Are We There Yet?

“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
Ayn Rand

If you read the news today or have been reading it for the last while you are virtually assaulted by the systemic use of tax money to bail out here, or subsidize there. The workers cry out for it, the Unions beg for it, the businessmen complain that they can not survive without it and the politicians dole it out.

When this is done a majority of consumers sagely nod their heads, Unions and businessmen grimly set their jaws and make a show of “getting to work” and Politicians on the left and on the right preach the gospel of regulation, control and “social responsibility”.

It’s systemic, invasive, pervasive and sickening.

So, as the title of this post asks… Are we there yet? Is it necessary for honest rights respecting folks to be criminals in order to live their lives as men?

Tax And Gouge Liberal

In this time of economic uncertainty the McGinty government wants to impose another set of taxes on the people of Ontario. First it was the announcement in the 2009 Ontario Budget that his government would harmonize the PST adding 8% tax onto every single good and service that is currently PST exempt.

This is a cash grab of unprecedented proportions from the guy that said he wouldn't increase taxes!

Then McTaxation decides he wants to go ahead with a Cap and Trade system for Carbon emissions. The speculation that increased costs for industry "could be passed on to taxpayers" is laughable. What on earth is speculative about it!!! Do the mental midgets in Queens Park believe for one second that a businessman is not going to pass this increased costs onto the consumer?!?!?

"A cap-and-trade system places a ceiling on greenhouse gases and lets participants buy and sell emissions permits within that cap. Those who don't meet the emissions targets can buy credits from others with a surplus instead of lowering their emissions."

This is nothing more than a wealth distribution scheme. Which is to say distributing your wealth into the government's coffers. I am willing to bet that every single one of these transactions will be subject to the new HST... How much money will this net the Tax-drunk Liberal Government of Ontario.

I'm going to don my soothsayer hat for a moment...

When... WHEN (not if) Ontario business' pass this new carbon/production penalty onto consumers I expect the McTaxation Government to lambaste them for "taking advantage of the consumer" or/and for "forcing the innocent consumer to pay for their waste and polution"... Crank up the spin machine... It's going to be a doozy!

Now for an examination of the Win, WIN, WIN, WIN situation these new taxes represent.

• Company A (a logging firm) is assessed as being in violation of its Carbon cap. So that business buys Carbon credits from CompanyB (some "carbon nutral" business)... Cha-Ching! McTaxation gathers his carbon cap loot... Win
  

• Company A having been forced to pay for Carbon raises the price of his lumber which he sells to Comapny C (the building supply company)... Cha-Ching! McTaxation gathers HST loot... WIN
  

• Company C having been forced to pay more for the lumber passes that cost on to Company D (the home builder)... Cha-Ching! McTaxation continues his taxation-extraviganza gathering in more HST... WIN *note that this would happen with almost every product that goes into a house or other product.
  

• Company D having been forced to pay more for the materials used to build the house passes that increased cost onto the consumer... CHA-CHING!!! McTaxation gathers the biggest payoff yet because not only does he get more taxes because the house costs more but this is actually a brand new taxation stream for his Tax-adicted government... New construction used to be PST exempt!!! WIN

NB* Even with the market in a downturn the median price of a home in Ontario is $275,000. That represents a tax-gouge of $22,000 for every new home sold in Ontario. Last month in the GTA alone 1880 new homes were sold.* That would mean a grand total of $41,360,000 dollars from ONE city, ripped out of this provinces economy (your pocket) and stuffed into the McTaxation government's greedy cake-hole.

McGinty is about to castrate this province's economy worse than Bob Rae's NDP did.

Visualizing $100 million in budget cuts

We need more visual thinkers like this:

Robbing Harper - Steals From You to Give To Them

So now my money is going to be given out to Kids in the Caribbean so that they can go to university in Canada paid for by my taxes?

WTF?

I might sound insensitive here but perhaps these countries should be putting their own students through fricking university and my money should be left in my pocket so I can put MY two kids through university.

I find myself looking forward to the next election, and wondering if these guys have a candidate in my riding...

Silly Me...

I should have bought a Chrysler or GM...

Oh, wait! Maybe I did...

