Funny Thing Happened On The Way To ItsJeff's Bench

[GOAT]

Gannon,
First off, that bitch isn't MY queen and never has been. So get that straight.

Secondly, as a matter of fact many cameras at intersections are for redlight runners. In T.O. they installed for that very purpose with excellent results. I however believe a cop att eh corner could do just the same and still serve a better purpose should he/she be called away.

Thirdly, smuggling is being done at an alarming rate between Michigan and Ontario. MikeM has already shown a few cases but you MERELY dismiss them.

Do I like the increased hassle at the border? Nope, especially for law-abiding citizens such as myself. But it seems these "covert" gov't employees weren't hassling anyone. But your speculations went off the chart.

Hey, if you want to enjoy your conspiracies, have at it. But why the need for a thread everytime something spooky pops into your brain?

[Stosh]

Gannon,
First off, that bitch isn't MY queen and never has been. So get that straight.

Secondly, as a matter of fact many cameras at intersections are for redlight runners. In T.O. they installed for that very purpose with excellent results. I however believe a cop att eh corner could do just the same and still serve a better purpose should he/she be called away.

Thirdly, smuggling is being done at an alarming rate between Michigan and Ontario. MikeM has already shown a few cases but you MERELY dismiss them.

Do I like the increased hassle at the border? Nope, especially for law-abiding citizens such as myself. But it seems these "covert" gov't employees weren't hassling anyone. But your speculations went off the chart.

Hey, if you want to enjoy your conspiracies, have at it. But why the need for a thread everytime something spooky pops into your brain?

I suppose it's better than randomly raving at passersby at Eastern Market. It makes me wonder what the drill was pre-internet/message board?

[mauser]

This is a pretty strange story, I dont think Gannon is out of line for wondering what was going on. Smugglers - yep yep, which is what I would be concerned about if I saw the same thing that Gannon did. You dont expect the US government to look all shady, as if THEY were the smugglers - with their rat trap old pickup trucks that they use for the mobile FLIR units.

We wont be very safe if we just assume that everything we see going on is for our own good. That doesnt even make sense.

[Gannon]

I owe Toolbox an apology, too. I caught his comment at first as a dig at my meanderings over on the Non-D part of the board, not a funny link to an old cult movie. I only saw the link late last night. Sorry I was the tool, in my over-reactionary defensive state. I WAS wrong with that.


And I was also wrong to DOUBT this clandestine activity could be Homeland Security...I came to that conclusion due their slinking around and driving AWAY from the Coast Guard station which has been tasked with the job this rogue was doing ever since I can remember, on that island!


Is Homeland Security just a way to DUPLICATE functions and manpower...there must be some fun parsing the jurisdictions...all while I THOUGHT they were created to eliminate the fractional face of our national insecurity system!


Cheers

[Gannon]

LOL, didn't see that I got Goat's goat while posting the above. OR Stosh's inanities regarding his fantasies of how I carry on in daily life.


Goat, the cameras YOU are aware of are NOT the ones we have here. The ones of which you speak have been tried in various jurisdictions around the country...and the ONE which I resided in ended up having troubles after they encountered OTHERS LIKE ME.

I noticed while driving regularly on Fountain Avenue through Hollywood, while living in Los Angeles at the beginning of this decade, that the pacing and duration of the Don't Walk warning was randomly truncated...forcing MANY to 'run' a red light which quickly changed instead of going through the usual yellow first. It was found, after I moved back to Michigan, that the company who designed the camera system INTENTIONALLY gamed the sensors and timing in order to write more tickets...because they got a portion of the profits.

Similar to what happens with the parking tickets in Detroit, in a powerful way proving my concerns regarding the current momentum of our insatiable and increasingly illegal government!


So, get off your royal horse, we're talking apples and oranges. Do a little research before you spout off, or admit you learned and grew some now!


I am happy that you reject the British Crown. Ecstatic, even.

IF smuggling is increasing at the alarming rate you claim...then the definitions of what is considered illegal MUST be reviewed. Remember, in a market driven economy, ways to supply demand will always be created by willing and enthusiastic entrepreneurs. IF there is an increasing marketplace, then there is very likely some horrid law written somewhere that should be repealed. There IS a slight chance that it is merely evil people doing whatever they can to subvert the government...but we'd have to really consider what and why before yielding judgment over them.

I draw the line at human trafficking and substandard/dangerous goods...but will continue to consider everything now that you've got me on this topic. Naturally grown foodstuffs and products? They should get the greenest light we can shine. Especially a wild plant which provides the most complete protein source for an increasingly hungry population, while simultaneously yielding some of the most-effective medicine available for homeopathic healing...and strong fiber for clothing, rope, sails, tents...and the like.

