XPost: tor.general, can.general   
   From: undertow@news.vrx.net   
      
   ~~~fwd~~~   
      
   THE  CLASSIC  VERSION:   
   ======================   
      
   The ant works hard in the withering   
   heat all summer long, building his   
   house and laying up supplies for the   
   winter. The grasshopper thinks   
   he's a fool, and laughs and dances   
   and plays the summer away.   
      
   Come  winter, the ant is warm and well fed.   
   The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter,   
   so he dies out in  the cold.   
      
      
   THE CANADIAN VERSION:   
   ======================   
      
   The ant works hard in the withering   
   heat all summer long, building his   
   house and laying up supplies for the   
   winter. The grasshopper thinks   
   he's a fool, and laughs and dances and   
   plays the summer away.   
      
   Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.   
   So far, so good, eh?   
      
   The shivering grasshopper calls a press   
   conference and demands to know why   
   the ant should be allowed to be warm   
   and well fed while others less fortunate,   
   like him, are cold and starving.   
      
   The CBC shows up to provide live   
   coverage of the shivering grasshopper,   
   with cuts to a video of the ant in his   
   comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.   
   Canadians are stunned that in a country of such   
   wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so   
   while others have plenty.   
      
   The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition   
   Against Poverty demonstrate in front   
   of the ant's house. The CBC,   
   interrupting an Inuit cultural festival   
   special from Nunavut with breaking   
   news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."   
      
   Jack Layton grants in an interview with   
   Mike Duffy that the ant has gotten rich off the   
   backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax   
   hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair  share".   
      
   In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts   
   the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act,   
   retroactive to the beginning of the summer.   
      
   The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for   
   failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money   
   to pay both  the fine and his newly imposed retroactive  taxes,   
   his home is confiscated by the government. The ant moves to the   
   US and starts a successful agribiz company.   
      
   The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing   
   up the last of the ant's food, though spring is still months   
   away, while the government house he is in, which just   
   happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him   
   because he hasn't bothered to maintain it. Inadequate   
   government funding is blamed, Bob Rae is appointed to   
   head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.   
      
   The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto   
   Star blames it on the obvious failure of government to address   
   the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.   
      
   The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders,   
   praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural   
   diversity, who promptly set up a marijuana grow op and   
   terrorize the  community.   
      
   ~~~   
      
      
      
   --   
   Tom Evans                                            Master of Puppets   
   DENSA Life Achievement ø   Am I the only one in here with half a brain?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)