doggod - Slashdot User

Comment: Re:Bring back the bunco squads (Score 1) 357

by doggod on Monday September 01 2008, @08:21PM (#24836941) Attached to: Smilin' Bob Not Smilin' Anymore

Ah, yes, the old argumentum ad utopium. "Your (non-authoritarian) idea must produce utopia, if it falls short, then the default is my (authoritarian) solution, which needs to pass no tests."

Politicians love using this fallacy because people seem to fall for it easily and it funnels power and influence right into their laps. If a little old lady in Cincinatti gets scammed, why, raise the alarums, marshal the forces, create an agency, put bureaucrats to work, find some culprits, put them in jail for a while, pat ourselves on the back, make speeches, get elected again next time.

Never mind that the effort has cost the taxpayers a lot of money and has actually enhanced the playing field for the scammers (as I described earlier). It gave power to the politician, some people with mediocre abilities found new, good paying jobs in a bureaucracy, some cops got pulled off dangerous duty catching armed criminals and got reassigned to work on safe, non-violent cases. It's a win-win-win!

Oh, except for the taxpayer who quietly just took another small hit. And will keep taking more and more small hits as the process continues because the problem keeps getting worse as more and more people become gullible, act stupidly, and ask to be "protected" by their nannies, The Government.

WTO Rules on Internet Gambling Case 0

Submitted by

doggod

on Friday December 21 2007, @12:04PM

doggod writes "The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7171143 reports today that the WTO has finally ruled on Antigua's complaint about the US unfair trade practices relating to its passage last year of a law that forbids banks from handling money to and from on-line casinos.

The amount they awarded is significantly less than Antigua asked for, but still, since they awarded anything all, one wonders how this is going to work. If you download a copyrighted song from a server in Antigua, will that be an ironclad defense that will make you invulnerable to future attacks from the RIAA?"

Canada: No more Mr. Nice Guy

Submitted by

doggod

on Friday May 11 2007, @02:35PM

doggod writes "The last time you took a trip to Canada, no doubt your experience at the border was just a guy asking you a few innocuous questions like: "Where are you going?", "How long are you staying?", "Do you have any firearms?", etc. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, those were the good old days.

Now, courtesy of an interconnection to the US databases, they're checking everyone, and anyone who has ever run afoul of the law — big deal, small deal, recent past, distant past, it all doesn't matter — will be doing a u-turn at the border.

For example, people are being refused entry who engaged in fraternity pranks 30 years ago. Some of them are now jet setters who are accustomed to smooth sailing anywhere and everywhere. Not Canada. Not now. People are asking what's behind the crackdown: The Canadian border people are saying it's not a crackdown — these laws have been on the books for a long time, you just got away with your "crimes" before.

They've allowed a little loophole, though. If you've been nice for quite a while, they're willing to forgive you and let you back in so you can resume spending your greenbacks. All you need to do is fill out an "Approval of Rehabilitation" form and send it in with a non-refundable payment of C$200. They'll shuffle it across some desks for "a month to a year, depending on the circumstances", and then they'll send you a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card that you'll be able to flash at the border and sail right through.

As a former miscreant myself (I smoked marijuana in the '60s, and the cops found some on me — Oh dear!), I downloaded the form and started filling it out. That's when I discovered there was much more to it than that. I had to furnish attachments with the form, and these included a full transcript of the 1966 trial, an FBI fingerprint clearance card, and he's-a-nice-guy letters from the cops in every state in which I lived for the last ten years.

I had been planning on driving my motor home through Canada to Alaska this summer, but now I've scratched those plans. I've sent off for all those attachments (at a total additional cost of about US$70), but it seems highly unlikely that all those bureaucrats would produce all that work in short enough order for me to make the 2007 traveling season. I'm now planning on doing a US tour instead. Maybe in 2008 I'll do Alaska — assuming I get my card by then.

No word yet on whether any of the places along the Alaska Highway (or the many other popular tourist destinations) that depend on US tourists for their livelihoods are noticing a downturn in their visitor counts. I have a feeling we'll be hearing about it in the months to come, though."