Opportunity Knocks No More

Hillary and the Democrats love to hammer out the vague 'income inequality' thing to rile up idiots.

But here's the thing.

The average person - even poor ones - don't give a shit about other people's success or wealth.

What they care about is their own hopes in having an opportunity to achieve wealth.

And god dammit there is no nation in all of human history that has provided this better than the United States of America.

So what do progressives do? Knowing damn well people don't care they've begun to attack the idea opportunity exists. They've come up with all sorts of meaningless catch phrases that have no beginning or end like 'the system is rigged'. Say it enough times and you'll convince enough people to rally around your mythical cry.

But the middle class is shrinking, T.C.! If it is, they were never of any use to progressives anyway. However, if true, maybe it's because the middle-class (such outdated terms) has graduated into the upper-classes. There is no damn 1% out to get or hoard. That's just boogey-man bull shit.

Here in Quebec, they consider $130 000 salary to be rich. So that makes those earning such an income 'riche' and deserving of scorn to be taxed.

It's just another version of with hunt only with envy as its catalyst.

It's not just that. 'Equal' opportunity now is meant to insidiously include equality of results.

They want to manage outcomes.

It's not nutty. It's what illiberal minds do in an effort to control and create a state controlled society where experts rule over the 'deplorables'.

It's not that difficult to see. 

They went right after your greatest asset: Belief.

And they took it from you.

All to make you their slave; their bitch.

Fact Checking The Fact Checkers

I stopped reading Politifact and Factcheck a while ago. I detected they were applying laws loosely to where Democrats are the target but then strictly interpreting holding Republicans They also play with how they determine what is 'mostly false' and 'mostly true'.

They're as political organization as any. 

It was just a hunch but once I was looking for it, I was catching all sorts of questionable ratings. I never really jotted them down - though I regret it - choosing instead to just move along. It takes a lot of work to fact check fact checkers.

I'm glad others are on it though.

Here are some examples from Human Events.

To answer the question: No, progressives lie. They are the revisionists. Their whole shtick was never about statistics and science but a version or reinterpretation of them to fit their schemes and narratives which basically, when you get down to it, are fundamentally anti-human.

In other words, they give Democrats a longer leash and more wiggle room.

And even between Fact Check and Politifact they don't always arrive at the same conclusion. If something is a fact, two sides would arrive at the same conclusion, no?

Factcheck:

Trump said “murders are up” in New York City since ending stop-and-frisk policies, while Clinton said “crime, including murders” is down. Both are correct.

Politifact:

Not for year-to-date, not for longer term

Donald Trump

In New York City, "murders are up."

More here.

The United Nations Makes Remarkably Stupid Request

I can barely keep up anymore but I couldn't let this slide.

It seems the United Nations and its 'experts' (the UN doesn't have experts. They have self-appointed bozo-bureaucrats like we do here pretending to be experts) feel the United States should give blacks reparations.

This is ludicrous as it outrageous. Besides the fact I have no idea how they're going to determine who should get them (never mind the obscene scenario of a wealthy black person getting such a check (personally, I'd send it back because I would view it as pointless and insulting but that's me) at the expense of a poor white person or ancestors who had nothing to do with slavery).

It's a stupid idea and quite frankly anyone who pushes and pimps it possesses a middling mind that lacks a humanist vision and perspective.

And never mind the breathtaking arrogance of the UN.

This is an organization that has persistently demonized Israel (while basically shrugging off the murders of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. That said a lot about the UN as a legitimate body) and coddled some of the most heinous regimes and dictators in the world going as far as to place them on The Human Rights Council as well as the Security Council!

Not only that, and more importantly, it defies the facts of history. Slavery is but the story of humanity. It stretches back thousands of years. Are we to demand Rome and Athens pay reparations? What of European empires who engaged in the trade? What about the indentured Irish?

More explosive, what about the role of the Africans themselves in this shameless institution? After all, they sold humans to the Europeans and...Muslims.

Ah yes. Muslims. The new special status class in Western culture and the United Nations.

Islam's slavery record is one of the most astonishing of them all. Hundreds of millions killed and taken into captivity. Sometimes they didn't even bother to use middle-men and went straight into the homes of people and stole their children.

That's one massive reparation right there, no?

Still more, there has not been a more oppressed people in human history than Jews. They faced multiple massacres and a genocide for thousands of years.

What does the world owe them you piece of shits?

American slavery, relatively speaking, is but a tiny blip in world history.

No nation on the planet or in history has confronted its slave past almost to nauseating levels given birth to a pseudo-intellectual discourse (of which Coates - who is referenced as a journalist in the paper - is a member of and who is not a journalist. More like a word-farter) on the matter.

No nation has tried as hard to make amends by not only providing welfare but the opportunity to gain wealth like the United States. None. It's not perfect but American blacks need to stop this latest gray train because if they keep to it, it will set race relations back more than any white cop could ever do. It will piss off the vast majority of decent Americans (excluding progressives of course because they're miserable trouble makers) needlessly.

The United States should turn the grossly immoral UN around, kick it in the ass and tell it to go fuck itself for shamelessly publishing this garbage.

How Parasites Make Money

How does the parasite class operate?

Here's a good example how.

"The U.S. Justice Department is assessing how big a criminal fine it can extract from Volkswagen AG over emissions-cheating without putting the German carmaker out of business, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The government and Volkswagen are trying to reach a settlement by January, the people said, before a new U.S. administration comes into office and replaces the political appointees who have been overseeing the process."

Euro Trash In World Cup Final: Team Europe Gets Last Laugh

And now for Canadian stupidity.

An article by Dave Hilson in The Toronto Sun hasn't gotten enough attention for its 'Euro Trash' title in describing Team Europe.

That's a ridiculous thing to print. Not sure what was the point of doing that. Reminds me when Der Speigel at the 2006 World Cup and again during the 2016 Euro (I forget the publication this time) wrote some pathetically arrogant and insulting articles trying to demean Italians.

It's uncalled for.

Note: Notice I don't call for censorship lest we end up in a full blown parasitical progressive nanny state punishing people's opinions and now their thoughts as they do in Europe now.

Good on Don Cherry to bring it up. Not only that, he actually predicted they'd do well while every wrote them off. His logic was simple but true: Never dis people. Ever.

Never ever give your opponent something to hold on to. Never stomp on their logo. Never disrespect their flag. Never question their heart.

Ever.

“I said earlier today, when I saw the [Toronto] Sun, I will bet any money on Team Europe,” said Cherry, who held up the headline that read, “Euro Trash?”

Team Europe beat an outsanding Team Sweden squad 3-2 in overtime to reach the final against Team Canada.

And that's that.

It seems The Sun didn't publish the article online so I can't really delve more into it but someone did and I'll let them have the last word:

CLASSLESS
Re “Euro Trash?” (Dave Hilson, Sept. 17): Toronto is the host of this hockey tournament. What kind of ignorant, insulting headline is this? Invite guests into your house and treat them this way. What a classless thing to do.
Pat Stevens
Hamilton
(Team Europe is in the semi-finals against Sweden. So much for “Euro Trash”)

***

Quick word on Team Canada. They're at this point the equivalent of USA basketball in terms of dominance. I don't think I've quite seen the Canadian senior team dominate (the junior program hit its dominant stride in the 1990s and that continued for roughly 15 years) like we've seen over the last decade or so and definitely in the last few years like we've seen.

The great hockey nations  are barely touching them. It's almost reminiscent of how the Soviets ruled hockey back in the 1960's through the 1980s.

Kudos to Canada.

Quebec: The South North

I've observed the same thing in my business.

People from abroad come to Quebec but are not interested in staying. The like the place but there's too much politics preventing them from doing what they want. It's hard to describe and explain to a Quebecer this place is behind the curve and quite frankly I don't see it getting better. Not too long ago the Parti Quebecois went full unhinged and they're set to double down on this.

The part about where all things being equal they will choose the French-Canadian is accurate. They will claim this happens everywhere but that claim is weak. It's damn near impossible to pull that shit in the USA.

