The View From the Outback© 2000 Richard C. Rhodes
A great deal of what we read in newspapers, magazines, and books, and what we see in the movies and on TV is written and produced in New York City or Los Angeles. Much of the "political wisdom" comes from the PR machines of the White House, the Congress, and from the Washington media corps. In short, one might conclude that all knowledge, wisdom, and wit are confined to those who inhabit New York City, Washington DC, or Hollywood. I am now a senior citizen, in my 7th decade. My experience was gained in many cities in the U.S. and in about 30 foreign countries. That experience has included the U.S. Marines, law school, the ATF, the CIA, Fortune 500 executive, writer, public speaker, educator, editor, and publisher - for openers. Some insights come from talking with ham-radio operators in every major country and such idyllic places as the Cook Islands. For over 20 years, I have written articles off and on for various magazines and newspapers. I've had an enormous number of letters published in major national publications. The Outback is the rural area in Northeast Texas where I have lived for the past 15 years. Since most visits to my pages come from searches, I am no longer trying to keep on a regular schedule for updating the Outback. Click on a Topic to go directly to that topic. If you have never eaten at a restaurant with valet parking, you may be a goat-roper. If you have never eaten at a restaurant that requires reservations, you may be a goat-roper. If you think that wine only comes in boxes with a spigot, you may be a goat-roper. Dec. 9, 2005: The NYTimes, reporting on the man killed at the Miami airport by Air Marshals, said that the marshals are the first to board planes, even before the disabled and travelers with young children. If this is true, it is beyond comprehension that the Air Marshals would tip off potential terrorists boarding the plane as to who the marshals are and thus be able to identify where they are sitting. I commented on this at least a year ago, or longer. Dec. 8, 2005: Several times I have noted that my cardiologist is a specialist in congestive heart failure and that one of the mainstays in his treatment regimen is Coenzyme-Q10. Doctors in Germany and the UK studied some elderly patients with heart failure. After an average of 295 days, the patients who had been assigned to get micronutrient supplements experienced significant improvements in cardiac output. Dr. Klaus K. A. Witte, writing in the European Heart Journal for Nov. 2005, said in part: "At present there are few supplements that include the constituents we used. I would generally recommend a combined multivitamin supplement along with zinc, copper, and selenium. I also feel strongly that a high dose Coenzyme-Q10 is important. Most currently available supplements do not have enough Co-Q10." This advice could well be heeded by younger people, and older ones who have yet to experience heart failure. My supplementation regimen goes far beyond those in the report, but does include all of the ones mentioned by Dr. Witte. Dec. 8, 2005: U.S. life expectancy has hit another all-time high — 77.6 years. I find this depressing. I will be 74 in January. Even though I have had bypass surgery and constantly fight a weight problem, I exercise regularly, seldom am sick, and my latest echocardiogram indicated that my heart action is actually improving. So, I find it depressing that apparently I have only 3.7 more years to live. Probably that 77.6-years average includes those who smoke, never exercise, eat donuts for breakfast, drive 20 miles over the speed limit, do not wear a seat belt, drink and drive, drink alcohol excessively, live in smog-ridden large cities with anxiety-producing traffic, fight with their wives, bungee jump, get 3 hours of sleep a night, don't have a rubber mat in the shower, engage in promiscuous sex with partners of questionable health profiles, snort Cocaine, inject Heroin, smoke Crack, and take life too seriously. Life is too serious to be taken seriously. Dec. 7, 2005: Alpha Software, Inc. has introduced Alpha Five Version 7. Although I have used Alpha for years as my sole database, all I track is my diet, exercise, medications, and blood pressure. You can run a large company on Alpha Five, and I am not sure I need to upgrade for my piddling little databases. Take a look at www.alphasoftware.com and see some of the new features in Version 7. If I was still in business, I would have already phoned in my order. Alpha Five is truly a great program. In an earlier Outback, I spoke about us being governed by old geezers, many of whom are of questionable mental competency. To this list, I would like to add Sen. Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican, now 82. He may still have all his marbles, but he is giving new meaning to the word "irascible." He is the committee chairman who refused to have the oil executives sworn in at a hearing. A member of committee asked that they take a vote on whether to swear in the witnesses. Irascible Ted shouted her down and said: "There will be no vote." What a grouch. So, that left the oil executives with the oft-used strategy of "You lie and I'll swear to it - as long as we aren't under oath." Angelina Jolie has been granted Cambodian citizenship. Look for her to open a donut shop in the near future. For those looking for bias on my part, I have several Cambodian friends who operate donut shops. They joke that they are the donut Mafia. You have to have a strong work ethic to get up in the middle of the night and slave over hot ovens. One word of caution. If you get too friendly, they may try to get you to sponsor some drop-dead gorgeous young lady to come and live with you in the States. I was tempted when I saw the lovely sister-in-law in a ball gown in an 8 x 10. So, instead of "you want a drink with that?" - the question is "could I interest you in a beautiful, young, Cambodian bride?" Match.com, the online dating service, is being sued for deceptive practices. I hope they are hit hard in court. In an earlier Outback, I noted my trials and tribulations of meeting people who posted on some of the online dating sites, including in particular the Match.com site. The biggest abuse was women who posted pictures that were at least 30 years old. Men may have been doing the same, but I would not know, as I never tried to date a man. If there is a class-action lawsuit, count me in. Not long ago, I had a thorough exam by my cardiologist, including an EKG and echocardiogram of my heart. To my surprise, my ejection fraction, the percentage of blood pumped out during each heart beat, had increased since my physical about a year ago. Even last year, it was in the high-normal range, but had improved over the past 12 months. I am 73 and had five heart-bypasses a few years ago. I should be going downhill, not uphill. Of course, the higher the ejection fraction, the more efficient your heart. The only thing I could tell the doctor that had changed was that in recent months I had increased my intake of Coenzyme Q10 (BioQuinone Gold Q10) from 200 to 300mg per day, taken 100mg/3 times per day, and was taking a little more L-arginine. My treadmill and other exercise was about the same. He did a blood test specifically to test the level of Q10 and Vit E in my bloodstream. The result: "Your Q10 concentration is perfect!" So, when I read in the "Harvard Heart Letter" for December, 2005, that cardiologists were not generally recommending people take L-carnitine, L-arginine, or Coenzyme Q10 for their heart (I take all three), I got a little angry. I still cannot believe that mainstream cardiologists cannot accept the success stories and the research demonstrating the efficacy of, for example, Q10 and L-carnitine (both "prescribed" by my cardiologist). I am looking for the full 37-page report from which these "non-recommendations" were made. This, I have to read. In the same Harvard Heart Letter, Fish Oil (Omega 3) was recommended as good for your heart. That's some progress. It took them long enough to admit that most people were not able to, or not going to, eat enough Omega-3 rich fish in their diet. And buried in there, if you are not hip to all the terminology, is a recommendation for taking in 2 grams a day of "plant stanols/sterols." These are the ingredients added to butter substitutes like BENECOL and TAKE CONTROL - which have been proven to lower cholesterol. I have reported several times on the efficacy of BENECOL and TAKE CONTROL spreads in lowering cholesterol, if you care about lowering your cholesterol. Sterols have also been added to some Orange juice and some salad dressings. A new drug, which contains PT-141 in an inhaler, is in trials and is said to arouse women sexually. I can see it coming. Men will buy the inhalers, break them open, spread the PT-141 on their hands and neck and say to their lady friends, "Smell my new cologne." In tests with rats, female rats sought out males for mating. I am sure that residents of New York City were unaware that rats need a stimulus to mate. Don't we have enough problems without President Bush going to China and lecturing them about religious, political, and social freedoms? Just be thankful that the Chinese bought a bunch of airliners from us. Who appointed us the Saviour of the World? I know from living overseas for many years and traveling to dozens of countries that people were tired of us "meddling" in their internal affairs 20 years ago. Yet, we persist. Let's find some way to stabilize Iraq, get our troops out, and then shut up and mind our own business for a while. We still have to work with the world community to get rid of the teaching hotbeds for Jihadists - and the climate of hate, but as the French, the Jordanians, and others are finally learning, this is a job for the community of nations, not just the United States. And