Authoritarianism In The Age Of Obama; Obamacare Concerns Continue; Free Press Erosion Under Obama; Obama And The PQ Are Cut From The Same Left-Wing Crap

Liberal law professor Jonathan Turley concerned about Obama's authoritarian streak in lieu of Obamacare.

"Well, you know, a system in which a single individual is allowed to rewrite legislation or ignore legislation is a system that borders on authoritarianism. I don't believe that we are that system yet. But we cannot ignore that we're beginning to ignore a system that is a pretense of democracy if a president is allowed to take a law and just simply say, 'I'm going to ignore this,' or, 'I'm going to shift funds that weren't appropriated by Congress into this area.'"

How can it be a law of the land if the President keeps adjusting it on the fly as he sees fit? This is not an example of pragmatism or tweaking or anything. A law is a law not a suggestion that can be amended willy-nilly.

It was argued that the GOP could not repeal Obamacare because it was 'settled law.' One can argue that it's no longer in its original form.

To progressives, I'm sure, the spin will be, "good, since the GOP won't play ball I'm cool with him abusing power!"

Obama in his own words:

 

Bypassing Congress unconstitutional. He's pretty good at it.

But expect him to own up to those words. He didn't say it. Remember the 'red line' assertion? He didn't set it. The world did.

The 'I didn't do it' President has some work to do to regain any semblance of trust and credibility by November I reckon.

****

Check out the conditions to get a delay for the employer mandate.

Basically, what it says is "fuck you, if you cut jobs you must say it's not because of Obamacare."

This is an administration now in covering its ass mode.

***

Aetna CEO has concerns about Obamacare.

"He said that so far, Obamacare has just shifted people who were insured in the individual market to the public exchanges where they could get a better deal on a subsidy for coverage. "We see only 11 percent of the population is actually people that were firmly uninsured that are now insured. So [it] didn't really eat into the uninsured population." 

 But he's a greedy corporatist so who cares what this thug thinks, right! What does he know about the family of four raising their kids on minimum wage? What does he understand about the new freedom bequeathed the people as a result of Obamacare?

Because capitalism.

****

As if Obamacare hasn't exposed the utter incompetence and authoritarian streak in this administration, wait until he cracks down further on the press and opponents by using the IRS!

"What was shocking to those of us who favor a strong, independent -- and, yes, imperfect -- media as a constitutional check on government's power was the ranking of the United States, the world's largest economy and most enduring democracy.

The U.S. during the fifth year of Obama's reign plummeted 13 spots to 46th in the world, right between -- are you ready? -- Rumania and Haiti. The group based that embarrassing ranking largely on the Obama administration's unusually determined efforts to curb dissent and plug and track down leaks. (For the five countries deemed most free, scroll to the bottom.**)"

Under The Enlightened One, freedoms of various kinds have eroded.

Cue the 'but Bush wrote all those laws so Obama...derp!'

Absolved!

Obama's games can be spotted a mile away. His shenanigans remind me of the amateurish nonsense of the Parti-Quebecois and their 'puppy eyes' as they shove a knife into the backs of non-Francophones on a constant basis. 

They both rely on class warfare and divisive rhetoric to drive their pathetic agendas and then dare claim it's to unite all peoples.

The fuckers.

They lie.

****

 

I'm not totally down with some of the positions taken by conservatives but Lowry is a good writer:

The Whatever President.

Al Gore Can Go Screw A Polar Bear

I know. Not nice.

But I'd love to shove his face in the snow we've been inundated with this winter season.

And have him keep repeating "it's the end of snow!"

As I've said in the past, the arrogance man possesses in thinking it can "alter" the course of mother nature's plans.

Utterly stupid as well.

For Businesses, Key Person Insurance May Be Recommended

'Key person insurance' is key - excuse the pun - for businesses.

Physics And Baseball

Always loved math and how it relates to baseball pitching. I remember a science teacher in high school had a picture of a baseball with the title 'The Science of Baseball.'

Randy Johnson, recall, killed a bird with his murderous fast ball.

Here's the math behind it.

Belgium Embarks On Child Euthanasia

I understand the argument on a rational or logical basis but something deep down inside tells me 'slippery slope.'

It always ends up being a slippery slope.

Ethics and the law collide once more.

Making Beer And Wine

Which is harder?

Tammany Hall Never Died

Di Blasio is gonna make sure it stays alive.

Christian Health Plans As Alternatives To Obamacare

Best kept secret in America.

Wonder how long before the pseudo-commie-quacks close those down to pimp their plans.

Je Suis Henri

Existentialism always struck me as a bit hipster-doofus, but hey.

Obamacare Making Canadians Of Americans

Among the many reasons that have made the most powerful and successful economy in world history is the fact it had a dynamic and productive workforce.

However, with Obamacare, there's concern America's view of work is changing. It's becoming more European and Canadian.

Which is to say, it's becoming less work-oriented.

I don't know how that's possibly good in any way. I guess we'll have more poets pontificating the evil ills of capitalism or something.

"...Government transfer programs can be revamped and remodeled with work in mind. In 2006, when Bill Clinton revisited the welfare reform he’d passed a as president decade earlier, he declared it a success—because it encouraged more than a million people to take up work, and to move beyond government assistance.

"And yet there is a real tension between work and welfare, a balance between employment and aid. That balance has tipped toward the latter in recent years, as various parts of the safety net have expanded to catch those people harmed by the recession. In the process, as high unemployment has persisted and millions have dropped out of the market for work entirely, pushing the labor force participation down to its lowest point since the 1970s, the political conversation has naturally turned to the question of how to create jobs. So far, we’ve found frustratingly few good answers. Which suggests that policymakers concerned about joblessness might want to consider looking more closely at finding ways to encourage work—or at the very least, to minimize the ways in which discourage it."

****

Political aide: Sir, business are shedding hours!
Politician: Damn, that unintended consequences law! We need laws to eradicate unintended consequences.
Political aide (flips papers on clip board): Yes. Yes we do.
Politician (passes finger over desk and licks it): Need more legislation!
Political aide: If the intention is thought out how can it be unintended, right?
Politician: Right. Get me my beanie cap! The one with the red stripe...

Huge Hack Attack Harbinger Of Things To Come

BBC:

"A massive attack that exploited a key vulnerability in the infrastructure of the internet is the "start of ugly things to come", it has been warned.

Online security specialists Cloudflare said it recorded the "biggest" attack of its kind on Monday.
Hackers used weaknesses in the Network Time Protocol (NTP), a system used to synchronise computer clocks, to flood servers with huge amounts of data.

The technique could potentially be used to force popular services offline.

Several experts had predicted that the NTP would be used for malicious purposes."

Free Market Conservatives: It Is To Laugh

Flaherty's budget:

"The free-market Conservatives promise to make it illegal to charge Canadians more for products that are cheaper in the U.S. by giving the Competition Bureau the mandate and powers to go after clear price gouging. It’s not clear what would qualify as price gouging, but details are expected in the next few months."

"...The budget also pledges to give the CRTC and Industry Canada the power to fine companies that break the CRTC’s new Wireless Code of Conduct and other competition rules. The government has targeted big cellphone service providers recently, running an ad campaign questioning their prices and quality of service."

