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Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« on: 2008-12-04 18:37:31 » |
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It is sad to watch self serving bastards of all shape, creed and colour flush any hope we have of managing this economic disaster in Canada. The Self Lubricating Uncaring Tyrants of office of all stripes are playing partisan politics at the expense of the country and bend us over yet again.
Sigh
Fritz
Source: CBC
Author: Neil Macdonald, Washington file
Date: December 3, 2008
Dear neighbour, about what's going on in Canada
My dear American neighbours,
I see the political crisis in Canada has finally made it into the Washington Post's Foreign Briefs column.
So, anticipating a flood of interest from all of you at the dog run in the morning, let me try to give you some idea of what's happening up there.
A few weeks ago, we had an election in Canada, a couple of weeks before yours, actually. A political party known as the Conservatives won.
Well, sort of. They didn't win in the sense that most of you understand winning. I'll get to that in a second.
They also aren't what most of you would consider conservative.
They support what you call socialized medicine, they believe in protecting a Canadian-controlled banking system, they believe in government as a vehicle for transferring wealth between regions, and they've actually muzzled party members who tried to make abortion a campaign issue.
In fact, instead of making his Sunday trip to church a photo opportunity, our Conservative leader refuses to discuss his faith in public. (Like many Americans, he's an evangelical Christian).
Different kettle of fish
So our Conservatives are a bit different from yours. Down here, you'd probably call them Democrats. And fairly liberal ones at that.
But, as I said, they won our last election, which is a pretty low-key affair compared to yours. The campaign lasted a few weeks instead of two years.
What's more, they won with only 37 per cent of the vote. Now, you can do that in Canada because our Parliament has three other political parties: The Liberals (again, pay no attention to the name, they tend to adapt their worldview as needed), the Bloc Québécois (a Quebec party that says it wants to break up the country, but hasn't actually done much about it for many years), and the NDP.
I'm not quite sure how to explain the NDP. The other parties like to call them socialists.
Some of their more doctrinaire members would like the government to nationalize or take a large financial stake in things like banks and manipulate the national economy by spending huge amounts of public money. You know, the sort of thing President George W. Bush has been doing this year.
I know, I know, it's confusing.
Funny old world, isn't it?
So. The Conservatives won our election and formed something called a minority government.
That means the Conservatives can basically be tossed out of office by the opposition parties whenever they feel like it, which usually happens after a year or two. Then there's an election.
This time, though, the opposition parties decided to throw out the government before it really even started governing. But instead of forcing another election, the opposition parties made a deal: they formed a surprise coalition and now they want to take power without consulting voters again.
Americans might have a hard time understanding this sort of thing, but it happens all the time in places like Israel and Italy. Wait, though. Uh, wake up. We're getting to the really interesting part.
The CBC connection
To take over, the opposition parties have to convince our head of state that they can govern effectively. President Bush is your head of state, at least until Barack Obama moves in.
But our head of state isn't elected. It's the Queen. And she's represented up there by someone called a governor general, who is appointed. Voters don't have anything to do with it.
Except for not being elected, a governor general is a lot like your vice-president. Sort of ceremonial. Our governors general travel a lot, cut ribbons, declare holidays for school kids and try to set a good example.
The current office holder, Michaëlle Jean, used to be a CBC reporter. Like me.
Actually, the one before her was once a CBC reporter, too. So were two others in the recent past. In our country, any CBC reporter can dream of becoming head of state.
Letting a journalist decide
Like your vice-president, sometimes a governor general becomes unbelievably important. Right now, for example. Sooner or later, this former TV reporter is going to have to decide who runs Canada.
Now, the Conservatives aren't taking this state of affairs lying down.
They've been talking about shutting down Parliament for a while until they can think of some way to prevent the opposition parties from throwing them out. But they can't just do that. They'd have to convince the Governor General to let them.
It's all very dramatic, you have to admit. Right? Don't you? Hello?
I mean, we Canadians don't have all those big-mouthed cable anchors that you have, but you can imagine what they'd do with a situation like this.
It's the economy
Wait a second. I forgot to explain why all this is happening. Bear with me.
You see, Canada's economy is in trouble. Just like everybody else's.
So when the Conservatives won, most people expected them to turn on the spending taps, the way every other country in the developed world is doing.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for some reason, decided not to.
In fact, last week he had his finance minister announce that the government intends to run a surplus in its next budget. Meaning the government intends to take more in taxes from Canadians than it needs to run the country.
(I know President Bush has never run a surplus. But Canadian governments have, every year for more than a decade, even when the supposedly spendy Liberals were in charge.)
Anyway, in the middle of an economic crisis, Harper's plan didn't go over well with the three opposition parties and they saw their chance.
So that's what's happening.
Actually, if you think about it, our prime minister is doing exactly what President Bush keeps saying he'd like to be doing, instead of authorizing another trillion or so every week in new bailouts.
Maybe it's not such a funny old world after all.
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Source: CBCnew
Author: NA
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008 | 2:13 PM ET
Decision gives Tories reprieve, thwarts imminent attempt to topple government
Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean has granted a request from Stephen Harper to suspend Parliament until late next month, a move that avoids a confidence vote set for Monday that could have toppled his minority government.
"Following my advice, the Governor General has agreed to prorogue Parliament," Harper said outside Rideau Hall after a 2½-hour meeting with Jean.
Harper would not reveal the content of the discussion, citing constitutional traditions, but he said the first order of business when Parliament resumes Jan. 26 will be the presentation of the federal budget.
"The economy is the priority now, and the public is very frustrated with the situation in Parliament. We're all responsible for that," he said in French.
Monday's no-confidence vote could have precipitated the rise of a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, supported by the Bloc Québécois, or it could have resulted in another election, depending on the Governor General's response.
The decision to suspend Parliament — made after Jean cut short a two-week trip to Europe — only gives the Tories a reprieve until Parliament resumes in about two months. At that point, the party could be brought down when it tables the budget, which would be a confidence vote, as all money bills are.
In the interim, the Tories will continue to wage a public relations blitz against the Liberal-NDP coalition. But the opposition parties showed no sign of easing talks of a coalition and planned to continue waging their own campaigns to gain public support.
'Monumental change' required: Dion
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion accused Harper of "running away" from Parliament and said only a "monumental change" from the prime minister would change his position on toppling the government.
"Warm sentiments are not enough. His behaviour must change," Dion told reporters.
NDP Leader Jack Layton suggested that his party may even try to bring down the government at the first opportunity — voting against a speech from the throne even before the Conservatives table the budget.
"We need a government that actually believes in what it's doing," Layton told reporters.
"[Confidence in the government] isn't going to be restored by seven weeks of propaganda."
He also accused Harper of attacking democracy by using a "parliamentary trick to put the locks on the door" so MPs cannot express themselves.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, meanwhile, accused Harper of denigrating Quebec voters and asking his supporters to engage in the "worst attacks" against Quebecers since the Meech Lake Accord.
The reference was to the failed negotiations in 1987 aimed at bringing Quebec back into the constitutional fold under then prime minister Brian Mulroney.
Asked whether the Bloc might support the Conservative budget, Duceppe said he would be surprised if Harper met their demands.
Supporters greeted Harper
Anti-coalition protesters wave placards outside Rideau Hall Thursday morning as Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with the Governor General. (CBC)Opposition parties had hoped to have a word with the Governor General before she made her decision. They planned to present her with a petition with signatures from all NDP and Liberal members that the Conservatives had lost the confidence of the House and urging her to accept a coalition government.
Dion, who would head the proposed coalition, had said he sent a letter to Jean on Wednesday, urging her to reject any attempt by Harper to prorogue Parliament.
The Conservatives have lost the confidence of the majority of members of the House of Commons — largely because of their, in the opposition's view, inadequate reaction to Canada's financial crunch — and thus "have lost the right to govern," Dion said.
The Conservative leader had vowed to use "every legal means" to prevent a Liberal-NDP coalition government from taking power and took to the airwaves late Wednesday to make his case to the public.
In a five-minute, pre-recorded statement Wednesday night, Harper spoke bluntly against the coalition backed by "separatists," saying the federal government must stand unequivocally for keeping the country together in the face of the global economic crisis.
Economic statement lambasted
The coalition sprang up after the Tories released an economic statement that was lambasted by the opposition parties.
They accused Harper of doing nothing to address the current economic crisis and slammed what they saw as ideologically driven measures such as the proposed elimination of subsidies for political parties, a three-year ban on the right of civil servants to strike and limits on the ability of women to sue for pay equity.
Harper has since backed down on those contentious issues, but the opposition has pushed forward with the coalition.
The coalition — which would have a 24-member cabinet composed of six NDP and 18 Liberal MPs — has vowed to make an economic stimulus package a priority, proposing a multibillion-dollar plan that would include help for the auto and forestry sectors.
With 77 Liberal MPs and 37 New Democrats, plus the support of 49 Bloc members, the three parties have more seats than the 143 held by the Tories.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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MoEnzyme
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head
« Reply #1 on: 2008-12-04 19:25:34 » |
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How interesting to see what a world of political difference exists just on the other side of our longest border. Thanks for this Fritz. Yes it does seem like a bunch of drama. One thing that seems obviously different between US and Canada is the sense of timing. Our governments by rule get made or busted by election at election time since we vote directly for our executive, whereas it seems that yours are created/destroyed by election, but after election time . . . providing a window for extra drama opportunity. I guess that would be true of any parlaimentary system, as many of their governments are often multi-party coalitions. -Mo
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head: A nation going down in Flames
« Reply #2 on: 2008-12-06 13:26:10 » |
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This is just so corrupt; power at any cost; these people need to be charged with treason and then dispatched accordingly. I am beside myself that such self serving scum can be allowed to destroy a country and the lives of its citizens and we are powerless to boot.
In utter despair !
Fritz
Source: National Post
Author: Kelly McParland
Date: December 02, 2008
Ezra Levant: Dion's hidden agenda may include a Senate seat for Elizabeth May
I was just watching Mike Duffy Live on CTV, and learned that Pauline Marois, the leader of the provincial Parti Quebecois -- the sister party to the separatist Bloc Quebecois -- claims that part of Gilles Duceppe's prizes for supporting the coalition is an extra $1 billion transfer to Quebec. There is no specific mention in the coalition documents, but Marois said the immediate consequence of the agreement is the new Conservative formula for equalization payments is dead in the water; so instead of a $75-million increase in transfer payments, Quebec would get $1 billion in 2009-2010 because the old formula will apply. [Fritz] this is so wrong !
No doubt that news wasn't supposed to spill out until after the dirty deal was done -- Marois needed a boost in her provincial election and so she stole Duceppe's thunder. But surely the only surprising thing about this is that the dollar amount is so low. Surely the Bloc wouldn't agree, in advance, to support two budgets they haven't even seen yet, and to support the coalition in any non-confidence vote.
But on the same show, we learned of other coming pay-offs: There are 18 vacancies in the Senate, including four in Quebec. Not only are the Bloc in line for patronage pay-offs, but Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader, was on Parliament Hill today, and she wouldn't deny that she, too, was offered a Senate seat. [Fritz]Quebec Separatist put in the highest position of power sworn to break up the country, these people would be hung for treason in most other countries .... fuck !
It's a fire sale in Ottawa! Senate seats, billions of dollars, whatever you want -- just make Stephane Dion the prime minister!
Fire sale -- or looting, I'm not sure.
I was debating with some friends in Ottawa whether or not Stephen Harper should fill those Senate seats in the next week; our resolution was that it would be a crass, Liberal thing to do.
But now that I hear what is actually being contemplated for the Senate, I've changed my mind. Giving Stephane Dion 18 seats to hand out to separatists and to May -- to her, as clear quid pro quo for her endorsement of him in the recent election -- ought to be stopped, even if it means a flurry of Senate appointments in the next week by Harper.
National Post
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #3 on: 2008-12-06 16:34:00 » |
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Well, I don't have a dog in this fight, but your point of view sounds reasonable. To me it seems rather hypocritical for a separatist or secessionist party to be a part of any federal government. Any otherwise legitimate party seeking a coalition with such a creature is in effect admitting to their own incompetance at the begining. Not that there aren't good and and productive uses for such rebels, but government work isn't one of them.
