thoughtmechanics

I’ve been getting quite a few calls recently from friends asking me what I thought about the cover story on global warming in Time Magazine, ominously titled “Be Worried. Be Very Worried.” They’re usually quite excited, claiming that this is the tipping point for the debate on global warming. This is the impetus that will finally get us moving on the issue, they excitedly remark.

To be honest, I’m not at all that excited about it. My usual response has been to yawn and politely point out that the tipping point has already come and gone. And while a few high profile people—President Bush and his top science advisor, Michael Crichton, come to mind—still don’t quite get it, the momentum has clearly shifted.

Despite a few vocal opponents such as Crichton, the fact remains that the scientific debate has long been over. It’s happening, and we’re mostly to blame. Scientists have been warning the world about global warming for about three decades now, and they’re in as much agreement about it as they are about the health effects of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. And please, don’t waste your time commenting to the contrary—you might as well be arguing that the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood or that Elvis was an alien sent to consume the Earth’s supply of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. (more…)

Let’s start with the question of securing the border so that nobody could cross illegally. Impossible, end of story. Now lets move on with making every illegal alien a felon. Hundreds if not thousands of aliens in the United States are subject to prosecution as felons. That means simply if convicted they are subject to serve more than one year in prison. The GREAT majority of these “felons” are allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges for one simple reason. Money.

Congress is simply using this flash point like the Republicans used gay marriage in the last presidential election. Votes. They want votes. Fear votes. Remember when Bush signed a law into place not to long ago that called for 1000 new border patrolmen to be hired but only 200 were actually hired? Same thing. Money.

What this proposal WOULD do is to send the most abused people in the country deeper underground and that would benefit the human traffickers. THOSE guys ARE felons but most of them are rarely convicted as felons when caught. You tell an uneducated, non English speaker who is a stranger in a new environment that he will go to jail for one year and that he won’t be able to send money home to his family who is starving if he talks to a policeman and you know what you have? A slave. Tell a female that and you have a sex slave. If you don’t believe that slavery exists in the United States today you, my friend, are a fool. The American dream does not include living in fear. (more…)