Rita

Quote of the Day: “Education spending will be most effective if it relies on parental choice and private initiative – the building blocks of success throughout our society.” Milton Friedman

TheRecord’s Editorial today is about the bloated and short sited federal budget. The word “deficit” is mentioned once and the word “debt” is also mentioned once – at the very end of the column. “Even the government’s favoured measure — the debt-to-GDP ratio — is predicted to rise next year to 43.5 per cent and stay above 40 per cent in the coming years.” Yipes.

Quote of the Day: “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or it they try, they will not do the right thing either, or it they try, they will shortly be out of office.” Milton Friedman

On Monday, Audrey Hale, a former student at The Covenant School in Nashville TN, entered the school and shot three adults and three students to death. Jonathan Mattise of the Associated Press reported on this on Page A8 yesterday and again on Page A9 today. On Tuesday, he reported that the shooter was armed with ‘assault-style’ weapons. We now know that this is incorrect. Was there a correction in his article today? No. We now know that the killer was trans and she targeted the Christian school. Did Mattise mention this in either article. No. The killer appears to had a manifesto but it isn’t being released – yet. I wonder what it will say about targeting 9 year old Christian children.

The Editorial today talks about the closing of the Roxham Road “entry point”. The Editorial uses the word “migrant” six times. It doesn’t use the words “illegal immagrant” at all. This tells me enough about the Editorial and the people who wrote it. Pathetic.

Once again, we are subjected to the “writings” of Henry A. Giroux. He tells us without a single shred of evidence or any link or reference to backup his claims about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when he says: “His authoritarian agenda is evident in his banning of books, use of state power to dictate school curricula, embrace of white supremacy, and his abuse of political power to punish corporations such as Disney that disagree with his attack on LGBTQ people.” Just exactly why is this nonsense on the Insight Page?

Quote of the Day: “Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.” Milton Friedman

On Page A4 today, Terry Pender interviews Dr. Maura Grossman at UofW. Dr. Grossman is a lawyer in New York and also a researcher in ethics at both UofW and Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. In the interview, Pender tells us that: “She is trying to warn the legal profession and government ministries that oversee the justice system about the threats posed to the courts by generative AI.” O.K. I’ve played with ChatGP4 and I’m also on the testing base for BARD. While interesting, both products are going to take over the world. And we have had so-called “deep fakes” for years. This is nothing new. I’m not worried and neither should anyone else be. I think that the Chicken Little Complex runs a bit to deep in the media these days.

Karen Littlewood is the President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. On the Insight Page today, she suggests that the: “Ford budget shortchanges education yet again”. And I completely agree with her!!! Not allowing competition from private schools in the form of vouchers is a brutal and blinding mistake. This short changes parents and students yet again. Shame.

Quote of the Day: “Even the most ardent environmentalist doesn’t really want to stop pollution. If he thinks about it, and doesn’t just talk about it, he wants to have the right amount of pollution. We can’t really afford to eliminate it – not without abandoning all the benefits of technology that we not only enjoy but on which we depend.” Milton Friedman

Today’s Editorial criticizes the latest Ontario budget of course. However, it suggests that: “It was surely not unreasonable to have expected a more robust response to the squeeze Ontario residents are feeling in the emergency room…”. But then in a few paragraph the Editorial writer tells us that: “There was more spending for nursing and medical training seats…” And: “…expansion of hospital capital spending…” And: “There was additional funding for health care and mental health and addiction services, and investment to tackle surgery backlogs caused by the pandemic.” Dumb.

Biden’s approval rating at 38% is near his record low of 36% set last summer. The latest Angus Reid poll has Trudeau’s approval rating dropping six points in the last three months to 37%. But today, Geoffrey Stevens is beside himself with glee that these two so-called leaders got to pat themselves on the back and that “Biden’s visit a boon for Trudeau”. Brutal.

