Canada is Free and Freedom is Its Nationality

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sunday, November 28, 2010

1 megawatt of power = 5 jobs lost


Spain, once heralded as the model for the future of green economies has proposed slashing subsidies to solar and wind power by 30%, and is expected to withdraw financial backing for renewable power plants after economists discovered, too late, that every megawatt of renewable power generated cost five Spanish jobs (Ontario, having cribbed Spain's model, is just now confronting its own electrical cost reckoning).

Just what we need, more jobs lost in Ontario!

Thanks McGuinty and Smitherman.

Hats


As some of you may know I have a thing about hats. I like hats. I love hats. So you can imagine that even if I wasn't a monarchist already, the news that the royal engagement is likely to cause an upsurge in hat popularity would have filled me with the warm and fuzzies. And yet, on the other hand, what do you do when you find your personal fashion statement becoming a popular fad? Drop it in the interests of staying unique? Follow along and let everyone think you are a mindless trend follower? The questions that women have to grapple with.

Hat picture from my favorite hat shop, Beau Chapeau in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Quote of the Day

I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. ... I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943

Monday, November 22, 2010

Money, Money, Money by the Pound

Is required to keep the wheels of revolution turning. (Cue evil laugh)

But we will refrain from imposing crop seizure on any peasants who may be reading my blog. We will just turn the thumb screws on your conscience and point out that if you really believed in freedom of speech you would support those on the front line...

"Fee Speech" Fundraiser for arrested Carleton Students.

JDL Chanukah Party to support Blazing Cat Fur on December. Honestly I'd like to go, but only if they have the purple kitty menorah.

And any spare cash you have lying around could go to support the great and wonderful Binks. Either that or some strategic purchases on his Amazon account.

Oh yes, and if you like Miss Marprelate and know of any spare jobs lying around, you could chuck them this way. There, that is my shameless pitch for the month. Got it over with, back to politics.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Airport Security

Look it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when the Toronto Star is campaigning for the "Israelification" of airport security, that maybe this would be a good idea. It isn't like that kind of statement comes naturally to them after all.

And it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that evacuating Pearson terminal as a first response to a suspicious bag is not really a great idea. Actually let me amend that, it doesn't even come up to the level of an idea.

It also shouldn't come as a particular surprise to anyone that some people aren't crazy about getting sexually molested in order to fly on an airplane. Think I'm exaggerating? How would you describe this? “I was wearing shorts at the time – between the underwear, right on the skin, all the way around the back, all the way around my front, 360 degrees, touched inappropriately,”

And no it doesn't make me feel much better that it is same-sex pat-downs. After all, I have this sneaking suspicion that they aren't allowed to discriminate against gay and lesbian TSA officers. And frankly I don't want anyone touching me there regardless of orientation.

But it is wonderful to know that apparently Muslim women who wear hijabs don't, or shouldn't, have to go through a pat down. According to CAIR anyway.

  • Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.

  • Instead of the pat-down, you can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands
  • That would be after you demanded to know why you were selected for screening, if it had anything to do with your wearing a hijab, and probably threatening to sue for discrimination.

    Web page complete with contact info for CAIR, apparently in case these guidelines aren't followed by the TSA.


    CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, or 202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

    The ACLU, in one of it's rare fits of usefulness, supplies a handy form for you to file a complaint.

    In related news a woman is suing because she was publicly exposed during a search, and experienced crude jokes from airport staff.

    And to make it all better, you have as much chance of getting cancer from the naked scanners as being a victim of a terrorist bombing.

    But you can sue and send the TSA people to jail for up to three years if you can prove they acted inappropriately.

    That's nice.

    But I'll bet nearly impossible.

    So how far is too far in the name of security?

    Discuss.

    Wednesday, November 17, 2010

    Caledonia Part 2

    Not only did law and order break down in Caledonia due to political correctness, those who want to speak about it are shut down by political correctness.

