By Frank Palardy Santa Monica
David Pisarra likes to ridicule Southerners, but Los Angeles is drifting off from the rest of the country and is the South of our time.
If anyone reads his column outside of West LA, it’s for laughs, whether he intends to amuse or not. He’s a caricature as much as any character on Hee Haw, as is the writer of Incites.
Pisarra is particularly humorous because he’s a lawyer and all his advice contradicts the law.
The latest column on immigration is a perfect example (SMDP, April 4, page 4). Does he not care if millions violate the law? His arguments are more of a comedy skit than debate. The idea that illegals are all picking lettuce is a joke. Modern technology requires less workers on farms or anywhere else. Pisarra can laugh about it because one of the only jobs not threatened by illegals is lawyers.
I read recently that a good percent of computer programmers overstay their H1B visas. It’s often said they pay taxes, but likely they would be working on contract and responsible for their own taxes. Of course, they’re not going to pay them, and can undercut legal workers more easily. Indeed, they’re not the only ones violating the law.
Mr. Pisarra is not concerned about the law and he’s a lawyer. If the law doesn’t matter than our elections are pointless and we’re living in a state that’s not legitimate, our own little confederacy of idiots.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 11, 2006. Read the original PDF.