Street Photographer...Not a Terrorist

[ch1]

george, you're in the wrong post, you're all confused.

maybe it's time for bed and tomorrow when you're sober, er, i mean rested things will look better.

😉

????

Those aren't my train reservations....

 

[dadsm3]

George, you're being oversensitive. Lashing out at your closest international friends is counterproductive, and just baits the lefties. End result is Americans think all Canadians are anti-American socialists, and that's just not the case.
Have you seen how much lumber we have up here? There's only 30 million people here in a land mass bigger than the whole US for God's sake, and that includes Alaska and the islands. How could our stumpage fees NOT be lower?
Nafta? Again, you're listening to the always LOUD left.....the vast majority of Canadians in the private sector make their living exporting to the US, that's a fact. Nafta is a big reason Canada is doing so well and our dollar is getting closer to yours all the time. It's the only reason I'm still in business, and I know that goes for the bulk of our economy.
The Queen? Give me a break....Crown Lands are just public lands, but I think you know that. Don't mistake ceremony and respect for our national roots for any real power. If I get arrested and it's "The Queen vs. Mike" doesn't mean I have to armwrestle her or anything...
Jumping the queue for medical attention? Yes, it happens among wealthier people who simply refuse to wait their turn. Go ahead and pay for it in Buffalo if you want, it just takes some of the strain off our system. Is ours perfect? By no means, often wait-times are too long, but everybody's covered. Our health plan is borne of a conviction that the poor should not die for lack of medical attention, and that a person's worth is more than the thickness of their wallet. Contrast that with the 50 million Americans who don't have any coverage at all. I went through intestinal surgery last year, operated on by one of the best surgeons in the province, in a semi-private room (but by myself for most of the 10 days), in a clean new hospital with the latest equipment. I'm self-employed, so I have no medical or drug plan. My cost? ZERO....
Don't forget many Canadians, Brits, and Europeans also died on 9/11. I'm a swarthy type (Sicilian blood), and I've never made it through an airport line in the US since without being pulled over, and I couldn't care less. Makes me feel like they're doing their job....Only in Canada do they make security guards check an equal number of old ladies with white hair to be fair about it.....
All that being said......if I had a leader who ignored the law and wiretapped whoever he felt like I'd be concerned. Or a VP that hasn't even spoken to the press in years....just walks over to the Fox network for some kid-glove stroking. Or an admin so beholden to big-biz that they'll allow a company from a country full of extremists run their ports....and now torn between traditional Republicans who want some kind of border management and big-biz Republicans who just want the cheap labour. Don't get me wrong, Canadian politicians don't come second to anyone in sleaziness....but if I was American I'd be concerned, and I'm no member of the looney left.
All Bill C. did was get some action in the oval office, and he got impeached. This guy does whatever the hell he feels like with nothing but contempt for congress, the senate, the press, and the judiciary and all he gets is low poll ratings.
That's not the America I've always looked up to.....and I'm surprised the American people are rolling over and accepting it. We have to up here, but we can toss a government early if they piss off enough people.
But airport checks aren't the same as hassling photographers. One is vital, the other is just security guards and other cop wannabes trying to assert an authority they simply don't have, just for the pleasure of it. Bill M and I probably aren't on the same plane politically, but he's dead right...know your rights and tell 'em to screw off. You Yanks are the last bastion of individual rights left.
Mike

 

[ch1]

Lets see- I was 12 miles from the Pentagon smelling the stench ofburning building and Jet A. Wondering If my town was going to make itthrough.

Wondering if my neice still worked in the WTC.

What you're the only person who experienced 9/11?

Well then, 12 whole miles!

Wow, talk about a near miss! Heck, the whole island of Manhattan at its longest is only 13 miles!

How about standing on the corner of Fulton and Church Sts. about 100 yards from the Towers?

How about being friggin' glad you missed the "light" at the corner and didn't get to cross the street on you way into 6 WTC?

I didn't smell jet fuel - the fumes were above me.

Oh, I did have to pick my way through the shattered plate glass a block away where the first concussion finally reached ground level.

I spent four hours on line waiting to give blood that was never needed because there were no wounded! The killed very effectively.

Oh, BTW, they still find human fragments downtown on occassion.

But yes, your were 12 miles nearby the Pentagon.

Jeez - near miss for you there wasn't it? 😛

 

[RJBender]

Well then, 12 whole miles!

Wow, talk about a near miss! Heck, the whole island of Manhattan at its longest is only 13 miles!

How about standing on the corner of Fulton and Church Sts. about 100 yards from the Towers?

How about being friggin' glad you missed the "light" at the corner and didn't get to cross the street on you way into 6 WTC?

I didn't smell jet fuel - the fumes were above me.

