Month: March 2021

Quote of the Day: “The left is not necessarily aiming at totalitarianism. But their know-it-all mindset leads repeatedly and pervasively in that direction, even if by small steps, each of which might be called ‘micro-totalitarianism.” Thomas Sowell

Great article by Laura Booth as she interviews a number of parents who are now in essence, home schooling their children. She tells us that just under 4,000 students are enrolled in the online only school called St. Isidore. So, that’s 4,000 students that won’t be showing up in a physical class room. Good. Now, as I have always suggested, this is the perfect time to get the wasteful, pathetic government out of teaching our kids and into the private sector where there is actual accountability. Give each parent $10,000 to educate each of their children and collapse the teachers’ unions forever. This experiment proves that we don’t need schools and the huge overhead of the current structure.

Quote of the Day: “Wherever you get enough far-left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.” Thomas Sowell

Every single day, TheRecord must have access to thousands of columns and op-eds to fill their Editorial pages. I have no idea what resources they have or the cost of these resources. So just what does it take to have your op-ed published on the Editorial or Insight (Huh?) Pages? Well, if it’s a Monday and you have nothing good to say about Conservatives but would rather discuss some totally useless, over privileged people named Harry and Meghan, well then, step right up Geoffrey Stevens. And if you no issues at all with locking down your church for absolutely no reason, well then, step right up Rev. Michael Brooks. And if you were a columnist with TorStar but now you’re “freelance” and are on an animal “rights” campaign, well then, step right up Thomas Walkom, Ph.D And if you want to ask just plain stupid questions like: “Do we have the will to save the planet?” and write nonsense like: “Global warming is harming us now, but it could also be civilization-ending sooner than we think.”, well then, step right up Jeffrey Atkinsom, Ph.D And if you’re a 20-something fourth year student at WLU, and only want to criticize the American GOP and President Donald Trump, well then, step right up to the Insight (Huh?) Page, Caleb Duffield. Seriously, we have had to endure Stevens’ column every Monday for years now – but another nonsensical global warming end of the world crisis and another animal “rights” activist and some student trying to analyze Trump’s Presidency – all on the same day? I think this is what water boarding is like – the torture is all in your mind with no lasting affects, except for the memory…

And speaking of Caleb Duffield, his op-ed looks like an assignment for a course he’s in. His article is titled: “Donald Trump was a symptom of a more pernicious problem”. Nice. The President is a “symptom” of a problem. Oh my. He starts off his course paper by suggesting that there is “extreme polarization” in the U.S. Congress “and what, if anything, can be done about it remain nebulous.” Oh my. He continues: “The answer cannot simply be explained by the actions and policies of former president Donald Trump.” Unfortunately, Caleb doesn’t tell us just what these actions and policies are and I’m not sure why. I guess we are just supposed to “know” what they are. He suggests that: “It might be more accurate to view Trump as a symptom of a more pernicious problem: the incremental expansion of hyperpartisanship in the United States. This is grounded in historical party realignment, changing societal values, cultural cleavages, and negative campaigning enhanced through print and social media.” So, Caleb uses “nebulous” and “pernicious” in the last few sentence. It looks like Caleb got a thesaurus for Christmas and he can’t wait to try it out. He then goes on the make this observation: “A recent study observed that 55 per cent of Democrats and 58 per cent of Republicans viewed each other unfavourably, a statistic that only 30 years earlier was measured at 21 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.” Of course, Mr. Duffield doesn’t tell us where he found this study so I went looking for it. The only place my friend Mr. Google showed me is here: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/06/22/partisanship-and-political-animosity-in-2016/ But this isn’t a “recent” study – it’s five years old. Unless Caleb found another study that I missed and there have been no changes (55% of D and 58% of R) in the unfavourability percentages, this is probably the study he is referring to. Ouch. Talk about cherry picking 5 year old data!!! He then goes on to try to explain his hyper-partisanship theory by suggesting: “The enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act meant that the previous electorate and ideological bases of each party flipped 180 degrees – whereas the Democrats pushed left, and Republicans pushed right.” Now, I’ve read this statement about 10 times and I still have no idea what point he is trying to make. Of course, I have no idea how GenZ’ers define “right” and “left” anymore because the definition seems to change on an hourly basis. So is he trying to say that Democrats were more conservative (right wing) in the early 1960’s and Republicans were more liberal (left wing) and because of the Civil Rights Act, then switched directions on the one dimensional, political line? Is he suggesting that Eisenhower was somehow on the left and that Kennedy was on the right? He then makes this just ridiculous statement: “Such realignment has blended with increasing sociodemographic shifts and value changes to prompt a push from the left toward racial and gender equality, secularism, and immigration. Conversely, from the right this has encouraged a ‘…countermobilization of White, conservative, and evangelical voters …’ who have expressed discontent for ‘undeserving’ immigrants and minorities. These two starkly opposing perceptions of what it means to be a ‘true American’ — the Christian alt-right conservative versus the multiracial accepting liberal — has given rise to irreconcilable cultural cleavages between the two parties.” What absolute nonsense. To pigeon hole the 90 million or so Americans who identify themselves as Republicans in such derogatory terms is basically the true reason why there is (maybe) a hyperpartisanship divide. And notice that he quoted another sentence. I tried to find that quote as well. I checked google, bing, duckduckgo – and the only reference that came back to me was his column. So, did he actually make up this quote? I could go on and dissect his column – by why? This type of nonsense is just pathetic. Is Duffield related to someone at TheRecord? Am I getting my money’s worth?

