<![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power! - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power! - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch:

Royal Reserve, the one with the sticker that read "A Proud Canadian." You could peel that off and signal both national feelings and sottishness.

Smitros

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Non! J'aime les Quebecois! Vive le Quebec!

Trixie from Toronto

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Trixie from Toronto: Zut alors! J'ai croyé que tu etais de Toronto. Ceux de Toronto detestent ceux de Québec, n'est-ce pas?

procrastinator, esq.

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @procrastinator, esq.:Je t'aime, eh?

Trixie from Toronto

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch: I simply can't compete; you've got the Canadians covered, A to Zed. I'm going to listen to some Arcade Fire and get gay married now. A bientot!

procrastinator, esq.

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Smitros: Alberta Rye? Do you mean Canadian Club? Or Crown Royal? Or...Wildcat? Yikes...

PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch:

No, alas, she did not take me up on it. But good times were had.

And I could also go for a Nanaimo bar and some Alberta rye.

Smitros

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Smitros: I had absolutely no idea that Shreddies was Canadian until my friend moved to Seattle and bemoaned the lack of Shreddies. And ketchup chips. And Coffee Crisp.
That is an awesome comeback, btw. Did she take you up on it?


PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> When you New Yorkers are drowning due to the sea-level rising from climate change, I'll be drinking a Timmy's tea for you. Oh wait - I actually do live in the Arctic and there is no Tim Horton's in my tiny Aurora Borealis-lit town. I want my ice back! At least we can use it toast to the earth's demise with some vodka.

tralia

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch:

Shredddiesss!

I would knock over little old ladies (and men) to get my hands on some of those. It's been too long.

On the way to a Halloween party in Ottawa more than a decade ago, I saw a young woman in a squarish costume who picked up on my bafflement. Approaching, she said, "Shreddies."

My brain already commandeered by Captain Morgan, I had no choice but to say "Excellent. I'm milk."

Smitros

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @donottavio: I want to hate you for making me look that up, but it's actually kind of interesting.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @jaded: I'm starting a campaign to have all canadian currency replaced with coins. Then I'm bringing the "doubloon pouch" back into fashion. I'll make a fortune.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @procrastinator, esq.: I did! Truly, a cartoon for our time. I was reading it while listening to "Quirks and Quarks" on the CBC. And eating my Shreddies.

PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> When little Bobby Womack first started his Canadian coin collection that glorious spring of '42, everyone laughed. Well, whose laughing now, Pat Sajak? Whose laughing now..

justagirl

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Hey! I think this thread may have broken Godwin's Law. Congratulations everyone.

donottavio

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch: Well, I would, but I've already blown my spending money this week on Yogen Fruz and Smarties. God, I've loved those things since Grade 8. All the way through University, really. Hey, did you catch "For Better or For Worse" this morning?

procrastinator, esq.

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise is totes NTJ in the politics lite department. SLDN's obsession with endlessly name checking Marx confirms it. I don't think there has been anything remotely Marxist about this discussion and I call shenanigan's. Unless SLDN is just really stupid and is conflating Socialism-lite (which when it is practiced in the GWN, is what i'd call it if i were being generous) with Marxist theory. Which would be wrong, obvs. Take off, eh.

mackintosh-squidbrains

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @procrastinator, esq.: Jeez, y'know, Sunday I'm supposed to be watching the CFL doubleheader with my buddy. But poutine in the morning? Fine by me! Maybe we could stop by Lululemon and get some of them yoga pants?

PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> I miss the public executions.

miss_msry

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PimpMyCouch: I totally would, but I need to pick up my toque and my Roots jacket from the dry cleaners. Maybe we'll hang out on Sunday and grab some poutine?

procrastinator, esq.

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @procrastinator, esq.: Take off, eh? It's all aboot getting Closer To the Heart. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a new snowshovel from Canadian Tire. I've been saving all that money they give me, and I'll get a .75 discount! The trick is to sock it away in your car coin tray. Hey, Hockey Night in Canada is on this Saturday - d'ya feel like gettin' a two-four of Molson and kickin' back to watch the game? It'll be awesome, eh?

PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: We're discussing consequences of your preferred policies NOW, or did you not notice what's going on because you strive for wealth in order to insulate yourself from all the ugliness- poverty, disease, environmental catastrophe, miltant opression, your ilk's vapidity, etc.?

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: And have now been bulldozed to build mcmansions for the oligarchs.

cequirk

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Late to the party. Everyone seems so serious. But we are talking about Canada, right? And no one's stepped in with a Rush joke or a reference to "aboot" or a snide remark about Canadian Tire Money or daytime running lights?

People, people. I'm disappointed in each and every one of you for bringing the level of discourse up so high.

procrastinator, esq.

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> So many helpful critters. So little Raid.

cequirk

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mcintosh-toffee:

There hasn't been a single substantive argument since John Peeps' post. All I've seen is a lot of confirmation bias and marxist self-fellation. Which is basically how politics works, so I guess I'll be seeing these kinds of policies achieve broad acceptance. We'll discuss consequences later, yes?

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II: Just stepping in to thank you for sticking up for our country. And, just to settle the $4 bagel debate - a bagel with cream cheese and a double-double at Tim's costs $3.05Cdn. No more, no less.
It doesn't make sense that, while our dollars are at par with one another, we're still paying more for the same goods in retail and automotive industries. Hopefully when the sectors realize that the entire country is shopping south of the border, they'll lower the prices to be more competitive.
And, um, just to address what SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise was saying about our government - it's actually a Conservative minority right now, and they are in no way liberal, and very much in favour of business. Yes, Canadian government has its moments of corruption (sponsorship scandal, anyone?), but at least we haven't installed any puppet governments lately. Health care - sure, I may have to wait a few months/years for a procedure, if it's not an emergency, but at least I won't have to pay for it.



PimpMyCouch

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @parkslump: No way, baby. The libertarian, capitalist, laissez-faire moneybags of New York will just pester the Army Corps of Engineers to build huge seawalls to hold back the advancing ocean... OH, SHIIIT.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> I hope we can all keep our senses of humor and react to this type of news jokingly when residents of downtown Manhattan and everyone on the Brooklyn water front become refugees in Prospect Park. Then we'll really be bitching about the F train.

parkslump

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: See, you or the other tool above have no idea whatsoever the level of anyone's education and/or life experience. You use the proverbial "you just don't know " insult to try and condescend instead of having a conversation. But that's alright. How DID that PhD in government work out? Because explanations like this:

Marxism doesn't work because we are all basically greedy shits

and this:
National healthcare won't work because the government will simply fuck it up

are so basically simple and stupid that it's laughable.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni: You may not like Starr, but she did pass the bar...
And "flashing" may simply be my way of suggesting that I have more education and life experience than, say, some idealistic person in their 20s currently taking Econ 101.


PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: You can still enjoy the chandeliers in the Moscow underground!

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @DorothyMantooth: You're right, of course!

PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Baffin Bay, with its coconut trees and balmy beaches, is the next Caribbean.

freshnesst

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni: The summer homes of rich Russians were seized after the revolution. At first many were used as collective farms, but eventually most ended up as summer homes for CP leaders.

PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: Your flashing of credentials reminds me of Star Jones prefacing some asinine remark by reminding us that she's a lawyer.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @lucio: Thank you for the correction (and dose of sanity in the midst of all the other kerfuffle around us - SEPARATE CORNERS, PEOPLE). Yeah, I guess it was just a confluence of overall environmental concern.

ljnd2

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> gallon. Whoops.

Koreanish

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> It's all about the Tim Horton's sour cream doughnut.

And as for all you econ bitches, don't forget to factor in the effect of the Canadian oil boom. At the rate the American economy's going we'll be paying 10 dollars a gallan for gas from Canada to go and buy our thirty dollar Tim Horton's bagel. And that'll be a date night.

Koreanish

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: Geez, I hope that was a typo.
Dacha = summer home
Dachau = something not nearly as nice



DorothyMantooth

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @PandoraSpocks: The good dachaus?

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mindbling: I see the political incarnation of NTJ has shown up. Let me see if I can sum up political theories and policy for you, having spent 7 years as a Ph.D candidate in government:

Marxism doesn't work because we are all basically greedy shits and the people in charge never evolve, they just keep all the good dachaus and paintings for themselves.

National healthcare won't work because the government will simply fuck it up, make it even worse than it already is and you will need to spend four hours on hold to get an appointment anywhere.

Thank You.

PandoraSpocks

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> So it can take its rightful place among the other "backdoor world powers": Craigslist casual encounters and Yale.

123profit

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Trixie from Toronto:
Prices aren't any higher here -- except books -- but taxes are and I am OK with that. Because when I get cancer, I won't go bankrupt and end up living in my adult children's basements. All of my tax dollars will have been well-spent.

True, books and computers. But so much yes to taxes for free surgery! I had a 100% free surgery once and never was i so happy to see my tax $$s at work. Go tax dollars! Go corrupt gaping assholes beholden to me (and Tim Hortons, cuz you know they are beholden to Tims)!


mackintosh-squidbrains

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mcintosh-toffee: It's the right-wing way. Throw shit at the wall. See what sticks. Call people retarded and stupid. That doesn't work. Leave.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> So we can now club the baby Polar Bears?

miss_msry

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II:
Love your work.

One small note. Coastal land won't become coral reefs, because we're killing those, too.

Hey, would you sponsor me for immigration?


Smitros

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SinisterRouge:
@SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: I lost the argument with actual, real, correct arguments (with examples!) of my foolishness and general douchey-ness as a greedy, uber-capitalist fuck who wants to de-regulate the world into oblivion so I can buy that second house in the Hamptons and my cunt wife can have yet another car she'll drive to fuck her tennis coach.
Sooo....I'm gonna go! Thread over!

BRAVO!



mackintosh-squidbrains

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: CANADA is fucking NAFTA in the eye?

That is rich. You might want to re-educate yourself on the whole softwood lumber dispute.

And no, it is utterly untrue that you don't get health care unless you need surgery. Nice try though Bill O'Reilly.

Trixie from Toronto

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @not_yellow: Yes. Completely invented. Anyone with a pulse that pays attention knows that's one of those right-wing talking points. Besides, they're telling these lies to people that can't see a doctor at all because they have no insurance.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: And still no substantive response...

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: A system as irrational as capitalism relies on effective administration and control of the means of production in order to survive.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SinisterRouge: @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Did I tell you I'm a tennis coach?

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> I live in Canada and have never had a problem with the healthcare system. Same or next day appointments, quick referrals, a week to see a specialist. Same for my friends. Which isn't to say problems don't exist, but they are greatly exaggerated (and sometimes invented) by the American media. I actually waited much longer to see doctors for both well-visits and emergencies when I lived in the US.

not_yellow

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: ...its telling how you see factual correction as a physical threat, much like to YOUR quasipseudoeconomic self-justifying theories...

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: I lost the argument with actual, real, correct arguments (with examples!) of my foolishness and general douchey-ness as a greedy, uber-capitalist fuck who wants to de-regulate the world into oblivion so I can buy that second house in the Hamptons and my cunt wife can have yet another car she'll drive to fuck her tennis coach.

Sooo....I'm gonna go! Thread over!

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Details please on the inefficient infrastructure? And by the way -- I have never in my life paid $4 for a donut or a bagel in this country.

Prices aren't any higher here -- except books -- but taxes are and I am OK with that. Because when I get cancer, I won't go bankrupt and end up living in my adult children's basements. All of my tax dollars will have been well-spent.

Trixie from Toronto

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> The Northwest Passage is going to affect Canada's economy about the same way the Straits of Malacca affects Indonesia's and Malaysia's economy. It's going to be an international shipping lane, not a Panama Canal where you get to charge tolls. You might get some fuel distribution business and a bit of piracy but you can forget about a Singapore springing up on the ice-free rocks. -- Not that I want to interrupt this inspiringly open-minded give-and-take on taxation, monetary policy and Canadian health care and go off on a weird tangent related to the topic of the post. (It looks like Dissent and Commentary have merged again.)

Tulletilsynet

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @notan-ism-ist:

Good to know I can always rely on arrogant internet psuedoeconomists to threaten to beat me up. Thread over, good day!

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Well, even in the most immediate example of supply and demand: now that our dollar's at parity with the US, why are we still paying higher prices? Your logics of supply and demand states that corporations should compete with each other for market share by lowering prices. But instead, they're all remaining in lockstep with each other. No one is leading a change in pricing, because as long as they're all tacitly united they all make more money. All book publishers still have Canadian pricing, all auto and appliance makers the same.

Sure the consumer is complaining, but who do we complain TO? The GOVERNMENT. We trust the Government because we in Canada understand exactly what they are and what they're there for. They're a group of corrupt, stupid, reactionary figureheads, but ultimately they're beholden to us for their jobs, and they have an enormous amount of power - both legislative and purchasing. They're a body, like any other corporation, but their performance is evaluated on how well they serve our wants, not on profit.

And our health care system is pretty excellent. It far, far outstrips yours in everything but elective surgery for the wealthy. America is king in that field. We're only dissatisfied with it because it used to be much better.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni:

You don't "advance" capitalism by planning the economy or increasing federalized management of resources. That's actually the precise way that you retard it. I'd have to research that specific economy to really comment on your analysis though.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Downstream, dufus, downstream... and I was only mirroring your asshole tone ...and I'm 6'3", 225, and very agile, so you may want to recant that too.

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> All this politics talk. I like it. But the most important thing about this open Northwest Passage - the spice trade can now really take off !

M. Pompadour

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Actually, because it was a more advanced form of capitalism.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> We, too, could have universal health care if not for the widely embraced moral hazard theory. In a nutshell, moneybrains say that we can't be trusted with free anything, because we would gorge ourselves on it. Sort of like the fat guy in the buffet line, who eats thirds, not because he's hungry, but because he can.

By widely embraced, I mean the supply-side yahoos. You can't trust us poors with anything, I tell ya.

mindbling

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni:

Because it was too socialist, natch..

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @notan-ism-ist:

Excitable little guy, aren't you? I occassionally have to comment on this conference call, you know.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @notan-ism-ist:

I haven't read it, but take heart: the consequences to the environment are priced in! Every tree hacked down bears the cost of limiting the future supply. Every oil barrel burned applies a constraint on our ability to consume more in the future. Of course, it's difficult to disagree with the fact that we do not necessarily price it in fast enough or relative to the consequence environmentally.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mindbling: They wear berets and Che t-shirts when they close on their condos.
@hamburgerhotdog: That's Dr. Parkinson. He must be good because he already has a disease named after him.

sanson

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: You. have. no. fucking. response. to. my. comment. because. you. have. no. godamn. idea. what. I. am. talking. about.

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> The polar bear upset me. I'm going to go look at the ass again.

c_webb

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Yeah, and there were plenty of valid critiques of "mixed" systems 40 years ago, like Henri Lefebvre's assertions that French socialism was basically more efficient at maintaining class stratification.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II:

Obviously, those are extreme, non-representative examples. Clearly, certain compromises have to be made with social policy to prevent widespread chaos and dissatisfaction, and obviously there is no true "free" economy. I'm assuming these obvious things to be true, but given the level of discourse here it's easy to see why you would assume that I didn't have a grasp of the fundamentals.

That said, I hardly think the corrupt, functionless, formless societies you've described are demonstrative of any theory other than "chaos is detrimental to economies." And yes, I maintain the belief that independent capital decisions are more efficient than broad Federalized ones. C'est la vie, we're bound to disagree. Enjoy Canada.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> another difference worth mentioning is that the ozone problem was substantially solved in the late 70s or early 80s via international agreement, and the ozone hole is shrinking. This sets it apart from the climate problem, on which international action has proved elusive.

TheLorax

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> No, no and no! A bagel w. tonnes of cream cheese and an double alongé will run you 3 and some change in a large city (ahem, Montréal, obvs). And, there are tonnes of inexpensive healthy foods here in Canada -- that American processed crap may cost a bit more, but so what! And then there is FREE quality health care. No lies. It has its glitches sometimes, but overall i am happy to pay taxes in exchange for free surgeries. The cold can be a problem, but you do get used to it (i moved from the west coast to eastern climes 5 years ago, and it sucked at first, but i'm over it.) But that said, far be it from me to tell anyone what is better or right (hint hint).

mackintosh-squidbrains

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Holy Jesus. I don't know where you went to school, but if you're under the impression that there has ever been a successful "free" economy, you are shit out of luck. In fact, it's irresponsible to even claim that any economy in the history of the world has been "free". What does that even mean? The very existence of an economy is so heavily regulated by various bodies that claiming it as "free" is crazy-talk.

You want to know where the "free-est" economies are? Just look for the highest unemployment rates. And the starving-est people. Iraq in 2002. Argentina in 2001. Pinochet's Chile in 1976. Basically anywhere the Friedman school of bullshit magical fairy dust rainbow unicorn economics has laid a finger has been a fucking disaster. Not since new age crystal healing has a theory failed so consistently and still been believed so fully by its adherents.

Listen, any cut in taxes is NOT coming out of prices of items on the shelf. That's the one thing you can take to the bank.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @ljnd2: it must have been scary to find a carcinoma, and I'm sorry that hapened to you and glad to hear you had it excised in a timely way, but... since your comment appears to link skin cancer to global warming, I fear you are under a (total) misunderstanding about what global warming is and what causes it. I believe you may be confusing global warming, caused by excessive greenhouse gasses including CO2 in the atmosphere, and loss of the ozone layer, caused by chloro-fluorocarbons and hydro-flourocarbons interacting with gasses in the outer atsmosphere. Ozone in the upper-atmosphere protects the planet against UV rays and diminution of the layer may have some role in skin cancer. Loss of the ozone layer has no role at all in global warming. The two problems are totally unrelated.

TheLorax

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
Private systems are usually better at managing capacity than government ones

Like which ones?? Please tell me more about these private Saviors!

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: What about me, brah? Oh, and US currency is NEVER "manipulated by unnatural forces", right?

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @tammyfey: Yes it does. That's the issue that all of these people don't seem to get. WE KNOW our taxes will go up. WE are OK with that if it means that kids in non-gentrified Brooklyn get to see a doctor.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: How in the fuck did I confuse anything? I never said they had it bad at the grocery store, YOU claimed the $4 bagel. I explained to your stupid fucking ass that their taxes are high because of social programs, like healthcare. You just re-iterated everything I said. And maybe they like having healthcare.
Restrictions on trade will make it easier for us to go into Canada, flood them with our goods, devalue their currency and make them just like Mexico! Yay!

Simple lesson: You're a fucking uber-capitalist asshole who believes in privatization of everything (how's that private army Blackwater doing, BTW? Kill anyone else lately?) to the detriment of the BASIC needs of a population.

Healthcare here is better for those who can afford it...which is becoming less and less. If you're poor here, you can't get in to see a GENERAL doctor, never mind a specialist or a surgeon.

People like YOU are the ones that spread the notion that you'll wait in line for months for healthcare, when in fact, you wait longer for specailists (just like here!) and for ELECTIVE surgery.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @tammyfey:

Canadian political corruption would curl your hair. Read a newspaper!

You're not a filthy commie for wanting people to have health care or education. However, keep in mind that both of those products have unlimited, inelastic demand and constrained supply with high barriers to entry. You have to manage capacity. Private systems are usually better at managing capacity than government ones. For all the love for Canada's health care system, it's extremely dissatisfying to Canadians.

The grass is always greener under the permafrost I guess.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Also:

"Six Californias of open water appeared in the Arctic."

Right about now, some mildly annoyed Canadian polar bear is muttering, "Well fuck, there goes the neighborhood." And his buddy is thinking, "Yeah, bro, I mean, like, whatever."

GorgeousGeorge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni:

Given up on what? I'm pretty sure that socioeconomic consensus was reached that neither planned nor completely free economies were desirable like, 30 years ago. I'm just catching up all the college freshmen in here.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Regina, vagina. One cannnot say the first without immediately thinking of the second.

tuffgirl

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: You, an American, are telling a Canadian about corruption? Get the fuck outta here!

And believe it or not, I would be more than willing to pay more taxes if that meant health care and education for all. Does that make me a filthy commie?

tammyfey

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @hamburgerhotdog: Funny, I feel more embarrassed for the people who have given up.

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> So either all of my former 7th grade friends' girlfriends are finally going to materialize, or all my friends were liars.

GorgeousGeorge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SinisterRouge:

What are you even talking about? You're conflating like 5 seperate issues there.

