JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

05/20/08 05:41 AM

Poor Drear MARCUS of so VERY little immagination, you will not have to worry about anybody ever accusing you of being original. What do you mean by illegal alien? If you mean a person is illegal and by alien that person is also the other, you are a true patriotic American Know Nothing who deals nonsense to cover over the virulent anti-Latino racism made palatable mostly by pandering Republicans.

But you are at least au courant as we just read within the week that the nortorious drug kingpin was pushing drugs on deportees. But it was even more scandalous than your dime a dozen street hustling drug dealer trying to survive in a dead-end ghetto shaped and maintained by Pharoah’s racists, because this drug kingpin was pushing drugs against the will of the victim, people being held and shackled by the kingping and force fed the drugs, taking a leaf from the darkest days of the Soviet KGB. 

I know this ugly episode will not matter to you or the nitwit censor (how they are more smug than the most common the world over) who took down my earlier post. It is evident reading your attempt to be nonsensical that you are equally and openly proud of appearing to be vengeful, spleenful and cruel. Scum, indeed.  Next you will be shouting no forgiveness, no reprieve, no amnesty, no providing people who would very much like to be legal that opportuning. Why? Because you would not want undocumented workers to be other than outcasts.

What you and your ilk fail to understand is that immigration status is no fait accompli; it is a process that takes many years. My father was an “illegal alien"for nearly 27 yrs. before some politically connected people finally were able to intercede on his behalf and his immigration status was regularized. A decade later he became a citizen. That is exactly what I hope happens with the millions of people who live here in fear, always looking over their shoulder, just like my father.

Personally, I could care less if you call the U.S. government “an unlicensed pharmacist.” It’s effete. Realize that your cutting your nose off to spite your face, will solve no economic problem any more than deporting last year a 100,000 people with unregularized immigration status. At that corrosive drip of vitriol and futility, how many years will it take to deport 12 to 14 million people? You do the math. --mo

05/20/08 10:52 AM

Rubashkin = a shande fur de Goyim!

05/20/08 05:54 PM

Ever since I discovered that Rubashkin bulks up some of their products with carrageenan I have stopped buying their stuff. If I wanted artificial bulk, I’d buy artificial bulk. I regard this as a harbinger of what has now been shown to be much worse. Selling bulk at meat prices is, to me, completely unethical. If I had the authority of a learned man in Torah I’d argue it transgresses the injunction to have fair weights and measures.

The last time I saw this was when Swifts started bulking up some of their products with water.

Dunno about meat, but for chicken Empire has a stellar reputation, even with Consumer Reports.

Though I disagree with the idea of a Hechsher Tzedek, since it turns something absolute into something relative which can be manipulated for policy purposes, it is not enough to be Kosher. Judaism teaches that one must also be ethical. Deeds, not words.

I think the Lubaviticher Rebbe (zt"l) would have been appalled by some of Rubashkin’s current actions.

David Sternlight, Ph.D.
Los Angeles

05/20/08 06:20 PM

Whether someone’s actions are illegal or not is not up to you or me. It is up to the citizens of a country through law and due process, taking account of all factors, including economics, preferences, humanitarian considerations, the prevailing “social contract” (every citizen gets something but nobody gets everything they want) etc. That’s why we have our system of government--to be free of the tyranny of an individual, whether it be King George or Manny down the street from imposing their views on the rest of us.

If one feels strongly enough about the matter, it is up to one to persuade one’s fellow citizens and their elected legislators to change the law, not break it.

Immigration reform advocacy, pro and con, is every citizen’s right; breaking the law is not. Civil disobedience only works if one is prepared (at scale) to go to jail for one’s beliefs. The rubber meets the road where one confronts that one is being civilly disobedient and is prepared to take the consequences, not waving rationalizations in the air.

Lest we forget, there was a time when Jews (and Blacks) faced discrimination and quotas in hiring, education, hotels and clubs. The people became convinced this was wrong and now not only laws, but also practices and mores have changed very much for the better. That is the strength of America, not its weakness.

David Sternlight, Ph.D.
Los Angeles

05/21/08 05:01 AM

Thank you, Dr Sternlight—yours has been the sole measured, wise, forthright, and at the same time compassionate voice among a shrill din of others.