Mark Steyn, always an exceptional writer, hits the ball out of the park with No bargaining with Barack Obluffer. Here is one key section (emphasis mine) :

But in essence the spenders are negotiating among themselves how much debt they’re going to burden you with. It’s like you and your missus announcing you’ve set your new credit limit at $1.3 million, and then telling the bank to send demands for repayment to Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s kindergartner next door.
Nothing good is going to come from these ludicrously protracted negotiations over laughably meaningless accounting sleights-of-hand scheduled to kick in circa 2020. All the charade does is confirm to prudent analysts around the world that the depraved ruling class of the United States cannot self-correct, and, indeed, has no desire to.

One hopes that all reasonably minded Americans are paying attention! The Tea Party made a good start in 2010 but clearly, the majority of the elected officials in DC have shifted back into “same old, same old” mode.
Update: Victor Davis Hanson has written a superb article as well.  h/t ET   In it there’s a most interesting quote from 2006. You’ll be blown away who said it:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Even Vancouver media personality & pundit, David Berner, who generally considers himself a man of the Left, can’t believe the insanity, greed, & selfishness coming out of the mouths of the leaders of the public school teachers in British Columbia.

Every few days a podcast is released by BBC News entitled From Our Correspondent. The stories from around the world are sometimes weird but most often fascinating.
In this recent episode, pay close attention to the first two segments: the first is from Athens and the second from Strasbourg. Listen to the repeated tales of corruption and greed and incompetence. Then ask yourself whether the big government proponents in Canada want anything different.

Dear Prime Minister Harper, are you listening?!
h/t Ralph

In a follow-up to this discussion, Brian Lilley and Ezra Levant discuss the phoney astroturfing campaign of the Far Left Entitlement Babies aka the Canadian “Artistic” Community.

SDA regular Gord Tulk has pointed out what appears to be a very well coordinated letter writing campaign to the CRTC CBSC. It’s concerning this interview: Part 1 & Part 2.
Was Krista Erickson’s behaviour really that egregious?!? The Reasonable Person Test suggests not. Therefore, why the thousands of “complaints” to the CRTC? Could it be that the members of Leftards.ca don’t want the rot of corruption within public arts funding to be exposed to the Canadian public?!
Might it be that a tiny minority of well connected “artists” have had their proverbial snouts in the public trough for a LONG TIME and don’t want the tap to be shut off? Might it be that this portion of the interview hit just a little too close to the bone in the hearts & minds of Canada’s Left?
Update: Blogger A Dog Named Kyoto has discovered a key component of the Astroturfing Coordination.

Continue reading →

I’ve mostly avoided posting any links to my own blog but, in the wake of the Vancouver Riots, when you’d like to think that most everyone in the city would be trying a little harder to be a good citizen, this event occurred right outside my home Sunday evening. Priceless!

If you’ve ever wondered who has the arrogance and disregard to do this and this and this you might want to consider the “upstanding fine citizens” next door.  Do you think such Bonnie & Clydes ever talk about such transgressions at their cocktail parties or Greenpeace rallies or Prius car club meets?  I doubt it.
I’m not remotely suggesting that what went on here is on the same level as the criminal acts during the Vancouver Riots but a similar psychopathy appears to be at work, namely: “If we can get away with an illegal, immoral action and not get caught, then it’s all fine.”  Incidentally, this mindset is a close cousin to the excuse many criminals use to justify stealing from others: “What’s the big deal?  They have insurance.”

With apologies for this editorial reference being a few weeks old but I only read it in Maclean’s today.
What struck the greatest chords with me were what was written at the beginning:

Rain or snow or sleet or hail can’t disrupt the mail. But what rhymes with seven weeks of annual paid vacation, out-of-whack pay scales or infinitely bankable sick days?
While the rotating strike by workers at Canada Post has proven to be a hardship for many Canadian businesses, it is also shining necessary light on the massive disparity between postal employees and workers in the private sector. Outside of bureaucrats in France, it is hard to imagine a more coddled, out-of-touch and overcompensated group than postal workers.

And also written at the end:

Of course the current postal dispute has significance far beyond the future of letter mail or the ambitions of Canada Post and its union. The gap between private and public sector compensation has now reached crisis proportions, and must be addressed for the sake of equity, affordability and coherent labour peace.
One example of how large and untenable this gap has become can be found in Statistics Canada’s recent observation that public sector employees now constitute a majority of all pension plan participants, despite being outnumbered more than three to one in the workforce. This suggests two types of retirement in the future: one of carefree luxury for public sector employees, and one of reduced expectations for everyone else. A similar dichotomy is at work with Ontario’s practice of paying a bonus to every corrections staffer who takes fewer than 23 sick days per year.
A postal strike seems as good a time as any to start imposing a new sense of reality on the public sector.

