How Liberals Think

Robin, the Berkeley psychoanalyst and recovering liberal, is back with another penetrating analysis of the liberal mind. It'd be hard to argue with her even were I inclined to do so.

She offers a lot of interesting and humorous insights into the mysteries of the liberal psyche, one of which is her explanation of why liberals so despise Sarah Palin: Apparently it's because she's more of a man than they are, and they know it.

Anyway, read the rest of Robin's ruminations at the link.

Meanwhile, this is making the rounds - McDonald's new Obama Value Meal: The guy ahead of you in the drive-thru orders anything he wants and you have to pay for it.

RLC

Race Matters

A report out of Ann Arbor, Michigan simply defies belief. Apparently, an elementary school took students to hear a successful scientist speak on how one becomes a successful scientist. Astonishingly, though, since the scientist was white, the principle, who is also white, did not allow black students to go along. He felt they would not be able to relate to what was essentially a white experience.

I think we can all agree that this man is either incredibly stupid or deeply bigoted, or both. In either case he should not be the principal of a dog kennel let alone an elementary school.

The principal even allegedly belittled a Muslim girl who complained about being excluded from the trip.

He defended his decision to irate parents of black students by explaining that those who were selected to go on the field trip were members of a club exclusively for white students who the school felt needed to have an experience that would expose them to successful role models. As such, black students would be out of place. As you might imagine, this did little to mollify the parents.

Perhaps you think this episode is so bizarre and outrageous that you doubt that it really happened, but you can read about it for yourself here.

I don't know why this story isn't national news and this principal isn't being pilloried in the press.

Well, that's not quite true. I think I do know why. I cheated by switching the races in the story. In point of fact, the principal, students and scientist were all black and the excluded students, including the Muslim girl, were not. In our race-obsessed society, and the media which services it and abets the obsession, it makes a huge difference which race is being favored and which discriminated against. The story has gained little purchase in the media, I suspect, because discrimination against white students is acceptable, or at least understandable, in the ideological waters in which they swim.

This is the sort of attitude, however, which only serves to exacerbate racial friction in this country. We'll never get past these frictions until we get over our preoccupation with skin color. Indeed, in my opinion, one way to tell if one is a bigot is by reflecting on your reaction to this story. If you were outraged by the way the story was represented in the above paragraphs but not so outraged when you learned the truth then you're probably a bigot. You can also tell if someone is arrantly liberal if he thinks the race of the students and the principal in this tale should actually matter.

RLC

A Pair of Rarities

I had the pleasure in the last several days of viewing two birds which are both very uncommon in my part of Pennsylvania. The first find was a Wilson's phalarope discovered in a pond near the town of Hershey.

The phalarope is not only rarely seen in south central Pennsylvania but is also very unusual in that the female is the more brightly plumaged of the two sexes and leaves to the male the tasks of nest-building, incubating the eggs, and raising the young. I don't know if this is what people mean by "transgendered," but it's certainly unusual behavior in the animal kingdom, and one wonders how this sex-role switch ever came about. They also have an odd way of feeding. They'll sometimes paddle quickly in a tight circle in the water causing insects and other food items to be drawn to the surface where they can be easily caught and eaten.

The second bird is an Upland sandpiper found in a grassy, reclaimed landfill in southern York County. The Upland sandpiper is related to the shorebirds one sees on beaches and mudflats, but it itself is rarely seen near water. Instead, this is a bird of dry, grassy, upland fields. They're very uncommon in Pennsylvania and especially so in the south-central part of the state.

The Upland sandpiper gives a unique call that sounds almost exactly like a "wolf-whistle," which is a little disconcerting when you hear it because it doesn't sound like something that would come from a bird.

RLC

Heading South

While Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and their merry band in Congress continue their transformation of America and rub their hands in anticipation of transformations yet to come, others are much less sanguine at the direction in which they are taking the country. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is an organization of political libertarians who are growing increasingly dismayed at the rapid growth of the state and some are so exasperated that they're now talking seriously about expatriation.

Libertarians are people who believe that government should be minimally intrusive in people's lives, including their economic and moral lives, and that the Obama administration has greatly accelerated a process of state expansion that has been ongoing since WWII.

In an article sent along by brother Bill, libertarian Lew Rockwell writes:

[T]he rise of emigration, expatriation, and citizenship renunciation is a trend that is not going away. It is rising and will get more significant. In some ways, it is completely expected. When regimes overcontrol, overtax, overregulate, they gnaw at the innate sense of the right to be free. When this gets worse and worse, people tend to look around for better environments.

