Monday digest

- Having breakfast yesterday in Scarlem over the Toronto Sun, I couldn't help but notice that the city's NDP mayor, David Miller, is leading the charge towards an increase in the land transfer tax, effectively doubling it, and introducing a new motor vehicle registration fee. He says that without imposing such a penalty for homebuyers and car owners, the city wouldn't be able to compete with Chicago and London because the T-Dot's public sector (and its unionized friends) would have to shrink itself - clearly, a choice far too horrific to contemplate.

We can only conclude that the socialist Miller thinks that his city is great because of its government, not in spite of it, which is why he wants to reach even further into the pockets of Torontonians, as obviously thinks he needs their money more than they do.

TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE: The council will vote on the tax raise once the October provincial election takes place, which, according to the Mayor, will be a victory for those who want to see the poor have less food in their stomachs. In other words, pack your bags, because the left is sending you on a guilt trip:

Miller's political strategy was to impose the new taxes, then tell the provincial and federal governments it's time for them to do what they can to solve the city's financial problems. It didn't happen.

And Miller warned councillors that programs are likely to suffer as a result – such as swimming lessons for a boy he knows who lives in public housing.

"If you believe in services like helping feed people, if you believe in services like recreation programs for people that have nothing – if you support this deferral, what you're saying in effect is: I want those services to be cut, because that will be the consequences," Miller said.

- The continuing saga of the goose and the gander, here.

- Although I didn't follow the trial closely, I can't help but notice how everyone is piling on Conrad Black, who was found by a non-sequestered jury to be guilty of obstruction of justice because he moved a few boxes out of his office after a court told him not to. Could it be that he's been sentenced for being a wealthy and intelligent right-winger with an air of pomposity more than anything else?

Note also that Patrick Fitzgerald, the same guy who decided to assassinate Scooter Libby's character and destroy his career by putting him on the stand even though he (Fitzgerald) already knew the identity of the leaker in the whole Plame affair, was the prosecuting lawyer in Black's case.

In particular, a lot of Canadians are relishing Black's fall from grace, particularly within the establishment. In fact, some presumptous observers have even predicted that he will eventually kill himself. Please.

Now while it's true that Black may come off as though he thinks he's above the law, but since when is that a crime, as opposed to, say, unabashedly dissenting from Trudeaupian orthodoxy for years and years and years?

- VDH on the New York Times' capitulation to fascism, here, or, if you prefer, Wahabbism.

- As a society, I don't think that three-parent families is a can of worms we want to open - or maybe I'm just a redneck for even raising it.

More here.

- A fitting epitaph for John McCain, here.

- The top 100 rock tours of 2007 so far, from Pollstar.