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Silent Night, Holy Night

Merry Christmas! The Castillo Chronicles is taking a holiday break. Blogging will resume on Monday, 12/28.

For spiritual reading, on the eve of Christmas, don't forget Luke, Chapter 2.

For holiday music, here's my friend Carol MacDonald, blessed with a VOICE (and a delightful personality), performing in Handel's Messiah:



Amazing, no?

A Family Remembers Their Slain Son

From Bob and Bonnie Eggles' holiday newsletter:

"As we approach the 8th Christmas (8-9-02) without Kristopher, memories take us back to when he and Jennifer were little and all the beautiful moments we shared. Our loneliness is still evident, and the 'hole in our hearts' will never be healed, but days are easier now. There is more joy in our lives as we look forward and upward. Someday soon, we will be reunited with our beloved Kris and then life for us will be complete once again."

How sweet. How sad. The Eggles are the parents of the late Kris Eggle, the U.S. Park Ranger who was murdered, in the line of duty, at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument by an AK-47-toting drug cartel member. Kris was from Cadillac, Michigan and all of 29-years-old when he died in southern Arizona.

In the photo: Kris, as a little boy, with his sister, Jennifer.

Young Men Who Need Work

Phyllis Schlafly's latest column, about the unemployed and underemployed, includes this observation:

"Obama's promise to allow 20 million illegal aliens to stay in the United States is another broadside attack on the job prospects of young American men. Obama's immigration policy betrays our own black and white high school dropouts who desperately need entry-level and other minimum-wage jobs to start building a life."

BTW: Would you believe Phyllis is now 85 years young? She's been writing her syndicated column since 1976.

Aside: One of my co-workers told me, yesterday, that 100 people applied for the entry-level job (involving rental properties) her twenty-something son now holds. What an honor for him, but what an awful job market.

Cruel and Unusual Ways to Treat Kids

Government does education like they do immigration - very, very poorly. Here's a couple of examples ...

Milwaukee Public School assault and battery: Try pulling this cruel stunt on one of your co-workers, without their consent, and then flippantly excuse your action on "holiday stress." Ha!

Students should not be around that wack job of a teacher.

Massachusetts Public School Officials Inflict Emotional Distress: A teacher's assignment: Draw something that reminds you of Christmas. A little boy innocently drew (that picture you see) Jesus on the cross and got suspended! He was required to undergo a psych. evaluation, before he could return to school.

Good thing Rubens wasn't a student at that MA school which is run by hysterical rubes.

Dr. Dobson offers very good advice: Homeschooling can protect children from the wrong kind of socialization (and the wrong kind of teachers).

Why are so many Sooner State women in prison?

Charlie Meadows, longtime conservative activist who lives in Guthrie, Oklahoma, explains why the Sooner State leads the nation in the number of women in prison on a per capita basis: "The answer is really quite simple. We just have a lot of bad girls in the state, and we lock them up! We probably don’t have more bad girls in Oklahoma than in many other states, but we are tougher on crime than many other states.

Just this past week in central Oklahoma, we had three girls allegedly shoplifting. When confronted in a parking lot, they beat the female store employee so badly, she had to be hospitalized. In another event, a woman in Shawnee was accused of stealing an ambulance and leading police on a forty-mile speed chase, before she was apprehended. If found guilty, and especially if they have a previous record, these bad girls will probably go to prison."

Charlie, who has volunteered in inmate ministry, spoke up, because liberals in the Sooner state, along with Oklahoma's “we must be perceived as the best” propagandists, are indulging in the usual hand-wringing (and championing more taxpayer-wasting studies) to explain this incarceration stat.

FYI: 2,721 Sooner State women were imprisoned in 2008. 2,655 for 2009.

Girl Power: Linda Goldthorpe for Congress

Linda Goldthorpe is a pistol! She is running for Rep. Bart Stupak’s congressional seat in Michigan's 1st District

This pro-bono attorney is also pro-gun rights, pro-life, and pro-homeschooling. She's a mom and wife (her husband is a former U.S. Marine) who is a life-long resident of the Upper Peninsula. She describes herself as a “Ron Paul Republican." Her goal is to restore liberty and constitutional government to the country. Yahoo!

