Who makes 'the best' Americans?

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:10 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 5, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Who makes 'the best' Americans?

America's foreign-born population swelled to more than 28.3 million last year -- up 43 percent since 1990 -- with the majority now arriving from Latin America and Asia, the Census Bureau estimates.

The percentage of residents in fast-growing Nevada who were born in foreign countries (now 15.2 percent) trails only the major "gateway" states of Hawaii, Florida, New York, and California ... with the Golden State now claiming a stout 25.9 percent foreign-born.

A parallel report by the Center for Immigration Studies this week warns: "Immigration accounts for virtually all of the national increase in public school enrollment over the last two decades."

One-third of recent immigrants lack a high school diploma -- more than three times the rate for natives, the CIS reports. More than half of post-1970 immigrants and their young children live in or near poverty, compared to 28 percent of natives and their young children. And one-third of immigrants do not have health insurance -- two-and-a-half times the rate for natives.

"Because current policy allows in so many people who lack a formal education, immigration has resulted in an enormous growth in the poor and uninsured populations. ... We need to ask whether we want to grow our population this way," Steven Camarota, the center's director of research, warned The Associated Press Tuesday. "I think we don't, so I think we need to do a whole lot more to control illegal immigration. We need to have a policy that selects immigrants on skills and ability to compete rather than a policy that puts all or most of its emphasis on family relationships."

Indeed, immigration can pose risks, particularly if efforts are not made to allow and encourage new arrivals to quickly integrate -- few would want to see America as segmented between rival ethnic or linguistic factions as Quebec or Rwanda. That's why even Hispanic immigrants soundly reject "bilingual education" in the public schools, whenever and wherever that turns out to mean cocooning immigrant children in long-term linguistic isolation.

And immigrants who promptly go on the government dole are of course exasperating (the obvious and correct solution being to promptly eliminate the government dole in all its forms.)

But why on earth should we believe a central government that's handed away billions to Russian kleptocrats and squandered fortunes on the flightless X33 "space plane" and especially on Space Porky, The Doomed International Space Station, will suddenly smarten up when it comes time to guesstimate which immigrant skills or traits will prove most valuable a generation from now?

The grandparents of most of today's Americans lived "in or near poverty" by the standards of their day ... and certainly by today's. Few arrived here with advanced educations (though in fact, 11 percent of today's immigrants bring along a graduate or professional degree, compared to only 9 percent of natives.)

Mr. Camarota's proposal that some committee of bureaucrats be allowed to "cherry-pick" which applicants would make "the best Americans" bears a slight burden of hubris. The main requirements to become a "good American" have always been the willingness to work hard, raise law-abiding children determined to make their own way in the world, and embrace the ideals of a republic which guarantees the rights of liberty and property to all men and women against the whim of any "democratic" majority, no matter how noisy.

America's ethnic diversity has served her well, and the grandchildren of those poor, uneducated immigrants of a century ago are now among our most effective leaders.

Yes, the nation has a right to control its borders, and it's a shame to see law-abiding would-be immigrants waiting patiently for years on other continents, while scofflaws take their place.

But, that said, the process for "selecting" our legal immigrants should have much less to do with their skin color or accent, and much more to do with determining whether they can show they really understand and want to embrace our republic, along with the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that gave her birth.

If only a fair number of the native born could be obliged to pass a similar test.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and editor of Financial Privacy Report (952-895-8757.) His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair