Fashion over debate: Sonny days ahead if Justin Trudeau gets Liberal leadership nod

The world didn’t end recently, and it’s unlikely to come to a conclusion in 2013 either.

Rumours of its demise tend to be greatly exaggerated, either from Christian fundamentalists, Latin American tribes, or assorted conspiracy theorists. Odd how all of these types claim supernatural wisdom but do so badly in their own lives!

What we will see in Canada is the triumph of the mediocre and the mob.

Justin Trudeau. Of course he will become Liberal leader, and in spite of the complacent boasts of his critics he may well become prime minister. And if he does, it will be a disaster not only for Canada but for democracy.

You see, Trudeau is extraordinarily unqualified and vacuous.

He’s not evil, not even malicious, perhaps even good and well-meaning in a suburban, banal, CBC type of way.

He has no ideology other than a vapid trendiness — he has never said anything fresh or even left-wing about economics, foreign policy or governance, but knows we have to marry gay people and abort babies. As I say, childish fashion over serious debate.

But if he wins, he will be a mere face for a more substantial and altogether more sinister body.

First are the old Liberal hacks who were brought to political maturity by his father, and who want to rule again vicariously through the meagre son. They are moderate pragmatists, but are also unscrupulous, cynical and care nothing for democratic opinion.

Next are altogether more worrying individuals; not careerists but driven partisans. They were the people determined that Trudeau should speak to a conference of Islamic radicals. Sources claim that while the old advisers were urging their boy to listen to moderate Muslims, Jewish groups and gay organizations, the young Turks — or would Iranian be a better word? — were obsessed with a “new alliance” of voters.

Any Trudeau victory will be little more than a preamble to the battle within for who controls the Liberal party and its new leader.

Trudeau has very few formed opinions, simply doesn’t understand world politics and chants “middle class, middle class” to any substantive question about the future of one of the greatest nations on earth.

One conservative Canadian television commentator has described him pejoratively as “our Obama.”

No!

Conservatives may dislike Obama’s policies, and he is certainly not the intellectual his supporters claim, but the man does have experience beyond the drama class, and has studied and read hard.

Trudeau is in fact “our Trudeau,” the modern version of Pierre. Of course the father was bright and well-travelled, but his ideas were nothing more than an extension of his own hobbies and fetishes. Daddy controlled, Sonny is controlled. Daddy wanted change for change’s sake, Sonny wants change because his brother and some of his handlers want change.

Successive governments, Liberal as well as Tory, have worked to restore financial and political stability to Trudeau’s Canada, but his son as prime minister would govern in a far more fragile and dangerous age.

Vote even NDP rather than Liberal, and hope a coalition of silly girls, political fanatics and old men longing for former glories do not win the day.

 

Bullies or victims? Fairness and proportionality strike out in sport and sexuality

So, a guy who plays pro sport is an idiot. Good Lord, I can’t believe it! I mean, who knew?

Yes, Yunel Escobar was dumb enough to write on his face in Spanish something akin to “You are a faggot,” thus enabling every hypocrite and self-indulgent victim fetishist to moan about the horrors of homophobia.

Big money and big entertainment will do pretty much anything to not offend the gay community these days, and in this case their acts of ostensible contrition were positively nauseating.

Frankly, I don’t think Escobar intended a slur on homosexuals, and was probably not even thinking of homosexuality when for some perverse reason he wrote these nasty words beneath his eyes. It was probably some silly, jock, inside joke.

When it’s used by teenage boys, the word faggot generally means idiot or loser. I’ve heard kids who are trendily pro-gay and pro-same-sex marriage use the term “fag” with no apparent understanding that there is a connection. I’ve also heard gay people use it about other gays. The word will disappear naturally, as is right.

It should never have been written, and no professional sports team should allow an employee to write anything, even innocuous, on his face.

But the story ends there really.

Rogers, the owners of the Toronto Blue Jays, fined the guy $90,000 and suspended him for three games, which is fair enough.

Unlike in 2011 when television sports anchor Damian Goddard was fired from Sportsnet, also owned by Rogers, just hours after he tweeted his support for “the traditional and true meaning of marriage.” He had been defending a hockey player’s agent who was receiving death threats and abuse for refusing to support a pro-gay-marriage campaign.

It could have been a coincidence of course, but we’ll leave that to the human-rights commission where it is being considered. Goddard never used an offensive word, and merely expressed his opinion of marriage. Perhaps he should have written it on his face — he may well still be employed!

