BBC Double Think

From a BBC report on Greece today:

The majority of the Greek people are unconvinced by a plan dictated by outsiders. In almost every conversation I have had on the streets the same view emerges: Greeks believe the bankers caused the crisis and that they, the ordinary people, are picking up the bill. The narrative may be flawed, but it won't easily disappear.

The idea that the world economic crisis was caused by the banks is, of course absurd. In other news Oceana continues to do well in its war against East Asia.

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Sure, It's A Great Time To Cut Government Spending

Just before the housing boom goes bust. Start hording food supplies, this is going to get ugly.

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This Is Where We Are Heading

Slavery isn't just a historical oddity anymore. Companies are taking advantage of a poor job market to squeeze free labor out of our children. These companies are who the Conservatives and Liberals are working to promote and protect. People like this woman:

Kelly Fallis, CEO of the web-based design firm Remote Stylist, says she's had unpaid interns work on projects in marketing, communications, business development and design.

The company won't hire anyone full-time if they haven't completed a 12-week placement first to see if they fit in, she says, adding unpaid internship are part of "a new business model" that pushes young workers to show passion for their job.

"There's something about the hungriness of it all" that isn't there in a minimum-wage, entry-level position, she says.

Fallis says she doesn't see anything wrong with the arrangement.

"At the end of the day, these people are doing something to get ahead in the world . . . so why put restrictions on them? If they want to work for free, it's their prerogative."

"It's such a win-win for everyone . . . there's no down side to me."

Well, except for the whole slavery thing. This is our future, free of unions and workplace rules.

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Sunday Thoughts

Well the filibuster is finished and the Conservatives have gotten their way. There is nothing new in that. It is something we will have to face over the next few years. If this government wants to do something, it will do it. Still, the opposition did the right thing by opposing this bad bill, with everything it had. It is a bad law and a bad precedent for the rest of the economy.

This government is sending a signal that it is open season on pensions, wages and benefits. The Conservatives are saying that working people should be thankful for a job and to not question their betters over what pittance they are given. The strategy of the government is clear, scapegoat the last group of middle class workers in this country with good benefits, public service employees. It is pitting private sector workers, who have already lost their benefits against public sector employees who have not and using resentment as their weapon. If not stopped, the entire middle class will be reduced to an insecure future of few benefits, low wages and no pensions.

Meanwhile, the government is moving ahead with tax cuts to profitable corporations and for the investor class. It is simultaneously shrinking the middle class and enriching the ruling class of this country. Conservatives often like to say that socialism is shared poverty. It seems that conservatives don't mind shared poverty, as long as their friends in the owner class are exempted from it.

That is what we are fighting against. That is why the opposition must continue to oppose this government. That is why the filibuster, though doomed from the start, was important. It was a marker, given by the NDP to the working class, promising that their voice will not be silenced in the government's headlong race to the bottom.

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My Impression Of The Liberal's Filibuster Strategy

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Shorter Canadian Stance On Asbestos

While the Canadian government agrees that asbestos is a dangerous product, the electoral concerns of the Conservative Party trumps scientific reality.

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If Brad Wall Is Right

And the provinces have become, in effect, the triple "e" Senate, why on earth do we need that useless body in Ottawa?

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