So Junior, let's talk "root causes"

Trudeau wants to know the root causes of Jihad.  The drama teacher's education can start right here.

Bruce Thornton writes in FrontPage Mag:

This disconnect between our alleged bad behavior and the motives of the jihadists is starkly obvious in the case of the Boston terrorists. If Chechen Muslims have a beef with anyone, it’s the Russians. When jihadist terrorism became a problem in Chechnya, there were no “hearts and minds” campaigns, no solicitous outreach, no infusions of foreign aid, no apologies for past sins, no careful adherence to the laws of war, the Geneva conventions, or human rights, no courting of imams to provide insights into the wonderfulness of Islam. The Russians employed torture, assassination, group reprisals, and in the end ringed Grozny with artillery and left it in ruins. In the two Chechen wars the Russians killed around 150,000 people. In fact, Russia has been killing Muslims since the 18th century, and occupied Muslims lands in Central Asia for 80 years under the Soviet Union. So tell me, Senator Rand Paul or Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, if our foreign policy misbehavior explains jihadist hatred, how is that two centuries of Russian violence against Muslims is ignored, and all our blood and treasure spent to liberate and help Muslims count for nothing?

No more convincing are the other rationalizations for Muslim violence. Lack of education and economic opportunity exist all over the world, but African Christians and animists, or Indian Hindus and Buddhists don’t commit acts of terrorism with anywhere near the same frequency as Muslims. Plenty of people across the globe live under oppressive dictators who routinely violate human rights, and they don’t turn to terrorism against distant strangers in response. Tibetans aren’t donning suicide vests or bombing marathons. Millions and millions of impoverished everywhere don’t kill innocent people in random attacks in countries far from their homes. Every excuse for Muslim violence collapses beneath the weight of such facts. Meanwhile, the one factor all these killers––rich or poor, educated or not, politically oppressed or otherwise––have in common, Islam, is preemptively rejected as the explanation for the violence.

This “willful blindness,” as Andy McCarthy calls, has become dangerous. It reflects the arrogance of secular materialism, which has discounted religion as a mere life-style choice, usually benign––unless you’re talking about gun-toting, racist, misogynist, homophobic evangelical Christians, or racist, land-grabbing Zionist Jews. No, it’s about psychological trauma caused by globalization, or Islamophobia, or insensitive insults to Mohammed, or Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, or anything and everything other than the numerous passages in the Koran, hadiths, and 14 centuries of Islamic jurisprudence and theology, which clearly and consistently set out the doctrine of violent jihad against infidels.

(h/t Blue Knight at Blue Canada)

There it is.  Islamism is the root cause of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.  We can ban Nazis.  We should ban Wahabism and every other hateful cult we encounter.

The thing about Shiny Pony's "route cause" comments on Tuesday was that he unconsciously thought what we all thought about the bombings.  Namely that it was Islamic Terrorism.  Would he really have wanted to explore the route causes of an insane Tea Party member or a gun control nut-bar?  No way.  Deep down even Trudeau knows the enemy.   It makes him all the more craven a pretender.

Media Party Retaliates with Attack Columns

I dispute the whole concept of Attack Ads.  The establishment punditocracy have fabricated the idea that any political ad that is critical of a rival is an attack.  It is no more an attack than any political column ever written by Andrew Coyne.

Coyne writes his opinions, and those opinions are always negative towards the Conservative Party.  In fact I don't remember him ever writing a kind word.  If he has he can't be much good at it, since nobody else remembers either.

"Attack Ads Are Political Deathstars But Their Target is Democracy" reads the title of Coyne's latest attack.  I know Attack Editors write Attack Headlines but they coordinate their attacks with Attack Hacks so that the Attack Columns shut down all thought and Democracy.

It has been widely shown that media in fact has a huge negative impact on the functioning of democracy.  They can tell a bald faced lie and then quietly correct it when no one is watching.  They do it all the time.  Think of Robocalls.  Think of Communion Wafers.  Think of Benghazi.  Think of Global Warming.  Even the Vietnam War was lost on television, not the battlefield.  

