"The Good Newt" by recently retired NYT supremo Bill Keller is a classic example of how immigration has become the central issue for the mainstream media dividing Good from Evil. Keller's conclusion:
There are plenty of reasons the thought of President Newt Gingrich makes me shudder. But on this hard, defining American issue, he’s shown a combination of brains, heart and guts that puts the rest of his party to shame.
Here's the opening:
Immigration is a subject that brings out the best and the worst in Americans.
As taught to my fourth-grade daughter this semester, the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures. It honors the courage to uproot your life so your children can have a better one.
Thank God that the brain trust of the New York Times takes its guidance on this complex issue not from intellectually unsophisticated sources, but from textbooks for fourth graders. And bonus points for the historically accurate usage of e pluribus unum.
As it is practiced in our politics, the subject often dredges up darker feelings: tribalism, xenophobia, envy, a pull-up-the-ladder stinginess. This is not new. The English and Dutch colonists resented the immigrant waves of Irish and Germans, who resented the later waves of Italians and Poles and Jews.
If mass immigration was good enough for the Mark Hanna and the other Robber Barons, it should be good enough for us! You know what would also be good for the economy: the 12-Hour Day. Hey, isn't Newt in favor of Child Labor, too? What a state-of-the-art thinker!
But wait. Why are we even talking about this?
Right. Why doesn't everybody shut up about immigration? How can we have the needed national conversation on immigration if people insist on talking about it instead of listening to me explain what my fourth grader thinks? How come everybody doesn't dummy up and listen to the New York Times like they're supposed to? What's wrong with people these days?
I hate to distract you with actual facts, but here are a few that have been overlooked in the din of alarm: illegal immigration is falling ...
Similarly, have you noticed how over the last few weeks, global warming isn't anything to worry about anymore? The weather has been distinctly nippy this month, so why are we even talking about global warming?
Posts
69 comments:
Yep. They can bankrupt the country, turn it into a police state, and start all the wars they want. I just want immigration stopped and reversed.
I had no idea "e pluribus unum" meant that we needed Somali immigrants, but I went to a Midwest state university and didn't learn such exalted thinking.
If illegal/legal immigration is such an unqualified good, why do these guys always note it's not a problem because it's falling? Shouldn't they be outraged we're being denied all those extra gardeners and dishwashers?
Where's the outrage?
From the linked article, "As taught to my fourth-grade daughter this semester, the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures."
Does this guy even know what "e pluribus unum" means? Or is he just expressing the usual leftist cognitive dissonance?
A culture of many cultures is not the same thing as one culture out of many cultures.
I cannot tolerate this yo-yo's noxious combination of ignorance and arrogane. Newsflash, bud: it's not just the illegals some of us want jettisoned from this country.
"...so why are we even talking about global warming?"
Exactly! Maybe you're starting to get a clue on the global warming/cooling/staying-too-close-to-the average business. (No, maybe not, as I can tell sarcasm).
Just think of your views on the global warming hoax as consisting of the same level of idiotic thinking as this NY Times guy's thinking about immigration. Both of you need to do some further thinking to arrive at anything close to the truth. Granted, you're not a scientific type guy, but, then, this NY Times guy is probably a dipsh_t in all areas. So, uhh, congratulations, or something.
Well I live in a medium sized midwestern city with a huge state U. and we've got Somalis everywhere. It's the 21st century ... enough with the wretched refuse already.
Heres a fantastic article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6327a7f4-21bb-11e1-8b93-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1gMsUaYtH
nowhere is immigration mentioned as a problem, but just look at the graph they produced at the bottom of the page(US Economic Heat Map).
"One SF splinter group has shown a laudable quickness in grasping SF's new political potential. Unlike traditional SF "movements" this group of writers is not marked by literary innovation but by its radical ideology. For purposes of discussion we will refer to them as the "Pournelle Disciples."
This group has a number of strengths. The first is their solid publishing base in Tor and Baen Books. A second is their claim to tradition, especially the gung-ho technolatry that has marked genre SF since the days of Gernsback. Another crucial advantage is their ideological solidarity, which gives them the sort of shock-troop discipline that Lenin installed in the Bolsheviks. In this case, their Lenin is the redoubtable ex-Marxist Jerry Pournelle, who wears multiple hats as writer, editor, theorist, and political organizer."
[...]
"The most potent political treatise of the Disciples is a work of nonfiction by [Janet] Morris, David Drake, and Congressman Newt Gringrich, the ultrarightist Golden Boy of the born-again contingent. This book, WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY, presents the straight gospel of Pournelle's private pressure group, the Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy. It advocates "an effective American monopoly of space," in which laissez-faire capitalists fill orbits with "the Hiltons and Marriotts of the solar system." These space cities will be manned by Christian space-settlers, whose stern faith gives them the backbone for the frontier life. "The rise of high-tech preachers on cable television is accelerating the re-emergence of religion as a legitimate vehicle for explaining the world. Presently there will be religious software for home
computers and a host of modern high-tech efforts to spread a new, electronic gospel...."
With this treatise the gloves are off, and the Disciples come
full-circle. This combination of 19th-century values and visionary technolatry is a potent one which, though easy to mock, is easier to underestimate."
culled from CHEAP TRUTH #13, edited and published in 1985 by cyberpunk maestro, the Texan (and now Serbian) writer Bruce Sterling (of WIRED).
So will President Newt have Jerry round at the Whitehouse on a regular basis? Will we see the rebirth of Project Orion or NERVA? The solution to immigration becomes emigration into space?
There doesn't seem many degrees separating Mr. Sailer and Mr. Gringrich in the Kevin Bacon sense.
Now that winter is here, global warming is fading. But wait til, gasp, a Republican gets back in Casa Blanco and THE HOMELESS will be everywhere again!
I can't find indignant stories watsonizing this guy for his hateful stance, I wonder why.
I'm sorry, this, from Keller, is just bizarre: "the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures."
Why does the motto on the Great Seal of the United States, "out of many, one" remind us to tolerate a culture of many cultures?
I think that's a non sequitur...
Forbes
Just out of curiosity, anyone know in what neighborhood Bill Keller lives?
Bill Keller must be a genius; he can told two opposing ideas in his mind simultaneously:
1. The working class has been "Nickeled and Dimed" over the last 40 years
2. A massive influx of illegal immigrants is a good thing
"Bring me another latte, Ms. Dowd"
This is not new. The English and Dutch colonists resented the immigrant waves of Irish and Germans, who resented the later waves of Italians and Poles and Jews.
Well, it sounds then like mass immigration is pretty universally disliked. What was his point here other than to say that deliberately pursuing a mass immigration policy is tantamount to deliberately stirring up resentment?
Also seconding Dennis Dale's question. It reminds me of the
Clintonian "safe, legal, and rare" crap about abortion.
Let's hope this strange new respect for Gingrich from the NYT sinks his candidacy. Of course, Republican primary voters don't read the Times and Fox isn't about to tear down a good Zionist chickenhawk like Gingrich.
If a few weeks from now, Republican regulars realize that they don't really want a thrice-married amnesty advocate, maybe, just maybe, they'll tune out the neocon opinion-molders a second and consider Ron Paul. God I hope so.
Brief Quiz: Which Mediterranean country is spending $160 million on a border fence and deporting 50,000 Africans?
Bonus Question: Don't they get the New York Times?
"As taught to my fourth-grade daughter this semester, the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures."
the nonsensical religion of multiculturalism summed up in one self-contradictory sentence.
e pluribus triunum
"Kylie said...
Does this guy even know what "e pluribus unum" means?"
No, but he understands it a tiny bit better than did Al Gore, who translated it as "Out of one, many".
And Douche Gingrich's stated opposition to child labor laws suggests a whole new slogan for his campaign:
“Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?”
I am amazed by the liberal media's fascination with, and attraction to, foreign stupid people. Why big media is enamoured with the impoverished 10s of millions here illegally and welcome those attempting to come here whose minds:
1) Cannot retain a multiplication table.
-or-
2) Do not have the ability to evaluate opposing written arguments.
Completely mystifies me.
Speaking of immigration, I have an absolutely fascinating case for you Steve since you're the social scientist.
I was reading Wikipedia and came across these gems:
"Americo-Liberians are a Liberian ethnicity of African American descent. The sister ethnic group of Americo Liberians are the Sierra Leone Creole people who are of African American, West Indian, and liberated African descent. Americo Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerly enslaved African-Americans (who called themselves Americo Liberians) who immigrated in the 19th century to become founders of Liberia..."
"For 133 years after independence, the Republic of Liberia was a one-party state ruled by the Americo-Liberian dominated True Whig Party."
"Although they make up only about 5% of the Liberian population, Americo-Liberians dominated national politics from its founding until Samuel Doe led a military coup in 1980. There is controversy on how Americo-Liberians held on to power for so long. Some attribute it to the fact that divisions were based on "light-skin vs. dark skin" particularly because the first president was light skinned. Although observers point to the fact that during the Americo-Liberian reign the leaders were light, dark, and brown skinned meaning that theory is unlikely, others attribute it to a Masonic Order as opposed to colorism. A marble Masonic Lodge was once one of Monrovia's most impressive buildings and the bastion of Americo-Liberian power, and it remains intact today."
I didn't buy any of the arguments. So I did a little digging from the IQ and Wealth of Nations.
Average IQ of Liberia: 65
Average IQ of African-Americans: 85
Do you think that caused the gap and let the Americo-Liberians so easily dominate the country? It's so obvious it just might be true.
I don't recall you doing anything about Liberia on this site Steve so you might want to look into it. It also touches on that PC back to Africa movement.
When you look at the caucasian population in America, the average IQ would be 100. 120 would be where a "Smart Fraction" would start.
That's the same gap between 65 and 85 in Liberia, where the 85 iq are the 300 original Americo-Liberian families that did not intermarry.
The Left and the Open Borders Right have no problem, though bitterest enemies, with working together when furthering the cause of electing a new people. Somehow a person or group whose every other motive is pure selfishness or evil is suddenly thinking only about charity and the public good when it comes to mass migration.
So Piers Morgan had this Gingrich adviser on his show tonignt-- a cute blonde airhead named Kellyanne Conway. I don't know whether she even talked about immigration. I wasn't paying that much attention. I can't help wondering whether she is his latest extracurricular activity.
I think Keller's primary source here probably was not the Gordon Hanson press release but Callista Gingrich's "Ellis the Elephant" series
As taught to my fourth-grade daughter this semester...
I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was....
I dunno... I liked the other Bill Keller much better. He had much more success with his outside shots.
Comments were closed when I saw it so I will use this futuristic e-mail thing to contact Bill "GPS" Keller; don't know if he hangs around the office much these days but hopefully he can bookmark it
Always missing from these pieces about how immigration 'built America' and what an 'unqualified good' it is, is that immigration was virtually closed down altogether in 1924 precisely at its high-water mark.
It was unpopular then and oppossed then.Trying to cliam that somehow it is America's destiny or even inherited duty to accept mass immigration.
What disgusts me most is that, after all these years, these bastards can STILL, STILL, STILL conflate an argument for multiracialism with an argument for more immigration (yet more, ever more, forever and ever -- no one even asks them to a nominate a future date when enough might finally be enough).
Not that it matters, since liberals are so smug and self-satisfied that no amount of logic, no matter how forceful, can ever hope to penetrate their skulls. (Indeed, the more forceful, the less likely it is to penetrate.)
Silver
President Newt means Amnesty.
Obama would have gotten amnesty, but for the fact that a certain % of Republicans in congress opposed amnesty for strictly partisan reasons (because a Democrat was pushing it).
But the same partisan Republicans will support Amnesty pushed by President Newt, a Republican.
President McCain would have gotten Amnesty too.
One is tempted to draw the conclusion that if you oppose amnesty, vote for Obama (because he'll never get it passed).
But Obama is implementing an administrative amnesty anyway.... Oh well.
Glad I live in Canada, frankly.
Amazing performance what with crops rotting in the field due to the labor shortage caused by nativists.
Spike in Farm Profits
Farmers are expected to earn 28-percent more this year
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farm profits are expected to spike by 28 percent this year to $100.9 billion.
Reporter: Jim Suhr, AP Business Write
It's been a good year to be a farmer.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farm profits are expected to spike by 28 percent this year to $100.9 billion.
What a coincidence. I recall our leftist MSM, especially the NYTimes, loving on an utterly unelectable candidate to the GOP base about 4 years ago.
Gingrich: multi-divorced dirty old man with affairs yet untold no doubt (told nth wife he was divorcing her while she was in hospital with cancer), global warming couch-sitter with Pelosi, open boarders fanatic, big government, dirty pol (Fannie Mae million plus payout), etc.
The NYTimes and neocons such just have to prop this patsy up until the GOP primaries are over and they have a win-win situation.
This is not new. The English and Dutch colonists resented the immigrant waves of Irish and Germans, who resented the later waves of Italians and Poles and Jews.
Hey, you left out the Indians, who resented the initial waves of Europeans!
Of course, for all practical purposes, American Indians don't exist any more. Come to think of it, you don't see a whole lot of people with English and Dutch backgrounds in positions of power these days, either. And influential Irishmen and Germans are getting scarcer and scarcer...
@ Anonymous Canadian:
No, president Newt does not mean amnesty. If we could stop Bush's amnesty, we can stop anybody's amnesty.
The wildly successful petition drive in Maryland against in-state tuition for illegal aliens proves my point. Republicans, Democrats and Independents all signed the petition.
OT, and you'll probably catch this, but just in case -- seems right up one of your favorite alleys.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter-parents-20111213,0,479504.story
"It's the 21st century ... enough with the wretched refuse already."
We need to remind people that the statue that welcomes all that wretched refuse is a statue of Liberty, not a statue of America.
I hate how leftists sneer at the traditional symbols of America--except, of course, when they can coopt them for promoting their agenda.
I also hate how leftists draw false parallels between people like my grandparents, who came over from the old country, learned English and adopted American ways, with illegals who sneak across the border or outstay their visas and then demand the benefits of being here without being willing to assume the responsibilities.
Superb post, that's all I gotta say. Newt is being seen as "humane" for his batty immigration stance. Sigh, double sigh.
"Glad I live in Canada, frankly."
Aren't Toronto and Vancouver inundated with immigrants? I don't care if they have higher IQ's than ours.
This romantic talk of immigration from ages ago is a smokescreen and a canard. Juts because there was immigration in the 1700 & 1800's should there be immigration today? There was also slavery then too.
Perry lost my nativist support with his heartless comment, but even he hasn't been musing abotu amnesty for all.
Unlike Gingrich. Who by the way is a fan of big, comprehensive solutions to problems.
-Osvlad M.
"1. The working class has been "Nickeled and Dimed" over the last 40 years
2. A massive influx of illegal immigrants is a good thing"
That about sums of the "logic" of the post-modern liberal. But when push comes to shove on these issues, the DWL will tell the legal US worker to take it on the chin. Globalization via off-shoring is an opportunity for a transfer of wealth that can be provided to the "developing world" (derided by liberals in the 1980's as slave-labor sweatshops) and assist our roving Mestizo brothers from the South by accepting the ill-effects of wage-busting and racial dilution. The left has become so brazenly corrupt that they will gladly subject their fellow countryman to all of the ills brought on by off-shoring and illegal invasion because they consider themselves insulated from the ill-effects of both.
Anon at 2:30 AM: Good for the farmers. Now they can afford to pay Americans a decent wage.
What would you rather have, extremely cheap food brought to you by dumb, violent, fertile foreigners who will require you to pay lots of taxes to support them and will bankrupt your hospitals and ruin your schools, or pay more for groceries and keep your own country?
