June 22, 2009

Debt Paid, But Beware the Hidden Fees

On first blush, this sounds like a good local law: "prohibit those who have sexually abused minors from living within 2,500 ft of anywhere where children congregate, such as schools, libraries and parks." (BBC article) In fact, this sounds like common sense. Most pedophiles seem to be repeat offenders operating under compulsion - so just remove the temptation, as much as possible. This Miami law sounds like it's a good thing, right?

Before I go any further, let me point out one fact: I am a survivor. I know first-hand the types of things some of these offenders have done and the pain and long-term effects those actions can have.

That said, the law in Miami which forbids these convicted offenders from living within 2500 feet of anyplace kids might congregate means these folks are living in a tent city under a bridge, because there is nowhere in Miami for them to live otherwise. They are literally being dropped off by Florida's correctional system at the bridge with no money, no water, no food ... no toilet facilities ... they are being issued driver's licenses which list the bridge as their "home" address.

Dr. Pedro Jose Greer of Florida International University (Dean of Humanities, Health and Society) says "This is the stupidest damn law I have ever seen and it's purely mandated by revenge without any consideration for the well-being of these people - who deserve better despite the severity of their crimes."

I agree.

Yes. That's what I said. It is one thing if our justice system were able to sentence someone to a life in a tent city for their crimes - some kind of Coventry area. However, we don't do that. We sentence people to time in jail - and I will certainly be the first to say we often don't sentence them long enough for the things they've done. But that's the way the system is currently. We sentence them to time served and then we say they've paid their debt to society and we set them free. Their rights are curtailed. They are going to find it difficult to find employment.

Their lives are not going to be easy. Perhaps they will be easier than the lives of the children they violated, but that is not the issue. Our justice system is not really built on "an eye for an eye" in a strict, literal fashion. We have instead opted to say that murder is equal to twenty years to life in prison, for example. We have opted to say that a rape equals, on average in the U.S., a sentence of 11.8 years, with an actual time served being more like five and half years. (source, source) We have, in some states, opted to say that aggravated rape is equal to the death penalty (Louisiana). Some states offer to reduce sentences if the convicted will undergo chemical castration - that's another controversy/issue altogether. But our justice system is based on: serve time, pay your debt, rejoin society, debt paid.

These consequences are all things that most Americans know about our justice system and our society. You commit a serious crime, you're going to do time and then you are going to have a difficult time getting a job when you get out. As a registered sex offender, you're going to be required to also tell the system where you're living. In many areas, you are going to have to live a certain distance from schools, et cetera.

But Miami's law goes too far and in my opinion becomes cruel and unusual punishment. What's worse is this punishment occurs after we claim these folks have paid their debt to society. If we want to punish sex offenders more severely, we need to change the laws about their incarceration times because that is how we handle crime and punishment in the U.S.

To condemn these people to a tent city AFTER their time in jail is to, in essence, sink to the level of their crime. The city of Miami is violating people who are already vulnerable.

Think about it apart from their crime: dropped off at a bridge. Under the bridge, you have huts and tents. People living in squalor with no running water, no sanitary facilities ... people with little hope of living any kind of normal life again. Really think about this ... drop off people in an area where they are deprived of everything, an area which is actually worse than prison because now they don't have a guarantee of shelter or food ... or even basic sanitation. Where is their motivation to behave? Where is their motivation to become productive members of society again? It seems to me they have only two intelligent choices: leave Miami (if the terms of their sentence allow it and they can afford to leave, that is), or commit another serious crime and go back to prison where they are guaranteed shelter, food and sanitation. They lose freedom, but gain some security.

We know, from studying modern correctional facilities that many inmates aren't rehabilitated in the typical prison, that instead, many of them learn new skills in illegal activities because they learn from each other.

Let's think about that a moment, shall we?

Is it wise to turn some 70 pedophiles loose together in a tent town where they have no real hope of ever being a part of normal society again? Don't you think at least some of them are going to plan more offenses together and maybe learn from each others' mistakes?

I mean if we're not going to consider the humanity of these folks - which I think is a cruel and petty way to be - at least can we look at consequences of this kind of petty punishment?

