(no subject)
Sep. 28th, 2006 04:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddog"Great Lakes machine guns raise ire in Canada"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060928.wlakes28/BNStory/National/home
As someone who is living on the Canadian side of the lakes, WHAT THE SAM HECK IS GOING ON DOWN SOUTH? Great, first I had to worry about pollution when I went swimming, but LIVE-AMMUITION TRAINING DRILLS?
"The United States Coast Guard have started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat."
What flood of terrorists? Have they taken over the old fast ferry route? This is crap. If terrorist were to cross, they'd skip the boat and cross that nice long land border out west.
"Since the beginning of the year, the Coast Guard have conducted 24 drills, each time firing about 3,000 rounds of lead bullets about a third of the size of a fishing-line sinker from light-weight machine guns in waters at least eight kilometres from the Canadian border and U.S. shores. Two more target practices are scheduled for this year."
That's our DRINKING WATER, idiots!
"Toronto Mayor David Miller chairs a coalition of U.S. and Canadian mayors working to restore and protect the lakes.
"He said the target practice violates a treaty signed after the War of 1812 that outlaws military weapons on the Great Lakes, tampering with two centuries of peaceful history."
This is not going to go down well. The war was almost 200 years ago, but every schoolkid in Southwestern Ontario knows what happened in great detail. We've grown up in a world where war memorials and heritage sites are everywhere.
“We're trying to be prepared in case something happens,” said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier.
“I don't know what it is, but I know I want to be prepared for it when it happens. We need to conduct these live-fire exercises so we are prepared for whatever it may be. If we are not prepared for it, there are going to be questions about why we weren't prepared for it.”
In case "something happens"? Are you planning to attack my country, because that really seems to be what you're hinting at. The chances of huge amounts of terrorist crossing the lakes are slim. It's too much effort and leaves them out in the open. There are land crossings with no guards in the northwoods and very little surrounding populations. True, the northern lakes are more remote, but crossing Lake Superior in a small boat is a batshit idea. Lake Superior EATS people; it's a lake known for never giving up its dead because dead bodies usually don't float in it. They stay under the surface.
"As for the shaky status of the world's longest undefended border, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambra Dickie, said that Canada and the United States signed a written agreement three years ago articulating that moves to arm U.S. law-enforcement vessels with light machine guns in U.S. jurisdiction do not violate the spirit of the treaty. That treaty, the argument goes, was drafted to ensure peace in the Great Lakes by forbidding weapons of war such as cannons on sailing ships."
Nice legal loophole. I don't remember agreeing to this. I want Harper and Bush out, NOW!
I feel sick.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060928.wlakes28/BNStory/National/home
As someone who is living on the Canadian side of the lakes, WHAT THE SAM HECK IS GOING ON DOWN SOUTH? Great, first I had to worry about pollution when I went swimming, but LIVE-AMMUITION TRAINING DRILLS?
"The United States Coast Guard have started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat."
What flood of terrorists? Have they taken over the old fast ferry route? This is crap. If terrorist were to cross, they'd skip the boat and cross that nice long land border out west.
"Since the beginning of the year, the Coast Guard have conducted 24 drills, each time firing about 3,000 rounds of lead bullets about a third of the size of a fishing-line sinker from light-weight machine guns in waters at least eight kilometres from the Canadian border and U.S. shores. Two more target practices are scheduled for this year."
That's our DRINKING WATER, idiots!
"Toronto Mayor David Miller chairs a coalition of U.S. and Canadian mayors working to restore and protect the lakes.
"He said the target practice violates a treaty signed after the War of 1812 that outlaws military weapons on the Great Lakes, tampering with two centuries of peaceful history."
This is not going to go down well. The war was almost 200 years ago, but every schoolkid in Southwestern Ontario knows what happened in great detail. We've grown up in a world where war memorials and heritage sites are everywhere.
“We're trying to be prepared in case something happens,” said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier.
“I don't know what it is, but I know I want to be prepared for it when it happens. We need to conduct these live-fire exercises so we are prepared for whatever it may be. If we are not prepared for it, there are going to be questions about why we weren't prepared for it.”
In case "something happens"? Are you planning to attack my country, because that really seems to be what you're hinting at. The chances of huge amounts of terrorist crossing the lakes are slim. It's too much effort and leaves them out in the open. There are land crossings with no guards in the northwoods and very little surrounding populations. True, the northern lakes are more remote, but crossing Lake Superior in a small boat is a batshit idea. Lake Superior EATS people; it's a lake known for never giving up its dead because dead bodies usually don't float in it. They stay under the surface.
"As for the shaky status of the world's longest undefended border, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambra Dickie, said that Canada and the United States signed a written agreement three years ago articulating that moves to arm U.S. law-enforcement vessels with light machine guns in U.S. jurisdiction do not violate the spirit of the treaty. That treaty, the argument goes, was drafted to ensure peace in the Great Lakes by forbidding weapons of war such as cannons on sailing ships."
Nice legal loophole. I don't remember agreeing to this. I want Harper and Bush out, NOW!
I feel sick.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 12:11 pm (UTC)Lake Superior keep it's dead? I'm curious why don't the bodies float?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 06:56 pm (UTC)The Canadian Coast Guard says it has reserved the right to arm their vessels as they see fit, but hasn't announced anything else.
Lake Superior is so cold that the bacteria that cause the body to bloat and rise to the surface don't grow. Therefore, if a body is sunk, it usually stays sunk.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-29 02:26 am (UTC)