Income Spliting is Anti-Libertarian

There is an irony in the Conservatives fetish for income splitting. It of course favours the rich, and it denies individual responsibility in taxation. While the right wants to see aboriginal peoples accept indvidual property rights rather than their traditional familal collective rights, for white rich people they want collective familal rights for tax purposes.

A libertarian feminist critique of the income spliting is available online I am publishing an excerpt from this presentation to the Law Reform Commision in 2001.


WHAT’S SEX GOT TO DO WITH IT? TAX AND THE “FAMILY”
Professor Claire Young
Faculty of Law
University of British Columbia
pgs 209-212

Conclusion

Perhaps the most persuasive reason for moving away from rules that take spousal and
familial relationships into account is that these rules complicate the tax system. If
simplicity really is an underlying goal of the income tax system, then repeal of many of
these rules would enhance that objective considerably. The integrity of the individual as
the unit would be ensured and there would be other benefits. Writing about the rules that
treat spouses as one unit, Jack London notes that they:

[e]xacerbate the schizophrenic and incoherent focus of the tax system on who
should comprise the appropriate human tax units. The federal income tax
system, more than ever before, lacks an intellectually or rationally defensible
perspective on whether married persons are, or ought to be, considered tax
units… In the result, the system is less equitable, both horizontally and vertically,
than it could be, or than it would be, under an ideal tax system, when only tax
equities are considered.
Jack London,
“The Impact of Changing Perceptions of Social Equity on Tax Policy:
The MaritalTax Unit”, (1988) 26 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 287 at 288-289.

But repeal of all the rules that refer to “spouse” or “child” is not recommended. Some of
the rules have an important objective and are effective in accomplishing that objective. In
other instances it is difficult to determine if a rule is achieving its intended objective.
Therefore, in some cases the report recommends the collection of more empirical data in
order to reach a conclusion about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of a particular rule.
Some of the major issues raised by the report include the following. While the attribution
rules are intended to stop income splitting between spouses and between adults and
minor children, there is a dearth of information about whether, in the absence of the
rules, there would be a proliferation of income splitting transactions with a consequent
tax leakage. Repeal of the rules would be a positive move to the extent that it results in a
removal of the disincentive for high-income taxpayers (primarily men) to transfer
property to their low-income spouses (primarily women). The problem is that repeal of
the attribution rules would only benefit those who have high incomes and who own
income-producing property. The report recommends more empirical research on the
issue of the cost in terms of tax dollars lost through income splitting in the absence of the
rules before a decision is made about retention or repeal of the rules.

The report recommends the repeal of rules that are based on dependency. These rules
include the spousal tax credit and the ability to transfer unused tax credits to a spouse.
The primary reasons for this recommendation are that these rules undermine women’s
autonomy, they act as a disincentive to women’s participation in the paid labour force
and the tax subsidy is delivered to the economically dominant person in the relationship
and not the person who needs it. Provisions based on economies of scale are subject to
the critique that it is not only spouses who benefit from economies of scale. Any two or
more persons living together benefit, but they are not penalized by the tax system. In this
context the child-care expense deduction, the GST Tax Credit and the Canada Child Tax
Benefit are discussed in detail and recommendations for improvement made.

The provisions that are based on economic mutuality are discussed in some detail.
These provisions are subdivided into those that are of advantage to the taxpayer
because they result in less tax payable and those that disadvantage the taxpayer
because they increase the amount of taxes payable. These two main classifications are
further subdivided into other classifications that look to the nature of the provision. The
problem with rules that are based on an assumption of economic mutuality is that in
many spousal relationships, this economic mutuality is not a reality. There is little or no
sharing or pooling of income. Therefore, unless the provision has an underlying other
rationale, it is difficult to argue that it should form part of the tax system. The conclusion
is that some of the rules that advantage the taxpayer should be retained because they
do have valid other objectives. But rules such as the inclusion/deduction system with
respect to spousal support cannot be defended on any basis.

