Democratic Socialism

Vincent J. Curtis

29 Apr 2019

Bernie Sanders, one of the two leading candidates for the Democrat party nomination for the 2020 presidential election, describes himself as a “democratic socialist.”  But is it possible for a socialist to truly believe in democracy?

The evidence and the reasoning point at no.  Sanders can’t truly believe in both because socialism takes priority.

With Sanders, socialism is a one-way street.  Once socialism is chosen by democratic means, democratic means cannot be used to reverse the decision.  Socialism is justified on a moral basis, on the basis that it is a just system as capitalism is not.  Once a morally just system is adopted, how can it be reasonable to change to an unjust system?  The people would have to be deluded to choose a system that was unjust to them, and it would be unfathomable for them to wish to revert to the unjust system after they had chosen Utopia.  Hence, a democratic decision to abolish socialism must be illegitimate in the eyes of a socialist.  Democracy in that regard cannot be right.

One can also see it in the name, “democratic socialist.”  The genus is socialism while the differentia is democratic.  Democracy is permitted within the context of socialism, only so long as socialism is not questioned.

Look at what his happening in Venezuela.  Sanders – the man of the people – is standing by the Maduro regime in the face of a popular revolution because Maduro is a socialist who supports the regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua.

The moral aspect of socialism renders the modifier democratic fundamentally meaningless.

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Scheer Smear

Vincent J. Curtis

24 Apr 2019

News Item: Canada, allies disagree over white supremacy at G7 meeting in France.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is laying the groundwork for the fall election campaign.  He’s planning to smear Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer with white supremacy and al-rightism.  The disagreement between Canada and her allies is over their reluctance to get involved in the Canadian election.

Progressivism has declared white supremacism and the alt-right as morally beyond the pale, as being  modern forms of the Ku Klux Klan.  White supremacism and the alt-right arose as a hostile reaction against the excesses of progressivism, particularly political correctness run amuck, and of the failure of traditional conservativism to combat those excesses.  President Donald Trump is something of a darling of the alt-right because he doesn’t back down.  He fiercely counterattacks and is not intimidated by political correctness, the handmaiden of progressivism.

Declaring its opponents to be morally beyond the pale is a standard tactic of progressivism.  It is a straight smear and requires no debate or explanation.  The forthcoming question will be how effective the smear against Scheer will be.  Scheer will be called upon to make ritual denunciation of white supremacism and the alt-right as if he were in a Maoist re-education camp.  If the CBC take up the charge, as they probably will, Scheer will be either thrown on the defensive or look weak and sleazy trying avoid being forced into the Kabuki ritual.

This whole moral gambit is ridiculous and a charade.  Everyone under the Canadian Charter if Rights and Freedoms is guaranteed the right to freedom of thought and expression – particularly thought and expression that is said to be beyond the moral pale.  (Popular speech needs no protection)  In short, the bona fides of the Liberal party to call itself “liberal” is called into question by challenging on moral grounds the right to express certain thoughts.  Politically incorrect thoughts.

But the Liberal party isn’t “liberal” anymore; it’s becoming totalitarian.
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Jihad attack in Sri Lanka

Vincent J. Curtis

22 Apr 2019

“Jihad” was the word missing from the news reports on the attack in Sri Lanka.  These attacks were on the Christian Churches on Easter Sunday, and killed over three hundred and wounded over five hundred.  It is superficial and erroneous to call it a “terrorist” attack when in the big picture it is an act of jihad.

Islam is more than a religion, it is a politic and a civilization.  Its mission is the subjugation of the world to Islam, and it must destroy and replace all competitive civilizations.  Jihad is what Mohammed practiced.

Sri Lanka is primarily a Buddhist country, but has important minorities of Hindu, Islam, and Christianity.  The jihad attack on Easter Sunday was not on the Sri Lankan government; meaning that the attack was not so much political as civilizational and religious.  It was to show dominance and to intimidate the Christian community particularly.  It was intended to frighten people out of practicing their religions other than Islam, with the expectation that in time they will convert to Islam if for no other reason than their own safety.

The reason for murdering so many Christians on Easter Sunday, the holiest of holy days, is perfectly obvious and needs to be said.

