I don't know what it is about Rob Ford that irks me so. Could be any number of things. The fact that he's such a die-hard conservative doesn't immediately colour his character for me, but it does make me wary. The hypocrisy? Perhaps, that's a big irritant for me usually. Is it that he seems so backward to me, as I'm coming from the progressive heartland of Calgary? It's not even that he's an arrogant turd ball. It's that he knows he's an arrogant turd ball and strives to contain it because he knows it won't sit well with the public. But sometimes it slips out ... Case in point, again: Mr. Ford is ambushed on his property by the CBC's formerly hilarious although less hilarious in recent years fake news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The details of his most recent spoiled frat boy antics are readily available on the Internet: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/27/rob-ford-911-call.html?cmp=rss http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/10/27/rob-ford-makes-a-bad-situation-worse/ http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1076717--ford-swore-at-911-dispatcher-report?bn=1 ... oh what the heck, there are so many sources: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rob+ford+9-1-1 Now my point is not that Ford has to expect ...

Ok, finally my retort to Steven Britton. I would like to thank my honourable colleague for the comments.    :)    Sorry, possibly too much CPAC recently.    Firstly: Liberalism being socialism.  A common trick of the Conservative spin machine.  It’s fairly well established in Conservative and moderate circles that Socialism is “bad”.  Therefore associating Liberals and socialists makes the cognitive, if not intellectual, link between the two. The realities are of course quite different.  Socialism began as a workers movement, attempting to put the power of industry into the hands of the people.  As socialism changed it became more well known for being a government advocating or legislating power of industry to the workers.  This is really social democracy, the trend of controlled capitalism so that workers rights are protected by the government in the creation of a welfare state. (Sidebar: It’s really not fair at all to suggest that what people have come to know as “communists” are in fact socialists or even close.  The majority of communist regimes in the 20th century, and those that continue to exist today, ...

The current tactics from the Harper Government are pretty clear: divide and conquer. By giving voice and ear to the NDP on budget matters, while not providing the same opportunity to the Liberals, Bloc or Green Party, the Conservatives are propping up the visibility and perceived power of the NDP. The public is being kept well in the loop about the NDP’s involvement in budget talks, something that can only cause the public in general to believe that the NDP has measureable sway over the situation. If the NDP had decided to support the Conservatives on their budget this may have drawn new voters to the NDP whenever the next Federal election does happen. Since the party has announced that they will not prop of the Government they may also see a jump in the polls on the perception that they stood up for what was right, regardless of the concessions offered by the Government budget. Either way a short term win for the NDP, one that Jack Layton could potentially turn into a longer term improvement in ...

I came across this interesting bit of writing just now. Initially my response was directed at the author's comments field but as it became more and more lengthy I decided to just post it here instead. In fact I would like to thank the author Steven C Britton. It was this article of yours that finally caused me to take the time to make my own blog at least moderately presentable and to post articles to it. This is a copy/paste from the original posting, so all spelling and grammar are the responsibility of the original author. I'm not being critical of said grammar; I just don't want people coming to me over someone else's style. Lies the Liberals Tell us About Canadian Demcracy Posted on March 22, 2011 by scbritton Rate This It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to this blog, and the reason for that is simple: Unlike many social activists, I actually work for a living. Most conservatives do; which is why you always see public rallies and demonstrations by left wingnuts and not conservatives (usually). The Liberals ...