The mentality of the left

The crack young staff at THMQ, using Hugo Chavez as an illustration, examines the totalitarianism, hypocrisy and contradictions of the American ‘Hard Left’.

It’s also a decent estimate of what’s likely going on between-the-ears of the ‘rabble’ afficionados rabble.

Canuckistan’s ‘world-class’ medicine

While this widely covered story had a happy outcome for a Calgary family, what struck me was:

A rare set of identical quadruplets were born this week to a Calgary woman after she was sent to give birth in Montana because of a shortage of neonatal beds in Canada.

The naturally conceived baby girls ... were born Sunday in Great Falls, Mont., to Calgarians Karen and J.P. Jepp.

"There wasn't space anywhere in Canada, so we had to turn to our friends in Montana," [a spokeman] said.

Jepp was transfered by air to Montana on Friday - the fifth Alberta woman to be transfered to Great Falls this year because of neonatal shortages in Calgary.

That’s quite astounding. The medical system of an entire, supposedly ‘advanced’, industrial nation with a population of 33 million can’t come up with the spare capacity to accommodate one additional unusual birth. So an expectant mother has to be sent to a podunk American city of 57,000 in a small state of fewer than a million people.

It’s not as if this situation arose out of the blue - that quads were on the way was known for months. And this is the fifth time this year that Alberta has done this. I also know that BC regularly sends cases south and it follows that every other province does the same.

"World-class'? Make that 'third-world'.

Update: Mark Steyn weighs in on this at The Corner. And again here.

Scrap CIDA

Peter Foster, in today’s ‘Post’, gives a number of excellent reasons for killing the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In my estimation the most compelling of these is - and I didn’t know this till now - "CIDA was created in the late 1960s by Maurice Strong". Anything that Maurice Strong is involved in has to be deeply suspect. In Peter Fosters words:

[Strong] the self confessed socialist master-manipulator behind ...Kyoto, sustainable development and global governance.

...deliberately installed a vague agenda and loose controls over CIDA

...agenda to promote activist, leftist NGOs in the development field

Mr. Foster’s latest exposé follows columns (here and here) detailing CIDA and NGO interference with various mining operations around the world. His column today calls for CIDA to be dumped:

CIDA should be a candidate for the scrap heap, not because it has been ineffective in promoting development, but because it has become a prime factor in stopping it.

The solution to poverty is trade, investment and the rule of law... NGO activists ... should have less influence inside the gates of Ottawa.

I think I’ll write to the Minister responsible for CIDA and urge her to give it the axe.

Related

Letter to the editor from Kairos (CIDA funded NGO) chairman Father Paul Hansen protesting Peter Foster’s earlier column.

Also in today’s FP ‘Comment’ section along with Mr. Foster’s column is a letter from an Ecuadoran indigenous group to Mining Watch (funded in part by Kairos) protesting its anti-development activities which are helping to keep poor people in poverty.

Every tyrant has his buffoon

________der Fuhrer____________________Il Ducé_______



_____But it's not always easy to tell which is which.____

Nailed!

This is nuts!

Near Victoria yesterday, a construction worker, accidentally nailed in the forehead by a nail-gun, was rushed to a nearby hospital by the site first-aid officer.

On the way to the hospital they were stopped by a police speed trap. So, how did the cop deal with the situation? You’d think he’d see it as a medical emergency. Nope:

"We showed him the nail sticking out of my forehead but he didn't care at
all," Docherty told A-Channel news yesterday.

"He was dead set on getting some tickets," said Docherty.

The police officer followed the two to the hospital and once there issued a seatbelt ticket.

The police chief supported his officer:

The police chief suggested the pair should have called an ambulance.

"I think the officer used his discretion...," Hames said.

"My concern is for the safety of the public at large," he said.

Bullshit! The cop should have provided a high-speed, lights and siren escort to the hospital emergency door. Instead he just followed intending, not to help, but to issue a bloody ticket for an ‘offense’ that shouldn’t even be on the f***ing books!

Such behaviour certainly doesn’t boost respect for or confidence in the police. It does the exact opposite.

This case is reminiscent of law enforcement’s attitude towards citizens who attempt to defend themselves on their own property. People are actively discouraged from doing so and face charges should a perp be hurt in the process. This is not a healthy trend.

Al Gore’s rough ride

The Telegraph recently reported on Al Bore’s speech (ka-ching!) to a forum in Singapore. Not surprisingly Gore droned on about the evil oil industry’s funding of a "misinformation" campaign opposing global warming hysteria, er, "consensus".

I’m not sure how Gore was received in Singapore - one assumes with reverence. Where he got a very rough ride, though, was in the readers’ comments to the Telegraph story. Gore was raked over the coals beginning with a long list of his ‘errors’. There were many more great comments including this one singled out by Roger Thornhill:

Al Gore reminds me of a second hand car salesman and a fairground shouter! Want an easy answer? too stupid to understand the complex issues? are you a guilt ridden self hating middleclass handwringer? Are you jelous of people who have more than you? Then Al Gore is the man for you! He will tell you all you need to know in easy to understand words! He will tell you who you should blame and persecute! Roll up, roll up folks, come and see the greatest con on earth, all you have to do is listen and obey without question and good ole Al will save you all from the evil capitalist swine who swan around in their big cars and fancy homes! CO2 is to blame for all your woes he shouts! If someone is not convinced, ‘heretic’ he cries!

Al Gore will stir up the mob and tell them who to blame as long as you DO NOT question his wisdom and he will lead the huddled masses to a socialist utopia and paradise just as long as you do exactly what he says with no questions asked! Hail the great and all knowing Al Gore! Hail the greatest scientist the world has ever teen! Vote for Al and you need never bother to think for yourself ever again because he will do all your thinking for you! HOORAY! - Stephanie Clague, 10:18AM.

Heartwarming, really!

[h/t to Roger Thornhill at Neuearbeit Macht Frei]

Self-loathing

Mark Steyn enlists Steve McIntyre and Private Beauchamp in reaching a familiar conclusion:

As Pogo said, way back in the 1971 Earth Day edition of a then-famous comic strip, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Even when we don't do anything: In the post-imperial age, powerful nations no longer have to invade and kill. Simply by driving a Chevy Suburban, we can make the oceans rise and wipe the distant Maldive Islands off the face of the Earth. This is a kind of malignant narcissism so ingrained it's now taught in our grade schools. Which may be why, even when the New Republic's diarist goes to Iraq and meets the real enemy, he still assumes it's us.