In addition to the many other fascinating aspects of my life you’ve already experienced through this blog - the SyTy fiasco, my unhealthy love of airplanes, my raging xenophobia - you may not be aware of the fact that I am also a licensed professional pyrotechnician. Throughout the year, me and my crew do a half-dozen or so shows throughout the San Diego area, with our main show on Independence Day at Rancho Bernardo High School. The company that I contract with, Pyro Spectaculars, holds an annual operator training seminar and show every spring to get everybody tuned up for the coming holiday, and this time around I remembered to bring my camera. Click on the mortar rack below to enjoy the pictures…

Here’s something I wrote back in 2006, on the heels of the first "day without an immigrant" on May 1st here in SoCal. I think it holds up well enough to be repeated…

May 5th, or "Cinco de Mayo" commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza over the French expeditionary forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. In recent years, Cinco de Mayo has risen in popularity in the United States, equaling St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, and Superbowl Sunday as an occasion to gather with friends, enjoy an adult beverage or two, and eat a special meal. However, many Americans are made uncomfortable this year by the prospect of celebrating a Mexican national holiday just four days after hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens, living and working in the United States in violation of immigration laws, attempted to harm the U.S. economy and manipulate the nation’s lawmakers through boycotts, work stoppages, and protest marches.