"Millions of Americans will lose an hour's sleep Saturday night as clocks are turned ahead to daylight-saving time. Other people will forget and be an hour late for church..." -- METRO NEWYORK, Weekend edition.
I love when the news is funny.
So the other thing I read in METRO today (besides Naomi Campbell hitting yet another one of her assistants in the head with a phone) is a great interview with Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. In it she takes a stand on the immigration debate and she says "There's something wrong when a society depends on the laborers who are here illegally, yet refuses to grant them any protections they are entitled to." METRO invites its readers to comment directly to them but I think you should all comment directly to me because debates like these are more fun for me than doing my job.
Here's my two cents. While I understand we are a nation of laws and should continue to be governed by these laws, when people get all hopped up about illegal immigrants stealing American jobs I can't help but imagine whoever is doing the yelling navigating a rickety bike down Broadway in the rain with a basket full of Chinese food. Because these are the kinds of jobs illegal immigrants "steal" from us -- delivering Chinese food, picking grapes, standing on street corners to get paid $20 a day to do gardening or construction for someone who doesn't want to pay taxes for menial labor.
Donna Lieberman goes on to say "We have to recognize that we are a country of immigrants and immigrants should have rights." She's right. And illegal immigrants -- the guy delivering my mai fun and the woman who wipes the counter at my local Dunkin' Donuts -- these people don't bother me. You know who does bother me? People like my ex-boyfriend's best friend. He's from Northern Ireland. He lives here legally. He gets paid three times as much as any American I know for doing the same job because he was recruited from overseas, apparently because he's so much smarter than any of us. And he complains about the United States like it's some slut who forgot to call him after sex. He says things like, "Americans are going to be extinct soon. No one has any use for you." And "It's not like that in Ireland. In Ireland people are respectful of each other, and this and that is so much better, and the streets are paved with gold and little leprechauns prance at your feet." Okay, he never said that last part but you know what I mean. Mind you, he's from Northern Ireland. Yeah, land of car bombs and civil unrest. I mean its better than it used to be but seriously not the best group for the United States to take lessons from in the ways of keeping your people from revolting.
People like Mr. Ireland annoy me far more than the ones who are breaking their backs to make sure your diner delivery hangover food is hot when it gets to your door because you were too freaking lazy to get off your fat ass and go get your own food. Because he's getting a get version of the American dream. He came here and he did BETTER than he did at home by a LOT. He's doing better than most of the people that were born here. And he's not leaving anytime soon. He's gonna milk it for all its worth. It would be nice if he was grateful. It would be nice if he would give a little back. It would be nice if he would shut the fuck up. But that's just me.
I'm surprised I had such a rant in me considering how hungover I am today. The Beautiful People party was fun. Caroline Torem-Craig took Alev and my picture on the way in. Alev looked really good -- she could be one of the Beautiful People. You never know! We went out afterwards and some guy who looked just like Erik Palladino hit on Alev. Then I randomly ran into Lauren which was FIERCE -- HEY LAUREN! All in all a good night. But now "j'ai gueule du bois" as my interns say and I want to go sleepy sleepy.
I'm going to see Inside Man tonight. Jessica hated it but someone else saw it and loved it. Any opinions?
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