Thursday, March 23, 2006

More body counts

I don't like talking about the numbers like there isn't someone behind them, but I think this story from RedState is important to read. It's a reminder that our military is constantly engaged in protecting our country and our citizens from the rest of the world, and it does that by solving problems where ever they are, no matter how important the MSM thinks the conflict is.
Update: I love Jimmy Carter, take a look at this, it's about him. And hand me another sweater, will you? It just got cold in here when I mentioned Carter...


It seems like a lot of my lib friends live in a place where they only hear what the activists want them to hear. Which is not surprising because we only get the NYT on campus. Another favorite newspaper is the LATimes. Heh. They just don't hear the facts that show this world is a dangerous place, even when we aren't in a dedicated conflict.

The worst part (and there are lots of good parts) of being a college student is listening to uninformed complaints. It's especially bad for me, because I'm in student government. That means I'm actively involved with making positive changes for my school, except that because some of my colleagues are not quite as dedicated as I, most of the school doesn't know about this stuff. And they get mad at me for explaining the situation.

It's also similar in politics. Someone told me about a civil rights violation, allowed by the patriot act, which they read about in the LATimes. It was an old British Citizen who tried to enter the country without a passport (something they thought he was allowed to do.) Well, first of all, this isn't something that can be attributed to the Patriot Act, it's a visa/immigration thing. Some of the conditions of the man's situation were quite tough on him...but they only lasted until the authorities were able to confirm he was who he said he was (remember, he had no passport) and take a look through his bags, then they sent him home to England, where he could pick up his passport and come right back to the states. He didn't need a visa, but he absolutely needed a passport, even if he was a British citizen who flew straight from England. To think otherwise is stupid. Even I need a passport to get into States. How would they know I was a citizen otherwise? Anyway, that friend is mad at me because he thinks I'm being closed minded and that I don't care about the plight of people wronged by the system. I feel like I've got plenty of sympathy, but I also know that you need to not do stupid things, like try to enter the country through an airport without a passport. The only country where you traditionally did not need a passport to enter America from has been Canada, and that only applied to land crossings...but that rule is soon to be a former rule...I think it changes this June...but you still needed a passport to enter through an airport. It's just the way things work.

My life would be better if everyone would just read my blog and let me explain things to them before they started complaining.

2 comments:

  1. The technical term I like to use for someone who flies tran-Atlantic to another country without bringing a passport, visa or any other sort of valid travel document is:

    knucklehead

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  2. Yeah...and this knucklehead was old, influential and had type A diabetes...so it was easy for him to talk to the LATimes and complain about his rough, rough treatment at the hands of the evil homeland security department.

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