Archive for: May 2006

CWN has a great take on all this hubbub in their “Off the Record” section which you can see for yourself here. It’s well worth reading (I laughed my butt off the first time I read it).

Enough already! Knock it off and get the hell on with your life.

As usual, I’m sick and tired of hearing all the droning and bleating about the latest apoplexy-inducer, but this time all the moaning and groaning is coming from people that I usually agree with. It’s baffling, I know, but a great many of my fellow right wing nut jobs have their panties all in a bunch over something that I think adds up to no more that a fart in a windstorm.

For the record: Yes, I’m Catholic; yes, I’m serious about it; and no, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse about Dan Brown’s The daVinci Code. I haven’t read it and I have no plans to go and see it, mainly because I’m not one of those types that goes out of my way to get offended. Indignation is not a food group.

It’s a work of fiction using a slipshod misrepresentation of history in an effort to rehash a story that was old hat a thousand years ago. Gnosticism (which is what Brown’s work is derived from) has been around as long as humans have had religion. Gnostics’ only consistent trait is their ability to latch onto an existing system of beliefs and then smugly declare that they know something that the rest of us don’t and that knowing it makes them special and somehow smarter than the rest of us. This coming from an ideology that can’t even come up with its own ideas. Give me a break.

But, say many of my friends, what if it causes some Catholics to start to question their faith? Or other Christians, for that matter? What if it makes people believe that Christianity really is a scam? What if, what if, what if, ad nauseum. It’s almost enough to put me off my beer.

The answer is so simple that I can barely contain the urge to bat some folks over the head with it: Anybody that is going to lose their faith over a novel or a movie never had that much of it to begin with. Friends tell me about others that they know who say they are now questioning their beliefs over all this. So what? What’s the difference if we lose a few that were only nominally Christian to begin with? The answer is, nothing.

Christianity hasn’t lost any faithful over this, all that has changed is that a few of those who were faking it have now dropped the pretense and admitted what they really thought all along. Just because someone says that they’re something doesn’t make it so. Just look at Paul Martin or James Loney, both of whom claim to be “devout Catholics.”

Martin, while PM, supported same sex marriage, abortion and numerous other things that Catholic beliefs are dead set against. Loney (who, you may remember, was damn careful to shut up about his homosexuality while being held hostage by a bunch of Iraqi head-hackers) avoids prayer “like the plague,” thinks Mass is a waste of time, says “the thought of fasting nauseates me,” and that “my appetite for spiritual striving and self-discipline has diminished in corresponding measure,” as he becomes more comfortable with himself “just as I am.”

Are these guys even Catholic, let alone devout? The answer is no, plain and simple, no matter what they say to the contrary. Just saying that you’re Catholic isn’t good enough, no matter how much you might whine about it. You have to believe and you have to act on those beliefs. Catholics believe they must strive against the urge to sin; they believe in the right of the unborn to be born; they believe that the Mass is an act of communion with Christ; and they sure as hell don’t support any government monkeying about with a holy sacrament. These guys are no more Catholic than David Duke is a civil rights champion.

These two windbags, and other faux Catholics like them, are the only people that are going to be knocked loose by anything that Brown wrote. And, let’s face it folks, they were never in the fold to begin with. We have lost absolutely nothing. So, quit all the whining and bellyaching, get back to your lives and find something important to focus all that extra energy that you seem to have on. There are too many better things to do for us to be wasting any more time with this claptrap.

Well, folks, another May 2-4 is in the rearview mirror and so it’s back to the grind for us all, including yours truly. When I left on Friday, I wasn’t sure just what I’d end up ranting about when I got back, but over the weekend it started to seem like there was only thing that I could address today.

One subject that kept coming up, over and over, around the campfire, across the dinner table, on the deck and just about every place else, was how much everybody seems to think that we are somehow teetering on the brink of yet another federal election. It seems that all the huffing and puffing in the Commons has some folks a bit jittery.

Harper seems to have suffered a couple of setbacks lately. There was the deep-sixing of Gwyn Morgan from the position as head of a blue-ribbon committee to develop an appointments process where merit would trump partisanship. CEO of the year, and one of the best businessmen in the West, if not the whole country, but also something very rare in the business world: a public-minded man. This is a guy who was going to take the job for a dollar a year. Let me say that again: a buck a year! Now that’s being serious about public service if anything is. If there’s a better guy in this country to lead a committee like that, I haven’t heard of him.

But is that what was on the minds of the opposition? Nosiree, Bob, it wasn’t. Instead they hectored him relentlessly in committee, pretty much implying that he had no qualifications. Now that was absolutely rich. Here’s that man that made EnCana the biggest company in the West getting chided by a bunch of limp-noodle political snowjobbers whose greatest skill is clamping onto the public teat and hanging on for dear life. But it didn’t stop there; oh, no. The worst bile they managed to vurp up was when they decided to imply that Morgan was a bigot because he once had the gall to open his mouth on the subjects of criminals in Canada and that the country has problems integrating immigrants. Don’t go poking the sacred cows, now, Gwynny-boy.

