Immigration and Tough Love

When a system is broken, it leads to lawlessness and weakens our own rule of law. ~John Lukacs.

The hopeful assertion is this: History shows that the most ambitious, self-reliant individuals risk life and limb to immigrate into a new land.

However, we are dealing with millions each year of illegal immigration from a third-world country that threatens the cultural and sovereign aspects of our nation. This is not an “exceptionalism” view, rather a realistic one taken from world history. A nation cannot take in millions of people a year from a different region, holding vastly different political ideals, a different language and a potentially different moral code and hold on to who she is.

Everyone agrees immigration reform is needed, but few will acknowledge that a physical barrier will ensure reform and upholding of the law of the land is meaningful to everyone on both sides of the literal fence. Current immigration rules only allow a certain number of legal immigrants into the U.S. each year. Wait times for VISAs can be up to eight years even with good legitimate sponsors. The reality is, that no fence, virtual or physical, is going to keep ambitious people concerned with bettering themselves from coming to the Land of Promise.

Modern progressives feel a physical fence and laws like the one recently enacted in Arizona are cruel and fly in the face of progressive Kumbaya campfire, One-World-Nation philosophies. To that I assert this: You cannot offer amnesty without simultaneously upholding the law of the land which means respecting the states’ sovereign rights to enforce the existing law. The U.S. or a state cannot freely take in millions of economic refugees each year without her face changing.

At the root of this conflict is the same argument we see over and over. Is the U.S.A. worth protecting or is she inherently broken and need fixing? I support the former ideal. Does that make me a racist? On the contrary, it is a tough love philosophy of recognizing and upholding laws and rights of citizens at all costs. What is a citizen? One who is entitled to be here, is committed to holding our values close to their heart and has made the enormous sacrifice to obey the rules to earn the right of U.S. citizenship. Have you ever heard the phrase “one does not know the worth of something until they have to pay for it”? Ponder that.

President Obama recognized the need for an orderly method for controlling immigration on the campaign trail. Amnesty can never be a one-time deal. It lays the groundwork for a perpetual flow of illegal immigrants without meeting the problem at its source.

I advocate peaceful organized protests and boycotts of businesses that utilize now or have ever utilized illegal immigrant or migrant workers. Such businesses exist everywhere in this nation, not only in the south. It is the grass roots that drive change, and currently, the only signs I see on the news are from amnesty seekers. Voting with your wallet or your feet is often the most powerful.

Switzerland was among the poorest of European nations just over two hundred years ago. Then, ingenuity set in and they emerged as one of the wealthiest, most successful civilizations on the planet. All the while, Switzerland’s humanitarian traditions made them a safe-haven for political refugees. With the emergence of their industrial leadership and pride in craftsmanship in their cultural perspective, they more dramatically curtailed immigration during the 20th century than any other nation in Western Europe.

Japan is another fine example. After WWII, their resources were no longer permitted by the world economy to establish a large military presence. Their redirected industrial energies made them a leading manufacturing and economic world power. The last 40 years has shown marked restriction in their immigration policies. Do the Swiss and Japanese understand something about sociology and the economic and cultural impacts of unbridled immigration that we do not?

Obama on the campaign trail with Larry King said “I think all Americans think that we should be able to regulate who comes in and out of this country in an orderly way. Not only for sake of our sovereignty but also to avoid the hundreds of people who have been dying across the desert.” While turning a blind eye to the physical structure already in progress from the Bush administration along the Mexican border, Obama simultaneously cut the budget almost in half, hindering the effort toward reform, as assuredly, reform cannot be effective without a physical structure deterring the simple means of coming into to the U.S. against U.S. laws.

Although logic and compassion both argue against the rationale of a physical barrier between Mexico and the U.S., the reality is that no reform will slow the human flow without one. An alternative to the physical structure is supporting states’ such as Arizona for enacting legislation to uphold the existing law, when the federal government sits idle. Other examples of such action provide evidence that crime is reduced and other burdens on a state will be reduced with local enforcement of the law.

~H.L. Whitley

From force to persuasion - Audrey Pietrucha

Click the title link for a full column on persuasion versus taxes, and what taxes and laws indicate about a society.

Understanding How Pride in America Became Politically Incorrect

Generation X’ers and the Boomers were impassioned by the Nationalism of Ronald Regan in the 1980s peak of the Cold War. We were impassioned to witness on live TV George Bush Sr.’s Gulf War that liberated Kuwait and claimed victory within minutes without casualty. When the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked, we felt for the first time real fear since Pearl Harbor. Fear shifted to hope and pride when George W. Bush stood atop rubble and gave the most inspiring rally cry of his Oval Office tenure. Then what happened to hope and pride?

