Weighing in on the Immigration debate

I often hesitate to comment here on national political issues. I am a total lightweight compared to other bloggers first of all, since I frankly don’t always follow the news because I find it too depressing along with all the other depressing things I have to follow. When the issue of the port management deal with the Arab firm came up, for example, it seemed like such a simple ‘NO’ that I couldn’t imagine anyone saying ‘yes’ to it, but the more I learned (particularly that such contracts are given to foreign companies all the time – hell, if the Chinese have one, why not the Arabs?) the more I realized that it wasn’t quite that simple. I’m not sure I’d be in favor of it now either, but I sure do know that what information I have about the deal isn’t enough to make a decision on. What I know about economics isn’t much! So what do I know about immigration?

What I see in the immigration debate is a big gap in information – a ‘we’re talking apples while you’re talking oranges’ confusion in the whole thing. There is lots of information about how many people are here illegally, for example, but then that same number gets confused with how many people are here illegally and actually working. I see it reported as the same number. And I’m just guessing here, by how many little Mexican kids are in schools and how many Mexican grannies are in grocery stores, that those two numbers are vastly different. Then there is big discussion about the fiscal benefit – taxes they are paying, jobs that would supposedly go unfilled if they weren’t here, the savings in consumer goods realized from low farm and construction labor costs etc. But the costs to schools, hospitals, health care and welfare budgets aren’t discussed in those same reports – and those costs are huge. The costs to individual Americans in higher health insurance, higher automobile insurance, higher taxes to pay for incredibly higher welfare costs, aren’t used in the figures either. Every time another hospital closes down its Emergency Room because it can’t recover its costs, Americans get hurt. Americans whose ‘identity’ has been stolen in terms of credit card numbers, Social Security numbers etc. aren’t listed in the cost analysis. Doesn’t it look like individual businesses gain but ‘individuals’ – all the rest of us – lose? That’s how it looks to me, but what do I know? You can’t get to the bottom line without a benefit/cost analysis. Where can I find a fair one?

(Note: I wrote this posting yesterday and this morning MSN's headline article was about the identity theft problem.)

And then why is Vincente Fox so set on having Mexicans becoming Americans in the first place? Why do we as a nation really care about his position on this debate at all? When was the last time he supported an American position on something? (Possibly the last time I supported an American position on something – but again, I don’t really know.) I’d be interested in knowing how much trade with Mexico benefits the US – or any other piece of information that would help me understand why our conversation with Mexico should be anything other than “We’re building a fence.” But I don’t find that information in the news. Maybe there is good reason here, but what is it?

The rationale about immigrants being the backbone of our economy and becoming strong contributing members of our society is years out of date. What information do we have now to support that assumption? When we have millions of people coming in who are not learning our language, not getting an education, not assimilating into our culture, are they still filling the role that immigrants of past centuries filled? Are we studying this?

On what basis would we think that giving driver’s licenses to people would suddenly mean that they’d all purchase expensive-but-required auto insurance when they'd been driving already without it? They haven’t met any of our other requirements, have they? Why would they suddenly meet this one? I don’t get it, and have never seen a legitimate argument to support this, but it is in the news all the time.

We are told we have a moral obligation to these people who have immorally crossed our borders. But no one is carrying on about the moral obligation to legitimate Americans who are struggling under enormous tax burdens and making it on their own nevertheless.

This is a complex, hot-button debate. We deserve a credible, balanced analysis of the issues. And at this point it shouldn’t take too much digging to find it. Where is the undeniable evidence that we should deal with this issue some other way than through a strong, fair and enforced immigration policy that favors individuals not groups or groups-coming-from-certain-nations-but-not-others? Am I missing something?

And yes, I am very obviously biased in my opinion already. But so are all the 'news' reports.

Frik, again

Frik is having trouble with his asthma. He was coughing under the bed last night and woke us up, but we couldn’t reach him to pull him out so we had to let it go. But he was coughing again this morning and we managed to nab him before he hid, out of reach, again. Mark poked a pill down his throat and he gagged and spit it up and Mark poked again, Frik gagged again… but this time it went down. Good grief.

And he immediately ran under the bed again.

I kept telling him that the worst that could happen had already happened. There was no point in hiding anymore. Maddie batted a toy under there at him. No response. We even dangled the string by him. He was pouting. Completely lost his enthusiasm for the day. (But breathing better.)

