It ain't so much better

Often I sit back home in Australia and wish that I was here in the USA. The main reasons for this yearning is that I want to be connected and use the technologies that are so readily available and at far more reasonable prices.

And I know that these advantages are somewhat dissolved by the lack of access to good health care... but what really gets my goat, is that I do get here with my unlocked technological device (iPhone) which is finally a device that can actually work inside and out of the USA and then I can't buy access to a network that will offer me the features of the phone. I am left with a basic phone which only gains the additional functionality when I wander through a WiFi hotspot. This is not the way it is meant to be.

At times prices may be lower, and the better competition is often cited but it is behaviours like this that show me the mercantile protectionism that still exists here. It is then that I realise those cheaper prices are provided on the back of the average Joe, who is often none the wiser.

I will happily take Australia, with her flaws.

Public Enemies

With a quality cast including cult classics Johnny Depp, David Wenham, Christian Bale, Billy Cruddup and Branka Katic; Michael Mann told a tale of crime in the mid to early 1930s. Strangely, this a film that Julie and I could agree on (there really aren't many). Although, Julie probably was drawn to the Indianan references and the vague familiarity of John Dillinger because she really did shy away from the blood.

What cinched to film for me was the not so subtle relevance to the 'War on Terror'. The formation of the FBI to combat crime from a national standpoint, which exploited the power vacuum to use methods preminscent of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.

I am left with a Watchmen reference; Who watches the G-Men?