16 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. It’s a funny thing about Liberals. When PET Trudeau concocted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they promised us a Shangri-La whereby the courts would decide our fate. No more of this ”parliament rules” mindset.
    40 years later, a Quebec judge refuses to hear a young lady’s case because she won’t remove her hijab in her court room.
    Now that’s Harper’s fault!! I know the story doesn’t really say that–but the photo sure does!
    http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/01/michael-den-tandt-harper-needs-to-learn-to-oppose-violent-islamism-without-stoking-xenophobia/

  2. Toronto Star, Feb. 28. Is Thomas Walkom’s column the result of shocking ignorance or malevolent misinformation? You decide:
    http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/02/27/how-to-save-canadian-capitalism-from-itself-walkom.html
    TW: “The economy is not working. A new one needs to be built.”
    An economy consists of all acts of production, trade and consumption performed by the people covered by it. The economy is not being allowed to work properly due to extensive regulation by governments at all levels.
    Economies are not “built” by anyone, individually or collectively. However the socialists, who want to control everything and be responsible for nothing, find it advantageous to talk this way.
    TW: “It is not working at a national level, where incomes stagnate, unemployment persists and good jobs are outsourced abroad.”
    TW: “On its own, the free market is providing increasingly less equal rewards.”
    Inequality is not a problem per se. It is mostly the result of effort inequality. But so-called “crony capitalism” that results from government intervention, which is really a repudiation of free market capitalism, can lead to extreme inequality. By the way, what is the Gini coefficient for Cuba and North Korea?
    TW: “In Canada, this trend [toward growing inequality] is offset only by remnants of the great postwar bargain hammered out between capital and labour, a bargain that included unemployment benefits, pensions and strong unions.”
    That was no bargain, that was the stacking of the deck against business.
    Real wages rise in proportion to an increase in capital investment per worker. There is no conflict between labour and capital.
    TW: “Labour unions are weak; most of the jobless don’t qualify for employment insurance; most workplaces don’t offer pensions.”
    A pension is a kind of mass savings account that pays fixed dividends to its members for as long as they survive. Like all savings accounts, it is dependent on unconsumed production and the rising living standards provided by a free market. There is no reason why workplaces should be offering them, when they would be more logically be provided by financial institutions.
    Employment insurance wouldn’t even be necessary but for the depredations of the anti-free market crowd over the past century. Wages are set by supply and demand. If we had a free market there would be near-zero unemployment.
    TW: “Enlightened employers know that, in the long run, unions create the conditions for a broad and politically stable middle class, thus allowing corporations to prosper.”
    Businessmen are not angels, nor are they omniscient. There may be reasons for the workers on the shop floor to act together for the purpose of handling issues of safety or other working conditions. But there is no need to stack the deck for labour. Union membership should be voluntary, and the legal concept of the “bargaining unit” should be discarded. The middle class can only arise with the rising standards of living provided by a true free market.

  3. There’s also the fact that voluntary exchanges involve resources/property that belong to the individuals involved in the exchange, not to the government. Hence the government has no authority to interfere, functioning economy or not.

  6. The US drilling rig count declined 43 units—down from losses of 48 last week and 98 the previous week—to settle at 1,267 rigs working during the week ended Feb. 27, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc.
    That total is the lowest since Jan. 15, 2010, and 502 fewer units compared with this week a year ago.
    The count has now fallen in 13 consecutive weeks, losing 653 units during that time (OGJ Online, Dec. 5, 2014).
    During the week, land rigs fell 42 units to 1,208 while offshore rigs fell 3 units to 51. Rigs drilling in inland waters gained 2 units to total 8.
    Oils rigs dropped 33 units to 986, dipping to fewer than 1,000 for the first time since June 17, 2011. Gas rigs dropped 9 units to 280. Rigs considered unclassified were halved to 1 unit operating.
    Rigs engaged in horizontal drilling fell 33 units to 946, the lowest total since Nov. 19, 2010. Since Nov. 21, 2014, 426 units have gone offline. Rigs drilling directionally, meanwhile, merely edged down a unit to 127.
    Canada’s rig count relinquished 30 units to 330, representing 296 fewer units compared with this week a year ago. Of the 30 lost, gas rigs declined 17 units to 159 and oil rigs declined 13 units to 171.
    http://www.ogj.com/articles/2015/02/bhi-us-rig-count-continues-to-tumble-falls-43-units-to-1-267.html

  7. Oh, but there’s no “permanent jobs” at refineries:
    “As we have noted before, when the president says “it bypasses the United States,” he leaves out a very important step. The crude oil would travel to the Gulf Coast, where it would be refined into products such as motor gasoline and diesel fuel (known as a distillate fuel in the trade). Current trends suggest that only about half of that refined product would be exported, and it could easily be lower.
    “A report released in February by IHS Energy, which consults for energy companies, concluded that “Canadian crude making its way to the USGC [Gulf Coast] will likely be refined there, and most of the refined products are likely to be consumed in the United States.” It added that “for Gulf refineries, heavy bitumen blends from the oil sands are an attractive substitute for declining offshore heavy crude supply from Latin America.” It concluded that 70 percent of the refined product would be consumed in the United States…
    “Finally, note that Obama said Keystone was just for Canadian oil, and “we should be focusing on American infrastructure for American jobs and American producers.” But actually, Keystone would help U.S. oil producers in North Dakota and Montana. TransCanada, the builder of the pipeline, has signed contracts to move 65,000 barrels a day from the Bakken area –and hopes to build that to 100,000. That’s nearly 10 percent of the region’s production.”
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/02/obamas-claim-that-keystone-xl-oil-bypasses-the-u-s-earns-four-pinocchios/

  9. Liberals crack-up. Real Good.
    …-
    “Mayor Watson will recover in respite care facility”
    “Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson won’t be making the rounds at community events for the next month or so as he recovers from a pelvic fracture.”
    …-
    “O-Train Trillium line fails to launch without snag”
    “On the morning of the launch of the new and improved O-Train Trillium Line, passengers were left in the cold wondering why there was no train.”
    http://www.cfra.com/news/2015/03/02/otrain-trillium-line-fails-to-launch-without-snag

  11. Poll spotting:
    “Do you think Ontario’s new sex education curriculum … should be embraced by BC’s public school system?”
    http://www.radionl.com/
    The poll is on the left side. You might need to scroll down a bit.

  13. I think that is Quebec law the judge is ruling on. The government there has gone completely secular. If the young woman claims her scarf is required by her religion (which is not necessarily so), then off it comes in a Quebec court.
    Trudeau objecting to this is betraying his own province’s unique position in Confederation in favor of fluffing muslims.

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