Budget 2009: Harper, Confident Realism, and Desperation

[as originally posted 01/27/09 on my formerly free thinking blog http://tworippingarseholes.blogspot.com/ ]

"The global credit crunch has dragged the world economy into a crisis .... Our Government is acting to ensure access to credit for businesses and consumers." [Throne Speech 40th Parliament, Jan. 26, 2009]

"My view is you have to give people a sense of confident realism."
[Canadian PM Stephen Harper on the Budget, Jan, 23, 2009]

"Confident realism"? "Confident realism"? Oh, please! Is this the best we can expect in the Budget today? "Confident realism"!

What kind you gonna offer Harpo? The kind that "suggests a reality not comfortable to language" which, around its "fringes", suggests a host of "monstrous" unspeakable possibilities? The kind typified by "the cores of old networks" breaking apart that portends a "shift toward greater relativism"? Or, the kind that offers up a "favourable view of the ... benefits of economic globalisation"? Surely, given the current crisis, it will not be the latter... will it?

No, given Harpo's precarious and dire circumstances it is more likely he's embraced, and meant, the kind that renounces "both naïve optimism and cynical pessimism" and replaces them "with the sober but confident realism of the Bible – the Word of God."

Great, just great! We are about to see a budget borne of desperation and authored on a wing and a prayer! And looky here! Right on cue! Here comes drooling Friggin' Flaherty mumbling his mantra ad nauseum: "Credit Crunch, Credit Crunch."

Send in the Clowns!