So, What Is Up With the Runaway Bride, Anyway?

Sometimes a remarkable juxtaposition brings the whole picture back into focus -- maybe a little sharper focus than is comfortable for us viewers. Still, allow me to recommend that you have a look at what Mark Brennan posted at the Lew Rockwell site today. An excerpt:

... Maybe Saddam was in fact going to nuke me, my wife, our two cats, and the dry cleaners across the street. And maybe monkeys will fly out of my… In either case, he is now behind bars while suicidal maniacs with IEDs strapped to their chests are killing Americans whose kids are not benefiting from the services of $500 per hour SAT tutors or figuring out how to redeem their American Express Platinum Membership Rewards Points so that they can attend the ESPN Golf School with a "focus on the importance of swing mechanics, club control, and body behavior." One can safely assume that ESPN has made no special provision for any military amputees in attendance who might need special instruction in "chipping with one arm" or "putting while blind" since Iraq reminds the intended customer base of little more than the unraked sand trap on the 15th hole at their country club.

By all means, go and read the rest, too.

OK, But Who's "We?"

Got home from church today, and went upstairs to change into my usual weekend grunge and turned on the tube, as is my wont. Some weeks, you can see the F1 race rebroadcast on the Speed Channel. This wasn't one of those weeks. However, on my PBS affiliate, I caught the rebroadcast of The McLaughlin Group. Yes, I know -- it's a profoundly guilty pleasure, and probably more than a little perverse, too. Mostly, I just like to see Tony Blankley Of The Thousand Dancing Chins and remind myself that, when the "Find the Fattest Chickenhawk" contest is announced, I have my winning horse all picked out in advance.

But, anyway ...

There I was, hanging my good shirt back up, and the folks of the Group were talking about Topic A, which was illegal Mexicans. I can't really provide quotes, since the Group's website doesn't have a transcript posted quite yet. But the Main Man, Big John, was saying that the illegals must be allowed to stay, because when they came here, "we welcomed them," meaning that they got jobs, health care in the emergency rooms, places in the government schools, and so on; it would be unsporting and inconsistent if "we" changed "our" minds now and un-welcomed the illegals. Eleanor Clift was quick to agree with him. After all, she said (approximately), "they" have mowed "our" grass, cleaned "our" houses, raised "our" children.

And I thought -- not for the first time: Who's "we?"

This is illustrative of the ultimate hopelessness of politics. It's just too easy to say things that don't make any sense. People -- even great big smart famous people who are in McLaughin Groups -- talk about three hundred million people as if they shared a single set of interests and motivations. We do this, we do that, something-or-other is in our best interest: as if the condition of residing within the same vast arbitrary boundaries makes one person of us all. Sure, some Americans welcome -- perhaps "import" is a more-accurate term -- undocumented Mexicans into the U.S. Some Americans have an economic interest in employing people who are anxious to work for very low wages, and who are in a highly-unfavorable position from which to complain about poor working conditions, safety, excessive hours, or much of anything else. These American employers range from produce operators in California's Imperial Valley to the proprietors of third-tier automotive suppliers in northeast Indiana to ... well, maybe to McLaughlin groupies who prefer housekeepers, pool boys, and nannies who work cheap and are eager to please. I just don't believe that any large fraction, let alone a majority, of Americans are part of this group or share their interests. When I want my grass cut, I reach for the mower and the gas can, not the Spanish phrasebook ... and I don't think I'm untypical in this respect.

Any time you see Eleanor Clift and Big John McLaughlin agreeing on something like this, it means the left-right paradigm isn't a useful way to analyze the political implications. I don't want to sound like a Marxist here, but a class analysis is more revealing. More on that later.

Dancing With the Devil

To replace Saddam is to become Saddam. I don't know whether Rep. Murtha has reached this conclusion yet, but I do think it's true:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A decorated Marine colonel turned anti-war congressman has said Marines killed at least 30 innocent Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" in Haditha in November, suggesting the death toll may be twice as high as originally reported.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, told reporters Wednesday that he got his information from U.S. commanders, who said the investigation will show that the Marines deliberately killed the civilians.

The U.S. Marine Corps has declined to comment on the report, which initially stated that 15 were killed.

"There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," Murtha said.

I don't imagine it will take the Stateside chickenhawk brigade very long to land on Rep. Murtha with its full keyboard wrath. Truthtelling is no defense; the truth is sometimes objectively pro-terror. Do not hear it. It does not exist. Eurasia is the enemy. Eurasia has always been the enemy.

Thought Experiment: Sauce for the Goose

Anyone see this?

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico warned Tuesday it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops detain migrants on the border and some officials said they fear the crackdown will force illegal crossers into more perilous areas to avoid detection.

How's that grab you, O Red-Blooded Magnetic Ribbon Patriots? Why, them damn Met-sicans are tryin' to tell us where in our own country we can send the National Guard! My first reaction was intense annoyance. Then I started to think a little. Think along with me for a minute or so.

Suppose this wasn't a matter of our southern neighbors the Mexicans, but was instead some "Islamofascist" outfit whose home is halfway around the world from here. And suppose, instead of threatening lawsuits from the Mexican consulates, these towelheads instead had military airbases in Mexico, and aircraft carriers in the Gulf (of Mexico) and in the Pacific off southern California. And suppose they came up with some cute, semiliterate name for the parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas that are within a couple hundred miles of the border -- a name like, oh, the "Southern No-Go Zone" -- and forbade any sort of American military presence there at all. Suppose they continuously overflew the No-Go Zone with helicopter gunships and fixed-wing attack aircraft, and killed anyone with a helmet, a gun, or any military-style vehicle who could be seen. And suppose that we weren't a mega-super-hyper-power, and couldn't do a thing about it.

Think you might be a little bit pissed?

And if, after a decade or so of this, the towelheads actually invaded and proceeded to set up a puppet government ... think you might become an "insurgent?"

I sure hope you would. And thanks for thinking along with me.

Eureka!

I've discovered a better way to enjoy one of Il Duce's speeches: read it. Really! It's lots better than listening, or -- worse yet -- listening and watching. Last night's, in text form, isn't nearly as hideous as you might expect (and as I would expect) from Jorge.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to complain, though:

For decades, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders. As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border -- and millions have stayed.

"Not in complete control" -- now, that's an interesting way to put it. To say that the U.S. has not been in complete control of its non-border with Mexico is true. But it's true in the same way as saying, "Mr. Smith's remains, having floated in the Maumee River for three weeks in July, are not completely presentable." True, but not particularly expressive of the actual situation.

First, the United States must secure its borders. This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation.

That is, perhaps, the first thing that's ever spewed from the Bushmouth with which I can completely agree. Leaving me only a few simple questions: Why, O Chimperor, did it take so long for this to dawn on you? Could it be that you're not ... uh ... completely sincere? Could it be that there's been all this unsightly business in the streets, and there's an election coming up this fall? Hmmmmm ...

This program would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers for jobs Americans are not doing.

As the pre-Alzheimer's Ronald Reagan might have said: there you go again, Jorge. "Jobs that Americans are not doing" -- well, at least that's a minor variation on his standard "jobs that Americans will not do." The translation to honest-speak is the same, though: jobs that not enough Americans will do at the wage that many American employers -- who have my ear, who have my class sympathy, and who regularly purchase access to me and my fellow pols -- prefer to pay.

The "immigration issue" is another illustration of how the standard political paradigm is becoming amusingly irrelevant. More on that later.

Word!

At her blog, Grace offers an arresting thought about the great American public's ho-hum reaction to the news that our gummint is keeping track of whom everybody calls, and when:

I have to keep reminding myself that so many generations have passed since school kids first had to piss in cups just so they can sing in the school chorus or join the Future Outsourced Employees of America club (specimens are required in my town's school district) that pretty much no one but cranky oldsters has any expectation of privacy.

Everything flows from that first demand for body fluids.

We have become a nation of cup-pissing cheese eaters.

There's no separating one diminution of our liberties from another. Even when they are superficially unrelated, one leads to the next. Words on paper -- or parchment -- are unavailing; they serve, at best, as guides and reminders for those who, unlike our supervisors, are willing to be guided and reminded. There's only one effective rebuke to tyrants, and it requires that at least a large minority of the people have had enough; until then, overt resistance only gets you killed. The time hasn't come.