As we come in to Thanksgiving, Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek is nice enough to illuminate us on what ***holes Americans are
As an immigrant, I’ve always loved Thanksgiving for all the corniest reasons. It’s a distinctly American holiday, secular and inclusive, focused on food, family and gratitude. But the one Thanksgiving tradition I try strenuously to avoid is travel. For those of you who must do it—and that’s 27 million people this year—brace yourselves for massive delays and frayed tempers. President Bush announced a few measures to ease congestion, describing this week as “a season of dread for too many Americans.” I only wish he would keep in mind that for foreigners now traveling to America, the dread is far more acute, and it’s lasted far longer than a few days in November.
Every American who has a friend abroad has heard some story about the absurd hassle and humiliation of entering or exiting the United States. But these pale in comparison to the experience of foreigners who commit minor infractions. A tourist from New Zealand, Rick Giles, mistakenly overstayed his visa in America by a few days and found himself summarily arrested for six weeks earlier this fall. Treaty obligations say his country’s embassy should have been informed of the arrest, but it wasn’t. A German visitor, Valeria Vinnikova, overstayed her visa by a couple of days and tried to remedy the situation—so that she could spend more time with her fianc?, the Dartmouth College squash coach. Instead she was handcuffed and had her feet shackled, then was carted off to be imprisoned. She now faces deportation and a 10-year ban on entering the United States. (Thanks to AndrewSullivan .com for drawing attention to these.)
Well, gee, sorry, Fareed, but, you know, there are people who overdo their jobs in every country. Sometimes, mistakes happen. But, as a good liberal, it must be all of America to blame. It can’t be a few bad apples who go too far. Or, something else at work?
If you want to point the blame finger. Fareed, why not point it where it mostly belongs: on the PC crowd who make us treat all coming visitors to this country the same, rather then allowing us to profile the people who will be the real trouble makers and dangers. Granted President Bush feels no need to try to implement that type of security on airports, but, even if he were, the liberal PC crowd would go pink monkey sh*t over it.
And, why not tell said visitors to obey the damn laws, and not do things like overstay their visa’s?
The funny thing is, Fareed says the visitor rates started going down in 2000. Hmm, who was president then? Perhaps someones ultra-pc policies from the previous 7 years started annoying travelers from around the world. Of course, Fareed seems to want to blame Bush, and, in the last paragraph, seems to want to say “just get over 9/11 already.” Decide for yourself if I am right.
At least we do not deny fat people entry to our country, like New Zealand.
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The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus…
Mary Cowles Clark (1871-1950) was born in Syracuse, New York, studied with the Art Students League, and spent her summers in Siasconset, in a cottage on Sankaty Road. She illustrated several books, including Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Sa….
Yes Fareed it is true the liberals make the US government do all the bad things. The liberals are in total control of the US government. blame them.
There goes another one of your trolls with the inability to apply common sense and intellectual honesty to a situation. Kind of makes me want to throw entrails at him. Anyhoo . . . if profiling were allowed, as you stated, these things would not happen. But, when you’re a foreigner in a country, you play by their rules. You think the US is the only country that does this? Geezuz. It’s getting to where I really hate coming to your page Teach.
We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Christmas Posting……
… to bring you the following message about The HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING!
On December 13, 1621 our Pilgrim forefathers held the first day of a three-day feast celebrating their survival and the establishment of a colony in the new land (following …
Evils of drugs and alcohol illustrated…
And, see what happened to Obama? Became a Democrat. Bad decision….
Why I Hate John Murtha: Reason #1009…
…said Rep. John P. Murtha, chairman of Appropriations defense subcommittee, “We can’t win militarily.”…
Intellectual and honesty are two words rarely used back to back when liberals are involved.
John is honest now and then. Mostly, though, we have some good spats :)
The Libel Tourist…
Hat tip, DW.This documentary short film, produced by the Moving Picture Institute, shows how Saudi billionaire Khalid Bin Mafhouz exploits the British legal system and sues for libel whenever he is the subject of a terrorism accusation. Directed by MPI…
Glad to see you welcome (and defend) different views, Teach. :-)
Democrats Fail to Support the Troops…
Too often the word is put out that the Democratic Party supports the troops and anyone who dares to question that is castigated by anyone associated with that group. People can’t really be blamed for the perception that the Democrats do not support t…
As long as the argument is not riddled with talking points pulled out of someone’s backside. Would you agree Silke that profiling is not a bad thing? Like the 80 year old grandmother who gets searched at TSA checkpoints simply because she just happened to be the 9th one in line?