In summary, there are many reasons why tax rules that take spousal and familial
relationships into account should be rethought. Perhaps the most compelling reason is
that the nature of spousal and familial relationships has changed dramatically over the
years. The percentage of Canadians who are married or living in heterosexual commonlaw
relationships is declining. Within those relationships, the role of spouses is changing.
Other non-spousal relationships, such as mother and daughter or two or more good
friends, share many characteristics with spousal relationships. Yet it is spousal
relationships that the tax system treats differently. It is time that this policy was
reconsidered and this report is intended to facilitate that reconsideration.

See

Not Real Tax Fairness



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left-libertarian
women
feminist economics
spouse

Kumbaya

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!

Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!

O Lord, kumbaya!

See:

Liberal Leadership Race

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Promise made promise delayed.

Soon. Someday. In the future. We will do it. Before the next election. Sooner than later. Any day now. Tommorow or the day after. When the opportunity is right.

MPs to revisit gay marriage

Justice Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday the government would honour a promise to allow a vote on whether to reconsider the 2005 legislation, which made Canada the fourth country after the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain to legalize gay marriage, before Parliament breaks for Christmas on Dec. 15. "The prime minister has made a commitment and he will honour that commitment," Toews said when asked by Reuters if there would be a vote. He was unable to say when it would happen.

See:

Same Sex Marriage



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Not Real Tax Fairness

"Flaherty has tried to pass this income splitting proposal off as a "tax fairness" measure, saying that it will "strengthen the social security system" and "significantly enhance the incentives to save and invest for family retirement security." This is really a calculated mis-description of what income splitting for tax purposes will do. First, it is a tax benefit that is only available to couples — single, unattached seniors need not apply. Second, it is a tax benefit that can really only benefit couples with one high income — couples who have two real incomes cannot take much advantage of income splitting because they each already have income of their own. Thus, income splitting will reserve the largest benefits for just one special set of taxpayers — those couples who live on a single high income. Third, the tax benefits of income splitting are completely unlike those meagrely meted out to people living in poverty — the financial value of the tax benefits of income splitting are virtually unlimited: the higher the single income-earner's income is, the bigger the tax benefit will be. For example, taxpayers with retirement income of $140,000 per year could save nearly $10,000 in federal and provincial taxes in just one year by electing to treat half of that income as having been earned by their spouse or partner. Packaged with the new income trust rules and an increase in the over-65 income tax credit as the "Tax Fairness Plan," permitting taxpayers to split their retirement incomes with their spouses or partners is, as Garth Turner put it at a Conservative conference in early October, "a down payment on the Conservative policy, adopted by party members in 2004, to move toward income splitting for all Canadian couples..."Because income splitting can only give tax breaks to those who live as couples, and because it reserves the largest tax breaks for the richest couples, it is the antithesis of "fairness" in terms of the real needs of those who live on retirement incomes."

Kathleen Lahey is professor of law at Queen's University where she teaches taxation and tax policy.


Real tax fairness would be no income taxes on the working class for those earning $100,000 a year or less.



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Right Against Right

The plan to create an intergrated Free Trade Zone of North America is supported in Canada by the Right Wing, in particluar members of the New Government of Canada and their allies in the Canadian CEO lobby under Thomas d'Aquino and by rigth wing provincial governments like Alberta. In the U.S. however it is the right wing that is opposed to deep integration between, Canada, Mexico and the United States. Ironic ain't it.

In October, Tancredo demanded the United States suspend work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) signed last year by Canada, Mexico and The United States until Congress examines its goals and agreements, which include standardizing regulations and dismantling other barriers to trade.

The deal to collaborate on a wide range of trade and security issues is part of a larger plot to merge the countries in a European Union-like arrangement using a common currency, he said, with no oversight from legislators.

A coalition of American conservatives is organizing a grassroots effort to make it an issue in the 2008 presidential race and vow to campaign against any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who won't side with them.

