Thank God the U.S. has student visas and H1B visas for the cream of the world's students, such as that Times Square would-be bomber:
From the New York Times:
From the New York Times:
According to immigration officials, Mr. Shahzad arrived in the United States on Jan. 16, 1999, less than a month after he had been granted a student visa, which requires a criminal background check.
He had previously attended a program in Karachi affiliated with the now-defunct Southeastern University in Washington; a transcript from the spring of 1998, found in the garbage outside the Shelton house, showed that he got D’s in English composition and microeconomics, B’s in Introduction to Accounting and Introduction to Humanities, and a C in statistics.
GPA in Karachi = 2.0 = U.S. student visa!
He enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, where he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering in 2000, followed by a master’s in business administration in 2005.
From CollegeData.com on the U. of Bridgeport:
| SAT Math | 448 average 390-490 range of middle 50% |
|---|---|
Score of 700 - 800 | 1% |
Score of 600 - 700 | 4% |
Score of 500 - 600 | 21% |
Score of 400 - 500 | 48% |
Score of 300 - 400 | 25% |
Score of 200 - 300 | 1% |
| SAT Critical Reading | 447 average 400-490 range of middle 50% |
Score of 700 - 800 | 0% |
Score of 600 - 700 | 3% |
Score of 500 - 600 | 19% |
Score of 400 - 500 | 56% |
Score of 300 - 400 | 21% |
Score of 200 - 300 | 1% |
| SAT Writing | 442 average 390-480 range of middle 50% |
Score of 700 - 800 | 0% |
Score of 600 - 700 | 3% |
Score of 500 - 600 | 19% |
Score of 400 - 500 | 52% |
Score of 300 - 400 | 25% |
Score of 200 - 300 | 1% |
| ACT Composite | 19 average 16-22 range of middle 50% |
|---|---|
Score of 30 - 36 | 3% |
Score of 24 - 29 | 16% |
Score of 18 - 23 | 40% |
Score of 12 - 17 | 38% |
Score of 6 - 11 | 3% |
Score of 5 or Below | 0 |
In January 2002 Mr. Shahzad obtained an H1B visa, a coveted status meant for highly skilled workers and good for three years, with a possible extension. Records show that Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics giant, applied for a visa for Mr. Shahzad; he worked there as a temporary clerk in the accounting department in 2001, through an employment agency called Accountants Inc., according to a timecard found in his trash.
Granted, he tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square, but in return for the H1B visa, Elizabeth Arden got a "highly skilled" "temporary clerk in the accounting department." Sounds like a good deal to me! The economy would collapse if there weren't an endless supply of temporary clerks to keep wages down. As Tom Friedman has tirelessly pointed out, how can we possibly keep ahead of the Chinese unless we let all the rich families in the Islamic world unload their dumbest sons on us?
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68 comments:
Well done, Steve.
Here's the purpose of the H1B visa:
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows business professionals to work in the United States for a specific amount of time. The purpose of the H-1B visa is to give U.S. employers the opportunity to hire foreign professionals if a U.S. citizen or resident is not available.
....
The number of H1B's is subject to an annual cap, but what is not generally known is that there are an additional 20,000 visas for foreign nationals with masters degrees or higher from a US university. So it all fits together very nicely. In my little town here in Michigan, unemployment is around 17%, but I guess none of those people have the highly specialized skill sets to work as temporary accounting clerks.
a transcript from the spring of 1998, found in the garbage outside the Shelton house, showed that he got D’s in English composition and microeconomics, B’s in Introduction to Accounting and Introduction to Humanities, and a C in statistics
I thought the Sulzberger crowd only went snooping through the garbage of Alaskan Governesses.
Since when do they waste this many calories on the bad guys?
I don't even know what you're even arguing here.
Look, this guy may not be the brightest bulb on the tree, but he's still got a working filament.
I find on CollegeData.com this information under Entrance Difficulty for the University of Bridgeport:
Moderately Difficult: More than 75% of freshmen were in the top 50% of their high school class and scored over 1010 on the SAT I or over 18 on the ACT; about 85% or fewer of all applicants accepted.
Now the average SAT scores at U of Bridgeport are roughly at the 30th percentile for college bound seniors -- not high, but remember that it's really only (roughly) the top half of any student cohort in America who goes on to college at all.
Shahzad got a degree in computer science and engineering, which, one must expect, would be among the most demanding at the University.
By any reasonable account, he seems to be above the American average -- I might peg him at, say, the 70th percentile, given the info I've seen so far.
In short, it would seem that he would pull the American average up, not down.
So, on this ground anyway, what's the problem with allowing him to emigrate to the US?
If you want to argue that he shouldn't be allowed in because of some potential for terrorism (well hidden, probably even to his earlier self), that's a different point.
But on the grounds of his usefulness as a worker, I don't see any kind of knock down argument against his admission. Maybe it would be better to set the bar even higher, maybe not. But I wouldn't see any great problem with admitting workers like this, provided that the numbers aren't themselves overwhelming.
Yup, the most important part of an ACCURATE profile of these terrorists is "Weak son of larger-than-life father." Add that ingredient to a religion that equates terrorism with glory and heaven, and the recipe is complete.
Oh, and one other point about this guy Shahzad in particular.
You ridicule him as being simply the dumbest son of a rich family in the Islamic world.
But let's be precise about who he was: the son -- dumbest or not -- of one of the most distinguished military families in Pakistan.
Now, if you keep up with foreign affairs, you might be aware that it is the military elite that rules Pakistan, and that Pakistan possesses the only nuclear capability in the Islamic world. It is regarded therefore as presenting perhaps the greatest risk of any country of enabling terrorists to get their hands on a genuine WMD -- a nuclear weapon. It is essentially only the secular military elite in Pakistan that stands in the way of this coming about.
Now I should think that the US has quite a good reason to want to keep that military elite well disposed toward Americans. And I can hardly think of a more favorable while permissible "bribe" than to allow the scions of that elite to emigrate to the US if they wish.
Whether or not this played a role in Shahzad's own treatment, I have no way of knowing. But I'm not exactly going to get outraged over his admission to the US.
So even being a college dummy is now a job Americans won't do?
This explains his bomb making skills. Propane and firecrackers.
bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering
Never heard of such a thing. Basically an engineer with only 4 years training is already worthless. How can a degree with 2 major disciplines in 1 amount to anything?
Right on, Steve. Employers pay virtually nothing for H1-B visas, and they treat them accordingly. If there was an auction system for the 50,000 spots every year then we would quickly see how much companies valued an extra citizen.
Shahzad got a degree in computer science and engineering
Then it's odd that he ended up working as a temp accountant, given the supposed desparate shortage of people with computer science and engineering degrees.
But on the grounds of his usefulness as a worker, I don't see any kind of knock down argument against his admission.
We, the US taxpayers, paid for this guy to come here and be educated at our expense so that he could do temp accounting work before getting laid off, and you see nothing wrong with that and think he's an asset to the American work force? Your liberalism is blurring your vision.
We, the US taxpayers, paid for this guy to come here and be educated at our expense
Huh? Where did that come up? I had thought the complaint about the guy was that he was nothing more than the dumb son of rich parents -- who presumably would have foot the bill for his education here.
Look, my overall point here is that there's nothing I can particularly see about this guy that indicates something terribly wrong went on in admitting him to the US. Sometimes basically reasonable policies in general have particular bad consequences. This is generally called reality.
Steve obviously sees the guy as a symbol of something -- I'm not sure what.
But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar -- even if the tobacco turned to rot.
"Weak son of larger-than-life father."
A polygamist society necessarily produces more such people than a monogamous one. (Though I don't know how many of Pakistani elite actually practise polygamy.)
I had thought the complaint about the guy was that he was nothing more than the dumb son of rich parents -- who presumably would have foot the bill for his education here.
Being the son of rich parents and having your college tuition subsidized by the US taxpayer are not mutually exclusive things. In this case, both are true.
there's nothing I can particularly see about this guy that indicates something terribly wrong went on in admitting him to the US.
He's Pakistani.
Sometimes basically reasonable policies in general have particular bad consequences.
US immigration policy is not basically reasonable, it's basically insane. 99% of the people who have come here over the last fifty years should not have, and have made the country worse off by their presence.
Coming from a liberal who has supposedly come to grips with HBD, this "people are all the same" stuff is just silly.
It gets even better.
You should also know that the University of Bridgeport is a Moonie-affiliated institution.
http://realsunmyungmoon.blogspot.com/2007/11/note-this-blog-post-is-reprinted-from_646.html
Contrariwise, I know a brilliant white Canadian medical resident, whose visa was not renewed immediately after he finished residency. Is there a method to the madness?
I'm not an elitist, but those statistics are really depressing when I think how dumb the people who scored 19 on the ACT were!
Daily Mail has the story of our Neanderthal ancestry - non-Africans are up to 4% Neanderthal:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1273904/A-bit-Neanderthal-usl-DNA-reveals-ancestors-DID-interbreed-extinct-species.html
the news on evolution that was going to break by the end of the month has broken already - I´va just seen it in Der Spiegel (online version)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,692855,00.html
http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/05/ann-arbor-elementary-school-bans-white.html
Jesus, why not just hand out books to blacks kids only.
We're going from racial segregation to racial degradation.
For the love of Pete, how does Bridgeport offer an engineering program with so few strong students? Texas A&M is stronger than that. Unbef---inglievable.
But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...
When you're dealing with people who take their inspiration from the Koran and the Hadith, a cigar is far more likely to be a pipe bomb.
I thought the Sulzberger crowd only went snooping through the garbage of Alaskan Governesses.
Towards the end of Rush's show today, he was indicating that it was actually some entertainment reporter [Deborah Norville?] who outwitted the Obama/Holder Justice Department for this scoop [not that outwitting the Obama/Holder Justice Department would require all that much effort].
liberal biorealist said
>Sometimes basically reasonable policies in general have particular bad consequences. This is generally called reality.<
Sometimes bad policies have bad results. This also is generally called reality.
I guess we're supposed to assume that your view is that H-1B visas are a basically reasonable thing. Well, it's your responsibility to make yourself clear. I move on to this:
>In short, it would seem that [Shahzad] would pull the American average up, not down. So, on this ground anyway, what's the problem with allowing him to emigrate to the US?<
Someone who isn't American can't improve the American average. Nation means race. Belonging to a nation is not something one earns; it's something one is, a status that one has in virtue of one's ancestry. I don't care what Stanley Kramer or the Supremes say about it, nor what was argued on this question in high school textbooks post-1950. A foreign-born Pakistani is no American. It may be the case that, after a few generations of assiduous assimiliation, his posterity might be viewed as honorary Americans - assuming real Americans have, at that time, objective reasons to be at ease and are feeling charitable.
>Pakistan possesses the only nuclear capability in the Islamic world.[...] I should think that the US has quite a good reason to want to keep that military elite well disposed toward Americans. And I can hardly think of a more favorable while permissible "bribe" than to allow the scions of that elite to emigrate to the US if they wish.<
The accurate locution is "paying protection money," not "bribe." "Bribe" puts the blame on the one who pays the money, instead of on yourself.
Your definition of "reasonable" is becoming clearer, though. Let us in or we'll kill you!
>I'm not exactly going to get outraged over his admission to the US.<
Only over his deportation if it happens, right?
The issue is that Tom Friedman says we need "smart people" from abroad ... and we admit this guy.
Who is, ultimately, the guy who tried to blow up Times Square.
Is admitting guys like this "smart?" I'd say no. That in this economic crisis we should kick out guys like this, employ only Americans, and end completely the H1-B visa program.
