Royal family photo updated

America, "Home of the Wimp"

Dennis Prager on the cancellation of day one of the GOP Convention:

Whoever decided to cancel one-fourth of the convention two days before it started should appear publicly and offer a rational defense of this decision. But I doubt they will. Because there is no rational explanation.

This is no Monday-morning quarterbacking. I said this decision was indefensible when it was first taken.

It is part of the undoing of the American claim to be the Home of the Brave. We are becoming the Home of the Wimp. ...

Seconded by Mark Steyn:  Rain of Terror

... The symbolism is wretched: Digging America out of its multi-trillion-dollar hole requires boldness and bravery, not a compliant safety-first mentality that shuts down the town on the first drop of rain. ...

John Robson on equalization fraud

Make It Go Away:

Equalization makes us poorer, encourages bad policy and fosters bitterness. Unfortunately we can’t just take it out behind the barn and kill it with an axe. ...

Not to mention that it's fraudulent:

Satirist P.J. O’Rourke says, “Beyond a certain point complexity is fraud … when someone creates a system in which you can’t tell whether or not you’re being fooled, you’re being fooled.” So take Canada’s multi-billion-dollar equalization program … please. It’s so complicated even experts have trouble with it, and regular citizens are excluded completely.

... equalization is arbitrary. Devised with theologian Soren Kierkegaard's "covetous eye on the outcome," it provides dense technical cover for political shenanigans involving billions of dollars.

This much complexity is fraud, plain and simple.

The appalling arrogance of climate alarmists

From Václav Klaus' speech at the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies, organized by the World Federation of Scientists in Erice, Sicily on 20 August 2012:

The real problem is not climate or global warming, but the Global Warming Doctrine and its consequences.

This doctrine, as a set of beliefs, is an ideology, if not a religion.[2] It lives independently on the science of climatology. Its disputes are not about temperature, but are part of the “conflict of ideologies”. Temperature is used and misused in these disputes. The politicians, the media and the public – misled by the very aggressive propaganda produced by the adherents of the global warming doctrine  – do not see this.

... As someone who personally experienced central planning and attempts to organize the whole of society from one place, I feel obliged to warn against the arguments and ambitions of the believers in the global warming doctrine. Their arguments and ambitions are very similar to those we used to live with decades ago under Communism. The arrogance with which the global-warming alarmists and their fellow-travellers in politics and the media present their views is appalling. They want to suppress the market, they want to control the whole of society ...

[Via FOS and]

A recent example of appalling arrogance (and sloppy dishonesty): California Governor Jerry Brown's "denier" web page.

Mark Carney's corporate bashing

Peter Foster:

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney must be congratulated for delivering an unwelcome message to the CAW. ... But then he had to spoil it. Perhaps he thought that since he was delivering inconvenient truths to labour, he should also do a bit of corporate bashing.

Mr. Carney suggested ... Canadian corporations were holding too much cash and failing to diversify into emerging markets. He opined that high cash holdings might be due to companies not knowing what to do with their profits, but being reluctant to return them to shareholders.  ...

... Attacking corporations is always appealing from a populist perspective, but it is also dangerous. It could easily feed into the notion that the Conservatives’ commendable reductions in corporate taxes have merely led to boosted profits being “socked away.” ...

... It was good to see so many prominent and successful Canadian companies — from Open Text to Suncor — prepared to put their head above the parapet and dare to tell Mr. Carney, subtly, that he should stick to his knitting.

Liberals found guilty in Guelph Robocall scandal

Liberals were found guilty yesterday of violating telecommunications regulations in making misleading Robocalls in Guelph during the last federal election.  Ezra has some fun:

George Jonas On Liberty

There’s nothing liberal about compelling liberalism:

At just about any social gathering, a dimwit is sure to explain that free speech isn’t absolute. There are limits. Chances are he’ll tell you about a person yelling “fire!” in a crowded movie theatre, then look at you as smug as a parrot, expecting a treat for having figured things out. I usually resist asking “Polly wants a cracker?” but it’s an effort.

... Mobility rights aren’t raised as a defense against a charge of trespassing or home invasion, not because mobility rights aren’t “absolute” but because they confer an entitlement to mobility, not criminality.

...

Thanks again, George.