What Is Destroying America, #97

Defending the Empire

Rattlesnakes Are Smarter Than 16% Of U.S. High-School Biology Teachers

It turns out that rattlesnakes in Arizona are starting to lose their rattles, apparently in reaction to human encroachment of their habitats. As people build houses in the desert, trample the earth to build golf courses, and roll their RVs into previously virgin territory, banging smack into wildlife, they – we - have a tendency to react badly to nature, which results in a lot of dead rattlesnakes. A handful of the rattlesnakes that haven’t ended up deceased are those that manage to keep quiet and slide on by – in other words, the rattlers that can’t rattle.

Spanish Spoken Here

The U.S. Census Bureau recently coughed up a bunch of fascinating statistics, and not only fascinating, but also depending on how your mind words, frightening, depressing, and/or mind-boggling.

And we’ll start with one little fact: Nearly three quarters of the 727,070 residents of El Paso, Texas speak Spanish at home, even if they are fluent in English. The numbers also show that 1 of every 5 living in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California, use Spanish, not English, at home.

Think about that.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah

John McCain will lose come November, and he will lose by a lot. That’s the way it has been for a long time now, and nothing’s going to change it. And when John McCain loses, he will fade from the national scene, and not long after, disappear from the Arizona political landscape as well. And that will be that.

And then we will be left with Sarah.

Dear God, Not Sarah Palin

Let us bow our heads, my friends, and make short work of Sarah Palin: I won’t bother to repeat the details of her “unusual” family history, which promises to dip into the truly bizarre and probably unpleasant before long. Nor will I raise her dubious political story, from her duplicitous tale about the Bridge to Nowhere, and her attempted banning of books, on and on; rest assured all that will be thoroughly vacuumed in short order.

No, my issue is simple enough, and it is this: The United States of America cannot have a vice president who believes in creationism, intelligent design, or anything other than basic science.

Hilary Clinton gave her speech at the convention and she said everybody should vote for Barack Obama. Okay, she said a little more than that, she said, I did this, I stand for that, I’m really terrific…and the other guy is okay, too – but that just about summed it up.

The reaction from the media was predictable. CNN loved it, MSNBC practically swooned, and Fox thought otherwise. (Actually, if Abraham Lincoln himself had been reanimated to say something nice, a Fox host would have dismissed him, claiming the Great Emancipator maybe wasn’t a real Republican, as he hadn’t been around to vote for Reagan.)

Syndicate

What Is Destroying America, #97

Written by Len Sherman
Wednesday, 09 July 2008
I know this isn’t the sort of story we usually discuss, but I can’t let this go by without a comment because it is exemplifies one of the things that is wrong with America. You might have heard that about the Christie Brinkley divorce trial (the husband is a guy named Peter Cook, who’s rich but not famous, so he doesn’t get a mention in the title), and its disclosure of Cook’s infidelity and Internet porn habits. While all that is standard tabloid fare – up next, Madonna and Guy Richie and Alex Rodriguez and whatever commoner to whom he’s married! – what makes this newsworthy, not to mention sickening even beyond the ordinary measure of celebrity nonsense, is the involvement of a court-appointed shrink. Definitely ugly set of facts: He cheated on her with a teenager, among others, and he paid off the kid to keep quiet, (fat chance there), and she demanded a public show trial, and they’re fighting over the kids, and her proclamation that she’s a great parent with a tremendous parenting philosophy, summed up in her oh-so-original statement, “Children are our future.” Hey, that’s what celebrities are for: to act stupidly and make the rest of us feel better about our own lives. But this psychiatrist is ruining the fun for all of us (well, not for the couple’s kids, who surely don't find any of this fun), by his arrogant and nonsensical assertions. Dr. Stephen Herman spent a grand total of eleven sessions with one or more components of the entire family, which of course made him an expert on everybody and everything. In his testimony, he labeled Cook a “narcissist” who “needs constant reassurance that he is a terrific guy, handsome, accomplished,” and Brinkley "needs to start working on deeper issues," including, rather obviously, given her four failed marriages, "her choice of male figures." The real trouble began when the doc stated that though both had been “superb” parents, and Cook should be involved in his children’s lives, and care for them whenever Brinkley was away, he claimed that shared custody “is not at all a viable option,” and Christie should get full custody. This isn’t about divorce, hardly a remarkable act in America today. This is about a psychiatrist offering up a diagnosis based on a handful of meetings, and a diagnosis that would have, if implemented, undeniably dramatic and traumatic consequences for the children. I’m not reflexively anti-psychiatry, but it is at least as much art as science, and for anyone and any court to decide such important matters based on such an evaluation is both an abdication of the court’s responsibility and an overreach by a medical person whose first duty is “to do no harm.” What happened to the parental presumption of primacy in deciding what’s best for his or her children? What happened to simple common sense? What happened to Americans relying on what we all know to be right and true instead of turning every damn thing, large and small, into a showcase for all sorts of shrinks and lawyers and other charlatans and con men?
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 July 2008 )

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Border/Immigration

Mexico Finally Seals Border, Stops Americans From Buying Cheap Gas, Keeps Lanes Open For Drugs

Whoever said Mexicans couldn’t or wouldn’t control their border has just been proved wrong. Yes, our friends and allies to the south have finally stepped up and shut down traffic…traffic, that is, bearing U.S. plates and carrying containers fuel, looking to save a few bucks with cheap Mexican gas.
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Mexico Invades America – Again

Mexican soldiers on Arizona soil held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint Sunday night. The Mexicans retreated after backup agents responded.

This is far from the first time the Mexican military, and/or those wearing Mexican uniforms, most likely members of Los Zetas, have crossed over the border, in support of drug and illegal immigration operations. Though both governments have sought to downplay such incidents, the increasing number of these sometimes violent incursions – over 200 confirmed incursions since 1996 - makes the situation difficult to sweep under the rug.

Mexico is finding that dealing with the devil is not a deal without consequences. And those consequences are coming home to roost in a most horrific way.

Not long ago, the Mexican government maintained an “understanding” with the drug traffickers: Don’t cause problems in Mexico, and roll your drugs into the United States without too many hassles. Oh, and don’t forget the payoffs.

Whichever side you’re on in the immigration debate, the landmark raid at the Iowa meatpacking plant back in May, which rounded up 389 illegals, proves that this is an issue that demands action and resolution. The political void has resulted in a situation that is simply intolerable in a nation of laws and liberty.

To begin the abuses: More than 20 of those arrested were underage workers, some as young as 13, forced to work shifts of 12 hours or more in dangerous conditions, sometimes through the night, six nights a week, using razor-edged knives and saws to divide up freshly slaughtered beef.

The Fence Cuts Both Ways

The fence, any fence, hasa certain basic appeal: separate Us from Them, the latter consisting of the bogeymen of your choice. With the immigration crisis in full bloom, the idea ofa fence sounded as simple and as direct as a solution could be. Stop them from coming by stopping them from coming.

Ah, if reality was so black and white. Or, in the case, so American and Mexican.