Craig Carter wrote an insightful post at his blog, “Applying the hermeneutic of suspicion to the state.”  Liberals, he says, are afraid of big business but trust the state.  He shows that such trust is utterly unfounded.  In my view there is insufficient fear of government.  Consider if you were a car manufacturer.  Now you are competing with Obama Motors (GM, Chrysler) and the US government is your competitor.  Wouldn’t it be frightening if all of a sudden your company was being investigated because of floor mats? I mean it isn’t as if everything in my GM cars works all the time.

Lord Conrad Black is in a federal prison today because he received non-compete payments which are perfectly acceptable in Canada. The Canadian media was urging the confinement of this Canadian because he is rich and a conservative.  But if you are terrorist in Guantanamo or subject to extraordinary rendition, or if you are on death row, the Canadian media gets out the handkerchiefs and begins weeping for you.  But with Lord Black, it was, “Throw him in prison and lose the key!”  Black’s conviction has put a huge dampening effect on my desire to do business in the United States.  In fact, forget it.  I told my brother on Saturday that I wanted to settle my 19% interest in our limited partnership in Austin, Texas, before the end of 2010.  It is too much hassle for me to conform to all the tax regulation.  I have enough problems worrying about what the CRA is going to do to me.  I want to stay out of US federal prison.  But I assure you, dear Reader, that the US federal government already has the power under the current federal law to throw me in prison for a very long time–not for substantial crimes but for procedural errors.  Not that the Feds would want to throw me in jail–there are bigger fish to fry–but the very existence of such powers makes me afraid, very afraid.

We test drove a RAV4 last week.  We made an offer and hopefully our new vehicle (for my wife) will be delivered by Saturday.  It was built here in Ontario.  It is our first “foreign” car (before we were married I owned a Mitsubishi pickup).  Currently we drive a Chevy Malibu and Pontiac Montana (which I’m keeping).  The 2002 Malibu has an appraisal value of $900 CDN from the original price of $28,000.  The A/C and heat don’t work, the ABS brakes are faulty, and the electrical system diagnostic light is malfunctioning.  Apparently, our new car is much more likely to maintain its value over the long haul.  As consumers, we are voting against government owned car companies and we believe that it is incorrect for the government to harass the competition. Therefore, we are using our own funds to support a NGCC (non-governmental car company).  We believe that the government should not have the power to eliminate their competition through unfriendly regulation and harassment.