10:01 – Monday, I got an order for a chemistry kit and a biology kit from a woman in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. That’s by no means the first order I’ve gotten from Canada–not to mention a hundred or more serious queries–and I did what I always do: sent email expressing regrets that we can’t ship to Canada and refunded the money.
But I’m getting really tired of disappointing Canadian homeschoolers, so I’ve been trying since then to figure out how to get kits shipped to Canada. Here’s the message I sent to her this morning.
Hi, Marika
Well, I’ve spent about 12 hours looking into shipping to Canada, and here’s what I’ve determined.
1. Both FedEx and UPS say that they’ll ship our kits to Canadian addresses. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it would be extremely costly to do so. Just as one example, FedEx will pay the Canadian authorities any sales tax due, but will then charge you that amount of tax plus an $88 brokerage fee. That’s not including the actual shipping charges, which aren’t cheap. Geez.
The worse news is that neither I nor you would actually know how much it costs ahead of time. For example, if FedEx attempts to deliver and you’re not home to sign for the package, they’ll make redelivery attempts, charging you (IIRC) $16 for each attempt. Unbelievable, but essentially UPS and FedEx expect us to write them what amounts to a blank check, with them telling us after the package is delivered how much it ended up costing. That’s obviously unacceptable for either of us.
2. Right now, we ship kits to US addresses using USPS Priority Mail flat-rate and regional-rate boxes. The USPS will also deliver the Priority Mail large flat-rate box (which is big enough to contain one kit) to any Canadian address. That would end up costing you $40 additional, i.e. $200 total for the CK01A chemistry kit and $210 for the BK01 biology kit.
The issue is that the kits contain hazardous materials. We ship to US addresses under the 49 CFR 173.4 small quantity exemption, which redefines small amounts (less than 30 mL or 30 g) of hazardous materials as non-hazardous if they are packed according to very specific requirements. But 173.4 is a US-only exemption.
I talked in great detail with a USPS support representative. She told me that there shouldn’t be any problem shipping the kits to Canada, but obviously she can’t speak for Canada Post. The USPS has a page for Canada that lists prohibitions and restrictions
http://pe.usps.com/text/imm/ce_003.htm#ep6216933
and it appears to me (and to the USPS support rep) that our kits qualify for shipping to Canada. I tried calling Canada Post and ended up bouncing around their system for a while. The most I was able to get was “it should be okay”.
So, I guess the upshot is that we can ship you these kits with no problem as far as the USPS is concerned. However, what happens at the border with the Canadian postal/customs/sales tax authorities is completely outside our control. I asked the USPS support rep how this would work, and she said that I can just ship the box normally with a postage label with your address on it. Six to 10 days later, Canada post should deliver it and present you with a bill for any customs duties or sales tax due.
This whole thing makes me nervous and I certainly understand if it makes you nervous too. If you want to give it a shot, I suggest ordering just one kit to start with. We’ll run a postage label and customs form, stick them on the box, and ship it. If you want to proceed this way, let me know and I’ll figure out how to arrange payment.
Bob, this is why I said good luck earlier. Trying to get a definitive answer out of Canada Post is very, very hard, perhaps impossible. You can ask the same question of ten different people and get twelve different answers. The box may, or may not get there depending on how someone feels that day.
I’ve had arguments with CP employees about email notices of package deliveries. The clerk at the location that held the package they “couldn’t deliver” (knocking and immediately running for the truck does not constitute an attempt IMHO) denied vehemently that I was NOT in possession of an email stating the package was there as “Canada Post does not send out emails with that information”, even though I printed out the email and showed it to them.
UPS is pretty good about leaving boxes at the door, and I have sticker(s) on my mailbox that they can scan for instructions if I’m not home. The Purolator driver even had me show her exactly where she could leave boxes. Fedex is by far the worst at hitting up Canadians for additional charges. I avoid them whenever possible.
@RBT — customer service Gold Star for you. 🙂
The USA and Canada shall allow the free movement of all goods, services and citizens between their countries. Each will observe the rights and privileges of all lawful citizens.
Now that would be a real ‘Free Trade Agreement’.
Never happen.
Yeah, unfortunately no one talks any more about Canada and the US as sister countries with the world’s longest unguarded border.
Excepting Les Québécois et Québécoises, we share a common heritage, common values, common law, and a common language. I don’t think of Canadians as “foreign” and I doubt that many Canadians think of us that way. I could move to Canada and fit right in, and I suspect most Canadians could move here and fit right in. Actually, I suspect the same is true of Australia, although they do talk funny.
Just a follow-up on Firefox. This 13.0.1 version I am running now, is the first that has made a significant improvement. The drive thrashing causing computer lockup is diminished almost—but not quite—entirely. Still grabs onto significant amounts of RAM, but releases almost all of it as windows are closed, contrary to its behavior the last several years. Still not as good as the much earlier versions (before v5, as I recall), but a big improvement. Will make me think hard about Firefox vs. Chrome when the new computer arrives.
