Category: government

why a FREE MARKET won’t work

On By Rick McIn economics, Google, governmentLeave a comment

In response to Google and Verizon trying to circumvent FCC rules on Net Neutrality:

The Economist:

If companies always agreed with regulators’ rules, there would be no need for regulators. The very point of a regulator is to do things that companies don’t like, out of concern for the welfare of the market or the consumer.

I’ve seen in my lifetime that competition will diminish if markets can do what they like. We end up with oligopoly or, even worse, monopoly.

Oligopoly and monopoly are normally very, very BAD for consumers.

In my opinion we need “regulators” but they should regulate as little as possible, … mainly with the goal of maintaining a high level of competition.

(via one of the best blogs Daring Fireball)

… I’ve got mixed feelings on the Net Neutrality issue, myself. … I’ll support Net Neutrality, for now.

abolish nukes?

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

Climate Change is not my issue.

I’m much more worried about nuclear annihilation.

The US ambassador to Japan, John Roos, today became the first US representative to attend an annual ceremony to honour the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Roos’s presence at an event to mark 65 years since a US bomb left Hiroshima in ruins has raised hopes that president Barack Obama will visit the city when he attends a meeting of Apec leaders in Japan in November. …

Guardian

I only wish I could wave a magic wand and disable all nuclear weapons simultaneously.

breaking – politicians are lying scumbags

On By Rick McIn economics, government2 Comments

Who knew …

Only those of us who live in tents and don’t drive vehicles can righteously criticize the Alberta oilsands.

… Oops. Actually I own a vehicle now. Therefore I support the oilsands.

Garth linked to an article in the Montreal Gazette criticizing their own Premier and other politicians for disingenuous grandstanding:

Oil patch reeling from unfair attacks

Alberta is being slagged by anti-oilsands ads and criticized by eastern premiers and politicians

… the oilsands, ominously labelled the tarsands, is compared to the worst environmental disaster in American history, which has for three months been spewing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, posing a major threat to the economy and environment of five states from Texas to Florida. And the companies extracting oil out of bitumen in Fort McMurray are compared to BP.

Everyone likes ducks. But more of them apparently die from flying into wind power turbines than from being soaked in tailing ponds in the oilsands.

Enough already, say Albertans. They are still shaking their heads at the performance of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and Toronto Mayor David Miller, trashing the oilsands on the world stage at the Copenhagen conference on climate change last December.

Since then, Albertans have started pointing out that Ontario and Quebec are beneficiary provinces of equalization, paid for by four donor provinces led by Alberta. Cheap tuition at universities, private high schools half-funded by Quebec, $7-a-day child care and now, in-vitro fertilization treatments in public health care, are all partly supported by Alberta tax dollars. This is what happens when politicians play a short game for easy headlines, rather than the long game that serves everyone’s interests.

And it wasn’t a good day for Michael Ignatieff when the Liberal leader said he wouldn’t permit trans-Pacific shipment of oil on tankers from the coast of northern British Columbia. The next time Iggy goes to China, they’ll want to talk to him about that, because they’ll buy as much product from the oilsands as Alberta is not shipping to the United States. In the oilpatch and pipeline industry, they’re simply gob-smacked by the stupidity of Ignatieff being in favour of the oilsands on the one hand, but against building a northern pipeline and shipping it overseas on the other. …

Read more …

If you don’t drive a motor vehicle, climb on your high horse and criticize the Petro-toxin industry. I’ll applaud you.

Otherwise, don’t you feel a bit sheepish gassing up your vehicle with that “Alberta has the dirtiest oil in the world” bumper sticker.

The Green Zone – a review

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

This Matt Damon Hollywood blockbuster The Green Zone brings Iraq back to public interest. It details blunders made and deliberate lies told by some in the U.S. Government.

Iraq’s been largely forgotten, I feel, as attention shifted to Afghanistan. This movie is timely.

… The film was inspired by the non-fiction 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, which documented life in the Green Zone, Baghdad …

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

It’s a work of fiction, based loosely on fact. That seems a misrepresentation of history to many critics.

