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The Rise and Fall of the Neander-Con

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are all sitting front row for one of the shortest political movements in history. The neo-conservative movement really started in the early 90's with the creation of the Reform party, led by Preston Manning. They were a young group of right wing politicians who were very traditional in their political ideologies. They were seen as an alternative to the less right wing PC party of the time (led by Brian Mulroney). These neo-cons were eventually turned into the Canadian Alliance which were just the same party, re packaged to be more socially viable. This group is also where our current Prime Minister Stephen Harper got his political start. Anyways, this ultra conservative group of politicians believed in possibly the worst kind of economics in the history of the subject, supply side economics. It goes something like this; when the government cuts taxes, people have more money, people spend more money, the companies who's products are being purchased have to produce more, for this they need more workers, with more workers people pay more taxes, more people pay taxes the government gets more money. Now on the outside that is a great idea but when used practically, it fails every time. Reagan tried it, Mulroney tried it, Bush tried it, and now Harper is trying it and every time it just screws up the economy even more.



So that is the rise, now for the fall. These neo-cons (or neander-cons) are currently in power here in Canada and their Economic policy is the least of their troubles. The Conservative party has been screwing up with each of it's cabinet ministers since Bernier. All they care about is their election results. They should care about experiences and smarts in their cabinet ministers but for some reason they think that every young neo-con will be the next Barack Obama. There was Maxime Bernier who forgot a confidential document at his girlfriends house. There was Raitt who's assistant left a document at a televisions station and then talked about the Chalk River isotope problem as politically "sexy". Not caring about all the cancer patients who have to wait for tests, but caring about political gain. Then there was Baird who denied Toronto's application for street car funds because it "was not prepared properly" when it has been verified by experts. Then there was Flaherty and the big man himself, Harper. With their lies and denials of this economic crisis they have done more harm then good.

As I said at the beginning, we are sitting front row for history in the making. This political movement will not last long. The next election will show the end of this and Harper is going to have to find another way to try and get back in power again.

What Makes Us Human

Last night I was having a very good intelligent discussion with my friend Cole (he shares my music blog with me). We were talking about what happened 20 years ago, yesterday. Of course I am referring to the Tiananmen Square Protests, and their culmination on June fourth. This event is one of the most covered stories in history. The Chinese government has been covering it up for 20 years now even though the rest of world knows the history. I sent Cole a picture of "Tank Man" because it is (in my opinion) very inspirational. Well, Cole agreed and he made a comment that went something like this, "That guy fought every natural instinct we have as humans. Every instinct in his body." That made a click in my mind. It was as though a light bulb turned on in my head. To explain what the realization was I have to tell another story.

As many of you know I have a bit of a grudge against animal rights activists. Well because of this my animal rights friends and I have very good (if not heated) discussions about a variety of topics concerning animals. Well a place where the discussions get stuck is when we start to talk about how humans are animals. My stance on that is always that we may be part of the animal kingdom but we are not animals. My usual defense behind that is how humans are capable of rational thought and they always just return with how we are a barbaric race. Well, because of my discussion with Cole I found another point to back my defense. Other than rational thought, there is another human attribute that separates us from the animals, and it is shown perfectly in this picture...



Courage, in the face of certain death. The ability to stand up for something you believe in an instance when you know that you are going to die. Being able to fight off every survival instinct in your body to do something that might not even help your cause. This is what makes us human. Looking past the here and now, and looking to what will make a better future.

Strike Number (how many does this make now?)

Mr Harper, how could you be so foolish? You already have all the opposition parties scrutinizing you for various reasons (i.e. the budget, the spending of the budget, the prorogation of parliament). Why do you need to continue to give them fire. Obviously I am talking about the incident with cabinet minister Raitt. Her aide left a sensitive document at an Ottawa television station, and she is being called on to resign her cabinet post. Well it would seem that she offered her resignation but the Prime Minister refused it. I know I'm a liberal and should be rejoicing in Harper's stupidity but now it's just getting annoying. He should have just accepted the resignation then the political situation might be able to smooth out for just a few weeks. But no, he has to add more fuel to the fire and just keep a doomed minister on. Can he help creating controversy or does he have some ulterior motive. Alas we will probably never know.

