Gangs of Toronto: Troubled Youths or Mafia

I talked about Toronto's gang problem a couple years back during the so called "summer of the gun" in 2005. The whole thing has remained a major problem facing the city and Canada at large as violence seems to spill outwards into the suburbs and even rural communities. There have been numerous efforts to curb the violence but all have failed. In this article, I'll look at why this is.

Imagine you're Don Michael Corleone. You've grown up around crime and after years of resisting you decide to join the family business. The government's response to you doing this is to build more football pitches. After all, Italians love football (soccer) and so more places for them to play will keep them out of trouble. Do you honestly think Don Michael is doing to give up the family business now that he has a place to kick a ball around? What if there were more honest work though. Do you think Johnny Tightlips is going to give up his job at the union racket now that he can work at a near by McDonalds for $7 an hour? Yeah right.

Isn't this the same philosophy Toronto socialists are using to combat black gangs in the city? I know if I were the leader of the local Crips or Bloods, I'd feel a little insulted by it. Do they really think that these people are going to give up joining gangs because they build a basketball court, or that they'll stop dealing drugs for $2000 a day to make $70 a day at the local fast food joint? I think that's even a little racist since they're assuming that all blacks love basketball. Why don't they just open up some watermelon stands and a few KFCs in the area? Maybe that will work too.

The mistake Toronto's socialist leadership make is assuming that the city's gangs are simply loose organizations of thugs who became such because they're troubled youths. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are mafias. Any black gang in Jane and Finch is just as highly organized as the Gambinos. They know the business and they know they can make big bucks, especially with the drug and prostitution rackets. The structure is complex and widespread from smuggling schemes at Pearson to extortion, robbery, and small scale terrorism. The violence itself comes from disputes between the different "families", just as it did in Chicago back in the 1920s. Youths join the gangs because they know they can make more money than doing any honest job. They don't care about the risks associated with it. Imagine $2000 for simply working a couple hours an evening selling crack. You're armed, you get the latest wheels, and most importantly, you're feared and respected. It's a mighty tempting prospect for any of us. The reason most of us don't do it is we stick to our moral system or we fear getting caught. That's not the case in these gangs. With the way the legal system is, gang crimes are not harshly punished or the race card is pulled and they get off on a technicality. Just like a mafia don. They're released and the cycle continues. They are neither poor, nor oppressed, nor troubled. They are simply bad people.

I don't really know how to solve this problem, but I do know that people need to start seeing it for what it actually is before we can even talk solutions. We keep fooling ourselves, especially with mothers' pleas on how such a good boy Shaquan was before he was shot. Chances are the mother knows about or is part of the family too. The issue is not about race. Its not a black issue or a white issue. It's a justice issue. Until we start treating them like the mafias they are and not as if they're troubled youths, this problem is just going to continue.

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Made In China: Corporate Greed or Cheap People

I was reading in the Post today about the continuing saga of unsafe Chinese products. More toys are being recalled, taken away from teary eyed youngsters because their Batman action figure could kill them. Well, maybe it's not such a bad thing to have killer toys because it would remove the surplus population of stupid children in the world. I kid of course.
Now the socialists are inevitably blaming corporate greed for this problem.

According to the article in the National Post, one man only going by the name of Dennis noted that "The first thing it makes me think is these companies are only thinking about money. They want to make money, they’re outsourcing their manufacturing and basically contributing to exploitation" (CanWest News Service, August 15 2007)

I have to say that "Dennis" is way off base here. Do corporations have to share some of the blame for this? Definitely they do since they should have been paying closer attention to their contractors. It's negligence. However, I don't think corporate greed is at the root of these problems. These corporations aren't exploiting the workers either. The Chinese government is. Remember that the People's Republic of China is supposed to be a communist country. The Chinese government and its people don't really give a rat's backside as to whether or not their products are dangerous as long as we keep buying them. Indeed we are the real problem.

North Americans demand luxury goods en mass at the lowest price possible. Most goods made in China are luxury goods. You don't really need that Chinese made video game or toy to survive. Ironically, we want luxury on the cheap and we won't pay more. We as consumers are the ones that are fueling demand. Such so that in a population of over one billion people, China actually has labour shortages in some regions. China is good at mass producing things and they can do it cheaply. Corporations turn to Chinese factories not because of greed or the desire to exploit workers but because nobody would buy their products if they were made in North America. Why? Because it's several times more expensive to produce goods domestically due to high taxes and union fees. It's been proven that consumers will not absorb the costs. Businesses exist to make money. They're not their for your egalitarian benefit. If businesses don't make profits, nobody will invest in them and our economy goes down the toilet. They cannot sell domestically produced goods since people deem them to be "overpriced". Therefore they turn to other countries to manufacturers at a lower cost. If you don't want to buy inferior Chinese goods, then you're just going to have to get used to paying more, or doing without.

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Panhandling a Free Ride for Youth

This past week, Toronto experienced it's 51st homicide of 2007. In this particular case, a man was stabbed to death after an altercation with four panhandlers. Apparently this man had refused to give them money. The four accused range in age from 21 to 22. This got me thinking. I'm around this age and I would never think to do that, or think to be homeless. What causes these kids to go out and do these things. One of the most common explanations that left wingers put fourth is some kind of a failure in the system to protect these youths or to ensure their safety in shelters so they're forced to turn to this.

In Canada, very few people are ever forced to turn to that lifestyle. For the most part, your average street kids actually come from fairly well off families. They're lazy and refuse deal with the rules of their parents and of society. While there maybe some legitimate cases where youths turn to this lifestyle due to lack of jobs or abusive families, they are a minority. This lack of respect for rules is also why they avoid homeless shelters. The shelters don't give them infinite freedom. They cannot smoke, drink, or do drugs in them which they somehow feel to be going to far. They still seem to understand that they need money to support their habits. That's how that man got killed. People are beginning to wise up and are not giving money to these people. We will likely see an increase in similar acts of violence committed by aggressive panhandlers.

So what do we do. Well, aggressive panhandling is supposedly illegal but there seems to be a lack of will to enforce it. I would go one step further and make all panhandling illegal with enforcement. NDPers and people like OCAP need to realize that panhandling is not an appropriate lifestyle and it is not in the best interests of these people to allow them to keep doing it. There needs to be programs and enforced laws in place to get these people off the street. Our nation's cities will be better for it. We won't have incidents like what happened in Toronto, and the former panhandlers will have better lives in the end.

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Polygamy in Canada

I was going through the usual newspapers today when I came across an article in CNEWS questioning recent legal decisions regarding Polygamy in BC. I'm sure you've heard by now about the Bountiful community in BC. It's an orthodox Mormon community that embraces having multiple wives, to the point of claiming it's some sort of sacrament. For the life of me, I can't understand why any man would want more than one woman. All kidding aside, this poses an interesting problem for Canada's justice system and whether or not the government should indeed concern itself with the bedrooms of the nation.

They're not the only men to have more than one woman. Here in the rest of the world, we call them adulterers. Personally, I think a man who cheats on his wife is a despicable man-whore. This, however, is different. These marriages are open, for lack of a better term. Well, that's what we'd like to think. Some parts of the world, notably in Africa, do embrace this lifestyle but its not common. Biologically, humans are semi-monogamous. We may have multiple mates during our lives but usually we only have one at a time. Whether the person is heterosexual or homosexual doesn't matter; the rule still applies. Therefore, we can consider this semi-monogamy to be normal. Therefore polygamy is not normal. Of course, you'll have people who will dispute that, vigorously, whether they believe in it or not.

The problem with the Bountiful community however is the attitude they share towards women. They are radical Mormons linked to a similar sect in the US. In fact, that US sect's leader was on the FBI's most wanted list for numerous charges including abuse. He was arrested a few months back. There have been numerous proven cases where women and young girls are being abused sexually in these communities. Girls in their early teens are often being forced to marry much older men. In that community they call it a sacrament, in our world we call it pedophilia. Women have little to no rights in these purely patriarchal communities and they often end up abused or neglected.

Another problem is that the law is unclear. Or is it? Even if the laws concerning polygamy itself are uncertain, the laws concerning abuse and pedophilia are very clear. They're indictable offences. Many of these problems are stemming from the concept so by association, polygamy is and should be illegal. There are some questions as to whether anti-polygamy laws would stand up against a Charter challenge based on Section 2's guarantee of freedom of religion. I think the law would stand. According to the Rastafarian religion, marijuana smoking is a sacrament but we don't allow them to do that. Pedophilia and sexual abuse are far worse acts than smoking weed. If pot smoking is considered to be a reasonable limit on freedom of religion, then certainly the abusive acts that happen in these polygamous communities are. It's not an issue of discrimination sexual identity like gay marriage was. It's a question of protecting people in situations where they cannot protect themselves.

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Made In China

There have been several scandals involving Chinese made goods. If it's not toothpaste made with antifreeze, it's lead paint on children's toys or toxic cough syrup. Canned fruit tends to be the worst. Thankfully those little oranges come already in their own wrapper.

Back in the mid 20th century, the Made in Japan used to be the mark of inferiority. That changed in the 1980s when companies such as Sony and Honda began making names for themselves. Now, many of these big companies contract out their manufacturing to the lowest bidder. It's a fairly common business practice in both the private and public sector. The problem is that Chinese businesses always seem to be the low bidder. Sony does this, so does Apple, and HP in the case of electronics. Many of those contract companies are based in the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) but have factories in the People's Republic of China. (Two different countries despite what the UN claims) This is done to skirt around certain laws. The PRC itself is managed by an oligarchy of elites under an authoritarian system. It is not a communist country, despite what they claim. Displays of freeing oppressed workers and executing corrupt officials on the spot are only done to appease us foolish westerners into thinking that they're on top of things. The truth is that Chinese officials let A LOT of things slide. What we know about is only the tip of the iceberg. I'm also sure that what the Chinese government knows about is also but a small portion of what actually goes on.

