For those who think campaign finance reform in the US was encroachment on freedom of speech…
Get a load of this;

“Furthermore, on balance, the contextual factors favour a deferential approach to Parliament in determining whether such limits are demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. While the right to political expression lies at the core of the guarantee of free expression and warrants a high degree of constitutional protection, there is nevertheless a danger that political advertising may manipulate or oppress the voter. Parliament had to balance the rights and privileges of all the participants in the electoral process.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is from the decision* handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court of Canada., upholding the law that curtails spending during elections by “special interest groups”. The law limits spending to only $3000 per riding.
A decision, by the way, conveniently pushed forward to coincide with the eve of a federal election campaign – which, courtesy of new Liberal government legislation, will be directly funded by taxpayer dollars.
Lucky us.
Kevin Steel says he’s calmed down a little. He does a better job of covering the implications than I could hope to.
I don’t think I’d want to see him angry.
*link updated 2014

I can say, without any reservation whatsoever, that Mark Helprin is the best fiction writer currently drawing breath.

From Winter’s Tale -“Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic politcal acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another. Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.”

Few had heard of Helprin before he penned Bob Dole’s senate retirement speech on the eve of his run for the presidency. (I can’t find it online.) Helprin has other writing available, much of it political. His Written On Water series is archived online at the Wall Street Journal.
One unfortunate consequence of reading Helprin, is that it can be extremely frustrating to read other writers in his wake. A Soldier Of The Great War has had that effect on me, and on others. Judging by discussion on email groups, he has an extremely devoted following – (and frustrated – damn you Helprin – write something…) And it’s interesting to watch the reaction of the leftist, anti-war devotees he draws, who safely assume their favorite genius is likeminded. For someone who writes like this –

“Only in the lightning and in the foreground is the light active. The woman and the soldier steal the light and color from everything that is in ruin. Unclothed and unprotected, with her baby in her arms, she defies the storm unwittingly. Entirely at risk, she shines out. Don’t you understand? She’s his only hope. After what he’s seen, only she and the child can put the world in balance. And yet the soldier is distant, protected, detached. They always say about the soldier that he’s detached. That’s true, for he’s in the eye of the storm, his heart has been broken, and he doesn’t even know it.”

… couldn’t possibly think like this.
Lots of other good stuffat the traffic jam today.