PCC(E) is travelling to Poland, so posting will be light until he is installed.
Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is practising her moves for when Jerry arrives:
Hili: Don’t you want to read a book?
A: Why?
Hili: So I can disturb you.
Hili: Czy nie chcesz poczytać jakiejś książki?
Ja: Dlaczego?
Hili: Żebym ci mogła przeszkadzać.
And some good news from Midway Island:
Thank you, Matthew. Hili is an eigenvalue to turn to in the chaos of our home as visiting family awakens this morning after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.
Eigenvalue is the perfect word! One I have rarely heard since quantum mechanics class.
Yep. Invariant, Eigenvalue and eigenvector were math terms that physics made come alive some sixty years ago.
Glad to hear about Wisdom – magnificent bird!
Loaded a bunch of wildlife/Nature accounts in – and saw more Albatross media from Midway. Amazing!
And she’s back being the real star of her own dialogue again.
Lovely that Wisdom has returned! May she see 80.
This left over from yesterday (Mr./s. Cransdale) and some earlier posts:
Re: Trump and birthright citizenship.
Whatever he says, Trump doesn’t have the power to end birthright citizenship. It is written into the Constitution so can only be changed by the lengthy amendment process.
Which won’t happen. BTW – Birthright citizenship is the rule in the entire Western hemisphere, Anglosphere and much of Western Europe. “Older” countries less so. There’s a slight trend against it (Australia requiring one parent be legal) but not much is really changing worldwide on this issue.
(I’m NOT a Trump voter or defender).
D.A., J.D.
NYC
Historically, it tends to exist where a majority of the population immigrated to the country within the last couple of hundred years.
If a country’s Constitutional values are being gamed to its detriment it will find a way to thwart those who would profit at its expense. The U.S. and Canada are the only G7 countries with automatic birth citizenship, and Canada’s provision is a federal statute of 1946 which can be amended or repealed by a simple Act of Parliament if birth citizenship no longer serves our interests. The mother of the Anglosphere, the United Kingdom, does not have automatic birth citizenship to children born even to legal foreigners who are not citizens. The United States, uniquely, would have to work at it, but it will if it needs to.
A more ad hoc approach not requiring any change in the law would be the wisdom of Solomon. The immigration authority could tell apprehended illegals whom it means to deport: “You are being deported. We can’t deport your baby who was born here. If you abandon it when you leave the country without it, we will take it into the foster care system. We hope you will see what is best for the child and take it with you voluntarily. When he’s grown up he can move back to the U.S. if he wants to. But your staying here just because you have an American child is not an option.”
Yes, Leslie, pretty much.
And it is “new world” countries that do more “jus soli” (birthright) citizenship.
Easier than changing the Constitution would be to limit (particularly illegal) immigration in the first place.
A lot of our legal immigration is “family reunion” which isn’t as “chain” as Trump suggests (some wait times are in the decades), but fixing the problem at base is important. We need a big “wall” and a large gate.
I understand in Canada (which has/had pretty good control of these things) is changing their system to be more restrictive and there are whispers in Australia as well.
D.A.
NYC