… and lord knows they’ve spent more buying this guy love than any other President in the history of the United States of America:
*
… more thoughts on the matter … this time from Steyn on why Obama’s ship will never sink.
A Lesson in Malthusian Economics
Normally applied to the 4th grade science project of watching fruit flies overpopulate and then deplete their food source, how is it any different in the Western world of entitlement?
Today’s word is “Malthusian Catastrophe!”
Reward People Who Can Carry the Water
… instead of those who just drink the water:
Update: The Poll
BC’s Budget
Three Billion in cuts, $500M in the red, and $14B in infrastructure.
That is a lot more responsible than many assumed the BC Liberals were going to be heading into an election.
Cheers,
lance
The PM on CNN
I completely disagree with the gov’t actions regarding the budget, but that’s my opinion and the right of centre has been over that a hundred times. Having said that, one of the arguments the pro-budget forces use is, what would it have been like under boots of the coup leaders?
I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t have been this good:
Transcript at Macleans.
Cheers,
lance
Reader Tips
Good evening, welcome to the Wednesday edition of
SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your listening pleasure, we present
Jonathan Richman singing Roadrunner.
Your reader tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Hope and Change – the USSA?
Via Luboš Motl.
“How Much for that Degree in the Window?”
“Out of 92 students, 89 had plagiarized.”
And they were still allowed to pass.
A vodka martini-deserving account of the “progressively” deteriorating educational standards in America.
(my apologies if I posted this before, but I didn’t see it in any of the archives).
Behind the Mask
Today we saw and heard a preview of our brightest possible American future in Senator Barack Obama’s glorious speech. This, then, is what it means to be presidential. To be moral. To have a real center. To speak honestly, from the heart, for the benefit of all. If there was any doubt about what we have missed in the anti-intellectual, ruthlessly incurious Bush years, and even the slippery Clinton ones, those doubts were laid to rest by Barack Obama’s magisterial speech today. A speech in which he distanced himself from a flawed father figure, Reverend Wright, and did so with almost Shakespearian dignity and honor.
Return of the Magnificent Bastard
If you like satire and the scourge of all that’s EU, Vaclav Klaus, you’ll love this piece by EU Referendum:
Vaclav Klaus was speaking in Paris recently. He took the opportunity while there to complain that although in the last twenty years he had given hundreds of speeches and lectures throughout the world, not many of them had been in Paris. In fact, his last one was in 2003.
Ever sensitive to the subtle nuances of international discourse, Klaus confessed to have picked up some slightly negative vibes, suggesting that his prolonged absence from the speaking circuits of gay Paree might just have had something to do with his choosing the “wrong topics”. It is either that or it could be that his views were “politically incorrect”, he said.
Conservative Canadian Coup de Tat
Why Americans should consider moving to Canada.
And why Canada should let them.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Tuesday night vintage music show, here are the Victor Concert Orchestra performing Franz Von Suppe‘s Poet & Peasant overture, parts A and B (1915, 9:02). I doubt that many will bother to listen through to part B of tonight’s show, and that’s too bad, really: they simply won’t know what they missed!
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Common sense is emerging on Human Rights Commissions
Slowly, we are starting to make an impression on politicians responsible for the kangaroo courts. It’s great to see some plain talk from a cabinet minister actually responsible for a provincial human rights commission. Here’s Alberta cabinet minister Lindsay Blackett:
It wasn’t about hurt feelings. The reason a lot of human rights commissions are disrespected across the country is because they’ve forgotten that.
We want the commission to be a quasi-judicial body that has some teeth, that has some credibility but doesn’t operate like a kangaroo court.
Bravo, Mr. Blackett. This is a step in the right direction, and by a man who is in a position to make a difference. Personally, I’d go further and abolish the commissions altogether, but reigning them in is a great step in the right direction.
Dr. James (Jail Them) Hansen
Undoubtedly, if human caused global warming is one day proven to be a hoax (a moment that may be just around the corner), AL Gore will go down in history as one of the most successful fraud artists ever. He will have enriched himself while causing massive strains to be placed on Western economies just when they are in an economic crisis … and all this for a hocus pocus theory that has yet to be proven and is showing growing cracks in its facade.
But, emerging ever more from the shadows is the real man behind the Global warming frenzy; Dr. James Hansen of NASA.
An Alberta State of Mind
Paul Brandt on Alberta:
“I’ve got independence in my veins.
Maybe it’s my down-home redneck roots, 1
Or these dusty old Alberta boots,
but like a shed-off wind keeps coming back again,
Oh, I’m Alberta bound.”
Now, I realize that this seems like a bit of Alberta boosterism … and that’s not ever a bad thing, but the thing to realize is that Alberta isn’t a destination. It’s a state of mind. Alberta is the way forward, the shining example of what Canada should be.
1 I wonder about the “redneck” phrase, but from a Westerner it means one thing and from others it’s derogatory.
Cheers,
lance
Audit. Them. Now.
Then, fire them.