When the day starts like that, how do you approach the rest of it?

Maybe I should just hide under the bed with Frik.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Mark’s employer is hiring new engineers at such a pace that they all have to share offices – there aren’t enough to go around just now. This is a bad thing for engineer types. He has a friend, Nate, whose strategy for getting his own office is bean burritos. Nate shares with Dawei, who is fighting back with some kind of Chinese cabbage soup... This just isn’t the sort of ‘office intrigue’ that I experienced in my own career.

We are living very near a wetland area and the frogs have come out for the season. We heard them making quite a collective racket the other night. But last night, as we walked by one of the ponds, a lone croaking could be heard, which promptly stopped when the traffic noise quieted down and our own conversation could be heard. So why do they think stopping the noise suddenly is going to help? There is much in nature that doesn’t seem to justify continuation of a species. Fortunately, they seem to muddle through.

When the movers were carrying furniture out of the KY house, each big piece they removed left behind a mass of cat toys that had been batted underneath or behind something and couldn’t be retrieved, even by little paws. So I stuffed all the toys into my bag and brought them back. Frik fell in love all over again with a little fuzzy chick and ‘nosed’ it for hours. I can only think that it smelled like home. Boy will he be pleased to get some of his own furniture back next week! Moving day is the 6th!

Sized to fit

Frik is having a problem with his box. We got rid of the large litter box he had in the house when we moved because it wouldn’t fit in the back seat of the truck for travel. So we bought an ‘apartment-sized’ box and have been using that one ever since. The little guy (well, not so little, which is the problem) has tried his best, perching on the side and balancing on his toes, to stay within the confines, but by the time he’s dug his hole and tried to position himself over it, he’s already having boundary problems. And the other day it all went wrong. We had a bit of a cleanup to do, and he was mortified.

The litter box sizing should have been to the cat, not the space. What were we thinking?

How often do we find ourselves fitting to one criterion when a completely different one would make more sense; would make the results easier to live with? We choose careers by the availability of jobs rather than personal aptitude or interest, for example. Or we buy clothes that are trendy rather than what looks good on us. We espouse political positions because they are what we hear most often and because they make good sound bites – ‘mom’ and ‘apple pie’ sort of sound bites. I even got married a couple of times because it seemed like the right thing to do! How much of what we do and believe and decide is really based on something solid and valid - sized right, so to speak?

The trick is in knowing what criteria to follow, of course. And that, at the very least, takes some practice. Years and years of it are still inadequate, if some of my own decisions are examined!

Anyway, Frik is getting a larger box. We are moving to a bigger apartment – the best compromise we can make under the circumstances. I’m even rethinking my position on not going shopping for new bras – something I just hate to do and so usually don’t, with shabby results. (The criterion there is 'enjoying time spent,' not 'well-fitted underwear,' without which, of course, I can't really enjoy my time doing anything... Sorry – the ‘sized to fit’ title just kept bringing me back to that. I mostly write for myself, you know.)

Sometimes you just have to step back and reevaluate the reasons behind some of the things you do. Life is a lot easier if things are sized to fit.

Air Travel Travails

I really shouldn’t allow my mind to wander into this territory again – travel travails. My mental health would be better if I’d stay off this track. But…

The first time I flew was Tucson to Harrisburg, PA via Chicago O’Hare, probably in December of ‘69. It was wonderful. In those days we still (sort of) dressed up to fly and the airlines matched our ‘Sunday best’ with service and professionalism. That trip was over Christmas and there were school choirs singing in the airport in Chicago. One of the first jumbo jets – the 747 – was parked in between two concourses and people were crowding the windows to get a look at it. All very exciting and festive.

This last time, I was crowded into a single square foot of space – middle seat (due to the fact that morning snow had meant that I’d missed my connection and had to be shoehorned into a later flight) between two large men who automatically took over the shared arm rests as well as their own seat space and some of my leg room. (Not that there was really a lot of that either!) The person in front of me put her seat back as far as she could as soon as she was able, thereby reducing my air space to just over 6 square inches.

And then they came around and offered garlic-seasoned ‘snacks.’ Who says the airlines don’t have a sense of humor?

