Month: September 2016
US Immigration defined
Immigration is defined in law in a pretty straightforward manner. If you cross US borders, you are defined as an immigrant unless you fit into one of twenty two different non-immigrant categories defined in 8USC§1101(a)(15). Each letter subsection of that section corresponds to the more familiar letter codes for non-immigrant visas. Most people are not familiar with all of them but the definitions aren’t particularly complex or confusing. If you’re seeking to cross the border as an immigrant, there are several sections under 8USC Subchapter II that apply. If you are a citizen, you’ve got to have a passport to leave or return.
Neither side in the immigration debate seems to want to lay out, specifically, what sections of the law they wish to change and how exactly they want to change it. Are there extremist imams getting R visas and endangering the safety of americans (mostly muslims)? That’s not the way we talk about immigration. Why,exactly, is the secretary of Labor involved in the issuance of visas?
We’d be a lot better off if discussion of the law had a lot more law in it.
Worthwhile Watching
…especially for Labor Day weekend
There probably aren’t too many TV series centered around a CNC machine shop…but there’s at least one, and it’s called Titans of CNC. The producer and central figure, Titan Gilroy–yes, that’s his real name–grew up in rough circumstances, spent some time in prison, and eventually learned machine-tool operation and CNC programming. With these skills in hand, he built a pretty substantial business, Titan America, which is focused on precision machining, mainly producing components of products being made by larger companies.
The program is about the challenges involved in the operation of Titan America and a portrait of some of its employees and customers. It is also a passionate argument for the importance of manufacturing in America. Sponsors include Autodesk, IMCO Carbide Tools, Haas Automation and GoEngineer.
The series was made for a cable channel called MATV, which is owned by Lucas Oil Products and is targeted towards car people. It’s available on Amazon streaming, which is where I’ve been watching it.
There’s an interview with Titan in Manufacturing & Technology News.
There is no such thing as immigration
Immigration is like darkness. It is the absence of something, not something in and of itself. It is a partial restoration of the state of nature.
The natural state of man is that we move as we please. We stop people from moving as they or we please for various reasons. These stopping points are generally, but not exclusively called borders. Borders are not permanent. They can be moved, erased, reconstituted again. As any observer of Europe will note it can happen quickly and pretty often. Borders do not have to be impermeable. They can have exceptions to the rules. When people are peacefully allowed to cross borders permanently according to the will of the people controlling the border as an exception to the general rule of no crossings, it’s called immigration. Since most borders are controlled by more than one group, the exiting group often calls it a different term than the entry group.
You cannot create a proper system of exceptions to a rule without understanding why the rule exists. But ask people who have strong opinions on immigration why borders exist and more times than not, they haven’t considered the question at all. You could intuit why we have borders by the exceptions but almost nobody does, not even immigration restrictionists. We’re all playing the old game of blind men feeling the elephant and having opinions as to what it is.
What Chicago Boyz Readers Are Reading (July and August 2016)
Below is a list of the books, ebooks, music and videos that Chicago Boyz readers viewed and/or ordered in July and August 2016 via Amazon links on this blog. (A cumulative list of Chicago Boyz readers’ Amazon purchases is here.)
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