This past week or so I’ve been laid low with a bad cold which appears to have gone to bronchitis. During the enforced rest time I’ve finally gotten around to reading all of the Harry Potter series of books. The Minister of Magic presides over the Ministry of Magic in this series. The Ministry’s job is to keep order in the wizardry world and to ensure that the Muggles (those who are not magical) don’t become aware of them.

The Ministry of Magic and in particular the Minister of Magic showed themselves to be seriously out of step with reality throughout this series. Most notably, their refusal to believe that the Dark Lord Voldemart had returned and was building his following. The Minister found it much more expedient to slam Harry Potter and Professor Dumbledore as being liars, attention mongers and adled brained than to even begin to see the danger around them. By the time the proof was irrefutable, the Dark Lord had steamrolled right over the Ministry and started to take over the wizard world.

Last fall, during the election campaign that he foisted on the country, Harper first claimed that Canada wasn’t going to have a recession because if it was going to happen, it already would have. Then faced with a rapidly melting stock market, he suggested that the situation was creating great buying opportunities. He slammed the opposition parties as being doom and gloom mongers who would create an economic downturn with their fear mongering. Read the rest of this entry »