Government, the ultimate credit card thief

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, proposed a $250 billion aid package.

That would bring total government spending on Hurricane Katrina to over $320 billion. Where is the government getting all of this money? Deficit spending. However, this phrase is just a clever name for appropriating money that does not exist. It's as if the government is putting all this money on a credit card - the name on the credit card: U.S. Taxpayers.

Deficit spending will be paid for one of two ways:

1) An increase in taxes.
2) Increased inflation due to more U.S. dollars in the economy.

Don't let Congress and the Bush Administration fool you, this money is coming out of your pocket.

Profound thought on liberals

A friend of mine recently emailed this quotation to me. It contains profound insight into the liberal ideology:

"'That liberalism may be a tendency towards something very different from itself, is a possibility in its nature . . . . It is a movement not so much defined by its end, as by its starting point; away from, rather than towards something definite.' What liberalism has constantly moved away from are the constraints on personal liberty imposed by religion, morality, law, family, and community." (Bork, Robert H., Slouching Towards Gomorrah, (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1996 p. 61 quoting Eliot, T.S., Christianity and Culture: The Idea of a Christian Society & Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1940, 1949,) p. 12.)

The question: if constraints imposed by religion and morality continue to loosen to due to societal pressure, will liberalism continue on its downward trek of continual deviance?

The Minutemen

Chris Simcox, organizer of the Minuteman Project, addressed the Eagle Forum National Council this past weekend in St. Louis. While I have paid some attention to the Minutemen, I was amazed at what I heard from Mr. Simcox: The government has failed to secure our borders in an egregious way.

Mr. Simcox first became interested in the border issue during an extended hike through a park in southern Arizona. He describes in the story a close encounter with several illegal border crossers.

"I heard the noise of many footsteps. Now, I was way out in the middle of a park, and I knew it wasn't the Boy Scouts, so I ducked behind a rock. A group of almost 70 Mexicans with backpacks came walking through. During the three days I was there, I saw almost 350 people crossing the border including caravans of trucks escorted by heavily armed Mexican paramilitary. I went to the park ranger and asked, 'who are these people?' He replied, 'Those are just illegal migrants looking for a better life. And the others are drug traffickers. Just don't bother them and you'll be ok."

That was three years ago. Now, Mr. Simcox has helped organize a citizen's effort to help the border patrol in securing the border. Contrary to the liberal medic's portrayal of this project, the Minutemen are not vigilantes. Most of the 879 concerned citizens who stationed themselves on the border sat in lawn chairs with a cell phone and binoculars. Spaced out at static observation points every 2 miles, they reduced attempted border crossings by 64% over a 27 mile stretch of Arizona border.

Mr. Simcox himself is a stark contrast to the redneck-shotgun-toting-Billy Bob that the media describes him as. Dressed in a white button down, his clean-shaven face showed the mentality of a concerned father of his two children.

For those who may think I am misportraying the media, all of the students in my speech and debate class today at the SRJC said the Minutemen were "vigilantes" and "taking the law into their own hands." However, none of them have taken the time to actually research this citizens group. I've met Chris, and I can say the Minuteman Project is an excellent organization.

airport security; border insecurity

I traveled this weekend to St. Louis for the Eagle Forum National Convention. As a frequent long-distance traveler, I was prepared for the airport security routine: "take off your shoes...take off your belt..." The check was quite thorough, and I am beginning to appreciate airport security. However, as I was gathering my bag that just exited the little luggage carwash, two ironies struck me:

1. The US government goes to great lengths to provide security against terrorists in airports. If you think about it, TSA treats everyone as a suspected terrorist. While this attitude is not wrong, its an interesting point to ponder. However, the US government continually neglects the security of our borders. If we had even half of the security on the border that we do in airports, the rate of illegal immigration, drug and slave trafficking, and terrorist possibility would plummet.

2. I saw a TSA agent scanning senior citizen with a metal detector. This elderly man obviously posed no threat to airport security; he was probably even a veteran. Yet TSA forced him to stand on that little black mat with his arms spread as they tried to determine whether or not he was a terrorist.

-Societal ironies-

School Lecture: Open Borders = Open Bias

As a student at the Santa Rosa Junior College, I encounter all forms of liberal indoctrination. One such lecture proposed open borders with Mexico. After listening to a pathetic appeal for this treasonous position, I decided to issue a public reaction. I will be publishing the following opinion piece in my school newspaper, The Oak Leaf:

I attended a lecture that my school, the Santa Rosa Junior College, hosted on September 12 titled, “"Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border." It was blatantly partisan. While opening the border is will only exacerbate the problem of homeland insecurity, why is the SRJC using taxpayer money to fund political lectures? If it is going to invite political lecturers, it should invite them from both sides.

The SRJC Arts and Lecture series invited Peter Laufer to promote an open border with Mexico. During the lecture Laufer bashed the Bush Administration and US Border Patrol. Regardless of whether you agree with President Bush, the SRJC should not host politically biased lecturers who only give one side of the story. By the SRJC opening up the Newman Auditorium for Laufer, it is essentially using tax dollars to promote Laufer'’s position.

I wholeheartedly support debate. However, no debate occurs when only one side of the argument is presented. The SRJC is obligated to bring in someone from the opposing side. It should invite a lecturer who promotes national sovereignty and secure borders, unlike Laufer.

Better yet, the SRJC shouldn't have invited Laufer at all. His lecture was shallow and rash. His only premise was: The current situation is so unreasonable and beyond remedy, with thousands flocking across the borders every day and night, let's not fight it anymore. Let's just give in and open wide the borders. The current system is not working, I agree, but Laufer draws his idea out of a hat and suggests, how about open borders?

An open border with Mexico would be a freeway for terrorist mobility. This problem is appropriate having just commemorated 9/11. The number of Middle Eastern and Asian illegal border crossers has increased by 42 percent in the past five years. The Washington Times reported in “Terrorists said to seek entry to U.S. via Mexico on April 7, 2003 that, Al Qaeda members are working with Mexican organized crime groups in an attempt to enter the United States covertly. Border Patrol officials found a diary written in Arabic on a southern Arizona trail frequently used by illegal aliens.

I asked Mr. Laufer about this problem. He neatly sidestepped this issue and said let us just hope for the best. Well Mr. Laufer, hope won't keep illegal terrorists out of this country. A strong border will.