Rants n Reviews

Can we all agree that breaking the law is bad? I mean, jaywalking isn't on the same level as murder, but there is a law on the books because some dumbass crossed the street outside a crosswalk and some other dumbass came along and smashed him with his F150. We know that's why jaywalking is illegal.

Crossing our borders is illegal, too, without proper authority. Being able to wade across a river and scale some pretty weak-ass fences is not proper authorization.

So, illegal immigration is bad. We all get that.

There is an argument to be made that what if the tables were turned and you had the opportunity for a better life in, say, Canada, but your family couldn't wait 2 years to eat. You'd cross the border, legally or illegally, looking for suitable employment to earn an income to pay for food, clothing, and shelter. That's a simple choice: Try the legal way, wait a day, then try the illegal route.

I get that, too.

However, if we're going to go to the trouble to make laws (that's what Congress is for and we pay them handsomely for doing so), shouldn't we either enforce them or overturn them (and what a waste that would be)?

That said, let's enforce all of our laws, starting right now on the topic of "illegals."

Part of the problem is that we don't monitor our borders very well. That's been a failing of the US for decades, centuries maybe. And it's really a no-brainer, as far as I'm concerned. All those troops in Afghanistan and Iraq that are soon to be out of work? Set them up on the borders (to the south and to the north), the ports (less than 1 percent of all cargo shipped here is inspected – we inspect a higher percentage of illegals), and the air ways.

Seriously. More "bad people" come over in planes and ships than across the Rio Grande.

So let's secure all of this. Simple. Done.

Now, onto what I believe is another solution to the "illegals" problem. And that is the ability to find employment. When I hired people, I had to fill out papers, some of which required me to see proof of eligibility for employment. I had to see a combination of documents. I won't go into the details, but 99 percent of the time, the person provided a drivers license and social security card. Other documents worked, too.

Bottom line: The onus was on the employer to verify that the person he was hiring was eligible to work here. In essence, I was verifying legal residence.

Several things might happen here. The person seeking employment could forge documents or produce somebody else phonied-up documents. That certainly happens.

I could choose to "overlook" anything that didn't look right.

I could simply hire the guy and pay him "under the table." This most definitely goes on. Ever see a group of brown people standing outside the Home Depot? Think they're just "shooting the breeze?" Nope.

Most often, the papers produced are legit. But sometimes they're not. If an employer knowingly hires a worker who is not eligible to work, the full force of the laws on the books should be applied to his nuts. He should get the maximum fine, the business should be shut down, and the offending parties should be jailed for breaking the law, including the worker.

If the US government would simply pursue these cases with the vigor that the IRS pursues tax evaders, we wouldn't have an "illegals" problem. You see, they come here looking for work. If they cannot get work, there is a high likelihood that they'll move elsewhere. Like Argentina.

Now, you may be dismayed because the cost of Twinkies at your local Wal-Mart went up. Sorry, American-made Twinkies are simply more expensive to make because a) workers will no longer be able to be paid under the table, b) American workers won't work for less than $10 an hour, and c) American workers demand "fringe benefits" like vacations, sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, free hot water, free coffee, and the like.

So Twinkies will cost more. So will everything else.

But that's the way it goes. If you want to rid the country of "illegals," then you have to be willing to make the sacrifice. This includes being willing to pick fruit, do janitorial work, and learn how to landscape, cook, and wash cars. Among MANY other things.

Next up: Since "illegals" are so bad, if you're ever accused of one, you should be able to sue your accuser for defamation.

Before y'all get up in my grill on this one, note that I really don't care much about this issue. What I do care about is making laws and then turning our heads on the enforcement. If you don't like a law, change it. If you're not going to enforce a law, overturn it. Simple as that.

Winnipeg could get revenge on Bettman – NHL – Yahoo! Sports

In 1996, fans of the Winnipeg Jets suffered their most bitter defeat. The NHL team packed up and moved to Phoenix, part of league commissioner Gary Bettman’s grand plan to sell the sport to non-traditional markets.

Phoenix was bigger, brighter and would soon have a new arena. Winnipeg was cold, dark and smack dab in the middle of the Manitoba prairie. One city was growing. One was easy to forget.

Hockey in the desert made little sense, of course. After almost a decade and a half, the team has found little more than a small, if passionate, core of fans. Not that it matters with the NHL. Bettman is always right; everyone else is always wrong.

That would be nice. It's always seemed weird and wrong for hockey to be in Arizona and Florida…