Shawn Gordon’s blog

Oh, Hi... glad you came... wasn't sure if you would or not, but I'm glad to see that you're like me and get curious

Maybe the headline has some sensationalism to it, but so what? Isn't that what attracts attention in the media anyway? I think so. I'm willing to bet it got you reading what I have to say, so mission accomplished as we say in RepublicanLand.

For a long time on Blogger there was existed a group run by "DaNewsviner" who, for all intents in purposes chooses to remain hidden. I understand their position (though their writing style is on the masculine side so I'm betting 'they' are a 'him' so that's what I'll refer to him as). If I were some guy posting on a side blog site about another blog, I'ld hide my identity to keep the 'good times rolling' too - no wait... that's not true. I'd probably be man enough to stand behind what I say if it about someone or a group of people.

I've read a lot of what "DaNewsviner" has to "say" (which I use that term rather loosly since he generally looks for fodder for a single sided debate). I'm a part of Newsvine. I'm also Moderate Republican with friends who are far left liberal and far right conservative. Both siades say some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen and for the most part if I disagree, even with my friends I'll tell them. That's just how people work in most parts of society. At least, I'd hope so, but DaNewsviner has opened an opportunity that I find hard to pass up.

For all his hollaring at the Republican and Conservatives about lack of logic, cowardice and overall stupidity he has apparently failed to pass by a mirror or two on his way to work.

COWARDICE:

I could simply call them a coward, true, but then I'd have to back it up right? I mean "habeas corpus" and all that...

From his own mouth:

We? We are a group of 30 something well-educated folks living happily in different states of America. We only lurk on Newsvine and this is our attempt at showcasing some of the more notorious protagonists on that website. We have managed to infiltrate Newsvine and have many of the prolific Newsviner contributors on our "friends list" and so it's easy to follow them around. Ha!

Ha indeed. The whole statement reads more like it should translate into:

"We? At times, we think we're Internet ninjas and use our mad skills to befriend Newsvine users that we disagree with so we can take bits and pieces of their comments, and pick them apart in an isolated fashion. It's funny to us, because being 30 something we've had 20 years of experience to master these skills. Careful or we'll hax0r your moms"

So, I'ld like to extend unto you the same style of 'picking' except I believe I'm a bit smarter than you are (whch saddens me... I had hoped to see some of that "well-educated")

Lets look at these "gems"

Take these gems:

The dude says:
You bring up a great point. Democrats can never take dissent. President Bush never discouraged dissent in 8 years of his office. Obama's been in less than a month and already he's looking like Hitler and Stalin.

And what did he get? 5 votes! Meaning 5 people thought he was correct. I mean, c'mon, what kind of blinders do you have to have on to believe that Bush actually encouraged dissent!! He was like the poster-child for squashing dissent, kinda like Hitler, now that it reminds us. It's sad that Repubs like Bill Scoggins are so totally brainwashed that they live in an alternate fantasy world.

Interesting here that such an educated group of you have not yet figured out that stating Bush never discouraging dissent is not the same thing as Bush actually encouraged it. It's like saying that if you aren't travelling forward you are travelling backwards. People like you forget tertiary situations... what if you're not moving at all? "well educated" my ass. I'm a landscaper and I saw that one.

Then of course you play your raw numbers game (what is with you and raw numbers only when it seems like it gives you some kind of ethical point). Amazing that you play up a whole 5 votes, but fail to mention if a counter argument was made, how many votes it got and total votes of the article  versus how many comments were made. If you're going to use number to be qualative, then be facutally quantative. As it is, you're looking less like an educated group and more like a deficient individual. 

Another gem from the same dude:
Rush is a true American which is more than we can say for many folks that diss him.
You may not like what he says, but he is almost always right.

Given that even some prominent Republican politicians are coming out against Rush, it's sad to see that there are still people on Newsvine that worship Rush. There is not hope for these sheeple. Alas.

Oh I see, now you make a general claim like "some"... so much for qualifying and quantative  - apparently "some prominent" is enough to debunk the opinion. Here's something on par with that - "Some Democrats" have started wondering "what the fuck did we just do?" now that Obama is in power. I guess by your standards we shoudl hope that people on Newsvine cease the idiodic worship of Obama? Nah, I'll just let people have a misguided opinion but I'll at least tell them directly they're misguided.

Now, I did notice in all of your nonsensical rants and ramblings that you take a stance of equality and speak as though threre is some kind of ethical value to your purpose. That, in a way you're secretly standing up for your brethren whomever they are. I say "good job" it takes courage to do that. I admire your ethics on that one, but you lack any semblence of morals, and my friend (loosly used, mutually  agreed upon I'm sure) incase you forgot since you got your alleged education, morals are characterized by the courage ethics lack. 

All of the people you make fun of, smart, stupid, or otherwise, they're at least courageous enough to be those in front of an audience that can speak back. 

That's all the time I'm going to devote today... I have more and always will becuase as long as you do something stupid, I can write about you (that's how you play it, and inthe spirit of balanc and fairness, so can I). But hey, even if it isn't fair,  there's really not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it now is there? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I patiently await one of your overused cliche` analogies in an attempt to 'zing' me or whatever... they're fun to throw back.

By the way, yes this is my real name - good luck.

Painting the shell of a model car is probably one of the most taxing things to do. It's the first thing people see so if it's a bad paint job, it doesn't matter how much time, work or detail you've done to the interior, engine bay, undercarriage, or wheels. That body better be glass-like (unless its a flat color, carbon fiber or laden with sponsors), or the car will just look like poo.

Bask in its glory, ye unaware yet of the Skyline beautifulness. For soon you all shall know and weep

CUSTOM PSEUDO-TINT or NEGATINT (I coined it, it's mine)

Being of the mindset that a car needs to stand out, it is a good idea to on occasion, break away from conventional colors. I'm going with a Blood Red / Rust Orange "negatint". I call it negatint because on a 3 axis rotation, the orange really comes into view from negative sight angles and the red comes through on the positive ones. To put it more simply, if you view the car at X0 and Y-5, you'll see the orange on raised areas because the light bounces off of the orange, but if you look at a section of the car that is above Y0, you see the blood red because of the orange being clear and the black base absorbing light. It's almost a flip paint, but it's far less extreme and doesn't completely shift from one color to the next, mostly becuase the colors are monochromatic. Orange to red is not a drastic step in colors.