We used to get a full hot meal on flights that happened around lunch or dinner time – or if the flight was over 2 hours. Now we get a 1 ounce packet of carbs. Seasoned. We shouldn’t have complained about airline food for all those years. You can buy a ‘lunch box’ on United these days – but they were odd combinations of things that I didn’t think I could actually eat. I didn’t actually eat the garlic crackers either. There is still some semblance of consideration to others that I can’t quite give up, even when thus provoked. Although in retrospect, of course, I realize that I might have reclaimed a little of my territory if I’d managed to acquire extremely garlicky bad breath. Oh well. An opportunity lost.

And then there’s ‘airport talk.’ This is a sub-dialect that is practiced by people who have to say the same thing over and over again, in the form of announcements to passengers, and are so bored with it that they start playing with emphasis and accents and sentence structure enough to make their announcement completely unrecognizable. (That is assuming, of course, that the airline employee actually speaks English, which is an irresponsible assumption, I admit.) The emphasis is always placed on the insignificant parts of speech – articles and prepositions, for example: ‘Welcome to flight 575 WITH service TO Seattle. Now a normal person would have thought that the key words in that sentence – the ones that would matter to the ‘audience’ – would have been the flight number and destination. But ‘airport talk’ understands that the important things are cadence and obfuscation, in this case ‘with’ and ‘to.’ Oh well.

Imagine how enjoyable each flight is going to be when they start allowing cell phone conversations during flight time.

I have two words for you: Road Trip.

A place holder

Yesterday we went to Bainbridge via the ferry to explore that town - GREAT little shops! - and have some lunch and walk a little. We needed to get the cobwebs out, so to speak. It turned into a beautiful clear day, so I thought I'd post some pictures today as a 'place holder' in the blog and hopefully tomorrow I will find time to write a decent posting again finally.

The signs of spring are everywhere now - visible green in the trees, flower pots on the sidewalks, daffodils everywhere.

Curiously, there are only Italian restaurants in Bainbridge. If you want seafood (and we did, of course) you have to drive down the road to Poulsbo. And we were happy to do so. Poulsbo has another attraction - an incredible bakery that we felt compelled to go in to after drooling on their window in front of their cinnamon buns. Yum!

Mission Accomplished

I’m back.

The Kentucky house is empty and polished. I survived United Airlines through Chicago, although it wasn’t pretty. The movers were a great lot, even though we couldn’t understand a word they said. (Locals; heavy Kentucky accent, except for the driver and his wife – Seattleites who were a history teacher and pianist respectively.) We actually had a lot of fun. I am so grateful that my sister came to help – she worked hard, paid attention to the details, and sang beautifully in the empty house.

Anyway, I’m back.

The cats are even happy to see me.

And it isn’t raining yet today in Seattle – so we’re off on an adventure of some sort. Gotta get back in the swing!

Another Trip

I’m leaving tomorrow for Kentucky, to meet the movers and pack up the house. My sister Janet is going to meet me there (Yes!) and help me with the chaos. Some things (MOST things) from the house will go to long-term storage, and the rest has to be sorted out for a quick delivery to an apartment here in Seattle at the beginning of next month. I’ll likely be out of ‘blog’ reach until the 25th – so there will be a lull here online as well.

That’s the bare bones of it – but the ‘doing’ is a bit more harrowing. I’ve been making lists and appointments and arrangements for weeks, it seems, and I don’t quite know if I’m afoot or horseback at this point. The movers seem to have a bunch of stipulations about a split move like this – and it’s been a bit complicated. Probably more so than it would need to be. Moving into storage, instead of a new house, seems like quite a defeat, as well. (On the other hand, being able to live with some of our own furniture and ‘stuff’ will be a relief.) I’m looking forward to being in the KY house for a few days before the movers come, but am not looking forward at all to the flights there and back! (My track record for flying is dismal over the past 25 years – I’m guessing that at least a third of the trips I’ve made have had at least some minor problem involved – like the flight being cancelled or delayed enough to miss the next connection and stranding me in some strange city without a hotel reservation. Minor, you know. Yuck!)

Anyway, I’m off!

TV

Last night we were watching the Sci Fi Channel, since they were replaying the Bermuda Triangle thing and we had never seen the last part - which turned out not to be worth the trouble, in our critical opinion. At any rate, we started wondering about show time vs. commercial time and started counting and timing the commercials. (Hey, we're bored sometimes, you know?)

