50 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Ah – the Getz/Gilberto CD is the first one I put in for quiet gatherings at my place – it’s awesome!

  5. Good link, ron in kelowna.
    Hillary gets upset with an African.
    Yummy.
    The Hildebeast is really getting thunder thighs, isn’t she?
    And the way she is slouching in that chair is a sign of, well, I’m not sure…but it doesn’t look good.

  6. Agreed, Erik. The Getz/Gilberto album was indeed a significant work. It won the 1965 Grammy Awards for Best Album of the Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. And I just think Stan is great. Nobody does bossa nova like Ukrainian Jews.

  8. Re Ron’s 10:11 Hillary link: I don’t want to overstate it here to make it sound like I’m emotionally empathizing with Hillary C., but I can sort of understand her frustration at being treated as “the wife” during an appearance when she’s officially representing the US as its Secretary of State. Here’s a woman who had a very, very good chance at becoming President, and now she’s serving under her bitter rival, who turns out to be the most roost-ruling, domineering, unaccountable man-of-men President ever — not that misogyny is a part of black culture in any way, of course. And then her philandering husband upstages her by going to Korea where he bit his lip thoughtfully on the tarmac, en route to feeling, bordering on palpating, the rescuee’s pain.
    And then she’s asked, in her official role as Secretary of State,
    “We’ve all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country. The interference from the world bank against this contract. What does *Mr.* Clinton think, through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton?…”
    To be sure, she should have kept her tire-chewing frustrations to herself, but I have a sense that her reaction was about more than just Bill, and that maybe it’s a sign of her dissatisfaction with what she sees as a diminished or discounted role under the Great Leader.
    I speculate wildly.

  10. From Obama’s standpoint his appointment of HRC to secretary of state to travel to the wilds of africa russia ad the UN has borne its first fruit – a loss of temper by HER. Not quite mission accomplished yet, but day by day hilary2012.com – a domain HRC registered last fall will – looks less and less likely to be activated.

  11. I think you summed it up very well EBD. I don’t have any real sympathy for HRC. but I can understand her frustration. She must serve O, and forever be “the wife” of President Bill Clinton.
    Will she ever simply be, the ex senator of N.Y.? maybe not, but she’ll always be Bill’s long suffering wife! (oh come on, she could have given him the boot.)

  12. EBD, I agree with Kate that you are rather close. This article is a few months old, but still rather accurate.
    But she is shrinking by the day. Once Obama’s equal — and before that his superior — she now looks tiny compared to the president. She doesn’t look like a president in waiting; she’s more like a senior staff member hoping to rise in the bureaucracy. No longer at the head of a movement or the symbol of rising women all over the world, she has faded into the State Department woodwork.

  13. Brent Weston, I would have lost a lot of money a while ago – I was sure that HRC was going to be the first woman president of the US. It would have been a better decision than what we have now.
    She is shrinking by the day though, and it just ain’t the same.
    When the Youtube vid loaded, I wondered what that bag lady was doing on the stage, and where HRC was.
    I think she’s done for 2012

  16. I think she’s done for 2012
    ~Erik Larsen
    All the Democrats are done for 2012.
    Any American pols that don’t run as Republicans will be running as independents.
    Come to think of it, if the Repubs don’t stop acting like RINOs, Conservative pols will have to run as independents too.

  17. Erik: It’s amazing how quickly things can change in a game such as politics – a game in which facts are convenient but not essential. Things can change so quickly the other way that I would hesitate to count her out in 2012 simply because of her diminished role at State.
    One writer had suggested she would stay within the Administration until Obama’s popularity started to recede – then she would resign and criticize the policies from the outside. If this writer is correct, she will probably do it in early 2010 so that she is not associated with the Administration when the November 2010 elections shake up Congress in favour of the GOP and Obama is blamed for the Dems losses.
    That, of course, would not ensure a 2012 Dem nomination in 2012 for HRC, much less a win. However, things in politics do swing with less predictability than in other professions.

