That any person be denied participation in the American immigration process or to be denied access to the U.S. because they might be a Baptist, or a Jew, or a Catholic -- or an ornery-aggressive Unitarian -- or a Muslim, I suspect, would not pass a single courtroom test if enacted as law, policy, or mission.
Establishing immigration policy or law denying access to the U.S. predicated on religion as a disqualifier would mitigate the right to practice one's religion or to believe in God as one sees fit and so would violate the First Amendment.  To disenfranchise the Constitutional Rights of a person or of the people that might practice that religion would be illegal.
But, I'll have to call my lawyer and find out...


Please give to the Veteran's Assistance Foundation, Inc./ 304 E. Veterans Street/ Tomah, Wisconsin, 54660/ 608-372-1280.

Conversion or reparative therapy is a collective of psychological methods -- torture for many victims -- to induce gay kids to adopt a socially acceptable attitude about their illness and disease: so that they know they’re less than human without change; or so that they might learn to hate themselves; or so that they might escape their subsequent lives of abject pain and misery through suicide; or so that they might become healthy heterosexuals like those of us that know we’re dysfunctional at the best of times and in all things.
Illegal in California and in a handful other states conversion therapy is a part of the Republican Party platform.
Can you imagine torturing a heterosexual kid into becoming gay?  
If of age, a person after psychological counseling wishes to change his or her sexual orientation through a proven and non-destructive and non-torturous process -- okay -- but ordered or forced to do so?  It’s cruel, awful, wrong…   - sources: Christine Quinn (CNN), Wikipedia, New York Times/Jeremy Peters


See reviews of Otis Moon (more) this website: “He (Kevin) is truly a talented writer with an alluring sense of style and flair for the mysterious.  His characters have a clear voice and he has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue.”  -Lee Boudreaux, Editorial Director, ecco.  Order Otis Moon on Amazon.  
See T-shirts for sale this website: A Woman Is Life (without life there is death), A Good Cop Makes The Job Noble, Environmentalists Are The Ultimate Pragmatists, My Husband's Boobs are Bigger Than Your Wife's, and many more...
Publishers/agents: I have 3 novels for sale, and 60-70 short stories (enough for three anthologies)... see short stories, book reviews, book excerpts this website.
Looking for caretaker work on remote properties.  See: contact Kevin O'Kendley on this website...
Download cartoons, short stories, blogs, from this website (donations accepted)...


Happy Birthday Caitlin.  I love you.

     Congress taking a dive on immigration reform    c. 2016

Some stuff about illegal immigration:

The number of illegal aliens in the U.S. peaked at approximately 12 million in 2007 and is estimated (in 2015) to be at 11.4 million (DHS), or 11.3 million (Pew Research Center), or 11 million (Center for Migration Studies).
“In 2012, 52% (of illegal immigrants) were from Mexico, 15% from Central America, 12% from Asia, 6 % from South America, 5% from the Caribbean, and another 5% from Europe and Canada.”  - Wikipedia 
“The illegal immigration population in the United States has fallen below 11 million.”  This has the potential to reshape the debate over immigration reform.  – Washington Post 4/14/16
Illegal immigrant families are coming across the border at a record pace according to the Border Patrol or at a 40 % higher rate than in 2014.  – Washington Times 4/22/16


Please support Farm Worker Justice: 1126 16th Street NW, Suite 270/ Washington, DC 20036/ 202-293-5420

Some stuff about violent crimes in the U.S.

Violent Crime has gone down from 1989 to 2014.  This includes murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, all property crimes, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft…
Some numbers: motor vehicle thefts; 1989 = 7,872,442   2014 = 689,527/ murder and non-negligent manslaughter; 1989 = 21,500   2014 =14,249/ forcible rape; 1989 = 94,504   2014 = 84,041/ robbery; 1989 = 578,326   2014 = 325,802
sources: The World Almanac 2015, Crime in the United States 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation 2012, the United States Department of Justice 2012/ FBI: UCR 2014

Some stuff about taxes in this country:

Tax receipts as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product has been under twenty percent from 1950 to 2014 in the U.S.
From 1950 to 2014, tax receipts from personal income have consistently been at and between 7 and 9 percent.  In 2014, 8.1 percent.
"Percentage of taxes paid by highest quintile of income earners has steadily gone up since 1980.  In 1980 the top twenty percent paid about fifty-five percent of all income taxes.  Today it's just shy of seventy percent."
"The same goes for the top one percent, which went from about fifteen percent in 1980 to just shy of thirty percent today."
However, the top marginal tax rate is lower now than in 1980: the top marginal tax rate in 1980 was (approximately) seventy percent and was (approximately) forty percent in 2013.
In 1955, a ninety-one percent tax rate was charged on income "over $3,425,766 when adjusted for inflation."
"Corporate tax rates have always been lower than fifty percent."  When personal income tax rates are reduced many businesses switch from the corporate tax system to "filing under the individual tax system."
sources: Tax Foundation, Tax Policy Center, Alan Reynolds, from an article (11/24/15) by Andrew Syrios in Mises Daily Articles/ Mises Institute 

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Please give to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital (at Maine Medical Center)/ 22 Bramhall Street/ Portland, Maine 04101/ 207-662-0111  

Public transportation: Death Valley, California.

To help the French people after the horrific terrorist act in Nice please give to:
the French Red Cross (for Nice)/ 98 rue Didot/ F-75694 Paris Cedex 14/ 33-1-44431100/ contact@croix-rouge.fr/ web: http://www.croix-rouge.fr


For teachers, unbeaten fighters:

Though surrounded by an internal landscape of devastation, insulation from the pain of lost dreams, a battered though unbeaten fighter will hold on to a pin prick of hope.  In that gray Limbo a spark of hope is the only light to read by. (posted earlier) 

           "Among the shackled some arise too bold
            to feel hate upon their hearts,
            with dreams of vengeance an integral part
            of the anger that turns young eyes old.
      
            There's no truth in foreign justice seen
            through the eyes of the wretched
            whose hands are never clean 
            nor stomachs ever half-contented.
 
            Praise be the Dream
            for it elevates the soul above misery
            and is the jewel that will shine and gleam
            amongst the stones of oppression.
 
            But, praise the warrior more
            who wars against the stronger foe,
            be he chained behind the gaol door
            or fallen bravely long ago."  
           - from A Winter's Sleep (first-written 1988) by Kevin O'Kendley
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Please give to St. Jude's Hospital, Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tennessee, 38105/ 800-822-6344
           

Still a lion, Semper Fi Dad...
Happy Birthday.