Open Letter to Premier McGuinty and Mayor Miller

Mr. Dalton McGuinty & Mr. David Miller:

It is time to take a stand against the work stoppage that is turning this city into a post-apocalyptic landscape. How dare these unions hold us hostage for pay increases and extravagant benefits that are so completely out of step with the economic times? How dare the two of you let them?

Mr. McGuinty’s CBC interview July 7th where he is quoted to have said: "The garage is starting to stink a little bit, but it's not the end of the world." sounds more than a little bourgeois to voters who don't have garages, and are having raccoons drag garbage all over their yards and streets. This is a politician who has clearly lost touch with the circumstances of the people he represents. Let them eat cake, indeed.

Garbage isn't the only issue;

Toronto parents and their children are having their precious and short Canadian summer ruined by closed pools and other facilities. Cancelled day camps which many parents had counted on as an enriching alternative to daycare (as well as the daycares themselves being shut) are causing parents to use precious vacation (not banked sick days) to care for kids who have no place else to go. Who is going to take responsibility for the kids who have been forced into hastily assembled unlicensed daycares as a result of this strike?

Summer students who were hired by the city at Centreville or as lifeguards are losing out on the short window they have to earn some money. Will they be comforted by the fact that city workers get to bank sick days while they wait tables to pay off massive student loans until 2025?

Where will the public sector unions’ stranglehold over taxpayers end? How long will people tolerate their RRSPs being eviscerated by falling markets, and suffering pay cuts and layoffs while taxes are increasing to pay for outlandish benefits such as banked sick days and indexed pensions for the ‘labour elite’?

Unionized workers in the private sector know that their earnings are somewhat limited by the earnings of the company they work for, and are bound by self interest to ensure that company stays in business. Governments don’t go out of business; they just keep raising taxes… What kind of counterbalance is there against public sector unions? How much will the property taxes of semi-employed and under-employed Torontonians increase in order to pay for a lavish guaranteed retirement income for CUPE members?

Toronto isn’t just wealthy Rosedale, Riverdale, Chaplin and Allenby… It’s also St. James Town, Regent Park and Parkdale where poor immigrants first settle. It’s also Danforth-Lumsden with its tiny insulbrick bungalows where many young families start out, struggling to live within the city limits. It is those people – the people who elected you, and are counting on you – who you are letting down.

It is time to represent the voters of Toronto who put you both where you are today. Take a stand against public sector union greed. Legislating CUPE back to work and ordering them to accept what’s on the table is certainly an option, though given how many unemployed people would be thrilled to accept a job under the terms offered by the city, why not draw one name at random every 15 minutes from the list of the 24000 striking workers, fire that person, and replace them with someone who needs the work. I’m sure the strike would end in no time.

Here's to you, Tin Foil Hat Crowd

In the year 2000, Paul Wolfowitz and Robert Zoellick (among many others) created the now famous document called "Rebuilding America's Defenses" released by the Conservative think-tank The Project For a New American Century, which called for something like the events of 9/11 to generate the moral traction among the American Citizenry for some otherwise unpopular military exploits, namely Iraq and Afghanistan.

9/11 happens, as announced, and the resulting expeditionary wars proceed to drive the U.S. into massive deficit, the White House response to which is a campaign of "Patriotic Spending" where citizens are encouraged (through bizarre banking policies that suddenly ignore the ability to pay) to take equity out of their inflated homes and buy big-screen TVs, iPods and all manner of disposable extruded plastic goodies from China.

The day of reckoning comes, over-leveraged households and over-leveraged U.S. banks begin a cascading collapse. Jobs are being lost, and American consumers are no longer buying Chinese manufactured goods. The solution to this, from the new U.S. President is to print trillions upon trillions of U.S. Dollars, with the predictable result of devaluing the currency.

China, now feeling the loss of GDP AND holding more US debt than any other country in the world - in U.S. currency that will soon be worth $0.75 on the dollar - calls today for a new global currency run by the International Monetary Fund - Current President: Robert Zoellick, preceded by: Paul Wolfowitz.

I'm not drinking the Bilderburg/New World Order kool aid yet, but it is fascinating that what those crazy conspiracy theorists have been predicting is slowly unfolding before our eyes, and the same names keep popping up over and over.

Hmmmmm....

The New Hate

Western Liberal Democrats are increasingly using the term 'Zionism' to find new and interesting ways to express their hatred of Jews. It seems that support for Israel has somehow become the exclusive domain of Conservative politics and Liberals have become the new Anti-Semites under the euphemistic cover of ‘Anti-Zionism’.

