It's a dog show weekend here at the ranch. I may get a couple of posts up, but in the meantime, I invite you to use the comments or trackback feature to direct readers to interesting material. (Be sure to indicate if the link contains not-safe-for-work content or excessive profanity.)
Here a few that landed in my inbox;
Check out this Captain's Quarters link... it usually means something good.
Dear friends from Ontario -please take this seriously. What used to be a fringe movement is on the cusp of becoming mainstream.
Via a reader who passed along the tip in French - I've found an English language report that Liberal MP Don Boudria will not be running in the next election.
And this? Not exactly news. Andrew Coyne says as much, but in about 674 more words.
Re Alberta Seperatists Movement
My western friends...and relatives (we are the only eastern outpost of family in BC, ALb and Sask) please take this seriously. Keep all thoughts and discussions of what you might do till after the result is in. Why?
1) You might be pleasantly surprised, current polls notwithstanding. I am no pollyanna. There is palpable disgust here, but Harper needs to prove himself, he doesnt come here very often quite frankly. There are 30 additional seats outside 416 that are well within grasp before Harper and the cons make a concerted effort...
2) You create a self fufilling prophecy. All you are doing is giving the Liberals a stick to beat the Conservatives with, and trust me they will. How easy will it be for Con candidates to answer why they are consorting with PQ seperatists and housing Western seperatists in their own party?
You'll have plenty of time after the election to take action based in the results. As Jerry McGuire said "Help me help you" and those comments by the MP for Red Deer dont help, they may be real and may be justified but they really dont help.
Do your part out west by getting rid of the remaining Liberals West of Kenora and we'll add another 30 seats in Ontario, at least. It WILL be a conservative government, barring "dinosaur eruptions" and overexuberant Albertans and other off message, off strategy "happenings".
I have said before there are 18 seats that need to be found in PQ and 416 for a majority. Have patience and deliver your side.
If Ontarions STILL deliver a minority Librano then god bless, start the movement and I'll be bunking with my brothers in Bc and Alb with the occasional trip to Regina for some of my Aunts Lemon Merangue pie. :->
Stephen,
Very well said, and for the most part, all energy is being put into re-electing the conservatives, and eliminating the remaining few. What your hearing about, currently, is on everyones mind, and because of Ontario's voting history, is very hard to hold back.
Showing us Ontario wants to work "with us" to rectify the situation would calm the atmosphere, but that's not what were getting here, somehow you have to get MSM's attention if your serious. We will do our part here, and hopefully you'll do yours there, your task being more difficult because of the dependency of the electorate on the libranos.
Failure will more then likely mean redrawing the maps.
Stephen, I'm a 99% federalist; until the Libs get back in. I've donated to the CPCs, I've signed up as a volunteer, I'll drive seniors to vote. I LIKE being Canadian. The other night when I truly understood that I actually WOULD not just consider, but VOTE to end that if the RoC is ok with criminals running the country, I cried. And if it comes to that, you'll see on your screens one day a whole bunch of Albertans at the polls, crying. Not cheering. But doing what needs to be done. We cannot be ignored by Ottawa anymore. We cannot be left begging for scraps. We cannot have our economy crushed by the whim of a distant dictator - his recent behavior labels him that, so no apologies there. We should not have to fight for what is rightfully ours.
A classic quote of the Martinites, the Screecher herself from the article Kate linked: ""It's unfortunate the kind of rhetoric we've seen from the Conservative party over these past few weeks," McLellan said. "They try to inflame situations, as opposed to try and moderate extreme views. That's our obligation as parliamentarians -- and I don't even see that as a partisan thing.
"What's he trying to do -- scare people?" she asked."
Yes, that would be my MP, finger on the pulse of her constituents as always. Her constituents who will be out of work if the Liberal Kyoto plan does what it looks like it will do - repeat the diaster of the NEP. Her constituent's mansions that will be sold for 10c on the dollar (similar to the mansions in West Van after the .com bomb, but it was tough feeling sorry for them as their demise was of their own doing).
So, Stephen, you do your part, and we'll do ours, and while we may not "live happily ever after" we'll continue, but in a stronger, better fashion than the pathetic excuse we've got going right now.
So, Svend is now set to become the official poster child for all those gay, kleptomaniac, mentally ill Palestinian intifada fighters who intend to use assisted suicide to achieve their political goals.
