Foreign aid? and Foreign compliance

The next time Americans hear about foreign banks getting sweet cheap loans, I hope they would think of what foreign government agents do to earn Western favors.

After Mike Duffy… cut Senate perks!

I see nothing wrong with Nigel Wright spotting his friend money to pay taxes — that is what friends do. I bet half of all Canadians have either lent or borrowed money from a friend to pay taxes at least once in their lives. It makes sense to me to do anything to avoid an audit. Most audits end up costing the tax-payer a lot of money even when the auditors discover no irregularity. However, it seems that Mike Duffy’s Senate living expenses were actually accrued through election campaign activities. That smells. However, what smells more is the thought that this was expected to slip under the radar.

Reasonable Canadians should suspect this nonsense occurs elsewhere and should keep their eyes open wide.

I hope Canadians question the validity of the Senate and the perks Senators enjoy. At the very least, I hope Canadians who earn $30K a year or less ask the following question: “Hmm…. Mike Duffy claimed $90K in 3 years working on the job…. Is that fair?”

Tim Hudak is Polling Strong… Again

We’ve seen this before. Tim Hudak has a massive lead over the current Ontario Premier. The sitting government is losing steam and public support. They’ve been in charge for too long, don’t appear to be great managers and haven’t offered any fresh vision. It’s just the sort of time for the opposition Tories to take charge.

But, again, we’ve seen this before. The Progressive Conservatives were polling at 42% leading up to the last Ontario election. Dalton McGuinty was unpopular and uninspiring. The economy wasn’t great. A lot of the Liberal’s big plans just weren’t panning out (eHealth, anyone?). Mr. Hudak was poised to be Premier.

Sadly, as uninspiring and vision-less as Mr. McGuinty was, he was no challenge for Mr. Hudak in that race to the bottom. The Tories came out with a tough on crime agenda, touting discredited policies that were too extreme even for Texas. And they were doing this as crime was on the decline, and no one was particularly worried about it. Following such a catastrophic move, the Tories decided to cement their opposition status by rolling out a little xenophobia in response to a non-policy put out by the Liberals. Mr. McGuinty trolled the PCs good, and the out-of-touch racists went down in flames.

Now, they’re leading the polls again. But this time, they’re only at 37%. Premeir Wynne is actually somewhat popular, and is really only weighed down by a decade of lousy Liberal rule. To use the past as predictor, there is no reason to think that this time Mr. Hudak will actually be able to capitalize on his strong polls. He’s in a worse position than he was last time, and he really hasn’t demonstrated the type of leadership anyone would want.

Perhaps he’ll be able to right the ship. It sure would be nice to have a viable conservative alternative once again. But there is really no reason to believe it will happen. Tim Hudak has been a disappointment at every turn. He has been, sadly, the perfect conservative version of Dalton McGuinty.

 

Tom Flanagan is right

The recent shunning of Tom Flanagan over his questions and comments concerning justice in child pornography cases is ridiculous.

As far as I am concerned, prison terms are ridiculous. We do not need any more tenants in our public incarceration system.

The Conservative Party and CBC responses break the camel’s back. We are a living in a nazi state. This is a great segue into the numbskulling questions we hear from right-wingers: “Well, if not jail, what is the punishment???” I have the answer!
For the first time in my life, I thought of a single useful purpose for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. They should broadcast the names, addresses and mugshots of people convicted of child abuses of all kinds.

There is no punishment needed for these creeps. What child pornography creeps deserve is the treatment that Tom Flanagan unjustly got: shunning.

I challenge any so-called “conservative” to explain why the CBC is not yet put to proper use in informing the public of child abusers and violent offenders, for that matter.

Are conservatives intellectually incurious?

Over at one of my other blogging haunts, The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, blogger Jaybird has an interesting post on The Talk – the discussion that African American parents have with their kids about, well, surviving the often racist outside world:

So I asked an African-American friend at work if he got The Talk and, after clarifying “which talk are you talking about?”, he answered “Oh Yeah.” …

I realized that I didn’t know what was in the talk. I mean, I had heard such things as African-Americans being told “you’ve got to work twice as hard” but never in the context of an entire “here’s how the world works” speech. So I asked Parker “can I ask you what was in The Talk?” and he told me I could… so we set some time aside and I was able to ask. “What was in The Talk?”

Generally, I consider seeking the insights of others – especially those who have more experience with a subject than I – useful. Someone who has grown up with a certain degree of white privilege are not going to be able to fully understand the experience of being  a black person. Talking, discussion, curiosity, greater understanding – these are good things.

Or maybe not. Enter Five Feet of Hate‘s Kathy Shaidle:

I read the League every day, to try to keep up with the ever changing “principles” of the over-educated, helmet-wearing, “moderate” American beta male, and wonder at their ability to talk like they do, with presumably straight faces.

…

While you guys at the League are at “work” — which seems to involve a lot of talking about non-work topics, and “walking around the building” — your wives and girlfriends are masturbatingwith a book about a rich bastard who spanks them silly and doesn’t talk about semiotics and paradigms all day. I bet he doesn’t even recycle.

Five Feet of Fury is in our blogroll. Does anybody read it and enjoy it? Do you agree with this feeble-minded crap? Would you ever want to be involved with a woman anything like Shaidle?

I’m just wondering. I know she’s A Pretty Big Deal in the conservative blogosphere. Is she actually representative of conservative culture?

Dear God, I hope not.

Update: Ms. Shaidle kindly responds. It was nice to read that I had made her day.

