The recent immigrants will have large families, but that will taper off beginning in the second generation. We have been dependent on immigration to fill up the bottom level of jobs, until out-sourcing began in earnest which really jacked up unemployment and forced people to lower their expectations.
The easiest way to stop “illegal immigration” is to eliminate opportunity, and this economy is certainly making an effort to do that.
One of the primary problems of US-Russian relations are all of the Cold Warriors who are still in important positions and refuse to let go. There was a period when things could have really improved bi-lateral relations, but it was thrown away. Both sides did it, but the US was supposed to be the good guys, and make a real effort.
]]>OT: Didn’t know where else to put this… Came across this on a techy blog I visit now and then, an MSNBC news report on a new Nuclear battery using tritium which is said to last at least a decade. Thought you might be interested. 🙂 Apparently, it works kinda like an encapsulated solar cell.
]]>The system is broken.
Steal a loaf of bread, you go to prison. Steal $10 million and you get probation and a book deal.
]]>Real intel, based on real clues, and real possibilities is the only way you ever catch anyone, as we both know, Kryten. If there was a pattern, it would have been found in the 1970s and ’80s was there were a hell of a lot more people involved.
Murders, btw are easy to profile: more than 95% of all murders in the US are committed by someone known to the victim. The perception of the press and public than murders go unsolved is based on the fact that the only murders they have the time to concentrate on, are the remaining small group. Even drive-bys could be solved if the police had any trust in the neighborhoods where they happen.
Burglaries, on the other hand, are a PITA, because you have to follow them until you can gather enough evidence.
Criminals are male between 15 and 45 and normally of the same ethnic group and social class as the victim, but the media fixates on the outliers. Criminals are represented in the same proportion that is found in the population, but jail time for convictions is heavily skewed based on ethnicity and social class. It’s a lot of work getting the system to send a rich white guy away for some serious prison time; you really have to pound on the prosecutor.
We have the data to do some serious profiling on criminals but it isn’t done because the reality interferes with established prejudice. That prejudice is another factor making terrorist profiling impossible.
No one wants to hear that the leaders of all major terrorist groups are from wealthy families and well educated who began their search for religion in late night dorm sessions that involved mind altering substances. Show me the scion of a wealthy family who had drug problem and found religion, and I will show you a probable terrorist leader. Look at the major terrorists and tell me I’m wrong.
Actually, John, I am barefoot, but that’s because my shoes got wet feed cats at noon.
Ellroon, how can you say such things about an idea of Joe LIEberman. Actually, I was corresponding with my then Senator, Bill Graham, about consolidating functions to make them more efficient. One thing was returning the Coast Guard to its original purpose and giving them back the Customs and Immigration Service with total control of the ports and territorial waters, but the Republicans, despite what they keep telling people, always prefer a new bureaucracy with more patronage jobs for their cronies, and that has been the Republican pattern since Lincoln.
]]>And btw, Obama needs to flush the ridiculous ‘Department der Homeland Sekurity” and reinstate a cabinet post. That and the even more bizarre ‘War Czar’ which was redundant with … you know… the Commander in Chief. (Sorry… the Deciderer)
]]>Well well! Intelligence from an *intelligence* agency! What a novel concept! LOL Who’da thunk it??
So, Bryan… as an ex copper etc, and given that far more murders are committed than so-called *acts of terrorism*… Do you think you could give an accurate profile of a *Murderer*? 😉 And I know it’s been tried, many times, and I know it’s failed, many times. 🙂 So… what made ANYONE with at least a single working brain cell think that creating a working profile of a *Terrorist* would even be possible, let alone work?
And yes, I know… it had nothing to do with actually stopping *Terrorism*. Duh! 😉
I still think that light at the end of the tunnel growing brighter is an oncoming express train. Gonna be a real bitch when it hits.
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