Arrivederci Tony

So on Jan. 10, 1999, Chase, with help from then-fledgling HBO, introduced them to Tony Soprano, a beefy, baggy-eyed anti-hero afflicted with a lot of the same midlife psychological neuroses as Chase himself.

Islam is a one way street

The Islamic world does not regard itself as a "big tent" type of religion.

Anyone who is not a Muslim is unequivocally an infidel... but even being a Muslim is no guarantee of safety. As we see in Iraq, different sects of Islam murder each other in appalling numbers on a daily basis.

Apparently there is no equal precept in Islam to, "If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you." It is, instead, "their way, or the stairway"... to heaven, that is.

Canadian David Frum weighs in...

Under the laws of war, captured soldiers are guaranteed religious freedom. Even the unlawful combatants held at Guantanamo are granted Korans, prayer mats, and prayer times.

Yet Iran has compelled one of its 15 British captives to comply with Islamic religious codes. Significantly, that one is the woman, Faye Turney, who has been required to submit to hijab.

Granted, this last is very far from the worst of Iran's many atrocities.

But it is a reminder again that extremist Islam's determination to subordinate applies to all women, not just Muslim women.

**********

UPDATE: Canadian Cynic is back here yet again

I've told him repeatedly I'm a happily married man... but CC just loves to flirt.

This time he says there's no difference between the Islamofascist terrorists in the Middle East... and the Christian Conservative movement in North America.

You know, CC... you're so right.

If I read about just one more fundamentalist Christian slaughter in North America, I'm gonna be sick.

In Florida, a car bomb outside a hospital in a Baptist stronghold killed five people and wounded 22, police said.

Four people were killed and 20 wounded by a car bomb in the Protestant city of Durham, north-west of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Ok, ok, I confess... those things actually took place in Islamic Iraq... between the Sunnis and the Shias... but don't you just see it happening here with those fanatical, homicidal Christians?

CC does.

It's his usual simplistic bullshit, but... to be honest, I'm just glad he didn't get all homo-erotic on me this time.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Faye Turney, Islam

Bagging the bad guys

Killing is their business... and business is good.

-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- NATO forces are zeroing in on the Taliban command structure in southern Afghanistan, killing or capturing more than 10 insurgent leaders and key people in March alone.

The tactic is disrupting the insurgents, affecting their ability to fight, plant roadside bombs and organize suicide bombers in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

RELATED: Spring Offensive, my ass

UPDATE: EU has a new plan... "don't be cruel"

I’ve got to admit, that even a war-mongering rightwing codger like myself wouldn’t come up with a plan of action this bold, this creative … this sweeping.

The plan - Simply eliminate terror from the vocabulary:

Banned terms are said to include "jihad", "Islamic" or "fundamentalist".

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Nato, Taliban

Fighting Homegrown Terror

Is a good and necessary thing.

**********
THE DOCUMENT: What it says...

"The rise of radical Native American organizations, such as the Mohawk Warrior Society, can be viewed as insurgencies with specific and limited aims."

**********

-- OTTAWA -- Radical natives are listed in the Canadian army's counterinsurgency manual as a potential military opponent, lumping aboriginals in with the Tamil Tigers, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.

Stewart Phillip, the Grand Chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs said, "It's a complete attack on our political rights."

Well Chief, not everybody is gonna see it that way... remember Oka?

What about Marcel Lemay's rights? You wanna explain your "political rights" to his widow and two kids?

Thirty-one year old Corporal Marcel Lemay of the Surete du Quebec was shot in the face and died a short while later, leaving behind a two-year-old daughter and his pregnant wife.

Aboriginal murderers... surely that's not possible? They seem like such fine young men...

Pte. Patrick Cloutier, a 'Van Doo' perimeter sentry, and Mohawk warrior Brad "Freddy Krueger" Larocque, a University of Saskatchewan economics student, face off.

Who could possibly think of aboriginal people as a threat?

Mohawk warrior Ronald "Lasagne" Cross tries to provoke a 'Van Doo' perimeter sentry while surrounded by media.

With any number of aboriginal blockades going up around the country, it's a pretty prudent idea to have a plan in place... in case the shooting starts up again.

And we need to restore the rule of law.

**********
UPDATE: Natives plan rail blockade

"The Conservatives have united First Nations across the country," said Terrance Nelson, chairman of the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council Chiefs, which represents nine Manitoba First Nations. "They have pissed off one hell of a lot of chiefs."

"If the federal government wants a fight with First Nations it is a very stupid thing to do and we will prove it."

**********

UPDATE 2: It takes more than two weeks?!?!

WTF is up with that?

The cops let a bunch of armed criminals walk away from the scene of the crime only to arrest them seventeen days later?

Oh, they're aboriginal... that explains it.

Three men have been arrested and charged in connection with an armed protest that blocked an important western Quebec highway for almost two days earlier this month.

Quebec provincial police arrested the alleged protest leader Guillaume Carle and two other men Thursday after investigating the circumstances surrounding their blockade on Highway 117 on March 12 and 13.

Try this yourself some time... get a bunch of your buddies AND their deer rifles and TRY blockade a four lane highway for a couple of days.

One caveat though... if you're a middle aged white guy with a regular job and a family... the local SWAT Team is gonna drop you like a crazy girlfriend if you don't immediately disarm and assume the position.

RELATED: Following the money

The federal government tabled this week its plans and priorities for aboriginal funding.

Figures from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) show that federal funding for aboriginal communities has increased about five per cent per year in the last three years, from $8.8. billion in 2004-05 to a projected $10.2 billion in 2007-08.

About $2.2 billion will be for Metis, Inuit and First Nations people living off reserve.

Per capita federal spending for the 426,578 aboriginal peoples living on reserves will be about $15,871 this year, said INAC media relations person Patricia Valladao.

Technorati Tags: Corporal Marcel Lemay, homegrown terrorists, Oka

France: It ain't all stinky cheese...

And insufferably haughty waiters...

They've got a few other irons in the fire.

-- The conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to create a ministry of “immigration and national identity” that would require newcomers to embrace the secular values of the republican state.

-- The Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, wants every French citizen to memorize “La Marseillaise” and keep a French flag in the cupboard for public display on Bastille Day.

-- The far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, of the National Front party, chortles that his rivals have stolen — and therefore validated — his message of “France for the French.”

Which, of course, brings us inevitably around to... shssssshhh...

For the past few years, France has struggled with economic and cultural issues related to its immigrants.

One is shared by much of the rest of Europe: how to stop the influx of illegal immigrants who drain a country’s economy and social services.

Technorati Tags: Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal, Jean-Marie Le Pen

Yeeeeeeeeeeouch!!!!!!!!!!!

That's gonna leave a mark.



Some answers to the question...

If a federal election were held tomorrow, which one of the following parties would you vote for?

A month's worth of humiliation from Angus-Reid.

**********

RELATED: Of course, taxpayers get burned too

Former prime minister Paul Martin, a millionaire in his own right, will receive a parliamentary pension of $166,439 a year, according to calculations the Canadian Taxpayers Federation did for the Ottawa Citizen on the pensions for 18 outgoing MPs.

**********

UPDATE: Revealing the Party of Pork

Even comparing a year of Conservative appointments to ten months of Liberal largesse, guess who comes out with cleaner hands?

The Conservatives made substantially fewer patronage appointments to federal boards during their first year in government, compared with the previous 12 months under the Liberals.

Appointments of directors, tribunal members and jobs of a similar type slowed by 40 per cent under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, a Citizen review of cabinet orders shows.

The number of Liberal appointments covers only about ten months, as cabinet made no patronage appointments during the two-month long federal election through December 2005 and January 2006.

Technorati Tags: crunching the numbers, majority territory, Paul Martin

This Brave New Nuclear World...

Isn't bad news for everybody.

Japan began deploying its first advanced Patriot missile defense system Friday near Tokyo, part of an effort to accelerate missile defense capabilities following North Korea's missile and nuclear tests last year.

So if you're always on the lookout for hot stockmarket tips -- and judging from my email inbox, who isn't? -- make sure you load up on Lockheed.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., which makes the PAC-3, said in January that it expects to expand its ballistic missile defense business overseas in the next few years as regions such as Asia face growing missile threats from North Korea and other hostile states.

Lockheed officials said South Korea and Taiwan have expressed interest in buying the latest version of the Patriot missile. India and some countries in the Middle East may also eventually buy the program, the company said.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Another good reason...

To start seriously kicking Iranian ass...

-- BAGHDAD -- Shi'ite militiamen, who melted away from Baghdad when U.S. and Iraqi troops began their security crackdown seven weeks ago, are rolling back into the city with fresh Iranian training, Iraqi and other officials said.

"This is a special group, used for special operations, not controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr. This is a secret army," said the Iraqi, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

"They work for Iranian intelligence. They have good weapons, good salary."

UPDATE: What's old Mookie up to, anyway?

-- BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is calling for an anti-American protest in the Iraqi city of Najaf on April 9, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Kooky Mookie takes a break...

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says the Shia militia known as the Mahdi Army has stopped its activities on the orders of its leader, Moqtada Sadr.

But it came as officials said a bombing last week was Iraq's deadliest ever.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Libs still stalling crime bills...

While civil society burns to the ground.

TORONTO — Six teenagers are charged with first-degree murder in the brutal killing of a 17-year-old boy last summer in Toronto.

Omar Wellington was swarmed in a park northeast of the downtown core, then stripped, beaten and repeatedly stabbed.

The attack took place in broad daylight as dozens of witnesses watched.

It's the law of the jungle in Flemingdon Park, but nobody deserves to die like this.

Meanwhile, Steffi and the Fiberals are mindlessly chanting, "Move along now... nothing to see here."

UPDATE: Young Offenders get soft ride

"I feel happy the investigation is moving forward," she said after eight months of agony, frustration and anger ended with the announcement that six teens, aged 14-17, were charged with the brutal first-degree murder of her son, Omar, 17.

"It's disappointing to know, though, that as young offenders they will be able to walk away," she said.

Sources said the accused appear to have ties with a local gang called the Little Rascals and that Omar may have been associated with them. Two other gangs also share the area, the Stick Up Kids and the Flemo Boys.

Technorati Tags: Oh Canada, mass psychosis, party of political correctness

Second Sailor jumps ship

While many Brits are known for their stereotypical tendency towards "understatement", the Iranian regime obviously does not subscribe to the theory that "less is more."

A second member of the Royal Navy crew captured in the Gulf has apologised for "trespassing" in Iranian waters, in a broadcast on Iranian television.

The crewman, who introduces himself as Nathan Thomas Summers, says: "I would like to apologise for entering your waters without permission."

Seaman Turney meanwhile, wearing that stylish Islamic chapeau, is apparently continuing her letter writing campaign...

A third letter allegedly from LS Turney was released on Friday in which she said she had been "sacrificed" to the policies of the UK and US governments.

It also demanded an end to "oppressive behaviour towards other people", including prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

There is no denying the hostages are feeling increasingly isolated and abandoned as time goes on. On the other hand, this is one of the harsh realities of a military life.

Being held prisoner by a hostile enemy is just one of the tougher tests of whether one is ultimately suited to a warrior's life. Like experiencing combat, it either tempers the steel... or it breaks it.

Prime Minister Tony Blair reacted to the latest round of Iranian "kabuki theatre" by stating...

"I really don't know why the Iranian regime keep doing this. All it does is enhance people's sense of disgust at captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way.

"It doesn't fool anyone. And what the Iranians have to realise is if they continue in this way they will face increasing isolation."

The reality is that Iran could hardly be more isolated than they are at present... but as long as they continue to pump crude oil, they will always have fair-weather energy friends like Russia and China in this increasing unprincipled world.

The thuggish Iranian regime is counting on it.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Faye Turney, Nathan Thomas Summers

Hostage crisis in Iran...

Should have been avoidable.

After several similar incidents previously occurred to other NATO vessels, it seems that force protection should have been adjusted to deal with this type of possible confrontation.

Australian vessels have had several tense incidents with Iranian gunboats in the area.

On December 6, 2004, crew from HMAS Adelaide were sent to check a cargo ship run aground at the mouth of the Shat al-Arab, but once the Australians boarded the vessel they were surrounded by six heavily armed Iranian gunboats.

Following a long and tense stand off, all members of the boarding party were winched into an Australian helicopter and to safety.

It doesn't speak well for tactical planners that no one thought to have constant helicopter overwatch on all NATO boarding parties.

It's too late for Faye, but I bet they do now.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Faye Turney, hostage situation

It's a dirty job...

