Monday, May 29, 2006
Are people actually noticing?
I need some help from my loyal readers (or those ones that think I'm evil and completely blinkered, whatever). Those in the know about politics in Canada are aware that Harper and the media have been jousting recently. But the fact is, nobody really seems to be talking about it; the media's blatant attempts to pull the public around to their side aren't working, while Harper's "the newspapers don't run the country and it's time they stopped talking like they do" attitude isn't getting the cheers I think it should. Being out of the country at the moment, I can't gauge public opinion as well as I might do if I were at home, so I have to ask: is anyone talking about this?
'Cause it is a big deal, you know. Harper is finally calling our national media out on the fact that they have been biased toward the left for, well, as long as I can remember. One might hope this whole debacle would finally open the average voter's eyes to our national media's notorious slant, but that ain't gonna happen if nobody cares.
'Cause it is a big deal, you know. Harper is finally calling our national media out on the fact that they have been biased toward the left for, well, as long as I can remember. One might hope this whole debacle would finally open the average voter's eyes to our national media's notorious slant, but that ain't gonna happen if nobody cares.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
This is just priceless...
My dad's just spent a couple of days up in Peace River (about 300 kilometers northwest of Edmonton), and had the opportunity to check out one of Shell's pilot oilsands projects. Along the way, he encountered a bit of environmentalist stupidity I felt was worthy of mention here.
Alberta Environment regulations say that because the project is only a feasibility demonstration and not permanent, the road - the twenty kilometer road - out to the extraction site cannot be paved. Something about reducing the environmental footprint of the project. Which makes sense, I suppose...until you find out that one of the byproducts of the project itself is 40,000 metric tons of asphalt every year! They truck it out to places as far away as Calgary, but they can't use it to de-bump their daily commute.
Typical. Save the environment by requiring that the company use large, gas-guzzling trucks to carry useful products hundreds of miles away from where they're actually needed. Ahh, bureaucratic intelligence.
Alberta Environment regulations say that because the project is only a feasibility demonstration and not permanent, the road - the twenty kilometer road - out to the extraction site cannot be paved. Something about reducing the environmental footprint of the project. Which makes sense, I suppose...until you find out that one of the byproducts of the project itself is 40,000 metric tons of asphalt every year! They truck it out to places as far away as Calgary, but they can't use it to de-bump their daily commute.
Typical. Save the environment by requiring that the company use large, gas-guzzling trucks to carry useful products hundreds of miles away from where they're actually needed. Ahh, bureaucratic intelligence.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Good news and bad
The good: Harper has publicly announced his desire to introduce fixed dates for federal elections. Under the current system, governments can manipulate the system to stay in power far beyond their best-before dates, as Chretien and Martin have shown us. The proposal is for elections every four years, with the first one set for fall of 2009.
The bad: the Tories have agreed to keep going with the next step of the Kyoto Scam, despite having characterized the treaty and its targets as unrealistic. Apparently the leaked government memo which suggested Kyoto might be abandoned in favor of a more level-headed scheme was either intentionally or unintentionally misleading.
The ugly: nothing really, but I had to say it.
The bad: the Tories have agreed to keep going with the next step of the Kyoto Scam, despite having characterized the treaty and its targets as unrealistic. Apparently the leaked government memo which suggested Kyoto might be abandoned in favor of a more level-headed scheme was either intentionally or unintentionally misleading.
The ugly: nothing really, but I had to say it.
Take that
You know how liberals like to say they care more about education than we do? You know how the northeast is supposed to be the center of high-class education? You know how the damned Yankees are always calling Southerners downright dumb?
Well, I knew none of that was true anyway. It's nice to have a little extra evidence, though. I was skimming an old Newsweek at the hospital today and came across an article on the best high schools in America. Would it surprise you to know that the country's most academically accomplished high school is in Dallas? Or that seven of the top ten are in Texas and the South (with one more in Arizona)?
Face it, folks: red-staters are smart people.
Well, I knew none of that was true anyway. It's nice to have a little extra evidence, though. I was skimming an old Newsweek at the hospital today and came across an article on the best high schools in America. Would it surprise you to know that the country's most academically accomplished high school is in Dallas? Or that seven of the top ten are in Texas and the South (with one more in Arizona)?
Face it, folks: red-staters are smart people.
More Liberal anti-Albertanism coming to light
It looks more and more like the Tories are giving up on Kyoto. While I should have been happy to hear about that, it has brought to light one more little fact about our previous government that has me positively livid.
