In light of this recent outbreak, a moratorium of six months to a year on ALL Mexican produce wouldn't be out of line. But thanks to disasters like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that's never going to happen.

Naturally, Mexican officials are backpedaling, and have called the FDA's findings "premature." Enrique Sanchez, service director of Mexico's National Sanitation and Farm Food Quality, even sent a letter to the U.S. government "expressing our concern and most forceful complaint against this decision."

The unmitigated gall of the Mexican government never ceases to amaze me. It reminds me of when their president yelled at our president because we had the "nerve" to send the illegal immigrants from Mexico BACK to Mexico!

Sanchez said the FDA "has no scientific proof to make a decision that will harm Mexico enormously." Sanchez and the rest of the so-called Mexican government just don't get it: the FDA doesn't NEED to have any proof, scientific or otherwise, to issue a statement to protect the health of American citizens. Quite frankly, I don't care a whit for what kind of harm is done to Mexico! I'd rather see a dozen Mexican farms suffer than to have one American citizen be sickened by tainted Mexican produce.

Don't forget that when this outbreak first started, it was American tomato farmers who felt the brunt of FDA warnings - even though their product was not, ultimately, found to be at fault for the outbreak. If the U.S. government has the power to make its own farmers endure a crop ban, how can the Mexican government believe that their farms are somehow immune from this treatment?

The problem is that the Mexican government doesn't really take U.S. national sovereignty seriously. They figure that the U.S. and Mexico are essentially the same country, and that Mexican labor and goods should be able to flow freely over the border (in a northerly direction only, of course) with complete impunity. And Sanchez's outrageous assumption that the U.S. government needs to take into account what effect FDA safety measures will have on Mexico's economy just underscores this point.

Let's also remember that since the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak was detected, upwards of 1,200 people have been infected with the virus, across 43 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada. As many as 242 have been hospitalized as a result of the infection. According to the CDC, there are usually only about 25 reported cases of this strain of salmonella per year.

Hopefully now that the source of this outbreak has been found, it will put the brakes on this latest scourge from Mexico. This incident is yet another object lesson in the dangers of allowing elements of the Third World to creep into the U.S. and endanger the health and welfare of our people. We should be shutting our southern border not only to people, but to fruits and vegetables, too.

Never picking a peck of Mexican peppers,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

www.douglassreport.com

« Close It

Of course, the illegal immigrant groups like La Raza and others had no facts to counter what they called the "anti-Latino falsehoods" in the CBS report. I guess we have to assume that it's just not fair to point out the negatives about the growing illegal population in our country.

Here's the most outrageous part: I looked into the Rand Corporation (a non-profit global policy think tank) study that the CBS report was based on, and La Raza is right - the CBS report was inaccurate. In fact, the report UNDER ESTIMATED the size of the financial kick-in-the-teeth that the American taxpayer is getting from illegal Mexican immigrants.

According to the statistics that appeared on-screen during the CBS report, the $1.1 billion per year was what taxpayers were paying for "all undocumented men, women, and children." However, the Rand study said the $1.1 billion tally was the healthcare costs ONLY for "non-elderly participants - those between 18 and 64."

So the TRUE cost of illegal immigrant healthcare in this country is likely SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER than the $1.1 billion claimed in the report. Take, for example, the child born during that emergency C-section mentioned in the CBS report. He or she will have 17 years of healthcare (not to mention the cost of postnatal care at the south Texas hospital where she was born) that won't be factored into Rand's figures.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute, called the CBS report a breath of fresh air, considering that most media coverage is largely biased heavily in favor of illegal immigrants.

"The mainstream media has pretended that there is no cost or downside to the millions of people coming over the border illegally," Knight said. "So these groups are trying to intimidate Couric and her colleagues at the major networks."

Knight rightly points out that America's left-leaning media essentially approves of the massive influx of illegal aliens as a way to increase the Democratic voter base. According to Knight, liberals think that once illegal aliens are enrolled in liberal welfare programs and government subsidies, they will eventually become what he calls "a new generation of Democratic voters."