The big problem is that China truly is now the 'world's factory' as one person put it in the Financial Post today. I have several items sitting on my desk right now. My Sony PSP was made in China. Ironically, the game currently inside it was made in the US. The remote for my DVD player was made in china. My Camera bag was made in China. My laptop, and Apple iBook G4 was 'assembled in China.' The laptop's power supply was also made in China. In fact, I'm willing to bet most items in any given room of your home were made in China, contain parts that were made in China, or were manufactured using equipment made in China. Everything from the furniture to the light bulbs. The cloths on your back are probably the only exception, most of which are now made in India or Indonesia. The first world is sure fueling the third world's economy. Many big businesses have turned there to avoid lawsuits from litigation happy/disgruntled customers, costly fights with greedy unions, high taxes, etc. It's just cheaper and easier to do business in those countries. It's not that these companies are evil (well, maybe Sony is), it's just that it's become very difficult to do business and remain competitive in North America. Such so that it's now actually cheaper to make items for local consumption half-way around the world. It's easy for us to say "I support Canadian workers" or "I'll only buy Canadian goods because I know they're safer for my kids to use." Guess again. As I said, it's impossible to find any item that isn't somehow linked to the Chinese economic leviathan. It's really our fault for not maintaining a competitive edge in manufacturing. Not all North American goods are of top notch quality anymore. I think cars are the best example where Hondas and Toyotas tend to have double the shelf life of Fords and GMs. Ironically, cars are the one few thing China doesn't produce for a global scale, though parts are still made there. That's about to change though. My point is that we here in North America still happily feed the beast, sometimes without even knowing it. The fact that these dangerous products exist is because we buy them. As for the poisoned products, sometimes even the companies that contracted out the work may not even realize what the Chinese are doing. It's ignorant of them, that's for sure and they should have been testing these products more closely. These Chinese factories are infamous for making unilateral decisions as to what materials to use in order to cut costs. They're not above using stuff that's known to be downright dangerous.

So what can we do to solve this problem? Well, it's already happening. Businesses are becoming more reluctant to contract their work out to Chinese manufacturers and consumers are beginning to demand more domestically made goods from reputable places like North America, South Korea, Japan, and Europe. Here in North America, we definitely need to encourage manufacturers to open up shop here and to stay here. Particularly through tax incentives and discouragement of unions form gaining too much power. I'd tackle the union issue by opening up government led arbitration systems by setting up an impartial tribunal to hear both sides and make judgments based on law. That would end some of the bickering and greed. Since strikes usually benefit nobody but fat cat union bosses, this system would certainly be a much better alternative. Thirdly, pressure needs to be put on places such as China. If they don't shape up, we'll put trade embargos on goods deemed to be dangerous. Without their badly needed North American markets, the Chinese government would certainly begin to sweat. Let them know we don't tolerate crappy, unsafe goods.

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How Environmentalism Entered the Mainstream

If you've been reading this blog for some time, you know I've been highly critical of the modern environmental movement. It is by no means something new. It has evolved over the centuries to evoke different meanings with different ends. However, it has only recently broke into being the mainstream. I'm pretty sure when someone 20 years from now asks what the 2000s were like, I think environmentalism will be what defines it just as much as hippies did in the '60s. It will be one of those movements that gains mainstream ground for a decade of so to the chagrin of realistic thinkers but by decades out, likely around the mid 2010s, it will have lost its steam.

Environmentalism, as we know it today evolved with the hippie movement in the 1960s and began to bloom out in the 1970s. Greenpeace got its start in the 60s, founded by environmentalists such as Hunter Thompson, best known to younger audiences as a disheveled man who used to read from newspapers in his bath robe on CITY TV's Breakfast Television.
I think we all remember Jane Fonda's "China Syndrome" warning us of the perils of nuclear energy, which turned out to be mostly false. Chernobyl being the one major exception due to its lack of proper safeguards but even many experts say that aftermath of the disaster was largely inflated by the media. Indeed the 70s and 80s were filled with fears of the "nuclear bogeyman" as Mr Burns of Simpsons fame put it. The 70s also hailed fears of global cooling. That we would be entering another ice age by the 2000s. That idea was developed as early as the 1950s but never came to pass. Then in the 90s we had the rain forest "crisis" and "save the whales." The Ozone Layer hole was another big thing in the 1990s. This eventually transitioned into global warming.
Global warming itself is not new either. It was first talked about in the late 1800s. At UTM in Mississauga Ontario, there is a photo from a news clipping taken around that time of smoke stacks, captioned with worries about pollution.

The environmental movement has always been preaching apocalypse. The global warming "crisis" is no different. What has perplexed me is why this has become a mainstream issue. The problem with humans is that we are sheep. We'd follow the flock of the end of a cliff if the Sheppard directed us there. The Christian church has been using the sheep analogy for centuries now. We have to stay with the fold or else we've strayed. That explains the stigma against those people who have done the research and choose not to believe in global warming based on hard science. Celebrity has largely been feeding the anti-global warming movement. Big names like Arnold Schwarzenegger have feed the flames. Al Gore, once regarded as a dull, bland second banana to the charismatic Bill Clinton has now gained celebrity status in his own right, surpassing the fame of his former boss. I think its worth noting that Schwarzenegger was the first person to own a civilian Humvee. Before, the gas guzzling leviathan of the roads was strictly an armored military transport. Shortly after, the H1 was introduced for general sale. Al Gore himself lives in a huge mansion more than double the size of George W Bush's ranch house in Texas, and consuming just as much more electricity. That coming from someone who's advocated downsizing to reduce energy needs. Gore also flies everywhere in his own private jet, rather than commercial. Ironically, he demands that only sedans, not SUVs pick him up at the airport to take him to events. I highly doubt that Gore (or more precisely his hired help) drives that Prius to 7/11 when he has a midnight craving for Twinkies. I also doubt that Gore's gardener cuts the grass of his massive property using a push mower. These people are hypocrites in every sense of the word yet people still follow them, blindly.
Gore's reasons are obvious. He's an attention whore. I haven't yet ruled out of running for president in 2008 either. He says he won't but most think he will. It would certainly give him quite the edge over his competitors, namely Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. The latter of which being the only breath of fresh air in the US Democratic party, which has flip flopped on nearly every single issue, particularly Iraq. The same reasons go for the Governator Arnold. Arnold is a Republican (who won be default I might add) in California, a stanch Democratic state. He needs the issue to stay in office.

All that though still doesn't explain why ordinary people hopped on the bandwagon to be led to slaughter. Why people would now pay $200 for clumsy and inefficient push mowers and buy hybrid cars that do 0-60 in 3.6 minutes and use no less gas in the long run. I guess there's no doubting the lemming effect and human stupidity in general. Humans are very easily frightened. Disturbing indeed because once you get them scared, they will do just about anything.

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The Law's Fine, Courts are the Problem

Once again, there's a lot of talk about out legal system. The usual argument is that laws are not tough enough, especially concerning dangerous offenders. The laws themselves are A problem but they are not THE problem concerning the rather lax attitude towards criminal justice in Canada. The youth criminal justice act is one such example of a series of laws that are too lax for their own good. However, criminal laws are relatively easy to change. They're introduced in federal parliament and they're voted on. Well, of course it's not that simple but it's still far easier than the court reforms that this country badly needs.

I remember a joke someone once told me. What do you call a lawyer who's too stupid to get a job at a good law firm? ... "Your Honor." I think this rings especially true in this country. It seems that judges and justices of the peace are too quick to hand out easy bail and lenient sentences, even if the crime is a very serious one. Last year, CTV did a series of reports following suspects accused of vile crimes living high and mighty while out on bail. In cases of child sexual abuse, many get two years less a day, or even house arrest. Summary sentences of indictable crimes. The fact is that the court system, notably those sitting on the bench, just don't seem to take these indictable crimes seriously. This is why there has been a movement in this country for mandatory minimum sentencing. That would work to an extent, except that the courts would simply hand out the minimum in every case, no matter the circumstances.

There are numerous other options we can follow. Judges are supposed to be impartial but I believe there needs to be some sort of system put in place to ensure they're acting appropriately. This would be similar to the various civilian review boards that monitor the police, another component of the justice system. It would allow the decisions of justices to be questioned in cases where the sentence given was too harsh or too lean for the crime in question. Of course it would not be open for all decisions to be questioned, just the more serious ones. Also, it's time we left more of the sentencing decisions up to juries, as it done in the United States. Judges should only sit as moderators and administrators of the court, as well as jury advisers. However, it should be up to juries to make the final decisions.

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Harsher DUI Sentences Needed

Once again, we've had a rash of drunk driving cases. The latest here in Milton in which a drunk driver rear ended a older couple Thursday night, sending their car into the path of an oncoming train. The two were killed instantly.

There has been a massive campaign to get people to stop driving drunk but such campaigns don't work. The reason is that most people would never think to drive drunk while sober. The problem is that when someone is drunk, they don't believe themselves to be drunk so they drive anyway. There has been a bit of a movement to put the onus on party hosts and bar/restaurant owners if their guests drive drunk but the truth is that people can leave unseen. Taking away keys is obviously the best course of action but it isn't fool proof.

