A great new show (for Canada) is coming to Showcase called Burn Notice. An American friend of mine introduced me and my family to this show last year and I was immediately hooked.
Spies don't get fired, they get burned. The show comes from USA Network's line up and is filled with action, intrigue, humor and drama. After a few episodes, I think you'll be hooked.
The setting is Miami, and Michael Westen struggles to survive, make ends meet, manage his mother and ex-girlfriend with the help of a former informant on him and other shady characters.
If anything, you'll learn some amazing tricks with cell phones and other gadgets. The show starts Septemeber 7th at 10pm. Enjoy.
The Strong Conservative Blog
- Strong Conservative
- Toronto
- "People should not fear the government, government should fear the people." - V
2010-08-31
To the Iraqi People
You have been given a great gift by America and her allies: a Republic, if you can keep it.
2010-08-29
What Does the Glenn Beck Rally Tell Us?
Estimates range between 100,000 and 500,000 people in attendance for the "Restoring Honor" rally promoted by radio and TV host Glenn Beck. While Beck proclaimed the rally to be non-political in nature, it clearly demonstrates the unrest that exists across America.
Thousands of people carried American flags and "Don't Tread on Me Flags" commonly seen at Tea Party rallies to signify the connection of the ideas of the Tea Party Patriots to those of the American Revolution.
Beck's rally undoubtedly demonstrates the power of a significant voting block looking for less government which expanded incredibly under both Obama and Bush. The US is now running deficits in the trillions of dollars with no apparent desire by Congress or the White House to significantly reduce government spending.
From the breadth of voter disenchantment, a credible case can be made that President Obama has governed against the will of the people. This Democrat controlled congress (since 2006) has been an accomplice to Obama's massive expansion of government and anti-business initiatives which have exacerbated unemployment and economic uncertainty at home while projecting weakness and appeasement abroad.
The AP reports: "The Beck rally further demonstrated the tea party activists' growing political clout. If the GOP is able to contain and cooperate with the tea party, and recharge its evangelical wing with Beck-style talk of faith, it spells the kind of change Ratliff and others like him are searching for."
The other issue in American politics is the disastrous leadership, or lack thereof, in the Republican Party. I have no idea what Mitch McConnell or John Boehner stand for or wish to accomplish should they take control of the Senate or the House. They have provided no rallying cry, no central issue, and no plan of what they hope to accomplish if they are entrusted with privilege of power over the House and/or Senate.
New Gingrich, in 1994, provided such a platform that voters could decide upon: the Contract With America. No such plan exists now. There is a tremendous lack of leadership within the GOP and if they do not get their act together, the Tea Party will replace the GOP as the party of conservatism.
The GOP needs a new Reagan, and more Gingrich's, Cantor's, Mitch Daniel's, and others who are not blue-blood Republicans, but conservatives with a commitment to America's founding principles, the Constitution, and the ideas of Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Friedman and Hayek.
Beck's rally should be a wake up call for Democrats and Republicans as to what the American people are looking for from Washington. It may boil down simply to there being less influence and power from Washington that is felt across the nation.
Thousands of people carried American flags and "Don't Tread on Me Flags" commonly seen at Tea Party rallies to signify the connection of the ideas of the Tea Party Patriots to those of the American Revolution.
Beck's rally undoubtedly demonstrates the power of a significant voting block looking for less government which expanded incredibly under both Obama and Bush. The US is now running deficits in the trillions of dollars with no apparent desire by Congress or the White House to significantly reduce government spending.
From the breadth of voter disenchantment, a credible case can be made that President Obama has governed against the will of the people. This Democrat controlled congress (since 2006) has been an accomplice to Obama's massive expansion of government and anti-business initiatives which have exacerbated unemployment and economic uncertainty at home while projecting weakness and appeasement abroad.
The AP reports: "The Beck rally further demonstrated the tea party activists' growing political clout. If the GOP is able to contain and cooperate with the tea party, and recharge its evangelical wing with Beck-style talk of faith, it spells the kind of change Ratliff and others like him are searching for."
