Susita

They still have to go back to their home country, this just shortens the time frame for "eligible persons.". It's not like they weren't doing the same exact process before Obama did this, it just took a longer. If you don't agree with the process, that's a totally different story. The waiver criteria stayed the same as before, you can just apply for it here as opposed to applying from overseas. I think the Obama critics are upset over nothing, and the Obama supporters are happy over nothing.

The only people to benefit from is would be the people approved for waivers, because they get to spend less time away from their family. But then again, they would have been approved anyway. Well probably see more applicants now, which will overload USCIS and well see longer wait times anyway.

This is seriously twisted, I saw this earlier. I feel bad for the kid.

Is that Rick Perry doing his Michelle Bachmann impression?

Can't knock the guy for liking corn dogs! Bad picture though!

Belgium is on the verge of splitting in half. It still doesn't have a government after over a year now.

Well that stinks. We're not doing much better though, either. We have a government, albeit dysfunctional.

fixed.

that too!

Much can be forgiven if someone is a rubia. Did you buy me cheap?

No, I didn't. I bought you choc-o-cheap.

To do a take off on your post, which was pretty insightful, I would say this.

Many on the Left are under the false assumption that gay marriage will end up being much like interracial marriage: In the end tolerated if not accepted.

This is where they misread coming events, the Gay marriage conflict in our country is just one never ending skirmish in the divisiveness this country is heading for. Gay marriage will be much like Abortion, an ongoing battle, not settled social change.

As we exit the era of unified Christian understanding (on basic issues) we are foolish to believe that all these Faiths and Cultures and races and languages are somehow going to meld into one, I am less optimistic and the fact that we can't even agree on such a basic thing as -What is a marriage... is one more reason for that.

It could be..... within a few decades even our Pledge of allegiance ... will need to be modified.

"One nation under God indivisible"

nation |ˈnā sh ən|

noun

a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things evolve in this country. But one thing I do have to say is that the U.S. has made the definition of "nation" much more questionable. As far as common descent, we have been unique from the start, as we are a nation made up of immigrants, our native population is almost literally gone.

As for "language," we are not unique in that regard, and are certainly not the first nation to have multiple languages in use at any one time (although many are strongly against this). Belgium has 3 or 4 languages spoken within its' borders (Flemish/Dutch, French, German & now the majority of the country speaks English). They too, have no official language. This is just one small example.

Also, you state that "the left" is mistaken in regards to same-sex marriage eventually being accepted/tolerated. In the same respect, "the right" (or as I prefer to say, the socially conservative) are also mistaken in that they feel their viewpoint on gay marriage is shared by the majority of Americans.

I think only time will tell what the result will be, but it will be interesting to see it pan out.

The Dream Act rewards those who willingly broke the laws of this country and screws the people like us who played by the rules.

I know what you're saying, and trust me, in a perfect world, we'd have the funds and will in government to enforce our laws, but we don't have either right now. We also have a debt crisis in this country and desperately need revenue.

IMO, it's not rewarding the ones who actually broke the laws (the parents), but the innocent bystanders (the kids) who were dragged into it by their parents. In order to be guilty of a crime (such as illegally immigrating into a country) one has to have intent.

But, that's just my opinion anyway. I'm not pro-illegal immigration, as you can see me and my hubs did everything the legal way I just feel like there's many different sides to this complex issue, and I happen to see things differently than you, that's all.

Congrats Susita!! How are you feeling?

Thanks Caro!

I'm feeling like doodoo!! But hopefully that will pass soon. Hubby has been real patient with me and has been helping me out with the cooking, which has made me a little bit sicker.

In Ecuador? Cuy.

In Peru they eat their oatmeal with cinnamon & cloves with some sugar. Sometimes they mix it with quinoa (my FAV!)

They eat the cuy with other stuff.

I forswore all U.S. chicks on 1 April 2006 (no foolin') after the very last dysfunctional, psycho date that I could stomach.

Oh come on, T-B, us gringas aren't all locas, you know that! Have some cheaps.

My hubs is the best. At first I didn't want to give him the time of day, I thought he was a bit of a dork but he kept trying to chat with me so I was like "OK what the hell?" Well, he hooked me. He's the nicest, most laid back, patient, caring awesome guy in the world. Plus, he loves me.

