Call me a traditionalist, but doesn’t something seem just wrong with Christmas cards being sold in August?
Photographed at the Costco in Downtown Vancouver on 2011-08-27
The Tolerant Left
Christie Blatchford shares a sampling of the hate mail she received from Canadian Leftists. Proof positive of how incredibly impolite, uncivil, un-Progressive, unruly, ill-mannered, and absolutely un-Canadian the Left in our country truly are. Remember that the next time a Leftist talks about “Canadian values”, they have absolutely NO IDEA of what that term means!
Here are some interesting comments on Blatchford’s piece:
With regard to the reaction to Ms.Blatchford’s recent columns, ’twas ever thus that people of limited intellect find that their only recourse, when faced with opinions which run counter to their own ill-formed ideas, is to scorn, ridicule, and rudeness. The tendency becomes more noticeable when people are forced to face uncomfortable truths about themselves or about causes which they espouse. As T.S. Eliot so wisely said “Humankind cannot bear very much reality”. A frightening prospect is that these very people who resort to crude and unacceptable language are part of the body politic which elects the leaders of our country. Perhaps this is part of the reason for Plato’s dislike of democracy. — Giles Sidney
The ever tolerant lefties are simply expressing themselves. How dare you have a contrary opinion to theirs. I’m sick and tired of having my opinions derided by some merely because I support Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, or right of centre politics. Thanks god there are good folks like you, Christie, who are still able to express what many of us feel. — Flagstik
The right is not chock-a-block with publicly funded, full-time activists. The original Blatch column amply demonstrated the lefties lemming-like tendency to swarm and choke out dissent. Self-righteous, too. A badly needed eye-opener for ‘moderates’ who question the need to de-fund the professional cry-babies. — Rhino Party Whip
Thank you Christie for having the courage to take on the venomous self appointed bullies of political correctness. That group has had an aggresive atitude toward anyone stepping outside their own designated rigid boundaries of correctness. They have been emboldened by a meek and permissive society. Their smug misplaced pride in their cowardly willingness to berate others is only limited to verbal abuse by circumstance. If they could get away with it they would become one of the many violent mobs one sees using some imagined slight to express violence and outrage. Boorish behaviour at best. Most are violent cowards. — Flyoften
Kate McMillan has a recurring theme, “The Tolerant Left.” These same outraged hippies smugly assure themselves of their civility even as they express shock at so-called wild-eyed right wing zealots. — Rick B
Hope for the Future
BBC Business reporter Peter Day has published a new podcast that provides an historical perspective on recessions/depressions, with a particular focus on the one the world is currently going through. Hopefully you’ll find it inspiring and realize that there is light on the horizon … especially if the economy-killer, Obama, is fired next year.
Update: Or you can just laugh your way into oblivion! (Better than crying) – h/t LC Bennett
Brilliant Insight from a Wisconsin Resident
In response to this posting, SDA commenter Amy P. provided some first hand knowledge of what has been going on in her state. Here’s a slightly edited version of her thoughts:
I live in Wisconsin and I have watched this insanity unfold for months now. All because the Governor wanted public employees to pay a little more for their retirement (which they paid NOTHING for) and health insurance (which they paid little for). At the end of the day, public employees still have some of THE BEST (and Obamacare exempt!) health insurance in the U.S. and GUARANTEED retirement for the rest of their lives (that can be transferred to a living spouse after the employee dies!)
For months, we’ve dealt with fleebagging [sic] Democrats who spent weeks hiding in Illinois like cockroaches exposed to light. We’ve had drum circles, vuvuzelas, and dirty protestors vandalizing our beautiful Capitol building while disrupting the work of government AND threatening to kill our duly and freely elected Republican governor and representatives.
The governor has a bad of merry left-wing psychopaths stalking him wherever he goes. Madison is officially a no-go zone for conservatives unless you travel in large groups because the liberals will get in your face (just as Obama commanded them to do!) and harass you for daring not to be as incredibly stupid as they are.
[Lefties can] blather all [they] want about one lame report *possibly* (and remotely so) connected to the TEA Party. Those of us paying attention know the violence and the threats and the vandalism come from the Left. Those of us paying attention also know the Left loves projection: they accuse us of being what they really are.
