Weekend Wrap-up Commentary 5-13-2006

Bush's speech on immigration on Monday
President Bush is going to speak Monday on the issue of illegal immigration and what he wants to do about it. If you went by what you've heard from protesters, you'd think that he was in favor of deporting all illegal aliens and building a "Great Wall of China" at the US/Mexico border; but actually, Bush is much more open to these immigrants than what your average conservative commentator is comfortable with. However, the outspokenness of these commentators, plus the counterprotests of Americans has led Bush down this road of addressing the nation in this fashion, and from the sound of it, he may concede somewhat to the desires of his conservative base. If that is indeed what he ends up doing, the protesters may wish that they had left well enough alone, because as I said above, Bush' s initial plan was already close to what they had been asking for. I shall be commenting on his speech on Tuesday.

"Agg Town Fightz" videos
"Agg Town" is the slang, hip-hop name for the city of Arlington, Texas, which is located between Dallas and Fort Worth (this info is for those readers who are not from Texas). The "Agg Town Fightz" (which I shall call ATF from here on) are videos that were filmed (usually by cellphone cameras) and produced by a local group of black teenagers. They took pictures of fights among black teenagers and put together fight videos on a DVD, and added rap music in the background. Apparently, the sale of ATF went well enough that a second ATF 2 was also out, and a ATF 3 was apparently in the works. Attached below is a link to the story from a local newspaper:

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/community/14552945.htm

I find the whole story not so much as an outrage as it is depressing. With all that our society has gone through to help us all have equal and civil rights, plus with all that is available out there for young people today with computers and technology plus all the information and knowledge that is to be had via the Internet, this is how some young people choose to use these talents --to make and sell fight videos? Here's what's particularly bothersome: The producers of this video are black. One of the producers said that this is a hobby of his. Let's view this statement from this perspective: What if the producer who said this happened to be white? The NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and all of the other prominent black leaders would have been down here protesting in ways that haven't been seen since the 1960's. So with that, let's ask this: does it really make a difference if the hobby enthusiast producer happens to be black? Isn't the outrage just the same? I shall be commenting more on this as this story develops, because what we are seeing here is a significant demonstration of our society as it is today.

Retirement of Hummer 1
So the vehicle will all the fuel economy of a tank is finally going to be retired, eh? Once the price of gas got to around $3 a gallon, that pretty much doomed this gas guzzler. I never drove one, and I always wondered how it would have felt. Does it drive like a regular car, or does it feel like you're driving a tank?

Sports
The Dallas Mavericks play Game 3 today of the best-of-seven series with the San Antonio Spurs. These next two games are in Dallas, and they will be an important test on where the Mavs are in thier development as an "elite" team. Beat these guys --who happen to be the defending champs-- and the Mavs will have overcome a significant stumbling block in the psychological development as a team. If they win this series, then I forsee them going all the way to the championship.

As for the Texas Rangers, the best that can be said right now is that they still lead the worst division in baseball. I guess we gotta take what little progress we can get right now, but dang, I would really like to see some consistency on this team --particularly in the pitching, but also with the offense. The Rangers, though, have to strive to be better than they're going right now.

Mother's Day
That's tomorrow, folks. Don't forget to wish your mother a Happy Mother's Day. Otherwise, she'll let you know in her own way that you forgot. ;-)