  18. Daniel M. Ryan – I live in Alberta, and work in health care. It’s great, because I’m paid fairly well, and because I’m in health care, I know I’ll be safely looked after. You know the old saying, friends of bartenders sometimes get free drinks.
    Same thing with us health care people – we’ll look after each other.
    My dad was sick a while ago – he wasn’t well looked after until he was terminally ill, then he got good care
    So, if you’re well, or terminally ill, the Canadian Health care system will do you just fine.

  19. Brent resigning in 2010 is her only option. The question is: does she do it before or after the nov 2010 bloodbath. My guess is she does it in September so she can campaign to save some of the moderate dems – the ones who could help her replace obama in 2012. If any dem can unseat a sitting black (notionally at least) potus it could be a woman running to become the first potus of that gender. Not impossible, but bill seems determined- consiously or other wise – to frustrate her quest.

  20. If the title of Greatest Canadian Blowhard were up for grabs, a leading contender would be Deborah Coyne, who occasionally descends to the op-ed pages of the Toronto Star to offer some vague, windy verbiage that sounds like it advocates great things but in reality is only flak for a certain political party. Monday was one of those days.
    She starts off with, “Does anyone in the federal government believe in Canada anymore – in the intrinsic value of the greater entity ‘Canada’ and the Canadian national interest?”
    Nothing has intrinsic value; values only exist in relation to an individual’s life and his judgment of things that are important to it. The individual’s life is far more important to him than his country, which is a somewhat arbitrary collective. As for the “national interest”, the purpose of government is to protect the rights of its individual citizens.
    DC: “Is anyone genuinely concerned with what it means to be Canadian – those things we all, regardless of province or territory, recognize instinctively and instantaneously?”
    In keeping with her tradition of windy vagueness, no examples are given. But again, Canada (as any other country) is merely a geographic entity, with no special characteristics other than location.
    DC: “The federal government’s ability to act in the national interest is dangerously diminishing. National survival as a viable entity now appears to be in the hands of … [politicians such as premiers McGuinty and Campbell], … who thankfully are prepared to argue the case for national action on preserving Nortel’s strategic assets in Canadian hands, reforming EI, child care, pension reform, the economic union.”
    None of these are examples of acting in the “national interest”. The assets of Nortel belong to their owners to dispose of, not to Canada. EI reform may actually make some sense in the current economic conditions, but the Star and some of its columnists have been flogging the same horse since at least 2007, when the economy was humming along – because their real goal is to see as many people as possible on social programs (the phony $10 Ontario minimum wage push was another part of this). Child care should be a responsibility of parents, not government. The real problem regarding pensions is that there may not be enough productivity in the economy to support them – thus the solution is to remove the impediments to productivity such as high taxes and regulation (which might also alleviate the problem of families in which both parents must work, thus lessening the need for child care). Finally, the economic union would be better without inter-provincial trade barriers; this is a stand that Coyne has taken before.
    DC: “… we enthusiastically grab this or that tax credit or deduction from a confusing array that does not address today’s problems and that undermines the neutrality of the tax system. Meanwhile, little or no thought is given to effective long-term strategic thinking. Stimulus spending – from massive bailouts to tiny Band-Aids in our social security net – is unprincipled, inefficient and divisive, and will adversely impact federal finances and fiscal health for years, just as the GST cuts have already done.”
    Most experts say tax system complexity is a serious problem. But it has developed over the decades, built by politicians of all parties at the federal and provincial levels. The best course of action is to remove the “incentives” and most of the loopholes and keep the rate low. And when have politicians ever thought longer term than the next election?
    Stimulus spending is probably guilty of all of the charges. But which Canadian party would have done things differently? The only way to “stimulate” an economy is to remove the disincentives to produce and trade – deal with taxes and regulation.
    DC: “Inadequate and falling federal revenues mean weaker national government. That means no serious pension reforms to the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Supplement/Guaranteed Income Supplement that would benefit the majority of Canadians with inadequate pensions.”
    As the saying goes, a government that can give you everything you want is one that can take everything you’ve got. Throwing more money into pensions (which is what “reform” must mean) is not equivalent to establishing a government that is not “weak”. The pension system has developed over the course of at least 40 years. Should it not have been possible to develop an “adequate” system by now? But I repeat, the real problem regarding pensions is lack of productivity to support them, and the first and biggest step in the solution is to remove impediments to economic productivity such as high taxes and regulation.
    DC: “Weaker national government means increasingly underfunded national programs and initiatives in Ottawa – unable to prevent a food safety or health-care crisis, let alone address serious environmental challenges. It means no secure supply of medical isotopes. Is that our collective vision?”
