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Mark,
Re the 25 mile limit for Mexican trucks, I think what had people concerned was the Bush Admin.'s 'pilot program' allowing some trucks open access.
Canadian laws and transport regulations are comparable and compatable with those in the US so our trucks travel your roads and yours travel on ours.
We get strange things; produce in Alberta from the US and Mexico while BC is growing the same, in some cases..
We have the same Walmarts up here. only difference is they don't need to play games with health care.
Cheers,
Rick
re; health care march: Here's how AP puts it: " Dozens of health care activists are protesting.."
Hmmm....dozens, huh?
We really must stop calling it "Free Trade" because laissez faire policies have nothing at all to do with freedom. Freedom denotes a kind of liberty bounded by rational limits and regulations that keep it from devolving into pure license to prey upon the vital interests of others. For example people can be free to jump about and swing their arms around as they please, but when we share space with a community of other people that freedom must end where the nose of the next guy begins. Unrestricted trade policies that leave ordinary people at the libertine mercy of greedy inhuman transnational corporations is anything but "free" for those who must live under the tyranny of the corporate order. The term "Free Trade" is clearly a misnomer, so what should we call it? “Wild Trade? "Uncontrolled Trade?" "Anarchistic Trade? "Savage Trade?" "Cry Uncle Trade?" Suggestions anyone?
Ed from Redondo
(aka - DancingBear)
@Zero G: hey have a SOH!
I know lotsa stoners. Some are smart and some are stupid.
The key point is that when you're high, you are not smarter but you are mellower, as opposed to when you're drunk: you're not smarter then either but a lot of drunks act out.
@Zero G. re: mothers’ milk:
Maybe that explains why some perverts are making cheese out of the stuff.
In regard to what this Nels said, naturally it doesn't surprise me that people prefer to pick-on Mexico, which I regard not only as craven, but obviously lacking knowledge. I've already pointed out here before that Mexican truckers are not permitted to drive further than 25 miles inside the border, just far enough to drop cargo inside the country where U.S. truckers can haul it to their eventual destination, unlike Canadian trucks drivers who complete access to U.S. roads. The U.S. also benefits with the exception of the duty-free policy of NAFTA--tariffs on Mexican produce, to protect U.S. farm goods.
Nels,
Great! :-)
Great suggestion Quark.
I'll send a note to Franken today.
@Mark K: it'll be interesting to see how FAUX news covers it; or not.
One of the sources of natural anandamide, mothers' milk:
Research presented in this text shows that anandamide is secreted in mother's milk and also stimulates appetite. Without anandamide in mother's milk, ...
Ethan Russo
Nels and Charles,
I just called Sen. Al Franken's D.C. office to ask his position on reenstating strong tariffs. His staff person said he didn't have a position on it. I requested he look into it and start by talking with Thom.
BTW, I know that Al strongly disagrees with most things "Friedman" (as in Tom.)
Al might be a good person to lobby...
This "just in" on CNN: a pro-health care reform/anti-insurance industry rally is marching through Washington D.C. at this very moment; at least one protester was carrying a "Go Obama Go" placcard. CNN is noting that this seems to be in opposition to the position of the tea party people.
I second Thom's return to taxing churches.
@Zero G: Cheech and Chong was parody?
Hemlock Stones - "I'll have a coke. I understand it comes in bottles in this country. Bartender, I think this drink is drugged. It is, how refreshing!"
The Firesign Theatre
Nels,
Re ending NAFTA, it is natural for you to think of Mexico in terms of cheap labour, trucking etc., but remember that Canada is the other party here.
We have always had bi-lateral agreements and usually cooperation that has worked out ell for both of us, though some of that was folded into NAFTA.
We are not a third world country and our wages are comparable, so just remember when there are calls for the trashing of NAFTA, this is a different situation here.
We have suffered in things like lumber and your buy-American specs left Canadian sources out of stimulus money while you expected access to Canadian business..
The system isn't always fair, but we have lots in common and we need to remember that.
Cheers, any disputes should be settled on the hockey rink ;-)
Rick
@rewinn,
Stupid? Cheech and Chong made millions playing stoners, but that was parody...
...was Carl Sagan stupid, or your favorite songs' composer (the last just a matter of probability not certainty)?
re:animals getting high: My grandfather was a county sheriff in rural Texas durnig prohibition ('30's). He was staking-out a still, watching the squirrels getting drunk by eating the fermenting mash. They were hilarious to watch, running up tree trunks and falling off, jumping from branch to branch, and missing, etc. He didn't say anything about hangovers, but I bet it drove them nuts.;D
OK Charles, you just doubled the number, can anyone else do the same?
Why doesn't it surprise me that Kucinich would be doing the right thing.
"A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by God to give Grace" .... is the definition I learned in parochial school. It sounds very much like the Cannibis priest Thom's having on right now.
The big difference (as I see it) is that alcohol can make you angry and stupid, whereas pot makes you happy and stupid ... which is much better!
Pay Cuts for Congress? & “Big” Governments Republicans Mandating Marriage……
budget imagesRep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) introduced a bill last week to slash pay for members of Congress 5% or $8,700 a year — and freeze their automatic cost-of-living increase. With Congress’ approval ratings “spiraling downward,” Kirkpatrick said, “Families across the country are getting by on lower wages…so why shouldn’t senators and representatives have to feel the same pinch?” The cut would be the first since the Great Depression. She said she’s already started handing over 5 percent of her pay every month. Hey, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick – how about instead of leading the entire country, including Congress, to ever-lower wages and bringing us all to Wal-Mart pay levels, how about instead increasing the minimum wage, change our trade and tax policies to bring jobs back to America, and break up the big vulture corporations that put out of business local companies and prevent entrepreneurs from even starting new companies? Stop promoting the Republican idea that we should all be paid less, and take us back to an era when worker pay increased along with corporate productivity.
Thom you are at it again. Too funny about your ideological support for minimum wages and "living wages", so I was surprised as to how you spun the latest.
Let's see people should get paid based on what Thom? Just because you want income to be high for all including our "elites" does not make it so. Why should the filthy "rich" in this case get more pay for obviously not performing their job? Do you think their approval rating means anything? If they were waiters, do you think they would get any tips? Of course you think they should get paid no matter how bad their "service" is? I am sure you tip the same for lousy service because you want them to have a so called living wage?
I know you think that productivity should dictate wage increases when the productivity goes up but are you then willing to concede that wages should in fact go down when productivity goes down??? Not likely as you want it both ways. You obviously have no understanding of labor markets.
This is obvious in the sense that on one hand you want more small business but unwilling to actually lower the barriers to their formation including but not limited to minimum wages. It is not large corporations {or as you call them: big vulture corporations} that fear rising minimum wages as they will just pass on costs. It is the small businesses that will have higher obstacles to formation of small businesses. Take a gander at a couple of points about minimum wages:
5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Minimum Wage
The Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Retail and Small Business Employment | EPI Study
Thom, ayahuasca DOES contain DMT, as well as Harmine and Harmaline (MAO inhibitors making the DMT orally active...)
@Nels - Kucinich
Other than Senator Sanders, are there any other congressmen who are (or might be) willing to consider tariffs as well as ending NAFTA and other such economically damaging policies? If so it might be best to identify as many of them as possible and support them, and if they don't exist perhaps identifying political challengers who do support "Protectionist" policies might be wise.
How is it the Protection has become a degenerative term anyway?
@harry,
It kinda makes you wonder about the Massa Circus, doesn't it? (Not too many folks are hip to the Danny Casolaro story...or what happened to Gary Webb, speaking of investigative journalists or the lack thereof...)