The Right to Work

One citizen in the town of St. Helens, Oregon has come up with his own solution to beat the illegal alien crisis: his petition is to have the city a "No illegal workers zone." That is, anyone who doesn't have proper documentation detailing his or her legal residency status would not be allowed to work, with severe monetary penalties levied against offenders.

All I can say is it's about time. While the government is lollygagging on the issue, one person has taken it upon himself to solve the issue. 1,000 signatures will get the issue on a ballot next year, and the ball will be rolling.

When your elected officials refuse to do their job, know that it is up to you, me, and the initiative process to fix our problems. And this is a big one.

Skin Deep

With the recent Supreme Court decision that school districts can no longer use race as a tiebreaker to determine which school to send a student in a district, it has become very clear that the idea of "diversity" in the Seattle School District has only been a matter of skin color.

In Seattle, students are typically allowed to declare what high school they want to attend. Students interested in a drama program would go to one school, computer science another school, and sports a third. When there are more students than spaces, there are going to be some students who don't get their wish. There's a list of qualifiers to determine which student makes the cut, and who has to make do with their second or third choice. One of those qualifiers is "race."

While this is sad by itself, it's nothing new for the district. The Seattle School District sent several of their students to a "diversity training camp". This turned out to be nothing more than blatant WASP-bashing, grilling into the heads of the attendees that anyone white is bad, privileged or not.

The problem is not one of race, or diversity. It is one of agenda. The Seattle School District has put ideology ahead of reason, and this is the first step on the way to the breakdown of that false ideology.

OWNED!

In possibly the greatest legal smackdown in our generation, the Supreme Court of the United States rejected the Washington Supreme Court's 6-3 verdict aligning themselves with the WEA union. The article in the link forthcoming says it all way better than I ever could. Justices Bobbe Bridge, Tom Chambers, Faith Ireland, Charles Johnson, Barbara Madsen and Susan Owens can all go screw. Unions are not meant to be used as political leverage whenever you see fit. It is too bad that the positions are unimpeachable. I'd very much like to see Bobbe Bridge's scowling face the next time I pull up to a McDonald's drive-through window.

Green Gregs and Ham

In another example of "Do as I say, not as I do," the illustrious mayor of Seattle has encouraged his peons to get out of their cars and embrace public transportation while the mayor himself is chauffeured around town in a Toyota Highlander or his backup vehicle, a Ford Explorer.

For a guy who is so hell bent on getting those fat construction contracts given over to his cronies, he's not at all interested in actually using public transportation. He's not riding the bus, or the worthless Sounder train. He has someone to pick him up at home, cart him around for his 100 miles worth of routine mayoral business, and then back to his Westlake abode, so he can sleep and dream about another day of bilking his citizens out of billions of dollars.

There's not that much more to say. The evidence is there. The bus routes are there for the mayor to take, but he's stuck in his ivory tower issuing edicts to actually pay attention to their content.

What's (Not) Good For You

In their constant quest to control the lives of their constituents, California's state legislature is pushing for a "Clean Cars" bill that will transfer money from people who buy large "gas guzzling" vehicles that emit copious amounts of carbon dioxide, to consumers who purchase cars that have lower emission ratings.

Be afraid. Be very afraid, and put your hand over your wallet so it doesn't get picked by these goons who are being drawn in by the global warming swindle that is ever-present these days.

The specifics are these: in 2011, each new car purchased will be keyed to a chart. Those with the highest carbon dioxide emission ratings will incur a $2,500 fine to the purchaser, and that amount decreases as the emission rating does. For hybrid cars and low-emission vehicles, the buyers will be rewarded by a rebate of up to $2,500. IF there was ever a more brash way to socially engineer the public, I haven't seen it. You may thank Assemblyman Ira Ruskin of Redwood City, California for this deplorable piece of legislation when it comes to your state; and mark my words, the mania is sweeping the nation.

Never mind the "school moms" who are driving entire sports teams to the field, rather than each family going independently. Never mind used cars which are statistically much dirtier than the most foul SUV. I grant that the idea is decent; trying to clean up the environment, but this isn't the way.

My big problem is that this is trying to force one person's will on a population. I do not believe that this is the purpose of government, no matter how important-sounding the goal is. This is not a free market at work; this is government controlled. And remember how well government regulated cable television worked out?

Keep your eye on your bankbooks.

