Various Stuff

Because I can...


I've been saying this for a long time:

An illegal immigrant was employed for several years by a large agricultural consortium near my home. He was a dedicated and hard worker. He ended up in charge of watering and feeding hundreds of cattle. He was paid about $500 dollars a month and lived in a rundown farmhouse with other “migrant” workers.

His salary was paid in cash. He had no social security number. There were no payments to SSA, no income taxes. His employer provided no disability insurance.

This farm worker severely injured his hand and was unable perform his job. The company he worked for immediately fired him. They could not afford the possibility of his illicit employment being discovered.

Like most illegal immigrants, this man was nothing more than an indentured servant. He was of less value than a slave, since his employer had no pecuniary interest in him.

So why the high moral ground with liberals? Illegal immigrants aren't awarded the same rights and privileges that legal immigrants and residents are and the people who exploit them know that. Remember this when someone complains about Arizona's "draconian" policies.


Really?

The protective ozone layer in the earth’s upper atmosphere has stopped thinning and should largely be restored by mid century thanks to a ban on harmful chemicals, UN scientists said on Thursday.

Take this with whatever grain of salt you want. It is, after all, the UN.



Clueless in Ontario:

Ontario’s Premier says hand-held devices can and should be used as educational tools, creating a fresh debate over cellphones in the classroom and potential headaches for teachers who have been fighting to keep their students’ attention.

Calgary’s school board is pondering a similar move. But the subject could be a touchy one for teachers across the country, who have suffered breakdowns of discipline as cellphones have become more common among pupils — often because parents want a link to their children while they are at school.

“It is an issue for teachers, ever since the proliferation of cellphones. If you try to teach a lesson and you’ve got a buzz there and some other tone there, that’s not on in terms of teaching,” said Susan Lambert, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. “That just does not work.”

The debate was reignited after Premier Dalton McGuinty, asked about reports the Toronto school board is considering a reversal of its three-year ban on cellphones in schools, said, “One of the things we want our students to do is to be well-informed. And it’s something that we should be looking at in our schools.”

Let Mr. McGuinty give a press conference where cellphones go off all the time and photos are promptly snapped and put on Facebook for the perusal of nimrods who learned how to type while texting and driving. I imagine it has never occurred to the erring premier that elementary-school-aged kids don't need cell phones, treat these expensive items like toys, cannot talk to a parent, ect. while the teacher is talking, cannot use that phone as a primary source of outside communication as a parent or guardian has to contact the school office before removing the child from school or any other action, that these toys are a distraction and are often used to bully other students and- most gratingly- that the basic rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation totally go out the window because the kids text, not actually speak or otherwise properly communicate with others. In short, cell phones in school are a bad idea.



I'll say-Pope’s visit brings out the worst in Britain:

With this long tradition of Protestantism, Britons remain deeply suspicious of the authority of the Bishop of Rome and members of the Royal family who marry Papists still lose their place in the succession.

The country is also the home of such aggressive atheists as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking, and rabid anti-Papists like Rev. Ian Paisley, who has spent most of his life preaching venom against Catholicism.

As Benedict XVI arrives in Edinburgh at the start of his visit, British reaction ranges from indifference to vituperative hostility. Some have called for him to be arrested over the child sex abuse by priests, while others have attacked the cost of the trip, part of which at least will be paid by local Catholics....

The Pope will also preside at his first beatification, that of a man he considers one of his heroes: Cardinal John Henry Newman scandalized Victorian England by converting to Rome. Benedict is known to admire Newman, who like him preached of the dangers of liberalism....

Michael Kelly, a contributor to the Irish Catholic, homes in on Paisley’s hypocrisy, recalling the pastor’s involvement a child sex abuse scandal of his own.

“The tendency in a lot of media and political circles to see Mr Paisley as merely ‘a bit of a character’ ignores the fact that he was a key player in preaching hatred against Catholics in the North at a time when Loyalist death squads, inspired by the rhetoric of the likes of Mr Paisley, roamed the streets of the region targeting, maiming and murdering Catholics for no other reason than their religion …

While most people (myself included) would share Mr. Paisley’s criticism of the Church’s mishandling of abuse, many Catholics will find it hard to credit that Mr. Paisley’s remarks are motivated out of a concern for child welfare. Any man who has spent his life spreading vile lies and innuendo against Catholics and their Church has very little credibility in being taken at face value on such a sensitive issue. Besides, Mr. Paisley has never fully explained his role in the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home child sexual abuse scandal where dozens of boys where systematically sexually abused. The abuse came to light in 1980 and it was alleged by a key witness that Mr Paisley was aware of serious sexual misconduct on the part of one of the convicted abusers and refused to report it to the authorities.“

Great Britain has been a hotbed of rabid anti-Catholicism since Henry VIII had Saint Thomas More rubbed out for disagreeing with him.

Saint Thomas More- one of England's first whistleblowers

The tradition of "anti-popery" is nothing new nor is nuanced by any legitimate criticism. This makes Benedict XVI's work cut out for him, which he does superbly:

The evangelization of culture is all the more important in our times, when a "dictatorship of relativism" threatens to obscure the unchanging truth about man’s nature, his destiny and his ultimate good. There are some who now seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatize it or even to paint it as a threat to equality and liberty. Yet religion is in fact a guarantee of authentic liberty and respect, leading us to look upon every person as a brother or sister. For this reason I appeal in particular to you, the lay faithful, in accordance with your baptismal calling and mission, not only to be examples of faith in public, but also to put the case for the promotion of faith’s wisdom and vision in the public forum. Society today needs clear voices which propose our right to live, not in a jungle of self-destructive and arbitrary freedoms, but in a society which works for the true welfare of its citizens and offers them guidance and protection in the face of their weakness and fragility. Do not be afraid to take up this service to your brothers and sisters, and to the future of your beloved nation.

Yes. Here, his Holiness (yes, Holiness) warns of relativism and the deliberate disconnect between religion and public discourse. How have either of those things helped us on the whole? We have removed the impetus to hold in regard the sanctity of human life and belief. All religions aren't the same. All humans aren't the same yet we should still find that all people should be treated with dignity and respect. Why would this "papist" thought be so foreign to atheists and liberals who claim to hold human worth in so high regard? I've seen evidence to the contrary.

How can anyone hate potpourri? It smells so nice.

Related: Father DeSouza is fantastic.


My God- what have we become?

A 30-foot-tall inflatable blue gorilla has been stolen from the roof of a Simi Valley car dealership, police said.

On Tuesday, the gorilla was reported stolen from the roof of First Kia, 2081 First St., said Sgt. Ritchie Lew, a Simi Valley police spokesman. It was last seen Friday afternoon.

The gorilla is sometimes deflated when it’s windy, and the dealership’s employees assumed that’s what had happened until someone climbed onto the roof Tuesday and discovered it was missing, said Yehuda Riess, a used car manager there.

Riess said he has no clue why thieves targeted the gorilla, or how they made off with the roughly 350-pound inflatable primate.

Movie weapons- we all dream of them.