But somebody's gotta do it...

Durex has launched its first UK recruitment drive for thousands of condom testers.

Captive female sailor...

Calling for Brit withdrawal in Iraq?

A second letter allegedly written by a UK sailor in Iranian custody has been broadcast on Iranian state television.

In the letter, the sailor calls for the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq, according to an al-Hurra report in Arabic, saying that "the time has come" for a UK withdrawal.

**********

RELATED: Who is Faye Turney?

Well, in her own words...

"I love the satisfaction of being able to walk away from a job and know that I have coped and completed the task just as well as a man would have done it."

**********

UPDATE: The UN is here, crisis over

The Brits were looking for the UN to "deplore" the situation... but after hours of debate, had to settle for "grave concern."

"Members of the Security Council expressed grave concern at the capture by the Revolutionary Guard and the continuing detention by the government of Iran of 15 United Kingdom naval personnel and appealed to the government of Iran to allow consular access in terms of the relevant international laws," the statement said.

How's that for getting medieval on their ass? I guess there really is something more useless and expensive than the Canadian Senate.

Maybe this whole situation would be less worrisome if the UN was in charge of dog licences and not, say... policing up rogue nuclear weapons.

-- VIENNA -- The United States and key allies are pressing the UN nuclear monitoring agency to find Iran in violation of its commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty over Tehran's refusal to allow remote monitoring of its underground uranium enrichment plant, diplomats said Thursday.

We are so screwed.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Faye Turney, hostage situation

Ontario: Looking for a doctor...

Looks like you're out of luck...

Nearly 3,000 doctors in Ontario received their licences in 2006 - a record for certificates issued in a single year by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Of the 2,961 licences issued, 63 per cent went to doctors from outside of Ontario.

According to the college's annual report, entitled "Small Triumphs, Big Challenges," 42 per cent of certificates of registration went to international graduates and 37 per cent went to Ontario graduates.

This is the third year in a row where licences for international graduates have exceeded those given to Ontario graduates.

Apparently, the Ontario government is more interested in providing doctors to the rest of the world.

So where does that leave Ontarians?

The report also showed that just 9.6 per cent of doctors in Ontario were accepting new patients in 2006. This is a strong decline from 1999 where 39 per cent of family doctors were taking new patients.

Worse off than ever before, I'd say.

Technorati Tags: health care, Ontario, up shit creek

Somebody's got the balls...

To say it.

It is never a waste of time to drop in on Kathy Shaidle.

Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter / Planner / Funder / Enabler / Apologist, You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you.

You are my enemy. And I am yours.

I am John Doe.

Vote Kathy... for Prime Minister of Britain.

Technorati Tags: war on terror, courage, honour, duty, political correctness

Tony Blair needs to take notes

You know you're in serious trouble, when, in comparison, even the French start to look tough...

Riots at a train station in the French capital, Paris, have become an issue in the upcoming presidential election. About 100 youths clashed with police at the Gare du Nord station after a dispute over a train fare.

Rioters smashed windows and attacked vending machines and shops, after objecting to the treatment of a man arrested for jumping a ticket barrier. Transport officials said the man punched two ticket inspectors who asked for his ticket as part of a routine inspection.

Does this mark the start of Car-B-Q season?

Anybody?

Nicky, help me out here...

The government's candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, said police were justified in arresting an alleged fare dodger - the action that sparked the riots.

"I want to tell the French that I will not be on the side of fraudsters, cheats, dishonest people... those who think that in order to be heard, they must demolish a train station and break public equipment paid for by taxpayers."

Jeeeezuz... get me 500 cc's of testosterone and the defibrillator... STAT!

Technorati Tags: Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy, selling your soul

Iran to UK -- Nyah, nyah...

We fooled you...

Iranian state television reported Leading Seaman Turney would not be released "for the time being".

The head of Iran's supreme national security council, Ali Larijani, was quoted as saying: "It was announced that a woman in the group would be freed, but this development was met with an incorrect attitude."

The Iranians may have been encouraged in this further bout of international mischief by the spokesman for, not as you might be tempted to guess, Miss Manners... but Prime Minister Tony Blair...

"We are not seeking to put Iran in a corner. We are simply saying, 'Please release the personnel who should not have been seized in the first place'."

Meanwhile, back at Crazy Central, demonstrations at the foreign ministry are calling for the Brit hostages to be executed as spies.

Oh yeah, that whirring sound you just heard... that's Winston Churchill... maniacally spinning in his grave.

UPDATE: Iran's turn to whine

-- BAGHDAD (AP) -- The Iranian consul in Basra said Thursday that British soldiers had surrounded his office in the southern city and fired shots into the air.

Britain denied the allegation.

RELATED: Like making sausage...

Nobody really wants to look too closely, at how "diplomatic solutions" are actually put together.

The UK was also playing the game, intimating a desire to internationalize the crisis while taking no concrete steps in this direction, conducting "behind-the-scenes" negotiations via Middle East countries known to have close ties to Iran.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Female "swabbie" scuttles career

Well, at least she didn't convert to Islam.

I think.

Even if the Royal Navy is willing to accept this behaviour as being coerced by the Iranians, this woman will never be respected, or, I'm guessing, even spoken to by any other member of the British military forces... for the rest of her life.

Leading Seaman Turney, 26, said they had been seized in the Gulf because "obviously we trespassed" in Iranian waters - something the UK disputes.

There was separate footage of Leading Seaman Turney -- wearing a black headscarf -- and speaking.

"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, good people.

"They explained to us why we had been arrested. There was no aggression, no hurt, no harm. They were very, very compassionate."

Whatever happened to name, rank and serial number?

**********
UPDATE: Damn you, infidel science!!!

Perhaps Ms. Turney and her newfound Iranian pals were a little too eager to point fingers...

The British evidence was based on a GPS read-out of the position where an Indian merchant ship was boarded by a British inspection party on Friday.

Iran at first offered a different co-ordinate and then, when it was pointed out that even this was in Iraqi waters, another reading was given, this time on the Iranian side.

**********

RELATED: Politically correct argle-bargle falls flat

From the Andrea Dworkin School of Journalism...

Speaking to her local newspaper last year, she spoke of her pride at being a woman in the navy. "You can't just sit back just because you're a girl," she told the Plymouth Herald.

"I love the satisfaction of being able to walk away from a job and know that I have coped and completed the task just as well as a man would have done it."

I especially love the part in the much publicised propaganda letter to her family, where she talks about bringing home gifts from the Iranian people.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

How is Iraqi mass psychosis...

The fault of the American government?

The real problem in Iraq is culturally induced insanity.

-- BAGHDAD -- Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in Tal Afar on Tuesday went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents in the northwestern town Wednesday, killing as many as 60 people, officials said.

The hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the victims were men between the ages of 15 and 60, and they were killed with a shot to the back of the head.

Let's face it... this isn't an isolated incident. These people slaughter each other, every day, more casually than you or I wash our cars.

More importantly, they see it as a good thing. And that, by itself, is the very definition of sociopath.

If Islam is truly the "Religion of Peace"... where is the condemnation for all this senseless slaughter. The problem is, Islam is an integral part of all this violence.

One religious faction in Iraq just happens to believe its beads are holier than the other.

And they're willing to kill, to prove it.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, mass psychosis, Religion of Peace

I love these kids...

Don't make me kill them...

**********
UPDATE: Children released unharmed

-- MANILA -- A man who took a busload of children and teachers hostage from his day care center in Manila Wednesday freed them after a 10-hour standoff that he used to denounce corruption and demand better lives for poor children.

Ducat and an unidentified second gunman taped a handwritten sheet of paper to the windshield, saying they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an Uzi assault rifle and a .45 caliber pistol.

Now take away all his grenades and lock this crazy fucker up.

**********

-- MANILA -- Gunmen hijacked a busload of day-care students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children.

The hostage-takers scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the windshield of the bus, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, officer Mark Andal said.

They said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care centre in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident appeared to have begun.

“I love these kids; that's why I am here,” one of the hostage-takers, identifying himself as Jun Ducat, told DZMM radio by cellphone.

What is it about hot, third world countries that makes so many people so crazy?

Technorati Tags: Manila, hostage situation, tough love

Relax Mahmoud, we're just practicing...

To squash you like a grape.

**********
UPDATE: Iran just shit its drawers

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki discounted the possibility of an escalation in the crisis, suggesting the British vessels may have made a mistake.

“This is a violation that just happened. It could be natural. They did not resist,” he said.

Manouchehr Mottaki had a bad dream last night about being chased all the way to paradise by a snarling pack of cruise missiles.

Hey Manny, you want terror, we'll show you terror.

**********

Of course this exercise is totally co-incidental.

Understandably though, if having two of the world's most powerful aircraft carriers and 10,000 plus men on hair-trigger alert just off-shore is making anybody nervous... maybe they could stop behaving like chimpanzees on crack and pay some attention to international law.

If that happened, I can just about guarantee it would all go away.

The US Navy has begun its most extensive manoeuvres in the Gulf region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but denies sabre-rattling aimed at Iran.

Two aircraft carriers, plus their strike groups, have sailed to the region and have begun war games involving as many as 100 US war planes. Each US strike group incorporates an aircraft carrier, a submarine and four or five frigates or destroyers.

The exercises involve more than 10,000 US personnel on warships and aircraft making simulated attacks on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and finding mines, the Associated Press reported.

Even the French were quick to pooh-pooh the notion that this "exercise" had anything to do with Iran's bellicose behaviour.

Heck... who doesn't believe the French?

Also in the Arabian Sea is a French carrier group, led by the Charles de Gaulle, which is flying missions to Afghanistan.

France is part of the European troika that has been pressing Iran to halt uranium enrichment - a plea it has rejected.

However, Lt-Cmdr Bertrand Bonneau, chief of press for the French navy, said the deployment had "nothing at all" to do with exerting pressure on Iran.

There... you feeling better now?

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

No whore like...

Sounds like Slick Willie isn't the only slippery chameleon in this family.

-- “Some days she sounds like a total hawk, and other days she’s saying, ‘I’m against the war and it’s been mismanaged,’ ” said Jonathan Tasini, who ran against Mrs. Clinton for the Senate Democratic nomination last year on an antiwar platform.

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party, selling your soul

The Party of Prohibition

-- "I'm from the government... I'm here to save you." --

Join us as Kate from Small Dead Animals tears Liberal Attorney General Michael Bryant a new asshole.

"This means that the law continues, which means no more pit bulls in Ontario," contends Michael Bryant. "No pit bulls sold, bred or imported into the province of Ontario.

Of course, that's not the whole story...

An Ontario Superior Court Justice has struck down parts of the province's controversial pitbull law.

The court ruled two key parts of the law, including the definition of what a pit bull is, are unconstitutional. And the jurist found using a veterinarian to prove a dog's breed also violates the law.

Kate replies...

However, like gun laws, breed bans do little more than punish the law abiding for the failures of the irresponsible.

For the creative, experiments in cross-breeding will always be two steps ahead of any legislative attempt to define "dangerous" on the basis of size, appearance or registry.

Give me an Australian Cattle dog, an Akita and a Silky Terrier, and I'll make you a 25 pound wolverine that answers to "Fido".

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Michael Bryant, no soup for you

"We'll shut down the whole town"

Say Mohawks.

Yeah, yeah... "We're all shocked", reply law-abiding Ontarians.

Since Thursday, Mohawk protesters have occupied a quarry near Deseronto owned by Thurlow Aggregates.

The demonstrators have said they will stay until the quarry's licence is revoked and, if it isn't, the protest will expand to the town and surrounding roads.

Thank you very much, Mr. McGuinty.

BIG PICTURE: Who's in charge here?

RELATED: Let's play Kashechewan Roulette

First, you take $500-million dollars...

-- OTTAWA -- A beach on James Bay, a paint ball park, a ski hill, a swimming pool, a bowling alley, a hotel, a radio station and a movie theatre.

These are just some of the amenities the residents of the northern Cree community of Kashechewan think the government should provide for them at a new site 30 kilometres up river from the flood-prone existing location.

The community has pegged the cost of the move at nearly $500-million -- and that was before the extras listed above were added to the price tag.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, criminal, Mohawk

Chinese buying out Chrysler?

Well, if they can take over MG Rover, it's probably not beyond the realm of possibility...

-- Nanjing Automobile has unveiled the first MG cars to be built in China. It bought the bankrupt UK firm MG Rover for £53m ($104m) in 2005.

Nanjing Auto acquired MG Rover's assembly lines and engine technology. It plans to set up an assembly line in Oklahoma next year to supply the US market.

