Islam.. try being a neighbor willya?

With all the latest furor over all things Islam, I am compelled to weigh in on some of them in a longer rant than I can get on Facebook. It occurs to me as these things unfold that the problem with some of our Islamic brothers and sisters is that they have not learned how to be good neighbors. I have not read all of the Koran, but I have read some and in it I found no mention of that biblical precept of "Love they neighbor as thyself." Maybe it's there.. perhaps some D-School scholar will correct me on this.

1) The "Ground Zero Mosque." - To me, this one is a strong candidate for the "Love thy neighbor" concept. Yes you have a right to build a mosque there.. Hell you could legally build it on the ashes of the WTC if you could afford the land. But you shouldn't and here's why. Think of all the places of worship in the country that are NOT Muslim. Imagine if they all decided to put up banners saying something to the effect that "The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim." or "All Muslims are going to hell!" Or you pick your favorite derisive phrase. They would be perfectly within their rights to do just that. Yet they don't. You know why they don't? Because this country was built on religious freedom and respect for one's neighbors. Now one might say "well building a mosque isn't the same as putting up insulting signs." Well in the eyes of many, including the victims' families, it is.. In fact, in their minds, it's worse. Throughout this country there are Native American burial sites where it is ILLEGAL to build anything on or near. Because we have a great fear of the impending rebirth of the Cherokee or Souix nation? No.. it's because of respect for those people's beliefs and because we acknowledge their right to them . Like it or not, the guys who brought down the WTC and killed 3300 people on 9/11 were all Muslims and openly declared that they did what they did in the name of Islam. Period. So any action taken by Muslims in that vicinity will always be viewed in that light. And well it should. The citizens of New York and especially the families of the victims view the mosque as an affront to their beliefs. Frankly, that's good enough for me. Build your mosque or your "community center" somewhere else.

2) This Koran burning business - Now look.. for the record I am opposed to burning any books, especially religious texts. I am also against burning flags, churches, and ex-husbands' cars and clothes. I think that rev down in Gainesville has a point though. Muslims have been torching bibles, churches, and people pretty much since the birth of Islam. Fortunately they don't do a lot of it here in America.. Well maybe that's not so fortunate.. because I guarantee you that if Muslim students burned bibles or pissed on them like those kids in Australia did a couple of years back, no one would be offering much opposition to a guy wanting to torch a few Korans. But dammit this is America.. and both parties have equal rights to burn the other's holy books or other symbols. And none of us should care. The biggest problem I have with this story is what pussies the media has been about pointing out how regularly Muslims burn (or worse) bibles around the world. Instead they focus on one wack job pastor and his 50 person congregation as somehow symbolic of all Christians worldwide. Yet they bend over backwards every day to tell us that the idiots sawing off people's heads and blowing up children are "just a fringe group of Islamic radicals and no way indicative of all the practictioners of the religion."

What gives? I mean I get it.. Christians generally won't kidnap you and cut your head off or put a worldwide hit out on you for speaking outnegatively about them. Muslims will.. So I suppose I shouldn't be so hard on the mediots for not coming out too hard on Muslims.

Nah.. on second thought screw that.. You guys are cowards.

Hey you, how about you get off the phone......

..... and handle the business at hand?

I had an annoying experience this evening at a store. One that seems to be happening more and more frequently. I got caught in line behind someone talking on their cell phone at the checkout. Now there is nothing wrong with talking on the phone while you check out. I do it all the time. I have gotten the puzzled looks from the cashier when I tell her "I love you!" LOL! But I have a headset.. What's annoying is people who talk on the phone, holding it up to their ear with one hand, and try to put their groceries on the counter with the other. Then try to get their wallet out with one hand.. then try get their money/credit card out with one hand and then try to gather all their stuff up .. with one hand. Meanwhile those of us stuck in line behind them just have to wait while they fumble through these simple TWO handed tasks, which are considerably slower and clumsier when performed with just ONE hand. Maybe part of me is just jealous, because I have never been able to hold the phone up to my ear for more than a coupla minutes. These huge guns I got get heavy and I either gotta put the thing down or go to the headset pretty quick.

