Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Congratulations Ivan Luksic

Ivan Luksic was officially nominated as the Liberal candidate for Niagara West - Glanbrook last night. I say, "Congratulations Ivan!"

Why do I care about a Liberal nomination meeting far away from where I live? Just one reason Ivan Luksic is a good man. I've kept in touch with him since my university days and I know that he is both principled and passionate. Too bad he flies the wrong colour banner.

I wish him all the best, and I have to say the Liberals are lucky they got at least one piece of good news yesterday with Ivan's nomination.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Jimmy - Give Us Some Credit

Jimmy Carter's downright stupid observation has been eating at me for a whole week now. Carter said, “an overwhelming proportion of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.’’

President Obama rightly tried to distance himself from the comments, but his comments on CNN Sunday made this attempt seem especially lame: “Are there people out there who don’t like me because of race? I’m sure there are,’’ Obama said on CNN. “That’s not the overriding issue here.’’

“Not the overriding issue.’’ Hmm. That's enough to distance himself from the comments, but it still leaves plenty of room for the charges to stick.

Anyway, others have said more than enough about the comments and their political impact. The thing that drives me is that the label 'racist' is such a powerful condemnation of a person's character it really should not be used lightly. At the same time it's completely out of date. I honestly don't think I know anyone born withing 20 years of me that doesn't judged people based on their individual merit.

I just wish the lefties would give people some credit and talk about the issues instead of trying to insult their opponents, which in the case of health care seems to be a majority of Americans.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

About the Human Rights Tribunal Ruling

I'm quite sorry that I haven't taken the time to write anything about last week's decision that section 13 of the Human Rights Act is unconstitutional. The decision has already been celebrated and analyzed by much more timely, eloquent and informed bloggers. Still it's worth stating that this is a significant victory for freedom after decades of having left wing activists use the commissions as a punitive tool to beat honest Canadians into submission it's richly satisfying to see the cracks widen in this badly broken system.

In a decision released Wednesday, the commission's tribunal dismissed a complaint filed against Marc Lemire, a webmaster who runs freedomsite.org, a site that bills itself as "Canada's freedom resource center."

The complaint, which alleged that messages posted on the site were discriminatory and exposed minority groups to "hatred and contempt," was filed by Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman.

In rejecting the complaint, commissioner vice-chair Athanasios Hadjis ruled that Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act violates the Charter of Rights and Freedom, "which guarantees the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression."

This ruling creates a very significant gap in the law and now our politicians must rise to the challenge and dismantle the commissions in their entirety while still making any individuals with valid complaints aware of their options within the real court system.

The reforms can't come a minute too soon, and they shouldn't be limited to the blatant assault on free speech caused by section 13. On Tuesday the Guelph Mercury reported that an unemployed teacher is launching a complaint against a Catholic School Board policy of hiring Catholic teachers. I wonder what part of Catholic School this guy doesn't understand.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Inspirational Radio Ads

Yesterday was kind of a crummy day. I got the feeling a lot of people thought I was a jerk, and started to think they might be right. Long stories. Anyway on the drive home I heard three different radio advertisements that bear repeating. I'll have to paraphrase unfortunately.

The first one was on CKWR from a local insurance agent simply said 'feeling stressed and unsure how to act? try reading from Bible daily' and then there was a quote from the book of Proverbs that seemed to be just what I needed.

The next ad came shortly later after I had switched to Q107. It was from the Heart and Stroke Foundation and gave a detailed description of a heart surgery operation. It ended with something like, "what's so exciting about this operation? The patient hasn't been born yet, the operation is taking place inside the baby's mother. Research from the Heart and Stroke Foundation helps save babies before they are born." Awesome I thought, very pro life and very inspirational.

Later in the drive I think I was listening to Classical 96.3, there was a Ronald McDonald House commercial. It went something like this: "Look at your finger, now look at your whole hand. You're whole hand is 40 times stronger than the individual strength of all of your fingers and your thumb added together. Families are the same way. Help Ronald McDonald House keep families with sick children together." Again I thought this is wonderful; when would I hear such a pro-family message on a major radio station? More frequently it seems.