The penultimate paragraph shows that the write has absolutely no understanding why the movie has been popular with the people he disparages there, and why the people mentioned earlier could not possibly have thought of this on their own.

Like most Leftists, he confuses cause and effect, and so assumes when some sort of conspiracy when none exists because events make no sense in his world-view.

Raoul, Nikki is female.

Orrin, I wish you'd lighten up on the "anti-immigrationists." Immigration is a good thing, but it's possible to have too much of a good thing. I suspect that in your neighborhood you don't have groups of day laborers hanging out on corners, littering, playing dice, and smoking pot. I also suspect you don't have gangs of (mostly) illegals dealing drugs and having turf wars.

PapayaSF: We have lots of day laborers hanging out in designated areas in Houston, TX. Generally, however, no, we don't have major problems with gang wars (indeed, Houston was recently named as one of the safest cities in the US, believe it or not). I'm not sure what about Texas versus California has led to fewer problems with Hispanic assimilation, and admittedly, my friend Owen's post on this topic is anecdotal, but it's what I see every day. This crazy bayou city is a melting pot. I don't fear immigrants. It helps make this place what it is -- one of America's underappreciate international cities.

Indeed, about a mile from here in Montrose, the men in drag cruising the streets pose more of a problem than any immigrants. :)

Who can blame Raoul for assuming Nikkie must have stood for Nikita (as in the dead commie male) based on some of the nonsense the subject writer spews. Someone ought to show her the growing evidence that the truly rich elite are not only more likely to vote Democrat but that they comprise 99% of their funding. If they are benefiting from tax cuts they are plowing any savings back into the DNC.

A better way to accept oj's embrace of the latino immigrant class would be to determine whether they will be more likely to assimilate as a law-abiding group, with a sense of ownership in their share of the American dream, under the sponsorship of the Republican Party or as wards of the state sucking at the teat of the Democratic Party? Black America has shown us the future, and it is not pretty.

PapayaSF - I think most Americans are fine with legal immigration, its those that want to shut the borders closed/open the borders wide open that aren't in the mainstream.
MG - I'm more optimistic on the latino community not going the same way as blacks because they don't have a victim history in the U.S. (slavery) that the Dems can exploit forever.

AWW --

Agree in your optimism, but continue to think that Republican embrace is crucial. Trust me, we are all potential victims to the Dem(agogue)s and latinos would be hard pressed not to succumb to their allure.

The popularity of The Passion in Latino communities should not be surprising. It is rooted in the ancient Spanish/Italian fiestas which were quite gory and quite graphic. What is surprising is its popularity among north european protestants who had heretofore eschewed such popery.

What do Hispanics think of the second-best film about Christ, 'Cool Hand Luke' ?

Nikki Finke is apparently unaware of the huge boost to the Child Tax Credit, from $ 500 per child in 1998, to $ 1,000 per child in 2003.
Or, perhaps she thinks of those with children as "the elite".

MG:

Except that black immigrants follow the classic pattern of other immigrant groups and succeed at typical rates. It is only the black descendants of slaves who ended up trapped in the cycle and that suggests that the fault lies as much with us as with them.

Papaya:

No, in our neighborhood every kid will get at least one graduate degree and if they so much as contemplate doing manual labor will be disowned. Someone has to cut our lawns though.

Yes, you nit, "...Latinos, as well as Asians and African-Americans, are flocking to the film."

A film in ARAMIC (sp).

Well, I emailed her.

It shouldn't be too great a mystery why Houston and other cities in Texas have less problems with immigration than do cities in California: because different kinds of people immigrate to Texas than those that immigrate to California. If urban New Englanders were immigrating to Ottawa, but rural Midwesterners to Alberta, would there be any mystery as to why the effects of those two places would be different?

The huge, cumbersome abstractions about immigration circulated by the Open Borders ideologists almost never illuminate, but rather obscure and perplex.

Yes, the perplexity is evident when putative conservatives try barring natural conservatives from joining our ranks.

OJ -- I accept that the fault for the failure of the descendents of slaves to assimilate as do other groups lies, at least in part, with us. But is it that we make it too hard to succeed, or too easy to fail?

David,

The contrast between the success of Black immigrants vs. African Americans (relative for sure, and even absolute) would suggest that we have made it too easy to fail. In general suceeding is hard; if race makes it even more so, those Caribean-Americans must have had it as hard or harder than the American born Blacks. But as immigrants they must have approached the struggle with their eyes open and with no expectations of entitlement for previous grievances.

Y'know, garbage like this column makes me think the Dems are pushing hard for the title of Stupid and Evil Party.

Jim Crow meant that the lives of the second generation after abolition were as bad, or worse than the first's, in stark contrast to every other group of new Americans ever. And things stayed wretched. That had to have some effect.

Paul: I'm from Texas, so maybe I'm not taking this properly, but what makes immigrants to Texas so very different? Based on what I've seen, it's neither income level, nor skin tone, nor hair color, nor height, nor weight, nor language, nor any external indicium; what's different on the inside that I'm missing? I'm not aware of large differences between Mexico's border states, and the jobs for which they seem to come into Texas seem identical to the ones in California. If anything, the difference, to me, would seem to be between Texas and California, not between the people who come to those two states.

OJ:

There can't be Conservatives in other countries? Am I no longer a Conservative because I think that both British or Spanish Conservatives would do best to stay in Britain and Spain?

Chris:

Here is an article the discusses the generally overlooked nature of Mexican racial diversity.

Paul:

Why should they go down with the Euro ship when they can help defend the City on the Hill?

Paul, OJ doesn't feel safe as long as Christians only outnumber athiests by 16:1. If we can get that number to 100:1, then he might come out of his bunker.

Paul: Having now reviewed that article, I don't see the difference, except that some of the "pure" Indians from the South have very recently started making their way into California. That's recent, however; and it doesn't touch the longstanding difference between the two states. Most immigrants to Texas and California have been, historically, mestizos (note that I except the vaqueiros who were there before those states became states), and I imagine most have come from more or less the same strata of society.

And as far as political crises upending the racial caste system, I believe Steve left out the Corn, or Wheat, or whatever riot in the 17th Century.

Robert: 200:1 is better.

The Steve Sailer article about Mexican race demographics and politics, which Paul Cella linked to, is interesting and informative.

However, it says nothing whatsoever about why we should expect the same to occur in America, due to Mexican immigration.
In fact, in small ways, it points out reasons why we should not expect Mexico's experience to replay in the US.

For instance, Mr. Sailer says that near-top government officials in Mexico net twice the pay that US officials of about the same rank gross, and further, that said Mexican officials make 20 times what their limo drivers make.

Here in the US, a hard-working, semi-literate limo driver can make 10% of what we pay the POTUS.
That means plenty of lucre to educate their children with, buy a home, and otherwise move up into the middle class.
Such upward mobility brings its own social status, for in the US, we respect above all the dollar. As they say, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, as long as you've got green in your palm.

OJ lives in just about the whitest state in the Union, New Hampshire, and as far as you can get from Cali or Texas. No doubt a weekend in East LA, SoCal would change his perceptions.

Ronnie:

Yes, but we moved her because we don't like the white people in our native Blue states. Them we should deport.

This is like that Jon Stewart joke about Howard Dean being deeply involved in the black community in Vermont, or as it's otherwise known, "Neil."

Sure oj that's what they all say... ;-)