Category: Government

Well, the Ontario Fiberals put out their budget and I have to say that I sort of feel like I’m through the looking glass. Where Flaherty did one hell of a Santa act, Sorbara seems almost… how the hell am I going to put this?

Sensible… 😯

Sorbara says it’s not an election budget. He ain’t kidding there. There’s no new taxes in it (not even booze or smokes, always favourite targets), but there’s no tax cuts, either. All in all, I haven’t been able to find a hell of a lot wrong with it (and you just know that I’m the kind of guy that would look) so far, except for one rather nasty little thing: this talk about cranking up the minimum wage by over 28%. Now, I’m all for people being able to make a living wage. I work for a living myself and yes, if the minimum wage hops to $10.25 an hour, I’ll be making more money. And I still think it’s a bad idea. Now, why in God’s name would I think that?? Well, it’s simple, really: nobody seems to have thought about Bob.

NO, I don’t mean Bob Rae… Screw Bob Rae. I wouldn’t piss in his mouth if his tongue was on fire. So who the hell am I babbling about, anyway? Well, let me tell ya…

Bob’s a regular kind of guy. Has himself a house, mortgage, wife, couple o’ kids… all that middle class stuff. After a bunch of years working for other people, Bob went out and set up a business of his own. Sure, it doesn’t make a buttload of money, but it pays the bills with a little left over to sock away and to buy some nice stuff for the kids when Christmas and birthdays come around. All in all, Bob thinks he’s doing pretty okay for himself.

It doesn’t matter what Bob’s business does. Screw it; let’s say he makes Widgetsâ„¢ and sells ’em. Bob’s got 10 guys that work for him, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (Bob shuts the Widget mill down on weekends so people can have time with their families; he’s a nice guy that way) for the minimum wage, $8.00 per hour. So a little math tells us that right now, Bob’s forking out $640 a day in wages to his ten guys. This is all Bob can afford to pay, and I DO mean ALL. Like I said, Bob’s doing okay for himself but he’s not exactly swimming in it.

Now, imagine Bob’s payroll expense jumps up to $820. Bob ain’t got that kind of money, boys and girls. No way, no how. So what the hell’s Bob gonna do? Unlike some people, Bob doesn’t make his Widgetsâ„¢ for the government, he has to compete in the real world market, where people can take their money someplace else. If Bob jacks up the price of his Widgets by 25%, he’s going to lose business. A lot of folks are just going to say, “screw that, I’ll start buying Mexican Widgets; or maybe I’ll just drive out to the local Indian reserve and buy my Widgets there.”

So how the hell is Bob going to stay in business when he can’t realistically raise his prices and he can’t afford more than $640 a day in wages? It’s simple: two guys are getting laid off and another one is having his hours cut. Plain and simple.

All the warm, fuzzy socialist thinking in the world won’t stop the relentless grind of the simple laws of economics. Crank up wages by over 25%, like the Fiberals and Dippers are howling for, and some people are going to lose their jobs. End of discussion.

And that helps the working poor… how??

Well now, isn’t this special? It seems that London’s City Council has decided that the time has come to hop aboard the rooftop turbine bandwagon. “City council will be asked to pass a bylaw Monday to regulate the new green power, small versions of the turbines popping up along the shores of lakes Erie and Huron,” says the story in today’s Freeps. This is what we pay these clowns for, folks. 🙄

Yes indeed, the keepers of the Dufferin Avenue Widget Factory are just as ga-ga over wind power as any Kyotology kultist. Mother nature is gonna huff and puff for us and blow away all our energy worries. Coun. Joni Baechler ( the planning committee chairperson) is all gung ho for the whole thing:

“We absolutely have to. Anything we can do to divert demand from coal-fired plants, the better it is for our air quality.”

Well, at least she’s not flogging the global-warming-from-CO² horse. While I don’t swallow the idea that something that’s exhaled by every animal on the planet is going to boil the oceans, it is kind of hard to argue about smog if you’ve looked out a window any time in the last few years. Jim Rowan is equally enthusiastic:

“I’d say three to five years […] Right now, it’s only the occasional brave individual who does it. But I liken these to the home personal computer. It took off, completely supplanting the existing computer market.”

Well, of course he thinks it’s the greatest thing since the stubby got banished; he’s the co-designer of a rooftop turbine called the Mag-Wind, so he stands to clean up on this latest eco-fad.

So what the hell’s got a stick up my backside about all this, you ask? It’s simple: the do-gooders are, yet again, ignoring a few inconvenient truths themselves. While I’m all for improving our environment, the fact is that these damn things just aren’t practical. Don’t believe me? Well then, let’s just take a look at this then, shall we?

