Let me tell you a story about immigration. In America, we have always had the benefit of immigration working out to make us the most powerful and advanced nation. We have absorbed the culture, traditions, and knowledge of every country around the globe. For perspective, the first immigrants to America were the pilgrims of England who’s survival and success in this nation were mostly attributed to the hospitality and kindness bestowed by the natives. Even what we consider to be our highly evolved system of government is an adaptation of what the first settlers witnessed from the Native American tribes and how they governed themselves. Ever since that moment, America has considered it’s immigration policy to be it’s greatest power. A country made up of diversity and contrast, pieced together through peaceful co-existence and separation of powers and government. Over the years we have attracted some of the greatest minds and self motivated entrepreneurs from across the globe to come study, work, and eventually join as citizens of this great land.

So what happened in the past twenty years to change our view on immigration so drastically that we hold illegal immigrants in the same regard as terrorist and drug runners. Now I know there is a relation between the two, because most terrorists and drug runners are not here legally. Of course this is the same logic that all ax murderers at one time purchased an ax from the hardware store, so therefore anyone who purchases an ax is a potential ax murderer. And it would be understandable that in a time period of great fear for ax murderers that we should have people register axes and identify them in our community, but we don’t even do that with handguns in most states. In fact, to the contrary, we are very careful to never identify gun ownership in a national registry out of fear that one day our government would go bad and try to take away our guns. I agree with that logic. We should always behave in such a way as to not put to much trust in government. We don’t know today that the future holds for our government and we should never give the government the power to oppress and infringe upon the rights of it’s citizens and legal guests. That very attitude is what has made  America, known to the world as the home of the free.

So the state of America today is fear. We are not afraid of ax murderers or today even terrorists. We are afraid of losing our jobs. We are afraid of poverty and national debt running out of control. So the nation has turned to the immigrant population with disdain and anger. Politicians eager to win favor with a fearful and unhappy middle class have turned against one of our countries greatest assets and made it a vial common enemy to consolidate political power. But it isn’t all immigrants who suffer the blame, only those of one common ancestry. I would say one race, but in America, we have removed their status as a race so that we can not call it racism when we mistreat them. We are passing laws that empower our local law enforcement to pursue people as criminals based only on the look of their appearance. We have changed civil liberty so that “white” people are innocent until proven guilty, but anyone of Hispanic origin is guilty of being an illegal immigrant until they are able to prove their innocence.

As we lean more toward nationalized services like health care we will only grow our inability to tolerate these uninvited guests who seek prosperity and a brighter future. I know this because history shows us the road we are taking. And it isn’t pretty. In the wake of WWI Germany was faced with mounting financial worries due to inflation and a huge amount of debt taken on from treaties after WWI. The Wall Street crash of 1929 didn’t help much either. The people were afraid that they had no power over their future, so in their fear they elected representatives from a party that not only promised, if given the power, to provide for the people, but also gave them a common enemy. They wholly blamed a specific group of immigrants for all their current problems. This common enemy along with some moving speeches about national pride brought the Nazi Party of Germany to power from 1930 to 1933. You probably recognize the rest of the story, but focus on the similarities. Jews were forced to identify themselves and put up with curfew, searches, and unjustified home invasions, while more common citizens and immigrants were aloud freedoms. Now I bet if you asked a natural German citizen of the time about how they felt about this treatment of the Jews, they would answer, “If they don’t like it they can leave.” Luckily, some of them did while they could. Some would have said, “if they want to right to be here, they will have to put up with it.” I’m sure that most German citizens would be disgusted at what took place after 1933 in regards to the treatment of the Jews. But once they gave their government the power to oppress, it was too late to complain.

Some people would say that being pulled over in Arizona because of the color of your skin is a far stretch from the Holocaust, and I agree. But it’s not far enough for my taste. America, you can do better. You are better. Let’s find a way to deal with immigration reform that doesn’t lower us to a level that will be hard to return from. Let’s act in a way that our future generations will be proud of. In the end, we are talking for the most part about people who have not come through the proper channels and received the proper documentation. Not an enemy, but a neighbor seeking refuge. I would compare it to being pulled over because you drive a nice car and you didn’t use your blinker to switch lanes on an empty road, and the officer asking you for your statement from the IRS showing that you have paid your taxes, since by your car’s value, he can tell you have money. And if you can’t provide proof on hand then they seize your vehicle and send you to lockup until a family member can bring by the correct paperwork. Sure it’s a minor inconvenience to ensure your taxes are paid, but what if the cop does it to you once a week just because he doesn’t like you. If the law says it is within his right to do so, then you are helpless to stop it.

