Not Everything Gets Written Down

When you blog, you only present the parts of yourself that you want people to see. You don't talk about everything that is happening in your life. This isn't a matter of being coy, secretive or false; some things are private and you don't want to bleed all over everyone. For example, back in February I was told my position at work was coming to an end and that I should find something else within the company; and this word came on the same day as the company announced it was laying off 12,500 people. So the stress has been considerable. However my boss is a great guy and gave me time to try to find something else. And now that I have found something else I'm free to talk about it. Tomorrow I start my new position (within the same company I've worked for for the last 11 years) as a Project Manager. While it's great to simply have work, it turns out this will be a very interesting position which will be good for my career and will be working for someone I've enjoyed working for in the past.

Cut and Run?

Have a look at this article. It will help you the next time Jack Layton opportunistically tells us we should cut and run from Afghanistan. Nobody will pretend it's going to be without price, but good things are happening for the people of Afghanistan.

Effective Advertising?

Driving by a bus shelter near my home I saw an advertisement for city transit. It said, "Ride With Us... You Never Know Who You'll Meet", and there was a picture of a well dressed older man sitting beside an outrageously dressed punk rocker girl. Both of them are looking at each other, smiling in obvious delight in having met each other.

But is this realistic? Hardly. She's probably wondering if this old guy is a sicko who is going to ask her on a date, and he's asking himself "why did I fight in World War 2 if I'm handing the country over to weirdos". More importantly, does this ad present a likely reason for me to want to ride the bus to work? I'm a people person, and I like meeting new people, but this ad dissuades me from wanting to ride the bus. Yes, I've known some really nice intelligent people who are into heavy metal, but I wouldn't ride the bus to meet the unusual personalities of the world. People ride the bus to save money.

All of which would be funny, except for the fact that a larger amount of my property taxes go to supporting transit than what goes to pay for the police.

Where is your money going?

Environment Canada has a listing of organizations which are receiving grants from EC of more the $25,000. While I applaud their openness, there isn't a lot of detail to allow me to decide if this is a good use of my tax dollars. For example, why does the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers need $34,000 of my money? And why are aboriginal groups so disproportionately represented? Maybe all of these grants serve excellent purposes, but unfortunately this "proactive disclosure" raises more questions than it answers.

John Robson

As always, John Robson has an interesting article. He was there when Jack Layton started talking about "Students of history will know that all major conflicts are resolved ultimately through peace-oriented discussions ..." and called him on it. And with 3 university degrees, Robson is a good person to call him on it!

Where Do We Stand? (Part 2)

In the previous installment we saw the effects of a unaccountable, activist judicial elite. Not only is this ineffective at dealing with crime, it's become a means for the Left to make social policy without involving Parliament. However this is once again the result of a bigger problem. It's not only the courts that are run by the political Left, but it's also the press, the entertainment media and educational system. Now if you wanted to take over a country and impose your worldview, how would you do it? The ballot box? Don't be silly. The electorate is fickle. They may move to the Left in one election, but move to the Right in the next election. And most voters like to be somewhat in the middle, so they'll never move as far to the left as the Left would like. Clearly you will not be successful in taking over a country through winning an election. To take over a country you need a much more widespread and sustained approach. You need a means of influencing and controlling the hearts and minds of the people. And by controlling the courts, the press, the entertainment media and the educational system you accomplish exactly that.

If you think the press is neutral, you're dreaming. Studies have shown that members of the press are significantly more likely to vote for the Left, and significantly less likely to have any religious beliefs, than the general population. And frankly the press can spin a story a lot of different ways. Their freedom to lead us any way they want has been diminished by the rise of the blogosphere, but they're still a powerful influence. They feed the mind with the message of the Left.

The entertainment media also live out on the Left fringe. I think that's pretty obvious. Again, it's obvious that the programming on the major networks does not match the belief systems and values of the majority of the population. If the press leads our minds, the entertainment industry leads our hearts. That's what they do best; manipulating emotions.

But what about the educational system? The Left needs to own the educational system so it can influence hearts and minds from an early age. But am I being too hard on teachers? Not at all. I've met many teachers who are fine, upstanding and inspiring. I have nothing against the teaching profession. And frankly, the Left doesn't need to control all the teachers in this country. That would be very difficult. It's much easier to control the educational system by controlling the curriculum. Make sure you understand this; whoever controls the curriculum controls the educational system, and whoever controls the educational system controls the thoughts of the next generation.