Does this sound like a party committed to the 'free-market?'

Aside from being one of the biggest spending governments in history, sounds to me they're like any statist party.

Competition Bureau my ass. Sounds like something right out of Communist Russia.

That's right. Give more powers to the damn, fricken CRTC.

Now I have three parties I can't trust or have policies I don't connect to.

Crazy Conspiracy Theories

Nine retarded conspiracy theories according to Popular Mechanics.

True Woman Power: These Girls Have It Together

Not like those wackos at Jezebel.

Heroes! Cop Hassani: Truly Sickening

This is incredibly infuriating.

Those dogs were nowhere near threatening.

What a sad, pathetic excuse of a cop this douche is for killing it.

Our Compassionate Governance

Each time I hear about how the government 'care' for people and enacts laws for our collective and mutual benefit, I can but laugh because I know the government operates in a non-compassionate, 'one-size fits all' manner. It has no time for each individual circumstance.

We see proof of this every single day and you may have experienced it as well. I know I have. In one variation or another exclaiming "That makes no sense in my situation!" is possibly the most uttered phrase on the continent.

Notice, for example, the madness that went on in Florida in the face of a dying boy.

As I understand it, states, like provinces, depend on Federal cash. Those transfers are dependent on all sorts of criteria (including performance). Hence, it makes them do crazy things.

On one end, states and provinces like to exert and exact "independence" (which we know all too well here in Quebec) but on the other hand are addicted to Federal funds.

Charbonneau Commission: They're All Criminal Rats

Only Baby Jesus how much I loathe unions. The FTQ are parasitical bums and thugs.

They rape the productive class. 

"He cited the construction of a Hydro-Quebec dam in the Saguenay in the mid-2000s as a prime example.
A German company, Bauer, was in charge of the power plant project in Péribonka. Many of the German employees at the site, Comeau contended, were intimidated to the point where some returned home. The harassment only ended when Bauer's representatives met with FTQ reps, including Jean Lavallée and Jocelyn Dupuis, and agreed to take on FTQ members to "observe" the German workers.
That led to a group of workers being paid salaries ranging from $82,000 to $92,000 a year to do absolutely nothing — including overtime for weekends and holidays.
Hydro-Quebec paid the money out essentially to buy peace. On its books, Hydro referred to the expense as "risk management".

We call this Quebec Inc.

Intolerant Intellectual Tyrants

When you don't agree. Boycott or censor. It's the only real weapon of the left.

The UK seems to be facing its share of attacks on free speech on their university campuses.

The latest atrocity against the forces of evil censorship? The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Which brought me to Professor Martin Kramer who has long been a favorite target of academia and its cult of group think.

"I am now subject to a boycott by the American Studies Association (ASA), an organization of professors that includes roughly 5,000 members. The resolution, passed by the organization’s rank-and-file on Dec. 15, supposedly doesn’t apply to individuals, but it applies to me. The ASA explains:

Read here.

Ominous, telling, meek, and pathetic on the part of the ASA.

Fucking cowards.

****

A Crisis of Competence: The Corrupting Effect of Political Activism in the University of California.

Gun Stigma

Interesting piece titled  'Dismantling stigma of guns.'

Chicago, Blacks, the NRA and the 2nd amendment. Nice recipe for a good article.

I wonder how NRA training measures up with law enforcement.

The Conscience Of A Public Intellectual With Stale, Run Of The Mill Ideas

Cafe Hayek:


"I imagine asking the question that is the title of this post to a notable American “Progressive” – someone such as, say, Paul Krugman – who is so concerned about what growing income inequality is doing to the psyches of non-rich Americans that he or she never tires of battering the psyches of non-rich Americans with reminders of just how much income rich Americans earn, with assertions of how unfair and harmful it is for rich Americans to have so much monetary wealth, and with pleas that non-rich Americans express with greater force what must surely be seething anger at the fact that a few other people are richer than they are.

What would such a “Progressive” say about the fact that someone who in 1991 wanted to acquire all of the features available in today’s iPhone would have had to spend at least $3.56 million? (And even then that very rich denizen of 23 years ago could not, for any sum of money, fit all of his or her devices into the small, lightweight, and convenient form of a 2014 iPhone.) In other words, to acquire iPhone capabilities (if not iPhone convenience) in 1991 would cost then 8,900 times more than it cost today to buy the iPhone 5s 64GB – today’s top-of-the-line iPhone.

Comemnt:

And to answer the Krugman claims, when he rolls out of bed, he's not interested in how to increase the well being of the most people in the best way; he's interested in finding novel arguments to support his presuppositions and core values, which are that 1) minarchists, libertarians, and conservatives are all evil and 2) that redistribution and social democracy are the best means of running the world. When you begin with the end in mind, it's not too hard to justify anything your team does.

If Krugman had a iota of self-awareness or generosity toward his political opponents, of course, he wouldn't be Krugman. At least you can sit down and debate Stiglitz; Krugman just pouts like a jilted teenager and calls everyone who opposes him idiots, which is probably why he's much better known than Stiglitz.

****

People like Krugman bore me to tears.

And Then He Calmed The Waters And The People

Putin pets a purring (I assume) leopard.

He will make sure Russia wins all the medals at the Olympics even if he has to take over and perform in each discipline.

Rooossshaaa!

***

Canada off to a great start with seven medals.

Amazing what a little funding and self-belief can do, eh?

It's back to back Olympics we see Canada's attitude focused on winning rendering results.

Good.

Now to work on the summer games.

Monday Night Music

Natalie Cole



Jo Stafford

Swiss Vote To Restrict Immigration

By referendum.

When The Bealtes Came

50 years ago.

Just a reminder why they are the greatest rock ensemble in history - bar none.

Worst Kept Secret Evah: Employer Mandated Extended

I guess, sigh, this isn't surprising in lieu of everything surrounding Obamacare. It was a matter of time the employer mandate was going to be delayed. 

More key components of the law - if you can call it that at this point - gutted by Obama by decree and without Congressional approval.

Yeah. All the fault of the Republicans.

What a sorry bunch who rammed this law through.

****

Obama's 'who to blame' check list is pretty much done. How much more of them can he use before people completely tune out?

1) Bush.
2) I wasn't aware.
3) Republican obstructionism.
3) Racism.
4) Fox News.

Enemies Within

But this is not racism.

Right.

It's really sad and insane this sort of "activism" can impact communities, negatively in my view, like this.

If I may spin, maybe Trader Joe's is just too good for the goofs in the Portland African American Leadership Forum? Ever think of that?


I just don't see any good in this. 

Monday Afternoon Music

Dream Brother plays Pretty Eyes.

'A Call To Conscience'; Bilingual Realities

Archbishop Christian Lepine speaks out against Bill 52:

"Very soon in Québec, our members of the Assembly will vote on Bill 52 « An Act respecting end-of-life care ». Should this be adopted, the result will be the legalization of euthanasia, termed under the title « medical aid in dying ».
 
In hastening a person's death, however, we are not helping them in dying, we are directly ending their life. It is to give our doctors the authority to kill patients who are vulnerable in certain circumstances.
We love and care for those who are vulnerable, and one day, we, ourselves, will all become vulnerable. It is important to us that we can know and trust our family and society will not choose to hasten our death, but will rather be present and support us until the very end.
 
We are called to choose unconditionally to respect life until natural death. As human beings, we are created to respect and serve life in all situations of fragility. One cannot be the cause of death of another innocent person - even if that decision is regulated - without hurting our own conscience and human dignity.
 
Causing the death of an innocent human being is causing the death of our own self…"

I agree with the Archbishop.

Better to listen to our conscience than to politicians.

Quebec should not go down this road.

Cash-strapped governments combined with an uber-secular state euthanizing armed with an ethicist ethos is a bad recipe for humanity.

What could possibly go wrong, right?

Trust me, they 'say' it will be under strict guidance but that loosens up over time. When Betty Bureaucrat calls saying they need to cut costs guess what? We kill off the most vulnerable.

Remember when they said they would never enter the 'private sphere' when it came to smoking? Yeah, me too. So much for that.

The Church, I think, has a role to play since this touches families and communities. It has a profound and far more intricate and nuanced ability to understand the human condition than the government.

We should listen.

****

It's a popular assertion to say "Quebec is the most-bilingual" province. Or that more people here "speak two languages."

This could very well be accurate but there's a very good possible reason for this.

English is a necessity in today's world so it's only normal Quebec - lest it wants to cut itself off from the world - we will learn English more than the rest of Canada learns French which is less of a requirement on a global stage; nay even in a North American context.

In this way, Quebec will always have a natural advantage and incentive to learn English since the majority of its population speaks French.

Not complicated.

Which makes the PQ and nationalist policies all the more antiquated. It attempts to protect their language at the expense of the most dominant language on the planet.

It's fight they can't and won't win. In the meantime, their wasting a lot of energy - manifested in dollars, good will and plain investment in the economy - engaging in populism.

While French-Canadian nationalists may claim this to be prove of their 'openness' it's more to do with practical realities of people in the province not stupid enough to follow the PQ's lead. Moreover, non-Francophones in the province have an edge. Since most are of an ethnic extract, they not only speak English and French they usually can add a third.

It's best the government get out of the language business and permit its citizens to freely express themselves as they see fit. Let the chips fall where they may.

I bet Quebec will be the richer for it. Not poorer.

Obamacare Goes After Property

And the poor will be worse off.

It's pretty clear, in addition, the middle-class will be subsidizing others and the economy will be altered.

I'm starting to think they knew all along what they wanted and lied through their fucking asses to get it.

From SE.

The Totalitarian Busy Bodies Have Won

They're more powerful and dangerous than terrorists.

"...Smoking in a car with minors is already banned in Australia, Canada, South Africa and in some American states, including California, Maine and Oregon. These bans capture superbly the zealous miserabilism of the modern-day nannying'n'nudging set. They expose the new authoritarians' casual disregard for the notion of privacy, so that even our privately owned vehicles come to be seen as fair game for petty laws to curb and control what was once perfectly legal behavior; they reveal the nannying lobby's powerful distrust of everyday men and women, who are now viewed as so bone-headed and bereft of decency that new laws are required to prevent them from polluting their own children, both physically and morally; and they show what shockingly low esteem the ideal of autonomy is held in these days, so that anyone who stands up and says "I think adults should be free to choose what vices to indulge in and pleasures to pursue" is either laughed at for being naive or branded a wicked stooge for Big Tobacco.

"...The profoundly anti-social nature of the second-hand smoke nonsense is summed up in advice offered by the U.S. Lung Association. It says you can protect yourself and your kids from second-hand smoke by keeping them away from "places where people usually smoke": "This could include restaurants, relatives’ homes, cars, etc. The chemicals in tobacco smoke get into curtains, carpets, toys, furniture, walls, car seats, clothing, skin, and hair…"
In short, everywhere and everyone is dangerous; invisible toxic elements lurk in granny’s carpets and restaurant curtains; in your cousin’s hair and your kids' playmates’ toys; on park swings, on public benches, on buses. Better to stay at home, in a totally smoke-free environment, than venture into the filthy world outside your front door.

What a dispiriting and divisive view of the world. Through the increasingly unhinged crusade against smoking, we have been cajoled with suspect science into viewing all people—even mom and dad—as the potential poisoners of our bodies and souls. The reason dodgy scientific claims about other people's smoke keep emerging is because they are moulding themselves around, and offering justification for, an already existing social malaise—one in which we are invited to fear people, to fear the world, to disavow autonomy, and to trust the state. The specter of the threatening, toxic Other, of he who smokes, is one of the main ways in which the authorities now encroach upon our everyday lives and cynically split man from man.

The would never go after you in private spaces! I remember some guy saying this in a debate years ago about the concerns on civil liberties concerning smoking."

Guess what?

They are emboldened and empowered. They're entering private spheres. Armed with good intentions based on questionable facts and science, it's all they need to do so.

Onto to third-hand smoke!

Does anyone stop and think - and I mean think  - about this for a second? We're accept intrusion into our private space because of an irrational fear or irritant like smoke?

It's nuts. You're all fucking nuts!

David Friedman discussed it here.

Broken Window Fallacy

Ah, but the 'unseen' and 'unintended consequences' is too abstract.

Better to emote.

And cover those emotions with nonsensical jargon like "we're investing in public works."

I'm not suggesting public works isn't beneficial. It is. Up to a point. But when it becomes a means to end especially in terms of "growing an economy" or to improve employment, then it's a little more problematic.

Another way to look at the BWF is to recognize that whatever dollar the baker (in the example) had and his intentions (to buy a suit or save it or whatever else you care to add), is now LOST. It can't come back. Instead, he was to use a dollar to fix a window he already had to make him whole again. It's like when protests bring an economy to a halt through violence and breaking windows. How is that remotely beneficial to the local shops? It's not. It's destructive not only in terms of repairing (and never mind the negative impact this has on insurance premiums) but in sales as well. Lost sales for a given period are just that, LOST. As in never to come back. Which is why it's very possible the length or depth of a protest can literally put someone out of business.

To think 'war' or 'crime' is 'actually good' for the economy is foolish drivel. 

This whole idea of spending more (which only means more taxes and inflation) to pull a country out of a recession is bizarre (to say nothing of illogical).

Who takes from their their line of credit to pay their VISA and considers it an 'investment' because the money is being used to pay their student loan?

It's still debt since you have to repay it. If you find a great job, great. Now you have to pay it down to control interest costs. But what happens if things don't pan out? Do you keep borrowing? You may find yourself in a position where you're only able to cover the interest on your loans while never chipping away at the principal. THIS is where people begin to feel trapped.

It's a vicious cycle.

Flips puck at SE.

 

The Simpsons And Math

Mathematics has always been embedded in The Simpsons.

Lost Great Sports Writers

Came across Nitrateville looking for some information on John Lardner (b. 1912) who was a sports writer from the early 20th century.

I like to scope out great sports writers.

Heaven knows there's a dearth of great writing.

