Third Time's The Charm
Dec. 30th, 2003 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfsbrideGeez... I seem to have mental diarraha tonight for I have yet another rant.
I was sent this link by a friend of mine.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/29/fbi.almanacs.ap/index.html
Onto rant #3....
WB
Okay.... Let's all just pause and take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath now shall we because it sounds to me like someone needs some oxygen to the brain.
Before I rant, I'm just gonna clear a couple points so we know where I stand. One, yes America suffered a great blow. Two, they have every right to do all in their power to see that it doesn't happen again.
But.... and here's comes the rant for those who want to run like the wind... I think they're going slightly to the extreme. And I mean slightly in the same way that a 16ton weight to the foot slightly injures you.
It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.
Um... Okay I'll give them the point that it'd be kinda odd for someone to be going around with an almanac, but 'annotated in supspicious ways'?!?! What the hell does that mean??? Do they really think a terrorist is gonna have some city circled in red with a big 'this one would be good' note by it???
Not unless he's failed Terrorism 101.
"But it warned that when combined with suspicious behavior -- such as apparent surveillance -- a person with an almanac "may point to possible terrorist planning."
Do they really think terrorists are going to be THAT obvious about their agendas. Again I say only if they've flunked out of Terrorism School.
It's all very well and good to want to protect your country but when you start to slowly turn into the thing you're supposed to be protecting people against mebbe it's time to take a holiday.
I mean everyone goes on and on about how horrible a dictator Sadamn was but it seems to me as though Bush is going down that path as well. He's making dramatic sweeping legal reforms to things like civil liberties with NO mention I might add, of when or IF those reforms will be repealed and he's actually reprimanded Canada severely when we didn't follow suit in a manner that suited him.
Does anyone else remember Animal Farm and how the laws kept changing to suit those in power?
I think this really bothered me because while in Heathrow airport in November, an very elderly Indian gentleman sat next to me and we started to talk. He was very nice, a bit lonely but very nice, wasn't bothering me at all.
Suddenly out of no where the airport police swooped down on him, forcibly got him to his feet and then harrassed him verbally until he left the area. It was clear from the things they said that they thought he was a terrorist.
Quite frankly, I don't think so. He was just a lonely old man with no family and the misfortune to be Indian.
America is turning into a bully, or maybe they've always been bullies and are just now being less subtle about it because they don't have to be since they're so powerful. They are in the process of pushing Canada around some more over lumber. Which is really annoying because wer're supposed to have this Free Trade thingy with them and it's been anything BUT free.
For those of you who care, in order to sell lumber to Amercian companies that want to purchase it, our lumber companies have to pay exhorbitant surcharges in order just to do business in America. The big deal right now is the fact that they want to up the charges yet again and also make it so that if a company sells more than a certain amount of lumber they have to pay an extra $1000 for every X amount over the set figure.
To me this is ridiculous. In the NORMAL business world, if I have a product and you have a product and you make yours better than mine and advertise better, naturally your business is going to do better than mine. That's the way it goes. Bad luck for me.
What America is effectively trying to do is to penalize Canada for making a product that Amercians would rather buy over their own. American companies LIKE Canadian Lumber. It's easier to work with they say. And because of that, America is kicking us in the mepthorical balls.
I say we take our business else where. Surely someone else would buy from us. But unfortunately, I ain't in office and the people who are are idiots really because we signed a free trade treaty with them not once but TWICE.
So I guess we're getting exactly what we deserve.
WB
I was sent this link by a friend of mine.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/29/fbi.almanacs.ap/index.html
Onto rant #3....
WB
Okay.... Let's all just pause and take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath now shall we because it sounds to me like someone needs some oxygen to the brain.
Before I rant, I'm just gonna clear a couple points so we know where I stand. One, yes America suffered a great blow. Two, they have every right to do all in their power to see that it doesn't happen again.
But.... and here's comes the rant for those who want to run like the wind... I think they're going slightly to the extreme. And I mean slightly in the same way that a 16ton weight to the foot slightly injures you.
It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.
Um... Okay I'll give them the point that it'd be kinda odd for someone to be going around with an almanac, but 'annotated in supspicious ways'?!?! What the hell does that mean??? Do they really think a terrorist is gonna have some city circled in red with a big 'this one would be good' note by it???
Not unless he's failed Terrorism 101.
"But it warned that when combined with suspicious behavior -- such as apparent surveillance -- a person with an almanac "may point to possible terrorist planning."
Do they really think terrorists are going to be THAT obvious about their agendas. Again I say only if they've flunked out of Terrorism School.
It's all very well and good to want to protect your country but when you start to slowly turn into the thing you're supposed to be protecting people against mebbe it's time to take a holiday.
I mean everyone goes on and on about how horrible a dictator Sadamn was but it seems to me as though Bush is going down that path as well. He's making dramatic sweeping legal reforms to things like civil liberties with NO mention I might add, of when or IF those reforms will be repealed and he's actually reprimanded Canada severely when we didn't follow suit in a manner that suited him.
Does anyone else remember Animal Farm and how the laws kept changing to suit those in power?
I think this really bothered me because while in Heathrow airport in November, an very elderly Indian gentleman sat next to me and we started to talk. He was very nice, a bit lonely but very nice, wasn't bothering me at all.
Suddenly out of no where the airport police swooped down on him, forcibly got him to his feet and then harrassed him verbally until he left the area. It was clear from the things they said that they thought he was a terrorist.
Quite frankly, I don't think so. He was just a lonely old man with no family and the misfortune to be Indian.
America is turning into a bully, or maybe they've always been bullies and are just now being less subtle about it because they don't have to be since they're so powerful. They are in the process of pushing Canada around some more over lumber. Which is really annoying because wer're supposed to have this Free Trade thingy with them and it's been anything BUT free.
For those of you who care, in order to sell lumber to Amercian companies that want to purchase it, our lumber companies have to pay exhorbitant surcharges in order just to do business in America. The big deal right now is the fact that they want to up the charges yet again and also make it so that if a company sells more than a certain amount of lumber they have to pay an extra $1000 for every X amount over the set figure.
To me this is ridiculous. In the NORMAL business world, if I have a product and you have a product and you make yours better than mine and advertise better, naturally your business is going to do better than mine. That's the way it goes. Bad luck for me.
What America is effectively trying to do is to penalize Canada for making a product that Amercians would rather buy over their own. American companies LIKE Canadian Lumber. It's easier to work with they say. And because of that, America is kicking us in the mepthorical balls.
I say we take our business else where. Surely someone else would buy from us. But unfortunately, I ain't in office and the people who are are idiots really because we signed a free trade treaty with them not once but TWICE.
So I guess we're getting exactly what we deserve.
WB
