Attitude towards Illegal Immigration.

Posted on September 16, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

Recently I did a little impromptu poll on my Facebook page, asking if they felt that the immigration system, as it is right now, is broken and what they would do to fix it, if the choice was theirs to make.

To say I was disappointed with the number of people that responded is an understatement.  Of the two that did respond, one response was very good, the other was, more or less, dismissive.

While this poll was, by no means, a comprehensive scientific study, it was enough to tell me that either people do not want to show their hand on this topic for fear of alienating themselves or others, or just really do not care enough to chime in.

There also appeared to me through this another group of people.  One of the responses was a person who replied with

“out of my league….i don’t bother myself with that stuff…que sera sera……”

This could not be further from the truth.  If you are a tax paying US citizen, then none of this is out of your league and you should never adopt the “whatever” attitude regarding this.  Every single US citizen should be angry as hell that this is going on.  That our boarders, US/Mexico as well as the others, are so porous that people can go back and forth the way they do.

The other response I got was:

“The U.S. Immigration system is no longer the most efficient venue for entering the country as it once was. The burden of dealing with hundreds of illegal immigrants crossing our borders on any given day, has out numbered our border agents, …stretched our resources in capturing and deporting these individuals and has suck our social services system dry.

My solution may be harsh, but effective. Build a 20 foot wall at the border, with another fence approximately 50 feet from the wall wrapped with barbed wire. If somehow they manage to survive this, they become subjects of national security and will be shot.”

While there is part of me that does agree with this, I can also see the downside to it as well.  I think that I would take this idea and instead of shooting them with bullets, I will tranquilize them and then put them into a massive holder center on the border, within this “No Man’s Land” that would be created.   Process them, mark them and then send them back to Mexico.  The mark would be simply to let us know they are repeat offenders.

I understand that there are many people that make the effort to come to America to have better lives, but there is a right way and wrong way to do so.  In spite of those US citizens who seem to think it is perfectly acceptable for foreign citizens to wander into the US illegally, with no right to be here, there is nothing right, acceptable or healthy about it.  All of this is discussed in my previous two articles on this topic.

Lastly, and what I think is the most silly, is the argument people keep throwing out about how those that are living in the United States now are, actually, illegal aliens.  This is by far one of the worst arguments and only makes those using it look silly.

Granted… there was a lot wrong about the colonization of the land that is now the United States.  We did a lot of bad things to the native population to gain this land.  But the point is moot for one major reason.  You name to me one country that exists today that has not in some way shape or form, been built upon the former lands of another indigenous people.  So the US is not the only people you can use that argument against, if you really want to get technical.  The global map you see today has mostly born from conflict and acquisition and not based on the original tribal lands of the native peoples.  This does not mean that any of it was right, just that it is what it is.  We have to move forward.

Now… if Mexico would like to challenge our right to this land, they can always declare war and invade.  That would make things a lot easier for the USA.  We might even get some more land in the process.


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Risks of Illegal immigration…

Posted on August 11, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

Shortly after I finished the last piece on illegal immigration, it occurred to me that I forgot something important.

While it is an established fact that illegal immigration does cause a burden on the resources of the state in which they have invaded as well as a burden on the country in whole.  There are also other risks and dangers as well, but not solely to us as Americans.

You see, there are good reasons that countries like ours try to monitor the flow of people across the border.  In spite of what you might think of us as Americans, some of these reasons are not completely mercenary.

Let’s look at them one at a time:

Coyotes:

No… Not the dogs.  But the people that transport the illegals across the border.  If you visit the ICE web site and look at some of the ways these people try to come in, then you would have a better understanding of how dangerous it is to BE and illegal, and not just from Mexico.

Look at the stories of people dying while being shipped in containers from overseas.  Or the stories of people dying in the desert while they are being transported to the US illegally.  In some cases, you have dozens of people that are packed into a small cargo container with little or no water or facilities.  There are even stories of people dying because they have no way to breathe.  Then there is the occasional story of the cargo container, full of people, that is abandon because the person carrying it does not want to get caught.

Long story short…  once the person pays the Coyote or transporter for their services, there are no refunds.  If you back out, you do not get your money back.  Furthermore, there is no guarantee that you will even make it here anyway.  You might either be caught by the US or Foreign authorities or die in the process…  Either way, you are not getting your money back.

