Come and get me, Mayor Perez!
Mayor Juan Perez of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, had his city attorney send a cease and desist letter to resident Jeni Reisinger to remove a link to the city police department's web site from her own web site.
It seems Ms. Reisinger led a recall effort against hizzhonor in September of last year. She may or may not have engaged in racially derogatory tactics in her effort, and rightly or wrongly Mayor Perez may or may not have had his feelings hurt that one of his citizens was not one hundred percent in lockstep with his duly instituted regime. If she did, there is no question she deserves a chorus of raspberries and a resounding "shame on you!" The mayor just needs to get a thicker skin. If you think that all the world is going to love you and help advance your utopian ideals for a better tomorrow just because you garnered enough votes to win an election, politics is not for you.
Perez's purported concern is "People associate (Reisinger) with racism because of that website she designed during the recall when she had me holding a Mexican flag (with) 'Power to illegals?' captioned on it. They were calling me 'muchachito' and 'senor,' all these derogatory terms on that website, and she was the creator of that website," Perez said. "My concern was that people would have some concern over her linking to a city website." (Quote originally appeared in the Sheboygan Press, as noted in a story posted on WorldNetDaily November 3, 2007.)
The mayor is of the opinion that people must have permission to link to the city web site. That an outside web site linking to the city implies an endorsement by the city of that third party's views.
Mr. Perez, stop whining and start involving yourself with some meaningful business. As long as links are not using protected images or symbols you have no grounds for attempting to control access to a publicly accessible site. That a government entity would seek to exert such control is even more disgusting than if a private or publicly held entity were attempting the same thing. Government is an extension of the people, Mr. Mayor, not the other way around. Government exists and serves at our pleasure, not us at theirs. Politicians need to be reminded of that fact, loud and often.
For the record, I have neither received nor sought permission for any of the links recorded above or for those that are listed at the end of this article.
Come and get me, Mr. Perez, I won't go anywhere.
City of Sheboygan
Mayor of Sheboygan Home Page
City of Sheboygan Fire Department
Sheboygan City Attorney's Office (Since the mayor felt it necessary to involve the City Attorney in this, I certainly don't want to be accused of not being inclusive.)
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
It's My Fault You're a Selfish Idiot?
I'm trying to understand this. Really, I am. I don't think I'm particularly stupid, but I'm just finding it darned near impossible to get my arms around this one.
La Raza, or more correctly the National Council of La Raza (I'd hate to be accused of insensitivity for not according the organization their proper name), released a report on the results of a study they commissioned the Urban Institute to perform. The study focused on three U.S. communities in which large raids and arrests were conducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). In total, 912 adults are reported as having been arrested, directly affecting 506 minor children.
Apparently, having Mommy and/or Daddy arrested can be stressful or possibly even traumatic for the children involved. Schools as well as other private and governmental institutions and social agencies are forced to work quickly to care for these poor innocents whose lives are disrupted. Some children are fortunate enough to be left with a single parent or extended families able to help out. Unfortunately it can be difficult for those caregivers left behind to cope with the emotional, mental, and financial stresses this situation can create.
The study suggests that ICE, schools, Congress, and social agencies all need to get together to develop a compassionate safety net in advance of raids to ensure that the traumas, psychological challenges, and stigmas faced by these innocent children and their families are mitigated to the greatest extent possible if not in fact eliminated completely.
Hunh?
A parent or parents who have either entered or remained in this country illegally have made that choice of their own volition. No one forced them to do so. That their children or others are negatively impacted by the choices these individuals have made is unquestionable. What is completely questionable is that these perpetrators should be given special consideration or treatment just because the repercussions of their poor, illegal choices will have further negative impact on others.
Does the serial drunk driver whose license is finally revoked get to keep driving because losing his job might disrupt his family? Does the bank robber with young children at home get to keep the cash and walk free just because the young ones in his life might be stressed or saddened by being deprived of their Daddy?
Of course not.
The majority of illegal aliens in this country are of Hispanic extraction, purely because most citizens of the economically challenged nation on our southern border have that ancestry. Just because they have their very own special interest group going to bat for them, "The largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States (NCLR)", does not make enforcement of our immigration laws racist or discriminatory. It simply means that members of that racial background have the most convenient opportunity to violate those laws and so of course they will overwhelmingly represent the violators of those particular laws.
Adults, of all races, nationalities, and genders, make choices. Some of those choices are good, while others are less well conceived. Some of those bad choices have the potential to negatively impact others, even some who are innocent of any wrongdoing or ill intent. That happens. Life is not always fair. Equally unfairly, lucky breaks are also sometimes encountered.
The fact that some selfish, inconsiderate adult seeking personal advantage at the expense of others makes choices that are not in the best interests of his or her presumed loved ones though is not my fault. Nor is it my responsibility.