Speaking of Separatists, if Sarah Palin ever gets a foothold in the federal government through some hypothetical future GOP administration, we'll be inviting the secessionists in for tea as well. Although she hasn't been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, her husband has been and she's probably been an honored guest to more of their conventions than the Alaskan GOP. Perhaps Y'all Canadians can take Sarah Palin off our hands by accepting Alaska in to Your union? I'd much appreciate it Fritz, perhaps you can pass that on to the "important people" up there for me.
-Mo
PS. watch out for their tendency to grab pork out of the barrel. Those Alaskans are probably worse than the Quebecois that way. At least Ted Stevens was openly proud about that, now this Palin chick is just plain dishonest . . . ya know black is white, up is down, and the next thing you know she's the parasite parading a "reformer" name tag. Ted never did anything that hypocritical.
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #4 on: 2008-12-06 16:55:21 » |
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Quote:| [Mo]Perhaps Y'all Canadians can take Sarah Palin off our hands by accepting Alaska in to Your union? I'd much appreciate it Fritz, perhaps you can pass that on to the "important people" up there for me. |
[Fritz]At this point for a lap dance and a happy ending from Ms. Palin, I'd think more then a few Canuks would consider it, since she is more appealing then the gents screwing us now . While we are being serviced by Madamme Palin and not look'in, yous should at least suck out all the oil before passing Alaska on, or maybe we can put all our and your separatists in Alaska and give it back to Russia.
Any truth to the comments floating about that Alaska is only promised to the US for a given time period from Russia, and will go back just like Hong Kong went back to China from Britian ? This seems unlikely to me.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #5 on: 2008-12-06 17:13:03 » |
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[Fritz]Its is so sad all ya can do is laugh ...
Source: CFP
Author: Editor
Date: Friday, December 5, 2008
Sent in by a reader....
Toronto Maple Leafs Win Stanley Cup - Liberal Coalition with the NDP and Bloc
Canada was stunned Monday when it was announced that The Stanley Cup will be awarded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, possibly as early as December 6th. The cup will be stripped from from 2008 playoff champions the Detroit Red Wings and be awarded to the Leafs, who didn’t even make the playoffs.
How is this possible, Canadians ask? Well, the Leafs have formed a coalition with eastern conference semi-finalists the Montreal Canadians, and conference quarter finalists the Ottawa Senators, now outnumbering the Red Wings. According to current Leaf coach Ron Wilson “the Red Wings have lost the confidence of the league and should hand the cup over immediately to our coalition”.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is cutting short a European trip to try to resolve the unprecedented hockey crisis that could force a second playoff series, or see an opposing team coalition take the cup.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #6 on: 2008-12-06 22:52:55 » |
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LoL! The Dallas Stars won the 1999 Stanley Cup, so I have some appreciation.
I'm not so sure about the situation whether Alaska goes back to Russia someday. However, I've heard said that Texas has a post Civil War treaty/agreement with the union bringing it back into the republic allowing it to divide into as many as five smaller states. Of course this would collectively give mini-Texases 8 extra electoral college votes to influence the presidential election as well as 8 extra senators to influence fillibusters and to make or break presidential veto over-rides. If Texans ever decide to make such a power grab, perhaps Alaska may object by attempting secession - perhaps Texas may even work out a win-win situatiuon . . . of course Alaska is Republican, but then 8 extra electoral votes which will result will probably be mostly Republican, it may even net a fascist bonus. We have our own secessionists down here, so if they cooperate with the Alaskan Independence Party, perhaps it can be a net gain for the parochial conservatives as well.
Anyways, maybe somebody will truth squad our various subversive theories to see if they hold any legal or factual water. Until then, I say give conspiracy theories a chance. We all can use some entertainment that way now and then.
-Mo
Quote from: Fritz on 2008-12-06 17:13:03 [Fritz]Its is so sad all ya can do is laugh ...
Source: CFP
Author: Editor
Date: Friday, December 5, 2008
Sent in by a reader....