According to CTV, the old Liberal government promised $538 million to Ontario to help them cut greehouse gas emissions. This after the Liberals exempted the auto industry - the main engine of Ontario's economy - from Kyoto targets. A further $328 million was promised to Quebec. "Memorandums of understanding" had also been reached with Nova Scotia, PEI, and Saskatchewan. Notice any particular glaring absence?
Alberta is the province that would have been most affected by Kyoto, but wasn't promised a single cent to help with the economic hit we would have taken. Any federalists out there want to take a shot at glossing this one over?
According to CTV, the old Liberal government promised $538 million to Ontario to help them cut greehouse gas emissions. This after the Liberals exempted the auto industry - the main engine of Ontario's economy - from Kyoto targets. A further $328 million was promised to Quebec. "Memorandums of understanding" had also been reached with Nova Scotia, PEI, and Saskatchewan. Notice any particular glaring absence?
Alberta is the province that would have been most affected by Kyoto, but wasn't promised a single cent to help with the economic hit we would have taken. Any federalists out there want to take a shot at glossing this one over?
Thursday, May 25, 2006
More on Joint Task Force 2
I guess I should have made it clear that the incident I mentioned yesterday - with Canadian troops being involved in a hostage rescue operation in Iraq - is two months old. (And we sure heard a lot about it in March, didn't we? Damn liberal CBC.) But I've been scowering the web and it doesn't seem there's been a lot of follow-up; besides a few rumors being propagated mostly by lefties who want JTF2 to stay home and sit on their collective butts all day (try googling "canada jtf2 iraq"), there's no news at all.
Which isn't surprising. Back in March, Harper told reporters "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. These are issues of national security" when asked about JTF2's role in Iraq. The only information I could find was an unsubstantiated report that about 30 Canadian soldiers are on the ground near Baghdad providing logistical support.
Then again, it's hardly surprising; everything JTF2 does is top secret. They are so secret, in fact, that most of the information available about their role in Afghanistan comes from their American military partners and not from the Canadian government. And surprised as you may be that Canada maintains such a force, they are not only approximately equivalent to the British Special Air Service and the American Delta Force, but were praised by individuals such as U.S. Navy Commander Kerry Metz, director of operations for Task Force K-Bar, for their work in Afghanistan. It is known that the Pentagon has had its eye on JTF2 for operations in Iraq for some time. They are trained especially for work in inhospitable climates (and led several joint operations in Afghanistan which involved mountaineering above 10,000 feet), and a representative of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies has commented that "what they do is infiltrate into dangerous areas behind enemy lines, look for key targets and take them out. They don't go out to arrest people. They don't go out there to hand out food parcels. They go out to kill targets."
I'd sure enjoy finding out they were in Iraq, fighting the good fight. But it looks like unless another agency gets involved, like the RCMP did in March, we won't be hearing much.
Which isn't surprising. Back in March, Harper told reporters "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. These are issues of national security" when asked about JTF2's role in Iraq. The only information I could find was an unsubstantiated report that about 30 Canadian soldiers are on the ground near Baghdad providing logistical support.
Then again, it's hardly surprising; everything JTF2 does is top secret. They are so secret, in fact, that most of the information available about their role in Afghanistan comes from their American military partners and not from the Canadian government. And surprised as you may be that Canada maintains such a force, they are not only approximately equivalent to the British Special Air Service and the American Delta Force, but were praised by individuals such as U.S. Navy Commander Kerry Metz, director of operations for Task Force K-Bar, for their work in Afghanistan. It is known that the Pentagon has had its eye on JTF2 for operations in Iraq for some time. They are trained especially for work in inhospitable climates (and led several joint operations in Afghanistan which involved mountaineering above 10,000 feet), and a representative of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies has commented that "what they do is infiltrate into dangerous areas behind enemy lines, look for key targets and take them out. They don't go out to arrest people. They don't go out there to hand out food parcels. They go out to kill targets."
I'd sure enjoy finding out they were in Iraq, fighting the good fight. But it looks like unless another agency gets involved, like the RCMP did in March, we won't be hearing much.
Well, it just keeps on getting worse
I've just learned that the latest estimate of Alberta's yearly contribution to Ottawa has increased to $12 billion (net), up $900 million from two years ago. And Harper still refuses to do anything - in fact, if anything, the rumors are saying that the June 8 Council of the Federation meeting might make things worse. Fan-frigging-tastic.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Lame duck? Maybe not quite yet...
Ralph Klein is persona non grata in Alberta these days. The leftists in the province (all three of them) never liked him anyway. The provincial Tories want him gone so they can get on with finding themselves a new leader. The Alberta Alliance thinks he's been off his game for a long while, and he's far too federalist for us Separation Party voters.
Yet it suddenly seems as though ol' Ralphie might be back to his old self. CTV reported today that Ralph has threatened to pull out of the equalization payment scam...I mean "scheme"...if Ottawa decides to include resource income in the equations that determine how much the federal highwaymen pilfer from Alberta every year. Ironically, it is this suggested change in the formula which might give Alberta a legal out; Klein contends that authority over resources is guaranteed to the provinces under the Constitution.
The federal Tories made a campaign promise not to include resouce revenues in the calculations, and Klein says that he hopes "they live up to that, because otherwise they're going to have a battle on their hands." He also commented that "[Ontario Premier] McGuinty is on a different wavelength" (yeah: amplitude zero). And he made it clear he didn't intend to hand over money Albertans have earned to the greedy Quebec government.
So far, there seems to be no clear and present danger of the feds going after resource revenue, but it's important for Alberta to make it clear that it ain't gonna happen.
Personally, I hope the feds try it. It'll drive voters to the Separatists like you wouldn't believe.
Yet it suddenly seems as though ol' Ralphie might be back to his old self. CTV reported today that Ralph has threatened to pull out of the equalization payment scam...I mean "scheme"...if Ottawa decides to include resource income in the equations that determine how much the federal highwaymen pilfer from Alberta every year. Ironically, it is this suggested change in the formula which might give Alberta a legal out; Klein contends that authority over resources is guaranteed to the provinces under the Constitution.
The federal Tories made a campaign promise not to include resouce revenues in the calculations, and Klein says that he hopes "they live up to that, because otherwise they're going to have a battle on their hands." He also commented that "[Ontario Premier] McGuinty is on a different wavelength" (yeah: amplitude zero). And he made it clear he didn't intend to hand over money Albertans have earned to the greedy Quebec government.
So far, there seems to be no clear and present danger of the feds going after resource revenue, but it's important for Alberta to make it clear that it ain't gonna happen.
Personally, I hope the feds try it. It'll drive voters to the Separatists like you wouldn't believe.
Canada joins Coalition of the Willing?
The PM and the Department of National Defense have refused to comment on the specifics, but it is known that RCMP officers are on the ground in Iraq and have been involved in the rescue of four hostages who had been held near Baghdad for nearly four months. A spokesman for the RCMP said "I can confirm we were there, working in collaboration with DND, Foreign Affairs and our international partners."
Stephen Harper has confirmed that Canadian agencies are active in Iraq. The Pentagon has also indicated that Canadian special forces took part in the recent rescue. Rumors are flying that Joint Task Force 2 commandos have been working with the British Special Air Service in Iraq.
"There have been a small number of Canadian military personnel embedded in American and allied units," Harper told reporters. "That's been the case since the beginning of the war. Nothing has changed on that front."
But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the RCMP and "other agencies from Canada" were involved in the rescue, and that "they did a terrific job". That sounds like more than a handful of embedded troops to me.
Better late than never, I guess. Hopefully the Brits, the Aussies, and the Americans saved us a seat.
I'll keep watch on this and post whatever information I find. Hopefully this will prove to be a turning point in Canadian international relations.
Stephen Harper has confirmed that Canadian agencies are active in Iraq. The Pentagon has also indicated that Canadian special forces took part in the recent rescue. Rumors are flying that Joint Task Force 2 commandos have been working with the British Special Air Service in Iraq.
"There have been a small number of Canadian military personnel embedded in American and allied units," Harper told reporters. "That's been the case since the beginning of the war. Nothing has changed on that front."
But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the RCMP and "other agencies from Canada" were involved in the rescue, and that "they did a terrific job". That sounds like more than a handful of embedded troops to me.
Better late than never, I guess. Hopefully the Brits, the Aussies, and the Americans saved us a seat.
I'll keep watch on this and post whatever information I find. Hopefully this will prove to be a turning point in Canadian international relations.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Reba McEntire, I love you
As I hope you know, the Academy of Country Music Awards were tonight. Besides my all-time favorite singer - Sara Evans - finally winning the Best Female Vocalist award she deserves, there was one other particularly memorable moment, provided by MC Reba McEntire when she made the following comment about her anxiety towards the evening:
"Boy, I don't know why I was so nervous about hosting this show this year. I mean, if the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouths, surely I can host this sucker."
'Nough said.
"Boy, I don't know why I was so nervous about hosting this show this year. I mean, if the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouths, surely I can host this sucker."
'Nough said.