The Canadian Wheat Board has now officially suffered a huge “discretionary commodity trading” related loss of C$226 million last year, leaving the Board with a loss for the year of just under C$90 million. There is no possible explanation for this loss other than the management took speculative positions in wheat that clearly went massively against them, and those losses were averaged into, making them worse as the losses increased, eventually becoming large enough to force the fund to liquidate it positions. The loss is all the more shocking in that the Wheat Board buys wheat from Canada’s farmers at rather material discounts to the spot price and then “markets” that wheat through its pooling activities. Thus, it is one thing to lose money trading speculatively; it is quite another to lose a sum this large when one has a huge lead on every “trade” from the outset.
We cannot be certain yet what has happened, but we submit the following: that during the massive run-up in spring wheat futures last spring, as spring wheat ran from $4/bushel to $25/bushel, there were rumours which we reported here that a “quasi-government Canadian entity” was on the wrong side of the trade and that that entity was “squeezed” into the final trading sessions of the March and especially the May futures. We suggested then that it was the CWB that was caught short, and we speculated that the Board was itself speculating, however, we could not be certain that that was correct. Now we are obviously somewhat more certain that that is what has happened.
More here.
Well, Mr. Ignatieff?
You were here in Saskatoon a day or so ago, opining that Liberals need to stop campaigning against the west,
“Sometimes we’ve fallen prey to the temptation to run against the West, you know, to run against Alberta, to run against the Saskatchewan energy sector. This is not the way to go,” .
Thank you for finally acknowledging in public your party’s long standing policy of pitting the rest of Canada against the west for electoral gain. It’s a start.
Now here’s your chance to demonstrate how generous that reach is.
Hammer Stephen Harper on this issue. Demand the government dispatch the Auditor General to the Canadian Wheat Board offices. Ask how $226 million dollars of famers money blown in an orgy of incompetence, translated into a self-directed CWB pay raise for “performance”.
Finally, demand freedom for prairie farmers to sell their grain to whatever exporter provides the best return. You’re the human rights guy, right? Let’s see you put your political money where your mouth is.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here is some rather rare and historic footage of jazz greats Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), Sweets Edison (trumpet), Papa Jo Jones (drums), and bass and piano: not sure, perhaps Jimmy Woode and Sir Charles Thompson, performing Stoned (7:38) and Caravan (7:16), in 1964.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
“I want to be someone who unites the country and that includes the West.”
Yeah. Okay. We haven’t heard that before at all.. . . .
…his leadership would be a failure if Western angst were not cured. However as his fortunes in the polls sank he reverted to Alberta bashing as a means to protect eastern seats”
*
That’s just to remind everyone about the statements of the leader before Mr. Green-shaft.
If I remember correctly, and I do, Mr. “Cowboy” Martin, was booed at the 2005 Grey Cup in Regina.
Liberals . . . trust them at your folly. Here in the West actions speak louder that words. That’s a little advice for both main political parties.
Cheers,
lance
This is Our League
Good-bye Mo, thank you for your work. Good on you for getting the best deal for yourself and your family. Well-done on your hard work. I trust you’ll forgive me if I hope you and Ritchie Hall fail against the Riders.
Hello Moose Jaw native Joe McGrath and welcome back Jamie Boreham, the best punter in the league!
I do have one complaint, James Johnson, ’07 GC MVP traded to the Peg for ankle tape . . . oh, sorry, I mean a 2011 draft pick. That was a little classless if you want my opinion. He single-handedly won us the GC with his three picks and I think that trade was demeaning to the reputation of the club.
In this football mad province this version of the Rider brass has made huge commitments to acquiring home-grown talent. In the final quarter of last years season the home-province boys shone. Indeed, all that is gold does not glitter! Over at Riderville, in today’s video-scrum, Ken Miller alluded to Canadians at receiver but only if they are the best player. In this province, with the boom still going strong, the Riders are positioned to benefit. Benefit from the investment in football programs for young students (Go Sheldon-Williams Spartans!), benefit from the incredibly successful Regina Rams and Saskatoon Hilltops, benefit from the programs at UoR and the demonstrable success of the UoS.
Every Saskatchewan football player, boy and girl, dreams of playing for the Riders, now we know. We know we can! This club has taken the cue from the Montreal Allouette’s dedication to Quebec athletes. We can compete, we can win! We are the ones who will take this club to the next level. We have been waiting for the club to notice us. They have. Now it’s up to us, the ball is in our court. Now we have to deliver. Deliver talent, deliver ticket sales, deliver support. We have to deliver, because our conditions have been met. We either believe or we don’t. This is a place to be or it isn’t. I believe that this is the place to be.
I believe in Saskatchewan.
Go Riders!
lance
“Take, eat: this is my body.”
Iggy, you did this for me?
“You are, after all, looking at someone who turned down the chance to become prime minister of Canada, and I did so, in part, because I felt that it would divide the country,” said Mr. Ignatieff. “I want to be someone who unites the country, and that includes the West.”
I bet more cynical people would mention that you actually signed the coalition deal in the first place, or those awful polls that came out showing the absolute contempt for the Liberals by the vast majority of Canadians for getting in bed with Jack Layton and the separtists.
But not me… I’m just happy to be bathed in the warmth of your humility and sacrifice.