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MY NOTES ON 'OLD-TIME MAKERS OF MEDICINE' BY JAMES JOSEPH WALSH, 1911

  First, here is a link to the audio that I listened to, which is free to download: https://librivox.org/old-time-makers-of-medicine-by-jame...

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

CROSS-COUNTRY CHECK-UP ON MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

On June 28th, 2015, CBC’s nationwide Sunday call-in show was about whether Canada should receive more refugees and migrants than it already does. The discussion soon turned into a conversation about immigrants generally. Before addressing what I heard on this episode, I will offer a little number-crunching commentary. Keep in mind, that in light of Trudeau’s plan to flood our country with Muslim refugees of dubious virtue, this topic remains extremely relevant, and will become more relevant as the months and years pass. 

Under just one program (the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program) Canada employs about 25,000 migrants per year presently. Each migrant may stay in the country for up to eight months at a time; many migrants come back year after year; and some of them come back regularly for decades. You could say that, practically speaking in many ways, migrants are just immigrants by another name. Then we have the refugees. Canada accommodates more than 20,000 refugees per year. These numbers are comparatively paltry beside the broader fact that this nation has been absorbing about 250,000 immigrants per year for many years now. Do we really need to bring in 50,000 poorly screened refugees from the middle-east? They should stay where they are and build themselves a democracy.  

For a country of just 36 million or so and that has a low birth rate, 250,000 immigrants per year is an astonishing number. It does not take a stats guru or a professor of sociology to figure out that a quota like that will radically change the face of the country before long. Canada’s face has already noticeably changed. We all experience the evidence of this when we can’t understand what the new bureaucrat on the other end of the phone is trying to articulate. If we can’t understand her English, has she been assimilated? Is she not changing the face of Canada? Should she have that job if she can’t speak the language properly? How much money was spent on this woman to get her to the point of getting a government job, the salary for which, by the way, will be forked over by the taxpayer? The figures over at Immigration Watch peg the cost of immigration at over 23 billion dollars annually. That’s a lot of money to spend on people you import to take your jobs! Ask my friend’s son if he can get a job in Calgary. Go and look at your local fast food joint and count the number of visible immigrants you see at the counter there. They are standing in the place of your teenager who can’t find work. They are standing in the place of your college student who needs seasonable or nighttime employment. They are costing us, not only money and jobs, but hope. They are causing many of us, in particular our youth seeking entry level employment, to border on despair. These immigration figures need to be reduced dramatically. When a small country that is not growing much by birth rate imports that many foreigners annually who will not properly assimilate, erosion of whatever Canadian culture we have left inevitably results. Lack of assimilation resulting in the erosion of Canadian culture is why Muslim ‘honor’ killings are happening here now, which killings are not only dishonorable but deserving of the death penalty. Lack of assimilation resulting in the erosion of Canadian culture is why the CBC is always wondering and puzzling about what defines Canada. They don’t know what defines it anymore because multiculturalism has made it to mean anything. The Swedes have been puzzling over their new identity as well. Every nation that does not assimilate its immigrants will struggle with an identity crisis. About 375,000 babies are born in Canada yearly. That is not much more than the number of immigrants who are added to our population. And it needs to be noted that many of these babies are the babies of immigrants, for immigrants reproduce at a higher rate than the rest of the population. As our older folks die off, the pace at which immigrants encroach quickens, and the cultural change effected by them increases. If the immigration rate is not cut back, especially in light of the favoritism that our agencies extend to immigrants, more dyed-in-the-wool Canadians will be dismissed at the employment lines, more ‘over-qualified’ Canadian resumes will be regulated to the trash without due consideration, and more turbans and veils will stand in the place of your bright-eyed girls and your earnest boys. It doesn’t matter how skilled and diligent a person is, when, regardless of merit, the job he applies for has already been reserved for a visible minority. 