    Christie Blatchford, a Governor-General award winner, wrote a book on Caledonia and got shut down by students at the University of Waterloo in an Ann Coulter reprise, presumably without the "Go back to America" slogans.

    Remind me again why ANYONE thinks that universities are bastions of free speech, diversity, or intelligence?

    Interestingly, no one shut down George Galloway, the students just protested in the designated areas, even though many strongly disagreed with him.

    Buy Helpless: Caledonia's Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us

    Monday, November 15, 2010

    Fix the United States Budget

    Ohhh I like fun little toys. And right now, the New York Times has the funnest little toy of all fun little toys on their website called..... Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget. Cue little squeals of delight and hand rubbing from all the political geeks and junkies who like nothing better than a five minute fix to vital questions of international importance.

    So here you go ladies and gentlemen, how would you fix the budget? Do tell in the comment section. I am almost scared to put my results up, because I didn't take a great deal of time doing this and I am sure everyone will disagree with my answers, if for completely different reasons. However I did manage to eliminate both the short and long term deficit while ringing up a surplus.

    My results.

    Marmalade's Report on the FTFF

    Miss Marprelate attended the First Annual Free Thinking Film Festival this weekend and parachutes back to give a full report, or at least a full report of the movies she watched, due to overlapping schedules she regretfully missed some.

    First off, great event and very glad I went. Some wonderful movies, terrific discussion panel, and I liked the Havarti and grapes.

    The first evening got off to a rocky start with the movie Kalifornistan, which elicited a mixed response. Most of the (few) people I talked to hated the thing, myself included. It was an avant-garde movie based on the premise that the cause of terrorism is sexual repression and mental insanity (Not, for example, a religious devotion and worldview), featuring an exotic dancer and deranged terrorist. It was, to be really frank, stupid, offensive, liberal, and disturbing.

    One sentence review: Worst movie I ever watched, don't even think about buying it.

    The next morning things improved drastically with the movie Katyn, about the massacre of 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviets. It followed a few of the officers and their families in a gripping award-winning narrative film, which was nominated for an Oscar. I found it to be extremely powerful, moving, and actually very Christian movie. It did have some moments of very intense violence for those who are concerned about that, for example when they were executing the officers one by one as the officers were reciting the Lord's Prayer.

    One sentence review: Not for children, but incredibly powerful and superbly crafted.

    I changed gears for the next movie, a Michael Moore style documentary called Mine Your Own Business. It covered three proposed mining projects in Romania, Madagascar, and Chile which have all been virulently opposed by environmentalists. Meanwhile the local people are looking forward to getting a decent job at the mine and climbing out of poverty, a dream that is in peril due to environmentalists pressure. One notable moment in the movie was when an environmentalist who makes about $100,000 a year claims (not exact quote) that in this little village success is not measured in things like money, health, nutrition, or education but in smiles. And as rich people are more stressed and less happy these people don't want better jobs.

    One sentence review: Good movie, interesting, not kind to environmentalists.

    Afterwards Ezra Levant and Elizabeth May squared off on the oil sands. Ezra focused on how we should increase Canadian oil production because it is so much more ethical than other oil sources. Elizabeth May thought that was like coming up with better child labor conditions. She preferred to talk about our lack of a national energy strategy and how we need more manufacturing, less oil, and a way to get oil to the Maritimes without building a pipeline through green areas (alternative not expounded upon). CPAC was there recording it, so it will probably be broadcast by them at some point.

    Generation Zero opened up Sunday afternoon with probably the most important documentary I saw at the festival. It focused on cycles of culture in history, and how the current economic collapse (which is just beginning) is a failure of morality. They cover a lot of stuff like the bank's completely irresponsible lending, which the governments (right and left) happily bailed them out of. In other words, we have privatized profits and nationalized risks, but capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, it doesn't work.

    One sentence review: Very important documentary vital to understanding why we are where we are, and where we are going.

