Monday, August 22, 2005

Tagged!

DazzlinDino over at The Blogging Party of Canada has tagged me with the Quote Meme. So here goes.

"Know your enemy, know yourself and in a hundred battles you shall not lose" - Sun Tzu The Art of War


Essentially, trying to solve a problem with out understanding it is stupid. Rushing headlong into something without knowing what you are capable of and your opponent is capable of is stupid. To do so courts disaster (see, Bush and Iraq). To follow Sun Tzu's advice means victory.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


Pretty much self explanitory, with the added note that Dr. King expect people to do this through non-violence.


"They that give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve niether liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759


Something to keep in mind when you call for additional police powers and think arbitrary, indefinite detention is ok as a means to fight terrorism.

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" - Thomas Jefferson

Best explanation of the reason for the separation of Church and State I have seen. And it nicely debunks the whole "US was founded as a Christian Country" myth.

"A movement without followers is irrelevant" - Mark[Section 15]


Hell, even one of us lowly bloggers comes up with an inspired gem sometimes. Apply to Al Queda and see how to really win the "War on Terra".

"You keep on thinkin' Butch, that's what your good at" - The Sundance Kid


Becasue I freakin' love that movie.

And lastly,

" 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' - the rest is commentary" - Old Jewish folk tale


That pretty much sums up every religion on earth. If more of us followed this piece of advice we'd be better off.

So now I tag

Mark at Section 15
Andrew at BBG
And Skippy the Wonderdog, when he returns.

9 Comments:

At 10:25 PM, Blogger DazzlinDino said...

Good God, who is this effin guy? Get a grip....

Butch and Sundance, GREAT MOVIE, think I'll watch it myself tonight.....lol

 
At 7:58 AM, Blogger Mike said...

Well, my first SPAM!

Yeah, Good ole Butch and Sundance. I'm a huge fan of The Sting too.

Anonalogue,

Which part of the neocon agenda do you prefer - selling out our culture to make a buck or forcing back into feudalism to ensure only the rich can afford things. Please advise!

See two can play at the hyperbole game. So if you actually have anything intelligent to say, say it. Otherwise, go troll over at MyBlahg...

 
At 9:23 AM, Blogger Mike said...

Anon,

When was the last time taxes were raised? Which party is actually proposing raising taxes? Even the NDP does not have a tax increase in it's platform. The NDP budget deal get's its money from the surplus from taxes already collected (and the spending won't happen if there is no surplus and only happens after a debt payment. Yeah, that's fiscally irresponsible).

How about studies that indicate that, actually, unitl the $60 000 level (which covers about 75% of Canadians) our tax burden is equivilent to the US? naw, that doesn't fit in to your ideology that we are taxed too much! And never mind the array of service Canadians get for that money, that the US doesn't have.

Or how about the neocon agendas in Alberta and BC? You know, Alberta, where they have no debt, but there are still enourmous waiting lists for hospitals and roads and infrastructure have been negelcted for so long that people are actually dying on the highways becasue of it. But hey, its a great place if you are a big business, right?

If you think that the neocon agenda is a myth, you are the one being intellectually dishonest. Ask Cheney about it when he's in Calgary in a couple of weeks.

Healthcare? Reallocating funds from elsewhere, closing corporate tax loop holes and making sure that the provinces keep up their end of the deal - you know, so that when the feds give a province $1 billion for healthcare, the province doesn't turn around and take that same amount out of the healtchare pot from their revenues. Mike Harris love to do stuff like that.

We collect enough taxes. The money just needs to be spent more effectively, with diffenent priorities.

Maybe streamlining service deliver. There are lots of ways to improve healtchare without rasining taxes. What's you solution, letting the insurance companies run it?

 
At 11:13 AM, Blogger Mike said...

Well, thank you for answering my question. I had forgotten about our little conversation, since I just returned from two weeks vacation.

So since we seem very close to agreement, how do you propose that the greater funding take place?

Actually an idea I had was having the Feds give the money to municipalities directly instead of the provinces for things like infrastructure and health. That might open a whole new ball of political wax, but it would likely be more cost effective and efficient. It would reduce a government beaurocracy level. there is nothing in the constitution that prevents the Feds from giving money directly to cities and municipalities.

What do you think of that?

We are almost in violent agreement. Do me a favour, talk to me sensibly and drop the condecending tone and I'll do the same. Your anger is palpable.

 
At 1:29 PM, Blogger Mike said...

"Others have said more hostile things to you right here on this blog recently, so I don't see why you find our dicussion "violent"."

Uhm, Anon, "violent agreement" is a figure of speech or turn of phrase meaning that two (or more) people are arguing so adamantly that they don't realize they actually are arguing the same point - that they actually may agree with eachother. I'm guessing you've never heard it before. I think it describes our exchange above on healthcare pretty well.

I'm glad the stunt with Poilievre made you puke. You now know the feeling I had with Jean in the days before the video came out. I certainly hope you were equally as upset by the undfounded allegations against her. I hope you read both entries and the comments to see the point.

As for whatever comment I made on your blog that upset you, please accept my apologies. You must understand, in the "free market of the internet" its hard to tell the purposely idiotic trolls from the genuine debate - especially when almost every blog entry you ever wrote in the first 2 months included the phrase "Ha!Ha! Silly Liberals!".

Having just searched your blog, I can find only one comment I have ever made there(about SSM back in June). Now, if you would be so kind as to tell me how it insulted you, I would be glad to try to make ammends. From my reading of it, it seemed pretty polite and innocous.

At any rate, I am still prepared to be civil if you are.

 
At 3:36 PM, Blogger Mark Richard Francis said...

You bastard, you tagged me!

As for Anonalogue - it's best to leave him to ranting monologues.

On the tax issue, it is very much worth mentioning that the US tax rate is artificially low. They are in a long-term deficit circumstance, and also have huge, massive unfunded liabilities in social security and medicare.

 
At 3:46 PM, Blogger Mike said...

I look forward to your links. did you notice YOU were one of my quotes?

Anon - that was my next step.

On taxes, that is why I think we are actually at the right level. Better management of the resources we have would be a good idea.

 
At 1:27 PM, Blogger J. A. MacDuff said...

One of the best lines from the West Wing over the years is similar to Section 15's comment that you liked:

"What do you call a leader with no followers? Just a guy out taking a walk."

 
At 2:59 AM, Blogger Mark Richard Francis said...

Mike,

What are the rules for this quote meme thing anyway?

And, yes, I saw that I was quoted. It's a good quote, I must admit. However, I like the one James macduff posted better.

Of course, I could alter that one a bit to be more relevant:

Q: What do you call a leader with no followers?

A: A blogger.

 

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