“The loonie requires urgent inaction” –Andrew Coyne, Maclean’s Nov. 9th issue.
Andrew Coyne’s column is at once funny and serious. I am impressed with his polymathic ability to deal with complex and obtuse subjects, like the economy and monetary policy, as he does in your current issue. He manages to delineate the rather obscure subject of money in a simple and straight-forward way. Guess he comes by it honestly; his father was James Coyne, Governor of the Bank of Canada from 1957 to 1961.The C$ was worth as much as $1.14 in 1961, due mainly to heavy foreign investment in Canada, mainly by the US. This brought pressure on the Government from exporters to do something (Coyne’s “Do Something lobby”). Printing money would debase the currency, but would also be highly inflationary, so the Government chose to fix the dollar. Fixing the dollar’s value is called a peg. This was done by John Diefenbaker`s Government in 1961, to the chagrin and eventually demise of Andrew Coyne`s father, Bank of Canada governor James Coyne, who resigned that year. The dollar was initially pegged at 92 cents US (and given the facetious appellation Diefenbuck), but in the seventies, the peg became too expensive for the government to maintain (i.e. The Bank of Canada had to buy US dollars or treasury notes to relieve the pressure on the dollar), and we went to a more flexible, floating exchange rate (a managed rate, or `dirty float`).
There are always two sides to every coyne (pardon the pun). With a strong dollar, importers gain, and consumers are happy. Exporters are sad. At least in the short run. But, as Mr. Coyne points out; importers can buy productive inputs at a lower price abroad, and their lower costs will trickle down (at least theoretically) through the economy, and both consumers and producers will gain –in the long run. The reverse is true for a weak Canadian dollar. It is the frequent fluctuation in value that causes most stress, because it does not give the economy enough time to adjust. It also leaves room for speculators to play their arbitrage game, and further destabilise the currency.
Andrew Coyne is correct in saying that maintaining a fixed rate would negate the need for a C$. It would also emasculate the Bank of Canada and destroy Canadian independent (or rather, semi-independent) monetary policy. The best the Bank can do is to ``lean against the wind``; to smooth the vagaries of economic life, and minimize the stress caused by a fluctuating dollar value.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The new National loses reality ... Star Oct.28/09
After all the hype; the “new National “was a disappointment. It seemed contrived and artificial. Mansbridge looked uncomfortable standing behind his glass desk and Wendy Mesley did not deliver what she promised.
It seems the CBC is trying to emulate CNN. If so, they have failed. I want my old National back, or I will watch CTV News in the future.
It seems the CBC is trying to emulate CNN. If so, they have failed. I want my old National back, or I will watch CTV News in the future.
FIXING THE REFUGEE MESS –STAR EDITORIAL OCT.28/09
You are totally correct in saying that the refugee system is broken and needs fixing. In fact, I have heard that tune now for decades, but it is only getting worse.
I have nothing against immigrants, I was one myself once, and I can understand our obligation to protect true refugees. The fact is, however, that a large portion of refuge claims are spurious claims from economic migrants, and only clogs up the system for real refugees.
I have personal experiences in this regard. In the eighties, one “refugee” family from Panama was working for me while awaiting a decision on their claim. They were “refugees” from Noriega’s regime, or so they claimed, except by then Noriega was a guest of the US government in a Florida jail. They had a subsidized town home and got economic support from the government, even a $ 100.00 cheque for each of their four children at Christmas. Another employee, a native Canadian, complained that she earned the same money, also had children, and lived in the same town home complex, but paid her own rent. The “refugee” claimant asked me to sign a form as guarantor for her mother to come and visit from Panama. I asked her why, if she was a “refugee”, her mother could come to visit. I don’t remember exactly the answer she gave me, but shortly thereafter she quit.
You, again, bring up the matter of Grise, the woman who, after having been hiding from the immigration authorities for years, got caught and sent home. In between, she managed to "go back to visit her sick grandmother," but after finally being deported; like Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf got her. I find it incredible, beyond belief, that Mexican drug gangs would target her out of “revenge”. Revenge for what? Was she involved in the Mexican drug trade?
Just asking.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just aint't so.
-Mark Twain.
I have nothing against immigrants, I was one myself once, and I can understand our obligation to protect true refugees. The fact is, however, that a large portion of refuge claims are spurious claims from economic migrants, and only clogs up the system for real refugees.
I have personal experiences in this regard. In the eighties, one “refugee” family from Panama was working for me while awaiting a decision on their claim. They were “refugees” from Noriega’s regime, or so they claimed, except by then Noriega was a guest of the US government in a Florida jail. They had a subsidized town home and got economic support from the government, even a $ 100.00 cheque for each of their four children at Christmas. Another employee, a native Canadian, complained that she earned the same money, also had children, and lived in the same town home complex, but paid her own rent. The “refugee” claimant asked me to sign a form as guarantor for her mother to come and visit from Panama. I asked her why, if she was a “refugee”, her mother could come to visit. I don’t remember exactly the answer she gave me, but shortly thereafter she quit.
You, again, bring up the matter of Grise, the woman who, after having been hiding from the immigration authorities for years, got caught and sent home. In between, she managed to "go back to visit her sick grandmother," but after finally being deported; like Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf got her. I find it incredible, beyond belief, that Mexican drug gangs would target her out of “revenge”. Revenge for what? Was she involved in the Mexican drug trade?
Just asking.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just aint't so.
-Mark Twain.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
“Deported to her death” –Star Oct 23/09
There is probably more to this story than state in the article. While, paraphrasing John Donne, “anyone’s death diminishes me”; this woman, Grise, was here illegally and in hiding from Canadian authorities, claiming danger if she was returned to Mexico. Yet, having been raped and impregnated there in the past, she voluntarily went back home to Mexico into the “lion’s den”, ostensibly to visit a sick grandmother. She is then killed in the same place, likely by drug gangs. Are you telling me that this “innocent” woman were just a passerby –twice? This story is too farfetched even for the most credulous. More likely, she was part of the drug operations, and paid the price for running away.
There is probably more to this story than state in the article. While, paraphrasing John Donne, “anyone’s death diminishes me”; this woman, Grise, was here illegally and in hiding from Canadian authorities, claiming danger if she was returned to Mexico. Yet, having been raped and impregnated there in the past, she voluntarily went back home to Mexico into the “lion’s den”, ostensibly to visit a sick grandmother. She is then killed in the same place, likely by drug gangs. Are you telling me that this “innocent” woman were just a passerby –twice? This story is too farfetched even for the most credulous. More likely, she was part of the drug operations, and paid the price for running away.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York ,
Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York , introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem .
Dear friends,Thank you very much for inviting me.I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe . This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe .First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe . Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem .The Europe you know is changing.You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by�Muslim mass-migration.All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system..Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.A�total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France . One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
�The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything.So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
Dear friends,Thank you very much for inviting me.I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe . This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe .First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe . Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem .The Europe you know is changing.You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by�Muslim mass-migration.All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims.Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system..Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan.Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.A�total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France . One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
�The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything.So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem .Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
“Why Roman Polanski belongs in prison” –Maclean’s editorial, vs “Reflex lock-Polanski up rants are shocking” –Barbara Amiel.
Your editorial is logical, fair and thoughtful. “ If you do the crime, you do the time”, even if you walk on water.
Not so much Barbara Amiel. I am not surprised that she would defend the bourgeoisie, regardless of faults, but her logic and reasoning does not stand up to scrutiny. She worries about the terror he would have of being sent back to an American prison –which I can readily understand considering her husband horrific experience in the Florida prison he now inhabit. Why, next they might take away his computer and e-mail privileges!
“The definition of childhood depends on the culture” she says. Yes, it does. Childhood brides are common in some third world countries, but last time I looked, America is not a third world country and they have laws against older men having sex with thirteen-year olds, even if consensual, and this was certainly not. Polanski confessed as much.
One can sympathise with his sad experience of having his wife, Sharon Tate, killed by a bunch of crazies, and his mother’s demise at the hands of the Nazis; but that does not give him a licence to rape. If anything, it should have made him more empathetic and caring, and not inclined to drug and rape a thirteen year old defenceless child, and then running away from the law.
In Ms Amiel’s world, one would only jail the stupid, poor and powerless. The elites would dance to a different tune. Her apologetics are about par with Whoopi Goldberg’s. Except that Amiel’s English is more refined –though Whoopi is better looking.
Not so much Barbara Amiel. I am not surprised that she would defend the bourgeoisie, regardless of faults, but her logic and reasoning does not stand up to scrutiny. She worries about the terror he would have of being sent back to an American prison –which I can readily understand considering her husband horrific experience in the Florida prison he now inhabit. Why, next they might take away his computer and e-mail privileges!
“The definition of childhood depends on the culture” she says. Yes, it does. Childhood brides are common in some third world countries, but last time I looked, America is not a third world country and they have laws against older men having sex with thirteen-year olds, even if consensual, and this was certainly not. Polanski confessed as much.
One can sympathise with his sad experience of having his wife, Sharon Tate, killed by a bunch of crazies, and his mother’s demise at the hands of the Nazis; but that does not give him a licence to rape. If anything, it should have made him more empathetic and caring, and not inclined to drug and rape a thirteen year old defenceless child, and then running away from the law.
In Ms Amiel’s world, one would only jail the stupid, poor and powerless. The elites would dance to a different tune. Her apologetics are about par with Whoopi Goldberg’s. Except that Amiel’s English is more refined –though Whoopi is better looking.
“Thinking about the old Ignatieff” –Mark Steyn
I must be getting more conservative (small “c” please) in my senior years, because I find myself agreeing with Mark Steyn on several issues, and I support his battle with the “Human Rights Commission”. Perhaps it is from reading Tarek Fatah’s “Chasing a Mirage”, or it could be from reading Ezra Levant’s “Shakedown”, with his paean to Steyn’s struggles.
Whichever, I think Steyn has got it right regarding Iggy’s trials and tribulations in the Coliseum or Canadian politics. Ignatief is an erudite and thoughtful person; his writings are intelligent and profound. Not so his stammering political pronouncements. Pace his erudition, Michael Ignatieff is to political mud wrestling as a fish is to dry land –trashing around trying to find his breath.
In today’s political environment, politics and intelligence is an oxymoron, and the politicians bend and sway with the winds of the latest opinion surveys. Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying “the government you elect is the government you deserve”. No politician ever went wrong underestimating the average intelligence of the electorate. As your letter writer Mary Davies of Mississauga so accurately and succinctly put it “A good democracy requires both good citizens and good governments”. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have either.
Whichever, I think Steyn has got it right regarding Iggy’s trials and tribulations in the Coliseum or Canadian politics. Ignatief is an erudite and thoughtful person; his writings are intelligent and profound. Not so his stammering political pronouncements. Pace his erudition, Michael Ignatieff is to political mud wrestling as a fish is to dry land –trashing around trying to find his breath.
In today’s political environment, politics and intelligence is an oxymoron, and the politicians bend and sway with the winds of the latest opinion surveys. Thomas Jefferson is credited with saying “the government you elect is the government you deserve”. No politician ever went wrong underestimating the average intelligence of the electorate. As your letter writer Mary Davies of Mississauga so accurately and succinctly put it “A good democracy requires both good citizens and good governments”. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have either.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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