Why my ancestors immigrated to America

From this article in The American Conservative by Jon Basil Utley.

"Kings always loved war and wars were a major reason European immigrants fled to America in past centuries. I often recall how my friend, Richard Viguerie, once told me that French immigrants first came to America primarily to save their sons from being drafted and killed by the French kings in perpetual wars." [my emphasis]

Although in my family's case it was the nobles of Russia, Prussia, and Poland who were the warmongers in continual need of cannon fodder rather than France.

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US Rep. John Conyers draws a serious primary opponent for the first time in decades (Susan J. Demas, MLive)
I don't know if Michigan State Senator Bert Johnson of Highland Park can pull off the upset but it sure would be nice to be rid of that tired, lazy, arrogant, out-of-touch old fart.

400,000 deported from US last year (Politico)
A good start but when you have 12,000,000 or so illegals ICE still has its work cut out for them. By my calculations that's about three percent of them.

"The dogs don't like it" (VDare)
"There's an old joke about a large multinational dog food company that comes out with a new dog food, approved by nutritionists, the sales and marketing staff, the CEO and the board, but which totally fails to sell. The simple explanation, from a lowly employee: 'The dogs don't like it!' "

The anecdote above is speaking of immigration reform here but the concept (as in "the dogs don't like it") sure fits the description of American politics right now. Say "woof!" if you agree.

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So long Suckers!

Ex-governor Granholm moves back to California - To teach at UC Berkeley. She'll share her knowledge and wisdom about how to run a state government. If you Google her bio California is her home state, not Michigan. She only moved to here in 1990.

From the Land of the Magna Carta: Filming Muslim proselytizers in Jolly Old England earns you  a loud, angry death threat delivered in broad daylight on a public street in front of a policeman to no consequence. Religious zealots fear nothing apparently. Christians did the same thing in a Muslim neighborhood in Dearborn recently. The police arrested them though.

No one will sell sodium thiopental to American states for use in executions: Hmm...sounds like a "business opportunity" for someone out there.

Just a few weeks' worth of light meditation can change the structure of your brain: Exercises for your brain.

The Mexican revolution of 1910-1920: Nothing at all like the one that's going on there now, unfortunately.

Kalamazoo is a "pinnacle of educational achievement in Michigan" says NG blogger: Well yes, but as the blog post mentions, having a group of "anonymous millionaires" foot the bill for the post-secondary education of all Kazoo high-school grads sure does help though, doesn't it? Still it's good news of sorts.

The class-warfare aspect of the immigration debate: "Opponents could be dismissed instead of debated with. After all, who are you going to believe in a political debate, a truck-driver or a professor?" And who is going to be hurt more by the immigration of a vast underclass of low or unskilled workers? Professors, media stars, big-shot lawyers, and transnational corporations or factory workers, carpenters or secretaries? [emphasis added]

Would we be safer if people were required to report odd behavior or signs of mental illness to the state?
"In short, [William] Galston wants a system that compels Americans to keep a close eye on their odd relatives, friends, neighbors, students, and employees, reporting them to the authorities when their strange ideas escalate into 'a delusional loss of contact with reality.' That distinction may prove hard to draw."

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The T-shirt says it all

The Bottom line on demographics from Jim Goad - Taki Mag
"Forbidding 'foreigners' from pitching tents on your soil and tapping your women’s asses is part of that ancient and eternal battle over life’s essentials: shelter and pussy. The biblical prophet Ezra realized this, which is why he nixed intermarriage in Israel after he returned from Babylon. He even busted up already existing mixed marriages. It’s sort of de rigueur if you want your tribe to survive. Ironically, strict and unyielding segregation may be the only way to make multiculturalism work."

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Some behavioral guidelines for new German immigrants - TM
Advice from a lawyer about dealing with cops: STFU! - CP
Mountain bikes are better than cars - Possum Living blog (via STR)

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Good-bye America!
Canadian immigrant leaves Seattle for Calgary after 25 years. Is life better in Canada? Maybe, but the health care benefits surely are.

Mark Ames & Sasha Levine "apologize" for their recent slime fest of misinformation in the The Nation earlier.
Sort of.

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Glen Greenwald's hit-piece on a hit-piece in The Nation.
It has bothered me for a while that American progressives and their fellow travellers in Left-wing  America have completely abandoned the championing of liberty, privacy and autonomy. Unless of course it is for the sexually deviant or regarding abortion rights. On every other issue the progs want more government, less privacy, oppose self-determination and genuine little "d" participatory democracy.
 The Nation seems to think that that because I don't want TSA guards squeezing my or my family's gonads that I'm part of some vast Right-wing conspiracy funded by the Koch brothers. Mark Ames and Sasha Levine should've stayed in Russia. You'd think being censored and then booted from Russia for being critical of Putin and his ilk would have taught then a little more respect for civil liberties, the rule of law and some appreciation for personal liberty. Sadly, it seems that it didn't.

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Toronto election illustrates the problems of a megalopolis concocted by elites.
"Clearly this result shows that the concerns expressed by the opponents of amalgamation were largely valid. Amalgamation failed to create cost savings, and has created a dysfunctional megacity. Rather than having six municipalities where voters are focusing on solving local problems, we have one gigantic city with the core and the suburbs fighting for their share of the public purse. This leads to the schizophrenic policy decisions we see today." 

