Tangled Webs

Its Been an even longer while...

2006-08-02T22:35:00.000-04:00

Well, its been awhile, but something finally caught my attention and got me riled up enough to bang away on the keyboard here...

I was sitting in the local Starbucks and read an incredible piece or tripe written by the supposed towering intillect and aspiring Liberal leader, Michael Ignatief. Now Mr. Ignatief is widely regarded as an intillectual of sorts but one would never know it from the column - it reads more like a useless pile of feel good rhetoric designed to appeal to the lefties in the country who truly believe that by gutting the military and assuming a position of neutrality in any conflict, that Canada can somehow then exert any kind of influence...

Mr. Ignatief makes such bold statements that Canada should immediately call for a ceasefire...and once Hezbollah & Isreal immediately stop shooting at each other (since its Canada asking after all - they have to listen to us!)...oh wait, thats right...who the hell is going to listen to Canada??? Does he really believe that Hezbollah will stop launching missiles into Isreal or would in anyway honour a "ceasefire"? Does he truly believe that anyone in the world is waiting for dear old Canada to stand up and demand a ceasefire?? Only those people who are seriously deluded about our position in the world, I suspect, would believe that.

The real howler comes when Ignatief proposes an international force to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Thats all they would be there for - to create a buffer between the 2 warring parties...um, but then he also goes on to say that to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah, this international force should also assume control over all Lebanon's border crossings and sea-ports. Excuse me??? We go from creating a "buffer zone" to, essentially occupying the entire country? And does he think that this will go over well with Hezbollah and the other Islamofascists? Or does he realize that putting American, Canadian, European soldiers at every Lebanese border crossing & sea-port would really just create a 'target rich' environment for every wannabe suicide bomber who can't get all the way to Iraq to become a martyr? I found it a little stunning that such a supposedly smart individual could contradict himself in such short order within the same column...

What I read from Mr. Ignatief shows me that he is a typical Liberal - great at dealing out high minded rhetoric - but it amounts only to wishfull thinking...and continues this distortion of Canadian history that we are seeing in the media nowadays - this great line of b.s. that Canada has always been "neutral" and an "honest broker"...we need to stop feeding people the kind of leftist crap and teach them the real history of Canada. Personally, I am getting sick to death of people like Ignatief &Jack Layton defining Canada & Canadian history to fit their own leftist ideologies -

Its been awhile

2006-05-14T19:15:00.000-04:00

So here we are, 100 days into a Harper government and what do you know - the sky hasn't fallen, we haven't become a US state, and a dose of realism has entered into the discussion.

As much as the left (represented by Mr. blowhard, er, Jack Layton) likes to whine, the Conservative position on Kyoto seems to me to be quite realistic. The targets the Liberals "negotiated" were never realisitc, and the complete lack of any planning or strategy to meet them speaks to the fact that they were aware of this, and were signing on for purely political purposes - so that they could parade around as the "environmentally conscious" party in front of the Canadian people, and paint themselves as the party that maintained Canada's reputation as a "good citizen of the world". But that's all it was - posturing. There was never any substance behind it, and its high time someone started injecting some sanity into the conversation. The fact that our emissions are up 35% would seem to me to be a concrete sign that we are unable to meet our Kyoto committments - short of shutting down the Canadian economy.

Injecting some sanity into the conversation starts with blowing away the useless hot air in the discussion. Anyone who believes that Kyoto will somehow 'stop' or prevent climate change is living in a fantasy world. The whole debate thus far pre-supposes that climate change is being driven by human activity and that human activity can somehow put a halt to it. Simply put, climate change is incredibly complex - and has been going on since, well, since the earth was formed some 4 billion years ago. The idea that there has been some "normal" climate on the earth is pure fantasy.

So - what is wrong with a made in Canada approach - especially one that tackles more than just Greenhouse gasses - but also other types of pollution - especially the ones that cause all the smog that people fret so much about during the long hot summer...

Afghanistan

2006-03-22T21:22:00.000-05:00

So - Afghanistan has been in the news quite a bit over the last few days - which means that your average arm chair pundit has a few things to say on the subject...

- I find the recent howling from the left for "debate" on Canada's role in Afghanistan anywhere from disengenuous to simply pathetic - particularly when these calls for debate come from the Liberals (you know, the ones who sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan in the first place). People seem to be attempting to put all this onto Stephen Harper & the Conservatives - as if Stephen Harper simply could not wait to jump on George W's war bandwagon and get Canadian troops out into the field and, in defiance of our much vaunted "peacekeeping" reputation, actually engaging in *gasp* combat. Well, its time for people to get a grip. First, as stated above, it was the Liberals who initiated the Canadians current mission - including the current aspect of the mission, which includes engaging Taliban insurgents in combat operations (you know, what we actually train the military for - the guns are not meant for show after all).

Second - what do these people think peacekeeping is? Riding into a the middle of a situation, standing between two formerly hostile parties and having everyone act all calm and rational because, by god, those are peaceful Canuck's seperating us? Or does it mean providing some level of peace and security to a volatile area so that the citizens can live in some modicum of peace? Which might involve fighting the actual people who wish to destabalize the country (in case you were wondering, that would be the Taliban insurgents who like nothing more than killing foreigners and other troublemakers, like female teachers, and anyone else who dares to try and live their own life outside their strict, unbending Islamic code). Isn't that also peacekeeping? Or are we to be forever bound to the Trudeapian fantasy of peacekeeping (enshrined on the fiver) of blue capped "peacekeepers" handing out teddy bears & candy and gosh darn it making everyone feel good. Actually, if anything, this current mission should serve to put and end to that lofty myth - nothing like a dose of reality...I also find the calls to immediately pull the troops coming from certain lefties to be equally pathetic - I guess it would be much more humanitarian and good to abandon the folks in Khandahar to the Taliban so that the womanfolk can go back to being prisoners in their homes etc...

And one would do well to remind Jack Layton, who has never met a microphone he didn't immedialtely fall in love with, that we had a debate, in Pariliament, back in November - which he didn't bother to show up for (too busy trying to prop up Paul Martin's Liberals so that he could extract another $billion from that desperate weasel). So his pontificating now about the urgent need for a debate strikes me as, well, pathetic politicking - which is business as usual for smiling Jack...

- On a related note - how is it that that loathesome toad Dosanji is still a member of parliament? The man, like Layton, has never stepped in front of a microphone into which he could not spew some inane bullshite. While saner heads in the Liberal party have voiced their support for the Canadian troops in Afghanistan (Dion, Graham for instance), Dosanji steps up to the plate and spouts off about how we really, really need to have a debate about this whole Conservative plan (er, Liberal plan, which the Conservatives inherited, but why split hairs?) This is the same guy who, as Minister of Health, encouraged innovation in our healthcare system by telling organizations like the CMA that they shouldn't even think of thinking about anything but Complete Public Domination of the Healchcare system - or else...nothing like encouraging honest and open debate about the issues eh? Oh, and lets not forget his voice, on tape, using terms like "plausible deniability" and talking about how the right vote at the right time could be rewarded (the Grewal scandal)...but oh no - it wasn't all that talk about buying votes that was the issue - it was taping a fellow MP! Can't have that - otherwise, how would the business of government go on, if one was not free to discuss bribing the opposition with positions of power, etc...what a jackass (Dosanji for his various bouts of verbal diareah, and Bernard Shapiro for letting him off the hook on the Grewal scandal)...

- Back to Afghanistan - Canadian troops killed a guy on a taxi recently. Now the man's family want, as compensation, Canadian citizenship. Frankly, while this is obviously a tragic circumstance, I would say "no way". We are supposed to take these 9 non english speaking people and just plunk them down into Canada? To do what? Not to be cruel, but I am assuming that they would be coming here with 0 skills, 0 education, and no fluency in either official language. So in effect, we would be saying "as compensation, please enjoy the hospitality of the Canadian government for the rest of your life"). Tough issue, but I don't know that what they are asking for is fair to either side in the long run...

This would also set a very bad precedent (in my opinion, anyway). Everytime there is a car accident over there (or a shooting - I am sure that will not be the last accidental shooting over there) - we are just supposed to hand out Canadian citizenship cards? Not a good idea at all...

Cartoon controversy - Steyn style

2006-02-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Once again, Mark Steyn hits the nail on the head regarding the ongoing cartoon controversy. A sample:

"In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don't insult him. Nonetheless, the Muslim Association wrote to the Ann Summers sex-shop chain, "We are asking you to have our Most Revered Prophet's name 'Mustafa' and the afflicted word 'shag' removed."

If I were a Muslim, I'd be "hurt" and "humiliated" that the revered prophet's name is given not to latex blowup males but to so many real blowup males: The leader of the 9/11 plotters? Mohammed Atta. The British Muslim who self-detonated in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. The gunman who shot up the El Al counter at LAX? Heshamed Mohamed Hedayet. The former U.S. Army sergeant who masterminded the slaughter at the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. The murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh? Mohammed Bouyeri. The notorious Sydney gang rapist? Mohammed Skaf. The Washington sniper? John Allen Muhammed. If I were a Muslim, I would be deeply offended that the prophet's name is the preferred appellation of so many killers and suicide bombers on every corner of the earth."

Read the whole thing...

Post election blues - What were they thinking???

2006-02-11T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are after the first full week of the new Stephen Harper squeaky-clean Conservative government - and already, the honeymoon has come to an abrupt end, and a great deal of political capital has been blown.

It seemed like such a good idea - that the folks coming in to run the government would not be the same folks who ran the campaign - but in practise, it seems like the people running the campaign were the smart ones. They were the disciplined team that cranked out policy announcements, kept on top of the issues, and were smart about communication.

But this first week, well, it tells a different story. In making a cabinet Harper, in a couple of strokes, managed to dispel a great deal of goodwill from the press, the public (who were told that the Conservatives were going to different), and within his own party - all those competent, hardworking Conservatives who dreamed of a spot at the Cabinet table, only to be snubbed in favour of a Liberal turncoat and an unelected backroom boy parachuted into the Senate.

To say that this has been a disappointing week would be an understatement.

Parliament does not resume until April 3rd - so there is time for them to recover - and who knows? This whole ‘controversy’ might blow over by then and become a distant memory - provided that when Parliament does re-convene the Conservatives govern smartly and don’t fuck that up too...Otherwise, we might just as well start writing cheques to the Natural Governing Party - because if the Conservatives screw this up, than it’ll be a loooong time before we see them back in the driver’s seat.

Cartoonish protests?

2006-02-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

Cartoon protests - well, that says it all, doesn’t it.

The level of "outrage" being expressed across the Muslim world over the publication of cartoons is staggering. Embassies burned, angry mobs rampaging through city streets, Westerners of all kinds (Europeans, Americans -well anyone with a pale complexion) fleeing for their lives - what a scene the world has been presented with. But come on - all this over a bunch of cartoons that were published 4 months ago in some obscure Danish newspaper? Cartoons?? However supposedly inflammatory these particular pieces might have been (showing Mohammed wearing a bomb shaped turban might have been going a little far, for instance), the reaction by the radical Islamists across the globe is entirely out of proportion.

All these calls for the Danish government to apologize, and for anyone ‘blaspheming’ Islam to be punished - give me a break. How about y’all collectively go fuck yourselves. Its called freedom of speech and freedom of the press for a reason. It means that speech, even speech you might, in your narrow minded little world, find offensive, is protected. Give an inch here - oh my, someone’s religious sensibilities were offended - and where does the next line get drawn? Given the virulently anti-semitic speeches, cartoons, etc routinely published in these vast centers of Islamic outrage, are they really the ones to be lecturing us on what constitutes "acceptable" speech? I guess its only un-acceptable when the object of caricature is aimed at them.

I find it odd that there is so much outrage over depictions of Mohammed in the first place. Ok, I get that there is supposedly a ‘ban’ on images of the prophet - designed, I believe, to prevent the sin of idiolatry - they are supposed to worshiping god, not the prophet - right? But does all this anger, protest, and righteous indignation seem to indicate that all these supposedly pious Islamists are already committing the sin anyway, by practically worshiping the Prophet? Maybe if these folks spent a little more time learning how to think, and less on dreaming up anti-American slogans (how many ways are there to chant "death to the great Satan", anyway?) than they might see for themselves the irony here. But thats just my view as a rational, atheistic Canadian.

Personally, I also find it quite ironic that these are the same people who begged that we not tar the entire Muslim world with the same brush after September 11, - that we continue to be tolerant and not overreact. Overreact?? A dozen cartoons trigger off rampaging mobs across the Islamic world, people are threatened (and in some cases killed), and there are calls for extreme violence (unless you consider calls to "behead the blasphemers" to be a message of tolerance) - and we are the ones who are not supposed to overreact when people identifying themselves as Islamist (and praised in many Muslim countries) fly planes into buildings and murder thousands. Hmm...To me it seems clear which is the more offensive crime - but the nutcases seem to believe that we should be tying ourselves into knots and bending over backwards because the entire western world is somehow responsible for the publication of a bunch of cartoons in a Danish newspaper. I find the hypocrisy here staggering.

Has it come to the point where we have to treat the Islamic world like a giant, tempermental two year old? Tread carefully, lest you wake the monster and it throws a tantrum? Are we supposed to all fall in line and abandon our ideals (free speech among them) to appease an angry mob? I do not find the statements coming from Western leaders comforting. Too many of their statements seem to be aimed at appeasing the two year old - ok, from a practical point of view I can understand, since there are may westerners (journalists, aid workers, etc) whose lives are at risk - but still, it seems to me that we are playing a dangerous game - if we fall back here, as I said before, than where does the next line get drawn? Like with the temperamental two year old, if they get their way here, their demands will only grow...especially as they see how fearful we have become - tread carefully, lest you wake the psychotic neighbour.

All in all the situation is seriously deranged...

Election Thoughts with 2 weeks to go...

