Dec 4, 2007

Tuesday

Everyone who is sick of me complaining about being sick raise your hand. Okay it's unanimous. Even though I am jobless and ambitionless, I don't have time to be sick.

For instance, our Cooperative Extension Service has a hot-line manned by the Master Gardeners to take calls from the public about what ails their plants. Today was my day for orientation. I didn't feel right about not showing up, so I dragged myself there for three hours. I felt much better when I got there, but after a couple of hours it was agony. Plus, I seem to know nothing about gardening, at least based on the questions that people phoned in.

Tomorrow I have to take Son Sneed to the hospital for one of his treatments. We have to be there at six-fifteen. The doctor has promised that Son Sneed will be number one for the treatments, so perhaps we will be home by nine.

Manuel Córdova Soberanes


Photo copied from the Arizona Daily Star totally without permission.


There are several things that are in the news here. On Thanksgiving a woman and her son were driving in a rural area near the Mexican border, when the mom lost control of her van and rolled it down an embankment. The mom was killed and nine-year-old son was uninjured.

The overwhelming majority of Arizona, is very, very rugged desert, so left on his own, things looked bleak for this boy.

The boy started walking in search of help. Along the road he met a Mexican illegal immigrant (pictured above), who took him back to the accident site and provided him care and comfort over night, until some hunters found them. He did this knowing that it meant he would be sent back to Mexico. He could have just kept on walking, but he didn't.

The authorities arranged to have a ceremony to honor this fellow in Nogales, AZ, a town that shares the border with Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.

The thing that makes this notable is that most people are vilifying this man, rather than honoring him. The feeling against illegals runs so high here that even a man who did a selfless thing and probably saved a boy's life cannot be given any credit.

Our state has discovered that when you raise the taxes on cigarettes people quit smoking, or at least quit buying them in the usual places. Since our last big tax increase, cigarette purchases are down 31% at places where the State has the ability to tax. I thought that was why they raised the taxes, but more people quit than they thought. Apparently this is an unintended consequence. The State Department of Revenue is bellyaching that tax revenues are way down and they are figuring out what to do about it.

I'm all in favor of everyone quitting smoking, but anyone who thinks that 31% of smokers have quit in the last year or so is deluding themselves. We have way too many places that smokers can buy smokes and escape State sales tax. The Indian reservations, military bases and the internet all offer ways to buy cigarettes with the onerous state tax.

Of course, the problem with the government is that once they take a tax dollar, they don't ever give it back, so they are looking at ways to capture the "lost revenue".

By the way, thanks to all my friends for the good wishes.



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Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

7 comments:

Bobby D. said...

The Catskills are filled with those "Cigarette Outlets" --some are small drab buildings in some out of the way spot. Others are huge and also sell "beers of the world"

There is one that is a drive thru--there are always cars at the drive thru.




Manuel Córdova Soberanes is a hero. Some people just have brains shrunken with fear or hatred or anger or some combination. It is really nuts. My parents taught me that people are individuals first and foremost.

Flawed And Disorderly said...

I'm hungry for egg salad thanks to Ched. And 3 of us are sick here, too. I could use about a week of sleep after making my garage sale deadline last weekend. I haven't even decorated for Christmas yet. What else can I complain about? Did I say I'm hungry and tired and nobody is going to make me egg salad?

That man should be given a break. He's still noble even if he's not a citizen.

I hope the treatment goes well for Son Sneed, and get feeling better dear friend!

Fred said...

We could try and get that guy as a guest speaker!

Steve Reed said...

It's amazing how people draw these arbitrary lines and that defines whether you're a hero or villain. I am sick to death of all the anti-immigrant clamor in this country. Everyone whose family did not immigrate, raise your hand!

(very few hands go up)

Squirrel said...

My family is originally from Nuttenberg, Squirmany.

Bobby D. said...

Did Jenny just say she had a garage sale? That means there is room in her house for all the stuff that we want to get rid of.

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

You crack me up...

"picture taken without permission"

hee hee... you are funny...

Kurts comment is hysterical!!