This morning I played a game of online baseball on the PS3 and it lasted for 18 innings. I was losing to the Angels 3-0 in the 8th inning, but my Dodgers put up 3 runs to tie it. From there it stayed tied until the 18th inning. Brad Penny came in for relief and pitched almost an entire game. In the bottom of the 18th Jeff Kent came up and knocked one over the wall to win the game. Very satisfying feeling! You can check the box score here.

On the way home we were driving on the freeway, and traffic was moving really well. Then the guy in front of me started to brake and put on his turn signal. Then at the last minute he swerved to avoid some debris in our lane, leaving me ZERO time to get out of the way. If you see something in the road a long ways out, don’t swerve at the last minute. He could have stopped completely! But no, I got to hit some remnants of a bumper or something and get nice big scratches on the front of the new car. Ugh. Now I’ve got to take it in to the body shop for something small and pay my $250 deductible. Turd.

In better news, the baby’s room is moving along. Everything is painted and I put up new blinds. Our stroller is on the way from Target that we bought with gift cards from Grandpa. We still need to pick out baby furniture, but Stacie has seen some that she likes. She went yesterday with a friend and registered for a bunch of stuff at Babies R Us. You can visit our baby’s registry here!

The politicians are swearing up and down that it’s not amnesty. “Look, there are a bunch of hoops to jump through. It’s not like 1986 at all!”

The entire thought process behind the recent Senate bill is backwards. A discussion about what to do with the illegals already here shouldn’t even begin until our borders are secure. Employers need to be held accountable for hiring illegal workers. The double fence needs to be built along the border (it’s not a wall, it’s a fence). Illegals that commit crimes should be immediately deported. Anchor babies shouldn’t become automatic citizens.

Once the above happens, then we can talk about what to do with the illegal aliens here. You don’t hand out Z-Visas that automatically make illegal immigrants legal (not citizens, but legal). You don’t create enforcement “triggers” to be met at a later date. Prove to me that enforcement is working now, not later. A majority of illegal aliens don’t even care about becoming citizens, they care about the jobs. Politicians are kidding themselves if people are going to pay thousand dollar fines and return to their home country to become citizens.

If a Republican presidential candidate backs this bill, they will lose my vote. So far Romney has the right response, McCain (not surprisingly) doesn’t.

It’s time for Dodgers Baseball! Right now the Dodgers third spring training game is on 980 AM. It’s great to hear Charlie and play by play. La Roche just threw out a runner from third. The first broadcasted game is two weeks from today, and I think they’re only airing spring training games on the radio on Saturdays and Sundays.

Last night I was hot and I put on sandals. I also hooked the Xbox back up and played some MVP Baseball. All of the aforementioned activities have reminded me how much I love Spring and Summer.

My parents came over last night for dinner which was nice. It’s a very interesting life transition going from living at home to living elsewhere. Instead of seeing them everyday sometimes weeks go by. I have a feeling this will change a lot whenever we start making babies, but I have a much greater appreciation for them now that I’ve left the roost. When I saw them everyday and had never lived on my own, I think I took them for granted. But now that I’ve been out on my own and started our own family I appreciate more the role they’ve played in my life, and the role I want them to continue to play in our “new” family’s life.

Please don’t misconstrue all the sentimental talk as foreshadowing of an imminent baby birthing. Not quite yet.

The installments to this story are coming fast and furious now. Thank you for the words of encouragement. Hopefully you enjoy reading these as much as I am enjoying writing them.

In case you’re wondering, this story will take about 10 chapters in total. I haven’t decided on a very good way to lay these posts out, but I might make a link on the right that contains all the chapters on a single page. Until then you can just read them here, or if you’re new, scroll back a few days to the first post and start from there.

Governor Schwarzenegger might have an (R) by his name, but there is very little about him that is conservative. The latest example is his determination to have universal healthcare coverage.

I’m curious to hear what my liberal friends think about this idea. On the surface universal health coverage sounds like a beautiful thing. Poor families living in cardboard boxes can’t afford vital medicine for their 7 babies. They’re all dying from influenza and big evil health insurance companies won’t help them!