Technorati Tags: China, MG Rover, capitalism

Dalton McGuinty was betting...

You wouldn't find out.

Ontario government officials initially became aware of questions about retailers winning a disproportionate share of jackpots six months before the scandal at its lottery corporation became public last October.

"OLG has turned a blind eye to crime for many years," Mr. Marin said at a news conference. His probe concluded that about $15-million in lottery winnings was paid to "internal fraudsters."

UPDATE: They're called fiberals...

For a very good reason.

On Monday, following a damning report by the provincial Ombudsman, Mr. Caplan said he only learned of a disturbingly high number of wins by lottery "insiders" about 10 days before a televised news investigation into the matter was broadcast in late October.

It emerged yesterday, however, that Mr. Caplan's office fielded a request for information about insider wins six months before the broadcast.

RELATED: With political advisers like this...

Who needs enemies?

Top Liberal political advisers plotted damage control in the wake of a startling TV broadcast exposing an insider win scandal at the Ontario Lottery Corp., according to documents obtained by Sun Media.

Warren Kinsella, Jim Warren and others met four days after the Oct. 25, 2006, Fifth Estate program which revealed the story of Bob Edmonds, a 78-year-old lottery customer and cancer survivor who was ripped off of his $250,000 prize by a lottery ticket retailer, the documents show.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, criminal, fraud

Quebec: Too many analysts...

Spoil the broth...

Let's face it... this particular contest wasn't about anyone's lofty statements of vision or purpose.

-- It was Mr. Dumont's campaign against "reasonable accommodation" that garnered the most attention, and dominated the headlines throughout the five-week campaign.

The question of whether sugar shacks should bake beans without pork to satisfy Muslim and Jewish customers generated more public debate than provincial debt, the healthcare system and cultural affairs combined.

It was a whole lot of people coming together and saying, "Enough already, this is Canada."

This is my home and it works just fine the way it is, thank you very much.

UPDATE: PQ's last gasp

Dumont on the weekend shut the door "completely" on the idea of a coalition with Andre Boisclair and the Parti Québécois.

"Mario Dumont and the ADQ as a party believes that Quebec's future is within Canada," he said. "We'll work night and day to ensure that everyone gets along within this federation."

POSTSCRIPT: Oh yeah, there's also this...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's federal Conservative minority government also has an important stake in the outcome.

A victory for federalism, combined with a surge in conservatism in Quebec, could be the launching point for a federal election.

Technorati Tags: Quebec, reasonable accommodation, Action Democratique du Quebec

Italian Prime Minister...

Facing defeat on Afghanistan vote.

The Italians, much like the French, don't have an particularly illustrious record of military achievement recently. They have a chance to polish that particular apple, but it looks as though the vote will be a squeaker.

Romano Prodi's fragile government faces another nail-biting vote on the Italian peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

It is barely a month since Mr Prodi lost a Senate vote on foreign policy and another defeat could spell the end for the prime minister.

Let's see if they can do the right thing.

UPDATE: Backing down yet again

-- BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) -- NATO allies raised concern on Tuesday that Italy's handling of a hostage drama in Afghanistan could spark copy-cat incidents and some called for a pact banning deals with hostage-takers.

The United States and Britain had already denounced Italy's decision to release five Taliban last week in exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been held hostage by the insurgent group in Afghanistan.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Italy, Romano Prodi

C'mon Drew... don't be shy

Just spit it out...

-- So did they use this incredible technology to go do something useful, like find bin Laden? Fuck no. They used it to get some killer animal snuff porn just for me.

You're well aware of the douchebags at PETA, the People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals. You know who's not for the ethical treatment of animals?

ANIMALS. They fucking want each other dead.

Technorati Tags: Big Daddy Drew, PETA, cold, hard reality

Just got raped at the gas pump?

Well, you can thank an Iranian.

I guess this is sort of a tutorial on supply and demand -- operating on the premise that there's an increased probability that someone, somewhere... might be tempted to turn Tehran into the world's biggest ashtray.

Oil prices rose to their highest level this year on Monday amid fears that tensions over Iran’s detention of 15 British naval personnel and Tehran’s nuclear programme could escalate into a wider confrontation.

The benchmark US crude future price gained 66 cents to $62.94 – a rise of 13.5 per cent over the past week. Analysts said the price could reach $70 later this year.

On the other hand... in the wake of a cataclysmic event, the rest of the hyenas might prove to be a lot easier to deal with.

To-may-to, to-mah-to.

UPDATE: 27 Mar - No big surprise...

In after-hours trading, U.S. crude oil futures Tuesday spiked more than $5 (U.S.) per barrel to briefly top $68 (U.S.) – the highest mark since last September – after rumours surfaced of military action over Iran's seizure of 15 British marines and sailors.

After the initial surge, prices settled back to $64.50 a barrel, up $1.59 from Monday's close.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Career Day... Waziristan style

I've heard of aggressive recruiting at school job fairs, but this one takes the cake...

A Pakistani policeman and an Islamic militant leader have been killed in a shoot-out at a private school in the north-western town of Tank, police say.

Another militant was said to have been arrested, while a third was wounded in the clash at the Oxford Public School.

Police say firing broke out after the militant leader, Ehsan Barqi, threw a grenade at them when they tried to stop him addressing students at the college.

Most folks have heard of "Freedom 55."

I guess these guys, just had to show off their centrepiece retirement plan... "Virgins 72".

Technorati Tags: Waziristan, suicide bombers, Taliban

Does saying, "It's a rumour..."

Get you off the hook?

Now I'd be the last person in this country to defend celebrity life partner and uber-pinko Member of Parliament Olivia Chow from the slings and arrows of outrageous bloggers... but isn't self-celebrated lawyer and new media consultant Jason Cherniak pushing the envelope of civility and indeed legality, with his unsourced, so-called rumour?

Says Cherniak...

The rumour around TO (Let me be very clear; I am not suggesting that the rumour is true. I am only stating that it is out there.) is that Olivia Chow won because NDP supporters from across the city voted early and often at different polling stations in Trinity-Spadina.

I guess the disclaimer is his inner-lawyer talking.

Regardless, I'd like to see Jason "man-up" and tell us who, besides himself, is spreading, without a shred of evidence to prove it, this malicious rumour.

UPDATE: Civitatensis finds more "weenies" at the roast

The rumour around the internet (Let me be very clear; I am not suggesting that the rumour is true. I am only stating that it is out there.) is that Jason Cherniak sexually harrassed a female member of the Liberal Party by threatening to ruin her reputation after she refused to go out on a date with him.

HOLY SHIT: It's officially out of control

cycles2k Says:
March 25th, 2007 at 3:57 pm

There is a rumour that McClelland has a secret crush on Cherniak and that is why he cannot stop talking about him. (Let me be very clear; I am not suggesting that the rumour is true. I am only stating that it is out there because I just made it up).

LAST WORD: Cherniak climbs down... sort of

No apology for Olivia Chow, just Trinity-Spadina.

So, to be clear, I am sorry for using Trinity-Spadina as an example in my initial post. However, that does not change the fact that I made the mistake in good faith.

And it's not libel, it's, well... a mistake.

CLARIFICATION: Cherniak's not sorry at all

It's actually the fault of his unnamed high-level sources and the rest of the dumbass blogosphere...

Sorry, but I would not have posted this if I had not heard it from credible people.

Frankly, though, I didn't realize that so many bloggers were so clueless about the rumours out there.

Technorati Tags: Cherniak, myblahg.com, Olivia Chow

Where religion and security collide

I've gotta say, I have a tad more sympathy for a religious sect with a proven history of... pacifism.

Of course, that isn't really the point.

-- HUNTSVILLE, Mo., March 24 (AP) -- The grocer, the butcher, a cabinet maker and several other members of this town’s Mennonite community are planning to move to Arkansas over a Missouri requirement that all drivers be photographed if they want a license.

The Mennonites, a plain-living sect whose members are similar to the Amish but typically more worldly, say the 2004 law conflicts with the Biblical prohibition against the making of “graven images.”

Should the government accommodate an issue like this, that has obvious security ramifications in other parts of the country?

Or are exemptions just a slippery slope?

Technorati Tags: security and religion, Mennonite, profiling

Those uncivilised Albertans

CALGARY — Four bouncers at a Calgary bar were stabbed and one was hit by a vehicle as they tried to break up multiple fights outside the establishment at closing time.

Calgary police say two of the bouncers at Jimmy Dean's Bar had to undergo surgery for their wounds.

The third had minor wounds and the fourth bouncer was protected from injury by a stab-resistant vest.

We've just gotta do something about these cowboys...

Robel Sium, 21, is charged with assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace.

Abdalla Hussein, 19 is charged with dangerous driving, hit and run, driving without insurance, driving without a licence, driving while suspended and failing to stop for police.

Technorati Tags: Alberta, violent offenders, big city blues

Spring Offensive, my ass

They're getting pretty good at sneak attacks that kill and dismember innocent bystanders, but every time these death-donkeys go head to head against actual soldiers... they get their asses handed to them.

You'd think maybe somebody would notice that.

-- KABUL, March 25 (Reuters) -- Afghan and NATO troops killed 12 suspected Islamist insurgents overnight when they tried to attack a military base in a southeastern province on the border with Pakistan, the coalition said on Sunday.

Fighting between the Taliban rebels and troops has escalated with the end of winter in Afghanistan in what is expected to be a crunch year for both sides.

The latest incident took place near Fire Base Tillman in Paktika Province, and the attackers were repulsed with small arms fire, backed by air support and artillery, a statement from the coalition said.

Two coalition and two Afghan soldiers received minor wounds, it added.

Watch for the much vaunted Spring Offensive to revert to more roadside sneak attacks and cowardly suicide bombings.

Because that's who they are.

UPDATE: 27 Mar - Backstabbing cowards

Like I said...

Units from the Gagetown, N.B.-based battle group have been reporting a spike in roadside bombs and random rocket attacks this week in the Zhari, Panjwaii and Maywand districts.

One soldier suffered a badly broken arm and was to be transported to Germany for treatment. The other soldier suffered minor injuries.

Capt. Allen said his soldiers, members of 6 platoon, Hotel company, bounced back quickly from the ordeal. He cited the performance of the two injured soldiers, who didn't report they were hurt until after the attack.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, suicide bombers, Taliban

Iranian quid pro quo...

May blow up in their faces.

As Iran demonstrated so clearly when it seized the American Embassy back in November of 1979, the Iranian regime has absolutely no respect for the rule of law.

The seizure of British sailors this week was obviously retaliation for Iranian operatives previously captured and held by American forces in Iraq.

Up to 50 Iranian "spies" have been captured and imprisoned by British troops in secret operations in southern Iraq in the last four years.

Now Government officials are having to consider setting them free to save the eight sailors - one a woman - and seven Royal Marines held by Iranians.

The revelation came as the sailors were interrogated by the Iranian secret service after reportedly being moved to the capital, Tehran.

UPDATE: Iran raises the stakes

Fifteen British sailors and marines arrested by Iran's Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

This is, of course, the same sort of trash-talk the Iranians are used to spewing every time they turn around.

They have a similar regard for the truth.

The British embassy in Iran said it had sought Sunday's meeting to demand the release of the sailors.

However, reports on Iranian TV said it was Iran's foreign ministry that summoned the ambassador, to receive a protest about British actions.

The Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said the UK had requested a phone call with him later on Sunday.

By this time, even the Iranians are fully aware that if anything does happen to any one of the British captives, Madman Ahmadinejad and his Islamo-nutbag inner circle will be checking out Waziri want-ads for nice, snug ratholes in far off Bin-Laden Acres.

My guess is there's any number of SAS teams all over this thing already.

And Allah knows, those boys play for keeps.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Would you give up toilet paper...

For Al Gore?

Mix one part eco-freak, with one part shameless self-promotion...

-- Isabella Beavan, age 2, staggered around the neo-Modern furniture — the Eames chairs, the brown velvet couch, the Lucite lamps and the steel cafe table upon which dinner was set — her silhouette greatly amplified by her organic cotton diapers in their enormous boiled-wool, snap-front cover.

A visitor avoided the bathroom because she knew she would find no toilet paper there.

Yup, that's all I need to know. I'm out.

Technorati Tags: Y2kyoto, global warming, false prophet

Mohawk blockade up again...

In Deseronto.

So here we go again. Another illegal aboriginal occupation of private property.

Where is Dalton McGuinty on this one?

-- DESERONTO -- Painted school buses and a simmering wood fire now mark the entrance to Thurlow Aggregates on Deseronto Road.