Watch for Svend to campaign for Nutso's Are Like You And Me,just.... and to demand a special health disability,an QVC voucher, and the right to never hear a bad word said about him again.
Svend wants back in parliament. To do that, he needs a "medical" excuse to turn his thievery into a symptom of a disease.
Just watch. If he follows through and runs for the nomination, it will soon be a "low blow" to bring it up at all.
With the VE Day ceremonies coming up on Monday, I have started to wonder just how did Hitler and his partner Mussolini get so many people to follow their corrupt governments? After all they were both democratically elected in central Europe as Socialists. The answer is simple; they promised their people something for nothing in the way of �social programs�.
It took Winston Churchill, a hard-line Conservative from Western Europe, to defeat these two corrupt politicians, but he couldn�t do it alone. He had to enlist the help of Joseph Stalin, a radical from Eastern Europe. The two men, along with many others, put their differences aside in order to defeat the Central European Socialists.
I am sure glad Canadians would never sell out to corrupt politicians for a few social programs�
Ok, this is when I truly get on my soapbox and become the school marm.
Since I'm an advocate for individuals with mental illness, I cannot sit quiet on this issue, as I have taken a nuanced offense to recent posts, with or without Svend. (I happened to meet Svend, listened to him and found his viewpoints interesting. Not a bad fellow. And no, it wasn't in a capacity of advocacy)
One thing to remember, each province has it's own legislation with respect to mental health laws and human rights.
In Ontario, if an individual cannot differentiate what is right from wrong, they are usually incapacited to the point they need to have another individual take over for them in matters concerning their estate or give consent to treatment, for example, that is because they are not capable of making decisions on their own.
If an individual understands right from wrong, with respect to criminal matters that is, they can be tried in a court of law just like anyone else.
The defence that pedophiles are crazy for raping thier daughters or sons still face incarceration only it depends where (ie Penetang or Kingston, if you get my drift). It has to be proven in a court of law they knew what they were doing, could differentiate right from wrong and can stand trial.
All mental illnesses are treatable. As for illnesses that are not as delibitating or a matter of clinical reasons such a chemical imbalances, they are usually behavioural and have to be unlearned through therapy.
Ask yourself this question, would any of you have made fun of Brian Mulroney because he had Menieres disease? Would someone have made fun of him once he started loosing his hearing and couldn't understand the questions in the House or fall over from dizziness? Is anyone going to make fun of Ed Broadbent because his wife is ill with a physical illness a.k.a a disability?
Mental illness is no different than a physical illness. How many of you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes? And, if you do, why would that be your fault?
What Svend did was wrong. Period. We know he knows right from wrong. Period. Perhaps not at the time he made that erratic, compulsive decision to slip the trinket into his pocket, but erratic behaviour happens from time to time to a person suffering from psychological differences. It's the beauty of mental illness as it were. Eccentricity is interesting, criminal acts when knowing wright from wrong are not.
The point is he recognized that he had a problem, went on National television hanging himself out to dry and now has the intestinal fortitude to 'out' his illness. What bothers me more, while Svend can admit his problem and confirm he took the trinkets, the Liberals still cannot admit they took a stash of MILLIONS of DOLLARS and STILL NOT ADMIT they've got a problem!
I commend Svend for making the difficult public announcement he did, although he probably had to, (condition of probabtion?). Why not support him for having the guts to admit his illness?
It will make Conservatives look as if they care about individuals in Canada a lot like Svend (this isn't meant as a facetious statement but provided the diagnosis isn't by one of our charlatan psychiatrists who hasn't exaggerated a diagnosis or fraudulently altered an assessment) and those who are worse off.
As for the Separatist issue, while I share similar Conservative viewpoints, I am NOT a Conservative. I don't have ANY party affiliation because I agree with bits and pieces from the platforms of each party and then mostly not. I consider myself politically like one of the fools in the Stultorum feraie not knowing which curio I belong to. I believe in a Canadian Union, which my blog explains.
The Conservative blogs have the most intelligent and clever posts and comments I've seen so far, so I hang around here - hope you don't mind too much - 'cause I think I did provide some fodder for discussion.
Nutsos'R Us sounds like a party for any one who votes Liberal. That's not for this Ontario voter. I don't like paying exhorbitant taxes to this government so they can take my liberty and dignity to retain power in their greedy hands. A pox on them.