Hey Bro FlapJ --  Please read my post under the thread " Time out to sing....."Clear your Throats"--Life is intense & full of bullshit & injustice etc etc, but we have to take the time to just laugh about the insanity of it all & IMO we also have to be able to laugh at ourselves..--I'm not saying that one should walk around 24/7 with a fool's grin pasted on their face--but alittle laughter at Life's irony can really help put a helpful & necessary perspective on the process...I just won't let the Bastards beat me down!! & I'm certainly not gonna give them the satisfaction of seeing me defeated in mind & body & especially "SPIRIT!"

Hi all... raskolnikov is back!. I haven't posted here for ages but I'm still around and still doing my thing up here in the "Great White North" although I see the Magnolia tree outside my door is blooming so it's not all Eskimos and sled dogs...  I was reading your political rants and I thought I'd give you my two cents worth as an "outsider" although that is getting harder and harder to say all the time as American culture slowly invades from the south via the airwaves. Probably a good 50% of Canadians think your justice system is ours; probably from watching too many episodes of "Law & Order" or something. I hear things like, "...he was arrested for "Grand Theft Auto" (no such charge exists in Canada, it's just simple theft) Another one is "Statutory Rape", again, no such charge exists in Canada. But this isn't the point of my post, it's just to show how we are slowly becoming clones of Americans, and, while I have nothing against Americans, I also have no desire to be one but I think the day is coming when it could become a reality if Canadians don't get off their lazy asses and get themselves informed about the differences and why we are better off the way we are.

Recently it was in all the newspapers that our Federal government was seriously considering decriminalizing marijuana. Within a couple of weeks your "Drug Czar" whose name I forget at the moment but somebody will remind me I'm sure... The guy that heads the "War On Drugs"(what a laugh that one is, it was lost before they started it and the only effect it is having is giving the USA the largest prison population in the civilized world)  They can't build the prisons fast enough to hold everybody and it's too expensive so, the answer... privatize them. Have prison guards working at minimum wage, feed the prisoners 1200 calories a day and keep them locked down most of the time because it takes less guards when everyone is securely locked in their cells. Anyway, I digress, this so called drug czar shows up in Vancouver and gives a speech to the Canadian Young Conservatives or some such group telling of the great American wrath that will fall on our collective heads if we allow such a heinous law to pass. I don't think he mentioned invasion but just about everything short of it... trade sanctions, a serious deterioration of diplomatic relations, etc.  When the Canadian government first began treating addicts with methadone in the late '60's or early '70's it was common for doses to be between 180 mgs and 300mgs, now, because of pressure from the DEA our government, (who by now are out of the methadone business, having handed it over to doctors to dispense to their patients but with some fairly strict guidlines and the "College of Physicians and Surgeons" acting as watchdogs over the entire system), told the doctors to lower the the doses of their patients. For a long time it was almost impossible to get more than 80mgs a day but it started creeping up again a few years ago and now 150 - 200 is not impossible to get.  I, myself am on 150 mgs and am going to ask for a hike in my dosage the next time I see my Dr. My point in all of this is why are we letting a foreign government dictate drug policy in our country?  The answer, of course, is simple; we have allowed our international trade to fall almost completely into American control. 80% of our trade is with the U.S. so all they have to do is start mumbling about trade sanctions, (this despite NAFTA which was supposed end these kind of trade wars), and our government backs down from policies that don't suit your politicians.  Despite this though, there are signs that the Canadian government isn't totally spineless yet... we refused to get involved in the mess in Iraq and more recently we opted out of your star-wars program.  That caused a whole lot of consternation on the south side of our border. Politicos saying things like,"...you're taking a free ride on the backs of our military;;;" etc. but the fact is that they need to wake up and notice that the cold war is over and the only countries that have the capability to sling ICBM's that far have no desire to bomb Canada so why waste our money that could be well spent giving our citizens a better standard of living instead of getting caght up in some paranoid scheme to shoot missiles out of the sky which many people doubt will even work to any great effect.About a month ago it was announced in our provincial newspapers that the city of Vancouver is going to start a pilot project of giving free heroin to hard core addicts in the downtown eastside that has become a literal zoo in the last few years with Vietnamese, Chinese, Latino and East Indian gangs having turf wars, HIV & AIDS running rampant and people sleeping in the alleys in often sub-zero temperatures. I was surprised that there wasn't an immediate response, (read "threat"), from the American Government that we are coddling our addicts when we should really be building more jails. They did a bit of shouting and screaming when they opened a "Safe Injection" site in the same part of town about a year ago. The thing that gets me is that almost all of the medical community agrees that addiction is a disease but then our governments allow the courts to treat it like a crime! Kind of like locking up a diabetic because he needs insulin I'd say. Things have been getting better here though, all Federal prisons and some Provincial prisons now dispense methadone to addicts but that doesn't address the fact that most of them shouldn't be in prison in the first place. I just wish that most of us weren't so apathetic and would stand up for our convictions and that the government of the USA would worry about it's own social ills and not try to force their outdated ideas of justice and democracy on other countries. Especially countries like Canada that are not a threat to the U.S. in any way except for a bit of B.C. bud crossing the border into Washington and Idaho because some of us have made the growing of marijuana an art form and putting our product at the head of the line in exports, not to mention that some people claim it is our largest export and that is driving your DEA wild and forcing them to make farcical claims like one pound of our pot is being traded straight across for a pound of cocaine... I don't think so... Another attempt to scare our law enforcement agencies into seeing, (and doing), things the "American Way" Well, I think it's time to tear down some prisons, not to start building new ones... But I've done enough ranting for one night just remember, it isn't Americans I dislike, just your government, the present one in particular. Bye for now,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          raskolnikov

                                     

Well now that we've taken the USA's inventory lets look at some of Canada's unique qualities---I've lived in many countries & a few different continents & I've NEVER come across a more "Apathetic" bunch of people in my life! Our voter turn-out is appalling (one of the lowest for Western style countries)..We let the Canadian government do & tell us whatever they feel like telling us that week--we bitch for a few days or weeks & we do NOTHING...We bitched about the temporary GST tax that the government slapped on us & we made all kinds of threats to not pay it, but in the end we did NOTHING...We live in a country that has everything as far as natural resources go--we have more fresh water, more timber, more gold, more uranium, more iron (steel) & plenty of oil--BUT--What do we do with this bonanza of resources? We sell it all to the Germans, Japanese, Chinese etc, who turn it into TVs, computers. cameras, watches, clothing, cars etc etc that they sell back to us at huge profits--Why can't we manufactures this same shit--I know, I know, we can't compete with the labour costs of the Chinese or the Pakistanis---But we should be capable of alot more then we're doing--Believe me if Japan or Germany had the type of natural resources we have , they'd put us to shame...So the way I see things, "APATHY" is destroying our country little by little--it is our #1 enemy!

FlapJ & all -- Part of the reason that I feel Canadians are so apathetic is because they feel so powerless living next to the BIG USA---the majority of our economy is owned by the USA & other foreign countries--our culture is basically nonexistent & has been replaced by American TV & media--Our tiny population just can't compete with the huge American population & we are basically being swallowed up by America--We are the unofficial 51st State of America--the joke here is that if America has a cold the Canada sneezes--& because Canada has such a tiny population, we let in 100s of thousands immigrants every year (which we badly need), but they are not at all familiar with Canadian values & they just assume we're more or less Americans --  Its very frustrating & does lead to APATHY---Our tiny voice just can't be heard over the "Roar of American Manifest Destiny."--But perhaps we can use our voice to somewhat lend some balance or reason when the USA does go too far right or left...

So lets call it a tie in the Apathy race between America & Canada for now..

    As far as the Jewish issue goes, there's not enough words in the English language to allow me to explain my perspective..I can not be entirely objective here since my family was almost entirely wiped out in the Holocaust--My father is the "sole" survivor from his family of 5 brothers & 3 sisters & his parents & grandparents (who all were murdered brutally because they were guilty of being Jewish)..After the war (WWII) many Jews rose from the ashes of the Concentration Camps to find themselves homeless & familyless--There were 12 Million Jews before WWII & only 6 Million survived---Many Jews of this time went to Israel(Palastine) because they had nowhere else to go & Jews had been living in Israel for THOUSANDS of years before the present day Palestinians arrived there--but thats another issue for another day perhaps..

     Now let me deal with the nonsense of the myth that there is a Jewish Conspiracy to take over the World Banks, Hollywood, medicine, the legal profession etc etc..---

Today the World Population is roughly 6 & a half Billion people (6,500,000,000) --the Jewish Population is approx. 13 million people in total!! Jews are a drop in the bucket when it comes to their numbers..& of the 13 million Jews, approx 6 million live in the USA & roughly 5 million live in Israel--that leaves about 2 million Jews in the rest of the world...How are 13 million people managing to control 6 & a half BILLION people?? The Jews have been a convenient scape goat for thousands & thousands of years (they're not the only race in this spot but they seem to be the most consistently chosen target)..As a Jew myself, I can tell you that we 're not really frightened by the moronic groups such as the SkinHeads or White Supremists etc etc--With these groups we know exactly where we stand & who they are--We are far more frightened by the "Silent Millions" who keep the racial hatred masked with phony smiles & comments about how their best friends are Jewish----These are the same type of people who stood by & did NOTHING while millions died in the ovens--they all either didn't know what was going on or they were just following orders...

  As far as the whole Zionist issue is concerned, I think its all a bunch of bullshit----A Zionist is simply a patriotic Israeli--If thats a crime then every patriotic American is guilty of putting America 1st..I know I've totally oversimplified a very complex issue, but its all I'm gonna say for now...I hope I haven't offended anyone & please feel free to comment on ANY aspect of my post--I enjoy discussing this subject & I enjoy hearing different or even opposing perspectives--I've got a thick skin & strong sense of humour--so please don't feel like you have to tip toe around this issue--we all have our right to our opinions--how else can we learn from history & improve on our planets future if we don't communicate & learn from our mistakes....

Hey Ex- will write more on this later, but just wanted to say that I had no idea you're such a radical.  It does my heart good to know you're so passionate about these issues.  Just a side of you I didn't really know about, but am so glad to see.

 

Keep these posts comin'

 

Marco

Indigo, After reading your last post in this thread I went searching on the web for comparisons on American and Canadian voting patterns and found that Canadians typically have about a 30% higher voter turnout than Americans.  Unfortunately I started to write a letter citing the links, numbers, etc. but I somehow managed to lose the draft and right now I don't have the time to do it all over again but one thing I do remember is that both countries had federal elections in 2000. Americans turned out in, what for them was record breaking numbers, (about 55% if I remember correctly), Canadians, on the other hand had the lowest voter turnout in 75 years and we were at 65%. In the U.S. midterm elections, which I suppose means congressional elections , (not being completely up on the American electoral system I may be wrong so feel free to correct me), the average turnout is 35%.

 

If you read my original post you'll see that I did make a reference to apathy in the average Canadian but I do believe our situation as far as being politically aware and taking part in the electoral process is much better than the Americans. By the way, when I have more time I'll post those links to show you that I'm not just pulling these numbers out of thin air.  Now, having said that, I agree with you that we do suffer from cynicism, pessimism and apathy when it comes to our politicians but look at what we have to work with. Conservatives that go by the name of the Liberal Party, a "New" Conservative Party that is about 2 or 3 steps from being right-wing born again Christian fascists, The NDP which began it's life as a socialist party but has recently been sliding further and further right until the best that can be said is that they are "middle of the road", The Marijuana Party that has one platform on their political agenda and the Green Party ditto with the exception that I think their single platform is better than the Marijuana Party and as far as I can tell they haven't lied to the electorate yet so that is where my last ballot went. I know that it is taking a long shot but I've always been a sucker for the underdog and I don't like politicians that lie to the people they are supposed to represent. Plus, saving our planet is an important cause and we sure can't trust our present batch of politicians who are just big business wearing a different hat to give a shit about our ecosystem.  They give it mouth service then carry on, business as usual.  Look at how everybody wriggled out of the Kyoto accord when thousands of respectable scientists who have studied climatic change all of their lives have told us again and again that we are approaching the point of no return and that if we don't stop using fossil fuels or at least cut back drastically that we are on the path to extinction.  The planet will eventually recover but it would be surprising if their were any humans on it...

 

Anyway, things to do places to go, (after that long rant I'm off to burn some fossil fuel myself, but I am trying to change that,  I bought a bicycle, just don't have the time to use it today but I've been trying to use it whenever I can and that. to me is what it's about, everybody doing their little bit. Recycle, reuse, etc. instead of sitting back and whining that the problem is too big, what can one person do?  You can do your part and tell others what you're doing, maybe it might influence somebody else to do the same...) If our politicians aren't doing the job we elected them to do get off our asses and vote them out. Even if you go to the poll and ruin your ballot at least you are making a statement. If you don't participate than you have no right to whine about the state of affairs. At least that's this mans' opinion...  this is raskolnikov, signing off, have a good today and a better tomorrow.

                                                             r