As if immigrants to the Western world don’t have enough to worry about with accusations of terrorism and complaints of non-assimilation, they must also endure the frequent criticisms that come from their home country. If they become too involved in the affairs of their home country while abroad than they’re accused of paternalism and arrogance. [...]

“Fewer than a third of all Americans believe the state has a responsibility to reduce income disparities, compared with 82% of Italians.”
- David Brooks, NYT
Frequently enough I see coffeehouse American philosophers scratching their chins and wondering to one another, “how is it that we were the first ones to embrace modern day democracy and yet [...]

Picking up the paper this past week and avoiding an article about our southern border would have been like picking up a gallon of prune juice and avoiding the toilet: difficult. As chance would have it, during the media blitz brought on by a couple high-profile surveys and two governors’ declarations of states of emergency, [...]

Let’s take a break from my incessant whining about my very flat wallet shall we?
Last Monday, I think it was, Laura and I took off in the Chi Chi for a three hour desert trip to Northern Coahuila. Through the maquila filled pueblo/rancho of San Pedro, the vast expanse of flat desert nothingingness, and finally [...]

The conservative Black Pundit and the liberal Latino Pundit have an interesting exchange going on about language in American society. Check out both of their positions and the comments below. This is what I commented on Latino Pundit’s post. Unfortunately he has HTML deactivated, so the links didn’t show up.
First of all, I seriously hope [...]

An excerpt from Richard Florida’s recent article from Utne Reader:
Obviously, this shift has come about with the changing of the political guard in Washington, from the internationalist Bill Clinton to the aggressively unilateralist George W. Bush. But its roots go much deeper, to a tectonic change in the country’s political-economic demographics. As many have noted, [...]

Before I forget, I just finished translating Laura’s comment from the moral relativism versus absolutism post. Go check it out. I’ll be adding my one and a half cents soon.
Now, let’s get down to business and declare war on Mexico (sorry sweetie). I know you faithful readers get sick of me putting Steve Lopez up [...]

I have long been interested in how remittances effect both sending and receiving communites of migrant workers. The amount of money sent to the developing world by immigrants (nearly 10 billion dollars each to Mexico, India, and the Philippines) has received scant attention despite its potential in development as well as its need for reform.
So [...]

Last Friday started as most Fridays do: me tickling my sister at 6:30 am until she squirms, yells, and says, “fine, fine, I’m getting up.” 7:30 am and we’ve already dropped her off … Laura and I are cutting through the morning fog (usually there is much more of this morning fog in San Diego’s [...]

Just after posting that last bit I found a very interesting exchange of letters and a response by Huntington here on the FP website. (they annoyingly ask you to register)
Here is what my old advisor, Wayne Cornelius wrote: