Terrific and timely op-ed from Jeb Bush and Robert Putnam debunking the myth that there’s something uniquely threatening to American culture from Hispanic immigrants.

On language:

Proponents and opponents of immigration agree on one thing: Learning English is crucial to success and assimilation…

Most recent immigrants recognize that they need to learn English, and about 90 percent of the second generation speak English, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Research by sociologists Claude Fischer and Michael Hout published in 2008 suggests that English acquisition among immigrants today is faster than in previous waves.

On geographic assimilation:

Half a century ago, sociologist Stanley Lieberson showed that most immigrants lived in segregated enclaves, “Little Italy” or “Chinatown,” for several generations. This segregation reflected discrimination by natives and the natural desire of “strangers in a strange land” to live among familiar faces with familiar customs….

That many of today’s immigrants live in ethnic enclaves is thus entirely normal and reflects no ominous aim to separate themselves from the wider American community.

On intermarriage:

Immigrant intermarriage, then and now, also demonstrates steady progress over generations. In the 1960s, more than half a century after Italian immigration peaked, about 40 percent of second-generation Italians married non-Italians. This pattern characterizes today’s immigrants: 39 percent of U.S.-born Latinos marry non-Latinos, according to the Pew Research Center. Intermarriage among second-generation Asian Americans is even more common. Today’s immigrants are, on average, assimilating socially even more rapidly than earlier waves.

I’m not sure about all of their policy recommendations, but they’re dead on here. We’ve seen the same criticisms with each new wave of immigrants: They’re not assimilating. They don’t speak the language. They’re just here for a handout. They’re bringing disease. We’re getting the dregs of the rest of the world.

I guess it would be subjective to say that each wave of immigrants has made America stronger, though that’s certainly my opinion. But when it comes to the retread fears about assimilation the critics have been wrong every time.

Editorial cartooning is so formulaic it’s laughable. Shortly after Robert Byrd died, I Tweeted:

Who will be the first editorial cartoonist to depict St. Peter welcoming Byrd to the “Robert C. Byrd Pearly Gates”?

Your winner:

Carlos Miller, who runs the Photography Is Not a Crime blog, and veteran photojournalist Stretch Leford decided to test the photography rules in Miami-Dade’s metrorail system. Before embarking on their test, they obtained written assurance from Metro Safety and Security Chief Eric Muntan that there’s no law against non-commercial photography on the system.

The two didn’t make it past the first station before they were stopped. Employees of 50 State Security, the private firm contracted to provide the metro’s security, stopped the pair first. They then called in local police. The private firm and the police then threatened the two with arrest, demanded their identification (to check them against a terrorist watch list), demanded multiple times that they stop filming, and eventually “banned” Miller and Ledford from the metro system “for life” (though it’s doubtful they had the authority to do so).

Miller’s account here. Ledford’s is here.

Here’s the video:

• This comment thread makes me sad. There is no “right” to something someone else has to provide or pay for. That’s an entitlement.
• The city of Chicago The State of Illinois is taking advantage of low housing costs to seize homes to make way for an airport that may never exist.
• Tony Blair to be medal-of-freedomed.
• Investment tip: Buy beach-front property in western Ethiopia.
• Salmon-flavored vodka. Related: This Agitator guest post from Jacob Grier on how to make bacon-infused bourbon still gets linked about once a week. Here in Nashville (right around the corner from me, actually), there’s a great cocktail spot called the Patterson House that makes a delicious maple bacon bourbon drink.

The URL alone is pretty striking: http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/

It’s the pet project of U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who has made civil liberties a priority of Britain’s new coalition government. The site’s langauge is even more remarkable. The first full sentence reads:

The Coalition Government is committed to restoring and defending your freedom – and we’re asking you to participate.

The word “restoring” is rare candor. It acknowledges that the British government has taken a good amount of freedom in the first place, something governments are generally loathe to concede. Here’s more refreshing language, describing what the site is all about:

We’re working to create a more open and less intrusive society through our Programme for Government. We want to restore Britain’s traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations – both for individuals and businesses.

This site gives you the chance to submit, comment on, or vote for ideas about how we can do this. Your ideas will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law.

So if there are any laws or regulations you’d like us to do away with, then submit your idea. If you see ideas here already that you like the look of, then rate them and get them moved up the list. And if there’s more you’d like to say, then talk to others in the comments section for each proposal.

It’s time to have your say. After all – it’s your freedom.

I suppose it remains to be seen what sort of actual policy changes the site inspires. But damn. This is certainly a good start. It’s the kind of thing that might—just might—warm even the jaded, liberty loving hearts of Agitator commenters.