... and more angry....

h/t SDA

I know where we can find more healthcare funding.

.

Apparently without the CBC, our nation has no face and no culture. What a load of Crap!

The following are excerpts from the House of Commons debates yesterday. Apparently I and Canadians have no national culture or identity as I do not watch the CBC. We need Pravda and controls in order to have heritage. I ask you, who is trying to control us... really.....

Mr. Paul Szabo (Liberal Party): Mr. Speaker, there is no one culture. The best way to define Canadian culture is that it cannot be defined. It is so diverse. We are a model to the world because of our multicultural policy and the way we have opened up our doors to people around the world.

[...]

Maria Minnia (Liberal Party): There are fantastic regions within this country with a tremendous amount of capability to produce a tremendous amount of music, arts, dance, song, theatre and authors. It is absolutely phenomenal, but they need to be nurtured. If we do not nurture our own artists and our own cultural entities, and then expose them to Canadians across the country so that we can share and support them, then we have lost. We actually have no way of giving ourselves some identity and really express who we are to each other and to the world around us. Quite frankly, without that, we do not really have a face to our nation.

I thank the hon. member for the question because I believe that Canadians do support public broadcasting and, in particular, the CBC, and this is why I continue to fight for it and continue to support it.

[...]

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): [...] I reference a briefing paper from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It states:

Culture is in need of protection in the trade negotiations because unrestricted competition in this arena would replace local and national cultural expression with powerful international media conglomerates....Culture and telecom are being treated very differently, as if they were distinct...This approach needs to be revisited, because in Canada these two sectors are rapidly merging and becoming inseparable. As a result, trade negotiations to promote more foreign involvement in the provision of telecom services, including foreign ownership, threaten our cultural expression.

[...]

I want to see long term stable funding for the CBC. Just a couple of days ago, a news advisory came out about the CBC's television design department being under threat of closure. Why is this happening when we are debating the UNESCO treaty and supposedly the idea that we support protecting and promoting the diversity of culture in Canada? Why would we close that department? It has had a long history of protecting and enhancing original programming in our country? This measly cost saving measure of $1 million will have a significant impact on original productions in Canada.

The debate today is important. If we are serious, we need to pass the motion. We also need to ensure that the amendment put forward by the NDP is adopted. We need to give clear direction to the trade negotiators, who are acting on behalf of Canada, to ensure that they do not negotiate away our cultural sovereignty as part of so-called competitiveness.

I am glad to support the motion today, but it is just a first step. We need to do much more to ensure that we support our artists, our cultural institutions and bilingualism in public broadcasting. We need to support organizations like the CBC to ensure they are not threatened each and every year by what the government plans on doing. Otherwise we will find ourselves in a void. We will find ourselves in a country which has lost its identity, its cultural expression and its voice. These issues are important in protecting our identity.

[...]

Ms. Libby Davies (NDP Party): Mr. Speaker, it is precisely because of the reality of how technology is overtaking at a very rapid pace. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' document talks about what the future looks like. It talks about the average house having one unit that has a radio, television, music, films, news, Internet access, e-mail and maybe things we do not even envision yet.

This is broadband and its capacity to send huge amounts of digitized material over a single network should tell us of the urgency of this issue of how the protection and enhancement of Canadian culture is related to these trade negotiations that are going on that are based on telecom services and broadcasting services. These things now are very integral to each other.

It is a warning to us that unless we recognize that reality we will have given up our cultural sovereignty in the race to advance technology and so-called competitiveness that will leave behind cultural expression. I appreciate the member's question because it is precisely because of that point that we are urging our amendment today, which I hope the member will support.

Mr. Rod Bruinooge (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I find myself in an interesting moment wanting to continue with the member's discussion point.

What direction will my hon. colleague's ideas in relation to technology eventually go? We know it is important for us as Canadians to continue developing our culture and to ensure it is competitive on the international stage. However, I am afraid that what she just suggested is the very slippery slope to approaching what we see in China, which is the complete control of the Internet and the suppression of all ideas that are against the state. That is what we would eventually have to do in order to achieve what she is talking about. How would she do what she is trying to do without going down that slippery slope?

Emphasis mine.

The opinion I agree with here is the CPC MP. The liberals and NDP would have you believe that obviously, without the CBC, Canada has no culture, no face, no voice. You've got to be kidding. I am going to check.... I know alot about, for example, Australian culture and I wonder if I learned this from the Australian government funded broadcasting corporation. I will check to see if they have one.

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous commenter, there is, in fact, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In reading through the site, it appears that, for example, ABC Radio International had an international audience of 50 million in the 1990's. Here is an excerpt from their site:

Radio Australia

In the early 90s the ABC's international network, Radio Australia increased the duration and reach of its broadcast services to Asia, the Pacific and beyond. In 1991-2 the network was broadcasting in eight languages to an estimated audience of more than 50 million people. By 1994 when Radio Australia celebrated 55 years of short wave broadcasts, the network was delivering programs throughout the Asia-Pacific region in nine languages via an expanded network of short wave, satellite and cable transmissions. In response to changing technology across its core region of operation the network negotiated agreements with several stations in the region to deliver radio Australia programs direct to their local audiences.

