Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Just saw on Yahoo this evening that the president called Kanye West a jackass for his antics at the MTV Awards. Kudos to Barry for that astute assessment of West. Here's hoping Barry doesn't apologize.

I almost forgot. Easy to do with this little story since I don't watch MTV. But I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the graciousness of Beyonce Knowles who shared her time in the limelight with Taylor Swift, the victim of West's jackassery. West could learn a ton about class from Ms. Knowles.

Who'da thunk it?

This piece seems to contradict accepted liberal thinking regarding illegal immigration. The old line about illegals only doing the jobs Americans won't do seems to have been exposed as the steaming pile conservatives said it was. A couple of notable points:

1) As legal immigrants and native-born Americans have moved in to fill positions made available after ICE raids, wages for those positions have risen. Obviously, employers can pay crap when employees are too afraid of deportation to complain.

2) Attention is being paid to conditions that resulted in higher on the job death rates for illegals. Obviously, employers can ignore/overlook dangerous conditions when employees are too afraid of deportation to complain.

A possible downside is union organizing. These days, one can't overlook the possibility of unions working to improve conditions and pay morphing into the usual back-breaking wage hikes that has burdened the auto industry and others. Such pressures can also result in creative ways to eliminate the problem, which, said another way, is to eliminate the need for workers, such as through automation. This will put workers out of work again, but would keep product prices down. But for the immediate future, the bottom line is that the argument against open borders and "comprehensive immigration reform" can now be tossed. Americans ARE willing to do those jobs, especially in this economy.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

For DJ Only

This is another dedicated thread for the benefit of one DJ Black Adam who is frequent visitor at Neil's blog. Just as with the thread for Dan only, which he seems to have abandoned, I would ask that no one comment here except for DJ and myself. At this writing, I don't know if he'll take me up on my invitation, and if he doesn't I would find that regrettable.

The point of this venture is a bit different in that we don't disagree on a basic point, which is, that racism is deplorable and we'd all be far better off if it didn't exist. But in this case, it seems that somehow I am lacking in my opposition or understanding of the nature, depth or total degree of it's existence. Naturally, I disagree and partly do because I don't see that it has permeated our modern era (in the USA)quite the way DJ believes it has and still does. Hopefully he will explain this thoroughly so that one of us, if not both of us, winds up more enlightened, at least to each other's POV.

I want to say lastly that I do not dislike DJ. While at first I thought he might be another looney-tune lefty, I've found he is more than that and generally expresses himself quite well. Unfortunately, we've neither of us explained ourselves to the other very well on this point and I truly hope he avails himself of this opportunity. We'll see.