In my own petty hours when I really think of what I was forced to go through ... how my entire life was shaped and warped by events over which I had no control at all ... yes, I want petty punishments for those responsible. But I am bigger than my id. Instead I would prefer things like mandatory counseling, stiffer prison sentences, making them pay for the victim's counseling ... up front "fees" that are in line with our justice system's precedents.

It's not right to hold these folks in a kind of double-jeopardy punishment where the sentence served is only the smallest part of their true punishment.

While I would love to see the punishment of sex offenders in general intensified, this is not the way to do it - to tell them they've paid their debt, but now there's all of these hidden fees to pay which total quite a bit more than the original bill ....

And oh, how ironic is it that I write this post as Father's Day 2009 slips away?

Posted by Red Monkey at 1:02 AM | Comments (3) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Struggles | Stumble

May 21, 2009

Eleven Seconds

Cops have a difficult job, there are no two ways about that. We all know they put their lives on the line for us every day, but even knowing that, it's easy to get caught up in the frustration of getting a speeding ticket or grousing about a cop speeding through town without lights or siren. And it can be easy to get caught up in the cynicism of corrupt cops and power-hungry cops who are out to get the common person, particularly since everyone has a camera or video camera now.

There was the recent case in Dallas of a young cop, on the job just three years, who attempted to pull over an SUV near the hospital after it slowed down for a red light, was waved on by someone who had a green light and then went through the intersection. The cop lit up his rack and pursued. The SUV slowed, but continued on. To the hospital. To the emergency entrance.

Now I understand that it is freaking scary to a cop to chase someone even in a low speed pursuit and then have people boiling out of the vehicle when it finally stops. But come on, it's a HOSPITAL. Maybe someone inside is hurt and needs attention. This young cop didn't care. By golly, that driver ran a red light and NEEDED a ticket. You can't have private citizens just running red lights (whilst watching to make sure he's not going to hit anyone) willy nilly. That would be anarchy.

Turns out, a family member was in the hospital, dying. The hospital had called the family and told them to hurry, as she was slipping away quickly.

The cop kept the driver (tried to keep them all, despite the fact that the hospital staff came out repeatedly to tell the cop the mother was dying), he kept the driver for 15 full minutes after knowing the situation. The driver was not there when his mother-in-law died. His wife was finally "allowed" to go (actually, she just ignored his dumb ass and ran in with the hospital staff).

This only made the news, I feel certain, because the man who ran the red light and who actually handled a highly stressful situation pretty well, was an NFL player. He never once used that as a way to try to get out of the situation, so it's doubtful the cop knew he was walking into a story likely to hit the news. His dash cam shows 15 minutes of him throwing his weight around and being, in general, a dick. Another officer tries to gently talk the kid out of pursuing the ticket, pointing out they just wanted to be with the dying woman.

Luckily, the driver kept his head and was not thrown in jail - which the cop kept threatening - and the city has since vacated the ticket.

And it's easy for us to get caught up in the stupidity of that cop. Not everything is black and white - not even their cars anymore. There are extenuating circumstances and they ought to have the ability to make that judgment call - which is what the Dallas police chief said upon viewing the dash cam tape.

Most cops, do an exemplary job - or at least they do a good job. They don't throw their weight around. They don't take bribes, they aren't corrupt. And they rarely make the news. They do their very dangerous, very stressful job and they do it, for the most part, on camera and with a fair amount of review.

But private citizens also have to understand that they are human and they are doing a job that jacks up their adrenaline to ungodly levels on a fairly regular basis.

I am appalled at the story coming out of Birmingham this week. A high speed chase ... an officer knocked to the ground by the insane driver of a van ... the cops chasing the guy were doing it by the book - no one had actually been hurt as they tried to stop this idiot.

By all accounts, they'd done an absolutely exemplary job in a tough situation.

But, their adrenaline was high.

When the van was finally stopped, it bounced off the road and rolled, ejecting the driver. He looked like a doll, tossed from the van. Even knowing what was coming when I viewed the video, I admit I was shocked. The man looked like a limp rag doll tossed from his van. He lay there in the ditch, motionless.

The cops begin rushing up.

As the mayor of Birmingham puts it, the next 11 seconds are unforgivable.

I understand their adrenaline was going. I understand they were pissed and scared that one of their own was knocked to the ground. But it took them several seconds to reach the limp, unmoving driver. It should have been enough time to recognize he was not moving.