La Raza, or more correctly the National Council of La Raza (I'd hate to be accused of insensitivity for not according the organization their proper name), released a report on the results of a study they commissioned the Urban Institute to perform. The study focused on three U.S. communities in which large raids and arrests were conducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). In total, 912 adults are reported as having been arrested, directly affecting 506 minor children.
Apparently, having Mommy and/or Daddy arrested can be stressful or possibly even traumatic for the children involved. Schools as well as other private and governmental institutions and social agencies are forced to work quickly to care for these poor innocents whose lives are disrupted. Some children are fortunate enough to be left with a single parent or extended families able to help out. Unfortunately it can be difficult for those caregivers left behind to cope with the emotional, mental, and financial stresses this situation can create.
The study suggests that ICE, schools, Congress, and social agencies all need to get together to develop a compassionate safety net in advance of raids to ensure that the traumas, psychological challenges, and stigmas faced by these innocent children and their families are mitigated to the greatest extent possible if not in fact eliminated completely.
Hunh?
A parent or parents who have either entered or remained in this country illegally have made that choice of their own volition. No one forced them to do so. That their children or others are negatively impacted by the choices these individuals have made is unquestionable. What is completely questionable is that these perpetrators should be given special consideration or treatment just because the repercussions of their poor, illegal choices will have further negative impact on others.
Does the serial drunk driver whose license is finally revoked get to keep driving because losing his job might disrupt his family? Does the bank robber with young children at home get to keep the cash and walk free just because the young ones in his life might be stressed or saddened by being deprived of their Daddy?
Of course not.
The majority of illegal aliens in this country are of Hispanic extraction, purely because most citizens of the economically challenged nation on our southern border have that ancestry. Just because they have their very own special interest group going to bat for them, "The largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States (NCLR)", does not make enforcement of our immigration laws racist or discriminatory. It simply means that members of that racial background have the most convenient opportunity to violate those laws and so of course they will overwhelmingly represent the violators of those particular laws.
Adults, of all races, nationalities, and genders, make choices. Some of those choices are good, while others are less well conceived. Some of those bad choices have the potential to negatively impact others, even some who are innocent of any wrongdoing or ill intent. That happens. Life is not always fair. Equally unfairly, lucky breaks are also sometimes encountered.
The fact that some selfish, inconsiderate adult seeking personal advantage at the expense of others makes choices that are not in the best interests of his or her presumed loved ones though is not my fault. Nor is it my responsibility.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Question of the Day
Why is it that the overwhelming majority of individuals are highly rational and intelligent beings, but when placed in a group of more than about two people the collective IQ drops by 80 percent?
I'm a Racist? Guess I'll Have to Live With That
In a World Net Daily article (linked above) posted October 30, 2007, I discovered that I am a racist. Not because of anything I have ever said or done, but simply as an incontrovertible fact of my birth. So decrees the University of Delaware Office of Resident Life.
Every student at that university living in a residence hall is being subjected to something they like to call "Diversity Education Training". One excerpt from a document used to facilitate this indoctrination of residence hall inmates reads: "A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. 'The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….'"
Several practices and incidents are cited, which all boil down to the university encouraging, coercing, and outright compelling students to adopt their approved ideology in order to maintain standing within the campus society.
Chairman Mao may have defined education that way. I have slightly differing opinions on the topic.
A university - ideally any educational institution - should as its foundational mission be teaching students how to think. Not what to think, not what views to hold or denounce, but how to take in data from a wide variety of sources, analyze that information, and arrive at an informed, logical conclusion from which they are able to form, express, and rationally defend their own opinions.
Using a position of authority to browbeat students into submitting to and ultimately adopting a style of thought is unethical, immoral, and illegal. Doing so under the auspices of a government sponsored institution does not make it any more right or proper.
I am not a racist. Not through my thoughts. Not through my actions. Most certainly not as an immutable condition of my birth. I owe no apologies for my white skin, nor do I owe any special concessions or considerations to people of darker skin. I am simply obligated to treat all my fellow human beings with the respect, dignity and consideration that their efforts, actions, and accomplishments deserve. Some of them are black, brown, yellow, and yes, even white. Some have dangly bits while others sport innies. None of that makes them more or less deserving than me or any other of their fellows.
Those who believe the only way they can obtain any personal power in life is by defining half the population as victims and the other half as victimizers deserve nothing but scorn, ridicule, and rejection of the thesis under which they wish to live their lives - and mine. Their ideas and arguments in support of those ideas are flawed, and worthy of rejection on their own merits. Race and gender play no part in that evaluation. Any position with the fallback defense being "if you disagree with me you are wrong and in denial and in need of psychological counseling to overcome your aberrations" (why does that bring to mind one of the positions in the Global Warming "debate"?) defines itself as fundamentally invalid.
Only an idea that can be challenged and successfully defended through reason and fact is worthy of consideration. Playground exchanges of "Is too! Is not! IS TOO!! IS NOT!!!" do not meet that criteria.
