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I grew up very religiously and very patriotic in a selective sense and I only wanted to hear things I wanted to hear and only things that I thought would make my country look better and make my beliefs look better and wasn’t very interested in seeing other perspectives and the version I had of my country was that we were going all throughout the world and doing all this great stuff and helping people in need and, you know, after 9/11 I was obviously affected by that and wanted to protect the people that I cared about and from everyone I trusted was told that the military would be a good way to do that and was also told that, you know, this country Iraq was being oppressed by this horrible dictator who is also a threat to us and if we can get rid of him not only will we be keeping ourselves safe, but we’ll also be helping this other country in the process.

How closely were your beliefs and your religious beliefs entwined?

They were pretty closely entwined and I went to a religious high school and one example is that in a government class I was in at this high school we read a book that was called The Faith of George W. Bush and people like that were held up as these people that were fighting for God’s will here on earth so religion was very interwoven with a sense of nationalism.

But in 2006 when you joined it was already clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that Bush and Cheney had essentially lied to start a war, by 2006 that’s fairly acknowledged, had that penetrated to you, your school?

No, the people I was listening to, and again I wasn’t making any effort to challenge my thinking before saying, you know, that the media or other countries are out to make us look bad and, um, we were, we did the right thing and we’re doing the right thing and I might have had a few doubts in my mind but I comforted the doubts by saying even the reasons that were there weren’t completely justified were there and we’re mispositioned and we can’t just pull out and we need to help these people.

So even tho’ the weapons weren’t there...it’s still good versus evil?

Yeah, I bought into that a lot.

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CA does not allow certain fruits and vegetables to be transported in due to the possibility of the fruit fly and other pests. They ask you about fruit at "bug" checkpoints when crossing the state line into CA.

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I live in Cali and have gone through the check point a few times... they mostly just check for fruit or suspicious cars. I've never had them ask any questions except, "where are you coming from" and "Are you bringing in any fruit".

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Last August, the state declared victory in its latest campaign against the Mediterranean fruit fly, which had appeared in Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Solano counties.

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The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that starting Saturday several thousand traps will be placed in 15 square miles of eastern Los Angeles County in the La Verne area, where seven of the flies were recently found in traps.

La Verne, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was a citrus-growing region in the early 20th century but is now a residential and college town.

The discovery of the white striped fruit fly opens the latest front in California's decades-long battles with non-native bugs that threaten its valuable agricultural products.

Earlier in July, the state detected a new infestation of the Oriental fruit fly in La Verne and began trapping for that pest. The state also only recently declared the Mexican fruit fly eradicated in nearby Azusa and lifted a 2008 quarantine on passage of fruits and vegetables.

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The eradication strategy is based on stopping the breeding cycle. The traps hung in trees will be laced with a bait to attract males and a small amount of pesticide to kill them.

Crews will also treat foliage within about 220 yards of each site where flies were found.

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Olive fruit fly is the major insect pest of olive crops worldwide. It is in the insect family Tephritidae that contains many well know pests species such as the Mediterranean fruit fly. It has impacted olive production since biblical times. In some parts of the world, olive fruit fly is responsible for losses up to 80% of oil value and 100% of various cultivars used as table olives. California produces > 99% of the olives grown in the USA.

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Yes they are there.

I have gone through them about 40 times over the last 15 years.

All in Texas on IH-10, IH-35 and US-59 and US-277.
I have even driven through with multiple foreign nationals. Sometimes the driver has been asked for ID sometimes all in the vehicle. Once a UK citizen with me was asked for a passport. But once I said I had three Italians with me and we were told to procede. Once I was a driving a vehicle with Belize license plates and had to show a registration. Other times I have been waived through with out stopping, just slowing down.

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