Immigration to the USA

I've avoided political issues thus far in this blog; I needed to educate myself more and also think. However, now I'm ready - although willing to listen and learn.

Today's topic is immigration. There is significant Internet traffic suggesting that sincere immigrants should be willing to adopt the language and culture of those who were here first. I am sympathetic to that viewpoint, but personally find that prospect very difficult. The predominant first people where I live were the Kalispell - there aren't enough language teachers who know the language, nor am I sure there is a standardized written version. I'd like to stick with English, but would be willing to learn another european language (e.g. Spanish), but that isn't in the spirit of the political vogue.

The current flock of immigrants, unlike the semi-early crop (the smallpox vectors), are exploited rather than exploiters. They work extremely hard and get paid poorly, no time to learn Cherokee - like the Irish, Poles, and others before. Luckily, the euro-center of the USA considers itself christian - one of the religions that loves its neighbors. This suggests a solution. Let's say there are 18 million illegal aliens. So let's take the richest 18 million euro-centric christians and expell them to make room. They would probably go voluntarily, because of their christian leanings and because, with their great wealth, they have multiple homes abroad anyway.

Next time: reading references for the unwary.

Richard
2006.04.11

Vancouver Island at Quarter Break

Mag, Eli, and I left for Vancouver Island the morning of Saturday, March 25. We spent the first 3 nights in Victoria at Nik's with the third evening being an impromptu salmon dinner and wine tasting - all pinot noirs from BC, with one from the island and the rest from the Okanagon valley. Richard and Justin joined us, as best we can recall. During the several days there, we mostly wandered hither and yon about Victoria on foot. We ate at Sauce the first night and also visited Rebar, Wildfire Bakery, and John's Place at various points in time. The last was not worth revisiting, but no one got sick.

On Tuesday we continued our trip northward to Nanaimo. We cancelled our reservation at the Buccaneer Inn when told the water would be turned off for possibly most of Wednesday. We luckily found the Stephenson Point Bed and Breakfast, which was really nice, with gracious hosts, and really worked out well. We had dinner at Gina's Mexican Cafe, where we had eaten before - good, dependable, and a funky decor. On Wednesday I gave a talk at the Computer Science Department of Malaspina University-College, describing Xen Virtualization. I gave another presentation in the evening to a more general audience, speculating on the effects of free/libre and open source software on academic scientific research. I'll be teaching a course at Malaspina for the Fall Semester, so it was a chance to get acquainted.

Thursday morning at 10:15 we caught the Duke Point ferry to Tsawwassen and started the drive home. We arrived in Spokane at 7:30 PM. Eli and I drove to Sandpoint the next morning.

Nanaimo is a beautiful spot, with air occasionally perfumed by the nearby pulp mill. The view to the east is the strait with the coastal mountains (think Whistler, Blackcomb) in the background. To the west Mount Benson, at a modest 1025 meters, is close enough to dominate the landscape. Nanaimo is somewhat of a retirement destination for folks across Canada. It has the attendant struggle between that growth and preservation of the 'way it was'. Of course, the environment remains threatened. Hopefully, enough people prize that to not see it degrade rapidly.

Richard
2006.04.01