To get this effect we have to understand how unique paints such as flip, candy, and pearl paints work. These paints work primarily off of the base coat.

Flip paints need a black base - to work, they require a dark base to absorb the light. Flip paints rarely switch colors in a monochromatic fashion. You will usually see red to green, blue to red, orange or purple, etc. You will at times see the blue to purple or red to yellow but they are not as flashy so not as common.

Pearl paints do a hue shift and require a white base coat. Pearl paints are 'fluffy' and look soft and therefore have aesthetic class. These paints are semi-transparent with just enough pigment to give them color (rich color), but let light pass through to show the white base coat. They also contain tiny flakes of metal, usually nickel and silver or other metals (real pearl paint is extremely expensive if it contains real pearl so most cars have the metal flakes instead of the real pearl, cultured or otherwise)

Candy paints are the most transparent paints. They have a base coat of silver for the reflective property and also contain lots of tiny silver flakes to give the sparkle. Candy paints also usually look wet, like gooey candy hence the name "candy".

Of these three I applied the theories of both Pearl and Flip paints to get a unique paint finish. To start I applied my white primer and sanded it down to an ultra smooth finish (so that the paint went on without later creating "orange peel" (the consequence of paint droplet hitting a surface and drying are varying rates due to hitting a rigid or uneven surface). Then I applied a flat black. Now, flat paints are not smooth, which is why they are flat. They do not reflect light like a gloss paint will mainly because there is an additive in the paint that makes the paint surface semi-rigid. I have to sand this down. I could use a gloss paint, but gloss paints have an additive to make them glossy and are therefore much thicker and take longer to dry than a flat or semi-gloss. Semi-gloss paints are what paints are naturally (usually) but are thicker than a flat so again, are writ out of my options.

Having laid and sanded my flat black base, I then take a Mica Red (Mica is just another term for pearl, but denotes more clearly the use of metal flake instead of actual pearl - the effects are identical). The mica red is semi-transparent, high gloss (so it's thicker) and is applied in one solid even coat to the entire body of the car where the flat black was laid. Usually one is supposed to let each coat of lacquer dry completely to reduce the bleeding between layers, however there is a neat trick that can be done with being 'impatient'.

Lacquer has a vehicle in it that as it dries, it evaporates causing the paint layer to shrink ever so slightly. Enamels simply harden so if you put too thick a coat of enamel down, you lose surface details (same with acrylic paint which dries hard and is basically liquid plastic, though you can think it considerably and it makes a terrific wash). Lacquers also do not peel as do enamel and acrylic - they chip and can scratch due to their dry nature. If Lacquer 'peels' it is becuase the primer peels or becuase they paint did not stick to the surface.

Another aspect of lacquer is that paint applied under the layer of lacquer will be absorbed into the top layer. This is especially true if the bottom layer is not completely dry yet. Having waited 20 minutes for the black base to dry (I can touch it, but its not 'dry' dry) I then apply the Mica Red in a thin even coat. The Mica Red paint will be very subdued and only subtly tint the panel lines (the detail lines scribed into the car body to outline doors, fenders, etc.) because the black base is condensed in those lines. At the same time, the Mica Red being wet, will re-wet the black and absorb some of the 'blackness' making the two layers of paint just one slightly thicker layer of paint. By the time it dries (ideally 48 hours later) it will just be one normal layer of paint and be semi-gloss becuase the flat and gloss nature of both paints will also mix.

After letting the black and red paints dry completely for about 2 days (24 hours is usually okay, but it's not good to chance anything you've got a single shot to get right), we apply the Clear Orange. Clear Orange is not a special paint at all. It contains no flakes or special additive - it is simply a transparent lacquer paint. I apply this in a very conservative thin but even coat. Since the previous paint layers are completely dry and since this layer is very thin, it should dry before the paint vehicles re-wet the previous ayers. It also gains the ability to only bee seen from certain angles since it is a lighter color (and being transparent helps). 

Again, waiting a considerable amount of time (about 24 hours), I apply an even Clear coat. This is just a high gloss fully transparent, un-tinted or pigmented layer of paint. When it dries, it will have deepened and enriched the color as well as provide a protective layer that I can polish and wax.

Now as I said earlier, lacquer will blend the previous layers of paint, or simply 'marry' them. Because clear coat has the most vehicle of any lacquer it will almost always 'burn' through all previous layers. This is an effect we want because it will subdue the orange and bring forward the red to give us that 'more red than orange' look. The result is a sort of rust color. Trust me, it looks better than it sounds.

WHEELS AND RIMS

Lacquer is my paint of choice. It's versatile and very easy to work with. It however is not a forgiving paint and if you make a mistake you usually have to dip your part in degreaser to strip off all remnants of paint to fix it (due to the marrying property of lacquer). Enamels and Acrylics are forgiving in that once they dry, you can just paint over it (but suffer loss of detail). One of the things that can ruin a great paint job is your environment. No, I don't mean sunlight or high wind (though without a good clear coat the sun CAN bleach the decals and paint on a model). I'm talking about humidity and temperature.

Ideally lacquer should be applied at room temperature in low humidity. This keeps the paint from hardening too fast (too cold) and leaving a rigid finish, running and leaving drip marks (too hot and holding the dispenser too close to the surface), or hazing (too humid).

I'm going to exploit the hazing here. Hazing strips the gloss shine from paint when it is applied because moisture collects on the surface and reacts with the evaporating vehicle in the lacquer. Too much hazing will take the lacquer from flat to looking like someone spilled milk on it and let it dry (a white rough reside). Lacquer is oil based (generally) and we shoudl know by now that water is less dense than oil so the water microdroplets that catch and form on drying lacquer will sit on top and ruin it. This is where timing comes into play with what I'm' about to do, and normally, I'd strongly suggest NOT doing this becuase if you do it too long it's ruined and too short, you don't get the effect.

What effect am I talking about? powder coating.

