Conservative Sarcasm

Russia and the $70 Barrel of Oil

A few months ago I heard a rather foreboding prediction that if the price of oil were to drop below US$70 per barrel for too long then Russia would engage in some sort of military action in order to cause uncertainty and drive the price up. The theory behind this being that oil was their major export and source of revenue.

So periodically I check in on what oil is selling for.

Who knows if this theory is true or false. Assuming it is true, one could argue that the Russians will deliberately not do anything until after the U.S. Election on November 4th, so as to not give John McCain any extra advantage of getting elected president.

Strange times we live in.

Discussion with a Derangement Syndrome Victim

After referring a Democrat voter to the Liberal Escape Plan comedy video here's the discussion that transpired between us:

Her: "Thank you for that. But how did you know I'm not for McCain!?!? ;-) It's because I travel and am automatically an intelligent person who understands that knowledge of foreign affairs extends beyond looking over Russia's borders, isn't it!?!?!"

Me: "I travel and probably know more about American and global politics than most Americans. Yet I think that Obama will be the worst disaster your country has ever encountered. Is it okay for me to have a differing opinion than you or am I automatically a moron for not agreeing?"

Her: "Absolutely not! I have a very open mind. But he at least is not evil like McCain."


That's a great conversation ender. The thing is, the last sentence from her was not made tongue-in-cheek.

ACORN's Fraudulent Campaign to Elect Barack Obama

This is absolutely disgusting. Of course, our friends on the left will find some convoluted way to justify ACORN's actions but let's face facts, this is part of a concerted effort to get him elected, no matter how many laws stand in their way.

What Do Creationists Think About Sarah Palin?

In the past few days more than a few right-wing pundits have predicted that in the coming weeks there will be an enormous number of "news" stories about Fundamentalist Christians across America. The pundits have further predicted that each of these stories will subtlety or perhaps even explicitly try to connect Sarah Palin in with these folks. The underlying message of each story would then be, "Do you really want a person one heartbeat away from the presidency who believes the same thing as these right-wing Christian whack jobs?!"

Coming at this possibility from an interesting different angle is right-of-center blogger, Charles Johnson, on his extremely popular Little Green Footballs site. Here's the posting. It's an important primer for all fair-minded people, in preparation for the possible maelstrom ahead.

Incidentally, in case you're not familiar with Johnson, he was a key player in exposing Dan Rather and CBS News for their shoddy "journalism" in the fall of 2004, which including tried to pass off phoney documents as real ones. Many felt this was an attempt by CBS News to prevent George Bush from being reelected that year. It's a very fascinating story and was a landmark event in the history of new media arguably replacing old media as the de facto source of where people get their news and information from.

CBC News: Liberal Bias at its Absolute Worst

Coincidences are wonderful things! Earlier tonight I was conversing with a Democrat friend of mine about the coverage of the U.S. election on my blog. One of the things I defended was my unending assertion that the mainstream media is generally biased in favour of Obama and in some cases pathetically and obviously so. I related this to Canada, citing CBC News as the worst example of a SIGNIFICANT liberal bias.

Several hours later, I came across this exposé by Jonathan Kay of a hit piece by CBC News and their reporter, Neil McDonald, who apparently has a history of smears, including several against Israel. Do you remember the false rumour about Sarah Palin not being the actual mother of her youngest baby, Trig? Two days after this rumour was put to rest, our old buddy Neil released a story that it might actually be true! The fact that a j-o-u-r-n-a-l-i-s-t would do a story without any credible evidence is bad enough. The fact that he would do it two days late is beyond the pale. Why is Mr. McDonald still employed there?

This kind of crap happens every week at the CBC. Now with the upcoming federal election in Canada, it'll likely happen every day. My remedy: pull the plug on all financing of the CBC for one year and then rehire a staff of balanced professionals who will represent the views of ALL Canadians, not just a tiny minority of ultra-left radicals.

The Battle About Palin Continues

When they thought no one was listening, pundits Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan had the following conversation. Not very positive. I'm not familiar with Murphy but read Noonan on a regular basis. She's a superb writer. Often I agree with her, sometimes I don't. This time I don't.

Quick aside to my liberal friends: Please note that I'm not calling Noonan an idiot, a twit, or threatening to never read her column again. Adults realize that they can agree to disagree.

Quite a contrast from the hate filled private correspondence I've been receiving the past few days, including from some people I thought were friends. Apparently friendship stops at the party line for some.

