Now for another completely different topic: I listen to a lot of radio, mainly sports and talk radio, and so I hear a lot of radio ads. I’ve begun to notice that there is a decided lack of creativity in radio advertising. Next time you’re listening, count how many ads “break the fourth wall.”
You may ask what that means. I’ll give you an example. You have the standard radio announcer person reading standard copy. Suddenly they’re interrupted by someone else in the radio booth, supposedly a producer or engineer, who objects to what they’re saying. Oh no, they’re off the script and ad-libbing, they’ll have to do another take! But by the end we realize that it’s all a big set up and that this really is the ad. Ha, ha, so clever.
Except, it’s not. It’s been done. It’s been done a million times. It no longer catches your attention. It’s old and tired. Retire it already!
Phew, can you tell I have a hang up about advertising?
“Criminals only through their breaking of immigration laws”????
So breaking immigration laws is OK with the US Bishops?
The ONLY human law that the US Bishops seem to feel it’s OK to flaunt is US immigration law. Heck, they won’t even advocate civil disobedience aimed at the rollback of laws that legalize abortion. The ONLY law that doesn’t derive from Divine Law, apparently, is the United States’ quotas on immigration.
Here’s the dirty little secret of the Catholic Church in the United States—priests working with ethnic apostolates (especially the Latino apostolates) actively support efforts to subvert immigration laws. I personally know of members of the Boston Hispanic and Brazilian apostolates who wink at (or worse!) fake-ID programs to “legitimize” illegal aliens. I even know of at least one member of the Hispanic apostolate who took an active role in smuggling in a Latino over the Texas border.
Under the rubric of “care and compassion,” I fear we are cooperating with the forces that immigration laws and border authorities are trying to protect us from. Remind me why, if we’re willing to stand in airport screening lines and to endure additional measures to ascertain that we’re really who we say we are so as to protect ourselves from terrorists who are trying to destroy us, we’re helping illegal aliens to create a false identity?
Dom,
I work in advertising as a film editor and I can tell you that for all the work I’ve done about four percent of it I’d consider to be original or creative. You don’t suffer your hang-up alone.
I don’t get your point, Dom. The officer wasn’t injured because of illegal immigration. He was injured because of irresponsible driving. I don’t think there’s much of a correlation between the two. Most of the illegals I know drive quite well. The real problem in their case is that, being illegals, they don’t have insurance. But then I know a number of US citizens who don’t have it either. I guess I don’t see the connection between illegal immigration and this traffic accident.
The argument for the Bishops’ position, upon which I put my own spin here, is that dragooning local law enforcement into doing the INS’ work will not only overburden local resources but give illegal immigrants a motive not to report or cooperate in the investigation of serious crimes like rape, domestic battery, etc. Someone might be less likely to report a crime committed against themselves if they knew the Sheriff would “card” their household and detain their parents and siblings. Criminal groups that prey on illegal immigrants would acquire some “leverage” over their victims which they don’t presently have.
From what I understand, the reply goes something like this: “Well, if they think tolerating criminal activity is a price worth paying, that’s just another reason we don’t want them here.” Passing the fact that this is an argument that would have deported thousands of Italian immigrants (like my grandparents), I’m not sure that’s a persuasive argument coming from a political establishment that tolerated Terri Schaivo’s murder.
While the Bishops don’t give a hoot about the local/federal issue, I am vehemently against anything that smacks of a national police force. The FBI is already too intrusive for my tastes, but I can live with it. But the de facto deputizing police and sheriff departments into the INS is one step in that direction I don’t want to take.
The best solution to the illegal immigrant problem, IMHO, is the reform of Mexico into a viable democratic country with a stable and non-exploitative economy. That’s beyond our power. It’s virtually beyond the power of Mexicans, too. The second-best solution would be to elect a president who was conerned about illegal immigration, which we don’t have now and aren’t likely to have in the near future.
I will pray for this officer and his family, and also for the girl. Thanks for the interesting post.
Part of the problem is that I’m combining to unlike things in one post. I don’t mean to make a one-to-one convergence between the accident that hurt the policeman and the bishops’ stance on the illegal immigration law, but to say something about illegal immigration in general and the bishops’ legislative priorities in general.
an argument that would have deported thousands of Italian immigrants (like my grandparents)
Were they illegal immigrants? It’s my understanding that the vast majority of immigrants before about 60 years ago were not illegals.
But the de facto deputizing police and sheriff departments into the INS is one step in that direction I donong with “hard line” viewpoints per se) one’s as much of a problem as the other.
The difficulty I have seeing the terrorism angle is that, like the connection between the accident and illegal immigration, you can end up connecting everything to national security. That shouldn’t necessarily invest the connected item with the full weight our fears may lend to the larger category. I don’t agree with what the ethnic apostolates are doing, I don’t think we can say illegal immigration is a terrorist problem unless, by slurring the issues, we subsume all crime into the generic label of “terrorism” just as we can subsume the immigration into the issue of “national security.” 911 didn’t happen because of illegal immigration (although many of the 911 terrorists violated immigration laws). It happened because of Arab/Islamic fascism. I don’t think it’s logical to invest the cases of Hispanic teenagers, roofers, and stoop-laborers with the same vehemence and significance we’d give to preventing another terrorist attack.
I admit that there’s speculation that illegal immigration may be more closely connected to terrorism than I’ve said above. This story about the Salvadoran gang MS-13 is an example. But like all the stories I’ve read (and I don’t pretend to be an expert), there’s more speculation and hype than hard fact. I haven’t seen a story that names an Arab/Islamic terrorist smuggled into the United States by MS-13 or anyone else. What I do see is a kind of slurring between any law-enforcement issue (violent gangs, in this case) and “terrorism” that disturbs me to no end. I have a deep suspicion of combining people and power. I’m one of those people who can easily imagine a world where terrorists are shot on sight as terrorists, then drug-dealers are shot on sight as terrorists, and then income-tax cheats are shot on sight as terrorists . . . .
I do think that illegal immigration is a serious issue that deserves a serious response. As long as Democrats like Kerry and Republicans like Bush want to ignore it in exchange for temporary electoral advantages, little is going to be done about it. I’m afraid I’ve led you far afield from the original topics, but I appreciate the opportunity for conversation.
One of the reasons I seldom listen to the radio (least-used feature in my car…) and rarely watch regular TV, is due to the advertising. It is obnoxious, repetitive, overly loud and boring.
It wasn’t always that way. Years ago we used to look forward to the Volkswagen Ads in Ireland. They were fresh, pithy, original and usually self-deprecating – and we remembered them!
Today, Ads rarely get my attention – except for the occasional one that features animals. But even they tend to be flogged to death. Lack of creativity, I guess.
It’s not just the USCCB that is ‘soft’ on illegal immigrants, Dom. Just before St. Patrick’s Day, CWN reported that the Bishops of Ireland had announced a “campaign to support Irish immigrants in the US…”
My initial reaction was: Huh??? I was not aware that Irish immigrants were in such dire straits – at least not since post-Famine days and the late 19th century.
But the Irish bishops were not speaking of the ‘poor and downtrodden Irish’ in Brooklyn, Queens or South Boston. They were referring to those “living furtive lives in the US”.
And why are they living furtive lives here? Because they are here illegally, that’s why. So this is a burning issue for the Irish bishops – helping scofflaws here in the US?
Now if they were intent on helping them to get back home and begin the process for legal entry, I could support that. But somehow I don’t think that is what they have in mind…
I can relate to Fr. Clark’s remarks also. I’ve known of similar cases here in this neck of the woods.
Ins of both republics & monarchies. I think one should remember that democracies are also vulnerable to severe moral corruption and tyranny among the majority of voters. Whether they are more or less vulnerable to these problems than a monarchy, I don’t know. But in a tyrannous monarchy, a just act of tyrannicide can more easily deal with the problem. In a democracy where the majority is the tyrant, tyrannicide looks an awful lot like genocide.
But in a tyrannous monarchy, a just act of tyrannicide can more easily deal with the problem.-04-15 15:19:53
2005-04-15 19:19:53
If the girl had been detained by police for breaking immigration laws, she might not have been able to hit the cop with her car. In fact, if you read the linked story you’ll see that the girl was in fact detained as she crossed the border in Texas but was let go and ordered to return for a hearing. Yeah, I’m sure she was returning to Texas for that hearing.
My point is to take notice of the bishops’ ridiculous position on illegal immigration.
Well, a friend of mines boyfriend is an Irish illegal. He and his mates do construction. In Queens, the Bronx, the 5 boroughs. No benefits. All cash under the table. he told me they were installing elevators in an old building (!!!!very hazardous work). No workers compensation.
Who hires them? Irish (2nd-3rd gen) from LI.
He is fine, but if he gets sick or injured, he is out of luck, and in big trouble.
But the Irish don’t congregate by the I95 ramps looking for day work like the latins do.