I've just found the Liberal Party's theme song
"Crazy People", by The Wreckers:
....Only crazy people fall in love with me
....They come from all over to be with me
....Bank robbers and killers
....Drunks and drug dealers
....Only crazy people fall in love with me
I thought of Paul Martin immediately!
....Only crazy people fall in love with me
....They come from all over to be with me
....Bank robbers and killers
....Drunks and drug dealers
....Only crazy people fall in love with me
I thought of Paul Martin immediately!
100 days in and soaring high
Well, I'll be damned. Freed from the propaganda of the old Liberal government, the Canadian people have begun to realize that hey, the Tories actually aren't evil incarnate. A recent poll has found that the Conservative Party's support currently sits at 43%, followed by the Liberals at 25%, the NDP at 15%, and the Bloc at 9%. It's tight, but currently the Tories have more support than their two chief rivals combined. In fact, the Ipsos Reid pollsters say that Harper could, if an election were to be held today, be swept back into power with a majority. Can I get a "woo-hoo"?
Some rather interesting statistics from the poll:
-BC has started heavily supporting the Tories, who now sit at 48% support to the Liberals' 20.
-The Quebec Liberals are hemorraging supporters; the former Liberal stronghold now shows the Libs at 14% with the Tories at 33, trailing the Bloc by only five points.
-Ontario, ever the last to figure anything out, is finally supporting the Conservatives over the Liberals - by a margin of 42 to 38. It's not exactly a wave of common sense, but it might constitute a trickle. Enough for them to give Squiddy McGuinty the boot? Anything's possible.
Some rather interesting statistics from the poll:
-BC has started heavily supporting the Tories, who now sit at 48% support to the Liberals' 20.
-The Quebec Liberals are hemorraging supporters; the former Liberal stronghold now shows the Libs at 14% with the Tories at 33, trailing the Bloc by only five points.
-Ontario, ever the last to figure anything out, is finally supporting the Conservatives over the Liberals - by a margin of 42 to 38. It's not exactly a wave of common sense, but it might constitute a trickle. Enough for them to give Squiddy McGuinty the boot? Anything's possible.
A nation is born
ElephantMan over at ConservaGlobe has just posted the news that the region of Montenegro has voted 55.4% in favor of separation from Serbia in Sunday's referendum. I join E-Man in congratulating the new nation on its independence. Welcome to the world, Montenegro!
The Alberta rant
Rebekah's politically correct Christmas poem inspired me to post this old Molson parody I came up with years ago. For those of you lucky enough to be unfamiliar with Joe Molson's asinine soliloquey, here it is.
And now, the revised version...
Hey.
I'm not a rancher,
Or an oil driller,
And I don't live in an farmhouse,
Or own a horse-drawn carriage, though I’m sure that would be really cool.
And I don't know Jimmy from Edmonton or Johnny from Calgary,
'Cause you know, there's actually more to the province than that.
I have a real leader,
Not a Liberal.
I speak English,
Not PC.
And I say "howdy",
And it's not a joke.
I can proudly sew my provincial flag on my backpack.
I believe in action, not talk,
Freedom, not socialism,
And that the bull is a truly proud and noble animal.
A hailstorm is July weather,
A horse is a perfectly normal method of transportation,
And it is pronounced 'Calgry'. Not 'Calg-a-ry', 'Calgry'!
Alberta is the greatest of the provinces,
The home of the northern cowboy,
And the best part of Canada!
My name is JB!
And I am Albertan!
If you're interested in what Americans had to say back in Joe's heyday, check this out.
Oh, and I'd just like to take this opportunity to brag that both ABFreedom and I scored higher on the "How American are you?" test than Rebekah and several American visitors to her site. I am so proud right now.
And now, the revised version...
Hey.
I'm not a rancher,
Or an oil driller,
And I don't live in an farmhouse,
Or own a horse-drawn carriage, though I’m sure that would be really cool.
And I don't know Jimmy from Edmonton or Johnny from Calgary,
'Cause you know, there's actually more to the province than that.
I have a real leader,
Not a Liberal.
I speak English,
Not PC.
And I say "howdy",
And it's not a joke.
I can proudly sew my provincial flag on my backpack.
I believe in action, not talk,
Freedom, not socialism,
And that the bull is a truly proud and noble animal.
A hailstorm is July weather,
A horse is a perfectly normal method of transportation,
And it is pronounced 'Calgry'. Not 'Calg-a-ry', 'Calgry'!
Alberta is the greatest of the provinces,
The home of the northern cowboy,
And the best part of Canada!
My name is JB!
And I am Albertan!