What is needed is harsh criminal sentences to strongly discourage drinking before someone drives. First of all, on first offense blowing over .08, I would raise the license suspension from 90 days to one year. Second offense would be 5-10 years and third offense would see the offender's license permanently revoked. If someone is injured by a drunk driver, mandatory charges would be raised from "impaired driving causing bodily harm" to "assault with a deadly weapon". If someone is killed, the charge should be manslaughter. Lesser charges should only come into play if the Crown is sure it cannot get a conviction on the higher charges. These higher charges would ensure lengthier, and thus more appropriate jail times. Loopholes that allow drunk drivers to get off charges all too easy also need to be closed. Zero tolerance is also something that needs to be implemented. If we do this, we'll have safer roads by discouraging people from getting drunk in the first place.

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Evironmentalists Gloat But Still no Consensus

Environmentalists are gloating today thanks to a new study that shows that "climate change" is not being caused by cosmic rays emitted from the sun. This was one possible theory to explain the cause of a slight increase in global temperatures. As a result, the greenies are using this study to reaffirm their "consensus". However, the cosmic ray theory never was a widely supported theory to begin with. There is also definative proof that man made carbon dioxide also has not caused the temperature increase. I feel this is likely an attempt by the greenies to cajole critics by making it seem like they're trying to establish a debate. A common criticism against them has been that if they believe in their findings, why aren't they encouraging debate to prove that they're right. Therefore they pick the weakest argument that everyone knows is the weakest argument and publish it to the media as a chance to say "I told you so." However, their own arguments are fairly weak and strong historical records back up a case against man made global warming.

There has never been consensus in science. What makes this any different?

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Boycott Li(v)e Earth

As I'm sure most of you know, Al Gore is putting on a little concert this Saturday. Yet another one in the "Live" series (Live Aid, Live 8, etc). This latest shindig is in order to fight Global Warming. If you've been reading this blog long enough, I think you can guess what my take on this is. Global Warming, the fake crisis. All this concert amounts to is simply a massive political rally for Al Gore's run for office in 2008. If not that, then its simply for money and publicity to make a round of celebrities and their pathetic fans feel good about themselves.

Though I'm a big advocate for free speech, I do feel that this recent rash of politically motivated concerts is not a positive thing. They distort the issues either by making them seem more serious than they really are, or in the case of Live Earth, put forth issues that don't even exist. They also can serve to trivialize important issues as well, as in the case of Live 8, which accomplished nothing in the end. For Live 8, I think it would have made more sense to mobilize fans on a grassroots campaign to get them out in the field, rather than "harassing" politicians by listening to crappy music. I think the South Park episode "Die Hippie, Die", which aired in 2005, illustrates this attitude pretty well. As character Stan Marsh pointed out "Maybe instead of complaining about corporations being selfish, we should look at ourselves. I mean, is there anything more selfish than doing nothing but getting high and listening to music all day long?" In other words, these people have all kinds of great ideas on how to fix the world but they're too apathetic to do anything about it.

As for Live Earth, I believe it to be no more than a massive political publicity stunt by Mr Gore. One of the primary reasons he lost the presidency in 2000 was due to lack of Charisma. Through this, my guess would be, is to try and connect with young voters, to mobilize them en mass. Something the other candidates are not doing. Gore claims he's not running for office though his recent actions sure do look like a political campaign to me. He's found the perfect issue and now he's brainwashing people to make himself and his fellow tree huggers look like the only saviors we have from the evil global warming menace. Therefore, I'm asking people to show their support for the truth and boycott these concerts. Don't let your money fund their political machine.

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We'll Keep Watering Until They Stop Building

Halton is yet another region to enact a mandatory outdoor watering ban. This ban holds no authority to me so I'll keep watering my lawn as I see fit. The reason why I refuse to comply? Simple. The cause of the recent watering bans and electricity shortages in Ontario is the result of government incompetence and not people running the AC or watering the lawn. The question nobody seems to ask is this; if we don't have enough water or electricity to go around, then why do governments continue to allow development at an out of control pace?

It is in the best interests of citizens to refuse to comply with these bans in order to get the message across, we won't stop using water until you stop allowing more housing developments to go up.

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Natives Have Rights, But Not To Special Treatment

Native Canadians are planning to block highways and rail lines on Friday in order to protest slow movement on land claims. This irresponsible act just shows what goes on in the minds of these people. The basically think that all of Canada owns them something because us evil white men supposedly raped their land. Every time I hear that, it makes me laugh. How I can be blamed for something that happened when my family was still digging in their own waste in jolly old England.

Studying Canadian politics, I cannot help but come across a wide variety of academic papers that argue in favour of native land rights. The media often puts forth the views of these talking heads as something that is shared by the majority of Canadians. The people I've talked to who come from all walks of life and across the political spectrum don't seem to agree. My view is that Natives do not and should not have land rights that go beyond those of the average Canadian. Who owns this country anyway? I would argue those who fund it to keep it operating, which is the tax payer. Natives don't even pay tax on land, or on anything else for that matter. Yet somehow, we always seem to be at the whim of backwards thinking radicals within the aboriginal community who seem to view all other Canadians in a unjustifiably negative and racist light. Considering that we're pretty much paying to keep them afloat because they have refused to adapt to the modern world. If they want the land they claim, they should buy it in the same way everyone else has to. No more freebies.
As for the protests, I hope my fellow Canadians would ignore these children, since that's what they are. In a civilized country, we don't block roads because we have grievences with the government. Now I'm not saying that all aboriginals are like this because they are not, but the system we are keeping them under is harmful. It keeps them trapped in their lot simply because they have no incentives to work. Maybe if we started making them pay for things, they'd finally have some motivation to improve themselves. The reserve system and land handouts is worse than welfare.

As for these radicals, the military should get involved. Obviously the OPP is too incompetent to deal with them.

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Lakeview Demolition Symbol of McGuinty Failure

Today, demolitions are planned for the old Lakeview coal fired plant in Mississauga, ON. In many ways, Lakeview is a symbol of the incompetence of McGuinty's Liberals as well as the energy crisis in this province.

Back in 2003, McGuinty promised that all coal fired plants in Ontario would be shut down by 2007. Well, it's 2007 now and they're all open save one. However, just taking that one power plant off the grid has created an energy crisis. Every hot day in the summer, the electricity operators are literally praying for rain. Further feeding the crisis and displaying the incompetence of local and provincial governments is the out of control development. Each year, thousands of new houses and condos are being put up where we barely have enough electricity for the ones that already exist. Therefore, the province has to rely on fear tactics (threatening rotating blackouts) and forced conservation (smart meters) because there simply is not enough to go around. We live in a digital age in which we rely on electricity. Our economy relies on it yet governments have no interest in improving the system, just charging more and telling us to use less.

Once again, the biggest problem is the fear of investment in infrastructure. Windmills and solar panels simply cannot provide the electricity we need. They are expensive and inefficient. We need nuclear plants. We also cannot be shutting down coal fired plants either for the same of reducing smog and "global warming".

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Afghanistan Is Important for Canada

Since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Canada has lost 60 of our troops with some 270 injured. This has made the war very unpopular in Canadians' minds. However, I think we're doing pretty good. Canada's finest hour in military history, D-Day back in 1944 saw 340 Canadian troops die in a single day with 739 injured in action. That's almost six times the number of losses in a day than Canada has lost in six years. Of course I'm not trying to make 60 dead seem unimportant. One death is too many but this is war and death is something that cannot be avoided.

Our efforts in Afghanistan somewhat mirror what was done in WW2. For starters, we were not the aggressors in this war, unlike the US in Iraq, which is what Afghanistan is frequently being compared to lately. Innocent Canadians died when Taliban supported terrorists figured it would be a good idea to slam a couple planes into buildings. Though it started as a war to catch Bin Laden, it has become a war of liberation, and it has severely weakened Al-Qaida's capabilities. Despite what the majority of Canadians think, life is beginning to improve for the Afghan people. For the first time in decades, women are allowed to get an education and hold jobs. I think the major problem is people expect dramatic changes overnight and when that doesn't happen, they oppose the situation. It is madness to think that way. The combat deaths echo this as all people see is a slow moving situation and begin to think about how many more are going to die. You can't think that way. We need to consider whether or not their deaths meant something, which in my opinion they have. The Afghani people and their government want us there. To leave now would be abandoning them, which is irresponsible and inhumane. So often are societies defined by combat, and Canada is no exception. WW1 established us as a nation, WW2 established us as a force in the world, and Afghanistan establishes us as a nation trying to make a difference. By the simple fact that we are making a difference to improve their lives is a sign that we are winning this war.

Which brings me to the case of liberal hypocrisy and comparisons to Iraq. The Liberal Party has turned Harper into an almost Nixon like figure in the case of Afghanistan. Chiding the Harper government into keeping the troops there. However, it was the Liberals' decision under Cretien to send them there in the first place. So they're basically making Harper accountable for something they did, something they certainly didn't see as a mistake when they were in office. Something they defended while they were in office. This exposes a major flaw with the way our parliament operates. That is that governments are no longer responsible for their actions once they leave office, and can even have the balls to attack another government for something they did. It's pure hypocrisy what the Dion Liberals are doing. Is the Liberals had an ounce of honor, they'd at least stand by their decisions; or at the very least hold civilized discussions rather than shouting and screaming hypocrisy in the Commons.

