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We keep hearing about the protests in favor of illegal immigration, but, as Kim notes, there are many more of us out here who are quietly stewing over the issue.  We’ve had about enough of it, and the protests are only serving to solidify our opposition to rewarding illegal immigrants.

I will refer back to something I wrote nearly two months ago about these so-called undocumented immigrants.

If one considers an “undocumented immigrant,” one is likely to conclude that this person somehow forgot to stop off at the office on the way into the country to pick up some papers.  It’s all just a formality.  It glosses over the fact that this person deliberately and knowlingly broke United States federal law by entering this country without permission.  It doesn’t matter now nice they are or how productive they are, they’re CRIMINALS.

Now, having said that, I understand that large parts of our economy rely on people willing to work for very low pay, and that most of these jobs are filled by illegals.  I’m not completely unsympathetic to people who are just seeking a better life for themselves and their families.  Regardless of that, though, we need to get a handle on this and establish a system that lets them come here to work while allowing us to control who crosses our border.  No one who breaks the law should be rewarded.  An “amnesty” program simply rewards people who have broken the law.

So, given that, here’s what I’d like to see:

• Real and meaningful fines/punishment for any employer who knowingly hires an illegal.
• Enforcement of the aforementioned fines.
• No amnesty.  Period.  End of frackin’ discussion.
• A well-documented guest worker program:
  • Issue an ID with real identifying information upon entry
  • Require periodic review of the guest credential (i.e. must have a job, no criminal activity, etc)
  • Require this ID for all “social services.”
• Immediate deportation of any illegal caught by law enforcement for any reason (none of this “sanctuary” crap).
• Anyone caught in the country illegally is put on a “do not enter” list, forbidden from ever participating in the guest worker program, and forbidden from becoming a legal citizen (except, perhaps, through the asylum process).

So, what do we do with all the illegal immigrants who are already here?  We learned in the 80’s that giving amnesty just encourages more illegal immigration.  But at the same time, it’s impractical to round up and deport 9 million people.  I think if we have a good guest worker program, combined with serious and meaningful enforcement of the law (i.e. permanent loss of guest worker privileges for illegals), we can make the climate such that being here legally is more rewarding that being here illegally.  It’s going to squeeze the current illegals at first, but if they are willing to go home and come right back, they’d be able to come in legally.  But frankly, it’s just intolerable that there is a whole class of people who think that it’s OK to break federal law.

Someone just reading the above would likely think me cruel.  They’d be wrong, but it’s easy to get that impression.  In actuality, if this was done right, it could improve the experience for many of the people who come here.  First, they’d have to be paid at least minimum wage.  Second, they would be full members of society, such that they wouldn’t have to be afraid to call the police when something happens to them.  In the end, their rights would be more protected than they are now.  And by showing themselves to be productive, law-abiding, members of society during their stay under the guest worker program, they would be better positioned to gain permanent citizenship should they desire to do so.

To be honest, this does bother me a little.  I don’t like government messing around in employment, and I always worry about any kind of government program that tracks people (i.e. any sort of meaningful identification document will likely require some sort of biometrics, like fingerprints, and a database to check validity of IDs).  But on the other hand, government does have a responsibility to secure the border, and I can’t think of many other ways to accomplish it.

Will this completely secure the border?  Not likely, especially while we continue the foolish War on (some) Drugs.  There’s no way to be 100% secure, but that isn’t reason to at least take some action on the issue.  There are other reasons, beyond just securing the border, to make illegal immigration difficult.

I guess when you get down to it, there are millions of people like me, who try our best to follow the law, no matter how asinine, obtuse, or silly we think it to be.  It is enraging to watch millions of people flaunt the law with impunity, when we know that any sort of infraction on our part will be met with swift punishment (even if we didn’t know about a particular law).  Either we’re all under the law or we’re all above it.  “Some animals are more equal than others” won’t fly.

Previous entries on this topic:
Not Clear On The Concept
Los Ilegales
Un-PC Musings

I think I’m coming down with the monkey-bird flu or something.  It’s like someone sandblasted the back of my throat.  What’s weird is that it just came on suddenly over the past hour or so.  Oh well, that’s what I get for going out among the unwashed over the weekend.

