Wince and Nod

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Of Interest 2013-07-03 (Topic: Islam)

Can Islam Be Reformed? History and human nature say yes

Jihad on Egypt's Christian Children

Iran’s apocalyptic policy makers

If you see something, say nothing

Obama’s Head-in-the-Sand Speech on Terror

The Road Europe Is On

A Fair Immigration Law

The current immigration bill passed by the Senate is not even close to fair. It will bring 30 million new legal immigrants, nearly all from Mexico. That is a third of Mexico's population. Depopulating Mexico is not fair to the Mexican people. The potato famine caused so many people to flee Ireland, and Ireland still has not recovered. Bringing 30 million mostly unskilled immigrants is not fair to poor people in this country. How will poor African-Americans, poor Hispanic-Americans, poor Native Americans, poor Asian-Americans and even poor white Americans manage to get jobs with 30 million more people completing for those jobs?

The only people who benefit from this bill are rich people.

How is this bill fair to people who followed the rules when they came here?

The only way to have a fair bill is for illegal immigrants to have significant disadvantages as they are legalized, so that we do not create perverse incentives. Here is a somewhat brain-stormed proposal:

The bill will be no more than ninety pages long.
The bill will be debated using normal rules.
All non-criminal illegal immigrants will be placed on the amnestied registry as soon as they apply, or if they are caught. We aren't going to deport people. It's too heartless.
The amnestied registry will include bio-metric identification, including DNA.
Any employer who knowingly employs an illegal immigrant will be fined. Use of E-Verify will be a positive defense against such fines. Once an illegal immigrant has been amnestied, no further fines will apply.
The minimum wage for amnestied immigrants shall be twenty-five percent higher than it is for other immigrants and American citizens. This will encourage businesses to hire other immigrants and American citizens.
Any children of illegal immigrants or amnestied immigrants shall not be citizens of the United States even if they are born here. The children will automatically be amnestied immigrants.
Amnestied immigrants will not have a path to citizenship while they continue to live in the U.S. In order to obtain a green card they must legally migrate to a third country (not their country of origin) and hold a job there for five years if they were born in another country, or two years if they were born in the U.S After that they can apply for a green card here, and if they get one, apply for citizenship in the normal manner. This gives the amnestied immigrant a proper appreciation of what legal immigrants have gone through.
Amnestied immigrants may not vote in any U.S. elections.
Amnestied immigrants may not receive benefits paid by tax money, including tax subsidies, such as the earned income credit. Minor amnestied immigrants may receive primary and secondary education, and may attend state schools while paying in state tuition, provided the state agrees.
U.S. citizens may sue public officials for damages if the public officials are not enforcing these rules. This means public officials must actually try to catch people breaking the law.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Of Interest 2013-07-01

What’s the connection between abortion and careers?

Abortion, ‘Choice,’ Volleyball

Abortion: Sacred Ground?

IRS Abuse -- More Widespread than the Media Comprehend

Do Blacks and the Left Really Believe This?

Why Some Scientists Embrace the 'Multiverse'

Why does the left want to suppress free speech?

Case Closed? Far From It

If Only Our Foreign Enemies Were Republicans

New Audience

I am now writing this blog for my family and friends I see regularly. If you are an internet friend of mine you are still welcome though.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Let's all ask the President to resign!

Contact the President at : http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact the Vice President at : http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact-vp/
Contact the Speaker at: http://www.speaker.gov/Contact/

Apparently the Senate Majority Leader only wants to hear from Nevada.
Here is what I wrote to President Obama and copied the Vice President and the Speaker:

Dear Mr. President,

Please tender your resignation at once. You should have accepted the deal the House and Senate leadership produced yesterday. This is the last straw. There is no way that the Vice President can do worse than you are doing. It's true that you have to deal with the collapse of a 150 year old domestic political method going back to Bismarck. It's hard for the captain to deal with a sinking ship that he thought could never sink. Yet you will not work, unlike the Vice President. You are always and only talk, talk, talk. The Vice President likes to talk, but he is at least talk, talk, work, sometimes, talk, work, talk and every so often work, talk, talk. You alternate between petulant whining and angry, irresponsible demagoguery. When the Vice President whines you can't tell because he is smiling and upbeat, and his irresponsible demagoguery is of the happy warrior type. He frequently speaks responsibly. You only speak responsibly when you are trying to simulate a responsible adult. Real responsible adults don’t constantly whine. Real responsible adults don’t constantly engage in angry, irresponsible demagoguery. And real adults do the work.

