Saturday, April 30, 2005

CHCH veterans only

If you had the opportunity to watch channel 11, CHCH Hamilton during the 70's, then watch this clip.

Frightenstein

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Relativism

From Paul Wells of Macleans magazine:

"Jack Layton and the NDP are demanding that Martin cancel $4.6 billion in corporate tax cuts in return for NDP votes. Martin will get back to them. Layton, in a bitterly funny addendum to their talk, has given Martin until tomorrow morning to make a decision. Make a decision? You cruel, cruel man.

Now. I'm already getting emails from readers who believe it's the Liberals' outrageous corporate-tax handouts to big business that are keeping us from enjoying any social justice in this country. And the indefatigable Tom d'Aquino is warning that those tax cuts are the price of big business' support for the Grits. (UPDATE: Shame on me. D'Aquino's support has no price: his Canadian Council of Chief Executives is 'strictly and scrupulously non-partisan,' I'm told.)

Here's the interesting part: everyone's getting all het up over what amounts to chump change.

Like everything else in the second Goodale budget, the corporate tax cuts are rolled in over several years — there are almost none immediately, then more later, so the $4.6 billion is radically back-loaded. But for argument's sake, it averages to $922 million per year over five years.

Now. Compare that to the $12.9 billion, with a 'b', the feds will send to the provinces and territories in equalization and TFF (territorial funding formula) in the single year 2005-06. In other words, this year's share of the total five-year corporate tax cut comes to only 7% of this year's payments for equalization and its territorial equivalent.

Now. Compare that $922 million a year to the real big-ticket budget item, which is total cash and tax-point transfers for health and social programs. That's $47.9 billion for 05-06. The corporate tax cuts come to 1.9% of that figure.

Add equalization, TFF, and cash and tax-point transfers together, and the NDP's bottom line is a penny and a half on every dollar the feds will transfer to the provinces and territories this year. If I were to add in transfers to individuals — pensions, EI payments, and so forth — the corporate tax cuts fall well below a penny on the federal spending dollar.

Draw your own conclusions about what that means. My minimal point is that we have these national debates with incredibly high political stakes and you so rarely see anyone pause to explain the relative scale of things"

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Actual WMDs

According to BBC News, Burma may have used chemical weapons on rebels. A power mad dictator with chemical weapons...oh wait, no oil. Nevermind.

Stop the Mongrelization of the US Race!

Thank goodness the Minutemen will be keeping Canadian mongrels out the U.S. and out of Amerikan women's panties and men's jobs.

Monday, April 25, 2005