If you're interested in what Americans had to say back in Joe's heyday, check this out.
Oh, and I'd just like to take this opportunity to brag that both ABFreedom and I scored higher on the "How American are you?" test than Rebekah and several American visitors to her site. I am so proud right now.
Hey, look! Rationality...from a union!
I'm two years from starting full-time work as a high school social studies teacher, so this article in The Times of London is the sort of thing that catches my attention. For decades, the British National Union of Teachers has been pushing for special needs kids to be taught alongside other children in regular classrooms. Suddenly, common sense has taken hold and the NUT (have you ever heard a more appropriate acronym?) have revoked their support for inclusion. John MacBeath, a Cambridge professor who has spent some time studying the issue, says that inclusion in regular schools in fact constitutes "as a form of abuse" because it forces children into "totally inappropriate" learning environments where they cannot possibly succeed.
For my part, I have no problem with the thought of taking on the challenge of teaching a student with a mild to moderate learning disability or mental handicap. But placing a student who cannot function above a fifth-grade level in my grade 12 social studies class would be not only an unfair strain on me as a teacher (having to essentially teach and grade within two entirely different schemas, never mind the ramifications on classroom functioning), but also on the disabled student himself (who would certainly feel inadequate, out of place, and confused) and the other students (who would probably be wary of knowing how to properly interact with the student in question, and might begin to resent the necessary concessions to their presence in terms of the classroom environment and teaching methods). In other words, it's a lose-lose-lose situation - and as any good teacher will say, I want the best learning environment possible to be available to all students...even if that means splitting them up.
For my part, I have no problem with the thought of taking on the challenge of teaching a student with a mild to moderate learning disability or mental handicap. But placing a student who cannot function above a fifth-grade level in my grade 12 social studies class would be not only an unfair strain on me as a teacher (having to essentially teach and grade within two entirely different schemas, never mind the ramifications on classroom functioning), but also on the disabled student himself (who would certainly feel inadequate, out of place, and confused) and the other students (who would probably be wary of knowing how to properly interact with the student in question, and might begin to resent the necessary concessions to their presence in terms of the classroom environment and teaching methods). In other words, it's a lose-lose-lose situation - and as any good teacher will say, I want the best learning environment possible to be available to all students...even if that means splitting them up.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Oy, vey...
Congress has agreed, in theory, to declare English either the "unifying language" of the United States or a bona fide official language. This is a mistake. There is no need to legislate English's place in American society. To do so only fuels a society of bureacracy and big government, and this sort of legislation has no place in a society built on freedom.
If a person coming to the US can't communicate in English, that's their problem; government doesn't need to force people to learn the local tongue when the community is doing that job just fine. Canadians, back me up on this, because we know: declaring an official language is stupid, stupid, stupid.
If a person coming to the US can't communicate in English, that's their problem; government doesn't need to force people to learn the local tongue when the community is doing that job just fine. Canadians, back me up on this, because we know: declaring an official language is stupid, stupid, stupid.
The one-armed blogging bandito returns
Still functioning with only my left hand, so this'll be short and sweet.
New Oleaners...New Orleanians...New Orleanites...whatever they are, they've re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin, the man who after Katrina said "it's time for us to rebuild [...] a chocolate New Orleans [...] a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." Nagin also stated in the same speech that "Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane [...] Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."
Well, like I said over at In The Pines, I'm rarely surprised by people electing morons. See more of Magin's inanity here.
New Oleaners...New Orleanians...New Orleanites...whatever they are, they've re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin, the man who after Katrina said "it's time for us to rebuild [...] a chocolate New Orleans [...] a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." Nagin also stated in the same speech that "Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane [...] Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."
Well, like I said over at In The Pines, I'm rarely surprised by people electing morons. See more of Magin's inanity here.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
What are we, liberals?
Okay, I'm about to speak out against a fair number of conservatives out there, so be forewarned.
Though my right wrist is in a splint at the moment, making it rather difficult to type, I just had to say something about multiple stupidities I'm seeing popping up this week, all relating to The Da Vinci Code.
#1: Some religious-conservative bloggers have been politicizing this movie just as much as liberals politicized Brokeback Mountain (but in the opposite way, of course). I have two responses to this: first, just because you happen to be both conservative and Christian doesn't mean the two must be connected. Liberals have often accused me of being some sort of fundamentalist Christian just because of my politics, and been shocked to discover that I am in fact agnostic. Stop giving them ammunition by drawing this erroneous connection - religion and politics are connected for some people, and completely separate for others. Second, I would like to point out that The Da Vinci Code (unlike serious research like The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail) is fiction. In other words, get over it. And yourselves.