The trend toward a new global awareness and connectivity tugged at our moral and better judgment. As academia sought to “understand” the rationale behind Muslim extremists, Michael Moore was promoting entertaining and popular movies going as far as implicating the Bush administrations in the 9-11 and Columbine tragedies. All of a sudden, it was no longer politically correct in many parts of the nation to talk about God or be remotely conservative. We were swept away in the current of Bush-bashing on both sides of the aisle. Because we struggled with our own moral confusion, we criticized an administration that remained firm in their convictions despite great opposition.

Obama was elected because we have become a culture that finds it difficult to know for sure if there actually even is a right and wrong let alone be able to discern a difference, and Obama is the leader that best represents this predicament. Perhaps confusion about our own spirituality (or lack thereof) is the root of this dilemma. We have become a culture of tolerance no matter what cost of confusion this creates for domestic and foreign policy and our personal lives and community conduct.

The liberal agenda promotes the thinking that we might emulate Europe more for their govo-socio policies. Europe broke apart into approximately 50 nations, many were born in our lifetime, due to cultural and political inabilities to peacefully coexist. Why on earth would we want to emulate this? The world is a vast plethora of individuals and communities with unique heritages, ideas about God, ideas about women, ideas about children. No rational leader of the free world would envision a global kumbaya togetherness unless they were comfortable forcing a set of standards and laws upon everyone, robbing man of his greatest gift, free-agency.

Our schools are pumped with liberal agenda textbooks that some parents claim dedicate more pages to the Muslim faith than America’s own historical Christian/Judaism influence. Speaking about Christianity in schools is no longer tolerated, let alone politically correct in many parts of the nation, namely the east and west coastal urban areas. Yet there is media sympathy and coverage for homosexual prom dates or a student who violates the community dress code with a provocative prom dress while Christians are simultaneously silenced under the guise of “Political Correctness”.

Texas’ recent move to stand in defiance to the national education standards offered by the Obama administration may drive some momentum to swing the pendulum back. Texas alone may be changing the tone of our textbooks, as many publishers follow Texas’ lead in education text selection that is mass distributed throughout the nation. Glenn Beck is taking this a step further by peddling the notion that we disband the Department of Education. This is an alluring concept that would require parents and local governments step up and get involved with their kids’ education, which would in turn, strengthen families, which would in turn, reduce the welfare state (according to research) and other far reaching noble ideas. Is “noble” still a politically correct or relevant term in the U.S.A.?

~ H.L. Whitley

What's Still Missing from the Freedom Movement and Palin is Not "The One"

I like Sarah Palin, I do. But after listening to her recent speeches at the McCain rally and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, I am still not convinced that she is "The One" to embody all of our hopes and aspirations. The reason is this: She has proven that she excels at Obama-bashing. Okay, we get it. She has not figured out that she continues to preach to the choir. Really, when I say choir, I'm talking about the kind of beautiful Baptist choir you only hear when you go to Harlem . The authentic one.

I think this repeated messaging is starting to fall on deaf ears and Palin may find herself maintaining her plateau rather than truly uniting the conservative movement. She's not "The One" guys, sorry.

We were convinced for a while with her tales of Applehood and Motherpie. We all felt electricity with her first rallies, but like many politicians, she has continued to run with the same current that at one time provided electricity, but is now grounded.

Somewhere out there, there is someone who can electrify like Palin, probably another woman, I don't know. But whoever she is, will maintain contact with that element of her womanhood that inspires us with talking points to reclaim in our movement the notion that we must care for other members in our communities, privately, organizationally, with non-profits, with social entrepreneurship.

Never before has social entrepreneurship been so pervasive and momentous. I haven't heard Plain or Rush, Laura or Glenn LEVERAGE this to forward the cause. Not only would such talking, planning and convincing unite the fragmented right, but undoubtedly DRAW moderate, equally confused members from the left toward the Greater Cause.

I would like to see popular conservatives come out of the dark ages, get in touch with the enlightened masses and assure us how we are going to transition into a new Libertarian state that cares deeply for others and ACTIVELY seeks out ways to provide privately through sophisticated, private or corporate social structures.

We still have a ways to go. I'm not hearing it. My heart is not twitter-pated.
~h. Whitley

GOP Could Talk Less, Listen More

While the GOP continues to send guilt-ridden "compliance" messaging to conservatives and Tea Party activists in fear of the party splitting up and failing in November, Tea Party rallies press forward in their beautiful, unstructured ways and will continue to be like children who continue to disobey in the face of inattentive parents.

