tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5918648629836143648..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Part The Second - Too LongAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-73489730573305705052017-02-17T17:38:21.335-05:002017-02-17T17:38:21.335-05:00I don't have that knowledge, actually. You ma...I don't have that knowledge, actually. You may be right.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-81015799407289937262017-02-17T16:42:48.186-05:002017-02-17T16:42:48.186-05:00"For the purposes of this post, however, I lo..."For the purposes of this post, however, I looked even further down the line. Those dirt farmers did actually benefit, at least WRT black people, who couldn't even get into those miserable slots. As per the first part, African-Americans made gains during the decades we limited immigration."<br />Hah, are you sure, for example, that there were no AA sod busters? I don't know, I have never seen any stats; however,I have been challenged on this and informed that there were indeed some and that they gave up (Oklahoma land run). There are also claims that many cowboys were AA. Certainly there were AA farmers who owned their own land. Myth or reality, I have no idea? Full disclosure, I am, as some of you might know, into genealogy. I am influenced by Louis Henry Gates, who makes the case that this history is a lot more complicated than most realize because human beings are complicated. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288007567973279023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-80047414252702527732017-02-17T12:41:10.947-05:002017-02-17T12:41:10.947-05:00A few years back I was on a job in Ghana and one o...A few years back I was on a job in Ghana and one of our local guys (Ghanaian who had worked outside of Africa) commented on all the US Blacks who came to Accra to tour the old Slave port. He told us they should be grateful their ancestors were taken to the US as slaves. I don't think he intended it to say it quite that way, but his reasoning was that he though a lot of US blacks failed to take full advantage of the rule of law in the US and the economic opportunities. He and other expats also took every opportunity to lecture their countrymen for failing to see the path to success that a system like that in the USA afforded.<br /><br />This is in part to the immigrant bias (if you are motivated to emigrate you are much more likely to be motivated to work hard etc.). Refugees are almost randomly selected from huge groups of people by the aid agencies and have become accustomed to following directions and living on the dole. It is perhaps too much to expect an enthusiastic entry into their new country. Perhaps we are best served by keeping high barriers to entry but to not worry too much about how people get in the country. High motivation is the key.dmoellinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13128088863830769762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-49938676401898877522017-02-17T07:30:00.552-05:002017-02-17T07:30:00.552-05:00For the purposes of this post, however, I looked e...For the purposes of this post, however, I looked even further down the line. Those dirt farmers did actually benefit, at least WRT black people, who couldn't even get into those miserable slots. As per the first part, African-Americans made gains during the decades we limited immigration.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-53889134622788765592017-02-17T06:42:38.033-05:002017-02-17T06:42:38.033-05:00And, the scapegoating is with calculated malice.And, the scapegoating is with calculated malice.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288007567973279023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-16107245578054296682017-02-17T06:37:18.904-05:002017-02-17T06:37:18.904-05:00I don't know how that "k" got in the...I don't know how that "k" got in there; thought I deleted it. <br />I'd like to embellish my thought a bit because I remembered the bailouts. <br /><br />Worst case, the "elites" benefit, but are insulated from the pain, pass on the losses to taxpayers, and deflect the blame onto or scapegoat bystanders, posturing and scolding all the while. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288007567973279023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-42904371835189626902017-02-17T05:16:35.936-05:002017-02-17T05:16:35.936-05:00"White people descended from recent immigrant..."White people descended from recent immigrants like to point out that they weren't slaveholders, and their great-great-grandpas were dirt farmers in those days who never took a cent that wasn't theirs. This is true. Nor did they "benefit" from the value produced and economic growth of slaveholding, except very indirectly, in which subsequent African-Americans benefitted as well."<br />I think the gist of this idea can be extrapolated more widely, whether it is slavery, drug trafficking, immigration, globalization........As is per usual, the "elites" benefit, but are insulated from the pain, and deflect the blame onto bystanders. I don't think this can be overstated. Isn't this a big part of why we have Trump? Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288007567973279023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26933309737217908642017-02-16T12:31:59.602-05:002017-02-16T12:31:59.602-05:00There are CHILDREN here. (Yes, 13% of the total. ...<i>There are CHILDREN here. (Yes, 13% of the total. There are children.)</i><br /><br />The unmentioned aspect of this discussion is that <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2012-05-01/europe-s-angry-muslims-revolt-second-generation-emancipation" rel="nofollow">children of Muslim immigrants have radicalized</a> at twice the rate of their parents. So, no, they aren't terrorists now: but, if trends hold, it's twice as likely that the children will become so than that the adult refugees will.<br /><br />So far I don't think anyone really understands why that is true, but it means that the appeal to childhood is emotional rather than rational. Emotionally, it's upsetting that children are suffering. Rationally, though, "there are CHILDREN here" should be a warning to be <i>more</i> cautious. The math suggests that they're among the most dangerous classes to admit.Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-47535227207870110762017-02-15T23:00:44.803-05:002017-02-15T23:00:44.803-05:00I have not thrashed out a thorough analysis, but i...I have not thrashed out a thorough analysis, but it has long seemed to me that the State is a machine designed to protect and provide a framework for its people to work together, while the Church is a living body. Some things we need to arrange for in this fallen world include fighting wars, stopping predators, and being hard-nosed about limitations. Jesus never promised that the machinery of state would be able to multiply loaves and fishes. (Quite a bit of political rhetoric boils down to claiming that it can.)<br /><br />Showing mercy seems more personal--something individuals and the body of Christ can do.<br /><br />So maybe a division of labor is called for: Caesar gets to bear the sword and enforce the rules of the machinery, defining the inside and the outside.(*) The Church gets to show mercy to those we find, and object that Caesar doesn't represent the final word, and that limitations are sometimes supernaturally overcome.<br /><br /><br />(*) One never-mentioned corollary of a borderless world is that the writ of our government is unbounded.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com