Where are the great leaders like Thomas Jefferson today?

Thomas Jefferson had a storied past, accomplishing more in his life than most of us dare to dream.  Many years after his death, John F Kennedy said the following when he had a dinner in the white  House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Here are some great quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ." -- Thomas Jefferson 

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." -- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the  labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." -- Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow  private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

An economics lesson in Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.

Bar Stool Economics -- pretty funny

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100 and if they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.)

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." So drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free...but what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'.  They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.  But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each
end up being paid to drink his beer.
  So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:  
  The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before...and the first four continued to drink for free.  But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
  "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
  "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
  "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him.  But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.  Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed..
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Working HARD to balance the budget

I just got this on eMail -- my comments at the end in red.

MAKES MORE SENSE WITH THE ZEROS GONE. . . .

Ok, folks! You math wizards! Do the math!
Having worked with other people’s money my whole life, even I have had difficulty relating to the recent fiasco when trillions of dollars are being discussed. This is the best analysis I have seen, which most people should be able to understand and hopefully recognize the seriousness of the problem. What banker would loan more money to the Jones family?

Federal Budget 101

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let’s put the 2011
federal budget into perspective:

• U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
• Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let’s remove eight zeros from each of these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

• Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget: $385

So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending?
It is a start, although hardly a solution.
Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt). You would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress. The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state.
To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders. 

It is awfully hard (but not impossible) to reverse course and tell the government to stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now. In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money. Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab."

It is really a joke what our government elected officials are "doing" to solve this problem.  Come on! We owe $142,710, only make $21,700 per year and decide to cancel HBO & Cinemax!  We are giving our kids a terrible mess that may never be cleaned up!

Why is Congress "Special"???!!!

This is from an eMail that is being passed around -- I can't agree more that we need to put a stop to this ridiculous behavior.

"This is an idea that we should address.

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop.
 
Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ."
"

2012 Presidential Campaign

It is really amazing how BAD most of the candidates are and the sitting President.  The Republican Candidates seem to be suffering from the same thing that Obama has which is that they can't lead and can't make tough decisions.  They all say whatever the crowd wants to hear.  Bachman actually said that if she is elected President, gas prices will be below $2.  Doesn't that sound like High School when Sally is running against Joe and Sally promises everyone a cupcake if she wins and Joe says that there will be NO MORE HOMEWORK under his watch as President.

What is wrong with this picture is that main stream media (MSM) panders to these clowns and has gone out of their way to ignore the one candidate willing to say the tough things and willing to make the touch decisions -- sorta like real leadership.  Listen to this clip from Jon Stewart show that highlights what a complete joke MSM is making of Ron Paul and how they are completely ignoring his candidacy.  If this wasn't so ridiculous and so scary, the following clip would be scary:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-15-2011/indecision-2012---corn-polled-edition---ron-paul---the-top-tier

It is clear by this clip and the total lack of coverage that MSM is actually afraid of Ron Paul.  It's easy to see why because he is the only person right now willing to even try to lead.  The rest want to follow whatever special interests are paying their bills!

When will the transfer of money to banks end!

This is a great series of blogs about what has happened over the past 3 years with the banking system and federal reserve.  To put it simply, imagine that you had a friend who would loan you huge amounts of money at zero interest and then agree to borrow the money back from you at 3% interest?  It wouldn't take a genious to make a bunch of money, would it.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/guest-post-congressional-research-service-confirms-big-banks-borrowed-cash-for-next-to-nothing-then-lent-it-back-to-the-federal-government-at-much-higher-rates.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

What has happened in the past 3 years is really deplorable.  The thing that everyone needs to realize is that this is NOT a Republican or Democrat issue.  Unfortunately, the whole system is messed up and Ds & Rs are guilty of not doing what needs to be done to preserve and protect the American way of life.  As a lifelong capitalist, I can say that the things that have been done are so anticapatilist that it is ridiculous.