Infection:

The process of quarantining both immigrants and emigrants for fear of passing diseases from one country to another is not new.  This is something that has gone on since around the time of the Roman Empire.  Even to this day the US, as well as many other countries, will monitor the inflow of visitors and immigrants to look for signs of illness.  If they find someone that is sick with something that might be a hazard to the citizenry of the US, then they are quarantined or, in some cases, returned to the country of their origin.

There is nothing wrong, or racial, about this.  It is merely a process of protecting the welfare of the United States and the people therein.  Same holds true for any other country, the process is there to protect the citizens and not there to discriminate against anyone of them.

Now… when you subvert that process, work around it through the process of illegally entering the nation without going through the proper processes, you not only risk your own health, but you also risk the health of the people in the country that you are “invading”.

Now… imagine for a moment that someone enters the country that is ill with something like hemorrhagic fever, like Ebola.  If this person make contact with others, especially through the process of crossing the desert with his or her fellow illegals.  They are now all exposed to the same illness and all become carriers.

When they finally do reach a populated area, some of them might start showing signs of the illness outwardly.  So when they check into a hospital, on the taxpayer dime I might add, they are now exposing potentially hundreds more people to the disease.

Yes… what I have just given you is a rare case.  Luckily hemmorhagic fever is not very common and has never been a major threat to us.  But the potential is there.  It is a problem we have to consider and prepare for.

Risks in General:

Lastly… and most importantly, is the crossing of the desert itself to get here.

Most of the border is made up of some pretty inhospitable land.  Not something that is easy for even the most well prepared hiker to deal with.  But you have hundreds of people that are in worse shape than those hikers that try to make the crossing each year.  Many of them fall ill or die in the process.

The answer is not is not like the placing water barrels in the desert and providing the illegals with maps as the organization Humane Borders seems to think.  Or providing people with assistance to get across the borders.  The answer is to stop the flow of illegals across the border, then to promote and praise those that DO come over legally.  Make it something that they can be proud of doing.

I am not a hateful person.  I understand that there are some opportunities here that people might not find in other countries.  That is always what has set America aside as a great place to live.  I encourage all the people that want to share the dream to come to America and live it, embrace it and love it.  In spite of our downfalls and our present administration, we still have a lot to offer.

But as I said in the last part of the last post.  Do not think you can steal that dream.  It is an earned effort.  No matter how long you live here, if you have not sworn an oath to uphold the constitution of this country, to renounce your interest in the country of your origin in favor of this one, then you are not an American.  You never will be, and thus you are not going to share in the dream.  You are merely an intruder on, I hope, borrowed time.


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Yet another commentary on the Arizona Immigration law…

Posted on August 8, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

I know…  I know… about this time most people are tired of hearing about Arizona.  But that is precisely why I decided to write this piece.

I am not trying to get in on the action and promote more traffic to my site by this, though I will have to admit that more traffic would be nice, but that is not why.

Personally, I agree with it.  I think that the law itself should be put into effect and the peace officers should carry out their orders.  I think that anyone that is stopped and questioned and refuses to produce ID (be they Hispanic, Iranian, Dutch, Congan, what ever…) should be detained until their ID and legal right to be in the US is established and then either let go or sent to the country of their origin.

This is not a Race issue.  If you are Mexican and you are here legally, then you should be proud to show it.  Whip out that ID and show us your Red, White and Blue.  But if you are here illegally, or not a naturalized citizen, and are not sporting a valid and current Work or Travel visa… then you need to go home.

Why is that so hard for you people fighting this law to understand.  Exactly how dense are you that you cannot see the reasoning behind this.  It is not just about SB1070, it is about a sovereign nation protecting it’s borders.  Nothing more that every other country, including Mexico, is trying to do itself.

So now a judge has placed an injunction on the key parts of SB1070 that make the most sense to uphold.  They are the sections that:

•  Require an officer make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if there’s reasonable suspicion they’re in the country illegally.

•  Makes it a crime if they fail to apply for or carry alien registration.

•  Makes it a criminal for illegal immigrants to ask for, apply for or do any form of work. (This does not include the section on day laborers.)

