A photograph I took in the cab of a GE Union Pacific locomotive, idling on the Gold Run siding, earlier this month.

You would do well to never forget this.

BZ

I made a comment at the end of my last post that Gayle indicated should be a post in and of itself; I thought: why not? The cat’s been interfering with my posting recently (as well as Blogger itself — anyone else finding Blogger “twitchy” this past week?), so I cut and pasted quickly before Mose sent me to an entirely different website. Here goes:

Folks: thank you ALL for commenting, and thank you all for the kind words! Thank you for linking this post to your blogs and, thank you Revka, for your comment about the importance of the post and its ability or our abilities to change hearts and minds.

I had no idea things would go this way when I began blogging. First it was simply kinda fun. Then it got bigger and bigger and I realized, likely as does AJ, that along with being an escape valve when necessary, it can also help me to understand what I’m thinking — and has helped to solidify and, more importantly, CLARIFY my beliefs and views.

I started out “big” on the GOP when I began to blog; now I’m more cognizant of my conservative bent and my allegiance to the overall values of “conservatism” than to a party itself — and, to a degree, how libertarianism sneaks into my wrinkled brain.

AJ makes an excellent point about blame and about solutions. And at this point, that is the greatest difference between Conservatives and Liberals, GOP and Dems. The liberals and Dems are so quick to point, peck and burn. But where are THEIR solutions? THEIR in-depth plans? It is always, ALWAYS so much easier to follow than to lead.

The Japanese have a saying we should embrace: “Fix the problem, not the blame.”

This Republic is not perfect nor will it ever be. But in terms of a Great Experiment it is a functioning wonder; we cannot ever give up on the values that created this nation — why else is she so loved and hated?

Why else would people risk their lives to come here?

Why else would people try to bring down her achievements?

People hate what they fear and, vapid and empty, at night, alone with their own sordid thoughts, it is always easier to tear down than to build, to destroy rather than create, to let the fears overtake common sense.

We face enemies on many fronts today.

Our nation is assailed from within and from without. We must all, individually, do our best to ensure her continued survival.

We must continue to embrace the values we know are right: honesty, loyalty, bravery, strength, judgment, courage.

We must pledge our allegiance, every day, to this Great Experiment — because it is STILL the FINEST nation on the planet.

BZ

This is one of the most important posts I’ve made in quite some time:

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: A Jacksonian has a blog at Dumb Looks Still Free and I heartily endorse visiting his domain frequently. AJ has a remarkably educated insight into the issues of the times that far surpasses my own meagre “intellect,” and he proves it once again by his response to my last post regarding illegal immigration. I consider myself quite fortunate to acquire his comments on my blog.

This post may end up lengthy but, please, stick with me; there are many things happening these days that no true American can possibly afford to ignore. There are forces and counter-forces afoot; an educated understanding is necessary to sort out fact from fiction.

A Jacksonian had such an incredible cogent response not only to my post, but made suggestions and offered actual solutions that could be accomplished had we but the will to do so. I should like to reproduce them here in their entirety then provide an update on the protest and what a city in Fornicalia is doing right now — information that the DEM will NOT provide for you.

First: A Jacksonian’s response and solutions:

As to political will: ‘Aye, there’s the rub me lad!’ What President Bush must come to realize is that his party is crumbling before his eyes: 1) his hard won appeal to the black and hispanic community is based on HIM not his party, 2) his party fears being called ‘callous’,’cold-hearted’ and ‘cruel’ for actually wanting to enforce the law, and 3) by not pushing hard against ‘Sanctuary Cities’ he is making the Union crumble.

The first and second actually go together. If Mr. Bush announces that illegal migration across the border will end and that NORTHCOM is being given the immediate sentry duty until a permanent wall is put in place and that all incursions by Mexican Federal military and police will be treated as armed invasion, the entire country would gasp. He could then lay out week after week of incidents or have Rumsfeld or Gonzalez do that for him. Let the people know that Presidente Fox knows of these and does nothing to stop them: so we WILL.

For doing this and getting his damn party to actually stand *for* something he will get a large segment of the LEGAL immigrant community, galvanize the Jacksonians who will heartily applaud and let the left know that *compassion* is ruining the Nation and putting it at peril.