The Case for Christ

Karen and I went to hear Lee Strobel tonight at church.  We remembered hearing Lee speak in 89 --91 at Willow Creek in Barrington when we lived in Chicago.  He gave a great talk tonight about his journey from being an outspoken Atheist to an outspoken Christian.  He started his talk tonight by saying that Christianity really boils down to one question:

Did Jesus die for our sins and rise from the dead?

This can be summarized by the word Execution.  Did an execution of Jesus take place?  Atheists and Christians agree that there was a man named Jesus and that he was indeed killed on a cross.  There is also clear evidence and agreement from both sides of the argument that he was dead.  He wasn’t put in the tomb alive and somehow recovered.  He died which brings us to the fundamental tenet of Christianity that Jesus died for our sins and on the 3^rd day rose again.

Early accounts of his rise from the dead.  It has been shown over time that legends take at least two generations to be formed.  In other words, if it is going to become known that I am 6’5” tall and I once was the strongest man on earth, it would take at least two generations for this legend to be created and be accepted as fact.  If someone in my generation or my kids generation or my grandkids generation made this up, there would be people alive that would be able to say that I was never 6’5” tall and would stop the legend from continuing.  Jesus’ death and resurrection was talked about immediately after his death by people who were alive when Jesus was alive and still alive after he rose.  In fact, early churches adopted a creed from the Apostle Paul.

Remember that the Apostle Paul was a devout Jew and a heavy persecutor of the Church.  The creed that he wrote in 1 Cor. 15:3-4 is
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

The reason that this creed is important is that the early Christian churches recited this and believed this to be true.  It is said that this creed was passed to the Christian churches as early as 2-5 years after Jesus’ death.  Again, think in terms of giant Tim.  Is it possible that a legend about how big and strong I was could start as early as 2-5years after my death and NOT be true. 

Empty Tomb  The undisputed reality is that the tomb was empty.  One thing that proves it was empty is that the guards immediately tried to blame someone for taking the body of Jesus.  If the tomb was NOT empty, they would have nothing to defend.

Eye Witnesses.  There are many eye witness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection that are recorded and talked about almost immediately after his death, resurrection, and eventual ascension to heaven.  In fact, it is documented that over 515 individuals witnessed Jesus alive after his crucifixion. 

It is amazing that there is so much evidence supporting the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Crazy Solutions to our problems

Tell me if this is a Republican or Democrat view.  I'm not sure, but I know we need to get serious about fixing our problems.  Here's what I think we should do:

1.       Raise taxes by creating more tiers above $500K and $1mil and $100 mil.

2.       Treat Capital Gains and Dividends and Interest the same as income.  Too many very rich people don't pay what they could because of investment income being treated differently.

3.       Cut Defense by A LOT!!

4.       Cut Welfare by A LOT – make people work.  We have welfare generations.  Get crazy and penalize people on welfare when they have more kids rather than award them.  How – make it simple.  If you are on welfare and have another kid, your welfare payment goes down.  But, if you give up your baby at adoption and have drug tests that prove you were off drugs and alcohol during the pregnancy, give the woman a bonus.  (yes, fanatical, but we need to do crazy things)

5.       Cut Social Security – no increases for 5 years.  No ifs, ands or buts.  Make it "means tested" so that people who don't need social security don't get it.

6.       Cut Medicare by a lot – why do people with a bunch of money get medicare when they get a certain age.

7.       Let private markets dictate pay for public employees – they are paid too much.  Disallow unions for government works.  They are not fair.  Here's why.  If I am in the UAW and work at Ford, my union leadership has to fight hard for my pay and benefits, but they also know that if they push too hard they could ultimately make Ford non-competitive forcing them out of business.  As such, we have seen private sector unions offer concessions in recent years.  On the flip side, government works have no customer that can choose.  Therefore, they don't need to worry about their employer going out of business and only negotiate to get more without any thought or conseration to what the customer wants. 

8.       Invest a lot in roads and all infrastructure.

9.       Invest in charter schools.

10.   Find a way to reward people who move economic classes.  I don’t know what this means or how to do it, but people that can grow up in a terrible environment and turn out ok should be cheered for and rewarded.  Instead, we reward welfare moms!

