Permanently Unemployable.

Deutsche Fotothek, (Wiki.)

Louis Shalako

Permanently unemployable is not the same as being disabled.

I was speaking to a gentleman the other day. We were sitting in a waiting room. I made some remark about the weather and he opened right up. There are a lot of lonely people in this community.

“There’s not much work around these days.” I remember saying that too.

“I want to work but they won’t let me.” That’s what the man said.

He told me that he wanted to work but that his Ontario Disability Support Program case-worker, had told him not to do it.

“You’ll just lose your benefits, and it’s hard to get them back again.” His worker was absolutely correct.

She knows what she is talking about.

The gentleman was using a short aluminum cane to walk with and he had some kind of brace or bandage on his right foot. He was in his early sixties. That might have been a simple injury, and it might have healed up in a month or two.

There was more to it, a lot more.

The gentleman was an epileptic. He suffered from seizures and could not hold a driver’s license.

No employer who knew about his condition would hire him. That’s because they were afraid that he might have a seizure on the job, and somehow injure himself. It’s pretty easy to injure yourself when you have a seizure. They can fall and hit their head. They can swallow their tongue and suffocate. Not every employee knows First Aid. 

They can fall on someone else, a co-worker, or a customer, and drag them to the ground, injuring them and causing all sorts of nasty liabilities for the employer.

Workplace insurance costs money, whether it is a private or public service provider. The gentleman might not have had a lot of skills, but then, where would he acquire them in the first place?

In order to make themselves more ‘employable,’ a person cannot waive their rights under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board legislation in the Province of Ontario. It would be a violation of their human and civil rights, even if they were willing, and no matter how badly they wanted to work. It would also tend to encourage employers, the scabbier ones, to look for such folks and then prey on them as employees. They would have no workplace insurance, and most likely they would be getting a lower rate than the person at the next desk, kiosk or service counter. Yes, there are employers like that. Plenty of them.

The gentleman was permanently unemployable, and yet he could walk. He could talk. He was not stupid.

How many times had some well-meaning person said: “Surely there must be something you could do.”

Would you ride in a taxi driven by this man? What if you knew about his condition? What if you had your kid or grandkid with you? Would you like him on a jobsite somewhere, working alone at night, as a security guard? If you rode in that cab, would it be better for you if you didn’t know about his condition?

What if he had a car accident, and you and your attorney found out later, about his condition? What if his employer found out about it later, because the guy wanted to work and just didn't tell him?

That’s why we have disability pensions, and that’s why we have the class of beneficiary called ‘permanently unemployable.’

There are all kinds of reasons why a person might not appear disabled and yet be disabled.

There are all sorts of reasons why a person is not actually disabled in the classic sense, looking like a quadriplegic in a wheelchair and yet be permanently unemployable.

If a person suffered seizures, or was deaf, they might be unemployable. Yet when they line up at the food bank and someone a little more fortunate drives past on the way to their employment, employment that might not be highly-paid or even full time, there could be a tendency to leap to conclusions.

There might be a tendency to make character assessments, often based on some other person—someone they know from somewhere else. Every poverty-stricken person they see fits into that class. It’s a kind of social bigotry, one that doesn’t rely on skin colour or racial profiling.

They might not approve of that other person. That disapproval becomes a kind of blanket disapproval, to a certain type of mindset.

In certain disorders, the subject is frantic to find help, a solution. A cure.

Some afflictions have no cure, and sometimes the treatments have so many side effects that the people go off the medications. Sometimes, and I have experienced this myself, a simple two or three-dollar co-pay is beyond their means.

They can’t afford their meds.

Now, a certain type of mindset will see this as connected, even though it isn’t really.

Some people self-medicate. They are seeking relief from pain, depression, suffering of one kind or another. 

They just don’t want to suffer any more, they can’t seem to get help anywhere, and have nowhere else to turn. They try to obliterate the pain, or even just themselves. They can't take it any more. It's that simple sometimes.

And so they take drugs, sometimes anything they can get…literally. Some of those drugs are illegal. And yet, for example marijuana, tranquilizers, or illicit pain medications, they are seeking relief of some ailment which they might not even be able to describe properly or identify. This is one reason why alcohol is the most abused drug in the repetoire. It's cheap, it's easy, and to some extent it's even socially acceptable. You can get it anywhere, and there are plenty of like-minded individuals for mutual enabling. You don't have to hide your habit. You can obliterate yourself, and nobody even asks why.

Not every sufferer has a proper diagnosis.

It took twenty years before I knew that I suffered from depression. Yet I had been given more than one diagnosis, and I had seen any number of doctors.

I was told ‘possibly’ that I might suffer from ‘some sort of anti-social personality disorder.’

There might be good reasons for a mistaken diagnosis.

I bitterly resented being sent to a shrink when I had a back injury and all I wanted was my frickin’ disability pension. I fought two and a half years for that pension. That was a stormy interview, and the psychologist did not give a definitive diagnosis. They would require much more time with the subject, (me) in order to make a proper assessment. That’s exactly what they told the ODSP.

Another doctor suggested that I might be suffering from manic depression. Another one said ‘cyclo-thalamic personality.’ I still don’t even know what that is. Basically what they told me was ‘…when you feel bad, you feel very bad, and when you feel good, you feel very good…’

That’s understandable given the nature of depression. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being ‘good’ again, after a long bout of serious depression—and I was suicidal, on one occasion, for a year and a half.

That’s a long time to wrestle with thoughts of suicide, ladies and gentlemen. I wanted to kill myself so very, very badly…sure glad I didn’t do it, eh? That was only eight or nine years ago.

Life is worth living, and I’m doing okay. I promise you that, okay?

It was only when I got on the internet, (and therefore I could frickin' well look it up) that I could really confirm the diagnosis that made sense; in that I was a guy who fell from a scaffolding, broke his back in three places. My whole life was destroyed, and I was never going to work at my old job ever again. That’s a tough thing to deal with.

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I had suffered from depression, off and on, since I was about fourteen years old. One day that all became clear, and then things got better because at least then I knew what the hell I was dealing with.

Depression can be treated, but the back injuries are permanent and they made me permanently unemployable in conventional terms.

Employers think in conventional terms.

Even then, I did get work from time to time. I never lasted very long at the relatively unskilled construction jobs where I could at least work. I never lasted long enough to qualify for unemployment benefits, which would have been a kind of solution—hang in there as long as you can, and then just try to make it through the winter sort of thing. Nowadays if you quit your job, you are barred from collecting unemployment. The government of the day knew exactly what impact that would have on some people’s lives. They’re not stupid, ladies and gentlemen.

As often as not, I worked as an independent subcontractor. If you are working for someone else, they expect you to be ready, willing and able to work, at least five days a week. They want their forty hours out of you.

Sooner or later, all those jobs blew up in my face as well.

And so I had to find a better way.

I’m fifty-five years old. I still have unpaid student loans going back to the early nineties, when I confronted the problem by studying journalism. What that means is that I simply can’t get student loans or grants. I would have to repay those other loans first, and I might be a bit of a bad risk.

I am not very suitable for retraining anyway, not at my age, and being back in school with a bunch of spoiled-rotten twenty year-olds who are away from home for the first time and just there to party and get laid doesn’t have a whole lot of allure for one such as I.

And so, I write.

I collect my pension. I try to stay out of trouble, I know exactly what my blessings are, and every so often, I try to do a little good in the world.

I figure it’s the least I can do, to try and contribute something to the community.

Anyhow, thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen.

Sometimes its good to talk about such things.

END

The Mysterious Case of Betty Blue is my thirteenth novel. It's available exclusively from Amazon for the time being, and it's only $3.99, minus whatever discount Amazon throws in there.

Social Horror.

Louis Shalako

What is social horror?

Social horror is not stalkers and slashers and psychopaths. Social horror is not vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts or evil spirits.

Social horror is about the little things, it’s about quality of life. It’s about our fears, our perceptions, and oddly enough about our needs.

