The Sleeper Hitman…

What can we say about Benazir Bhutto? Her death, like all deaths, was tragic but for anyone who followed the affairs of Pakistan, it was not unexpected. The only reason we are talking about it now so much is because, like the Dundas Square shooting in 2005 or the Sri Lanka Tsnami of 2006, this event is 2007 Christmas-New Years tragedy of the year — a period of time where almost nothing else is going on and when a story-depraved media mob will cling onto anything they can report on. Conspiracy theorists might even go as far as to suggest that these annual events are being orchestrated for such purposes.

There has been a great deal of commentary over the past two days though that suggest that Mrs. Bhutto’s death will produce more positives than negatives domestically. Internationally, I hope this would be the case too. The spotlight on the ex-Prime Minister’s life is revealing that she is just the best of a really, really bad bunch and that the problems of the Arab world are going to be long and difficult in solving. Maybe once we begin to understand this, and that there are no good guys among the political leaders of a place like Pakistan, only then will our society begin to defuse the threat that such nations pose to our peace and prosperity.

Give & Take

First off, Merry Christmas to all the readers of ThePolitic who visit here frequently. I hope that you and your families get to enjoy the Christmas holidays and are blessed with the knowledge that true peace is achievable through Him that was born when he didn’t need to be, and died that death would not be the end.

---

Now that we’ve all settled into winter here in Canada and the Bali Summit is complete, the focus is starting to turn to the mission in Afghanistan. It struck me yesterday in my travels during the Boxing Day trials that these two political theatres have an interesting correlation that everyone on the Left, the Right and in between should heed:

In the environment sphere, the Left tells us that despite the fact that the U.S., China, and India (the global leaders in CO2 emissions and real pollutants) have, to date, not signed onto any treaty that would limit their emissions Canada should step up to the plate and do more than our fair share in reducing these emissions so as to at least reduce the alleged damage that would occur due to CO2 build-up in the atmosphere.

In the global security sphere, the Right is telling us that despite the fact that Great Britain, Germany, and Italy (the other coalition partners that are part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan) aren’t contributing their fair share in the heavy-fighting reasons in southern Afghanistan that Canada should step up to the plate and finish the job no one else is willing to in Afghanistan so as to at least bring stability to the Afghan people.

It’s an interesting comparison especially when you factor in the rebukes to each respective argument. While I would argue that the Afghan mission has more success, both initiatives are only tentative and not guaranteed to bring on a better world and both are costing our economy money that opponents would be better spent.

The only consideration that I believe we should be factoring into these issues as we consider how to move forward on them is that in both cases the other countries of the world are either too lazy or too hypocritical to engage in the endevours themselves, so whether it is fighting the Taliban in the mountains of Asia or car emissions on the 400, we shouldn’t be looking to the international community for either guidance or support. Rather, our policies should be based on a clearly thought out vision that is prudent and ultimately promotes Canadian values and growth. Consider this when both issues come up in next year’s almost-certain election when all four party leaders pitch their vision (or lack thereof) of why we should hitch our coach to their particular wagon!

John Tory: Running From Our Past…

This Friday I attended an Ontario PC youth function for the first time in many years — the youth wing of the provincial party is still much the same that it was when I last knew it; full of energetic, yet overly-ambitious youngsters who all believe that they will be both Premier and Prime Minister one day. Not that I can much blame them; politics has a way of attracting such personalities and I can’t say that I was much different when I was five years younger.

Anyway, the “Holiday Party” was interesting this year in that the OPCYA (Ontario PC Youth Association) is a defacto Keep John Tory club whose leadership believes that they have reputations to maintain and everything to gain if they support the embattled leader as he clings desperately to the party’s mantle. Tory himself showed up and worked the room by meeting every supporter and neutral youth in the vicinity, as did the founder of Draft A Leader, a website devoted to the cause of replacing Tory with someone more competent.

Interestingly, I noticed that many of the party members in attendance who were wearing “I’m With Tory” buttons (not the best slogan I noted to some, as it brought the phrase “I’m With Stupid” to mind!) were true to good old tory fashion; glad hand the famous guy whose posters were plastered in every campaign office two months ago, and then as soon as he was out of earshot, sharpen their tongues to the tune of the many flaws Tory possesses.

As for Tory’s steadfast supporters, they reminded me of Liberals…and not just because their guy practically is one either. Unfortunately, every single supporter of Mr. Tory that I spoke to (and many others at the party attested to this as well) broke their arguments down like this:

He’s a great guy
How?
Well he’s a great leader.
How?
Well he’s done a lot of organizing in the party
How?
He’s made the party a big tent party and made everyone feel welcome

When the conversation got to this last point during the night, I would note the ridiculous irony of anyone on the Tory side stating this point given that a)70% of Ontarians (including many traditional PC voters) didn’t feel comfortable or welcomed by Mr. Tory’s vision and b)if there’s a sizable ditch the leader movement in the party right now than obviously Mr. Tory has failed within his own party as well. An overarching theme I touched upon many times in discussing this is that Mr. Tory cannot run a party or fight an election with only 3/4 of a party behind him. Tory himself responded to a question of what would constitute a sufficient vote of confidence at the PC Party’s February convention with a 50% + 1 votes number. Obviously the guy didn’t learn the lesson that the PC and Reform/CA Parties had to learn in from 1993-2003 — a problem that was partly Tory’s fault given his campaign power under Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell.