As for Escobar — bad word, move on. Stop the grovelling, stop the nonsense, get it in proportion. After all, it’s nothing like what happened to Peter Vidmar. You didn’t know? OK, let me explain. Vidmar is one of the most successful athletes in U.S. history. He was chosen to be the chef de mission of the U.S. Olympic team in the last Olympics, as was gay activist Mark Tewksbury for Team Canada. But Vidmar is a Mormon, and it was discovered that he had made a small donation to the Proposition 8 campaign, enshrining marriage as the union of a man and woman. He has never called anyone a nasty name, never treated gay people badly, is an example of a gentleman in sport. But he opposed gay marriage, and after relentless pressure he was forced to resign.

So who are the bullies, who are the victims, in sport and sexuality? Nobody should face or feel discrimination in professional sport, but can we please stop magnifying a dumb gesture into an act of sociological and moral barbarism?

Oh, and as for compulsory sensitivity training, the Jays are in far greater need of baseball training. The genuine victims are the fans.

 

Islamist jihad against West rages

As Americans stopped to mark the 11th anniversary of 9/11, and ponder how much the world has changed during these years, an ocean away more terrorist attacks were mounted on American interests in the Middle East.

The attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya resulting in the murder of Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador, with three members of his staff and several Libyans, was an act of war by men indoctrinated with the same ideology of those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Osama bin Laden is dead and so is Ayatollah Khomeini, but the war they declared against the “satanic” West continues. The West, on the other hand, has opted to be an ostrich.

The result is more than a decade after hijacked jetliners plowed into tall buildings in New York, Islamists are ascendant across the Middle East and hoisting their Shariah-based totalitarian ideology. The U.S. under the Obama administration stands instead as having reverted back to the pre-9/11 mentality.

The American election is barely seven weeks away and the Islamist jihad against the “Crusaders,” in the language of al-Qaida’s founder, will very likely get obscured in the fog of political debates and recriminations in the U.S.

But there is no mistaking that an apologetic West, as represented by President Obama, emboldened the Islamists, resulting in the manner in which the so-called Arab Spring unfolded.

The abandonment of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt accompanied by the embrace of Muslim Brotherhood is turning out to be a repeat of Iran in 1979 when Khomeini swept into power.

It is extraordinary that an apologetic America, as President Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo symbolized, and Europe with its appeasement mind-set cannot get their act together in compelling a third world rogue state, Iran, to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons capability or face dire military consequences. This failure to disarm Iran while embracing Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — the political grandfather of all the various Islamist offsprings in the greater Middle East and beyond — makes the present situation eerily similar to the 1930s.

What needs to be done, and should have been done by the previous Bush administration, is to take a page from George Kennan — the architect of President Truman’s policy against the Soviet Union — and update his strategy of containment for the Arab-Muslim world. The Arab-Muslim world deserves to be isolated and contained, as was the former Soviet Union. An Iron Curtain, in Winston Churchill’s memorable words, should descend separating the West and its allies from the Arab-Muslim world until the latter has exhausted itself of its own demons.

The situation America, and by its default the West, finds itself in relation to the Arab-Muslim world is to a large extent, ironically, the result of its own guilt-ridden attitude and political correctness. This state of mind, or multiculturalism, gravely inhibits a realistic assessment of 9/11 and what has followed.

The explanation on offer that this new wave of Muslim rage was ignited by a crudely amateurish docu-drama about Islam’s prophet, and the individual responsible must be severely punished, is pathetic in describing a guilt-ridden West seeking to placate the Arab-Muslim world.

Islamists are at war, and the West needs to respond accordingly.

 

Justin’s not ready

Let’s be honest here. Justin Trudeau is not exactly the most intelligent guy in Ottawa.

Nice hair, good looking, cute smile, famous and clever dad, “interesting” mum, but he’s not likely to be passing any difficult exams in the near future, is he? He’s a lightweight, a privileged beneficiary of Canadian political nepotism, and he makes all the old guys in Canadian media feel good as they remember their sex and drugs days during father Pierre’s reign.

But he may well become leader of the Liberal Party, and perhaps even prime minister. Which is more than a little worrying because he is, as I say, not enormously bright.

A few days ago he went to speak at yet another school, because there is apparently no need to have lessons and learn things when you can hear a politician with a famous daddy and good hair prattle on. He was at A.Y. Jackson Secondary School in Ottawa, where he responded to a student’s question about “the Catholic backlash against provincial anti-bullying legislation.” The dauphin said Catholic opposition to gay-straight alliances was “repulsive.”