•  Allows for a warrant-less arrest of any person(s) where there is “probable cause to believe they have committed a public offense that makes them removable from the United States.”

The funny thing about this, for me, is that people are turning this into strictly a Racial thing.  Do you think that if Canadians were coming over the northern border in waves and getting government benefits and such, we would not be doing the same thing there?  The answer would be yes, we would.

It is not a racial thing… it has become a racial thing because that is what people WANT it to be and that is the quickest way for people to make headlines.  It is a racial thing because people respond when they think that you are picking on a minority.  But you are still not looking at it from the grand scale.

This is not about Arizona at all.  This is about the fact that we have a southern border that is about as porous as a fishing net.  People come and go through it on a regular basis.  US Border Patrol, G-d bless them all, are not able to do their jobs because of what might happen.

Granted, there are examples of things gone horribly wrong.  Take for example the recent shooting at the border of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca.  This was tragic, but it is not the norm.  Accidents happen, and when you place people in situations like this, where there is a potential for violence, then the chances of injuries increases.  In this case, an American acted foolishly as the result of a Mexican acting equally foolish… maybe more.

Another thing that I find funny about these arguments is that while so many Americans are up in arms about SB1070, it seems that none of them have really commented on the Mexican government’s OWN laws toward immigrants… illegal or otherwise.  Their rules and laws towards both legal and illegal immigration are much stricter than are ours.  Yet Filepe Calderon, the president of Mexico and the person who, a few years ago, stated that “wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”, has the Gaul to come here and tell us what we are doing wrong?

For examples of what you have to go through in Mexico, as an immigrant, please check out some of the links below.  These are not my work, but I list the parent site and give credit where possible.

From the Rosen Law web site – Click Here

From Michelle Malkin’s web site – Click here

From the Human Rights web site – Click Here

Why is it that if Calderon can come to the US and chastise us for our immigration policy, that we cannot send Obama to Mexico and have him complain about why you and I cannot run across the border and take up some of those jobs that He sent down there?  Is it OK for Mexico to display such obvious racism towards Americans, by protecting their country from us, among other countries, but somehow it is a cardinal sin for us to protect our border?

People… Please… stop playing this as a racist thing.  Sure, there are those out there that make it racist, but they are not the majority.

If you want the American dream, do not steal it.  Earn it.


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Our next adventure…

Posted on June 15, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

Well… My wife and I are about to embark on our next big adventure in our lives.

About two weeks ago we discovered the completely unexpected, but not unwelcome, news that we are going to have a baby.  At the time of my writing this, she is about 6 1/2 weeks along, so we are expecting to have a little package arrive sometime around the first part of February 2011.

We actually had given up trying to have a child.  We were told that we would not be able to have a child.  This was not for lack of TRYING, I mean, like they say… that is the fun part.  Trying to have a child.  But it never happened, so we just figured we would not worry about it and have fun.

I have had a couple people tell me that it is not a good idea to have a child at our age.  I am 41 and my wife is 40, she will be 41 when the child is born.  There are stories of people that have problems with pregnancies after the age of 35.   I understand this, but I also think that in this day and age, where people are having children well into their 50s, that my wife and I will have no problems at all, as long as we stick to the doctor’s advice and make sure we take care of ourselves.

I will not lie to you all… I am nervous.  But that emotion is joined with several others… Fear, Excitement, anticipation and anxiety are a few of these other emotions that I am feeling.  I am sure that these are the same feelings that all fathers have felt when they first got that news that they were expecting.

In all… this is going to be great.  Between my wife and I and our friends and family that will be part of this child’s life, there is going to be no lack of love in the child’s life.  That is the most important thing.


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Organ donation…

Posted on June 1, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

 

This message is more of a call out to all of you who read this, for you to spread the word.

I have a friend that is in need of a Kidney.  This is not something that is down the line or at her leisure, but something whose need is immediate.

Please follow this link to her Facebook location.   Holly Prior

What is important to understand is that you do not even have to be a match for the person in need anymore.  There is a program at UCLA called the Kidney Exchange Program.  This is a program where you go in and donate your healthy Kidney and it is placed in queue for someone in need; and remember… if you are healthy and in good shape, you can live a perfectly normal life with one kidney.

