Humourless utopian evangelists

PR supporters, says Lorne Gunter, remind him of:

... Dennis, the muck-tilling peasant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
[...]
...Dennis [played by Andrew Coyne] is such a pinched, humourless evangelist for his utopian ideals that by the end of the scene you find yourself rooting for Arthur to repress him.
[...]
Proportional representation, including MMP, appeals to the sort of solemn soul who sees him-or herself as slightly smarter than the rest of us and above anything so crass as partisan politics.
[...]
... Marxism, too, looked good on paper until every attempt to implement it in the real world led to a disparity between rich and poor (party members and non-members) that would have made John D. Rockefeller blush, as well as a level of state violence against the citizenry comparable to the worst of fascism.

PR causes bigger problems than it purports to solve:

... PR tends to correct one problem-- too many seats for the big parties --
with another-- too much power for little ones.

Just what we need - excessive emphasis on single issue flakery.
So, Ontario, be careful what you vote for tomorrow!

What "poor"?

A favorite pastime of those on the left is bleating about the poor, poverty, social justice, etc ... Their obvious ‘truths’ about poverty form the basis for calls for ever more state intervention with ever more and ever bigger entitlement programs. After all, how can anyone be in favour of ‘social injustice’?

Together, Mark Steyn and Kathy Shaidle do a fine job of countering the lefty bleats.

Updates: Steyn here and here. Shaidle here, here and here.

The Western Standard folds

Just read this very sad news from Ezra Levant. The Western Standard has ceased publishing. It was a magazine I always looked forward to seeing in my mail box and it will be greatly missed. A strong right wing voice ... gone! What a bummer!

I knew something was going on because I had recently called the WS subscription people about what had happened to the summer and fall issues I hadn't received. The answer: "We're considering changing the frequency of publication". But I certainly didn't expect the new frequency would be ZERO!

According to Ezra's post there were 82 issues published and a total of 150 million pages printed. At about 50 pages per issue that means the circulation was only about 35,000. Not enough to generate a profit. It's sad that so few of those who vote Conservative could see their way clear to supporting the only solidly right-wing magazine in the country. Pathetic, really!

Update: Jonathan Kay on Ezra and the Western Standard's demise.

PR, MMP truly suck

George Jonas said PR sucks. Today, John Williamson of the Canadian Tax Payers Federation disagreed with George because, he says, MMP works just fine in New Zealand.

Also in today’s ‘Post’ are two columns, one by Colby Cosh and another by Lawrence Solomon, citing, among many other things, New Zealand as an example of why Ontarians should vote ‘NO’ to MMP.

Colby Cosh on New Zealand:

How rarely MMP supporters seem to mention that the race-based Maori Party has become a major power-broker in their hero-country, New Zealand.

Colby's main point, though, is that FPTP "ain’t broke"and Ontarians aren’t calling for change anyway:

The plain fact is that Ontarians have greeted the prospect of electoral reform with an apathy that must surprise even a hardened cynic. If there were such abundant appetite for change, any particular alternative to FPTP might well win or lose with the voters in a referendum.....Is it possible that people are largely satisfied with FPTP, in all its tainted majesty, because it is simple, clear, fair and time-tested?

Also Ontarians are being asked to vote for a pig-in-a-poke:

...Ontarians are being asked to vote in the referendum for a principle not yet cast in the stone of specific legislation; it remains to be decided [for example] whether any formal requirements will be imposed on the parties in ordering their lists...
...it's surely better for Ontarians to simply vote "No" to a blank cheque for reform...

Lawrence Solomon argues persuasively that MMP ("Myriad Minority Parties") is a "force for division" :

Now the fastest growing political party in the world, the Pirate Party offers youth the right to download pirated music and movies --a basic human right, it argues. The Pirate Party -- which says it will support any ideology in a coalition government, as long as it gets its way on free downloads......This year it surpassed the Swedish Green Party in members, and in 2009 it is expected to be the Hot New Thing in European Union-wide elections. 

...if Ontarians vote for MMP in the referendum Oct. 10, look for MSM messaging, Face-Book and political chat-rooms to hum, exhorting our youth to join the political process to make free downloads a reality. 

In New Zealand, an orgy of crass political deal-making so offended the electorate after it switched to MMP in 1996 that three years later, in a citizen-initiated referendum, more than 80% voted to roll back MMP......[However] True to form, the newly entrenched politicians ignored the non-binding referendum, and continue to this day to resist calls for reform. 

....Italians and Israelis are likewise trying to reform their dysfunctional systems of proportional representation. 

In the worst cases, proportional representation gives voice -- and vent -- to the vileness in humanity. In France, ... the bigot, Jean-Marie Le Pen... won 32 seats, making him a major political force until public revulsion at proportional representation led to its repeal in favour of a system more like ours. Without proportional representation, Le Pen lost all 32 seats and his party became a spent political force. 

Ontario has its Le Pens, striving to divide us, as it has regionalists and pirates and others with grievances to nurse.

There is no shortage of unintended consequences associated with changing the time-tested FPTP system. Be careful what you wish for!!
And another thing! I confess I’m not just a little envious and annoyed at all the attention being paid to the Ontario vote on MMP. Envious because I don’t recall anywhere near this much debate in the run up to the BC referendum on STV. Annoyed because this seems to be another example of just how ‘Ontario-centric’ the MSM remains.
I just hope the anti-PR pundits keep their arguments handy for the next time the PR-freaks attempt to shove it down our throats in BC.

USS Abraham Lincoln visits Victoria

USS Abraham Lincoln dropped anchor at Royal Roads this afternoon.

Update: The next morning the local rag greeted the carrier with a frontpage photo and a ... hearty "welcome to a friend and ally"?? Nope - a lovely expression of GREED!

A gruesome lesson for admirers of Gandhi

Pacifists never tire of invoking Gandhi’s example as a non-violent model for bringing about change. His apparent success has attracted many followers.

But, as commenters on this post by Kathy Shaidle point out, Gandhi’s tactics worked because his opponents were decent, civilized people to begin with, the British. This comment by ‘The Phantom’ provides a pointer to a rather gruesome illustration of what happens when this is not the case.

It goes without saying that the Burmese example of the use of pacifism would yield similar results against the Taliban.

Pete Seeger repudiates Stalin (60 years late)

Mark Steyn turns a critical eye on commie-peacenik-singer-songwriter Pete Seeger and those who revere him. Apparently, Seeger, who wrote such well-known songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", now thinks he may have been mistaken in his lifelong admiration for mass murderer Joseph Stalin. Steyn asks:

Concluding:
I hate to admit it, but back in the 60's I kind of liked those dopey songs.

The invention of the faux-childlike faux-folk song was one of the greatest
forces in the infantilization of American culture. Seeger’s hymn to the "senselessness" of all war, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", combined passivity with condescension - "When will they ever learn?" - and established the default mode of contemporary artistic "dissent". Mr Seeger’s ongoing veneration is indestructible.

Would it kill the icons of the left just for once to be on the right side at the time? America has no "best-loved Nazi" or "best-loved Fascist" or even "best-loved Republican", but its best-loved Stalinist stooge is hailed in his dotage as a secular saint who’s spent his life "singing for peace". He sang for "peace" when he opposed the fascistic armaments stooge Roosevelt and imperialist Britain, and he sang for "peace" when he attacked the Cold War paranoiac Truman, and he kept on singing for "peace" no matter how many millions died and millions more had to live in bondage...