The interior of the property is now a campground for about 50 aboriginal protesters, who worked through the night Thursday to prepare the site to be there for “as long as it takes,” said spokesman Shawn Brant.

The Mohawks are protesting the operation of a gravel pit on lands they say were wrongfully taken from them in 1832.

"Every year, 10,000 trucks of gravel are being shipped out of here," Brant said. "It’s an affront and an indignity to our community."

This whole thing has gotten me thinking. Maybe I can dig up some beef my ancestors had with the Crown 175 years ago.

Maybe I can cash in too.

Technorati Tags: aboriginal occupation, Dalton McGuinty, Deseronto

More CTV bias

It would almost be laughable... if their anti-Harper bias wasn't such a constant, overriding theme at CTV.

I just watched CJOH, the Ottawa CTV affiliate and saw David Akin emphasize how "mean" the Prime Minister was to Stephane Dion this week. It's two grown men in a rough and tumble business... and Akin tries conjuring up an image of a schoolyard bully. It's ludicrous.

Akin then went on to talk about how, during a visit to the grave of his wife's great uncle who died in World War I, the Prime Minister looked like, "as much of a human being", as well... this otherworldly monster, or perhaps an alien... could be.

Their reporting is a joke.

RELATED: Of course, I am immensely cheered at the thought of another ill-considered CTV poll gone bad.

The poll question, "Should Muslim women be required to show their faces while voting?" is currently running at 87 percent yes to 13 percent no.

Make sure you drop by and vote.

Technorati Tags: CTV bias, hijab, political correctness

New York, New York

The recent tragic fire in the Bronx, is shining a light on a previously hidden social issue in the African immigrant community... the prevalence of polygamous marriage.

-- The city’s mourning for the dead — a woman and nine children in two families from Mali — has been followed by a hushed double take at the domestic arrangements described by relatives: Moussa Magassa, the Mali-born American citizen who owned the house and was the father of five children who perished, had two wives in the home, on different floors.

“I know a lady who lives with her husband and another woman in one room, a two-bedroom, with 11 kids,” she said. “I tell her, she has to move — it’s not a life.”

And her own husband? His second wife is 23 now, with three children. And recently, Ms. Kante said, he married a third.

If, as in Canada, the courts are willing to throw out the "one man, one woman" definition of marriage, how on earth can you deal with culturally entrenched polygamy?

Technorati Tags: New York City, Africa, polygamy

Iran wants to get up on the porch...

And play with the big dogs.

-- BASRA, Iraq -- Iranian forces seized 15 British Royal Navy personnel who had searched a merchant ship on Friday, Britain said, triggering a diplomatic crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

They got away with this type of stunt once before.

If Iran has miscalculated this time, they may be headed for the geopolitical vet clinic... to be decisively neutered.
__________________________

Iran backs off UN visit

Iran's president will miss a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Saturday because the US delayed issuing visas, Iranian officials say.

Visas my ass... Ahmadinejad just blinked.

Former Royal Navy Chief Admiral Sir Alan West explains...

So we try to downplay things. Rather then roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were effectively able to be captured and taken away.

If we find this is going to be a standard practice we need to think very carefully about what rules of engagement we want and how we operate. One can't allow as a standard practice nations to capture a nation's servicemen. That is clearly wrong.

**********

UPDATE: British reaction

The incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Western powers fear could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.

British Army Colonel Justin Maciejewski, who is based in Iraq, said most of the violence against UK forces in Basra is being engineered by Iranian elements.

Col Maciejewski said Iran was providing "sophisticated weaponry" to insurgents and "Iranian agents" were paying local men to attack British troops.

RELATED: Saturday vote on sanctions

The top UK diplomat at the UN has said a new Security Council resolution on Iran has been agreed and is expected to go to a vote on Saturday.

The draft resolution proposes a ban on the export of arms from Iran, a call for governments not to make new loans to Iran, travel restrictions on people involved in Tehran's nuclear programme, and a freeze on the assets of key Iranian leaders.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

Lloyd Robertson bleeds from eyes...

On national television.

Taken between March 20 and 21 following Monday's budget address, the Strategic Counsel survey for CTV News and The Globe and Mail asked: How would Canadians vote today?

* 39 per cent said they would vote for a Conservative candidate.
* 31 per cent chose Liberal.

According to the survey, the driving force behind the rising Tory fortunes is that the budget seems to have won over the most important voting block in the country: middle class voters.

UPDATE: New poll also indicates majority

-- OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harpers' Conservatives have surged to 40% in popular opinion and entered majority government territory, a new poll says.

The poll, conducted exclusively by Ipsos-Reid for CanWest News Service and Global Television after the Harper government delivered its new budget, shows the Tories have opened up an 11-point lead nationally over Stéphane Dion's Liberals.

"The big news is they hit the big four-oh," pollster Darrell Bricker said of the Conservatives' numbers. "They've hit the magic number. When you get to 40 [per cent], you can start talking about forming a majority government."

RELATED: Dion acting like a suckie little girl

As the Speaker called an end to Question Period, Dion stood and dramatically threw his ear piece down, stomping off like a child who had been refused his dessert.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Party, Conservative Party, majority government

Ya feelin lucky, punk?

He knew he was in for the fight of his life.

He had tried all his best moves... but his opponent was bigger, dirtier and seemingly oblivious to brute force.

But this time... it was personal.

Personal hygiene.

Promises, promises

Remember, "I won't raise your taxes" and "shutting down all the coal-fired generating plants?"

I wouldn't let Dalton McGuinty walk my dog.

Conservative Leader John Tory lambasted the budget as a spending "buffet" that will leave the province "limping along when it could be running."

"Dalton McGuinty has increased spending by $22.4 billion since he was elected. That's $4,500 for every household in Ontario, but those households don't see the results," Mr. Tory said.

"Despite being awash in cash, Dalton McGuinty continues to push Ontario deeper and deeper into debt."

UPDATE: Leftbot idealogy costly, wasteful

I touched on this very subject last week. Dr. Paul Wong, the surgeon quoted at the end of the article, is the guy who "pimped my gimp."

Knee replacement proposal rejected by government would have saved enough to perform another 276 operations, critic says. "Judging by the minister's rhetoric, it seems to be driven by rigid ideology," Mr. Hudak said

Progressive Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak told the Ontario Legislature yesterday that the savings from the proposal by Don Mills Surgical Unit would have meant another 276 knee operations could be performed at the private Toronto hospital.

Mr. Hudak was responding to stories in The Globe and Mail that revealed how the Ontario government rejected a proposal to do 1,500 knee replacement operations at the private hospital for $5,800 each, which is $1,082 lower than community hospitals are paid per operation.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Ontario budget, liar, liar

Ok, so it COULD be worse.

In Canada, you probably eventually get what you paid for.

Reporters have used green tea to expose China's failing health service, in particular the widespread practice of charging patients for unnecessary drugs and treatment.

The reporters, working for the state-run China News Service, went to 10 hospitals in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, complaining of feeling unwell. When asked for urine samples, they handed over the cold tea.

When the "test results" came back, six of the hospitals diagnosed bladder infections and prescribed drugs.

RELATED: Of course, our system isn't perfect

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

Technorati Tags: health care, China, fraud

What would Jesus smoke?

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a First Amendment case involving a high-school student who was suspended for holding a sign that said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

His provocative slogan turns out to have been little more than a ploy to get on TV.

But what do Christian groups really think about marijuana?

RELATED: Ok, so I have to fess up... I did inhale.

UPDATE: Rethinking the War on Drugs

-- LONDON -- New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.

Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful.

Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying police services.

Technorati Tags: smoking dope, marijuana, older and not wiser

Only a false prophet...

Would be full of fear...

"That’s how a real scientific theory operates. That’s even how a real religion operates.

Only a false religion needs hate mail, threats, courts of inquisition and Hollywood movies to sustain it."

UPDATE: Worshipping at the altar

Just minutes before the former vice-president arrived, Toronto Mayor David Miller walked in through the front door also not addressing the local press.

Inside, the media was not invited with security asking several members to leave with the exception of The Toronto Star, which is the sponsor of the event.

In other words, it's a private club of like-minded green thinkers.

Also inside is Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, who a press secretary said will address the media at 1 p.m.

Technorati Tags: Y2kyoto, global warming, false prophet

Blog Exposes Creator of Ad...

Portraying Clinton as Big Brother.

-- A political mystery was solved yesterday with the unmasking of the maker of a much-discussed Internet advertisement that portrayed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as Big Brother.

The creator, it turned out, worked for consultants to Senator Barack Obama, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, dirty pool

It's what the French are famous for...

Surrendering.

-- PARIS: -- The French government dismissed a top regional education official Wednesday for vigorously opposing a new Muslim school and publicly complaining about pressure from Paris to stop obstructing its opening.

The school project aroused some suspicion because its founders belong to the Union of French Islamic Organizations, a national body with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

RELATED: Do Québécois have surrender gene?

Quebec's electoral law requires that voters produce an ID card with picture to confirm who they are before they are handed a ballot.

However, electoral workers have been told in training sessions that Muslim women who refuse to show their faces can still go ahead and vote.

QUEBEC UPDATE: Surrendering the surrender

Marcel Blanchet, the province's chief returning officer, has reversed an earlier decision and has now concluded Muslim women must remove their face coverings, or niqabs, when they vote.

Blanchet's initial decision prompted non-Muslim citizens to threaten they would show up at polling stations wearing masks.

Technorati Tags: France, cheese eating, surrender monkeys

They're not hookers... they're sex workers

And they're looking for a safe, uh... injection site.

-- The lobbyists said their legal challenges to the Ontario court will argue that laws against bawdy houses, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating for the purposes of prostitution are "depriving sex workers of their right to liberty and security in a manner that is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice."

Technorati Tags: hooker heaven, prostitution, wages of sin

Rattus Liberalis is once again...

Eating its own young.


THE RATTUS FILES

Rattus Provincialis
__________

Rattus Ignatieff
__________

Rattus Rae

Libs versus Conservatives

Here's an illustration of the difference in philosophy between the left and the right.

Liberals like London, England's "Red Ken" Livingstone are all about righting the past...

Mayor Ken Livingstone has formally apologised for London's role in the slave trade.

See, if you simply say, "I'm sorry" -- POOF!!! -- all will now be magically right in the world. Best of all, it doesn't cost anything and requires no actual labour. It's also interesting how selective the loony left is, when it comes to apologies. I don't see Ken working on the Queen to apologise for the Scottish "Highland Clearances."

Conservatives, on the other hand, try to focus more on current crimes against humanity like the present day slavery and oppression in the Middle East.

On the wealthy streets of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, thousands of young child-beggars, under the auspices of ruthless gangmasters, are simply trying to survive.

And, as we see in Afghanistan, are continuing to pay that heavy toll.

Just something to think about.

Technorati Tags: Liberals, Conservatives, propaganda

The real Islamobomb threat

Increasing protests against Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, are setting off alarm bells in high places.

If Musharaff, as western friendly a leader as exists in the Islamic world, falls from power, there will be a sudden, dramatic shift in the nuclear balance of power.

-- LAHORE, Pakistan -- Angry lawyers scuffled with police as protests erupted across Pakistan Wednesday over the removal of the nation's top judge, intensifying a crisis that threatens President General Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.

The protests and stinging criticism in Pakistan's media have left Gen. Musharraf facing the biggest political crisis since he seized power in a 1999 coup.

And this isn't just the usual raggedy-ass socialist rabble taking to the streets...

On Wednesday, about 3,000 lawyers rallied in the eastern city of Lahore, chanting anti-government slogans. The demonstrators staged a sit-in at a downtown traffic intersection near the Punjab provincial legislature.

When you consider all this in tandem, with the fact that A.Q. Khan, Pakistan's foremost atomic scientist, is some sort of freebooting nuclear pirate, it's a little unsettling, to say the least.

Pyongyang has benefited from undercover deals involving Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear weapons chief and so-called father of the Pakistan bomb...

So, you can bet that the "first world" nations will be keeping a weather eye on the situation in Pakistan.

It could turn out to be explosive, to say the least.

UPDATE: 22 Mar 2007 - Another Pakistani connection

-- LONDON -- British counter-terrorist police said Thursday they arrested three suspects in the deadly suicide bomb attacks on the London transit system in 2005. Two of the men were picked up just before boarding a plane to Pakistan.

Technorati Tags: Pakistan, nuclear bomb, Pervez Musharraf

Russian turnaround on Nukes

Well... they sure waited long enough to speak up.

-- PARIS, March 19 -- Russia has informed Iran that it will withhold nuclear fuel for Iran’s nearly completed Bushehr power plant unless Iran suspends its uranium enrichment as demanded by the United Nations Security Council, European, American and Iranian officials say.

A senior European official said: “We consider this a very important decision by the Russians.

"Fundamentally, the Russians don’t want a nuclear Iran."

UPDATE: The Persian Empire Strikes Back

Iran dares UN to halt their nuclear activities

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top leader warns his country will pursue nuclear activities outside international regulations if the UN Security Council insists it stop uranium enrichment.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Nuclear bomb, brinksmanship

The Kurds get it right

**********
UPDATE: Happy New Year

The BBC's Jim Muir, in northern Iraq, says Iraqi Kurds have spoken of how, during the rule of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, they were banned from celebrating Nowruz.

Now, he says, the community enjoys a stability and relative security that is very rare in the rest of the country.

**********

The mass psychosis that apparently compels so many Iraqis to rain death and destruction on their countrymen, is eerily absent in the Kurdish part of the country.

Nation-building is a hard and violent slog in the center and south of Iraq, and it might not ever work out. But in Kurdistan, in the north, it already is a reality.

The Kurds are building a civil society while their fellow Sunni and Shia countrymen to the south slaughter each other indiscriminately.

The Hilton hotel chain is building a massive full-service tourist resort that will take five years to construct.

It may seem dumb to build a tourist resort in Iraq of all places, but this is Erbil Province, not Anbar Province – there is no war, no insurgency, and no terrorism here whatsoever.

It's the untold story of Iraq.

h/t -- SDA --

UPDATE: Meanwhile, back at the ranch

The internecine slaughter continues...

Nearly 50 people have been killed in two days of fighting between the al-Qaeda-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen, Pakistani government officials said today.

A battle between foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, and ethnic Pashtun tribesmen erupted in the remote area near the Afghan border on March 6th.

The latest fighting broke out yesterday in Shin Warsak village, seven kilometres (four miles) west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan region. Thirty-five Uzbek militants and 12 tribal combatants were killed, a government official said.

I sure don't get this "Will of Allah" thing.

Technorati Tags: Kurdistan, Iraq, mass psychosis

Chalk up another holy act...

For the Religion of Peace.

-- An Italian journalist freed after being kidnapped by the Taleban in Afghanistan says he saw his captors cut off the head of one of two Afghans with him.

What sort of person can cut the head off another human being?

Well, that'd be our old friend Mullah Dadullah.

One Taleban leader, military commander Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location that Mr Mastrogiacomo had been freed after Afghan authorities released five senior Taliban officials, including his own brother.

I hope your god is proud of you.

RELATED: Hey, before you get all judgemental

Sometimes they only cut off their noses and ears.

UPDATE: Is this the will of Allah?

A US military official has said children have been used in a bomb attack in Iraq, raising fears that insurgents are using a new tactic.

Gen Barbero said there had been also two adults in the car. They parked it near a market, abandoned it with the children inside and apparently detonated it. The two children died, along with three civilians in the vicinity, officials said.

Technorati Tags: Religion of indiscrimate slaughter, Afghanistan, mass psychosis

The Liberal scale of justice

**********
UPDATE: -- Dalton weasels out again --

When asked whether the compensation was an adequate reflection of what Caledonia residents have endured during the tense occupation, Mr. McGuinty suggested Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have to answer to that.

**********

Here's the compensation package for the people who have endured a year long siege by Dalton McGuinty's aboriginal friends and, as a bonus, seen their property values cut in half...

-- The Ontario government announced Monday it would offer a total of $430,000 in compensation to 135 households in the town south of Hamilton, ranging from a maximum of $6,000 for those closest to the site of a disputed housing development to $2,000 to those living across the street.

Personally, I think I'd rather have the Political Bagman Special offered to a former Liberal Cabinet Minister (think HRDC boondoggle) to fix the problem...

Jane Stewart, the person making $1,300 per day...

But don't worry... I think Dalton capped her salary at $300,000.00.

And look what we got for our money so far.

The occupation has cost Ontario more than $46-million to compensate Caledonia businesses, purchase the disputed land and pay for policing the standoff, which alone cost more than $22-million so far.

UPDATE: -- An actual answer --

"I think it's pathetic," Conservative Leader John Tory said outside the legislature.

"It nowhere comes close to recognizing the diminished property values these people have seen. It nowhere comes close to recognizing . . . the suffering they've gone through, the disruption to their lives.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Caledonia, Political Bagman Special

Enviro-weenies should consider...

"The Law of Unintended Consequences."

Send all your money to David Suzuki... he's not afraid to push the button.

-- That scenario in “The King, the Mice and the Cheese,” by Nancy and Eric Gurney, should give scientists pause before taking extreme measures to mess with Mother Nature, says Dr. Weaver of the University of Victoria.

Even proponents of geoengineering research are wary.

“We are playing with fire here,” Dr. Keith said. “Those of us suggesting we do something are suggesting it with real nervousness.”

Technorati Tags: Y2kyoto, global warming, hubris

It's not curiosity that kills the cat...

**********

Welcome Canadian Cynic readers.

CC has spent the last 48 hours poring over my blog to come up with what he feels is an equivalent sin... to his telling Wanda Watkins, the mother of a young soldier killed in Afghanistan... "Fuck You and Your Grief."

Liberal Catnip, in case you've forgotten, is the woman who teamed up with Warren Kinsella to crown the Ten Smartest Women in the Canadian Blogosphere a while back.

Note that Libnip made sure to include herself on the short-list.

Note also that Libnip had one other rule for her contest. No one was to even mention Kate McMillan from SDA... you know... the woman who who took the "Best Canadian Weblog of 2006"... with more votes than all the nominees combined.

Libnip is a dope and I said so. I say it again here.

The fact that she has health issues doesn't get her a pass for her dopiness... and being at home on disability does, in fact, account for the time and energy she devotes to all her dopey crusades.

And that's why I mentioned it.

I trust no one is missing the irony, of Canadian Cynic, a man who refers to women as "closed-minded, worthless cunts"... rearing up on his hind legs and bleating about poor, defenseless Liberal Catnip.

Nice try CC... no sale.

ps... thanks for all the traffic, you and your number one fartcatcher "red tory" have been driving my way.

it's not an audience i normally get.

**********

OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST CONTINUES BELOW...

It's stupidity.

I'm always amazed at how many otherwise intelligent people believe their email is somehow a "privileged communication", akin to doctor/ patient or lawyer/ client confidentiality.

In fact, if you send an email from your place of employment, on their computer and using their internet pipe, the email is the property of... SURPRISE!!! -- your employer.

A good rule of thumb here is... never put anything in an email you wouldn't be prepared to stand up and shout at a public meeting.

So that's what makes this meltdown by Liberal Catnip so hilarious.

In that ProgBlogs diary, I discovered that you posted your extremely condensed versions of private (yes, that's right Jason - PRIVATE) e-mail conversations I and others had with you.

Who the fuck gave you permission to post the content of private e-mail discussions?

Hoooweee, missee... you kiss your kids with that mouth?

Liberal Catnip is also the undisputed master of "unintentional irony."

And, oh my goodness, woe is her.

While I can see being pissed at Cherniak, I don't get why she has to publicly trash her own mother...

Stop playing the fucking martyr and get over yourself. Seriously. I know all about martyrs. You should meet my mother. She has the back of her hand permanently attached to her forehead in the "woe is me" position.

Puts a whole new spin on the words "discretion" and "loyalty."

See Libnip... maybe Cherniak isn't the problem here. You may also want to consider the possibility that you aren't the final arbiter of political discourse on the leftbot landscape.

Perhaps you should also think about staying in the shallow end a tad longer, working on, say... your Top Ten List of the Smartest Canadian Female Bloggers.

Instead of staging another ill-considered public meltdown.

UPDATE: Liberal Catnip's Bad Day...continued

Although Libnip ostensibly supports free speech and indeed fires a warning shot across other blogs bows'...

Finally, as I said before, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the (blogging and political) kitchen and stop blaming the rest of us who are just as entitled to having opinions as you are.

She's a little hypocritical, or perhaps confused about what constitutes freedom of speech...

[comment deleted...go pimp your wingnut blog elsewhere. -catnip]
neo | 03.19.07 - 11:53 am | #

Which, of course, simply reinforces my point.

LAST WORD: Who is Libnip?

"a mid-40s woman on permanent disability living well below the poverty line"

I guess that explains having ample time to cut and paste lengthy, interminable leftbot screeds... in between regularly spaced meltdowns about personal injustice.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Catnip, privacy issues, hubris

Old hippies never die...

They just smell that way.

It's not about whether you actually accomplish anything... you just have to spout the Gore-Suzuki party line.

-- WOODSTOCK, N.Y., March 14 -- Forget for a second the question of whether such a goal is even feasible.

In this crunchy town of art galleries and funky shops, where people get around on colorful bikes and storefronts post signs like “hippies always welcome,” proponents say that if anyplace can reduce its carbon emissions to zero, Woodstock will be it.

Of course, you have to read through all kinds of warm, fuzzy liberal claptrap, before you get to...

Liz Simonson, a Town Board member said, “The resolution may largely be symbolic, but symbolism has a lot of value.”

Especially to burnt-out relics of the sixties.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, David Suzuki, mass psychosis

Ultimate "fire & forget" weapon

I just wanna see the recruiting video for Mullah Dadullah's explosive new Islamotard Corps.

Top Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah told the BBC that 1,800 suicide bombers were ready to go into action.

Wanted: for very temporary, light duties... no education required. Must be willing to take direction.

No medical or dental, but if accepted... you go straight to the top of the org chart.

I also love the part where he touches on (shsssh... no drug money here, folks) finances...

He said the militants had been able to procure sophisticated heavy weapons with the additional cash they had received.

But the Taleban commander refused to answer questions about where the extra money was coming from.

Then immediately trashes the warlord down the street...

"Gulbuddin Hekmatyar cannot be anybody's ally... he will be the ally of anyone who gives him money," the Taleban commander said.

Religion of Peace -- exporting heroin -- exploding people.

It's all good.

RELATED: If you're handing out blame...

Don't forget evil Canada.

"We’ve used words like brainwashing and indoctrination and they’ve lost their emphasis," she said. Now she uses the word seduction.

Technorati Tags: Religion of indiscrimate slaughter, Afghanistan, mass psychosis

The Frankenfuture

It's only a matter of time.

But if machines can read your mind when you want them to, they can also read it when you don't. And your will isn't necessarily the one they obey.

Already, scans have been used to identify brain signatures of disgust, drug cravings, unconscious racism, and suppressed sexual arousal, not to mention psychopathy and propensity to kill.

Technorati Tags: mind reading, the future is now, computer science

Sacrificing your children...

For Allah.

Can somebody explain to me, how a religion that so often tries to associate itself with the word... "peace" -- can countenance the increasing toll, not on enemy combatants... but on it's own children.

If it's true, as per Islamic precepts, that nothing happens that isn't the will of Allah... it seems to me that Allah is a particularly bloodthirsty and uncaring deity.

The blast killed a 15-year-old boy at the scene and a three-year-old girl died of her injuries after being flown by helicopter to the Canadian-led military hospital at Kandahar Airfield.

Two other civilians — an adult and a child — are in the hospital in serious condition.

This suicide attack on a Canadian convoy, and indeed, most of the random and cowardly attacks on our soldiers, are sprung with total disregard for whomever might be loitering in the area.

I just can't fathom how Taliban Jack thinks he might be able to negotiate with the Afghan equivalent of the Manson family.

And I can't imagine sacrificing, for whatever lofty reason, anybody's children... never mind my own.

UPDATE: Islamofascists using chemical weapons

-- BAGHDAD -- Multiple suicide bombings struck the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, and about 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops were treated for exposure to chlorine gas, the military said Saturday.

Technorati Tags: Religion of indiscrimate slaughter, Afghanistan, psychosis

How many black, handicapped, vegetarian lesbians...

Does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

The answer is "ONE" and by the way... it's not funny.

Unlike the infiltrators' report from the Canadian Peace Alliance conference.

"Resist the United Nations' nefarious plans to prevent the Iranian theocracy's attempts to develop weapons-grade uranium."

"Destroy Israel."

"Give Haiti back to the street gangs of Port-aux-Prince."

"Demand that the Canadian government pay for public meetings where we can shout our slogans."

-- ht -- Kathy Shaidle

RELATED: Kate ices the cake

Technorati Tags: political correctness, nanny state, Canadian Peace Alliance

Just sit there and wait...