But the same partisan Republicans will support Amnesty pushed by President Newt, a Republican.
President McCain would have gotten Amnesty too.
One is tempted to draw the conclusion that if you oppose amnesty, vote for Obama (because he'll never get it passed).
But Obama is implementing an administrative amnesty anyway.... Oh well.
Glad I live in Canada, frankly.
Given you live in Canada, I will cut you some slack. President Bush and Senator McCain pushed hard for amnesty and failed in 2006 and 2007 because republicans opposed them. This has nothing to do with party, but ideology. Even the blue dog democrats opposed amnesty. It comes down to the elite of both parties support it and the commoners don't.
the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures
Ha ha. Behold the intellectual elite, and despair!
The owner of the Free Republic blog is apparently pushing Gingrich now. God help us all.
Anon, yes, it's tempting. But Rs did submarine Bush's attempts at race-replacement (AKA "amnesty"). And an R will give us better Supreme nominations.
I'm busily waffling back and forth, but at the moment I'm on the R for President side.
The owner of the Free Republic blog is apparently pushing Gingrich now. God help us all.
I've suspected for years that Free Republic is a false flag operation of the Left.
To Discard: I think you misinterpreted the guy's comment. He was just saying that it didn't (and won't) turn into a big loss if farmers have to pay a few more bucks/hr. for labor. I agree with Steve that mechanization will increase to take up the slack, but even if not, farming will probably stay lucrative, as commodities of all sorts are set to rise (look up Jim Rogers of Singapore).
To John Sidney McCain the 3rd bi-ache: I agree with you absolutely about Gingrich, but who are these open boarders of which you speak? I personally don't mind boarders, so long as they pay the rent, don't spit toothpaste all over the floor, don't bitch about small arms fire in the back yard (squirrel problems), and aren't Mexican. Just kidding; some of the common spelling errors get to me.
Lastly, I should apologize to Steve for the harsh comment, whether he read it or not. It takes a big man to admit his mistake, and I am that big man.
I should not call your thinking idiotic. I agree with all of your posts on immigration, and I really like your sarcasm. I think this guy Bill Keller has reached his peak stupidity, and it can only be downhill from here.
It's not the same thing, but I can't see how you won't put any thought into your mention (now and then) of this global warming business. Whether you know science or not, do your really believe there is a working mathematical model of the entire earth's climate? If there were, would we not be able to use it to get an idea of climate changes from year to year (anything better than the farmer's almanac)?
Such a model could be testing with initial conditions from say 1950 (when there was already good weather station data), run, then compared to subsequent yearly data. This has not been done and CANNOT be done. There are way too many unknown physical processes.
I am not even analyzing this from the political angle (who benefits, from government control of energy use, etc.); just common sense would tell one that the subject is way beyond what science can model.
Get beyond the BS on this climate hoax, Steve. It makes you sound stupid, and I know you're a bright guy.
This romantic talk of immigration from ages ago is a smokescreen and a canard. Juts because there was immigration in the 1700 & 1800's should there be immigration today? There was also slavery then too.
Yeah. It all comes down to "who-whom?" When the elite doesn't want something, the past and its parallels are barbaric. When they do, they're enlightened and noble sources of nostalgia.
Anon at 2:30 AM: Good for the farmers. Now they can afford to pay Americans a decent wage.
What would you rather have, extremely cheap food brought to you by dumb, violent, fertile foreigners who will require you to pay lots of taxes to support them and will bankrupt your hospitals and ruin your schools, or pay more for groceries and keep your own country?
Wages for farm labor could double and the price of food would only rise about 5-10% (can't recall the exact figure ATM). The farm end of things only get something like a third of the price of AG commodities, you see, and only a fraction of that goes to labor.
Watch the immivasion fanatics go to their "magic math" when you point this out...
There's one viable presidential candidate who is at least decent on the issue and that's Mitt Romney. Yeah, he's Mormon, and yeah, he's squishy on abortion, but Republicans will have to suck it up if they want to save their party long term.
