This is crazy! How much money do we as taxpayers have to pay for this ridiculous prank and ignore the racial paranoia? We as a society seemingly allow people to behave stupidly and then pay them for it. If anything I believe they could have received back-pay for the days missed and perhaps interest that could have accrued, but what was awarded, is unfathomably lame.
The Government discredits itself by turning a blind eye to disobedience of the law. One of the most egregious examples of this is tolerance of both illegal immigration and tolerance of the companies that employ illegal immigrants.
When the government isn’t simply turning a blind eye toward illegal immigration, it’s crying “wolf” about it’s intention to do something, anything to address our immigration issues So I expect to be excused for being skeptical of their latest stated plans to… do something.
Seeing is believing but we need action. Our society can not tolerate blatant lawlessness and remain credible as a nation committed to the rule of law. Laws need to be adhered to by all persons resident in this nation, not compromising for convenience or for economic factors. Illegal immigrants (and their advocates) would seek to undermine what makes our country unique and, frankly, better than their native lands, for their own selfish and immediate gain. We mustn’t allow continued violation of law, regardless the cost. We’ll see if congress has the will, moral clarity and resolve to do anything about this situation before the window for action has passed. I have my doubts.
It’s amazing that Washington can’t get things done even when there’s bipartisan understanding that something is terribly broken.
Farm subsidies have been identified by liberals, conservative, humanitarians, capitalists, socialists and everybody else in between as problematic. The fact that we as a society are incapable of making any real reform happen, in spite of widespread understanding of the issues involved with the subsidies, is a significant indictment of our process.
The fact is, the people who score big with the subsidies turn a lot of that money right back around to politicians (through lobbyists). The subsidy beneficiaries haven’t gotten too greedy (they generously turn around a lot of money instead of hoarding it) so the subsidies are likely to continue.
So the secret to advancing personal interests at the expense of the public good - make sure to turn around a fair share of your benefit to the politicians who gain that benefit for you. Don’t get greedy and you’ll be set for at least a generation.
I don’t know how lawyers do it. This panel is able to sit and discuss, with straight faces and presumably clear consciouses, the methods they use to undermine American labor and immigration laws in order to import “talent” from overseas. Just watch the video - it’s surreal.
My gut tells me that companies that engage in activities as shown above aren’t companies worth working for. Regardless, I am curious to know why companies would feel it necessary to break the spirit of the law so egregiously. It’s obvious that what’s going on is distasteful - why would a company want to risk exposing themselves to the potential negative backlash that could arise from such practices?
I wrote a little while back that I think the government should pony up for interest free loans for zero-emission/renewable-resource based power plants (photovoltaic solar was the specific class of plant that I had targeted). My thinking is laid out in the article but I’ll summarize. Investing in energy that doesn’t come from idiot nations means we can free ourselves from their idiocy (somewhat); we get a leg up on the competition because we will have the ability to run our economy at a stable cost as opposed to the wildly fluctuating costs of fossil fuels; we get to enjoy the fruits of greater environmental sensitivity in cleaner streams, skies, etc.
I was trolling YouTube and found this video:
This video makes it clear that photovoltaic solar isn’t the only option. There are options that are relatively low tech, available now, at low cost. The video states that the power plant shown has the ability to generate a stable 30 Kilowatts of energy, peaking at up to 60 Kilowatts. The power plant is a test version and is likely to improve its efficiency through various enhancements. There is little environmental impact and the whole thing cost a staggeringly little $1+ million.
It is conceivable that given a reasonable deployment of units like that shown in the video, the cost of an installation could drop even further. This low initial cost along with the requirement for only eleven acres of land on which to place such a plant, could result in quite a nicely profitable business generating clean, solar energy.
Also, given that the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity in states where this technology could be the most effective is relatively higher than the average (CA, AZ, NM, TX), shown in the middle of this page, it makes absolute business sense to seek alternative energy sources that could feed demand, taking advantage of relatively high energy costs, all the while using a renewable resource to provide protection against cost swings.
The following picture was snapped on the tarmac of a Sudanese airport, specifically on the portion reserved for military aircraft:
This is not actually a United Nations aircraft. According to this New York Times article it is a Sudanese military airplane altered to have the appearance of a UN aircraft. This airplane and many like it have been used to ferry munitions to Darfur, perform observations for military operations, and even to provide direct support (a euphemism for bombing and strafing) in military operations – this is all clearly wrong.
The government of Sudan is known to be providing assistance to the militias that are burning and killing their way through Darfur. This picture is just one small crumb of an overwhelming mountain of evidence that the Sudanese government is not only guilty of the crime of genocide, but intends to continue their activities. The world community knows this, and has known this long enough for the Sudanese government supported militias and forces to murder more than 200,000 and displace an additional 2.3 million.
The appropriate response to this, of course, is sanctions (sarcasm). Because they work so well in suppressing this sort of activity. Sanctions seem to be the only tool in the tool chest of the United Nations but sanctions have an Achilles heel. Sanctions are only really (marginally) effective when nations abide by them. In the case of Sudan, outside investment has never been as active as it is now. China, specifically, is moving into Sudan big time.
What interest could China possibly have in Sudan? Why oil, of course, the resource that has encouraged so many to look the other way for so long in so many other areas of the world (so long as the oil keeps flowing).
What’s the world to do when sanctions don’t work (as they seldom do), at least in part because powerful members of the world community (China) are so openly and obviously immoral? The situation as it stands is ridiculous. China’s abuses of rights are bad, but we know that the government of Sudan is committing horrible crimes that are in another scale entirely. We know that our efforts to isolate and marginalize the government of Sudan, as a punishment for those crimes, is being actively undermined by China. What is going to have to happen to spark some action here? I get the feeling that we might just continue to turn a blind eye to Sudan up until the time that Sudanese aircraft begin their bombing runs over the east coast. And China will be there to complain when we retaliate.
