eau de porneau.

I hope this makes even less sense to everyone else than it does me. Where the hell am I? Why haven’t I been blogging? A new school year, federal elections in both the United States AND Canada, and the fact that it seems we’re on the verge of a global economic crisis? So, in the spirit of keeping everyone informed, I’ve decided to offer my opinions on the aforementioned trifecta of events:

1. Wow, intense, lots of reading. Professors seemed to have abandoned both textbooks and final exams.

2. Green Party in the north, Obama in the south.

3. Socialism for the rich? I think of all the money spent on the War on Terror, War on Drugs, US Bank Bailouts and the plethora of corporate tax cuts.. and I think of the citizens they could’ve helped.

… That will be all.

Gildan Activewear closing 5 plants, cutting 1,800 jobs

In a release, Gildan said the shift in production is “unavoidable in order to be globally cost-competitive in the intensely competitive North American apparel industry.”

When was the last time you got a free t-shirt (from a promotional event, or a work uniform, or what have you) and it wasn’t a Gildan cotton shirt? Hell, my work uniform, a polo shirt with a stitched on logo, is Gildan. It’s a comfortable shirt, too. I haven’t exactly looked at their financial statements, but it seems to me they’ve grown substantially within the past 5 years, and it hasn’t grown by way of the sweat off third world workers backs.

It’s definitely possible that they plan to give these third world workers a fair wage and treat them like human beings, but it strikes me that if they were going to do things of that nature, they’d have just kept the plants going where they are.

American Apparel employs regular people to stitch together their goods in various facilities and pays them decent wages, and they seem to be doing well enough.

Nova Scotia ponders light-bulb switch

“We’re certainly moving towards that, but we’re not going to make them mandatory just now. We have to be very sensitive to a whole bunch of things that surround that - wholesalers, retailers,” Dooks said Tuesday.

He expects it could be four or five years before a ban is in place.

Dooks said changing to newer bulbs will help save money and be easier on the environment in the long run by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

What we need here is not the promise of a ban in a few years, but a ban put in place now, a liquidation of the incandescent bulbs already around, and a time limit on when to get these new (well, not NEW, because they’ve been around for about five years now) bulbs as the standard. The same thing’s been done with HD broadcasting, which will be the widely accepted norm in a year or so, thanks to similar legislation.

Is it a bad thing to be creating laws that force people to use less power?

NDP pushes $250,000 ‘Buy Nova Scotia’ campaign

The province needs a “Buy Nova Scotia” campaign to help struggling farmers, the NDP says.

NDP Leader Darrell Dexter proposes spending $250,000 on an ad campaign to encourage Nova Scotians to buy local produce and meat.

Dexter said the governing Tories have promised a similar campaign four times in the last eight years, but failed to follow up on it.

First of all, you’ve got to spend money to make money, and I think $250,000 isn’t enough. I think they need at least a million. Mind you, I don’t exactly know how much 250k gets you as far as advertising goes. I’d think you need more than that, though. I just think of all the BC Fresh logos I’d see around Safeway when I worked there, and there must’ve been more than $250k spent on that.

And second?

The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture backs the proposal.

The group’s vice-president, Willie Versteeg, said the province currently makes it difficult for local producers or processors to sell to hospitals, jails or nursing homes.

“There’s a whole bureaucracy, it seems, that prides itself in throwing up obstructions to buying local,” Versteeg said.

Less than half of the food consumed in Nova Scotia is produced here, according to the federation.

This is something that need to be changed EVERYWHERE. I’d like to see statistics for consumption/production for every province. I think with all the crap we eat nowadays, supporting our local economy is a good reason to start eating more fresh produce instead of processed crap from some factory that may be located either out of the province, or even the country.

Iran Seeks Condemnation of Israeli Nukes - washingtonpost.com

Iran demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council condemn what it said was Israel’s clandestine development of nuclear weapons and “compel” it to place all its nuclear facilities under U.N. inspection.

If Israel refuses to comply, Iran said the council must take “resolute action” under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which authorizes a range of measures from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military action.

Iran insists its own nuclear program is a purely peaceful effort to develop energy, but the United States and many European nations believe Tehran’s real aim in enriching uranium is to produce nuclear weapons. The Security Council is currently debating a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend its enrichment program.

