Directly on the heels of an earlier post, Polimom has a bone to chew. What is this guy’s problem? From his blog:
Words can’t describe my frustration at this “brood mare”
What a sense of entitlement! It’s ok for you and I to pick up the tab for her litter but it’s rude to ask her to pay her own way.
The “brood mare” is the woman who appeared in this Houston Chronicle story:
RIO GRANDE CITY – First it was a trickle, now it’s a flood.
Rising numbers of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are streaming into Texas to give birth, straining hospitals and costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, health officials say.
[snip]
Socorro Gonzalez, an undocumented immigrant who in August gave birth to her fourth child on U.S. soil, said she and her husband aren’t trying to take advantage of immigration laws or abuse the health care system.
[snip]
In all, 57,072 patients visited the district’s hospitals, clinics and health centers last year, and nearly a fifth were undocumented, Rasp said. The cost of their treatment was $97.3 million, up from $55 million in 2002.
Are there valid questions here? Yes… but brood mare? Litter? Is she a horse or a dog… or will animal pretty much cover it?
The author of that blog is Chris Baker — a Houston radio host for Clear Channel’s NewsRadio 740 – KTRH.
Of course, the written word doesn’t convey the venomous and sarcastic tirades that are delivered live (podcasts here and here). Those podcasts are filled with inflammatory gems like, “The government is sticking a gun in your face and ripping money from your wallet” to pay for medical care for illegal aliens who are “dropping babies” and “popping them out“.
He invited people who disagreed with him to call, though, because (he said) he “really wanted to understand. Maybe I’m missing something”… and then badgered them directly and/or mocked them after disconnecting (“ya bigot”).
Such an open-minded man, that Chris.
And this is, of course, the “talk show host” who “urged his listeners” to get on the phone to LULAC and remind them that the Houston Police Officer who was killed last week was named Rodney Johnson. And so they did, apparently complete with threats — leading to the intervention of Officer Johnson’s grieving widow in an appeal for calm. (Chron story here. My earlier post here.)
To be clear: I did not hear Chris Baker ask people to call LULAC for the purpose of threatening anyone. He very specifically said (at about the halfway point) that callers should remind LULAC of the officer’s name… but that request didn’t fall from the sky. His shows about illegal immigrants are laced with hostility, bigotry, and ugliness, and it’s not at all surprising that there are some hate-filled folks listening to him.
What’s got Polimom incensed is not that he is questioning HPD’s illegal immigration policies, or that he raises questions about how to address the issues. The problems are complex and pervasive, and he brings up many worthwhile points… but then he poisons his own well with hypocrisy, sneers, and innuendo (listen to the way he says “babies” at the beginning of this podcast).
How can he possibly say (as he has) that he thinks “fellow man should be treated with dignity”, and then dehumanize a mother as an animal? Polimom can only assume that it’s because he sees some mothers as precisely that.
Is he entitled to his opinions? Certainly. Does Polimom deplore them? Absolutely.
“I never mention race” he says on his blog… and near as I can tell, he’s right. The careful, sensitive Chris simply attacks their humanity.