Personal Asides: “Will” Scores First With Jonathan Swift but Lots of You Have Invaluable Comments on “A Modest Proposal”...On the Bible Translations Some Engrossing Views, Too!...and Gingrich Scores with a Tough but Do-able Immigration Plan that Tops Bu

According to the time clock on this Blog, a correspondent named “Will” scored first with the Jonathan Swift answer, proposing that an end to Irish famine would come when the Irish are allowed to eat their own children which spurred such horror that his satire achieved its goal…But other correspondents were superbly informed as well. Mike Butler recalled correctly that Swift was the author of Gulliver’s Travels…Cal Skinner, an expert in so many things, had the right answer. Bob in P. F. says it’s ironic that by his anecdotal view with this devastating satire, Swift has reached more people than Milton and Shakespeare…Charles Ryder has an excellently researched answer, saying that in this age of abortion a student of his read Swift’s proposal, didn’t realize it was satire and wrote a paper enthusiastically endorsing the idea!

Respondents to the Biblical article were far more literate on the Good Book than I. WPD, always an interesting correspondent, points out that the English version of the Navarre Bible uses the Revised Standard Version in its “Ignatius” print…While this is not on the Bible, Jason has sent a thoroughly engrossing long e-mail in response to Jim Leahy which I will print and extends his thanks for this Blog’s encouragement of spirited debate among conservatives as well as on the radio show. Thanks, Jason…Bob in P. F. likes the Wolf Blitzer-Bill Schneider parody of Lincoln and Washington but points out that in contrast to George W. Bush, Lincoln went directly after his attacks and wasn’t harmed by faulty intelligence. Oh, but he was, Bob, if you read “Team of Rivals”. Bob also recommends readers going to Springfield and to pay attention to the critical gossip against Lincoln in the White House walking tour (excellent idea)…

Frank Nofsinger in Connecticut reminds me that in my weekly column in “The Wanderer,” the nation’s oldest national Catholic weekly, I list this Blog which is how he found it. Of course! I forgot!...Frank also points out that he recalls the King James version does not contain the books of Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Wisdom and Baruch. Protestants’ Ecclesiastes he says is the Catholic Sirac. Really?...

Sorry, the President’s Speech Really Didn’t Do the Job.

No one can accuse me of being sour on this president: I’ve already said that in my estimation he will go down as a very great one, indeed. But from all reports, his speech last night didn’t accomplish much except to spur more cynicism on immigration. Moreover an assistant secretary of Homeland Security, appearing on the Hugh Hewitt show downplayed the president’s stand with such boldness that one has to ask if there is any discipline in the administration on this issue. The points that I would have hoped he would make are these:

First, I think the American people want us to control the border—not with a temporary stop-gap measure with the National Guard which will serve for a short time, but with a real solution. Of all the proposals, I think the best comes from Newt Gingrich (who held forth enticingly on “Meet the Press.”). Gingrich is a great national resource as a man with vision (but I wouldn’t allow him near the presidency for a minute). To which I add: include a fence or wall and a substantial beefing up of border security with the National Guard only a stop-gap measure until the permanent security force is built up. Second, get tough with employers who are hiring illegals, recognizing that assuredly these businesses have been allies of the Republican party—but that should not deter the crack-down. Third: creation of a worker visa program with background check, a biometric card with a retinal scan that makes it almost impossible to falsify with the card run by either American Express or Visa or MasterCard since Homeland Security is too drowned in bureaucracy to manage the program.

Gingrich would illegals to go home long enough to apply for the card with biometric and to sign a contract stipulating that they will obey the law, pay taxes and agree that they will be removed from this country within 48 hours if they break the agreement. Says Gingrich: “The Senate [bill] is requiring them to pay a fine to the government larger than the cost of flying home. Remember, I’m saying to people who came here illegally, `We’re going to allow you legally to go home and apply legally for the card. But we are not going to allow people to start their career in America by breaking the law.” Gingrich blistered the Senate bill by saying it creates “three classes of people. If you’re here less than two years you have to leave. If you’re here two to five years you can stay but under certain circumstances . If you’re here five years you get to stay. For the first time in history, we’re going to create a forgery industry to prove you’re breaking the law longer.”

With respect to the thought that Gingrich is forcing mothers and fathers to go home and leave the kids (who are citizens having been born here), Gingrich responded: “In the age of jet airplanes, you [can] phase this in over three years. There are ways to do this that can be humane, compassionate, caring. You take the most difficult cases and decide on humanitarian grounds to have a handful of exceptions. But for you to establish the principle that we’re now going to reward those who have broken the law the longest [it means] we’re now going to create an entire forgery industry so people prove they’ve been here as long as possible, breaking the law and [you send] a signal to the entire planet:

“Show up in the U. S. for the next amnesty. It was three million last time. It’s going to be—by the way—in a study to come out from the Heritage Foundation—[under the provision of the Senate bill] between 30 and 50 million people [will be] ultimately allowed to become citizens under the extended family provision in this bill. Thirty to 50 million people!...Fifty-three percent of all Hispanic Americans, people who have citizenship, agree with the provision that you should enforce the law. Remember, many of them have relatives who’ve been sitting at home, waiting and obeying the law, hoping to get a legal visa. And now they’re about to be told that somebody who has been breaking the law for eleven years has a better place in America than somebody who waited back home to obey the law to come to the U. S. legally.”

What I would do were I Bush is to sit Gingrich down in a room and devise a solution that implements this idea. I knew him when he was a back-bencher in the House: a true genius, with white, fuzzy hair and a whining voice who probably is the brightest conceptual thinker on public policy in the U. S. today. He wants to run for president; he shouldn’t; he cannot handle power (first thing he did as Speaker was to try to sell a book; second was to fall in love with a staffer). But that’s the weird way genius sometimes runs. Remember even now, the Democrats are crafting slogans for November, 2006 and not coming up with concrete ideas. Who has heard Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid’s answer to the immigration crisis? (Or to Iraq, for that matter?).

Your ideas on Gingrich’s plan. I must tell you: he’s sold me!