#2: I was on IMDB earlier, and a sixteen-year-old kid was lamenting on the message boards about the fact that his Catholic parents have said they will kick him out of the house if he sees The Da Vinci Code. My message to them: you sicken me. You can keep your own minds as closed as you like, but maybe it's time to let your son think for himself.
I'd like to point out that the most glowing review I ever heard of this book was given to me by my best friend, a devout Catholic who was, at the time, attending a Catholic high school. Read it, don't read it, love it, hate it, or be completely apathetic, but please, please don't make it into so many things it's not.
Though my right wrist is in a splint at the moment, making it rather difficult to type, I just had to say something about multiple stupidities I'm seeing popping up this week, all relating to The Da Vinci Code.
#1: Some religious-conservative bloggers have been politicizing this movie just as much as liberals politicized Brokeback Mountain (but in the opposite way, of course). I have two responses to this: first, just because you happen to be both conservative and Christian doesn't mean the two must be connected. Liberals have often accused me of being some sort of fundamentalist Christian just because of my politics, and been shocked to discover that I am in fact agnostic. Stop giving them ammunition by drawing this erroneous connection - religion and politics are connected for some people, and completely separate for others. Second, I would like to point out that The Da Vinci Code (unlike serious research like The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail) is fiction. In other words, get over it. And yourselves.
#2: I was on IMDB earlier, and a sixteen-year-old kid was lamenting on the message boards about the fact that his Catholic parents have said they will kick him out of the house if he sees The Da Vinci Code. My message to them: you sicken me. You can keep your own minds as closed as you like, but maybe it's time to let your son think for himself.
I'd like to point out that the most glowing review I ever heard of this book was given to me by my best friend, a devout Catholic who was, at the time, attending a Catholic high school. Read it, don't read it, love it, hate it, or be completely apathetic, but please, please don't make it into so many things it's not.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
The gun registry? Corrupt? No....
"For the first time in history does a nation have complete gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient. The world will follow our lead in the future."
Three guesses who made the above statement. Okay, time's up; the answer is...Adolf Hitler.
And for ten years, Canada has attempted the very same thing. But today, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (who I'd rather see as PM, but whatever) has announced that long-gun (shotgun and rifle) owners will no longer be required to pay to register their weapons, and will not be prosecuted if they choose not to register them at all. Some other immediate changes to the registry will be a reduction of ten million dollars in its annual budget and the introduction of license renewal fee waivers and refunds.
The government also plans to bring forward legislation to completely scrap the registration of non-restricted firearms; Day said he would like to see this happen as early as next month.
In more gun registry-related news, our gal Sheila Fraser has done it again. She says government officials concealed the true cost of the gun registry's first ten years, noting that there was a $22 million overspending in 2004 alone that could not be accounted for by simple human error.
Fraser's 25-page special report on the registry also notes that key meetings were not recorded and government officials refused to offer up important information to the Auditor General (which is a dubious, but legal stance). She pointed out the costs of the registry's computer systems, which currently sit at approximately three times the original estimate. She says the accuracy of gun registry information can't be confirmed and implies that the registry is unable to show what, if anything, it has actually accomplished.
Former Liberal Public Safety Minister Anne McLlellan and former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler both tried to explain away the missing money as either an innocent mistake or an accounting snafu. It's amazing to me that these people actually think we're still going to listen to them.
Three guesses who made the above statement. Okay, time's up; the answer is...Adolf Hitler.
And for ten years, Canada has attempted the very same thing. But today, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (who I'd rather see as PM, but whatever) has announced that long-gun (shotgun and rifle) owners will no longer be required to pay to register their weapons, and will not be prosecuted if they choose not to register them at all. Some other immediate changes to the registry will be a reduction of ten million dollars in its annual budget and the introduction of license renewal fee waivers and refunds.
The government also plans to bring forward legislation to completely scrap the registration of non-restricted firearms; Day said he would like to see this happen as early as next month.
In more gun registry-related news, our gal Sheila Fraser has done it again. She says government officials concealed the true cost of the gun registry's first ten years, noting that there was a $22 million overspending in 2004 alone that could not be accounted for by simple human error.
Fraser's 25-page special report on the registry also notes that key meetings were not recorded and government officials refused to offer up important information to the Auditor General (which is a dubious, but legal stance). She pointed out the costs of the registry's computer systems, which currently sit at approximately three times the original estimate. She says the accuracy of gun registry information can't be confirmed and implies that the registry is unable to show what, if anything, it has actually accomplished.