    It’s funny how many things become “underfunded” when government is supposed to provide them: pensions, social assistance, education, legal aid, transit. The villains, yet again, are taxes and regulations that reduce economic productivity overall. As for “collective vision”, there is no such thing; it’s really a sneaky way of saying “trust your leaders, they’re better than you”.
    DC: “Canada is the most decentralized federation in the world … incontrovertible evidence that federal spending as a share of GDP continues its steady decline to its current level (from a high of 19.2 per cent before 1991, to a low of 11.2 per cent in 2007). If present trends continue, federal spending could dip below even the municipal government share of GDP within 12 years.”
    Big deal. The real argument here is for more tax-and-spend power for politicians. While it might make sense to abolish the provincial level of government entirely, it would be too much bother at this time.
    DC: “… this trend toward fiscal weakness means our national government will be unable to fulfill its duties across the broad spectrum: national standards for social, educational and environmental programs; comparable national services and infrastructure; strategic investments in innovation and leading-edge industries; adequate support for our troops; equity and justice for aboriginal Canadians.”
    Here’s another everything-but-the-kitchen-sink list; it is a standard fuzzification tactic. Who said the federal, or any other government, had these “duties”? National standards for social programs? The programs have existed for decades; has there been something wrong with the standards all along? Why has nothing been done? Education is a provincial responsibility; why would the feds butt in to set its standards? “Comparable national services” meaning what exactly? Infrastructure spending may be helpful in cases such as building a road that eases traffic bottlenecks on other roads, but not in much more than that. Adequate support for our troops is a good idea, although I note that if other nations abided by the fundamental moral principle that no person has the right to initiate the use of force on any other, we wouldn’t need any troops abroad. Finally, aboriginal bands receive billions of dollars every year. Haven’t they achieved “equity and justice” yet? What would you do differently? The real problem with aboriginals is that they were socialized before everyone else. The solution begins with undoing it.
    DC: “It is all too easy to play to the constituency that supports lower taxes, reduced public investment, erosion of national standards and off-loading costly national responsibilities to provincial and municipal governments – already crushed under the recent recession. But this is not bold national leadership.”
    DC: “Bold leadership reaches out to the broader constituency that understands the value of public services and public investment and the need for strong national initiatives to the people in such a diverse and young country as Canada. Bold leadership reassures Canadians that our national government is more than a giant ATM machine, and that it has all the tools necessary to ensure a secure future for our children in a turbulent, fast-moving world.”
    Note first the bogus implication that big government is “bold”. This is standard bumpf from people like Coyne: despite the track record of government waste and stupidity in so many “public services and public investment(s)”, more of the same is “bold”. The comment about Canada being more than a giant ATM machine contradicts much of the article, with its pleas for more money for pensions, child care, etc.
    Politicians always promise the sun, moon and stars. But over the past 40 years, since the welfare state really took off, Canada has had its weakest economic performances, with stagnating wages, two-working-parent families, and general poor productivity. The biggest problem is taxes that support hare-brained political schemes including regulations that distort the economy and depress incomes. These are the “initiatives” that are crushing individual Canadians and hurting kids, and not just under the recent recession.
    DC: “Canadians know all too well that building a fair, compassionate and innovative society is not a destination, but a journey.”
    This is the biggest effrontery of all. The politicians have promised fairness, compassion, innovation and many other virtues for decades. But things have been going backwards, wages have stagnated for decades, university grads are worse off now than a generation ago, good jobs for them rarely exist, kids today are expected to be poorer than their parents, etc, etc. The main reason for the economic backwardness is the failed promises of fairness, compassion, innovation and the like from high-taxing politicians. But now it’s not even a destination – we’re never going to arrive, we’re just going to have to continue to suffer big taxes and failed political projects forever and ever because it’s a “journey”: i.e., the elite will continue to rule us, and we should continue to allow them.
    DC: “We are more than ‘taxpayers’ of this great nation. We are ‘citizens’ – a far nobler role.”
    More bumpf. Usually “citizen” is contrasted with “consumer”, but here it’s “taxpayer”. From the overall context, one might surmise that Coyne’s definition of “citizen” is “a person who, when the government says ‘Jump’, answers, ‘How high?'” The distinction between “citizen” and “slave” in this context is not wide.
    DC: “We must have the opportunity to vote for a strong national government that can inspire us to look over the horizon and leave a better world for our children and grandchildren.”
    I don’t want a “strong national government” – I want a government that follows the fundamental moral principle of a civilized society and that is just strong enough to carry out its proper function of retaliating against those “citizens” who violate that principle. Productive individuals will make the better world.
    The implication of Coyne’s article of course is that the Liberals are knights in shining armour, instead of the usual fumbling, bumbling bunch of scheming and frequently larcenous incompetents who govern fairly well occasionally when Wall Street or the European bankers give them an incentive to do so.

