jbg Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) Yeah hows the US-Mexico border holding up? I would argue there's a lot more in common between the U.S. and Canada in terms of language, culture and history than between either the U.S. and Mexico or Mexico and Canada. There are very strong arguments for a seemless U.S.- Canadian border than U.S. - Mexican border. Edited January 4, 2011 by jbg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GostHacked Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I would argue there's a lot more in common between the U.S. and Canada in terms of language, culture and history than between either the U.S. and Mexico or Mexico and Canada. There are very strong arguments for a seemless U.S.- Canadian border than U.S. - Mexican border. I agree, it was more of a jab on BC because of the insane amount of money to control the US-Mexico border. But no amount of money will prevent idiocy. Like having Anwar Al-Awlaki (#3 in Al-Queda and a US born Muslim Cleric) over for dinner at the Pentagon months after 9/11. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I agree, it was more of a jab on BC because of the insane amount of money to control the US-Mexico border. But no amount of money will prevent idiocy.Not BC's in any event. That's impossible. As far as the U.S. - Mexican border if profiling were not barred as being "politically incorrect" policing it would be a lot easier; and better yet more of our immigrants would find it in their interest to learn English and assimilate into the American culture. Like having Anwar Al-Awlaki (#3 in Al-Queda and a US born Muslim Cleric) over for dinner at the Pentagon months after 9/11. I totally agree. Rather than a love-fest we should have been instilling some serious fear into the Islamic world after those attacks. People who attack us need to know those attacks don't end well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GostHacked Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Not BC's in any event. That's impossible. As far as the U.S. - Mexican border if profiling were not barred as being "politically incorrect" policing it would be a lot easier; and better yet more of our immigrants would find it in their interest to learn English and assimilate into the American culture. I totally agree. Rather than a love-fest we should have been instilling some serious fear into the Islamic world after those attacks. People who attack us need to know those attacks don't end well. The fear is not being instilled on Muslims, the fear is being directed towards the general population. Because it is the general population that is supposed to be scared of Muslims/Islam on the whole when it's just an extreme portion of Muslims who are the terrorists. Not only is it not ending well for muslims (if you can say that), it's not ending well for the American people. It's not terrorists who are putting more restrictions on your freedoms, it's your government that is restricting your freedom. Trying to provide a solution in which they helped create it by scaring the crap out of the general American population. It's like the overreaction with the TSA and body scanners. Overreaction at the border won't make anyone feel safe, just annoyed and most likely violated. What kind of body scanner or large scale scanner (to x-ray your car and contents as you cross the border) will be in place? If they are not in the process, you can bet it's being thought of. But again, will that provide the security that is needed and that will work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) I would argue there's a lot more in common between the U.S. and Canada in terms of language, culture and history than between either the U.S. and Mexico or Mexico and Canada. There are very strong arguments for a seemless U.S.- Canadian border than U.S. - Mexican border. This is simply not true....Mexico figured far more prominently in the expansion of America to the west and the influx of human capital. Mexican immigrant labor matters much more to the US than Canada ever can. Canada's population only comprises 8% of Norte America. Mexico matters...too. Edited January 4, 2011 by bush_cheney2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 It's like the overreaction with the TSA and body scanners. Overreaction at the border won't make anyone feel safe, just annoyed and most likely violated. What kind of body scanner or large scale scanner (to x-ray your car and contents as you cross the border) will be in place? If they are not in the process, you can bet it's being thought of. But again, will that provide the security that is needed and that will work? Wrong...you are projecting your own bias and opinion on another nation with millions of travelers, 70% of whom support TSA measures to prevent terrorist attacks. Imaging technology for large vehicles has been in place for quite some time. If you don't agree with the American measures...stay the hell out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guyser Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 If you don't agree with the American measures...stay the hell out. Kind of ironic huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Kind of ironic huh? The host server is in Houston, Texas AFAIK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GostHacked Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 This is simply not true....Mexico figured far more prominently in the expansion of America to the west and the influx of human capital. Mexican immigrant labor matters much more to the US than Canada ever can. Canada's population only comprises 8% of Norte America. Mexico matters...too. And yet you spend 99% of your time bitching about such an insignificant bunch as us Canadians. If you want cheap uneducated unskilled labor, then sure Mexico it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) And yet you spend 99% of your time bitching about such an insignificant bunch as us Canadians. No habla Espanol? If you want cheap uneducated unskilled labor, then sure Mexico it is! Canadians work cheap too....we've got a software development house in Montreal...they work for relative peanuts. The food you buy in Canada is often provided by "cheap uneducated unskilled labor"....you're welcome. Edited January 4, 2011 by bush_cheney2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guyser Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 The host server is in Houston, Texas AFAIK. Uh, no , you"re smarter than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Dancer Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Uh, no , you"re smarter than that. He is right actually... IP: 67.228.211.105IP Location: Dallas, United States Website Status: active Server Type: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Alexa Trend/Rank: 1 Month: 643,162 3 Month: 409,667 Page Views per Visit: 1 Month: 4.0 3 Month: 5.7 http://who.is/whois/mapleleafweb.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guyser Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 He is right actually... Oh I know the server is in Texas, no idea why that came into it, but his comment was ironic. No more no less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dre Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I would like to see a border crossing with a 100 km. speed limit, changing to 65 mph on the American side. I think the border should be made seemless, with perhaps spot or profile checks. The problem with that is youd have to harmonize a lot of things, and Im not comfortable with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Oh I know the server is in Texas, no idea why that came into it, but his comment was ironic. No more no less. ..because Texas is in the United States...just sayin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonam Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The problem with that is youd have to harmonize a lot of things, and Im not comfortable with that. Not really, if we had giant scanners hanging over the highway and every car, dutiable item, passport, etc, had a built in RFID tag you could probably drive through the things at full speed and have all the needed info automatically collected. Would also need a way to rapidly identify the people in the cars too I guess, that would be a harder technological problem. Facial recognition and high quality properly positioned cameras would do the trick in most cases but not if people had their faces intentionally obscured. I guess using an x-ray scanner to determine if any people are hidden in the vehicle in combination with requiring all properly seated passengers in the vehicle to make their faces easily visible while crossing the border would mostly work. Border patrol officers in vehicles could then pursue and pull over any non-compliant cars. Downside would be being subjected to xray radiation every time you cross the border, but that's probably inevitably going to be implemented at some point in the future anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The fear is not being instilled on Muslims, the fear is being directed towards the general population. Because it is the general population that is supposed to be scared of Muslims/Islam on the whole when it's just an extreme portion of Muslims who are the terrorists.The problem is that Muslims other than the "extremists" are enabling the "extremists". You can be sure, if I attempted to suggest to my Saturday morning Torah study the idea of an attack on non-Jewish interests someone would either rat me out to the police or have me committed. You can be quite sure that such ideas are freely bandied around mosques. It's like the overreaction with the TSA and body scanners. Overreaction at the border won't make anyone feel safe, just annoyed and most likely violated. What kind of body scanner or large scale scanner (to x-ray your car and contents as you cross the border) will be in place? If they are not in the process, you can bet it's being thought of. But again, will that provide the security that is needed and that will work? The kind of security you are referring to is theatre. It is a waste of peoples' time and privacy. What is needed is behavioral profiling. That means alert, smart, well-paid police. This costs real money and thus is not popular with politicians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Uh, no , you"re smarter than that. No it isn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GostHacked Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The problem is that Muslims other than the "extremists" are enabling the "extremists". You can be sure, if I attempted to suggest to my Saturday morning Torah study the idea of an attack on non-Jewish interests someone would either rat me out to the police or have me committed. You can be quite sure that such ideas are freely bandied around mosques. Help the moderates find their voice. The kind of security you are referring to is theatre. It is a waste of peoples' time and privacy. What is needed is behavioral profiling. That means alert, smart, well-paid police. This costs real money and thus is not popular with politicians. That's a good point, money. No problem with a few trillion to bail out banks, but spending a few hundred million on proper screening is not taking place. Priorities are not where they should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Jack Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) OK...I need a bit of calibration here. From this and several other threads one would get the idea that vast numbers of Canadians get the itch to cross the US border, many times per year. Now my neighbours and I live just a few hours drive from International Falls, but we don't get ants in our pants to make a run for the border. So what is it that causes this migratory behaviour from the north in such numbers? Is it weather? Cheaper gas and cigarettes? American relatives? What? When I was still gainfully employed as a computer programmer, The company assigned me to work in the Head Office in Akron, Ohio. I commuted weekly from Hamilton, Ontario and spent the week from Monday morning till Thursday afternoon in Akron. This much I can say: The management in Akron appreciated and valued my work. I made friends I still keep in touch with, even though I retired in 2003, after six years and three work permit extensions in the States. When I came back and worked in our Canadian Head Office, I was driven to early retirement by an egotistical and power-hungry jerk of a boss. No, it was not the lower prices or the weather that made me fond of Americans. It was the Americans. Edited January 5, 2011 by Yukon Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 He is right actually... http://who.is/whois/mapleleafweb.com/ Dallas is more than 200 miles (or 330 Trudeau Units) from Houston. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 ...No, it was not the lower prices or the weather that made me fond of Americans. It was the Americans. We had an IT project manager from Winnipeg who said the same thing. First he would curse the film and television production industry in Canada (his first love...but IT pays the bills more consistently), then he would curse Manitoba for making him come back to Winnipeg every six months to keep his health care access in Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeball Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Help the moderates find their voice. If we could squelch the moral and cognitive dissonance that's being generated by the real source of insecurity on the planet, powerful governments and wealthy people, we'd probably have better luck at that. Priorities are not where they should be. No they're not. Consider Bonams suggestion that we saturate our borders along with our airports and probably all our public spaces in time with scanners and security apparatus at every turn...imagine how much security might trickle down through society if just a mere fraction of all that monitoring capacity were focused on the top .01% or less of the population that's causing the worst problems. Screw perimeter security, the pinnacle is what needs our attention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bush_cheney2004 Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 If we could squelch the moral and cognitive dissonance that's being generated by the real source of insecurity on the planet, powerful governments and wealthy people, we'd probably have better luck at that. Really? There are flights to Port-au-Prince every day if you'd like to test that theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeball Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 Really? There are flights to Port-au-Prince every day if you'd like to test that theory. Power and wealth are more accountable and transparent to people in Port-au-Prince than here? I doubt that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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