In Wacky But True News
Apparently in some places in the US, eating candy is an offence. That's fine, garbage is a problem everywhere, but like in a big corporation such as the one I work for, police are human beings and are supposed to make sense of policies (laws). They are supposed to understand the purpose of those laws, and make exceptions where the spirit of the law is not being transgressed.
In the situation below, the woman disposed of her garbage properly, and even finished her candy before entering the "no-candy" zone, although was still chewing. The US can't be blamed for terrorism concerns, which was at the root of the "no-candy" law in the subway station in this story, but needs to resist turning on it's own citizens in Saddam Hussein-like paranioa.
Here's the story:
WASHINGTON—A government scientist finishing a candy bar on her way into a subway station where eating is banned was arrested, handcuffed and detained for three hours by transit police.
Stephanie Willett said she was eating a PayDay bar on an escalator descending into a station July 16 when an officer warned her to finish it before entering the station. Both Willett and police agree she put the last bit into her mouth before throwing the wrapper into a garbage can. Willett, 45, said the officer then followed her into the station.
"Don't you have some other crimes you have to take care of?" she said she told the officer.
Washington has been under heightened security because of the threat of terrorism. And last week, police declared a emergency over rising juvenile crime.
The transit officer asked for Willett's identification, but she kept walking. She said she was then frisked and handcuffed.
"If she had stopped eating, it would have been the end of it and if she had just stopped for the issuance of a citation, she never would have been locked up," Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson said yesterday.
Metrorail has been criticized in the past for heavy handed enforcement of the eating ban. In 2000, an officer handcuffed a 12-year-old girl for eating a french fry on a subway platform.
In 2002, an officer ticketed a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy for cursing when he was unable to find a working elevator to leave a station.
Just got back from Company picnic. High Park in Toronto.
Holy crap I'm sweaty. Too much soccer and football. Having folks from your office trying to tackle you on the playing field is a strange experience. Jason Bigio kicked me in the face accidentally and I'm going to give him crap on Monday if I have a welt or a bruise. Sonny, my team's goaltender, had a case of beer on ice by his net, which was why his goaltending got worse throughout the day. Luckily Brian, the other goaltender, and Sony trainer, sucked in net from the start so it all evened out.
Since we have Muslims working in our company, we had Halal burgers as well as regular burgers (and veggie burgers for the wackos). Anyway, I decided to try some of the Muslim Halal burgers, and they were way way yummier. I want more. I asked some of the muslims what made them different, and apparently the only difference is that they are bled or something. Anyway, very tasty.
Holy crap I'm sweaty. Too much soccer and football. Having folks from your office trying to tackle you on the playing field is a strange experience. Jason Bigio kicked me in the face accidentally and I'm going to give him crap on Monday if I have a welt or a bruise. Sonny, my team's goaltender, had a case of beer on ice by his net, which was why his goaltending got worse throughout the day. Luckily Brian, the other goaltender, and Sony trainer, sucked in net from the start so it all evened out.
Since we have Muslims working in our company, we had Halal burgers as well as regular burgers (and veggie burgers for the wackos). Anyway, I decided to try some of the Muslim Halal burgers, and they were way way yummier. I want more. I asked some of the muslims what made them different, and apparently the only difference is that they are bled or something. Anyway, very tasty.
Yay I'm back.. Fishing was just swell, and.....
what the heck? It looks like somebody changed the blogger edit window while I was gone. Ohh and now I can post in courier font, big normal tiny.
This is just so silly. Who wants to read my crap with all these dumb effects?
Still, I have to post this to see what it looks like.
what the heck? It looks like somebody changed the blogger edit window while I was gone. Ohh and now I can post in courier font, big normal tiny.
This is just so silly. Who wants to read my crap with all these dumb effects?
Still, I have to post this to see what it looks like.
My Complaint about Stephen Harper
(intended only in fun)
Auto-Generated by Pakin Complaint Generator
I'll get right to the point. Mr. Stephen Harper's apostles merely present their allegations as though they were true, a technique known as a "conclusory" or "Kierkegaardian" leap. And that's why I feel compelled to say something about gutless, incompetent fogeys. If he continues to exploit the public's short attention span in order to silence critical debate and squelch creative brainstorming, crime will escalate as schools deteriorate, corruption increases, and quality of life plummets. He finds reality too difficult to swallow. Or maybe it just gets lost between the sports and entertainment pages. In either case, we should give you some background information about Mr. Harper. (Goodness knows, our elected officials aren't going to.) Contrast, for example, his plans for the future with those of lawless, tendentious spoiled brats, and observe that there is no contrast. I, by (genuine) contrast, take the view that he dreams of a time when he'll be free to cause pain and injury to those who don't deserve it. That's the way he's planned it, and that's the way it'll happen -- not may happen, but will happen -- if we don't interfere, if we don't turn random, senseless violence into meaningful action.
Is this anything other than haughty solecism? The answer is obvious if you happen to notice that another point worth thinking about is that this has been documented repeatedly. Or, to express that sentiment without all of the emotionally charged lingo, Mr. Harper's eccentricity is surpassed only by his vanity. And his vanity is surpassed only by his empty theorizing. (Remember his theory that he is always being misrepresented and/or persecuted?)