For a year.

A couple of years ago, my knee started to lock up on me. It turned out to be a torn cartilage, which required arthroscopic surgery. The operation was performed in what seemed to be an office building in Don Mills, a suburb of Toronto.

That's right... not a hospital.

When you walked, or like myself, limped into this place, it wasn't immediately evident that it was a medical facility. Turns out they had their surgical suites down the hall.

That's why this particular piece caught my attention.

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said the government will not consider contracting out knee-replacement operations to a private Toronto hospital.

Now I don't know if this is the same outfit I went to... but that's precisely the point.

The moneyed would not be able to jump the queue, and patients wouldn't notice any difference from the public hospital system, Brenda Rasmussen, chief executive officer of Alegro Health Corp., parent of Don Mills Surgical, has said.

It was totally transparent to me, as a patient.

If anything, this clinic was clearly a much more tightly run operation than any hospital I had ever been to. There was no sitting around for hours in a big room with very sick people and endless red tape.

More importantly, they fixed my knee.

Quickly. Completely.

The Ontario Health Minister is simply playing political games here, with, for the most part, elderly people's lives... that is to say your parents -- and some day... you.

If this company can offer faster and comparably effective surgery for joint replacements... and get some of these unfortunates back out into society in less than a year, he has an obligation to look into it.

Instead of playing games.

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Equitable suffering is the goal of Canada's 'health care' system..."

UPDATE: More Smitherman nonsense

Instead of providing a sufficiency of doctors, the latest Liberal solution is to make up a job description and fill the positions with sorta-doctors.

What's next... medical cross training for the janitorial staff?

-- TORONTO -- The province is creating two new health care jobs to reduce surgical wait times caused by shortage of anesthesiologists, Health Minister George Smitherman said in a release Saturday.

The two new roles of anesthesia assistants and nurse practitioners-anesthesia, a role open to registered nurses who pursue this specialized degree, will be teamed with a lead anesthesiologist to make up the anesthesia care teams.

Yeah... you first Georgie.

Technorati Tags: baby boomers, Liberal Party, no whore like an old whore

Air ye daft, laddie?

What does a bottle of water cost these days... a buck, maybe two?

I haven't the slightest idea... because the thought of buying bottled water... not to mention water bottled by some company, from some place you've never even been... rather than the free stuff that comes out of your own faucets, strikes me as utterly moronic.

I try to imagine explaining this to my long dead Scottish grandfather and, well... I just can't find any words that make it sound like a reasonable proposition.

It's also why I can't imagine anyone is actually surprised by this...

-- TORONTO -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume Ark Land brand Naturally Carbonated Mineral Water because it may contain arsenic.

The water was produced by Arzni Source for Klukva Pure Inc. of Toronto, which imported the water from Armenia.

So what's the deal here?

Someone must know.

RELATED: It's worse than I thought

You know the pretentious asshole at your sister's wedding -- the guy who bored everyone to tears with his never-ending, melodic tribute to the seven dollar bottle of plonk at the dinner table?

Well, apparently there's someone even more obnoxious than that guy...

"When tasting water the most important factor in its overall integrated sensation we call flavor is the mouthfeel generated by the size, amount and distribution of the bubbles or the absence of it."

LAST WORD: More water skullduggery

-- SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The famed "natural mineral water" baths at Saratoga Spa State Park have been diluted with regular tap water for the last two decades, state officials confirmed yesterday.

Technorati Tags: bottled water, scam, arsenic

Slap-Happy Iran...

Finally called to account.

Is being comfortable with explosives a pre-requisite to seeking political office in Iran?

-- Interpol says it is planning to seek the arrest of six Iranian former officials whom Argentina blames for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre.

But it has decided to turn down arrest requests for three others named by Argentina, including former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

This may go some way to explaining why Iranians can accept the insane antics of Madman Ahmadinejad.

As for that other thing...

Technorati Tags: Iran, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Madman Ahmadinejad

The sun, the moon and sex coupons

There's been a lot of argle-bargle in the news lately, about the baby-boomers being on the cusp or retiring. Maybe Steffi can add this to his loony leftbot list of promises and leverage this demographic.

-- A brothel in Germany hopes to capitalize on the growing number of pensioners by offering them a 50% discount for sex between noon and 5 p.m.

"All clients need to do is show us some proof of age," a spokesman for the brothel said.

Having failed miserably at making a wedge issue out of the environment -- and unbelievably... trying lately to present himself as "tough on crime", Stephane Dion is likely ready to reach for the stars.

It's not like he can make it worse.

UPDATE: Except that... he probably can

The Conservatives' bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes will return to the House from the justice committee on Monday before the budget is tabled.

The stumbling block has been the opposition of the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois.

Technorati Tags: baby boomers, party of decriminalisation, no whore like an old whore

Your Charter of Rights...

Is there any problem it can't fix?

-- OTTAWA (CP) -- Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the longstanding legal ban on reporting early vote results on federal election nights in regions of the country where the polls are still open.

In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the court ruled the ban can be justified under the Charter of Rights.

Technorati Tags: Charter of Rights, Supreme Court of Canada, Elections Canada

If Musharraf goes down...

Iranian nuclear weapons will be the least of our worries.

This is an election year in Pakistan... and there are disturbing new signs of fundamentalist insurrection.

In Islamabad, foreign diplomats were shocked when the government gave in to some 3,000 Kalashnikov-wielding militant women, who refused to evacuate a religious school that had been set for demolition because it had been built illegally.

In a country where women are largely regarded as chattel, you just know some fundamentalist group had to engineer this clever stunt.

President Pervez Musharraf, while hardly the poster boy for emerging democracy in that part of the world, is the only thing keeping the Islamofascist hand off Pakistan's nuclear button.

Without Musharraf... Pakistan will start spinning like a top.

And only Allah knows what happens then.

RELATED: -- Not a good sign...

Upsetting people at both ends of the political spectrum simultaneously, may not be the smartest move Musharraf's ever made...

A political and legal maelstrom has erupted after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf unceremoniously suspended the country's top judge in a step that lawyers and rights activists have branded an assault on the independence of the judiciary.

Last week's suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who did not shy away from taking on cases that challenged the Government, threatens to spiral into a constitutional crisis, lawyers and analysts warn.

Technorati Tags: Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, nuclear weapons

Take one terrorist... one tree

And a short length of rope.

"I was responsible for the 9/11 Operation, from A to Z," he said according to the transcript of a Saturday hearing that took place as the Guantanamo military prison camp.

The BBC continued, "he also reportedly confessed to planning 29 acts of terrorism, including plans to attack Big Ben and Heathrow airport in London."

Tomorrow isn't soon enough.

UPDATE: Partying with the Religion of Peace

-- KARACHI -- Horrifying new details of how Daniel Pearl, the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter, met his death have emerged from the interrogation of new suspects by Pakistani police.

One of those present told police: "When they were slaughtering him in front of me, I thought it was a bad dream.

I had seen the cutting of a goat or chicken many times, but had never seen a human being slaughtered in front of me."

Technorati Tags: 9/11, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

A man's home...

Is still his castle... in Washington D.C. anyway.

-- Unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise, it looks as though the District of Columbia's 31-year-old gun ban is history.

In a landmark opinion Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a lower federal court on all counts and concluded that "the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms."

The case, Parker v. District of Columbia, was brought by six D.C. residents who want to possess functional firearms within their homes for self-defense. Their lawsuit was not about machine guns and assault weapons.

They didn't ask for the right to carry guns outside their houses. Parker was about ordinary handguns, in the owner's private residence.

Technorati Tags: Second Amendment, nanny state, Oh, oh Canada

It's culture, not skin colour...

That matters.

There's a huge kerfuffle out there, about the new Canadian census data.

**********
UPDATE: More Pavilions At Folkfest...

Will automatically create racial harmony... goes the LibFib.

**********

It doesn't have to be, if you'll excuse the pun, so black and white.

-- “Welcome to Harlem,” Ms. Higginsen told Mr. West and his wife, Mack, as the crowd cheered. “Meet your DNA cousins,” Ms. Higginsen yelled to her relatives.

“If it’s my story, it’s many people’s story too,” Ms. Higginsen said.

"It’s the real story of America. People are finally asking: ‘Whose blood is running through our veins? Who are we?"

Trouble is, the people who don't get it, are, for the most part, the extremely parochial immigrants who cluster in the Chinatowns, Greektowns and ghettos like the Jane-Finch corridor... the ethnic enclaves.

It's this isolation that encourages the tribal outlook. And that tribal outlook too often spawns trouble.

Out in the wider world, the continued, increasing exposure to newcomers and the idea of all men being equal has paved the way for a diverse North America.

As Missouri cattle rancher Marion West announced to his newfound Harlem cousins...

“I’ve been breeding cattle all my life, and I’ll tell you, cross-breeding is better,” he said. “You mate the black angus with the other breeds, and you have better, healthier offspring.”

Canada with it's government sanctioned spoonfeeding of multi-culturalism, emphasising everybody's differences... is doing no-one any favours.

And we're gonna pay for that one day soon.

RELATED: -- The Billion Loogie Boogie...

Speaking of cultural dissonance... check out China's massive pre-Olympics social-engineering project...

In her view, the worst habits of Beijing's residents will be extremely difficult to change unless they are publicly shamed by others. Spitting is one of the nastiest examples.

Don't miss the comments that accompany the article.

Technorati Tags: political correctness, nanny state, Oh, oh Canada

A deal with death

Screw the rest of the world... this is all about us.

-- JAKARTA -- Indonesia will not share H5N1 avian flu samples with the World Health Organization without a legally binding agreement promising the virus won't be used to develop commercial vaccines, the country's health minister said Tuesday.

Siti Fadilah Supari, digging in her heels in a weeks-long standoff with the global health agency, said a letter of guarantee from WHO Director General Margaret Chan late last month was not sufficient for Indonesia.

RELATED: Hmmm... that sounds so familiar.

-- JAKARTA, Indonesia, 19 Oct. 2005 -- Indonesian officials covered up and then neglected a spreading bird flu epidemic for two years until it began to sicken humans this summer, posing a grave threat to people well beyond the country's borders, according to Indonesian and international health experts.

So, unless I'm misreading this -- Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country -- whose adherents are always yammering on about peace and the love of fellow human beings... is now holding the rest of the world's feet to the fire, on a cure for a disease that could kill hundreds of millions of people.

I don't get it.

Technorati Tags: bird flu, H5N1, religion of peace

Munchkins of the world... arise!

And burn Hollywood to the ground.

-- TEHRAN, Iran -- The hit American movie "300'' has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran.

"The film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people,'' Ayende-No said in its article Tuesday.

I'm thinking, with Madman Ahmadinejad driving the nuclear train straight towards Paradise, it isn't ancient Persian culture they should be worried about.

If I was an Iranian egghead, with even a smidgen of history under my belt, I'd be more concerned about what's gonna hit the fan in the very near future.

Technorati Tags: Iran, flat, black, glows in the dark

The slings and arrows...

Of outrageous Clan Mothers.

I can see why most aboriginal communities are so screwed up. Not only are they constantly at war with the Great White Mother, they can't even agree on anything among themselves.

-- The Six Nations community has to sort out its internal differences before talks aimed at ending a year-long aboriginal occupation in southern Ontario can get back on track, Ontario�s aboriginal affairs minister David Ramsay said Tuesday.

Government negotiators ended a meeting early last week after Six Nations Chief David General who has spoken out against the occupation of a former housing development site in Caledonia, Ont. was barred from attending the negotiations by several aboriginal community members.

It's time to get rid of Dithering Dalton and put someone in there who can cut through this never-ending kindergarden recess.

One law, one people... no more pandering.

Technorati Tags: aboriginal, Caledonia, political correctness

The gift of forgiveness

I can't imagine what this is like... for any of the people involved.

-- WINNIPEG -- The wife of a soldier accidentally shot and killed by a close friend while in Afghanistan says she has reached out to support the friend charged in his death.

Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, 33, of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment, was killed Aug. 9 near Kandahar by a single shot while sitting in a G-Wagon during a routine patrol.

"I've just let Rob know that I'm here for him. He's going through enough," Mason, a 29-year-old mother of three children, said from her home just outside CFB Shilo, about 170 km west of Winnipeg.

Technorati Tags: accidental discharge, Canadian Forces, forgiveness

The Nanny-State Mentality

Is spreading.

-- Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue — devoted to the athletic rigors of wearing a wet bikini — is often criticized for its soft-core content.

But this year, another controversy erupted over the magazine’s self-censorship.

