THE NEXT BIG SCHEME

CANADA's military is seriously underfunded, according to a Canadian Senate report released Thursday. Interestingly, the report notes that Canada was named by al-Qaeda as one of five target nations deserving of attack. I would have put them lower, like 190th, especially with their friendship with the Tamil Tigers, and handing out nuclear technology like lolipops, and Maurice Strong's connection with the Kyoto Treaty, and considering Canada's prized status as a "Peacekeeper" (meaning they do little actual anything but move a few forces around at the direction of the U.N.)

Canada, the report says, ranks 128th out of 165 countries in defense spending as a percent of its GNP. (Supposedly, this rankles the United States and other NATO allies, but I don't see it myself. Mexico spends even less and we are grateful for their parsimony.)

Naturally, all this lamenting of military power leads to -- you guessed it -- a new MASSIVE spending proposal. The military budget should be $21 billion a year instead of the current spending of $1.77 loonie (which is, what? .00008 U.S. cents?) If you follow Canadian current events at all, you know that the whole adventure will end up with politicians with French-sounding names in $300,000 a year jobs and expense accounts at least that much, meeting in restaurants to pass envelopes to cronies they couldn't manage to get on the payroll. And no one will ever go to jail.

It's Haiti to the North, minus the voodoo stuff. You can feel it in dem bones.