It will become MORE important as the world's oil becomes less available and thusly more expensive. Legalize FULLY all forms of the hemp plant! Free Cannabis from this illegal bondage, LOL. Mother Nature really likes it, and allows it to grow like a weed. Everywhere.



We must take a deep look at WHY all of our governmental buildings, both here and abroad, HAVE to be built like fortresses. We need to really take a good gander at WHY our government employees, who are supposedly tasked with protecting us, need to hide under a guise which may get them mistaken for civilians or worse.


I am very glad I meandered around Belle Isle that other morning...there are a TON of troubles revealed from this random discovery.


Cheers and more...the caffeine just hit. Whoa. My French Press Connection.

[Toolbox]

Could not find the story on Freep so I C&P'd from a copy.

Drug on rebound, being smuggled in
Fewer kids are afraid of ecstasy.

And the drug dealers know it.

That’s what federal drug authorities, researchers and prosecutors say they believe is driving a comeback of ecstasy, the once-popular party drug that’s seeping back into Detroit by the truckloads.

Federal drug authorities say that in recent years, they’ve witnessed an uptick in ecstasy seizures involving not just more pills, but bigger dealers.

Ecstasy busts used to involve relatively small-scale dealers peddling a few hundred pills in a baggie. Now, ecstasy is creeping in via well-organized trafficking networks, with some Canadian truckers getting nabbed at the border with tens of thousands of pills, authorities say.

Unfortunately, what hasn’t changed is that the drugs are once again ending up in the hands of teenagers, officials say.

Recent national statistics, published by both the University of Michigan and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, show that a higher percentage of teenagers are using ecstasy, overall ecstasy use is up among all people ages 12 and older, and that fewer young people fear that the drug is harmful.

“Given the glamorous name and reputation of this drug, I could easily imagine it making a comeback,” U-M senior researcher Lloyd Johnston said.

Make no mistake, drug authorities and prosecutors say, ecstasy is back.

“It’s coming back, and coming back strongly,” said Rich Isaacson, a special agent with the Drug and Enforcement Administration’s Detroit field division. “It’s one of those things that without keeping a finger or an eye on it, it’ll come back even stronger than it was in the rave party era.”
Pills being smuggled across border, feds say

Ecstasy, the euphoria-enhancing rave drug of the '90s, is back. Only this time, it's a slightly tweaked and more potent pill made in so-called super labs in Canada, federal drug authorities say. Massive amounts of ecstasy pills are creeping into Detroit from Canada, with seizures now netting hundreds of thousands of pills, largely sneaked in by Canadian truckers. In the past, authorities say, ecstasy couriers were smaller dealers peddling tablets in baggies.

"Our typical courier used to be a suburban female bringing over a couple thousand pills. We're now seeing well-organized drug traffickers, involving Canadian truck drivers," said Daniel Lemisch, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, noting that commercial truck drivers are often willing participants.

And they've made Detroit their ecstasy "source city" because of the border, he said.

"We're the first stop on the line for ecstasy coming in," Lemisch said. "It all gets funneled through our district because of the bridges and tunnels."

He also noted that not all Canadian truck drivers are couriers.

As the volume of drugs is getting bigger, statistics show that fewer kids are afraid of the risks of ecstasy, resulting in more teens using it.
Use up, fear down

According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the percentage of teenage ecstasy users has almost doubled in recent years.

From 2004 to 2007, the percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds who used ecstasy remained at 0.3%, but increased to 0.5% in 2009. Overall, the number of total ecstasy users 12 years and older has increased by more than 50% over the years, from 450,000 users in 2004 to 760,000 in 2009.

Meanwhile, the perceived risk associated with ecstasy among teenagers has been in decline for several years. According to the Monitoring the Future Survey, a government-funded teenage drug study conducted by the University of Michigan, in 2008, 43.2% of 10th-graders were afraid to try ecstasy once; by 2009, the number dropped to 38.9%.

"I think what's going on is what I call 'generational forgetting,' " said U-M researcher Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the study, who explained that today's youths simply don't know and haven't seen how dangerous ecstasy can be. "The newer generation doesn't have the experience or the knowledge that their predecessors did.

"That makes them very vulnerable to using it."

It's that generational forgetting that's keeping the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and border agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security busy.

Federal agents said that in recent years, they've witnessed major ecstasy busts at the border, the bulk of them involving Canadian truck drivers.
Tiny pills, big busts

On Sept. 25, at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, agents seized more than 80,000 ecstasy pills that were hidden in the walls of a tractor trailer.

On June 6, at the Blue Water Bridge, border agents seized more than 250,000 ecstasy tablets, valued at $4 million, that were hidden in a truck carrying a shipment of health and beauty products bound for Texas. The driver, a 24-year-old Canadian from Ontario, was turned over for further investigation.