But believe this they must to justify their own discriminatory practices.

Case in point in the comments:

This is not an exodus of Quebecois but of people who are culturally foreign to Quebec. If French-speaking Quebecois were leaving en masse, this would be a big issue. Instead, those who are departing could be described as 'Westmount Rhodesians', privileged people who refuse to adapt to the majority culture or speak its language. The rest of Canada has a similar problem - one caused by 'Canadians of convenience', people who reject everything about the country except its prized passport and its medical and social welfare systems. In both cases, the whiners should just leave and not come back.

Way to go missing the entire point, pal.

What else is new? This is exactly why Quebec is as stagnant a region as they come.

It's not that they are unwilling to adapt you dipshit. It's that Quebec laws are onerous and not worth the headache. No one likes to be told where to send their kids or be forced to communicate with each other in not their native tongue. Once upon a time, nationalists assured us they were just looking for 'respect' and nothing more.

Now they've taken it up a notch and looking to enter the realm of speech and language control. It starts in the workplace (even where the majority aren't French. Of course this doesn't matter because 'French majority'. You may be 12 people but you must write to each other in French. Who in their right mind accepts this kind of insulting and interventionist bull shit? My retort is simple now. You want respect but I can't give it where it is not earned and nationalists in their constant railing against my language deserves none of it) and eventually in the homes. Watch.

It's coming. Insecure societies that focus on what other people are doing tend to stay stuck in mud.

It's not an opinion but a fact of history; of human nature.

People like this idiot don't understand our laws punitive and smart people see right through it and decide to leave. Instead of looking at what we're doing wrong he looks to blame the immigrant. These people are not looking to not assimilate. They're looking for a fair shake and demanding they take a French test to 'prove' it is pure fucking discrimination.

Heck, I'm tired of it and from here. How would this guy describe me?

Just stop bull shitting people and tell them flat out they need to be totally proficient in French or else.

Of course, Quebec can't do that lest they look like racist fools. So they try and pass a fast one only problem is people catch on. 

Calling people 'Westmount Rhodesians' (and this angers me) is essentially xenophobic and has its roots in the nationalist movement back in the 1960s when Quebec was waking up from its slumber while 'les autres' were moving past them on the social and economic scale. You have to be one insular son of a bitch to call people this. It's like Quebec refuses to learn from other people's perspectives regarding our shortcomings. The second we mention what they're doing is wrong and doom to fail they scream 'Quebec bashing'.

The only way they managed to reverse it was by applying laws that trampled on civil liberties. They can squawk all they want deflecting this fact, but it ain't fooling intelligent people this province desperately needs.

And mark my words. It will fail. It already has. Just look around the continent. We're not in the conversation. No one is looking at us; for good reason too.

Moreover, the second someone points something out that may not be beneficial, they scream 'leave if you don't like!' You know, like populists and nativists.

'Yeah were not so rich or so dynamic or offer more but at least we're French and I'll be damned some foreigner is gonna tell us what to do!'

The mentality displayed by the comment is something North America is working hard - and succeeding enormously - to eliminate.

The bottom line is by every metric and measure Quebec is a laggard. We're not a leader.

And this article points out one of the reasons why.

Only problem is Quebec just isn't listening.

How do you translate 'La, la, la' in joual?

Debate In One Quote

"Josh Jordan ‏@NumbersMuncher 10h10 hours ago Lester Holt negative questions to Trump:
Tax Returns
Birther issue
Iraq War
Hillary Presidential Looks
Negative questions to Clinton:
None"

Exactly. Seems to me the woman bull shitting about cyber security and who stored government emails on an unsecured private server deserved some grilling. It also seems to me Lester could have question the fact she voted for Iraq when she railed against the Bush tax cuts or as he pressed Trump about the birth certificate he could have reminded the audience of the fact it originated in the Democrat ranks. Or how about the 'pay to play' racket of the Clinton Foundation?

Lester Holt also was fact checking Trump while letting Hillary's crap slide.

Sigh. He's just another Democrat hack posing as a 'neutral' moderator. We saw this last year with Cindy Crowley.

Business And Bankruptcy

In the Presidential debate with Donald Trump Hillary attacked him for his bankruptcies alleging true successful businessmen don't declare bankruptcy.

Of course, this is not supported by facts and I didn't expect Lester Holt to fact check her like he seemed to for Donald so eagerly.

Shades of Crowley.

Not surprising seeing he works for NBC and his job was on the line. Good job Lester. You keep up the myth of the neutral moderator.

Hacks. 

Anyway.

Back when I was taking business courses in university, Robert Campeau was the entrepreneur du jour (whatever happened to that guy?). In my accounting class I had to analyze his deals and along the way I came across a statistic that the average businessman declared bankruptcy seven times in their lives before they became millionaires.

Which makes sense given taking risks means a high potential for failure.

Her attack is not backed by the reality.

Just more progressive rubbish. 

See 30 people who declared bankruptcy.

PQ Debate Doesn't Disappoint

Who needs the American deep south when we have our own knee-slappers here in Quebec?

I caught an interesting exchange between the hillbillies in the PQ discussing language.

And it wasn't surprising but still disturbing.

One Martine Ouellette railed with the usual false equivalence Quebec nationalist like to use. She wondered if Saskatchewan is allowed to be English only, why shouldn't Quebec be French only?

For this, the mob cheered.

But here's the thing. There's a much larger English-speaking fact in Quebec than Saskatchewan has French-speakers. Moreover, Saskatchewan is not doing it out of spite. However, Ontario does have bilingual signs on its highway system to which Quebec does not. So plus one to them. It really says a lot about the mindset of the PQ that they obsess and look at things this way.

And honestly, who gives a shit at this point? This false equivalence of 'But Toronto!' is tiresome.

I don't care about Toronto. It's weak play to justify our own prejudice against a linguistic community.  Two wrongs don't make a right and all that.

This is just plain and plump ignorant populism that continues to lurk in the PQ ranks.

The last thing you want to do is further insulate the province than it already is.

But wait. It gets better.

Some guy named Cloutier responded along the lines of 'we can't demand all signs be in French. There are laws to respect, it's too bad, but we have to respect it.'

Here, the crowd jeered. Hissssss!

Wow. Take a bow. Hand that yokel a shot of moonshine!

Lemme ask. How are we supposed to interpret this? 

So let me get this straight? You respect the law but not my language?

That's not how respect works.

Let's rephrase this to show how regressive these people can be. Just replace it with another language and transplant it to another region.

'I know. I wish we could have everything in English but there are laws in place. I know. It's unfortunate but Spanish is a language too!'

Imagine the uproar - and rightfully so - you would see. But you don't because for the most part such thinking is non-existent and if it is, it hold little water or power in North America. Only in Quebec does it have weight because the PQ represents 25% of the population.

This is not good. It's not good.

I keep hoping someone pulls these idiots by the ear and drags them around but I reckon it won't happen.

Which is why my daughter is not staying here. I don't want her exposed to this crap. Crap I tolerated and no longer wish to do so.

Don't like my language? Fuck you.

Do I offend you? Does the existence of my being threaten you?

But you sure as hell love my taxes don't you?

***

Oh. By the way.  A French-Canada is free to go anywhere on the continent and not be accosted for their language. No one will bother them if they put a sign up or anything that is free expression.

The favor is not returned here. The average Quebecer doesn't know their government actively engages in linguistic discrimination with bull shit language exams to get a mortgage broker or real estate license which doesn't exist anywhere. Nor do we have any campuses that forbid people from speaking their native tongue as we do here like at the Universite de Montreal where people are not allowed to speak English.

Never mind about the immoral insanity of suspending the only retinal eye specialist in the province because he couldn't pass a fucking lousy written test! Let's put politics above the health of Quebecers!

Bravo, you morons running this banana republic.

It's mad.

I wish I was joking but I'm not.

And nowhere does any jurisdiction have a language police harassing people for having the temerity to veer of the French language.

Vancouver has their own nitwits who complain about 'too much Chinese' but there are no language laws and hopefully it will stay that way.

