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August 23, 2008

Saturday Forum

A Former Consular Officer Says Anything Goes For Legal Immigrants With Diseases; etc.

From: Sheila Coyne (e-mail her)

Re: Today’s Letter: A California Reader Wants To See The Math On Immigrants With AIDS

In response to the California letter writer regarding immigrants with HIV, as a former consular officer, I'm more aware than most of just how many former common-sense restrictions on legal immigrants have been discarded. 

Previously, one could not issue a visa to someone guilty of crimes of moral turpitude, i.e. prostitutes and other deviants.

Yet even consular insiders are guilty of violating this code of behavior.

Recently a communications officer (a sensitive security position) at an embassy where I served married a former Filipina bargirl whose artificially inflated bust, an important quality in her old job, elicited numerous off-color remarks from others. 

In the past, people with active cases of TB or various venereal diseases were automatically ineligible. But not now. 

We may as well put an addendum on Communist Emma Lazarus’ immigrant-welcoming poem: "Give us your syphilitics, your homosexuals, your prostitutes.”

What a country we live in!

VDARE.COM note: For more on insight into Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty, read James Fulford’s 2001 column: Immigration Myths (contd.): The Statue of Immigration or Liberty Inviting the World.

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A Washington State Reader Says Successful Indians Are Overly Self-Congratulatory

From: Adele Just (e-mail her)

Re: Brenda Walker’s Blog: India Immigration Growth Is Celebrated (By Indians)

Walker’s informative column reminds me of anecdote that I remember vividly, even though all the websites have long disappeared from the Internet.

I had a Providian Bank card in the 1990s and was added to a class-action suit against Providian because of their practice of falsely recording monthly payments after the due date to enable them to unfairly bill late-charge fees.  

I was exasperated when the charges piled up on my account, glad to find out about the class-action suit (the bank probably overcharged a lawyer), and curious enough to surf the Internet to learn more.

One of the links that I found led to a site of self-congratulatory Indians who had come to America and prospered.   

They were having a gathering in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. In anticipation of the event, various comments and letters posted at the site that detailed the successes of several Indians.

One of those was Shailesh Mehta, CEO and chairman of Providian Bank who had founded Providian Bank in New Hampshire with about $9 million "and run it up to $9 billion." No wonder, given its deceptive credit card practices 

Among other success stories was Farooq Kathwari. He had bought that American "classic", the Ethan Allen chain of American Colonial-era furniture and accessories stores.

What stuck in memory, however, and everlastingly in my craw, was the exalting statement by one of those sons of fortune suggesting that America is not so much a country but instead “a place to get rich."

Just is a former legal secretary.

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A Marine In Maryland Agrees That Women In The Military Are Treated Preferentially

From: James Hahn (e-mail him)

Re: Jared Taylor’s Column: Raping The Military

I served in Iraq and I can confirm first-hand a lot of what Taylor wrote about women in the military and the distractions they can cause.

Many women I know had infants at home, some of which had them out of wedlock to avoid serving in the first place.

But as the war dragged on, they eventually had to go. Almost all of our females were officers, but many male officers were chasing after them, including married men. Needless to say, infidelity was not uncommon.

Here's a true story that demonstrates how women are treated differently.

When some of our guys were hit by a suicide driver, one had his arm ripped to ribbons, nearly lost an eye, and suffered a punctured lung.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the attack, the suicide driver's torso and brain landed on the hood of the truck.

When they returned to base, the wounded marine's good friend who had been driving had to clean mop up after the bloody mess.

But he went right back to work and remained on duty the next day too.

By contrast, a female officer was in a convoy that was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Luckily for her, she was not injured did not see any bloodshed and should not have been traumatized at all.

Nevertheless, she was given a day off for stress.

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But A Reader In Saudi Arabia Says Women Have A Long Tradition Of Serving Bravely

From: William Corr (e-mail him)

Taylor’s piece on about women at war is an interesting article but not quite the full truth.

As suggested by Marine and VDARE.COM letter writer Mary Leverett, women have sought service on the front line since the dawn of time.

Women sailed with the Great Armada and reinforced the defenses at Sebastopol. Some British officer's wives rode into battle alongside their husbands at the Battle of Salamanca during the Peninsular War.

The Soviet Air Force had all-women fighter units and ground-attack units equipped with flimsy biplanes. The Germans referred to them as “Night Witches.”

British and American women served as supply pilots during World War II. Most British searchlight, balloon and anti-aircraft gun units were wholly or partly crewed by women.

This had a parallel on the North Vietnamese Army (N.V.A. or Vietcong) and National Liberation Front (NLF) sides during the Southeast Asian War.

From the north, women staffed the supply depots on the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and crewed anti-aircraft sites.

In South Vietnam, women served in the front lines of N.L.F. units and shared danger equally with their male comrades. Whether their sacrifice was worthwhile, given the political and social realities of present-day Indochina, is another issue altogether.

I would venture that women have served on the front line in every American war from Valley Forge onwards, although perhaps not in combat roles.

But even as non-combatants, those American nurses taken prisoner during the Battle of Corregidor endured Japanese captivity with as much determination and fortitude as their male comrades.

Corr is a teacher. He normally resides in Bulgaria but is on assignment in Saudi Arabia.

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