Walls And Bridges

I was really surprised this week when the Pope entered the election fray and made a comment about presidential candidate, Donald Trump, not being a Christian if he is wanting to build walls (on the Mexican border) and not bridges. 

And then the Trump campaign pointing out that the Vatican City is surrounded by what of all things…a very big wall!

We have a history in the U.S. of separation of Church and State and a First Amendment that codifies this as law. 

To me, unless a candidate is truly criminal, discriminatory, or evil in their conduct, it’s not appropriate for a lofty religious figure to publicly question their personal faith like that. 

Further, when it comes to immigration this is not just an issue in America, but all over Europe now with the refugee crisis, and in many other places in the world. 

Of course, we most definitely need to welcome refugees fleeing persecution, conflict, catastrophe, or war. 

But when immigration is principally an economic migration, this is something for each nation to debate and decide for what is best for them.

This is not an endorsement of any candidate or party, but rather an acknowledgement that we shouldn’t:

1) Mix religion and politics (and impose undue influence in a sovereign nation’s elections)

2) Judge our neighbors faith by valid policy debates

3) Throw stones in glass houses (or walled areas as the case may be).

If building bridges is what is promoted and preferred here then the Pope and Trump should kiss (proverbially-speaking that is) and make up. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Refugees or Terrorists–How Do You Really Know?

The news about the refugee crisis is truly heartwrenching.  

My own parents and grandparents were refugees from the Holocaust who came to this beautiful country to start fresh and live in freedom and peace.  

So one one hand, I like so many others want to do the right thing from a humanitarian perspective and help people in need.  

But on the other hand, with this new wave of refugees something seems vastly different…

– 18 of 31 people identified so far in mass New Year’s Eve attacks (sexual molesting, raping, and robbing) of over 500 women in German…were refugees that had already applied for asylum.

– At least one of the Paris terrorists who killed more than 130 people in November is alleged to have been a Syrian refugee. 

– At least 3 refugees resettled in the U.S. since 9/11 (from Iraq and Uzbek) have been arrested on terrorism charges and there have been dozens of other counter-terrorism investigations for those resettled here. 

– The ISIS suicide bomber that killed 10 German tourists in Istanbul this week was registered as a Syrian refugee “without setting off security alerts.”

– And again this week, a group of refugees with rocks, bats, knives, attack a Frenchman. 

– ISIS is already asserting that they will use the refugee crisis to get attackers into the West and are bragging that already thousands have successfully infiltrated. 

Surely, no refugee vetting process is going to be ironclad–processing mistakes, system errors, and errors of judgement are bound to happen.

Some have also suggested that politics is playing a larger role here in wanting to get as many refugees and immigrants as possible into the country for the purpose of simply getting their cold hard votes…so this is a possible darker side of DC. 

In the end, we need to put politics aside, and figure out how do we help those that really need help and are good people seeking to live peacefully and productively among us, and how do we prevent the next wave of terror from some really bad apples? 

Until we can answer this question substantively, and not by an emotional response of it “is just not who we are,” we need to take this one step at a time and not act rashly and recklessly. 😉

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Luis C. Araujo)

Vetting The Refugees–Do You Think It’ll Work?

So not that anyone was so thrilled with the Syria and Iraq refugee idea post 9/11 to begin with…

But now 31 States have come straight out refusing to take these refugees post the terror attack that happened just last week in Paris–where at least one of the terrorists was...

Guess what?

That’s right!  A fake refugee from Syria. 

But what about the “intensive vetting process” that is being promised for these 10,000 refugees?

Well what can be more intensive than the vetting that the American government does on employees working for highly sensitive agencies like the CIA, FBI, and NSA? 

So how has that worked out?

Probably not too bad, but the problem is that no vetting no matter how thorough is foolproof, hence major spies have infiltrated these organizations for years or even decades and caused immense harm to national security:

Robert Hanssen (former FBI–spied for the Soviets for 21 years)

Aldrich Ames (31-year veteran of the CIA, compromised 2nd largest number of CIA agents after Robert Hanssen)

Edward Snowden (leaked classified information from the NSA on our surveillance programs)

The point is that no matter how well we vet 10,000 or more refugees from Iraq and Syria, with ISIS vowing “to strike America at its center in Washington”–there certainly can be some errors in the screening and final adjudication process.

