Corwin vs Mexico Again

Immigration Reform is a topic in Washington this week. Doesn't that sound like something a reporter would say? People are marching in LA, Denver, and other cities of the US against a bill that will make it a felony to be in the US illegally. It will make it a felony to employ such a person too.

About fucking time.

A reporter won't say that. As a matter of fact, I couldn't find an instance where a reporter even insinuated that. All the reports are of 500,000 people marching in Los Angeles with signs like "Aren't I Human Too?" and other drivel like that. Remember that word, drivel. I'm going to explain why I called it that in a moment. But first, my favorite, some basic math.

Just about 300 Million people in the USA. 3 with 8 ZEROS behind it. A very large number. If you had 300 million dollars and put it in the bank at 2.5% a year, your DAILY interest would be just over $20,000 dollars. 2.5% gets most people a few dollars in interest per year. Most illegals don't make $20,000 in a year. 300 million is a big number.

So, out of 300 million people, (generously) 1 million march against a law. So that's 1 person in 300 (THREE HUNDRED) who protested this potential law. Let's put it in perspective. If TEN MILLION marched, that would be just over three percent of the total population. So I'm a basic math kinda guy, but 1 million people marching, while seemingly big news, is not in any way a large portion of America. It is a small drop in a big bucket. To rise to the level of one percent, 3,000,000 (three million) would have to march. According to CIA world fact book stats, the population of Oregon is about 3.4 million.

Am I getting through here? 1 million people marching is not a big deal. When you consider that there are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in this country you will see that not even 1 in 10 of them showed up. I know a lot of news organizations count the high school kids that were out protesting. I know it because I read it on abcnews.com. I could care less though because high school kids love an excuse to cut class and call it a lesson in Democracy blah blah. Their opinions are less than meaningless anyway. They lack the education and experience to know shit. I know this well as I once was a high school kid who thought I understood the world. I try to forget I was 1 of about 2 or 3 white kids in my high school and was essentially driven out of it by the Mexican kids that were the other 99% of the student population. Drop out, finish high school in a local college, join military. Miss out on things like graduation, proms et cetera all because I was white and got my ass kicked DAILY. Why you ask? I don't have a clue: I was white. I was hated by the latino guys. Because the school staff wouldn't do shit. I still remember my mother in there fighting with the school principal who could do nothing but offer bullshit excuses, and get offended when my mother refered to my attackers as Mexicans.

That's right, I was in the car bleeding, and the school principal was arguing semantics of Mexican vs Mexican American. The kids who attacked me all got together and said I started the whole thing by punching them. Though none had a mark on them, I was the instigator. The Mexican-American staff and students stuck together and drove me out. Kinda seems like what we have here. Mexicans, legal or otherwise, sticking up for each other right or wrong.

So maybe I'm biased, but as far as I know, those kids were all citizens so I don't wish to deport them. However when I see all those people marching on TV waving Mexican flags I makes me remember all that. When they wave their "Drivel" signs mentioned above it makes me ask, are I not human? Why was no one defending me back then?

That's emotion. Reason is, whether the illegal Mexican man is human or not has nothing to do with legal immigration. Name another country were he can go and work illegally and expect to be treated so well. As far as I know there isn't one. Fact is, most countries won't allow non-citizens to work in their nation. Sure, like America, it happens. But all you have to do is piss off ONE person, they report you to the local law, and you do some jail time and get deported.

That's right, if I, the high and mighty American WHITE GUY go to the Philippines and get a job, I can expect to be jailed, and later deported and probably barred from EVER returning to that country if I get caught. All it will take to get caught is bad luck or getting turned in by anybody who feels like it. Any citizen of that nation who feels I'm unfairly taking his job.

Most countries laws are like that. (A few like Japan allow you to work without a visa for up to 90 days) You have to be in their nation legally and be legal to work. Tourist visas don't cut it either. However here in the USA, Mexicans are complaining that they can't walk in and take a job, and then be instantly welcomed and made a citizen. The say things like "We built America", "We serve your food" and more drivel. Remember 11 million illegals? They do all that? Without them we wouldn't have houses? We wouldn't have food?

Who are they kidding? 3 percent manages to house and feed us ALL??? They must be supermen!!!

