When we heard the news this morning that the majority of the deeply-divided Supreme Court of the United States had struck down the individual mandate, we all took a collective breath. However, as is now typical of the Court, they again split the baby. Instead of allowing the ironically-named Affordable Care Act to stand on the mandate/criminality aspect of the law, they let it stand using Art. I, Sec. 8, which allows congress to tax anything and everything. The most telling bit of the Roberts-written 5-4 majority decision was that he stated it wasn't the Court's job to save the voters from the people that they elected to write and execute laws. That is actually very true. However, what does one do when the people who we believed to be trustworthy enough to keep themselves in check keep seizing more power and control? Isn't it then the Supreme Court's job to tell the government where they have overstepped their bounds and to try and keep them in the pen that our founding fathers put them in?
Tea Party groups were formed because of this very issue, and like the phoenix rising from the ashes, they are re-energizing themselves, and have probably gained more traction because of this god-awful attack on the private sector. They have a big uphill battle ahead still; as has been proven time and again (most recently with Orrin Hatch's primary victory in Utah), tea party candidates don't always get the blue ribbon at the fair, and we're running out of time to replace all of the old bastards. When they lose, usually it's because of voter fraud (as we saw with the corrupt and dismal Senator Lisa Murkowski, RINO-Alaska). Sometimes it's due to lack of money, sometimes it's due to our own stupid so-called Republican voters, who still refuse to vote for someone that hasn't been in office for a bazillion years. If you're not from the Moon and you have a voter's registration card, and you're not for term limits by now, then you're just a damned fool.
But back to the issue at hand. I am guessing Roberts is telling congress that they need to keep themselves in check. The Supreme Court should not be relied on as the enforcement arm of the Republican Party just because they lack the votes to do something legislatively. It becomes too easy for the John Boehners and the Mitch McConnells of the world to hide behind some black robes and say, "we'll get our justice in court!" From the psych couch, it would seem that passive-aggressive behavior is becoming the norm with this bunch, while the Democrats are following in lockstep with a narcissistic borderline sociopath.
On the plus side, the squishy Justice Kennedy did agree that this whole plan was bollocks from the get-go and said as such (shocking I know). Perhaps there's hope for him at least.
Also, President Obama will be forced to have to deal with the fact that the official word is that this is a T-A-X. If Mittens Romney is a smart man - and I do believe he is - and if he has the chutzpah that John McCain lacked in 2008, then this election cycle should be fun. All he has to do is run against the wreck of a record, the projected tax increase on the ever-eroding middle class, and show the mountainous effects that this "tax" will have on small business. He will have to negotiate the troublesome waters of his own health care plan initiated in Massachussetts, but this has the promise of being a real victory for the 10th Amendment. Romney only has to say that states should have the option of having their own plan if they so choose - vote with your feet. Of course, he will have to actually do more than go through the motions on the federal law repeal, and he will have to use a lot of those Bain Capital skills to clean out the waste in Washington, but so much the better.
And in case Romney needs any reminders on how quickly government can spin out of control, he can (and SHOULD) keep Ron Paul around as his Treasury Secretary.
It could happen! Of course, monkeys might also fly out of my butt. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, read this uplifting blog from Erick Erickson at Red State:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?382044-Erick-Erickson-defends-John-Roberts-re-Obamacare-SCOTUS-decision&p=4516550
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Memories of a Unique American Experience
The heat bearing down on Southeast Texas right now is pretty much a great indicator of why it is kids choose to stay indoors and play video games rather than go outside - it might kill them.. I remember my mom telling us when we were younger - if it got above 95 or so - that we probably shouldn't go outside because it was "just too hot". Back then, we were immune to the heat. We could have run around all day and then come in for dinner completely scorched with sunburn, and we wouldn't have even realized it.
During those times, back in the heady days of the early-to-mid 70s, we kids didn't even know what a video game was. Oh, sure, there was something called Pong, but that had yet to become an obsession like, say Pac Man. So on those days when the heat kept us indoors, I either read books or my brother and I would put together a hearty game of Card Baseball.
