The worlds longest border is messy.
No, honest.
The US is rather upset because underfunding has left the border messy with trees, shrubs, grass etc.
Upset enough to suggest Canada is breaking an 80 year old treaty by not keeping a clean swath that makes the border definable.
One of the major beefs the US has is that law enforcement needs to know which country they are in when they apprehend someone.
The terms of the treaty that established the international agency as the permanent caretaker of the boundary dictate that a six-metre swath be cleared along the border, punctuated by a line of white markers.
“The boundary vista must be entirely free of obstruction and plainly marked for the proper enforcement of customs, immigration, fishing and other laws of the two nations,” says the commission’s Web site.
“Over mountains, down cliffs, along waterways and through prairie grasses, the line snakes 8,891 kilometres or 5,525 miles across North America, tranquil, undefended, but not uncared for.”
Canadian border officials figure it will take about five years and triple the current budget to comply.
Avian Flu
About 19 million chickens and turkeys are going to be culled in British Columbia as attempts to control and contain an H7 strain of flu.
The virus has spread to about 18 farms. The decision will affect thousands of industry workers. Once the flocks are culled no new flocks will inhabit the farms in the Fraser Valley for six months.
About 50 million chickens have been culled in Asian countries this year.
War bloggers
I googled the term war-blogger but didn’t find a definition.
Are war-bloggers uniquely American?
They are pundits (political) posters, usually male and university educated.
The term came into being during the lead up to the war in Afghanistan.
Why are they still called war-bloggers?
Blogging
The Guardian has an interesting and quite readable article on blogging, focusing on the ordinary, personalized UK blogs by everyday people.
Along with pornography and vain attempts to secure tickets for this year’s Glastonbury, it seems that blogging is what the internet was invented for. Discovering that initial great chain of blog links is comparable with the excitement of going online for the first time - the joy of unlimited possibilities.
Reality dawns in much the same way - there is as much bad stuff out there as good. Those already bored with the phenomenon - particularly the techies who started blogging years ago as a way of sharing boring stuff about computer code - claim that the golden days of blogging are over, that what passes for blogging nowadays is the most banal wash-up of aimless lives, millions of pages slowing the internet and clogging Google.
The word and idea of blogging has become so popular, many media no longer feel the need to define it.
Published 4 years, 8 months ago
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The warbloggers aren’t totally American, but predominately so; Norway’s Bjørn Stærk comes quickly to mind.
My off-the-cuff definition-a blogger who frequently covers geopolitics from a pro-”War on Terror” perspective. Thus, a British or Australian (Tim Blair?) blogger backing their government’s foreign policies with gusto would be warbloggers as well.
As a pejorative from the more pacifist/skeptic side of the aisle, it can be used by any blogger supportive of the Bush-Blair-Howard line, even if they’re not focused on geopolitics.
There was a show on public TV a year or so ago about a guy who walked the US/Canada border. Pretty funny to see him occasionally walking through a pond or something like that.
The cool thing to me about this border is that it’s the world’s longest undefended border. Yeah, there are border patrols and all that, but that’s a customs and immigration thing, not a military thing. Last summer, we visited the Peace Garden on the North Dakota/Manitoba border (http://www.peacegarden.com/) and took a snapshot of the kids straddling the border.
Mark:
I’m tempted to think that those that aren’t pro Bush/Blair might fall under the term war blogger.
The very nature of a geo-political stance regarding military action requires an opposing view.
It is interesting that very few outside the US do come to mind ie: Tim Blair (Australia) and Bjorn Staerk.
I had difficulty thinking of bloggers outside the US that might be well known for this label. I think your definition has merit,( I haven’t been able to come up with one) but I’m inclined to disagree that it would be a perjorative for ‘the other side of the aisle.’
Hey Roy:
Given that the border goes through towns and literally through houses, it made me chuckle.
One of the latest ways drug couriers are getting past sensors and survellience is to lob drug packets across the border with cross-bows. Difficulties aside, it is so different than the southern border in the US.
I agree our border is an amazing thing. Every time I cross it I think of what it took and what it takes to keep it so unique in history.
We can’t buy No-Name frozen chicken breasts in Saskatchewan because of a shortage of chicken from the Asian bird flue.
I’ve heard that precautions may be taken in Alberta soon, but we have frozen chicken in abundant supply. Maybe you could smuggle some across the (provincial) border, Michelle?
The whole border thing really interests me. It’s amazing to hear about all of the different things that take place at the border… and quite amusing at times!