So SDA readers & commenters, if you were Stephen Harper, what would you do with Canada Post and how quickly would you do it?

Continue reading →

h/t SDH

Though there’s no way to confirm if this came from an actual police officer, the sentiments expressed within this letter ring true.

You’d tell me that the emergency services personnel I speak of are paid to do this job and chose to be there. You’re right. We give a damn about people we’ve never met and property that isn’t ours, that’s why we do what we do. You disgust us.
You’ll sleep soundly in your bed tonight because men and women like me will always be there to deal with your poor choices. You have no idea how fortunate you are, even after we arrest and charge you. Even though you disgust me, if you call for me in the middle of the night I’ll respond. I’ll protect your life and property because it’s right and it’s what I do.

Related: Discussion about a pre-teen who was involved in the rioting.

Video kindly uploaded by Matt from Mississauga
The “apology” that galls me the most is that of of Camille Cacnio. You can read it here. Call me old fashioned but in times past, the apologies I viewed as sincere & heartfelt didn’t go on & on & on scolding others about how *they* should feel about one’s own terrible actions. Sorry, but I don’t detect ANY real remorse in Ms. Cacnio’s tirade. Even the [generally] far left readers of the Georgia Straight can’t buy into what she wrote.
At least one of her paragraphs shows promises of a future job writing satire on SNL:

As many of you already know, I am majoring in Conservation Biology at UBC. I strongly belirve in ecological conservation and sustainability. That night, I saw a few people that were trying to knock trees down. So what did I do? I yelled at them, saying “Pleaaseee, not the treees!!!!” And what did they do? They stopped. And I felt like a hero.

Narcissists like Cacnio are the poster children of the entitlement generation. Their parents failed to do their jobs properly and now society & the judicial system has to clean up their mess. In this 24 Hours Vancouver article, her mother was interviewed and said, “I’m not condoning what she did … She’s not a really bad kid (but) they’re labeling her as a criminal. [The people on the social media sites] have the same mob mentality (as the rioters).”
Dear Mrs. Cacnio, your daughter was videoed fleeing a Black & Lee clothing store with stolen merchandise. She has publicly admitted to the same. What about that doesn’t make her a criminal?!? Yet you have the arrogant audacity to call outraged citizens, who are demanding that justice be served, as having “the same mob mentality” as the rioters. “Rioters”, such as Camille you mean?! Can anyone say “Parent of the Year” award . . . on The Onion, that is.
Whether it be Vancouver 2011 or Toronto 2010 or wherever, we have a SERIOUS problem in our country. It involves the entitlement mentality, lack of real parenting, and complete unaccountability. And I’m not just talking about our politicians!
Update: Someone has taken the time to create a parody apology that rightfully mocks Camille Cacnio’s complete insincerity. h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Vancouver political insider Alex Tsakumis has published a most stunning indictment in & around the recent riots. Here are some snippets:

Despite the warnings, the brooding, simmering cauldron of booze, drugs and anarchy, Penny Ballem and Gregor Robertson wouldn’t budge. They were joined by the Premier who, as only she can, exclaimed, “It’ll be GREAT! Imagine when we win it all!” Notice the word ‘we’ and the wholly transparent efforts to identify with the winning team–well, what should have been the winning team. So desperate was Clark to hitch her wagon to the Canucks’ championship destiny (a rapidly fizzled proposition) that her every public speaking engagement of late was on the Canucks or ended with some typically dim-witted Clark reference to the Cup. Her press scrums ended with increasing references to the same thing. It was the ‘prom queen’ routine–all heels and hypocrisy.

In Vancouver, the police begged for help and were ignored by the pot-smoking, nirvana-loving, socks and sandals set running the city. It’s beyond pathetic.

Then there’s the Mayor. No one contributed to the potential for such a disaster and eye sore than Gregor Robertson. His insistence that public disobedience and intoxication was somehow a sign of a “fun city” have the anarchists and hooligans a platform on which to perform. He is singularly reposnisble for not reigning in Dr. Bedlam and firing her and for not coming clean on the plain and simple fact: He screwed up. Robertson has spent three years turning Vancouver into a commune; a public toilet and ashtray. His policies of chicken coops and unnecessary bike lanes have siphoned tens of millions of dollars which should have gone towards needs like policing.