The movement was spearheaded in October by Howard Phillips, chairman of the public policy group Conservative Caucus, anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly and author Jerome Corsi.

The group is calling for a congressional investigation into the SPP and full disclosure of all documents when the new Congress run by Democrats begins in January. They're getting support from the Minuteman Project that monitors the borders to deter illegal crossings, a group Bush has called vigilantes.

Supporters of the anti-union stand point out that a prominent three-country task force backed by Canada's business elite has promoted an elaborate vision of a common economy and security perimeter.

The plan, released last year, drew fire from some Canadians who saw it as a dangerous surrender of sovereignty designed to benefit big business.

Of course in Canada the opposition to this accord comes predominately from the nationalist left.

I await the political confusion and chaos amongst the Blogging Tories who slavisly imitate their Republican idols south of us, as to whether they will support the interests of Canadian Business or their ideological counterparts. Place your wagers.


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Bourgeois Revolution

Nepal has finally entered the modern age, well at least the modern age of the 19th Century.

In the capital of Katmandu, thousands gathered in the heart of the city, waving banners and chanting slogans in celebration.

"Victory is ours! Long live people's democracy and peaceful Nepal!" chanted the participants.

In the southern city of Bharatpur, hundreds gathered and chanted, "Let there be permanent peace! No more autocracy! No more dictatorship!"

Maoist leaders will take seats alongside the elected politicians in parliament and join an interim government to oversee elections for an assembly that will draft a new constitution and decide the fate of the monarchy.

More than 13,000 people were killed before a cease-fire was declared in April following the weeks of mass pro-democracy protests that forced Gyanendra to restore Parliament, which he had usurped 14 months earlier.

The accord came a day after a government commission blamed Gyanendra for the brutal crackdown on the April protests that left 19 people dead, and recommended he be punished.
Under the deal, the rebels will join the interim parliament by Nov. 26 and will get 73 of the chamber’s 330 seats. Koirala’s Nepali Congress will remain the biggest party with 85 seats, and the Maoists will share second place with the Communist Party of Nepal. The rest of the seats will be held by smaller parties.
The rebels’ large number of seats is sure to give them a significant role in a new interim government, which is to be in place by Dec. 1. Officials were still working out the details of how the administration would be set up.
Gyanendra seized power in February 2005, saying he would bring order to a chaotic and corrupt political scene and quell the Maoist insurgency.
Since restoring Parliament, Gyanendra has been stripped of his powers, command over the army, and his immunity from prosecution.

The making of a "Bourgeois Revolution"

Social Research, Fall, 2004 by E.J. Hobsbawm

What this paper has tried to show is that something that plainly forms the foundation of the classical view of the French Revolution as a social revolution, a "bourgeois revolution" and a central and decisive step in the evolution of modern society, emerged in the first postrevolutionary generation, and why this reading of the French Revolution and its consequences seemed more logical and realistic than the modern revisionist view that it was "haphazard in its origins and ineffectual in its outcome" (Runciman, 1982: 318). It seemed realistic to French liberals in three respects, because in 1830 it seemed evident that a middle class actually had come to power. The nineteenth century, moreover, seemed clearly to perpetuate and even to institutionalize the conflict, which had not existed before 1789 but emerged during the revolution, that between "1791" and "1794," between middle class and "people" or "masses" (later specified by some as the "the proletariat"). Above all, it seemed realistic because, as Tocqueville put it elegantly and eloquently, the revolution

   has entirely destroyed, or is in the process of destroying ...
everything in ancient society that was derived from aristocratic
and feudal institutions, everything that was in any
way connected with them, everything that had the least
impress of them (Tocqueville, 1947: 23).

And the canyon with the earthquake of the revolution had opened between the Old Regime and the new society was evidently impassable, its profundity and width demonstrated, in France at least, beyond any doubt by the repeated failure to restore that Old Regime.

