This past Saturday my wife and I conducted a garage sale, the main purpose of which was to get rid of some bulky old furniture that was occupying way too much space in my house and garage. The garage sale was a success, netting us about $400 and more importantly getting rid of the clutter that we've accumulated in the past few years.

In any case, I went out in my 1966 Dodge Polara to pick up the garage sale signs I had strategically placed in my neighborhood. I got to the corner of SW 102nd Avenue and 120th Street and there was a man with a wrench at the fire hydrant. He was in a small pick up that said "pest control" and he was pumping water into his tanks. Now I don't know if this is legal or not but what got my attention was the lettering the man had neatly placed on the windshield of his truck. It spelled out I N T R A N S I G E N T E !.

If you remember a few days back I made a post about T-Shirt I'm designing and it included the word "Intransigent". Some of you felt the word had a negative connotation. But I said I was intransigent about the word intransigent. So now this guy has the word on his car and I decided to ask him what he meant. He said "I've always been intransigent, since I was a kid." For a second I thought I misunderstood him and said "Is that all?" and he said "well I'm intransigent about fidel and all that shit." We had about a five minute conversation and told him about blogging and we discussed the controversial library book, etc. Interesting how a word can be used to demean but then how it can also unite. Intransigent. I like the sound of it.

We are living in precarious times that demand action. Contact your Senators and Congressmen to demand real immigration reform, not the fake version in the Senate that guarantees amnesty for illegals. Remember that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Read this article in today's Christian Science Monitor online: these folks are very squeaky...

Longtime Babalu readers probably remember the Hilda Molina story from previous posts, here and here. It's not often that the truth about life in Cuba finds its way onto the pages of America's newspapers. Today's Chicago Tribune has a story by Gary Marx that exposes the repressive tactics castro uses to control citizens of Cuba, including a ridiculous assertion that a citizens brain is the patrimony of the state. That's one of the reasons officials gave Ms. Molina for denying her permission to visit her son and grandchildren in Argentina.

Daniel Wilkinson, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, says that Cuba's refusal to allow Molina to visit Argentina violates international law.

"The idea of people who are educated by the state having an obligation to contribute to society is perfectly sensible," said Wilkinson, "But this is an extreme measure that undermines the right of people to leave any country including their own. It is one of the most effective tools Cuban authorities have for intimidating people critical of the government."

Read Gary Marx's article here.

Legal, or illegal.

If you're going to protest using the following image, I only have one thing to say to you:

My wife and I want to thank everyone who commented and emailed with well wishes and prayers for her mom's recovery. She's still in hosptial and has seen a bit of improvement, but there have been some complications and it looks like she will be needing critical care for at least another week. It hasnt been an easy few days and I suspect they wont get any easier the next couple of days.

Please keep my mother in law in your thoughts and prayers.

Blogging may be intermittent at best, and I hope our contributors have a few spare moments to put up a post or two while I tend to the family.