Well, it's been a couple of years since I have blogged here, since then many things have changed and many things have not...or gotten worse, like Canada under Stephen Harper for one! Some major life events for me as my dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer in May of 2013, he's still hanging on but I think we all know how this ends. I guess all things come to an end including this blog. I thank everyone who ever read it from family and friends to complete strangers who ranged from supportive to absolutely insane, we all know there is plenty of that in internet-land! Unfortunately I just could not commit the kind of time and research needed to bring the public quality hyperbolic and sarcastic essays on a regular basis, although I sometimes had hundreds of readers I felt I was not reaching a broad enough audience, nor did this land me a job at MSNBC! LOL Certainly the continued popularity of Facebook and Twitter did not help, people don't want to read anymore, they want to leave shitty comments on Twitter in two sentences. Gosh! People don't have time anymore!
Looking back over my greatest hits I must say I was right about everything, you're welcome! The heady world of 2010, when I started this, seems so far away now, Obama was only two years in and now has barely two years left in office, Harper achieved a majority government and we're on the brink of a Federal Election this year, we've had 3 or so Premiers in Alberta in this time each worse than the last!
If you can believe it I sorta dropped American politics, I still follow it a little but really it seems like they just keep going over and over the same arguments, Gay Marriage, Immigration and Race Relations, I wish them well, at least Obama got the economy on track! If they elect a Republican it will likely end in World War III, so I'm pulling for Hillary at this moment.
Canada, on the other hand, has taken a drastic turn for the worse. Canadian politics takes up more of my time in large part because this government is so egregiously terrible! Back in 2010 our unemployment rate was the lowest in the Western World, the U.S. suffered thru their economic meltdown of 2008 for many years and had an unemployment rate of around 10% then, now they are now at about 5.5% and Canada's is around 7.5% and about to rise, my how the mighty have fallen. I wrote a lot about the Prime Minister and the kind of politics I thought he was up to, which have all come true, namely the (Margaret) Thatcher-ite policies of make the rich richer and to hell with the rest of you! We have experienced such a 'fuck-you-all' attitude from these guys I am surprised Harper hasn't been chased up a tree. Some of the Golden Hits of the Harper government; Prorogue Parliament when beneficial, change the entire shape and role of the Governor General, stack the Senate with party faithful and defend them in Parliament until their expenses made the public angry enough he then changed his mind, cut Canada Post delivery and announced it the day after Parliament went on Christmas break, got us involved in several wars, Libya, Iraq and now Syria, and maybe Ukraine all the while making drastic cuts to actual Veterans, so sad! So, do you see how this bunch works???? For some reason Corporations in Canada are making more than ever in the history of Canada but people are not, who cares about people? people are for scaring into voting for you!
The Wildrose and Danielle Smith saga in Alberta needs some mention here, no other article of mine attracted such attention and comments as my Wildrose piece. I received a few very hateful comments, I'm guessing from religious folks, who didn't like me pointing out how connected to religion, and the most right wing of Harper's friends, they were. Turns out most of Alberta noticed this too and never voted them a majority, even in Alberta you can't be this bigoted and radical, who knew!?!? Now Danielle Smith is leaving public life after being duped by the new Premier into crossing the floor, uhhh whats his name? Eybrows McGee? Chip Prentice? No, Jim Prentice. I really wonder if Albertans will be stupid enough to vote this guy in, I tell ya he is cut from the same cloth as the Thatcherites in Ottawa and we'll all be fucked if you give him an inch.
Hey, whatever happened to SUN Media? Here's the good news, they are going, going, gone! I believe I wrote about how much in debt they were as a television station and no one watched it, which turned out to be true, once again! The cable channel they had went off the air about a month ago and the Newspaper part has been sold to Post Media. We should not celebrate that there are more monopolies and less journalists in our media but the SUN never had journalists anyway, ha ha! I suppose the angry, white and entitled will have to troll the internet to leave hateful comments now?
We sure have come a long way in the gay rights area in only a few years, mostly in American Culture, thanks to Obama mostly when he said he supported gay marriage, now I think at least 29 states have marriage equality, now what's left to bitch about? I guess we can go with Income Inequality!?!? As much as I complained about the 20 somethings here I do give them cred for not caring about sexuality as much as previous generations, and really, the Twitter campaigns that catch governments off guard really are inspiring to see! I'm lookin' at you Alberta with the Gay Straight Alliances issues in schools which was flip-flopped on and the wonderful Governors of Arkansas and Indiana with their Religious Freedom stuff. Yer all on the wrong side of History!
If you're also on the wrong side of Global Warming I was right about that too, or rather the scientists that I read were right about it, I only relayed it here. Calgary saw unprecedented flooding in 2013, which has direct parallel to the science saying a warming Earth will produce storms with more rainfall. The winter of 2014-15 was the warmest on Earth ever, even if that's not what you experienced East of the Mississippi. It's just hard to imagine what's in store for the planet in the years to come, it's not going to be good, California has one year of water left, what are the 39 million people who live there going to do? Don't worry no one is talking about this, we're busy arguing Religion and calling each other names online to care, in Canada, Harper and his cronies won't even acknowledge Global Warming exists. Lets dwell on the price of oil instead, it may be a very high price for all.
All of these issues fade into the background however when cancer appears in your family, I trust the current problems of the day, like Stephen Harper, will implode just like Danielle Smith's career! Almost all of us will be touched by cancer in our lives, it is the leading cause of death in Canada so excuse me when I get a little miffed at Jim Prentice reneging on building a new care centre in Calgary. When my dad was first diagnosed I volunteered to drive him to the many appointments all over the city, which was a lot, wouldn't it have been nice to have all those specialists in one place? We had many opportunities to talk and after a 20 or so many years estrangement there were a few things to catch up on. After decades of supporting my middle sister he really did think it unfair and often commented that I never asked my parents for anything, I know, in a younger day I thought , F-you I'll do it all myself! But I was back, for whatever reason, if not just to be there to hand my dad a kleenex when the doctor pronounced Stage 4 Cancer. Since, it has gotten crazier with my siblings and the middle one in particular, always a Jan Brady! "Jan this isn't about you." She feels entitled and often brought up I was never around for Mother's Days and Christmas and do you know what my dad said about that? He didn't care because he said I was blood and deserve my fair share of whatever small amount of estate there is. So there you go, even after being disowned and having no contact for decades I was still part of the family whether or not everyone thought so. And thus it is similar with this country, Conservatives at all levels who want to demonize all their opponents from calling Environmentalists radicals and terrorists to Idol No More who are about to be spied on under Bill C-51 (and anyone else they decide is against them). We are all part of the Canadian family and we are not trying to ruin everything for you, criticism is a healthy part of society not something to silence. We all deserve our fair share, quit acting like my middle sister, like the world owes you every thing because of deep feelings of insecurity, we're all in this together it sometimes takes an uncontrollable force of nature like Cancer or Global Warming to make us come together.
