Fidel Castro is gravely ill, and the grand freedom-loving part of the human soul rejoices. It would be a facile task to make jokes, particularly about the cause of El Cabronante's intestinal bleeding.
Fidel stopped short. Hugo Chavez' head stopped a little less short. Surgeons took longer than expected owing to the fact that it was difficult to discern the end of Chavez' head and the beginning of unexcreted feces. But a statement like this would be gratuitous and self-serving.
47 years of tyranny lie infirm in a Havana hospital bed. It is not a happy illusion that Fidel dies in a quick and painless manner. To view a despot lying in torment as everything that he stood for is devastated in front of his eyes serves as a greater indication of a justice beyond that which is human. He should have to watch Holiday Inn and McDonalds marching up the Malecon, pursued by Best Western and Burger King; Comfort Suites and Taco Bell.
He should see children in the Uniform of the Young Pioneers drinking Dunkin Donuts Coolattas and dancing to reggaeton by Daddy Yankee. The third rate beisbolero should watch the Marlins move to Havana and playing the Braves and the Nationals and the Mets for a profit.
Propaganda about defending Cuba from the dreaded Yanqui should be plastered with images of Celia Cruz at the sweetest point of azucar and Gloria Estefan returning triumphantly to Cuba. The bills would be posted by men with their bellies full of a noonday meal from Colonel Sanders or Domino's.
The beautiful finned behemoths of 1950s America would return home to be replaced with Cobalts and Calibres, Focuses, Fusions and 500s. These cars would idle fat on Texaco and Mobil Unleaded as the prowess and ingenuity of Cuban mechanics aid a technical revolution that grows without the strong central planning that served to stifle it for so long.
Unable to feed a reserve of propaganda-fueled resentment among less fortunate Latin Americans, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales wither in the courts of public opinion in Venezuela and Bolivia, respectively. The underrepresented populations begin to question the press and the mechanisms that concentrate power in even fewer hands than the aristocracies despised by dictators hiding behind the pretense of populism.
As the last bastions of Fidel Castro's control structures evaporate like an Atlanta puddle in August, then the greater part of physical torment should begin, a burning, searing torture where his body is torturously racked. His arms and legs should be debilitatingly painful to move more than a few microns. And everything itches like he was anointed with poison ivy.
But Fidel should live. Oh, it is a fervent prayer that Fidel should live every day like this, suffering mutely, impotent to bring about the death that would bring him release from the consciousness and physical pain. As his beloved Revolucion crumbles in front of his impotent, unresponsive body; as exiles return to mock him and the destitution he subjected Cuba to, well intentioned tenders keep their beloved Comandante in a perpetual state of impotent consciousness.
Faith teaches not to wish death on someone. I pray that Fidel Castro be given the opportunity to repent his sins and reconcile himself with God. I pray that he is able to earn faith, the faith he denied to everyday Cubans.
And hell, yes, I want it to hurt.
16 August 2006
31 July 2006
Serenata a Manhattan
La primera impresion de Manhattan no es de cuanto es de inmenso...la isla mide apenas 3 km x 20 km...pero cuanto es de normal. Para una persona de origen latinoamericano, llegando a la llamada "Capital del mundo," por las calles de New Jersey, seria dificil decir que uno no estuviera en su pais. El trafico, la arquitectura, hasta las rejas en las ventanas parecen que alguien saco a todo directamente de otro mundo.
Pero hay algo que se puede notar de diferente de Nueva York. Es una ciudad cambiada. Es un pueblo con una mano en la billetera y otra listo para convertir en pu~o hasta el momento cuando se conecta en forma personal. La paranoia no es con el proposito de ser personal. El Nuevayorquino esta defendiendose de la clase de persona que quiere hacer algo feo porque Nueva York es algo extra~o, la gente es demasiada rica, hay que manifestar un odio contra la humanidad ye se hace a gente inocente en la ciudad mas importante.
Damas y caballeros, hablamos de gente civil y educada. Los de Nueva York son humanos en el mejor consentido de la palabra. El americano esta sufriendo un odio y una prejuicia que no cuadra con la experiencia de conocer la gente calida y graciosa de Nueva York.
