There. Are. Four. Lights.

"There! Are! Four! Lights!" Captain Picard shouted this at his captors in the episode Chain of Command Part II.  The ubiquitous press about the Jenner and Dolezal transformations has those 4 words ringing in my mind lately.

In that series of STNG Picard was captured and tortured by the Cardasians (no relation) who tried to break his spirit by insisting that there were 5 bright lights pointing at him when there were only 4.  If Picard told the truth he would be tortured.  They relentlessly bully him.  Agree with his tormentors that there are 5 lights and they promised to stop the torture.  The final scene below shows Picard defiantly telling the truth just as he seemed about to break.


That particular episode stayed with me.  Its relevant to our current challenges with the progressive mindset.

It's a mindset that refuses to accept that people don't like their ideas.  Progs believe that words have power over facts.  If they simply just change the words to something pleasant or even untrue they believe they will have achieved consent to their various unpalatable and unworkable plans.  The very name for their movement, Progressive, is an example of this very tactic since Socialist or Liberal are widely understood terms.  Who doesn't like progress right?

I'm not the only one moved by that episode of Star Trek.  Comparisons online have been made to Orwell's 1984 where Big Brother demanded that 2 + 2 = 5.  Orwell explains it beautifully:

“The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable-what then?”

What then?  Jenner is a woman.  Dolezal is black.  Harper is a dictator.  Khadr is a hero.
Israelis are Nazis.  Carbon is pollution.  The grass is blue.  The Sky is green.  -and so on and so forth...

There are four lights!

Caitlyn Jenner is a man.  He has a Y chromosome in every cell of his body.  This is an accepted scientific definition of a male.  Jenner competed in the men's Olympics when he had he appearance of a man.  His surgical transformation, which was heralded by the left as bravery,  his choice of clothes, his feelings, his make up and whatever pronouns are used to describe him have no bearing on the fact that his gender is male.

There are multiples of entire academic departments dedicated to insisting, not proving, but insisting that men and women are whatever they think they are.  Science be damned.  Facts are oppression.

There are four lights!

My first encounter with progressives was in first grade.  My teacher was presumably educated in one of these places.  Higher learning they call it.  Mrs. Progressive showed me the true face of social progress early on.  She insisted that Killer Whales were actually Orcas.  Indeed they are, but she also insisted that there was no such thing as a Killer Whale.  I was really into things that kill mind you.  I loved sharks, tigers, fighter jets and Killer Whales of course.  I knew all about them.

So when I presented Mrs. Progressive with a children's book right from the school library with "Killer Whales" printed on the cover and the glorious monster depicted there she simply refused to see it.  The book is wrong she said meaning the entire world was wrong too.  I said that she was wrong and she even smiled at this chance to brainwash another hapless student.  I resist these sort of narrative building lies to this day.

These days the truth is whatever you think it is.  Well at least if it annoys conservatives.  The God delusion isn't tolerated for example unless of course your God is named Allah.

How about race?  Most people are surprised to find there is no such thing as race in science.  We can determine lineages far back into prehistory with genetics but no one can determine the pigmentation of those long lost people.  But race is a social construct say the sociologists.  It exists in the mind and therefore it exists.  That's how we end up with Rachel Dolezal becoming black because that is what she thinks she is.  She went pretty far with it in fact much farther than most real black people. She became a president of an NAACP chapter.  There is no reason a white person can't be.  But she also railed against white actors portraying black people.  Would it be ok if they identified as black?   She might have made that helpful suggestion as she was busy tearing people down.  What if one of these actors actually did identify as black?  Is Dolezal the racist then?  Not if she doesn't' identify as one I guess.

Perhaps criminals can start identifying as innocents as Omar Khadr seems to?  ISIS seems to take in rich kids who identify as Mujaheddin readily enough but Pakistani ISIS recruits complain that all they do is clean latrines.  Obviously they don't identify properly.

I could go on but this post has to end somewhere.  If you've read this far and still don't get it then you should probably go back to your food cubes like a good drone.  Progressive/Liberal/Socialist doublespeak knows no bounds.  The truth is quite a large advantage however.  They will not break us.

There are four lights!

Edit: I clarified with a few changed words here and there.  Internet custom is to declare edits.

Unite The Alberta Right: What that should actually look like

The final chapter of the Progressive downfall in Alberta was precipitated by this very idea of uniting the right.  Prentice, Smith and Preston Manning himself helped engineer the scheme to destroy the opposition Wildrose Party so that responsible voters had no where else to turn.

They even appeared to have succeeded at one point.  I myself had left Wildrose for dead, at least mentally for a month or so.  I never took Prentice up on his limited time free membership for Wildrose members.  

But then Progressives were progressive, raising taxes and lording their perceived invulnerability over us.  I couldn't stand it.  I tried the Progressive brand on for size and it sucked.  There was no way I'd vote for taxes.  Strategic vote splitting and all that be damned.  I will never make that mistake again.

So here we are and Ken Boessenkool is trying to unit the right again.  I agree that vote splitting is a real challenge.  And while Progressives were keen to underhandedly wipe out the Wildrose outright for the purpose of unity, I don't see why they won't accept the same logic now and retire the PC franchise.

I don't mean a merger with the Wildrose.  I mean pack it in.  Close it down.  Spare us the needless years of NDP "darkness" that we saw when Reform and PC fought federally.  Are the Ken Boessenkools of the world willing to accept that?  Surrender or nothing.  Those are the terms.

If nothing else the last 6 months have proved that is Wildrose is incredibly resilient.  If losing the party leader and 8 more MLA's, then facing a snap election and increasing their seat count doesn't show fortitude then what will?  I doubt they'll face an existential threat like that again. Wildrose is a hardened player now.

I don't even care about the vote split all that much.  If the NDP lasts for 8 or 12 years, it just means that many more people are going to learn the hard way.  I wonder how many people would have voted for the Progs if they knew what kind of a blowout it would be?  Perhaps they were holding out hope for a coalition?  In fact, there is reason to believe that the Wildrose turnout was suppressed quite a bit with everything that went on in the last year.

Wildrose doesn't need to take the 9 remaining PC's either.  Derek Fildebrant said that the party is open to conservatives but not opportunists.  PC cronies, elected or otherwise need not apply.

