I’ve got a better idea… July 30, 2007
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Let’s just ban pointy objects…
I don’t mean to trivialize the plight of these people but if every special interest group got the law changed to accomodate their particular greivance we wouldn’t be allowed to do anything – it would either be too dangerous, too polluting, too culturally insensitive, etc… ugh…
Afstan-again… July 28, 2007
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Damian Brooks smacks down Toronto Councillor Carolyn Parish pretty effectively here:
But the most effective rebuttal to Ms. Parrish’s uninformed assertion is this poll of Afghan public opinion, released just last December, which shows that support for foreign troops in the country runs three to one Grateful to Unhappy (based upon a random national sample of 1,036 Afghan adults from 14-19 Oct, 2006, which apparently has a 3.5-point error margin).
I think that it bears repeating that the military exists primarily to do two things: kill our enemies and break their stuff.
In fact, I’m surprised that peaceniks want our troops to be viewed as peacekeepers… in my mind this increases the likelihood that they will be deployed. Let’s conduct a thought experiment:
Suppose a conflict has broken out in fill-in-astan but a truce has been declared and the international community wants to waste its time/money/effort sending peacekeepers to mediate the dispute. There are two countries that have soldiers available:
Country A’s troops have a reputation as badass mofo’s. A’s citizens view their military as a potent force and are proud of their martial heritage.
Country B’s troops have been trained in a similar manner to A’s but the citizens of B think of their military as a glorified police force who look scary but don’t really want to hurt anyone. This is the image that is portrayed to the rest of the world as well.
Who do you think the international community is going to ask for peacekeepers first, the Stormtroopers from A or the policemen from B?
I think this deserves some research.. Does viewing the military as a bunch of glorified policemen (aka peacekeepers) make it more likely that our troops get sent overseas or at least requested to participate in overseas ventures?
Economics strikes again! July 22, 2007
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Okay last post for today… turning off my computer after this:
Report in the Toronto Star about the booming American Southwest and the water problems caused by millions of affluent people living in a desert. In the article they discuss how the rust belt around the great lakes could easily accomodate many more people and not have to worry about water issues. Not surprisingly at the end you have some professor saying that the government should step in to provide inducements for people to live in ecologically sustainable areas.
I would suggest that the reason people don’t live in the rust belt is because it is not a desireable place to be from a tax perspective. Consider that of the States mentioned in that report Ohio and New York are both in the bottom ten of the Tax Foundations Business Tax Climate Index. High taxes keep businesses away. No new businesses, no new jobs, no reason for people to move. That’s without even getting into the union vs. right to work debate. If you poke around on the Tax Foundation’s website or the Bureau of Labor’s website you would probably find that wages in the rust belt are only average to below average whilst taxes are average or above. Seems a fairly straightforward issue to me…
Ban Guns Now! July 22, 2007
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Because we all know that a ban will keep guns out of criminals hands… because criminals are law abiding citizens… no wait that’s not right…
This post was inspired by the Mayor of Toronto:
“We know where the guns come from,” Miller said. “Half come across the border, sometimes more than half. We need real action on border security.
“And the second thing we need is to take care of our own house. Handguns are still legal in Canada, partially, and we’ve got to make them completely illegal.”
The thing is that handguns are illegal in other countries and guess what… people still get shot. Why not try and find out the root causes of the violence instead of just banning the instruments and hoping the underlying issues vanish?
Also if we must ban guns can we at least legalize drugs… just a thought…
UPDATE: Feds rightfully say “No Way!” to handgun ban… and from looking at some of the comments it seems at least a few people understand the essential problem with a ban…
Free Trade: Destroyer of all… July 20, 2007
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or not.
Seems that Smith bloke might have been on to something after all… funny that.
Canadians want photo radar?? July 19, 2007
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Today on CTV’s website there’s an article titled “Poll shows high support for photo radar“. The story goes on to report that 64% of those polled think speed cameras are a good idea. But as one of the interviewers points out speed cameras are great at making money for the government but they don’t necessarily prevent speeders.
Speed cameras have been in use in Britain for quite a while and they have been great for the Exchequer but have they done what they were susposed to – reduce speeding and making roads safer… Well if we look at this report from the Daily Mail we can see that deaths are down by 7% between 2001 and 2005. That looks pretty good but over the same time period in Sweden deaths fell 25% and in the Netherlands 35%. Meanwhile drinking and driving related deaths increased 2% in the UK compared with drops in 4 other countries cited. In addition the speed cameras have lead to some unintended consequences.
Speed cameras are not a replacement for boots on the ground. I wonder if the people who answered that they would like to have speed cameras have really thought it through… I’d also like to see the age distribution of those surveyed…
The only way I would support speed cameras is if they started putting speed limits in place that made sense like 120 km/h on the 401 in Ontario instead of the current 100km/h…