We've all known people who talk about it openly. It is becoming cocktail conversation, the once unthinkable now standard fare. It's not just an impression. State Department records show that 502 people gave up citizenship in just the last quarter of 2009. That is more than twice the total for 2008. That might not seem like a lot, but what stands out here is the trend line, which is soaring. I also hear reports of year-long bureaucratic delays in approval, and, of course, plenty of people leave without permission.

What does Rockwell attribute this exodus to? Take a look:

Far more frightening is the sense that financial calamity is around the corner. A look at the data seems to suggest that. Vast reserves are sitting in the banking system, waiting to be unleashed to create what could be total destruction of the dollar. The deficit is rising so fast that it is hard to chart.

The jobs situation is terrible, especially for young people (and adults often make decisions based on what is best for their kids' future). Personal income is falling and falling. Investment is not recovering after its cliff dive in 2009. The social-welfare state is broke. Private debt is rising even though lending has not restarted.

The policies of the fiscal and monetary authorities are absolutely terrifying. The Fed is keeping rates at zero. The government is spending and spending beyond belief. Tax receipts are falling as never before, unleashing the greedy hand of the predator state to extract every last dime.

And look at what the US Congress and president are doing about this terrible mess: they are working to socialize healthcare, start a war with Iran, impose tariffs on China, and otherwise tax, regulate, inflate, and control more more more. An economy that is heavily capitalized and driven by the entrepreneurial spirit can stand a surprising amount of abuse. But that reserve capital is being drained away into new bubbles, and the entrepreneurial spirit is being crushed at every turn.

Based on all these facts, the sense of impending doom is hard to avoid. And consider that most people are thinking only about today, this month, and this year. But among the rich and entrepreneurial we find a class of people who specialize in thinking outside the box, and for the very long term. It is among the ranks of these people that we are seeing the renunciation trend take hold. The smart money is giving up on the US political system.

Whether Rockwell is correct or not I certainly can't say, but it would be interesting to know whether he himself is preparing to leave. In any event, if the geese that lay the golden eggs in our economy all start migrating south the U.S. will be pretty much dead in the water as a vibrant haven of prosperity and freedom. It will instead start to resemble one of those European basket-cases like Greece or Portugal, or maybe even Mexico.

That's not the hope and change that most Americans voted for.

RLC

Time Travel

The faster one travels the slower time passes for the traveler. This is a fundamental, if bizarre, entailment of Einstein's theory of relativity, and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, his brilliant mind still active despite a body wracked by Lou Gehrig's disease, thinks this makes time travel into the future possible.

Of course, this isn't a new idea. It's been the premise for movies like Planet of the Apes and others of that genre for decades.

Even so, it's interesting to read Hawking's thoughts on it and why he doesn't think travel into the past is possible. Read the story here.

RLC

Stupid Reasons

Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson spends an entire column arguing rather desultorily against constructing a wall along the border with Mexico. His brief against the barrier is summarized by this paragraph:

It would be possible to build a 2,000-mile-long Berlin Wall, complete with watchtowers. But it would be stupid and counterproductive. The U.S.-Mexico relationship is vitally important, economically and politically, and the border has to be permeable enough to permit a massive legitimate daily flow of goods and people.

That building the wall would be stupid, Mr. Robinson is certainly entitled to believe, but anyone who offers the sorts of arguments he does in this essay should be more judicious about how he employs the word.

In the first place, the analogy to the Berlin Wall is at best awkward. The Berlin Wall was built to imprison people, to keep them from getting out. The border wall would keep no one in but rather keep out those seeking to enter the country illegally. It's like having a lock on the front door of your house.

In the second place, despite what Mr. Robinson evidently believes, our commerce with Mexico does not transpire in the desolate areas of the desert, it occurs at entry points on highways supervised by customs agents. These would still exist whether a border fence were built along the desert or not. The only commerce that would be effected by a fence would be the nefarious trafficking in drugs and human beings.

One could, perhaps, make a case against building a wall by arguing that it would be prohibitively expensive and/or it wouldn't work, but both of these are very difficult cases to support. Compared to the trillions that the current administration is spending to bail out the unions at GM and their cronies on Wall Street a couple of billion for the fence would be relative pocket change. Whether a wall would work or not would depend, of course, on how it is patrolled and maintained, but none of these details matter to Robinson who sees no problem on our borders in the first place.

