Dave Easterly’s Bravo Sierra Blog

On vacation!

July 23, 2007 on 3:17 pm | In General, Personal |
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I’m taking this whole week off work and spending some more time with my son, Robert. Since Robert came up to visit, we’ve seen live music, gone to the movies (at Edwards in Boise – a _real_ theater, as well as the crappy theater here in Twin Falls), watched the Boise Hawks play baseball, watched the Boise Burn play arena football, eaten lots of good food including Robert’s first sushi, played basketball together, and loads of other fun. And now I actually have a whole week off to spend with Robert so I think we’re going to go camping, play some more Quake, see the Simpson’s movies, and lots more.

Small Town Politics and Religion Conspire to Put Our Children at Risk

July 15, 2007 on 10:20 pm | In General, Political Musings |
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Here’s a story for you that sounds like a “Movie of the Week” but it happened right here in Twin Falls.

Imagine this: An elementary school is run by a principal who has hand-picked almost his entire staff and (virtually) all of them are from the same religious denomination. In particular, he has hired a school counselor. The school counselor appears to be very devoted and hard working, often staying late in his (or her) office. It turns out, however, that instead of working he (or she) is actually downloading child pornography using the school’s computer network. This is eventually discovered. This story should end with the school counselor leaving the school in handcuffs and justice being served. But that is not how things work here in Twin Falls, ID. The child pornography is covered up. The counselor is allowed to resign. But that still isn’t the end of the story! Oh, no… Not only is this criminal deviant not charged with anything and barred from ever working with children, his (or her) misdeeds are quietly swept under the rug to avoid negative publicity for the school administration and he (or she) now does social work for an agency where he (or she) works one on one with MORE at-risk and vulnerable children. If I had a child who was receiving PSR counseling therapy services here in Twin Falls from someone who just happens to have also been a school counselor (or a child who went to the school where this person was counselor), I would be asking a LOT of questions.

A very intelligent editorial analysis of current policy

July 2, 2007 on 1:17 pm | In General, Political Musings |
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Try this editorial on for size. It’s located at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_alex_wal_070701_ron_paul_3a_making_ame.htm and it’s entitled RON PAUL: Making America Unsafe for Neocons.

RON PAUL: MAKING AMERICA UNSAFE FOR NEOCONS
By Alex Wallenwein

Neocon dogma holds that:

*We must engage terrorists abroad where they live, so we don’t have to fight them here at home where we live.
*Supporting the US military action in Iraq is the same thing as supporting our troops, and
*If you disagree with either (a) or (b) above, you are unpatriotic and should not be allowed to speak.

In his speeches before Congress, his writings, and his remarks during the GOP Primary Election Debates, Ron Paul has show that apart from the obvious and un-American attempt at stifling open debate and free speech, this triple dose of fascist indoctrination is fundamentally flawed in the following ways:

1. The mere fact that our kids are dying in Iraq does not justify the conclusion that we need to send more of them over there to die. The fact that they are indeed dying makes us understandably emotional about the issue. It is less painful for us to believe that kids are dying for a noble purpose than for no good reason at all – but that fact alone does not lend the originally wrong purpose any legitimacy. We now all know they are dying for the wrong reasons. Sending more of them to die does not right that wrong.

2. Fighting terrorism abroad could possibly, theoretically (though not necessarily) make sense if we simultaneously protected our borders and kept terrorists from coming in unhindered. However, the fact that we are not protecting our borders exposes the entire exercise as nothing more than a criminal sham. It negates any claims that we are protecting our national security interests in fighting them abroad. Pulling our troops back and stationing them along the border makes far more sense than the policy we are pursuing now.

3. By fighting them in their own neck of the woods, we are indeed invading their space. The fact that this makes them angry can hardly be denied. It may be justified to say: “They are terrorists, so we don’t care if they are angry – we must fight themâ€? but the sad truth is that our fight against them cannot be effective since we can never successfully identify them before they actually attack us. As a result, our troops are required to wait until the kill us before we can fight back. That makes our kids in Iraq sitting ducks – target practice for terrorists. At the same time we do nothing to keep them from coming across our own southern border.