Oh, I did have to pick my way through the shattered plate glass a block away where the first concussion finally reached ground level.

I spent four hours on line waiting to give blood that was never needed because there were no wounded! The killed very effectively.

Oh, BTW, they still find human fragments downtown on occassion.

But yes, your were 12 miles nearby the Pentagon.

Jeez - near miss for you there wasn't it? 😛

That was a close call, George. I'm glad you were late for work. 🙂
My sister lives a few blocks from the Pentagon in Crystal City and was at home on 9/11.

R.J.

 

[back alley]

george, just stop it now.
you're being a class a jerk!

 

[ch1]

George, you're being oversensitive. Lashing out at your closest international friends is counterproductive, and just baits the lefties. End result is Americans think all Canadians are anti-American socialists, and that's just not the case.
Have you seen how much lumber we have up here? There's only 30 million people here in a land mass bigger than the whole US for God's sake, and that includes Alaska and the islands. How could our stumpage fees NOT be lower?
Nafta? Again, you're listening to the always LOUD left.....the vast majority of Canadians in the private sector make their living exporting to the US, that's a fact. Nafta is a big reason Canada is doing so well and our dollar is getting closer to yours all the time. It's the only reason I'm still in business, and I know that goes for the bulk of our economy.
The Queen? Give me a break....Crown Lands are just public lands, but I think you know that. Don't mistake ceremony and respect for our national roots for any real power. If I get arrested and it's "The Queen vs. Mike" doesn't mean I have to armwrestle her or anything...
Jumping the queue for medical attention? Yes, it happens among wealthier people who simply refuse to wait their turn. Go ahead and pay for it in Buffalo if you want, it just takes some of the strain off our system. Is ours perfect? By no means, often wait-times are too long, but everybody's covered. Our health plan is borne of a conviction that the poor should not die for lack of medical attention, and that a person's worth is more than the thickness of their wallet. Contrast that with the 50 million Americans who don't have any coverage at all. I went through intestinal surgery last year, operated on by one of the best surgeons in the province, in a semi-private room (but by myself for most of the 10 days), in a clean new hospital with the latest equipment. I'm self-employed, so I have no medical or drug plan. My cost? ZERO....
Don't forget many Canadians, Brits, and Europeans also died on 9/11. I'm a swarthy type (Sicilian blood), and I've never made it through an airport line in the US since without being pulled over, and I couldn't care less. Makes me feel like they're doing their job....Only in Canada do they make security guards check an equal number of old ladies with white hair to be fair about it.....
All that being said......if I had a leader who ignored the law and wiretapped whoever he felt like I'd be concerned. Or a VP that hasn't even spoken to the press in years....just walks over to the Fox network for some kid-glove stroking. Or an admin so beholden to big-biz that they'll allow a company from a country full of extremists run their ports....and now torn between traditional Republicans who want some kind of border management and big-biz Republicans who just want the cheap labour. Don't get me wrong, Canadian politicians don't come second to anyone in sleaziness....but if I was American I'd be concerned, and I'm no member of the looney left.
All Bill C. did was get some action in the oval office, and he got impeached. This guy does whatever the hell he feels like with nothing but contempt for congress, the senate, the press, and the judiciary and all he gets is low poll ratings.
That's not the America I've always looked up to.....and I'm surprised the American people are rolling over and accepting it. We have to up here, but we can toss a government early if they piss off enough people.
But airport checks aren't the same as hassling photographers. One is vital, the other is just security guards and other cop wannabes trying to assert an authority they simply don't have, just for the pleasure of it. Bill M and I probably aren't on the same plane politically, but he's dead right...know your rights and tell 'em to screw off. You Yanks are the last bastion of individual rights left.
Mike

Mike,

On a truly domestic forum I would be one of the loudest critics of my government and how wrongly I think it has run the country.

But it is because I live in a democracy where there are tolerated "lunatic fringe" ideologues who "use" our freedoms to advance their own outland agendas that I get upset on an international forum.

I am very aware of the arguments, pro and con regarding Canada and the U.S. Much more aware than the vast majority of Americans. This is why, in fact, I knew how to "pull you chains" with my post about soft lumber and Crown Lands etc.

[Now we do need to talk about that mad cow thing! 😀 ]

And, in fact, there is much I admire about Canadian society although I do think that you media is very dominated by a left wing cadre in T.O. (G&M, Star, and CBC) which is very anti-U.S. (probably goes all the way back some 200 years to some degree). When I visit my very good friends in Ottawa (who also have a cottage in the Lauerntians) they invariably put the CBC news on the radio. It is amazing how much time is spent talking about all kinds of bad things supposedly happening in the U.S.

Heck, they seem to talk more about the U.S. (very negatively) than they do their own domestic news!

