I have a long-held theory that governments staff their passport control counters with the surliest assholes in the country as a form of grassroots foreign policy posturing. It's a way to remind visitors that they are at the mercy of a foreign government that views them as an insignificant speck, so they'd better behave.
And I think the U.S. has probably become one of the worst. I can say without reservation that getting through passport control in mainland China was easier than getting through on the way back home. And that was in Portland, arguably the world's happy-go-luckiest city. Can you imagine how unpleasant it must be for visitors?
Which is perhaps why foreign travel to the U.S. has dropped 17% since 9/11, costing us a cool 94 billion dollars for our paranoid assholery.
I suppose that is why I find this hilarious, albeit in a God-can-we please-be-reasonable-again kind of way.
Dozing polar bear, Indianapolis Zoo
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4 comments:
Assholery! Dumbassery! Two more reasons why you're my new favoritest blogger.
See, if you add "ery" to any word, you have instant fun!
9/11 was an excuse for a lot of things. Sometimes I wonder who was really responsible. It certainly fueled a lot of support for Mr Cheney to do whatever they wanted.OK DOn't get me started.
My favorite to add is esc to everything.
Sasha. Is she your favoritest Blogger infinity plus one?
-Toots-
It's so much fun for us to go through customs here, it's not hard to imagine what other people think. What's really blowing my mind is that the dollar is so weak we should have people coming here in droves.
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