Is it my imagination, or is the alien in the first picture wearing a sombrerro?

gas powered space stations!

Not to mention a creative alternative for personal jet propulsion.

I hate to do this. I've been reading your blog for a long time. Honestly, it is my favorite. I think you write well, in an entertaining fashion, on matters I am usually interested in, and your thoughts are always just delightful for me to read.

I don't like admitting when I disagree with someone I respect, for fear that they won't like me anymore. But, on this point, I must speak out. I love immigrants. I think that they are showcases of the best of America; self-determination, hard work, success, opportunity, freedom. They decide to leave some hellhole and go to the land of Libertad, and they make money enough to sustain themselves picking fruit.

They don't take much government assistance (despite what many people say; hispanics take government assistance, illegals genuinely don't have much access, and when they do, that's just embarrasing for everybody). Because of that, I think that they are more assimilated in most ways than even some native minorities (Mormons, blacks, etc.). I think America has avoided the immigrant riots of France because, by being part of the job market, immigrants to America become part of the society and the culture.

We get some cheap labor, food I happen to like. They get good pay by their standards, and they get to live here. It honestly seems like a win-win. I never bought the argument that they are taking other people's jobs; they get the jobs because they work for some combination of less/better. You've pointed out that a lot of this has to do with regulations. I agree. But, if that is the case, we should ask for an end to labor regulation, to my mind.

To show you what I mean when I say that I really think illegal immigrants are assimilating incredibly rapidly, I was giving a lecture at a high school once. I walked out (I bombed, if it matters, big time), and caught the closing day ceremony of lowering the flag. Some dumb kid dropped it, and it was going to fall in the mud. I was a dozen meters away, but I didn't move to catch it. Some kid rushed past me, jumped a fence between the pole and where I was standing, and dived to catch the flag before it could be sullied. He was an immigrant.

There are problems. But, they are problems created by government; English taught in our schools as a second language, or not at all, making new generations not learn the native language and creating a rift between us (perpetrated in part by identity politics gurus who realize they'll lose control if the hispanics become too American, the way Jesse Jackson knows he'd be out of a job if we ended welfare and a few other idiot programs). Government assistance, which both makes it less likely assimilation will occur and would break our backs with an open border. And the labor regulations that mean that a citizen is punished in the labor market for following the law.

This is just my opinion. I know it isn't well thought-out or written. It isn't really an opinion; that is too nice. It is just a bunch of thoughts I had that I threw up. But, when I see people coming here from Mexico, or anywhere, to seek a better life through labor, when I hear that what they want is to make a better life for themselves and their family, when they say all they want is to earn what people are willing to pay them for their sweat, I can't stop myself from liking the idea. I just feel that way.