Barred From The US of A For Being Different ...

By Uncle Monty

***
Sebastian Horsley stopped by at my Big Issue
pitch a few months ago to buy six copies of the mag
that he was written up in and so Sebastian and I
chatted happily and I also took some photographs

of him, too. Thus, I include the above caption photo

here that I took of him at my pitch.
+++
So when I read this morning’s major news story at

Reuters that he’d been barred visa entrance to the

the US of A, I wasn’t particularly surprised knowing

how the US has now become a kind of “Fortess America”

since the 9/11 fallout and in which almost anybody who

thinks and acts differently to the average American Joe

can expect the good old US of A to do its very best at

barring those who it feels threatens them and their

rather closed and horse-blinked view of the world

outside of Stateside.

***

So, anybody who says or believes that “America is

the land of the free” needs to read why such isn’t

so after reading the stupid reasons why they barred

such British folkz as Sebastian Horsley and Cat Stevens
from first entering the country … In the case of Cat

Stevens, they even diverted a whole plane full of people

so that they could bar him as a so-called “terrorist

threat” to the US of A. Cat Stevens was and is no

more a terrorist threat than a skinned cat …

+++

As for Sebastion Horsley, eccentricity isn't cherished in

deculturalized America and is viewed as almost a "crime"

by some members of Yankee officialdom, especially

if you’re a “funny” foreigner with a Blighty

accent like Sebastian Horsley.

+++

Here then is the full unedited news story about him from

Reuters news staffers Belinda Goldsmith and Todd Eastham:
***
:: U.S. denies entry to British

sex and drugs memoir writer ::
*
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Controversial British

author Sebastian Horsley was denied en-

trance into the United States as he arrived

to promote his memoir of drug addiction, sex

and his dysfunctional family, his publisher

said on Wednesday. Seale Ballenger, spokesman

for HarperCollins Publishers, said Horsley

was stopped by immigration officials at New

York's Newark airport after flying in from

London on Tuesday to promote his latest book

"Dandy in the Underworld." He said the

flamboyant writer, wearing a top hat, three-

piece suit and painted finger nails, was

accused of "moral turpitude" in connection

with his former drug use, pro-prostitution

stance and controversial self-

crucifixion in the Philippines in 2000.

+++
Horsley, 45, claims to have slept with more

than 1,000 prostitutes, worked as a male

escort and been in and out of rehab to treat

drug addiction, with video interviews of

him talking about his drug use and sex

life posted on the Internet.
"He is very honest about his life.

That is who Sebastian is," Ballenger

told Reuters from a party in New York

that was meant to be the U.S. launch

for the book but ended up being a

rally for support to bring the

author back to the United States.
Ballenger said after several hours of

questioning by immigration officials,

Horsley was put on a plane and returned

to London. No one from the New York

office of United States Customs and Border

Protection was immediately available to

comment. The New York Times quoted a customs

spokeswoman, Lucille Cirillo, as saying

she could not comment on individual cases.
But in an e-mail to the newspaper she

explained that under a waiver program that

allows British citizens to enter the

United States without a visa,"travelers

who have been convicted of a crime involving

moral turpitude (which includes controlled-

substance violations) or admit to previously

having a drug addiction are not admissible."
***
Publisher Carrie Kania, from the

HarperCollins' unit Harper Perennial that

published the book in the United States,

said she found it hard to understand why

Horsley would be denied entrance into the

U.S. for "his notoriety." "It is un-

fortunate that his voice, in person, is

being stifled," she said in a statement.
"Sebastian has written a cautionary tale

of a life lived vividly ... an unapolo-

getic, honest, funny and torturous book.

Sebastian's memoir is about choice, some

conventional, some unconventional."
Horsley's memoir was published last

September in Britain with reviewers

calling it both amusing and revolting.
(News copy by Belinda Goldsmith,

editing by Todd Eastham).
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSSP30020020080320

***

Just hours later, this neat response:

At 3/21/2008 05:07:00 AM, True Blue Liberal

said... As much as we'd like to have them leave the

US, the UK should retaliate by inexplicably refusing

to admit the next jingoistic cowboy-hatted country

singer or fundamentalist bible-waving TV evangelist

who lands at Heathrow. trueblueliberal.org

***