Category: Comments worth noting/guest posts

Note to commenters

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Once again we are drifting into foul language in comments.  If you have commented recently and haven’t seen your comment posted, that’s why.  Just present your argument without name-calling and cursing—O.K.!

Also, I have offered several commenters (again) the opportunity to write a guest column about why the average American taxpayer, trying to make ends meet in his own family, should be taxed to support third world immigrants coming to the US with the encouragement of the US State Department and their contractors (and big industry employers who want cheap labor).  I’m still waiting for an essay based on reason and not on feelings of guilt.   After all, we have plenty of poor Americans who could use your care and attention.

Comment worth noting: How do HIV positive immigrants get to stay in the US?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a comment from ‘HoboProjekt’ last night to this 2008 post.

How do they get to stay in the USA when they are HIV positive? In many countries, that is a definite exclusion from staying. It creates a hardship on the nation’s medical system and being that the USA doesn’t have a national health system- per say, that means these people are unlikely to receive proper medical care and thus be a drain when they become very ill or pass on. Not to mention the possibility of spreading this diseases on to other people.

The answer, of course, is that Congress passed a law and the President signed it allowing anyone with HIV to come to the US.   We taxpayers then provide them with their medical care.

Challenge to Victor and Newsome

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 19th:  Victor has declined my invitation (see comments) and has signed off.  Still no word from Newsome.  Some people are really good at taking shots, but have little interest in discussing what they would do about the problems with the refugee program.   Any other commenters who wish to answer my challenge below and tell readers why the average American taxpayer should be paying for the program, please do.

Update August 16th:   It’s 8:30 p.m. and I came home today eagerly looking for a piece from Victor or Newsome, but alas, nothing!    Will get back to posting in the morning.

Update August 14th:   It is 7 a.m. and dead silence from Victor and Newsome or anyone wishing to take up my challenge to write a thoughtful piece on why average middle class Americans should have to support tens of thousands of refugees with their tax dollars.   Offer is still open, but I am away for a few days and may not have any internet access, so unless I get lucky, I may not be posting comments until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Update:  It’s noon on Saturday the 13th, still no opinion piece from these guys (girls?).

Victor and Newsome are a couple of commenters here (that is the post about the London race riots).   They are into that personal attack thing (you know we are all a bunch of racists and haters, blah, blah blah) but I seriously want one or both of them to write a guest column for tomorrow.  Below is my challenge, but if any other readers would like to take a stab at it, please do so.

Hey Victor and Newsome, I got a challenge for you. How about you write an opinion piece for me to post tomorrow and tell me why my neighbors (farmers, fire fighters, truck drivers and hairdressers) should have their federal tax dollars used to support third world refugees like the family that went to Memphis last week (posted this morning).

I am serious, instead of attacking me and people like me (it’s prejudiced you know), tell our readers in a thoughtful piece why federal/state tax dollars should go for refugee resettlement. Tell us why it’s a good thing to take money from regular folks for this purpose when in fact those people are giving to all sorts of charities of their own choice (church, Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club, etc.) already.

There are a couple of rules, first you can’t call anyone names (you know all that “racist” crap) and attack people personally. And, secondly, you can’t use some religious argument because we all know that any church, synagogue or mosque can sponsor a family and fully care for them on their own dime (also individuals like you can sponsor a family and take care of their needs as your personal charity).

I don’t believe the founding fathers ever intended for the US government to redistribute hard earned money from one group to another with the money passing through the federal treasury. Do you?

So, write a serious piece and explain to our readers your view on the issue of refugee resettlement…. but you gotta write it tonight or early tomorrow so I can post it before I go away.

Mail it in the body of an e-mail to Ann@vigilantfreedom.com

Comment worth noting: Bowling Green International Center made me sick

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From time to time we receive comments from former refugees who give us an insider’s look at a refugee’s life in America.  And, LOL!, you can bet this Bosnian woman wasn’t selected to go to Washington to tell this story at the anniversary bash last week!

For background you might want to re-read the 2009 post ‘Peelow’ is commenting on, here (and this related post) before reading her comment below (I’ve added paragraph breaks to make the comment more readable).

HI,

I just wanted to say that I am a Bosnian refugee who lived in Bowling Green KY for 8 years.

My family and I first moved to Spokane WA through World Relief and after living there for a year we moved to Bowling Green. Bowling Green International Center made me sick to my stomach with the way they treated refugees. Even though most of the employees there are my own people I didn’t want to deal with them.

They made my family and I retake all of our shots needed to apply for Green Card after we brought in sealed envelopes with all of our medical stuff from WA. Luckily my English was very good so I questioned everything. I went to the Health Department and gave the nurse my medical history asking for shots needed to apply for Green Card and that’s when the nurse informed me that I was super up to date with all my shots.

My whole family went to get their shots with an interpreter from the International Center and they all had to get a shot each (God knows what kind of shot). The main reason behind this was so the International Center can collect the ‘filling fee’ for the Green Card and the interpreter services.

A lot of friends and family asked me to interpret for them if they had a doctor visit, delivering a baby, unemployment filing, medicaid filing and I would do it, but then one day I started being told that if I was not associated with the International Center I couldn’t interpret. So what happened here is that people from the International Center contacted all the major agencies in town and convinced them that anybody interpreting and not associated with the IC is not truthful and they should not use their services. But the real truth was that IC interpreters collected state funds for interpreting plus the fees they would charge innocent people who were struggling with English.