11.   Cut more and more government funded social programs, but allow more than a 1 to 1 deduction for charity contributions.  Here’s the reality.  Locally run charities that aren’t saddled with all of these government rules make better use of the money that they have because they know that next year, Joe or Sue may give their money elsewhere.  If we can further encourage people to give to local charities, much of the government can disappear and resources will go where they are needed and where people want them to go.  A lot of giving is done because of the deduction, but make it 1.5 x and we'll see giving go up.  The tax revenue lost can be replaced by the cuts made to the programs. 

I'll write more on some of these at a later time.

Budget Deficit -- Raise Revenue or Cut Services

It really is crazy that both parties are being so ridiculous with their so-called proposals to solve the debt crisis.  Obama and the Democrats think we can keep spending and just tax the top 1 or 2% more.  Equally bad is that Ryan and the Republicans think we can cut spending without touching defense, social security, or medicare and they don't want to raise revenue.

Come on!

We have to raise taxes and cut spending. 

Here's a good video of David Stockman.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/69402400/

Cheap Stuff or Good Jobs

I'm back! And it's my cousin's fault.  He keeps sending me stuff from the Huffington Post which is a very liberal (even by journalistic standards) news source.  In any case, I love getting the information because it is important to view and understand the different perspectives of our economic strengths and weaknesses.   Take a look at the following article that talks about how our monetary policy has increased the fortunes of the Chinese while killing American jobs:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/the-fed-works-for-chinese_b_811777.html

Monetary policy is interesting and complex.  There are certainly two opposing forces that are impossible to ignore.  One is the need and desire to keep “things” affordable to all Americans and the other is to create and maintain high paying jobs for all Americans.  Unfortunately, it has been difficult to do both.  In our history, we have seen where the force to create and maintain high paying jobs has crushed industries and almost crushed industries – think Auto unions and Teacher unions and Government unions.  And now, we have seen where the push to keep things inexpensive has crushed jobs.  A pair of pants or a shirt costs the same amount now as it did 20-30 years ago.  That’s only possible because of the outsourcing of jobs.  Which evil is worse?  I really don't know.

What do you think?  Should we be protecting our jobs at the expense of a standard of living and global competitiveness or should we be letting the free market do its job?   Not so fast though.  I'm a big believer in the idea of a free market ONLY if we are indeed being treated fairly by our competitors globally.  Are we?

Cutting the deficit

Take a look at this video.  It really highlights how ridiculous it is to think that we are making progress when we cut $100 million of spending.  Come on!  It's time to get serious about cutting spending and we need to cut all spending -- from medicare to social security to defense to welfare to education to everything.  It needs to begin with downsizing government and getting government pay and benefits on par with the private sector.

This is a quick video that clearly illustrates how small a $100million cut is:

http://www.wimp.com/budgetcuts/

Education Problem

The following is a great article in the Washington Post.  It really points out the issues of our educational system.  This same article could be written about our government unions.  The time for unions has passed because they didn't stay relevant.  I believe that unions were one of the reasons that this country became so great, but they are now one of the reasons that we are in major trouble.  In Rockford, we have a huge deficit that our government officials are trying to tackle.  They went to the fire department and asked for wage concessions.  The fire union said no.  They then tried to reduce the number of fire personnel on a truck from 4 to 3 and the union managed to block the move in court. 

Now, the government has gone to the police union because we need their approval to change insurance providers and save $800,000 per year.  The police union isn't sure even though benefits and coverage doesn't change.  Come on!  If I had to get every decision approved in my business, I would have been forced out of business years ago.  This is what is happening to our government.

It's time that the unions in this country become relevant again by actively participating in the business of solving problems and keeping businesses (education or government) profitable and viable.  If they are not willing or able to become relevant, we the people (sound familiar) need to take our government back.