Quebec nationalists bring absolutely nothing to the French language. They demean it through actions borne out of insecurity and misplaced pride.

That's why you're a laughing stock, Mme. Ouellette. 

***

Ever since the fall of the Catholic church and its influence in Quebec, the province has been in a constant state of chaos and manic insecurity where identity is concerned.

And it's manifesting itself in demagoguery particularly against 'les autres'.

Liberal Party Cabinet Minister Problems: t's No Longer 2015. What Happens Now?

What is it with the left and progressives and their obsession with claiming a different heritage than from what and who they actually are?

It's a bizarre development I'm sure I'm not alone in having detected.

For example, we had Elizabeth Warren claiming to be part Cherokee - with the charge she leveraged this into gaming affirmative action in her favor.

President Obama, for his part, admitted composites of people to define who he is in his book 'Dreams of My Commie Father.'

The story of Rachel Dolezal is perhaps as odd as they come. Dolezal, who is white, insists she is black.

And just for kicks, I add Jessica Alba seemed disappointed to find out she was of Spanish origin and not Native American. You can find it on youtube.

The list has now been expanded into transgenderism.

And...well.

I guess some do it because it's trendy pretending to be an 'exotic' origins and brownie bonus points if it comes with victim or special status or a protected class.

We seem to have created our own 'private bubbles' of existence where we can be anything we want to be leaving us vulnerable to various passing trends inevitably leaving people perpetually unfulfilled.

Which brings me to the story of Liberal cabinet minister Maryam Monsef. Monsef was heralded as the first Afghan born politician elected to office. However, it turns out she may be from Iran but she doesn't know. Worse, she seems to be throwing her mother under the bus blaming her for the confusion. The story is enough of a red flag because she was 11 when she immigrated. One would think she'd know if she came from Iran or not.

Here's the money quote:

"...When asked why security vetting for cabinet posts didn’t uncover this error, an official said “we learned of this information about Maryam Monsef’s place of birth when it was brought to us recently by the The Globe and Mail.”

Really? Makes you wonder if they're vetting refugees/migrants from the Middle-East properly. Suddenly, I'm not so confident.

This development is troubling as it is a showcase in amateurism where the Liberal party is concerned.

Yes, it is a big deal. Misrepresenting oneself or facts in a job interview or in a prospectus or any other area where you're expected to be truthful, is fraud.

The right thing to do is to just resign.

Boy, Trudeau's 2015 cabinet has been off to a right start. Just before this scandal came Hunter Tootoo for was embroiled in a relationship with a colleague only to move on to her mother.

Character we can believe in!

But things have gotten really stupid in Canada sooooo.

Critical Thinking...Not

So there I was, alone at the table. Just me and my slide whistle and the radio. Until I was interrupted by the Tommy Schnurmacher show on CJAD with a segment on critical thinking. I figured what the ham, why not? The guest was a professor at McGill named Dr. Damiel Levitin.

Boy oh boy it was quite the exercise in exactly the opposite of critical thinking. Basically, all he did was tell the audience to rely on "experts" in mainstream sources like Bell and The New York Times (because the media has been so awesome in the treatment of facts in recent times. From sensationalism to  plagiarists to liars, they've seen and done it all) and to fact check those with 'neutral' sites with investigative journalists like Politifact and Factcheck.

Of course, as any savvy navigator knows, these sites have also faced their own criticism. He claimed the fact checking at the NYT is incredible but when the host pointed out the NYT having to retract not one but two errors on Aleppo (after going smugly after Gary Johnson), he replied basically they do it for most articles and then when pressed again, he said they do it more in the print edition than online.

Hear that sound? That's the sound of a guy who just lost the plot. I wanted to change the channel at this point because it was insulting but I decided to listen on.

It didn't disappoint.

He took it a step further and this is where he commits a logical fallacy. He argued that if you're going to research, for example, meat don't go to 'meat associations' since they're *obviously*  bias.

I argue this is plain absurd. Just because, a scientist who works for an oil company or a research team gets a grant from a company in another industry doesn't  mean their work is compromised. To dismiss this outright is foolish. Besides, I doubt he believes government papers are non-bias so wouldn't this work both ways?

Moreover, it's a little like suggesting don't read Barron's or some other finance publication to learn or be informed on investments and the stock markets. 

However, he's right. You should research what's presented but I've come to learn the mainstream press is actually a laggard and often not accurate in some instances. You have to diligently back check the fact check. I have my own system in place; including trying to find an article or essay from outside North America to offer a perspective from different lenses.

But wait there was more.

He asserted 'there is no other side' in the climate change debate because all the serious scientists have come to a consensus that it's happening. The host, to his credit, smelling he's got a live one, asked 'since when is science done by consensus'? Bingo. He skated around it and then suggested of course people are entitled to take a counter-argument but those people aren't true scientists but people not related in the field of climate.

The science is settled. Eugenicists thought science was on their side too. Just sayin'.

Really? The biggest pimps for climate change are people like Bill Nye (engineer), Neil de Grasse Tyson (physicist), Al Gore (engineer/politician), Paul Ehrlich (biologist). And where they are actually in the field like Michael Mann, their theories (ie Hockey Stick) have been aggressively challenged if not thoroughly debunked. Another is James Hansen with his numerous frightening scenarios about climate.

Might I also add, his favorite NYT employs an economist (with a specialty in a sub-set of the dismal art) to talk about politics in Paul Krugman - who basically is just a shill for progressivism and the Democrat party. And then there's our old friend Thomas Friedman who seems to have amnesia. 

Never mind we have over 100 years of climate prognostications that never happened and never mind the '97% consensus' things has been outed as a fraud, and never mind the data and models have proven to be manipulated and erroneous, and never mind there are plenty of legitimate scientists and blogs and sites who have taken to set the record straight (a simple research into this will bring you into a world of sensible and rational thought) and never mind....bah, never mind.

Here too the host was skillful enough to get the guest to admit scientists have been on the wrong side of history too. Just because a majority agree with something doesn't mean their right.

But hey, there is not other legit counter-point according to this guy.

I went in hoping to sharpen my skills on how to spot a false equivalence or tu quoque better, instead I got some vague, unhelpful, and misguided pointers on how to research.

And he wrote a book on critical thinking? Maybe he has more to offer or perhaps it was a bad day but I was profoundly disappointed in his tips and approach.

You can listen to the interview here. 

I was better off playing with my slide whistle.

Oh. Might I suggest additional reading along with a piece of advice?

Learn to spot bull shit.

Netanyahu Trolls The United Nations; Israel Progresses While The Arab World Languishes

Opening parts of Netanyahu's speech to the UN:

"Mr. President,
 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

What I’m about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the UN.

Now I know that hearing that from me must surely come as a surprise, because year after year I’ve stood at this very podium and slammed the UN for its obsessive bias against Israel. And the UN deserved every scathing word – for the disgrace of the General Assembly that last year passed 20 resolutions against the democratic State of Israel and a grand total of three resolutions against all the other countries on the planet.

Israel – twenty; rest of the world – three.

And what about the joke called the UN Human Rights Council, which each year condemns Israel more than all the countries of the world combined. As women are being systematically raped, murdered, sold into slavery across the world, which is the only country that the UN’s Commission on Women chose to condemn this year? Yep, you guessed it – Israel. Israel. Israel where women fly fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside – twice – over the Supreme Court, and have served as Speaker of the Knesset and Prime Minister.

And this circus continues at UNESCO. UNESCO, the UN body charged with preserving world heritage. Now, this is hard to believe but UNESCO just denied the 4,000-year connection between the Jewish people and its holiest site, the Temple Mount. That’s just as absurd as denying the connection between the Great Wall of China and China.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The UN, begun as a moral force, has become a moral farce. So when it comes to Israel at the UN, you’d probably think nothing will ever change, right? Well think again. You see, everything will change and a lot sooner than you think. The change will happen in this hall, because back home, your governments are rapidly changing their attitudes towards Israel. And sooner or later, that’s going to change the way you vote on Israel at the UN."

