When The Government Runs The Schools

You get teachers like this.

Don't Fear The Fatwa

Warning: Rude and Crude - And I love it.

If You See Only One Ad This Year ...

I could watch this all day.

Mrs Obama Spills the Beans

His "home country", Mrs O? Gee, that's just what his Granny was saying (until she got told to shut up).
I can't wait for Chris Matthews to denounce M.O. as a racist wackjob "Birther" who thinks the Chosen One can be carded like a mere mortal.
On the other hand, this could just be a case of an incredibly intelligent and articulate product of Affirmative Action not knowing what "home country" means.

In Memory of Charles Lillard

February 26, 1944 - March 27, 1997

Elip naika nanitch
Sitka, maika illahie.
Cultus spose naika memaloost
yukwa elip.

Now I have seen
Sitka, your country.
Nevermind if I die
here now.

With Conservatives Like This ... ?

Yet more taxpayers' money for Own The Podium (aka circuses)
An increase in the tax advantage enjoyed by irresponsible breeders
No end to the Hitlerian "hate speech" laws and the Star Chambers that enforce them
And yet more impoverishment of the People and damage to the economy in the name of saving Gaia from Maurice Strong and Paul Ehrlich, er, I mean, the weather.

Perhaps when the Liberals finally dump Count Iggy they won't have to look too far for a replacement. This guy has "Natural Governing Party du Canerduh" written all over him.
In the end, he's just another guy from toronto.

Not With A Bang ...

" … Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses "
(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

Happy BC DAY!

Imagined Nation

from the archives of the Western Standard

Canada has become a phony country made up of diverse tribes who have no idea what they're doing together

David Warren - August 8, 2005

"Why do you think Canada is breaking up?" This perfectly straightforward question from a reader took me aback. What appears obvious to me, may not appear so to others; and vice versa.

The short answer is, because there is nothing left to hold it together. Anything that was particular about the country--not about regions but about the country as a whole--has been obviated by government legislation, or put quite purposely into disuse. We are no longer a Dominion; we have a Queen only on paper; our system of Crown-in-Parliament has been negated by the quasi-presidential rule of a succession of "federaste" prime ministers from Quebec. Our history is no longer taught in schools.

We are reduced to waving a Canadian flag--and that is itself an imposture. The current Canada is something that was invented from scratch, in Liberal party advertising agencies, and dates approximately from the invention of that flag, in 1964. But successive Liberal governments could think of nothing with which to replace the old symbols. Hence, a "new Canada," defined by a bunch of nothings.

Ask a Canadian who is waiting for a bus--or more likely for a CAT scan--what Canada means to him, and he will say something like "multiculturalism" or "tolerance" or "universal health care." These are nothings. There is nothing Canadian about any of them. Every postmodern country has all these things, and none of them are worth having.

But this is old news, dating back to Pearson. The late Pierre Trudeau made no secret of his contempt for Canada and Canadians as a national group, and instead put his faith in universal abstractions. We got what we deserved by repeatedly electing him.

Quebec has a linguistic identity. Alberta has a western identity--which by now appears to be shared with the B.C. Interior and much of Saskatchewan. (It is, in fact, what's left of the old English-Canadian identity.) Newfoundland has a Newfoundlandish identity. The Maritimes and Manitoba are resentful, mendicant districts; the North is a kind of environmental reservation; and Ontario exists by default.

I live in Ontario, and so far as I can make out, it is the ultimate zero. It eats, makes money and sleeps. It has no morals, no religion, no culture, no purpose beyond getting to work in the morning. No Ontarian can explain what he stands for, except with negatives. The only thing I see is a smug dislike for anything with a shape. Ontario hates the rest of the country, the West especially, for embodying positive qualities Ontario once had.

And it is Ontario that supports the Liberal party--together with the bought provinces, which live on Ontario's evaporating goodwill (plus money appropriated from the West). It will not vote Conservative for fear that the Conservatives have a "secret agenda," i.e., that they may harbour any opinions at all.

This is why Canada will break up. The Liberal party is absolutely despised by the great majority in Quebec and the West. Ontario will vote to keep it in power, in the full knowledge of the degree of its corruption, for the sake of "national unity." Yet that is the very thing to which another Liberal victory will give the coup de grace.

For Ontario does not even pretend the Liberals are not despised elsewhere. Ontario doesn't care. It doesn't think separatists are serious. It is not even sure the rest of the country exists. Well, it thinks Quebec exists, but that Quebec can be assuaged by saying, "We wuv you."

It is like a husband who doesn't know his wife hates him. Who will be utterly surprised when she sues for divorce.

European countries are still held together by common ethnicities. The United States is held together by a rich, common historical and constitutional heritage, inculcated in children from birth. Canada has become more like an African state, with diverse tribes, and no memory of what they are doing together. We, at least, were something once, but now that is gone. We have become a sleepwalk, a "gay marriage."

Why Beancounters Should Stick To Counting Beans

CGA BC's radio ads are good for a laff anyway.

You've probably heard it by now, the "Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau defined luck as where opportunity and preparation meet" ad from the Certified General Accountants of BC.
Actually, it was Lucius Annaeus Seneca, most of 2000 years earlier who defined luck that way.

Some other news flashes for the CGAs:

Pierre Trudeau did not create the heavens and the earth
Pierre Trudeau did not part the Red Sea
Pierre Trudeau did not invent hockey, beer or pizza.

And Pierre Trudeau did not elect a single MP west of Winnipeg for 16 years, which may cast into doubt the sagacity of invoking his name and memory in your BC ad campaign.

On the other hand:

"Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau expressed his contempt for British Columbians with the famous Salmon Arm Salute."

Work that into the copy, why doncha.

Live Local and Latebreaking

Thomas Anthony Proniuk (seen here with a daughter to be proud of)
may be back out and about soon.

The North Burnaby neighborhood terrorized by last week's pellet gun and bear spray rampage are waiting to hear the results of the suspects second hearing Monday morning in New West.
Will he be heading over with a real rifle this pm? Will he cool his heels in the jug a while more at least?
They're getting hourly reports on Susan Boyle instead.
Weak.