There were 10 different commercials, played over 5 minutes, at our first count. Then there was, literally, 5 minutes of the show. Then there were 14 commercials played over 6 minutes, followed by 5 more minutes of the show. Then back to 5 minutes of commercials...

I couldn't really believe it. Remember when there were just one or two commercials in each break? This wasn't really our dream of Cable TV, either. There were supposed to be NO commercials - that was the whole point of paying for cable!

We have some DVD's of the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and their commercials were part of the show itself. They were sponsored by Carnation Evaporated Milk, and every once in a while George or Gracie or one of the minor characters would come out 'on stage' holding a can of Carnation and talk a little about how great it was in your coffee or something, and then they'd crack some line related to the show and get back to the business of entertaining.

We've taken some wrong turns here, I think.

More on Spring

The Washington Arboretum and the Japanese Garden

Weather, again

We had made plans to go to Portland tomorrow to visit with some friends and eat at our favorite barbecue place – and just for something different to do. We thought we’d drive through the Columbia River Gorge and get some pictures of Multnomah Falls… Sigh.

But the weather report wasn’t so encouraging. We’d been watching the weather news and it looked like it was nasty in Portland this week, and it might get worse. Snow is now predicted. So we cancelled out. And now, of course, the sky is clear and the sun is shining here, and I’m wondering, once again, how I could be duped into listening to a weather forecast and allowing it to influence my activities.

I’m noticing a trend here. How many times have I made disparaging remarks about weather predictions? And don’t I also throw up my hands in dismay at nutrition warnings that are issued and retracted and contradictory?

I have to wonder. Do I believe in science? In the benefit of education? In the advancement of knowledge? Do I believe current scientific theories are solid, that our predictive models have been sufficiently validated, that modern measurement equipment is sophisticated and well-calibrated, and that scientific investigation is undertaken seriously and purposefully?

If I base my behavior on their predictions, a mixed bag at best, then maybe I do! I should think about that!!

And now that I don’t have plans for the weekend, I’ll have the time…

‘Nice’

Surely this is everyone’s pet peeve and I really shouldn’t take up space ranting about it… but today I was almost run over by some woman talking on her cell phone while driving. She had pulled out from a street on the left and I thought she was going to pull into the left lane, since I was clearly in the right lane, but she didn’t – just kept coming over. I slammed on the brakes, hit the horn, and did manage to avoid the crash without her assistance… as she was obviously entirely unaware that anything had happened.

Some years ago we had a ‘fantasy’ conversation about how to deal with bad drivers and came up the notion of having a ‘return to start’ button that we could use to send those really bad drivers around us right back where they came from – sort of like the ‘easy’ button in the office supply store commercial. It would only work, say, once a day, so you’d have to be discriminating about using it, but oh, to be able to have that kind of influence! Wouldn’t it be great to just zap these people right back to their own driveway, where they’d have time to contemplate their mistakes and would have to start their journey all over again, if they truly needed to be somewhere? And if they didn’t, maybe they’d just stay home.

What a fantasy, to actually have some measure of control over all those others out there who irritate us, or even try to do us harm. But I wonder, if we had it, if we’d be more careful about our own reactions to things? We wouldn’t, after all, want to be ‘zapped’ ourselves! Maybe, for example, I’d have only used the brakes today, and not the horn. (Obviously I could do better with this myself!)

Does life still work that way? Are there still people out there who would treat others as they want to be treated themselves?

Is American society still ‘nice?’

Better living through Chemistry

I don’t think I mentioned it yet, but I somehow managed to pick up another bad cold. Really. The second one in a month. How lucky am I? Maybe Mark’s cold was a new variant, and he caught that rather than the one I had – and then I caught this one from him? We’ll never know. But it’s pretty sad.

So this time we hit it hard with the OTC meds. I usually don’t find them particularly helpful and would generally rather be without medication, but I’m rather worn down with all this sickness and, this time, decided intervention would be welcome. So we’ve been to various pharmacies and gotten recommendations for our various and changing symptoms, and I’ve spent the last few days drugged out the wazoo.

I’m still sick, but I don’t care any more.

