[pedonbio]

Quote:
MasterDragonfly said:

One couple (both Canadian, as I recall) related one interesting interaction during their process of getting their green cards.  The officer in question said "I'm sick and tired of you Canadians taking away American jobs!"  And he wasn't just joking, he was dead serious.  This was after allll the other various approvals and hoop-jumping had been completed; these weren't people dashing across the border (or swimming across the St Lawrence).

MasterDragonfly, I think we once talked about my similar experience with a border guard* in Calgary who had warned me about "acting Canadian" (whatever the Hell that is) and gave me a lecture about how there were illegal Canadians just streaming into the U.S.

That was more than ten years ago and I didn't have my passport with me; they weren't required at the time, so I had to "prove" I was a U.S. citizen to get on the plane by various other means. I hadn't thought about the obvious: Telling him I hated furriners and loved Lou Dobbs. Who but an American would say that?

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*--For anyone who hasn't flown out of Canada, the U.S. Border Patrol checks everyone boarding a U.S.-bound plane, even if you board hundreds of miles inside Canada.

[TheZookie007]

Quote:
Dearc: Yes, we need to secure all borders.  At the moment, I can't remember the last time a foreign-born Canadian citizen tried to commit an act of terrorism in/on the U.S.

That would be New Year's Eve, 1999.

[ROUNDandHEAVY]

Ahh but I am english speaking and the US is my country, so I call it United States.

I guess I thought I was being respectful by using Canadiens.

Quote:
MasterDragonfly said:

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ROUNDandHEAVY said:
I was under the impression that was the proper spelling in french, hence the name of the hockey team.

Well it is the correct spelling in French, hence the derivative name of the hockey team.  The name of the team will always be "Canadiens" simply because it's the official name, just like the Toronto Maple Leafs doesn't get corrected to "Maple Leaves" in order to be grammatically correct.

"Canadiens" is just not the name that Anglo-Canadians, the British, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and (presumably) Americans use to refer to citizens of Canada.  My guess is this is a pretty universal reference in English, no matter which dialect.  

Franco-Canadians are pretty proud of their French language heritage, and Montreal's (not "Montréal", that would be the French spelling) home province of Quebec (not "Québec", that would be the French spelling) is culturally and linguistically in stark contrast to the rest of Canada.  Montreal isn't too bad, but you don't need to drive too far before discovering just how different it is.

But I thought your language of preference was English, not French...?  To give this better context, do you refer to citizens of your country as Americans, or do you refer to them as citoyens des États Unis?

I'm trying to make this distinction a little clearer, since it tends to direct the context somewhat.  My guess is it wouldn't be all that different from me overhearing a conversation which sounded like Spanish (without being crystal clear on which dialect) and me saying "Well I was listening to this Spanish guy the other day" and having someone here correct me by saying something like "Unless he was from Spain, he might actually have been Puerto Rican (or Mexican, or ...)" and then getting directed to use a more all-encompassing term.  (I'm actually a little unclear on this one; I think that 'Hispanic' is the preferred all-encompassing term?  Or is it 'Latino'? )

Again...my bad.

[ROUNDandHEAVY]

I wasn't comparing Dobb's to Custer, I was comparing a hollywood biopic to an unscientific poll.

Neither make a good basis for an argument.

I'm sorry you buy into Dobb's xenophobic rants, I believe in an America that is way more inclusive. You can criticize illegals all you want, but if no one wanted them here, they wouldn't be here. They serve a purpose, for which they are mistreated, maligned, treated like common criminals and even shot at.

All these people want to do is work and if there was a sane guest worker program available, I'm sure they would be happy to comply. Most of these "illegals" are family men and women who just want to work and make a decent living.

I can't see where that is inconsistent with the American dream.

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Dearc said:

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ROUNDandHEAVY said:

Love the way you cite what even you call an unscientific poll.

That's like citing the Errol Flynn film "They Died With Their Boots On" to infer General George Custer was a selfless war hero and not a genocidal maniac and then adding as an afterthought a brief warning that the film was not an accurate portrayal of history.

After the last 8 years, can we please skip referring to unscientific polls conducted by ideologues?

I'm not tracking as to how you can compare Dobbs to Custer, but whatever you like.

The "unscientific" part was posted with the actual poll, not my own statement.  And much of the time, I believe Dobb's notions, guesses, insinuations and beliefs over some others facts.

Yes, we need to secure all borders.  At the moment, I can't remember the last time a foreign-born Canadian citizen tried to commit an act of terrorism in/on the U.S.  We also need to stop the Mexican gov't from actually instructing people not only how to cross the border illegally, and to getting to the safehouses in the U.S.  I'm sure all factors-race, class status, intention/resistance to assimilation, criminal background if applicable, etc-all play a role for individual cases.  What may be true for a guy in Texas, is way off from a woman & her k!ds in California.

No matter how anyone looks at this, there's no easy quick fix to make everyone happy.  Someone always gets screwed.

[PregNut]

Dearc should have said Glenn Beck instead of Lou Dobbs.
Glenn has always been for securing both US borders, especially since September 11th.

