Logic? Or Not?

PM's Office - Give back the guns...

Harper's office issued a statement Friday morning in quick reaction to the news that the RCMP had taken some firearms that they said weren't stored properly in empty homes.
"If any firearms were taken, we expect they will be returned to their owners as soon as possible," the statement said. "We believe the RCMP should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property."

Evidently, staff in the PMO don't use logic before making blatheringly idiotic statements like the one bolded above. By my understanding, if the guns are already seized, and in the safe possession of the RCMP, clearly attempting to return them to their owners as soon as possible is detracting from the more important tasks described.

Logically, it would be clearly best for the RCMP to make no attempt whatsoever to return the guns, and simply let the careless owners contact the Police to recover them. But that is logic, something quite lacking in the PMO...

Stephen Harper on governing with hope!

Stephen Harper crowned himself king of spoken gobbledegook recently, with this utterly nonsensical and completely useless gem. It often amazes me that people can open their mouths, speak fifty or so words, and effectively say absolutely nothing.

"I said then that Canada's Conservative's would govern with hope, not with fear. We said we would make Canada more united, stronger, more prosperous and safer," Harper said. "And five years later I can tell you that we have made Canada more united, stronger, more prosperous and a safer country."

According to whom? Stephen Harper himself? I would love to think that StatsCanada would be able to provide Mr. Harper with raw and useable statistics that he can use to show Canada is a more united, stronger, more prosperous and a safer country, but since he cancelled the mandatory long form census and replaced it with an optional one, they can't help him there.

Is Canada really more united? How can one possibly measure that? Looking at the recent American style attack ads on TV I would say Canada is now more divisive than united.

Stronger? in military strength? average fitness of the Canadian citizen? This word should be banned, as it is absolutely meaningless!

Is Canada really more prosperous than five years ago? The TSX and real estate market values are up, but virtually all other economic indicators including productivity, federal and provincial deficits, employment rates, and many others point to an economy that is still struggling, and in far worse shape than when Harper and the conservatives took office. Sorry Steve, but I would take Mark Carney's word over yours any day.

Well it is possible that Canada is safer than it was five years ago, but that has little to do with anything Harper and the conservatives could have done. Crime rates in Canada have been on a very slow decline for the past two decades, and have nothing to do directly with specific decisions implemented by any government. The reduced rates are generally considered to be as a result of slowly improving socio-economic factors that take years and years to return measureable results. Better public education, better jobs, better support programs for disadvantaged all work to reduce crime rate, NOT building newer and larger super prisons.

Personally, I also have hope. I hope for a return to a real, effective governement that does something positive. If your legacy will be a two point drop in the HST, a failed attempt to kill the gun registry, and a bunch of get tough on crime laws a country that is by all accounts one of the safest in the world, well, that's really not saying much!

Will Someone Tell Jason Kenney To Just Admit He Is Homophobic!

"We try to be inclusive and include a summary. I can tell you that if you were to read the old book, you wouldn't even know that there are gay and lesbian Canadians."

Thus spoke our Immigraition Minister, The Right Honorable (and at least a tad homophobic) Jason Kenney, on attempting to defend his decision to remove all mention of gay rights in a publication intended as a study guide for new immigrants to Canada, released last November.

Well Jasey Kay, you certainly are trying to stick your head in the sand on this issue, as there have been gay Canadians in the past, there presently are gay Canadians, and there probably will be gay Canadians for a long time in the future, whether you happen to like it, or in your case, not!

Perhaps the Honourable Member could do some research on, say, Egan v. Canada, and Vriend v. Alberta, in which the courts determined that 'sexual orientation' should essentially be used in addition to 'sex' in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Heck, if I happened to be a gay or lesbian immigrant, I might be interested in knowing what my rights as a new Canadian include! Perhaps the Minister thinks immigrants are pesky enough, and doesn't want the militant fags and dykes knowing they have rights at all!

It is painfully obvious that Kenney is not trying to be inclusive, as it was he who asked the references be removed, and he who held that position while the Deputy Minister asked for them to be reinstated. And to suggest that people need to read an outdated version of the guide to determine there was no mention of gays in an the previous millenia, well Jason Baby, That's Really Not Saying Much!