For the purposes of this little exercise, let’s make ourselves a whole lot of warm, fuzzy assumptions, just like the eco-dorks do. Let’s assume that:

1. The wind will actually blow all the time; 24/7, 365 days a year. Even on those Sweltering August days when the air is like a war, wet blanket over you and your buttcrack is doing an impression of Niagara Falls that would put Rich Little to shame.
2. Let’s also assume that the wind in the city is going to blow just like the wind in the country. It wont be bothered by large obstructing buildings, uneven windflow that you always get in urban areas, or roof designs that didn’t have wind flow in mind.
3. Let’s pretend the turbine will always function at its peak design efficiency (even though they never have), consistently cranking out 5KW, without any interruption at all. Ever.
4. As long as we’re feeling frisky, let’s assume that the cost of electricity is going to stay at the current rate of about 5.5¢/KWh, because we all know how stable the energy market is.
5. While we’re blabbing about energy markets, let’s say that you can sell 100% of all your excess production back to the public grid; at 5.5¢/KWh, of course.
6. Let’s throw the laws of mechanics, and all the things that says about moving parts, out the window and assume that these things won’t cost one thin dime in maintenance. Even though they’ve come under fire for problems with vibrations.
7. Why not say that you’re rich enough that you’ve got an extra $20,000 (minimum!) lying around to pay for this gizmo in cash. Or that Big Nanny will give you an interest-free loan to finance the thing.
8. And it’s going to be totally tax free, too. Hey, we’re in tree-hugger lala land here, remember?

So, now that we’ve got our arses all stuffed with sunshine and lollipops, what are we looking at? Well, let’s do some math.

(5.5¢/KWh) x 5KW of output x (24hrs/day) x 365 days in a year = a savings of $2409 every year.

Damn, that’s not too bad. I could use an extra 2400 bucks in my pocket every year, couldn’t you? There’s just one little fly in the ointment:

$20 grand ÷ ($2409/year) = about 8yrs, 4 months before you so much as break even.

In eight and a half years, you’ll break even. If the wind never stops blowing, the thing never breaks down, Big Nanny keeps her hand out of your pocket, and a monkey flies out of your ass.

Yes, alternative and renewable energy sources are a good thing. But let’s quit with all the pie-in-the-sky shit and be practical about it, alright?

Sometimes I just plain don’t get my fellow right-wing nutjobs; I really don’t. There has been a great weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth over the last 24 hours or so, ever since Jim Flaherty coughed up the federal budget on the House rug. And quite the hairball it was, too. But let me ask you, my VRWC fellow travelers: Are any of you, any at all, really surprised by any of this??

Come on, now; you didn’t just fall off the turnip truck this morning did you? I’m not in the habit of moaning and groaning about my BT fellows, but some of what I’ve read leaves me scratching my melon hard enough to leave a gouge:

Christopher Edey, Got Blog If You Want It:
“Someone should really remind Prime Minister Harper, Finance Minister Flaherty and co. that they really are in government, and don’t have to keep letting Paul Martin write the budget just because that’s what everybody has gotten used to.”

M. K. Braaten:
“This afternoon when I read about the latest federal budget I swear I thought the NDP was in power. What happened to being fiscally conservative? What happened to income tax cuts? What happened to increased spending only at the same rate of increase in GDP? What happened to fairness?”

Others, like Dark Blue Tory, Sandy at Crux of the Matter and Joanne are taking a somewhat more pragmatic approach. I tend to agree with them. No matter how you slice it, there is no getting away from the fact that this was a political budget. It’s purpose was not to chart a course to fiscal responsibility, boost the economy or anything else like that. Its purpose was to pave the way to the next election. Period.

If there’s one thing that we should have learned in the last year, it’s that nothing meaningful will get done while the Tories have only a minority government. Anything that they try to do, that will actually make any kind of a difference, will be shot down by the opposition if for no other reason than to be able to bleat to the voters that the Conservatives can’t get anything done.

We need a majority and this is one step towards getting it. It’s bitter medicine, I know, so let’s just hold our noses and get it over with.

Here’s a little something that’s sure to piss the Kult of Kyoto right off. As most of you have likely heard already, Britain’s Channel 4 has recently produced a short (75 minutes without commercials) documentary titled “The Great Global Warming Swindle” which knocks the wheels of the Kyotology bandwagon with all the ruthlessness of a Kyoto Kultist screaming for the head of a global-warming-denying heretic. No doubt the money-grubbing Marxist granola grinders from the errorless echelons of the Exalted EnviroEnlightenment Eggheadocracy® will bromidically bitch and bawl endlessly about what harsh language their critics have begun using. To them I say, “if you can’t take it, quit dishing it out and shut the hell up!”

In the opening seconds, the accusations “The ice is melting, the sea is rising, hurricanes are blowing AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” flash across the screen, only to be immediately followed by “Scared? Don’t be; it’s not true.” One by one, the errors, delusions and outright lies of the Enviroloony elite are laid bare calmly and in plain English that is conspicuously devoid of the kind of bafflegab that saturates the rhetoric from the other side of the issue.