Again no vetting process is perfect–especially when the refugees themselves are admitting that fake ideas are being given out to them like candy in a candy store. 

So that’s the dilemma we now face:

HEART–do what our heart tells us to and help people in need by taking in the refugees.

OR 

HEAD–follow our heads not risking another one or more potentially devastating terror attacks on the U.S. homeland. 

The choice is heartbreaking or headache producing! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Refugee Crisis OR Something More Sinister And Deadly?

When presidential candidate, Donald Trump said, “I will build a big beautiful safe zone in Syria for the refugees“–many on the left were aghast. 

Then I got forwarded this video on what’s happening in Europe or to Europe (and to a far more limited extent to America).

The basic question raised–are the throngs of people making their way from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia to Europe (and to America):

1) REFUGEES: Is this diversity, multiculturalism, humanitarianism, and truly helping refugees in need?

OR

2) MIGRANTS: Is this the overrunning of a continent and society–driven by the desire for money, land, power, sex and religious domination–without anyone ever even firing a shot?

No one wants to think the worst–even when terror is happening around us and ISIS is claiming to be planting thousands of terrorists among the refugees (like a massive Trojan Horse)–we still want to believe that we are doing the right thing, doing good, and helping people in need by welcoming them in. 

Most of us or our families have been refugees at one time or another–seeking safety and a better life–so we know what it’s like to need others and to need a chance–and we want to help others like others helped us. 

But watching the terror attacks, violence, rapes, and threats by some (or many, I don’t really know) of the current waves of “refugees”–one wonders is this like prior refugees coming and needing genuine help or something we’ve never quite seen before? 😉

Self-Perpetuating Immigration For All The Wrong Reasons

So this is the prevailing misguided logic by some for more immigration. 

We need immigrants to “reduce the ratio of retirees to workers.”

Why? 

Because the birth rate has fallen to below replenishment rates (roughly 2.1 births per women). 

And since our “trust funds” for social security, medicare, pensions, and the like have NOT been been kept in trust, BUT INSTEAD have been squandered on other things…

Therefore, according to this warped thinking we now need a wave of immigrants to come save us–have lots of babies and grow our economy–to pay for what we should be able to, but can’t–because of gross mismanagement and corruption with the money that was taken out our payroll all our lives supposedly to care for us in our elder years. 

The wrong reasons for immigration are expressed by Charles Kenny in Bloomberg Businessweek.

– According to Kenny, “More immigration is both the cheapest and most effective response to the challenge of a shrinking, aging population,” which he frets is “ominous for pension and health-care costs.”

– Kenny’s approach to immigrants is that they are not vital and talented human beings, but rather basically baby machines with higher birth rates for population replenishment, as he states, “Although immigrants rapidly adopt the fertility patterns of their new countries, they still tend to produce more children to begin with.”

– And he says, because most come over as adults, we have the benefits of the workers “without the expense and delay of rearing…[them as] children.”
– Oh, and by the way, Kenny says, “Some newly arrived workers help provide cheap child-care options.”

Wow, how biased, cold, and condescending is that!

Not once does Kenny mention or advocate for immigration for any of these truly worthy reasons:

– Shelter from persecution 

– Political asylum

– Promote diversity

– Bring in needed skills, investment, and innovation 

– Rejoin families

And what is the result of bringing in immigrants to pay our way?

Well, we’ll need to bring in yet another and another, wave after wave of immigration, because we can’t balance of budget and spend rationally, responsibly, and with an eye toward the future–it’s self-perpetuating immigration for the sake of deadbeatism. 

Sweet land of liberty is being thrown out for a bunch of economic opportunists who feel we need “immigrants to [come to] the rescue” rather than join together with us in being great in terms of compassion, humanitarianism, and mutual respect. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)