Just Right… with Bob Metz and Robert Vaughan

468 – From the “Horror File” / The F-35: Fight or Flight?

Sep 012016

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From the absurd, like invisible sculpture, to the unthinkable, like war, irrationality always tends to drift towards some form of nihilism and destruction – assuming it hasn’t already reached that point.

Using examples encompassing metaphysics to aesthetics, today’s Just Right opens with a lighter look at some of the outrageous “you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up” defective philosophical thinking that has surfaced in news accounts from the sixties to the present. It’ll make you smile. It’ll make you frown.

Whether the creation of “vagina egg art” or a proposal to have euthanasia vans drive around the country to help alleviate the problem of having “too many old people,” these examples represent some of the intellectual trends of the day. Frighteningly, the defective thinking behind such views is really no different than the current thinking behind today’s greatest political fad: so-called ‘climate change,’ and the outrageous political policies it has justified.

During the second half of today’s Just Right, the term ‘fight or flight’ takes on a new meaning when considering the fifth generation jet fighters like the F-22 Raptor or its latest incarnation, the F-35.

Much confusion has reigned in Canada around Prime Minister Trudeau‘s initial rejection of purchasing the F-35 as ‘the’ fighter jet to update Canada’s air defence. The confusion is understandable, given how much the story has changed over the past few months and how little is actually known about the particulars. Continue reading »

467 – The New Left’s lost causes – Guest: John Thompson

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Aug 252016

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DANGEROUS TALK: The Left (that political array of communists, fascists, socialists, Democrats, New Democrats, Liberals and collectivists) continues to force us down a path that would betray “civilizations precious trust,” in the words of John Thompson of the Strategic Capital Intelligence Group. John once again joins us in studio on today’s Just Right, this time for a discussion about a necessary history lesson – about history.

Paradoxically, with each success of the ‘left,’ the very problems the left campaigns against get worse. The increasing violence, confrontations, protests, hollow accusations of racism and sexism, environment-destroying environmentalism, and causes that always hide sinister goals and intentions, have taken a toll – with the greatest price being paid by the very people in who’s name the ’cause’ was fought.

With a track record of consistent failures, the Left is forced to deal with a very inconvenient history. It deals with that history by ignoring it. The best way to ‘ignore’ history is by fictionalizing it; and in so doing, evade and avoid knowledge of the root causes behind real historical events. You could say that ‘not talking’ about real causes is the cause of the left’s lost causes. Continue reading »

466 – Guest: Salim Mansur – The Fountain Beheaded

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Aug 182016

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The FountainBeheaded: Is Donald Trump America’s Howard Roark?

That question suggests the symbolic theme behind our discussion with Western University’s associate professor of political science Salim Mansur, who describes Trump as a ‘doer,’ and suggests that Trump’s critics generally fall into the ‘talker’ camp.

We’re all heard the phrases before: “Talk is cheap.” “All Talk. No Action.” “Don’t tell me; show me.” “Small talk from a big mouth.” “Been there; done that. Wasn’t there; talked about that.” and of course, “Those who can, do; Those who can’t, teach.”

In Ayn Rand’s best-seller novel, The Fountainhead, the main character Howard Roark chooses to become the architect of his own fate and destiny. Though his path to greatness – as an architect – may not have been of his own making, his arrival at his chosen destination is the direct consequence of his own determination to take the necessary action to achieve his goal. Along the way, Roark is constantly trashed by the media, the politicians, and the academics – those who Salim would call “the talkers.” Continue reading »

465 – Guest: John Thompson: Strategic Capital Intelligence Group – Terrorism’s means and ends

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Aug 112016

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TerroRising Trends: So what’s new in the world of terrorism? What are terrorism’s latest explosive trends? What might be tomorrow’s terrorist strategies that we have yet to witness? What, if anything, can we do about it?