One wonders if his parents are just as proud as he is?!

Incidentally, for those on Facebook, take a look at this group. All sorts of twits are bragging about the crimes they committed last night. I think the collective IQ of Vancouver is being exposed as much, much lower than average.

Full story

Remember, this is from the CBC’s senior business correspondent for The National and co-host of the Lang & O’Leary Exchange:

I broke the rules to spend beyond my means

…
I was posted to New York at the age of 28 as a business journalist, and intended to live within the somewhat modest means of a newspaper correspondent. And I stuck to my guns, for at least six months. Then I abandoned my guns, hopped over the wall into no man’s land, went AWOL. And in retrospect I’m glad I did, because the investment in my career and the experiences were worth more than the thousands of dollars I figure it cost me…
My new friends liked to dine out (most people I knew in New York used their oven as additional storage space) and pretty soon we were traveling too. Italy, Spain, Italy, the Hamptons, Italy. We travelled together, and an Italian villa back then was a steal — I was practically saving money by going.
Within a few years, I was rich in experience, a billionaire in sights and sounds, a queen of couture. And tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. The lowest moment, financially speaking, was when I cashed in my RRSP — paid a huge chunk of tax on it, lost the compounding potential, and used the money to pay off a credit card. Or most of it…
Was it a mistake? On a straight math basis yes. It was foolish. But would I do the same thing over again? In a New York minute…

Entitled to her…

A brilliant follow-up to yesterday’s well discussed posting here on SDA was just published by Kelly McParland in the National Post. He so beautifully destroys the entitlement mentality, selfishness, totalitarian mindset, and hypocrisy that seems ever present in Radical Leftists these days.
Here’s a sampling of what should be a Must Read column for all Canadians who don’t fully understand the concept of democracy:

Ms. DePape is a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa, that bastion of free speech, where they shout down speakers who hold views they don’t like. She took classes in “international development and globalization,” where they teach you about the West’s cruel failure to adequately support less fortunate nations while plotting ways to exploit their labour. Fair trade coffee is free at the door.
They must not have reached the part of the course where they learn about democracy. Or perhaps Ms DePape missed that day, skipping classes to strap herself to the stack of a coal-fired power plant. Democracy is a system in which people get together and vote on who they wish to elect as a government. The party with the most votes wins. Recently, Canada had an election, in which almost 15 million votes were cast for 19 parties, some of which even held views similar to Ms. De Pape’s. The Conservative party won by quite a wide margin. The NDP, a party which considers itself “progressive,” also did quite well.

This afternoon Roy Green spoke with McParland about his column. You can listen to it here.

In an unprecedented move, a 21 year-old over-indulged narcissist of the Far Left (is that redundant?) was fired from her job as a Parliamentary page on Friday. This totalitarian thug/nitwit, who completely rejected the Democratic Will of the Canadian people, tried to spin her selfish little actions as “The Canadian version of an Arab spring”.
Undoubtedly all of her life her parents told her how “special” she was. What would be really special is if her actions made her unemployable for at least the next few decades. But undoubtedly she’ll get a job with some Radical Left activist group . . . funded directly or indirectly by your tax dollars. Ain’t our modern society with entitlements but no responsibility just grand?!
Update: Further info here, including a job offer from PSAC.
Open Question: Is it possible for the federal government to change the law, forbidding unions to exist amongst government employees on the grounds that their existence are an antithesis to civil democracy and good governance?
Update 2: A poll on the matter! (h/t maz2)

Ezra Levant takes his show to an entirely new level, competing with the theatrics of Rick Mercer:

Video kindly uploaded by Matt from Mississauga

Sometimes I feel guilty about the crushing debt our generation is passing on to the next. Then I read news items like this;

Police said the gang members are part of a group of more than 1,000 youths who have used social media sites like Facebook to plan unruly gatherings on the beach on three of the past four nights.

Whatever!

Robert J. Samuelson;

“A year after rescuing Greece from default, Europe is staring into the abyss. The bailout has proved insufficient. Greece needs more money, and it can’t borrow from private markets where it faces interest rates as high as 25%.”

But not an abyss abyss.

“Already, unemployment is 14.1% in Greece, 14.7% in Ireland, 11.1% in Portugal and 20.7% in Spain. What are the limits of austerity? Steep spending cuts and tax increases do curb budget deficits; but they also create deep recessions, lowering tax revenues and offsetting some of the deficit improvement.”

Mere sentences later, he actually uses the word “mirage” in a different context. Missed it by that much!
Related.