I avoided International Center for years until the time came for me to apply for my citizenship. I told my parents that I was going to apply for my American Citizenship and after they realized that my intention was to apply online, or print my application online and mail it myself they started telling me that I will never get an appointment because the International Center told them that the only way you can apply for citizenship is to go through them. They have to give you an application, they fill it out for you and they will get you new copies of all the documents you need and if you try going any other way it won’t work.

I was speechless! I told my parents that they were full of s@@t and I was going to do it my way. I have had my citizenship for almost 3 years now. I graduated from WKU with a B. S. in Business Economics and currently work for a worldly known hospital. Oh did I mention that I no longer live in Bowling Green? Yep, I moved 3.5 hours away looking for a better future and representing my culture and my background in the best way possible.

All of the stories I have read here about Bowling Green and Bosnians are unfortunately true but I have to say that not all Bosnians are bad. Bowling Green is populated with Bosnian Gypsies and Albanians who are prone to violence and the actual Bosnians who cause trouble are the ones from very very rural areas in Bosnia and unfortunately the life in US (very modern country in the world) didn’t teach them anything.

Oh by the way, I was told that the reason why there are so many Bosnians in Bowling Green is because some 15 years ago Bowling Green wanted to become a metro so they accepted refugees to increase their population and that’s why the International Center was set up. Who knows what’s true and what’s not.

One honest truth here is that I cannot thank enough to whomever brought me here because I created a wonderful life for myself without anybody’s help, not government, not parents, not international center. I live your typical American life: pay taxes (most people don’t believe that), pay student loans, got my first FHA mortgage all on my own, live with my boyfriend before marriage (who is by the way American because I couldn’t stand dating Bosnian guys in Bowling Green), got two adorable cats, and love my job.

This category, comments worth noting, is for comments from readers that might be missed because they were posted to older posts and/or are very informative themselves.

Comment worth noting: Somalis are a very dysfunctional community….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..so they could never get it together to establish Shariah law.

This is a comment from a reader named Some1notsomali to an old post (Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?) and he is responding to Allahsoldier (a commenter, an African American convert, who hasn’t been around for awhile).

One of the things that Some1notsomali points out so well is that one cannot compare how immigrants to America fared a hundred years ago BEFORE WE HAD THE MODERN WELFARE STATE that Somalis and others have learned to use to its fullest.

Some1notsomali (but apparently a Muslim):

Salaam Allah Soldier,

I read your posts and would like to offer you my thoughts on Somalis.

But first I would like to let you know that I understand where you coming from. For any black American their is no doubt that this country did wrong to their ancestors and that today it continues to fail black America.

For all those who want to blame the AA (African American) community for it’s ills you need to realize that it is Majority America that is policing her neighborhoods, dictating her laws, educating her children etc… Since Majority America reserves its exclusive right to do these things it should take responsibility for the shortcomings of such a historic and very American community.

Now about Somalis. It should be noted that the elders generally rely on social assistance, although a number of them are at least partially employed. Among the youth they almost without question have some kind of employment and although I would say care giver is a common occupation and one that is less popular among native born Americans, you do see Somalis working in more respectable fields and also in customer service (the existence of their community creates a need for native speakers in the social services and businesses).

The youth are also able to benefit from educational assistance because of their parents low incomes and because their jobs are usually either low paying or part time, under 15k annually.

This country has done so much to help Somalis and other refugee communities, it has given their parents monthly income, paid for the youths education all the way to a bachelors degree, and every Somali I have met has nothing but contempt for this country. Even worse is that because so much affluence (disposable income) exists in some households because the youth all have jobs, live at home and have of the basic needs of the family being met by the elders unearned income (section 8 housing, welfare, food stamps, passing excess children around for earned income tax credit) [I suspected the earned income tax credit was being used this way, so its nice to see confirmation—ed] crime is attractive to the youth who can’t find jobs. With the economy not improving this will become worse, and the criminal elements within this community are becoming more sophisticated, a prostitution ring was recently busted in MN.

RR is wrong to be concerned with Shariah …

Somalis are a very dysfunctional community. The women often have relationships with men (even sex, and even the ones who wear jilbab), it is extremely common. To them religion is a revolving door, the hijab is something worn as a convenience, either to feel pious or as a fashionable article. Unlike Pakistani Pathan and Arab Yemeni communities Somali’s do not seem viable candidates for living in a state within a state societies. Most families have absentie fathers and the few with a male head of the household often have a step father and not the original father. Combine this with big city environment most live in and you will see that your fears of a shariah community are not realistic. No one in the family is strong enough to dictate how others should live within the family, unlike Yemeni and certain Pakistani communities. With that said many do have attachments to their mothers, so although the traditional concept of family does not pervade their society, certain tradition which you will never have to deal with (primarily marriage ceremonies) will be dictated by the mother.

So I guess what this means is that they can’t organize themselves to push for Shariah law (but by comparison the Pakistanis and Yemenis could?)   However, those Somali youths who went off to Jihad training seemed to be pretty good at organizing, here.