There is currently an online petition to end birthright citizenship. I read about it on Ironic Surrealism II. The petition seeks to end giving babies who are born to illegal immigrants in the USA automatic citizenship. The petition wants to support House Resolution 1940. This resolution only grants birthright citizenship to: (1)a citizen or national of the United States; (2) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien performing active service in the armed forces (as defined in section 101 of title 10, United States Code).

I believe this makes perfect sense and it still offers citizenship by birth without being nationalistic. Therefore even someone who comes here on a tourist visa just to have an anchor baby will no longer be able to do that. That would make a high percentage of the population of New York non-citizens as many children are anchor babies. I hear that California has an even larger problem, but I know the problems facing New York personally. I know someone who came here on a tourist visa, somehow hid her pregnancy, worked illegally in NYC and gave birth to a baby here in the USA. She is from the former Soviet Union. I also know of illegals from the former Soviet Union who gave birth to their anchor baby and then send the child back to the home country to live with relatives while they continue to work in the USA illegally to send money back to their home country and use the US citizen baby later when they are needed for benefits, free school, etc. This is not uncommon. These people are not victims but know they are breaking the law. In most cases these people work in the US illegally not for survival but to build a HUGE mansion in the old country, or to pay for a fancy wedding or circumcision party.

This is an example of one of those palaces built by illegal workers in other countries being built in Uzbekistan. Of course, I know not EVERY illegal immigrant is like this. Some truly send their money back home to pay for a surgery or to build a school in their home village. Others live as if they were legally in America and do not send money home. I don’t know anyone like that personally. I know they exist. That still does not mean that their babies should automatically become citizens. Legal Americans end up paying for the anchor babies’ benefits, free lunches, and government care, while their parents send their usual untaxed undeclared income overseas to build huge houses in their hometowns overseas. I think being for this petition means that you believe the system is outdated and you are tired of people taking advantage of the system while your family spent thousands and waited years to come here legally. This is not a Democratic/Republican issue or a racist issue. This is an issue of people taking advantage of the USA and lying.

I found this “cute” little book in the library called, The Wicked History of the World. On the last page it lists the 50 worst people in history. I was curious to see what most people think are the 10 most evil people in history. I was thinking about who I thought the top 10 were. Before doing this I was curious to see who others felt were the most evil. The most interesting lists I saw listed Ann Coulter and Joe McCarthy as the most evil in history. Another listed Bill Clinton as worse than Hitler. These people don’t have a clue. When I see Ann Coulter, I do not shudder with fear. In fact, I think Michael Jackson is far more scary than Ann Coulter. Joe McCarthy? He never gassed anyone alive or impaled babies. He just threatened the jobs of a few actors and other people from Hollywood. One person said that Vlad the Impaler wasn’t so bad. After all, he was abused as a child and had an allergy that made him cruel. Whatever!! Vlad the Impaler was pure evil.

To me, the most evil who make you shudder just to hear his name. If you were to go back into time and be in the same room with this person and share your opinion openly, would you survive coming back to the future? These people take your freedom and individuality and force you to live in fear. They enjoy watching you suffer and have no sense of humanity. They are unfair narcissists who are intolerant. They want to be worshipped and see themselves as gods. If someone gets hurt, it is never their fault. If you disagree with them, you die. They only want POWER. (THAT is why George Bush CANNOT be on the list ok?? Plus if Bush was evil, Iraq would be the 51st state, Saddam wouldn’t have had a trial, Cindy Sheehan would have been boiled alive, and Chavez really would be smelling sulfur because he would be burning at the stake for insulting Bush. )

Here is my try and you are welcome to disagree. This is difficult by the way, I only put those who are dead on my list. Also, I only put leaders. There are many evil men who were not leaders. (Charles Manson for example)
Nero- This one was hard. A Roman Emperor had to be on the list. Tiberius molested boys on his island retreat. That was after he was kind of retired. He was a dirty old man. Caligula was bad but was he insane? So I went with Nero who was a complete narcissist.
Vlad the Impaler I have read both sides. Those who defend him and those who hate him. I am sorry he is just plain evil no matter what his reasoning was. It was him or Elizabeth Bathory.
Ivan the Terrible Yeah, I have hard both sides about him too, yeah and Hitler built the autobahn, I still think he is evil.
Yasuhiko Asaka (Rape of Nanking)
Tamerlane (he still makes people shutter in fear)
Lenin (Man Made Famines of Ukraine)
Genghis Khan
Mao (Worse than Hitler)
Joseph Stalin
Adolf Hitler (and the other leaders of the Nazi party) I put him as number one only because unlike the other leaders he was elected to office. He is so evil that he talked his own people into elected him president (though it might have been rigged) despite his questionable past.

Honorable Mention- Henry VIII, Pope Alexander VI, Cesare Borgia, Elizabeth Bathory, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Napoleon, Kim Il Sung
In our time I would have to say Mugabe and Kim Jong Il

What is going on with the world’s bridges? The Shanghai Daily reports another bridge collapse that occurred on Monday, August 13, in Fenghuang County, China. There was construction on that bridge too. What the heck is going on? This proves that it is not Bush’s fault or the liberal government’s fault that the Minneapolis bridge collapsed. Maybe politics has nothing to do with it. It is a tragedy that such things happen. I hope we will learn from these tragedies and make bridges better.

The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation are now participating in joint military exercises.

“Around 6.5 thousand military personnel and 80 aircraft will be involved in the “Peace Mission 2007” counterterrorism exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states, - the first deputy commander of the Russian land forces, lieutenant-general Vladimir Moltenskoy told a news conference on 03 July 2007.
He specified that Russia would deploy 2 thousand personnel and 36 aircraft. Another 2.7 thousand will be in charge of logistics. China will be represented by 1.7 thousand personnel and 46 aircraft. Tajikistan and Kazakhstan will send air assault companies, Kyrgyzstan – an air assault platoon, officers from Uzbekistan will take control of the whole exercise.
According to Moltenskoy, the SCO observer states (Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan) will not take part in the drills. The general reminded that the exercise was due to take place from 09 till 17 August at the Chebarkulsk training ground in the zone of responsibility of the Privolzhsko-Uralskiy military district. The maneuvers will be conducted in three stages. The first stage provides holding military-political consultations at the level of chiefs of general staffs in the Chinese city Urumqi, while the second stage consists of preparations and the third is the drills proper.
Moltenskoy stressed that “Peace Mission 2007” was not targeted against a third state.”

As you know my daughter has just started school. Today was the day that we received her cafeteria pin number and lunch calendar. On it was alternative vegetarian and items were marked if they had pork in them. I found it a little dishonest though since most hot dogs have a little pork in them. The vegetarian meals were for the definitely for the Hindu students of which we have a lot of in my school district. (Poor kids only had yogurt and cheerios for lunch)

I think overall that is fine and helpful. However, my Jewish and Hindu friends years ago just had to bring their own lunch. The LDS students would just eat popcorn on “Popcorn and Coke” day and not make a big deal about it and quietly not read books that had profanity in them. (I was never that strict though;-) ) The Muslim students I used to tutor during Ramadan would bring a note to the teacher explaining why they were not eating lunch that day. No one bothered the students and in fact respected them without any being told that they had to.

I think most people can work out among themselves how to deal with diversity. After all, Tariq or Mohammed aren’t just the “Muslim Kids” but they are our students and friends. A lot of Tariqs and Mohammeds can privately live their religion without you changing your lifestyle to fit theirs. The same goes for Mormons. You can drink coffee in front of your Mormon friend without worrying about making that person uncomfortable. Most Mormons who live outside of Utah are used to being a minority. If an office or hotel only offers free complimentary coffee, that is ok. We will just bring our own drinks. We know we are the minority who would never touch the free coffee.

That is why I hate it when the government or a major corporation steps in and decides how we are supposed to work out our diversity. There is a hospital in the UK that won’t allow its workers to eat at their desk during Ramadan for fear of offending the Muslims. They are doing it to promote “cultural awareness”. However, do the Muslims even want that? Wouldn’t that cause worse problems? Maybe if someone wants to be more culturally aware, maybe that person can do that on their own. Maybe I am at a desk next to my co-worker Aziz. I know he is celebrating Ramadan. He is not only my co-worker but we have become friends. So maybe I can make my own personal decision to not eat at my desk. Maybe Aziz isn’t that devout and doesn’t care if I eat at my desk. He would even meet me at the local pub for drinks later as EVERY single Muslim I have ever met drinks alcohol which is forbidden in Islam.

This reminds me of the time I was at a birthday party with my very culturally aware supposedly Mormon Anglo friend who only dated Muslim men (she thought hijab was cool) and my Jordanian hijab wearing Muslim friend. Well, we were trying to decide what kind of pizza to order. The Jordanian friend asked me what my favorite pizza was. I honestly said sausage. The Islamophile friend got mad at me and almost yelled saying, “Muslims don’t eat pork!!!!” She made a big deal about it. The Jordanian blushed and was a little embarrassed. We ordered a veggie pizza and all was well. The next week I was at the Jordanian lady’s house and she and her sons were eating sausage pizza. I doubt that it was halal.

I had another pizza incident with a Jewish couple. There is a Jewish couple who are like family. The husband lived in Germany during the Hitler years came to the US as a refugee. They wanted to order us pizza. We said pepperoni. My mother was embarrassed and told them, cheese is fine. They told us then that their favorite pizza was Canadian bacon. She said that Mr.Herb couldn’t have pepperoni because of his heartburn. So, I had Canadian bacon for the first time at a Jewish persons house.

This is a normal conversation I had many times with Muslims:
Salim: Hey, Ambar, you want some vodka. (or beer)
Me: No, sorry, I can’t drink vodka because it is against my religion.
Salim: (gulps down a shot of vodka) Ha ha ha! Really? It is against my religion too!!

Yes, I had this conversation with Arabic Muslims too so please don’t tell me only Central Asians are like that. I have even had strict Muslims who pray five times a day offer me beer. That is why I think it is wrong to categorize people. I know an Aziz who is a born again Christian. He listens to “worship” music. I know a lot of Evangelical Indians who think Hinduism is weird. I know a Mormon who thinks hijab is cool and only eats halal food. You just can’t judge. People are individuals not a group.

That is why government and high executives should just let the workers and students work out their diversity among themselves. Once you start categorizing everyone then your good drinking buddy Aziz turns into the annoying Muslim guy whose religion is forced on you. Then the Muslims who feel the anger of their infidel friends start only hanging out with the other Muslims who also feel uncomfortable. The division widens. People start to form groups and then weirdos like Al Qaeda get formed wanting Sharia law in Belgium and kill Anglos just cause they hate infidels. Girls whose mothers never wore a burqa now proudly wear them because they think it is cool. They want to belong in a group. Government nanny says that they must belong to the Muslim group and that they are different from pork eating Christians. So they identify with a group rather being an individual.

I just happened to find a video on youtube making fun of this very thing!!