Election Financing: “Uh-oh…”

This is more embarrassing than waking up to an NDP sign on your lawn. And I’m sure that Harper’s team have the Liberal stories all ready to spill once that confidence motion comes on May 5!

Oh, and just regarding the actual laws surrounding this whole issue, Andrew had it covered last week.

Christian Horizons: Funny, They Don’t Mind the First-Rate Services…

I think that a lot of libertarians (of all bends) out there can really get behind the idea that the government should not be dictating to employers under what terms they must employ their workers. After all, without such restrictions, many of the unions on life-support today would’ve gone the way of the dodo back when disco was first popular, and we wouldn’t have the delicate dance that is many internal human resources documents today. Individuals and employers would come up with a mutual understanding of job duties, compensation and prohibitions, making society more proactive and conscious when dealing with employment. It would also have kept current employment trends away, such as those which set up semi-long, restrictive trial periods that employers use currently as a line of defence against picking up bad recruits before prohibitive employment laws set in.

So when it comes to the case of Waterloo region’s Christian Horizons, the first thing that we should keep in mind is that the government came to them first, not the other way around. If the government didn’t like the way that the outwardly Christian organization did business, or specifically how it hired it’s employees, it shouldn’t have agreed to whatever contracts were set up with CH — after all, with a name like Christian Horizons, it’s not like they were hiding a secret agenda or anything! Now we can debate on whether the government has any business funding any philosophically or ethically-biased group (it’s certainly hard not to, and even liberal atheism has certainly gotten its share through causes like the Court Challenges Programme), but we have to start here with the understanding that the government of the day entered into a deal with CH knowing, or responsible for knowing full well that the organization was guided by divine principles; in the private sector, if you partner up with another company and then expect a change, not only do you become a laughing stalk but chances are you’ll also see your business deteriorate soon afterwards. What the crowd who cites CH’s government funding are trying to do is bad business and bad manners, period.

Next, as far as employment laws are concerned, I have to admit that it’s no surprise that John Tory has once again demonstrated that his lust to win seats in Toronto trumps all common sense and principle, not to mention the desire to hang onto that rural rump that his party currently possesses in the legislature. If a company decides to abide under Charter-protected freedoms of religion as it conducts its business, what right does the state have to come in and impose its own morality. If what the company does is bad practice, won’t its reputation get around and the court of public opinion weed out any unwarranted behaviours? Who would want to buy from a reseller who refuses to hire women when they know full-well that a boycott could be right around the corner? Likewise, we expect Christian organizations, Muslim centres and urbane companies to all hire and work according to what their respective entities stand for. If the public tolerates it through their business practices, so what? Or are we actually, finally brave enough to admit that this is just an attempt to impose state-sanctioned atheist secularism into every aspect of society? I didn’t think so.

Much of this will matter very little though as we will once again see a rip-roaring battle ensue where the God-haters and religiophobes of our society once again rise us to defend a separation of church and state concept they barely understand and always reinvent to suite the flavour of the day. Nowhere will be hear of the 500+ years of jurisprudence that has allowed Christian organizations to serve the public good over that period of time and gave Canada, in particular, such bedrock foundations as the Sisters of St. Joseph, the YMCA or Christian Horizions — all of which have, by a desire to serve a higher calling, given us cheaper, wholesome and quality social services than we would’ve had if we just had the state do it all itself from the beginning. Certainly there will not be a mention of that. Of course, once the crusading secularists have weeded out every vestige of Christian presence in our society, who will be left to do all the things that government is too incompetent to do properly and the rest of us are too selfish to do willingly?

Global Warming Panacea – Worldwide Depression

Lorrie Goldstein has some suggestions for the Globe and the Star:

(5) “Good news” stories about the bright side of runaway fuel, food and energy prices. For example, when they get high enough that people stop their discretionary spending, thus leading to a recession, thus dramatically lowering greenhouse gas emissions the way that great environmental leader, Russia, did, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 — meaning we, too, will now have billions of dollars worth of “hot air” to sell to other countries under the Kyoto accord.

That pretty much nails it.  Want to fight global warming?  Send the world into recession… or better yet, depression.  That will curb emissions and save the planet.  Perfect.

(Yes, I know global warming prophets don’t actually recommend economic depression as a tool for fighting climate change, but it sure would work, wouldn’t it?  And food shortages coupled with skyrocketing transportation costs will get us there in a hurry.)

