Hi, Kellemora. I might have said, at one point, that I agreed with the majority of your most recent post here. My husband is an immigrant who came here legally. He's Russian-born (actually, Soviet-born, and received asylum from Canada in the early 1980s) and is a Canadian citizen, and received his permanent US resident status (aka "green card") back in 2001, a few months before the 9/11 attacks. While on one hand, I can (and DID, for many years) say that "amnesty" and other concessions made to illegals was a "slap in the face" to those like my husband who've done it legally, I have since, with increasing maturity and increasing reflection upon the issue, come to the conclusion that perhaps there wouldn't BE so many "illegals" if the "legal" way of entering this country wasn't so full of red tape and so freaking cost-prohibitive. My husband and I are both university-educated professionals and neither of us are particularly stupid, however, we had SUCH a hard time making sense out of the endless government forms required to secure his status that we ended up hiring a prominent immigration attorney in Chicago to deal with that issue for us. The attorney alone cost us several thousand S$$, not to mention all of the many hundreds of dollars which we shelled out to file all of those government forms. How is a poor person from another country who hopes to make a better life for him/herself to possibly come up with all the cash necessary to file those forms (assuming, of course, that they're able to make any kind of sense of them, considering the fact that the "average" American isn't capable of doing so!)? How, further, is a lone immigrant with no local connections going to come up with the necessary Americans to testify as to his character, etc.? Further, as complicated as the immigration process was back when my husband started it (in the late 1990s), I can only imagine that it's become far more complicated, difficult and expensive since the 9/11 incident. If they'd loosen up on that "red tape" just a smidge, I'm certain that we'd see far more people coming here "legally" than we currently do.
As far as "protecting" our borders, I'm not sure I'm in with that. What ARE borders but imaginary lines in the dirt intended to separate one nation from another? Why *shouldn't* "free" people be allowed to travel freely? Besides, any border which is capable of keeping intruders OUT is also capable of keeping dissidents IN, as my husband has learned. Not sure that I want such "border protection" here in the US.
MYTH: Global Warming Pause
Re: MYTH: Global Warming Pause
"The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have." -- Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)
Re: MYTH: Global Warming Pause
Hi Brandtrn
Thank you for the enlightening information regarding getting in legally.
I myself am fighting an issue now, for over three months, due to government red tape.
There should be NO monetary value placed on immigration. Nor ridiculous added paperwork over a basic application.
Don't fall off your seat when I agree with you, there should be no borders anywhere on planet earth.
We should not discriminate against our brothers and sisters because of what continent they live, or where they want to travel. This holds true for where we have our stuff made, and who makes it as well. If you want to hire a worker in China or Japan to make the products you sell in America, there should be absolutely no restrictions to doing so.
But, how do you prevent this free trade and free travel from leading to a one world government?
You have people screaming to only buy Made in USA, thus depriving their brothers and sisters on another continent from earning a living.
You have criminals escaping prosecution in their country by fleeing to another country.
You have people who don't like the laws of their country and want to come to our country and demand their laws be used here.
Short of a one world government, where all laws around the globe are identical, you are going to have independent countries with their own laws. We may or may not agree with all the laws of our own country.
But you have to look at the reasons we have so many illegal immigrants pouring into this country.
We give them everything on a silver platter, they are coming in record numbers for the free stuff, and still they commit crimes and do not assimilate into society.
Even people who have lived here for generations, many over four or five generations, still refuse to assimilate into society. I'm sure you are proud of your heritage, but chose to become an American, you are not half and half. Do you call yourself a Russian-American or an American? Most likely the latter, because you have assimilated into society.
Let me ask you a very simple question. When you leave for work in the morning, (assuming no one lives with you), do you lock your windows and doors in your house before departing, and do you lock your car when you park it?
I was raised in an era when we never locked our doors and often left our keys in the ignition of our car.
The criminal element in society has continued to increase over the years, so we now must lock our homes and cars. Sometimes this does not do any good to keep the criminals from breaking in and stealing your stuff or your car.
This is the purpose of immigration laws, and closed borders. To keep the criminal element out!
And over the years, the laws continue to get more strict, even to the point it affects many citizens of this great country adversely. The lack of money to fight our government and their stupid requirements is why I'm now over three months beyond a simple law to govern the government agency who does not follow the Statutes they are sworn to uphold.
So government red tape, and stupidity, does affect almost everyone who finds themselves wrapped up in it. And MOST of us cannot afford to have justice prevail. I would say the great majority eventually give up trying to get the governments to follow the laws that govern them. Most because they cannot afford to fight for their rights.
The USA is like a House, We Lock Our Doors to keep out the Criminals. Although the government appears incapable of stopping criminals, so they go after innocent Americans instead.
Thank you for the enlightening information regarding getting in legally.
I myself am fighting an issue now, for over three months, due to government red tape.
There should be NO monetary value placed on immigration. Nor ridiculous added paperwork over a basic application.
Don't fall off your seat when I agree with you, there should be no borders anywhere on planet earth.
We should not discriminate against our brothers and sisters because of what continent they live, or where they want to travel. This holds true for where we have our stuff made, and who makes it as well. If you want to hire a worker in China or Japan to make the products you sell in America, there should be absolutely no restrictions to doing so.
But, how do you prevent this free trade and free travel from leading to a one world government?
You have people screaming to only buy Made in USA, thus depriving their brothers and sisters on another continent from earning a living.
You have criminals escaping prosecution in their country by fleeing to another country.
You have people who don't like the laws of their country and want to come to our country and demand their laws be used here.
Short of a one world government, where all laws around the globe are identical, you are going to have independent countries with their own laws. We may or may not agree with all the laws of our own country.
But you have to look at the reasons we have so many illegal immigrants pouring into this country.
We give them everything on a silver platter, they are coming in record numbers for the free stuff, and still they commit crimes and do not assimilate into society.
Even people who have lived here for generations, many over four or five generations, still refuse to assimilate into society. I'm sure you are proud of your heritage, but chose to become an American, you are not half and half. Do you call yourself a Russian-American or an American? Most likely the latter, because you have assimilated into society.
Let me ask you a very simple question. When you leave for work in the morning, (assuming no one lives with you), do you lock your windows and doors in your house before departing, and do you lock your car when you park it?
I was raised in an era when we never locked our doors and often left our keys in the ignition of our car.
The criminal element in society has continued to increase over the years, so we now must lock our homes and cars. Sometimes this does not do any good to keep the criminals from breaking in and stealing your stuff or your car.
This is the purpose of immigration laws, and closed borders. To keep the criminal element out!
And over the years, the laws continue to get more strict, even to the point it affects many citizens of this great country adversely. The lack of money to fight our government and their stupid requirements is why I'm now over three months beyond a simple law to govern the government agency who does not follow the Statutes they are sworn to uphold.
So government red tape, and stupidity, does affect almost everyone who finds themselves wrapped up in it. And MOST of us cannot afford to have justice prevail. I would say the great majority eventually give up trying to get the governments to follow the laws that govern them. Most because they cannot afford to fight for their rights.
The USA is like a House, We Lock Our Doors to keep out the Criminals. Although the government appears incapable of stopping criminals, so they go after innocent Americans instead.
Re: MYTH: Global Warming Pause
Ah, yes, the one world government thing. I read and hear about this all the time, and I can't help but say that the less government, the better. No, I'm *not* an anarchist, not by any means, but I AM a firm believer in the basic Libertarian ideals...that if you want "freedom" for yourself, you'd best be allowing it to others, so long as they're not causing harm to anyone else. I'm so sick of those government types and those so-called "liberals" and "conservatives" who constantly scream at the government for more laws regarding this, that and the other thing, and who want to "regulate" the s**t out of nearly every single aspect of our lives, i.e., what substances we can use, what kind of food we should consume, who we can or cannot marry, how we must conduct our businesses, whether we can own instruments for personal protection, etc. You wouldn't even want to get me started on that kind of crap, which is why I stay out of the majority of political discussions on every single forum which I frequent. And yes, I'm with you on the government persecution of "innocent" Americans. The videos I see on a daily basis of American police brutality are enough to make one's blood run cold. One has to wonder, doesn't one, if there is any such thing as a "good" cop. If there is, WHY aren't those "good" cops out there arresting those who so blatantly murder and otherwise violate the rights of citizens who aren't actually causing harm to others, shoot family pets who aren't posing any threat to them, etc? And yes, to answer your question, I DO lock my doors whenever I leave my house. Not only to protect myself from the criminals, but to protect my dogs from being shot by criminal cops, who have been reported to do "sneak and peek" operations at the behest of the government.
