[Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political humor)

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

What's the status on making pilots all over the world speak English to 
control towers?

BTW thanks for the sail tuning piece.  I've used a seat of the pants 
version, but I'm going to try this more rigorous approach.

Bill Effros

Brad Haslett wrote:
> Bill,
>
> It pisses me off every time I go to an ATM or call a phone tree and it 
> asks
> whether I want English or Spanish.  That being said, most cabbies in 
> Beijing
> are torqued over having to learn english for the 2008 Olympics.  Here 
> is an
> interesting perspective on native language.  BTW, I've ordered the 
> Spanish
> for Contractors CD for the boys on the beach.
>
> Brad
>
> ------------------
>
>
> May 30, 2006
> My History of English-Only*By* *Richard
> Cohen*<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/author/richard_cohen/>
>
> To understand something of the current immigration debate, it might 
> help to
> look at New York's Lower East Side in the early 1900s through the eyes of
> Henry Adams, the great-grandson of one president, the grandson of 
> another,
> ambassador to Britain and, toward the end of his life, winner of the
> Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography. All those Jews sickened him.
>
> "God tried drowning out the world once,'' he wrote in a 1906 letter, 
> ``but
> it did no kind of good, and there are said to be 450,000 Jews now doing
> Kosher in New York alone. God himself owned failure.''
>
> One of those "doing Kosher'' at that time was my grandfather, Rueben, a
> part-time garment worker and full-time no-goodnick who placed his two 
> boys
> in an orphanage when his wife, Judith, died. When he came to visit, the
> older boy had to translate for the younger. My grandfather never spoke
> English and my father never spoke anything but.
>
> You can understand Adams' distress. The Lower East Side of Manhattan 
> was an
> alien place. Its denizens spoke Yiddish. They were not Christians. 
> They had
> their own newspapers and theaters and political organizations and when 
> they
> rallied for one cause or another -- and boy, did they ever rally -- the
> calls for reform or revolution were uttered in a foreign tongue. This pot
> was not melting.
>
> Now, of course, the Lower East Side is the East Village and it is cool 
> and
> hip and young and expensive. The grandchildren of those who did Kosher 
> there
> have scattered throughout the country and the English their 
> grandparents did
> not speak has been mastered and enriched by Bellow and Roth and Chabon 
> and
> Ephron, not to mention Irving Berlin, if you are that old, or Jon 
> Stewart,
> if you can stay up that late.
>
> The current immigration fuss has engendered more sloppy thinking and
> rhetoric than any issue in recent times. The descendants of immigrants 
> wax
> romantic, confusing legal and illegal immigration -- it's all the 
> same. But
> it is not. My grandparents were legal immigrants. They came through Ellis
> Island, papers in hand. It was easier to do so then, but that is not the
> point. The point is that they broke no law and, as a consequence, 
> sought no
> amnesty.
>
> But this anxiety about the fate of English and its importance to the 
> culture
> does have its antecedents, although they are not, of course, exact. The
> non-English-speaking immigrants of the 19th and earlier centuries 
> could not
> simply get on an airplane and return to the mother country for a 
> visit. Once
> they came to America, they usually stayed in America. This is not
> necessarily true of Spanish-speakers, who can more easily visit Mexico or
> another Latin American country. Still, the larger culture remains
> English-speaking and its pull is like an ocean tide. It may take a while,
> but it will get its way.
>
> In Los Angeles, for instance, radio station KDL shifted in 2003 from 
> Spanish
> to English because the Latino audience it wanted -- the young -- was
> increasingly bilingual and what's called "English dominant.'' English was
> cooler, hipper and younger, younger, younger. Spanish was the language of
> mom and dad, and nothing could be fustier -- or, in some cases,
> embarrassing. The latter is why, to my regret, I peevishly ignored my
> Yiddish-speaking grandmother, adamantly insisting she speak English 
> instead.
> I thought I was being very patriotic.
>
> In New York City, the library system of a single borough, Queens, 
> typically
> has the highest circulation of any in the country. That's not because the
> culturally ravenous Jews of myth and fact are continuing their reading
> habits, but because of a much newer influx of Asians. Many of them read
> exclusively in their native language, some in two and some, sooner or 
> later,
> in English only. The richness of Shakespeare's tongue, its 
> universality in
> commerce and business and, above all, in entertainment, makes it
> unavoidable. Few things in life are certain, but death, taxes and English
> certainly are.
>
> It's reasonable, I suppose, to insist on English-sufficiency for 
> citizenship
> or, even, for a driver's license. But the nation's so-called "political
> conversation'' can be conducted in any language -- just as long as it's
> conducted. The Jews, the Italians, the Chinese, the Russians, the Germans
> and all the other ethnic groups who once lived cheek by jowl in Manhattan
> had a vibrant press and raised the roof with their political 
> conversation.
> Now their descendants rue, as I do, the virtual loss of a tongue. Henry
> Adams need not have feared. I can read him but not the contemporaries 
> he so
> reviled.
> mailto: cohenr at washpost.com < cohenr at washpost.com>* *
>
> (c) 2006, Washington Post Writers Group
> On 6/27/06, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>>
>> Herb,
>>
>> Clinton forced these people to make the desert crossings.  Prior to that
