Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Quote of the Day: "Many government pension and health care systems are now little more than Ponzi schemes"

071127-N-8395K-001    Image by Marion Doss via Flickr
The Mark Steyn demographic argument (made by someone other than Mark Steyn):
The root of the problem is the same in most countries: With populations aging, the intergenerational transfer system that has paid for pensions and health care is breaking down. Low birthrates and longer life spans are changing the balance between workers and retirees so that current levels of taxation cannot support the promised benefits. Across the developed and, increasingly, developing worlds, worker-to-recipient ratios are declining. By 2050, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there will be only 2.7 American workers for each retiree, down from 4.7 in 2008. The European Union nations will have only 1.8 workers per retiree, and Japan 1.3. China faces the biggest adjustment, dropping from about 7.7 workers per retiree to 2.1.
As a result of these demographic changes, many government pension and health care systems for the elderly worldwide are now little more than Ponzi schemes that are running short of new “investors.” Aggravating the budget situation is the rapid rise in health care costs caused by the development of new—and expensive—medical technologies, drugs, and treatment procedures.
 The Bottom-Line:
In the past, the United States did reasonably well by muddling through crises. But this time, temporizing may not serve us as satisfactorily. The needed medicine is bitter. Tax increases in the trillions of dollars appear necessary, and they probably won’t be politically possible unless accompanied by similarly large—and permanent—cuts in government-provided retirement and health benefits. So, despite the political rhetoric on both sides and the emergence of a Tea Party movement that instills the fear of higher taxes in Washington, we are still betting on the politicians to cut a deal. Call it a “grand social welfare compromise.”
The immediate concern must be to find a way to close the long-term budget gap; but how it is closed is just as important. The understandable temptation will be to tinker—to raise a tax here and there, and to trim benefits in one way or another, in the hope that a series of small changes will solve our long-term budget problems. That may be the most appealing course politically, but it is not likely to work, and it certainly will not maximize domestic productivity and international competitiveness. The key will be to raise taxes and trim benefits in a way that minimizes disruption and hardship while creating incentives for saving and investment. This will take analytic smarts and political savvy.
The article points out we (the US -- but this applies to Canada too) are not as wealthy as we think we are; we have huge unfunded liabilities, including state- and federal-level pensions, social security, pensions, and healthcare.

To those young, healthy, able-bodied Canadians who like the idea of a guaranteed $20K a year: we can't afford you. Please take responsibility for your own life and make your own arrangements.

From the Wilson Quarterly.

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Monday, November 29, 2010

The TSA: Cry Me A River

Screening Checkpoint at Boston Logan Internati...                           Image via Wikipedia
Finally, a Delta agent checked again for me and said, "Yes, there is a flight I can put you on, but it leaves in 5 minutes, here is your ticket and boarding pass, RUN." So I did and [he] came with me. 
He told the situation to the first TSA agent and there weren't many people in that line, so I moved quickly up to the security check. A man, was scanning my OVERNIGHT bag (no big luggage at all) and my purse and motioning me through. A big stern-looking African American woman stopped him and said that she needed to pat me down, wan[d] me, go through my luggage, etc. The other TSA man told her that my flight was about to leave and that he knew that my purse and bag were fine. I was wearing open flip-flops, a cotton skirt and a t-shirt. I am as American looking as apple-pie! 
Then my nightmare started. She had me spread my legs and she SLOWLY frisked me. Then I said, "Can I go now, my flight is so important to me, I'm attending a funeral?" That made her furious. She informed me that I was NOT co-operating with her and that she was IN CHARGE, and that crying (I was sobbing) would not do me any good at all with her. The other TSA officer begged her to let me catch my flight, … she blew him off.
The woman missed her flight and the funeral.

Other TSA horror stories here.

Any personal stories (good/bad) from readers?


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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Nature 3, Man 0: Fruit Flies


Recent experiments have revealed that when perturbed in flight, a fruit fly can recover its heading to within 2 degrees in less than a tenth of a second. Here’s how the researchers describe the results:
Just as the Wright brothers implemented controls to achieve stable airplane flight, flying insects have evolved behavioral strategies that ensure recovery from flight disturbances.
This is yet another example of evolutionary euphemism. Recovery from flight disturbances is a complex, fine-tuned capability integrating sensors, algorithms and actuators. Not the stuff of random mutations. So the evolutionary euphemism compares it with the Wright brothers and their flying machines. -- Cornelius Hunter
Regular readers of the Ball Bounces will know that I am an avid fan of the Wright brothers and how they solved the problem of flight by focusing on the problem of control rather than thrust. What has taken the best, creative, wilful minds of man to accomplish, blind, dead, dumb, nature did without even trying -- and embedded its technology in an object the size of a, er, fruit fly.

