Good Article
14-Aug-2003, 09:34 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: sauga
Posts: 1,313
Good Article
An article I rec'd from a friend in an email. I think it's pretty good read 
Subject: Article From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"It's not just the weather that's cooler in Canada"
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Pittsburg, PA Post-Gazette
You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud
music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence,
just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is
cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he
doesn't always lock his front door. He wears
Dockers. You hardly know he's there.
And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement,
spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen
mowing the yard is his spouse.
Allow me to introduce Canada.
The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up
there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's
like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic
have been building an espresso machine.
Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along
brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't
willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only
assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include
"freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.
And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are
authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering
legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession,
as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession
of under 15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to
allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if
your garden is full of wasps, it's smarter to go for the nest
rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United
States, bong.
Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand.
These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a
drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And
Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals
must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and
the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign.
(The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the
government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They
don't even have a death penalty!
And yet ... nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining
since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course,
there are still crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the
United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier
for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in
pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit
violent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes
of Ho-Hos from convenience stores.
And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month,
Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful
moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties
(they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell,
not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families.
Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course,
but more than those libertines up north.
This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our
stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome
country of polite, beer- drinking hockey players, not founded by
freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by
loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good
government than liberty and independence.
But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of
our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if
Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive
about letting people do what they want to?
Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according
to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by
large, well-organized
religious groups and thus has more in common with those of
Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran.
Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds
drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts
more immigrants per capita than the United States.
These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I
guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound.
Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really
demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult
-- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't
afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each
other.
I wonder if America will ever be that cool.
Subject: Article From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"It's not just the weather that's cooler in Canada"
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Pittsburg, PA Post-Gazette
You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud
music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence,
just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is
cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he
doesn't always lock his front door. He wears
Dockers. You hardly know he's there.
And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement,
spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen
mowing the yard is his spouse.
Allow me to introduce Canada.
The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up
there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's
like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic
have been building an espresso machine.
Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along
brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't
willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only
assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include
"freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.
And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are
authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering
legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession,
as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession
of under 15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to
allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if
your garden is full of wasps, it's smarter to go for the nest
rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United
States, bong.
Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand.
These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a
drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And
Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals
must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and
the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign.
(The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the
government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They
don't even have a death penalty!
And yet ... nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining
since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course,
there are still crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the
United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier
for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in
pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit
violent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes
of Ho-Hos from convenience stores.
And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month,
Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful
moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties
(they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell,
not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families.
Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course,
but more than those libertines up north.
This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our
stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome
country of polite, beer- drinking hockey players, not founded by
freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by
loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good
government than liberty and independence.
But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of
our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if
Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive
about letting people do what they want to?
Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according
to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by
large, well-organized
religious groups and thus has more in common with those of
Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran.
Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds
drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts
more immigrants per capita than the United States.
These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I
guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound.
Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really
demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult
-- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't
afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each
other.
I wonder if America will ever be that cool.
16-Aug-2003, 07:16 PM
#9
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: brampton
Posts: 1,033
"Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq."
if thats not the american attitude i don't know what is....i hardly \think it was about the FUN of iraq stupids yanks will never learn
if thats not the american attitude i don't know what is....i hardly \think it was about the FUN of iraq stupids yanks will never learn
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