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if the best sports pieces come from people outside the realm of sports.

Before I go digressing I'll stop here.

Unfortunately I was unable to locate actual articles from Lardner.

The only one I have is in the copy of 'The Best American Sports Writing of the Century,' David Halberstam, ed. titled "The Haig: Rowdy Rebel of the Faiways" published one year before of his death of a heart attack in 1960.

Highway Of Tears: Canada's Creepy Side

While American crime tends to hog all the spotlight because of unparalleled sensationalism that keeps the world focused and fixated on them, Canada has its own culture of crime.

As a result of all this scrutiny, there tends to be, in my opinion, a 'thank God we're not American' attitude among Canadians (and perhaps Europeans as well).

When we step away and soberly examine the facts, Canadian violent crime is not a whole better than American crime and in some instances, even surpasses it (same with Europe). It's true U.S. murder rates (though gradually declining for decades) remain higher (some argue drug related gang wars spike those figures up), all other violent crimes are higher in Canada and Europe.

This is not to make an assertion of any kind either way but intended to simply highlight a reality.

Canada's 'Highway of Tears' is a notorious stretch of highway in beautiful, mysterious, majestic British Columbia. And not unlike the serene and magnificent New England natural landscape, it carries a creepy edge.

As many as 43 women have disappeared (although I wonder how many men) or been murdered in this 814 mile stretch. So vast a stretch, authorities are over matched in attempting to solve the case and have wondered if multiple serial killers roam or lurk about the area.

Whatever the case, none of the cases have been solved leaving this one of North America's most dangerous place.

'I Find It Hard To Keep A Straight Face Watching David Suzuki'

It's not 'settled science.'

Like the gentleman in the video it finds it hard to keep a straight face listening to Suzuki, I find it remarkable anyone would make such a statement. The predictive 'models' have proven to be enough of a joke to raise skepticism.

At the moment, group think is settling in on the 'man made global warming' crowd.

Anyway, I believe this video is from The Bolt Report in Australia. I have no clue where its political leanings lie.

Levant Versus Suzuki

So that's how we get those squirrelly light bulbs!

At least someone out there is questioning the anti-oil movement in Canada.

For me, the most telling point in the 54 minutes was defense lawyer Linda Rothstein's basic appeal to just 'trust' her and the process regarding possible conflicts of interest in cases where environmental lawsuits are launched against the government.

I don't know to what degree Levant's shtick is showmanship but he's asking questions and hard ones the mainstream media simply won't touch. For that, he deserves praise for offering us the other side of the argument. Why should we take David Suzuki's opinion at face value? Why shouldn't he be subjected to scrutiny? Because he and the CBC are beyond reproach? Because he dresses the part?

Get real.

I want to know what's going on and it looks like the people pointing the fingers and yelling the most don't have clean hands either.

It's the same thing we see in the United States regarding Al Gore. Right now, I see a nice little cottage industry these (hypocritical) folks have carved for themselves.

Watch for yourself.

Manamana's Porn Roots

And its connection to an Italian porn flick. Sweden: Heaven and Hell.

"Sweden: Heaven and Hell (Italian: Svezia, inferno e paradiso) is an Italian mondo film from 1968 directed by Luigi Scattini.

The film which is made up of nine segments focuses on different aspects of sexuality in Sweden such as lesbian nightclubs, porn films, swinging lifestyle of married couples and sex education of teenagers. The film also examines drug addiction, alcoholism and suicides in Sweden.
The film also featured the debut of the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" by Piero Umiliani, later made famous by The Muppets."

Di Blasio's Progressive Promise

A socialist who engages in nepotism.

"De Blasio insisted his wife would be guided by their “progressive values.”

“I know the official name of the organization is the Mayor’s Fund, but it really is the people’s fund,” McCray said.

The mayor’s office had gotten clearance from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board for the appointment and office at 253 Broadway.

Rachel Noerdlinger, longtime aide to the Rev. Al Sharpton, was hired last week as McCray’s $170,000-a-year chief of staff."

What can possibly go wrong?

Jesus. How long will it take this bunch to run NYC aground?

My American liberal friend tells me Quebec corruption is worse than Massachusetts and New York.

I'm not so sure. At worse, they're equal but I gotta tell ya, the crap I read out of those states makes Quebec look a tad saner.

A tad - when the PQ are not in power that is. 

The Police State

Texas takes a bite out of McGruff's ass.

How many years do cops get for killing innocent people again?

"Morales insisted that he was nonviolent, but U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore stated that, “Everything I read about you makes you seem like a scary person.”

She "feels" it.

Facts, shmacts! Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!

That's a judge.

President's Secret Kill List Revelations

It's one thing for some copper-top, tin-pot, parking lot country led by a egotistical dictator masking as a 'democratic' country to completely disregard the law, but quite another when the most powerful nation in human history predicated on the idea of rule of law firmly rooted in the philosophy of classical liberalism as described in the Age of Enlightenment does so.

It's bone-chilling disturbing what the U.S. government under Obama is up to. Via SE.

From Greenwald in The Guardian:

"The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice. In September 2011, it killed US citizen Anwar Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, along with US citizen Samir Khan, and then, in circumstances that are still unexplained, two weeks later killed Awlaki's 16-year-old American son Abdulrahman with a separate drone strike in Yemen.

Since then, senior Obama officials including Attorney General Eric Holder and John Brennan, Obama's top terrorism adviser and his current nominee to lead the CIA, have explicitly argued that the president is and should be vested with this power. Meanwhile, a Washington Post article from October reported that the administration is formally institutionalizing this president's power to decide who dies under the Orwellian title "disposition matrix".

When the New York Times back in April, 2010 first confirmed the existence of Obama's hit list, it made clear just what an extremist power this is, noting: "It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing." The NYT quoted a Bush intelligence official as saying "he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president". When the existence of Obama's hit list was first reported several months earlier by the Washington Post's Dana Priest, she wrote that the "list includes three Americans".

What has made these actions all the more radical is the absolute secrecy with which Obama has draped all of this. Not only is the entire process carried out solely within the Executive branch - with no checks or oversight of any kind - but there is zero transparency and zero accountability. The president's underlings compile their proposed lists of who should be executed, and the president - at a charming weekly event dubbed by White House aides as "Terror Tuesday" - then chooses from "baseball cards" and decrees in total secrecy who should die. The power of accuser, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner are all consolidated in this one man, and those powers are exercised in the dark."

Cimbrians Of Northern Italy

It is estimated only 2200 people speak the ancient Cimbrian (German) language in Northern Italy.

Who were the Cimbrians?

"A German ethnic minority speaking the Cimbrian language have settled in the mountains between Vicenza, Verona and Trento in Italy (also known as Seven Communities) is also called the (Cimbri). For hundreds of years this isolated population consisting now of 4.400 inhabitants, has claimed to be the direct descendant of the Cimbri retreating in this area after the Roman aftermath. However it was more probably settlers from Bavaria in the Middle Ages. Most linguists remains committed to the hypothesis of medieval (11th to 12th century) immigration, to explain the presence of small German-speaking communities in the north of Italy^. Some genetic studies seem to prove a Celtic descendents of most inhabitants in the region, but not Germanic."