Now, you might disagree with the Catholic position, you might oppose it, but “repulsive?” The inescapable logic is that everybody who opposes gay-straight alliances is repulsive, which is not very inclusive or tolerant, Justin.

The boy wonder then went on to say: “There’s not a religion in the world that says ‘tolerate thy neighbour.’ No, they say ‘love thy neighbour.’ Acceptance, respect, building friendships, being open to each other, that’s what we have to build on in Canada.”

Not sure where to start. First, Justin clearly has no idea what religions teach and believe. Islam, for example, which is a pretty big religion, calls exactly for tolerance instead of love, and that’s if you’re lucky. Christians and Jews, people of the book, are to be tolerated as long as they pay a head tax and are obedient and respectful to Islam and Muslims. Hardly unconditional love. As for pagans, those who do not worship one God, they’re not even to be tolerated.

It’s only Christianity that clearly speaks of loving your neighbour, even if you disagree with him, and that doesn’t mean encouraging your neighbour to indulge in what you consider a dangerous and immoral lifestyle. That would not be love but convenient and sugary disregard.

Then there’s the obvious logical implosion of what Justin said next — accept each other, respect each other, be open to each other. But you just called your critics repulsive! Hardly encouraging of respect and friendship, and harshly intolerant and arrogant.

Which brings us to why Trudeau was there in the first place. Jamie Hubley, who was just 15 when he killed himself last year, attended the school. He was gay, but we now know the poor kid had suffered from depression for years, and while certainly feeling isolated as the only homosexual student at the school, the bullying was more because he was a figure skater and rather flamboyant. His father has said that gay-straight alliances would not have helped matters and would probably have made things worse. So, the father of the boy opposes GSAs, so he is repulsive.

Justin Trudeau. Not ready for prime time; actually, not really ready for playtime.

BC Liberal premier boasts of increasing number of low income earners paying no tax.

I’m (a) sane, and (b) I’m a conservative rather than a communist, a socialist, a liberal, a fascist, a left-winger, or any other of the almost identically awful flavor of “progressive.” BC Liberals logoSo obviously I’m all for governments reducing costs and lowering taxes.

But Christy Clark, the all-in progressive BC Liberal Party premier of BC, takes a typical progressive fool’s stance on the current taxation situation in BC. Here’s an official announcement statement (which reads like a government statement directly from PRAVDA from the old Soviet Union). While promising more government spending on programs for what she calls the “needy,” which in this case is perfectly healthy happy students attending taxpayer-funded, state-owned colleges at relatively little cost, on government-sponsored student loans, Clark also boasts:

“…an additional 325,000 people no longer pay B.C. income tax, and a total of more than one million British Columbians pay no provincial income tax…”

A vast and growing number of lower income-earning people paying no income tax while higher income earners pay all the tax, is going to end badly. This is the kind of nonsensical progressive thinking fueling much of the left-wing progressive movement. And you can see the very definition of progressive at work here.

The fix is in. It’s nefarious like a pyramid scheme. Or a Ponzi scheme. And it’s stupid, and it doesn’t work.

Who wouldn’t be in favor of more government hand-outs, welfare, social housing, entitlements, so-called government “investment,” student loan welfare/aid, so-called “stimulus,” social programs galore, when you don’t pay taxes, and only those who work hard and earn more income pay all the taxes  –  and usually don’t get the benefits?

Moreover, when you don’t pay income taxes, who wouldn’t vote for the party which promises more “free” goodies, and to pay for it by raising income taxes (especially on “the rich”)?

People who don’t pay taxes will always be in favor of raising taxes, which they won’t be called upon to pay, and they’ll always be in favor of their government spending more of the other people’s money. They’ll always be in favor of more “free” social programs and entitlements and, therefore, an ever-growing government.

A gratuitous picture of Karl MarxIt’s the stuff the left-wing is made of. It’s like a pernicious weed or a cancer. It grows on itself. It’s progressive.

It’s great politics for stupid people. But it’s utterly stupid economic and social policy.

Nearly half of Americans pay no income tax now. And no, you folksy 99-percenter “occupy” hippies, it’s not the “rich” people who are paying no income taxes, it’s the bottom half. In Canada about 40% pay no income taxes. Is it any wonder the socialist NDP polls so well these days? Is it any wonder there’s anybody left who will vote for Obama even though he’s an almost total failure?

