As unguarded as the border may look ...... it isn't. There is all manner of electronic surveillance, cameras, IR / thermal / motion / sound sensors, aerial surveillance etc. Add random mobile Border Patrol Trailers at road crossings and not quite as unguarded as people believe.

For a nation that has always been very conservative this is very surprising though.

The Republic of Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum.

More than 62% voted in favour of amending the country's constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

It is the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said it was a "small country with a big message for equality" around the world.

The referendum was held 22 years after homosexual acts were decriminalised in the Republic of Ireland.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32858501

Wow!! Just wow.

While in New Orleans I went along Bourbon Street and was advised to avoid stepping in what locals call 'Bourbon Water'. A mixture of various fluids, use your imagination , in the gutter. Seems that if you step in it you may as well toss your footwear because the stink will never come out. Maybe I should sue the city of New Orleans for not cleaning their streets and thus exposing me and others to a potentially dangerous bio-hazard.

Or go after the small Missouri town my wife is from because I tripped on sidewalk and twisted ankle. I could wind up owning the town.

This woman is nuts!!! Evidently all the 'pain and anguish' didn't stop her from having a good time. Her own tweets and pics will get her case tossed.

Not exactly new.

On its official website, the Canadian government informs its citizens that “there is no limit to the amount of money that you may legally take into or out of the United States.” Nonetheless, it adds, banking in the U.S. can be difficult for non-residents, so Canadians shouldn’t carry large amounts of cash.

That last bit is excellent advice, but for an entirely different reason than the one Ottawa cites.

There’s a shakedown going on in the U.S., and the perps are in uniform.

Across America, law enforcement officers — from federal agents to state troopers right down to sheriffs in one-street backwaters — are operating a vast, co-ordinated scheme to grab as much of the public’s cash as they can; “hand over fist,” to use the words of one police trainer.

American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money


Ming Tong Liu had a suitcase with $75,195 (£46,000) he was going to use to buy a restaurant. For Mandrel Stuart it was $17,550 in proceeds from a barbecue restaurant. Benjamin Molina was going to use $18,000 to buy a car. Jose Jeronimo Sorto had $28,500 in church funds for a land purchase in El Salvador and a new trailer in North Carolina.

Each of these men was driving in the US with sizable amounts of cash when they were pulled over by police for minor traffic infractions. Mr Liu, for instance, was going 10 miles over the speed limit. Mr Stuart's car's windows were too dark.

Each of these men had the money in their possession confiscated by police despite not being charged with a crime. It was enough that the officers suspected the money was tied to an illegal activity.

If your find yourself embroiled in a forfeiture case and you can't afford a lawyer, you have no recourse
Editorial, The Deseret News

The growing outcry over police confiscation

PETA and the SPCA have refused access to Earth for any more Melmacians. It puts felines in danger.

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper” (from the Vulcan “Dif-tor heh smusma”)

..................................................

To think that his Star Trek role was almost cut because the studios said that people wouldn't get the alien.

Here's a look at what we know about Emwazi's life:

1988: Born in Kuwait. Family moves to United Kingdom when he is 6, and he grows up in a west London neighborhood.

2009: Graduates from University of Westminister in London, degree in computer programming, the Post reported.

Summer 2009: Emwazi tries to go on safari with friends in Tanzania. Authorities there detain him, stripping him to his underwear and placing him in a cell for 24 hours without food or water.

He is put on a flight to Amsterdam, where Dutch and British intelligence security officials interrogate him about whether he intended to go to Somalia. Once allowed to leave, he travels back to the United Kingdom, where he is again questioned.

September 2009: Family sends Emwazi to live in Kuwait over fears of harassment by authorities. While there, he works for a computer programming company.

May to July 2010: Returns to London for a visit and is questioned at Heathrow airport by passport officials, who later let him go. He files complaints with London security officials.

He returns to Kuwait, where he makes plans to marry. He then travels back to London, but when he tries to return to Kuwait, he is not allowed to check in. Instead, he's interrogated for six hours. After trying to return to Kuwait a day later, he is denied boarding and learns his visa has been refused. He loses his job in Kuwait, and his fianc�e calls off their engagement.

In an e-mail exchange between CAGE's Asim Qureshi and Emwazi in June and July 2010, Emwazi expresses frustration that he cannot clear his name. Between the end of July 2010 and January 2011, he sends CAGE at least four e-mails pointing out injustices toward and oppression of Muslims worldwide.

Between late 2010 and early 2013: Earns a certificate for teaching English to speakers of other languages, but is rejected when he interviews with English-language centers in Saudi Arabia.

Early 2013: Emwazi changes his name to Mohammed al-Ayan at his father's suggestion. He again tries to go to Kuwait but is barred from traveling and is questioned by security officials.

A week later he disappears, and his parents report him as a missing person. Emwazi eventually gets in touch with his family, telling them he is helping refugees in Turkey. Several months later, police tell the family their son has entered Syria.

August 2014: Begins to appear in Islamic State videos that show the beheadings of several Americans and Britons.

............................

And yes the writing is inverted as well if the image was flipped. Here is original.

All that art and history lost forever. Damned idiots.

The difference in list my fault. I flipped hooded image to crop and didn't return to normal.

And yes, they are very sure.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/26/jihadi-john-mohammed-emwazi/24064415/

Can't even remotely agree with this. The loss of one innocent through improper action is not justified.

There are better and safer methods to immobilize a vehicle. Any of which would have led to Officers not killing an innocent.

How to stop a car - spike strips, electromagnetic pulses and the SQUID

Any of these and well placed snipers would have saved a life, possibly three.

