Lunch time distraction

[theatokos]

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is in town. His daughter, Lily, is a third year law student at Boalt and she convinced her dad to speak at the last lunch time meeting of the Federalist Club. The Future Gov'r of Alaska (Dem, for those interested) invited me to tag along for the curiosity and Alaska factor, plus a free lunch. Dolmas! Yum.

The Senior Senator has been in office for something like 38 years. I think he's now in his 80s. The man was brilliant, as I think most senators are, whipping out facts and geography and a sense of perspective that a lifetime in law and government can give to the Pressing Issues of our day. However, he is cantankerous and clearly does not like to be contradicted. At even the merest hint of stupidity or possible disagreement his voice raises and gets a certain indignant tone in his voice. What did the man actually talk about? That's hard to say as he is an Old Man and is hard to follow. Much stumbling over his sentences and veering from topic to topic without much warning. He started to talk about how first world industrialized nations were falling behind on the population front. For example, to keep a population stable a nation must have a 2.1 replacement rate. Currently, Spain and Italy, for example are at 1.2. Places like Niger are at 7.6 (that's 7 kids for each woman, on average. My womb is terrified). What was getting at? Better birth control and development for third world nations, or urging us to procreate? The latter is my guess by his phrase "having the families you should have" tucked in among his You are the Next Generation paragraph.

He also quoted extensively from some book called America Alone by someone named Steyn. This book seems to be all "Islam is the end of the world." Isn't this just the 21st Century's new Nativist movement? Once we were afraid that Catholic immigrants would ruin the country. Now we are being told to fear the Muslims.

Comments

[erinya.livejournal.com]

As long as the citizenry is afraid of something and somebody--preferably a foreign, nebulously threatening category of somebodies who make good scapegoats and can be blamed for whatever's going wrong--it is more easily controlled. Bottom line.

"having the families you should have"

What an interesting phrase. So we're to reproduce in order to insure that the Brown Menace doesn't take over the world, I take it? Of course the problem of birth control and sex education is at the root of our lagging population stats. FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAKE MORE WHITE PEOPLE!

Am I too cynical today?

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Am I too cynical today?

I don't think so, because that's how I took it too.

[makeda55.livejournal.com]

And it's exactly the point of America Alone. So yes, you got the blazing not-exactly-sub-text.

Hunter on dailykos.com had a beautiful rant (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/11/5251/79514) on this a couple of days ago.

Read it. Trust me on this.

[ginger-root.livejournal.com]

Isn't this just the 21st Century's new Nativist movement?

Brilliant line.