Have you thought about shipping kits to U.S. cities where Canadian customers could pick them up? It wouldn’t necessarily work for Calgary, which is about 250 miles form Kalispell, Montana, but it would for Vancouver, which is about 30 miles from Blaine, Washington. Fedex allows you to ship a package for pick up at a Fedex Office store. UPS probably has something similar.
Rick in Portland, which is about 300 miles from Vancouver.
Yeah, I’ve actually done that a few times, shipping to friends or relatives in the US, but I really need a way to ship directly to Canada. At this point, it’s looking like it might be doable. I’m waiting on customs forms now.
Robert said: “I could move to Canada and fit right in, and I suspect most Canadians could move here and fit right in. Actually, I suspect the same is true of Australia, although they do talk funny.”
Garrrison Keillor did a funny bit years ago about a US immigration agent trying to catch a suspected Canadian illegal immigrant. The agent asked the suspect what he was wearing on his foot. The suspect said “a boot” and the agent said “gotcha!”.
Rick (who is one quarter Canadian) in Portland
I suspect the same is true of Australia, although they do talk funny.
We would have to teach them to drive on the correct side of the road.
While the mileage is small between Vancouver and Blaine, most people won’t make the drive, as it is a one hour drive with a typical one hour wait at the border in both directions. Four hours for a package? Ain’t gonna happen, not in Vancouver traffic. Most car unfriendly city I’ve lived in.
The Australian side of the road appears to have much more tradition behind it than the “correct” side, as may date back to ancient Greece. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#History
Somebody on the left side would have his right hand available to use a sword to protect himself from an oncoming attacker coming the other way. Traffic on the “correct” side of the road gives an advantage to lefties.
Rick in Portland
And those of us who are ambidextrous.
Pah, who’s going to be using a sword?
Ah, but it’s not just a sword. You might be surprised by what a high percentage of even competent pistol shooters can’t hit the proverbial barn side with their off hands. That’s why we always practiced normally (two-handed grip) and with each hand “disabled”.
Going through a combat-pistol course one-handed is great fun (not). I remember one time having a magazine stick when I pressed the eject button. I had to bite the bottom of the magazine and pull it out with my teeth. And you *really* don’t want to shoot your pistol dry. That’s considered a bad mistake anytime on a combat-pistol range, but it gets really ugly when you’re doing the course one-handed, because you have to rack the slide to chamber a round.
Traffic on the “correct” side of the road gives an advantage to lefties.
I can give the finger to other drivers equally well with either hand.
Rick, that’s a great link. I think I am not a good judge of which may be better, because I do not think I am with the majority. Although my right hand is capable of much more accurate activities, I can do most everything left-handed, except switch-hit. I also use my left ear for the telephone, while I notice that most people use the right.
I can drive on either side of the road, having done so many times on extended visits to the UK. Had a very scary incident in rural Scotland, though. Somebody was coming at me on the wrong side of the road, while passing another vehicle. With my emergency reactions programmed to go right, I did just that, crossing the on-coming lane of traffic with yet another car approaching, and ending up in the grass. Scared the heck out me and my passenger, but neither of the other cars stopped. The whole thing happened as the other two were coming off an intersection with no stop signs (common in other countries, where the person on the right has the right-of-way) and I was approaching it. I guess the person in my lane thought he could use acceleration from the intersection to make the pass.
The article assumes that holding onto the steering wheel with the right hand is the safer option, and that having gear-shift in the left hand is therefore better. It is true that if I am driving with just one hand on the wheel, it is my right, not the left.
Have you checked Purolator for their US to Canada offerings –> http://www.purolatorinternational.com/Default.aspx
“I could move to Canada and fit right in…”
No, sir, with all due respect, I seriously doubt it. First of all as a dyed-in-the-wool American. Which makes it a problem on so many levels alone. Then, as a libertarian. Serious problem there. As we have learned as regards our respective governments: ‘you will never hear a Canadian indignantly splutter “They can’t DO that to me!”‘ The State in Canada is all over you like the proverbial wet blanket and about as much fun, too. Maybe it’s a bit different out in the western Provinces; I sure hope so.
We share (mostly) the same language and ethnic (mostly) heritages but relations with the State are a bit different. Same deal in England; it is just way different. They forgot all about Magna Carta. And forget about rights of self-defense, the home as inviolable castle, and firearms.
We used to consider moving up to Canada and we (Mrs. OFD) and myself score way high on the prospective emigrants/immigrants tests, but not anymore; nice places to visit but home is the U.S. for better or worse.
What, are you saying that Canada requires a permit for concealed carry?
Does Canada even allow individual ownership of guns ? Much less concealed carry.
Ownership, yes. They want you licensed up the wazoo, though. Concealed carry is extremely difficult to get for a private citizen.
Of course, there is always the black market, and who cares about laws, anyway?
And I should add that you have to be a cop, if you want open carry.