4. If our government really “supported our troopsâ€? it would not send them into combat ill-equipped and understaffed, without a clear mission and in order to “fightâ€? diverse groups of enemy combatants that cannot be identified unless they attack first. On top of that, in the case of roadside bombs, it is extremely difficult to identify the attacker even then – and in the case of suicide bombers it is useless to even try to identify them. When neocons say: “Support our troops!â€? they really mean “Support our policy of exposing our troops to danger without any appreciable benefit.â€? It’s a classic switch-and-bait maneuver.

In doing this, neocons are increasing the risk level of a domestic terrorist attack threefold: They are giving Islamic terrorists more reasons to hate and attack us, they are making it easier for them to come here and hurt us, and they are diluting our national defensive capabilities by diverting troops to fighting unwinnable engagements with unidentifiable enemies in foreign countries without proper logistic support.

- And they have the audacity to claim that disagreeing with this policy is “unpatriotic�!

The reason for this apparently insane policy is of course to scare us into giving up more of our freedom so we can all be “saferâ€? – but this is yet another non-sequitur:

How does having less freedom make us safer? It does not. By giving the same government that exposes us to a triple-whammy of additional security threats more power to monitor and control our daily lives without our knowledge and consent, and to ship us off to Guantanamo Bay at their sole whim and discretion, we all become less safe – not more so. At the same time the terrorists’ job becomes far easier – and therefore less dangerous to them.

In effect, Neocons are making America safe for terrorism. It’s time to make America unsafe for Neocons – and by exposing their lies on public television during the debates and post-debate interviews, Ron Paul is doing exactly that.

He deserves our help.

Authors Website: www.ronpaul.meetup.com/24

Authors Bio: Alex Wallenwein, J.D., is a former attorney in Houston, Texas, and a grass-roots activist for the rule of law and American liberty. He organizes both the Houston 4 Ron Paul 2008 Meetup and the World-Wide Ron Paul Organizers’ Meetup.

I could not have put it better myself!

Economics, Immigration, and Movies?

July 1, 2007 on 2:20 am | In General, Personal, Political Musings |
This post is utterly devoid of comments. :(

Economics

Let’s talk about Ludwig von Mises. “Who is Ludwig von Mises and why should I care?” you may well ask. Well, that is fair enough of a question. Ludwig von Mises was an economist. Boring stuff to most people, I know… but here’s a sample of what you could learn from him:

The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is ‘left’ and what is ‘right’? Why should Hitler be ‘right’ and Stalin, his temporary friend, be ‘left’? Who is ‘reactionary’ and who is ‘progressive’? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended. Nothing should find acceptance just because it is new, radical, and fashionable. ‘Orthodoxy’ is not an evil if the doctrine on which the ‘orthodox’ stand is sound. Who is anti-labor, those who want to lower labor to the Russian level, or those who want for labor the capitalistic standard of the United States? Who is ‘nationalist,’ those who want to bring their nation under the heel of the Nazis, or those who want to preserve its independence?

Interventionism, An Economic Analysis (1940)

Sure makes a lot of sense to me. Mises was born in the Ukraine to Jewish parents, studied in Vienna, Austria and eventually fled Austria to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. A picture of von Mises hangs in the office of Ron Paul and Ron Paul actually published a piece about von Mises in 1984 entitled Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View. So much for those who would claim that Ron Paul is antisemitic. Just because Ron Paul would let Israel solve their OWN problems rather than just funneling billions of dollars in weapons and other aid to them every year doesn’t make him antisemitic. The Israelis are a smart lot. Let them sort it out on their own so that we can take care of our own here in America.

Immigration

Speaking of taking care of our own here in America, let’s talk about immigration. Let me tell you a story recently related to me by a dear friend of mine. A relation of his is closely acquainted with a person who works on legal issues for immigrants here in Idaho. The story goes something like this:
An agricultural businessman decided he needed to make sure his farming endeavors remained profitable so despite the legal imperative not to do so, he hired a whole crew of immigrants to work his fields. A common business arrangement for migratory agricultural workers is to work in exchange for room and board for most of a season and to not get compensated monetarily until the end of the season once the crop has been sold so the farmer actually has the money to pay the laborers. This particular group found themselves working for a less than scrupulous farm owner, and the room and board conditions they were provided with were not much better than an internment camp – dirt floor bunk houses with no running water or other sanitation facilities, infested with spiders, rats, and other unpleasant things. They were poorly fed and overworked to the point of exhaustion. At the end of the season the crew was rounded up and told they were making one last supply run before everyone got paid. Everyone piled into the truck, although it would seem unlikely they could haul supplies when the truck was already full of people. They were then taken deep into the desert. They were put out at gunpoint. Immigration and Naturalization Services then received a call telling them where they could find a whole truckload of illegals out in the middle of the Idaho desert. They were never paid for their entire season of labor and the farm owner did indeed have a profitable season.