Quote of the Day: “Wherever you get enough far-left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.” Thomas Sowell

Another pretty good column by John Milloy today where he talks about debating clubs at both the high school and university level. He mentions that a new form of debate has emerged, first in the U.S. and now in Canada – called Ethics Debating. This is where points are scored not by effective criticism of the opponents position, but understanding and supporting both positions of a debating topic. When I went to high school we didn’t have a Debate Club and that’s too bad. I think I would have done very well – since I had lots of practice arguing with Vice Principals and teachers. But that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Quote of the Day: “Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated? Darwinian adaptation to environment applies not only to nature but also to society. Just as you don’t find eagles living in the ocean or fish living on mountain tops, so you don’t find leftists concentrated where their ideas have to stand the test of performance.” Thomas Sowell

I went to my local LCBO yesterday. The place was packed. Four of the five checkouts were open. There were 34 people waiting in the four lines – I counted, plus the 4 checkout clerks. I estimate there were another 30, maybe 35 people in the store for a total of about 70 people. Now, the aisles at a LCBO aren’t that spacious. In fact, I think the counters and shelving take up maybe 30% of the total area of the store. I estimate the store, not counting the small office at the front and the warehouse at the back, to be about 3,200 square feet or 40’ by 80’. Now, if my estimates are correct and, let’s say 25% of the store is shelving and cashier area, then the total store for shoppers is around 2,400 square feet. Now, that means that for the 70 people that were in the LCBO yesterday, each one had around 35 square feet per person. I only bring this up because Karen, I mean Luisa D’Amato is madly typing away in her bully column again. Today she tells us that: “You can’t have a big celebratory dinner with family and friends at Easter. Restaurants cannot allow more than 10 customers dining indoors at a time.” So there. That’s the rules. And Karen wants you to follow them no matter how stupid. She reminds us of this because there was a wedding of about 150 people at a Cambridge temple the other weekend and a number of people contacted COVID-19 there. But, the temple was operating within the guidelines since they have a capacity of 700 people at the temple. So, Karen, I mean D’Amato wants everyone and everything and everyplace to follow the 10 person per location rule – no matter how big the venue or store is. Right then. Well, let’s start with the LCBO, Karen.