I’ll have plenty of time to shoot my mouth off on the topic later so, in the meantime, just sit back and enjoy the show.

[If, for some reason, you are unable to play the video in this window, just click this direct link to go directly to the video page and try there.]

A hearty thanks to Channel 4 for this excellent, non-powerpoint-presentation production. Keep up the good work, lads.

And here I thought that this kind of idiocy was, gratefully, a thing of the past. I guess not. Oh, well; at least it dates back to the days of Grit government.  Plenty of media outlets are hooting away lately about an organization called the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) and a project that they were running in Afghanistan. Now, I don’t recall ever hearing about IMPACS before, but their webpage describes them as “a registered not-for-profit charitable organization committed to strengthening the voice and profile of civil society organizations in Canada and internationally,” and a little poking around seems to indicate a bit of a Leftist slant to their philosophy.

Another indication might be the pie-in-the-sky, impractical, idealistic approach that they took to their project in Afghanistan. According to the IMPACS website for the project:

IMPACS Afghanistan works to encourage the development of free and fair media in Afghanistan. It focuses its work on women’s participation in media, and the use of media as a tool to educate women.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? I mean, after all, isn’t it about time that Afghan women — who were treated little better than slaves or livestock under the Taliban regime — had more of a voice? Hell, this actually sounds like something I’d give a few bucks to myself, so look for all the usual suspects latched onto the public teat to wail away about how this is another example of the cold-hearted Conservative Hidden Agenda® now that Ottawa has pulled the plug (after damn near $3 million was already blown) on its funding. The problem is that the agency made a complete balls-up of it.

So what did they do to accomplish their stated goals? Well, see for yourself:

• “… the 2004 launch of a now defunct monthly newspaper in the capital of Kabul, the report says. Its purpose was in part to train female reporters and educate women about politics and other issues. “
• “The rest of the $2.7 million in total CIDA funds was previously used to start two radio stations. They offered women, especially in rural areas, a rare chance to be trained and heard in a repressively male-dominated culture.”

A radio station. In rural Afghanistan. Where most buildings have no electricity at all and the majority of the ones that do, haven’t got radios.

And a newspaper. Isn’t that nice? The problem with putting out a newspaper for Afghan women is that, thanks to the prohibition against schooling girls that was in force for all the years of Taliban rule, fewer than 10% of the female population can actually read the damn thing!

Now, I have NO problem whatsoever with charities that do good work (and there are plenty of them) but this… this was nothing more than a money pit. All it did was to supply a few do-gooder moonbats with jobs for a few months.  And, in typical Lefty fashion, they responded to questions with the predictable “go away; we’re doing nice things” attitude:

Asked to explain the audit’s findings, a CIDA spokesperson said no one was available.

“A briefing is not a possibility at this time,” said Greg Scott. In an e-mail, he said that IMPACS was the first media development group trying to put women’s voices on community radio.

The problem, Greggy, is that putting “women’s voices on community radio” doesn’t do Jack Shit. Teach them to read first.  Go out into the Afghan countryside and actually get your hands dirty.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The problem with “liberals” is that they see the world as they think it should be, act accordingly, and then wonder what the hell went wrong (or try to blame conservatives) when they end up accomplishing nothing.  Conservatives, on the other hand, see the world as it is, warts and all, and just deal with it in the most direct fashion possible.

In the midst of all the sturm und drang over the Grits’ gutless caving in to bloc voting that we saw in the Commons yesterday, there is one thing that seems to have been overlooked that I would like to mention here, if even for a moment.

Yes, we all know that the HypoGrits killed their own anti-terror legislation because Steffy the stiff knows damn well what side his bread is buttered on. But — in the interest of giving credit where it’s due — even in a Dion-led caucus, there was at least one man willing to stand up and do the right thing. That man is the Liberal Member of Parliament for Scarborough Southwest, the Honourable Tom Wappel.

Mister Wappel showed all the most important characteristics of service to his country as he, alone among the entire Liberal caucus, showed the balls enough to stand up and basically tell Dion, “take your bullshit and shove it; I’m here for my country, not for you.”

Only one Liberal – Tom Wappel (Scarborough Southwest) – outright defied Dion, voting with the Conservative government to renew the powers.

Click here to read the Hansard record for Feb 26, 2007, including Tom’s Speech in support of the Statutory Order to maintain the sections of the ATA pertaining to Preventative Arrest and Investigative Hearings for a further three years.

To share your feelings on this matter with the only Liberal who did the right thing that day, you can write to Tom at:

Tom Wappel, M.P.
Room 115, East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Or, alternatively, you can email him at wappel.t@parl.gc.ca to be heard a little quicker.

All of us — yes, especially me — are always eager to sound off to anybody that will listen about everything that the Grits do wrong. Let’s see if we can be just as loud and honest when one of them does something right…

Here’s to you, Tom; you may not have won but ya fought the good fight.