Which is true enough. But I think it's wrong. Because if these brazen illegals have proven one thing, it's that they care little for American citizenship. All they want is American rights and jobs. I'm sure they'd happily accept the right to vote too, but they won't bother to attain citizenship to get it. They believe they're entitled to it. And liberals are not bothering to disabuse these criminals (yes, CRIMINALS - that's what they are) of the notion that they're not deserving of these privileges. After all, California came close to giving ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LEGAL DRIVERS LICENSES. I wish I could believe that this won't happen. But some day, I'm sure it will.

Quite frankly, groups like La Raza make me ill. These people routinely have the gall to march through the streets of American cities carrying MEXICAN FLAGS while they are demanding the rights and privileges that are afforded only to AMERICAN CITIZENS. What's more, when protesting the CBS News report, a group similar to La Raza called the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) threatened the network by saying, "If CBS is playing to immigration hawks to boost its sagging ratings, the network risks being tuned out by the expanding Latino community. Advertisers know that by 2011, Hispanic buying power will total $1.2 trillion, almost 10 percent of all U.S. purchasing power."

So, ignore the facts or else? Charming. Isn't it nice that people like this have graced our nation with their presence? We can only hope that someone in our government will seal the borders before it's too late.

One mad Americano,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Comments are welcome at redstatepatriot@hughes.net. Please include the title of the article as your subject line. Selected responses, in whole or part, may be published (appended to the article).

« Close It

Typically, NPR sees the world through red-tinted, Marxist glasses; the poor and downtrodden must be helped and given every possible advantage, whether or not they legally deserve it or not. And NPR will shamelessly pluck at your heart-strings until your heart bleeds as much as theirs does. I was so incensed about this story that I went to the NPR website to find out more (glutton for punishment that I am) and discovered that the story I'd heard was actually just the first of a three-part series!

Part two of the story told of one Salvadoran deportee's "near-death trip" to the U.S. The hombre in question was "Julio," a 45-year-old diabetic. His story is littered with all the well-worn clichés you've come to expect from an illegal immigrant story. He was cheated by the smuggler he paid to get him to the States; he spent two days in the desert without food or shelter - blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm as compassionate as the next guy, but if Julio had stayed at home where he belonged, or better yet, TRIED TO ENTER THE U.S. THE LEGAL WAY, he wouldn't have experienced any of the "horrors" of his "near-death trip."

I appreciate that Julio and others like him are seeking a better life. And I hope they find it. But I refuse to believe that it's incumbent upon the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer to pick up the tab. Clearly, the immigrants that come here are not averse to hard work; I implore them to stay in their respective homelands and put their efforts into bettering the future of their native countries.

And as for the folks at NPR, all I have to say to them is, what are you thinking? You're as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head about where you stand on all this. You think only compassionless meanies would deny people like Julio their shot at the American Dream?

But then, what can I expect from a bunch of people who work on a non-profit radio station? People who've never had to compete for listenership, and who can spew their liberal tripe without even one thought to needing to make it profitable. Naturally, they believe that you should be free to do whatever you want and let the government pick up the tab: the taxpayers have been footing the bill for over a third of NPR's annual operating costs for decades.

NPR's thought process goes something like this: while you're taking out your checkbook to pay taxes to keep NPR in the black, why not include some more of your hard-earned cash so that Julio can have his insulin taken care of, decent healthcare for his family, an education for his kids, and everything else that a citizen of the United States can have. The fact that Julio isn't citizen shouldn't matter, should it?

Well, I'm here to say it should. It matters a lot. U.S. citizenship is a privilege, not a right. It's not something you give away like care packages. It's something that has to be earned. Legally.

Publicly calling out what's wrong with National Public Radio.

(If that were not enough,) with disturbing regularity, I seem to be telling you about more and more third world diseases and ailments that are popping up right here in the U.S. This is not good. I believe that these increases of tropical diseases are directly related to the increased number of illegal immigrants here in the States from all manner of unhygienic parts of the globe.

The parasitic worm disease called schistosomiasis is yet another example. Like many of these third world diseases, schistosomiasis is actually one of the most common parasitic infections in the whole world, infecting 207 million every year. Of course, the majority of these people are in the Asia, South America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean (and no, I don't mean Club Med).