Personally I thought Green Zone a very compelling movie. Not Bourne compelling, but strong.

The only downside is that the plot hinges on WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).

There are many reasons why the American led invasion of Iraq will go down in history as a mistake as colossal as Vietnam. Lies told about WMDs are one of the lesser reasons.

Ironically, I feel that George H. Bush did the right thing in Desert Storm (1991). An awesome, strategic air strike. And then withdrawal as quickly as possible.

If you threaten the USA, expect the bombers and drones over your capital city within weeks.

I wish George W. had done the same.

burqa to be banned in France

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, Islam1 Comment

While France is the most wonderful nation on the planet, I find this trend disturbing.

Paris, France (CNN) — France’s lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ban on any veils that cover the face — including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

The vote was 335 to 1.

The measure must still go to the French Senate before it becomes law. The Senate is expected to vote on it in the week of September 20.

Amnesty International immediately condemned the vote.

“A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear the burqa or the niqab in public as an expression of their identity or beliefs,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination in Europe.

French people back the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey this spring.

Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.

Clear majorities also backed burqa bans in Germany, Britain and Spain, while two out of three Americans opposed it, the survey found. …

CNN – Burqa ban passes French lower house overwhelmingly

Proponents argue that it’s a security issue. Opponents say it’s a veiled slur against freedom of Religion.

I should say that even I was startled at the number of ladies wearing burqa in Germany last summer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in public in Canada.

Businessman Rachid Nekkaz has committed to a €1m fund to fight the French ban.

best political TV ad ever

On By Rick McIn government, humour, product endorsements1 Comment

Even the left wing Huffington Post loves this Republican commercial.

… Dale Peterson may have finished third in the GOP primary for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, but he’s not done being a YouTube star. With the race heading to a runoff between Dorman Grace and John McMillan, Peterson has returned to endorse McMillan in a new ad. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Daring Fireball)

speed bumps and speed dips

On By Rick McIn government, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I’ve seen my share of “speed bumps” over the past few months, caught unawares by a few at too high velocity.

They’ve got many names around the world including: speed hump, road hump, speed breaker, slow child, judder bar.

My favourite: “Sleeping Policeman“.

They do slow vehicles, but there are plenty of downsides, too.

If possible, I would prefer rumble strips. Or electronic signs reminding me of my speed vis-a-vis the speed limit.

New to me was this innovation, a “speed dip”. I saw it at the excellent Navajo National Monument in the States.

Speed DIP (instead of speed bump)

It worked remarkably well. I slowed down.

Sarah Palin defends Drill Baby Drill

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

“Drill, Baby, Drill!” was a 2008 Republican campaign slogan originally used at the 2008 Republican National Convention by former Maryland Lieutenant Governor, current RNC chairman Michael Steele. The slogan expressed support for increased drilling for petroleum as a source of additional energy. …

Sarah Palin used it often during that campaign.

I watched the vice-Presidential debate where Palin mocked Joe Biden for saying that deep water drilling wasn’t safe.

… Republicans continued to use the slogan after the 2008 election.

In 2010, however, the slogan received renewed attention because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a major oil spill at a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill is causing extensive environmental damages and economic losses estimated in the billions of dollars. As a result, some proponents of “Drill, baby, drill” became embarrassed about their previous support. The slogan was parodied as “Spill, baby, spill”, and “Kill baby, Kill”.

Two senior Republican Senators, Jon Kyl and Pat Roberts, made comments attempting to distance themselves and the Republican Party from the slogan …

The right thing to do after the oil spill would be to drop that catch phrase as a political talking point. Politicians in times of disaster should work together to solve the problem.

Sarah Palin, instead, on June 6th put this up on Twitter.

Yep. She’s got the gall to blame environmentalists for this spill.

Her post on Facebook was a little more coherent:

… “Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.” …

All politicians are lying swine. But I can’t think of a worse liar in politics today than Sarah Palin.

She must think her followers are stupid enough to believe this spin.

should Canada separate from Quebec?

On By Rick McIn bad news, economics, government2 Comments

The two times Quebec voted on separation from Canada, I had mixed feelings.

