I think people have lost sight of what the immigration debate is all about. It’s about controlling our border so that we are protected from terrorist attack. It’s become a debate on what to do about illegal aliens who are already here. That debate won’t make us safe. We must control the border first.

There are a few hateful and bigoted people who are making the debate unpleasant for everyone and making those who want to convince illegals to leave and become legal before returning look bad. I heard a story on the internet that may or may not be true. It goes like this. A woman sat down in her seat on an airplane and the man next to her seemed hostile. Finally he asked her how long she’d been in the country. She asked him, “Well how long have you been in the country?”

He proudly replied, “My great-grandparents came to this country.”

She responded with, “I’ve got you beat. I’m a Native American.” He shut-up and didn’t say another thing the whole flight. It’s a nice story if true. This next one is true.

The Review Journal, a Las Vegas newspaper, reported on a woman whose husband was being deported as an illegal alien. She was of course upset, as she should be since her husband, the father of her six children, was going to be out of her life unless she chose to go to Peru (which would require her own immigration nightmare) or figured out some way to bring him back. As she was being interviewed someone drove by and yelled out the window of his car: “Go home!” With tears in her eyes she said, “I’m a native American. Where can I go?”

Now I’m sure the idiot in the car didn’t know what the interview was about. He just saw brown skin and spouted his hatred. How many more idiots are out there ruining the landscape for a reasoned debate?

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Notice the difference between Cynthia McKinney and Condie Rice. The congresswomen has no class, is looking for trouble, and seems to be a racist bigot with something to prove. Condie is a classy lady, doesn't have to look for trouble, (libs cause her troubles and she deals with them well) and has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone.

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Cynthia McKinney

Condie Rice.

Some of my crazy students decided to protest Congress’s decision to do something about illegal immigration. When the little darlings came back, I asked them what they were protesting about. None of them could tell me. They hadn’t a clue. I think I like Newt Gingrich’s plan best: set up centers in Mexico so people can get checked out and get an ID which they can use to enter the US, any employer hiring someone without such an ID gets a huge fine, and the twelve plus million illegals will leave because they have no jobs. They can come back if and when they qualify for an ID card. And of course seal the border!

We’ve had proficiency testing this week. We caught one girl with a cheat book. Dumb girl, now her test is no good. I guess it’s still not over. She’s denying she was using it to cheat.

I was all ready to finish chopping up one of the trees tomorrow, but I guess Eric finished it today. Of course he left a mess on the ground for me to clean up so I guess I’ll keep what ever I clean up.

I finally got the phones system I want. We hung a base unit in the kitchen and we have nine cordless phones to go with it. We went a little crazy with the buy two get one free sale. We can actually add one more, but we’re done I think. All the phones are speaker phones. They have voice mail (which I don’t know how to use yet), and they can act as walkie talkies. We only have two other phones still hooked up. They’ll go soon.

We had a staff development day Monday. This crazy guy was the speaker at the Orleans casino. Apparently he was the teacher of the year or something. The parking lot was so packed it took almost an hour for Robert and me to get out of the parking lot. He was so late getting to his meeting. As we got in the car I noticed the lady next to us in her large SUV (which proved to be too large for her) had her wheels turned way out. I told Robert if she kept backing out like that she was going to hit us. Can you see it coming? We didn’t even try to pull out because it was too busy, but she did. And (you can still see this coming huh?) she scraped my mirror across her fender. It left an 8 or 9 inch crease on her fender, but only a little scratch on my mirror. She gets out—doesn’t even look at her fender—and says, “Looks like someone parked too close! You’re going to have to move first, because I can’t get out.” She gets back into her large SUV and she still hasn’t looked at the damage to her car! I wiggled the car back and forth until I was well away from her and after a few minutes she left. I guess I could get her for hit and run.

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It’s a strange thing. I’m working on a Master’s degree at Capella University. After I finish this class, I’m two classes away from finishing. (I’m burnt out! I want it over!) Like I said, it’s a strange thing. I’ve found that when I have a paper or project due, I sweat and fret; do more research, then sweat and fret again. This usually happens over several days. Finally I kick out a decent paper in an hour or two. I think that my mind has learned to refuse to produce until the junk I’ve collected percolates in my brain a while and then when it’s ready (usually just before a deadline) it slips into output mode and out pours the paper!

Last Friday, I had a kid tell me to shut-up. My immediate reaction was to grab him by his jacket and tell him not to ever speak to me that way. Now a week later, the story is that I picked him up and spun him around my head! When the kids ask me if that is true, I just smile and flex my “incredible” muscles. Rumors, aren’t they great?

