The Coalition horrors warned of by the Conservatives have come to pass, at the hands of the Conservatives themselves. They have spent like drunken Trudeau-era Grits. They have compromised their principles and told a key part of their base to stuff it. They have put patronage ahead of promise in their Senate appointments. Short of holding another referendum on national unity, they are as bad as what they claim to abhor.
It should then come as no surprise that Stephen the Spendthrift is rumoured to be in bed with Giles the Traitor. The deal at hand is classic pork-barrelling: Federal subsidies for an uneconomical Quebec City NHL arena. The region is the Tories only stronghold in La Belle Province, naturally a little electoral sweetener wouldn’t go amiss. Tis’ the season to be generous, with other people’s money. The Bloc serve no function except as a pressure group for the Quebecois. Their tautological platform has only one plank: What is Good for Quebec is Good for Quebec. It’s a deal made in political heaven, or hell for those who believe that principle should play a role in politics.
The much-abused Tory base remains loyal. The question is to what? To conservative values? Unlikely. Yes, the Tories have a minority government. That does limit what they can do. Lester Pearson also had two back to back minority governments, and he introduced sweeping changes to the country, albeit most of them bad.
Is the failure of the Harper Tories one of opportunity, or courage? And should the Conservatives at long last win their majority, what mandate will they have? They have governed from the center for so long, how can they justify governing from the RIght? Won’t the rationale then become we can’t take risks because we might lose the majority? So when will the Reform come? As time passes it becomes clear that many Conservatives’ loyalty lies with Team Blue, not conservative ideas or values.
Publius, “The Traitors and the Spendthrifts”, Gods of the Copybook Headings 2010-11-25
November 25, 2010
QotD: “The Traitors and the Spendthrifts”
Video of the last Harrier flight from HMS Ark Royal
The Two Scotts disfavour the Redskins
In their weekly football predictions, Scott Feschuk and Scott Reid both pick the Vikings to win:
Minnesota (plus 3) at Washington
Feschuk: First Wade Phillips is canned. Then Norv Turner’s team starts winning. And this week Brad Childress gets fired. Together, these events represent an unspeakable tragedy for football comedy. What are we supposed to do now? Who among NFL coaches shall become the new target of lazy jokes about vacant stares and gravy sandwiches? The obvious choice is Marv Lewis, whose team quit on him so badly against the Bills that I’m pretty sure his linebacking corps was a trio of avatars being controlled by the ghosts of the Three Stooges. But I’m backing a long shot — I’m putting my money on Mike Shanahan. With Donovan McNabb as his quarterback, with Clinton Portis out for the year, with a defence that ranks among the worst in the NFL, he’s going to have every opportunity to deploy his famed Flaring Nostrils of Dismay. Pick: Minnesota.
Reid: Vikes new head coach Leslie Frazier used the word ‘wholeheartedly’ to describe the way he’ll welcome Brett Favre’s input on the offense. That’s a good word. Another one would ‘temporarily’ since Favre’s first suggestion was the worst idea he’s had since he mistook his swinging single for postcard material. Favre complained the playbook is too long, too hard to remember and the schemes are too complicated. And remember, this is no dummy talking. He’s the leading passer of all time and a member of the Kodak Picture Maker loyalty program. If he develops more than 50 photos at one time, he gets his doubles for free. Maybe Jenn Sterger has a friend. Pick: Minnesota.
Publius argues against Julian Fantino’s candidacy in Vaughan
Publius thinks that Julian Fantino does not deserve the easy ride he’s getting in his attempt to win the Vaughan by-election:
The image of the crime-fighting crusader contrasts sharply with the OPP’s inaction during the occupation of the Douglas Creek Estate. Fantino’s status as a star candidate for the Conservative Party belies opposition from genuine conservatives.
In his four years in power Stephen Harper has played bait and switch with the Canadian electorate. He has talked of conservative values, and fear mongered on the dangers of a Liberal-NDP coalition government, while running a government which is fiscally to the Left of those of Paul Martin and Jean Chretien. In Julian Fantino he has again offered Canadians a false bill of goods, a law and order candidate who, as OPP commissioner, failed to uphold basic law and order.