No era siempre asi en Manhattan. Hace 18 a~os, Nueva York ahogaba debajo su propio mugre. Era como el cine mas grande del mundo, los piso aparecieron como serian eternamente pegajosos. Las calles eran rotas, y limosneros amenazaban a la gente obrera en la calle. Prostitutas andaban las calles entre carros robados y ventanas rotas. Hace 16 a~os era igual.
La basura agarro control de la ciudad, y decencia desaparecio del menu de experiencias.
Cuando todo aparecio como una perdida total, sucedio un milagro. La gente de Nueva York decidieron y declararon en voz alta y unida que no iban a permetir su ciudad convertir en el inodoro del mundo. El orgullo volvio a Nueva York. Limpiaron las calles de Times Square de pornografia y mujeres vendiendo sus cuerpos. Reconstruyeron a edificios principales. La gente volvio a visitar a Manhattan.
A poco rato, unos cobardes Kamikaze volaron las Torres Gemelas a polvo con aviones robados. El Nuevayorquino aprendio vivir con la idea que alguien quiere matarlo por el hecho de escoger trabajar y vivir en una de las ciudades mas interesantes del mundo. Hace 20 a~os, la mejor manera de deshacerse de una valija no querida era dejarlo en el piso de la parada de autobuses y trenes Port Authority en Avenida 8 y Calle 42 en el mero centro de Manhattan.
Aun es asi, pero es que un policia de Port Authority lo vuela a pedazos, con el temer de una bomba para matar a inocentes como en Madrid, o Londres, o Mumbai.
El Nuevayorquino no teme a nada por si mismo. El Nuevayorquino es capaz de defenderse contra cualquiera maldad que se enfrenta personalmente. Acaso no gana, pero un malintentado recordaria el dia cuando se mete con alguien de Nueva York. Confrontacion es parte del caracter de esta ciudad, y no se retiren de cual, lo acepten y lo busquen. En Nueva York la confrontacion es un desafio, un preludo a ser aceptado, y no lleva ningun consentido de condescencion ni insulto. Al contrario al insulto, la confrontacion se use como relajo y diversion.
Se defiende con palabras, a probar la fuerza de voluntad. El Nuevayorkquino puede dejar a otros, de otros lugares, en lagrimas. No es para insultarlo. Es para ver si se puede sobrevivir en la sombra de Manhattan.
Como cualquier otro ser humano, el Nuevayorquino preocupa para sus familiares y sus amistades. Para si mismo no se pone preocupado-se puede defenderse. Para los alrededor, se preocupa poner el radio en "News 880," o "1010 WINS," y descubrir que uno de su pueblo, el familiar, el amigo, el vecino ha encontrado un destino malogrado.
Es el caracter de esta ciudad de contradiccion. A un momento se puede echar palabras acidas en la cara de un amigo, y en otro momento estar preocupando si este amigo estara bien.
A veces es facil dejar que una ciudad como Nueva York convierte en algo anonimo e impersonal. Al contrario, es tan intimo como el pueblo de uno, porque hay alguien de Nueva York en cada ciudad en los Estados Unidos. Aprendemos conectar el individual y su humanidad, por bueno u malo, con una ciudad que echa miedo en gente que viven a lejos. Nueva York es siempre demasiado algo para alguien. Pero es nuestro, tambien.
El imagen vive en el rostro de la persona que va a la estacion de autobus, llega con nada, y logra tener exito. Esto es siempre la cara de Nueva York-la esperanza y el futuro. Es algo que todas las ciudades grandes tienen en comun. Para alguien la ciudad asi podria ser la del lector.
Cuando escucha de las acciones de la gente odiosa en donde sea, cobardes que esconden sus caras mientras matan o hieren inocentes, tenga en mente que no se mata solamente el extranjero, el diferente, el rico que tiene demasiado y provoca celos y envidia.
Tambien hay la maestra, el mecanico, la mujer de limpieza si esposo pero con dos chiquillos en casa que empe~o todo para llegar al unico lugar adonde podria imaginar esperanza. Porque esto tambien es la cara de una ciudad como Nueva York. Es Nueva York; Isla Manhattan-algo facil de despreciar su humanidad, y llora para que otros lo reconocen como humano.