"The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have." -- Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)
Re: MYTH: Global Warming Pause
I hear ya!
Big Brother gets worse by the minute.
Back in my home town and surrounding municipalities, we held our police to the same laws which applied to citizens.
We also had the three strikes rule. Any cop caught breaking the same law, three different times, by three different citizens, verified to prevent conspiracy against a cop. They got fired!
I often wondered where these cops who got fired went to get a job afterward.
After I moved to Knoxville, TN, I found all of them here, except maybe one or two, could not hold a job back home!
And here, people thought the TV show, "The Dukes of Hazard" was fictional, hi hi...
It is closer to the truth than any other TV show I've seen...
Here in the USA, there are over 85,000 new laws enacted each year, some years over 100,000, but it averages out to around 85,000 new laws each year. Most of them are loopholes for the rich to slip through and not be punished for their crimes. The rest are just to harass the citizens and/or generate revenues where revenues should never be garnered from in the first place.
Government workers are the laziest bunch of folks I've ever met.
Despite the fact we have State Statutes which give them FIXED time frames in which to do their job.
It took me over 75 days to get one of our government agencies to comply with the "15 Calendar Day" law to act.
They have one excuse after the other why they don't have to comply with the laws that govern them.
It is now over 90 days, and they still have not fulfilled their obligations. They have done absolutely nothing with my case in the last 30 days.
45 days ago they did send out some info using obsolete technology to other government agencies, but got no response.
The reason they get no response is they refuse to accept responses via another technology used by most agencies.
They do this on purpose to gum up the works and slow things down to slower than a snails pace, and wonder why they are so backlogged.
My particular case could be handled in its entirety in under fifteen minutes, but they have now stretched it out to over 90 days, with no end of waiting in sight. I guess this is how government workers keep job security, never finish anything so they have piles of work to do, which of course they never get around to doing.
I get so frustrated every time I have to deal with our crooked government I want to scream.
Big Brother gets worse by the minute.
Back in my home town and surrounding municipalities, we held our police to the same laws which applied to citizens.
We also had the three strikes rule. Any cop caught breaking the same law, three different times, by three different citizens, verified to prevent conspiracy against a cop. They got fired!
I often wondered where these cops who got fired went to get a job afterward.
After I moved to Knoxville, TN, I found all of them here, except maybe one or two, could not hold a job back home!
And here, people thought the TV show, "The Dukes of Hazard" was fictional, hi hi...
It is closer to the truth than any other TV show I've seen...
Here in the USA, there are over 85,000 new laws enacted each year, some years over 100,000, but it averages out to around 85,000 new laws each year. Most of them are loopholes for the rich to slip through and not be punished for their crimes. The rest are just to harass the citizens and/or generate revenues where revenues should never be garnered from in the first place.
Government workers are the laziest bunch of folks I've ever met.
Despite the fact we have State Statutes which give them FIXED time frames in which to do their job.
It took me over 75 days to get one of our government agencies to comply with the "15 Calendar Day" law to act.
They have one excuse after the other why they don't have to comply with the laws that govern them.
It is now over 90 days, and they still have not fulfilled their obligations. They have done absolutely nothing with my case in the last 30 days.
45 days ago they did send out some info using obsolete technology to other government agencies, but got no response.
The reason they get no response is they refuse to accept responses via another technology used by most agencies.
They do this on purpose to gum up the works and slow things down to slower than a snails pace, and wonder why they are so backlogged.
My particular case could be handled in its entirety in under fifteen minutes, but they have now stretched it out to over 90 days, with no end of waiting in sight. I guess this is how government workers keep job security, never finish anything so they have piles of work to do, which of course they never get around to doing.
I get so frustrated every time I have to deal with our crooked government I want to scream.