To make these rims look powder coated, I applied the gun metal lacquer just after a summer rain. It was VERY humid. I applied the paint, waited exactly 10 minutes and then took it inside to a room with a fan (that was turned on) and was about 75 degrees to finish drying (about 45 minutes). What happens is that there is enough humidity to sap the gloss finish and create a rough finish. The finish is not as rough as a flat coat, but it is as dull. If I were to apply a flat coat on gloss rims, the lacquer would simply be semi-gloss and I'd need two coats, running the risk of losing detail. Also, the flat base would be TOO rough to the touch (and sight), and given that the spokes of the rims were gun metal, a metallic paint, I did not want to lose the tiny mimi-pop of the metal flakes contained within.

Gun metal rims are kind of boring, especially on a car that has such a unique finish, so to liven them up I used the Mica Red on the wheels to give the inner lip a pearl red stand-out. The inner lip and wheel are gloss Mica Red and the spokes are powder coat gun metal. They are set off by each other and bring out the metallic brown Brembo Brake Calibers and real aluminum brake discs.

Of course this isn't dictating what colors you can or should use for either of these effects. Choose your own. I'm about to redo a Nissan 350Z NISMO in Blue using the same process for the body as described above, except this time I'm going to mask out two flat black racing stripes and add some custom decals (which I might cover next time around).

Feel free to pass this information on to anyone who wants it. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you out some.

Immigration reform has been a hot topic for a long time now, and most of us have chosen our sides. However, the propaganda machine still churns out a heavy amount of garbage to undermine and countermand the ideas most of us have already formed. Be wary readers, listeners, and otherwise active talkers; for the wording of propaganda plays a heavy role in our future determinations.

The first move stopping immigration decided by Congress was a law in 1862 restricting American vessels to transport Chinese immigrants to the U.S. The Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885, 1887, 1888, and 1891 restricted the immigration to the U.S. of people entering the country to work under contracts made before their arrival. Alien skilled laborers, under these laws, were allowed to enter the U.S. to work in new industries. By this time anti-immigrant felling rose with the flood of immigrants and in this period the anti-Catholic, anti-foreign political party the Know-Nothings, was already born.

After World War I a marked increase in racism and the growth of isolationist sentiment in the U.S. led to demands for furthering the already tight legislation. In 1921 a congressional act provided for a quota system for immigrants, which the number of aliens of any nationality admitted to the U.S. in a year could not exceed 3 percent of the number of foreign-born residents of that nationality living in the U.S. in 1910. This law applied to nations of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asian Russia, and certain islands in the Atlantic and Pacific. In the 1980s concern about the surge of illegal aliens into the U.S. has led Congress to pass legislation aimed at cutting illegal immigration. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 allows most illegal aliens who have resided in the U.S. regularly since January 1, 1982, to apply for legal status. Also, the law prohibits employers from hiring illegal aliens and mandates penalties for violations.

I was driving home from work one evening and a radio spot aired asking listeners to allow immigrant workers for the economic sake of this nation. It asked the listener to imagine “What if tomorrow there were no immigrant workers”, and explained that if this were a reality then national progress would slow to a near stop and that ridding the country of immigrants would cause an unbearable cost of labor to hit businesses in turn causing them to fold, which would cost Americans their job. So far this ad has already misled the listener more than three times. The ad closed with asking the listener to be compassionate and think of their families when considering the possibility of shutting immigrants out.

First, the ad stated “immigrant workers”. There is nothing wrong with immigrant workers, as it is the illegal immigrant workers that we want to get back in line and wait like everyone else. Forget the “New Colossus” opening stanzas and the false interpretation. It has become misunderstood poetry. It wasn’t an open invite, but rather a commission work done prior to the competition of the Statute of Liberty. The poem embodied what the concept sketch made the author feel and nothing more. In no official US document regarding any branch of government nor how it is run, does it acknowledge that the borders to the US are, will, and must be open to everyone at all times for any reason. Arguments have been made claiming that America was built by immigrants. I can’t say that the argument is untrue, but the times and circumstances were different. At a time slavery and sexism were to a larger scale and more severe than any woman can understand today was commonplace, even encouraged. But, times have changed and these things are scorned and considered a social attrition. Using the argument of America being built by immigrants is no different. This country has been built, is in gear, and steadily moving. No one alive was a part in building this nation up during key parts of development no more than there is no one alive from the African American Slavery period of pre and post Civil War. A nation that lives in the past on parts that favor the easement for any particular group denies itself the nourishment for a fruitful future. This is not to say that a nation must move on and forget it’s past, but it cannot feasibly reside in it and expect anything good to happen.

The phrasing of “immigrant workers” was to blur the line that separates legal status of immigrants. Legal immigrants should not come under fire for being here.

Second, we as a nation lack the logistics to round up all illegal immigrants and deport them in a 24 hour period. It would be something that happened over a period of time and as such businesses would acclimate accordingly without missing a beat.

A practical solution to workplace shortages include better workplace partnerships, or simply put – employee retention practices.

While I worked in the retail sales business, the company I worked for noticed a shortage of employees. To counter this they began to offer competitive packages that included employee stock options, slightly higher wages over time, and a 401K. Now, not everyone will want to remain in retail sales for the entirety of their career, but the 401K was not for new employees. It was for mid to upper-level management who had put a substantial amount of time into the company. Any and every business CAN afford to offer better packages. When a shortage happens they will. Another common practice is to broaden their employee base. This comes in form of either ethnic diversity which reaches a broader audience, or by adjusting their employee age range. The latter ensures that the business also reaches a more broad audience. The company I worked for was specifically targeting early teens to young adults that enjoyed either the skate / surf activity or at least liked to look as if they did. So an age range wouldn’t be as effective here. However, it would serve better in other retails sales such as large and small electronics, vehicle sales or food service.

Illegal immigrants often work in labor intensive industries, so in respect to the issue a realistic solution would simply be to offer normal wages to those who can prove legal residency and remove the floor on minimum wage for illegal immigrants or those without proof of legal status. Yes, it’s a horrible thing to suggest; to pay one person less money than another based on status, but this already happens. I make less money than I could because illegal immigrants will work for less and do no more work than I.