He cites the fact that a police chief in the border town of Nogales tells him that violence isn't high in his jurisdiction, and concludes from this that there's no real reason for concern about illegal immigration. This is breath-takingly obtuse. Arizona has become known as the kidnapping capital of the world, and the perpetrators are almost all illegal aliens. Moreover, contrary to what Robinson must think, the bad guys don't settle in the border towns, they move on to America's heartland cities where there's more profit to be made from their mischief. Finally, the problem is not just the criminals that are coming across illegally, but the vast hordes of poor people who flow into this country in need of goods and services which the taxpayer has to provide.

Trying to solve our illegal immigration problems without turning off the spigot is like trying to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil slick without capping the gusher that's producing it. Thankfully, the people trying to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf don't think it's "stupid" to do so.

RLC

Racist Assumptions

Justin sends along a link to a site called Philosophical Misadventures which documents the racist assumptions of two giants in Western philosophy, David Hume and Immanuel Kant. The views they express would get them both thrown out of any modern day university, one would assume, but then again, maybe not. After all, Charles Darwin held similar views, and I can't imagine any American college so audacious as to give the great naturalist the boot.

Anyway, here are a couple of relevant passages from Hume and kant:

I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, no sciences. On the other hand, the most rude and barbarous of the Whites, such as the ancient Germans, the present Tartars, have still something eminent about them, in their valour, form of government, or some other particular. Such a uniform and constant difference could not happen, in so many countries and ages, if nature had not made an original distinction between these breeds of men. Not to mention our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered the symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly.

The above quote comes from a footnote in Hume's essay Of National Character. Kant plays off of Hume in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime:

The Negroes of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling. Mr. Hume challenges anyone to cite a single example in which a Negro has shown talents, and asserts that among the hundreds of thousands of blacks who are transported elsewhere from their countries, although many of them have even been set free, still not a single one was every found who presented anything great in art or science or any other praiseworthy quality, even though among the whites some continually rise aloft from the lowest rabble, and through superior gifts earn respect in the world. So fundamental is the difference between these two races of man, and it appears to be as great in regard to mental capacities as in colour. The religion of fetishes so widespread among them is perhaps a sort of idolatry that sinks as deeply into the trifling as appears to be possible to human nature. A bird's feather, a cow's horn, a conch shell, or any other common object, as soon as it becomes consecrated by a few words, is an object of veneration and of invocation in swearing oaths. The blacks are very vain but in the Negro's way, and so talkative that they must be driven apart from each other with thrashings.

Can you imagine such sentiments being written by an academic today? Keep these quotes in mind so that when people insist on telling you that we live in a racist country you can show them what real racism looks and sounds like.

RLC

Mind/Brain Thought Experiments

The debate between those who believe that everything is reducible to material substance and those who believe that there's more to reality, especially the human being, than just matter is one of the most interesting of the perennial controversies in philosophy. It goes back at least to the ancient Greeks and has popped up repeatedly throughout the history of Western philosophy.

In 1714 Gottfried Leibniz, one of the greatest philosophers and mathematicians in history invited us to consider an interesting thought experiment that he, and many others, believed shows the inadequacy of physicalism (i.e. the belief that everything is explicable in terms of purely physical or mechanical processes):

Suppose that there be a machine, the structure of which produces thinking, feeling, and perceiving; imagine this machine enlarged but preserving the same proportions, so that you could enter it as if it were a mill. This being supposed you might visit its inside; but what would you observe there? Nothing but parts which push and move each other, and never anything which could explain perception.

The machine, of course, is analogous to the brain. If we were able to walk into the brain as if it were a factory, what would we find there other than electrochemical reactions taking place along the neurons? How do these chemical and electrical phenomena map, or translate, to sensations like red or sweet? Where, exactly, are these sensations? How do chemical reactions generate things like beliefs, doubts, regrets, certainty, or purposes? How do they create understanding of a problem or appreciation of something like beauty? How does a flow of ions or the coupling of molecules impose a meaning on a page of text? How can a chemical process or an electrical potential have content or be about something?

Regarding the first question in the preceding paragraph, consider another thought experiment, this one a paraphrase of one authored by philosopher Frank Jackson:

There is a distant planet in which there are no colors except shades of black and white. A brilliant scientist who has lived his entire life on that planet has spent his career receiving radio transmissions from colleagues on earth explaining to him the chemistry and physics of color and what it does to the neurochemistry of the brain so that the scientist knows everything there is to know about the color red. One day he has the opportunity to come to earth where he finds himself surrounded by colors as he disembarks from his spaceship. As he looks around would he be able to identify red or distinguish it from blue? Would there still be something about red that he doesn't know, namely, what it looks like?

