Alexandre has a rival

Shhh, nobody tell Alexandre Trudeau, but it looks like Fidel already has a special friend.

Sun Song

Ever wonder why the sun shines?

Best Sci-Fi Movies

Top Ten Science Fiction Movies of all time as determined by me:

1. Forbidden Planet
2. War of the Worlds (1953 edition)
3. Aliens
4. Them!
5. Planet of the Apes (1968 edition)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
8. Alien
9. The Road Warrior
10. Star Wars

Honorable mentions for The Andromeda Strain and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Alexandre and Fidel sitting in a tree . . .

Bad news for Alexandre Trudeau.

Trudeau's little love note to Communist dictator Fidel Castro has revealed his true feelings, so as a favour I plugged his and Fidel's name into the "Love Calculator".

Sadly, it says they only have a 15 percent chance of their relationship working out.

And to make sure the Love Calculator is accurate I performed my own test and it passed with flying colours!

But don't worry Alexandre, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

Real HIStory

I took a lot of history courses in my university days, but not once in any of my classes did this ever pop up.

Waiting for Raul

Latin American specialist Ken Frankel had an interesting op-ed in the Globe and Mail the other day on Cuba's future after Fidel.

Frankel noted, Raul Castro, Fidel's annointed successor, is a "pragmatist, a proponent of Cuba's free-market experiments earlier in the regime, and an admirer of China's success in introducing free-market programs."

So perhaps, just perhaps, once Fidel is ethicaly, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead, Cuba might break free of its antiquated Marxist mind set and embrace at least some free market reforms.

And that will be good for the world and it will be good for the Cubans.

But please don't tell any of this to Alexandre Trudeau, I don't want to spoil any of his childhood fantasies.

Hair Raising Science

Here's why I wholeheartedly support more cloning research.

Barry's Blog

American humour writer Dave Barry is apparently a libertarian.

I mention that to justify recommending his hilarious blog.

The Big Picture

While cleaning up my desk I came across this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, I had clipped several years ago. (click on it to enlarge)

It kind of puts things in context.

Nation-states and violence

When it comes to the legitimized use of violence the nation-state isn’t the only game in town anymore.

Look at what’s happening in the Middle East.

Israel is waging war not against another state, but against Hezbollah, which is essentially a street gang on steroids.

Yet rather than being isolated as an outlaw aberration, Hezbollah enjoys the support of large parts of the world community and the international media.

In other words, Hezbollah – a non-state actor – is getting the stamp of approval when it comes to using violence to achieve its aims.

And you don’t have to go thousands of miles away to see this happening.

In Ontario, there has been an illegal native protest going on for about five months.

Militant natives have blatantly defied the law and occupied land in Caledonia to press their land claims.

And for months the police and the federal and provincial governments have done nothing to uphold the law.

They are letting the militants get away with it.

Why?

Because they are afraid of violence.

Now I am not suggesting the government is wrong to avoid violence.

But clearly the message coming out of the Caledonia stand-off is that the government is implicitly admitting that the Mohawk Warriors – a non-state actor – have the right to use violence to achieve their aims.

So what does all this mean for the future?

It means the nation-state is in for some competition.

Case of the Vanishing Billboard

Here’s something pretty strange.

Yesterday CBC news was doing a story on the “Support our Troops” campaign the National Citizens Coalition is running.

And as part of the story they wanted to shoot our billboard in downtown Toronto.

Great publicity right?

Yeah, except for one little detail: the billboard was not there.

I don’t mean it was vandalized, or that a new billboard had been put up.

I mean the whole billboard was missing. It had completely vanished.

It was a real mystery.

After a little investigation, however, the story unfolded. Turns out somebody in a truck had smashed into it before the weekend.

Now the culprit was probably just some drunk; nobody could possibly be that angry about our message.

Could they?

Liberty Seminar Update

I hear from my secret sources that this year’s Liberty Summer Seminar was a big success.

As readers of this blog may remember, the LSS is a great little country outing where conservatives and libertarians get together in bucolic splendor to exchange ideas, engage in debate and just have a good time.

Unfortunately, I could not attend this year’s seminar which prompted LSS organizer Peter Jaworksi to send me an email.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I’m sorry you couldn’t make it this year Gerry. I would have liked to have seen you . . . and I’m absolutely certain that you would have stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning with Mike Walker drinking Liberty Ale to ballads by Lindy. I’m just certain of it.”

Of course, Peter could not know this, but I am not much of a drinker, and I usually nod off by about 10:30 PM, but it still sounds like a lot of fun and I am sorry I missed it.

Next year I will have to make it.

Unions, the NDP and gag laws

According to Elections Canada, big unions and their allies spent about $354,000 on political advertising during the last federal election.

And surprise, surprise the bulk of that money went to support NDP candidates or NDP policies.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) even spent $287 to buy a leather jacket for NDP leader Jack Layton!

Of course, one problem with all this is that union bosses are using forced dues to finance this spending. In other words, they are forcing employees who pay dues to pay for a political agenda they probably may not support.

That's undemocratic.

This pro-NDP campaign also highlights a problem with the election gag law. That's the law which makes it a crime for citizens or indepedent groups to spend more than about $170,000 on political advertising during an election.

The National Citizens Coalition, for instance, would be severly limited if we wanted to mount a pro-free enterprise ad campaign.

Yet unions, by pooling their resources into a common goal, such as supporting the NDP, can spend many times more than the official gag law limit.

This might lead some politicians to call for tigher gag law limits.

A better answer, however, would be to scrap it altogether.

More Progressive Opinion

Recently I wrote a piece for the Brookstreet group blog on the word "progressive."

Typically a word used by the left to describe their policies, I argued there was nothing progressive about socialism.

Well, here is another take on the political use of that word.

Media Bias

Here are a couple examples of media bias for your long weekend pleasure.

First, Stephen Taylor exposes what he says is a little editing on the CBC's part to make Prime Minister Stephen Harper look bad.

Second, Reuters confesses that it released a doctored photograph which makes an Israeli attack on Lebanon look worse than it actually was.

More and more it seems like media bias is becoming more blatant these days.

Role Reversal

Communist officials say they fear the Americans will soon invade Cuba.

Well, that would be a switch.

After all, for the past 47 years, Cubans have been invading Florida.

Who's Progressive?

Here's my latest contribution to the Brookstreet Group.

It's about who really is "progressive"?

Really Right Brothers

While visiting the Powerline Blog last night, I learned about an interesting band called the Right Brothers.

And what makes them interesting is their unabashed conservatism.

They have songs like Bush Was Right, and Dear Mr. Reagan and my personal favorite Shut up and Teach.

If I wasn’t so cheap I’d buy their CDs.

Words Matter

Mel Gibson is – deservedly – being vilified for his recent anti-Semitic outburst.

It’s shocking to think that someone like Gibson could utter such a bigoted comment as “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

But it’s interesting how one word can mean so much.

For instance, if Gibson had been giving a speech to a literary society in Paris and declared, the “Zionists” are responsible for all the wars in the world, he would be the hero of the European elite.

Or if he had been speaking to an anti-Bush rally in Los Angeles and shouted out that the “neo-cons” are responsible for all the wars in the world, he would be a cinch to win an academy award.

And if he had been on the CBC and suggested the “Americans” are responsible for all the wars in the world, he would be considered a visionary.

Maybe Gibson’s problem is he just didn’t understand how to speak in code.

Castro Successor

Now that it looks like Fidel Castro might be on his last legs, it’s time to start thinking about replacements.

After some serious thought I have come up with some likely successors.

Here they are in no particular order.

Jack Layton
As Cuban president he will get a first hand look at what Canada would look like in a few years if the NDP ever takes power.

Mel Gibson
I don’t think there are many Jews in Cuba.

Michael Moore
It would give him a captive audience for his next documentary.

Justin Trudeau
His dad would be so proud.

Blue Jays General Manager J.P. Riccardi
He might be able to finally find some decent pitchers for the Blue Jays.