I'm scoring this one for nature.

Score is now Nature 3, Man 0.

(To read all the articles in this series, select the Nature vs. Man keyword on the left side of the blog).
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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Obama: Unions 2, Investors 0

United Auto Workers            Image via Wikipedia
Thanks to a generous share of GM stock obtained in the company's 2009 bankruptcy settlement, the United Auto Workers is well on its way to recouping the billions of dollars GM owed it — putting it far ahead of taxpayers who have recouped only about 30 percent of their investment and further still ahead of investors in the old GM who have received nothing.
The boon for the union fits the pattern established when the White House pushed GM into bankruptcy and steered it through the courts in a way that consistently put the interests of the union ahead of many suppliers, dealers and investors — stakeholders that ordinarily would have fared as well or better under the bankruptcy laws.
Obama: not a Messiah, not even a great or good leader -- just another unprincipled politician paying off his support base at the expense of justice to ordinary citizens who invested their hard-earned money in GM shares.
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Miller Time or Mecca Time: O Christmas Tree! (Or, Why The West Will Fail)

Christmas Tree (1)                         Image via Wikipedia
"FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting, authorities say".

This headline from an Oregon newspaper (home of the Mo-Mo bomber) tells you why the West will fail. A culture that is so apologetic and weak-kneed it cannot bring itself to call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree doesn't deserve to withstand the onslaught of muscular militant Islam.

Jesus, and Christianity, more than anyone or anything, are responsible for the freedoms of western individualism: not society, or the crowd, but "he who wills, let him take up his cross"; and, "as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God". Western individualism is founded on Christianity. If we can't even bring ourselves to acknowledge a benign, non-religious symbol of Christianity, we don't deserve to survive the onslaught of submit! surrender! Islam -- an intolerant religion that punishes apostates with death.
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Mohammed: What's In A Name?


Do Germans name their kids Adolf?

We'll all know moderate Muslims are serious about disassociating with terrorism when they stop giving their kids the same name as terrorists.

Right now, Mohammed is the most popular name given to boys in England.

Pictured -- Mohamed, Mohamed (Mo-Mo) the Oregon bomber.
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Some Guy Named Mohamed Mohamed Tries To Set Off Bomb In Oregon

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. 
The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed. 
According to the FBI affidavit, the case began in August 2009 when Mohamud was in e-mail contact with an unindicted associate overseas who was believed to be involved in terrorist activities. In December 2009, while the unindicted associate was in a frontier province of Pakistan, Mohamud and the associate discussed the possibility of Mohamud traveling to Pakistan to participate in violent jihad.  
We all know that jihad is a peaceful struggle -- American children are taught this in school. The FBI lies! I accuse the FBI of entrapment. This man is innocent. "If the bomb didn't blow to bits, we must acquit!" Where's Johnny Cochran when we need him?

File "B" for Bonkers: Disabled British Girl Takes Up Too Much Space

A disabled girl aged 11 has been rejected by one of London's top academies because she "takes up too much space" in her wheelchair.
High-achieving Harris City Academy Crystal Palace said Idayah Miller could not be allowed to join as she would "restrict the movement of other children" in corridors and presented a "health and safety risk".
"We take students of all abilities here so that is not an issue. We are just concerned about her safety. We are saying to the parents, 'Do you really want your child to be a safety risk to others?'".
Story and photo Here.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Getcher ESV Bible Free On Kindle

English Standard Version                                      Image via Wikipedia
Good news - man conquers death; door to heaven opened; read all about it!

ESV Bible Kindle Free.
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Can Man Be Good Without God?

Coat of Arms of North Korea                                         Image via Wikipedia
A good article about the now-seasonal atheist propaganda onslaught about being good without God.
In our culture, even the most passionate atheist cannot help having been influenced by the Judeo-Christian worldview that shaped Western civilization. “We know that you can be good without God,’’ Speckhardt tells CNN.
He can be confident of that only because he lives in a society so steeped in Judeo-Christian values that he takes those values for granted. But a society bereft of that religious heritage is one not even Speckhardt would want to live in.
From Townhall's Jeff Jacoby.