Discoveries, unfortunate and sentimental

I just discovered that all my socks have holes in them. And they are pretty threadbare besides. I guess I just haven’t been paying attention, but now that I think about it, it’s been a long time since I bought new ones. These things sneak up on me. Like when you’re finally forced to accept that your favorite shirt has a stain on it and just can’t be worn any longer, or the last chip out of your perfectly sized coffee cup now really means you can’t use it. Or when you see that you really have to run so mundane an errand as to go out and buy new socks.

Such ‘discoveries’ always make me stop and think about individual oddities in the human psyche. I’m afraid I’m a card-carrying member of the ‘throw-away’ society. Not a very conservative spender. Others might classify me as a Careless Consumer but here I am, with worn out socks. Spectacularly worn out.

It would make an interesting psychological study. What do we easily let go of? What can’t we part with? What do we not even notice?

When I was cleaning out closets and trying to get rid of ‘stuff’ before our move, I got rid of PILES of extra things, no-longer-needed things, never used things, old things, new-but-irrelevant things, and I’m-just-tired-of-this-taking-up-closet-space things. I actually got rid of stuff I never thought I’d part with – bells and little music boxes I’d collected over the years, “decorative accessories” from past houses… dishes, pillows, jackets. Even hats. (Actually, I never wear hats – why do I have them?)

I could get rid of ‘stuff’ with personal value to me, but can’t seem to replace my socks?

OK, so sentiment isn’t the only thing. But it is a BIG thing.

Another discovery of a different sort: in a box in the basement was a giant stuffed bear. It had been in Todd’s room in the Alaska house for years, sitting on the floor, adding some comfort and grace to a sort of 'industrial' boy’s room. It wasn’t actually his though – it was mine. I got it from my folks when I was 6-months pregnant and in the hospital with a broken leg and appendicitis. (And you wondered why I only had one child…) I pulled it out of the box in the basement, saw it’s sad and wilted bow and the fact that it’s head was a little droopy, and thought maybe it was time to get rid of it. But then I pictured my dad, walking into that hospital room, offering up a great big stuffed bear because, he said, they couldn't think of anything else that might help. At the thought, tears came to my eyes; I held it close… maybe not. The bear will get a 'stuffing adjustment' and a new bow for the new house, but he'll be there... somewhere.

In a ‘throw-away’ society, there are still some things we just can’t seem to part with. Whether for inconvenience or phobia or sentiment or superstition, we hang on to the silliest things for the longest time. Maybe that’s not such an unfortunate discovery after all.

Situational update

Just so everyone knows (whether you are interested or not, of course – always the problem with blogging) we’ve rented an apartment on a 3-month lease with a move-in scheduled for April 7th. Not really the situation we wanted to find ourselves in, but necessary nonetheless. So at least that anxiety is behind us and we’ll see what spring weather in Kentucky brings. I am hoping to go home to supervise the household goods ‘pack-up and move’ in two weeks, give or take some days. We’ll have some of our things delivered to the apartment and the rest will go into storage. At least we will have our own bed and towels!

Spring has sprung!

In search of positive signs today, we explored the UW campus and found all kinds of evidence that life will, in fact, go on!

Public Transportation

I took the Express bus to downtown Seattle on Thursday. It was an Adventure. I needed to pick up some earrings at a downtown jeweler and didn’t want to hassle with the parking on a weekday, so the bus seemed like a good idea. And it was.

Of course the bus stop wasn’t really at the big transit station where I thought it was. Instead, it was across the freeway, over the bridge, and down onto the ‘on-ramp’ for west-bound traffic. I got there on instinct alone, because there sure wasn’t any signage to help! And the drop off point wasn’t actually at 5th and Pine, as stated on the schedule. And when I looked for the return stop, at 4th and Pike, it turned out I wasn’t at the right one, but instead was supposed to be further down on 5th, more in the middle of the block, but certainly closer to Pine than Pike… Hmmmmmm.

And the fare was supposed to be $1.50 but was $2.50 instead, exact change required. And when I got on the return bus, we were “in a free ride zone” and I had to hold on to my money until the end of the ride and pay as I got OFF instead. Who knew?

I guess the people who produce the information never actually ride the busses themselves.

Anyway, downtown Seattle is a shopper’s paradise! Every big name store is there in huge square footage. I will have to steel my nerve to try it again. Sure wish I had company!

