Seems the US Department of Fatherland Security doesn't want to restrict their nosing about to their own citizens - they want to pry into their UK visitors' private lives (including such things as sexual preference, political opinions, religion, ethnicity etc) as well. link
Hint: just lie through your teeth, especially if your name's Kevin, or you'll be whisked off to Guantanamo before you can say "wtf?"
I've heard that line, and variations of it used many times and it is so true, the government is supposed to be appointed by the people to voice what the people want. But this move might be the straw that breaks the camels back, or at least it should be.
Holy hell... Now not only am I glad I'm not American, and I'm glad I Don't travel the US, but I'm glad I'm not a European travelling to the US. What business is it of them what sexual preference someone is? Legal background is the only thing they should have access to, outside of name.
Melbourne atm, but born/raised near Adelaide (which has a much better race track imho ). I'm always reading US-centred news - a lot of what happens there always seems to affect what happens here, to some extent at least, and I don't like it when that involves bullets. My countrymen, just like the guys from the US & UK, are out in the desert copping IEDs and chasing ghosts for no good reason so I try and keep informed. There are some Aussie mercenaries out there too, but they don't get the treatment US mercs do - link. "Got shot huh? T.S. hombre, seeya!"
I did not have sexual relations with that president.
Given that I don't plan to travel to the USA this really doesn't affect me, although I might be more inclined to travel to the USA if they didn't have invasive security measures like this one.
I live in the UK though. I get the impression that most of you either don't know or don't appreciate the degree to which the state has invaded our privacy already. I've got CCTV at the end of my street, I'm currently renewing my passport which will have biometric data chipped into it, if I am ever detained by the police (not arrested, not charged, just detained) they'll have my DNA on file not just for the rest of my life but beyond that too because they'll want to use it to identify anyone who may be a distant relative of mine, currently my local council has the right to snoop my medical records if they want to - it's unbe****inglieveable.
Ultimately though I'm a white bloke whose family is all English, so as furious as I might be about the sheer impudence of it all, the state is unlikely to use any of this information against me. However if I was brown and had extended family living in a country ending in "-stan" I would be shitting myself.
Kev, my best mate moved to London (Clapham) a while ago and he says he doesn't even want to give his wife a drunken snog on the street because of all the CCTV everywhere. Didn't know about the medical records thing, that's messed up :S
I like to think Aussies have finely-tuned bullshit detectors, so hopefully those kinds of Orwellian nightmares would be a lot harder to implement down here. Hope that's not just parochial wishful thinking. Every so often, though, we get treated to some black-suited SWAT or SAS warriors choppering in to our cities or hooning around in impressive-looking speedboats, doing "counter-terror exercises" to remind us that there's something to be afraid of, or we hear of some hapless West Asian chap being denied his civil, legal and human rights because he's been accused of something for which there's no proof, but you gotta keep him locked up just in case and if you do let him go, take his passport anyway ... and here was I thinking we did away with "lock him up just in case" in about 1215 A.D. And whenever I see my government indulging in this sort of fear-mongering I always think to myself "what are they gonna try and push on us next?"
Thousands of your fellow patriots have already died for you hummer, and in fact they are still dying at this very moment. At least, they're being told they're dying or being maimed for you but I think most of the world knows that's bullshit. And if you don't care about innocents getting killed for no reason, then that's on you I guess. Maybe you should intern at the Whitehouse, you'd fit right in with that attitude.
The smart way? Anything but "eye for an eye". You're not in a Scorcese picture or the wild west. And thanks for the spoiler in your signature. Screw you.
In my experience, British people are amongst the least cooperative people in the world, but they're also among the laziest - it's the laziness that will get you ever time.
I think the saving grace of countries like yours is their sheer size and the remoteness and sparse population of the rural areas. When you live on a little island like ours you can't really get more than an hour away from a city, so it's much easier to drown the whole bloody lot of us in bureaucracy.
Did I tell them to join the army? No. Are they complaining? No. If someone want's to fight for the country, then they can go right ahead. I wish them good luck in being soldiers. But, I personally wouldn't fight for the USA. Maybe another country though.
Yeah, Kev, I've always liked that we're a huge country (around the size of the US, a bit smaller) with only 20 million people (less than in Tokyo). I bitch about Melbourne traffic sometimes, but I've never copped rush hour in London or LA and I hope I never have to - unless, of course, there are millions of dollars involved. Safety - and proficiency in many, many sports - in small numbers
OK, then I withdraw my comment, your honor
Two eyes for one eye, w4hummer? You're a freakin genius. So when they come and get you back, is it going to be alright if they take your remaining eye and your scrotum for good measure? Would you even miss it? What worries me is that yours isn't a minority viewpoint in the US. As for your comment about the soldiers, well ... not much I can say to that. Except that if you had another brain cell you'd be dangerous.
hahaha
). I'm always reading US-centred news - a lot of what happens there always seems to affect what happens here, to some extent at least, and I don't like it when that involves bullets. My countrymen, just like the guys from the US & UK, are out in the desert copping IEDs and chasing ghosts for no good reason so I try and keep informed. There are some Aussie mercenaries out there too, but they don't get the treatment US mercs do - link. "Got shot huh? T.S. hombre, seeya!"
And whenever I see my government indulging in this sort of fear-mongering I always think to myself "what are they gonna try and push on us next?"