invading countries apparently only makes the problem worse. Nov. 17, 2005 The Statin Press Release of the Day. Headline: "Statins May Delay Effects of Alzheimer's - Study" (London - Reuters) Without boring you with the study results of a three-year study of 342 Alzheimer's patients, I will only quote the following from the Reuter's release: Does that sound like the promise of the headline? I get so damn mad at the statin makers for putting out these press releases, which if not carefully read, often lead you to false conclusions about statins. I also get upset with the news media who use headlines that are misleading, but nearly always in the favor or the efficacy of statins for yet another medical problem. I swear it's a conspiracy. Oh, to be a hard-hitting investigative reporter for the Associated Press (AP). I noticed that one of their "articles" about a study reported on in Dallas at the meeting of the American Heart Association was datelined Chicago. At least Reuters appears to have somebody in Dallas actually picking up the AHA handouts and recasting them for release under the Reuter's banner. There was a TV program about treating irregular heart rhythms and heart failure on a UCTV show broadcast on a public-service channel on the DishNetwork satellite feed. The presenter was Ulrika Birgersdotter-Green, M.D. (U of
Calif., San Diego), a heart specialist. What got my attention was the constant charts comparing treatment outcomes. The anti-arrhythmic drug Amiodarone, which I have written disparagingly about several times in the past, was in many of the comparisons. In each case where it was cited, Amiodarone was either said to be "ineffective" or a much poorer alternative to an implanted defibrillator/pacemaker (ICD) - when it came to living longer, i.e., mortality as an "end point" of the study. Ventricular fibrillation is one of the few conditions for which Amiodarone is approved for use by the FDA. Even then, at best, it may still be controlling the heart's rhythm 65% of the time after one year - often with life-threatening side effects! Conclusion: those who had the ICD had better survival rates than those who took Amiodarone. In congestive heart failure, the ICD patients had improved mortality over those on Amiodarone. What was interesting about the doctor's presentation was that she talked of improving mortality, not some short term effect on heart rhythm, as is often quoted in the drug studies. (From the medical school Web site re Dr. Ulrika: http://cardiology.ucsd.edu "Research Interests:
Mechanisms of arrhythmias. Pharmacology of arrhythmic drugs, investigation of catheter ablation techniques, investigational defibrillators and pacemakers.") In the past few weeks, I have suffered more indignities and ineptness from corporate America in a short time span than I can ever remember. Let me toss in my dentist, who is an individual proprietor. I drove 30 miles to arrive ahead of time for my teeth cleaning. The door to the office was locked. No note. A lady in the car next to me called on her cell phone and got a message that the office would be closed for a few days. Thanks for the heads up, Doc. Although I have seldom shopped at SEARS in the past 15 years due to some horrendous failures to support my lawn tractor with parts, an advance $600 charge for a treadmill that was on backorder, and other matters. I sent my card back to them years ago. But, I bought a new washer, dryer, and refrigerator about a year ago. The lady said she could qualify me immediately for a new card, so I let her do it. The card came and I did not use it for about a year. Finally, I needed a new microwave the other day. When the clerk swiped the SEARS card, some other person's name came up on the screen with my phone number. You have to verify your card initially by calling from your home phone. The clerk insisted that I sign the receipt, with someone else's name on the screen. I balked. She said that I "had" to sign the receipt so that she could then issue a credit to wipe out the transaction. So, I signed. She asked me for my card to swipe it again. After a somewhat agitated discussion, I said I had enough of wrong names and debits and credits for one day, walked out and went to Home Depot to buy the microwave. About a week later, I decided to test the SEARS "system" again. I bought a $2.49 extension cord, told the clerk my earlier story, and asked him to see in whose name the card appeared to be registered. My name and phone number came up, so I then bought a Carbon Monoxide detector and put it on the card. As I was leaving the store, I noticed a young lady high up on a trestle-type ladder. I was concerned for her safety and looked up, just as I walked over a pile of large cardboard signs she was apparently in the process of hanging. My feet started to go out from under me just like I was slipping on a spill of Olive Oil in aisle three at the grocery. I may be old, but my reflexes are remarkable. I