Disclosure:  I am the grand child of immigrants.  Legal ones.  My husband is the child and the grand child of immigrants.  Again, legal ones.  So I see this issue from a little closer up than perhaps the average person.

I recently got into a discussion that turned heated on a forum devoted to fiber preparation, of all things.  What was the heated discussion about?  Pertussis.  Whooping cough, for those of you without a medical background.  Why was the discussion so heated?  Because I dared to connect the present epidemic of pertussis with the presence of illegals.

Here’s my take on this, or rather these, intertwined issues.  When I was a child, there were perhaps 20 total vaccines one was required to have to be fully vaccinated.  Today, there are as many as 80 (!).  In addition, when I was a child vaccinations were against true killers:  pertussis, diptheria, tetanus, mumps, measles, rubella, polio.  Today, it’s recommended that children get vaccinations against chickenpox, influenza (yearly!), pneumonia, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenza type B (hIB), genital warts (if you’re a girl) and more.  Yes, some of these are killers as well – but honestly, how many children have you heard of that have died from chickenpox??   And does a newborn infant REALLY need to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease like hepatitis B?

I personally think that this increase in the number of vaccines as well as the increase in the variety of vaccines, along with the increase in sedentary activities for children, is what is contributing to the increase in asthma (and hence, influenza and pneumonia related illness and death) in children.  I am not alone in my thinking on this, but it is definitely not in the official party line to state such heresy…ah well.

All of my children were vaccinated.  Before they went to school.  But they were breastfed for a fairly extended period of time, and they were at home with me all day, and they just didn’t have very much exposure to other children until they were close to school age.  So with the exception of my oldest son, who WAS vaccinated on schedule and was chronically sick as well – which might have been pure coincidence – my other two were not started on vaccines until they were no longer getting passive immunity from my milk.  Let me state unequivocally, I AM an advocate of vaccination.  I am just not in favor of blindly vaccinating against things that really aren’t really a risk to an infant, like hepatitis B.  Or chickenpox.

So how is this related to illegal aliens?  Well, it’s pretty easy, actually.   I live in a country that used to be one of the world leaders in free access to vaccinations for the public as a social contract with its citizens.  That has changed pretty dramatically since my children were young; now the public health departments are cutting services that used to be considered absolutely vital, including vaccine programs.   This particular issue is compounded and confounded by the hoopla over the last 30 years linking the preservatives used in vaccines with autism – a link that apparently has since been proven false.  Since my mother was a special Ed teacher, and she is the one who first told me about the possible link nearly 30 years ago, I am not sure this is a closed issue, although I am definitely in the camp that calls Whatley’s study unethical and bad science.

But back to how they are related.  Well, in America we had a strong vaccine program for decades.  Most of our population was vaccinated, and most of our population, no matter what their income level, got their children vaccinated as well.  It was just what we did.  As a result, these childhood diseases were nearly wiped out by the time my children were born in the 80′s.  In 1983, the year my oldest was born, there were 2,463 cases nationwide.  I was unable to ascertain how many deaths there were out of that population; based on this website that contains Swedish data from the same year, it would be less than 1% and of those, 90% are non – vaccine preventable.

Then came the rise of corporatocracy, the rise of consumer culture, of debt culture, and of cuts to public services as they were privatized.  And with the loss of faith in the government to protect its citizens came the loss of faith that vaccinating was in the best interests of the average citizen rather than the best interests of the shareholders of pharmaceutical companies who made the vaccines.  And along with the rise of corporate greed, research corruption due to that greed, and a massive increase in factory farms as opposed to small farms came a flood of illegal immigrants both looking for an improvement in their living standards and willing to work long hours for sharecropper wages in the fields of those factory farms.

These illegal immigrants came from countries that have never had a strong vaccine tradition; they came carrying disease that, had our children been vaccinated against, would not have posed a public health threat.  However, our percentage of children vaccinated has been steadily dropping; the illegals bring their children who do not get vaccinated because the parents are afraid that they will end up being deported if they try to access something like a vaccination program; they put their kids into public school which exposes all of the unvaccinated children to these diseases.  This makes for a deadly combination, and makes for much pain and misery all around.  The ‘herd theory’ of vaccination is a good one, and it works – IF at least 99% of the population is vaccinated, the 1% who don’t are not terribly likely to be in danger.  But add in the fact that nearly 3% of Arizona’s children are not vaccinated based on religious or philosophical grounds, and those who are may not be up to date, and the fact that for some diseases like pertussis you may catch it even if you have been vaccinated – poor nutritional status and stress can contribute greatly to your immunity – and you have the makings of an epidemic.