Former Liberal Public Safety Minister Anne McLlellan and former Liberal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler both tried to explain away the missing money as either an innocent mistake or an accounting snafu. It's amazing to me that these people actually think we're still going to listen to them.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
More proof that smog kills brain cells
The World Stupidity Competition has yet again been won by the unfathomable state of California.
It seems California students will soon be getting a veritable mudslide of new textbooks. As someone who used the same decade-old science book for my entire high school career (which, by the way, included such forward thinking as "cloning of any organism is impossible"), I would normally consider this a good thing. But wait until you hear the reason for it.
A bill has recently been passed by the California State Senate (and is expected to be okayed by the Assembly) that outlaws the use of "sex-specific terms" in school textbooks. This includes the words "mom" and "dad". A few California Republicans have called it an attack on traditional family, while some Democrats have been talking about how this is going to make life so much easier for gay, lesbian, transgendered, and bisexual kids. What nobody in the public eye seems to be saying is that it is also completely insane!
California kids will get new textbooks again if another bill passes the state legislature. This bill, designed supposedly to prevent homosexual students from dropping out of school, requires that the sexual orientation of historical figures be mentioned in textbooks. 'Cause it's just so relevant.
Call me crazy, but I don't give a flying squirrel's behind whether Newton, Freud, Bach, or Curie were straight, gay, bisexual, asexual, multisexual, or perennially-hyperhemiantesexual. I also don't care about their personal grooming habits, their favored living room couch fabric, or their chronic spleen conditions. Which is good, because famous people have always been freaks; I figure all we need worry about is their contributions to history.
It seems California students will soon be getting a veritable mudslide of new textbooks. As someone who used the same decade-old science book for my entire high school career (which, by the way, included such forward thinking as "cloning of any organism is impossible"), I would normally consider this a good thing. But wait until you hear the reason for it.
A bill has recently been passed by the California State Senate (and is expected to be okayed by the Assembly) that outlaws the use of "sex-specific terms" in school textbooks. This includes the words "mom" and "dad". A few California Republicans have called it an attack on traditional family, while some Democrats have been talking about how this is going to make life so much easier for gay, lesbian, transgendered, and bisexual kids. What nobody in the public eye seems to be saying is that it is also completely insane!
California kids will get new textbooks again if another bill passes the state legislature. This bill, designed supposedly to prevent homosexual students from dropping out of school, requires that the sexual orientation of historical figures be mentioned in textbooks. 'Cause it's just so relevant.
Call me crazy, but I don't give a flying squirrel's behind whether Newton, Freud, Bach, or Curie were straight, gay, bisexual, asexual, multisexual, or perennially-hyperhemiantesexual. I also don't care about their personal grooming habits, their favored living room couch fabric, or their chronic spleen conditions. Which is good, because famous people have always been freaks; I figure all we need worry about is their contributions to history.
Un-fricking-believable
Having been travelling and out of the loop for a bit, I have only just learned the fate of Zacarias Moussaoui, one of the "people" responsible for the September 11 attacks. When he was going in for sentencing, my opinion was that drawing and quartering would have been far too good for him. I didn't hear anything about the results of the hearing until today, though, and get a load of this: life in prison. That's all they could come up with.
This creature (I cannot bring myself to say "man") freely admitted his crimes, showed not remorse but glee at his actions, referred to those three thousand innocents whose murder he organized as "sons of evil", and made such bloodthirsty comments in court that he had to undergo court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. And yet, somehow, one juror (the vote was 11-1) saved this abomination from the needle.
Deliberate, premeditated mass-murder should mean an automatic death penalty. I don't want to be sharing my planet with contemptible creatures such as this.
This creature (I cannot bring myself to say "man") freely admitted his crimes, showed not remorse but glee at his actions, referred to those three thousand innocents whose murder he organized as "sons of evil", and made such bloodthirsty comments in court that he had to undergo court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. And yet, somehow, one juror (the vote was 11-1) saved this abomination from the needle.
Deliberate, premeditated mass-murder should mean an automatic death penalty. I don't want to be sharing my planet with contemptible creatures such as this.
I still think he should run for president
Rebekah over at Eye of the Storm has just taken the time to point out Toby Keith's "Ain't No Right Way" (which may as well be titled "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue 2") to the conservative blogging community. I'd say he's pretty well nailed the head on the hammer. Yes, I did mean to write that. Check her post out here.
Monday, May 15, 2006
They once killed a king for this...I miss the old days.
Wow, I've been gone a while...well, summer can be like that. But I'm back now, and I want to talk census.
