Ok... I'm no economics whiz...
I don't pretend to know more about politics than I really do (which is more than I can say for a great deal of university students out there... plus a few profs... and probably a great number of our political back-benchers...)
Lots of people understand the THEORIES behind the economics... but few seem to have the wisdom to predict and project long-term effects... I don't pretend to understand the theoretical, but I DO like to appreciate a cold-dose of logic now and then...
What I ALSO know is that despite our being married financially to the USA, Canada tries valiantly to escape the same 'tar-and-feather' treatment suffered by the Americans... in years past we've travelled Europe with Canadian flags on our backpacks (so have Americans... in order to try to appear Canadian in order to be treated civilly...)
We have a number of issues that set us apart from our neighbours to the south (the least of which is the letter 'u' in any number of our words - like 'neighbour'...)
Things like:
- national health care,
- cleaner air laws,
- substantially lower crime rate,
And more obvious things...
However, we in Canada have been beginning to suffer a small economic crisis... in that we are short 'labour workers'... In that... in case the average reader doesn't know the term... it means the lower-end jobs... servers and warehouse workers and swampers... you know... the stuff that YOU didn't want to do anymore either...
So what to do? And how can we set ourselves apart from the USA?
How can we REALLY portray ourselves as 'different' and 'morally superior' to our southern neighbours?
Legalize prostitution.
Yes, I'm serious.
Think about it... legalized prostitution will not only keep safe our sex-trade workers... both from an individual-economic as well as a criminal stand-point... it will also effectively cease the import of slave-immigrant workers who huddle in abject terror and are forced to prostitute their bodies because their captors retain their documentation (passports, etc.) and tell them horror-stories like 'If they run away, they will be caught by the police and deported... or worse!'
THAT is a serious epidemic as well... much more life-threatening than any small-potatoes 'labour shortage'... and MUST be addressed sooner than later...
Props to the peeps that are trying to safeguard the humble workers of the world's 'oldest profession'...
Allow me to clarify my stance...
Legal prostitution... (which has been done in Amsterdam to great success, incidentally) will have the current sex-trade workers paying taxes on their income, will discourage such phenomena as 'pimps' (for the sex-trade workers will be protected governmentally)...
What immigrant slave-trader will decide to come here with his ill-gotten-gains when the laws here protect the rights of the women he has enslaved?
Not very many, I wager...
Instituting a task-force to ensure the proper legalization of these new busineses (under the model of the Better Business Bureau) would be a further step. This would involve protecting the rights of the workers in a business environment, ensuring that all buinesses met with proper health and safety guidelines and prosecution of illegal activities that did not conform to the laws as stipulated...
I know quite a few individuals that would gladly sign-up to be a part of this agenda...
Look at that! More jobs!
Plus... it may very well save marriages!
No more sneaking around for the average politico or businessman... they will be entitled to frequent the 'bawdy house' of their choice... and it will be ABOVE THE LAW! (I'm sure not having to pick up their escort under shadow of darkness will be a relief to many 401k-ers...)
Plus... and here's the kicker... once we legalize the sex-trade, marijuana won't be far behind...
(I tell you... Amsterdam has THE model for this kind of liberalistic agenda...)
Making pot smoking legal will create an influx of liberal-minded pot-enthusiasts from other countries who will invariably (inevitably?) work at the 7-11's, video stores and warehouses across the country in order to keep a roof over their heads while they support their recreational activities...
Whether they inhale or not...
Ta-da!
Economic crisis averted.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Political Posturing and Empty Threats...
Let's face it... there's no shortage of news that anyone with half an ounce of common sense can't get even moderately pissed off about...
Take, for example the recent 'speech' by still-President George W. Bush junior... lacklustre... totally remeniscent of perhaps a dozen or more speeches he's uttered (read: "read from his teleprompter") over the past seven years of his pseudo-presidency...
Does he still honestly think he's made any difference? How soon will he be returning to Israel to continue his so-called 'peace plans in the Middle East' to generate a once-and-final peace between Israel and Palestine? Does he honestly think he can accomplish it? Does it really matter at all what he thinks or tries to make people believe he's accomplishing anymore?
Yeah... I didn't think so either...
This kind of posturing is ridiculously common in the past few decades of politics... both above and below the 49th parallel...
Take, for example the decent bitter rivalries between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton... at the aforementioned speech, neither even spoke a civil word to the other...For fuck sakes you two... GROW UP!This isn't high school... this isn't (well it shouldn't be) a popularity contest... it should be about instituting change... getting RID of the flotsam, jetsam and all the detritus that has marred your fair country for SEVEN YEARS... It SHOULD be about strengthening your fair nation and dragging it up from the mire it's been dropped into...
Senator Obama... I appreciate you being the underdog... and your political expertise is... well... lacking in comparison to some of your more-seasoned opponents... but even YOU as a Black man must recognise that Senator Clinton is fighting the same fight as you are... albeit from a different angle... fight alongside her... make her fights your own... and prove to be the better leader...That's how you win - for by belittling your opponents shortcomings you make yourself out as no better than a Republican...
You have the better presence... you are charismatic! (something the remainder of your opponents lack in some form or other) You have a stage-presence that makes people WANT to listen to you... I can think of another Black man in history with a similar effect on the populace... which is double disconcerting considering his unfortunate fate... (I refer, of course, to the late (but great) Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Senator Clinton... you're the veteran in this group... you've got the unique experience to have BEEN in the White House already) so you KNOW what's required... a fact that your opponents seem to want to try to exploit by calling you 'old guard'...Fools.
You have savvy, you have an edge and you have impressed the Republican voters with your economic proposals... so much so that you are among the two presidential candidates that has a real chance of inhabiting the Oval Office next year.
Additionally, you AND Senator Obama are both in the unique position to be the 'First' something in the American Presidency.
Full stop.
The First Female President.
The First Black President.
Either way, you're both heading uphill at a remarkably steep angle... and there's tons (infer from that however you will) of fossilized fuddy-duddies in the way... One of you WILL win the Democratic nomination... one of you WILL become the next President of the United States (unless John McCain or Mitt Romney SOMEhow manage to impress the Democratic voters enough with their blustery over-posturing... which I somehow doubt...)
The trick here is... you both will have to swallow a little pride and extend a hand of strength and common-purpose to your major opponent... This sniping and political back-biting that both you, Senator Obama, and you, Senator Clinton (also former President Bill Clinton) are issuing at each other is nothing short of embarassing... I'm watching from north of the border with disappointedness... for the more people (read: "voters") that you alienate with your immature mud-slinging will be notches in the belt of the Republican candidate... whosoever it might be...
It's time to start playing nice with the other kid in the sand box, you two... or the cake at the end of the race will be given to the other team.
Personally... I think that a 'Clinton-Obama' or 'Obama-Clinton' ticket would be a sure-fire way to immediate victory... would it be so wrong to work under the other? Do your idealisms differ THAT much? (I'll help you with that answer: "No.")
But that's just one liberal-minded Canuck talking...
Take, for example the recent 'speech' by still-President George W. Bush junior... lacklustre... totally remeniscent of perhaps a dozen or more speeches he's uttered (read: "read from his teleprompter") over the past seven years of his pseudo-presidency...
Does he still honestly think he's made any difference? How soon will he be returning to Israel to continue his so-called 'peace plans in the Middle East' to generate a once-and-final peace between Israel and Palestine? Does he honestly think he can accomplish it? Does it really matter at all what he thinks or tries to make people believe he's accomplishing anymore?
Yeah... I didn't think so either...
This kind of posturing is ridiculously common in the past few decades of politics... both above and below the 49th parallel...
Take, for example the decent bitter rivalries between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton... at the aforementioned speech, neither even spoke a civil word to the other...For fuck sakes you two... GROW UP!This isn't high school... this isn't (well it shouldn't be) a popularity contest... it should be about instituting change... getting RID of the flotsam, jetsam and all the detritus that has marred your fair country for SEVEN YEARS... It SHOULD be about strengthening your fair nation and dragging it up from the mire it's been dropped into...
Senator Obama... I appreciate you being the underdog... and your political expertise is... well... lacking in comparison to some of your more-seasoned opponents... but even YOU as a Black man must recognise that Senator Clinton is fighting the same fight as you are... albeit from a different angle... fight alongside her... make her fights your own... and prove to be the better leader...That's how you win - for by belittling your opponents shortcomings you make yourself out as no better than a Republican...
You have the better presence... you are charismatic! (something the remainder of your opponents lack in some form or other) You have a stage-presence that makes people WANT to listen to you... I can think of another Black man in history with a similar effect on the populace... which is double disconcerting considering his unfortunate fate... (I refer, of course, to the late (but great) Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Senator Clinton... you're the veteran in this group... you've got the unique experience to have BEEN in the White House already) so you KNOW what's required... a fact that your opponents seem to want to try to exploit by calling you 'old guard'...Fools.
You have savvy, you have an edge and you have impressed the Republican voters with your economic proposals... so much so that you are among the two presidential candidates that has a real chance of inhabiting the Oval Office next year.
Additionally, you AND Senator Obama are both in the unique position to be the 'First' something in the American Presidency.
Full stop.
The First Female President.
The First Black President.
Either way, you're both heading uphill at a remarkably steep angle... and there's tons (infer from that however you will) of fossilized fuddy-duddies in the way... One of you WILL win the Democratic nomination... one of you WILL become the next President of the United States (unless John McCain or Mitt Romney SOMEhow manage to impress the Democratic voters enough with their blustery over-posturing... which I somehow doubt...)
The trick here is... you both will have to swallow a little pride and extend a hand of strength and common-purpose to your major opponent... This sniping and political back-biting that both you, Senator Obama, and you, Senator Clinton (also former President Bill Clinton) are issuing at each other is nothing short of embarassing... I'm watching from north of the border with disappointedness... for the more people (read: "voters") that you alienate with your immature mud-slinging will be notches in the belt of the Republican candidate... whosoever it might be...
It's time to start playing nice with the other kid in the sand box, you two... or the cake at the end of the race will be given to the other team.
Personally... I think that a 'Clinton-Obama' or 'Obama-Clinton' ticket would be a sure-fire way to immediate victory... would it be so wrong to work under the other? Do your idealisms differ THAT much? (I'll help you with that answer: "No.")
But that's just one liberal-minded Canuck talking...
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