I leave you with this.

The New Colossus
By Emma Lazarus, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Maybe we should move lady liberty to San Luis, Arizona.

Aerodynamic Space Ships

Since there is no friction in space there is no need to go through the effort of making a space ship smooth and aerodynamic in shape. Star Trek had the best grasp on this. Most ships varied in design, but were for the most part designed around how the inside would layout more than the outside.  Since any large ship would not be able to travel through atmosphere by taking advantage of lift or any aerodynamic properties but more through thrust or anti-gravity of some sort, then a large scale ship would most likely look like a box or typical disc UFO shape.

Explosive Effect

In all honesty, I’m not sure if we have the slightest clue what a nuclear explosion would look like in space, but it would probably be a lot less impressive. It may in fact come off more like a fire cracker. One big pop with a bright flash of light, but since there is no matter to carry the pressure wave of the explosion, it would probably come off as a flash bulb and then, unless you were stuck by a piece of debris flying at 100 miles/second, you would probably not be able to visibly detect any other aspects of the explosion.

Time Measurement

I always think it’s funny when a landing party is on an alien planet and still reference time like they expect a 24 hour day to accrue. I head a funny one on Stargate SG1, where they arrived on an alien planet for the first time and the commander said, “It will be dark soon.” If a planet had enough moons and large enough star at the core of it’s system, it may never get dark at all, let alone that within a few minutes it would be hard to tell if it was morning or evening and the rate at which the planet was rotating.

Communications Technology

If alien life developed in two different planes of technological advancement until they both reached the point to finally meet for the first time in space, the true conclusion to that event would be that the two ships would most likely only be able to acknowledge each others presence, but communications would most likely not function between the two ships. If you traveled to the other side of this planet, you would find that most of your communications technology and video equipment would not function, let alone with an alien ship. But in the movies, audio and video seem to function fluently between alien ships.

Battle Damage

In the typical scenario, your ship has shields, yet when your shield take a hit, all your blinking light consoles and computers explode and short out in your ship. What kind of crappy shielding did you buy for your ship. And why don’t you have surge protectors on your computers. Even if shields existed, when your ship was shot, the force from that blow may not effect your ship, but it would effect your ships velocity. A real space battle you would need to keep pushing forward while under attack and while firing. For example, when you shoot your big gun from the front, you would need to also fire a trust from the back or you would in effect be moving away from your target or worse, sending yourself into a tumble. This could be calculated for your firing solution, but not for getting hit. In a real space battle, the first ship to get a hit would probably be the only one to continue hitting it’s targets. Of course quality science fiction always has the solution technology. Some dampener, field emitter or something that solves the problem automatically.

I have been dealing with a lot of lower back problems for the past 3 weeks. It started off pretty mild. Usually when I hurt my back, and I have done this on three different occasions in the past 5 years, it always occurs by me doing some strange activity and it hurts slightly the moment of the initial injury and then throughout the day I feel uncomfortable, and then the next morning I awake to find my back completely frozen and ridged.

The first time this happened I was home alone and it was one of the more frightening things I have ever experienced. Imagine waking up and not being able to bend your back without excruciating pain. First, there is no way to get out of a normal height bed. I tried several times until finally when I thought I would make it up, the pain struck me so hard that I went straight to the floor. I tried to get dressed like an idiot and when I realized that socks  and shoes would be impossible, I called in sick. I was stuck there until I someone came to my rescue. Sorry, but it’s been a while and I don’t remember if it was my wife, mom, or dad. But someone got me to the Doctor and I got drugs and about 8 visits to a physical therapist and a month later, I was back to normal.

This time though, I don’t know what caused it. That might be because I was already seeing a chiropractor that I have been seeing since the last time a year ago when this happened and that kept it from flaring up as bad. This time it seems different. It built up from a sore back to full blown muscle spasms and pain that makes you hope you black out. I already seeing the chiropractor and it was helping but it seemed to only stave off the pain for a few hours and then it would build back up and 10 hours later I would be almost immobile. For the past 2 weeks it has been near intolerable. I am able to get around because I am taking prescription pain meds, but when they wear off, the pain just starts coming back.