Articles like this one in the L.A. Times make the preposterous suggestion that if only Jews would abandon the idea of Israel, there would be sudden and instant peace in the Middle East. Not only is this false, it is offensive. It is the logical equivalent of sending all American Blacks to Africa in order to end racism. One must assume that such a complete collapse of logic can only be a result of a healthy dose of self-loathing on the part of the Jewish author.

Why would Israelis, (or anyone for that matter) want to subject themselves to the socio-political conditions that would prevail should Israel be handed over to the Palestinians? Even with Israel gone, what’s to stop Hamas, Hezbollah and their ilk from going after the assets of individual Jews? This won’t stop until either there is nothing left to covet or until the Jews themselves are dispersed, and Israel is reduced to a bombed out dusty ruin like it’s hostile neighboring countries.

It’s not clear at this point which Western Liberal/Democrats are being duped into supporting Anti-Semitism through a lack of attention to political detail, and which ones have just found a new way of showing a pre-existing hatred of Jews without being lumped in with Hitler. With every passing week it seems more of them are declaring themselves.

We’ve already seen Neo Nazis marching alongside masked Islamists shouting anti-Jewish slogans in the streets of Calgary. If this doesn't frighten you, then you haven't read much history.

So is this a principled stand by the Left against occupations in general and Zionism in particular, or is it just good old fashioned Jew-hating? It helps to look at some facts...

First of all, everybody in North America except it's Indigenous People can give up the moral high-ground right now. We are all occupying land that until very recently belonged to them. Native people are to this very day, kept segregated from our society in a system of Reservations and Treaties. Naturally, one would expect Sid Ryan to be either advocating replacing Parliament with Native Tribal councils, or buying a one-way ticket to Ireland, right? Nope.

Second, everyone on this planet is currently living on land that at various points in history belonged to someone else. Abandoning Israel due to a successful campaign of terror sends a chilling message to any marginalized ethnic or religious group with nothing to lose: Terrorism works. If you kill once you're a murderer. If you kill thousands or millions you're a freedom fighter.

Third, how do 'Anti-Zionists' decide that we should turn the clock back on Israel, but allow other artificial nation-states (such as most of Africa) to not only exist, but to rape and pillage their ethnic minorities at will?

The list of doublethink from the Left surrounding the state of Israel is long. Among the more bizarre mental incongruities is that of misogyny and homophobia on the part of the people they champion in the Middle East. How the Left can support a movement such as Hamas that would tear down every bit of social progress it has made in the past 100 years the moment it got into power - along with beheading anyone who opposed the process - is a question for the philosophers.

The tragedy is these people are so blinded by arrogance, so convinced they have easy answers, that they don't even realize they may be next on the list.

Bob Rae admits CBC is a mouthpiece for the extreme left...

Bob Rae says that the Conservative government is using the recession as cover to gut the CBC

"They are taking advantage of the crisis to show their prejudice and their partisanship," Rae told reporters after criticizing the government during question period for underfunding the national network.

Now... How could cutting the CBC's budget be seen as a partisan maneuver unless we all accept the fact that the CBC exclusively presents the views of the extreme Left in a positive light, while routinely deriding centrist and right wing views?

And if we accept Mr.Rae's assertion as the truth, along with it's corollary that there is no publicly funded media outlet that presents Conservative views in Canada, then we are faced with a sort of reversal of the original attack.

It is the status quo which is partisan and prejudiced, and Bob Rae wants to keep it that way.

You can read this insult to the intelligence of a 10 year old here. Also notice that The Toronto Star put a stop to comments on the story after only 62 comments.

Barenaked Ladies Lose Front-man... Front-man keeps double-chin.

Steven Page is leaving the band to pursue a solo career.

A questionable though not entirely unpredictable decision due to his recent rock star antics.

This can go one of two ways... Either it's the I Mother Earth/Edwin paradigm where they're great together, and after the split neither band nor lead singer are ever heard from again.

OR

Matthew Good Band/Matthew Good where the front-man is 90% of the band and goes on to make his best stuff (Champions of Nothing... Best.Song.Ever.)

I suspect it's the former in this case, and that Page is throwing away hard-earned commercial recognition in the US for vanity alone. Sure he's got a great pop voice, but he's in a novelty band, and much the same way that nobody wants to see Hootie without the Blowfish, Page risks becoming roadkill on the rock n roll highway.

Canadian Gun Laws Empower Criminals

There was another shooting on the Toronto public transit system yesterday. This time, it seems a man in his 40s saw fit to brazenly shoot and pistol-whip a 17 year-old boy in full view of a busload of witnesses.

