‘Theme Park’ A Training Ground for Illegals

This story is almost beyond belief. A “theme park” 700 miles south of the Mexico-U.S. Border where illegal border crossers practice for the real thing.

Welcome to Mexico’s take on adventure tourism, a five-hour trek that goes well past midnight. Residents pay to walk in mud past their ankles, balance on ledges – in pitch black – that drop steeply, and sprint across corn fields, kicking up dirt and rocks as they run from fake US border patrol officers dressed in camouflage.

America must get a handle on this issue. We don’t have the right to tell the Mexican government that they must shut down a thinly veiled training camp for illegal immigrants to the U.S., but then the Mexicans shouldn’t have the right or ability to influence how we enforce the laws of this country. Though they seem to when stories like this pop up:

Sheriff: Deputy Prosecuted by Mexico’s Demand.

Amazing and dangerous stuff.

Financial Armageddon: “Americans Just Don’t Want to Know”

What caught my attention in this excellent post from Financial Armageddon was the phrase “Americans just don’t want to know.” So true.

Americans live in a bubble. Not just a real estate bubble, but a sphere that acts as a reality distortion field, that tints the colors we see, makes some things look larger than they really are, and some things smaller. I’m not sure the citizens of any country live distortion-free, but to push the metaphor farther than I should, I believe some cultures wear some eyeglasses that distort their world view, while others see unreality in every direction. In the U.S., I think the latter is our lot. Whether it’s the MSM spinning, or the fact that we’re in a huge and extremely rare period of growth and prosperity thanks to what Kunstler calls our “one shot” blessing of fossil fuels, Americans have to look (and think) long and hard to get something even close to reality, let alone truth.

There was a growing sense of entitlement, especially among the 78 million baby boomers—Americans born between 1946 and 1965—as well as a widespread desire for wealth without work. For many, engaging in excessive borrowing, self-deception, and a rejiggering of priorities to support a lifestyle they felt they needed and deserved was just the way life was. A quick read of history suggests this delusion is common among the citizenry of fading and failed empires.

I talk with people every day about the economy, and am usually shocked at how little intelligent, rational people really think about the health of the economy, past the sound bites they hear on the MSM news reports. The recent death of Anna Nicole Smith is being investigated in greater detail than our economy right now, something George at UrbanSurvival.com would call the “bread and circuses,” of the collapsing Roman American Empire.

Preparing for a Post-Oil Society

James Howard Kunstler has a clear vision of what life will be like in the U.S. (if there IS a U.S.) after Peak Oil. Though not pretty, it’s really hard to argue with most of his points when you consider that there’s only so much oil in the ground and it’s getting more expensive all the time to get it out.

In response to those who say he’s all “gloom and doom” and little advice, he’s written Ten Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society at AlterNet.org. Important read.

An Arab Defends ’24′

Writing for WSJ.com’s Opinion Journal, Emilio Karim Dabul writes in defense of the Fox Television show 24.

Most of the terrorists represented in “24″ through the years have been Arab Muslims. Why? Well, probably because most terrorists today are, in fact, Arab Muslims.

And the obvious point that many miss:

And this is what makes “24″ a compelling drama every week. Instead of pretending Islamic terrorists don’t exist, the show presents frighteningly real worst-case scenarios perpetrated by Osama bin Laden’s followers. So CAIR thinks it’s over the top for the terrorists in “24″ to blow up Los Angeles with a nuke? Please, if bin Laden and his crew had nukes, most of us would be way too dead to argue over such points.

They Want Your Children

From the man who developed the emergency response team for the Oklahoma City Police Department…

What’s happening with our military on foreign countries will happen here. It’s coming like a freight train. … And one of the things they want is your children.

The problem the Islamist Terrorists are confronting here (though I don’t think they realize it) is that there will be a tipping point beyond which the American public simply won’t sit still for anything but the annihilation of any of every nation even remotely supporting the targeting of American children. So far, the Islamic terrorism movement has somewhat wisely, with the exception of 9/11, stayed away from the U.S., and focused on U.S. interests. There’s a difference. If the American people feel pushed into a corner on our own soil, the result will be savage and unmerciful.

That day should never come.

Link to article at ShreveportTimes.com

Sub-Prime Lending Woes

Blinkered and Blindsided – from Financial Armageddon …

Technorati Tags: Housing

Money Back If You Cancel?

The excellent Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog discusses what happens when you buy a new home but can’t sell your old one. They claim there’s a 50% cancellation rate going on right now, and builders are getting tougher about returning deposits.

This disturbs us, because it represents “under the radar” evidence the housing market is rapidly becoming toast, even in places where the perception is invincibility (like the home market of both this blog and the Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog).

Disturbing.

Global Warming – A Disaster Epic (in Slo-Mo)

The New York Times has an excellent read on the true implications of the recent scientific assurance that global warming is being accelerated by human activity.

In essence, the debate over characterizing the near-term rise in seas is akin to arguing whether a car starting to roll down a hill toward a cliff is going 1 mile per hour or 2.

Scientists were left wondering if the public would grasp this as disaster.

How quickly does the water have to move toward your neck before you panic (especially if, like Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic,” you’re handcuffed to the ship)?

How quickly, indeed?

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