The St. Lawrence Seaway Is Ours!

The Canadians can no longer adequately defend it:

The navy is back down to one working submarine.

Of the four used subs Canada acquired from Britain for $891 million, Halifax’s HMCS Windsor is the only one that can go to sea. HMCS Victoria has stopped sailing from its British Columbia base and will go into an extended docking work period next month that will last almost two years.

“We have no choice,” said Lieut. Diane Grover of navy public affairs.

We had better strike now. The Canadians will enter the 20th century in a matter of months. Well, 30 or 40:

The navy expects to see its first sub fully operational and able to fire torpedoes by 2009.

BTW, Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian readers. Enjoy your first of July celebration while you can, before we subjugate you and force you to celebrate the fourth of July with us.

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

Think Of It As Air Space Eminent Domain

Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times, supports government reduction of property rights:

I’m generally a personal liberty, Milton Friedman, let-’em-buy-heroin-if-it-makes-’em-happy kind of guy. Yet I’m also always glad to see cigarette smoking restricted, basically, because it kills some people and annoys the rest (so would legal heroin, but heck, why be consistent? It’s summertime).

We seem to be doing it the right way, too, slowly whittling away the social space allowed to smokers. Smoking has gone from being cool to being an embarrassing personal lapse, somewhere between picking your nose and bedwetting. Soon the guy standing on the corner smoking a cigarette will carry the same cachet as someone standing on the corner sucking wine out of a bottle in a bag.

I’m not gloating. I’m sad for cigarettes — a lovely habit, a nice vice. Except for the kill-you part. But it’s in society’s interest to shuck them as soon as possible. Women used to paint their faces with white lead, but it had bad side effects, like death, so they got out of the practice. Habits change, if we’re lucky.

Sorry to join the cacaphony of people who only comment when they disagree with you, Mr. Steinberg, but the slow whittling is not of smokers’ rights, but property owners’ rights in many cases. Would you applaud it were the governments to start banning pasta in restaurants because of the obesity academic?

They wouldn’t do that? Why not? It’s a public health issue, and property rights mean nothing any more.

Perhaps we could just think of it as though the local governments were condemning the airspace within private property and offered just compensation in the form of their continued indulgence in the “owner’s” “right” to own/operate the property/business.

Update: Apparently, this set off William Squire: Neil Steinberg is a Bigot.

(Submitted to the Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam.)

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories

Milwaukee Humor

You know you’re from Milwaukee when….

However, note:

  • It’s not just a Packers flag. You can stand in most rooms in about 80% of the residences in southeastern Wisconsin and have a Packers logo visible somewhere. The waste basket, a photo/wallhanging, an article of clothing, the fine china….
  • What, no mention of the Witch’s House?
  • The Safe House IS better than Disney Land. Don’t forget to order a Hail to the Chief for your friends.
  • Please note that spending all day bashing the Cubs is not strictly a Milwaukee, nor a Wisconsin thing, nor are bashing those people from Illinois. Remember, Illinois borders five states.
  • Isn’t Brother Ron off the scene? I haven’t seen him anywhere on my last few visits (“The Jesus Car” as this unknowledgeable blogthing person calls him).

Just offering you a bit of insight into your noble host, gentle reader.

(Link seen on Triticale.)

Buy My Books!
Buy John Donnelly's Gold Buy The Courtship of Barbara Holt Buy Coffee House Memories