An analysis of the "pass-over syndrome" gripping self-hating white elites
"If a large-scale Day of Racial Reckoning ever comes, Passover Syndrome sufferers will find that when it comes to hating whites, nonwhites truly don’t discriminate. Rather than the sweet scent of compassion, those with the disorder emit the rancid smell of fear. If a real race war were ever to pop off in America, they’d be the first to perish.
The only mystery is which side would kill them first."

Somali-born naturalized American citizen arrested in car bomb plot in Portland.

Serbian-born California man arrested for running an explosives factory in his suburban LA home.

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Coyotes have come back to Michigan. Even downtown Ann Arbor has reported sightings. You just can't keep a good predator down, eh? Or not for long anyhow.

Michigan's next governor: Rick Snyder (R) doesn't want to debate Virg Bernero (D), period. Snyder is up in the polls with six weeks to go and probably figures "who needs it?" Bernero rightly and quite predictably goes ape shit nuts about it too. Sheesh.


FBI probe is sought by pissed and offended Muslims in East Lansing who found a trashed and burned Koran on the doorstep of their mosque. Say it might be a "hate crime".

Mexican gunmen are now regularly shooting at Border Patrol agents from the Mexican side of the border. Another warning of the coming race war? Stay tuned.

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42 Mich. oil spill workers arrested over immigration concerns - Detroit Free Press
And freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer is making an issue of this too. We have plenty of people who'd do that work right here already. While I doubt that Schauer's complaints will have much of impact before the election I have to wonder if he'd be bitching about it this loud were it not an election year? Somehow I doubt it. Schauer and the rest of the Dems usually see illegals as "undocumented Democrats" who need government help rather than Michigan job stealers. Except in election years of course.

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"How Immigration Boosts Your Pay" - iSteve Blog

In a pig's eye. "Open Border" schemes are what have crushed all the working class' attempts at wage gains for the past three decades.

Sign of the times...

Recalling South L.A. as it used to be - LA Times

Nostalgia for the way SoCal used to be when it was dominated by white European immigrants and Okie migrants.

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Public employee unions starting to lose "public support" - SF Chronicle (Peter Scheer)
When did the gold-plated bureaucracy ever have it?
For Michigan "progressives" it's come to this: Bernero versus Dillion for governor - MLive
Sheesh. A populist rabble-rouser whose main talent is giving fiery speeches and debate performances but who has accomplished little versus a corporation friendly state capitalist who talks a good game but also has accomplished little.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal the Army's Afghanistan theatre commander disses Obama - Wired News
Italian archeologists think they have found Caravaggio's bones - Seattle Times (via American Scientist)
"The purpose of immigration is make our country better, not help the immigrants out" -iSteve blog
A straight up explanation of Canada's immigration policy. More Chinese and Indians and fewer Latinos and Caribbeans is what it amounts to.
How Bonnaroo went from Harmless Hippie Fest to Corporate Scam - Taki's Magazine
"When I saw Rage Against the Machine play at Lollapalooza back in 1996, their backdrop was an inverted American flag tagged with “666.” It was an ominous warning that a predatory hegemony loomed on the horizon. A decade later, bands played Lollapalooza on the “Bud Light Stage,” the “MySpace Stage,” and the “PlayStation Stage.” Of course, Rage Against the Machine played the “AT&T Stage” in 2008. Is that why they call it a revolutionary act?"
L.A. Medical-Marijuana Outlets Defy City - LA Weekly
Heroic resistence to L.A.'s oppressive drug laws or reluctance to give up a lucrative gig? Hmm...

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Original 1938 Superman comic book sold for $1 million USD - BBC
Some people just have too much time on their hands and money in their bank account.






Keeping your DNA private in today's era of personal genomics. - Ars Technica
What's in your code sequence? Who else knows or has access to that info? Hmm....
Remnants of Nazi nuke program discovered in Dutch landfill -The Register
For a lustrous and healthy head of hair stop using shampoo. - Boston Phoenix
Been hearing this a lot lately. Some say ditch the soap too.
The MZB Threat: Are you prepared? - Life After The Oil Crash Forum
Mutants, zombies and bikers. The latest survivalist worry. These guys never lack for things to worry about do they? But they do have a point here though. About criminal gangs and mob violence that is.
"The dynamic of the petulant and angry underclass rearing a rather violent head once the social controls are gone is precisely what happened in places like Yugoslavia and Russia."- Survival Blog
A new app makes it possible to identify people and learn about them just by pointing your phone. - Technology Review
Not So Jolly Old England - Taki's Magazine
"But the Brits are also a bit like Taki, stupid and easy to sway. Both the Iraq war and the ten years of unrestricted immigration were foisted on them by deceit, yet the architects of these great lies, the Blairs and Browns and Straws are still prancing around using official limos and getting on the telly to tell us how great their plans are for our future. How idiotic can a race get? These people would have been hanged and quartered in a more civilized time, but now they are still running for office. This is what Orwell’s Big Lie was all about."
The Arrogance of the Chinese ruling elite - Der Spiegel
"The West hopes that China's growing prosperity will also lead to political liberalization. But the reverse is likely to be true."
Ex-IMF economist predicts several sovereign states will default on their debt. - Bloomberg
Wow.