Instead, they approached, batons out and began beating the shit out of the man.

Five officers, in a moment of adrenaline overload, fifty years of police experience between them ... and they did the stupidest thing they'd ever done on the job, costing them their jobs.

There is no excuse for what they did. There are some mitigating circumstances - the adrenaline overload I keep talking about - but police officers are supposed to be trained to handle that overload and make more reasonable decisions than the average joe despite the adrenaline.

Eleven seconds of allowing themselves to get caught up in the moment ... and they've destroyed their careers.

It's not so much that we need to vilify cops - even with this reprehensible behaviour I also find that Ihave sympathy for them. We need to spend more time and invest more money in making sure that they are not overworked and undertrained. Yes, this is their fault. They must accept responsibility for their actions and they are going to have to live with some less than happy circumstances due to their actions.

But we also must take responsibility. How many cities are feeling this economy's bite and are cutting back on pay, letting officers go because there is no money? Training goes by the wayside. Equipment.

Even in a good economy, we bitch about the taxes that pay a cop's salary. We get holier-than-thou and think we can boss a cop because "we pay your salary."

We also bitch about the state of education in the U.S. ... but teachers are expected now to be counselor, babysitter, parent to a growing number of children. And we bitch about paying them more than $20 or $30,000 a year.

Nothing is cheap, folks. TANSTAAFL

We run a better chance of police officers who are better prepared and more balanced if we spend more money on training them, equipping them and making sure they earn a decent living instead of scraping by. We run a better chance of improving the education system if we pay teachers a decent living.

We can either pay the cost in our taxes ...

or we can pay the cost in eleven poorly executed seconds.

The choice is ours.

Posted by Red Monkey at 5:26 AM | Comments (1) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

May 9, 2009

Dollhouse

Joan of Arcadia ... Bionic Woman ... Tru Calling ... Firefly ... Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles ...

Honestly, I apparently only like failing network shows. The only network shows that I will drop everything to watch are the ones that get canceled. Joan of Arcadia (CBS) was ended far too soon while the writers were building to a really interesting set of questions about what we believe. It was intriguing, it made me think. And, it was quite obvious toward the end of the final season (season two *sigh*), that the writers were really building to something fascinating for exploration in season three...

And of course, season three didn't happen.

Bionic Woman (NBC) was a show I thought I would hate because I'm a bit tired of all these stupid re-makes. But, the main idea of the show was actually pretty different from the original - I was surprised at how rich the show was. It really started getting interesting ... and then the writer's strike happened and sadly, Bionic Woman was made into a sacrificial lamb. I support the writers and what they needed to do ... but I mourn the loss of a damn good show. One that was complex and thoughtful.

Tru Calling (FOX) was a fascinating premise with some wonderful actors. I would go to turn it on ... and there'd be something else on instead. It seemed to move around ... and then it was suddenly gone.

Dark Angel ... holy shit did FOX ruin that show. Things out of order, ran previews for it all week and I'd turn on the TV with eager anticipation only to find something about St. Jude's Children's hospital ... the same show several weeks in a row instead of Dark Angel. There also started to be a bit of a buzz that the network was pushing the writers into some plot bits that well, wasn't what they had intended ... and the result was a very messy second season that really wasn't as good as the first - still potential, still interesting, still made you think...
So of course, they cancelled that.

Firefly ... don't even get me started on the IDIOCY that FOX displayed with that show. If they'd just aired the damned thing in order, first of all, and then not moved the program around, the ratings might have been more stable. And gee, look how well the movie did ... they really really blew it with that show. I mean, seriously, how fascinating a concept is it to have a Wild West- Sci Fi show starring "Han Solo" with a Western style ... and then have "Han" turn out to be a minor military officer of the losing side trying to be a hardass, but living in essentially poverty because he can't take jobs that are too dishonest. And a preacher who is all about love and peace ... but it seems likely he was once a government agent, possibly an assassin. Or the goody-two-shoes perfect young genius doctor who throws everything away and becomes a fugitive and smuggler himself and yet lectures Cap'n Mal for his sometimes slippery ethics?
Seriously, Firefly had me at the intelligent blending of good SciFi and western. Well, actually, Firefly had me at Joss ....

Now it's looking like the only two network shows that I'm really rabid about are also about to go under.