Toronto Maple Leafs Win Stanley Cup - Liberal Coalition with the NDP and Bloc
Canada was stunned Monday when it was announced that The Stanley Cup will be awarded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, possibly as early as December 6th. The cup will be stripped from from 2008 playoff champions the Detroit Red Wings and be awarded to the Leafs, who didn’t even make the playoffs.
How is this possible, Canadians ask? Well, the Leafs have formed a coalition with eastern conference semi-finalists the Montreal Canadians, and conference quarter finalists the Ottawa Senators, now outnumbering the Red Wings. According to current Leaf coach Ron Wilson “the Red Wings have lost the confidence of the league and should hand the cup over immediately to our coalition”.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is cutting short a European trip to try to resolve the unprecedented hockey crisis that could force a second playoff series, or see an opposing team coalition take the cup.
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Mo Enzyme
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Fritz
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #7 on: 2009-01-15 23:41:37 » |
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A little sanctimonious, but I still liked the message.
Cheers
Fritz
Source: Vancouver Sun
Author: Paul St. Pierre
Date: Monday, November 10, 2008
A voice from the grave's edge
As life's end nears, two unpaid debts remain to trouble me. One is to my mother, who is not here to be paid, and the other is to my native land, which provided me a good life.
This is a payment, at least a token payment, to my country.
Few will read all this and fewer will heed. When Dwight D. Eisenhower left office he warned the Americans about the sinister power of the military-industrial complex. Had he been heeded, millions of lives would have been saved or made better, but nobody paid much attention. He was just an old president pegging out. Why listen?
So why should you listen to an old man on the way out, who can only claim to have been a fair newspaperman, a so-so politician, a Western-only novelist and a man no better than average as a wing shot? That's all right. This is not written for a lot of people but for those who are, at this moment, few. If this message reaches only one in 10,000 readers it was worth it.
Listen, I speak to you in the head, peoples.
Our Canada is now very close to a condition in which everything that is not compulsory is forbidden. We have become prisoners of the state. Like modern jail prisoners, all our needs for balanced diet, climate-controlled shelter, approved and tested medication, mental health counselling, higher education, suitable entertainment, grief counselling and consensual safe sex are available free. The inmate lacks only freedom itself.
When I was young, Canadians were born almost free; now we are born in manacles of silk and gold.
To the recent generations, this is hyperbole. I understand that. I also understand that young people cannot be expected to miss freedom. How can you miss what you never had? But a few of the old may remember and a few of the young might feel the tug of curiosity. I hope so.
Scarcely a day passes when our rulers do not devise some new law or regulation having the force of law, complete with fines and prison penalties. No one knows how many there are. Even the rulers couldn't find the number when they tried a few years ago. Suffice to say there are enough that everyone is a criminal now.
Here and there a free voice rings out. The Law Reform Commission of Canada quoted, in its first report, the old Roman senator, Cato: "The more the laws, the more the criminals." Even half a century ago, the commission recognized that there were already so many laws that nobody could know more than a few of them and that whether or not you are hauled into court to answer for a crime is not so much a matter of justice but a bureaucratic decision as to whether it seems productive to prosecute.
Among recent decisions we have accepted:
1. Our Supreme Court, repeating George Orwell, ruled that although all Canadians are equal before the law, some are more equal than others.
2. Thought Police arrived. They invent the crime which they investigate, invent the trial procedures and invent the penalties. Careers and lives have been ruined. Many more will be. Who now remembers that extraordinary woman, Queen Elizabeth I, who said it was not the business of the state to "pry into men's souls."
3. In the past 20 years we began a changeover from the British system of justice, in which every man is innocent until proven guilty, to the continental European system, often called the Napoleonic Code, in which the state obliges the citizen to prove innocence of anything the state may choose to suspect. A sample: If you have $10,001 in your pocket our rulers may simply take it and you will never get it back unless and until you prove you obtained it in a way the rulers consider suitable. In 2001 we got a gun control law under which citizens can be obliged to give evidence not only against their own family but also against themselves. Nobody seemed to much care. In Britain an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) may commit some pranksome juvenile to prison, even though old British Common Law could not. In the United States you can be put in a cage for five or six years and never allowed to see a lawyer or learn what the charge against you is.
