Yes, and if we dropped border up north, Americans with guns would probably swamp Canadian cities, bringing out-of-control American crime with them. I see your point.

And the Brits? They were only country to send tens of thousands of troops to Iraq besides you! If they were that stupid, how could you trust them to enter your country?

Perhaps European closed-mindedness explains Americans trying to pass as Canadians, but it doesn't explain Americans getting away with it. It works because differences between Americans and Canadians don't amount to hill of beans. That being so, why bother with tight controls on boundary that doesn't really matter to anyone and doesn't separate countries with significant social differences?

As a Minnesotan visiting Europe, I actually had difficulty explaining to people that I wasn't Canadian.  I must be developing an accent.  (I grew up in Wisconsin, where people talk normal)

Next time you can try various Caribbean islands where you would also have difficulty convincing anyone you were American, since so few actually visit certain islands. Maybe it was your peaceful countenance. Maybe Minnesotans and Wisconsinites really should be classified as Canadian.

Fairly or not, Canada is viewed as having a very lax immigration policy that allows easy access to radical islamists. Before any such proposal could gain any headway, the specter of the millennium bomber would be plastered in the consciouness of American by the excitable media.  I can't see any administration taking the risk of opening the border because the political fallout would be disastrous if a successful terrorist entered the States through Canada.

I don't see any practical solution to concerns about Canadian border security.  I doubt Canada would allow America to dictate its immigration policy, and I don't see a consensus developing in America anytime soon that would allow for easier immigration into the country.

Have you ever crossed US-Canada boundary? After waiting for some long period of time, you finally get to customs agent, who probably doesn't even ask your name, doesn't ask to see your ID or passport, asks what you plan to do in US, and then waves you through after you tell him you plan to shop at some US supermarket. So US maintains border posts so that it can stop Arabs? If so, then why not be upfront about what you do and let rest of us come and go at will?

For now, anyway. I hope you can always make that same statement.

My plan is to keep on using CD for my meds and thus not hang myself until such time I get a job with health insurance and finally acquire my drugs "legally".  Funny old country I live in, eh?

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

I hear you. And dental services come so much cheaper in Canada that it would almost justify visiting just to have your teeth worked on. Considering Canadian doctors have as much training as US ones, you could actually visit Canada for medical tourism purposes without having to fly 12 hours to Asia. US has best medical system on Earth, if you can afford it.

Yeah, but you just can't buy a nice working kidney in Saskatoon like you can in Manila.

But if you buy one from China, at least you can be reasonably sure it came from executed prisoner rather than from some desperate person who lost his kidney for financial reasons.

Either way it involves more than a quick trip across the border.

Certainly true. Fortunately, most people only need root canal or cheap drugs.

Sorry, I still have problems with nuance and sarcasm.