Right rants on the Mexican Flub

Before the swine flu H1N1 outbreak was barely a blip, I had suggested that — completely independently of this possible pandemic — that it was penny-wise and pound-foolish to eliminate non-emergency health services for illegal immigrants (or undocumented workers, if you prefer), as many California counties are doing to "save money" (or, rather, kick the burden down the road).

With the potential for H1N1 to spread rapidly, I think we're witnessing an object lesson as to why it should be cheap or free for sick people to get the care they need — even if they are in the country illegally. Because, you see, the bugs they carry don't care about visas much. They don't check passports, and an undocumented worker and a gringo from Glendale both make good mules.

Well, it turns out that I have it all backwards. Instead of coddling the undocumented to keep them from becoming incubators and transmitters of modern-day pestilence, as I propose, we should keep them at arm's length and shun them, for it is the illegals who are bringing to America this bioterrorism (more here at Media Matters).

[above: ... and we didn't pay attention in grammar class or geography.]