Now here's a twist...or is it?

Many of my Utah associates send me email after email, without checking the content on Snopes. A large amount of those emails are about illegal aliens, how they are stealing from the taxpayer and how much crime is committed by them. A new study out in the Desert News (a paper I seldom trust due to association with the Mormon religion) states that illegals are not responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in the state of Utah, even though a majority (62%) of Utahns believe that they are. Only 5% of the penal population in Utah are illegals...which is misleading, since they can't apply for parole and are not eligible for rehabilitation programs for an early release. This means they tend to stay in jail longer than non-illegal offenders.

Coming across the border, at least in Utah, is a civil offense...one they shouldn't even be in jail for, but "the majority of undocumented immigrants in Utah jails are being detained solely for border-crossing violations."

This same paper reported in September that the illegal population in Utah was declining, and the day before that they had reported that the national population of illegals was declining.

This will surely have some of that majority up in arms about a biased media...but then, everything in Utah seems to be biased. Makes me wonder what they will develop a hatred for next.

On a lighter note, buy your kids iPhones, so they can escape would-be kidnappers. In reality, it wasn't an iPhone, just an iPod Touch, but when this twelve-year-old was accosted and her attacker demanded she get into a van, she pretended to use the iPod as a phone and told the assailant she was calling for help.  Smart kid!!! The perp hurried off.

Birds: Cooler weather is here, my birds are not drinking near as much as they were during the heat, and they want more food. This is a delicate matter: too much and they will get too fat to breed as successfully as you would like; if they don't get enough feed, their immune system will weaken from fighting the cold. This is a good time of year to handle your birds often, check to see that they are maintaining weight. Adjust the feed accordingly.

This is also an important time to watch for rodents who are looking for a permanent food source through the winter.  Like the story of the grasshopper and the ants, the mice and rats want the easy way out. Besides disease, rodents can be a problem by attracting other predators.

Honey: I am thinking of adding some blackberry juice to a batch of the Backyard Blonde to see if that adds a delightful twist to it.