was able to regain my balance utter a loud expletive and "what the hell was that all about?" The three or four employees who had failed to warn me about the potential hazard were frozen. If I had fallen, they could already see me driving up in my new Cadillac and hip replacement with my settlement money. As it was, the sudden shift to prevent falling stained my neck. I am in constant pain. If aspirin and heat don't cure it, I may be visiting a lawyer. The SEARS bill came and sure enough there was the charge and the cancellation for the microwave, which zeroed out. And correct charges for the extension cord and CO detector. On balance, once again, I will go into SEARS only where there is no other alternative, not even to save money. I rented a duplex in a nearby town. The electricity and the natural gas (for the heat and hot water) needed to be hooked up. I went online at the TXU electric site late at night and filled out an application. In a matter of minutes, I got an e-mail telling me that my account was established and that due to my excellent credit, there would be deposit required. The electricity would be turned on in a couple of days, without me needing to be there. Now, the fun began, trying to get the gas hooked up from ATMOS Energy. First, I went online and filled out their application for service. In short order, I got a copy of my application as an e-mail in my IN box, but no indication that an actual order had been established. The next day, I called the ATMOS 800 number. I got the office near New Orleans, which did not handle my district, and they gave me a number for ATMOS in Austin, TX. I called the ATMOS number and was on hold for ONE HOUR and 48 minutes (on a speaker phone while I did other things) and finally hung up in disgust. I called back and got a voice mail choice that said to leave your number and they would call you back within an hour. In just over an hour, I got a call from a very pleasant lady in Austin, who said they had no record of my online application. She started over and took all my information and told me that the ATMOS man would be at the duplex sometime between 8 a.m. and close of business on the following Monday. This is worse than the cable guy. The water guy from the city actually came within the 1-3 p.m. window they had promised, and the cable guy was there well within the afternoon time-frame we had set up. It was about time somebody got it right. Well, there was no cable TV outlet in the room where I wanted my cable modem set up. He was obligated, I guess, to crawl around in the attic and run a new line to that room. I just told him to run a long coax from the bedroom to the computer room, and I tossed a carpet remnant over the coax to keep from tripping over it. I told him I was not planning on having the place featured in Architectural Digest. Just run the cable across the hallway. He won't find many who will agree to that! I pay most of my bills online through one of the largest banks in America. Never has an online payment failed to get credited in more than two days. Except for FINA. I got a bill from them saying that I owed over $100, a late fee of $15 and finance charges for the overdue payment. I checked my online account, found the transaction number where I had made the payment to FINA, but there was also an e-mail that said FINA had refused my payment at the address my bank had on record. My bank actually cut a check and forwarded it to FINA. I documented all this and sent it to FINA and said that their computer was screwed up because I had been paying FINA bills online for years. I said that by now they should have gotten the check from my bank for the $100+ I had supposedly transferred to FINA electronically. I said I was not paying the late fee or the finance charge because the problem was obviously with their computer. Weeks later, I got a letter from FINA telling me that they got my payments, but they made no mention of crediting the late fee or the finance charge. Well, that was a couple of months ago. I have not received a statement from FINA, and I have not used my FINA card, and do not intend to until they send me a statement showing that the late fee and finance charge was zeroed out. Actually, I probably will send them my card and tell them I do not want to do business with a company that responded to my pages of documentation, including showing the date the payment was deducted from my checking account, with a note that made no mention of the disposition of the late charges or the finance charge. No. I have a better idea. I am going to charge $1.00's worth of gas on my FINA card and see what the statement says when I get it. Late fees and finance charges on there from before and they get the shredded card in the mail, with a check for $1.00. It's not over. I went to see my cardiologist in Tyler, about a 2 1/4 hour drive from here. He wrote me a prescription to renew my blood pressure meds. The next morning I sent