I am traveling and it is late at night so I must just simply draw VDARE.com’s friends’ attention to the powerful essay by A Certain Slant of Light on the latest MSM attempt to downplay the Reconquista issue.

Reconquista Comes In Many Forms And Guises: Dismiss It At Your Family’s And Your Country’s Peril

ACSL links to an old Allan Wall piece on the subject. A more recent one is this. I am reminded that one of the first times VDARE.com linked to ACSL was to express thanks for introducing us to what remains perhaps the most brilliant modern insight into Mexico, an essay by the now sadly silent blog, Mark in Mexico

As you may have noticed, I don’t write much about global warming. It’s a complex subject that would take me a long time to master and I don’t see much evidence that I would contribute anything novel and important if I ever did.

That said, I do have a suggestion for a straightforward way to lessen future harm caused by global warming that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere:

Bring down the birthrate in Bangladesh, fast.

The logic is this:

If global warming is happening severely enough to partially melt polar ice caps and thus raise sea levels, the most severely impacted country would likely be Bangladesh, which topographically resembles the Mississippi Delta that took such a hit from Katrina in 2005: low-lying land vulnerable to big storms off the ocean. The current population of Bangladesh is 150 million and the total fertility rate is 3.09 babies per woman. The U.S. Census Bureau forecasts that the population of Bangladesh will almost double between now and 2050, when it will reach 280 million, assuming half of them aren’t washed out to see in a big cyclone.

In very simple terms, the Democrats are for America pulling out of Iraq, (if they can avoid being blamed) and against Mexico pulling out of the US. But read Allan Wall’s column for the full facts. And remember, if you need a transcript of that debate for your own use, it’s here on VDARE.com. [PDF]

The Associated Press: Dems Agree on Iraq, Immigration

By NEDRA PICKLER – 6 hours ago

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Democratic White House candidates embraced Hispanic concerns in the first ever Spanish-language presidential debate, unanimously promising to bring troops home from Iraq and to begin working on immigration in their first year in office.

On the eve of a war assessment by U.S. commanding Gen. David Petraeus, the presidential hopefuls said troops should begin coming home no matter what the report says. With the moderator of the debate noting that two-thirds of Hispanics want a withdrawal from Iraq, the candidates had an ideal audience to criticize the war.

Now that Elvira Arellano is back in Mexico and reunified with her son, the question is moot, but she spent a year in the Adalberto United Methodist Church, with the ICE tacitly respecting her right to sanctuary, and they only arrested her when she left.Sanctuary is a medieval concept, with no place in American law, which is governed by the First Amendment, and can’t give special privileges for a fugitive who happens to have chosen a church to hide in.

Back in medieval times there was such a right, but it was strictly limited. This is a scene from The Sanctuary Sparrow, a novel by Ellis Peters, in which a young man accused of attempted robbery is forced to seek sanctuary in a church, in the year 1140:

‘I well understand,’ said the abbot, ‘that on such a charge you must enquire, and may justice be done. But I think you also know well the sacredness of sanctuary. It is not shelter against sin, it is the provision of a time of calm, when the guilty may examine his soul, and the innocent confide in his salvation. But it may not be violated. It has a period, but until that time is spent it is holy. For forty days the man you seek on this charge is ours—no, he belongs to God!—and he may not be haled forth, nor persuaded forth, nor any way removed against his will from these premises. He is ours to feed, to care for and to shelter, for those forty days.’

‘That I grant,’ said the sergeant. ‘But there are conditions. He came of his own will within, he may enjoy only the allowance of food those within here enjoy.’ Less than he did, by his lusty bulk, but surely more than Liliwin had ever enjoyed as his regular provision. ‘And when the respite is over, he may not again be supplied with food, but must come forth and submit himself to trial.’

He was as iron-sure of his case here as was Radulfus in the days of grace, he voiced his mandate coldly. There would be no extension of the time allowed, after that they would make sure he starved until he came forth. It was fair. Forty days is consideration enough.

This is fictional, but Ellis Peters had a pretty good grasp of medieval law. Here’s the Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on sanctuary

A fugitive convicted of felony and taking the benefit of sanctuary was afforded protection from thirty to forty days, after which, subject to certain severe conditions, he had to “abjure the realm”, that is leave the kingdom within a specified time and take an oath not to return without the king’s leave.

That’s a much different view of sanctuary than Elvira’s–after forty days you’re obliged to leave the country and not come back without permission. I’d settle for that.

“It is being demagogued”

said Senator Hilary Clinton of the immigration issue, speaking at Univision’s “Spanish” (instantaneous translation) Democratic debate on Sunday night.

Democrats woo Hispanics on immigration By John Whitesides Reuters September 9 2007

She got that right. How else to explain the pitiful spectacle of the Democratic Presidential candidates, in a country in which speaking English is supposed to be a pre-requisite of citizenship, eagerly grabbing the chance to denounce - in a foreign language - those of their countrymen who have reservations about being inundated by Latin American peasants?

Contributed Senator Chris Dodd:

“those people who deal with fear and frighten the American people on this issue ought to be dealt with accordingly,”

(Obsolete Anglo anachronism, the First Amendment)

Governor Bill Richardson especially distinguished himself: like the Republican Chairman Senator Mel Martinez he seems to have short circuited from the idea that the Hispanic vote counts to believing that only the Hispanic vote counts. Breaking the rules by actually speaking Spanish, he protested

“I’m disappointed today that 43 million Latinos in this country, for them not to hear one of their own speak Spanish, is unfortunate…In other words, Univision is promoting English-only in this debate.”

Democrats Talk Iraq in Univision Debate by Nedra Pickler Associated Press Sunday, September 7 2007

Terrible thing, English only.

Dennis Kucinich, according to AP,

said he would make Spanish a second national language

Allan Wall had the stomach to listen to the whole thing. VDARE.com hopes to carry his analysis in full this evening.

Here’s an excerpt from my feature article in the September 10, 2007 issue of The American Conservative on the hidden crisis of quality in the federal civilian workforce:

In its mid-20th Century prime, the federal government matched up reasonably well in efficiency and effectiveness against, say, Sears-Roebuck. Today, however, it’s blown away by Wal-Mart’s relentless improvements.

For example, in June, while the Senate was blithely considering mandating a convoluted new immigration system for the federal bureaucracy to administer, the State Department’s nearly century-old responsibility for issuing passports was melting down under the strain of merely a moderate increase in demand predictably caused by a law passed three years before. In an era of cheap networked computing, many Americans still had their summer travel plans ruined by federal incompetence. …

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