For those just tuning in here, I live in the state of Michigan. As such, I am surrounded on two sides by Canada. While I haven't gone recently (a few years) due to a lack of funds, earlier on this decade I would go to Canada when I had the chance - especially when I spent a couple of years in northern Michigan in the tiny city of Sault Sainte Marie, MI, which is a stone's throw from its twin city of the same name in Canada. The border crossing process had usually been rather simple for me, with the most that I got asked is "Where'd you go? How long were you there? Bringing back lots of money? Alright have a good one." I suppose it was a bit naive of me to think that things would go south in the couple of years since I've been to Canada, especially in lieu of revelations that Homeland Security can take your laptop at the border if they feel like it.
Like most things in life you stay naive of it, happily nested in a world of "it can't/won't happen to me" until - sure enough - it does.
It's quite sad how little attention this is getting outside the corners of the internet where tech-savvy people gather, but perhaps the media thinks those are the only people who would understand it. The overriding theme, the sound bite, the message, it's loud and clear and it can't be argued against:
Internet Service Provider X shuts down access to deep dark portion of the Internet where only pedophiles hang out. Your children are safer now!
You have carte blanche to do whatever you want in this country if you can somehow, in some vague way - with connections basic enough so Joe-casual-news-reader can understand - tie it into protecting the children. If the appearance of the children being protected looks good enough, it doesn't matter what reality actually is.
Besides, a good portion of people out there probably have no idea what Usenet is.
When we last left off with economic worries, the utmost concern at the time was the seemingly endless water torture trickle of the U.S. Dollar. A few months later and we're still relatively in the same spot - sideways trading becoming the norm since about March of this year. The housing market bubble is not done claiming victims just yet...
Unless I fail at searching (in which case I'll pull the diary), there seems to be hardly a mention here on Kos about the following story:
Thousands of dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, took the day off work today in what their union called a protest of the war in Iraq, effectively shutting down operations at the busy complexes.
meta: I in no way pretend to be as good as bonddad or Jerome a Paris at breaking down economic things here, but I've been reading their blogs for quite a bit and this economy issue has become more and more important to me - especially since as a resident of the Detroit area I'm in one of the epicenters of the worst this economy has to offer. I know I'll say what they've said, but amidst the siege of candidate diaries, some important issues are getting buried, and I believe this is one of the more important ones that really needs attention. So, sorry if it sounds like a broken record to some.
It was a day that will be seared into the collective American conscience for generations to come – October 11, 2005 – the day that made it abundantly clear that America was at war, and there was no turning back. It was on that day that for only the third time in world history a nuclear weapon was used for offensive purposes against an enemy. The exact story of how the weapon made it to American shores and so deep into the country before anyone took notice will be one of the great mysteries of our time, but what followed is nothing short of set in stone.
The billionaire Republican running for the job of running the state of Michigan has taken to some interesting methods of promoting himself - like trying to avoid who he is, and what party he represents.
It’s almost a given, like waiting for another shoe to drop. I suppose some out there are just wired this way, ready for the knee jerk reaction, ready to blame a problem they don’t understand on skin color, religion, clothing, life preferences, anything out there that they might not understand, and understand little enough to use as a method to put someone down.
“So, there have been riots in France going on for nearly two weeks now? Who is rioting? The lower class, downtrodden, which includes many Muslim immigrants? Muslim you say? France you say? Well that’s what France gets for not joining us in the War on Terror! Look what those evil-doers are doing to that country! Thank god we are taking the fight to them over there instead of them coming here!”
It's a skeleton in the collective American closet that is not often dealt with. Every now and then it comes to light, maybe with a little outrage, maybe with a little desire to change, and in the end a whole lot of nothing gets done - just enough to calm tensions until a later date. I'm talking about the "R" word. I'm talking about racism. The problem exists in this country (and others) on such a grand scale I can't even begin to hope to get it all down in one shot. I can talk about what I do know about, though - and that's home.
Intro: I've been blogging for a bit (longer than that page would lead you to believe, actually) and I enjoy to write. With that in mind, I also like people to read what I write, so I throw myself to the DKos masses. Time to pop that Kos cherry, heh.
This is a cross-post of what I just finished writing. Hopefully it won't get lost in the avalanche of Katrina-related topics but really, try as I might to focus on something else, I just can't right now. So with that said, time to get into my favorite most-ignored question in politics (it seems): "Why?"