Many people argue that illegal immigrants hold jobs that many American citizens will not hold because they either pay too little or they are simply unwilling to do them. This is not a completely true argument.

I live in Georgia, a state that houses the third largest number of illegal immigrants and is responsible for employing ¼ of the nation’s illegal immigrants in the Agriculture industry (of which 92% are illegal immigrants), there is a huge influx of illegal immigrants. Most of them are working in either construction or agriculture. Neither of those jobs is overly hard. I work segued between both industries. Doing landscape irrigation and design architecture, I do some construction and have to handle some agricultural work. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’ve seen more natural citizens (blacks or whites) working at the drive-thru window of McDonald’s, asphalt and quarries, waste disposal and management, fisheries, chicken houses, and paper mills where those jobs scrape the bottom as far as prestige and glory. However these jobs require that the employee have a basic understanding of the English language and some degree of training. This however doesn’t mean that these jobs are worthless and unwanted.

Third, business is a feral beast that is fully capable of self sustainment under some severe conditions. The real issue is that business doesn’t want to increase labor cost by hiring someone unwilling to work for less and thereby having to degrease their profit margin or keep the same profit margin by counteracting the labor cost with the installment of higher consumer prices. Most illegal workers make money “under the table”. This is tax free pay that most of them send a portion of back to their homeland. I turn we have to make up for the loss of money at some point and it contributes to inflation and the cost of living; both of which have been on a steady rise.

Illegal immigrants pay no income taxes in the US. If they pay no income taxes then how can we as a country pay for public services that both legal and illegal residents use such as police, fire and rescue, public schooling, and social welfare. Many illegal immigrants send part of their income to their homelands. If money is taken out of our economy it causes a small short term issue and a very big long term monetary problem. This can cause an inaccurate account of money in circulation which partly causes inflation.

Lastly, I am under no obligation to consider the feelings of an illegal immigrant, let alone anyone else when compared to the needs of my own family. Like many of you, I work very hard to make just enough to survive. Fortunately, unlike some of you, I do not live outside of my means. Still, my week day is long, hard, and bears very little to bring home. For all intents and purposes I’m considered a blue collar worker. I come home covered in clay, dust, and glue. When I get home I spend a little bit of time with my family and then do research about my job so that I can become more knowledgeable in it and hopefully advance. I spend 50 or more hours a week under a sweltering Georgia sun and often times go long periods without breaks or water. I am not exaggerating, and I do not want people to feel the least bit sorry. I chose this line of work despite the fact I’m capable of achieving much more in life. I like my job.

The illegal immigrants are also capable of achieving much more in life, and they too chose to be both illegal and work under harsh conditions. If people can find no compassion towards me for the conditions in which I work due to the fact that I’m a natural citizen and I chose my job, then why would people feel compassion towards an illegal immigrant under much of the same circumstances?

The Mexican government has worked hard at trying to talk down the idea of a border fence that would span 700 miles across the US / Mexico border. However in Mexico there is a border fence that is there to keep illegal immigrants from crossing over from Guatemala and El Salvador. Blatant hypocrisy aside, in Mexico it is a felony to be an illegal immigrant. MIchael J Waller wrote "Mexico's Immigration Law: Let's Try It Here At Home", which gives a great list of laws surrounding the immigration workings of the country so willing to ask us to allow them into the US.

Beyond this extensive rundown of Mexican Law and Constitution points, there seems to be a huge double standard that Mexico has. Pardon My English has a very interesting overview of some of these double standards.

We can also look at Canada when in need of immigration reference. Canada has several ways to legally immigrate into their country, but you’ve got to fit into THEIR system of life and social governance (which is fine and probably best).

From the Canadian Immigration website:

SKILLED WORKERS AND PROFESSIONALS

Skilled workers have education, work experience, knowledge of English or French, and other abilities that will help them to establish themselves successfully as permanent residents in Canada.
to apply as a skilled worker: •you have at least one continuous year of full-time, paid work experience or the equivalent in part-time continuous employment; •your work experience must be Skill Type 0 (managerial jobs), A (professional jobs) or B (technical jobs and skilled trades) on the Canadian National Occupational Classification (NOC); and •you must have had this experience within the last 10 years. Investors, entrepreneurs and self employed persons
The Business Immigration Program seeks to attract experienced business people to Canada who will support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy.

INVESTORS:

The Immigrant Investor Program seeks to attract experienced business people to invest $400,000 into Canada’s economy. Investors must: •show that they have business experience; •have a minimum net worth of CAN $800,000 that was obtained legally; and •make a CAN $400,000 investment.
Your investment is managed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and is guaranteed by the Canadian provinces that use it to create jobs and help their economies grow.

CIC will return your $400,000 investment, without interest, approximately five years and two months after payment.

ENTREPRENEURS:

The Entrepreneur Program seeks to attract experienced business persons who will own and actively manage businesses in Canada that contribute to the economy and create jobs. Entrepreneurs must: •Show that they have business experience; •Have a minimum net worth of CAN $300,000 that was obtained legally; and •Respect the conditions for entrepreneurs after they arrive in Canada.

SELF-EMPLOYED:

The Self-Employed Persons Program seeks to attract applicants who have the intention and ability to become self-employed in Canada. Self-employed persons are required to have either: •relevant experience that will make a significant contribution to the cultural or athletic life of Canada, or •experience in farm management and the intention and ability to purchase and manage a farm in Canada.

SPONSORING YOUR FAMILY

This is pretty self explanatory in title alone. If you live in Canada as a permanent resident then you can apply to have other family members join you to live in Canada. It works pretty close to the same way here in America, with one “minor” exception:

If you sponsor a relative to come to Canada as a permanent resident, you are responsible for supporting your relative financially when they arrive. As a sponsor, you must make sure that your spouse or relative does not need to seek financial assistance from the government.

PROVINCIAL SPONSOIRED NOMINEES / QUEBEC SPONSORED NOMINEES

Basically this is where the province / Quebec sponsors you to live in Canada.