On April 23, border agents discovered more than 9,000 pills taped to the legs of a Sterling Heights man who told officers that he was returning home from the casino. He was turned over for prosecution.

On June 29, border officers at the Ambassador Bridge seized 5 kilograms of ecstasy pills that were hidden in the bumper of a car.

"I think we're kind of letting our guard down on these drugs," Lemisch said. "I think people underestimate the harmfulness of this drug."

In a recent undercover operation in Illinois, local and federal police arrested four Michigan residents -- all from metro Detroit -- on drug charges involving ecstasy. Authorities said they seized 1,700 ecstasy tablets from the group, with an estimated street value of $34,000.

Rich Isaacson, special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Detroit field division, said while bigger loads of ecstasy are making their way into the Midwest, much of what's being sold isn't actually ecstasy, but a combo pill mixed with other chemicals, including: Benzylpiperazine [[BZP) -- a recreational drug with euphoric, stimulant properties -- and 3-Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine [[TFMPP), also a recreational drug

The tweaked ingredients make the drug more potent, but just as dangerous -- and potentially deadly -- as the '90s version.

"Today's ... teenagers don't realize how dangerous ecstasy is," he said.

BY TRESA BALDAS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Posted: Oct. 3, 2010

Party drug ecstasy coming from Canada

Pleas cut drug smuggler's time to 70 months

[rbdetsport]

It's just so much blah blah blah....
And BTW, the underlined is EXACTLY what you are doing anyway.

Better make it a minor issue now then let it take over the forum. Are you educated?

[Ravine]

Gannon,
You must be off your meds. For one thing cannabis is still illegal no matter if it is illogical or not. It is still illegal.
A for the cameras, many are beign set up so that they can automatically catch red light runners. Many others are for safety.
London England has the highest amount of cameras in use for a city in the entire world. Is that country close to being a police state? No. Is the city itself? No.

You are a conspiracy theorist that will look for any minor evidence to give your perceptions the nod that you were right all along. This forum is rife with them.

Does the gov't act covertly at times? Of course. DOes it do wrong? Yes. But I am sure the gov't has better things to do that to scout out Itsjeff's bench and YOU. Perhaps you need to get over yourself. You are not the world.

My advice? Live your life and quit sweating the small stuff. Unless you have something to hide??

I agree with much of what you wrote, but I think "You must be off your meds" is a shitty thing to say, and whether or not Gannon is "on meds," or not, has nothing to do with my feeling that way.

Gannon & I have butted heads, GOAT, on plenty of occasions. I wouldn't even say that there is a Peace Treaty in effect, actually. But, I have no memory of him writing anything so callously insulting to anyone here, so I really don't think it's too fuckin' sporting, on your part, to toss one like that at him.
Not to mention the fact that it's a "low-hanging fruit" of an insult. Maybe his mama wears army boots, as well, but c'mon, a little wit wit' your snideries would make them a bit more palatable.

Note To Self: Why do I bother?

[GOAT]

Hey relax will you? "Off your meds" is an off-hand remark. It has nothing to do with anything. How in the fuck do I know if he takes meds or not? I guess I could have said put the doobie down or take the tinfoil off of his head. But I don't see where your whining comes into play.

If he is on meds then I am sure that is his business and he isn't taking the remark as a personal insult because I wouldn't know such a thing.

Note to self: Why do I bother?

[Ravine]

Got it. So, if you write,

"Off your meds,"
"put the doobie down,"
or "take the tinfoil off of his head,"

those are "off-hand remarks," but if I call you out for your personally-directed, insulting incivility, that is "whining."

Huh. Guess you told me.

I figured that with "GOAT," you meant "Greatest Of All Time."
Now, I'm thinking that you meant GOAT as in, y'know, goat.

[rbdetsport]

Got it. So, if you write,

"Off your meds,"
"put the doobie down,"
or "take the tinfoil off of his head,"

those are "off-hand remarks," but if I call you out for your personally-directed, insulting incivility, that is "whining."

Huh. Guess you told me.

I figured that with "GOAT," you meant "Greatest Of All Time."
Now, I'm thinking that you meant GOAT as in, y'know, goat.

I totally back you up in this statement Ravine. Finally someone else has come on to this thread to stick up for the overall quality of this forum, where people can say their opinions without someone completely insulting them.

[Ravine]

Always ready, willing, able and zestfully enthusiastic, when it comes to scourging the bullshitters.
And calling my statement "whining," while self-excusing personally insulting remarks, was bullshit.

[Stosh]

Better make it a minor issue now then let it take over the forum. Are you educated?

