Roy Moore, the former Alabama state court judge who violated the Constitution, flouted numerous direct orders from higher courts, and was finally impeached over a gigantic Christian monument he erected in his courthouse (literally in the dark of night), is now bull-goose loony over . . . mad cow disease tracking programs.
Moore opposes such tracking, saying it represents unprecedented government intrusion into the right to own animals. He says an identification system - first for cattle and then for all types of livestock - is “more identifiable with communism than free enterprise.”
April 12th, 2006
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General, Politics, Church & State, Religion, Culture |
9 comments
So a former high level officer in the Pentagon was so disgusted by the run up to the war in Iraq that he resigned rather than take part in it. He then wrote an op-ed detailing his disgust. The only problem: he wrote that op-ed in 2006. That is a less than optimal use of his knowledge and credibility. I find it disturbing that he felt so strongly hat Iraq was a distraction from the real conflict that he quit his job but then kept his mouth quiet. When you accept a post in the United States government — military or otherwise — you take on an obligation to protect the country and its instructions to the best of your ability. This man obviously disagreed with the war in Iraq, but I don’t think washing his hands of the matter by quitting and not speaking out fits the spirit of his duty. Either he should have stayed and helped to mitigate the coming disaster, or he should have spoken out immediately and tried to prevent the coming disaster.What he did was run and hide and hope someone else would take of the problem for him. I don’t find that particularly inspiring.
UPDATE: tgirsch sez: Confused? Me, too. I’m guessing it will all make more sense if you read this. I sent this to Kevin yesterday, and I assume it’s what he’s referring to.
April 12th, 2006
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Iraq |
no comments
The first person to die in the service of this country in Operation Iraqi Freedom was an illegal alien:
Jose Gutierrez left war-torn Guatemala for a new life in the United States – and become one of his adopted country’s first two casualties in Iraq.
An orphan who grew up on the streets while Guatemala was enmeshed in civil war, he found a new family when at age 14 he traveled to the United States by train, foot and bus. He enlisted partly to thank the United States for his new life, his foster brother said.
“He joined the Marines to pay back a little of what he’d gotten from the U.S.,” Max Mosquera said. “For him it was a question of honor.”
Lance Cpl. Gutierrez, 22, was killed in ground combat Friday. On Monday, a flag hung outside the Mosqueras’ home in Lomita, 25 miles south of Los Angeles. The front porch was lined with pots of geraniums, each with a flag and a sign that read “United We Stand.”
His foster mother, Nora Mosquera, 56, displayed Gutierrez’s school and Marine certificates as she wavered between tears and happy memories. Gutierrez never forgot the sister he left behind in Guatemala and always hoped to bring her to the United States, she said.
My mom was an immigrant. She left her family and her home in Poland when she was a teenager. She spent some time with family in the Netherlands then came to the United States. At some point, I believe, she was technically illegal, having not correctly handled all of her paperwork. But she married, had two children, raised those two children despite two divorces, working bad jobs until she could earn the first of her two college degrees. She built the typical American Dream for herself — home, family, security – from nothing but her own heart and intelligence in a strange land with unfamiliar customs and a language that refuses to make any sense. Anyone who thinks that she isn’t fit to be an American, and that must include all agitate to turn others against immigrants, can go f*ck themselves.
Not terribly refined sentiments, I admit, but there is nothing but ugliness at the heart of this debate. There is no real problem with immigration, just the spin of people who should know better. The notion that immigrants represent some vanguard of a re-conquest of former Mexican territory is an idiot and worse. It is like arguing that the Irish were coming to reclaim the colonies. The only people who take those kinds of arguments seriously wear sheets on their heads, even if they are only metaphorical. It is true that immigrants do drive down wages to some small extent, but the problem is not with the people who are willing to risk their lives in order to work hard; the problem is the scum that hire them for below minimum wage in terrible conditions. Cart those people off to jail, and that problem goes away. Then there is the silly notion that they will overwhelm our culture. It is as if no one has noticed that American culture has been continuously shaped by immigrants. We take the good and mixe with what we already have to make something better. And that process has given American culture a strength and vitality that has allowed it to dominate the culture of the rest of the world.
No, immigration and immigrants are not problems. They shouldn’t go “back where they belong” because they have proven through their sacrifice, their courage, and their hard work that this is where they belong.
April 12th, 2006
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Politics, Economics, Culture, Immigration |
6 comments
