Posts
Today instead of talking about US politics I want to talk to talk about Ireland, the UK, and the politics of colonialism. I know that this is not my usual bailiwick, but I do believe that it deserves some attention. There are many problems over there and there have been for years. These problems include British colonialism, religion, politics, and good old fashioned hate, and today we are going to take a look at all of them.
Colonialism:
Back in its day Britain was what you would call a colonial power. They fought, conquered, and colonized many different nations around the world from India, Australia, and South Africa, to Scotland, and Ireland.
The royal families that ruled Britain believed that it was their destiny to rule the whole of the world and attempted to do so very violently. With their exceptionally well trained military and navy they were very successful at colonization for hundreds of years.
Religion:
Religion was one of the tools that Britain used in its attempted conquests of the nations it sought to occupy and colonize. They supported the Protestants in Ireland against their Catholic opposition. The used the Church of England as a tool of enforcement against their own people who eventually came to the Americas and formed the colonies. They even forced people in countries like China’s Hong Kong, the Aborigines in Australia, and the African tribes to accept Christianity or be subject to ridicule and cruelty.
Politics:
Politics was often the driving force behind Britain’s war-like colonial ways. If a country or location didn’t subscribe to Britain’s political beliefs then they were more often than not the target of conquest and colonization.
The British were historically unhappy with any nation who didn’t view their geo-political beliefs and sought to beat them into submission. Just look at how long and how many times France and England have been at war for the last thousand years.
Hate:
Hate is the very basic emotion that ultimately doomed the British Colonial Empire to fail with very few exceptions. In the case of the United States it was taxation without representation that caused the war that ended English rule here, we hated it. It ultimately led to their defeat and removal from virtually all of its former colonies. Unfortunately hate is what still drives certain factions within Ireland and Northern Ireland in particular and until that issue can be resolved there will never really be a complete peace there.
I will tell you that parts of my family has been invested in the troubles in Ireland since they began. Members of my family resided in the north within the five counties, but mostly from Cork. They were Irish, Catholic, and extremely proud. They also wanted Ireland independent and ruled by their own.
Since then the situation has evolved and some of the more radical factions have adopted a more socialist or even fascist idea of a free Ireland. I for one can’t say that I will ever live to see an Ireland free from British occupation and rule. I also cannot say that Ireland would be better without it. The British/Irish peace that was brought about in the late 90’s was a good start, but the struggle is not over.
Until the Irish are treated fairly and equally to all the citizens of the UK, and the violent factions are rooted out and disappear or cease to wage their guerrilla war against the United Kingdom total peace is only a dream. It is still possible but until then it is still an illusion.
I hope you all have a great day my friends, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
I am sure you are all aware that yesterday I wrote about a subject where I am definitely not going to fall into the conservative column. I wrote about legalizing Cannabis Sativa for medicinal purposes and recreational purposes. So like I said I am more of a center-left thinker on that subject. Well I regret to inform all of my conservative readers that I am once again going to fall on the opposite side of them in today’s topic as well, and that is Stem Cell Research.
Stem Cell Research is of course another hot topic of contention and debate between pro and anti Stem Cell Research activists and I firmly believe that they both have some pretty good reasons for where their support falls on one side of the debate or the other. However I do not think that the possibilities of what can be achieved through Stem Cell Research can be ignored. I also believe that while research in this field is important we should be careful of playing god with it, because there can be only one god and none of us is he.
For me the subject hits very close to home, because diabetes runs in my family. I also am a father of a teenage Downs Syndrome boy. My grandfather also died from Alzheimer’s disease, although luckily I was not around to witness the mess it made out of his mind and his life. As a result Stem Cell Research for me is something I see as potentially finding the cure for all of these things in one form or another.
Recently Obama who I freely admit is not one of my favorite people in the world lifted the Bush era restraints that were imposed on Stem Cell Research, which I thought was possibly a bad thing if not handled correctly. He then signed a law just two days later banning federal funding of any research that leads to the destruction of human embryos. I personally think that he actually did something right with regard to Stem Cell Research.