Hat tip to Kate.

New Evolutionary Ancestor Discovered!

Finally, the proof that I’ve been looking for all along. Why didn’t you atheist dudes tell me about this? After all, isn’t this specimen the sort of definitive and uncompromising link that has long been touted as the object which separated the educated and enlightened from the ignorant and self-deceiving. Consider me ignorant no longer!

Soft Racism

Definition: when the oppressors no longer tell the oppressed that they are too stupid for normal education – it just lets the oppressed say it, then agrees with them.

Just another symptom of a nation that has copped out of caring for its fellow citizens by simply making mental, emotional and psychological problems, a “culture” or a “lifestyle choice“.

Sometimes I despise what Canada has become.

Selling Off the Resources

When I was in high school, my social studies class taught us about the basic economic principles behind industry.  We were taught about primary industry, secondary industry, and tertiary industry.  It was explained that primary industry involves the harvesting of natural resources.  Examples of this are logging, mining, and oil drilling.  Canada is famous for this, with our abundance of land and resources.

Secondary industry involves the processing of raw resources into more usable forms.  Examples of this are sawmills, smelters and refineries.  These industries take out a lot of the waste in the resource (slag, bark, etc.) and present a raw material that can then be used to create something useful.  This processing takes industrial and technological and human resource investment, but provides much more benefit in terms of profit to the community, and to the state.

Tertiary industry involves the actual production of goods.  It takes the cut lumber, the refined crude, the wood pulp, the steel, and turns it into goods – paper, houses, buildings, cars.  This involves even more technology and human resources.

Every job created in industry means more taxes collected for government, more income, more employment, more services needed.  It is an economic fact that every industrial job created spawns seven service industry jobs in the community.  Thus, truly industrialized nations are based upon the building of secondary and tertiary manufacturing.  They create more in terms of national growth than primary industry does.  Colonialism was based upon this reality.  Industrialized, technological nations with a surplus of population exploited colonies for primary industry, shipping the raw materials home where the processing and manufacturing was done.  It made Britain, Europe, and the USA extraordinarily wealthy.

It should be pointed out, however, that the USA was a former colony.  It was being exploited by this economic reality, UNTIL it simply refused to be exploited anymore.  Taking secondary and tertiary production upon to itself has made America the most powerful economy in the world.

Why isn’t Canada like the USA?  It is because we have never stopped being a colony.  As our ties slowly disintegrated with England, we became a colony of America.  Now we provide the raw materials to America’s economic engine, but the cost is that we are forever a colony, throwing away our treasured resources and allowing other nations to exploit them and turn them into goods the world needs.

This is why it outrages me when I see our governments wilfully sabotaging our economic strength.  When I first moved to BC, I read in the paper about the new BC Liberals agreeing to INCREASE raw log exports (primary industry) to America and Asia, just as our lumber mills (secondary industry) were all shutting down due to lack of investment in technology and inefficiency.  We were throwing away jobs, sending them overseas and destroying towns that had prospered for a hundred years.  Why?  Because our government didn’t have the guts to stand up to big international conglomerates and tell them, if they want our logs, they need to process them here, before shipping them to market.

It really is that simple.   Canada has so much in the way of resources, and we are so close to markets like Asia and the USA that these big companies won’t find better places to get them.  It is too profitable to walk away from.  However, if we are willing to give away our resources, they will process them in the cheapest ways possible, which means we lose.

Flash forward to news today about a pipeline proposed to take oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.  The main focus of the pipeline is to get oil to the “Gulf Coast Refinery Complex”.  I am sorry.  They built those refineries to get oil from offshore rigs and from the Texas Oilfields.  If those fields are tapped out, too bad.  They need to build more refineries in Alberta.  It’s our oil, we deserve to benefit from the secondary and tertiary processing that come from its production.

Yes, America would love to keep the refining and the jobs and the taxes where they are, but not at the expense of Canada.  That just ain’t right.

Did the TTC Just Kill It’s Sweet Public-Private Partnership Deal?

