nathaniel

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Posts posted by nathaniel


  1. Quote


    USPA is not a federal agency and BSRs are not federal regulations.



    Of course the USPA is a federal agency. It is not tightly affiliated with the United States government, however the USPA's structure is as federal as they come. Federal as in centralized; governing with authority over participating member institutions. BSRs are legislation by their nature. Compare with the NASD. Secondary meaning and all, but I think it's a perfectly cromulent description.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  2. Quote


    what about the "the club where people wee on each other"-section!?



    Speaker's Corner

    Quote


    Scuba comes up in threads ALL the time.



    Scuba board

    and dozens of others. Seems like there's tons of scuba people on the internets.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  3. OK I have a tweak on this original proposal

    Since just about all the evidence there is shows that immigrants at or above high school educational attainment are net contributers contributors to our economy, this should take care of the net welfare drain effect that so many people are afraid of.

    * require all adult work visa and naturalization applicants to complete a GED or comparable exam (for a marginal fee), or carry a diploma from an accredited high school
    * give visas & naturalizations out freely to applicants who can pass the exam
    * put high schools at major border crossings
    * allow future immigrants to enroll at the border crossing high schools at face value / 100% of the cost averaged per pupil
    * build tent communities around the border crossings to accommodate illegals already in the country, so they can take the exams and / or obtain schooling without fear of harassment from various LEO types. Just basic amenities like food, water, shelter, and study space.
    * allow & encourage the retail banking industry to provide loans to encamped illegals who can't afford to complete their GEDs on their own

    Basically let the private sector take care of the costs of bringing immigrants up to self-sufficiency, and providing a legal framework where it can happen. Make the loans stick through bankruptcy, like our current college loan system, and leave it up to the private sector to collect.

    The initial penalty on the labor sector shouldn't be too bad, because something like 50% of illegals already have a high-school level education. These guys would just have to go to the border for a few days to take a GED test or show their diplomas.

    And since nearly all US high school curricula involve major doses of the English language and American history, it takes care of the kultur kampf based resistance that so many of us "purebreds" seem to have.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  4. Quote


    Goes great w/ my Glock 17



    Wouldn't it start to dissolve the lubricants, and leave behind a residue? That can't be good for the mechanism.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  5. Quote


    Enormous? So enormous that we can't even afford minimum wage and thus require illegal labour? Doesn't sound like enormous dema



    Econ 101. Demand exists only at a price. Change the price and you are not looking at the same quantity any more. See price elasticity of demand.

    ***
    Again I think we are looking at starkly different studies. In Canada (which I suspect is rather similar to America economically speaking)
    [/qute]

    Troll. Good night.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  6. Quote


    One category have applied through the legal channels and met the criteria to immigrate by demonstrating they have the skillsets to complement the US job market with a positive net effect. The other for some reason or another have elected to skip applying through the appropriate channels, which begs the question about their suitability for immigration in the first place.



    The difference between the two amounts to a lottery because there is artificial restriction on who may enter. It is a rational choice for illegal immigrants to pursue life and employment here, even though they face additional risks, due to the economic advantages to both them and us.

    Quote


    You are refering to an era that had no economic similarity to now.



    It was substantially different then because it experienced enormous growth due to an influx of working citizens.

    The differences you cite are artificial, you along with the protectionists, and those fearful of competition assume that the workforce is immutable, which is utterly false.

    Quote


    We also did not have a large social service/welfare system at the time so those who did come would have a plan to make it on their own without using up resources, or find their way back home if things did not pan out here. This is not the case today.



    And on balance they give back more than they take, except for a short transitioning window, assuming they are granted citizenship. When they are not granted citizenship, the costs are slight. Not to mention that the reason we provide public services like healthcare is that they provide a social benefit. It is meaningless to only consider the costs in a vacuum.

    Quote


    Today we need human intellectual capital, not old labour skills.



    The enormous markets for day laborers, farm hands, etc defy you. Have you not turned on a television for the past 5 years? Most of our job growth is projected to be in unskilled fields (iirc per the Department of Labor). Things like home care as our population ages.

    Quote


    Do you just say this stuff because it sounds inflamatory? How on earth can seeking to ensure that immigration policies are adhered to make one anti-immigrant?



    The policies themselves are anti-immigrant, that's how. They are artifacts of an isolationist and racist era from our past, and they do neither our present nor our future citizens any justice.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  7. Quote


    By detailing the contributions of legal immigrants they can justify illegal immigrants by attributing the gains from legal immigrants to illegals.



    The distinction between legal and illegal immigrants is arbitrary. For that reason it is not particularly relevant to the discussion. This is demonstrated by the majority of American history, during which there was scant distinction between legal and illegal immigrants as we purport exists today. Hardly anyone was turned away-- mainly people carrying overt communicable diseases, and people with extensive criminal backgrounds.

    In fact, it is broadly anti-immigrant to harp on the distinction between so-called illegal and legal immigrants, because it betrays ignorance for the causes and demographics of immigration.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  8. Quote


    If you live in Seattle or Maine, it looks like you got a long trip.



    just one question...when do we invade Canada?
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  9. Quote


    Check-out other nations laws on immigration!



    Now that's a good one! What do other nations' internal policies have to do with ours? Shall we let them govern us?