2006-01-11T18:39:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts about the election:

- the Liberal "attack" ads - wow, how original. These are perhaps the most loathsome, laugh out loud examples of negative advertising I've ever seen. They are chock full of false innuendo, quotes from 10 year old speeches taken out of context, and outright lies. Basically, I guess they are trying to say that Stephen Harper is a radicalrightwingRepublicanmilitarydictatorbabykillingnotwithstandingclauseusing crackpot. Whew. I never knew!

I guess when you have nothing positive to offer Canadians there is nothing left to do other than lash out and attempt to slander the oposition. Will it be effective this time around? Who knows...we'll see on the 23rd.

- What really gets me in all this is that every time he is near a microphone Paul Martin calls for "civility" in the campaign...and then, in the next instance, he's getting out the mud cannon and firing away at Stephen Harper as if he were talking about the devil himself. Can we all say "hypocrite"? I wonder how Martin can actually keep a straight face as a spews this bullshit - I'm kind of waiting for the internal contradictions to finally collide within that overwrought cranium if his and simply cause his head to explode.

- If it wasn't obvious before, after the way Martin deftly reached behind him during Monday's debate and pulled a new notwithstanding clause policy out of his ass it should be obvious now that PMPM is just making this up as he goes along. Proposing a major constitutional change, basically as a crass political ploy in the middle of an election campaign, surely should be evidence that Martin is categorically unfit to lead the country. The man will literally say anything to get elected, and as a result, you can trust nothing he says. Nothing. I'm still waiting for word, for instance, on how that war on the politics of cronyism and corruption is going...or does that end only when he runs out of cronies to appoint to the senate? How about that democratic deficit? Still there? Right...

- Its getting to the point where I am going to have to buy a new TV. Everytime I see smiling Jack Layton on television begging us to elect more New Democrats because they work for "people" I throw something at the damn TV set. What an idiot. That and his constant railing against corporate tax cuts infuriate me. Who employs those "people", Jack? Especially union members? Oh, right - Corporations. And in a competive global economy what is a good way to attract more of those companies to your jursidiction? Oh, right, don't tax them into the ground (see Ireland - great example of what can happen when you try and create a business friendly climate). Jack should pay a little more attention to 21st century reality and less to his class-warfare ideology. More companies choosing to do business in Canada means more jobs (yes, for people, Jack) and more revenue for gvernment to throw away on all your pet projects.

Inneffetive? Hmmm...lets take another look...

2005-12-19T21:56:00.000-05:00

So, Jack Layton has decided that since attacking the Liberals has failed to bump up NDP support beyond its entrenched 17% level, the time has come to join Mr. Dithers in attacking the Conservatives. His latest spin - that the Conservatives have been an "inneffectual" opposition. Really? Jack likes to brag that he is getting things done for "people" - pointing of course to the NDP hi-jacked budget this spring as a triumph (yeah, extorting $4.5 billion out of a desparate to cling to power Dithers is a real triumph...and working for "people" includes cancelling corporate tax cuts that might *gasp* actually make it more attractive for companies to locate in Canada, and create "jobs" for "people"...ah but for Jack & the Dippers job creation is the work of government - waving its magic wand...but I digress..).

But lets see...Jack extorts $4.5 billion for his pet causes - whether that money is wisely spent or not matters little to him, so long as he gets the headline. But have the Conservatives been "inneffectual" - hmmm...would we be talking at all about tax cuts if it were not for the Conservatives? That would be tax cuts for "people" (you know, Jack - letting those hard working people you profess to represent keep more of their hard earned money so that they can save for their future, invest, or make purchases that just might lead to more economic activity and create jobs). Would we be talking about rebuilding our broken down military (so that they could be effective in the "peacekeeping" missions you so favour). Would we be talking about corporate tax cuts that will make Canada a more attractive jurisdiction for companies to business in? I would argue that all these things are on the agenda because of the strength of the Conservative opposition (they have been, in fact, remarkably successful in pushing the Liberals to the right over the past 10 years). Therefore, contrary to Jacks latest spin, I would have to say that the Conservatives have been quite influential as opposition. Sure, they are not sitting in hotel rooms and having terms dictated to them by a powerful union boss, and making backroom deals...but influential nevertheless.

Merry Elexmas!

Well, that didn't take long...

2005-12-18T23:28:00.000-05:00

I was watching the news, and to tell the truth, I couldn't really tell if I was watching recent tape, or a broadcast from the 2004 election. It certainly didn't take long for Paul Martin to abandon any pretense of having any actual, you know, policies to offer to Canadians. Instead, he has gone into full "attack Stephen Harper" mode. Honestly, if you took the words "Stephen Harper" from his vocabulary, Mr. Martin would have difficulty making it through his stump speech. Every time he gets near a microphone Martin starts in with his "Stephen Harper" schtick...he always manages to say the name as if he is speaking of the evil Satan himself.

And then he has the nerve to whine about he civility of debate in the House. Somebody in his inner circle should really tap him on the shoulder and point out that any attempt to raise the level of debate within the House, should really start with the campaigns to get elected to the House. If you spend your entire election campaign denigrating your opponant, and attempting to demonize them, well, how do you expect to garner their cooperation once you are all sitting in the illustrious House of Commons?

Its particularly sad that the Liberals, as desparate as they are to maintain their grip on power, have started in on the negative campaigning. They have absolutely nothing to offer in terms of policies or even a coherant vision for the country - sooooo, they start with their attempt to demonize the opposition (oh, and also go out of their way to poison relations with the Americans, because it plays well to the reflexive anti-Americanism in the 416 area code). Sad. And ultimately not at all good for the country...but hey, if it gets them elected!

If Paul Martin and his thieving cronies win this election (even a minority) than I will have just about lost all faith in the Canadian public...it would not bode well for the future of our country...we can and should demand better...

Polls, Polls, Polls

2005-12-14T22:28:00.000-05:00

Oh for the love of god, can we dispense with all the $#&@*!# polls??? Evertime I see the news, or read a newspaper I'm confronted with the latest poll and the newsreader/writer's breathless analysis of what the numbers "mean" or what the purportedly 'represent'. What they mean is that polls are useless. And poll analysis is especially useless. I mean, come on - when a one point change from poll to poll is trumpeted as a 'surge' in support? Its within the margin of error for crying out loud! How can that "represent" anything?

While I am all in favour of removing freedom of speech restrictions (eg the election gag laws the Liberals have been trying to enact for years), I am completely in favour of banning all polling and reporting on polls during an election. Let the politicians have discussions on policy, let them announce their positions on various issues (without the benefit of "test marketing" them) and then see how voters decide - on election day (you know, the one poll that actually means something).

And while I am at it. another thing I would like to do away with is election night coverage - this whole "race" aspect where a candidate is "ahead" in a particular riding, or "leading" - I find it all quite annoying. Hows about waiting until the votes are counted and then announcing who the winners are? Isn't that what this whole exercise in democracy is about? Its not a fucking race, its citizens exercising their democratic rights and then having the ballots counted to determine who garnered the most votes and will represent them in Parliament. The whole "race" notion, fuelled by the endless polls and culminating in the horse-race election night coverage, does a disservice to the whole thing.

Ah well...

Electioneering, Star style

2005-12-14T22:03:00.000-05:00

And here we go again...on the Toronto Star's website they are fronting an article that drags an 8 year old speech by Stephen Harper to make some sort of point about Harper's views over relations with the dreaded "Bush" Americans. What this point is, escapes me, beyond the fact that it appears to be another lame attempt by the Star (and their anonymous "Liberal sources") to jump out of the bushes and scream "booga-booga! Harper=Bush= scary!"

Ok, so lets take the gloves off then and drag out every single public utterance made by Paul Martin and compare that with his current windblown views. Shall we go through his various statements supporting the war in Iraq, ballistic missile defence and then compare them to his positions now (now that he has properly digested the poll results and determined what he thinks Canadians want to hear and what may get hime elected)?

Let see...

- "What possible benefit is it for us to stay away from the table?" (Toronto Star, April 29, 2003).
• "If there is going to be an American missile going off somewhere over Canadian airspace, I think Canada should be at the table making the decisions." (CBC, May 1, 2003).

• "We have to be at the table to essentially make sure that whatever decisions that are going to be taking place are taking place in Canada’s interests." (Ottawa Sun, January 9, 2004).

- "I really think Canada should get over to Iraq as quickly as possible". Paul Martin

So lets watc as Mr. Martin puffs himself up and starts throwing insults across the schoolyard at the Americans, and as his cronies dig about to find any kind of pro-American statements that Stephen Harper may have made 8, 9, 10 years ago (whatever)...the next round of Conservative ads should just replay all these Martins statements, and then show how "fluid" his positions have been...

What do they say about people in glass houses?

ALSO - the next Conservative ads should hi-light Martin's pontificating about ending the politics of cronyism and then show him appointing his leadership team & other assorted Liberal cronies to the senate...

Maybe slap a big "HYPOCRITE" label on him...

Election thoughts...

2005-12-14T18:01:00.000-05:00

So, here we are, two weeks into the election campaign - here are my first impressions:

- Kudos to the Conservatives for setting the agenda with their stream of "policy a day" announcments. The policies themselves may not be perfect (what policy is) but they are leading what has been, for the most part, an election that has been suprisingly heavy on policy discussion. This should be (and I emphasize the should be part) dispelling the idea that the Conservatives have their infamous "hidden agenda". The Liberals have looked pretty reactionary - and completely bereft of ideas. They have yet to put forward a single original policy (I don't call announcing $100 billion over 100 years or whatever their actual ridiculous Daycare pledge was, an original policy). Martin has been reduced to pontificating about values, using the US as punching bag, and trying to drag same-sex marriage back into the debate at every turn. Pathetic.

- Paul Martin should not be allowed near a microphone during an election...oh hell, ever. The man is pathetically incapable of uttering a single sentence with any connection to reality. He is full of lofty rhetoric, and high sounding ideals - but none of it is connected in any way to things we like to call "facts" or "reality". Every word the man utters is political. Take his poke at the Americans during the Montreal climate change conference. Given the fact that the American's record on reducing Green House gas emissions is, in reality, better than Canada's, Martin decided to take a poke at the Americans for not signing on to the global gaggle-fuck of the Kyoto treaty. Sure we've signed it, and that makes Martin puff out his chest and act like Canada is actually doing something about climate change...ignoring the reality that Canada actually has one of the worst environmental records. But then again that seems to be the Canadian character these days - talk a lot, and if you talk enough, why then it must be true. We are engrossed in our own Liberal myths about Canada, despite the facts that we are not the best environmentalists, the best peacekeepers, the most mulit-cultural, tolerant...whatever...

Again - pathetic. Pissing off our biggest trading partner, no matter how much you dislike the current administration, while it may give you a chance to get on the news wrapping yourself in the flag, is profoundly stupid, and can have serious long term consequences for all Canadians - not just your pathetic political career.

Yes, you may have guessed right - I am not a Paul Martin fan. If just once his lofty rhetoric (remember that "democratic deficit" or "ending the politics of cronyism"?) was matched by his actual, you know, actions, than maybe I could cut him a break. But since the only talent, and the only ambition he has demonstrated has been to get elected (and he his clueless once he has been elected), I find him to be quite reprehensible (and considering the fact that I have a pretty low opinion of politicians in general, thats saying something).

- Beer and popcorn? That comment, more than any other, displays the Liberal philosophy. You can't be trusted with your money, so give it to us to spread around. Why, if you had it, you might be able to make choices! We, the Liberals, are the only ones who should be making choices! Its our money! Well, actually, Paul & co. its OUR money, and while yes, there are idiots out there who would indeed blow the daycare money on beer & popcorn, I trust that the majority of Canadian parents are perfectly capable of making their own choices about what to spend their money on, and how to raise their children.

- Daycare? Can someone explain to me how the Liberal's $5 billion differs from the Conservatives $5 billion (aside from the fact that the Conservatives money will go directly to parents?). The Liberals make it sound as if their money will somehow conjure a day care space for every thumbsucker in the country. Really? What it looks like is another bag of cash thrown at the Provinces, to do with what they will. And since the Liberal plan will only affect parents who actually use institutional daycare (about 15-20% according to the figures I keep hearing), how will all that money actually help the other 80% of parents? Seems to me that letting the parents keep more of their money (or failing that, giving it back to them) is a fine idea.

And why are the words "profit" and "private" synonomous with "evil"? As if making something "public" means that someone has waved the magic wand and everyone involved in something "public" is suddenly selfless and pure and innocent (untainted as they are by the evils of "profit"!)...hmmm...remember the Koebel brothers? Residential schools (a fine "public" institution)?

Really, we need to open up the debate on these issues (including healthcare) and stop spitting out words like "private" and equating them with satanism - and using them to close out any actual discussion.

More to come later - dinner awaits!

And we're off to the races!

2005-12-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

Well, the Christmas election that “no one” wanted is on. And how are things going so far, two days in?

Well, lets see: we’ve seen perhaps the most inane question possible being asked by a reporter – the “do you love Canada” question tossed to Stephen Harper on Day 1. Since he didn’t deliver a thunderous “Yes!” and immediately begin blubbering, well, that seems to prove to some that this illustrates his Conservative contempt for the very country he is trying to lead. What we are really seeing here, with the reaction to his response, and with the mentality behind the question in the first place, is the embodiment of the idea that unless you whole-heartedly embrace the Liberal “vision” of Canada, than obviously you despise the country and are unfit to lead it. Expect to see more of this nonsense during the campaign - if this campaign turns out like the last one, than every time a Conservative has the temerity to question the status quo or suggest that there things in Canada that aren’t going swimmingly and need to be addressed, he/she will be branded with the heartlessbigotCanadahater label.

Personally, I think it’s a greater expression of love for one’s country to be able to see the flaws, the places where there is work to be done (because, as Harper indicated, the place has ‘unlimited potential’), and to be prepared to step forward and work at making it a better place – rather than standing up before the nearest microphone, shedding a crocodile tear and blubbering on about how much “I Love Canada”! Which answer is really more honest?

Lets take, for example, the manner in which Paul Martin demonstrates his immense, teary love for Canada - by not paying Canadian taxes. Paul Martin loves his country sooooo much that he is willing to flag all his precious ships (Canada Steamships line) out of the Bahama’s, just so he can avoid paying Canadian taxes. Guess he loves Canada so much, he has decided that its not important for the company he owns (or his sons own – but lets not get sidetracked on the whole “blind trust” issue) to make their fair contribution to the collective treasury. Don’t need any of that Martin money finding its way to the little folk…I guess the Martins love Canada, just not the tax rates? If a conservative were to, say, suggest that Canadian taxes could be lowered, he would usually be greeted with howls of outrage that Conservatives are anti-government and hate the country – why, there is soooo much that that money could be spent on! So Paul gets around that whole sticky debate by ensuring that his company can avoid paying the taxes altogether. Now there is an expression of love! *sigh*

And lets not even get into Martin’s love for Canada’s public health care system – a love that is manifested by his representing a riding with the most Private clinics of any jurisdiction in Canada. Or by the fact that his personal physician runs one of those lucrative Private clinics.

Look – love is not supposed to be blind. Forgive me for throwing out a dippy analogy, but Canada right now is like a nice house – albeit one with cracks in the foundation, maybe the windows need replacing, the yard needs weeding, and the carpets are pretty worn. Now, who is being more honest – the politician who says the place has unlimited potential, just needs to be fixed up a little (and here are some ideas on how to do it), or the one who turns to the nearest camera and blindly declares “I love this place – everyone else in the neighbourhood just wishes they could move into a place like this! – how dare you suggest there are problems here!”

Um, just in case you were wondering, I think it’s the first one…

And from the Left...

2005-11-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

More mis-representation on the nature of tax cuts. This time, Linda McQuaig, writing in today's Star, tells us that neo-cons on the Right have worked dilligently over the past several years to "deingrate the role of government and suggest governments should concentrate on giving taxpayers their money back." In one bold sentence, she has completely misrepresented "tax cuts". As a person with right-leaning tendancies, I don't want the government to "give" me anything - I want them to stop taking so much in the first place. And thats what tax cuts actually are - cutting tax rates. In other words, lowering the percentages of your hard earned income that the government helps itself to. And guess what? As experience in Ontario shows, taking less of a bite can actually lead to - wait for it - higher overall revenues for the government (despite the hysterical cries from the Left, during the Harris years own source - eg tax - revenues GREW each and every year, to the point where the government was raking in more per capita than at any other time in its history).

Anyway for McQuaig and the Left, it appears that taxes can never, ever be lowered. Raised yes, because the government can always find new ways to spend your money. But lowered? Why, never! They need every nickel. So they can bribe their friends, and provide a nice nest egg for themselves, so that when they decide to retire from directly sucking from the public teat they can relax and enjoy their autumn years in peace.

She also bleats on about the "enourmously positive role" that government can play in our lives. No one is arguing that government can do some things - things which we as individuals cannot neccessarily do for ourselves - but rather than, as McQuaig suggests, arguing for an elimination of government, I myself argue that we need to limit governments role. Otherwise, politicians send the government off into all manner of policy and program directions, trying to be all things to all people, and ultimately doing nothing very well - and whats worse, doing nothing very well with alot of our money. I would argue that rather than trying to do everything, we should be encouraging smaller government - having governemnt concentrate on those things which it can do well - and stop meddling in all the other areas where there are better (private?) alternatives. Lets stop looking for government to do everything (raise our kids, tell us what we can or can't watch/listen to) - basically, turning us into sheeple looking for the Federal government to guide us everywhere.

Anyway...got off on a bit of a rant there, but my main point remains - I wish that commentators on the Left would stop talking about tax cuts as "giving" money to anyone...they are about taking less! And leaving a dollar in the hands of the person who earned it is much better than putting it into the hands of some politician to squander...I think that I am a much better judge of where to put my money (where to spend it, save, or invest) than Paul Martin and his thieving cronies.

There's just never a good time...

2005-11-17T21:53:00.000-05:00

Elections? Never a good time to have one, is there? Well, if you are Paul Martin, I guess. Every day, it seems, our embattled PM pulls a new excuse out of the bag as to why we can't have a "holiday" election. Today, we moved on from the "friends and family" reason from yesterday (and from the overall we have "important" business to complete), and proceeded on to the idea that an election at the end of December or beginning of January just might offend someone's religious sensibilities...nothing specific, but there are lots of religions, and someone just might be offended, since, well, many religions have something Holy going on this time of year. And all religions have some sort of strictures on holiday voting...you know, of the "thou shalt not vote on festival days" or something...

Give me a break.

How long till Papa Paul just decrees that, since there is never a good time to have an election, what with all the Very Very Important Business they have left to do (after all, the 12 years the Libs have been in power was not nearly enough time to completely loot the Canadian treasury), and what with all the religious holidays scattered throughout the year, that we are just going to forego the darned things and let him Rule in peace.

Oh, I can't wait till I get to trudge my way through 2 feet of snow and minus 30 degree temps, singing Christmas carols, just so I can contribute to voting his ass out of office...

Here we go again - vote buying 2005

2005-11-14T20:07:00.000-05:00

And here we go again. Once again, those crafty vote-whores...er, Liberals, have reached into the goodie bag and pulled out a little something for everyone, dressed up as an "economic update". Well, really, this is simply using government time, resources, etc to explain to us how they are going to buy as many votes as possible in the next election. I mean, really...can we continue to let them get away with this kind of crap? This is nothing more than the Liberal party election platform...

Isn't it just ever so convenient how the vote-whores, er, Liberals, discover the value of cutting taxes just before it looks like there is going to be an election. Otherwise, cutting taxes is never on their agenda - since they have so much extra spending to do, they could never ever think about giving the average Canadian a tax break...whats that? Looks like an election is coming? Time to buy some votes!

Now look at what they are proposing - Ralphie boy trumpeted $30 billion (count it - $30 billion!) in tax cuts. Wow - thats a big round number that will get lots of headlines. Oh, but wait - the usual Liberal sleight of hand is at work - most of these tax cuts take place many, many years from now. Like the big personal income tax cuts come around 2010. 2010??? Jesus - they can spend like there is no tomorrow, but letting you keep some of your hard earned money??? Just be a little patient - the tax cuts will be here soon enough...well, five years from now, and we are hoping that you'll focus on the big shiny number we threw in front of you, vote for us and then forget about it...cause lord knows, if we are still around in 5 years we'll figure out how to get that money back from you...

Corporate tax cuts - well, those are back too! Just sit back for a few years and they'll be right there - 2008 or so...

Once again - I dearly hope that Canadians (particularly the sheeple in Ontario/ the GTA) do not fall for this kind of bullshit and vote Liberal.

But sadly, I am not holding my breath.

Playing Politics? Why I never...

2005-11-10T22:51:00.000-05:00

So - Martin keeps huffing and puffing that he will not "play politics", while at the same time playing politics every time he, or one of his sock puppet cronies, opens their mouths. Its really quite an amazing spectacle to watch. I honestly wonder why his head doesn't simply explode, what with having so many contradictory ideas flying through there - but maybe that is because there is so much empty space for those 'ideas' to roam in...

This time, word is that the Conservatives might rally the Opposition parties to block the Liberals from presenting their "Economic update" to the Finance committee on Monday. Monte Solberg, the Conservative Finance critic is leading this charge. Of course, the "update" is nothing more than a political theatre event where Santa Ralph Goodale can open up the big Liberal bag o'tricks and start throwing out the pre-election goodies - but, my goodness no, that isn't "playing politics". No sir! In Liberal land, this is just par for the course. So of course, PM is huffing and puffing his way up to the high ground - because lord knows he just wants to govern (we've all seen just how desperate he is to "govern" - or, well, at least have the appearance of governing).

Usually, taxing and spending matters are outlined in something called a "budget", but apparently any time there is an election in the offing and people need to be bought off with their own money - well, its time for an "update". Isn't it curious how the Liberals presented a budget many months ago which contained none of these measures (which they now feel are so very important)? And its only now that they are once again under pressure and desperate to distract attention away from the whole "Liberals are corrupt" thing that they want to pull out the usual Liberal pre-election goodie bag? Hmmm...

It would be much better if some honesty were injected into the proceedings and Ralphie just got in front of the committee and said that what he was presenting had absolutely nothing to do with governing the country, and instead was just a way for the Liberals to present their election platform. Something for everyone! Just step right up!

Let the vote buying begin...

But please, don't dare suggest that this is "playing politics"!

Oh, Thats rich...

2005-11-09T18:49:00.000-05:00

Paul Martin is apparently dead-set against "playing politics". Yes, you read that correctly - the man who feverishly politicked away, bribing opposition members with cabinet posts (and hints of cabinet posts to come), in order to preserve his feeble grip on power, is now above "playing politics". Of course, the next quote in the Globe article seems to contradict this lofty sentiment:

“It is very hard for me to understand why one would put in jeopardy the funding that we want to give to lower income families to protect them from the rising costs of fuel oil, it's hard for me to say that pensions for senior citizens should be put in jeopardy,” Mr. Martin said, responding to reporters' questions. "

Thats right...we are not playing politics here, but if those nasty opposition members go ahead and pull the rug out from under us, we just won't be able to go ahead with all our carefully planned out attempts to bribe you gullible voters with your own money. Thats right, those other scary parties want to piss all over the poor and old people we want to buy off before the next election. Heaven forfend that someone would dare "play politics"! Thats just unheard of!

I honestly wonder how Martin manages to keep a straight face when he is slinging this kind of crap...

Welcome to Canuckistan

2005-11-02T21:00:00.000-05:00

Did you notice that one of the "harshest" penalties handed down by Paul Martin upon the evildoers named in the Gomery report was to strip them, for all of eternity, of their membership in the Party. Oh my.

Is it just me, or is anyone else reminded of the old days in the good ol' decrepit Soviet Union where being stripped of your Party card was seen as the worst punishment the state could hand down - for without a Party card you were a leper - cut off from the higher echelons of society, shunned, unable to tap into the riches that Party membership opened up...

Perhaps its just me being jaded, but this "punishment" by Paul Martin seems to me to smack of the same mindset - you are now banished forever from the NGP (Natural Governing Party)!

Welcome to Canuckistan! One-party state in the making...

"Exonerated"

2005-11-02T18:55:00.000-05:00

Has the much anticipated Gomery report delivered the Martin Lieberals another election victory? As much as it pains me, I believe it just may have...with a single word - "exonerated". Yes, apparently Mr. Justice Gomery saw fit to "exonerate" Martin from responsibility for the sponsorship scandal. What this really says is that while he can't neccessarily be labelled as corrupt, he certainly could be called incompetent - for, as a senior cabinet member (from Quebec, no less) and as Finance Minister (and lets not forget his taking control over virtually all the Liberal riding associations during his Long March to the throne), his claims that he knew nothing, nothing! about the misapropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars, and the chicanary that went on with the Liberal party in Quebec ring quite false.

So - the Liberals can now blanket the country with advertising (kind of ironic, isn't it?) over the next several months (or whenever the next election rolls around) - extolling the virtuous Paul Martin who was "exonerated" by the very Gomery commission he bravely called to investigate government corruption...well, you get the picture. Never mind the fact that the Liberal party that Martin leads is no different than the Liberal party that committed these gross abuses of the Canadian taxpayer - the Libs will spill gallons (litres?) of ink telling people that, well, the Liberal party under that bad man Mr. Chretien was totally different from the "new" team - which voters in Ontario (read: Toronto) will lap up - despite the fact that, well, a whole lot of faces on "Team Martin" look quite similar to those from "Team Crook", er, Chretien...

I mean, just look at how Martin has ended the Democratic deficit, and put a stop to the politics of cronyism by stacking the senate with members of his former leadership team..

Anyway - as outlined below, the Harper gang has not done itself any favours by being a one-trick pony - all Liberal corruption all the time. Yes, Harper is perfectly justified to be angry about the rampant corruption outlined by the Gomery commission, and more broadly, by the Liberal culture of "entitlement" that has lead them to treat taxpayer dollars as their own slush fund - but they need to offer something positive as well. Its not enough to thunder about how corrupt the Liberals are, you need to give the voters a reason to vote FOR you...not just against the other guy. Otherwise, the next time out, we are bound to either see another Lib minority (which will lead to more unholy alliances with the Jack!'s Big Spenders) or *shudder* a Liberal Majority government - which will only cement the idea in Liberal Land that they are the Natural Governing party, and that no matter how bad they fuck things up, the sheeple will continue to vote them in...

Can the Conservatives turn things around?

2005-10-29T19:46:00.000-04:00

Frankly, I don't think so. Not with the current gaggle of idiots running the show. They have been stuck at about 26% in the polls for what seems to be an eternity, and it doesn't look like things are going to get better anytime soon.

From my previous postings I am sure that you can detect my intense dislike for the Liberals (in both their Provincial and Federal manifistations) - the Liberal party stands for nothing apart from keeping the Liberal party in power. They shamelessly "lead" by sticking up a finger to see which way the winds are blowing - and then proudly charge off to wherever public opinion seems to be pointing them - and damn the costs! They'll spend whatever they have to - out of yours and my pockets, mind you - to keep themselves enthroned. To them there is no problem that can't be solved through endless talk and a huge spending announcement. That nothing ever gets accomplished, and none of the problems they address are ever solved, should be clue number one that this approach is, perhaps, not all that it is cracked up to be - but I digress. Suffice it to say that the Liberal practise of lying with every word they utter, and their mastery of vote buying, both sickens and saddens me - and this mostly because of its continued success.

As much as I dislike (ok, loathe) the Liberals - I can't see the current incarnation of the Conservatives making a run and convincing the finicky Ontario electorate (and lets face it, this is where the next election will be won or lost) that they would make an effective government.

First - I, like many other Conservative supporters, have been waiting for Harper & the gang to get off the corruption issue (we know the Liberals are corrupt lying bastards - we don't really need to be reminded every five minutes - as a matter of fact, the Liberals seem pretty good at reminding us of this on a daily basis), and start to tell us how they will govern. You know, like announcing some actual policies - and not just any policies, but policies that actually differentiate them from the Libs - not just policies that are Lib-Lite. Too often, the Conservatives seem to be running away from their own name, content to announce how if the Liberals are spending X on an issue, why, we'll spend X+another gazillion, and we'll be able to do this because the Liberals are corrupt! This does not raise ones confidence that they will have either the strength or political will to attack the very serious issues facing Canada - all the issues that Martin & the Liberals think can be solved by just throwing buckets of cash around, and which require more thoughtful solutions.

Take health care for instance - surely an issue that requires more thought and creativity than just another spending announcement. Instead, what do we hear from Harper? That the spending deals with the provinves will be honoured, or even bettered. Instead of opening up the debate by talking honestly about options to introduce a greater mix of private delivery into the system (which, contrary to the rhetoric from Jack Layton & Paul Martin, Canadians actually support - anywhere from 30-50% according to many public opinion polls), we get luke-warm announcements that are so clearly designed to ensure that the Conservatives are not seen as "scary", that they have the opposite effect and play into the lefts constant claims about a frightening Conservative "hidden agenda".

Now, to be fair, the deck is stacked against them somewhat, given that any type of honest debate on any issue is nearly impossible in Canada. The daily spectacle of Question period is certainly no place to seriously debate any issue (the whole thing being nothing more than political theatre), and the "debates" during an election are certainly nothing of the sort - they are just a forum for the party leaders to shout at each other to see who can get the best sound bite.

Its clearly time to start talking about what a Conservative government would do - and more importantly what fresh thinking they will bring in their approach to governing - otherwise, I fear we will be faced with another round of Mr. Dithers playing hand puppet to Jack! & the dippers - and since their goal seems to be to spend Canada into oblivion, I am not comforted by this prospect. Start to lead - by opening up the debate, taking it into new directions (although, this has proven to be dangerous in the past - but given the lack of success of the current strategy, would taking a stab at honest debate be any worse??)

Anyway - as this ramble shows, I am not at all happy with the performance of the Conservatives, and come election time, if they keep this up, I am not expecting a breakthrough. They seen to be squandering the opportunity thats been presented to them by Paul "I want to be all things to all people" Martin, and I fear that unless they stop running scared they are going to run themselves right back to where they are now - in Opposition.

Good government or your money back!

2005-10-13T21:39:00.000-04:00

OK, so where is my cheque?

Dalton and the Fiberals are not resorting to gimmicks now, are they? Otherwise, how does one explain this rather bizarre headline in today's Star? The gist of it seems to be that the Fibs are promising refunds to the folks who apply for birth certificates and who wait in vain for more than 15 business days. Wow. How impressive. A service provider actually offering to deliver a service within a reasonable timeframe? Or it will face some sort of "consequences". Wow, what a novel idea - albeit one that the private sector has been using for, well, forever. And yet, this is hailed as a revolutionary idea? Is this how low our expectations for government have sunk? - especially since the snoozer of a Speech from the throne really had nothing else in it...

Anyway, I guess Dalton was a little gun-shy, what with all those broken promises they have littered over the landscape over the past couple of years.

I am breathlessly (well, ok, that may be going a tad overboard) awaiting the chance to vote these lying, over-taxing spendthrifts out of office (Oct 2007 is the time, isn't it). Now if only the John Tory conservatives would actually come up with some actual, you know, positions...then things would be a whole lot easier.

Gas Tax Blues

2005-10-07T18:58:00.000-04:00

And in case you missed it, verrrrrry quietly MP's expense allowance went up 10% this week - to compensate for rising fuel costs. At the same time, as the populace screams for some kind of relief from high gas prices, the government says that its just impossible for them to cut the gas tax - yep, even the 1.5 cent per litre "deficit reduction" tax (um, what deficit?). Nor apparently, can they do something about the GST on gas - the "tax on tax" portion. Cutting those taxes to relieve the burden is just impossible...impossible we say!

Oh, thats rich. Can you all say "double standard"? We can't let those poor politicians suffer under the burden of high gas prices, can we? But you, the general public - just stop whining! And don't look at us - its all because of those big, bad oil companies. Why, if we cut gas taxes by even 1 cent, they would just absorb it themselves, wouldn't they. Thats why we are not even going to try...

Vote Buying 2005

2005-10-07T18:52:00.000-04:00

The Liberals are at it again, more than willing to dump millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain in a blatant attempt to buy votes. This time, it appears to be a two pronged assault.

First we have the announcement that since the last home heating rebate program was such a boondoggle, well, we’ll just try again. The last time out they flushed $1.5 billion down the loo, so this time they have scaled things back a tad and will only wave bye-bye to $500 million of yours and my hard earned tax dollars. Oh, but not to worry! Since the Auditor General lambasted the previous program for cutting cheques to dead people, prisoners, and thousands of people who have their heating costs included in their rent, (since they used the list of recipients of the GST credit to concoct their target list) those crafty Liberals will this time out use the list of recipients of the Guaranteed Income supplement and the National Child Tax Credit (2004). Nothing could go wrong with that, right? I mean, its not like old people die or anything. How many could have passed away between April 2004 and whenever we start throwing the money out the windows? And poor people own their own homes too! Maybe not has much as the middle class, who incidentally pay the bulk of taxes (and for heat) and might actually need the rebate, but this definitely makes us look more compassionate. Yep, how can anyone come out against old and poor people?

If there is anything that illustrates the Liberals desire to buy the next election, I think we have exhibit 1 right here – a program that is designed to provide a good headline, some superficially good optics, but which will in actuality be a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, completely ineffectual, and completely mis-targeted. I can hardly wait to read the Auditor Generals examination of this.

Exhibit # 2 would be the recently announced “balanced” approach to unexpected surpluses. Here, the Libs are promising to divide up any ‘unexpected’ budgetary surpluses (over a $3 billion contingency fund) equally amongst debt relief (good), tax refunds (stupid) and new spending (even more stupid).

Again, here the Liberals are attempting to dress something that at best is gimmicky, and at worst as incredibly stupid, up as a “balanced” approach. Say we’ve been over-taxed by $9 billion (which is what a surplus is after all – over-taxation, based on what the government has said its needs are – you know, that Budget they put out every year) – so Paul & the gang would then pay off $2 billion of debt (nothing wrong with that – clearing up more of the debt monster is always a good thing), would cut $2 billion worth of cheques to the working stiffs who filed a tax return – say around $100 bucks each (whoopee! I can hardly contain my enthusiasm), and then, oh well, we can surely find something to spend the other $2 billion on – we’ve nothing particular in mind, but there is always some group out there that needs to be bought off, and an extra $2 bil would surely come in handy!

So – instead of doing something for the middle class like, say cutting taxes, they have come up with another gimmick that lets them portray themselves as helping the little guy, while at the same time keeping some lefty street cred by promising to still spend, spend, spend. Only in Lieberal land would this be considered “balanced”. I mean, just look at it – we are supposed to clap with glee that in this balanced approach they are going to return money to the taxpayer – personally, I would much prefer that they just let me keep more of my own money (you know – but not taking so goddamn much from each and every paycheque), rather than taking the money, washing it through the vast government mill, and then sending a few pennies my way. Just think – in order to return $1 back to Joe taxpayer, how much do they have to collect? $5? $10? That money then sluices itself through the government mill, sticking to the bureaucracy here or there, until finally, some government machine spits out a cheque for a buck to you….and you, through your taxes still end up paying the postage. Why not just cut taxes and leave more of the money in our pockets in the first place??

I am sane enough to realize that this will never happen – the Liberals are far to comfortable with taking and spending, and lowering the tax burden is far, far from their thoughts…so instead, we get a useless gimmick that makes it look like they are willing to give back to the people…

The real joke here is that, no matter what this legislation says, the chances of an “unexpected” surplus seeing the light of day are somewhere between slim and none. Any surplus money will be spent loooong before this legislation will be designed to kick in…especially if Captain Jack & the Dippers maintain their “support” for a minority Lib government.

Welcome one and all to vote buying 2005.

I don’t know about you, but I’m still not sold…

Th-th-thats all folks (G'bye Porky Pig?)

2005-10-06T20:49:00.000-04:00

So, things have officially gotten ridiculous - a town council in Britain has actually banned workers from having any pig related items in the workplace (including such dangerous items as Piglet coffee mugs, Hog-wild 2006 calendars, or even a box of tissues) - all because a muslim worker in the office complained. Its claimed that actions like this display "tolerance", but is this really tolerance?? Isn't this bending over backwards to accomodate the whiney fringe? Just how far can this go? Today its Piglet...tomorrow? There have already been rumblings that muslims find the British flag offensive (never miss an opportunity to drag the crusades into the conversation - its like it happened just yesterday). The way things are going, will it just be another expression of our collective "tolerance" to ditch the good ol' Union Jack and replace it? How about just replace it with a nice plain white flag?

I mean this is getting just a little bit silly. Have we seen the last of Porky Pig cartoons - lest some wandering Muslim eye be forever scarred by the image of an unclean cartoon pig cavorting across his television screen? Shouldn't tolerance work both ways?

As Mark Steyn writes in his latest column:

"Is it really a victory for "tolerance" to say that a council worker cannot have a Piglet coffee mug on her desk? And isn't an ability to turn a blind eye to animated piglets the very least the West is entitled to expect from its Muslim citizens? If Islam cannot "co-exist" even with Pooh or the abstract swirl on a Burger King ice-cream, how likely is it that it can co-exist with the more basic principles of a pluralist society?"

Liberal "Values"...

2005-10-05T17:26:00.000-04:00

If one were ever looking for evidence of what the Liberal's true "values" are, one need look no further than the current controversy over David Dingwall's impending golden parachute.

Yes, Dingwall is resigning under a cloud, due to his unjustifiable $750,000 in expenses for 2004 - including a $1.07 for a pack of freaking gum - which speaks to the sense of entitlement these folks feel), and is also under investigation over his shady lobbying deals (which netted him a cool $350,000 grand, even though, contrary to the LAW, he was not a registered lobbyist - but what the heck, thats just one of those pesky technicalities one should be able to ignore at will) - but is it these infractions which get the Liberals hot and bothered? Is it some great stand on principle, that it is time to put an end to these corrupt practises and bring some kind of ethical standards back to Canadian government? Nope - as usual, its pure, blatant self interest:

"The Liberal government's hint of an impending severance payment to David Dingwall has infuriated the party's own MPs who warn it could result in a voter backlash." (from Canoe )

So, it looks like the Libs, as usual, are only concerned with appearances - about how this will play come election time. Actual steps to clean up government seem beyond them, so:

""It destroys our credibility as wanting to clean up (government)," said Sarmite Bulte, the Liberals' Ontario caucus chair."

Well, perhaps if you had made any actual effort to clean up government, rather than slaying the politics of cronyism by appointing every one of Paul Martin's cronies to the Senate (or whatever other plumb patronage appointment is available) than maybe you would have some credibility.

You can't really destroy something that never existed in the first place.

CBC lockout ends! um, there was a lockout? CBC?

2005-10-04T18:14:00.000-04:00

Thats about the extent of my feelings...actually, more like "there's a CBC"? I was about as completely unaffected by this lockout as possible. I can't think of a single thing I watch on the CBC, and quite frankly I am getting pretty sick of the weeping and wailing from some quarters about how the CBC is "the thread that binds us together" or "Canadians telling our stories to each other"...nonsense...the CBC is a TV network - nothing more. And I do not think that endless reruns of Coronation Street, left-wing biased newscasts, and Hockey Night in Canada are the glue binds the country together. Which could lead me into a whole other rant about how I am sick to death about people puffing themselves up and spouting off about Canadian "values" (chiefly an appreciation for Free Healthcare, apparently), and how if I am not really Canadian because I choose to view things differently (we profess to respect "diversity" also, except any diversity in thought)....whoa...anyway...maybe I'll put up a post in future to cover all this...

Getting back to the big yawn the CBC lockout was, the question is - in todays multi-channel universe, do we need a state broadcaster, endlessly sucking on the public teet and puffing themselves up with their own over-inflated sense of self importance? Or, since 9/10 Canadians were completely unaffected by the CBC lockout, can we safely say Sayonara and put that money into something productive?

The silly season begins

2005-09-28T18:03:00.000-04:00

The latest session of parliament has begun with a new plea from Paul Martin that our parliamentarians conduct themselves with a higher level of civility, so as not to have this session degenerate into the farce the last one turned into. This would be fine if his plea was aimed at the members of his own caucus as much as it is at the opposition, since it is usually some loose lipped Liberal making allusions to the Klansmen from the opposition, or fictional cross burnings - right before they plead with the opposition to "please, stop the name calling!"

I have a stopwatch on how long this new era of "civility" will last - just wait until the Liberals get caught up in some sort of scandal, or even engaged in some meaningful debate, before they take out the brush and start tarring, because you know its much easier for them to attack the messenger than the message - why an actual debate would require some actual thought, and an exchange of ideas...its always proven much easier for the Libs to plant their flag on the high ground and start blasting away...

And I guess as long as we keep electing them, this is the best we can expect

Insurgents gun down 5 Shiite teachers at school

2005-09-26T18:24:00.000-04:00

Yes, those brave "insurgents" are at it again, gallantly fighting to free Iraq by, um, killing schoolteachers? Oh yeah, thats the way to show that your all about re-building Iraqi society. Once again, its stuff like this that makes me believe that the gaggle of idiots over here marching on the US consulate demanding an "end to the war" need to pull their heads out of their asses and take a look at who is actually killing all the Iraqi's now - and who are now actually putting up the greatest obstacles to rebuilding the country.

I'll give you a hint - its not the "evil" United States.

Of course to some, it doesn't matter who is pulling the trigger or driving the suicide bus, its still the evil US that takes the blame for every dead body over there.

Do these people, with their nice homemade signs and wonderfully original and thought provoking chants ("no blood for oil!"), honestly believe that if the US pulled every soldier out of the country that the "insurgents" would just drop their weapons, give each other high fives and start looking for jobs? Hardly. The country would become an even worse bloodbath than it is now.

