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Bill Would Let Police Monitor Email
Duuk2k2 writes "The Canadian federal cabinet will review new legislation this fall that would give police and security agencies vast powers to begin surveillance of the Internet without court authority. The new measures would allow law-enforcement agents to intercept personal e-mails, text messages and possibly even password-secure websites used for purchasing and financial transactions."
6 of the 9-11 terrorists came through canada, on the catferry from NS to bar harbor to get to boston... so canada may not be as out of the loop as you want to indicate...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
And it still is the best place on earth, if for no other reason than because you get riled up when the government steps to increase its powers and abuse the public trust. You are not alone in holding dear the values and principles that make the U.S. great. Values and principles that, from time to time, get trampled and torn.
"Bush II will pass..."
But, there have been, and continue to be, ordinary, fallable people, who strive to build a nation built on worthy principles, nevertheless. Despite regresses into barbarism, and human sins and weaknesses, the U.S. does manage to progress.
Whereas, a nation like Canada, prides principles of "equality of outcome" and "peace, order, and good government" that I find, by contrast, reprehensible in their attach on individual liberty.
Other countries do not have such lofty principles that celebrate the individual. The U.S. may falter and fall into the quagmire of human evils from time to time, and fail in it's promise of "liberty, justice, and the pursuit of hapiness for all", but damn it, it won't be for lack of trying.
Canadians, in contrast, appear to be too busy eating their own bullshit to notice how bad it tastes.
As for the taxes, Google "Canadian Revenue Agency" and compare.
You could've hired me.
My experience with the IRS vs. Reveune Quebec and the CRA has been exactly the opposite.
The one thing I can say for Canada is their tax forms and laws are dramatically simpler, I way preferred them over U.S. tax filing, while it sounds like you enjoying working all the loopholes like deducting your mortgage expenses.
That by itself is very telling: you think that deducting mortgage interest expense is a "loophole" -- some kind of exotic tax dodge. Guess what? I get to split my income with my non-working spouse by filing jointly. Another "loophole"? Hardly, both are something millions of Americans do every day.
The problem with the U.S. tax code is its been so butchered by Congress that if you are a ruthless, rich SOB with a good accountant you pay nothing, while most ordinary people take it in the nose. Wrongo. There is an alternative minimum tax in the U.S. much like in Canada. In a normal year (living in one country or the other), my taxes are quite simple. I do itemize my deductions, and sometimes have a Schedule D to report capital gains and losses, but that's about it.
In a dual tax-home year, it gets complex, but nothing my accountant can't handle -- the most complex my return has been involved $700 in preparation fees so that I could deduct repayed prorated Canadian moving expenses to my Canadian employer against U.S. income in the year I actually payed them, leveraging two international tax treaties (U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Germany). I actually saved money by making myself voluntarily subject to U.S. tax when I otherwise didn't have to. I suppose that was a loophole, but the IRS was quite happy with what I did, and refunded me US$7500.
I once did an analysis, and only over a very small range of incomes around US$10k-$15k are Americans taxed more than Canadians, though even here I may have erred since low-income Americans get an Earned Income Credit.
For the record, I'd rather be incarcerated in an American jail as a potential terrorist threat (When will a foreigner let into Canada finally cross the border and blow something up? With the lax immigration policy, I fear it's just a matter of time), than live free in Canada. It's a heinous, murderous place.
You could've hired me.