US Becomes a Net Importer of Food:
One of the hidden surprises in the ballooning, out-of-control US budget
and trade deficit data is that, for the first time in half a century,
the US now imports
more food than it exports. Just three years ago, it ran a $13.6B
agricultural surplus. All of this is before the yet-to-come impact of
reopening US borders to Canadian beef (closed since last year's Mad Cow
scare) and of the collapse of the US dollar. Countries like Brasil, it
appears, are learning that despite the monster agricultural subsidies
that allow the US to sell its produce abroad for less than what it
costs farmers to produce it, they can still undercut the US on price
and capitalize on more generous bilateral trade agreements. What ye sow
so shall ye reap.
China
Becomes a Net Importer of Food: Perhaps
not coincidentally, China has now
also gone into the red in
agricultural trade. The Chinese authorities call it a technical
setback, and deny a UK Financial Times report that China is verging on
a food crisis. But the statistics tell a different story: Chinese grain
production fell for the fifth consecutive year this year. Why? Because
the country is running out of water.
Mentally
Ill Still Rotting in Prison:
As I reported
last year, as more and more mental health facilities close their doors,
the mentally ill are increasingly (over a million in the US alone, and
the number is soaring) homeless in the streets or incarcerated in
prisons . A new editorial
in the NYT argues that, in New York at least, the mentally ill are more
likely to be imprisoned for non-violent offenses, once they're there
their anti-social behaviour makes them more likely to be charged with
more serious offenses and given much longer sentences, and they are
shockingly prone to committing suicide in prison.
Rich
Get Richer, Poor Children Dying:
This could be the signature headline of civilization, since it's been
going on so long it's no longer even news. Oxfam reported
recently on the miserliness of the G7 countries, whose wealthy are
getting ever richer but whose people and governments are doing less
each year to provide humanitarian aid to the Third World. As a result,
they say, 45 million children will die needlessly of diseases that are
easy and inexpensive to prevent or cure, and a billion people live in
abject misery and destitution. Scrooge lives.
Disguise
Yourself as a Canadian: An
American company T-ShirtKing, is selling
Americans t-shirts, badges and other paraphernalia festooned with the
Canadian flag so Americans can travel abroad more safely. You can also
get a book on how to 'speak Canadian'. But I would suggest Republicans
save their money. Europeans, who know a lot more about Canada than most
Americans, will spot you in a moment. Wouldn't it be ironic if the
shirts were made with Third World sweatshop labour?
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12:14:42 PM 
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