Please excuse my flair for the dramatic, but the above is far from reality. Liberals, like the Governor, see legislation like this as some magical fix. People don’t have healthcare/high wages/money? Well lets make a bill and give it to them, just like magic! Unfortunately that’s not how it works, here is why.

1) The Role of Government – Use your imagination and transport yourself to Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. Next to you is Benjamin Franklin and a discussion on the different branches of government and balance of power has just finished. This important discussion on government power has just ended and you stand up to bring a new issue to the floor. You say "I think everyone should be able to go to the doctor, even if they can’t pay for it." Ben looks at you through his spectacles, and without skipping a breath, says "You, be quiet."

The government should not be regulating something like healthcare. Present-day liberals can bring it up and unfortunately people listen, but the founding fathers would have looked at you like you were a moron. As the role of government is expanded there is a snowball effect. If everyone should have healthcare, then how about everyone should have a toothbrush? Or everyone should have shoes? Or toilet paper? If you think it’s ridiculous for the government to concern itself with any of those items, then you should find it equally silly that it concern itself with universal health coverage.

2) The Cost – The problem with "magical" fixes like this is that they aren’t magic, and they cost real money. According to the article the Governor wants to spread the cost between "businesses, individuals, hospitals, doctors, insurers and government." The myth that it’s magic and free is just ridiculous, but I think most liberals will at least admit there is a cost. What I fail to understand is why they think it’s a justified cost. Why do liberals think the government should be able to take away money from the above listed groups for something the government shouldn’t be regulating anyways? Not to mention the negative effect this forced cost will have. Think hospital related expenses are too high right now? Wait until they have to start subsidizing individuals. That money won’t appear magically, so costs go up. Doctors have to subsidize patients? Costs go up. Insurers have to subsidize people? Costs go up.

And here is the rub that Arnold and liberals don’t understand: regardless of how affordable healthcare really is, under Arnold’s bill families don’t have to make the tough choices. If you’re poor and the government offers to take money from other people to pay for your healthcare, you no longer have to make difficult decisions about how you spend your money. How about we stop with the free handouts, stop the gluttonous expansion of government, and get back to a time where people actually took care of themselves.

I decided that lumping my thoughts into the last post would be far too confusing, so I will start a new one. Look for new updates as I get the energy and facts to back up my points. If you make any comments while this post is in progress, you may want to indicate the "section" of this that you are replying to.

1) Understanding Terminology Used in the Illegal Immigration Debate

Before I start babbling about crime and the economy, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the terms used in the debate (especially when the media loves to spin them to death).

An illegal immigrant is someone who either entered this country without permission, or has overstayed a temporary permit (a visa)¹. Any person who is in this country, in violation of the laws of this country, is an illegal immigrant. There are different terms used to refer to people here illegally. Illegal aliens is my favorite. Liberals enjoy using "undocumented workers."

Whatever your term for people who are in the country illegally, the word "immigrant" is not sufficient. The rally over the weekend was not about "immigrants" rights, it was about "illegal immigrants" rights. The laws being debated in congress in no way affect legal immigrants. This is the primary error that so many of the protestors and students walking out of class fail to realize.

It’s not about Mexicans, Chinese people, and it’s not about legal immigrants. This debate is about illegal immigrants.

Citations: ¹Wikipedia – Illegal Immigration

2) A Foreword on Immigration

Before I get into the nitty gritty, here are some of my personal views on immigration, just so you know what my "biases" are. I believe that the United States is a great country, and something that makes it great is that we are governed by laws. As a nation we have rules and the right to enforce those rules. The United States allows immigration into our country, and people have been coming to live here for hundreds of years. I have no beef with immigrants, as my great-great-grandfather was an immigrant (I think). Many immigrants come here because they want a better life and an opportunity to have the American dream.

The debate before us now is that there are certain individuals who do not believe in the rule of law. It is within the power of the United States to create and enforce the laws. It is illegal to overstay a visa or cross the border without permission. I don’t care who the person is and no matter their circumstance, no one has a right to be in this country besides the citizens of this country. That’s correct, the USA is an exclusive club, and if you want in, you need permission. If you decide to break the laws of our country, you are a criminal.