In fact, this would be a great wedge issue. High Tech firms always vote Dem, out of cultural SWPL issues. No one is more SWPL. Meanwhile, White men could do these kinds of jobs easily, and you gain bigger support from them.
GOP candidates ought to push for this as much as possible. Sure the Contessa Brewers, who hate Beta guys will denounce it as racism, but then they will always hate Beta White guys. It is who they are. The votes however are in White guy demographics, particularly with big turnout.
liberal biorealist:
Steve's ridiculing Friedman's rhapsodizing immigration as a way to "keep up with the Chinese" or some such.
Admitting the best and brightest may get you there, "better than average" will not.
(And I'm not even sure Shahzad is above the white average in intelligence. Don't use the diverse yardstick weighed down by NAMs unless you're prepared to accept the corresponding standard of living.)
Now let's leave aside such a lofty goal of global supremacy and assume that Shahzad is indeed slightly above white average in intelligence*, is he even a net plus to America? Is his "usefulness as a worker" worth the costs of overcrowding and diversity (especially knowing that he's a Muslim)?
The cost of overcrowding includes worsened traffic, higher housing cost, pressure on wages (at least in short term), less affordable family formation, less breathing space, ever more intense competition for schools and colleges. The cost of diversity includes lower social trust, ethnic tension, and, in certain cases, crimes and even terrorism.
I'd say no.
PS LibBio, your comments don't sound very liberal to me, except perhaps in your relative openness toward immigration. Is that all liberalism is about these days?
He didn't get a degree in CS, he got a degree in MIS, which is just a business degree with an IT spin to it--a soft degree where you don't learn any practical skills like computer programming.
my friend has a degree in computer science and electrical engineering from penn state. so yeah, a CSEE degree exists. a quick google shows this is also a degree at MIT.
not sure if this guy has one. he might have some other less difficult degree. somebody who could get a CSEE would probably be able to put together a bomb that actually worked.
i'll add my standard visa complaint: the federal government still can't make a DENT in nurse pay. it's ridiculous. most of it is IQ 110 work. america, the nation where nurses are paid better than engineers.
OT, but of vital interest:
Most People Carry Neanderthal Genes
The burly Ice Age hunters known as Neanderthals, a long-extinct species, survive today in the genes of almost everyone outside Africa, according to an international research team who offer the first molecular evidence that early humans mated and produced children in liaisons with Neanderthals.
In a significant advance, the researchers mapped most of the Neanderthal genome—the first time that the heredity of such an ancient human species has been reliably reconstructed. The researchers, able for the first time to compare the relatively complete genetic coding of modern and prehistoric human species, found the Neanderthal legacy accounts for up to 4% of the human genome among people in much of the world today.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703686304575228380902037988.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r2:c0.0611262:b33720950
In Canada foreign students are not supported by the government. They pay much higher tuition rates than Canadian citizens. This is not necessarily a good thing. For example the smaller, public university that I work for is always short of money, and one of the ways they can make ends meet is to attract lots of international students. They now have a whole department dedicated to travelling around the world and advertising our university in other countries--basically selling the place like soap. MANY of the international students study business. They can get a Bachelor of Business administration and more recently, an MBA. The trouble is the university seems to be so keen to attract international students and their high tuition that they are not very discriminating about who they let in. The math profs, for example, complain that they get a lot of students showing up in their calculus class who can scarcely do basic algebra. The students from places such as Pakistan (and there are many) seem to be particularly weak. Even the students from China aren't all that great. While they are *much* better prepared in math, some of them tend to be overconfident and seldom come to class. Quite a few of the students from China seem to act as if they are on spring break all the time.
We also have a lot of trouble with cheating among the international students, especially the business students. A lot of these students will probably end up staying in Canada.
Canada is experiencing a lot of corruption from hyphenated Canadian politicians and business people. The corruption and cheating bothers me more than anything, because it seems to be so ingrained and hard to change.