Visible minorities are favored in this country, which means that others are treated unfairly. Some of us are getting irate about holding the dirty end of that stick. An immigrant does not even have to be seen to be favored. He can be favored by the ear as well as the eye. Back to Cross-Country Check-Up’s coast to coast call-in show. “Should Canada receive more refugees and migrants?” That was the question. I remember beginning to wonder why all the callers were saying ‘yes’ to the question. Then it dawned on me that the callers all sounded alike. They all sounded like first generation immigrants from second and third world countries—countries like Syria, Turkey, and Eritrea. Not surprisingly, such callers wanted no limits put on immigration at all. Then I recalled how Cross-Country Check-Up screens its callers. For example, during their ‘recommend a book’ episode, I called in to recommend a classic Christian tome on the nature of God. Upon the reception of my call, the screener water-boarded me with questions that were more suitable to be posed to a terrorist; then I was put on hold until my line went conveniently dead a couple of minutes later. Is it a coincidence that every single caller during hour one of the refugee/migrant episode sounded like a visible minority? It is not unjust to suppose, given CBC’s treatment of me in the past, that objectors to the question were screened out. Calls from a few objectors were received in hour two; but I think that this was allowed in order for the bias to not be so obvious. People tend to remember what they heard last. So the impression of bias is lessened by this maneuver of letting objectors get through near the end. Not only was CBC biased in the callers they accepted, but they stacked the deck with guests too. It would have been easy to find guests who would take issue with the open door policy that CBC was peddling. But CBC is not our public broadcaster; CBC is our biased broadcaster. It speaks for certain segments of the public; it does not, and will not, speak for all persons equally, even though ‘equality’ is its pretended idol. 

When an objector was permitted to speak, the usual line was thrown at him by the host: “We’re a nation of immigrants.” This line is calculated to silence any opposition to what would amount to open borders for all. It reminds me of how leftist Americans try to silence righteous critics of Obama’s dictatorial ways by crying racism every time that president’s policies and orders are justly criticized. Immigrants are not the same as they once were; and we do not treat them as we once did. Comparing hard-working immigrants of old to newfangled immigrants who are on-the-take is hardly a fair comparison. It is like comparing a basket of good apples with the odd bad one in it, to a basket of spoiled apples with the odd shiny one in it. When you spoil immigrants as soon as they get off the boat or plane, you are more likely to end up with whiners than workers, or users than helpers. I once saw a turban-attired man wheel his shopping cart through the check-out without paying for the jugs of milk that he had stowed underneath. It took me off guard, and the sight of his kids threw me off some more, and by the time I had decided to say something, it was too late. This is what I am talking about. The man was a cold-hearted taker. He was a thief. There is no justification for it. My guess is that had I gone outside, I would have witnessed him getting into a late model car. Immigrants have an aversion to cars that don’t look new. Have you ever noticed that? Try to spot one driving a beater. The beaters are for your sons and daughters who can’t find jobs. Since that incident at the supermarket, I have steeled myself to never overlook theft again. The passivity and hesitation that got the better of me that day still nag me, and I am thankful for it. It means that I’m leaning on the right side even though I don’t always respond in the right way. This immigrant was no doubt helped by government agencies and programs that the rest of us don’t even know exist, and what thanks does he extend? He steals from the citizens of the country that was kind enough to adopt him and to nurture him with all manner of perks and goodness! Because he won’t get his hand cut off for stealing, he reaches forth his hand to steal. 

We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of pilgrim descendants, with immigrants thrown in. There is an answer, too, regarding the line that the Indians were here first. If you believe that the Indians have a claim to your land and property on the basis of having been here first, give them all you have, and you, you move to somewhere like Iraq. You don’t like that idea? Then consider the truth: our pilgrim fathers occupied this land that was being used for almost nothing but savages killing each other, which they are still doing on reserves. Almost every Indian who is murdered in Canada is murdered by a fellow Indian. The Indians forfeited this land by their behavior on it.             

The most memorable moment of this episode (the low point for the host) was when an Indian called in and said ‘no’ to more immigrants. “We’re all refugees,” the Indian said, “except Indians.” Her meaning was that no one belongs in Canada except the Indians. This was an uncomfortable moment for the host because the CBC favors both immigrants and Indians. To a CBC host, a choice between an Indian and an immigrant is like choosing between a bag of gold and a big shiny diamond. To reasonable Canadians, however, the choice between the two is like a choice between a trumped up liability and a cooked up debt. To make matters even more pathetic, the Indian went on to say that we should help Indians only, even though her first point was that we should all emigrate! Most callers who were allowed to say their piece could not think beyond the basic fact that Canada is a large country geographically. There is lots of space in Canada. Therefore let everyone in who wants in. That was as far as the analytical part of their minds could go, as if the only criterion to consider in the matter of mass immigration were geography! No talk of all the logistical costs, or of government assistance, or housing, or health care, or lawsuits by pouting, unsatisfied immigrants; no talk of how, when, and for how long the taxpayers will be paying for the placement of all these immigrants across the broad spaces of our great land. Just bring them in; there’s lots of room!   