Persons who immigrate to Canada under the Provincial Nominee Program have the skills, education and work experience needed to make an immediate economic contribution to the province or territory that nominates them. They are ready to establish themselves successfully as permanent residents in Canada.

Why Quebec has their own thing going on, I’m not sure, but I suspect is has to do with the political division between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Another huge impact illegal immigration has is on Unions. In the north there is little issue with maintaining a Union, however in the South you’ll be hard pressed to find a union of any kind.

Lastly, medical care is affected by illegal immigrants. At a time in our nation where good medical care is in demand and expensive, we can’t afford to squander the resources we have here. As an example, the Savannah Hospital in Georgia has lost millions of dollars in caring for illegal immigrants. The government doesn’t reimburse the hospital or physicians for their services and the illegal immigrants don’t pay a dime for their care. Now, back in 2004 the barred illegal immigrants from receiving non-emergency care, but the illegal immigrants then went straight to the ER for any ailment. Aside from that many of the illegal immigrant bring with them illnesses and diseases that were once eradicated or near removed from the US; Chagas and cystercosis(not common, but noticed in illegal immigrants) are just two that come to mind.

Illegal immigrants also have babies, or sometimes called"anchor babies" (prejrotive), which secure the legal status of once illegal partners. Often times the illegal immigrants will come over with their family and then have one or two more children. Sometimes the eldest son or daughter of the family will marry another illegal and have a child to also secure the legal status of not only their new child but of their partner. While technically the baby will not automatically make the parents legal citizens, a judge will opt out of deporting the biological parents because the result is a legal breakup of the family. However, when the child becomes an adult, they can sponsor their parents so that they may become legal residents. As many parents come to find out, birth is far from inexpensive and if we toss into the mix any form of complication, the cost increases seemingly exponentially. With the illegal immigrants receiving “free” medical care, there is no option left but for taxes to go up to cover the cost of this. Moreover, babies with defects or health issues, receive full legal state funded health coverage which detracts from the coverage for babies born to legal residents.

Hospitals also get further punished by slowly being required to have translators on hand for immigrants (mostly illegal) who have not or will not learn the English language.

What it boils down to is that we’re facing a serious problem, and with Democrats and Republicans talking out of both sides of their ass on the topic, it’s left to us as Americans to figure this mess out. I understand the business side of wanting cheap labor and the idea of in turn keeping the cost of the product cheaper. I understand that when someone is in need of medical attention that they should receive medical attention. I understand that when living conditions put someone in poverty then they must find a way to provide for their families, and I even understand going to the extremity of doing things outside f the law. However, I am an American. I was born here. I was raised here. I was educated here and I served this nation with my life. All I’m asking is that when I die here, that it is still the America I defended and grew up in.

Simply denying illegal immigrants an easy way in, or some form of fast track to citizenship is not fixing the solution. It’s giving up and refusing to backtrack to figure out where the problem started. There is a zen saying that when paraphrased conveys the idea that “no matter how far down the wrong path you go, turn back”. In this situation it would be far more beneficial to those who have worked hard to live here by legal means and have that birthright to live freely here than it would to throw our hands up as if to shrug and say “well... it’s too late”. I do not find that as an acceptable or responsible course of action.

Should we round up every illegal immigrant and kick them out? No. That would be a financial and logistic disaster, aside from being disorganized lackluster.

Should we force them to assimilate and tax them into submission by granting them a free pass? No. This goes back to giving up or quitting on the hard work that generations before any of us put into this country. Should the legal status be revoked of those who have had anchor babies? No. This will only serve to ignite tension and make the US to look hypocritical on yet another front. It would be better to remove the provision that grants legal status to otherwise illegal parents for simply procreating in the future.

Should we outright deny medical care to those illegal immigrants who are in honest urgent care? No. It would be inhumane to leave someone in need of medical treatment in a bad condition. However, slowly making laws that clearly define the definition of “urgent” and allowing highly trained medical professional determine and classify this definition would be a better alternative then placing that power into the hands of a medically untrained politician. Hell, I barely believe most politicians tell the truth outside of words like "a", "the" and "and", so I surely don't trust them to make an accurate definition of a medical condition above a doctor. Over a course of years, a small portion of the money that would have been lost in medical care by hospitals should be redistributed to countries like Mexico so that they can have a staff of medical doctors and nurses to treat the conditions that cause some immigrants to illegally seek care in the US. Then the illegal immigrants that come from beyond Mexico can stop at Mexico and receive treatment at a much closer facility with a staff trained just as well.

Immigrants – okay. Illegal immigrants – not okay. I'm tired of feeling as if Mexico's biggest import is US dollars and their biggest export is illegal immigrants. It's time for a serious solution that doesn't once again coddle someone other than legal residents and natural citizens.

A counterculture is a culture that has ideas and ways of behaving that are consciously and deliberately very different from the cultural values of the larger society that it is part of. Before we can understand a culture we must look at what influences it. Each generation has its own culture, sub culture, and counterculture. That being said, the most prominent counterculture in US history is likely the hippie generation of the 60’s. To understand this we’ll have to touch on what influenced this change.

1920 (or the “Roaring Twenties” as it was named principally in North America), was one of the most colorful decades in US history. The era saw a turn toward normality in politics, the return of veterans from World War I, the growth of jazz music, the emergence of a new face of modern womanhood, and Black Tuesday, the herald of the Great Depression. Moreover, the years of the Roaring Twenties were marked by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching consequences; unprecedented industrial growth and accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, coupled with significant changes in lifestyles; and a series of events, national as well as international, which shaped a large part of the history of the 20th century. The era's affluence, however, did not include all social groups as many sharecroppers and tenant farmers (black and white) in the South continued to live in poverty. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia)

The 1930s started off economically unsteady, with the stock market dropping early in 1930. However, late in 1930, stocks and the economy dropped more without much recovery. People began to feel the effects of the plunging stock market in 1931, and the situation grew progressively worse until reaching the low point in 1933. The gloomy conditions that arose led to a religious revival and the rise of conservatism that rejected the liberalism of the 1920s, which began to be viewed as a decade of "sin." After 1933, the economy began a gradual recovery which wouldn't reach the level of prosperity of 1930 until World War II. This decade was also very radical in comparison to the following. There were serious social issues beginning to arise and domestic unrest. Jazz was replaced by swing and the radio became the mass media portal. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia)

