Good Links, July Edition–Sort of…Not.

I wasn’t around much for July and when I wasn’t going old-school wireless (i.e. totally detached from civilization–talking no cell phone coverage even) I wasn’t doing much browsing online. I wasn’t even checking my RSS feeds. I know, it is crazy. And I didn’t even miss it. I must have been having a lot of fun to not experience any withdrawal. Anyway, that all babbled and done, I have no good links for July.

But what I DO have are a few things that made me go ‘hmmmm’. First of all, I should note that I am Canadian. Second of all, I traveled to the United States this summer. Whenever I visit our lovely neighbours, I am always amused by the slight differences in culture. What? We aren’t the same? Nooooo. We aren’t. (Alaskans have a very different view of personal space, btw.)

But mostly what I notice is guns. For example, in Canada in the ‘Bear Aware’ brochure there was the same info as in the American brochure. With one exception. In the American literature there was discussion on what sort of firearms work best on bears. I kid you not. Here is an excerpt: “If you are inexperienced with a firearm in emergency situations, you are more likely to be injured by a gun than a bear.” Then it goes on about some parks not allowing firearms before continuing “A .300 Magnum rifle or a 12-gauge shotgun with rifled slugs are appropriate weapons if you have to shoot a bear. Heavy handguns such as a .44 Magnum may be inadequate in emergency situations, especially in untrained hands.”

Huh. So, don’t use a gun on a bear, but if you do, go for a shotgun. And it is best to be well-trained so you don’t accidently shoot yourself. Got it.

And speaking of guns, here is sign you don’t see on banks in Canada. Heck, in Canada, half the time you forget people have even heard of guns, but in the States, well, I always start wondering how many average joes are packing heat and how many walk into banks…thus resulting in this posted sign:

Homeland security is another thing that I don’t give much thought to. However, when taking the ferry, we saw these signs. For a Canadian, they can be almost alarming, (especially one who visits Dictionary.com and reads “fairly large in amount or quantity” under ‘significant’. Yikes!):

What is ‘significant’, really and truly? We asked the ferry terminal operator about the sign and he said a ’1′ is the lowest on the 3 point scale. Gulp. So, on an average day, there is a ‘significant/fairly large’ chance of the ferry being attacked? (He said about 1 in 9 guests get searched on a level 1 day. And no, we didn’t get searched, although a crazy guy back near home thought we were ‘Narcs’. Right, Narcs often go undercover in a Yaris with their 6-year-old.) Oh, and back to guns being everywhere, when we arrived in (American) port the captain said folks could pick up their firearms from the storage area. Double gulp.

What do you think? Do you pack heat when you head to the grocery store, the bank or the ferry? And if you do, why? Have you ever pulled it out?

Just curious.