America has no need whatsoever for more actors, comedians, dancers, lawyers, social workers, masters of business arts, marketing people, journalists or other such vocations.

America needs scientists and engineers. If we don't straighten out the public education system and produce those scientists and engineers, then the Chinese, Japanese and Indians are going to eat our lunch and reduce us to Third World status.

You belong to the Third World when most of what you sell abroad is raw materials and most of what you import is manufactured goods. Look at all the Made-In-Everywhere-But-America labels and you will see that we are well on the way to a much lower standard of living, the dot-com and financier billionaires notwithstanding.

No nation has ever achieved or maintained great-power status without a strong agricultural base and a strong manufacturing base. We once had both, but we are rapidly losing our manufacturing base as greedy corporations ship American jobs overseas to cheap labor countries. And while that is happening, uncontrolled immigration is driving down wages in the service economies and building trades.

And the U.S. government is doing nothing to address either problem. On the contrary, it is proposing to aggravate both of them with some kind of amnesty program for illegal aliens and a new "free trade" agreement that will provide American corporations with even more cheap labor.

You would think Americans could at least apply common sense rather than accept the intellectual manure that is spread by Washington. Do you realize how poor Honduras and Panama, for example, are? What do you think they have to sell us? What do think they can afford to buy? The answer to both questions is nothing. Even their banana plantations are owned by foreigners.

So a free trade agreement with Central America just means American corporations will move jobs to those poor countries and ship the products back to the U.S. duty free. And the difference between the cheap labor o f those desperate people and the higher wages of American workers will go into the pockets of the corporate owners. I assume that by now most Americans have noticed that these Made-Someplace-Else products aren't cheap.

Before the North American Free Trade Agreement was adopted, we had a trade surplus with Mexico. Now we have a trade deficit. How many Mexican products do you buy? Not many, I venture to say, but a lot of the American band-name products you buy are made in Mexico, where the wages are very low.

By the way, do you think a government that allows an estimated 3 million illegal aliens to come into the country each and every year really gives a hoot in Hades about homeland security? Don't kid yourself. The government's so-called war on terrorism is a con game and a boondoggle.

What the government jargon calls "first responders" are really first reactors. Cops and firefighters get there after the act of terrorism has already been committed. If you are serious about fighting terrorism,. You have to concentrate on prevention, and you can't do that when 3 million strangers pour into your country every single year unnoticed and unknown.

The attacks on September 11, 2001, were pulled off by people in the country illegally or in violation of their visa status. I spent a week with the Border Patrol near San Diego, and the officers will tell you that people from more than 60 countries cross the southern U.S. border illegally.

So to the list of scientists and engineers add honest politicians who sincerely care about the welfare of the country as a whole. That's what we need desperately.

But in the meantime, you can feel perfectly safe, because the U.S. government makes Martha Stewart wear an electronic ankle bracelet and therefore knows exactly where she is at all times. Never doubt but that the U.S. government has all its priorities in order. God only knows who's in that 3 million who cross illegally, but at least you don't have to fear that Martha Stewart will knock on your door and offer you a plate of cookies.