Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Twelve Days of Christmas shows, here are the Bill Susman Trio performing Oh Christmas Tree (2005, 3:35). And for tonight’s flip-side, here is Mr. Mel Tormé performing Christmas Time is Here (3:49).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
lookout – exactly right. You know that’s what puzzles me, how these leftist Liberals actually think that an unelected coalition, put together via backroom deals, relying on a regional party out of the reach of over 80% of the electorate…and set up to render itself immune to the electorate…it puzzles me how these Liberals can conclude that this is a ‘democratic governance’.
They tell me that once elected, our MPs can do whatever they want – even reject the elected government and insist that, without an election, they can get together, on their own, without the will of the electorate – and be defined as a legitimate government. They say ‘it’s constitutiona’ which shows that they haven’t a clue about what is in the constitution..because that document says nothing about majority, minorities or coalitions. And the only thing it says about elections is – once every five years.
Therefore, the legitimacy of a government falls back on our history, on historical documents such as the Magna Carta, on standards of morality and duty, on previous behaviour. And we have no history of a set of MPs taking over the government of the people and rejecting their will. We have ONE incident, also promulgated by a Liberal, King, who was the PM, called an election which he lost to the Conservatives (99-114)but REFUSED to resign and allied himself with the Progressives to rule for a few months..and then, was told to hand govt over to the actual winner.
But for a group who were not in power, were rejected in an election, to align themselves with other rejects, and insist, without an election, that they be defined as our government – mindboggling. And these leftist Liberals seem to have no problem with this. Incredible.
Philboyd:
Liberals bribing themselves with stolen taxpayers’ dollars – $20 million
Ensuring Liberals receive their allowance from the taxpayers – $1.95
Dithering Liberals leaders attempting to seize power without bothering with election – PRICELESS
Knowing sycophantic Liberals will try to con Canadians, once again – comme d’habitude
For every incompetent Liberal, chucking s**t at government without offering a single ideal of their own (I will lead if necessary, but not necessarily)
Master Card Liberal – please pay cash in brown paper bags, while pilfering EI fund and government pension plans
BTW, Philboyd, if you, and Grits, feel so strongly about those bad, bad Tories, by all means defeat budget and force election, so we can get CPC majority and not have to listen to moonbats for at least four years.
Hurray for the bailout! It’s working! CEO’s get to keep their Christmas bonuses!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1081624/Goldman-Sachs-ready-hand-7BILLION-salary-bonus-package–6bn-bail-out.html
What garbage, pilboy (my nickname for you): you think that’s an argument! You sound like a grade four loser. The three “proofs” you’ve tried on are all, BTW, legal, which is more than can be said of the Liberals’ criminality.
Check out the MULTIPLE unnecessary elections Chretien called—and with majority governments. Check out the nefarious means by which the Liberals ran such a huge “surplus”. Check out the WORLD economic downturn, which calls for unusual measures. (And doesn’t the coalition intend to spend us out of this problem? No deficits there. Move on, everyone. . .)
Typical, lefty magical thinking: no substance and not even an attempt to keep things in context or to provide a thesis with supporting detail. Go back to your desk, young man, do some valid research, reframe your pitch, and try again. Present grade (out of 4): Level -1. I know you can do better.
You know that’s what puzzles me….
ET: Foolishly consistent, consistently wrong (not to mention puzzled in perpetuity)
…our MPs can do whatever they want – even reject the elected government
We don’t elect governments, we elect parliaments. A government is a Prime minister and cabinet which enjoys the confidence of the house. Harper clearly could not win a vote of confidence. That this fact is beyond the grasp of ET and the majority who have voiced their opinion in polls is irrelevant.
I don’t think Al Gore is going to like this:
Study: Did early climate impact divert a new glacial age?
Settled Science?
A person posts, ” . . . the majority who have voiced their opinion in polls is irrelevant”. Is that so?
This person also writes, “Harper clearly could not win a vote of confidence”. Let’s see: it’s the prerogative of the Opposition to vote down the government.
I say, bring it on—but the coalition bullies are too cowardly to do it—and then we’ll see what the majority’s opinion is. I can say very safely that it will not be in favour of the weasel parties’ coalition.
So, what is this person’s point?
philboyd – what is a parliament? Hmm? Where do you get your information from? Just Wikipedia or a bit of slightly more substantive research?
A parliament – and we’ll only refer to the lower house, consists of a number of elected representatives, usually of at least two and sometimes more party affiliations.
One party, the party that won the most seats in a general election, is defined as the government. The party with the second most seats is defined as the Loyal Opposition. (Note that word, ‘loyal’).
