Immigration and College (reposted from June of 2008.)

Have you noticed that there is an increasing number of immigrant physicians and scientists? While we are complaining about poor immigrants or aliens coming in and taking jobs that we believe that the perpetually unemployed would take, aliens and immigrants come in and take highly coveted , well paid positions. People tell us there is a shortage of highly trained US workers to fill these positions. Why?

Part of it is that we make it difficult for middle income Americans to get a good graduate education. If you have been in many of the Universities around the country of late you have seen innumerable international students filling graduate assistant and research assistant positions. Why? Are they just that much better qualified than US citizen students? No. It often boils down to one thing. If they have a job in the university they pay resident tuition or even no tuition at all. The same goes for scholarships. Many colleges give students with as little as $500.00 per semester in scholarships resident status. I have even heard that if students live in on-campus residences they may also get resident tuition. Why can't these positions go to deserving US Students?

There is, in part an idea that an international student going home to help modernize his third-world country makes the whole world a better place. The problem is that many of them will never leave the US (see need for highly trained workers above). Even those that leave mostly go to countries that are far behind the US, but at the same time not poor countries nearing starvation (China and India particularly.) The bottom line is we subsidize international students education as much as we do those of US students and either they remain here and take US jobs or they return to economies that are competing against ours.

What happened to international students being a huge revenue stream? Even in private universities there is enough public financing to make it an issue of import to quit allowing this drain on our resources.

The bottom line is that IF we educated more Americans that we wouldn't need to allow untold migrant workers to take on significantly profitable jobs that native born Americans could and should be doing.

Who is this Texian who wears a size 8 (buckethead) hat?

I recently became unemployed. A friend asked me what it is I want to do. I want to be (as LBJ said) " G-D King of the World." This said, I realize I am not Barack Obama, I am not George Bush, or even Harry Truman. This said, I believe I am very capable of doing things that lead up to this.

What is community service? It is being of service to the community. It isn't doing what my friends want, doing what I want, or even doing what the majority of the people want. It is about doing what is right. Hopefully doing that one gets it right in the minds of enough of the people enough of the time that they can effectively govern.

The reason we call our government a REPUBLIC is because we send representatives to make the hard choices. If it were a democracy, we would all punch a button regardless of how poorly informed or radicalized we are.

The internet

Ever since Al Gore invented the internet back in the seventies, people have found uses for it and others have searched for ways to exploit it.

Last October, my wife and I went on vacation in California. We stayed at a bed and breakfast. The facility certainly wasn't the BATES MOTEL; at the same time, we would have had a better experience at the Best Western or Quality Inn in town for a little less money. My gripe here is not with the facility. It is with the rating sites. It took an act of congress including a copy of my receipt to publish negatively on bedandbreakfast.com/. Then she published a rebuttal (OK so she gets her turn.)

THEN she started publishing reviews of the place in her unique flowery style claiming to be several other people. When I complained, it got me nowhere. The problem is that she paid for advertising and the site was willing to let her get away with anything. This said, she also did this on TripAdvisor too.

How to tell if a positive review is bogus: Look at the number of reviews the REVIEWER has posted. If it is just one: question it. On the main sites I use I have over five. Someone may get mad and post a negative review when they are mad. People only post positive reviews if they just post reviews or booked through the site they did the review on. A single glowing review usually indicates that the management of the facility had their hands in it one way or another.

Congratulations Mr Obama

I wish President-elect Obama all the luck in the world. Now that he has won the election, his optimism will likely be replaced by pragmatism. His idealism replaced by reality. Mr. Obama will have to work through a congress that is more conservative and more jaded. While he may actually not be a part of the establishment, he WILL have to work through the establishment.

I think that the ones who will be most disappointed are those who make less than $10,000 per family member. This includes the working poor and the perpetually unemployed. There is hope for an expansion of welfare and social spending. Perhaps there will be, but history tells us that the victims of regressive welfare programs just get worse not better. All the education spending in the world is not going to help adults who have little education and little aptitude to get more. While adult education does help emplace basic literacy, executive level education and opportunities are at least a generation away for these families. This is nearly as big a problem for middle class whites as for minorities. While there is a greater opportunity for middle class kids to achieve, their educational ceiling is rarely above the bachelorate level.

A groundswell of change?

Are any of the third party candidates viable beyond the standard confines of the political parties? While the election is but three weeks away, Obama is the almost sure winner. I have struggled to support senator McCain anyway.

I guess the question is there a way to create a groundswell toward one of the third party candidates (such as Bob Barr?) While three weeks seems like such a short time, if everybody who is underwhelmed by both of the candidates would jump ship on the status quo and look toward REAL change?

As exciting as a slow drizzle

John McCain needed a slam dunk in tonight's debate. Instead he seemed nearly as exciting as a slow summer drizzle. McCain scored no points and just as before the debate, those who agreed with McCain agreed with McCain and those who agreed with Obama still agree with him.

What Joe Biden meant when he talked about the dining table.

Governor Palin held her own to the much more experienced orator Senator Joe Biden. Senator Biden’s line was much as everyone predicted, he would attack John McCain and paint him as that overused third GWB term. While I found plenty to disagree with him on, the one thing that really rankled me…

Senator Biden said

“He's not been a maverick on the war. He's not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table. Can we send -- can we get Mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can't -- we can't make it. How are we going to heat the -- heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.”

The bottom line is that Joe Biden (and by Biden’s account Barack Obama) believe the federal government should be the answer to those dining room questions. I (and most of those of us who support John McCain) believe that we have to figure out how to solve individual problems ourselves. Government’s role is not to answer those questions. Government’s role is not to protect us from ourselves or to assign a right answer to every question. Government’s role is to provide order and to enforce laws. Laws are supposed to be protections from other’s unfair encroachments, NOT tools to benefit one person, group of people, or class of people. It would seem that Biden is incensed that John McCain doesn’t support government programs that benefit people or groups of people.

The whole point of this was that John McCain is not a liberal. Liberals WANT to send dollars from Washington to the people. Liberals WANT to increase regulation and government. Biden wants Socialized Medicine. Biden wants to enlarge the welfare programs. Even when welfare programs are warranted, this is a function better suited for lower levels of government or charitable organizations.

As to college financing, the income ceilings for financial aid may be too low, but at the same time this statement was designed to appeal to those whose income most likely is well within the range where good financial aid is available.

While virtually everyone wants some changes from the current situation, what we do not want is a bigger government that chews an ever increasing portion of our income. We MUST educate people as to what LIBERALS really are; what LIBERALS really believe. Even if you believe the statement Biden makes over and over again that “we cannot endure four more years of George W. Bush”, can we stomach Barack Obama and Joe Biden at all? If one simply assumes the difference between Obama and McCain is their stands on Roe v Wade it misses the most important aspects of this race what role does government hold in social policy? Do we desire a welfare state where those who choose to do little get the same rewards as those of us who work from our youth to our old age? Do we desire a government that dictates everything we should or should not do and when and how we do it? Or do we desire a government that supports the ideology that everyone should have equal opportunity to achieve? Obama and Biden are liberals in the worst sense of the term. We cannot stand four years of Barack Obama and Joe Biden at all!