When my dad told me he was going to get a job working on the census, I told him flat-out that not only was he going to regret it (which I think it's safe to say he does), but that I felt he was going against his libertarian values by assisting the government in collecting a big ol' pile of data on everyone in the country. His response: "yeah, but it's going to happen anyway, so I might as well make some money." Given that I'm depending on him to help me pay for college, it sounded like a fairly convincing argument to me.
For the next week or so, I heard story after story about the expected bureaucratic inanity as my father delivered several hundred of the forms. Example: if you arrive at a deserted house, you must enter the house's address on your record and mark it "UNOCCUPIED". Then you have to leave a census form! Another example: a "dwelling" is anything being lived in, and so therefore, if you find a person living in a box on the sidewalk, this is considered a house and a form must also be left. Good luck getting 'em back.
But the laughs stopped when we got the long form. Instead of a simple five-question, minimally invasive form, we got the one that asks you where your ancestors were from and how many hours a week you spend doing "unpaid housework" and how many freckles there are on your nose (if you have no nose, skip to question 35).
Why, I ask you, is it any of the government's business whether or not I sometimes have trouble hearing what people say? What does it matter to them where I lived five years ago? I checked out the "why these questions are asked" info from Statistics Canada. Here's their explanation for the stuff they ask about daily home life:
"Questions 7 and 8 provide information on the number of people in Canada who have difficulties with daily activities, and whose activities are reduced because of a physical condition, a mental condition, or a health problem. The results are used by Statistics Canada to find out more about the barriers these persons face in their everyday lives."
So, in other words, they ask the question so they can have the answers. Well, now I'm convinced.
The fact is, StatsCan is just collecting data for the purpose of having it, and since the Liberals decided a person could be put in prison for refusing to answer the census, I had no course of action open to me but to either accept the probable jail time or bite the bullet and fill out seven pages about how often I go to Pizza Hut and whether or not I know French well enough to order a large Hawaiian from the Japanese-American-Inuit-Canadian waiter.
After the HRDC incident, we in Canada have to be extra-vigilent about the information collected about us by our government, but let's face it: nobody is. In fact, my dad only encountered one person while he was delivering forms who said she wouldn't answer. That's downright terrifying to me. Public complacency has always been the strongest ally of the Canadian government.
When my dad told me he was going to get a job working on the census, I told him flat-out that not only was he going to regret it (which I think it's safe to say he does), but that I felt he was going against his libertarian values by assisting the government in collecting a big ol' pile of data on everyone in the country. His response: "yeah, but it's going to happen anyway, so I might as well make some money." Given that I'm depending on him to help me pay for college, it sounded like a fairly convincing argument to me.
For the next week or so, I heard story after story about the expected bureaucratic inanity as my father delivered several hundred of the forms. Example: if you arrive at a deserted house, you must enter the house's address on your record and mark it "UNOCCUPIED". Then you have to leave a census form! Another example: a "dwelling" is anything being lived in, and so therefore, if you find a person living in a box on the sidewalk, this is considered a house and a form must also be left. Good luck getting 'em back.
But the laughs stopped when we got the long form. Instead of a simple five-question, minimally invasive form, we got the one that asks you where your ancestors were from and how many hours a week you spend doing "unpaid housework" and how many freckles there are on your nose (if you have no nose, skip to question 35).
Why, I ask you, is it any of the government's business whether or not I sometimes have trouble hearing what people say? What does it matter to them where I lived five years ago? I checked out the "why these questions are asked" info from Statistics Canada. Here's their explanation for the stuff they ask about daily home life:
"Questions 7 and 8 provide information on the number of people in Canada who have difficulties with daily activities, and whose activities are reduced because of a physical condition, a mental condition, or a health problem. The results are used by Statistics Canada to find out more about the barriers these persons face in their everyday lives."
So, in other words, they ask the question so they can have the answers. Well, now I'm convinced.
The fact is, StatsCan is just collecting data for the purpose of having it, and since the Liberals decided a person could be put in prison for refusing to answer the census, I had no course of action open to me but to either accept the probable jail time or bite the bullet and fill out seven pages about how often I go to Pizza Hut and whether or not I know French well enough to order a large Hawaiian from the Japanese-American-Inuit-Canadian waiter.
After the HRDC incident, we in Canada have to be extra-vigilent about the information collected about us by our government, but let's face it: nobody is. In fact, my dad only encountered one person while he was delivering forms who said she wouldn't answer. That's downright terrifying to me. Public complacency has always been the strongest ally of the Canadian government.
subscribe