Do take the time to read this.  This is really a great ariticle written by educators:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100705078.html

The War on Terror

OK -- let me say first that I am basically a wimp like most of our politicians who are afraid to say what they really think.  So, I would never write or say what was said by a British housewife in a letter to the editor that she sent...... but, I do think that she make some excellent points and that too often we are so concerned about saying something that won't offend anyone that we don't say anything.

If we are a society with no dissenting opinions or who only say things that won't offend anyone, will we become bland?   I don't know.

Read and judge for yourself -- please do add your positive and negative comments.

http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/war-iraq/141553-letter-british-housewife-newspaper.html

By the way, this article wasn't written by a British housewife, but she is the one who forwarded it to her nephew and it started circulating back in 2005. 

Tony Blair on Clinton, Bush and the American Character

Check out this article by Tony Blair. It is really interesting how he describes our leaders. He gives a short, but good perspective on our past three Presidents. I think it is easy for us to think that if the President is a Republican and we are a Republican, than he must be good. It would be just as easy for that same Republican to assume that the Democrat Presidents are not good. When I say good, I don't mean good Presidents. I mean that they are truly trying to do what is best for our country. I haven't read Mr. Blair's book, but I bet he makes a strong case that each of the Presidents he has known are good men and that they care about our country. Finally, he reminds us that we should carry our heads high and be proud of the country we have. It is often forgotten that people still risk their lives every day to get into the United States of America. Read the last paragraph in the article. We take our citizenship and the freedoms we have for granted.

Tony Blair on Clinton, Bush and the American Character

More Mosque Thoughts

I have not been able to confirm the "facts" in the following statements from Newt Gingrich.  I don't think I agree that we should wait to have a Mosque here until we have a Christian or Jewish Church in Saudi Arabia.  We are a country that is PROUD of our Freedom of Religion rights that we give all citizens.  This is just one of the many things that make America so much better than Saudi Arabia and other countries where they don't practice the basic freedoms we enjoy.

Please note that this is Newt's take and I don't necessarily agree with everything he has said in here.  I do agree that naming it something like Cordoba is an insult and I believe it is insulting to build it so close to the 9/11 attacks. 

Newt Gingrich


"July 21, 2010 6pm

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia . The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site –where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba , Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.

Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City . Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca . And they lecture us about tolerance.

If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.  America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.

No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.

The time to take a stand is now - at this site on this issue.
"

Profiling

The major argument against the Arizona law is that it will encourage racial profiling.  In other words, a Latino would be much more likely to be asked for proof of citizenship than a white male or female.

Granted, I truly can never understand how it would feel to be a minority because I am a white male.  However, profiling is used in every part of what we do except to fight crime seemingly and I don't get it.  I remember when I got my driver's license at 16 and my insurance was more expensive than a girl's simply because I was a guy.  Is that fair?  No.  Is it profiling?  Absolutely.  Is it necessary in order for the insurance company to successfully underwrite the business and return a fair profit?  YES

When someone sees me, they prejudge me based on my appearance all of the time.  If I am a bit overweight and short, I will be assumed to be a non-athlete.  While if I was 6'8", everyone would assume I was a basketball player and assume I was good.  If I wear a suit and tie, I am assumed to be a business person.  If I wear have dirty finger nails, one may think I am a laborer.  My point is that we are profiled all of the time.

I don't think any of it is fair.  I don't think it is fair that I pay more insurance because I am a guy.  I don't think it is fair that someone isn't hired because they are a certain color.  I don't think it is fair that someone may get asked for proof of citizenship because they are profiled to be a likely illegal immigrant. 

But, what is the alternative?  This small right that people are screaming about giving up is absolutely nothing compared to the rights we will be giving up in the coming years as our baby boomers and their pensions and health care cost more and we are saddled with a debt load that is incomprehensible.  Get ready.

Good Perspective on the Arizona Immigration Law

This is a great post on why this issue is so ridiculous.  If you think the Arizona law is unfair, think of it in terms of something you own. 

