Sunday, January 08, 2006

Torys Can't Calculate

I don't know what happened between the invention of the abacus and the scientific calculator but somewhere between the begining of the election and yesterday, despite a strategy of daily campaign announcements, the Conservatives do NOT know how much their tax cuts will be nor do they have a costing for their campaign promises.

This quote is from two days ago while today on CTV Question Period (CTV Question Period: Panel weighs in on leaders' election debates 10:19) John Reynolds said the same thing, again, verbatim;

Reality Check
Under a Conservative government, taxes will be dramatically lower – billions of dollars lower – than under the Liberals. That’s a fact. Details on our entire fiscal platform will be released along with the entire Conservative platform in the near future.
"That's a fact"? What fact,they haven't given us any numbers only empty promises. All they can say is 'trust us'. Well why should we? When they can't tell us if their tax cuts are $32 billion or $49 billion. Boy if they can't even account for that discrepency how can they claim to be more accountable than the Liberals.


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Ban Handguns From Cops


Here is another reason to ban handguns from cops on the beat.

See if we use the least iota of logic we would comprehend why we need to ban cops from carrying guns. It goes like this; cops carry guns, bad guys carry guns, cops get bigger guns, bad guys get bigger guns, cops get SWAT teams, bad guys get assault weapons (see Assault on Precinct 13, the original not the remake). Cops shoot to kill, 12 year old dies carrying toy pistol.

My former NDP MLA Gordon Wright (RIP) was a damned fine defense lawyer in the Rumpole school of law, he always refered to Rumpole's the Golden Thread.

The presumption of Inn-o-cence is the golden thread which runs through the history of the law. A man is innocent until he is proved guilty. Better that ten guilty men should go free than one who is not guilty should be convicted. For to convict the innocent is to spit in the face of justice.
( John Mortimer)

Well Gordon had an answer for gun control enthusiasts that was wry and particularly Albertan, if not downright libertarian for a New Democrat; when asked about gun control he would say first you have to disarm the cops. Very Rumpoleian of him. He used the British Bobbie as his example, and argued that gun crimes in England got worse once Boobies were armed.

Now I can already hear the screaming and gnashing of teeth out there in the blogosphere from the liberals and conservative law and order types.

But ask your self why is it so hard for the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives to call for a gun ban?

They at least understand this irrefutible logic, if you ban handguns you have to go all the way and disarm the Constable On Patrol. That way you would have effective non violent community policing. Besides last time I checked the Constable On Patrol was now armed to the teeth, with a good heavy billy club, tasers, pepper spray and a shotgun in the trunk of the car if not mounted to the dashboard. So why do they need to carry handguns?

You see the police live in a culture of paranoia and you know what they say about the paranoid; just cause they are paparnoid doen'st mean someone isn't out to get them. As a military arm of the state they live in the ultimate Zarathustrian dualistic universe. There are simply good guys and bad guys. Us civilians as they call us must be protected by the good guys from the bad guys, unless we turn into bad guys ourselves. We really can never be trusted is the police logic. And you want to give these socially sanctioned authoritarians with a paranoid complex guns? I think not.

When I was younger the COP on the beat on Whyte Avenue never carried a gun, he would patrol the street and check the doors of businesses to make sure they are secure. Today cops drive around, armed to the teeth looking for trouble.

Lets return to community policing, put more cops on the beat, get them to know their neighbourhood, have them work on a regular basis out of community league centres and community centres not cop shops. And have them walk around without handguns. This would reduce tensions and create a positive anti-gun culture.

If you aren't willing to disarm the cops you ain't serious about banning handguns

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Yes Colby Cosh there is such a thing as Ukrainian Christmas


Following in the grand tradition of Ayn Rand's model citizen; Ebenezer Scrooge, Colby Cosh says 'Bah Humbug' there is no such thing as Ukrainian Christmas except in Western Canada. He obviously missed my blog posting of the other day from the Ukrainian Encyclopedia.

 You know you're definitely in the Prairie Provinces when...

...on January 6, you hear a talk-radio caller mention that he lives out of town but that he "came home for Ukrainian Christmas."

Are there any readers who happen to know when and how Christmas is observed in the contemporary Ukraine? I have a sneaking suspicion that they've adapted to the Gregorian date over there, and that "Ukrainian Christmas" has become an indigenous tradition of Western Canada.

Well Colby check this out, three major pagan festivities have seen their revival in the Ukraine, The Feast of Winter Solstice aka Ukrainian Christamas (both Catholic and Orthodox) , Ukrainian New Years (Malanka) and the Feast of St. John otherwise known as Summer Solstice, and in the Ukraine known as Kupalo an ancient pagan fertility ritual. Ukraine celebrates both the Catholic Christmas in December and Orthodox Christmas in January. And the Christmas break for school children extends over this entire period.So no these are not figments of the imagination of Ukrainian Canadians and would be Shumka dancers. Yes Colby there is a Ukrainian Santa Claus and he is known as Saint Nick.


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Frum Hates Canada

The weasal that came up with the Axis of Evil and then got turfed from the Bush inner circle, David Frum, is once again bashing Canada.

Love these rightwing expats who go south and make a name for themselves in the Conservative movement and feel obliged to attack their homeland to make some easy ca$h.

Good summary of the article by Tart Cider is here,Frum's Folly with a link to TC's comprhensive reply to Frum, who published his comment in the Post.

And this comes from the right in Canada. Yep its tough not to be liked in both countries, but I guess that's what you get for being Canada's Lord Ha-Ha.

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Scary Thought

Here is a scary thought this guy replacing Ralph Klein.Outgoing Encana CEO to replace Ralph Klein? Though it is getting tough to be Ralph in Alberta when everyone in his party is saying leave already. Tougher than being Ralph (Goodale) in Ottawa.

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Chavez supplies American Indians with oil

Now this is another lesson that the Petro Boys in Calgary could learn from. Instead of King Ralph giving out million dollar checks to Clinton for Hurricane relief. Cheap oil to subsidize the poor in America would be a political and economic hammer against American protectionism, and of course a way of getting around the softwood lumber lobby in the long run.

Venezuela to expand discounted fuel sales to Indian tribes in Maine (Venezuela-US-Fuel)


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Another Conservative Endorses the NDP

Strategic voting is the hot topic in the last weeks of this election as yet another of the Blogging Tory's accepts that their only hope in winning even a minority government is if the NDP gain seats at the expense of the Liberals. Buzz is not going to like this outcome.Strategic Voting now working in favour of the NDP

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Someone Should Tell Warren

Warren Kinsella insisted early on in this election campaign, well bitched and moaned actually, that Canadian political blogs have little or no impact. He compared our humble blogosphere with the American one that led to the outting of Dan Rather and le affaire Trent Lott.

Except that the American blogosphere is populated by more journalist bloggers, an extension of the MSM and politcal operatives of the two politcal parties that dominate America. Also America has a larger population than Canada and finally most Canadian political bloggers really got started between the last Federal election and this one.

So for all Warren's groaning early on in the campaign about how little influence Canadian political blogs had, all that has changed and he seems relatively quiet about how ineffectual we are. After Klander and Stamp, Income Trusts, etc. etc.
Or it could be because he got that nice new election blog job at Macleans with his pal Paul Wells.

As I said in my critique of Warrens blog pessimism, since the begining of the election the blogosphere has done exactly what Warren said it wasn't doing, influencing stories in the MSM and the election. As this article shows; Weblogs make difference in campaigns



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Things I Hate


You link to a graphic and it does this.
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Animal Quiz

Badger
What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla


A tip o' the blog to Socialist Swine for this quiz link

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