Looks like Paul Krugman has competition in the area of hairbrain “progressive” ideas. Bangladeshi economist, Muhammad Yunus, is insisting that guaranteed credit for everyone should be a “human right”. Hmmm, what could possibly go wrong with this idea, if implemented?!
Turns out we don’t need to look very far into history to find out. This article and this one too are well worth a read. Here’s an excerpt from the former:

The story of Boiana and of Palivelupa is that of a good idea gone dras­tically wrong, dev­astating the lives of millions of des­perately poor people, threat­ening a bank­ing cri­sis and re­vealing the dark side of India’s eco­nom­ic growth. Pio­neered in Bangladesh in the late 1970s, micro­finance in­volves grant­ing small loans that no conventional bank would give to the very poor, al­lowing them to launch small-scale eco­nom­ic ven­tures. Around 30 million house­holds in India have received £4bn in such loans over the past 15 years.
In re­cent months, howev­er, the indus­try has been thrown into cri­sis as it has become clear that a signif­icant number of borrowers – be­tween a tenth and a third, depending on the es­ti­mate – cannot afford to repay their loans.

Perhaps the CBC can hire her as a consultant!

Leftist Vancouver politician Kerry Jang, and his family, have been the victims of threatening phone calls from “progressive” social-housing activists.

Though the irony would have been delightful!
P.S. Not directly related but for those interested, here’s an interesting article subtitled “Building an Oscars Broadcast“.

This video from Michael Coren’s show, courteously uploaded by Matt from Mississauga, is focused on recent happenings in America. Carefully listen to Toronto Newstalk 1010’s Britt Aharoni and you will hear a deep seated antipathy, if not hatred, for U.S. conservatives and libertarians, that rivals another Big Smoke “journalist” named Heather Mallick. Ms. Aharoni is completely blind to anything untoward that might possibly come out of the mouths of someone on the Left side of the political spectrum.
Do you think Bob Rae’s recent comment about Jihadists working in PM Harper’s office offended her? Unlikely. Do you think Mass. Representative Mike Capuano’s recent calls for violence against Tea Party members gave her pause for thought? Unlikely. Do you think that the campaign of vilification against Jews raged by the man to her right, the despicable Sid Ryan, has kept her awake at night? Unlikely.
Ms. Aharoni is typical of the vast majority of members of Canada’s Mainstream Media who deem themselves to be “liberals”. In their newsrooms, cocktail parties, and other bubble chambers they repeatedly tell each other how righteous and free thinking and unbiased they are. The reality is far, far afield from such group think delusions. This is a huge reason why an ever increasing number of Canadians feel alienated from them and no longer take them seriously.
As 2011 unfolds and a possible federal election campaign transpires, keep very clear in your mind that Britt Aharoni and other close-minded clones like her are the ones filtering the “news” you’ll be getting from Canada’s MSM. The Truth Is Out There but it sure ain’t comin’ from them!

A Windsor, Ontario radio station is conducting a new poll:

Wisconsin is moving to strip the state’s public employees of collective bargaining rights. Do you support the move?

Feel free to cast your vote here. Then click on “News Poll” on the left, near the middle.

Michelle Malkin has much more. But remember, if you don’t support the “progressive” agenda then you are “the scum of the earth“!
Here’s a related and fact rich podcast from WABC’s Aaron Klein, especially the segment beginning at 51:00.

A friend of a friend posted the following on Facebook:

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE….
That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries). What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is! The average teacher’s salary (nationwide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.

Continue reading →

While watching this I kept thinking of the real message these folks were sending out: “C’mon you selfish private sector workers, support us so we can retire at 55 52* with full benefits. Don’t worry though, we’ll show you moral support while you keep workin’ til 75 to pay for us!”
Update: In a related video, Steven Crowder shares his thoughts!

One of my personal heroes, Mark Steyn, discusses current events with Boston talk show host, Michael Graham. Enjoy every second of it!
Update: Steyn’s Snapshots of the Republic – aka Proud Moments of the Modern Left  🙁

PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley, recently appeared on Bill Maher’s show. An interesting discussion ensued between these two Men of the Left about Cultural Relativism.
Cultural Relativism is one of the prime tenets of Multiculturalism, which is under attack in Europe these days. In a nutshell, belief in it means that you may not criticize or look down upon any other culture. Whether it be the repression of women or female genital mutilation or the execution of homosexuals (for just being gay), an adherent to Cultural Relativism will not criticize any of these things and considers anyone who does a bigot & a racist.
While Bill Maher is most certainly a Man of the Left, he is absolutely not a Cultural Relativist, but Tavis Smiley is, big time. Here’s an outline of Smiley and his views:

Smiley’s positions epitomize what happens when one mixes the tenets of moral and cultural relativism, cultural self-hate, postmodernism, and political correctness. I have often argued that tolerance toward any form of intolerance is self-inflicted barbarism. Bill Maher captured my position quite well on his most recent show when he stated, “When you tolerate intolerance, you’re not really being a liberal.”

Though I could not find a video of this exchange, comedian Adam Carolla obliterates Smiley in this podcast, beginning at 10:30. Language warning!
On a personal note, I must admit that I was not aware of this division of opinion amongst Leftists on this issue. Perhaps it serves as a good litmus test to determine if a person is Centre Left or Far Left. The former is home to the likes of Terry Glavin, Michael Ignatieff, Joe Clark, etc. The latter is home to Jack Layton, everyone in the Green Party, all SDA trolls, etc.

With apologies to all poetry purists:
Lizzie May sat behind a green wall,
When a big truck caused it to fall.
Onto her head the wall did fall down,
Which caused Lizzie May a great big frown.
The socialist doctors did their very best,
Albeit after two weeks of helping all the rest.
They fixed her head as best they could tell,
But clearly Lizzie May is not at all well.
Like you, I never heard any report about Lizzie May being in her office when the truck hit it, but then how do you explain this?

Christiane Amanpour: So, George, Wisconsin. Is this the sort of battle that we’re going to see shaping up around the country? Is this really the sort of political and philosophical debate that’s going on right now about what these cuts are going to mean?
George Will: It would have been even if the president hadn’t intervened. But in the span of three days, Christiane, he first submits a budget that would increase the federal deficit and, two days later, he mobilizes his party, his own political machine, and organized labor, which is an appendage to his party, to sabotage Wisconsin’s attempt to do what he will not do, which is deal with the insolvency of their government. In doing so, he has set the stage for 2012 by saying the Democratic Party is the party of government, not just in having an exaggerated view of the scope and competence of government, but because its base is in public employees.
h/t Fred