Text 25886, 118 rader
Skriven 2009-01-09 09:33:24 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 25857 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Fancy eating
====================
09 Jan 09 10:55, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB> Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Thursday January 08 2009 at 12:03:

 RW>>>>> It's a hamburger - steak sandwich palace. You get in line, order
 RW>>>>> a burger and drink, then take a table. When the little electronic
 RW>>>>> gizmo that they gave you lights up, you go and give them back the
 RW>>>>> little electric gizmo and pickup your order.

 WD>>>> During my next US travels (probably Colorado in Spring) I'll be
 WD>>>> looking-out for them.

 RB>>> Let us know how they were -

 RW>> The correct work is 'are'...they're still available.

 RB> The correct word is "were". I asked him to tell how they _were_ after
 RB> he returned.

Since they still exist, even though he ate a few, the correct word is are.

 RB> My English is still quite OK, thank you.

So, so.

 RB> And if it ever again becomes possible to visit the US without being
 RB> treated like a criminal, I'd be glad to try one myself, as they sound
 RB> delightful.

The next time Nancy and I get down to Fuddrukkers, I have one and tell you
how good they are. (even though the one I will have eaten is gone, there
'are' identical burgers still there)

PS - it won't be all that bad getting into the states, now that we have O
shit for President. He's put a nincompoop in charge of the CIA and we'll
all be safer for it.

 RB>>> assuming you can eat them while wearing the handcuffs all
 RB>>> foreigners have to wear in the States.

 RW>> LOL! You're becoming as predictable as Vlist. You enter a
 RW>> conversation to put in another dig on the US.

 RB> No, not really. I was quite satisfied visiting the US as a foreigner
 RB> and as an American before the _real_ hysteria broke loose sometime in
 RB> 2002 or so. Even my flight back to Germany immediately after the 9/11
 RB> attack (on the Sunday after the attack on Tuesday) was no big hassle,
 RB> even though I had feared the security so much I even cut the sticks
 RB> on two American flags I had bought in two and put them in my check-in
 RB> luggage because I thought someone might see them as a "weapon"
 RB> (nobody did then, even after 9/11 - but nowadays you'd probably land
 RB> in jail if you tried to take on something like that as hand luggage).

You would probably be asked to put it in your checked luggage.

 RB> In 2003, when I returned to Germany from visiting my sister after the
 RB> death of both my parents, my luggage was searched without my knowldge
 RB> or permission on _dearture_, and a "nice notice" placed in it
 RB> thanking me for not locking it since it would otherwise been broken
 RB> open. Very civilized, naturally with no advance information or
 RB> warning. That was the same trip I was searched upon _entering_ the
 RB> country, as if I planned to bomb the rental car agency or a taxi
 RB> taking me into the city. Such stupidity is hard to beat. Searching
 RB> when you get ON a plane is logical and reasonable, but searching at
 RB> your destination when all you want to do is leave the damaned airport
 RB> and breathe the free air is a pile of bureaucratic shit.

Who's to know you didn't bring something detrimental to everyone's health
that may have been overlooked at your point of departure in a country that
was lax in security at the time. If you protested the way you were treated
then, like you do now, that is something that would alarm the security
people and make them suspicious of your activity.

 RB> At any rate, the situation that now exists - with every visitor
 RB> treated like a criminal being booked at the police station - is
 RB> unacceptable except to those not subjected to it, namely you, as long
 RB> as you never leave or return to the States - unless, of course - real
 RB> "honest injun" 'melikans are treated better than dirty furriners
 RB> trying to contaminate our "precious bodily fluids" (Dr. Strangelove).

Well, there's a reason for treating us better than you. It's more likely
that we don't have any grudges against the government like a lot of you
outsiders have. But I think you protest too much.

 RB> The tourist industry has suffered greatly, the universities trying to
 RB> attract good foreign academics have suffered and companies trying to
 RB> attract top forign personnel also find that fewer and fewer
 RB> foreigners are willing to be treated in such a fashion for the
 RB> "privilege" of visiting "God's own country".

The bottom line is America and her people are safe. Note that none of the
countries who were fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan with us have been
without terrorist activity, while the US hasn't had one attack since these
security measures have been put in place.

 RB> I used to feel at home in the US, Roy. The 9/11 hysteria has managed
 RB> to destroy that. The best thing Obama could now do is disband the
 RB> "Homeland Security" Gestapo and return the US to the democracy it
 RB> once enjoyed.

I used to feel at home in the small town where I grew up and attended
school, but I'm a stranger in a strange place when I visit there now. If
Oshit changes the security system in place now, Americans won't be as safe
as they are now.

 RB> Oh, incidently, the fact that people like Ward don't object to
 RB> mugshots and fingerprints doesn't mean that such bland acceptance of
 RB> the present situation is universal. A lot of people - not only me -
 RB> now refuse to visit the USA for precisely this reason.

Good. That means the system is doing what it was intended to do.

                R\%/itt



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