Stay Away from the US

OK, I'm not one to normally write a lot about US politics, since there are much more dedicated bloggers who don't mind the torture that comes from investigating the horror show that is the US these days, but this just pushed things over the line for me.

U.S. Ruling Dismisses Arar Lawsuit (TorStar)

So basically the US government has the right to kidnap you, send you to a foreign country to be tortured for a year, and then when you do get to take your case before an American court for recourse, they just laugh in your face and send you away.

The US does not think of you as human. They even treat their own citizens this way, and who knows how many foreigners.

This is a big deal. Attitudes and respect for individual people is the core difference between liberal democracies and totalitarian states. And they think they're on a mission from God the whole time.

My real fear is when the conservative christians and the conservative muslims realize theey're on the same side fighting the progress of humanity. That's when free-thinking people will be truly up the creek. Even if one gives Bush and his backer the benefit of the doubt that they are not seeking to create a fascist nation, they are definitely showing anyone coming in their wake how to lay the groundwork.

I used to think about studying or working down in the US but now I feel like even if I was able to be financially successful enough to live well, that I would then be guilty of benefitting from a system that creates so much poverty and inequality in their own back yards, becoming complicit in the economic machine that is killing the resto of the world.