As that last sentence suggests, it would please Mr. Harper greatly to discredit and intimidate the opposition, so to speak. I've already said this a thousand times and with a thousand different phrasings, but he indubitably believes that 75 million years ago, a galactic tyrant named Xenu solved the overpopulation problem of his 76-planet federation by transporting the excess people to Earth, chaining them to volcanoes, and dropping H-bombs on them. What kind of Humpty-Dumpty world is he living in? I could give you the answer now, but it would be more productive for me first to inform you that some heartless, witless exhibitionists actually maintain that the kids on the playground are happy to surrender to the school bully. This is the kind of muddled thinking that he is encouraging with his apologues. Even worse, all those who raise their voice against this brainwashing campaign are denounced as voluble used-car salesmen. What does this mean for our future? For one thing, it means that Mr. Harper wants to create a mass psychology of fear about an imminent terrorist threat. Such intolerance is felt by all people, from every background. What is the milieu in which the worst classes of ostentatious practitioners of cannibalism I've ever seen subject us to the untoward yapping of stingy monomaniacs? It is the underworld of conspiracy theory, a subculture in which feral, unbalanced pamphleteers share fantasies of fighting heroically against a huge conspiracy that will tap into the national resurgence of overt colonialism sometime soon. My goal for this letter was to comment on Mr. Stephen Harper's invectives. Know that I have done my best while trying always to plant markers that define the limits of what is oppressive and what is not. Let an honest history judge.
(intended only in fun)
Auto-Generated by Pakin Complaint Generator
I'll get right to the point. Mr. Stephen Harper's apostles merely present their allegations as though they were true, a technique known as a "conclusory" or "Kierkegaardian" leap. And that's why I feel compelled to say something about gutless, incompetent fogeys. If he continues to exploit the public's short attention span in order to silence critical debate and squelch creative brainstorming, crime will escalate as schools deteriorate, corruption increases, and quality of life plummets. He finds reality too difficult to swallow. Or maybe it just gets lost between the sports and entertainment pages. In either case, we should give you some background information about Mr. Harper. (Goodness knows, our elected officials aren't going to.) Contrast, for example, his plans for the future with those of lawless, tendentious spoiled brats, and observe that there is no contrast. I, by (genuine) contrast, take the view that he dreams of a time when he'll be free to cause pain and injury to those who don't deserve it. That's the way he's planned it, and that's the way it'll happen -- not may happen, but will happen -- if we don't interfere, if we don't turn random, senseless violence into meaningful action.
Is this anything other than haughty solecism? The answer is obvious if you happen to notice that another point worth thinking about is that this has been documented repeatedly. Or, to express that sentiment without all of the emotionally charged lingo, Mr. Harper's eccentricity is surpassed only by his vanity. And his vanity is surpassed only by his empty theorizing. (Remember his theory that he is always being misrepresented and/or persecuted?)
As that last sentence suggests, it would please Mr. Harper greatly to discredit and intimidate the opposition, so to speak. I've already said this a thousand times and with a thousand different phrasings, but he indubitably believes that 75 million years ago, a galactic tyrant named Xenu solved the overpopulation problem of his 76-planet federation by transporting the excess people to Earth, chaining them to volcanoes, and dropping H-bombs on them. What kind of Humpty-Dumpty world is he living in? I could give you the answer now, but it would be more productive for me first to inform you that some heartless, witless exhibitionists actually maintain that the kids on the playground are happy to surrender to the school bully. This is the kind of muddled thinking that he is encouraging with his apologues. Even worse, all those who raise their voice against this brainwashing campaign are denounced as voluble used-car salesmen. What does this mean for our future? For one thing, it means that Mr. Harper wants to create a mass psychology of fear about an imminent terrorist threat. Such intolerance is felt by all people, from every background. What is the milieu in which the worst classes of ostentatious practitioners of cannibalism I've ever seen subject us to the untoward yapping of stingy monomaniacs? It is the underworld of conspiracy theory, a subculture in which feral, unbalanced pamphleteers share fantasies of fighting heroically against a huge conspiracy that will tap into the national resurgence of overt colonialism sometime soon. My goal for this letter was to comment on Mr. Stephen Harper's invectives. Know that I have done my best while trying always to plant markers that define the limits of what is oppressive and what is not. Let an honest history judge.
Braaady in the Mooorniiiiing.....
Old CFTR fans might enjoy this, an old Jim Brady show from around 1979. All the songs have been cut out, as have Russ Holden and Darrell Dommer's traffic reports.
It's about 8 minutes long. Someone must have been digging around and found an old tape in a box somewhere....
Click here to listen. (requires Real player. You know how to find it.)
By the way, when I said "old CFTR fans", I meant people who used to listen to CFTR when it was cool. Of course it is true that most of us who remember those days are starting to get old...
Also, here is the CFTR changeover from rock to "680 News". I think that the last song is supposed to be all poignant or something.
Unfortunately nothing as dramatic as Dr. Johnny Fever's changeover "scratchhhhhh, goodbye to the elevator music.."
Old CFTR fans might enjoy this, an old Jim Brady show from around 1979. All the songs have been cut out, as have Russ Holden and Darrell Dommer's traffic reports.
It's about 8 minutes long. Someone must have been digging around and found an old tape in a box somewhere....
Click here to listen. (requires Real player. You know how to find it.)
By the way, when I said "old CFTR fans", I meant people who used to listen to CFTR when it was cool. Of course it is true that most of us who remember those days are starting to get old...
Also, here is the CFTR changeover from rock to "680 News". I think that the last song is supposed to be all poignant or something.
Unfortunately nothing as dramatic as Dr. Johnny Fever's changeover "scratchhhhhh, goodbye to the elevator music.."
I am taking a leave of absence from my blog. I am going on vacation to sunny cottage country. I will be returning in the middle of the month so be sure to come back to read about my adventures.
Of course if it gets all rainy or something I may write a bit and post from up north.
I will be in Fenelon Falls, the hometown of such famous people as my friend Avery Haines (of CTV Newsnet fame), and a former miss nude world who sat beside me in grade 9 typing, and whose current porn stage name is "Venus Delight" or something like that.
For Tragically Hip fans, Fenelon Falls is a 10-minute drive from Bobcaygeon("where I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time").
