debate

How Much Credit Should Obama Get for Killing bin Laden? Vote!

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President Barack Obama

Politicians often get or take a lot of credit for things done by many people by the nature of how we view things and of our political system. Conversely, they also get the flack for a lot of things, whether fairly or not because it might have been the errors or poor performance of many others. As the symbolic focal point for a lot of things, that’s how accountability is thrust upon them.

For their sake of accountability, the ability to be able to decide how much or little to get involved is a key trait to a good politician because nobody is an expert at everything. In fact, the more important politicians trusted with responsibility for various portfolios might not even know much about the issue. Their selection of responsibility might be for any number of reasons, from political like having power distributed in an area, to the lack of anyone else suitable, whether by knowledge or decision-making ability.

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Canada Needs Its Own Black Guy with Disputable Citizenship to Run for PM

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Wow.

That Canadian election “debate” tonight was pathétique!

Stephen Harper was ahead of the game again by secretly authorizing the leakage of that Auditor-General’s G8 spending abuse report just days ago. You had better believe it! It refocused the other candidates’ talking points  on more of the same old abuse of the PC government, where there’s marginal impact now, rather than discussing some real issues that would have much larger impact on swaying voters.

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Why Chinese Mothers are NOT Superior (aka Why Chinese Fathers are Not Needed)

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Amy Chua with daughters Louisa and Sophia

Yale Law Professor Amy Chua recently released a memoir called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Talk about cheesy titles. Essentially, it was about the so-called “Chinese” method of raising children that was very strict, and why it was superior, as her Wall Street Journal essay (Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, Amy Chua in WSJ, Jan 8 2011).

Essentially, it’s how one clever woman is playing the race card in on offense, in a sly way to keep tension from building while generating debate and getting her lots of money and attention. This book would be nothing but for the hype generated by these racial insinuations.

If you want the details on the no sleepover, no dates, trashing your children, threatening to burn your children’s toys, forcing them to take either piano or violin and not settling for As in school, you can read the WSJ link above or the multitude of other related articles like this one from Canada’s Globe & Mail (Why Chinese Parenting is Best, G&M Jan 11 2011).

Note again the racial insinuation in the title.

That’s because its supposed “self-deprecating” nature that was in good jest, according to Amy, is all hear say and not backed up by anything but her opinion. She is presenting an argument on what isn’t “visible”, concentrating on what is, which is the successful products of the method. But how many have been failed by the method and had their lives ruined, and who will never be known?

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Halifax Skating Oval Could Be Kept for 50 Cents to $2 per Use (A Cost-Benefit Analysis)

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Halifax Skating Oval

For about $1 of tax per person per year, or a $2 (toonie) charge per use, the Halifax Skating Oval can be sustained, at the highest cost estimates. It could be as low as 50 cents per use. I’m not encouraging this, but if paying for use of the Oval were a last resort, it could be very affordable and definitely worth its value!

There’s a big debate on whether or not to keep the Canada Winter Games Skating Oval on the Halifax Commons (CBC, Jan 4 2011). A lot of the public is enjoying the facility, but the worry is the cost of maintaining the Oval after the Canada Games are over. The hope is that business support can be found to pay the costs, rather than increasing taxes or having to charge skaters. However, that’s a political solution. This analysis looks at the business case of keeping the oval if the public had to pay for it.

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Should NFL Division Winners with Losing Records Be Allowed in the Playoffs? A Poll and Proposal.

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The Seattle Seahawks have just defeated the St Louis Rams to win the comical NFC West this year, with a losing record of 7-9. Yet, by existing NFL rules, they will get to host a playoff game next week. Should this rule be changed?

My personal feeling is yes, it should. However, I have an appreciation for “business” to involve teams from all parts of the country to maintain a true “national” interest in the game, so I propose a compromise.

Division winners should get in as they currently do. However, Division winners without a winning record (so .500 won’t cut it) should not be allowed to host a playoff game.

You still keep the national interest this way because the team is still in. Their fans will just have to travel or watch it on TV.

I think that’s just sick that Seattle got in with a 7-9 record and gets to host a playoff game. I want to see a competitive playoff game, not a butt kicking. Furthermore, it’s an absolute insult to all the good teams in the NFC with better records than the Seahawks.

You know, I thought football was a man’s game. Alas, if it were, the Seahawks should man up and let someone else in the NFC get in, or offer to travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints. But maybe it’ll be appropriate that their fans will get to see the Saints kick their butts as a lasting momento to end the season.

But to be a man, I’ll congratulate the Seahawks on making the playoffs and stepping up when they needed to and win a do or die game. I will thoroughly enjoy their annihilation next week.

What do you think of this rule about automatic playoff hosting for division winners?