Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

You need to join the Pirate Party of Canada . Don’t take the “Pirate Party” as a gag party, like a modern day version of the Rhino Party. Look at some of the party names: “Canadian Conservative-Reform Alliance Party” (CCRAP) or Social Credit (was that a Facebook version of Visa?) or the PDA (“Progessive Democratic Alliance” not “Public Display of Affection”). The Pirate Party isn’t just about piracy or the freedom to get movies from Bit-torrent. It’s about our future-- it may be about the survival of the species and our planet. I kid you not. Intellectual property-- the concept that an idea is like a physical creation that is boxed; or reproduced and sold for money; or owned by one person at a time-- it’s all a faulty concept rooted in a time when intellect was misunderstood. Those obnoxious ads that runs in front of a video nowadays ask if you would shoplift? Of course you wouldn’t: taking a physical object deprives someone else of that physical property-- that is how property works. ...

I hit the grocery store this afternoon. Many of the aisles had cooler chests: pop, deli meats, fresh pasta. The dairy cases are open but keep the milk a fraction above freezing. The meat packages are laid out in a flat open top case. Up front at the checkout, cashiers are asking "do you want a bag?" in the hopes that you will not take a plastic bag-- but carry out your arm-load of food; or use one the environmentally dubious re-useable bags. If we're worrying about the planet and demonizing plastic bags, why are we leaving the refrigerators open 24x7? Glass doors could keep the cold in, reduce power consumption and people can still see the milk. So I have to ask why in this environmentally spastic society: why are we not asking why grocers have door-less fridges for the purpose of marketing?