I’m sure this will get worked out, but it’s been long enough now that I’m realizing things about pain and how it effects you psychologically when you experience pain for a prolonged period of time. I go through moments of deep depression, I’ve had outburst of frustration at inanimate objects, been pretty snappy to my wife and kids when I normally wouldn’t be. I had always thought that I had complete control over my attitude and focus. I am probably one of the most patient people you could ever meet. I can stand in line for long periods of time at the grocery store and be behind the most annoying, slow people, and it rarely, if ever, get’s to me. I have always thought of myself as finding contentment in any situation. But I’m realizing that everyone has their limits and maybe I’m not as content and self controlled as I had always believed. Maybe I just had it so good, that a few bad moments couldn’t put me down. I’m learning that the true test of your character is how you handle life at it’s worse when hope is distant. I think of Job from the bible. I know a little back pain is no comparison, but I just think there is a difference between what most Christians consider a trial and what a trial truly is. If God really wants to test your character, then it won’t be that bad day you had, or the one cranky customer that yelled at you. It will be an extended period of time when the hope of this passing is fading and the reality of your situation puts you in a position where you have to accept it. I know that if this is God testing my character, I haven’t done well. But if it is a test, it’s one I will learn from and I also know there is grace sufficient to cover my weakness.

So, it looks like the democrats have ran into a major road bump on their dream ride to socializing health care. Now I’m not completely opposed to the intent and vision of what the democrats are trying to accomplish. In fact, part of me had hopes that they would come up with the dream solution that Obama always spoke of. Lower costs, insure everyone, and do it at no additional expense. The problem was, that it turned out to be as impossible as it sounds. But now that the democrats have lost the ability to ram a flawed incomplete piece of optimistically deceptive legislation through the senate they are refocusing on passing parts of the bill that sound good to both sides of the isle.

You have to remember once and a while that few poloticians get to where they are today by being brilliant at math or science. Most were elected for their ideolgical views, and their sparkeling resume, but most of all, because they begged and pleaded and raised a lot of money to spend begging and pleading people to vote for them. I worry that a complicated system required for a complete health care overhaul can not be pulled apart into a buffett table for senators to pick and choose their favorites. Most of the ugly parts to the reform bills only existed to make possible the more attractive offerings. I think it’s important now to take a step back and look ahead to where we are going with all of this.

Remember in highschool there was a certain group of grease monkey hot rodders who when given the opportunity to purchase their first car looked for a fixer upper? They would convince themselves that this was a golden opporutnity. If they purchased this 1983 Camaro with no engine and minor body damage, they could fix it up like new and sell it for a profit when they were done. How many times have you heard that logic from a sixteen year old boy? How many twenty year olds do you see driving around in a fully restored ten year old Camaro? Not many. Because this is what happens. You purchase a car for $3k and think that if you put $5 worth of parts into it and a lot of your own sweat and blood that you will end up with a car worth $10k. What really happens is you buy a car worth $3k and by the time you are $5k into the rebuild, you realize how far you are from completing and as you fix up one part of the car, the vehicle is also putting on miles and needing more and more maintenance.

When you go to sell the car, you learn that it is only worth $7k as an unfinished restorated not so classic 15 year old camaro. I get the feeling this is what’s going to happen to the health care reform. We will work real hard stripping the paint and priming the car, but never pick a color to paint it. And since we couldn’t afford the factory parts, we just went to the auto store and picked out the most affordable spoiler that is sitting on the shelf along with every other piece of gaudy cosmetic piece of bling we could get our hands on, just to keep the appearance up that we are fixing up the car.

If total reform wasn’t possible, then we can’t just pick the pieces that sounded good and get rid of the rest. The math just doesn’t work. If we want to take another look at this, the president should push for a new idea plan of gradual modifications to the system to focus on improving care and lowering costs using incentives and oversight, not just more insurance.

If you are not familiar with the history of Babylon, here is a quick history. The first government to spread it’s power across all civilization, it was a power full empire worthy of respect and mention when talking about the great powers of history. Much like other world powers to follow it, when it had finished conquering the known world, it looked to other feats to demonstrate it’s greatness and to keep it’s subjects busy. They set out to build a tower. Tower’s were not new to them architecturally,  but they wanted to create one so large, that they could reach out and touch the clouds. They wanted everyone who sees it to see their brilliance and power.

As the story goes, they were doing pretty well. So well, that they had gotten God’s attention. God, speaking to himself as he commonly must do, being that the only other being worthy of having a conversation with is himself, said to himself, “We must stop them”. He continued to explain to himself, “If they are allowed to complete this, then they will think they are truly capable of anything.” At first glance, this seems like a real jerkish thing for God to think. But if you have ever had children, and you see them doing something crazy and daring, your first thought is “oh, I hope they don’t fall”. But when they don’t fall when you thought they would, you quickly realize the scary truth. If a child never gets hurt doing dangerous things, he never learns those boundaries and will continue to push out and pursue more dangerous stunts until he does more damage then a scraped knee. I think this is what God was thinking. Not that he didn’t want them to do well, but that if they continued in this manner of unstoppable pride and confidence, that it would in fact be their downfall. Or maybe God was just being a bully, who really knows.

