Here's a challenge for you.

I have held that one of the flaws of our immigration system is that less is more. The less documentation you have the more you look like a citizen.

Here's a challenge for you, prove you are a citizen of the United States.

A few things tho...

1) You can't use your driver's license. Anyone can get one of those. You have 50 states plus territories (like Puero Rico) to choose from.

2) You can't use your birth certificate. You carry this around? Didn't think so and they are easily forged. Also, just because you are born in this country does not mean you are citizen here. Citizen's can be born abroad too. What you say? Isn't that a foundation of out citizenship process? Mmm no.

3) You can't use your social security card. There is no picture, no fingerprint, nothing more than a name printed on it. Nothing on that card firmly ties it you, Mr. Juan Valdez. They are also fairly easy to get. The Social Security card is truelly the golden ticket to live in the U.S.. Citizens and non Citizens alike can have them and there is NOTHING that distinguishes them. Once you have one of these, you can live here with impunity. You don't need authorization to work to get one of these. You do need one of these to be 'authorized' to work.

Now please... prove you are citizen. There is a correct answer btw.

Rep Tom Tancredo for the 18th District?

If you didn't catch it this morning on NPR, the GOP Wingnut, Tom Tancredo used the 'will it play in Peoria quote'. Yep, Mr Tancredo, of COLORADO has profound insight on what Peorian's think and want. We must surely want to imprison or deport 11 million hard working people, some of which certainly live in Peoria.

Listen in ... it is near the end of the segment.

To help Mr. Tancredo better represent the 18th District please let him know what really plays in Peoria. Sign here.

In case you are wondering... the other 18th District Representative... LaHood... Abstained on HR 4437. Various public comments by Mr. LaHood would suggest he is not particullarly in favor of this bill or it's approach to dealing with immigration.

Iran is the U.S.'s ballgame.

Olmert wins the Israeli election and the hawkish Netenyahu's Likud finishes fifth. Under Olmert, I think Israel will defer to the U.S. with regards to Iran. Event's might well change that position but for now I don't think we have worry about an Israeli pre-emptive move forcing us into conflict.
This leaves Iran to be the U.S.'s ballgame. The hypothetical date for war has been pushed back. I don't think a decision has been made yet. The Bush administration definitely wants to get others on board with more than a show of hands in support.

In other news, reports are surfacing that Pakistan may be helping Saudi Arabia acquire nuclear weapons. Do you feel safer?

For what it is worth... we should have taken a much harder stand on Saudi Arabia and Pakistan after 9/11 than we did. I still feel we are too accomodating to these regimes and know full well the complications should they fall.

District 150 wants new land to build new schools on?

Or how Glen Oak Park ceased to exist.

Ok, we all know District 150 wants to build new schools. It is true that many of the schools are old, tired, laden with lead and asbestos, and in sorry need to updating or replacing. Many of these buildings are architectually beautiful and significant. Rather than gut them and rennovate them, which would seem to be cheaper in my mind, District 150 wants to tear them down.

Or do they?

WTF is going on? In the Journal Star today we learn that District 150 wants to replace one of these tired buildings with a new one, in an entirely new location !!! New school on new land !!! WTF is that ! They can't build the new school where the old one stood? But it gets better...

This 'new' school is going to take up part of the ever shrinking Glen Oak Park. Let's see now, the zoo is going to eat up the baseball fields and much of the open space around them. The park district is going abandon its offices in the Glen Oak Pavilion to let the Junior League build a children's museum. Now the school district wants a chunk for a school. After all this is built where the f*** is the park? People need open spaces. Surrendering the open spaces is a bad idea.

Go to lakeview sometime. Take a look around. It's a park too. Isn't it? It is indeed, but it is all built over with museums, libraries, skating rinks, pools, girl scout stuff... etc. No big wide open spaces for kids to run around. No place to have a pick up game of flag football or soccer or baseball.

I remember the first memorial day we had in Peoria in 1995. We were driving around exploring. Glen Oak park was packed !!!! Packed with multitudes of families spending quality time. Barbequing, playing, relaxing. There was room for all. Parking was a bitch but there was no shortage of picnic tables and space. This is going to be destroyed by the zoo, by the Junior League, by District 150, by the Park District, and ultimately through the apathy of the public (ie us).