According to Noam Chomsky, if you go back over recent (within the past 30-50 odd years) UN Security Council votes, Israel, almost by default, always votes with America. I think what Iran’s trying to do here is challenge Israel’s nuclear program in an effort to seek legitimization of their own. Since Ahmadinejad hates the US and Israel, they’re a good target.

The Thirty Theses (The Anthropik Network)

We all have basic assumptions about the world, human nature, and the relationship between the two. We are taught certain perspectives as children, and this recieved wisdom forms the common ground for communication. Ultimately, when we see the whole picture, our major disagreements are squabbles over details. Should gays be allowed to marry? We assume here a common understanding of what “marriage” means. Should we raise or lower taxes? We assume the legitimacy of government, and of taxes at all!

If you’re ever in a place where you need to really understand why the world is the way it is, this is the place to go. A lot of it is very insightful stuff, mostly the kind of subjects the stoners of academia spend friday nights discussing. Be careful though, five minutes on this site can turn into hours easily.

B.C. should tax junk food because 1 in 4 kids are overweight, says report

“Childhood obesity is a problem our province can no longer afford to ignore,” the report says in its blunt introduction. “The health costs to our children and the financial costs to our health system are reaching a crisis point and all leaders need to act.”

When I was in Halifax over the summer, I mounted an anti-smoking ban argument on the basis that pubs, restaurants and other such public facilities should have the right to decide on their own whether they want smoking or not inside their establishment. Patrons could then decide by their own accord whether they would like to be among smokers or not. However, my argument was rightly knocked down when someone brought up public health funds. In a nation with a mostly socialized health care system, certain things must be done to ensure the protection and preservation of said system. As stated by my dear sociology professor a few weeks ago, public health and fitness is not just a matter of preservation of public funds, it’s a matter of national security. A nation that is too fat to defend itself in the face of an emergency (and I’m not only referring to war. National emergencies such as floods, earthquakes, fires and such also count) is doomed.

My critique of the system proposed is it’s not comprehensive enough. Simply taxing a commodity will not necessarily stop people from using it. I’ve got no real evidence to support this, but I’d be interested in seeing how many people quit smoking when they increased taxes on cigarettes. What we really need, along with the plans put forth, are federal regulations on the amount of fat, cholesterol, and arguably most importantly, salt. I read an article a few months ago about how there’s an inordinate amount of salt in the food we eat.

South African Parliament Approves Gay Marriages - New York Times

The new law allows both heterosexual and same-sex couples to register their unions either as marriages or civil partnerships. But in a concession to critics, it also allows civil officers to refuse to marry same-sex couples on the basis on conscience. Ms. Judge, the gay rights advocate, predicted that provision will be challenged in court.

“We can’t be in the situation where civil officers can decide who they want to marry and who they don’t want to marry,” she said. “They aren’t able to refuse to marry a black person and a white person. This is unconstitutional.”

Wow, right on South Africa. I honestly thought the next country in line would be America, but this is cool too. I’ve got to disagree with Judge though. If a Priest has a marriage license he should have the right to refuse to marry two gay guys if it goes against his religious beliefs.

The science was on their side, the opposition had weak arguments at best, and the support seemed to be pouring in from across the country, but somehow Amendment 44 suffered a blow last night, with 40% of the population turning out in support. Is the state of Colorado that conservative? Apparently not, since a Democrat was elected governor last night, although Gay Marriage also failed to pass. So why did Amendment 44 fail? Because they failed to correctly define the solution to drug prohibition, and thus failed to properly legalize.

Continue reading ‘Why Amendment 44 failed (and why you should care)’

Rocky Mountain News: Elections

He said he thought voters would “see through” the pro-pot agenda and would defeat the statewide ballot measure.

“People are smart enough to understand what’s at stake here,” he said. “People don’t want their children growing up in a society that says drug use is OK.”

Yet another article I’ve read in the past few weeks that completely misses the point in arguing for prohibition. The point here isn’t whether drug use is OK or not, and beyond that it’s definitely not about our children on either side of the argument. These people merely have a paradigm stuck in their head that they’re not willing to look past, and they’re using their children as a shield. If they really cared about their children they’d want ALL drugs produced and regulated by the government to offer a solution to the drug problem as a whole.

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