I can name you one instance of where stem cell research has improved lives. At Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Florida they have been conducting human trials on Beta Stem Cell transplantation into people with Type I diabetes. The only risk with this study was that since the body receiving them didn’t create them they might be rejected so there was rejection drugs involved in the treatments. Since that part of the study more than 90% of the Type I diabetes patients are now off of insulin and control their diabetes with diet and exercise.
Now they are in stage two of their research, which involves stimulating your own stem cells to increase insulin production in the Pancreas not only producing more insulin but making the Pancreas use it more productively. The individual who invented both processes is an Israeli doctor and scientist by the name of Rodolpho Alejandro. I know what you’re thinking but he is Jewish as well as Latin.
His only problem with getting his treatments approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is that his company holds all the patents on the pharmaceuticals and American drug companies can’t get their hands on them, so they lobby the FDA to keep the treatments from gaining approval. I guess the business of finding cures through this type of research is the cost of your health if you are not an American drug company.
In closing I would just like to add one more thing. I would like to add that while I think Obama potentially did the right thing with Stem Cell Research I still think that what ever we do had best be done with a great deal of caution and forethought. We are already beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel with some of this research and as long as there is no abuse of humans or human material we may just break on through to the other side and see some real progress soon.
Have a wonderful Wednesday and I will see you all again tomorrow, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell
http://www.diabetesresearch.org/AbouttheDRI/DRIFaculty/alejandrobio.htm
http://stemcells.nih.gov/
As you all know I for the most part consider myself to be a pretty conservative person. However there are a couple of things that I really take a more moderate to liberal view on and today’s subject is on of those things. You see today’s subject is the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes as well as the idea of marijuana legalization for general use.
This subject has been very hard fought by those for and against marijuana legalization for decades. I can understand why some would not want marijuana legalized, but by the same token I can understand why others would want to legalize it also.
I believe that the important question on the matter is whether or not it would be moral or immoral to legalize marijuana at all. I think I can shed a little light on that subject although by the end of this blog you will see that my opinion is a little bit biased.
Opposition to legalization:
Opponents of any legislation to legalize marijuana have a couple of reasons why they oppose legalization. One reason that they have is that marijuana is already an illegal drug and therefore should not be legalized.
Another reason for their opposition is that they believe that marijuana is not only addictive, but will lead to the use of harder and more dangerous drugs subsequently leading to addiction to those as well.
Their last reason for opposing marijuana legalization is that with all of the things out there currently for public consumption like alcohol and tobacco why do we need one more thing that might be considered a health risk.
Proponents of legalization:
Those that favor legalizing marijuana have a couple of arguments of their own. One of these arguments is that certain people with medical problems can use Marijuana to alleviate pain for things like cancer and glaucoma. They favor at least legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Others who are also on the side of legalizing marijuana point to the fact that more criminal acts are committed by people under the influence of alcohol than on marijuana. They point to crimes like vehicular homicide, or manslaughter, murder, and domestic violence. They say that you never hear of anyone smoking a joint then beating on their wife and kids, or robbing a liquor store.
Supporters of legislation to legalize marijuana will also tell us that marijuana is not an addictive substance. They also point out that there is no scientific evidence to support marijuana as an addictive substance or that it leads to the usage of harder narcotic substances and addiction to them either.
Currently the state of California is considering legalizing, harvesting, and taxing marijuana for public use in their state. The reason for this is that the State of California as of right now has a budget deficit of more than 48 Billion dollars. They also point to a Department of Agriculture report showing that marijuana is the states largest cash crop bringing in more than citrus, which is the states 2nd largest cash crop and is responsible for about 7 Billion dollars of revenue to California. Marijuana production in California has been estimated to bring in as much as 20 Billion dollars a year and that may be a conservative estimate.
As far as I am concerned I lean more towards the legalization of marijuana than not. I believe that it should be legalized for medicinal purposes. I would further contend that the supporters of marijuana legalization are right and that it is not a harmful narcotic and should be legalized, produced, marketed, and taxed for public consumption. I am sure that there are those of you out there with opinions that differ from mine, but it is how I feel.