The other issue in American politics is the disastrous leadership, or lack thereof, in the Republican Party. I have no idea what Mitch McConnell or John Boehner stand for or wish to accomplish should they take control of the Senate or the House. They have provided no rallying cry, no central issue, and no plan of what they hope to accomplish if they are entrusted with privilege of power over the House and/or Senate.
New Gingrich, in 1994, provided such a platform that voters could decide upon: the Contract With America. No such plan exists now. There is a tremendous lack of leadership within the GOP and if they do not get their act together, the Tea Party will replace the GOP as the party of conservatism.
The GOP needs a new Reagan, and more Gingrich's, Cantor's, Mitch Daniel's, and others who are not blue-blood Republicans, but conservatives with a commitment to America's founding principles, the Constitution, and the ideas of Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Friedman and Hayek.
Beck's rally should be a wake up call for Democrats and Republicans as to what the American people are looking for from Washington. It may boil down simply to there being less influence and power from Washington that is felt across the nation.
2010-08-21
Iran Hours from Going Nuclear
Iran is hours from being a nuclear capable state. "Iran began fuelling its first nuclear power plant on Saturday, a potent symbol of its growing regional sway and rejection of international sanctions designed to prevent it building a nuclear bomb."
This has dramatic consequences not only for Israel, but for the Arab world and the entire region. Certainly, this is a major step towards Iran being capable of developin an atomic bomb. Whether Israel will take steps to prevent this from happening by the use of military force is yet to be seen.
However, there is no doubt that Israel is very concerned about this development. In the past, Israeli leaders have made clear that they cannot accept a nuclear armed Iran. Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and other Arab states are similarly worried about Iran becoming a regional hegemonic power through an acquisition of a nuclear weapon.
It may be that only regime change could reverse Iran's progress towards "the bomb". The Obama administration appears unwilling to use anything but international sanctions to prevent Iran from this acquisition. But history has shown that sanctions are rather useless in preventing such a step, as was seen with North Korea.
Israel has been developing missile defence systems to counter attacks by Iran and other militant groups. A strike against Iran could lead to violence with Lebanon, Syria, and even other Arab states at "peace" with Israel.
Time will tell.
This has dramatic consequences not only for Israel, but for the Arab world and the entire region. Certainly, this is a major step towards Iran being capable of developin an atomic bomb. Whether Israel will take steps to prevent this from happening by the use of military force is yet to be seen.
However, there is no doubt that Israel is very concerned about this development. In the past, Israeli leaders have made clear that they cannot accept a nuclear armed Iran. Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE and other Arab states are similarly worried about Iran becoming a regional hegemonic power through an acquisition of a nuclear weapon.
It may be that only regime change could reverse Iran's progress towards "the bomb". The Obama administration appears unwilling to use anything but international sanctions to prevent Iran from this acquisition. But history has shown that sanctions are rather useless in preventing such a step, as was seen with North Korea.
Israel has been developing missile defence systems to counter attacks by Iran and other militant groups. A strike against Iran could lead to violence with Lebanon, Syria, and even other Arab states at "peace" with Israel.
Time will tell.
Ban the Burqa
Claire Berlinski writing in the National Review presents a fascinating article on whether a free society should ban the burqa or veil. The interests of religious freedom and women's rights come head to head on this issue.
Berlinski writes:
The argument that the garment is not a religious obligation under Islam is well-founded but irrelevant; millions of Muslims the world around believe that it is, and the state is not qualified to be in the business of Koranic exegesis. The choice to cover one’s face is for many women a genuine expression of the most private kind of religious sentiment. To prevent them from doing so is discriminatory, persecutory, and incompatible with the Enlightenment traditions of the West. It is, moreover, cruel to demand of a woman that she reveal parts of her body that her sense of modesty compels her to cover; to such a woman, the demand is as tyrannical, humiliating, and arbitrary as the passage of a law dictating that women bare their breasts.