"...Today’s automatic majority against Israel at the UN reminds me of the story, the incredible story of Hiroo Onada. Hiroo was a Japanese soldier who was sent to the Philippines in 1944. He lived in the jungle. He scavenged for food. He evaded capture. Eventually he surrendered, but that didn’t happen until 1974, some 30 years after World War II ended. For decades, Hiroo refused to believe the war was over. As Hiroo was hiding in the jungle, Japanese tourists were swimming in pools in American luxury hotels in nearby Manila. Finally, mercifully, Hiroo’s former commanding officer was sent to persuade him to come out of hiding. Only then did Hiroo lay down his arms.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished delegates from so many lands,

I have one message for you today: Lay down your arms. The war against Israel at the UN is over. Perhaps some of you don’t know it yet, but I am confident that one day in the not too distant future you will also get the message from your president or from your prime minister informing you that the war against Israel at the United Nations has ended. Yes, I know, there might be a storm before the calm. I know there is talk about ganging up on Israel at the UN later this year. Given its history of hostility towards Israel, does anyone really believe that Israel will let the UN determine our security and our vital national interests?

We will not accept any attempt by the UN to dictate terms to Israel. The road to peace runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not through New York...."

"...Are the half million slaughtered Syrians helped by your condemnation of Israel? The same Israel that has treated thousands of injured Syrians in our hospitals, including a field hospital that I built right along the Golan Heights border with Syria. Are the gays hanging from cranes in Iran helped by your denigration of Israel? That same Israel where gays march proudly in our streets and serve in our parliament, including I’m proud to say in my own Likud party. Are the starving children in North Korea’s brutal tyranny, are they helped by your demonization of Israel? Israel, whose agricultural knowhow is feeding the hungry throughout the developing world?"

The sooner the UN’s obsession with Israel ends, the better. The better for Israel, the better for your countries, the better for the UN itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If UN habits die hard, Palestinian habits die even harder. President Abbas just attacked from this podium the Balfour Declaration. He’s preparing a lawsuit against Britain for that declaration from 1917. That’s almost 100 years ago – talk about being stuck in the past. The Palestinians may just as well sue Iran for the Cyrus Declaration, which enabled the Jews to rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago. Come to think of it, why not a Palestinian class action suit against Abraham for buying that plot of land in Hebron where the fathers and mothers of the Jewish people were buried 4,000 years ago? You’re not laughing. It’s as absurd as that. To sue the British government for the Balfour Declaration? Is he kidding? And this is taken seriously here?"

"...I am hopeful about what Israel can accomplish because I’ve seen what Israel has accomplished. In 1948, the year of Israel’s independence, our population was 800,000. Our main export was oranges. People said then we were too small, too weak, too isolated, too demographically outnumbered to survive, let alone thrive. The skeptics were wrong about Israel then; the skeptics are wrong about 

Israel now.

Israel’s population has grown tenfold, our economy fortyfold. Today our biggest export is technology – Israeli technology, which powers the world’s computers, cellphones, cars and so much more."

Good stuff.

***

Obama, for his part, also addressed the UN and he spoke of a commitment to cooperation and multilateralism and took his usual subtle criticism of the U.S. characterizing it as 'my country'.

In other words, more blah, blah, blah.

The President is all for 'cooperation' unless it's domestic. Then he's all for bypassing Congress (apparently this is okay because they refuse to work with him) and attack countries like Libya, topple governments in Egypt; to say nothing of itching to bomb Syria. 

 

Thoughts On Vin Scully

The voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers Vin Scully is retiring and I've been taking in my fair share of Scully stories on sports radio.

Scully's stunning career began in 1958 and stretches back still further to the old Brooklyn Dodgers in the early part of the decade. All told 67 years of Dodgers history runs through his veins.

Now some may be wondering why a Montrealer would be talking about Scully.

A couple of reasons actually.

First off, this city has had its fair share of wonderful play by play broadcasters. For me, Dave Van Horne and Dick Irvin come to mind having telling Scullyesque tales in baseball and hockey respectively. Some of those years we had the pleasure of a Van Horne-Duke Snyder tandem and later Ken Singleton. On the French language broadcast we had Jacques Doucet.

Which makes me wonder about CJAD's decision to drop Irvin given how long Scully has gone. The day the Habs lost Irvin, was the day I lost all interest (among other reasons) in listening to the team on the radio. 

Through Snyder we begin to see the connection of Montreal to the Dodgers via the Montreal Royals who were the farm team.

Which brings me to another reason. Because of the Royals-Dodgers lineage and reading about the history, I decided to follow the Dodgers after the Expos moved to Washington.

Along the way, besides playoff games over the years, I caught my share of Vin Scully called games.

So, given this, the story and celebration around Scully is not lost on me.  As I write I'm listening to Scully call the Rockies-Dodgers game.

There's an incredible poetic cadence to Scully's layered style one in which comes with powerful imagery and authenticity.

Now if you don't mind, rather than delve deeper into this, I have a ball game to listen to.

Make that, Vin Scully to listen to.

Failed American Foreign Policy In The Middle East

Hillary keeps yapping on about how it was necessary to intervene in Libya leaving the country in civil war tatters. Another area where American foreign policy has completely lost its direction is in Syria.

If the American position or strategy makes little sense to you that's because it doesn't. It has no real effective plan in place.

Obama may have fooled sycophants, supporters, fans and a lap dog media into believing he was engaging in a game of chess but the facts of his decisions involving not just Syria and Libya but Egypt and Iran as well have for the most part failed.

And spectacularly.

In fact, the decisions undertook are every bit as dangerous as invading a nation outright.

Obama and Hilary have essentially engaged in sloppy and cynical version of 'war by other means' foreign policy.

He may have inherited a mess (which is part and parcel of taking over a nation) but he proceeded to create his own mess.

And then some.

Disney Capitulates

I said stop apologizing and pandering to the insane!

You will never win where SJW are concerned and I find it disturbing as it is ghastly Disney capitulated ans apologized for Moana.

Basically, you've effectively given more power to a minority of shrill and ignorant voices to continue their cultural appropriation buffoonery.

The proper response would have been: FUCK. YOU.

Stop Ignoring Islams Role For The Rise Of The Crusades

I happened upon this in The Straight Dope:

"...Throughout the Crusades, which began in 1095 when Pope Urban II called upon Christians to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control, one side might reasonably have been described as civilized, tolerant, and progressive, while the other was by and large a bunch of backward, ignorant, bloodthirsty fanatics. Hint: It wasn't the Muslims who, upon capturing Jerusalem in 1099, gleefully slaughtered everyone there."

Yeh. I got a problem with this part in what otherwise was a response I agreed with for the large part.

Why? Mostly because it gives the impression Christianity undertook The Crusades for the heck of it and it enjoyed spilling some blood; Songs of Roland notwithstanding.

One problem though - perhaps unwittingly - spelled out in the sentence itself: wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control.

That part is key to me.

The Crusades were as much a reaction to Islamic expansion and desire to conquer European lands as much as any reason or explanation put forth.

Between the 7th and 15th centuries and until the fall of The Ottoman empire in the early 20th century, Islam was on the march and Europe - being poorer - was defending itself and used The Crusades to launch its own offensive to merely recapture lost Christian lands - which by the way were permanently lost in some cases. Ask yourself this. Why did so many Europeans pull back away from the shores during this period? Retrenching back to the hills and into castles as a means of protection.

So yeah. I'm not on board with the 'we went and attacked the peaceful Muslims'.

To assert this is to deny the fact Islam was ascending and it wanted to exploit and expand.

Next they'll try and tell me Islams role in slavery was more humane by us dirty Christians, right?

Time To Clean Up Or Disband The SQ

Growing up, we knew the Surete du Quebec (a strange 'off' police force) were a police detachment we wanted no part of. They exuded racism and possessed an unsettling swagger. We called them the 'le, le maudit ostie' police because we always got the feeling they were one slip up away from calling us 'wops' and we knew this is what they thought in the back of their minds.

