Category: Blogroll

This week’s Guard the Borders Blogburst post is a crosspost, offered by Heidi of Eupjoric Reality to anyone who is a part of the GTB Blogburst for use on their blog. This week’s post by Darnell McGavock is an excellent place to start reading GTB posts, if you have not already done so. In Heidi’s words, “It debunks the common misperception that illegals come here because there is no work available for them in their own countries. Quite the opposite, in fact.” Here’s Darnell:

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By Darnell McGavock at Independent Conservative Contrary to popular belief, most illegals coming to the USA already had jobs in the country that they left. Also, they are seeking much higher paying jobs than some might believe. Their days of trying to just pick fruit are over! Here are some details, although it is best to read this entire article:

Study: Most illegal immigrants had jobs The research, believed to represent the largest-ever study of undocumented migrants, contends that the vast majority of illegal immigrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they migrated to the United States, and failure to find work in their native Mexico did not seem to be the primary reason for their departure, said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the center and author of the report. … In fact, the majority of new migrants will look for work with higher wages in industries such as construction, hotels or sales, said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. … Only 5 percent of the 4,836 migrants surveyed were unemployed in Mexico before moving to the United States – a significantly lower number than in past studies and theories about migrants, Suro said. … Ironically, Kochhar added, immigration status (in the United States) has little to do with finding employment. Migrants without identification had the same chance of landing a job as those with valid U.S. IDs. …

So much for all that talk about illegals needing to find work.
They already had work where they came from. They just come to the USA for a higher wage. And so much for all that talk about illegals only filling jobs “that Americans will not do”. As I’ve previously explained, Americans did those jobs and can do them again. And never mind “those jobs”, now the illegals are going for YOUR JOB. They want to move up the pay scale. The illegals coming in now are better educated than prior generations and so they are seeking higher paying jobs that require a higher skill set. The actual report is available here. The complete report mentions:

Once they arrive and pass through a relatively brief period of transition and adjustment, migrants have little trouble finding work. Family and social networks play a significant role in this; large shares of migrants report talking to people they know in the U.S. about job opportunities and living with relatives after arrival. They easily make transitions into new jobs, even though most find themselves working in industries that are new to them. … There is a steady and strong demand for migrant workers from Mexico in agriculture, construction, manufacturing and hospitality. These four industries employ about two-thirds of the survey respondents, irrespective of their background in Mexico or their year of arrival. … Migrants from Mexico are responsive to regional variations in demand for their services. Construction is the dominant industry for employing migrants in Atlanta, Dallas and Raleigh; hospitality is the major employer in New York City; manufacturing in Chicago; and agriculture in Fresno. … The percentage of survey respondents employed in agriculture in the U.S. has dropped from 17% of those in country more than 15 years to 9% of recent arrivals. At the same time, the percentage employed in construction and hospitality has increased from 23% to 42%. …

The time is now to close our borders to illegal immigration.

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

Euphoric Reality	Curley’s Corner	TMH’s Bacon Bits
Part-Time Pundit	The Right Track	Cao’s Blog
Mover Mike	In The Bullpen	Stuck on Stupid
NIF	Kender’s Musings	Freedom Folks
Parrot Check	Gribbit’s Word	Right on the Right
Team Swap	Gina’s Rantings	The Irate Nation
Publius Rendezvous	Watchman’s Words	Bear Creek Ledger
Something and Half of Something	Ogre’s Politics and Views	Independent Conservative
The Neo-Con Blogger	Ravings of a Mad Tech	Third World County
A Lady’s Ruminations	Mensa Barbie Welcomes You	Intergalactic Source of Truth
Woman Honor Thyself	Adam’s Thoughts	Amboy Times
Gun Toting Liberal	Right on! Blog	American Daughter
Right Truth

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Sgt. Pepper\’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Hey all you Sgt. Pepper folks out there… help_fr_friends_excerpt.mp3 With a Little Help from My Friends

( J. Lennon, P. McCartney ) What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song
And I’ll try not to sing out of key,

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.

Just a lil inconsequential plea… A year ago, around the end of March, I finally (after six months’ blogging at Blogger) clued in on installing a stats engine and began using Statcounter to track visitors and pageloads, etc. Later (rather much later, as it turns out) I stumbled onto TTLB and installed Sitemeter as well. I’ve managed to roll both those stats engines over to count things here, as well, adding the stats to my former blog’s, and Statcounter has me nearing the lowly figure of 50,000 “unique” visitors. Gimme a lil hand here and nudge a few folks this way so I go over that mark before a whole year has elapsed with Statcounter, wouldya? I’ll still have no idea how many folks dropped by between October 2004 and March 2005, but it’d be one-a those milestones, ya know. And even if my traffic stays relatively low (just a lil over 1,000/week averaged out over the year, regardless of what it says at the place I “froze” Sitemeter :-)), I’ll at least be able to say I suckered 50,000 visits from somewhere. And yeh, I know I have y’all to thank for my relatively high rankings at Technoratti and TTLB in spite of my also relatively low traffic levels: lotsa linkage over the last year or so. Thanks! Yeh, yeh, I know: that will NOT mean 50,000 actually different people, cos cookies clear, folks visit from different computers, etc., but it’s as close to getting a handle on it as I’m going to get with a tightwad’s stats engines. *heh* So, how about it? For the next month, I’ll be sure and plug anyone whose site refers more than 3 readers this way, ‘K? (If I miss you and your site stats record some referrals to me, let me know.)

