THE CONSERVATIVE HIPSTERS

After over 4 years in the blogosphere, I am announcing on behalf of myself and Q that we have jointly decided to close The Conservative Hipster.

We both felt it was important to continue to update on a regular basis and if we couldn't do it, then we'd hang it up. So we're giving up CH. Both of us have decided to move onto other online projects - I have started up a music blog and Q is busy contributing to money blogs.

To me, this space is important. When I first started this blog, it was the latest craze - the precursor to Facebook. Everyone and their mother created a blog, but very few actually kept on. In fact, I quit a few years back - and Q took up the reigns and kept CH relevant and interesting. He deserves my thanks for that.

Over the years, we had some great posts and some excellent achievements. We've gotten in a lot of scraps and caused lots of trouble. I lost track of the times people came up to me or e-mailed me and commented on our blog posts. We had traffic and readers many bloggers only dream of. I'm very proud of that.

But for me, it was never a popularity contest. It was always about having a medium to express my opinions. As you can see from my musings on John Tory, I was able to full express what was/is on my mind. And don't worry - I won't be some future candidate who has to quit over this here blog: I wrote how I felt then and I stand by it now.

I encourage all bloggers to keep doing what you're doing - you are truly the voice of democracy. It takes a huge effort to create and maintain a blog that offers opinion and ideas about our world. You offer the purest form of community dialogue we have. And it is an important role to play in society.

Again, on behalf of Q and I, I thank you for your readership, your comments and your time.

BDub

Labels: Admin, Goodbye

...not at $1.75 per vote per year.

With that said, I would like to revive my attempt to alter the subsidy that federal parties get.

As you may, or may not know, each party recieves $1.75 per year per vote (indexed for inflation) for each vote they receive.

I would like to see this subsidy altered to be:

$1.75/vote X (number of ridings with a registered candidate/total number of ridings)

This would drastically alter the playing field as the BQ is able to pretty much fund itself out of its subsidy and does not require substantial fundraising.

It would also make people think twice about deals like Dion-May and the Conservative decision not to run anyone against the independent guy (whose name escapes me) in Quebec.

However, I would argue that 307/308 X 1.75 is more acceptable than 75/308 x 1.75 per vote.

Q

This photo was taken this morning in the lobby of the building that houses the Liberal Research Bureau.



According to CH spies, about 20 staffers were seen loading golf clubs into cars.

This photo shows some of them. Note the "Green Shift" hat, a particularly nice touch.

Apparently today is an organized golf day for Dion's Liberal Research Bureau.

Around the same time as this photo was taken (9:30 a.m.), the following story appeared on the CTV news page:

GG's China trip cancelled, fuelling vote speculation
Updated Wed. Aug. 27 2008 9:22 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff


In another sign that a fall federal election is all but a certainty, Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean has cancelled plans to attend the Paralympics in Beijing.

Clearly Team Dion is all prepared and has no more work and is able to take today off to hit the golf course.

I guess the only green that's shifting in the Liberal War Room is the golf green.

And the elcection buzz is almost a roar.

I would hope that PM Stephen Harper doesn't burden my faith yet again by calling an election early.

It would be difficult for me to explain to my non-politicial friends (and I would be out $20).

In all seriousness, joe average has come to expect fixed election dates. If PM SH pulls the plug himself, he is going to get hammered as someone who doesn't keep his promises.

Instead, I would love to see us give an economic update in October and have Jim Flaherty reverse our earlier rerversal on income trusts and rebuild our credibility just a wee bit.

Q

...oh wait.

Never mind.

Q

PS Didn't Williamson criticize the 5.6 Billion surplus last year? Just askin'?

Fire. Them. All.

Q

So I threw $20 in an election pool this past weekend and picked October, 2009 (the offical date).

After all the posturing this past week, I still feel comfortable with this pick as everyone seems to forget about the Bloc.

Duceppe has been completely silent.

I think the Tories are going to win the Quebec by-election (not Westmount, the other one) and the Bloc will not want to go into a general election early.