Once again, David Miller has come out to 'work the numbers' and try to convince us that the TTC (and Toronto by extension) is still 'relatively' safe. Compared to what? Darfur?

Miller has also repeated his semi-retarded call for the banning of all handguns. Apparently nobody has let him in on the fact that handguns are already considered prohibited weapons across Canada.

There are two problems with this approach:

1. It assumes that the very few people who are permitted to own antique handguns or participate in sport-shooting through an exhaustive process of police checks are the source of handguns on the streets of Toronto, through a combination of break-ins and poor storage practices.

2. It ignores the fact that criminals BY DEFINITION do not feel constrained by the law!

Ask yourself, what's more likely... That a criminal will break in to a random home (in which there is probably not a gun) and crack a safe (in which there is probably not a gun) with the potential payoff of someone's great-great-great-Grandfathers black powder musket, OR that he will take a drive across the border, walk into a store with some fake ID, and buy a Glock for $500 he earned dealing weed?

See where this is going?

Canada can pass laws all day long. Guns exist. They cannot be un-invented, and we share the world's longest undefended border with a country that has a constitutional guarantee to provide easy access to guns. Criminals don't give a damn about our gun laws. The crimes of armed robbery and murder (which they ostensibly plan to commit WITH their guns) carry far worse sentences than simply possessing a prohibited weapon. One cannot rationally argue that ANY Canadian gun law, no matter how 'strong' will deter criminals from using the tools of their trade in this country.

So this is the point where the (mostly Liberal/NDP) people at the dinner party (who have been fed a steady diet of 'put the genie back in the bottle' gun control) admit they don't have a solution, and ask for mine.

They never like what I say, but here it is: ARM THE GOOD GUYS.

"Oh but more guns mean more shootings!" They cry.

"Oh but you're advocating for vigilante justice!" The outrage mounts.

Poppycock. We need more guns, and we need to put them in the hands of the right people.

How likely would Marc Lepine have been able to complete his deliberate execution of 14 women in 1989 if just one or two of them were armed? Look at all the other high-profile examples: Dawson College, Taber, Jane Creba's boxing day murder on Yonge Street, as well as the recent TTC shootings...

If these guys knew they'd probably be shot dead within seconds of firing their first round, they might actually find alternative ways to resolve their conflicts/mental illnesses.

Instead, gunmen are increasingly having running gun battles in our streets in broad daylight because they know the flock of sheep around them will do exactly nothing. They don't have the means.

Case in point - Vermont is a U.S. State where there are virtually no gun laws. You can buy one in a store, and while you're in Vermont, you can carry that gun, loaded or unloaded, concealed or on your belt, wherever and whenever you like. Vermont is the second lowest for violent crime in the U.S.

The number 1 state for violent crime is California, which also happens to have some of the toughest gun laws.

Hospital Wait Times... Still Suck

The Ontario Ministry of Health has announced that it plans to reduce Emergency Room wait times.

On it's face, this sounds like good news, until you read the fine print, and realize that these wait times will be "improved" to between 4 and 8 hours! This bitter little pill is conveniently omitted from the Ministry's PR page on the plan.

This news is actually a staggering admission of just how broken our health care system is. Can you imagine how long the wait times are today, if 4-8 hours is seen as an improvement??

The Ministry says that it has taken examples of best practices from Hospitals such as St. Mikes which has some of the lowest wait times in the province and plans to adopt those same practices in other Ontario hospitals. Better watch out though... Looks like St. Mikes has been employing some dubious methodology to keep their ER waiting rooms uncluttered.

I would love to see a class action suit against the government by people who's loved ones died due to lack of treatment because they didn't want to be abused like cattle in the ER, or worse yet, died in the ER while waiting for treatment.

It is unconscionable that the government attempts to prevent you from legally obtaining private health care, while at the same time they fail to provide an adequate level of care themselves. Of course that doesn't apply to everyone. We have a thriving 2 tier health-care system in Canada. Do you think this nation's politicians would allow themselves to be trapped in the system they've designed for the underclass? No way! There are elite private health clinics sprouting up all over the place for those who have the means not to have to mingle with those of us in steerage class. So if you're worried about 2-tier health care you can stop worrying and start panicking... It's already here.

Of course it doesn't have to be this way. Canada is one of the only OECD countries with a public health-care system that refuses to incorporate some form of private delivery due to an ideological predisposition to believe that everything private is evil and everything public is safe. The result of this stance is two disparate systems evolving side-by side. One for Members of The Party and other elite, and one that's sub-standard for everyone else. That should scare you a lot more than an entrepreneur buying an MRI machine and running tests for a reasonable fee.