Talking of humor... You can be surely funny.

nevertheless, you surely can be

Anti-terrorist laws

On the topic: "dirty war on terrorism" (raised by ms van Campen) and passports, I couldn't resist sharing this article on salon.com with you.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/05/01/wormwood_scrubs/

Here's some fun excerpts:

"[..]..not physical, but verbal, with the flight attendants becoming snootier by the minute and me becoming, well, let's say, more American. I behaved badly in-flight, yelling at the crew, "I am an American citizen! You are our lapdog ally!" and other remarks of a vulgar and unhelpful nature. [...]
Finally, I went back to the galley and sat on what is called the "bustle," which is where they keep those rubber slides should a plane go down in water and where, over many years of these flights, I've seen lots of people sitting and children playing without anyone making a fuss about it. But times have changed, and now parking your ass on the bustle constitutes "endangering an aircraft," which is a very high crime under Britain's new anti-terrorism laws, and can get you sent to prison for a minimum of two years. [...]
Evidently, the "suspicious" passport and the last-minute ticket purchase, not to mention the bustle business, had resulted in a call to Interpol or some other surveillance outfit. [...] Most surprising to me was the fact that the police had information about my family -- specifically, that my father is a convert to Islam, married to a Moroccan woman; that I have two Moroccan half-sisters; that I have spent long periods in the Middle East. I was appalled to find out that such details are available "at the click of a mouse" to any squirt with a badge, and I must have indicated as much to the squirts in question, because their notes about my "attitude and behavior" boiled down to one word: "obnoxious.""[..]

reciprocity

Same situations always occur on different scales.
My little dog suffers from disloyalty towards me but seems to be aware of my love for him as well.
He ran away again.
Imagining i were you and my dog would be America, i fully understand.
There has to be some reciprocity.

I subscribe to this principal of reciprocity.

It is unclear to me whether mister Neufelder  will find his way tot this comment, but I can only hope so.

You should go and see Reservoir Dogs by the famous director Tarantino.

Certain scenes will be enlightning. I'm sure of that.

The principle of Reciprocity

This I can only subscribe to on certain conditions.

It must be known. Do the Americans know you will only give them full credit if they give you a green-card in return? Does the dog know he has got to stay because his boss loves him?
In addition: it must be desired. Does the dog want to be loved?

I still have some questions to answer:
1. European (dutch passport)
2. Tess
3. Amsterdam, planning to make a documentary about mud wrestling

Arnon Grunberg: I believe in reciprocity as well. But as with some other principles (there are exceptions here) I also believe one has to be pragmatic. I subscribe to the principle of reciprocity when circumstances allow for it.
Best of luck with your green card procedure. I have two small pieces of advice for you. Advice that you probably won't need, as I am sure that apart from having a nice sense of humour your immigration lawyer is very knowledgable as well. But here are my two cents anyway.
First, I am superstitious enough to believe that talking about something too much before it materializes brings bad luck, so maybe you shouldn't broadcast your visa sores so openly. Secondly, just to be on the safe side, you might want to refrain from too many direct dealings with members of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations for the time being. I can think of a couple of other reasons for that than visa-related ones by the way.

@pjotr

You might want to watch the movie "Brazil", 1985 by Terry Gilliam. This shows the horrific affects of a state that applies torture.

If have also posted a new comment on the blog of yesterday.

@pjotr

Sorry, I meant 2 days ago.

yes he does

Dear Lin
In Russia there once was a dog named Faith. He was at the backseat of the car. The car got into an accident. Faith was the only surviver. He waited at the crossing where he saw his bosses leave, waited for their return. Untill he died.

Eva

Reading carefully is not your biggest asset obviously. I don’t have any visa sores and I never claimed to have visa sores. I just stated that my emigration lawyer decided to postpone my application for a green card and to go for a renewal of my visa instead.
As a journalist, or a literary journalist for that matter, I’m obliged to speak also to members of Hezbollah while visiting Lebanon. In your case it’s impossible to make a distinction between superstition and opinion. Unfortunately you are not the only one suffering from this illness.

"principle", not "principal".