My guilty pleasure is listening to PBS radio on my drive to and from the cottage, think of right-wing talk radio with a leftist tinge.
So this morning I was driving back to the city and was listening to two candidates for some post in Vermont; where first, the GOP candidate for the post spoke and then the Democrat's; the first was a woman that was talking about unemployment and how costly it is to the economy for all those people that don't pay taxes; now the national average for unemployment is 3.1%, for Vermont, it's 2.2% which is very low. She said that Vermont was doing poorly compared to the "Southwest" which I presume was either Texas (3.9%) or Arizona (3.3%). In her opinion, these states were doing so much better because of their low unemployment yet they had 77% and 50% higher unemployment than Vermont. Then the other guy came on -- his solution was to start a Peace Corp (yes it already exists) to stimulate the construction industry, and that this would be paid by higher taxes on billionaires and rich corporations. Never mind that the construction industry is on fire and that unemployment in Vermont is very low. Both candidates have solutions to problems which don't exist!
Now the funny thing, is they both agreed that some people should pay more taxes, although for the GOP women it was clear that it was poor people and for the Democrats, it was the rich. I mean it could not have been more scripted as a typecast of the GOP and the Dems position both disregarding the reality that surrounds them; the fact that unemployment in Vermont is actually far too low, at 2.2%.
Shortly thereafter I listen to Canadian news where an ex-left-wing politician (Amir Khadir) returned to his old profession: Doctor specializing in infectious diseases to discuss the growing tick problem and lime disease in the southern part of the province. All this because one of his last job as a member of parliament was to sit on a committee that discuss the growing problem of lime disease in the province.
Within four years he has become one of the most important doctors in the field in the Province leading the work on such a problematic disease. Goes to show that "cream rises to the top". In the past four years, he has treated 400 cases, and that on top of everything else he does....bloody impressive.
So the two American wannabes talked about non-problems in Vermont and the Canadian is doing something about a growing health problem, most times I am so glad to be a Canadian...
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