Here’s what Linda thinks about immigration: "It is outrageous that the American taxpayer is required by law to encourage and pay for the welfare of those who broke the law by entering this country—many of whom do not pay taxes. It is an insult to the millions who seek to enter this country legally, who must carefully conform to our immigration laws, that others can simply sneak in and be given free health care. It is an insult to our military that we leave ourselves wide open to attack from within while they are defending us overseas. It is an insult to law enforcement that they are required to aggressively pursue American lawbreakers while at the same time to let illegal occupants stay.

These are more than just insults. These are actions, not words. They are attacks. All of the energy the government spends supporting illegal immigrants comes at the expense of the American taxpayer."

Before she can go mano-a-mano with Stupak, she faces an August primary.

Video of Linda speaking at a Tea Party.

White Trash Chic

Carolyn Chute, the prolific novelist who writes about the working poor of the rural Northeast, lives in a Maine village with her illiterate handyman husband and several Scottish terriers. She also owns a cannon.

To describe this artist as 'eccentric' doesn't do her justice. That description is more fitting for the likes of a shallow clothes horse like Lady Gaga. (Although C.C. is making quite the fashion statement in this photo.)

Chute is a one-woman campaign against "The System." Her amenities-free homestead features, not a bathroom, but an outhouse. She's the founder of the 2nd Maine Militia, a non-partisan organization of working-class New Englanders who love guns but are suspicious of the Wall Street Journal and Wal-Mart. She also prefers the "grave silence" of woodsmen to yuppies who yap.

Indeed, the plain-spoken Chute is known for her off-the-grid wit and wisdom. Despite her literary successes, she remains unpretentious.

As she told the New York Times, “We’re poor, and we lead a very different kind of life. We depend on other people so much. They come and bring us vegetables or whatever, and sometimes they tell us their secrets."

As opposed to that fake 'man of the people' shtick that John Edwards attempted during his presidential campaign, Chute's populism is authentic.

Here's a link to her first gritty book The Beans of Egypt, Maine, which is about a hardscrabble family living in a depressed community. It was also made into a movie. (Beware: Kid-unfriendly content.)

Update: Here's my column on Chute.

Immigrant Gangsters Work Day Jobs

Take note of this 50-page report published by the Center for Immigration Studies, called: "Taking Back the Streets: ICE and Local Law Enforcement Target Immigrant Gangs."

Boy, is this one meaty and well-done and interesting! So interesting, in fact, that I highly recommend it to a college or high student who needs to write a paper (or needs information) for a social studies class or a criminal justice or communication studies course.

Written by Jessica M. Vaughn and Jon D. Feere, the study chronicles the growth of transnational immigrant gangs, like MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), Surenos-13, and 18th Street. A large percentage of these immigrant gang members hail from El Salvador and Mexico.

The MS-13 gang, of course, is the most famous. It's also the most violent. The gang’s motto is “Kill, Rape, Control.” One estimate reveals there are 10,000 MS-13 members in the United States operating in drug and human trafficking, from coast to coast.

Interestingly, Maras, like other immigrant gang members who are Hispanic, work day jobs (construction, farming, landscaping, etc.). Recruitment of new members is done through the prison and school system.

Since 2005 ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has arrested 8000 gangbangers from over 700 different groups. Most of those arrested had crossed our border illegally.

If that stat isn't scary enough, you’d think that gang members would instantly be denied immigration benefits when they get caught in the act by our authorities. You would be wrong.

As CIS reports: “In one particularly striking case, a judge in Massachusetts blocked ICE efforts to remove a Salvadoran MS-13 member who had been convicted of relatively minor crimes, noting that because of his nationality and date of illegal arrival, the offender was eligible for TPS [temporary protected status], even though he had not applied for it. ICE did get a second chance, as the gangster later participated in one of the most horrifying crimes in the Boston area at the time, the gang rape of two deaf girls in a public park, one of whom had cerebral palsy and was in a wheelchair.”

Blood on that liberal judge's hands.

