Kowabunga

As usual, I was early for the Townhall Meetup. This is not a big surprise as the place where we meet has free wi-fi available, so I fired up my laptop and filled in the time til other folks began showing up by working on my new project/business, ConservaGear.

Townhall.com did not provide an agenda as they usually do, so tonight's meeting was rather freeform, or, more accurately, chaotic.

We did touch on immigration reform to which Tracy, our fearless president for life of the group, brought up one of the most overlooked reasons for sealing the borders to eliminate, or at least reduce the amount of, illegal immigration: diseases. There are three serious diseases that had been eradicated from the United States that have now resurged due to the large influx of illegal immigrants: tuberculosis, leprosy, and polio.

When people who are immigrating legally through our ports, they must submit to health checks, including for these diseases. In fact, when I returned from overseas duty, I had to take a TB test (I passed). If an immigrant has any of these, or a host of other, diseases, they are quarantined until it is under control, or denied entry.

Illegal immigrants bypass this health check, and so have been a major contributor to the resurgence of tuberculosis and other diseases.

Tracy also gave an update on the number of bars in Minneapolis that have closed since the smoking ban went into effect a few months ago. The tally now stands at 17. More importantly is the ripple effect these smoking bans are having on the local economy; since bars and restaurants are experiencing reduced business, they are not ordering as much goods/supplies, so the suppliers in turn have lower revenues due to a lack of orders from the businesses they supply, and so on. The reduction of business in bars is also resulting in lower tax revenues at the local level, which means the tax and spend liberals will be clamoring to raise taxes to make up for the shortfall in revenues, and, no doubt, will seek to blame the smokers who have taken their business to other counties, or are staying at home.

Let's face, the short-sightedness of the county commissioners who passed the smoking ban is causing the local economy to stall, and, in the event that local taxes are increased to make up the short fall, will refuse to accept the blame for the problems they have created.

By the way, I don't smokenever have, never will.

The discussion meandered around all over the map, and as a side benefit, when discussing all the varieties of taxes, such as on pull-tabs, I was introduced to what pull-tabs are. You see, I had never heard of them before. We don't have pull-tabs in California. At least, not that I am aware of.

Overall, the meeting was a pretty good time, with about 15 in attendance, including two new faces. The service and the food were good, and the beer was Guinness.