I’m sure this will sound "mean" to people that think with their emotions. It is not racist nor predjudiced for a country to control it’s own destiny, and who we let in plays a major part in that. A quick look at France and the recent Muslim protests is an example². Just as we have decided to not let terrorists into our country, we reserve the right to say no to extremists, the uneducated, and illegal immigrants. If a person has the desire to come and enjoy the freedom of this country and the economic opportunities, I believe they should also be willing to adopt the values and language of this country. If a person is unwilling to do that, then they should not be here.

Citations: ²France – The Cost of Multicultralism

3) It’s Friday and I’m Tired.

I’m tired and don’t feel like devoting several hours of my life creating a pseudo scholarly post, so I will now be succinct.

4) The Economy and Illegals: We Don’t Need Them

All the nonsense about illegals working jobs that no one else will is total horse doo-doo. Americans will clean bathrooms, pick lettuce, and build houses, but when employers have cheap labor to exploit of course they’ll pay the lower wages. We have thousands if not millions of uneducated people that would be great at scrubbing toilets. Just go to myspace and look up all the people that graduated with you and still have no life. Illegal immigrants also love to send money back to Mexico instead of investing it back into our economy.

5) Welfare: If You Hand It Out, They Will Take It

When an illegal comes over the border they get so much handed to them. Public education, emergency medicine, roads and highways, medicare, social security, and welfare. An illegal immigrant does not deserve any of that, because they’ve done basically nothing to pay for any of it. Illegal immigrants are having babies by the thousands at our hospitals and not contributing a dime to pay for it. ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I think I’m turning into a Libertarian when it comes to economics. The solution to all of this is to make people pay for everything. Charge people $4000 to send their kid to public school, pay per miles used on the highways. In turn the goverment could get rid of property taxes or income taxes. Ultimately there should not be anything handed to illegal immigrants by the goverment reaching into the pockets of law-abiding and tax-paying citizens.

6) Illegal Immigrants Commit a lot of Crime

Crime 1: 29% of criminals filling jails are illegals, costing 1.6 billion dollars a year (they only make up around 3% of the entire population).

Crime 2: 60% of the 20,000 strong 18th street gang are illegals.

Crime 3: 95% of outstanding homicide warrants in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

Crime 4: A whole lot of document forgery going on!

There are tons of illegal immigrants and crime links, just search google.

7) Conclusion

That’s all the energy I have. Doesn’t seem like the politicians in Washington D.C. have the guts to really do anything, so I don’t see this problem being solved anytime soon.

I’ve decided that long winded and thought out posts every few days isn’t near as fun as daily posts. Instead of making each post dramatic and world changing as they recently have been (like the critically acclaimed “Lonely Babies” post that drew media attention from around the globe), I think I will instead focus on putting my thoughts onto “paper” as they come to me.

I’m sure I will find more interesting situations like the Lonely Babies, but coming to a website and finding no new content is annoying. Look forward to daily posts, from deeply meaningful to outright pointless.

Today I took and passed my CSET, but for a few hours prior to that I was sitting at McDonald’s studying. Let me suggest to you, that if you are ever bored, go sit at a McDonald’s. The people and events you will see or both annoying and hilarious at the same time.

Lonely Babies

Most normal and intelligent mothers do NOT leave their babies alone, especially in a public place such as McDonald’s. However, today I witnessed two women leave their THREE babies alone.

While this was slightly annoying, it became quite amusing. Two children had salt shakers, which they were banging on the table and licking and having a great time. The third kid however had a pepper shaker. When he turned red and starting crying from licking the pepper shaker, my annoyance towards the mothers turned to amusement. I have a feeling that kid will be eating paint chips when he’s older.

The Math Whiz

A little while after the babies left, a guy/girl couple came in, roughly 18 years old. They proceeded to order their food and then found a nearby table. The conversation I overheard was quite funny. The girl had the health information sheet for McDonald’s and was reading it. And I quote:

Girl: "Chicken Selects have 1240 calories. That’s like your daily quotient of food. The 10 piece Chicken Selects are death."

While she was funny, her boyfriend was the math whiz. I assume the girl had only partially eaten her hamburger when she turned to him and said:

Girl: What’s 2/3 of 460?
Guy: 90?
Girl: Wow, you can do math in your head?

Hurry, go to McDonald’s, now.