Today on KSL.com, a story appeared about one of the delegates to the Utah Republican State Convention.  The man had submitted a resolution stating that illegal immigration is the work of the devil.

I'm not particularly interested in the story.  It is noteworthy because this was the only resolution submitted, and because it espoused two popular opinions in a way that no politician would get behind.  I mostly found the story interesting because of the comments.

There were only a few different kinds of comments.  One group thought that it was un-Christian to suggest that Satan is trying to invade the US (after all, the author of the resolution is LDS and the best missionary work is going on right now in Latin America).  Some people misinterpreted the story to mean that the author of the resolution was a politician rather than a regular citizen who will be a delegate to the convention.  A large number of posts were from people who didn't really care about the news story, but rather wanted to rant about illegal immigration.  I present just a few of my favorites.

A fellow by the name of Charles h posted (under the name "Compared to SLC's 'Pebble'" which seems a little cryptic unless you know who this Pebble guy is (answer:  Bam-Bam's childhood sweetheart)) four questions for the pro-immigration people.  They are

1-Do you think uncontrolled borders, illegal border crossings, and the influx of illegal aliens to this nation are good things or bad things?
2-Do you think that the drug crimes, vandalism, ID theft/fraud, and other crimes so often accompanying illegal aliens are good things, or bad things?
3-Do you deny the existence of either God, or the devil as real beings?
4-Who is it that entices men to do bad things: God, or the devil?

The first question is great because it was one of the few comments at the site that acknowledged that stopping illegal immigration isn't as simple as just shutting down border crossings or turning down all visa applications (actually, being more permissive at border crossings would be more likely to reduce illegal immigration, but most immigration opponents wouldn't approve of that method).  Basically, the US-Mexican border leaks like a sieve, which is a very difficult problem to fix (sure, we can build a wall, but what about a moat and some gators?).

The second question is also interesting, especially the point about ID Theft.  It is widely acknowledged that some people who do not have the credentials to work legally in the country will "borrow" the credentials of someone who does have that right.  I'm curious to know how many of these people go the extra step to taking out credit cards in that person's name, which is the type of fraud that is most readily associated with the term "identity theft".

The third and fourth questions I assume were in response to the original resolution (you know, the one about the devil's border running business).  Unfortunately, the questions are meaningless to the immigration debate (it doesn't matter if Satan is behind something because the answers to the problem still have to be addressed in terms of more tangible causes), and the last question is especially telling in that it doesn't offer any non-spiritual options.  Apparently Charles h assumed that all of the KSL readers are god-fearing people who just needed to be reminded that the Devil is real and behind all the evil in the world (several people replied to his comment to say that they don't believe in God or the Devil, and that they were on [either side] of the immigration debate).

My other favorite comment was from eotpr (titled "Thanks buddy this is what hiring illegals is doing for us." and posted at 8:45 a.m.).  Apparently, every time KSL runs a story about immigration, this guy posts a lengthy list of statistics about the evils of immigration.  His post gives us some fun games to play at home!

• Try to find the longest streak of facts in a row that apply to the same length of time (e.g. "since 2006, $X a day, no time period but just a rate, etc.).
• How many facts can you find that get repeated (with different wording)?  Which fact gets repeated the most times?

If I had any experience doing so, I would suggest a drinking game to play while reading the comments.  You could take a shot every time someone suggests that you close the borders, and take two shots whenever someone backs the resolution's idea that it's the Devil behind illegal immigration.