Or a criminal. Hard to tell them apart, these days.
On the assumption that you can indeed ship to Canada, there is a way around the border formalities, albeit at more paper work for you. Get a Canadian GST registration number and charge Canadian customers GST or HST. If the tax has been paid, shipments go straight across the border to their destination. My wife buys most of her clothing from Land’s End. She browses their web site, phones them up to order and in a few days, UPS knocks on the door and gives me the parcel. I have no idea what the paperwork is like, but that’s how the large mail order outfits do it.
Welcome to Canada!. You may even be able to keep your handguns. You will not be able to walk around with them. There are some exceptions. Geologists have been trying to get federal firearm regulations changed so that they can carry handguns in the field. Currently they carry rifles. If they surprise or are surprised by a bear, time is of the essence and a handgun will be available faster.
Dave, Canada is not England! The role of the state vs the individual has changed quite a bit in the last 30 years. There is no ambiguity about the right of self-defense in Canada. However, some reasonableness is required. You can’t beat someone until they attack you and then claim self-defense. The murder rate is also a third that of the US. Property crime rates are about the same or slightly higher.
In some respects my rights are better protected in Canada than they would be in the US. It’s harder for parliament to get unconstitutional legislation into law and easier to get it overturned. But the conservatives are learning from their American examples. This last budget had almost no financial content whatsoever but did include DMCA style legislation to keep Hollywood happy.
Like most Canadians, I thought of moving to the US at one time. This would have been around ’68 and the thought of having an all expense paid trip to south east Asia did not appeal to me, especially since I would have no assurance that it would be ’round trip. If I wanted to get shot at, I would have gone to RMC and stood between the Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. Forty-odd years later I think I made the right choice but on the assumption I survived, the other choice might have worked as well.
The US is a foreign country but I am more inclined to think of it (depending on the state) as something between strange and bizarre.
You could move to Creston, BC, or Porthill, ID. The former is very close to the US border and many businesses are said to accept US currency. In Porthill many business accept the Canukistan Rouble and the petrol stations sell by the litre. There’s a bunch of other border towns that look suitable, including a place on the coast that’s a tiny island of Washington on an otherwise BC peninsula (I keep forgetting the name.) The scenery there sure looks pretty. Crossing the border illicitly doesn’t look hard either, which should appeal to the anarchist in you.
Chuck, re: Firefox. You’re an outlier. Just accept that. I have had no problems with FF (version 7.0.1 at work, and 11 or 12 up at home. On 13 now, no problems.)
Ray wrote:
“We would have to teach them to drive on the correct side of the road.”
We already know that, and when we visit the US and Europe we do just fine on the wrong side, due to our innate intelligence. But those damn Yanks in Britain and Australia cause so many accidents because they just can’t adapt quickly.
Chuck wrote:
“I think I am not a good judge of which may be better, because I do not think I am with the majority. Although my right hand is capable of much more accurate activities, I can do most everything left-handed, except switch-hit.”
I mouse with my left hand at work, with the right at home. I can cut the nails on my right hand with the scissors in my left quite easily – my mum is incapable of this. I’m better at mousing right handed but the discomfort from RSI is just getting too bad to use it all the time. Can’t write left handed, unfortunately. I almost always hold the phone in my left hand to my left ear.
Chuck:
Chrome.
That is all.
Creston, BC is also home to many LDS types. Many of the young brides that were shipped to Texas that got so many people upset were from there.
Point Roberts is the geographical location that Greg can’t remember. Home of the famous pig war, the last armed conflict between the US and British North America (soon to be renamed Canada). The only casualty was a British owned pig, and the whole ordeal went on for 12 years before everyone just wandered away.
Stuff runs on FF that doesn’t seem to run on Chrome. And Chrome doesn’t seem as good at remembering passwords. I like it, but keep FF in reserve for a number of sites.
No “welcome to the US” sign at Point Roberts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-border-notice.jpg
Riding on the left-hand side of the road just plain makes sense. Granted that you mount your steed from the left, then you either are riding correctly, and step off the kerb into the stirrup, or you hold your horses step down off the kerb into the standing water, piss, dung, mud and what-all that is the natural by-product of that particular mode of natural “green” transport, paddle around the back of the horse hoping it doesn’t kick, or duck under the neck and head, hoping your faithful steed doesn’t shy, rear, and trample you, and then step out of the mud and all into the stirrup. Of course, your boots are wet, muddy and manure-mired, slippery, and you’re a good chance to slip and go arse over teakettle.
Or you can ride on the left side of the road.
That’s easy. What we in Australia have to do, is to try to persuade the idiots who have learnt to drive on the incorrect or right-hand side of the road, many from nations you can drive across in a couple of hours, that they should NOT drive when tired, particularly at night. Far too often they’ll still be driving after 20 hours, having completed underestimated journey duration, they’ll fall asleep at the wheel, jerk awake, find themselves in a collision situation, and their ingrained-training will have them pulling to the wrong side of the road, hunting-down and steering directly head-on into oncoming traffic.