Of course if it gets all rainy or something I may write a bit and post from up north.
I will be in Fenelon Falls, the hometown of such famous people as my friend Avery Haines (of CTV Newsnet fame), and a former miss nude world who sat beside me in grade 9 typing, and whose current porn stage name is "Venus Delight" or something like that.
For Tragically Hip fans, Fenelon Falls is a 10-minute drive from Bobcaygeon("where I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time").
It's over, Liberal minority
Currently it looks like a Liberal-NDP coalition, with approximately 163 seats, but those numbers are likely to change by the time this is over.
Worst thing that could happen to the Liberals would be that they might have to rely on the BQ, which would give the Conservatives a compelling campaign issue 2 years from now.
Analysis: Bedtime.
Currently it looks like a Liberal-NDP coalition, with approximately 163 seats, but those numbers are likely to change by the time this is over.
Worst thing that could happen to the Liberals would be that they might have to rely on the BQ, which would give the Conservatives a compelling campaign issue 2 years from now.
Analysis: Bedtime.
Election results comparison with 2000
All results as of approx 11:30pm when I had to go to bed.
Atlantic Canada
2000
L 19
C 9
N 4
2004
L 22
C 7
N 3
It looks like the Sponsorship scandal didn't have a huge effect out east...
Quebec
2000
L 36
B 38
2004
L 19
B 56
Ontario
2000
L 100
C 2
N 1
2004
L 77
C 22
N 7
Man
2000
L 5
C 3
N 4
2004
L 3
C 7
N 4
Sask
2000
L 2
C 10
N 2
2004
L 1
C 13
N 0
Alta
2000
L 1
C 24
N 0
2004
L 2
C 26
N 0
BC
2000
L 5
C 27
N 2
2004
L 9
C 17
N 9
Territories
2000
L 3
2004
L 3
All results as of approx 11:30pm when I had to go to bed.
Atlantic Canada
2000
L 19
C 9
N 4
2004
L 22
C 7
N 3
It looks like the Sponsorship scandal didn't have a huge effect out east...
Quebec
2000
L 36
B 38
2004
L 19
B 56
Ontario
2000
L 100
C 2
N 1
2004
L 77
C 22
N 7
Man
2000
L 5
C 3
N 4
2004
L 3
C 7
N 4
Sask
2000
L 2
C 10
N 2
2004
L 1
C 13
N 0
Alta
2000
L 1
C 24
N 0
2004
L 2
C 26
N 0
BC
2000
L 5
C 27
N 2
2004
L 9
C 17
N 9
Territories
2000
L 3
2004
L 3
Election night
I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen tonight. I've started watching the 2 Towers as a distraction.
Still I can't help but wonder if there will be any point during the night when a winner will be declared/predicted, or even if we'll know before we go to bed. There are so many unknowns, and each region of the country will have to be looked at almost as a separate election.
We'll get results from Eastern Canada first, where the Liberals may do fairly well. If the Conservatives get a large proportion of the seats there then I would predict a Conservative government is likely.
Then we'll be waiting to see the ratio of seats in Quebec, where the Bloc is doing well but some predict that the Liberals will do better than recent polling would indicate. Most estimates give the Liberals 25 seats in Quebec, so anything under 25 seats there will be good news for Harper, and anything over is icing on the cake for Martin.
As we await each region's results, suspense, suspense.
Ontario. So many ridings here have gone Liberal in the past 3 elections due to vote splitting, it's really hard to judge. The Conservatives will definitely pick up seats here. I would say that the unknown factor, the factor that is most likely to affect the seat count, is the number of former Progressive Conservative supporters who decide to follow the lead of Joe Clark, and vote Liberal instead of Conservative.
The further west we start getting results throughout the night, the higher the Conservative seat count in proportion to the Liberals will grow.
I'll comment more on the effect the west will have on the election as the night goes on and we have some results from the other regions.
Meanwhile, back to the 2 Towers
I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen tonight. I've started watching the 2 Towers as a distraction.
Still I can't help but wonder if there will be any point during the night when a winner will be declared/predicted, or even if we'll know before we go to bed. There are so many unknowns, and each region of the country will have to be looked at almost as a separate election.
We'll get results from Eastern Canada first, where the Liberals may do fairly well. If the Conservatives get a large proportion of the seats there then I would predict a Conservative government is likely.
Then we'll be waiting to see the ratio of seats in Quebec, where the Bloc is doing well but some predict that the Liberals will do better than recent polling would indicate. Most estimates give the Liberals 25 seats in Quebec, so anything under 25 seats there will be good news for Harper, and anything over is icing on the cake for Martin.
As we await each region's results, suspense, suspense.
Ontario. So many ridings here have gone Liberal in the past 3 elections due to vote splitting, it's really hard to judge. The Conservatives will definitely pick up seats here. I would say that the unknown factor, the factor that is most likely to affect the seat count, is the number of former Progressive Conservative supporters who decide to follow the lead of Joe Clark, and vote Liberal instead of Conservative.
The further west we start getting results throughout the night, the higher the Conservative seat count in proportion to the Liberals will grow.
I'll comment more on the effect the west will have on the election as the night goes on and we have some results from the other regions.
Meanwhile, back to the 2 Towers
Centuries, Volume II
OK, here's my second-round election guesstimate.
Liberals: 121
Conservative: 112
NDP: 24
Bloc: 50
Independent 1
My first prediction was a little higher for the Liberals and a little lower for the Conservatives. So where does the credit lie for the stronger Conservative showing?
Harper has spent half the campaign on the defensive due to stupid comments by Conservative candidates. It was a much better campaign than the last one in 2000, much more professional, aside from the Conservative candidates' comments I just mentioned.
I'm reminded of Naomi Klein's book entitled "No Logo", in which she says:
"Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations"
When we think of the traditional political parties in this country, the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, we think of them like brand names. Like Coke, Pepsi, and Tab, the majority of us have our favourite that we remain loyal to. Is Coke better than Pepsi? The taste difference is so negligible that if you gave a Coke drinker a glass of Pepsi without telling him, he wouldn't know the difference.
Traditionally Tories and Liberals have had more in common than they have had differences. Both parties have always governed by putting the best interests of the country ahead of any personal opinions that the members of either party might have. There has always been a fable that the Conservatives govern from further to the right than the Liberals, and the fable has fed upon itself by having the effect of encouraging conservative-minded people to join the Conservative party.
This in turn has had the effect of creating a party membership that is more conservative than the Liberal party, and has an effect on party policy and campaign policy, but as I said, it doesn't affect the way the party governs. "Liberal Tory, same old story" was one of the Reform Party slogans back in 1993, and it may have been the only insightful thing ever to come out of the Reform "braintrust".
Anyway, I started discussing Coke, Pepsi and Tab. The reason I included Tab cola is because for a long time it was the third option, a cola that always had it's fans but never really had a chance of winning the cola wars. That's where the NDP and the Reform/Alliance enter into the equation. Both of those parties had their supporters, but never enough to give them a chance at governing. They were perennial "third-parties".
This is where you are going to have to use your imagination a bit. Imagine if Tab Cola one day bought out Coca-Cola and repackaged it's own product in the familiar red and white bottles and cans under the Coke name. So long as it was done quietly, Coca Cola sales would likely continue without a glitch.
That's exactly what the Reform/Alliance did, took over the Conservative Party and repackaged itself as the new Conservative party, and this election has shown that Reform is reaping all the benefits of the "Conservative" brand-name recognition in this country.
Next they'll be telling us they are the "Party of MacDonald".
OK, here's my second-round election guesstimate.
Liberals: 121
Conservative: 112
NDP: 24
Bloc: 50
Independent 1
My first prediction was a little higher for the Liberals and a little lower for the Conservatives. So where does the credit lie for the stronger Conservative showing?
Harper has spent half the campaign on the defensive due to stupid comments by Conservative candidates. It was a much better campaign than the last one in 2000, much more professional, aside from the Conservative candidates' comments I just mentioned.
I'm reminded of Naomi Klein's book entitled "No Logo", in which she says:
"Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations"
When we think of the traditional political parties in this country, the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, we think of them like brand names. Like Coke, Pepsi, and Tab, the majority of us have our favourite that we remain loyal to. Is Coke better than Pepsi? The taste difference is so negligible that if you gave a Coke drinker a glass of Pepsi without telling him, he wouldn't know the difference.
Traditionally Tories and Liberals have had more in common than they have had differences. Both parties have always governed by putting the best interests of the country ahead of any personal opinions that the members of either party might have. There has always been a fable that the Conservatives govern from further to the right than the Liberals, and the fable has fed upon itself by having the effect of encouraging conservative-minded people to join the Conservative party.
This in turn has had the effect of creating a party membership that is more conservative than the Liberal party, and has an effect on party policy and campaign policy, but as I said, it doesn't affect the way the party governs. "Liberal Tory, same old story" was one of the Reform Party slogans back in 1993, and it may have been the only insightful thing ever to come out of the Reform "braintrust".
Anyway, I started discussing Coke, Pepsi and Tab. The reason I included Tab cola is because for a long time it was the third option, a cola that always had it's fans but never really had a chance of winning the cola wars. That's where the NDP and the Reform/Alliance enter into the equation. Both of those parties had their supporters, but never enough to give them a chance at governing. They were perennial "third-parties".
This is where you are going to have to use your imagination a bit. Imagine if Tab Cola one day bought out Coca-Cola and repackaged it's own product in the familiar red and white bottles and cans under the Coke name. So long as it was done quietly, Coca Cola sales would likely continue without a glitch.
That's exactly what the Reform/Alliance did, took over the Conservative Party and repackaged itself as the new Conservative party, and this election has shown that Reform is reaping all the benefits of the "Conservative" brand-name recognition in this country.
Next they'll be telling us they are the "Party of MacDonald".
To those Quebec federalists who are condidering voting for the Bloc Quebecois
in order to send Paul Martin a message, why not try this instead: e-mail.
A vote for the Bloc will later be translated by them as a vote for sovereignty. Also it will help elect Stephen Harper.
in order to send Paul Martin a message, why not try this instead: e-mail.
A vote for the Bloc will later be translated by them as a vote for sovereignty. Also it will help elect Stephen Harper.
Still working on the prediction. It's getting late for predictions, but really I have no clue how the election is going to go.
update:
Thanks to Ian at Vancouver Scrum, and to Warren Kinsella (who ran against TED White back in 1997) for pointing out to me that I had confused Randy White with Ted White.
Anyway, today's post is entitled:
Holy Chickens!
(to heck with the courts, eh?)
I'm definitely going to be glad I'm a straight white male if the Conservatives win this election. Here's why.
Randy White, one of the brighter bulbs in the Conservative caucus (remember this is the same caucus that still contains Stockwell Day) made some comments back in May for a tv program which is set to be aired in August. White's says that the Conservative Party will use the notwithstanding clause to veto any court decisions that they don't like. That would include any Supreme Court of Canada decision to allow gay marriage, like the recent decision which allowed gays to marry in Ontario.
White is specically opposed to such Supreme court decisions as the one in the case R. v. Egan in 1995, in which the Supreme Court interpreted sexual orientation into the Charter of Rights.
