Green with Envy

Green cards are the way that immigrants can enter and stay in the U.S. legally.  In 2009, we issued 1.1 million green cards to legal immigrants ... to me an astounding number.  See Green Card Influx  (You can also click through to the Homeland Security website for a breakdown by years and by country of these green card recipients -- 18,553 to Iranians in 2009 alone no less!)  Now, yes, these numbers are somewhat typical of recent years, including Bush's latter years, but remember this is occurring in the same year 3 million resident Americans have lost their jobs.

Now admittedly, most of these green cards were issued to family members of legal U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, but still this seems to place an undue burden on this country's currently strained resources.  Now, exhibiting my continued political paranoia, I have to suspect that this spate of new green cards during an economic downturn and a period of increased national turmoil might possibly be motivated by reasons other than pure charity.  What do you think?

Climate Change

The huge eruption of a volcano in Iceland has disrupted airline flights all over Europe. Heathrow airport near London is closed for the rest of the day at least. And, all this fly-ash in the upper atmosphere is quite likely to cool down our northern climes for at least this summer ... much like Pinatubo's eruption in the Philippines did in 1991. So, rather than pass the proposed onerous "Cap and Trade" carbon-tax legislation in the Senate this year, why can't we just take all the oratorical effluent being produced in Washington and shoot it into the stratosphere? This should keep us gelid for at least a decade.

Tea Party

Boston is hosting (rather, enduring) a Tea Party on Boston Common this morning with Sarah Palin speaking no less. I find the tea-party movement to be a remarkable political phenomenon ... primarily because of the vitriol it elicits from many liberals:

- being called "tea-baggers" (a lewd reference to a homosexual act). My reaction to anyone using this epithet is utter revulsion. This population unfortunately includes many on network and cable news programs.

- being castigated for not having enough blacks in attendance (Obama did get 96% of the black vote for heavens sake) ... ergo they are racists. This is akin to calling Israelis xenophobes for not having any Iranians in their Knesset.

- being labeled radical right-wing nutty moon bats. I thought "moon-bat" was a word reserved for those who think Republicans stole both Bush elections.

- being named "Astroturf" (i.e., rent-a-mob) by the White House to denigrate the tea party's grassroots origin.

- being compared to Tim-McVeigh-style terrorists. Is it accidental that MSNBC is running a Tim McVeigh retrospective at this time?

- being labeled "birthers" (those who believe that Obama wasn't born in the U.S.A.). There is a group of lefties who have even threatened to infiltrate tea-party rallies with signs to this effect ... and to the other slimes mentioned above.

As far as I can ascertain, these tea parties are a genuine grass-roots reaction to the fiscal excesses of the current (and past) administrations. And any politician who ignores or disparages this movement does so at considerable career risk.

Hold That Tiger

Tiger Woods is back playing golf in the Masters this weekend in Augusta, Georgia. I might in fact watch some of this august tournament ... but whereas, in the past, I would be rooting for Tiger to win ... this time I will be hoping that he loses.

"What immortal hand or eye, dare frame thy fearful symmetry?" -- William Blake

The Poker Game

President Obama has unilaterally given away another big pot in the poker game of world hegemony. He has shown our hand to many of the other players and, as is his all-too-frequent wont, gotten nothing in return. See NY Times Article. He now boasts that the U.S would not use nuclear weapons in a number of situations where, in the past, our enemies were wary of how we would react ... and were therefore constrained. Now these other players have been gifted many more degrees of freedom in there strategic planning. Why Obama pulls these bone-headed moves can perhaps be explained by his over-weaning ego. He may indeed believe in his demigod invincibility: "What if I give up some minor game advantage, since I know that my vision of a world utopia is ordained by my birthright?"

Or, can it be that he is just plain stupid?

A Sign of the Times