Monday, February 12, 2018

Lunchables

There's a significant difference between "having to work this weekend" and "getting to work this weekend".  One becomes a drudge and, unless you're an hourly employee, means no weekend and no extra pay.  Solidly " ¡No Bueno!

On the other hand, if one of your former co-workers, who's moved on to a bigger, better, faster and (most importantly) more lucrative career, calls and asks if you'd help him by taking on a project he needs done, well then, that's  a horse of a different color.  
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Provided, of course, you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart and the remuneration is commensurate with your mastery of skills and the fact that your weekend went down the tubes.

Fortunately that's the case this weekend.... because Mrs. Juvat needs new shoes! Or something....

So, my usual Sunday of browsing the internet in search of pithy trivia related to some universe shattering issue has been put aside for to earn those new shoes.
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Also lost in the shattering of the usual weekend rut schedule was breakfast this morning.  Normally, Sunday is spent in Church first then a breakfast at a local restaurant off the tourist path.  However, as the morning broke with a temperature in the low 20's and a freezing rain falling, those were both scratched from the Ops Schedule.

Finally around 9ish, the conditions were such that I could drop Mrs J off at her store where she could commit merchantilism whilst I toiled after those precious slippers.

But as I headed towards my usual office space (because it's quiet, no distractions and the internet connection is WAAAY faster than home, Sarge, if you must know), I realized that I hadn't consumed any nutrients.  Desiring to rectify that prior to the onset of hypoglycemia, I stopped at a bakery in town, and ordered some sausage kolache's.  


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Yes, I know.  typically kolache's are made with pastry and jam, not pastry and sausage.  Yes, I know to do otherwise is "cultural appropriation".  SFW!  They taste very good with the sweetness of the pastry offsetting the savoriness of the sausage.  My money, my breakfast!

Now, this particular bakery, is owned and run by an Asian family.  If I had to guess their ethnicity, which I'm horrible at, I'd say they were Vietnamese.  The head of the household is approximately my age, so very well could have emigrated towards the end of those festivities.  The wife and the son's and their wives all work the storefront.  

Very nice people, very pleasant, very hard working and, much to my cardiologist's dismay, they produce an excellent product.  So....

How's that for Cultural Appropriation?  A 50% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% German born in America purchasing breakfast from an immigrant from Vietnam, who uses  French dough, and German Sausage to make a Czech pastry in a Texas town. 

Murica!

As I was standing at the register waiting to sign the credit card receipt, I happened to notice something, which clarified a lot of things in my mind.

A simple display of flags.  A couple of United States Flags and one for each of the 5 services (Coast Guard! Jeez guys!).



It dawned on me these folks are proud to be here, proud to be Americans, proud of our country.  Just like most of my friends, family and I.

That solidified a thought I've been ruminating about lately.  The knowitalls, regardless of the letters following their name (CNN, D, R, BLM... whatever!) would have you believe that all immigrants want to bring their culture here and don't want to "be like us". 

But, there really are two kinds of immigrants.  The group the knowitalls describe are those who want to be here, because they'll be supported and don't have to work at all.  They bring the bad things of their culture and want us to become them. The source of all knowledge, cites a term "Lunchables" defined as where separate cultures "co-exist" by being entirely separate and maintaining no contact or involvement. That seems an apt description for this group.

 The other group is those that want to be here, work hard, succeed and become one of us while bringing the good things from their culture to improve ours.  Like this family.


I see the "knowitall" Lunchable plan as a recipe for chaos and disaster.

Am I wrong?

I'm good with Immigrants from the first group coming here.

As for the second, well, if I wanted to join their culture, I'd move there.  Doesn't seem to be much of that happening for some odd reason though.

As best I can figure, being in the first group is not determined by the legality or illegality of their arrival.  The same could be said for members of the second.  I think that distinction lies within the individual.  I support that hypothesis by looking at our student population.  There is a key field in my database that defines their arrival method. 

Unfortunately, that information seems to be the Alpha and Omega in the ongoing argument on immigration. Legal=Good, illegal=Bad.  I don't believe that to be correct.  If you live between Brownsville Tx and San Diego CA, you know folks that didn't go through the proper channels.  Heck, if you live most places in the US, you know folks...

I'm not condoning breaking the law to get here, and I do wish it were easier to do it legally.  But from my point of view, I see  no correlation between the value in that field and grades or discipline, in either direction.  By extension, I do see a correlation between trends in grades and discipline and where you're headed in life (i.e. whether you're going to be an asset to the population or a burden which in my binary brain translates to Good/Bad).

I also think that there's a correlation with the trend in grades and discipline and the attitudes of the adults/chronologically advanced humans in their children's lives and the Good/Bad distinction.

Given that, I think the President's proposal for a 12 year wait to determine intent is not a bad idea and should not be dismissed outright.  Get a job, stay out of trouble and in basically the same time a legal immigrant can gain citizenship, so can they.

My 2 cents.

Or as I used to say...

"Fight's on!"






28 comments:

  1. Here in Wisconsin, those are Pigs in a Blanket!

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    1. Since Mrs J was born and raised there, that's what she calls them also. However, using that terminology down here ID's you as "not from 'round heer!" so she's modified her terminology. All that having been said, they're good eats!

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  2. 12 years of undetected crime is a pretty good filter.

    Good enough for gold stripes on your crackerjacks. Probably a reasonable number in this case as well. Folks tend to be motivated by sunk costs they have to put into and endeavor -- like citizenship.

