100,000 Protestors... Angry mobs of students...

[Alex]

I haven't really paid any attention to the specifics in the law bouncing around since I know it will change quite a bit before anything passes.

I'm very pro-legal immigration and strongly anti-illegal immigration. I believe that national quotas should be abolished and that the only limits on ability to enter the country and begin the process of citizenship is documentary evidence that the immigrant won't immediately be a burden on social safety nets (that is, they have to have a job waiting for them and a citizen sponsor). I think work visas should be widely available that would allow workers to legally enter, pay less taxes (but still some) and then go home when the visa is up.

I think enforcement has to be strict and unflinching. This creates touching stories of families caught in binds. But so what. Employers should also face severe penalties for hiring undocumented workers and this should be true in all industries (including agricultural and restaurantial). If this means that I pay 400% more for lettuce then so be it. If the government wants to keep lettuce cheap, exempt the industry from minimum wage laws and enforce legal employment rather than creating a black labor market.

I think that in any new structure it is a needed component that illegal residents currently in the country will find it more difficult to get on the legal track than for potential immigrants outside of the country. This will encourage them to either leave and return legally or be penalized for having broken the law in the first place.

I also find the phrase "seeking to criminalize illegal aliens" to be an incredibly stupid one. Also, I hate people who pronounce "illegal" as "e-legal." I'm pretty sure e-legal is a lawyer referral Web site. This linguistic intolerance is unusual for me since I don't care about "nukular" or "febuary" or "libary" but it makes me want to kick a reporter every time I hear "elegal." Even if it wasn't said by a reporter.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Also, I hate people who pronounce "illegal" as "e-legal." I'm pretty sure e-legal is a lawyer referral Web site. This linguistic intolerance is unusual for me since I don't care about "nukular" or "febuary" or "libary" but it makes me want to kick a reporter every time I hear "elegal." Even if it wasn't said by a reporter.

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs. Elegal is just annoying to me. The others actually make me angry. Jagwire also grates on me.

My dad has his own special accent that includes, pitcher (for picture), ambliance (ambulance), antanna, waint (wait). I could go on. Annoys the living crap out of me if he uses a sentence that combines any two of those words.

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs.

When my kids say "library" I correct them by loudly saying "libary". A lame little joke that cracks me up.

It's from the Simpsons episode where Homer had a crayon removed from his brain which resulted in him being smarter. Homer sez, "Lisa, want to go to the library tomorrow? You'll notice I didn't say "libary" or tomorrey."

Libary. Libary. LIBARY.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

When my kids say "library" I correct them by loudly saying "libary". A lame little joke that cracks me up.

It's from the Simpsons episode where Homer had a crayon removed from his brain which resulted in him being smarter. Homer sez, "Lisa, want to go to the library tomorrow? You'll notice I didn't say "libary" or tomorrey."

Libary. Libary. LIBARY.

I hope that you do it loudly inside the actual library. When visiting New York City as a small child, my dad found it hilarious to stick out his hand to passersby when a street wasn't very crowded and say loudly, "Hey! Can you spare some change? I've got SIX kids here!" My mom was, of course, mortified. I think that was his point. We younger kids thought it was the funniest thing ever and did the same thing for several days. My poor mom.

GC, I think your point about most of us coming as immigrants is a good one, but not so much here. I don't think anyone here wants to stop immigration. I wouldn't be here without illegal immigration. My grandfathers parents snuck across the Canadian border from Germany and paid a Dr. for a birth certificate for him (he was just a baby). So technically, he's not a citizen. He's been here for 86 years though, and collects social security, so I guess it's a moot point.

[Alex]

I'm here fully legally. On my fathers side my grandmother has a pretty complete geneology that goes back to the Maine area before the Revolutionary War and on my mother's side all her grandparents entered, legally, from Norway in the 1940s. I also have never hired an illegal cheaply.

Does this earn me the right to tell others how they can enter the country?

Though frankly I'm unclear on how it would be that if I did have an ancestor who entered the country illegally means I have given up the right to disapprove. I may have ancestors who owned slaves (though if they were all in Norway and Maine then probably not) and I reserve the right to disapprove of that.

Since there is so much space left in the country I am assuming you're advocating putting all the illegals in the Badlands of Wyoming where they can garden and bus tables for all the gringos who aren't there. There is a lot of empty space in this country but that is a fallacious point since the immigrants (legal or otherwise) don't go where the people aren't but mostly go to the most crowded areas of the country.

But again, if they can arrange things such that they can support themselves I don't care if they're allowed in, in whatever numbers that is. But we have, I feel, the obligation to know they're here. And if they come on work visas then boot them out when they're done.

I also think that being born on U.S. soil to non-U.S. citizens should not automatically grant citizenship.


As for nukular, considering half of the nuclear physicists I knew at UW (and I knew a lot of them) said nukular I can't really get too upset about it. However, another word that immediately makes me angry is "sammich" for "sandwich."

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I also think that being born on U.S. soil to non-U.S. citizens should not automatically grant citizenship.


As for nukular, considering half of the nuclear physicists I knew at UW (and I knew a lot of them) said nukular I can't really get too upset about it. However, another word that immediately makes me angry is "sammich" for "sandwich."

I believe the time has come to amend the constitution to put a halt to automatic citizenship based on being born here.

My pet peave word is "lookit". I hate it when my kids (or my wife, for that matter) tell me to "lookit". I also dislike when someone has to use the word "like" every third word of a sentence. "It was, like, when I went to, like, the mall and, like, got those, like, hot jeans!"

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs.

I am curious....would you think the same thing of Jesse Jackson when he says "ax" instead of "ask". To suggest something would make you a racist, you know.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but there are certain words that fall into regional dialect issues.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I am curious....would you think the same thing of Jesse Jackson when he says "ax" instead of "ask". To suggest something would make you a racist, you know.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but there are certain words that fall into regional dialect issues.

Yes, I meant it as more of a joke than it came across. Nukular is still inexcusable, though.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

Yes, I meant it as more of a joke than it came across. Nukular is still inexcusable, though.

OK....cool.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs.

That's pretty harsh when just one word automatically sinks a person. I regularly say "Febuary" out of habit and laziness. I must be dumb as a post.