Here is a great article from the Phoenix Examiner:

"Governor Brewer vs Phoenix Suns


Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has been in the news a great deal, due to her attempts to secure the Arizona border. Many have voiced their opinions for and against the controversial SB1070 immigration bill.

With celebrities and others jumping on this issue, even Phoenix Suns owner, Robert Sarver, has voiced a strong opinion against SB1070. Governor Brewer sent a great note to Sarver, which clearly illustrates the current situation in a way he can surely appreciate. The following is her explanation.

What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter? -Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer"


Governor Brewer vs Phoenix Suns - Phoenix Family Examiner.com

If the above still doesn't hit home for you, think of your own house that you live in.  Like most hard working people, you probably have a mortgage that you pay each month, you may have a family, and you work to pay the mortgage, health insurance, food, and the many other things that you need and want to have in your life.  But, you come home one day and there are an extra 10 people living in your house.  You don't have the right to ask them if they are your family.  You suspect they aren't, but you can't ask them for proof.  Instead, you have to make room for them, pay for their food, and when they get sick, you have to pay for their medical bills.  I think you get the point.

Yes, this sounds ridiculous, but allowing people to break the law and not doing anything about it is more ridiculous.

Let's start using common sense.

Immigration Law -- I don't get it

Let's start by understanding what our current immigration law states.  As a country, we have always been a refuge for the weak --"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." so we have always been a country that welcomed newcomers.  This is a foundational strength of the United States of America that we are made up of millions of dissimilar people who share fundamental beliefs (let's just assume that we still share fundamental beliefs).

In any case, part of the sharing is that each person who comes to this country must abide by a certain set of rules that we call laws.  Some of those are things like you should pay taxes, others are things like you can't murder your enemy, and still others are things like you have to seek approval to be accepted into the country.  Once you are accepted into the country, we welcome you with open arms and give you access to freedoms and a lifestyle unparalled in this world.  You do, however, have to be accepted.  We can argue whether we should accept all people or if we should be selective, but for now the law is that we have to accept you.  In fact, here is a quick quote on the law:

"Unlawful Entry

In addition to facilitating the lawful admission of both immigrants and nonimmigrants, U.S. policy addresses the issue of unauthorized aliens in the United States. According to the Census Bureau and the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, about 7 million unauthorized aliens were in the United States in 2000. Other researchers have estimated that number at roughly 10 million in early 2004. Although such estimates convey the population of unauthorized aliens living in the United States in a given year, the other statistics presented in this paper represent annual inflows of people into the United States, unless otherwise indicated. Aliens found to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws may be removed from the country through a formal process (which can include penalties such as fines, imprisonment, or prohibition against future entry) or may be offered the chance to depart voluntarily (which does not preclude future entry). In 2004, about 203,000 people were formally removed, and about 1 million others departed voluntarily (some people may have done so more than once). Of the 203,000 formal removals, 42,000 unauthorized aliens were subject to expedited removals, a process designed to speed up the removal of aliens seeking to enter the country illegally."

This was taken from http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7051/02-28-Immigration.pdf

So what is all of the noise about the Arizona law that is designed to enforce this law.  Let's look at how ridiculous the arguments are against this law.

As a person, I have to prove who I am all of the time.  I have to prove who I am when I go to the doctor's office, when I go on an airplane, and many other times.  Here is a picture someone put together that highlights how often we, as American citizens, have to prove who we are:

Mosque Near Ground Zero

What do you think of having a Mosque near Ground Zero.  I really don't know what I think.  On one hand, I believe that the freedom to have a Mosque near Ground Zero is one of the principle freedoms we have successfully fought for since we became a nation.  On the other hand, it seems incredibly disrespectful that there would be a Mosque where so many people were killed. 

I guess I believe very strongly that they should have the right to build a Mosque anywhere, but that the persons building the Mosque should have the decent human courtesy to not build it where it would cause so much controversy.  What are they hoping to accomplish?  Do we as a nation need another reason to be afraid or disrespectful to Muslims?

What do you think?