Mas vale rezar que la humanidad comun se reconoce. Asi resuelvan las maldades de algo no humano que siembra odio en corazones. Asi Nueva York se salvara para siempre. Es una experiencia necesaria.
Pero hay algo que se puede notar de diferente de Nueva York. Es una ciudad cambiada. Es un pueblo con una mano en la billetera y otra listo para convertir en pu~o hasta el momento cuando se conecta en forma personal. La paranoia no es con el proposito de ser personal. El Nuevayorquino esta defendiendose de la clase de persona que quiere hacer algo feo porque Nueva York es algo extra~o, la gente es demasiada rica, hay que manifestar un odio contra la humanidad ye se hace a gente inocente en la ciudad mas importante.
Damas y caballeros, hablamos de gente civil y educada. Los de Nueva York son humanos en el mejor consentido de la palabra. El americano esta sufriendo un odio y una prejuicia que no cuadra con la experiencia de conocer la gente calida y graciosa de Nueva York.
No era siempre asi en Manhattan. Hace 18 a~os, Nueva York ahogaba debajo su propio mugre. Era como el cine mas grande del mundo, los piso aparecieron como serian eternamente pegajosos. Las calles eran rotas, y limosneros amenazaban a la gente obrera en la calle. Prostitutas andaban las calles entre carros robados y ventanas rotas. Hace 16 a~os era igual.
La basura agarro control de la ciudad, y decencia desaparecio del menu de experiencias.
Cuando todo aparecio como una perdida total, sucedio un milagro. La gente de Nueva York decidieron y declararon en voz alta y unida que no iban a permetir su ciudad convertir en el inodoro del mundo. El orgullo volvio a Nueva York. Limpiaron las calles de Times Square de pornografia y mujeres vendiendo sus cuerpos. Reconstruyeron a edificios principales. La gente volvio a visitar a Manhattan.
A poco rato, unos cobardes Kamikaze volaron las Torres Gemelas a polvo con aviones robados. El Nuevayorquino aprendio vivir con la idea que alguien quiere matarlo por el hecho de escoger trabajar y vivir en una de las ciudades mas interesantes del mundo. Hace 20 a~os, la mejor manera de deshacerse de una valija no querida era dejarlo en el piso de la parada de autobuses y trenes Port Authority en Avenida 8 y Calle 42 en el mero centro de Manhattan.
Aun es asi, pero es que un policia de Port Authority lo vuela a pedazos, con el temer de una bomba para matar a inocentes como en Madrid, o Londres, o Mumbai.
El Nuevayorquino no teme a nada por si mismo. El Nuevayorquino es capaz de defenderse contra cualquiera maldad que se enfrenta personalmente. Acaso no gana, pero un malintentado recordaria el dia cuando se mete con alguien de Nueva York. Confrontacion es parte del caracter de esta ciudad, y no se retiren de cual, lo acepten y lo busquen. En Nueva York la confrontacion es un desafio, un preludo a ser aceptado, y no lleva ningun consentido de condescencion ni insulto. Al contrario al insulto, la confrontacion se use como relajo y diversion.
Se defiende con palabras, a probar la fuerza de voluntad. El Nuevayorkquino puede dejar a otros, de otros lugares, en lagrimas. No es para insultarlo. Es para ver si se puede sobrevivir en la sombra de Manhattan.
Como cualquier otro ser humano, el Nuevayorquino preocupa para sus familiares y sus amistades. Para si mismo no se pone preocupado-se puede defenderse. Para los alrededor, se preocupa poner el radio en "News 880," o "1010 WINS," y descubrir que uno de su pueblo, el familiar, el amigo, el vecino ha encontrado un destino malogrado.
Es el caracter de esta ciudad de contradiccion. A un momento se puede echar palabras acidas en la cara de un amigo, y en otro momento estar preocupando si este amigo estara bien.
A veces es facil dejar que una ciudad como Nueva York convierte en algo anonimo e impersonal. Al contrario, es tan intimo como el pueblo de uno, porque hay alguien de Nueva York en cada ciudad en los Estados Unidos. Aprendemos conectar el individual y su humanidad, por bueno u malo, con una ciudad que echa miedo en gente que viven a lejos. Nueva York es siempre demasiado algo para alguien. Pero es nuestro, tambien.
