Couple of Links

Here's a couple of links I meant to write more about, but haven't found the time.

First, Randy Kirk writes about "Getting Real About Illegal Undocumented Immigrant Aliens" (thereby using all the political keywords in a single phrase). He says that we can't get rid of the ones who are here, but that,

Therefore, I would propose that the first step in this process needs to be an all out effort to plug up the holes in our borders and our procedures. Unlike others who want to round up people or fine business owners, the crucial beginning must be to keep the problem from getting bigger. Amazingly, I think that if the hyperbole and angst could be tamped down for a minute or two, almost everyone could agree to a massive effort to crack down on border crossings.

I'm not aware of many people who advocate rounding up all illegals and expelling them freom the country -- it would be impossible, in any event. Seriously enforcing the border does garner approval in the 75% range on opinion polls, and yet our government refuses to do it. The problem I see isn't one of reaching consensus, it's making our government respond.

Second, Storyblogging Carnival XIX, a collection of posts from bloggers who write various types of fiction. I haven't read them all, but I particularly enjoy what I've seen of Fiddle and Burn, "a daily comic strip in prose". Neat idea. The carnival reminds me of my old Spherewide Short Story Symposium, of which there were only two editions before interest waned. My name was cooler, but that was before the whole "blog carnival" meme was established.