Archive for July, 2007

CBC’s Avi Lewis gets in his digs

Monday, July 30th, 2007

As many of you may know by now I have some very real concerns about the growing anti-American sentiments that I’ve witnessed in Canada and around the world over the past few years. I have heard the “rationale” and I do understand the roots of these sentiments, but no matter how you slice it anti-Americanism, like other forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination is wrong and hurtful.

I get particularly worked up when I see our own publicly-funded national broadcaster jump on the bandwagon. The CBC has brought us Rick Mercer “Talking to Americans”, a juvenile attempt to portray our neighbors as ignorant; Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish stomping on a George Bush doll; and more recently we have Avi Lewis interviewing Ayaan Hirsi Ali. In addition to some very frank statements about the War on Terror, it offers a “fine” example of how our national broadcaster feels about our neighbour to the south:

When I showed this clip to a friend in California recently he had to leave the room in disgust. That’s how hard it was to watch.

If you have the stomach I suggest you read some of the comments from Lewis’ viewers: http://www.cbc.ca/onthemap/fullpage.php?id=84

Shameful.

First they gave us “beer and popcorn”

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Scott Reid pretty much sank the last Federal Liberal election campaign with his remarks about how Canadians would spend their childcare allowance on beer and popcorn, and now the Ontario provincial Liberals give us home-baked cookies:

TORONTO — An influential Liberal Party strategist has been accused of sexist behaviour for suggesting that a female member of the Ontario Legislature would rather be at home baking cookies than out on the campaign trail.

Warren Kinsella, head of the Ontario Liberal Party’s war room for the Oct. 10 election, posted a photograph on his blog Tuesday of Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod, with a thought bubble over her head saying, “I very much wish I was somewhere else, at this very moment. Baking cookies, perhaps. Oh my.”

The photo showed Ms. MacLeod at an event with Opposition Leader John Tory and Randy Hillier, the party’s recently nominated candidate for the newly created riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington.

Kinsella Hillier cartoon

Source.

The way these senior Liberal strategists perform during a campaign really does make me wonder whose payroll they’re on.

Our greatest challenge – “The question of jihad”

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Once again I must tip my hat to the courage of Mr. Tarek Fatah who recently answered a number of question from readers of The Globe and Mail. Mr. Fatah is one of the very few people calling for a closer examination of the root cause of increasing terrorism inflicting the Western world.

It is not Islam that needs to be reformed, it is the need for Muslims to reconcile with modernity and the notion of the secular nation state. The challenge for Muslims is to stop driving in a car rally with their eyes fixated in the rear view mirror. We need to to stop chasing the past as the way to the future. Unfortunately, whereas the religious right in islam is well funded and well organised, the liberal secular Muslim is too busy leadiung a 9-to-5 life, paying his mortgage and providing for her family and thus has no time or resources to challenge the Islamist extremists.

I completely agree with Tarek that the long-term solution to this challenge is fair and democratic self-rule in the Muslim world. Of course that will not come about quickly. The more contentious debate relates to what the role of the West should be in helping democracy take root there. While our long-term interests will be served by free and democratically elected governments in the developing world, our short-term interests are to ensure that existing radical extremism does not threaten our well-being in the west. This is a difficult balance to maintain.

The real danger is that no democratic forces are confronting the Islamist ideology of the radical Jihadis.

The Jihadi doctrine of Hassan al Banna and abul Ala Mudoodi is freely being distrubuted in Canada and this is where the challange is lacking.

It is easy for traditional Muslim groups to denounce terrorism, but they will be very reluctant to distance themselves from the doctrine of Jihad which is the basis of terrorism they deplore.

Source.

A.A.A.D.D. – We all will get it

Friday, July 13th, 2007

This was recently forwarded to me by my friend Kurt. My wife and kids can definitely appreciate the humour. I, however, am still in denial:

FOR MY FRIENDS OVER  40 or coming close to it……..

Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D.

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder
 
This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my lawn.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque  book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I’m going to look for my cheques, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to
keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye – they need to be watered.

I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the living room where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the lawn isn’t watered, the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only one cheque in my cheque book, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, I don’t remember what I did with the car keys, and my neighbour called to tell me he turned off the hose that was flooding the driveway.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I’m really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail.

Do me a favour, will you?  Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don’t remember to whom it has been sent.

Laugh hard ‘cuz if this isn’t you yet, your day is coming!

GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.
GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.
LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IS THERAPEUTIC. 

Should we be alarmed by recent events in Pakistan?

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

Wretchard over at “The Belmont Club” has offered a compelling argument that we should all be paying attention to the situation in Pakistan and trying to get a sense of where this all might lead:

Realistically, once a power struggle erupts in Pakistan, it will take an Old Testament prophet to anticipate how it will finally play out. It’s a dilemma, and I will pose no answer to it. However that may be, the crisis may now be upon us if the Red Mosque incident has provided the match to the powderkeg.

The third dimension to the Pakistani crisis is international. President Musharraf is not the only President under siege. The Democrat Congress, aided by dissident Republicans, threatens to unilaterally pull US troops out of Iraq, though the details are not yet clear. President Bush, battered by unpopular domestic and international policies, is in a weak position while the Democrats have yet to articulate a war policy except one of withdrawal. Washington is governed by a man who can hardly turn the wheel of state and men who will not touch it, content to pelt the captain with tomatoes and old shoes.

And hovering over everything is one background factor. Pakistan is a nuclear-armed state. Its fall to Islamists or spiral downward into an indecisive chaos would, coupled with the three factors mentioned above, unleash a perfect storm. One can realistically imagine a situation where America is withdrawing from Iraq, Pakistan falling into chaos and war breaking out in Lebanon all at the same time while Washington politicians are preoccupied with crafting sound-bites for the 2008 elections. Of the three factors affecting the Pakistani crisis, the only one which can be addressed directly is to create a real consensus on fighting the War on Terror. To create a strong American strategic sense of what should be achieved and a real appreciation of the stakes involved. Otherwise a terrible crisis may break out upon the world with no strong hand in Washington to deal with it.

Source.

Hat tip to Kate.

Hampton on public funding for dental care

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Over the weekend I had a conversation with a neighbour about the state of healthcare here in Ontario. We both observed that comparing dental care to the wider public healthcare system was like night and day.

People in Ontario do not complain about the state of dental health care.

There are no “wait times” for any dental procedures, in fact when you arrive at most dental offices you’re treated very well.

There are no shortages of dentists and no problems with access.

Dental patients have the option of either paying cash, with credit card, or taking out a dental care insurance plan.

For those Ontarians living on welfare, there is a very comprehensive dental plan in place to care for them.

There are no concerns about any inferior quality of dental care, even though it’s privately delivered.

Even though they need about the same amount of education as general practitioner doctors, and must invest a great deal of their own money, dentists are able to make a decent living, and are not tempted to leave Canada and practice in another country.

In other words, the dental health care system in Ontario appears to be working pretty good when compared to the public healthcare system.

Well, not according to NDP leader Howard Hampton:

Ontario NDP calls for public dental plan

Howard, please, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Independent Journalism in Iraq

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

Since I first came across the web site of Michael Yon in the past year, I realized that his “Online Magazine” represented a glimpse into what the future of journalism might look like. Yon is living the promise of the Internet and his work is having a profound influence on those who visit his site – and you can bet that the mainstream media (MSM) is taking note.

Whether you agree with the U.S. administration’s policy in Iraq or not, reading Yon’s dispatches, and looking at his photos truly offers a perspective on the situation in Iraq that is rarely seen on prime-time news.

This recent story captures not only a raw sense of what’s been going on over in Iraq, but perhaps it more importantly leaves us with the question “Why are we not hearing more about these incidents from the MSM?”

Baqubah Update: 05 July 2007

Andrew Coyne for Finance Minister

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

More than two centuries ago, Adam Smith offered the revolutionary idea that the proper objective of trade policy was not to earn gold for the treasury, but to increase the welfare of the people. To that end, he offered an equally scandalous prescription: that decisions on what to produce, and by which means, should be guided, not by the king’s ministers, but by the choices of consumers — since, after all, consumption is the whole point of production.
I beg to propose something similar. Human ingenuity and compound interest being what they are, people will tend to combine their energies in ways that make them wealthier over time, if you a) let them, and b) force them. The first would suggest removing barriers to the acquisition of productive resources. So cut tax rates, and loosen controls on the movement of labour and capital, both within and across national boundaries. And the second?
You can have all the productive resources you like, but absent some spur to combine them in the most efficient way, people will tend to less efficient compromises. The spur is competition — the more of it the better.

The full text of his column is here.