Back that up with an ultimatum to all Cities, Municipalities and Principalities that refuse to uphold Federal law and are trafficking in human beings, consorting with agents of foreign nations, making their own foreign policy . . . that they have 1 week to withdraw such and be considered lawful. If this is not done, such areas will also be handed over to NORTHCOM for interdiction, all traffic with the Union will stop and they will face being invaded and given regular, representative governments that understand what it means to live in a Republic.

That last will absolutely freeze the left as it is tantamount to calling such cities ‘slavery zones’. And that is exactly what such declarations *are*. And once black folks realize that in those terms, they will be less than pleased with the supporters of such.

Congress is put in the indelicate position of either having to support the cohesion of the Union or not. How unfortunate.

Is this intemperate of me? Why yes, yes it is.

But the left is basically supporting the fall of the Union and making zones of illegal servitude with threat of law against leaving into areas of slavery.

Figure the Jacksonians make up about 30% of the electorate . . . you know, those folks who don’t vote since the Democrats abandoned them in the 70’s? And the Republicans haven’t been able to figure them out in any which way, save for Reagan. Add in 10% or so for the legal immigrant population and their immediate kin. Put in about 2/3 of the Republican party, as the RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only — BZ) will bolt and you have a ruling majority of 60%.

The other 40%? Well, some of the worse are looking down the barrels of M1 Abrams tanks and doing so from unlit cities with no sewer or water. Those that want to come back can swear an Oath to the Republic and abide by the division of powers that We The People put out in 1787.

The rest can join the illegals in building a wall and then being shipped off to the country of their choice.

I am, well and truly, fed up with them.

Very, very intemperate of me.

Once that is sorted out, handling Transnational Terrorism will be easy, and I don’t think that the US will be seen as a ‘weak horse’ by anyone.

There, that should have chilled anyone who read it right down to their toes! But do you see how the demographics show up in that line? Crosses all the traditional two-party boundaries and is pro-Republic *without* being either Conservative or Liberal.

This is a Republic, not a do-it-yourself anarchic state. The left has been eroding away at this since the 1970’s with the strange idea of ‘people’s ambassadors’ to the USSR and such like. Now we have cities making their own damn foreign policy *and* making a form of slavery possible that is *not* a due process punishment.

I do hope this was not too much cold water for anyone. But this Nation is in a pickle both overseas and at home. A Republic can survive this and thrive. What we have right now, will not.

A Zero party state will not survive. Or, more correctly, it will once a city is depopulated or disappears off the map. And then things get very nasty, very quickly.

“A Republic, madam, if you can KEEP it.” – Ben Franklin to a woman wondering what sort of Government has been born.

NOW can we get a party that actually *supports* the Republic? As in ‘Defend the Constitution, keep the Union whole and safe, and hunt and kill those who are the sworn enemies of the People’ kind or party?

AJ made reference to “sanctuary cities;” please read his post on that. Then be prepared for this:

MAYWOOD: A CITY FLYING IN THE FACE OF THE LAW

There is now an incorpated city in Fornicalia that embraces illegal aliens. Called Maywood and located a bit south of downtown Los Angeles, the city consists of 29,000 people with a median age of 26, with 47% of the population 25 and older having less than a 9th grade education, and comprised of a 97% Mexican, 2% white and 1% “other” population.

In Maywood, where 96% of the residents are Latino, and more than half are foreign-born, the City Council has vowed to make the municipality a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants, and over the last few months it has set out to prove it.

First, the city eliminated the Police Department’s traffic division after complaints that officers unfairly targeted illegal immigrants. Then it made it much more difficult for police to tow cars whose owners didn’t have driver’s licenses, a practice that affected mostly undocumented people who could not obtain licenses.

The city website indicates that there is a Kawasaki motorcycle for sale, and a Chevrolet Caprice for sale. Why would that be? If you have no Traffic Unit, there’s certainly no need for any motorcycles, is there?

As noted in the above, California Vehicle Code Section 12500 allows the vehicles of unlicensed drivers to be removed from the street and towed, its owners responsible for storage fees. Driving in the state of Fornicalia is a privilege and not a right, therefore officers may tow these vehicles under section 22651. This is done all up and down the state of Fornicalia.

Except in Maywood. Because 50% of the Maywood population consists of illegal aliens.

Maywood officially supported Cedillo’s SB60.

In January, the City Council passed a resolution opposing a proposed federal law that would criminalize illegal immigration and make local police departments enforce immigration law. Now, some in the community are pushing to rename one of the city’s elementary schools after former Mexican President Benito Juarez and debating measures to improve the lives of illegal immigrants.