the Rx to Express Scripts, my mailorder drug plan. After I did not get the pills in a month, I called to check on my order. They said they had no record of the new prescription. But, they said they would call my doctor and get authorization, and I would have the meds in about 5 business days. The shipment came from Express Scripts, but missing was a generic of a drug they had supplied me for years.I got a note from Express Scripts saying that the drug missing from the shipment was not on their "formulary." That's BS. Even worse, they included a photocopy of the original prescription which they said they never received! They will ship anything, just that the stuff on the formulary is the cheapest. And I downloaded the formulary. My missing drug (and the generic form) was clearly on the formulary! Idiots. I ended up going to a local pharmacy, calling my doctor on my cell phone and paying about 4 times the normal price for a 30 day supply of the missing prescription. Another call to Express Scripts and they mumbled something that made no sense and said they would ship the missing drug within a few days. We'll see. (It is now Dec. 20th, about a month later, and even though the guy at ExpressScripts gave me a reference number for the order and shipment, no pills have arrived! Somebody may be sampling the products!) In fairness, Express Scripts has an automated re-order system for prescriptions already on file. They never have goofed up one of those re-orders. They will even call you or e-mail you that your stuff is being shipped, if you opt for that service, which I did this week! The problem apparently is with new, mailed-in, prescriptions - or talking to a human. Who would have thought we would reach a day when it is preferable talking to a computer rather than to a person? It ain't over. While visiting my cardiologist in Tyler, I had blood drawn by a well-know lab. This week, I got a bill for several hundred dollars for the blood tests. I went to a branch office in this area and the sweet young lady made a quick call and discovered that the insurance claim had been turned down because (1) My middle initial on my Medicare card had been omitted by the clerk in the Tyler office (2) One of the numbers in my Medicare card had been entered into the computer in Tyler with a wrong number. I was assured that now all was well. We'll see. But, what really shocked me were the dollar amounts charged by this national lab for the blood analysis. Two tests for Thyroid function alone were a total of $266. Another test was $142, and there were several other charges. Somebody is getting very rich from this. The blood analysis is done by machine. One technician can do several hundred tests per machine per day, no doubt. Once that machine is paid for (which I am guessing at these prices is about one month) there is office overhead, the salary of the technician, and the 5 cents for the printout. If you think gas prices are high, check your bills for your next blood test - or any other medical diagnostic. Outrageous.What an interesting couple of weeks it has been. Normally, I drink a glass or two of wine or a beer with dinner. This past week, I bought a bottle of Bourbon and it is gone. That for me is excessive. Now, the trick is not to try to hook up any more utilities, or go to the doctor, or fill a prescription, go into SEARS, or buy any gas from FINA. But, when I watch the evening news and see the continuing struggle of those who lost everything in Katrina, Rita and other disasters, I ask myself "what have you really got to complain about?" The problem is that when I was in government and in business, I prided myself on always doing the very best I could. I no longer see that work ethic, either in government or in the business world. My only message to those victims of the disasters is that FEMA is not your only problem. Local and state governments, and public utilities, will continue to let you down, even when you manage to get a roof over your heads. The Federal government and FEMA have monopoly on ineptness. It is pandemic in our society. Cruel Republicans Cut Food Stamp BenefitsThe U.S. House voted (217-215) to cut $700 million from the food-stamp program. About 25.8 million Americans (and legal immigrants) receive food stamps. The total food-stamp bill is $35 Billion a year! This program, along with Medicare, is one of the most abused government entitlement programs. More than 20 years ago, I began to see fraud and abuse in the program and started writing the USDA, Congress, White House, etc., about the waste. I suggested then, as I do now, that if they hired hundreds more investigators to examine food-stamp fraud, that each investigator would pay for his or her salary 100 times over in cutting down on fraud and abuse in the program. It became apparent that nobody was willing to attack this sacred cow, so I gave up writing about it. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) runs the program. Here are some comments from their Web site:Food stamps can only be used for food and for plants and seeds to grow food for your household to eat. Food stamps cannot be used to buy: * Any nonfood item, such as pet foods; soaps, paper products, and household supplies; grooming items, toothpaste, and cosmetics * Alcoholic beverages and tobacco * Vitamins and medicines * Any food that will be eaten in the store * Hot foods With my own eyes I have seen rampant abuse of the food-stamp program, including the buying of prohibited items, getting on the food-stamp roles through misrepresentation of income, etc. Many years ago, I remember a high-paid construction worker in Hawaii (imported from the mainland for a condo project) using food stamps to buy a hot meal and cigarettes in a local place. He obviously earned way too much money to legally qualify, and admitted as much to me. This is one of hundreds of instances, which I have either witnessed or learned about from friendly grocers who hated to see their tax money used in a program with so much fraud and abuse. One of the goals of the legislation is an effort to narrow overly-broad exemptions from the food stamp program's eligibility limits. Some needy families may lose their food-stamp eligibility (no doubt the number is grossly exaggerated), but there is still the free school lunch program, WIC (serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care). There are government warehouse giveaways of cheese and other staples, and free meals given away by all manner of secular and religious shelters. When I see an obviously poor person paying $4 for a pack of cigarettes, I wonder how many hungry kids at home they might be feeding instead, when you add up the week bill for the cigarettes. And if it is a man, I wonder if he is even living with the mother and children and/or contributing to their support. What really gets my attention is the constant flow of "hungry people" (excluding those from the recent hurricane disasters) that we see on TV. So often that "hungry person" is about 50-100 pounds overweight! How many meals could they have missed? I know this is a fantasy, but suppose there was a new test for food-stamps and other food aid. You and your family have to weigh in and be within 20 percent of the "normal" weight for you height and body build. If you are too heavy, no subsidy. Wait till you miss enough meals that you have lost that 50-100 pounds of excess weight. Under that test, I would get nothing. Not a stick of cheese. Not a bag or rice. And I would think that was fair. My health would actually improve in the bargain. Also, if you smoked cigarettes, you would get nothing. Or, if you drank alcoholic beverages, you would get no food subsidy. A cost of a fifth of Bourbon will buy a lot of rice and beans. The Government would get a two-fer; less costs for food subsidies, and lower Medicaid and Medicare costs. Such a deal. If the State of Texas can say that you cannot qualify for a concealed handgun permit if you still owe on a student loan (what?), then surely the U.S. Government can attach some caveats to its giant entitlement programs. Oh, but that's cruel! Crap. What is cruel is continuing to foster a climate of dependence upon the government for our every need. We are breeding a bunch of kids who think that the world owes them a living. That music is free, that software is free - that food is free, just for the taking or asking, that a job is a right not a privelege, and that they "deserve" a new car while in high school - and on and on. The $700 million in cuts does not come close to the amount lost through fraud and abuse each year. How long can the government pour money down a rat hole and ignore the problems? The same with Medicare fraud and abuse. If this bill fails to pass both the House and Senate, it would prove once again how gutless our legislators are. How To Store Bananas
What Sense Does It Make to Declare The Child Of An Illegal Immigrant A U.S. Citizen?Many of us cannot understand how a person who is born in the U.S. of an immigrant, who is not a U.S. citizen, can be automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Among other things, this invites pregnant women to cross our borders and use our emergency rooms and hospitals to give birth to children who are automatically citizens. Many ERs, clinics, and hospitals along our border with Mexico have been forced to close due to the enormous financial burden placed on them for free medical care to illegal immigrants. This is but one disaster that flows from our moronic immigrations laws and misguided court decisions. A letter-to-the-editor in the Wall Street Journal, written by Prof. John C. Eastman, appeared in the Dec. 6th edition of the Journal, and is quoted here in its entirety because of the brilliant insight it provides into the mess we have gotten ourselves into by having the Constitution mean whatever the liberals want it to mean to achieve an