What the hell, Mexico?
The question isn’t what to do with our X million Mexicans. The question is what the hell is the matter with you, Mexico? What the hell is going on when millions of your citizens risk their lives to slip out of your country to do next door’s shittiest jobs for wages so low it would be a crime, if it weren’t already a crime?
And why the hell do we accept that as normal?
Mexico is a big, beautiful country stuffed with natural resources. Miles of coastline, tons of oil. It’s like the world’s fourteenth largest economy. The rich are doing fine. The middle class is getting there.
So why is their economic plan “let the poorest sneak into the neighbors place and raid the fridge”? And why don’t we make a stink about it. To Mexico. Where the problem really lies. It’s like we think it would be rude to point it out.
They say conditions have improved so much that net migration into the US is now zero. I say: prove it. Take these ones back.
April 23, 2013 — 9:44 pm
Comments: 21
Thinks I don’t umberstand
So, this here immigration bill. Are hispanics really for it? I mean, the ones that immigrated legally. The pundits say a) the hispanic population is our fastest-growing demographic and b) they’ll hate the GOP forever if the bill dies. But will they? As a point of solidarity? Because why else would you want to vote in 11 million (or 20 million) more people to compete for your job in a crap economy?
The new incomers won’t vote against us because they can’t; that whole ‘path to citizenship’ thing takes a decades, I think. I mean, they can vote illegally, but they can do that now.
Meanwhile, if it got through, wouldn’t this ultimately hurt the Dems with all the other demographics that will be competing against the newly legal immigrants? The blue collar and entry-level job markets, where I assume most of this influx will be aiming, includes a disproportionate amount of the Democrat base. I mean, you’re desperate to find work, it’s not going to escape your notice who pinched your job and how they got here, is it?
Why is business supposedly for this thing? Once illegal immigrants are legalized, they have to be paid minimum wage and Obamacare and all the rest of it. They’ll be like any other entry-level employee, but with more language and cultural problems. So how is it helpful to have so very many of them?
And finally, if this bill squeaks by in the Senate, it hasn’t a hope in hell of making it through the Republican House without being gutted, so isn’t this all moot? So why has Marco Rubio decided to piss his career down his leg for this?
If only we had a class of professional investigators whose job was to track these things down and explain them to thickos like me.
April 22, 2013 — 10:32 pm
Comments: 28
WTF?
So, they can do that? The police can just order everyone in a major city to close their businesses and stay home? For how long? What happens if you disobey?
Who are those guys in camo? Do the police have alternate military style uniforms or have the National Guard been brought in? That spooky black humvee has Boston Police stenciled on the front. When did they buy that, and what did they expect to use it for?
Since when did Watertown, MA have a large Russian-speaking community? Why aren’t any journalists asking for details of this unheard of lockdown procedure?
I understand this is a shit-hot manhunt and, when we last saw them, these guys were firing in all directions and throwing grenades around. But the sight of what looks for all the world like troops shaking down house after house in the suburbs of Boston is making me a little queasy.
Have a good weekend. Remember, every twenty minutes or so, get up from the monitor, do a little stretch and look at something in the distance for a minute.
April 19, 2013 — 9:48 pm
Comments: 54
You disappointed Him. Again.
Oh, that was sweet, wasn’t it? That look on Obama’s face at the Gun Control FAIL presser? Oooo…the preznit, he mad.
That was the one bright spot in a pretty rough news week.
April 18, 2013 — 11:10 pm
Comments: 27
Weasel television
So, Wednesdays we have coffee with the neighbors at a local cafe. This morning, first thing when I showed up, more than one of them said, “so, this Boston thing — right wing tax protestors, you think?”
Behold, the insidious evil of the media messaging machine. Bear in mind, my neighbors are mostly farmers and desperately conservative people, but this is the only theory they had heard. And by repeating this speculation each and every time something bad happens, it doesn’t matter that it keeps stubbornly not being true, media accomplishes its mission.
Anyway, that’s not important. This is: one of the ladies in this flock had quintuplets. She’s not in the field, though. She’s in the barn. Resting.
It’s lambing time! Or, rather, lambing time is almost over, and here’s the result. And the weather is getting better. Uncle B snuck up behind me and took this picture today.
Yes. Weather permitting, I play banjo to the newborn lambs.
April 17, 2013 — 10:44 pm
Comments: 34
Don’t worry. They’re not mad at *you*
No, it has not escaped notice here that our juvenile president seems to go way out of his way to insult Britain. Sending nobody from his administration to Maggie’s funeral is just the latest in a series. (The picture is from the rehearsal, by the way).
Here’s the thing, though — that “special relationship” stuff is real and it is an incredibly durable and powerful force. It’s not about our governments cooperating. In fact, politicians of all kinds seem a little embarrassed about it (for reasons I can’t quite wrap my puzzler around). It’s because we are the same people. We share a common history, a common law, a common view of the world. Not just Anglo-American, but wherever free markets and English common law have penetrated — in other words, former British colonies. (Oh, it’s not racial, either. It applies equally to former colonies like Hong Kong). It’s the Anglosphere, and it’s real and persistent.
I get a much wider view of it from here. Despite the locking down of legal immigration (and you better believe they’re clamping down on migration between these two countries — not the right sort of immigration, don’tcha know), people are still finding ways to move between Anglospheric countries. Nearly every one of our neighbors has family in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. This is sheep country, so that’s not surprising, but it’s also true of my doctor and the road engineer who lives on the corner.