Critical Thinking in Short Supply

I think I now know why people like Greg Nickels and Ron Sims continue to be elected to positions of power: the smart people of Seattle are soundly outnumbered by complete and utter dumbasses. The Enlightened Ones just don't stand a chance when most of the citizenry is clearly bereft of a functioning brainstem. Case in point:

City officials want to spend $8 million on a feasibility study on the effects of not having the Alaskan Way Viaduct as a means of north-south motor vehicle transportation in Seattle. Never mind that it's a state issue, but the Seattle City Council is so completely wrapped up in this mania of "Cars are bad! Ride your bike! If you disagree you heate the earth!" that they would happily drown the region in perpetual gridlock just to try and force their will on the masses.

While listening to the Dori Monson show as I do nearly every weekday afternoon, I heard people calling in to rant on points that anyone who had been paying a modicum of attention would realize are faulty. One came to the startling conclusion that removing one of two north-south highways would not decrease the usership by half, even when the host clearly said that the Viaduct is a north-south highway. And then another went on to ask "What about Interstate 405? People can use that!" Well, that's all fine and good if you want to get to the Eastside, but if you want to stay in Seattle, it's the I-5 or nothing.

Critical thinking isn't that hard. You look at the facts, take them all in, and make a decision based on everything on the table. Runaway government can only survive when they have a bunch of willing simps who will overlook things randomly and do what those in charge tell them to. Don't fall for it.

The Jackpot Now Stands At: $2.5 Trillion

For those who are keeping track of such things, the cost of this "amnesty" bill that is being ramrodded through Congress is roughly $2.5 trillion. That cost is easy to figure out when you take into account the fact that from 12 to 20 million people will be flooding America's welfare, Social Security, medicare and medicaid systems. Roughly half of the illegal criminal aliens who will magically become US citizes do not have a high school degree. That means those people can't speak English, and English is a prime requisite to find work in this country; at least work that will lead to greater opportunities. Those people will not be able to find work--first in line for welfare. Aliens who are already nearing the age of retirement will be at the front of the line for SSI benefits.

All of this is bad enough, but the bill is being pushed through against the will of the people. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has recently equated amnesty with anything short of capital punishment when pertaining to the illegal alien issue. Senators Graham and Chambliss were roundly booes at the Republican convention when trying to cover their own position; not coming out and saying that those same senators are in the hip pocket of big businesses who think that they need cheap labor. Of course, even if they were to say exactly that it wouldn't matter anyway.

Any Congressman or Senator that votes in favor of this bill that trivializes the immigration process, and slaps the face of the good people who are trying to do things the right way--those are the people who are selling out the future of this country for political expediency, and they must be stopped.

Celebrity Dumb-off

As long as there have been famous people, there have been famous people who have done stupid things. Michael Jackson held his son over a hotel balcony. Eddie Griffin totaled a million-dollar Ferrari. Coolio lost years worth of street cred by appearing in a flashing square for a week, screaming like a girl while trapped in a plexiglas cube, and playing poker badly on basic cable.

But that's not the kind of stupidity we're talking about. I'm referring to the stupidity of two women: Rosie O'Donnell and Sheryl Crow. On the 26-March-2007 episode of ABC's hen-party The View, O'Donnell said that 7 World Trade Center was imploded, and not the target of an al-Qaeda attack. It should be noted that O'Donnell has publically announced her belief in "conspiracy theories" concerning the attacks of 11-September-2001.

Her comments were cheered by the audience, but drew the scorn of Bill O'Reilly, and a point-by-point dissection from Popular Mechanics. (If you're wondering, fire can indeed melt steel; and has been able to for thousands of years.)

Sheryl Crow has taken up the green flag, and tried to help save the forest. Her dictum? When using the toilet, only take off one square of toilet paper for cleaning. (She goes on to say that in the case of a big, steaming dump, you can in fact use two squares. Why thank you, Mrs. Scrooge). I hope that the idea was in jest, because it seems like an offshoot of that one Seinfeld episode. We should use less paper overall, sure, but there are better ways to go about it; paperless offices, electronic banking, and so on. The stinkpalm is not the way to go.

