Normally I don’t do celebrity gossip, but the photo of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise shown below was just too good not to post. The E-Meter seems to have sucked the youth out of Ms. Holmes, and don’t you think that expression looks like a silent cry for help?
The comic does a pretty good job of summarizing my feelings about the opposing arguments on the “immigration” debate in the U.S.. The observant reader will note that I have place “immigration” inside quotes (a.k.a. “sarcasm tongs”). This is to voice my disapproval at the dishonest conflation of the term to include sneaking over the border and taking up residence. It’s a bit of an insult to those of us who did it the legal way, and it gives us an unwarranted stain on our collective reputation. It’s also inconsistent with the left’s insistence that the occupation of Iraq is illegal. there’s gotta be some consistency here, people.
Now don’t get me wrong, folks: I understand the reasons people come to the U.S. and Canada, becuase I have, to use the cliche, been there, done that and got the t-shirt. There are those who will argue that perhaps it’s better if would-be immigrants stayed in their home countries and made them better, but in most cases, that’s infeasible. We’ve got it good here and they’ve got it bad there because of virtuous and vicious circles. Furthermore, we feed both circles — it is often in our best interests to keep third world governments corrupt and kleptocratic and for other countries’ standards of living to be lower than ours. It keeps our goods cheap and plentiful. It is this plenitude that lets sit high atop Maslow’s hierarchy and pursue interests beyond mere survival: personal self-realization, creative expression, intellectual exploration and social justice. The irony is that the only reason we have the luxury of studying Marxist theory (I view Marxist studies as the educational equivalent of the TV show What Not to Wear) in detail beyond “here’s your AK-47; now go hide in the jungle until we tell you to come out shootin'” is because of capitalism.
This brings me to the “illegal immigrants do the jobs that we’re no willing to do” argument. This is essentially the same thing as saying “Hey, they’re an exploitable underclass who are undocumented and therefore can be paid sub-minimum wage. Hot damn, we got us Coolies again!”
Besides, we already have a built-in source of poorly-educated, unskilled labour:
It just occurred to me that today is V-E Day, the day in which the Allies formally celebrated the ass-kicking of Nazi Germany and Hitler’s reduction in rank from dangerous megalomaniac to overused rhetorical device in arguments and gag character in a few Mel Brooks films.
For you budding history buffs, V-J day takes place a little later on this year: August 15th.
Well, now we know what your hands look like if you stay underwater for a week: like Keith Richards! Case in point:
(For those not familiar with Quebecois colloquialisms, “tabernac” is an all-purpose swear word. It is derived from the term “tabernacle”; in Quebecois French, many church terms are often used as profanities.)
The story about Luc Cagadoc, the Filipino boy in Montreal who was punished for eating his lunch Filipino-style with a fork and spoon, has been discussed widely amongst members of my immediate and extended family. It’s also caught the attention of the media on both sides of the Pacific and the Akbayan Citizens Action Party in the Philippines, who marched in protest at the Canadian Embassy in Manila:
Here are some links to stories covering the shameful spoon-and-fork incident and the protest:
What the spoon-and-fork movement against the rat-bastards who run that Montreal school needs is a mascot. I cannot think of anyone more appropriate than the great superhero, The Tick…
After all, his battle-cry is most appropriate:
Those of you from the Philippines, Thailand or Singapore are familiar with the “spoon and fork” style of eating. The fork goes in the left hand, spoon in the right. The spoon can be used as a cutting implement, and the fork is used to push the food into the spoon which then goes in the mouth. It’s perfect for dishes served with sauces and rice.
(In some cases, the “fork and spoon” method could be perceived as snooty.)
I just got sent a link (thanks, Daejin!) to a story about a seven-year-old Montreal area boy who’s being punished for eating at school Filipino style:
Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.
But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.
…
When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2 student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.
Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.”
…
She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”
What a bunch of sweethearts. This story is already being reported in the Philippines, on the ABS-CBN News (ABS-CBN is a Filipino TV channel) and the Manila Times.
I myself tend to use the etiquette that’s appropriate to the situation. I use the Filipino fork-and-spoon method at Sunday dinner with the family, the knife-and-fork method when dining with “The Man”, use my chopsticks as both eating and serving utensils at dim sum . Depending on the situation, I eat pizza with either a knife and fork or my hands. I think that Luc should learn a number of eating styles for all situations, but I don’t think that the fork-and-spoon method is so offensive that he should be punished for it.
To my mind, it’s another case of intolerance married to Quebec “for me but not for thee” cultural insecurity, where they whine about being Francophones drowning in an Anglophone sea, and then turn around and pull this kind of nonsense.
If you missed last night’s Colbert Report, you might be unaware that as of today, there are 999 days left in the Bush administration. In honour of this event, here’s a pointer to a comic I found amusing: Everything I Know I Learned from the Bush Administration. Some samples…
I love the “comic book convention” joke:
