Danno

True. Both of those factors are huge here, as well.

Amen, Harry. You and your family are examples of legal immigration. True immigrants who worked in the existing system, not played it. You're right . . . the system is not "broken" per se, but there are a lot of people who are not willing to invest the time and effort to follow the rules. They would rather break the system to get what they want on their terms. And there is nothing about the 'amnesty' they dream of and demand that is fair to the millions who have followed the rules, let alone the hundreds of millions of citizens who have to pay the freight. Having said that, I believe the system needs to be improved. Improved . . . streamlined and speeded up . . . but not circumvented. It takes too long for lawful, law abiding and respectful immigrants to negotiate the existing system to earn citizenship. But amnesty in any form is not the right answer. And the system cannot be improved by cheating it. Yet so many equate gaming/playing/cheating and circumventing as their right. Demanding the rules be ignored or thrown out for them is not respectful of the system they so claim to want to participate in, and it is certainly not good citizenship. It just isn't acceptable. But it isn't practiced by the majority. It is practiced by a loud minority. A few years ago when Arizona passed laws prohibiting or restricting illegal immigrants from entitlements, certain factions demonized the will of the majority of the people as mean-spirited and xenophobic, anti-immigration and anti-Mexican. What those factions did not acknowledge was that the majority of legal immigrants, even those of Mexican origin or Spanish-speaking ethnicity supported the anti-illegal-immigration efforts of the laws. Credible, non-partisan polls showed more than 60% of voters (read that citizens) who identified themselves of Hispanic ethnicity supported the efforts to limit the benefits of citizenship to legal citizens and those working legally toward legal citizenship. Yet outsiders demonized them along with anyone else who supported the legitimately established laws. Just like the unfortunate former marine who sits in a Mexican jail with no rights, none of us could go to Mexico and demand special treatment. And Pete's right on another point. 'Spanish-speaking' does not mean 'illegal immigrant.' I hope he doesn't think I believe that. My point about the language is that ~ just as Harry highlights ~ legal immigrants who want to work for and earn citizenship should make the effort to assimilate, not insulate, themselves into the society they purport to want to join. But what we see is so very many who immigrate illegally and have absolutely no desire or intention of assimilating or learning the language of the land, who arrogantly defy the majority by refusing (not failing) to learn English. Again, one cannot go to another culture and demand it change to accommodate oneself. Yet so many come here and demand everyone else accommodate them. We have public hospitals where 2/3rds of the babies delivered are delivered to illegal immigrant parents who speak no English and have no insurance or means of paying for the expense of bringing babies into existence. And have absolutely no desire to pay for the expense. They 'demand' equal rights to benefits, yet have no inclination to earn them. They work, yes, but many do so under the table so they won't be found out, and there's no paying taxes involved in that. There are whole families of siblings brought into the world in that fashion, and yet their parents are not working toward legal status or citizenship, they're just working toward more benefits underwritten by the lawful citizens, people like me, and Harry, and Pete, and Pete's son-in-law. I seriously laud the type of immigration Harry's family represents. That is what makes us stronger through diversity, not the gamers and players who just want the spoils without the investment.

Amen, Jeff. Remember, folks. The Postal Inspectors don't work for or with the Postmaster or the people at your local post office. The Postal Inspectors won't cover for them or cover up for them.

Beautiful color, beautiful model!

Brizio, Mark, After you contact the Postmaster on something like that and they cannot come up with a legitimate explanation (given to neighbor so-and-so, etc.), then you should make a complaint to the Postal Inspection Service for STOLEN mail. Don't let the letter carrier or the Postmaster slough it off as 'lost,' insist on labeling it as stolen mail by filing a complaint with the Postal Inspectors. They are charged with the responsibility of investigating mail theft, but they don't get involved in lost mail. If the letter carrier is pilfering mail, or 'losing' it so you'll pick up packages at the post office, the Postal Inspectors will likely find additional complaints. Or, they may discover an extraordinarily high percentage of 'lost' mail on the letter carrier's route. Or, the letter carrier may suddenly "find" your lost mail once he/she is contacted by the Postal Inspectors. Some flies require big hammers.

And in Colorado, they now grow their own 'grass.'

PS: I won't post any more on the topic.