Quote of the Day: “No one can really understand the political left without understanding that they are about making themselves feel superior, however much they may talk piously about what they are going to do to help others.” Thomas Sowell

I’ve noted before that two or three times a week, TheRecord is a mere 18 or 20 pages. Now, considering that the Ask Ellie column and the horoscope is half a page (why???) and the weather is another half a page (really?) and the local TV listings is half a page (seriously?) and TheKit is normally half a page and there are about 4 pages of ads, that really doesn’t leave my room for real news, now does it? Today the paper is a total 24 pages but 5 of those pages are some IWD adverts, so in reality the paper is only 19 pages. So, with this rather limited real estate, you would expect the Editors to try to give us the most important news as possible. I’m not exactly sure what financial contracts they have with the Associated Press, Reuters, Canadian Press, Thompson, NYT, WaPo etc. etc. but I’m sure they have literally hundreds, if not thousands of columns and articles to choose from every day. That’s why, I read with a real bewilderment, that the Editors chose to publish a third of a page article that featured President Jimmy Carter condemning Republicans of strengthening voting in his home state of Georgia. The article states that he was upset by these new rules around mail in voting ballots, then he in fact suggested these same rules back in 2005. The article by the AP (or Administration Press as some people like to call it…) makes it seem that these rules are somehow restricting voting rights – when just the opposite is true. Yup, 19 pages and a third of a page goes to this nonsense. Am I getting my money’s worth from my subscription?

Quote of the Day: “The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.” Thomas Sowell

I guess part of the reason I don’t read the obits much anymore is because, well, some of the people on those pages are younger than I am. So, I won’t make any excuses for missing John Vanderpool’s passing from a stroke a couple of weeks ago. Anyone who has lived in the K-W region knows his name and the names of his sons. A great sports family and great ambassadors for our Region. Valerie Hill, in her column Lifelines on Page A13 today, does just a fantastic job of interviewing some people who knew him. But this paragraph really struck me: “Co-worker Allan Smith said in those early days there were few local Black families and John did face racism but he never shied away from dealing with it, albeit diplomatically. ‘John was a strong guy: he took it head-on’ said Allan. ‘People started respecting him for who he was, not seeing the colour of his skin’” Wow – what a remarkable man and a fantastic tribute to him. Truly wonderful. But then… compare this great human being to a few members of the just horrific Community Editorial Board. In an article yesterday, Shama Saleh – the perpetual victim, recounts how on a work term, some of her co-workers asked her (jokingly, I assume) if she wore her hijab in the shower. And because of this, Saleh suggest that: “You just genuinely don’t feel safe”. Also yesterday, Moraa Mochama also from the CEB, tells us that after being talked over in a meeting and: “My voice was no longer being heard and I was mad!” Oh my. How terrible. And of course Mulugeta Dilnesahu, way back on 10 September 2020 in another CEB post, claimed that because no employer would hire him in his field of “population studies”, then: “That’s the racism of Canada”. No words can describe what I feel like right now.

Quote of the Day: “If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people.” Eleanor Roosevelt, 05 November 1958

So, on International Women’s Day (IWD), TheRecord runs a silly little “Quote of the Day” by some guy named Colin Powell. For all of the virtual signalling that TheRecord has done over the last few years, could they not come up with some quote by some woman of significance today? How about a quote from Cher or Lady Gaga or Oprah or some other intellectual giant of our times? Nope – Colin Powell. Way Too Funny… (At least I used a world famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt as my contribution for today… And I think you can safely update “TV” with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter…)

Luisa D’Amato interviews Shama Saleh from TheRecords’s just awful Community Editorial Board. I’ve written about Saleh before – the perpetual victim. In the first couple of sentences, Saleh recounts how on a work term, some of her co-workers asked her (jokingly, I assume) if she wore her hijab in the shower. And because of this, Saleh suggest that: “You just genuinely don’t feel safe”. D’Amata goes farther and suggests: “Those attacks on her were both racist and sexist.” Oh my. I stopped reading after that.