Here's the deal. I look to entertainers to entertain. I want musicians to perform their craft; not proselytize about how we should ration paper, or to spread disinformation to willing sheeple. I would be more likely to embrace the ideas or opinions of say, Alex Trebek or Penn Jillette, because they've demonstrated intelligence in addition to adeptness while performing. Rosie O'Donnell has demonstrated herself to be a loud talking head, and she has gained popularity because her audience has not bothered to think for themselves or to do any sort of research whatsoever. (How do you think blacksmiths were able to craft swords, Rosie? Duh.) Sheryl Crow can play guitar and sing with the best of 'em, and I like much of her music, but I'm not picking up what she's putting down.
She ought to stick to what she does best. Rosie O'Donnell should just go away.

WASL Woes

After our illustrious President decided that No Child Left Behind would be a good thing to ramrod through Congress, we all get to pick up after him. The main thing that came of it in Washington state is the WASL exam. Taken by high school students, our state legislature decided that only those students who pass all of the sections of the WASL (which is made up of multiple-choice, short answer, problem solving and essay questions on a variety of topics: reading, writing, mathematics, and science are a few), as well as scoring a 2.0 or higher grade point average would graduate from high school. It was thought that these standards would compel students to achieve at a high level, as well as being able to read their own diplomas.

The only problem is that scores were abysmally low across the board in the last year. Roughly a third of all test takers were able to pass all of the required sections, and an altogether too-high percentage of students were unable to attain a 2.0 average to pass high school.

So, rather than sticking to their guns, the legislature decided that the 2.0 requirement would be waived, and that the WASL requirements would be similarly tossed out. In essence, the test means nothing.

I propose that any family that spent money on preparing for the test should file a lawsuit with the state. Furthermore, this sends a horrible message to the students who actually did pass the sections: you might strive for something, but it can be capriciously taken away by someone else's utter whim.

I've had problems with the WASL examination for various reasons, and I don't think it should determine whether a person can graduate, but it is totally unfair to pull the rug out from under students who have been playing by certain rules, only to have the game changed on space #99.

Fie on you, legislators. Fie.

City of Sanctuary

Last week, Rebecca Griego, a researcher at the University of Washington was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Rowan. That's bad enough, but a murder by its own doesn't really rank a mention on the PolitBlog. Probing deeper reveals the meat of the story.

Jonathan Rowan (who killed himself after murdering Griego) was an illegal criminal alien living in the United States. Last year, he was stopped for drunk driving on June 30, 2006. His 90-day visa had long ago expired. During the course of the police inquiry, a simple question would have found out that Rowan was here illegally. In fact, the city of Seattle has been deemed a "sanctuary city" for illegal criminal aliens. Police officers are actually prohibited from asking people for proof of citizenship or residence. Illegal criminal aliens are allowed to freely roam the city, and there is Not One Thing that the police force can do about it.

That's an incredibly stupid law just on its face, but it becomes all the more deplorable when you consider Initiative 30 which was passed back in 1986. Initiative 30 repealed the City of Refuge law passed in January of that year. This is another case of the administrators of the city of Seattle doing whatever they want, giving the middle-finger to their citizens.

A simple residency check would have allowed deportation proceedings to begin, and one more person would not be dead. The blood of Rebecca Griego is on the hands of the City of Seattle administrators, who would rather coddle illegal aliens, living here as criminals, rather than upholding the law, and the will of the people.

Remember that when the next elections come. The City of Seattle administrators are murderers.

Speech: 79¢ or two for a dollar

I would die a happy man if I never again heard that old saw that epitomizes the beliefs of Voltaire, but is misattributed to him: "I disagree with what you have to say but will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." Over the past few years, there has been a mentality in this country that says "If you don't agree with me, then get the hell out." More specifically, this is a mentality that is embraced by those on the religious right. They go even farther, delving into outright hypocrisy; they crow about free speech and the First Amendment, but if it goes against their beliefs, tough on you. While that's just an example, I offer up three cases of people whose speech was denounced because of the message.

Earlier this week, Sean Penn actually got some credibility back with me when he called out President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice for their misuse of our military. Normally, I think the guy is a nutjob, but what he said had to be put out there. Senators and Representatives who might ordinarily stand up to their superior won't, because they fear for their jobs. People who have been saying "Support our troops and not the war!" are marginalized by hawks who wrongly say you can't have it both ways, and that those who don't support the war are cowards or something.

The sad thing is that it took Sean Penn to get the message out.

