Monday digest

- According to Vancouver think tank the Fraser Institute, where I interned as a student, the cumulative total of federal and provincial income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, contributions to EI and CPP programs, investment taxes and those on gas, alcohol and cigarettes now account for 45% of the income of the average Canadian family.

Setting aside the issue of who should pay taxes for a moment, instead, ask yourself if the taxpayer, regardless of income, is getting value for that money. If your answer is yes, stop what you are doing immediately and make an appointment with your local mental health professional - if you can first get an appointment with your family physician, if you even have one, and can then get a referral. If your answer is no, then ask yourself what your elected representatives are doing about it.

- Giving street people money: it just makes things worse.

- Propagandist Michael Moore is sending some of New York’s first responders to Cuba to treat their post-9/11 health issues – that is, if he even bothers to pick them up at the airport after they've said all the right things on camera. I’m waiting for the day when Moore himself demonstrates his moral consistency by taking advantage of a $25 per week Havana physician, because as we know, Mikey not only talks the talk, he walks the ... oh, never mind.

- American sports columnist Jason Whitlock made some excellent points concerning the Imus affair last week, but went over the line when he called Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson ‘terrorists’.

- Despite being far from the perfect candidate, The Economist has endorsed Sarko for the presidency of France. Sadly, I think that means he’ll probably lose.

- Although I’m a staunch integrationist, I didn’t see how wearing a hijab was a safety hazard in a soccer game and I don’t see how it is dangerous to be wearing one during a tae-kwon-do match. Could it be that there are a disproportionate number of "bluenecks" who don’t like those who different than they are in the province of Quebec? Or is it that they are just less afraid of speaking out than others are across Canada, who may feel the same way?

- Read what the indispensable VDH has to say about resolve, here. His observations are very instructive in the face of recent developments concerning Iran and North Korea.