As a little side note. Many communities accross the midwest have parks similar to Glen Oak. They all had a pavilion. The pavilion was to be used much in the same fashion that the Gateway Building down along the river was intended to be used. They were to be a centerpiece for the park. A place to socialize. A play for community groups to gather for various needs. It was to be a public space. They were not to be administration offices or children's museums.

But I digress... why is the school district going to spend even more money to buy up new land so they can build a new school? This is just soooo wrong in soo many ways.

Illegal Immigration

By todays standards my great great great great great great....grandfather who came here from Ireland in the 1820s would be an illegal immigrant. There was little to no documentation. No forms to fill out. It is a wonder there was any record at all of his arrival. He paid his fare for the boat or maybe the British just pushed him onto the boat. History is unclear. He came here poor. He came here looking for a better life and a job. He did the labor no others would do at the time. Eventually he and his descendents headed west.

He did not have to stand in line at the consulate in Ireland to fill out forms. He did not have to put his name into a lottery that he might not even win. He didn't have to wait years for the chance to work here for 12 months. No one asked him his skills before he left. There was no skill requirement to get in. It isn't clear when or if he became a citizen of the U.S. in a formal sense. For all practical purposes he was an American. He left his homeland for good and settled here permanently. I don't know if he would have gone back if he had the opportunity or not. Such options were far far more difficult in those days.

People in the 1820s thought the Irish were the bane of all immigrants. There were calls to send em all back. Fortunately those calls were never headed. It just wasn't practical to do so. America was built on immigrants. It continues to be.

Our government today has no problem sending an American child's parent back to their country of origin, if their papers are not in order. Our government has no problem deporting the American children whose parents might not be formal citizens. It is outrageous. By such logic we all are illegals.

By todays standards, my ancestors were illegals. Please deport us to Ireland. Thank you.

Wi-Fi piggybacking illegal in Illinois?

Is piggybacking illegal in Illinois?

Apparently it is according to Assistant States Attorney Tom Wartowski, up in Winnebago County (Rockford area).

Granted the nature of the case is a bit creepy. The guy was parked in a car outside a strangers house riding someone's internet. There is no word if he was up to any mischief in doing so.

This raises all sorts of questions but first let us make a distinction.

Hacking, logging into, gaining access, to someone's computer without their permission is indeed a crime. In a more technical sense that would mean gaining controlled and active access to the hardrive or ram where the data is. There is no requirement for someone to have a secure computer. An insecure computer does not constitute permission.

When you piggyback a wi-fi connection, you are almost never getting access to someone's computer. There would be no controlled or active access to harddrives or ram. In most instances, the wi-fi router is a separate piece of equipment. Passive packet switching should not count if a pc is set up as a router.

Depending on your ISP, the service agreement you have, and the EULA, that wi-fi connection might not even be 'yours'. So even if you did give permission, it might not be yours to give in the first place. Most ISPs forbid reselling of services, which would include reselling for free. College students take note!!! Using your friends wi-fi line might be a crime in Illinois.

To make matters worse, many PCs default configurations make a point of connecting to any open wi-fi connection that is available. Wikipedia has this to say:

However, it is also common for people to unintentionally use others' Wi-Fi networks without authorization. Operating systems such as Windows XP and Mac OS X automatically connect to an available wireless network, depending on the network configuration. A user who happens to start up a laptop in the vicinity of an access point may find the computer has joined the network without any visible indication. Moreover, a user intending to join one network may instead end up on another one if the latter's signal is stronger. In combination with automatic discovery of other network resources (see DHCP and Zeroconf) this can lead wireless users to send sensitive data to the wrong destination, as described by Chris Meadows in the February 2004 RISKS Digest. [4]

So, through no knowledge or active fault of your own, your PC could commit a crime for you.

Party house? House disorderly? Lock em up Chief !

Hmmm... locking tenants up for keeping a trashy house, in Lincoln Nebraska. Can they lock up the landlords too?

Throw away the keys.

WTF !! Another Wheelbarrow ?!?!

Just today, another wheelbarrow has disappeared in broad daylight in the Uplands. The alley walkers / drivers strike again. WTF is up with stealing wheelbarrows anyways? In one case the the wheelbarrow was sitting in front of a garage, well away from the alley, loaded down with cement. The thieves dumped the cement and took off with it. I think it had a flat tire as well. The one stolen today was being used by the owner, in their yard work. They just stepped in to get a bit to eat. Five or ten minutes later, GONE!

Is there a hot market for these things?