Arizona actually DID have an epidemic of pertussis in 2005; California in 2010, and both were explicitly connected with the Hispanic population.  Here is a link to the California report on the 2010 outbreak; what I think you will see is that poverty plays a role in illness, and that although not stated, the high numbers of illegal Hispanic immigrants plays a large role in this problem in this country.

This last is really not politically correct, but it is true.  Sugar coating it doesn’t make it go away.  We’re getting poorer, and we’re getting more vulnerable to diseases that were nearly wiped out just 20 years ago.  This can only escalate over time.  And now that it’s back around, it’s not going to go away; we let that horse out of the barn and it’s not going back in.

May your day be blessed and may you look forward to the returning of the light!

In August, I finally found a wood stove that was mobile home approved, for half the cost of new, bought it, and brought it home.  I thought, no problem, there are lots of people out of work and surely there will be a contractor who will install this for us.  We didn’t plan to cheat anyone; I knew from the quote how much the rest of the parts and installation were going to be and figured I had saved $500 at least by buying a used stove so that was our savings.  Well, that led to a months long saga with many disappointments and frustrations.

First, the man we bought our range from was a contractor.  I contacted him, he came out and gave us a quote, took me to Home Depot to buy most of the parts, left a list at the local wood stove store (where the first contractor came from with the original quote), and set date to install it.  No show.  He said he had a family emergency.  So we set another date.  No show.  Again, family emergency.  Third date.  No show.  This time he had someone else call us who was not a contractor to see if we wanted him to install it.  The answer was “no” both because he was not a contractor and because his bid was outrageous.

We both started calling around to contractors listed in the area who do wood stove installs.  I got a quote that was very reasonable, but they required me to build the pedestal; I was OK with this but Mr. Tin Foil was not, so he kept looking.  He called a local guy recommended by one of his HAM radio buddies.  This guy came out spent most of his time yelling at his hearing impaired son while giving Mr. TF his quote (note: he was not yelling at the kid because he was hard of hearing, he was yelling at the kid because the dad is an ass.  Read on.)  The quote was also outrageous; when Mr. TF asked him about it, he became defensive but did agree to renegotiate the price.  Ultimately, he and Mr. TF got into a shouting match on the phone later that evening, the contractor threatened to come over and kick Mr. TF’s ass, and hung up on him.  He came over a few days later because he had left his notebook at our house.  He was unapologetic and said “Look.  I charge $1000 per day for me and my guys for any job.  This job will take two days, it’s $2000.  Take it or leave it.”  I started laughing and told him we would leave it, thank you (I believe I may have also said something to the effect that he was smoking crack but I could be mistaken, I may have just thought it).  So on to the search for another contractor.

Mr. TF was very insistent he wanted someone licensed to install it due to the fact that we would have a hole cut in the roof.  Finally he realized that, even though the economy is bad, contractors in general have gotten very cocky and lazy, and think they can completely run the show and get whatever price they ask because they’re in so much demand, and dictate their own hours and just not show up if they don’t feel like it – even though that’s no longer the case.  So I mentioned our friend D.  I had mentioned him earlier, but as I said Mr. TF really wanted a licensed contractor so I didn’t press the issue; he had a very good point and at that point we were still hopeful we could find someone both licensed AND reliable who would install it.

D. came over and gave us a quote that was several hundred dollars UNDER what I had budgeted for the installation.  Now, we’ve been to D’s house many times.  He built an entire addition onto their house and built the fireplace in that addition as well as had done all the tile work.  I knew he did good work, I had seen it myself.  We set a loose date – my only request was that it be done by Thanksgiving because we were having family stay with us.  That agreed, I waited with anticipation for the install.

Poor D!  The two day install took SIX!  He decided on day one that he was going to build the pedestal at his house because he wanted to rip the 2 x 6 boards so the tile would fit EXACTLY.  That took an extra day.  Some of the parts the original contractor had sent me to get were not compatible with other parts he had sent me to get at the wood stove store.  Both Mr. TF and I had to run to the store several times for parts – including the box that goes in the ceiling that connects the double wall pipe with the triple wall pipe – because the box I had purchased was for an entirely different brand, which we didn’t find out until the hole had already been cut and the box installed.  Since the box had to be cut up to fit properly (this is normal) I couldn’t take it back – $79 down the drain.  The new box I got was the wrong length so Mr. TF had to go back to get the right one; the flashing and storm cover was the wrong size and we had to go to yet a third store for one the right size.  The pipes were the same manufacturer but different brands and we had issues with them fitting together; Mr. TF had to go back to the wood stove store for the right part to connect the two.  Finally, at 10 pm on day six, it was officially installed and ready for inspection by the county.  That was the easiest part of the whole thing – you call a computerized line and make a request and they come out the next day to inspect.  Mr. TF was here for that and he said the inspector was very impressed and passed it right away.