The truth is that a lot of the immigrants who want to come over have been responsible for changing their own countries into failed states. Is it wise to receive Iraqi men, for instance, who were part of that well-furnished, US-trained military that fled before terrorists who came to town with a few guns on the backs of trucks? What honorable citizens they would make! Will cowards make good citizens? Prospective immigrants to Canada ought to be screened with as much vigor as CBC screened my call. My call was screened in order to deny Christianity; each prospective immigrant needs to be screened in order to deny violent religions like Islam, persons who can’t speak English, those who remain committed to their old countries, those whom we suspect will import violent cultural values, and those whose work ethic is suspicious. Yes, we should be merciful enough to accept some refugees who cannot presently help themselves. But even these must be screened in order to weed out potential offenders, malingerers, and activists. Immigrants fall into several groups: workers, malingerers, agitators, offenders, and terrorists. Some fit into more groups than one, and the importation of each group needs to be scaled back, even the workers group. If we do not begin to slam down the engine break on our multicultural motor, we are going to have Muslim thugs burning cars in Canada, not just France; we are going to have Muslim thugs raping girls in Canada, not just Sweden. The Swedes have been told to integrate into the ‘new’ Sweden because it is contrary to the spirit of political correctness and multiculturalism to ask the immigrants to do the integrating! (See I am Swedish, but I live in ‘Absurdistan’ on YouTube.) Mass importation of persons from the Middle-East and Africa is causing Europe to drink a cup of wrath straight from the uncivilized edicts of the Koran. We do not love our own citizens when we accept persons to live alongside them who are comfortable with Sharia Law and theocracy in the name of Allah. Those who have an ideology of non-negotiable violent totalitarianism in their mind as the ideal society to strive after cannot integrate, assimilate, and live in peace with persons who believe in capitalism, democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. These people who are mired in civil wars, tribal conflicts, and guerilla warfare must be witnessed to from afar and must be left to their own devices in the hope that revolutions will sort them out or that their share of iniquity will soon be as full as that of the Amorites had to be before their land was taken over (Genesis 15.16.) It may be that the people we import from zones of strife will be the means to our punishment for polluting our land with the blood of babes. But it is better, as David did, to hope for God to judge us by plagues instead of barbarians (2 Samuel 24.)                

The Bible says to love thy neighbor. Is that not proof that we should open our borders to all? Who are our neighbors? Our neighbors begin with those who are nearest. And each Canadian neighbor is in debt. So if we have federal, provincial, and regional debts, we should take care of those debts before we attempt to care for hundreds of thousands of immigrants year after year. By reducing the immigration rate and by reserving immigration for those who are philosophically sound, if not financially secure also, we can more easily climb out of our deficit, begin to pay down the debt, and thereby help our neighbors closest to us. And who are our closest neighbors? Our closest neighbors are our fellow taxpayers who come from the ranks of our relatives, our friends, our next-door chums, and our rising generations. The first thing that a soldier does during a chemical attack is put on his own mask. Then he is fit to help others put on theirs. In the same way, it is by protecting ourselves first that we are better equipped to help others. We will make life better for the immigrants that we let in by first putting our house in order. We love our distant neighbors best when we first become good neighbors locally. Imagine a country that is austere enough to pay down its debt and avoid future deficits; then imagine the good that it can do for its citizens, its carefully selected immigrants, and even those who must remain abroad. If we love ourselves, our neighbors, and the world, that must be our ideal with respect to immigration. We must aim to make this nation a place most longed for by foreigners, not based on the freebies it hands out, but on the basis of its freedom from debt, violence, and dictatorial factions like the Muslim Brotherhood. This can only be accomplished by implementing a sensible, wise, cautious, and what many would falsely label, ‘draconian,’ approach to immigration. Once we plumb the meaning of draconian, we soon learn that it would be most draconian to import Muslims unthinkingly, for the Muslims are the ones who own that religion which is most in line with Draco’s ways: for Draco, as legend has it, prescribed the death penalty for even petty offences, which is precisely the kind of injustice that passes for justice in countries ruled in the name of Allah.    

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