Stop that! You'll go blind

It seems that the US Senate is oh so very pleased with itself over its "comprehensive" immigration bill. One of the major concerns was about "Criminalizing" illegals.
I said that right - "Criminalizing" illegals.
If someone is cited with the preface "illegal," wouldn't you presume that criminal activity was already a given?
They want to make it illegal to dig a tunnel under the border controls. Excuse me. Isn't that already against the law? How about robbing a 7-11? Want to criminalize that?
I've known for a long time that the American standard of English was under assault by tremendously lazy users in a grander society. Not that my grasp of the language is profound, but it may be better than some. However, this dumbing down pushed along by political correctness and popular culture now seems to be affecting legal language.
Remember "Ban Intolerance?"
The Senate has just taken part in this grandiose masturbatory exercise that is amazingly called reform. It is a painful selection of words proudly proclaiming amnesty for illegal migrants, impotent border enforcement, larger criminal presence in our society, greater drain on our "safety net," and general disrespect for our laws in general. Bravo!
If the identity theft, social security fraud and $20 billion dollars funnelled out of the country annually doesn't disturb you, what will? Perhaps a foreign head of state coming here to criticize the use of our own military in our own country, our immigration policies and ...oh. Fox was here yesterday.
Mexico does not want to reform its culture of corruption. It wants to unduly influence our domestic policies and agenda. It is (without doubt) dangling an oil coated carrot and stick in out face while whispering the name "Chavez" in certain circles. All the while, it is getting rid of hundreds of thousands of its underclass by printing up brochures telling them how and where to cross into sovereign US territory.
If they die...damn you George Bush!
Were it not for the US government's complicitness in the matter, their behavior could be deemed hostile. The list of affronts is very long and very troubling.
Now with Fox soon to be out of office, the US has a lot more to be concerned about. Who will take the helm - leftists or the right-wing. Neither will be of any real service to its northern neighbor. For some reason, when nationalists take over a country, there is cause for celebration, unless the Americans act nationalistic. That is arrogance.
Remember boys and girls, Mexico is our friend. Just don't drink the Kool-Aid.
So when the US Congesss proclaims the 12-17 million illegals in this country to be legal, remember that they can then petition to have x-number of their family members to come in as well. What are we talking here? An extra 30 million? This will be all legal. Not that that seems to matter to anybody.
So have a smoke America and don't forget to wipe the headboard.

