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only once did i fill out a customs form and that was to list the buffalo skull and the travertine sink. i valued each at $300, i think. they barely looked at it and waved me through. they expect that people bring computers, laptops, etc. I wouldn’t worry about customs for things like that. i’d worry more about the thugs at TSA who will rifle through your luggage, as they did mine on every single trip.
On each of my last 8 trips to Costa Rica, I have 100 pounds of “stuff” that comprised the following household items: a 25-pound travertine sink, 50 oil rubbed kitchen knobs, doorknobs, every imaginable kitchen utensil including many knives in various sizes, kitchen spices, small light fixtures, pots, pans, towels, bedding, all kinds of my favorite organic shampoos, and assorted odds and ends. One time I even brought with me one of my husband’s turquoise mosaic buffalo skulls complete with horns, and nobody at custom’s checked my bags or even blinked an eye. They did stop me once when I had five pounds of elk tenderloin packed in dry ice, risotto rice, porcini mushrooms and a big hunk of reggiano, but they let me through with a shrug of their shoulders. Unless you are bringing in 50 toasters, or anything on the list previously mentioned, you should be fine.
The news footage I saw definitely showed a lynch mob/vigilante type atmosphere in the streets of San Juan. People were wielding machetes and other crude weapons, and the crowd was pretty out of control. There seems to be a lot of conflicting “evidence” — he was jealous, he beat her, he didn’t beat her, he was kind and loving. Sad story no matter who did it. I wouldn’t want to be this guy in a Nica prison, that’s for sure!
Actually, no the Embassy is NOT there to bail your sorry butt out of a criminal matter, regardless of how baseless the whole scenario might seem. They are there to get you a new passport, help ship your body home if you croak in a foreign country, and take care of a lot of little piddling civil matters that pertain to your citizenship in the US. They are NOT there to lobby for your release from prison, provide you with legal counsel, or step on the prevailing laws of another country. So DON’T expect them to help you out. It’s not what they’re there for.
Pensionista? It’s Pensionado or Rentista. You have to start the process BEFORE you move to Costa Rica as all new applications for must be started in your home country, but if you are not yet eligible for your pension you can’t do anything until you are. And who knows what the rules will be in 5 years.
I was stunned at the statement in the Dateline program that said, “The US Embassy could not help him as they do not intervene in local issues.” Wow! That’s a real eye opener. If we extrapolate from that statement, do we conclude that no US citizen anywhere in the world will be helped by our Embassy should we find ourselves in a pickle? Makes me hope my step-daughter takes that job at the State Department; maybe having an “in” will be helpful someday! (NOT!)
Hey, Crazyrj, I just learned this morning that the toxicology reports on Cho will be sealed and not released to the public, no doubt because of vast pharma influence. No doubt the media will be busting down doors to get at this info. The whole serotonin theory is whacked to begin with as there is no evidence whatsoever that low serotonin is responsible for mood disorders, although it is well known that too much serotonin will tip the normal user over the edge into violence or suicide, or both. Serotonin is but one of 400 neurotransmitters in the brain, and 95% of it is in your gut in the first place. If there were a reliable test to measure brain chemistry then some of pharma’s theories would hold water, but as it is your brain chemistry (not blood chemistry or other metabolites) can only be measured post mortem. Besides, what are normal levels if they can’t be measured at all while the person is alive. It won’t be long before there is another one of these shootings; seems like they happen on a regular basis now and within a week they are forgotten and life returns to normal. What a society we live in.
Dogs on psycho drugs! Yeah, that’s the ticket. These thugs will stop at nothing to make a buck! guess all those suicide and homicide warnings cuts into their 6+billion a year business so now they are targeting the pet population. You’re right, Peg, there will be a lot of dog crimes being committed in the near future. I saw a documentary program about two years ago on the topic of dog separation anxiety and both the owner AND the dog were on Prozac. Sheesh. What a whacky world it is, eh?
