This weekend’s spate of violence - four killed in 12 hours - has reminded good-hearted people that summer is just around the corner and there aren’t nearly enough jobs to keep all those restive young hands busy. The Boston Globe reports:

Emmett Folgert, director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said the violence demanded a public response, with schools set to let out for summer in a few months.

”We need some state initiative to fund activities and summer jobs in crime hot spots in this state,” Folgert said. ”It has to happen now . . . Summer is coming. All the kids are worried.”

While business leaders and our own Ted Kenendy demand more cheap workers from abroad, natives and immigrants of all social classes and ages find work hard to come by.

Looking at the solid-quality college kids you can get at near minimum wage, why would you want to hire high-school students, or, worse, high-school dropouts, who are either from broken homes or speak little or broken English? It is simply a bad thing for society to have droves of idle kids drifting around, with little earnings potential and not much hope of improved prospects.

The reality is that America doesn’t have a shortage of workers. It has a shortage of jobs. It has a shortage of what is often called bad jobs and it has a shortage of good jobs and it has a shortage of jobs in between.

Marilora is upset that Boston Herald calls MS-13 brutal and violent and claims that East Boston is an MS-13 “stronghold.” Marilora doesn’t like that claim since Eastie had only two murders last year.

Yes, but…with about 40,000 people, that makes for a homicide rate of 5 murders per 100,000 people. That compares favorably to Boston’s, which is normally about 10, give or take. But Eastie is only about 3% black, while Boston is about 25% black. By comparison, Massachusetts’ murder rate is typically about 2-3 murders per 100,000, with a population that’s more than 5% black. (UPDATE: The murder rate is much higher for African-Americans than for whites).

Even so, those are good numbers for Eastie, and suggest that Latino gangs, as they presently exist in Massachusetts, can’t quite match Cape Verdeans when it comes to murder and mayhem. But the thing is, there are relatively few Cape Verdeans in the world, while the supply of Latinos is practically unlimited, and, for America, potentially back breaking. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to give MS-13 and other Latino components of our ever-so-enriching diversity a lot of attention.

UPDATE:

Adam over at Universal Hub (excellent resource, btw) takes exception to me suggesting that Latino immigration is a liability. Writes Adam:

Mats is himself an immigrant, but from Sweden, and we know they’re all good people - just like Lars Bildman, late of Astra Pharmaceuticals of Westboro.

Actually, my favorite Swedes-suck Swede is cop killer Annika Östberg. Bildman has nothing on her. But then again, did you know that Union ironclad Monitor was designed by a Swede? Huh? All bow to the mighty Swedes!

But I have no interest in such an ethnic pissing match. My whole point is that America is better - better than Sweden, better than El Salvador and better than anything else you might think of. People who move to America become better by becoming more American. The idea that diversity - as in less Americanism - makes America better or richer is garbage.

The problem with Latino immigration is essentially that it is huge, almost unchecked, that they almost all speak Spanish and basically have as much to gain from not learning English as they do from learning it. They are also virtually all from countires that view America as their literall or mythical Enemy Number 1. Recall, for example, how El Salvador’s people came within inches from plunging their country into Marxism in the mid-80’s, just as even the Soviets had come to realize that maybe communism wasn’t the smartest idea ever hatched by a German. El Salvador’s Communist party is still a credible contender in that country’s presidential election. I refuse to believe that the mass immigration of such collectivist people to America is unproblematic, or that it won’t have significant political and by extension econo0mic consequences.

Also, while Swedes can be pretty annoying people, as demonstrated by the Metro’s little “n-word”-outburst, we at least aren’t organized in a lobby organization called The Race. But Latinos are. Me, I prefer Army - Navy over the annual Swedish Yulefest.

Anyway, I’ll return to this subject some other time.

I not only supported the war in Iraq, I demanded it. And I got it, and we won, and now it’s time to pull out the bulk of our forces from Iraq. If the Iraqis truly demonstrated their committment to democracy in the February election, as the White House claims, then our job is done. The fight that remains is for the Iraqis to fight. It can’t possible be our role to fight a guerilla war against a minority of Iraqis (and a small one, at that) while most Iraqis twiddle their thumbs and wait to see how things work out. No way, Jose. It’s time for the Iraqis to step up to the plate and do their own batting. Look, the Finns got help from Kaiser-German army rangers and Swedish volunteers when they kicked out the Russians and utterly destroyed a communist coup attempt in 1918, but they did it in a matter of a few months. The Iraqis need to rally around their own Al-Mannerheim and do their own heavy lifting.