El imagen vive en el rostro de la persona que va a la estacion de autobus, llega con nada, y logra tener exito. Esto es siempre la cara de Nueva York-la esperanza y el futuro. Es algo que todas las ciudades grandes tienen en comun. Para alguien la ciudad asi podria ser la del lector.
Cuando escucha de las acciones de la gente odiosa en donde sea, cobardes que esconden sus caras mientras matan o hieren inocentes, tenga en mente que no se mata solamente el extranjero, el diferente, el rico que tiene demasiado y provoca celos y envidia.
Tambien hay la maestra, el mecanico, la mujer de limpieza si esposo pero con dos chiquillos en casa que empe~o todo para llegar al unico lugar adonde podria imaginar esperanza. Porque esto tambien es la cara de una ciudad como Nueva York. Es Nueva York; Isla Manhattan-algo facil de despreciar su humanidad, y llora para que otros lo reconocen como humano.
Mas vale rezar que la humanidad comun se reconoce. Asi resuelvan las maldades de algo no humano que siembra odio en corazones. Asi Nueva York se salvara para siempre. Es una experiencia necesaria.
25 July 2006
News From The Future...In a Dream
Atlanta poised to become global energy center.
Atlanta (DP)- Members of the former OPEC cartel have gathered in this Georgia metropolis in an attempt to recover from the collapse of world petroleum markets.
As the price of crude plummets below six dollars a barrel, experts are anticipating the closing of the Saudi oilfields which had fueled spectacular economic growth in the Middle East. This follows last month's Iranian secularist insurgency and the subsequent public dismembering of former strongman Ahmadinejad.
The 2006 discovery of the process that converts Kudzu into a clean-burning crude substitute has sent Wall Street into a flurry of bullish activity that overshadows the explosive growth seen at the beginning of the 1990s High Tech explosion. The Dow closed at 111,167, up 10991 in heavy trading yesterday. The Nasdaq index has been stagnant since crossing the 30,000 barrier last month, closing yesterday at 31,196.
Ray Lee Baker, the Georgia agriculturist who discovered the process, was prohibited from returning to the WalMart Supercenter in his hometown of Meansville, as the crush of media overwhelmed a greeter, who was treated and released at a Macon hospital. Baker insists that he will choose the simple lifestyle that he led before 2006, but "Earline will have a better car than the Plymouth."
The economy in Georgia has experienced spectacular growth since the licensing agreements signed by ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Conoco Phillipps and BP. A building boom in Atlanta has added several high-rise towers to the downtown skyline since 2006. The Metropolitan Atlanta population has crossed 7 million and shows no sign of slowing soon as Process refiners add capacity in northern Georgia.
Former OPEC states have petitioned the United Nations for Humanitarian Aid after the collapse of the petroleum industry. The once-affluent gulf states have arrived at a state of total destitution. In Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Qatar sporadic reports indicate that the only food available is stale Matzoh donated by Israeli humanitarian organizations.
Israeli spokesman Sholom Goldberg stated "...fortune has provided the people of Israel with abundance, as well as our traditional friends in America. We would appear ungrateful in the eyes of our creator were we to allow fellow human beings to starve."
A response from the New Likud Party was a concise "...so let the bastards starve already. They should have eaten at the pizza place instead of blowing it up. "
Mass production of Process Kudzulene has dropped the price of motor fuel from a peak of $3.01 a gallon in the summer of 2006 to 62 cents today. General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler have reported skyrocketing sales of North American-built models featuring V8 engines with cylinder deactivation technologies.
Spokesmen for the major US automakers state that the superior octane properties of Kudzulene alcohol have allowed them to use engineering that simultaneously raises power and fuel economy as opposed to petroleum-fueled engines. The Kudzulene-powered Chrysler 300 V8 now develops 400 horsepower in its basic form, and a higher performance model now reaches 500 horsepower.
GM and Ford, having returned to profitability, are reopening plants in the Atlanta area with a new objective-wind power technology. Home wind generators are seen by major automakers as a new arena for an established industry. "This is the future of civilized people. We will empower individuals as owners of their energy supply as opposed to vulnerability to pressures from outside the United States and the industrialized world," said Tiffany Miller, Vice-president of public relations for General Motors.
ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil have announced a joint venture to produce photovoltaic roofing panels at a new facility outside Savannah. "As costs for this technology drop, you will see photovoltaic become the material of choice for roofing in the sun belt," said Mark Thomas, a new-technologies spokesman from the Southern Company. "It is in our strategic and financial interest that sources of power generation be sourced as close to the consumer as possible. As more residences become producers instead of consumers, you will see the kind of cultural shift that the advent of the automobile and the personal computer brought."
As new technologies and strategies for energy independence bring hope in the Western world, Middle Eastern leaders have converged upon the Atlanta Energy Market Expo at the World Congress Center to lobby for petroleum's continued role. Their pleas were falling on deaf ears.
Atlanta Process refinery worker Tyrone Hemmings made a statement that resonated a prevailing sentiment among domestic energy personnel. "They had us over their barrel of crude (oil). They chose to destroy with what they had been blessed with. I would say God gave them exactly what they deserve. Crude is a filthy, antiquated technology. Good riddance."
Atlanta (DP)- Members of the former OPEC cartel have gathered in this Georgia metropolis in an attempt to recover from the collapse of world petroleum markets.
As the price of crude plummets below six dollars a barrel, experts are anticipating the closing of the Saudi oilfields which had fueled spectacular economic growth in the Middle East. This follows last month's Iranian secularist insurgency and the subsequent public dismembering of former strongman Ahmadinejad.
The 2006 discovery of the process that converts Kudzu into a clean-burning crude substitute has sent Wall Street into a flurry of bullish activity that overshadows the explosive growth seen at the beginning of the 1990s High Tech explosion. The Dow closed at 111,167, up 10991 in heavy trading yesterday. The Nasdaq index has been stagnant since crossing the 30,000 barrier last month, closing yesterday at 31,196.
Ray Lee Baker, the Georgia agriculturist who discovered the process, was prohibited from returning to the WalMart Supercenter in his hometown of Meansville, as the crush of media overwhelmed a greeter, who was treated and released at a Macon hospital. Baker insists that he will choose the simple lifestyle that he led before 2006, but "Earline will have a better car than the Plymouth."
The economy in Georgia has experienced spectacular growth since the licensing agreements signed by ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Conoco Phillipps and BP. A building boom in Atlanta has added several high-rise towers to the downtown skyline since 2006. The Metropolitan Atlanta population has crossed 7 million and shows no sign of slowing soon as Process refiners add capacity in northern Georgia.
Former OPEC states have petitioned the United Nations for Humanitarian Aid after the collapse of the petroleum industry. The once-affluent gulf states have arrived at a state of total destitution. In Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Qatar sporadic reports indicate that the only food available is stale Matzoh donated by Israeli humanitarian organizations.
Israeli spokesman Sholom Goldberg stated "...fortune has provided the people of Israel with abundance, as well as our traditional friends in America. We would appear ungrateful in the eyes of our creator were we to allow fellow human beings to starve."
A response from the New Likud Party was a concise "...so let the bastards starve already. They should have eaten at the pizza place instead of blowing it up. "
Mass production of Process Kudzulene has dropped the price of motor fuel from a peak of $3.01 a gallon in the summer of 2006 to 62 cents today. General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler have reported skyrocketing sales of North American-built models featuring V8 engines with cylinder deactivation technologies.
Spokesmen for the major US automakers state that the superior octane properties of Kudzulene alcohol have allowed them to use engineering that simultaneously raises power and fuel economy as opposed to petroleum-fueled engines. The Kudzulene-powered Chrysler 300 V8 now develops 400 horsepower in its basic form, and a higher performance model now reaches 500 horsepower.
GM and Ford, having returned to profitability, are reopening plants in the Atlanta area with a new objective-wind power technology. Home wind generators are seen by major automakers as a new arena for an established industry. "This is the future of civilized people. We will empower individuals as owners of their energy supply as opposed to vulnerability to pressures from outside the United States and the industrialized world," said Tiffany Miller, Vice-president of public relations for General Motors.
ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil have announced a joint venture to produce photovoltaic roofing panels at a new facility outside Savannah. "As costs for this technology drop, you will see photovoltaic become the material of choice for roofing in the sun belt," said Mark Thomas, a new-technologies spokesman from the Southern Company. "It is in our strategic and financial interest that sources of power generation be sourced as close to the consumer as possible. As more residences become producers instead of consumers, you will see the kind of cultural shift that the advent of the automobile and the personal computer brought."
As new technologies and strategies for energy independence bring hope in the Western world, Middle Eastern leaders have converged upon the Atlanta Energy Market Expo at the World Congress Center to lobby for petroleum's continued role. Their pleas were falling on deaf ears.
Atlanta Process refinery worker Tyrone Hemmings made a statement that resonated a prevailing sentiment among domestic energy personnel. "They had us over their barrel of crude (oil). They chose to destroy with what they had been blessed with. I would say God gave them exactly what they deserve. Crude is a filthy, antiquated technology. Good riddance."
16 May 2006
Chinga La Migra
If there is something as offensive as the wannabe Jim Crow-recreators of the allegedly conservative wings of the Republican and Libertarian parties regarding undocumented immigration, it would be burning crosses in Harlem and painting swastikas on synagogues in Brooklyn.
A few days ago one caller to a radio show suggested cattle cars...CATTLE CARS! as a means of repatriating undocumented immigrants to Latin American nations.
Oy. Vey. Let's see, twelve million people being "repatriated," cattle cars, cyclone fences, all of which have a cost benefit analysis lying around in Wannsee, Germany. There is a better idea to be had.
Let's get rid of a smaller population of wasteful people who cost the American Taxpayer piles of money and produce nothing of value. Right-wing congressmen who have sold this Nation's future to the Chinese in the form of US Treasury securities, while borrowing vast sums for pork-barrel programs, should be deported.
First on the list should be Tancredo, Sensenbrenner, Kyl, and Hastert. People who cook, clean, build homes and pick onions should be first in line for their assets. Honestly, which is more the American dream, a guy who busts his hump at a difficult job all day, buys a home and a car, and raises a family while staying out of jail, or the bureaucrat following orders and pushing papers in an air-conditioned office in a major city trying to throw the dude out?
Authoritarian cretins love papers, documents, and procedures. They were great friends of Nazis and Soviets alike. Anything that can be used to marginalize initiative and make bureaucracy an obstacle to success is okay by an Authoritarian.
Thomas Jefferson must be taching about 8 grand under Monticello. It is extremely telling when John McCain, Ted Kennedy, Newt Gingrich, Joe Lieberman, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton all fall on the same side of an issue. Our nation is falling rapidly into a spin of authoritarian rhetoric, and reasonable minds are disregarded as kooks.
Yes, we should take steps to secure our border, but we are obligated to treat those who have contributed to our society with dignity while we create incentives for assimilation. It's what America stands for.
Our nation must not accept anything less, or we find ourselves at risk of becoming just another land of paper tolerance, and frankly, who the heck wants to live in France?
Oh, and by the way, to our old friends the Socialists...where are the people illegally entering Cuba and Venezuela?
A few days ago one caller to a radio show suggested cattle cars...CATTLE CARS! as a means of repatriating undocumented immigrants to Latin American nations.
Oy. Vey. Let's see, twelve million people being "repatriated," cattle cars, cyclone fences, all of which have a cost benefit analysis lying around in Wannsee, Germany. There is a better idea to be had.
Let's get rid of a smaller population of wasteful people who cost the American Taxpayer piles of money and produce nothing of value. Right-wing congressmen who have sold this Nation's future to the Chinese in the form of US Treasury securities, while borrowing vast sums for pork-barrel programs, should be deported.
First on the list should be Tancredo, Sensenbrenner, Kyl, and Hastert. People who cook, clean, build homes and pick onions should be first in line for their assets. Honestly, which is more the American dream, a guy who busts his hump at a difficult job all day, buys a home and a car, and raises a family while staying out of jail, or the bureaucrat following orders and pushing papers in an air-conditioned office in a major city trying to throw the dude out?