Anyway, the story is that the Liberals have gotten ahold of the footage and now White's comments have been made public during the election, and now Stephen Harper has been forced onto the defensive during the last weekend of the election.
Without further ado, here are Randy White's strange remarks:
***
"The heck with the courts, eh? You know, one of these days we in this country are going to stand up and say, 'The politicians make the laws and the courts do not.' The courts interpret that law. And if we don't like that interpretation, there's the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which the Liberal government has never invoked and said they will not use. I believe we'll see that with us in the House of Commons because enough is enough of this stuff…
"I think most people are getting sick and tired of judges writing the law to suit themselves and to suit the current Liberal government, in fact.
"It's time that we started to exert our responsibility as politicians in the country. If the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is going to be used as the crutch to carry forward all of the issues that social libertarians want, then there's got to be for us conservatives out there a way to put checks and balances in there."
***
**
*
These attacks on the Supreme Court are nothing new for this party. In 2000, Alan Gold, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, had this to say about the (then) Reform Party's attacks on the Supreme Court's decisions:
*
**
***
"The Criminal Lawyers Association deplores recent attacks on the Supreme Court of Canada as ill-conceived and misguided applications of Parliamentary Supremacy doctrine and unfair attacks on an institution that cannot as a matter of law defend itself.
We see too many bullies because it is easy to be seduced by the power that comes from attacking someone who cannot defend themselves. It is shameful when such conduct comes from political leaders. Parliamentary Supremacy makes Parliament supreme within its jurisdiction. An exercise of that jurisdiction gave us a Charter of Rights that is a model and a beacon of liberty around the world. The guardian of that Charter is the Supreme Court of Canada. That Court since 1982 has given us world-class judgments involving human rights and fundamental liberties that are read and cited and admired by courts around the world. We are unaware of any jurisdiction that has looked to the Reform Party platform for guidance on any issue.
Politicians are too easily blown onto an ill-conceived course by whatever strong winds happen to fill their sails. They too easily jettison rationality and restraint whenever hailed by misinformed and intemperate lobby groups. On the other hand, there is a worldwide movement towards the recognition of fundamental rights and their indomitable protection in a basic Charter of Rights protected by an independent judiciary."
***
Ask yourself, do you seriously want to vote for a goverment that would give a man like Randy White (and Stockwell Day) cabinet positions?
update:
Thanks to Ian at Vancouver Scrum, and to Warren Kinsella (who ran against TED White back in 1997) for pointing out to me that I had confused Randy White with Ted White.
Anyway, today's post is entitled:
Holy Chickens!
(to heck with the courts, eh?)
I'm definitely going to be glad I'm a straight white male if the Conservatives win this election. Here's why.
Randy White, one of the brighter bulbs in the Conservative caucus (remember this is the same caucus that still contains Stockwell Day) made some comments back in May for a tv program which is set to be aired in August. White's says that the Conservative Party will use the notwithstanding clause to veto any court decisions that they don't like. That would include any Supreme Court of Canada decision to allow gay marriage, like the recent decision which allowed gays to marry in Ontario.
White is specically opposed to such Supreme court decisions as the one in the case R. v. Egan in 1995, in which the Supreme Court interpreted sexual orientation into the Charter of Rights.
Anyway, the story is that the Liberals have gotten ahold of the footage and now White's comments have been made public during the election, and now Stephen Harper has been forced onto the defensive during the last weekend of the election.
Without further ado, here are Randy White's strange remarks:
***
"The heck with the courts, eh? You know, one of these days we in this country are going to stand up and say, 'The politicians make the laws and the courts do not.' The courts interpret that law. And if we don't like that interpretation, there's the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which the Liberal government has never invoked and said they will not use. I believe we'll see that with us in the House of Commons because enough is enough of this stuff…
"I think most people are getting sick and tired of judges writing the law to suit themselves and to suit the current Liberal government, in fact.
"It's time that we started to exert our responsibility as politicians in the country. If the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is going to be used as the crutch to carry forward all of the issues that social libertarians want, then there's got to be for us conservatives out there a way to put checks and balances in there."
***
**
*
These attacks on the Supreme Court are nothing new for this party. In 2000, Alan Gold, president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, had this to say about the (then) Reform Party's attacks on the Supreme Court's decisions:
*
**
***
"The Criminal Lawyers Association deplores recent attacks on the Supreme Court of Canada as ill-conceived and misguided applications of Parliamentary Supremacy doctrine and unfair attacks on an institution that cannot as a matter of law defend itself.
We see too many bullies because it is easy to be seduced by the power that comes from attacking someone who cannot defend themselves. It is shameful when such conduct comes from political leaders. Parliamentary Supremacy makes Parliament supreme within its jurisdiction. An exercise of that jurisdiction gave us a Charter of Rights that is a model and a beacon of liberty around the world. The guardian of that Charter is the Supreme Court of Canada. That Court since 1982 has given us world-class judgments involving human rights and fundamental liberties that are read and cited and admired by courts around the world. We are unaware of any jurisdiction that has looked to the Reform Party platform for guidance on any issue.
Politicians are too easily blown onto an ill-conceived course by whatever strong winds happen to fill their sails. They too easily jettison rationality and restraint whenever hailed by misinformed and intemperate lobby groups. On the other hand, there is a worldwide movement towards the recognition of fundamental rights and their indomitable protection in a basic Charter of Rights protected by an independent judiciary."
***
Ask yourself, do you seriously want to vote for a goverment that would give a man like Randy White (and Stockwell Day) cabinet positions?
I guess it's time for me to think about my second election pool prediction. Just to refresh, here was my first entry:
***
I'm obviously the only one who thinks the libs can still pull off a majority. Not wishful thinking, just faith in the Canadian voters to flock back to the "safe choice" the instant Harper makes his first dumb comment.
