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West of Manitoba you should have few if any personal problems unless you go out of your way to bring them on yourself. East of there might be a bit different but again I think you'd have to do something stupid for people to get on your case on a personal level. However in any case you might find the general level of anti Americanism annoying after awhile.

   

Sorry to take so long to respond.

Thanks for your comments regarding studying in Canada. While I'm probably pretty conservative compared to others outside of the US, I'd like to think I'm open to new ideas. Don't like Bush either. Anyway, I asked for a few reasons: I want to go somewhere where my perceptions of America (and the world) will actually be challenged, not just blindly reinforced; (may be an overreaction, but) the Patriot Act and similar provisions are seriously worrying me; and a lot of Canada seems like a pretty damn cool place.

Rev_Blair, I've been checking out the PNAC, which I knew next-to-nothing about. Anyway, this page in particular was a huge eye opener. Frightening stuff, especially when I read the list of names in the "Statement of Principles":

Elliott Abrams Gary Bauer William J. Bennett Jeb Bush

Dick Cheney Eliot A. Cohen Midge Decter Paula Dobriansky Steve Forbes

Aaron Friedberg Francis Fukuyama Frank Gaffney Fred C. Ikle

Donald Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad I. Lewis Libby Norman Podhoretz

Dan Quayle Peter W. Rodman Stephen P. Rosen Henry S. Rowen

Donald Rumsfeld Vin Weber George Weigel Paul Wolfowitz

Most of them seem to have been handed over posts in the administration. Such a concentration of zealots in one place is pretty damn frightening. Some frightening phrases too:

benevolent global hegemony

fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major-theater wars (no particular purpose specified)

establish and protect a new order... "Pax Americana"

Frightening article... from CBS, no less...

Anyway, thanks for pointing the PNAC out to me. Incredible most Americans know next-to-nothing about them. Frightens the hell out of me.

Hell, even their own report sounds sinister:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/Rebui ... fenses.pdf

The "missions and requirements" part towards the front sounds like something out of a conspiracy theory.

"Control the 'international commons' of space and 'cyberspace', and pave the way for the creation of a new military service - US Space Force - with the mission of space control."

"Deter rise of new great-power competitor."

...

   

It is a cool place, Uhmurrican. Personally I'd suggest Winnipeg as a good place to start...we're in the middle of the country, a fairly large (pop 600,000) city with all the amenities (and social problems) of a large city and a lot of the benefits of a small one. We have a pretty diverse political culture here too...everything from die hard Reform/Alliance/Conservatives to Liberals to NDP to Greens. Also, if you're looking for cool, we've got plenty of that...it's pretty damned cold here for half the year.

I wouldn't stop with Winnipeg though...see the whole country. If you're thinking of moving here the place you end up is liable to be based on what you do for a living as much as anything else, but judging this country by one place would be roughly like going to Arkansas and saying you knew what New York was like as a result.

PNAC is a scary group, aren't they? I wish more people would look into them. They are very much of the opinion that they deserve to rule the world. George Bush is their creature.

There's a site, http://www.crisispapers.org/ , that has a lot of stuff on them.

   

Space forces!?....hot diggity-damn we're gonna have a space fleet someday soon,and maybe,Lord willing-our very own Death Star.Ooh,and we'll have space fighters and hyperdrive battle cruisers with photon torpedoes n' stuff.Just think about the possibilities like being able to put a Walmart on the moon.Gosh, it sure sounds exciting doesn't it? Space control....emmmm, come on say it with me- SPAAACE CONTROL Oh yeah,now that's the ticket.

   

A Walmart on the moon? Just what I need...another place not to shop.

What bugs me about PNAC the most is their complete disregard for democracy. They pay it lip-service sometimes, but in the end they are really about capitalism. They have no qualms about using the resources of the American people (or anybody else) to get what they want, but they want those resources only for personal gain.

   

The US is only the 14th most democratic nation in the world. It ranks behind Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and nine other European countries.

http://www.worldaudit.org/images/topnavbarcountries.jpg

   

It didn't do too well in freedom of the press rankings either, Great Briton...39th at home and 135th for its actions in Iraq, even worse than Saddam got. The new ratings will be out in October. Hopefully the US will do better in that report.

   

Yeah. But I think I have seen a more updated version where it showed that the US had moved up to 17th.

   

Reporters Without Borders usually releases their reports in October so I think you might be thinking of something from another group. That doesn't make it invalid, but RWB has some pretty strict criteria (more than most) so their reports have to be compared to their other reports to see if there's an improvement or not. They deal strictly with freedom of the press.

I could be wrong though...my spam filter was picking up a lot of newsletters I subscibe to, so I missed some updates.

   

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