Corruption is what is bringing down Greece--it will ruin a country faster than anything.
Suggesting that immigrants bring corruption with them when they come to Canada is against the official multicultist thought police, so it is never spoken of. But when you think about it, it would be very surprising if they didn't bring such a basic part of their culture, though I'm sure some of the more intelligent immigrants find a way to get away from corruption.
PC says we shouldnt call midgets 'midgets' but characterize them as 'vertically challenged'. Studies show people are BORN conservative or liberal. Well, if racial bigots are born bigoted(and can't do anything about it--like homos can't help lusting after naked butts), it's not their fault, is it? They shouldn't be demeaned as 'bigots' but characterized as 'sensitivity challenged'.
Now I should think that the US has quite a good reason to want to keep that military elite well disposed toward Americans.
We've been playing that game since Sayyid Qutb was shocked by the brazen sexuality on display in 1940s Colorado. Maybe it's time to try a new tact.
i'll add my standard visa complaint: the federal government still can't make a DENT in nurse pay. it's ridiculous. most of it is IQ 110 work. america, the nation where nurses are paid better than engineers.
It's not the federal governments job to make a dent in nurses pay. Or in engineers pay for that matter. The fact that they do the latter is not good reason for them to also do the former. It's good reason for them to stop screwing with engineers pay.
somebody who could get a CSEE would probably be able to put together a bomb that actually worked
Bingo.
Judging from what I've read about the amateurishness of this bombing attempt [and the academic transcript which was fished out of the garbage can], I'd be absolutely shocked if the guy had an IQ much higher than 100.
No way he could have passed Calc I & Calc II, much less the [multivariable] Calc III and Calc IV which must be completed before you can even be considered for entry into a real engineering school.
calc IV....never heard of it unless you mean diff equations
i'll add my standard visa complaint: the federal government still can't make a DENT in nurse pay. it's ridiculous. most of it is IQ 110 work.
Guarding prisoners, at least at the deckplate level, is probably iq 95 work, but I don't begrudge guards their $120,000 / year (with overtime) when my lawyer friends are making $250,000. Likewise, if nurses, who deal with sh*t, piss, mucous, and doctors (think of the pre-med pr*cks you knew), can get $80,000, good on 'em.
Steve, I expect this kind of snobbery from Sigma, but not you with your sympathy for the common man. The guy has a degree in computer science and engineering. He's at least above average. Be mad at the guy because he tried to blow up Time Square, not because he went to a sucky college.
"Steve, I expect this kind of snobbery from Sigma, but not you with your sympathy for the common man. The guy has a degree in computer science and engineering. He's at least above average. Be mad at the guy because he tried to blow up Time Square, not because he went to a sucky college."
Steve isn't mad that he went to a sucky college. It's because Friedman and his ilk have saying we need TOP GENIUSES from other countries. If so, how come we are taking in fools whose idea of a bomb is fireworks and propane gas?
My friends made better bombs for Halloween back in grammar school.
Not to mention that calc III is much easier than calcII, except for the end of the semester when they start talking about Green's theorem.
"But on the grounds of his usefulness as a worker, I don't see any kind of knock down argument against his admission. Maybe it would be better to set the bar even higher, maybe not. But I wouldn't see any great problem with admitting workers like this, provided that the numbers aren't themselves overwhelming."
Are you crazy?
How many Americans are out of work?
We don't need this guy. Plus, it is about culture also. Why let people in who are of a different culture?I don't want to turn this country into Paksistan. Move to Pakistan if you want to live with this guy. I also don't want Europeans immigrating now also because we have too many immigrants.
"i'll add my standard visa complaint: the federal government still can't make a DENT in nurse pay. it's ridiculous. most of it is IQ 110 work. america, the nation where nurses are paid better than engineers."
I remember about 15-20 years ago a Miss USA or America was complaining that nurses were under paid. I don't know if it was true then.
its very likely this fellow couldnt get admits to the better schools in pakistan and so his parents had to bail him out, time and again. just the kind of person who would get exploited by radicals and do really stupid things.. clearly not in atta's league. we may find out that he also has some type of (mental) illness.