end result: LETTERS Constitution's Citizenship Clause Misread Tamar Jacoby ("Kiss the Melting Pot Goodbye," Nov. 19) finds my interpretation of the Constitution's Citizenship Clause "alarming" because it would permit Congress "to exclude illegal immigrants by statute" rather than by constitutional amendment. Ms. Jacoby's argument demonstrates a misunderstanding of the Constitution's mandate and the political theory on which it is based. The 14th Amendment provides that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens . . . ." To treat the last clause as describing merely territorial jurisdiction, as Ms. Jacoby does, is to render the clause superfluous. Even temporary visitors are subject to U.S. jurisdiction in that sense; everyone here has to obey our traffic laws, for example. The clause must therefore mean something much more -- an allegiance-owing jurisdiction. The debates in the Congress that approved the clause, and the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court justices who first interpreted it, confirm this understanding. Sen. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland explained during floor debate, for example, that "all this amendment provides is, that all persons born in the United States and not subject to some foreign power -- for that no doubt is the meaning of the committee who have brought the matter before us -- shall be considered as citizens of the United States." The author of the provision, Sen. Jacob Howard, announced that the clause "will not, of course, include foreigners." The Supreme Court first considered the clause in the Slaughter-House Cases of 1872, unanimously recognizing that the phrase "was intended to exclude from its operation children of . . . citizens or subjects of foreign States born within the United States." This view was confirmed in the 1883 case of Elk v. Wilkens. The phrase, according to the court, meant "not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance." Children of temporary visitors to the United States, particularly those who are here illegally, owe primary allegiance to their parent's country, not to the U.S., and are therefore not guaranteed citizenship by the terms of the 14th Amendment. Congress retains the power to offer citizenship more broadly than the Constitution requires, of course, pursuant to its plenary authority over naturalization. To date, it has not done so. In 1898, the Supreme Court raised the citizenship floor mandated by the Constitution slightly, to include children of legal, permanent residents who, by virtue of a treaty with the Chinese emperor, were never eligible for citizenship themselves. But to read the holding in Wong Kim Ark as determining that the Constitution also mandates automatic citizenship to children of temporary, illegal immigrants not only presses the Constitution's text beyond the breaking point, but significantly intrudes on Congress's plenary power over naturalization. More fundamentally, such a view permits illegal immigrants, by their unilateral and illegal action, to demand membership in a political community supposedly grounded on mutual consent. It permits people such as Yaser Esam Hamdi, who clearly owed his primary allegiance to a foreign power and who was captured in Afghanistan in armed conflict against the U.S., to lay claim to the protections of citizenship merely because he was born in Louisiana while his father was on a temporary work visa. And it prevents Congress from making the critical policy judgments about the level of sustainable immigration that the Constitution deliberately assigns to it, providing instead a strong incentive for illegal immigration that fosters the kind of separatist communities within our midst that have produced mass riots in France. We should be heartened, not "alarmed," that Congress is beginning to take its responsibility over immigration seriously. Dr. John C. Eastman My apologies to the WSJ if you think I have violated your copyright by publishing the above letter. I give you a lot of free publicity and note that the WSJ is my "paper of record," not the NYTimes or the Washington Post. The WSJ online is the only publication I pay a fee to view, and will remain the only one. Also see: www.vdare.com/sutherland/weigh_anchor.htm - and - www.vdare.com/fulford/hamdi.htm Return to the List of TopicsCOPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes You are welcome to quote sections from this page - or the whole page, as long as the source URL is included. Of course, I would be flattered if anyone linked to this page. It is very hard to be the writer, editor, fact checker, copy editor, and publisher of anything. So, I beg your forgiveness for the many mistakes that creep in. Suggested Reading From Past Columns Click Here for Suggested Reading List Archive of Back Issues Media List of Addresses and e-mails Postal Service State Abbreviations, etc. Postal Service Abbreviations - Richard C. Rhodes End |