McGuinty’s missed opportunity

Ontario missed a great opportunity last week. Heading into the previous weekend, Ontarians were teased with the idea that the Liberal Party’s full-day kindergarten initiative would be scrapped. It was a chance to reduce waste and improve our educational system at the same time. Unfortunately, instead of taking the province’s fiscal problems as an opportunity to offer some flexibility to Ontario students and parents, Premier McGuinty will continue to clutch at his treasured program, deficits and child development be damned.

It is reported that Economist Don Drummond, who is trying to determine a way out of the financial mess the Liberals have made this past decade, will recommend that Ontario abandon full-day kindergarten. This is an eminently sensible idea.

Ontario’s books are not in order. Deficits are standard fare, and no longer can the province be considered Canada’s economic engine. It is a sad tale that brings us to our current status, that of Ontario being a Have Not province. There’s a solid economic case for ridding ourselves of this costly program.

But the economics of the situation are only a side issue. The full-day kindergarten regime foisted on Ontario was never a sound move for children. Critics have argued that it is little more than a publically-sponsored daycare system. If were true, that would be bad enough, sadly, it is a system that can be expected to do as much, if not more, harm than good.

There is no research indicating that immersing younger and younger students in rigorous academic exercises is beneficial. Quite the contrary, in fact. Kindergarten may not seem an environment of ‘rigorous academic exercises’, and that would not be the kindergarten that today’s parents remember. But today’s kindergarten classes are steeped in curriculum, programming and “structured” play (as if 4 year olds gain nothing from unstructured play with their peers). It seeks to turn children into good little students, rather than allowing them to develop towards adolescence.

Kindergarten, and the public school system, is not geared towards the needs of the children. It is primarily focused on the desires of bureaucrats and the demands of unions. Schooling is rigid and inflexible. Parents have little say in the manner in which their children are educated. There is no choice in regards to teachers, schools, pedagogy or curriculum. It is a one-size-fits-all formula that fits no one, except those who are paid to deliver it.

The Liberal government could have taken a cue from Mr. Drummond and re-worked their education plans. They could have looked at far superior school systems as models. They could have followed Norway’s relative un-schooling techniques. They could have looked to set up a robust network of charter schools. They could have turned to vouchers, as have been successful in cities like Washington D.C. and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They could have offered financial assistance to parents so that they could make their own child care decisions. Or they could have gotten out of the way, and let parents be parents.

But, no. They have decided that full-day kindergarten is the way to go. One could be cynical and suggest that there’s an element of social engineering to this, that the government reaps the most benefit from absorbing the greatest number of students at the earliest age. Certainly, Progressivism has displayed such nefarious instincts, as in the Early Years Study 3 that was released last fall. But I doubt this is the case.

This is a matter of simple politics. The McGuinty Liberals have determined that there is sufficient political benefit to maintaining this undesirable program. This is little more than a welfare program, but unlike most social assistance, this is a welfare program that directly benefits members of the middle class.

The Liberal government’s calculus is clear. A party headed by “Premier Dad” is naturally inclined to taking on a greater role in raising our children. To be able to do that while also gaining electoral support in the middle class is just too good to pass up.

Forget our wallets. This program is a direct grab for our kids.

First Nations in Canada should address Canadians

I had to chuckle when I read the recent complaints and threats from the native chiefs:

The prime minister’s decision to leave the meeting early wasn’t sitting well with some chiefs.

“We’re like a bunch of puppies – he says jump, and we’ve got to do it,” said Regional Chief of Alberta, George Stanley.

If they do not want to be treated like puppies, the chiefs should not be wheeling and dealing with statesmen.

If there was any merit to their complaints or demands, the native chiefs would present themselves like honorable men: publicly and openly addressing the Canadian people.

Native uprising? That will be the day.

“The world is watching.”

No, they are not.

“In today’s world that response will be more instantaneous.”

No, it will not.

My suggestion to the natives is to start their own media blitz.

Aboriginal elder-assisted parole board hearings

A non-aboriginal murderer gets to have a parole board hearing with aboriginal elders assisting the process and the problem this creates is:

Victims’ families have reported being intimidated by elements of the elder-assisted process — such as the convention that the hearing be conducted sitting in a circle.

I do not get it. It just does not make sense to get upset over this. Either sitting across a table or around in a circle, the convict is going to have a parole hearing whether we like it or not.

I hope this is not just racism against aboriginal culture.

Let Greece and the entire Eurozone default

The best thing that could happen to the Europeans is to have their nation-states default on their debt. The sooner it does, the better.

Unfortunately, there are people who are under the illusion that this can be stopped and insist on more bailouts. I believe that is misguided. Whether they like it or not, Europe will go into recession. It is not a question of if but of when the recession will occur.

In years to come, people will closely examine why the statesmen failed the proletariat. I have faith that future generations will be able to point to the printing of money as the source of malinvestment and recessions. There is no more boogeyman nor foreign invader. The source of the economic problem is found in government monopolization of money and the selective distribution of cheap money to the rich. Historians will have no choice but to link the century of warfare with the century of the failed central banking experiment.

The sooner the default, the sooner the economy can approach stability. Private investors will shy away from trusting government borrowing. Creditors will be more critical when they accept borrowers. Malinvestment will slow down and resources will be invested more astutely.

Back to the present.
The affluent Europeans will know what it is like to be economic refugees and they will feel for a long time in their own native land. Canadians should prepare themselves for massive immigration from Europe. We will be going back to our roots.

Time to decriminalize marijuana

If there is one good thing about the Liberal proposal to legalize and regulate marijuana, it is this:

“We were expanding the debate,” Lavoie told CTV’s Power Play in Ottawa on Monday.

I would like to see the debate expand towards decriminalization and end there. We do not need the regulation. Regulation is just a different way of making the same thing illegal.

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