Wednesday, the 1^st of February I put my youngest in the MTC (LDS Mission Training Center). Charlie’s going to Viña Del Mar, Chile on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was hard to let him go, though I’ve done it four times now. (My first son went to Islas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), my second son went to Orsorno, Chile, and my third went to Argentina. Everyone in my family except my daughter and me speaks Spanish—well Charlie’s still learning but he will be—so it’s interesting around here, especially since there are four different dialects, between my sons and my wife who was born in Mexico.) I guess he’s a little harder to let go because he’s my last one.

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My water heater rusted out and my chiropractor mentioned they now have electric on-demand water heaters. I found one on the web that was reasonably priced (about twice the cost of a regular heater) and am now the owner of a Stiebel Eltron Tempra 29 tankless water heater. Notice the three power cables going into the bottom and the sub-panel behind my grand-daughter. When it's on it uses three 220 volt 50 amp circuits. When it's off it uses only the trickle of power necessary for the temperature readout LED.
It works great and it's nice to take a shower and not have to worry about running out of hot water. As you can see from the size, it also frees up all the space the tank took before. We gained another closet! That's always nice!
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Since I got sick and missed all but one day of school last week, I've kind of had the Christmas season sneak up on me. I'm still recovering but I've got to find something for my wife for Christmas. I'm at a loss. Usually I come up with something, but this year I'm drawing a blank.

I'll think of something--I guess.

I've taken to wearing a bracelet. It says "Just Say Merry Christmas." It's a response to the politically correct crowd who are afraid of offending those who aren't afraid of offending us!

You can get these at World Net Daily Store

(See picture above right.)

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Charlie, my youngest son, got his mission call last Friday. He’s going to Viña Del Mar, Chili. When he gets back that will leave me and my daughter as the only ones who don’t speak Spanish. It’s not like I’m not trying, but for some reason, I don’t seem to be making much progress. ¡Es tan duro para mi para aprender Español! Well okay, I’ve learned a little bit.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Several relatives like my fried turkey so I ended up frying 5 of them over the course of the holidays.

My daughter-in-law managed to acquire nine tickets to The Blue Man Group on Friday. We were sitting in $100 seats! The show was very entertaining, surprisingly enough.

Since my daughter-in-law is now on track break from school, I’ll be riding with my son for the next three weeks. That means advantages and disadvantages. Since he gets out before I do and I get out an hour before my daughter-in-law I’ll probably be getting home about an hour earlier than normal. But since my son starts an hour before I do I’ll be getting up earlier, not fun…

My second son has a phone interview with Sierra Vista. If he gets the job, it’s possible he’ll be riding with us too. This could get interesting!

We’ve been building a house for my in-laws. It’s almost finished. The main house is done, but we need to finish the two bedrooms and the master bath. I was trying to spray texture yesterday and it wasn’t going well. I did notice the air compressor was running too much but I couldn’t really check it, because I would have had to go through the living room and track wallboard compound on the carpet. It turns out the pressure regulator was leaking air which didn’t just cause the compressor to run too much, but also caused 80 psi instead of 20 to be fed to the texture gun. Well duh, no wonder it wasn’t working right!

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After a 3 month wait, I had the lasic surgery in my left eye redone. This time the trauma was much less and this time it worked! I now have what is called mono-vision. My right eye sees distance, (about 20-30 with a little astigmatism, they may still fix that, I haven’t decided) and the left is focused for reading. It took only a few hours after the surgery and I was reading with that eye. I had to pull my computer monitor closer, but I can function without any glasses at all for the first time since Jr. High. It is so liberating! I can even wear cool shades! Of course for the last 3 months, since the first surgery, my left eye has been worthless, but now I’ve decided it was worth it!

For the past few years, my wife and I have commuted to two different towns to go to work. Me to Las Vegas and she to Mesquite. We live about halfway in between. Since our gas bill has risen to about $600 a month, it’s been a challenge. She was just offered a job locally, so her drive will be 10 miles round trip instead of 75 so we’ll save considerable money on gas, and apparently she gets a raise too!

Now if I could just get a job locally…

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With the indictment of Tom DeLay and the accusations against Bob Bennett in the news, we once again see the dishonesty of the Democrat party and their accomplices, the news media. Tom DeLay was indicted for one reason, the Republican rule that an indicted leader must step down. The fact that they have such a rule and that the Democrats don’t, gives strong evidence that the Republicans are the more honest party.

