C'Mon My Army of Pinkos. Young and Old Must Unite!

This country is in trouble and the Harper government is trying to pit the young against the old, blaming seniors for the debt that will be passed on to future generations.

Nonsense.

Our problems are not due to the Baby Boomers, now reaching retirement, but the rich. The rich, the richer, and the filthy rich. Those folks that Harper is determined to make even richer at the expense of everyone else.

Duncan Cameron says the young and old must unite if we have any chance of saving healthcare, education and pensions.

On the eve of the second decade of the new century, a renewed alliance between young and old would help Canadians trying to make a better life for more citizens. Much of current public policy debate turns around attempts to foster irrational fears about what the future holds. A prime example is attempts to manipulate public opinion by evoking threats an aging population pose for our public healthcare system. The next generation will stagger around covering the debts incurred to look after the health (and income) needs of retirees; we are told this so often people start to believe it.

There is no truth to the idea that young Canadians will need to go without to protect seniors' pensions and healthcare. The issues facing Canadians, whether they be young, old, or in between, have very little to do with the commonly heard assertions about how the aging population threatens the future of healthcare; or, how the young will need to subsidize older Canadians in retirement. The real division in Canada today is the same one noted by Aristotle in the 5th-century B.C.: the struggle between the rich and the poor.

So my Army of Pinkos, while Don Cherry speaks only for millionaires, we are the ones speaking for the little guy. The average Canadians of all ages. The poor, the working poor, seniors, veterans .... everyone that the Harper government ignores.

And to all you young folks out there, write a little pledge and put it in the Christmas card to your grandparents, or elderly neighbours. Promise them that you will not blame them for the loss of any of the things their generation was able to take for granted. Because the fact is, we do not need to lose them. We just need a fairer tax system, so that those who get the most from this country's resources, pay their share.

Forget Don Cherry. Forget Stephen Harper. Forget Jim Flaherty.

There's lots of money out there, but it's being hoarded by the greedy. Time to spread it around a bit. Put an end to corporate welfare and demand that this government changes it's focus.

That money is our money, not theirs. Enough is enough.

Left Wingers are From Mars, Right Wingers are From 'I Can't Hear You'!

When John Gray wrote his book, Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus, it was an expansion of his theory that men and women are as different as beings from other planets.

This was not based on the obvious physical differences, but simply in the way they communicate and handle life.

An interesting link was posted on the CAPP board yesterday from the Los Angelas Times, circa 2007: Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

The experiment was conducted at New York University and UCLA, and the results published in the journal; Nature Neuroscience. It was based on reactions to the appearance of either an 'M' or a 'W'.

Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said the results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity."

Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

... Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas."There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science," ...

While experiments like this are not definitive, they certainly fit with Canada's current situation. Our own neoconservative government has almost gutted funding for scientific research, and our current science minister only believes in creationism.

I would say that probably about half of the Conservative MPs are Christians fundamentalists, who follow the Old Testament to the letter. Stockwell Day, head of the Treasury; has stated emphatically that every word in there is true; and Harper's deputy chief of staff, Darrel Reid, has suggested that our laws should reflect what is in the Bible.

We also see this with their current approach to foreign policy, especially when it comes to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

The Jewish people must go to Israel, and they mean all Jewish people, because if they don't our government will be unable to feel the rapture.

Which means that we must get rid of this government before they do something really stupid, as suggested by their mentor John Hagee.

How can you possibly have a political debate, when you have to denounce God and the Bible in the process? Besides you won't change their minds anyway. Just ask Dr. Sulloway.

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?