I'm not saying this should change.  I'm saying that a great amount of power resides in an un-elected and unaccountable media.  They don't just act irresponsibly with this power but with outright open malice towards one side of the political spectrum in particular.

Why didn't any of these media experts notice the positive things in the ads?   Can you not say anything about your opponents in politics?  They invented the idea of Attack Ads so you think they would have a formula worked out for how negative they can be.  What is the acceptable percentage of opinions related to the opposing party should be allowed? Is it 25%?  Is 51% an official attack ad?  How would you measure this? -by the second or by the word?  Do printed words carry more weight than spoken words?  What do images count for?  What does music count for?  I found the music for the latest ads light and comical.  The music was decidedly positive beyond any doubt.  Whats so aggressive about comedy anyway? 

The CPC ads weren't all that negative or even attacking really.  Mocking is the word.  But Coyne is downright nasty and purposefully so on a regular basis.

"-they are corrosive. Their intent is not merely to criticize, but to inflame. They’re not trying to provoke thought, but to shut it down."

Corrosive?  Does he read his own work? Caustic!  And where exactly did he divine the intent of the ads?  If Coyne actually does read minds he still lies about it.  He can't even imagine that the ads might have been made as amusement.  Why do people tell jokes Sour Puss?  Do you even know?

Anyway, even more grounded writers also seemed to miss the mark.  

Chris Selley thinks the ads contain a lie.  Trudeau is out of context when talking about Quebec we are told.  The fact is Trudeau put words into his father's mouth as if he approved of it.  Another fact is that it doesn't matter who said it, its still a stupid thing to say.  So where then is the lie?  Trudeau Junior is constantly invoking the Senior.  Constantly!  Even his letter to the Chinese asking for temporary workers mentions it.  He is Liberal Leader because of it.  Trudeau was telling that story because he was proud of it. Or is he just stupidly trampling his father's name?

Jonathan Kay, who is sometimes friendly to the CPC, wrote about the ads too.  The gist of the article is: "Is that all you got?"  Come again?  Were you expecting the Battle of Endor?  Yub nub!  The election is 2 bloody years away.  There is plenty of material and Trudeau is a gaffe machine too. You really think Truedeau's welcome card should have been an orgasmic explosion?  

Kay also says the adds are "lame."  Yes, there were no exploding spaceships and I don't think there are going to be any.  One Coalition Crisis is enough for a lifetime.  This is Canadian Politics after all and lame is actually good.  Nice and harmless.  We can all share the joke that is the Shiny Pony.

Just today we learned that Trudeau wants to get empathetic and cozy with poor murderous Boston Marathon Bomber.  At best its an unforced error.  Its what these ads are trying to tell people.  That is the intent of the ads: Jr. hasn't got a clue!

You almost get the sense he was pushed into it.  He was obliged to lead the Liberals seeing how low they are now.  Didn't his wife say it was his duty or something?  There are plenty of stories where the prince runs away to be something else.

Trudeau Jr. should have gone into entertainment.  Ben Mulroney has more sense than hapless Trudeau.  Ben knows full well that in politics he would have been in his father's large inky shadow for decades.  Shiny Pony invokes that shadow at every opportunity   Shamefully so.  There's no "did you know Ben Mulroney is former Prime Minister Mulroney's son?"  That never ever happens with the Dauphin.

Trudeau Jr. Enthroned as Liberal Leader

Justin Trudeau received the crown of Liberal Leader today.  Exclusive footage of the moment Shiny Pony was selected:.


 ;)

The Dark Art of Out-Sorcery

My first real job in Calgary was working the Bank Of America account at an EDS call center. I was the beneficiary of outsourcing in that case.  It's no small irony that the whole support center was packed up and moved to India about a year after I left.  Today both of these American companies have been wiped out.