First a medical doctor with a Stanford engineering degree and an olympic medal is stupid, then the POTUS with an Ivy league law degree is stupid, then an astronaut with a P.H.D. in physics from MIT is stupid, then a guy with an engineering degree is stupid.
Christ you guys are demanding.
"Suggesting that immigrants bring corruption with them when they come to Canada is against the official multicultist thought police, so it is never spoken of. But when you think about it, it would be very surprising if they didn't bring such a basic part of their culture, though I'm sure some of the more intelligent immigrants find a way to get away from corruption."
I guess every white country is being ruined.
First a medical doctor with a Stanford engineering degree and an olympic medal is stupid, then the POTUS with an Ivy league law degree is stupid, then an astronaut with a P.H.D. in physics from MIT is stupid, then a guy with an engineering degree is stupid.
Christ you guys are demanding.
...except with it concerns the likes of Sarah Palin.
We also have a lot of trouble with cheating among the international students,...
A teaching friend of mine says the same thing; in his experience Persians are the worst.
Evil Neocon Is admitting guys like this "smart?" I'd say no. That in this economic crisis we should kick out guys like this, employ only Americans, and end completely the H1-B visa program.
This is where T99 differs from 90% of neocons (and 98% of the "Scotch-Irish" branch of the neocons) -- he doesn't want to invite the world. Of course he's still in favor of invading the world, but at least he recognizes that the mass importation of people whom we've been dropping bombs on is a very bad idea. So give him credit for that.
As an IT guy, let me be first in line to thank our politicians who, acting on behalf of big business, err, I mean what's good for the country, STILL grant tens of thousands of H1B's visas to keep the wages down and Americans fearing for their jobs.
I am sure that Americans working in labor are overjoyed with the Mexican wave that flooded the country.
Interestingly, I found this on the web:
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/1003h1b.pdf
"Seeking to undermine support for H-1B visas in general, critics have tended to leave the impression that Indian technology companies use the majority of the annual allotment of H-1B visas. USCIS data show in FY 2009, less than 6 percent of new H-1B visas went to Indian technology companies. Indentifying 25 India-based firms one finds Indian companies utilized fewer than 5,000 (4,809) new H-1B petitions in FY 2009."
Who am I gonna believe, cold hard facts or my own lying eyes?
On my daily walks outside I see an all Indian crew walking the path.
Clearly my eyes are deceiving me.
" Truth said...
.....then an astronaut with a P.H.D. in physics from MIT is stupid"
And just who are you referring too?
...except with it concerns the likes of Sarah Palin.
HA! Very very true.
I think everyone but Whiskey sees through her now. At least I hope.
"kurt9 said...
It gets even better.
You should also know that the University of Bridgeport is a Moonie-affiliated institution."
Thanks for the tip. And from their web-site:
https://www.bridgeport.edu/pages/2002.asp
they offer degrees in Acupuncture, Naturopathic Medicine (including Homeopathy!), and Martial Arts.
I also liked the stuff in your link about Sean Hannity. What a jerk.
Yes, many nurses do complain about being underpaid, and are perceived to be so by much of the lay public. That might have been true 25 years ago, but not now. In fact, they are very well paid.
In the San Francisco bay area, a 10-year veteran makes $110K + benefits before overtime. Last year, in the midst of a deep recession, they got a new contract giving them a 25% increase over 4 years.
The intellectual work is minimal; in fact one can become a nurse with 2 years of community college.
In fact, they are very well paid.
And yet we still have nowhere near the number of nurses we'll need to manage the impending retirement of the Boomers [even after flooding the labor market with Filipinas, Filipinos, West Indians, Nigerians, Canadians, Canadiennes, Englishwomen, Taiwanese, you-name-it...].
Word to the wise: Invest in nursing home stocks.
