Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Rush Limbaugh and Our Alan Reynolds

Alan, were your ears burning a little after noon today? Rush Limbaugh spent, I kid you not, about 10-15 minutes discussing your column in which you referred to his immigration analysis as "patently absurd."

Reform Clubbers can get the Alan Reynolds column here at Townhall.com. The gist of it is that Alan thinks Rush and other conservatives are pumping the numbers of future illegals way up with assumptions that mirror those of compound interest with money. Rush's response is:

a. It's realistic to think multiplication will occur as described.
b. If the numbers are too high, we are still talking about a ridiculously high number of illegal immigrants.

What interested me more than the debate itself was the amount of time Rush spent talking about Alan. Do you have any idea what an advertiser would have to pay for a quarter hour of Rush's national audience's undivided attention?!!! Alan, I have no idea what you get from Cato and Townhall.com, but influence-wise, you just became a millionaire.

There was also something provocative in Rush's treatment of Alan. As he went into the break, Rush suggested Alan was probably asked by someone to write the column. Rush, are you accusing our Alan of a Bandow-esque lapse? More important, are you suggesting our man Alan is doing the administration a solid?

If the answer is yes, then I want to get to know Alan better, because he's rubbing some premium elbows!

More seriously though, if Rush were to look a little deeper, he'd find Alan Reynolds has been writing about immigration for some time and that this latest column is a continuation of a pre-existing interest in the issue.

16 comments:

Jay D. Homnick said...

It should be noted that Rush identified Dr. Reynolds as a major economist and a serious scholar. The exact transcript will probably be available tonight on his website.

James F. Elliott said...

Little outbursts of internecine conservative warfare do give me delightful moments of Schadenfreude. Remember, Dr. Reynolds, dissent is not tolerated by fanatics and fundamentalists. Especially when it's right.

James F. Elliott said...

"James: Alan is very familiar with intolerance. He writes about liberals all the time. Disagreement, which is what Alan and Rush are engaging in, is not intolerance. Learn the difference."

Et tu, Brute? Disagreement implies discussion. Devoting 15 minutes to a one-sided harangue is called trying to silence someone with a differing opinion.

"...but clearly has a blind spot with regard to ongoing alien invasion of the U.S."

Does anyone have an urge to watch "V" when they read stuff like that?

"A month or so ago he actually put forth the absurd proposition that the bulk of the illegal invasion occurs from aliens entering this country on legal temporary visas."

You mean the proposition that's essentially true? Dr. Reynolds seems fairly reasonable to me. Not to mention you're inflating the illegal alien figure by at least 8 million.

Hunter Baker said...

I loved "V."

And if you can go by little Athens, GA, there are a heck of a lot of illegals in the U.S. right now.

In fact, I was sitting in a restaurant the other day listening to a white man instruct two Mexican men that Americans love Mexicans and that they will be able to make a better life for their family here if they can find a way to get them here. He went into detail about what sort of material situation they would probably be able to put together based on working "one and a half jobs."

I gotta believe this kind of recruiting from businessmen of various types is not an uncommon thing.

James F. Elliott said...

"And if you can go by little Athens, GA, there are a heck of a lot of illegals in the U.S. right now. "

I live in San Jose, where one in 18 residents is an illegal alien. I know the issue as first-hand as can be without having crossed the Rio Grande in my skivvies (like my tax-paying, job-holding friend, Octavio). I just find the histrionics incredibly amusing.

Speaking of histrionics, I count a minimum of four logical fallacies in Buzz's response above. But then, passion tends to override reason, doesn't it.

Tom Van Dyke said...

Limbaugh's down to 90 million:

"By the way, I need to issue a correction. Senator Sessions' fix, the top is 90 million now, between 60 and 90. I said it was 30 and 60 million that the new amendment adjustments allow for. You know, it used to be a hundred, 217 million, somewhere between there, those two numbers, after Jeff Sessions did his magic, the range now is between 60 and 90 million, but, I mean, so what? I got it wrong by 30 million, ten million here, ten million there. What are we talking about anyway? These numbers are still ridiculous, they're still absurd. I mean, it's crazy when the top figure now gets reduced from 217 million to 90 million and you think, "A-ha! Victory!"

James F. Elliott said...

Someone's been hitting the Oxycontin a little too hard again.

Seal the borders! Fortress America! I call dibs on being the first person to graffiti "The Wall" with "Kilroy was here!"

James F. Elliott said...

Ooo. And Pink Floyd lyrics from "The Wall." That would, like, bend space and time, man.

Tom Van Dyke said...

I want to seal the borders. I'm fine with a Fortress America.

Hunter Baker said...

My next child will be conceived on top of the wall. We shall name him Tom Van Dyke Baker, which in Swahili means Beautiful Fortress.

James F. Elliott said...

"I want to seal the borders. I'm fine with a Fortress America."

Don't you find this idea even a little bit inimical to liberty? Freedom? Et cetera? I personally find the very idea grossly repugnant.

Tom Van Dyke said...

Not inimical to liberty as long as the gate freely swings out.

James F. Elliott said...

That's kind of taking Mills a little too seriously, isn't it?

Walls provoke insular thought patterns. The very existence of a wall on the borders provokes that "us vs. them" mentality.

Tom Van Dyke said...

James, altho there's a poetry to what you say, real life must interfere with abstractions at some point. Anything that can be learned from 30 or 90 million illegal immigrants can be learned from 12.

Hunter Baker said...

Hope I happen to be tuned in for Rush's reaction to the next one. I think you're right that Rush thought you were doing "column by request" work.

Hunter Baker said...

Oh, I've always assumed you made a massive fortune on the gold run-up of the 1970's.