Books, breakfast and Civitas

Attention everyone out there attending the upcoming Civitas conference in Toronto.

I will be part of a special Civitas panel on Saturday morning May 2nd called Books for Breakfast.

And no that doesn't mean we are eating books for breakfast; it means me and other authors will have a chance to talk about our books -- in my case Loyal to the Core -- and answer questions.

Oh, I might even have a few copies of my book to sell.

So if you are attending Civitas and you want to say hello be sure to drop on by.

Harper vs libertarians

Terence Corcoran reminds us in today's National Post of how Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while speaking to a Manning Centre gathering last month, essentially excommunicated libertarians from the Conservative Party.

I was at that speech and what struck me as odd was that Harper even mentioned libertarians.

Why go after them? Why single them out?

What makes it even odder is that Harper was once more or less a libertarian himself, at least on fiscal issues.

Corcoran wonders if it's because libertarians pose some kind of threat to the Harper Conservatives.

That seems unlikely.

The more likely answer is much more simple: Harper doesn't like libertarians because we represent his guilty conscience.

Visualizing spending

This video does a great job of putting government spending in perspective.



H/T Paul Tuns

Media Alert

I am scheduled to be a guest on the Dave Rutherford Show (CHQR radio) today at approximately 1:00 PM EST.

Topic: Is Quebec getting more than its fair share of cash for Canada Day?

Pork Report

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has come out with a report exposing the wasteful spending practices of the Western Economic Diversification department.

Called 22 years of pork barrel spending, the CTF report explains how much of the WED spending is more about politics than it is about economic diversification.

It's just the nature of the beast.

And by the way, the Conservative government plans to create two more regional development funds agencies — one for Northern Canada and for Southern Ontario.

So that means taxpayers can expect to roll out even more pork barrels.

When photo ops go wrong

This video shows how some New Yorkers reacted to Air Force One buzzing their city.

Funding Canada Day in Quebec

Did a radio interview on Ottawa station CFRA this morning at 7:30 AM!

Topic: Squandering tax dollars in Quebec.

Obama's foreign policy

Dick Morris on Obama's foreign policy.

Tough job

You know who has the toughest job in the world?

The guy responsible for writing the tribute to former Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

Is Canada left wing?

Check out my latest posting over at the Women's Post.

I wonder about the conventional wisdom about Canada being a "left wing country."

Capitalism rocks

Professor Don Boudreaux, one of America's most articulate defenders of free markets, has written an essay on what Earth Day means to him.

I've reproduced it below:

"Earth Day, to me, means an opportunity to express thanks for all the ways that capitalism makes our lives and environment cleaner and healthier.

I'm thankful for the automobile, which has cleaned our streets and highways of animal feces, which is both foul and filthy itself, and that attracts flies that spread it into our homes and workplaces.

I'm thankful for the automobile also because it allows us to travel in a cleaner environment than we had when we traveled on horseback or in buggies. Modern automobiles cool or heat the air immediately surrounding their passengers, making these passengers comfortable and, in summer, less sweaty and stinky.

I'm thankful for air-conditioning that keeps our interior environments not only comfortable but more healthy, as it allows us to better keep insects out of our homes, shops, factories, and offices -- and also, in humid places, to dramatically reduce the growth of mold and mildew in our homes.

I'm thankful for indoor plumbing. (The anti-polluting properties here are too obvious to spell out. Ditto for disposable diapers -- yet another product for which I'm most grateful.)

I'm thankful for the inexpensive soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, dental floss, toilet tissue, and plastic bandages and other first-aid items that make it possible for us to de-pollute our persons regularly.

I'm thankful for electronic appliances, such as those that (along with modern detergents - for which I'm also thankful) allow us to clean our used clothing and dirty dishes -- clean these more deeply and more thoroughly than was possible in the past without spending multiples of the time on such tasks that we spend on these tasks today.

These appliances enable us to recycle our clothing and our dishes for many reuses.
I'm thankful for electricity for making these appliances possible - and for enabling us to light our home without dirty candles, and for enabling us to heat our homes without coal, wood, peat, or other filthy substances.

I'm thankful for plastics, which very effectively and at very low costs allow us to keep bacteria confined. A plastic storage bag, for example, keeps food bacteria confined to the interior of the bag.

I'm thankful for refrigeration for retarding the growth of bacteria and, hence, keeping our foods cleaner and healthier.

I'm thankful for chemical fertilizers that increase the productivity of the earth's soil, and thereby helps to prevent malnutrition -- which, in turn, better enables each of our bodies to succeed at fighting off diseases that are more likely to sicken, or even kill, malnourished persons.

I'm thankful for factories (and the fuels that power them) that make possible things such as modern textiles -- modern textiles that enable even poor people in market societies to own many changes of clean clothing.

I'm thankful for modern insecticides and cleansers that help to protect us from bugs and bacteria that would otherwise pollute our environments.

I am, in short, thankful for private-property markets that are the main driving force behind these (and many other) anti-pollutants -- a force so powerful that we today enjoy the incredible luxury of being able to worry, should we so choose, about very distant and very speculative forms of environmental problems such as species loss and global warming."

Media Alert

I am scheduled to be a guest on the World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge this evening at 9:35 EST.

Topic: The Conservatives and Mulroney.

Deadliest Warriors

This is the coolest show in the history of television.

The Onion on Outsourcing

Mulroney vs Harper

Paul Wells of Maclean's outlines the saga of how Prime Minister Stephen Harper sought to distance himself from former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

It's an odd affair.

I can fully understand why Harper might want to separate himself from the sleaziness of Mulroney, but why do it in such a clumsy manner?

Writes Wells: "By March 31, a day after the senior staff meeting, three Ottawa news bureaus had been approached by PMO political staffers with the stale but suddenly handy 'news' that Mulroney had asked to be stricken from Conservative party lists. And also that he had let his membership in the party lapse in 2006."

Did not the PMO foresee that such a strategy would give a resentful Mulroney an opportunity to blow them out of the water -- which he did.

That in turn created days of negative stories for the Tories.

It just doesn't make sense.

Putting screws on the economy

An interesting interview where Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus warns of the dangers big government poses to the free market system.

The real pirates

Love this cartoon from The Investor's Business Daily.

Ancient debate

"Human nature is universally imbued with a desire for liberty, and a hatred for servitude." Julius Caesar, Gallic Wars

"Only a few prefer liberty -- the majority seek nothing more than fair masters."
Sallust, Histories

Pragmatic Politics

Paul Tuns has written an excellent column on the politics of pragmatism.

Here's a sample: "Political pragmatists will not only 'adapt' to cater policy to changing circumstances. Too often, they will abandon core principles in exchange for power."

No points for which political party he is talking about.

Bleak outlook

Here's another conservative who senses trouble for the Tories.

His point: "So, having underbussed the socons, speechers, libertarians, Reformers and, well, conservatives, from the CPC Steve has no one to stand with him as he attempts to storm the Toronto Party enclaves. And he has no one to blame but himself."