Heirloom Diseases

You’ve probably heard of heirloom vegetables. You know, they’re the ones that have been preserved by passing seeds down from generation to generation. Heirloom varieties are generally at least 50 years old, but many are 100 years or older.

While heirloom vegetables are actually benign–and frequently very tasty–it seems to me that we are currently witnessing an alarming wave of another type of heirloom: diseases. I started thinking about it when I read this post from Gateway Pundit earlier today, about an outbreak of typhoid (yes typhoid) in California and Nevada. Typhoid, once the scourge of many major cities, was nearly eradicated by the advent of clean water technologies in the early part of the twentieth century. Yet typhoid is back, and it’s not the only heirloom disease we’re seeing in America of late.

We’ve probably all seen the reports in the paper, on blogs, and on the nightly news of outbreaks of bedbugs in places like New York City (replete with video that’ll make you think twice before climbing into bed). But it’s not just there. Those little suckers (ha!) are appearing all over the country. 

You’re no doubt also aware that we’ve been having problems with salmonella. According to the Food Poison Journal, there have been 12 major outbreaks of salmonella across the country this year, none of which seem to be related to the current egg recall.

Leprosy is another heirloom that was once nearly wiped out in this country. But in northwest Arkansas in 2008, there was an outbreak. Sadly, it’s not just in Arkansas, either.

“…[L]eprosy is clearly here in New York, and our clinic at Bellevue Hospital treats more than 500 identified cases of leprosy. While most are Caribbean, Hispanic and Asian immigrants, in recent years we have identified and reported endemic cases in New York City…

Based on the cases we see at the Bellevue leprosy clinic, there are many additional unidentified cases of leprosy in the tristate area and the mid-Atlantic region.”

Another oldie once thought to be under control, scarlet fever is back this year, as well, and in our nation’s capital.

Tuberculosis, another throwback to yesteryear, is also making a come-back. Once thought to be on track to be completely eradicated by this year, evidence suggests that it will not happen.

The U.S. is unlikely to meet its goal for eliminating tuberculosis (TB) by 2010, primarily because of high rates of latent (dormant) TB infection in certain population subgroups, according to a nationwide survey…

Continuing basic TB control measures, as well as targeted evaluation and appropriate treatment of individuals in high-prevalence groups — including immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, and poor people — “are needed to further TB elimination efforts in the United States,” Navin and colleagues maintain.

Typhoid, leprosy, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, bed bugs. All thought to be afflictions of previous generations, rendered harmless by better sanitation, better technology, better medical treatment. All alive and well here in America. Why?

There are many reasons for the resurgence of these diseases, but I believe one main factor has facilitated this deadly resurgence: open borders, which let in more than just illegal aliens. They also allow in the third-world diseases that some border-crossers carry. Close the borders, and you begin to control the diseases that piggyback in with the illegals.

This seems to be a microcosm of our national outlook–our government is not making the hard decisions, it’s making the politically correct ones. And until we change that, we’d all better get accustomed to bedbugs and the occasional outbreak of a long-forgotten heirloom disease.

Stoutcat

Borders Held Hostage to “Immigration Reform”

 

And we might as well say it in plain English: our national border security is being held hostage to an effort at amnesty for a massive number of illegals.

Not all Congressmen are afraid to meet their constituents. Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) is one such. Last Thursday, he held a Town Hall meeting in North Tempe, and discussed, among other things, border security, and an initiative that I had not heard of, Operation Streamline, which is the concept that rather than sending illegals back to where they came from when they’re caught, they go to jail. What a concept! Kyl makes a good case for why this works, and why it should be expanded to include more border areas.

But of course the kicker (which really is no surprise) is what Sen. Kyl reports that the President told him in a one-on-one meeting recently:

OBAMA: The problem is, if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform.

As you watch the video, listen to the audience reaction at the point where Kyl quotes Pres. Obama.

Allahpundit at Hot Air is all over this, as is Fausta’s Blog, but it’s so important that I think it really needs to be disseminated as widely as possible as quickly as possible.

Americans are being taken for a ride of massive proportions with this administration of thugs, grifters, and “what’s-in-it-for-me” politicians; and come November 2012, a lot of people are going to be demanding in the voting booths that we change course and get out of this damned handbasket.

Stoutcat

Illegals–They’re Everywhere, Even Massachusetts!

While not nearly as horrifying as the Edmonds, WA rapist who had been deported nine times, even the People’s Republic of Massachusetts has its own problems with illegals. According to Fox Boston:

State Rep. Mike Moran of Brighton was rear-ended by a suspected illegal immigrant this week. The suspect was wearing a Mexican costume at the time of the crash where he slammed into Moran at 60 mph.

The suspect, 27-year-old Isaias Naranjo, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a valid license. According to the report, when told of the serious charges he would be facing, he just laughed.

But because of action taken by Gov. Deval Patrick, state police were unable to notify immigration authorities that Naranjo might be illegal.

That “action taken” by good ol’ “Coupe” Deval happened exactly one week after he took office on January 4, 2007; he rescinded previous Governor Mitt Romney’s agreement with federal authorities to allow State Police to arrest suspected illegals, and replaced it with a much weaker compromise:

“…Steven A. Camarota , director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that Romney’s approach was better than Patrick’s because Massachusetts police officers have few options if they come across individuals they believe may be illegal immigrants.

“If you’re only letting correction officers do [immigration enforcement], then you’re only doing it after someone’s been incarcerated, not when someone is on the street,” he said. “It’s a very poor substitute for what Romney had proposed.”

And so, a drunk illegal fugitive from a mariachi band, with a blood alcohol level of .25 going 60mph rear-ended a state official’s car. And when the police tried to explain to Naranjo what kind of trouble he was in, he just laughed, understanding exactly how toothless Mass immigration laws are, and replied that he was going back to “my country, Mexico. Nothing is going to happen to me, man.”

What are the chances that now, someone will sit up and take notice?

Well, it won’t be the crash victim, Rep. Mike Moran. He is solidly for Massachusetts taxpayers shelling out for illegals:

Checking Moran’s legislative record at local news reports and Project Vote Smart, we see he voted to “delay indefinitely” a proposal to “require the state to verify that anyone over 18 who applies for state benefits is legally in Massachusetts”:

The proposal would require a person seeking benefits to produce proof that he or she is here legally by providing either a valid Massachusetts driver’s license or identification card, U.S. military card, Coast Guard Merchant Mariner card, military dependent’s identification card or Native American tribal document…

Not only that, Moran voted in favor of “In State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants”…

Do you think Massachusetts will take a page from Arizona’s book of laws?

Nah, me neither.

Stoutcat