The cyclical sickness of trusting coyotes

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Seems to me if you can scratch together thousands of dollars you can improve your lot where you are -- unless you're running from the mob or gov't or some organization bent on killing you. Otherwise, with that much money, one can develop a business (with oodles of marketing/public relations frills), go to college or take correspondence courses, hire private tutors, or, at the very least, move his ass to a better part of town -- anything but give it away to human traffickers to sneak him into AMERICA so that one can live the good life of being a human pack mule and indentured servant. 

Latin Americans risk life to get to USA to live the "American dream." Can anyone say stupid?

Latin America makes a helluva lot of noise against capitalism yet Latin Americans risk life, family estrangement and sanity to get to USA to live the "American dream" which is, apparently, rooted in capitalism. Can anyone say stupid or full of shit? Because that is just what it is when, time and again, these people put their faith and cough up THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS into the hands of scumbags who they know to be dishonest, ruthless, cold-hearted.

But America/Americans are the bad guys? Bitch, please. 
Sad, pitiful, insane, and pathetic come to mind. This running to America via human smugglers amounts to a cyclical sickness.

(Another round of illegal immigrants raided in Texas)

I get the for-a-better-life argument; what I don't get is why that argument is only plausible to U.S. soil. And why, upon settling in America, do these desperate peoples refuse to acclimate, to become Americanized, to leave their pasts, which they so earnestly run from, behind rather than cluster and morph into a hyphenated and pseudo America? Where are the shouts of Viva America! Instead, local gov'ts and schools, in the name of multiculturalism, patronize Independence Days for this and that sovereign nation. And, years later, Juan Carlos still pays arbitrary interest to the coyotes (human smugglers) who made his American slavery a reality. And he still can't speak English. Viva...!   

What Boston Marathon bombing?

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A year since the Boston Marathon bombing?
Wow, really? It does not feel like 365 days have gone by. When the bombing happened I was on the other side of the nation in Los Angeles. In fact, I was walking around Hollywood. As I passed the open door of one or two bars I caught that the televisions were broadcasting BREAKING NEWS having something to do with Boston. It didn't seem to be a big deal, though...there was no cluster of people riveted to the newscast. The ticker tape on the CNN building on Sunset Blvd also left much to be known. 

Maybe, I figured, a Kennedy died. 

Some time later back at the hostel I learned what all the excitement was about; only, I have to admit, there was no excitement in the overly large city on the West coast. Not one person did I overhear chatting about the terrible finale of the race. There were no exclamations of "Oh my God!" "Can you believe it!" or "Another terrorist attack" The folks in L.A. were blissfully unaware (or desensitized, but that seems sadly cynical even for dog-eat-dog L.A.)
As the manhunt took weight so, too, were people's attention arrested. Or, at least, coverage of it dominated the news shows and blogosphere. That's one thing news networks and Hollywood have in common: If the show draws an audience, they'll just keep banging away at it. 

@TWPTilden

It takes two to tango

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Life is too short to engage with idiots, morons, know-it-all's; and unless you work as a spy it is fruitless to deal with the anonymous blowhard. Question: Who is he/she/it who hasn't the balls to stand by his words? Answer: Persona non grata. In as much as I am mindful to not act on unfounded fears so, too, do I practice short tolerance for faceless agitators on the Web. In other words, arguing with someone you can't see is as asinine as shadow boxing in the dark.  

I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.

- Mark Twain