4. By the beginning of this millennium the shape of things to come was clear for those many Canadians, almost all of us, indeed, whose ancestors fled the Old World seeking freedom. Arbitrary rule, Star Chamber courts, class distinction, the creation of a courtier class who have almost exclusive access to the ears of the rulers, and finally the deadly dreary cult of political correctness.
5. Already ordinary people have learned to watch their tongues. This piece would be far more open and more honest were it not for the fear that some Oldspeak or Badthink would prevent it ever being printed. We are all individuals but because of our very individualism, we have permitted tyranny. Individualism does not nourish quick or concerted actions. We individuals drifted lazily into tyranny, accepting the view that the common people can never behave decently unless controlled by carrots and whips. James Madison, a framer of the U.S. Constitution, foresaw it. Americans, he said, could be depended upon to reject a tyrant who came against them bloody sword in hand, but they might surrender freedoms, one by one, to people who assured them it was for their own good. That is exactly what happened, in the United States as in Canada. The Americans try to disguise their wretched state of submission to the rulers by hooting and shrieking the word freedom, tossing firecrackers around and, most recently -- the supreme irony -- calling unconstitutional and oppressive legislation The Patriot Act. An American must bullshit. His health demands it. If he cannot bullshit a foreigner he will bullshit himself, but he has to do it.
6. There is worse. Americans now have revived practices of the Spanish Inquisition and permit their police to torture suspects to obtain appropriate "confessions." Where Americans lead, Canadians usually follow. Statism and totalitarianism, which we spent so much blood and money to fight in the Second World War and the Cold War, rise everywhere. They will keep rising until the private, secret impulse to freedom among individual men and women becomes a working majority. It will. First this majority will be silent and almost invisible. Then, overnight it will seem, it will emerge as a tempest which will sweep most of what we know today into history's garbage can, both the good and the bad. Blood will run.
Is there nothing we can do?
Of course there is, otherwise why waste this space?
1. Put no faith in any major political party. The allegedly profound philosophic differences among big parties are either trivial or imaginary. By their very nature big parties, like big newspapers, cannot lead, they can only follow what they judge to be public taste.
2. Act within small groups. You may be effective as a member of your local school board or Gladiola Society. You are unlikely to have an even detectable impact on a big political party as a voter or on a big company as an employee.
3. Soon we shall be permitted to walk around in our Canada only by carrying internal passports, a more elaborate document than the driver's licence which at present serves for control of the proletariat. What can one do? There is an answer. When internal passports become law, do as terrorists and gangsters do -- obtain more than one workable identity.
4. Try to increase the readership of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm, and J.B. Priestley's Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. If it did not violate a basic principle, I would urge these books be compulsory reading in our schools. Those were the most prescient writers of the 20th century.
5. Never forget this: Any government may lie, cheat, murder and steal, for "the public good."
6. Remember Canada is small and remember also that a big world power can never be a true friend of a small power. Read Tito.
7. Although family is a diminishing force and may continue to fade, it remains the best social organism ever known to mankind. Sacrifice for it.
8. Without losing too much sleep, join the underground economy.
9. Fight for the Internet. It may be our last, best hope. Oppose, evade or sabotage every state attempt to control it, yes, even at the cost of permitting such obvious social evils as racial bigotry or child pornography. It is the common man's strongest available instrument and will be the target of sophisticated attacks by all rulers.
10. Support the Canadian Civil Liberties Union. Future generations will see it as a lonely champion of liberty during long, dark years. When it supports a cause that you find obnoxious, trivial or dangerous, increase your donation.
11. Above all, beware of priests, particularly those persuasive ones in the evangelist movement who claim they are not priests. And if you think allegiance to one true God will solve everything, look at Northern Ireland and the Middle East and think again. Seek a world in which religion, like sex, is completely free but practised only in private. You may find it necessary to speak with the many but you can think with the few.
12. Never despair. Keep the faith. Despite Big Brother's awesome and growing power, in the still, dark and secret places of the soul, ordinary men and women retain hopes, dreams and high ethics. Out of that fathomless, still pool of the soul, freedom will emerge again, some day.