"Now they can afford to pay Americans a decent wage."
That's not exactly the whole issue, Sport.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/alabama-immigration-law-experiment_n_1017957.html
"Now they can afford to pay Americans a decent wage."
That's not exactly the whole issue, Sport.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/alabama-immigration-law-experiment_n_1017957.html
The whole fruit is rotting in the fields thing again. Where to start:
1) According to the article Americans are too lazy and dependent upon government welfare to work. Fine, now we have to begin to unwind this process that has taken the better part of 50 years to destroy our work ethic.
2) Maybe the farmers should have to offer market wages to attract legal labor and stop relying on slave wages. What the illegals worked for in the past doesn't mean jack in a free labor market.
3) Maybe the farmers can invest in harvesting technology like they do in Australia and stop relying on coolies to pick their fruit.
4) If none of the above are possible, then let's resort to free trade and gladly import Mexican and other nations' crops. There will always be farm crops that are better suited to machinery like wheat and corn and those that might be better suited to importation assuming the farmers don't want to invest in technology. I'd rather pay Mexicans a decent wage for them to make a living in their country than to scratch out a living in mine.
" The English and Dutch colonists resented the immigrant waves of Irish and Germans, who resented the later waves of Italians and Poles and Jews. "
Gotta love this part. He is obviously narrowing the first colonists down to "English and Dutch" in order for it to sound more sinister. After all, including the Scots, Welsh and French Huguenots who were present in large numbers (definitely more of them than the Dutch) from this country's inception wouldn't be as useful for the selective narrative that the NYtimes desires.
Prepare, Istevers, for the Guiness Book of World Records, shortest lived apology in history:
"Lastly, I should apologize to Steve for the harsh comment, whether he read it or not. It takes a big man to admit his mistake, and I am that big man.
I should not call your thinking idiotic...
...Get beyond the BS on this climate hoax, Steve. It makes you sound stupid..."
"e pluribus, eunuch" more likely.
Anon.
@Svigor:
Wages for farm labor could double and the price of food would only rise about 5-10% (can't recall the exact figure ATM).
Could you steer me to the source for this view? I'd be very grateful. Thanks.
@Svigor:
Wages for farm labor could double and the price of food would only rise about 5-10% (can't recall the exact figure ATM).
Could you steer me to the source for this view? I'd be very grateful. Thanks.
Here is some related info from the Center for Immigration Studies:
Labor costs comprise only 6 percent of the price consumers pay for fresh produce. Thus, if farm wages were allowed to rise 40 percent, and if all the costs were passed on to consumers, the cost to the average household would be only about $8 a year.
...Get beyond the BS on this climate hoax, Steve. It makes you sound stupid...
He was drawing a simple and useful analogy. Put you hard-on away.
It's a good thing Keller is a gentile or else this thread would be filled with endless "He wouldn't say that about Israel" comments.
So given that Keller is a German last name, what is Mr. Keller's opinion on the immigration situation in Germany? Does he want that country to remain German?
Seinfeld was, of course, Jewish, and his show was a forum for agnostic, secularized Jewish angst (surely the Castanzas were in a witness protection program, hence the Italian name?) but he flipped the bird at "liberals" more than once, while plying his trade. Remember his take on the Statue of Liberty message to the world? Can't remember word for word, but basically Jerry paraphrased it as "send us the worst you have, we'll take them all." And the tone he used sounded like iSteve.
It's a good thing Keller is a gentile or else this thread would be filled with endless "He wouldn't say that about Israel" comments.
Keller worked for an organ that is Exhibit A for Jewish influence in the American news media. He wouldn't say that about Israel, not if he ever wanted to keep his writing career.
So given that Keller is a German last name, what is Mr. Keller's opinion on the immigration situation in Germany? Does he want that country to remain German?
The taboo against white ethnocentrism is stronger for Germans than any other ethnos on the planet.
Remember, a meme here at iSteve is that whites feel guilty over excessive ethnocentrism, while Jews feel guilty over insufficient ethnocentrism.
