The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Monday Night - DS9

Your Conservative Government At Work

Read it to believe it:

The Honourable Rob Moore, Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency), and Tilly O’Neill Gordon, Member of Parliament for Miramichi, on behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, today officially welcomed an additional 197 employees to the Public Service Pay Centre in Miramichi.

A press release telling us that the Feds are hiring more bureaucrats. They're boasting about it!

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

Getting High With A Little Help From Their Friends

The Tories toke up:

The Conservative government is launching a $1.3-billion free market in medical marijuana this Tuesday, eventually providing an expected 450,000 Canadians with quality weed.

Health Canada is phasing out an older system on Monday that mostly relied on small-scale, homegrown medical marijuana of varying quality, often diverted illegally to the black market.

In its place, large indoor marijuana farms certified by the RCMP and health inspectors will produce, package and distribute a range of standardized weed, all of it sold for whatever price the market will bear. The first sales are expected in the next few weeks, delivered directly by secure courier.

They deported Marc Emery to the States for selling seeds. But this is OK?

Nearly eight years of Tory incrementalism have made me suspicious of any proposed reforms. This looks to be a step toward ending the drug wars, while at the same time positioning Canada to take advantage of any moves toward legalization south of the 49th. This looks to be a very good thing that bodes well for the future. Yet I still have nagging doubts that somehow, in someway, the Tories are just not sincere about these reforms. That this is some kind of feint. 

Now how are the Tories going to explain to their law and order supporters that, come early next year, the federal government will begin supervising one of the largest legal marijuana industries in the world? Get tough on drug dealers, unless they have the appropriate government permit?

 

 

 

 

Friday Night - Anton Walbrook

By The Skin of Our Teeth

The Guardian:

A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

This is Going To Be A Horrible Mess

The final countdown:

Health insurance under Obamacare will cost individuals at least $2,988 a year on average, a price that Republican opponents may target as out-of-reach for many Americans who don’t qualify for U.S. subsidies.

While the $249 monthly payment is intended to be discounted through tax credits, less than halfof people now buying insurance on their own may get that help. The release of the data by the Obama administration comes just six days before the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges open for enrollment, and a day after Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, took the floor of the U.S. Senate to oppose the law.

There is an impression that the Obama Administration is trying to create a Canadian style socialized system. I'm sure that's their intent, but it ain't happening. Obamacare is going to make Canadian Medicare look like a Japanese car plant. So far as command and control systems function they must be centralized. The Canadian political system is far more centralized than its American equivalent. Each province has a responsible minister of health who has to answer questions in the legislature. Who is the accountable party in the American system? The American system of checks and balances limits the concentration of power but it also dissipates accountability. 

The end of the road for America isn't genteel European style socialism. Most European countries have more centralized political systems, so someone is ultimately in charge in someway. The end of the road for America is going to be a very pricey and very painful train wreck. Unfortunately, as always, we'll get hit with collateral damage. 

 

Thursday Night - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Canada is Concerned

Apparently:

“Canada is very concerned by the delay of the Maldives’ runoff election scheduled for September 28 and by reports of the pepper-spraying of the leading presidential candidate, Mohamed Nasheed.

If one in a hundred Canadians knows the location of the Maldives, I'd be surprised. 

Scenes From The Imperial Capital

The Power and The Glory

Furey:

Back to Ignatieff: “But why did I want power in the first place? I had almost no sense of political vocation, and I certainly didn’t have a good answer to the question of why I wanted to hold high office. What drew me most was the chance to stop being a spectator.”

Which is something that Iggy telegraphed to both casual and serious observers of the political scene. Vote for me because I'm smarter than everyone else isn't really an election pitch. Nor is asking voters to cast their ballots for a man simply because he's more photogenic than the alternative. But for Justin Trudeau it might just work.

People dislike leaders who look to be show-offs. This is why Brian Mulroney was so comprehensively loathed. Despite a fairly strong record of governance the man is still more hated than PET, whose sixteen years at the top nearly wrecked the country. But Mulroney came off as a nouveau riche poseur and Pierre Le Grande projected the image of a bohemian aristocrat. The former tried too hard and the latter didn't seem to have to try. 

Stephen Harper had a clear idea of why he wanted to become Prime Minister. It's just that the idea shrank in size over the years. From quasi-libertarian vision to modestly conservative manager of the welfare and regulatory state. His personality is that of an aloof wonk. The badly coiffed one, however, was shrewd enough to mask his intelligence and lack of empathy in a style so bland it could be used to make cubicles. 

Iggy lacked the political instincts to make himself boring. His political acting skills ranged from feigned outrage to feigned interest. The overall package was disingenious. The real Michael Grant Ignatieff might have made a fine cabinet minister in Britain a few generations back, when the odd intellectual could sneak into high office. Our culture is too vulgarized to accept ideas that cannot be condensed into a soundbite. The real Iggy never speaks in anything less than long and detailed paragraphs. A dumber and more dishonest man might have gone further. That's more a comment on us than him.

Yet Iggy must still bear the burden of his failure. He failed because he was vain. We are all vain in some way. The skill of a good con-man is telling people what they want to hear. A few smooth Liberal operators recruited Iggy to run for office. They told him that Canada needed a smart guy like him. Who doesn't like being flattered? Who doesn't imagine in their mind that they are Horatius at the bridge? Vanity. All is vanity.

That is the ultimate temptation of politics, it's final sin. The vanity of politicians who believe that power is a substitute for governance and well earned pride. The vanity of an electorate who believe they can get something for nothing. Skill, talent and vision are nothing when compared to "vanity, insatiate cormorant."

 

 

Wednesday Night - Blondie

The Problem With Public Transit

Public ownership really means political control:

What we need most of all is a Downtown Relief Line, because without that, both the Yonge-University-Spadina subway and the Bloor-Danforth subway will continue to be overwhelmed by the growing number of commuters trying to squeeze onto them every day at rush hour.

The problem is that politicians don’t put subways where they will do us the most good.

They put them where they think they will get them the most votes.

 

 

Scenes From The Imperial Capital