"Hey Gino!"
"What?"
"You lookin for a wheelbarrow?"
"Yeah man !! I need a new pimp ride for my girl."
"Yo! Check this hot ride out. Utility yellow with a puncture resistant tire."
"ZOMG! Gimme gimme gimme !!"
"$100, cash and it is yours."

Is $30 dollars to buy one of these things, that hard to come up with? Seeing as it is under $500, the police won't do a thing and the bad guys know it.

Immigration

It is being reported that 5% of the work force is made up of 'illegal' immigrants. 5% !!!!

Has it ever occured to the conventional wisdom (ie the Public) that maybe, just maybe, the process for 'legal' immigration is too burdensome? too complicated? too bureaucratic?

The public want's lawful immigration. The public thinks it wants fewer immigrants. And yet 5% of the workforce chooses not to follow the 'legal' process. The overwealming majority of those 5% are law abiding (aside from the immigration mind you), tax paying, hard working residents. The kind of people we want right? So what is the problem?

I need to do some more reading up on the actual process it takes for someone to lawfully enter the country. Suffice it to say, it can take months, well over a year even, for a business to secure the proper paperwork to lawfully bring a foreigner into the country to work. The country of origin matters greatly. But still. The problem is that the process is too complicated, too under funded, and too under staffed. Multiply that by millions and you hopefully begin to see why this just doesn't work.

What does the conventional wisdom want? More law enforcement!!!! HUH?

What happened to:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, your homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

You know back when that was inscribed, there was little to no paperwork required for immigration. You just paid your fare for a boat and showed up. No invite. No lottery. No months of waiting. For some you got shuffled into the likes of Ellis Island where they processed you as best they could with what you brought. They logged your entry and you were on your way. With luck you found a job quickly. For many others it was depart from the boat and there you were.

Now obviously this would seem to be to lax for today's world but the system we got isn't working either. The answer isn't more barriers.

To shut the door, put up a wall, station armed men on the border, to me is just wrong.


On a side note... when travelling to Europe, no one asked us to fill out forms. No one was waiting in customs to check our bags. No lines. This is both before and after 9/11. In contrast coming to the United States, citizens had to fill out a couple forms, visitors had 3 or 4 to fill out. No help in getting these done. You got them on the plane. I felt bad on one flight for some Polish woman who just stared at the papers utterly befuddled. She was clearly singled out as a foreigner. Not so going to Europe. Once departed in the U.S., you get long assed lines at customs and immigration. Naturally the visitor one is painfully long and slow moving. If my line was that long, I would be MAJORLY pissed off. Us.. them. There was a certain indignity to it all. Their bags get checked, ours don't. It is a testament to what people will endure to get here.

The Journal Star Editorial Board Still Doesn't Get It

The editorial board seems to think a can of soda hurling from a moving bus is just some 'litter'

Dear reader, a can of soda is not just another piece of 'litter' when tossed from a moving vehicle. The editors point out that Merle could have killed someone by forcing a bus to pull over (nevermind his driving skills, nevermind that the bus should have pulled over due to a motor vehicle 'accident' possibly having occured). Well guess what folks, a can of soda is not an empty McDonald's hamburger wrapper or an empty Wal-Mart bag. At high speeds it has the power of a cannon ball !!!! These kids could have KILLED Merle or any other driver due to their naivete. Maybe it wasn't naivete at all. We will never know because rather than hold a kid accountable they would rather point fingers at the old man who had the balls to stand up and say something. It isn't as if he got out of his car and went charging after the kid. Merle asked for the who was in charge, presuming who was in charge was ... in charge. Instead he got attitude !

These kids were engaged in life threatening behaviour and the editorial board just doesn't get it.

Germany bans cannibal film?

Don't worry I don't have some fetish for cannibal films. It just struck me odd that they would ban a cannibal film. Not that Germans have a fetish either. They don't. You see.. I remember staying up kinda late one night back in 2001 watching some cannibal film on a German station. It wasn't evident that it was a cannibal film at first nor was it a 'horror' film per se. I don't remember the title but it amounted to some guy seeking out the 'ultimate' cullinary text of east asian origin. Which seemed normal enough at first. He eventually finds this text, which details how to eat and prepare.... people. The premier chef being hired for this preparation is shocked and intrigued at the same time. Of course, this leads to the climax of them doing just that. The movie was very bizarre to say the least.

This film was shown several more times on several more nights over the next year. Even the Dane's picked it up for a couple airings.

No one made a fuss then..... but no one knew Armin Meiwes either.