The drugs cause disinhibition and disrupt the normal functioning of executive reasoning in the frontal lobes. I’m always amazed that people refuse to consider what taking mind-altering drugs actually do to the brain and how they affect behavior. “Mind-altering” means that your normal state is disrupted, serotonin, the excess of which causes violence, influences how and what you perceive to be correct actions. There is a flurry of articles out there now discussing the exact mechanism of these drugs on your reasoning abilities. In almost all of the cases of school shootings where the perp didn’t kill himself, the shooter said “I had to do it, I had no choice.” This is the result of a chemical disruption in the brain that influences how you behave. If Cho had been on any illegal drug that ramps up serotonin (and that’s most illegal drugs) nobody would be the least bit surprise at this type of massacre. But let a legal substance influence a person’s actions and everyone screams “he was evil.” What made him evil? His acts were evil to be sure, but having your brain chemistry altered by drugs that produce an unpredictable result, is the reason these things happen. Read this interview with Pulitzer winner Robert Whitaker. It’s a pretty good overview of the role these so-called wonder drugs have played in our society. It’s nothing less than chemical warfare.
Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans – interview with
Robert WhitakerScary facts to be sure. We, in our antidrug group, don’t call one of the pharmas E-lie Lilly for nothing. I’ve seen some of the internal documents that the pharams wanted to hide from the FDA and the public. They are monsters on par with the jerks who did the mind control experiments in Nazi Germany. Yep, we are a guinea pig nation, and I do remember distinctly the Bosnian kid in Salt Lake being on psych meds. The media are a wonderful thing. When they state that the perp was not on drugs, they are referring to crack, PCP, meth, heroin, coke or pot. The perp can however be on medications that are far more dangerous, but hey, medication is legal. We fought for years to get those suicide and homicide warnings on the SSRIs, which really upset Big Pharma as we did the equivalent of hacking off a few udders from their monster-sized cash cow.
SE Cuba, Kabul, Mombai, the list is endless of places those bimbos should be sent to see what the real world is all about, and how to behave. corporate media “news” is propaganda. they only tell us what they want us to know. i cringe whenever people say they heard such and such on Fox. Rupert Murdoch is a well known fascist and promotes his fascist ideals through his station, but ah, that is another topic altogether. Let’s round up most of Hollyweird and send them in a C131 transport to the heart of Afghanistan and air drop them!!!!
You know what, Diego, you actually DO have a softer, kinder side. And no Laura Bush is not my ideal woman. In fact, I find very few high profile women to be my role models. I think the whole Britney, Paris, Lindsey Lohan, Nicole Richie group of twits to be a huge pimple on the a** of humanity. It frightens me that anyone, especially young women, would want to emulate these brazen, low-class sluts with money. They should all be sent to Gitmo for a couple of months, and maybe their parents, too. The girls night out concept is anathema to me. I’ve never done that, and never would, primarily because I don’t even drink, and bars disgust me. I’ll have to think about the women I admire — off the top of my head there isn’t anyone really, especially not Laura or Hillary, or Nacy Pelosi (with her Manolo shoes and prada suits and eyebrow lift!LOL). Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m beginning to understand from where you original diatribe on women originates, and I can’t say that you’re all that far off.
Hey, Diego, I never thought it would happen but I agree with you 150%. The gringos you talk about want to turn CR into the next Maya Riviera, Costa Smeralda, or Malibu, all living behind those huge fences and being leary of anyone not of their supposed social class. I hope they go home, too, and leave CR alone, but I guess that’s too much to hope for. I’ve seen what the mega rich have done to part of Colorado and it’s appalling. These are the people I’m trying to get away from and there they go. . . off to ruin another pristine place.
Thank goodness all these gunslingers aren’t moving into my neighborhood. That would worry more than being robbed! LOL
My guess would be that it would prove to the Ticos what an ineffecient system they have that could be better managed and run by, say, Xcel Energy, or one of the other power giants in the US should CAFTA pass (and I guess it has). I’m not going to even comment on whether or not the concept might be valid, but that seems to be what the argument might come down to by pro-CAFTA Bushites.
