o brother Joe (Lieberman), WTF with the FSA?
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced last month that he’s
retiring from politics. So how best can he cap off a thrill-filled career? By
worrying about his upstairs neighbours, that’s how. Joe just found out
that only a fourth of the U.S. – Canadian border has “full situational aware-
ness”. An “FSA” apparently signifies a zone in which evildoers are likely to
be caught if they’re actively doing evil.
“The American people are grossly under-protected along our northern
border,” claims Lieberman, who is chair of the Senate Homeland Security
committee. He suggests that it may be time to consider requiring visas
for Canadians heading south. I, for one, would certainly appreciate yet
another layer of anguish to traveling. Maybe we could put our visas in
our skivvies for the TSA to fish out.
I understand Joe’s wish to keep toque-topped terrorists and B.C. bud
bearers out of his country. But why discourage all Canucks? Does he
fear that Canadian values like civility, honesty and a sense of fair play
would threaten the U.S.? Lieberman would be prudent to check the
accuracy of this perceived problem.
In 2008, for example, 819 people were nabbed illegally entering Canada from
the U.S., while 952 folks were grabbed coming in illegally to Canada from the
U.S. You don’t hear us up here complaining when an undesirable American
visits, unless it’s Lindsey Lohan.
Joe L. also believes that Canada has softer immigration laws than the U.S.
He might be right on that one in general. However, Jude and I could argue
otherwises on a personal level. When we were moving up here in ’05, we were
turned back at the border during one of our crossings. We thought we’d done
everything by the book, but when we told an immigration official that we’d
already sold our home in California, she said “normal people don’t do that”.
There was no point to explaining that there are no normal people in California.
International borders are humour-free zones. We spent four weeks in a motel
in Blaine, Washington, while we untied the bureaucratic knots. We still don’t
really know what we did wrong. So bear in mind: if it can happen to two cute
gray-haired honkies, it can happen to anyone.
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I can’t leave you on such a downer note on such a pleasant day. Right now the
sun is joyously flowing into our family room. Witness:
This is a rare treat for a February day here. We also get an unexpected boost from
our solar panels. I’ll post about the old car tomorrow.