Closest I could find to something inciting violence was an abortion issue that went before US courts.

With the increase of activity in cyberspace, individuals can distribute questionable speech throughout the U.S. and the world. In Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette Inc. v. American Coalition of Life Activists, 290 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2002), a federal appeals court ruled that an anti-abortion web site was not protected by the First Amendment. The web site posted photos, names, addresses, and other information pertaining to Abortion providers, their family members, and others who were perceived as supporting abortion rights. Although neither the site nor the posters made explicit threats against the abortion providers, violence at clinics that provided abortions had followed poster distribution in the past. Planned Parenthood sued the group under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 (FACE), 18 U.S.C. � 248, and other laws. The trial judge instructed the jury that if the defendants' statements were "true threats," the First Amendment would not protect them. The jury awarded the plaintiff a multimillion-dollar verdict. The Ninth Circuit stated that a jury could conclude that the postings constituted a true threat under FACE, which removed any First Amendment protection for the defendants.


IF the songs of a band were to be quoted during an attack or otherwise proven to be / deemed to be the cause of violence the courts could presumably put a limit or restriction on them.

I suppose it's a matter of the laws in each nation and how far they go with hate crime legislation. I know that in U.S. it is illegal to be / have been a member of NDSAP (can be refused entry or if found to have lied during immigration process be stripped of American citizenship and deported)

Germany goes further and has addressed Neo-Nazi music in the courts.

.............................................


German Court Sends Singer to Prison for Neo-Nazi Lyrics
December 23, 2003|Jeffrey Fleishman | Times Staff Writer

BERLIN — In the first case of its kind in Germany, a right-wing rock band was deemed a criminal organization and its lead singer was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison for lyrics that venerate Nazism and incite racial hatred.

A Berlin criminal court sentenced 38-year-old Michael Regener to 40 months in prison after a six-month trial that tested the boundaries of free expression in a nation with strict laws against hate speech. The court ruled that Regener's band, Landser, is a threat to the country's Jews and millions of African and Muslim immigrants.

The band's bass player, Andre Moericke, and its drummer, Christian Wenndorff, were each sentenced to nearly two years' probation and ordered to perform 90 hours of community service. Founded in 1992 as the Final Solution, the band has been a favorite of neo-Nazis worldwide and a troubling voice of intolerance.

"This is the first time that a band has been found to be a criminal organization," said prosecutor Joachim Lampe.

The band members refer to themselves as "terrorists with electric guitars." Their lyrics are more intellectual than those of most bands of their ilk, but their agenda is just as blunt. "Let's get the enemy, bombs on Israel," go the words of one song. Another tune laments: "In the old days, Africa was wonderful/Now our white brothers stand with their backs against the wall."

Enacted after the Holocaust, this country's antidiscrimination laws are among the most stringent in the world. They forced Landser -- an old German word for foot soldier that was used during World War II -- to produce four of its albums outside the country. The recordings were advertised on the Internet and shipped by mail order to evade German authorities.

The band quickly became a symbol for far-right radicals, and its songs praised skinheads for a series of arsons and murders against Germany's immigrant communities in the late 1990s. Testifying at Landser's trial, Thorsten Heise, a prominent neo-Nazi, told the court that Regener's lyrics are "radical, a little bit more thoughtful, ironic and full of humor."


http://articles.latimes.com/2003/dec/23/world/fg-hate23


This very question was also subject of an article:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/30/should-neo-nazis-be-allowed-free-speech.html


Perhaps also making it more noticeable now

European neo-Nazis move to US for free speech

So easy to lump people of any profession all together.


Police Officer's Final Act of Kindness Caught on Tape Before Dying

Pay it forward: Detroit police officers share acts of kindness

Tarrant Police Deliver Food to Grandmother Caught Stealing Eggs

Police officer sits in the cold with lost dogs until help arrives

Police officer's act of kindness after teen's wake is talk of town

Awesome Police Officer In New York: Act of Kindness

Random Act of Kindness from Police Officers.

"Mama Bear" Tackles Carjacker after High Speed Police Chase Dallas Texas RAW VIDEO gets arrested

And when I'm in the States, or even on these forums, I hear / see the same from Americans regarding their government. So the difference is what exactly?

Found this where the author discusses her book. She gives some food for thought.

Diane Francis, "Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country"

Quite true that the U.S. is not governed by the Articles of Confederation as it was replaced by The Constitution. But it does show that the possibility of the two becoming one was an idea even then.

Well the author looks at a EU type of union or the outright joining of the two into a single nation.

The E.U. type stands a better chance of working here than in Europe since Canada and the U.S. already share so much. The European nations differed ( cultures, language, currencies, etc), and still do, when they formed the E.U.

A dual citizen author has written about this.


If the creation of the European Union is evidence, trade agreements, common markets and economic unions can lead to political unions. So it’s not so preposterous that 20 years after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, someone has finally crafted a serious proposal for the political integration of Canada and the United States.

Best-selling author, writer and pundit (and dual citizen of both countries) Diane Francis argues that the United States and Canada should unite ASAP. She sets out the economic benefits of joining forces, how the deal could be fairly structured, and the political hurdles to overcome.

The U.S. and Canada together would have a larger economy than the European Union or than the economies of Japan, China, Germany and France combined. The US-Canada combo would control more oil, water, arable land and resources than any other country, all protected by America’s military. Citizens of the merged countries would have more options in terms of jobs, climates, studies and lifestyles.

..........................

Canada becoming a part of the U.S.A. is already covered by Art. 11 of the U.S. Articles of Confederation.

From what I have seen from it the idea it would indeed make the combined nations the Super Power of the world.

Thoughts?