Things are ramping up here with work, and combined with getting ready for a major road trip, my time for blogging is limited.
For the giddy in the mainstream media seemingly suffering from Clinton Affected Memory Disorder, Tom McGuire offers a cure. Meanwhile, John Kerry (who still trails Bush in post-election approval rating pollings) is busy raising Katrina Kash!
Want to know how your Saskatchewan tax burden compares with that of Montana? It's all here. (Short form Sask - 50.58%, Montana - 27.25%) Data for several provinces and northern states, all in one handy table.
Don Martin in the Calgary Herald on the political realities of Brian Mulroney's "sick city";
The problem now is we're trapped by the scenario Prime Minister Paul Martin identified when paying his respects to former Global National bureau chief David Vienneau, who died last year. The parliamentary precinct, he said, is like a "small village" where everybody knows each other.This much was confirmed while golfing with a respected journalist (is that an oxymoron?) last week. As our floundering game became too depressing to discuss, talk turned to the state of the profession. And that's when this veteran correspondent made a profound, albeit alarming, observation.
"The longer you stay in Ottawa, the harder it is to write anything," he lamented. "The list of topics you can tackle which doesn't burn your contacts or hurt your friends gets shorter and shorter."
That's the bottled essence of Mulroney's rage. If the capital is a village, reporters were the village idiots during his reign. Everybody was friends with everybody else. Except him. He was the outsider. And so they set out to get him. Surely Conservative Leader Stephen Harper can empathize.
Drop your tips in the comments, or send a trackback to your own witty and insightful posts.
Posted by Kate at September 20, 2005 12:10 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2641
That tax table is pretty interesting, although I don't think the total percentages are that easily comparable...not sure how to explain it, but it isn't quite right.
that being said, comparing each individual tax category is quite interesting (i.e. personal tax rates, corporate rates etc).
Biggest explanation for the Alberta/Sask oil & gas map you posted yesterday is on this table:
Alberta Corporate Tax Rate: 11.5%
Saskatchewan Corp Tax Rate: 17.0%
Why would you drill in Saskatchewan, when drilling in Alberta could essentially double your after tax profits.
Posted by: Shabbadoo at September 20, 2005 12:22 PMThe Survivor: a Salute to Simon Wiesenthal: "I survived them all.">>> http://debka.com/
Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust Survivor Nazi hunter will be buried in Israel. He died in his sleep at his Vienna home, aged 96
September 20, 2005, 11:37 AM (GMT+02:00)
After dedicating six decades to hunting Nazi criminals responsible for killing 6 million Jews in World War II and bringing them to justice, Simon Wiesenthal retired in 2003,. He had helped track down 1,100 Nazis and said: “My job is done. I found the mass murderers I was looking for. I survived them all.”
Wiesenthal was liberated from Mauthausen death camp by American troops in May 1945.>>> more
Posted by: maz2 at September 20, 2005 12:49 PMRoad trip in the Dodge? Dogs, bike and camera? Bring back some good stories and enjoy.
Posted by: rebarbarian at September 20, 2005 2:33 PMManitoba! yeah baby, yeah!
We make Saskatchewan look like a hotbead of capitalism. you whimps Kate, AAHHHHH!!!
52.78% of our income in taxes. We er rule.
Now how do I set myself up to be a trust fund like the aspers are doing with global?
Posted by: DrWright at September 20, 2005 3:13 PMThe list of topics that don't burn your contacts or hurt your friends gets shorter and shorter.
Now how's that for describing a media just as much at the trough as the Librano Lackeys they are supposed to be objective about?
What an incest[eww]ous seething swamp Ottawa has become. Who will lance it and allow it to drain? '3s TG
Posted by: TonyGuitar at September 20, 2005 3:15 PMWhy did the Government send Navy ships to the Gulf Coast? What was achieved?
From Halifax Daily News
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=1538&sc=7
'EDITORIALS
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Good intentions clash with reality
The ships left Halifax Harbour accompanied by a chorus of horns and arcs of water from fireboats. A salvo of question marks will greet them upon their return.
When three Canadian warships and a coast-guard vessel departed Sept. 6 on a relief mission to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast of the United States, a great deal of fanfare accompanied the event. Prime Minister Paul Martin and U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins were at dockside to see the vessels off.
There was a sense of rightness about the mission, which was dubbed Operation Unison. Friends help each other in time of need, and help was definitely needed to deal with the damage the storm inflicted in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Laden with relief supplies and 1,000 Armed Forces personnel, officers anticipated the ships would stay for about a month. Cleanup and rebuilding would be the sailors and soldiers’ primary tasks.
Operation Unison did not last a month. It didn’t even last a week. By the time the three navy ships return to port, their time at sea will exceed the time they spent on their mission.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendously satisfying and rewarding opportunity,” chief of defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier said when the ships left on Sept. 6.
He might have added: “And a short one.”
After the Canadians did manual labour at Biloxi, Miss.
, for a few days, it became apparent that the Americans preferred to turn those jobs over to civilian contractors who could put some of the area’s residents to work. There was little for the Canadians to do, so they’re coming home.
The coast-guard ship Sir William Alexander will remain, along with some other personnel, primarily divers and engineers.
They’re still needed.
The navy ships aren’t.
Why was this not anticipated on Sept. 6? And how much is this unsatisfying outcome going to cost taxpayers?'
