Category: Current Affairs

Here in California they have this proposal to let undocumented workersillegal immigrants get drivers licenses–documents that would allow them to tap into all kinds of social benefits . . . like . . . voting in U.S. elections.

A recent advertisement in Variety (of all places!) cast an unusual light on the matter.

In a responding editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle (of all places!), Debra Saunders was insightful:

THE AD THAT ran in Daily Variety last week — signed by the usual members of the "entertainment community," including Ed Asner, Danny Glover and Mike Farrell — asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign Senate Bill 60, a bill to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California drivers’ licenses.

Not that the ad ever used the word "illegal." Instead, it used Hollywood award-speak to tell the story of Rosanna Perez, "Nominated: Best Nanny in a Supporting Role," who, because of California law, has to take the bus from her home in East Los Angeles to her job in the Westside.

They should have dubbed the ad: Let my illegal nanny drive my SUV.

"We give them access to our homes. We trust them with our children. It seems absurd to me to not grant them the respect they deserve," Farrell explained to Copley News Service.

What’s this "we" business? Most people don’t hire nannies. Only rich people can afford nannies; they can hire legal nannies.

Farrell was parroting the familiar argument — that everyone benefits from illegal immigration, through cheaper food prices at the grocery store or the fast-food joint — so the law shouldn’t penalize illegal immigrants. But the logic doesn’t work. It also is true that everyone pays for illegal immigration — for their children to attend public schools or for emergency- medical care — and so this notion of a free ride is false. Then there is the paycheck problem: Some of the people who are paying more are less-skilled Americans who have smaller paychecks because they must compete with cheap illegal labor.

So when the "entertainment community" asks for drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants, it plays the leading role of Hollywood diva expecting stagehands and walk-ons to chip in and pay for her illegal help.

READ THE WHOLE THING BEFORE HOLLYWOOD EXPORTS THIS NUTTINESS TO YOUR STATE.

Here in California they have this proposal to let undocumented workersillegal immigrants get drivers licenses–documents that would allow them to tap into all kinds of social benefits . . . like . . . voting in U.S. elections.

A recent advertisement in Variety (of all places!) cast an unusual light on the matter.

In a responding editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle (of all places!), Debra Saunders was insightful:

THE AD THAT ran in Daily Variety last week — signed by the usual members of the "entertainment community," including Ed Asner, Danny Glover and Mike Farrell — asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign Senate Bill 60, a bill to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California drivers’ licenses.

Not that the ad ever used the word "illegal." Instead, it used Hollywood award-speak to tell the story of Rosanna Perez, "Nominated: Best Nanny in a Supporting Role," who, because of California law, has to take the bus from her home in East Los Angeles to her job in the Westside.

They should have dubbed the ad: Let my illegal nanny drive my SUV.

"We give them access to our homes. We trust them with our children. It seems absurd to me to not grant them the respect they deserve," Farrell explained to Copley News Service.

What’s this "we" business? Most people don’t hire nannies. Only rich people can afford nannies; they can hire legal nannies.

Farrell was parroting the familiar argument — that everyone benefits from illegal immigration, through cheaper food prices at the grocery store or the fast-food joint — so the law shouldn’t penalize illegal immigrants. But the logic doesn’t work. It also is true that everyone pays for illegal immigration — for their children to attend public schools or for emergency- medical care — and so this notion of a free ride is false. Then there is the paycheck problem: Some of the people who are paying more are less-skilled Americans who have smaller paychecks because they must compete with cheap illegal labor.

So when the "entertainment community" asks for drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants, it plays the leading role of Hollywood diva expecting stagehands and walk-ons to chip in and pay for her illegal help.

READ THE WHOLE THING BEFORE HOLLYWOOD EXPORTS THIS NUTTINESS TO YOUR STATE.

The current lowering of birthrates world-wide cannot continue indefinitely.

At some point, the painful effects of underpopulation (economically, demographically, governmentally) will become too great and the rate will stop shrinking.

Likely, it will start growing again.

This means that there will have to be a change in certain societal values (e.g., belief in the myth of overpopulation).

