Last month, for the first time and with some misgivings, I voted Liberal in the provincial (Ontario) election, saying goodbye to the ersatz socialism of the NDP. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next federal election.

The political quandary is a crowded place. Here’s an assessment of Retail Politics that contains a ray of hope.

Is the public so tired with the manipulations and the sales pitch, that they would welcome another approach? I don’t think you can disregard the opportunity for a party to morph into the anti-retail entity. When you consider the massive voter pool that no longer bothers, then the prospects for the apolitical perspective has value. Retail politics may rule the roost, but that doesn’t mean that the condition is permanent. In fact, the public is entirely unimpressed, which suggests a vacuum waiting to be filled.

That’s from a post by Steve at Far and Wide. Three paragraphs worth reading in full, and the comments.

Another blog that’s keeping me from despair is Liberals for Electoral Reform. They see the failure of the recent referendum as an early setback on the road to proportional representation and the “more philosophical, detailed debate” Steve is looking for in Canadian politics.

We are living in glorious times. Our children are ever better qualified, their future – and ours – ever brighter. 99% of all school leavers have four A levels or more. The numbers of those claiming benefit after leaving school have gone down and down. We confidently look forward to a time when everyone goes to university and no one is claiming benefits. The super-heads we have appointed to rescue the very few schools that were failing have utterly transformed those institutions. Their students come to school enthusiastic and leave enthusiastic. Our policies have empowered such wonderful dedicated heads and their extraordinarily talented and hard working staff, who have received the best training, training of hitherto only dreamt of standard, to maximise their potential, to turn chaff into wheat, to feed the hungry, to top league tables and to put this country at the very head of academic achievement.

There remains, however, an almost insignificant minority of failures: schools where the heads are weak, where they fail to sack their incompetent teachers, and, as we know, there are few people more incompetent than incompetent teachers, teachers under whom little or nothing of value gets done. Indeed it is worse than that. This tiny minority is a drain on our resources: they damage your children, they ruin our figures. We have to extirpate these parasites, weed them out, drag them kicking and screaming from the soil they are bent on holding on to and destroying. If we do not act now this country will go to the dogs. They, and they alone, are responsible for the upbringing of our extraordinarily talented and hard working young people, and we must make an example of them. As the first step in this process one in every five teachers in all schools will be taken out and shot. Once this is done the country can go forward and enjoy the fruits of our brave and radical policies, including, I am delighted to announce, the new school-leaving age of twenty-five.

Cameron is now a co-operative sort.

And I’ve been itching to link to something by the Possibilist for ages.

Now I get the chance.

…“there is a conservative counter-point to co-operatives - it’s called charity”

As the surge continues to work, good news from Karbala. People are starting to say what they think about extremists in the open:

Iraqi police say the powerful Mehdi Army militia has been involved in killing of hundreds of people in the mainly Shia Muslim province of Karbala.

Maj Gen Raid Shaker told a public meeting the militia of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr had brought four years of terror and anarchy causing 670 deaths.

His allegations were backed by scores of angry people attending the meeting.

And more good news arising from religious activity in Iraq:

Senior religious leaders in Iraq are preparing to sign an unprecedented “fatwa against violence” that will help reconcile the rival Sunni and Shia branches of Islam and herald new hopes for peace in the war-torn country.

The fatwa, negotiated by the peace organisation run by the Anglican “Vicar of Baghdad” Canon Andrew White, will mark a significant move towards a settlement between the Shia and Sunni communities and ease the process towards a political solution.

It comes in the context of plummeting fatalities among both coalition troops and civilians and is a further vindication of the“surge” security strategy of US General and Iraq commander David Petraeus.

The title of this post is deliberately meant to annoy those who do not welcome good news.

Remember, wishing for bad news from Iraq to justify your position on the war is the sign of a diseased mind.