A most interesting article appeared in the Vancouver Province on the weekend. It opens as follows:

This booming town is busting at the seams, unable to keep up with the constant influx of workers who need a place to sleep, eat and spend their sizable disposable income.
Packed restaurants, full hotels, empty store shelves and shiny new trucks are the hallmarks of this northeast B.C town that is reaping the benefits of a booming oil-and-gas industry.
In a time when many British Columbians can’t find work, Dawson Creek business owners struggle every day to find staff.

A section later on caught my attention:

Dawson Creek’s mayor, Mike Bernier, in Vancouver recently for a conference, handed out business cards to Occupy Vancouver protesters, promising them he would find them jobs in Dawson Creek, provided they are hard workers.
“We have basically zero unemployment in Dawson Creek – it’s the lowest in the province,” Bernier said.
While the protesters he talked to said they wouldn’t take him up on his offer, he still encourages others to move to the city.

Even though there’s a severe language warning, I highly recommend you listen to this clip from a recent Adam Carolla podcast. He talks about a fundamental change in American society: Envy. This, of course, has been deliberately hyper-inflated by Barack Obama and his comrades but, as Carolla explains, is the byproduct of at least 20 years of the “Participation Trophy” mentality. Another interesting insight he provides is how Envy has become the fundamental commonality connecting Radical Leftism with Radical Islamism.

Glenn Beck: Adam Carolla is MY HERO!
An earlier anti-OWS rant by Carolla
Another rant by Carolla, from nearly 2 years ago
Note: In 2012, carefully watch how Democrat apparatchiks and their sycophants in the MSM keep playing the Envy card over & over & over again. Of course, they’ll spin it as “social justice” and “economic equality” but it’s really Envy that they’re desperately trying to stir up in voters. Hopefully a majority of these voters will pay attention to Eric Duhaime’s 5th Life Lesson.

Unbeknownst to the OWS participants and supporters, a college-like degree in “Basic Life Lessons and Economic Realities” was available to them, free of charge, if only they paid attention to what actually happened over the past 2 months. In a brilliant column, that should be printed out and affixed above the bed of every entitlement junkie, Eric Duhaime outlines the valuable life lessons:

1. Down with public property
2. Banks fulfill an essential function
3. Law and order help when you’re being pushed around by criminals
4. You need to work before you eat
5. The leaders of the Left never practice what they preach

Folks on the Left constantly remind the rest of us of how incredibly open minded they are. Duhaime’s 5 absolute truths provide a valuable opportunity to test this assertion. Observe the Leftists you encounter in 2012 and see which ones earned an “A” and which ones ended up with an “F” in Duhaime’s course.
For extra credit towards an A+, direct them to this discussion between the author and Charles Adler.

Publius goes against the current grain (no kidding!):

Ignorance & Apathy
Go together like a horse and carriage…
Encouraging young people to vote is essentially asking the least experienced in adult society to help run society. This is also the same group that, economically, contributes very little to the national fisc. It’s easy to believe in utopia when you don’t know any better, and someone else is footing the bill. If you’re a politician selling the same pie-in-sky dreams for decades, the youth of Canada look like a tempting target.
But the young are connected, integrated and diverse! That must make them ideal voters! Not really. The highly efficient exchange of blather, i.e. social media, adds little to the sum total of human wisdom. Diversity? Turns out non-white young people are about as vapid as white young people…

How silly of me to think that the entitlement mentality of Canadians could get any worse. But along comes Dr. Rajendra Kale, editor in chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, who argues that, “Parking fees amount to a user fee in disguise.”
The Vancouver Sun editorial board disagrees with him. But surprise, surprise, Saskatoon’s Tammy Robert does not. She thinks she’s hard done by and whines on Charles Adler’s shoulder about her plight. In other words, Ms. Robert thinks it’s perfectly fine for her fellow taxpayers, including many of whom likely make a whole lot less than her family does, to be paying her bills. That’s pathetic.
Should we expect a Human Rights case to be filed in the not too distant future?!
Personal Note: Earlier this week I was staying at a hotel in San Francisco. They wanted $45/day extra for parking. I said “no way” and found free parking not too far away. If you don’t want to pay for parking then don’t park there!

If SDA Trolls are any indication of the Leftist mindset, then they truly aren’t remotely aware of how [small-c] conservatives think. Member of the European Parliament, Daniel Hannan, has penned a simple memo to help the comrades better understand.
Here’s a snippet:

Those of us who believe in small government are not motivated by the desire to make the rich richer. We’re really not. We are, in most cases, nowhere near having to pay top rate tax ourselves; our most eloquent champions over the years have been modestly-paid academics. We believe that economic freedom will enrich the country as a whole. Yes, the wealthy might become wealthier still, but we don’t see that as an argument against raising living standards for the majority.

