“Makes you wonder how Europe would have turned out if Hitler hadn’t been such an a&&ho?e. Some of these countries need a good conquering.”

Kate and SDA deserve loads of credit on this story and dozens of other stories covered on Sun News.
Huge number of SDA fans at Sun News. It is required reading.

I try to use my power only for good.

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent thinks so. But SDA regular ‘nv53’ has a very different take:

“The gap between the rich and the rest of us has reached 1920 levels.”
“We asked Canadians for their views on whether the growing gap between the rich and everyone else is a problem and the response is conclusive.”
Note the irresponsible juxtaposition of “the rich” and “the rest of us” or “everyone else”, as if there is a 1% class earning millions and a 99% class earning slave wages. This is an appeal to envy, to the thoughtless desire for the unearned by some of the lower specimens of humanity, and nothing more.
Incomes fall on a smooth curve with one peak in what we call the “middle income” range – not two. There is no “gap”. That is, there is no income level that no one earns but that a few above and many below do.
Income inequality is not a problem per se. Every individual is different – How’s that for “diversity”? They differ in their intelligence, their skills, their ambitions, their choices, and their luck, and undoubtedly many other characteristics.
In a free market capitalist economy, there should be a fairly standard distribution of incomes. Government intervention in the economy can make it difficult for businesses to operate and create jobs properly. Most social policy, including the “social programs” that Broadbent calls for more of, has this unfortunate result. In many cases, that’s the goal – to make things more difficult for business. Many of the phony “human rights” cases at the kangaroo courts fall into this category. Persons at the upper income level often have extra ways to look after themselves, and may well have “connections”. The vast majority do not, and they take the brunt of the assault on business that derives from irresponsible government spending and regulation, among other policies. The anti-capitalists will generally favour the policies that fill up the rosters for social programs, rather than allow job creation.
The nations that are much closer to having a 1% class and a 99% class are those that have adopted the vicious, immoral socialist ideology of Ed Broadbent: North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and the former Soviet Union. In those nations, a small parasitical elite that takes power, seized and maintained by violence, has a high standard of living while the average person suffers through being exploited. How often do Ed Broadbent and his ilk speak out against injustices like these?
As for his poll, I’d like to see the actual questions it asked. I’ve answered phone polls over the years and a lot depends on the wording of a question. Often, I can barely begin to explain my stance on an issue given the multiple choice options. It’s easy to ask questions that appeal to the envy of thoughtless people. I suspect there’s a 95% probability that’s what Broadbent’s poll has done.

It’s time for Harper to do something about the CBC. No more excuses, Mr. Harper — being nice to the Left doesn’t inspire them to be fairer or more honest. The CBC simply sees it as a sign of weakness and they slant the news even more to disparage anyone who refuses to submit to “progressive” ideology. Mr. Harper, you have to understand that these people think like sociopaths — they have no sense of justice or moral conscience, they will only respond to power.
Firstly, the CBC is violating its diversity mandate as a taxpayer funded institution by only embracing the point of view of the Left and being Partisan to the NDP or Liberals, for example. As such, the CBC is a political lobby organization, not a news organization.
Either the CBC gives fair representation of the diversity of views and news items covering the broad political spectrum of Canadian opinion, or they should be taken over by the Government as an official Government voicebox. Or alternatively, the CBC should be sold and privatized.
I have no problem if they are taken over as an official Government voicebox either — reflecting the policies of the Government of the day — because then at least Canadians will know who the CBC is speaking for (there is no hidden agenda). Or if they instead follow their diversity mandate and reflect the political voices of all Canadians — I have no problem with that either. Or if they privatize instead — I have no problem with that either.
But the CBC does NONE of the above legitimate options — they pretend to be an arms-length Government media institution, financed by all Canadians, but they only represent one political voice: the Canadian Left. And in election time (which seems to be all the time these days) they are unashamedly Partisan against conservatives. In effect, the largest media org in Canada gives free election advertising to any Party that opposes Conservatives, hence breaching election finance laws by misappropriating taxpayer money for the pet personal political lobbying of CBC bureaucrats.
Don’t be afraid to do the right thing, Mr. Harper — they will call you a “Nazi” anyway, no matter what you do. Don’t let name-calling and smears stop you from doing the right thing.
BTW, anybody see the CBC report on election fraud in the U.S.? It focused on alleged fraud by Republicans only — not a word about the Obama/Acorn scam. The CBC does not represent political diversity at any level — Nationally or Internationally — it is clearly a Left lobby organization that has little to do with objective journalism.
Why should Canadians have to pay for that? Freedom of the press and media is guaranteed under our Charter and the CBC violates that freedom by allowing only one voice although all taxpayers are forced to fund it.
Originally posted by Ricardo here.

Long time reader “Shaken”, via email;

As our journalists continue to cast themselves under a self-made asteroid, hundreds of thousands of small investors find themselves on a ledge, wondering which version of The Truth is the one that will inform their retirement or educational fund management decisions. Reporting in the mainstream financial press of late has been at best like a ride on the vomit comet: Greece soon to default; ECB funds a bailout; oops not quite – actually China is our white knight; not so fast – the Greeks cannot agree to terms… On and on it goes.
Can anyone be surprised then when the Al Gore’s invention glows red hot with rumor and speculation as a worried public experiences daily cognitive disconnects while trying to reconcile what their lying eyes see and or read from the professional financial journalists?
Is it any wonder, then, that in such a climate of fear, deliberate disinformation, misdirection, obfuscation and even plain lying that blog posts such as this one become viral within hours of publication?
When one reads through this blog post, pieces seem to fall into place, and otherwise paradoxical events and statements begin to form into a cohesive and logical pattern. Believability ensues. Caring relationships ensure rapid dissemination.
Millions of people around the globe stand ready to do what our professional journalists have forgotten to do, or have otherwise been convinced not to do: be one of us looking out for each other.
Perhaps the blog post to which this note refers is merely the speculation if an intelligent and well meaning individual that has been swept up in the milieu of anxiety which grips us all ever tighter each day, but that us beside the point. The point is, this post went viral as though cycled in a Swiss particle accelerator, evidencing the appetite of the public for reliable information, an appetite no longer satisfied by journalists.
The veracity of the rumor will soon be established or dismissed. Reading it through, one cannot but help sense that there may just be a tinge of truth to the rumor, especially as it has a large degree of congruence with the latest musings at established and credible blogs such as Mish’s and Zerohedge.
If this rumor turns out to be true, and the MSM has once more been scooped by the humble blogosphere, it will be perhaps the nearest of the near misses – the biggest story in the lives of many today, unreported, either by malfeasance, or incompetence. Or both.

Related – Among European nations, debt-ridden Greece is most exposed to Iranian oil disruption.

On the topic of energy in Canada, two SDA commenters offered some pretty profound common sense wisdom that you’ll rarely see in the mainstream media:

Some myopic Canadians can’t seem to grasp that oil, gas and potash provide most of the revenue that pays for all those government benefits they believe they’re entitled to. We’re fortunate to have a government run by a Conservati­ve Party and a Prime Minister who puts Canadians first. If they don’t like that then they can move to America, a socialist paradise with a failing economy.   – – North of 60
North of 60 – you make an excellent point. And, sadly, many (most?) Canadians think that money just appears out of the ground, and have little idea where Canada would be without fossil fuels and potash. Personally, I would like to pull up to those people’s houses, disconnect the gas lines, and tell them to grow their own food. We are becoming a fundamentally unserious nation. People just don’t “get it”, and it worries me, a lot.   – – Erik Larsen

CBC Poll: Should the Northern Gateway oil pipeline be approved?
Please vote!
h/t SoundofMusak