“Red Rabbit”

Last week I read a Tom Clancy novel, Red Rabbit, copyright 2002, that had the exact details that have been reported this week about the attempted assassination in 1981 of Pope John Paul II... likely being masterminded by the Soviets, their concern over HIS concern about Poland and Solidarity, Russians contracting with Bulgarian assassins who recruited a Turk to do the deed and then planned to kill the Turk to eliminate the trace to the Russians…

In all the news stories, I didn’t see a reference to the Tom Clancy book.

Did I dream some of this?

Hollywood

Ho hum. It’s time for the Oscars again, evidently. Endless self-congratulations of pointless people, famous largely for being famous. Set against endless other ‘events’ congratulating other people from Hollywood for other awards. I can’t keep track. I don’t know who is nominated – not just who got a nomination, but who the people themselves are – and don’t care. I got bored with this years ago. One just wonders why THEY don’t. What could be so fascinating to them about themselves?

A few years ago an actor, Mathew Perry (who I don’t find terribly offensive otherwise,) was involved in some 'self-congratulations' show with professional athletes. I don’t know whether Hollywood was congratulating athletes or how, exactly, the two were involved, but Perry was quoted as saying he’d had a wonderful time. “We were in awe of each other,” were his exact words.

“In awe” seems like a pretty strong expression for people who play for a living… for people who ‘play AT living.’ They speak words that others have written, parrot ideas that others have fed them, follow directions that others are giving. They are heavily coached, so they aren’t really responsible for anything they do or say. They have make-up artists, ‘dressers’, plastic surgeons, personal trainers, directors, and speech writers. They are ‘fake’ people. Yet we are supposed to hang on their every word.

I’ll be glad when ‘self-congratulations’ season is over – however long it lasts. I’m not in awe.

Stock Market pressure points

“A mixed economic picture sent stocks tumbling Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 104 points, as investors were unnerved by weakness in home sales, consumer confidence and manufacturing. An upward revision in economic growth raised worries about higher interest rates.”

I just don’t get it. I’m an ‘investor’ too and I was unnerved by a lot of things on Tuesday as well, (including – and particularly – ‘weakness in home sales’) but it certainly didn’t cause me to go running to the phone to plead with my broker to “Sell, sell, sell!!! Sell everything!” I wouldn’t really know what sort of influence such economic news might have on my mutual funds or my tech stock or anything else.

How many ‘investors’ are really sure of the impact of economic news? How many of us would have concluded that an upward revision in economic growth might cause higher interest rates, even if we HAD actually read the report? I mean, maybe we would understand that, theoretically, from our ECON 101 classes, but apply it to our actual investment portfolio? I just don’t think so. I think most people are like me – we have investments, someone else takes care of them, we don’t switch them around on a day to day basis, and we don’t revise our investments with a particular piece of economic news. Especially since tomorrow’s economic news will probably mean to do the opposite of what today’s news suggested.

So who comes up with these ‘reasons’ for the market to have acted in a particular way on a particular day? I’d like to have a chat with them.

P.S. That was yesterday. Today's headline was "Stocks rise on strong consumer spending!" Doesn't anyone else wonder about this?

OK, it’s better now

I was feeling pretty desperate. In spite of telling myself over and over that I need to stop whining and take some action, I couldn’t seem to do it. But having successfully braved the evil Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday, I gathered the nerve to take some steps on my own finally. At some point, given a vacuum of information, you just have to act on what you know instead of waiting for the unknown to resolve itself on someone else’s timetable.

So here’s the deal. We just found out today that we can have a 30 day extension here, but that won’t be long enough in any case, for even if we had a contract on the house signed today we couldn’t be in a new house in a month. So we have a couple of appointments to look at possible apartments, and if either of them looks good we will take one, and if not, I will start looking again soon after mid-March. As I called around it seemed like availability wasn’t impossible, even though Microsoft is hiring new people by the thousands (literally) and they must be going somewhere.

The new place will be unfurnished and we’ll have to decide about whether to pack up things in KY and store most of them but have some delivered to the apartment, or just live without. I think we’ll buy a futon to sleep on and then just see whether the apartment is tolerable for a longer term, and if so, give up on the idea of buying a house right away and just stay in the apartment for a while. (If anyone comes to visit, we’ll put you up in a hotel!)

So that’s the scoop. Sad, really. But there you have it.