Are right-wingers genetically prone to stupidity?
via “Raw Story”, I found this gem. P.Z. Meyers, is a biology professor in Morris Minnesota — about as heartland as you can find. Michael Medved is some idiot from Hollywood.
Did someone declare this National Flaming Racist Idiot week, and I just didn’t notice until now? You have got to read Michael Medved’s latest foray into pseudoscience: he has declared American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA. Because our ancestors were immigrants, who were risk-takers, who were selected for their energy and aggressiveness. Oh, except for those who are descended from slaves.
The idea of a distinctive, unifying, risk-taking American DNA might also help to explain our most persistent and painful racial divide – between the progeny of every immigrant nationality that chose to come here, and the one significant group that exercised no choice in making their journey to the U.S. Nothing in the horrific ordeal of African slaves, seized from their homes against their will, reflected a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, or any sort of self-selection based on personality traits.
Medved works for some “intelligent design” think tank, so I’m guessing risk-taking is all part of God’s plan. After all, being an Orthodox Jew, I doubt very much Medved would dare suggest that some people are the natural master race, would he?
I guess not. By Medved’s logic, REAL risk takers — you know, people who cross the desert to live without official work permits… or take any job they can once their leaky raft from Haiti ends up in Florida… are the übermenchen, ja?.
Deliveryman Noe Reyes sends 500 dollars a week home to his family in Puebla. Photo by Dulce Pinzón.
mexfiles.net 
Wow, Mexican Super Man delivers pizza!
I miss the days when Rush Limbaugh would promote US Corporations going down to Mexico under the new NAFTA agreement. It used to be the Republican Party who promoted Immigration.
How did it come to all of this hatred? Socialism and Injustice, there is this hatred of socialism and the people who use it. How has it gotten to the point where Mexicans are hated due to the bad ones who we won’t punish, but send back to Mexico so that they can sneak over again and get caught for DUI.
The complex politics of all of this from both sides trying to screw each other is not going to get easier anytime soon. Bush failed to convince his base that Mexicans were ok and good people and that we should give them a guest worker program that would make this easier.
Bush is a compromiser and he got his ass handed to him by his own base due to immigration reform. We need to get some fair and balanced talk on this issue and we need to quit assuming that illegal immigration is bad and talk about the things that we all know are bad. Those things are: Socialism, Injustice, and Spanish Language promotion on government documents, bilingual education that does not teach Mexican-Americans English.
We need a partnership with Mexico for them to improve thier education system so that every Mexican can speak English , no more illiterat immigrants from Mexico. If we got rid of socialism, then we wouldn’t have abuses to it. If we reformed the law so that we could keep illegals in prison and then deport them, we wouldn’t have the criminal problem.
This is all very complex, and it will take years before it gets any good. I just wish that the Republican Party would fix itself and favor Bush’s guest worker plan. Any incrimental change to immigration law to make it easier, faster, or cheaper is greatly needed. If those things were to happen it would be easier for all 3 nations to form a North American Union so that we could have open borders and trade. I can only dream.
I’m curious why you think Mexican have to learn English. Besides putting me out of a job, and the fact that Mexican schools already require English as a Second Language starting (in most states) at the primary school level, why should Mexico ruin a decent educational system, and emulate ours… which turns out a few very good graduates, and a lot of ill-educated and under-educated fools who cannot do simple math (Mexican math education is much more rigorous than anything in the U.S. or Canada).
Anyway, why shouldn’t the U.S. kids learn Spanish and French… since we do the bulk of our business with Canada and Mexico now, and will continue to do so… despite all the hoo-haa about Arabs and their oil.?
NO, Mexico should do a better job with thier citizens learning English since a lot of thier citizens leave Mexico for the United States. I in no way want to force them to reform their education system to be like ours. I am in favor of privitization and Academic competition of Public schools. But if Mexico spoke English, it would benefit thier citizens a lot more. There are too many Mexican Immigrants who don’t speak very much English. They are the poor and they get hurt the most because of this.
I also hate to break the news to you, which I am sure you are just asking out of obligation, but English is the dominant world language of trade, diplomacy, and art. As beautiful as Latin based languages may be, none of them compare to the English language’s wide use by non-Latin nations. The US economy is mainly responsible for this trend. The largest nations on earth 1. China and 2. India both teach English to thier citizens in hopes of more commerce. India has more English speakers than China due to the British Raj.
The US is not going to learn Chinese or Hindi, because the Chinese already know that they have to speak English to deal with most of the world. If we really wanted open borders, then Mexico is going to have to teach everyone especially the poor English. I doubt that it is going to put you out of a job anytime soon, you will be dead before the reform if started today, actually changed things.
This would then put pressure on Guatamala and El Salvador to reform themselves if they could ever stop fighting themselves. And then Mexico could open up thier Sothern Border.
I think that in 500 years 85% of the world’s population will be speaking English as a first or second language, and there will be less than 5% of the world’s population that will not have any knowledge of English at all.
“I think that in 500 years 85% of the world’s population will be speaking English as a first or second language, and there will be less than 5% of the world’s population that will not have any knowledge of English at all.”
500 years ago people would probably have said the same thing about Spanish. Hubris is a bitch.
The problem was that the Spanish set out conquer and not form settlements. I think if Spain would have been more tyranical with thier people in Spain, then maybe libertarian thought would have evolved in New Spain (Mexico) and Spanish South America.
The ultimate differance in history between the US and Mexico is that the mother nations were different in the way that they set out in doing things. America had always had a government that did its best to prevent a seperation and held a strong dedication (mostly, although we have had our violations) to keep the constitutional form of government in place. Mexico on the other hand has had dictatorships revolutions, and reform that has favored one political party for many years.
Technology and trade will keep English as the World’s second language with national languages remaining primary.
A North American Union would allow for an open border and an increase in true free trade and a stronger currency. I don’t see it as realistic until Mexico teaches the poor to speak English. Until 90% of Mexico speaks English as a primary or secondary language fluently, an open border or a union will not be possible.
I have a lot of hope for Mexico, they could change, but they have too many issues with corruption in their own government right now that they have to change first. The American people have other issues rather than racism that causes them to hate Mexican Immigrants.
I think if most of the illegal immigrants were English speaking Mexican citizens, then the American people’s opposition to illegal immigration from Mexico would slowly go away.
But as I said technology is causing the English language to be the optimum choice language. 100 years ago, French was the language of the Aristrocrats, it was the language of diplomacy, trade, and art. Spanish had its chance, but Latin America was too busy fighting itself and promoting corrupt ideas. America on the other hand attracted the best thinkers of the world to come in and develop technology. We still attract people to come in and innovate.
There is no other way that I can describe the greatness of America other than to look at how many people willingly risk their lives in order to break into the United States and work hard for less money than most Americans are willing to work for. The honest and law abiding Hispanic “Illegal” immigrants from all over Latin America , is the shining example of the greatness of free trade and property rights. Socialist ideas and language barriers cause people to hate illegal immigration. I say that you get rid of farm subsidies and personal welfare and the illegals will still come to the US simply because they are escaping more corrupt and draconian socialist states of the Americas. On top of that their children serve in the military and defend and provide freedom to oppressed peoples around the world.
I love the fact that in America, poverty means that you can have a house, a car, electricity, running water, air conditioning, and cable tv all paid for by a low paying job that starving people in truely poor countries would kill for. If America wasn’t a great nation, would people still break into it?