Tea Party Pumpkin

Created by Steve Thom of Illinois

2 Special Guests at the Opening of the World Series

A Military Mom Explains Why All Americans Should Vote

Roy Green Interviews Mark Steyn

Google's Halloween Tribute to Scooby Doo

These images, displayed as the Google masthead today, bring back great memories from my childhood!

People have a lot more government than they can or will pay for: The Revolt of the Masses

Margaret Wente hits the nail squarely on the head with this column, explaining that what just happened in Toronto is deeply connected with what's about to happen across America.  And yet, through it all, most of the dinosaur media is absolutely asleep at the wheel.

The Veteran on our Ten Dollar Bill

If you look at the back right-hand side of a Canadian $10 bill, you will see an old veteran standing at attention near the Ottawa war memorial. His name is Robert Metcalfe and he died last month at the age of 90.   That he managed to live to that age is rather remarkable, given what happened in the Second World War.

Born in England , he was one of the 400,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force sent to the mainland where they found themselves facing the new German warfare technique - the Blitzkrieg. He was treating a wounded comrade when he was hit in the legs by shrapnel.   En route to hospital, his ambulance came under fire from a German tank, which then miraculously ceased fire. Evacuated from Dunkirk on HMS Grenade, two of the sister ships with them were sunk. Recovered, he was sent to allied campaigns in North Africa and Italy . En route his ship was chased by the German battleship Bismarck .

In North Africa he served under General Montgomery against the Desert Fox, Rommel.

Sent into the Italian campaign, he met his future wife, a lieutenant and physiotherapist in a Canadian hospital. They were married in the morning by the mayor of the Italian town, and again in the afternoon by a British padre.

After the war they settled in Chatham, Ontario where he went into politics and became the warden (chairman) of the county and on his retirement he and his wife moved to Ottawa . At the age of 80 he wrote a book about his experiences. One day out of the blue he received a call from a government official asking him to go downtown for a photo op. He wasn't told what the photo was for or why they chose him. 'He had no idea he would be on the bill,' his daughter said. And now you know the story of the old veteran on the $10 bill.

"Miss Me, Yet?"

First attempt at a more intricate pumpkin carving, by my SDA buddy, Colin from Mission B.C.

Mark Steyn's Pre-Election Thoughts

All this week, in the run-up to what many consider to be the most important election in America in many years, Mark Steyn shares much brilliant, eloquent wisdom. Remember though, if you agree with him, even a little, then realize that Barack Obama & his comrades on the Left have repeatedly declared you to be: A Hater, A Bigot, Ignorant, Selfish, A Nazi, and Likely Mentally Ill. For what it's worth, I now wear such labels as a badge of honour!

• Driving America Over a Cliff
  In a two-party system, you have to work with what’s available. In America, one party is openly committed to driving the nation off the cliff, and the other party is full of guys content to go along for the ride as long as we shift down to third gear. That’s no longer enough of a choice. If your candidate isn’t committed to fewer government agencies with fewer employees on lower rates of pay, he’s part of the problem. This is the last chance for the GOP to restore its credentials. If it blows it, all bets are off for 2012.
  
  
• Endless Government and the Great Divide Between Public & Private Workers
  The new class war in the western world is between “public servants” and the rest of us. In Washington, the marching bureaucrats are telling us government doesn’t suck. But in Greece, the bloated public service has sucked so much out of the economy there’s nothing left.
  
  
• Public Sector Bureaucrats vs. The People of America
  When the law says that it’s illegal for a storekeeper to offer his customer a cup of coffee, you should be proud to be in non-compliance. What the hell did you guys bother holding a revolution for? ... This is the reality of small business in America today. You don’t make the rules, you don’t vote for people who make the rules. But you have to work harder, pay more taxes, buy more permits, fill in more paperwork, contribute to the growth of an ever less favorable business environment and prostrate yourself before the Commissar of Community Services – all for the privilege of taking home less and less money.
  
  
• The Bigger the Government, The Smaller the Citizen
  Bazillionaire senators will always have workarounds – for their land, for their yachts, for their health care. You won’t. Meanwhile, they’re relaxed about cities and states going broke - because it’s a great pretext for propelling government ever upward. When California goes bankrupt, the Golden State’s woes will be nationalized and shared with the nation at large. As with everything from mortgages to credit cards, so it goes for states: the feckless must have their pathologies rewarded and the prudent get stuck with the tab. Passing Sacramento’s buck to Washington accelerates the centralizing pull in American politics and eventually eliminates any advantage to voting with your feet. It will be as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you’re underneath, it’s not going to be fun.
  


