Since Sat mentioned that he was wondering where all the bloggers were and he encouraged people to write no matter what you have to say, I’m going to go for it and “Just write!”

What’s making the news in Canada:
Canadians now need a passport when they fly into the U.S., but not if they’re driving in...yet. (That’s coming in the next year or 2.) That also means that Americans, who don’t require a passport to come into Canada, will require a passport if they intend to fly back home. In other words, they now need a passport to come here, unless they’re driving back.

That’s sad. I remember when I was a kid and we used to drive to Plattsburg Beach for the day, about an hour’s drive from where we lived at the time. We would just hop in the car and drive across the boarder with no hassles or line ups. I’ve heard from a couple of people that the line ups at the boarder these days are an average of one hour. I guess they ask a lot more questions now since 9/11. This new passport thing is probably going to discourage a lot of people who live near the boarder from driving across for a quick shopping excursion or to go to a music concert or maybe even to just visit relatives. I got a passport about 5 years ago and at that time it cost $95 plus you had to pay for your 2 pictures, about $13 dollars. I don’t know what the cost is now but even if it’s stayed the same and you have a family of 4 that’s over 400 dollars you’d have to spend just on passports. I don’t think your average Joe Blow will want to dish out that kind of money. So much for globalism....

I think it’s laughable how people think that we live in a “free” society compared to some other countries around the world. We’re not any freer than they are, the governments in the “civilized” countries are just sneakier, more covert than other countries. How can you be free when you can’t simply pick up and move to another country on the planet without having the proper papers (like a passport) and either a job waiting for you or someone to sponsor you OR you have gobs of money? How can you be free when you can loose your job because you refuse to get a flu shot or take a TB test? How can you be free when just about every square inch of the city you live in is under camera surveillance? Janis Joplin knew what she was talking about when she sang “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to loose...”