While this does not guaranty that the person you know, like Holly in this case, will get your kidney, spreading the word and getting more people in the system will make the likelihood of someone like Holly finding a compatible match.

As with anything like this, you should discuss this with your doctor before you contact the UCLA program.  But if you can, imagine the life-changing gift you will be sharing with someone out there?


Posted in Health and Hygene | Tagged | 1 Comment

Robin Hood… again? Seriously???

Posted on May 10, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

 

If you search IMDB (Internet Movie Database) for Robin Hood, you will be accosted by a list that goes on and on and on.  This will include the various cartoons, parodies, comedies and musicals that are out there.

Most recently to don the tight is now Russell Crowe.  Joining such names as Douglas Fairbanks, Groucho Marx, Errol Flynn, Patrick Steward and Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc.)

The question I have, though, is WHY?

Do we really need another Robin Hood movie?  I have asked this many times and the question still stands.  With all the talent out there yet to be discovered, are we really that desperate for ideas that we are once again re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-rehashing something like Robin Hood to grace the screen to go of and once again rescue our favorite professional “Damsel in Distress” from the evil sheriff?

This story is so tired and worn out, I have to think that the only people that are really going to be busting the doors down to see it will either be SCA nerds who’s sole intent is to take it apart or women (and I am sure a few guys) going to see the latest flick with Russell Crowe.

This is a movie that I will not see… I have no interest in it at all.  In fact, I can say with pretty good certainty that it was Kevin Costner that killed Robin Hood for me.  It was, in my humble opinion, like watching a very slow moving train wreck.  Even Cary Elwes opted out of this movie when he was approached, before Costner, for the part of Hood.

To be honest… I cannot recall the last, serious, Robin Hood movie that I really enjoyed.  I know that Mel Brooks’ “Men In Tights” adaptation was great and topped off only by Cary Elwes as Hood (remember, he was offered the REAL roll, but turned it down and later accepted the parody roll.) and Patrick Stewart’s last minute appearance as King Richard.  I also have to mention the unforgettable role of  Roger Rees as the Sheriff of Nottingham.  He was classic.

So… I should correct myself.  The last version of Robin Hood that thrilled me was Mel Brooks’.  There is something inherently sad about that.

I doubt that any of the modern versions would be able to tell the story in the same way as the greats did…  Like Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks.   These were people that did not need the special effects to accomplish anything.  They simple told a story and captured our hearts with that alone.

 


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The US Oil industry

Posted on May 7, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

We are a funny lot, you know?

I am not just pointing my finger at others, but I will include myself in this argument as well.  Because at one time, in the past, I also felt that there was too much oil exploitation in the US, that we were destroying the land with our rigs and drills.  But that was many years ago, when I was still swayed by the teachings of others and did not have the desire to make decisions for myself based on my own research.

That being said, there is a problem that affects many of us.  As an example, when the state says that they are going to build a new rehab center for people released from prison, everyone says, “Great job, they just need another chance!”

Then the state says that they are putting it in your neighborhood, and that changes everything.  Suddenly it is not such a good idea and you are getting in line to petition against it.  You are all for it, as long as it is someplace else.

The county says that they are going to allow a house in your neighborhood to be a home for functionally mentally or physically challenged people.  Many people will say things like, “That is a great idea, and I support it 100%… as long as they move it somewhere else, just not in my neighborhood.”

I dare you to tell me I am wrong.  Even if you might not be the one to actually SAY IT, you might still be thinking it.  It is called “NIMBY”… or Not In My Back Yard.

 

Now… lets take the our attitude about the oil companies.  More often than not it’s the LIBERAL and the Enviro-Nazi attitude towards them.

We talk all the time about the fact that we are paying out the nose for gas and that all that money is going overseas to the “Arabs”.  We see on TV and read online about how these folks are building some of the biggest hotels and building on the planet.  How the owners of these oil fields are buying gold and silver plated cars. But then when someone asks WHY and HOW they can do this, people stammer and stutter.

YOU AND I are the reasons.  WE are feeding their addiction.

When someone looks at a piece of land in the US and mentions that there are literally BILLIONS of cubic feet of natural gas or barrels of crude just waiting to be pumped out of the ground, we have to fight through years and years of red tape with bureaucrats, special interest groups, ECO-Nazis, and similar groups until they just don’t do it.

