4 ms·

Makes me proud to be Canadian. Don't fuck with our beer, our hockey sticks, and our guitars, eh? (But please just generally don't fuck with us at all, because

by rewind 17y ago

Makes me proud to be Canadian. Don't fuck with our beer, our hockey sticks, and our guitars, eh? (But please just generally don't fuck with us at all, because we don't have much of an army up here.)

adamc 17y ago
Wish we could figure out how to do that. Beyond all the political issues and body bags, big armies are expensive.
- tdavis 17y ago
  Big armies can also instill good values, teach useful skills, help pay for education, show you the world (parts of it anyway), and provide some pretty unique perspective on things (like war). I pretty much feel that military service should be compulsory, in fact. I wouldn't make people sign up for the eight years I did (after four I'd had enough... and still have two left), but I think a year of service would do a lot of good for the majority of people.
  - ojbyrne 17y ago
    I rather intensely disagree. Big armies need to be used, and the social dislocation of war vastly outweighs the often meager benefits. Massive amounts of propaganda hide the problems, and there's a huge consumption of resources that could be put to better use. Teaching people to suspend their natural inclination to kill and getting them to do it on command is something that's easily converted to organized crime. Gwynne Dyer is a good read - his basic thesis is that militarism is essentially the root of organized crime, and has been since Roman times: http://www.gwynnedyer.com/ http://www.gwynnedyer.com/
ojbyrne 17y ago
As a Canadian who spent 2 of the last four years in the US, it's my opinion that we've lost our beer supremacy. The US has a much better selection of microbrews. Plus, because of government controlled liquor stores in much of Canada, you can't actually get some Canadian beers in much of Canada! Unibroue Quelque Chose, for example.

4 ms·

Makes me proud to be Canadian. Don't fuck with our beer, our hockey sticks, and our guitars, eh? (But please just generally don't fuck with us at all, because

by rewind 17y ago

Makes me proud to be Canadian. Don't fuck with our beer, our hockey sticks, and our guitars, eh? (But please just generally don't fuck with us at all, because we don't have much of an army up here.)

adamc 17y ago
Wish we could figure out how to do that. Beyond all the political issues and body bags, big armies are expensive.
- tdavis 17y ago
  Big armies can also instill good values, teach useful skills, help pay for education, show you the world (parts of it anyway), and provide some pretty unique perspective on things (like war). I pretty much feel that military service should be compulsory, in fact. I wouldn't make people sign up for the eight years I did (after four I'd had enough... and still have two left), but I think a year of service would do a lot of good for the majority of people.
  - ojbyrne 17y ago
    I rather intensely disagree. Big armies need to be used, and the social dislocation of war vastly outweighs the often meager benefits. Massive amounts of propaganda hide the problems, and there's a huge consumption of resources that could be put to better use. Teaching people to suspend their natural inclination to kill and getting them to do it on command is something that's easily converted to organized crime. Gwynne Dyer is a good read - his basic thesis is that militarism is essentially the root of organized crime, and has been since Roman times: http://www.gwynnedyer.com/ http://www.gwynnedyer.com/
ojbyrne 17y ago
As a Canadian who spent 2 of the last four years in the US, it's my opinion that we've lost our beer supremacy. The US has a much better selection of microbrews. Plus, because of government controlled liquor stores in much of Canada, you can't actually get some Canadian beers in much of Canada! Unibroue Quelque Chose, for example.