Nope, I didn't. I chose a Toyota, because Chrysler and GM didn't produce the kind or quality of vehicle I wanted.

Thanks to the government I will get to make payments on them though.


So let me get this right, it is now the responsibility of government to honour the warrantees of private companies to individual consumers?

And this current cleptocracy calls itself "Conservative"? WTF ever happened to limited government?

CHRC Shakedown

Jennifer Lynch pressures a company for thousands of dollars of freebies, like some mafia don. Ezra Levant outlines the sordid story here. Suffice to say that a quasi judicial agency with police powers demanding that an entity under its jurisdiction provides goods and services is the sort of thing we might expect in Russia, Venezuela or some third world kelptocracy rather than an liberal democratic nation like Canada.

The most telling part:

Lynch sent a letter to Newcap Radio – a station that comes under her jurisdiction. She asked them to fall into line with the CHRC’s way of thinking. And what came out the other end is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free ads featuring Lynch herself.

Question: Does that massive donation to Lynch constitute a political contribution? Is it a form of lobbying? What are the legal implications of Newcap simply gifting that to a bureaucrat for her vanity project? Where will the value of that gift be disclosed? What were the terms of the deal?

But much more important than the legal taxonomy for the gift: what was the quid pro quo?

What indeed?

The only way to ferret out the corruption in the "Human Rights" racket is to Fire. Them. All.

Writing your MP is a good first step, and following up by suggesting that you will refuse financial support to the political party in question until substantive action is taken might focus their minds on the problem. Blogbursting this story (particularly to our friends in the United States) and asking your local MSM outlets why they are not following this story are also worth doing to raise the profile and shine the spotlight on corruption.

Take action. Freedom is a self help project.

The Shakedown

It's another quiet day in the store. Some parts of your inventory are still selling, though a little slower than normal. On the whole though, you're not nearly as bad off as Sam down the road or Pierre (who's neighbourhood has taken a turn for the worst in recent years).

That didn't matter last week though, when Big Ken and his boys came to you and in not so subtle terms indicated that your continued economic survival depended on their economic survival.

In spite of your better judgment you "agreed" to a sum, knowing that other companies much bigger than yours in terms of inventory, like Sam's had already cracked under the weight of people like Ken and his friends.

But you're nervous, you think that maybe the money you've promised Big Ken and his boys will keep them away until after this "economic downturn" but you are still facing the downturn yourself and the money Ken has demanded is more than you can and should be parting with especially now.

Well, you think... Just maybe if I tighten my belt another notch, if I am just a little more frugal I won't notice that money too much.

At that point the front door opens and in walks Ken.

In a speech brimming with imperatives he explains that, sadly, no, that wasn't all he was after... that "you'd better be sure to have some extra cash on hand and ready for him any time he should ask... That you had better be thinking about how you are going to keep his friends right where they are now or it will all come back to you... No, it wasn't his friends fault, their inability to make money on their own was your fault, and you have to make sure, no matter what, that they were happy and safe... Or.. all this would be destroyed.

The Auto Industry bailout so everyone can understand:

While we may have avoided the bailout this time, rest assured the high priced lobbyists are hard at work looking for your tax dollars to prop up inefficient but politically connected unions and businessmen. This probably won't end until the rotting corpses of the "Big Three" have been dismembered and buried (and any sort of bailout will simply prolong the problem and the ultimate price to you and I).

If you want a bumper sticker or message to send to your elected representative, try this:

"You gave them a bailout, now I can't afford a car!"

Run up the Black Flag!

Although the Liberals, Bloc and NDP may have pulled one over on the Canadian electorate with their coalition stunt, there are some actions we can take as free Canadians. I outlined a few on Sunday, and now I am going to propose piracy against a putative coalition government.

By piracy, I am following the example of Ragnar Danneskjöld, and will grab for my share of the $30 billion inflationary stimulus package. Like Ragnar, I will calculate my income tax from 1993 to 2006, and also add the GST paid for the purchase of a number of cars and two homes during that period. That is the figure I propose to use when claiming any government "stimulus" grants, which will probably be handed out in indecent haste and with the sort of oversight that allowed the HRDC to perpetrate the "Billion Dollar Boondoggle".

