Last week Mr. Slowpoke was reading the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail online when he came across the advertisement described in the first panel. (Unfortunately, I neglected to take a screen shot and can no longer find the ad.) The thought of America trying to lure businesses away from our more socially-responsible northern neighbor with entreaties of corporate welfare and desperate workers struck us as depressing and pathetic. I realize this sort of race to the bottom is nothing new, but it seems a particularly telling example of how far down the crapper we've gone.

While researching the Arizona Department of Commerce, I came across the website of a different (non-government) entity, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, whose "Good Bills/Bad Bills" page is a marvel of obliviousness to the public good. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, the very last "Bad Bill" is one requiring some divestment from Sudan. The bill is panned as a form of "over-regulation." I'm sorry, but if you're such a market fundamentalist that you can't see the problem with funding genocide, there is no hope for you. You're little more than a cult member in a suit, and you've demonstrated to me exactly WHY you need to have your ass regulated. Figuratively speaking, that is. I hope.