Make Mexico the 51st State - Revisited

The news has been filled of late with reports on the crackdown on illegal aliens who are living and working in the United States without benefit of proper paperwork. It seems that whole towns have been laid waste after ICE has come in and arrested dozens of undocumented workers. Economies have suffered as well as the workers themselves.

There are a number of industries (hotel, farming, and construction come to mind) that would have a hard time functioning without the help of undocumented workers and some critics of the immigration crackdown think that stricter enforcement of the the current immigration laws could have a negative effect on some economies. Yet, one must keep in mind that these people are here illegally and are breaking one or more laws.

Making Mexico the 51st state would mean that all of the Mexican nationals living here illegally would become American citizens, thus eliminating the majority of the illegal alien problem. Statehood would also eliminate the need for a border fence. Mexico would no longer be a haven for criminals, and our land border with countries south of us would become much smaller.

In my humble opinion, making Mexico the 51st state is even a better idea now.

Technorati Tags: Mexico, statehood, immigration

More Trouble from China

The news today is filled with news that Wal-Mart has quietly pulled two different brands of chicken jerky dog treats off of the stores' shelves.

Two questions: 1) when will we be able to trust our food and our pets' food again, and 2) why did it take over three weeks for this information to get out to the public (reports are that the stuff was pulled on 27 July)?

It is as if the public is being systematically de-humanized by industry both here and overseas. Personally, I find this trend both disturbing and unacceptable. It is this sort of "sweep it under the rug"-type of behavior that will persuade me to immediately stop shopping at any establishment that thinks my health or the health of my family (including pets) is less important then their bottom line.

As John Merrick put it: "I am not an animal! I am a human being!" and I think it high time that business and the rest of the world comes to grip with the concept.

Technorati tags: pets, food, people, humanity

Hobbies and Clutter

If you have a hobby which involves creating something, then:

1. You create things.
2. You save the things you create because they have sentimental value.
3. You create more things, since it is your hobby.
4. Things accumulate, increasing the clutter index for your living space.

To stop this vicious cycle, you need to either get a non-create-things hobby or you need to get rid of things as fast as you create them. Take, for example, radio controlled airplanes:

1. Build them,
2. Fly them,
3. Crash them,
4. Go to step 1.

As long as you refrain from building more of them then what you will lose through steps 2 and 3, you will be able to enjoy both building them and flying them. The key, here, is step 3--Crash them.

This philosophy needs to be applied to any "create things"-type of hobby so as to not build-up clutter. Either give things away as gifts or make sure that they are systematically consumed at the same rate as they are created.

One of the simpler rules of life.

Technorati tags: organization, clutter

The Third Consequence

Way back in 2005 I blogged about the consequences of consumers demand for lower and lower-cost goods. Today, we have an example of the third consequence of this demand: unsafe goods being put into the hands of our children.

So, how much much of a discount is worth your health or the health of your child?

 

Technorati tags: recalls, economics