He's Not Killing and Eating Babies. You Know That, Right?

As a democrat, in a democratically-elected government, what legislation or political stance could earn you a death threat?

Gun control? Nope

Pro-Abortion? Maybe, but not likely

Pro Death Penalty? Highly unlikely

Anti-Death Penatly? Nope (although you'll probably be called a soft-on-crime fag)

hmmm what else could incite enough hatred in somebody that they could actually threaten your life? Healthcare? Surely not. Surely an attempt to make sure that every body in your country can afford medical care would be met with open arms. And, if you think that, you'd be wrong.

That's right folks, a whole new, fresh batch of lunacy has broken out, south of the border.

The US President and some select Democrats have received credible threats to their lives for passing a healthcare bill. The threats are coming from the same people who are anti-choice regarding abortion and pro-death penalty. The irony and hypocrisy never ends.

Who's feeding this seething mass of hatred? Well, there's the normal culprits at Fox (Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, super-crazy Glenn Beck and of course Anne "good God I'm a racist loudmouth" Coulter). I'd add the links to their names but really, just go and search out their blogs, websites, facebook groups and twitter feeds. You'll get the idea and spare me having to lose my supper.

The one I really want to draw your attention to is Sarah "I'm a Maverick" Palin. Here's a screenshot of her healthcare-combat map. Yes, those are gunsights aimed at states that have a Democrat for a Congressman. In addition she was recently quoted as saying - on her facebook page - "Commonsense lovers and Conservatives of America: Don't retreat, instead RELOAD" (emphasis: hers). Just for fun, visit her facebook page and leave snarky comments on her wall.

There is a part of me that is really hoping this is racially motivated. Hold on, let me explain.

I can understand racial hatred in that I get there are lots of people in the world who hate other people just because they look different. If this hatred toward Obama is racial at it's root, then I can write it off as ignorant bigots who are probably already known to the FBI and Secret Service. Knuckle-dragging, sloped-forehead, mouth-breathing, inbred, undereducated crackers from south of the Mason-Dixon are a predictable threat. They're easy to spot, easy to track and the people who protect Presidents have had lots of experience dealing with them.

However, if people are truly coming at this issue from the point of view that, getting looked after in a hospital and not being presented with a $100,000 bill when you leave, is somehow going to cause the downfall of liberty; then by God I'm scared. I'm scared because while even Fox can't sell racism as an excuse for revolution, the right-wing talk-radio jockeys, Fox News, Carl Rove (yes creepy little Carl is still oiling his way around) and the rest of them can simply "report" (if ever air-quotes were warranted it's there) on the growing movement of ordinary Americans as they try to protect what left of their vanishing freedom. If you think I'm just blindly spitting words out, steel your stomach and watch Fox for an hour.

I know this post isn't as polished or even intelligent as some others I've written. But this issue has really got me confused. I just do not understand how providing the framework so that people can have healthcare without losing their lives' savings can incite the kind of hatred that would lead someone to pick up a gun or encourage others to do so.

If anybody can explain to me how universal healthcare threatens their way of life, their freedom, their liberty or their family, please leave me a comment. I will gladly sit down for an intelligent conservations. The only caveat: you have to present an intelligent argument. No "Obama-care", no ranting about socialism, no name-calling, no bible prophesies. I want an intelligent, referenced, grounded-in-non-mediated-truth explanation. If you can give me that, I'm all ears.

It's Fun to Use Words You Don't Understand

Stephen Harper went back to work and I couldn't care less. Things in this country are running the same Ostrich-like, head in a hole in the ground, way they normally do. The only really exciting point of late is that apparently if you are a Conservative MP, former Conservative MP or if your wife is a Conservative Cabinet Member, you get a free pass on your DUI and drug-possession problem.

Also, in this God-forsaken, redneck-infested, backwards-thinking hellhole province of progress, wealth and abundance, apparently the news doesn't reach the Premier's office. At least not the new-fangled kind with moving pictures and such. Really? Really?! The leader of the Province - a province bathing in petrochemical dollars - has not seen the photos of the 1600 dead ducks on a tailings pond in Fort McMurray?!! Really?! Eight-year-olds with mommy's cell phone can download them and show them to their friends. But apparently, according to an aide, it wouldn't be appropriate for Steady Eddie to view them. Why? Might they upset him, cause him to be nauseas over lunch? Might he actually have to direct his Environmental Review Board and the Provincial Environment Ministry to put some standards and regulations in place that, oh I don't know, actually protect the environment?

I'm not saying turn the taps off. Just conduct business in the Province as if there are 3million people depending on the water, air and land in and around the Province for their survival.

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Changing topic here.

I wrote a while back about the new Retards on Parade Tea-Party movement. One thing I forgot to point out is the incorrect use of some terminology.

Right-wing, nut-case, Christian-fundamentalist, Conservatives (aka Republicans) seem to love bandying about the terms "Socialist" and "Fascist" interchangeably, with abandon. I've seen Obama referred to as Hitler (the King of the Fascists) and as a Socialist, by the same people, on the same protest sign, at the same march. The only problem, is that these people are, well, stupid. No, wait they're not stupid. Ok, they're not just stupid. They're also uneducated and totally sucked in by what they hear on Fox News - those guys screw this up all the time.

So, as I'm an educator (no really I am), I'm going to educate.

A Socialist is a left-wing, group-thinker, who wants to create a level playing field for the entire population. A Socialist feels that all people should be treated as equals, that the rich should support the poor and that the State should provide for the needs of the people. Socialists are generally inclusive of other cultures and races; given that an expanding population creates a bigger tax base from which the State can draw to provide for the population's needs. A Socialist has an interest in seeing other countries succeed economically; understanding that (sort of) what comes around, goes around. This country (Canada) under Trudeau, in the heydays of CIDA spending like drunken sailors, was pretty darned Socialist.

A Fascist on the other hand is, um... ok Tea Party folks... I don't quite know how to say this but... well, Fascists are you. See a Fascist is an ultra-right-wing Conservative who yearns for days gone by. Fascists believe that the individual (at least the chosen individual) is boss. They want everything to not just remain the same, but to revert some fanciful time that never existed. American Tea Partiers dream of an all-white nation, free from gay people and high taxes. They truly believe that the current government is acting against the will of the people. They believe in the resurrection (not the one in the big funny book of Jesus, the one that is surely coming to save them). They believe that people from other countries should stay in those other countries. Not to be cliched or overly-dramatic but the modern Tea Partiers are one madman away from Germany in 1933.

So, new-generation lunatics, call Obama all the names you want. Just call him the right names.