No Hadrian's wall for C-minus Augustus

Bush's immigration speech (en Español here) has left my brother-in-law-twice-removed heartbroken.

He has dreams of a solid wall along the entire length of the southern border.

That is, a ||W||A||L||L|| -- not a kiddie pool fence -- manned by tens of thousands of armed US military/paramilitary personnel.

For two decades now, my brother-in-law-twice-removed has been told over and over by the various wingnuts he listens to on radio, watches on television, and occasionally elects to office that his country, his job, his very life were under siege. And all he wants to see is something as basic and tangible as a masonry wall -- maybe with some artfully arranged concertina wire and the occasional military weapon shining in the desert sunlight.

Something he could -- like a slightly rabid Clark Griswold heading to WallyWorld -- visit on vacation. Something he could actually touch. Maybe a modest donation would get him a brick or a paver with his name engraved on it in a special visitors' area.

Is that too much to ask?

But Bush refuses to let his dream come true, and my brother-in-law-twice-removed is reduced to muttering complaints about not being allowed to win.

At the end of empire in America, every public issue inevitably mutates into a personal Vietnam.