Question:

When did Congress get the power to demand the presence of a private citizen and the right to grill and question them for as long as they want? AFAIK, there isn’t anything allowing that in my copy of the Constitution. They are LEGISLATORS, that is all.

It’s not like they are rulers or anything. Nor is it like they have judicial power….

Today reminded me of the stories I heard about the McCarthy era.

“we speak english”

Damned straight.

I’d vote for him, on this issue alone. 

After all, road signs are in english…..

If you live here, and are taking this country for your home, then learn the dominant language. ENGLISH.

I am descended from immigrants. Many of my maternal relatives are hispanic. I am proud of what they have made for themselves in this country. They all speak english, even if only as a second language.

I worked for an italian gentleman when I was in high school. While it was obvious to anyone with one working ear that he and his wife had not been born and raised in the midwest, THEY SPOKE PASSABLE ENGLISH (at least until they got excited).

The point is, if you are taking this country as your home, you need to adapt to the country, not expect the country to adapt to you.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

These words, on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty, which greeted those immigrants arriving at Ellis Island for processing, are part and parcel of what makes this country great. But nowhere does it say that you get an easy ride, nor freebies, nor that the country should learn to speak your language.  Many thousands of peoples from all over this world have arrived in the US, eager to make their lives in “America!”. Few failed to learn at least a part of the language and culture. (at least those who were successful). They became part of the country, in part, because they had to learn the common language. And to the country’s benefit, they amalgamated in a generation or two, to not be asian-american, or irish-american, or italian-american or whatever-american, but just plain american.

By allowing those folks who have arrived to not learn english, we fail them in their integration and amalgamation into citizens of this country.

ETA: related thoughts HERE. 

Note that he lives in Indiana, not a border state.

lies

SO they lied about the cost of the Health care bill. (yeh, I know, no shit?)

But here is proof that they knew they were lying.

Bastard socialists.

National guard? Sure

Seems the folks in charge in Chicago want more boots on the street to patrol the crime ridden areas. Hey! Lets use the National Guard! That way the Peoples Republik State of Illinois will have to pay for things.

Despite the fact that they fund fewer and fewer Chicago policemen every year, and instead spend more and more money on “social programs” and  handouts to minorities “entitlements” (I’d like to jam a stick in the eye of whoever made the word “entitlements” commonly used in that context, but I digress), the areas in question have fallen lower and lower on the civilized scale each year. Nor have the number of working folks increased, nor has the quantity of folks living at the poverty level decreased.

All those programs and handouts haven’t materially resulted in a betterment for any of the people living in those areas, and have, if anything, resulted in even less civilized behavior from those residents.

Check out the rates of single parent households. Welfare is, if not THE problem, at least a significant one.

What no one in the media seems to bother to mention is the fact that all the money spent in liberal programs and social engineering is not returning any results. None, zero, nada. The problem is the people.

The issue in the south side of Chicago isn’t anything more than a cultural one. Exacerbated by the so called leaders that the community elects over and over again to help themselves the citizens of the community with(generally) other peoples money. The areas have been bad since the ’70s and in some cases, despite the massive amounts of money spent, are getting materially worse.

If the city needs policing, let the city hire and train policemen, rather than use National Guardsmen who, while no doubt good folks, aren’t trained to be police. And let the city fund those same policemen, rather than hand out money in the vain attempt to buy civilized behavior and order, rather than expect someone else to pay for it.

Read SecondCityCop to find a policeman’s perspective.

May 20th.

Draw Mohammed day.

While I mean no significant disrespect to muslims, neither do I think we should cower in fear because some radical islamist feels that he has the right to kill an infidel due to a perceived slight of Mohammed.

Therefore, I bring this to your attention. I will post the most funny, well done, satirical cartoon I can find here (make no mistake, if I could draw one, I would, but I have difficulty having my stick figures recognized as such, so I will reproduce someone else’s artwork.

I invite the offended muslim to wage his jihadic war upon me. He might find me a more worthwhile adversary that the unarmed TheoVanGogh. (I shoot back).

Please, pass this forward to others. Let us all celebrate this day, if only to defuse and pull the fangs of the offended muslim which threatens violence so effectively.