ONE MORE THING: Here's one more paragraph from the U.S.S. Clueless I wanted to talk about:

Each generation in America is strengthened by a new flow of immigrants. Now that flow is from Latin America, and Korea, and Japan, and the Philippines, and India, and Viet Nam, and China, and Taiwan; they will bring with them the best of their nations, and they will leave behind the worst, and America will change again. It will change for the better. And it will become even less like Europe. In fifty years, more than half the population of the United States will not be of European descent.

First thing: is anybody coming here from Japan anymore? I wouldn't think they'd need to, recession or not.

Second thing: the idea of new immigrants bringing the best of their nations, which is pretty true, especially in the case of India, which I think is suffering from brain drain as a lot of its best and brightest find better-paying jobs here. But it is quite a change from that whole wretched refuse yearning to breathe free, right? Not that Steven won't be right about things changing for the better, but we shouldn't think we're getting merely the cast-aside of the world anymore. We as Americans have become victims of our own success in that regard.