Q

B-Dub speaks:

Or not. Yikes. I'm not worried that the Prime Minister will campaign the crap out of the dorky professor there, but those numbers worry me more than horserace crap.

I think PMSH would need to simultaniously rescue 4 kittens, an orphan girl and 90-year old Grandma Louise from a house fire - that Dion started - before his numbers go up. Of course, my fellow Canadians haven't had to see Dion on TV every day.

...you're quickly becoming Air Canada.

My little girl got airsick a few weeks back on a flight from Ottawa to Toronto.

If this happened to us I would be raising holy hell.

AC is already going hard after your routes. The only way you'll survive is on your service.

I had high hopes that WestJet would be a different carrier. Slowly but surely, they are becoming the same as everyone else.

I guess an airline can't live on denim and sarcasm alone.

Quite possibly the greatest graphic novel ever made....

...may be delayed.

That is too bad.

Q

Bill C-61, as written, is bad law proposed by those who don't understand the technology they plan to regulate.

Some examples:

Making it illegal to circumvent any Digital Rights Management, so:

If the CD you buy has DRM, it is illegal to rip it to your iPod.

It will be illegal to rip a DVD to your computer or media player (video iPod, et al).

It will be illegal to record a TV show (VCR or PVR) and keep it after you have watched it.

It will be illegal to unlock your cellphone.

Not only that, but the enforcement of these laws will be impossible without massive violations of your personal and digital privacy.

Let's scrap this one and start again, shall we?

Q

PS I am surprised there has not been more of an uproar from bloggers who make youtube and similar plug-ins part of their daily blog experience.

Here's a cool deleted scene from this summer's Iron Man.



Obviously the chicks, cars and Gwyneth Paltrow are all cool, but I especially like the appearance by rapper Ghostface Killah from the Wu-Tang Clan. In the 1990's rappers had other aliases besides their primary stage name. Ghostface's was "Tony Starks" (I'm assuming he added the "s" to avoid copyright issues). He even named one of his album "Ironman."

In any event, the clip is a cool piece that really show the cool-ass playboy we know Tony Stark is. Enjoy!

I have been thinking about rights and freedoms more and more lately.

Specifically, I was wondering how to reconcile my belief in freedom of speech with the despicable actions of those who planned to protest a private funeral.

I think many people take for granted our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom of peaceful assembly.

The freedom of religion allows us to peaceful worship our God in our own way and not to be persecuted for it. If that worship begins to impose on the rights of others, it should be curtailed.

The freedom of speech was designed as a protection against the tyranny of the state as opposed to carte-blanche to rail against people or persons. We have hate laws in this country. We have libel and defamanation suits available to those who have suffered honest to goodness harm and loss of livelyhood for those who would be falsely accused. However, the statement of facts should always be a defense.

The freedom of peaceful assembly was supposed to ensure that people could assemble and protest peacefully the actions of our government without fear of reprisals.

The freedom of the press was supposed to protect journalists and newspaper owners who cover the news.

Somehow, the right not to be offended has been entrenched in the Canadian lifestyle somewhere.

Remove the Christmas tree from town hall because we may offend muslims or jews.

Remove the word "man" from "manhole cover" as we will offend women.

Complain to the Human Rights Commission when you are offended by ...... fill in blank here.

Q

Hilarious. Serves you right, you pr--k.

From my new favorite site:

So, I am reading this, and it occurs to me that while the great unwashed have been brainwashed into thinking that Kyoto = pollution, the reality is that we could correct the problem of pollution a great deal more quickly and efficiently than we can deal with global warming.

Smog is not caused by greenhouse gasses. Pollution that affects asthma sufferers and the elderly are not caused by greenhouse gasses.

I would love for someone, preferrably a Tory, to stand up and say "F*#$ Greenhouse Gasses", let's deal with the real issue, smog, VOC (volatile organic compounds) and particulate pollution with ready made, off the shelf, Canadian-made technology.

Q

(FULL DISCLOSURE: In a past life, I designed, manufactured and installed air pollution control systems for industrial applications. The technology exists to eliminate these pollutants NOW!!!!)