Gabe, I can't respond fully to your remarks here because any comprehensive discussion here would be deemed "political" even though not meant to be political in nature. However, even if only two out of the six you cited were illegal immigrants it would be an 'inordinate percentage' when comparing the number of unlicensed non-citizen transient drivers (or whatever term would be acceptable when describing people who did not immigrate legally) to the number of legal, licensed drivers in Arizona. The population of Arizona is 7.2 million. There are estimated to be 400,000-500,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona, or expressed as a percentage, approximately 6%. Yet, at least 33% (2 of 6) of the examples of head-on, wrong way collisions involved non-English speaking/reading/writing and possibly illegal immigrants. That's what I meant by an inordinate percentage. And, regardless of immigration status, the key is those who drive but are unable to read highway signage because they are foreigners who refuse to learn English. But you do call to mind a good distinction: There are also many people in Arizona who refuse to speak/read/write English but brandish the flags of foreign countries and refuse to assimilate yet still expect and demand to collect US benefits, and yet may be here somehow legally either by amnesty or anchor 'citizenship' or overstaying visas. I did not mean to imply at all that every non-English speaker was an illegal immigrant or 'undocumented worker' or whatever euphemism is the term du jour. If anyone got that impression, they were mistaken and I'm sorry it was unclear. And, neither police agencies nor the mainstream news media (especially) are going to draw public correlations to 'illegal immigrants.' It is not politically correct. Law enforcement/public agencies are too afraid of the public relations backlash, and it's all part of the news media's social agenda to downplay any such observations, regardless.

You should live here, Ace. An incredible percentage of signs, advertisements, billboards, and printed matter is in Spanish. There are areas of the metro area where you can drive for blocks without seeing any English. MVD provider "readers" to read the the driving test in Spanish for those entitled drivers who WON'T read, write, or speak/hear English to get a driver license. As an aside, we've had a number of 'wrong-way' head-on crashes on our interstate highways (almost one or two each week for months), wherein drivers were traveling the wrong way at freeway speeds and clobbered innocent drivers. An inordinate percentage were illegal immigrants, many of whom were intoxicated and some of whom had been deported multiple times before. None of them would speak/read/write English. All the "Wrong Way" signs are printed in English. I agree, Ace, English is this country's language. It's deplorable that the second choice for so many phone and message systems in the USA is English. I might add (before the flame throwers crank up) that I am not xenophobic or anti-immigration. I am very pro LEGAL immigration. Legal immigrants who WANT to live in the United States and assimilate into our culture and country are welcome. But they can't accomplish assimilation into the land of their "dreams" by refusing to speak English. If they want to live in an exclusively Spanish-speaking culture, they should return to such a country. And, part of assimilation into the USA is speaking English, becoming citizens through legal process, and NOT running around waving their old flag when they want to demand MORE freebies from our government. Millions of honest, hard-working, wonderful immigrants from many countries have done it the right way for generations. I am anti-illegal immigration, just as I am anti-burglary, anti-trespassing, and anti-other criminal activity.

Kudos to you, Chris! That's an amazing achievement for which you deserve to be very proud! I know it's been hard work, but the rewards are awesome. Go get another 10!

Because they blow they're full of hot air and they whine all the time.

Agreed. Actually, I'm irked by sweeping, usually ignorant, generalizations about any type or group of people.

WOW!

Wow! Outstanding so far, Mike!

Need somebody to carry your briefcase?

Martinfan5/41 asked if there was a picture of the antenna. I posted the original pic of the chrome tree, pointing out where the antenna was. Then he went back and edited his post (#130) to read totally differently than it was before. As a result, it made my post (#131) appear to be a total non-sequitur or random thought, I guess.

I'm not decided yet, but I'm pretty sure that's one of the very dumbest things I've ever heard of! Way, way stupider than air guitar. Way.

Right side of the tree, directly below the grille, above the upper right wheel, tagged as "P24."

I, for one, certainly don't disagree with what you're saying. I just think that's what Brett meant.

I think he was referencing R2 and Revell, both of whom are regularly called 'idiots' and worse on a regular basis by about 3-4 regulars. From their (R2 and Revell) perspectives, why would you want to post someplace where they're automatically going to attract hecklers of that order?

Nice.

What kids today DON'T know?

Little known fact, Pete: There are a couple of other categories of membership eligibility with USAA,regardless of military history. They are: USAA employees, federal law enforcement agents (FBI, Secret Service, ATF, DEA, CIA, NSA, Postal Inspectors, Attorneys General ~ but not Protective Service guards), presidents, vice-presidents, and cabinet secretaries, high-ranking federal government officials, congressmen and senators, and superstar celebrities. The beauty of USAA is every member is treated equally, regardless of class or stature ~ ~ ~ so long as a member doesn't try to cheat USAA. Try to steal from USAA and you're deemed 'permanently ineligible.' Integrity counts big time. And, yes. It's hard to beat the pricing and impossible to beat the service and the benefits. Edit: Almost forgot ~ federal judges and justices.

So very far beyond cool . . . unimaginable!

Dittos!