My Problem with Mr Flaherty

I know I'm about a week late on this issue but this is my blog so ha ha. The Canadian federal deficit has been raised to 50 billion dollars. That is an extra 16 billion dollars from the budget announced in January. 16 billion dollars. Wow that seems like a lot, and it is. It is roughly (I'm not sure so don't quote me) 3.4% of the national GDP. When you look at it that way then it doesn't look as bad. It's still really huge, but it's not as big as it could be. So after saying that, I still have a problem with this whole budget hoopla. It is how the Prime Minister and the Federal Budget Minister handled the situation. Going back a bit over a year from now, Economists were predicting hard economic times coming soon (nothing compared to what actually happened, but hard times none the less). The party in charge of this country did nothing to try and prevent it. Then when the economic downturn hit us hard in September and October, they denied the almost certain recession and decided to call an election. During the whole election they continued to deny an oncoming recession. It wasn't until after the election that they acknowledged it and even then they decided to do nothing. The December fiscal update had no plans for economic stimulus. Eventually, from the threat of the new Liberal Party leader (Michael Ignatieff) they created a budget (a red one at that) with a 34 billion dollar deficit. Finally some truth, right? Not just last week Jim Flaherty came out and said that the deficit would be closer to 50 billion. That is my problem. He lied and denied and lied and denied. If he had had this number in the January budget then I would not be nearly as upset as I am. But he did not. He lied and deserves to pay with his job.

TORONTO Cyclists Inched Ahead

Another big discussion point on the news lately has been the new Bike Lanes being added to Jarvis St in Toronto. Many car drivers have been coming to the city council meetings expressing their dissatisfaction with the city's choice to create bike lanes due to the effect that it will have on traffic. Another of their arguments for their point has been how when they drive they never see cyclists on the road. Well no **** Sherlock I wouldn't want to ride a remote control bike in Toronto. The dangers totally outweigh the environmental pros. It's practically suicide.
One other thing that the anti bike lane people can not seem to realize is that oil and other fossil fuels are one of the main causes of the recession we are in. Sure everyone says that they want to save the environment in a survey but to get people to leave their cars at home and to start using public transit and bikes, you need to drag them kicking and screaming. We have the public transit, we have the workers but some people still wont go. The solution, raise parking taxes and gas prices. Add bike lanes to make the public transit system faster then cars. Make it a hell of a lot cheaper and faster to take public transit then to drive their cars. This is also one way of helping the crisis were in right now. Get rid of our dependency on oil and you get a lot of things falling into place. Less obesity because people get more exercise. More help for small family owned companies because they become more accessible to people who are walking and taking the TTC everywhere. These are only a few examples of what can happen when we get rid of our dependency on fossil fuels.

Good Job Governor General

A big topic on the international stage over the past couple of days has been Governor General Jean's actions on her trip to Nunavut. The action that has caused a huge hoopla across the world was... wait for it... participating in an Inuit ritual and eating a piece of seal heart. Wow, umm I don't get it. The liaison to the head of state participated in a cultural ritual and she is being criticized for it.

For god's sake animal rights people, UNCLENCH. For some unknown reason, the entire animal right community have been getting into a hissy fit because they think that the Governor General is sympathising with the commercial seal hunt. There was no secret agenda. She went up there because it's a part of her job. She was offered a piece of meat. She ate it and she liked it. I fail to see how this innocent act has any kind of secret agenda behind it, and I fail to see how boycotting Canadian Maple Syrup is going to help anything. I think that all the propaganda behind this issue is just that, propaganda.

Last night I sent in an E-mail to The National on CBC and I'd like to share it with you.

"I have a few things to say on this topic. I would love to ask some of these animal rights activists if they have something against Canada. These people seem to just bash and bash Inuit Canadians when there are people in other countries that eat Horse and Dog. How come these cultures aren't being criticized when the Inuit people of Canada's are. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against any culture. I'm sure there are people in other countries who think similarly about some of our eating habits. So I would just like to say that these activists should leave it alone and that Governor General Jean did a great thing eating that heart. She showed exactly what Canada's stance on this issue should be."

This basically sums up my views on this point so I just have one last thing to say to the animal rights people. I don't care what your views on right and wrong are, you have absolutely no right to interfere with cultural traditions.