The point is that you can know everything about the physical characteristics of a phenomena, you can know what effects are triggered by certain wavelengths of energy in your brain, but still not know what red actually is. An exhaustive physicalist description of red is still incomplete. It does not tell us everything there is to know about red. This suggests that no amount of physical understanding of the material brain can account for qualia, i.e. the sensations we experience by virtue of the functioning of our senses. There is, therefore, good reason to think that there is more to our conscious experience than just the workings of the brain.

If you believe you have a mind (or a soul) nothing in the materialist point of view should intimidate you into giving that belief up.

RLC

A Modest Proposal

Over the next couple of weeks there will be much talk about immigration reform, but the prospects for achieving meaningful reform are muddled by the divergent wishes of the two parties. Democrats want amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegals, Republicans want a secure border and, most of them, no amnesty. There is a middle ground, perhaps, which would be fair to everyone involved in this awful situation, including the illegals themselves, the businesses which hire them, and the people who must foot the bills for them. It starts with the premise that any plan that fails to secure the border is a non-starter, as is any plan that grants citizenship to twenty million people who are here in violation of our laws.

With these things in mind I think the following two-stage proposal has the merit of being compassionate, just, and politically doable. I also think it would have a lot of support among the American people. It would look something like this:

The first stage would guarantee that a border fence be built and the border secured. This is the sine qua non of any serious immigration reform. There's no point in painting the house while the ceiling is still leaking. Once our borders are impervious to all but the most dauntless and determined, and once this has been duly certified by a trustworthy commission, then the situation of those already here could be addressed - but not until.

After the border is secured, a plan for those already in the country illegally could be crafted to avoid the worst consequences of amnesty and yet demonstrate compassion for people desperate to make a decent living. To that end, once we have taken control of our border, Congress should enact legislation that would allow illegals to stay in the country indefinitely as "guest workers" with no penalty if, and only if, the following provisos were also adopted and enforced:

1) Illegal aliens would be required to apply for a government identification card. After a reasonable grace period anyone found to be without proper ID would be subject to deportation. This would be a one-time opportunity so that aliens entering the country illegally in the future would be unable to legally acquire a card.

2) No one who had entered the country illegally would at any time be eligible for citizenship (unless they leave the country and reapply through proper channels). Nor would they be entitled to the benefits of citizens. They would not be eligible to vote, or to receive food stamps, unemployment compensation, subsidized housing, AFDC, earned income tax credits, social security, medicare, etc. They would have limited access to taxpayer largesse, although churches and other charitable organizations would be free to render whatever assistance they wish, particularly in providing for medical care. Whatever taxes the workers pay would be part of the price of living and working here.

3) Their children, born on our soil, would no longer be granted automatic citizenship (This would, unfortunately, require a constitutional amendment), though they could attend public schools. Moreover, these children would become eligible for citizenship at age eighteen provided they graduate from high school, earn a GED, or serve in the military.

4) There would be no "chain" immigration. Those who entered illegally would not be permitted to bring their families here. If they wish to see their loved ones they should return home.

5) Any criminal activity, past or future, would be sufficient cause for immediate deportation, as would any serious infraction of the motor vehicle code.

6) There would be no penalty for businesses which employ guest workers, and workers would be free to seek employment anywhere they can find it. Neither the workers nor their employers would have to live in fear of ICE. In other words, anyone with an ID card would no longer be in the country illegally and families would no longer have to fear being split up due to one member being deported.

This is just an outline, of course, and there are details the lawyers would have to work out, but it's both simpler and fairer than other proposals that have been floated by Congress. Those who've followed the rules for citizenship wouldn't be leap-frogged by those who didn't, and guest workers who have proper ID would benefit by being able to work without fear. The long-term cost to taxpayers of illegal immigration would be considerably reduced, trouble-makers among the immigrant population would be deported, and American businesses would not be responsible for background investigations of job applicants. It would also provide incentive for American youngsters to get an education and acquire skills so they don't have to compete for jobs with unskilled immigrants willing to work for lower wages. The one group that would "lose" would be those politicians who wish to pad their party's voter rolls. They'd be out of luck.

Of course, this proposal won't satisfy those who insist that we send all illegals packing, nor will it please those who think the requirements for letting them stay are too stringent, but it seems a more simple, practical, just, and humane solution to the problem than most other plans that have been suggested.

To be sure, it entails a kind of amnesty, but it doesn't reward illegals with the benefits of citizenship as have previous proposals. The "amnesty" is contingent upon first stopping the flow of illegals across the border and also upon immigrants keeping themselves out of trouble while they're here.