Labels: climate change, greenhouse gasses, kyoto

...5 days in and no medals.

My god, what a miserable, poor, destitute country we live in.

Let's all emmigrate to Togo, quick, while no one is looking.

Hey, so we're not the best in the world at sports, that's okay, we do okay democracy, human rights and free and fair elections, right?

Q

Brilliant.



I personally feel that using his fawning supporters against him is quite a good move. it makes him look less serious and the "celebrity" that he is. In a time of war, a tough economy and many other complex issues, it makes a lot of sense to paint Obamamania as another overhyped fad with very little substance.

They might want to up the ad budget, though.


Q RESPONDS

Yeah, but...these people are going to vote based on his "aura" and "bono-icity".

D'oh

or should I say

D'Obama!

The funeral of murdered 7-year old Katelynn Sampson took place today. Notwithstanding the horrific way that this little girl died - at the hands of family no less - some idiot decided to have an open casket at her visitation and funeral.

Media:

"Screams of anguish were heard as friends and loved ones saw the injuries to the little girl's battered body – which even makeup could not cover." -- Toronto Star

"The grief and anger surrounding the premature death of 7-year-old Katelynn Sampson was magnified on Tuesday when mourners attending the little girl's funeral noticed visible signs of abuse on her body.

"She had stitches on her cheek," said friend Tracey Rodda. "One eye stitched shut and black and blue, and they had to use so much cover-up and still couldn't cover the extent of her injuries." --CityTV

How can you explain this? Many of the attendees were kids Katelynn's age. As reported on the radio, she had to be dressed in a baseball cap to conceal the trauma to her head.

What good would this do? How do you possibly justify this? One may argue that its a very real opportunity to illustrate the true impacts of child abuse, but I'm certainly not one of them.

A full review of her injuries and cause of death should be an important part of the investigation by the state. But a funeral is an opportunity to celebrate her life (such as it was) and to remember her as a bright little girl. Not come face-to-face with her injuries.

Madness.

Kanye's take on the Olympiad.

There are some groups of people I hate.

I hate left-leaning liberals who believe they know what's best for me and are intolerant of my lifestyle..

I hate far right neo-nazis and any other group that practices intolerance.

I hate religious leaders who believe they can speak for God and invoke His/Her name to promote intolerance.

I also hate environmentalists who are unwilling to practice what they preach.

I hate Human Rights Commissions who feel they can legislate tolerance.

Q

...

Quote from CBC via National Newswatch

Gary Caldwell, who ran for the Tories in the Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead, said he later redrafted his election spending report to withdraw a claim for a 60 per cent federal rebate on that amount.
"I realize that the central party, any party, can give money to the local riding association, but when we examined this further I became convinced that it was only a legitimate local expense if we in fact spent it," he told the Commons ethics committee. " In fact, that was not the case."

In 1995, I was involved with the PC Party of Ontario campaign and helped local ridings coordinate their advertising for the Common Sense Revolution. The central party provided templates and then the local candidate would post his/her name and it would be authorized by their CFO.

Now I know this is a little bit different, but it seems to me that the federal party took this a little bit further than may seem prudent, but it does not seem, at first brush, that any laws were broken.

It is a matter of interpretation whether the ads were local or national. And that will be decided by the legal action between the Party and Elections Ontario.

The ethics committee is not going to find anything new or illegal.

Q

...first, after my last trip to China, I realize (while many other don't) that there is no point to reducing greenhouse gasses until China participates in a meaningful way. We don't appreciate that they have cities (at least 20) with more people than all of Ontario.

With that said, I don't disagree with B-Double about the fact that China should not have been allowed to proceed with the Olympics as they had failed to meet any of the requirements set out for them.

When I was in Beijing this spring, the trees they were planting still had all the frames to hold them up. These trees should have been planted 8 years ago when the games were awarded.

Oh well.

With all that said, the opening ceremonies were fantastic. Give credit to the artists and performers where credit is due. The technical and artistic nature of the ceremonies made them incredibly enjoyable to watch.

However, my only comment would be that the torch lighting was a little lame.

Q