I expected to encounter some degree of anti-Americanism, but so far…nada. People’s faces light up when they hear my accent and they can’t wait to tell me about their last trip to Vegas or Disney World.
So, no worries. The petulant man-child in the Oval Office has tweaked a few tails, but nobody’s mad at you. We’re family, after all.
April 16, 2013 — 9:49 pm
Comments: 27
Shit.
Near as I can tell from my FaceBook feed, all my old Boston homies are home and safe. So. Fine.
Does everyone have the day off for Patriot’s Day? I always did, but I worked in suburban Boston and my employer could expect some percent of employees to play hooky for the marathon if a day wasn’t provided.
I never went in person, but watched on TV often enough. I’m not into sports — certainly not marathons — but I remember this one because the third Monday in April is a real grab bag, weather wise. I’ve watched them run in blazing sun and in snow. Runners prefer the cold runs, for the obvious reason.
As far as speculation goes…too soon, too soon. We’ll have real answers in the fullness of time. Now back to watching Twitter twitter.
April 15, 2013 — 10:43 pm
Comments: 29
Oh, do it, do it, please!
As you surely know, Anthony Weiner is thinking of running for mayor of New York. Which would be awesome. Y’all know how I love me a dick joke!
My first thought was, no way. You don’t come back from a multiple-target creepy dick-tweeting scandal. I was flipping through old YouTubes of Weiner performing — he was a godawful camera whore, if you remember — and I had forgotten how desperately I longed to poke this guy in the snoot. He’s a hyperactive, sarcastic, loudmouthed, obnoxious, prancing smartass.
New Yorkers loved him. It dawned on me, those YouTubes were uploaded by people who adored him. They were delighted to watch him wave his arms around and scream. The majority of his constituents didn’t want him to resign when he did. So, dick jokes or not, it isn’t out of the question.
Hoo boy! You thought Bloomberg was a national hate object. If they elect this jackass, the rest of the country will have no choice but to saw Manhattan loose and tow it out to sea.
Oh, I found this. It’s from the Women’s National Republican Club’s awards dinner last year. I don’t know who Andrea Tantaros is, but I like the cut of her jib:
Andrea Tantaros held up a cocktail wiener and starting going off on the sexting-crazed ex-congressman who resigned in disgrace. “You’ll recognize this from the cocktail hour. It’s a little wiener. It’s in a symbolic silver tray, too, right Bob?” she said, referring to Turner, who succeeded Weiner following his scandal. “Thank you for restoring the dignity of the House and properly managing your Twitter account,” she told Turner.
Speaking of dick jokes – tomorrow. Here. Six sharp WBT. Dead Pool Round 49.
April 11, 2013 — 10:47 pm
Comments: 26
Me-ouch
This is the hot, wet pussy you’ve heard so much about on in the internet. Austrian dude drove twenty minutes to the car wash, noticed the car made an odd shrieking sound going through the water jets, discovered it continued to scream even with the engine switched off, found his cat wedged into the grill. Then he slowly drove himself to the automobile club to have the cat extracted.
Murli is fine. And she smells Springtime fresh!
Stupid cat stories: when you absolutely, positively have something else you have to do tonight.
April 10, 2013 — 9:47 pm
Comments: 25
Crazy chicken lays crazy eggs
A Mapp egg. They’re always like this. Usually, she lays half a dozen or so and then goes broody for the rest of the season, so <shrug>
Changing the subject. I’ve tried not to, but couldn’t miss some of the very public ugliness triggered by Maggie’s death. Out of all proportion to anything she actually did. Not too many of the intellectual elite who hate her most are coal miners, after all. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s because she laughed at the chattering classes. And because she was right. And because of a quality that’ll take me a minute to explain.
I’ve told you before, working with engineers was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Engineers are practical men. They do what I used to think scientists do: they do stuff, they observe the result and they are confident they have just learned something worth knowing. How much pressure did the fastener take before it snapped? At what temperature did the adhesives fail? How much schmutz accumulates in a pipe carrying hard water over an 18 month period? (“Schmutz” is a useful engineering term I learned).
Some of the scientists were like that too, surely — or science wouldn’t advance. But some were more interested in the hypothesis and not so keen on the result.
And moving away from the hard sciences into the soft sciences and the humanities, I observe there is a whole class of clever thinkers who fall in love with ideas. Big, complicated ideas. Elegant ideas. Beautiful ideas that are difficult to grasp. And really, honestly, deep down but without saying so they don’t give a shit if the ideas are true or not. They’d rather not know. It spoils the effect.
In fact, I’m convinced some of them especially love with ideas that are false, because it takes so much effort, so many hours of study, so much scholarship to clasp a falsehood to your bosom. You have to be one of the highly-educated elite to believe really obviously dumbass stuff. Squares don’t get it. Your grandma don’t get it. Toothless hillbillies laugh at you, so you KNOW you’re on the right track.
So you get Joe Biden — nobody’s idea of an ideas man, but he hangs around them and absorbs their chatter like a parrot — wisely opining that we have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt. Because you have to be extra fucking smart to understand how that works.
And then along comes Maggie and says, “any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.” Cash in, cash out, new shoes will have to wait until next month to make it balance. A housewifely skillset. And she governed with it. And it worked.
And all the overcredentialled Oxbridge (or Ivy League) technocratic smarty pantses who believe themselves our natural ruling class (including quite a few on “our” side of the aisle) foam and gnash their teeth. It’s all so ugly and ordinary and dreary.
It demeans them and their powerful brains.
April 9, 2013 — 10:12 pm
Comments: 27