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The world is awaiting Sarah Palin's big speech tonight. Anyone who thinks that she's going to be a big pushover is going to be proven wrong. This afternoon she said the following:

"Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves," Palin said in excerpts of her remarks, released in advance of her appearance. "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sincere Kudos to Barack Obama

Barack Obama has done the right thing and demanded that his supporters absolutely cut out the personal attacks on the children of his opponents. You can read more here. I congratulate and commend him for this.

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I was curious about how widespread the attacks were so I went to Google Blog Search and performed this search. To some of these liberal "brown shirts" I posted some variation of the following:

Yes, there's definitely some hypocrisy here but you need to get a mirror to see it.

Put yourself in Sarah Palin's shoes. You strongly advocate abstinence to your children. One of your daughters chooses to not listen to you and gets pregnant. What do you then? If you're true to your (Palin's) convictions then you would encourage her to have the baby. And that's what she's doing and getting married to the father as well.

As for the hypocrisy I mentioned earlier, I trust you're aware that Barack Obama was born to an 18 year-old mother who was not married to the father at the time.

Final question: You seem to have no hesitation to delve into the lives of Sarah Palin's children. Should we thus assume that you're advocating open attacks into Barack & Michele's two adorable daughters? Sure sounds like. That's pretty sick.

Don't know if you've seen the latest news, but even Obama says that you & your ilk are slimeballs: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/obama-to-media.html

Good on him! If you actually worked for the campaign you'd now be out of a job!

The Battle for America Begins

"Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"

Back at the turn of the last century that famous phrase was often used by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to describe his philosophy of American foreign policy. In this letter, he gives full credit of its origins to Africa.

Fast forward to 2008. As the November U.S. Presidential Election draws near I predict that a growing number of Americans will start asking themselves whether Barack Obama understands the second half of that phrase or whether his left-leaning views of the world demand him to lay that proverbial stick down and keep on speaking softly no matter what occurs around him.

Only time will tell but God help us all if he is elected President and chooses to ignore that sage bit of African wisdom.

Mark Steyn weighs in on the general subject here.

The Current Democrat Delegate Count

Being an engineer, I love numbers. I find this chart exceedingly fascinating:

I heard that if things remain so close that non-states like Puerto Rico may eventually be needed to decide things. I'd like to get that verified but this is getting curiouser and curiouser.

US Presidential Primer For Non-Americans

Here's an excellent explanatory video from my favourite vlogger:

RealClearPolitics.com

With the American political campaigns in full swing, I have bookmarked this page, and view it every morning. Fascinating stuff for us political junkies!

Mark Steyn's Take on the French Presidential Election

Mark Steyn, with his usual succinct brilliance, provides his thoughts about Nicolas Sarkozy's decisive win here. I am very glad that he won but share Steyn's view that it will be virtually impossible for him (or anyone) to change the unaffordable welfare state mentality that is France today.

There's an old expression that if Peter takes from Paul then Peter loves it. Paul ain't too happy though. For decades now, the French system has been setup to provide anyone with virtually anything they want. The socialists here in Canada often cite France as a perfect example of what they want to achieve for Canada. What they fail to mention is that the nation is rampant with high taxes, high unemployment and high crime!

Socialism is great in theory. But it fails to account for human nature. When a country switches to a socialist state initially a small number of people avoid putting in their share of work to help out the collective. It's not noticed though because tens of millions of other are working hard. But then a 2nd tier of people observe that the first set has stopped contributing so why can't they too. The fact is, they can also bow out of the workforce. This trend continues on in a vicious downward spiral and before you know it, there are not enough people contributing to the taxbase. Also, many of the best & brightest have left the country years ago.

Sarkozy's problem is that too many French citizens are takers, not contributors and so any reforms he tries to bring in will be fought at every turn. 2007 is still young. Watch for major protests and riots before the year is out. There'll be burning Renaults illuminating the problems that have so deeply infected modern day France. It's sad, but so predictable.

As a final thought, let me share this with you: Steyn writes midway into his article: "The spring 2006 rioters were "youths" (ie pampered deadbeats from the Sorbonne), protesting a new law that would enable employers to terminate the contracts of employees under the age of 26 in their first jobs, after two years."

Read that again in case you didn't get the full thrust of it the first time. It is a FACT that in France today, once someone is hired, they cannot be fired - EVER!!! I first learned of this from a French expat here in Vancouver. I, of course, thought she was joking. But it definitely is true. I couldn't even imagine trying to run a business where I was not allowed to fire someone, no matter how incompetent they were. Yet it's exactly what the socialists in Canada aspire to achieve, if they were ever able to get away with it!