Billmon: Non-Native Son

The Corner's John Derbyshire hears the approaching thunder of many, many brown feet, and is properly terrified:

Given that there has never in all of American history been an estimate of future immigration that did not under-estimate the numbers by an order of magnitude, my guess would be we're looking at a billion.

But what the hey — this is a nation of immigrants, right?

Well, yes, John, it is -- and some of us have been here quite a bit longer than others. It's amusing to hear all this talk about "we" and "us" and "ours" coming from someone who as late as 1992 was still identifying himself as a British citizen and sticking up for his native country's colonial past (that noble assumption of the white man's burden that gave the world such success stories as Iraq, Palestine and Zimbabwe):

As a British citizen, I take exception to Les Payne's ignorant and spiteful remarks about my country's history . . . Payne refers to Britain's "centuries of looting the ... wealth" of its former colonies . . . I defy Payne to name any colony that we left poorer, worse educated, less healthy or less populous than we found it.

A different "we," but the same basic idea: Wogs and civilization don't mix.