Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Castro-sized

Well now, what does it say to you when a communist dictator endorses you for a political office? That doesn't really spell freedom now does it?

It seems that some of Fidel's favorite people are Jimmy "I gave away the Panama Canal" and Bill "slick Willy" Clinton - nice guys. He also favors a Hillary - Barack ticket in 2008. You have to be doing something right if Fidel is in your corner.

I wonder when good buddy Chavez is going to throw his endorsement Hillary's way?

It may be time to start packing for a small Caribbean island.

##That's my opinion##

Monday, August 20, 2007

No to Diversity -- Yes to Unity

To start out this post I want to be completely fair to Michael Abrashoff who has HEAVILY influenced my thoughts in this manner in his book "It's Your Ship" where he speaks of eliminating the diversity program on his ship and migrating it to a unity program. I recommend the book... it is a great read.

Now I see an article from Gregory Rodriguez in the Orlando Sentinel on Diversity which supports the unity idea and am further emboldened to share it with you here. In this article Mr. Rodriquez does a wonderful job discussing the new report from Robert Putnam on what his research has determined around Diversity. Amazing thing is that it turns out the more diverse your culture is the less trust for individuals there is. What does this mean? To boil it down it means that if you don't belong to something you tend to distrust everyone.

None of this means that we are doomed by diversity. But it does suggest that simply celebrating it and promoting it is not going to help us get along. Putnam points to a need for everyone to construct new social identities. He recalls growing up in a Midwestern town in the 1950s, when religious affiliations acted as strong social barriers between neighbors. Three decades later, he says, Americans had "more or less deconstructed religion as a salient social division." Although it was still personally important, religion's power as a social identity had diminished significantly.
The article talks in terms of race relations, but also mentions the elimination of religious affiliations as well. I find this very interesting in relation to a personal story. I recently visited Central Eastern Europe and during that trip I decided to attend Church on Sunday. It was amazing at how I felt instantly at home in a foreign country just by going to someplace where we all shared the same basic ideas and thoughts. As I reflect on this article, my experience in the CEE, and my own Church it seems to me that it is true. Here at home in our own Church we have people from all races, creeds, backgrounds yet everyone is the same. We all belong to the same group. We all have UNITY of purpose. Isn't that interesting? As we move through the post-modern age with everyone seemingly worried about what is in it for "me" and only looking at the short term to find pockets of unity and group belonging seems to become more rare. To cover it up under the guise of "Diversity" is nothing more than a sham... a ruse... something that is damaging the very fabric of our society.

Read the article (and this one for a slighlty different slant on Robert Putman's research)... make up your own mind. Read the book. Tell me what you think

-End of Ramble

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Could 4 Years of Hillary Help Conservatives?

Recent polls regarding the Democrat Presidential candidates indicate that Hillary still has the best chance of winning the Democrat nomination for 2008. However, polls regarding Hillary's positives and negatives show some interesting trends as well. According to Ron Fournier from AP , Hillary's negatives will provide little coattail room for fellow Dem's and may drive more Republicans to the polls.

It chills me to think that Hillary may have a shot at being the next President, but if it takes four years of Hillary to wake up our country to the horrors of socialized medicine and open borders, then it might just be the medicine we need.

##That's my opinion##

Thursday, August 09, 2007

The World That Works -- The World That Doesn't Work

I'm not a hard core Newt supporter by any means, but he nails the "who's here illegally" problem pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15D3ElV1Jzw

I work in the Information Technology field and I know it's not that hard to collect, validate, track, modify, and report on 300 million unique and individual records. And, provide access to those unique records to hundreds of users in different geographical locations. It's actually pretty simple technology. So, why is it we can't get a record of who is in America legally and who is in America illegally? It's because our government does not have the desire to - you'll have to ask them why. By the way, there are about 300 million Americans - anybody want to buy a database program?


Debate Illegal Immigration all you want, pass whatever laws you want, but while that debate is going on, do all of America a favor and build a wall on the border. Legislation already exists to protect our borders, build a wall, and secure our nation.

It's the law, we know what to do, so build the wall already.

##That's my opinion##