  22. DC: “Canada is the most decentralized federation in the world … incontrovertible evidence that federal spending as a share of GDP continues its steady decline to its current level…
    Canada ISN’T a federation you Trudeaupian hack.
    It’s a Confederation.
    The Premiers of each Province are First Ministers of which the Prime Minister of Canada is merely First among equals.
    That is why power in Canada is decentralized.

  23. The so called CBC has a new euphemism for muslim gangs burning cars in France, now they are ‘restive youths’.
    /www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/08/10/france-riot-youths010.html
    “Restive youths in a Paris suburb torched a tourist bus and nearly a half-dozen cars and hurled objects at police early Tuesday, following the death of a teen pizza deliverer fleeing police.
    Authorities sent teams of riot police into the Bagnolet suburb on the eastern edge of Paris after a night of violence following the Sunday night death of an 18-year-old pizza deliverer fleeing police on his motorcycle.
    On Monday, about 40 young people threw Molotov cocktails at police and set fire to cars in a housing project in Bagnolet.”

  25. curious george – we all are subject to propaganda. I remember the first time I went to Europe (in the 1970s) and listened to Pravda – followed by Voice of America – there was little difference
    but I want to believe in truth – my truth
    And I think I’m right, because I believe in freedom

  26. astroturfing for sure.
    they ALL do it.
    ~curious george
    You mean to say, incurious george, that political parties of every stripe pay for advertising?
    Do tell.
    Astroturfing means -to fake grass roots support.
    Why would any political party that has a lot of real grass roots support bother faking it?

  27. Scots wha hae*.
    …-
    “SCOTS SNIPER KILLS TALIBAN LEADER WITH LONGEST SHOT(sic)
    A SCOTTISH soldier has been praised for making the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan after shooting a top Taliban fighter from almost a mile away.
    Corporal Christopher Reynolds took out the Afghan drug lord during some of the hardest fighting of the war so far.
    The 25-year-old, of 3 Scots, The Black Watch, kept watch on a shop rooftop for three days to eliminate the target.
    But he admitted the top-level Taliban fighter – known as Musa – was so far away it took him a couple of attempts to get the aim right.
    Initially Musa, who was with four men, did not even realise he was being shot at.
    But Cpl Reynolds, of Dalgety Bay, in Fife, together with his spotter Lance Corporal David Hatton, worked out different factors such as wind speed and the trajectory of the bullet to hit the target. Musa, who was more than 1,500 metres away, was taken out with a single shot to the chest.
    Cpl Reynolds, who has killed 32 Taliban fighters, said: “I was quite proud of that shot. It is the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. I am going to use that fact as a chat-up line in the pub when I get back home.”
    His 20-year-old spotter, from Castlemilk, in Glasgow, added: “We had been in position for three days when he made that shot. He did a top job that day.””
    urlm.in/cwmy
    *Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to Victorie! Now’s the day, and now’s the hour;
    http://www.robertburns.org/works/428.shtml

  28. Maz2: A Canadian, from Newfoundland, pulled the same feat near the beginning of the Afghan war. It took him one shot. The Americans with him were astonished by his skill — as everyone should be.

