Is Congress going to legalize 12 million illegal immigrants?

Illegal. That means "not legal." It does not mean "migrant" or "huddled masses yearning to be free" or any other circumlocution. Giving these people a pass rewards and encourages lawbreaking and reduces the credibility of our laws. Lawmakers agonize over losing the productive value of these workers to our economy, the impossibility of deporting 12 million people and the technical difficulty of protecting the border.
1. The politicians who vociferously defend the minimum wage are the same ones who say that these immigrants do work Americans won't do. Well, they might if the below-minimum-wage pay for these jobs rose with the reduction in the labor pool that would result from these folks going home. Side benefit: the marketplace would be generating better pay because of labor scarcity, instead of having (some) pay rates being artificially elevated by legislation.
2. No need to deport 12 million people. Enforce the immigration law by penalizing companies that hire the inexpensive labor and poof! the demand for it will decline. There will no longer be this particular incentive for crossing the border.
3. We can explore space but we can't build a fence. C'mon.

Rudeness or Self Preservation?

This morning, an energetic, bouncing-on-his-toes guy rapped on the front door. I did not know him, and he had no logo on his shirt nor ID tag. As is my wont (also my inclination), I asked him through the door glass what he wanted.

"Can't hear you. I'll step back {about 3 feet} and you open the door."

"No, I can't. What do you want?"

Something about steaks, and then he gestured to his truck, which was either not there or at least out of sight. "We've got them for $2.00 a pound today."

If all the rest hadn't been red flags, that was!

But by then it had been a few minutes into the exchange, so there had been plenty of time to evaluate the guy and the situation. What if I had succumbed to my sense of guilt about being rude "to a perfectly nice young man just trying to make a living" and opened the door?

Any feedback?

1809 Government Proposal to Steal from One Group to Pay Another (we now call it taxes)

In 1809, Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis & Clark expedition across the North American continent)was arranging an escort to return an Indian Chief to his tribal home after a visit to President Jefferson. Lewis wished to employ 300 Indians from friendly tribes to help them pass through the territory of the hostile Arikara Indians. Their pay? "...as a reward for their Services, the plunder which they may acquire from the Aricares (sic)."

In other words, the government was authorizing its employees to pay themselves with assets taken from another group of people (albeit not U.S. citizens). It reminds me of the power of taxation being implemented, with the support of the citizen majority (who voted the politicians into office), to take from the minority ("The Rich"). The successful officeholder buys votes by promising government benefits (handouts) to different groups of voters, paid for with tax revenue extracted from the producers of wealth. Doesn't seem just, using their money to pay off the people who take it from them. But that's just me.