Conservatives and Tea Party activists are bombarded with more messaging to "go-with-the-flow". Success and progress will come by keeping a course that is steady, one step at a time. One new curious member at a time.

When the left-of-right GOP decides to instate leadership and messaging that listens more and talks less, they might just find that they gain the momentum and ground they so desperately seek from the Tea party and true conservatives who, like children, are going to grow no matter how much their parents inadvertently try to dismiss and suppress them.

Virginia's Health Care Freedom Act

Virginia has acted with bipartisan effort, to establish an anti-mandate law that states Virginians cannot be compelled to purchase health care insurance against their will! They have filed a lawsuit to defend it. The best part? This was passed by democrats in the Virginia senate! Democrat Virginia state Senator Phillip Puckett references the Mess in Massachusetts I've been blogging about. He also says: "Forcing someone to buy Healthcare is unAmerican." What is your state legislature doing? I predict we will see unprecedented cases of states versus the federal government in the Supreme Court. Just last week, I blogged about Utah's moves toward lawsuit against Uncle Sam.

If We Become Europe - Who Becomes Us? (NRO)

If we Europeanize, Europe is in Trouble. Another great National Review Online article from my new favorite contributor, Jonah Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg highlights an interesting rationale why Euopean govo-social models have thrived; we have offered all of the military protection to them, all of the medical innovation. While our guns money gives way to butter money in our new social paradigm, who gets the guns? Iran? China? Venezuela? yikes.

Click on the title above to read his article.

No More Monsters? I Found our Lost Moral Code!

Parents and Community Leaders could be better supporters of literature and media that *supports* a return to the basic moral code inherent in every human being. Today we are bombarded with media that blurs moral code, and we accept this because we are lost. After reading this, have a watchful eye for when this occurs, because it's in the seemingly most innocent places!

Popular media and literature teaches us and our children that there are no such things as "bad guys". People are "just sometimes misunderstood". Really? Then explain why I cannot, in good conscience, turn the news on in the presence of my children, with fear that they will be horrified at their discovery of the inherent evil and lack of moral standards in the world today. What kind of world is it that a parent feels they must screen the NEWS like they would a PG or PG-13 movie (that's a topic for another post) for fear that our children will hear about sex, infidelity, kidnappings, brutal murders, rape... before I am ready to discuss this with them?

How does a parent explain? I belong to a church organization with clear moral standards of conduct - I therefore find it easier and easier to explain our complicated world to my kids. But consider those without this iron rod to hang on to, and the societal pressures tempting us to say, "there is no such thing as monsters" "sometimes people are just misunderstood". Does this not just blur the moral lines, make them fuzzy? hazy? easier to cross? easier to accept being crossed?

Popular (Religionless) "spirituality" proponents are guilty of the same thing. They see the world now, as I know one day I'll see Heaven. They seem to be missing from their lives a real awareness, or acknowledgment of the darker side of the world that we must teach our children to recognize immediately, and avoid.

The link on this post title has an excellent article by Jonah Goldberg (National Review Online) on this topic that I loved and wanted to share with you.

For a list of classics that you can read to your children, grandchildren or re-incorporate into your own life or work to reincorporate into your child's curriculum, click on my sponsor - TJEd Marketplace.

When we return to the classics in our literature and homes, we will see a return to the moral standards of conduct that this great nation was founded on. Our Founding Fathers' parents read these same works to them. I'm not sure we can evolve from where we are, without an incorporation of our past deeply ingrained in us.
~h. Whitley

Black and Conservative

Conservative black voters are blogging, marching and joining the Tea Party. They are defying the "expectation" that blacks HAVE to be democrats. They are called insidious names because they dare to criticize the first African American president under their right to exercise the First Amendment.

Many have kept their against-the-grain political views to themselves - until now. Although most voted for Obama, many feel the nation is overburdened with tax, disagree with Obama policies, and believe in fiscal responsibility and conservative action.

I hope we see more become active to squash the unfounded myth that Tea Party activists are racists.

I am not a member of the Tea Party. Simply an observer.

The Great Lie that Women Believe - Nudity Begets Power??

So if we are all about freedom preservation here, why do we disapprove of women walking around with no shirts on? In Maine, nudity is only illegal if genitals are exposed.

Taking advantage of this caveat, a small group of very white women who looked as though they had not seen the sun in a decade, took to the streets of Portland, with the intention of calling attention to society's double standard toward male and female nudity.