    Mr. Conservative went on my list of not so great films. In the interests of full disclosure, I watched about ten minutes of it, decided that this was going to be a waste of time, and skipped out to watch one of the other movies. However I got the report afterwards from someone who did stick it out, and was glad I didn't. Apparently Goldwater was a libertarian, not a conservative. His wife started Planned Parenthood in their state, he was pro-gay, and very anti the religious right.

    One sentence review: Not my cup of tea, could be yours.

    The panel discussion afterwards with Terry Glavin, John Robson, Karen Selick, and Joseph Ben Ami was great however.Unfortunately I missed the first part of Joseph Ben Ami's speech but liked what I heard. I also loved John Robson's definition of conservative as "metaphysical sanity" because we don't demand more of the universe than it can give. And he quoted Chesterton, so two thumbs up. I have to read him much more, he is fantastic (Robson, I already knew Chesterton was fantastic). At the very end they were talking about the connection between conservatives and libertarians, how we can dialog, etc, and Ben Ami and Robson both said that abortion is the litmus test, basically if we can't agree on that we can't agree on anything and we can't even really come to the table together. Which was a surprising thing for them to say there. They also said you cannot be a conservative without being a social conservative (at an event hosted by a gay conservative), or at least Robson said that straight out, Ben Ami was slightly more convoluted but that is what he believes. VladTepes blog was recording that, and he says it will be on his blog and probably the free thinking film website eventually.

    We Need to Talk, which I watched in between Mr. Conservative and the panel discussion, was an interesting pro-abstinence, pro-father, pro-life, pro-Christian movie about ten black women from Chicago who had made some mistakes in their lives, and were now giving advice to younger women on how to avoid falling into the same traps. They spoke about how having intimate relationships outside the covenant (yes they used that word) of marriage was like an amputation, giving parts of yourself away to multiple guys. How they regretted their abortions more than anything else, how the loss of their fathers led them to search for male affirmation in all the wrong ways, and how that desire for love and affirmation can never be filled outside of a relationship with Christ. The only thing I regretted was that the message seemed incomplete, because they showed the negatives of a broken life well, but were weak on the positives of a whole life.

    One sentence review: Due to my last regret I cannot quite rave about the movie, but otherwise excellent.

    All in all I am glad I went. It would be unreasonable, I suppose, to expect that I would love every movie. My strongest regret was that I had to miss so many of the other ones due to overlapping schedules, but that is not a bad regret.

    The FTFF left me wanting more. Good job to you all.

    Thursday, November 11, 2010

    Remembrance Day


    A link back to last year's Remembrance Day post, featuring my brother's amazing WWI serial story that was published in the Pembroke Daily Observer.

    Tuesday, November 9, 2010

    Shock in Oklahoma

    The ACLU Oklahoma is supporting a lawsuit that would allow US judges to make ruling with reference to Old Testament/Torah law and ecclesiastical traditions.

    Or rather, that is, as they are reflected in Sharia law.

    A recent Oklahoma constitutional amendment that prohibits judges from taking international law or sharia law into consideration has been put on hold as it may violate the US Constitution. It has been denounced as Islamaphobic, and discriminatory because it will prevent Muslims from participating in things like getting married, writing wills, forming contracts, etc if they want to incorporate Sharia elements into those things (Personally I strongly doubt that, actually I am sure it won't.) Alternately they also denounce it as unnecessary because no Oklahoma Muslim has ever dreamed of wanting Sharia taken into consideration by courts. Not sure which story they will eventually stick with.

    A lawsuit against the amendment is being brought by CAIR.

    http://www.edmondsun.com/local/x1364884942/Anti-sharia-measure-faces-legal-challenge

    Monday, November 8, 2010

    The Very Model of a Modern US President

    I often try to avoid traipsing into the morass of American politics and endless Obama jokes. But I do like Gilbert and Sullivan.



    Link if the crazy thing doesn't want to show up properly. Don't ask me why it won't. Things I am not good at. Anything computer related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54FRMedT_s