In 1997-98 Radio Australia's budget was reduced by more than half, resulting in severe staff cuts and curtailment of services. The network set about delivering its programs to the region using alternate delivery methods, building an extensive network of more than 100 partner stations and providing content content live via satellite and the internet.

It also states that ABC increased it's annual revenue from $688,000 to $11,300,000 in ten years. I wonder how our CBC compares? Of course, the auditor general isn't allowed to audit, is it? Regardless, I do not know about Australian culture from their programming.

Okay, now I'm angry....

I have been peeved at the Canadian media's arrogance and self-importance. They have come to believe they ARE the news instead of reporting it.

It started in earnest with the whining and petulance of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. ( I believe it started years before that but they have just made their bias public now). Then, last weekend I read an article on the death of one of our soldiers, Nichola Goddard. As I was reading the article in the Calgary Sun, I thought "What an excellent article"! It talked about her pride in being a soldier and I would have liked to know her. She seemed like an honorable person. However, then the editorialist went on to say that because she was a Canadian hero, the journalists should have been allowed to be inside the fence when the family greeted her homecoming. Of all the nerve!!! They used this proud hero's death to push their agenda.

Now, I am listening to the Opposition's motion in the House of Parliament regarding the cultural heritage of Canada and the CBC. The liberals are stating that without the CBC, we would have no cultural heritage in Canada. Again, this whole attitude that the media "IS" the heritage rather than the idea that they should "reflect" the heritage. In my opinion, the CBC is merely an arm of the left and is pure propaganda. They, like the PPG, seem to believe they ARE Canada. I can tell you, as one Canadian among many, that the CBC neither IS nor does it REFLECT my Canadian heritage. The liberals are putting this forward because they are scared of losing their "propoganda" machine. The liberals and the left, in my opinion, do not believe in Canadian heritage. They believe the Canadian culture should bow to "multiculturalism" and that our identity is that we are not American. Give me a break! Get rid of the CBC and the propaganda.

We can promote cultural heritage in many ways by giving grants etc to various events, media, programs, and projects put forward by Canadians. By disbanding a GOVERNMENT FUNDED MEDIA OUTLET, there can be a more diverse and broadbased reflection of CANADA rather than being preached to. Okay... I'm ranting now but I am furious. Prime Minister Harper... keep up the good fight and PLEASE kick the PPG, the CBC, and any other self-righteous entitled diverse cultural propagandists to the curb!!!!

Terrorist Connections in Cowtown

Calgary just ain't what it used to be. For those of you who think we are sitting in our own little world in Canada, think again. It's a global community, for good or bad....

Calgary Crime Funding Terror Cells

I love Spring!

My trees always bloom this time of year!













The brat surveys his kingdom.

Gun Registry..... Full of Holes

I haven't posted lately because I have been enjoying our beautiful weather. Love this global warming!

I am prompted to come in from the heat over the gun registry fiasco. This whole initiative has liberal greasy fingers all over it. Not only is the registry ill-conceived and useless, there has been apparent fraud in the costs incurred, contracts, etc. Here are my thoughts:

1. First of all, the data stated by commenters on blogs and supporters of the registry is false. According to police commenters on other sites, the 5000 hits a day that the registry is reported to receive is completely misleading. Apparently, when a police officer hits the database for a car license plate, for example, the database is checked in extension automatically. That means that any request into any system hits the registry as well whether it is gun related or not. I could go on and on regarding this misinformation but suffice it to say, the Auditor General stated that the registry data could not be trusted as accurate. The system is not working yet.
   
2. I heard someone quote that the last 6 or 7 police officers in Canada that were murdered were by long guns. Now, keep in mind, 4 of those police officers were in Mayerthorpe. Apparently, (I am using third hand information on this) the perpetrator of this crime had not registered his gun but he was also prohibited by the courts to use firearms. Surprise surprise. If this is true, it is not in the least bit surprising. Who really believes that criminals (the word implies that they are lawbreakers) will register their guns? Even if the criminal stole the gun from someone who had registered it, how would this information track down the criminal in the unlikely event that the criminal left it at the scene of the crime?
   
3. The original quote for implementing the registry was 2 million dollars. Now, in Information Systems, when considering a project, you usually multiply the time and cost expected by 2.5. How the heck did this end up at a billion dollars? The On-Time-On-Budget project management concept was blown out the window here. Canada is apparently seriously short on police. How many police could we have hired with this money? Wouldn't there be a more serious impact on crime with that investment?
4. Aside from all this, the cost overruns were hidden from parliament. Check out the auditor general report on the mismanagement and, I believe, serious fraud involved in this boondoggle. It is just another in the long line of liberal "How can I screw thee? Let me count the ways"

Speaking of screwing us, notice how we haven't seen much on the Adscam trials going on in our mainstream media? Guess they're too busy checking out Harper's fashion faux pas. One of the Group-action people testifying stated he feared for his life and was worried about a hunting accident in his living room. Wonder if liberal thugs register their hunting rifles.