Then there's the third side of the issue. The Socialists. Namely the NDP. The NDP has never been in support of the mission since they are an anti-war party. That is their choice obviously, yet they have been trying to force their position on others. To them, this is Vietnam. The recent actions of Toronto's city council is a sign of this. There is a non-political, multi-partisan campaign right now to support our troops. The basic action is letting them know we're thinking of them. Support is shown by attaching a yellow ribbon to one's clothing or vehicle. Toronto emergency service workers had attached these ribbons to their vehicles. To them, the troops are their brothers. It hits especially close to home when so many emergency service workers died in the opening battle of this war on 9/11. Everything was just peachy until some smart mouthed Toronto councilor demanded the ribbons be removed stating that they were a political statement in favour of the war. They obviously weren't, but it is highly likely that they would have been forced to remove them had three of our soldiers not have been killed that day. The decision to put up the stickers on emergency vehicles wasn't politically motivated, but the decision to remove them clearly was. The rhetoric was definitive, Toronto city council does not support the war and that's why they wanted them removed. Even if emergency workers were making a political statement, it shouldn't have mattered because they are Canadian citizens and should be entitled to the same freedom to express their beliefs as all other Canadians enjoy. This was a shameful and cowardly act on behalf of the NDP. If they have a problem with the way, they should hold peaceful protests or debate it in the Commons. Don't force your beliefs on others. Afghanistan is not Vietnam.

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Want My Vote? 10 Things that Need to Change

We're coming up to another Ontario election and boy, we're in quite a mess. McGuinty hasn't exactly been honest with the public and has made many questionable decisions. So, here's a list of 10 realistic things that need to be done to fix Ontario.

1. Eliminate the Health Tax: The controversial "health care premium" enacted by McGuinty after promising not to raise taxes. Ontarians on average are paying $900 more in tax to the province while the health system has seen little improvement. Scrap it.

2. Eliminate the City of Toronto Act: This act gave Toronto special privleges and taxing powers. So far, Toronto's socialist city council has been abusing it and threatens to tax the city into the ground. Does Toronto really need all that power? It's also highly unfair to other communities that end up paying the bulk of the cash used to fund the cities projects.

3. Return Municipal Terms to 3 Years: McGuinty, in order to suck up to David Miller, made municipal council terms four years instead of three. Four years is far too long a term for those positions in my opinion and makes councils even less accountable.

4. Keep Coal Plants Open: Coal fired generating stations should remain in operating indefinitely. Clean coal technology should be put into place to cut smog if that's such a big concern. McGuinty's concept of forced conservation needs to stop. Smart meters should also be eliminated. Lakeview power plant in Mississauga also needs to be reopened and we need more nuclear plants to keep up with demand caused by excess development.

5. Improve Transit Outside of Toronto: Every time McGuinty announces a new transit plan, it only benefits Toronto while ignoring other growing communities. GO service on the Milton line (which services two major cities) for example needs to be more regular. It's also time to plan for the future. Diesel GO trains should be phased out in favour of high speed electric trains. This type of train which is used extensively in the United States and Europe and can travel up to three times as fast as the current diesel models; and they build them in Canada! There's a lot of talk but we need to stop being afraid to invest in infrastructure.

6. Reduce Fees for Higher Education: It has been recently found that certain user fees colleges and universities have been charging are illegal. All incidental fees that do not directly fund education (ones that fund so called "campus life") should be either optional or eliminated all together.

7. Quit Dumbing Down Education: School is a place to learn, not a place to pad standardized exam results to make Ontario students look better than they are. We need to make schools more student friendly, unlike what has happened in recent years that's made them teacher-centric again. Teachers are there to do a job and they should be fired if they cannot do it. Let their union whine. We're only selling short our kid's futures if we let them have their way. We also need to make school boards more fiscally accountable.

8. Slow GTA Development: GTA growth is happening at an out of control pace due to corrupt municipal councils. Make the Green Belt means something and put the breaks on urban sprawl.

9. Get Tough on Crime: Ok, so Ontario doesn't make the laws in the criminal code but it doesn't mean that it can't fund police better. The OPP also needs to be made more accountable as in the past couple of years, they've become increasingly incompetent.

10. Fix the Health Mess: Americans often tout our health system and we sure like to toot our own horns about it but it's certainly not something to be proud of in its current state. People, even those in serious need, often get ignored in emergency rooms for hours on end, or have to wait months for badly needed surgery. Start opening up some private clinics to ease the burden and try and encourage more clinics into communities that lack them. Many people end up in the ER because they lack family doctors and have nowhere else to turn, which is what's causing the ER crunches. The health system needs reform, not more money.

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Yet More Global Warming Garbage

The Toronto Sun is running an informal poll on their website today asking readers whether they think the Conservative government really cares about the environment. A better question would be should they care. Of course they should not care simply because it is not an issue. Still it dominates discussion and is the big thing at the G8 meeting, detracting from more important issues on the table. In fact, it's an issue that is stalling the entire political process here in Canada as it dominates House of Commons sessions as the opposition repeatedly attacks the Conservatives for not supporting the deeply flawed Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto would cut emissions dramatically at the expense of an economic recession. Is this really worth putting people out in the cold? These sorts of things usually equal job losses. CAW union president Buzz Hargrove has already mentioned that his union is not in support of Kyoto and that they support the Conservatives on this issue. For everyone else, the science is out and the debate is long over, which it isn't. Many of the world's top scientists do not support the idea of man-made global warming. Even those who do support it feel that the information being put forth by people like Al Gore is padded to fit with their agendas. I can say the majority of scientists do "support" it simply because it gains them research grants, as was mentioned in the Great Global Warming Swindle. (That movie by the way is available on Youtube for those who want to see it. I'm not sure if it's on DVD or if/when it will be shown on Canadian TV.)
Much of that stuff above is stuff I've already said before but it's important to keep mentioning it simply because so many blindly follow it without questioning where the research came from. Science, after all, is about questioning things. You'll find the debate is rarely out on any topic like this, which is what makes man-made global warming an unusual case.

Fortunately, Canadian apathy is working in our favour for once. Though Canadians do believe it, they don't really want to do anything about it. That means we aren't at risk of going into the crap hole... for now. Some disturbing news has cropped up this week that does worry me. I'll start with the least disturbing article of the pair first.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has suggested we institute a nation wide carbon tax. This tax would roughly amount to an extra 12 cents per liter of gasoline. That would raise the national average price for gas to $1.24 per liter if it were instituted today. That would be an 11% increase in the price of fuel. As it stands, 35% of the price of gasoline in Canada is tax. That's according to GasBuddy Inc, a consumer organization that tracks gas prices across North America. There is a 10cent per liter national excise tax on gas right now. In Ontario, the provincial gas tax is is 24.7 cents per liter. Additionally, a 6% GST is charged on top of those, essentially taxing a tax. The original idea behind gasoline taxes was to repair roads and subsidize public transit. However, most of this money collected goes into general revenue. This is essentially one big pot that is divided up at budget time so the actual amounts of the gas tax that actually go to it's intended places is random. The United States, by contrast, has taxes that only amount to 20% of the price of gas. That money collected usually does go into roads and transit. The highest gas taxes are in Quebec, Newfoundland, and the Maritimes. Many Maritime provinces charge full HST 14% on top of the additional federal and provincial taxes. Nunavut has the lowest gas tax at only 16 cents per liter, three cents cheaper than the next lowest in Alberta. It's important to note though that the people of Nunavut require fuel for survival which could account for their lower taxes in order to ease economic burdens. There was no data on what gas actually costs per liter in the territories. We can expect it to be quite high simply due to logistical reasons.
So there you have it, that's what the government takes of the top of that $1.03 Ontarians are paying right now. For May to suggest taxing more is ludicrous but she's certainly not the first one. Most Canadians, including all currently sitting parties in federal parliament, oppose this tax increase. The idea behind it for May was to get Canadians to drive less. Something her fellow environmentalists share. I don't think it will, and it will just mean more of our hard earned money going to the government when we're already being sucked dry as it is. It proves how out of touch the Greens are with Canadians. However, this carbon tax idea is not going away entirely. Quebec has instituted a provincial one but they are taxing oil companies directly. They have asked them nicely to absorb the cost and not pass it onto the consumer. Yeah right, they're living in a dream world if they think that will happen.

The next piece of news has to do with Kyoto and the Harper government. Seems the federal opposition parties are threatening to call a vote of non-confidence if Harper does not immediately enforce Kyoto. What a flagrant abuse of our parliamentary system that Canadians would be forced to go to the polls for something so trivial and unncessary. This responsible government crap often does more harm than good, which is why I advocate a US style republic for Canada. While this Kyoto fighting goes on, many of Canada's more important problems such as gunplay in our cities, health care wait times, etc, are simply being pushed to the back burner. That's not right. Shame on all the federal parties for doing that. However, the most blame should go to the opposition for making mountains out of mole hills and filibustering their way into an untimely election. Canada does not need this crap right now. We can only hope that when the next election does come around, we will have a Conservative majority and finally put this environment crap to bed.

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No New Taxes: Like We Haven't Heard That Before

I have no idea who Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty has working on his press team but I think they need to be fired. Either that or McGuinty really is as stupid as I think he is. Dalton McGuinty has announced that if he were reelected, there would be no new taxes for Ontarians.
This is the same man who declared before the October 2003 election that we would not have to pay a penny more under a Liberal government then we would under a Conservative one. He then proceeded to levy the largest tax increase in Ontario history in his first budget. McGuinty was aware of the deficit situation well before he made the no new taxes promise yet refused to retract his statement until after he was voted in. This was just one in a long list of broken promises the Liberals made.