Every student at that university living in a residence hall is being subjected to something they like to call "Diversity Education Training". One excerpt from a document used to facilitate this indoctrination of residence hall inmates reads: "A RACIST: A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. 'The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality. By this definition, people of color cannot be racists, because as peoples within the U.S. system, they do not have the power to back up their prejudices, hostilities, or acts of discrimination….'"
Several practices and incidents are cited, which all boil down to the university encouraging, coercing, and outright compelling students to adopt their approved ideology in order to maintain standing within the campus society.
Chairman Mao may have defined education that way. I have slightly differing opinions on the topic.
A university - ideally any educational institution - should as its foundational mission be teaching students how to think. Not what to think, not what views to hold or denounce, but how to take in data from a wide variety of sources, analyze that information, and arrive at an informed, logical conclusion from which they are able to form, express, and rationally defend their own opinions.
Using a position of authority to browbeat students into submitting to and ultimately adopting a style of thought is unethical, immoral, and illegal. Doing so under the auspices of a government sponsored institution does not make it any more right or proper.
I am not a racist. Not through my thoughts. Not through my actions. Most certainly not as an immutable condition of my birth. I owe no apologies for my white skin, nor do I owe any special concessions or considerations to people of darker skin. I am simply obligated to treat all my fellow human beings with the respect, dignity and consideration that their efforts, actions, and accomplishments deserve. Some of them are black, brown, yellow, and yes, even white. Some have dangly bits while others sport innies. None of that makes them more or less deserving than me or any other of their fellows.
Those who believe the only way they can obtain any personal power in life is by defining half the population as victims and the other half as victimizers deserve nothing but scorn, ridicule, and rejection of the thesis under which they wish to live their lives - and mine. Their ideas and arguments in support of those ideas are flawed, and worthy of rejection on their own merits. Race and gender play no part in that evaluation. Any position with the fallback defense being "if you disagree with me you are wrong and in denial and in need of psychological counseling to overcome your aberrations" (why does that bring to mind one of the positions in the Global Warming "debate"?) defines itself as fundamentally invalid.
Only an idea that can be challenged and successfully defended through reason and fact is worthy of consideration. Playground exchanges of "Is too! Is not! IS TOO!! IS NOT!!!" do not meet that criteria.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Response to Follow?
Following is the text of an email sent to Hillary Clinton via the "Contact Us" link on her presidential campaign web site. Do I expect anything more meaningful (or sinister) than an auto-responder generic thank-you text? Of course not. But it can't hurt to get the details out as publicly as possible.
Wouldn't it be a pleasant surprise to hear Hillary or any of the others actually respond to the question posed? On the off chance something more should come from her camp it will be posted in this space. Keep checking back!
The message that was sent:
Wouldn't it be a pleasant surprise to hear Hillary or any of the others actually respond to the question posed? On the off chance something more should come from her camp it will be posted in this space. Keep checking back!
The message that was sent:
Mrs. Clinton,
You dare to suggest that Governor Spitzer is doing a grand and noble thing by putting driver’s licenses into the hands of illegal immigrants. You express a heartwarming concern that all these people who are illegally in this country might harm themselves or possibly even others while operating a motor vehicle, as if somehow that is the fundamental underlying issue.
What exactly is it that you and your ilk are incapable of comprehending about the word "illegal" in the term ILLEGAL alien? These people, of their own volition, are violating the laws of this country. They do not require help assimilating - which most of them do not wish; they do not need help obtaining government services paid for by legal citizens and legal resident aliens; they do not need to have the "stigma" of their illegal status washed away by citizenship or pseudo-citizenship proposals that serve only to penalize those would be immigrants who have, are, or hope to follow the legal pathways to entry and possible citizenship.
The only assistance they require is in exiting this country with all possible haste. If you or anyone else is truly concerned about breaking up families that were illegally created while they were illegally present within this country I, and no doubt many others, are more than willing to foot the bill for transporting those family members back to the illegal alien's country of origin. I am certainly not harsh enough to want to forcibly separate a child from its parent just because that parent is a criminal.
Were some hypothetical individual (I almost wrote "were I", but don't want you sicking your Secret Service goons on me in the trumped up misinterpretation that I am suggesting or even implying some sort of threat against either you or your property) to enter your home and remove your valuables, I very seriously doubt you would be so magnanimous as to suggest that this "non-owner unauthorized reallocation of wealth" perpetrator should be shown compassion or showered with government - read taxpaying United States citizen - funded largesse to rectify his personal economic deprivation. I have every confidence that you would demand that the police and criminal justice system do everything possible to rectify such a wrong perpetrated against you.
How is it you can stand before the citizens of this nation and proudly proclaim that you lack the intellectual honesty to apply the same standards to those who are breaking and entering our nation and stealing our wealth, exporting it to family members in foreign countries? Is political expediency truly a satisfying, let alone acceptable, answer?
Jay Vreeland
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