Something smells in our democracies. We the people control our government, we all own our public land, but the resources found on that land get sold to whomever the government decides to offer contracts to (without our permission). The end result is that multi-national oil conglomerates rake in hundreds of billions of dollars while the average North American family winds up paying an average $4200 a year on gasoline…
Author: Quiet Mike
Politics, Economics and Automobiles
was the headline of Mitt Romney’s 2008 New York Times article describing his views on the then-troubled American auto industry. “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”…
UN-Dependable
When the United Nations was created back in 1945, it was supposed to succeed where the League of Nations had failed. While there has been some success since the war of wars, there have also been countless failures. In part because of inaction (Sudan), apathy (Rwanda) and the inability to enforce international law (USA, Israel, Palestine). Last week we saw another failure…
Caterpillar Crawls Away
The locked-out Electro-Motive plant in London, Ontario has decided to close the plant permanently. The announcement comes just over a month after Progress Rail decided to lockout its workers citing operating costs as its main motivation. Progress Rail Services Corp., a subsidiary of U.S. construction equipment conglomerate Caterpillar that owns the Electro-Motive plant had locked out its unionized workers on New Year’s Day…
The Primary Media
In the past, a candidate’s success in the primaries depended on momentum carried over from previous victories. This time around that momentum seems to be fueled by the media, proving that in the age of the super PAC, media still matters more than money.
The Iranian Nuclear Winter
The winter of 2012 is still less than a month old and if you had turned on a television since the New Year, you’d have found two seemingly different stories being covered on the news networks. The first being the Republican Primaries that got underway a couple weeks ago, the other would be Iran. In the past, I would have said that sabre rattling and a looming American election went together like peas and carrots…
Education Is the Key
During a campaign stop in New Hampshire the other day, Rick Santorum said “What elitist snobbery out of this man!” referring to Barack Obama’s statement that every child should go to college by 2020. I have no idea why Santorum is opposed to giving every student a chance to go to college as it is central to improving our standard of living and our economy…
The Rise of Lil’ Kim
The New Year always seems to bring about the need for change. People commit to their new year’s resolutions in order quit smoking or drinking, lose weight or better themselves in some particular way. Rarely do you see these types of changes taking a place at a national or international level, after all, you never hear of a government resolving to spend less or be more accountable for their actions…
Quiet Mike’s Year in Review
I figured, what better way to celebrate the Holidays than with a look back at the year that was with a little humour. I hope you all enjoy!
Have a Merry Christmas, A Happy New Year, A Happy Hanukkah, A kick-ass Kwanzaa and to my Atheist friends, have a beautiful… ordinary day!
How to Win Friends and Influence People in Washington
When a candidate is running for political office, whether it’s for a seat in the House of Representatives, the Senate or the White House itself, the winner isn’t dictated by their campaign or their policies; technically it’s not even the amount of money they raise. The overwhelming factor these days seems to be the price tag that is attached to their soul. Politics in Washington has become so corrupt and immoral that it is now more important to be bought by the most corporations and special interests as possible…