A Hit Song That Will Make You Equally Ashamed to Be American and Canadian

In June 1973, Canadian DJ Byron McGregor read this above commentary (written by fellow Great White Northerner Gordon Sinclair) on a radio station broadcasting out of Toronto. It eventually became a massive hit, peaking at number four on the Top 40 charts and generating cover versions by Tex Ritter and others.

Despite not knowing the Canada was America's biggest trading partner, Ronald Reagan praised the track by name when he made his first trip abroad as president.

Ironically, because it was written and performed by Canadians, it satisfied Canada's idiotic (and still in force, even when it comes to pornography) rules about airing a certain amount of domestically produced cultural content.

Without going full Lee Greenwood, I'm very proud to be an American and I thank my grandparents every day for emigrating here rather than England or Argentina (the two other likely choices, given that one side was Irish and the other Italian).

But even on the Fourth of July weekend, perspective is a wonderful thing. Take it way, Remy, talking about the Veterans Affairs scandal:

Comments

[oh god shut the fuck up]

What the fuck happened to Gillespie?

All the stuff he writes now is garbage.

[AlmightyJB]

Writing garbage is how you get invited to cocktail parties.

[C. Anacreon]

Interesting photo, though, of the "sexy Canadian girl". Too much poutine?

[AlmightyJB]

I'd hit it.

[wwhorton]

Too much?? Are you serious??? If that's what poutine does we should be importing that shit and handing it out on street corners for free!

[AlmightyJB]

I'm putting my wife on an all poutine diet starting right now:)

[The Late P Brooks]

Nothing to see, here.

The California Highway Patrol responded Thursday to a YouTube video showing an officer punching a woman along the side of the freeway.

The CHP officer is shown punching the woman on the ground more than 11 times in the face.

She doesn't appear in the video clip to resist.

On Thursday, the CHP issued a statement that said: "The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is aware of the video and we are looking into the incident. As a matter of policy, every time there is a use of force by our officers, there is a review conducted to determine whether the use of force was appropriate. That will be done in this case, however, since there is an ongoing investigation, it would be premature to comment on this specific video segment without reviewing the entire incident."

After a thorough and careful review of this exemplary officer's actions, we find:

Procedures were followed.

Officer safety was maintained.

Force was justified.

[sarcasmic]

She failed to obey. So of course it was justified. He could have killed her and it would have been justified. She failed to obey.

[AlmightyJB]

oink. oink. oink.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

As I commented elsewhere, I figure we're not too far away from the police just shooting on sight, regardless of proof and with absolutely no consideration of innocence or guilt.

In fact, now that I think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the courts end up doing nothing but clearing cops of wrongdoing and shuffling money around via lawsuits.

[sarcasmic]

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain

[Irish]

Corollary: The government never deserves it.

[sarcasmic]

I wouldn't say that. My local town government isn't that bad. The more removed a government gets, the worse it gets.

[Corning]

My local government is fucking horrible.

Not even a big town yet we got the going broke city owned farmers market and the already broke sports arena that had to be bailed out by a regional collision of two counties and one other town.

Not to mention all the local governments are hell bent on taking the already shitty Growth Management Act (land use planning) given by the state and making it even shittier...and my area is supposed to be the in the 'conservative' part of Washington with nearly 100% republicans running the various governments here.

[sarcasmic]

Mine ain't too bad. The best part is that we don't have a local police department. They contract out to the state troopers and the sheriff. That means no stupid town ordinances, since state and county cops won't enforce them. So it's not a petty fiefdom with a town council that passes stupid laws with a gang of thugs to back them up. Makes for a loud neighborhood at times, since we all like fireworks and guns. But that's just the sound of freedom.

[Ted S.]

I live in a place with under 1000 people, so I only get the petty corruption, but heaven knows there's a fair bit of that.

[Harvard]

Cities in Michigan are blessed with Public Act 197, or The Downtown Development Authority Act, passed by the State in 1975 enabling city, village, and township governments to designate a specific downtown area and establish a separate "public body corporate" to carry out certain planning and development functions in that area, within the municipality.

Property tax levels are capped when the local Authority is formed and henceforth all property taxes in excess of the capped amount form a booty pot to be used by well meaning but unelected citizens for projects within the border of the Authority. Predictably idiocy strikes.

Fast forward 30 years and cities can't plow and salt or pave the fucking streets but the downtown streetscape is full of planters gay with flowers.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

My local government takes a perverse joy in artificially raising the value of homes in the area, thereby actually raising the towns property taxes and driving out the disgusting rabble.

They did it to my father, by declaring (against the opinion of two separate auditors) that the house he had just bought and renovated was worth far far more than the actual market value of the house.

They then drove us out by tripling the property taxes. I plan, eventually, on running for mayor of this dump. I will take a perverse glee in firing every single person that works for the city. Including the police force.

[Cytotoxic]

I have to disagree it seems that local government is the worst. They are usually the most prog-tastic, because of low voter turnout (demonstrating the foolishness of non-voting) and because local government has the strongest ability to interfere with your property decisions ex property tax, zoning, BS building requirements etc

You got lucky sarc.

[sarcasmic]

The state legalized fireworks in the last couple years, and some lady complained at the town meeting that her neighbors were making too much noise. Apparently her kitty cat was scared. So she asked that they pass a noise ordinance. The town council told her that without a police department, there would be no way to enforce it, since the state and county cops could care less about local ordinances. They also told her that most of the people in town like it that way. Not having local cops to enforce stupid ordinances that is. Someone in the peanut gallery suggested earmuffs for the cat. People laughed. The end.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

This.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"patriotism is defending your country against the government"

[AlmightyJB]

Not sure if The Independents was a rerun last night but someone needs to tell Kennedy to burn that green dress she had on. She looked like an anemic cat lady in that hideous thing.

[Irish]

Women's studies class offers extra credit to girls who don't shave their armpits. Men could also get extra credit by shaving all their hair from the neck down, which strikes me as somewhat odd since there are men who do that anyway.

Money quote:

"The experience helped me better understand how pervasive gendered socialization is in our culture. Furthermore, by doing this kind of activist project I was no longer an armchair activist theorizing in the classroom." she said. "So much is learned by actually taking part in the theory or idea we learn in the classroom, and we could benefit from this type of pedagogy being taken up by similar classes."

Literally all you did was not shave your armpits for some extra credit points in a college class.

That is the definition of an armchair activist. Jesus Christ, you weren't helping starving villagers in Borneo.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Do men get extra credit for watching football on TV while drinking beer and scratching their balls?

[AlmightyJB]

What man takes a women's studies course.

[Raven Nation]

I knew of guys who used to take feminist theory courses because they figured there would be a disproportionate number of women they could hit on. Isn't the innocence of youth wonderful?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Have they managed to get off the sex offender registry yet?

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, bad move. To get a much better version of that basic idea, take classes in dance. Even if the classes were 50/50 M/F a lot of the other guys aren't going to be competing with you.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, I was thinking pilates or sonething with a lot stretching in tights.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Hey! Hey hey hey, no no no no!

I took three years of square dancing in high school. And I freaking loved it.

One of my best friends and I still do-si-do sometimes, when we're in a good mood.

Also, no homo.

[Libertarian]

One who likes the odds?

[AlmightyJB]

Not doing stuff is "activism"? So I was an "activist" all day yesterday and so far today. And how dare you devalue you her courageous, heroic stand against the patriarchy. She is truly down with the cause. Not grooming for a few weeks makes her just like those black people who stood up against Bull Conner in Alabama.

[Cytotoxic]

The experience helped me better understand how pervasive gendered socialization is in our culture.

Living in the real world does just as good a job of demonstrating that men and women are different and have different habits and social cues.

[lap83]

Women's studies is the pseudo-intellectualizing of cultural norms. So yes, you do learn something by not shaving your pits because of the reactions you provoke. But it's nothing you couldn't learn by thinking about it for more than 5 seconds. It's academic research for dumb people.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Democrats finally mange to discover voter fraud in Minnesota - in a Dem primary.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....109076.php

[Irish]

Despite being "natural conservatives"?imagine what they must think of abortion and gay marriage!?the Somalis have so far been reliable Democratic voters.

Yet more proof that the Democrats just want to turn America into Somalia.

[AlmightyJB]

We have the second largest Somali population (45,000) in the country here in Columbus. Looks like NPR want's us to recruit cops to spy on them because terrorism.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/.....-its-force

[AlmightyJB]

I have not had much interaction with them. Was taking to a librarian that worked in a heavily populated area and she mentioned that the men were pretty disrespectful to the women that worked there. They didn't like having to talk to them if they needed something. Not sure if that's a cultural thing or localized. If that truly is a problem they would probably make great cops.

[Irish]

as taking to a librarian that worked in a heavily populated area and she mentioned that the men were pretty disrespectful to the women that worked there.

I'd assume it's a cultural thing. Transplanted African Muslims don't exactly have a long and storied history of tolerance for female empowerment.

Hopefully that will change with their children and children's children as they integrate into American society. Unfortunately, that NPR article makes it sound like they're really not interested in doing so.

[Corning]

makes it sound like they're really not interested in doing so.

Should point out not many Irish Catholics were involved in women's suffrage movement...

Mostly WASPs.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Uh, what?

[Irish]

Irish people were also required to work at the time, which resulted in integration. Same with the Chinese immigrants.

The problem is that people today are not required to work in order to exist in the United States. Creating a monocultural enclave separate from the U.S. proper in which everyone is stuck on some government program or another is a perfectly viable option.

America has always been better at integrating people into our society than the rest of the world, and it's largely because people had to interact with people in the workplace or in politics or what have you. Europe has never integrated people as well as we have at least partially because the social Democracies of Europe enable immigrants to avoid interacting with other people in the country. As we adopt those same tendencies of the social Democracies, we'll begin seeing the same difficulties with integrating people into American society.

Saying that people in the late 1800s integrated well is not an argument for why a totally different America is bound to have the same experience in 2014.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

All immigrants back then were required to work whether they were Jews from Eastern Europe, Poles, Hungarians etc. and of course, Italians.

[Corning]

Cultural statists got to culturally conserve i guess.

Show me Minnesota cases of acid being thrown into sexually active unwed woman or genital mutilation or 13 year old girls being married off by their parents then I will be impressed.

Muslim immigrant men being misogynist homophobes in their attitudes is not a fucking problem the state need worry about. You are piling on a shit pot of loaded garbage into integration that is not any of the states business let alone your fucking business.

Ending middle class entitlements is a virtue unto itself. We are fucking broke. No need to pander to some sort of mind control policy that will supposedly turn those 'barbarian' Muslim immigrants into modern day "Leave it to Beavers".

If they follow the rule of law and don't fuck with my rights then they are integrated. Period.

[Cytotoxic]

There is no evidence that immigrants aren't integrating into America just fine.

[Harvard]

[There is no evidence that immigrants aren't integrating into America just fine.]

Meet me in Dearborn this weekend and we'll dine on goat sammidges in Delray and discuss your naivete.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh. My. GOD. Not GOAT SANDWICHES! Now I see the error of my ways!

I'm actually impressed that conservaderps are so stupid and blind that they think other people are also stupid as them and share their neurosis. They think that GOAT SANDWICHES are going to convince people. 'Goat sandwiches' should be a meme for lobbing at retarded anti-immigration activists.

[AlmightyJB]

Now I want a goat sandwich.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

I'm eating one right now.

Tastes like goat. And rye bread.

[Harvard]

[ They think that GOAT SANDWICHES are going to convince people. ]

What impressed me was the street celebration on the afternoon of 911 you arrogant shit stain. The sammidges came at dusk, as they became weary. Wake the fuck up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....79045.html

http://www.infowars.com/americ.....-michigan/

[Cytotoxic]

Over a decade later and...it mattered not one bit.

[Irish]

I'd also like to point out that Native Americans, despite being here since well before Europeans arrived, essentially exist completely separate from the rest of America. Why? Because the entire time Indians and white people have been on the same continent, white governments have been either violently coercing the Natives or giving them handouts.

Today, you have these Indian Reservations where everyone is dirt poor and poorly educated and they sit around waiting for the welfare check to clear. Their healthcare is given to them through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and all their land is basically held in trust by the United States Government.

The more reliant a group is on the federal government, the more likely they are to never integrate into American society and to get stuck in an endless cycle of poverty.

[Corning]

Lots of Native American blood spread all over America.

Also Casinos....they are not as poor and uneducated as you claim....at least where I live.

[Cytotoxic]

Here in Canada, the native situation is getting interesting. The federal government cleared a lot of red tape that prevented reserves from developing and many, at least in BC, are taking advantage. One band near Kelowna is planning on building a private hospital because Canada's various health care laws don't apply or won't be enforced on reserves.

[Irish]

Jesus Christ, you cannot seriously be arguing that poverty among Native Americans is not a big problem. This is well documented.

Here:

78.8%
The percentage of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives 25 and older who had at least a high school diploma, GED certificate or alternative credential in 2012. In addition, 13.5 percent obtained a bachelor's degree or higher. In comparison, 86.4 percent of the overall population had a high school diploma and 29.1 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher.

Native Americans are less likely to graduate high school than the rest of the population, but the college education statistics are staggering. Native Americans are less than half as likely as the general population to have a college diploma.

To put this in perspective, people talk about how poor education is in African Americans areas. Well 21.2% of African Americans hold a college degree.

Native Americans are much less likely to hold a college degree than a group of people whose educational attainment Americans are constantly worrying about.

[Irish]

Here's the stats on poverty from the census bureau:

$35,310
The median household income of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native households in 2012. This compares with $51,371 for the nation as a whole.
Source: 2012 American Community Survey

29.1%
The percent of single-race American Indians and Alaska Natives that were in poverty in 2012, the highest rate of any race group. For the nation as a whole, the poverty rate was 15.9 percent.

The poverty rate among Native Americans is nearly twice as high as the general population and the median income is a full $16,000 lower.

My argument about the poor education and low incomes of Native Americans is an objectively provable fact, and it doesn't much matter whether it holds true particularly in the area where you happen to live, unless anecdotes are now more important than census data.

[AlmightyJB]

When we visited the Hoh rain forest on vacation to Washington State we drive out to Ruby beach to see the ocean. There us a large Indian Reservation there. Abject poverty. It was very sad.

[Corning]

the Hoh rain forest

The Puget sound is opulent in its wealth.

The the Olympic peninsula is strangely not.

Aberdeen and perpetually looks like a white trash dump.

I also think trailer homes and craft homes because of the super wet climate instantly grow a layer of moss and fungus. Also tress and bushes and grass and vines just grows so fast that everything looks more run down and unmaintained out there then it really is.

...

Did you climb Mt Olympus or at least go up to the glacier?

[AlmightyJB]

Spent three days at Port Angelas and was up on Hurricane Ridge everyday. Did some hiking there. It was beautiful. I loved it. Last day in Wasington went to San Juan islands and went out to see the orcas. Saw a bald eagle as well. Picture perfect day. Blue skies. Was a great ending to a great trip.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Ad hominem, motherfucker. Your argument is invalid.

[Corning]

poverty among Native Americans is not a big problem.

There is poverty and then there is "American poverty"

One is an actual problem...the other is myth perpetuated by the left so they can expand the state in the very way you are decrying.

They have cars and roofs over their heads and TVs and computers and cell phones and refrigerators and access to grocery stores and access to doctors and potable water and on and on and on. Not dirt floors and missed meals.

That is not poverty.

Also the fact that they shun bachelor's degrees, 70+% of which are mostly bullshit, is a cultural phenomena I agree with.

[AlmightyJB]

I would agred with you that what the left conciders poverty is not actual poverty and in fact would be considered opulance in countries where true poverty exists. I know what I saw at the reservation and what I have seen in parts of appalachia where I have spent some time is real poverty. It may not be living on a pile of human waste fighting rats for food poverty. But true poverty none the less. I live in a fairly large city so I know full well what you are saying about fake poverty.

[AlmightyJB]

Another interesting issue that gets brought up in the local news (so probably needs to be taken with a grain of salt) is that many somalis and american born black people have had some issues getting along with each other.

[Concerned Citizen]

I, too, live in central Ohio, and heard the same thing. Apparently the immigrants are here to work, and aren't 'down with the struggle'.

[wwhorton]

I've talked to a few native-born black men in the DC area who've told me that a lot of immigrant Ethiopian women won't give them the time of day. Supposedly there's a stigma associated with black Americans related to slavery, like an Ethiopian woman dating a black American man would be tantamount to an English duchess marrying Gummo. Now this is all hearsay, so I can't vouch for it's accuracy, but that's what I've been told several times by different people.

Also Ethiopian chicks are smokin' hot, so I could see why you'd be bitter about it.

[Corning]

In Seattle I worked at a 7/11 in the 90s. Got transfered for a day up to the Capital Hill store. An African worked there with me (don't know which country he came from but he he had an accent) and he told me African Americans were scum.

