Stop The Gay Canadians!
First icky legalized homosexual marriage, then the apocalypse. Conservative America trembles
by Mark Morford

Hordes of quivering GOP lawmakers and vast throngs of proudly homophobic right-wing Christian Americans fell into an adorable tizzy the other day as the entire really, really big country of Canada announced it will change its law to allow full-on homosexual marriage anywhere in the whole country including Vancouver and Toronto and even "that weird province with all the gay French people."

Hysteria and open weeping and panicky looks accompanied the uncontrollable overeating of many stale Ding-Dongs, as millions of sexually confused Bush-ites and members of self-righteous Bible-icious anti-everything groups like the American Family Association, along with entire towns such as Colorado Springs, were absolutely certain the world was coming to an end, like, immediately. I mean, Canada's right next door!

Moreover, they fear, Canada's decision means the God-given sanctity of tepid hetero missionary-position marriage is utterly doomed and our innocent children are sure to become fans of modern dance and maybe even old Barbra Streisand movies, and all of this will undoubtedly result in the introduction of a pair of wacky gay Canadian neighbors on "Everybody Loves Raymond."
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News Analysis: Canada's Gay Marriage Plan

Canada's decision to allow marriage between same-sex couples is only one of many signs that this once tradition-bound society is undergoing social change at an astonishing rate.

Increasingly, Canada has been on a social policy course pursued by many Western European and Scandinavian countries, and over the last few decades it has been moving gradually more out of step with the United States.

Even as the government announced on Tuesday that it would rewrite the definition of marriage, it was also in the process of transforming its drug policies by decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and, to combat disease, permitting "safe-injection" clinics in Vancouver, British Columbia, for heroin addicts.

The large Indian population remains impoverished, but there are signs that native peoples are taking greater control of their destinies; their leaders now govern two territories, occupying more than a third of Canada's land mass.

As far as the ease with which society changes, Canada is virtually in a category by itself.
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  thanks to wood s lot

Luck of the Irish
And the French and Canadians and Germans and so on

There will come a time, when and if George W. Bush wins the 2004 election, that many first-rate Americans will give serious thought to emigrating from the country of their birth, this place formerly known as the land of the free. If you haven't at least given some fleeting thought to this possibility already, then you aren't paying attention to what's going on here. You are, shall we say, living in a fool's idea of paradise.

This has never been more apparent to me than now, after a 10-day visit to Ireland, a grand, beautiful country with a civilized, healthy democracy and a free -- and freely skeptical -- press. Returning to these shores, I'm convinced that America is in the grip of a monstrous delusion, one that bears no resemblance to the rest of the world's reality. The passive acceptance of corruption and lies that is the foundation of this current house of cards strikes me as a collective version of the go-along-to-get-along mentality that rules families victimized by abuse and addiction. It is easier -- and less dangerous in the short run -- to look the other way, to let the likes of Ashcroft, Delay, Scalia and Rove redefine the meaning of the Constitution, to let Rice and Fleischer and Cheney corrupt even the language we use to communicate. But a house of cards is just that, something that will in the long run collapse into nothingness.

To the Irish (and the rest of the world), for example, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are far from over, despite the fact that Americans collectively watched, in shock and awe, as the idiot prince, sporting a codpiece and helmet, landed aboard an aircraft carrier to declare the "mission" in Iraq was "accomplished." To the rest of the world, Bush is, at best, a laughingstock and, at worst, untrustworthy.

I certainly understand why anyone would hesitate before leaving the nation of their birth. Who the hell, after all, wants to toss in the towel on what was one of the greatest experiments in democracy in world history? To use the metaphor begun above, many a spouse has reconsidered, at the eleventh hour, taking the kids and running from an abusive mate.

And many have asked the police to drop charges and rescind restraining orders, after being physically beaten, psychologically assaulted and/or threatened, only to turn up dead or permanently maimed a few months down the line.

However, I would suggest taking a different, more pragmatic view of any such decision. Rather than see it as a defeat, a tossing in of the towel, see it as a rational reaction to irrational behavior. See it as a way to take yourself out of a place that is dangerous, violent and delusional and put yourself in a different place where a government -- however inefficient -- is in the business of caring about its people rather than crushing them underfoot in pursuit of an extremist ideological agenda.
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  thanks to BookNotes

Canada keeps looking better and better. At least I am reasonably close to the border in case I have a need to flee. I may have said this before, but this is the first time in my life that I have thought of leaving this country. I'm getting real tired, as a liberal and an atheist, of being accused of treason and seen as an evil-doer and satan spawn. This country is becoming increasingly insane. At some point we may need to protect ourselves by exiting, stage left.