Firstly…I am one of the awful Canadian “socialist”. I have government health care, that I combine with my benefits from work. Not only do I have healthcare, but the unlucky folk that I work with…(homeless..addicts, etc.) well, they have healthcare too! They get to go to hospital or to a clinic and never be turned away. They get the same services I do.

I pick my own doc…I wait no longer that 3 days for an appointment, and yet I can see a doc whenever I want if I go to the clinic. I have access to top notch care….never have been refused a procedure or a test. I get letters reminding me of yearly tests for mammograms..etc. you get the pic.

I was sick for 6 months…very ill…near death. I was in hospital all that time….and it cost not one thin dime. Part of my work benefits allowed me to be paid 75% of my gross pay…tax free.

The main point I want to make is this. I love my country. I love that our elections dont take 2 years. I love that smutty campaign tv ads arent the norm here. Contenders dont call each other horrible names.

Oh…and we have guns..lots of em. We have more guns per capita than any other nation. The difference…they are registered. We know..(to the best of our ability anway) where they are and who has them. Our guns must be locked in steel cabinets…with ammo locked somewhere else. We cannot and do not want to carry guns on our person..in our purses..or leave them laying about where a child might find it.

We have far less gun crime than the states…and yes..we have banned all those rambo type uzzies or whatever they are. As a country of people who are hunters….what in the name of heaven would we want with those.

If that is some of what socialism is..I will take it.

Let us look after not only ourselves, but each other, he says.

Democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

Goddamn! If that’s not dangerous Commie talk I don’t know what is.

Brianf reminded me – most people who claim BO (heeheehee) is a socialist wouldn’t know the meaning of it if it bit them in the bum. Alas, too many people in America get their political opinions from bumper stickers and 30 second TV ads. It makes me very, very sad deep down inside.

But that’s not the point. The point is that I <3 Grandad. Also, I’ve been drinking champagne ever since the election results came in, so I’m a weeeee bit tipsy.

I would like to see B.O. (heeheehee) put in a nice bullet-proof bubble for the next four (or eight!) years.

Not a thing and about time too. If I remember correctly, it was anyone with an annual income of $250,000 and above that would fall under this new idea (a far cry from current “tax breaks”). Considering that the average annual income for 2007 in the U.S. is (sound of rummaging through my virtual paperwork for the right spreadsheet…ah, here it is) came to less than $62,000 I don’t think that most Americans have to worry about higher income taxes.

And as an (unusually well traveled) American I can truthfully state that your average American wouldn’t know a socialist if they stepped up and slapped them upside the head.

One way or the other, what was going on could not keep going on and change is as good as a holiday. It certainly beats what we had for the past eight years. So all ye Yanks, get positive and have hope for your country. Thanks for the press Grandad. I did stay up and now I’m regretting it – with two demanding youngsters in the house! Thank God it’s over is my motto. Now let’s move on…

What’s wrong with the wealthy contributing according to their means?

Isn’t it amazing how they took perfectly respectable concepts like “socialist” and “liberal” and turned them into insults? What’s the opposite of liberal?