On Wed, 05 May 2010 13:40:43 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> >> and you've pretty flatly rejected
>> >> those explanations instead of saying something like "that's not how
>> >> it works here, but I can understand why people in the US might feel
>> >> this way given the history".
>> > 
>> >   And now you are once again putting words in my mouth. I'm sorry I
>> >   have
>> > to say that, but it's just true.
>> >
>> >   I have never said anything even remotely resembling "that's not how
>> >   it
>> > works here" when talking about racial profiling.
> 
>> That was an example of a way to respond, not something that you've
>> said. Please reread what I wrote and let me know what's not clear about
>> it, because I don't know of another way to say "this type of response
>> would be better".
> 
>   I misread "instead of saying something like" as "instead you are
>   saying
> something like", which lead to the confusion.

Fair enough. :-)  I thought that might be the case.

>   (I suppose I'm getting a taste of my own medicine here, as I taunted
> Darren about him confusing "outlandish" with "outrageous", and now I
> misread something and reacted based on that...)
> 
>   (And btw, that's not how it works here either. Things like racial
> profiling *are* touchy subjects here as well and sources of heated
> discussions, especially nowadays.)

I thought that was probably the case (I have a good friend in Aaland and 
he and I have discussed this in the past), but it's always good to have 
confirmation.  I would honestly have been surprised if it weren't a 
touchy subject.

>> I don't understand what you're trying to say here at all.  I didn't
>> bring up the driver sobriety test
> 
>   It was the only thing that I have written that resembled the "that's
>   not
> how it works here", so I assumed you were referring to that. Of course
> this assumption was based on the misreading of your post.

Fair enough.

>> I didn't say that I made such an assumption.  My assumption here is
>> that your experience is based on life in Finland, and when talking
>> about the law (or anything), your views are coloured by your life's
>> experiences (just as they are for the rest of us).  It's important to
>> be aware that things (in general) are done differently in different
>> parts of the world and to be aware when saying/implying/setting someone
>> up to infer (intentionally or not) "our way is better" that other
>> peoples' experiences will differ because their background is different.
> 
>   Well, Finland isn't too different from the US in that if you are too
> loud about these things, you will very easily get labelled as a racist.
> This has escalated a lot during the last few years when the discussion
> about liberal immigration and its possible problems have been brought up
> more and more.

So, tell me a little bit about the issues there in Finland - I don't read 
a lot of news from Finland, so I wasn't aware there was an escalation 
regarding immigration laws there.

Jim

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