• Americans: A Sovereign People No More?
  What Judge Bolton in Arizona and Judge Walker in California have in common and share with Mayor Bloomberg’s observations on opposition to the Ground Zero mosque is a contempt for the people. The rationale for reversing the popular will in all three cases is that the sovereign people are bigots. In Arizona, they’re xenophobic. In California, they’re homophobic. In New York, they’re Islamophobic. Popular sovereignty may be fine in theory but not when the people are so obviously in need of “re-education” by their betters. Over in London, the transportation department has a bureaucrat whose very title sums up our rulers’ general disposition toward us: “Head of Behavior Change.”

Common Sense Brilliance from Daniel Hannan

Too bad Daniel Hannan isn't able to run for the U.S. Presidency! Nothing stopping him from becoming Canada's Prime Minister though!!

Adam Carolla's Infamous Airport Story

We all have crazy airport stories but I don't think anything comes close to what recently happened to comedian Adam Carolla at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

Note: Language warning! (but it's a great rant!!)

The Embarrassment in Caledonia, Ontario

Christie Blatchford describes in great detail Canada's Untouchable Gangsters.



                                    Part 2        Part 3        Part 4

Mark Steyn on CBC Newsworld

Juan Williams is Seeing the Wrath of the Left very personally

So Much Hate to Spread, So Little Time Left

Jeff Jacoby: The Smug Democrats

Fall Colours of Vancouver

Unusual Looking Van

 Do you notice the camera on the top right?  I don't know if it's real or just a fake.

John Batchelor's Election Predictions

One of my favourite talk show hosts, John Batchelor, shares some thoughts about next Tuesday's elections in America:

President Rubio, circa 2020?

Coal Harbour and the Convention Centre at Night

An Unpresidential President

I find it beyond insane that the President of the United States is able to use the "Enemy" term against American voters who happen to disagree with him yet completely incapable of using it to describe ACTUAL ENEMIES of America!!!

David Menzies Disagrees with Heather Mallick

Toronto Star columnist, Heather Mallick, believes that all men are potential psychopaths like Russell Williams.


David Menzies disagrees with her.  Strongly.

Attention Churchill & Hamber Grads

Through a convoluted set of circumstances I ended up with these Vancouver school annuals: Churchill - 77,78,79,84 & Hamber - 79 (grad inset only) If you know anyone who would like any of these then just let me know and they're yours!

Mark Steyn is Back!

After an extended time away, Steyn returns with some sobering thoughts.

Elections Have Consequences

Granville Island Foodstuffs

Eloquent Brilliance from Noonan & Krauthammer

Peggy Noonan explains why the Tea Party is the most important political force in America in a very long time.

Barack Obama has stated that you're mentally unfit if you don't support him. Charles Krauthammer, who is an actual psychiatrist, offers a different opinion.

In Support of Capitalism

Here are some brilliant words from a female professor in Ontario:

I fully agree with the facts that capitalism is focused on the individual, and that less government spending enables a stronger economy.

An economy is always generated by its population. Government, after all, is nutritionally, which is to say, actually parasitic on that population. Without the money generated by private enterprise, government cannot tax that money away. All that a robust and valid government ought to do with that money is use it to provide common services such as water and waste management, roads and transportation, defense and immigration and a common currency.

The rest must remain in private ownership and decision-making.That is, government has no right to promote identity-economics or fund special interest industries..such as Bombardier, the CBC, multicultural groups, ...
Private enterprise HAS to be productive or it goes out of business. The Welfare State Government supports the unproductive and thus, lowers the economic robustness of the nation.

And yes, the socialist ideology, based on the mysticism of Hegel, Marx and the rest of that armchair gang, is indeed naive and utopian. What is interesting is that, in their rejection of reality, they reject differences. In their utopian world, all will be reduced to one mold, one template.

The fact that such a reduction to one type of energy processing is the final step before the catastrophic dissipation of energy (the backwards motion to the Big Bang)never occurs to these ignorant armchair theorists.

But a complex system is such, because it is made up of subsystems that are made up of and process... many different amounts of energy. The capitalist system is the only system that enables a middle class - and the middle class is, by definition, diverse and processes different amounts of energy.

Societies are complex adaptive system, and must function as such - which means - a diversity of energy use and production. But the armchair utopians simply don't get this fact.

