A Spork in the Drawer

A Silly People, Small And Afraid

Meet Derby Line, Vermont, a bucolic border town with a difference:

First was the white, painted lettering on the pavement on three little side streets -- "Canada" on one side, "U.S.A." on the other. Then came the white pylons denoting which side of the border was which. After that, signboards were erected on some streets, ordering drivers to turn back and use an officially designated entry point.

And along with the signposts came an influx of American Border Patrol agents, cruising through the town in their green-and-white sport-utility vehicles with sirens, chasing down cars and mopeds that ignored the posted warnings.

You can see where this is going:

For longtime residents accustomed to a simpler life that flowed freely across a largely invisible border, the final shock -- and what made most people really take notice -- was a proposal by the border agents last year to erect fences on the small streets to officially barricade the United States from Canada, and neighbor from neighbor.

"They're stirring up a little hate and discontent with that deal," said Claire Currier, who grew up in this border area and works at Brown's Drug Store, which has operated on the same spot since 1884. "It's like putting up a barrier. We've all intermingled for years."

So what is it that has caused such trouble in Derby Line? All together now:

"9/11 changed everything," said Border Patrol agent Fernando Beltran[.]

And there it is.

"They understand that there's a change, but to them it's a way of life," Beltran said as he cruised through the town streets in an unmarked SUV. "They never considered themselves in danger. There's a sense of security here."

And in all likelihood they, and us, weren't in any real danger. At least, there are hundreds, thousands, of ways to enter the US unnoticed if one is so inclined. Perfect security equals perfect police state. Neither are achievable but the latter seems to be the goal.

The reporter of this article gives the Ministry of Homeland Security a freebie:

But for the border agents, Sept. 11 exposed the vulnerability of America's northern frontier and the ease with which anyone -- a terrorist with a portable nuclear device, for example -- could cross into the United States from Canada using one of the multitude of unguarded back roads or forest paths, or, in a border town such as Derby Line, simply by crossing the street.

Suitcase nukes!

"We can't be wrong once," Beltran added. "If we're wrong once, that could be devastating to the whole country."

All must be subsumed to keep us safe!

Of course:

The new vigilance has led to more arrests of people crossing illegally and interdiction of contraband, mostly drugs. Border agents in this sector said that last year they arrested people from 117 different countries trying to enter the United States illegally. Among the drugs, agents say, they have confiscated large shipments of ecstasy pills being smuggled in, as well as shipments of extra-potent hydroponic marijuana.

No terrorists but the so-called War on (Some) Drugs continues apace. Let's remember that much of the "security" being foisted on us today had nothing to do with terrorism but with the current wave of drugs hysteria that began in the 1980's. Just say no!

But complain not, dear Citizen subject:

"We interact with the public," Lague said, "so they understand we're not doing this stuff because of them; we're doing it to protect them.

It's for your own good.

It always is.

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What The Hell Is Wrong With Canada?

These are all headlines in today's Globe and Mail:

Sperm under siege

The problem with poo

No, I fine. I put pee-pee in toilet

What, is it Bodily Discharge Day in the Great White North?

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It's Not Just Us

Our neighbor to the north, the Canadian Soviet Socialist Republic, is discovering the joys of a Conservative government combined with wingnuts:

A well-known evangelical crusader is claiming credit for the federal government's move to deny tax credits to TV and film productions that contain graphic sex and violence or other offensive content.

Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, said his lobbying efforts included discussions with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, and "numerous" meetings with officials in the Prime Minister's Office.

[...]

Mr. McVety said films promoting homosexuality, graphic sex or violence should not receive tax dollars, and backbench Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers support his campaign.

Canada is semi-famous for it's support of its movie industry (Actually, many countries not called the "United states" are famous for their support of their film industry. But I digress.) so this action isn't sitting well mith some:

Arts groups say they will fight the change. Director David Cronenberg and other big industry names warned that the edgy, low-budget films that have garnered Canadians international acclaim will be at risk.

