Friday, April 11, 2014

Thoughts on the Passing of Jim Flaherty

I don't subscribe to the ludicrous notion that we must not speak ill of the dead. Tell you what; after I die, yeez kin say anything you want about me and I PROMISE I won't get mad.

The shameless hypocrites of the right-wing and such institutions as SUN Media will probably take this post as a sign of the burning, irrational hatred typical of the left, but they'll put "ROT IN HELL!!!" beside the picture of someone they don't like on the day of their death. I'm not going to say that about Jimbo Flaherty.

I'm simply going to say that I think he was a dangerously deluded simpleton whose policies hurt a lot of people. It seems, upon reading the eulogies, that he showed compassion for parents of disabled children. This, it is said, was a result of one of his children being disabled. And that, ladies and gentlemen, just goes to show the hypocrisy of right-wing ideologues. They pontificate that it's all about personal responsibility and bootstraps and blah, blah, blah, ... but when they personally experience a challenge, then it becomes a universal and then they understand, but everything outside their own personal experience, forget it. Maybe it isn't hypocrisy, but a marked incapacity for empathy. Which is why better people reject the slurry of ideas that comprise the right-wing worldview.

Finally, returning to hypocrisy, let us not forget that Jim Flaherty, always one of the leading players in two of the most disgusting governments this country has ever seen (the anti-democratic stephen harper and the thuggish Ontario government of Mike Harris), who played so willingly to the "tuff on crime" and "personal responsibility" themes, was a sincere and close friend of an animal like Rob Ford. And really people, the more you observe of Rob Ford, the more loathsome he becomes. Childish, vulgar, stupid, bullying, cowardly, cretinous, oafish, disgusting. It speaks volumes about the shortcomings of Flaherty that he saw something admirable in that misshapen psyche.

No my friends, I think about the single-mothers agonizing over how to pay the rent or heat the house or feed their kids as a result of Flaherty's cuts. I think about the unemployed by Flaherty's policies who were then faced with the loss of their employment insurance thanks to Flaherty's servicing of his Bay Street masters. I think of people dying in ambulances as the drivers tried to find an emergency room that could take them. I think about the sufferings and even the deaths caused by "Conservative" selfishness, incompetence and sheer stupidity. If I were a public figure, I would keep these thoughts to myself out of consideration for whoever his family is. But I'm not a public figure. I'm sure none of them will ever see this. And I simply can't restrain myself from speaking out against all this talk about people being moved to tears at his death and all these efforts to mitigate his appalling legacy.

3 comments:

the salamander said...

.. State Funeral ..
Just what Stevie needed
A one week reprieve
Pomp n Ceremony
Laureen's tears
& all the grieving Ministers

Why the Flaherty family
would accept this public spectacle
is their decision, their right..
& none of my business
so I'll shut up

Sorry for their loss ..

I do expect at some point
they will be forthcoming about
Jim Flaherty's privately expressed issues
re Stephen Harper... that is.. uh
If Jim Flaherty actually was such a great public servant
had a conscience.. or ethical, moral concerns about stuff

Anonymous said...

I have been debating with myself about posting this, because I'm old enough to remember the old people telling me not to speak ill of the dead, and now I'm one of those old people, so the best that I can say about Jim is that he finally got around to saving us some money in that only part of his pension will be doled out, I think. To all the people in the press and politics who now think that Jim was the greatest thing since sliced bread, you are a bunch of hypocrites!
I tried to post this at another blog but I guess it was a bit much for him,his blog his rules.Also the sooner the rest of the clown cons join old jimbo the better off this country will be.

NBJIM

thwap said...

Salamander,

What is up with giving state funerals for apostles of austerity getting state funerals? First Thatcher and now Flaherty!

NBJIM

This is a good survey of the man's accomplishments:

http://www.socialist.ca/node/2227

Again, I don't think he was a cruel or malicious man. Just a deluded simpleton. Perhaps a little on the crude and boorish side, if his sincere affection for the slobbering garbage can Rob Ford is any indication.