If, however, the conditions for being allowed to stay and work in this country sound too onerous, if illegal immigrants conclude they could do better elsewhere, they would, of course, be free to leave.

RLC

Pig Latin Epithets

You recall the allegation made by Representative Andre Carson that he had heard the "N-word" hurled at him and Representative John Lewis at least fifteen times by racist tea-party protestors demonstrating against passage of Obamacare. The tea-party housewives and grandparents were so intimidating that Mr. Carson fully expected to have "rocks thrown" at him. Well, in this postmodern world when an allegation is made that confirms the liberal narrative it becomes their "truth" whether there's any substance to it or not. Thus, Rep. Carson's allegations have become part of "what everyone knows to be true" about the tea-party movement.

Unfortunately, for the diminishing remnant of liberal Americans who still think that serious allegations should have at least a little bit of supporting evidence in their favor beyond just one politician's sayso, it turns out that Mr. Carson's version of events lacks what might be called empirical warrant. Some folks at Patterico did a little investigating and here's what they came up with:

Of course we must keep in mind two things: First, to many on the left evidence simply doesn't matter. It just clutters and complicates things. What matters is whether an allegation has purchase, whether it's useful, and charges of racism are, of course, always useful. Second, the lack of evidence in these videos only proves how subtle and sneaky these white bigots really are. You can't hear the "N-word" because people were probably yelling it in pig latin so that it was garbled on the video, but resonated with perfect clarity in Mr. Carson's finely-tuned ear.

RLC

What the Law Actually Says

Those who find themselves in the position of not knowing what to believe about the Arizona immigration law might want to read a New York Times op-ed written by one of the drafters of the measure. It offers an excellent summary of the law's provisions. The author is Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri. Kobach begins with this:

On Friday, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a law - SB 1070 - that prohibits the harboring of illegal aliens and makes it a state crime for an alien to commit certain federal immigration crimes. It also requires police officers who, in the course of a traffic stop or other law-enforcement action, come to a "reasonable suspicion" that a person is an illegal alien verify the person's immigration status with the federal government.

Predictably, groups that favor relaxed enforcement of immigration laws, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, insist the law is unconstitutional. Less predictably, President Obama declared it "misguided" and said the Justice Department would take a look.

Presumably, the government lawyers who do so will actually read the law, something its critics don't seem to have done. The arguments we've heard against it either misrepresent its text or are otherwise inaccurate. As someone who helped draft the statute, I will rebut the major criticisms individually.

Read his response to the critics at the link. I think the dissenters know that the law is not the totalitarian bogeyman they're making it out to be, but they're upset because they don't want any enforcement of immigration laws. They want amnesty and open borders, and the Arizona legislature seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Thus the hue and cry about racial profiling, arbitrary searches and all the rest.

The law makes sense, Arizonans and other Americans overwhelmingly support it, and I imagine other states are looking to adopt similar legislation.

RLC

Re: Nerdiness

Lest anyone have thought my comments in the Nerdiness post concerning the low priority given to education by the administrators of our public schools a bit exaggerated, one of my students, writing of her own high school experience, said this:

Sadly, I would agree with your statement that education is usually not the first priority in most high schools. A prime example of this in my high school happened during the musical season of my senior year. Our show that year was "The Secret Garden," and many of the songs (even those for the chorus) were high and complex. As a result, the choral director for the show began scheduling rehearsals for the songs during the school day in addition to our after-school rehearsals. Many of the teachers did not complain about this; however, my AP English teacher did. Our AP English class had about 12 students in it - 8 of us were involved with the musical. When we all asked to be excused for the mandatory rehearsal, he was outraged. Not only were we not allowed to go to the rehearsal, but we were also forced to sit and listen to him rant about how extracurricular activities seemed to take precedence over his class, and other classes for that matter. (The irony is that he wasted his valuable class time ranting).

At the time, his refusal seemed unfair and silly; however, looking back now I realize how right he was. Extracurricular activities often were given higher priority over classes. In addition to the choral director pulling us for rehearsals, we also missed almost an entire day of classes to perform the show for senior citizens. In addition, the band director pulled kids for individual lessons, and the sports teams were excused early for away games. Students involved with SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and STAAT (Students Taking Action Against Tobacco) were allowed to miss class to visit other schools to talk about their causes. Student Council always took a day long trip to New York City (mostly for shopping), and chorus members went to see a show on Broadway. Additionally, pep rallies often caused shortened instructional periods in order to allow ample time for showing off the football or basketball teams.