We all have a need to fit in, to be accepted. Social horror is a bit about being loved, or more accurately, not being loved. We want to feel safe in our homes and in our streets.

I live in a city. It’s in southern Ontario. I don’t have a pathological fear of sharks, or alligators, or crocodiles. 

I’m not likely to run into any where I live. That would be an irrational fear.

To be afraid of spiders is much more common. People freak out and go a bit nuts when they find a spider in the house.

But at least there are spiders in southern Ontario. The fear has at least some rational basis in fact. Spiders exist, they might actually bite you and leave a welt. It could become infected. It might be a spider that came over on a banana boat. The fear is not entirely irrational. And horror is fear.

Aliens with acid saliva and extendable jaws are horrifying enough, before they even do anything. Just looking at them, we knew enough to be afraid of them.

Crime exists in our cities. Some of our fears about crime are irrational. Where I live, the odds of being hacked up by a stalker are pretty miniscule. Yet some still have that fear, and it’s very real to them. Some of those fears are based on their own gender, body size, lack of fighting experience…we all look at these threats based on our own image of ourselves.

Our fears can teach us much.

One of the interesting things I have learned as a writer, comes from confronting certain fears.

The social fears. The fear of being laughed at. No one likes to be mocked.

It’s quite painful. A painful experience is negative. It might arouse our anger, another uncomfortable emotion. 

No one likes being angry. No one likes to live in fear.

So, what would happen if I wrote erotica…and used a female pen-name?

Wouldn’t people laugh at me? Wouldn’t they say all kinds of crazy things about me? Wouldn’t they suddenly have new ammunition to use against me in all kinds of ways…?

Maybe—in a kind of social horror.

That was one reason why I had to do it. I wanted to find out what would happen. And the answer is…essentially nothing happened.

The same thing happened when I wrote gay male erotica under another pen-name.

Nothing happened.

Oh, it’s true that someone might figure it out. Someone might come around and slash my tires. If I walked into a bar someone might say something. Someone might laugh at me, and make cutting remarks and even threats.

That’s social horror. Social horror can lead to real horror. Like in S. Africa, when people start grabbing girls accused of being lesbians and raping them to death with a toilet brush.

Or like right here at home, in the cases of hundreds of thousands of battered women.

It is also the social horror that gays—and women, and people of Islam, and people of colour, the same horror they have had to contend with for generations and centuries past.

Now I know exactly how that feels, ladies and gentlemen.

And I recommend it to anyone who is considering a career in writing or any of the arts. My personal experience is that this should be an elementary school exercise, but what the hell do I know.

As an author, it helped me to stick these big old feet into someone else’s shoes for a while—and to take a little walk in them and to see how it really is. To see what someone else has to contend with for a while.

That was the most wonderful thing I have done in the last five or six years, since publishing my first two novels.

In that sense, writing, and learning about life, has been a wonderfully formative experience not just as a writer but as a human being.

It certainly hasn’t me done any harm. It might even have done some good.

That is the value of confronting one or two social horrors and maybe learning something about them.

We learn an awful lot about ourselves when we do.

I think it's important for a writer to know who they are.

END

The Top 10 Best Exercises for Back Pain.

Swimming is like sex. A total body work-out.

Louis Shalako

Here are my Top Ten picks for the best exercises for back pain.

Bear in mind that a severe injury requires long-term rehabilitation, and it may be unwise to begin an exercise program at the height of the simplest lumbar spasm or back strain.

Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program especially if you’re doing it for remedial reasons.

The author’s perspective is that of a person with three compression fractures at L-3, L-4, and the T-6 vertebral level. T-6 also has a 2.5 cm hemangioma (benign tumor) on the left side of the central (posterio-lateral) process. What this means is that pole-sanding drywall or similar activities can irritate this radial nerve centre, right between my shoulder blades, causing chest-encircling pain similar to angina. Due to the L-3 and L-4 injuries, bending over to pick up a penny can send the author into lumbar spasms, and lifting heavy objects is, shall we say, ‘contra-indicated.’ Walking, sleeping, or even just sitting on the toilet can be painful when the injuries flare up.

That being said, the original injury occurred May 4, 1989, so I’ve had time to learn a lot about it, including how to manage it and cope with it. While it did change my life in some pretty negative ways, nothing’s ever going to be perfect, is it? You just have to keep it in perspective. I much prefer being a writer anyway.

Walking. Walking is recommended as a treatment. While walking, the body is upright, which strengthens the lower back muscles and the area of the pelvic girdle. It also goes towards aerobic fitness and general, overall conditioning.

Stretching. Stretching can sometimes help alleviate back pain. It can also help prevent recurring injury or irritation of affected areas. Professional athletes stretch before any sporting activity and there is a good reason for this. It gets the muscles and the joints ready for action, and pre-stretches the ligaments. It gets the circulation going, and it prevents cramping or more serious injuries. If you experience pain during stretching, it’s an indication that things are not well. It’s your body saying, “Maybe you should take it a little easier today.”

Cycling. When cycling, the upper body is supported by the handle-bars. The feet and legs are supported by the pedals and the seat. The torso is supported by the seat. The motions of the legs are rotational. It is a much lower-impact activity than running, jogging, or other more vigorous sports. I started off cycling, believe it or not, practicing ten or fifteen minutes per session, in the tennis courts behind the place where I lived at the time. The first time I ever rode my bike downtown and returned, about 4.5 kilometres, was a major victory for me. Nine years later, my first ride of the season was longer than that and I’m happy enough in that it didn’t cause much pain except for a little stiffness and soreness in the lower back and hips. Cycling much farther would have been a different story. It’s a question of finding your limits, but gently. And then, gently, pushing them a little bit further each time you go out. If it’s too much, back off and slow down for a few days. The results, over the long term, are definitely worthwhile. And yes, sometimes there is a little suffering in there as well. I actually disagree with this article, but they are referring to healthy (and young) individuals when they say cycling doesn’t strengthen core body muscles. If you have not been exercising at all, and suffer from poor muscle tone in the core body area, cycling is less likely to irritate an injury, (compared to jogging, say,) — going by the article, where it says, ‘Cycling does not strengthen core body muscles.’ So it’s not going to irritate them either. Also, bearing in mind my own injuries at the L-3 and L-4 level, bending the spine takes pressure off, and sitting on the seat also takes pressure off. I can walk anywhere from 750 metres to 1250 metres, on a good day, before I start to get the early-warning sensations of impending lower back pain. I can ride my bike, on a good day, fifteen or twenty kilometres before I really start to feel it. Simply put, I can ride my bike to the beach, I can’t walk there. Ever. That’s why cycling is recommended, but consult your own physician prior to any exercise program.

Swimming. Swimming is low-impact, and the body is supported by its own buoyancy in the water. It’s a workout for all muscle groups. It’s fairly heavy exertion nevertheless, which helps in building muscle tone. It’s great for overall conditioning and aerobic fitness. In my own case, it’s wonderful for a feeling of fitness, even of accomplishment. It’s a manly thing, to dive in like Tarzan and swim a couple of hundred metres without touching bottom. I kind of like that feeling. “Swimming is a prime rehabilitation tool for back injuries.” ‘Nuff said.

Tai Chi. It's good for balance, overall conditioning, mental health, and posture. It encourages centring in movement, that is to say keeping the centre of gravity low and taking a proper stance when required. It clears the mind and calms the inner voice.

Weight training. Seriously, but don’t try to clean and jerk 350 lbs. the first time out of the box. I had forty pounds on the bar, (this was years ago now) and the first few times I would do five repetitions of any exercise. I was never a ‘weight-lifter,’ nor do I wish to be referred to as one. I was ‘exercising.’ But, I injured myself often enough, even in just developing a routine, that I got rid of the set and have no regrets. Now I have a heavy hand-squeezer, (a spring-loaded device), and one ten-pound dumbbell. A few simple exercises and my heart is thumping and my respiration is elevated. So is my circulation. I have six or seven exercises that I do once in a while. I don’t do more than ten repetitions of any of them. The most often you should ever exercise with weights is about every second or third day. In the article the gentleman advocates side-crunches. Think long and hard before you do more than three or four of them, especially when first starting off.

Yoga. I’ve done some of the exercises, the Cobra for example. Recommended.

Yoga may help with back pain. > Trollderella.

Golf. I’m not a golfer, so I have no experience with this. However, you’re going for a long walk. You’ll be doing some stretches and warm-up exercises, and as part of your week, eighteen holes of golf isn’t going to hurt you if you take care to stretch and warm up first. If you’re in a lot of pain, skip it and wait until next time. The link shows two good stretching exercises that apply to other sports and situations as well. If nothing else, standing around for part of the time is better than sitting all the time. Putting a little thought into the swing and the stance might actually help your game, along with some simple and ‘light’ weight training. I’m a firm advocate of doing clusters of sports, if you can manage it. I walk and hike, ride the bike, and swim. Anything else would be a bonus. None of it costs much money.

Hydrotherapy. When I was in hydrotherapy, there was a small wading pool, where the water was quite warm. For me the perfect bath temperature would be about 106 F, and this wading pool wasn’t quite that hot. The actual pool was at least eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Most of the class consisted of elderly people, (mostly women), who had absolutely no muscle tone at all. There was one gentleman who had undergone a double lung transplant, which you could see by the scars on his back and the bumps where the saw-cuts in the ribcage had healed. For people absolutely out of physical condition, the exercises were very gentle, and sessions of about a half an hour were plenty.

Photo by New Zealand Defence Force.

Gymnastics. I’m not suggesting that you leap and fling yourself about when you’re suffering from a back injury. Simply using the parallel bars, or holding yourself up on the rings with arms rigid, might be of some benefit as it definitely strengthens core body muscle groups. All of the stretches listed here are good and you can throw them into the mix from time to time. Even I can walk on a parallel beam, and it’s good for balance and stuff like that. It’s good for the mental health in some ways as well.

Physical Therapy. For best results, physical therapy should be undertaken as soon as possible after a serious back or spinal injury occurs. It should always be done by licensed workers and under the care of your personal physician.

Alernative Sports.

Wall-climbing under professional supervision.

Canoeing and Kayaking. Advice: take it slow and easy, wear a life-jacket and stay close to shore. Learn a little something about life-saving and first aid before you get too ambitious.

Softball, T-ball, Two-Pitch, any of the fun games where winning isn’t necessarily the primary focus. If you can stand to run from twenty to fifty yards without major discomfort, it at least gets you outdoors and into the fresh air and sunshine. A buddy of mine used to have his own two-pitch league or something. He didn’t make a whole lot of money at it, but he was in charge of prizes and throwing the year-end banquet. By all accounts it was a pretty good party and he got in for free and everything.

Sailing. On a boat, you won’t be leaping and running about, but it’s a good healthy workout nevertheless. Wear a life-jacket. I’ve sailed Petrels, Pelicans, Sunfish and Lasers, I’ve conned a Grampian 30. That’s about it.

Skate-boarding. Unfortunately, this one seems to be high-impact for a lot of people. And yet just getting about by skateboard looks like a remarkably healthy way of life.

Skating. Whether ice or roller skating on conventional ‘square’ skates or roller-blades, it’s much lower in impact (once you learn how to stay up on them) than running or jogging. It’s an excellent cardiovascular workout. You should be stroking edges rather than slamming back to the ground at every step, right? It’s all about smoothness and technique, energy management. I’ve seriously considered rollerblades, but I don’t know…at 54 years old, that one’s a bit of a stretch.

Cross-country skiing. It takes a bit of technique, and it’s one hell of an aerobic workout, but the only time I ever injured myself cross-country skiing was when, a.) I fell or b.) I got a little too ambitious and didn’t quit when I should have. But I used to go out behind my house and ski perhaps a kilometre. I had little circuit and by the time I got home, it really felt like I had gotten some exercise. As for the occasional comments from high-school kids and other knuckleheads, who really cares what they think anyways?

