New city budget. New cuts, but not to taxes. The brave new world of municipal (provincial) (federal) administration. Probably been added to the curriculum at that fancy school of public administration (paid for with tax dollars).
posted in economy, politics | Comments Off on All debts should be equal | 288 words
This just in: if you tell someone you intend to do something unethical before you do it, instant absolution. Cooler than confession. Only in the parallel universe of our government.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Proactive absolution | 270 words
Forget the great Canadian novel Two Solitudes, wherein the premise was that Canada was divided along linguistic lines. Outmoded/Passée. Instead, spend some time reading through the daily comment file on the CBC news website. We have divided into two camps, (one of them a fishing camp) and the Shakespearian paraphrase is “Harperism: To be or not to be”.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Two wrongs make it all right | 302 words
I guess it’s true. The problem with telling one lie is that you end up having to tell another, and another… Don’t believe me: ask Peter MacKay (the Honourable). If you don’t want to actually say anything, just wave your arms over your head and make the appropriate noise for a helicopter. He’ll know what you mean.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Wave your arms and make helicopter noises | 264 words
Parallel universe or rut; you decide. I’ve been wasting my evening by watching the X Factor.
Is it like American Idol? Sure. Same Simon, same Paula. Singers performing songs made famous by others (karaoke by any other name). Big prize for the winner. Voting. But is it different enough to distract me until the next season of AI? Hardly.
posted in politics | Comments Off on One more windmill to fight | 260 words
Remember those elections we suffered through, only six months ago? Remember some of the promises? Didn’t think so. After all, if the politicians can’t remember the set of promises, why should the common man or woman be expected to. Anyhow, today another of the dreams faded.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Foregone conclusions | 258 words
Looks like I’ve come full circle with my postal delivery person. Despite my heartfelt acceptance of the “Red Dot Campaign”, three years ago (and with it, 36 months of freedom from fritter), I’m now back to receipt of a gob of flyers and paid advertising in my mailbox. Thankfully, there’s a slot to deposit the stuff right on the same Superbox. You fill, I fill, we all waste each other’s time.
posted in economy, politics | Comments Off on Spend yourself into a corner, Euro style | 260 words
Proof that the Harper government believes in forgiveness:
Treasury Board president Tony Clement says the way the G8 legacy fund was handled “was not perfect” and he’s learned his lessons, but that he’s qualified to be in charge of the public purse.
posted in economy, media, politics | Comments Off on Canadian latte? | 252 words
The list of long gun owners is gone. The government has been planning this advance in record keeping for years, but the small issue of an opposition that was numerically superior interfered. Times have changed. In celebration, the government is coming through on a promise. First and last. Not to worry, though. The current government is going to clean up the cupboard, so to speak. The database that cost millions will be erased, shredded, stapled, folded, whatever it takes to assure that no trace remains. After all, “any job worth doing is worth doing well”.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Erase, displace, destroy the registry | 256 words
Without admitting that most of my knowledge of geopolitic comes from the various fictional novels I’ve read over the year, let me recall one such book: The Fifth Horseman, by Collins and Lapierre. Forget the storyline, as it was predictable, and focus on the villain. A certain Gaddafi. For all I knew, he was a fictional character, albeit larger than life. Today, real life surpassed the invented, and Gaddafi was killed.
posted in history, politics | Comments Off on Fictional or real, it all ends the same way | 260 words