People are waking up to it. For all their public temper tantrums, for all the out-of-state union agitators they sent in, for the $30 MILLION they spent on recall elections…the Left in Wisconsin has won exactly NOTHING.
They didn’t get a majority in the Senate, so the Republicans still run Wisconsin Government. They lost the Supreme Court election in April, and a weak attempt to get the conservative who won thrown off the court for “choking” a fellow justice has been proven to be a lie. The recall movement against Governor Walker is losing steam and — while probably will be attempted — will ultimately fail.
On top of it all, Wisconsin’s government has set our economy on a path to recover at a far better and stronger pace than the nation. So I predict Scott Walker will go on to even bigger and brighter things.
P.S. For those not aware, one of the most regular on-the-scene “reporters” of what’s going on in Wisconsin is Law Professor Ann Althouse. You can read her via her blog.
Update: Nationally syndicated columnist George Will shares his thoughts about the Left’s losing fight in Wisconsin and why it very much has national implications. Be sure to read the very last line!
The Tolerant Left
In Wisconsin, it looks like devout Leftists will stop at nothing when it comes to their “crusade” against Governor Scott Walker. NRO’s Michael Walsh shares his thoughts.
Remember though folks, it’s all “for the children”!
P.S. Perhaps the BCTF is taking strategy notes themselves?!
3 Simple Rules for Wannabe Pundits
Andrew Klavan offers some suggestions for those who want to be taken seriously as pundits:
What Exactly Does “Living in Poverty” Mean?
Probably not what our friends in the Poverty Industry have lead you to believe:
Public Sector Workers To Admire
Should Journalists Be Licensed by the State?
Quebec’s culture minister, Christine St-Pierre, seems to think so. Barbara Kay, Chris Selley, and the National Post Editorial Board don’t agree … whatsoever.
President Clueless
Mortimer Zuckerman has written a stellar article that comprehensively summarizes the vapid, out-of-touch reign of the current American president. Here’s a key section:
Since the president is the one who represents all of America and all Americans, the buck stops with him rather than with the Congress. It is the president’s job to offer a coherent program for the twin threats of a static economy and an unsustainable explosion of our debts and deficits. But the only core issue on which he took a clear position in the recent debt-ceiling negotiations was that it would have to include new taxes on the wealthy—and he didn’t even hold to that.
He made the politically tested and calculated statement that if you raise taxes on billionaires and millionaires you could solve the problem. This is not so. Even for those who support higher taxes on the wealthy, as I do, we must remember that we have an income tax system in which fully half the “taxpayers” pay no tax at all, and n which the variety of loopholes cries out for a real reform of the tax code. Even if the government instituted a 100% tax on both corporate profits and personal incomes above $250,000 per year, it would yield enough revenue to run the government for only six months. Why? Because under Mr. Obama’s presidency, government spending has swelled to 24% of GDP from 18%.
David Mamet’s Political Awakening
If you’re interested, you can buy Mamet’s latest book here.
Dennis Prager Explains The Thinking of the Left
This is from Dennis Prager’s show two years ago but it could have been ripped out of today’s headlines:
Are Rich People Paying Enough Tax?
I think so but a friend of mine in Vancouver certainly doesn’t. Here’s the public conversation between us. His words are in regular type-face whereas mine are in italics:
Contrast [what is happening in France] with what is happening in the US where a President once asked: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” J. F. Kennedy, 1961; A country that is the most generous in the world, can’t seem to get citizens who are more than capable, to shoulder more than its share of taxes for the good of their own country, except when asking its young to die at war.
So, if I understand you correctly, if my government, who already wastes oodles of our tax dollars, asks for even more then I’m unpatriotic if I say “Hell No!” ???
What about a government that strives to keep the rate of growth down to that below the inflation in the private sector?!?
The issue is not about condoning waste or efficiency, nor about patriotism. The issue is the willingness to give of ourselves more or not. With blessings and power comes responsibility – how we exercise it, is the issue. In terms of taxes, the top earners got reduced tax rates, which were to expire – the discussion is about the willingness of those who can, to pay more or not. In contrast, in the name of patriotism, the country has no problem in asking young people to die on their behalf at war (regardless of its value) but have excruciating difficulty asking those who can pay, to pay a little more. I find this quite odd.