[...]

Mr. Cronenberg, whose most recent film was the Oscar-nominated Russian mob thriller Eastern Promises, called the move an assault on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"The irony is that it is the Canadian films that have given us an international reputation [that] would be most at risk because they are the edgy, relatively low-budget films made by people like me and others that will be targeted by this panel," he said.

"The platform they're suggesting is akin to a Communist Chinese panel of unknown people, who, behind closed doors, will make a second ruling after bodies like Telefilm Canada have already invested."

The efforts to undo the Enlightenment continue.

As a side note, I'd like to point out that the Globe and Mail is Canada's second largest (circulation-wise) daily newspaper. I mention this because of the following paragraphs of the story cited:

Films with controversial subject matter, such as Lynne Stopkewich's acclaimed necrophilia film Kissed and Atom Egoyan's Where The Truth Lies (which got an NC-17 rating in the United States for a scene involving a threesome) could lose the right to tax credits under new public policy guidelines.

Works by Martin Gero, the director of Young People Fucking (which opens in theatres in Canada in April), could also get a once-over from the panel.

Notice that a profane word was used. Not in a gratuitous way but simply to refer to a title. To those of us living in a country in which no "respectable" "news" organization would ever do such a thing (not even to quote the Vice President of These United States) it's quite refreshing.

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War With Canada?

It's always about oil:

Canada announced plans Monday to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage — a potentially oil-rich region the United States says is international territory.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said six to eight patrol ships will guard what he says are Canadian waters. A deep water port will also be built in a region the U.S. Geological Survey estimates has as much as 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins has criticized Harper's promise to defend the Arctic, claiming the Northwest Passage as "neutral waters."

No doubt DeFib Dick has ordered the Pentagon to draw up invasion plans and told the CIA to "prove" that Canada has been attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger.

And now for the irony:

As global warming melts the passage — which now is only navigable during a slim window in the summer — the waters are exposing unexplored resources such as oil, fishing stocks and minerals, and becoming an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.

So we burn oil which raises temperatures which melts polar ice which means we can drill for oil which we can then burn which...

It's like a feedback loop of stupidity.

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Learning The Wrong Things

It looks like Canadian PM Stephen Harper is taking a page from the Republican playbook by literally writing a playbook:

Ottawa — The Harper government is being accused of a Machiavellian plot to wreak parliamentary havoc after a secret Tory handbook on obstructing and manipulating Commons committees was leaked to the press.

Opposition parties pounced on news reports Friday about the 200-page handbook as proof that the Conservatives are to blame for the toxic atmosphere that has paralyzed Parliament this week.

“The government's deliberate plan is to cause a dysfunctional, chaotic Parliament,” Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale told the House of Commons.

This seems to be the only true conviction of what passes for "conservative" parties today: The wrecking of institutions and destruction for purely political gain.

But [New Democrat Libby] Davies, a 10-year parliamentary veteran, said the Tories have taken manipulation to extremes she's never seen before.

“They've codified it. They've set it down. They've given instructions.”

Remind you of anything?

The hallmark of proper conservatives is a respect for traditions (sometimes ridiculously so, though that's another post). Those who are called "conservatives" today are anything but. Reactionaries, certainly, arguably even fascists. But definitely not conservative.

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Maher Arar

Tony Norman:

Dear Mr. Arar

You may have been exonerated by the Canadian government, but you're still guilty before the bar of arbitrary American justice. You'll remain on our watchlists and in our data bases because to remove it would imply we've made a mistake.

Even if our actions are proven wrong, we nonetheless hold to the conviction that we are always right. Might makes every wrong right, eventually. We can make the data fit the circumstances. Innocence is relative.

War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. If we don't fight the terrorists over there we'll have to fight them over here. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That with great power comes great irresponsibility.

Read the whole thing.

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Blame Canada!

Steve is right.

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