A few good things elsewhere:
- Tariq Ali on Benazir Bhutto.
- Ross Douthat on Juno.
- Christopher Jencks on the immigration charade.
That's all.
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Food for Thought
30 Dec 2007 02:46 pm
Comments (6)
Douthat wrote about "Juno"
Juno is a film about hot-button subjects (abortion, teen pregnancy, adoption, etc.) that succeeds artistically precisely because it complicates, rather than over-simplifies, every one of the thorny issues it raises.
Art isn't an illustrated argument.
I just scanned it, but Jencks also handwaves a false choice away:
And even if it does, few Mexican-Americans in Texas or California would want their state returned to Mexico unless Mexico were a lot richer and a lot better governed than it is now.
There are several possible outcomes for the Southwest, and remaining under the complete control of the U.S. or being returned to Mexico are just two of them. Another is some sort of power-sharing arrangement.
Those who know more about this issue than Jencks and MattY can see the first steps towards that, as MexicanOfficials are even given desks inside BP stations and as Democrats like TonyVillar congratulated Mexico's president on helping to block Proposition187.
You can't trust what either Jencks or MattY write about this issue, because even if they were familiar with everything going on they'd be too afraid to confront it.
Relieved that Juno has been cleared of wrongthink. Heading to the theatre now.
There are several possible outcomes for the Southwest, and remaining under the complete control of the U.S. or being returned to Mexico are just two of them. Another is some sort of power-sharing arrangement.
Only in the fevered imagination of someone like Chris Kelly, who hides under the bed waiting for the Hispanic insurgency to begin.
ZeroCredibility.
First time I've read the comments over at Douthat- some serious creeps over there.
Comments closed January 13, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Killer quote from the end of Jenck's article:
But this deal turns out to have a fatal flaw. Legalization can be implemented within a few years, while penalties for hiring illegal immigrants have to be enforced indefinitely. That means employers get what they want right away, while opponents of illegal immigration have to wait. In view of the federal government's miserable record on enforcement, no sensible conservative—indeed no sensible person of any political persuasion—would now accept mere promises. The conservative mantra is therefore "enforcement first." For many employers that sounds like the road to bankruptcy. They want "legalization first." As long as each side insists on getting what it wants before the other side does, no deal is possible and illegal immigration, with all its unhappy consequences, will persist.
Posted by Meh | December 30, 2007 4:24 PM