I think I’ll avoid this in future by becoming a recluse.  There’s not much you can’t have delivered via online order these days.  I can just have everything left at my doorstep and hit it with disinfectant before bringing it in…

So why is it now that banks have eliminated “float” with electronic check clearing that they still get to hold a check that you deposit for “five to seven days?”

Seems a bit one-sided to me.

Proponents of the new Keller public library have put together a slick marketing campaign under the name “Vote Yes Committee.” 

Their primary talking point is that no tax increase is necessary to build the library.  That’s true to some extent, but as with all such claims, one must look beneath the surface to see what the future effects will be.  Consider this tidbit from their FAQ:

1. How much will the new library cost and what effect will it have on my taxes?
   • The new library is projected to cost $7.6 million.
   • The tax rate will not increase by building the new library. The financial forecast model shows no increase will be required in the current tax rate of 0.4431 per $100 of valuation.
   • Depending on Council priorities after the May election (emphasis added), resources will be available for completion of Rufe Snow Drive and building a $2.5 Million fire station in Hidden Lakes (including a million dollar fire truck).

I emphasized what I consider the weaseally part.  It’s certainly truthful, but it’s phrased in such a way as to hide the fact that critical infrastructure items may require a tax increase if we spend bond money on the library now.  So, what I want is someone from the city to definitively cut through the obfuscatory language and tell us flat out whether we can fund infrastructure items without a tax increase should we approve this discretionary item now.  If the answer is “no,” then that will be my answer on the library.  If “yes,” then I might consider the library, but I also want to know why we’ve been overtaxed.

Previous posts:
So That’s How It’s Going To Be, Huh?
Democracy In Action
The Arrogance Is Mindboggling
Library ‘O Doom
The Library Thing

I see in our latest Keller Citizen (3/24/06) that a new group is going to ask the city to build a tennis park.  Like with the previously proposed (and hopefully, dead) skate park, I am opposed to this on the general principle that it’s not the business of the city to be funding non-infrastructure items.  More importantly, where does it stop?  The taxpayers are not an unlimited ATM.  At a time when household budgets are under strain with energy costs and increased (and likely to increase again) school taxes, it’s simply unacceptable to be trying to suck more money out of us.

If people really want a tennis park, or a skate park, then let them raise the funds and build one.  From what I saw in the article, there’s actually already a private club with tennis courts available, although it needs renovation (and the owner claims that his business has suffered from the opening of the new recreation center).  If Keller really has that much frustrated demand for tennis, then it will make business sense to build a tennis park, and someone will fund it.

I’m really going to have to stop watching things on ABC.  I was watching the local news this morning on WFAA, Channel 8, when they did their tie-in/promo for this week with George Stephanopoulos.  While their primary topic was going to be immigration reform, the other topic was going to be global warming.  It seems that the news media is working hard to promote the idea that “the debate is over” and that global warming is a reality. 

I remain skeptical about whether there is such a thing as global warming.  But even given rising mean temperatures, I am rather skeptical that man is the cause.  These days, though, taking such a position is akin to announcing that your’re in favor of roasting small children on spits, at least among certain of the PC orthodoxy.

It’s not that I remain unalterably opposed to the idea that the earth might be warming, or even that man could be causing it.  However, I want it to be proved.  Heck, I live in a metro area that’s a perfect example of the effects of man on the local environment (i.e. “heat island” effect), but it’s a long way from that observation to the idea that man is somehow affecting the entire friggin’ planet. 

But I’ve seen repeatedly the perversion of science for political purposes.  If you’re a gun owner and have any interest whatsoever in your rights, it’s impossible to miss it, given the constant attacks by political hacks attempting to use “scientific methods” to ban guns and paint gun owners as on-edge-homicidal-maniacs (CDC anyone?).

Anyhow, this all comes down to the real root of the problem: I do not trust the scientists who are pushing the global warming theory.  I don’t have the time or energy to review all the studies.  In the past we placed our trust in our scientists.  But now we can’t trust them, and we can’t trust the media, as they don’t seem to know how to be skeptical of anything other than our military. 

