Fiscal Child Abuse

"The mountainous federal debt problem amounts to fiscal child abuse, as both current and future generations will be required to pay it off."(link)

More like fiscal rape when taxes start climbing as a result of all this "stimulus."

[Sarcasm Starting] No wait! I mean, this is all temporary... It'll all be ok... We'll just turn off the spending taps in a couple years and magically no one will have any problems with it... The construction industry, which is booming as a result of this "stimulus," won't put up a fuss... [Sarcasm Ended]

The only thing I can say in Harper's defense, is that at least he's not pulling an Obama. That stuff is nuts down there. A 1.2 trillion dollar deficit later that country's going to have so much fun recovering from that disaster.

Patronage Hypocrites

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper was labelled Canada's political "patronage king" and a "hypocrite" yesterday after tossing aside for the second time his promise not to name unelected Canadians to the Senate.(link)

I think I would be more apt to take the opposition more seriously except for the fact that most of them are responsible for stalling and halting most of Harper's attempts at reforming the senate over the last few years. Couple this with the back history that the Liberal Party has had with patronage appointments and I think the opposition's calls of "hypocrite" will come flying back into their lying faces.

The Obligatory Apollo In Memoriam Post

So.

Forty years ago today a couple engineers from this flying ball landed on another flying ball and planted a flag.

Let's all pat ourselves on the back one more time for humanity's great ingenuity.

"We got to the moon!" Yippee.

We can all hunker down and worry about more serious things now - apparently.

The bottom line is that we went to the moon and did nothing with that success. Really we could have never gone and would the world have been really different? Was the psychological effect of a moon landing stunt really of that much value to humanity?

I have to admit to thinking it was once. Today though I can't say that. It would have been far better for humanity to have hunkered down and tried to develop safe and cheap access to space for everyone. That's the stuff that changes things. That's the stuff that people should be patting themselves on the back for.

Where people really need to be focusing their attention on is the work that companies like SpaceX are doing.

The timing of their recent launch success is the thing we need to latch unto as a benchmark for human progress. Not the antics of a select few in another century who in the end did not do much to change the essential reality that spaceflight is expensive and dangerous.

The Two Encyclicals

The Pope's newly released encyclical has been called everything but a shift left for the Vatican.

As a public service I figured I'd post an actual quote from the encyclical that those crying foul might do well to reflect on:

"By considering reciprocity as the heart of what it is to be a human being, subsidiarity is the most effective antidote against any form of all-encompassing welfare state. ... In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together."

For those not familiar with the principle of subsidiary...

From the Roman Catholic Catechism 1883:

"Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervatrion by the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the Church has elaborated the principle of subsidiarity according to which 'a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of the community of a lower order..'"

From 1885:

"The principle of subsidiary is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets limits on state intervention... It tends towards the establishment of true international order."

Let's re-quote the encyclical's more controversial passages:

"67. In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. ...Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity..."

In other words the UN needs more teeth. No to socialism. You can call that a contradiction, but the Pope was careful to warn that he was not offering any technical solutions to the current economic crisis.

The Principle of Subsidiary is fairly present in this encyclical. It's interesting how no one seems to notice it.

I wonder just what Papal encyclical the press seems to be commenting on.

Ten Percenters

"A pervert in a plaid shirt is luring a child in a park, but the Bloc Québécois will not do anything to stop him, the Conservative Party says in a new round of attack ads.

The message, which was sent at taxpayers' expense in every single Bloc riding, features a blurry picture of a small boy leaving a park with an older man. The two are walking hand-in-hand, and a nearby kiddy swing is empty.

“Your Bloc MP has voted against the protection of children,” the tag line states.
(...)
Mr. Guimond said the use of parliamentary resources to send out the ads is despicable."(link)

The infamous "Ten Percenters" are the annoying pamphlets you get in the mail from MPs that aren't your own, you could care less about, and know nothing about.

Sometimes they are from someone outside your province. You see as an MP you are allowed to send a mailout to ten percent of riding's population anywhere in the country at the taxpayer's expense.

Never mind the reason "Ten Percenters" exist. The point is they are used by political parties to infiltrate new markets. Basically MP A will use his "Ten Percenter" for some Riding on the other end of the country where his party is weak.

Inappropriate use of parliamentary funds? Absolutely.

Though just where does everyone think that the Conservatives picked up this tactic? Does anyone really think they've dreamed this up on their own?

Pay attention to those annoying pamphlets the next time you get one. You should notice not all of them come from the Conservative Party of Canada.

The Club for Governors Who Cheat

Mark Sanford apparently is a member:"South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has admitted to having an extramarital affair..."

Now every playboy and wannabe playgirl out there that justifies their own promiscuity in the name of convenience believing that fidelity and monogamy are "impossible" will have another huge poster child. They'll say that living with one person their whole lives to exclusion of all others is "just talk." Even those that preach it can't live it.

To add to the damage Governor Sanford has done, no one is talking about the issue that he was championing anymore - rejecting the concept of a stimulus.

The harm that world wide massive government spending will do this world will be felt for decades. Mr Sanford was one of the few that seemed to buck the trend and fight against the sound of "one hand clapping" in the global world.

Unfortunately Mr Sanford apparently was dishonest for at least year when he talked about "family values." It's unclear how dishonest he was with anything else.

Stimulus Duh

Stimulus money mispent? Duh:

"The problem with Baird and his minions is that they are ignoring the process in place to determine where the money should go — a process predicated by previous political scandals. The stink that is going to waft out of the “stimulus” project should make the Libs’ previous troubles seem minor in comparison."(link)

When you're trying to spend tens of billions of dollars in a span of months I'm thinking the chances of mistakes are pretty high.

Heck - I don't even think governments can spend money wisely when they take their time let alone when everyone is in panic mode!