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ANOTHER JOURNALIST FRAUD GETS BUSTED…BY THE US MILITARY…
Another fraudster, AP journalist, Bilal Hussein is being charged, this time by the U.S. military. It must be payday! First there was Charles Enderlin and France 2.
It seems that the dark side isn’t content with destroying Israeli and Israelis th…
Hi Stacy. Do I think they should search an 80 year-old grandmother because she is the ninth person in line? No. But I guess my question to you is what would a policy of profiling look like? Does it mean TSA officials only search ever dark-skinned male between the ages of 18 and 40? Or everyone wearing a turban? My experience at airports has been that everyone goes through a metal detector and those that set the detector off go through an additional physical search. At Heathrow everyone went through two security check points. I have not seen anyone pulled aside for additional searches.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! OTB Holiday Weekend!…
Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone!
I hope you are able to spend this holiday weekend with the people you love. Family and friends, good food and good times, make each holiday a special memory for us all.
Please remember to say a prayer for the safety …
I’ve been pulled aside for an additional search. I hardly think a woman of my appearance should be considered a threat. Last night on one of our local news channels they aired an investigative report about what gets through TSA; enough we should all be very uncomfortable.
If one claims to love the country they reside in, they should be willing to take extra measures to support it’s needs at the time. If I lived somewhere where long-blonde-haired women of my age posed a potential threat, and I claimed to love that country, I would do all I could to cooperate. Desperate times . . . .
So who gets profiled? Is it everyone who looks as if they are of middle-eastern dissent? Is it just men? What about woman? What about people wearing turbans or headscarfs? Is it random or is it everyone?
Personally, I am willing to go through an extra random search if it means TSA might catch someone they would not have otherwise suspected with profiling.
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Your opinion is exactly why we will not be safe. If the police are on the lookout for a suspect who’s a 6’2″, bald, white man; they need to stop every 6’2″ bald, white man in the area and question them. Common sense.
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I may take the day off……
have so much work to do that I may take the day off from blogging. Actually, I will be moving some of my writings: My Newz ‘n Ideas, Causes of Interest, Knickerbocker News, DoD Daily News, DoD Daily News-2, Loving God Holy, Love America First and Lov….
Stacy, the scenario you describe (a specific suspect with witnesses who observed the crime) is very different than targeting a particular segment of the community at an airport checkpoint. Please tell me who you would profile and how it would be done (random, everyone in that community). I can’t give you my opinion about a policy unless I know the specifics of the policy from your perspective.
Muslims Riot in Calcutta…
Like the Danish Cartoon Jihad, large groups of Muslims riot over simple criticism. Troops have been deployed in the Indian city of Calcutta after protests over a controversial writer turned into riots. Police using tear gas and baton charges were…
No, it’s not different. If we know, and we do, that the Muslims hate Americans, than we should be suspect of all. That is common sense, that is intellectual honesty. Throughout this nation in mosques hate speech against Americans is normal. It’s documented and you cannot dismiss that fact. The average American during WWII had to sacrifice and compromise much with their day to day living. It’s not as if we are gathering up the Muslims and placing them in containment camps like we did the Japanese during WWII. We are simply asking them a few questions. Being in this country is a privilege, with that privilege comes a responsibility to your fellow man. If they’re not doing anything wrong, then they have nothing to worry about anyway. You want to board an airplane with a half dozen Arabic speaking men? I sure don’t. How about the seats on the flight be sold only to individuals who place discrimination (warranted mind you) ahead of common sense?
And, in thinking about it; I live in an area with a large Japanese population; in fact our tiny little town has one of the largest Japanese-American Associations in the state. Not far from here was a WWII containment camp. We grew up with the descendants of the detainees. Years ago I worked for a man who was in a containment camp as a child. He told me that it was just what they did; what they had to do. The Japanese were of course not pleased with the situation, but they understood it was a time of war and that they needed to do this for the country they loved. After the war many of them stayed in this area and started farming. Within a 100 mile radius of here, there are a large number of those descendents still farming the land. Greenhouses too, many of them. Why were the Japanese so understanding about losing everything, and the Muslims furious about some extra questions? Reality checks all around please.
Stacy, not all Muslims hate Americans. You still haven’t described specifically what kind of a policy you mean. Are you saying we should search all men who look like they are from the middle-east? I wouldn’t support that kind of a program primarily because I don’t think it would be effective. Security personnel would be focusing on appearance when they should be focusing on behavior. This is what the Israelis do. First they look for unusual behavior (someone acting nervous or sweating profusely on a cold day, etc.). Then they engage the person in a targeted conversation to see if they should be elevated to a higher level of risk. It was this kind of screening in 1986 that caught Anne-Marie Murphy, who initially raised interest among El Al’s security staff because she was a pregnant woman traveling a long distance alone. This was an Irish girl whose fiancé (unbeknownst to her) had planted a bomb in her suitcase. She had already cleared three security checkpoints at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Isolated, isolated, isolated. The leftist talking points to a “t”. Focusing on a minute incident and ignoring a real generalization. Be my guest in stepping on that airplane, cuz I ain’t gonna do it.
