DAMN, SMOKEY!

A story in The New York Times about the widening social policy rift between Canada and the United States contains this beauty:

"Recently, while musing about his retirement plans, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said he might just kick back and smoke some pot. "I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand," he said with a smile. The glibness of the remark made it nearly impossible to imagine an American president uttering it. But in a nation where the dominant west coast city, Vancouver, has come to be known as Vansterdam, few Canadians blinked."

What's so bad about a country where civility, lower murder rates and funny-looking money are predominant?