The Sri Lankan government is floating the idea that these attacks were somehow revenge for the attack in New Zealand.  This is excuse-making, and the proposal does not hold water.  Given the scale and coordination of the attacks in Sri Lanka, they had to have been planned for many months.  And over those many months, how many people saw something or knew something and said nothing?  And if it were revenge, what does that say about Islam in Sri Lanka?  The Sri Lankan government is better off dropping the notion of a revenge attack or some other form of excuse-making and concentrate on jihad in its territory.

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Is feminism a form of sexism?

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Apr 2019

Can anyone be more sexist than a feminist?

In an advertisement for a podcast disguised as an opinion piece, Liberal strategist Tiffany Gooch laments the change in the sexual composition of the First Ministers of Canada.  In 2013, she writes, there were six women, and now there are none.  At one point female First Ministers represented 87 percent of Canadians; and now – zip!

In 2013, the premiers "took a collaborative approach” on sensitive issues like affordable housing, health care, and (sob!) cyber-bullying.  Now, it’s nothing but cigars and combat, combatting federal plans to address climate change specifically.  She goes on to ask, “why don’t we see more women in Canada’s most senior political roles?”

Well, it can’t be sexism.  As Tiffany admitted, we’ve done the feminist thing.  Having climbed that mountain, we’ve moved on to other things, things determined by pressing need.  But the golden age for Tiffany was when women were elected just because they were women, and her conference is about bringing back that golden age.

Diversity for the sake of it is foolish, and as a concept is just as sexist and racist as what it claims to protest against.  Merit alone is the only self-consistent value system.

It would break Tiffany’s heart to say that her feminist golden age was a failed experiment and Canada has moved on.
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The orkings of a progressive mind

Vincent J. Curtis

18 Apr 2019

The recent article by John Kneeland shows the strange operation of the progressive mind. [Hamilton Spectator 17 Apr 2019]

For reasons I’ll get into, he has decided that the Democratic party should be represented by a woman.  The leading progressive candidates for the nomination who happen to be men are blasted for their deviations from the progressive line in the course of their lengthy political careers.  Joe Biden, an old white male, is dismissed on account of his handling of the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in which Anita Hill was not treated according to today’s standards of deference to a woman complainant.  Bernie Sanders, another old white male, is dismissed on account of his voting against gun control; never mind that he represents Vermont, and his constituents strongly oppose gun control on account of the state's hunting culture.  Sanders is also a hypocrite on account of his having a small investment in “Wall Street.”

Women, such as Hillary Clinton,   Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand, are all victims inasmuch as “people are looking to attack” these political figures.  (The poor, soft, weak things!) He holds out little hope for their success because “polls show most Democrat voters are older and noncollege educated.”

The argument here is that the Democratic voter is too old and too uneducated to make the right choice.  Never mind that in a democracy every voter has as much right to his opinion as the young and educated.  Though after watching the antics of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an example of the young and college educated, you have to wonder at that qualification of superior judgement - indeed of the worth of that modern college education.

Kneeland wants a “diverse” nominee.  (Don't ask how a one can be "diverse") At the heart of diversity is a theory of race and sex, holding that different races and different sexes reach different conclusions on account of their race or sex.  Larry Summers was driven from his post as president of Harvard University for proposing such a thing and inviting the faculty to investigate this possibility.  The progressive mind is at its heart self-contradictory.  It reaches a conclusion and then looks for arguments to justify that conclusion today, never mind what was said yesterday.  The resolution of the paradox is that the progressive simply wants to sow chaos and disorder for the joy of it.  Racism, sexism, etc. are mere epithets to be hurled at opponents even as it engages in them itself.
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Gun ownership is a civil right

Vincent J. Curtis

13 A[r 2019

[Written in response to an opinion piece in which a group of surgeons call for stricter gun control, saying that gun ownership is a medical issue.]

Once again we see glittering credentials used to add a false weight to what is a political opinion.  Because the spokesmen of this opinion are surgeons we are supposed to be blinded to the fact that they are arguing utter nonsense.  It is, flatly, utter nonsense to say that gun ownership is a health issue.  You only have to apply the same logic to sharp instruments and automobiles to get a sense of the reductio ad absurdum of the argument being made.  Death through drug overdose is orders of magnitude larger that death by gunshot, and yet the medical profession is cool to the legalization of the gateway drug marijuana.

