USC GOP

I put the flag out.

I wore my flag-design shirt.

I wore my eagle belt buckle.

And many people celebrated Armenian Independence Day at the public Glendale High School on their "special day" as seen pictured in the Los Angeles Daily News on page 2 of the May 31 edition (but not online... hmmm.......).

Then there was the MacIntyre in the Morning program this a.m. talking about how Wal-Mart is "quietly" asking Anheuser-Busch to remove its point-of-sale advertising from its stores that emphasizes that AB products are "American Made" since it might offend some of the customers.

Of course there is always the Cal-State Northridge Aztlan mural as seen on the KABC-790 website.

There is also the legal community of our country helping illegal immigrants to break the laws of our country including a newscaster on the Mexican language newscast on K-MEX Channel 34 in Los Angeles (Gabriela Teissier).

Unfortunately, there is also Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles who has absolutely no grasp on the gravity of the situation when it comes to illegal immigration, its long-term human cost, and its peril to our economy, environment, and security.

In his June 1 opinion piece in the Los Angles Times super-titled "Thinking out loud" (indicating that he hasn't bothered to think about his opinion in any depth), Cardinal Mahony rationalizes the breaking of laws when he argues that even though the United States should be able to control its borders, it should make sure that "...reforms should include an opportunity for long-term illegal residents to come out of the shadows - not to be handed amnesty but to work toward permanent residency. They also should feature a temporary-worker program with worker protections that would deal with the many undocumented workers who cross and re-crosss the border. Finally, it should reform the backlogged family reunification system." Mahony thereby condones the original breaking of the law by rationalizing. Would he put up with that from a penitent in the confessional? No!

But before he stumbles and falls on that illogical point, he states, "But the church also does not condone a broken immigration system in the U.S., one that too easily can lead to the exploitation, abuse and even death of immigrants. In this land of opportunity, it is unacceptable that immigrant workers labor in unsafe conditions for wages insufficient to support their families. It is unacceptable that immigrants, including children, are shackled and detained in deplorable conditions. And it is unacceptable that already this year immigrants have died by the dozens in the California desert or in other parts of the Southwest."

Wow. Way to mix apples and oranges, Cardinal! The church should condemn a system that exploits anyone. The answer is to punish both the employer, who is breaking the law, and the employee, who is in the United States illegally, thus stifling the demand and supply and eliminating a system of abuse. However, Cardinal Mahony seems to think that it is solely the fault of the United States (and not even some individuals which is position with more credence) that people from other countries choose to break the immigration laws of the United States. This is simply asinine.

In his opinion piece, Mahony implies that all illegal immigrants are wonderful people. He should read John Dougherty's Illegal: The Imminent Threat Posed by Our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border. Dougherty not only documents by word, but also uses pictures to show the vast devastation left upon our environment by the illegal immigrant business. Dougherty also shows the reader the devastation that our almost open borders have on the drug trade, gang violence, the smuggling in of potential terrorists, and the actual VIOLENT CRIME suffered by our citizens working and living on the border with Mexico. This includes park ranger Kris Eggle who was killed in cold blood by members of the same "group" that Mahony wants to let in the country. Cardinal Mahony fails to address the huge financial burden that Dougherty documents. If Dougherty is not an expert with enough credentials, then the cardinal should consult Harvard's professor George Borjas and his writings on how the United States is economically hurt by illegal immigration. Unlike Mahony who offers the unsubstantiated claim that "as we have in the past, we should embrace our immigrant roots and recognize that newcomers to our land are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution," Borjas proves the opposite. In fact, Borjas has several articles and papers dealing with labor, immigration, and economics that are based on actual hard statistics and not wishful thinking.

Cardinal Mahony argues, "Our country stands at a critical point in its history. Our heritage as a nation of immigrants is at stake."

The cardinal is clueless about American History, unless Gramscian-Marxist revisionism is the accurate view. If he wants a more realistic (although I would argue less than perfect) view of American history, he should read Professor Samuel Huntington's Who Are We : The Challenges to America's National Identity. Prof. Huntington shows that the land of immigrants idea is a bunch of nonsense if one wants to talk about core American values. America was founded on the Lockean, and, dare I write it, Protestant notions of government. Although Huntington is a bit myopic about early Roman Catholic help among America's leading Catholics (including those in Maryland), he has a much clearer and realistic concept of American history than Cardinal Mahony.

In the second paragraph of his uninformed screed, Cardinal Mahony writes: "This growing hysteria is nothing new: Similar scapegoating has occurred at other troubled times in our nation's history, most prominently against Asian and European immigrants during the late 19th century and during the two world wars of the 20th century. By and large the United States has been able to resist the temptation to close its doors to the world, but not without unjust victimization of 'foreigners.'"

No, no, no, Cardinal! America should continue to welcome foreigners, but, as Todd Buchholz argues in Bringing the Jobs Home: How the Left Created the Outsourcing Crisis--And How We Can Fix It (and, yes, I bashed his education reform ideas earlier), Americans should welcome foreigners who bringintellectuall capital to the country as they are the ones that add jobs and provide a better living for all. People who undercut union and other workers so that their bosses can make more and pay less and cut benefits should not be allowed in to the system whether they are illegal or not. Of course, that position might change if you happen to own a "catholic" cemetery and funeral home system.

Los Angeles seems to be less and less American and the deeds of war dead seem to be slowly sinking into the quagmire that is multicultural politics.

May God Bless the men and women of the armed forces especially those who have given their lives to defend our country and traditional way of life.