We both collected baseball cards, and found it kind of lame that they just sat around collecting dust, so we decided to make use of them. We would roll a small piece of aluminum foil into a tight ball. Then we would use some encyclopedias and other thick hardback books to put together an outfield fence, which took up a large part of the hallway in left field, connected with my brother's bedroom wall in center, and perfectly outlined his dresser drawers in center and right. In real life, the "park" more or less would draw comparative descriptions like, "Camden Yards meets the old Polo Grounds".
Then we would draw from cards from out of a pile and put out our team at their normal positions. The one big problem was that the pitcher's mound was only about a foot from the catcher. Naturally, if a pitcher (myself or my brother, using the tinfoil ball) hit the catcher in any part of the card, that was a strike. A miss was a ball. The problem came in when the "hitter" (myself or my brother with a baseball card in our hands, swinging) would swing wildly and hit the pitcher in the hand. Ouchie.
The outs were generated when the struck ball hit a fielder, regardless of whether it was grounded or in the air.
We would play this for HOURS. Often it ended in arguments, but most of the time it was just FUN. And yes, we ruined a lot of baseball cards that way. But it was also a bit of activity in a small setting that kept us occupied and didn't end in us crying out "we're bored" every five minutes. My mother could mop her floors without disturbance, which was very important. Occasionally she would have to step through left field to gain access to the bathroom, and a random dog or two would occupy the field in order to lick one of us (this would result in a temporary stoppage, but the game would go on).
These are the types of things I remember about my childhood. No TV. No electric wires attached to some unfeeling box. Just good old fashioned rough-housing. These days, kids are so limited in what they can and can't do by people who think they know better and it sincerely bothers me. In this day and age, our creativity and our imagination should soar higher than ever before. Sadly, I don't think that's true so much anymore.
Fortunately, they still DO make baseball cards.
During those times, back in the heady days of the early-to-mid 70s, we kids didn't even know what a video game was. Oh, sure, there was something called Pong, but that had yet to become an obsession like, say Pac Man. So on those days when the heat kept us indoors, I either read books or my brother and I would put together a hearty game of Card Baseball.
We both collected baseball cards, and found it kind of lame that they just sat around collecting dust, so we decided to make use of them. We would roll a small piece of aluminum foil into a tight ball. Then we would use some encyclopedias and other thick hardback books to put together an outfield fence, which took up a large part of the hallway in left field, connected with my brother's bedroom wall in center, and perfectly outlined his dresser drawers in center and right. In real life, the "park" more or less would draw comparative descriptions like, "Camden Yards meets the old Polo Grounds".
Then we would draw from cards from out of a pile and put out our team at their normal positions. The one big problem was that the pitcher's mound was only about a foot from the catcher. Naturally, if a pitcher (myself or my brother, using the tinfoil ball) hit the catcher in any part of the card, that was a strike. A miss was a ball. The problem came in when the "hitter" (myself or my brother with a baseball card in our hands, swinging) would swing wildly and hit the pitcher in the hand. Ouchie.
The outs were generated when the struck ball hit a fielder, regardless of whether it was grounded or in the air.
We would play this for HOURS. Often it ended in arguments, but most of the time it was just FUN. And yes, we ruined a lot of baseball cards that way. But it was also a bit of activity in a small setting that kept us occupied and didn't end in us crying out "we're bored" every five minutes. My mother could mop her floors without disturbance, which was very important. Occasionally she would have to step through left field to gain access to the bathroom, and a random dog or two would occupy the field in order to lick one of us (this would result in a temporary stoppage, but the game would go on).
These are the types of things I remember about my childhood. No TV. No electric wires attached to some unfeeling box. Just good old fashioned rough-housing. These days, kids are so limited in what they can and can't do by people who think they know better and it sincerely bothers me. In this day and age, our creativity and our imagination should soar higher than ever before. Sadly, I don't think that's true so much anymore.
Fortunately, they still DO make baseball cards.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Bilingualism and the Brett Kimberlin Way of Stopping It
I have stated this on Facebook a few times and even people who are supposedly on "the right side" of things often disagree with my tactics. You see, I am one of those people who grew up in the 70s and 80s - I am a Gen Xer. We didn't need to speak any other language other than English to function in society. Therefore just like those who are here legally and illegally who feel like they cannot and will not learn English (even though people for hundreds of years before have done so), I am taking the same tact. I refuse to learn a language that I was not immersed in at the age that I should have been immersed in it. Allow me to explain.
Although several linguists refute this, it seems that the optimum time to learn a language is from birth to puberty, when the brain is still open to certain stimuli. As the years go on, the mind closes itself off to new languages because it is a GIGO - garbage in, garbage out - type of computer. My first language is English. I was not told (or warned, as the case may be) that as a condition of employment thirty years in the future, that I would be required to speak two languages against my will and counter to my upbringing. It's unfair, it's defeatist, it's illogical, and it's not economically viable as lessons in Spanish would not be equatable to income potential. That is especially true if your skills are more prone to the administrative/secretarial/customer service side of things, as mine are. Imagine being able to type 100 words per minute and being rejected for job after job because you can't speak TWO languages.
One thing I have learned over the past several years is the squeaky wheels get the grease. Once upon a time, I went to school to become a paralegal. This in effect makes me just as dangerous as the prison flunkie wannabe lawyer-terrorist-blogger-pissant Brett Kimberlin, because I can file some lawsuits, too. As a matter of fact, I ought to teach a class on how it's done. Not a very difficult process, really. As Kimberlin has shown, you can cause a lot of problems based on absolute nonsense. I actually have a real beef. Imagine - even if corporations and companies win in court, they still spend on average of ten thousand dollars to remove themselves from litigation. It is victory through losing, because eventually they have to capitulate and accommodate. They can't afford not to. Does it mean fewer employees get hired and more have to be let go? Yes. It does. Is it self-serving? Probably. But I'm fed up with having my future dictated for me. I have a certain skill set and I would like to be able to use it. Of course, there are other things I can do (and I'm doing), but why should I? So if a few companies have to suck it up and hire two people instead of one to bridge their language barriers, then so be it. After all, they're not hiring Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Quiche' speakers, and there are many people who speak those languages in the area where I live. Of course, they actually learn English (most of them, at least) because they knew that was the primary language spoken here. So did I, or so I thought.
So let the hate mail and the hand-wringing begin. Litigation is a lengthy process, but that's what happens when you have people sitting around with nothing but time and a computer. At least no one is getting SWATed anytime soon.
Although several linguists refute this, it seems that the optimum time to learn a language is from birth to puberty, when the brain is still open to certain stimuli. As the years go on, the mind closes itself off to new languages because it is a GIGO - garbage in, garbage out - type of computer. My first language is English. I was not told (or warned, as the case may be) that as a condition of employment thirty years in the future, that I would be required to speak two languages against my will and counter to my upbringing. It's unfair, it's defeatist, it's illogical, and it's not economically viable as lessons in Spanish would not be equatable to income potential. That is especially true if your skills are more prone to the administrative/secretarial/customer service side of things, as mine are. Imagine being able to type 100 words per minute and being rejected for job after job because you can't speak TWO languages.
One thing I have learned over the past several years is the squeaky wheels get the grease. Once upon a time, I went to school to become a paralegal. This in effect makes me just as dangerous as the prison flunkie wannabe lawyer-terrorist-blogger-pissant Brett Kimberlin, because I can file some lawsuits, too. As a matter of fact, I ought to teach a class on how it's done. Not a very difficult process, really. As Kimberlin has shown, you can cause a lot of problems based on absolute nonsense. I actually have a real beef. Imagine - even if corporations and companies win in court, they still spend on average of ten thousand dollars to remove themselves from litigation. It is victory through losing, because eventually they have to capitulate and accommodate. They can't afford not to. Does it mean fewer employees get hired and more have to be let go? Yes. It does. Is it self-serving? Probably. But I'm fed up with having my future dictated for me. I have a certain skill set and I would like to be able to use it. Of course, there are other things I can do (and I'm doing), but why should I? So if a few companies have to suck it up and hire two people instead of one to bridge their language barriers, then so be it. After all, they're not hiring Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Quiche' speakers, and there are many people who speak those languages in the area where I live. Of course, they actually learn English (most of them, at least) because they knew that was the primary language spoken here. So did I, or so I thought.
