I got this via email from a friend. Nothing could be simpler.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Despite all the saber rattling the bottom line is that:
a) The Bloc Quebecois doesn’t want to lose seats to the Liberals and right now that’s what would happen.
b) The NDP doesn’t have the money to fight an election and they would definitely lose seats.
c) The Liberals don’t have the money and wouldn’t dare call an election before infrastructure money gets spent.
So this weekend Michael Ignatieff is going to relax, have a cognac while he intellectually debates with hawks like Warren Kinsella and in the end, the conversation will go something like the one between Greg Marmalard and Dean Wormer in the movie Animal House.
Liberal Hawk: But the Tories are already on probation.
Michael Ignatieff: They are? Well, as of this moment, they’re on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!
In this case, certainly not the Federal Reserve Auditors.
This is one of the worst examples of gross negligence over managing the Trillions of dollars Americans have put into stimulus. It appears that the US of A is OfficiallyScrewed.
Click the video image below ONCE to begin playback.
For those who are unaware, “sexting” is a play on the word “texting” and refers to someone taking nude photos of themselves and sending via cell phone to others.
Peter Cumming, an associate professor at York University in Toronto, presented a paper on children’s sexuality at the 78th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences defending the practice as a modern variation on “playing doctor or spin-the-bottle.”
This is, quite simply, a travesty. It takes a big step forward in the degradation of our youth when someone in the education field indicates that it is a modern right of passage the way “spin the bottle” was years ago.
I do agree with the professor that youth should not be prosecuted for this. I would go so far as to say the same “of similar age” defense should apply to this. But the fact remains that indicating that “sexting” is as acceptable as a kissing game is not even close to hitting the mark.
The ramifications of “spin the bottle” is perhaps a cold sore or perhaps even mononucleosis, both of which are not the end of the world. But when someone has their nude photos potentially spread all over the internet the outcome is potentially far worse.
That this person is an educator, and someone we entrust our children to, makes it that much worse.
I’m getting tired of the wars going on between local TV stations and carriers.
The answer is simple. Every carrier should charge a base fee for their service. (along with the obvious equipment rental charges, etc).
Then every station should be able to set it’s own cost per subscriber.
Then every subscriber should be able to select each individual channel they want with the only exception being they need to have a set percentage of Canadian stations to meet the Canadian Content requirements. For example, 4 out of every 10 stations chosen must be Canadian. (or something similar)
Then finally, for nationwide conglomerates such as CTV, they take a set percentage of their subscriber fee for paying the carriers and for covering things such as national branding, national level news, for the purchase of programming, etc. And then they can divvy up the rest to local affiliates based on the local affiliates viewership as a percentage of the national viewership.
I call this the King/Freedman model. i.e. Can’t we all just get along by letting the Free Market reign?
Today in Power Play, Jack Layton said that a reasonable credit card rate is needed for low income Canadians. Jack Layton is dead wrong.
Good credit card rates are given to people who have a history of paying their cards off. Bad credit card rates are how banks and lending institutes pay for cards that people default on.
So why is Jack Layton our version of Barney Frank?
In 1999, Democrat Barney Frank called for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to provide low income mortgages to Americans known as NINJA loans. NINJA stood for No Income, No Job or Assets. So in essence, what the Democrats, under Bill Clinton, did was to create the conditions for the sub prime implosion that has caused the current recession by allowing people who had no business owning a home to get one at great rates usually reserved for people with Jobs, Income or Assets that are used as collateral.
If you doubt the validity of this, you can read the article at the NY Times by clicking here.
So today, Jack Layton feels that Canadians who are not eligible for low interest rates should get them in a similar fashion to what Barney Frank called for back in 1999.
The whole reason there are different credit card rates is many fold. One is for points options or freebies. But the main reason is because people who have no business getting credit often default on their payments and put their credit rating in further disarray. This in turn makes it almost impossible for them to get a half decent rate.
So the question that Jack Layton needs to answer is…..Does he expect the tax payer to bailout people who have bad credit when they default on the credit cards they have no business getting in the first place?
I got an email with about 15 signs that were being shown at the tea parties held in the US to protest the huge deficit. These are a few of the really good ones.
March 3rd, 2009 is a very special day to me as it was this day that Tesla Motors announced their plans to enter Canada.
As many of you who read my blog know…
a) In December 2006, I asked Santa for a Tesla Roadster. You can read about it by clicking Here.
b) In January 2007, I commented about a letter I wrote the Prime Minister and (then) Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier, about providing some funding to open a Tesla Auto Plant in Canada. I still wonder if the money earmarked for the “greening” of the auto industry were a response to the letter I wrote. You can read a bit about my letter by clicking here.
c) In February 2007, I offered my own version of the carbon offset program by allowing people to donate to my “Get Mulder A Tesla” fund. i.e. you can offset your carbon credits by donating to a program that would get me out of my big Honda pickup truck and into an “all electric” Tesla Roadster. You can still do this or read the story by clicking here.
Needless to say, I LOVE this car so when I received the email below, I immediately went and asked my wife for permission to drop $60,000 US on the downpayment. And now I am writing this blog post from a hotel after she booted me out of the house. Well okay, that last part isn’t true, but I have a feeling I won’t be getting my Tesla anytime soon. I guess I’ll just have to dream and drool over the photos on their website at www.teslamotors.com
Letter from Tesla Motors.
I’m excited to announce that Tesla Motors will begin taking orders today from customers in Canada, and we’ll begin delivering Canadian cars later this year. This is great news for Canada’s many car enthusiasts, including scores of Tesla fans who have written passionate e-mails over the years about why Tesla should go north. We listened to you – and we look forward to delivering your cars starting in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Canada is uniquely positioned to become a premier showcase for Tesla, still the only production automaker selling highway-capable electric vehicles in North America. Canada is one of two countries in the world (the other is Norway) where the majority of electricity comes from renewable resources, including run-of-river small hydro, wind, biomass, ocean, geothermal and solar energy.
An EV recharged from the current Canadian grid, on average, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 85 percent compared to an equivalent gasoline-powered vehicle. In hydro-dominant British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba, the reduction would be an impressive 98 percent.
We are already busy considering retail opportunities in this vast country. In the short term, we are confident that we can serve a large percentage of our customers through retail stores in Seattle and New York, which we plan to open in the first half of this year. Eventually, we envision Tesla-owned retail and service centers in Ontario, British Columbia and possibly Quebec.
The base price for Roadsters in Canada will be set closer to the start of deliveries in the fourth quarter, and pricing will reflect exchange rates at that time. The CA$60,000 reservation fee is refundable, and the remainder of the balance is due upon the start of production, a few months prior to delivery. In the United States, the base price is $109,000.
These Roadsters will comply with all Canadian safety regulations for mass-produced, highway-capable vehicles. As they have for Americans and Europeans, we’re certain Roadsters will quickly become the automobile of choice for Canadians who refuse to compromise between performance and efficiency. You can order your Roadster today online, or call us directly at +1-650-413-6300. We look forward to hearing from you!
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