Liberalism, Fascism, Socialism, Communism: Cut From The Same Cloth

From Library of Economics and Liberty: 





"As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power: a tied bundle of rods with a protruding ax. In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—“blood and soil”—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism."

"Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions.

Fascism is to be distinguished from interventionism, or the mixed economy. Interventionism seeks to guide the market process, not eliminate it, as fascism did. Minimum-wage and antitrust laws, though they regulate the free market, are a far cry from multiyear plans from the Ministry of Economics.

Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans.” The consequent burdening of manufacturers gave advantages to foreign firms wishing to export. But since government policy aimed at autarky, or national self-sufficiency, protectionism was necessary: imports were barred or strictly controlled, leaving foreign conquest as the only avenue for access to resources unavailable domestically. Fascism was thus incompatible with peace and the international division of labor—hallmarks of liberalism.

Fascism embodied corporatism, in which political representation was based on trade and industry rather than on geography. In this, fascism revealed its roots in syndicalism, a form of socialism originating on the left. The government cartelized firms of the same industry, with representatives of labor and management serving on myriad local, regional, and national boards—subject always to the final authority of the dictator’s economic plan. Corporatism was intended to avert unsettling divisions within the nation, such as lockouts and union strikes. The price of such forced “harmony” was the loss of the ability to bargain and move about freely."


"...In the United States, beginning in 1933, the constellation of government interventions known as the New Deal had features suggestive of the corporate state. The National Industrial Recovery Act created code authorities and codes of practice that governed all aspects of manufacturing and commerce. The National Labor Relations Act made the federal government the final arbiter in labor issues. The Agricultural Adjustment Act introduced central planning to farming. The object was to reduce competition and output in order to keep prices and incomes of particular groups from falling during the Great Depression.

It is a matter of controversy whether President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was directly influenced by fascist economic policies. Mussolini praised the New Deal as “boldly . . . interventionist in the field of economics,” and Roosevelt complimented Mussolini for his “honest purpose of restoring Italy” and acknowledged that he kept “in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman.” Also, Hugh Johnson, head of the National Recovery Administration, was known to carry a copy of Raffaello Viglione’s pro-Mussolini book, The Corporate State, with him, presented a copy to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, and, on retirement, paid tribute to the Italian dictator."

 

Obamacare Deceptions

White House Dossier:

"I’ve lost count of the deceptions. I mean, seriously, my head is spinning.
WE WERE TOLD . . . though we never believed it, but yet . . . WE WERE TOLD that Obamacare was a market-based reform, using the private sector to improve coverage and the delivery of health care services and blah blah blah blah blah.

No, this isn’t a government takeover! The insurers will still be in business. Did someone say single payer? Banish the thought.

Well, in reality, President Obama has never really banished the thought. Because how can you have a market-based system when you don’t permit the market to operate?

Let me just start with a basic fact about Obamacare. It doesn’t work. It can’t work.
Obama and his advisors are discovering, as the Soviets did, that only God can create new worlds, inhabited by humans, that actually work.
They are telling businesses – that is, insurers and health care providers – to deliver a limitless, high quality product and make it not cost much. They are finding out, in this particular case, that people are in business to make money, not further Obama’s policy agenda.

ONLY SOCIALISTS THINK YOU CAN HAVE A MARKET WHERE NOBODY MAKES MONEY AND CONSUMERS GET A GREAT PRODUCT."

Winners In Philadelphia

Under Obama, all the freaks and lazy are empowered.

****

Is Obamacare attacking work ethic?

Well, there's certainly an effort to redefine it.

"Yesterday morning, Obamacare’s beleaguered partisans got in on the act, too. Responding to a CBO report that suggested the law would encourage more than 2 million people either to seek less work or to leave the labor market completely, progressives picked up their tricornered hats and their muskets, and started to shout incoherently about “freedom.” In a lovely illustration of the truism that progressives really haven’t the slightest clue what it is that conservatives believe, the Huffington Post’s Senior Congressional Reporter, Michael McAuliff, spoke for the cabal, suggesting ludicrously that,

There’s an irony in the GOP complaining that ACA lets people quit jobs. I mean, what’s wrong with freedom?

To answer a remarkably misguided rhetorical question, there is nothing at all “wrong with freedom.” As Patrick Henry rightly argued, above all other things “liberty ought to be the direct end” of government, for, after that, everything else is mere indulgence. But there is an awful lot “wrong” with using the word “freedom” where it does not apply. After all, it is one thing for a person to choose not to work and to accept the natural consequences of that decision, but quite another indeed for a person to choose not to work because others are being forced to subsidize his well-being. One can reasonably attest that redistributing wealth to underwrite preferred social outcomes is “necessary” or “virtuous” or “kind” or “practical” — or even, more cynically, that it is the inexorable end product of a democratic system in which one man can vote himself the contents of another’s wallet. But one cannot claim that it makes either man “free” — at least not without twisting the word and the concept that it represents beyond all meaningful recognition."

Small Steps For Mother Nature

Not in my backyard!

No, drive through for you in Nelson, B.C.

"'People are thinking that it just doesn't make sense to long-term sustainability where you have a place where you drive up with your car, pick stuff up and keep going instead of stopping to get a meal.

"As well I think people are concerned about C02 emissions," said Kozak."

Derp.

/burp.

Oh, Just Drill Already

I find it hilarious that an aging rock star with a private jet who has spent the majority of his life in the USA comes to chastise Canada's energy policy - a nation that depends on natural resources. To say nothing of teaming up with another beaut of a swell gent who owns, four homes and has five kids while demanding the rest of us tone things down for the environment lest we all die.

Jesus the hypocrisy is frightening.

To me, developing our natural resources (with consideration for the environment of course)  is a no-brainer. It's win-win-win all around. Not developing it leaves us dependent on OPEC and other unsavory tin-pot dictatorships like Venezuela. Why in the world would you pay for something you already have in abundance?

Same with the USA. North America needs to grow a pair and support itself.

Quebec in particular has a lot to lose by not developing.

Just my take.

 

More Astonishing Horse Spit From The U.S. President

"Nations that uphold the rights of their people—including the freedom of religion—are ultimately more just & more peaceful" —President Obama

Yes, because demanding Catholic institutions to give away free contraception fits nicely into this lie.

Inequality gap? The President has to address his own credibility gap.

Little Sisters of The Poor.

 ***

Sorta like how he 'negotiates in good faith.'

I will not negotiate and will use my veto and executive power to ram through my own agenda!

Politics A Caring Game Of Cynicism

That Obama is completely off his rocker (located in an Ivory tower increasingly looking more like a prison of stale rhetoric and ideas) when it comes to economics and business is pretty much clear to any sane, objective thinker.

At this point, it should also be evident his administrations take on what constitutes fair and just is rather hideously bizarre to say the least.

He and most politicians don't care about you or your children. They care about how they come off as caring to get your vote.

Best to remember this.

Heroes!

NYPD's finest.

Would make for a neat Law & Order episode.

