Random Thoughts

I have been wanting to give my thoughts on this Duke University lacrosse team case in Durham. Briefly, I do not care that the woman was a stripper. Strippers can be raped. And, I do not care that the Duke lacrosse team are probably a bunch of pompous idiots. The evidence, if all is allowed, will point to the truth, and a jury will sort out what happened.

But Ann Coulter, whose last column you can access through the "Townhall.com" link on this page, must have telepathy with me, because her column is almost verbatim of what I have been thinking since I first heard of this story. How could this incident have been prevented?

Well, first of all, the chances of this woman being raped would have been minimized, or maybe eliminated in this circumstance, had she not agreed to come to a party with almost 100 hormone-crazed young men and take her clothes off. Second of all, assuming that the young men are innocent until proven otherwise, the tarnishing of their reputations because of this incident would not have happened if they had not hired a woman to come to their party and...take her clothes off.

We must all take responsibility for our actions. No one should be raped, but when you 100 young men with a naked woman and large amounts of alcohol in a room, you are courting disaster. As a matter of fact, common sense would tell a young woman that if she shows off enough of her body, she is going to get men excited. Again, and I reiterate so that I not be taken the wrong way, NO woman, regardless of her state of dress or undress, deserves to be raped. But it is kind of like standing in the middle of the highway, although the law says you, the pedestrian, has the right of way, you still are very likely to get hit by somebody.

On the other hand, the young men also knew that they were running risks as well. The best way to avoid even the appearance of evil is to keep yourself from those situations as much as possible. Those situations will present themselves without having to create them, as did these young men.

Responsibility is the code word. And both sides in this case want to be portrayed as the victim, when in fact, this situation was created by their own design.

And speaking of responsiblity, it never ceases to amaze me at what people think that their government should be responsible for. As I was traveling to work this morning, I caught a story on the radio. I do not remember what the story was about, I think maybe about gasoline, but what caught my attention was the line, "She says that the government should do more to educate people on this issue." The government is not an information clearinghouse. People should be responsible for their own education. I guess this is part of the price we pay for allowing the government a virtual monopoly on education and making an education available publically to all.

And, speaking of education, a Gwinett County, Georgia, mother is trying to get the "Harry Potter" series of books banned from schools. She is saying that the books promote evil. One little girl even stated that the Harry Potter books drove her to witchcraft!

I see no more harm in the Harry Potter books than I do Cinderella. In "Cinderella", the main character is transformed into a beautiful princess by a fairy, who uses a wand and casts spells on mice, dogs, and a pumpkin, to attract the prince's attention. It is make-believe, and so is Harry Potter. Grow up. If your elementary school child is into witchcraft, look in the mirror for the one to blame. I have read the first five books, and I see nothing in them that would compel me into witchcraft. My ten-year old son has read all of them, as has my wife. Ask him if Harry Potter is real or make-believe. And he has not tried witchcraft as a result.

Responsibility....

Finally, A Government For the People

Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia just signed into law yesterday a bill that would make it illegal for businesses who pay wages to illegal aliens to write those wages off of their tax returns. Effectively, employers who hire illegal workers will have to weigh the tax benefit against the reduced wage benefit. Employers will also have to verify citizenship or legal status of their employees at the state level.

The state at least demostrates some intelligence in following the money trail. By taking away incentives for businesses to hire illegal aliens, the incentive for illegal aliens to come to Georgia is taken away; that is, work. Watch out Alabama.

The law will have to be aggressively enforced if it is to have any effect. This is where my confidence level drops, simply because of the political nature of this issue. It is my humble opinion that the majority of the legal residents of Georgia, including myself, wish for the law to be enforced and offenders to be penalized to fullest extent. However, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and those on the left side of the political fence are much squeakier. The rally for illegal aliens drew a much larger crowd than the rally for the signing of the recent bill. So what do the politicians who do not venture from the capitol building see?

Then you have the businesses who stand to benefit from illegal aliens. Georgia's number one industry is poultry. Poultry processing plants employ large numbers of migrant workers, a large number of them, I speculate, being illegal. Currently, I believe that the law provides two years for such businesses to become compliant. A lot can happen in two years.

And the soon-to-be form that new employees will have to fill out to verify their legal status will be, I am afraid, much like the Federal I-9 form. Basically, the form is required to be filled out by the new employee, swearing that they can work legally. Costs of administration to businesses to do anything other than file the form in the employee's file will be punitive. I am not sure how this is really going to be effectively implemented.

Other aspects of the bill include making many state-funded programs unavailable to illegal aliens. Items such as certain medical care and education are exempt. So, illegals can get medical treatment and be educated in public schools on the dime of the taxpayer. What other programs could they possibly need in order to exist here illegally?

