[Porsche-O-Phile]

Have to agree with you - I probably would also, but I don't think I'd delude myself into thinking I had some sort of enlightened viewpoint or become absorbed in my own perceived self-importance like it seems most of these Hollywood/West L.A. people have.

On the subject of illegal immigration - kick the bums out. Don't care what the sob story is. I welcome anyone that wants to come to this country through accepted and legal channels (and efforts to raise immigration quotas to allow more workers in areas IF IT IS DETERMINED TO BE IN OUR ECONOMIC INTERESTS TO DO SO. OUR interests - not Mexico's, El Salvador's, China's, Canada's, Vietnam's or anyone else's.

This crap about "illegals do the jobs nobody else will" is utter bunk. The part left off the tail-end of that statement is "for the below-market-rate wages paid". Kick out the leechers, penalize the businesses promulgating this crap and let the MARKET dictate the price of labor, goods and services. It ain't our job to solve Mexico's problems - it's Mexico's job to solve Mexico's problems. If they're so damn industrious, let 'em figure out a solution and fix it and prove it.

I have no respect, nor will I support anyone that jumps a fence, swims a river or hides in the trunk of someone's car to sneak in here. They're not running from genocide. They're not seeking amnesty from a brutal dictatorship. They simply have it a bit tough and want an "easy road" rather than working for it in THEIR country (which they seem so eager to brag about through their flag-waving, airbrushing on cars, murals, "Hecho In Mexico" t-shirts, and all the rest). If Mexico (or whereever) is so great, why aren't you there? Sorry Jack, got no respect for that. Illegal immigration is CRIMINAL as far as I'm concerned, and should be stopped dead. If that means a bunch of uppity Hollywood types actually have to pay free-market rate for their landscaping, nanny-services, pool cleaning and what-not (perish the thought!), I could care less.

The self-correction mechanisms built-in to the free market are strong and reliable. If it means groceries temporarily go up 30% in price, so be it. The market will stabilize shortly and price will be set at a rate commisurate with the embedded costs of production and representative of the true value of the commodity - not some artificially low price deliberately manipulted by low labor costs to increase production and demand. Our economy ought to be (and is SUPPOSED to be) about rewarding those who contribute to it and not about coddling those that either try to "slide by" or otherwise take advantage of it. This goes for those here legally as part of the labor market and for those here illegally.

Part of my disdain for Hollywood comes from living in Southern California for the past seven years. . . I'm sick and tired of observing the self-absorbed and self-righteous attitude of these overpaid entertainment schlockers. If they have anything to contribute, let 'em get off their lazy asses and run for public office and put their money where their phat mouths are (Ronald Reagan did, so did Arnold Schwarzenegger - to their credit). Stop preaching from shi-shi Bel-Air parties with a chardonay in your hand and get out there and talk to the peasants that actually make our society go.

That'd impress me.

The typical sort of "silver screen" soapbox preaching doesn't.

At all.