Gun ownership is a rights issue.  The right of self-defence has long be recognized in English Common Law.  The right to keep and bear arms was established by statute in English law in the 1689 Bill of Rights.  That established right is why the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is written the way it is, “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  Justice Antonin Scalia in the famous Heller decision explained the connection between the two laws: that the right was already in existence in American law as a consequence of the 1689 Bill of Rights.

The reason for including the right to keep and bear arms in 1689 and in 1791 both arose from the acts of tyrants.  To assure his despotic rule, Catholic King James II deprived protestants of their arms of self-protection.  In 1773, the British tried to confiscate the firearms of the American colonists to quell the rising rebellion against despotic English rule.  The lesson is that privately owned firearms are the first things a tyranny takes away because it denudes the people of the means of resistance against the taking away of other rights.

The right of self-defence is meaningless if a person is deprived of the means of self-defence.  Women in particular ought to be sensitive to this reasoning.  This is not to say that the keeping and bearing of arms cannot be regulated by law, but the entire deprivation of arms under the colour of regulation is a betrayal of trust in government.

The glittering credentials of doctors has no bearing on matters of law, rights, and history.
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Our Blessed Minister of Climate Change

Vincent J. Curtis

9 Apr 2019

It would be pointless to argue with our Minister of Climate Change Catherine McKenna.  She is simply another Arts major confidently regurgitating the talking points given her by a bureaucrat-speechwriter.  I’m sure she believes every word she says, even if she is taking on faith the words being put into her mouth.

These talking points ultimately come from a certain cabal of climate scientists whose income depends upon government research grants.

Ms. McKenna urges the importance of a carbon tax to combat climate change.  Let’s unpack that.  In the first place, there is no such thing as an earthly global climate.   What the earth has is an atmosphere, and climate is something that exists in that.  This atmosphere is divided for analytical purposes latitudinally into so-called climatic zones, an equatorial zone, a temperate zone, and a polar region.  Each zone has a unifying principle.  You can sum up these parts and call that sum a climate, except there is nothing unifying the parts, other than they relate to the earth and exist in the earth’s atmosphere.

So, to proclaim on climate change is to say that something material is going to change in a mental abstraction.  Besides this, rising or falling temperatures merely move the boundaries of the three zones, moving up or down the latitudes which define the zones.  Expanding or contracting zone boundaries renders obscure what is meant by the substance of “climate change” since the climatic zones remain the same, just their location changes.

It is too much to expect an Arts major to understand this.  But Minister McKenna holds a Master’s degree in Economics, and so she should know something about tax policy.  Her position is that a carbon tax is good for us.  I assume she means on the net balance between higher costs and the disasters expected from climate change.  Here, she lets us down.  Raising taxes increases the power of government and decreases the purchasing wealth of the people.  With the increased power, the government plans to redistribute wealth from those who drive more to those who drive less.

To say that this increase in government power is good for us means that the economic effects of climate change are known and quantified.  The bad effects of the carbon tax will be less than the bad effects of climate change and that the two bad effects are in opposition to each other.  The worse the carbon tax, the less bad will be climate change.

Since the economic effects of climate change are unknown and cannot even be reliably estimated, it is sheer propaganda on the part of Minister McKenna to say that the carbon tax is good for us – the people whose economic freedom is being diminished by the carbon tax.  And being an economist, she should know this.

It is too much to expect an Arts major to really understand the debacle of “climate science”, but in areas of her expertise Minister McKenna engage in handwaving nonsense.

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High priestesses of Liberal Church attack Heretics Wilson-Raybould and Philpott

Vincent J. Curtis

8 Apr 2019

The Liberal party has been a crypto-religion for nearly a century, going back to the days of McKenzie-King.  Shiela Copps and Marie Boutrogianni were high priestesses of that church.  They remain committed adherents who view the threats to Liberal party power by Jody Wilson-Raybould and June Philpott as the evil doings of heretics.  Nowadays, heretics aren’t burnt at the stake, but apostates are still driven out of the church and into a cold world alone and without patronage.