Courtesy of SDA regular “Occam’, here’s a handy guide to help you translate the nonsensical catch phrases frequently used by talking heads these days:
Behavior Modification = Conformity instead of individualism
Community Education = Spreading propaganda
Community Grassroots = Low-income citizens, parasitic Leftist NGOs
Community Organizer = Agitator, radical, anarchist
Diversity = Race-based employment
Equality = Discrimination against majorities
Ethical Development/ Environmental Rights = Anti-development, anti-industry, anti-property, anti-technology Luddite-ism
Immigration Reform = Amnesty for illegal aliens
Inclusion = Special identity group rights
It Takes a Village = Cradle-to-grave Socialism
Judgmental, Extremist, Hate speech, Bigotry, Racist = Dissent to Socialist dogmas
Life Long Learning = Socialist propaganda saturation
Multiculturalism = Race politics
Outcome-based Education = Indoctrination disguised as education
Pregnancy Prevention = Population control, sterilization Eugenics
Progressive = Radical Leftist
Raping the Earth = The normal operation of capitalist development, hunting, fishing, private land use
Reproductive Freedom, Women’s Rights = Abortion = State-sanctioned fetal homicide
Social Solution = Expansion of government size and power
Socialization = Collectivist group-think instead of individual achievement
Sustainable Economy = Socialism, Marxism, redistribution of wealth
Unionism/Solidarity = Communism, anti-capitalism
As ‘Occam’ indicated, whenever you hear one of these terms, know with absolute certainty that the speaker (or writer) has an agenda they’re pushing.
If you know of other such terms, please mention them in the comments, along with a plain English translation.

h/t Black Mamba

Dick Slater;

The EU never ceases to amaze. The government of Hungary, led by the Fidesz party of Victor Orban, is one of the few in Europe to actually rule in the interests of the people and not bother pandering to traitors, unrepentant communists and foreign bankers currently sucking the place dry. (I’ve mentioned and praised their constitutional reforms. Canada’s Conservatives have much to learn from Fidesz.)
Now the EU and the IMF are trying to bully Hungary into reconsidering a law that would see the Hungarian National Bank’s policy more closely overseen by the Hungarian people, with members of the governing council appointed by the prime minister and not the central bank’s governor.
Now HNB governor Andras Simor is a lifelong bureaucrat who began his career at the HNB during the communist period, and was appointed to the governorship by the former communist government Fidesz replaced. Simor is determined to nip any hope of Hungary’s economic recovery in the bud by raising interest rates with Europe on the brink of financial catastrophe, hoping Hungarians will blame Fidesz and re-elect a communist government. (Who needs the euro?)
The ratings agencies who needed to have downgraded the whole euro zone to junk long ago downgraded Hungarian debt to junk status the moment they learned that Fidesz were trying to rein in Simor. Now you know whose side they’re on. Nicolae Ceausescu saw to it Romania’s creditors were paid in full and on time. If you’re an Austrian bank, you’ll much sooner want an unrepentant communist running Budapest than anything resembling a Socred who’ll tell the banks where to go.
Keep your eyes on Hungary.

Update: An alternative viewpoint.

Ouch.

Let’s call them what they really are: the Cash-Out Generation. Over a century of prior generations invested forward, only to have this single generation cash it all in (and take highly leveraged loans for future generations to pay, when the cash wasn’t enough).
Excess wages ($85K/year for a Packard auto plant employee to shuttle parts around on a cart). Early retirement. Guaranteed pension payouts that no private investor could match. Public sector perks like nice parks, roads and environmental “feel good” rules that were funded by loans, not their own tax payments. Social security demands unmatched by their payments. Even their children’s education was something they shortchanged, demanding loans pay what they wouldn’t.
They’re the narcissistic parasites who cashed it all in. The hell with this Boomer mandate that social security be treated as an untouchable third rail. Given the demographic data on boomer wealth, it’s time to match social security payments to actuarial models based on actual payments in, without interest (remember Boomers, you’ve rejected the opportunity to have such funds invested and earning interest).
It’s either that or we’re going to cut the funding to the senior centers and let the Boomers experience accountability in their last years.

Read the original post and other comments as well.

As a follow-up to this & this, SDA commenter ‘Bemused’ posted a link to the following image. Absolutely brilliant!

Please ensure that there are no hard or sharp objects underneath your chin. This is absolutely necessary prior to watching this video segment from a recent Jon Stewart show. Have you ever seen thicker hypocrisy than that exhibited by these protesters?   h/t ES