>> they would have "stampedes" where literally hundreds of people would
>> literally overrun border crossings.  A dozen might get caught, but the
>> other 488 would be home free all.  There were cars, buses, minivans,
>> waiting to take them further away right on our side of the border.  We
>> built fences in the easy places, forcing them to now cross in the harder
>> places.  Crossing was a piece of cake.  If you didn't make it in the
>> morning, you could count on getting through in the afternoon.  They
>> would commute back and forth across the border.
>>
>> It's harder now.  We didn't used to have 100s of people dying in the
>> desert every year because they didn't have to cross over the desert.
>>
>> There are more foreign born workers currently in the United States than
>> there are Iraqis in Iraq.  Rounding them all up and throwing them out of
>> here is not practical--even Bush understands that.
>>
>> I'm not "for" "amnesty".  I'm not really "for" anything.  I know what
>> you're against.  What are you "for"?
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Herb Parsons wrote:
>> > Sorry Bill, but you don't know what you're talking about on this one.
>> Border crossings have been unbelievably easy for years. We taught 
>> them all
>> well in our last "amnesty" program. Bring your families, you stand a 
>> better
>> chance of being allowed to stay.
>> >
>> > Where have you gotten the idea that border crossings have been more
>> difficult (except for the past few weeks, of course)?
>> >
>> > Herb Parsons
>> >
>> > S/V O'Jure
>> > 1976 O'Day 25
>> > Lake Grapevine, N TX
>> >
>> > S/V Reve de Papa
>> > 1971 Coronado 35
>> > Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast
>> >
>> >
>> >>>> bill at effros.com 6/27/2006 3:16:16 pm >>>
>> >>>>
>> > Dave,
>> >
>> > Unintended consequences of making border crossings more difficult.  
>> They
>> > used to leave their families behind and return home during the off
>> > season.  Now that we have made border crossing more difficult, they 
>> are
>> > bringing their families along with them, and staying North of the
>> border.
>> >
>> > Bill Effros
>> >
>> > DCLewis1 at aol.com wrote:
>> >
>> >> Luis, PT, & Brad,
>> >>
>> >> This is interesting.  Seems to me that if the IRS has issued an
>> ITIN  for
>> >> legal and illegal aliens, and the govt also has a summary of
>> green  cards/work
>> >> permits/whatever they should be able to identify illegals
>> pretty  easily.  I
>> >> wonder what the problem is?  Or maybe, as PT suggests, the  govt 
>> really
>> doesn't
>> >> care - just send $.
>> >>
>> >> Re Brad's dreams: I think I understand what he's trying to convey.
>> These
>> >> guys are reported to be very hard working and conscientious.  
>> I've  met
>> some
>> >> and they seem like good people.  But there's another side to
>> the  problem that
>> >> he may not have observed.  Some years ago my wife and I  were foster
>> parents
>> >> for several years, as a foster parent you take kids into  your house
>> until the
>> >> adult parents can get their lives squared away.  Over  a period of 
>> time
>> you see
>> >> a number of "families" and kids.  We've  encountered what I'm sure 
>> are
>> >> illegal aliens - ladies (kids are invariably tied  to the women) who
>> came north
>> >> because there are better social services and  physical 
>> infrastructure (
>> e.g.
>> >> indoor plumbing) and a government that will not  ask questions.  The
>> ladies
>> >> relating to foster care may have a variety of  children - I'm told 
>> that
>> large
>> >> families are a cultural thing.  Some may  work at regular jobs, 
>> but the
>> ones we know
>> >> don't, they subsist on the shadow  economy or mooch off one of the 
>> hard
>> >> working guys Brad dreams about, or  both.  To an overwhelming extent,
>> they subsist
>> >> on the illegal cash economy  PT refers to.  These ladies, and
>> especially their
>> >> numerous children,   are a substantial burden (i.e. cost) to the 
>> social
>> >> infrastructure.  For  example, as I recall, in Washington it costs
>> about
>> >> $12k/yr/student to support  the public schools - we know one lady 
>> with
>> 5 kids and has
>> >> not held a regular job  as long as we've known her; there's no way at
>> all that
>> >> lady makes any meaningful  contribution to the support the 
>> education of
>> her
>> >> kids - or anything  else.  I really doubt the ones I know of have 
>> ever
>> paid any
>> >> taxes, all  their work is in the shadow economy (i.e. selling bottled
>> water on
>> >> street  corners - turns out you can make a lot of money doing that in
>> >> Washington).   The social services burden (schools, medical care, low
>> income housing,
>> >> police,  etc) didn't appear in Brad's dreams, but I think that's 
>> what's
>> >> driving the  reaction to illegal immigration along the border and in
>> Calif.
>> >>
>> >> One other insight: the prime driver to admitting illegals appears to
>> me  that
>> >> they are willing to work very hard and conscientiously at jobs many
>> >> Americans disdain.  Basically, they are good people and they want to
>> be  here.  But it'
>> >> s important to understand that admitting these people,  especially 
>> the
>> women,
>> >>  has long term consequences ; they will have families  (large 
>> families)
>> and
>> >> the children may, or may not, be nearly as motivated as
>> the  parent.  What I've
>> >> seen is the children of dysfunctional  families, really matriarchies,
>> >> fitting right into the underclass  culture that disdains any hard 
>> work
>> and/or
>> >> educational achievement.  This  is going to drive a geometric demand
>> for even more
>> >> social services   From my perspective, this is not a happy prospect.
>> >>
>> >> Dave
>> >> __________________________________________________
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>> >>
>> >>
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