Arguably, McGuinty was only elected because people were fed up of the Mike Harris Conservatives. Running on a platform for change, when elected, McGuinty failed to deliver. The situation in Ontario has not improved and in some cases has gotten worse. McGuinty says he's being honest this time when he says no new taxes but why should we believe that? He's given us no reason too. He's a weak leader and that's not simply because he's Liberal but his personal character has shown that time and time again.

So here's my election prediction. Polls are showing an even tie between Liberals and Conservatives with the NDP making up the bulk of the difference. Ontario is going to have a minority government come October. I don't think there is any way that will change between now and then. Based on the stubborness of Canadians to blindly follow the Liberal party, I'm predicting a short lived Liberal minority. If the Conservatives do win, their minority will also be short lived. Unlike the federal parliament, which has four parties, with the Bloc currently holding the balance of power, that's not the case in Ontario. The NDP is too ideologically different from both parties, though they would be more likely to side with the Liberals. The Liberal minority will last longer but not four years.

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Going Green By Loosing Green

We are being forced to go "green" by ever growing governments who have hopped on the environmentalism bandwagon. To the casual observer, this seems like a noble idea to help clean up pollution but it has costs, big costs. When Kermit the Frog sang "it's not easy being green", he wasn't kidding. Turns out its not exactly cheap either. It turns out it doesn't matter to environmentalists if you're a poor villager in Kenya or a middle class person living in a North American city. We're all being called upon to pay more and more for this initiative, and it's hurting.

Toronto, or as I like to call it "San Francisco North" has become quite overzealous on the green fad. Seems each week, the council cooks up a new scheme to "help the environment." Recent efforts have to do with garbage. Toronto wants to charge you extra, on top of your taxes, for how much garbage you put out. Basically, you pay to "rent" this bin and you pay more for a larger bin. On the outside, this seems to make sense. That is until you consider the fact that the quality of garbage pickup service has been declining across the GTA. Everyone is paying higher and higher taxes each year but getting less service in return. Will this bin system in Toronto improve garbage collection? Well, no, they never said it would. The sole purpose of this bin concept is to encourage people to throw out less garbage for the sake of the environmentalists. It won't improve the system. Not only will it not improve the system, it will encourage illegal dumping. People with large amounts of garbage will just dispose of it elsewhere rather than paying for the larger bin. The REAL purpose of this project is to help Toronto pay for the dumping site it purchased near London for $20 million. What makes matters worse is that large areas of Toronto still do not receive regular recycling pickup.
Of course, once Toronto adopts an idea, the rest of the GTA will likely follow suit. Here in Halton, we used to get recycle pickup once a weak. It was reduced to twice a month. Garbage collection is also inconsistent. Wednesday is garbage day but it has been known to happen, on several occasions, where garbage is not picked up until Thursday. Just another case of paying more for less.

Garbage collection is only one case, in a long list, where this environment fad is forcing us consumers/taxpayers to shell out more of our hard earned money, so the elites in our society can feel good about themselves. Gasoline is another excellent example. Arguably the government's most lucrative tax next to income. We are paying more and more at the pump, and we're being forced to contend with both government and oil company greed. What's worse, environmentalists are demanding that prices be kept high so people use less oil. So basically, we loose our mobility for them to feel good.

Electricity is another example of government greed that is hiding behind the cloak of the environment. We've been paying insane amounts thanks to the McGuinty government here in Ontario. Now he wants us to use smart meters to help conserve. Apparently to reduce emisions form coal plants. Turns out the high price of electricity is making the government a tidy profit and hides their incompetence from closing Lakeview.
Electricity is not only an issue here in Canada. According to the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, environmentalists are forcing developing countries to use the most expensive forms of electricity generation there are (solar and wind) rather than cheaper hydrocarbon (oil and coal) based alternatives. Sure, solar panels can run a few lights but they can't be used to run a smelter or an assembly line. Heavy industry requires a lot of electricity and solar and wind power are simply too costly and inefficient to provide it. These countries need heavy industry to develop so they are being kept in an economic hole to "save" the planet. That's why we have so many countries, literally sitting on gold mines, that are dirt poor.

Of course, this is typical. The ordinary person is always forced to pay more in order to keep the liberal elites happy.

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Censorship in 2007: The Internet

I was originally going to talk about China for part 3 of this series. However, this topic has a great deal to do with how China has been censoring its people. It's not simply a Chinese problem but a global one.

The internet, with all it's faults, is truly one of the seven wonders of the modern world. We live in the information age, of course you knew that or you wouldn't be reading this. I can discuss politics with someone in Europe, or play an online game with someone in Japan. Amazing to think that only 15 years ago, that was impossible for the majority of people. The internet was originally created as a free and open environment to share knowledge and information around the world. It does that job quite well. In recent years, this has become more true with the introduction of Web 2.0, so the buzzword goes. This blog, as all blogs are, is part of this concept. This also includes online forums, Wikis (such as Wikipedia), video sharing (such as Youtube) and social networking sites. The internet has become such an integral part of our daily lives worldwide. As such, the demon of censorship has begun to take notice. There are generally three types of censorship that occur on the internet. Government, corporate, and private. Lets take a look at them.

GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP

Government censorship of the internet in North America isn't very common, not that it doesn't happen but it's still very rare. Cases of such usually include "hate" sites. In other countries, it is far more common. China is perhaps the most notorious. There exists the Great Firewall of China, which monitors all incoming and outgoing internet traffic from the country. Chinese internet users are required to use their real names when posting to blogs and forums. Also, China has blocked certain information from being accessed. In China, if one does a search of the Tieneman Square incident, they will be told this information is prohibited. China's oligarchical government does this to insulate itself from criticism and possible rebellion if people were to find out what actually happened during these events. Though China is no longer a communist country in the traditional sense, the government still operates on the Soviet/Maoist model and is very secretive. China will punish citizens who post information that the government disagrees with. The Chinese government has also put online gaming under their radar and will forcefully "treat" people who seem to be spending too much time in these games. Shock treatment (aka electro-therapy) is sometimes used.

China isn't the only country that does this. Cuba is yet another example that we have plenty of information about. Cuba is a more traditional communist country. Cuba has a state owned "intranet". Cuba's censorship of the internet is harsher than China's in many ways since it doesn't allow most people to access the outside world. When it does, it monitors them heavily. Cuba's reasoning for doing this also somewhat differs from China's. Their idea is to keep Western influence out of the country.

Turkey is another country that has been in the news recently for banning Youtube due to a video that insulted the country's founder. The ban was repealed. Morocco is also suspected of banning Youtube though there is no solid evidence as of yet.

Other countries with substantial and pervasive censorship of the internet include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Syria, Myanmar, Maldives, North Korea, South Korea, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

At this point though, as I know there are some people who think this is censorship, I'd like to draw the line at child pornography on the internet. This is not free speech. It is a criminal activity and I find it acceptable for governments to block those sites.

CORPORATE CENSORSHIP

Corporate censorship of the internet is not as pervasive as government censorship but it does exist. Perhaps the best example is this blog's host, Google. The problem with Google is the fact that has given into certain demands from highly censored countries such as China. Google China prohibits searches for certain topics. Yahoo has done similar things for France and Germany concerning neo-nazi material.
There is also the case of corporate groups such as RIAA and the MPAA trying to censor file shares.

Corporations have also been known to censor employee email though filters to make sure they cannot receive personal emails at work. They have also been known to censor websites. The idea is to keep employees focused on work, but it is still censorship none the less.

PRIVATE CENSORSHIP

Private censorship of the internet is the most common type of censorship that most western internet users will encounter. Particularly with the way in which private, non-corporate websites deal with their members. Comments on this blog as well as it's (unused) companion forum are unmoderated. Private forums tend to be particularly bad. Most forums will censor certain words to avoid being flagged by search engines and attracting undesirable attention. For example, words such as "porn" will be censored to prevent it from being accidentally flagged as a porn site. Swearing may also be edited out of posts if the site has many young visitors. These are both understandable. Most of these communities are heavily moderated, and that is where the problem lies. Moderators on these forums are there to maintain the site and handle member disputes. However, some become overzealous and abuse their power to delete posts and remove people that they have disagreements with, no matter the severity. These sites are not compelled to comply with free speech laws. Censorship here is much more implicit but is a reoccurring problem.

Another topic of private censorship of the internet concerns the recent treatment of sites such as Myspace and Facebook. The latter in particular has become hugely popular here in Canada, especially in Greater Toronto with as many as 600,000 members in that region.
This stems from anti-bullying laws and the new concept of cyber-bullying. There are several recent examples of students being suspended from school for expressing their dislike for teachers and fellow students at school. This type of censorship is done under the guise of anti-bullying but has become more of a way of solving personal vendettas. Since this action happens outside of the classroom, this calls into question school authority concerning the issue. In my opinion, once the bell rings and the student is off school property, then school staff no longer has authority over them. This is what has made the recent Facebook suspensions concerning.


Internet censorship is indeed becoming a concerning trend in society, especially since it was never meant to be censored. Aside from government and corporate censorship, it has now opened the door for private individuals and organizations to censor other web users in order to fulfill their own agendas. It's high time to put the breaks on this trend and return the internet to what it was originally intended to be. The obvious solution is to lobby governments to extend freedom of expression laws in the constitution to apply to non-government organizations and private individuals as well.