These fools need to stop living in the 60's - thinking that they are fighting the good fight to put an end to the war in Viet Nam. Uh, folks? Iraq is not Viet Nam, y'know. And incidentally, they should look at what happened to Viet Nam post US pull-out and talk to some of the survivors of the communiest re-education camps to get their opinion on how all that went... I'm sure those folks did not cheer the fact that the evil US was gone - especially the ones who were summarily shot.
If the "insurgents" (and to set the record straight, they really should be referred to sub-human-muderingterroristscumbags) have graduated to murdering school-teachers in braod daylight than what do think is going to happen if the US pulls out and leaves "security" entirely up to the under-equipped and under-trained Iraqi forces? Do ya think that the terrorist scum bags might take that as a signal that their efforts have been rewarded - and hey, if somethings working, why stop?
I would say that at that point, every charred Iraqi corpse could be laid at the feet of the "anti-war" movement.

Now - lest you think I have my head stuck in the sand here, I do believe that the US made a collossal mistake in invading Iraq (they've really stepped in a pile of shit there)...and I'm no cheer leader for George W. (I do believe he has the whiff of the religious zealot about him, and uses that to guide his judgement a wee bit too much for comfort).
Ultimately, its also just that I believe that the "anti-war" crowd are a couple of years too late. If these protests didn't work before the invasion, what makes them think its going to work now?

Goodbye Gaza - a game of give and take...

2005-09-21T17:28:00.000-04:00

Read this in a recent article about Al-Qaida infiltrating the Gaza strip

"Palestinians said any decision to move Gaza settlers to Maskiyot would ruin the positive atmosphere created by the Gaza withdrawal. "It seems that the Israelis give with one hand and take away with the other," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Celebrations at the evacuated West Bank settlements continued Wednesday. Dozens of gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group with ties to Abbas' Fatah movement, fired in the air.

"This is our victory ... the victory of your weapons," Zakariye Zubeydi, a leader of the gunmen, told several hundred supporters. "We will continue to expel them (Israelis) from every centimeter of Palestine." "

So - let me get this straight – the Palestinians are upset because the Israeli’s aren’t completely living up to their obligations under the “road map”, and yet, to listen to the rhetoric coming from their side, they have no intention of even glancing at the map as they career happily down the road in their suicide car bombs. The line about expelling “them” from every centimeter of Palestine certainly doesn’t sound like words of encouragement for those deluded souls who actually believe that a “two state” solution is possible. Rather, it sounds like the Islamoid death-cult is taking the Israeli pull out from Gaza as a grand victory, and even more as encouragement to continue and expand their efforts to blow Israel from the map piece by piece and body by body.

But of course, rather than seeing any criticism of this, what we’ll probably see is more wailing that the Israeli security wall is illegal, a violation of human rights, a violation of international & humanitarian law, and the worst thing ever in the history of the world. Seems that if anything is going to change, then the world has to stop giving a free pass to the Palestinians on issues like this – no more of this attitude like “oh, listen to those quaint oppressed Palestinians talking about blowing up all the jews….oh the poor souls...so cruelly oppressed – what do you expect?”…well, I’d expect that the rest of the civilized world needs to raise the bar for the Palestinians a wee bit higher – as in, get your shit together, stop preaching & teaching virulent hatred as if there was nothing more important in all the world than hating & killing jews, and start focusing your energies on building a functioning society – in other words, stop looking back like 50 years of Israeli history is going to disappear and you are going to return to the homes 99% of you have never seen, and get on with building a functioning state – OR we close the taps and all your Western aid funding dries up…

Now I understand its really easy for someone sitting comfy here in the Great white north to pontificate about this, but really, is there any other way? Coddling these people, accepting their every whine as Truth (Arafat and his gangs were masters at manipulating world public opinion) has ultimately been the worse thing for the Palestinians. Rather than forcing them to accept the hard truths, we’ve merely given them the encouragement to indulge in this collective 50 year old fantasy that if they cry hard enough, if they blow up enough stuff , then “turn back the clock” day is right around the corner and they will be able to scratch out Israel from their maps and pencil in “Palestine”.

People in glass houses...

2005-09-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

I could not help but be struck by the supreme irony of our beloved PM standing up at the UN this past week and lecturing the rest of the world on the futility of "lofty rhetoric" being unmatched by concrete actions. This from the man who has promised to "Fix health care for a generation" (or, well, to throw a big pile of cash at it and hope that no one really notices the complete absence of anything resembling an actual "fix" or reform), and to "end the politics of cronyism (er, maybe after he appoints all of his leadership team to the senate? But these are all highly qualified people! They just happen to also be prominent Liberals who just happened to have been working on his unending leadership campaign for the last 10 years - they can't really be classified as "cronies" can they?

Yeah, Martin is the one to stand up and lecture all those other bad world leaders.

Perhaps the video they showed on the news of Martin practising his speech (showing how polite Canadians are by doing this while another speaker was adressing the assembly) was actually him honing his ability to keep a straight face while he read off those lines...

Let all play the blame game...

2005-09-06T07:49:00.000-04:00

Check this out for a comprehensive listing of who is to blame for the unfolding disaster in New Orleans...

Extreme weather events have always been with us and they will always be with us in future. We cannot do very much about them...

2005-08-31T07:58:00.000-04:00

And for all those hysterical folks who like to shout that the "sky is falling" everytime there is a thunderstorm (we did have those before all this "global warming" hysteria, you know) there is this piece in the Star (of all places!) that does a good job of debunking some of the weather/climate hysteria the media is obsessed with.

It seems that every time there is a storm (or flood, or fire, or whatever) the news people can't wait to start yammering on about the "extreme" weather we are having and how it is getting worse all the time, and scientician X says its all because of scary global warming, and its only gonna get worse, so BE AFRAID!...What they don't ever do is actually go back and, you know, look at the facts...instead of relying some "climatologist" and their computer models (um, models don't actually "prove" anything, especially when modelling something as complex and variable as the earth's climate & weather patterns).

The simple fact is that "extreme" weather has always been wih us, and always will...

"No longer will the key to Ottawa be who do you know. We are going to condemn to history the practice and the politics of cronyism."

2005-08-30T07:58:00.000-04:00

That was from a speech given by our Prime Minister in 2004. And how does Paul Martin show us that he has indeed vanquished the scourge of cronyism from the Canadian political scene? Well, with those brave words still ringing in our ears, he promptly appoints to the senate, well, more of his political cronies.

If I look in the dictionary for the word “hypocrite” is it true I will see a picture of Paul Martin? Or would that picture be beside rottenlyingshitswallowingbastard?

I mean, come on. Is appointing to the senate people who worked on your leadership campaign really the way to signal to the Canadian public that you have “condemned to history the practice and politics of cronyism”? Does Paulie not realize that words and actions are, indeed, connected, and that when he makes pious sounding promises like this that his actions when in office should actually reflect these ideals?

Another thing that PM & company have blathered about is reducing the level of cynicism in the Canadian electorate - what with every election producing a lower voter turnout than the last - especially among the younger crowd. Well, do you think that actions like this might have something to do with it?? Can you blame people for being cynical and thinking that politicians are nothing more than bloated windbags whose every breath is used to utter the lies they think the public wants to hear in order to get elected – especially when their actions once in office are so blatantly at odds with those lies?

At this point, if I got a call from Paul Martin telling me that it was all blue skies today, I’d be packing my umbrella.

Goodbye Gaza

2005-08-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

The big news over the last couple of weeks has been the Israeli pullout from Gaza. Personally, I can’t see why on earth they would have wanted to be there in the first place – 9000 Jews surrounded by an implacably hostile 1.3 million Palestinians. I’ve heard/read quotes from settlers decrying the pull out, since the land is “theirs” through some ‘biblical’ right – which just goes to show that the Islamoid death cult that has grown up in the Palestinian territories is not alone in rearing religious zealots.

Leaving aside the ongoing debate over whether the Israeli’s were right to be there or not, it will certainly be interesting to see what the Palestinians do now that they have been given control. Will they actually work to build a functional society (which would require them to stop preaching hatred and focusing on jew-bashing and incitement to martyrdom in their schools), or will Gaza essentially become one big terrorist staging area? It would be nice to see the former, but I have the uneasy feeling that the latter is more likely – especially given some of the rhetoric already coming out of Gaza: this is a victory, terrorism works (or words to that effect)…doesn’t sound to me like the words of people intent on getting on with the tough job of (re) building a functional society…

For example, from The Globe today (in a story about Hamas claiming 54% of the terrorist attacks in Gaza:

“Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the figures “are a document of Hamas' struggle and Hamas' role in liberating this precious part of the homeland.”
“They show that “resistance is the Palestinians' strategy of choice,” Mr. Abu Zuhri said.
“It made this victory possible, and this victory can be repeated,” he said, referring to Israel's Gaza withdrawal.”

The “this victory can be repeated” sounds pretty ominous, doesn’t it? Doesn’t quite like they are looking at this as an opportunity to build – more like, flush with a sense of victory, they are looking to keep blowing stuff up (and people) – and when will that stop?

PM's trip aimed at soothing West

2005-08-21T22:57:00.000-04:00

Oh, now there is a laughable headline...followed by a laughable article in the Star that details how PM & the gang are going to tackle the issue of Western alienation by - wait for it - holding some meetings out west. Wow. That'll just about do it, won't it? Those pesky westerners will hardly be able to resist the charms of the Liberals if PM & the gang are so willing to grace them with their august presence, right?

Yep - thats the way to put and end to that growing sense of alienation and disengagement...why bother listening to the ideas coming out of the west, or getting to know how this sector of the Canadian populace thinks? Just cloister yourself in a hotel with the Liberal caucus, pose for a few photo ops at some nice spots, and emerge from the conference room every now and then to throw out an announcement or two - and remember, those Western folk like things big, so make sure every announcemnent has a nice big price tag attached to it - yeah, that'll impress them!

Goodale told CTV's Question Period on Sunday the caucus and cabinet sessions are "a real, tangible demonstration that we are in touch, and we do get it, and we want to be a close ally of Western Canada."

In fact, I would argue the opposite, that holding a couple of meetings in cities west of Ontario does not show that you are "in touch" or that you "get it" - it just shows how out of touch you really are - that you expect people to be so star struck by the fact that the PM & his cronies (er, or the Liberal Cabinet as they like to be called) have bothered to show their faces west of the Ontario Manitoba border, that all the demonizing of the West, all the redneck cracks, all the "intolerant bigot" comments will just be forgotten? You expect people to forget the fact that the West is pretty much ignored 90% of the time (except at election time, when they make a half hearted effort to win a seat or two)? I mean, really - an asteroid could hit Edmonton, and the Liberals might, just might, make a trip out to inspect the damage - but only so long as none of the fallout happened to fall on blessed Quebec - because heaven forfend if any Quebecer was inconvenienced by this disaster! Why, that might aid the separatists! All hands on deck!

And yeah, they may be playing nicey nicey now, but just wait till the election rolls around - then watch how long it will take for their understanding of "Western alienation" to go out the window...and then we'll all start to here the same old themes about the scary "conservatives" (you know, that vast westernrightwingintolerantbigotredneck party)...then we'll see just how much the Liberals "get it"...

The new GG

2005-08-20T19:55:00.000-04:00

To be honest, I haven't given the new Governor General nominee much thought, apart from thinking 'oh well, here's another cynical political appointment made by Paul Martin, that has nothing to do with appointing someone genuinely qualified, but someone who has been picked to give the Liberals some kind of politcal advantage, and who can give the Liberals a crutch to stand on in Quebec...'....um, well, I guess maybe I did give it a little thought...

Anyway, Madam Jean appears to have been picked for no other reason than that comes from Quebec and fits into the Liberal's utopian vision of the "new" Canada - look! she speaks 5 languages! She's a Haitan immigrant! She's a CBC broadcaster (virtually unknown outside of Quebec)! She may or may not have had seperatist leanings in the past...oops, better keep a lid on that one, eh?

None of this, of course, makes her remotely qualified to be the Queen's representative in Canada, but I guess that does not matter. Other countries fill the position of head of state with persons of accomplishment, people with a broad awareness of the nations history (and constitution). But Canada? Looks like if you work for the CBC, your all set - Rideau Hall awaits!

As usual Andrew Coyne has the best write up on the issue...

Three Car Bomb Attacks Kill 43 in Baghdad

2005-08-17T07:30:00.000-04:00

"Three car bombs exploded near a bus station and hospital in Baghdad Wednesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding 89 in the deadliest attacks in the capital in weeks, police said. Survivors searched charred buses and cars for signs of relatives."

I'm waiting to hear the howls of outrage from the angry young muslim crowd (and their gushing sympathizers - see the post below - on the Left). but, oh, wait - its not Americans or Brits who did the bombing & killings here, so I guess it doesn't angry up the blood in the same way...

Its all our fault (blaming the war in Iraq part II)

2005-08-16T17:31:00.000-04:00

That seems to be the message in Naomi Klein’s latest piece over at the Guardian. Its always impressive that someone who has enjoyed the benefits of Western civilization can loathe it so much.

Anyway – Ms. Klein seems to be twisting herself into knots here to show that at the root of all that nasty anti-western terrorism we face is of course, our racism. To prove this point, she pulls together several different strands and attempts to tie them together to show that terrorists in London are blowing stuff up because of our extreme racism. Hmmm…interesting….

And just how does she tie all this up? Well, to start, she takes a reported statement by one of the failed bombers from July 21 – that he and his buddies prepared for their little outing by watching films on the war in Iraq – of women and children being “exterminated” by Americans and British. Of course she takes this at face value. Me, I am a little skeptical of these types of sentiments – as I’ve posted previously, it’s the Islamist nutters (ne ‘insurgents’) who are killing the bulk of women and children right now (you know, the brave souls who drive a car bomb into a crowd of children, who kidnap diplomats and workers, who blow up schools & mosques). So why would these lads feel the need to strike out at commuters in London? I realize that American and British hands are not clean here, that there are of course still civilians being killed, but the daily horrors, the daily bombings, kidnappings, beheadings, etc – these are acts being carried out by co-religionists in the name of their religion…so to me, all this “we are striking out at the west because of the suffering in Iraq” always sounds like nonsense spouted by people who are looking for the easy justification for their own violent actions (and its also the line that the lefties among us are so keen to hear and applaud).

