Above is the remembrance from the Gibson Guitar Corp. of its late employee, Charlie Derrington, who was killed August 1 in Nashville. His motorcycle was struck head on by a Ford Explorer in the wrong lane driven by a previously deported illegal alien, Julio Villasana, who was drunk and tried to escape the crime scene.

Charlie Derrington was a well known figure in the bluegrass music scene, particularly for his love of the mandolin and his ability in instrument construction and restoration, as well as musicianship. Watch a brief YouTube clip of Charlie playing some fine bluegrass licks on a beautiful Loar mandolin.

Charlie was something of a legend for repairing Bill Monroe’s mandolin after it had been smashed by a vandal, a restoration miracle (see before and after photos) which brought tears to Monroe’s eyes. The instrument is now displayed in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The message board at Mandolin Cafe has posted more than 200 remembrances from friends and people who knew Charlie Derrington from reputation only. His tragic death is a terrible loss to the traditional music community as well as to his wife Susan and daughter Anna.

Despite the pain of so many, The Tennessean had the gall to write a deeply inappropriate column on Saturday titled, Focus effort on DUI offense: Tragedy caused by drunken driving, not illegal immigration.

If a citizen is killed by a drunken driver, that person’s fate doesn’t hinge on whether the driver was legal or illegal. It certainly is related to whether a driver was drunk.

The Tennesean is denying the basics of causality: if a foreigner is not illegally present in the United States, then drunk or sober, he cannot kill innocent Americans, like Charlie Derrington.

Ken Clements writes on Innovation On Demand

Instead of building a wall or fence on the USA-Mexico border just for security purposes, a solar array structure can be built that also provides electric power to the region and helps raise the standard of living.

I suspect that immigration restriction will become much more realistic in the US long term if it is part of a package that is popular in countries that are currently sources of immigration. I see little evidence that current US immigration policies have done much for the Mexican population as a whole. The benefits of mass immigration and policies like NAFTA have been restricted to a tiny, wealthy minority in Mexico. It really shouldn’t be that unrealistic to get the Mexican people to accept a sane immigration policy. I’m glad to see others working along lines that might make that help happen.

The United States of America has a ramshackle, insecure, voter registration system.

In 43 out of 50 states, you don’t need photo ID.

Proof of identity? Proof of citizenship? It’s a joke.

It’s good to know that more attention is being paid to this issue. For example, Representative Tom Tancredo has introduced his Voter Integrity Protection Act (VIP) which would hold back highway funds from states which don’t require voters to prove they are citizens. It includes free photo IDs to those who need them to forestall charges of VIP being a poll tax.

As I’ve written before , we could improve our voter registration system by copying Mexico’s system .

Here in Mexico, voters have a government-supplied voter ID with a photo. When a voter arrives to the polling station, his voter ID is checked against a book which contains photos of all the voters in the precinct. It’s a good system and I’ve personally observed it.

Yet, when Americans call for photo ID, cries of “discrimination” follow.

Democratic Arizona congressman Raul Grijalva (Americans for Better Immigration give him a grade of F) doesn’t want voter ID reform because he thinks it’s a Republican plot.

Quoth Grijalva:

“The (Republican) leadership of this Congress wants to maintain its majority. So the objective to me appears to be to begin to erect obstacles to voting by affixing a solution to a nonexistent problem by deeply dividing this nation with fear and hysteria.”

Grijalva says a secure voter ID would be an obstacle to voting. What is he worried about?

Why would anybody object to a more secure voting system - unless he knew that illegal aliens were voting for his party and he wanted that to continue ?

Let’s copy Mexico’s voter registration system. Why does Grijalva object to that? Is he anti-Mexican ?

According to a recent report:

“The National Academy of Sciences estimated that each immigrant will result in a $100,000 net annual cost to taxpayers.”

What is interesting here: this is the same estimate I put on the value of a green card by analysis of Indian dowry markets and started early with my analysis of immigration as a form of corporate welfare. I wonder if the National Academy of Sciences reads VDARE.COM? If not, perhaps they should as part of their literature searches.

I suspect that the National Academy estimate is low and doesn’t include a range of other costs that aren’t obviously measured in taxation. Still, there is a lot to be said for the legitimacy and authority those folks bring to the analysis of the economics of immigration.