The Thing That Wouldn't Leave

I remember a Saturday Night Live skit from the original series. John Belushi shows up at someone's house, invites himself in and just takes over the place, ignoring all efforts to show him the door. He sat on the middle of the couch, ate sloppy food, asked for more beer, played the telivision too loud, etc. Disregarding his hosts protestations, he overstayed his welcome. He greedily continued to take advantage of his hosts hertofore generous offerings. Seemigly, without end.
Pretty damned funny, right?
Now I have lived and worked a great deal of my life on foreign soil. I am, in fact, in the middle of doing so yet again. I know I shall have certain limitations on my sovereign rights because they differ every time the flag changes. So I have played by the rules in the past and shall do so again.
It has never been an issue really. I appear to have taken a lesson from my childhood, in that, I would go to a friend's house and the rules, language and so forth would be different from my own home. The reason being is that a good half of my friends were immigrants or 1st generation Americans. It was eye-opening.
The lesson in game parlance: the house deals.
Anyway, I learned a vital lesson then. Whenever I go to a foreign land, I am obviously a big, white, English speaking American, but I respect the house that I am in. I find out as much as I can beforehand and try to apply whatever is appropriate, when appropriate.
I am always (and will always remain) the outsider. No problem. I take it as an honorific. I am the guest. As such, I give respect to the house (country) by observing the rules that apply (often only to foreigners). It is the price of admission.
By learning what I am allowed and what I am not, I am perceived as paying respect to them and their hospitality (singular, local or national). I must admit that I, at times, have been given special dispensations due to being the "gora," "farang," "gui lao" or "gringo." However, once cautioned, I was expected to comply as best as I could. And so I did.
In this, I learn something new every single day. I learn about myself, what it means to be an American and about the place and people that host me. In this, I become better. In this, perhaps, they understand Americans a little better. In this is the seed for greater understanding.
Now comes the reality check. These migrant bastards (so many of them here illegally) that protested May 1st, waving foreign flags on my soil need to go. They do not respect my house. That house is an American house with American rules and they showed up uninvited. Then they take advantage of American generosity.
Those here legally are welcome at my table.
Those folks that claim ancestral rights (LMFAO!) better have their family tree pretty well laid out because many of them are claiming continental sovereignity. There was no monolithic nation here prior to the Europeans arriving. Their ancestral rights might be more applicable to present-day Honduras, Peru, or Chiapas (that is, if they are 100% native). It can also be claimed that the decendants of the American Southwest pretty much still live in the American Southwest.
Some of these folks may indeed have the proper lineage, but why then were so many carrying signs written in the language of the barbarian, genocidal invaders (clue: not English)? Hmmm. Should they all go back to Costa del Sol? Please. These claims of "Our Land Was Stolen" need to change to what this is really about - "You got yours. I want mine (and yours)."
When you invite someone into your house, you expect certain things. First, you expect only those invited to show up. You expect them to accept only what you offer. You expect them to be courteous. You expect them to do nothing to upset you - you know - have appropriate manners. You expect them to offer help in cleaning up (you'll decline but appreciate the offer nontheless). Then you expect them to leave (without the silverware).
Of course, you continue to invite people into your home. You continue to be a gracious host.
Some bring beer, wine or dip. Others bring flowers. What you do not expect is an invasion of parasites proclaiming squatter's rights. Make no mistake about it. This is squatter's rights.
A bunch of people arrived in America's living room May 1st, took a steaming dump, laughed and said "You can't do a damned thing about it?"
More to follow later, I have to go or I'll gnaw off my own arm.

Pass the chutney please

I like to listen to online radio while I work. This allows for me to listen to my New York City local radio (which I very much miss while driving) as well as the BBC Asian Network which is somewhat of an addiction.
I have, this past year, developed a fancy for the Sonia Deol program. I have, as the slogan goes, "Switched to Sonia." She has a chat program that combines a nice bit of news, Indo-Brit pop and general chatter which is a great diversion from an otherwise bleak assortment of vanilla formulaic programming.
It isn't that other programs stink. Hardly. It is just that sometimes I need a bit of masala with my brain food. Sonia, so the bio goes, is a Birmingham girl from a South Asian family background (get it? Asian network.) ergo, a bit of the subject matter covered is South Asian oriented. Her cohorts, Sohail and Sonal, make for great banter and the humor can get near to wicked.
For those of you who find a woman's tone to be important, let me say one word - delicious. Having recently put a face to the voice - wow. She just happens to be a doll too. This just adds to my overall listening pleasure.
Well you can see for yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/sonia_deol/?focuswin
There are several shows on the network that I'll listen to but Sonia's efforts bring me the greatest rewards.

Squatters Rights

We can now look back with hindsight on the events of May 1st. For myself, looking back is to revisit seething anger. Betwixt the American and Mexican flags were the "This is our land" and "This Land Was Stolen" ad infinitum posters.

This declarative begs a question or two. The land was stolen by whom, when, and it it belonged to which group (not those on the streets of Chicago or LA).
If we were to follow this particular vein of thinking, pray tell, where would these people be sneaking into then - not Canada, because that particular piece of geography was stolen from the Mohawks, Aleuts, etc.

Wait! Which groups came from the southwest US? Perhaps those claiming aboriginal rights did not hail from there in the first place. For instance, perhaps those coming from Ecuador should be invading Peru?
Then there is the whole percentage bit. How much Spaniard blood is acceptable? Listening to the rhetoric of boycott organizer Javier Rodriguez, the United States and Europeans committed genocide and have been parasites. Hmmm.
This is an extension of "We Are America?"