That sign pretty much sez it all; going up into Canada and crossing the border that way has been no problem for us. But coming back into the wonderful USA we sometimes get the third degree and car searches at worst, and general indifference and surliness at best. Assholes. If I go up there I take a very rural and little-used crossing where the same Canadian guy runs the shop and is mostly friendly. Otherwise I’m afraid I’d blow my top and end up in Gitmo in an orange suit being fed falafel and reading a goddam Q’uran.
I hope Canadian visitors don’t have to eat crap like that when coming down here. It’s embarrassing, and as someone else said a little earlier, although it will never happen, let’s just cut the shit once and for all and open up everything between us. Hell, for all intents and purposes our southern border is like that already.
I meant to make clear that the Canadian guys at my crossing run the shop BOTH ways; there are no USA Gestapo types there, at least so far. But for all I know, there’s a drone overhead.
What a country!
I’m not the only one who has experienced problems with FF. As I noted, my son is still in close contact with the guys who stayed the course in IT at his school, and many of them had problems—but not all the same as mine, because I have what is nowadays a miniscule amount of RAM. His buddies tell him that FF is better than Chrome from the standpoint of advancement. Chrome is about a year behind FF in development, according to them. Consequently, they all use FF.
I am finding that not many people have the number of windows and tabs open that I normally do. Thirty or more windows with a minimum of 8 to 10 tabs each is common—many of those tabs often contain video. Usually I am working on 3 to 4 projects at the same time, and each project has about 10 windows of its own. With bookmarking no more advanced than it is, it is just easier to leave everything open all the time, than to try and close down a project that will have to be opened up again later. That is why my computer is on 24/7. Shutting down and opening up again is a real, REAL PITA.
OFD, there are lots of drones in the US, not just the ones overhead. And would you mind naming the crossing point into Canukistan that you use? I’d like to look it up on the map. And does VT get as cold as ME in winter?
Chuck, that’s a lot of instances/tabs. I usually have two instances, one for webmail, this place, news, etc and a second for various Youtube tabs of various wonderful songs from the Sixties to Nineties. I find FF isn’t reliable enough to have that many tabs open, and have you ever heard the cacophony when 20 different Youtube clips restart after a crash?
Chuck, previously I had vaguely picked up on you having a bazillion windows and a bazillion tabs open but hadn’t twigged to why you worked that way. Why don’t you search FF add-ons for better bookmark handlers? Years ago there were some good ones, and I imagine they’re still around or have been replaced by something better.
Gotta say, Chuck, you are asking a lot of ANY browser. For that kind of work I’d have at least two or three boxes with maxed-out RAM and max graphics cards or chips and big-ass screens.
To answer Mr. Oz’s questions: Point taken on the large numbers of drones in the U.S. and not only the ones overhead; many of them work as faculty in college and university humanities and “social science” departments and many others are employed in the media and the State. Their hive is always buzzing, too. But never any honey. No, I would not care to divulge my crossing point. And the parts of VT away from Lake Champlain certainly get as much cold and snow and ice as our neighbors NH and Maine to the east. Usually. Not this past winter, though. Right now I wish devoutly that it was winter again.
All those drones are buzzing but not producing honey because they’re bumbler bees.
“a one hour drive with a typical one hour wait at the border”
Somebody tell me again, why the US has started serious controls at the Canadian border? Too many moose smugglers? Vietnam draft dodgers? Canadian whisky?
I suppose it is part of the post-9/11 paranoia, plus DHS looking to justify its budget. Add to that spineless Congress critters and administrations (Bush & Obama) more interested in money and politics than governing…
It’s just more show for the befuddled masses. A total joke. Anyone can look at a map of North America and see that policing our border with Canada is physically impossible. Hell, just that part of it shared with northern New England is impossible. And it’s not that you have to dismount your vehicle and walk back and forth; you can easily do it on various back roads, logging roads, fire trails, etc. You take a chance that there’s not some functionary on patrol around there, or, nowadays, a drone overhead (supposedly there is at least one stationed close by Mt. Washington in NH, that people have seen).
Speaking of which, there was a lotta state police activity around here yesterday later afternoon and into the evening, and several chopper flights overhead, with one of them shining a floodlight/searchlight down on this house and right through the window where I was sitting. Which I thought was kinda unusual and interesting.
We’ve been taking the Candian Border more seriously since December 14, 1999.
But coming back into the wonderful USA we sometimes get the third degree
On my last trip to Germany I was greeted at German immigration.
Agent: Why are you coming to Germany?
Me: To visit friends.
Agent: Have a good time.
On coming back into the US I was interrogated by immigration.
Agent: Where have you been?
Me: Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Agent: How long did you stay? (Stupid question as the info is on their computer screen).
Me: Two weeks.
Agent: No, I mean in each country?
Me: Four days in Austria, 9 days in Germany, one day in Austria.