Obviously, more than you.

You said this above:

I totally back you up in this statement Ravine. Finally someone else has come on to this thread to stick up for the overall quality of this forum, where people can say their opinions without someone completely insulting them.

You obviously don't follow your advice.

[rbdetsport]

Obviously, more than you.

Judging on what you have posted, I would bet on that.

[Stosh]

Judging on what you have posted, I would bet on that.

Exactly, thanks for backing me up on that.

[rbdetsport]

Exactly, thanks for backing me up on that.

What you have posted throughout this thread has no principle... I don't even think you know what you are arguing at this point.

[Stosh]

What you have posted throughout this thread has no principle... I don't even think you know what you are arguing at this point.

I most certainly do know what I am arguing, and am very sure as to what my principles are. You are the most conflicted person on this board. Seriously. You criticize people for insulting others, yet you do it on a regular basis. How do you explain that?

[Hornwrecker]

Anybody keeping track of the "mere[[ly)" count for this thread?

[old guy]

...........Attachment 7771

[rbdetsport]

I most certainly do know what I am arguing, and am very sure as to what my principles are. You are the most conflicted person on this board. Seriously. You criticize people for insulting others, yet you do it on a regular basis. How do you explain that?

I am far from conflicted. And I am to the point where I don't want to continue this because you are just going to lash back with something like you have done throughout this thread. I am criticizing people for insulting other people's viewpoints. The criticizing in this thread all started with putting down someones views. If you wanna come back with some substantial evidence as to why their views might be wrong, then bring it. But to just come on here and start lashing out at people for believing what they believe without any argument against it is just a travesty.

You first put me down because I don't have as many posts as others... Does that really mean I am not as educated as you or any others on this forum? Does that really mean I should not be sticking up for someone? I am sorry, but I was not aware of the steps of power that are involved with this forum even though I have been around for ten years or more. If I had known that, jesus, I would have thrown my life onto this forum so I could eventually pour out my opinion in an "educated" manner. If you choose to put someone down [[which I will continue to disagree with) then try doing it in a more adult manner. Number of posts... really? Couldn't get anything better than that?

You can not pull out what I have said to stick up for another forumer and tell me that I am doing just what I am arguing against. That just doesn't make any sense.

Keep lashing out. It will get you far in life.

[rbdetsport]

I appreciate the cartoon, old guy.

[MikeM]

Please people, Gannon's question was answered. We live along an international border. You can expect to run across federal agencies in the area dealing with border security. If you can't comprehend how or why the border patrol is doing its mission after reading the examples we've provided, then you're dumb. [[And what's with the issue of them being secretive, as if the FBI or DEA or your local cops never do their job undercover?)

Take all your issues about immigration policy, drug policy, law enforcement, sovereignty, nationalism, trade policy, etc, over to the sand box in the non-Detroit issues forum.

[Det_ard]

That pretty much settles it.

[Stosh]

I appreciate the cartoon, old guy.

Don't you mean that you resemble the cartoon?

[Stosh]

I am far from conflicted. And I am to the point where I don't want to continue this because you are just going to lash back with something like you have done throughout this thread. I am criticizing people for insulting other people's viewpoints. The criticizing in this thread all started with putting down someones views. If you wanna come back with some substantial evidence as to why their views might be wrong, then bring it. But to just come on here and start lashing out at people for believing what they believe without any argument against it is just a travesty.

You want proof? Look it up yourself. It's always a conspiracy, something easily explained, that anyone with discernment can easily deduce, or reject comepletely out of hand as insanely riduculous. It's a complete attention grab, and you are buying into it.

You first put me down because I don't have as many posts as others... Does that really mean I am not as educated as you or any others on this forum? Does that really mean I should not be sticking up for someone? I am sorry, but I was not aware of the steps of power that are involved with this forum even though I have been around for ten years or more. If I had known that, jesus, I would have thrown my life onto this forum so I could eventually pour out my opinion in an "educated" manner. If you choose to put someone down [[which I will continue to disagree with) then try doing it in a more adult manner. Number of posts... really? Couldn't get anything better than that?

I put you down? Newbies get banned here for being abusive. I'm doing you a favor.For someone that has allegedly been around for a while, you should know this.

You can not pull out what I have said to stick up for another forumer and tell me that I am doing just what I am arguing against. That just doesn't make any sense.

And who, for the love of God, elected you Gannon's protector? Or the internet police? If the administrator of this private message board tells me to knock it off, it's on him. And YOU are not the administrator, or the arbiter of what should and should not be said. I responded to your personal attacks with the same. Give, and you shall get.

Keep lashing out. It will get you far in life.

When I DO decide to lash out, you'll be the first to know.