Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Liberals & Libya

Like John Ivison and Warren Kinsella, turmoil in Libya has me remembering fondly the days when a long-toothed Liberal regime happily sold brand Canada to promote the wise stewardship of Colonel Kadaffy. 

It sounded like smart politics at the time.  Canadians, in full moral prim-itude, were not hip to the concept of human freedom.  That was dangerous W dummy talk.  We were sophisticated realists who knew the sum of human happiness was assured by men like Saddam Hussein.  How better for Paul Martin to establish his anti-W cred than with a visit to newly-repented Colonel Kadaffy.  Canada, our Prime Minister was saying, was a friend of Arab dictators and few dead dissidents wouldn't spoil the party.

Interestingly, today's Liberals are basically nowhere on what's going on in Libya specifically and the middle east generally.  If they are saying something, clearly, no one in the media thinks they have anything noteworthy to contribute.  Probably, knowing that pictures of Juggernaut Martin and Colonel Kadaffy, hanging in the Colonel's bedoin tent, are all over the internet. 

And Iggy, who once stood with the Kurds against another violent loony tune - Saddam Hussein, is in an awkward position on Libya in particular.  He famously threw the kurds under the bus and argued that wthe orld would be a better place if Saddam Hussein was restored to power.  From that, we can only infer that he has his fingers on Colonel Kadaffy's behalf.   However sincerly held and rigorously considered, Iggy's preference for status-quo autocracy in the middle east is not the fashion these days.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Protests in the Middle East and Middle America

Protests are busting out all over.  Will democracy bloom in the middle east?  Or will Turkey, Israel and Iraq be the only free-vote trio in that area?

I have no clue.  I know Ghaddafi's facial hair creeps me out.  But would I brave sniper fire over it?  Probably not.  Instead, my protest would be quiet and incremental: I'd get lazy.  And lazy is what really kills dictatorships. 

It is something like having an asshole for a boss - nobody works hard anymore.  Nobody comes up with any good ideas or makes any helpful suggestions.  Everybody keeps their head down but their eyes on the clock.   Laziness is a slow-motion tsunami.

Down in Wisconsin, they are protesting too.  In fact, there are hippie punks with the nerve to compare themselves to the brave punks of Cairo.  If they have the nerve to compare themselves, let's look at that seriously:

In Cairo, part of the protest is about bureacrats getting rich from corruption.

In Madison, Wisconsin, the entire protest is about keeping the fat, corrupt benefits that public unions have extracted from tax payers for their workers.

In Cairo, they protest under the threat of violence for economic fairness.

In Madison, they protest with no threat of anything for economic gluttony.

Someone should spank public unions and their members.  Do they know the value of their pensions?  They are all millionaires.  And none of them understand how unique the rewards of their labour are.