What It Takes To Notice Illegal Immigration

What does it take for Arkansas politicians to notice illegal immigration? Cash draining out of their fun money sack, thats what.

The growth rate of immigration in Arkansas is fairly astounding. It grew 196 percent in the 1990's. We have about 150,000 immigrants, about half of those illegal according to statistics. Most living in Northwest Arkansas where the chicken manufacturers love them.

A recent report presented to the Legislature shows that we spend about $170 million on them. About $154 million of that on education. We spend about $1.8 million to house convicted criminals who are illegal.

Complaints by citizens have not sparked officials to act.....but $175 million out of the tax kitty apparently does. Oh well, whatever it takes.

With that being said, I think LEGAL immigration is a great thing for our state. Immigrants from Mexico are generally very family-oriented, generally religious, and without doubt hard workers. They save some of our manufacturers about $95 million a year in additional labor cost. I certainly do not mind Mexican citizens applying to come to the United States and choosing Arkansas to live and work in.

But if you are an ILLEGAL immigrant I do not want you here. Your presence signifies that you do not respect the laws created by the people of my country. I don't care how hard working you are or how much your family in Mexico needs the money. I would prefer that you be deported and that you be replaced by a Mexican national who followed the legal procedure.

The general response to such a view is to call the wielder of it a racist. I am not. I am actually in favor of increasing the legal quota of Mexican nationals admitted to the United States. They are hard workers, and they provide benefits to the economy. To those who fill out the paperwork and ask to come here....welcome. To those who sneak in...please go home.

The reasonable approach of raising the legal quota while deporting the illegals is not going to happen. Liberals see political benefit in creating another dependent minority and Conservatives will never allow a raising of the legal quota. So we will end up with all manner of criminals and ne'er do wells sneaking in alongside those who cannot gain entry legally because there are too few slots.

To those Americans who support ILLEGAL immigration and stand in the way of every attempt to enforce the law....please stop. If you want unfettered immigration then by all means have the law changed to make unfettered immigration legal through our democratic system. But help enforce the law until you do. That is if you believe in democratic government and the rule of law.

For Conservatives, you might want to consider that you cannot have controlled legal immigration with a quota of zero. Human nature does not work like that. You are going to have to fix the legal immigration system to reflect reality in order to stop illegal immigration. Increasing the quota is NOT amnesty. I deplore the idea of an amnesty, but encourage the raising of the quota.

As for the Arkansas Legislature......take a look at the trend line on immigration to Arkansas.....take a look at the budget of state number 49 in everything.....and then figure out if you will still have money for "Grabfest", whiskey and cigars, and Hawgball. Doesn't look like it to me.

I Must Warn You......Your Water Is....Ohmigod.....Filtered

I'm afraid I can't thank the environmental movement for informing me that my Aquafina water comes from municipal taps. Thats because I already knew it. When I started drinking Aquafina I wondered what made it taste so good and I went to their website and watched their little flash movie about how they take tap water and filter it, purify it, filter it, purify it, and filter it about a dozen times to the point of absurdity. It tastes darn good cold. In fact it tastes better than the other bottled waters I tried because it has no taste other than very cold and very wet.

I am guessing that the people who are shocked....utterly shocked.....are those that just assumed Aquafina came out of some Colorado mountain spring just because it comes in a bottle. I suggest those people switch to whiskey and lithium.

The point of this warning is not to clue you in....its to make you not trust bottled water at all. So you won't drink it at all no matter what brand it is. Environmentalists have chosen bottled water as the next evil they must erase to save the world.

I plan to continue to drink Aquafina not because it's hip, or because it was squeezed out of a glacier in Nepal, but because it tastes very good and is filtered and purified.

I also want to warn you, that some of the water you drink, even spring water and tap water.....may have been inside a dog or deer, or even had a fish pee in at some point in the last 10,000 years. Yuk....whiskey and lithium is your best bet.

Arkansas History

I have given Mike Beebe credit where I think he deserves it. I promised to give him the benefit of the doubt and to not attack him just because of his party affiliation. I have done so, and now I have my first cause for complaint.

Arkansas students have traditionally been taught state history in the seventh and eighth grades. New guidelines now call for diluting the state history curriculum in favor of world history instead. This watering down comes despite the rather specific mandate of the legislature for the teaching of Arkansas History. These new standards were put forward by the state Board of Education. Teachers, historians, history professors, former Senator David Pryor, and others interested in Arkansas history have complained bitterly.

Governor Beebe supported the bureaucratic change to the standards at first. But then when the mini-firestorm erupted he backed off and gave lip-service to those opposed and promised to review the new standards.

That review is complete and the result is.......Governor Beebe supports the old standard, but it is too late to not implement the new standards for the upcoming year.

That is a weasel result. How can it be too late not to do something? Just revert to what was taught last year. It's like saying it's too late not to kill myself. This is a typical politicians answer.....I support you 100% but I have to screw you over anyway.

I will give credit to Governor Beebe for getting this far into his term before becoming a regular politician.

The truth is that we complain about our best kids leaving this state after graduation. That could be partially because our children do not have a strong and deep sense of being part of something. The money is better in Dallas so they go there because there is no difference of the heart between here or there. The feeling is that we are 49th in everything so its better to leave....not that we are 49th in everything and its necessary to stay.

But studying Arkansas History students can learn the sad history of our state, of its tragedies, and how it has struggled to overcome them. Our kids need to have a sense of what it is to be an Arkansan, to have a sense of responsibility to make the next 100 years be better, and to feel like they have the ability to have an impact. They cannot get that sense unless they are given a very good understanding of where they come from and who they are.

And even if they do leave us....we at least send them away with the understanding that they come from someplace unique and perhaps plant a seed for their return. Come on Governor Beebe....the legislature mandated the teaching of Arkansas History for this reason.....you should no faithfully execute that law. And to the Board of Education......listen to the historians on history, or be doomed to repeat it.