We Are Everywhere

Reason writers around town: At the National Post, Matt Welch follows the latest sidewindings of the immigration debate. At the Washington Post, I review Gary Wolf's Wired: A Romance.

Comments

[Lonewacko]

Just a few notes:

"What do you think, came question number two, about private citizens defending our borders from Mexicans down in Arizona?"

That can be, and has been in a few cases, the subject of its own article. Glenn Spencer's group supposedly just takes pictures, the others are more proactive. For their efforts, "human rights groups" (as the newspapers call them) try to pin border murders on them (when, in fact, the sheriff thinks it's smugglers killing their own) and the newspapers just eat it up. The uncovered story is that the "human rights groups" are simply racists who want to reclaim Mexico's "lost territories" (aka "reconquistas").

"Then a naturalized citizen from Quebec"

He should know. See this article from a Stanford history professor: The possibility looms that in the next generation or so we will see a kind of Chicano Quebec take shape in the American Southwest..."

Oh, any by the way, you misspelled "Quebec." You better correct that before Les Gendarmes de la Langage come.

"The initial efforts are then sustained by the passion of people who are still as pissed off at the Mexicans as they were a decade ago"

"Mexicans?" As in, "Mexican-Americans?" Or, as in "Mexican citizen who've illegally (regardless of what they or their Mexican elites think) crossed our border." And, of course, perhaps it's possible not to be pissed at illegal immigrants generally, but more at the elites who control the flow and the problem immigrants, such as those who just come here to birth babies (there's even a Korean website that promotes this), those who come here to get social services or commit more serious crimes, etc. etc.

"In this process, the thick line differentiating Saudi terrorists from Central American farmworkers has become blurred"

Gosh, when a group of Mexican-American politicians advocate kicking "Anglos" out of the Southwest, I happen to consider that a national security issue, at least from this white devil's perspective.

"many legislatures are pondering bills allowing illegal immigrants to obtain special identification cards, in-state college tuition and even driver's licences. The campaigns are subject to intense local debate, pitting local Mexican consulates against a grassroots immigration-reform lobby tired of being marginalized by the media and dismissed as bigoted."

Just FYI, most Mexican elites have nearly as much a melanin deficit as Matt and I do. As for the consulates... THE CONSULATES? WTF are consuls doing pitching local representatives, police chiefs and the rest to help make federal policy? Isn't that, like, a violation of consular protocol? Oh, I forgot, in the brave new world, there are no laws. No immigration laws, no consular protocol, no whatever.

As for the CA Latino caucus, consider this quote:

"Since we stole [the southwest U.S.] from [Mexico], why do you say it's unfair to steal it back from us?"

If you don't see the problem with that quote, you're on the other side.

[Lonewacko]

A mes amis francophones: mon "post" est egalment disponible en francais et anglais.

[Anonymous]

"Mondo 2000 -- both the magazine and the libertarian, cyber-utopian milieu from which it sprang -- was as important to American culture as the early Time, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone or any other culture-making magazine of the 20th century."

[Anonymous]

What's with the Speedy Gonzalez graphic? Or is that just a self-hating Sanchez at work?

[Lash]

If you sell me your car tonight, I'll be sure to come to your house next week to "reclaim" it.

Not logical? Not ethical? Well, neither is the following quote:

"...the "human rights groups" are simply racists who want to reclaim Mexico's "lost territories" (aka "reconquistas.")

Before you know it, Napoleon's Frenchmen might come over to "reclaim The Louisiana Purchase," too, -- France's "lost territories," hmm?

The SW and esp. California were duly bought and paid for, thank you.

[joe]

^Is this a metaphor? The southwest was capured by force of arms. Louisiana was bought from a willing seller.

[Julian's Mom]

Sanchez is from Castillian ancestry (as in Iberia; as in Spain) -- not Mexican. No "self-hating" involved or necessary.

[Anonymous]

And Mexico was capured by force of arms (from the Aztecs.) But suppose we'll play along with your claim -- how will you justify a sure-to-fail "reconquista" of California, which was duly bought and paid for?

[Anonymous]

Good idea, Joe. We'll make a lot of progress that way. Why bother even having a gate when the barbarians can simply walk around it?

[joe]

I'm just keeping the fish tank clear. Carry on.

[joe]

"Barbarians." Yeah, I hate the way they drink grog out a human skull after they clean the pool.