Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
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8
Mar
2010
In All Thy [GENDER NEUTRAL] Command
![In All Thy [GENDER NEUTRAL] Command](http://www.soft-parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/thysonscommandlogo.jpg "In All Thy [GENDER NEUTRAL] Command")
Once again I’ve been caught up in the rat race that is life and neglected The Parade. It’s all with good reason mind you as these last few months have been quite the ride. The high-and-low of it all is that I am now engaged with a child on the way and have started a new job at Future Shop (Best Buy Canada) in New Minas, Nova Scotia. With all of that it’s been a little more difficult to find the time to put into ranting and musing online, but with my schedule ironing itself out a little more it seems I have some more time to get back to what I do best.
What brings me to the counter today is political correctness and how incorrect it actually is. There have been some rumblings over O’Canada since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics that have reached all the way to parliament. “True patriot love in all thy sons command” is a line in our anthem and has been since 1908 when poet Stephen Weir wrote the poem to coincide with the 1880 composure by Calixa Lavallée. Now it appears that some find “thy sons command” to be sexist and are demanding change to something more “gender-neutral.” Perhaps they should change “true patriot love” as well since altering our national anthem doesn’t seem overtly patriotic to me.
The anthem was already changed by having a few lines added due to decisions by a joint-committee of MPs and senators in 1968 (adding “from far and wide” and “God keep our land glorious and free”) and is now in the crosshairs again. However, being a sensitive issue, politicians aren’t directly confronting the proposal directly and are in fact using the proposals as attacks on other political parties (naturally). “Anything that makes a national anthem more gender-sensitive is a good thing,” [Liberal leader] Michael Ignatieff told CBC News. “But, I mean, no disrespect to those who feel strongly on this issue, but, for heaven’s sake, we have some very important challenges and every time the government is asked to do something real, it does something symbolic.”
Have we come to a point in our culture where certain individuals are offended by our national anthem? If those people are offended by “all thy sons command,“ then they should probably start lobbying to change “mailman” and “manhole cover” to more gender-neutral phrases as well. Where does it end though? Will we have to go back in our history books and change “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind?” I wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit if that did become a valid argument within the next twenty years. Thank God Buzz Aldrin will have died of old age by then.
I’m a patriotic and law-abiding Canadian citizen and plan on being one until I pass on to the other side. But every time ridiculous lobby groups get just a little more of a foothold into our government, my patriotism goes down a notch… And I’m starting to run out of notches on my patriotism belt. So to all Members of Parliament, to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (of whom I could say some pretty negative stuff on), to all Canadians men and women alike… Please respect tradition and accept the fact that just because a word or phrase has “man” or “son” or any other masculine word in it that the English language and/or Canadian culture aren’t being sexist. If you’re that offended that easily though, chances are my plea is for nothing and you’ll start calling offense to my opinion on the matter. That’s just the way it goes.
19
Jul
2008
Parents, Please Take Some Responsibility
It’s as much of a hot-button issue as Iraq and poverty today, and that’s the morality of children declining. It seems that every other day that some politician is blaming Family Guy or Jack Thompson is crying over Grand Theft Auto IV, but do they really have the right to do that?
Everything has a rating these days, whether it’s a blockbuster movie, a TV show, or a video game, and there are many more fail-safes in place too. Movie theatres and video game retailers are obligated to verify the age of their patrons and virtually every modern TV has the V-Chip, yet we still constantly hear about movies, games, and shows destroying our youth. Not only are people complaining, but there are lobbyists and politicians trying to outright ban such forms of entertainment for everyone.
If I was twelve years old and I wanted to go see The Happening in theatres (which is rated 18+ if I’m not mistaken) and I tried to go alone, the theatre would deny me that. Hell, even if I went to see a 13+ movie I couldn’t, and sure, as a kid that’s going to tick me off. What’s a little sex and violence on screen, right? How could that hurt my little twelve year old mind? Kids are impressionable and will want to emulate whatever they see to some degree or another, and that’s no different for teenagers and sadly a lot of adults as well, but the adults aren’t in question here. If I wanted to see The Happening at age twelve, I’d need a parent or an older sibling to take me to the theatre and sit through the movie with me; it’s simply the way it is here. If I wanted to go buy GTA4, again, I couldn’t do it on my own, I’d need someone who’s over the age on the ESRB rating (that little black and white box on the cover) to buy it for me.