Montreal Taxes Increase

Read my (flapping, flaming, fat) lips, no more taxes! No increases! No nothing!

When a politician promises this during an election year, you pretty much can assume it's not gonna happen. 

That's what all the Mayoral candidates were promising. Out of all of them, I trusted Coderre the least.

Lo and behold, taxes will increase as tabled in the budget.

Hey, someone's gotta pay for all the corruption, amirite? 

Treat OAS As Gravy

Where possible and feasible, we would always caution our clients to not rely on the government regarding their financial security. 

At any given time, the government can change the game. This is why it's best to understand OAS is supplementary income.

Not only that, if you succeed in life, the government penalizes you in the form of a clawback. Something about your duty to be thy brother's keeper in the face of irresponsibility and incompetence - something, something.

"The Old Age Security pension (or OAS or OAS-GIS) is a taxable monthly social security payment available to most Canadians 65 years of age or older. As of July, 2013, the basic amount is C$549.89 per month. At tax time, recipients with 2010 incomes over C$67,668 must pay back a portion of their Old Age Security at a rate of 15% of net income. This is often referred to as a clawback. The OAS pension is fully clawed back for people with incomes over C$110,878."

So. Like my parents, who paid into the system and are in the 70s, now have to pay back the money.

It's unfair but hey, it's what the people want apparently.

The best way, I argue, to invest your money is to invest it yourself. Control your finance, control your destiny. That way, you won't be subjected to clawbacks (remember, you have to find the money in your retirement to pay the government back), along with no worries about government inefficiencies or being subjected to changes in the law.

I think, with proper guidance, at the very minimum people can easily match the the inflation-matching returns of any forced government pension plan. You can throw your coin in a money market and do better.

For the life of me, I can't understand anyone who entrusts giving their money to an entity that has no real checks and balances and you have no way of knowing what your returns are. No control, more uncertainty.

Ah. Control. That's right. We cede freedoms in return for "security" offered by the government.

Wake me when people wake up and smell the espresso.

The Gambling, Incoherent President

It's frightening that the government and its deadweight supporters would claim "loss of jobs" or "reduced work hours" is a good thing for society in that it liberates people especially since they now have insurance.

It's galling to think this is where America stands in 2014.

Nothing this administration has done or tried has panned out. Notice the effectiveness - or lack thereof - of the stimulus on unemployment.

Obama is an economic train wreck.

A disaster really. Ironically, his policies will have a far, far greater negative impact on the U.S in the future than Bush - a predecessor's governance whom the the current President claimed to be 'fixing.'

All he did was double down.

And lost.

Jag Eats Croc; Holds The Mayo

Jaguar hunts down and kills crocodile. Coming out of the no water no less.

The Pen Without Ink

"He revealed the corruptibility of power when three libertarian Republicans in Congress came to his assistance and he rebuffed them. Shortly after the president told insurance carriers to disregard the onset date of Obamacare, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Mike Lee (R-Utah), offered legislation in Congress to delay the onset of Obamacare lawfully for one year and thus lawfully permit the return of the 6.2 million canceled policies for one year -- and Obama threatened to veto that legislation should Congress pass it."

More here.

"Libertarians? Are you mad?"

Thought Of The Day

Marxist or communist thought is the equivalent of creationism but poses a far greater danger since they're a discredited belief system that can actually directly negatively impact people's economic well-being.

Maple Syrup Wars

Quebec dwarfs all maple syrup producing regions.

Question is, do we make the best maple syrup?

I know Vermont and New Hampshire claim the title.

There's a couple of VT bottles we buy we like a lot. Will look harder for NH syrup.

New York Times Reporters Not Impressed With Editorials

This is reassuring because I always wondered what the smart journalists thought of the yahoo-derp-gibberish spewed by the New York Times editorial. It can't be this was appreciated by writers who weren't drinking the Obama-statist-progressive kool-aid.

The editorials are so sophomoric it attracts sophomoric comments.

I honestly can't tell the difference between Slate, The Daily Beast, Huffington and NYT. It's fine for the other three to be that way, but I reckon the NYT would have more dignity and sophistication than to roll over for big government, stale ideas and outright silliness like it has.


"(Andrew) Rosenthal was described as a petty tyrant, and lazy in his supervision of an opinion staff that is widely seen outside the newsroom as the voice of the Left-wing establishment.
But many saved their most pointed criticism for foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman, noting that his writing in recent years has been widely parodied and ridiculed.

 

"As for the columnists, Friedman is the worst. He hasn’t had an original thought in 20 years; he’s an embarrassment. He’s perceived as an idiot who has been wrong about every major issue for 20 years, from favoring the invasion of Iraq to the notion that green energy is the most important topic in the world even as the financial markets were imploding," said a former Times writer described as having "gone on to great success elsewhere."

"Then there’s Maureen Dowd, who has been writing the same column since George H. W. Bush was president.”
 
Right about now, many conservatives are probably nodding their heads."

Not just conservatives. Just anyone with an objective brain. 

I would have added Krugman to the mix. His shocking adherence to stimulus and anything attached to spending is baffling. It's the same argument over and over and over and over and over.

 

Voices Of The People Not Living In Derp

"I was a partner in a financial firm during the last financial crisis. We saw it coming, warned our clients, and even made some money off of it. We required no bailout and would not have had the pull in Washington to get one if we had. We did all the right things, and what happened? Our bailed out competitors, having been annointed with the "Too Big To Fail" label, had a much easier time keeping customers and recruiting brokers, and we had a much harder time because we had no implicit backing from the government. That's the kind of cost you never hear about with bailouts, and its always borne by people who aren't at fault and did the smart, responsible things."

Keeping in line with this, the U.S. government then turned around, as if they didn't mangle their conception of fairness enough, and asked responsible home owners to bail out the reckless ones.

Oof.

A Grotesque View On Defense

That does it.

Progressives (from the New Republic) are psychopaths. What the hell is wrong with them?

Lemme see. This turd wants to give the government the ability to limit a person's ability to defend themselves against charges brought by the government. 

Hold on to your children whenever you hear one of these zombies speak.

***

Then again, they've (including the White House who have, naturally, taken to blaming the GOP for Obama's health care mess- a law he pushed through by himself and with ZERO GOP support - to say nothing of he illegally delaying the employer mandate as well as countless exemptions) completely gone unhinged spinning the CBO's assertion that 2.5 million people will work less hours claiming this is actually a good thing since people will now have insurance.

At some point, you just have to stop, turn around and walk away from idiocy. May as well argue with a sock puppet.

They cease to live in reality and go all esoteric.

No matter how you cut it, fewer hours in an economy is NOT GOOD.

On any level.

Climate Hubs

What could go wrong? Total win-win. Win for cronies, win for the environment!

Hacking Government Passwords Easy Game

I would never - freely that is, because if it wants the government can force me under direct threat of a fine or jail time - consent to put a password on any government website. I don't believe the government is there to protect my interest (no matter what statists and officials say) and I sure as hell don't believe they can protect my privacy. And you shouldn't either.

I trust most reputable companies (nooooo! But Naomi Klein!) or my bank more than I do the government.

Sheesh.