Would western atheists really want to live in a godless society? You don't see many of them clamouring to live in North Korea or China, with its forced abortions and harvesting of body parts from prisoners.
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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Michael Ignatieff's Touch-My-Junk Comedy Tour

“If you’re in my business, you live in an airport. And so I have people touching my private parts all day long” -- Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff

Ignatieff shows how Liberals submit to a junk inspection, right.

Lives in an airport? Next he'll be living in a van down by the river.


Related articles
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Why Socialism Fails: Free-Riders In The Storm

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 13:  Journalist John Stoss...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free-rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else. Soon, the pot is empty. -- Townhall Columnist John Stossel
A great US Thanksgiving day article by John Stossel.

Free-riders is a new term to me. It's a term we need to get familiar with -- it describes the problem in a nutshell doesn't it?  I'm thinking of the guy in Charlottetown who does all his work for cash -- I wonder if when his daughter is sick and he takes her to the hospital -- do you think he insists on paying for treatment since he hasn't paid into the system?  I doubt it. He's a free-rider.

Remember -- for every free-rider, there's someone carrying him on their back.

How many free-riders are there on your back?  Or, more to the point, how many do you want there to be?  The answer to this question will drive your opinion for or against socialism -- unless, of course, you plan on being a free-rider yourself.

PS -- Happy US Thanksgiving!
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Quote of the Day: "Once Climate's in the Weather, It’s There For Good

Unofficial seal of the United States Congress                              Image via Wikipedia
And the urgency is that the longer we wait, the further down the pipeline climate travels and works its way into weather, and once it’s in the weather, it’s there for good. -- Heidi Cullen, explaining to the US Congress why we have to act NOW to avoid climate catastrophe
I thought climate catastrophism had sunk into the sea along with Atlantis, but, I guess it is still with us.
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

No Kidding? Headline of the Week

 New Zealand reports :"Quake grants attract cheats"

No kidding? 
Earthquake "stress" grants of $1000 are attracting opportunists looking for free cash, Christchurch doctors say.
The Red Cross, which manages the $14 million Earthquake Appeal Fund, has approved 884 hardships grant, paying out about $800,000 of publicly donated money to people claiming emotional or financial stress because of the Canterbury quake.
There is no control on how the money is used, although applicants who apply on the grounds of emotional stress do require a supporting doctor's letter.
The most common reasons given for needing the money are counselling or a holiday. h/t Mark Steyn
Wonder if the Globe & Mail taken this kind of action into account when advocating $20,000/year no questions asked to every poor Canadian?

Quote of the Day: "The Reason Sweden Can Be Sweden"

America AloneImage by Double_Nickel via Flickr
"The only reason Sweden can be Sweden and Belgium can be Belgium and Canada can be Canada is because since 1945 America has been America" - Mark Steyn, here.

Posting from PHX - Phoenix, heading home to Toronto. No incidents passing through security -- the velcro underwear tabs work great!
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It's Called Black Friday And it's Coming to Canada

FORT WORTH, TX -  NOVEMBER 27:  Shoppers were ...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Black Friday is a newish American cultural institution. Following the deprivation of a Thanksgiving holiday heavy on Turkey but light on shopping, they make up for it by having a blow-out sale on the Friday following.

It's called Black Friday. And it's coming to Canada:
Black Friday Deals: November 26  
Looking for extra savings? Come back to Amazon.ca on November 26 for Black Friday specials on electronics, kitchen items, movies and TV shows, and more.
Blame the Harper Tories for this wretched Americanization of Canada. Wait a minute. Sales are good. Vote Tory!
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Monday, November 22, 2010

Ending Poverty: The Globe and Mail Jumps The Shark

"To end poverty, guarantee everyone in Canada $20,000 a year. But are you willing to trust the poor?"

In a word, no.

Unearned handouts, especially to the young and healthy, are de-moralizing. They do not end poverty; they institutionalize it; they turn poverty into a growth industry; they create a sub-class of citizens who are dis-incentivized to work unless "society" can offer them a job that pays significantly better than the 20K they're entitled to for merely breathing and taking up space. They make irresponsible and immoral behaviour a live lifestyle choice, which too many will take.

And, of course, the $20K a year, once established as an entitlement, will never be enough. It will be seen as a matter of simple justice to raise it to $22, $24, $26K a year.  Here's a thought -- why not raise it to $80K a year, and make everyone wealthy?

You can see the leftist bias of the reporter:  "It's a bold idea, and it runs counter to the paternal approach to poverty that polices what is done with “our” money and tries to strong-arm the poor into better lives."

Wow, what a load of emotive, biased words: bold idea vs. paternal approach, policing what is done with "our" money, and strong-arming the poor.

If it's not our money, just exactly whose does she think it is?

Welfare for the able-bodied should not be convenient and comfortable. It should be something you kick yourself for needing and do everything in your power to get out of. Your goal should be to get out of it and pay back society for its "loan".

As is invariably the case in articles such as this, the journalist fails to ask the basic questions:

1. Job losses? What job losses -- why were these jobs lost?

2. Where is the child's father and why isn't he shouldering his responsibilities?

3. Where are the young woman's parents, and why aren't they supporting their grandchild and their daughter's efforts?

4. Where is the extended family if the young woman's parents are unwilling or unable to help out?

5. How much has this case-study example cost tax-payers so far, and when is the end in sight?

Welfare begins with the immediate family, followed by the wider family circle. Only if these break down should governments step in.  The issue of personal, family, and extended-family responsibilities for dealing with poverty rarely if ever get a mention by Canadian journalists.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

(full article is below)
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Quote of the Day: "Amazon. com sounds like a bunch CRAPP to me"

First of all i got an E Mail saying they could not delever. I have had plenty of DVD deleverd with no problem Secoundly they said they would refund my money Iam trying to figure out how they are going to do that on agift card from VISA with aspending limit an d an experation dateof JANUARY 9 2009 as of today istill have nothing the whole Amazon. com sounds like a bunch CRAPP to me Ican tell you and every one i know not to use Amazon. com NO THANKS
Please check for basic literacy before posting evaluations on Amazon.

Thank you!

Lawless in Caledonia: Where The OPP See A Threat and... Leave

“All of a sudden, there was a big kerfuffle,” he says. “Out of the bush came another twenty people … there were already people coming from Six Nations down the road. And they all walked by our entrance to our driveway, they all had sticks, baseball bats.”
The OPP, seeing the crowd, just “high-tailed it” and took off.
“That,” Dieter says, “was the last police we saw.”
He doesn’t mean for the next few days, either, or even weeks: the OPP, by its own admission, did not police the Sixth Line for the next 47 months.
Leading to this: "I had the papers to become a Canadian... I ripped them up."

Caledonia is a shame that should burn in the hearts of all modern-day Canadians.


Read Christie Blatchford's account of the Caledonia fiasco here.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

First Things' 50 Best Blogs of 2010

Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging                               Image via Wikipedia
Sez First Things' Joe Carter:
Listed below are the top 50 blogs that I have found to be the most convicting, enlightening, frustrating, illuminating, maddening, stimulating, right-on and/or wrongheaded during 2010.
The selection process is, by necessity, intensely personal and unapologetically subjective. There are a number of blogs that are written by brilliant thinkers and stylists yet, for one reason or another, have not captured my imagination in the way that the blogs on this list have done.
The list is also reflective of my rather narrow field of interests and associations. The bloggers that are included are primarily from the conservative wing of evangelicalism and Catholicism. There is also a peculiar range of focus. Religion, philosophy, and economic blogs are overrepresented, for example, while sports, tech, and pop culture blogs are all but excluded. (Blogs from the First Things family (The Anchoress, Evangel, Postmodern Conservative, Spengler, and Secondhand Smoke) were also not included since it is a given that they are among the best.)
While the entire list won’t be to everyone’s taste, there is something to be gained from searching out the unfamiliar names. Each is worthy of being included on any list of essential blog reading.
The following (listed in alphabetical order) are First Things' 50 best blogs of 2010.

Hint: Edward Feser's blog makes the list.
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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Rex Murphy on the Christie Blatchford Waterloo Affair

Rex Murphy: University of Waterloo ignoramuses accomplish their doltish goal
The University of Waterloo is inadequately and belatedly trying to make up for the shabby treatment afforded Christie Blatchford at the renowned institution. It has apologized for the hijacking of her talk by self-ordained (they always are) “anti-racism” activists — five ignoramuses who took the stage before her, chanted “racist, racist, racist” at her, denied her right to speak and denied the audience who came to hear her their right to hear her.
Read more:

First Ann Coulter. Then Mark Steyn. Now Christie Blatchford.

Glad I'm not a leftist.