Posted by: ET at October 24, 2010 10:36 AM

More on Juan Williams' Firing

Juan Williams shares his thoughts about his firing from NPR:


His dismissal was absolutely wrong but it's also interesting to view the complete picture, courtesy of Andy McCarthy.

Here's a great discussion on the entire fiasco:

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Ever since Juan Williams was fired from NPR I've been trying to put myself into the mind of a person of the Left. At the moment when I first heard Williams, a man clearly on the Left side of the political spectrum, express his personal feelings about seeing people in Muslim garb at an airport, what would my reaction be?

While I'm willing to concede that there might be some out there who are so deeply immersed in Politically Correct Kumbaya Group Think that they truly would be offended by him expressing such thoughts, this clearly can't be the vast majority, even on the Left?! Surely most people would have had similar thoughts since 2001-09-11? Such thoughts might not be "right" and certainly aren't fair to peaceful, law-abiding Muslims but haven't most people had them?  After all, even Tarek Fatah has had them!

This reminds me of a conversation I once had with a 20-something American woman in Chicago.  She was white and very much a liberal.  We discussed the racial divide in that city, which is quite prominent.  She stated that she didn't have any racist feelings whatsoever.  So I presented to her a scenario where she was walking on a street late at night and saw a block ahead 3 young black men coming towards her.  Wouldn't she feel even a pang of unease?  "Nope", she responded.  I looked in her eyes and could tell that she was saying what she wanted to hear rather than her own actual feelings.  I conceded to her that one shouldn't feel any uncomfortability towards those three men and it was wrong to feel that way because those men were black.  BUT what we do feel versus what we actually feel are not always the same.  To deny this is so is the fuel that keeps Political Correctness thriving, which is the antithesis of open, honest dialogue.

Such is the case with the comments of Juan Williams.  He fully conceded that it wasn't right for him to have such thoughts but he was honest enough to admit that he did.  I commend him for that.  P.S. Know that almost every time I've heard him on Fox News and NPR in the past, I've disagreed with his views vehemently.  But I deeply support his right to express his views.

However, Free Speech is not valued amongst most folks on the Left.  For since this has all happened, I've seen very little defense of Williams by those who identify themselves as "liberal".  I cannot even begin to understand what sort of mental gymnastics are required to throw one of their own under the wheels of the proverbial airplane! (N.B. The space under the bus was getting a little too cramped)

Conrad Black Shares a Few Thoughts

Conrad Black has an interesting discussion with Roy Green about Muslims, Political Correctness, UN corruption, and the future of America.

One particularly choice quote was this: "Cap & Trade is insane.  It's playing Russian Roulette with all chambers loaded."

In Praise of Tarek Fatah

Article in the Daily Caller

Adam Carolla Interviews Mike Rowe

I'm on a real jag these days to listen to all sorts of different podcasts.  One of the most interesting I've heard in some time is this discussion between Adam Carolla and Mike Rowe.  They walk through an interesting slice of Americana.

Background Info

Rex Murphy on the Juan Williams NPR Fiasco

Rex Murphy has just written an excellent piece on the firing of Juan Williams from NPR.

What he wrote got me thinking: What would the reaction in Leftist circles be if a Death Fatwa were declared on Mr. Williams?  I think the answer is pretty clear: There would be no outrage whatsoever and many might privately, or even publicly, espouse, "Well, he deserved it."

I obviously wish nothing of the sort on Juan Williams or anyone else for that matter but if it were to occur, historical evidence suggests that my analysis is spot on.  That saddens me, more than a little.

Moe Tucker Speaks Out ... Against Obama

Maureen "Moe" Tucker was the drummer of an influential band in the 1960's called The Velvet Underground.  She voted Democrat all of her life until Barack Obama.  This article explains why.  In the companion piece that is linked at the bottom, there's an interview of her after she appeared at a Tea Party.  Here's one beautiful segment:

Many people [on the Left] seem upset or outraged.

I'm stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do. You disagree and you're immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That's pretty f'd up!! I would never judge someone based on their political views. Their honesty, integrity, kindness to others, generosity? Yes. Politics? No!

Barbara Boxer: "Call Me Senator"

Call Me Senator from RightChange on Vimeo.

The "Million Dollar Walk"

I call this my "million dollar walk" because the views around Granville Island, Vanier Park, and Kitsilano Beach are worth at least that much, no matter what time of the year!