I have some ideas for how right thinking people can change this. But my solution is pretty radical and expensive. I'm not sure a lot of my fellow Christians would agree with me. But I've thought a lot about this and think I have a solution which is faithful to the Scriptures and to my theological system. I'm not prepared to discuss it; not yet. Oh, and there's one other thing. The Left may control the courts, the press, the entertainment media and the educational system, but they forgot something which we can use to our advantage. There is one other structure of influence in our society that they don't own yet.

Not served well

No, we're not served very well by the criminal "justice" system. Not served very well at all. This time it isn't by the judges, but still the people who are claiming to represent us.

More Proof

As if to prove the point I'm making.

Where Do We Stand? (Part 1)

As a followup to my last posting and the comment it received, I'd like to expand on some of my thoughts. My previous posting dealt only with the criminal "justice" system. But this post deals with the larger issue of where things stand here in Canada. I approach this question from the viewpoint of a conservative Christian, but many of the points I'll raise can be seen by others. One does not need to have my worldview to understand something is wrong and to agree with at least some of my points. Each point will be somewhat lengthy, so I'll be making multiple posts over multiple days. So here goes... where do things stand here in Canada?

We have an unaccountable, activist, judicial elite. That our judiciary is unaccountable to the Canadian people is clear from the number of insane rulings our courts produce. As we saw in my last posting, fifty bricks of cocaine gets thrown out as evidence, as if it didn't exist because all of a sudden an unaccountable judge decides a search warrant is needed. Why now? Why is a search warrant needed when a Customs Officer has reasonable suspicion of a crime? Clearly the judge in question is putting herself at the forefront of judicial activism. She's now decided that a search warrant is needed and that's that. For those who are unfamiliar, judicial activism refers to our judges taking existing laws and interpreting them in new ways so as to essentially provide new meaning. And since most judges have been appointed by social liberals, judicial activism provides a way for the political left to move their agenda ahead without the influence of the elected representatives of the Canadian people.

So our judiciary is unaccountable and activist. But is it an elite? Look at the uproar when the present government suggested that the police should have a role in deciding who should become a judge. No, the only people who are qualified to nominate judges are those who are currently part of the legal system. To my way of thinking this is the very definition of an elite. But it goes farther. Ontario provincial government salaries over a certain level are a matter of public record. So go online and find out what a judge makes. Then compare this to the people the judges serve. Financially our judiciary is part of an elite. But they are also an elite because they don't share the same experience as the rest of us, or more specifically the same experience as those other people who deal with criminals. If judges had the same chances of getting hurt as a cop, I'll bet we would have less judges turning criminals out on the street. We have an unaccountable, activist, judicial elite. The Americans have two of the same problems. They have an activist judicial elite, but at least it's elected and thus accountable to the people. No (for the knee jerk anti-American crowd) we don't have to do the same as the Americans. There are other ways to make our judiciary accountable. But the first problem I'll mention is our unaccountable, activist judicial elite. So long as it continues, the insanity continues. All of this might seem quite acceptable to the judiciary and to the political left, but there are many Canadians who are intelligent, educated, patriotic and who feel poorly served by the current "justice" system.

Changing the Country for the Better

Key to changing the country for the better is making some major changes to the judiciary. Not just replacing individuals, but changing attitudes on a wider basis. Not sure we need to change any of our actual laws, since activist judges make new laws all the time under the guise of interpreting the laws we the people give them. Poor Mr. 50 bricks of cocaine. He was in a locked room while they discovered his stash. Good reason to deny reality and throw out the evidence against him. I vote no-confidence.

Simple Pleasures

This morning we were getting ready to go to church. I stepped out on the porch, and ended up sitting down for a moment. There was a light breeze and the temperature was perfect. Just slightly on the cool side, but the sort of temperature one could enjoy for hours. If I was a poet I would describe the temperature and breeze as "delicious" but unfortunately I'm not a poet so I don't know how I would describe it. But it was nice.

This afternoon Hannah was feeling peevish and was crying a bit. I looked at her, and held her and told her that even when she was crying she was still beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the cuddly moments more than the crying moments, but you're missing out on something if you can't step back and just love your child when she's crying. Of course, she wasn't doing it at 3:00am...

