Sam Adams Advice for the Canadian Conservative

Samuel Adams advised: "It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

As they say, 'nuff said.

More "what the hell is wrong with this world!"

This may become a regular feature.

Here is a report about a San Francisco Anti-War protest. The "Breasts not Bombs" crew, who I'm sure includes bunch of really ugly people, decide to get naked to protest the liberation in Iraq.

By itself it's gross, however, the fact that they brought they 10 year old daughter along and had her get naked too should be illegal. Unfortunately, it being San Francisco, it is not illegal to brain wash your 10 year old child to get naked in front of total strangers.

How far away are we from this girl working at a strip club to protest something else?

And these are the very same people complaining about child labour in East Asia where 15-16 year olds are working- fully clothed.

It's a great day

I just got into the office after a long, long meeting and have a crazy day ahead of me, but I just wanted to note, that I have lots of energy now that I've read this.

What a great day!

Breaking Silence on Iran

I am breaking my silence on issues directly involving Iran.

This is not a controversy. The guy campaigned on the fact that he was the first person over the wall during the operation.

I wrote about him in a National Post op-ed a year ago. This is what I said:

It was almost exactly 25 years ago that student terrorists in Iran attacked the United States embassy and held 52 American citizens and diplomats hostage. Those terrorists are now the people in charge of various departments within Iran's government. They're the ones who sponsor terrorism in Iraq and Israel, and who are trying to prevent others from getting to the bottom of Ms. Kazemi's death.

Who did people think I was talking about?

What the hell is wrong with the world?

When this happens, you know that we have some serious problems in this world.

Three Vipers, Two Lamborghinis, and new Bentlies

This confirms what many have said in the past. Canada's standard of living is dismally low. Canadians, on average, are worse off than those living in the poorest state in the Union, Alabama.

Yeah. All the anti-Americanisms, and it turns out we are poorer than Alabamans. (I am not saying that Canada is not a better country, because I believe it is. On this important measure; however, we fail miserably.)

And if you don’t' believe a think tank to tell you we are worse off than Americans, I have anecdotal proof!

Last week I was at Newport Beach. It's not the richest neighborhood in Orange County, but it is fairly rich. (It ranks 111th on the list of richest towns in the US.) Median home price in the town was about $600,000 6 years ago but thanks to crazy real estate market in California it is now well over $1.5 million. (Yes, that's a really high IRR!) Anyway, other than being in California, the town, resembles the area of Toronto that I grew up in. In fact, my best friends lived in neighborhoods that were more affluent than Newport Beach.

So you would think that I would feel fairly at home at Newport Beach and that I would not be shocked by the luxuries I would find there. Well, you would be wrong.

I saw three Vipers, two Lamborghinis, and two new Bentleys in the span of 5 minutes! I had never seen so many expensive cars in one day. (In fact, like my old days in North York, I was riding in the cheapest car in the area and I was in a brand new Nissan.)

These people were really, really, really rich. They could buy out the folks in Post Road and Birdal Path five or six times over.

Like I said in my post about education, the only problem isn't that on average Canadians are not as rich as Americans. We should also have a problem with the fact that our rich people (our investor class) are not as rich as the rich people in the US.

Young People Count

Today, in the middle of the inside the park fights about youth wing vs. no youth wing, something is lost.

Young people count, and we seem to have forgotten about that. It's a shame really. Here are some examples of some young people have done:

1. Young Americans for Freedom drafted Barry Goldwater to run for President. (And those who know me, know that I believe it was Barry Goldwater who changed the United States forever.)

2. A young Bill Buckley started the Conservative Party of New York.

3. A young Mario Dumont started the only party in Quebec worth voting for.

4. A young Floyd Brown lead the protest against Communist China in Washington DC. (He ended up getting arrested and the United States ended up chaning its policy.)

Anyway, young people can do a lot. It's a shame that the argument in our party has become one of youth wing vs. no youth wing. There is so much more to this debate. (I supported the Young Wing idea, but I also note that YAF didn't need any recognition from the Republican Party.)

PM Who? From Where?

Thanks to Paul Wells, I found this article by Paul Martin in one of the world's premier foreign affairs mags.

Wells makes some good points (so go read them there), I'd like to make two additional points here:

1. Stupid Organizations: There are very few international organizations that are of any use. With the exception of the World Trade Organization, I can't think of a single international organization that has done what it was supposed to do and that has done it well. Most these organizations turn into either a debating union or a target for domestic anger. (For example, if you want to get elected in Brazil just start bashing the World Bank, if you want to get elected in US, start bashing the United Nations.) So to create a new forum, when about a dozen other fora exist, is only useful in the eye of a process driven person. Someone once wrote that committees were dedicated to keeping minutes and wasting hours. This is especially true in the international arena. (Don't get me wrong, as an internationalist, I wish there were more useful int'l organizations, but as we stand there are few.)

2. Stupid Paul Martin: When was the last time a Prime Minister of a G8 country got completely ignored when making a MAJOR foreign affairs announcement? I can't think of one. The problem with Paul Martin is that he is committed to so many number one priorities that people start tuning out. They stop taking him seriously. This is what is happening on the international front. Paul Martin cannot be trusted to focus on any one issue. There is no need to pay attention to this MAJOR policy shift, because there will be another MAJOR policy shift tomorrow, and one on the weekend. Paul Martin has turned into the boy that cried priority, or wolf, or whatever. Speaking of which, has anyone seen any coverage on the foreign affairs white paper? You know the one that was so important that took a billion years to write? Where is it? Is it propping up a chair at the Minister's office?

Lessons: When it comes to international affairs no one listens to Paul Martin. Fortunately, this is a good thing since Paul Martin hasn't had a single original or good idea yet.

One More of the Gipper

God Bless Ronald Reagan. He continues to have such an important place in the hearts of Americans. As you probably know by now, Reagan was named the Greatest American last night on the Discovery Channel.

He beat out another Republican President, Abe Lincoln, by less than 1% to win the title.

Being in California right now and having driven within a stone's throw of the Reagan Ranch yesterday I was quite happy when I heard the results this morning on my drive into work. (I don't have cable so I could not watch the show itself.) So in that spirit, here is my favourite Ronald Reagan quote:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

There is a lesson for Canadian conservatives. You can't stop the fight because you are always only one generation away from total loss or total victory.