Yes, shades of the Deep South when cops called blacks 'boy' in derogatory disdain.

Alas, this is the perception but we did hear stories from time to time.

Here's one story.

"Police officers trading money and cocaine for sex, a missing persons case that collected dust for months, and allegations of wanton cruelty against vulnerable women.

These are what indigenous people say they have encountered first-hand in their dealings with the Sûreté du Québec in the remote mining city of Val d’Or.

The allegations come from 12 aboriginal people, mostly women, from Algonquin communities around Val d’Or in northwestern Quebec, and they range from sexual to physical abuse."

No matter how you dice this, it's awful and appalling. It literally cuts to the heart of who we are and what we want our police officers to be.

We shut down a proud military regiment for this sort of behavior with the Somalia Affair involving the Canadian Airborne Regiment.

The came this story which came as very little surprise to me:

"Benaouda's cellphone camera was still rolling and recorded the conversation in the patrol car between Benaouda and Guénette. Benaouda protested that he did nothing wrong.

According to the police ethics board decision, Guénette then told Benaouda: "Check les lunettes mon ostie d'arabe," referring to his own glasses. 

This translates loosely as, "Look at my glasses, God damn Arab."

Guénette is then heard sarcastically trying to mock an Algerian accent, and suggesting that Benaouda had a Mafia lawyer."

Nice. Professional. 

Either the SQ cleans house, makes meaningful changes or the government must disband it.

Stop Apologizing To SJW; Trolling Dumbass SJW

Aw, a bunch of nationalist Mexican student association assholes (ugh, Student Associations) at Cornell are upset because a coach had the temerity to post a picture wearing a sombrero citing cultural appropriation.

Gee, I wonder if these clowns are aware Cornell is pretty much an Ivy League WASP institution or I'm guessing they enjoy the occasional egg roll and pizza.

Seriously. Stop apologizing to these idiots. The only appropriate response is FUCK OFF IGNORANT TURDS.

Now it's time to troll:



***

I'm still surprised no one has has pointed out about another absurd story involving Marc Jacobs that dreadlocks are not Jamaican but in fact have a history that goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

How's that for irony, eh?

But what do you expect from people who are historically deficient?

Stop apologizing and coddling them. You only enable and encourage their retarded behavior.

Of Change And Doughnuts And Cultural Appropriation

This ridiculous editorial in The Globe and Mail about Rogers Sports NET terminating Hockey Night in Canada's host George Stromboulopolous got me thinking about a bunch of stuff including cultural appropriation.

Here are some snippets:

"Sports fans are creatures of habit. Innovation just isn’t part of their vocabulary."

Alrighty. We're off to a bad start. This sets the mood for where this is gonna go.

"Rogers executives thought the old CBC Hockey Night in Canada approach was staid and out-of-date, and undoubtedly they were right. In particular, they focused on HNIC host Ron MacLean, whose insider status and intimacy with hockey lore weren’t enough to compensate for his forced folksiness, excruciating puns and deferential encouragement of Don Cherry’s simplistic rants."

I wonder what wine they were drinking and the color of their ascots the day they wrote this.

I've said this in the past and will say it again, Don Cherry is a sports phenomena. People embrace him - including myself- for whatever reasons. I find it appalling and annoying as I do hilarious having been subjected to media rail against him over the years. It's a classic case of 'We can't believe people like this guy. How can they not be enlightened like us? We'll have to fix them up' smugness to which I cared little for.

Also, more importantly, I've learned more about hockey from his 'simplistic rants' than I have from the vast majority of hockey writers through the decades. More often than not, Cherry has been bang on about what ails hockey and what makes it interesting; from his thoughts on equipment to rules to general insights (insights that have proven to be subtle in their usefulness making mockery of the claim he's simplistic) often overlooked by the mainstream press.

"Mr. Stroumboulopoulos, despite or indeed because of his skinny suits and hollow-eyed ex-rocker gaze, is reportedly out as a host, to be succeeded by the staid, outmoded icon he toppled."

We get it. It was outmoded. You open-minded trend-setters you. Jesus, I would love to meet and slap this person off the side of the head with a Brontasaurus rib.

And what is this? A teeny-bopper show? As an alternate and personal take, I consider myself a man of good taste and sharp dressing and those skinny suits didn't exude professionalism or hipness to me. It just didn't transfer well on television.

"Hockey broadcasting didn’t need some corporate idea of the latest thing, it turns out, and who’s surprised? The pleasures of being a fan are grounded in a conservatism that is hard to explain or justify in a culture of innovation but easy to recognize in a more intimate sports milieu that thrives on familiarity and predictability."

Ah yes. Let's get to the lazy portion of the argument and blame 'conservatism'.

Hockey as a whole, as the G&M knows, is an old boys network where innovation among teams and coaches tends to be limited and copy cat. They circulate and shuffle the same people around when in sometimes, it's probably best to bring in someone from the outside. I get this point.

However, this editorial could have made this point without the dreary and typical disdained arrogance all too common among media today.

And let's not over blow George here as some leitmotif for 'culture of innovation.' He just didn't connect. Why, I don't know and it sounds as though the G&M doesn't either preferring to blow smug steam out of its ass.

I admit to not paying much attention to intermission where sports are concerned. It doesn't interest me to sit and watch a bunch of heads just gargle stuff I pretty much deduced on my own. They all sell themselves as providing real insights but not really. You could have had a muppet hosting and it wouldn't change much.

I was indifferent to George. Not because I didn't like him, I just didn't see the point. But I can see why people may like him.

Michael Strahan on the other hand. Jesus, what is the attraction?

"Mr. MacLean, like the bombastic, irascible Mr. Cherry, has held court for decades, and that very longevity, however imperfect, became part of the draw for hockey regulars."

But you repeat yourself.

Is this a new writing-style technique? To rinse and repeat?

"In a world where change is a little too relentless and beyond our control, hockey can still supply stability and connect people across cultures and generations who otherwise have little in common.

Marketers, for their own mercenary interests, want to shunt us off into demographics and sell us on change. But the habits of hockey are powerful, and every now and then they provide this useful reminder: Sometimes the old ways are the good ones."

Aaaaand then they shift gears a little.

Yeah, sometimes the classics are great but too bad you're to ignorant to see innovation!

Bah humbug.

***

I've grown tired of the 'wagging finger' style of media where some journalist incredulously tells their readers what's good for them. The media does seem to think itself as some sort of gatekeeper to 'good tastes' of some sort.

A few years back, and for some reason The G&M article above reminded me of this, the media strangely went hard after Krispy Kreme's incursion into the Canadian market. It was almost as if they were offended that an American company was stepping on Tim Horton's turf. Heck, that probably was exactly why. I digress.

Everyday they were pounding away at how much fat and calories a KK doughnut had vis-a-vis its competitors. It became a farce. 'KK d'nuts have 800 calories versus "just" 770 for a Timmy'! leaving the viewer with the impression KK was *bad* for you when in fact both are basically junk food.

I don't know the details as to why KK has, what, just one location here, but maybe the stupid scare-mongering worked.

Yet, somehow, I doubt they turn down going to Tim Hortons for a doughnut, right?

***

Which, in turn, again with not real rhyme or reason led me to 'cultural appropriation' which I've discussed before. In a nutshell, if you invoke it or believe it to be a legitimate form of intellectualism, you're an idiot. No other way to put it.

No, wait. I apologize.

A profoundly ignorant idiot.

Cultural appropriation (of which there have been many examples), really, at its roots, is a form of insular thinking. It's a metaphor for the current intellectual dark age we're witnessing.

The rise of the welfare state has helped to contribute to the closing of the mind -a shrugging atlas if you will. It leaves people to their own devices locked up in a world of their own vomit and nonsense susceptible to stupidity and quackery.

It's easy to buy into all the crazy shit about climate change, vaccines and patriarchy when you're shut off from facts and reality. And when your little bubble of retardation is threatened, lash out incoherent assertions of 'racism' and 'sexism'. And when that's not enough, just censor and call for people to be imprisoned.

How can it be but a product of intellectual isolation to believe in cultural appropriation?

I personally find the thing about 'dreadlocks' to be interesting. Dreadlocks go back thousands of years and were originally found in Northern European cultures. Only later on did it become connected to Rastafarians. Is this not cultural appropriation? Ironic, no?

Whatever you do, never apologize to these idiots. Ever.

In any event, welcome to humanity. One big Amazon shelf of cultural appropriation.

***

I know there's a way to link all of these to form a full circle....but I'm just too lazy at the moment.

Now where's my doughnut?

Of Change And Doughnuts And Cultural Appropriation

This ridiculous editorial in The Globe and Mail about Rogers Sports NET terminating Hockey Night in Canada's host George Stromboulopolous got me thinking about a bunch of stuff including cultural appropriation.

Here are some snippets:

"Sports fans are creatures of habit. Innovation just isn’t part of their vocabulary."

Alrighty. We're off to a bad start. This sets the mood for where this is gonna go.

"Rogers executives thought the old CBC Hockey Night in Canada approach was staid and out-of-date, and undoubtedly they were right. In particular, they focused on HNIC host Ron MacLean, whose insider status and intimacy with hockey lore weren’t enough to compensate for his forced folksiness, excruciating puns and deferential encouragement of Don Cherry’s simplistic rants."

I wonder what wine they were drinking and the color of their ascots the day they wrote this.

I've said this in the past and will say it again, Don Cherry is a sports phenomena. People embrace him - including myself- for whatever reasons. I find it appalling and annoying as I do hilarious having been subjected to media rail against him over the years. It's a classic case of 'We can't believe people like this guy. How can they not be enlightened like us? We'll have to fix them up' smugness to which I cared little for.

Also, more importantly, I've learned more about hockey from his 'simplistic rants' than I have from the vast majority of hockey writers through the decades. More often than not, Cherry has been bang on about what ails hockey and what makes it interesting; from his thoughts on equipment to rules to general insights (insights that have proven to be subtle in their usefulness making mockery of the claim he's simplistic) often overlooked by the mainstream press.

"Mr. Stroumboulopoulos, despite or indeed because of his skinny suits and hollow-eyed ex-rocker gaze, is reportedly out as a host, to be succeeded by the staid, outmoded icon he toppled."

We get it. It was outmoded. You open-minded trend-setters you. Jesus, I would love to meet and slap this person off the side of the head with a Brontasaurus rib.

And what is this? A teeny-bopper show? As an alternate and personal take, I consider myself a man of good taste and sharp dressing and those skinny suits didn't exude professionalism or hipness to me. It just didn't transfer well on television.

"Hockey broadcasting didn’t need some corporate idea of the latest thing, it turns out, and who’s surprised? The pleasures of being a fan are grounded in a conservatism that is hard to explain or justify in a culture of innovation but easy to recognize in a more intimate sports milieu that thrives on familiarity and predictability."

Ah yes. Let's get to the lazy portion of the argument and blame 'conservatism'.

Hockey as a whole, as the G&M knows, is an old boys network where innovation among teams and coaches tends to be limited and copy cat. They circulate and shuffle the same people around when in sometimes, it's probably best to bring in someone from the outside. I get this point.

However, this editorial could have made this point without the dreary and typical disdained arrogance all too common among media today.

And let's not over blow George here as some leitmotif for 'culture of innovation.' He just didn't connect. Why, I don't know and it sounds as though the G&M doesn't either preferring to blow smug steam out of its ass.

I admit to not paying much attention to intermission where sports are concerned. It doesn't interest me to sit and watch a bunch of heads just gargle stuff I pretty much deduced on my own. They all sell themselves as providing real insights but not really. You could have had a muppet hosting and it wouldn't change much.

I was indifferent to George. Not because I didn't like him, I just didn't see the point. But I can see why people may like him.

Michael Strahan on the other hand. Jesus, what is the attraction?

"Mr. MacLean, like the bombastic, irascible Mr. Cherry, has held court for decades, and that very longevity, however imperfect, became part of the draw for hockey regulars."

But you repeat yourself.

Is this a new writing-style technique? To rinse and repeat?

"In a world where change is a little too relentless and beyond our control, hockey can still supply stability and connect people across cultures and generations who otherwise have little in common.

Marketers, for their own mercenary interests, want to shunt us off into demographics and sell us on change. But the habits of hockey are powerful, and every now and then they provide this useful reminder: Sometimes the old ways are the good ones."

Aaaaand then they shift gears a little.

Yeah, sometimes the classics are great but too bad you're to ignorant to see innovation!

Bah humbug.

I look forward to Coach's Corner whenever I'm around. Guess that makes me a conservative dolt. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

If this pisses the media off all the better.

***

I've grown tired of the 'wagging finger' style of media where some journalist incredulously tells their readers what's good for them. The media does seem to think itself as some sort of gatekeeper to 'good tastes' of some sort.

A few years back, and for some reason The G&M article above reminded me of this, the media strangely went hard after Krispy Kreme's incursion into the Canadian market. It was almost as if they were offended that an American company was stepping on Tim Horton's turf. Heck, that probably was exactly why. I digress.

Everyday they were pounding away at how much fat and calories a KK doughnut had vis-a-vis its competitors. It became a farce. 'KK d'nuts have 800 calories versus "just" 770 for a Timmy'! leaving the viewer with the impression KK was *bad* for you when in fact both are basically junk food.

I don't know the details as to why KK has, what, just one location here, but maybe the stupid scare-mongering worked.

Yet, somehow, I doubt they turn down going to Tim Hortons for a doughnut, right?

***

Which, in turn, again with not real rhyme or reason led me to 'cultural appropriation' which I've discussed before. In a nutshell, if you invoke it or believe it to be a legitimate form of intellectualism, you're an idiot. No other way to put it.

No, wait. I apologize.

A profoundly ignorant idiot.

Cultural appropriation, really, at its roots, is a form of insular thinking. It's a metaphor for the current intellectual dark age we're witnessing.

The rise of the welfare state has helped to contribute to the closing of the mind -a shrugging atlas if you will. It leaves people to their own devices locked up in a world of their own vomit and nonsense susceptible to stupidity and quackery.

It's easy to buy into all the crazy shit about climate change, vaccines and patriarchy when you're shut off from facts and reality. And when your little bubble of retardation is threatened, lash out incoherent assertions of 'racism' and 'sexism'. And when that's not enough, just censor and call for people to be imprisoned.

How can it be but a product of intellectual isolation to believe in cultural appropriation?

I personally find the thing about 'dreadlocks' to be interesting. Dreadlocks go back thousands of years and were originally found in Northern European cultures. Only later on did it become connected to Rastafarians. Is this not cultural appropriation? Ironic, no?

In any event, welcome to humanity. One big Amazon shelf of cultural appropriation.

The SJW movement is one big backlash against the values and cultural patterns that have made Western civilization from Athens and Rome onward what it is. Now that we've amassed all this wealth in finance and cultural patrimony it's time to deconstruct it and demand it somehow makes amends to all those offended in the past, present and future.They loathe our values and culture but they sure want the money and wealth it produced to give them what they want.

It's a strange and shameless if not irrational pulsating instinct is it not?

***

I know there's a way to link all of these to form a full circle....but I'm just too lazy at the moment.

Now where's my doughnut?

What's A Leppo?

A leopard-hippo.

And yes, it's as awesome and magical you imagine it to be.

America's Stunning Unfunded Liabilities

"Combining the figures above with the national debt and subtracting the value of federal assets, the federal government had about $76.4 trillion ($76,438,000,000,000) in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations at the close of its 2015 fiscal year."

I've heard and read over the last little while  the number actually crashes pass $100 trillion.

This is a $19 trillion economy. 

Yeah. That's not good.

Not good at all.

Quote Of The Day

"If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly; then I’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt, and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. "

D.H. Lawrence (1908).

Nice.

Those progressive intellects really knew how to get in touch with their humanism, huh?

Know who else thought a lethal chamber was awesome?

Never mind.

