The way the Ball bounces: March 2014

Friday, March 28, 2014

If Quebec Separates, The Fun Starts?

English: Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Français : Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal. Montréal, Québec, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If Quebec Separates, The Fun Starts…

At least, according to Sun News commbox poster Dennis Peitzsche of Stayner Collegiate Institute. Here's Dennis' post:

If Quebec should decide to hold a referendum and the Quebecois vote for leaving Canada, the fun starts.

1. Aboriginals will refuse to give up their traditional territory.

2. The St. Lawrence Seaway is jointly owned by Canada and the United States; Quebec has no claim to the lands set aside for the Seaway.

3. Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence and may not be part of a new Quebec.

4. All federal facilities (and English speaking employees) in Quebec would have to relocate.

5. Air Canada could not continue maintenance operations in a foreign nation.

6. The Port of Montreal would wither as Canadian companies would have to find an Canadian location for imports and exports.

7. Airlines would cease landing in Quebec until they could negotiate landing rights with the new nation.

8. The Canada Space Agency could move from Saint-Hubert to Calgary.

9. Federally licensed financial institutions (all banks, for example) could no longer operate in Quebec.

10. Bilingual courts and a bilingual federal civil service would be history.

11. The Official Languages Act would be history.

12. Thousands of translators we now pay for would be out of work.

13. We would have 78 fewer Members of Parliament to pay for.

14. We would have 24 fewer Senators to pay for.

15. The NDP would lose 57 seats including Mulcair’s;

16. The Liberals would lose 8 seats including Trudeau’s.

17. The Conservative party’s majority would increase from 52% to 67%.

18. We would save about $20 billion annually in federal transfer payments - which could be used to pay down the federal debt.

19. We could save another $543 million in funds currently earmarked for bridges over the St. Lawrence and in and out of Montreal.

20. We would no longer support Bombardier.

21. All military aircraft work contracted by Canada would have to leave Quebec.

22. Goodbye to the CBC French language networks.

Larry Winslow of Wycliffe College, Toronto adds:

Add to departure of Federal Facilities the fact that all Canadian Military Bases would relocate to Canada.

They would have to create a new currency that would be worthless worldwide.
All transfer payments would cease.

Quebec would have to payout its share of the Canadian National Debt.

Many corporations would relocate to Canada where they intended to be in the first place.

Logically, their departure would be with that with which they entered Confederation.

Canada would have to maintain a Canadian corridor to the Maritime Porvinces.

I'm all for a "Canadian corridor" for to the Maritime Porvinces -- even if it goes through northern Maine.

Whatever it is, it probably won't be "fun" -- more like extremely messy and bitter. Mainly because Quebec will not be reasonable about either land or finances. It would only go smoothly if Quebec were to act like a responsible adult rather than a spoiled, petulant teenager. Will Quebec be able to "man-up"?

Friday, March 21, 2014

White House Slams Drudge "Lie" About Obamacare Penalty

"Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media at Barack Obama's White House, responded that that was a “Flat lie, no fee for previous year,” adding, 'Scary how much influence he once had.'"

First, please tell me that there is no position officially associated with the White House called Director of Progressive Media. Someone, please.

But, if there is, then doesn't Drudge get to repeat his lie like 247 times before the New York times weighs in to say he merely "misspoke"?

Isn't this pot. calling. kettle. black?

Let's see how this one unfolds.

"There's a bomb in my pants" 101

What is the proper response to a guy at the airport who loudly insists he has a bomb up his, er, rectum?

Call me old-fashioned, but I would take him at his word and call the bomb disposal guys.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

CBS Reporter goes "off the record" in quest for 15 minutes of fame?

English: Jay Carney, American journalist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CBS reporter reports an "off-the-record" conversation with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

She says it so straight I wonder, does she know the meaning of "off-the-record"?

Plus, can you imagine the outrage if Fox News had done this?

You can listen here.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Biting the hands that rescue you...

"Man planning to sue his rescuers possibly in the country illegally" [VIDEO] h/t Drudge.

Apparently illegal immigrants have lost all fear of being deported or being held accountable for their actions.

Meanwhile, the US and Canada are getting tough on snowbirds who dip their feet in Florida waters or enjoy the Arizona desert blossoms one day too long…

I guess they really need those tax dollars to secure the borders and keep them safe from… oh, never mind.

Meanwhile, thanks in part to aggressive promotion, the US food-stamps-for-Mexicans program is up, up, up.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Target Data Breach: Bloomberg's Breached Whaleofatale

Bloomberg has an excellent article on the Target data security breach. Well-researched at what must have been considerable cost, published free on the Internet -- capitalism at its finest.

And a whale of a tale it is.

It reads like a Tom Clancy novel.

(photo illustration from Bloomberg article)

It appears that Target ignored the warning signs. Here is Target's Big Cheese (Chairman, President, CEO)'s impeccably crafted but utterly inadequate response:

Target was certified as meeting the standard for the payment card industry (PCI) in September 2013. Nonetheless, we suffered a data breach. As a result, we are conducting an end-to-end review of our people, processes and technology to understand our opportunities to improve data security and are committed to learning from this experience. While we are still in the midst of an ongoing investigation, we have already taken significant steps, including beginning the overhaul of our information security structure and the acceleration of our transition to chip-enabled cards. However, as the investigation is not complete, we don’t believe it’s constructive to engage in speculation without the benefit of the final analysis.

What he should have said was, "we messed up. We are making it right".

You can read the article here.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

PS. My debit account was linked to the US Target Debit Red Card, so I was compromised. How were you affected by the Target Data Breach?

Monday, March 10, 2014

White Privilege -- It's Just The Beginning

I have a Canadian seminary friend who has dutifully adopted the "white privilege" lingo of the academic-left. Does he realize that "white privilege" is just the beginning?

Staff members at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington are enduring viewpoint-corrective training sessions in far-left political topics like “heterosexual privilege,” “gender privilege” and “language privilege.”

* * *

The meeting agendas are largely secret, and staff members have been swore to secrecy. One employee, however, gave an interview to Campus Reform explaining some of the details.

The indoctrination of the left continues apace.