Liberals: 159
Conservative: 78
NDP: 26
Bloc: 45
***
I guess with the Bloc so far ahead in Quebec, and with the Tories no longer competing in Ontario for votes with the Alliance, it isn't very likely that my first prediction is going to happen.
Off the top of my head, I'd say the Bloc is likely to win at least 10 more seats than I predicted, and I'll give the Conservatives another 10 as well.
So tomorrow I will consider, then post my second prediction.
I really really need some sleep. Good night all.
***
I'm obviously the only one who thinks the libs can still pull off a majority. Not wishful thinking, just faith in the Canadian voters to flock back to the "safe choice" the instant Harper makes his first dumb comment.
Liberals: 159
Conservative: 78
NDP: 26
Bloc: 45
***
I guess with the Bloc so far ahead in Quebec, and with the Tories no longer competing in Ontario for votes with the Alliance, it isn't very likely that my first prediction is going to happen.
Off the top of my head, I'd say the Bloc is likely to win at least 10 more seats than I predicted, and I'll give the Conservatives another 10 as well.
So tomorrow I will consider, then post my second prediction.
I really really need some sleep. Good night all.
Conservative criticizes his party's exploitation of the Holly Jones trial.
from a letter published in yesterday's Toronto Star:
"The Tories are wrong to exploit the death of a young girl for political gain and are wrong to make wild accusations about Mr. Martin's view of child pornography,"
Stephen Thiele, first vice-president of the Etobicoke Centre Conservative Association
Actually, this is a letter that deserves to be read in full, so here:
Majority disgusted at Harper remark
June 20.
The Tories have miraculously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with their mean-spirited accusation that Prime Minister Paul Martin condones child pornography.
The vast majority of Canadians are disgusted with those who seek pleasure out of child pornography and are horrified with the circumstances that led to the death of Holly Jones. However, the Tories are wrong to exploit the death of a young girl for political gain and are wrong to make wild accusations about Martin's view of child pornography.
The decision to launch a cruel personal attack on the Prime Minister amplifies the perception among the public that the Tories, under the leadership of Stephen Harper, are a party that is prone to right-wing extremism. Fortunately, not all members of the Conservative Party of Canada believe the accusation levelled at Martin by our leader and his campaign staff. Unfortunately, none of the party's 308 candidates has courageously stepped forward to denounce the personal insult.
In my view, the shameless press release and the remarks merit an apology. The failure to issue an apology in the circumstances is arrogant and enhances the cynicism that many voters now have . Canadians should "Demand Better" of Harper and the Tories. Until the Tories behave in a more professional manner and until they are accountable to themselves, the party deserve to be relegated to the opposition benches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Thiele,
1st Vice-President, Etobicoke Centre Conservative Association
from a letter published in yesterday's Toronto Star:
"The Tories are wrong to exploit the death of a young girl for political gain and are wrong to make wild accusations about Mr. Martin's view of child pornography,"
Stephen Thiele, first vice-president of the Etobicoke Centre Conservative Association
Actually, this is a letter that deserves to be read in full, so here:
Majority disgusted at Harper remark
June 20.
The Tories have miraculously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with their mean-spirited accusation that Prime Minister Paul Martin condones child pornography.
The vast majority of Canadians are disgusted with those who seek pleasure out of child pornography and are horrified with the circumstances that led to the death of Holly Jones. However, the Tories are wrong to exploit the death of a young girl for political gain and are wrong to make wild accusations about Martin's view of child pornography.
The decision to launch a cruel personal attack on the Prime Minister amplifies the perception among the public that the Tories, under the leadership of Stephen Harper, are a party that is prone to right-wing extremism. Fortunately, not all members of the Conservative Party of Canada believe the accusation levelled at Martin by our leader and his campaign staff. Unfortunately, none of the party's 308 candidates has courageously stepped forward to denounce the personal insult.
In my view, the shameless press release and the remarks merit an apology. The failure to issue an apology in the circumstances is arrogant and enhances the cynicism that many voters now have . Canadians should "Demand Better" of Harper and the Tories. Until the Tories behave in a more professional manner and until they are accountable to themselves, the party deserve to be relegated to the opposition benches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Thiele,
1st Vice-President, Etobicoke Centre Conservative Association
More polls show the Liberals beginning to pull ahead of the Conservatives
Ipsos-Reid
Liberals 34%
Conservatives 28%
NDP 16%
SES
Liberals 34%
Conservatives 31%
NDP 21%
With a week left in the campaign, the voters are beginning to make their final decisions on what their voting intentions are. It's possible to define voting intentions almost in a formulaic way. This formula would go something like this:
appetite for change + opinion of the alternative = voting intention indicator
The "appetite for change" variable includes such things as a person's opinion of the governing party, their personal happiness, and the media's treatment of the government.
A low voting intention indicator (I'll call it a VII because I'm lazy) should lead to a vote for the incumbent party. The higher the VII, the greater the chance of voting for one of the opposition parties.
Of course these are really just concepts, not numerical variables that can be measured easily, so I'm not going to try to treat them as numberical values.
Essentially these are the factors that parties are concerned with during an election. The governing party wants people to have a low VII, so they use positive campaign techniques like emphasizing portions of their record in power, as well as negative tactics such as criticizing the opposition.
Opposition parties tend to rely partially on positive tactics, which include strategically timed releases of portions of their campaign platform, but mostly they rely on negative campaign techniques, critizing and attacking the governing party's record and platform.
Other factors:
The more momentum a party has during an election campaign, the more comfortable they feel with the latest polling numbers for instance, the more that party will rely on positive tactics. As that party begins to fall behind, they start to shift towards negative tactics.
