What's that sound? Boomers, what's-a-happening?

Colby Cosh has written a hilarious article kicking the boomers when they're down, and just getting ready to retire.

It's along the lines of Stephen Colbert's impression of Baby Boomers: "Waaaa, I'm a Baby Boomer! I wanna pony!"

The defining characteristic of Baby Boomers is typically presented as the simple fact that there are so many of them. But think about that a minute. Regardless of how many post-war children were born, the following generations should be even bigger.

But they're not.

Which means that the truly defining characteristic of Baby Boomers is that they had so few offspring.

Jack Layton is at least three steps ahead of us all!

So, shortly after the November 2008 Economic Update, Jack Layton organized an impromptu coalition opposition with the Bloc and Liberals. Except that it turns out he had actually organized it "long before", possibly even before losing the election, or at least shortly after. We know this because a Conservative MP was invited to the conference call and recorded Jack explaining the whole thing.

Now, just this week, Jack Layton's NDP started running radio attack ads against the Liberals. Clearly, it takes more than a few days to put together a website, never mind write and produce radio ads.

The only conclusion I can reach is that, even before losing the election last fall, Jack Layton began crafting this negative ad campaign against the Liberals. He knew that Dion and Duceppe would join the coalition, then Harper would prorogue parliament, then Dion would get replaced by Ignatieff, then Ignatieff would decide to support the Conservatives! The guy obviously has some kind of crystal ball!

And you thought he was an idiot!

Let the Big 3 Automakers Go Broke

First off, let me say that I have shares in both GM and Ford, so I will be personally affected if the Big 3 automakers go broke.

I still say "let them go broke."

What would it mean to Ontario and Canada if that happened? Would all the jobs and auto manufacturing disappear? Of course not! Anyone who says otherwise is either foolish or purposely misleading.

Scenarios After they Go Broke
1. Restructure.
They declare bankruptcy, rip up their union contracts, close un-productive plants, then continue to make only the most profitable and successful lines of cars.

2. Sell off Assets.
GM, for example, could call itself Chevrolet, and make just Chevrolet models, and sell off Buick, Hummer, etc. to other parties. Ford and Chrysler could do similar things. Maybe Shelby would put together some investors and buy Dodge. Whatever happens, we would have maybe a Medium-Sized 10 instead of Big 3.

3. Many other possibilities.
Look, people in the U.S. and Canada will continue to want/need cars and trucks, and wherever there's a need, the free market will step up and provide.

No, THIS is the funniest thing I've seen in a while...

General Bonkers

Those crazy CTV kids!

So, a few weeks after totally humiliating Stephane Dion, those crazy kids at CTV decided to have fun with another Liberal.

Here's a transcript (from memory) of a bit of an interview with Paul Martin, about his new book, Hell or High Water:

Reporter: In your book, your comments on the sponsorship scandal were: "Jean Chretien left me a time bomb" and "a big mess in my lap".

Paul Martin: Those are your words, not mine.

Reporter: No, it's from your book.

Paul Martin: Oh, in that case, I'm glad you read my book.

Good for you, CTV, for not sugar-coating some of the idiotic things Liberals say.

Congratulations to Peter Braid!

As I write this, Peter Braid is leading Andrew Telegdi in Kitchener-Waterloo riding by only 100 or so votes. Even if he doesn't quite make it, he needs to be commended on doing so well against Telegdi, who has owned this riding since 1993.

Congratulations, Peter!

Even if you don't wind up beating Telegdi, you've done an amazing job running against him, and I think you should get another shot next time!

Say goodbye to Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae too!

So, in the 2006 election, the Liberal party's anointed god-king, Paul Martin, crashes and burns at the polls. Paul Martin won his seat, then chose, for the most part, not to sit in it. Yes -- he's still an MP!

Anyway, it was time for a Liberal leadership race. The A-Team for leaders, with people such as Bill Graham, John Manley and Brian Tobin, decided to sit this one out. They sized up Stephen Harper and decided that they didn't want a fair fight, so they just whistled and looked around whenever the topic of Liberal leader came up.

So that left the B-Team, with people like Ralph Goodale, Sheila Copps and Scott Brison. They took one look at Stephen Harper and quietly shit their pants. If the big names are sitting this one out, then why wouldn't they? Besides, they're still young, and they can wait an election or three before making a bid for Liberal leader.

But at the end of the day, someone had to be leader. It was all up to the C-Team:

1. Michael Ignatieff, the blowhard from Harvard, who hadn't even lived in Canada for 25 years. He probably figured, hell, how hard can it be to sit as an MP? At least he wouldn't have to mark any more papers.

2. Bob Rae, the former Ontario Premier, and probably one of the most hated men that Ontario ever produced. It's going on 20 years now, and people still talk about Rae days! Union people! Bob Rae pissed off the unions so much that to this day, the CAW still supports the Liberals. Can you imagine the fun that the media could have had with that? I mean, if they weren't such humourless leftists. The man ran a labour party that lost the labour vote!

3. Finally, Stephane Dion. Jean Chretien's environment minister! Except that Chretien never had any intention of implementing Kyoto, so naming Dion as environment minister was on par with telling him to "pull my finger."

4. OK, one more: Martha Hall Findlay. She seemed to be quite intelligent and capable, which really doesn't go as far as you think in Liberal circles. And the Liberals, like their Democrat brethren, are obviously just not ready for a female leader.

The leadership battle was on! Close to 1/3 favoured Ignatieff, and almost another 1/3 favoured Rae, while a little more than 1/3 hated Ignatieff and Rae equally. The delicious irony of the Liberal's decidedly un-democratic delegate system allowed Dion to triumph by collecting just over 1/3 of the Ignatieff/Rae haters!

Any way, I've wandered a bit. The point of this post is that when the Liberals get trounced on October 14, Dion will be looking for a job. And so will Ignatieff and Rae! I don't know if the B-Team or the A-Team will step up, but either way, the C-Team is history.