I have never seen a single Terminator movie. Mostly because I'm very particular about action flicks and I prefer my SciFi to be more SciFi than special effects & action. And I hate Schwarzenegger as an actor. (And his politics, frankly, but I hated his acting first.) But a friend got me to watch the tv show and I find it fascinating. It's got some really good actors playing some really interesting characters. It's just now built to the point where I really hate it when I get to the end of that week's episode and have to wait another whole week to find out what happens next. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has more than piqued my interest, it managed to capture my undivided attention (which isn't particularly easy - most tv is so boring I can only watch it while I'm doing something else). So of course, FOX moved it to Friday night ... its death spot.

So, of course, there may not be a next episode now ....

And the one show that has really built and exploded all season has been Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Guess what, that's another show on FOX. Guess what? It's another show that has some strong characterizations, some complex plots, tackles the big questions ... and guess what else? It's on the bubble along with Sarah Connor. Probably canceled, but we don't know for sure yet.

Dollhouse has a great concept and some wonderful actors. The season finale was mind-blowing - but of course, it aired the same night that most of the typical Dollhouse viewers were out to catch the opening of the new Star Trek flick. Brilliant planning on FOX's part. Let's blame low ratings on the finale on the fact that people aren't watching ... instead of the fact that it's a freaking Friday night and people are actually out of the house doing something. Not to mention, it was the weekend of the Star Trek opening.
The stupidity of FOX will NEVER EVER cease to amaze me.

So here's what I've concluded.
1) Despite being a prime demographic for advertisers, I'm not in FOX's demographic lights.
2) Despite the fact that FOX is more likely to pick up "risky" or Sci-Fi shows than most other networks, they want all of those shows to be X-Files.
3) FOX ruins most live-action shows it has.
4) I hate the FOX network for repeatedly teasing me into getting involved in a show, and then like Lucy with Charlie Brown, whipping the excellent show away from me. In fact, I think that's how FOX actually feels about viewers who begin watching things like Dark Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Tru Calling and Sarah Connor. They're doing it on purpose just so they can take them away again. "Oh looky, we fooled those stupid nerds again."
5) I am no longer watching ANY new network television shows and getting invested in them. I will wait until the end of the first season and get the show on Netflix or maybe Hulu (if streaming didn't constantly get interrupted, I might be more willing to do Hulu more often). At least by waiting until the DVD is released, I know if the show is going on to a second season and if it's worthy my time to get invested in the characters.

Meanwhile?

FOX, pull your collective heads out of your ass and let Joss have a second season of Dollhouse. Please.

*sigh*

Posted by Red Monkey at 2:36 PM | Comments (2) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

April 21, 2009

It Does Not Follow

You know what? I haven't had a really good rant in quite some time.

I noticed way back in oh, 5th or 6th grade, that there was a pattern to the history of New York. A wave of immigrants came to town and they were considered evil, bad guys who only wanted to kill, rape and pillage and basically they were going to destroy the moral fabric of this great nation.

Until the next wave of immigrants came in. And then the previous batch said that THESE guys were evil, bad guys who only wanted to kill, rape and pillage and destroy the moral fabric of this great nation.

Until the next wave of immigrants came in. And then the previous batch said that THESE guys were evil, bad guys who only wanted to kill, rape and pillage and destroy the moral fabric of this great nation.

And so on.

Now, maybe this meant something more to me since I grew up in Texas and constantly heard about people who didn't dry their backs after a bath (which is what I *thought* they meant when I was younger) and n-words. My best friend was half-Mexican - and I just thought she had a good tan until my mother explained that her dad was shhhh, whisper it, Mexican. I didn't get it. People are people. They're not bad because they're Catholic or black or Mexican or Italian or Irish or Baptist or a Jehovah's Witness. People stand and rise on their own, not because of birthplace or ethnicity or religion.

I have seen people who claimed to be Catholic who were as evil as they come and people who were Catholic and were delightful, thoughtful, brilliant people. Same for every other group I listed up there.

My recent outrage, though, is a little less socially controversial than race or religion.