Everybody should pay income taxes. Then everybody will vote for the parties which limit government, spend efficiently, keep taxes low, and against those progressives who can’t restrain themselves and which actually want to grow government and keep on raising taxes on fewer and fewer people until there’s none left.

Somebody’s got to pay. And I assure you, it isn’t “the government.”

Yet that statement I quoted above, from Clark, the Nanny-in-Chief, is as I said actually taken from a prideful announcement referring to students “in need,” wherein the benevolent nanny-state government (actually, it’s not even her own provincial program but rather a federal one courtesy of the progressive “Conservative” government) promises more taxpayer support for all the whiny students who took out student loans and now say they can’t afford to pay them back. They’re students “in need,” see, which “the government” will rescue.

Here’s a clue:

The Government of Canada will cover the interest amount owing that the borrower’s affordable payment does not cover.

The Government of Canada will continue to cover the interest and begin to cover a portion of the student loan principal amount …

The “Government of Canada” will cover all of that cost, huh?

I call bull. Progressive bull.

 

No, the state won’t provide you with a “Canada Day” flag. Buy your own.

A letter to the editor at the Edmonton Journal, June 24, 2012, exemplifies the increasingly do-nothing, expect everything to be given to you attitude of today’s mollycoddled-by-government, increasingly left-wing, growing entitlement-cultured liberals of today’s Canada.

This politically progressive sickness is a disease that like its name, is growing like a cancer in Canada thanks to letter-writers like this one, and a liberal media, academia, and government which advocates and nurtures it.

National pride on the cheap

Our federal MPs have initiated a Proud to Be Canadian campaign. For Canada Day, July 1, we are instructed to cut out a paper flag and place it in our window. I miss the days when our government gave us real flags.

This government may be proud, but it sure is cheap. The constituents who would cut out those paper flags are. unfortunately, not yet old enough to vote.

Randy B. Williams, St. Albert

Hi Randy B. Williams. I see the headline the Journal gave your letter was “National pride on the cheap.” They’re wrong as usual, being the liberal entitlement culture mongers that they are. You’re the cheap one. You’re also misguided. The heading should have been “Liberalism is a failure, and here’s proof.”  And I’d like to see an editor’s note following it reading “…and we’re so, so sorry, and we promise to change.”

Not only should the government not be involved in most any way (especially with taxpayer cash) with any Canada Day celebrations, which should be left almost entirely to the people on their own, they damn sure shouldn’t provide you with a flag.

I run a web site called “Proud To Be Canadian”, at my own expense. The government never “gave” it to me, although I guess you think they should have. In fact I bet you wish they owned this particular means of production.

The government can’t “give” anybody anything, see, as they have nothing of their own to give. They only have taxpayers’ money, like mine, which they took from Canadians like me. And the government shouldn’t take money from people who are smart and work hard and give it to dumb lazy people who are cheap and are possibly sitting at their computers writing dumb letters and waiting for my money to be delivered to them. People apparently like you.

The government also didn’t “instruct me” to start ProudToBeCanadian, by the way. Because they can’t. It’s a free country. A free country means you’re free to be a total failure and a loser if you chose to. Lamenting not getting a “free” flag from the government is a clue that you’re a loser.

I buy my own flags. You should too. It’s not the government’s role  –  or more accurately, mine as a taxpayer  –  to provide flags  –  or most anything else  –  to you or anybody. It’s your role to provide goods for your own self and your family. And if you can’t, then tough. You can’t have them.

Buy your own damn flags. And although your sentence about those “not yet old enough to vote” is a bizarre non sequitur, buy some for your children and all the neighborhood kids too, if it means so much to you. And if you can’t, then don’t. There’s another clue.

Click to buy a PTBC lapel pin

Click to buy a $10 PTBC lapel pin, the profit from which is mine, not yours.

Also, buy some of my $10 PTBC (ProudToBeCanadian) lapel pins, wherein nearly all of the money you pay me is pure profit for me. And you aren’t entitled to any of it either, by the way, on account of the fact that you didn’t earn it and it’s not yours, it’s mine.

I’m a conservative. A small-c conservative Canadian, and of course I’m proud of it.

And I work for my money. I buy my own stuff with my own money. You should too.

Happy “Canada Day”,
Joel Johannesen

The Quebec mobs explained in 16 words.

The mobs of spoiled pseudo-students in The Nation Of Quebec?

They’re liberals*, raised by liberal parents, taught by liberals, and entertained and informed by the CBC.

And now you know the truth.

 

* the word “liberal” is interchangeable with progressive, and in many cases socialist. Some are Marxists.