DENIED!

Well, Tamding was once again denied a visa by the United States. Needless to say, the mood was quite somber last night. Now there are plenty ofplausible reasons why he might have been denied. Had one of those been used, I wouldjust be sad.But, instead, I'm very angry. You see, the consul didn't even ask Tamding about his documents, finances, or intentions. Instead the entire interview was about my financial status. In essence, Tamding wasn't rejected. Instead, I was rejected as a suitable sponsor. The reason is that I am apparently not sufficiently wealthy to support another human being for six months. I guess I'm glad I don't have children.

But let's look at this claim. I promised to pay up to $75,000 to pay for Tamding's travels for the maximum 6 month visa stay. Of course, he was only coming for a month, I was just making it clear that I could provide for him if he chose to stay as long as his visa would allow. I also provided sufficient financial documentation to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that I had the money available. The consul knew damn well that I could have written a $75,000 check on the spot that would have easily cleared. And he knew that I was actually in Chennai and could be reached by phone if he had any questions. Clearly I have the money, but is $75,000 sufficient money money to live in the US for six months? Well, more than 200 million people in the US live on less than $150,000 per year. In fact, most of you readers do. So, any claim that I could not provide for Tamding is not even remotely plausible. The consul knows this, so it is quite clear that he was blatantly lying. I guess I'll never know why I am an unacceptable sponsor, but it is quite obvious that insufficient wealth is not it.

What makes this even worse is that the consul doesn't even care that I know he's lying. When I was younger, our government operated under the principle of "Plausible Deniability." That was hardly a respectable standard for a government to operate under, but it has only become worse with time. Now our government does not even have the competence or decency to come up with a plausible lie. The truth has simply become irrelevent to our government. Facts are now merely words with no basis in reality to be used by partisans on all sides for the purpose of obfuscating reality and confusing the electorate. I guess Orwell would be proud, as even he couldn't make this stuff up.

And it is one thing for our government to lie to its citizens; Americans seem quite comfortable with it. But when the lies occur on foreign soil, it destroys our credibilty around the world. I faced that issue just yesterdayat this very same cybercafe. I was talking quite cordially with to Sikhs who were using the computer next to me. And then they aksed me: "Are you Australian?" I should have lied, but instead I told them that I was American. At that point the conversation ended. I was persona non grata as an American. I guess we really do need to spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined. At the rate we are going, we will have no allies left in the world. We are already losing Australia, which is something I would have thought impossible only three years ago.