And not to get off on a tangent, but where was all this righteous anger when Sadaam was filling mass graves all over the country like he was planting flower gardens? Why weren’t assholes like the London bombers strapping dynamite to their chests and blowing Saddam and his supporters up to stop the slaughter of the innocents? And for that matter, why aren’t they right now marching into Syria to stop the torture? Why aren’t they righteously demanding that the insurgent stop targeting ordinary Iraqi’s? Right – because its much easier to blame the West (since we are evil and jam packed with infidels to boot!).

Back to Naomi for a moment – she also brings up Sayyid Qutb – an Egyptian writer who is seen as the intellectual (if you can call it that) “architect of radical political Islam”. Apparently the puritanical Qutb had his delicate sensibilities disturbed while studying in the US in 1948. Apparently Quttb was shocked by both the licentious women and America’s fanatical racial discrimination.

To back this claim, she states:

” By coincidence, Qutb arrived in the United States in 1948, the year of the creation of the state of Israel. He witnessed an America blind to the thousands of Palestinians being made permanent refugees by the Zionist project.”

This bit about Palestinians being made ‘permanent refugees’ disturbs me. Is she suggesting that in 1948 people knew that the Palestinians were going to be held up as cynical pawns in the Arab world’s ongoing war against Israel for the next 60 years? Is she suggesting that the Americans somehow knew that the Palestinians were being made into permanent refuges by their own Arab brethren who will not allow them to settle in any other Arab country and become citizens because it plays much better to world sympathies to be able to hold up the poor Palestinian refugees as evidence of the evil of the state of Israel? No, she couldn’t be suggesting that, could she? Nonsense. The only reason the Palestinians are “permanent refugees” is because the Arab world has wanted them that way.

I always find it annoying that the Palestinians are held up to be the people who have suffered the most in human history. Yes, about 7-800,000 were made refugees when the state of Israel was declared. And lets not forget that the bulk of them were encouraged to leave by their Arab neighbours, with the promise that they would return as soon as Israel was wiped off the map by their invading armies. Oops. Little miscalculation there.

Also lets not forget that at the same time 7-800,000 jews were evicted from the neighbouring Arab states. Don’t here too much about those refugees, do you? Oh right, that’s because they settled in Israel and got on with life rather than focusing their energies on creating a death cult built upon a never ending cycle of grievances and paranoid fantasy.

Do you hear much from the millions (that’s millions of actual refugees, not millions of descendents of the original thousands) of German refugees from WWII? Should the millions of Germans evicted from the east stand up now and claim their right of return – should they march back to Konigsburg (now Kaliningrad) and the other former territories of East Prussia? Should they kindly ask Poland to move a few hundred kilometers to the East? No, because rather than spend 60 years wallowing in the past, the people affected have MOVED ON.

A little bit of a tangent there, but that kind of historical blindness always tends to tick me off.
__
Anyway, Klein’s other main point is that we are racist because we have the belief that American and European lives are worth more than the lives of Arabs and Muslims. Well, perhaps that’s because we value life more – if the arabs and muslims who celebrate suicide bombers as heroes and perpetuate a bizarre death cult mentality don’t value their lives, how are we supposed to?

Fixed for a generation?

2005-08-15T17:21:00.000-04:00

Saw an article in the Post this morning which captures the state of Canadian health care in a nutshell – confusion reigns! Apparently there was a poll (surprise, surprise, in the land of government by public opinion poll) which showed that there is some level of confusion regarding the perception of the Canadian health care system versus the reality. Apparently, since the politicians keep telling us that we have the bestest health care system ™ in the world, and that the solution to all that ails us is to throw more public money in, we, well, believe them.
The reality is slightly different. Seems that when polled, Canadians consistently rated our healthcare system far above its actual world ranking for a number of measurable outcomes or characteristics. We actually ranked quite poorly in some of these areas, yet the perception reflected in the poll was that we were doing quite well when stacked up against the rest of the developed world.
If anything, this poll (and the reality) shows that what we need in this country is more open and honest debate about health care, and less useless rhetoric. Politicians always reach for the lowest common denominator in any type of health care debate, wrapping themselves in the flag and solemnly vowing to protect us from the scourge of two tier medicine. I, for one, would like to hear less of this and more real discussion – discussion and debate that includes all the options available to alleviate the crisis conditions in the system, not just more stale rhetoric about throwing another $20 or 30 or 40 billion into the hole and calling that a fix. And yes, that open and honest debate has to include exploration of private care and how it can be utilized to relieve pressure on the public system and provide a much needed injection of cash (forgotten, it seems, in all the rhetoric, is the fact that publicly funded private delivery is one of the cornerstones of our system – since every doctor is not a government employee, and who do you think pays to set up their offices & clinics??? Um, that’s right, they do…).
The sooner the politicos realize that all their rhetorical flourishes and windy speechifying about “public” health care do more harm than good, the sooner we can start putting the health care system in Canada back on its feet – and who knows, if we inject some intelligent discussion and debate, and then act rationally on it, reality may just catch up with our perceptions.
Wouldn’t that be something?

Play ball!

2005-08-10T17:57:00.000-04:00

Well, since there is not much happening on the Canadian political scene I’ll have to start shifting gears more if I want to actually continue to update this blog…

So – how about those Blue Jays? After last year’s disastrous campaign I had very low expectations for the Jays, especially after Carlos Delgado, their best hitter, took his big bat down to Florida. With no big name (or big bat) to replace him in the middle of the order, it looked like the Jay’s offense would take a big nose-dive, and winning any more than the 67 games they chalked up in 2004 was going to be a challenge.

Needless to say, this scrappy version of the Blue Jays in 2005 has impressed me. They manage to keep bouncing back, and they have shown some real grit when playing the top teams in the league. If they had managed to show that same grit when playing some of the league’s lesser lights (Tampa Bay Devil Rays, anyone?), then they would perhaps be looking down on the rest of the division from a playoff perch even as we speak. But that’s baseball (and sports in general) for ya – if everything happened the way it was “supposed” to happen, there would not be much point in playing the season out would there?

Anyway – if I had to give them a rating, I’d have to give the 2005 Blue Jays a solid B+ to this point in the season. They’ve been competitive in most games, and above all, entertaining. If they had had some reliable starting pitching (apart from Halladay & Chacin)…well, wouldn’t that be nice?

Some of the hi-lights:

Reed Johnson – should get more playing time. Period.

Aaron Hill – the kid came up to fill in for the injured Cory Koskie and proceeded to tear up the league – he has dropped off some recently, but he’s put up better numbers than Mr. Koskie in fewer at bats (especially RBIs)

Russ Adams – has gone on a tear since being slotted into the lead-off spot. Still a little shaky on defence (he’s closing in on 20 errors), but he’s having a solid rookie campaign.

Vernon Wells – back in the dark days of May it looked like Vernon had taken a huge step backwards, but he really turned things around…

Shea Hillenbrand – good pick up by JP. Came out of the gate on fire, and has since come down a little, but he’s been fairly consistent all season – and versatile – playing 1st, 3rd and dh’ing.

The bullpen – can’t say enough about this group – they’ve kept the Jays afloat in many games. Given the Jay’s thin starting pitching, and you can see where this has been no easy task on some nights.

Room for improvement:

Eric Hinske – the former rookie of the year needs to step up his game. Flashes of power seem to be followed by weeks of feeble groundouts and hitting nothing but air. Can’t argue with Gibbon’s decisions to have Hinske riding pine in favour of guys like Hill & Hillenbrand…

Alex Rios – 7 home runs to date is a start…but for a corner outfielder you expect a little more pop (and the ability to drive in a few runs…49 RBI to date just doesn’t cut it)…now, he’s still young, but he is going to have to step it up a bit for the rest of the year (and next)…

Frank Menechino – the super sub – he has come through with some big hits, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how he gets into some games – apart from the fact that he bats right-handed. I can’t help but shake my head when I see his name in the lineup at DH for some games.

Starting pitching – apart from Halladay (when healthy) and Chacin – its been a pretty mixed bag. Some of the kids have come through all right, but they have also put lots of pressure on the bullpen (lucky for them, the guys in the ‘pen have risen to the challenge).

Cory Koskie – the big free agent signing – he’s always been injury prone, and whadayaknow? This season has proven no different. Even before going on the DL he was not exactly tearing up the league, and since he’s been back, he has been unable to get into a groove. Lets hope he can turn things around.

So – with a little under a third of the season remaining the Blue Jays have been a pleasant surprise. Lets hope they can keep it up…

Back to the beginning...

2005-08-07T20:49:00.000-04:00

So, they decided to hit the reset button and go back to the very beginning with the latest Batman movie. This is not a bad thing, considering how bad things had gotten with Joel Schumacher's campy, neon lit, nipples on the batsuit and massive cod-pieces version. So going back to the beginning, with a darker vision, was probably the best way to go, to reset things and get back to the Dark Knight type of Batman.

The question, of course, is 'does it work?' And I would have to say....sort of. Batman Begins was really a mixxed bag for me. This re-telling of the origin of Batman provides a decent examination of the psychology behind a man dressing up as a bat and chasing criminals around Gotham, and also does a credible job showing how developed his incredible skills - training with the ninjas on some remote far-Eastern mountain top. I'd always kind of wondered where Batman became such a skilled warrior - what with his ability to take on numerous well-armed adversaries without taking so much as a scratch - and this film does a good job of showing exactly how this came to be.

Its when Batman comes back to Gotham and starts excercising these incredible skills where the film falls down. Its all well and good to see the tortured soul of Bruce Wayne, but its also nice (especially in a comic book movie) to see some decent action. Too bad the action scenes in this film are about the worst you can imagine. Director Christopher Nolan has chosen to have all of them done in close-ups that make it impossible to tell what is actually happening - something that I personally find to be kind of annoying. Not that I want to see blood and gore, or expect Batman to suddenly become Neo and start kicking Agent Smith ass all over the screen, but in any film I, as the viewer, do appreciate being able to actually see what is happening. Isn't this what going to the movies is about? And when you have to wade through so much dark, brooding Bruce Wayne bullshit only to have the Batman kicking ass scenes reduced to a jerky camera and some sound effects...well, thats less than satisfying, isn't it?

So - overall, we have a dark film that gets the viewer into the psychology behind Bruce Wayne's donning of the cape and cowl, but which fails to deliver with the action that a comic book movie needs -and lets not forget that despite all the darkness and psychology this is still a 'comic book' movie. A little humour to lighten the tone a tad might also be in order. All that being said, I did think the movie was ok - not that I would rush out to see it again or anything, but it shows some promise, and was an intersesting take on a familiar story.

Overall - I'd give this a 6.5/10....there is plenty of room for improvement in the inevitable sequel...

The war in Iraq made me do it!

2005-08-02T18:44:00.000-04:00

So, the easy way out now seems to be to blame everything on the “war in Iraq”. Plant a bomb on the London Subway? Why, you did it to protest the war in Iraq! Never meant to actually “kill” anyone, just to scare people, and you know, planting bombs is an accepted form of protest nowadays, don’t ya know. Um, and packing these ‘non-lethal’ bombs with nails and nuts & bolts, well, that certainly enhances the non-lethal protest, doesn’t it?

Frankly, I am getting a little tired of hearing this. The “war in Iraq” is being used by the Left as some kind of justification for Muslim anger (especially amongst those poor disaffected Muslim youth in the West), and the crutch everyone reaches for when discussing the “root causes” of terrorism. Frankly I am not buying this. Its very easy to say that you are motivated by the “war in Iraq”, but what does that really mean? Does it mean that you are angered by the ongoing slaughter of innocent Iraqis? Well, in that case, why direct your protest bombing at commuters in London?

Lets look at the actual facts – yes, Iraqi’s are being bombed and killed daily – by the brave Islamic insurgents who are bent on…well, what do they want? To kill Americans, to be sure. To blow things up, certainly, since this is the only talent they seem to display. But to build anything apart from bombs? Doesn’t look like it. So – Islamic militants are slaughtering Iraqis daily (driving cars packed with explosives into crowds of children, hiding in Mosques & schools, blowing up police and army recruits, killing workers, diplomats – well, killing all the people who are eager to get on with life and rebuild Iraqi society) - and the reaction of ‘angry’ muslim youth in the West?– plant bombs on the London subway. To me this does not compute.

Why aren’t these angry young men out protesting the indiscriminate slaughter of Iraqi civilians by “insurgents”? Why aren’t they demanding that the insurgents get out of the country so that the re-building process can truly get under way (I am sure that if you asked ordinary Iraqis they would prefer to have the insurgents stop blowing them up and to leave their air conditioning alone)? Where was all this righteous anger when Sadaam was feeding thousands of Iraqis into mass graves? Oh, but I guess mass slaughter by fellow Muslims is ok – because rather than condemn them, its much easier just to blame the good ol’ US of A.

As I stated in a previous post – its too late to put the genie back in the bottle – the Americans (& Brits) invaded – and as stupid as that decision was, no amount of anti-war protest is going to suddenly un-make it. And I truly believe that the collective buy-in to this whole “its because of the war in Iraq” excuse making is just the latest dodge for people who are keen to blame the US for, well, just about everything.

Meanwhile, at the movies...

2005-07-27T17:55:00.000-04:00

After a bit of a break, I finally got out to see a couple of movies over the last week.