Throw a Frisbee.

Take dance lessons.

Play catch with the dog.

Sex. Seriously. Like swimming, it’s all all-over work-out, and generally-speaking, doesn’t require the purchase of a lot of special equipment.

Good luck with the program and take care of yourself. You’re worth it.

Why the Disabled Must Destroy the Government.

It's not easy oppressing the disabled. But
somehow they manage. Canadian Film Centre.

Louis Shalako

If you are a disabled person living in Ontario, you have probably asked yourself the following question.

“How am I ever going to destroy the government of this formerly-fine province?”

The question is a pretty rational one. After all, they plan on destroying you. They’ve been chipping away at you since the day they took office, and the fact is the Conservatives were worse.

Much worse.

Right?

And if you have even half a brain, (and I sure know I do,) then you must also have asked yourself what would happen if you, or better yet, we, succeeded in this fine and noble goal.

The problem is a simple one. If the disabled manage to defeat the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives seem the most likely winners. The NDP would form the opposition and the Liberals would go back to their natural state, i.e. a rump.

There are reasons for this. Not the least of which is that disabled people alone can’t determine the result of the provincial election, which must be held by Oct. 1/2014. There aren’t quite enough of us, although we get plenty of new recruits every day. Our numbers are growing, ladies and gentlemen. The Star is hinting at a spring election, a bit of a no-brainer for a party which has little going for it except empty rhetoric and a long list of broken promises and failed initiatives. Oh, sorry—they do have a few scandals.

When they warn of a minority government, that’s scare tactics—they’re holding the Conservatives over your heads.

In order to do that, the Liberals first had to stand on your throats.

Don’t forget that part.

The facts are simple and undeniable.

We need the help of other Ontario residents to do it. They have their own concerns, but this writer has never doubted that they sympathize.

Let’s hope they’re mad enough to consider some healthy alternatives.

One of the challenges faced by the New Democratic Party is the reputation, a rather unfair one as it turns out, of Mister Robert Rae, former Premier of Ontario during the years 1990-95. Robert and the NDP swept to power, as things generally go. They were young, and brash, (which I have always admired in a man,) and inexperienced. They were riding a wave of popularity and a general optimism all across the vast province that we lived in once but now we merely endure.

The NDP does have a social agenda. It’s a much more positive one than is popular these days. It’s much more optimistic.

Understandably enough, in the early1990s, the provincial NDP government set out to change the world. I have to give them a lot of credit for that, but of course they never foresaw the big recession that hit shortly thereafter. It’s a funny thing about global recessions. The experts, the economists, the irrational monetary theorists of the world, never see them coming. It is only in the hindsight of revelation that we realize they somehow made out like bandits, while all of the rest of us were suffering…struggling to keep a roof over the heads and food in the bellies of our children.

But I digress, ladies and gentlemen.

I say the reputation is a bit unfair because Robert had a sweeping vision for social change. At least at that time. Such things indeed cost money, and the media, some of which is owned by former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, (Sun Media, etc.) has taken some time and trouble to smear him over the last twenty-five years as a ‘tax-and-spend’ Premier. It doesn’t cost a Conservative much to slam a former NDP Premier, (he probably enjoys it, both men in fact) and in fact we all know Mr. Rae joined the federal Liberals as a leadership hopeful.

If nothing else, the gentleman has leadership qualities.

I’ll talk later on, about why I think the Federal HST, 13 % on most purchases here in Canada, is inflationary.

The provincial Liberals have taken a provincial budget that was $68 billion or so annually, and bloated it, so that it has now almost doubled over their tenure. It’s a relatively short period of time to wield such magic, but then they are special, aren’t they? They’ve also managed to run up quite the deficit.

The former Premier and two of his top aides, narrowly avoiding criminal charges, at least so far, have been thoroughly discredited. No one wants to forget them more than the surviving Liberals themselves.

I would suggest that you remember their names, they are Dalton ‘Snake’ McGuinty, Dwight ‘The Doughnut’ Duncan and then of course there’s that other Fat Bastard.