Authoritarian cretins love papers, documents, and procedures. They were great friends of Nazis and Soviets alike. Anything that can be used to marginalize initiative and make bureaucracy an obstacle to success is okay by an Authoritarian.
Thomas Jefferson must be taching about 8 grand under Monticello. It is extremely telling when John McCain, Ted Kennedy, Newt Gingrich, Joe Lieberman, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton all fall on the same side of an issue. Our nation is falling rapidly into a spin of authoritarian rhetoric, and reasonable minds are disregarded as kooks.
Yes, we should take steps to secure our border, but we are obligated to treat those who have contributed to our society with dignity while we create incentives for assimilation. It's what America stands for.
Our nation must not accept anything less, or we find ourselves at risk of becoming just another land of paper tolerance, and frankly, who the heck wants to live in France?
Oh, and by the way, to our old friends the Socialists...where are the people illegally entering Cuba and Venezuela?
11 November 2005
A Little Schaudenfreude
The beneficiaries of the French arm of the great western european social welfare system are rioting and looting in the streets of Paris. A secret little piece of many in the good old USA is experiencing a little bit of Schaudenfreude-that's shameful joy when translated into plain ole murrican talk, for those out there (and you know who you are) who don't watch The Simpsons.
Remember when we were the bad guys for kicking Saddam's sorry backside, compatriots?
We are not colonists by force. The United States never has been a nation of colonial bent. We were the colonies that started it all by telling King George III to get a big old hammer, go to the Aussie outback, and pound all that sand up his...well, you know where.
We know that colonies will turn on their Empire. We INVENTED that!
God bless it, the French accepted the young American nation just to enfuriate the British. And then they go and act like themselves once we had a pulse and the British realized that we would probably continue doing grievous harm to their military presence elsewhere.
But the French kept colonizing. That is a country that could qualify for Special Ed. They were the ones who got run out of Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It took Algeria another six years, mainly because the French forces could not get their Regie Renault tanks to go into reverse as they were designed to. The grommets fell out on the same day as Dien Bien Phu, but it took Renault six years to send the parts overland. It had something to do with the engines flooding off Marseilles.
This one is all yours, France. We owe you for dragging us into two World Wars and Vietnam. For the courage of every Charles DeGaulle and Resistance fighter, there was a platoon of cretins predisposed to Jerry Lewis and warm wine kowtowing to the Vichy Nazis.
And now, after fifty years of public pronouncements of how America's social system is racist and inadequate; after proclaimations of the moral and intellectual superiority of the French system; after telling us to have a nice life in the Iraqi desert, what the hell happened?
40 percent unemployment among the immigrant community in France? Our immigrants work, diligently. They assimilate, perhaps not as rapidly as some would wish, but they assimilate.
Mexicans and Central Americans are not burning cars in Los Angeles. Puerto Ricans aren't doing so in New York. They're buying the cars instead, along with their Cuban brothers and sisters who fled to Florida and escaped a tyrant.
France, you have yourselves to blame. The cradle-to-grave social systems of your modern western european model have destroyed initiative. The dole has given immigrants in France an elevated standard of living that will be ultimately unsustainable. If immigrants in France have no incentive to succeed, they will have no incentive to contribute to French society. If there is no incentive to contribute, it will depress the motivation to identify with Paris or Lyon instead of Algiers. What happens in twenty or fifty years when the most common first name in Nice is Mohammed instead of Jean or Pierre?
This is a good one for America to sit out. Eventually we will observe the culture that gave us Sartre and Proust, fading into obscurity. France may die alone, loved only by leftists on the other side of the Atlantic.
For fifty years, the question posed to capitalists has been "Why should an affluent society let the poorest live in misery when they can be helped?"
The answer is that the private sector is the only mechanism that has consistently brought people out of despair. Public sector programs do not end poverty adequately; rather they function as justification for an ever-widening stream of bureaucrats and social workers.
The far left is about to join the extreme right over issues of undocumented immigration in this country. The far right, in the guise of Pat Buchanan, is embracing the idea of a wall between the US and Mexico. The far left has chosen the environment as their battleground.
The truth is that the far right, on issues of "preserving language and culture," has aped the party of Jean Le Pen in France, and the extreme left has rebadged from "Socialist" to "Green" masking a similar anti-diversity, anti-Israel, anti-semitic message.