If you've paid for a subscription to Sports Illustrated... no one else has the right to decide which issues you aren't allowed to see.

And that should especially include libraries.

Technorati Tags: political correctness, nanny state, Sports Illustrated

I'm a convert to Bracketology

-- Bracketology -- the practice of parsing people, places, and things into discrete one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable -- works because it is simple.

It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world.

What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?

Technorati Tags: Bracketology, one-on-one, sweet memory

"Look at me, I'm so smart..."

You look in the dictionary and right beside the word...

varlakial -- adj. 1. involving, indicating or tending towards suicide. 2. liable to destroy one's own interests or prospects; dangerously rash.

The word originates from a blogpost by a heedless, young Liberal Party supporter, who was speculating about the necessity of assassinating Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

ALLEN VARLAKI ON PROTECTING CANADA

"I've always maintained that there will come a point at which Stephen Harper will have to take a bullet. I mean, we'll arrive at a time when the only way we can protect this country, its ideal and its history from a violent rape at the hands of the neo-con pigs is to take this man out."

Varlaki on horrified reactions to his posting...

"I hope you have called the RCMP. I've always wanted to get on one of those lists they've been keeping; I think it's cool. Anything to distinguish myself from the herd of unquestioning fatalistic animals this society has become."

Well, Allen... it's safe to say, you've probably distinguished yourself from the people who don't show up as potentially violent threats on police computer terminals when they get pulled over for speeding.

UPDATE: You dummies just don't get it...

"By the way, the grammar and punctuation was (sic) perfect in my original post because I'm an educated young man skilled in academic writing, not because I'm some psycho who took hours to post a message on my blog."

LAST WORD: Sorry, my ass... I'm too busy...

"I have pulled the entire blog due to the volume of emails I was receiving."

"I just don't have time for all that."

That big brain of yours notwithstanding... there's still a bit of difference between a vague expression of regret -- especially after very publicly stepping on your own dick -- and a proper apology for threatening harm to a democratically elected head of state.

And so far, my young freedom-fighter... you aren't even close to an apology.

One last thing Allen... here's some free, friendly advice from your local scary, hidden Conservative... maybe try to throttle back your frothy limbic processes long enough to...

"Shut yer freakin' pie hole... and find a good lawyer."

Cause I think you're gonna need one.

Technorati Tags: Allen Varlaki, death threat, Liberal Party

Puts a new twist...

On the phrase... "Let my people go."

-- Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.

Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

Technorati Tags: Israel, conduct unbecoming, career-limiting move

Mohawk deadline expires today

**********
UPDATE: Too many threats, not enough Indians

Despite warnings of a protest by local Mohawks this week, Deseronto was quiet Monday with not a leaflet, barricade or poster in sight.

Extra Ontario Provincial Police officers were in the area Monday. But instead of traffic control around a demonstration site, they could be found in the local OPP office doing ordinary work.

**********

Professional protester Shawn Brant's 60-day, "Deadline in Deseronto" is up today.

In fact, March 12th is actually Day 61... I'm guessing it's better to try disrupt lives on a weekday, when more people are actually working.

-- The demonstrators say they are reclaiming 925 acres illegally taken from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte starting in 1832.

The land was granted to them by the Crown in exchange for loyalty to the British during the American War of Independence, when the Mohawks were forced from their ancestral home in New York state.

Local Conservative MP Daryl Kramp is not happy about the looming deadline.

“Negotiations are underway and they are ongoing,” he said. “Why the attempt to blockade a legitimate business that’s been there for generations?”

It will be interesting, in light of events at Caledonia, to see whether the OPP will simply stand by and watch another illegal aboriginal blockade go up, or will, as new OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino has previously indicated... step up and enforce the law.

I'm not holding my breath.

RELATED: Who is Shawn Brant?

LAST WORD: Todays armed insurrection...

Comes courtesy of the Confederation of Aboriginal People of Canada.

-- GRAND-REMOUS, Que. -- A group of armed aboriginals blockaded a Quebec highway Monday, stopping traffic to protest forest management by the province.

Quebec provincial police said between 25 and 50 people set up the blockade around 5:30 a.m. on Highway 117, north of Ottawa.

Technorati Tags: aboriginal, OPP, Deseronto

When Muslim worlds collide

Imam Talib, 56, is a thundering prison chaplain whose mosque traces its roots to Malcolm X.

He is a first-generation Muslim.

Dr. Khan, 64, is a mild-mannered pulmonologist who collects Chinese antiques and learned to ski on the slopes of Vermont.

He is a first-generation American.

I hadn't previously stopped to think, that in North America, there might be a divide between the immigrant and already established Muslim communities.

The truth is, I hadn't previously thought of it at all.

It's an interesting read.

Today, of the estimated six million Muslims who live in the United States, about 25 percent are African-American, 34 percent are South Asian and 26 percent are Arab, said John Zogby, a pollster who has studied the American Muslim population.

Technorati Tags: Muslim, Nation of Islam, North America

Something to consider...

The next time you're feeling sorry for yourself.

-- Mesaidi has a facial cleft -- a condition whereby the skull is not fully closed.

This has resulted in an encephalocele, where the brain protrudes through a hole in the skull.

Technorati Tags: suffering is relative, the short straw, good works

Calling all special interest groups...

Line up here for Sugar Daddy Dion's special multi-million dollar cash handouts...

The Liberal leader attended a Ukrainian commemorative ceremony and criticized the Tories' lack of action on money committed by the former Liberal government to commemorate the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during the First World War.

Mr. Dion said they'd committed $12.5-million for educational outreach programs, but that money hasn't been issued since Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Tories took power in 2006.

Ooooh, ooooh, Steffi, Steff, over here... I've got a question...

The last time I went to the Emergency Room, I ended up sitting on my ass in a huge room, full of very ill people... for seven hours... with a sick, fevered child.

So my question to you is... "Can you maybe hold off on promises of out and out bribery... at least until the health care system is off life-support?"

That'd work a little better for me.

UPDATE: Today's special... MORE PORK

To recognize Indo-Canadians' impressive entrepreneurial success in B.C., Dion promised a future Liberal government would erect an India Gate in both South Vancouver and Surrey, and offer an official apology for Canada's refusal to let hundreds of Indian immigrants into the country nearly 100 years ago.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Party, same old, same old, corruption

Everything you need to know...

To understand Iraq.

Those savage, homicidal... Conservatives?

You'd think maybe the Red Star could lay off a little when they're -- for example... reviewing movies.

-- Don't worry about missing a single severed head or impaled torso. Director Snyder frequently switches to slow-mo to savour every appalling act.

And he's not above incorporating a Crucifixion image at the end to drive home his point about the nobility of going to war to defend your nation, a subtext that will make this popular entertainment for Conservatives and Republicans everywhere.

RELATED: -- Email death threats here -- (for all you humourless commie robots... that was a joke)

UPDATE: OTOH, if this reviewer was actually right...

The number of movie-goers for the Warner Bros. epic, "300" outnumbered crowds for the rest of the top-10 movies combined.

Maybe there's a little Conservative in all of us.

Technorati Tags: Conservative Party, savage, homicidal

Where's PETA when you really...

Need them.

-- Mr Umoh, or Oga Bassey, as the "South Africans" fondly call him, says he has been selling dog meat since he completed a two-year apprenticeship in the business some 30 years ago.

He also eats the meat he sells.

"Eating dog meat gives you a special protection against the most potent juju," he claims, reeling off the benefits of dog meat.

"Dog meat also improves your sex life. And if you eat dog meat, you cannot be poisoned."

What I wanna' see is the brochure for the institute of higher learning that offers a "two-year apprenticeship" in fryin' up Fido.

Talkin' the talk...

404: A dog is also called 404 after the French-built Peugeot pick-up van, a tribute to a dog's ability to run fast

Headlights: A dish with the eyes of a dog as the most prominent component

Gear Box: Dog's liver, heart and kidneys (usually more expensive than ordinary meat)

Tyre: A dog's legs. Mr Umoh claims that eating a 'tyre' makes you a fast runner

Telephone: A dog's tail

Sentencing: The act of clubbing a dog to death rather than slaughtering it

Technorati Tags: dogmeat, Nigeria, apprenticeship

UK dumbing down standards...

In the "interests of diversity."

-- The biggest reform of England's exam system for a generation "could go horribly wrong", Education Secretary Alan Johnson has warned.

He told the Association of School and College Leaders conference there was a risk that new practical and academic Diplomas could be seen as second-best.

"The decision was taken in the interests of diversity, so young people have choice."

Technorati Tags: United Kingdom, education, dumbing down

INCOMING!!!

I'm guessing this guy is still single.

-- So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control.

It took the 22-year-old Cornwell about 150 hours and $400 in parts to modify a mini-fridge common to many college dorm rooms into the beer-tossing contraption, which can launch 10 cans of beer from its magazine before needing a reload.

h/t -- Stormin' Norman --

Technorati Tags: mother of invention, beer, engineering

That damn Stephen Harper

And his reassuring, transparent agenda.

-- A pair of reports Friday offered more proof that Canada's economy is flourishing, prompting at least one economist to boost his first-quarter growth forecast.

Job gains have registered the hottest start to the year in a quarter century, with more than 103,000 jobs created in the first two months of 2007, according to National Bank Financial.

Technorati Tags: Stephen Harper, Conservative Party, Canadian economy

Taking Canada...

Out behind the woodshed.

-- Egypt warned against racism and intolerance in Canada after a young Ottawa-area girl was expelled from a soccer tournament in Quebec for insisting on wearing an Islamic headscarf, the foreign ministry in Cairo said on Thursday, according to an AFP report.

I hang my head in shame.

Why can't we be more like kinder, gentler Egypt?

The government periodically conducts arrest campaigns of homeless or truant street children who have committed no crime.

In custody many face beatings, sexual abuse, and extortion by police and adult suspects, and police at times deny them access to food, bedding, and medical care.

The authorities do not routinely monitor conditions of detention for children, investigate cases of arbitrary arrest or abuse in custody, or discipline those responsible.

Well, I guess it's not "racist" if Egypt only abuses Egyptian children.

You know who eats up this MSM "Canada is racist" leftbot propaganda like it was candy?

The same people who fall for Al Gore's dog & pony show.

RELATED: The Kato Kaelin of Journalism

The CBC outdoes itself yet again...

But why didn't Ms. Erickson just tell me, we don't want your interview after all because it doesn't fit into the one-sided story line we are planning to construct?

Or, we can't interview you because you don't have the right expertise? Why did she have to make up a story about canceling the story?

Technorati Tags: Egypt, Human Rights Watch, political correctness

Famous, uhh... face...

Back in the news.

Extra points for id'ing which punk ensemble put her on the cover.

Todays Isotopic

Man... take your eyes off Africa for a second and what happens?

-- KINSHASA (Reuters) -- Democratic Republic of Congo's top nuclear research official has been arrested, the government said on Wednesday, after a Kinshasa newspaper reported uranium had gone missing from an atomic institute in the city.

Kinshasa's Le Phare newspaper reported on Wednesday two senior officials had been detained after the disappearance of around 100 bars of uranium from the city's Regional Centre for Atomic Energy.

Hell... after the constant, seemingly perpetual state of war reported across Africa, I was surprised just to learn that the DRC had "nuclear researchers" at all. There is apparently some history of nuclear involvement, going back sixty years.

Congo's Shinkolobwe mine provided high-quality uranium for the Manhattan Project, the secret U.S. programme that produced the two atomic weapons dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War Two.

It'll be interesting to see whose fingerprints are all over this one.

Technorati Tags: Iran, uranium, nuclear weapons

When the going gets tough

Only leftbots run for cover...

-- VICTORIA -- The Canadian Forces top recruiter says the death of soldiers in Afghanistan hasn't deterred people from joining the military.

Despite such news, Adm. Pile said applications for the Canadian Forces have increased 25 per cent since October, when the military began airing new TV commercials.

I heard Steffi and the Libranos want to change the Canadian Forces slogan to... "An Army of None."

Lets support our soldiers.

UPDATE: Of cross words and cross-dressers

KANDAHAR -- A top Taliban commander said yesterday the group has 4,000 fighters bracing to rebuff NATO's largest-ever offensive in northern Afghanistan, now in its second day.

NATO, meanwhile, announced the capture of a senior Taliban fighter who had eluded authorities by wearing a woman's burqa.

I can see tomorrow's headline, "NATO targets bearded women, United Nations outraged."

Technorati Tags: Canadian Forces, real world, Afghanistan

Bob Rae

The gift that keeps on giving...