Don't you people watch movies?

Second Hand Smoke? Try Third Hand

Here we go.

From Science Daily.

On Abortion

Just a random comment from Reason.com I spotted weeks ago:

"Setting that aside, the critical question should b : who decides who gets to be born? Parents or politicians?
 
Fatuous bullshit. The question is -- the question has always been -- when is an individual human being a person? The conclusions of the pro-life and pro-choice movement -- and many other debates of that nature -- have validity contingent on the answer to this question.

Historically, classical liberals and their predecessors have tended to favor a "broad view" of humanity with non-arbitrary rights -- that is to say, the view favored tended to be that anything identifiable as human and alive had rights which had to be respected. Others have favored "narrow" views of humanity, choosing to create either taxonomies and gradations of personhood contingent on race, ethnicity, gender, social status, religion, intelligence, physical deformities, etc -- or choosing to label some in those groups as not being persons at all. The pro-choice side is arguing for a narrower view of personhood than their opponents -- whatever the merits of that argument, this is not an unfair or uncharitable interpretation of their position.

This narrow construction of humanity is going to piss some people off, for all of the right reasons. If pro-choicers want to keep pretending that pro-lifers are all a bunch of misogynists, religious nuts, or statists then they have missed the point entirely and should re-assess the integrity of their POV."

Hm. How I saw (bold part) things. Thus confirming I really am a classical liberal at heart. I guess pro-choicers hate me.

CBO: Obamacare Will Impact Economy

The CBO's new budget is out and it ain't so kind for Obama.

Reason summarizes it.

I don't think liberal sites will be citing CBO this time around.

Freedom 55? Not For Canadians

More and more will have to defer their retirement towards 65.

New York Wine Dealers Get The Shaft

When big business and government collude only bad things can happen. And NYC is good at this sort of stuff.

Derping In San Francisco

"There are exceptions -- such as Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff -- but for the most part, the tech community lacks "social responsibility," Wadhwa says.

"Its moguls should be providing scholarships for the disadvantaged," he says. "Tech companies should be sponsoring cheap housing and shelters. They should be feeding the poor. They should be going out of their way to train minorities. VC firms should be recruiting interns and associates from black and Latino colleges."

Wow.

I didn't realize that was the mandate of a corporation.

Jesus me. 

Just unbelievable.

Oh, it comes out of uber-liberal San Francisco.

Makes sense now. In its own weird way.

Walters Defends Woody

Nice.

This from the show (The View) where Whoopi defended Roman Polanski with her infamously insipid "it's not rape-rape" quip.

Clowns.

Death Brings Out The Insufferable

As usually is the case when someone famous (we don't personally know) dies, pretentious gibberish praising the person reigns supreme.

No Winners In Northest Portland

But there are a whole bunch of losers though by blocking Trader Joe's.

Happened here in Quebec when Wal-Mart wanted to open in a high unemployment area (20%) and the town responded by wanting to be unionized. They couldn't agree and Wal-Mart skipped.

The town still suffers from high unemployment.

It takes some special amount of derpinitis to refuse jobs.

Boston I believe is just as irrational by preventing Wal-Mart from entering their towns. All they do is hurt a large segment of the economy (low-income that is) that would shop there.

Soon, these same activists will wonder why no one locates in their neighborhood and will, well, blame it on racism.

Circle of life in derpsville.

Obamacare May Contain Malware: Face Palm

"U.S. intelligence agencies last week urged the Obama administration to check its new healthcare network for malicious software after learning that developers linked to the Belarus government helped produce the website, raising fresh concerns that private data posted by millions of Americans will be compromised."

Can't. Make. This. Shit. Up.

The incompetence. It's staggering. Blinding.

Canada's Reputation #1

The Neknominate fad doesn't seem to jive with Canada being ranked first on the 'Most Reputable' list compiled by the 'Reputation Institute.

It also doesn't mesh with the progressive contention asserting that Harper is 'destroying' Canada's reputation abroad.

Of course, when Chretien and the Liberals weren't exactly endearing Canada to the international community - remember all the dithering and anti-Americanism to say nothing of doing little to support our diplomatic corps and military?

Canadian Pride

Wait a second. I thought it was only Americans were idiots!

Not us smarter and more civilized Canadians.

At least that's what people on the internet and on TV (insufferably) tell me. I always loved the 'Americans are racist' meme up here. Always with a straight face without a care about Canada's own unimpressive track record on race.

I digress.

Alas, this Neknominate thing puts us on the 'Stupid things, stupid people' do list.

By way of SE.

Fireman: "No, We Can't Come."

Despite pleas, D.C. firemen let a man die in the street despite please from daughter and police citing they needed to be 'dispatched' first.

The first thing that came to mind when I read this (an investigation is pending) is do these five men have any fucking honor? A sense of humanity on any level? How callous? Did they really let procedure and policy determined their course of action in the face of life and death?

I can't think of a word but it's a cross between stupidity, evil and shock. Schockevity.

Jobsworth at its worse.

"A jobsworth is a person who uses their job description in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner."

Union workers are notorious for invoking 'it's not in my job description.' Wouldn't surprise me one bit if these are the sorta guys that would go on strike for better pensions the next day.

Alarmists Versus Denialists: Skeptics Will Prevail In The End

 'Cuz the truth always has a hilarious way of coming out. From Don Surber:

"Adding insult to injury is global warming may be one of those cargo cult sciences that is not based on the scientific method, which physicist Richard Feynman warned us about in 1974.
Harold Lewis, the late professor emeritus of physics at Princeton, said in 2009, "Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life."
But activists say 97 percent of scientists believe global warming is a threat, as if science were based on a show of hands.
The number comes from a study of 11,944 peer-reviewed articles from 1991 to 2011 by a team led by Professor John Cook of the University of Queensland.
Cook and company found 7,930 (or 66 percent) of the papers had no conclusion one way or another about man-made global warming."

Sir James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming science, has finally admitted his predictions were wrong.

"The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books - mine included - because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened," Lovelock said.

I guess, once this was out there, it was sufficient for people to latch on to the deception.

Investment Logic

The problem, I think, with how income inequality is viewed is that they look at it wrong.

If two people invest in the same investment that renders, say, a 10% return they're both better off regardless of what amount originally invested.

But, human nature being what it is (wretched creatures we are), we focus on the other guy.

The guy who invested $10 000 made $100. A guy who invested $1 million made $100 000.

Presto! Income inequality!

Wrong way to look at things.

The right way is both investors are better off. Conversely, in a down market the 'rich' guy loses more total dollars but the percentage is the same.

Percentage is the great equalizer.

Lorne Michaels: "Republicans are easier for us than Democrats," says Michaels. "Democrats tend to take it personally; Republicans think it’s funny."

So it's okay to make fun of them more!

Off the hook!

Bah.

Personally,  I think SNL is snoozing at the switch by not mocking Obama more. The guy's shtick is a walking comedy sketch onto himself.

But that's me.

'Breathtaking' Corruption In Europe

But.

The EU. Progressive bureaucracy. Top. Men.

How can this...be?

