Latino Issues, A Conservative Blog

Great piece on Spain and President Zapatero at FrontPage magazine. It's a must read! Zapatero's "Evolution of Society" has been much less an "evolution" and more a "full-scale assault" -- eliciting the ire of Spain's Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Vatican. Led by Spanish Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, and the late Pope John Paul II, Zapatero has come under fire for his ultra-liberal social views. Last June, one million protesters marched in Madrid in a pro-family demonstration against Zapatero's extreme social agenda.

This is why government controls are never good for the people or for the poor. The government should reregulate health care in Nicaragua, and let free market forces--the invisible hand--do its job. Centralized economy has historicly been proven to be innefective way to distribute scarce resources. Corrupt bussinesmen and government officials continue to give capitalism a bad name, pushing the underclass to seek out solutions in ignorance through socialism. It's sad. A Nicaraguan man waits for care at Fernando Velez Paiz hospital in Managua January 24, 2006. Thousands of public health doctors went on strike on Tuesday demanding that the government increase their salaries. A doctor in Nicaragua earns around $300 per month. REUTERS/ Oswaldo Rivas

It is good to dream of that day--the day castro is no more, and the Cuban people can enjoy liberty and democracy once again. Many thanks for President Lech Walesa for giving words of inspiration and advice. The former Solidarity labor leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate took questions from Cubans during a morning Internet teleconference at the home of the top American diplomat in Havana. "When liberty arrives it's going to be difficult," Walesa said from Poland during the hour-long exchange, his image beamed on a projector screen set up in a salon. "We made a lot of errors. We were not prepared."

Michelle has some great advice in response to Joel Steins outrageous comments. I especially liked number 25: 25. Immunize your children from Joel Stein disease by teaching them to give thanks and say prayers every night for our men and women in uniform who have freely and bravely volunteered to defend America wherever and whenever duty calls. Immunize them against all forms of liberalism by teaching them to give thanks for the opportunity to work hard, to worship in freedom, to be self-dependent, and to be self-governable. Teach them to give thanks for the liberties we enjoy, and the great men that gave it to us, and sacrificed for it.

castro is a little irritated these days--we can always hope it brings up his blood pressure, and finishes him off. The AP story is full of Castro propaganda, of course, with no semblance of truth or fact-checking. Another focus of Castro's ire is a new electronic sign installed outside the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which handles consular affairs in the absence of full diplomatic relations. The sign was activated as Castro began speaking Tuesday, relaying global news and quotes including Abraham Lincoln's: "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." "They already turned on the little sign--the cockroaches are brave," Castro said before starting his speech. The mission launched the sign a week ago with streaming text of sayings from Martin Luther King Jr. and excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory. "It's nonsense!" said Carla Smith, a 61-year-old lawyer...

CNN has a good roundup of Latin America's move to the political left . Morales is the latest example of Latin America's shift toward socialism -- but this is not the old Communist-bloc row of uniform states. The economics and the people differ from place to place. It's really to bad that Latin America has quickly forgotten the lessons of the last 20 years--socialism does not work. I think this speaks to the failure of the Latin American faith community, who continues to step aside, and abdicate their role in social and civic participation. Or, perhaps Latin America's faith community has also fallen for the promises of socialism. While we can celebrate the fact that these leaders are elected, history has also shown us that socialist use deception to reach their goals, and that the promises of socialism are unsustainable! Chavez, despite all his oil money, is already destroying the Venezuelan economy. We all read the stories of coffee shortages. CNN points out that the t...

Outrageous! I think Congress and the administration need to start putting pressure on the Mexican government. They have a lot more to lose if the U.S. relations go cold. This sort of action only encourages breaking our laws, even beyond immigration laws. Fox news was reporting on this story just a few minutes ago, and the Houston Cronicle has more . Mexico's National Human Rights Commission announced Tuesday that it will distribute thousands of maps of the southern Arizona desert to migrants determined to travel illegally into the United States. Created by Humane Borders, a Tucson-based migrant rights group, the maps pinpoint places where activists leave water for the trekkers, as well as details of highways, popular trails and other landmarks. The aim, a rights commission official said, is to prevent needless deaths. "It's not to encourage them but simply to warn them of the dangers," said Mauricio Farah, a senior official with the rights commission, which is federal...

Fox is about to report on a story about whether immigrants should be taught English. Should be interesting. If you are near a TV, tune in. I'll post an update as soon as I watch the segment. It should be interesting. Update: Fox: "Arizona passed a bill to revamp English learning program," and there are issues with the funding! That's why I say the government should get OUT of the education business, and let free market forces do a better job! I am glad Arizona is being forced to look at this issue, and paying attention to the need for better English education in schools. Children are held back when they lack the language skills to assimilate and integrate. Only a fool would suggest educating immigrant children in Spanish.

J.R. Briggs has good comments on "End of the Spear" over at BrokenStainGlass. Check it out. I recommend you go and see it...it's inspiring and challenging.

Captain Ed has writen some thoughts on the story. Check it out . You can also read my previous thoughts on this guy's publicity stunt . The truth is that there is no story here. This is all about a PR stunt by an atheist who wants to sell more copies of what I am sure is an uninformed book. Here is what Captain Ed had to say. Had this been an American court, I don't doubt that Cascioli would have had about ten minutes in front of a judge before being reminded that (a) no one forces him to believe in Jesus, either as a historical figure or as the Son of God, and (b) unless Cascioli could prove that he was personally damaged by the supposed fraud, he had no standing to bring legal action. Unfortunately, the Italian court did not choose to exercise a little common sense; for that matter, the Italian legislature should have understood the "abuse of popular belief" law would generate this kind of mischief from the beginning. What is it about atheists that drive them to sue...