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On 2010-01-20 12:10, Thomas Dowling wrote:
> On 01/20/2010 02:03 PM, Glen Newton wrote:
>> Hmmm. No one has brought up how increasingly onerous it has become to
>> travel to the U.S., as a Canadian or non-U.S resident (and
>> particularly for non-Canadian, non-US residents who are fingerprinted
>> on each visit!). This should should not be discounted, as much as I
>> enjoy visiting place like Montpelier, close to where I have some good
>> friends...
> 
> 
> We could have a joint meeting in Sarnia/Port Huron and just shout across the
> river to each other!  (Windsor/Detroit might be too loud.)
> 

While I took the reference to Montpelier to refer to John Fereira's
mention of the city in France (and not to the town in Vermont), Glen's
point is well-taken and, from what I observed on my trip to ALA
Midwinter in Boston, not widely familiar to US residents.  I arrived for
an 8.10am flight from Edmonton at approximately 5.30am last Thursday
morning.  I actually got on the plane at 8.05am, and there were others
still behind me in line.  Quite literally, it took less time for me to
fly the leg from Edmonton to Minneapolis, than it did to board the plane
in Edmonton.  And then to discovery that *none* of this enhanced regime
is currently implemented in the US reduced the entire exercise to optics
of the most cynical sort.

TSA is enforcing on foreign-originated flights levels of intrusive
"security" and inconvenience that would be unsustainable and politically
unacceptable in the US.  Have we forgotten from where the September 11th
flights originated?

Apologies for the off-topic drift, but you all ought to be aware of this...

- - mt

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