By the 1940’s America entered WWII fighting against the tyranny of Italy, Germany and Japan and then shortly thereafter entered the Cold War. These were relatively simple times. People were Average Joes looking to make ends meet, and provide for their families. We were a largely conservative people and valued hard work and loyalty. At the same time, this decade can be divided into two halves. The first half dominated by WWII, and the second birthing the Cold War. Nuclear weapons are invented, Abstract Expressionism emerges on the art scene and George Orwell published “Animal Farm”. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia)

The 1950s in the United States of America were marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years, and a return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, and imperialism were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a world returning from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to the radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. An American generation traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II created a culture with emphasis on normality and conformity. During this time, African-Americans were subject to racial segregation and harsh racism even as the Civil Rights Movement began to gain momentum after the end of the decade. The Korean War which the US was directly involved from 1950 to 1953 is marked as a proxy-war between capitalist powers of the US, USSR and the Peoples Republic of China. Oddly the Suez Crisis saw the US and USSR ally to force the invading European Colonies out of Egypt. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia)

We finally reach the 1960s. This was a time that would bring about great social change here in America. Part of it was due to the kids growing up and having things provided for them and not having to work for it on their own. These kids were beginning to get educated, as their parents often couldn’t afford to college, now things were different and people were a bit more affluent. “Freedom and Peace” were ideas and ideals that ran rampant in the mid to late 60’s as a result of suffering for 30 years of tense, rollercoaster like relations with global communities, but with that also came drugs. Drugs were not a byproduct of the 60’s but the 60’s, in some respects were a byproduct of drugs. I’m sure everyone remembers Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” and the “Just Say No” campaigns of the 1980’s. D.A.R.E. and other anti-drug campaigns popped up and to some extent continue today. Reagan took his stance on making America as drug free as possible very seriously. However, Reagan wasn’t the originator of this war, Richard Nixon declared this war, and Reagan merely continued to fight it (with respectively more success). But, why was there a need for this “war” to being with? I believe the answer lies within the wildfire counter culture of the 60’s, often credited to “the hippies”.

The Encarta Dictionary defines “hippie” as:

A young person, especially in the 1960s, who rejected accepted social and political values and proclaimed a belief in universal peace and love.

Ask anyone who lived through the 60’s and they’ll bring up heavy psychedelic drug use, free love, flower power, and hippies. Granted, the entire decade wasn’t a hippie movement but the social eyes paid close attention to much of the changes that happened as a result of their activism.

Elements like a shift in music, primarily in Rock ‘n’ Roll as well as experimentation with drugs on a social level heavily influenced much of today social workings. Hippies rebelled and they rebelled in many ways that broke many barriers. Some people say there was not a real point to the rebellion and others say that it was a rebellion to the 50’s “un-fun” that was beginning to take hold which the beatniks never really successfully shook off.

By 1955 the U.S. was becoming a decidedly un-fun place for teenagers, and the same was the case in England by 1960; rock 'n' roll offered an incredibly fresh opportunity to rediscover fun in each case. By the time the British version washed up on American shores in 1964, there was a desperate new outbreak of non-fun in abundance, owing to the shock wave generated when President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

Most of this rebellion took place in shape of music, art, and behavior (as with most social rebellions) and the partial point was rebellion for its own sake. The British Invasion of American culture and music in 1964 helped instigate a revolution that may not have overthrown the established order, but that shook it up mightily, and that was indeed a good thing. Still, despite the images of political conflict and violence that linger from that era, it was not an armed insurrection that the Brits brought with them to America. Theirs were more devious weapons: cheekiness, playfulness, bemused disrespect, sarcasm. Many of the most memorable scenes from early 60s "rockumentaries" are those where young stars like Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or Pete Townshend and Robert Daltry are interviewed by the basically straight members of the British or American press about their newfound fame. They delighted in belittling themselves, making fun of the reporter's questions (often without him realizing it), and generally goofing off in a situation that, for most people, would have seemed to be a tremendously important, career-make-or-break situation. This type of irreverence, which was institutionalized by Monty Python's Flying Circus in the 70s and David Letterman in the 80s, made a telling point that was not lost on the audience: fun is what it's about, above all else, whatever the circumstances or surroundings, and people who can't deal with that idea are losers, no matter how "important" or "successful" they may be. Fun itself was rebellious. Where the fun devolved into hostility, that hostility was directed at those who didn't understand and actively worked to impede the fun – “the Man” or “the Establishment” as it was referred to.

In 1969 the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival took place in Bethel, New York with more than half a million attendees. Later, the counter culture would feel its own weight with the Altamont Free Concert in the same year. These two events contrasted one another drastically.

Woodstock sort of embodied the message that Marijuana and LSD when used freely and openly were okay, that people can function or at least remain civil while under the influence of these drugs, but drugs were not the only “message” of this new counterculture. People wanted to show that you didn’t have to have a suit and tie to be respected or to have intellectual ideas. At the time, society saw these things as disruptive and in direct opposition to the more conservative attitudes of the 40s and 50s. And, while the 50’s had the beatniks, the 60’s with their hippies choosing a gentle and non-doctrinaire ideology that favored peace, love, and personal freedom via disestablishmarianism, criticizing middle class values, opposing war, championing sexual liberation, promoting the use of psychedelic drugs to “expand one's consciousness”, and by creating intentional communities. Their voices were heard through the music of that era, which would later be considered one of the greatest music revolutions in the US and UK.

Still, this scene had beginnings long before Woodstock and proof lies heavily within the art, film, and music of the period. Songs like “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane were beginning to fill the radio waves. The previous generations felt that this music promoted anti-social behaviors and threatened their very way of life. In truth people were musically experimenting, trying to convey that transcendent feel. At the time the younger generation felt the '60s were a breakthrough. The music was largely inspired by hallucinogens, or so-called "mind-expanding" drugs such as marijuana and LSD, and attempted to recreate drug-induced states through the use of overdriven guitar, amplified feedback, and droning guitar motifs influenced by Eastern music. There was exploration of sexual freedom and a lot of drugs around that were essential to the development of consciousness – if not on an individual level then at a collective, sort of communal level. The zeitgeist of the time was the final collapse of a certain conservative kind of thinking. The seeds were sown for feminism, for the whole notion of cyberspace, ecology, and the whole philosophy of Gaia.