Comics have now become graphic novels and since Maus and several other seminal works, have gained a credibility and standing as actual "good reading material." Comics/Graphic novels are not necessarily the new immigrants on the chopping block any more. At one time it was science fiction and fantasy that was the pulp fiction equivalent of the new immigrants. Today a SciFi writer can win a Pulitzer (SciFi, dammit, not this SyFy bullshit). To be perfectly honest, I can remember when I looked down my nose at "series Sci Fi," that is novelizations of movies and the massive spawn of paperbacks continuing to explore that world - Star Trek, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, and many others. And then I tried a couple of Star Wars books and discovered that whilst some of them are what I call "rent payment" books, there are long story arcs stretching out over many many books that are nothing short of stunning. (If you like SF at all, the New Jedi Order segment of Star Wars books is quite stunning and complex. The young adults' series about some of the kids at the Jedi Academy were also really nice children's books that had enough meat for adults to read as well.)

So I've pretty much learned my lesson over the years. You can't judge a book by its cover nor a person by his religion or her ethnicity or place of birth.

I'm saying that I do not buy into the idea that people who give their content away for free on the web - or via Kindle or the Apple Apps store even, are second rate. There are plenty of good bloggers out there who have wonderful things to say, important things to say, meaningful. The "established" media should fear the fact that talented people are gaining attention because it shines a spotlight on just how staid and in many cases, stupid, the "established" media have become. These talented folks gaining attention on the web are proving that there is a demand for intellectual, factual news. (And, to be honest, of course there's also apparently a LOT of demand for stupid shite as well.) But again, individual sites stand and fall on their own. Websites are not inherently bad nor are they to be inherently distrusted.

For example, Wikipedia is the first place I turn to learn something new. A co-worker's sister was diagnosed with Moya Moya disease and the first place I hit was Wikipedia because I thought the description might be more understandable to me than say, the Mayo Clinic. Did I worry that because it was a wiki the facts might be wrong? I didn't worry about that any more than I used to worry about going to a physical encyclopedia when I was a kid. Did I use that as my only source? No. It was a starting point. Now I had some idea what it was and I knew the correct spelling - I could investigate further with more specific and "authoritative" sources.

I didn't pay to use Wikipedia. Free to use does not mean zero worth.

And this brings me to the reason for today's rant.

Just WTF is wrong with the "established" newspaper comic artists who see webcomics as the new immigrants in town? It reminds me of when I first realized I was gay ... and one of my first thoughts was - Well, at least there won't be any gay racists (because being gay meant they knew all about prejudice and of course wouldn't turn that around on someone else). I couldn't have been more wrong. Here I thought that people who knew about prejudice wouldn't be prejudiced against someone else because they knew what it was like.

As Nelson says: Ha, ha.

There's been a bit of a flare-up between some "established," paid, syndicated comic strip artists and the webcomics folk. In fact, Wiley Miller of Non Sequitur posted this:

The bit I had to clip off because I still haven't gotten around to changing my blog layout is a large text square stating: Publishing's sin of omission.

Jules at Marsh Rocket has an excellent little rant about this as well.

My point is that there is ALWAYS another wave of immigrants whether they be from another country, religion or simply have a different idea about how to do things. The new guy is not always bad, is not always wrong, is not always stupid as Miller seems to think here. Different isn't bad ... it's just different. Time may eventually point out that the failing newspaper model wasn't the best business model for a comic artist. Time may eventually say the same thing about webcomics. Either way, that doesn't make the newspaper artist or the web artist stupid - just different.

Can we all just please quit berating those who are different from us? Have a little respect and common decency? Please?

Meanwhile, I'm going to go read one of my dumb Star Wars books.

Posted by Red Monkey at 7:11 PM | Comments (1) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble

March 1, 2009

Everything is amazing - and nobody's happy

Via David Airey, via swissmiss. Seriously, listen to this ... give it a think:

He's got more than just a little point here. We can do absolutely amazing things today and it hasn't made us as a society any happier ... it's just made us demand more and demand that things work constantly and without interruption at the same time wanting services and products to be cheap. And fast, can't forget it has to be fast. We don't want to wait any more than we absolutely have to ...

And that's led to a lot of problems.

Take a dear friend of mine as an example. I'll call her "Donna." Donna owns her own small business, doing what she loves. Unlike most people, this means she has some flexibility in work hours, vacation time and so forth. It also means that she can't really take a sick day without serious consequences. So, when she started feeling badly, she put off going to the doctor ... not just because taking a sick day means losing a day's business completely (and trying to reschedule clients' missed appointments means working long, long hours before she feels 100% better) ... but because she also can't afford health insurance since she owns her own very small business.

