T&T: Confiscating laptops

[C. Marin Faure]

 >FWIW  Sadly, history has shown that governments rarely stop with
the "guilty".

It's always intrigued me how people say "the government" like it's  
some sort of "thing" that's lurking out there just waiting to screw  
you over.  I'm not saying you can't get screwed over by someone who  
works for the government, but what the hell is this "government"  
that's out to get us all?  People talk about it like it's some giant,  
shaggy Norway rat that's skulking around.  Like "the government" is  
going to take my laptop when I clear customs back into the US.

My work takes me all over the world and I think that with the  
probable exception of Zimbabwe there is no country today with a  
population as paranoid as the US.  Everyone sees "the government"  
behind every tree plotting to make their lives a living hell.  Seems  
pretty pathetic to me.  I know a bunch of people in the DHS.  Some  
work at the airport, some at the border and POEs, some are in the  
USCG.  They're people doing a job just like everyone else.  Unless  
they have reason to, they don't give a rip in hell what's on your  
computer or stored in your phone.  Just like I don't give a rip in  
hell what's on your computer or on your phone.  There are smart  
people that work for the government, there are average people who  
work for the government, and there are people working for the  
government who shouldn't be working anywhere.  What happens in your  
relationship with the government is what happens in your relationship  
with the person in the government you're dealing with.   But people  
talk like there's this big transformer creature hiding in the trees  
back of the customs station--- maybe wearing a T-shirt that says  
"Government" on it--  that's going to  leap out and tear your boat to  
shreds in a search for a reason to nail your hide to the door.

We always take a short-barreled shotgun with us when we take a boat  
or floatplane into Canada and we've been doing this since the  
mid-1980s.   A few weeks before every trip I have always called  
Canadian customs to make sure taking this firearm in is still okay,  
and also to ask if somebody's going to want to see it when we clear  
customs.  We use a Canpass so we want to know if we can clear by  
phone to an unmanned Canpass entry point or if we need to report to a  
manned entry point because of the firearm.  Each time we get the same  
answer--- "It will depend on the agent you talk to when you call for  
clearance."   An honest answer because that's "the government."  A  
person in an office answering a phone and making a decision.

We have a Grand Banks 36.  It'd be great to have a Grand Banks 46 but  
they're too expensive to buy and operate.  But based on what I read  
and hear these days, particularly in this election year, I think I've  
figured out how to afford that GB46 and then some.  I need to get the  
distributorship for the special black paint "the government" uses on  
all those helicopters.


____________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington