why I joined the Liberal Party of Canada

On March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

To Joan Crockatt, my current Member of Parliament:

Hello Joan,

I will be actively campaigning in your riding against the Conservative Party in the upcoming election.

Born in Calgary, a fiscal conservative, still I cannot support your military mission in Iraq. It’s a waste of money. And will likely backfire, making Canada a more prominent target for any Canadian extremist or kook. It’s making me and my family less safe, not more.

Scholars Pape and Feldman:

… more than 2,100 documented cases of suicide bombings from 1980 to 2009 and concluded that most of the perpetrators were acting in response to U.S. intervention in the Middle East. …

The Canadian military should be Peace Keepers.

My other main issue is online privacy. I’m almost certainly going to be strongly against the coming omnibus public safety bill (Bill C-51). The NSA has proven that method doesn’t work. It’s not at all the best way to find terrorists in Canada.

Rick McCharles
Sarcee Meadows, Glamorgan

P.S.

I do like your work for women’s rights, by the way. But not enough to offset my disgust with your Party bombing and shooting innocent women and children in the Middle East.

Sergeant Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed by friendly fire in Iraq

___

Joan Crockatt did not reply. Not even a form letter.
___

So I bought a $10 Liberal Party membership.

Justin Trudeau:

We will not be supporting the government’s efforts to deepen this combat mission and expand it into Syria.

Speech by Justin Trudeau on the government’s motion to extend the combat mission in Iraq and expand into Syria

I’m hoping the Liberal candidate will be my Mayor’s chief of staff, Chima Nkemdirim.

I’ve written the NDP Party, as well, asking why I should vote for them instead of the Liberals.

Mulcair says NDP would pull Canadian troops from Iraq mission

what about Ted Cruz?

On March 26, 2015March 26, 2015 By Rick McIn ethics, firearms, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

I can’t support this guy. He’s far, far too right wing for me.

Let’s Be Serious About Ted Cruz From The Start: He’s Too Extreme And Too Disliked To Win

enten-datalab-cruz-1

He’s totally against same sex marriage. Extremely against a woman’s right to choose abortion.

FREEDOM for Cruz does not include those freedoms. I’m always astonished how politicians who speak most about “liberty” are so intolerant of anyone who’s not exactly like them.

He’s 100% for the NRA. His base is the Christian Right.

His main platform is to “kill Obamacare” (with no details on what would replace it) though he announced he may have to sign up for health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act. A hypocrite.

He’s not all bad.

• born in Calgary, Canada

• first Hispanic or Cuban American to serve as a U.S. Senator from Texas

• he’s a Constitutional expert

• very familiar with American Law. Believes in the rule of law.

• he’s outspoken, willing to speak against the Republican Party line. I admire that. No doubt his corporate paymasters consider him too much a loose cannon.

rich getting richer, the poor poorer

On February 26, 2015February 24, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, education, ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

Why is that?

Many of the rich (Cheap-Labor Conservatives) like “cheap labour”.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Though former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich overstates a bit, his key points are true.

Click PLAY or watch a trailer for Robert Reich’s documentary on YouTube. Inequality for All.

I can’t see why any poor or under-employed person should vote for the Republican Party. The American Tea Party hates the poor. Despises any program that gives one dollar to the poor. Yet wants to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in the Middle East.

I’m still trying to find a national American politician who’s a true fiscal conservative.

Films for Action – The Cheap-Labor Conservatives’ “Dirty Secret”: They Don’t Really Like Prosperity

Common, John Legend – Glory

On February 25, 2015February 23, 2015 By Rick McIn ethics, movies, music1 Comment

One of the many excellent edits of the Oscar winning song.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

hateful fear mongers

On February 24, 2015February 23, 2015 By Rick McIn bad news, economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, product complaints, things getting worseLeave a comment

FOX National News is the worst.

They care only for ratings. If you don’t like FOX News (unfair and unbalanced), boycott.

Selma – a review

On February 18, 2015February 24, 2015 By Rick McIn education, ethics, GOP USA, government, Islam, movies, things getting betterLeave a comment

Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film …

It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches …

Selma has received universal acclaim from film critics. Praise has gone particularly to the film’s acting, cinematography, screenplay, and direction. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a rating of 98% …

Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.

It’s an important movie. A good history lesson.

Martin Luther King Jr. emulated my personal hero Gandhi. Non-violent resistance. The best way for an oppressed minority to challenge a privileged majority.

It worked.

But as a film I found Selma average. Too preachy. The dialogue often not believable. The good guys too good, the bad guys too evil.

It might have been better as a documentary.

Instead it’s a Hollywood fiction based on a true story. I know not all the facts are exactly right. But John Lewis, being bludgeoned in this photo March 7, 1965, feels the film gets enough right. To him the film is true to the story.