2) Personally, I'm tired of high schools becoming battlegrounds for political action committees, and this case is no different. The "Day of Silence" is an observance that seeks to increase awareness of the harrassment of homosexuals in schools. (A fine thing to have an observance about, if you ask me.) Anyway, Heidi Zamecnik wants to wear a shirt bearing the words "Be Happy, Not Gay," clearly demonstrating her position on the issue. As you might expect, school administrators nixed the shirt, or said that she couldn't wear it without blacking out "Not Gay." Apparently, it's OK for one group to protest, but when someone else tries, no dice.

3) While we're on the subject, Monroe, Wash. high school student is against the War in Iraq. He chose to protest the action by refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school. A misinformed music teacher said that the law requires students to stand and recite the pledge.

That teacher was wrong. One hundred percent completely out-and-out wrong.

I'm not sure what's worse: that a teacher would bully a student like that, or that the teacher was so badly mistaken when it comes to the law. You can read the article to find out just how far the teacher went in verbally castrating a student just for having a differing view. This is possibly the worst of the trio of stories, mainly because the teacher was dead wrong on the facts.

By allowing these deplorable events to happen, we are degenerating the level of discourse in our country to that of ad hominem attacks, rather than open-minded discussion of issues that are important. We cannot let that happen, and we cannot let events like these continue to take place, otherwise we'll never get there.

More Socialist Stuff

More fun from the Washington State Legislature: currently in the hopper is State Bill 6185 which modifies the Family Medical Leave Act, providing paid leave for employees. We already have unpaid leave for people who need to take care of their families, and I have no problem with that. Sometimes there are just circumstances that mean you need to take some time off, but I resent having to pay for it.

As the bill stands, people can take off five weeks per year paying $250.00 per week for medical leave. In order to pay for this, each worker in Washington state will pay 2¢ per hour into this slush fund to pay for this. This comes out to a bit more than $40 per year.Because I'm a numbers geek, I've done a bit of figuring this stuff out.

Assuming a person invented a sick uncle to care for and ditched the deep fryer at La Taco for five weeks a year for 45 years, Jose Nosepicker would soak the state of Washington for $56,250.00 over that time. For me alone to pay off Jose's time drinking Coronas on the beach for those five weeks of just one year, I must work for 45 years. Assuming someone were to take the entire allotment, that person would have taken off four-and-a-half years for vacation all told over their working life.

I haven't even taken into account the cost of administration and beauraucracy for this program; I'm just doing figures on the cost of people drawing the checks. When you add in the cost of making sure people are actually helping their sick uncle and not on the beach, and the other office type stuff, it becomes clear that we're on the way to some bad news. It's a pyramid scheme for anyone who looks even a bit below the surface of the whole thing, but Washington state's legislature is in some sort of contest with California to become the most socialist state of the union, so we're going to be seeing more of this silliness until someone steps up to smack all of these nutjobs down.

Viaduct Vote

Last week, Seattle held a meaningless "advisory vote" to see what citizens of the area wanted to do regarding the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct. The citizens were given two yes/no propositions: whether to replace the viaduct with another elevated highway or whether to replace the viaduct with a four-lane underground tunnel. The elevated highway garnered a total of 45% of the vote, the tunnel went down like a stack of bricks: out of nearly 100,000 votes, 30% voted for it.

The problems with the vote were many and storied. Firstly, as an advisory vote, it held no sway with what might actually happen. Secondly, with only two measures, each as yes/no, it left out options such as "I would prefer a bridge spanning Elliott Bay," or "I would rather retrofit the viaduct."

Even after both measures go down to defeat, Seattle's very own Mayor Quimby takes the microphone and proclaims "The voters said we do not want another freeway along our waterfront. They want us to find a better answer. Now we have to work hard on how to get it done." Never mind that the voters basically said that they didn't want the tunnel, Mayor McCheese is getting up in front of everyone, and he won't let go of his pie-in-the-sky idea.

What's interesting about this whole thing is that it took me until yesterday to find the quote from the day-after press conference. All quotes I found from Mayor Nickels were from a later speech he made, bloviating about how he is now looking to compromise with everyone on this issue, completely covering up the fact that he got smacked down in the voting booth only a few days ago.

The problem here is a failure on the part of the voting public to toss this guy out. Clearly, he's working for his own self-interests, and the people of Seattle can go screw. Only after they get a vote of no-confidence, or something similar, will the state of affairs improve in the northwest.

Washington State Senate: Out of Touch

If you want an example of how the Washington State is quickly becoming a socialist dystopia, I give you this example. State Senator Adam Kline is one of seven sponsors of SB 5544, an "environmental noise abatement bill" that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to operate an "off-highway vehicle" (ATVs, Quads and the like to you and me) on public lands.

