Tag: Politics

Government money is YOUR money

 

 

I will never understand how, in a democratic country, people can think of the government as a separate entity. The government is made up of people that YOU elect to serve YOUR  best interests. The money they make is the money YOU pay in taxes. The money they spend is the money YOU pay in taxes.

In the United States, there is an entire party (the Republican Party) running on the idea of never, ever raising taxes for anything, ever again. What I don’t understand is, how do they expect the government to pay for things like medicare, the military, social security and their own salaries without tax money. The government is funded by tax money and tax money alone. People seem to want everything paid for by “the government” like that money doesn’t come out of the pockets of everyone living in that country. Even people who are too poor to pay income tax, are paying into the system through taxes on goods and services.

In countries like Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and even Canada taxes are higher, but you get what you pay for.  Yes, if you live in these countries, you will pay more in taxes, but the people who live in these countries are happier.

Recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development put put their annual report on life satisfaction in the developed world. They put out a list of the top ten happiest countries based on the following criteria: housing, income, jobs, community, education, the environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance. There are many things the top ten countries have in common, but the one thing they all share is a higher tax rate than is enjoyed in the United States. So yes, Republicans, it is possible to pay more taxes and be happy… or HAPPIER even, as long as those taxes are spent on things that the people who elected you actually want, like better healthcare, more affordable education and jobs, not another needless war.

My advice to the American people is to look outside your own country for a split second to some of the countries on this list and find out why they are so happy. See what is working for them and perhaps suggest to your government representative that they try some of these things out. After all the government is YOU and YOUR tax dollars. If you don’t stand up and tell them what you want that money spent on, make them accountable, you will continue to get what you’ve been getting… a government who has forgotten who they work for.

If you are interested in reading more about the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s report, you can do so here http://247wallst.com/2012/05/22/the-happiest-countries-in-the-world-2/2/ or in slideshow format, here http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/344450/20120523/top-ten-happiest-countries-world-2012.htm#page1

A day by any other name … is still a day off.

Tomorrow is Victoria Day in Canada, well, most of Canada. I live in Quebec, where tomorrow is called National Patriot’s Day and looks like this.

I can’t help but wonder if I am the only one who sees the irony of calling the holiday Patriot’s Day while, simultaneously, separating yourself from the rest of your country. That doesn’t seem very patriotic to me.

I have been wondering what the reasoning for this decision is for a while now. I would like to invite anyone who knows the historical reason to please post it in the comments section below. I am looking for the real reason, not insults about Quebec, or English speaking Canada. I am not trying to spark an argument. I really want to know the reason behind this.

Whether you call it Victoria Day or National Patriot’s Day, I hope your holiday weekend is a good one.

Driven to distraction by distractions

Ashley Judd’s “Puffy Face”

One of the most effective ways women have been kept under ‘control’ in western culture has been to make sure that no matter our age, or stature that we remain as insecure about our looks as we were when we were teenagers. One of the ways this is achieved is by insulting the most beautiful or famous of women in the media. This kind of bashing beautiful/famous women comes in many forms. From saying Christina Aguilera is too fat,

to saying that Angelina Jolie is too skinny,

from criticizing Jessica Simpson for gaining too much weight during her pregnancy,

to claiming that Nicole Kidman didn’t gain enough weight during her pregnancy.

Poor Kate Middleton is deemed to skinny to even get pregnant.

Recently, the media slammed Ashley Judd for having what was described as a puffy face. Speculators were saying it was due to everything from plastic surgery to alcoholism. It seems the media finally picked on the wrong woman. Ms. Judd wrote a 1500 word rebuttal to her critics that you can read in it’s entirety here

She is absolutely right to stand up for herself and for women everywhere and I largely agree with her editorial. After all , if women are focused on how we look, then we won’t notice when our rights are being eroded right in front of our noses. In the United States the law makers are very busy trying to lessen women’s rights. Just a few examples include:

 A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to “accuser.” But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.”

 In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that couldmake it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care.

 In Congress, Republicans have a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.

In Wisconsin, the Governor just repealed the equal pay law.

It’s time for women to stop wondering about whether or not Beyonce’s pregnancy was real,

or what Rihanna’s new hair colour will be.

We need to focus on the things that matter before we let our vanity marginalize us out of our basic human rights.We fought long and hard to obtain these rights and I say it’s worth fighting just as hard to keep them. After all, it won’t matter what we look like if we are all forced to wear burqas.

What’s stopping you?

 

 

The Occupy Movement seems to have spawned an odd backlash from rich people who are saying they want to be taxed more. In the United States both Warren Buffet http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20092380-503544.html and Bill Gates http://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-gates-endorses-raising-taxes-on-the-rich-thats-just-justice/ have made this claim publicly. In Canada, last week, a group of doctors is saying the same thing http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mds-propose-tax-increases-wealthiest-canadians-starting-100-040307538.html

While I think that it’s great that there are rich people who are on board with paying higher taxes, what I wonder is…

WHAT’S STOPPING YOU?

What’s stopping you from writing an additional cheque to the government above and beyond your current tax payment along with a note stating that this is an additional tax payment because I am rich and feel that I should be paying more? Or even go one further and let the government know what you would like this additional cheque to go towards, like healthcare, the deficit, defense etc.

I can’t imagine that either government would turn down the extra cash and you could be proactive instead of just complaining that you’re not currently paying enough.

It’s all well and good to propose tax plans for yourself and your cronies when you know that your government likely won’t take you up on your offer, but why not put your money where your mouth is? Sure, the publicity your getting now is creating some good will, but imagine what kind of good will actually doing something would create.

Ashamed of my country

 

One of the things I love about Canada is that we are proud of our multiculturalism. When it comes to race, Canada is one of the more enlightened places to live. Which is why it sickens me when I see an ugly thread of racism still running through this country.

Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported on a white pride rally being held in Edmonton. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/03/24/edmonton-white-pride-rally_n_1377368.html

White Pride??? Really??? I thought we had come a lot further than this.

The only conclusion I can draw is that even the two dozen or so demonstrators were somewhat ashamed to be there as most of them were wearing masks to hide their identities. This puts me in mind of the KKK who all wear sheets and hoods. If you know what you’re doing is wrong, why do it at all? If you truly believe in what you’re rallying for then why not do it out in the open with your faces uncovered and your head held high? Your cowardice disgusts me almost as much as your white supremacist dogma. This rally comes under hate speech according to Canada’s Criminal Code and never should have been allowed to happen in the first place.

Canada has worked hard, as a nation, to avoid looking like this.

 

 

We prefer our public image to look like this.

 

 

 

 

Is it just me?

As an outsider watching the Republican race for the nomination, I can’t help but think that the Republicans don’t want to win the presidency this term. After all, the country is still in an economic quagmire  (not the funny Family Guy kind of Quagmire) and why would they want to inherit that mess? It’s too soon to be able to blame it all on Obama. People still remember that it was George W. Bush that handed Obama the economic train wreck in the first place, after being given the biggest economic surplus in the history of the country by Clinton. Historically it seems that the Republicans like to run the country into the ground, then the Democrats patch it up as best they can for a term or two, then pass it back to the Republicans to break again. This chart shows that the Democrats outperform the Republicans when it comes to the economy. http://www.eriposte.com/economy/other/demovsrep.htm

 The Republicans in this race seem to be doing an ‘I don’t want the nomination’ dance. From the very beginning when there were ten people vying for the title. It seemed to me that every time a new candidate became the front runner they would say or do something so outlandish that they would fall by the wayside within a week. Now it’s down to four, possibly five, if you believe that Sarah Palin has a secret plot afoot http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/sarah-palin-2012_b_1351763.html

