A Nation of Immigrants and Aliens

Enjoying Season 1 of Mork and Mindy has given me an opportunity to revisit 1978. To say that times have changed is to warp past the expansion of Daylight Savings and the appearance of telephones that take selfies. 

In one episode, Mork met a Russian musician who was here studying the cello.  The Russian told Mork that all aliens in the United States must register. I forgot about that. Then I remembered the public service announcements on television. It is a lot more complicated now.  (See here https://www.uscis.gov/)  But if you read the laws, special, organized registration of aliens goes back at least to 1924 though the Alien Acts of 1798 were no laughing matter. (See here:  https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alien.html )

Nanu nanu!

Distrust of unwanted immigrants goes back to 1492, but your sense of irony must have been removed at birth if you do not pause at the distinction between Native Americanism and  American nativism. Will the last one in please close the door?

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Monsters from the Id

The Scientific Method

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