It likely means a change in other values (e.g., acceptance of abortion and even contraception).

But the road to that change is likely to be very bumpy–including unfortunate things like widespread euthanasia, even more oppressive taxation, a world-wide economic depression, a renewed and even more vicious generation gap than what we had last time around (only with the young being materialistic and the old being idealistic), massive human suffering, and the destruction (due to massive immigration or conquest) of cultures that don’t adapt swiftly enough.

What will emerge on the other side of such maladies–and are they a certainty?

Many (including myself) hope that they are not a certainty, that society will come to its senses due to far gentler pressures and mend its course before such eventualities are forced upon us by shrinking birthrates and aging populations.

But I’m not counting on that.

Whether the calamities just named come or not, I hope that on the other side of the societal transition we will have a more pro-family, faith-friendly society than we have now (though the world will still be far from perfect). I think that is the most likely thing to happen–at least here in America.

But I’m not counting on that, either.

HERE’S A (LONG) LOOK  BY STANLEY KURTZ AT THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE CULTURE WAR.

It’s worth reading.

Among other things, he points out why some quick fixes to the underpopulation problem (like massive immigration and extending the retirement age) aren’t likely to work.

He also points to nightmare scenarios where we don’t end up with a more pro-faith, pro-family society, but a society that is even less friendly to both.

Scary stuff!

I haven’t really been following who’s going to be elected head of the Democratic National Committee.

Apparently it’s likely to be Howard ScreamDean.

Fortunately, others have been watching.

HERE’S A FASCINATING LOOK AT THE BYZANTINE FARCE THAT HAS LED TO THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS.

With one member of the Axis of Evil (Iraq) recently taken out of the axis, with another member (Iran) hurtling toward a resolution of some kind, what’s up with the third member (North Korea)?

It seems that Kim Jong-il’s worker’s paradise is dissolving around him.

While tour guides continue to give tours explaining the virtues of North Korean Communism, the secret police have started stockpiling cash in advance of coming disasters, there are (literal!) shootouts among members of the ruling family, and the Christian underground is smuggling increased numbers of North Koreans to safety.

Change is in the (bitterly cold North Korean) wind.

GET THE STORY.

As an illustration of why the pope needs to issue a pan-European encyclical titled (in Latin) "Repent Or Go To Hell":

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services” at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Under Germany’s welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.

So here we have a case of (presumably) unintended consequences: Instead of combatting trafficking in women and cutting links to organized crime, the government has increased the trafficking of women and created a new form of government-organized crime!

GET THE HORRIBLE STORY.

By voting in their first free elections in 50 years and getting their index fingers stained purple to show that they’ve voted, that is.

GET THE STORY.

SEN. CLINTON IS ARGUING THAT WE CAN FIND COMMON GROUND ON ABORTION BY WORKING TO REDUCE THE CAUSES OF ABORTION WHILE LEAVING IT LEGAL.

No way, Jose.

I know that you have presidential ambitions, Hil, but that dog won’t hunt.

Nothing but a total ban on abortion is acceptable.

Of course, the junior senator from New York ain’t trying to win over true redstaters. She’s trying to appeal to the mushy middle.

It’s up to solid pro-lifers to educate them away from taking the bait.

SEN. CLINTON IS ARGUING THAT WE CAN FIND COMMON GROUND ON ABORTION BY WORKING TO REDUCE THE CAUSES OF ABORTION WHILE LEAVING IT LEGAL.

No way, Jose.

I know that you have presidential ambitions, Hil, but that dog won’t hunt.

Nothing but a total ban on abortion is acceptable.

Of course, the junior senator from New York ain’t trying to win over true redstaters. She’s trying to appeal to the mushy middle.

It’s up to solid pro-lifers to educate them away from taking the bait.

IN THIS EDITORIAL . . .

. . . Mark Steyn argues two points:

1) All the discussion about whether we have an "exit strategy" in Iraq is misdirected, and

2) The real source of the Democrats’ rage at the redstaters is not that the redstaters are too stupid but that they aren’t stupid enough.