[Corning]

he told me African Americans were scum.

I should point out he might have been playing to me.

My head was shaved at the time and I am fairly German looking normally.

I was trying to be punk rock but he might have thought I was a skin head.

[C. Anacreon]

I've worked with a number of Ethiopians and interestingly enough they do not consider themselves "black" or "African American".

They tend to believe they are a distinct race that is superior to African blacks.

[AlmightyJB]

You know who else thought they were part a superior race.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Your mom?

[Corning]

natural conservatives

What? So Somalis are genetically conservative?

Oh powerline....I should have expected epic stupidity.

Nevermind.

....

I think we need to equally blame the right for giving the word "liberal' away to the Marxists. Fucking idiots.

[Irish]

natural conservatives

What? So Somalis are genetically conservative?

Well, Democrats seem to think that blacks and Hispanics are naturally and eternally Democrats, so this kind of racist stupidity is certainly bipartisan.

[Corning]

But it takes a dipshit powerline conservative to fuck up a good Democrat corruption story.

[Cytotoxic]

Nowadays many conservaderps just cannot resist shoehorning immigration into FUCKING EVERYTHING. They're going full retard.

[Ted S.]

Do they shoehorn pot and ass-sex into everything too?

[Corning]

I thought i was us libertarians who shoehorn pot into everything?

[RussianPrimeMinister]

Hang on a tic. . .

Where's Bo to tell us we never ever ever rip on socons?

[Pope Jimbo]

This is a great local story. Phyllis Kahn is a real old school commie pol who has been elected since forever.

Since her seat has been safe forever she is always floating crazy ideas at the legislature like voting for 12 year olds.

This fight has been awesome.

[The Late P Brooks]

The experience helped me better understand how pervasive gendered socialization is in our culture.

Hey, look, everybody! I'm being oppressed.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

My people were lucky to get out of Canada in the early 1930's. Too bad they emigrated to Cleveland. I feel let down.

[AlmightyJB]

Ouch, tough break. At least they didn't stop in Michigan and settle down.

[BakedPenguin]

Mine also escaped there, between WWII & the 1960's. One of my Pepere's smuggled smokes into Canada to help pay for it.

The rest of the family is kind of ashamed of that. Me, I'm proud.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow. Lotsa Canadians and Americans with Canadian roots here.

[Pope Jimbo]

Count me in too. My grandpa was a french canadian who was a big time poacher to support his family after great grandpa abandoned the family when he was 13.

He came to the US because the Mounties were closing in on him. He gave the next oldest brother his rifle and traps and came to the US.

Loved to always say that he was proof that the Mounties didn't always get their man.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think we have a book in the making on our hands.

[Vulgar Madman]

The rules about Canadian content did give us bob & Doug though.

[Concerned Citizen]

But they do make it harder to get my Trailer Park Boys fix.

[mashed potatoes]

I wonder, when listening to this, if anybody made the connection between the issue of the dollar rapidly devaluing in the 70's and all the money we were throwing around to save other nations. We didn't go off Bretton woods because we randomly felt like, we went off that system because we couldn't fulfill our obligations due to rampant earth saving spending.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Ironically, because it was written and performed by Canadians, it satisfied Canada's idiotic (and still in force, even when it comes to pornography) rules about airing a certain amount of domestically produced cultural content."

Hello. My name is Gordie from the CRTC. I'd like to have a word with you, Mr. Gillespie. I'd like to explain to you that without us (and the CBC) there is and will be no Canadian culture. Now I ask. What kind of a world would this be without Canadian culture thriving like tundra in the frozen north?

[Cytotoxic]

Between NetFlix and other options the CRTC is going to kiss larger and larger portions of my ass as time goes on.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They're capable of blocking access to other options. That's what worries me about them.

[Cytotoxic]

How?

[nrob]

Without the CBC Canada wouldn't have culture? Is that really why your government employer needs so much tax dollars to survive bankruptcy? CRTC?! Having a government given monopoly on what goes into media is not even close to being creating culture.
Canada would be far better off without CBC subsidies and the extinction of the CRTC, you clowns will be taxing e-mails soon.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Gordon Sinclair was on CJAD radio in Montreal for years. All throughout my school years in the 1980s my mother had it on CJAD in the morning. They would from time to time play this clip.