The Reasonable Activist

Seems that there is a new push to end terrorism by bringing jobs and hope to impoverished Muslim strongholds.   Outsourced call-centers teach employees English and provide America-based jobs, which also bolsters areas of economic distress while promoting friendly relations with the West.

Full Yahoo Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090613/lf_afp/financeeconomyphilippinesunrestmuslimbusiness

WHY AREN’T WE DOING THIS WITH MEXICO?!  All the racists and rednecks constantly gripe about how the illegal immigrants are ‘taking all our jobs’ when really these are the jobs no one is willing to do, or do well, or do for the price American businesses and consumers demand.  Mexico and parts of Central America are so desperately impoverished, of course people would want to come to El Norte for a chance at a better job and life.  Our current economic crisis has done more to stem the tide of illegal immigration than any number of law enforcement officials or tactics.

We sit up here and fret and worry about the drug cartel violence spreading across our mutual border, yet all we want to do is bitch and put forth violent and useless options such as, “round up all the immigrants and send them a) back home, b) to jail, c)to their Maker (i.e. shoot them)”.  How about we help them fix their economic problems, and in doing so we ALSO SOLVE OUR OWN BORDER ISSUE.

Of course, this would involve some serious and open talks with the Mexican government, who would have to be willing to be helped.  We’d have to help them solve their endemic corruption problem to ensure goods/services coming from Mexico or Central America met our standards.  These are not small items, but it is a far better solution than the one found at the end of a gun.

For every problem, there is a solution which is simple, neat, and wrong.  — H.L. Mencken

I wanted to draw attention to this recently published FBI perspective on “school shooters”, which is a succinct term for students who suddenly snap, go to school armed, and kill their fellow classmates and/or school faculty.

http://www.fbi.gov/publications/school/school2.pdf

As an interesting FYI, there is also a terrorism newspaper archive now available to the general public.

http://www.theterrorismarchive.com/Home.aspx

While dull, assessments can be invaluable for the everyday layperson who suddenly wonders “Why did the government or authority in charge do such-and-such instead of so-and-so?  Doesn’t anyone have common sense?”  These perspectives give us insight into the general bureaucratic thought processes that may lead to policies appearing illogical on the outside.