Then came the learning curve with using it!  We were having serious issues with smoke rolling out into the house when trying to light it; I set off the smoke detector three times. Then we couldn’t keep it lit; even with the damper fully open and with the fresh air kit (required) being installed there was obviously a draft problem.   Finally we both remembered at the same time that there is a plate on the back of the stove at the base that comes off – Mr. TF took it off and voila – no more draft problem.  After a week of trying we finally managed to get a good fire going and to relight it without difficulty.  I came home last night at 11pm to a lovely fire and a warm house – 72 degrees!  That is the warmest it’s been since the cold snap started, and the warmest it’s been since we quit using the central heating 5 years ago.  Hooray!

Now I just have to figure out how to cook on the top – I need to get another thermometer because I broke my old one, but it was up to 160 degrees the first day we tried to get a fire going.  If it gets hotter than that now that we know what we’re doing we’re in business for soups and bread for sure.

I’m feeling better and better about our security from infrastructure issues.  We’re not ideal by any means, but every step we take gets us a little closer.  Every step we take off the grid means less money we have to depend on for those things.

(ignore the box of handspun on the left)

The day capitalism, as it is now understood, entered the farming community is the day real farming died.  Agribusiness is what now exists for the most part.  Farming involves being at boot level – and sometimes eye level – with TRUE wealth – the land.  Agribusiness involves large air conditioned vehicles, airplanes, computer programs, subsidies, and debt.

What Chiara eludes to is tenant farming, which was a viable method of farming and small holding in Europe for many hundreds of years, and found its demise beginning as far back as the 1500’s when Henry VIII decided that a cash crop, wool, was more important to his personal wealth and power than his subjects.  Of course, there was also that little bit about ‘needing’ a son and lusting after the Church’s wealth.  This lust of course was fueled by the sudden influx of gold and silver to the Spanish via the New World; the resulting wealth unbalanced the power structure of Europe.  The Spanish had driven the Muslims out of Spain a mere 100 years before, and had managed to decimate their country in the process.  They willfully destroyed a productive agricultural and cultural system that was called, with good reason, the Jewel of the World.  Of course, the destroying the agriculture destroyed the nation and it was necessary for the rulers to find another means of bankrolling the country, and FAST.  Their last ditch effort was the expeditions by Columbus  in the late 1400’s to find a trade route to the East that didn’t involve Muslim hands.  Instead of trade routes, he found a society ripe for pillaging.  And pillage they did.

These factors interacted together to destroy a system that had been mutually beneficial for both land holders and land users across Europe and indeed the entire of the Muslim empire.  The end result of loving gold more than people reverberates down the centuries and affects each one of us directly today.

Even in the ‘golden days’ of tenant farming, there was no unbridled capitalism as we know it.  Guilds had exclusive rights that were procured via royal decree to produce goods and services; their products were protected by law and they were diligent in making sure guild members had the skills and knowledge required to produce quality goods.  They did this in order to maintain that exclusive right.

It is also worth mentioning that barter was the basic way of conducting business – A sheep herder would receive back so much spun yarn in trade for his wool; the spun yarn could be traded for fabric or goods from yet another merchant; those goods in turn could be used to pay rents or taxes to the landlord.  The poor acquired permission to ‘wool gather’ in the fields of the sheep and helped with household chores in return.  Money was not, for most of society, the means of trade.  Everyone understood that the land was the source of their sustenance and was the source of wealth.  Until the ‘discovery’ of the New World, that is.  The resulting flood of precious metals into the Old World shifted the focus of the entire culture away from maintaining the land to lusting after money.  Without the overarching need to protect the lands as the source of wealth, societies began to over-harvest trees for ship building for further transfers from the New to the Old worlds, which resulted in the decimation of the forests and the loss of the native wildlife.  This in return meant that the average subject was pushed off the land into the cities, increasing the poor populations which encouraged disease to spread.  It also meant that inventions were sought to replace what the tenant farmers and guilds had originally provided:   the food, goods, and services necessary to the running of a society.  It is sobering to think that the seeds of our industrial society, our current views of wealth and capitalism, were sown in the 1400’s.

It is the primacy of money over wealth that has been the downfall of our worldwide system.  Capitalism, in its strictest sense, simply doesn’t work.  One cannot value money over land, livestock, and people without destroying the true wealth –which is the land, livestock, and people.  Only when society at large realizes this, and concurrently realizes that wealth requires work, will the disaster we face begin to be mitigated.  I do not hold out much hope for that though.  Not as long as there are TV’s everywhere.

I called my education counselor today to ask for unofficial transcripts.  She began talking about how I owe the university money I must pay back because I was ‘overawarded’ money in my student loan.  It seems that because my company participated in a direct bill program (I never paid for it, my company did) that Grand Canyon considers that a ‘scholarship’ and therefore my maximum award was decreased.  The counselor said that Grand Canyon had to send that money back to the Education dept and that I was responsible for that money.  I said that in that case my student loan amount that I owe should have been decreased if they sent money back, yet it’s not, therefore I’m being double billed for the same money – I can’t owe the federal govt and the school for the same amount.  I was pretty upset by this time, as you can imagine.  She then said I needed to produce proof the school was double billing me and I replied that I would be in contact with the Education Dept directly.   She said that I would have to talk with the finance manager from now on as I am ‘escalating the situation’ … OK, whatever.  You can’t produce proof I owe anything but you are threatening my future by withholding transcripts…who is the aggressor here?

So anyway.  I contacted the Borrower Tracking Dept of the Dept of Education.  I did NOT receive an overpayment, there have been NO changes to my financial aid package for the 2010 school year made by the school, I have received no other aid,  and I have had only one federal loan disbursement which I was legally entitled to.  Note that while Grand Canyon calls the direct bill program a ‘scholarship’ the federal government does not.  They don’t care about private agreements apparently, which are not between the student and the school.

On to step two.  I contacted a representative from the loan servicer.  He kept talking about a re-affirmation letter which I asked him to explain to me – apparently if I was awarded too much money the school was supposed to send me a letter to that effect and say that I’m not eligible for any more financial aid (or to ask for some of the award back) at the time.  The key words in that letter were supposed to be to the effect that the ‘funds disbursed exceeds the maximum allowable’.  Well, that never happened.

Well, it gets curiouser and curiouser.  Apparently, there were THREE loans taken out in my name!  Two of which were paid back by the school in two payments each.  Only ONE of which I signed a master promissary note for, and only ONE of which I received a disbursement for.  So the school is apparently billing me for the money they accepted in my name, which I NEVER RECEIVED NOR SIGNED FOR, and they then paid back.  Yes, I am getting confirmation of this via snail mail.

The loan servicer recommended I write a letter agreeing to pay it back – before he understood that the money they are apparently billing me for is the money they took out in my name and paid back – which would essentially put me legally on the hook for the amount owed, but would allow me to get my transcripts.  NOT.  GONNA.  HAPPEN.  I am perfectly willing to pay back money I owe.  NOT money I don’t.

Why did I take out a loan for the schooling anyway if it was being paid for, you might ask.   Well, they only paid for the classes I completed, not the classes I withdrew from.  I had to take a class twice, and since I withdrew after the refund deadline I was responsible for the payment of the tuition for it.  Plus, the books were NOT cheap.  And when you’re taking a new class every five weeks, $200 a month (approximately) is a lot to drop on books for 14 months solid.  So now, for my trouble, I have a bachelor’s degree I can’t do anything with because I can’t go to any other schools because I can’t get my transcripts.

Plus I have to pay back my employer some of the cost as well, because I didn’t stay for a year after graduating.  This has turned into the nightmare that just won’t end.

ETA:  well, they will apparently send UN official transcripts, just not official ones.

Thanks to The Yarn Harlot who took this shot on her book tour.

As I said in a previous post, if you deny the evidence for climate change, you are willfully ignorant, deliberately deceptive, or just plain stupid.

I did some research of my own just a little over two years ago and came to the same conclusions with much less computer or personnel assistance than the Dr. Mueller’s group had.

Sweet, sweet vindication.  Excuse me while I gloat a little.

To Will:

To Dare:

To STFU

I like it!

Not sure what the esteemed Archdruid\’s teacher actually told him, but this version made me laugh out loud. Much better than To Be Silent, I think.