WILLIAM A. "RASCAL" MC CASKILL
I've written blogs about a disc jockey of the 1950s who became somewhat of a mentor to me then, and has for the following fifty years. His name is William A. McCaskill, but his radio name was a clever rhyme "Rascal McCaskill."
Now in his eighties, he has survived multiple heart problems, gets around almost as well as he always did, and his brain cells are still high IQ. Let me give you an example. He loves puzzles -- math problems, memory exercises -- and nothing seems to please him more than to send me one that he thinks he'll score better than I will. (I think it's probably a draw so far.)
Bill sent me this email this morning:
I was sitting here reading emails and listening to Fox News talk about the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
How men have erected miles and miles of floating blocks in hopes of keeping 50 million gallons of oil from reaching their shores and contaminating their beaches. They are worried about a shift in the tides that could send it around Florida and affect the East Coast beaches.
Haven't we watched this same thing happen over the past several years as illegal immigrants have done the same thing along the border with Mexico from the Gulf to the Pacific Ocean?
Haven't some 20 million illegals spread across the country..,,committed crimes of all sorts and now many are in our jails?
Those floating blocks won't hold the oil back any more than the border held the illegals back. The swelling tide negates the blocks just like the swelling tide and lack of Border Patrol Agents negated the Southern borders.
The answer to the oil situation is to stop the leakage.....clean up the mess it has made and eliminate the waste.
No difference for the illegals.
Stop them at the border....take those already here into custody and send them back to their home countries. With either problem, action is far better than sitting back and doing nothing and in the long run will be a lot cheaper, too!
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - PARK CITIES
Our 45th Year
214 503-8563
Certainly there is a difference between an oil slick and the plight and flight of people from another country trying to provide for their families. If we want to solve the "illegal problem" we should invade Mexico and annex it. That strategy worked when we wanted Texas, Arizona, California, etc. Of course, the alternative solution is to give back the territory taken through our Manifest Destiny. Gosh, if that happened, who would be illegal? Maybe Rascal would be drawing an analogy between you and an oil slick.
Bill,
As usual very well said. The law is quite simple. Enforcing it is quite different. Perhaps Mr. Rascal could make a better analogy of Mr. Carlier and sticking ones head in the sand.
Bill...I think I heard Mr.McCaskill on NHPR this AM...is he an environmentalist with a very young sounding voice? He definately know what he's talking about...
As for the Illegals...coming from Texas I'm sure the subject understandably envokes a visceral response. In my opinion...they need a solution. They need to enforce the laws (I believe the employers are the key) but they shouldn't be breaking up familys if they have been contributing citizens(legal or not)...but I live in NH :0)
I'm back on here...trying to create a new niche' Covering Senior issues and resources....first hand knowledge and all that!
Miss Joanie, you can always depend on me being on your team, as my dad would say. I'm pulling for you.
Richard, I have first hand knowledge of how BP conducts its business, as I was on the appraisal review board for Galveston County where that company has major processing plants (Texas City). Their senior officials came to a meeting with the sole purpose of lying to us. Unfortunately for them, I'm good with math and accounting. We kicked them out. They sued and lost.
And then recently because of their blatant neglect of safety, one of their units blew up killing and injuring a number of their employees. This time they were sued, and they lost.
It boils down to this, I think. There is no way to assure any company charged with making certain that their activities don't endanger others' safety unless there are required strict third-party inspections with strict penalties for violations.
Mike, I don't see this as you do. Perhaps because I am and have been closer to the violaters for a very long time.
Bill, do you categorically disagree, or is there actually part of what I wrote that makes sense to you? I have been a fair number of miles up I35 from you, but our southern neighbors have squatted in MN for many generations. They have sometimes settled here after following the slave wages north to the sugar beet harvest, and then ran out of jobs and energy. Sometimes they have come here because they enjoyed -35F temps more than +85F. For whatever reason, they came mostly from Mexico, the same place from which you got Texas. Is Texas an illegal alien to the US? Perhaps it is. Like I said, either conquer and annex, or consider giving back what came to us through the implementation of Manifest Destiny. You know what Manifest Destiny is, right? It's a similar doctrine that gave Hitler license to conquer Europe. Correct me if I'm off base here.
Richard, if you could make a more sincere attempt of writing in plain English, I would be inclined to defend myself. The last place I would want to be is sticking my head in Mexican sand, now claimed by Texas.
Mike, the most beneficial courses I ever took in college were government courses taught by a fellow named Chester A. Newland. So my thoughts are probably interpretations of what I learned from him.
First, we have laws. Figuring how to 1) make laws pertinent to everyone but you is not only terribly narcissistic but wrong. 2) Breaking the laws is wrong for all 3) Getting caught breaking the laws and then expecting the penalties to not apply to you should be intolerable.
U.S. business doesn't like being forced to operate without slave labor. Every other time, slaves were made slaves against their wishes. This time, the Mexicans who are coming across the border illegally are primarily coming to be slaves.
I'm personally not interested in Rascal's charge that because some commit crimes is a reason we shouldn't tolerate their illegal sneaks across the border.
Nevertheless, the U.S. government's primary purpose for existing is to protect the citizens. If it can't even do that with vigor and at whatever the expense, it's either unworthy, corrupt or both. After all, the majority of the taxpayers expect it to keep its end of the bargain. Instead, it would appear to me that lobby money is buying the outcome....business doesn't want to have to operate without slave labor.
Anyway, that's how I see it. If the majority sees it otherwise, they need to get rid of the laws that are offensive to them.
Bill, sometimes I can't figure out whether you and I agree or disagree. One thing I do know is that you're a helluva lot smarter than I am, and I always enjoy reading your posts. I think that Joan is on target saying that the employers are the key to controlling illegal immigration. It's all about supply and demand.
Mike --
Bingo!
And it's "demand" that needs to be addressed, but it isn't, hasn't, and it won't be unless voters can take Congress away from the whims of business. Business money drives Congress, and business does not want illegal immigration stopped. Why else would Congress continue to ignore the mandate of more than 75% of its bi-partisan constituency?
Bill
Here is WHAT I don't understand. How is it that we get ourselves involved in middle eastern wars in order to protect "our" oil interests there; yet we are allowing a foreign oil company to deep water drill in ouir own waters. It has been that fact that makes me feel so outraged!
Myrl, many ask that same question and don't receive a satisfactory answer.