[pedonbio]

Quote:
TheZookie007 said:

Quote:
Dearc: Yes, we need to secure all borders.  At the moment, I can't remember the last time a foreign-born Canadian citizen tried to commit an act of terrorism in/on the U.S.

That would be New Year's Eve, 1999.

Yes, Dearc, Ressam was actually the first one, caught with a load of explosives on his way to LAX. Six more border-crossers from Canada have been convicted since, with a couple more pending. So far no one crossing from Mexico has been convicted of a terrorism-related offense.

This is why a lot of us question the motives of the advocates of, for example, fence-building.

Even shabbier was the way DHS treated the border patrolman who caught Ressam. He was ordered to move to Texas or Arizona to transfer to working the Mexican border. I can't recall whether he moved or they fired him.

The prosecuting attorney who got him to cooperate was fired by Gonzalez for not being a loyal-enough Bushie, and the judge who sentenced him was passed over for promotion because he was critical of the secret military tribunals.

The Bush Administration had a policy: Do your work well, do serious things that make us safer, and you will be punished. Be a mindless drone who worships Bush and all things Republican, and you'll do well.

[MasterDragonfly]

Quote:
TheZookie007 said:

Quote:
Dearc: Yes, we need to secure all borders.  At the moment, I can't remember the last time a foreign-born Canadian citizen tried to commit an act of terrorism in/on the U.S.

That would be New Year's Eve, 1999.

Perhaps a better way of phrasing that would have been "I can't remember the last time that a natural-born Canadian citizen...."  

[MasterDragonfly]

Quote:
pedonbio said:
MasterDragonfly, I think we once talked about my similar experience with a border guard* in Calgary who had warned me about "acting Canadian" (whatever the Hell that is) and gave me a lecture about how there were illegal Canadians just streaming into the U.S.

That rings a distant bell.  Feel free to regale us (or me at the very least) with such personal experiences.    The more memorable one was when you took the wrong road and ended up at the Canadian border, and the ordeal you had to put yourself through in order to get back (sans passport).  

Quote:
*--For anyone who hasn't flown out of Canada, the U.S. Border Patrol checks everyone boarding a U.S.-bound plane, even if you board hundreds of miles inside Canada.

It's not limited to just Canada.

Reference:  http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/programs/editorial_0685.shtm#6

[MasterDragonfly]

Quote:
ROUNDandHEAVY said:
I guess I thought I was being respectful by using Canadiens.

It's respectful to French-Canadians.  

Quote:
Again...my bad.

No worries.  I originally thought your initial post of 'Canadiens' was just a typo.  Didn't realize that you'd meant it to go deeper than that.

My sense (and admittedly, living in Texas may not be a reasonable sampling of the American populace) is that the American perception of Canada is this untouched wilderness where everyone speaks French (to name just 2 from what could easily be a longer list).  To be honest, the usage of French in Canada is pretty localized, mainly limited to Quebec and government offices.  It's taught in schools the same way Spanish is taught here, the main difference being that the chances of having a neighbour whose mother tongue is the same as the language taught in school (as a second language) is pretty much slim to none, unless you're either in Quebec or close to the borders of it.  There's a far better chance of having a neighbour who speaks Farsi/Chinese/dialect of India or Pakistan.

Btw, that Great White North pic brought back many good memories, both personal and courtesy of the show itself.  

[ROUNDandHEAVY]

Actually I was born in Pier Fonds, in or near Montreal(I can never remember), and I have cousins still living there.

I moved to New Jersey when I was 1 year old, and became a US citizen when I was 13. Needless to say I am passionate aboot:p my adopted country.

I often am confused by Quebec and Canada culturally hence my spelling anxiety, but I don't mistake it for an Alaskan style wilderness.

Molson Brador is awesome though!! Back bacon too.

Take off, eh?

Bob"I'm way off topic with is Canadian shit"hhh

[Dearc]

Point taken, I stand corrected.  I hadn't known he was a citizen.

Glenn Beck is, by his own admission, a "rodeo clown."  I used to watch his show, but he always had people on that agreed with him, so little or no debate to see both sides, unlike Dobbs.

But, to each their own.

[MasterDragonfly]

Quote:
ROUNDandHEAVY said:
Molson Brador is awesome though!!

Feh.  Don't get me started on the Big Three breweries there.  Molson, Labatt, and Carling.  I mean, they're not bad-tasting, and back in the day I was enamoured with one or the other.

But compared with the microbreweries which finally emerged from their stranglehold (eg, Sleemans, Creemore Springs, just to name a couple), they didn't really shine.

To my Canadian bretheren who haven't had the chance to sample decent American beer, there are quite a few excellent choices beyond Michelob, Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon.  

Quote:
Back bacon too.

Feh.  Back bacon sucks, and badly.  I honestly don't know any Canadians who like that crap.

Oh, and before I forget:  Rye whisky.  Not so popular here.  

[notty]

I used to drink rye whisky. I dunno why. It tastes like shit.

[TheZookie007]

Quote:
gOOber: When he wanted to get away, Bush would head to his ranch. Does Obama have a retreat someplace? I'm sure he's going to need one.

He does have one: The Fortress of Solitude.



Duh!

[TheZookie007]

YouTube: Asa The Comic: "Obama Not REALLY The President?!? - Race Stupors!!!"