So God stopped work on the tower by changing their languages and moving them to new locations. Kind of a strange story. I imagine a SIMS game where God just picks up SIM characters and physically moved them, but it also could just be that people got sick of communication failures and moved on. The story explains the biblical history of how so many people groups developed speaking different languages across the world. If you think you are to intellectual to believe a story like that, then tell me this. Since science has already proven that all men are descend from one man, how did completely unique languages form? You would think that all languages would have closer commonality if we all developed out of one group. Interesting thought, but not the thought I want to discuss today.
Have you seen the latest and greatest achievements of man when it comes to architectural height? The Burj Khalifa in Dubi which was just completed at the beginning of 2010 stands at 2,717 ft tall. That’s a little more than nine football fields. It now tops the scale of largest man made structure knocking down the current reigning champion which was a radio tower in North Dakota. Nearly twice the size of the Empire state building, you can see the entire city of Dubi from the top of the tower.

With 160 floors, it really is something to look at. I thought after 911 the world would have backed off of building super tall sky scrapers, but apparently they believe that placing a mosque on the 158th floor will deter Islamic terrorist from trying to knock it down. But even if they built the safest structure in history, I’m not sure you could ever convince someone to lease the top 60 floors with all the fears of working  that high up. Not to mention the 15-30 minute elevator ride once it get’s populated and people are getting on and off. What a hassle. And just so you could look outside  and have an awesome view? Buy a poster! Dubi is already suffering from some pretty serious financial problems due to the world financial climate and the amount they have been investing in infrastructure.  But other than the financial worries, there have been no major setbacks during construction.

Since this latest achievement of tower building is much grander then that of the early babylon empire, that leaves us with a few thoughts about God’s actions and current lack of actions concerning tower building.

1. God isn’t concerned for our saftey, because we are older and smarter and better at building things. This is very unlikely, because if anything we have proven with this new structure that we don’t build things better and stronger, just cheaper and faster. The building designer was quoted as saying “I didn’t know how tall I was going to make it. We just kept adding to the top until we couldn’t any more.” I’m sorry, but that is also my toddlers methodology for building towers, and his don’t last very long either.
2. God is just sitting back and allowing us to set ourselves up to fail. He sees that we didn’t learn the easy way, so he’s going to allow us to learn the hard way.
3. God just doesn’t care any more. And I don’t mean this in a dark agnostic way. I mean he is still there, and still the loving God we all know. But when see a man smoking a cigarette and walking into moving traffic, you don’t mention to him that cigarettes are the leading cause of lung cancer. Nope, he is going to die in a matter of minutes, so things like lifestyle choices, bad habits, pride and dangerously tall towers don’t really warrant a conversation. This is a scary thought if you think about it.

Whatever God’s reasons, he hasn’t given any a language lobotomy to anyone over it yet. One thing is for sure though. People haven’t changed one bit. All our self praise over how evolved we are, and how we live in an age of enlightenment. We are still guys in rudimentary garments, shoving monoliths up in the loose soil so that everyone can see how gifted we are. Something to consider. The tallest Non-man-made structure is Mount Everest,  standing at 29,029 Feet. Nearly 10 times the size of the Burj Khalifa. So we may be able to pat ourselves on the back for this one, but I wouldn’t expect to get many kudos from the creator on it. Plus, I have a feeling that Everest will last longer.

I’m writing this to address the liberal minded people out there and the moderates who are quickly jumping on the band wagon of supporting the gay marriage movement in hopes that you would read this and open your perspective on the issue.

Gay Marriage isn’t just a civil rights issue, It’s a separation of church and state issue.

For those of you who don’t know your history, marriage is an institution that was ordained by God and incorporated into religious practice since the beginning of civilization, and then much much later adopted by the federal government to identify families for tax and legal reasons. If you don’t like that the government piggy backing it’s legislation on religious institutions like marriage, then that is a different issue then modifying the definition of marriage. You could change the tax laws and allow for contractual arrangements for all those instances that require legal relationships. This could be useful to more than just homosexuals. But you CAN’T redefine a religious sacrament that predates the constitution to make yourself feel better.

If you disagree, as a homosexual, then I have one challenge for you. Procreate.