First up: “Wedding Crashers” was hilarious. I had zero expectations for this (well, actually I thought everything funny was probably in the commercials, and the movie would be pretty lame), so I was pleasantly surprised. Very funny movie. Vince Vaughn plays, well, Vince Vaughn, but at least he does it convincingly, and I don’t think anyone is better at that smarmy rapid fire delivery he specializes in. Owen Wilson plays, well, Owen Wilson – but again, at least he does it effectively. May actually see this one again…

“The Island”. A Michael Bay film – need I say more? Creepy sci-fi movie for oh, a half hour or so, followed by two hours of car chases, car crashes, explosions (which apparently blew gaping holes in the plot), and Bay’s usual assortment of rock-video slo-mo sweeping, swirling camera shots. Honestly – I had put Bay’s previous work “Armageddon” as one of the worst movies in history…but I have to say, Mikey just about topped himself with this effort.

And just to note – I didn’t actually “choose” to see this film. I had sworn never to pay a dime to see a Michael Bay movie - it just so happened that ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was sold out, and my girlfriend’s friend sort of panicked and got tickets to the next available flick that noone had seen – which happened to be “the Island”. Luckily it was a cheap matinee - $4.25 – but I still felt ripped off!

Parrish the thought...

2005-07-26T22:39:00.000-04:00

So, it appears that Carolyn Parrish, about to welcomed back to the Liberal fold after a stint in the hinterlands as an Independent, just can’t keep her mouth shut. You may recall that she was exiled from Paul Martin’s caucus for crossing the line once to often in making disparaging remarks about Americans (in general) and George W (in particular)…well, actually it was probably for making nasty comments about PM’s circle of sycophants who tirelessly toiled to get their man the top job over the last, oh, ten years or so. But time heals all wounds, and the buzz is that she is about to become a proud Liberal again (since Paul still needs her vote to maintain his precious Minority).

Anyway…Ms. Parrish has never met a microphone she could resist, and so we were recently treated to her latest screed. And who was the target this time? None other than Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier. And what was Hillier’s crime? Why he dared to call the murderous scumbags Canadian troops will be hunting in Afghanistan, well, er, “murderous scumbags”. Perhaps he should have found some politically correct way to say this, but I thought his wording was pretty accurate. What else do you call people whose ideology is heavily tilted to the “kill the infidels and anyone remotely associated with them” side? Guess who the “infidels” are Carolyn? That’s right – you and me!

Parrish also had issue with the General’s comment that Canadian soldier’s job is to “kill” these murderous scumbags, rather than, say, invite them to tea. Sorry Carolyn, but what do you think soldiers are trained for? They are not, contrary to Liberal pieties (and the back of a $10 bill), social workers with guns. We give them the guns so that they can use them to shoot people – they are not props, for chrissakes. And in the kill or be killed situations we are potentially sending them into, well, I hope its our boys who are doing the killing – because the guys on the other side would certainly not hesitate to send a few body bags home to Canada.

Ms. Parrish also manages to look through her rose coloured glasses to see Canada’s “100 year tradition” of peace keeping. She must have read the official Liberal history of Canada or something, because obviously she has no idea about the actual history of the country. Never mind the fact that modern day “peace-keeping” was invented in 1957, but what did she think Canadian troops were doing in WWI, WWII, and Korea?? The “peacekeeping” we did then involved going over to Europe and Asia and sending many, many German, North Korean & Chinese soldiers to the grave. The point being that soldiers (including Canadian soldiers) are trained to kill – not to be a glorified boy scouts. When called upon, Canadian soldiers have done this job with distinction – and its high time the Libs canned all this warm & fuzzy “peace-keeping” b.s and acknowledged that the world is, in fact, still a dangerous place and sometimes we may still be required to take the fight to the enemy.

Like Patton said – the soldier’s job is not to die for your country, its “to make the other poor bastard die for his.”

Hear, hear!

Fonda to Speak out on War (oh lord, not again)

2005-07-26T18:31:00.000-04:00

Memo to all the anti-war protesters, commentators, et all: Didn’t you see George’s speech a couple of years back – “Mission Accomplished”? Hey – the war is over!

But seriously - what would you propose? It’s too late to put that genie back in the bottle. Iraq’s been invaded, army defeated and seeds of democracy planted…well, they did have an ‘election’ at least (and not one of Sadaam’s “vote for me or take a trip through the meat grinder” type of elections). If every American soldier was suddenly returned home (er, alive, and not in a body bag), do you think that somehow Iraq would return to its former state of pre-war tranquility and happiness (um, sans the murderous dictator)?

I was never a big fan of George W.’s Iraq policy (which seemed to consist of “we’re invading!” and little else in the way of planning), and I think the Americans have gone and stepped in a big pile of shite - stepped into a hornet’s nest etc, but what do you think they are supposed to do now? Just leave? Do you honestly think your beloved Iraqi’s would be better off if the US just up and left now? Do you think that the Islamofascist nutjobs who are blowing things up over there will take a deep breath and calm down if the evil Americans leave? Do you think that if the US pulls all their troops out of the country (evil occupiers that they are!) that Iraq will suddenly become a land of peaceful, happy “militants” and “insurgents”? If so, you need to up the dosage on your medication.

Remember, these are the brave “insurgents” who strike a fearsome blow for the Iraqi people by driving a car packed with explosives into a crowd of children. Remember that these are the people who, in striking a blow for their oppressed Muslim brothers, blow up, well, other Muslims. Hmmm…interesting way of expressing support.

Truth is, if it wasn’t for these morons and their jihad Iraq would be well on the road to reconstruction. It’s a little hard to rebuild key infrastructure if some asshole with a grudge and an ideology that doesn’t extend much past “blow somethin’ up”, keeps, well, blowing stuff up.

Anyway – while I agree that invading Iraq was a colossally bad idea, I think that it would be equally catastrophic to just cut and run now. It’s a case of “you broke it, you bought it” and unfortunately, there is no easy way out – despite what the anti-war crowd would have you believe.

So to all the Jane Fonda types out there proudly reliving the sixties and their anti-Viet Nam days – please, just shut the fuck up until you have something constructive to contribute.

Promises, promises....

2005-07-08T18:17:00.000-04:00

Harris did not keep all his promises either (so there!)

And so, off we go on another merry trip into Toronto Star land, where the Liberal Faeries and elves shower their largesse across the country/province, forever stalked by the evil wicked Conservatives. Why, even when Dalton tries his darndest to buy some support with a goodie-goodie announcement (albeit in an altered form from what he “promised” during the election) the media keep labeling him as a ‘promise breaker.’ It just ever so sad.

And if those cute l’il Liberals go astray and do something, well, bad (like lying their asses off to get elected) – well, that can just be dismissed with a casual swipe at those pesky Conservatives –just start howiling that “they did it too!”.

This is the best the Star can trot out? Talk about damning with faint praise. When all else fails they go for the tried and true strategy of attacking Mike Harris. Um, memo to the Star - Mikey has been removed from the Ontario political scene for several years now…and isn’t that “well, they did it too!” line just about the weakest most feeble defense that can be offered? Honestly, do Star writers put their kids to bed with scary stories of the wicked ogre of North Bay – ooooooo –watch out for that scary Mike Harris – he could jump out from under the bed at any time! Oh , the hardship we lived under during his wicked rule. *sob*

But onward, ho! Columnist Ian Urquhart ties himself into knots to try and make it appear that Harris was somehow as big a fibber as McGuinty. Nevermind the fact that he undermines his own argument by noting that Harris’ Common Sense Revolution document made some 61 promises versus McGuinty’s 231 (231!!) promises made during the 2003 election campaign. Lets face it, Mcguinty’s Fiberals were quite obviously shoveling the shit in 2003 as fast as humanly possible in the classic “say anything to get elected” style of the Liberals. If they promised 231 things during the last election you can rest assured that 230 of them were bullshit, and the other one somehow slipped by their political consultants.

Who will ever forget Mcguinty staring into the camera with that dead fish gaze of his and promising “I won’t cut your taxes – but I won’t raise them either.” Must have set a record breaking that one.

Or his solemn declaration that he would halt building on the Oak Ridges Morraine – legal contracts be damned! Or ignored in this case, until those pesky courts intervened and said – don’t think so!

Isn’t it about time the folks at the Star realized that the reason that:

“Try as he might, Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government have found it impossible to escape the label of "promise breakers." “

is that, well, um, if the shoe fits…

Hello kettle? Your black...

2005-06-29T23:48:00.000-04:00

"The reason for that is that instead of dealing with the problems the way that people ought to deal with the problems, what in fact they're doing is they're giving in to short term political pressure, (to) get their pictures in the paper, make an announcement, go home to favourable headlines and then forget about it. “

This bit of wisdom comes from non-other than our very own Paul Martin. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read this. Paul Martin lecturing other world leaders on making unrealistic promises that they have no intention of fulfilling? Well, I guess Martin and the Liberals do have a wealth of experience in that area to draw on….

Oh, let’s see…
- There was no exaggeration in his promise to fix healthcare for a “generation”, was there? Hmmm…no hyperbole in that statement, right?

- Scrap the GST? Guess it depends on your definition of “scrap”…

- Fixing the democratic deficit “come hell or high water?” - guess the waters just not high enough yet.

- Restoring integrity to government? Who knew the guy was going to tape 4 hours of backroom deal making? Why that’s just so unethical! What goes on the backroom, stays in the backroom.

Well, basically you could just read the entire ’93 Liberal Red Book (and every little red book since) to get the picture.

But no, no…those were all sound, reasonable promises – not like those other headline chasing world leaders!

Open mouth, insert foot...

2005-06-27T22:46:00.000-04:00

So....it didn't take long at all for Stephen Harper to display his flawlesss political instincts and somehow manage to stick his size eleven clod-hopper straight into his size twelve mouth. With regards to Bill C- 38 (same sex legislation):

"“Because it’s being passed with the support of the Bloc, I think it will lack legitimacy with most Canadians,” Harper told CBC Newsworld."

What is he thinking?? Does he think that comments like these make him seem more mainstream, more electable (Especially in "vote rich" Ontario)? Or do you sound more like a petulant, sore loser? Face it, this battle has been lost, move on (or at least this vote has been lost, anyway). Not to mention that comments like this sound a tad hypocritical, given that it would have been perfectly legitimate had those non-confidence motions from awhile back been passed (with the help of the nefarious Bloc).

The folks giving Mr. Harper advice should be telling him to shut up about the whole marriage issue - um, actually, can we get everyone to shut up about it? - surely there are more important issues facing us (ruinous tax levels, sagging productivity, out of control government spending, a distinct lack of ethics in government, etc, etc) that should be demanding our attention- personally, I am sick of hearing & reading about this.

So, Stevie - please - how about starting to talk about how the Conservatives would actually govern - maybe people will start to listen...I'd sure like to hear it, anyway....

Find Sand, insert head...

2005-06-27T17:27:00.000-04:00

The illustrious Mr. Dosanjh is at it again. Honest debate about the future of healthcare in this country? Never! Why bother having an honest discussion about what options are available when one can just toss around the usual rhetoric and scare-mongering:

"Ujjal Dosanjh says he is ''disappointed'' the CMA will debate the role of private care at its annual meeting this summer. He says he would have expected CMA president Dr. Albert Schumacher ''to be a little more circumspect'' on the issue."
...
"But Mr. Dosanjh said it would lead to the destruction of medicare, and he urged doctors to exercise caution in reviewing such options.
''I don't see a great rush to set up private health care, because we have a very recent experience," he said of the Canadian public. "Forty-five years is not a long time in the life of a nation. There are people who still remember the dark days of private health care, where people had to sell their farms and sell their homes to care for their loved ones.'' "

Talk about laying it on a bit thick. But this seems to be the Liberals tried and true tactic. Why bother having a discussion about something as important as healthcare?? Its so much easier just to drop a few rhetorical bombs aimed at instilling some good 'healthy' fear - I mean look at the language he uses - "destruction of medicare"...images of poor people selling their house & children when they got the sniffles 40 years ago...gimme a break...

And why be "disappointed" by a discussion? As Minister of Health isn't Dosanjh's job to explore every alternative available to provide the best health care to Canadians? Shouldn't he be cheering the CMA on and encouraging such discussions from coast to coast? Or is his job to cling dogmatically to the status quoue, putting blind ideology ahead of discussing much needed reforms to the system??

Um...Unfortunately, with the Liberals I think the answer to that one is pretty obvious....

Not Welcome

2005-06-20T17:33:00.000-04:00

So – Paul Martin has struck another blow in slaying the democratic deficit. He has now come out and said that Gurmant Grewal is not welcome in the Liberal caucus. How brave and upstanding of our gallant Prime Minister! Seedy backroom deals during a tense moment are A-Ok…but making such dealings public? How dare you! Just for that, the big furry Liberal welcome mat is henceforth withdrawn. Now will you learn to keep your mouth shut and just play the game the way we tell you to play?

Ah, and I love the way the Star continues to spin, spin, spin. The one line summation in the above story about the whole 'tapes affair'? "Experts allege the tapes were altered." Not "there are 4 hours of tapes with the PM's chief of staff and health minister offering seedy backroom deals."...No sir! Just that a snippet out of 4 hours of tapes may have been "altered" (sounds sinister, doesn't it?).

And the Blind can see!

2005-06-16T22:55:00.000-04:00

This story just gets better and better.

So, now we know that not only is Takhar's wife the CEO of the company that is supposedly in a "blind" trust - but the trustee in charge of the trust is none other than the CFO of Takhar's company and Takhar's riding association.

And all Dalton McWimpy can say is that this type of relationship is "probably a mistake"?

Probably?? I know that McGuinty and the truth are not well acquainted, but this is the best he can do - "probably a mistake"? Are you f'n kidding me? It goes beyond a mistake, it makes a complete mockery of the entire concept of a "blind" trust...

But I guess thats just another term like "integrity" and "ethics" which our governments like to throw around to make the little people feel better while they devise new and better ways to ensure that things work out for their benefit...

Oh, I'm just on pins and needles waiting to hear what knots the "integrity" commissioner will tie himself into to be able to announce that, of course, the Liberal minister had nothing more than a momentary lapse of reason.

Much like the momentary lapse the people of Ontario had when they elected this pack of shitswallowinglyingbastards.

Sticks to notes, defers to deputies

2005-06-15T13:24:00.000-04:00

I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing much more like this with regards to Belinda’s “performance” as Human Resources Development minister.