Schistosomiasis is caused by flatworms that live in snail-infested fresh water; this water is contaminated by worm eggs when infected people urinate or defecate into it. Schistosomiasis is contracted when people swim, bathe, fish or rice farm in the contaminated water.

"This is a disease of poverty," McGarvey said. "If you had proper sewage disposal systems for humans and animals, you wouldn't be contaminating the environment with the [worm] eggs."

The good news – if there is good news in a story like this – is that the disease has merely increased worldwide; there's been no mention of a significant uptick here in the States….yet. But I wouldn't breath a sigh of relief. Researchers say we need more resources allocated to beating it back. One of the authors of the study, Steven McGarvey, director of the International Health Institute at Brown University, said, "We're basically ringing the bell; attention must be paid."

In other words, if we're not careful, this parasite could be coming to a town near you.

Yet another reason to build that fence!!

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
http://www.douglassreport.com

Comments are welcome at redstatepatriot@hughes.net. Please include the title of the article as your subject line. Selected responses, in whole or part, may be published (appended to the article).

« Close It

Maybe this next bit of information will clue you in.

The Prince George's County school system is allocated $11,325 per student, per year. This sum comes from a variety of sources, and roughly breaks down this way: About 7 percent ($780) comes from the federal government; 46 percent comes from the state of Maryland ($5,246); and 47 percent comes from local monies such as city budgets ($5,298).

In order for the schools to receive that money, a child must be enrolled in the school. Simple enough, right? Well, according to the state regulations on vaccinations, a kid CAN'T be enrolled if he doesn't have his vaccinations up to date. In fact, he could be expelled.

According to the news report, there were as many as 2,300 hundred kids being barred from school due to their non-compliance with the vaccination policy. If those kids were tossed from school due to state regulations. That would mean the PG County school district would suddenly be out an astounding $26 million in revenue from the state and the city! No wonder they wanted to threaten the parents with jail!

Don't let them suck you in with all that "it's for the safety of the children" nonsense. As always, it's about the almighty dollar. This is just the kind of issue that gets me going, because it's not only about good health, it's also about the protection of your personal freedoms. And the sad truth is, when it comes to vaccinations, the choice is very rarely yours. Your body and the bodies of your children are the property of the government when it comes to vaccines. It's not only un-constitutional; it's downright scary.

But when it comes to creating supplements with everything you need and nothing you don't, it's not just a matter of weeding through the junk. Sometimes it means finding Thankfully, there's no such thing as bad publicity. The more these kinds of things happen, the more the anti-vaccine groups are able to get some much-needed media attention for the cause. There are two great groups out there who are fighting the good fight against vaccines: PROVE (Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education) and the American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF). These organizations are doing what they can to ensure the philosophical exemptions to mandatory vaccinations are enforced throughout the country.

You read that right. Refusing vaccines just isn't a matter of saying, "no thanks." While every state in the union protects those medically exempt from vaccinations (those with proven allergies to certain vaccines), and every state except Michigan and West Virginia offer religious exemptions, there are ONLY 18 STATES that offer a philosophical exemption. The fact that most states make a legal distinction between a "religious exemption" and a "philosophical exemption" (which, if you ask me, is the same exact thing), is bureaucratic hair-splitting of the most egregious kind.

If a study came out tomorrow that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that vaccines weren't dangerous (don't hold your breath, by the way), I would STILL be shouting about exemptions at the top of my lungs. Why? Because it is a FUNDAMENTAL PERSONAL RIGHT to CHOOSE what is and what is not injected into your body and the bodies of your children. This right needs to be upheld in ALL 50 states in the U.S., and FULLY PROTECTED by the federal government. The right to choose to be fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, or completely unvaccinated should be up to you. And no amount of money or influence should be able to bend such a basic constitutional freedom. Period.

Taking aim at mandatory shots,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Comments are welcome at redstatepatriot@hughes.net. Please include the title of the article as your subject line. Selected responses, in whole or part, may be published (appended to the article).

Response by Suzanne:
Outrageous!

« Close It