So while times are interesting again within the former natural governing party of Ontario, you can only feel pity for the party right now as it’s establishment tries desperately to protect a leader who is in every sense of the phrase “yesterday’s man”. The emergence of classical liberalism, modern libertarianism, populism, social conservativism and other philosophies which are the true products of a truly progressive mind, and which are willing to base ideas not on how the party/system was before — as Tory’s is — is slowly eroding the way that the party acted in the past. Certainly, the Red Tories have an unaccounted for control of the party and its resources, but come election time, it really makes you wonder where that 10% drop in voter turnout really came from; after all, the PC Party can’t fight an election with only a fraction of a party, and conservatives of all stripes are learning that the best way to protest the leadership is simply to stay at home! And that, my friends, is why Tory must step down or be dethroned!

Drumsaremybeat v. beachesboy@AOL.com: I’m not kidding

Bored? Than tune into the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s wacky efforts to identify chat board hater “Drumsaremybeat” while simultaneously protecting the identity of complainant “beachesboy@AOL.com”! And be sure to have the appropriate background music playing.

And you thought attempts to criminalize Catholic belief were crazy. Just you wait until the intrepid minds at the CHRC take up the cause of sugartits6969 in her legal crusade against message board meanie longDONGyoyo47. Won’t that be worth every penny of the Chief human rights Commissioner’s taxpayer-billed 454 dollar lunches and all the other assorted CHRC expenses?

The Growing Consensus of the Lack of Consensus for Global Warming

Confused yet?

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.

Evangelicals for Mitt

Yes, it is indeed a funny name for any kind of group. Perhaps “Evangelicals in Defense of Mormonism”? But the mission statement should at least provoke some thought for American Evangelicals:

The 2008 election is for president, not pastor…

Political and moral values are informed by — but not the same as — one’s religion…For example, in 1980 voters had two choices: a divorced movie actor who did not regularly attend church and was not on good terms with all of his children, and a once-married Southern Baptist whose evangelicalism was at the core of his national identity. Voting on the basis of whose doctrine was better would have meant electing the second guy — Jimmy Carter — over the first, Ronald Reagan.

Who Doesn’t Heart Huckabee?

America’s National Treasure on why Huckabee’s retro campaign is boring:

Huckabee immediately…turned to his main goal as president of the United States: teaching children more art and music. This, he said, was his “passion” because “I think our education system is failing kids because we’re not touching the right side of the brain—the creative side. We are focusing on the left side.”

I think I know someone who has just read an article in Reader’s Digest about left brain/right brain differences!

When not evolving his position on Darwinism, Huckabee insults gays by pointlessly citing the Bible’s rather pointed remarks about sodomy—fitting the MSM’s image of evangelicals sitting around all day denouncing gays. (Which is just so unfair. I’m usually done denouncing gays by 10:30 a.m., 11 tops.)

As Canada burns, RCMP to do something about trillions of street fight videos on Youtube

Who is the bigger jackass? The guy who encourages morons to brawl or the cop who thinks its worth his time (or the courts’ time) to do anything about it?

The RCMP: Instilling virtue in a mass of unworthy humanity somewhere near you.

PS: Remember the public service announcements that came at the end of G.I. Joe and Inspector Gadget cartoons? Well, they worked precisely because the Joes and Inspector Gadget didn’t electrocute senior citizens ’cause they don’t pay their parking tickets. That was more of a Cobra or Dr. Claw kind of thing.

Global Warming Causes Everything: Including Crying Dutchmen

*

But after 12 exhausting days of trying to reach a worldwide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it was suddenly all too much for Yvo de Boer.

As the 200-nation Bali conference wrangled over a minor procedural matter, the Dutch diplomat in charge of the talks burst into tears and had to be led away by colleagues…

Mr de Boer, distinctively dressed in a floral shirt, stepped up to the microphone to defend his staff – only to find that the words would no longer come…

“He wasn’t just wiping his eyes, he was in floods of tears,” said one observer.

“Three colleagues – one of them a woman – formed a protective group around him and escorted him out of the hall. It was all very dramatic.”

h/t

The Man Who Cried “Woman” One Too Many Times…

Before everyone goes to the woodshed with the NDP for kicking out a man with wardrobe issues, maybe we should look a little deeper into this story. After all, the lawyer now threatening to take the NDP to court has twice before taken other organizations to court on similar accounts and as much as everyone to the right of sanity would gleefully expose the NDP in yet another clearly hypocritical example of its loose interpretation of “tolerance”, I think that this time we have to wonder if it isn’t the ex-candidate that is taking the party for a ride. If anything, maybe the only crime that Quebec Dippers committed is allowing themselves to become associated with yet another depraved (,and some could add “deranged”) member of society, and in such a public way at that!

Next Page »