Agent: Which country did you visit first?
Me: Germany.
Agent: Which country did you visit last?
Me: Germany.
Agent: Not possible. Which country did you visit last?
Me: Germany. I arrived in Frankfurt Germany and departed from Frankfurt Germany.
Agent: I see. Who did you visit in Germany?
Me: Friends.
Agent: What kind of friends?
Me: Exchange students.
Agent: Who did you visit in Austria?
Me: Exchange student. (See I learned).
Agent: Who did you visit in Switzerland?
Me: No one.
Agent: Why did you go to Switzerland?
Me: To see an ice cave.
Agent: How did you injure your head?
Me: I fell.
Agent: Doing what?
Me: Failing to walk in an approved manner consistent with the laws of gravity.
Agent: How many people are you traveling with?
Me: Just one.
Agent: Who?
Me: My wife.
Agent: Where do you live?
Me: United States.
Agent: No, what state?
Me: Tennessee.
Agent: Why are you returning?
Me: I live here.
Agent: Don’t get smart with me!
Me: Then how would you like to me to answer that question?
Agent: Next person.
I have since learned that legally you do not have to answer any questions when returning to the US when you have a US passport. Of course that would piss them off and the agents would detain you for a week while they resolved your identity. Then charge you room and board for the privilege of being detained. They would also flag your passport record as a trouble maker.
Well, I don’t hold with the idea of even having passports.
Somewhere I read that the questions and answers themselves is to evaluate your behavior: are irrelevant – they are (supposed to be) evaluating whether or not you act nervous. Still, one can overdo the interrogation, and for someone returning home, it is just plain stupid.
Ray, I had a similar experience visiting the US last year.
US Customs “Enjoy your stay”
Canada Customs “What in hell made you visit those gun-loving nuts in the States?”
I may be paraphrasing, but only a little bit. I’ve never had an issue at the US side, but hate dealing with my own citizens on my return. And all this reminds me that I need to renew my passport!
Somewhere I read that the questions and answers themselves is to evaluate your behavior:
I have also heard the same thing. The interrogation is simply to see if you stick to your story and act confidence. Someone told me that my response to the first question should have been “I live here and I am returning to my own country. Any further questions need to be referred to my attorney.” I do not think that is a good idea. Humor the fools.
Bill the gun-loving-nut-fraterniser write:
“I may be paraphrasing, but only a little bit. I’ve never had an issue at the US side, but hate dealing with my own citizens on my return. And all this reminds me that I need to renew my passport!”
In my limited experience the Canadian border people are friendly and not officious, the US guys are okay but not the friendliest. Never been given the third degree, even by Australian Customs. I guess if ever I visit NZ they’ll wanna know why I was associating with those sexually degenerate Kiwi sheep shaggers. I’ll just tell them I brought back a human female New Zealander who got sick of not being noticed by her countrymen.
In my humble opinion, the USA passport is becoming a new national identity card. Here in the great state of Texas, we passed a new law last year that you must have a Texas state id (picture !) or a USA passport (picture !) to vote now. This law is currently on hold since the DOJ is suing everybody and everything in Texas about voting and voting boundaries at the moment since it is going to be harder for the illegals to vote.
I do know for a fact that they are making it harder and harder to get a USA passport. The documentation requirements are very, very strict. If you are born outside the USA of USA parents, you must have a USA birth certificate from the USA consulate in that country. My wife was born in Camp Jama (army) in Japan in 1958. It took representative Tom Delay’s personal involvement with the USA state department to get her a USA birth certificate in 1995 as the USA Japanese embassy burned down back in the 1970s with all the army birth record originals. I would vote for Tom Delay to be our rep here for life as I know that he did care about our district, unlike his Democrat replacement that we got for 2 years.
We already have to present a photo ID to vote in Indiana. For those people who don’t drive, it now means you can get a free photo ID from the state.
@Lynn: The good side is the requirement for photo id to vote. Of course, the DOJ objects – certain groups (best left unnamed) benefit hugely from the graveyard vote.
Frankly, voting ought to be even more difficult. Imagine if, in order for your vote to count in federal elections, you had to first (a) find Afghanistan on a map and (b) state within an order of magnitude the per-capita amount of the federal deficit. Similar questions on a State level for state votes, and on a local level for local votes.
Hi Dave, the DOJ is suing Indiana also!
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/holder-defends-suing-states-over-voter-id-laws-because-they-hurt-minorities-young-people-seniors/
Brad, we used to have voting tests like that here in the South. They were called a poll tax. Frankly, I think that only property owners should be allowed to vote but that is me. You should have an investment in the country in order to vote on it’s future.
I also think that government employees should be ineligible to vote as long as they’re government employees. To do otherwise is a gross conflict of interest.
Also, anyone else who is on the government payroll should be ineligible. I’d allow people on social security and other government-paid pensions to vote, because they’re simply collecting benefits that they paid for.
Agreed with Bob, of course, on the voting.
