OK, I know the title is a bit much, but I was so annoyed by Bourdain's left-wing BS concerning his episode about the US/Mexcican border.

Bourdain likens the locking down of our border to the Berlin Wall. While, the liberal idea of open borders, kumbaya, we're all pals, SOUNDS ideal, he discounts the mountain of data that exposes this egalitarian wet-dream, as a nightmare. He mixes the individual dynamic ("Pedro is a great guy"), with the social or group dynamic ("the toll that Pedro's family, friends, etc., have on US socity/economy").

Just like we tell our actors that inject themselves into politics, "shut up and act," I think Bourdain needs the same advice. IF Bourdain wants to give us his unlearned opinions on immigration, then maybe he should at the very LEAST be consistent. Why didn;t Bourdain express his disgust at the Mexican government's behavior against the immigrants from south of the Mexican border? Mexico jails, and even EXECUTES people that try to steal into Mexico from South America. No word on that eh?

The essence of Bourdain's message is, "the Mexican immigrant is peaceful, nice, and a wonderful asset, so we shouldn't police our borders." For some ungodly, inexplicable reason, it generally is ONLY, rich, white liberals, who feel that the idea of nationally sovereignty is a strange concept. NO other people believe this about their countries. Bourdain believes what he does about our border, b/c the only Mexicans he knows are the workers that cook for him, and the billionaires he's brunched with. He doesn't live in areas that were once nice yet now drip w/ Mexican gang graffitti. He doesn't have children that goto schools that once enjoyed high GPA's yet now suffer under the wait of children who aren't learning, don't speak English, and fill classrooms way beyond capacity. He doesn't know that the data show that wherever Mexicans exist en masse in the US, assimilation becomes futile, and Balkanization abounds. He doesn't know that Mexican kids drop-out at TRIPLE our avg rate. He doesn't care that Mexicans are 19 times more likely to be involved in youth gangs than other children. He doesn't know the tremendous cost of welfare, health care, policing them. He is clueless that Mexicans dispropotionally commit crimes, and are now clogging almost every prison in the US. He doesn't consider that, Mexico's 2nd biggest national income is from remitences that illegal immigrant Mexicans sap from our economy and send to home. He doesn't heed economists like Thomas Sowell or Roy Beck (video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ&feature=related), and many more who empirically prove that the slave labor of immigrants doesn't offset their tremendous social costs.

Bourdain, stop hoisted your fantasies of how it should be when it obfuscates how it is.
Of course we all would HOPE that the millions of illegals would assimilate, not commit such cime, and social pathology, but the reality is much different. Why build a wall Bourdain? Well, goto East Los Angeles, South Chicago, Queens NY, etc., and see for yourself the toll they have taken on what were once wonderful places to live. Yes, Bourdain, "Maria" from Jalisco is a sympathetic enough person, but what about her 3 kids, who statistically have a 49% chance of being ditched by their father (#1 predictor of crime = borken home), who are 3 times more likely to drop-out, and who are 19 times more likely to be in gangs? And what of Maria's boyfriend that wants to stab his buddy on a Saturday night, forcing me to pay his jail stay? Is it liberal orthodoxy to dismiss all of these realities b/c, after all, you have a few great immigrant friends?

Mexico has a people suited for Mexico, not the US. The Pew found that 75% of Mexicans, IF they had the chance, would migrate to the US. I would too, so I don't blame them. I blame us for letting them. I would have a diferent opinion if they came here, assimilated to our social and statistical norms, but they don't. They fracture off, breaking off chunks of towns and reclaiming them for their failed country. They drape Mexican flags everywhere, and wear shirts touting "La Raza" (the race), and they bring the very things that have made Mexico a complete mess to our country. This isn't just hyperboly, this is looking out your car window. Mexicans love Mexico so much and are so loyal to it that they want us to be Mexican too. No thanks.

We have had open borders since the idiotic immigration act of 1964. Is it a coincidence that the following years saw the collapse of many once great areas of major cities? Is it a wonder that when we said yes to Haitians, and Puerto Rico, that they brought the sordid Haiti and Puerto Rico w/ them? Is it a wonder that when we dangled the carrot of $ in front of Mexico's face, and let them in, that we saw our city sectors turn into Mexico's worst regions? Chicago's most violent gangs are Mexican (26 st gang, Latin Kings, etc.). Same for NY's Puerto Rican gangs. How about the worst gang in the Western HEMISPHERE, brought direct from El Salvador, MS 13. They now infect even Canada, b/c the Canadian dopes thought like Bourdain, that depraved El Salvador would somehow STREGTHEN Canada. I won't even go into what the Jamaican immigrants have done to Toronto.

Why build a wall Bourdain? We CLAIM we fight poverty, yet we import the most impoverished. We CLAIM to fight crime, yet import those who are more likely to commit crime. We CLAIM to fight school failure, yet import those who are most likely to fail in school. Why build a wall? You do the math.

Yes, many Mexican immigrants are great people, and those are the ones you know. But while you don't know the activities of their sons, daughters, cousins, uncles, and friends, who they invite to shack w/ them (15 to a home in some cases), I DO. And I have the anecdote, crime reports, and immovable data that undergird everything I say. You have a yummy enchilada and a mariachi band on a Saturday night to persuade your arguments. I'll error on the side of reality.

Shut up and cook Bourdain!

KM
PS: You all won't believe this, but I LOVE Bourdain's show, his wit, and everthing else.
PPS: Yeah, yeah, I know you'll call me a bigot, and that "it's the mean evil "system," that's forcing Jose to do his drive-by's." Save it.

quote:

Shut up and cook Bourdain!

You want to silence Bourdain yet expect us to lend an ear to your opinion. Your voice is no more deserving of respect than Tony's.

Who is being the fascist?

PS--Don't waste your time replying with some copied and pasted, Rush Limbaugh polemic. I don't care to debate this topic.

checkmate tinybites!

Yeah, some "checkmate." Bourdain is a chef, not a journalist or politician. People don't want to hear is communist border policies. You see, whether actors, or chefs, I guess the agenda driven left can't help but spew their unfounded, completely naive, and eutopian crackpot worldviews. The problem is that they know far less than most of their fans, and so this gives the fan a chance to rectify their mistakes.

iheartny, a checkmate is a "tiny bit" (no pun intended) more than, "your voice is no better than Tony's."

KM

hey kyle, dump your political garbage somewhere else. sorry you ain't getting laid, btw.

Typical NR fans--no thinking, just stupid comments like "sorry you're not getting laid"--why don't you respond to some of the points this guy is making--the issue is not simple. There is such a total refusal on this board to deal with anything but the most ridiculous and mindless hero-worship.

This is a highly volatile subject, and has been covered here in the past. We all have opinions, and they are shaped by our surroundings and experiences. I don't know where Kyle lives, but I can imagine it's a similar situation to my part of the country as I am in complete agreement with him. Where I disagree is in his annoyance with Bourdain's "left-wing BS". Yes, it does annoy me that those who have access to an audience are usually pampered and catered-to actors who have no foot in reality, in Bourdain's case it is different. His experience is with an entirely different type of illegal immigrant than the ones who have destroyed our school system here in California and clogged our emergency wards. I respect the validity of his point of view even though I disagree strongly with it. Kyle, I think you should ease up a bit. What the heck, pour yourself a martoonie. I'll have one too.

quote:

I blame us for letting them. I would have a diferent opinion if (blah blah blah) but they don't. They fracture off...reclaiming [towns] for their failed country. They...tout "La Raza" (the race), and they bring the very things that have made Mexico a complete mess to our country. This isn't just hyperboly, this is looking out your car window.

Lordy, lordy - I hope you are Native American, kyleminonos - otherwise, you should probably find another way to make your immigration argument when you're talking about this particular country. "Those who fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it" and all that...

Also, "hyperbole" end with an "e", my friend. If you're going to hurl invectives, sharpen them first.

Oh, good grief. Even the "Native" Americans came from somewhere else, and your quote about repeating history is a non sequitor. If you want to pick nits, "hyperbole" is a singular noun and requires that the verb agree, "ends". Apparently in the NW you don't suffer the problems brought on by uncontrolled illegal immigration. You also don't seem to suffer the inconvenience of listening to other peoples' opinions, even if they're valid ones.

The sequitor ain't "non" - when the NA got here, they were the first humans on the continent. Thus, the "Native". If we follow your logic, perhaps we all should have stayed in the Rift Valley and put a wall around that. And for the record, I spent many years in New Mexico, so yes, I have lived with the effects of Mexican immigration, legal and not.

I'm not saying there aren't severe problems, just that the wall probably isn't an effective way to deal with them. All opinions are "valid", and I love to hear them, or I wouldn't be here. Doesn't mean I can't disagree with them or point out rhetorical weaknesses in an argument.

Welcome to America! ;-)

On the noun-verb agreement, ya got me. That was a typo, and you nailed me on it. Point granted.