As an education major, of course, I do not believe that learning should come after extracurriculars on the priority list. However, I think that extracurricular involvement plays a vital role in the college application and acceptance process; perhaps this fact is partially to blame for grades and smarts being knocked down a few notches. I remember that throughout high school we were constantly being told to be well-rounded individuals, to be involved. It was not enough just to get the good grades. When we applied to colleges, they weren't just looking at GPA-they wanted to know our extracurricular activities. Scholarship applications were like this, too. I know it is important to be involved, but high schools cannot let their students lose sight of the fact that extracurriculars aren't the only things that matter. Chances are that the singing stars and the football quarterback aren't going to have opportunities to excel in those activities forever. High schools need to find away to bring the focus back to education and keep extracurriculars as afterschool activities. Perhaps then nerds will have a chance to show how their intelligence and good grades are the popular things to have.

This student didn't go to the high school at which I taught, but judging from her experience she could have. In fact, she could have gone to just about any high school with which I'm familiar. If taxpayers want better educated students they might campaign to have schools keep students in the classroom. It would increase the amount of learning that takes place, and it wouldn't cost a cent.

By the way, I would have been honored to have had her AP English teacher for a colleague. He sounds like a man after my own heart.

RLC

Why Illegal Immigration Is Troubling

Hispanic groups are forecasting huge rallies across the country this Saturday on behalf of amnesty and in protest of laws like that recently passed in Arizona. President Obama has expressed profound concern about the rights of illegal aliens flooding into Arizona. There have been few expressions of concern, however, about the right of Americans to live in safety and security in their own country, and few media commentators seem interested in publicizing the frustrations and fears that have led the people of Arizona and elsewhere to support this law by huge majorities.

Here are some statistics from Pat Buchanan's book State of Emergency that should be kept in mind by anyone who thinks that the Arizona law is too draconian:

� In 2005 there were 687 assaults on border agents, twice the figure for 2004.

� In 2004 160,000 non-Mexicans were caught illegally crossing our border. Only 30,000 were returned.

� Federal agents are required to release illegal immigrants if their home countries refuse to take them back.

� In George Bush's first 4.5 years in office approximately 4 million people entered this country illegally.

� Police in so-called "sanctuary cities" are prohibited from apprehending known illegal or criminal aliens. Gang members in L.A. who are in violation of deportation orders may not be arrested by police.

� In L.A. 95% of all outstanding warrants for homicide, some 1200 to 1500, are for illegal aliens.

� 66% of the 17,000 outstanding fugitive felony warrants in L.A. are for illegal aliens.

� 12,000 of the 20,000 members of the 18th Street Gang in California are illegals.

� Between 300,000 and 350,000 "anchor babies" are born to illegal aliens each year. These children, one in every ten babies born in the U.S., are automatically citizens and qualify for all benefits of citizenship.

� Between 10% and 20% of all Mexican, Central American, and Caribbean peoples have moved to the U.S.

� One in twelve illegals caught by the border patrol has a criminal record. It's estimated that 300,000 felons have crossed into the U.S. in the last five years.

� Mara Salvatrucha, a gang responsible for numerous rapes, murders, mutilations and other crimes, has 8,000 to 10,000 members in 33 states. The illegal aliens in this gang are almost immune to police arrest and deportation because they operate in sanctuary cities. The gang is comprised primarily of El Salvadoran illegals.

� Illegals are bringing diseases that had been virtually eradicated in the U.S. Malaria, polio, hepatitis, tuberculosis, leprosy, syphilis and other diseases are all skyrocketing in the southwest. From 1960 to 2000 there were only 900 reported cases of leprosy in the U.S. In the first three years of the 21st century there were 7000.

� Since few illegals have health insurance and since hospitals are obligated to care for them, 84 California hospitals closed their doors between 1994 and 2003 because they could not afford to provide free medical care for the numerous illegals who needed it.

� Immigrants in general, and illegals in particular, are depressing the wages of low-skilled Americans by almost 8% according to Paul Krugman of the NYT.

� It's a myth that immigrants help the economy by paying taxes. The cost of schooling, health care, welfare, social security and prisons, plus the costs of pressure on resources like water, land, and power far exceed the revenue that immigrants, legal and illegal, contribute. The net cost to the taxpayer, imposed by immigrants, has been estimated at around $108 billion for 2006.

Moreover, while our economy lost five million jobs last year there are still eight million jobs currently filled by illegal aliens that could go to unemployed Americans. Why we should not only permit, but actually encourage, this state of affairs to continue is a mystery. We're losing control of our country and the dereliction in Washington has been bipartisan.