Paul St. Pierre is a former Vancouver Sun columnist and member of Parliament who lives in Fort Langley and Mexico.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #8 on: 2009-01-16 01:47:58 » |
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Quote from: Fritz on 2009-01-15 23:41:37
and J.B. Priestley's Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. |
I enjoyed this essay very much. Above is a small error. These books were written by Aldous Huxley (Interesting family the Huxleys).
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #9 on: 2009-01-19 06:53:36 » |
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[letheomaniac] 'A Brave New World' should be required reading at school, although the school boards of the world are not in the habit of prescribing books that are actually worth reading to unfortunate school children. I recall being forced to read 'A Room With A View' in my second last year of school which seemed to be about an astoundingly uninsteresting woamn who was considered wild because she liked Beethhoven. As you might imagine this storyline completely failed to hold the attention of the 30-odd bored horny teenagers crammed into our sweltering English class on a beautiful 30 degree South African summer day. A classic example of a book that deserves to be burned as an act of kindness to the pupils of the approaching brave new world.
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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker
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Fritz
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #10 on: 2009-01-19 21:38:19 » |
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Quote:| [letheomaniac] 'A Brave New World' should be required reading at school, |
Interestingly expecially in hindsight, my high school art teacher got me to read Brave New World, Island, and Doors of Perception from Aldous Huxley ... they changed me forever and I agree with you should be mandatory reading, yet English class had us with the ilk of book you have reference and good thing the young lady beside me held my interest because the books didn't.
Cheers
Fritz
PS: odd that the author of the news story got the author wrong as [BL] pointed out ... secret code ?
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Hermit
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #11 on: 2009-01-20 00:06:49 » |
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I have so resisted this, but it is as if, with every new post, the thread title keeps taunting me anew. It seems to me as if Canada has determined to go down with French elan!
Pierre, a brave French fighter pilot, takes his girlfriend, Marie, out for a pleasant little picnic by the River Seine.
It’s a beautiful day and love is in the air. Marie leans over to Pierre and says, "Pierre, kiss me! Kiss me!"
Our hero grabs a bottle of Merlot and splashes it on Marie's lips. "What are you doing, Pierre," asks the startled Marie? "I am Pierre the fighter pilot! When I have red meat, I like to have red wine!"
She smiles and they start kissing. When things began to heat up a little, Marie says, "Pierre, kiss me lower. Kiss me lower."
Our hero tears her blouse open, grabs a bottle of Chardonnay and starts pouring it all over her breasts. "Pierre! What are you doing," asks the bewildered Marie? "I am Pierre the fighter pilot! When I have white meat, I like to have white wine!"
They resume their passionate interlude and things really steam up. Marie leans close to his ear and whispers, "Pierre, kiss me lower! Kiss me lower!"
Our hero rips off her underwear, grabs a bottle of Cognac and pours it in her lap. He then strikes a match and lights it on fire. Marie shrieks and dives into the river. Standing waist deep in the river, Marie throws her arms upwards and screams furiously, "Pierre, what in the hell do you think you’re doing??!"
Our hero stands up, defiantly, and says, "I am Pierre the fighter pilot! When I go down, I go down in flames!"
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Fritz
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #12 on: 2009-01-20 14:37:30 » |
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[Fritz] that is rather appropriate humour given our beaver infestation problems .....
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Fritz
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #13 on: 2009-01-24 16:52:45 » |
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[Fritz]The Canadian government will be tabling its budget Tuesday, will the kids continue from where this thread began ... stay tuned.
Canadians duped by tax refund scam
Source: IT World
Date: 2009.01.19
Author: Jennifer Kavur - Computer World Canada (19 Jan 2009)
A new scam tries to extract personal information under the guise of the Canada Revenue Agency. What the taxman won't say in an e-mail
A new phishing scam is circulating through Canadian inboxes, just as 2008 tax packages are arriving in the mail.
The e-mail suggests recipients are entitled to a tax refund from the Canada Revenue Agency. In order to receive the refund, users must click on an embedded link that directs them to a Web site posing as the CRA. Visitors are prompted to fill out an online form that requests tax-related information, including Social Insurance Number, date of birth, full name and the tax amount of their returns.