I applaud Georgia for the effort, and I sincerely hope that they enforce this law agressively. However, this is the proverbial bandaid on the tumor. In my mind, our impotent, pantywaist Federal government should be handling this issue as a matter of national security. This is a simple matter to me.

First, implement a plan to seal and secure the borders from anyone else entering the country illegally. Be agressive. It is essential that the numbers of illegals be minimized within our borders in order to deal with the ones already here. Secondly, implement a plan to identify and deport those that are here. I do not believe that they would be very hard to find. If my neighbor knows where to go to pick up daylaborers to pick up rocks out of his yard, then I do not see that law enforcement would have a difficult time knowing where to execute a sting. But because of the impotence of our Federal government, the problem is out of hand now, since they did not deal with the issue when the illegal population began climbing.

If we do not get a handle on illegal migration, the foundations of our nation are all but knocked from under us.

The "Gospel" Of Judas

The National Geographic Society has recently obtained a 1,700 year old manuscript, called "The Gospel of Judas", which apparently casts Judas to be the best friend of Jesus, or his favored disciple.

According to the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible, Judas hung himself shortly after Christ was delivered to Roman authorities. I find that a manuscript only dating 1,700 years old, roughly 300 years after the death of Judas, would be found to be anything other than fiction, if for no other reason than the date discrepancy.

Those who do not like the idea of Jesus as Lord and the Bible being the authoritative word of God are constantly attempting to find ancient documentation that will refute or contradict what is written the in Bible. The so-called "Gnostic Gospels", attributed to such contemporaries of Jesus as Thomas, Phillip, and even Mary Magdeline, have attempted to color the Bible to be written by writers with an agenda other than transcribing words inspired by God. For example, the "Gospel of Mary" portrays Peter as being jealous of Mary, and Mary being chosen by Christ to lead the apostles. From this work, we are supposed to draw the conclusion that from the beginning, a conspiracy existed that has perpetuated throughout history to oppress the role of women in the church.

And such is continuous assault on the time-tested canons of the Christian religions. Although disagreements exist even down to the level of sects on what the scriptures may mean, at least most use some form of the same Bible.

Personally, I believe that the Authorized King James Version is superior to all other translations or versions. These men who were commissioned by King James to translate the original manuscripts into the English tongue took great pains to authenticate the works which were translated, from Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament. This led to the rejecting of the Aprocryphal books, which appear still in Catholic Bibles. The King James translators also were honest enough to note when they inserted a word because a clean translation did not exist, hence the italicized words. The controls and checks were extremely stringent in how the books were translated, paying special attention context to ensure that the proper sense and meanings were conveyed. The King James Version has been time-tested, as other versions and translations have fell to the wayside over the years.

I was once criticized on the blog of a student of divinity when I entered a debate on whether a church, specifically a Baptist church, should be considered liberal and avoided if they advocated or held a female deaconship. My quoting of the 3rd chapter of I Timothy and the attribution to the Authorized King James Version drew ire from the posters, who I assumed were mostly students of divinity at a Baptist college. I would gladly challenge those so-called students of divinity to re-create the conditions and controls the King James translators subjected themselves to and come up with something more genuine and honest than the translation we hold today. I would question that they have enough knowledge of Hebrew or Greek to even perform the task.

The major complaint of the KJV that I hear is that the language is not modern language, and sometimes people get wrapped up in it. But, I would argue, more reading and a dictionary can overcome that issue.

We have no better guide in the English language than the King James Version, despite what the Baptist divinity students or the "Gospel" of Judas may tell us.

We Love Undocumented Workers!

The latest on the Federal Immigration Reform bill is that the GOP leaders have came out saying that they have no intent of charging illegal immigrants as felons. I suppose this to be a reaction to the protests in the D.C. area. D.C. is like the tailbone of the U.S.; you know it's there, especially when it hurts you, but no blood flows through it. D.C. is insulated from the real America, and is instead run by the inmates of the asylum.

We have, on the left, Teddy Kennedy and the Hillary Rotten Clinton trying to gain a new voting block, saying that the Republicans are anti-immigrant. This is outright lying, as the bills are geared toward securing borders from those who wish to come here illegally. Apparently, out in California, Democrats are hosting voter registration drives at the "immigrants rights" rallies. I guess the Democrats need new voters, whether they can legally vote or not.

This is ridiculous. Where are the politicians who actually care about the rule of law? Obviously, the Republican leadership sure doesn't. Democrats want new voters, so they are signing the illegals up to vote and fighting any attempts at holding them accountable for breaking existing law.

If the Democrats have the balls to face the voters and attempt to overturn existing immigration law, then this is the route they should take. This is dishonest and underhanded. And the Republican leadership has about as much spine as a jelly donut.

On the Michael Medved show yesterday, the host quoted a poll recently taken, stating that 60% of Americans polled do not want illegal aliens already in the U.S. deported. I wonder where this poll was taken. D.C., maybe? Dallas? Los Angeles? I can guarantee if they polled anybody in flyover country, or Jasper, Georgia, those people were in the 40%.

Immigrants are what created this great nation that is slowly crumbling beneath us. No one wants to outlaw immigration. I would only like to see the laws being enforced, and those who have broken the law to be held accountable.

I only wish that our leaders had the good sense to know that if they actually spent time with their constituency, that the current course of action is not only guaranteeing their unemployment in the next election, but is also pushing the country farther down the spiral of its ultimate demise.

My New Civil Right

I am hereby today asserting my newfound civil right. I have found that I am entitled to much more than what I have. As a matter of fact, I deserve it. I deserve it if nothing more than for the simple fact that I say I do.

I am therefore asserting my civil right to take things from others. Some would call it stealing, but I call it "involuntary conversion". I do not care that laws on the books exist to prevent this. This is my civil right, and I will march in the streets to protest if necessary.

As ridiculous as this may sound, this is exactly the logic that our illegal friends from south of the border are using to justify their "civil right" to be here. Nevermind that they are, in effect, stealing from the good taxpaying citizens of this country. Nevermind that they are flaunting their defiance of the rule of law.

Round them up and ship them back. Then shoot on sight anyone who tries to enter illegally. Who knows who may be terrorists and who may not be.

Does Anyone Remember Eastern Airlines?

So the Delta pilots are getting ready to stage a strike in retaliation to the Delta management's decision to challenge the pilot's contract, in effect renegotiating it. Delta has already filed bankruptcy and is in restructuring.

Someone please tell me what airline pilots need with a union? In terms of skill level and pay, they are near the top of the food chain in the airline corporate structure. I beg to differ with anyone who says we need unions in this age of labor laws and regulation.

Not many years ago, Eastern Airlines went belly-up when the Mechanics Union went on strike, and the pilots refused to cross the picket line.

Unions serve no purpose except to prolong the life of the union itself. They have no real interest in the livelihood of the employees. All that they care about is the dues.

Take for instance the situation with GM and Ford, both full of UAW members. Recently, both the GM Doraville plant and the Ford Hapeville plant in Georgia have been slated to close. Why? Because the UAW sucks the life out of the ability of the automakers to compete with foreign producers. The auto industry will most likely go the way of the steel plants that graced such areas as Youngstown, Illinois, a virtual ghosttown now. Most steel is shipped from foreign mills by way of steel brokers. The union prevented the steel plants from competing. How?

For one thing, wages are inflated for the skill level of most union workers. Do not misunderstand, I am not minimizing the value of these employees, but the fact of the matter is that two basic components exist in the cost of any product: raw labor and raw material. From the time that true raw materials are drawn from the earth, a component of labor is added to change that material to something that will be usable by someone else. Labor is continually added to the material cost until the product is consumable.

In the case of the auto industry, the labor to assemble the various automobiles in the U.S. is added to the cost of the product. On the flipside of the coin, price to the end user will be part of the determining factor as to whether he will purchase a product, along with quality and availability. American-made automobiles on the market as new cannot be purchased for less than $20,000. The car-makers must realize a profit, or risk losing shareholders to invest in their companies. Purchased material costs are pretty much fixed, although they can be negotiated, but not to the level to make a large difference. Labor is where savings are realized in most cases.

Obviously, two components of labor cost are the rate and time. If the time can be cut from a process, cost savings can be realized. But in the case of many labor unions, productivity is not of the utmost importance. They often give lip-service, but in reality, they are not concerned. If a union employee is classified to do one job, he cannot do another job outside his classification. If an employee is classified as a material expeditor, he drives his little cart around until someone needs something moved.

Rate is the other factor, and this is where the unions really excel in ripping a new one for their companies. Everyone knows stories about unproductive employees who make inflated amounts of money who cannot be fired because of the union. So other union employees are forced to take up the slack.

If the union truly cared about their members, they would negotiate reasonable wages that would help to ensure the viability of their company. They would work with management to help weed out unproductive employees so that the more productive employees do not pay the price.

Anyone can argue what they consider to be a fair wage. A fair wage, in my view, is whatever someone will pay you to do whatever job it is that needs to be done. If someone will pay you more for the same work, go to work for him.

A good measure to determine what you consider to be a fair wage is to consider what goes into producing and transporting a loaf of bread to sell. Then ask yourself how much you are willing to pay for that loaf of bread, keeping in mind that several companies must make profits off of the bread as well as pay for the materials used in making it. Maybe things would become clearer then about how unions are ruining American business.