it is easy to pounce on the federal conservatives as being right-winged boogeyman hell bent on returning canadian society to its christian-judeo roots. at least, that's what martin and the liberals will have you believe to scare citizens in central canada that harper's party is something like the republicans down south.

but liberals themselves have a few odd characters within their own ranks. the fact that many of them opposed martin's rush to push same-sex legislation through parliament displays not all of them are enlightened moderists but themselves hold conservative views on social issues. in canada, same sex marriage is legal because martin told the cabinet to vote for it or else.

while i don't think harper should be re-hasing the issue yet again and it probably was a mistake to begin his campaign on this subject, the public and politicians themselves are divided on this issue. maybe it's a plausible strategy to polarize the electorate from the get go, but if you're in the liberal war room, this is exactly what you want harper to say and pounce all over it.

and what about liberal loonie tunes? not long ago, former defence minister under trudeau, paul hellyer, said the government should be hold public hearings looking into the existence of ufos. he believes they're real and the secrecy of things like roswell should be known. yeah, it's not exactly teaching intelligent design in universities' science department, but just as mind boogling. though certainly, this would be a better waste of public money than ad agencies siphoning dough for no work at all.

and more recently, junior foreign minister dan mcteague suggested rapper 50 cent should be banned from canada because his music promotes hate and violence. supposedly last time he played in toronto, someone was shot dead outside of the show and in montreal, there was some violent incidents noted. and with the rising gun related violence in toronto, everyone's all up in arms on finding a quick fix. so banning rap concerts appears the way to go? no one had anything against 50 cent filming his movie in toronto last year as it brought money into the city.

the rise of violence in our streets is the result of social cutbacks finally catching up with times. in 1993, paul martin as finance minister became the master of balancing the federal budget by slashing funds left and right, including transfers to provincial coffers. in 1995, ontario elected the "radical" mike harris hell bent on downsizing the state through decreased social spending and tax cuts across the board. with less money from the feds, slashed spends by the province, urban poverty continued to climb and now it's being splashed all over the headlines as gang violence, turf wars, but the roots of it go unnoticed. the cop out? well, it's media and the images and kids are influnced by it. 50 cent videos make young black kids shoot each other, it's not the system! of course not! i'm glad ontario's premier scoffed at mcteague's suggestion and the issue is more complex than that.

so is banning 50 cent going to do anything? well no. because if you're poor living in the city, chances are you can't afford his cds, you can't go to see his movie and sure as hell, you can't play his new video game. and with ticketmaster distributing the tickets, inner city kids don't have that kinda "scrill" to climb over the service charges they slap on tickets. so who buys all this 50 cent merchandise? white surburbia!

the 50 cent "media mogul" is supported by middle class white kids who look at 50 cent as a sort of fairly tale they can get involved with: act all tough ala gangster like, hung out with their "thugs", ho some bitches in their homeroom class and in the lunch cafe. it's all a cute little game when you live in richmond hill, markham and any other middle class neighbourhood. because surburbs are so sterile and blantant, 50 cent pumps some artificial sense of rebellion into these children. burbs are the antithesis to the urban scene so a kid looking at this environment 50 cent is speaking of, it's fun because rebellion and yet contained in a way, they don't have to actually understand it. throw that kid into parkdale or regent park for a few weeks, so he knows what it means to come from the streets.

for white suburbia, fittyis basically a violent video game to act out all innate aggression without actual worries. and the suits behind this machine are getting rich awfully quick. you don't want kids listening to 50 cent mr. mcteague? then bang on the doors of his record company to drop him off their label.

well if we can't get rid of 50 cents, let's have him change his message to a positive one for the kids. you know, eat your vegetables, respect your parents, say your prayers and tuck in that shirt!

just because fitty is a little rough for middle class sensibilities does not mean he needs to change what he's doing now that he's in the mainstream. he raps about what he knows, what he saw, rich little kids love it and he's laughing all the way to the bank. i agree it's a little extreme, but i don't think he needs to change, it's the marketing machine behind him that needs changing. obviously, he's an easy target because he's the spokesman. he personally doesn't go around putting up his movie posters, he doesn't stock music stores with his albums, he didn't create the vidoe game, he's merely a brand. i don't find him to be the most intelligent being out there, so obviously for his name to be as widespread as it is, there are plenty of marketing minds pulling all the strings and all of them asking the same thing, "how else can we make money off this?" let's face it, record sales are down, so the movies, games, clothes, are simply diverse ways of bringing in the cash.

and just like always, the music industry stays out of it and ease middle class parents by slapping parental advisory stickers on albums to show they care about the kids are listening to. everything is okay, there's a sticker on the cd.

and if fitty wants to change, i'd like him to go out in public and say, "listen there are plenty of folks like me in the ghettos right now, if you don't want us in the mainstream rapping about what we rap about: talk to our public officials about pumping some money into hoods so these kids have a chance just like everyone else cuz banning us from playing is doing nothing."

i guess what i'm ranting about is that mr. mcteague has no grasp of reality of the situation going on in toronto. which is awfully strange considering his riding is scarbourough and represents one of the city's poorest regions. doesn't take much to think why voting is on the decline when your mp just doesn't care how to fix the problem.

and finally, g-g-g-g-g- UNIT!