The selection of these two roles, the government and opposition, has nothing to do with the ‘confidence of the House’ but with the ‘confidence of the electorate’.
We, the people, voted that party into power, and we don’t accept that a gaggle of MPs have the legal or moral authority to decide, on their own, in backroom wheeling and dealing and offers of Cabinet and Senate seats…on the nature of our government. Got that?
Your model, philboyd, totally rejects the rights of the electorate to choose their government, and is based on what is known as the Sovereign Model. This is a nominalist model, with an emphasis on the free will and power of the individual MP – who is answerable to no-one, not to any law, not to any notion of a transcendent rule(above the individual will), not to any notion of duty to the nation or people. They are instead focused only on ‘the lust of domination’.
That is the nature of the coalition, which gathered together a bunch of MPs, who were not elected to govern by the people, and decided to insist that they WERE the government. They had no intention of going to the people for validation of their WILL. Nope. Instead, their WILL was the RULER’s WILL. “The unjust ruler seeks his own advantage’ (Aquinas).
This coalition is a tyranny, because it rejects limits, it rejects of law of the peoples and insists on its own volition, its own elitist self-affirmation of its superiority to everyone and all.
Most certainly, the coalition could not pass a ‘confidence vote’ or election. Indeed, as was just shown in the October election, these three parties were not selected by the people, either separately or as a coalition, as the people’s government.
And this gang knows that they couldn’t pass the confidence of the people – which is why they’ve refused to go to the people in an election.
Furthermore, when this gang announced their intention, the people wrote, rallied, and polled – their rejection. A massive rejection, for the ratings of the CPC went up, up into the mid 40’s while that of the Blessed Liberals went down, down into the low 20s. I know that you, as an elistist, philboyd, consider that the masses, the people, don’t count.
But, Reality matters, philboyd, and your rejection of the people, apart from revealing your own elitist isolation – well, frankly, it doesn’t matter a damn.
oh, and by the way – you still haven’t answered my questions. How about some data to substantiate your opinions? Hmmm?
Regulating CO2, maybe not…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_global_warming_1
storm letting up here in grey/bruce, Looks like Toronto getting Smucked right now.
Have the army been called out yet?
Joking aside Drive Safe everyone
Here’s where the Politically Correct Champions of the Radical Left want to take us.
J. Scott Carpenter, Views of Arab Democrats: Advice to America on Promoting Middle East Reform
Conventional wisdom holds that the Bush administration’s Freedom Agenda has made “democracy” a dirty word throughout the Middle East. It this really true?
In a departure from past practice, The Washington Institute brought together an an array of Arab democrats — from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank — to ask them what they think about both the past and future of America’s efforts to promote democracy throughout the region. While they offer sobering suggestions for how Washington should advance democratic change, they are universal in their call for the new Obama administration to persist in this vital effort. At a time when our president-elect has promised to listen to the voices of America’s friends throughout the Middle East, this new Strategic Report — edited by the Project FIKRA director Scott Carpenter — should be “must” reading throughout the halls of government…
[Full report in PDF.]
ET, I applaud your attempt to educate the Hateful Trolls about the importance of the Will of the People in a Democracy, but they will never listen. They completely ignore the fact that the polls are showing a clear disgust against the Coalition’s actions. They completely ignore constitutional scholars like Ted McWhinney. And they completely ignore the fact that something like this, with remotely similar circumstances, has NEVER been attempted before in Canadian history. All of this is irrelevant to these thugs, just like it was to their like minded comrades who took over country after country after country in Eastern Europe after WW2.
To make it even worse, if the roles were reversed and the Conservatives had tried this with a Christian Fundamentalist party from the Prairies, do you think these same Bolsheviks would be making the same arguments? Of course not.
Undemocratic Thugs and Hypocrites – Working directly from the Worldwide Socialist playbook – Their mothers must be so proud!!!
Gordon G. Chang, Thirty Years of Reform in China
As Beijing celebrates the 30th anniversary of its reform era this month–generally considered to have begun with the accession of Deng Xiaoping–the dominant narrative in the world is that this is China’s century. This perception is almost entirely based on the country’s roaring economy, which has, according to official statistics, averaged 9.8 percent annual growth during the period.
Yet at this very moment the Chinese economy is moving from expansion to contraction and decelerating rapidly. In 2007, China’s gross domestic product grew by an astounding 11.9 percent. In the first quarter of this year, growth was 10.6 percent. Second quarter: 10.1 percent. Third quarter: 9.0. This quarter, analysts expect 5.8 percent growth. If the trend continues–and there is every reason to believe it will–next year the Chinese economy will expand by one or two percent–or maybe not at all. China is experiencing a greater and faster economic slide than almost any other country this year…
Robert: So true, great vid. We wish it would go away and notice how he wispered at the end.