Not all of these things were bad ideas and if practiced correctly they’d have been a great way of living as the idealists behind the movement definitely had a strong following. Altamont gave proof to how the newfound openness was to fail due to too little structure and too much freedom. Aside from Altamont, the hippie ideal of heavy psychedelic drug use as something to be considered took a fall when Jimmi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin all suffered from drug related deaths. Around this time there was also the issue of Charles Manson (who is known to have given LSD to his followers) and the Tate / LaBianca murders, not to mention the CIA fiasco with Air America and the increasing importation of Heroin from Vietnam as well as troop usage of the drug on the battlefield. These things killed the hippie movement in conjunction with the media finding a newfound in and outlet – youthful activism and the corporate ‘commidification’, or commercialism of hippie freedom.

The media fed vampirically off of the rise and fall of the hippie movement because their business is news and the hippies frequently made the news. Between drugs, liberation, civil rights, and war protests, hippies were everywhere. Though both music and drugs played roles in carrying remnants of this passé counter culture to a few decades later, it never reached the same peak. Psychedelic rock--which had already revolutionized fashion, poster art, and live performance--continued to grow after the 1960s, influencing a host of subgenres, including heavy metal, progressive and art rock. In the 70’s and 80s’ it was punk rock which carried a lot of political commentary as well as preached about isolating yourself from social norms and fascist ways. There have been a few sub and counter cultures since the 60’s but I’ve only been a part of one.

We’ll fast forward to the early 1990s. EDM (electronic dance music), or “techno” as it is sometimes generically described makes an underground appearance in the US. Once again, many of the hippie ideals are in place, but due to the widespread and mainstream use of minor psychotropic drugs, there are few aspects of this new scene that would make it a counter culture over a subculture. This new scene had the beginnings of a kind of hippie revitalization and cultural runoff intertwined with new media and technology. This was a culture I was at the time a part of – the aptly named “rave scene”.

Rave:

• (Intransitive Verb) to be very stormy and make a loud roaring noise.
• (Slang) A large-scale party or club event at which pop music is played, lasting sometimes all night.

These parties or ‘raves’ could be defined by both simultaneously.

As I mentioned, I feel that the rave scene carried out both some of the hippie ideals and some of the cultural runoff of yesteryear. We held sacred an ideal called “PLUR”. This was an acronym for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect and wasn’t much more than “free love” without the sexual liberation. We weren’t as attune with social issues as the hippies so we didn’t really have an activist base. However, we held the same personal freedom ideologies that the hippies did. We weren’t to be bound by appearance, but rather ideas and inner workings. We hated “the man” and anything that embodies authoritative structure. Drugs were a prevalent motif with the onset of ecstasy, a new found love of LSD, and the already common marijuana.

We had rediscovered the “mind expanding” properties of LSD and it played a large role in the visual aspects of the rave scene. Concert flyers of the 60s were rudimentary, often done with hand drawn block fonts, swirling complementary colors and an appeal to drug metaphors. Later they became more polished and professional as the commercialization of these ideals were more accepted. With the rave culture, technology enabled us to create flyers with the same idea and contexts.

We can see how many things from both eras are similar. Not only the use of drugs was common in both cultures, but the similarity of art and style of musical experimentation are uncanny.

60’s music posters used very vibrant and contrasting colors with an artistic typeface that broke away from the more comparatively conservative block and bold type faces used even in the 50’s style of posters. The rave culture ran with this, taking elements of the 60’s hippie art and adding a bit of technological punch. Much like Andy Warhol, a lot of 90’s party flyers used pop icons and political figures to underscore an anti-political or disestablishmentary ideology. While politics were not a heavy influence in the 90’s rave scene, it was a way of expressing a lack of oppression or at least a feeling of being free of “the man” – a pressure most teens feel in way of teachers, parents, and politicians.

Like the hippies we had our own style of dress, though we rarely relied on a bohemian style of dressing our clothes were rather free flowing. People would wear nylon pants with several cords hanging from a multitude of pockets and sometimes have pants that boasted a leg opening big enough to fit a VW Beetle.

The 60s brought about the onset of synthetic music. The moog and other such electric instruments were being incorporated to search for a new sound. The rave scene utilized two records, sometimes playing simultaneously, overlapping two different songs or elements to create a new sound. The entire genre of music was synthetic and organized almost exactly like classical music – with movements and emotions. The art styling of both cultures were vibrant in color and surreal in content.

We found ourselves having to operate in almost complete secrecy for a number of years and the media coverage of what we did was often outdated, out of context, and otherwise played up on the fears of parents and authorities. These were things that during the 60’s the media had to learn how to do, it wasn’t already established in this form. While we played heavily on being in the know about our underground style of life, we embraced (mostly) internal change – in fact we almost promoted it. Being different was our point along of having fun and being free there was also a distinct difference between the 60’s hippies and the 90’s club kids.

The most prominent difference is that we knew the rules and didn’t have to make them up. The authoritative aspects of society knew what we’d be doing and where we’d be going in order to have our fun, and they met us there… in police cars. We knew the adverse effects of drugs and the modern drugs were chemically much different than the ones widely used in the 60’s. We smoked PCP laced weed, and took prescription drugs like percodan as recreational outlets . At the same time, these new drugs had effects we didn’t fully understand on a recreational level, much like LSD and marijuana in the 60’s.

In the end, both counter cultures had a small point - fun. One evolved into a shaking of the social foundation and the other came 30 years too late with heavily borrowed and cliché ideals when corporate America had already figured out how to capitalize on social change. There was a full scale rebellion happening between generations and there were clear and solid lines between the committed partisans within both groups, it’s just that one era paved the way for subsequent eras.