Mark
Ottawa
Our friends on the left call the exchange "Hegelian Dialectic" and they use it as an agressive method of control. It's based on the following (in it's simplest form):
Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis
more here: http://nomoresocialism.blogspot.com/2005/09/hegelian-dialectic.html
(hopefully it falls into the insightfull category)
Posted by: Richard Evans at September 20, 2005 3:33 PMWanna go to camp, girls and boys? Sure you do, don't you? The Librano$$$$$$$$$ have a camp for you: Our motto: We gotcha and your kids, too. You will all be little Spartans: eat together, play together, & have a bed-time tory, too. Oh, my name? It's Uncle Paul & don't you forget it!!! >>>>>National Socialism is here in Canada. Now. Down with National Socialism.>>>
Paul Martin says child care key to confronting China and India
Canada.com - 1 hour ago
GATINEAU, Que. (CP) - The coming global battle to produce the brightest brains begins with educating babies as soon as they leave the crib, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday. Child care and early development ...
The (Dis)Honourable PMPM has education confused with brainwashing. National daycare is the latter, staffed by lefties dependent on taxpayers for high wages and big benefits. I thought Lorne Calvert was a minister? Isn't it a sin to sleep with the devil, or is it okay when it's a lefty devil that you know compared to a righty devil you don't know and who won't indulge your every whim?
Posted by: Iron Lady at September 20, 2005 6:48 PMmaz2: Martin's speech:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=586
From the speech:
"Growing up in Windsor, I was probably the only kid in my neighbourhood who knew the difference between an assistant deputy minister and a director-general." In the 40s and 50s there were no directors-general in the Civil Service. Nose growing as it brown-noses the Public Service elite.
"Canada is at the vanguard of nations committed to the protection of human rights." Pity we can do almost nothing effectual about them. See, inter alia, Ambassador Wilkins' statement on possible future renditions of Canadian citizens. Or the Iranians doing anything about the murder of Zahra Kazemi.
"reached a tipping point": how au fait.
"We have to stay on top of the opportunities that will open up before us." We are after all, in our own way, missionaries.
"In short – we must make it our mission to keep Canada ahead of the curve..." since we've finished pushing the envelope.
"This isn’t the stuff of a seminar or lecture. There’s nothing abstract about this. What we’re discussing today is what these new forces call for as we in this room meet our responsibilities as policy makers."
1) No, it's the stuff of a pop non-fiction best-seller.
2) I thought politicians were, under the Westminster system, the policy makers and the civil servants were the adminstrators.
"Looking to the international demographic context, we see that surging population growth is concentrated in the poorest countries, straining their capacity to provide even the most rudimentary opportunities." Actually Africa.
"Together, we gave the people our word, and now we must deliver [health care]." As Reagan said, trust buy verify. Would you believe the collective word of premiers and the prime minister?
"Unreasonably long wait times are symptomatic of deeper problems in the health care system. Thus, tackling them is the key – the key to kick-starting real health care reform..." Boy, one looks forward to kick-starting with that arthritic knee needing replacement. And being tackled while kicking. You will note no actual solution is proposed among the language sportive.
"That’s why we appointed Dr. Brian Postl as the federal advisor on wait times – to build consensus on the actions needed to ensure timely access to care." Well, there go wait times; Dr. Brian has been appointed as an advisor to build consensus. Welcome to the 22nd century.
And on, and on, and on, and on. Drivel city.
But how can one resist?
"Globalization is a buzzword of some maturity now." My word, one would not want an immature buzzword.
"...competition is being waged among major metropolitan centres...Ottawa vs. Helsinki..." Anybody here--or in Helsinki--notice this competition? Anyway, Nokia has sure thrashed Nortel, if ever they were in competition. I think Jane Jacobs has gone to somebody's head.
"But let’s not kid ourselves..." OK. Stop the blathering. But he doesn't.
"Canada will play a proactive role in keeping international organizations relevant." How about an active role in actually doing something?
Oh my God! I had already thought (honest) of saying this in my comment, on the basis of brief press reports before reading the speech itself: "Too much Thomas Friedman; contrary to the Liberal thought process running a government is not the same as running the NY Times op-ed pages." And what do I find:
"Many of you have read Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat."
"And we will succeed – we will stay ahead of the curve..." Curvalicious.
"That’s the plan, both the long-term goals and the priorities we’ll be primarily focusing on this fall." That's no plan Mr Martin. That is total, unoriginal, regurgitated pap.
"Our linguistic duality and our ethnic and cultural diversity make Canada a global microcosm, open to the world." And increasingly closed to ourselves.
"We will ultimately be judged not by the conventional wisdom of today..." So stop spouting it.
"Thank you."
Sorry. I cannot.
Mark
Ottawa
Just to provoke discussion:
The sweep of Martin's speech sort of reminds me of Hitler's talk to senior military leaders and the foreign minister on November 10, 1937.
See: Hossbach Memorandum
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/hossbach.htm
Except Hitler was much more analytical and knew what he was talking about. I seriously urge people to read the memorandum and then Martin's speech. And give your honest reaction.
WHICH IS NOT TO SAY THAT HITLER WAS A GOOD GUY OR THAT ONE SYMPATHIZES WITH HIM. I HATE HIM.
Mark
Ottawa
The Hossbach Memorandum is not quite pure fiction, but it was not an actual memo of events. It was concocted some years after the fact as an ass-covering exercise by one of the attendees. It has some value as literature but not as a historical document.
Not that it matters here. Your point would appear to be that Hitler was not stupid, nor for most of his career conspicuously nuts, and that's quite true, painful though it may be to acknowledge.
Posted by: ebt at September 21, 2005 3:31 PMebt: Thank you for seeing the point of my Hitler reference. As to the Memorandum, you have a very point. Thanks again.
Nonetheless I still think the Memorandum--even if doctored--is a pretty good reflection of Hitler's ability to analyze things and present his ideas.
See "THE HOSSBACH 'PROTOCOL': THE DESTRUCTION OF A LEGEND"
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v04/v04p372_Weber.html
Mark
Ottawa