"What are you majoring in? Beach Studies?"
Howdy ho again. First week of classes has actually gone relatively well. I was somewhat apprehensive about the Caribbean History class, but Prof. Figueroa seems like a really good guy and the class should actually be pretty interesting despite being a large lecture. Historiography also sounds pretty damn fun too. So academically, this semester should actually be quite enjoyable.
I made a fourth-quarter decision to apply to London School of Economics for the entire year for my study abroad "programme" (I have to get used to the British vernacular :-). It's the only school I'm applying to for the full year, but it should actually be a lot of fun if I end up there. If I don't, there's always Oxford of UCL. We'll see how all that goes.
In other news, the State of the Union address. What I think is so hilarious about Bush's speech was that he was so sweepingly unspecific. He states that the economy is rebounding and jobs are returning, but gives no numbers to back up his statements. The economy may be rebounding, but unemployment is certainly no lower now than it was before. The War on Terror is being won, yet we're given no new specifics as to how our national security has been improved, and especially no links to Iraq.
We're going to give jobs to illegal immigrants under a new pseudo-citizenship plan that allows immigrants to stay in the states as long as they're employed. This is essentially localized sweatshops or indentured servitude, because employers can eliminate collective bargaining power by threatening to deport workers should they try to unionize. There's no chance for upward mobility because they're completely beholden to the company to stay in the States, AND that also makes them trackable, meaning there would can be no downtime from job to job because the previous employer can report them to the government as being unemployed and therefore illegal. Also, this allows for the expansion of illegal immigrants into other industries besides agriculture, costing existing Americans their jobs. In other words, the US Citizen making $8.25 at WalMart could lose his job to a Mexican who will work for minimum wage. So the employee is faced with two choices, unemployment or a pay-cut. The response to this is "well then they should get an education and get a better job," but has it ever occurred to this horrendously self-centered administration that the REASON they're working at WalMart is because they can't afford an education? And with all the social services cuts that have gone on lately, it isn't like that education is going to be subsidized for those people. So we're fucking over lower-income Americans in the interest of cheap labor. And yes I understand that these people are currently making less than minimum wage and that's horrible, but why can't they immigrate like regular people? I've read and heard comments from legally immigrated Mexican-Americans who are absolutely pissed that they played by the rules, jumped through all the hoops, and a bunch of people who knowingly circumvented the system are getting a clean slate.
This is the kind of manipulation that makes me sick.
G.W. Bush is a soulless human being.
Strike that, he's an animal. Because only animals are solely preoccupied with their own subsistence, and he sure as hell is.
I made a fourth-quarter decision to apply to London School of Economics for the entire year for my study abroad "programme" (I have to get used to the British vernacular :-). It's the only school I'm applying to for the full year, but it should actually be a lot of fun if I end up there. If I don't, there's always Oxford of UCL. We'll see how all that goes.
In other news, the State of the Union address. What I think is so hilarious about Bush's speech was that he was so sweepingly unspecific. He states that the economy is rebounding and jobs are returning, but gives no numbers to back up his statements. The economy may be rebounding, but unemployment is certainly no lower now than it was before. The War on Terror is being won, yet we're given no new specifics as to how our national security has been improved, and especially no links to Iraq.
We're going to give jobs to illegal immigrants under a new pseudo-citizenship plan that allows immigrants to stay in the states as long as they're employed. This is essentially localized sweatshops or indentured servitude, because employers can eliminate collective bargaining power by threatening to deport workers should they try to unionize. There's no chance for upward mobility because they're completely beholden to the company to stay in the States, AND that also makes them trackable, meaning there would can be no downtime from job to job because the previous employer can report them to the government as being unemployed and therefore illegal. Also, this allows for the expansion of illegal immigrants into other industries besides agriculture, costing existing Americans their jobs. In other words, the US Citizen making $8.25 at WalMart could lose his job to a Mexican who will work for minimum wage. So the employee is faced with two choices, unemployment or a pay-cut. The response to this is "well then they should get an education and get a better job," but has it ever occurred to this horrendously self-centered administration that the REASON they're working at WalMart is because they can't afford an education? And with all the social services cuts that have gone on lately, it isn't like that education is going to be subsidized for those people. So we're fucking over lower-income Americans in the interest of cheap labor. And yes I understand that these people are currently making less than minimum wage and that's horrible, but why can't they immigrate like regular people? I've read and heard comments from legally immigrated Mexican-Americans who are absolutely pissed that they played by the rules, jumped through all the hoops, and a bunch of people who knowingly circumvented the system are getting a clean slate.
This is the kind of manipulation that makes me sick.
G.W. Bush is a soulless human being.
Strike that, he's an animal. Because only animals are solely preoccupied with their own subsistence, and he sure as hell is.