Innocent Bystanders

Laurie Anderson Flashback November 23, 2014

Nothing like Laurie Anderson’s weirdity to capture my sense of life lately.

A Brief Conversation Between my Wife and my 7-Year-Old Son November 20, 2014

Mrs. S: So, do you like school?

Kiddo: No, it’s hard.

Mrs. S: What’s hard about it?

Kiddo: It’s hard when we do Chemistry.

exeunt omnes

We Are a Nation of Immigrants, Aren’t We? November 20, 2014

[This is a reposting of a post I wrote 4 1/2 years ago. Given President Obama’s imminent announcement of the biggest amnesty evah, I thought I’d hang it up here again.]

We Are a Nation of Immigrants, Aren’t We?

The pro-amnesty faction likes to bring up the “Nation of Immigrants” meme to make amnesty foes feel like they’re betraying the intent of the founding fathers. The meme suggests that there is, buried somewhere in the core of the American heritage, a patriotic duty to welcome immigrants to our shores. Using the “Nation of Immigrants” line lets them call amnesty critics “unpatriotic” right after they finish calling them “racist.”

Well, we are undoubtedly a nation of immigrants in a historical sense. But over the past century it hasn’t been nearly as true as the pro-amnesty faction would have you believe. Let’s take a quick look at the history of immigration.

The plot below shows the number of foreign-born people residing in the US (click on the graph for a better view). This includes both legal and illegal residents. As you can see, the total number of foreign-born residents stayed fairly constant from 1910 to 1970, even as the population of the US doubled. The foreign-born percentage of the total population dropped to just under 5% by 1970. Today it stands at roughly 12.5%.

Click on me to make me ginormous!!

Pre-1970 America is what many of us were born to and raised in . . . an America that was successfully assimilating a modest influx of immigrants (probably a little too modest, actually), and which was suffering from a very mild version of today’s balkanization and illegal immigration problems. As the chart shows, that all changed once the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed (thanks, Ted Kennedy!). The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Reagan’s amnesty) further accelerated the rate of foreign-born population growth.

The Bottom Line. The history of America from 1910 to 1970 was not that of an “immigrant nation” – in fact, one could argue that the US stopped being a “nation of immigrants” after the last immigration surge in 1910. And of course, there is a limit to how much any mature nation can continue to call itself a “nation of immigrants.”

Pro-immigration pundits are calling upon a century-old meme to rationalize the out-of-control immigration situation we have today.

A New Obamaccomplishment: Being Beaten by Germany in a Popularity Contest Among Nations November 19, 2014

The AoSHQ sidebar noted that the US has slipped to being the world’s second-favorite country:

Germany is now the world’s favorite country, according to the Anholt-Gfk Nations Brand Index, which measures the image of 50 leading nations.

The Teutonic powerhouse knocked the United States from its longtime perch at the top of the ratings

Not a big deal, until you read the reasons why:

“In a year of various international confrontations, the United States has lost significant ground where tension has been felt the most acutely,” said Xiaoyan Zhao, senior vice president and director of the index. “Both Russia and Egypt have downgraded the U.S. in an unprecedented manner, particularly in their perception of American commitment to global peace and security, and in their assessment of the competence of the U.S. government.”

Racists.

Well informed racists, but racists nonetheless. Don’t they know that “smart diplomacy” was all the world should have needed to make it love us?

Unless they’re surly racists, that is.

Channeling Jonathan Gruber November 19, 2014

President Obama Resolutely Continues to Not Double Exports November 10, 2014

A couple more months until it’s official, but I think you can see where this train is headed:

Short recap: Back in his 2010 SotU address, the President told us that a key part of his economic recovery plan was to double exports within 5 years.

In 4 months his failure will be official, but in the meantime you can enjoy brain-bending puzzles every month, such as:

How can the President proclaim that his policies have worked when every one of them has failed to meet its metrics?