We remember them

They gave all of their tomorrows so we could have our today. Do take time to pause, remember and give thanks to Almighty God for the sacrifices made for our freedom. And if you know a Veteran, shake his or her hand today, show your appreciation and offer sincere thanks.

I hope CUPW craters

Overcompensated is an understatement.

By any objective measure, a job at the post office is well-rewarded, despite the weather. Research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in 2008 found postal workers enjoyed a 17 per cent wage premium over comparable private sector jobs. The current offer from Canada Post would raise wages by 7.4 per cent, on a cumulative basis, over the next four years. Union officials are demanding 11.55 per cent — a massive increase for workers who are already demonstrably overcompensated.

As with most sinecures, however, the real advantage to working at Canada Post is in the benefits. Postal workers currently accumulate sick days at the rate of 15 per year, with no maximum. The extent of this bottomless bank of sick days is illustrated by a recent Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) bulletin that offered up the apocryphal example of “Narinda,” who has “402 days of sick leave credit.” Canada Post is sensibly proposing to buy out this improbable inventory; Narinda would receive $3,000 cash for her hoard of sick days.

Then there is the matter of paid vacation. Current full-time Canada Post employees are eligible for up to seven weeks of holiday, a prospect far beyond imagination for most in the workaday world. And the pension plan has an unfunded liability of $3.2 billion.

Update June 15, 2011: Lorne Gunter at NatPo.

Have you ever used the courier DHL? You might know it by its distinctive yellow trucks with big red lettering. It’s owned by the German post office, Deutsche Post. Since privatization in 1995, Deutsche Post DHL has grown to become the world’s largest logistics company with 2010 revenues of nearly $100 billion. It’s bigger than UPS or Fedex — almost twice the size of UPS and three times that of Fedex. And, to repeat myself, it is a privatized, former state-owned post office.

So when during the current post strike here in Canada you hear representatives of Canada Post or the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) claim that Canada needs a public-monopoly postal service, feel free to cry “Poppycock!” (Rural MPs and some business owners often make the same claim. You can call “B.S.” on them, too.)

Deutsche Post delivers mail six days a week in Germany with a far better on-time delivery rate than Canada Post.

We need a Crown corporation delivering our mail the same way we need government-owned telephone services or public buggy whip makers. [...]

There is no longer any justification for public postal monopolies.

Hear, hear.

Mail service

Privatize the union-buggered Canada Post and allow competition in the space. There's no reason why Canada cannot allow private delivery of mail.

Pakistan exluded from bin Laden raid

Yes, that's why it was so successful.

Taking risks, suffering consequences

Nearly two weeks have passed since CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan was sexually and physically assaulted in Tahrir Square, Cairo, by a group of Egyptian Muslim males who thought she was a Jew. Similarly, nearly two weeks have passed since Angella Johnson was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square, though not as severely as Logan, thankfully. More than three weeks have passed since CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his crew were assaulted and ABC’s Brian Hartman was carjacked and threatened with beheading. Reports indicate approximately 140 journalists have been injured or killed in Egypt in the past month. And just this past week, four Americans, including a Christian missionary couple sailing around the world distributing Bibles, were captured and killed by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

In each of these cases, the associated risks were well-known and accepted by the would-be victims. The acceptance of the potential consequences, even in naïveté, does not mean the victims deserved to be assaulted or killed. This argument, made by some in recent weeks, is particularly insidious for it implies that risk-takers should be punished for daring to take risks. It carries undertones of cowardice and timidity, of condemnation for those who dare to accomplish great things, of malice toward those who courageously accept the enormous potential sum on the risk calculator.

I condemn that line of thinking because risk-taking is the substance of life. Rewards are often the greatest where the risks are highest. Unfortunately, those risks sometimes materialize and the consequences are very costly, even to the taking of human lives.

Men (and women) who risk little accomplish little. We need more men and women who are willing to risk greatly to accomplish incredible things and less men and women who would sneer at those who stumble in the fight. Men and women that risk great loss to report news from the four corners of the globe, or bring the Gospel to the four corners of the globe, deserve our respect. I do not count them among the timid and weak souls; they are the bold, the living and the free. They deserve sympathy as much as any other man when the risks they accept as part of a job, or simply as a matter of living, materialize and cause them great harm.

The victims in each of these cases are bearing the consequences of their decisions. As much as we may wish to do so, it is now impossible to absolve them of the consequences they accepted and subsequently received. There is little point in reminding them of the fact they accepted the risk. They well know; they're living through it. And far be it from me to condemn them post facto for taking great risks. All we should say is that it is too bad the risks materialized, and then do our very best to sympathize with those who live to tell of their ordeal and grieve with those whose loved ones paid the ultimate price for freedom.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, a very merry Christmas and sincere hopes for a bright and prosperous 2011.

To center our thoughts this day on Christ, His miraculous advent and glorious plan of salvation, "The Servant King" by Graham Kendrick.

From heaven you came, Helpless Babe,

Entered our world, Your glory veiled;

Not to be served but to serve,

And give Your life that we might live.

This is our God, the Servant King,
He calls us now to follow Him,
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King.

There in the garden of tears,

My heavy load He chose to bear;

His heart with sorrow was torn,

'Yet not My will but Yours,' He said.

Come see His hands and His feet,

The scars that speak of sacrifice;

Hands that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered.

So let us learn how to serve,

And in our lives enthrone Him;

Each other's needs to prefer,

For it is Christ we're serving.

Why am I doing this again?

I contribute to a political blog but a lot of the issues or topics that interest me aren't completely political in nature. I'm finding I still want to post from time to time about general goings-on in the world and elicit feedback from people who have an opinion they wish to share on such matters. Even if people don't want to comment, it's a means for me to say something when I get all torqued up.

There was a time when I blogged to gain a wider audience, but I found it took a lot of time and energy, the former which I have in limited supply. With this in mind, I can make no promise about post frequency or regularity. This blog is simply to get topics out there as they torque me up, and I really could care less if I have a following as such.

That said, I hope you enjoy some of the topics, subscribe to the RSS feed, and pop back every now and then when you are all torqued up.