AWW, CRAP. ELECTION TIME AGAIN?

BRACE YOURSELVES - THE MAELSTROM IS COMING
How have I managed nine entire months without once needing to cuss out a public figure? Heaven only knows. Fortunately, we've got a provincial election coming up, which means plenty more stupid is about to hit the fan around here.

Let's start with the provincial Lie-beral promise, if elected, to extend teachers' college to two years.

Now, I AM a preservice teaching student, and can tell you that the vast majority of us are already in a minimum of five years' worth of debt. It must be nice for the province to be able to double the program length without spending any more money, but that scenario won't be the same for us.
I would also dearly love to know exactly how many professors who actually teach at teachers' colleges were consulted before this piece of brilliance was developed - I am guessing the number is zero. But hey, we can just pull another year's worth of content out of thin air, right?
Thirdly, let's address the math issues the Liberals are suffering here: they claim that they are going to reduce the number of graduates, as approximately 9000 new teachers are "flooding" the province each year. Well, yes. Throwing down another year of teachers' college will drop the number of graduates this year to zero - but only for this year. After that, we're back to 9000 grads a year who are even deeper in debt and even more desperate for teaching jobs.
This is such a bass-ackwards way of addressing the oversaturation of the teaching profession. Want fewer grads? Admit fewer teaching candidates. Don't try to temporarily stem the flow of output by hurling a one-time monkey wrench at the pipeline.

HARMONIZED SALES TAX

"Harmonized sales tax" is probably the most spectacular April Fool's Day prank I've seen in years...too bad it's an actual tax policy.

We started talking about it yesterday as part of a general discussion of Canadian politics. I wasn't sure what "harmonized" meant, but it sounded nice. Well, as it turns out, "harmonized" is just a weasel word for "tax grab"!

The province has taken the liberty of combining GST and PST into a single (therefore "harmonized") sales tax, claiming it will be simpler and lead to more tax rebates for the lowest-income families, blah blah blah.

What it really means is that we'll now be paying PST as well on everything we currently pay GST on. Because I'm a student, my two greatest purchases are food and books--neither of which I've previously ever had to pay PST on! (Admittedly, most of my groceries are zero-rated--that is, the taxes are applied at a rate of 0%, meaning I'll continue not paying tax on them.) But seriously! How did McGuilty get away with this?!

And the best part? The memorandum published to explain the tax rules for food under GST and HST includes the following policy statements:

P-79R The Supply of Fondue Chocolate, P-81R Tax Status of De-Alcoholized Wine, P-213 GST/HST Status of Certain Ice Cream, Ice Milk, Sherbet, Frozen Yoghurt, Frozen Pudding Products, P-224 Meaning of Catering Services, P-232 Meaning of "Other Arrangements of Prepared Food", P-240 Application of GST/HST to Products Commonly Described as "Dietary Supplements" and P-241 Meaning of "Other Similar Snack Food" Under Paragraph 1(f) of Part III of Schedule VI to the Excise Tax Act.

Any government that has a policy statement about the supply of fondue chocolate is either brilliant or hopeless.

I told you a litre was less than a gallon!

There's a simple rule I generally like to live by. I call it my "If you don't like it, don't do it" rule.
It applies to lots of stuff. Don't like abortions? Don't get one. Don't like gay marriage? Don't get one. Don't like raw milk? DON'T EFFING DRINK IT.

According to a book I'm reading, Gina Mallet's Last Chance to Eat, unpasteurized milk was banned in 1949. The government decided that, because raw milk was not safe for some people (the very old, the very young, and those with weak immune systems) to drink, NOBODY would be allowed to drink it. I find this principle stupid, but hey.
This would have been fine, so long as the government stuck to this principle for all foods. But they did not. I notice on my bottle of (admittedly delicious) organic honey that the word "UNPASTEURIZED" is prominently displayed, as well as a warning that it should not be fed to children under one year of age because it isn't safe for them to eat it.
So essentially, the government has banned one food because not everyone can eat it if it is unpasteurized, but allowed another.
Make no mistake--I am not advocating that honey be pasteurized (if such a thing is even possible), but rather that, on the flip side, people who wish to drink or sell unpasteurized milk be left the hell alone.