  30. Further to MJ, a brief entry on Corporal Rob Furlong
    With respect to the Scotsman sniper, the Scottish Daily Record had this to say:
    “He killed one of their snipers – who spoke with a Birmingham accent – who was shooting from a tiny hole in a wall more than half a mile away.”

  31. So Mississauga Matt yer saying the Scot had added incentive to make that long distance kill.
    Not only did he shoot an enemy sniper he shot and Englishman.
    I’m sure Scots all over the world are raising a pint with a hearty, “Well done laddie”.

  32. Yes, curious_george, we are subject to propaganda – the one that comes from our government. We just negate it when commenting.

  33. “I had a dream my life would be…..so different from the scale I’m living…”
    Susan Boyle, meet Hillary Clinton. Kindred Spirits.

  35. Does anyone have a link to the 2009 salary grid of the Toronto Teachers?
    Got into a discussion with a teacher friend and her leftist husband and when I stated that the top salary of a senior elementary teacher, according to the Toronto Sun and other papers, was now $95,000 they just refused to believe this was possible.
    “It’s just a statistic, I never made that when I retired 5 years ago, impossible, its conservative propaganda!”
    Our discussion was on the wages now paid to a garbage collector in Toronto, basic around $25 an hour. She thought this was a decent wage for how hard they worked and everyone should make a living wage. When I stated that how would you like it if all your food and retail stores all made that wage and your costs soared, is that okay? Blank stares and the ad hominems began as usual with lefties.
    She of course had gone to Obama’s coronation and she brought my sister-inlaw the T-shirt. The sister-inlaw is of the same political spectrum and when I responded to her email where she touted how Obama is performing “As difficult a job that he has, he is at least doing something to change the poor economic status of the US.” with a couple of paragraphs on what he is actually doing she refused to read it as she doesn’t read emails of more than a few words.
    As posters here have stated so many times it is impossible to debate leftists.

  36. NDP: Drug trafficker should be in Canadian Prison
    Toronto Sun Aug11/09
    *Holmes A former Union Exec was sentenced to 8yrs in a U.S federal prison after pleading guilty to helping smuggle 61kilograms of cocaine across the border from his property……

  37. No cash for old clunkers
    Calgary HeraldAugust 11, 2009
    Washington has just added another $2-billion US to its “cash for clunkers” program, following its initial outlay of $1-billion. This latest was scooped up in a week; the U. S. government had thought it would last until November, but buyers took quick advantage of a program offering up to $4,500 if they traded in cars to purchase newer, more fuel efficient models.
    Lest Canadian governments get any similar ideas, it might help to recall a few useful facts.
    This program is rife with potential for abuse. Automotive analyst Dennis Desrosiers has noted how one Michigan friend didn’t have an old car but bought one from a scrap yard for$50, only to turn it over to a dealership for a $4,500 taxpayer-funded credit,.This, though his friend intended to buy a new car anyway.
    Thus, cash-for-clunkers only steals sales from six months or six years from now. When consumers buy a new car this month, it pushes the purchase of their next automobile further out into the future.
    Some might argue, as has George Magliano of HIS Global Insight, that “we need the sales now.”
    So does every other industry that has tanked in this recession. But furniture makers, companies that construct drilling rigs, airlines, and hundreds of other businesses large and small do not have governments rushing to artificially stimulate their sales.
    We doubt, for example, that should the federal Conservatives be silly enough to imitate the wasteful White House and American Congress on cash for clunkers, that Canadian consumers will also be given subsidies to their energy bill to stimulate the use of more natural gas and oil, so that Alberta’s energy industry–and the associated rig manufacturing and parts industries –should be simulated.”

