I just thank God (and my lucky stars) they found water on Mars (if you believe the GOVERNMENT) a couple of weeks ago. Gives one hope, especially this time of year.

Each of us have the right, duty and obligation to protect ourself at all times so we can protect our loved ones at all times. Especially from GOVERNMENT of all kinds. GOVERNMENT would not be so bad if there weren’t so many government employees, especially politicians, in GOVERNMENT. It seems like the GOVERNMENT can only keep track of its law abiding, taxpaying citizens. If a person is not law abiding, paying taxes or a citizen then the GOVERNMENT isn’t going to do much more than the minimum to keep track of you.

The only grandfather I knew told me to protect myself at all times so I could protect my loved ones. That was 1957 right before he died.

He fought in the Spanish American War, WWI and was drafted into WWII at the age of 63 because he had lost my maternal grandmother in 1917 to “natural causes”, all of their male children were being drafted into WWII in 1942 and 1943 and he was considered draft elgible or 1A or whatever they called it then. He showed up at Ft. Leonardwood, MO, and they could not believe this elderly draftee showing up with white hair and fit as a fiddle. He was a blacksmith. He went through boot camp better than most of the troops 45 years younger than him and ended up taking care of the Army horses wherever the horses were in the US and overseas.

I am begging each of you to protect yourself at all times and teach your loved ones the same. Each of us have the right, duty and obligation to protect ourself at all times so we can protect our loved ones at all times until they learn how.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

An area doesn’t get to be on list like this for one particular problem. You have stand back and look at the big picture. Drugs, illegal immigrants, low wages, crime, environment, overall quality of life, and even things such as weather are looked at. You cannot say a place is bad because of one particular problem.

Also one needs to look at what is being done to fix the problem, and more importantly what is being done to prevent the problem. Our society is very reactive to problems. It may be cheaper in the long run to build preventative measures such as treatment and detox centers as opposed to jails and prisons. It is always easier said than done and it is even easier to sit back and let others do it. I don’t care what color you are as long as you are bettering yourself and the community that you live in, illegal or legal.

When I lived there 15 years ago it was ranked as one of the 20 worst small cities in America by some publication(can’t remember which). It didn’t surprise me at the time.

Not all of the area is a “cesspool”. There are some nice neighborhoods, higher education opportunities, and fishing/boating spots.
Unfortunately, from my perspective, those positives are outweighed by the negatives.
The negatives being the god-awful,ugly strip mall development that dominates the area and crime that South Central Los Angeles would be proud of.

If you would like to get a feel for why the area is perceived poorly by many, take a walking tour of North Nampa(South of I-84) or Caldwell between I-84 and the railroad tracks.
(And I hope you understand I am being facetious about walking through either of those areas. I wouldn’t recommend it.)

Merry Christmas! God Bless.

How else can someone work 60-80 hours /week at multiple low wage jobs. Meth makes people feel like superman. Wal-Mart benefits too. Where else can they afford to shop with the money leftover after you buy your weekly meth bag?

Another reason we have so many illegals is the fact that wealth has been concentrated so much in this country. By eliminating the middle class you eliminate taxes and the demand for services. You also increase the demand for cheap labor IE: illegals. Drive wages down and profits rise. We are in a un-sustainable cycle of rampant capitalism that worships the bottom line and profit at any cost that will eventually consume itself.

How that will manifest itself, I have no idea. It’s so easy to blame illegal labor, especially if they are brown. By keeping labor illegal and scared, wages are kept down for the rich to exploit. This reminds me of the post Civil War era. When we exit Iraq, you watch, the bigots, racists, KKK, Nazis and the like will become very active in terrorizing this country. The white, nationalistic Timothy McVeigh types who are currently quiet, enjoying the Iraq blood bath, will wake up in a town near you.

Those huge dairy farms do export quite a stink to the surrounding area while their waste seeps into the groundwater that the community eventually drinks. Add the inversions and pollution that this valley is saddled with ( Canyon county still refuses to inspect it’s vehicles for emissions) does not help. I live in Boise and I can tell you if you want to see first hand how the auto has damaged our beautiful state and country with it’s environmental destruction move here.

Thirty years ago Boise and environs were a rural/cowboy town. Now it’s a vast polluted autobahn/parking lot with one person in every car ( usually on a cell phone) as the country sends it’s children to Iraq and Afghanistan to die or be mutilated for the cheaper gas prices we pay than the rest of the world. Wake up America, where you live can be the best place to live, but you have to make it that.

I know I feel differently about this than lots of others. Our system is broken. BROKEN. I guess I’d mostly like to see the 72.5 million spent on something other than warehousing meth addicts. That’s the problem we ought to be railing against, but that too gets blamed on illegal immigrants.

EDITOR NOTE–Very good example of tangible cost. Tam may have been looking at just the recent arrest file. Either way, if there is a 10 % rate it doesn’t matter if they are currently in jail or not. The point is of 600 recent arrests 62 had immigration violations.