There is a big mistake being made in this saga concerning prosecutorial independence.  There is no such “constitutional principle” in Canada.  The principle is of judicial independence, which has been respected in the SNC-Lavalin affair.  If you want to know the principle of power of a cabinet official, you only have to look at the power of the UK Home Secretary.  The Attorney-General is highest prosecutor in the land, and she is a cabinet officer and a political figure along the lines of the Home Secretary.  The lawyers who insinuate that it is improper for the A-G to step in on an important matter of prosecution are full of it – they are saying that their little fiefdom shouldn’t be supervised by their constitutional supervisor.  I get that they want to run their shop their way, but they’re wrong, if not abusive of their own powers in offering this false advice..  And the Clerk of the Privy Council was absolutely right in his advice to Wilson-Raybould.  If there is a principle at stake, it is the use of A-G powers for corrupt purposes, which is not at issue here.  What the dispute is about is the form that the prosecution will take.

What we have here is a bureaucrat-prosecutor who is politically tone-deaf, and this example is why important matters such as the SNC affair ultimately get decided at the cabinet level.

What is being missed is that Wilson-Raybould is an aboriginal.  Aboriginals are biased against pure laine Quebeckers, because pure laine Quebeckers think of themselves as practically aboriginal. They hold no brief for the claims of aboriginals.  The Phase II of the James Bay hydro-electric project is a case in point.  In SNC, Wilson-Raybould found a prosecutor who was going to destroy a “signature” Quebec company, and she was going to let that congenial thing happen.  Hence, all the (bogus) talk about how inappropriate it was to interfere.  She was running interference for her guy.

The fact that Wilson-Raybould recorded a conversation with the Clerk gets into the realm of espionage, and I’m surprised no one has clued into that point yet.

As for Justin saying falsely that he was going to “do politics differently.”  He was deluding himself, but we’re the bigger fools for believing him.  He is a Liberal and a Trudeau, and a progressive – what more do you need to know about that promise and the source of that self-delusion?.
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Teachers Protest Changes to Education in Ontario

Vincent J. Curtis

7 Apr 2019

If there was any doubt that the teachers were behind the student protests on Thursday, it was ended by the teachers’ own protest on Saturday.  Several thousand Ontario teachers, some from as far away as Sudbury descended on Queen’s Park to protest changes to the education system proposed by the cost-cutting Ford government.

The Ford government was not planning on firing anybody.  They were looking to reduce positions through attrition, to eliminate or reduce the size of some costly programs, and they intended to increase class size.

It really doesn’t matter what the teachers say they were protesting, because with the left it is always the same.  The issue is never the issue, the issue is power; and the teachers resent the exercise of power by the Ford government.  They claim a veto over the Ford government’s changes based upon their superior knowledge and virtue.

The Ford government was elected less than a year ago on a program of change and reform.  The fiscal inanity of the Liberal government, particularly in the years of the Wynne government, meant that economizing and cost-cutting would be important features of the Ford administration.

When the left loses at the ballot-box it turns to neo-Marxist, Alinskyite, nihilistic anarchism as a means of thwarting the democratic choice.  We see it in the #resistance movement against Donald Trump, and you knew it was coming when Ford was labelled as Ontario’s Trump wannabe.  The left claims a veto on the choice of the electorate on the grounds of their moral superiority.

It takes a certain courage to stand up against the Alinskyite tactics of the left, particularly when the media are closet cheerleaders, and refuse to report the causes as to why things happened the way they did.  If they quote an Alinskyite lie at all, they take it at face value.

For the good of the province and to conserve political capital,, the Ford government will likely ignore as harmless the implied violence against mature discussion by the teacher's demonstration.  A Donald Trump would not.
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Alinskyites organize student sex-ed protests in Ontario

Vincent J. Curtis

5 Apr 2019

RE: Students across Ontario protested changes in sex-ed curriculum on Thursday, 4 Apr.

The media would have us believe that the student protests on Thursday against the changes to the sex education curriculum was a student organized affair.  Of all professions, journalists ought to know this isn’t true.