Freest Economies

According to the Fraser Institute.

Quick word. Canada once again out ranks the United States.

The U.S. has continued it's slow decline. I believe it was first or second right around Bush II took over and it sank to 6th by the time Obama came into office. It currently sits in 16th.

Not surprising given who has been running the U.S. in the last eight years.

I suspect it's going to further drop once Hillary (or Trump) take over. I don't see a single idea or thought that gives me much hope to think otherwise. It's really that bad.

How Obama can claim the economy is healthy is beyond me to comprehend.

America's leadership problem reminds me of Rome's succession problems that led to all sorts of instability, violence and unrest until Augustus came along. The thing that saved Rome at that time was that despite become an Emperor pretending to run a Republic, Augusts was actually pretty enlightened where matters of free trade and markets were concerned. The Pax Romana was no mistake. It was directly connected to Augustus's wise policies where state control and taxes (and duties) were kept at a minimum.

It's just that, just we're witnessing today, once the money rolls in, the government takes it and makes a mess of it. Think modern progressives like Democrats, Liberals and the NDP. Or more poignantly and starkly, Venezuela. Where there's a source of cash, they raid it.

Thoughts On Tipping And Rethinking Dining Out; Stop The Taxi Permits Racket

We've had to scale back going out to restaurants a little. It's become way too expensive.

It's one thing for inflation to increase prices but the sales taxed charged with the expectation of a tip has made dining out somewhat of a ridiculous exercise.

In Montreal, we're hit with an insidious 15% sales tax which in of itself should be enough to discourage customers. I'm sure it does for some but to what degree I have no clue. However, it doesn't stop there. Then comes the odd notion of entitled tipping where once upon a time 15% was the standard but now (because cost of living!) has inched up to 20%. In another few years, a quarter of the food bill will go to the server.

It's absurd.

First off, living in Quebec is double the expense anywhere on the continent. I have no idea how we tolerate Revenue Quebec. We already pay Revenue Canada but in the la-la of a wannabe independent rebellious child, we have Quebec masking as a 'nation' collecting taxes. This alone has me strongly considering leaving now that I've come understand it's actually eroding my wealth. How anyone who earns good money hasn't arrived at this rational conclusion is beyond me to comprehend. I marvel at people who can up and leave on a dime stay here. I'd be gone in a flash. I understand the family roots angle but even then...pas sur.

Second,  tipping basically amounts to the customer subsidizing the restaurant owner. It's not my job to give a tip because they're not paid enough and need to earn a 'living wage'. Aside from the fact no one forces anybody to take a job in that industry, they can demand their employers pay them more. And if they did succeed, this would have to come with the understanding the culture of tipping is over.

It's also a strange exercise in guilt tripping where if you're seen as a bad tipper you're a bad person. I've swung the other way now. Too often mediocre and sub-par servers just expect to get their tip. Lost is the art of exchange whereby the server provides optimum service to justify an added financial perk. But with the guilt associated with an implicit sense of entitlement, we've removed this right accorded to the customer. Often, the person just tips even when poorly served.

Not me anymore. You treat me poorly or at least to the level I expect (and lemme tell ya it's not a high standard. Wouldn't want people to actually push harder) you're gonna get 10% - and be lucky you get that because if the guilt train didn't run so deep, it would be nothing.

Mathematically it's become untenable. A meal that costs $40 becomes $55 because the government and restaurant tipping culture have their hands in it.

So for us it's come down to take-out from restaurants we like and in some cases food trucks (where the idiot government doesn't involve itself destroying it through impossible regulations while protecting its cronies).

In doing so, we get back to a rational customer-restaurant relationship and exchange we prefer.

***

Which indirectly, where customer service, brings us to Uber and the war with traditional Taxis.

Seems to me this whole episode is easily avoidable as it is tiresome.

That is, stop the artificial barrier to entry through charging for a permit.  Supply-side economics is about as rational as a racoon with  rabies. Taxi drivers, it goes, are upset Uber is not playing by the rules by not paying a fee to enter the racket market. I understand the frustration but they should be directing their anger at the government.

Get rid of the license fees and go compete for consumer dollars. 

To me this is the crux of the debate, the government doesn't want to lose that money and Taxis don't want to compete. 

People are mistakenly conflating the granting of a monopoly with 'safety' and 'service'. All a permit does is just that, distort a market.

You can have a healthy market environment with sensible laws, rules and regulations without paying $250 000.

Uber is crucial to the notion of an innovative market. People need to feel they can come up with a product or service without having to face onerous and artificial obstacles.

Uber, to me, is the market of free people smashing up an unhealthy monopoly.

Wednesday Night Music

The Wells Fargo Scam

Elizabeth Warren is gonna chime in on this right...right?

Of course not.

"Wells Fargo has habitually tried to cultivate a reputation as “the good bank.” Its executives maintain with pride that they stay away from high-risk investment products, and focus on traditional banking, with the highest ethical standards. 

Except for the part where bank employees created over 2 million fake accounts in their customers’ names."

Buffett owns so much stock in this and is the right kind of people. Not like those 'deplorables' or 'crazies' as Greenspan worries. 

Lord me, they can't hold back their contempt for people.

Straight up securities fraud from a miserable ward of the state this Wells Fargo.

Quite the shocking story.

Compost This

They're enforcing composting in the municipality (a small town with a menacing government not above using Mafia-like tactics) where I own my business.

While composting is not a bad thing (my grandfather was doing it before it was cool), it is a pain in the ass particularly with my business.

Of course, like everything else in North America, I don't have a choice. Do it...or else.

Which made me think about voting. I'm moving more and more towards the camp that believes voting is a waste of time. Bureaucrats run the show. Not the politicians. And you can't vote civil servants out.

An efficient and (hopefully) enlightened bureaucracy is necessary for the administering of a country.

Except, we don't have an efficient or enlightened bureaucracy.

Far from it. It's often petty and vulnerable to the shrill fads that afflict a particular era (ie climate change).

Basically, I vote in a face who then sits on a council making decisions on our behalf (regardless if they campaigned on it or not) that we must follow or face a consequence.

In other words, I give them the honor of using force against me.

That's all it is.

Composting is simply not for everyone. It's a preferred activity for sure but to use government force (ie fines) via inspectors is, as I've often argued here, invalid to a free society.

The more you rely on force to 'progress' a society, the weaker it is.

Modern Media: Weep

Marching orders. Shut up and do as we say.

Truly pathetic.

These are not journalists.

They're sycophants.

As useless as they come.

More Twitter Classics

Josh Barro ✔ @jbarro
I'm not sure it's right, but there's an argument to be made that this episode will improve Clinton's image.
Follow
Josh Barro ✔ @jbarro
It shows her doing her best to grit her teeth and work hard even with pneumonia. And it's humanizing, relatable.
6:11 PM - 11 Sep 2016 · New York, USA, United States

Yes, very humanizing.

Or.

It could show she has a complete disregard for others. Which, knowing what we know of her, is in complete character.

Let me know if you ever get pneumonia how your employer reacts if you show up like an irresponsible ding-a-ling, Josh.

Deep Thoughts With Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias Verified account ‏@mattyglesias

"You don't see people overheating in Canada and Sweden where they have single-payer health care and less inequality."

How's that for an Yglesiasism?

Could you be anymore ignorant, vacuous and banal?

Les Deplorables

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” she said to applause and laughter. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

Gee, whatever happened to uniting a nation and civil discourse, eh?

This kind of progressive arrogance should surprise no one. It's par for the course really.

I'm not sure what's to be gained by attacking voters rather than the candidate. Again, it's just another example of the breathtaking contempt for people living between New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles; the so-called fly over country.

I don't know what it's going to take for people to realize the left aren't on the side of the people, their liberty or small business. Rather, they revere government and big business.

It's interesting to note the same people who chastise Americans (and Canadians for that matter) for being stupid are the product of the progressive education system they seek to preserve and enhance. Is this not an admittance of failure?