The Bob Bennett fiasco shows the shrill nature of the Democrat party. Any sane person who listens to the exchange Mr. Bennett had with his caller would understand that nothing racist had occurred. So either the Democrats are dishonest or they are not sane. You decide…

More tee-shirts from Thoseshirts.com. Aren’t they fantastic? The shirts are great too.

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What is it with libs? Are they so arrogant that they really believe that all people--at least those that count--agree with them? I'm a teacher. A math teacher. The reason I mention the last is that those of us in the math department tend to be more conservative than those on the other side of the building, you know those English, history, and social studies types. However there are plenty of the lib type in the math department, too. I started at a new school this year, so I don't yet know who are the conservatives and who are the libs, except for one. This tattooed young lady, showing lots of cleavage, (I hope she dresses more conservatively next week when the students start) asks me my last name and when I tell her "Bush," she says, "I won't hold that against you!" I didn't know what to say, I should have a witty response for inane comments like that. Instead I just gave her my most disgusted look.

These arrogant, petty haters of Bush (and America, yes I do question their patriotism) are attempting to destroy our nation. They tried before during the war in Vietnam, you know the one we won over there but lost here on our own soil. Now they're doing it again because they're angry, bitter, and they lost the last two elections. The liberals haven't been out of power since FDR and they don't like it! So they lie about Bush, lie about the war on terror, and refuse to face their own hypocrisy! Good! That means they shouldn't win anymore elections!

I wish I could believe that, but after all, we voted for Clinton in this nation—twice! I hope the nation has wised up, but I won't hold my breath.

You can get the shirt (but not the model) at http://www.thoseshirts.com/cat.html

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The following story is from This is True dated 17 July 2005. It is
Copyright 2005 Randy Cassingham, all rights reserved, and reprinted here
with
permission:

"Ethical" Defined

After more than 100 dead dogs were dumped in a trash dumpster over
four weeks, police in Ahoskie, N.C., kept an eye on the trash receptacle
behind a supermarket. Sure enough, a van drove up and officers watched
the occupants throw in heavy plastic bags. They detained the two people
in the van and found 18 dead dogs in plastic bags in the dumpster,
including puppies; 13 more dead dogs were still in the van. Police say
the van is registered to the headquarters of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, and the two occupants, Andrew B. Cook, 24, and
Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, identified themselves as PETA employees. An autopsy
performed on one of the dogs found it was healthy before it was killed.
Police say PETA has been picking up the animals -- alive -- from North
Carolina animal shelters, promising to find them good homes. Cook and
Hinkle have been charged with 62 felony counts of animal cruelty. In
response to the arrests PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it's against
the group's policy for employees to dump animals in the trash, but "that
for some animals in North Carolina, there is no kinder option than
euthanasia." (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald) ...Oops, my mistake: that's
"Playing God" Defined.

In his author's notes section, Cassingham had more to say about this
story:

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of
them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According to
PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the
animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising, not falling.
Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find
loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care. A shortage of
funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million in tax-exempt donations.
It simply has other priorities for the funds, like funding terrorism
(yes, really). But don't take my word for it: I got my figures from
http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com
-- and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it
up. The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they
care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA literally
yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but this is how
they operate? Pathetic.

And you know what I wonder? PETA's official count of animals
they kill is 86.3 percent. But if they're going around picking up
animals, killing them while they drive around and not even giving them a
chance to be adopted, and then destroying the evidence by dumping
the bodies in the trash, are those deaths being reported? My
guess: no. While 86.3 percent is awful, the actual number is probably
much, much higher. How dare they lecture anyone
about the "ethical" treatment of animals!

(This is True is a weekly column featuring
weird-but-true news
stories from around the world, and has been published since 1994. Click
the link for info about free subscriptions.)

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I've been thinking about having my eyes fixed with lasik for some time now. My eyesight has always been quite bad, and as I've aged it's only gotten worse. I've always been very nearsighted with a lot of astigmatism, too—especially in the left eye. My near vision has always been excellent. It was in fifth grade that I finally discovered that my eyes were not normal and I was thrilled to be able to see well for the first time in my life. I've worn glasses religiously ever since, except for a brief time twenty-five years ago when I wore contacts, but had nothing but trouble with them.

A few years ago, I found that it was necessary to take off my glasses for near work and the last few pairs I've worn have been bi-focal. Unfortunately that only took care of reading and distance. I also had to get a special pair of glasses for computer work. Bi-focals work for reading, but not for other close up work so if I was doing work (like plumbing) in a tight spot I would often take off my glasses since I couldn't get the lower part of the bi-focals in the right place. Finally I'd had enough.

The lasik place suggested mono-vision and to see if I could handle it, they put contact lenses in my eyes, one with the prescription for distance and the other for reading. This wasn't perfect because they didn't correct for the astigmatism, but I was thrilled with how I saw. Even at the computer it worked, since I guess I averaged the two eyes and could still see the screen well enough to work. I was also amazed at how comfortable the contact lenses were. I had almost no problems at all, unlike before. I guess they've come a long way in the last quarter century. I should have stayed with the contacts.

It turns out I am one of the 8% who don't have successful surgery. My left eye, which was supposed to be my reading eye, sees nothing but a blur at any distance. In fact the right eye, the distance eye, sees up close better than the reading eye. Now for distance it's a little better than it used to be, but I've lost the near vision I used to have. So my left eye is worthless. The right eye does see well enough that I can drive—in the daytime—and even watch a little TV, but it's not yet good enough to go without glasses for night driving or serious TV watching. So I had to buy a new pair of bi-focal glasses, since my old ones no longer work, and a new pair of computer glasses. Now if I need to see something up close I can't take off my glasses, because I no longer have uncorrected near vision. What a pain!

The doctor says they can operate again in a few months. Again I have a 94% chance of it working. I worry that since I was in the 8% last time I could be in that 8% this time too. We'll see (pun intended!)

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Since I spent a lot of time redesigning my site, I decided to post here just so I could rewrite the blog to my site. Check out the site at the link below.

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I'm a bit surprised I haven't kept this up for two months!

I've got a new job at Canyon Springs High School for next year, unless I can convince Ms. Davies to hire me at Moapa Valley High, which would be nice since she does have an opening. She has a Spanish position also. My son Rick would like that one.

Last week I was a chaperone on a trip for the newly graduated seniors to visit the church history sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We actually did the trip in reverse. We left Las Vegas and flew to Kansas City where we boarded a bus and followed the path of the Saints moving east on the route they used to move west during the early years of the church. We traveled through Missouri; Illinois (see the pictures of my wife, Jane, and youngest son, Charlie, in Nauvoo, ILL. That's the Mississippi behind them.), Ohio, and New York, visiting various historical sites of the early church, and ending at the farm of Joseph Smith where it all started with the first vision.

We did take a few side trips. We visited Hannibal MO where Mark Twain was raised and Niagara Falls. On our last day we took a canoe trip on the old Erie Canal, where we got tipped over and I dunked my digital camera. It's dead, Jim! Oh well, I got an excuse to buy a new one. An Olympus with a 12X optical zoom and 5 mega pixels, sweet!

The kids were great. There were times that some chaperones had to sit out in the hall at the hotels until their charges realized they weren't going to get away with anything. Our kids (including my son) knew that we wouldn’t put up with anything and they didn't give us any problems at all.

It was a great trip and we and the kids learned a lot. There are apparently other youth groups that make this trim, because I ran into my niece who was traveling with another group in two separate states!

It's nice to be back though, since I was averaging about six hours of sleep a night. I'm still catching up on back sleep.

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Another great cartoon from Cox and Forkum 

This thing is not fun anymore! It's become an obligation that I feel guilty about when I don't do it. Except when I do it then it becomes fun... Well actually, what is fun is not doing it, but having done it! Now that probably made no sense!

Okay, I had an interview today. I've got another planned Monday morning, another Monday afternoon, and the last (for now) Tuesday. The goal is to get a position as close to home as possible. I'm still tied up with all the many responsibilities I have, school (as teacher), school (as student), editing the newsletter, and keeping up with chores around the yard. If I can get a position near home next year, I'll have about three more hours of time each day. That would be wonderful!

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I've been extremely busy trying to get my apartment ready for tenants, so I haven't written anything in a while. I've been waiting for two weeks for the carpet morons to finish my carpet in the apartment. They left a section without tack board and did some really horrible seams. After a week I got the boss to come and look and he promised it would be done on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday... Today they wouldn't even answer the phone! I guess I'll tell them I'm not paying the rest of the money and I'll hire someone else to finish the install.

Talk about another run of bad luck! Monday we were rear-ended in North Las Vegas as we were making a right turn. Tuesday, we were rear-ended again a block south of the first accident! Unbelievable!

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