“…the USA Japanese embassy burned down back in the 1970s with all the army birth record originals.”
I remain astounded at the fire safety record of the organizations and buildings over the decades that are entrusted with storing military records.
But two observations, one personal: I note that there are names on The Wall that do not belong there and there are a bunch of other names that DO belong there but never will. I also note that my own active-duty records, including two tours on Uncle’s plantations in southeast Asia and other fun places, are missing significant information and other stuff is in there that is totally irrelevant. Still other stuff is what they call “redacted” and blacked out. This creates quite the questions when presented to HR drones for employment or at other places when they want those things. I have twice requested that corrections be made and each time various record-destroying incidents such as fires were mentioned, the most famous, of course, being the one in St. Louis, which allegedly lost a boat-load of stuff.
I mention one additional fact: the messed-up records are never in our favor. Sort of like other State records and what banks and insurance companies get away with.
I just know one thing now. If your paperwork is messed up, you are toast in the USA. My wife had to go through hell and high water to get her birth certificate. I just looked at it and it is signed by Warren Christopher (Clinton’s Secretary of State in 1995). Tom Delay’s people told us that he had to push the State people hard to get that. The issue was not here staying here in the USA, the issue was that she could not leave because she could not get a passport. The copy of her US Army birth certificate that she has is good enough for everyone but the Staties.
Even so, Tom Delay got on the phone and got my wife a six month passport while they were sorting out her birth certificate. We went down to the passport office to go get it and I was totally shocked. The lady who had denied her the passport the day before told the teller to take a break. She then sat down when my wife came up to the window and preemptively said, “I told you yesterday that your paperwork was not good enough to get a passport”. My wife started crying at this point and I started talking to the teller lady, “Um, Tom Delay called the passport director and he said to come on down and get a six month passport while we sort out my wife’s paperwork”. You would have thought the world came to an end. The lady turned beet red, grabbed our paperwork and started stamping everything. I swear, if the USA had a gulag, we would have been on the next train if she had a say in it. She already knew we were coming and tried to intimidate us into going home anyway.
After she stamped all the paperwork as hard as she could, she said through clenched teeth, “this passport is only good for six months and you must have your paperwork in order to extend it”. It was an eye opening and scary experience. And that was 1995, I can only imagine what it must be like nowadays.
People such as you describe, Lynn, are unfortunately represented out of proportion to their numbers in State offices and bureaucracies. Similar cultures were the rule in totalitarian regimes elsewhere, whether communist or Nazi. The majority of drones are merely trying to get through the day like all of us but in those positions they may also be subject to the caprices and whims and malevolence of their supervisors and manglers, like the woman you met.
And then we have those individuals are who eaten up with malice and sadism and envy and rest assured, if this country *did* have a gulag, your chances would have been very good at ending up on the outbound train. With them knowing in advance that you faced being worked to death, starvation, rape, torture and murder. Thus we have the real presence of Evil in the world.
And what Arendt called the ‘banality of evil.’
RBT wrote:
“I’d allow people on social security and other government-paid pensions to vote, because they’re simply collecting benefits that they paid for.”
They paid for those benefits? Some may have, others just bludge off the public tit. I remember you suggesting a few years back that people should be given votes i proportion to the taxes they pay, which would disenfranchise rich tax cheats as well as people who just don’t want to work.
I used to know a couple of guys in Adelaide, a few years younger than me, who were excellent amateur sportsmen. They weren’t in the very top flight but could still make a useful amount of money in sport. Both were on the dole, and took in hundreds of dollars per week playing sport.
I mention one additional fact: the messed-up records are never in our favor. Sort of like other State records and what banks and insurance companies get away with.
Such has been my experience. In my VA claim for a heart related condition all the records from the hospital, X-Rays, sonograms, blood work are all missing. So of course the claim was denied. I went to the private hospital where I was first treated on an emergency basis before being transported to the AF facility and the records were gone. The private hospital destroys records after 10 years. So I cannot prove a diagnosis that was first made while in the USAF so to them the event did not happen. I find it strange that the rest of my records are intact. Almost as if someone selectively removed and destroyed records.
The lady turned beet red, grabbed our paperwork and started stamping everything.
She definitely knew about the situation. She was just trying to cover her butt and show that she was in charge. I had to get a congress critter involved in a VA issue that had been dragging on for months. After a few phone calls by Zach Wamp the matter was resolved within days.
On the other hand when a large contract that I was working on was awarded to a firm in San Antonio, at a higher cost than what we proposed, I wrote letters to then Senator Al Gore, Marilyn Lloyd and some other congress critter about the issue. Everyone responded except Al Gore. Of course none of them did anything and the contract was lost. Jim Densberger, who was retired from the USAF and now a GS12, awarded the contract. Six months later Jim retired from the civil service (now he gets two pensions), and went to work for the company. Jim awarded the contract so he would have another job and still draw two pensions.