As a free and responsible citizen, I want you to carefully consider doing the same; calculate the taxes you paid from 1993-2006, add any GST for major purchases like houses or cars, then put together a business proposal to hire a few people and apply for a grant of that amount. This is only a self refund of the monies that were taken from you to support the extortionate and ineffectual government schemes that crippled Canada's economy and political culture, and reduced us to a shadow on the global stage.

It seems only right that we use the perpetrators of the last round of extortion to provide the refund now.

Fire. Them. All.

Thank you Ezra.

H/T SDA & No Libs

Signs of the Collectivist Apocalypse (SOTCA)

It is obvious to anyone who reads Atlas Shrugged, that throughout it, the policies and programs undertaken by the ubiquitous Thompson government and the so called Peoples States, combined with the altruistic and nihilistic tendencies of anti-heroes like James Taggart and Wesley Mouch are leading to the final destruction of society. Indeed the book culminates in a collectivist apocalypse and the escape of the heroes and heroine to Galt’s Gulch.

Like the canary in the mineshaft I seek to warn you all that we may be looking at the same fate somewhere down the road.

So just to keep tabs on the situation I introduce a recurring theme to Uncommon Sense, a chirp here and there which I will call…

Signs of the Collectivist Apocalypse (SOTCA)

My first entry is about the US Treasury and a sweeping power grab by its new Head

The regulatory blueprint proposes eventually vesting new powers in the Federal Reserve as a "market stability regulator" -- effectively formalizing a role the central bank already has adopted recently by expanding the list of financial firms which can borrow directly.

It would give the Fed authority to demand that all financial system participants supply it with full information on their activities and grant the Fed a right to collaborate with other regulators in setting rules for their behavior.

Woosh!!! Super Finance Cop to the rescue!

Hold on a sec... Weren't these the same guys that were at least partially responsible for the sub-prime fiasco? Foxes in Hen houses anyone?

The great Cash and Cars Giveaway

Or How Dalton Made us all Pay

WINDSOR, Ont. - Ford of Canada will use a $17-million investment from the Ontario government as part of a $168-million plan to reopen the Essex engine plant in southwestern Ontario, but the company warned Monday it will not expand the project further without direct participation from the federal government.

Excellent Dalton McSquirmy throwing good money after bad, just to be threatened by the Ford company that it will all be for naught if they don't get more!!!

It's almost like he wants to be the Premier of a have not province...

The Libertarian Masochists Challenge.

Try this for one month...

Every time you see or hear a reference to "government funding" replace the word government with the word taxpayer.

Every time someone says or writes the words "government program" replace the word government with taxpayer and program with the word handout.

Every time you see/hear the word legislation replace it with bureaucracy.

Ooh, and have a merry Christmas.

Liars and Roaches and Broadcasters, Oh My!

I've been against a public inquiry into the whole Mulroney/Schrieber sham since the beginning but I'm starting to change my mind.

No, not because I believe that there was anything there that could not, or should not have been sorted out in a court of law between former PM Mulroney's Lawyers and Schreibers, but because this incident has opened up an opportunity to expose the pettiness, the vindictiveness, the craven morality and political whoremanship alive and thriving in some circles of Canadian politics today.

As Members of Parliament, some named in this press release seem to scamper headlong into the gutter, hand in hand with a man accused of fraud, bribery, breach of trust and tax-evasion and aided by "Canada's national broadcaster", their only achievement will be to have dragged an innocent man and the country's highest political office along with them.

So when a Member of Parliament is asking questions, issued to him by the national broadcaster, with all the integrity and forethought of a high school dropout living in his mom's basement and unable to think for himself, is it any wonder that Canadians are getting sick and tired of both of them?

Mine may seem like a strange reason to want a public inquiry, but now that the rock has been lifted lets turn it all the way over and see just what sort of roaches scurry away from the light.

Sorry PM Mulroney, you've already endured so much, but Canadians have to be shown the faces of the moral cowards who are doing this, in the hopes that come the next election the public will recognize them and their ilk.

You're not in mommy's basement anymore Pablo.