So let the hate mail and the hand-wringing begin. Litigation is a lengthy process, but that's what happens when you have people sitting around with nothing but time and a computer. At least no one is getting SWATed anytime soon.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Fun with the White and Unemployed
Hello! It's been awhile. I have missed you. I know I haven't written much here lately, but it's just that so much has happened, it's kind of difficult to keep up with it all. I am so sorry I put you aside. Just know you've always been in the back of my mind.
On to the events of the day! Immigration. This is the 800-lb, elephant that no one can find a window or mouse hole large enough to squeeze out. The ruling today by the Supreme Court of the United States split a rather large, American-born baby, and left it's guts lying on the courthouse steps. Arizona is being told, yeah, you can look at who is here already, but ONLY if you have probable cause, and if they're not too Hispanic-looking, and if they've had their afternoon siesta. Basically, they were asking for lawsuits to be filed and refiled. I'm sure this disappoints His-pandering groups like LULAC and La Raza, because the very last thing they want to do is file lawsuits (*eyeroll*).
Meanwhile, here in the real world, where people who live in actual border states are being overrun by both legal and illegal immigrants, it's kind of like a "Twilight Zone" episode whenever you step out to get a burger or grab a beer. Not sure what the unemployment rate in Arizona is right now, but the unemployment rate in the Great State of Texas is around 8.5 percent - something that Lt. Governor and senatorial candidate David Dewhurst likes to call "The Texas Miracle". Excuse me, but when Bush was president, it was around 4.5 percent, a miracle if I ever heard one. Oh, yes, Bush certainly did his own share of Hispandering, and did very little to help with border security. However, in the fallout of the latest economic crash, it is cruel and subhuman to continue to allow people to come here willy-nilly; without documentation, without knowing who they are, what kinds of skills they possess, what kind of criminal record they have - if any, and most importantly, what kind of diseases they may carry or may have been exposed to. This is a real problem, not something made up by the Ku Klux Klan. After all, was it the Klan who ran all those troublesome European people through Ellis Island, or was it a legitimate government agency? That was a bit before my time. You may have to help me out on that one.
Unemployment is kind of a sticky issue right now nationally, and that's not going to go away anytime soon. Obama's fiscal policies are losers. They are designed to help very specific minorities and unionists, not the country as a whole. This can't be denied. The only problem is that when you "help" such a problematic minority as the people who break immigration laws is, someone has to live with the consequences. It used to be, even in those horribly racist times such as the 70s and 80s, that it was the law breakers who were the ones who were punished and sent back. Now, hey, just like at the Olive Garden - if you're here, you're family!
It might interest you to know that the vast bulk of the people that I went to school with were, in point of fact, Hispanic. However, language was somehow never a barrier, nor was their immigration status. Go figure. I imagine many of them do speak Spanish, but it's more of a hobby, not a matter of survival. Nowadays, it is getting to a point that I find myself at a crossroads: do I stay here into my "retirement" years, when Hispani-mania takes hold and "American" becomes basically counter-culture? Or do I find a place to live and work where 99 percent of the classified ads don't call for "bilingual only"? It looks like the Obamanation has made that choice for me, and my faith in Mittens is not strong enough to say that he will repel the changing tide. It is regretful, because Houston and Texas generally are going to suffer for many generations to come because of a few very poor decisions made by some incredibly bad leaders and decision makers. God save us all.
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