What Would Arnold Do?

Recently, Peggy Noonan and others on the Right were justifiably offended when some people in the Administration attributed their opposition to the immigration bill to racism or lack of patriotism. Even the Wall Street Journal editors have made blanket statements about opponents of the current immigration reform, like saying that "that crowd" is "foaming at the mouth."

I have a strong feeling that the people in Washington and the WSJ editors were reading web sites and blogs on the other side, which are also attacking them and their motives. We need to get away from that. I like the way Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about politics. When he talks about an issue, he starts by recapping his understanding of what the other side thinks and why, and he implicitly attributes only the best motives to them. Then he explains why he thinks the way he does. It's very persuasive, and it helps clear away some of the anger, so that debate can be more rational.

I don't know exactly where Schwarzenegger stands on immigration, but if I were to use his tactics, I might say something like this: People on the other side respect the law, and they don't want to reward people who have broken the law. They want to control the border ("bordah") with Mexico, because no country can be sovereign or secure unless it controls it's borders. They don't want to see illegals exploited, and they want to have one set of rules for everybody. To do this, they want to close the border first, and then either deport the illegals, force them to return to Mexico by cutting off jobs, or fine them.

I agree with everything here ("heeuh") except the tactics. If you build a wall without fixing the underlying problems, you will still have many enforcement problems because no wall is totally secure. Also, you will wall in all of the illegals who are here today. If you try to deport 12,000,000 workers, you will fail. But in the effort you will create deep animosities that will last for generations. If you try to punish the businesses that hire the labor, you will hurt our economy. Not destroy the economy, but hurt it and make it grow more slowly, which is bad for everybody and worst for the poorest people. And all of the walling and enforcing and rules and regulations will cost money, and hurt all businesses, even the completely legitimate businesses.

I say, make the border with Mexico strong and secure by opening it to people who want to work. Then the people they come into America through checkpoints, where you can check them for the criminal records and the drugs and so on and so on. Now the only people who are not crossing at the checkpoints are the real criminals, like drug dealers. They will stand out more, they will be easier to see and arrest and put in jail with the shanking and the homosexual shower raping.

I say, respect the law by not making new laws that can not be enforced. Respect the law by changing laws that are not enforced and can not be enforced today. Deporting 12,000,000 hard working people just can not be done. Expecting them to go back to Mexico for six months voluntarily, as the President does, won't work. Do with the immigration laws what we did with the speed limit on the highways -- raise the speed limit. If you are Mexican and you want to come to America to work and pay taxes to America, then come. The border is open to you, and when you want to leave, the border is open so you can leave without fear. The taxes you pay to Social Security today will be redirected to the schools and hospitals you use, instead of to the welfare programs that you will not have any access to. The wealth you create in America, and the jobs you create for the doctors and the engineers and the builders and the small business owners will be good for everybody.

Finally, I want to say one more thing. In America today, there is one industry that does not hire any illegal workers. That is the government industry. The Federal government and the state governments are the only places in America where the number of unionized workers has gone up over the last 20 years. In the rest of America, as the number of immigrant workers have increased sharply over the last few years, the number of union members has gone way down. Did unemployment go up? No, unemployment went way way down. Today we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in our history and in the world. If we close the border to people who want to work, then labor will become a scarce commodity. The unions, who want to control labor, would make a comeback. With active unions, American companies would hire fewer people, and move many of the jobs that remain outside the country. Every time Delta wants to hire a gate agent, or you want to paint your house, you would have to talk to Tony Soprano. I tell you that if you close the border, unemployment will go up, not down. That will be bad for everyone, but worst for Americans who just want to work.

Calls of Duty

I played Call of Duty 3 for a few minutes this month, before getting tired of the whole thing. I think I would play a good video game, but COD 3 is a good example of why I don’t enjoy the genre more. First of all, the screen jerks around constantly. Just loading the gun a few times is an exercise in nausea. Second, the game has a couple of “holes.” For example, if your Jeep gets stuck, you just sit there, forever. None of the characters (yourself or virtual) ever get out of the jeep to move it, no Germans show up to kill you. You just sit there forever.

COD 3 is also different from COD 2 in one more subtle way – it’s too zoomed-in. You have zero peripheral vision, and as you look around it’s too easy to miss details. Combine this with the jerky graphics, and it causes nausea much faster than the last version of the game.

This American Life

During the month, I listened to several episodes of the “This American Life” podcast. Very enjoyable. I look forward to seeing the TV show, which recently finished its first season on the Showtime network. Of course, I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD … I don’t like it enough to spend a lot of money on it. But the radio show podcast is free (one episode a week), and older episodes are only a buck on iTunes. Click the icon to go to the show's web site.

A Book Review

While in Phoenix, I bought a Christopher Moore novel. I thoughtI had read one book by him (God is My Broker -- but that was actually by Christopher Buckley). Practical Demonkeeping was entertaining throughout. It wasn’t killer funny (not in the way that Christopher Buckley can be), but it had a story that kept my interest. Back in Atlanta, I purchased and read Coyote Blue. Mid-way through, I thought it the better of the two books. But the author’s hatred of Christianity was jarring towards the end. Moore is firmly in the camp that everything that whites do, and everything that Christians do, is bad. I ended up tossing the book when I was done, and I have no plans to read another.

iPod Madness

During the month, I “won” an iPod Shuffle at work. Actually, this was part of an award from October of last year, but it only caught up with me this month. It’s a great device, with simple controls – perfect for using while driving. It charges directly from the USB port of a laptop, and it has twice the memory (512M) of my old iRiver. But there’s always a “but.” It intermittently loses connection to my laptop. I took it to the Apple store, and because Honeywell purchased the device in January of 2006, it’s out of warranty. So I bought a second-generation Shuffle, got it home, and had exactly the same problems.

When I went to the Apple store, my first iPod wouldn’t talk at all to my laptop. Later that day I synched it on Jim’s Mac, and sense the it will talk occasionally to my laptop. For now, I’m going to keep both, but if I continue to have these problems, I’ll take the other one back and give the first one away.

Someday, computers are going to work reliably. It will be a freaking revolution. Seriously – so many large software projects fail. We don’t have a good way to visualize very complex systems and projects – like large computer programs, genetic codes, etc. Some day we will find a way and it will revolutionize many seemingly unrelated fields.

Bring me 13 shrubberies!

On the 18th, I trimmed another branch from the tree in my front yard. Some lessons for next year: First, I need to know what to do with the branch once I cut it off the tree. Last year, I cut it up and put it in the garbage can. This one is a little thicker – I’m not interested in cutting it apart. Second, buy a new saw before tackling the next one. And do something to it so it doesn’t rust. Pushing the rusty saw through the green branch was a chore.

Also this month, I got my lawn guy to plant some more shrubs on the hill behind my house. I’ve done this twice before, with just a few shrubs. I never watered them, and due to neglect (and, I’m convinced, weed eating), they died. This year I told George to fill the space in completely, and I’ve watered the new shrubs every day. I’ll live with the weeds, if it gives the shrubs a chance to get established. Eventually, I would like to have enough coverage so that I don’t have to put in pine straw or weed the area at all.

Next month, George is going to replace the pine bark around my flower beds with river stones. That should set me back a few bucks.

Finally, the moss in my yard is getting pretty bad. I did some reading on the web, and now believe that the cause is either compacted soil or “sour” soil, that could be fixed with calcium. To find the exact cause would require testing the soil, which I will probably never get around to. Instead, I may ask George to put calcium+moss killer+fertilizer on the grass, and aerate the soil.