If that was all Kline was after, I wouldn't mind it nearly so much. The problem is that the bill is written in such a way as to suggest that the point of the bill is to reduce noise on public lands. If that were true, there would be no mention of ATVs, personal watercraft, and other noisy vehicles; it would just say "it is against the law to create a noise louder than (x) decibels while on public lands without a permit."

Senator Kline has stated in public e-mails that he dislikes not only off-highway vehicles, but he has outright contempt for those who operate them. He goes on to say that those who disagree with him should feel free to not vote for him next time out. I would wholeheartedly agree with that.

Rather than legislators who are looking out for the public good, we have people who are drunk on power, trying to impose their will on the populace by shoehorning bills through the Senate and House at an unprecedented pace. If we were not at the point of "us against them," that point is rapidly approaching, because at this rate, it won't be long before citizens of Washington state have no rights at all.

Who knew Tom had a brother?

In the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford, Lori and Ryan Pacchiano run a high-end pet products business, catering to rich people who want to put their dog in goofy outfits.

I'm all for dumb people being separated from their money, but I draw the line at pet costumes. But that's not why I'm writing. I'm writing because the name of the store has caused a great deal of controversy: High Maintenance Bitch.

As you can imagine, all sorts of people are getting completely bent out of shape over this. They're complaining about how they walk down that street every day and have to look at that, or having to explain the meaning of that sign to their children. Before you know it, those people are going to ring up the ACLU and campaign to get the sign taken down.

If we live our lives based on not offending the most fragile, easily offended and sensitive out of our population, we'd be living a reenactment of Harrison Bergeron. That's exactly what's happening. Everyone has to walk on eggshells lest something they say is taken out of context or misunderstood (When is the last time you ever said "What a gyp!" and meant to slander a gypsy? That's what I thought.) Political correctness has run amok, and I've had enough. Until we stop kowtowing to those who are choosing to be offended by every little thing, we're going to spend all of our time focusing on this sort of issue, rather than things that are actually important. I want to say that again, beccause it's worth reiterating: we are giving publicity to people who are choosing to be offended by things that are not offensive.

This whole thing wouldn't be an issue if people didn't decide to corrupt the word for a female dog to mean a contemptible woman. Personally, I think it's a great pun, and wish the business good luck. Though I think they'd have more success if they were to open up a side business dealing with garden equipment. Then it could be called "Bitches and Hoes".

Why yes, I'd like an aisle seat and the chicken dinner on my Express Trip to Hell.

Lt. Watada's court martial began down at Fort Lewis yesterday; supporters and opponents came out to demonstrate on both sides, though in admittedly small numbers in either case.

Watada's defense attorney was doing his best to try and make the trial an issue of whether the war was legal or not, but the judge did the right thing and kept that argument out. After all, the legality, or indeed morality of the war are not the question at hand.

The issue at hand for those who don't know: Lt. Watada signed up to join the military in 2003, but when he was assigned to combat in Iraq, chose not to deploy with his unit; declaring he believed the war to be illegal, even though Congress authorized it, and Saddam Hussein repeatedly violated terms of that were codified as part of their unconditional surrender in the first Persian Gulf War.

If every officer decided on his own whether orders were moral or legal, we would have anarchy. Military officers give up that right when they sign on the dotted line. The problem is that those who believe the war is immoral are using a logical fallacy when they try to convince rational thinkers of their position.

I am very confident that this trial will be over quickly, because the Lieutenant doesn't have a leg to stand on, logically or legally. I hope he gets a long stretch in the brig to think about how big of a wuss he is to be a traitor to his country while there are actual heroes on the front line fighting his battle.

Not Leaving on a Jet Plane

I've made it fairly clear that I have zero intent to ever get on an airplane again if I have to travel in the United States, but this story must be told. (And I apologize to my fair readers who have gone without a PolitBlog update for the last two weeks)

On a recent AirTrans flight, a three year old passenger was causing more than a little disturbance. Elly was generally carrying on at the top of her lungs and more importantly, not in her seat. Her parents did not put young Elly in her seat, and the end result is that a late flight takes off without Elly and her two parents.

Fast forward a bit: the family flies home the next day. AirTrans gives the family of three a reimbursement of nearly $600 for missing the flight. In addition, the airline offered the family three round-trip tickets anywhere in the sphere of AirTrans flight.