I wrote a letter to the local paper that was in Al Gore’s district and described how he failed to respond. One of his office workers responded that it was a communication oversight and that Al would personally apologize to everyone that was involved. We never heard from Al Gore, either by phone or letter.
So come the 2000 election I wrote another letter to a paper with a larger circulation, included portions of my original letter along with the response from his office 8 years past. I then posed the question that if Al Gore cares so little about TN citizens that he fails to help would you want him for president. I also stated that Al makes promises he does not keep as he failed to contact any of us. Al Gore did not carry eastern TN in the election and subsequently he did not carry the state of TN, his home state. I like to think that in some small (maybe even large) way that I was responsible for Al Gore losing the election. I certainly hope so.
Arendt called the ‘banality of evil.’
Hadn’t heard that before – perfect. Small people with a little bit of authority.
If you have travelled to Europe, then you have seen those little scanners that look like toasters, where they dunk your US passport into them, they close and scan all the stuff that identifies you. Note that they never put any but US passports into them. Those are installed, maintained, and paid for by the US. It is how the US tracks its citizens’ every move, wherever you go—even if you live in a foreign country. I assume those scanners are in Oz, Asia, and other parts of the world.
When we lived in Germany, a couple times a year, we went out of Germany to London, or some other non-EU country that required passport checks. In London, they scanned our passport, telling the US we left Germany. When we returned to Germany, they scanned us again with the US passport reader and recorded that we had returned home. It is a wonder they do not do that here inside the country. (I suspect there are not many here, old enough to remember the state agriculture department checks all cars got, when travelling from one state to another—before the days of Interstate highways.)
NEVER was the US Embassy a help to us in time of need. In fact, they did not even answer their phone—even though the phone book listed certain hours to call. Once I called every 20 minutes all day long, and got a recording that said to call back during the hours I was calling.
And let me tell you, don’t ever reside in a foreign country, but happen to be temporarily in the US for a couple months (like I was for a job assignment) when your passport runs out. What a nightmare. On the other hand, I was outside of Germany and my temporary resident visa ran out (had I been in Germany, I would have been given the permanent one). Did I get a hassle upon returning home to Germany? Nope. The passport control guy pointed it out, I explained the situation, and he just said, “Make sure you take care of that right away,” and stamped me into the country.
Then, when Jeri died, the US Embassy flooded me with forms to fill out, each of them telling me it was a federal offense to ignore them or to lie on them.
The letter started out, ‘We are sorry to hear about your recent loss.’ Then it launched into Fascist-like instructions that must be completed within a certain time frame or I am in violation of US federal law and international treaties. I had to send in her passport, and—I think I have mentioned this before,—they punched holes all through it, including several right through her picture, then returned it to me. Jesus H. Christ, could they have SOME modicum of taste and pity for someone who just nursed a dying spouse to her death? Apparently not. Let’s punch holes in her picture to note that she is dead, and send it back to the husband.
Then, just recently, while dealing with the Social Security bureaucracy here in the US, I was asked if I reported my wife’s death to Social Security when it happened. “Didn’t have to,” I responded. “The State Department did that, literally within a few hours of her death.” This caused the bureaucrat much confusion, because the form she was filling out called for a yes or no answer, and to say “no” would have meant that her death was never reported to SS.
Bureaucracy was the same in Germany. In Germany, it always took 3 in-person trips to whatever agency you were dealing with, before a problem was resolved or some benefit granted. We discussed it in my English classes, and my students agreed: 3 trips to resolve anything. I used to tell my students that in the US it only took one visit, but that visit might take all day. Guess what? The recent SS hoopla took 3 in-person visits and several phone calls. Guess we are becoming more like Germany as time goes on.
I know I am not the only one who uses a browser the way I have described. In fact, my son, when we upgraded his hard drive from 60gb to the 500gb one I had used before upgrading to 750gb, had 75 browser windows with over 300 tabs open, and it was a 2-hour process for him to save everything so we could shut down to physically switch the drives.
He runs Chrome, but says his IT buddies tell him it is less capable than FF and behind FF in development by about a year. He runs Linux (not sure which version, but he talks about Arch Linux a lot), and has a quad-core IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad with 12gb RAM.
He never shuts the computer down; he just goes into hibernate, or some mode that does not rely on the battery, but just saves the state to the hard disk, and opens it up exactly like he left it when switching it back on. He works in math research, and says his method of operating is how most of his friends in that industry work, and some of them have more browser windows open at once than he does.
So, it IS possible to work that way, and since Win2k, I did it quite successfully until we got to around FF v5. I probably have Windows rot going on too, but cannot face reinstalling—especially when a new laptop will be here soon.