  38. ….The banana republic will not change from within….
    Commission ‘rejects’ RCMP policy
    Daniel Leblanc
    Ottawa — The Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 11:53AM EDT
    The RCMP must stop investigating its own members in cases involving death, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP said today.
    CPC chair Paul Kennedy said in a statement that he “rejects the current RCMP policy that investigations of its members be handled like any other investigation.”
    “As the seriousness of an alleged offence by a member increases, the discretion for the RCMP to respond as it deems appropriate must be removed and be replaced by mandatory requirements, Mr. Kennedy said. In cases involving death, the CPC said the investigation should be handled by an external police force or a provincial criminal investigation body.
    “We are not saying that the RCMP should never investigate itself. But we are saying that in certain circumstances, they should not,” Mr. Kennedy said
    The CPC found no actual bias in its review of 28 RCMP investigations involving Mounties.
    Still, one quarter of primary investigators personally knew the subject member under investigation, and a single investigator was assigned in 60 per cent of the cases.

  39. RCMP to censor stories about Indian smuggling arrests – wants more “good news” stories. The RCMP/HRC will decide what you NEED to know.
    ————————
    CORNWALL – It’s been business as usual for seizures of contraband tobacco by Cornwall RCMP, but don’t expect to read, hear or see many reports about it in Eastern Ontario media.
    Insp. Tim Knapman told Sun Media Cornwall RCMP no longer report what they consider relatively minor cigarette and tobacco seizures made under the Excise Act, 2001.
    “Unless it’s a tractor-trailer full of contraband, we’re not going to report it to the media,” Knapman said. “I find cigarette smuggling shows up too much in the media too much in this city. Cornwall deserves better. There’s a lot of good news out there to be reported.”
    http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2009/08/11/10425611.html

  40. Rob Furlong, distance 2430 metres which is about half a mile longer than the Scot.
    ~rebarbarian
    I’d like to add that Rob Furlong’s target was driving a moving truck, not standing still in a group of 4 people.

  41. It seems the carbon footprint of a wind turbine can be slightly bigger than anticipated:
    “New Brunswick’s first commercial wind farm will lose several weeks of electricity output from one of its 32 turbines after a major fire damaged the towering structure on the weekend… The fire originated 80 metres above ground in the structure’s turbine. Vestas, the company that supplies the turbines, will send a team to determine the cause this week.”
    http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/actualites/article/756653

  43. Ah! Never to fear, your New Conservative Government is here!
    From the Mop & Pail:
    “Meantime, the Conservative government has created a $6-million fund to find substitutes for radioactive isotopes.
    A panel of experts has also been convened to review proposals for new sources of medical isotopes in Canada. Its report is due at the end of November.”
    Saved in the nick of time!

  45. “Canada tracking Russian subs off East Coast
    The air force has sent a surveillance plane to keep tabs on two Russian attack submarines cruising off the East Coast in a patrol that harkens back to the Cold War.”
    (canoenews)
    …-
    [Russian]”Woman hurls mug at Mona Lisa painting
    The Louvre Museum says a Russian visitor hurled an empty mug at the Mona Lisa”
    (canoenews)

  47. Liblogs resident – Grumpymutterings Blog just accused the Prime minister of Canada of being a Racist.
    This is beyond fair comment and should be dealt with
    by the proper authorities.
    WK would not tolerate such defamation of character, nor should Liblogs

  48. Who would’ve ever thunk it? Ducks are worth at least twice as much as puppies. These people should have done jail time,plus the fines..—http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/08/11/calgary-outhouse-puppy-fine-alberta.html—

  49. Maz2 “Canada signs trade deal with Panama””
    I heard on the radio that this is about the six (or so) such trade deal signed in the last year. I think that is pretty impressive. Not much media coverage, though.

  50. Desert island material…nice one Vitruvius. Well do I remember sitting in the moody dining room of a certain music critic who shall not be named, with those fine Brazilian sounds breezing through.

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