Right As Rain

The Globe and Mail - Not Impartial at All?

2011-03-27T22:04:00.000-04:00

Last few months I have noticed (in my opinion) that the Globe and Mail has gone much farther left then normal. Attacking Prime Minister Stephen Harper a lot more then is warranted.

But this, is, is a doozy. An out right lie. I am sorry, but Elizabeth May didn't finish a close second to Peter McKay. Not all all.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has the same political philosophy and sense of humour that served her well in the past election, but she has changed ridings and swapped coasts. And she is promising a very different result in British Columbia’s Saanich-Gulf Islands than in Nova Scotia, when she finished a close second, and saw her party win a million votes nationwide but no seats. This time, she says, with the support of social networking and a new “me-first” strategy, she’s going to make history.

Well, I guess this could be considered close in Canadian terms :)

Canadian Blood Services gets it wrong

2010-09-09T23:33:00.000-04:00

It is discrimination.

A gay man is no more likely to engage in risky behaviours then any other man. It is not the bad old days of bathhouses where homosexual men had to hide their behaviour from their friends, bosses, or even spouses.

Perhaps we should ban young people from donating blood.

What does it say about Muslims....

2010-09-09T23:18:00.001-04:00

If they promised violence is response to the threat of burning copies of the Qu'ran? Remember the violence sparked by the printing of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad?

A religion of peace?

I guess that freedom of expression extends to those burning the United States' flag, and shouting "Death to America", but NOT to the burning of a book.

And also ponder, when was the last time the burning of a flag, or a bible, or some other symbol of the West resulted in increased terror levels and riots throughout the world?

Just saying....

G20 Violence and More

2010-06-27T18:17:00.002-04:00

I started writing a comment on LibLogs blogger Blunt Objects blog about his stupid, childish, and immature post titled "Fuck you, Harper".

Since it has been months since I last posted, I decided to respond to the post here.

Volkov, you're a blogger who tries to parlay profanities as intelligence. You bring what should be honest and passionate debate to a new low. You are one of the reasons why political discourse is so dysfunctional in Canada. Political commentators should be civilized and intelligent. We can disagree with each other without naming calling and profanities. This goes for all bloggers, including me.

I know in my younger blogger days I said some stupid and immature things.

And to those bloggers, analysts, and commentators that think the summit should have been held offshore, or in the remote wilderness, I have one word for you, appeaser. You do not think through your arguments. If you host summit in the wilderness, you basically say that we as country cannot guarantee security for our visitors.

What does that say about us as a country?

If you host your summit in the middle of the ocean, what serves as the focal point for the protesters? Instead of one big protest you will likely end up with smaller protests across the country.

Furthermore, by hosting your summit in the Arctic you deny a protest avenue for peaceful protesters looking to be heard. People have the right to meet where they want. Protesters have the right to _peacefully_ protest and be heard. However, no one has the right to destroy anyone else's property.

This is what happened this weekend. The so called "Black Bloc" took over the labour movements (and others) protest. Sullying their peaceful protest message with the anarchists message of violence.

I for one want to live in a country where anarchists are dealt with quickly, and peaceful protesters get to sing and chant to their hearts content. In my Canada, peaceful protesters deserve that right, and violent protesters go to jail.

Stop the populism - HST is a good tax

2010-01-31T15:00:00.004-05:00

I am tired of the simplification in arguments about the HST. Seriously, let's get informed in this. This simplification, and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (as well as the Federal NDP etc etc) intent to make this a populist revolt are simply uneducated. Stop playing on fear, uncertainty, and doubt and start educating, and having an informed debate.

From an old TorontoStar editorial:
Sales tax harmonization is simply good for the economy as has been shown in other jurisdictions. In fact, Canada is the only one of 30 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries to continue to use a two-tier sales tax system.

And the top 10 benefits for the BCers out there.

Come on, get informed people.

Thank you Flaherty - GST cut saved thousands of jobs

2010-01-30T08:01:00.002-05:00

Now, I am sure you will never here this in most media sources, but today the National Post is running a story on how a senior Liberal wants to raise the GST, and subsequently kill thousands of jobs.

What is interesting is the last couple paragraphs, where the president of Infometrica discusses how his firms modeling data showed the GST cut created 162,000 new jobs!

Carl Sonnen, the president of Infometrica, said his firm's economic modelling shows a two-point cut in the GST translates roughly into about 162,000 new jobs. Conversely, reversing the Conservatives' cut would mean losing those jobs.