The most rebellious Sixties Hippies have kids of their own now, listening to their own music (or perhaps their parents'). Meanwhile, the ’Establishment’ has absorbed countless former rebels, who now populate the offices of oil companies and corporate law departments. The Who's generation, in fact, pretty much runs the world, with the exception of the few older people who retain some of the highest power positions. It's a lot harder for faithful veterans to know whom to oppose any more—and that may be the real problem. It was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys when the bad guys consisted of anyone over thirty. Today some of the worst offenders (violent racists, Wall Street thieves, and reactionary demagogues) are under thirty, and the older crowd is increasingly heterogeneous. And you can't go by dress code either. Two suit-and-tie short-hairs standing side by side on the subway might harbor polar opposite political beliefs, social values, and musical tastes.

I see the old 60s hippies talking about their generation, often falling back at some point to “Hey man, it was the sixties. We did everything and we were cool.” In their rants and rambles, bit and pieces of what they collectively learned pops up and becomes known. It seems many of them learned that over controlled uniformity was bad, but lack of structure was worse. And, while these high profile ex-hippies tell their stories, the only parts people today seem to pick out is “They did this in the past and they turned out okay”. There’s more to what went on that than that and far more than I can ever hope to explain (being as I wasn’t born until 1977). The 60’s counterculture had a serious side effect and down fall. Too much freedom and uncontrolled expression led to chaos that falls under its own weight. These hippies talking about all the things they did and the liberation they felt seriously damaged them and their cause later in life. Some of them went broke, others killed themselves via drugs and depression, while others try now to explain in an abstract way that large portions of their actions were unexplored as a reason for why it was okay to try but not okay to continue. Still others got sucked into the corporate game and began to sell each other out for profit. They had no idea things would be one way or another; they simply wanted a liberating change. They got it, and in many ways it was good, but in others it was equally bad.

Perhaps part of the 90’s rave counterculture was a way of reliving the 60’s with modern flair, using the fact that “the hippies did it and got away with it and now so will we”, but because times change and the way in which things are done – coupled with the search for something new, better, and stronger – this rave culture had taken a hypocritical duality.

We did the drugs, but in perspective they were harder and continued to get harder and more “designer”. The fashion was equally radical, but became a point of the culture – “how different can you look and act”. However, just like hippies, the dress of a club kid identified them as such. The music was equally experimental and appealing to the followers. The two countercultures shared a psychedelic flavor in the music and both were capitalized upon but the latter era was capitalized upon much faster because this game had been played once before.

The same people that once fought on the side of hippies were now part of the groups fighting against the rave scene. They were against drugs and against non conformists because they were now the ones that didn’t understand and had probably forgotten what it was like to rebel and have “independent” ideas.

Some DJs would lace their tracks with anti-drug messages and claim a “straight edge” lifestyle where drugs did not exist in their life. Some believe a catalyst to this kind of lacing began with Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash on the track “White Lines (Don’t Do It), an anti-drug early hip-hop song. Different sub-genres tend to promote different ideas nowadays. Disco House promotes more free-love, anti-war themes while House and Trance seems to lend themselves to more of the sex and drugs themes. It’s odd how a culture that at one time had the pride of being liberated and free became slave to drugs and commercialism. It’s odder still at how the members of this culture sat back and allowed it to happen.

I’m not sure if the hippies wondered the same thing, but I know that I look back and remember what the rave scene was – long before the term rave was inadequately used – and think… how is it we forgot to teach the people coming in under us that there were rules and structure, and that without them this would all fall apart and become the opposite of what it was meant to be. At the time we were so caught up with making the scene work and breaking free of the stereotypes that followed us that we barely noticed the changes within our scene until it was too late and commercialization took over. We bowed to the almighty dollar, materialism, and broke away from communal individuality.

Once the EDM scene became mainstream it filled up with “in” people and those who worried about what they made, who they knew, and what they looked like – the exact opposite of the roots. Commercialization did us in and while there is still a large party scene, it’s a husk of its former self – almost disgusting to look at and think of in contrast to the original style.

Perhaps my parents knew what they were talking about – all those times when I’d get lectures from my parents on how society doesn’t change and how there are rules that must be followed were not as abstract as I once thought. Sure, kids will continue to operate outside of the social norm, but none of their ideas are overtly original.

I wonder what the story will be from my counter culture over the next 10 to 20 years. Will there be many left who truly remember the origins and the meanings left to tell how it really was and where it went, or will the stories be left to the upper echelon of DJs and high society poseurs who thought they understood? Will anyone even care enough to listen and pick out the difference between what we said, did, and ended up?

Tell us about an event that changed your life forever.
Submitted by Miss Scotch.

Birth... thats pretty damn life altering... 

Do you believe there is intelligent life on other planets?

The lack of intelligent life on THIS planet gives me no reason to believe that there is intelligent life on another.

Show us the one thing that unfailingly makes you smile, no matter what. 
Submitted by Sourire.

What are the weirdest song titles in your playlist or music collection?
Submitted by Charline.

Right now....these - and I've included videos so that you can see the people I'm tlaking about and at least get a good idea of what it is I listen to at times...

Trentemoller - Miss You / Always Something Better

DJ Krush feat. Angelina Esparza - Alephueo

Stevie Ray Vaughn - Sky is Cryin' / Tightrope

Edvard Grieg - Piano Concerto in A Minor

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings / Agnus Dei

Satoshi Tomiee feat. Kelli Ali - Love in Traffic (dark vocal pass)

People Under The Stairs - Breakdown / Acid Raindrops

Portishead - Humming / Wandering Stars

Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar / Low Place Like Home

Wax Tailor - Our Dance / Que Sera

Busdriver - Kill Your Employer /  The Troglodyte Wins

Amon Tobin - Sordid / Four Ton Mantis
(fun fact - "Sordid" is my cell phone ring tone)

Aphex Twin - Monkey Drummer / Windowlicker (very explicit language)

Funkstorung - Grammy Winners

Bjork - Oh So Quiet / Isobel / Human behavior

Hooverphonic - Mad About You

David Guetta - World is Mine

Orbital - Halcyon and on and on

While these aren't  weird per se, they don't really fit together nor do they fit with most mainstream radio feces.