EDS was bought for a bargain by HP and no longer exists.  Bank of America failed and would have been wiped out too if it wasn't bailed out by American taxpayers.  Such are the trials and tribulations of a global economy.  On a the balance we win.

When the job was there for me it was good.  When it left it didn't matter because I was already a more skilled worker.  I moved to Calgary for the jobs and so too the job was moved to Calgary.  I didn't plan it this way and neither did the Bank Of America.  What I learned, having lived it, is to trust the efficiency of the market.   A central planner likes to believe they can arrange it all but they can't.

Its a bit strange to watch this faux scandal coming out of the CBC against RBC.  They are both institutions that are backed by the government so the market isn't exactly free for either of them.  We the consumer are still free to take our business where we please.

If you call a company and find out you are talking to India, first decide if you are satisfied with their service and take your business elsewhere if you are not pleased with the service.  To base your satisfaction on simply jingoistic nationalism is a kind of bigotry.

It's my experience that business functions that can be sent overseas are usually functions that should be automated anyway.  Which would you prefer, communicating through different time zones, cultures, and language issues after probably waiting on hold or pulling up an online report to tell you what you need know and gives you the tools to do something about it?

The market is chipping away at this problem even now and you help it work.  Either the problems are so complicated that they need someone highly trained to handle them on the line, or your problem is so simple it can be automated.

Unskilled call centers are set up to handle those damned fangled computers with their missing "any" keys and disc player drink trays.  They are the ones that can be sent to India or automated.  What is the character of the company you are dealing with or investing in that chooses sweatshops in India to cut costs for you over an online system?

If you've seen kids playing with iPads (or cats playing fruit ninja), you'll know that people will begin to demand these "help yourself" type systems for training and basic troubleshooting.  The market will eventually eliminate this problem if we back our demands with cash.

Demand progress with cash.  It works.

There is no point getting up in arms about it.  You win some, you lose some.  To beat the competition you must provide a better product or service.  This is what drives progress and innovation.  Not using magic words like Social Justice, Progressive and Sustainable.  All that has ever done is confuse people into acting against themselves.  There is always some fool ready to give you their money if you say the magic words.

Let the sourcing sorcery continue and may the worlds best service find its way to all our lives.

Not so bad: Redford champions the Oil Sands in Washington

Yesterday Alison Redford spoke to the Brookings Institute on the Keystone XL pipeline.  You can watch the whole thing here and the text is here.

I'm going to cut the wildly unpopular Premier of Alberta some slack on this one.  She did good.  I think that somebody initially opposed to the pipeline might change their mind on Keystone if they were listening and reasonable.  Canada needs that and so does Obama.

Of course that doesn't excuse her lousy government's dismal record on the purposefully obscured budget deficit and broken promises.  It's just that the Oil Sands and its vital arteries like Keystone are central to Canada's economy and our National Interest.  Partisanship is not appropriate on this key issue.

Thomas Mulcair, being a foreign citizen and leader of a communist/separatist NDP unsurprisingly doesn't see it this way.  When his MPs aren't bashing Canada's victorious dead, they are defecting to the Bloc.  In his spare time Mulcair is himself bashing the Oil Sands in the east with phony Dutch Disease and bashing it in the South with similar tales.  The NDP is the party of division and disaster.

The NDP segment of society; the self styled "progressives" showed up to Alison's discussion too.  Out of the 2 hours they spoke for, these morons disrupted only about a minutes and a half of it.  I've compiled the interruptions into this short video.  Let's take a look.  It's always fun.



Idiot #1:  "They want to sell out the future of life on our planet! Lets get more creative!  Create Green Jobs!  It's easy.  We just need a little more subsidies and we create green jobs!"

Who's a sell out?  A little more subsidies to create green jobs and "the future of life on our planet," isn't so important anymore.  Nobody but the eco-nuts think Keystone threatens the future of life on earth.  Well.  I don't even think they believe it.  They just say it, and then they get their money.  Sell outs.

