When did common sense become "racism" and "xenophobia"?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_o...

Australian PM John Howard is being lambasted for calling for the exclusion of HIV positive immigrants. Why SHOULD a country allow its health system to be stretched even thinner by allowing immigrants into the country who are afflicted with a major disease which is incredibly expensive to treat?

W Hill: It also says, "Howard was asked about the issue during a visit to Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, where the state health minister said this week that 70 of the 334 new HIV infection cases reported in Victoria in 2006 were among immigrants who had arrived in the country with the virus."

..when ultrasensitivity to other's assumed hurt feelings became more important in protecting than anything else,

even the safety of lives.

How is that xenophobia? maybe he ia agoraphobic. Heck I agree with you and him?

This is just a political move by Howard. The article you've linked to states:

"Don Baxter of the nongovernment group the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations said HIV tests were already among health checks prospective immigrants were given, and most HIV-positive applicants were rejected on the grounds that they could pose an unfair burden on the public health system.

"It's very tight already," Baxter told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio."

And Howard himself said that exceptions should be allowed for humitarian reasons.

What does this all add up to? Basically no change in immigration policy, this is just a loud public stance by Howard that will get his party more votes.

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People carry the virus for years before they develop the disease -- the 70 immigrants who have developed AIDS could have entered before the immigration practices were tightened to exclude those with the HIV virus.

Dude, I'm a conservative, and I have problems with this.

It's just a dangerous precedent to set. Suppose we did the same thing, but with herpes patients? Why stop at AIDS? Maybe we should make an AIDS colony, or even a general incurable-STD colony on a remote island somewhere and deport them all. It's not an option.

How does this help in reducing AIDS cases?

I mean, for heaven's sake, AIDS isn't terribly contagious. You have to do something dumb to catch it, and responsible people won't do that.