I’ve never met Gerry Verrier but when I posted a link to his recent editorial on Insite he graciously left a comment here on SDA. It’s well worth a read:
My how words travel quickly on the interwebs….Good discussion going on here.
My voice is but one of many who will share the same thoughts, if asked. I, as well as other co-workers attending a conference in Regina on addictions several years ago, were branded as anti-harm reduction because we challenged the thinking behind harm reduction. I just could not bear listening to a parole officer gush about how proud she was of a particular inmate who had a history of armed robberies and who during his last brief stint in the community, had robbed a store without using a gun and was back in prison. This was her example of how well harm reduction worked.
Of course if the research materials and papers being produced to advance Insite and other harm reduction projects are being produced by harm reductionists, does anyone really think they are going to interview me for my insight on the topic? Not likely.
I’ve been working in this field for almost 25 years. In this facilty we work with well over 350 people each year. Men, women, GBLT folks, retired folks, 18 year olds, youth, families, dependent children, men and women doing re-unification with children who have been apprehended would be the people you would see in our facilities. We work with clients who come from the street, who come from prison, who come from detox facilities, who come from remote communities in the north, who come from the military, basically people from all walks of life.
Having said that, I’d like to think I have good insight into the lifestyle and the treatment process.
Overwhelmingly, the three most important things identified by our clients in consumer based program surveys are routine, structure and sobriety. Following those three are having a safe environment, and having counsellors who have been through addictions themselves.
There is total value in investing in rehab. People in rehab are clean, going to school, working in the community and paying taxes and learning how to earn their way through the world, parenting their children, cleaning up the neighborhood, dealing with trauma, learning about the dangers of addictions and criminal thinking,improving their health through holisitc means, learning budgeting skills, developing solid life goals, and it goes on and on.
Going to Insite provides none of that.
As to coerced or mandated treatment, take a person who is resistant to change and immerse them in an environment where former addicts are engaged in programs and watch the shift in their attitude and thinking. When they see how their peers are engaged in doing positive things, and how non-threatening treatment can be, it can be incredibly catchy. We see it happen all the time.

Reasonable and fair-minded adults, most of whom occupy the center-right segment of our nation’s political spectrum, focus on the brilliance of a person’s art (Tom Hanks), scientific genius (Stephen Hawkins) and political savvy (Barack Obama) and overlook the words and deeds that tell us who these people are. And that focus has confused our children and de-sensitized them to a wide range of immoral, uncivil and even anti-American behavior. That’s how a former domestic terrorist who escaped punishment for his crimes ended up a wealthy and influential educator and political activist at the University of Chicago, much admired by his peers and community, including the President of the United States. And few Americans even noticed.

(In reponse to this annoying prattle.)

This powerful comment, by SDA regular Ken Kulak, was read by Charles Adler on his radio program today:

Well said Charles.
Like Charles’s family, both my wife’s and my came here for freedom and never mooched a dime of taxpayers money. Some had enough funds to pay their passage to Canada and some had travel debt owing Canadian Pacific. Some even lived in granaries in the late 1920s and early 1930s with rats running over the bunks, but never took a dime from the taxpayer. They were just grateful to be in a free country. They did not get on their feet until enough children were old enough to work on farms to help provide. They never took a dime from the taxpayer. Some of the children fought in WW II, some of the older ones had rented and then bought farms. Others worked in factories. A few of the real young ones went to university. By the 1950s all children and grandchildren were successful members of society in various occupations or business. None ever took welfare.
Sorry to go on, but I get so sick of the entitlement mentality that is so pervasive these days, especially when it touted by a lying political party whose radical members with veiled values that would put us back to the hell hole that we came from.
I repeat, well said Charles and repeat what John said @ 3:29, God Bless Canada and Canada is the best country in the world.