Alabama Governor George Wallace was a prototype segregationist. During his final years, Wallace recanted his racist views and asked for forgiveness from African Americans.

I visited Alabama for the first time last year. Surprised and pleased to see no outward signs of overt racism.

Sooner or later the echos of American slavery will be entirely forgotten.

In the meantime, Selma is a reminder of how far we’ve come. And how far we have not come.

related – Neil Young – Southern Man

vote against Harper

On February 11, 2015February 9, 2015 By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

I bought a Liberal Party of Canada membership. And will be actively campaigning for … anyone-but-Harper.

I guess I’ll be voting for the politician most likely to beat Harper.

Justin

There are many reasons why Harper has to go. But the last straw for me was when he sent a few planes and a few dozen men to bomb people. It’s a pitifully symbolic gesture. One that will accomplish nothing aside from inspiring terrorists to retaliate against Canadians.

The best thing Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien ever did was to refuse George Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing”, a group of 49 countries that the U.S. said supported the mission despite the lack of authorization by the U.N. Security Council.

Let’s hope Trudeau is half as good as Chrétien. One quarter as good as his father.

who was most wrong about Ebola?

On January 31, 2015January 29, 2015 By Rick McIn ethics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Good news. The outbreak is still in decline – New Ebola cases fall most in week since June.

Economist Oct 2014:

IN THE crowded field of Ebola alarmists, Rand Paul of Kentucky stands out. …

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana says planes must be grounded “to protect our people”. …

Some leaders are more responsible. The Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has tried to keep people calm. Few countries are better equipped than America to keep the public safe, he has assured Texans. He is right. It should not need saying. …

The Ebola alarmists – Stoking panic will not help America fight Ebola

Senator Ted Cruz should be apologizing, as well.

A world pandemic will come, sooner or later. But Ebola is not it.

Smith & Wesson NEARLY did the right thing

On January 30, 2015January 26, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, firearms, government, product complaints1 Comment

In the late ’90s, Smith & Wesson was facing a major lawsuit filed by cities and states that blamed the company for rampant gun violence. The company stood to lose millions.

So in 2000, under pressure from the Clinton administration, Smith & Wesson’s chief executive, Ed Schultz, made a fateful decision — and raised the ire of the powerful National Rifle Association and its supporters. …

Click PLAY or see what happened next on YouTube.

On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, a fraction of the US$112 million originally paid by Tomkins. Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million …

In December 2014, Smith & Wesson Holding announced it was paying $130.5 million for Battenfeld Technologies, a Columbia, Missouri-based designer and distributor of hunting and shooting accessories. The company made the acquisition with the eventual intent to merge all its existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson Center Arms accessories into a single division

wikipedia

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre – CHICKENS are coming for your guns!!!

On January 29, 2015January 29, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, firearms, GOP USA, government, things getting worse5 Comments

Wayne LaPierre is an extremist.

I’m pissed when he says things like this:

We know, in the world that surrounds us, there are terrorists and home invaders and drug cartels and car-jackers and knock-out gamers and rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping-mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country with massive storms of violence against our power grids, or vicious waves of chemicals or disease that could collapse the society that sustains us all. …

~~He lies.~~ He exaggerates.

He ~~lies~~ exaggerates I assume, to help increase sales of firearms. He exaggerates for money.

I can’t imagine any other reason to overstate the way he does.

LaPierre’s central message: Owning a gun is the solution. The world is a scary place. There are bad guys everywhere threatening you and your family, and the only thing they’re afraid of is a gun in your hands.

Tragically, a record number of Americans subscribe to some version of this mythology, with 63 percent (67 percent of men polled and 58 percent of women) believing that guns truly do make them safer. The public’s confidence in firearms, however, is woefully misguided: The evidence overwhelmingly shows that guns leave everybody less safe, including their owners. …

The Myth of the Good Guy With a Gun

Politico – The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership

The NRA is wrong: Owning a gun is far more likely to harm you than protect you.

I agree with LaPierre on a couple of things. He supports:

• Increasing funds for a stricter and more efficient mental health system, and reform of civil commitment laws to facilitate institutionalization of the mentally ill when necessary.

• Creating a computerized universal mental health registry of those adjudicated to be incompetent to help limit gun sales to the mentally ill.

It’s deflection, I’m assuming. Taking those positions makes no sense relative to his other positions.

He’s totally against the government regulating firearms, even though they are dangerous. (More ~~Americans~~ American children and youth are now killed by weapons than motor vehicle accidents.) … But totally for the government regulating mental health. Because the mentally ill are dangerous. 🙂

• Two Decades of Paranoid Pronouncements by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre

• Gun Deaths Versus Car Deaths

• American Gun Deaths to Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 2015