Seen on the Web

[stoutfellow]

I was going to talk a little about this, which is very cool.

But then I read the following, excerpted from the New York Times:

Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.

Set aside, for the moment, how horrifying this assertion is - more, in some ways, than the claims in the torture memos. The practical effect of this, if the court accepts it, is that people from other countries will stop coming to, or passing through, this country. Not all of them, of course, but many. That will hurt us badly.

As if that matters, compared to the damage we've taken by having a government with the gall to make such claims. I am sick at heart.

Comments

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I've gotten to the point where I have a hard time recognizing the country I live in as being the same one I grew up in. I really don't like a lot of the changes I see. On the other hand, there are some things that have improved a lot, so not everything that is different is bad.

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

What you said, but this kind of stuff has been festering for a while, even well before the current regime. It started when International AIDS conferences no longer got held here in the US because of restrictions on HIV+ people entering the country, now it's getting even more draconian.

The statue of Liberty should weep in shame.

[filkferengi]

Well, she does; I've seen the icon on LJ to prove it [just can't remember where, or rather whom].

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

If you find it, let me know. This is just purely disgusting, and if our tourism and foreign investments tank and take our economy with it, we will be well and truly screwed.

hit post too soon

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to agree with Patrick Nielsen Hayden when he proposes that we reject any US Worldcon bids. In the overall scheme of things, it's pretty small on its own, but multiply that by all these other conferences that rely on free movement of participants from around the world, and it adds up to real money.

Watch California and especially *Hawai'i's* economy tank when tourism goes away.