Quite unexpectedly, the Boston Globe yesterday published a solid article about illegal immigration. Written by Yvonne Abraham, the article, without fanfare, makes two things clear.

The first is that illegal immigration undercuts American wages. In the case covered by this particular article, it serves as a subsidy of the fishing industry, an industry that long ago essentially outgrew its natural size. The illegals work for little more than minimum wage, and often for even less than that.

The article also underscores the dysfunctional nature of Guatemala’s economy, a condition shared by virtually all of Latin America. The article mentions how poor Guatemalans borrow several thousands of dollars to pay for so-called coyotes to take them to the United States. It is insane that Guatemalans can’t earn a reasonable return, at much less risk, on that capital in their home country.

The currently popular - and rightfully so - song Blow It Out by The Features reminds me of just about any number of songs by Swedish Catholic psychadelic pop-singer Di Leva. Check out his mix and you’ll see what I mean.

The job market may finally, after only a dozen or so false starts over the past three years, look up for U.S. workers. The magazine’s Michael Mandel writes in the latest issue (”Now Workers Can Flex Some Muscle,” March 21, 2005):

Once the balance tips [of labor demand vs. supply] towards workers, corporate hiring behavior can change almost overnight. If employers find themselves with positions they need to fill, says Barry Gerhart, a human resources expert at the University of Wisconsin Business School, “all of a sudden they have to shift back to recruitment-retention mode.”

Well, let’s hope that turns out to be the case. Interestingly, Mandel doesn’t mention that Business Week consistently - as in always - supports ever higher levels of immigration, specifically to increase the nation’s pool of workers. So perhaps the magazine is just setting up a coming “labor-shortage crisis” cover story (”millions of unfilled jobs, rampaging through the streets, catastrophically driving up wages and salaries…”).

Aftonbladets slöaste kniv i ledarredaktionsskafferiet, Åsa Petersen, skriver undrande:

Tror någon på allvar att det finns ”svenskar” och ”invandrare”?

Hon kan ju alltid fråga Nalin Pekgul om det finns kurder och turkar.

Nej, lägg av med klassificeringarna nu. Låt folk vara folk och ha lite kul ihop.

Lika kul som kurder och turkar brukar ha det?

Muntert är det att hon kritiserar andra för att använda “härskartekniker” mot nämnda Pekgul. En “härskarteknik” som turkarna länge använde mot kurderna var att förneka dessas existens.

Som lök på laxen retar hon sig på att det sägs att folkpartiet - som har kommit fram till att kriminella invandrare kanske trots allt borde straffas, partiets liberalism till trots - säger “folk redan vet men som politikerna i ängslig korrekthet hittills har hållit inne med. ” Vilket folk, utbrister hon ilsket, för att några rader senare skriva:

När Nalin Pekgul blev vald till ordförande och anställde personer med utländsk bakgrund började folk skicka mejl om att hon delade ut jobb till sina egna kusiner. Det vet man ju hur de funkar, de där kurderna.

Petersen har kanske den mest omogna synen på folk - i bemärkelsen folkslag (plural) - som jag någonsin sett på en ledarsida.

Newton is all worked up over a vandalized car. If I lived in Newton, I would be angry, too. I mean, if I lived in Newton I would be angry, too, if punks were running around vandalizing cars. Fortunately for the town, this case of vandalism is of a very special and important nature: It’s a Hate Crime. The Boston Globe reports:

The car’s owner, Jennifer Brennan, discovered her vehicle with a smashed window, scratches on the hood and driver’s side door, and racist graffiti, including bright red swastikas and racial slurs painted on the vehicle.

As the vandalized car is only the latest of at least two “apparent hate crimes” since October last year, Newton’s mayor has usefully announced “Dialouge on Race,” a forum to be held on Thursday. You see:

”We continue to deplore hate crimes and acts of intolerance in the city of Newton,” Cohen said in a release. ”When these actions are taken by a few, our city comes out in force to reinforce that there is no place for hate here. Our Dialogue on Race is intended to take stock on where we are as a community on race relations, where we want to be, and how we can get there.”