"It's a good thing Keller is a gentile or else this thread would be filled with endless "He wouldn't say that about Israel" comments.
So given that Keller is a German last name, what is Mr. Keller's opinion on the immigration situation in Germany? Does he want that country to remain German?"
It is a fair bet that he won't extol any immigration reduction related moves by Deutschland.
"... but he [Jerry Seinfeld] flipped the bird at "liberals" more than once, while plying his trade."
Yeah, I'll say. They were definitely not PC on that show, which made it the funniest TV show of all time, until "The Office".
Watch this 5 minutes from the "Cigar Store Indian" episode - you won't be sorry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpGfyp6MxkM
Oh, for Truth: You see, first I called his opinion idiotic; later (in my *cough* apology *cough*, *cough*) I just said it sounded stupid, but that I know he is a smart guy. Can you notice the difference, Sporteroid?
E pluribus nil.
"Oh, for Truth: You see, first I called his opinion idiotic; later (in my *cough* apology *cough*, *cough*) I just said it sounded stupid, but that I know he is a smart guy. Can you notice the difference, Sporteroid?"
Only after I run it through my Dick Tracy secret decoder ring.
"... but he [Jerry Seinfeld] flipped the bird at "liberals" more than once, while plying his trade."
Finally, someone mentions Seinfeld. I always thought it fascinating that with the exception of Jackie Chiles, every black character acted in the (supposedly verboten) stereotypically black way, i.e. either threatening violence or whining that everyone but him is dumb. So you had the coffee shop owner who threatened to beat up Jerry and George if they didn't lower their voices; same guy threatens to beat up George over his phone calls to a waitress; the thrift shop clerk who threatens to go "upside yo' head" on George, the parking guy who whines that nobody but him can keep the keys straight. Nary a reasonable black. What was Larry David trying to tell us?
Could you steer me to the source for this view? I'd be very grateful. Thanks.
Sure:
The Costs and Benefits of a Raise for Field Workers
We Need a New Generation of American Farmers
Not sure where to tip my hat for these. Either Market-Ticker.org or here would be my guess.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture says farm profits are expected to spike by 28 percent this year to $100.9 billion."
Svigor is right; farmers could live in mansions and pay their workers $20/hour and it wouldn't change prices in the grocery store much. Most of the price of food goes to herbicides, pesticides, farm equipment manufacturers, processing, shipping, refrigeration, marketing, retail, etc. For example, say a farmer gets $5/bushel for his corn (an unusually high price). That's 56 pounds of corn. Nabisco or whoever takes that, grinds it, mixes in some oil or whatever, presses it into chips, cooks them, bags them, and sells them for (last time I looked) about $3 for a pound bag, or $168 for that bushel of corn.
(I'm not saying that's unfair, or that all the people involved in the process don't deserve their cut. Just that the old "your grocery bill went up 20% because farm prices rose" claim is an outright lie -- and a scare tactic used to justify all the government agencies that exist to subsidize farmers. That farmers don't make enough is almost as much of a truism as the idea that teachers are underpaid, but we're also told that if farm prices just kept up with inflation, no one could afford to eat. So the only solution is for government to give farmers welfare.)
Food prices change for the reasons all prices change: supply and demand, but especially the perception of supply and demand. Also, commodities such as farm crops are a place for money to hide from a weak stock market or a shaky dollar. Most of the trading that goes on has nothing to do with the actual food; it's just pieces of paper (or electronic ones and zeroes) being bought and sold by people who might have been buying IBM yesterday and will be buying gold tomorrow. So most of the movement in "farm prices" has nothing to do with the actual supply, any more than daily ups and downs in gas prices at the pump reflect how much oil is being extracted at the moment.
Also, "farm profits" mostly means the big crops: corn, soybeans, wheat. Those don't involve much illegal labor (yet). For those crops, American laborers were replaced by big equipment and Monsanto, not by cheap human workers. So paying a living American wage for picking lettuce wouldn't affect most "farm profits" at all.
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