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Gunner

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:13:52 -0700, (Alex Martelli) wrote:

wrote:

On 17 Jul 2006 17:49:04 -0700, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:

Wrong group, unless they're coming by boat.
That's the Haitians and Cubans

And after all the immigrants coming to the US in order to play bridge as
"Americans" (Benito Garozzo from Italy, Zia Mahmood from Pakistan,
Michael Rosenberg from Scotland, ...) tend to be
world-championship-level players, typically of middle-upper or
upper-class extraction, and therefore the kind of "immigrants" to whom
red carpets tend to be laid for (not sure about those who come here to
write books, or to practice metalworking as a craft, but I suspect the
situation might be similar). *Un*welcome immigrants are only those who
come in to do *useful, indispensable, low-pay* work, such as
house-cleaning -- they *are*, after all, lower-class! (Immigrants like
me, come here for hightech work, fall in a gray zone -- yes, our work IS
precious to the US economy, which would suggest we should be unwelcome,
but OTOH we're pretty well-paid and most often middle-class... so, we're
not quite as loathed by the average redneck as the most useful and
lowest-paid ones, but neither are we as welcome as bridgeplayers &c!-).

Alex

Are you here legally or illegally?

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose
and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology
has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence,
and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years
.. It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints,
and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been
as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,