That is all I have for you guys today, but I will be back again tomorrow. Have a terrific day, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
http://norml.org/
http://www.marijuanalobby.org/?gclid=CMj17MOPppkCFSQMDQodS33kqA
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/?gclid=CPDb4KeQppkCFQHyDAod-nzAqg
I’m here to tell you that we have an awesome Commander in Chief…..NOT!!!!!! I was watching Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Friday night and I heard one of the most ridiculous things about President Obama that I have heard so far. Our fearless leader and Commander in Chief wants our veterans who have suffered service injuries while fighting overseas to pay for their medical care with private insurance. I swear can you even think of a more compassionate plan for our service people than that one, Obama must really care about those he commands, MY BUTT!!!!!
This is the guy who wants to nationalize healthcare so that everyone has medical insurance, because it is good for the people. Of course I guess our military personnel are not the equal of the entitlement mentality types who believe that the government owes them everything from medical insurance and money to god forbid maybe even work. That is if you can get their lazy asses to put down their pot and get up from in front of their cartoons long enough to even work part time.
Oh wait a minute I know why the entitlement crowd deserves everything and our military personnel don’t even deserve medical benefits, it is because the entitlement types voted for Obama while most of the military voted for McCain. Well hell if Obama is going to try to pay off the unions with card check, environmentalists with global warming policies that promote the lie, then why not try to payoff the welfare crowd for their votes as well.
Our men and women in uniform have no choice but to do as they are ordered to do. It doesn’t matter that they may not agree with our nation’s policies regarding national security and defense, but they do it anyway because that is the job they volunteered for. They go out all over the world to fight and sometimes die for this nation and when they are injured the man that is ultimately responsible for putting them in harms way wants to deny them the medical care that they deserve.
I don’t know about all of you, but this really pisses me off. Obama telling these fine men and women that they need to purchase private insurance to care for the wounds they received in battle for this nation is a big sign of disrespect to them and is a badge of dishonor that our President has earned and should have to wear if this travesty comes to pass.
That is all for now but I am sure that there will be more there always is. Have a great day and I will see you all again soon, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
P.S. Check out these links.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/03/vets.health.care/
http://blog.beliefnet.com/reformedchicksblabbing/2009/03/obama-adminstration-considerin.html
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61312
http://washingtonindependent.com/33332/what-would-the-obama-administration-want-to-make-vets-buy-private-insurance-for-their-health-care
Here we are not even 24 hours after I write about the deportation of all Mexican illegal aliens back to their own home land and now Obama is considering whether or not to send the National Guard to the US/Mexican border. Apparently he is considering this as an answer to the violence in the Mexican border towns of Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana.
I can’t help but wonder that if we had been a little more aggressive in enforcing our immigration laws we might not have to worry so much about the violence spilling over into our country. It has been reported by Fox News from several state and federal officials that representatives from the Mexican cartels who are at war are in the US acting as gang members in cities like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Birmingham.
These animals who make up the Mexican drug cartels are more of a threat to our national security than anyone in Afghanistan or Pakistan right now. The four main cartels currently field a combined armed force on the ground of at least 100,000 men. Fortunately they are in the process of killing each other right now instead of American citizens.
I think one of the main obstacles to this problem could have been erected a few years ago when it was voted on and approved by President Bush and both houses of congress and that is the border fence. Instead the bleeding heart liberals who are now running our government along with the RINO’s who were in both houses have thrown up road block after road block in their on going effort to stop it from being built.
In the mean time they now support amnesty for those here illegally and some of those are directly involved with the very criminals who are now getting away with the wholesale slaughter that is occurring daily just to the south of us. The also allow sanctuary cities to openly welcome, house, and protect illegal’s from federal authorities who are trying to enforce the immigration laws.
Did you know that right now the FBI under authority from DHS (Department of Homeland Security) who is now ran by Janet Napolitano the former Governor of the state of Arizona is investigating Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio for enforcing the immigration laws in his own county? This is because Napolitano supported the idea of sanctuary cities in Arizona, and she couldn’t stop Arpaio from enforcing the law because the Feds certified his deputies and helped to fund them.
Now to add insult to injury the Democrats want to give these illegal’s access to our Social Security trust fund when they have never paid a dime into it. What they should do is put the funds in to US Customs and The Border Patrol so they can boost their manpower and defend the border. Although if they had done all of this when they were told it was necessary we wouldn’t be talking about militarizing our southern border now.