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    1. Sunk Costs. I like that description and I think you're right about how that motivates folks.

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  3. Great post Juvat. Being a multi-cultural kind of guy, married to an immigrant dontcha know, I enjoy the different "flavors" other cultures bring to the mix. But you've got to mix for it to work. Stay off by yourselves and expect us to be you, that ain't gonna work. Pitch in with the rest of us and I say "Welcome!"

    Trump's on the right path. We want useful citizens, not people on the dole voting for anyone with a (D) after their name.

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    1. Thanks.

      Yep, I've lived in a lot of places in the world both in and out of the country. It's been my experience that there are good and bad folks everywhere and they come in all shapes, colors, sexes, religions, nationalities... One thing I did notice is that the bad folks all seem to want to control other folks. The good folks, not so much.

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  4. Concur all. Melting Pot is the answer!

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    1. Thanks. Hmmm, something in your comment gave me a suggestion for this evening. ;-)

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  5. Sounds reasonable to me, but "smart" people in power don't always agree with reasonable.

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    1. Yes, usually the smart knowitalls are anything but smart, don't "know it all" if anything at all, and are entirely unreasonable. Have been throughout history and history seems to be repeating itself...still.

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  6. Hmmmm, quality over quantity? How... regressive. But then again, I am also a 'regressive.' It is the Progressives that are the problem.

    Funny how the enemy of us have taken to using words in such a way that the new meaning is opposite of the original meaning.


    As to your health, an indulgence once in a while is good for the soul, and not too harming for the body. Now, if you were indulging every day, then that, that is a horse of a different color (probably black, pulling a hearse.)

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    1. "Funny how the enemy of us have taken to using words in such a way that the new meaning is opposite of the original meaning."

      Too true. Diversity, Inclusive are just a few words I know longer know what they mean.

      Roger on the indulging. I remind myself of my poor judgement with those indulgences, every morning on the bike. Unfortunately....

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  7. I think the President's plan is a very "Solomon-esque" decision which considers both the hardliners' and open-borders advocates' stances. Open borders is just idealistic and idiotic, and rounding them all up and deporting them is too. On your other points, culture and diversity should be inclusive, vice exclusive. Those that want to share theirs and absorb others is wonderful. Those that force theirs and expect others to accommodate isn't.

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  8. Do you guys even know how to write a bad post? Another number one post. Once again, I agree with what you have written.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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  9. Having gone through the entire visa/interviews/medical screening/support affidavit/Green Card/and $$$ dance with Department of State and Immigration for my (ex) wife and (former) Step Daughter, it irked me to no end to watch others short circuit the process and claim special "victims" status for benefits, schooling, and other services - which I was also paying for via taxes. After a while you start feeling like you're being played for a chump.

    A process as has been proposed by the President, where once has to demonstrate commitment to "playing by the rules and for the Team", is a sensible way to address the practical realities.

    /
    L.J.

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    1. Well, L.J., you and your exes were being played for chumps. Those of our betters (hwack-ptuie) wanted and still want proles, semi-educated masses that don't question Their authority and only vote for Them. (Burn in Hell, Fat Teddy Kennedy, for MaryJo and all of your asinine legislation!!! BURN!!!) Bankrupting you and ex-yours is a bonus of the system at present.

      My personal observations are that most 'foreigners' who emigrate and join the system to become citizens tend to be much more conservative, almost fanatically so, than their illegal welfare brothers and sisters.

      Notice I said 'citizens.' The few long-term resident aliens not on a path to citizenship are far-left progressives who are perfectly happy telling us citizens exactly how bad we and our system of government is. Funny, that the few LTRANOAPTCs are also getting paid by the very system that they abhor so much (whether working for government (huh? Work here in the States for a government and not be able to take a loyalty oath? WTFrack???) or living off their spouce's military retirement. Kinda weird, no?

      There is a commenter here who has a wife who was an illegal who took the steps and worked herself to death to become legal, and a citizen. That is the type of 'alien' I want as a part of our nation.

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    2. Amen. That was the point of the post. And, i believe the President’s proposal.

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  10. I can imagine the frustration when you're playing by the rules and getting stymied while others aren't playing by the rules and aren't being stymied. That might just dampen my faith in the system and thus my true faith and allegiance to the same. That faith, by the way, has been dampened lately almost to the point of drowning.

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    1. My faith is to the guiding principals of our country, to those who sacrificed to give us the best nation possible, to my ancestors for surviving and getting me here. To the corrupt postulant bureaucracy? I grudgingly allow the bloated bureaucrats to affect my life. I have no faith in Them.

      Faith in my God, in some of my fellow citizens, and completely in my better half. Faith in our military to try to do the best.

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    2. postulant. Pustulant. Not Postulant.

      Damned my fingers....

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    3. Alright, spellcorrector, lay off, darned it!!!! Pustulant, Pustulant, Puuuusstulant!!!!

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    4. Pestilance - a fatal disease. Sounds like an apt description of gubmint bureaucrats to me.

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  11. Teddy Roosevelt layed it out.
    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/26007-in-the-first-place-we-should-insist-that-if-the

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    1. Thanks WSF. Just to save the click.

      “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
      Theodore Roosevelt

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  12. Well said, sir. And yes, that first group is ALWAYS willing and happy to assimilate as quickly as possible... Hopefully those were Jalapeno sausages in the kolache's! :-)

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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