Make no mistake, illegal immigrants will be included

During the Presidential campaign last year, Barack Obama insisted that his health care reform plan would not cover illegal immigrants.

During a recent interview with Katie Couric he said the same thing - almost:

Asked by CBS News' Katie Couric in an exclusive interview whether illegal immigrants should be covered under a new health care plan, President Obama responded simply, "no." But he said there may need to be an exception to that policy for children.
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"The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children," he continued. "Partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren't getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception."

If you provide health coverage to schoolchildren, then how can you deny it to their mothers? And their fathers? And their siblings?

The debate is still raging, and currently stalled in Congress. But it's likely that in the end, we will have a plan very similar to Germany's, where employees and their families are covered by their employer's health insurance, and unemployed persons are covered directly by the government.

But here is my prediction, and this is one of the few that I can be 99% certain of. Whatever plan we end up with for the unemployed, illegal immigrants will be able to sign up like everyone else. Why? Because:

1. In many areas (such as "sanctuary cities"), administrative clerks for the government plan will be or prohibited by law to ask anyone about their immigration status. Merely asking someone will be considered "racial profiling".

2. People will argue, with some merit, that they while they are here, they need health care coverage like everyone else to prevent communicable diseases from spreading.

3. The "no human is illegal" crowd will claim that they deserve health care like everyone else, which is hard to refute, especially when you run ads featuring children's faces.

But there is a problem with all these arguments - a very simple rule that has been true from the dawn of civilization:

YOU CAN'T HAVE OPEN BORDERS AND A GENEROUS WELFARE STATE AT THE SAME TIME!

Eventually it will collapse under its own weight. And when it does, the tragedy of it will be too real for me to even enjoy gloating over being right.

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Michael Jackson "embraced black culture"? [Updated]

A couple of screenshots from CNN this week

In all the hype about Michael Jackson following his death, some, even CNN, have thrown sanity to the winds. In what way did MJ "embrace black culture"? In fact, his legacy was the exact opposite. The man radically altered his appearance to that of a white man, even bleaching his skin to alabaster. He dated only white women. He married only white women, and adopted/claimed only purely white children. He created monuments to himself and did everything he could to make people forget that he came from a large, poor, black family in Gary, Indiana.

Some in Congress are already calling for him to be honored for his charity work with an official resolution and for him to be put on a postage stamp. Artists have been put on postage stamps before, but which version of Michael Jackson would they use?

As with anyone, particularly with a controversial figure such as this, I would advise waiting a while before laying all sorts of honors on this man. We still don't know the exact cause of his death, and in the ensuing custody and financial battles, I have a feeling all sorts of salient details about his life are going to emerge.

UPDATE 14 JULY 03:05 PM:
Several News Outlets are reporting that 12 people worldwide have committed suicide in grief over Michael Jackson's death. Good Lord, some people have misplaced priorities in life...

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