Only Chris Bently, Attorney General, can claim a miscarriage of justice "speaks to one of the strengths of the justice system..."

Evidently the new year hasn't got many public figures resolving to say things that won't become fodder for ridicule, as there seems to be countless examples of mind-boggling loquations and flim flam quotations in the news recently. Here is the Right Honourable Chris Bentley, Ontario's Attorney General hard at work dispelling the myth that he is a reasonably intelligent person:

Attorny General Chris Bentley said financial compensation only applied to "rare, unusual cases" and wasn't appropriate in the cases of Robert Baltovich and Anthoney Hanemayer.

Well, if the Baltovich and Hanemeyer cases aren't considered rare or unusual, I really don't know what might be! Pardon my shock, but out of the thousands of killers put behind bars over the last twenty years in Ontario, doesn't the fact that not even ten have had their convictions overturned many years later make them all "rare, unusual cases"?

Now if this claptrap wasn't enough, Mr. Bentley goes on to further clarify his already clear position that he really cannot think straight! I honestly cannot believe people actually say things like this to reporters, but here it is:

"They have both been found not guilty as a result of the steps that the justice system has taken. I actually think that speaks to one of the strengths of the justice system in the province of Ontario and in Canada generally."

Well Mr. Bently, I actually think that you are a complete and utter moron, and that if you actually have a brain, it is quite evident that you are unable to use it. If spending years in prison for a crime which you did not commit and spending years trying to get your conviction overturned are indications of the "strengths of the justice system in the province of Ontario", well, That's Really Not Saying Much!

Gen. Walter Natynczyk - "...I provided the best information..."

I would die laughing if the subject matter weren't so serious, but I just have to hang my head in shame for listening to buffoons like General Walter Natynczyk, Chief of Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces.

"Yesterday, just like in May '07, I provided the best information that was available to me," he told reporters. "And the moment I saw this report this morning, I realized it was wrong, or the information I provided yesterday was incorrect, and I'm responsible for that."

So after Peter Mackay and others in the Conservative Party ganged up on truthspeaker Richard Colvin (a current Canadian Diplomat), suggesting his information and testimony was 'not credible', they called in the General to support their little witch hunt. Well, not only twenty four hours after the esteemed General testified, he had to recant it after being presented with some late arriving information!

Shame, shame, shame Mssr's Mackay, Harper, and Natynczyk. You're all a bunch of petty liars! Please don't suggest for a moment that no one knew about this report that essentially corroborated Richard Colvin's position on the matter, why not just admit it was buried, in the hopes it would get lost permanently and not resurface.

And with respect to Gen. Walter Natynczyk statement quoted, obviously when the best information you have turn out to be completely false, well, That's Really Not Saying Much!

You Get The Idea!

So you get the idea then... Something is said that on the outside seems pretty darn impressive, but when you stop to think about it, what is said is actually not really anything to write home about, and many times is pretty pathetic. That's really not saying much!

Dr. David Butler-Jones - Canada "Leading the Way" with H1N1 Vaccinations

C-Health/Canadian Press

“Already we’ve immunized more people than anybody else in the world as a percentage of our population,” Dr. David Butler-Jones Nov 16 2009.

An impressive feat indeed, Dr. Butler-Jones, especially when one considers the incredible impediments the country has against it: Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with an incredibly well integrated and advanced road, rail, air, and marine transportation network, an extremely well funded public health care system, and to top it all off, the manufacturer of the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has its production facilities located.... you guessed it, right here in Canada! With the odds stacked in such a manner, it seems we have done something quite incredible! (pardon the sarcasm)

If that weren't enough, we have modern, high quality, built infrastructure within which to hold clinics, and not just one, but at least five highly efficient delivery companies, all of which are quite capable of getting a crate of vaccine from a major centre to anywhere in the country within 48 hours. Finally, Dr. Butler-Jones has failed to inform us that over 90 percent of the world's countries are not even able to afford the vaccine for their residents! I mean, is it really all that impressive that we are beating Burkina Faso and Bangladesh in delivering the vaccine?

Considering all that, which puts it in a slightly different perspective, I would certainly hope that we have immunized more people than any other country in the world!

I hate to be the one to break the news to Dr. Butler-Jones, but That's Really Not Saying Much!