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Death of Channel Ten

When cable TV was introduced into Canada, at the same time that the CRTC came into being, it was determined that it should include community access. That meant that community groups, individuals, etc. would have free access to cable broadcasting to meet its 'community' objectives that it state made it an alternative to mainstream TV broadcasters.

The 1968 reform of the Broadcasting Act replaced the BBG with the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, or CRTC (which became the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in 1976). The CRTC spent most of the 1970s developing a regulatory framework for the rapidly expanding cable industry, which had emerged in the 1950s as community antenna television serving remote areas. By retransmitting signals picked out of the air from U.S. border-town transmitters (for which they paid no license fees until 1989), the Canadian cable industry built an attractive product for the Canadian television audience, which quickly developed a taste for the best of both worlds. To paraphrase the 1929 royal commission on broadcasting, Canadians wanted Canadian programming, but they wanted U.S. programming too.

Aware that the increasingly widespread cable model was undermining its policy to support and promote Canadian content, the CRTC moved to ensure that cable, as well, contributed to the overriding policy objective of delivering Canadian television to Canadians. Must-carry provisions ensure that every available Canadian over-the-air signal in any area is offered as basic service, along with a local community channel. But in exchange, cable companies were authorised to distribute the three American commercial networks plus PBS. This was, for many years, the basic cable package available to Canadian cable subscribers, and on this basis, cable penetration grew to 76% of Canadian homes by 1992.

The cable companies provided a public access channel to meet the CRTC requirements for community access. That channel in most communities in Alberta was Channel 10. It allowed for individuals, non-profit groups, religious, multicultural, social, political interests to have a free voice. Cable companies in the begining relied upon these groups to boost their volunteer base for staffing and content.

As they became more corporate, such as Shaw and its successful production of the comedy SCTV, the role of the community became more and more a drag on the corporate model that cable was becoming. Today cable companies have eliminated all community access, and have transformed Channel 10 into an internal news community announcement channel operated by the cable company and its staff. Thus the short life and death of authentic autonomous community televsion we had been promised when Cable was first licensed.

In Alberta the provincial government created its own public access TV channel, ACCESS, which was part of its radio network, CKUA. This channel slowly evolved from an educational and community access channel to an Eductational TV station linked to Athabasca university for distance learning, modeled on Ontario's Educational Channel. With the coming of the Klein privateers both ACESS and CKUA were privatized. ACCESS is now part of CHUMS Educational TV network. And again the death of community access to the airwaves.

Cable access in the United States still allows for individual and community access. Ironically thanks to Canadian media activists.

According to Ralph Engelman's Origins of Public Access Cable Television 1966-1972, New York's public access began in 1968 by Fred Friendly, a television advisor to the Ford Foundation and chairman of Mayor John Lindsay's advisory task force on CATV and Telecommunications, when he wrote a report recommending that cable companies set aside two channels the public could lease for a minor fee. The fee was opposed by others, and was later dropped. In July 1971 public access started.

From 1968 to 1970, Canadian filmmaker Red Burns, who'd served on the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)'s Challenge For Change and George C. Stoney, who'd likewise served a guest role, co-founded the Alternative Media Center (AMC) at NYU in 1971. AMC started the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, which is a public access advocacy organization, with interns that help establish access centers throughout America. In 1972 Burns and Stoney worked with FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson to make the FCC cable access requirements.

The FCC issued its Third Report and Order in 1972, which required all cable systems in the top 100 U.S. television markets to provide three access channels, one each for educational, local government and public use, where if there was insufficient demand for three in a particular market, the cable companies could offer fewer channels, but at least one, and any group or individual wishing to use the channels was guaranteed at least five minutes free. Also required was for cable companies to provide facilities and equipment with which people could produce shows.

We need a return to public access on cable and in any decisions the CRTC makes, fo any forms of broadcasting, TV, radio and new media.

