The US has come up with the best idea yet to solve the problem of keeping individuals from crossing this countries borders and illegally entering our country. For those of you who don't know about this truly revolutionary idea..Its a fence.
Yep that's right a chain link fence. A very long.....very tall chain link fence. The idea being that we are going to literally fence off our country from Mexico thus eliminating those pesky unauthorized visitors.
Now..correct me if I'm wrong here...But a lot of these "visitors" are crossing over the border in the dead of night. They are in some cases walking across desert in harsh and even life threatening conditions. They will evade border patrols, swim rivers, get stuffed into trunks of cars, the back of trucks, whatever means necessary to get themselves from Mexico to the US. These all sound like some pretty extreme risks to take wouldn't you say?
So excuse me for raising my eyebrows slightly when the concept of a chain link fence is thought to be the answer.
Hmmmmm could it be that maybe the powers that be are under the impression that those crossing over our borders from the south aren't able to climb over...dig under or simply cut a fence to get past it? Or maybe they are thinking because some of these people are poor..They are also too stupid to think of a way around a fence? If so, Id like to point out that poor does not equate with stupid.
While I realize that this fence is also suppose to have some high tech extras..such as cameras, sensors and even listening devices installed along it. I have to ask myself when I cant even get my cable or DSL to function properly all the time..Is this high tech fence really going to be without its own laundry list of technical difficulties? Plus..as we all know..each time we create some new high tech gizmo designed to make things fool proof..there is always some hacker out there trying to prove us wrong.
Along with the vast distance that needs to be covered already being a problem..... From what I read..there may not be enough funding to actually complete more than 700 miles of the fence already being built..... Definitly not enough to complete the entire job which is over 1900 miles.
Lastly and also somewhat ironically...The company that was hired to build this fence is now in a lot of hot water. Being fined some 15 million dollars for using illegal immigrants to build the same fence designed to keep them out.
Common..you gotta love the humor in that one...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
The Christmas Letter
Once upon a time there was a very naughty little boy. So naughty in fact that his parents didn't know what to do with him. They had tried everything they could think of to get him to behave..but it was no use. (I personally think military school should have been an option..but that's just me)
When it came time for Christmas, just like other children his age he also had a long wish list of things he wanted to find under the tree on Christmas morning. But the one thing..the only thing that his heart really desired was a new bike.
However when asking his parents about the object of his desire..His parents said that he had been so naughty lately that they didn't think he would be getting a new bike. The boy not willing to be put off so easily had thought to side step his parents, skipping the middle man so to speak and go straight to the source and ask Santa Claus himself for the bike.
When telling his friend and occasional partner in crime Simon about his plan...Simons response wasn't very favorable. Simon, who had a little more knowledge of the way the world worked..Informed the boy that Santa was pretty much on board with anything the parents wanted. In fact..... Simon said that was the whole purpose of the naughty-nice list that was heard of in songs.
Simon then informed his friend that anyone found on Santa's Naughty list....probably couldn't get away with asking for a new bike. The boy was now feeling a bit discouraged. Then Simon gave him the one piece of information that gave the boy renewed hope.
Simon said that he had learned that Jesus was the reason we celebrated Christmas. That it was because Jesus was born on that day. Jesus as it turns out was also highly connected with the main guy God himself.....so therefore had a lot of pull. And...Jesus as luck would have it, was also professional forgiver. Sooo if anyone could talk Santa into getting the boy a new bike..it would be Jesus.
The boy decides to write his letter to Jesus asking him to ask Santa to bring him the bike. Knowing that Jesus wasn't one to be lied to or fooled. The boy realized that if he was going to get Jesus on his side he was going to have to make some promises.
So..he sat down and wrote his letter...
Dear Jesus,
I promise to be good for 1 whole month if you will please tell Santa Claus to bring me a bike.
Thank you and Amen.
He didn't know if the Amen was used for letters of this kind..but he felt like it couldn't hurt to use some manners in this case. He stuffed the letter into an envelope and marched down stairs headed off to the mailbox.
But that's when it happened...he began thinking. A month of good behavior..thats a long time. It could even last weeks and weeks...Could he really do that? That was some hard time. So he sat down and took the letter out again..crossing off the word month..he replaced it with week. Then re-read his letter...
Dear Jesus,
I promise to be good for 1 whole week if you will please tell Santa Claus to bring me a bike.
Thank you and Amen.
He started to fold the letter back up and place it back in its envelope but started thinking again...A week..thats like 7 whole days of being good. Could he really even do that?
Thats when the second idea came to him...
He went to the mantle and took down his mothers statue of the Virgin Mary. He then wrapped it up in a towel..placed it in a shoe box and then took that box up to his room. Putting the shoe box to the very back of his closet. He then shut the door tightly and sat down to write his new letter.
Dear Jesus,
If you ever want to see your mother again....
When it came time for Christmas, just like other children his age he also had a long wish list of things he wanted to find under the tree on Christmas morning. But the one thing..the only thing that his heart really desired was a new bike.
However when asking his parents about the object of his desire..His parents said that he had been so naughty lately that they didn't think he would be getting a new bike. The boy not willing to be put off so easily had thought to side step his parents, skipping the middle man so to speak and go straight to the source and ask Santa Claus himself for the bike.
When telling his friend and occasional partner in crime Simon about his plan...Simons response wasn't very favorable. Simon, who had a little more knowledge of the way the world worked..Informed the boy that Santa was pretty much on board with anything the parents wanted. In fact..... Simon said that was the whole purpose of the naughty-nice list that was heard of in songs.
Simon then informed his friend that anyone found on Santa's Naughty list....probably couldn't get away with asking for a new bike. The boy was now feeling a bit discouraged. Then Simon gave him the one piece of information that gave the boy renewed hope.
Simon said that he had learned that Jesus was the reason we celebrated Christmas. That it was because Jesus was born on that day. Jesus as it turns out was also highly connected with the main guy God himself.....so therefore had a lot of pull. And...Jesus as luck would have it, was also professional forgiver. Sooo if anyone could talk Santa into getting the boy a new bike..it would be Jesus.
The boy decides to write his letter to Jesus asking him to ask Santa to bring him the bike. Knowing that Jesus wasn't one to be lied to or fooled. The boy realized that if he was going to get Jesus on his side he was going to have to make some promises.
So..he sat down and wrote his letter...
Dear Jesus,
I promise to be good for 1 whole month if you will please tell Santa Claus to bring me a bike.
Thank you and Amen.
He didn't know if the Amen was used for letters of this kind..but he felt like it couldn't hurt to use some manners in this case. He stuffed the letter into an envelope and marched down stairs headed off to the mailbox.
But that's when it happened...he began thinking. A month of good behavior..thats a long time. It could even last weeks and weeks...Could he really do that? That was some hard time. So he sat down and took the letter out again..crossing off the word month..he replaced it with week. Then re-read his letter...
Dear Jesus,
I promise to be good for 1 whole week if you will please tell Santa Claus to bring me a bike.
Thank you and Amen.
He started to fold the letter back up and place it back in its envelope but started thinking again...A week..thats like 7 whole days of being good. Could he really even do that?
Thats when the second idea came to him...
He went to the mantle and took down his mothers statue of the Virgin Mary. He then wrapped it up in a towel..placed it in a shoe box and then took that box up to his room. Putting the shoe box to the very back of his closet. He then shut the door tightly and sat down to write his new letter.
Dear Jesus,
If you ever want to see your mother again....
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