> project the same surliness back at them and you're just asking for trouble.
That's commonsense, but its truth still pisses me off. There is zero reason border guards deserve deference, and projecting surliness to people behaving surly is my natural right.
There is zero reason border guards deserve deference
No? Such universal, stratospheric levels of assholedom don't arise organically--border guards behave the way they do because they are trained to. Probably because the alternative, cheerfully waving everyone through, is unacceptable from a national security standpoint.
I know you can justify pretty much anything these days by waving the security flag, but I think in this instance it's fair. They deserve deference because somebody has got to secure our borders in this day and age, and like it or not, this is probably the best way to go about doing it. I'm willing to live with my feelings getting hurt if it means people aren't able to drive bombs over the border.
I think you are 100% wrong. Do we really want to live in a society where being hurried or annoyed at the border guard will result in searches, detention, or worse?
Pretty soon simply giving the guard an annoyed look can land you behind bars for a few hours. This is the opposite of the rule of law, it is giving way too much power to the whim of the guy with a gun.
No, but it isn't as simple as that nowadays. My only point is that, when there are people out there who are trying to blow you up, dealing with a certain amount of bullshit from law enforcement is an acceptable tradeoff for putting a stop to that. It's not optimal, but neither is dying in a terrorist attack. Neither extreme--fascism or doing nothing--appeals to me as much as the middle ground. YMMV.
If enough people think like you do, the terrorists won.
They are not out to blow you up. They want to destroy your way of life - your freedoms and the notion that government serves the people. The want the opposite.
And they are winning. Blowing people up is not the objective: it's the tool.
If enough people think like you do, the terrorists won
Al Qaeda spent $20,000 or so on September 11. The US spent $1 trillion and counting. They "won" the minute we opened our checkbook; turning the country into a police state was just dancing in the end zone.
> My only point is that, when there are people out there who are trying to blow you up,
The smart ones make the bombs inside the country. When has anyone ever tried to drive a bomb across the border? Hell, this is the same thing as airport security. They could just drive the bomb into the mess of cars at the border before being inspected and it would have the same effect. It would be even a more spectacular effect if done on a bridge (i.e. Ambassador (Detroit-Windor); Peace Bridge (Buffalo,NY); Rainbow Bridge (Niagara Falls)) because then it would strike fear into people about not being caught in the blast but being on the bridge that is collapsing (Hollywood milks this one all the time).
The vast majority of the US/Canadian border is unguarded and there are hundreds of roads the guy could have alternately taken.
Any sophisticated attacker would realize this and simply go a few miles out of the way to one of those logging roads.
I hardly think that your example offers evidence that border security enhances national security, only that it did in one isolated instance (with a very stupid terrorist).
Odds are if the terrorist failed to realize he could cross the border without being screened, he would have made some other mistake that would have foiled whatever his planned attack was.
Acting like a child and expecting the adults in the room to protect you only encourages those who believe you shouldn't live freely (whether it is your local politician or a religious radical).
> They deserve deference because somebody has got to secure our borders in this day and age, and like it or not, this is probably the best way to go about doing it. I'm willing to live with my feelings getting hurt if it means people aren't able to drive bombs over the border.
Have you ever been to EU? Or somewhere else? How it is, that these guys are able to act professionally, non-emotionally and secure the borders without acting like assholes?
This is not either-or situation, border guards can do their job without intimidation and beating people.
(The US border is in fact the worst one I ever went through. Makes you think.)
15 minutes by rowing boat anywhere in lake Huron near the Sault border.
But this guy was trying to leave.
On top of that there is a much easier way to get a bomb in to the US, buy it in bits and pieces in the US, assemble it there. No point in taking it across the border.
That's commonsense, but its truth still pisses me off. There is zero reason border guards deserve deference, and projecting surliness to people behaving surly is my natural right.