Politics
Michael Geist – The Globalive Decision: Time To Pick Competition Over Canadian Ownership
Oct 29th
Michael Geist – The Globalive Decision: Time To Pick Competition Over Canadian Ownership.
I couldn’t agree more with Geist’s call to remove foreign ownership restrictions, but I’d like to see some requirements for communication companies to share cell towers.
Additionally Bell, Telus, Rogers, and Shaw need to be “relieved” of their last mile ownership of communication lines going into people’s homes. Most were built up with public funds, but sold wholesale to a private company. Last mile could be a municipal utility where the telecommunications giants have to pay for the same access as the tiny-telcos like TekSavvy.
The CRTC is excellent at protecting the big telcos, but terrible at protecting the Canadian consumer. The original reasons for foreign ownership restrictions in Canada no longer apply post-NAFTA, and I’d hate to see the big three be successful at stifling competition because all the bad parts of globalization were allowed but none of the remotely beneficial aspects were allowed. We need to increase our anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws first, though.
Countdown’s Best Persons Hits Close to Home
Aug 16th
So, watching my Countdown as I always do and it was time for the Best Persons segment. First up was Whole Food’s CEO using Republican talking points against US Health Care reform.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Barack Obama is a coward for not trying to bring in single payer — It serves Canada so well to have everyone insured through progressive taxation but it just irks me that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey calls Obama’s cop-out plan “socialism” and a step towards “government takeover of health care.” Tort reform and the creation of a competing government option isn’t socialism nor is it take over. Phooey. Steven Harper would jump on the opportunity to introduce private options for health care in Canada. The long and short of it is I don’t know what to do with my Whole Foods habit now. A boycott? Maybe. Signing back up for SPUD? Absolutely.
And if the first point wasn’t bad enough — and it was very bad (I tend to pause Countdown when I get frustrated because of the show — which is a lot) — out comes SFU as the World’s Best Person on Countdown. Apparently our creation of a grade worse than “F” has caught the mighty Keith Olbermann’s attention. Enough said, just watch the clip.
Mark and I were talking on Skype so he can vouch for my almost terrified reactions — unlike the glee expressed whenever Canada is mentioned on The Daily Show.
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Author protests ban over phrase ‘generous bazoongas’
Nov 19th
This article amuses the hell out of me. Apparently people believe that censorship is the method of curtailing offensive language in the class room, and we’re talking mundane offensive language. “Bazoongas” doesn’t really come across as crude enough to warrant censorship, let alone when you involve a cohort of grades four to six. I guarantee you, they already know words that would make the Pope blanche.
I would like to illuminate you to my first teacher at Sir Freddie B’s method of dealing with offensive language. Instead of making the vulgar anathema, the source and history of the statement is explained. Sometimes when people understand the reasons why the word is truly offensive, maybe they would remove the pejorative term from their vocabulary.