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Apr. 6, 2006 Ding! Dong! The witch is dead! Well, Tom Delay isn't exactly a witch, and he's far from dead, but he is out of political office! Woo-hoo! Sorry, I had to do a bit o' juvenile public gloating ;) That man is evil. He mixes religion with politics like some of the worst bastards of history. Sometimes, I think he's sincere, but mostly, I think he just knows how to truly use people and play off of their fears and traditions. Either way, he's dangerous. Real America wants nothing to do with his ilk. Washington, Lincoln - all of the American greats writhed in their graves every time Delay spewed his medieval, old-world, theocratic, babble. And then they twitched some more as so many fell for it. Is he a crook? I wanted him out long after his numerous ethics violations and long before his recent legal trouble. If there is a God, maybe Delay will do some jail time. I prayed deeply over this before writing, and I'm convinced that jail would be good for him. In other quasi-related news, I'm happy to realize just how poorly Congress functions! “Happy” was sarcastic, folks; I direct your attention to this episode of Frontline. It seems that the pharmaceutical industry has done its best to fight sane and practical methods of stamping out the meth epidemic we now have. I wasn't aware, but it seems that to make meth you need one of two drugs. These drugs are very hard to make and require complex, high-tech, manufacturing shops. In other words, there is a very narrow bottle neck that can be easily controlled and squeezed to regulate this stuff – this makes it vastly different from most other drug problems. Meth can be controlled and virtually squashed without locking people up for years, without adding to street crime, etc. Oh well, money talks and politicians who promise zero tolerance/x strikes and you're out/super-long jail sentences/”tough on crime” keep getting elected, so, what can one do? Gangs need something to get violent about, no? They certainly appreciate the efforts of big business. Speaking of Republicans, kudos to Bush – this immigration idea he has makes sense. This was one issue that I was in agreement with him on, even before he was elected. Long term, America has many disadvantages. Our debt, our lack of national health care and our failing infrastructure are going to bite us eventually. One big plus we have is immigration. Legal immigration isn't fast enough to keep up - we need fresh blood to pay for the aging population. Countries like Japan which are very narrow-minded when it comes to immigration are in trouble. There is one community in Japan right now, for example, where just a single student attends the local public school. Like so many Western countries, they've reached zero/negative population growth. If too many people are out of the workforce at the same time, things tend to implode. Of course I'd rather have legal immigration, but we also can't ignore the 12 million people already here. Morality doesn't always equal legality. If I was a poor Mexican with a family to feed, perhaps remaining in Mexico would be less moral than breaking US law to better myself and my future. Having a third-world neighbor can be a drag. We should invest heavily in Mexico and raise them up – how's that for a long term strategy? Democracy in the Middle East? How about a Canadian/US/Mexico trading zone that rivals the current/future Asian and European offerings? NAFTA was sold as something that would bring Mexico up to Canada's standards within 20 years and I supported it. That's just not the case – the problems need to be reexamined and corrected. This is one of the best long-term projects we could be involved with, especially if more South American countries turn against us. The real issue here is of course racism. We're a nation of immigrants which doesn't like the newest variety. We never have and we likely never will. Most Mexicans that are here illegally didn't wander through the desert, they got legal visitation rights and merely stayed (in other words, they drove or flew in). The people most opposed to those 'damn Mexicans' are folks that have very little contact with actual Mexicans. Those are two interesting stats I've heard recently which sort of changes the entire debate as far as I'm concerned. We should return taxes to their pre-Bush rates and then spend that money on public education and to make America bilingual, like most other countries on the planet. Oh, and we should teach them one of the more popular Chinese languages as well, and start both in nationally-subsidized preschools. ;) Alternatively, we could have giant, floating, blimp-hung, casinos on every block to fund these programs. We could even ask Delay if God is kosher with that much gambling. God used to hate gambling, but changed his mind around the same time that the Religious Right came into power - just ask the Christian Coalition. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@gmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. 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