Amazing, just sheerly amazing! That’s the only thing that can be said about the TTC union’s decision to reject a deal so sweet that the last week was littered with dozens of columns expressing the devastating effects of allowing TTC employees a golden goose as big as being guaranteed highest bidder for not just any contract in Toronto, but in the GTA. First Toronto, tomorrow the world?…

While the reasons for the union, essentially a private organization unaccountable to voters, to reject such a honey of deal remains unclear at this time, it might be time to eulogize this sort of hostage-victim relationship that the transit workers have enjoyed with the city over the last few decades since it’ll never be sweeter than this again. Combined with an illegal strike in 2006, today’s sudden cancellation of service will likely mark a turn in already sour public temperament after the aforementioned week of learning from the media just how much they had to empty the cupboard this time to appease the already well-compensated workers. As a general rule, you don’t come back to the kid you just stole lunch money again for another sucker punch indulgence. That’s exactly what the TTC has done here, prompting both Comrade Miller and a formerly reluctant Dalton McGuinty to reach a deal legislating back-to-work orders, on top of considering a further provision making the TTC essential service. If that last part is successful (and it should be since paying our taxes to public unions is also an essential service), the TTC will have lost most of the ridiculous bargaining powers it used to hold the 2 million-plus city at bay. The threats of literally shutting down the city will evaporate over night and Toronto might actually be able to keep new contract raises under the rate of inflation.

If, on the other hand, the TTC fights back and takes a page from the teachers unions’ during the Bill Davis years in the 1970s, we’ll enter into an ugly, painful, but necessary stage where the public’s outrage with an out of control union will flare up so quickly that we might actually begin to see private transportation grow to a significant level of business. Fleets of shuttle cars, taxis and other creative means of moving people would remove any necessity for the TTC, which would be relegated to a poor cousin dependent on government honey for survival, and much akin to the CBC today. We might see a Mike Harris-type Premier come along and ask why the TTC’s subway service just couldn’t be privatized like the 407 was nine years ago, since commuters already pay for the TTC as it is.

In short, the TTC is about to be de-clawed, and if it shows any teeth because of the procedure, it might find itself further surgically altered. The TTC’s literally putting all it’s stakes on the line today though. Enjoy the nice Saturday weather and smugness today though, for tomorrow you find out that you’ll get more than you bargained for!

UPDATE: Views from Joanne and Tony, with more to follow I’m sure!

“You Think I’m Bad, The Other Guy Will Kill Off 1 in 5 Of You!”

The London Mayor likened a London led by Tory candidate to the Black Death at the launch of his campaign the other day.

“Having Boris as mayor would be like reliving the Black Death of the Middle Ages or almost as bad as that.”

Kind of dramatic, eh?

Libertarian Presidential Front-Runner Defends Child Porn

Mary Ruwart, research scientist, perrenial Libertarian Senatorial candidate and front runner for this year’s Libertarian Presidential ticket is being taken to task for comments she made in her book, Short Answers to Tough Questions.

When discussing self choice in relation to child porn, she had this to say: “Children who willingly participate in sexual acts have the right to make that decision as well, even if it’s distasteful to us personally. Some children will make poor choices just as some adults do in smoking and drinking to excess. When we outlaw child pornography, the prices paid for child performers rise, increasing the incentives for parents to use children against their will.”

So, following this logic, we should also decriminalize murder, seeing as when it is outlawed the cost of a hitman rises, increasing the incentive for someone to kill for money?

I cannot see how anyone can argue that a child is ready to make the kind of choice that would subject them to child pornography, and in almost every case they will be influenced by either their parents, or the pornographer. Granted, perhaps if she was talking about people who are legally children but widely considered old enough to make sexual decisions, (14-17 years old), her position might be slightly more defencible, but still.

I am all for freedom for two consenting adults to do whatever they want behind closed doors. Children aren’t adults, and I doubt they’re consenting.

It doesn’t look like Ruwart will quit the race, despite the increased scrutiny, but it still looks like the Libertarian nominee is going to be ex-Republican representative Bob Barr after this quotation has been brought to light.

Of course, it’s all a moot point, as the LP Candidate has no reasonable shot at the Presidency, but it’s a start. Now if only someone would read “The Audacity of Hope”.

Obama Might Win the Nomination, but Lose the Election

Lanny Davis at the Huffington Post outlines the top ten “List of Undisputed Facts Showing Barack Obama’s Weakness in the General Election Against John McCain” and just when you thought it could not get any worse for the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination, Jazz Shaw ponders,

[...] at this point I have begun to wonder if Hillary and Barack are not in a race to see who can elect John McCain the fastest.

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