"You can't argue that raising the GST rate won't hurt jobs. It will," said Mr. Sonnen, who said the Conservative GST cut likely softened the recession's blow. "In our analysis, we got some positives out of that [cut] for GDP in the second quarter of last year. Otherwise we might have been in recession much earlier."

I remember back when the GST was cut, and Minister Flaherty described it as stimulus, the media and opposition attacked him for it. Seems he was right after all. A little more vindication for the Conservatives.

It has been a good month for Conservative vindication. Winning two court cases against Elections Canada, a Liberal complaint to the Ethics Commissioner also dismissed, lots of faux scandals dismissed.

I wonder how long it will be unit the next faux scandal?

Tories drop back to "normal" levels - MSM spins story

2010-01-25T00:31:00.002-05:00

Here we go again. The Conservatives are back in their normal range of about 34% and the pollsters and MSM are spinning this as a massive loss for the Tories and a gain for the Liberals.

Smart political watchers know that this see-saw affect is very normal for the Conservatives and Liberals. Liberals do/say something stupid like threaten an election or a coalition and the Liberals drop, and the Conservatives gain. This has happened many times over the past 4 years.

If I remember correctly, pollsters and pundits used to bash the Conservatives for not having a bigger lead (when at about 34%) over the Liberals back in 2006 during the Liberal leadership race. The rational being that the Liberals were rudderless/leaderless/whatever and they should be easy pickings.

But, the Conservatives tend to poll in the mid-thirties, and out campaign the opposition during an election.

While I am sure that the "prorogation effect" has had an affect on their poll numbers, I don't think the Conservatives would be in the high thirties or low forties right now as the Liberals haven't threatened to bring down the Government in a few months.

This is just the way it is.

I would say the Conservatives are doing OK considering the full-on assault many in the MSM have launched against them.

Totally Legal! Tories win in-and-out court battle

2010-01-19T07:53:00.004-05:00

The Conservatives have won their court case against Election's Canada over the so call "in-and-out" scheme.

I am sure the Liberals and the rest of the opposition's apologies will be coming forthwith.

Or not.

Climategate, Googlegate and censoring

2010-01-16T23:38:00.003-05:00

There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the so called "Googlegate". We all knew Google was censoring the data is sent into China on behalf of their the Chinese government, but many people had no idea about what Google was doing to the search results here.

Some people believe Google is censoring the search results, some people think that is pure tinfoil hat stuff, after all Google has a motto of "Do no evil". I think they are censoring results. When I first looked earlier today, 1,750,000 records were returned. An hour later, 1,660,000 records returned.

I will let you decide for yourself. Compare and contrast the search results for "climategate" for Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Who is censoring who?

UPDATE: This morning Google search returned 1,640,000 records.

O'Connor and the rest of the Conservatives redeemed

2010-01-16T17:16:00.005-05:00

Should I expect the lefties to apologize for their past actions? Somehow I doubt it.

“Could we have done this 10 years ago? I don't think so. Not this fast and not to this degree,” said a military spokesman who described the total number of Canadian troops who would be deployed overseas as “historic.”

The Conservatives' legacy will be the rejuvenated Canadian Forces that has grown in numbers, pride, and capabilities since the Conservatives have taken office. Despite the caterwauls of those on the left.

With the focus this government has put on the military, with new personnel and new equipment Canadians are finally aware that they do more then deliver food and shovel snow, and have a new and profound respect for what our military does. A big improvement from the Liberal sponsored decade of darkness.

If the Liberals and the rest of the left had their way, or response to Haitian crisis would be much smaller, much later, and much less effective.

For that we have to thank the Conservatives.

I can hear the crowing from Liblogs miles away

2010-01-13T23:49:00.003-05:00

Well, a new poll came out today that should the Conservatives and Liberals in a VIRTUAL DEAD HEAT!!!! OMG!!! Let's leave aside the fact that this poll is part phone and part online, and online polls are never as accurate. And let's leave aside the Angue Reid poll that showed the Conservatives at 34%. And of course the torqued headlines at the Red Star.

Our friends over at LibLogs are now salivating at these poll numbers, thinking they will soon overtake the Conservatives.

Of course they forget that this drop in the polls happens all the time, the Conservatives lose support, drop down to about the level of the Liberals then suddenly come back up again. The Conservatives lose support when the house is sitting and gain support when the house isn't. Been like this for years.