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Censorship in 2007: Venezuela

Part two of our look on censorship in 2007 looks at one of the great enigmas of politics in the Americas. That would be Venezuela under it's socialist leader Hugo Chavez. Communism was marred with censorship and abuse of citizens. This is a simple truth that has occurred in every country that has signed onto this political and economic doctrine. Since the fall of the USSR, it has been dying a slow death. There are only five communist countries that remain: China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba. Arguably, China is communist only on paper now though the abuses continue, which I will address in part three of this series. Vietnam has also largely followed China's path.
So communism is dead, but in comes Hugo Chavez. A mid-ranking military officer, he staged two coup attempts in 1992 against the Venezuelan government. He later became president in 1999 through democratic means. (There is definitly parelles that can be drawn between Chavez and Hitler here) He was briefly removed from office in 2002 after an anti-socialist coup but regained his position two days later. He is the leader of the Fifth Republic movement, an increasingly radical socialist movement that seeks to dramatically change the country. Since Chavez's landmark reelection in 2006, the movement has become increasingly radical. At a recent visit to the UN, he referred to US president Bush as the devil. In ironic choice of words in my opinion considering his political stance and the events of 1992. Chavez hails Fidel Castro, Cuba's long time president. In many ways , Chavez wishes Venezuela to become the next Cuba. He is attempting to stamp out private enterprise, and many of the country's industries have been nationalized under his rule. Chavez has gained a vast number of supporters across Venezuelan society.

The problem with Chavez comes with his treatment of those who do not support the Fifth Republic movement. Though they are the minority, they are a large and vocal one. According to Chavez, they are also a threat to national security. This week, the Chavez government denied RCTV, a popular TV station based in the capital of Caracas, a broadcast license renewal. The station will remain on cable TV (which the vast majority of Venezuelans don't have access to) and will be replaced by TVES, a pro-Chavez, public television station. This move has outraged the Venezuelan political minority. Chavez cited a few reasons why the license was not renewed. He claimed the TV network has supported the 2002 coup attempt against him, something that RCTV denies as the station blocked off by demonstrations during the events. He also claims that the station corrupts the masses through it's pop culture entertainment programs such as soap operas and a popular satire/comedy show that often pokes fun at Chavez. RCTV was the only opposition aligned TV station in Venezuela that has a nation wide free-to-air broadcast range. Today, there are none. This further solidifies Chavez's power as he now controls the media. Any good revolutionary knows that one must control the media to control the country. Chavez has known this since his first coup in 1992. However, by doing this, Chavez is leading Venezuela down a very dangerous and all too familiar path. The government has threatened severe punishment if RCTV broadcasts illegally. This basically cuts off any opposition to his leadership. Without a voice, the opposition will shrink and Chavez becomes a dictator, and Venezuela yet another totalitarian country. I somehow doubt that this is what Venezuelans bargained for when they first elected him. Social change does not mean social silence and no revolution can be legitimate if it doesn't allow people to speak their minds.

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PAC

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Censorship in 2007: The New McCarthyism

This is part one of a series looking at political censorship today in 2007. I'll be examining a variety of countries in which censorship comes from both left and right political forces. Part one looks at the United States.

Society in the United States is collapsing. No, it's not because of Bush but rather small groups with too much power leading a witch hunt against America's most sacred institution: free speech.
First we had the Black Nazis led by Al Sharpton get Don Imus fired for a single comment. Latest on the chopping block is popular comedy show hosts Opie and Anthony. I have XM and listen to that show. I haven't been in my car much this week since I've been on vacation, but when I do go out, I found myself asking why the other comedy show Ron & Fez was running all day. Now I know. Though I don't know the exact circumstances of their firing, it's very disturbing and has me now considering canceling my satellite radio subscription.

This my friends is the new McCarthyism. We'll call it the Blue Scare since it seems like conservatives in the media are being targeted, though many liberals have found themselves targets as well. Indeed, this is something that the two sides of the political spectrum need to get together on.
We live in a feel good age. These days, it's a crime to make anybody feel bad, provided they aren't white males. Boy, if I could successfully sue every person that has offended me, I certainly wouldn't be living in Milton. This trend though is very disturbing. It seems like it takes only one person among legions of listeners or viewers to be offended by the content of the program to get it pulled off the air. I'm no expert when it comes to American politics but I'm pretty sure that's a violation of the First Amendment. Right now, powerful groups on both the left and the right are leading a witch hunt to get offensive things off the air. How does one define something as being offensive though? The thing is, you can't. Of course we don't want programs targeted at young children that talk about graphic sex and what not. However, the programs being targeted by these special interest groups are shows specifically for adults. If you are so offended by a program, why the hell are you even watching it in the first place! Turn it off. That's the problem. Nobody is forcing these people to view or hear offensive content, yet, these interests groups are forcing people not to view it. Isn't that fascism? With increasing FCC fines for obscene content, it seems the US government is on their side.
Why do networks pull these shows though, even when the FCC doesn't threaten them with fines? Well, that's a very good question. It's primarily due to manipulation of advertisers, implicitly and explicitly. Special interest groups threaten product boycotts of the advertisers unless they pull their support from the show. That's how shows with huge ratings that bring in stations huge amounts of money can get pulled. It makes little business sense but it just shows the power that these small groups have. Mind you, these advertisers have nothing to fear as those loyal to the shows (who are in the majority) would probably buy more of a product if the advertisers continued support in the face of a minority boycott. That was the case with Sinefeld DVDs after the Michael Richards incident and the subsequent call by African American fascists for a boycott of his works.

Now what about Canada. Well, that is what this blog is about. I like to ask, can this happen here? Canada is significantly more tolerant of content than the US is. The CRTC and Industry Canada regulate how the communications industry does business but they don't really care about content. Not as much as the FCC does anyway. For example, one of the few countries that allows all South Park episodes to be shown is Canada. Don't say it cannot happen here though. It can. A few years ago, the CRTC pulled the license of a Quebec radio station due to the "offensive" comments of two popular shock jocks. The CRTC received 10 complaints on a show that had tens of thousands of listeners. To them, that was cause to shut it down. There's also some Broadcast Standards thing, that is separate from the government. It's a board made by the industry to self-police. In other words, it's yet another group for the special interest people to manipulate to promote their fascist agendas.

Censorship is running rampant in North American society and it must be halted. People blast the McCarthy era for censorship yet they blissfully ignore it happening today. Do somethign so stop it. Here's US based website dealing with it. It's down for maintenance as a write this now but it might be a good idea to check it out later.
http://www.peopleagainstcensorship.com/

Here's a video from CNN about the issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuzdaFajByg

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The War on Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is on the rise world wide, or so it would seem. The media has given a great deal of attention to this issue but it seems to have gone under the political radar. Every week we hear about another internet predator being arrested for assaulting a child. It is truly sickening at the amount of people willing to do such things. I've talked about this in the past but I think it's worth bringing up again.

Last year, the Harper government made a move to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. Still not far enough in my opinion but a good start. It really should be 18 to bring us inline with the United States. This was done to prevent older men from having relations with young teens, while still allowing teens to have legal relations with each other. Personally, if I found some 40 year old guy having relations with my 14 year old daughter, even though it's legal, I would probably murder him. I sure most sane and responsible men wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing. However, this does not solve the larger problem caused, at least partially, by the internet. Of course it's not the internet's fault that sick people do sick things but it has made child abuse more accessible, and dare I say acceptable to these disturbed people. Therein lies the problem. How do we fight this?

I think we need to start looking at these cases from a different perspective. These people are obviously mentally ill. This activity is not a sexual orientation. They cannot use the same argument that homosexuals as gays are still two consenting adults who understand what's going on. That is not the case with child abusers. A child cannot possibly consent to those actions. Rather than jail, which has proven itself time and time again, we should label sexual offenders who target children as being criminally insane. As such, they will be sent to maximum security mental institutions. This offers numerous advantages over jail. The public is still protected as these people are in these institutions indefinitely until they are well. It also allows opportunity to study and develop better treatments for this condition, which could be used to hopefully cure these people. Sure, it's a long shot, but it makes more sense than the revolving door prison system that these people are subject too, where they're back on the streets to reoffend rather quickly.

In the mean time, how should our society protect children? Well, keeping offenders off the street is the first way. Being smart is the second. In most cases, the offender knows there victim. They aren't the stranger in the car with candy as most people imagine. Be weary of other adults around your children. That doesn't mean you shouldn't trust people, but just don't let them get too close. Keep an eye on your kids. When it boils down to it, suspicious activity is fairly easy to spot out.

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Justin Trudeau: So It's Come To This Again

Pierre Trudeau was Canada's worst Prime Minister. Definitely debatable but true none the less. The laughing stock that Canada became under the Chretien government all roots back to Canada's most questionable political figure. A staunch communist, with friends such as Fidel Castro, Turdeau latched onto the Liberal party as a ploy for power. While there, he did such memorable things as flip the bird to reporters and made smart ass comments. Hardly appropriate for somebody at his level of education, power, and responsibility. It took far to long to get that joke out of office and he seemed to keep coming back like a bad cold. The man died seven years ago. Good riddance, or so we though.

Now we come full circle to a politician who is just arrogant. No, not Chretien. Though Trudeau was Chretien's mentor, he was more interested in furthering his own goals and could hardly be called a communist. No, I'm taking about Trudeau's son Justin. He's now running for office under his father's old Liberal banner. Justin will be running in the next election in the ridding of Pappineau, Quebec. Perhaps the Liberals believe he will revitalize the party as Stephane Dion has proven to be an ineffective and unpopular leader. I caution them that this is a path they do not want to go down again. Considering that Trudeau and his lackey's antics didn't save the party but doomed it to loose. Twice to Mulroney and now to Harper.