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html
The conversation continues below but I’m posting this here to see what others on SDA would say to him. Please strive to be polite!
Are All CBC Drones Passive Aggressive?
Ezra Levant clearly pushes the buttons of a few folks:
h/t Matt from Mississauga
Have Canadian Booksellers Finally Smartened Up?
A long standing pet peeve of mine has been the unwillingness of Canadian booksellers to acknowledge the fact that the Canadian dollar is no longer worth 30 – 40% less than its U.S. counterpart. Even though the two currencies have been around par since March 2010, booksellers north of the border have been pulling a Deaf, Dumb, & Blind act similar to this.
I was therefore most pleasantly surprised, when I went to order Mark Steyn’s latest book, to discover this:
Canadian Price:
American Price:
Carter vs. Reagan: A Lesson from History
It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In America these days there appears to be a growing uncertainty amongst those who want President Obama defeated in November 2012 as to who would be the best Republican candidate.
Obama’s foot soldiers in the mainstream media are convinced that Jon Huntsman is the best candidate for the GOP. Any serious person should be most wary of their opinions because their ultimate goal is clear.
But still, the question of whether a true conservative candidate is electable is running through the minds of many on the Right. Several recent polls suggest that the likes of Bachmann and Palin cannot defeat Obama. However, if we look back 31½ years ago, something very interesting can be found. Back then, 7 months before the election, polls indicated that Jimmy Carter lead Ronald Reagan by an enormous 25 percentage points. Yet we all know what eventually happened.
The America of 2012 is arguably in a lot worse financial shape than in 1980. Indeed, life was not grand back then either, with unemployment & interest rates through the roof. While the latter is not the case right now, the former definitely is. Plus, America’s overall fiscal position is in much worse shape, with its debt at truly frightening levels.
Can a true conservative candidate get elected President in 2012? With America’s financial situation in terrible shape, and getting worse, and a sitting president unwilling to deviate from his Far Left Spend-Spend-Spend mantra, the odds seem probable.
h/t Mark Levin & Ken Kulak
Gotta Stop Gettin’ Oil from those Evil Dictators
Oh wait, it’s from Canada.
The view from the No Progress Cave Dweller Wannabes (who somehow always ignore how much energy it takes to run their computers & servers). Oh, whatever!
A quick reminder for the no progress hypocrites.
The Delusions of the Left may be coming to an end
Janet Daley has just published a stunning column that gets to the heart of the aftermath of the UK riots. It begins as follows:
There is no national debate about the epidemic of riots and looting that spread through our cities like a bush fire. Out there in the real world, where people go about the normal business of life, there is no sign of the heated argument that the media is so determined to air. In fact, I cannot remember a time when there has been such crushing unanimity on a matter of public importance: the answers to the questions of why this happened, what went wrong when it began to happen and what needs to follow in its aftermath are considered so blindingly self-evident as to be beyond rational disagreement.
And then continues later:
What real people know – and have known for quite a long time – is that the great tacit agreement which once held civic life together has been deliberately blown apart. There was a time within living memory when all reasonable grown-ups were considered to be on the same side. Parents, teachers, police, judges, politicians – decent citizens of every station and calling – formed an unspoken confederacy to uphold standards of behaviour within their own communities. But their shared values and expectations about human conduct were systematically undermined by a post-Sixties political ideology that preached wholesale disrespect for authority, and legitimised anti-social activity in the name of protest.
What real people saw on their television screens this fateful summer seemed to them to be the final vindication of their instinctive judgment: they may have been shocked but, on some level at least, they were not surprised that it had come to this. What else were these terrible events but the definitive disproof of a doctrine that had subverted adult authority in all its official and unofficial forms?
You can read more of Daley’s great work on her blog.
The Left’s Civility on Display
Do you remember President Obama’s call for civility earlier this year?
Apparently Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters never heard that speech:
A Cold Shower on the Heated Climate Rhetoric
Rex Murphy has a stellar editorial on Al Gore and the other Climategate fraudsters. h/t chutzpahticular