. 6 — Friday, December 16, 1994 - North Shore News BH ae Dh, eee, | ee on Haye zt sini a) cig WALT rat Sad dh re ee ue IVE HAD IT WITH TAYES! THE FEDS ARE GONG To GET GREEDY HANDS ON EVERYTHING! «THE OMY PLACE THATS “SHAPELY: YOUNG bodies, one li lithesome Hiss a and ‘Trevor a . La utens cial face with vihite, white: ina behind full lips ret men. ‘Say 97% of.all males aie 15 to 112°SoI ‘rather "suspect that the’ Sunshine Girl, now coming in full .° color to.a ‘Rewspaper near, your is is G DEN OF BIASES: be quite popular. Pes : an «My ‘own eye barely pauses | over this regular feature of the North !.:. Shore News on its relentless search... }-for the really:important stuff, such as bar graphs showing comparative :penditures on North Vancouver; parks board vehicle maintenance © for the years 1928-932 08) ors. “Therefore I'd hardly’ notice it if: ~ the Sunshine Girl feature was © ‘ underlying qualities, ee Nevertheless, my scholarly . go absolutely, nuts at the very < thought of female flesh being .exposed to the gaze of newspaper, readers — or, for.that matter, in “ty contests. My reaction is: “Why?” ». tam too ‘old and wise to be’ ee sucked i in by mere surface’ appear- ~ ance: It is the Sunshine Girl's inter- _ests in life, such as her dedication “tothe poetry of West Central Africa or her irrepressible desire to learn ‘Sanskrit or to do charitable work : “ for the underprivileged children of * Shaughnessy, that tips me to her “all, nobody's forcing these luscious young females to pose in flimsy but quite prim (by current standards) © garments, or. to ankle around in swimsuits behind banners like Miss Roller Bearings of 1994.” *’ Still, this paper gets angry cor * 7 ERE’S ONE tax fact that no honest politician can dispute: British f a. Columbians are taxed to death. Finance Minister Elizabeth Cull vented a gust of political hot air recently in disputing some financial information released by the invaluable Fraser Institute. According to figures contained in the insti- tute’s Tax Facts 9 book, British Columbia families bear Canada’ s heaviest tax burden, The average family. in this province, according to the institute’s findings, will fork over 41% of its income in taxes this year, The B.C. total, which includes everything. from income to liquor tax, is over $3,000 more than the Canadian average, which is itself odious and.onerous. Meanwhile, the federal and provincial gov- ~ ernments of the day continue to approach our - staggering and economically _enervating deficits with plans to. increase taxes rather than cut the bloated cost of government. As, with all addicts, Big Government’s debt junkies are in denial. And we are paying the freight. Cull launched into the Fraser Institute’s findings with such statements as, “W's ficti- tious. There’s something flawed in the way they do. it.” But there is a simple test for” any working. person in this province to perform to deter-" mine whether he or she is paying too much 5 tax to the various levels‘of government.:.:; °°: On your next paycheque, observe the gross: and net: pay. Note. how much is being. . siphoned off in taxes. °-.. if There is nothing fictitious about that calcu: m, lation, although the results will run perilous: ly close to the contents of a modern horror, novel. “curiosity is activated by those who_ ; ', Magazines, or in the now rare beau- Followed by-a comment: “After ~ . respondence from morally. superior . persons’ deeply affronted by these rather chaste photographs (some, I notice, taken’ by. females). ; A visitor from New Jersey, for “example, sneeringly remarked that -. he’d been Jed to think that wealthy _» West Vancouver. would be sophisti- _cated, but because this paper runs pictures of partly clad young women, it was “Dogpatch.” ; Well, ] say nothing in retaliation about New Jersey. Possibly they have improved it since I was last » there. Pd be tempted to politely sug: ~ gest to this good man: “Pal, why don’t you go mind your own damn * . business?” But that would be rude. i Yet there is an underlying mys-; ; tery. What is it about the voluntary display of the female form in the | | Sunshine Girl corer that triggers uch screams of outrage? Ms