So close...

And yet so far.

This article in the National post begins with a precise and correct statement of principle.

"If you have a language, heritage or sexual orientation you would like to celebrate, good for you. This is Canada: Feel free to stage a march, parade or festival in honour of whatever makes you proud. But, please, do it on your own dime."

but then they go and ruin it by adding...

"As Toronto's Pride Parade and several recent Sikh events have demonstrated, public funds should not be used to underwrite controversial gatherings for niche communities."

Do you see the problem?

It's not that these parades "underwrite controversial gatherings for niche communities." it's the theft of public funds to support any such event. Whether it be the Molson Indy or a boy scouts parade, if there isn't enough voluntary or corporate support in the community then there is no damn way that a government, any government ought to be able to use taxes to put on a show.

This is a fine example of the waste in our public finances. We have millions of dollars of debt at the municipal level, tens of billions of debt at the provincial level and hundreds of billions at the federal level and we are throwing parties?

I don't know about you but when I find myself a little short at the end of a month I don't decide to pay for a friend's kegger.

Islam is...

Become an Anti-Fascist (for real)

The Ann Coulter event that was shut down by a legion of Brownshirts at the University of Ottawa on the 23 of March, 2010 at the veiled instigation of the University's Vice-President Academic and Provost.

As Mark Styen so eloquently puts it:

"Alliances between the state’s ideological commissars and street mobs are a familiar feature of certain kinds of societies, and I suppose Canada will soon get used to its membership of this unlovely club."

Do we really want to become part of this unlovely club? should we sit still while Fraud and Force become the ruling imperatives of this society? We are already pretty far along this path already, do we want to finish with our children inheriting a Fascist society?

Fight Fraud by shining the light on government accounting at every level. All parties and politicians are guilty to a greater or lesser extent, basing deficit reduction on rosy predictions of GDP growth is as fraudulent as labelling crony capitalism as "economic stimulus". Putting items off the budget or obscuring public audits and scrutiny are equally bad. Individuals can explore and expose government fraud and waste, we need legions of bloggers to do so at the Municipal, Provincial and Federal level.

Fight Force by doing everything possible to deny funding to Universities which promote Brownshirt behaviour like shutting down free speech or promoting "Israel anti-apartheid week". No money to fundraisers or endowments. Withdraw from these institutions so they don't get your tuition fees. Refuse to hire graduates from these Universities and let the applicant know why.

Ayn Rand laid it out for all of us:

"It is the greatest moral crisis in history, and the last"

Which side of History do you want to be on?

Freedom is a self help project

Iggynoramus and the Clowns of Parliament

This is absolutely hilarious, and sad.

You see, not only do the Liberals not stand for anything but their positions are so inscrutable, unfathomable and so completely devoid of any principle that they themselves don't know how to vote because they can't keep their convoluted positions clear in their own heads.

There is an old Chinese proverb "The man who takes the straight road never gets lost."

Rights

I honestly can not believe how many people in this country (Canada) do not even understand the concept of rights.

From the ones who claim as rights everything from sewers to surgery to the people who throw up their hands and declare them to be unimportant.

Individual Rights, Life, Liberty and Property... It's not worth living without them.

Fighting for Freedom (The new American Revolution)

After months of trickery, bribes, backroom deals and outright lies, the Healthcare bill passed in the Congress yesterday.

American's will now have to fight for their freedoms.

The question is how to do so?

The answer seems so stunningly simple and obvious; massive civil disobedience against government healthcare. Do the ruling elites have the ability to function if two million TEA partiers refuse to pay income tax or buy "mandated" insurance? How about five million or so FOX viewers? How about 20 million Rush Limbaugh listeners? Courts would be paralyzed, all government functions would be shut down and there are not enough ACORN and SEIU brownshirts to enforce obedience (I doubt they are more than fair weather friends who would melt away at the first serious sign of opposition anyway).

As America goes so do we in Canada (and the rest of the world), so we need to see that light of freedom. Keep up the good fight.

Wear Sunscreen... and Other Wisdom

h/t Rory

Socialism is...

A child of democracy, who upon hearing that times are tough and that there isn't enough to go around, immediately asks for a raise in his allowance.

Good for the Goose???

I am waiting breathlessly (and sarcastically) for the Congressional hearings.

GM Recall

Evading Reality With British Climatologists

“I don’t think there is anything in those e-mails that supports any view that I have been trying to pervert the peer review process . . .”

Eh?

Professor Jones admitted to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee yesterday that he had “written some very awful e-mails”, including one in which he rejected a request for information on the ground that the person receiving it might criticise his work.

What, pray tell, could be considered more of a perversion of the peer review process?

*

Truth in Politics

This is ridiculous.

The truth is the best policy. This particular tempest in a teapot could be solved with a single, clear, concise statement from the government to the effect that;

Not all Members of Parliament have the necessary security clearance, or could even obtain the necessary security clearance to be privy to these documents, the re...lease of which could adversely affect our soldiers and our allies in the field, and Canada's National Interests at home and abroad.

The solution to this issue is quite simple, the government will establish a Parliamentary Armed Services Committee which will be a non-partisan committee consisting of government and opposition MP's who take the steps to achieve (and are subsequently awarded) the appropriate security clearances.

This committee will not be able to speak of or make public any information so classified but should any impropriety occur they can bring that matter before a similarly qualified and security cleared auditor or judge.

So why won't the government do it? Because if you tell the simple truth people will come to expect it and then this government (and every other government Canada is likely to have) is screwed.

Running out of other People's Money

Margaret Thatcher once famously quipped that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend.

Greece is in the middle of proving that the people who support the socialist ideal will turn on the government they created as soon as that eventuality comes to fruition.

Robber mentality.

I truly wish more people could see the health care issue this way.

In a related note as was pointed out to me by Mike Davidson on FB, Danny Williams decision to go to Florida in spite of his support for the Canada health act is no more (or less) hypocritical than the robber who locks his own door when he goes out to rob other peoples houses.

The Second Tier

Danny Williams proves what those of us who are paying attention already know. There are two tiers of health care in Canada already.

The first tier is the majority that can only afford to pay 40% of their taxes to Canada's bloated health care mafia and accept the service that provides them. The second tier are those who can afford to do that, and escape the mediocre service of nationalized health care and pay for the best healthcare that money can buy... elsewhere.

I don't begrudge Danny getting the best for him, that's rational. However I'd like to remind everyone that in the future when Danny boy comes out in favor of the Canada health act he is being nothing short of hypocritical.

And We Call it Aid...

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"Unfortunately, the Europeans' devastating urge to do good can no longer be countered with reason."

The concept is simple, allow the people of Africa to solve their own problems and they will be better off, and will be able to stay better off.

Imagine if you will that suddenly the average Canadian couldn't afford to buy a house so another country decided that they were going to donate as many fully constructed homes to Canada as possible. Think about the repercussions that would have. The Canadian builders couldn't hope to compete with free houses so they would go out of business, which would push construction workers out of work, which would mean less building supplies were needed, which would lead to layoffs in those industries. Markets are all interconnected and all these layoffs would lead to people having less money to build and buy houses which would exacerbate the original problem, not solve it.

Notice in this map that South Africa entirely surrounds the tiny country of Lesotho. Aid is supposed to go to countries suffering from drought or other such serious disasters right? Well, how is it that the entire area surrounding Lesotho requires less than 1% Aid and that country needs between 5 and 10%?

A true plan to revive the economy

Stockwell Day is now Canada's Treasury Minister, and will have to make cuts to government spending amounting to about 8% to reduce spending by $19 billion over the next five years. To make this palatable to voters and the opposition parties, transfer payments are to be considered "untouchable". There is a lot of fat in terms of programs which are either not delivering what is promised, have outlived their usefulness or are mismanaged and can be reorganized to run more efficiently. Consider that large corporations like Canadian Tire or Wal-Mart typically only have five layers of management, while government departments have convoluted structures with multiple layers of management (reputedly as many as 30, but I'll leave that as anecdotal until I see proof)

I think the emphasis on protecting transfers is wrong headed, but that is because I don't see the idea of the State seizing wealth and property from the productive to give to political rent seekers and the non productive as being a proper role for the State.

However, given political reality, cutting transfers to individuals would be electoral suicide, so about $61 billion is untouchable.

We can still look at other areas like transfers to governments (especially governments with their own sources of revenue like offshore oil or hydro), which gives us another $46 billion to work with.

Subsidies should be cut for another @ $30 billion

Crown corporations should be cut as well, since that provides another $8 billion

Adding that up, we can get $84 billion in cuts. Sustained for six years this would allow the entire national debt to be paid off, and if the program is sustained for 12 years then all unfunded liabilities (CPP, pensions, etc.) are also covered.

Not included in this virtuous circle is the possibility of reductions in operating expenses due to the ending of so many programs, and of course the reduction of the $30 billion/year in debt payments. Real tax cuts can be made from the savings here, energizing the economy and in all likelyhood speeding up the entire process through increased tax revenues.

Here is a real program to get behind: don't leave the debt to our grandchildren but pay it off before our children leave school!

Take that Alinsky!

Over the years, the Progressives have infiltrated and taken over mass media and popular culture. Their memes are embedded in virtually any TV show, movie or piece of music, providing an echo chamber of self referential and self re-enforcing themes and ideas. Original and critical thought is not just discouraged, it is simply drowned out.

Or is it?

Take a look at this video which lays out the two main strands of economic thought in an entertaining Rap video:

"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Andrew Breitbart of BigJournalism fame now has a catchy tune for "Retracto the Correction Alpaca" (itself an entertaining meme):

http://bigjournalism.com/retracto/2010/02/09/introducing-the-retracto-the-correction-alpaca-theme-song/

Enjoy, and pass these on.

Facta Non Verba

Remember, Canada's health care system is just as good as any other...

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

W.E. Henley

Haitian Earthquake & global warming

Well if Danny Glover says it it must be true...

What is that old saying about staying silent and being thought a fool, and opening your mouth and removing all doubt?

Danny, you are a fool.