The Aussie & the atheist

What some people won't say about themselves with bumper stickers or tee shirts. I saw a charming one and an infuriating one this week. "Good grammar costs nothing," said the Asian girl's shirt in line behind me to board a flight. Such exhibitionists either want or deserve remarks from strangers, so I asked her what it meant. Standing up for the English language when most people no longer bother, she replied in a thick Aussie accent. My sentiments exactly, I said. Los Angeles would be her last stop homebound after six weeks of travel in Europe and America. In the worst economy since the 1930s to hear some people tell it, mind you.

"Religion stops a thinking mind," scolded the tee on a dumpy fat guy at the pizza parlor last night. It was illustrated by one of those stat-line medical monitor waves. Him I didn't accost because A, I didn't trust myself to be civil, and B, his childish plea for attention merits nothing so much as cold silence.

After a moment I realized the slogan was someone's oh-so-clever twist on "Abortion stops a beating heart." I wanted to ask his rejoinder to that undeniable fact, and to pile on with the additional facts that abortion really does stop (or forestall) a thinking mind as well as extinguish (or divert from this world) a feeling soul.

I wanted to challenge him for examples of societies where God is ignored or banned but free and noble thought flourishes -- or to refute the conclusive truth that thought has risen highest in those societies where God is lifted highest.

But it would have been a waste of breath, so I just ate my pizza and reflected on the late George Roche's mordant comment, "The world is full of slobs." Yet not quite full of them, for there is still room for the occasional grammatically idealistic Aussie Asian girl. And thank heaven for such as she!

Against all enemies

Slated on Backbone Radio, Apr. 26 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

The oath so many Americans have sworn, "to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic," has a quaint and outmoded ring to it in this new age of Obama the Apologist, Obama the Meek. Who believes in enemies any more? We do, here at Backbone Radio. Sorry, all you dreamy pacifists out there. It's still a dangerous world, with plenty of nations and groups who wish us ill. Enemies is the only name for them, and strength is the only language they understand. Wishful thinking in the White House won't change that.

** This Sunday's show will take a global focus and a national security theme. I'll talk about how to protect our country with Richard V. Allen, former Reagan and Nixon adviser... Michael Tanji of the Center for Threat Awareness... and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

** Plus Joseph C. Phillips, our man in Hollywood... and Rob "Sunny" Roseman, veteran of TV news in Denver.

Less than 100 days into the new administration, and we're told the terrorists can't be called that any more, but the patriots who advised on stopping them belong in jail. It's like a bad dream, only worse because this is real. If America is to be defended, you and I must stand strong as never before. In a word, the need is backbone. Here goes.

Yours for America the Good, JOHN ANDREWS

Spare us your morality, Barack

On April 21, President Obama opened the way for possible prosecution of American government advisers who approved of waterboarding terrorists. Forget that such interrogation methods may have saved untold lives by extracting necessary information from those killers. The President may allow prosecution anyway, because, he said, such methods "reflected us [sic] losing our moral bearings." And certainly Mr. Obama has every right to speak of "our moral bearings," since:

**As an Illinois State Senator, he personally stopped legislation to protect babies born alive after failed abortion attempts.

**As a U.S. Senator, he supported legislation to allow doctors to stab to death babies that were 80 percent outside their mothers' wombs.

**As a Presidential candidate, he vowed to sign legislation that would wipe out scores of laws in several state that might protect some preborn babies from being killed.

**As President, he signed orders to use American taxpayers' money to promote the killing of preborn babies around the globe and to kill thousands of human embryos around the country, and also appointed over three dozen abortion advocates to positions in his government.

**Also as President, he has begun proceedings to rescind conscience clause protection for doctors and medical facilities, thereby requiring them either to perform immoral procedures or to quit the medical field altogether.

Yes, sir, this is the man we want to protect "our moral bearings."

Add Napolitano to lunatics list

Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary for Obama, was responsible for that silly report about the potential of veterans and single-issue voters to be recruited into right-wing extremism. She issued this hastily written document over objections by some of her advisors, and just before the Tea Parties, in an apparent attempt to intimidate conservative and other protesters. Then she made her infamous remarks about border security. She claimed falsely that the 9/11 terrorists got into the USA by crossing the Canadian border. She also implied falsely that there is no border security there. “The pattern at the Canadian border has been informality,” she went on to say. “The borders are going to be enabled with greater technology, but it’s not going to be going back and forth as if there’s no border anymore.” She knew nothing about the subject, but pretended that she did.

She even said that whatever is being done on our southern border should also be done on our northern border. So either we stop building a border security fence along the Mexican border, or else we build one along the Canadian border. (All 5000 kilometers of it? Another Great Wall of China?) Canadians are seeing and hearing these things and are wondering just how bonkers she really is.

Then she went on CNN and said, falsely, "And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil."

Last year, as governor of Arizona, she tried to cut off Sheriff Joe Arpaio's funding for cracking down on illegal immigration in Maricopa County. Apparently Obama thought that this made her the perfect candidate for heading up Homeland Security.

I hereby add Janet Napolitano to my list as Democrat Lunatic #8.

Note: Earlier entries on my Dem Lunatics List were Nancy Pelosi, RFK Jr., Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, and of course Barack Obama.

Teacher's Desk: Tuition Break Nada

There’s a personal angle when I read a story like the one today about 20 colleges and universities asking the federal government to allow illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates. I know three high school seniors where I teach whom this would help. Two of the students are special education students who will probably limit their post-secondary experiences to a certificate program at Emily Griffith Opportunity School, and the third has decided to attend college in Mexico. Even though I enjoy these students and know the parents of the young ladies well, I cannot condone illegal trafficking of human beings, nor the additional pressure placed on our infrastructure and natural resources by those who immigrate illegally.

Because I try to be kind while still holding this opinion, I gave the three families the business card of the immigration attorney upstairs, and one of the parents made an appointment. It was the same mother who had asked me to adopt her 21-year-old daughter, but she was going to pay for her needs. Fortunately, I had an easy out; we don’t legally adopt 21-year-olds! But that got me wondering what other illegal activities these folks who I felt were generally good people willing to do?

Obviously, they drive without licenses, do not buy car insurance, and many don’t have health insurance, so they use the emergency rooms at hospitals. Those same hospitals are required to have Spanish interpreters.

Per Texas case law, our schools are required to educate the legal and illegal alike, and unless the parents of these children are homeowners, we’re the ones who pay for it. We teach the children English, but until they grasp the language, it will be awhile before they are reading and writing at grade level. We hire staff to teach in Spanish. We hire teachers to test in Spanish. We provide interpreters for Spanish speaking parents. All this costs thousands of dollars to every school. Thousands of dollars that is no longer available for the general student population.

If we allow illegal students to attend our state colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates, the influx of Spanish speaking only college students will rise and costly services will likely be provided to them. We do not do the same for students with other native languages. We will become the destination for those who trespass our borders.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator with an M. A. in educational leadership and is a former candidate for the Colorado State Board of Education.