On the way home from church tonight I saw the widest rainbow I've ever seen. I've seen some amazing rainbows over the years. Some that stretch for a complete bow, a double rainbow with one on top of the other and the colours inverted (yes I triple checked), but today's was the widest rainbow I've ever seen. A splash of colour to end a day of simple pleasures.

Amazing what you find

Last night Karen and I were chatting for a while after the kids went to sleep. Karen went out into the hall, came back and said, "We have a problem." I went out into the hall with her and found Bethany sleeping in the laundry basket. I woke her up and got her back in bed. She said she couldn't sleep and wanted somewhere cozy to curl up.

Pretending he just doesn't see

I was listening to some 60’s protest songs tonight (don’t ask). Musically they present a nice picture. Peace and love. Who can argue with that? But for all the noble aspirations (and their aspirations were noble), they had no clue on how to achieve it. Nor did they have any clue on how the world really works. They came (mostly) out of middle-class America, which gave them the money to indulge in recreational drug use. They grew up in a stable society (except insofar as they decided to destabilize it) which allowed them to condemn their own government as repressive. They had no personal contact with repressive dictatorships, and so they thought violence would disappear through good intentions. They had a strong economy, which supported them as they denounced capitalism. Let’s be clear. They had real concerns, and in one particular case they achieved a real and glorious victory (making the world sit up and recognize discrimination again blacks). But while their concerns were often valid, on the whole they just had no clue.

Listen to the words of Joan Baez. “How many years must some people exist before they’re allowed to be free? And how many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” Sung with her rough and unaffected voice, these words can bring tears to your eyes. But it’s not just the political left that can adopt these words, because as much as the left might not appreciate me saying it, these words explain why my country has soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has nothing we could want. We don’t seek an empire. We’re not there to exploit their wealth. We are not controlled by a military-political complex. I know our self-interest is involved, in that we don’t want to be attacked again by terrorists. But while it took an attack on our neighbour (an attack which killed Canadians) to kick us out of our lethargy, we finally decided that we could no longer turn our heads and pretend that we just don’t see. The Afghan people lived under a brutal and repressive regime. And now, at the cost of Canadian blood, they have a chance to be free. The political left might not like our involvement in Afghanistan, and the other Opposition Parties in Canada may feel they can attack the current Canadian government and score a few cheap political points, but we are doing the right thing. I don’t know how it will end, but for now the Afghan people get a chance.

No Common Ground

Every time a Canadian soldier gets killed in Afghanistan, the political Left immediately starts demanding the withdrawal of our soldiers. Presumably the Left believes handing the country back to the Taliban will make it easier to negotiate with them. Just one more piece of fuzzy thinking from the Left.

Living in Canada and with people like Jack Layton on the news each day, I've had to learn to ignore such nonsense. But no more. Read this article. I know it will make you sick, but you need to know the type of people we are dealing with. Yes, I know Yon is in Iraq and our soldiers are in Afghanistan, but we're dealing with the same type of people... terrorists. There can be no negotiation or compromise with these people. We have no common ground. It's us or them, civilization or their brutality.

A Really Great Day

It's been a really great day. It's a Statutory Holiday (Canada Day fell on a Sunday this year). The weather was great (just a little on the cool side). There is a glorious breeze moving through the house. We got tons of work done around the house. I fixed some chairs, washed and waxed my car, applied some touch-up paint, pulled weeds, dropped off some stuff I had borrowed from friends, took the kids out, and got caught up on some mail from the local homeschooling association. On top of that I got to play some computer games, take a nap, start an interesting book and enjoy some steaks on the barbeque.

Want to Take a Chance?

It's Canada Day and we're at home. Frankly the crowds get to both Karen and me, and Hannah is a bit young to go out until 11:00pm. So at 10:00pm Bethany was standing in our room, telling me she couldn't sleep and hoping to see some of the Kanata fireworks over top of the neighbours roofs. So I said, "Want to take a chance?" We jumped into the van and drove down to the parking lot of the local supermarket. There was a good unobstructed view across to where the fireworks were being set off. We were a fair distance away, but we got there right before the fireworks started. Bethany got to sit in the front seat of the van, and was BEAMING. Earlier tonight I told her I thought I was a bit of a creampuff, letting the children get away with too much and not saying "no" often enough. So on the way home she says, "Thanks, creampuff." Well, hopefully it built some memories. Next year I'll try to bring Joel along with me.