“Society – we are creating a group of self-enttitled monsters. Knock it off.” (Not safe for work.)

Mark Steyn’s latest is well worth a read.
Open Question: If you were the Republican presidential candidate and elected next November, along with Republican majorities in the Congress and Senate, what fiscal policy changes would you make in your first year of office?

A CBC poll gets horribly occupied. (h/t Marc)

When the “Occupy” protests started, they sure did appear to be a dirty & smelly bunch. But things have gotten so bad that they’re now posing a health risk to themselves and others. In between praising them for being the greatest ever addition to the world, didn’t their “Progressive” Mommys and Daddys ever teach them the basics of hygiene?

h/t Bemused

* – h/t Alan

If you’ve ever wondered precisely what Canadians have deemed themselves to be helpless and want an endless stream of government programs to assist them in every facet of their lives, may I present “Victoria”:

This screenshot was taken yesterday on CKNW’s Facebook page. Her words could have come from The Onion or SNL, but indeed they came directly from her very own “progressive” mind. This woman is not a young kid. Just imagine the damage she has done by imparting her “wisdom” onto all the youth around her.
For those interested in the cyber equivalent of banging their head against the wall, here’s her Twitter page. She clearly deserves a gold medal for mindless drivel.

The comments on this earlier post were nothing short of spectacular. So much so, that several deserve repeating. While portions of them were specifically directed at women who feel entitled, most everything could equally apply to men of the same ilk.

I’m a stay at home dad, my wife holds a senior position of responsibility at a large company, she’s senior management. She says herself that most of the women at her company are unwilling to do the extra things that are necessary to get ahead, be promoted. That doesn’t stop them from feeling entitled to a promotion based on their years of service. When one of the girls does show determination and initiative she is often ostracized from the others. Excuses are made as to why ‘SHE’ gets ahead without ever once acknowledging effort OR competency!
I think the biggest hinderance to getting ahead is that we’ve taught our youth that there’s no need to win or lose, everyone is equal, no need to stand out from the crowd. You get a trophy for participation, not for achieving. The problem is that the real world keeps score and rewards only success. The self-esteem movement’s chickens have come home to roost and many simply can’t deal with it. They don’t even know how to achieve their goals, they have little to no perspective of life’s real challenges and no effective way of overcoming these issues.
It’s sad and difficult having to come to grips with disappointment for the first time when you’re in your 20’s rather than when it should have been learned, as a child and youth. Until we stop insulating, mollycoddling and achieving FOR our kids this won’t change.
Now go tell your kid to Occupy a Library.
Red Jeff

Continue reading →

Here’s a most “enlightening” exchange between Sid Ryan and Sun News’ Jacqui Delaney.
Update: Charles Adler and Joe Warmington discuss Ryan’s appearance at OWS Toronto.

Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.
[…]
Google began making investments and doing research into technology to drive down the price of renewable energy in 2007, with a particular focus on solar power technology.
In 2009, the company’s so-called Green Energy Czar, Bill Weihl, told Reuters that he expected to demonstrate within a few years working technology that could produce renewable energy at a cheaper price than coal.
“It is even odds, more or less,” Weihl said at the time. “In three years, we could have multiple megawatts of plants out there.”
A Google spokesman said that Weihl had left Google earlier this month.

Should have read Understanding E=mc2

This Friday is the infamous “Black Friday” in America. Apparently some members of the “Occupy” movement have plans to disrupt retail transactions.
I wonder if a business owner has the legal right to personally sue anyone who prevents them from legally earning money? An estimate of losses per minute by any disruption could be established. Divide that by the number of people identified as participating in said disruption. Would Mommy & Daddy of the Lil’ Socialist be willing to pay off such a major fine?!

Please don’t be anywhere near food before reading this.

At least one incident on the county list [of the Occupy Santa Cruz camp] wasn’t noted by the Sheriff’s Office: the discovery of an estimated 200 pounds of human feces near the county Veterans Memorial Building, just across the Water Street bridge from the camp.

But don’t dare heap any scorn on these folks or else Mika Brzezinski will be disgusted with you!

Monday, November 21, 2011 – 2pm: The BC Supreme Court has ordered the end of the tent protest at ‘Occupy Vancouver’.

Monday, November 21, 2011 – 4pm onwards: An endless stream of wet, miserable weather is forecast:

With two powerful incentives to return to the basements of their mothers, it’ll nonetheless be interesting to see how each faux anarchist answers an obvious question.

We are the 97.15% ! An Occupy Calgary poll goes horribly wrong.