 

Even the existing oilfields that we have are so closely watched that when something DOES happen, like say a tractor runs over a particular mouse, agencies move in in a heartbeat to stop everything to do some asinine environmental impact study on how they can save the rat and/or relocate it.

Now… I will take a moment to say that I am not against protecting wildlife, but there has to be a balance.  I know there can be a balance between man and nature and we can both win.

Many years ago, I can remember when the common thought was that we, America, was selling out to the Japanese.  I remember hearing stories about how they were buying everything and we were going to lose our identity as Americans.  But the question then as it is now was, who is doing the selling?

I do see us selling out to the OPEC nations.  I see people like my brother-in-law and my nephew-in-law working for companies that are struggling to make it because we are so anal about how we drill on the precious little pieces of land we are allowed to drill on, while at the same time we are sending billions of dollars overseas to companies that do not seem to be as badly affected by groups like we are here in the States.

This is a perfect example of NIMBY, and we are letting it happen.  We are content to let our potential oil reserves sit, untapped, because we might cause some damage to the environment, yet we are happy to send the money overseas when we could be stimulating our OWN economy by paying people in the US to drill for oil.

I know what some of you are saying right now.  You are saying: “Hey Samurai… look at what just happened in the Gulf… isn’t that a good example of why we should not be drilling and what effect it has on the environment?”

You would be partially right.  I will never say that there are no risks to drilling.  Accidents happen, spills will occur, people will get hurt.  Tell me one job in the world that you could not say the same thing about.  It is an industry with risks; each mistake makes us think a little more carefully about the next move we make.  We learn from our mistakes because that is what they are there for.

We are constantly talking about alternative energy, and I am all for that. I support it 100%, but you cannot just flip a switch and change everything that we do overnight.  You need to make changes slowly so that they do not cripple the economy.  You need to ease up on nuclear restrictions and put wind farms where they will do the most good, not where they will look the prettiest.

Oil exploration and production is safe… it can be a high risk profession, people get hurt, sometimes killed, accidents and spills do happen.  We need to understand that and get over it.  Move on.  Think of the economy this country could have if we started allowing safe and careful oil drilling in places like ANWR or some of the potential reservoirs like Williston Basin.  Granted, it would take several years to develop these, but if we concentrate on things like this and take the Enviro-Nazis out of the loop, then we would be creating thousands of new jobs… possibly tens of thousands of new jobs, thus injecting money back into OUR economy and helping to rebuild OUR infrastructure.

We were strong once before, people… we can be strong again.  We just have to stop listen to the special interest groups and the people who think they know better than we do.  It can happen.


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Apologies…

Posted on April 24, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

My Apologies to my readers…

Through a series of family health issues this last month, I was unable to keep up with my own schedule to put out the number of stories I wanted to.

I plan on catching back up with this now that everyone and everything is once again… alright.


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Heroes Month – Maj. James F Baier (USMC)

Posted on April 7, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

When I was young, my mother started working for the Department of Health and Human services here in our home town of Bakersfield, Ca.  We had spent a couple years on Welfare when we moved to Bakersfield, but we actually used it for what it was meant for, and that was to help you get back on your feet.

When my mother started with the County, she made made friends right off the bat.  She was just that kind of person, and over time, one of those friends was James Baier, or Jim as he liked to be called.

Jim had a way of letting everyone know that he had everything under control.  That as long as he was in the mix, there was little that would or could go wrong.  You see… Jim was a former Marine.  Not just that, he was, in my opinion, a “Marine’s Marine”.  When I think of the attitude that Jim exuded, I always think of a line from the movie “Heartbreak Ridge”…  “Be advised. I’m mean, nasty and tired. I eat concertina wire and piss napalm and I can put a round in a flea’s ass at 200 meters. So why don’t you go hump somebody elses leg, mutt face, before I push yours in.”

It would be hard for me to say that Jim was sweet, kind or gentle… I am sure he was to the right people.  But at the point where he came into my life, I think that he understood that this was not something I needed.  He saw that I was just on the verge of going in the wrong direction and needed my ass kicked a few times a week to get it back in line.  This was something that my mother was no longer able to do.  Though she tried, it was just not having the correct affect on me.  I think that he saw this and took action.