There has been much work done in the past decade to provide equal rights to everyone despite their sexual preference, with the exception of pedophiles, animal lovers, and polygamists. There are some issues that really need to be dealt with when it comes to health care decisions and identifying next of kin. But it seems like a simple next of kin document and some form of power of attorney document would take care of most of those issues. This is where the concept of civil unions has come in to provide for those issues in one document. But in America, the gay movement says that that is not enough. Why? European gays don’t mind civil unions. Mainly because they don’t care much about God or what Godly people think of them. In America, this generation of homosexuals is looking for more than rights. They are asking for everyone’s approval. They want to be told it’s more than allowable, that it’s normal. But it’s not normal. It’s not equal to a man and wife. You can have equal rights, but you are not guaranteed equality. If you disagree, as a homosexual, then I have one challenge for you. Procreate. Show me how you contribute to the whole of society through re-population. See, in the Christian belief, marriage was designed for the purpose of producing offspring. To “Go forth and multiply” was the command by God to Adam and Eve. You may say that you don’t believe in the bible or in God all together, so these arguments don’t hold up. But then I ask you, why are you trying to change the religious institution of marriage? Why not be content with the rights and liberties of civil unions.

The reason that so many are moving towards supporting the gay ajenda for marriage rights, is that they have fallen into a slipper slope argument that begins with a bad premise.

1. Gay people are a minority group like racial minorities, who are being oppressed because of they are different.
2. Civil Unions are a lesser status then marriage and an insult to equality.
3. Non-support of Gay marriage makes you a close minded bigot raciest hate monger.
4. Gay marriage doesn’t harm anyone, so why bother being against it.

If it was genetic, they would be extinct by now…

First of all, I have to admit, I’m a white guy in his early 30′s, so I’ve never experienced real racism first hand. But I do love to hear the stories of the stories of the sit-ins and demonstrations that revolutionized our countries race relations. America was wrong about a bunch of issues when it came to interacting with different cultures. We destroyed the Indians culture to dominate it with one we were more comfortable with. We engaged in the heinous act of slave trade and for a long time after looked down upon dark skinned people and pigion holed their potential. We poked fun and stereotyped the Irish when they migrated to our shores. We vilify Latinos for political posturing. We suck at race relations as a country. But to measure the struggles of homosexuality up to the struggles of racism, to me, feels like an insult to the civil rights movement. People are not born gay. This is a story some would like for you to believe, but the tough truth is that it is just a sexual and relational preference. It isn’t a genetic disposition, because that’s impossible, since gay people don’t pass genes down. If it was genetic, they would be extinct by now, or at least in an ever decreasing population.

Homosexuality is more comparable to the hippie movement of the late 60′s and early 70′s. It’s a lifestyle, not a race. And people hated hippies too, and even kicked them out of stores and restaurants. But that wasn’t racism. That was seeing someone who’s culture and values were perceived as a danger to you and your offspring and reacting to protect your culture and values. And now, several centuries later, we can all agree that the drug and free love atmosphere of that movement wasn’t all that they had hoped it would be and did in fact do a lot of damage to those who got lost in it.

Some hard line conservatives are bothered by the fact that I’m okay with civil unions. My feelings are that as long as they don’t try to mess with my rights and religious practices, then I have no right to oppose them because I believe it to be immoral. I’m comforted by the fact that my beliefs are based on principles that have survived this kind of thing in the past and will outlast this phase of history as well. Allowing for civil unions won’t turn any more people gay, just as not allowing them doesn’t stop homosexual behavior. But I do have issue with messing with the identity of changing the definition of marriage. I want my children to grow up seeing marriage as a sacred and life changing event that is the celebration of the beginning of a new family.

it’s a slippery slope when the government starts defining religious institutions

I don’t blame homosexuals for the downfall of marriage. It has been under attack for a long time by the culture off divorce and separation. But that doesn’t mean we can further distort it’s meaning. It means that now, more then ever, we need to stand up for it and defend it from harm.

Who does it really hurt? It might not seem like much if you are not a person of faith, or hold anything to be sacred. But it’s a slippery slope when the government starts defining religious institutions and legislating who is allowed to partake in them. Will the next step be laws that define who is eligible for salvation. Who can be baptized and how. The government has no place in that. And in case you didn’t know, the bible is very clear on this. Those eligible for salvation are everyone. Including gays, rapist, murders, and even overly opinionated jerks like me.

If you think I have it completely wrong, then leave a comment and tell me how. Or even better, write your 1000 word essay on the issue. But whatever you say, don’t call me close minded. I have given this a lot of thought, and being against something is not the definition of close minded.