Bryan, I’ve met enough people from the Radical Left to understand how they operate. The vocal ones are usually male, are always fueled by hate and are desperately lonely human beings. They absolutely have no respect for democracy, only agreeing with it if the majority at the time support the government THEY want in power.
They absolutely want to shut us all up. It’s what they and politically correctness are all about.
Robert: I have told this story for the last 4yrs on here.
I had a customer that informed me when i said to them to have a merry christmas that i was in correct & it was not political correct and that happy holiday something like that was the proper way. At first i thought the customer was joking but he continued to critique me for saying it going on & on In front of Other customers i might add. So i had enough & i lost it, I informed him that in my store i will say what i like Not what he liked So take your political Incorrect Ass & get the F*** out of here and stay out & you can still have a Merry Christmas.(there were of course a few more choice words, But i cant say them here)
The other customers thanked me for speaking up, in a close knit community as ours the word went around & i still have people thanking me.
Like i said Robert i have told that story every year on SDA since it happened.
Take care all the best time to bail for the day
Merry Christmas
robert w – yes, it’s quite remarkable, how the left rejects any idea of a government beholden to the will of the people.
That’s one reason why I conclude that the left – NDP/Liberals/Bloc etc are actually a two-class ideology; they define themselves as superior intellects, above the common people, and define themselves as alone knowing ‘what is best’ for a nation. They see no need to consult the people, considering it a waste of money (a common excuse), a waste of time, viewing the people as ignorant and uninformed (Brison et al) and insist that they alone have the expertise to govern.
The fact is, this view is what is known as a sovereignist mode, a view fought against by advocates of democracy – whether via the Magna Carta, or the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution and so on.
This notion of ‘divine right’ – whether it be vested in a king or an unelected coalition – rejects the concept of a governance with limited authority, and an authority that is always subject to the analysis and consideration of the electorate.
I have to admit to astonishment at reading some of the – yes, garbage – of these Followers of the Divine.
Statements based on emotion and ignorance. When you ask for data – you get insults in return but most certainly, no data. Ignorance about the economic reality of our current global situation; ignorance about our parliamentary system and its conventions. Misinformed statements about ‘the coalition is constitutional’..when if you read the Constitution it’s almost totally empty about parliamentary structure and processes. Ignorance about what the government of Harper proposes; what it has done.
For example, as noted above, the Economic and Fiscal Statement of November 27/08, didn’t say anything about stopping women from attaining pay equity. Not one word. But, on page 10-11, it noted that since 1980, over 4 billion had been spent on pay equity settlements, the results of complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The problem was, that these complaints were filed after agreements on pay equity had already been reached via the public sector unions. And new complaints continue to be filed, often by the same groups that have already received settlements via this same CHRC!
What was the proposal? Rather than having these groups ‘double bargain’ for pay equity, and take the govt to court even when their unions have bargained and received equity…using the HRC…an extremely taxpayer costly action, the government said they wanted: To “make pay equity an integral party of collective bargaining”. End quote.
Now, how the heck can the Liberals and NDP come up with their claim that the government wanted to STOP WOMEN RECEIVING PAY EQUITY???? How?
But, these ‘stuck on stupid’ people continue to insist that the coalition is ‘constitutional’, is ‘democratic’, is ‘the wish of the people’. And that Harper wanted to ‘end pay equity for women’ and didn’t offer any ‘stimulus package’..and I know damn well they haven’t a clue, as do none of us, what that ambiguous and sanctimonious term actually means…
As you say, if instead of using the Bloc as the Power Broker – and boy, that usage IS all and only about Power – the Conservatives had set up a small equally fundamentalist group, isolated to Alberta, or the Yukon, in that same vetting position – wow – they’d be screaming ‘anti-democratic’..from here to the fall-off point of our earth.
Bryan, it continues to get worse.
ET, well put! As a follow-up, let me paraphrase something Dennis Prager once said: “For the Left, history is completely uncertain and can be altered when it doesn’t properly fit into one’s political agenda. The only thing that is certain is the future, which they feel they have every right to shape as they wish.”
As you said, for the Left democracy doesn’t really matter, dissenting opinions don’t matter, free speech doesn’t matter.
I’m reading a fascinating book right now called
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, by Tony Judt. It’s absolutely frightening how many of the same techniques used by Stalin & co. back then are employed by the Left today.