The students lack the mature judgement to protest the changes.  Being teenagers, their judgement is not mature.  Being students they lack the knowledge of what it is they are gaining or losing as a result of the changes.  Some adult organization prompted the students to engage in a day or reckless fun – at the expense of democracy.  An enterprising journalist would look into the chain of texts that led to this protest, to discover their origin and account for its spread.  They would find a leftist organization at the heart of the affair, perhaps a group within the teacher’s union.

The Ford government was elected less than a year ago on a program of change and reform.  Reactionary protests against the democratic choice of Ontario is anti-democratic.  As we’ve seen elsewhere, when the left loses at the ballot box, they turn to neo-Marxist anarchy as a means of thwarting the democratic choice.

The reason for the protest over sex-ed rather than changes to the math curriculum is because of the value-system validated by that curriculum.  The value-system endorsed by the Wynne program included gender theory, which leads to trangenderism, and the proposition that LGBTQ behaviors were merely lifestyle “choices” every bit as good, if not better, than normal heterosexuality.  Such neo-Marxist anarchism tears at the heart of the belief in individual liberty and individual rights.

It holds that our value is determined not by the content of our character but by the color of our skin, our sex, our sexual orientation, or some other category we can be said to belong to.  Judging people by their category identifies the value-system as Marxist   (Yes, identity politics is neo-Marxist.)

Anyone who attended J-school should be able to recognize the work of an Alinskyite organization.  Wasting my breath, I call upon journalism to uncover how this protest was organized and to reveal the who and the why at the bottom of it.
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Gun Rights are Human Rights

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Apr 2019

[Answer Daud is a medical student who is interested in human rights.  He argued that gun ownership represented a health issue, among other complaints and assertions.  The piece was published today in the Hamilton Spectator.]

Let’s call Anser Daud’s diagnosis and prescription what they are: ideological crap and medical malpractice.

Daud is too young and too uneducated to offer an expert opinion on anything medical.  That, however, seems no bar to his offering a fake expert opinion on psycho-social-political issues like gun control.

Daud claims to be concerned about human rights.  Good, read the Second Amendment in the American Bill of Rights.  Read the English Bill of Rights of 1689.  Read the Heller decision written by Antonin Scalia to see the relationship between the two.  It is customary English law that people have the right to arm themselves for personal protection and to keep arms as a defence against tyrannical government.  Before a tyranny takes away any other right like free speech, they take away privately owned firearms.  That was the lesson of 1688 and of 1773.

Canada had its mass shooting of defenseless women thirty years ago.  For all the gun legislation and regulation since, the type of firearm used in the École Polytechnique shooting was never even made restricted.  Oh, the AR-15 type was, but not the Mini-14.  Such is the politics around gun control.  Medical training is not directed to the solution of complex political questions.

Daud offers a fake expertise to advance an ideological solution to a non-problem.

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Replacing the Inglis HiPower

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Feb 2019


A lot and not much has changed in military handguns since I last wrote about it in 2006.  The mechanisms are the same.  Most today use the short-recoil system developed by John Browning for the M1911 and used in the FN Hi-Power.  The high capacity double-stack, single feed magazine developed by FN for the Hi-Power is practically universal.  Striker-fired has become more common than hammer-fired.  But a brand new Hi-Power would still be a competitive handgun.

Where things have changed start with the presence of a Picatinny rail on the grip frame.  The rail enables either a flashlight or a laser pointer to be mounted on the gun in alignment with the barrel; and the weight of tone reduces muzzle flip.

Finishes have changed.  Instead of traditional blueing bluing, new coatings such as duracoat, cerakote, and melonite are the fashion. They not only prevent rust but some also camouflage the gun.  Typical colours are flat dark earth, desert tan, and basic black.

Sights are now much better.  High profile, three dot sights are the new standard, and provision for red-dot optics that co-witness with the irons is common.  Polymer grip frames now come with replaceable backstraps.  Modularity, ergonomics, target acquisition, and accuracy are the new buzzwords.

Let’s review the contenders to replace the WWII era Inglis.  Two years ago, the U.S. military completed its selection process for a replacement handgun, and Canada has no need to re-engineer the wheel.  The principal contenders for the XM-17 contract were: Beretta, CZ, FN Herstal, Glock, Sig Sauer, Smith and Wesson.  I’ll add a couple of Turkish companies to this list.
  