The CRTC mandate changed under the Mulroney Tories to become the voice of capitalist competition in the media marketplace. Public access and the defense of the public interest in licensing our public airwaves, be it TV, radio, phone or the internet has been sacrificed by the CRTC. Instead they view their role as another Competition Bureau to enforce competition between competing oligopolies the Telcos and Cable companies.

SEE:

Pro Monopoly Tories

Monopoly Capitalism in Cyberspace

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Klein To Blame

This would require actually having centres for the menatlly ill to be able to access. But the Klein government shut those down, and tossed folks onto the streets back in the bad old debt/deficit hysteria of the ninties. They have created no community programs to deal with the mentally ill and the result is a large number on the streets homeless, or in family settings unable to get treatment. In a province that forces meth users and under age prostitutes into rehab programs this should be a no brainer.

Death of Mountie also prompts calls for improving mental health system

A fatality inquiry report into the 2004 deaths of an RCMP officer and a gunman in Spruce Grove has recommended changes to how Mounties run their emergency response teams and how the mentally ill are treated in Alberta.

The report also made several recommendations for the mental health system in the province. Ayotte recommended legislating community treatment orders in Alberta, which would force uncooperative patients to seek treatment or take medication. So far, such orders are only legal in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Also, Ayotte wants to see specially-trained police officers and psychiatric workers team up to handle situations where a mentally ill person comes in contact with police. Such a program already exists in Edmonton and plans are underway to expand it into surrounding areas.

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Another Reason For Her To Resign

Ambrose accused of boosting Quebec sovereigntists Another political opps from the New Canadian Government. And another reason to call for her resignation.

See:

Ambrose


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Dumb Move

Being a grouchy Liberal a firing offence

At least that's what the Liberals are saying about their former caucus-mate Dan Backs, the now-independent MLA for Edmonton-Manning.

Backs was kicked out of the Liberal caucus on Monday by party leader Kevin Taft, who said Backs created "ongoing friction" in the party to the point where everybody in caucus was fed up with him.

"I had to make a decision," said Taft, who refused to give examples of what Backs did wrong.

Taft also acknowledged he never gave Backs a warning before giving him the boot, and Backs says he was astounded by what he sees as an unprovoked ejection.

Proving the Alberta Liberals are no different than their Tory counterparts. They voted him out in secret. Shades of Garth Turner out of the blue they turf Backs. This has got to one of the dumbest political moves yet. No warning. And one of the poorest excuses for turfing someone from your party. Which of course generates all kind of media coverage, for all the wrong reasons.

A tip o' the blog to WP for this. And for a lots of comments on this see Daveberta's post

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Good News Story

This is a good news story. I have seen these fine folks out on the street training the guide dogs. And shared a bus with one today. Loyal donors retrieve help-dog agency from brink of oblivion


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And They Run The Province

This is hilarous. These are the guys who want to be the leader of the province and have been running it for 35 years. Heavy turnout at advance poll 'hell' for some voters

EDMONTON - Hundreds of voters, including seniors and women holding babies, waited hours at an advance poll Monday night to cast a ballot in the Progressive Conservative leadership race.

"This is terrible," said Mike Wincentaylo, as he approached his third hour in the lineup.

"I think a 10-year-old child could have organized this better."

See:

Conservative Leadership Race

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Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

NDP MP Peter Stoffer made the motion in Parliament today to have a State Funeral for the last Canadian WWI vet. It recieved unanimous consent in the house, though the Conservative Government House Leader whined that it 'was only one option among many' that they were considering, and that the Government would reluctantly support the motion.

There were initial concerns that the Conservatives would not support the motion.
A spokesman for Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson had said the Tories wouldn't say whether they would back the motion until they saw it.

The NDP also have fought for better veterans pensions, in another motion that was passed in the house, which the New Canadian Government, like its Liberal minority predecesor, is refusing to recognize.