You are always pushing links on Teach, study this one.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
For many years Christians have been martyred around the world, this is something ignored by the media. I choose not to ignore the elephant in the room. Your denial is dangerous to you and your family.
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Stacy, please don’t call me a leftist.
You asked for my opinion on profiling. I support it as long as it is based on effective criteria. Just focusing on appearance produces a lot of false positives. And every time you introduce a false positive, you take resources away from your ability to focus on people who are really of interest – like those who are behaving suspiciously. I think the fact that the Israelis use it speaks volumes.
You still haven’t said what specific profiling policy you are referring to so I’m at a bit of a disadvantage. If you mean to search every Arab-looking male or every Muslim male, then I think that would be very difficult to do just from looking at someone. Under this system all dark-skinned people could potentially include Latinos, Italians, Greeks etc. And all possible Muslims would have to include Africans and East Asians since that is where the majority of Muslims are
Trespass, and then you can own it…
That’s the lesson to take from the actions of a former District Judge, who has managed to make a couple’s land worthless, while he and his lawyer wife tie up a good portion of the property in court….
Think about it, is this the real cost of Global Warming Alarmism?…
Obviously this ad is over the top, but in a sense it captures one aspect of the problem.
The Global Warming activists are demanding that we perform what amounts to planetary miracles to fix a problem that we didn’t even cause, and the end result&n…
Honey, you are a leftist. I have yet to read any post or comment from you that didn’t march to the extreme lefts drumbeat. When we come back from Mexico my husband is always questioned. He’s Apache Indian and looks as if could belong to a large number of ethnic groups. Neither of us care, we want that, we want to feel comfortable. Has he been profiled? Discriminated against? Probably. But who cares? He’s done nothing wrong so there’s nothing to worry about.
My hope for you is that one day you’ll be able to think for yourself. I used to be very right of center; approaching the edge. But I was smart enough to recognize that there are legitimate points on the other side of the aisle. You’re a smart woman, don’t be a pawn.
You know what’s funny? I remember your first post at Greta’s. You stated “I’m a military wife who just happens to be a Liberal”. And I thought “Wow, this could really be enlightening. I can’t wait to hear how she functions in that world, I’m sure it must be difficult and I bet she’s struggles with her own party as well.” All you did was follow through on the Liberal part. I’ve watched you politely smear religion and mock individuals who practice it. I’ve watched your closed mind promote evolution and whenever you were challenged, you never for a moment considered that perhaps the other person might be right with their beliefs. Have I ever thought that my belief in Creation was false and it indeed was evolution? You bet. But what have I lost because of it? Time spent in church? Time spent in prayer? Time spent in developing morality and high character within myself and my children because my religion instructs me to? Where is the harm in that? If I turn out to be wrong, I have still gained. Those around me have still gained. If you’re wrong, you spend eternity in Hell. I like my odds.
I’m bowing out of the conversation now. Not because I’ve given up, but rather because you cannot be reasoned with. If it doesn’t fall within your beliefs you reject it. Just because you may not agree with something, it doesn’t make it fiction.
Stacy said: Honey, you are a leftist.
I have only every registered as a Republican and have voted as such in every election I have participated in since I started voting.
Stacy said: I remember your first post at Greta’s. You stated “I’m a military wife who just happens to be a Liberalâ€.
I have never written that and would never write that. This was my first post on Greta’s blog: Anti-War Protestors: No Solutions, Just Complaints
http://hooahwife.com/?m=200510&paged=3
Stacy said: I’ve watched you politely smear religion and mock individuals who practice it.
I have never done that either.
Stacy said: I’ve watched your closed mind promote evolution and whenever you were challenged, you never for a moment considered that perhaps the other person might be right with their beliefs.
Evolution and religion are perfectly compatible. That is the only thing I have ever promoted.
I’ve watched your closed mind promote evolution and whenever you were challenged, you never for a moment considered that perhaps the other person might be right with their beliefs.
I answered your question on a completely different topic in good faith with reasonable arguments and instead of answering my request for more specifics about the particular policy you are referring to you respond with a personal attack. That’s unfortunate because I thought good points were being made on both sides. If you’re interested I’m still open to further discussion.
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