Just cause Satire Wire has stopped writing doesn’t mean he doesn’t get to keep the credit for the stuff he did write.
It’s more complex than that. I’d say that the country is fairly evenly split on the issue of giving gay couples at least SOME legal recognition, though I agree that people still largely balk at calling it marriage.
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To answer your first question Canada gets added to the axis of evil list when they fund terrorism, supply weapons to nations like Syria, threaten their neighbors with force, and begin a regime of brutal oppresion upon their own citizens. Wait a second, that wasn’t a serious question. It was just a stupid joke to get people to notice your thread. Ha ha, very funny.
Yes, it will certainly be nice when homosexual marriages are recognized in the United States and it isn’t an issue to anyone. Does everybody in Canada support homosexual marriages?
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Is there any reason why the current administration would have to jump through legal hoops? I know that states are required to recognize various licenses from other states but is the USA required to recognize them from other nations?
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I’m not trying to put Canada down but most of us just don’t think about our neighbors to the north. This issue is unlikely to have any noticable impact on US/Canadian relations.
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:rolleyes: Thank you for the incredibly low opinion you have of the United States in general. I don’t know why you need the Bush administration to worry about this. I’m pretty sure nobody here would care about what Canadians had to say about our laws. We sure as hell wouldn’t care whether we had your Prime Minister’s approval or disapproval.
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I though they same thing when states like Vermont and Hawaii moved towards homosexual marriages. Sorry, it didn’t have anything to do with Canada.
Is the OP about Canadian/US relations or is it about gay marriage in the US?
Marc
No floundering at all. There is already a precedent. The second, third, and fourth wives of an observant Muslim man are not recognized as being legally married to him in the USA. It just isn’t permitted here.
Now that’s a truly stupid claim, fueled by massive ignorance. The US doesn’t hate Canada for selling Cuban goods (and even selling them to US citizens who visit Canada). The US didn’t hate Canada during Prohibition, either.
Perhaps hate is too strong a word. They are not going to be happy is all I’m saying. In the UK when we tried the Lambeth project, which consisted of not always arresting for posession in a small part of London, Asa Hutchinson himself came over to bitch about it and say how dreaful an idea it was.
Here’s more:
U.S. anti-drug czar John Walters has warned that this law could force a clampdown at the U.S. border and thus potentially hurt the world’s richest trading relationship.
“What assurances can this government give us that its pet project on marijuana isn’t going to jeopardize legitimate trade with the United States?” demanded Stephen Harper, leader of the Canadian Alliance, Parliament’s largest party.
from http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27278608.htm
As I say, hate may not be the right word but the USA does aggressively try and enforce similair standards of drug policy on other countries and is going to be very annoyed if Canada defacto decriminalises pot.
I believe in Canada you would be allowed to bring in only 1 wife. The others would have to remain in the country of origin.
Damn, I’m in GD…need cites…
Ta Da! CanadaImmigrationLaw.net is for sale | HugeDomains
though I can’t find anything specific to the actual policy or bringing spouses into the country.
I’m surprised AlertNet and/or Reuters didn’t bother to check their facts. Stephen Harper is indeed the leader of the Canadian Alliance, and he may well have made that statement. But the Alliance is not “Parliament’s largest party;” they’re not even close to being that. The largest party (which I’m taking to mean “the party with the most seats in the House of Commons”) in the Canadian Parliament is the Liberal Party, which has formed the government.
Mr. Harper may or may not have a legitimate concern, but the fact that the Alliance wields very little influence in the House will mean that his remarks will likely not be paid much attention.
It’s a little bit of a digression, but I’m still amazed at the incorrectness of AlertNet’s statement. Especially when I spotted this on their “About AlertNet” page:
What Canada decides to do about marijuana is hardly a disaster, and the incorrectness of the statement is not what I would call “reliable information.” Perhaps a better or more reliable citation supporting your argument might be in order.
Legalizing gay marriage is just not in the same league with legalizing pot. The former really has no impact on the US. The latter might have some imact. But even then, it’s not like Canada would actually legalize it-- IIRC it would be decriminalized. Big difference. And we’re not talking about legalizing (or even decriminalizing) all drugs.
So, as I said before, you’ll have to find somehting else to hate Bush about. And suppose this thread actually were about legalized pot in Canada. Does anyone actually think a Democrat would be any less critical of Canada for that acton than a Republican would be?
Ah, and of course the US’s government du jour is identical to the **ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INCLUDING ALL ITS CITIZENS **
What rubbish you spout. The fact that a given government might be pissy about something does not mean that the USA as a WHOLE will hate Canada. The plain truth is that there will be some grumbling and border searching, but there won’t be hit squads sent over the border to kidnap and assassinate US citizens who slip over for an afternoon toke. There aren’t strip searches for Cuban cigars, after all.
Ah, and of course the US’s government du jour is identical to the **ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INCLUDING ALL ITS CITIZENS **
What rubbish you spout. The fact that a given government might be pissy about something does not mean that the USA as a WHOLE will hate Canada. The plain truth is that there will be some grumbling and border searching, but there won’t be hit squads sent over the border to kidnap and assassinate US citizens who slip over for an afternoon toke. There aren’t strip searches for Cuban cigars, after all.
I have to ask. Have you actually ever MET one of us vile, nasty, evil, horrid creatures known as “Americans” or do you just pontificate from sheer ignorance and blindness, basing all your “information” on what your TV permits you to “know”?
I see some innuendo but nothing that anybody but a paranoid loon could see as a serious threat by the USA regarding Canadian decriminalization of marijuana.
I agree with you, GoHeels, on both counts. First, that my OP was poorly-phrased. For that, I apologize to everyone. It was snarky and not very well stated, and I didn’t even really intend it to be so. Yesterday wasn’t a great day, not that that’s much of an excuse. So, sorry for the snarky OP.
Second, I’m sure you’re right the Bush won’t comment at all on Canada’s new decision. I wish he would, but he most likely won’t.
I’m actually optimistic about that too… just frustrated, I guess, because I see so many of my friends who want to marry, but can’t because we’re (meaning the U.S.) still in the Victorian era in this department. I hope it changes sooner rather than later.
One among several incorrect assumptions you apparently make about me is that I’m Canadian. I’m not, though I have a great deal of admiration for their forward-thinking laws. Further, I don’t have a low opinion of the United States in general. Just some people in it.
I won’t bother responding to your other ad hominem (and inaccurate) remarks. You likely don’t care anyway.
While I’m no fan of Bush’s (obviously), I wouldn’t characterize myself as a “Bush-hater” either. That said, I don’t find this to be a “non-issue” in the least, and frankly characterizing it as such is rather short-sighted.
The reason I brought up the Bush Administration in the OP was that I don’t see same-sex marriage even as a possibility while the Bush Admin. is in power. Under another leader, or another group of leaders, it might become more likely, or at least steps can be made towards that goal, but under our current leadership, it doesn’t even approach probability.
In short, Bush’s stance against same-sex marriage is one of many reasons I dislike his policies. If that makes me a “Bush-hater” in your view, then so be it. I think it just means I disagree with him, and with you, that same-sex marriage is a non-issue in America. It’s a very important issue, and my feeling is that Canada’s new policy makes it even more so. The more nations, especially major ones, that allow same-sex marriages, the more we’ll begin to look like the odd man out.
For those who responded with info about U.S. law, many thanks. At least I know where things stand. I guess I’m a bit disappointed that the law discriminates against many cultural norms, but the ideal of the “melting pot” has always been an ideal anyway, never fully reached. This is just one more example as to why.
"Ah, and of course the US’s government du jour is identical to the ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INCLUDING ALL ITS CITIZENS
What rubbish you spout. The fact that a given government might be pissy about something does not mean that the USA as a WHOLE will hate Canada. The plain truth is that there will be some grumbling and border searching, but there won’t be hit squads sent over the border to kidnap and assassinate US citizens who slip over for an afternoon toke. There aren’t strip searches for Cuban cigars, after all."
First of all, that I used the word USA to refer to the government does not mean I was implying the population as a whole would hate Canada. The OP refers to the ‘axis of evil’ in a joking manner which is a phrase coined by the American government not the American people. The American people may hate Canada for legalizing pot or gay marraige which is neither here nor there. I do not hate Bush more than any elected politician.
However your comment that
“There aren’t strip searches for Cuban cigars, after all”,
seems somewhat odd. Cuban cigars do not have a ‘war’ being waged agains them. Customs officials already strip search people for weed and other drugs. There is already $4.5bn worth of Canadian marijuana being sold in the USA every year, how many cigars is that roughly? Decriminalisation will have a big effect on that. In the Netherlands where cannabis is already decriminalised the borders are hotspots for people buying and selling large amounts of drugs, as a result of decriminalisation more dope will enter the USA and Canada will in all likelihood not do much about it. This is of course my ignorant view based on my knowledge of the marijuana industry both in America and Europe.
As for: “I have to ask. Have you actually ever MET one of us vile, nasty, evil, horrid creatures known as “Americans” or do you just pontificate from sheer ignorance and blindness, basing all your “information” on what your TV permits you to “know”?”
What can I say? One of the most lovely people I have met this year has been American and on the whole I’ve found them to be nice people. Comments like this however can only continue the tradition of over defensiveness and arrogance which seems to fuel a lot of the ignorant sentiments that are giving rise to anti-american feelings here in bad ol’ Europe. Que cera cera.
This is of course a non issue obviously which begs the question why so much anger is raised by it.
You know? I did not known Canada was such a paradise for liberalism and secularism, until I read about legislators having to make a law exempting churches from the duty to officiate at gay marriages.
Susma Rio Sep
Really? And how did you come to the conclusion that the “USA” is just the government? What are the rest of us?
Canada is rapidly turning into a better place to live than the US. If it wasn’t for that tax burden up there, I probably would have already moved my family up there. At least they don’t seem to be ran as some arm of the church there. I am sick and tired of laws based only on religion.
Let’s talk about that “tax burden,” Tekneek. Is that, perhaps, one of the reasons why “Canada is rapidly turning into a better place to live than the US”? G.W. Bush, take note!
But, seriously, how much higher is the tax burden in Canada thanin the U.S.? Does anybody know?