Now we have a bunch of kids and another one on the way, so I'd say things worked out awesome. Life is good!

I honestly thought he was a bit of a geek .

Mine too. Like a latino Bill Gates

Yea, then why are people still loosing their homes, no jobs.

I saw an interesting report on the local news about a trend in my area, which I found interesting. Job numbers are increasing locally, but foreclosures are at a steady pace. The reporters asked "Why?" Well there were diverse answers, and although many are back to work, the debt they incurred while they were NOT working is creeping up on them and they are unable to afford the costs of their home plus their debt obligations.

Many people did not reduce their "standard of living" when they became unemployed. They didn't adjust their spending, or they didn't adjust it enough. They continued as if they still had that steady stream of income coming in, and racked up debt.

I don't know if this is a trend in other areas, but I thought it was pretty interesting.

I think it's much, much more complex than that. We have a serious problem in this country with undocumented immigrants and everyone has their own "fix" for it. Unfortunately, some think that mass deportation is a realistic solution and economically, it's impossible. We can't even afford to investigate the pending cases we have open, nevermind mass-deport.

I think the DREAM Act would have helped out, it would have put basically innocent children of illegal immigrants (the actions of their parents is a whole 'nother story) on the books as taxpayers. If you can't work a legal job, you can't pay taxes.

Many have proposed other avenues to reduce illegal immigration, including punishing the businesses that hire and exploit undocumented workers with heavy fines. These are all great solutions, now let's see if they implement any of them.

With a country as large as ours, and an even more large and diverse demographic of people, including different religions, belief systems and non-beliefs, it shouldn't surprise anyone that there is so much disagreement on so many different social issues... including this one.

Debating with a devout Catholic, such as Santorum, on a topic such as gay marriage is a pointless debate to be had. His belief system does not allow him to accept that as being socially or morally acceptable. The problem with having him as a possible president (which becomes a problem with almost every candidate) is that he does not represent all Americans' views. But no one ever really will, will they? We're such a large country with different "cultures" so to speak, spread all over.

You can say he needs to "mature his views" but that's not necesarily the case. Basically, he would be renouncing his faith. Which is basically what I did. But, that was my choice & it was a hard one. I don't expect everyone to be able to do what I did, and furthermore, I don't expect everyone to hold the same belief system as I do. I believe that gay marriage should be legal in this country. Luckily, I live in New York where many share the same views (of course, not all) and it has been made legal in this state.

Happy New Year

So I'm expecting # 4 on July 3rd

Almond slivers, raisins & cran-raisins. A lil bit of brown sugar.

#######???? You mean adults can't handle this?

I can totally understand when the foreign spouse arrives in the U.S. and isn't used to the food, to be a little picky, etc. Especially if you don't have a restaurant from their country nearby, etc. But after awhile, that gets kinda old.

No, the lesson is, any religion in it's extreme elements is a backwards and negative thing.

Mr. Gingrich believes English should be the official language of the government. But he wants to communicate his message in the language of others.

When it's convenient for him. Otherwise, everybody hurry up and SPEAK ENGLISH!

Way to go Hawaii & Delaware

If your concern is against bias or prejudice I would suggest you avoid any news or commentary at all.... from any source, you simply can;t avoid it and have meaningful reporting or discussion.

I know that it can't be avoided. If you go up a couple of posts, I stated that every news source has biased information; it's just a decision of HOW MUCH you're willing to deal with. I'm not willing to watch Fox. I like to draw my own conclusions based on facts, not inflammatory comments and assumptions.

Then again, most of America has grown too lazy to think for themselves. IMO, that's why we have this two party divide. We aren't all that different from each other in reality. We all want the same things, we just disagree on how to achieve them. We all receive the same information. WHERE and WHO you get your information from makes a huge difference in how you perceive reality.

That's a fallacy actually: http://www.ochef.com/165.htm While it's possible to cook off all the alcohol content I doubt they actually do it long enough to do so. Safer to assume they don't when thinking about driving afterwards.

Interesting! Well I never got buzzed off of it, It's delicious anyway.

Felicitaciones Glad to see you made it safe & sound. Happy New Year to you & your hubby!