Pics and toons 5/31/11 (1)

 

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Re: Libya is about oil

http://www.ontheissues.org/MA/Ed_Markey_Energy_+_Oil.htm

On May 30, 10:05 am, GregfromBoston <greg.vinc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> "We are in Libya because of oil.  It all goes back to the 5 million
> barrels of oil we import from OPEC on a daily basis." - Rep. Edward
> Markey (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources
> Committee

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The Tragedy of Immigration Enforcement

The Tragedy of Immigration Enforcement
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Here's the problem. If you give government a job to do, even one that seems justified in the abstract, it will use its power to make a terrible mess in practice. This is true in a host of areas from welfare to warfare, but it is even true in the complicated area of immigration.

Just imagine this. The owners of Chuy's Mesquite Broiler in Phoenix and 13 other locations around western states have been kidnapped from their popular restaurants and dragged to jail. This will be followed by trial, and certain personal bankruptcy. They could face 80 years in prison. In the raid, "Homeland Security" stole their computers, their accounting and employment records, and walked out the door – just like a gang of thieves. The only difference is that these thugs operate under the cover of the law.

And what evil did these restaurateurs do? Were they poisoning people, stealing customers' wallets, secretly running an assassination conspiracy, sending in the predator drones against people they hate, or what? To lock anyone away for life is a shocking sentence, so surely the punishment must fit the crime. Pyscho sniper-murderers have gotten less.

What they are alleged to have done is hired people who don't have the proper bureaucratic forms filled out for them. That's all. Nothing more. It is being done in the name of immigration enforcement and cracking down on illegals. The workers themselves are untouched by any of this. Their benefactors – and the benefactors of society – are the ones being targeted with police-state tactics.

The government is busting up a whole series of voluntary labor relationships that are designed to provide people with good food. Let us be clear: to the extent that many people object to illegal immigration, it has nothing to do with those who go to work and make an honest living doing things like working in restaurants. The problem with illegal immigration is related to other issues that drive people crazy, like going on welfare, engaging in actual (not pretend) crime, and demanding tax-funded support services.

People finding jobs to do and other wonderful commercial things is a praiseworthy aspect of immigration, legal or illegal. In fact, there are millions of jobs in this country that would simply not be done at the current price without such immigration, and this is true in a vast range of industries from housing to horticulture. American natives think too highly of themselves to accept these jobs at the market price.

And it is this very thing that government, given the power to enforce immigration statutes, wants to crack down on, not by rounding up workers, which would be bad enough, but by criminally prosecuting the business owners themselves, the people who are not only providing jobs but also providing good food for the public. The whole thing boggles the mind.

But the utilitarian will object. Yes, these tactics are rough, with results that are regrettable for property owners and those who like to dine out, but at least it helps address our nation's problems with illegal immigration.

But will it? If mainstream employers are afraid of lifetime jail terms, they will not hire. And that leaves only marginal employers to pick up the slack. These include drug operations, fly-by-night underground businesses, gray markets, prostitution rings, and other things from the seedier side of life.

Or the result could be no employment at all, which means turning to crime itself. In other words, these efforts attempt to stop the best part of immigration and enhance the worst. For this we can thank the government.

Try to think of this issue in terms of the risk to attempting illegal immigration. No one on the other side of the border, faced with a porous fence, is thinking: I'll take this risk only on the condition that I can go to work for Chuy's Mesquite Broiler.

No, they will come anyway. In order to eliminate every possible job opportunity for immigrants, the Obama administration will have to jail and terrorize vast numbers, destroying the commercial life of major swaths of the country. This is a catastrophic plan that amounts to a fundamental attack on liberty, and the nationalization of the service industry. (I should add that I prefer illegal immigration to legal, since we have far too many citizens able to vote themselves other people's property, and too few people who want to work hard for a living.)

Just as George Bush used national security as the great excuse to shred the Bill of Rights, the Obama administration is using illegal immigration as the excuse to achieve the socialist dream of bringing employer-employee relations entirely under government purview. It is a form of micro-nationalization.

And why? Socialist ideology plays a role here, and another authoritarian anti-market ideology, protectionism. But if you look closely enough at this enforcement, you will find the hand of Obama affiliated big labor unions at work behind the scenes. It's not that they are against immigrants. The unions hate any employee who works for the going market wage. As their power and influence continues to fall, if not in DC, they are resorting to ever more desperate tactics to shore up their slipping cartel.

You can see, then, that this crack down has nothing to do with nationalism or racialism or securing the borders or anything else. It is all about bolstering the power of the state and its unions over the American economy, and making the rest of us poorer.

http://lewrockwell.com/rockwell/tragedy-of-immigration-enforcement181.html

Re: Signs of the Times

That Christ gave his life for our souls is indisputable
---
hogwash

those who believe a jew that may have lived 2k years ago was god is
absolutely disputable

It is a terrible blight on evangelical Christianity that our churches
have sent more soldiers to the Middle East than missionaries
----
don't underestimate their motivation