This is especially distressing because you claim to understand the Constitution. The Executive Branch is supposed to produce concrete plans rapidly. This is it's virtue. You almost never produce concrete plans, with your surge in Afghanistan being the notable exception. That one practically had to be beaten out of you. Right now the House produces concrete plans faster than the Executive Branch. Even the Senate, which is supposed to be the deliberative branch, seems to be working faster than you are.

Clearly you were built for the Senate, where deliberate, deliberate, deliberate works fine. Please beat the Peter Principle and resign.

Yours,
Thomas L. DeGisi

Sunday, January 09, 2011

It Was Always Obvious...

... that the Iraq war was justified to stop Hussein from getting nukes.

Monday, July 05, 2010

Progressive Policies Harm The Poor

Reverend Jim Wallis understandably believes that progressive policies are the most Christian social policy. It is understandable because he believes in God the Father, Jesus, His Son and us as adopted children in Christ. Progressive policies are a natural extension of the Christian family, which is a an authoritarian, socialist institution. God and Christ are the heads of the larger Christian family and parents are the head the smaller Christian families which make up the larger. We love our families and we want to have the same kind of nurture only bigger.

But Wallis is mistaken.

Here is what God had to say about the government, in I Samuel 8:

11 He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

The authoritarian dream Wallis embraces fails. It is not Godly. The authoritarian dream will make people suffer. And, as has always been the case, the rich will suffer the least and the poor the most.

In economic terms, the family does not scale. At the microeconomic level, the family is wonderful for the poor, the middle class and the rich. It has been so since the beginning. But at the macroeconomic level it is free choice, the free market, liberty and the creative destruction of capitalism that is wonderful for the poor, the middle class and the rich. Since the beginning free choice, the free market, liberty and creative destruction have been how families have interacted with other families.

God is wildly into freedom. He could have built robots. He did not.

It's also plain that God is wildly into creative destruction, even if we aren't. That was his plan to save our souls. How is Heaven going to be implemented? The old world will pass away!

So, Reverend Jim, I'm afraid you need to embrace the free market at the macroeconomic end. For the poor. For children. So we can have more justice and more peace.

I was inspired by this article: Is the Tea Party a Christian Movement?

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

It's Time To Stand Strong For Israel

American policy must be an utter condemnation of Turkey's support of Hamas and Hebollah. The Turks are peddling vicious anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda at home. Their news reports that our soldiers clogged the Euphrates with Iraqi bodies and that Americans and Jews conspired to sell Iraqi organs. Mein Kampf is a best seller.

America must move our Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We must move carriers into the Eastern Mediterranean. We must pledge to enforce the blockade ourselves, including sinking any Turkish warships which attempt to defend another flotilla. We must demand that Turkey pay a 200 million dollar indemnity to Israel for their support of terrorists. If the Turks don’t agree (and it is OK to negotiate the amount down to half that) we must demand they be kicked out of NATO. If they are not, we must leave NATO ourselves.

The Turks are showing every sign of becoming genocidal once more – to which I say “Never again”.

A firm hand will prevent much bloodshed – including Turkish blood. As our good allies during the Cold War, they deserve firmness to save their own lives.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

All The World's Not A Stage

So Jonah Goldberg points out that following our habitual scripts doesn't make sense. Specifically the liberal script which rapidly condemns bigotry against blacks by a white person, but cannot condemn genocidal bigotry against Jews by a Muslim person. That said, I need to be careful about my own scripts.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Hot Enough To Fry An Egg

James points out that you can cook eggs on a shovel - among other uses.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Rules Aren't Smooth

This Joel On Software article explains why software standards don't work nearly as well as we want. This is also why the rule of law does not work as well as we want. And why Bibles and written constitutions do not work as well as we want.

I like more liberty and less law.