Paradoxically, those same per- sons aren’t likely to protest female. ‘nudes in art galleries, or in very explicit films, especially if they are European and thus capital-A Art. That, I think, is a clue. Many of _ the objectors are snotty hypocrites, indeed possibly have attended col- lege. I'd guess that some consider themselves feminists or, if male, pro-feminist, and/or are middle- . class socialist-liberal bigots, being highly prejudiced against the low- brow preoccupations and even more lowbrow lusts of down-mar- ket people - — “especially, these days, men. ‘ts ° And there is a certain logical : consistency to their rage. For what . _ is beauty if not a kind of aristocra- cy?. This makes such people furious. : Like aristocracy, indeed monarchy, _ beauty is a thorn in the flesh (you should pardon the figure of speech) of all modern-day levellers, social engineers and redistributionists. It is so, so, so utterly unearned. It is completely unfair. Unlike rich- es, it cannot be taxed. Nor can those deprived ef it be levelled |: upwards through subsidy, to get a - bigger share’ of it.’ The daughter. of the poor can _ turn out to be Sophia Loren. The daughter of the rich can turn out to” be homelier than a hedgehog or big .. organisms, that..can reproduce. as - well as: suffer: from genetic tinke ing. A“ report ¢ prepared | by?sthe Canadian Environmental Network's : as a barn. y She can be’ gracious, brainy, and cultured through two years at a’. ~Swiss finishing school. But that : ’ won't heip her win the admiring ~ accolade of being a North Shore News Sunshine Girl.” ‘And of course beauty counts. It 7 has a hard-to-measure but undoubt- ed commercial value, as well : asa social one. . The beautiful woman will be’ desired and competed for, not only. for her lovely body itself but also, ‘at a deeper level, as the prospective : ~ mother of beauty. Yep, there’s no justice in beauty. o And that’s what drives those who fancy themselves progressive, the afe intellectuals and so forth, “) absolutely maaaaaaaddd, ailbox Gene pool ‘pollution — Dear Editor: ” Tam writing to voice my’ ‘con- os cer regarding your front page story WV scientists. build big fish (NSN, Nov. 25). Although the avid fisher- . -. man teaders were probably drool-. ing, it-is’ far too short-sighted to head for the barbecue yet: : Many questions regarding genet- a ic tinkering need to be answered, the least of which is:what will hap- pen if this fish escapes into the envi-’ ronment. and ‘affects: subsequent generations. We can’t even guaran- tee human: sterility, let. alone fish ~ that have been produced in the lab These are not “things” but living Biotechnology’ Caucus’ states : that - * the government's approach to regu- lating biotechnology fails to consid- er, the. ethical ‘questions . involved’, with ° Splicing a‘ fish? gene:.with: a’ tomato .or'a human gene. witha: canola ‘plant.’ The “government: ignores entire ecosystems‘and how organisms interact with one. anoth- er. Before people jump to the idea of a 12-pound trout or. four-eyed tuna (NSN, News of the Weird, July 22), we'd better seriously look-'at the long-term implications ‘of: our lab-to-table mentality. Jane Jonson +) «' _ North Vancouver °° x Peter Kvarnstrom ’ Display Manager 980-0514 (103) Linda Stewart |. Sales & Marketing Director ; 980-0511 {319)° , _ Timothy Renshaw Managing Editor . ' 985-2431 (116) _ Valerie Stephenson Trix Agrios “Classified Manager : i _. Promotions Manager *- 986-6222 (202). . 985-2131 (137) - Chris Johnzen. Operations Manager 985-2131 (144) Doug Foot ‘ Comptroller 985-21 34 (193). :-Peter Speck A Publisher : 995-2131 (101) ‘ Administration 1496 oa voce oF won an weer VANCOUVER 4 North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an 2 : ry BUN DAY = WEDN 1139 Lonsdale Avenue | : North Vancouver B.C. Sa vie 2H4" independent suburban newspaper and qualified _ under Schedule 141, Paragraph 111 of the’ “ Exeise Tax Act, is published cach Wednesday, : Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publications Mait : Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing ' fates available on requast. 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