These polls are coming off of the Christmas break where no one was watching, after the attack by the MSM over the prorogation issue, and now we see the Liberals launching attack ads. The attack ads are well timed from the Liberals for once, even though they break a Liberal promise not to launch attack ads. I wonder if Peter Donolo paid for these ads on his credit card?

But I am not sure I would crow over the poll results just yet. While the Conservatives have lost support, the Liberals haven't gained support. This can't possibly bold well for them.

I predict that over the reminder of the prorogation period that the Conservatives will launch ads, take to the airwaves, cheer on Team Canada and continue handing out the stimulus money. This will in turn cause their poll numbers to go up, the Liberals to get cold feet, then abstain or vote for the budget.

This is not to mention that the Conservatives have been out-campaigning and out fund-raising the Liberals for years. Nor does it address the fact that Conservative supports are more dedicated, and they tend to out perform their poll numbers at the ballot box.

I am not worried yet, but if I was a Liberal I would be wondering and worried as to why we haven't picked up any support yet in the polls....

Ahead of the curve

2010-01-13T00:08:00.002-05:00

Seems my fellow Blogging Tories are starting to latch unto the argument I advanced on Sunday -- Liberal's cannot accuse the Government of torture without implicating the troops. Following orders is not a defence of war crimes. Guess I was ahead of the curve here...

The Liberals are indirectly attacking the troops, there is no doubt about it.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

2010-01-10T17:07:00.003-05:00

Norman Spector has it right on the money. He does however have the title wrong. His post should be titled "What the Liberals know we have forgotten".

The Liberals know all about cover-ups:
- Prorogation over ad-scam
- Shutting down an inquiry over the Somilia affair

Now the Liberals are launching their small and petty attack ad campaign. Yet another broken promise by Iggy to not "go negative".

Petty because this "Afghan scandal" isn't much of a scandal, few Canadians cared about it prior to the prorogation. The campaign offers nothing new, no new ideas or policies, just a petty partisan attack.

Small because the poverty-stricken Liberal Party of Canada can't afford to launch TV ads, only radio ads. There is also question as to how much air time they will actually get. Of course, the launching of the ad-campaign will get lots of TV time, and hence some free advertising for the poor Liberals.

Further more, I still don't see how the Liberals can claim that they are not attacking the troops with this line of attack. By saying that the government is complicit in torture, they implicitly tar the soldiers that handed them over. Following orders is not a defense against war crimes.

The Liberals are small and petty. They are poor and decrepit, they were on the ropes -- financially and electorally, and the Harper brain trust goes and throws them a bone with a prorogation that can be spun all kinds of negative ways.

This will rank right up there with the fiscal updates as a tactical and strategic mistake in the history books.

RIP Rupert Hamer

2010-01-10T13:05:00.002-05:00

Another Western journalist has died in Afghanistan, along with an US Marine and Afghan soldier. This is less then two weeks since Michelle Lang died.

This is a tragic blow to our media. While I am sure there are many brave journalists and camera operators more then willing to risk life and limb in order to tell the story, I am not as sure that the risk adverse and profit drive corporations that employ these journalists will continue to allow them to tell their stories from the front lines.

These recent deaths of journalists have the potential to drive the media out of Afghanistan, and with them, any chance of success.

Our soldiers, sailors, and air personnel in-theater deserve to have their stories heard. This includes their successes, their sorrows, and their failures. The people of the countries that send them deserve nothing less.

May we all hope that the media corporations have backbones of steel, and to keep their journalists in-theater.

Prorogue shemogue - Lefties intellectually dishonest - again

2010-01-07T22:39:00.003-05:00

I am against the proroguing of Parliament. There I said it. I wonder if a petition will start to get me removed from the Blogging Tories.

Proroguing Parliament is going to go down in the history books as another blunder, another tactical error. By proroguing parliament, the Conservatives have managed to provide legitimacy to the opposition's attacks over the Afghan detainee affair. Where polls used to show that most Canadians didn't care about the issue, new polls are showing that they think the Afghan detainee issue is why Harper prorogued. Bang! Instant credibility.

Polls are showing small but detectable slides in support, and that the Canadian public are buying into the opposition's line of attack. We all know why Harper prorogued, to re-jig the Senate, but that will be brushed aside over their attacks.