What a Great and Terrific Lie today's women continue to believe and worse, perpetuate.

Not only should you put your shirt on, you should wear a bra. And while you're at it, cover your shoulders and at least a bit of your legs.

We need to tell our young women and girls of this Lie before they fall victim like countless others. And share with them the best kept secret of the source of a woman's power. Show less. Reveal less. Herein lies the source of all that is good, righteous, and powerful within a woman and her influence over her husband and children or others.

Pretending like it's normal for a woman to be naked and provocative, and there is something inherently wrong with men and the rest of us for not acting normal when we see bare breasts....it's simply the Great Lie that perpetuates the promiscuity and is exactly the factor that robs women of their power to begin with.

I challenge any woman or man to dig deep into their soul and show me where a woman has earned true power from disrobing publicly or behaving provocatively outside of marriage.

A woman's power lies within her, in her family. In her modesty. In her wide open heart that NURTURES her children, her husband and her friends.

Women are continuing to lose their wombs. They are continuing to choose being gender-neutral or neutered, in place of CLAIMING THEIR INHERENT GOD-GIVEN POWER. Until women claim their power correctly, our children will continue to be lost and not know their worth.

Men and Women: In what ways have you believed or perpetuated the Lie?

~ h.Whitley

Don't Mind My Mug.

I decided it was time to come out of my shell and put my own face onto these audacious posts I'm creating, so people who wish to criticize the heck out of me, can do it right to my face. So there... I apologize for those of you who would prefer not to stare at my face while reading.

It should be noted that this is a passport photo - the only thing remotely professional I have. AND, I was nine months pregnant with my third child. So if you want to bark at me, know that you are doing it to a poor pregnant lady who can't afford a decent professional headshot. All kidding aside, I welcome all posts in any form.

I can't tell exactly who dislikes my posts more, liberals who can't stand anything conservative and think we're all cold-hearted mean people, or conservatives who think I can't possibly be conservative because I love everyone. WHATEVER. I know there's more of us out there. We are the new "heightened-awareness" element of the right-wing.

I am about to teach my children more about the life of Thomas Jefferson today as well as colonial South Carolina interspersed with decimals, long division, fractions and renaming - oh - and we bought caterpillars this week - soon to be hatched into Butterflies! This sort of spirit-filled school day at home is just the thing that usually inspires the kinds of posts from me that make people either really inspired or really irritated. Stay tuned!

~h. whitley

Podcast Episode 3 is Up!

Today's Podcast Episode: Mess in Massachusetts' Universal Healthcare, Medicare paying 19 cents on the dollar in Vermont, Utah's intent to sue the U.S. Government for reclamation of lands, and Is Conservation really Conservative? - Yes! Hear why.

Utah Wants Land Back from U.S. Government

Using Eminent domain as the grounds for taking back Utah land from the U.S. Government may anger environmentalists, but will allow Utah to contribute needed tax dollars into their schools if federal lands are reclaimed. Utah is hoping other western states will file suit as well, triggering a Supreme Court battle.

Utah spends less per pupil than any other state, yet has the largest class sizes. Utah has applied a tax increase of $1 per pack of cigarettes to generate additional funding for schools. Utah claims that revenues generated from the resources located in the disputed lands will properly generate revenue that can be used for educating the children of Utah.

Utah claims that the U.S. Government is in violation of a contract with Utah issued when statehood was granted, promising to sell state lands long ago.

Disgruntled Democrats Join Tea Party

Between the recent blunders of the out-of-touch RNC (RNC's $2000 strip club reimbursement to a misguided donor), and disgruntled Democrats defecting to the Tea Party, leaves one to wonder, is the RNC on its inevitable way out?

More on the Massachusetts Health Insurance Mess

As the race for the Massachusetts governor's office ensues, incumbent Gov. Deval L. Patrick wields his power to deny insurance company rate hikes. Although well-intended, three out of the four largest insurers in Massachusetts reported operating losses last year.

It appears this mess is turning into a circular firing squad, as all stakeholders were once united in the effort to provide universal healthcare. Although the insurers are requesting rate hikes of 7-34%, the state insurance commission believes this is way out of line relative to the regional medical inflation rate of 5%. The insurance lobby states that the real culprit is the Massachusetts medical system. The New York Times reports that a Boston University study recently found that hospital costs per Massachusetts resident were 55 percent higher than the national average. An investigation this year by the state attorney general concluded that the pricing leverage exerted by academic medical centers played a major role.

Lora M. Pellegrini, the president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, called the denials “a very reckless act” and warned that insurers on thin margins might have trouble paying claims.

What to do?