Right Wingin' It

I had the (dis)pleasure of overhearing a rather lengthy conversation a few days ago between two men (who shall remain unnamed). Two of their main topics were illegal immigration and Hurricane Katrina. The older of the two suggested something akin to the following, to curb illegal immigration at the Mexican border:

Have every American buy a landmine which they can place at any point along the border. Depending on the amount of "beaners" (yes, he actually said "beaners") they kill, they receive a monetary reward. It was suggested that this would get people really "interested" and involved in the problem. This man also said that he wasn't "...racist, just anti-illegal!"

On Katrina, the same man had the following to say: "Yeah, it was ALL the government's fault, yeah like we planned on a fucking hurricane coming through. And you know what, we gave them $1500 credit cards, and those niggers (yes, he actually said "niggers") went out and spent it on sneakers and jewelry and shit!"

He went on to call Barack Obama a "commie socialist" and John McCain "not conservative enough".

This was easily the most embarrassing and awful conversation I've heard in a long time. One forgets, living in a liberal enclave like NYC, that people like these still exist, in frighteningly large numbers. I'd like to see what this man would have done with $1500 after his entire home was carried away, his parents drowned, and his workplace was obliterated. I wonder if he would have spent some of that on landmines. I mean, seriously, what are you gonna do with $1500? Invest in stocks?