Government Rejects Reason

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

George Washington

But it's not what he meant! So the standard line would likely be from those who believe in the benevolent guidance of the state or government.

***

We often use the words 'state' and 'government' interchangeably but in reality they're different.

The ‘State’ refers to the present state of system. It also refers to a governed entity such as a province. A government on the other hand is a kind of agency through which authority is exercised by political units.

"...It is interesting to note that a state generally occupies a certain geographic area. A state is characterized by the presence of culture, language, people and history as well. One of the major differences between a state and a government is that a state is like an organization whereas a government is like a management team.

A state is an independent entity characterized by certain tasks to be carried out. It is interesting to note that these administrative tasks are carried out by the so called government for the proper functioning of the state. In short it can be said that a government has the complete right to exercise power over people and the region. In other words a state is the territory and the government has the right to exercise its power over the territory..."

Quebec Has The Tools To Succeed

It's simple and straightforward. Bill 101 hampers the economy with its litany of unintended consequences. Remove it, and I agree, Montreal will rock again. At the moment, we're giving reasons for possible investors to not come and invest.

Until then, it'll be comme-ci, comme-ca and we'll motor along at the pace of a moped instead of a motorcycle.

It astounds me how we're willing to trade wealth for this sort of stuff. 

President Obama Relies On Specious Stats To Back Up His Divisive Rhetoric

The President slurping and derping suspect statistics?

J'amais!

From Brookings.

"This claim of falling upward mobility — of diminished opportunity — rang false to me. The figures were new and of unknown origin, and they contradicted most of the research that has been conducted to date. Upward mobility is too limited in the U.S. today, and it is lower than it is in other countries (a fact cited by Rick Santorum in a recent Republican presidential debate). But upward mobility does not have to be falling for it to be too limited, and there is only the thinnest evidence that it has fallen over time. I suspected that the administration had sought out new mobility figures that would solidify the populist story of diminished opportunity that formed the basis of the Kansas speech (and perhaps of a 2012 campaign narrative)."

Further research revealed that the evidence behind the president’s mobility claim is irreparably flawed. His figures are based on a very sophisticated — but unreliable — back-of-the-envelope analysis that was intended to get around data limitations. And this is far from being simply an academic question. In this case bad evidence discourages people struggling to escape poverty. It unnecessarily increases Americans’ anxiety levels and adds to the general sense of gloom that has sapped consumer confidence, thereby increasing the agonizing slowness of the recovery. 

Populist crap works to scare the children though. The PQ here in Quebec are good at demonizing 'les riches.' If Obama can't see how his empty rhetoric actually damages people, maybe it's time he considers laying off. His constant strategy of dividing people through class warfare is actually counter productive. He's showing no enlightened thinking on any level.

Like the statistics don't back up more gun control, or minimum wage or anything else, they don't support the left's view on upward mobility.

They may want to take a peek at inflation and how government mandated wages tend to impact employment and purchasing power negatively.

Bah. Easier to derp about corporations and the 1% and the Koch brothers and how McDonald's is responsible for obesity. Just because and, you know, Naomi Klein and the such.

The cold hard fact and truth is we've never been wealthier and healthier at any point in human history.

Seahawks Sinking Broncos

That's some impressive performance by the Seattle Seahawks after three quarters pummeling the Denver Broncos by a score of 36-7.

They've taken the most explosive offense in the history of the game and squashed and smashed it smearing it all over the field. You don't see that kind of stifling defense in the secondary all that often. It's almost as if they have a sixth sense. The Broncos are having unhappy flashbacks to the late 80s and early 90s when they were no match for the NFC.

Well, they were the best team all year along with the Broncos and 49ers. So...no surprise.

2600 Drug Cases Under Review In Florida

Similar story in Florida to the Annie Dookhan scandal in Massachusetts.

Man, this kinda of stuff must cost the taxpayers millions. To reopen all those files?

Saturday Night Music

Heard across high school dances in the 1980s.

Fucking Bowie.

Where has he been anyway?

The Irony Of Progressive Justice

Progressives believe their shit don't stink. But to the rest of us, it does and it stains.

The one thing that annoys me about their concept of 'equality' and 'justice' is that it's inherently unjust.

They tinker with a social ill (take your pick) and paste a coerced piece of legislation on it and call it success. Social engineering at its finest. To them, because 50 + 1 is enough to fuck things up.

Like Quebec nationalists who, in their infinite clueless stupidity, actually think 50.1% is enough to bust up an entire country.

Let me digress a second. I was in Ottawa - the nation's capital in case you've forgotten - skating on the Rideau Canal with my daughter yesterday where, naturally, there were many Quebecers. It got me thinking. If we'd separate, I can't help but think it would leave a lot of ill-feeling towards the province. I can't see how Quebec would unilaterally with a tiny majority (if they can even muster that) break off (of course, in a way where they'd still be 'associated' on some level) the rest of the country won't cast a dark eye upon us - and rightfully so.

Bah.

Back to the progs.

A progressive doesn't mind a new law that empowers one group over another so long as it fits their agenda. So, if you don't consent to a particular proposal but are in the minority, this act of injustice whereby you will be forced to go along with the rest of the sheep is too bad for you.

How is this on any level "fair?"

The answer is, it isn't. Never was, never will be.

Obamacare is a recent example of outrageous liberal unfairness. Not only is it fucking millions over, it's a piece of "settled law" that has been ripped to shreds with a machete of exemptions and loopholes.

It's a travesty of a bill.

In progressville, this is called 'collateral damage.' Too bad. Your plan likely sucked anyway.

They have zero faith in the individual making his or own decisions free of a third party intervention. They have no rights on an individual level for it must be subservient to 'collective rights' above all.

Personally, you can't square progressive philosophy with freedom for its entire framework relies on coercion. Left to fend for itself in the halls of free market ideas, it falters. It attracts little. But add emotion, the macro-social picture (however, specious in its foundation) and some good old fashioned empty rhetoric and you're good to go.

I was listening to the radio earlier about Obama's gibbering drivel on minimum wage and someone (a small business owner who is concerned) pointed out something. He has a staff of workers that took them three years to achieve the $10 level after starting out at minimum wage. He rewarded them as they showed they deserved raises and has a good relationship with his employees because he's loyal and honest about meeting their needs.

Now, all of a sudden, politicians are telling him now you must pay $10.10. So the newbee with no experience leap frogs the people who earned their keeps over a period of multiple months because fucking progs say so? How is that fair to them? Assuming they manage to get a job at all.

Again, it isn't.

And too bad.

Fuck you, because we say so.

That's why.

It's a pitiful display of good intentions gone awry.

The more we want to  make things just, the more we distort it.

I will submit that government legislation of this sort damages more lives than guns do.

Saturday Day Music

The thing is, notice her under stated style and beauty. It's suggestive and beguiling.

Unlike today where performers seem to think the best way to attract attention is to shock and/or act like sluts.

Nicolette Larson's way is better in my humble opinion. No tattoos spoiling her arms, no breasts pressed up by a bra, no ass sticking out jiggling, no "sexy" dancing, no twerking no nothing.

Just a beautiful woman with a lovely voice.

Like the old Jazz greats.