It's not that hard to see the source of all things said to be bad in our society. Where there's an epidemic of obesity, scratch and find the government's irrational war on fat that led to people over loading on carbs. McDonald's gets to be the scapegoat in this ridiculous scenario.

Indeed, the whole point of progressivism is to run contrary to human nature and the course of history (ironic given they claim classical liberalism/libertarianism is not practical) by redesigning, redefining and revising all the parts that don't fit the narrative of how they conceptualize what constitutes a great civilization - and all the distortions that came with it.

This is the core of progressive principles.

Les deplorables indeed. 

Social Media Presidency: Get Used To The Selfie Way

Obama is the first social media president. What does this mean?

If social media remains in its current state. Not much. In fact, it's a troublesome development.

Social media feeds into our worse superficial desires. Just Tweet and away you go. Nothing substantial needed to back it up.

Gone are the days of the 'philosopher-king' type leader (if it ever existed or at least a time when we hoped and strove to have such leaders) pondering deeply about their decisions.

Obama is the master at feigning being a 'chess player' but really engaging in Connect Four. I see little in his foreign policy that can be construed as enlightening or as supporters in the base like to claim 'paradigm shifting'.

Egypt? If you claim, I guess, knocking Mubarak out for the Muslim Brotherhood and unleashing a wave of violence as success. The little hole in that logic, though, is it's usually asserted that taking out a dictator like Hussein in Iraq was a mistake. Of course, little else about the human rights abuses he committed are discussed.

Libya? How did Hillary put it? We came, we saw, he died about Khaddafi?  Libya was probably worse to the extent it further destabilized North Africa (while doing a favor for France and Sarkozy as the story goes and let's not bring up Benghazi) for no real purpose other than to say 'Arab spring' all without Congressional approval. 30 plus years of careful diplomacy erased. Just like that. And with no plan to replace him!

Boy, talk about a short season that was.

Then along came Syria with its red lines and outright bizarre decisions by the Obama administration. In sum, basically, all they accomplished was to go head to head with Russia (and lose) in wanting to oust a third dictator in Assad while supporting the Syrian rebels who, in turn, were backed up by ISIS, in which were getting American arms through the former.

And we're to think Gary Johnson is the ignorant and crazy one for not knowing where Aleppo is?

Let's not focus on the President who made a real mess but let's go after Johnson! Never mind Obama's own gaffes in the last eight years.

I highly doubt the moronic pundits - supremely and disturbingly comfortable in their pitifully partisan ignorance and arrogance - knew much about the history of Aleppo.

Leaving aside its long and interesting history (from Silk Road to Ottoman control) ask people like Joe Scarborough why is Aleppo important where the Syrian civil war is concerned? Who have a stake and who are the players? Who controls what and why? How do the EU, USA and Russia play into this? 

Remember, Aleppo is an ancient city pretty much reduced to an existential identity. Why is it an issue all of a sudden?

Heck, I bet Obama didn't know half this crap and likely had to be briefed about how Aleppo is Syria's oldest and longest inhabitable city standing at the crossroads of many cultures throughout the centuries not unlike Sicily and perhaps Venice.


Of course, you see, it's not Obama's fault because Iraq. And Bush. This singular action forced his hand.

Is this true?

On the balance, the short answer is no. Iraq didn't have any bearing on North Africa. Syria kinda indirectly does but lest we forget Obama wanted to intervene militarily!

Moving over to the non-Arab portion of the Mid-east comes the Iran deal.

A vainglorious endeavor if there ever was one. Iran is a theocracy that was, simply and frankly, not in a stage of its political existence to negotiate in good faith which would lead to a path to normalized relations. I suspect the Americans knew this but Obama didn't care is my hunch. What he understands is the 'snap shot' superficiality of sound-bite history. This is what matters now.

It is of little or no consequence what the actual results will be. And judging by how Iran is acting, pretty much as expected. It's just a piece of paper to them with no real binding glue to compel them to honor it.

Obama wanted another legacy deal to go along with Cuba and Obamacare.

The former likely to get nowhere as long as Castro is in power and the former being a spectacular spectacle of failures and another showcase of government corruption and ineptness.

This is the new pattern of governance.

Lest we be confused, Canada under Trudeau has undertaken the same exact path. The selfie prevails over the substance.

Have mercy on the United States.

And Canada.

Excluding Quebec Residences

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is frustrated when it comes to wanting to participate in various contests across North America only to read the fine print 'Excluding Quebec residences'.

I have no idea what the reason or origins of this are but I have a suspicion it may be language related.

It's quite disappointing (and somewhat embarrassing). Over the years my wife and daughter would listen eagerly to Radio Disney hoping to enter contests only to be told 'not open to Quebec residences'.

What else is new with this province? It all funnels through into the prism of language.

Really, it's like railing against the wind. But it's curious as it is instructive as it is not surprising.

Quebec cuts itself off from the continent in several ways.

I want to feel a part of this continent; not cut off from it.

Then they wonder why this place trails and lags in so many areas.

Quote Of The Day

"Theodore Dalrymple unmasks the hidden sentimentality that is suffocating public life. Under the multiple guises of raising children well…and doing good generally, we are achieving quite the opposite — for the single purpose of feeling good about ourselves."

Book review. 

Reminds me of the shrill hysterics displayed by people whenever they freak out seeing a kid walking alone or Harambe or Cecil the Lion or whatever. That is, they act with indignant faux moral rage.

It's nauseating.

I wonder how many of them first instinct is to whip out their little stupid iPhone cameras and take to Twitter (land of the twits) to publicly shame rather than, you know, actually help a fellow human out.

Nah. Easier to play nanny on the internet. 

 

 

Quebec Continues To Act Like A Banana Republic: Living On A Linguistic Prayer

Why Quebec is a laggard in North American reason 394959566:

"An eye specialist has been temporarily barred from practicing in Quebec because he failed the OQLF's written French proficiency test.


Le Devoir reports Dr. Amer Omar was suspended by the College of Physicians on July 1, after he spent the previous three years practicing under temporary work permits.
 
He's the only eye doctor in the province specializing in genetic retinal disease, and he won't be able to practice again until at least next month, when he gets another crack at the exam.
 
The 37-year-old doctor, originally from Egypt, has lived in Canada for the last 15 years, is married to a French Quebecer, and speaks fluent French. He has also spent the last year brushing up on his written French — without success."

And that my friends is Quebec lunacy in a nut shell. How's that for building an advanced society!

Nationalists keep telling me Anglos politicize everything. But it's usually the 'reaction to something stupid' kind and here's a prime example of it. Think of it. He's the only doctor of his kind in the province and the province is putting a lousy proficiency test before the health of patience.

We should be proud of this and working to bring more like him here.

Instead, we're full-throttle stupid. We have no business making fun of Trump on any level because we are a Trump inspired place. It's right there in action.

Is Couillard, as a physician, even paying attention? Decent and sensible Quebecers need to really speak up at this point lest 'la chute de Montreal' continues unabated.

The OLF are an embarrassing blithe on the province's landscape with way too much power who offer nothing.

Worse that that, Quebec is out of its fricken mind if it thinks this has no impact on potential talent relocating here. Last I checked, we're not exactly a hub of innovative activity at the moment and there's plenty of reasons for this. Superficial barriers to entry based on language is one of them; an entry NO JURISDICTION in North America demands I might remind. Proficiency exams are as productive as they're discriminatory.

Le Journal de Montreal recently ran a couple of articles about how successful Anglo education institutions are. Minority and Anglo graduation rates have always been higher than they are on the Franco side and much of it is standards as it is cultural. The same can be said of English hospitals.

How absurd are things? As if French hospitals aren't in need of serious upgrade, nationalists think it's a swell idea to enter English institutions and demand there's 'too much English.'

Let's race to the bottom! All for language.

It's only something old immigrants figured, what, 100 years ago and proceeded accordingly.

Apart from the staggering display of cultural dissonance whereby they seem to act as though the Anglo community are an obscurity, it never occurs to them to say, 'Hey man. What are you guys doing right?'

Even within itself Quebec is insular.

No wonder Toronto blew Montreal right...out...of...the...water.