link CBC News – Canada – Guergis handling catastrophic: Ignatieff.
Really? Catastrophic? Not unfortunate, poorly handled or even stupid, but catastrophic? Like polar ice melting, or hurricanes, or Liberal electoral wins? Three balls in the water on a short par 3 is catastrophic, but kicking someone out of cabinet for an alleged misdeed? Where’s the sense of perspective here? It must be incumbent upon politicians to lace their epithets with bizarre hyperbole in order to make very small points. Was the lack of croissants at the parliamentary buffet a catastrophe, one that should shame all Canadians?
Certainly Ignatieff is not the only one guilty of disingenuous hyperbole in his comments. To some degree, the inflated language makes some sense since most voters have tuned out the babblings of most politicians because little of consequence is ever said. There is seldom any candor in any announcements that are made and most expect that any utterances will contain some kind of partisan spin. The favoured line of politicians in our country is, “The people of Canada….” fill in the blank. Every time someone utters that annoying hackneyed phrase, just substitute it with what they really mean, which is ” our party thinks that”.
One of the most annoying phrases ever uttered was by a former Prime Minister who professed that whatever policies they championed were in alignment “with da Canadian values” which really meant the wants of the federal Liberal party. Ask any one in Canada what da Canadian values are and they’ll reply “almost at par with the American at the moment, about 98 cents”.
People should take a day off and sit in the legislatures of their provinces or if they’re able to, take in a session of parliament. The posturing, histrionics and cajolling are great entertainment and eye opening for anyone who thinks that the law process is sober and reflective. Since most are trained lawyers, the scene more resembles thespians overacting in an audition than people with sharp legal minds. Supposedly, they are acting in our best interests. Methinks they’re just acting.
link Right-wing U.S. firebrand Ann Coulter will file grievance with rights panel.
Ann Coulter: you either love her or you’re a liberal. While there is no doubt that she views things from a conservative perspective, it’s interesting that the article is already imposing a bias to the reader by labelling her a “right-wing” firebrand. Oddly, you will seldom see the label “left wing” firebrand to such pundits as Rachel Maddow or Bill Maher. You will never hear the adjective “inflammatory” applied to them either.
Canadians are smugly proud of their image of being a fair and compassionate people. That’s all fine, but in reality, are we? It’s a bit like the girl holding a mirror who has to tell people how pretty she is and people are too polite to disagree. Years ago, a sitting Prime Minister was fond of referring to “da Canadian values”, whatever they were. The implication of course is that if you don’t hold such “values”, you weren’t Canadian or at least not a good one. How could you fight that if you were in opposition to a particular policy?
While the words “true north strong and FREE ” are inscribed in our national anthem, the words ring hollow. In fact, maybe we should change it to “the true north strong and politically correct” except that finding a rhyme for the next line would be iffy. Zealots like this Francois Houle have appointed themselves as gatekeepers for what a free and intelligent populace should be allowed to hear. Certainly, he is not alone as many like him have been trying to muzzle opinions that don’t happen to align with their own version of what’s acceptable. Years ago, a provincial human rights commission launched a case against “inflammatory” comments by Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn, which thankfully was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, truckloads of money were spent by the defendants to fight for their rights of free speech. The lesson is, don’t veer too far off the PC path or risk paying college tuition for the kids of lawyers.
Here’s the bottom line, if we only tolerate opinions that match our own, then it is not a free country, it’s a cult. Maybe we should put the mirror down and look at ourselves as we really are.