Give up a little liberty to gain a little security?

Benjamin Franklin said many years ago, “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

The Real ID Act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver’s licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The ID cards would be mandatory for all “federal purposes,” which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, or national park. More than half the nation’s state legislatures have passed or proposed legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance. Read a CNN article about it here. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id/index.html

Off to see the Wizard

Cinderella, Tom Thumb and Quasimodo all get together and decide to go see the Wizard of Oz.

Cinderella says, “I am certain that the wizard will tell me I am the most beautiful princess that ever lived!”

Tom Thumb chimed in, “I am sure the wizard will tell me that I am the smallest human being he’s ever seen!”

Finally, Quasimodo says, “Well, there is no doubt in my mind that the wizard will tell me that I am the ugliest, most vile and disgusting-looking creature he’s ever seen”

So the three skip off to the Emerald City.  They get in to see the Wizard.

Cinderella is first and comes bopping out of her meeting with the wizard and says, “Sure enough, he said I was the most beautiful princess that ever lived!”

Tom Thumb was next.  He comes out of his meeting with the wizard with a big smile on his face; “Yes, the wizard said I was the smallest human being he’s ever seen!”

Finally Quasimodo goes in.  After a few minutes, he comes out, obviously disappointed, and asks “Who the hell is Rosie O’Donnell??”

If you don’t understand this, you should.

This 47 minute video is very informative. Check it out!

Dear Senator McCain

A few minutes of your time is all I ask. By chance this message will amuse your staff enough for it to find its way to your desk. I feel compelled to exchange correspondence with you to elucidate, in my own words, the alien theme hidden in the amnesty letter I received from your office.

Senator, perhaps you were preoccupied with other larger self-fulfilling ambitions to detect the indiscreet information you’ve recently signed your name to. I beseech for your clarification of the amnesty letter. You see one letter to me became thirty. I reproduced it and forwarded it to others. Much like compounded interest; your letter has grown exponentially, finding its way in the hands of many frustrated Americans who feel the way I do.

Your shameful endeavor to garner support for illegal aliens is unconscionable and selling out hard working Americans for lawbreaking illegals is beyond my comprehension.  It is Treason in the highest form!

Minimizing the everyday impact of illegals and looking for sympathy while neglecting the injustices we Americans face; all-the-while suggesting it would be unfair to the illegals to be kicked out of their homes and sent back to wherever they come from is a incredibly spineless act.

I didn’t want the illegals here; you never asked nor did I give my permission for the flocks of aliens to storm our borders bring their culture of lying, cheating and stealing. They take advantage of everything American and then mock us. It is a crime what they are doing and honestly so too are your actions. Send them back! I’m tired of paying for them. I’m tired of their lack of assimilating into our culture. I’m tired of hearing the rhetoric from our elected officials about how the economy will collapse without them.

One other thing Senator, quit hiding behind your military record, your years in the Senate, and stop chatter-boxing your way into my living room asking for sympathy and support for your amnesty Bill. There are two ways to sellout your party’s trust: pleading for an amnesty Bill and aligning yourself with Kennedy; you have done both.

Frankly Senator, you don’t get it. I know I speak for many when I say we are tired of the lip service and we are sick and tired of the politically correct language describing your associates from south of the border. We need action on building the remaining border fences and we need more funding for Border Patrol agents. You have the authorization, do something.

You sold yourself out, don’t ask me to. You don’t speak for me and evidentially, based on the current polls, you don’t speak for a number of other hard working Americans. Your lack of awareness to your base is simply repulsive and your rhetoric has cost you more than you know. Senator you’ve again misjudged your party’s intelligence and conviction.

USA Leads The World In Giving!

I found this article while browsing something unrelated. I read through it and thought you might like it. I’ll offer a small extract, to wet your whistle:

“Brooks also found a strong and specific correlation between political ideology and charity. In both the United States and Europe, conservatives who believe in limited government are far more likely to make charitable contributions than are liberals who think government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality.

Note the irony: Liberals who support the governmental redistribution of income are apt to deride conservatives as selfish, yet these liberals are far less likely than conservatives to donate their own time and money to help the poor and needy. Of course, there are subsets within both groups: For example, religious liberals are a lot more generous than secular conservatives.

Many of the liberals who give little or nothing to charity try to justify their selfishness by saying government is more effective than private charity at redistributing income.

Brooks argues that the combination of relatively small government and high rates of charitable givings has contributed to the extraordinary economic prosperity and relatively high living standards for all income classes in the United States.”