The U.S. Army opted for the Sig P320.  The serialized part of this “gun” is just a chassis, holding a trigger assembly, slide rails, and magazine mount.  This chassis fits into a grip frame, and then you add a barrel, slide, recoil spring, and magazine to complete the gun.  Such modularity enables grip frames of different sizes to be made to fit hands of different sizes; and you can choose both the both length of the gun – full size or compact - and the calibre: 9 mm, .40 S&W, or .357 Sig.  All work in one P320 system.

The Glock 17 is extremely popular with police forces and militaries around the world. Glock hoped to win the competition with a Glock 19 upper on a 17 lower.  Glock didn’t win because the Sig proposal was half the cost of Glock.

The Beretta M9 was the standard Army pistol, but Beretta offered their APX design instead of the M9A3.  The single pull trigger requirement disqualified an M9 variant.

Colt supplies the USMC with its M45A1 offering.  The M45A1 is your granddaddy’s M1911 but with Novak sights, dual recoil spring, desert tan finish, and accessory rail.  The M45A1 is all-steel and in .45 ACP (naturally.)

The Smith and Wesson offering was its M&P 2.0 with a C.O.R.E. slide option.  It comes with the rail, changeable backstrap, tall iron sights, and is optic ready.

The FN 509 is FN’s take on the M&P 9, which is S&W’s take on the Glock 17, which, is an improved, striker-fired Browning Hi-Power.  The 509 is FN’s striker-fired replacement for the Hi-Power Mk III.  The CZ P-07 is like a hammer-fired 509.

My Turkish contenders are the Tisas BR9 and the Canik TP9.  Why Turkey?  High quality – surprisingly - and low price.  The BR9 is a clone of the Hi-Power Mk III, while the Canik TP9 is clone of the Walther P99.

The Turkish guns can be had retail for about $500 to $700.  On the high end, the Colt retails for about $2,000, while the Sig P320 can be had retail for about $1,200.  It would take a lot of magazines to fill a $50 million contract for 20,000 guns.

The half-life of a collection of plastic “wonder 9s” is about 15,000 to 25,000 rounds, or fifteen years of daily service.  Most contenders have polymer lowers which reduces their cost, lightens their weight, and lessens their long-term durability.
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Climate change nut gets bashed

Vincent J. Curtis

30 Mar 2019

This is in response to an article written by Eric Smith entitled, "Climate change a danger, not an opinion.  He describes himself as an "aspiring" writer.

As an aspiring writer, Eric Smith should stick to poetry.  As a science writer, he’s just another progressive hack.

His opponents are the “deniers.”  His opinion is not an opinion but statements of scientific facts.  And we’re all going to burn in hell if we don’t do as he says.  He tries to settle a scientific question by means of dialectics.

Anthropogenic global warming is a term no longer in fashion, and has been replaced by the anodyne “climate change.”  When you say “man-caused global warming,” the theory starts to become a little shaky because global warming stopped inexplicably in 1998 and has not resumed.  All the forecasts of doom made since 1988, when man-caused global warming was first proposed, have turned out to be completely wrong.

If you google the term “atmospheric absorption spectra” you will discover the reason why more CO2 in the atmosphere is not the immediate threat that some say it is.  The CO2 already in the atmosphere already absorbs all the infrared radiation that CO2 can absorb.  Adding more CO2 won’t absorb more radiation.

You will also notice that water vapor is a far more powerful absorber of infrared radiation, which is why concerns over bovine flatulence is another fool’s errand.

Climate change is a con and a fraud.  The solution to climate change is always massive increases in government power and intervention into private lives  It is an excuse for progressivism to engage in more economic vandalism.
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Should City Government Mediate Race Relations?

Vincent J. Curtis

31 Mar 2019

You couldn’t be more blatant about asking for a handout from the city council of Hamilton than by alleging the existence of a race-relations problem in the city and then presenting yourself as the person to deal with it.

The whole idea of the city mediating race relations is absurd.  Race relations in the city is a neo-Marxist collectivist idea.  It carries tons of undeclared philosophical assumptions, all of which are antithetical to western ideas of individual liberty.  Treating people as categories and not at individuals with individual rights is a Marxist idea.

