SBP2009

I thought that was one of the best lines ever from the cranky doc. It's darn close to being sig-worthy.

It appears the legal leftist putsch in Canada is one step closer to reality.

Another rational man is always welcome out west, Martin.

Well, Zip, as you are likely aware there has long been a western separatist movement in Canada. But it has historically been small, scattered and fractious, and has not been taken seriously by Canadians at large. Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept is the most well-known embodiment of the western separatists. What has been missing, until now, has been a major assault on the West by Ottawa. The National Energy Program was the last such assault. I think that the leftist putsch could be viewed in a similar light to the National Energy Program. So I think that a western separatist movement would gain momentum following a coup. Perhaps it would pick up enough momentum for secession to be discussed openly by people outside of the lunatic fringe. Whether that would translate into a groundswell of public desire for secession, I am not sure. Westerners tend to see themselves as Canadian, and there is an emotional attachment to Canada despite the consistent western alienation that has been studied extensively. Alienation is not enough, but a dictatorship could be. If the Dion/Layton/Duceppe junta forces a carbon tax down our throats, killing Alberta and Saskatchewan's robust economies, we might have the right conditions for a push for secession.

Harper's game of political chicken is exposing Dion, Layton and Duceppe for what they are: wannabe dictators. The lunatic leftist parties lost the election, elected fewer MPs than in 2006 and now that Harper is threatening to cut off their looted funds, they want to pull off a putsch and seize power. Harper's gambit has stripped off the polite Canadian veneer of democracy and has revealed the ugly truth of collectivist mob rule that threatens to immolate this country. Harper was the lesser of five evils in the election. He was not inspiring but was less repugnant than the other moonbats. If Dion, Layton and Duceppe pull off this putsch then all pretense of Canada being a free country will be finished.

BTTT Thanks for your tireless efforts, Paul! I will definitely give the show a listen.

4000 American lives were squandered by sending them into battle with one hand tied behind their backs. And they were one country over from the one that should have been crushed. Iran should have been that target, as has been stated here already. But I am sure I am preaching to the choir here, to borrow an enemy metaphor. As far as I am concerned, the Iraq war was an unnecessarily long and messy clean-up job for a task that should have been completed in Gulf War I. Bush Sr. didn't finish the job and look at the cost. Saddam Hussein's regime should have been wiped out in 1991.

I achieved 84.85%, with 28 correct out of 33. Not bad for a Canuck who grew up under Chairman Trudeau's rule!

Has anyone seen the GM doomsday video, predicting an economic catastrophe if they don't get a bailout? The wretched parasites that would resort to such repugnant scare tactics and emotional blackmail deserve to fail. This revolting display reveals the culture of complacency, entitlement and parasitism that plagues the Big Three. At the risk of echoing a line from the upcoming movie The Watchmen, GM is crying out for our help, and we should answer "No." The Big Three have sown the wind. Let them reap the whirlwind.

Good one!

I am speaking of the short term, in the inevitable post-mortem that the GOP will conduct. Waiting for Obama's socialism to fail is a longer-term view. The Republicans will conclude that their last remaining vestiges of support for capitalism are what doomed them in this election. To act in any other way would require that they check their premises and stop looking at ideas through the filthy lens of pragmatism. Pragmatism always takes the lead in welfare-state politics. The "correct" policies and ideas are the ones that lead to electoral victory and therefore power. The GOP will look at this election and see that a socialist candidate swept to victory and built up a massive cult of personality as well. Watch for Republicans that try to out-Democrat the Democrats. Because that is how they think they will win next time. For the Republicans to embrace capitalism and to become the party of individual rights, limited government and free markets would take a complete intellectual revolution within the party. The religious right is unlikely to sit still and let that happen. They will fight it tooth and nail. Hmmmm....worldwide socialism anyone?

I forgot to add my most important point. The Republicans received the punishment they so badly deserved. But I don't think that we can expect the GOP to "discover" capitalism, either. They will conclude that it was their last vestiges of capitalist philosophy that led to their defeat.

As I was watching the election coverage, CBS kept cutting to Times Square and the jubilant crowds. I was reminded of Padme's line in Star Wars Episode III: "So this is how freedom dies. To thunderous applause." Now it has been a while since I saw that movie, so I may not have the quote entirely right. I'm listening to McCain's concession speech, filled with the expected platitudes about compromise and "bridging our differences." Obama won tonight, but the entire free world has lost. I must say that I always expected Canada would spiral into dictatorship before the US. I am not so sure now.

I liked Faith of the Fallen the best, but I would have to pick Stone of Tears as a close second. FOTF is the best because it was philosophically the most well developed of the series. It was climactic in every way. Richard engaged in what can only be described as intellectual activism with a vengeance. I liked Stone of Tears almost as much as FOTF for its role in the plot development of the entire series. Wizard's First Rule could have been a standalone novel in most respects. But SOT put all the characters and plot into play for the later novels. Kahlan's uncompromising, ruthless prosecution of the war with the Imperial Order expeditionary force is in itself a treatise on how war should be fought.

Nicely done windyfellow! I could see the creative child's light bulb look go out as the second child took the last block. This short little story speaks volumes. Thanks for sharing it with us.