On May 31, 7:25 am, MJ <micha...@america.net> wrote:
> Signs of the Timesby Laurence M. VanceThe Sunday before Memorial Day is not one of my favorites. The "patriotic" things that go on in churches in celebration or acknowledgment of Memorial Day are downright sickening.
> Churches encourage their veterans to wear their military uniforms. Special recognition is given to those who "served." Prayers are offered on behalf of the troops, not that they would cease fighting foreign wars, but for God to keep them out of harm's way and protect them. Mention is made of the troops defending our freedoms.
> Churches decorate their grounds and the inside of their buildings with U.S. flags. Sometimes it is a few large flags hanging from the ceiling or adorning the walls. Sometimes it is many small flags stuck in the ground near the church entrance. Sometimes it is both. Some congregations are asked to recite the pledge of allegiance.
> Churches sing hymns ofworship to the stateinstead of hymns of worship about the person of Christ and his work. Songs like "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," "America the Beautiful," "We Salute You, Land of Liberty," and "This Is My Country." Some churches go even farther and sing "God Bless the U.S.A." or "God Bless America." Too many churches sing theblasphemous"Battle Hymn of the Republic."
> I know these practices are widespread because of the scores of people that have e-mailed me in disgust about what occurred in their churches on the Sunday before Memorial Day.
> In most cases it is not even necessary to visit a church on the Sunday preceding Memorial Day to know what goes on inside. Just look at the sign outside of the church. Instead of a verse of Scripture or an announcement of an upcoming event, you are more likely to see some patriotic slogan, often with a Christian theme.
> I have personally seen two signs this year that I find particularly offensive, not only to my Christian faith, but to reality:Pray for the Troops,God be with them.The American soldier and Jesus Christ,one gives his life for your freedom,the other for your soul.Yes, we should pray for the troops. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1 that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." But what should we pray? That God would bless the troops while they injure, maim, kill, and destroy property where they have no business being in the first place? That God would be with them while they wage unjust and immoral foreign wars? Since when does wearing a military uniform excuse killing someone you don't know in his own territory that was no threat to any American until the U.S. military invaded and occupied his country? How about instead praying that the troops come home where they belong or that Christian families stop supplying cannon fodder to the military?
> That Christ gave his life for our souls is indisputable, but do American soldiers give their lives for our freedoms? You know, the freedoms we have steadily lost since the troops starting defending our freedoms after 9/11? Has there been in American history any foreign war, military action, CIA covert action, or intervention of any kind in any country that was for the purpose of defending our freedoms mentioned in the Bill of Rights? Of course not. Not one Iraqi or Afghan killed by U.S. forces was ever a threat to our freedoms. The troops don'tdefend our freedoms, and neither do theyfight "over there" so we don't have to fight "over here." And I can't think of anything more blasphemous than mentioning Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace in the same breath as a U.S. soldier who unjustly bombs, maims, kills, and then diesin vainandfor a lie.
> It is time for Christians to slay thegolden calfof the military. Christians should stop joining the military. They should stop encouraging theiryoung men to enlist. They should stop being militarychaplainsandmedics. American churches must bedemilitarized.
> It is a terrible blight on evangelical Christianity that our churches have sent more soldiers to the Middle East than missionaries. If Christians are so concerned about the threat of Islamofascism, then what better way to confront it than with the Gospel of Christ?http://lewrockwell.com/vance/vance245.html

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Re: The Real Cause of Muslim Terrorism

when muslims, like jews and other ethnic groups, prove that their
patriotism for the country that they swear an oath to and live in is
more important than their religion, ethnicity or nation of origin,
then, and only then, will they stop being suspect

an American's loyalty must be with the USA first ... if not, they
should be forced to leave our nation

choose sides carefully

On May 31, 7:10 am, MJ <micha...@america.net> wrote:
> The Real Cause of Muslim TerrorismPosted byStephan Kinsellaon May 30, 2011 02:51 PM
> According to Britain's Foreign Office, it's not irrational aspects of modern Islam or Anglo-American imperialism or murder of Muslim civilians but, of course, "racism." As noted in a Sunday Daily Mailarticle, "Wish you Waziristan: The bizarre Foreign Office video designed to stop young Muslims becoming extremists":The Foreign Office has been accused of wasting taxpayers' money on an animated film designed to stop Muslim teenagers from becoming Islamic extremists.Officials have spent about £33,000 on Wish You Waziristan, a cautionary tale of two young British Muslim brothers who decide to join a group of Islamic fighters on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.But critics, including members of the Muslim community, have questioned the wisdom of the film, which has been branded naive and simplistic.The cartoon, which combines computer game-style graphics and teenage street slang, opens with a failed attempt by the brothers to launch a grenade from a mountain-top in the Waziristan region of Pakistan.It then switches into flashback mode and viewers learn how the pair got to an extremists' training camp from their home in Britain.The story is told from the point of view of the unnamed younger brother, who has little time for the cause and has agreed to become involved only out of respect for his older brother Abu.Abu's journey on the road to extremism begins when he is just 11 years old and he and two white friends are targeted by racists while they are playing football on a beach.The brothers are then shown watching a series of training videos featuring Osama Bin Laden before joining the fighters in Waziristan.***Following the failure of the grenade-launching mission, the brothers return to the UK, only to be arrested. The film ends with Abu writing to his brother asking for forgiveness.What bizarre state propaganda. I could not find the original video on YouTube; apparently it was taken down due to the controversy; but one SkyNews report about it, showing clips from it, is below.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcxlEDGv4GY&feature=player_embedded

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