Now to close it out, I'll say I don't hate Mexicans. I love their food (of course), I have Mexican friends (Mexican descent?), and aside from the bullshit machismo that got my ass kicked a lot in high school, I love their culture too. I'd date a Mexican girl in a heartbeat. I drink with Mexican guys at a bar most Mondays. (Even the one who says he laughed at 9/11 and hated America when he was younger - He's a born in USA citizen too). When the Mexican baseball team beat the American baseball team on TV a couple of weeks ago, I said good for them. For some reason I like it when other countries whip us in sports. :)

I don't forget however that those guys make decent money. They work jobs that wouldn't pay more or less if I worked it. Unlike the 11 million or so that work illegally, for 50 cents an hour doing jobs that used to pay people I knew as a kid a lot more. People who couldn't understand why they couldn't get that construction job, or work on the farm any longer.

Illegal immigration is a bad thing. It allows a lot of exploitation, which is perpatrated by businesses large and small. Born and raised Americans know you can't live on a dollar an hour. An illegal mexican worker will live with 30 of his closest friends in a beat up 2 bedroom house (didn't make it up, it made the news too) in order to pay the rent, bills and send money home to family in Mexico.

And those 30 guys in that house probably figure they aren't doing bad since the alternative is to stay in Mexico, have no job, and provide nothing for his family. Meanwhile there is a work force in the US capable of doing all those jobs illegals do. They just want to be paid a decent wage to do it. A wage that will support him and his family enough to live.

My Mexican friends don't want to live 30 to a house either. They say guys do it because they have no real choice. This law would criminalize illegals, and I'm for it, more or less. I know damn well that we are not going to jail 11 million people. They will be helped by their friends and family. Lawyers will be hired and life will go on. Maybe the drug gangs that are largely made up of illegals will be broken. I hope so. Up to 50% of the California prision population is comprised of illegal aliens. What's up with that?

I also hope that businesses that use those people as near slave labor will pay a hefty price. I hope that Mexicans in American, who call it home will be Americans and stop waving Mexican flags. I hope they will stop trying to import a whole country of family and friends to the USA and demand preferential treatment for them.

I have friends from other countries who don't have the luxery of marching the family over the border and that's the end of it. THEY have to go through the process to bring family over. They are almost always successful, but it takes time. It's legal. It's safe and it protects both them (the immigrant) and us (the citizens).

-Corwin

We Analyze...

I've often complained of the so called "News" organizations not bothering with news. Their shows are nothing but editorials (read: opinions) being mis-labled news. Editorial = opinion. Why do I need some overpaid person to tell me his opinion on TV? I am intelligent enough to draw my own conclusions. I just want the news.

Apparently I'm in the minority.

Bill O'reilly spelled it out for me a few nights ago. "We do analysis here at Fox News." He continued to suggest that people who wanted mere news stories should look for them at a place my memory didn't retain. I wish it had.

So that's what guys like him calls it. Analysis. Strange that when I was professionally trained to do intelligence analysis in the Navy I was taught to avoid opinions based on emotion, bias or anything not supported strongly by facts. YES they wanted to know how I interpreted the data. No, they didn't care if I think bombing some factory was morally questionable.

They being the Admirals and other Brass who made decisions.

Facts are: The SA-5 missile launcher is at geo-cord X. The reloads are at geo-cord Y. The AAA (anti-aircraft) batteries are at geo-cord Z.

Relevent opinions are: Strike package should approache from the East, using radar terrain masking to avoid enemy AAA assets prior to weapons release. Recommend a 1945 time on target to coincide with enemy watch change.

Bullshit editorials (opinions) are: Those men on the ground are only trying to defend their country and obey orders and we should spare their lives. This war is wrong, unlawful et cetera.

What all these news shows do is provide the person watching with a ready made opinion. It never shows all the facts, and usually distorts the hell out of the facts it does have, in order to support a certain conclusion.

It's no wonder our society is polarized so badly. We have a couple of "News" outlets that shape most every event to fit a view point. Liberal or Conservative. Right or Left. The real world is far more complicated than that. It requires true fact and thoughtfulness. Only idiots and crazy people are 100% right or left wing. But on the "News" most everything breaks down that way. Scarey.

-Corwin