Filthy Lucre and Firepower

Earlier this week I was in Ottawa and spent an hour being wined and dined by a company I contract. Considering the tens of thousands of dollars I've thrown their way, two pints of Stella Artois and some overpriced appetizers ($6 for two shrimp, yummy!) was the least that they could do for me. I've never been too comfortable with the shmoozing side of doing business, but at least in this instance the people I was meeting were pretty reasonable and kept business talk out of the conversation.

Unrelated was a visit I made to Canada's annual defence and security exhibition, where much more higher staked shmoozing was going on. Admirals and Generals and biz people from several countries (plus myself) were checking out all the lovely displays of firearms, vehicles, models of aircraft and weapons systems, electronic systems, more firearms, night vision equipment, etc.

The social liberal in me was slightly aghast at such wanton displays of devices meant to kill and destroy, however that whinging pinko was beaten into silence by the combined forces of the gadget-freak in me (impressed by all the awesome videos of things blowin' up real good), and the realist in me, who knows that such weapons and systems are a necessity in this world, even without Canada's involvement in Afghanistan.