“When you go to the site, the phishers have lifted all the graphics and everything from the Canada Revenue Agency site, so it all looks pretty much the same,” said Marc Fossi, manager of development in the Security Technologies and Response Organization at Symantec Corp. Two big clues point out the site’s illegitimacy, according to Fossi.
“Pretty much all Canadian government agencies have a link up in the menu to the French version of that page, where it does say 'Francais,'" Fossi said. "They were obviously using a different character set, so when they tried to get the ‘ç’ with the cedilla, they didn’t have that character…instead, you see possibly a Chinese character there,” he said.
The second clue is the URL. “It’s not cra-arc.gc.ca. It’s actually a Web site located in Taiwan,” said Fossi.
The phishing attempt has an average level of sophistication, said Fossi.
“In this case, there’s nothing that jumps out at you like misspelled words or anything like that,” Fossi said.
But the threat to Canadians is high. “With this information attackers can very easily steal the victim’s tax refund and then sell all their personal information,” said Fossi.
Click here to find out more!
Symantec became aware of the threat late last week.
The phishing site is currently live and there’s no indication of when it will shut down. “It’s kind of difficult to do a whole lot with it…in this case, it’s multi-jurisdictional. It’s targeting users in Canada, the e-mail message was sent from a mail server in Russia and the actual phishing Web site is hosted in Taiwan,” said Fossi.
Canada Revenue Agency is aware of the threat. The CRA becomes aware of such scams almost instantaneously because taxpayers start calling the inquiry lines to determine whether the e-mail or mail letters are legitimate, explained Peter Delis, communications manager in the Canada Revenue Agency’s Ontario region.
A couple months ago, the CRA added a “Fraudulent Emails and Letters” section on its homepage in response to the recent increase in tax-related scams. “We’re seeing it more often now, regardless of whether it’s tax season or not. We used to see it at various times of the year, now it’s popping up every month or so,” said Delis.
According to Fossi, posing as the CRA is a new twist. “I haven’t had one like this drawn to my attention before,” said Fossi. “I’ve seen similar concepts mostly targeting Americans, like phishing attempts that claim they’re coming from the IRS. But I haven’t seen one that was CRA.”
The “Fraudulent Emails and Letters” section is continuously updated, but individuals questioning the validity of an e-mail or letter from the CRA should call to confirm the communication, Delis suggested.
But the request for personal information is the first indication of fraudulence. “We do not request by e-mail personal information of any kind from taxpayers,” said Delis. “That’s our first clue when it comes to e-mails.”
The lock symbol is another key to determining whether a Web site requesting personal information is a sham, Fossi pointed out. “Generally when you get any legitimate Web site that’s asking you to fill out that information, you get the lock symbol on your browser saying it’s a secure page. In this case, it’s not,” he said.
But a secure site doesn’t necessitate validity, as attackers are sophisticated enough to set up secure phishing sites, warned Fossi. “Some people, they just look for that lock…if their particular browser tells them it’s a secure site, they might just go, ‘Oh, it’s secure, so it’s safe.’
“We did a whole report on the underground economy back in November and we see phishing kits being sold online. They’re sort of ready-made kits that include everything you need to launch a phishing attack,” said Fossi.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Fritz
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Re:Canada Shoots itself in the Head : A Nation Going Down in Flames
« Reply #14 on: 2009-01-24 17:13:50 » |
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For 46 Days now I have been driving to downtown Ottawa helping my coworkers get to work that depend on the Ottawa Transit Commission. The extra traffic burden has meant that I spend up to 4 hours commuting to work and home, which took just over 2 hours before. There is a loss of freedom and loss of sleep. The folks that have no cars are screwed. Students and pensioners are missing class and medical treatment; stores and business are loosing big time.
I think both the City Counsel and the Union Management should be fired and charged with criminal negligence.
That labor action is out side of the laws that applies to every other citizen of Canada is a travesty
One of many very angry people in the nations capital.
Fritz
Source:Ottawa Citizen
Date:2009.01.24
Back-channel talks break down in transit strike
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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