Friday, October 27, 2006

A wall ain't gonna stop nuthin'

These photos depict the most obvious ways to defeat a border wall. Can you think of others?

If you don't live here, it's really hard to understand just how dumb this is.

See a roundup of reactions from the blogosphere.
Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at 3:16 PM

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe hangliders? That'd be cool.

If it's metal you could cut holes with an acetylene torch.

If it's concrete you could just bust it down during the nighttime with sledgehammers.

If any of it's wooden you could just burn the thing. Or bring a bulldozer out into the middle of nowhere and knock the sucker down.

Or, you could do what nearly everybody does - either come across legally and overstay your visa, or pay a coyote who bribes a border guard and just ride across in a van at a regular checkpoint.

The drug runners, of course, just fly across the border in planes or come in boats along the Gulf - no sweat for them.

Here's the funniest part to me: This is actually a huge, complex construction project. By a longshot, there's not enough manual laborers to build the fence in the Valley if they don't hire illegal immigrants.

10/27/2006 04:59:00 PM
Anonymous said...

LOL no we dont have to live there to see how stupid it is ~ the Berlin Wall came down almost 20 years ago, you guys really need to keep up!

10/28/2006 03:51:00 AM
Gritsforbreakfast said...

:)
Sure, Sunray, but did you take a look at the linked clip? I think the world understand how generally stupid this is. But you have to have been around the border some in the no-man's land ranch country, where access to water is EVERYTHING, to know how particularly stupid this is.

Not only will it not work as promised, it would screw up life for border residents, particularly those reliant on the agricultural economy, in ways that are today unimaginable. Americans living there will tear it down more quickly, I predict, than any Mexicans emigrating, it will be so universally despised.

On the other hand for the short time it's up, however much is built, it will be a source of terrific graffiti art.

And anonymous, great suggestions!

Does anybody remember the obstacle course on Superstars, where athletes from many sports competed on TV? It ran on ABC on Sunday afternoon for years when I was a kid. With a rope attached at the top, those guys would get over a 15 foot-or-so wall in just a few seconds.

Can anybody think of other ways people might be able to get past the wall?

10/28/2006 11:55:00 AM
Anonymous said...

ok I've read the link now. I can only guess that they will try compulsory purchases (which I cant imagine many Americans liking, it goes against everything you stand for) to create sterile areas either side of the fence, just as happened with the old Iron Curtain through much of the then Czechoslovakia and Poland; about 10km either side if I remember rightly.

Then you can plant landmines (well they have to go somewhere now that no one is buying them) on both sides, so that anyone trying to cross will have to play hopscotch before pole-vaulting over the fence.

Alternatively, I can see a new sideline for Ang Lee, in training people to walk on air long enough to get over the fence in just one giant leap....

10/28/2006 12:40:00 PM
Mike Howard said...

Scott, I think the show you're thinking of is Gladiators. It was a gameshow (sort of) where the people had to compete against gladiators at physical tasks like you described. Great show, by the way

10/28/2006 07:59:00 PM
Gritsforbreakfast said...

I may be dating myself, but the Superstars was about ten years before that, actually - really from the '70s, maybe the early '80s. The wall climbing portion of the obstacle course was one of their trademark features.

10/28/2006 08:47:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Sunray misses the point in his quest to reveal how cleverly he managed to not be American. If the proposed wall worked as well as the Berlin Wall at preventing border crossings, Texans would go for it maybe 80%-20%.

The problem here, sunray, is that we stupid Texans would like to show our neighbors that this wall will never work as well as the Berlin Wall did. Please forgive us for our role in opposing the forces that constructed the Berlin Wall, and for spending the billions of dollars we spent to see that it was brought down. We know how very wrongly we treated the good citizens of West Berlin, who would have been so much better off if we had simply allowed them to join the East. We are deeply sorry that we, as a nation, opposed the existence of the Berlin Wall.

Please continue to comment about how stupid we are and how clever Europeans are. You clever Europeans have always had the best solutions for social problems.

I am down with the hanggliders though.

10/29/2006 01:48:00 AM
Anonymous said...

When you start understanding irony and sarcasm, I'll stop thinking the majority of Texans are stupid ~ fair trade? Oh btw, a wench is a female serving girl, I am Sunray's wench, and I am female. People still got across the Berlin Wall.

If you object to those outside America passing comment, perhaps you should ask you General in Chief to keep his fingers out of other people's countries too.

10/29/2006 03:50:00 AM
Gritsforbreakfast said...

"If the proposed wall worked as well as the Berlin Wall at preventing border crossings, Texans would go for it maybe 80%-20%."

Not even close - again, I encourage you to read the linked article about how dumb this is. Then answer me this: what country in it's right mind would wall off a major river and leave the river on the other side?

10/29/2006 05:50:00 AM
Anonymous said...

I like hangliders, too, thta may be the best idea. But if the wall is less than 10 or 12 feet, I'd suggest you consider pole vaulting. I did it in high school and with a little training most folks could make 10 feet easy. You could throw all your stuff over first, then away you go, leaving the pole behind for the next chap.

The added benefit here, of course would be to boost the Mexican economy because of the expanded need for pole vault trainers.

And how about trampolines? You could throw your stuff over first, then bounce high enough to grab onto and scramble over the top of the wall. A little harder if they used barbed wire - then somebody'd have to get up there and cut it first where you planned to scramble over. On the other hand, wirecutters are common and that's not really difficult all.

But these are just jokes. I think everybody will use ladders. Maybe you're right they'd be a good investment about now.

10/31/2006 11:06:00 AM
Anonymous said...

it's always nice to see one's work re-used on other sites... shame it wasn't attributed or that the owner's permisson was asked first

Berlin Wall photo.

11/10/2007 01:28:00 PM
Gritsforbreakfast said...

Sorry, give me your information and I'll attribute it, or take it down as you wish. I'd add an attribution but you posted your complaint anonymously.

11/10/2007 02:14:00 PM

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