Christ you guys are demanding.
Welcome to me.
troof sez:then a guy with an engineering degree is stupid.
Christ you guys are demanding.
Assuming you are even interested to know, any decent engineering company in Germany reckons that it takes 5 years before a uni graduate becomes useful for the company. In Germany uni grads come in with a Dipl.-Ing. which is the equivalent of a US masters degree in engineering. Actually Dr.-Ing. is what many high-tech companies are also looking for. Yeah, I reckon it takes at least 6 years training to get a broad AND deep knowledge base, and then another 5 years to turn that into workable practice. Please don't come along with Bill Gates as a counter example. He is a BUSINESSMAN, NOT an engineer. As for all the "exceptional" AA types floating about, we all know they were told to get certain degrees, where helped along copiously in faculty, and after that the AA/BEE greasing machines kicked into high gear.
I'm talking about white engineers who have to work their way up and companies who earn money by producing things of value.
In the curricula I'm familiar with, Calc III is mostly just a glorified introduction to Linear Algebra, with a little Differentiation thrown in for good measure.
Integration and "Intro to DiffEQ" would be Calc IV.
Chicks and light-in-the-loafer types can often make it through Calc II, which is very formulaic in nature, but as you start moving out into the visual stuff, like Fubini's Theorem [change of order in integration], then you don't see many of them in the classes anymore.
I have to admit that this new Sarah/Carly tag team thang is intriguing.
I don't know what it means politically, but I do have to wonder if Todd fantasizes about that shiznat?
[PS: Love her or hate her, Carly was right about the need to absorb Compaq.]
"And just who are you referring too?"
There was a contentious discussion about Ronald McNair some time back.
"Assuming you are even interested to know, any decent engineering company in Germany reckons that it takes 5 years before a uni graduate becomes useful for the company. In"
So this makes a guy who has passed Calculus II "stupid?"
nursing pays so well that back in the 90s i started to see white men deliberately choosing nursing in college. in the border states, i started to see mexican men as nurses in the 00s. they're all pretty good at what they do. maybe with the runaway pay situation for nurses, the centuries old stereotype of women as nurses will be flipped to men.
not sure what doctors would think of having their nurse staff slowly and steadily transition from women to men. probably would not like it.
conversely to nurses, EMTs get paid nothing, yet their jobs are literally of life-or-death importance. if they are not good, you die.
next we can have a long flame war about pharmacist pay.
What's depressing (and revealing) is that mass immigration is the very last issue that leftists (and some purported "conservatives") will give up on. The country could be (is?)going to hell-in-a-handbasket, with mass immigration the only viable explanation, and the left/business elite would not accept a reduction in immigration or enforcement of our laws. See: Arizona, Great Britain, Islamic terrorism, the school in California where several students were sent home for wearing American flag shirts, etc.
We have 10% unemployment in this country and its inevitable costs and effects on government welfare programs and yet we're not willing to tolerate a reduction in the immigration of semi-skilled or entirely unskilled workers, who aren't apt to create the "next big thing" that will employ thousands of Americans.
Want to keep the MS's and PhD's coming? Fine. But that's not even 5% of our current immigration.
But on the grounds of his usefulness as a worker, I don't see any kind of knock down argument against his admission.
He is negative usefulness, because for every Muslim of barely above average talent we let into this country there is one more person of equal talent collecting a government paycheck doing shit that is economically of no use, other than keeping Americans from getting blown up.
And of course that doesn't even account for the fact that he doesn't come close to offsetting the 800 high school dropouts who crossed the border in the time it took you to read this post.
Look, my overall point here is that there's nothing I can particularly see about this guy that indicates something terribly wrong went on in admitting him to the US. Sometimes basically reasonable policies...
We do not have a "basically reasonable" immigration policy. We have an insane one - one that assumes that anyone who desires to make money is a proud American-in-waiting - as if no one else on this planet were motivated by money. But that is the defined creed of our so-called "creedal nation."
I mean really, stop and thin about it. How crazy is it that we have made the defining element of the American character - what makes one truly American, and truly good - is the desire to make money? Who came up with that one, and why?
Texas A&M is stronger than that.
A&M, by all reports, has a great engineering school.
I suspect that the "elite" families in Pakistan...got their privileged status because of bribes, tribalism and ruthless aggression rather than brains.
And this is different from the United States how?
OK, maybe our elites are a bit smarter and less aggressive, but they aren't ever the smartest in the country, not even by a long shot. Bush? Gore Kerry? Edwards? Please. A culture of gladhanding and ass-kissing marks the elite of the US. They don't really stand for anything but their own right to rule.
See Utah, where Bob Bennett - the grandson of a Mormon prophet and the son of a Mormon senator, and the friend of all the right people - is just appalled that the people of his state might throw him out of office on Saturday.
next we can have a long flame war about pharmacist pay.
Haha, don't tempt me. I'm a premed and I'm always making fun of my prepharm friends for choosing a career path that will have them stay in school as long as me only to then work in a Jewel as a cash register slave. Heh.
It gets even better: Shahzad was on the Customs/DHS lookout list from 1999 to 2008 [spanning three presidential administrations], but somehow miraculously became a naturalized citizen in April of 2009.
Polichinello:
"it's time to try a new tact."
The correct word is "tack," a sailing term meaning direction or course.
Or maybe you meant to write "tactic?"
Polichinello:
"it's time to try a new tact."
The correct word is "tack," a sailing term meaning direction or course.
Or maybe you meant to write "tactic?"
-------
tact is often used as short for tactic.
that's the fack, jack.
And "tact" would then be short for wrong.
It's tack (proper) or tactic. Chose.
"We do not have a "basically reasonable" immigration policy. We have an insane one - one that assumes that anyone who desires to make money is a proud American-in-waiting - as if no one else on this planet were motivated by money. But that is the defined creed of our so-called "creedal nation."
I mean really, stop and thin about it. How crazy is it that we have made the defining element of the American character - what makes one truly American, and truly good - is the desire to make money? Who came up with that one, and why?"
Good post, This country is getting to be a joke when they call the bomber an average American. Just think what this country would be like if they just kept the 1924 Immigration Act and also controlled illegal immigration.
I would only at most allow 100,000 total in a year and mostly from Europe and a few from East Asia. These would be mostly elite people.There would be no bringing over parents or siblings either. How many do we get now with legal and illegal-2 million or so?
"Truth said...
"And just who are you referring too?"
There was a contentious discussion about Ronald McNair some time back."
And I take it you're not comparing McNair (RIP), who clearly was a very bright guy, with Shahzad, who pretty clearly wasn't anything very special. Shahzad, as a C student in Computer Engineering, may have been smarter than the average plumber or auto mechanic (although almost certainly not smarter than an above average plumber or auto mechanic). But he seemed to be pretty worthless otherwise (consider his lame attempt at an IED). A plumber or mechanic can at least install a new sewer line, or fix my car.
We don't need to import Shahzads. We still have plenty of Ron McNairs.
"Mark said...
I mean really, stop and think about it. How crazy is it that we have made the defining element of the American character - what makes one truly American, and truly good - is the desire to make money? Who came up with that one, and why?"
And this is different from the United States how?
OK, maybe our elites are a bit smarter and less aggressive, but they aren't ever the smartest in the country, not even by a long shot. Bush? Gore Kerry? Edwards? Please. A culture of gladhanding and ass-kissing marks the elite of the US. They don't really stand for anything but their own right to rule."
Very good post. Very good points, both.
"Here's the purpose of the H1B visa:
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows business professionals to work in the United States for a specific amount of time. The purpose of the H-1B visa is to give U.S. employers the opportunity to hire foreign professionals if a U.S. citizen or resident is not available."
They will hire any one. Even though there are plenty of Americans who can do the job.
You don't a to be a special talent. It's a joke.
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