Police State of Arizona Loses it's Mind, Again.

I thought we lived in America? Not if you're in Arizona.

Here is a nice guy: hard working truck driver born in Fresno, California, pays his taxes. Stopped at a weigh station and ended up handcuffed, arrested and detained because his commercial drivers license and social security card weren't enough for Arizona officials to believe that he is a US citizen.

He was detained for 90 minutes while his wife frantically finds his birth certificate-- and her own-- because she's afraid she'll get arrested too. How long would he have been held if his wife couldn't find the birth certificate? What if they couldn't reach her? Remember, this guy broke no law: he was arrested and detained because he is a Mexican American, but I want to emphasize here that HE IS AN AMERICAN. He speaks with an accent. That's it. No American citizen should be treated like this. This is an absolute outrage. Thanks Arizona Republicans, good one. You're so big on freedom from government interference? You just turned yourself into East Germany before the wall came down, comrades.

Yes, Arizona just voted itself a Police State. They're also trying to vote in a "birther law" which demands that any presidential candidate submit proof to Arizona officials that he is a US citizen. It's meaningless, of course, you have to be born in America to run for president. It's routinely verified at the Federal level. These are Republican House Representatives trying to make some kind of statement by aligning themselves with a crazy conspiracy theory which has already been disproved many many times: so many times in fact, that Hawaii, where our current president was born, is trying to enact their own legal exemption from responding to these spurious requests for verification. What's the Statement Arizona, that it's not OK to have a black president? That you think you have the right to harass our president as well as any free citizen you choose to racially profile? No other US president has ever had his citizenship questioned like this.

My God. The state is 30% hispanic. How in the world can you imagine that there will be no backlash in your home State, as well as from the rest of the country if not the world? You know, if you just want to be racist, you may want to stop short of being cowards. Tell it like it is. Have the courage of your convictions and declare Arizona a "white zone". See how that works out for ya. I'm talking to the Republicans in the Arizona State government enacting these unconstitutional laws. Put on your white sheets before heading off to work in the morning, and then introduce some legislation declaring martial law in Arizona and dissolving democratic rule entirely. Stop hiding behind pretense: you want to make the State over in your own image. All hail the leadership of Arizona. For historical reference: refusing to recognize Martin Luther King day as a holiday did not work out too well, nor did it last. The boycotts worked and you caved.

Not that illegal immigration deserves serious discussion in this hysterical climate-- are we at war with Mexico? Are commercial truck drivers really spies? Are they enemy combatants? How clever of him to have a valid CDL and a freaking genuine social security card then. But listen, I lived in California nearly all my life where an estimated 25% of all illegal immigrants in the country reside: we use and abuse the illegal immigrants as we see fit-- they do not enjoy equal protection under the law and they typically take only the jobs we'd never touch. Want to control illegal immigration? Start busting the employers. It's easy, cost effective, and it almost never happens. Guess why--- because we don't want to pay eight bucks for a basket of strawberries. It's that simple. Study your history: America has always depended upon a huge influx of cheap labor. My own people, the Irish, were titled "the new niggers" after slavery was abolished. I don't know what they called the Chinese when they were building the railroads but it couldn't have been good. I'm sure I'm not the only person who notices that the border issues only come up when elections are gearing up, but it sure would be refreshing if we stopped the hypocrisy.

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Finally started feeling well enough to take a few photos. After 2 rounds of antibiotics-- by the end of the second round the toxicity of the antibiotic itself was mimicking the symptoms of the bronchitis I was trying to cure. So it goes. I don't blame anybody for this, it's just how it is sometimes. Had some pretty bad nights there, doing better now. Oh yeah, and it's pollen season and Sheryl and I both started having allergies in the middle of trying to get well. Still coughing and sneezing some but we're able to get out and take walks and get a few photos here and there. I think that the pollen is starting to abate too, so that's good for us. We're completely surrounded by Junipers and that's the main source of pollen. I don't think I've been this sick for this long, ever. Off and on since Christmas, it get's really tiresome. Of course we've been looking at spiritual/psychological reasons for this, as well as environmental factors. It's not always so easy to solve, and we probably should have turned to help sooner.

Click on the photos above for a larger view. We're happy that things are looking up now.