Mind Altered Liberals – Sell the CBC
Mind Altered Liberals – Sell the CBC
More than 70million Americans – or one in five of the population – is on mind-altering drugs, a new study reported by WND.com has found.
The shocking survey revealed that prescription drug abuse as well as illegal narcotics use has reached epidemic proportions across the country.
Nearly 50 million people are thought to have been given high-strength substances by their doctors – leading to an alarming spike in drug-related deaths.
The death of movie star of Philip Seymour Hoffman from an apparent heroin overdose again promoted the spectre of illicit substances in the country’s psyche.
But new research by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has suggested the far greater hazard is posed by over the counter prescription drugs, such as anti-depressants, sleeping pills and anxiety relief substances.
Experts have warned legal substances caused more overdose deaths than heroine and cocaine combined during the past decade, according to the U.S. report.
In 2010 more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written for Americans.
More Canadians now favour privatizing CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail than favour keeping the Crown corporations in public hands.
A poll of 1,996 Canadians by Abacus Data found that 45% of those surveyed support or strongly support selling CBC compared to 34% who opposed the move, while 21% were undecided. Support for selling Canada Post was slightly higher with 47% backing a sale and 38% opposed. Via Rail had the highest level of support for privatization with 53% agreeing that the rail service should be sold off.
Conservative voters were most likely to support privatization overall but they were not alone. A majority of Liberal and NDP voters backed privatizing Via Rail, 57% and 51% respectively. When it came to the postal service 58% of Conservatives agreed with privatization, 51% of Liberals and just 42% of New Democrats.
Via Rail lost $334,754,000 in 2012 before a government subsidy of $279,133,000 kicked in. Canada Post lost $129 million in the third quarter of 2013 and losses are expected to mount as fewer people send mail the old-fashioned way.
A previous Abacus poll on privatizing CBC found just 33% backed selling off the state broadcaster. This latest poll shows a 12% jump in support and it too crosses party lines. Fully 63% of self-identified Conservative voters back privatizing CBC. More Liberals backed privatization than opposed it, 45% versus 39% and New Democrats were split with 44% supporting privatization and 45% opposing.
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/29/canadians-ready-to-sell-cbc-and-canada-post-poll
Death by Guns Declining
Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew. The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades.
Nearly all the decline in the firearm homicide rate took place in the 1990s; the downward trend stopped in 2001 and resumed slowly in 2007. The victimization rate for other gun crimes plunged in the 1990s, then declined more slowly from 2000 to 2008. The rate appears to be higher in 2011 compared with 2008, but the increase is not statistically significant. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall also dropped in the 1990s before declining more slowly from 2000 to 2010, then ticked up in 2011
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/