As for the trolls here on SDA, I don’t think they’re bright enough to be in any “management” positions amongst the Left’s hierarchy. They mostly seem to be mouthing talking points. For when they’re asked simple questions, such as you’ve posed, they have no answers.
They never have any real answers. Coming full circle, it’s unimportant to them to actually debate those who disagree with them. For they deeply believe that there is only one future, an Orwellian type future shaped by them & their comrades. All the rest of us will be destined for gulags where we’ll be “re-educated”. 🙁
I truly believe that Stephen Harper knew there were a number of Liberals who were going to either abstain or be absent if there was a non confidence vote a few weeks ago by the power hungry mongers of the so called coalition.
If that had happened instead of getting together to work on the economic catastrophe befalling the world and our country we would be hit with all kinds of headlines of infighting and character assasination and probably some floor crossings to the Conservatives by those Liberals (and I heard at least 2 NDP and some BLOC).
Stephen Harper would have won the fight but at a terrible cost for those more sane and sensible opposition members who could not betray democracy in such a blatant power grab.
I believe he parogued parliament in a big part to spare those fine MP’s the harrassment that would have come from the pack of hungry vultures who make up the NDP, BLOC and Liberal “we’re supposed to be the governing party” honchos. Not to mention the backroom power borkers who have been salivating on getting their hands back on the taxpayer’s wallets.
It would have been very ugly. I believe Stephen Harper took the heat to take it off those people.
And, who would like to place a bet that there will be more than one floor crosser to the Conservatives next month?
There are enough Liberals who believe their party needs a few years time out to rebuild and they are so distracted with the taste of power at any cost they will not be able to participate in helping govern the country through tough times,
I don’t know if I believe that theory, Marie. One that seems more credible to me is the one about Iggy’s people secretly telling Harper’s people what Layton, Duceppe, and Dion had planned “at the earliest opportunity”.
Drunken UAW workers of the world unite
http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/10235271/index.html
Damn, I’m feeling old right now. For those of you who grew up on Star Trek will be saddened to hear that Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away yesterday. I know it was yesterday but I just heard. http://www.roddenberry.com/
Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed, RIP.
From MercatorNet;
What’s The Matter With Greece?
[ The riots in Athens and across Greece have nothing to do with “alienated youth” and everything to do with a society in decline. ]
[..]
[ The BBC’s Michael Brabant in Athens even suggested that the voting public feels alienated by the policies of conservative Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. Such explanations are offered and believed mainly by academic type commentators who breathe each other’s air and avoid any rationale that involves individuals taking personal responsibility for their behaviour and the practical outworking of their political philosophy.]
[..]
[ Anarchy, by definition, is the absence of authority. And it is that reaction to authority, and the attempt to revolt against it, which is what we are witnessing in Greece today.]
[..]
[ In many ways, the ugly riots are the results of social breakdown. Today’s anarchists in the country are wedded to a life of untrammelled freedom that is aided and abetted by the state of the modern family and the national educational system. Greece is living through an alarming increase in family break-up that typically leads to less discipline of children and higher tolerance for anti-social behaviour.]
[..]
[ So, they consider that everything is permissible and that all things belong to them.” In layman’s terms, spoiled children who need not worry about any unmet physical need are too often drawn to the extreme hooliganism and permissiveness that marks today’s “anarchist” movement.]
[..]
[ A full solution requires parents to regain control of their families, citizens to recapture the educational system, and governments to recover the power to enforce the law.]
Daniel Proussalidis is a journalist and broadcaster in Ottawa, Canada.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/whats_the_matter_with_greece/
Meanwhile, in Canada PET started us down this road in 1968.
Can we never, ever stop nonsense before it gets out of hand. Why do things always have to get worse before they get better ? I thought Humans we’re supposed to be the “higher intelligence” mammal 🙁
Ron,
I just received this link from an American friend who has retired to Greece: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html
The photos are very “vivid”. She is very much a Law & Order person but fully believes that the police there are corrupt, just like the government. So yes, very much she seconds your view that Greek society is in decline.
Sadly, the anarchist set here in North America (aka the Radical Left with bandanas) will see these pictures and somehow feel they give them the right to do the same over here in Canada and the U.S.
Men Flirt with Risk to Score Women
By Melinda Wenner
posted: 19 December 2008 12:15 pm ET
Buzz up!
4 Comments | 1 Recommend
On August 16, 1960: Project Excelsior III USAF pilot Joe Kittenger parachutes from a balloon 19.5 miles up, becoming the fastest human sky-diver at over 614 mph (988 km/hr).
Full Size
1 of 1
Men make up four-fifths of the world’s skydivers and two-thirds of all rock climbers, and a new study suggests they do it for more than just the thrill.
Men may flirt with risk because they think it will help them score women.
Evolutionary psychologists have long believed that women are choosier about men than men are about women. It’s not (just) because girls want to make life difficult for guys; it’s because, at least historically, women have had to pick men who could provide for them and their children. This pressure forces males to work harder to prove their worth to females and out-compete other guys in the running. Social psychologists at Florida State University wondered: could risk-taking be one of the ways in which men show off their strength, ambition and confidence to potential lovers?
http://www.livescience.com/culture/081219-sex-risks.html
ron in kelowna, this morning (this is a cross post) I posited many of the same ideas as you’ve posted here, but in relation to Canada. E.g.,
. . . I’ve been in classrooms for over 50 years, as a student and teacher, and the difference in the attitude and behaviour of kids today is light years away from what it used to be. The idea of “respect” has, generally, gone the way of the Dodo.
I attribute this to the takeover—sometime in the ’60s—of the anti-God squad. People could have kids—no stigma attached, and paid for by the more stable and productive members of society—at the whim of each individual (bye bye family: hello huge numbers of confused, angry, ENTITLED kids and guilty parents); man became the new god and was then, by governments, endowed with a myriad of rights, that said governments could then take away: no mention of responsibilities, though.
All of this stupidity was encoded in Trudeau’s 1982 Charter and many UN declarations, including the rights of the child. (Hello, disenfranchised parents and teachers—a huge part of our problem). Everyone here should read the multitude of rights endowed on kids: e.g., a right to privacy, a right to religious belief, a right to freedom of association (“I can have any friends I want!”); a right to be respectfully listened to (after you’ve just told the teacher to f*** off?); a right to live in the same country as your parents (bye bye sound immigration policies), etc. This deeply subversive document, like Canada’s own Charter—and the activist judges who have used it to recklessly socially engineer our poor country—are utopian.
When individual rights trump responsibility almost every time, it’s the irresponsible opportunists who benefit. Then standards drop—heck we’re no longer allowed to ENFORCE standards: that would be against some, usually, lowest common denominator person’s rights. Thus starts and continues the downward spiral. Generation X kids are the unfortunate “beneficiaries” of the lowering of standards and, often, like the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, are unaware of the lethal fallout.
Yes, it’s often not their fault that standards are so low, but many of them milk it. I believe in natural law: I’ve taught multitudes of “lowest common denominator” behaving kids. Given strict guidelines and lots of encouragement, they DO know how to behave: but watch them turn it off the minute they think they can . . . A society that functions on a daily basis on the false and destructive assumption that the lowest common denominator needs more leniency and coddling versus more structure and consequences—sounds a lot like Canada to me—is going to be in very serious trouble. Turn sows’ ears into silk purses? It ain’t gonna happen.
Rampant consumerism has been part of the fallout. In the economic downturn, if that’s no longer an option, maybe other, less selfish values will reassert themselves. But, without even the IDEA of a self-sacrificing God—who’s been tossed out of our schools to make way for Gaia: now isn’t Mother Nature a benign force?!—who expects the same altruism (what?) of us, I don’t see that a positive change is very likely. (Let’s think about it: when left to themselves, how do toddlers act when there are five of them and only two cookies?)
Kyrie eleison—but only a few of us seem to care about that anymore . . .
lookout – I hope you’ve been able to find a copy of Jean Bethke Elshtain’s ‘Sovereignty: God, State and Self’.
What you talk about – is in there. She’s focused on the state, but the theory of accepting responsibility and acknowledging limitations – it’s all there.
Thanks for the reminder, ET.
Today, I reread George Weigel’s “The Cube and the Cathedral”. Much of what I’ve said is in there too–and the prognosis for Europe: we’re not far behind–isn’t too rosy.
“In layman’s terms, spoiled children who need not worry about any unmet physical need are too often drawn to the extreme hooliganism and permissiveness that marks today’s “anarchist” movement.”
And a great way to indoctrinate impressionable, pent-up, developing young minds is to expose them to the “rush”, “enthusiasm” and reckless abandon of a “protest movement” they know nothing about. Encouraged is acting upon emotion rather than thinking and instilling a narrative that must be adhered-to or else it’s out of the exclusive club for you.
Clever monkeys, these leftists.
You know how infants still have that soft spot on the top of their skulls? The brain that pulses (you can actually feel it with your hand) when they’re in distress?
Lefties are like that. All instinct, knee-jerk reaction to that which upsets them. Don’t bother asking for alternatives, their shortest bus only turns left.