In response to this posting, SDA commenter Amy P. provided some first hand knowledge of what has been going on in her state. Here’s a slightly edited version of her thoughts:
I live in Wisconsin and I have watched this insanity unfold for months now. All because the Governor wanted public employees to pay a little more for their retirement (which they paid NOTHING for) and health insurance (which they paid little for). At the end of the day, public employees still have some of THE BEST (and Obamacare exempt!) health insurance in the U.S. and GUARANTEED retirement for the rest of their lives (that can be transferred to a living spouse after the employee dies!)
For months, we’ve dealt with fleebagging [sic] Democrats who spent weeks hiding in Illinois like cockroaches exposed to light. We’ve had drum circles, vuvuzelas, and dirty protestors vandalizing our beautiful Capitol building while disrupting the work of government AND threatening to kill our duly and freely elected Republican governor and representatives.
The governor has a bad of merry left-wing psychopaths stalking him wherever he goes. Madison is officially a no-go zone for conservatives unless you travel in large groups because the liberals will get in your face (just as Obama commanded them to do!) and harass you for daring not to be as incredibly stupid as they are.
[Lefties can] blather all [they] want about one lame report *possibly* (and remotely so) connected to the TEA Party. Those of us paying attention know the violence and the threats and the vandalism come from the Left. Those of us paying attention also know the Left loves projection: they accuse us of being what they really are.
People are waking up to it. For all their public temper tantrums, for all the out-of-state union agitators they sent in, for the $30 MILLION they spent on recall elections…the Left in Wisconsin has won exactly NOTHING.
They didn’t get a majority in the Senate, so the Republicans still run Wisconsin Government. They lost the Supreme Court election in April, and a weak attempt to get the conservative who won thrown off the court for “choking” a fellow justice has been proven to be a lie. The recall movement against Governor Walker is losing steam and — while probably will be attempted — will ultimately fail.
On top of it all, Wisconsin’s government has set our economy on a path to recover at a far better and stronger pace than the nation. So I predict Scott Walker will go on to even bigger and brighter things.
P.S. For those not aware, one of the most regular on-the-scene “reporters” of what’s going on in Wisconsin is Law Professor Ann Althouse. You can read her via her blog.
Update: Nationally syndicated columnist George Will shares his thoughts about the Left’s losing fight in Wisconsin and why it very much has national implications. Be sure to read the very last line!

SDA regular Ricardo wrote something so profound and insightful that it deserves its own thread:
“Getting Past the Vancouver Riots of 2011-06-15”
We’ll never get past it, no matter how good-hearted the people of Vancouver are in voluntarily cleaning up and lifting everyone’s spirits. The reason Canadians will never get past it is because we have set ourselves up for it to happen again, and again and again. And the thugs know they will be able to get away with it again because Canadians will simply swallow it all “with a let’s feel good about ourselves” party afterwards. The problem will continue to be with the justice system and politically-correct policing.
There was a brief interview with one of the first thugs who was arrested and charged in the riot on my local news last night. He had a big smile on his face as he left the Vancouver jailhouse and said non-chalantly: “Oh well, I guess I’m going to have to face these charges in court”. As if he was fighting a parking ticket or a minor speeding ticket. That’s because he knows his punishment will probably be even less than a speeding ticket — he probably won’t even pay a mandatory fine, much less see any jail time.
Until our airy-fairy judges can find the balls to actually hold people responsible nothing is going to change. For example, there is a thing called “restituitive/restorative justice” that judges in the U.S. exercise from time to time. Basically it means that if you break something then you pay for it (plus jail time for other charges if applicable). It means that if you break a $2,000 plate glass window, then the court clerk is waiting there after sentencing to gather your financial information and ready to put a lien on your bank account, or on that expensive flat-screen TV you have in mom’s basement. If people were actually required to pay for what they break (plus labour), then I can guarantee that they would think twice about breaking stuff. Why should the taxpayer foot the bill?
And how about getting the insurance companies and store owners involved? Let them sue the thug as well — why should the store owner have to pay for his increase in insurance rates that will inevitably follow his claim, and why should the insurance company pay in the first place when the person responsible has been arrested and convicted and can be held liable? Insurance companies have excellent investigators — better than cops — and collection agencies are quite good at making people’s lives miserable for many many years. I’d love to see that happen to the thugs — the natural offspring and spoiled brats of our “gimme gimme” Unionist, entitlement, and special interest group generation.
When I was kid we were brought up to pay for stuff we broke — even if it was an accident, we at least offered to pay. And we took it out of our allowances or part-time jobs. Sorry, but no kudos to Vancouverites and their good-will story. They’re suckers.

In last night’s Reader Tips SDA regular ‘nv53’ had a very interesting analysis of the Alfred Apps editorial published yesterday in the National Post.
As the President of the Liberal Party of Canada, he sure has a lot to promise to a whole lot of different groups! But are the majority of Canadians buying the Liberal message anymore? Here’s what Charles Adler had to say.

SDA regular Gord Tulk posted this in Reader Tips:

I think that SunTv owes Kate a royalty cheque too:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/06/11/18271031.html
“Twelve months after Fox News launched in the U.S. in the late 1990s, it had the same number of viewers Sun News has after just two months on-air.”
Bravo!!

In case you weren’t aware, you can watch many Sun News videos here.