Arguably, none of the remaining four men have much of a chance at winning the presidency back from Obama if they keep inserting their feet firmly into their mouths as they have been. The Republicans, as a whole, are alienating their female supporters right out of the party with all of this backward talk of contraception and abortion. Issues that had been settled 39 years ago when Roe vs. Wade was decided. However, according to this video, at least, there are many Americans who are voting faith over issues that directly concern them like the economy. It’s shocking that in the poorest state of the union, people would rather starve than elect Obama again.
Rick Santorum recently stated that Obama was a snob for wanting people to attend college and he’s winning in the southern states.
Santorum came out against higher education and women and is still winning the support of entire states. The scary thing here is that he could actually beat Obama if the people who vote faith vote in higher numbers that the people who vote issues. Not to mention the flames of racism that still run rampant through the country that are being fanned by conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and the fine folks at FOX news. Illustrated by this bumper sticker.
The Republicans like to divide and conquer. This attitude has served them well, historically but it will be severely tested if Romney wins the nomination. Who will the Christian right vote for without a horse in the race, the Mormon or the ‘Muslim’? Romney has been so transparent in his pandering that he has very little chance of a presidential win, but stranger things have happened.
It’s hard to think that a win is the real goal this election with the crazy dog and pony show the Republicans have been putting on, but, they may just be crazy like the proverbial fox and incite their base into voting en mass. So I guess my real point is…
Dear America,
If you want to be taken seriously, vote issues, not faith and please vote for the one person that will least embarrass you on the world stage.
From a concerned Canadian.

We haven’t come a long way, baby.

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day and March is Women’s History month in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

It has taken every fiber of my being not to comment on the complete train-wreck going on in the United States right now what with congress debating contraception and Rush (Big, Fat Idiot) Limbaugh’s comments towards a Georgetown female student. After all, I don’t live there. But as someone who is seeing this from the outside, let me just say that it’s this kind of backward thinking that has the rest of the world looking at you as a joke, America. Before moving on to another topic, I will say that Rush Limbaugh and his Tea Party cronies have done American women a favour. By spouting off their true colours, they have shown the next generation of young women voters that feminism is not only still a relevant cause to fight for, but just how tenuous their rights are in their own country.

As a feminist, I can’t help but look at International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month as little patronizing pats on the head. We won’t be truly equal until we no longer need a day or a month telling us how we are appreciated. I do understand the importance of a movement that helps stop violence against women, but why should that only be publicized on the eighth day of the month of March? Feminists are working every day to increase awareness and change laws to protect women world wide. We really don’t need a day of the year dedicated to us to make us feel that our efforts are being recognized. You want to make us feel that way? Work with us and not against us. There are still many atrocities being committed against women all over the world, from rape as a weapon of war, to female circumcision, to honour killings. Women’s rights are not nearly equal to those of men. Even in North America (yes, Canada too), women still don’t have equal pay for equal work. Now as much, if not, more than ever before the feminist movement is necessary.

So, Happy International Women’s Day. What are you going to do about it?

For information on how you can get active, here are three great places to start.

http://www.oxfam.org/

http://feminist.org/

http://www.now.org/

The GOP from one Canadian’s perspective

Yesterday, I came across the following quote, attributed to GOP candidate, Rick Santorum.

“It has been my experience that when dealing with females, you need to treat them as though they have a mental disorder… especially those that are constantly seeking equality in the workplace, the military, and in the home. Women need to know their place and need to know when it is okay for them to speak. They were put on this earth for two reasons, and two reasons alone: taking care of their husband, and giving birth to his children… that is all. Any woman who tells you otherwise is obviously touting the liberal agenda of equality, and they need to be told the truth of their purpose. It is a disorder that can be fixed, but not until they go through several years of therapy to understand that they need to be subservient.” 

I have since been informed that the quote is fictitious. To which I responded “Can you blame me for not putting it past him?” After all, this is a man who gave us such bon mots as,

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country…. Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

and

“In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to. … What happened in America so that mothers and fathers who leave their children in the care of someone else — or worse yet, home alone after school between three and six in the afternoon — find themselves more affirmed by society? Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism.”

He doesn’t exactly come off as woman friendly. Sadly, he’s not the only one. The entire Grand Old Party is seemingly waging a war on the American Woman, or more specifically, feminists. It seems that Republicans want their women to be docile and subservient, do as they’re told types who don’t challenge what rich, white, old men tell them is the way things should be. To which I say maybe you should move to Stepford… but, oh no, Stepford doesn’t exist, and neither does the female ideal you pine for.

