ExtraOrdinary Times - ExtraOrdinary Thoughts! Page 5

semi-truck trailers, or subjected to arduous, dangerous overland treks through the Sonoran desert. Not only are these treks destroying the environment, they are deadly in the summer when temperatures reach upwards of 115°F. A lucrative trade has sprung up by drug runners (also called "coyotes") who supplement their income by bringing in illegal immigrants.

Once at their destination, they are at the complete mercy of their employer. An illegal employee can be used to perform hazardous (and sometimes illegal) duties that law abiding workers would balk at. Illegal employees work for much cheaper wages than American workers, they can't strike, and often live in overcrowded conditions to compensate for the low salaries. Some are even cheated out of their wage by unscrupulous employers who simply don't pay the workers once the job is done.

These actions are eating at the fabric of what made America great... a vibrant middle class. The competition for jobs between illegal immigrants and American workers is polarizing this country. Although many employers are claiming that they can't find the labor they need in the United States, my personal experiences have led me to conclude that it is simply greed, laziness, and an unwillingness to invest in the future.... their employees!

Who Are You?

It has been estimated that there are 12 million (or more) illegal aliens (not the extraterrestrial type) in this country. Amnesty programs have been proposed (although it is more like amnesty for big business who created this mess) and many anguish over separating families. It has been pointed out the impossibility of transporting 12 million people. This is nonsense... those 12 million had to be transported into the country in the first place to be here illegally! The immigration issue will take care of itself IF the border is secured AND the government strictly enforces current laws... especially those governing identity theft.

What should concern every American is the wholesale corruption of the Social Security database facilitated by hiring of illegal immigrants by Fortune 500 companies and their "subcontractors". Illegal immigration has been a boon to those trafficking in bogus documents, often based on the wholesale theft of people's identity. Employers that knowingly accept bogus documents are guilty of facilitating identity theft. The effectiveness of the laws that are already in place is dependent upon their enforcement. Passing more legislation will do nothing if there is no effort to enforce it anyway. At this point, it is the President's problem, since it is his job to enforce laws.

Already, stricter enforcement of the current laws is leading to a number of illegals returning to their homelands. Furthermore, the identity theft cases that were pursued against meatpacking plants has already exposed the lie that Americans don't want to work. When meatpacking plants were raided there were massive lines of applicants ready to retake their positions.

We need to get a handle on on the WHOLE human energy issue. This issue includes the use of outsourced labor through "free" trade agreements as well as the use of illegal immigrants. On a truly level playing field, outsourcing would be very unprofitable due to ever increasing transportation costs. The reduction of humans to a commodity to be traded is a sad commentary on the state of the human race.

Robotics....

Tesla introduced the world to the advanced art of robotics (telautomatics) in an extraordinary way. In 1898, six years before the Wright brothers flew, Tesla designed and built a pair of radio controlled boats. Tesla demonstrated the vessels to a shocked crowd in an indoor pool at the recently completed Madison Square Garden in New York City. At an electrical exhibition Tesla, always a showman, amazed the crowd as he maneuvered his six-foot-long boat in patterns through the water, and then stopped and started the craft. The craft alarmed some in the crowd who claimed it to be everything from magic and telepathy to being piloted by a trained monkey hidden inside.

The craft were constructed of iron, powered by a electric battery of his own design, and equipped with a radio-mechanical receiver that accepted commands from a wireless transmitter. The boats were