Give it back

America is the only hope of asylum for oppressed people of the world. We can only take in so many and not all the millions who try to enter without permission. I am in favor of immigration but immigration is a legal process and we are being forced to open our gates to legal and illegal entry. We have laws to expedite the entry of people fleeing political and religious injustice. Everybody and their cousin proclaim their self immigrants and are screening for their so called rights. They are all jumping in line ahead of the true asylum seekers. We half heartedly try to turn people away at our southern border but once they get in all we do is haggle over how long they can stay. We refuse economic asylum to people from Hattie but provide it to Mexicans for free. We push Cubans back into the sea yet make it plain to Mexicans there is plenty of work for you, swim on over. America sells its citizenship for cheap labor. Sanctioning illegal entry advances the erosion of a free America. We lose our freedom in baby steps, first our health care, our schools and even our social services will be overwhelmed by this mass of illegal immigration.
But isn't everybody equal? What principle do we use to deny the right of immigration? Evidently some are more equal than others, illegals are not pilgrims they are just illegal.
America should continue with the principles and ideals that made us a real safe haven for the truly oppressed throughout the world. The more we give in to the demands of the masses the dimmer the light of liberty will shine. We might as well give the Statue of Liberty back to France.

Hipity hop Hipity hop

Easter has come and gone for another year along with all it's icons and legends. The Easter Bunny symbolizes fertility and abundance of new life. The Easter Egg symbolizes the beginning of life. The mixing of these two icons and legends can sure be confusing for a four year old. Bunnies don't even lay eggs and even at 50 plus years I have never seen a colored egg shoot out of a chicken's ass! I never cared much for Easter eggs. They were always hard boiled eggs when I was a kid, I don't even like hard boiled egg today. There was no way I was going to eat one when I was a four years old. I liked bunnies much more than Easter eggs. Anything that hopped, crawled or slithered, I could always find a box for. Spring time must have been especially challenging for my mom. With four kids we were always bringing something home and putting it in a box or jar. I wonder what happened to all those jar lids with holes? Makeshift cages out of cardboard boxes were my specialty. Those cages held a few rabbits over the years but I still can't remember where the bunnies came from. Dad did have a garden for a few years and rabbit's are always supposed to be in gardens. Maybe that's where they came from.
When you are between 4 and 11 you will swear on a stack of bibles that you will take care of everything you bring home. You promise to water, feed and clean its cage everyday. Oh! the first two weeks you always stick to your promise but by the third week the threats of getting rid of them began. Even though I put fourth my best effort in the first two weeks I would eventually lose the argument of did you feed and water because everything I captured either escaped, died or I was required to set free. All the numerous suggestions, prodding and warnings to keep all my captures cared for helped me when I began showing animals in my 4H years. I learned to tend animals with care and nourishment. A lesson I consider a gift that came along with the first bunny I ever put in a cardboard cage.

Smell the coffee

A few weeks ago my satellite internet connection was on the blink for a few days so I hunted for every WiFi internet connection in a thirty mile radius. I used my laptop to connect to the net at BBQ joints, pizza parlors, sports bars, sandwich shops, shopping center parking lots and coffee shops, lots of coffee shops.
Coffee shops are sure not what they used to be. What happened to the waitress tossing a coaster onto the table faster then you could say please? I have not seen a white ceramic coffee mug resting on a saucer in a long time and those tiny pitchers of real cream disappeared about the time they put pop tops on beer cans. A can opener in my glove box so I could open my Falstaff beer. I gave up that vice a long time ago, lets get back on track this is suppose to be about coffee.
I like coffee and enjoy drinking it all that much more when my nose alerts me to the fragrance of raw coffee beans and the roasting and grinding of them. When I see 100 pound burlap sacks of coffee beans setting around I know the coffee will taste good. I am not one of those vanilla latte guys! I drink my coffee the only way coffee is suppose to be drank, BLACK with no cream or sugar. I am a real man!
Most coffee drinkers today are afflicted with the Starbucks syndrome. I am a fan of Starbucks only because their coffee is so good but the noise level in their stores is usually a little too much for me. I prefer a more laid back Java Joint with abstract art and lots of pony tails. Starbucks has raised our expectations about what coffee should be, its not just a beverage anymore. Its the felling that you are treating yourself to an affordable luxury. Its about setting in a comfortable coffee bar, listening to hip music while you read a book, write a story or work on your laptop. Maybe that's just a rationalization of the only vice I have left but that's why I drink coffee. Coffee romances me. The warmth of the cup in my hand, the gurgling of coffee brewing and the talk about everything under the sun conversations with people I have never met, it's about the experience.
You know what? I think I'm ready for another cup!

I have been robbed

Sometime in the dead of night a precious hour of time was involuntarily stolen from me. I don't like Day Light Saving time. More efficient use of light? Who cares! I don't care one bit about losing an hour of sleep each spring. I know I get it back in the fall but gaining an hour is far less of a benefit compared to the disruption of losing an hour. I say get rid of it all, no more changing the stupid clocks. There is no good reason to make the Day Light Saving switch but we keep doing it. The whole thing is madness. Anyone with any brain cells at all knows that no matter who you are or what you do, its common knowledge that there are only so many daylight hours in a day. So if you need more sunlight to accomplish your task GET UP EARLIER. Why do I have to lose an hour of sleep for lazy people? Personally I think Day Light Saving Time is nothing more than human nature, a need to control everything.
I am always up way before dawn, dressed and doing task around the house before 7am. I am active and naturally alert at 5:45 am and have been most of my life. People like me are a different species, Type A. Once we get the first hour of our day behind us we can go 100 mph all day long but at the first hint of darkness we begin to list things we did not get done durning the day. I have never known a TypeA person who ever needed an alarm clock to wake up in the morning. Our brain knows it has stuff to do and the sooner the better so it wakes up the body long before dawn everyday.
I suppose I can look at the bright side of Day Light Saving Time. In October I'll get my stolen hour back, although without any interest or compensation for it. Besides next year it will be even worse. Day Light saving Time begins 3 weeks earlier next year, Gee that's just swell.