Bitterness and resentment however don't belong in a good party.  I would recommend accepting refugee MLAs with some tight conditions.  They must publicly denounce the PC Party for starters.  They should sit as an independent MLA for a year perhaps.  And finally their recognition and acceptance into Wildrose be approved by a vote at the AGM.  They would not technically be "floor crossing" in this scenario.

In any case it's looking like it's going to be war.

Implications of the Alberta Election on Federal Politics

I've read most of the pundits opining on the Alberta election and the NDP.  Many of them are spot on. More than a few of them are the sort of fantasy wish that projects phoney conclusions onto real events.  They get away with it because nobody can test their opinions before the Federal Election and after the election it will all be forgotten.

It's disappointing however that none of the professional talkers and opinion makers actually considered the real implications federally.  Conservatives were not punished Tuesday night.  They, the Wildrose, were rewarded.  Progressives took a thrashing for their progressive governing.

The first myth is that the election has no implication on the federal scene.  This is a bipartisan belief but stems from different viewpoints.

On the left they don't want to get their hopes up at least not too high.  Many on the left are already emotionally invested in Trudeau and the idea that "Angry Tom" could beat their Dartanion is anathema because Harper is also a big meanie in their sad little heads.  The script is set.  It will be personality and charisma vs experience and success.  They may not put it that way but that's what it will be.  Mulcair being experienced and lacking charm interferes with this scheme.  Mulcair's place is to lose badly and pave the way for boy Trudeau.

On the right the fears aren't so nuanced.  They fear an orange wave exactly like the one in Alberta.  Nothing is impossible.  There are scenarios where this could happen but they belong in the realm of Black Swan events.  Everyone recognizes this and immediately dismisses any relevance of the Alberta election to Federal politics.

They are both wrong though.  This does have implications for Federal Politics.

The Federal NDP have been written off almost from the moment Jack Layton departed.  Everyone saw the last Federal Election where NDP surged in Quebec.  It was both a rejection of the Bloc and a sympathetic gesture to smiling Jack Layton.  Mulcair has none of that going for him.  All things equal the Orange Wave of 2011 should experience a neep tide.  Those seats would presumably going to the Liberals in 2016.

But hang on.  Is that really going to happen?  The biggest single factor will be the NDP themselves.  Alberta's NDP win was a needed shot in the arm.  A confidence boost that will propel them to at least try to keep all those seats.  I'm sure a few more votes will flow their way as a result of this weeks events.  As long as they are kept from Justin Trudeau it's a very good thing.  We have the makings of an excellent brawl on the left.  All the NDP has to do is show up.

Now look at Alberta next October.  Don't discount the confusion between the federal Conservative Party and the defunct Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.  Its a confusion enemy pundits are all too willing to exploit especially while Prentice was around.  It's "Tory" this and "Tory" that and the sad retort "they aren't Tory's" is all but vanished now.  It's a shame.

I have an uncle in Ontario who has a nice TTC pension now.  You can imagine the debates we have.  He would bring up all kinds of nasty things Mulroney and the rest did and I could join in with him and say "this is a totally different Conservative Party, we turfed all those assholes and good riddance."  Wildrose gets to do that now.  Everyone should trash Progs at every level whenever possible.

I still meet people who drift from federal to provincial politics in the same conversation without quite grasping the real separation.  Progressives have been giving Conservatives a bad name for far too long.  It's nice to have another fragment of the old PC franchise out of the picture.

Notley's honeymoon should be over by summer.  I predict that nothing will be fixed.  Special interests are publicly lining up for their due already.  The Government will grow larger at an even faster rate while taxes and economic uncertainty will take their toll.  The palpable anxiety of the producer class can only grow in this environment.  How will those voters perceive the liability of a Trudeau or Mulcair government?  I think you know the answer, but note how many of these wise pundits are willing to lead you to it.

This should coincide nicely with Ontario's Liberal fatigue.  If Conservatives are still worried then that is good too.  It's great in fact.  My observation of the CPC is that it seems to perform better when the Party is scared.    Confidence and forthrightness should not be allowed to drift into deadly arrogance.  Honesty and humility as well should be the watchwords of every minister.  Nobody thinks you are perfect, so don't pretend.  Don't try to pull a fast one on voters.  Conservative voters are the savviest out there and they see and understand everything.   Next fall its going to be: here's our record; here's our plan; here's an axe and here's our necks; is there anything else we can do for you Sir/Madam?

Prentice is too clever to trust

We all appreciate smart people.

Jim Prentice is one of those people, but it doesn't mean you should vote for him.

The reasons are pretty straight forward.  Prentice raised taxes.  It's a Boolean decision.  Forget electronic voting.  If I could rig a machine to vote for me it would need one single line of code.  If government raises taxes for any reason, vote for another party.  Done.  My robotic voter would pick Wildrose.

Prentice is sure smart though.  That coup he pulled against the Wildrose will go down in history.  It's like something out of House of Cards.  Nine MLAs including the Leader of the Opposition taken down with smiles and empty promises.  Many of them aren't even running this time.  We all know the story but it bears retelling as brilliant maneuvers deserve.

The trouble is that Prentice is also a progressive.  One can be both smart and progressive.  This is in contrast to smart and Liberal which are attributes seldom found in one mind.   Progressives tend to see themselves as above the herd.  They are the wise shepherds who's job is to lead the flock.  Keeping with the analogy they also see it appropriate to harvest and consume the flock at will.

This is exactly what has happened.  The PC Budget takes more money directly out of our pockets to pay for their mistakes.  Their mistakes are my penalty.  Progressives, being the adults, understand why they made all those mistakes.  They fully understand why they had to lie to us about past budgets.  It had to be done in their view.  Else the sheep would ignorantly pick new shepherds and that cannot be allowed.

Redford's budget lies show that the party will go along with anything no matter how unscrupulous.
Prentice can't take the blame for the Redford years but he has to take the responsibility.  He wanted the job.  The government, the party and all of its baggage are now his.  That's fair.  If I'm the one paying the freight for it so I think its fair.

Knowing Prentice's craftiness and the unethical party he leads, what can be said about this surprise election?  We know the PC's seem destined to rule for 1000 years or more.  Alberta is broke and unsustainable (hence the taxes) so obviously we need to blow millions to immediately decide a sure thing.  The government could have just waited for 2016.