This is extremely common these days, and this is why the lobbyists and Jack Thompsons of the world are screaming bloody murder. But it’s not the software developers or the movie producers’ fault that kids are being exposed to this no more than the local liquor store can be held responsible for kids getting their older brother to buy them booze. It’s the parents fault that their kids are hitting each other with folding chairs and coming home drunk at 15, and nobody elses. ‘Ole mom ‘n pop are perhaps the most hipocritical and niave people on the face of the planet when they demand that Family Guy gets cancelled and Grand Theft Auto is pulled off the shelves.
14
Jun
2008
Canadian Bill C-61, Going Too Far?
Most people by now have heard about the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America. For those of you who haven’t, it’s a trade group representing the American recording industry (that is to say music). The RIAA’s purpose of existence is to prevent downloading of illegally obtained music (such as through Torrent sites or P2P programs like Ares and Limewire), but they have a notorious reputation of going too far. The RIAA has no jurisdiction in Canada, so while old deceased ladies in the United States are being taken to court (Source), Canadians were able to download music, use their iPods without worries, and copy their purchased CDs to their computers.
That’s all going to change with Bill C-61, the introduction of the Canadian DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Not only will downloading your music for free be illegal (understandably), but Canadians will lose rights to being able to record television shows, rip their purchased CDs and DVDs to their computers and iPods (coverting CDs to mp3s or DVDs to avi), and even posting family photos taken by a stranger. Yes, that’s right, if you ask that friendly Japanese couple at Peggy’s Cove to take a picture of you and your wife with your own camera, that couple owns the right to that image.
This harsh set of restrictions is the brainchild of Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Canadian Heritage Minister Josee Verner. The bill, which had been first introduced late last year but delayed (largely in part due to the publics repulse) will impose a $500 fine per violation of downloaded or infringed copywritten materials, that is to say for every mp3 you’ve downloaded or taken off of your favourite CD, it’s going to cost you $500. More staggering is the $20,000 fine per violation for making available copywritten materials, such as uploading to a website or having available on a P2P client program.
As with a lot of new legislature since the election of the Conservative government, Bill C-61 comes as a direct result of American pressure and American interests, and goes far beyond American restrictions on the subject. In layman’s terms, C-61 sets to limit our privacy, freedom of speech, consumer rights, and will put a serious strain on education and libraries with the digital locks that will be placed on virtually all digital media (movies, music, television, etc.).
2
Mar
2008
Complain All You Want…
… But nothing is going to be done about it. While on FaceBook today, I noticed a friend of mine joined a group entitled CANADIANS PETITION TO CUT GAS PRICES TO 79.9 CENTS, and in this group there’s a link to an actual petition to get the media’s attention. What I want to know is if the people who’ve signed the petition think that the general public is unaware of the high prices of gas? Are you really that simple minded to think that you and a few thousand other people can change the international price of oil?
I’m no expert in the industry, but I think I have a decent knowledge set on the industry. There’s this stuff called oil, and this substance is what fuels modern society. Many of us use it directly in the form of gasoline, hence the group, but we as a modern society take it for granted. See now, this oil comes from a limited natural reserve, and it’s very rapidly running out. When the reserve of a product runs low but the demand is still high, this creates a peak supply and demand. If the oil industry let oil products out at the same rate they did 5 or 10 years ago, we’d be in another oil crisis within a few years. Remember the 70s, anyone?
It’s nice to think we can make a difference, but oil is one of the largest industries in the world. Every single country, from the most modern MDC to the smallest most insignificant LLDC uses oil in extreme abundance for industry, heating, and day-to-day operations such as driving to and from work. It’s no secret that the oil companies are getting record annual incomes, but it’s also a fairly well-known fact that if oil prices don’t go up, oil reserves will be depleted in no time flat.
Take a bus, carpool, or get off your lazy ass and walk or ride your bike, but the fact of the matter is we’ve pushed the envelope too long with our gasoline consumption, and with recent global events taken into account (I’m looking at you, Dubyah), the prices have gone up and they’re going to stay up. There’s nothing you can do about it, so just get used to it.
