More Greed Plus an Insult

The City of Farmers Branch is being sued by Guillermo Ramos over the recently enacted city ordinances that are intended to discourage illegal aliens from residing within the city limits. The article in the Star-Telegram is the latest in the on-going saga of life in the small town north of Dallas. I've commented on this controversy in a previous post.

Ramos, a resident of Farmers Branch, claims in his suit that "...the ordinances were approved after discussions in closed-door meetings, a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act." If that is true, and I don't know that it is, the ordinances should be withheld until all legal requirements can be met.

The real purpose of the suit, however, appears to be that the ordinances will be bad for Ramos' real estate business.

He reported that his real estate business "like other businesses in Farmers Branch will suffer from the negative impacts likely to result from the ordinances."

In the print edition of the newspaper, but not the online edition, the suit is reported to challenge "...a second "divisive" ordinance that targets property maintenance" by banning "...empty flowerpots and dirty garage doors" that, according to the article, "...is unmistakably and improperly directed toward a definable ethnic group - Hispanics - in Farmers Branch."

I know what you're thinking.....what do "empty flowerpots and dirty garage doors" have to do with Hispanics? Ramos apparently thinks this is a valid method of determining whether someone is Hispanic or not.

If I were "Hispanic," whatever that really means, I would sue Ramos for defamation of character and demand punitive damages for hurting my feelings.

Empty flower pots?..........Sheesh.....

"The Flying Imams"

No...not a high-wire act from the Middle East or a magic carpet ride.

These are the Islamic clerics ejected from a US Airways flight getting ready to depart Minneapolis for Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. Their behavior prior to and after boarding the plane raised the suspicions of passengers and crew.

The suspicious behavior is said to have included loud praying prior to boarding, taking unassigned seats in different parts of the aircraft, making comments about Al Qaida, and requesting seatbelt extensions that they did not need. The Imams were also reported to have refused to leave the plane when ordered to do so by the plane's crew and security personnel.

An Air Marshal was quoted as having described the incident as a "political correctness probe" - an attempt to evaluate the threshold of cultural tolerance aboard commercial aircraft. There have been several reported attempts by Muslims to test security measures on airliners before and after 9/11.

From my point of view, it appears, in this case, to be simply a staged disruption that could be used to criticize public concerns about the threat of Islamic terrorism. Taunting westerners seems to be a favorite tactic of Muslim activists nowadays. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), of course, has called for an 'investigation' of the incident and criticized the airline for overreacting, implying that it discriminated against Muslims.

If the Imams had been testing airline security measures, they would not have made their suspicious activities so obvious. I think they were just showing their contempt for western attitudes toward the current Islamic threat to security.

I find this type of behavior insulting to our society in general and to our culture in particular. One of my basic beliefs is "live and let live," but I don't appreciate it when people from other cultures make such arrogant asses of themselves and expect the rest of us to accept them with open arms.

I wonder if US Airways (or any airline) would be truly saddened if they were boycotted by Muslims?

Frankly, I think the airlines (and their passengers) would breathe a sigh of relief.