All this doesn't excuse the lefties pathetic lines of reasoning, and short term memory.

Last year the opposition was on the offensive to subvert the will of the people with their coalition. They claimed that a coalition was constitutionally valid and therefor the polls against the coalition didn't matter. Today they say Harper is subverting the will of Parliament, and to look at the polls. How soon they forgot.

Harper made a constitutionally legal move. Parliament has been prorogued over a hundred times in 143 years, proroguing is not without precedence. It is a legal move.

Get over it, and stop comparing him to a dictator. Vote down the government in March and go to the polls. Put your money where your mouth is, and no more gimmicks. Present an option.

And for the last time, no one voted for the coalition!

Ontario, Quebec say they won’t shoulder oil sands burden

2009-12-14T00:54:00.002-05:00

Quebec and Ontario are not "going to carry higher emission-reduction burdens", but will of course continue to soak up the equalization payments that the oil-sands projects generate for the Canadian economy.

Thanks hypocrites.

More truth about recycling

2009-12-06T10:31:00.002-05:00

After a researching the benefits of recycling a few years ago, I realized that there was little benefit to recycling most of what we actual do recycle. I found out through research and talking to people the following things:

Much of what we recycle ends up in landfills anyway for lack of a buyer
Plastic is particularly bad to recycle, as it is almost impossible to make high quality plastic from recycled plastic (I talked to an actual plant manager of a plastics factory)
It costs millions of dollars to run these programs
Most businesses don't recycle, they are not part of the curbside programs. The same goes for apartment buildings

I realized, that for the most part, the curbside recycling programs are only socialist wealth transfer systems. More low-skilled jobs for people. Most of the jobs are probably unionized as well. I realized that plasmafication instead of incineration is likely the way to go. An example of this technology is being built in Ottawa.

Now we have another article with more experts, making most of the same points above, saying recycling is nothing but a shame. Somehow I am sure, the leftists will say that these experts are not experts at all. No, they are merely shills of the land waste industry, fossil fuel industry, or the mob. They don't want to hear the truth.

Whenever I read another article about this, I always think of the Penn and Teller episode on recycling. That was a good watch.

What's next, boycotting Remembrance Day?!

2009-12-02T08:02:00.003-05:00

Once again, the Opposition parties have shown how out of touch they really are. How petty, how mean, and how disgusting they are. They claim the high ground, they claim (with some reason) that the Conservatives are mean spirited and petty. And then they go and boycott the non-partisan ceremony yesterday marking the 20th anniversary of the Dec. 6 l'Ecole Polytechnique massacre.

They claim it is because they can't stand beside a Minister that represents a government that has "rolled back the fight for women's equality and safety". They specifically argue that the Conservative policies of abolishing the gun registry, and the reduction in budget to the Status of Women program.

It is of course all a crock.

Liberal and NDP MPs voted with the government to abolish the gun registry. Does this mean the Liberals and the NDP are anti-women? The gun registry would do nothing to protect women in an event.

The reduction of funding to the Status of Women program was not a reduction in funding to women's programs in general. In fact, the Conservative Government took that 5 million from the SoW, and an an additional 5 million and put that into other women's programs that are aimed at directly serving women, such as a programs aimed at integrating immigrant women in major cities.

The odd thing is that 14 parlimentarians and staff including NDP MP Libby Davis, and Liberal MP Judy Sgro placed white roses in vase to represent the 14 women gunned down that fateful day. No Bloc MP bothered to show up at all.

Simply disgusting politics, I am sure somehow Warren and others will blame the Conservatives for this.

"TortureGate" decisively disputed?

2009-11-30T23:47:00.000-05:00

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

Will sworn testimony from the ranking diplomat in Afghanistan dispute thee?

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

Will the sworn testimony of 3 distinguished generals dispute thee?

TortureGate, TortureGate, how do I dispute thee?

Will comments from the International Red Cross dispute thee?

Switching metaphors, Mr Colvin, it's one, two, three strikes you're out in the old smear game!

Hopefully the Liberals and the rest of the opposition will let reason take hold, and stop the smears against the Canadian Forces and the government. Some how though, I doubt it.

Blatchford sets the record straight?

2009-11-29T22:33:00.000-05:00

Reading Christie Blatchford's latest column seems to destroy Colvin's credibility. I am sure the left will just disregard everything that is being said, and still call for an inquiry.