RLC

How Mexico Treats Aliens

Michelle Malkin, commenting on the outcry from Mexican authorities over the recently passed Arizona law that empowers local police to enforce the nation's immigration laws, writes that:

Mexican president Felipe Calder�n has accused Arizona of opening the door "to intolerance, hate, discrimination, and abuse in law enforcement." But Arizona has nothing on Mexico when it comes to cracking down on illegal aliens. While open-borders activists decry the new enforcement measures signed into law in "Nazi-zona" last week, they remain deaf, dumb, or willfully blind to the unapologetically restrictionist policies of our neighbors to the south.

The Arizona law bans sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws, stiffens penalties against illegal-alien day laborers and their employers, makes it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to complete and carry an alien-registration document, and allows the police to arrest immigrants unable to show documents proving they are in the U.S. legally. If those rules constitute the racist, fascist, xenophobic, inhumane regime that the National Council of La Raza, Al Sharpton, Catholic bishops, and their grievance-mongering followers claim, then what about these regulations and restrictions imposed on foreigners?

Read the rest of Malkin's column to find out how Mexico treats its illegal aliens. Mexican policy makes Arizona's law by comparison seem like a borough ordinance to purchase parking meters.

RLC

Death of God, Death of Liberty

Philosopher Daniel Fernand adumbrates the long war against God waged by materialist philosophers from Thales to Nietzsche and argues that the death of God will lead inexorably to the death of liberty.

He concludes his pr�cis with this:

In George Orwell's 1984, Comrade O'Brien describes The Party as "the priests of power," with power itself as their god. Power is simultaneously the method and goal of this new secular religion. As O'Brien tells Winston Smith, "Power is not a means; it is an end. ... If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever".

I've been seeing that picture quite a bit, lately. It is the quintessence of the present-day power-mad, anti-intellectual radical left. In "killing" God, the left was merely taking out the competition, Tony Soprano-style -- and now they've upped the ante.

That metal-on-metal sound you hear every time you are careless enough to waste precious, irredeemable seconds watching CNN, MSNBC, or Robert Gibbs' smarmy mug is the left sharpening its knives for Liberty herself.

Indeed, once God is banished from human ethics there's nothing left but the exercise of power. In the might-makes-right world without God whoever possesses power is free to do whatever he wishes. The secularists don't intend it, perhaps, but the world they would create is the world described by Thomas Hobbes as a war of every man against every man. A world in which life will be inescapably nasty, brutish and short.

That's the trajectory the secular impulse propels us along and the omega point toward which our post-modern world is headed. We should not go gently, or quietly, into that dark night.

RLC

Closer to the Truth

I've recently come across a great website run by Robert Lawrence Kuhn, an MIT PhD in brain science and author of over 30 books. The site is called Closer to the Truth and consists largely of a library of 4 minute PBS interviews with philosophers and scientists who address questions of God, Consciousness and the Cosmos. Kuhn himself is a theological agnostic seeking answers on these important questions, and his search has led him to interview people all across the theological spectrum from theists to atheists.

It's good stuff, and you'll want to bookmark the page. Those who love thinking about these matters could spend several evenings going through all the videos. Here's one chosen pretty much at random featuring theistic philosopher William Lane Craig talking about the concept of the multiverse.

Enjoy.

RLC

Irresponsibility

This is beyond parody. Weary of the futility of pleading with Washington to do something to get a handle on the tidal wave of human poverty flooding their state, Arizonans, with vast public support, passed a tough measure on their own to enable them to enforce laws against illegal immigration.

But the president who has irresponsibly failed to enforce the laws that control the flow of immigrants across our borders, the president who has irresponsibly burdened our children and grandchildren with a debt they'll never be able to repay, the president who called Massachusetts police "stupid" for arresting Henry Gates, the president who has let Iran and North Korea develop nuclear weapons which will almost surely be used somewhere in the world, the president who embarrasses our allies and grovels before those who wish us ill, that president is calling the citizens of Arizona "irresponsible" for passing a law that will take back a little bit of the control the feds have forfeited:

Obama said [Friday] the federal government must act responsibly to reform national immigration law - or "open the door to irresponsibility by others."

"That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," Obama said.

Keeping us safe is one thing Mr. Obama seems disinclined to do. As illegal immigration has boomed, so, too, have crimes like kidnapping, rape, and murder, not to mention automobile accidents caused by unlicensed motorists. Vicious gangs now roam the streets of once sleepy cities and towns striking fear and intimidation into the hearts of their citizens.

