Al Gore Makes His Case to Congress

Thanks for speaking up, Al… for all of us.

He’s getting a lot of flack for his personal use. Clearly a political BS scheme. What have YOU (the reader) done to help with the problem of global warming? For starters, I’m actively changing all the lightbulbs I can in my house to be compact-fluorescents. 8 down, several more to go. We have a lot of “non-standard” light fixtures, so that’s posing a problem.

I hear from others that they can’t just broadly change all their lightbulbs. They’re waiting for the ones they have to burn out before they change them. Let me propose an alternative…

MY IDEA:

Skip your morning Starbucks once a month (hey, I’m a shareholder) — only ONE time a month! Instead, spend that $4 or $5 to buy a compact fluorescent lightbulb and install it. Afraid of wasting that “good” lightbulb? You probably spent less than $2 on that lightbulb… it’s not as if the existing lightbulb is really valuable. In this small way, you can help fix global warming by reducing your energy usage.

Read a little more on CFL’s (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) here and here.

Finding a Passion

I’ve got many things that I like. Fewer things that I love. Even fewer that I found that I’m truly passionate about.

In my experience, passion for something you believe in provides an internal “fuel” that can help you achieve goals. Whether they’re work related or some other facet of life, I’ve found that fact to be true.

My family sets aside a small amount of money each month that we intend to use to donate at some point in the year. I’ve decided that to make the money “count” we need to find things that we’re passionate and not merely worthwhile — there are far too many worthwhile causes. I mention this because last year we had difficulty finding more than one cause we wanted to donate to. Last year we made a nice donation to Teardrops to Rainbows, which helps support the families of children with cancer… We could find no other that inspired us and made us feel like our modest contribution would really make a difference.

At last, I have found another… Helping to End Global Warming.

I’ll probably create a new personal blog just for that topic, but here’s a link and a brief story. I had heard of An Inconvenient Truth - a documentary starring Al Gore and his efforts to educate others about the problem of global warming. I recently purchased the DVD (another long story) and watched it. — I admit it, I was sold. I had always been a believer that global warming was real, and that it was a problem, but this simple movie helped to give me an understanding of how major an issue this really is. I was skeptical that it was merely a piece of propaganda from a tree-hugger, but all I can say is that it truly spoke to me as an individual.

Global warming is a serious problem with serious consequences.

Global warming is a problem we can all help solve.

All I’m saying is that I’ll be doing my part - and I hope you will at least consider doing your part too.

Not all Appologies are Equal…

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they were talking about how Presidential hopeful, Barak Obama, had “mispoken” and said something along the lines of, “3000 lives have been wasted in Iraq.” (Couldn’t find the statement video, but found this related article…). He was appologizing for saying that and said, what he meant to say was “3000 lives had been wasted because they haven’t been honored properly - by putting them in a situation where they can’t win.”

Two things…

(1) That “correction” isn’t any better, IMHO. You can’t win every battle, and you can’t win every war… but to say that they’re wasting their lives is rediculous - I won’t even comment further on this.

(2) I find it funny that a politician can “appologize” on something like this and everything will be forgiven, but a celebrity like Michael Richards makes a racial outburst during a recent club appearance and, although he appologized and is seeking professional help, he’ll never be forgiven. One could draw the lines between the Democrats and Republicans on this, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day…

My point is that we are willing to forgive some but not others. I fail to see why we make the distinction, when one is just as offensive as the other.

BTW, I’m not supportive of either set of these men’s actions — I just use them as an example to illustrate my point.

700 miles of wasted effort

I don’t get it. I’m more republican-ish than democratic-ish on a lot of things… but this isn’t one of them.

How does a 700 mile fence help us? At all? Why wouldn’t an immigrant go to mile 701 and walk around the darn thing?

One thing I know to be true, if people want in they’ll find a way in. Fence or no fence.

What we have to do is incent people not to immigrate illegally. Make immigration legal and relatively simple — but only if you’re a productive member of society, pay taxes, and abide by the laws of the country. If you don’t “play nice” you should get kicked out of the sandbox. If you’re helping to make the US a better place, then you’re more than welcome!! For those who are already here, put them on the proverbial path to citizenship, but be extra harsh for those who don’t “play nice.”

Building a fence is not racist. It’s not anti-Mexican. It is just stupid rhetoric to earn the votes of some out-of-work manufacturing workers for this year’s mid-term elections. The sad thing is that it won’t even help their jobs… unless they’re in the fence-part manufacturing business that is. How about spending some of that money to help retool a workforce or offer expansion in areas that could use people with those skills instead…?

I wonder if any of the “workers” on the fence are illegal immigrants themselves? Wouldn’t that be poetic???

A fence is a waste of tax-payer money — end of discussion.

Pro Immigrants, Anti Illegal

I don’t understand what all the hub-bub is about… I’m all for giving other people a chance to “make it” in the US. Afterall, that’s what my grandparents did when they immigrated from China in the 1930s. But I don’t understand the sense of entitlement that’s being protested. How can “illegal” immigration be condoned?? The problem is perhaps in the definition of “illegal”.

Clearly we can’t just have wide open borders. From a security standpoint, that’s a mistake. From an economic standpoint, that’s potentially VERY expensive too. There has to be some sense of order about it.

At the same time, if someone wants to come to the US to be a productive member of society and build a new life, I’m strongly in favor of that. Long walls or closing the borders completely are NOT GOOD solutions!

It seems to me that the best solution is to make it “EASY” for someone to legally immigrate to the country — meaning if they have something to offer, economically, culturally, whatever - and they aren’t a danger to the people already here — why not let them in as a registered person. They should work when of age. Pay taxes like everyone else. Get the benefits of other immigrants (police, fire protection, etc.). They should be given some incentive to become a full US citizen as well… beyond just voting rights.

While it should be easy for a legal person to immigrate to the US, it should be HEAVILY frowned upon to come to the US illegally. If it’s made easy to come legally, there should be no reason to come illegally.

What does it mean to be “Easy”? I’m not exactly sure… maybe they should be put on some kind of “probation” where they need to check in with an immigration official once per quarter for as long as they are just immigrants? As long as they aren’t committing any felonies, they can stay. If they are adding to the crime rate of the country during , they get immediately expelled. Once they become a full-fledged US citizen, they no longer need to be “on probation”. That could potentially be the motivation for them to become a US citizen.

Certain people would of course be exempt — tourists, foreign government workers, etc.

If anyone who reads this has a different opinion, I’d love to hear it or read your comments.