I guess other people do not rely on the computer as much as I do. Aside from Outlook for email, right now I have 11 instances of Word going, 2 instances of Audacity open, Winamp, XMPlay (part of the audio work in progress), 6 FF windows open currently (just shut a bunch down, because it is FF that REALLY eats the RAM), several instances of Explorer ^2, Free AutoCAD open, PDF reader with several tabs open, last year’s Indiana tax return open on H&R Block software, 2 windows of Excel, Juice, GnuCash, MS PowerPoint, Pidgin, Virtual Box, and I just closed Gimp after doing some scanning. Earlier today, I had Exact Audio Copy, AviDemux, TagScanner, and NoteTab Light open, without closing anything else. Running in the tray but not the task bar is DynDNS Updater, TClockEx, Intel ProSet Wi-Fi management, Dimension 4 NIST time synchronizer, MS OneNote, and MS Messenger (which I never use but have been unable to remove after it was installed by an update to the NET Framework). There are 52 windows currently appearing in the taskbar.
Now with all those programs EXCEPT FF open, RAM usage is around 800mb, less than a gig, but when FF is open with just a few windows and tabs, RAM usage soars to near 3gb pretty quickly. It never used to do that. I have not changed my ways in a long time,—but FF has.
As far as some kind of plug-in to manage bookmarks, there is no such thing that I am aware of, and I check regularly. Every supposed bookmark manager claiming to manage windows and tabs better, is clumsy at best, and really will not save the state of windows and reopen them exactly as displayed—except for the session manager, which cannot be made to save only a window or 2, but will only save all of them or none. Even it is very unreliable. It is supposed to save the state of everything when you exit FF, but frequently, it reopens to a previous session, and not the one I just exited, because it never saved the one I just exited. You cannot force a save at any old time you want (say, if you wanted to be sure not to lose what you have in the event of a crash or power loss). And that’s just inexcusable at this stage of computer development. The best of the bookmark managers have actually been incorporated permanently into newer versions of FF, but they are terribly inadequate.
We will soon see how 16gb RAM on an i7 CPU will do. It is a shame, though, because all this used to work quite acceptably on dual core with 3gb of addressable RAM, until suddenly around FF v5, it started eating RAM voraciously. Even so, this v13.0.1 works much better than v12 did—especially at releasing RAM when windows are closed.
They are working on reducing the FireFox memory footprint through the memshrink project:
http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/06/mozilla-celebrates-a-year-of-shrinking-firefox-memory/
Good! They have a long way to go, IMO.
US Embassies = awful. As seems to be the case for most US government organizations, the individual people are friendly, but the organization as a whole is just really unpleasant. Here, for US citizen services, we have a two-hour window each day we are allowed to call. One might have thought that supporting their own citizens would be a bit more important than that, but at least they do answer the phone during those two hours.
Did I tell the story of the bags? Since you aren’t allowed to take *anything* in, it used to be that they had lockers you could leave your things in. Then they moved the lockers outside the building. When we visited last year to renew the kids’ passports, they had eliminated the lockers entirely. You still aren’t allowed to take anything inside, but they provide no place to leave your belongings. How stupid is that?
Meanwhile, by blackmailing the Swiss banks, the US has made life here as an American essentially impossible. No bank wants Americans as customers – it is just too big of a risk. Our current bank has informed us that – unless we comply with some pretty crazy requirements (almost certainly written by some US law firm) – they will be cancelling our accounts, including our mortgage, in the next few months.
The only way forward is to renounce US citizenship. We apparently aren’t alone in this thinking, as renunciation has recently appeared on the main menu of the Embassy’s website. I’ve started the process, and it is every bit as crazy as you might expect. The embassy sent me a package of forms: Some have to be completed ahead of time and submitted by email. Others *cannot* be completed – not even filled in – until I am at the embassy for an appointment. They warn that this does not relieve me of my obligations to the IRS, but they refuse to say what those obligations are. I can hardly wait to see what awaits at the actual appointment…
Hmm. I have been truly sorry to see Switzerland cave to US bullying over the years. I am around lawyers almost every day, and I was discussing the Brazilian guy who was involved with Facebook, and renounced his US citizenship, as he has chosen to live in Singapore for the rest of his life. The lawyer was saying that the situation is different for people who became citizens, as opposed to those who are born US citizens, but nevertheless, he said collection of taxes across borders is not so easy, especially if the foreign country stands up to it. But then, Switzerland probably won’t stand up to anything these days. What wimps.
Better check with the bank to make sure withdrawing citizenship will actually clear you of what they see as problems. You ARE a Swiss citizen, no? How can a bank deny an account to a Swiss citizen—regardless of any other citizenship they hold?
US Embassies are worthless. Even though a great many of the people working at the one in Berlin had German accents—thus signifying to me that they were not born US citizens—they towed the bureaucratic line, even refusing to speak German with us.
Same deal happened in Berlin: no more lockers. At the end, I learned to bring along only my transit pass and the papers I was dealing with. No phone, no keys, nothing they would take from me during the shakedown before entering.
Also, during my 9 years in Berlin, they quit issuing passports outside of the US. All of them are now sent to the US, where they are processed, then sent back to Europe. That cannot be as cost effective.