She got quite ill with a staph infection, was forced to take some time off work and then got better slowly. And then had what she thought was a relapse. She could feel pressure in her head, just behind her left ear and the doctor told her there was nothing there. It built up and built up and still the doctor did nothing and insisted nothing was wrong.

The doctor did this partly because the symptoms she described didn't make sense and partly because the doctor assumed that without health insurance Donna would not want to run expensive tests (that the doctor was sure would all be pointless anyway). Obviously, Donna was just a whiner.

Let me tell you now, Donna's tolerance for pain rivals mine (remember I broke both bones in the lower half of my leg and I thought it was "just a sprain"?). A whiner and hypochondriac she ain't.

Two years go by. TWO YEARS. Constant pain, headaches, neckaches. It's all she can do to force herself to go to work and yet she also takes on a part-time job to try to help pay for all these pointless doctor visits.

How does this relate to our need to demand more, demand things work constantly without interruption, cheaply and fast?

Because we have become a culture of speed and results, we tend to only look at symptoms and not causes. The battery on your car went out? We'll just replace it. Why did it go out? Eh, who knows, just replace it and look it works. But then it goes out again a few months later. Eh, just replace it.

If you take the time to find out why it keeps going out, you will fix the car for a longer amount of time and probably save yourself a serious breakdown issue later on.

It turns out that because the doctors ... there were several over the course of the past two years, many of them specialists of one kind or another ... someone finally listened to everything she said. Instead of focusing on "my head hurts and it's debilitating," the doctor asked a series of questions and Donna gave out the same symptoms she'd been giving out but now thought couldn't be related since no other doctor had put them together. Each doctor she'd been to prolonged the diagnostic process because they only heard selected bits and tried to treat a couple of symptoms.

Had they really taken the time to look and listen to her, they'd have quickly discovered the discs in her neck were screwed up. (If I remember correctly, one is blown and another is bulging.) Bad discs in the neck are well-known to cause headaches. Just think about a time when you've had a lot of tension in your neck ... the muscles tighten and tighten and the pain eventually travels up to the head.

However the first doctor was positive that since she'd had a sinus infection which caused a headache once before, obviously that was the problem ... the fastest diagnosis based on symptom.

But that is so incredibly short-sighted.

Yes, we do live in incredible times where we can get from New York to California in a day when it used to take three or four months.

But we're so used to the speed now that I'm not sure we take the time to marvel at that fact instead of the fact that we're about to miss the mixer for our 20 year high school reunion. (Okay, so that's my dig at myself.) We're so caught up in the N O W ... that we forget the good things about waiting and about taking our time.

Sure, if I'm in a car wreck, I want the fastest ambulance to come and help me. But would I rather wait for the mechanic to truly fix my car ... or just getting it running so I can make it to work almost on time? Why should I waste materials getting battery after battery installed in my car? Doesn't it make more sense to discover that the alternator needs repair in order to keep the battery charged? Yes, it's more expensive to fix the alternator than to buy a single new battery. Yes, it will take more time than swinging by Auto Zone and snagging a new battery. But it will actually fix the problem instead of patching up the symptom.
(Yes, that's a simplistic car issue. Yes, it could be other things. Work with me here, you get the idea, right?)

This applies to so many things in our lives. Take some time today to marvel at what we can do. Just arriving at work is a marvel for many of us. And what we do for a living? Think about how awesome it is to use email to communicate with someone who used to be 90 days away from you.

Posted by Red Monkey at 9:21 AM | Comments (1) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Struggles | Stumble

February 15, 2009

U.S. Immigration issues ...

I adore BBC news online. One, I get better news coverage about the world than from the local news or CNN. And two, we get beautiful things like this:

I was actually quite concerned at first, but the article about the Border Patrol's CD is actually quite nice. Apparently the Border Patrol hired a latino advertising agency called Elevacion who is handling the entire campaign. Turns out, the agency has the right idea and the Border Patrol has let them just address the project as needed.

Of course, I still have issue with the whole speeded up process for citizenship if an immigrant agrees to sign up with the armed forces ...

Posted by Red Monkey at 7:10 PM | Comments (0) | Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity | Stumble