A role of civic government is not to mediate relations between the races.  Insofar as it mediates relations between private individuals, it does so by means of a police department and by-law enforcement.  That’s it.

It would require a massive expansion of government power and reach to claim and enforce the power of mediating relations between the races.  But that’s the whole idea, isn’t it?  The issue isn’t the issue, the issue is power.  And the government will pay to advance a neo-Marxist agenda.

Seen it all before.
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Will Feminst Trudeau fall to Mean Girls?

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2019

The SNC-Lavalin affair has had from the beginning the aspect of a spat among high-school girls.  And I don’t mean that in a good way.

If Prime Minister Trudeau had called his Attorney-General into his office and told her how he wanted the SNC-Lavalin affair settled, Wilson-Raybould could either have agreed or resigned then and there.  But no.  The direct approach was too masculine for the feminist Trudeau. Instead, he hounded Wilson-Raybould with subordinate intermediaries in the hopes that she would get the message without an uncomfortable face-to-face confrontation.

Wilson-Raybould now admits that she – probably illegally - secretly recorded a conversation she had with the clerk of the Privy Council, and –again, probably illegally – released this recording publically.  The feminist term “inappropriate” is bandied about.  She thought her job was being threatened!

Wilson-Raybould and her BFF Jane Philpott think they can burn down the Trudeau government and still remain Liberals in good standing.

It would be ironic if the feminist Trudeau government fell because of an adolescent girl spat.

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Trade with China

 Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2019

The closure by the communist government of the Chinese market to Canadian exports of canola teaches a lesson that ought to have been obvious twenty years ago.  You cannot trust a totalitarian regime that thinks it has leverage over you.

Last year, the Chinese tried the same trick against Trump when they closed agricultural exports from the American heartland after Trump imposed tariffs on imports from China.

There should be no thought of trying to have a free trade deal with China.  They can’t be trusted, and we can’t put ourselves in their hands.  The basis of our trade policy with China should be “cash and carry.”  You have the cash, and you can buy our exports.  You can’t buy Canadian capital assets, and you can’t appropriate our technology.  Growing crops on your promise to pay later will be strongly discouraged by the Canadian government, by not offering insurance.

China’s game of tampering with foodstuffs is dangerous also to itself.  In the short term, China can throw its considerable weight around, but if Canadian farmers grow wheat instead of canola, the Chinese diet is going to have to change – without the agreement of the Chinese people.

Canadian producers cannot look to China as a trustworthy export market because the communist government can’t be trusted.  The government of Canada needs to impose strict rules and policy about trade with China for the protection of Canada’s economy.
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Quebec banning religious symbols

Vincent J. Curtis

1 Apr 2018

The Quebec government is advancing legislation intended to ban religious symbols in the workplace.  There are many who claim that the banning the hijab, which is the intended target, is racist, Islamophobic, and unnecessary.  The hijab is nothing more than a piece of cloth signifying religious piety, they say.

In truth, the move by Quebec is to ban the symbols of a fascist ideology from the workplace.  It is particularly obnoxious that the descendants of Charles Martel should have to listen to the daughters of Islam speak to them from positions of authority.

If the symbols at issue were swastikas worn on a chain around the neck, the critics would be all-in on the ban.

The proposed ban is receiving wide-spread popular – that is to say, democratic – support in Quebec.  A similar bill was proposed by the previous Liberal government.  And Quebec is following the lead of France in the banning of these symbols in the workplace.  Quebec's distinct society was recognized by Canada's federal government under Stephen Harper, and the legislation is simply an exercise of that distinctness.  Quebec is not ashamed of what it is, and intends to remain what it is.

Having left one hell to emigrate to Canada, and landing in another hell in Quebec, perhaps those affected can move again to a more congenial place, like the west end of Hamilton.
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P.S. Some critics of the Quebec move to ban the hijab in the workplace claim it is a sign of the belief in a conspiracy that Islam plans to conquer the west by immigration and reproduction.  The conquest by Isalm of European civilization is not some bizarre conspiracy theory but was publically endorsed, in one of his saner moments, by the deceased leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.