Sunday, April 02, 2006

Blog some more

Some readers inferred from the post below that I wouldn't blog again. Perhaps it was that pesky headline: "Blog no more." But everybody knows you can't rely on headlines in newspapers. Why trust blog headlines?

I really only meant to say that I had no regrets about taking three weeks off and that I would blog again only with good reason, such as when I have something to say that isn't likely to fit into the Outpost. Here is one such topic:

Some conservatives (but not all; George Will makes the sensible conservative argument here) make the case against illegal immigration that U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher made Friday night on “Real Time with Bill Maher”: It hurts American workers, and it hurts the American economy.

Many conservatives (I don’t know whether Rohrabacher is one of them) also make the case for Wal-Mart: It helps American workers by providing jobs and low prices, and it helps the American economy. But one reason Wal-Mart has low prices is that it buys heavily overseas, and pressures its suppliers to lower their costs by exporting manufacturing jobs overseas.

Here’s what I don’t get: If it’s good for America to buy cheap goods made by low-wage workers in other countries, why isn’t it good for America to buy cheap goods and services provided by low-wage workers who come here from other countries? What’s the difference?

One difference, Wal-Mart supporters will say, is that illegal immigrants don’t play by the rules. But neither does Wal-Mart. At last count, some 44 lawsuits had been filed against Wal-Mart for forcing employees to work illegally off the clock . And nearly 2 million women are involved in a sex discrimination suit against the company.

So illegal immigrants are just doing what smart entrepreneurs have been doing for centuries: Cutting costs, and a few corners. They are following the dictates of the market. So why is it wrong when they do it and right when Wal-Mart does it?

If we really want to help the American economy, maybe we ought to build a fence around Bentonville.

UPDATE: Don Mellon is permanently banned from this blog. Life is too short to waste any of it on losers like him. If you post a comment that even looks like it be from that scum, it will be deleted. If I have deleted your post in error, please contact me by e-mail. Hear that, Mellon? GO AWAY!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

David:

You need to get a grip on yourself. Before you know it, you’ll be sleeping with the covers pulled over your head like Ed Kemmick and Wulfgar.

Anonymous said...

"If you post a comment that even looks like it be from that scum, it will be deleted. If I have deleted your post in error, please contact me by e-mail."

Apparently, it is hard to discern one scum from another when your mind is coming unraveled.

Anonymous said...

Don Mellon lives at
14 Fish Hatchery Road South
Ennis, MT 59729
and has two phone listings of
(406) 682-7400 or
(406) 682-5216
and he most commonly posts from the IP address:
216.129.238.135
and he shares his street address and at least the first phone number with a Marsha Mellon.

You can cut down on his spam by blacklisting that IP address, then just add any other IPs to your blacklist as they appear.

It is not a crime to give strangers gift subscriptons to publications.

Anonymous said...

¡Limpia esta pocilga!

Anonymous said...

Make it stop! Mom, please go away! Get out of here, please please PLEASE!

Anonymous said...

Wal Mart also forces manufacturers to build factories in Bentonville. While it may be good for economic development in Bentonville, such a policy does nothing for the rest fo the country. It is also risky, should one of more F 4 or F 5 tornaodes go through Bentonville, the damage could seriously affect the entire country economically.

Anonymous said...

Feel free, literally, to make a 5 minute phone call over the Internet and tell the offenders exactly what you think:

http://jajah.com/

Anonymous said...

I hope your drug-dealing friends told you JaJah is an FBI front.

Anonymous said...

I am not the Mark that posted the snivelly comment up above. I find your writing coherent - just got done reading your piece on Schweitzer in Montana Quarterly today. Very good writing.