What has allowed the Prime Minister to get away, so far, with the candidacy of Julian Fantino is the near silence the MSM has offered on the Caledonia tragedy. With the honourable exception of Christie Blatchford, the media has largely ignored the near anarchy which persisted for years in a Canadian small town, all within driving distance of Toronto. Canadian television journalists should long ago have stopped, if only for a moment, chasing down crooked used car salesmen, and paid attention to what should have been the biggest news story of the last five years. Placing the violence of Caledonia in Canadian living rooms, might have ended the tragedy and pain much sooner.
Even China may not be able to afford their High Speed Rail network
By way of Hit and Run, a brief note of caution about the headlong pace of construction of China’s High Speed Rail:
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported to the State Council recently, urging the large-scale high-speed railway construction projects in China to be re-evaluated. The CAS worries that China may not be able to afford such a large-scale construction of high-speed rail, and such a large scale high-speed rail network may not be practical.
[. . .] Under the current plan, the central government has approved to build, by 2020, 16,000 km of high speed rail providing access to about 90% of the Chinese population.
[. . .]
The report submitted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences said China’s high-speed rail construction has caused debt that has already reached unsustainable levels; particularly since the end of 2008, the government introduced a stimulus plan to fight the global economic crisis and the size of local government borrowing is already very high
As Ronald Bailey points out, China is now occupying the same position in American thoughts that Japan did thirty years ago — the economic juggernaut that is poised to crush weak and defenceless American business. The recent gushing about how wonderful China’s HSR system is and how America should build one too are really just echoes of the 1980’s lament on how Japan’s economic model worked so much better than messy US mixed-market capitalism.
Back in the 1980s, I was a producer for a national weekly PBS foreign policy show called American Interests. We ran a lot of nifty programs on various aspects of the Cold War. Another abiding obsession of the chattering classes was the coming triumph of Japan Inc. over a hapless America. We regularly broadcast shows featuring the likes of Robert Reich, Chalmers Johnson (see H&R obit from yesterday), and Clyde Prestowitz predicting that the wise bureaucrats at the helm of Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry deftly deploying their industrial policy jujitsu would soon bury us Yanks. As evidence, critics of undirected American capitalism pointed out that Japan’s economy was growing at 6 to 8 percent per year. Japan was exporting its way to prosperity and the U.S. was running a huge trade deficit with the East Asian powerhouse. Japan could do no wrong and America could do no right. Then the Japanese bubble burst.
Twenty years later, the new meme of would-be industrial policy mavens is China Inc. Promoters include Thomas Friedman and Clyde Prestowitz. China is growing at a blistering pace of 10 percent per year and exporting its way to prosperity. Once again, we are told that East Asian capitalism directed from the top by wise bureaucrats is going to outcompete the United States and toss us into the dustbin of histoy.
“They took more than 400, highly detailed photographs of the dig”
By way of A Blog About History, a story about a valuable set of over 400 photographs of the Sutton Hoo excavations:
Like the original ship burial, this remarkable find has laid unseen and forgotten for a long time. Tucked away in a dusty storeroom were a couple of fairly nondescript cardboard boxes.
Inside these unprepossessing packages were a photographic treasure trove which sheds new light on the discovery and the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
Inside the boxes were more than 400 photographs taken during the summer of 1939 by two visiting school teachers Barbara Wagstaff and Mercie Lack.
It is believed that they had contacts with The British Museum which is why they were given access to the site but very little is known about them.
They took more than 400, highly detailed photographs of the dig — far more than the 29 official shots taken by the British Museum photographer.
The pictures have laid forgotten until now; as a selection of them are forming the centrepiece of a new exhibition at Sutton Hoo.
It’s hard to believe that the British Museum didn’t have a more comprehensive formal photographic record of the excavations.
