This was not what I had in mind on the issue of border security

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canada+cross+border+policing+tested/5410532/story.html

How does this even sound like a good idea? Police with authority on both sides of the border? So now Canadians can be dissapeared to Guantanamo and summarily tortured into false confessions? Or is it the fact that the RIAA/MPAA has no reach here, and now we can expect riot police and FBI busting down the door for 'allegedly' reproducing and redistributing copyrighted material?

A revelation: I.T. and the Military-Industrial-Complex share many traits

I've done a lot of reading in regards to authority and power and how in it's will to survive it can do some pretty unusual things in the justification of itself. I am not going to get too heavy on details as I am not focusing on any one event in this post. I am way more focused on some of the uncanny parallels I have encountered in my day-to-day life in the world of I.T. Though there are also some stark contrasts at the same time.

If you were unable to wake from a dream, how would you tell the dream world from the real world?

Consider that 10 years ago, a huge event happened that transformed the world and it's perceptions. Everybody is sent home from work and doesn't return for the rest of the week (it was on a Tuesday). So, with a whole shitload of things running through your mind you go home and watch the news (as it replays the event over and over) and don't sleep for a couple of days... But instead of being hypnotized into a stupor, you begin to realize that many things that were shown and 'reported on' yesterday, are suddenly not there. In fact, right now, they should be talking to that African-American who said something about bombs in that building nobody is even talking about anymore. So you begin to wonder, and retrace your memory.

The Scar Spangled Banner

Days like today I am happy to have TV and computer monitor right next to each other, because as I hear and see CNN I can also do research. The only way they could make this 'sadder' would be to strangle puppies live on air.

Not to disrespect those who's lives were lost 10 years ago, but the past decade has really not been a proper tribute to honour their deaths.

Price desparities, tarrifs, and NAFTA, oh my

Don't look now. Somebody in the Canadian government is going to 'look into something' in regards to the price of consumer goods not reflecting the strength of the Canadian dollar against our neighbours. But thus far it's looking like tariffs might be part of the problem.

Which tariffs? Could they be referring to tariffs that were supposedly eliminated with the signing of NAFTA? Probably not. I have a theory here, and only time will tell if it is correct. You see, the U.S. stopped making tangible products a while back when they opted to sell their economy to China and India...

That's the whole theory: they don't manufacture anything, so we aren't importing their nothing they make under NAFTA. We get it from China just as the U.S. does. Tariffs are in place because we had no agreement with China to let them manufacture all our cheap crap in exchange for low or zero tariffs, so to enable (or attempt to enable) our manufacturers to better compete with cheap crap made in China, our cheap Chinese crap is 20% more expensive than American cheap Chinese crap give or take the exchange rate on the USD.

Whether or not the tariffs are actually helping our manufacturers is the real question, and I hope the answer is yes. Otherwise, I'd like a refund on all my cheap Chinese crap.

-DIrtyKID©

The biggest threat to Canada? eh?

'Islamicism' biggest threat to Canada... or says Steven Harper

Really?
Not the encroaching total economic collapse of Europe and the U.S.?
Not the fear of reprisal for our involvement in ẒŇATO?
Not our continued partnership in NAFTA?