Today on The Current
Sep. 30th, 2013 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollDiane Francis argues that it would be best for Canada to abandon our health care system, to adopt a native relations system even more brutal than the one we have, and embrace a sky-rocketing Gini Coefficient while inextricably tying ourselves to an unstable nation forever flirting with government shut-down and default.
On balance, I am against this. Their crazification factor outnumbers Canada more than two to one.
She also advocates policies known have contributed to gendercide in China.
On balance, I am against this. Their crazification factor outnumbers Canada more than two to one.
She also advocates policies known have contributed to gendercide in China.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 04:26 pm (UTC)Mind, if population size is the answer, we should all be emigrating to China. Clearly they have managed the correct blend of fascism...er, communism...and capitalism. [/tongueincheek]
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 07:06 pm (UTC)-- Steve will say he thinks that's a bit of an overstatement.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 11:23 pm (UTC)Some may argue that one. From both sides of the border.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 11:34 pm (UTC)[flails about inarticulately]
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 12:15 am (UTC)Answer two: the United States is full of cultural narratives and bits of cultural mythology that are at worst harmlessly eccentric on the personal level but which scale into "awful" when applied across the whole country. Libertarianism is an excellent example. It makes very little practical difference whether an individual person you know is a libertarian provided that they're not full-blown objectivists who apply those principles to every social interaction (which is exceptionally rare, even among libertarians). But application of the philosophy at scale quickly becomes toxic.
Basically, the US is full of ideas that don't scale to 320 million people and nonetheless have been scaled that way. Other countries sometimes do better because they lack those principles but, honestly, also sometimes do better because, despite having their own oddities, they've never had to scale those oddities to 320 million people and had them break down in the same way.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-02 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 01:35 pm (UTC)http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/09/meadows-boehner-defund-obamacare-suicide-caucus-geography.html?currentPage=all&mobify=0
The current mechanics of Congress are such that this 18% of the country are able to manipulate the House Republicans as a whole, and, on that basis, shut down the entire government and threaten default. Basically, the Crazification Factor has been endowed with veto power.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 06:39 pm (UTC)- Pauline Kael
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 04:07 am (UTC)Actually, we do. We're just too polite to do it where you can see us.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 05:04 pm (UTC)Because it's too cold!
Couldn't you just invade us and make us South Canada?
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 05:29 pm (UTC)We will have to continue with our scheme to infiltrate your entertainment and gaming industries and bring you to a state of faux Canadian-ness. *
*Memo: If I ever write a story or book based on this idea, I'm claiming the title "Faux Canada" right now.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 12:46 am (UTC)-- Steve has fun with these themes on occasion.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 05:40 pm (UTC)Possibly they feared that the number of people rushing to move to the warm part of Canada would sink the island.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 06:06 pm (UTC)dark-skinnedpoor people?no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 06:54 pm (UTC)The main issue is that the perceived benefits don't outweigh the costs, although there's been continuing studies on it over the years.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-02 02:31 pm (UTC)Canadians have an overinflated sense of their historical racial tolerance. Heck, some of them have an overinflated sense of their current racial tolerance.
Of course, Americans do too. It's yet another similarity between us.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-02 02:29 pm (UTC)http://noelmaurer.typepad.com/aab/2011/08/disgraceful-canadian-initiative.html
It isn't the Turks and Caicos. That was talked about, but never really got serious. Unlike the Bahamas, which would have happened had their not been a disgraceful racial panic in Canada.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 07:10 pm (UTC)-- Steve couldn't let this discussion go by without the obligatory "Canadian mentions the burning of Washington" comment.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 01:46 am (UTC)