisclosed location to go through re-education training and, if they rehabilitate successfully, they may find their way back into society in a ‘one refrigerator’ home...the way their God intended.

And this is what they want for their Religion of Environmentalism….more governmental control of our lives. That way they can get rid of evil capitalism and everything evil that it spawns.

So I’m not likely to get rid of my ‘frivolous luxury’ anytime soon. Nor am I inclined to tell my kids that beer is the only beverage allowed in my ‘frivolous luxury’. As I said, beer isn’t my number one drink of choice. But....

Perhaps I will buy more olives for my dirty martinis and keep them out there.


A-6Dude


Here is another good martini recipe for the Christmas season:

Frostini: this is like drinking dessert!
-equal parts vanilla vodka / Godiva Dark Chocolate liqueur / Bailey's
-splash of cream
-shake ingredients over ice
-pour into a COLD martini glass
-garnish with a Hershey's kiss or rim the glass with chocolate

Halloween is bewitching

Blogging is new to me! I've read them from time to time but have never written one ... until now.

The catalyst for starting one occurred on Halloween. There was an article in the Washington Times entitled "Halloween bewitches schools". Having two kids in elementary school I was curious. I had an idea what it was about and I wasn't disappointed. I know that we are almost a month past Halloween but it's not just Halloween that is affected.

Apparently, certain holidays and their celebrations present problems for school systems in America (although this article was only about school systems in the greater DC metro area). It seems that some of our traditional holidays and/or their names are offensive to some groups. So, to make everyone comfortable, some schools have decided to change the name of the holiday or just not celebrate it at all. Not all are doing this, but it seems that a lot of them are. And it just isn't in this area of the country. And, as I write this there is another 'bewitching' article coming out of one of the Seattle school systems.

So how did this happen? When I was a kid ( a long time ago) we celebrated all of the holidays. We also called them by their real names. We looked forward to them. And the more we had the better for us. As a military brat we moved often and there was always a diverse group of kids everywhere I went (although we didn't use the word 'diverse' then, we just knew we were from different places). With all of these diverse kids from around the world we celebrated a lot of holidays. The more the merrier - it beat listening to the teachers. That's how kids view it!!

The reporter for the article interviewed representatives from several schools in surrounding counties to see how Halloween was being celebrated...or not. Some of the schools had no problem with the term Halloween. Others did.

As I read further in the article I started to see what the problem was (as if I didn't already know) ... someone might be uncomfortable or offended.

I was most alarmed by a comment Wayde Byard (Public Information Officer for the Loudoun County Schools) made in the article. Mr. Byard is quoted as saying "We're a multicultural school district. So a lot of people come here and simply don't understand [Halloween]." YGBSM!

It seems that now, those of us that were born and raised in this country have to be careful because our way of life might make a newcomer (citizen or not) uncomfortable? I thought perhaps I had fallen asleep and it was six months later (April Fool's Day....oh, can I call it that?).

I read that some of these people being interviewed want to call Halloween something other than Halloween to 'steer the celebration away from "scary" and toward "positive". Is that unbelievable, or what?!! Actually, it's not unbelievable. I've been watching it happen for years.

C'mon!! Even as a kid Halloween was never "scary". And we "positively" looked forward to that day each year so we could go from class to class and trick or treat, get some candy and then do it again that night.

First of all, America's culture (and yes, we have one) was formed over the last couple of hundred years in large part by those people from other cultures that came to this country to live the American life. A lot of those people brought traditions that have been adopted to create the culture of America. Our culture is different than other countries and we should be glad for that, and we should defend it.

Multiculturalism is the death knell to a society. We are a melting pot society, not an a la carte salad bar. When people come to this country they need to adapt to our way of life. We can and should respect their differences but we should not have to alter our culture or traditions for them. They have a choice on whether to live here or not.

I cannot imagine moving to another country to live and not learning the language (if it isn't already English) and learning and accepting their customs and traditions. Having been in 18 other countries in the world I can tell you that every country has its own culture. Well, at least those 18 that I visited had individual cultures. So I tried to learn as much as I could before and during my visits to these countries to make the experience more rewarding. But I never dreamed of asking those countries to change their way of life to accomodate me. How arrogant would that be? I was in their country and felt it was incumbent upon me to honor their customs.

I said that I have been watching this happen for years now. I have two children in the Loudoun County School District and for the last five years they have come home with projects that they make at Christmas time (oops, sorry, I mean Winter time) such as the dreidles and menorahs, and they get told all about Kwanzaa and yet, although about 85% of the people of this country are Christians and celebrate Christmas, they are told they can make snowflakes and snowmen but nothing that has a religious theme or symbol to it. No kidding - my wife was helping in my daughter's class a couple of years ago and she was asked not to bring anything in other than a snowflake or a snowman...no crosses, no stars, no candy canes, no Christmas tree cutouts and no reference to what Christmas is really about.

Why not? I want my kids to learn about other cultures and their traditions like I did growing up. I also want them to be able to celebrate our traditions too.

I, for one, am tired of the so-called 'enlightened' belief that we have to give up our way of life to make those from other cultures feel 'comfortable'. Those people who came to this country chose to do so and, in making that choice, should understand our culture, customs and traditions.

And if they don't like certain celebrations or traditions -- then they have the option of not participating...just like anyone else. But those traditions and celebrations should not have to be watered down and/or renamed just because a tiny minority don't ;understand' them or feel uncomfortable. How about sharing things from your culture with us. Like I said, as a kid we welcomed any new tradition that gave us a reason to have something to celebrate instead of having to listen to the teacher.

So, if these people come here and 'simply don't understand it', as Mr. Byard says, then they should learn it. No one requires them to participate. This is our country, and if someone wants to come here and live then they should assimilate into our culture. The surest way to destroy any culture is to try to make it multicultural.

And, why is it that the majority of the population has to kowtow to those that preach tolerance? Where is their tolerance to our own traditions and celebrations? But all is not lost, according to the article, in one of the school districts they are 'allowed' to sing Christmas hymns as long as they 'play songs from other religions as well'. I have no problem with that. So, why can't we let our kids celebrate our traditions like Christmas as long as we recognize the others? Common sense seems to be MIA.

Another thing, let's refer to our celebrations by their real names. Have the guts to call things what they are: Halloween is Halloween; Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving; Christmas is Christmas; Hanukkah is Hanukkah; Ramadan is Ramadan; Easter is Easter and I could go on.

This is supposed to be free country and yet those of us who grew up here are finding it harder to celebrate our traditions, whether based in religion or not, because those that preach tolerance and diversity don't practice what they preach. Or, someone might not understand it. Give me a break!!!

It's time for a martini and a cigar.

A6Dude

I know it's a little late but here is a Halloween martini from my collection of over 700 recipes:

Dracula's Kiss:

2 parts Black Cherry Vodka, 1 part Grenadine, 3 parts Coke.

Pour the Grenadine into a COLD cocktail glass. Float the Vodka over it and fill with Coke. Garnish with a cherry - it should float on top of the Grenadine.