One resident, J. Luis Ceballos, 52, said: “I’m afraid we’re testing the limits of the law, and that’s dangerous. I think there is a danger of people thinking that they can do whatever they want.”

In a recent city council meeting, certain persons demanded that only Spanish be spoken despite there being non-Spanish-speaking persons present.

After taking office at the end of last year, the new council quickly dismantled the city’s traffic department. They stopped towing. They allowed people without driver’s licenses — mostly undocumented workers — to get permits for overnight parking.

The council also rescinded a law that prohibited residents from erecting shade canopies at their homes. The law, passed by the old council, was seen as a slap at undocumented residents who used the canopies to create more usable living space.The actions have been met with cheers by some of the city’s illegal immigrants.

Another Maywoodian, Martha Montiel, is pleased that the city is trying to help illegal immigrants. “It’s good because people try to drive respectfully, even if they don’t have licenses,” Montiel said as she gathered jugs of water from a Maywood shop.

If illegal immigrants don’t have to have licenses, then why should you? If you drive “respectfully,” shouldn’t that be enough to satisfy any bureaucracy?

Another citizen, who happens to be “legal,” weighed in: “If you don’t have a driver’s license, you shouldn’t drive,” said Enrique Curiel, 51, who has picketed against the church’s involvement in the matter.

But Maywood’s actions are being closely followed by others, including predominantly Latino immigrant communities. Several — including Pomona, Huntington Park and Bell Gardens — followed Maywood’s lead by opposing a bill in Congress that would make it a crime for organizations or agencies to assist illegal immigrants. Aguirre and the council majority vowed to defy the rules if they become federal law.

For some more illuminating ideas, please visit the La Voz de Aztlan website, which sympathizes with the Palestinians and calls Fornicalia “Alta California” (c’mon, I know you can figure this one out), lists Coachella, CA as another “immigrant sanctuary.”

And did you read the one very important line in the article which mentions “They said, ‘Sam is anti-immigrant, he’s not with our people,’ ” Peña said. “My parents are immigrants…. So I sympathize.”

OUR PEOPLE. Meaning: not Americans. Not legals. Not his fellow Americans. Mexicans. From Mexico. How much more brazen can you get?

As MEChA wrote: “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada (For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing).”

“Aztlan” is the group’s term for the vast southwestern U.S. expanse, from parts of Washington and Oregon down to California and Arizona and over to Texas, which MEChA claims to be a mythical homeland and seeks to reconquer for Mexico (reconquista).

_________________________

My fellow Americans, let me now attempt to do what I commonly call the “logical extension.”

Could this not be said to be, essentially, a foreign power exercising its influence within our sovereign borders? And their first concerted acts are: ignore laws inherent within the state in which the city lies. Because they “feel like it.”

And no one stops them.

If San Francisco can flaunt the law with regard to homosexuals, Maywood can flaunt the law regarding illegal immigrants, what about a town called Smithville which, renamed to Ahmad, controlled by 97% Muslims — why could it not decide to institute Sharia law? Two posts ago, I wrote about persons converting from Islam being sentenced to death for doing so. In my comments section, a writer called Islam Questions wrote: “My friend converted to Christianity from Islam and knows, as a result of this conversion, that his parents may kill him, or have him killed. It is a Muslim parent’s right to kill a child that leaves Islam for another religion.”

Well this is America, people. It isn’t Saudi Arabia or Iran or any other Muslim nation. And it isn’t Alta California or an extension of Mexico.

THESE ARE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

What is America, anymore? A place in which one comes to make money, demand rights, take, demand, take, demand, take, demand entitlements? And the sedentary, complacent, deadened, tattooed, pierced, MediaX’d populace is expected to provide, give, roll over, acquiesce, play dead? And, most importantly, continue cutting the checks? Including legal Mexican-Americans? Where is the allegiance to this country? Where are its commonalities? Where is the English language? Anyone remember the word “Balkanization?”

And what about Smithville, aka Ahmad? If they had sufficient people could they simply declare Sharia law and do as they please within its city limits?

So people decide to protest immigration laws?

We had all.

Better.

Wake.

Up.

BZ

Title 8 – Aliens and Nationality

3) The term “alien” means any person not a citizen or national of the United States.

_____________________

So there were protests in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta?

