May day

This is the image that pops into my head when I think of immigration. A family fresh from their native country full of hope, a little trepidation and a whole lot of grit and determination. A romantic view for sure, but it's what I see in the faces in pictures like these. My father came to this country from Hungary, my wife's mother, from Okinawa. Both learned to speak English and worked and raised families. It would have never even occurred to my father to live in this country and not speak the language. His grammar was impeccable. He spoke with a thick accent that I was so used to I didn't really hear it. To this day when I'm around someone with a Hungarian accent I know it immediately but it doesn't sound like an accent to me. I love accents, Italian, Arabic, French, Japanese, Hungarian, Scottish you name it, I like it. I love the contributions immigrants have made to our society. I'm not talking about the scientific or industrial contributions, that goes without saying, but the flavors and style they bring with them. Food, artwork, architecture, clothing, music, etc., all enhanced by ideas by people from other countries. It has made America a rich and varied place to live.

This, I fear is the new face of immigration, here illegally, ungratefully and full of anger and protest. Note the A.N.S.W.E.R. protest sign in the background. These illegals have aligned themselves with the commies. They held their protest on International Workers Day! A friggin pinko holiday! May day is a thinly veiled celebration of the idea of socialism, to make romantic the struggle of the laborer against corporations or whatever. I'm not lumping all immigrants in with these yahoos, but if 11 million illegals are falling for the tripe ladled out by the likes of A.N.S.W.E.R. and others, we are in for some trouble. If the first contribution of these new immigrants is to celebrate the fact that they are illegals and to demand rights, what's next?

Getting earthy

How did I spend my earthday? I ran the lawnmower, the weed-whacker (which has a 2 cycle engine, so I burned oil and gas at the same time) and drove the car to the grocery store. So I ran 3 engines and to top it all off, I burned charcoal to cook my dinner. All in all, I consider it a successful earth day. I didn't even know it was earth day. I do what I always do, knowing that cutting the grass, driving the car, cooking on the grill, burning stuff, using energy, etc., is not killing the earth. The earth is 3 billion years old, we have maybe, 200 years of reliable meteorological data, yet we are willing to say that the earth is warming to levels that will cause catastrophic climate change. And even more arrogantly, we believe that our puny little actions are causing it, or could reverse it. A few billion people verses the energy of a white dwarf star as it reflects it's heat and light on our world. What we need is more reasonable thinking and less agenda based lying.

My friend Rob did something a little more worthwhile for earth day, go check it out.

My wife did something difficult and important, something I hopefully will be able to do someday with the Patriot Guard. Be sure to drop by for some coffee and a little music.

Bad idea.

Shouldn't this one be obvious?
Does anyone really need to be told not to do this?

Thank you Mr. President

Opening day is always special in Cincinnati. We were the first professional baseball team, then known as the Cincinnati Redlegs. It has been the tradition that the first major league game of the year is played in Cincinnati. On top of that, President Bush threw out the first pitch. No one hopper either, all the way from the pitchers mound to home plate. It was good to see the president back in the tri-state, not for political reasons but just to participate in our opening day. The fans were polite and there were only a few protesters, all in all it went very smoothly. George was just another fan today, albeit a very important fan. Appearing in the announcer booth and talking with long time Reds announcer Marty Brennaman on the radio and just generally being his charming homespun self. The Cubbys beat the stuffing out of us, but that's okay. Opening day is more about the tradition, the Findlay Market parade and the opening of the season than it is about winning.