Related articles
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Joan Baez -- Still Blowin' In The Wind

Joan Baez, Bowery Songs, Koch Entertainment, 2005                                Image via Wikipedia
Joan Baez hurt in fall from treehouse....

Joan's still livin' the 60s.

What caused the fall?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind... the answer is blowin' in the wind.
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Friday, November 19, 2010

On Being As Clean As The Fresh-Driven Snow...

Charles B. Rangel                                         Image via Wikipedia
1. When you think you are as clean as the fresh-driven snow, you're not.

2. When someone protests he is as clean as the fresh-driven snow, he's not.

Take it to the bank, Charlie Rangel.

"Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow". -- Isaiah, chapter two.

Something else you can take to the bank; however, when you achieve white-as-snowness, it is because you are clothed in His righteousness, not your own -- something all Christians, acutely aware of their sin and shortcomings, long and strive for.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Road Rage -- Ontario-Style

BrickArms Baseball Bat prototype      Image by Dunechaser via Flickr
Ontarians driving Ontario roads are getting short-tempered and trigger-finger-happy. They're also working on their batting average.

Enter the police:

"We don't want to get into a situation where people start carrying guns and baseball bats to settle issues," Sgt. Dave Woodford said Wednesday. "Just call police and let us take care of it."

You mean like, "just call police and let us Caledonia it"?

Article here.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Is information in the Cell More Like the Grand Canyon or the Grand Canyon Suite?

Cell structure of a bacterium, one of the two ...                                       Image via Wikipedia
A fine review of Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design appears in the New Oxford Review.

I like one analogy -- the Grand Canyon.  We ask, "what created the grand canyon" but, "who created the Grand Canyon Suite".

Information in the cell -- is it more like the Grand Canyon or the Grand Canyon Suite?

The Darwinist's only possible answer is the Grand Canyon. The theist can be open-minded and genuinely inquisitive. From a theist's point of view, it is possible that life came about by direct miraculous agency or by preordained natural processes infused with creative potential.

What both paths share is this: where there's information, there's a mind. Where there's a mind, there's a Person.
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Intolerance Will Not Be Tolerated!

Carleton anti-abortion group to have student club funding cut off:
We invite you to amend your constitution to create one that respects our anti-discrimination policy as laid out above. If you are able to resubmit a constitution that meets our criteria by Thursday, November 18th we will be able to certify your club for this semester.
 It's clear who has the power here -- the group that gets to first define discrimination and then arbitrarily discriminate against anyone who doesn't fall in line with their views. Arguably, abortion discriminates in a final and fatal manner against unborn human beings, but not according to the group in power. Where is this totalitarian instinct exercised? At a private club or sorority? No, this is what passes for a form of public governance on a Canadian taxpayer-funded university campus.

Story here.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Quote of the Day: " No intelligent designer would design an eye backwards!"

Pocket watch, savonette-type.                                      Image via Wikipedia
"No intelligent designer would design an eye backwards!" -- Johnson and Losos

Is the above statement an expression of

a) science
b) theology
c) philosophy?

Does it belong

a) in a science class or science textbook?

b) in a school system that espouses the separation of church (i.e., religion) and state?

It seems Darwinists can freely sprinkle anti-design comments in their science textbooks, but get to rigorously scrub any comments that might be construed as supporting a positive design hypothesis.

And what if it turned out the design of the eye was not "backwards"? Could that be used then as positive evidence of design?

Of course not. The design rhetoric of darwinists only goes one way.

For the source of this quote, along with commentary, please go here.
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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Headline of the Week: "Extinct Bird Found, Caught -- and Killed"

"'Extinct' Bird Found, Caught -- and Killed" -- Fox News headline.

Nice and succinct -- no beating around the bush (and remember, an extinct bird in the hand is worth two in the bush!).

For article, go here.

Friday, November 12, 2010

"B" is for Bonkers: Leftist Lunacy in the Deranged Dominion

University of Windsor logo                                        Image via Wikipedia
"University of Windsor fires back at failed law dean candidate".

This National Post article may have more leftist lunacy per square inch than any other article in the history of Canadian journalism.

It's got:

* A former NDP political candidate and professor (who teaches -- what else -- family and immigration law). She issues a human rights complaint of racism and sexism because she didn't get the job she applied for.

* A "hate-speech expert".  He is being human-rights-tribuned to the tune of $15,000 by the self-same NDPer for hatefully uttering hateful speech against her. Will he speak as an expert witness on his own behalf?