The far left, with the environment as their venue, will come down on illegals ineligible for their ineffective programs, i. e. repatriating dissenters. The objective of the far right is similar, although their motivating citerion will be the scoundrel's sanctuary of Nationalism.
Nationalism? Excuse me, but everybody in America is from somewhere else! It has worked pretty well for oh, about a couple of hundred years, maybe this is something worth keeping?
Embrace nationalism and one-note environmentalism, as significant numbers in France have done, and the next cars burning won't be Peugeots.
They'll be Chevies.
Remember when we were the bad guys for kicking Saddam's sorry backside, compatriots?
We are not colonists by force. The United States never has been a nation of colonial bent. We were the colonies that started it all by telling King George III to get a big old hammer, go to the Aussie outback, and pound all that sand up his...well, you know where.
We know that colonies will turn on their Empire. We INVENTED that!
God bless it, the French accepted the young American nation just to enfuriate the British. And then they go and act like themselves once we had a pulse and the British realized that we would probably continue doing grievous harm to their military presence elsewhere.
But the French kept colonizing. That is a country that could qualify for Special Ed. They were the ones who got run out of Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It took Algeria another six years, mainly because the French forces could not get their Regie Renault tanks to go into reverse as they were designed to. The grommets fell out on the same day as Dien Bien Phu, but it took Renault six years to send the parts overland. It had something to do with the engines flooding off Marseilles.
This one is all yours, France. We owe you for dragging us into two World Wars and Vietnam. For the courage of every Charles DeGaulle and Resistance fighter, there was a platoon of cretins predisposed to Jerry Lewis and warm wine kowtowing to the Vichy Nazis.
And now, after fifty years of public pronouncements of how America's social system is racist and inadequate; after proclaimations of the moral and intellectual superiority of the French system; after telling us to have a nice life in the Iraqi desert, what the hell happened?
40 percent unemployment among the immigrant community in France? Our immigrants work, diligently. They assimilate, perhaps not as rapidly as some would wish, but they assimilate.
Mexicans and Central Americans are not burning cars in Los Angeles. Puerto Ricans aren't doing so in New York. They're buying the cars instead, along with their Cuban brothers and sisters who fled to Florida and escaped a tyrant.
France, you have yourselves to blame. The cradle-to-grave social systems of your modern western european model have destroyed initiative. The dole has given immigrants in France an elevated standard of living that will be ultimately unsustainable. If immigrants in France have no incentive to succeed, they will have no incentive to contribute to French society. If there is no incentive to contribute, it will depress the motivation to identify with Paris or Lyon instead of Algiers. What happens in twenty or fifty years when the most common first name in Nice is Mohammed instead of Jean or Pierre?
This is a good one for America to sit out. Eventually we will observe the culture that gave us Sartre and Proust, fading into obscurity. France may die alone, loved only by leftists on the other side of the Atlantic.
For fifty years, the question posed to capitalists has been "Why should an affluent society let the poorest live in misery when they can be helped?"
The answer is that the private sector is the only mechanism that has consistently brought people out of despair. Public sector programs do not end poverty adequately; rather they function as justification for an ever-widening stream of bureaucrats and social workers.
The far left is about to join the extreme right over issues of undocumented immigration in this country. The far right, in the guise of Pat Buchanan, is embracing the idea of a wall between the US and Mexico. The far left has chosen the environment as their battleground.
The truth is that the far right, on issues of "preserving language and culture," has aped the party of Jean Le Pen in France, and the extreme left has rebadged from "Socialist" to "Green" masking a similar anti-diversity, anti-Israel, anti-semitic message.
The far left, with the environment as their venue, will come down on illegals ineligible for their ineffective programs, i. e. repatriating dissenters. The objective of the far right is similar, although their motivating citerion will be the scoundrel's sanctuary of Nationalism.
Nationalism? Excuse me, but everybody in America is from somewhere else! It has worked pretty well for oh, about a couple of hundred years, maybe this is something worth keeping?
Embrace nationalism and one-note environmentalism, as significant numbers in France have done, and the next cars burning won't be Peugeots.
They'll be Chevies.
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