THE WANDERER, AUGUST 31, 2006
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
News We Didn't Need
With the world going mad, I keep my ear against the
radio for clues to our fate -- and all I hear are updates
on the JonBenet Ramsey case. Horrible story, but how much
do we really need to know about it? The poor child was
pushed into the realm of meretricious "glamour" and, not
very surprisingly, attracted the attentions of some
unspeakable pervert, who may or may not have been the
suspect now arrested for her murder. It all makes the
head spin and the stomach queasy.
Why is this essentially local story of consuming
national interest? Does it tell us anything we didn't
already know? Not since the kidnap-murder of the
Lindbergh baby has a child received such grisly
posthumous celebrity. Just when you think the news media
can't get any more revolting, they do.
Buchanan on Immigration
Rarely has a book rocked me as Pat Buchanan's latest
one has. STATE OF EMERGENCY: THE THIRD WORLD INVASION AND
CONQUEST OF AMERICA, just published by Thomas Dunne
Books, shattered my skepticism about the problem of
immigration, which I've tended to think could be handled
by gradual absorption and assimilation, as in the past.
Buchanan argues powerfully that the current wave is
radically different from previous ones. In America both
the volume of newcomers and, all too often, their
attitudes resist the adaptation to our traditions we used
to be able to assume.
As Enoch Powell warned a generation ago, when
Britain began to feel the impact of limitless
immigration, the thing has the character of an invasion;
the aliens, he noted, were arriving not as mere
individuals, but as whole villages, transforming British
culture, and not for the better. Now the same thing is
happening here -- but on a much larger scale.
Moreover, the Mexican government is deliberately
fostering invasion across the southern border and
encouraging the "Reconquista" of the southwestern states.
President Bush has ignored this conscious and aggressive
policy, for which Buchanan contends he deserves nothing
less than impeachment.
(Meanwhile, though this is a separate story, a
parallel hostile Muslim invasion of Europe is creating
"Eurabia.")
In addition to crime, often in the form of violent
gangs, the invaders come with diseases, some unknown to
us, some of which we thought had been almost wiped out --
tuberculosis, for instance. Buchanan notes that the
immigrants, mostly illegal of course, have put such a
strain on California's medical system that 48 hospitals
in the Los Angeles area have been forced to close down.
It's illegal to turn even illegals away if they urgently
need medical care.
Which points up a fundamental problem. We are now
paying, more dearly than even the pessimists dreamed, for
the welfare state. Milton Friedman long ago put it
simply: You can't have open immigration and a welfare
state. No system can afford infinite eligibility for
finite benefits. Why didn't we foresee this axiomatic
truth? Did it take a Nobel Prize-winning economist to
point out what is self-evident?
Not that very many people were listening. Liberal
opinion generally thinks it's mean-spirited to do the
math.
Buchanan's book relentlessly cites statistics to
curl a reader's hair. One in every 12 illegals has a
criminal record, and in Los Angeles, for example, 95% of
all homicide warrants target illegals. Some libertarians
reply insistently that the current immigration is a net
plus for this country, but even on purely economic terms
-- setting aside such considerations as morality,
culture, and national character -- Buchanan makes that
hard to believe. I can only wonder at anyone who can find
a silver lining in this storm cloud.
On the contrary, I wonder if Buchanan isn't guilty
of optimism in thinking the U.S. government, which has
done so much to create and aggravate the problem, can
still be capable of solving it. Some of his
recommendations, such as a 2,000-mile fence along the
U.S.-Mexico border, may retard the invasion, but on his
own showing, these measures already seem too late.
And that's supposing this government could muster
the will to enact them.
For me, reading this book is like listening to a
doctor as he gives you a brilliant diagnosis of your
terminal illness. Only a few weeks ago, Bill Bonner's
EMPIRE OF DEBT convinced me that this country is headed
for economic disaster in the next few years. And of
course Al Gore is certain that global warming is about to
devastate the planet.
If all three of these prophets are right, the 21st
century isn't going to be a whole lot of fun.
Like Powell, Buchanan has been widely abused for
being right ahead of his time. Has any other American
commentator, over the years, been proven so right about
so many things?
Correction
Last week I mistakenly ascribed to the Koran a
saying that apparently isn't in it, to the effect that a
Muslim who kills (or is killed by) a Jew is assured of
Paradise. It was quoted by the scholar Srdja Trifkovic
from another source, which I don't have at hand and can't
check.
I regret the error; nevertheless, Islam's attitude
toward Jews, from the time of the Prophet to the present,
has been, to put it mildly, even less ecumenical than its
view of Christianity.
Unfortunately, the etiquette of pluralism requires
us to refrain from noticing publicly the harsher
teachings of great religions, except of course for
Christianity. In the name of tolerance, we mustn't
observe that not all religions are, or bother pretending
to be, tolerant. This is obviously going to have to
change in the years ahead, when more than wounded
feelings are at stake.
Before the invasion of Iraq, President Bush
predicted that regime change there would bring a new wave
of democracy to the Mideast. He may have been right, in a
way. Since the Iraq war began, popular Islamic parties
and movements, violently anti-American and anti-Israeli,
have grown explosively throughout the region. Not quite
what he had in mind.
The Priest and the Professor
With all the dreadful heat, bad news, and alarming
prognostications, I'm finding it hard to keep my mind on
the pennant races this summer. Now comes another bit of
disillusionment.
In times of trouble, I often turn for escape and
consolation to one of my favorite authors, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. I was aware that
Conan Doyle was a baptized Catholic who left the Church
and took up spiritualism.
Now a distant relative of his, who is also a friend
of mine, informs me, to my sorrow, that when an Irish
priest tried to bring him back to the Church, the great
author spitefully named a villainous character after him:
Holmes's archenemy, the Napoleon of the London
underworld. The priest's name was, yes, Moriarty.
+ + +
Enough bad news! How about some cheery epigrams?
REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME -- a new selection of my
Confessions of a Reactionary Utopian -- will brighten
your odd moments. We'll send you a free copy if you
subscribe to SOBRAN'S for one year (at $44.95) or two
($85.00). Call 800-513-5053 to order by credit card or
check, or send payment to P.O. Box 1383, Vienna, VA
22183. If you have not seen my monthly newsletter yet,
give my office a call at 800-513-5053 and request a free
sample. More details can be found at the Subscription page
of my website, www.sobran.com.
Already a subscriber? Consider a gift subscription
for a priest, friend, or relative.
--- Joseph Sobran
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read this column on-line at
"http://www.sobran.com/wanderer/w2006/w060831.shtml".
This column copyright (c) 2006 by THE WANDERER, the
National Catholic Weekly founded in 1867,
www.thewandererpress.com. Reprinted with permission.
This column may not be published in print or Internet
publications without express permission of THE WANDERER.
You may forward it to interested individuals if you use
this entire page, including the following disclaimer:
"THE WANDERER is available by subscription. Write
subscription@thewandererpress.com for information.
Subscription price: $50 per year; $30 for six months.
Checks can be sent to The WANDERER, 201 Ohio Street,
Dept. JS, St. Paul, MN 55107.
"SOBRAN'S and Joe Sobran's syndicated columns are
available by e-mail subscription. For details and
samples, see http://www.sobran.com/e-mail.shtml, write
PR@griffnews.com, or call 800-513-5053."
This page copyright (c) 2006 by THE VERE COMPANY.