The "House of Cards" reason for the election is to kick the opposition while they are down.  Wildrose is still hurting from "the Betrayal" as Wildrosers are calling it.  Call an election and exploit the damage Prentice himself inflicted.  Ruthless political mastery of Machiavellian inspiration.    

There seems to be something else going on here.  Prentice's tax hikes were absolutely necessary because of the oil price (or PC mismanagement).  This is basically the line you've heard.  So why didn't they reveal any cuts?  Things are so dire that taxes need raising, but every part of this bloated government is essential?  Not True.

Prentice is playing House of Cards again.  There will be cuts but only after the election.  Prentice and his fat juicy government needs the votes of all those government employees.  Once Prentice gets his "Mandate" he will give a speech something like this:

"While I thank Alberta voters for the confidence in the direction of this government we have heard message from so many who voted for the Wildrose opposition.  We have heard the message that Albertans want a government that spends within its means and that is why we will look for savings for the taxpayer"

And with that Prentice will begin government cutbacks after the election.  He will betray the people who want a fat government by cutting those same people loose and then credit the cuts to the demands of Wildrose.

Astoundingly brilliant again.

Do you doubt this is the plan?  Its so obvious its almost the path of least resistance for the PCs.  It's completely in character and matches their style exactly.

We all appreciate smart people.  Smart people should be our friends.  Smart adversaries not so much.  Smart ranchers not at all if you are the cow.

We can marvel at the guile shown by the PCs and their ancient hold on power but we are subject to the rule of those same people.  This is not a TV show.  I pity Alberta.  I pity the government workers blowing kisses to PCs all while they silently sharpen their blades and set the table.

I've made up my mind.  If you are still deciding think twice about the sharks in the PC party.  They can take care of themselves.  I don't trust them to take care of anyone else.  They will cash you in like a two dollar coupon if it suits them.

Alberta Voters Should "Look in the Mirror"

I agree with Jim Prentice.  Albertans do need to look in the mirror.  The PC's mismanaged Alberta's finances and even lied about it for years.

So who elected the PCs?  You did Alberta.  It's not like we didn't warn you.  Listen to your leader Jim Prentice.  Look in the mirror.  If you see a PC voter then you caused Allison Redford.  All the other mistakes are hers and her government's.  But you elected them.

Ontario voters are responsible for Wynne.  American voters are responsible for Obama.

Ok.  So you screwed up and drank in progressive lies.  No big deal.  I screw up too.  You don't need to be sorry.  Just don't do it again.

I'm sure Jim Prentice will get around to retracting this bit of common sense.  "Look in the mirror" is bad form for a progressive.  The truth is usually bad form.

The Gentle Extirpation of ISIS and Islamism

It's seems too soon to talk about the end of ISIS.  So much needs to happen first.  What comes after ISIS is an essential consideration with what to do about ISIS.  It's true, NATO and a large coalition of armies could roll over ISIS in a week.  Then what? Another withdrawal, another vacuum, another ISIS.

Some Libertarians will grind their teeth when they read the last sentence.  The Free Market will punch every Islamist in the face and that will be the end of it?  Let's not be like the White House.  ISIS is not about class warfare.  Neither Free Markets nor Social Programs will be the end of ISIS.  The Islamic State is force.  It is brutal, naked, horrific force.  The Islamic State must be ended by force.  

ISIS stated goal is to restore the Caliphate.  It is a goal incompatible with any freedom loving people of any faith.  There is no negotiating with them.  No rational bargain can ever be struck.  Their very existence is in a state of conflict with our own.  We are to either be enslaved or killed.  We are in a defacto state of war.

We are at a similar point now as we were at before World War 2.  Nobody wanted another World War.  Nobody wants another Afghanistan now.  We have to go to war with ISIS but the peace has got to be different this time.  Taliban groups in Afghanistan are already swearing allegiance to ISIS as are Chechen Rebels, Boko Haram, Libyan Rebels and others.  All signs indicate we are at the precipice of a grand conflagration that should really be called World War 3.

After September 11th and the invasion of Afghanistan I became aware of what I've been calling the SS paradox.  The paradox is that the SS would have had no problem with Islamists whatsoever.  They would have politely (as told by witnesses in some camps) "euthanized" every last man woman and child in Afghanistan.   ISIS would not have stood a chance against the SS.  They would not even have dared to try.  While we could beat the militarized SS divisions we have trouble with Islamists for fear of becoming the SS.  Hence the paradox.  With all our technology and might we are hobbled by evil immoral barbarians due to our own basic humanity.

How do we ensure the last of these Islamist rampages then?

It isn't about Islam specifically.  We should seek to extinguish any culture or sub culture that advocates crimes against humanity as its fundamental tenets.  We did it to the Nazis themselves after all.  It just so happens that some aspect of Islam manages to generate murderous madness in far larger numbers than anything else even when compared to Satanism.  It's astonishing that open worshipers of The Devil of Hell are relatively civilized when compared to Islamists.

So how do we achieve total victory?  It has been done in history.  Often it was done using methods the SS would approve of.  The Romans literally dismantled the city of Carthage brick by brick, massacred thousands and sold the rest into slavery.  All they purposely left of that entire civilization was an infant cemetery where Carthage would bury the victims of human sacrifices. It's something the Romans repeated everywhere and was copied by the Mongols and Islam and is being used by ISIS today.

Other methods include drowning out the indigenous population with immigrants as was done in the Americas, Israel, and currently in Tibet.  While more humane than slaughter and slavery it just isn't an option in this case.  Who in their right mind would move to the Middle East?

The only time an enemy was permanently pacified was after World War 2.  The Marshal Plan was the opposite of the Treaty of Versailles.  War torn Europe was to be rebuilt to avoid the anger and resentment that fueled Hitlers rise to power.  Expansionist Soviets were also a problem that would exploit any anger left over from the War.

Japan's case is a little more analogous to our situation.  Many Japanese had a fanatical Shintoist devotion to their Emperor.   They would often fight to the death in hopeless circumstances and famously became aerial suicide bombers in their kamikaze raids.  Even after the first and only Atomic bombs were dropped in anger many Japanese were said to be resigned to being completely wiped out before they would betray their Emperor.  Luckily the Emperor wasn't ok with that and a treaty was signed.

