One Nation... Under Educated (11.18.04)
"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” -
Cover of England’s Daily mirror.
George W Bush re-elected. You know what this means don’t
you? The benefit of the doubt is now gone. “Embarrassingly ignorant
American” until now that classic stereotype famous the world over
was always mentioned with a hint of hope that they were a minority. After
all, last time Bush lost the popular vote but still got in. Well it turns
out now that the South has indeed risen again. That horrible stereotype
is in fact the majority and they have re-elected their tool.
The shock was prevalent around the world. Especially
since the man started a war in Iraq for reasons that appear to be false.
There seems to be no WMD’s, and Bin Laden looks to have more ties
to Rumsfield than Sadam. Yet as Bush all but says "I lied",
73% of those polled prior to the election said “no you didn’t.”
I suppose anything is possible when you have a civilization
in which 11, count them, 11 states made queer marriages illegal. That’s
insane. If you didn’t choose to be straight what makes you think
they chose to be gay?
That’s only one flash point topic that is widening
the great social divide making many ready to run true north fast and free.
In that case utopias like our own would be wise to prepare for the ‘Sane
Drain’. For years now the ‘brain drain’ has seen our
talented Canadians fleeing to the south for the brighter lights and bigger
dollar. Now the Sane Drain is in full effect with Immigration being flooded
and constant calls finding out just hard it would be to pack up and move
to greener Canadian pastures. That’s encouraging until you stop
and think - if all the good ones come here, who does that leave driving
the bus?
But I suppose people in grass houses shouldn’t
throw goats and we’ve got our own troubles up here. For those eyeing
our provincial neck of the woods be wary for we have a Bush of our own.
Granted, ours doesn’t have the crazy right wing religious angle.
But Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberals are as big as Bush when it comes
to gutting social programs to pay for tax cuts. It’s that scary
ideology that depends on the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
It’s estimated that originally the difference between a CEO and
the low man’s salary was 14%. Now, it averages well over 400%. Luckily
with that much cash you can buy one hell of a publicist to put ads in
every paper (even this one) telling us that everything is great. I’m
sure those that can still afford a paper will be comforted. With our provincial
election a scant few months away it will be interesting to see just who
buy’s this round of promises. If nothing else I suppose we’ll
see once and for all if we are indeed smarter then our global roomies
to the south.
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