Quote of the Day: “He moves fastest who moves alone.” Milton Friedman

Great op-ed today on the Editorial Page by Tegan Hill, a Senior Economist at the Fraser Institute. Her opening line in her column says: “The Ontario government spent $73.4 billion (inflation-adjusted) subsidizing firms from 2007 to 2019.” Staggering stat. She goes on the suggest that: “According to a new study, this corporate welfare, which does little if anything to stimulate widespread economic growth, came with huge costs to government budgets and Ontario taxpayers.” and backs this up with some alarming numbers.

Quote of the Day: “A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.” Milton Friedman

Someone called Tammy Webster of TheRecord’s just horrific Community Editorial Board, a “Grandma”. While most people would take this as either a compliment or perhaps a joke, Webster has to write an op-ed whining about it. Isn’t it time that TheRecord seriously re-evaluates this group and finds some new people? Waste of paper.

Also on the Insight Page today, Jenna Scholz is the Coordinator of Government Advocacy and Survivor Support Fund for Defend Dignity. In her op-ed today she tells us just how little she understands about how the internet works. Her column is embarrassing. How do people like this earn a living? I certainly hope not a single cent of my tax dollars goes to her group. Pathetic.

Quote of the Day: “Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.” Milton Friedman

I had a line by line evisceration of Luisa D’Amato’s just plain insulting op-ed today that suggests: “School board’s job fair does not discriminate against white applicants” but why… Her column is the woke mentality of someone who just doesn’t get it. Pathetic.

Quote of the Day: “Society doesn’t have values. People have values.” Milton Friedman

Susan Koswan on the Insight Page today asks: “Are you ready to make the leap to an electric vehicle?” Well, Susan, since I sometimes drive more that 200KM in one trip, the obvious answer is no.

Also on the Insight Page today, two morons from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario open their op-ed by suggesting that: “The homelessness crisis in Ontario is not just an unfortunate situation. It is the outcome of decades of policy decisions and poor choices made by successive Ontario governments.” Yup – that’s right. It’s the governments fault, not the fault of people who make poor choices regarding the drugs they use or the (lack of) education they receive or their excessive spending habits. No, it’s Ontario’s fault. Next.

Quote of the Day: “When unions get higher wages for their members by restricting entry into an occupation, those higher wages are at the expense of other workers who find their opportunities reduced. When government pays its employees higher wages, those higher wages are at the expense of the taxpayer. But when workers get higher wages and better working conditions through the free market, when they get raises by firm competing with one another for the best workers, by workers competing with one another for the best jobs, those higher wages are at nobody’s expense. They can only come from higher productivity, greater capital investment, more widely diffused skills. The whole pie is bigger – there’s more for the worker, but there’s also more for the employer, the investor, the consumer, and even the tax collector. That’s the way the free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people. That’s the secret of the enormous improvements in the conditions of the working person over the past two centuries.” Milton Friedman

Nice Front Page article by Cheyenne Bholla on Waterloo Region Police Chief Mark Crowell. Very informative. Good job.

Two op-eds on the Editorial Page today regarding the Ontario Liberals and the lack of leadership. Big deal. With the Conservatives at 41% approval rating (not sure why…) the Liberals will need a whole bunch of help from TorStar to even be noticed.

And what an obscure Editorial Cartoon from Graeme Mackay today. If you were one of the few dozen people who actually watched the Junos. then I guess you would get his “joke”. Stupid.

Quote of the Day: “Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” Milton Friedman

Jeff Outhit has a Front Page article today announcing that: “Flair jet seized in lease dispute”. It seems that four 737 jets were reprocessed across Canada. “Flights were cancelled Saturday at the Region of Waterloo International Airport after Flair Airlines failed to pay the lease on a jetliner, which was then seized.” Wow. Oh yea, “Regional government has in turn spent $44 million to expand the airport for more passengers.” And this doesn’t include the huge perks and fees given to Flair. Yup – the Region of Waterloo is now Toronto. Nice.