Quote of the Day: “That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.” Thomas Sowell

I haven’t read a more pathetic title in the last few weeks than “Six Dr. Seuss titles pulled from local library shelves for review”. Anam Latif tells us that they were pulled after the publisher decided that they would stop publishing them due to their so-called “racist imagery”. She tells us that: “’The books no longer serve a positive literary outcome for children,’ said Kim Nguyen, associate professor in communication arts at the University of Waterloo. These are not books that promote good values, these are books that are not useful in helping children read because of the kind of imagery in the books and the content in the books.’ “ And just exactly what are these terrible racist drawings? Ms Latif tells us that: “In ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,’ an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl. ‘If I Ran the Zoo’ includes a drawing of two barefooted Black men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.” Wow – I guess no one has ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant. Truly pathetic. The Mulberry Street book was first published in 1937. At the time, according to the World View website, the average life span of someone from the central region in Africa was in the mid 30’s. Did the average person at that time go barefoot and wear grass skirts? Did the average Chinese person before the WWII eat with chopsticks from a bowl? What Ms Latif should have done (of course TheRecord and their TorStar masters would have never allowed it…) was to show the coloured pictures from the six banned books and let average readers judge for themselves if these images are somehow racist. Then we can all laugh at the library staff who are paid by my tax dollars.

On the Editorial Page today, we have the fourth op-ed on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposal since 11 December 2020. Unfortunately, the other three articles were written by authors (two by economist Dr. Evelyn Forget) that actually made sense. The op-ed today looks to be written as a high school civics essay. It looks like Caterina Lindman is a retired actuary so I would assume that she has at least some financial common sense. But any intelligent or coherent logic is completely lacking in her op-ed today. She tells us all of the great things that a UBI would do for Canada as if we all didn’t know this. But of course, like all of the other authors on this subject at TheRecord, she neglects to mention the most important part of the policy – eliminate all other programs to pay for the UBI. But how does Ms Lindman suggest we fund the UBI you ask? Well, tax the rich of course and a 0.2% tax on financial transactions. Oh my.

Quote of the Day: “In a sense, the political left’s attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.” Thomas Sowell

Far left Waterloo Councillor Jen Vasic adopts a baby and James Jackson devotes over half a page to this story in TheRecord today? Ummm…. O.K., I guess…

Very interesting op-ed by Michael Zwaagstra from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He talks about teaching world religions at the high school level as a means to increase tolerance and understanding in today’s society and younger generations. Great read.

Ken Grafton has an op-ed on the Insight (Huh?) Page today. The first sentence in his article asks: “What happened to facts?”. He talks about the power that social media has on general public opinion and how media companies can manipulate perceptions. So, once again; show me a single article, op-ed, column or editorial that had one positive thing to say about President Donald Trump in the last five years in any TorStar controlled paper. His last sentence states: “Journalism fuels the engine of democracy.” (cough)

Susan Koswan is gardening. Good for her.

Quote of the Day: “Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them — instead of answering their arguments.” Thomas Sowell

On the Editorial Page today, we have Evelyn Forget’s second op-ed in the last few months. And this is the third op-ed that TheRecord has published in recent memory on the Universal Basic Income (UBI). Why? Well, as I mentioned before, I think that the UBI is a great idea if it is implemented as designed as a unified social policy and not just another government handout. The UBI as a negative income tax might work out very well if it eliminates all the patchwork of programs now in place. Forget mentions that there are 194 programs at the federal, provincial and municipal level to “help” lower income people in BC alone. Wow. But in her op-ed, even Dr. Forget can’t bring herself to suggest that the trade-off is that all of these programs must be dropped to pay for the UBI. And maybe if Dr. Forget wants to advance this cause, I suggest she does not compare this to our current medical system – which we all know is completely fiscally and morally bankrupt.

I have no idea why TorStar controlled papers continue to publish the nonsense that comes out of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). This group hasn’t had an original idea since it was formed. I’ve never read a single “alternative” from this group – except for the “raise taxes, spend more, raise taxes” type of policy thinking. Randy Robinson, is the Ontario Director of CCPA and he has an op-ed on the Insight (Huh?) Page today. Nothing but class warfare from this guy. He suggests that the “ultra-rich” of “Canada’s top 44 Billionaires saw their wealth surge by $53 Billion – roughly equivalent to $1,400 for every Canadian”. Of course, what Robinson neglects to mention is that “wealth” is mostly on paper since almost all of the “wealth” is in stock market gains. So, the same stock market that holds everyone’s pension plans, long term investments and drives businesses forward is some kind of a bad thing because “Billionaires” have increased their investments as well. Too stupid for words.