Congress is considering bills that would make it a felony to be illegally in the United States, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The proposals have angered many Hispanics.

Who cares? you might ask.

Both parties care, in their most base:

Democrats care because illegals represent a further voting base;
Republicans care because illegals represent a workforce “snuck under the carpet;”

Both sides, on this issue, framed in this context, are wrong.

Illegal is illegal no matter how you frame it, reduce it, minimize it, shunt it aside, ignore it, emasculate it, put whipped cream on top, or attempt to recraft definitions.

The English language is what it is.

Illegal \Il*le”gal\, a. [Pref. il- not + legal: cf. F. ill[‘e]gal.]Not according to, or authorized by, law; specif., contrary to, or in violation of, human law; unlawful; illicit; hence, immoral; as, an illegal act; illegal trade; illegal love. –Bp. Burnet.

Until you look behind the obvious for the agendas. Are there agendas involved? Of course, you silly person!

La Raza: On its website, a group called “La Voz de Aztlán,” the Voice of Aztlán, identifies Mexicans in the U.S. as “America’s Palestinians.” Many Mexicans see themselves as part of a transnational ethnic group known as “La Raza,” the race. A May editorial on the website, with a dateline of Los Angeles, Alta California, declares that “both La Raza and the Palestinians have been displaced by invaders that have utilized military means to conquer and occupy our territories.”

But the threat of secession is not merely from groups that might be considered on the fringe, Spencer insists, noting the declarations of Mexican leaders, up to the highest office. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said in a 1997 speech in Chicago to the “National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, that he “proudly affirmed that the Mexican nation extends beyond the territory enclosed by its borders and that Mexican migrants are an important – a very important – part of this.”

Zedillo said that because of this fact his government proposed a constitutional amendment that allows Mexican citizens to hold dual citizenship. Spencer believes that the objective is to enable Mexicans in the United States to vote in the interest of Mexico.

Ultimately, many Mexicans hope for a “reconquista,” a reconquest of territory lost when Mexico signed the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War. “One could argue that while Mexico lost the war in 1848, it will probably win it in the 21st century, in terms of the numbers,” Navarro told WorldNetDaily. “But that is not a reality based on what Mexico does, it’s based on what this country does.”

Spencer argues that misguided U.S. policies and lax enforcement have allowed a steady stream of 1 million illegal immigrants a year to enter the country. Demographers agree that instead of integrating into a “melting pot,” new Hispanic immigrants, both legal and illegal, are building a distinct, politically active community.

The problem is not that they have a voice, Spencer says, but that they increasingly are acting according to the interests of Mexico.

For those willing to see what is plain, it becomes plain that Mexico plans to retake a good portion of the United States “lost” in wars and history;

Of course, that would be judgmental and non-politically-correct, wouldn’t it?

Gosh; nothing more than white male paranoia.

________

Right?

BZ

What happens when someone in the United States decides to convert from one religion to another? Essentially: they do it. You won’t read about it in the newspaper or see it on TV (with some exceptions; perhaps Cassius Clay, Cat Stevens, Lou Alcindor). It becomes a matter of personal choice and that is where the issue ends. Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim, it makes no difference.

Or does it?

In Islam, the religion of peace and understanding, conversion can get you killed.

Oh gosh BZ, you say, that cannot be true. That’s merely an old tale perpetuated by persons wishing to smear the good religion of Islam.

I would beg to differ: it is true. Consider the following story currently in the news involving Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a man named Abdul Rahman:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday to express her concern about the case of an Afghan man who could be sentenced to death for converting to Christianity.

The trial of Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago and who has previously lived in Germany, has triggered growing criticism around the world.

The criticism has now grown to the point that:

An Afghan Christian facing possible execution for converting from Islam was likely to be released from jail “soon,” a senior government official said following huge Western pressure over the case.

Arrested two weeks prior, 41-year-old Abdul Rahman had converted from Islam 16 years ago but was “turned in” by his parents when he returned to Afghanistan recently.

Afghanistan’s Supreme Court said Thursday it was trying to find a “good solution” to the case, the first of its kind here, including persuading Rahman to revert to Islam.

Sharia law, on which the Afghan constitution is partly based, rules that conversion away from Islam must be punished by death if the accused person fails to revert.

Even US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Afghan President Hamid Karzai today, to try to stop the possible execution.

Ah yes, Islam, the religion of peace and understanding.

BZ