We cannot forget all of the sympathetic "Hate Bush" crowd. No protest is complete without them
Mixed messages? Not at all. I got the message loud and clear.

RICOH Suave

Today is the day of the Great American Boycott, Nothing Gringo Day and "A Day Without an Immigrant."
Mierda del toro!
First off. This smacks of the same intellectual dishonesty as in the film "A Day Without a Mexican." This was a funny movie. Perhaps not so intentionally. The film put forth the notion that everyone with a Spanish background disappeared and California was in tatters. The end result being that the day ended and even the Border Patrol was putting out the welcome mat. This celluliod detritus implied that all the folks named Gomez are Mexican.
*Insert the aforementioned by-product del toro here.*
Now fast forward to today - May 1st 2006. What we have to clear up here is semantic. This is not "A Day Without Immigrants." To be proper, it is "A Day Without Illegal Migrants." You see, the argument about these people being "undocumented" is fallacious. This would equte with the Minutemen in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California being "undocumented Border Patrol agents." They are also not to be confused with immigrants because a large amount of them only want to make as much money as they can and go home to live off their dollars.
Even the new fangled Especial Anthem ends with "Somos Latinos." Those signs that were handed out for weeks state "We are America!" None of them said "We are Americans."
However, I will not stand by and allow myself to be labeled anti-immigrant. I was raised in a city that was majority immigrant. My first love was a foreign born refugee. More than half of my closest friends and definately the women I've had relationships with in my life (that adds up to a lot of ... years) were born on foreign soil. I have two sisters-in-law who are foreign born. My sisters' husband is foreign born. All arrived here legally.

And isn't it a damned shame that this spate of name calling mandates that arguments begin with "some of my best friends are..."
It is a shill game.
America is great because of the influx of "others." However, this is not France and mobs do not make the law. Congress makes the law. Mobs seemingly break those laws. At the very least, mobs defy those laws.
Ergo, they act illegally. Cogito they are criminals.
Let us take a quick look without moral equivalence or emotional sleight-of-hand.
Fact: The migrants are here illegally.
Fact: They do not all pay taxes.
Fact: Those that do using false identification, social security numbers and so forth, are committing a form of identity theft.
Fact: Money earned here is being funnelled back to Mexico - the largest source of revenue second only to the Mexican oil industry.
Fact: The most properous country in the world has a porous border with a corrupt third world nation that encourages people to leave.
Mexico wants these people to keep going to the US as sort of a pressure release. What loss is 300 thousand highschool dropouts to El Fox? It keeps that government from having to make radical reforms.
My own notions regarding the dispute: 1) Stop the hemorrhaging at the border by shutting it down "like an Iron Curtain." Build a very large wall from the Gulf of Mexico to Imperial Beach. This would provide a lot of jobs in areas of the US with high unemployment rates. We could add irony to insult by using some of those unemployed former East Germans who made the other "Wall." Perhaps some H-1 Visa Israeli engineering students could intern there.
2) Consider using the RICOH laws to punish business owners who encourage illegality by hiring these criminals in "solidarity." It is conspiricy, is it not? To show we are not without heart, we should promise to put them in the same prisons.
3) Promote more rallies. Hire more deputies to round up illegals at said rallies and process them for deportation. Use shuttered military bases if you run of of room.
4) Change the 14th Amendment so as to end "Birth Tourism."
5) Fine and/or impeach politicians who promote voting by non-citizens. RICOH Suave!
6) Now that the border is secure. Promote the hell out of legal immigration.
All in all, I do not want the rally to be a one day thing. I am for making "A Day Without Illegal Migrants" an everyday thing.
This is a subject I shall return to. In the interim, pass the chimichangas.
Somos Latinos? Well, some are; somos not