The Currency of Fear

I like Michael Moore. I'm not afraid to say it. Yes, he has his flaws, and I can readily admit as much. But in general he is forthright and opinionated and is an effective mouthpiece for liberal values in the United States. Bowling for Columbine was one of his finer works. Though it was ostensibly about gun violence, its central thesis was that America exists in a perpetual haze of fear. Fear of everyone and everything. One need only scan the headlines from major US networks to see evidence of this (eg. Lou Dobbs' "Broken Borders", GWB's "Terror threat levels" etc). Fear has fueled most major historical events in the USA - fear of blacks, fear of Communism, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of Muslims, and the list goes on.

Well today the Star reports yet another example of the pervasive paranaoia that grips our neighbours to the south. It appears that US army contractors travelling in Canada in 2005 and 2006 were shocked and more than a little suspicious about the presence of our commemorative red poppy quarters in their pant pockets. Accoring to the article, the U.S. Defense Security Service warned "that mysterious coins with radio transmitters appeared to have been planted" to spy on their unsuspecting citizens. (No doubt to facilitate some nefarious Canadian plot to overthrow their government and install William Shatner as their President).

One contractor marvelled that the coin didn't seem to have a power source, but was filled with some sort of "nano-technology."

Says John Pike, a security analyst at GlobalSecurity.org:

"And you wonder why our war effort isn't going too well"