I don't think the Caliph will mind terribly if whole cities we wiped out in nuclear fire.  They were only recently acquired after all and he treats them so poorly already it might be considered a blessing.  An ISIS blessing is a curse.

There are obvious reasons we can't do things the ISIS or SS way.  We can't do things the Bush way or we wind up in the same place again.  We can't even do things the World War 2 way since a Marshal Plan for the Middle East would be a complete waste.  They have enough money already.  You've seen the hotels and the skylines and palaces.  Let them buy their own Marshal Plan, once we've cleaned up their mess for the last time.

After the fighting comes the real battle.  The West's most destructive weapon is not the atomic bomb but progressivism. 

You read that correctly.  We must unleash massive Social Engineering on liberated territories and then spread to slightly friendlier Islamist places.  It will take a generation or two but we will prevail.  The Cold War took a couple of generations.  It was enormously expensive and dangerous.  We prevailed over the Soviets and their ideology.  We shall pacify Islam.

Let's start with the good.  Teaching of science (including evolution) will become compulsory in all schools.  Scholarships should be provided to those who excel in sciences and demonstrate political correctness.  Adults will be required remedial certification in sciences to hold government employment and that will be extended to most other employment as well.  A CBC like entity that delivered news and entertainment with a pro western slant would also be useful.  Capitalism and entrepreneurship should be encouraged so that we don't end up with PIGS in the third generation. 

This alone will cause fundamentalists to become violent and justify their own extermination. 

Now for the bad.  Certain concepts will be banned.  Jihad and other incitements to violence will be banned.  Sexism, racism, homophobia and any kind of Xenophobia will be banned.  The Koran and the Hadiths will not be banned but only a metaphorical interpretation will be aloud.  The punishment for these violations should not be progressive as it will have no effect at all.  What good is a law that isn't enforced? 

Since Islam has no central leader perhaps we could take the opportunity to organize it for them.  New national or ethnic based Mosques would be run by the government with approved clerics giving approved sermons.  Jordan already takes this tack and its a good idea. 

You've probably guessed the ugly.  Many people will die.  Most of them will be fundamentalists but of course a few will be completely unjustly wronged.  That is progressivism.

Would nuclear fire be more humane?  It might be a lot less hassle.  Militaries just aren't set up for this kind of work.  We would need a professional occupation force.  This is all highly disturbing to any civilized person.  We aren't going to surrender to the Islamists and left alone conflict with Islamists seems inevitable.  Can we enclose and contain them?  Should we enclose them if we are able to wipe them out and stop the genocides?  Would genocidal madmen eventually get their hands on a nuclear weapon even while forcefully enclosed?  How much moral agonizing would ISIS endure about using a nuclear weapon?  How much restraint would they exhibit?  All these questions point to an existential conflict with Islamism that is better off handled sooner than later. 

I started this article with the hope of finding a solution.  Even the best solution is repellant to me.  We are going to have to lower ourselves to meet the Islamists and defeat them.  I don't see Ghandi defeating people with no conscience.  Can we at least concede that men without conscience are not men at all.  Islamists are but beasts.  Islamism is like an intolerable pest problem.  We can blast them with a fire hose and be done.  We can go in and try to save some and get really dirty and waste a lot time and be done a lot later.

Either way the containment option temporary.  It is the only option while Obama is president.  But like Obama it won't last.

I'm With Danielle Smith

I didn't see that one coming.  The Danielle Smith Party merged with the Jim Prentice Party.  I've thought it over quite a bit now and I can say without a doubt that I'm a supporter of the Prentice/Smith Party.

The PC Party?  WildRose?  No I don't really like either of those parties anymore.  Allow me to explain.

The Problem

There's a problem with the conservative insurrection in Alberta.  It's past due.  We had our window and that window is now closed.  Not just because of recent developments.

I've found it increasingly awkward to be pro federal Conservative and anti Alberta PC.  PC, CPC, and WR all fish from the same pond.  I felt it door knocking in Canmore recently.  We should not be fighting anymore.

The Federal election is coming this year.  Like it or not Jim Prentice is a Harper Conservative.  The two brands are inextricably linked.   I know this only too well.  I volunteered for Jim Prentice when I lived in his Riding.  Deepak Obhrai endorsed Jim Prentice and I also volunteered for Deepak and served in his EDA.

There just isn't any room for a conservative civil war in the next year, even if its only in Alberta.  We just can't spare the oxygen.  Trudeau is the biggest threat we have faced yet.  Martin, Dion, Ignatieff were not easy opponents, no matter what people might say in hindsight.  All of them are eclipsed by Trudeau.  We know it's not rational but the Liberals aren't appealing to reason in the next election.  It's an incredibly dangerous time for our country.  We can't afford this squabble between friends anymore.

I'm not talking about making up with Allison Redford, but with your neighbors and co-workers who all support Stephen Harper.

WildRose

Oh Wildrose.  You had so much potential.  The hated Allison Redford conspired with the left and the media to fatally destroy the WildRose brand in the last general election.   They exploited Wildrose's greatest weakness, social conservatives, and used them to unfairly smear the party that truly deserved to win.

It would take 10 years to undo that kind of damage.  A tough and thankless slog that would be.  Enduring the skills of Jim Prentice for a decade with only the hope that the arrogance and entitlement of the post Klein years would blight Alberta once again.  No thanks.

I didn't want to face that.  In a way I wrapped all of Alberta politics in a package in my mind and marked it "Do not open until 2016".  Perhaps the situation would change by then?  Yikes did it ever change.

Surprisingly, I think it changed for the better.

I was signed up for WildRose by two cranky geologists.  These guys resembled the critics from the Muppets.  They were exacting in the their standards and merciless with their criticism.  Of course, they got my name wrong on this supporter list they were drawing up.  That took years to fix, but I had a lot of patience for the WildRose.  I believed in the movement.  We had a mission to get Alberta back on track.  But I only really started to believe when Danielle Smith was nominated for the Wildrose leadership.

I put up signs.  I made calls.  You know the tragic story.  We'll never recover what Allison Redford and her leftist takeover cost us Albertans.  What a colossal waste and squandering of precious booming times!

Then those times changed.

The by-elections showed that people did not blame the PC Party but Allison Redford personally.  I wasn't really paying much attention.  I did however wince at the WildRose campaign slogan.  "Send the PCs a message!"  What message will they send if they vote PC?  Danielle Smith got the message eventually and here we are.

Progressives

I detest progs and their sugar coated lies.  I despise their smug self congratulating entitlement.  Justin Trudeau is your typical prog but so is Allison Redford.  Redford could not have done what she did alone.  There are people inside the PC party as liberal and corrupt as Dalton McGuinty.  We are on their side now.

That has to be the worst part about this move to the PC Party.  Thomas Lukaszuk said Allison Redford "is Alberta."  Doug Horner lied to all our faces about the deficit.  Dave Hancock led the plan to remove Alberta's plate slogan to punish the Wildrose.  On and On.  There was that clown MLA badmouthing our Oil Sands and such.  All these goons are still there.  All those back office leeches and schemers?  Still there.

It's going to be war when Prentice leaves.  long may he rule.

Jim Prentice changes a lot of things.  He's alleviated all the sore points the PC's have created when the scum bags ran the party.  I think the former banker and federal Environment Minister may have the exact skill set that Alberta needs to succeed in these challenging times.  I want to help him succeed.

Loyalty

The minute that any of us becomes a liability or an embarrassment to the party we are shown the door.  It doesn't matter who it is or how much good was done before.  Every party is like this.  Everyone should treat their political party like this as well.  It's only fair and should work in reverse as well.  Don't stick with a party because you're stuck with them.  If something better comes along you've got to move.  Its democracy.  It keeps the parties on their toes.  It makes the parties beholden to you and not the other way around.

I'm not going over to the PCs for Prentice even though I think he's pretty good.  I would have already jumped.  I'm going to the PCs because that's where my leader, Danielle Smith, is going.  Shes a smart and brave woman.  A lot of people see this as a betrayal but I don't.  I'll go where she goes.  PC or Alberta Party even.

Danielle Smith is being a leader.  She made a bold move.  A move that I couldn't even anticipate.  I respect that.  Smith and the others aren't going to wait quietly in a box until the coast is clear to attack Jim Prentice.  We are going to do everything we can, for ourselves, for our parties and for our province and country to defeat Justin Trudeau.  -and we are all going to need each other should we fail.

Jim Prentice had better consider being Opposition Leader as well

Jim Prentice is mulling over joining the battered Alberta PC Party.  He's going to have to leave a  nice gig with the Banksters, that is a Bank, to do it.

I have to wonder if he'll stick with it though.

Allison Redford won against all odds.  She succeeded to convince many Albertan's that a party who has been lodged in power for 40+ years (who's counting at this point) is not the very definition of the "Old Boys Club" of Parties.  She promised to spend, spend, spend, and wow did she deliver.  Fortunately/unfortunately she thew so much money in the trash she ended up throwing her self out with it.  Princess Allison made herself a story only the Bothers Grimm could write.

Jim Prentice though had a good career as a federal Tory.  I lived in his riding.  I handed out flyers for him.  I even met him once at a pancake breakfast.  I think I scared him actually.  I wore a red Vancouver 2010 shirt that day, just a shirt that was red, and he seemed taken aback.  I sure stood out among all the blues but I was making a small point to be honest.  The point was that Liberals don't own the colour red any more than they are going to own the Olympics.  He didn't get it.  Oh well.

Does Mr. Prentice get that the PC Party does not own Alberta?  Does he realize that while he might be premier for 12 months or less he might soon be Opposition Leader?  Would he stick around for that?  -for the people of Alberta presumably?  Or will he go back to his cushy job with the Bankers and work Bankers hours with Bankers salary?  Allison, a UN Lawyer, would love that kind of life.

Does Mr. Prentice realize that he would be hitching his cart to a Liberal Party?  Oh yes they are.  Stephen Carter, the magician who fooled so many Albertans is pulling for Justin Trudeau now.

I never had anything against the Alberta PC Party until the last election.  They lost their way.  They were simply unfit for government.  That isn't terrible.  Most people are unfit for government.  Myself included.  It's not the end of the world to be voted out.  That changed last time around.

Stephen Carter's dishonest campaign and Allison Redford's disgusting follow up as premier have insured that I will never vote Progressive for as long as I live.   Not even Stephen Harper himself could ever get me to vote PC.  The Progs must go and that is all.

The PC Party has simply been in power too long.  It cannot be fixed by rewarding it with power yet again. They promised to change and they were worse than ever.  The government of this province is sick and surly like a heroin addict that refuses rehab.  A long winter off of the intoxication of power is just what the doctor ordered for the PC Party.

Will Jim Prentice be there to give the medicine and care the PC Party needs to get over their corruption?  Or is he just visiting?

Redford Gone.

Another double speaking Prog quits before voters can bring the axe down themselves.  What a shame.  Stelmach, McGuinty, and now finally Redford have all resigned in disgrace.  Good riddance.

Redford announced her failure "with profound optimism".  That really had me laughing.  When was the last time you felt profoundly optimistic?    Doesn't seem like something I'd want to feel.  -Like getting into an accident on your birthday ("Thank you everyone. I'm just so so so so so happy today!").  It's a far cry from the election 2 years ago.  Was she profoundly optimistic back then?  No, she was probably as jubilant as millions of Albertans are feeling tonight.

I suppose the PC's think all of Redford's broken promises are gone with her too.  All the lies from the last election campaign are erased.  Its a new party now... again.  This is not your father's PC party.  Its the party that stood with Redford as she lied to Albertans in every budget since she took power.  The new name for Deficit is Operating Expense didn't you know.  That makes it ok, because deficits are bad.

Typical prog lies.

Every progressive dirt bag out there, no matter what party or level of government, thinks that good government is simply the skill to sweet talk voters into punching themselves in the face.  That is what impresses progressive politicians.  Some of them will tell you that they are not even politicians at all.

Well we know their game.

Raise a glass Alberta and conservatives everywhere.  There is no reason not to give Wildrose a chance next time.  Danielle Smith will make an excellent Premier.

Progressively Deeper in Debt

Nobody can keep track of the Progressive Party lies.  None of their election promises were true.  They couldn't even be bothered to follow the law in the last election as far as funding was concerned.  I don't trust these guys as far as I can smell them.  This bloated nightmare of a government is way past due.
 
The white hats of this provincial western, the Wildrose Party, did the math and it doesn't look good. 

BACK IN DEBT: Budget 2013-14 by the numbers:

• $3.5 billion – New debt this year, doubling the amount to over $8 billion next year
• $16.9 billion – New debt before the next election, the original amount of the Sustainability Fund
• $5.5 billion – Budget 2013-14 cash deficit.
• $2 billion – Amount taken from the Sustainability Fund in 2013-14
• $691 million – What will remain in the Sustainability Fund after Budget 2013-14
• $1.4 billion – Operational deficit for the current budget year, 2012-13
• $451 million – Operational deficit for Budget 2013-14
• $238 million in debt servicing in 2013, $404 million in 2014, $593 million in 2015

Read for yourself:

National Post - Alberta budget 2013 marked by billions in deficit spending, service cuts
Calgary Sun - Budget a trifecta of debt, deficit and cuts
Edmonton Journal - ‘Painful’ cuts, billions in borrowing in Alberta budget
Calgary Herald - Painful cuts, deficit and borrowing mark Alberta’s budget
Globe and Mail - Canada's wealthiest province cuts deep as Alberta embraces austerity
Sun News - Debt and borrowing mark Alberta's austerity budget

The only way they can spin it is that its all because of the price of oil.  Its all because of Keystone and Gateway and has nothing to do with gross mismanagement in government.  This is a galling lie. 

Lets say Iran closes the Strait or Hormuz.  Yay war, (sarc) and now that makes Allison Redford an economic Einstein?  No.  The PCs will still suck but we won't be able to see how bad very clearly.  Wasted money is still a waste even if you can afford it. 

Conversely, lets say Chavez bequeaths all of Venezuala's oil wealth to the world absolutely free.  Yay we all drive to the Yukon for a picnic because we are out of work and gas is almost free. The PC government still spends too much and now they lost 28% of their revenue on top of that.

Its lose-lose with them.  The Progressives are bad for Alberta.  They can't manage money.  Redford herself says she's got a "spending problem."  So stop with the spending! 

Would you look at these morons.  Did you launch a man to the moon and bring him safely to the earth or something?  Oh right, you just spent the equivalent on our behalf and have nothing at all to show for it.  Yes I see very clearly why you're are so happy.  You lied your way into office and played Albertans for fools.  Congratulations!

Remember all the talk last year about Zero Based Budgeting? Zero based budgeting is a fiscal philosophy where no sacred cows are grandfathered into budget spending year after year.  Each and every program must justify its existence.  Not a peep.  Was it just last year's buzz word?

They fund anti-Alberta movies with taxpayer money but when it comes to teachers they cry poor.  Here we go again.  Why is it always the teachers and the firemen?  Cut something else you idiot bozo's!   You can start with your own damned paychecks.  You'll need it for the moral authority to start letting all these useless and expensive government consultants off the payroll.  You know the ones that recommend Agenda 21, shutting down zoo's, confiscating licenses where no laws were broken, and grabbing property?  They go first. 

These big fat piggys in government are going to need a lot of advise with their spending problems.  We have empirical evidence they can't handle it all in red ink.  Wildrose, veritable media, Think Tanks at large: please help our dear government with solutions to their problems.

Misanthropy in Environmentalism

Misanthropy: a hatred of the human race.

Try that word out.  Its here.  Its inside the environmental movement and its dangerous to our health.

Last weekend the misanthropic eco-nut cult held a Blackout Rally in Washington.  Only 5,000 people showed up.  One of them was honest enough to speak his mind to the Light Brigade.



This man wants blackouts.  He wants to get rid of all the roads and all the cars because he thinks they are an existential threat to the planet.  The planet and our civilization cannot co-exist in the minds of many environmentalists.

Not all of them are like that.  The groupies who haven't really thought it through are in there too.  A great many have picked up the misanthropic ques from the leaders and are actively against the human race. 

The guy in the video above is not some freak that just showed up.  He is typical.  I've met people like him and debated them.

Usually it starts when someone you just met says something silly like "they should just ban combustion altogether."  An ridiculously untenable statement like that is easily destroyed.  That is when you start getting truth.  They will tell you that the benefit of mankind is not their interest and therefore their argument stands.

"But millions would die of disease and starvation," is a common response to an eco-nut statement.  The misanthrope will invariably respond with: "good.  Mankind is a blight and a scourge on the earth and there are too many of us to begin with."

Bang.  Eco-fascist.  Think about what they actually mean by that.  This is the goal and moral underpinning of the misanthropic eco-nut.  They won't be committing suicide as a member of the human race because they have a dual purpose:

1. spread misanthropy and
2. end the human species. 

When you get to that point with someone smile.  You've won.  Tell them so.  "Ha! I win!"

Misanthropes are antagonistic to the human race.  They are everyone's enemy including themselves.  They are the enemy of all of your ancestors, all of the descendants of your ancestors, and all of your descendants yet to be born. 

There can be no greater cause than the defence of mankind.  There is no moral authority higher than the safety and benefit of mankind.  The continued existence of the human species negates any other considerations.  Mankind's dominance over nature must be upheld by all means we possess else we cannot guarantee our species imperative: to exist.

The only way to accept a misanthropic viewpoint into society would be for the misanthropes to sterilize themselves.  What followers they convert can also choose to voluntarily become sterile.  No one can be involuntarily sterilized or killed to reduce the population.

People think that evolution has stopped.  Instead of evolving better eyes because only people with perfect eyes are left to reproduce, we simply make eye glasses.  Everyone survives thanks to our industrial society.  Hooray!

Evolution doesn't stop in times of plenty.  It begins to experiment with all kinds of plentiful variations.  Some dance and sing.  Others unlock the secrets of the universe.  Each individual is a unique expression of the human genome.  Each one may hold the key to survival when or if the times of plenty come to an end.  Whatever variation of human makes it through the next bottleneck becomes the new human archetype.

Look at David "Dr. Fruit fly" Suzuki talk about overpopulation here (yes those are really his hands).



Videos like that are how progressives become misanthropes.  What is a progressive but a paternalistic self-appointed manager of society. 

Presented with the false problem Suzuki gives, progressives and environmentalists take it upon themselves to be the next bottleneck.  A bottleneck is a calamity for a species.  They see it as inevitable and so what else is there for them to do but manage and enforce a decline.

Even if they succeed its totally irresposible to purposefully reduce the population.  Nobody knows what the next real bottleneck is.  If we end up with nothing but metrosexuals can we be sure humanity will survive the next challenge at all?

It's hard to say whether our current downward trajectory is the result of purposeful social engineering taken by progressives to reduce the population and its attendant economy.  It would be nice if Suzuki and people like him would stop thinking about humans as if they were maggots or bacteria.  Do progressives have a hand in making kids more trouble than they are worth to a lot of people?  I think they do.

Either way they hate humanity.  Excommunicated Greenpeace Founder and Doctor of  Ecology Patrick Moore coined the the phrase "Anti-human" to describe misanthropy in environmentalism.  I conclude with a clip of  Dr. Moore explaining anti-human environmentalism.  Its real and its working against your own life.

Waiting for a Dragon

I went to Kevin O’Leary’s book signing a couple of days ago.  The book signing itself was uneventful.  Kevin was Kevin. 

This is how he holds a sharpie!  So misunderstood.

The lineup prior to getting my copy of his book signed was unexpectedly interesting and entertaining.

There I was at Costco after work just according to plan.  I needed gasoline and Costco has the cheapest gas around.  Ever the sucker for a bargain, I picked up some sale items and the book Men, Women & Money. 

With my goods safely tucked away in my car (which is also a handy deep freeze this time of year) I stepped into line to wait for Kevin O’Leary.  Ahead of me was a kind old man telling stories to the couple and their baby ahead of him.  In front of them were two lovely young girls with books in hand and then a handsome spectacled black fellow whom I was chatting with earlier.  It was marvelous in fact to take in the diverse array of people who had come to meet the Dragon.  

Behind me was a father and son and I could see it was the son’s idea to come to the book signing. I was happy to be a part of such a crowd.  Even if I felt to be the representative from the long-day club, it beat sitting in traffic. 

Before long , the mother of the young girls came to join them.  It was obvious that she was not there to see Kevin O’Leary.  In fact, it seemed that her mission at that moment was to loudly discourage the two youths while educating the rest of us as well.    

“-but he’s a douchebag!”

“-I’d rather kick him in the nuts!”

“-he’s a FASCIST!”

I couldn’t hide my smirk.  ‘My how the tables have turned’ I thought. 

Like everyone else I found the ceiling suddenly interesting.  I was trying not to laugh openly at this family dispute when I locked eyes with the black gentleman I spoke to earlier.   ‘You’re up man’ I thought to him, and he must have got the message (or thought it himself) because that is when he intervened. 

I don’t buy into the race thing, but a handsome spectacled black man is like pure kryptonite to a raving leftard.  Understanding what makes the enemy tick is key to besting them. 

He skillfully entered the conversation and revealed that he was a financial planner recently emigrated from Toronto (smart move!).  They talked about Kevin O’Leary and how intelligent he is.  They talked about finance and essentially capitalism all the way to the Dragon himself.  Even the raving leftard smiled and shook hands with Kevin when the moment arrived.

Score!  Two young female conservative converts solidified before my very eyes.   Imagine the humiliation the girls felt while being publicly berated by their mother for their taste in authors.  If they were curious before, they are committed now.   Well done brother.  Very well done.

I doubt the mom was converted but at least the righteous lefty lunatic ravings were tempered a bit.

It reminds me of that part in Star Wars where Leia aboard the Death Star says to Moff Tarkin: “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”  

It rings true enough though with hearts and minds rather than star systems.  Progressives desire control and conformity.  They despise independence and individuality.  The more they try to control the narrative and crush dissent, the more conservatives they will create.  The harder they squeeze the more people will slip through the fingers of their grasping grabbing systems.  Pretty soon all they are left with nothing but the old commie fist.

A fist holds nothing.

It happened to those girls that day.  It happened to me back in the progressive utopia otherwise known as the schooling system.  Every time you hear about a little girl getting suspended for having a hello kitty bubble gun or the father who was arrested because his kid made an image of a gun, you can count another conservative.  It isn't all bad.  More and more people will rebel against the cage like system they building.

Logic, honesty and kindness will triumph in the end.  I don’t want to see a time where the folly liberal/progressive ideas humble and humiliate the likes of Naomi Kline or David Suzuki.  Those would be awful times indeed.  I’m hoping that smart enough people will consistently outnumber the dumb.  I hope that people see that freedom is the way forward even if malice can sometimes be dangerous when ignored.  So take heart, because the truth must win in the end and we are winning.

    

Alison's Solyndra begins to collapse

Over in Ontario so called "progressive" policies have led to credit downgrades exactly as predicted. 

Here in Alberta, the eco-boondoggle known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) lost a major player.  TransAlta corp has pulled out of the $1.4 billion  Pioneer Project because it wasn't economically feasible.

The Minister of eco-nuttery (or Environment) Dianna McQueen says:

“Under new technology, sometimes this happens ... "

 That so happens to be the same excuse Obama used to explain the Solyndra failure.  Excuses appear daily as "green" endeavors fail.

The Minister predictably maintains that the other 3 projects are economically viable.  This must refer to a progressive definition of economically viable.  Projects subsidized in the tens of millions are normally thought of as economically infeasible. 

Even with the heavy subsidies, companies use the CO2 from CCS to stimulate old wells to produce more oil.  Money is made producing oil alone.  CO2 has no value.  Its smoke. 

TransAlta blames the inherent worthlessness of CO2 for the project's cancellation.  Government price controls on a worthless and ubiquitous substance like CO2 have failed everywhere they have been tried.  Al Gore's Carbon Exchange in Chicago was dreamed up by Enron and is now history like Enron.  European Carbon Exchange is rife with fraud and even the eco-nuts don't like it.

Don't ever say oil companies oppose cap and trade.  They don't.  Essentially, the government pays them gigantic sums of money to extract more oil.  What a deal.  You pay for it all.

The best part is that all of this is happening under the premise that its supposed to make you feel good.  Its the 'Do-Something' rationalization.  CCS has negligible impact on Climate Change according to the most alarmist Climate theories.  The PC government has committed $2 billion to do nothing at all.  $2 billion will make a lot of CO2 however its spent.  CCS does less than nothing at all for the Climate in theory and don't forget that It's only profitable if they can sell more oil doing it.  Stupid.  This is probably the most expensive way to produce oil possible.

"But we have to do something."

Why?  Why do we have to do something?  I am all for efficiency.  I despise waste.  The 'Do-Somthing' rationale is a total waste.  It doesn't affect global warming and it makes nobody happy.  I'm not happy and the eco-nuts are never happy.  Welcome to Alison's Wonderland Alberta.

Update: Minister McQueen says that no taxpayer money has been spent on CCS yet.  Hopefully the rest will pull out before the government can waste it.

Drop Progressive from Conservative Parties

Its time for a name change for parties that sport Progressive in their titles but are actually conservative.  Sorry.  Liberals and Socialists have taken up Progressive as one of their key words.  It matters.  Whenever the electorate begins to realize what socialists are all about, they change the name and keep the ideology.

This is why Socialists became Liberals and now Liberals are Progressives.  Its more palatable they think.  I know what was meant by Progressive when applied to Conservatives.  The route word is progress while its anything but.  Now progressive is about the progress of bigger and bigger government.  Its about progress of the laws over people who follow them and coddling for people who don't.  Its the same way that Liberals are liberal with spending good peoples money.  The classical liberal is gone and so is the progressive.  They are all just socialists.

Do you doubt me?  Good.  Google Progressive.   Here is what you see when the Liberal Party shows up.

The Liberal "blog" goes out of its way to use the word progress and its derivatives in every post.  "..The summer progresses..., ...we are making progress...'' etc...  You might not want to drop your P word yet but they are obviously moving in on it. 

Lets ask Alf Apps, Liberal Party President, what he thinks Liberals are:




The Alberta PC's can keep Progressive.  They are more progressive than conservative.  The rest of you PC's had better think long and hard about what progressive means and what its coming to mean.  Do you really want to be socialist conservatives?  Its not about progress.

My First Encounter With A Progressive

A couple of weeks ago I was scandalized but not surprised to read about a Quebec child that was punished because his parents put his lunch in a plastic ziplock bag.  It’s the expected result of the eco-religion’s ascension but no less frightening and appalling for being so easily predicted.  Hysteria coupled with righteous zeal is not new after all.  We’ve seen it again and again, from dogmatic institutionalization and oppression all the way to rejection and rebellion.

It reminded me of my own experiences with progressives growing up in a Catholic school in Ontario.  None of it was earth shattering or newsworthy, but it stands out to me like a first kiss.  It was my first encounter with progressive social engineering.  

I was your average kid.  I loved taking books out of the school library.  There was a book about volcanoes that I must have taken out six times.  It had some amazing pictures of billowing smoke and fire.  Most of them were picture books with at most a paragraph of explanation on each page.  It was a kids library after all and I was in the first grade.  

It was the time of the “save the whales” craze.  I used to wake up at dawn on Saturday mornings to watch Oceans Alive.  I can still hum the theme song and I knew all about whales.  Killer Whales especially.  They were on par with sharks being fearsome, deadly and impressive.
 

One day we were talking about saving the whales in class.  We listed off all the whales and I was jumping out of my seat to say my favourite one.  Finally it was my turn.  “Killer Whales,” I shouted, being very pleased that I had also found a way to shout killer in class.  

That was not going to fly in Mrs. Progressive’s Grade 1 class.  There was no such thing as a Killer Whale. 

I was dumbfounded.  Teachers know everything.  How could my teacher not know about Killer Whales?  I had been to MarineLand.  I watch Oceans Alive.  I’ve read the books in the library of this very school!  Now the ‘smart’ (obedient) girls are shaking their heads at me while I describe a Killer Whale.

“That’s an Orca,” Mrs. Progressive corrected, feigning ignorance.  

No it isn’t and I said so.  I refused to accept it.  I told her she was wrong and I would prove it.

I went to the library at recess and found the appropriate book all about Killer Whales.  That might have been the title of the book in fact: Killer Whales.  I brought it back to show her and she wouldn’t look at it.  She would not accept the animal’s name.  She told me the book was wrong.

I knew better, but I stopped thinking about Killer Whales.  I tried to figure out Mrs. Progressive instead and I think I got it.  She really liked whales.  She wanted to save them and didn’t want to think they were mean killers.  She was trying to change the truth so that I would act differently. 

This blew my mind.  My dad thought it was funny.  She told the whole class a lie to save whales.  She tried to trick us into saving the whales when we would have all been happy to save them, even the killing ones (they all kill).  

That was my first encounter with a progressive.  I didn’t know what they were back then and she probably didn’t either.  She probably would have been offended.  I also remember the day Brian Mulroney was elected.  She sat us in a circle and announced it as if the Pope had passed on.  That was also the first time I’d ever heard of elections and I asked if that was a good or bad thing that Mulroney had won.  She wouldn’t say, which meant she thought it was bad.  She would have said it was good if she thought so.

How many years have we lived with people like this?  -People who lie for their interpretation of the greater good.  –People who work their way into the bureaucracy and into public office so that they can shepherd us poor dummies around and look after us.  We can’t be trusted with our own money or we’ll spend it on beer and popcorn and end up homeless.  The facts?  Oh no.  We can’t have those because we’ll make the wrong conclusions.  

They constantly think they are smarter than the free market, that billions of minds processing their micro-economic decisions in parallel are less efficient than just a few powerful elites.  What arrogance.  What ignorance.    What great folly is the progressive worldview.  Progressivism is an enabling fallacy, a delusion, that allows people to pretend they are smarter than the masses and necessarily rule over them and overrule their dreams and hopes.

The good news is that the truth eventually gets out, especially the truth about nature and culture.  The Killer Whale incident kindled the flame of skepticism in me.  I knew from then on that some people will lie to themselves and everyone else to try and make a delusion real.  The poor kid whose parents committed an eco-sin, will remember that forever.  So will countless kids who don’t make the newspapers.  Nowhere is the green brainwashing stronger than in the schools.  They will all grow up ashamed of killing the world and they will rebel.  One fine sunny day they will cast aside the false guilt and fear.  They will laugh at the hysteria of their elders because it really is hysterical.  They will be free.