I could see the logic. And pondered whether, ultimately, both Quebec and R.O.C. (Rest Of Canada) might be better off.

Neither vote passed.

Today Quebec manages to convince the rest of Canada that they are a “have not” Province. That Québécois should be subsided by the rich Provinces.

How is that?

The Québécois friends in my industry are better off than Albertans, and have always been better off.

Here’s a brilliant article, I think, on the issue of Equalization payments.

As you’ve likely heard, Greece is “too big to fail”. The rest of the EU has decided to bail them out.

In Greece, citizens, on average, retire at the age of 58.

In Germany, the citizens expected to help bail out the bankrupt Greeks, work on average until until the age of 65. Naturally, German citizens are wondering how this can be considered fair. Why should they work seven years longer on average so Greek citizens can live a life of leisure and be less productive?

What’s more, in Germany, most working people pay taxes. In Greece, only 20 per cent pay taxes. Again, unfair. And yet equalization between “have” European Union states and “have not” European Union states continues, even though it’s not making things equal — it’s rewarding laziness, leisure and possibly even criminal tax evasion. Why pay taxes if some hard-working Germans will do it for you? Thus the riots in Greece. They believe they are entitled to those entitlements.

Dysfunctional? You bet. We Canadians would never stand for such a thing. Right? Think again.

Equalization in Canada was established to ensure that “have-not” regions could enjoy the same programs as “have” regions and most Canadians wouldn’t quibble with that. But that has not happened. In fact, the reverse has occurred. The have provinces have fewer services than the have-nots.

According to a Dec. 2009 report by the Institute of Statistics of Quebec, Quebecers average age of retirement is 62 whereas in the rest of Canada it is almost 65. While the Quebec Pension Plan and Canada Pension Plans are identical and carry the same penalties for collecting your pension earlier than 65, those who stop working earlier are less productive and contribute less to Canadian society in terms of income and taxes.

In light of the fact that Quebec received $8.6 billion in equalization payments in 2010-11 out of a total equalization pot of $14.4 billion, it’s safe to say that citizens in Canada’s “have” provinces — British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario — are paying for Quebecers’ early retirement, as theirs is the only province which has such a generous, early retirement benefit.

In other words, equalization is not very equal. …

Calgary Herald – Corbella: It’s all Greek to Quebec

Licia Corbella has worked for daily newspapers for more than 20 years and is currently the Calgary Herald’s Editorial Page Editor. …

What’s the solution?

Cancel equalization payments, Canada. Or separate from Quebec.

related – Equalization payments in Canada

Jon Stewart vs FOX News

On By Rick McIn government, TV2 Comments

An interesting article by BRIAN STELTER of the obviously Commie NY Times …

… Fox News Channel is Jon Stewart’s new enemy No. 1. …

Comedian Jon Stewart’s job of host on The Daily Show has been renewed until into 2013. Is that good or bad news for FOX?

Both, I’d say.

… he may well be television’s pre-eminent fact-checker of Fox News, the nation’s highest-rated cable news channel.

It has been noticed by, among other people, the Fox host Bill O’Reilly, who called Mr. Stewart a “devoted critic” of Fox News and said “his influence is growing.” …

Personally I’m sick of Jon Stewart. But thrilled that somebody is raking FOX News over the coals.

As Jon Stewart says, FOX News is “truly a terrible, cynical, disingenuous news organization.”

Yet millions of people believe the many bald-faced lies told on FOX interspersed between actual news.

O’Reilly responded to Mr. Stewart on his Fox program on Wednesday, calling “The Daily Show” a “key component of left-wing television” …

Not. The Daily Show has independent writers who have no hot line to the White House. It’s on a Comedy Network. If Bill O’Reilly was on the Comedy Network, I wouldn’t complain. I’d chuckle.

FOX News parrots Republican Party talking points on multiple TV shows all day long. I’m embarrassed to have been born in an era where FOX News could be so successful. The end of the world is nigh.

a battle of wits

read the article for yourself – Jon Stewart’s Punching Bag, Fox News