It didn't occur to me to ask about anesthesia. Honestly, I don't need to be scolded and lectured at. This is not my fault.

My apologies. I did not intend to sound like I was scolding.

It's not your fault at all. I was just worried that you seemed very upset and maybe calling to ask a few questions about anesthesia and recuperative times and what will happen if this doesn't help you, might make you feel a lot better about it.

I apologize for my tone.

This is not to say that immigration affects resources in our respective states, but let's get honest about the actual costs, social and otherwise, of enforcing draconian measures to boot otherwise law-abiding people out the U.S.

Oh, but that means someone, somewhere, is "getting away with something." And god knows we can't have that in this righteous, law-abiding country.

Too many of my friends--including my landlord!--are militant about this, and really don't think I should tell my landlord he's a hypocritical bigot.

A Horseowner in Schoharie County, NY is still looking for his 22 horses that were swept away in the floods of Hurricane Irene last week.

22.

No trace.

Amazing and horrifying.

I don't know hard numbers, but my gut feeling is that this country could not survive without illegal immigrant labor. Not without a dramatic shift in how we pay people and what we are willing to pay for things, and a million other aspects of our society. And what happened in Georgia backs me up [link]

Anthony Bourdain says there wouldn't be restaurants without those people.

zuisa, the Science Fiction Museum is in Seattle. Amongst other things and quite a few Buffistas, of course.

The Underground Tour was very interesting.

The Underground Tour and Pike's Place Market are the two "touristy" things in Seattle I will do over and over as a native.

The 17th, you said? Hmmm. I am going to be vending at a big steampunk/alternative rummage sale up on Capitol Hill that day, otherwise I'd try to meet up with you.

point to Georgia, their whole agriculture industry went up in flames this summer because their new laws made many people leave the state. I think they had vegetables and fruit dying in the farms unpicked.

Here is one article about the labor impact. It may make you crazy:

"We've had comments, some comments, that some restaurateurs are just now, they're uncomfortable now at this point hiring anybody who has a Hispanic surname or an Asian surname," Bremer told a state Senate hearing organized by Democrats last month.

[link]

Dominic West and Clarke Peters play Othello. Great interview.

My new riposte to arguments against the Dream Act (that would let good students who were brought illegally to this country as children normalize their immigration status) is that in most cases, our country/state/county/city has put twelve or more years of educational money into these kids.

By deporting them, we're throwing away all that sunk cost.

It's arguably better in the long run we keep these kids (who are A students) around so we can collect money back in the form of income taxes, et cetera.