Bootstraps Need Boots

For more than four decades, Hugh Segal has been one of the leading voices of progressive conservatism in Canada. A self-described Red Tory warrior who disdains “bootstrap” approaches to poverty, he has always promoted policies, especially a basic annual income, to help the most economically vulnerable. Why would a life-long Tory support something so radical? In this revealing memoir, Segal shares how his life and experiences brought him to this most unlikely of places, beginning with his childhood in a poor immigrant family in Montreal to his time as a chief of staff for Prime Minister Mulroney and to his more recent work as an advisor on a basic income pilot project for the Ontario Liberal government. This book is a passionate argument not only for why a basic annual income makes economic sense, but for why it is the right thing to do.

"For more than four decades, Hugh Segal has been one of the leading voices of progressive conservatism in Canada. A self-described Red Tory warrior who disdained "boot strap" approaches to poverty, he has always promoted policies, especially a basic annual income, to help the most economically vulnerable. Why would a life-long Tory support something so radical? In this revealing memoir, Segal shares how his life and experiences brought him to this most unlikely of places, beginning with his childhood in a poor immigrant family in Montreal to his time as a chief of staff for Prime Minister Mulroney and to his more recent work as an advisor on basic income for the Ontario Liberal government. This book is a passionate argument for why a basic annual income makes economic sense - and for why it is the right thing to do."

As I am writing this I realize some of the stories are a little fare out, might be difficult to believer, but I assure you they are all true, and I lived them. I used only first names to protect both the guilty, and innocent. I also vaguely de-scribed locations, and companies for the same reasons. I’m about to reach my 86th birthday, have been retired for over 20 years, and I doubt if anyone men-tioned is still alive. I started this book at the encouragement, and support of my Daughter to preserve the life of us old timers, who grew up in a world far different from what we have now. The amount of news, and information I am exposed to in one day now is about equal to what I was exposed to in a year when I was 8 years old, and World War 2 started. My story is not unique, it is only one of many, some far more interesting, and they’re disappearing rapidly as we pass on. I encourage these old timers to write them down or record them. But be prepared for as you write your life stories your going to almost relive them, your going to have time to think about them, when at the time you didn’t. Your views, and values may have change with time, and are now different. As I look back over my life I have had many successes, and failures. Your failures you remember, they hang around your neck forever, and influ-ence your life without you being aware of it. Your successes you soon forget, and assume that’s the way life’s supposed to be. The only successes I can take pride in is those of my Children, both of them have been immensely successful-ly, they both have traveled, and worked throughout the world. I and my Wife Pat have been blessed. I hope you enjoyed my life.

As President Barack Obama outlined his promise for change during the presidential campaign, he made effective use of proverbs and proverbial phrases, and invented many quotable epithets that have all the makings of future proverbs. This book examines how Obama's natural and authentic reliance on traditional metaphors enhances his impressive rhetoric, rather than reducing it to mere sound bites. Proverbs, with their often colorful metaphors, add expressiveness and emotion to his communications, giving people the opportunity to follow his pragmatic or philosophical arguments through common language. No matter the subject, Obama's prose contains metaphorical language that makes his rhetoric and oratory universally accessible. This book contains detailed analyses of the proverbial rhetoric in Obama's books Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006). A section looks at his proverbial language in 229 speeches, news conferences, interviews, and radio addresses, and the final section presents in-depth studies of his seven most significant addresses. It includes a comprehensive contextualized index of 1714 proverbial texts found within the writings and speeches from Obama's political beginnings to his memorable inaugural address.

Dear Courageous Reader, I am grateful to share Blaze Union’s amazing story as an antidote to the book bans, seahorse protests, and absurdity spreading across our world. Alas, sensitive readers should look elsewhere. After three years of large hand discrimination, Sweetie attacks with a cookie bomb and cake guns, and her twenty-third red card at school (expulsion), Blaze and the spoon-wielding Puddin’ Heads seek revenge on the Sweeties. But will a vengeful Noble Deed—along with this fourteen-year-old’s ridiculous guitar and football (soccer) skills—convince the prime minister to reward her with the power to boss all of the nation’s schools? Brave truth seekers, read this story as quickly as your heart and mind can handle. Absurdity looms large on the horizon. Develop your absurdity immunity, before it is too late. Spoons up! Heigi hooga! W. T. Kosmos Paradox, USA, Earth, Milky Way

In barely forty years of life Martin Luther King (1929-1968) distinguished himself as one of the greatest social reformers of modern times: civil rights leader, defender of nonviolence in the struggle of desegregation, champion of the poor, anti-war proponent, and broad-minded visionary of an interrelated world of free people. His many verbal and written communications in the form of sermons, speeches, interviews, letters, essays, and several books are replete with Bible proverbs as «Love your enemies», «He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword», and «Man does not live by bread alone» as well as folk proverbs as «Time and tide wait for no man», «Last hired, first fired», «No gain without pain», and «Making a way out of no way». He also delighted in citing quotations that have become proverbs, to wit «No man is an island», «All men are created equal», and «No lie can live forever». King recycles these bits of traditional wisdom in various contexts, varying his proverbial messages as he addresses the multifaceted issues of civil rights. His rhetorical prowess is thus informed to a considerable degree by his effective use of his repertoire of proverbs which he frequently uses as leitmotifs or amasses into set pieces of fixed phrases to be employed repeatedly.

Based on a selection of 30 election campaign speeches during Obama's first run for the American presidency in 2008, this book investigates the Democratic presidential candidate's much celebrated rhetoric from a cognitive semantics point of view.