The economic burden incurred by those towns as they struggle to deal not only with crime but also the stress that immigrants place on schools, housing, and medical care facilities is crushing.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama expresses concern about none of this. All he seems to care about is the putative irresponsibility of Arizonans who have given up hope that the federal government will do its job and have decided instead to try taking control of their lives themselves.

One wonders who it is in this contretemps who has the corner on the market of irresponsibility.

RLC

Real Hate

You may have heard that Lance Baxter, the voice of the Geico gecko was fired by Geico for placing a call to the tea-party group FreedomWorks and leaving an insulting message on their voice mail.

What you probably didn't know is that his firing so incensed the gentle folks on the left that, taking their anger out on FreedomWorks, filled their voice mail with the most vile messages imaginable. Tabitha Hale who works at FreedomWorks put together a montage of the messages and emails along with some classic photos of lefty protest images in a video that can be viewed here.

I must caution you, though, that the language and hate speech are pretty bad - though standard stuff for the secular left, I suppose. It's so disgusting, in fact, that I can't in good conscience put the video on Viewpoint.

I direct your attention to it because the media, and even the White House, would have us believe that it's the tea-partiers who are promoting hatred and divisiveness in this country. They want us to think that it's people like Rush Limbaugh who are inciting acts of violence. What is happening, however, is that the vulgarian left, in an act of desperation, is projecting their own worst character flaws onto their ideological opponents in order to smear them in the eyes of the public.

I guarantee that nothing you've ever heard on talk radio or seen at a tea party comes anywhere close to what's on Hale's video. If you watch it you'll want to take a shower afterward. Being in the presence of these people, even across cyberspace, makes you feel like you need one. The next time someone calls some conservative a racist, or a bigot, or a hater, because the conservative is upset about what's happening to his country, you can laugh at their ignorance and link them to this.

Unfortunately, you won't be hearing about the video from the major media. When they're not reporting on alleged slurs hurled by tea-partiers that no one heard, they're all caught up in the Tiger Woods and Ben Rothlisberger sagas.

One other caution: I can't prove that this video isn't fabricated. I'm taking FreedomWorks at their word that they actually received these messages. If anyone has solid evidence to the contrary please let me know about it.

RLC

Eyjafjallajokull

The Big Picture has a series of 35 photos taken of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull. Some of them, like the one below, are absolutely stunning:

Thanks to Uncommon Descent for the link.

RLC

Golden State No Longer

City Journal has a fine column by Steven Malanga which explains how California has been brought to the brink of economic collapse.

The Cliff Notes summary is this: A triumvirate of greedy unions (teachers, SEIU, and public safety workers) have managed to buy enormous influence in the California state legislature and have thwarted almost all attempts at reforming the enormous salaries and pensions they have inveigled from the taxpayers of the state. In order to pay these contractual obligations municipalities have raised taxes which has in turn driven businesses out of the state thus depleting the tax base. Meanwhile, the unions still gorge themselves at the public trough.

Here's a taste:

Only too late have Californians recognized the true magnitude of their fiscal problems, including a $21 billion deficit by mid-2009 that forced the state to issue IOUs when it temporarily ran out of cash. In the municipal bond market, fears are rising that the Golden State could actually default on its debt.

Municipalities around the state are also buckling under massive labor costs. One city, Vallejo, has already filed for bankruptcy to get out from under onerous employee salaries and pension obligations. (To stop other cities from going this route, unions are promoting a new law to make it harder for municipalities to declare bankruptcy.) Other local California governments, big and small, are nearing disaster.

The city of Orange, with a budget of just $88 million in 2009, spent $13 million of it on pensions and expects that figure to rise to $23 million in just three years. Contra Costa's pension costs rose from $70 million in 2000 to $200 million by the end of the decade, producing a budget crisis. Los Angeles, where payroll constitutes nearly half the city's $7 billion budget, faces budget shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars next year, projected to grow to $1 billion annually in several years. In October 2007, even as it was clear that the area's housing economy was crashing, city officials had handed out 23 percent raises over a five-year period to workers.

There are lessons to be gleaned from all this, not the least of which is that modern liberalism, the ideology in which public employee unions are marinated, is totally hostile to the economic well-being of the people who pay their salaries. One gets the distinct impression from Malanga's essay that virtually every ill that afflicts California was aided and abetted by liberal Democrats and their union masters.

Read the article and catch a preview of the peril much of the rest of the country will find itself struggling to escape over the next decade.

RLC