Am I the only one who reads the nutshell and scratches my head? A young girl causes a flight to be late, possibly ruining the day of 112 passengers, and instead of standing by the FAA rules, AirTrans caves and gives the family three free plane tickets? When the airline did nothing wrong?

I knew that America is gradually becoming a large-scale Bizarro World, but this is ridiculous. The people who should have been reimbursed were the 112 passengers who possibly missed connecting flights, or made their family members worry. But instead, the trouble-makers are paid off for creating a problem, when they should have been told 1) where to go and 2) how fast to get there.

At least $5,000 but not more than $6,000...

I'll be right upfront about this: I think our current President of the United States is a marble mouthed chimp who managed to stay in office because there are enough simpletons in middle America that voted a straight party line without considering the alternatives. And if that didn't shoot my credibility to hell, here's my main point.

In his "plan" for the Iraq War, President Bush wants to commit another 20,000 or so troops to Iraq. The Democrats of Congress, who have had just about enough of being slapped around like Tina Turner, have stood up and collectively said "Nuh-uh." They're not going to give the President a blank check to wear his cowboy hat, fire pistols in the air and yell "Yee-haw!" while he tries to slap a Band-aid on the problem.

President Bush's reply is "Well, what would YOU do about it?" Don't fall for that. You don't have to step in a pile of dog mess to know that it smells like crap, and President Bush is trying to dodge the issue by putting the question on the party in power. Whether the Democrats want to convert all of Iraq to Christianity, or raze the whole thing and put in a Muslim-themed amusement park doesn't matter; they don't have to answer a fallacious question like "If you don't like my plan, why don't you come up with something?" Because they already have: not supplying an infinite number of people to stay around and make sure that Iraq grows in the President's wishes.

Soldiers are not Army Men. When they get shot, or run over, or other horrible circumstances, they get hurt, and die. I don't think the President grasps this. To him, the Army really is the equivalent of a bunch of two-inch tall green guys that will go back into the white tub after playtime is over.

Legal Slavery

One of the first acts of the 110th United States Congress was to raise the national minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85, $6.55, and finally $7.25 on March 11, 2009.

As a note, the state of Washington has the highest minimum wage in all of the land, at $7.93, just raised this past week from $7.63.

This is not just a bad idea. This is crippling to small business, inviting illegal immigrants to stay here, and encourages people to suckle at the government teat for as long as possible, coming to trust the government to provide everything for them.

Small businesses (such as small retailers, service companies and others) live and die by their profit margin. Every time the minimum wage increases, they have two choices: increase prices and potentially drive away customers, or eat the difference.

Immigrants who come here for their piece of the American Dream don't do the kind of work that you would be paid $20 an hour to do. They're picking fruit and things like that.

A wage is your reward for a job performed. People should earn an amount of money similar to the amount of skill or experience it takes to do the job. You do not need life skills to stack boxes, pick fruit or assemble widgets on an assembly line. Those are the stepping stone jobs that you take in order to earn pocket money and experience. Those jobs should pay $5 and $6 an hour. If that, really. There's no reason that running a cash register should be worth $10 an hour to a teenager. But the government thinks it's what's right, so they're going to crush small businesses left and right just because they can.

Finally, and most importantly, if people rely on the government to provide a living wage, it's no stretch to ask the government to provide health care, car insurance, and all sorts of other stuff. We'll become peons at their whimsy. (Of course, some people are already there, and they won't know the difference.)

Whose rights are more important?

In Minnesota, cab drivers who ferry people from the airport to wherever they need to be are claiming that they will not take fares from people who have service dogs, or who are carrying alcohol. The former is deemed unclean, and the later outlawed, so both are outside the realm of what is allowed by the Qur'an. The cab drivers are asserting their First Amendment rights to their freedom of religion.

If this sort of hair-splitting is allowed, we as a country are in for a world of hurt. The freedom of religion grants the freedom to practice whatever religion you want, not to impose your standards on other people. Blind people are being discriminated against, because they are denied a fare if they have a service dog. I would rather grant rights to someone who has a physical challenge than someone who is choosing to run a business in this country.

In this case, the drivers are trying to have it both ways. They want the freedoms of living in our country, but when they have a problem with something, instead of making the decision to undertake a different profession, they cry that their rights are trampled.

I realize that I've been on a "rights" kick as of late, but these stories keep cropping up in the news, and I don't like where our country is headed.