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Monthly Archives: January 2010

The By George Treasury

 
As mentioned in the previous post, “the checklist for effective meetings” is found in the By George Treasury. The useful compilation is taken from more than one thousand past By George articles. The book includes lists of some of the most remarkable quotations, classic wordplay, puns and quizzes, editorials, the best of the humour over the years, and the 15-most [...]

Your Checklist for Effective Meetings

 
Through the coming month, the By George Journal will post some helpful tips on how to make the meetings you attend more effective, more relevant to your work and/or interests. We start this feature by providing you with a useful checklist (this advice has been taken from the By George Treasury).  We look forward to offering up [...]

On Politics - from Winston Churchill to Rodney Dangerfield

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Winston Churchill

Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. - John Galbraith

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed. - Mao Tse-Tung

Politics is like football. If you see daylight, go through the hole. [...]

From the “Believe It or Not” files of our Canadian (big) government

 
Here is a stellar example of “the train-wreck” we’ve been harping on. In the last four years, Canadian taxpayers have shelled out more than $1 million for a federal appointments commission that has no commissioners and has not accomplished one concrete thing.
 
Here’s the latest lunacy, uncovered by federal columnist Greg Weston:
 
     The latest [...]

The root of the problem: our governments today over-reach

 
It all starts with big government encroaching on every area of our lives. As government over-reaches, it grows. Big brother gets bigger. Big government simply becomes obese.
 
Former President Ronald Reagan once commented, “Man is not free unless government is limited…. As government expands, liberty contracts.”  Just how true is this!
 
For example, today in the States we [...]

President Barack Obama on Gov Spending

 
Here’s what was said about government spending in the President’s State of the Union Address last evening.  The President started by providing a little recent history:  
 
     At the beginning of the last decade, the year 2000, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion.  By the time I took office, we had a one-year [...]

On the Art of Campaigns

Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of celebration man can normally muster. - James Harvey Robinson

A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of [...]

On Politics - from Aristotle to Nikita Khruschev

Man is by nature a political animal. - Aristotle

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. - Alexander Hamilton

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts. - Henry Brooke Adam

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they [...]

On Politics - from John Adams to Bob Rae

Politics are a labyrinth without a clue. - John Adams

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. - Lord Acton

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is the highest political end. - Lord Acton

Politics is not like an ocean voyage or a military campaign… something which leaves off as [...]

Big Gov and Deficit Budgets

 
We commend Greg Weston for his history lesson on our country’s deficit budgets. His column from yesterday is a must read: Shrinking government won’t trim deficit / Doing unpopular things like hiking GST will.  Here it is:  
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/greg_weston/2010/01/22/12577276.html
 
Weston writes Canadians are in for some rough times ahead:  Canada’s history is littered with valiant attempts to [...]