I’ve had the chance to go to Germany a couple of times, never to Berlin though. A friend of mine was there recently on a trip with the International Democratic Union and took this picture from the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Good to know that they remember the great Ronaldus Magnus.

UPDATE: They also had this rather amusing propaganda poster of Leonid Brezhnev and Erick Honecker making out at a meeting of communists.

Okay for all of you anal-rententive conservatives or liberals with a grudge, yes I’m quite aware that Obama has not been in office for a full year yet. Now that that’s out of the way, can we move on? Okay great thanks.


Jacob Weisberg says that “[b]y January, [Obama] will have accomplished more than any first-year president since Franklin Roosevelt.” Now, I need to point out immediately that if anyone “compliments” you by referencing FDR, then you probably don’t want too many people to hear about it, but Obama hasn’t tried to censor Newsweek just yet.

So, as Sarah Palin predicted back in her brilliant speech at the Republican National Convention last year, Obama will “turn back the waters and heal the planet” and then the stadium lights will go out, as they slowly are right now. Let’s look back on what he actually has done.

1)

Okay that was a bad idea, never mind. Let’s look at what he’s failed to do:

1) Failed to make the world better with cash for clunkers
2) Failed to bring Chicago the Olympics (I liked that one)
3) Failed to reform health care
4) Failed to censor talk radio
5) Failed to increase relations with the good countries like Canada, Britain, France.

Oh wait I thought of something he did, he got his wife on the cover of O Magazine…apparently that’s quite an accomplishment.

So, kids, remember that you don’t need to have any accomplishments to win a Nobel Prize, but 5 major failures should secure you one!

Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury is promoting Christmas presents (the season is upon us!) for conservatives on her website. You should check it out for sure, but nothing beats this:

I was looking over some things on my old computer as I migrated it over to my new one (go MacBook Pro!) and found this clip that I’m not sure if I shared. At CPAC 2008, Ann Coulter was proposed to during the Q and A…so that sets the stage for what I say. (Yes it is me).

Enjoy, and if you haven’t already, you can meet Ann when she does her first public appearance in Canada.

And if you were looking for a feel good video, here’s John McCain getting booed.

In their typical holiday spirit, PETA (Pathetic Egotistical Tofu Aficionados) released their popular Thanksgiving game about cookin’ with Mama (or something like that, I can’t be bothered to go back to their website). Despite showing distorted facts and the gruesome “reality” of the process a turkey goes through, the game made me pretty damn hungry, so I had to share it.

As much as I try to avoid chatting about mundane events in the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament (I leave that for a certain opportunistic over-paid “investigative blogger“), I had to jump on this one out of sheer amusement. Michelle Simson (Lib. – Scarborough Southwest) “Tweeted” about Dean Del Mastro’s (Con. – Peterborough) weight during a parliamentary committee meeting (ironically the committee surrounding parliamentary ethics). Del Mastro is a bigger guy, as are quite a few MP’s, but I think that it crosses a line when an MP has to resort to instructing another MP to “grow up, not grow out” instead of actually debating the issues. I suppose that it would also be too much to ask to say that Simson should focus on the actual committee instead of Tweeting, but hey it’s not a perfect world.

There’s a video of Del Mastro’s point of order here.

If I wasn’t in the Christmas Spirit already, I certainly am now. After Wal-Mart shut down one of it’s Jonquière, Québec stores as a result of them unionizing, the case went to the Supreme Court, who upheld Wal-Mart’s decision, stating that an employer has complete autonomy over whether or not they stay in business, and can decide the reasons themselves without having to pander to a labour rights group such as the Canadian Labour Congress — though I didn’t know Québec was eligible for anything with the word “Canadian” in it personally.

This doesn’t really set a precedent according to experts, but does raise the question on whether other companies may now follow suit. I sure hope the liquor stores (yes in Canada our liquor stores are government owned) will turf the union, maybe the prices will go down.

It seems that I should start collecting a salary from CHRW Radio here in London as I was back for the third time in a couple of weeks today — though this time it was representing the Forest City Institute (a municipal level economic think tank with conservative leanings) alongside past chair David Aldred to talk about FCI, the mismanagement of London, the election next year, etc. Bob Metz, otherwise known as the Freedom Party of Ontario’s president hosts ‘Just Right‘, one of the only conservative talk shows in Ontario (not for long though…)

N.B. There is a song ending and a few commercials before the show starts, but it IS the right clip.

My friend posted this on his Facebook notes page, and I thought it was worth sharing!

 DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.

REPUBLICANISM
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.1

The London Transit Commission in London, Ontario — my hometown — went on strike a week and a half ago, and it shows no sign of letting up. CHRW 94.9FM approached me to be a panelist on their discussion on the topic and I gladly obliged (especially after hearing that there was only one person defending the union’s actions!)

Enjoy