I maintain that there is plenty of good will available for people who work to rise out of their cirumstances, or who wnat to come here from another country and play by our rules. The goodwill well runs dry, and the tribalism has the potential to kick in, when neither is present.

Of course, this calculus contains powerful logic when it surmises that if you import 15 million Mexicans on top of an already exploding presence, you will replicate a version of Mexico. People see the anarchy and corruption of Juarez, for example, and shudder at the thought. Indeed, Europeans are now paying a heavy price for importing cheap labor (as we now do) in the form of millions of Arab Muslims, and it is not a very pretty picture. Some would say Europe is already lost.

As far as white flight is concerned, parents love their kids, which is why they seek to protect them from group behavior which is dangerous and unhealthy. The race and ethnic correlations are unpleasant but inescapable, the decisions based upon them completely rational. It is up to you to decide what you will call parents whose love of family trumps their fear of political incorrectness.

White flight (and middle-class black flight, and middle-class any-ethnic flight) happens because of crime, bad schools, and high taxes. If those conditions don’t accompany immigration of other ethnic groups or races, white flight for the most post does not occur. The act of picking up and moving is a relatively traumatic event people ordinarily avoid. They would rather stay put unless conditions dictate (actually, shout) otherwise.

The continued allowance of illegals among us, and their ability to drain the system through welfare, school attendance, free health care, and the like, feeds any “under the surface” racist tendencies that may exist because the disparate treatment of illegals and the continued allowance of their presence is objectively an outrage.

And it’s remarkable that you are on the edge of labeling anyone who moves in response to decaying conditions a racist. For one, parents have their kids’ future to think about.

Immigration is THE issue that will destroy the Republican Party. Everyone knows it. Frist is one of many who are scrambling to escape the deluge. This is a gut level race issue that is pure political nitro. The Dubai failure was just the appetizer. The main course comes in the Fall, when elected Republicans will feel the true wrath of the people. Low turnouts and protest votes will reverse the Republican majority. MSM will claim it was dissatisfaction with Iraq, but it will be actually be immigration and specifically amnesty.

Most Americans already feel the slow descent, now accelerating, into Imperial decline. They see what so-called “multiculturalism” has done to Western Europe, they see the slow steady hollowing out of our industrial base, they watch in shock at the relentless debasement and ridicule of long held and esteemed moral standards.

Having observed this process, I am very pessimistic about its ultimate result. America stopped being a true representative democracy many years ago. The people who actually control the country answer to no one, save their own craven interests. In a country, where power is bought and sold, where political debate is reduced to sound-bites and code words, and in particular, where patriots are labeled “vigilantes”, the destiny of our beloved nation is tragically the same as all the great Empires that preceeded it.

My fear isn’t “Islamophobia,” with the connotations of religious bigotry, it’s Al-Qaeadaphobia, which is not only a healthy thing to possess in a reasonable amount, but also is a fear of terrorism based upon events and the power structure in the UAE/Arab world, not a fear of a religion per se.

I resent the Kudlow-WSJ types pinning the bigot/irrational fear label on me when that was NOT what it was about.

I still have a fundamental problem with a non-US company being anywhere near the ports, but that battle was over at least a decade ago.

It would be interesting to see how many other countries allow US companies to “manage the loading and unloading of shipping containers” at their port facilities. Betcha it’s very, very few.

You know I am truly a friend, but would any of the “knee-jerk” reaction occurred if a German company had sought the contract? Or better yet, India? I think the answer is no…there might have been a concern about a foreign company running things, but we already have Singapore and China in our ports and a British company has been running them.

My very first reaction was “Arab company, our ports?” I read, did a little digging and posted on Tuesday in support of the contract going to Dubai. Whenever I react to a situation, I always try to find out why I did and in this case, the last couple of years has conditioned me to think badly about Arabs, Moslems in particular. And while I dislike my reaction, little has occurred to suggest that I will be able to do anything to change it…except to try real hard not to have a “knee-jerk” reaction.

We are glad to have you back among the rational….. :-)