Yes, the actions of the present US administration are to me, reprehensible. But, Mike, there are millions of Americans who would disagree with you. You are hearing about the US through that CBC filter.

The reality is that many, perhaps most, Americans are not focused on political issues and generally accept the government of the day. Is it really any different in Canada or anywhere? Most people are concerned with family, jobs, social obligations etc. and are not very "political".

Further, as you folks in Canada are so ready to point out, unlike you, there is a much larger proportion of Americans who believe in God and are religious. While I am not among them, I do know that these folks are a very powerful element within American society.

While my comments about closing the border were meant in jest - to be honest - given the way many Canadians talk about America these days (particularly the ON ones) - it wouldn't take to much of a demagouge down here to convince folks that maybe we should do so.

Perhaps "bashing" America is a way for folks in ON to forget how fragile their own country is?

Did someone say: "Vive Quebec libre!" ?

 

[dadsm3]

Well, you certainly know how to get my attention, I'll give you that. It's just that people (read: Americans) can read a couple of anti-US posts from Canadians and get the impression we all think that way. And believe me , there's no shortage of anti-US press up here....let's face it US bashing is practised world-wide, by both enemies and allies.
From your previous posts I knew that this was a bit of a diatribe....but I think you have to realize that the silent majority is with you guys. But having a guy like Cheney ignore everyone represents the "ugly" American, and I'm not sure if Bush realizes it but he personifies what the world perceives as American arrogance, and is the biggest hate-magnet in the current administration.
I know the news I get is filtered through a pink glass, but how many Fox viewers in the US know they're getting spin? Even CNN and the other major networks tow the political line in the US....maybe some saber-rattling, but they fall in line.
People who read and understand know what's really going on, and I have little tolerance for people who don't vote but have plenty to say.
Mike

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

I think I'll invite the jackass to dance this time around

 

[anselwannab]

I was suprised coming back from Italy in February that I din't have to take off my shoes when I was going thru security for the overseas flight. I wear "penny" loafers now when I travel, who wants to try to tie up wingtips??? I have a ritual of putting my metallic objects in the same place in my briefcase everytime I go thru security. Never take off my belt and never get tagged for wanding.

I was in Austin a few months after 9/11 coming back thru security for the flight home. They didn't like my breifcase. I have all kinds of plastic chips and painted metal panels in there. They let me thru, pull me and my bag aside and start to go thru it. He goes thru a bunch of pockets and I ask what he's looking for, he a says a metal panel. I reach over, unzip a pocket and start to reach into the pocket. He says Sternly "Sir, take your hand off the bag." He is standing there with one of his hads at head height like he is asking the teacher a question. I let go of the bag, and give him a quizical look. He just looks at me and says "If I had raised my hand above my head, that National Guardsman would have come over here and jumped on your head." I look over and there is some skinny zit-faced kid with an M-16. I'm a good 300pounds, I just looked at him and chuckled.

I just hate it when the say "May I look in your bag?" I once said no, and almost had to walk to my destination. It says on all the signs that they can look in my bags, why do they ask. It implies I have a choice. Just say, "Sir, I have to look in your bag."

Pre-9/11 I was going to play a trick on a buddy of mine. I was planning on getting a big foot-long "marital aid" then taking a piece of aluminum foil and making a cut out of a large knife. Glue the cut out to the inside of the box, and then hide it under the lap-top suspension unit in his briefcase. They'd end up pulling out the box and checking its contents there in the middle of the security check point. Post 9/11, I didn't want to have to explain why this was funny to an FBI agent.

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Well then, 12 whole miles!

Wow, talk about a near miss! Heck, the whole island of Manhattan at its longest is only 13 miles!

How about standing on the corner of Fulton and Church Sts. about 100 yards from the Towers?

How about being friggin' glad you missed the "light" at the corner and didn't get to cross the street on you way into 6 WTC?

I didn't smell jet fuel - the fumes were above me.

Oh, I did have to pick my way through the shattered plate glassablockaway where the first concussion finally reached ground level.

I spent four hours on line waiting to give blood that was neverneededbecause there were no wounded! The killed very effectively.

Oh, BTW, they still find human fragments downtown on occassion.

But yes, your were 12 miles nearby the Pentagon.

Jeez - near miss for you there wasn't it? 😛

I find you to be an offensive SOB.

You manage to step hard on others threads and don't give a damn.

You openly offend others here then say you're just kidding.

You're more than a class A jerk. You are a b***h.

Figure out when to STEP OFF!

