A few months ago I was running a tad late one morning, so to save time I hoped in the car pool lane before it was legal to do so. Unfortunately for me, a CHP officer saw it, and nailed me. So instead of saving time now I was quite late and the proud new owner of a new ticket. But, never fear, I subscribe to Malkin-Speak.
You see, I got Amnesty for that ticket. Since it had been well over 18 months since I last went to traffic school I opted for that option. I paid the fine ($349) and I paid the traffic school fee ($30–to the State, the traffic school collected its own fee–another $27). Plus I had to spend 8 hours in a class room. But I was completely pardoned from my crime and didn’t have to pay anything….oh…gee….maybe this Malkin-Speak just isn’t what it is cracked up to be.
See the problem with Malkin-Speak is that she realizes that her financial well being is connected to how much outrage she can generate. So she sets about trying to cast everything as an outrage. Our allies in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), are buying a company and will take over running several U.S. shipping terminals? Outrage!!!! Never mind that the U.A.E. is a major U.S. ally in the region, that we have supplied them with armaments, nor that they are one of the most liberal Muslim countries in the Middle East. You see, the people in the U.A.E. are Muslims and they are The Enemy. Similarly with the illegal immigrants. Sure they come here, take low paying jobs and also various social services. But guess what, we’ve let them. We’ve passed laws that allow for this, implemented policies that prevent inquiries about people’s immigration status, and so forth. But we have to stop The Enemy (i.e. illegal immigrants) from coming here. Doing things like ending subsidies for having childre . . . well that just isn’t even on the radar. Boring talk about how public schools actually subsidize having children isn’t nearly as headline/attention grabbing as 20 Million Brown People Swarming the Border!
Any discussion of providing a way for the 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens is automatically called “Amnesty.” Never mind that so far most plans require some pretty substantial penalties/requirements (back taxes to be paid, learning English, etc.). This is how the fact that I paid out over $500 for a traffic violation is transmogrified into no traffic violation and no out-of-pocket costs!