Blatant begging and whining sent forth at Conservative Cat, Basil\’s Blog, Stop the ACLU and Don Surber (even though this isn\’t a “best post” nominee… just bare naked begging posted at a blog with more than 3X my traffic. heh)

My –our – beloved blog-brother, GM Roper, is fighting cancer. He was diagnosed just a couple weeks ago, went through surgery this past Monday, and is currently in recovery. He’s a tough, determined, and optimistic man, he has a very loving and supportive family, and he’s going to look this tumor in the eye and fight it to his victory.

I am blessed to be associated with him, both in the Wide Awakes, and in the South Park Republicans. He is an encouragement to me, a reasoned voice in the blogosphere, and a beloved brother.

I’ve been in the process of making a quilt for him and his Lady Wife, in part because my finances are a bit strained right now, but mostly because it’s a way I can send real, physical hugs to a gentleman of honor, grace and intelligence who I admire greatly.

And so, to my friends and readers, I’d like to make a very rare – but earnest – bleg. GM has some very substantial medical bills, and any assistance you could give would be very much appreciated. Would you do me the favor of going to his site and clicking on his PayPal button and making a donation? It\’s on his right margin, just a little bit down from the top, with a Visa/MasterCard button displayed on it.

GM is an honorable man, honest and forthright, and encourages civil and reasoned discussion. I love him dearly, even though I’ve never met him face to face. He is fighting this cancer with determination and optimism, and it would be a blessing to him for us all to show our support in some way. Financial support right now might be the most practical method, but if you can’t, please stop by and let him know your best wishes and prayers are with him and his family.

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This is a repost of Romeocat’s post that was lost in the blogage blackout this weekend here at twc. Just let me add a small word: I have been searching for the words to say something along these lines, and when R’Cat e-d to say she’d like to, I knew the right “voice” had answered the need. GM’s a really great guy. Lend him your prayers on top of any other support you may be able to offer. –mnmus

PSA-ed at Don Surber’s, The Conservative Cat and Committees of Correspondence.

Well, either that or it’s a sign of lack of sleep. Gonna be running on coffee today, so I’ll depend upon the good graces of my readers to link to this post and trackback, so I’ll be able to have my reading list ready for this evening, ‘K?

😉

Check out the other fine blogs hosting linkfests as noted in my left sidebar and at Linkfest Haven.

I had a wee moment of joy this a.m. when I started a load of clothes.

A little background. I am a tightwad. I enjoy good food, nice clothes, a comfortable life. My standard of living is probably several steps above our income level, though, because I am a tightwad. I want my good food, nice clothes, etc., at a much lower cost than society in general seems to be satisfied paying, and so I make it so by various means.

That’s being a tightwad. I am not a miser, I spend freely, just always with an eye to the biggest bang for my buck. That doesn’t mean “settling for” lower quality in anything that I deem a “quality of life” purchase.

I recycle. No, not send stuff off for others to recycle. Example: I was watching a DVD of an old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie the other day. While doing so, I was sitting on the floor with my grandfather’s mini-anvil (made, appropriately enough, from a scrap of railroad steel :-), straightening nails taken from a bunch of lumber scraps discarded from a neighbor’s demolition project.

Pure pleasure. Recycling used nails (which I could have purchased for pennies… pennies I now have for other things) while watching an old movie. At the end, a slightly sore wrist from wielding a 2# machinist’s hammer (some of the nails were concrete nails), a bag of mixed nails I can use in projects recycling the discarded lumber scraps and a sense of satisfaction that I had not wasted the time enjoying the movie by simply slumping on the couch.

That’s being a tightwad.

And then there was the tightwad’s joy I experienced this a.m. when I started a load of clothes. Because I use a laundry soap that is rather special, it has a higher price per purchase than equivalent volumes of store brand laundry detergents. Not to worry. It’s per use cost at the manufacturer’s recommended usage is lower than store brand detergents. But being the tightwad that I am, by experimentation I have discovered that in our machine and with our water, we can get our clothes clean using half the recommended amounts. And its more effective formulation allows us to wash almost all our washloads on the washer’s “delicate” setting, which uses less energy, is less wearing on the machine, is less wearing on the clothes themselves, etc.

Now, do you understand my smile when I do laundry? I get to have clean clothes, clothes that will last longer because of less stressful washings, using a less expensive (per use) cleaning agent, all the while lessening wear and tear on an expensive appliance and using less electricity to boot.

A tightwad’s joy. All from making the choice to use one product that is more expensive per unit amount, while keeping an eye on the total picture regarding that price. Cost in many ways is less. For an end resut of a higher quality of life. (Now you know why I have virtually taken over doing laundry: it’s a pleasure. A lil grin each time I do it. 🙂

And so it goes. A bread machine, you say? What an extravagance! Well, consider just the cost of buying pizza versus making your own. In just that one example, one can save enough in a year to buy two bread machines…

Being a tightwad is such a joy.

Spreading the light of tightwaddery…

🙂