v***@aol.com
2006-01-23 03:03:42 UTC
Hidden agendas? Hell, I'm worried about the open ones. Like what? A
sage seven-year-old recently said, after watching Oliver! the musical,
"I'm glad they don't put kids in jail any more." I didn't have the
heart to tell him the Harper agenda includes sentencing 14-year-olds as
adults, with stiffer terms, but no plan to attack conditions like
unemployment that breed youth crime and violence.
The problem isn't that this lacks compassion or is ineffective. The
problem is it's counterproductive. As evidence, I cite: the United
States. Research and common sense indicate that you simply incubate
more grim behaviour by increasing desperation and alienation while
reducing alternatives. The same effect occurs internationally. The Bush
war on terror has expanded the amount and range of terror it claims to
be fighting, for the same reason: It refuses to deal with incubating
causes and, in the process, becomes a cause itself.
Take Iraq. Due entirely to the U.S. invasion in the name of defeating
terror, Iraq has turned into the main global spawning ground for
fundamentalist terror. Zealots drawn there are now returning to
Afghanistan with new techniques - suicide attacks, remote-control
roadside bombs - developed in Iraq. Canadians are recent victims and
will be again, despite our absence from the tinderbox of Iraq.
A Harper regime would apply these one-sidedly punitive,
counterproductive policies both domestically and internationally. Who
benefits? Not crime's or terror's victims, who remain vulnerable. Maybe
they offer peace of mind to the inflicters: "At least we did
something back to those 14-year-old bastards."
Can anyone get Stephen Harper to stop saying God bless Canada at the
end of a speech? It is too squirm-inducing. How did it happen? They
needed something to counter Paul Martin's boast that he could say "I
love Canada" and Stephen couldn't. (More power to Stephen on that
one.) Perhaps someone suggested an actor's trick: Conjure up a phrase
or feeling you're familiar with, then substitute.
So Stephen imagines he's American, maybe the president, maybe just a
senator. He starts off with: ". . . and God bless Amer-" but
inserts Canada. Maybe he should just say, God bless Canada, too.
Reminds me of Mike Harris. When he took over in Ontario, he changed the
name of our local school governing body, which he hated, from board of
education to Toronto District School Board, solely because that's what
they're called in the U.S. - just before bombing the whole system.
Don't you just love the Americanization of Canada advocated by Stephen
Harper and Mike Harris?!.
sage seven-year-old recently said, after watching Oliver! the musical,
"I'm glad they don't put kids in jail any more." I didn't have the
heart to tell him the Harper agenda includes sentencing 14-year-olds as
adults, with stiffer terms, but no plan to attack conditions like
unemployment that breed youth crime and violence.
The problem isn't that this lacks compassion or is ineffective. The
problem is it's counterproductive. As evidence, I cite: the United
States. Research and common sense indicate that you simply incubate
more grim behaviour by increasing desperation and alienation while
reducing alternatives. The same effect occurs internationally. The Bush
war on terror has expanded the amount and range of terror it claims to
be fighting, for the same reason: It refuses to deal with incubating
causes and, in the process, becomes a cause itself.
Take Iraq. Due entirely to the U.S. invasion in the name of defeating
terror, Iraq has turned into the main global spawning ground for
fundamentalist terror. Zealots drawn there are now returning to
Afghanistan with new techniques - suicide attacks, remote-control
roadside bombs - developed in Iraq. Canadians are recent victims and
will be again, despite our absence from the tinderbox of Iraq.
A Harper regime would apply these one-sidedly punitive,
counterproductive policies both domestically and internationally. Who
benefits? Not crime's or terror's victims, who remain vulnerable. Maybe
they offer peace of mind to the inflicters: "At least we did
something back to those 14-year-old bastards."
Can anyone get Stephen Harper to stop saying God bless Canada at the
end of a speech? It is too squirm-inducing. How did it happen? They
needed something to counter Paul Martin's boast that he could say "I
love Canada" and Stephen couldn't. (More power to Stephen on that
one.) Perhaps someone suggested an actor's trick: Conjure up a phrase
or feeling you're familiar with, then substitute.
So Stephen imagines he's American, maybe the president, maybe just a
senator. He starts off with: ". . . and God bless Amer-" but
inserts Canada. Maybe he should just say, God bless Canada, too.
Reminds me of Mike Harris. When he took over in Ontario, he changed the
name of our local school governing body, which he hated, from board of
education to Toronto District School Board, solely because that's what
they're called in the U.S. - just before bombing the whole system.
Don't you just love the Americanization of Canada advocated by Stephen
Harper and Mike Harris?!.