And in Blogging Tory land does the NDP get kudos for their efforts? Nope they still slander Layton calloing him Taliban Jack and whine that the NDP stole the thunder from the Dominion Institute. Or they ignore who made the motion in the house, and they ignore the Conservatives continued reluctance over this issue.

Some folks can never just say job well done.

The Dominion Institute first floated the idea of a state funeral for the last surviving First World War veteran, and the idea quickly gained ground through online petitions.

As of today, 89,500 people had put their names on the petition.

The institute had planned on forwarding the petition to the Prime Minister’s Office on Dec. 11.

“Canada’s veterans are our greatest heroes and our country’s greatest volunteers. Offering a state funeral for the last Canadian veteran of the First World War is a fitting and symbolic tribute to recognize the great personal sacrifices of those who have served and who are currently serving our country,” Stoffer said in a statement.

See:

NDP

Veterans



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Does This Load Faster

I get comments on how slow this blog loads.

Now I understand that some problems occur due to my links on the side. However it also is the problem with the need for instant gratification we have become used to on the internet. With high speed loading and broadband ISP's the average websurfer expects instant gratification.

"People make instantaneous judgements about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn't give the right impression users will bypass it," said Dr Jim Jansen, Assistant Professor at IST.

The average wait time is not minutes nor even a half minute it is mere seconds, 2 to 4 seconds and then folks move on. If a page does not appear immediately they leave.

As one wag called it; What I Want Is Instant Results, WIWIIR.

Well I guess if I want readers I will have to make my page more time efficient for loading. Though it does load faster if you keep it in your cache.

So I have removed some of the widgets, dodahs, etc. on the sidebar, does it load faster now? And I seem to have solved the pop-up problem.

Let me know if this loads faster now.

And while your at it check this out;

Penn State Study

Web Surfers Impatient With Search Engines Diss My Web Site, Please

Study: Two-Thirds Of Searchers Click On First Results Page


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Old News

The Edmonton Journal has discovered blogs about the PC Leadership race and that they are having an influence on the campaign. Partisan conservative bloggers that is.

Blogs wield online influence in campaign
Information first published in blogs carries impact, garners thousands of hits

Whats this with the inordiante fascination of the MSM with Conservative bloggers, I thought the media was dominated by lefty liberals.

Bloggers influencing elections and leadership races is old news. Just as this is.

For all the Lethbridge audience knew at the final candidates' debate last Friday, Ted Morton was unleashing new details on Jim Dinning. But Morton's jab at Dinning for sending a note and a $25,000 corporate cheque to Liberal leadership candidate Paul Martin in 2002 was already old news on the Internet. In fact, online Progressive Conservative partisans had been talking about it 10 days ago.

Yeah well I posted about this as did other progressive bloggers over 115 days ago back in July. And we all got it from the same source, Paul Wells at Macleans. So lets give credit where credit is due. It came from the lefty liberal media.It did not come from the PC bloggers, but they have used it to slam Dinning.

See:

Conservative Leadership Race

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Gay Business

Big Business
Chance Mitchell and Justin Nelson and the growth of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

The reason that homosexuality is socially and politically recognized is the power of the dollar, regardless of the power of the social conservative lobby.

Once out of the closet, the gay movement created a business niche that has grown to become a multi-billion dollar market. Ask Toyota and other companies that recognize and advertize to the gay market.

Gay readers, consumers, and a dominant gay habitus: 25 years of the Advocate magazine

This essay extends Bourdieu's analysis of taste, cultural capital, and habitus to address the identification of and appeal to gay consumers in the Advocate magazine between 1967 and 1992. From its humble beginnings as a local activist newspaper to its incarnation as a gay and lesbian, glossy, lifestyle magazine in the early 1990s, the Advocate consolidated the image of the ideal gay consumer, his (occasionally her) tastes, pleasures, and concerns, for readers and advertisers alike. The magazine thus helped to construct a dominant gay habitus that would increasingly characterize an openly gay, professional-managerial class. This process provides both opportunities and costs for a diverse gay citizenship and for a lively, heterogeneous, sex-positive gay politics.