The authors of the report appear here in a video.

Inflation Association: Collapse is Coming

Rather than trying to do a clumsy job summarizing a spot on editorial, by the National Inflation Association, allow me to quote, verbatim, the first three paragraphs:

"On Friday it was announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the U.S. unemployment rate in November declined from 10.2% to 10%. While the mainstream media would like you to believe we have seen a peak in unemployment and the worst of the economic crisis is behind us, we know that this dip in the unemployment number is phony and the recession is only beginning.

Although the unemployment number dipped in November, we still lost 11,000 nonfarm jobs. Unemployment fell by 0.2% only because the civilian labor force shrunk in November by 98,000 people. This means more people are becoming discouraged and giving up looking for jobs. When you combine both short and long-term discouraged workers who aren't included in the labor force along with those who are underemployed with part-time jobs, real unemployment in the U.S. today is nearly 22%.

The most important area of employment to look at is manufacturing jobs. Increasing manufacturing is the only way for our country to truly recover and build real wealth, because it will allow us to cut down on inflation by exporting real products instead of the money we print. Unfortunately, the U.S. lost 41,000 manufacturing jobs in November and has lost 2.1 million manufacturing jobs over the last two years."

I do appreciate the NIA's plea to expand our manufacturing base. How sad, though, that the reality, today, is shuttered factories throughout the once-glorious Rust Belt.

Please read the rest (warning: it gets gloomier) of the editorial. Hat tip to John P. for sending the link.

In Memory of Border Patrol Agent Rosas

Robert Rosas, who was murdered this past summer while patrolling the U.S.- Mexico border, is remembered in this op ed by D.A. King. D.A. operates the Dustin Inman Society blog.

He writes: "In November, Christian Daniel Castro Alvarez admitted entering the United States illegally from Mexico and killing Rosas. Other individuals suspected to be involved in the murder are still at large.

Maybe they made it into the interior of the United States. Maybe they've been rewarded with business licenses. Maybe they've been hired by an employer trying to save a buck or two on labor expenses. Maybe they will be given a traffic ticket for a broken taillight by an American policeman, and then sent on their way.

Maybe you soon will see some of them marching with other illegal aliens in American streets demanding taxpayer-funded health care, 'justice,' legalization - and U.S. citizenship."

That's the brutal truth and needs to be stated over and over again. Mr. Rosas was married and the father of two young children.

Thanks, D.A. for being a voice for those whose voices have been silenced.

The 75th Heisman: An American Icon

Who will be selected the most outstanding college football player in the United States?

Last night the five finalists for the 2009 Heisman Trophy award were announced. They are: Toby Gerhart (Stanford running back), Mark Ingram (Alabama running back), Colt McCoy (Texas quarterback), Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska defensive tackle), and Tim Tebow (Florida quarterback).

For the past two years, I've attended the Heisman press conference in New York City. It was a pleasure to watch Tebow, the first homeschooler ever to be nominated for the award also be the first to win it. On my sidebar, I link to the orphanage that the Tebow family started in the Philippines - Uncle Dick's Home.

McCoy, who was also nominated last year, has also done humanitarian work abroad.

Ingram is from Flint, Michigan, and is the son of a former NFL player, and the odds-on favorite.

Suh has an exotic ethnic background. His mother is from Jamaica, and his dad is from Cameroon. He is also believed, by some, to be the best pro prospect.

Gerhart, in keeping with the scholastic powerhouse he attends, has the hardest major of the five: management, science, and engineering.

Congratulations to the fab five!


Sam Bradford, Oklahoma QB and last year's winner, doesn't strike a pose.

Update: The esteemed Heisman Pundit explains why he voted for Gerhart.

Update: Ingram becomes part of college football's most exclusive club.

The Over-Documented Terrorists

Worth repeating and remembering: "All nineteen terrorists on 9-11 were here illegally. Yet, they were able to procure 65 pieces of identification. They were not 'undocumented immigrants.' Rather they were over-documented imigrants."

- Deb Payne, author of the mini-essay "Mass Immigration: Identification"

Source: Common Sense on Mass Immigration

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