Then there was the Afghanistan vote. Yes, it was a squeaker and Harper did say that he was willing to go to the public to get a mandate if he needed one, but this was a done deal from the get-go. Just check it out yourself and watch the ones who voted against it. You can practically see them doing the math in their heads and the look of relief when the bill went through. None of those bums want to go to the polls and they will do anything (well, ok; almost anything) to prevent it. Don’t be fooled; the opposition isn’t going to lock horns with ol’ Steve on anything that really matters. Sure, they’ll hoot and howl and heckle and holler and threaten to huff and puff and blow the House down, but when push comes to shove, they are not going to do anything that will bring down the government anytime soon. Here’s why:

The opposition, especially the Grits and the Blocheads, are petrified poopless at the very thought of an early election. The Grits are rudderless, up to their arses in debt and still have the stink of Adscam coming off them the way the smell of cheap hooch will leak out of pores after a weekend bender. And the Bloc are finding themselves increasingly hemmed in by the Tories’ surging popularity in Quebec, where they’re polling ahead of the seperatists in many places. The Grits are so far out of the picture in Quebec, it’s not even worth joking about anymore. There’s no fun flogging a dead horse.

So that’s what we have from the opposition, then: a gaggle of tiny-minded twits who dream of glory but won’t dare lock horns with Harper on anything that really matters. And that’s what we’re stuck with until Steve decides it’s time to go to the polls again.

In the meantime, look for Harper’s cajones to get bigger and bigger in the Commons as he brings in more and more bold legislation and dares the opposition to call his bluff. Look for him to dare them to vote against killing the gun registry. Look for this to go on until Harper finally decides to put ’em out of their misery (and ours) and head back to the polls again, where he can get a majority next time, and then the real work can start getting done.

[I was going to post tomorrow on this very issue but, to my chagrin, Calgary Sun columnist Link Byfield beat me to it. Even worse, he did it better. So rather than give you my version, here’s Link’s column from Friday’s Calgary Sun in its entirety. Hey, when you can’t say it best, leave it to someone else who can…]

Friday, May 19, 2006

Harper plays opposition foibles with finesse of a chessmaster

By Link Byfield

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to enjoy the aggressive stick-handling style of our new Calgary prime minister.

Though short-handed in Parliament, Team Harper is scoring so many goals, you’d almost think they came from Edmonton.

On Tuesday, for example, they won the Gwyn Morgan play. A truly awesome goal.

The Conservatives had promised to install a new commission to ensure the people who get those six-figure patronage jobs we read so much about — of which there are many hundreds — actually know how to do them.

You might recall how many Liberal ex-ministers and PMO smoothies were paid off with cushy crown sinecures by Chretien and Martin.

It stank, and Harper promised to end it.

His new Crown appointments commission would consist of four accomplished Canadians working for free.
That’s right, for the good of the country.

It would include the Iranian-born land developer from Vancouver who founded Future Shops, a former Liberal cabinet minister from Toronto, a Montreal businesswoman and tennis star, and Calgarian Gwyn Morgan as chairman.

Morgan, 60, is the one-time Alberta farm kid who, in building the biggest independent oil company in Canada, also built a platinum reputation for honesty and fair play.

Not that Ottawa always wants honesty.

In a December speech to the Fraser Institute, Morgan noted Canada’s multicultural and immigration policies are importing and perpetuating a serious criminal gang problem, and solutions must be found.

He mentioned specifically Jamaicans, Asians and “other ethnic groups.”

Which might be OK to say in Cowtown, but it’s way too insensitive for the Opposition majority on the Commons government operations committee.

In the ugliest confrontation Parliament has witnessed since the sponsorship committee hearings two years ago, Morgan was asked, more or less, if he thought a racist like himself was “suited” to decide federal patronage appointments.

His mild reassurances were not accepted, and his nomination was rejected six votes to five.

And this is where Harper’s tactical brilliance shines.

Instead of sucking up and proposing instead some forgotten chairman of the CBC or the like, as the Opposition expected, Harper’s candidates promptly withdrew their offer of free service, enabling Harper to say, fine, we’ll do business by the old rules until Canadians give us the majority we need to do what must be done.

In other words, the Opposition scored, but against itself.

By trying foolishly to paint Gwyn Morgan a racist, they only succeeded in protecting a corrupt appointment system and giving the Conservatives election ammunition.

What Morgan said to the Fraser Institute about criminal gangs can be heard in every coffee row in this country.

My own Vancouver sister-in-law from mainland China, land of the snakeheads and Triad gangs, was astonished it was even an issue.