All true. And yet the burqa must be banned. All forms of veiling must be, if not banned, strongly discouraged and stigmatized. The arguments against a ban are coherent and principled. They are also shallow and insufficient. They fail to take something crucial into account, and that thing is this: If Europe does not stand up now against veiling — and the conception of women and their place in society that it represents — within a generation there will be many cities in Europe where no unveiled woman will walk comfortably or safely.
This is a fascinating article by a non-Muslim woman living in Turkey and witnessing first hand the competing freedoms of religious freedom and women's rights.
Berlinski writes:
The argument that the garment is not a religious obligation under Islam is well-founded but irrelevant; millions of Muslims the world around believe that it is, and the state is not qualified to be in the business of Koranic exegesis. The choice to cover one’s face is for many women a genuine expression of the most private kind of religious sentiment. To prevent them from doing so is discriminatory, persecutory, and incompatible with the Enlightenment traditions of the West. It is, moreover, cruel to demand of a woman that she reveal parts of her body that her sense of modesty compels her to cover; to such a woman, the demand is as tyrannical, humiliating, and arbitrary as the passage of a law dictating that women bare their breasts.
All true. And yet the burqa must be banned. All forms of veiling must be, if not banned, strongly discouraged and stigmatized. The arguments against a ban are coherent and principled. They are also shallow and insufficient. They fail to take something crucial into account, and that thing is this: If Europe does not stand up now against veiling — and the conception of women and their place in society that it represents — within a generation there will be many cities in Europe where no unveiled woman will walk comfortably or safely.
This is a fascinating article by a non-Muslim woman living in Turkey and witnessing first hand the competing freedoms of religious freedom and women's rights.
Reagan Described Obamacare Decades Before
The abridgement of freedom in America is not a wave of despotism overtaking individual rights, but a gradual and incremental creep of regulations, rules, laws, and government programs that sapping the strength of America economically and politically while eroding the individual rights of the citizenry.
Ronald Reagan described this encroachment decades ago. His speech remains instructive today.
Obama has mislead America and the world on his true beliefs regarding socialized health care and his true desires for "transforming" America. His mandates are exactly that, coercive actions that compel people to programs and policies regardless of whether they want the government program or not. Is that America? Is that what the founders truly intended?
Does government know best, or do the people know best? The government always acts through coercion and force, or the threat thereof. There is no other way for the state to act because of the very nature of governance. The state is an institution of violence, for better or worse.
This is why the limitation of government power is so important. Once the government expands beyond the consent of the governed, tyranny becomes an inevitability. And once tyranny is established, it can only be removed through revolution.
This cannot be allowed to happen. Free people in America and throughout the world must be vigilant to the defence of their personal freedoms and the extent to which they allow government to dictate policy and programs that effect business and individual choice. It is a slippery slope towards socialism, and freedom is the exception rather than the rule throughout the history of mankind.
Ronald Reagan described this encroachment decades ago. His speech remains instructive today.
Obama has mislead America and the world on his true beliefs regarding socialized health care and his true desires for "transforming" America. His mandates are exactly that, coercive actions that compel people to programs and policies regardless of whether they want the government program or not. Is that America? Is that what the founders truly intended?
Does government know best, or do the people know best? The government always acts through coercion and force, or the threat thereof. There is no other way for the state to act because of the very nature of governance. The state is an institution of violence, for better or worse.
This is why the limitation of government power is so important. Once the government expands beyond the consent of the governed, tyranny becomes an inevitability. And once tyranny is established, it can only be removed through revolution.
This cannot be allowed to happen. Free people in America and throughout the world must be vigilant to the defence of their personal freedoms and the extent to which they allow government to dictate policy and programs that effect business and individual choice. It is a slippery slope towards socialism, and freedom is the exception rather than the rule throughout the history of mankind.
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