(no subject)
I AM NOW A NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN! TRY AND DEPORT ME NOW, BITCHES! I WILL BURY YOU IN PAPERWORK! Oh, and I can vote now, and do jury duty. Only one of those excites me.
I also got a job at desk, which hopefully won't be too damn time consuming, since most desk work involves sitting around and doing homework. Unless it's a mail shift or a busy hour, then we actually have to earn our $8.75/hour.
And I'm pissed off that the Immigration and Naturalization Service moved away from the Department of Justice, where its main function was to act as a court for investigating and legalizing immigrants in a fair and just manner. Now, it's name is the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, and it's under the Dept. of Homeland Security, where it's overbearing goal is to prevent terrorists, unsavory individuals, and former members of the Communist Party from living legally within the United States (you can't ever apply for US citizenship if you've ever been a member of the Communist Party, which is more bullshit. People's perspectives and interests change over time, shitheads). This seems to me to be a huge disservice to every US Immigrant, considering the history of the United States and how much our success has been dependent upon foreigners. America developed a powerful economy on the backs of immigrants, and then was able to attract/steal away the intellectuals from many other countries (my parents and I are and example), which then propelled the innovation and success that made the US as powerful as it is today. The influx of foreign intellectuals has slowed to a trickle, since it's now so damn hard to get a visa, and it's only a matter of time before the US loses all appeal to overseas brainpower.
All this in the name of "Homeland Security." That's complete bullshit. How is it any more difficult for four guys to bring knives onto a plane today? All you need is a sharp object made from a non-conducting material, such as a ceramic or acrylic knife, and you're set. Metal detectors won't find them (because they're non-conducting), and you can just keep one hidden in your pocket. Oh? What's that? the cockpit door is reinforced? Unless it's locked at ALL times, then hijackers can still take over the plane. And passengers can't stand up for the first 1/2 hour of a flight out of DC? What are you going to do, ask a knife-wielding hijacker to put his ceramic shiv away and sit down? And there's a no-fly list? No problem, there are thousands of depressed, impressionable youths with no history of crime who can be fooled into becoming devout jihadists willing to die for Allah. You've installed Mass Spectrometers in airports to search for explosives residue on baggage? Who the fuck cares?!? Hijackers have all the explosives they need stored in the wings of the airplane!
Go ahead and make it more difficult for people to fly, terrorists can walk over to Iran or Russia and steal some weapons grade plutonium. Or, with a big fucking centrifuge, they can make their own!
If anything, we're less safe today than at any time in the last decade, and we sure as hell aren't making friends in the Middle East.
Alright that's enough, back to work.
I also got a job at desk, which hopefully won't be too damn time consuming, since most desk work involves sitting around and doing homework. Unless it's a mail shift or a busy hour, then we actually have to earn our $8.75/hour.
And I'm pissed off that the Immigration and Naturalization Service moved away from the Department of Justice, where its main function was to act as a court for investigating and legalizing immigrants in a fair and just manner. Now, it's name is the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, and it's under the Dept. of Homeland Security, where it's overbearing goal is to prevent terrorists, unsavory individuals, and former members of the Communist Party from living legally within the United States (you can't ever apply for US citizenship if you've ever been a member of the Communist Party, which is more bullshit. People's perspectives and interests change over time, shitheads). This seems to me to be a huge disservice to every US Immigrant, considering the history of the United States and how much our success has been dependent upon foreigners. America developed a powerful economy on the backs of immigrants, and then was able to attract/steal away the intellectuals from many other countries (my parents and I are and example), which then propelled the innovation and success that made the US as powerful as it is today. The influx of foreign intellectuals has slowed to a trickle, since it's now so damn hard to get a visa, and it's only a matter of time before the US loses all appeal to overseas brainpower.
All this in the name of "Homeland Security." That's complete bullshit. How is it any more difficult for four guys to bring knives onto a plane today? All you need is a sharp object made from a non-conducting material, such as a ceramic or acrylic knife, and you're set. Metal detectors won't find them (because they're non-conducting), and you can just keep one hidden in your pocket. Oh? What's that? the cockpit door is reinforced? Unless it's locked at ALL times, then hijackers can still take over the plane. And passengers can't stand up for the first 1/2 hour of a flight out of DC? What are you going to do, ask a knife-wielding hijacker to put his ceramic shiv away and sit down? And there's a no-fly list? No problem, there are thousands of depressed, impressionable youths with no history of crime who can be fooled into becoming devout jihadists willing to die for Allah. You've installed Mass Spectrometers in airports to search for explosives residue on baggage? Who the fuck cares?!? Hijackers have all the explosives they need stored in the wings of the airplane!
Go ahead and make it more difficult for people to fly, terrorists can walk over to Iran or Russia and steal some weapons grade plutonium. Or, with a big fucking centrifuge, they can make their own!
If anything, we're less safe today than at any time in the last decade, and we sure as hell aren't making friends in the Middle East.
Alright that's enough, back to work.