KNUS talk-radio host Peter Boyles continues to find new ways to bottom feed during his morning show, saying Thursday that "illegals" are bringing weird "respiratory diseases" and "bed bugs" into America.
Boyles: I am not convinced this weird disease that's hitting the little kids across the country. There's stuff that hasn't been--like bed bugs. That stuff hasn't been in this country. Bed bugs are back. This disease. Respiratory diseases. And it's coming in with the illegals. Of course it is.
Caller: And our kids are not used to that--
Boyles: Of course they're not--
Caller: Because they haven't grown up with those viruses. And their bodies haven't had the chance to react.
Boyles: It's like introducing alcohol to the Native Americans. They didn't have it. It killed them. Bob, I love your call. This is insanity. It's absolute insanity.
https://soundcloud.com/bigmedia-org/boyles-says-illegals-responsible-for-increase-in-bedbugs-and-killer-viruses
This is one of those situations when you wonder whether you're doing more harm than good by repeating the shit Boyles says, but I usually come down on the side of shining the light on it.
I checked, and there's no relationship between bed bugs and undocumented immigrants. Nor is there any evidence that the respiratory illness at children's hospital has any connection to immigrants.
So why did Boyles say this? He hasn't responded to my email asking that question. Until he does respond, we're forced to speculate.
Turns out that Boyles talked about bed bugs before, back in 2006, and none other than Boyles' soul mate Pat Buchanan confirmed Boyles' theory that bed bugs are coming from illegal immigrants. So maybe it's Buchanan's fault?
BOYLES: Can you think of any other issue -- domestic policy, or for that matter foreign policy, but let's take it as domestic -- there's nothing that illegal immigration doesn't smack into, destroy, take down, drain? Can you name an issue? I mean, education, criminal justice, health care?
BUCHANAN: Exactly. The environment -- take the environment --
BOYLES: Same thing. And also, you know, when I first read this, and I've talked to other people about -- now we, there was a piece on one of the local television stations on the return of, of all things, bedbugs.
BUCHANAN: Exactly.
BOYLES: And it comes up out of these flea-bag hotels, I'm sorry, and they find -- and I have talked to cops and they say, "Oh man, it's back and it's back big" -- and they say this is the return to bedbugs -- have invaded the United States for the first time in 50 years.
BUCHANAN: Exactly. Bedbugs were found in 26 different states. It is clearly the illegal aliens.
Sorry to leave this depressing blog post with you on a Friday afternoon.