* A university search committee consisting of (take a deep breath) "six women, 'four persons of racialized origins,' one person with a disability, a female Superior Court judge, and a non-voting equity assessor who is African Canadian".  (This one sentence alone is enough to make one think there is no hope for Canada.) The committee, in the name of equality, awards the NDP complainant bonus points for being female, and super-duper-bonus points for "self-identification as a visible minority". (Someone should haul the university search committee before a human rights tribunal for blatant, overt, wilful and systemic discrimination against white males.) Speaking of which...

* White males -- nothing good said about them. They are disparaged by the equality-loving, justice-seeking NDP candidate.

* An Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. The Tribunal, in a grand gesture of "L'etat - c'est nous", asserts it has the right to appoint University deans and, presumably, also to appoint captains of Canadian NHL hockey teams and declare Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim winners in the event of disputes.

A country that has descended to such utter lunacy does not deserve to survive. Let's hope the Islamic take-over happens sooner rather than later.

You can read the whole thing here.
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Thursday, November 11, 2010

We Remember Our Fallen and Those Who Sacrificed For Us

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

To those who fell, and who sacrificed for us, we say "thank you".

For an appropriate commentary on the parasitic white poppy movement, see this exquisitely written piece by Canada's Rex Murphy.

Governments and Unions Are A Toxic Mix

Toronto Transit Commission                                    Image via Wikipedia
"Government is simple provided two conditions are met: You do it locally, and you do it without unions." -- Mark Steyn, here.


Yes to that.


Governments don't care about taxpayers, except once-every-four years when taxpayers morph into voters, at which point governments give lip-service to keeping costs under control. 


Because governments are not profit-making, there are no checks and balances to say when a big wage is "too big". The path of least resistance is to cave to union demands and then stick the costs to future tax-payers.

The TTC union-leader, Bob Kinnear, cost me real money the last time he held Torontonians hostage. And, Toronto TTC patrons are now on the hook for those pending wage increases.


Government workers, and workers directly funded by governments, should not be allowed to unionize. If they don't like the way their government is treating them, they are already empowered to do something about it -- they get to vote just like the rest of us, don't they?


Let them exercise the same power we do.


And that's the way the non-unionized Ball bounces.
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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Evolution of the Human Brain Explanated

Follow the links to Norm and Cliff.

It's really not that complicated. An ape ate some fermented grain. Soon, his brain started to outshine the other brains. (Cliff provides the science.) The rest is history. From fermentation to a Fermi nation. From moonshine to Mozart. From buzz to, er, Buzz.

No intelligence required -- cheers!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Miller Time or Mecca Time: Pearson Airport Toronto (YYZ)

Terminal 1 building                        Image via Wikipedia
Overheard inside the comments of a Charles Lewis HolyPost:

SOMETOWN
2:43 PM on October 29, 2010

"One young man said that the multi-faith room at his [U. of Toronto] school had no turned into a de facto mosque and felt uncomfortable using the room to meet with fellow Catholics for prayer time."

Did the man say why he and fellow Catholics felt uncomfortable?

DIANNE WOOD
3:24 PM on October 29, 2010

I know I feel uncomfortable trying to pray in the multi faith chapel at Pearson Airport. I was in there praying at Christmas time and there was a banner of a nativity scene of baby Jesus. I was using the picture to help me keep focused in my prayer. Some Muslims came in and took down the banner immediately and when they were finished they did not put it back up. Seemed a bit insensitive to me.

SOMETOWN
3:57 PM on October 29, 2010

This happened while you were still praying?

DIANNE WOOD
4:18 PM on October 29, 2010
Yes I was still praying and also was still praying after they left. I said nothing to them when they removed it but I did go put it back up after they left. I know that some of my friends who live in Iraq who are Catholic cannot put up religious pictures in their own homes because their landlord is Muslim and will not allow it. Thye will be evicted if they do.

What time is it at Pearson International Airport: Miller Time or Mecca Time?

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Monday, November 08, 2010

Quote of the Day: "The real issue is not whether a theory is ‘scientific’, but whether a theory is true”

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[Stephen] Meyer explains that “... philosophers of science have increasingly realized that the real issue is not whether a theory is ‘scientific’ according to some abstract definition, but whether a theory is true, or supported by the evidence.” -- Bill Pratt, Tough Questions Answered.
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"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"