After reading her column, I think there is even less to the story then before. From her column, the facts seem to be:
- Colvin visited the first prison on May 16, 2006
- ICRC rated the prisons as "not that bad", "not the worst in Afghanistan", inmates were "...in reasonably good condition", and received "enough food"
- Colvin only sent 3 emails in 2006
- Only one in the first three months of 2007
- Vast majority written about the same time the Globe and Mail was breaking the story on the abuses in the Afghanistan story
- Colvin only spent a day and a half outside the wire
- Prisoners were not simple farmers etc, they were all tested for gun shot residue, or were caught with large amounts of Pakistani cash.

Seems that Colvin is on a vendetta against a "hyper-secretive" government. Get ready for him to jump to politics as a candidate for the Liberal Party.

And in slightly unrelated news, on the radio today, I heard some women say that GSR tests prove nothing. She "wouldn't be surprised" that a large percentage of Canadians wouldn't pass a GSR test. Wow, some peoples kids.

200 billion and counting

2009-11-29T22:20:00.001-05:00

According to the Fraser Institute, Canada has poured more then 200 billion dollars in corporate bailouts and welfare since 1994.

In my opinion, the money quote is this one:
“The illusion of corporate welfare directed to the automotive industry in 2009 was the illusion that jobs were being saved. No, they were not. Instead of jobs being cut at General Motors or Chrysler, they were simply cut elsewhere or prevented from being created at other automotive companies that would have increased production to meet market demand in the absence of GM or Chrysler in the marketplace.”

This is exactly the position I argued for last winter. Most people responded with a "Hmmm, never thought of that.". Damn these sheep. Damn those politicians that pander to them.

Your tax dollars at work:

You can see from the chart that the corporate welfare peaked in the dying days of Paul Martin's government. With a two year trend (only two years of data with the Conservatives) you see that the trend was moving downwards. This will of course change once this "conservative" government's bailouts to GM and Chrysler are factored into this.

I was against the bailouts, but I do (somewhat) accept that their was little choice once the Americans elected President Obama and moved towards bailing out the automotive industry.

[h/t]

A big brass set is required

2009-11-28T11:12:00.002-05:00

The National Post gets it mostly right with their editorial about McGuinty's complete inaction and two-tier justice out in Caledonia. It really must stop.

Hard to believe that Ontario has become a place where the ability to peacefully protest against injustice is denied based on the colour of your skin.

Terrible.

However, the National Post doesn't get it all correct:
On another occasion, the Mohawks were even seen waving Canadian flags with the Maple Leafs cut out the centre. These flags were then tossed in mud without consequence.

That National Post does get it wrong about criticizing the native's defacing Canada's flag. There is nothing illegal about this, and is a form a freedom of speech, even if it is something I would never do.

Iggy - Even more inspired by the Americans

2009-11-22T23:56:00.002-05:00

Seems Iggy is taking all his cues from America these days. Not content with just supporting torture and the Iraq war, Ignatieff is now supporting American style politics.

Checkout the last "demand" from Ignatieff:
"The name of the leader of the sending member's party must be included in any ten percenter and the leader must explicitly the content of the product."

That seems pretty darn American to me. I am sure we have all seen their campaign ads before.

Maybe Michael Ignatieff should explicitly say he is defeated and whining. Maybe he could have added a little message like this to the bottom of his letter to the Speaker:
"My name is Michael Ignatieff, and I explicitly acknowledge that I am at a lost of what to do to improve our poll numbers, so instead of policy, I come up with faux scandals and whiny letters. "

Do you think Canadians notice these faux scandals? Judging by the poll numbers, I don't.

Another MS posting

2009-11-22T23:24:00.002-05:00

And nothing to do with Microsoft.

When I heard about the promising new breakthrough in MS treatment the other day, I spent a bit more time getting re-acquainted with all the resources out there.

I came across a "Focus on MS" section at the National Post. It has a lot of great articles on MS. I encourage all to take the time to read through some of it. MS afflicts a lot of people.

Promising MS Breakthrough

2009-11-21T20:56:00.001-05:00

Dr. Paolo Zamboni has a revolutionary new theory about Multiple Sceroisis. Its not an autoimmune disease, its a vasular disease!

Its an astonishing theory that promises to turn the world of MS research on it's head. W5 will have an investigative report on it tonight, you read about it here.

I have a lot of family afflicted with this disease, I sure hope Dr. Paolo Zamboni is onto something here.