The Liberals and NDP lose ground every time they open their mouths — by defending a gun registry that doesn’t work; by opposing our fight against religious fascism in Afghanistan; and by pretending Kyoto is either necessary or possible.

The world is passing these politicians by, living in their little bubble — their little hobbit-like, time-warp fantasy world which refuses to recognize unpleasant realities.

Such as the fact that in wars, which are sometimes necessary, soldiers get killed.

Such as the fact criminals don’t register guns.

Such as the fact the cost of government has reduced our country to 18th in the world productivity race, and that public expectations are now wildly beyond our capacity to pay.

Harper isn’t really playing hockey, it’s more like chess.

He thinks three moves ahead and attacks only points where the public agrees with him and not the Opposition.

I predict his next move will be to reform the Senate.

The man is a genius.

We finally got some good news from Captain Check-Out-My-Buns-In-This-Wetsuit and his gang: “I’m pleased to be here today to announce the government’s plan to eliminate the costly and ineffective long-guns registry and to put in place a law enforcement system that will lead to reduced crime with firearms,” Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day trumpeted at a news conference yesterday. He also promised a one-year amnesty for anyone failing to register their rifles or shotguns.

I know, I know; nobody can really be surprised by this, especially after the AG ripped the CFC a new one in her latest report, but there seems to be a lot of bellyaching going on from all directions. And not just from the usual handwringing suspects.

Defenders of this colossal commode that the government has been throwing our money down say that Day’s actions add up to nothing more than a transparent attempt to make good on a Tory campaign promise whilst giving the deke to a minority Commons. Former justice minister Irwin Cotler bleated that declaring amnesty without Parliament’s permission is “an abuse of process. You cannot go ahead and suspend the application of the law.” The Law being that thing that, as we all know, Liberals never, ever, ever stray outside of. Gimme a break.

NDP moonbat Joe Comartin chimed in with “They know there’s not enough support in the country or in the House of Commons to get that amendment through that will do away with the long-gun registry.” Sure there isn’t. Canadians don’t like right-wing ideas; they scare us. That’s why Harper will never be Prime Minister. Oops, waitaminit…

On the other hand, not-so-well-armed right-wing nutjobs (not unlike me) who are eager to fill up those empty slots in the gun rack without the government snout up their rear ends are moaning that the damn thing still isn’t dead yet. Most of expected this thing to croak at high noon the day after the election. Having heard so many hollow election promises from Grits over the years, we’re starting to react to any setback with suspicion, almost as if by reflex. It’s enough to get you thinking about Pavlov’s dogs.

Day says that they needn’t worry, legislation to drive a stake into this bloodsucker is coming and the amnesty gives law-abiding gun owners a chance to, well, to abide by the law “as it is — or the law as it will be at May 17 a year from now.” The clear unspoken message here for gun owners is simple: sit tight and wait this thing out. Because the little squawklets in the lefty peanut gallery are right about one thing this time: with most of the Opposition willing to defend this waste, the chances of the Tories being able to kill it in Parliament are damn slim indeed. Even a senior Tory insider (whose name wasn’t published) agreed with that.

“We’ll put it in the window” he said. Probably sometime in the spring, with a final vote (where the Opposition will likely dump it) sometime in the fall. In the meantime, he said, the Tories intend to “bleed the thing to death.” Funding for the CFC will be cut by $10 million this year.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that very little is going to be accomplished with a petty, partisan and obstructionist Opposition in the Commons. More and more, it is beginning to look like a good idea for Harper to go to the polls sooner rather than later in order to get a majority mandate from the Canadian public and finally start to get some real work done.

I am disgusted. A parliamentary committee, proving once again that what lefties of all stripes know best is looking after their own self-interest, has nixed the nomination of Gwyn Morgan for head the political appointment commission job. Grits on the committee say that the nomination of the Calgary oil exec and recent CEO of the year to head a commission designed to curb the out-of-control culture of patronage in Ottawa is itself an example of patronage.

Give me a break. The guy offered to do the job for a buck a year! What the hell kind of patronage is that?? The answer is: it isn’t.

What happened here is that the Grits, always slathering at the thought of getting their hands on the keys to the federal till again someday, have no interest whatsoever in anything that might interrupt the flow of pork from the big barrel in Ottawa. Good Lord, if that were to happen, how could they bribe us with our money? They might find themselves having to actually start implementing policies that the rest of us can put up with. They might have to do without all their precious little intrusions into our lives. They might even have to (insert heebiejeebies-type shudders here) start letting us make our own decisions about how best to run this country.

So what did they do? Instead of putting a potential stumbling block in the future road to buying influence with our money, they took a comment from a speech made over a year ago out of context and gleefully played the race card in a drive-by smear of Morgan. Ya gotta admire integrity like that.