Still, the Turdeaus have become Canada's unofficial royal family, for some largly unknown reason. Sure, he did give us the Charter of Rights but even it has its flaws. Native special treatment and legalizing affirmative action come to mind. Other than that, he did relatively little to make Canada a great nation. Arguably, the slump and malaise began during his rule as Prime Minister. Now here comes Justin, seemingly at the right time. Justin though is simply an echo, a clone of his father. He even continues the legacy of questionable actions. While in Windsor recently, Justin Trudeau gave a speech to high school students telling them to question our capitalist economy and suggested that it would bring the downfall of this country. He has suggested that our environmental and social justice records have deteriorated. Is this true? Of course not! Canada is wealthier than it ever has been and is still the sixth best country in the world to live in according to the UN. The UN cites lingering problems with aboriginals as part of our decline from first, though the top five are countries that have been developing very rapidly over recent years. We are still ahead of the US and Japan and we are still one of the eight richest countries in the world. We successfully eliminated poverty in our country years ago. We must be doing something right.

Justin, like his father, is a communist that is just latching onto the Liberals because he knows he would never make it to power as a member of the Communist Party, or NDP. Personally, I think the NDP would feel a little uncomfortable with his ideas as they are very far left. Like his father, he is a friend of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. We all know how well those people are living it up in communist paradise. If the Liberals are smart, they'll keep this man from getting any serious power in their party. God forbid if he ever were to become Prime Minister. I'd head south for good at that point.

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Yet Another Liberal Scandal

When will Canadians get the message. When you elect Liberal governments, they naturally turn to corruption. Once again, we have another scandal. Ontario's sponsorship scandal. It seems that the Ontario Liberals were handing out tax payer dollars to Liberal friendly immigrant groups. One in particular was an Iranian charity that received a huge pile of money only a few weeks after it was registered as a charity. Before, it claimed to be an animal welfare group. Come on.

This is a case of buying votes. Many immigrants will tend to be lifelong voters of the political party that does the most "favours" for their community. The Liberals buying votes? Wow, as if that's never happened before. The Liberals just can't seem to help themselves from sticking their hands in the cookie jar. In the mean time, Canadians are paying record high taxes while services are decreasing. All we're paying half our salaries for is so Liberal governments can waste money on administration and slush funds to help their friends. Of course, Finance Minister Sobara dismissed the issue as an election tactic by the opposition.
What's worse is that Canadians simply just tolerate this kind of behavior with nonsense comments like "better the devil you know." I think I'd rather take my chances by voting in somebody different that to have my hard earned money being handed out to shady special interest groups. Remember that this is the same government who broke all their election promises including levying the largest tax increase in Ontario history after they said they wouldn't raise taxes at all. On average, you have $900 less in your bank account at the end of the year due to that "health premium". (It's hidden in your income tax so it was actually an income tax increase.) Has health care improved on account? No.
Quit being so spineless my fellow Canadians. Open your eyes and see the fraudsters that these people really are.

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Commie Wars: Buzz vs Gore

The Harper Conservatives have found an unlikely ally. Buzz Hargrove, president of the CAW. Once again, the subject is environmentalism and how the issue has become out of control. This is perhaps the only time I agree with Buzz. He's predicting doom to the Canadian economy, especially the auto sector, if Al Gore and David Suzuki get their way. Rightly so. It's a bad time for selling cars in North America right now and American auto makers are struggling. Though I'm no economic expert, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg which will eventually lead to a recession in the auto industries of Japan and Europe as well. High taxes, high inflation, oh my.

The car, arguably the life blood of today's economy, has become public enemy number one for the likes of Gore and Suzuki. Obviously these two men are not gear heads. They've attacked everything from the family compact to your lawn mower. Even ethanol fueled vehicles haven't escaped. Buzz launched an attack against his fellow socialists stating that their environmental plans will cripple the auto industry, forcing the layoffs of possible thousands of workers. With that, you can kiss the likes of Oshawa, Windsor, and Brampton good bye as these cities rely on auto making too keep going. I guess that doesn't really matter to Gore. It doesn't seem to matter that killing industry will alienate a large part of the Democrats' voter base. I guess Gore hopes he can make that up by scaring others into electing him as president om 2008. Global warming is a rich persons, bandwagon issue.
Hargrove called the Conservatives environmental platform more realistic since it takes the economy into account rather than totally ignoring it which the Liberals and NDP have done. Though I suppose if the economy collapsed, we would have reduced emissions. I guess that's their plan. I still think the Conservative plan goes to far. Banning incandecent light bulbs comes to mind. There are many appliances and fixtures that use special bulbs where more energy efficient replacements aren't available. These energy efficient models don't work with dimmers either. I'm off on a tangent now though.

Hargrove likened global warming to Y2K. Remember that. The disaster that wasn't. It became an industry out of people's fear that the world would end. Indeed, global warming has become an industry, and a powerful political machine. As I said, Gore is just in it for the presidency. Suzuki, well, he's just another idiot who was wrongly given a PHD. I'm not sure what his political motives are but I know they are playing a major role.
Gore himself is really starting to bother me. Where's an assassin when you need one. He has the nerve to come into Canada and starts telling us how we should run out country. Rot in hell Mr Gore. Don't bring your election campaign north of the border. At least Hargrove has become an unlikely ally from the socialist side. He seems to be one of the few people who isn't afraid to point out the hoax that global warming actually is. We need more people like that if we want to stop this apocalypse madness.

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Legalize It?

In a classic Simpsons episode, the town is overrun by pigeons. Bart's lizards loved pidgins and thrived and multiplied. Now the city was infested with lizards. The solution was to have snakes eat the lizards, than have gorillas eat the snakes when there was too many of those. When the town was overrun by gorillas, it was hoped that the winter would kill them off.

Now that sounds downright silly doesn't it. Not for author Michael Chettleburgh. He has proposed an odd solution to solve North America's problem of urban street gangs, legalize street drugs. Ah the talk of left wing idealists. It would be nice if things worked like that, but they don't. In order to solve one problem, Chettleburgh is creating another. Two wrongs don't make a right, and giving addicts more open access to the drugs they crave. Sure, it might get rid of the street gangs, and I stress might. However, it does not solve the equally serious problem of addiction in our society, which is considered to be a serious mental health disorder.

The ideal way to stop drugs is to kill the market, not by legalizing but be hitting drug operations in Canada hard and tightening our border with the US to prevent drugs from being smuggled into Canada. Furthermore, we desperately need to increase funding to addiction treatment centers. Apparently the waits for these facilities can be weeks or months depending on the location. The current system is a disgrace.

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Parliament: Canada's Green Circus

Green, that's the new buzz word these days. We're all trying to fight global destruction. However, is this distracting our leaders? In Canada it sure is. It seems that many of our leaders are preoccupied with the green issue, even the Conservatives. All other issues in Canada have gone out the window in favour of this green crap. All the things about the economy, health, gun crime, native issues, they seem to have been forgotten. This is a major problem as the government promised to address these issues, and they are not. All parties are equally responsible for throwing out the important issues.

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Victory for Old Milton, but Questions Still Linger

It's been some time I've posted a comment about our little town. Old Milton residents won a major victory yesterday. I first posted a commentary about this back in November 2006 about the medium sized mall that was planned to be built at the corner of Derry Rd and Bronte St. In a shocking turn of events, the proposal to change the zoning from light industrial to medium commercial was unanimously turned down by town council. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the meeting personally so I don't have the full details in front of me, as the term breaking news doesn't mean much to the local newspaper.

The location indeed was highly inappropriate, with only one known resident voicing support for the complex. Near by residents and developers had been strongly opposed to building the mall. The decision to deny the zoning change simply makes sense because a mall that size would have played havoc with traffic, and would not fit in with the areas overall plan. The idea was to focus Old Milton residents into the downtown without creating box stores in the south within current city limits. The developer who wished to build the mall may still appeal it to the OMB but their case is pretty weak and the opposition is strong. Both Matamy Homes and Fieldgate Homes had opposed the mall as well.

This of course leads to another direction. Oddly enough, with the announcement of canceling the zoning change, what comes up is a plan for Matamy and Fieldgate to help pay for the widening of Derry Road from Bronte St to Termaine through an interest free loan. Now this is owned by the
the region but the timing still seems a little odd to me. Corruption is still there as this is obviously a ploy for some reason as it is extremely rare case that private companies would pay for government projects interest free. Especially for projects amounting to that much money; probably several million dollars worth. Of course, this is all speculation, but something smells off.
Also of note about this particular project is a railway underpass, or rather a lack there of. The loan pushes the widening project start date back from 2009 to 2008. However, the underpass was not slated to begin until 2012. This of course, makes very little sense since they would need to redirect road traffic during construction. The Milton fire department has been pushing for this underpass for years now to no avail. As it stands now, if a fire or accident happens on the other side of the tracks when a train is coming, fire trucks either need to wait for the train or drive down to Main St and back track up Termaine. With the housing going in, this presents a major safety hazard. Milton is one of the few towns that still has level crossings over its busiest roads.

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Kyoto: Death to Canada's Economy

Kyoto, the now infamous environmental accord that the Liberals foolishly signed onto would mean death to Canada's economy. Not only that, it would cost Canadian tax payers and additional $3000 to implement. That's according to environmental minister Baird. I'm inclined to agree. The political parties that have signed onto the global warming lie have all failed to consider how much this would cost our economy.