"Sex Sells: Sex, Taste, and Class in Commercial Gay and Lesbian Media"
The question of when and how sex sells takes an interesting turn when we consider the cultivation of the gay market, especially since the distinguishing feature of this market is its nonnormative sexuality. The past thirty years have witnessed an exponential rise in attention to gay consumers, increased representations of gays and lesbians in mainstream and niche media, and the diversification of gay and lesbian media. Interest in gay and lesbian consumers from national corporations such as Seagram, Subaru, and American Express has helped take gay media from small, local newspapers and journals (such as the earliest days of the Advocate)

I recently saw a truck in Edmonton with the familar gay rainbow symbol on it, a local construction renovation contractor entitled Pride Construction.

Butch construction workers coming out on the job. Thats why Same Sex Marriage will remain the law in Canada.

See:

Gay

Homosexual

Same Sex Marriage


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Domino Pot.

Will that be cash, credit or debit card.
I loved the headline, and the article even more.
Do they promise to deliver in thirty minutes of less.
Drugs are the free market in action. Which makes drug dealers free marketeers.

Pot buying goes corporate

NEW YORK — In a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door — groceries, dry cleaning, Chinese food — pot smokers are increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer satisfaction.

An untold number of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York are having their pot delivered to their homes instead of visiting drug dens or hanging out on street corners.

But experts say home delivery has been growing in popularity, thanks to a shrewder, corporate style of dealing designed to put customers at ease and avoid the messy turf wars associated with other drugs.

“It's certainly been the trend in the past 10 years in urban areas that are becoming gentrified,” said Ric Curtis, an anthropology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in the drug culture.

The corporate model — and its profit potential — were demonstrated late last year when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it had taken down a highly sophisticated organization dubbed the Cartoon Network. DEA agents arrested 12 people after using wiretaps and surveillance and making undercover buys. The operation's alleged mastermind, John Nebel, “should have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company,” said his lawyer, Steve Zissou.

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Marijuana

Drugs




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Harper-Toon

Wow that was a great buffet. I'm stuffed. Do you think it shows?


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Chinese Take Lessons from PMO

Looks like PM Harper gave Chinese President Hu some tips on how to handle the media when they had their brief meeting in Hanoi this weekend.

No queries please, we’re Chinese

The usual practice in New Delhi is for reporters to gather at Hyderabad House, where talks are being held between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu.

After the talks, the leaders step out to read out a written statement after which they answer two questions — one from the Indian reporters and the other from the visiting media contingent.

But what happened yesterday was a first. While reporters were allowed to hear both Singh and Hu make their opening statements and sit through the signing of 13 agreements, no questions were allowed. Most Indian reporters went back grumbling, wanting to know why they had been invited if they were only expected to wait and listen.

It later emerged that questions were disallowed to accommodate the visitors. In China, the media is not allowed to question the Communist Party leaders.

Just like in Canada.

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Harper

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Fascist Killed in Lebanon

Not the headline you are going to see in the MSM. And before folks go blaming Syria, one must remember that the Gemayel family has many enemies in Lebanon. As the Guardian points out;

Pierre Gemayel, the anti-Syrian politician shot dead in Beirut today, came from one of Lebanon's most prominent political dynasties.

His grandfather - also called Pierre - founded the Phalange party, a Christian Maronite paramilitary youth organisation modelled on the fascist organisations he observed while in Berlin as an Olympic athlete in 1936.

During the 1975 Lebanese civil war, the Phalange party was the most formidable force within the Christian camp.

Its militia shouldered the brunt of the fighting against the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and, as part of the Lebanese Front - the mostly Christian, rightist coalition - the power of the Gemayel family increased considerably.

The Phalange were also the name of Franco's Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.

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Lebanon

Fascism


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