swstephe
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Posts posted by swstephe
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I was once on a flight out of Bangkok. They asked me to switch seats with a woman who had been placed next to a Buddhist monk. They said it would violate his religious vows if he accidentally brushed up against her while leaving his seat. I didn't mind, as an American I support freedom for people to practice their religion no matter what my personal beliefs on the matter were. I don't see how this rule in Australia or the hadith harms anyone.
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President Obama raised the use of Executive Orders to an unprecedented level.
President Trump will rescind many of those Executive Orders . . . and issue new ones to his liking.
President Trump can do almost anything he wants regarding immigration, by Executive Order.
There doesn't have to be months of hearings, etc., by Congress.
One signature and it's effective immediately.
You can blame President Obama for this, because he set the tone for ignoring Congress.
Fact check. It definitely wasn't unprecedented. Obama's current total is 235, or about 31 per year, which means his presidency had the lowest number of executive orders, per year, since Grover Cleveland.
(and old chart from 2014)
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Well, I have a dual citizenship with the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and I have put both of my nationalities down on my DS260 form. Do you think that they might not approve me because I have a citizenship with an European country? I'm asking out of curisity, and not in a way to oppose to what you're saying. I'm just really worried.
Like I said, I have no idea. My brother had dual citizenship, a child of US military born in the UK, but the US didn't recognize dual citizenship, so he was told he had to choose one. He chose US to avoid conscription, (he didn't realize it had already been abolished), then ended up being a reservist in the military anyway. I think you are much better off than us. We are Muslims and my fiance comes from a country with terrorists. It could be anything from "nothing" to "internment camps", (like they did to the Japanese), depending on who you listen to.
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Hey. I'm an Indian Citizen and husband is a LPR. Even though I'm a Hindu and all the paperwork is legal, I'm scared too. My file is just two months away from being current. And now, I'm going crazy thinking what's gonna happen next. At this stage, I'll suggest staying calm. Don't worry. Atleast not yet.
We'll get through this. You might actually safe in this case. Apparently, Trump has no problem at all with Hindu immigrants.
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I've been doing some research into the question myself. Maybe someone with more legal information can correct me, but so far it looks like Trump can definitely block visas for entire classes of people due to the McCarren-Walter Act:
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 states: “Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”
Most of the recent presidents have used this law to ban visas for classes of people, Bill Clinton banned members of the Haitian military, Obama used it to ban people on the UN travel ban and those falling under financial criminal acts. The real problem was that Trump first said he would ban all Muslims, (which raised questions about a religious test), then he said any territory with terrorist events, (which would potentially ban people from Europe and Australia as well). Just the last few days, the statement about banning Muslims has been taken down from the website.
So, right now, I really don't know what the future will hold. I don't want to bet on anyone breaking their campaign promises, so I'll keep my options open.
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Beautiful love story! Your story is proof that things like these do happen in real life (not only in movies!). Does that tiny country in Borneo happen to be Brunei by any chance? Anyways, congratulations on meeting the love of your life (finally!) and on your marriage
Yes, it was Brunei, (a very short list of candidates). And with a population of 300k, it is likely we know some people in common.
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I have a kind of weird story, if anyone is interested.
I first met my fiancée in 1985. That was before there was an internet. We met each other as pen pals while I was in college. Our letters became more detailed and grew to about 20 pages, long hand, where we would have to wait 2 weeks for a reply. Somehow, I felt that we were destined to be married, even though we had never met in person, or had even been to each other's countries or even continents. I had learned an Indonesian word, "jodoh", which can mean "the person you are fated to be with". Two weeks after graduating college, I took my tiny savings and bought a plane ticket about half way to Indonesia. My plan was to teach English in Taiwan for a while, then buy a plane ticket the rest of the way. I was excited to think my letters might get replies in just 1 week. But I never got a response. I even cut out the address from ads and bills I was receiving, (Chinese writing), and mailed it together with my letters but got nothing back.
In the years that followed, I had never forgotten her and felt drawn toward that area, even while trying to move on with my life. Around 2009, I was running a small company in a tiny country on Borneo Island. I looked up her name on Facebook and found a match. I sent her a message and she replied that it was her, and that she still remembered me after all this time. She said she had gotten my letters and replied, but it seemed that I wasn't getting her letters. It even turned out that we had been living only about a 2 hour drive from each other on Borneo. I had gone to Indonesia on business and we figured out that we were only about 2 blocks away from each other during a very difficult time in her life. Many places we had visited overlapped. The place where my brother got married, (in the Philippines), was where she got coffee every morning when she was stationed there. We met for the very first time, in person, 22 years after I had started on my journey after college. We "floated" around South-East Asia for a while. Eventually, I came back to the US to clear up my debts and obligations. She was able to come to the US for about 6 months at a time due to a generous tourist visa she got from a previous US employer. Last month, we got everything cleared out so we can pursue a green card so we can finally get married and stay together for good.
It turned out we are pretty much a perfect match in personality and interests. Her family knows all about me from how much she talked about me when she was in college, (they even had a nickname for me). Sometimes they would catch us sitting or standing in the same posture. Once, I had a dream where she was wet, (I thought it had been raining), and wearing a sarong. She thought it was strange as she never wears that kind of clothes. But I found a picture, taken about 9 years after we lost contact of her doing this Indonesian ceremony to find her soul mate -- in the picture she is wearing a brown sarong and an elderly lady is pouring water over her head. I guess the delay in years gave us a more solid foundation. I learned a lot about the Indonesian language, food and culture. She knows so much about American TV and movies that she can usually come up with the most arcane trivia about any TV or movie star from the past 50 years.
I'm just wondering if I should add some of this info to the visa application, or if it is too much information.
- Unlockable, N-o-l-a, Darnell and 3 others
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Australian school allows male Muslim pupils to refuse handshakes with women
in Current Events and Hot Social Topics
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I have a related funny story. A film crew was making an episode of a local TV police drama. One scene called for a party with both men and women. The religious censors said they couldn't film men and women together who weren't married. Someone I know, ran out and came back with half a dozen transgendered women. They got to film the scene and it went out on national TV. I suspect the religious censors realized that if they objected, it would be tantamount to an admission that there is a such thing as a transgendered woman and that they could potentially marry a man at that "party". I've found a lot of strict rules end up stuck in a paradox like that.
It is a complex subject though. Look up the term "mukhannath", which seems to justify gender identity, even in some very strict cultures.