Illegal immigration

I was thinking about Illegal immigration for a while. I find it interesting, the Solow growth model, indeed every growth model, states that "more people is better." So from a purely economic standpoint I'd argue that more people will help out. Now I know the first critique to come at this will be the "welfare argument" they come here for health care and welfare from the state.... Well you're kind of right, but I submit to you that argument does not hold up entirely.

Part of what makes illegal immigration so economically effective is the (Note: this is especially true before 1986 and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) illegal nature of it. By virtue of which these people may get a social security card to work, but only a precious few of them will actually be able to claim their SS and Medicare benefits. So you see it is precisely due to the illegal nature of this that we benefit the most. The immigrants that come across have to work, which benefits us because we have a great many sectors where we do not have large labor pools willing to work for cheap.

And then there is the higher education component, so popular here in Oregon right now. More skilled labor.... yeah ..... that's a problem. I've heard the "they're criminals here illegally" argument so much and read it in the Op-Ed section so many times my ears and eyes bleed. My question is simple "Do you consider the Louisiana Purchase in accordance with the laws at the time?" Hell even now? Hell no it wasn't a legal move, but it was damn sure a smart one. So why are we trying to ostracize talent? Because they broke a law? Well hell I shatter the speed limit laws, I broke under-age drinking laws, I even like to fight, I am therefore a criminal. I did most of this by choice, most immigrants are victims of circumstance as far as their illegality goes.

Now as for using your tax dollars to do this the Q&A is really simple: do you gain more than you lose? One would be hard pressed to successfully demonstrate that higher education subsidies do not replace the loss of revenue.

Abortion does affect crime rates

Levitt's Abortion paper I am known to hate unicorns. If I found one I'd consider sawing off the horn should it not produce any magical results. I believe that people will sell out their principles faster than Charlie Sheen makes cocaine disappear, if the price (sex, drugs, whatever you value) is right. Its simply cost-benefit analysis of crime.

Corporate relationships

Should the President of the United States be close to US corporations? Perhaps that question is too loaded. How far should the President of the United States be pushing American business?

The CEO of 3M, George Buckley, is accusing Pres. Obama of being anti-business. One quick note, 3M's arch competitor is GE and the CEO of GE is on Pres. Obama's business board.

Anti-business or impartial leadership ?

Fat, the new battle of the bulge

Bitching about being judged

Measuring BMI accurately is purely a matter of a dunk tank. Hook a person up to a respirator, submerge them (partially) in a basket with some sensors. And you get the readout for an individuals Body composition or Body Mass Index.

The issue I have with the right on this is plain and simple. They don't seem to like people judging food quality. And consistently whine about any attempt to steer diet in any direction. Which would be fine, if we as Americans didn't seem to find a way to eat ourselves into a grave. The simple truth is this: we're fat. Why? Because we don't do enough and we fail to control our diet. And diet is where our biggest issues lie. We eat horribly. Go check a grocery store, and look at the top sellers. I promise you, meat is the least of the problem.

Truth is people are pounding down pre-made deserts, high sodium canned foods, snacks, crap cereal, etc. And even with all of that, we wouldn't be as bad off as we are without the massive quantity of these items that are ingested.

Simplified, its not about eating a s'more, it's about eating a dozen s'mores. And people complain. Well you should complain. It is your health, and it is what goes into your body. But simply put: when you are making poor choices I don't much care about your complaints. Because from my experience the best way to rid people of poor decision making is a swift kick in the ass. And yeah they're gonna whine, but it gets the job done.

And we can fight all day and night about the proper role of government, but obesity is more that everyone looks into a mirror and goes... yeah this ain't pretty and it is certainly not right.

Wisconsin's governors head is really made of cheese

This is why I know Republicans are doomed to fail. This is just amazingly stupid, amazing.
Walker crank called...and bought it.

Disgusting

William Kristol is the greatest tick on the planet Earth. His passionate interest in the Middle East leads him into unfavorable positions. The tick fails to understand is that Israel will suffer a lot from this, and other Middle Eastern developments. The tick has latched on to 4 here-to-for unannounced ideas about the Middle East. For your edification.

• The key to any progress anywhere was near-term progress on Israel-Palestine.
• Near-term progress on Israel-Palestine was possible because the chief impediment was Israeli intransigence which was itself due to a failure of the Bush Administration to lean on Israel.
• Since Obama was willing to administer much tougher love to Israel and since Israel's concerns could be shown to be exaggerated, the Israeli "impediment" could be quickly lifted and progress quickly achieved.
• Bush's preoccupation with democracy was naïve and thoroughly discredited by Iraq and so nothing was likely to happen on that front in the region, perhaps for a generation but for sure until Obama had made progress on the Israel-Palestine issue.citation

Here's a dirty little secret for you. Mubarak is out. After that, who the hell is in the Government? Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the ElBaradei secular leaning crew. We shall see how that bodes for the United States and Israel. Hell Bill, your own writers are seriously comparing this to the 79 Iranian revolution. And you don't even listen! The Middle East has been due for a shakeup for over 200 years.

What makes this kind of panting that Kristol does whenever he discusses the Middle East so disgusting, is that people are dying, and he's just happy that his idea is advancing. And that is some impressive cognitive dissonance in itself. "Iraq was just the beginning, soon the entire Arab world will love us and Israel" What I find funny? A Democratic Middle East will be less inclined towards dealing with Israel constructively. You poll Middle Eastern Arabs on what they want done with Israel, I bet that "Israeli extinction" comes out on top.

Veritas and Balderdash

This is pretty damn special : Republican solutions committee . I'm gonna go ahead and call NO BALLS right now. Attempting to treat this as a serious proposal to trim spending is an insult to Republicans and Libertarians I consider friends. They're not pussies, which clearly the RSC must be comprised of. 2.5 trillion over 10 years is only 250 Billion in savings per year, with a budget that baselines somewhere along the 2.5-3.2 trillion dollars right now. And I did take it back to 2008 2006 type numbers before stimulus.