Simple economics lesson:

Higher taxes, past efficient thresholds, cause higher prices.

Stronger currency causes lower prices, provided that the currency is not being manipulated by unnatural forces.

If the stronger currency can't beat the prices down, taxes are too high.

Therefore, if Canadians have it so bad at the grocery store, why don't they cut taxes? That's the most effective way to introduce liquidity to companies who will buy product and soothe the supply curve.

The answer? Health care is a big reason. Corruption is another. Restrictions on trade don't help. And then there's the assumption that a planned economy will outperform a free one, which has never borne out in human history.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II:

Pope, tell the nice people how hard it is to get basic health care. You basically can't see a doctor unless you need surgery, correct? No lying, either. Also, I wonder if the cost is being rolled up into, say, taxes? Taxes that cause prices to stay high?

Are you referring to the lumber tariffs in the rest of that? Perhaps if your trade policy was more accommodating in other areas, yes? Stop fucking NAFTA in the eye and maybe we'll talk. It has nothing to do with American fatcats and everything to do with protectionism and taxes; keep in mind, Canada is the US's biggest trade partner and we disproportionately import from your country, which means that our trade activities are beneficial to your currency and quality of life. Don't blame the unbelievably higher prices on your goods on anything but your corrupt liberal bureaucracy. Lumber tariffs have not made your coffee as expensive as it is; your government has.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @hamburgerhotdog: Oh ick. Less Che, more pay. That's my new motto!!

mindbling

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mindbling: Yeah, pretty much. You've seen that doctor guy in Williamsburg? Something like that.

hamburgerhotdog

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: WE'RE WAITING...

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @gonzosmom: I am more interested in the current price of Mounties. Is the ice loss gonna make them an endangered species due to habitat loss? Oh God-Save The Mounties..

BalknChain

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @tammyfey: You get sort of acclimatized to it, actually. It's weird. The longer you spend outdoors, the better you are at dealing with cold. If you go camping around fall/winter, you really get to know cold intimately. Then you start to think shit like "okay, my skin skill hurts, so I'm still a while away from frostbite. good!".

I went to Florida when I was about 17, and I felt like I was going to die every single goddamn day. It was the worst week of my life. It was like living in a food steamer.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @hamburgerhotdog: Ahhhh. Good to know. What do they morph into at 25? Socialist hipsters?

mindbling

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Sure we get a Northwest Passage but everyone on the gulf coast of the US will be underwater. It's not just us that should care about the shrinking icecap. Also: Do you know how much oil "the experts" think is under the North Pole? Shit loads. Us fringy countries are about to rule the world, people. Forget China and India. It's gonna be Canada and Denmark. The whole world is gonna be sucking up to..uh...hockey players and cheese makers.

Speaking of IceCaps: I have to question your stats on Tim Horton's. There is actually one Tims for every two Canadians. That's 16 million Tims. That's a fact.

ehkca

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @etconsumimurigni: the "left-leaning" thing makes sense when you're at the north pole.

dotorg greg

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @mindbling: It's kinda like being a goth--acceptable until your early twenties, then kind of embarrasing after that. Also, you have to hand out newspapers and hang out with people who won't ever shut the fuck up about the struggle and the revolution and shit.

hamburgerhotdog

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> here in buffalo, my malls are being invaded by the fleets of ontario license plates thanks to the whole canadian exchange thing. oh, and i have a tim hortons in my building and doughtnuts are like 10 cents...ok i'm exaggerating, but their coffee is my anti-drug.

hotdogfingers

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> One of the cutest things about Canada is that tense little game-show moment at the cash register when you're not quite sure how much the total price, with tax, will be. So, that $4 bagel is really more like $4.58. All kidding aside, when I was up there last month for TIFF, I was very impressed, so much so I was thinking, "Yeah, fuck New York, I could do Canada." But this was September; I had visited before in December, and it was wickedly, obscenely cold. How do you do it?

tammyfey

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II: Are you Canuck or just standing on guard for thee? I loves you regardless.
And if Montreal is gonna be the new Seoul, someone better start a few good Korean restaurants, 'cause I can't get a kimchi chigae or haemul pajeon worth its 소금.


josh speed

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> What's wrong with being a Marxist?

mindbling

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Mariallena: Investment tip. Don't ever, ever, ever buy coastal land. At the rate ice is melting, it will be a coral reef in 10 years. Why do you think this shit scares the crap out of icy countries? We're losing glaciers, losing permanent icecaps, losing permafrost! It's fucking nuts!