Look, you.. and you know who you are if you are guilty of this. I know you're cool.. and I know the person on the other end of the phone is cool too. But you know what?!?! Neither of you is so cool that I and others get to stand around for several extra minutes in line while you fumble around trying to do stuff with one hand that would take seconds to do if you just said "Dude lemme handle this and call you back." Really.. it's that simple. It's not that the rest of us are in a huge hurry. Most of us accept that when we go to the store there is a certain amount of waiting around that is built in. However when YOU turn my allotted 5 minutes of waiting in line into 10 minutes just because you can't bear to put the phone down for THIRTY FREAKIN SECONDS!!?!? Well.. you just cashed in all your cool chips and have been relegated to full fledged selfish jerk status. Your time is not any more valuable than anyone else's. Okay? So I say again, if you absolutely insist that you need to be hearing your honey's or your homeboy's voice every second of every day. Get a damn headset so you can still function. I mean they come free with most cell phones these days and I've seen even bluetooth models for under 20 bucks. So there really is no excuse to be walking around kickin it old school with the radiation emitting device right next to your ear. Then again I suppose I may be judging these people too harshly. After all, if they have been holding this little brain cancer causing agent next to their heads for some time, they may already be losing brain function and I should have more sympathy for them..
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Nah.. I like the selfish jerks assessment better.

Take heart Arizona.. justice will eventually be done.

Here we sit, a few days past the date when the controversial Arizona SB1070 went into effect and then a couple of days after some judge decided that she knew better than the Arizona assembly and voters what should be done about illegal immigration. I know the knee-jerk attack from opponents of this law is to call anyone who supports it "racist" and "anti" this or that. But that's just a very lame copout. Arizona, by virtue of enacting this law, has attempted to correct a problem, which affects its citizens every day. The judge who overturned key components of the law rightly ruled that the power and responsibility for regulating immigration rests with the Federal Government. But anyone who has been paying attention has noticed the Feds are not even remotely interested in dealing with this problem and holding up their end of the bargain. What this ruling does is essentially sent the message to states that not only is the Federal Government not going to enforce its immigration laws but they don't want anybody else doing it either.

Lest it go unnoted, Arizona hardly has a spotless record in race relations. They were famously the last state to ratify the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday and they had that asinine episode where some idiots demanded that a black face on a mural on the side of an elementary school be lightened. Clearly there are some idiots in Arizona when it comes to race. And I'm am sure some of the people supporting the law absolutely hate Mexicans. Period. But that's not the issue here. There are tons of people in all walks of life who are racist. Get over it. This isn't about a few narrow minded jerks. This is about the law. A nation without laws is not a nation at all. We have immigration laws on the books which are being flouted by our neighbors to the south. We are spending billions and billions of dollars in additional law enforcement, health care, education and other services for these folks. It also bears noting that the amnesty route, which is favored by many who lobby in favor of the immigrants, has been tried before. Some 10-12 million illegals were granted amnesty 20 years ago. Clearly all that did was empower the next generation to ignore our immigration laws.

What angers me most is that these politicians who use the issue to make political hay during the election cycle and then basically let it drop once that time has passed. We have between 12-20 million people living underground in this country illegally. I don't care which side you fall on the issue of immigration, you cannot sanely argue that this is a good thing. There is additional crime, there is additive stress on services, schools etc. Yes America is the richest country in the world, but this notion that we have trillions of dollars to keep giving away forever and ever needs to be checked. In reality, we don't. We have trillions of dollars worth of our own problems that need solving, Mexico can get in line with the rest of the other countries we give aid to. Isn't the amount of money we are wasting in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places around the world one of the rallying points from the left? Don't we hear from them that we need to get out of these other countries and let them handle their own business? Why then is it acceptable to be spending between 100 and 150 billion a year on Mexico's and Latin American's "problems?"