At the age of 16, and on my own, with no real direction from my mother or father (when he made the rare appearance) decided to join the Marine Corps.  Once Jim learned of this, it was all over.  He pressed me, pushed me and drilled me every time he came by the house.  It got to the point that, on a few occasions, I made sure I was not there when he came by.  Not that I did not like him, just that I did not want to be ordered around.

At the time, I did not see what he was doing to me.  I did not understand then, as is usually the case, that what he was doing was simply getting me ready for that which I needed to learn in the real world.  That which I would soon be subjected to when I climbed off that van at MCRD in San Diego.

Jim was, from my memory, not without his problems.  Like my father, he drank too much and he swore a little too much, even for me.  I always thought of him as being a little on the self destructive side and there was always something about him that seemed lonely.  That being said, there was never a better person to have on your side if you needed help or emotional support.  There was also never a worse person to have as an enemy should you discover the place to his bad side.

I was always a little jelealous of his family.  While they were people I knew, and I went to school with both of his children, I never “knew” them until later.  In the short period of time that Jim was part of my life, he made a huge impression on me and my life.  There is very little that I do today that does not occasionally cause me to think of him.

Jim passed away in, I think, 1996.  With his passing, I feel that everyone that knew him or whose path he had crossed, had lost something special.  There are even a couple people I know that did not like him, that felt a loss when he had died.

Because of the positive influence that Jim had on me, the lessons that he taught me, both directly and indirectly, and the effect he had on my family.  For that, he is included in my list of personal heroes.

Thank you Jim…  Godspeed and Sempre Fi!

 

Note:  If you are reading this, and you are one of Jim’s family members, you are more than welcome to email me.  I would love to talk to you.

 


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Heroes Month – Carl Sagan

Posted on April 3, 2010 by SamuraiMarine

Let’s start the month out with a bang.  Or, as may be the case here, a BIG BANG.

Aside from seeing the occasional image of this goofy looking man with the big ears and bad hair standing next to various probes that NASA sent out during the 1970s, I did not put much to Carl Sagan.  He was just, from my young point of view, another one of the guys that made the things go up and take pictures.

Image courtesy of Fanpix.net

 

Then, on one quiet evening in September, 1980… my world was rocked.  PBS had started a new series called COSMOS, with it’s host… none other than Dr. Carl Sagan.  The first episode was Shores of the Cosmic Ocean.

It was not the fact that he was hosting it or the show by itself.  It was the WAY he spoke to me, and when you watched the show, you actually did feel like he was speaking to you, personally.  He shared not only the facts and the information, but he imparted his love for science in every show.

So… every new episode I would sit, riveted to the TV hanging on every word he uttered and absorbing every fact that he shared.  And thus my love… no, my LUST for science was born.  I could no longer look at the world and take everything for granted…  I had to know why things were the way they were.  I had to understand everything.

There were not enough books that I could read or articles to examine by Carl for me.  Every time he gave a speech, I would find a way to hear it.  Any time there was an article in a paper, I was at the library trying to find it so that I could read it.  What makes these especially a challenge, for those of you who do not recall a time before the internet, is that when I was doing this, I had to go to the library and look much of this up on cards or in magazines or on, dare I say… the dreaded microfiche.  It was not as easy as it is today to simply pull up Google and do a search.

It was, in part, because of Carl Sagan that I… and yes, it is one of the few things I am embarrassed to admit, took part in a March Against Nuclear Arms.  Somewhere there is a picture of me, carrying a sign in downtown Bakersfield, trying to abolish nuclear weapons.  I guess you could say that I was there and then, officially, a hippie.

But the most important thing I learned from him was the science.  From that one stepping point, I expanded into other areas.  Things made more sense to me and I was able to start applying the thing that I had learned as a result of Carl, to other parts of my life.

As with all good things, this too had to end, and in 1996, Carl Edward Sagan passed away.  Having followed his career for most of my life.  Been addicted to his speeches, appearances and writings and mesmerized with his personality…  it was like losing a close family member.  To be honest, I cried harder when he passed away than when my own father died.  It was that important to me.

So this is why I include Carl Sagan among my personal heroes.


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