Newt Gingrich had this to say about women on the front lines of war,

“If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days because they get infections and they don’t have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they’re relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn’t matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis-class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets, a female may be again dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”

Then there’s this tidbit when speaking to a friend about why he was divorcing his first wife,

“She’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a President. And besides, she has cancer.”

Mitt Romney fired off these beauties regarding reproductive rights,

“As president, I will end federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood.”

“I am pro-life and believe that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. I support the reversal of Roe v. Wade, because it is bad law and bad medicine. Roe was a misguided ruling that was a result of a small group of activist federal judges legislating from the bench.”

Is it any wonder that I was so easily duped into thinking that the first quote was a real quote and not a parody?

**All caricatures were brilliantly done by Donkey Hotey  http://donkeyhotey.wordpress.com/

Are we married or aren’t we?

 

 

 

 

Yesterday the news that gay marriages performed in Canada to couples who don’t live here may not be valid, swept the internet news sites and the blogosphere alike. As a Canadian and a supporter of gay marriage, the news made me a little sick to my stomach. This was the first article I saw on the story. In the last paragraph, the article quotes family law attorney Andrew Feldstein, of Toronto, as saying, “Where the Harper government should have approached this is: you are not a resident of Canada, you are not a taxpayer in Canada, why should we be using the court’s time, money, resources, taxpayers dollars for people who don’t live in Canada?”

My response to this comment is, it’s not taxpayers who pay for divorce proceedings, it’s the couple in question. Is Canada now so allergic to money that we will decline it just because it comes from another country… or is this a gay issue? Is gay money somehow not worth as much as straight money? And what about all the tourist dollars we get from the gay couples from all over the world who come here to get married, some with an entire wedding party in tow? Are we, as a country really in a position, in this economy to turn away revenue? I am purposefully responding to this topic from a financial view-point because that’s the only thing that lawyers and politicians seem to respect and understand. Financially, this just doesn’t make sense.

What about Canada’s reputation as a tolerant country? We are a country that famously touts our multicultural  status as something to be proud of… and it is. We are ahead of the curve when it comes to Human Rights… but Gay Rights ARE Human Rights.

One month ago, almost to the day, former Prime Minister, Jean Chretien posted a letter to the Liberal party website. In it he said, “The Conservatives already ended gun control and Kyoto. Next may be a woman’s right to choose, or gay marriage. Then might come capital punishment. And one by one, the values we cherish as Canadians will be gone.” Did he know something the rest of us didn’t? Of course the liberals are jumping all over this hot button issue. Interim liberal leader Bob Rae was quoted as saying. “It’s quite clear that we have enabled and allowed people to come to Canada to marry in Montreal, in Toronto and everywhere in the country. People came from the U.S. and elsewhere and that means very clearly they have the right to marry and have the right to divorce,” and he’s right.

Just one day later, the Federal Government has decided to change the law.

“We want to make it very clear that in our government’s view, these marriages should be valid,” a senior government official said on Friday. “That’s why we will change the Civil Marriage Act so that any marriages performed in Canada that aren’t recognized in the couple’s home jurisdiction will be recognized in Canada.”

This is fantastic news and I’m sure it will be implemented quickly so as to nip this scandal in the bud.

I must admit I’m a little confused by something. Using the United States as an example, what about gay couples who marry in Vermont, but live in Florida? Their marriage isn’t recognized in the state they live in, so if one partner is in the hospital, for example, the other isn’t considered a family member, regardless of the marriage licence issued by Vermont. If this hypothetical couple wants to divorce, doesn’t the same problem rear its ugly head? Are they only married in Vermont and the other 5 states that allow gay marriage, but not married in the other 44 states that don’t?

It’s questions like these that I hope the GLBTQIA community south of the border is asking itself. I sincerely hope that this issue spurs more activism in the United States and around the world.