Saturday, April 24, 2010

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The First Election Debate on ITV1 - 15th April 2010

Facebook | Sigmund Roseth

Facebook | Sigmund Roseth: "This is quaint ! I knew Regan was a lousy actor (except in politics), but I am surprised how poor James Dean is. Guess you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

Monday, April 19, 2010

ICELAND PREPARING VOLCANO BLACKMAIL

ICELAND PREPARING VOLCANO BLACKMAIL !Share.. Today at 7:34pm | Edit Note | Delete

I have just been told by my relatives in Norway that the volcanic eruption in Iceland is no " Black Swan" or" Act of God", but a deliberate show of the supernatural power of the Icelandic nation. The eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull is just a preamble to the planned eruption of Hekla and Katla, the "Angry Sisters", which is now being readied should the forthcoming demand ,for a huge, interest free loan by the World Bank and the European Union of about ten billion Icelandic Kronor (about fifty dollar ) not be forthcoming. " We would rather just take the money and run" said Erik Readbeardsson, the Icelandic "Charge de Affairs" of the country's fisheries and volcaniac activity control (Islandisk fiskeri og vulkan-controlleringsorganizasjonogsakerogting). We must now await the international community's reaction and reply to this hightly unusual situation, which has been characaterized by the Obama administration in the US as nothing less than an attempt at economic blackmail, even worse than Iran. UFFDA !

Heeding the Warnings of Another Oklahoma City

Heeding the Warnings of Another Oklahoma City

Friday, April 2, 2010

All hail Stephen Harper, King of Canada! - Opinions

All hail Stephen Harper, King of Canada! - Opinions

THE END OF THE LIBERAL EMPIRE – Andrews Coyne, Maclean’s April 12

There is no doubt that the Liberals are in political purgatory; but while it might be the end of empire, the party could still reach the Promised Land. The days of the wide-ranging economic and social changes of the Pearson area will not likely return soon, and while there are important issues the Liberals can latch on to –such as pension reform, democratic reform and the environment; these do not engage the public imagination and interests that the Pearson and early Trudeau years provided, with such matters as Medicare, the flag debate, capital punishment, government in bedrooms and the repatriation of the constitution, etc. Even Brian Mulroney had some major issues and controversies; the Free Trade Agreement and the GST comes to mind; not to mention his failed attempts at accommodating Quebec.

The BIG IDEAS of yore are probably just that: in our past. Globalization, economic and communal, has made it much harder for individual governments to make radical changes in the socio-economic structure without endangering the national economy. The changes we make will be incremental and aligned with the world economy and the US in particular. We are in the same boat –sink or swim.

The Conservatives now have the political centre-right, and even if they just maintain the status quo; they could hold on to power for a long time. Nothing the Liberal strategists can cook up is likely to change that. There is a general resistance to major changes in the population, with a demographic getting older and more conservative; a steady- as-she-goes course is the best policy for the incumbents. That, I fear, will leave the Liberals with only the single hope that the Conservatives will make a serious blunder. Even if they don’t make a major, decisive one, they seem quite able to do so in incrementally. In our multi-party system, with one party, the PQ holding the majority Quebec votes and the NDP and Green party picking at the fringes, I don’t see much hope for a majority for any party in the near future. Yet, Lester Pearson did all right without ever having a majority.

The only other hope for the Liberals, I fear, is to elect a new leader with some charisma and verve to engage the public imagination and emotion; but, having stumbled twice, it is not likely that the Liberal leadership will have the courage to make such a dramatic change, at least not until they are staring down the precipice. By then, however, the time is night and the end is nigh.