    Bucking the trend and opening the door to immigrants is what turned us from a backwater of criminals and religious sects and into a world power. It is precisely because other nations get worked up on nationalist perversions and shut their doors that it's such a powerful and attractive opportunity for us to take their migrants. They're literally sending us their best, brightest, and most entrepreneurial. All we need to do is let them in to benefit ourselves.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  10. Quote


    "What are you (the U.S.) gonna do about it? Give us amnesty... we win!"



    The trick is that by giving up our current policies, we win too. Beyond amnesty, we owe foremost ourselves an apology for perpetuating this broken system. And to all the legal and illegal immigrants and people we've screwed with queues and bureaucracy, we should say "we're sorry, we screwed up big time. it's not much consolation but fwiw we took it just as hard as you did".

    Vindictiveness doesn't solve anything.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  11. Quote


    That's just my ever-so-humble opinion, though.



    Seems like you're more against unmanaged growth than immigration.

    Unmanaged growth is what we get when we don't manage immigration properly, it's what happens when we pretend that we don't need immigrants and refuse them the necessary paperwork and facilities to integrate with society.

    Immigrants are drawn from countries where the crime rate isn't astronomically out of control compared to the US--and it's not like the US is a paragon of safety and civil society for that matter. It takes money, time and commitment to immigrate. In short it takes entrepreneurialism, so that it's not an opportunity to the poorest and the disorganized, ie the criminal element in most places.

    Historically and today, people tend to immigrate because they can earn more money working here than at home...because the capital and the resources that allow them to be productive are here, and the capital and resources need laborers to be productive at all.

    Illegal immigration happens only because there is a conjunction between supply and demand, and our senselessly rigid immigration system has been throwing sand in the gears of the economy for decades.

    People dig up all kinds of tripe about overpopulation, jobs, wages, smells, crime, culture, language, family values, terrorism etc and pretty much all of it has zero relationship to immigration when studied. The studies are done and results are in already. This country is made of and was made by immigrants.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  12. Quote


    Have you lived in the same area as larger groups of illegal immigrants?



    Certain dropzones come to mind. But during the weekdays too, yes, I grew up in a largely hispanic neighborhood, and illegal sweatshops down the street, etc.

    There was crime, but it was better than many of the other neighborhoods in the city. What's striking to me now is that until recently our cities were waxing about having extra eyes on the street to encourage sense of community and safety, now we want immigrants to stop bringing their families over. My street was kept safe by hispanic and italian old ladies sitting on their porches and in their yards, at least some of whom must have been illegal.

    They're not hardened criminals, they're old ladies.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  13. Quote


    well....in terms of illegal immigrants, every single one of them has committed a crime by coming into our country illegally.



    Indeed. And that's the sum-total of criminality for the overwhelming majority of them. So we fix the problem by adjusting the label to read legal instead of illegal.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  14. Quote


    We keep letting folks pour into this country by the tens of thousands... do the math!



    Yeah, we used to let them in by the hundreds of thousands and millions, and all it did was make us a superpower. Then we tightened things up and all of a sudden we're facing the EU and China looming over our shoulder in a few years' time.

    If half a billion of those Chinese could have immigrated to the US, our economy wouldn't be running out of gas steam*, and we could probably afford at least another iraq or two.

    Overcrowding is another strawman, we've got plenty of room and the greatest capital resources in the world already. All we're doing with immigration restrictions is encouraging capital flight. Capital is harder to move than people--people will move if you let them. Once it's gone, it's gone. Factories tend to stay put, and rust.

    * sorry, bad choice of metaphor
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  15. Quote


    Are you referring to 'legal' immigrants or are you referring to 'illegal' immigrants?



    I'm referring to immigrants. For most of our history there was no class distinction between sanctioned and unsanctioned immigrants, they were all unsanctioned. Those laws are superior to our current set--they are substantially responsible for our emergence as a world power--and we should revert to a similar configuration.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  16. Quote


    you'd think, we would realize, just 'anybody' can cross our borders



    You'd think we'd realize that immigrants commit less crime on average than native-born Americans, and that terrorism has nothing to do with immigration reform.

    It's so far over the top that it's hard to fathom--immigrants make better citizens than the native-born. And yet we persist with deliberate self delusions based on pride and ignorance.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  17. Quote


    American's are not eliminating other people's jobs it's the other way around.



    Without a contract that says so, no job is "had" to anyone else's exclusion.

    It is entirely moot in the discussion of immigration, of course, as you're falling victim to the myth of finite workforce. Immigrants create jobs as well as fill them.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  18. Quote


    why not make a sequel to Scarface



    I'd watch a sequel to Carlito's way, if they don't screw it up like Rise to DVD Power.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  19. Quote



    Why reward invasion, and lawbreaking?



    Because the "invasion" and "lawbreaking" in question are pretty much beneficial to us in every way imaginable, with ample studies and most of our nation's history backing it up.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  20. I bought an old IBM type m bucking spring keyboard specifically for the extra clackety keys. I love it.

    Plus it's nearly indestructible and it weighs like 10 pounds.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  21. I've been using Debian for years, for work and for pleasure. It's an administrator's paradise, every question I've ever come across has had a solution already posted somewhere on the web if not directly in the documentation.

    Although it is a little rough around the edges--I had the luxury of ramping up one of my colleagues on the Debian Way this year, and it took about a month of q&a before he became self-sufficient, tho he's a slacker and doesn't like to look things up himself. Ubuntu is based off of Debian, I'm sure you know, and does seem to polish up many of the rough spots.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

  22. Quote


    No, God did it!



    Let em starve then, lest we incur God's wrath ourselves. Who do you think you are, trying to play god.
    My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?