I know I know.. "Ronnie you are just racist against Brown people!!" right? Wrong.. I live in a hugely Mexican area, and acknowledge readily that Mexicans are the hardest working people on the planet. They are also fiercely family oriented which I love and they have a strong religious bent. And oh yeah, I have two half Mexican children from my marriage to a Mexican woman. So save the "racist" accusations. I aint.. Period. But I AM criminalist. As in thoroughly anti- criminals. Particularly criminals who cost me money. And despite all the hard working Latinos and Latinas who come here and bust their humps for a better life, the fact that damn near half of all jail inmates in my state are illegal aliens, a large percentage of murders, rapes and other violent crimes here are committed by illegal aliens tells me, no screams at me, this is a problem and it needs to be addressed. Instead of brow-beating Arizona for trying to address it, we need to be applauding them for calling out the Federal government for not doing its job. Whether people admit it or not, their laxity in this area is placing all of us in grave danger in addition to the dollars it's costing us. All I know is, if some illegal alien breaks into my house and rapes and murders my wife and child as happened recently in Oregon, I might be tempted to finish what Al Quaida tried to do on 9/11 and fly a damn plane into the Capital Building while Congress is in session.

Okay that would be extreme. But clearly our legislators need to get the message that this is serious. I think it's happening. Arizona is just the start I think. I suspect other border states are considering similar measures. Even if they won't talk about it openly. This country cannot survive if it continues down this path of open border-ism. And I think people are starting to wake up to that fact. Not everyone will agree. Some will continue to maintain that we just welcome everyone with open arms and spend as much money and effort as it takes to do so. That's a nice pollyana-ish view but it simply is not practical. My goal is to simply keep voices raised so that the politicos hear us. So all together Arizona, "Hey you guys in D.C. , how about we enforce our immigration laws!??!'

Gay marriage.. I'm all for it.. wait.. no I'm not.. no.. yes ..

Yeah it's like that with me .. the whole gay marriage thing. I go back and forth on it.. Some days for the most part I am indifferent as to whether my gay brothers and sisters can tie the knot. I am not deeply affected either way. Part of me thinks it would serve yall right to get this "right" so yall can suffer like the rest of us.. All the joys of marriage... including divorce, child support, alimony "half!" But that's just mean-spirited. On other days there is that part of me that believes homosexuality is indeed an abomination before God and is to be condemned and not legitimized in any way shape or form. I guess my main opposition isn't so much to the gay folk, many of whom cannot help who and what they are and only want the same things in their relationships that us straight folk take for granted.

No my opposition is to the hypocrisy of the whole deal. I mean gay folk have spent decades fighting for the "right to be different" and to not have society treat them in a negative way because of it. For the gay movement now to turn around and demand this 'sameness' with respect to marriage kind of bothers me. You wanted to accepted as different, fine.. Now you want to be different but you want it called the same thing.. Not so fine. I am similarly annoyed with the mantra that when a vote goes a certain way that agrees with your agenda then "the people have spoken." Then when those same "people" vote a way you don't agree with then "the people are idiots and we have to sue for our rights" and find a sympathetic judge to overrule the will of the people. Pure hypocrisy. It is an unavoidable fact that in a Democracy some votes are going to go your way, and others are going to go the way of the opposition.

At last count every state that has put gay marriage to a vote except one or two has resulted in a resounding "NO" from "the people." That is not to say that the majority should be empowered to rain injustice down on the minority. I fully understand that sometimes, the majority is just plain wrong. But our system has shown a remarkable ability to allow for corrections of injustices. And maybe all these lawsuits are the way a wrong gets righted with regard to gays getting married. I do not presume to have the final word on this issue. But I do wonder that if millions of Americans have expressed at the polls that they do NOT want gay unions to be considered the same thing as heterosexual marriage, mainly because it isn't, then maybe the grandstanding politcians and activist judges might want to pay attention.. since it IS supposed to be "the people" they are supposed to be representing. My gut tells me that eventually most every state will have some form of legal gay marriage on the books. And as long as that is what the majority is comfortable with then I think I will be okay with it too. But if these laws are enacted over the objections of 75-80% of the voters, then I think we will need some new politicians, because the ones currently "serving" will have bowed to special interests while ignoring the base. Yes sometimes doing just that is the right thing to do. I'm just not so sure it applies in this case. I'm sure this topic is not going anywhere anytime soon.. So I expect to revisit it some time in the future.