22:53 on 2012/05/31 Reply  

• Hamza 02:10 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  kevin n bill won’t be swayed by thought reason or recent history. For all their cyclical rhetoric and relative lack of spelling mistakes, they are big proponents of loi 78 , of jean charest’s conduct in this crisis, of the damaging policy of austerity, of backing an inept government over a movement that has done nothing but demonstrated competence, organisation and political imagination time and again.

  I respect you guys for sticking out so long on a page where the majority disagrees with you but this is not an issue that conservative talking points can deal with.

  The whole ideology is bent towards scoring points with the quaffle while the rest of us are busy trying to catch the snitch.

• Hamza 02:10 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  D’oh. This shouldve been posted below.

• Kate 09:20 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  Hamza, I adore that Quidditch metaphor.

• Hamza 12:51 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  Shows how much of a sports fan I am.

• Kevin 13:56 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  It’s adorable you think I’m conservative. If you go back to last summer you’ll see plenty of my comments criticizing the arena funding plan because we can’t afford it, and it’s a direct subsidy to rich investors.

  It’s not like I’m a fan of Charest and his Liberals. They’re inept, they throw their supporters under the bus, and for every two steps they take forward on any issue they take one back. They just happen to be slightly better at all this than their political opponents who act with real malice toward people who live in this province.

  It’s just that on this issue the student leaders have been completely, totally irresponsible.

  They didn’t just ignore opportunities to talk, they marched into offices and smashed things.
  They refused to denounce violence — in fact several times influential figures within the movement, including student reps, have said that destruction of property should not be considered violent. That is a repugnant attitude.

  The violations of the right to assembly in this emergency, time-limited legislation that so many people denounce are actually much less stringent than the *normal* laws in other places I have lived. Want to protest in NYC? 5 days’ notice. France? You need to tell police weeks in advance.
  I have to say I am very glad with the (unintended) side effect of Bill 78 — it put an end to the violent cat and mouse game between casseurs and cops.

  If Charest had proposed hiking tuition to $10,000 a year I’d have been as pissed off as anyone. But he proposed making the total cost of tuition just under $4,000 a year which is an affordable amount to invest in your own future.

  Damaging policy of austerity? If being asked to pay an extra $6,000 over the course of 3 years once the full hike is in effect is too steep, what do you say to paying an average of $6,000 extra in taxes every year compared to other provinces?

  I admire people who want to change society, but I think, regrettably, that the past four months have *not* convinced most people to talk. The tactics used — by all sides — have caused most people to cement their point of views and view everyone who opposes them as the enemy.

  Which you seem to think about me, all because I think $4k a year is not too much to pay for an education.

  PS Quidditch has the dumbest scoring rules ever ;)

• Hamza 14:27 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  Kind of funny i would have to go back to last summer to find evidence of you not being a conservative. I don’t doubt you tho.

  The thing about bill 78 that no-one is talking about is how the spvm has been defying the provincial government in enforcing it. I’ll just leave that point hanging here.

  Violence against property is not violence but property damage. It’s far more repugnant morally to feint offense at property damage – nearly all of which is well-insured – when violence against human beings is being perpetrated on a daily basis. It feels like it’s been forever that I’ve been trying to impress this point.

  Anyway, as i said, it’s a red herring to talk about other places or property damage or what couldashoulda happened last year. Yr Charest will go away soon enough.

  Oh n btw, tuition was 500$ until 1990. When did you graduate from school?

• Bill Binns 20:42 on 2012/06/01 Permalink

  @Hamza – I talk about the student boycott here because this is the only place I can find people who speak english who do not agree with me on this subject.

  Hell, even Taylor Noakes (whose political leanings seem to be just to the left of Che Guevara) had this to say about blocking students from attending school:

  “No more blocking access to class. This is reprehensible. If you want broad support, you won’t get it by bullying people into taking sides. That’s not what democracy looks like. That’s a dictatorship of thugs and we’re better than that. Protesting should take place outside university and CEGEP buildings with respect to those who disagree. They have as much a right not to participate as you do to protest.”

  Kevin and I may represent the lunatic fringe here in the tiny communtiy of commenters on this blog but our opinions are far more popular in the general population.

• Kevin 00:44 on 2012/06/02 Permalink

  @Hamza
  I reference last summer because it’s an obvious fiscal issue. Name something else that has cropped up as an issue over the last year with a supposed left-right split.

  As for school I did my BA from 93 to 96.
  No scholarships or bursaries, no cash from parents, moved out halfway through first year (because the commute was killing me. Classes from 8 am until 10 pm will do that)
  Needless to say I worked about 20-24 hrs a week while school was in session.

  Violence is easily avoided: If someone in your crowd throws Anything in a cop’s general direction, grab the fool and sit on him.
  Cops are stupid jerks legally empowered to smack the shit out of people, but they aren’t going to attack peaceful protesters. They will arrest them and drag them off, but that isn’t any more violent than forcefully blocking people from getting to where they want to go.

• Kevin 09:41 on 2012/06/02 Permalink

  Just came back from breakfast and overheard some real conservatives in the seats beside me.

  Eight people around a table nodding in agreement when someone said the the student dispute be resolved “the old fashioned union way, with baseball bats. And if that doesn’t work, bring in the army to kill ‘em.”

  This is an attitude I have been hearing a lot of over the past three months, from all walks of life.

  So when you call *me* a conservative, I have to chuckle.

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