I personally don’t think that Obama will do anything until it is to late and damage has been done, then he will just say he inherited the problem and blame all of it on G.W. Bush, because everything is Bush’s fault. How ludicrous does that sound, but trust me I am sure that is what he would do.
That’s all I have to rant about today my friends. T.G.I.F. and have a terrific weekend, I will see you all next week, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
I was trying to figure out what to write about today and couldn’t come up with anything that I haven’t written about before, so I decided to revisit a subject that I haven’t written about in a while. The subject for today is going to be about illegal immigration, but with regard to strengthening our economy and job creation. Whether you realize it or not illegal immigration has a great impact on our economy and jobs. The inspiration for this blog is of course an email one of you sent me.
Let me start off by asking you these questions, what do Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower have in common? They have all used mass deportation of illegal immigrants from Mexico in order to create jobs and rebuild the economy. You may not believe it but it is true. All three of these US Presidents did so at times in our history when we were in dire need of jobs for US citizens as well as in need of a stronger economy for our people to thrive in.
When we were suffering from what is now called the great depression the 31st President Herbert C, Hoover (R) ordered the deportation of illegal aliens so that American citizens who so desperately needed work would have jobs available to them.
The 33rd President Harry S, Truman (D) deported over 2 million illegal aliens after the 2nd World War in order to create jobs for returning US veterans returning home as well as those already here.
The 34th President Dwight D, Eisenhower (R) in 1954 deported 13 million Mexican Nationals during Operation Wetback so that both WWII and Korean War veterans got a shot at getting work. It took two years, but they were deported.
This all leads me to my next question and that’s with our economy in such turmoil, jobs disappearing left and right, and an illegal immigration situation that is out of control, why can’t our elected officials enforce the law and get rid of the cancer we suffer from and deport it back to whence it came MEXICO? If Hoover, Truman, and Eisenhower could do it back then I’m sure Obama could do it now. Although I am sure Obama would rather give them Social Security and food stamps than obey the law.
That’s all for now my friends, but I will be back tomorrow with the T.G.I.F. post, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
The last 24 hours have seen some serious spending in D.C, to the tune of 410 Billion dollars. This pork laden omnibus spending bill designed to run the government until next year has just pushed the national deficit to over 1.3 Trillion dollars. There appears to be almost 9,000 earmarks in this bill totaling something like 9 to 11 Billion dollars. Granted this is not a very significant amount when compared with the entire bill, but these earmarks are a definite waste of tax payer dollars.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid who are Obama’s staunch allies and the thugs responsible for pushing this monster pork filled spending bill through both houses of congress have once again managed to do as they please with little or no road blocks thrown up to help streamline the bill in any way. This bill went effortlessly through last night and it is a shame.
Barack Obama who had said that he was all for earmark reform in spending bills, didn’t hesitate to sign the bill into law even as he called for tough earmark reform before a televised press conference. His only defense for signing the bill was that he had inherited the bill from the last administration, which is certainly true. However I think that in light of our current economic distress Obama and hid cohorts should have removed the earmarks prior to passage.
Don’t for one minute think that the Republicans in both houses are going to get a pass from me on this garbage. Even though approximately 60% of these earmarks belong to Democratic Senators and Congressmen, 40% of this earmark crap falls squarely on the shoulders of Republicans in both houses so much for fiscal responsibility from the party of conservatism.
While the votes in both houses on this bill were split largely on party lines there appears to be no real effort by other side to control spending. The republicans also seem to not care about the behemoth that our government is becoming. It seems we are becoming a nation of government for the government rather than for the people. Hell we now have more czars in our government than ruled Russia.
The sad part is that the Dem’s led by Pelosi are already looking into another stimulus package and we aren’t even passed Obama’s first 100 days in office. On top of all of that we are still pumping money into a failed auto industry, AIG, and banking institutions such as Citigroup, and B of A. I got to tell you that Costa Rica is looking better all the time, or maybe the Cayman Islands, but as an American I won’t run away from these problems, but I will run towards a good business opportunity.
I hope you all have a wonderful evening, CIAO4NOW!!!!!