On the very day that we are learning of a thwarted terrorist attack on Canadian soil in Strathroy and possibly in London, those are just a few of the spotlighted questions we target on today’s Just Right. To help us in our quest, John Thompson of the Strategic Capital Intelligence Group joins us for a frank discussion about the realities of terrorist ambitions and efforts.

Today, terrorism is on the rise. That means that tomorrow, today’s terrorism levels will seem like the ‘good old days’. What motivates terrorists? Are they crazy? Are they ideological? Is there a difference?

For an examination of why there is a rise in this trend, as well as a look at how to effectively combat terrorism, join us as we search for the elusive right answers that have become clouded in our environment of political correctness. Continue reading »

464 – Guest: Dave Plumb – Expertly fooled on climate change

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Aug 042016

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EXPERTLY FOOLED ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Have we been expertly fooled on climate change? Let’s ask the experts.

So that’s exactly what we did not do, as Dave Plumb, author of ‘Climate Hope’, joined us for a down-to-earth understandable view of what the real climate change process is (nature’s process, not the political one) and how it works.

In fact, says Dave, it’s the ‘experts‘ who we can blame for all the confusion about the reality of climate change, and in particular, the scientific mythology concerning carbon dioxide – a mythology driven by political propaganda and taxpayer-paid financing.

The near irrelevancy of CO2 to the actual and real factors that affect climate change would make our carbonated politicians seem laughable, were it not for the sinister motives behind their propaganda and carbon taxation schemes.

This is the conversation that no politicians want to hear, and why they insist that “the science is settled.” In fact, in some areas, it’s a topic that legislators want legally prohibited, while those religiously committed to a ‘green’ philosophy hurl accusations of ‘climate change denial’ as their only means of rebuttal. Continue reading »

463 – Fear and Loathing in America / Trump acceptance / Feedback – some polite some not so polite

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Jul 282016

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TRUMP ACCEPTANCE: As with the five stages experienced by many facing grief and loss, Republicans opposed to Trump have now similarly passed through the familiar stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, with Trump’s victory at the GOP: Acceptance.

For the first time, we take a look a Donald Trump, not as a phenomenon of populism and anti-establishment sentiment, but as the next president of the United States. Is Trump’s promise to “make America great again” merely empty rhetoric, or will he be able to deliver on that promise? What, in critical and concrete terms, will “making America great again” mean in practice?

As Trump now turns his attention to win the hearts and minds of the American voters rather than to defeat his Republican opponents, we can finally see the real choices faced going into this November’s U.S. elections.

On today’s Just Right, join us as we review, not the phenomenon that is Trump, but the promises and policies that he has put forth as the key themes of the Republican campaign. For the first time since he stepped into the political arena, Donald Trump has now set the standards and objectives against which he must be objectively judged. Continue reading »

462 – Guest: Salim Mansur: Trump – Zeus among mortals? / Establishing the new Establishment

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Jul 212016

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ZEUS AMONG MORTALS – AN ‘UNINTENDED’ CONVERSATION

Some have called Donald Trump a Trojan Horse in the Republican camp. However, that legendary analogy may only be a small part of a much bigger picture: How does Trump’s success at this week’s GOP convention relate to the Homeric tales of Troy and Sparta? What is the lesson we should learn? You’ll be amazed by this unparalleled conversation about history’s eternal parallels.

“The gods of history are trying to tell us that we are conceited to think we are fully rational actors, fully forearmed and foresighted, that we know everything, at a given point in time.” All the world’s a stage in the story told by our guest, Salim Mansur, as he connects the dots between significant historical events and ideas that have led to the Trump phenomenon, the Brexit vote, the rise of Islamist terrorism, the resurgence of racism and the various crisis‘ that face the world today.

Given the theme of today’s conversation, it should not be surprising that our discussion about history’s ‘unintended consequences‘ should similarly have led to unintended and unexpected directions in that conversation:

“History is paradoxical because none of us knows what the unintended consequences of our decision are. We always understand history in retrospect. But we live history in prospect.“ Continue reading »