That said, though, attempts to silence global warming proponents do not help the cause of science.  So, I guess we’re at an impass, given the government’s loss of credibility, and the bias of the environmentalists/scientists (many of whom I consider to be of the same ilk as Brady and VPC ).

Really, I suspect that there’s nothing to be done for it.  Someone once said never to debate religion, and environmentalism seems to have become a religion to some people. 

Perhaps, like with anti-gunners, the answer is ultimately political, in that keeping the hardcore believers away from the levers of power is the interim solution, while trying to reach out to those who might be amenable to science.  I shudder to think about the effects on our economy should the hardcore environmentalists get their way.

Why do cellphone batteries choose 4:00am to die?

The scene played out something like this:

Phone:  <feep>

Me: Wha?  Begins attempting to determine if there was a noise and what it was.  Not hearing anything, rolls over and attempts to return to sleep.

Phone:  <feep>

Me: WTF?  What is that?  Sits up and scans the area.  Sees nothing and falls back to pillow.

Phone:  <feep>

Me:  Damn phone.  Gets up and turns phone off.  Momentarily surprised by annoying loud shutdown “tune”.  Return to bed.  Toss, turn, repeat.  Get up at 5:15 after not getting any more sleep.

Lesson learned:  turn off damn phone at night.

Anyone out there have any experiences with Fiocchi ammo in .40 S&W?  I recall using a few boxes of Fiocchi in .45ACP without problems, but I haven’t shot a full case worth. 

Sportsman’s Guide has what looks like a fairly good deal on Fiocchi 170gr FMJ at $161.47/1000. 

Alternately, they’ve got Armscor 180gr FMJ for $165.97/1000, but I know even less about Armscor.

Finally, there’s the old standby for cheapness, Wolf, at $128.22 per 1000 rounds of 180gr FMJ.  Wolf has always worked for me, but it’s kind of dirty.  I’ve fired many thousands of rounds of it in my Glock and the cleanup after each session is a cast-iron bitch compared to PMC or S&B (not only powder fouling, but that damn lacquer).  However, I see that they’re now using a new polymer coating instead of the the lacquer, though. 

I’m looking for the least expensive, but clean and reliable, ammo that I can find for practice, since I tend to go through so much of it.  I may have to pay a visit to this weekend’s ELGS to see if anybody has any deals (and I could skip the shipping costs).

This news is most unfortunate for gunnies in the DFW area.

(Monday March 20) — Sunday afternoon alone, Dallas police had nearly 230 calls of people in danger.  Parts of Stemmons Freeway and the Dallas Tolllway were closed.  Heavy rain caused the roof to cave in at DFW Gun Range near Love Field.  Workers heard what they thought was thunder—turned out to be the roof collapsing which, in turn, caused an outside brick wall to give way.  About ten people inside were okay but one man outside had a fairly minor cut to the head.

At least no one was seriously injured (which is kind of a minor miracle, given that people were in the building at the time). 

WFAA TV mentioned this last night, and they had video, but they maddeningly didn’t give the name of the range.  They did, however, show the location and I knew that it had to be DFW Gun Range.  I wonder why they didn’t give the name? 

Update.  I guess I’m not watching the right stations.  Channel 11 has more details, including video.

I’m not sure what I’m going to have to do on the gunshow page to get people to understand that I’m not a damn gunshow promoter.  The page itself has the following disclaimer:

I am not a promoter and do not have any official connection to the shows that are listed. If you have questions about the show or about promoting your product or service at a show, please contact the promoter directly.

And since I don’t publish an email address, you have to click the “Contact” link to get in touch with me.  The contact form has a disclaimer as well:

I am not a promoter and do not have information about tables or selling at shows. Please contact the promoters directly. Links to the promoters’ websites and contact information are contained in the individual show entries on this site.

Despite these clear (at least to me) warnings, I get a couple of emails a week from people who think I’m running the shows.  I get requests for table pricing, questions about whether a particular product can be sold at a particular show, and occasional complaints about things that happened at recent shows. 

I’m really starting to wonder just what it’s going to take to get people to understand that I don’t run the shows.

I need a JavaScript hammer or something.  Hammer.smite(idiot);