 

[ch1]

Well, you certainly know how to get my attention, I'll give you that. It's just that people (read: Americans) can read a couple of anti-US posts from Canadians and get the impression we all think that way. And believe me , there's no shortage of anti-US press up here....let's face it US bashing is practised world-wide, by both enemies and allies.
From your previous posts I knew that this was a bit of a diatribe....but I think you have to realize that the silent majority is with you guys. But having a guy like Cheney ignore everyone represents the "ugly" American, and I'm not sure if Bush realizes it but he personifies what the world perceives as American arrogance, and is the biggest hate-magnet in the current administration.
I know the news I get is filtered through a pink glass, but how many Fox viewers in the US know they're getting spin? Even CNN and the other major networks tow the political line in the US....maybe some saber-rattling, but they fall in line.
People who read and understand know what's really going on, and I have little tolerance for people who don't vote but have plenty to say.
Mike

Mike,

I'll let you in on a little secret. "W" doesn't realize anything about Cheney. What puppet do you know of has a clue as to who is pulling his strings!

There, how's that for criticizing the powers that be?

The difference is, I am "allowed" to say it because I am an American and have the right to criticize my government.

But when you (by that I mean, generically, a non-American) does so - you push me into a defensive posture. Because now you are attacking not my government - but my country! This is exactly what I keep trying to impress upon my good friends Robin and Susan up in Ottawa!

As a very liberal, "blue state" American I am very distressed with the current government here. But I really have no interest in having my distress used to advance the agendas of non-Americans who hate my country.

America is a democracy with a robust capitalist economy. Our constitution provides for very strong protections of private property and, the ability to engage in private commerce for private gain.

For example, the "commerce clause" of the US Constitution, particularly as interpreted by the courts over the past two centuries, severly limits the ability of governments to restrict or control commercial affairs. [And this is true despite what the jackass "libertarians" would say.]

Much of the rest of the western democracies embrace greater levels of government intervention and contol over private commecial affairs and property that we do.

So the US is, to some extent, at odds with many other western democracies.

But our differences with you are more in degrees than in kind. Yet, because of these differences, there are segments of other western societies which see themselves in a sort of "permanent warfare" against the US and it's relatively "unfettered" capitalism.

These folks find fodder in threads which challenge the American government of the day. And they find "succor" in Americans who don't know how to keep family arguments "in-house"!

At the end of the day, let me bash my government and you can bash yours - and we should respect the fact that neither of us should be bashing the other guy's government!

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Wow, my last post was censored.

Hillarious.

 

[dadsm3]

Hey, as long as they also check the guy with the turban, I'll go happily. Up here they're so afraid of impinging on someone's religious freedoms they feel obligated to let them go through.
Say what you want about the French.....when the extremist muslims (all men) were leaning on the moderates (women) to wear a hijab to school, otherwise they'd beat them and their brothers up, the French outlawed religious symbols at public school. Good for them.
Now Canada is helping defend a democracy (Afghanistan) that wants to hang someone for converting to Christianity. Absolutely insane!
It really goes to show how smart the US founding fathers were to mandate separation of church and state and eliminate religion from politics. They had already been through those meaningless religious wars....grow up. And that goes for fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus etc.
Do what you want in your own homes, but stop trying to tell the rest of the world how to live.
Mike

 

[ch1]

Wow, my last post was censored.

Hillarious.

Yes, because it violated Jorge's prime directive - no vulgarity!

Your foul mouth did reach me via the PM you sent so you can sleep soundly knowing that you called me a female dog!

G'night

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Again the last word.

Have fun with it.

 

[ch1]

george, just stop it now.
you're being a class a jerk!

Joe,

I hear what your saying. And I sort of apologize.

I was warned by the Post-Traumatic Stress folks that there would be "triggers" even years later.

I doubted it then - but there really are....sorry, I saw too much that day and some things just bring back the images.....firstly one by one but then they start to cascade.

 

[dadsm3]

George, I hear you. I also have a knee-jerk reaction when people bash Canada...it's the land that I love.
But religious fanaticism in any country, anywhere, is something that I'll fight till the end. And as far as I'm concerned born-again morons trying to force their way into science class with 'intelligent design' is just another manifestation of religious crap that the muslim fanatics use to force women to wear hijab. Same arbitrary bullshit. Why? Because it says so right here in this 2000 year-old book.....don't argue, don't ask questions.
The worst thing about the religious fanatics is they're not content to live the way they want, everybody else has to live the way they want as well.
Mike

 

[dadsm3]

Also, I'm very upset I've never been censored or admonished by the moderators, even though I'm at least as hammered as the other posters.
Maybe it's because I'm naked and eating a banana I have a better perspective.....

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

I think I would have been less interested if I had been "hammered"

 

[Andy K]

Jeez - and to think that it was our soldiers who just risked their lives to free your "Christian" activists in Baghdad!

Actually the operation was carried out by a multinational force led by British troops and members of the RCMP.

Also, I do want to visit your country. My objection is to being fingerprinted like a criminal when I arrive. Visitors from the US are not greeted in such a way here.