THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Nobel Peace Prize? Really?: Some political commentators on the left and the right alike have suggested that President Barack Hussein Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he is black. If you think about it, blacks are significantly underrepresented amongst Nobel Prize winners relative to their population in the world, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the left-leaning Nobel committee used affirmative action to help remediate the imbalance. However, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has a more plausible explanation of the role that race played in Obama’s selection:
The European view that Obama is some sort of accidental president, that he does not truly represent the essence of America, is a bit disturbing as well as insulting. I think a bit of it is a greater fixation on Obama's race than you will find here and, concurrently, a misguided belief that Obama's race makes him less of an American in America than a white person would be. Europeans have always had a good time with American racism, finding it very comforting in its confirmation of our essential boorishness. In this sense, the Nobel was meant to encourage us in our new, admirable path - keep it up, Yanks. Thanks, Olaf.
The Stiletto is hoping that a Nobel prize - any Nobel prize - is similarly awarded to the first black prime minister or president of England, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden or any other European country that thinks it’s dandy the U.S. has “progressed” enough to elect an Obama without taking a hard look at themselves and asking why they have not.
† Oy, Oy, Oy! Barack Hussein Obama: To protest the political indoctrination of school children, 70 protesters gathered on a sidewalk across the street from the B. Bernice Young School in Burlington Township, NJ waving flags and homemade placards, singing "God Bless America" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," reports The Associated Press.
† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: With people having less disposable income and more financial insecurity, dentists are doing less cosmetic work to perfect smiles and more cosmetic work to repair teeth eroded by grinding, reports The New York Times:
“I’m seeing a lot more people that are anxious, stressed out and very concerned about their financial futures and they’re taking it out on their teeth,” said Dr. Steven Butensky, a dentist with a specialty in prosthodontics (aesthetic, implant and reconstructive dentistry) in Manhattan.
One of his patients lost hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with Bernard L. Madoff. Another reported that he had lost a job with a seven-figure salary. A third, a single mother with a floral design business on Long Island, said she was working twice as hard for half as much.
“All three are grinders, directly affected by what’s going on out there,” Dr. Butensky said, gesturing outside his Midtown office window. …
Because it is a subconscious muscle activity, most grinders grind without realizing it, until a symptom such as a fragmented tooth or facial soreness occurs. …
The most expensive option for rebuilding teeth damaged by grinding is with veneers, but this year, dentists say that many of their bruxism patients are requesting one of the least costly treatments: a night guard, also known as an occlusal splint.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, The Keystone Kops Are Enforcing U.S. Immigration Laws): The case of 19-year-old Jordanian Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, who had overstayed his tourist visa and was charged with plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, spotlights the lack of a viable system to determine whether foreign visitors have left the country eight years after the September 11 terror attacks, reports The New York Times:
Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said. While officials say they have no way to confirm it, they suspect that several hundred thousand of them overstayed their visas.
Over all, the officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed. …
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, immigration authorities, with more than $1 billion from Congress, have greatly improved and expanded their systems to monitor foreigners when they arrive. But despite several Congressional authorizations, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have departed.
Homeland security officials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal, mainly because of the nation’s long and busy land borders, with more than one million crossings every day. The wrong exit plan, they said, could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not effectively use. …
The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave.
Smadi had been picked up driving without a license or insurance two weeks before being picked up on the bombing charge but the arresting officer had no idea he was in the country illegally, even after a background check and calls to the FBI. Smadi paid a $550 fine and walked out of the county jail.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Hershey Friedman, the new owner of an A kosher slaughterhouse that belonged Agriprocessors, Inc., said he will hire locals to work in the plant and ensure that his employees are legal citizens by using the government’s E-Verify system, reports The Associated Press:
"You have to do your best to get the local community first," said Friedman, who was born and raised in Montreal. If the plant can't find a local work force, "Then I'll have to worry about it afterward."
Friedman formed a new company, called Agri Star Meat and Poultry LLC, to buy the Iowa plant. He said he plans to pay at least $1 to $1.50 per hour more than minimum wage for the lowest entry-level positions. Iowa's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, but $6.35 per hour for the first 90 days of employment.
"I don't want to start at minimum wage," Friedman said. "That's not where our goal is. Anybody can go to McDonald's for minimum wage. We want better than that." …
Friedman said he wants the plant to have a good reputation.
"We want to give fair salaries, fair benefits, we want to treat them fairly and we want in return for them to treat us fairly," he said.
Now, we will be able to determine whether working in a slaughterhouse is a job that “Americans won’t do.”
Editorial Note: Opening arguments are scheduled to begin today in the trial of former Agriprocessors, Inc., Vice President Sholom Rubashkin, who faces 91 financial charges, including money laundering, and 72 counts of employing illegals.
† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, What It's Like To Be Sheriff Joe): Defying the Department of Homeland Security, which did not renew its contract with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department to take illegal aliens into custody for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Joe Arpaio announced he will “stake out an intersection somewhere in the Phoenix metro area to stop cars for traffic violations [and detain] drivers and passengers …if deputies determine that they are illegal immigrants,” reports The Washington Times. "We will call [ICE] to see if they will take them from us. And if they tell me to let them go, I guess I'll have to transport them myself to the border [about 175 miles] and turn them over to the Border Patrol.”
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