This story is played out time and time again every year here in America. It’s true and it is heartbreaking. By leaving our borders open an unprotected, THIS is what we are allowing. And that is why the current administration keeps trying to revive their horribly flawed immigration legislation – because their friends in the agricultural community cannot abuse the migrant workers to profit if they are forced to enter the country LEGALLY and therefore have to be paid as a documented (i.e. earning minimum wage or better and paying taxes) worker. Do not believe the lies that say that secure borders are about racism and keeping the workers out because they take our jobs. It is imperative to preserving human rights and human dignity that migrant and agricultural workers be treated fairly and compensated in accordance with the law. To ensure this, we should only require one thing – that they cross our border legally. We _SHOULD_ make it easier for them to enter the country through legitimate legal channels. We _SHOULD_ ensure that if they intend to enter our country to work then they are properly documented by requiring them to have a valid passport. It should be as simple as this: A Mexican migrant worker comes to the border checkpoint. He presents his valid and genuine Mexican passport. He declares his intent to enter the United States to do seasonal agricultural work. His passport is stamped with a short-term laborer permit that expires at the end of the season. He is assigned (on the spot) a Tax ID Number that MUST be used for any and all employment while in the U.S.. He enters the country unmolested, legally able to work, and protected from the abuses described in the story above by existing labor laws. If he violates the terms of his laborer permit he is deported back to Mexico no questions asked. If he is employed by a farmer who does NOT report his employment status then he is deported back to Mexico and the farmer who employed him illegally PAYS FOR THE DEPORTATION EXPENSES no questions asked. Farmers found guilty of laborer abuses (illegal child labor, pay below minimum wage, unsafe conditions, hiring undocumented workers, etc.) are fined and that money pays for the improved border security. If it costs me a dollar more for my gallon of milk or oranges are a quarter more each, I’ll live with that because I’ll know that it wasn’t made cheaper as a result of human trafficking.

Movies

I also wanted to mention the movies… This is strictly local rather than national or global in scope but it’s something that really sticks in my craw. I’ve written about this before but I have to get it off me chest once again. In our piss ant little town we have 5 movie theaters with something on the order of two dozen screens total. You might think that’s pretty good for a little desert town of just 35,000 people. The catch is that they’re all owned by the same people – it’s a monopoly. I’ve ranted about this before, but I think it’s time to do something about it. If you were in a proper movie theater and right in the middle of a big action scene like a car chase or a super battle the movie was spliced in such a way that it completely disrupted the show, everyone would start booing, throwing popcorn at the screen, and demanding their money back. Well, that happens ALL THE TIME at our theaters here in Twin Falls – all except for the booing, flying popcorn, and demands for a refund. People around here have apparently begun to just accept less-than-amateurishly spliced movies because it’s “normal” at a Roper-owned theater. And it’s not spliced to fix a broken reel of film. It’s to force 5 or 10 more minutes of ADVERTISING down your throat. That’s right. Our movies are interrupted for COMMERCIALS! We’re paying $9 to have our movie experience ruined by amateur film splicers and unscrupulous theater owners. Here is what I’m asking everyone in Twin Falls to do: Write down or commit to memory all the businesses that advertise during these “intermissions” and then write, call, or email them and tell them that you will actively AVOID their goods and/or services and seek out their competitors instead because their advertisement ruined your movie experience. I also intend to petition a REAL theater chain like Edwards, Carmike, or AMC to open a theater in Twin Falls to eliminate the Ropers’ monopoly (and put an end to their manipulative and uncompetitive practices) and I invite you to join me.

GREAT NEWS!

And, I’ve saved the very best for last! My son Robert will be here on Sunday!!! He’s flying in to spend a WHOLE MONTH with us! I am excited and happy beyond words!