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: They can afford it, with all the money they save on health care!

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II:

Touche' - and you're right, it was in the 70's.

gonzosmom

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Perhaps prices in Canada are higher because they tax their manufacturing and raw materials higher, making goods cost more. But then again, you can go to the doctor there and not pay through the nose....because their services cost much much less. Oh, but that wouldn't give assholes like you that extra 100K at the end of the year would it? Let's kick out the illegal immigrant underclass that we've got to keep labor costs nice and low. and see how quickly the price of a bagel here shoots up to $4. Fuck you. You encapsulate everything that's wrong with America.

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @Pope John Peeps II: Yeah, I'd like to see these mythical $4 bagels he refers to. I'm guessing they're for sexual purposes and not actual consumption as a food product.

hamburgerhotdog

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Russia, a "left-leaning country"? Are you fo' real?

etconsumimurigni

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
People in glass houses should not be throwing ice balls, erm, or slushy balls. See: retard for reference.


mackintosh-squidbrains

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> What's the exchange rate for ice these days?

gonzosmom

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise:
I can fight master villains with my purchasing power.

bobloblog

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: inefficient infrastructure? Trade protectionism? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the noise of your bridges falling down. Perhaps they're weighed down by the truckloads of money carted in from the border, from tariffs on Canadian resources put in place so a fat old white man can keep his Congressional seat?

Canada's prices are higher because when we devalued the dollar back in the late 70s (I think), we ganked up our prices so that Canadian industrial profits would remain the same. Up until 2002, our dollar was maybe 65c U.S. Now that we're at parity, we're realizing just how fucking rotten and capitalist industry fucking is. There's a HUGE uproar over here about unfair prices. Including class action law suits, people refusing to pay anything but American prices on goods. It's so bad that even Canadian news has noticed it. And they only notice people getting set on fire, and kittens.

All that being said, a doughnut is like... 70 cents at Tim's. And a bagel with cream cheese is still about a buck.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: For a more meaningful analysis of price vs. value in the context of sustainability, please read Robert Solow's "An Almost Practicle Step Towards Sustainability", which basically says that we must take into account in pricing the depletion of not only our plant capital but also our environmental and natural resources... you slash and burn capitalist pig!

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SinisterRouge:

That doesn't read like much economic analysis. Shut up, college.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: Ooooh....burn!! You're a fucking asshole. Che and me are so offended! Keep spreading the good word is all I'm sayin'!

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> That graphic scared the shit outta me - I just got a basal cell carcinoma (the very common pesky kind of skin cancer, not the killing kind) removed last week, and I'm feeling my scar and looking at the picture of the shrinking ice and it really hit home how this affects not just polar bears...Does no one in the Bush administration know anyone who has to get these things excised periodically? Or does skin cancer only happen to liberals?

And does this mean I can actually spend all the Canadian quarters I get from vending machines?

ljnd2

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> So basically, thanks to Global Warming, their balls have been released from their icy cocoons and they're swinging 'em everywhere.

That's hot.

The Real JR

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SinisterRouge:

Okay, then YOU explain why a bagel in Canada costs 4 dollars. Please, blame evil corporations, you still little Marxist retard.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Investment tip of the day: buy coastal property in Greenland. By the time you retire, it will be the next Caribbean and you'll sell it to a hotel chain to build a resort.

Ka-ching!

Mariallena

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> @SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise: LOL. MUST spread the wonders of laissez-faire capitalism at all costs!

SinisterRouge

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> Regina can suck my Saskatoon and my Winnipeg.

KarenUhOh

]]> <![CDATA[Ice-Free Canada To Become Backdoor World Power!]]> The dollar thing is kind of funny. Pricing takes a while to catch up to currency valuation; just look at Zimbabwe, I think they make price tags with little sliders to add zeroes. The other problem is that Canada's inefficient infrastructure and prohibitive trade policy structure prevents its dollars from being as valuable as ours in terms of purchasing power.

SlightlyLessDeliciousNoise

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