There are 700,000 known disabled in the province of Ontario. If you are disabled, or if you know someone who is disabled and eligible to vote, it is incumbent upon you to get registered to vote; or help them to get registered to vote. It is important to be proactive.

Don’t wait for them to come to you. I haven’t been enumerated in years. The buzzer doesn’t work on this building, and I’ve moved five times in the few years. They don’t really care if we show up or not. In fact, they hope that we won’t.

They sure as hell ain’t gonna come lookin’ for me.

That’s because they know we have exactly zero reasons to vote for either the Liberals or the Conservatives.

Who can forget Mike Harris, Ernie Eves, and oh, yes, Mister Jim Flaherty, presently federal Minister of Finance, the man who continually lied about the bank bailout and the true state of this nation’s economy. 

In fact the man is still doing it. Take a look at that face, ladies and gentlemen.

Either a liar or mistaken much of the time.
(Joshua Sherurcij. Wiki.)

This is your enemy.

But he is only one of the enemies of the disabled.

What we need to do, in our inclusive little alliance, is to make damned sure we all vote the same way.

Pick one. But only one.

Let’s vote NDP. I have no idea of what their platform ultimately will be. But then, I don’t much care, either.

I guess you could call it a measure of my desperation—and I still don’t really care.

We might call this attitude one of political nihilism.

What that means is if we can keep the Liberals and the Conservatives out, after that, I don’t much care what happens.

That’s because both the Liberals and the Conservatives have made our lives a lot more miserable than they really had to be.

And I’m real tired of being punished by people who morally aren’t particularly all that well suited to pick up dog turds in the backyards of their own mansions. (Not that aforesaid individuals don’t pay servants to walk aforesaid dogs in public parks. After all, it saves on the landscaping, and lush green lawns say it all, don’t they.)

I say, we, the people of Ontario, have no choice whatsoever, but to pitch the Liberals out, and for all intents and purposes, chuck the damned Conservatives out too. And keep them out.

We know who they are.

For some reason we are not welcome in their little society.

***

Let’s take a chance. The Conservatives are little too vicious for our liking, the Liberals a little too expensive and shifty-eyed.

There’s not much point in voting for the Green Party. Their economic platform looks like Sarah Palin got together with Kim-Dumb-Son and Fox News and put a few speaking points together for an audience of (barely) tame chimpanzees.

There are critics who say the NDP are ‘socialists.’ It’s absolutely true.

Socialism is all of us, working together for the common good.

Democracy is the most benevolent and least invasive form of socialism that has ever been tried.

That’s why they called it ‘democracy.’

Some people see that as a negative point, but I kind of like it, myself.

One of the really great things about the NDP is that they actually have a chance of winning, unlike the Green Party, who won’t poll one percent of the popular vote. The fact they are currently listed at six percent shows just how accurate polling really is.

The NDP can win this one.

But even more importantly, the interest groups, the pressure groups, lobby the NDP much less than the government, and of course the Tories are the biggest lobbyists of all. It’s what they do when they need to moonlight and make a few extra million bucks.

Of course the insurance industry, the chemical industry, the power generation industry, they lobby those who they think will first and foremost win, and those who will be amenable to suggestion, ladies and gentlemen.

They are of course looking for like-minded individuals, whoever is leaving the biggest slime trail, no matter to them, if those individuals are good for nothing and hard on food.

***

Here is an unpalatable truth.

The government can’t raise the ODSP subsistence rates. Do you know why?

Because then Ontario’s disabled would actually have a better lifestyle than someone working forty hours a week, for the $10.25 minimum wage. That’s because wage earners pay taxes. They pay OHIP and WSIB contributions, they get deductions for Canada Pension—did you know Kathleen Wynne wants to bring in a provincial pension plan? She’s got an eleven-buck an hour minimum wage?

Do you think she knows exactly where the poverty line actually is?

Sure she does. She wants to keep them minimum-wage earners hungry—otherwise they’d be tempted to book off and take the kid to the dentist.

The disabled have medical, drug and eyeglasses, the most basic dental care benefits. Imagine making eleven bucks an hour, part-time, and your kid gets a toothache. That’s going to cost you.

What if the kid needs glasses?

You will always be struggling. And most minimum-wage workers don’t even get forty hours a week.

***

Yeah, but what are the odds the Liberals could ever keep their hands off of a provincial pension plan? 

Especially if there was any kind of surplus. What are the odds that if the Conservatives came to power, they would scrap it, and, keep all the money? It’s not like they could ever give it back. They would be claiming to pay down the debt or something and, oh, how fast it would all evaporate, eh? Imagine the tax breaks they could cut their buddies. That would dissipate quick, wouldn’t it? They wouldn’t even have the grace to use smoke and mirrors. With them it’s all justification, nothing more. It’s all ideology with them guys. They’ve never had an actual, original thought, in their entire lives.

Who knows, maybe some Conservative cronies would find themselves in the rather enviable position of being paid a couple of hundred million for a power plant they didn’t actually have to build.

Alas, so far, it’s only been the Liberal cronies doing that. And of course the disabled get to pay for it with their grubby little hides, which come remarkably cheap to this government.

My spin on this is that we need to boot these highly-esteemed, good-for-nothing-individuals out, have done with it, and at last, finally, have a chance to move on with our lives.

I, for one, would like to take my life in a slightly different direction than the good old ODSP’s rather limited vision.

‘Cause we all know how that works out in practice.

The NDP would have a growing economy to look forward to in their early years of power, for surely Mister Flaherty is optimistic about the future.

You remember, he’s a federal Conservative.

The sort of people who make hay out of other folks’ catastrophes.

***

Okay, I know you’re all asking, so Louis?

Why is the 13 % HST inflationary?

When guys like the beetle-browed, semi-economist, the Right Honourable, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, would hotly deny it.

Because if it was removed, what would happen?

Canadians would have thirteen percent more money to spend on food, shelter, clothing, transportation, fuel, rent…mortgage payments...lots of good things, really.

Your dollar would be worth that much more in an instant. That would be, in classic economic terms, ‘deflation.’ And the opposite of deflation, is…wait for it…inflation.

To artificially jack the price of goods for no real reason, surely this is the worst kind of inflation.

I say that because they’ve never really managed to pay down that nasty old deficit, have they?

It only gets bigger. And Mr. Harper is harping on rearmament. I guess we can thank Putin, a slightly more extreme case of conservatism, for that.

It’s only a matter of degree, separating the two men, ideologically, ladies and gentlemen. One is a little more extreme than the other, that’s all.

Putin is the arch-conservative, so much so the Tea Party in the U.S. sort of idolizes him

***

Inflation wipes out corporate debt, destroys the life savings of the middle class—who are now on the hook for paying off all of that corporate debt for them, and of course it makes the lives of the poor intolerable.

That’s why they do it, ladies and gentlemen.

Even Paul Krugman, the noted (Nobel Prize-winning) economist has called for a sustained period of ‘moderate’ inflation. What that does is make all pensions and fixed incomes smaller.

Every year, your disability pension is worth less and less. The government knows that very well.

How much longer do you figure you can stand it?

***

Inflation is when it takes more dollars to buy the same thing.

It goes like this: what once cost $1.00 now costs $1.13.

That is inflation, ladies and gentlemen, and that is also all of our time for today.

Oh, poo, I almost forgot—that is also the sound of the good old Minister of Finance being caught out in another mistake, Mister Flaherty.

‘Cause if it’s not a mistake then it must be a lie.

You read it here first, ladies and gentlemen.

END

Note. I was a bit surprised to see the poverty line pegged at something over $23,000 U.S. in one of the supporting links in this Mother Jones article, where some of the most common myths about poverty are explored and de-bunked. A single person on ODSP here in Ontario is living on about $12,600 a year CDN. 

And there are people out there in the world who can justify that. Kathleen Wynne is just one of them.

Here’s the recent poop on party desertion, the humbling but necessary support of the NDP for this government and its budget to survive, and some other neat stuff. (The Toronto Star.)