Some examples:
June 16
polls
SES Conservative 34, Liberal 32
Ipsos-Reid Conservative 32, Liberal 31
Marzolini Conservative 36, Liberal 31
Harper
”If we continue to work hard in next few weeks. if we remain united, if we stick to our principles, if we continue to reach out to the supporters of other parties including all those disenchanted Liberals, we will be able to give Canadians a majority government we can all trust and be proud of.”
Martin
"I have asked Mr. Harper: that's fine, tell us what's going to give, tell us where you are going to find the $50 billion. And he has not been able to do so,"
June 22
Polls
SES Conservative 31, Liberal 34
Ipsos-Reid Conservative 28, Liberal 36
Harper
"He says health care is his No. 1 priority. The only time in the past decade it was his No. 1 priority is when he had to cut the budget. Then he cut health care first and he cut it deepest,"
Martin
"I feel very good about the way in which the whole race is unfolding. I feel very good about the realization of Canadians of the differences between Stephen Harper and myself on the issues of health care, childcare and the economy. They want a government that reflects their priorities, and reducing waiting times is their priority."
Computer problem, will finish post when I fix
Ipsos-Reid
Liberals 34%
Conservatives 28%
NDP 16%
SES
Liberals 34%
Conservatives 31%
NDP 21%
With a week left in the campaign, the voters are beginning to make their final decisions on what their voting intentions are. It's possible to define voting intentions almost in a formulaic way. This formula would go something like this:
appetite for change + opinion of the alternative = voting intention indicator
The "appetite for change" variable includes such things as a person's opinion of the governing party, their personal happiness, and the media's treatment of the government.
A low voting intention indicator (I'll call it a VII because I'm lazy) should lead to a vote for the incumbent party. The higher the VII, the greater the chance of voting for one of the opposition parties.
Of course these are really just concepts, not numerical variables that can be measured easily, so I'm not going to try to treat them as numberical values.
Essentially these are the factors that parties are concerned with during an election. The governing party wants people to have a low VII, so they use positive campaign techniques like emphasizing portions of their record in power, as well as negative tactics such as criticizing the opposition.
Opposition parties tend to rely partially on positive tactics, which include strategically timed releases of portions of their campaign platform, but mostly they rely on negative campaign techniques, critizing and attacking the governing party's record and platform.
Other factors:
The more momentum a party has during an election campaign, the more comfortable they feel with the latest polling numbers for instance, the more that party will rely on positive tactics. As that party begins to fall behind, they start to shift towards negative tactics.
Some examples:
June 16
polls
SES Conservative 34, Liberal 32
Ipsos-Reid Conservative 32, Liberal 31
Marzolini Conservative 36, Liberal 31
Harper
”If we continue to work hard in next few weeks. if we remain united, if we stick to our principles, if we continue to reach out to the supporters of other parties including all those disenchanted Liberals, we will be able to give Canadians a majority government we can all trust and be proud of.”
Martin
"I have asked Mr. Harper: that's fine, tell us what's going to give, tell us where you are going to find the $50 billion. And he has not been able to do so,"
June 22
Polls
SES Conservative 31, Liberal 34
Ipsos-Reid Conservative 28, Liberal 36
Harper
"He says health care is his No. 1 priority. The only time in the past decade it was his No. 1 priority is when he had to cut the budget. Then he cut health care first and he cut it deepest,"
Martin
"I feel very good about the way in which the whole race is unfolding. I feel very good about the realization of Canadians of the differences between Stephen Harper and myself on the issues of health care, childcare and the economy. They want a government that reflects their priorities, and reducing waiting times is their priority."
Computer problem, will finish post when I fix
Blah blah blah blah, blah blah Stephen Harper blah blah Air Canada. Blah, blah blah les blah et la blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Air Canada Public Participation Act (yawn).
Blah Harper Blah,
"Language service requirements would be moved to the Official Languages Act and would be consistent across the industry,"
blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah Bullshit blah blah.
Blah Harper Blah,
"Language service requirements would be moved to the Official Languages Act and would be consistent across the industry,"
blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah Bullshit blah blah.
Portrait of a frightening man
From an article in Sunday's Ottawa Sun
MAUGERVILLE, N.B. -- It is a dreary Saturday morning in small-town New Brunswick, and Stephen Harper isn't exactly warming hearts among the overflow crowd of Conservative faithful packed into the old two-room schoolhouse. On this day, the Conservative leader is in an ugly mood, the Iceman's habitual cool heading toward the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
Even a reporter's friendly "good morning, Stephen" is returned with silence and a withering glare from those frigid, malamute-blue eyes.
The cause of Harper's big chill was the Tories' big gaffe.
OK, I can understand that Harper couldn't have been pleased with the turn of events after Friday's Conservative campaign boondoggle. But worse political tides have happened to better men, and we don't usually see them stomping around displaying their anger to their followers and any media whose path they happen to cross.
Maybe Stephen Harper doesn't realize, but he's running for Prime Minister. A Prime Minister takes more heat than Harper has yet been exposed to, and if this is how Harper reacts to a little bit of media criticism then it's worrying to say the least, how he would act in the House, during Question Period, during scrums, in Cabinet, in meetings with international heads-of-state.
He isn't acting very Prime Ministerial at all.
From an article in Sunday's Ottawa Sun
MAUGERVILLE, N.B. -- It is a dreary Saturday morning in small-town New Brunswick, and Stephen Harper isn't exactly warming hearts among the overflow crowd of Conservative faithful packed into the old two-room schoolhouse. On this day, the Conservative leader is in an ugly mood, the Iceman's habitual cool heading toward the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
Even a reporter's friendly "good morning, Stephen" is returned with silence and a withering glare from those frigid, malamute-blue eyes.
The cause of Harper's big chill was the Tories' big gaffe.