“By using pithy catchphrases and deferring questions to her deputies, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development answered question after pointed question about Canada's employment insurance program, a key function of the sprawling department Stronach has inherited.”

Why, that just about says it all doesn’t it? Isn’t that what government is all about – throw out a few pithy catchphrases and let your deputies answer all the tough questions…and you too can be star!

Isn't that what we expect from Ministers in Government - when confronted with a complicated issue, just spout out a few pithy catchphrases and move on - as long as it makes a good sound bite, who cares?

And then, of course, there was this quote from an earlier article (where Belinda explains why she jumped ship on the Conservatives)…

“Mine is a question of fate and circumstance," she said. "I was having great difficulty lining up with the Bloc to bring down the government at this time.
"I didn't think that was in the national interest . . . I thought unity was at risk."

So in order to save the country she bravely sacrificed herself….to become an instant (if horribly unqualified) cabinet minister. If, as she seems keen on asserting, it was out of such selfless motives that she crossed the floor, could she not have found another way to go about it? If blind ambition was not her true motivation could she not have simply abstained from the vote, or even just voted for the damned budget? Well, no, because doing any of those things would not have allowed her to become a Very, Very important Minister. Why, she might have had to actually put in some hard work and show some level of, you know, competence before she was handed a plum job like that….instead, she gets to join Honest Paul & the gang around the Cabinet table immediately, where she can join in the fun of separating Canadians from their money and spending it like there was no tomorrow….

Transport minister Takhar photographed by 'peeping Tory'

2005-06-13T16:33:00.000-04:00

Gotta love the spinmeisters down at the Star…

What an amazing ability they have to apply just the right amount of twist to a headline…and voila! What should by all rights be an expose on more Liberal sleaze is turned around to suggest that its the conservatives who are engaged in unseemly behaviour.

In this latest case, Transport Minister Harinder Takhar was photographed visiting a company that has supposedly been placed in a “blind trust” (“blind” as in he is not supposed to have any dealings with it….um, despite the fact that his wife is CEO)...I guess “blind trust” is one of those loose terms bandied about in government, like “ethics” and “morals” – really has no meaning, but it sounds nice, and gives everyone a warm and fuzzy….

But does the Star shout out to the world that a Liberal Minster was caught red-handed dropping his dark glasses and cane whilst having a peek into his “blind trust”? Nope. The headline makes it sound like the Tories are a bunch of unsavory types, what with them being “peeping tories”…sneaking around, lurking in the bushes…jumping up and yelling “boo” at some poor, unsuspecting innocent Liberal…

Once again, the real story seems to have fallen by the wayside...(see my earlier post about the infamous Grewal tapes)

All the news thats fit to print

2005-06-10T19:11:00.000-04:00

Just caught Dosanji, our illustrious and ethically challenged Minister of Health on Global News. And what a display he made! When pressed on what, in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court ruling, the Government was doing to lessen Canada's crippling waiting times, the Minister stammered a reply that the magical $41 billion His Highness Mr Martin threw at the problem earlier in the year would pretty much do it...and that waiting times were being shortened as we speak!

And how did he know that?

Why, he reads the papers and talks to his "colleagues" (um, not on tape though!). Isn't it wonderful to know that the man who is tasked to be the Minister in charge of the bestest healthcare system in the world (TM) gets his information on the functioning of the system from the same sources as you and me (and the rest of the plebes)? From the papers??

I myself find it ever so comforting to know that when I pick up my morning paper I can be secure in the knowledge that the Minister of Health is reading the same information...that he is not privy to any, you know, inside information that might go beyond what the press sees fit to report...and that he can then use this info to make decisions that can profoundly affect the lives of millions of Canadians...

Well, actually I find it extremely alarming and breathtakingly stupid....but I would expect no less from this pack of blowhards and demagogues currently calling itself a government...

Quebec ban on private medical care struck down

2005-06-09T17:36:00.000-04:00

It’s the End of the World!

Well, not really – its just the first potential breach of the government’s monopoly on health care delivery.

About time, wouldn’t you say?

How much more blather do we have to hear from politicians about “fixing” health care (for a generation, no less!) – and finding that their much vaunted reforms amount to nothing more than blindly throwing another bucketful of cash down the sinkhole Then we get to watch as they practically break their arms patting themselves on the back for being so generous…until the next “crisis” in health care erupts and they have to throw another bucket in.

Well, I guess at this point its pretty much a perpetual crisis.

Its high time that our politicians (and we the sheeple) started having meaningful debates about healthcare in this country instead of engaging in the usual demagoguery and rhetoric (Two Tier health care! Two tier healthcare!).

Like….taking an honest look at other systems in the world that mix Public and Private – and which, rather than delivering up their people unto satan, actually produce outcomes equal to or better than ours, at lower cost.

Where waiting lists are practically non-existent – as opposed to our system which seems to be seeking to actively entrench waiting times as an integral part of the system.

Where people are not, as our politicians would have you believe, forced to whip out their credit cards or take out a second mortage everytime they get the sniffles…

Maybe this latest ruling in Quebec will lead to some open and honest debate

But I’m not holding my breath…this is Canada after all – where its much easier to just plant your flag on the “high ground” and label your opponents as unprincipledfascistbigots than engage in an actual, you know, rational discussion.

...and case in point - just saw an ad for CBC news...and the commentator indicated that there was a story coming up about the ruling and how it could "change" (spoken with scary quotes) health care...Change? why on earth would we want to change anything about the Bestest Healthcare system on earth??

Are you kidding me?

2005-06-08T20:01:00.000-04:00

New poll gives Liberals big boost - NDP now leads Tories among Ontarians, women...

So sayeth the Toronto Star...

To which I must respond - Are you kidding me? It seems that the people of Ontario have decided to buy into the Liberal spin - to declare their support for untrammelled corruption, sleaze, vote-buying, waste, mismanagement and all the other prominent Liberal "values" instead of...wait for it...Stephen Harper's scary "hidden agenda"...

Nosir! The the Libs may be corruption personified, but that Harper...well..he's an angry man...and they have this "hidden agenda" we keep hearing about (but never see)...

And Jack! & the NDP? Those plucky ideologists who show their committment to their principles by essentially declaring that even though the Liberals are corrupt & can't be trusted...well, for $4.6 billion or so (and the opportunity to stick it to Big Business) - why we can look the other way on that whole "corruption" thing. After all - we care about people, for godsakes!

I guess as long as the Liberals don't steal too much...

Stop this ride - I want to get off!

Damning with faint praise...

2005-06-08T13:02:00.000-04:00

Getting away from the sordid mess Canadian politics has become, lets talk about the latest Toy commercial from Lucasfilm...er, I mean the latest film in the Star Wars franchise - Revenge of the Sith.

What can I say - since I had rated the previous two films as among the worst in cinematic history, my expectations were not high for the latest release. Going in with such non-lofty expectations certainly helped...and I found the film to be....OK (thats as good as I can give it.) - the bad dialogue and wooden acting (Treebeard from LOTR gives a better 'performance' than most of the actors in this film) can only partially be covered up by the glitzy digital special effects, and wham-bam action sequences.

All in all, I was able to shut down my critical faculties for a couple of hours and enjoy the film for what it was - but now I find a few things seem to be nagging me:

- Medical science has taken great leaps "a long time ago, in galaxy far away", such that a man who has been dismembered and covered in boiling lava can be saved, but handling childbirth? seems have the good robot doc stumped .
- Darth's "seduction" to the Dark side seems to be less of a seduction and more of a hoodwinking by a master con-artist...
- The Dark side seems to consist of getting a bad skin condition and the ability to shoot some cheesy blue lightening...um, so why is it so "seductive"??
- I know that George Lucas is aiming the film at the kids who buy all the toys (or more accurately cause the toys to be bought) but come on...does that mean that he has to write at a 4th grade level? I can partially understand the wooden acting based on the dialogue the actors are forced to recite - and lets face it, the fact is that Lucas is far more enamoured of creating incredible digital landscape etc. than working with actual actors - they are like props he is forced to work with.
- Darth Vader calling out "Noooooo" has to be among the cheeziest moments ever in film...
- The opening space battle was impressive looking...but left me bored since I had no clue who was who, who was shooting at who, or why I should care about any of it...
- Why on earth did Lucas have to try and tie things together so much and have all these characters from the first Star Wars films make appearences in the Prequels...I know this was supposed to give the Star Wars geeks a little thrill (omigod...look its a young Chewbacca!!)...but jesus, I found it annoying.

And amazingly, all that being said, I still thought that this movie was better than the first two...but maybe that was Lucas' real genius...making the first two movies so bad that we couldn't help but give the third a passing grade...

Hmmmmmm....

Liberals more credible than Grewal, poll finds

2005-06-07T20:28:00.000-04:00

And of course, no sooner do I complete the previous post, then I see this headline in the Star...

Of course, you have to read to the very end of the article to see that the poll in question asked a very basic (and stupid) question - which once again places undue attention onto what should be the least important aspect of this affair (who cares who approached who??)

From the Liberal Party Newsletter...er, the Star:

Decima told poll respondents: "The Liberals say that Mr. Grewal approached them and asked for an appointment. Mr. Grewal says it was the other way around."
Pollsters then asked the question: "Whom do you believe more?"

And the response to this inane question? 25% believe the Lieberals, 23% Conservatives...which of course warrants the big headline making it seem that the Liberals are somehow more trusted (I am suprised they didn't slip in a reference to the Conservative's "hidden agenda", but maybe they are leaving that to the Globe)...oh and they also leave the fact that the poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1% till the end as well...since that would mean that their headline is actually...misleading? Since they are in a statistical tie...

But that doesn't make as good a headline, does it...

Tapes....its all about the tapes, man...

2005-06-07T18:59:00.000-04:00

Is it just me or does anyone else feel that the Canadian media has completely lost focus with this whole "altered tapes" controversy? Whatever "tampering" there has been to the tapes (and I have yet to hear anything resembling conclusive proof that there has been extensive tampering of these recordings) - does not invalidate the fact there are four f*n hours of conversations on these tapes. Four hours! Has there been a massive case of collective amnesia?? Has everyone forgotten that just a week ago Paul Martin stood up in the House and stridently claimed - in his most idignant voice - that it was Grewal who approached them and that he had been met with an unequivocal "NO!"...well, in all those hours (4 hours!) the word "No" is one that is not heard...So you have the PM's chief of staff & a senior minister talking to a member of the opposition about at the very least jumping ship, or possibly accepting a position - say, perhaps a Senate appointment *wink, wink* - and not, as Honest Paul would suggest saying "No"...and eveyone is in a great kerfluffle that some small snippets of the tapes appear to have perhaps been tampered with? Why is no one hammering Martin about the fact that over the course of the week his story changed day by day? That he and the truth are rarely in the same room together?

Instead...its all about Grewal...sure I realize that attacking the source is a tried and true strategy to distract people from the real issues...but does our collective media have to follow the script so blindly? Is it impossible to ignore the man pointing across the street yelling "fire!" and ask questions about what he actually said just a moment ago?

Apparently not. Instead, its all about Grewal and the "doctored tapes" (although, no one, of course, is alleging that all the many hours of recordings have somehow been falsified).

Sadly, Mr. Grewal has provided the Lieberal spin-meisters with plenty of ammunition. And the Liberal friendly media are certainly sticking to the script. Too bad for the Conservatives that they attempt to shine a light onto incrontrovertable Liberal sleaze, and somehow they are the ones who come out looking dirty...

Ah well...

Paul Martin - Deficit Slayer!

2005-06-07T17:33:00.000-04:00

No - not the fiscal deficit, so valiantly slain by Finance Minister PM back in the 90's...that deficit has well and truly been hidden, er, vanquished - drowned in a sea of surpluses. That those surpluses really amount to gross over-taxation and are generously fed by an obscene surplus in the EI fund (which isn't really supposed to be used that way, but nudge nudge, wink wink...who'll notice??) is a subject for later discussion.

Instead, lets chat about Mr. Martin turning his deficit slaying prowess to the much harped upon "Democratic" deficit. Much hot air was blown by the aforementioned Mr. Martin during the election campaign last year about how he was personally going to fix the "democratic deficit" that grew up under the tyranny of the little guy from Shawinigan. That and "fixing" health care for a generation. PM has obviously taken to the school of thought that teaches that if you repeat something often enough, why, it must be true! I beg to differ...

And what, pray tell, have been the results?

- A non-confidence motion is blissfully ignored so that PM can spend the next 9 (9!!) days fixing the "democratic deficit" through a sordid orgy of vote buying the likes of which we won't see until the next close vote looms. Billions of dollars spread from sea to shining sea so that a man desperate to be Prime Minister (since he spent the last 10 years striving for the top job) could cling to the job for another few months...

- A desperate man comandeers the public airwaves to address a Liberal Party crisis of Epic proportions (not an actual National crisis or anything) begging the opposition to hold off on election so that "Gomery can finish his work" - that they snuck in the last election before Gomery had even begun his work is conveniently ignored...but before we get a chance to judge the Lieberals in an actual election (you know, where the voters get to theoretically express their collective will), we MUST LET GOMERY FINISH HIS WORK...because now we need to have complete information in order to make a rational judgement (and it gives him more time to bribe us with our own money), whereas before, when it looked like they could win the election, we just needed airy promises about fixing health care and slaying the democratic deficit...no need to look under this or that rock - no sir!

Is this really the way to strengthen democracy in Canada?

Well, come on...of course thats a rhetorical question.

Its looking more like day by day democracy itself is being slain in Canada...

Cheers.
Steve.

Welcome

2005-06-07T15:03:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog "Tangled Webs" - as in "what tangled webs we weave When first we practive to deceive...." - a place where I can share my cynicism and vitriol on any number of subjects...but particularly the sordid situation that is current Canadian politics.

As soon as time allows I will start to post some kind of meaningful content...well, it will be meaningful to me, anyway. As for anyone else who stumbles upon this...who knows.

Cheers.