This simply has to end. The Environmental Bolsheviks have Canadians by the balls by brainwashing people to buy into their false claims about the existence of global warming. I'm pretty sure people think that the sun is going to send out a beam that will blow up the Earth just like the Death Star. The sheep simply follow what ever the left has manufactured in order to gain political power. All global warming really is about is socialism, that is, making the world socialist. The cold war has never really ended in that sense, it's just that Communism has found another front to hide behind.

Then you have the politicians and activists who have been sent out to fight something that does not exist. They are environmental Don Quixotes, out to fight the windmills of global warming. The global warming issue has perfectly illustrated the complete failure of the government, the people, and the media. They are all victims in this conspiracy.

Simply put, the Kyoto agreement is unrealistic. The United States was smart when they refused to sign on to it. If Canada tries to meet its agreement, I don't think our economy could handle it. Businesses will simply pack up and move elsewhere, where Kyoto does not apply. The higher taxes will drain our wallets. Is fighting the windmills really worth it?

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If it Ain't Broken...

The McGuinty Liberals have been proposing some electoral reforms throughout their tenure in office. Of course you all know about the fixed election dates, which was a good idea. Their latest one however, is highly questionable.

Do you know what a mixed member proportional government is? No? I didn't think so. Well it's an electoral system. The one we use now is commonly referred to as first past the post, where the person with the most votes wins. They don't have to have the majority of the popular vote, just the most votes. Mixed member proportional is similar. Here's the mechanics of the new system. The current Legislative Assembly in Ontario would be expanded from 109 seats to 129 seats. 90 of these seats would continue to use the old system. The remaining seats would use proportional representation. Mexico uses this system for its Chamber of Deputies (the lower house), remember that, it's important.
Proportional systems work like this. When you go to the ballot box, you'll have to vote twice. One for a person for your riding as you already do now, and again for a party. The remaining 39 seats will be divided up by this second vote. Say the Liberals get 40% of the popular vote, the Conservatives 30%, the NDP 20%, and the Greens 10%. The 39 seats would then be divided up to directly reflect those numbers. The Liberals would get 16 seats, and so on. Who gets to fill these seats is chosen from party lists. A party selects 39 people and ranks them from first to last choice. In the above example, the Liberals would choose the top 16 people from the list. Voters have no input on who gets on those lists.

The first obvious question about this system is why. Well, the idea is to give fringe parties such as the greens some representation in the legislature. It is argued that it gives more fairness since in a multi-party system, it is unlikely that one party would receive the required 50% plus one to give them a true majority. However, is this system really necessary in Ontario? No. There's nothing really wrong with the current system in terms of how our leaders are elected. If the Liberals want to reform something to make the system more fair and equal, try getting rid of that silly party discipline rule. Secondly, the lists would just reek of patronage positions and elitism. Gordon donated $1,000,000 to the party so he's at the top of the list. Frank is my buddy so he's definitely going on there. How is that fair to voters when they don't even get to choose the people who will represent them? Back to Mexico. The system for their Chamber of Deputies was created by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, a highly corrupted party that has similar ideology to the Liberals here. They set up the system for the same supposed reasons, but twisted it to make sure they would always get the majority of proportional seats. What's stopping the Liberals from doing the same here?

Mixed member proportional representation is just a bad system, plain and simple. It confuses voters it will do nothing to improve democracy. A referendum will be held during the next provincial election in October regarding the issue. Now that you know how it works, be smart and vote no.

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Will Banning Guns End Tragedy

Yet another frosty chocolate nut bar has decided that the best way to deal with his problems is to kill himself and take as many others down with him. I'm sure everyone is now aware of the events that transpired at the Virginia Polytechnical Institute today. A foreign student from Korea,, Cho Seung-hui, shot 32 people before turning the gun on himself. 32 innocent people died needlessly today because some crazy person couldn't deal with his problems in a civilized manner. Police don't know the motive, but it's looking like it could be a case of domestic dispute.

Once again, this has raised the issue of gun control. The issue is already being raised on internet forums and I'm sure both the US congress and the Canadian Parliament will be discussing it in the next few days. I discussed this already back in October of 2006.

Perhaps it is time to ban handguns, as they seem to be more trouble than they're worth. I don't buy the all armed avoids tragedy that some pro gun advocates are making since this would likely have caused even more chaos and perhaps more death. However, I don't believe banning guns all together is the solution either. After all, if we ban guns, what's to stop a crazy person from strapping a home made bomb to themselves and detonating. Most of the people who have died from terror attacks in Iraq have been killed in that manner, not with guns. If a crazed person really wants to kill as many people as possible, they will find a way.

It seems Cho was indeed a very disturbed individual and should have been given psychiatric help before this could take place. Though, it is possible that nobody knew he was capable of this. This incident in Virginia raises many questions such as foreign students and safety on college campuses. I believe our institutions of higher education are as safe as we can possibly make them. These events, while tragic, are unlikely to happen and they cannot be planned for. Unfortunately, I cannot make recommendations at this point.

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Belinda Quits

Well, good news. The bimbo of Canadian politics, Belinda Stronach, is deciding to leave office. Finally. That woman has been no more than a joke, wrapped up in scandals, and accusing everyone of sexism whenever they disagree with her. Not to mention betraying those who elected her by crossing the floor to the Liberals in order to get a short lived cabinet position. It makes me wonder why she would even become a politician in the first place. Well, she's run back to daddy at Magna. That's a good place for her.

Now if only Garth Turner would get the message and quit.

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The High Price of Racial Equality in America

Racism was one of the blackest marks on American history. America has come a long way since the civil rights movement began in the 1950s to the point where African Americans can feel relatively comfortable and should no longer fear harassment. Of course, there are some who would like you to believe other wise.

Once again, another American entertainment personality is back on the hot seat. Sports talk show host Don Imus is felling the heat because he referred to a woman's college basketball team as a bunch of "nappy headed hoes". Imus later apologized but that doesn't seem to be enough. People like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are still dragging the old man through the dirt. I must admit I didn't even know who Imus was until a couple of days ago. What he said was a little inappropriate, and was dumb of him to say, but now people are calling for his job. Spineless advertisers are pulling away support from his show. Americans, black and white alike, should be very, very concerned about this. What people like Al Sharpton and other supposed representatives of the black community are doing recently is a direct assault on one of the most fundamental rights in the United States. The right to freedom of speech.
As radio host Ron Bennington put it, freedom of speech in America today is like being told you can say whatever you want, and then being punched in the face immediately after. That's not free speech. Many people say free speech comes with consequences. No, it does not. Then it's not free speech. In a free and democratic society, you should be able to say whatever you want, no matter how idiotic, without the fear of loosing your job, your livelyhood, or being physically assaulted.
People like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and all the others who supposedly represent blacks in America are fascists. They are no different than the fascists that exist in Africa, such as Robert Mugabe. They want to silence anybody who says anything they disagree with, they are ultra nationalist, and want to separate black society from everybody else. Hardly the melting pot that some envisioned. I'm sure Martin Luther King Jr is turning over in his grave. Then you have the self-hating whites who feel guilty for slavery who stand behind black fascists, without really knowing what they're saying, simply because they think this is what blacks want.

My stance on racism is that actions always speak louder than words. You can't limit words like the n-word just because some people find it offensive. That's an attack on freedom of speech. Of course it would be nice to have a society where this no longer goes on, but we can't actively silence people for using them, since that goes against freedom of speech. I don't care how deeply it hurts African Americans. Sticks and stones people. If somebody calls a black person the n-word and then beats them with a pipe, that's where I draw the line. That's hate. Words are not. This, I feel, is one topic blacks and whites need to get together on, and fight for their rights. It's time for blacks to disown, vocally, the fascists in their community. If they don't, racial tensions in America will never end.

Of course, I forgot to mention why Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do what they do. The answer is simple: money and power. They are not for their people, they are only for themselves.

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905ers Will No Longer Have to Pay for Toronto

Some good news in the Ontario budget, which is rare coming from this particular government. The McGuinty Liberals have decided to ax a program that saw 905 tax dollars going to support the city of Toronto. There will be no more 905 money going to the city. It's about time, though still not enough to sway my vote. Of course, this has upset Toronto mayor David Miller. It has not been a good week for him. Both the federal and provincial budgets did not provide any more money for cities. Bad news for Mr Miller, good news for everyone who lives outside of Downtown Toronto.

Mr Miller is a man who has plenty of wonderful ideas, but he wants everybody else to pay for them. Ah, the credit card mentality of our society. Champaign tastes on a beer budget. That whiny little kid he's got running the TTC now, I just want to punch him in the mouth. Almost makes me wish Howard Moscow was still in charge... almost. Tis the hallmark of NDP governments. Always spending beyond their means and incurring massive debts in the meantime, with little benefit to ordinary citizens in return.

What else can I say about the two budgets? They were pretty solid. Nothing really to complain about. Neither government wants to stir the manure pile at this point. I would have liked to see more tax cuts for the middle class though. Especially the axing of the controversial health care premium. Since Ontario is now running a surplus, this is something that should have been done.
In Ottawa, the Liberals and NDP has both stated that they will vote against the Conservative budget. Natch. The Bloc and at least one now ex-Liberal is voting in favour of it though, so it looks like it will pass. Recent polls have shown that the majority of Canadians like the budget and don't want an election. It's not in the best interest of any federal parties to trigger an election right now, since none of them can form a majority.

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