OK, I can understand that Harper couldn't have been pleased with the turn of events after Friday's Conservative campaign boondoggle. But worse political tides have happened to better men, and we don't usually see them stomping around displaying their anger to their followers and any media whose path they happen to cross.
Maybe Stephen Harper doesn't realize, but he's running for Prime Minister. A Prime Minister takes more heat than Harper has yet been exposed to, and if this is how Harper reacts to a little bit of media criticism then it's worrying to say the least, how he would act in the House, during Question Period, during scrums, in Cabinet, in meetings with international heads-of-state.
He isn't acting very Prime Ministerial at all.
Apologize already, and be done with it!
Stephen Harper's insistance that the PM supports child porn is not winning him any points among the undecided voters.
The only folks who don't seem to think Harper is losing his cool are this guy:
a greasy long-haired Thunder Bay Conservative that CTV news last night showed hopping out of his pickup truck and lunging drunkenly at Jack Layton yesterday, waving a bible in one hand, and shouting "Pedophiles!",
and the folks who seem to live permanently in the comment section of Andrew Coyne's website.
According to the Globe and Mail, Harper put the blame "on over-caffeinated youngsters in the party's election war room who have been working long hours for nearly a year".
That's odd, the party is less than 6 months old. Anyway...
Later Harper compounded his shame, saying "Mr. Martin misrepresented — I'm tempted to say he lied — about his position on this"
Maybe Harper thought this would be a juicy little campaign tactic, accusing the prime minister of supporting "kiddie-porn". I'm not sure that there has ever been a more ridiculous campaign trick, even the Chretien-face ads seem to pale in comparison.
It should be noted that Harper's Canadian Alliance voted against bill C-12, which was intended to improve the protection of children and vulnerable persons from pornographic exploitation.
Among other things, the Liberals' Bill C-12 increased the prison terms for people convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor, and gave judges greater decision-making powers in such cases, including looking at the age difference between the adult and the minor.
The only criticism of the bill offered up by Harper's Canadian Alliance, was that they felt the legal age of consent should have been raised. According to Alliace MP Gumant Grewal: "Just imagine a grade 9 student giving consent to have sex with a 60 year old person or a 50 year old person." (hansard)
OK, so I've tried to imagine it. While it is a frightening statement (Harper's Alliance has made a career of trying to scare Canadians with their "what ifs"), it isn't much of a frightening reality. I just can't imagine a teenager wanting to have sex with a 60 year-old.
The truth is that there are no laws which can stop something like that from happening. The laws in place, including the age of consent, are there to provide consequences for an act after it has happened. And in Grewal's case of a 60 year old and a minor, as I have already pointed out, the bill the Alliance rejected included measures to allow a judge to consider the age difference between the adult and the minor in sentencing.
So why is it that the Alliance voted against the bill? Using their own logic does this mean they support child sexual exploitation?
***
If he was a real leader, at what point would Harper look at the statement that was made by his agents about Martin and say, politics aside, this statement was incorrect, and denigrates Martin not as a politician, but as a man.
At which point would Harper have apologized if he was a real leader.
In fact, forget about being a leader, even as a good man Harper should spoken out by now to Martin, and said "I'm sorry".
Stephen Harper's insistance that the PM supports child porn is not winning him any points among the undecided voters.
The only folks who don't seem to think Harper is losing his cool are this guy:
a greasy long-haired Thunder Bay Conservative that CTV news last night showed hopping out of his pickup truck and lunging drunkenly at Jack Layton yesterday, waving a bible in one hand, and shouting "Pedophiles!",
and the folks who seem to live permanently in the comment section of Andrew Coyne's website.
According to the Globe and Mail, Harper put the blame "on over-caffeinated youngsters in the party's election war room who have been working long hours for nearly a year".
That's odd, the party is less than 6 months old. Anyway...
Later Harper compounded his shame, saying "Mr. Martin misrepresented — I'm tempted to say he lied — about his position on this"
Maybe Harper thought this would be a juicy little campaign tactic, accusing the prime minister of supporting "kiddie-porn". I'm not sure that there has ever been a more ridiculous campaign trick, even the Chretien-face ads seem to pale in comparison.
It should be noted that Harper's Canadian Alliance voted against bill C-12, which was intended to improve the protection of children and vulnerable persons from pornographic exploitation.
Among other things, the Liberals' Bill C-12 increased the prison terms for people convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor, and gave judges greater decision-making powers in such cases, including looking at the age difference between the adult and the minor.
The only criticism of the bill offered up by Harper's Canadian Alliance, was that they felt the legal age of consent should have been raised. According to Alliace MP Gumant Grewal: "Just imagine a grade 9 student giving consent to have sex with a 60 year old person or a 50 year old person." (hansard)
OK, so I've tried to imagine it. While it is a frightening statement (Harper's Alliance has made a career of trying to scare Canadians with their "what ifs"), it isn't much of a frightening reality. I just can't imagine a teenager wanting to have sex with a 60 year-old.
The truth is that there are no laws which can stop something like that from happening. The laws in place, including the age of consent, are there to provide consequences for an act after it has happened. And in Grewal's case of a 60 year old and a minor, as I have already pointed out, the bill the Alliance rejected included measures to allow a judge to consider the age difference between the adult and the minor in sentencing.
So why is it that the Alliance voted against the bill? Using their own logic does this mean they support child sexual exploitation?
***
If he was a real leader, at what point would Harper look at the statement that was made by his agents about Martin and say, politics aside, this statement was incorrect, and denigrates Martin not as a politician, but as a man.
At which point would Harper have apologized if he was a real leader.
In fact, forget about being a leader, even as a good man Harper should spoken out by now to Martin, and said "I'm sorry".
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