Idiot #2:  "You all are responsible for all these pipelines in the United States and for oil proliferation throughout our country."  (Idiot#2 then runs in the wrong direction, towards the stage, where he is tackled and led away)

Where to begin with this one.  First.  Plaid shirt.  Trucker Hat.  Obviously he's trying to look like a regular Joe.  What did they think this guy came for?  Perhaps Washington has a new form of parasite akin to squeegee kids.  One that drifts through Washington from think tank event to think tank event to keep warm and scavenge food.

Kid, those people on the stage did not build any pipelines nor will they.  Real people who actually like to wear plaid shirts and trucker hats built all those pipelines.  These are pipelines that you happen to use on a daily basis and have done since the day you were born.  Also Google oil history to find out why you sound so incredibly stupid.

Idiot # 3:  "Climate Change means mass casualty flooding, mass casualty famines, mass casualty droughts."
Is that what Climate Change means this week?  A couple of weeks ago we learned Climate Change causes gun crimes in Chicago.  Yesterday I read Climate Change will cause turbulence on your flight.  Climate change is a new God.  It causes all things that people don't like.  It might even have caused itself to go away for the last 20 years and also caused all the progressives not to notice.

Idiot # 4: "That's why were doing something about it," said Alison Redford.  One thing you can't do it is talk sense into these idiots.  Look at his face.  He practices that look in the mirror I bet.  You've also just pleaded  guilty multiple mass manslaughter.  All in a days work for a prog politician.  Guess who caused the next flood, drought and famine?  Alison Redford.  Good thing she is doing something about it.

If that is what it takes to get this thing built, then plead away.

Redford's Keystone messaging could lead to failure for Alberta

Tom Harris has a message for Alberta Premiere Allison Redford in his article: Smart messaging needed to avoid pipeline lobbying failure.  Harris laments Alberta's Keystone pipeline messaging saying "a supposedly conservative government feeds the fire that threatens to destroy the province’s, and indeed the country’s, main source of wealth, their vast hydrocarbon resources" and of Allison Redford that "her approach is doomed to failure." 

The article identifies Harris as the Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition, and an advisor to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.  He's put together an excellent well reasoned video you can watch below.



(h/t WUWT)

What's wrong with preaching nonsense to the nonsensical?  Why not serve gobbleygook  to the gook gobblers?  Well because its a waste of time. 

Pandering to the ridiculous only reinforces it.  It's better to appeal to higher reasoning than to stoop to the level of sloganeering battles.  They sloganeer to appeal to the ignorant in the first place.  The antidote to ignorance is clarity on reality, not learning to speak the mongrel noises of the irrational eco-nut.

By trying to appease climate alarmists and using their own nonsensical and incorrect language in a vain effort to win them over Redford is conceding victory.  They don't have a rational reason to oppose Keystone.  Its pure symbolism.  Keystone is a proxy for their larger war.  They don't care if Keystone is better for the environment.  They care about scoring a victory against "big oil."  There is no circumstance where the success of the pipeline will include the symbolic victory they seek. 

Eco-nuts are the enemy. 

I make a distinction against Eco-nuts and people like us who love the environment.  You can't call yourself Canadian and not be in love with this beautiful land.  We are people who respect the land and work hard in our responsible and bountiful economy.  We are the target audience and we share these values with Americans. 

Eco-nuts are lost.  There is nothing we can say to sway them.  Perhaps losing their illogical Keystone battle is the first step to their rediscovery of reason but that is a path they have to walk themselves.  Approving Keystone will help the average person and that is who we need to be speaking to.

Allison Redford will be speaking to the anti-Keystone Brookings Institute in Washington next week.  It will be live streamed but you have to register. 

Whatever happens to Keystone will have major political and economic repercussions in Alberta, Canada and the United States.