Dude, Newton exists solely because Newtonians don’t want to live with black people and they don’t want their children to go to school with black students. Newton’s very existence is a hate crime, so to speak, an attempt to exclude, as the saying goes, blacks.

In the 2000 Census, 2% of the town’s population was black. Not so bad considering that Massachusetts was 5.4% black, but neighboring Boston was more than 25% black. How about that, huh? Heck, even Milton is more than 10% black as it has become the destination of choice for upwardly mobile blacks in Massachusetts (well, at least for the upwardly mobile blacks who aren’t moving out of the state altogether).

Now, I don’t hold it against Newton’s parents that they don’t want their kids to go to black schools, or grow up in black neighborhoods. I’m not into this liberal white holier-than-thou game where you play racially-correct gotcha, label opponents racists, and publicly pretend to be ignorant about race realities while privately paying close attention to them. No way. Hell, why would you want your kids to go to a black school? A large part of the achievement gap between European and American students is because of the statistical downward drag exerted by America’s black and Latino students.

Perhaps Newtonians need to go through their little racial hissy fits every so often to feel morally superior to us Neanderthal whites who don’t feel a strong need to be lectured on the importance of tolerance and the value of diversity. Perhaps they need them to convince themselves that they aren’t evil bigots even though they want such exotic things as good schools and safe streets.

Oddly, Newton’s pure-thoughts mayor seem to have overlooked one little detail in the Hate Crime Vandalism case. At the end of the Globe article, there’s this you-can’t-make-it-up nugget:

Police said that the damage to Brennan’s car may have resulted from a drug transaction in the vehicle earlier that day. According to police, one of the suspects and a 21-year-old Newton resident were assaulted by other participants in the alleged drug deal.

Police said they plan to seek charges against three other teenagers in connection with the assault. Johnnie Morgain, 19, a houseguest of Brennan’s, and a 15-year-old juvenile will be charged with assault and battery. A 16-year-old juvenile will be charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a car door.

I do sense the smell of a stereotype-reinforcing street crime. Do you suppose the mayor will hold a forum on “Combating Street Thugs Before Our Town Goes Like Totally R’bury”? Nah, that’s probably more like a standing, implict order for Newton’s Finest. Good thing, too.

The Boston Globe reports:

A historian and former Sandinista leader who helped overthrow Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza is no longer scheduled to teach classes at Harvard Divinity School this spring after she said she was denied a visa because of her role in alleged “terrorist activity.”

Dora Maria Tellez applied for a student visa to study English last year at the University of San Diego.

She then planned to teach in Cambridge this spring as a visiting professor, although she had not yet applied for the required teaching visa. But once the student visa was denied, Tellez told Harvard of- ficials that she would not be teaching classes on religion and society because she expected her teaching visa would also be rejected.

“I’m not angry,” Tellez, 49, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Managua. “I feel threatened if the United States considers me a terrorist. I want an explanation.”

An explanation? You’re a f’ing Sandinista!

Besides, don’t they have enough commies Harvard? Are they a little below the 186 communists per 1 non-communist quota? Is there a crisis brewing?

I find this little quote an amusing send off:

We strongly support the free exchange of scholars and scholarship

Yeah, that’s Harvard…

Två flator i Linköping gnäller om att de av en balkommitté sa till dem att en av dem måste klä sig i frack, såsom tradition påbjuder. Det var ett “helvete” som flatorna inte kunde gå med på och föga förvånande gav kommittén med sig.

“Bara för att vi är två tjejer som är tillsammans ska inte vi behöva anamma det heterosexuella förhållandet, där en är man och en är kvinna” deklarerade paret.

Heterosexuella utgör 90-97% av befolkningen. Varför skulle de rucka på sina traditioner för att göra en liten minortet till lags? Finns ingen anledning alls. Om flatorna vill känna sig normala så gör de säkrast i att anordna baler för för sig själva. I övrigt borde paret vara tacksamt över att det alls tillåts delta i balen som lesbiskt par.