I didn't write about the huge, hairy screaming match between Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera last week, largely because I was having my own pissing match with a disgusting troll over at CSPT and that was sucking up all my energy (petty, I know).
At the time I heard about the argument over the illegal alien driving drunk who killed Tessa Trachant, I read this nutroot post on O'Reilly's rant.
The problem I have with the pro-illegal immigrant crowd (and make no mistake, they are pro-illegal immigrant) is their inability to accept that coming here illegally means the "immigrants" are breaking our laws in the first place. Everything else they do is just breaking more laws.
This is why the Tessa Trachant case is so tragic and why it is bizarre to me that pro-illegal immigrant supporters don't see that, while being illegal didn't cause this person to drive drunk, if he had not been in this country illegally, he wouldn't have killed Tessa Trachant. And, frankly, I'm very troubled Tessa's dad thinks it is disrespectful to point out the fact that this man couldn't have killed his daughter had he not been here illegally. I guess you have to cope with tragedy the best way you can. But arguing that there can be no political debate about that tragedy ignores its own ramifications.
Patterico makes the point eloquently with this analogy:
Imagine that I invite 20 people to my party. 10 other people crash it.
1 of every 5 people spills drinks on the carpet. This goes for party crashers as well as invited guests.
Because I invited 20 guests, I expected 4 drinks spilled on the carpet. Because I ended up with 30 guests, I got 6 spilled drinks.
It should be obvious that I am going to be extra annoyed by the 2 drinks spilled by the 10 party crashers — even though they spilled drinks at the same rate as the invited guests.
I see the 4 spilled drinks, spilled by invited guests, as the cost of throwing a party. But I am especially annoyed at the 2 drinks spilled by the people I didn't even invite.
Because I didn’t invite them. They never should have been here in the first place.
Not to mention that the party was noisier than I’d wanted it to be, and many people had to stand, because there weren’t enough seats. There’s a reason I invited only 20 people.
I am utterly unmoved by lectures that I am wrong to be more upset at the party crashers, because they spilled drinks at the same rate as the people I invited.
I don't care. I didn't invite them.
I am utterly unmoved by arguments that "people wearing red shirts" still would have spilled drinks at the rate of 1 spilled drink per 5 guests.
I don't care. I didn't invite them.
Don't you get it? I didn't invite them.
I've actually been kicked off a blog for pointing out that legal immigrants are fine and if you really think we should be letting in more immigrants, then change the laws. But the flood of illegal immigrants causes more traffic, more crime, more overcrowding of schools, more stress on our social services, and they pay less to support those services. Because even if they only commit crimes at the same rate as everyone else, it means more crimes are being committed. This isn't racist. It's common sense.
But the nutroots aren't going to let logic interfere with calling people racists.
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