Right To Drive?

Five illegal immigrants are suing the state of Oregon because they are displeased with the turnout of a vote as to whether or not we should grant illegals licenses.  Their claim is that granting them licenses would make it easier for them to find jobs.  However, that is not a valid argument since they do not legally have these jobs in the first place. Thirty-five of the thirty-six counties in Oregon voted against allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a U.S license. Some people are claiming that the vote passed by Oregon is a racial matter but that’s not entirely fair since we have nothing to compare it to.  It just so happens that the majority of illegal immigrants happen to be from Mexico or Central America.  

If these people are here working hard and paying sales and property taxes why shouldn’t they be allowed to drive? Because illegal immigration isn’t a victimless crime.  Currently, the amount of money they pay does not cover the amount that they take (Seminal study of the costs of immigration by the National Academy of Sciences).  Most of this is from schooling young children all the way up until graduation.  Of course these people are trying to make a life for themselves, plus they benefit legal Americans by working for a lower price but that gap in pay continues to get smaller.  

If Oregon had granted illegal immigrants licenses, it would have been an inconsistency in our system.  We have laws set in place for a reason and until they are changed, we can not provide illegals with more rights.  

Ivan is completely correct in his blog American Governments.  The first thing that I thought when I read this blog was, How many people are really making minimum wage? There are actually 3.0 million people who make either minimum wage or below which surprised me.  His point about the affects of a large increase in pay is correct.  Statistics have shown that a small rise would not do much harm for our economic system.  However, a large increase would in fact raise prices.  Businesses would have to compensate by raising prices.  Large touristy cities wouldn't be bothered by this since they can essentially raise prices to whatever they please and people will still pay.  If anything maybe we can appreciate that our society is one that is attempting to help the people in need.  

Wham Bam No Thank You Ma'am

Prostitution is often referred to as “the worlds oldest profession”.  It is a branch of the sex market that has a revenue of roughly $186 billion dollars worldwide.  Recently, more people have begun to feel less comfortable about the sex trade, or prostitution, being illegal.   Amnesty International is proposing that we should decriminalize the sex trade.  They claim that sex workers can be harassed, beaten, and sometimes have their issues ignored by police.  They seem, at first glance, to not be given the basic human rights that they deserve. 

Amnesty International  claims that legalizing sex work will lower violence towards prostitutes.  They state that if we legalize prostitution, the violence on prostitutes will go down because they will no longer be treated like criminals so women will feel more open to going to the police when a crime is committed to them.  However, many people are concerned that if we legalize the sex trade the demand for prostitutes will be raised, resulting in more victims of human trafficking.  Decriminalizing the sex trade may fix some problems but it has the potential of leading to countless more.  One of the many problems with prostitution is that it degrades women and makes them appear as objects available for men to buy, use, and then discard.  I am against the decriminalization of the sex because of the message that it sends about our society and about where woman stand with men.

A popular claim made about this subject is that if prostitution was no longer a crime, the amount of rapes would go down.  Using an example from our own country we can see that this is not entirely true.  Prostitution in Nevada is currently legal inside of a licensed brothel.  Even though this is a legal place provided for prostitutes to work, the state of Nevada is number 36 on a list for the most rapes in the country.  (50 being the worst)

I do not think that the government should get further involved in this business.  Prostituting yourself is not a job and I think that us, as a nation, need to treat it like the crime that it is.  

Democrats protect each other better than Republicans do

This article, written by Ed Rogers, is written for really anyone who can understand it, it is simply yet well written.  Ed Rogers has contributed many editorials to The Washington Post so he would surely be considered a credible author.  In this article Rogers claims that Democrats protect each other even if the act committed may be illegal.  He uses the example of the recent case involving Hillary Clinton.  Clinton admits to keeping important government emails on an unprotected server and personal email account.  This is controversial because  it is clearly against government protocol to keep classified emails on a personal server.  President Obama, who is a fellow Democrat, seems to dismiss this as irrelevant even though the FBI has launched a further investigation.  This isn't the first time Obama has done this for another Democrat.

  Republicans, on the other hand, seems to have no problem turning on each other.  I definitely agree with Rogers since his evidence is very sound. However, I think it would be nice to have honest, hardworking people running our government who neither put each other down or hide information, this is something we should strive for. 

Click here for the Full Article

Immigrants are not the only victims of immigration restrictions

Are immigrants the only victims of immigration restrictions?  Ilya Somin would agree, Somin is a professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law in Virginia. He attended Harvard, Amherst, and Yale Law School.  He regularly writes for political blogs as well as focusing on constitutional and property law.  We should start by defining the term immigrant.  Somin doesn’t make a clear distinction between immigrants who enter our country legally, using our current immigration system, and immigrants arriving under the radar.  Somin claims that immigration laws effect the natives of a country just as much as the immigrants.  He says that because of the immigrants coming into our country it is placing unnecessary laws upon us.  I personally find it hard to agree with his view since he doesn't supply many examples to back up his argument.  Immigration laws are not heavily enforced anywhere in America.  Native U.S citizens are not, to my knowledge, being regularly harassed about their citizenship while going about their daily lives.  Somin compares the effects of immigration laws on natives to racial segregation laws on whites.  

It is hard to distinguish which side Somin is leaning towards because he appears to take many views.  Perhaps he is just trying to stay objective but it comes across as indecisive.  This article was written for the Washington Post, the most widely circulated newspaper in America, so his intended audience was probably conservative white males.  I think what Somin is trying to say is that we can’t increase the restrictions on immigration without negatively impacting American Citizens. 

Click here to see the full article

Oklahoma delays Richard Glossip's execution

Richard Glossip, who is now 51, has been on death row for seventeen years.  Glossip’s boss was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a man named Justin Sneed, who claims that he committed this act because Glossip had promised him 10,000 dollars if he did.  Because of this testimony Sneed was sentenced to life in prison, while Glossip was put on death row.  

Now, years later, the Supreme Court has taken up a case claiming that Oklahoma’s method of lethal injection is unconstitutional.  This method was already under investigation due to a death row inmate’s execution that caused him to die of a heart attack 45 minuets after being injected with a, never before tested, mixture of drugs.  Glossip’s very soon execution has been put on hold by the governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin in order to allow time for this case to unfold.  

Glossip’s lawyers may take this brief pause on his sentence to try and find more evidence to prove that he is innocent.  But for now Glossip is enjoying his time here on earth by visiting with his family who he has not seen in years.

For all the details, see the full article.  

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