Again….

Rita was upgraded to a Category 3 storm and the National Hurricane Center said it probably would develop into a Category 4 on Wednesday, the same classification as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama last month.
reuters

Bush must really have it in for the Gulf coast.

Let’s hope this hurricane breaks down before it hits. But it does not look like it will. The good news is that evacuation should be relatively easy simply because there are not that many people in the storm’s path. And most of those are emergency workers who have the sense and the means to get out of the way.

Written by jay on September 21st, 2005 with no comments.
Read more articles on Katrina.

I wish I were Alberta Bound

“Prosperity” cheques set to start arriving in Albertans’ mailboxes in the new year could be worth much more than $300 each, says Ralph Klein.

“I suspect right now … I think that the cheques would be larger - significantly - than $300,” the premier said, speaking to reporters yesterday following an event at the Shaw Conference Centre.
edmonton sun via north armpit alberta

Of course the cheque will be arriving in Sean’s mailbox, a mile down the road, in late January - the ink will freeze and fall off.

Kidding aside, Klein has this one dead right. When a government has spare cash it should return it to source - the taxpayers. There are various folks in Alberta who are suggesting a tax cut rather than a rebate; however, a tax cut is part of an ongoing bugetary process. The rising oil and gas prices are not.

Which is what distinguishes the situation from the outragous surplus being run by the feds. It is pretty clear that the federal government is overtaxing Canadians year after year. Otherwise it would not be running surpluses year after year. This is not a windfall, it’s a boondoggle and it is time that it stopped. The way the surplus is trimmed is a multi year endevour and should be carefully planned. Canada, unlike Alberta, still has a significant national debt and paying that debt down makes sense. Especially as paying the debt down will free up even more cash in interest no longer due.

As Finance Minister Dithers came up with the relatively prudent 1/3 to debt reduction, 1/3 to tax relief and 1/3 to contingencies rule on surpluses. However, it may be time to look at a 2/5 to debt reduction 2/5 to tax relief and 1/5 to contingency simply because the surplus seems to be growing. (And, with luck, it will prevent the Liberals from using the “contingency” money for looney ideas like federal daycare.)

But I do hope that Sean is able to use the bobcat to clear the driveway before the ink is entirely gone.

Written by jay on September 21st, 2005 with 7 comments.
Read more articles on Canadian Politics and Liberals.

Dithers wants your babies

The coming global battle to produce the brightest brains begins with educating babies as soon as they leave the crib, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday.

Child care and early development will be instrumental in confronting the growing economic challenge posed by China and India, Martin told senior civil servants.
vancouver sun

If ever I had doubts about not sending Sam or Max to daycare Dithers has just relieved me of them. We’re not doing it for the kids….we doing it to whup those Indians and Chinese in the productivity sweepstakes.

Now I know Martin has kids, he gave them Canadian Steamships after all, and I am just wondering if he has simply forgotten how much fun a four year old can have. What he is suggesting is that we take our kids long before formal school starts and drop them into an enviornment of regimentation and some sort of “learning” as if you can stop a four year old from learning.

Here’s a suggestion Prime Minister, cut taxes enough so that mums can stay at home with their pre-schoolers. And, if you want to be really radical, go on an all out campaign to eliminate television for kids under, say, six. At that point we will have happy kids and compete just fine with our Indian and Chinese friends.

(Note to the CPC; if Martin keeps pitching these floaters and you keep being scared to swing you’ll be called out on strikes. This sort of idiocy needs to be ridiculed from the go.)

Written by jay on September 21st, 2005 with 2 comments.
Read more articles on Education and Homeschooling and Liberals and Uncategorized.

A Swedish Imam condemns terror…and has his life threatened

After 7/7, I realized that there is no longer any room for compromises or excuses, that there is nothing to understand – that instead, we must stand together to do everything to stop those who spread hatred and death.

“I decided to exclude the word ‘but’ from my sermons. After the London attacks, the time for ‘buts’ is over, at least on my part. I don’t want to hear any more ‘buts’ or other excuses for suicide attacks in Europe. I never again want to hear, ‘But what about the victims in Iraq ‘ or ‘But think about what the U.S. has done there and there,’ or ‘But think about the [immigrant-European] segregation [in European countries].’

“In the Friday sermon that I delivered at Stockholm’s Great Mosque after 7/7, I condemned the attacks unreservedly. I talked about how we now must, once and for all, deal with those forces that disgrace Islam by mutilating and murdering innocent people. The TV pictures from London had left me in such despair that I couldn’t hold back the tears while delivering the Friday sermon. That caused strong reactions.

“Afterwards, I was – in my own mosque – threatened by people who considered it reprehensible that I ‘wept for English children.’ Unfortunately, there is a minority among Swedish Muslims that holds extreme views, and that sympathizes with the London bombers….

“The day after my Friday sermon… I was approached by a man who threatened my life. He demanded that I stop condemning Islamist terror – or else. His threat was of such a serious nature that my wife and I decided to file a police complaint…
memri

Winning the WOT will depend as much on the willingness of Muslims to stand up to the thugs in their midst as any military or intelligence or police activity.

Written by jay on September 21st, 2005 with no comments.
Read more articles on Terror.