-- Wednesday, March 07, 2007 --

"One of the things that's definitely going to differentiate the Liberals from the Conservatives is they very much have a one man band."

"I don't think you see a lot of independent thought," Rae said.

-- Wednesday, February 28, 2007 --

Dion had turned the matter into a test of his leadership by whipping the vote — ordering all available MPs to turn up and to vote against the motion.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Party, pack of lies, Bob Rae

Mouthy little punk Iran...

Is just askin' for an international backhander...

The head of the Iranian nuclear programme said any attack on the country's atomic facilities would not extinguish the knowledge gained by young Iranian scientists.

"Now even if we imagine that they attack our facilities, the science of this technology is now in our young peoples' brains.

They cannot do anything in our young peoples' brains," Aghazadeh said.

You mean, like... splatter them all over the sidewalk?

Two words baby... Gerald Bull.

Technorati Tags: Iran, supergun, Gerald Bull

Our Home and Naive Land

Behind the veil of international diplomacy, angry reaction is building.

-- Apple cored by National Newswatch --

RELATED: Darcy sweeps up more trash

A violent Winnipeg gang member who is facing a deportation order to his native Somalia was recently given a reprieve by a federal court judge who said the Somalian’s life would be in danger if he returned.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that Mr. Jilaow is a public menace who does not deserve to remain here,” Harrington wrote, adding he’s been convicted 13 times since 1999 for violent offences.

Technorati Tags: Oh Canada, leftwing lunacy, crime and punishment

When simply "being gay" isn't enough

You can pad your resume with a sexual sheepskin...

I'm thinkin'... you might not wanna have your parents visit on Sado-Masochism day...

-- Visiting lecturers will address technical aspects of flogging, restraint, and role-play.

Students will 'research' questions (e.g. what constitutes coercion? consent? control? submission? can sexual practices transform our understanding of power?) by the optional performance of selected scenes.

Just trying to imagine what would have happened, if I had told my father I was gonna get a "Bachelor of Sexual Diversity."

Actually... scratch that last thought. I already know.

From the comments: Canadi-anna said...

Learning about flogging "techniques", rather than the mind-workings of those who feel the need to participate in such things is hardly what we expect of a university.

Technorati Tags: University of Toronto, Centre for Sexual Diversity, flogging, restraint, and role-play

The God Delusion

The summer that I turned nine years old, I had a pretty rough couple of months... pondering the nature and existence of god.

It was a torturous journey, the flames of childish fears fanned, no doubt, by my Catholic primary school education. Somewhere along the way, I somehow became convinced that I was probably dying and, as a consequence, spent many long, lonely bedtime hours making deals with some distant and unimaginable Supreme Being... if he would only let me live.

It seems now, that I was not alone.

Now scientists are asking, "Are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?"

His research interests include cognitive science and evolutionary biology, and sometimes he presents students with a wooden box that he pretends is an African relic.

“If you have negative sentiments toward religion,” he tells them, “the box will destroy whatever you put inside it.”

Many of his students say they doubt the existence of God, but in this demonstration they act as if they believe in something. Put your pencil into the magic box, he tells them, and the nonbelievers do so blithely. Put in your driver’s license, he says, and most do, but only after significant hesitation.

And when he tells them to put in their hands, few will.

If they don’t believe in God, what exactly are they afraid of?

RELATED: Hey, I could be wrong

I should preface this by saying that, as a 'staunchly former' Catholic, who had religion jacked up his ass a nickel at a time at a Catholic primary school, this piece by Charles Krauthammer resonated to the soul I may be closer to believing I possess.

Technorati Tags: faith, evolution, intelligent design

Rattus Liberalis emerges from its hole

**********
UPDATE: 8 Mar 2007 - The plague spreads...

-- OTTAWA -- Christine Stewart, who was the Liberal environment minister when Canada signed the Kyoto agreement in 1997, said none of her cabinet colleagues -- including current party leader Stéphane Dion -- supported her efforts to put a real plan in place to meet its ambitious targets.

**********

As spring, and coincidentally, election season approaches... I am warily scanning the political nooks and crannies for the re-emergence of the plague-carrying Rattus Liberalis.

-- Rattus Liberalis, like its better known and cuddlier cousin Rattus Rattus, is a nonemetic species. One of the particular talents of Genus Rattus is its ability not to vomit, which conveniently allows it to feast on its own young. --

Sure enough, skulking in the political shadows, Liberal Attorney-General Michael Bryant, in a position paper apparently hand-crafted for the Alpha Rodent himself, does not disappoint.

Stephen Harper's Conservative government has effectively established a reputation for confronting and combatting gun and gang violence, the paper asserts.

In contrast, "Liberals trumpeted a trickle-down social-safety net approach, arguing that a strong anti-poverty social-safety net will address the root causes of crime."

These words seem to indicate Mr. Bryan is sidling ever closer to the Harper position, which, roughly translated, calls for "less coddling, more cops."

Mr. Bryant, who is widely perceived to be somewhere to the political left of Sharon, Lois and Bram, goes on to state...

"The Liberals have very little substance to offer by way of alternative, and certainly nothing new or effective. The typical federal Liberal approach to crime, in a word, is a boomer approach that is stuck in the summer of love."

As I sit here thunderstruck, watching the Liberal Attorney-General channeling Charlton Heston, I start to recognise the sickly sweet smell permeating the air all around me.

It smells like... surrender.

As if he hasn't already created a large enough hole in which to bury both Dion and his unfortunately labelled pooch, Mr. Bryant finishes off with an argument straight from the Harper Conservative playbook...

The Liberals argue that studies show tougher sentences do not deter crime. Mr. Bryant contends such reasoning fails to "embrace the irrefutable logic of incapacitation," the policy of getting criminals off the street and in jail, which the paper describes as "a powerful tool to rebuild communities under siege."

Such policies employed at the provincial and municipal level, the Ontario Attorney-General claims, led to a 25-per-cent reduction in shootings and a 40-per-cent reduction in gun homicides in Toronto last year.

Michael Bryant, if I didn't think the gesture might be misconstrued... I could kiss you.

Thank you from the bottom of my scary, hidden heart.

**********

UPDATE: UK still on "root causes" cowpath

The government has been accused of a "knee-jerk" reaction to the recent spate of gun crimes among teenagers.

The comments from the Society of Black Lawyers comes as Home Secretary John Reid meets community leaders and police at a second gun crime summit.

The society said tougher sentences would not address the root causes and the talks were a "photo opportunity".

Technorati Tags: Rattus Liberalis, real world, Michael Bryant

I believe I've found...

The worlds most soul-destroying job.

McClelland: One goosestep too far

**********
UPDATE: 6 Mar 2007 - McClelland strikes back

"He hates the Jews... more than I do."

FREE MCCLELLAND... so he can find the real anti-semites.

You've gotta be pretty desperate to bring out the O.J. defence...

It’s me asking you to stand by my side to fight the real anti-semites. Are you willing to do that or are you just going to prove me right; that when they came for me, Jews like you didn’t give a shit.

**********

BEST BLOG HEADLINE: First they came... for the idiots

**********

I'm sure more than a few of the Blogging Tories have had the distasteful experience of brushing up against Robert "Myblahg" McClelland.

It seems Little Bobby has gone so far beyond the pale this time, that even the NDP is disavowing any connections to him, or his site.

Cherniak has the details...

I just received a copy of a letter from Anne McGrath, the president of the NDP. In it, she calls Mr. McClelland's comments "repugnant".

She also states that the NDP is creating "a new blog roll that better reflects the views and needs of New Democrats in the blogsphere".

Anybody who has ever had the slightest contact with this tedious pretender could have seen this coming.

I can't wait to hear the justifications from his pals.

UPDATE: Big Dipper McClelland totally unrepentant

"Jack Layton and the NDP have even less influence over me and the Blogging Dippers website than you imbecilic Libfloggers do."

"You don't get what I'm saying so I'll make it totally clear. GO FUCK YOURSELF. And you can publish that on your blog, asshole."

**********

LAST WORD: McClelland acolyte bails

Paladiea says... "Robert, you refuse to apologize, and I’m sorry but I can’t continue to defend you."

"Consider this my resignation."

Technorati Tags: me, me, myblahg, Robert McClelland, Blogging Dippers

Gun control...

Is being able to hit the right target...

-- I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun.

I am not here to represent or defend the NRA -- because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death.

Something to think about... the next time you hear the Fiberals trying to justify the two billion taxpayer dollars they flushed down the public relations toilet on their infamous Farmer Bob Rifle Registry.

This happened in the U.S.A., but is equally applicable here in Canada. How targeting farmers, hunters and gun collectors was supposed to reduce street-crime was a mystery to anyone with half a minute to spare and half a brain.

You wanna reduce crime... target criminals.

Technorati Tags: public relations, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, billion dollar boondoggle

Indian Giver

You'd think members of an "oppressed minority" would be a little more sensitive to the plight of the people they once, well, uh... enslaved.

-- Members of the Cherokee Nation of native Americans have voted to revoke tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves the Cherokees once owned.

A total of 76.6% voted to amend the tribal constitution to limit citizenship to "blood" tribe members.

Members can obtain government benefits and tribal services including housing and medical support. Slaves were held by a number of native American tribes and were freed after the Civil War in 1866.

I guess there is no Cherokee word for irony.

RELATED: What exactly do you get for being Cherokee?

A lot of government assistance. Like the members of other Native American tribes, Cherokees have access to free health care at tribe-run clinics and hospitals. Prescription drugs, eyeglasses, and hospitalizations are all covered under this system, which the tribe operates with funding from the federal Indian Health Services.

Technorati Tags: not so affirmative action, quota system, political correctness

Oh No Canada!!!

Send us your greedy, your psychotic, your bloodthirsty... we are Canada, we stand on guard for murderers.

A Bangladeshi fugitive convicted of killing his country's prime minister in a bloody coup won't be deported from Canada because he faces a death sentence in his native land, an immigration board has ruled.

Chowdhury and two others allegedly involved in the coup fled to Canada after years on the run. The two have since obtained citizenship -- one lives in Ottawa, the other in Montreal.

It's not enough that we have to shell out for decades, to warehouse our homegrown Paul Bernardos'... we're taking in murdering scum from all the world over.

Let's stop the lunacy.

Technorati Tags: murder, political correctness, leftwing lunacy

An experiment gone horribly wrong

It's alive!!! The poll that the Eco-nauts at Suzuki.org thought they had slain, once again rears its ugly, politically incorrect head...

Come feed the monster...

Bernie, in the comments at SDA, posted a link to the "disappeared" poll that has David Suzuki gnashing his teeth and wetting his bed.

You can vote here... it's SUZU-MATIC

*********************************************


Let's keep the "Wheel of Ironic Humiliation" spinning.

DISHONESTY UPDATE: 5 Mar 2007 -- 3:18 pm

In a shameless move that would have made Josef Stalin blush, it appears that Suzuki.org has been able to eliminate the link within Google cache. To ask for your copy of updated poll results, please email David Suzuki -- or write to...

Suite 219, 2211 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6K 4S2

Phone:
Local: (604) 732-4228 in the lower mainland
Toll free: 1-800-453-1533 in the rest of Canada
Fax: (604) 732-0752

The above e-mail address and telephone numbers are for correspondence with the David Suzuki Foundation ONLY.

To reach David Suzuki's office: contact his assistant Elois Yaxley:

Fax: (604) 730-9672

**********

ABRA-CADABRA: File this one under, "You can run, but you can't hide." Webwhiz Steve Janke still has a link to voting in this ephemeral poll.

**********

UPDATE: 7 Mar 2007 - Not a Jolly Old Eco-elf

I approached Suzuki to get a quick quote about the importance of saving this wilderness from logging.

He was curt. "Not now," he said. Silly me, but I took that to mean later. So, a little later and a lot more sheepishly, I approached the renowned environmentalist again and again he snapped, "not now."

Shortly before I was slated to get back on the helicopter and head back to civilization to file my stories, I approached Suzuki one last time. This time he was clearer. "Fuck off," he snapped.

**********

ECO-RAGE UPDATE: Mt Suzuki blows again

I saw Saint David and his huge global warming campaign bus on the Rick Mercer show the other night.

For the love of Gaia... somebody please tell me he's running that bio-cidal behemoth on recycled french-fry grease.

Technorati Tags: David Suzuki, global warming, Poll... what poll?

How come there's never a...

Commie Pinko mouthpiece around, when you really need one...

What we have here, is a made to order rescue mission for NDP Leader and notorious Islamofascist appeaser, "Taliban Jack" Layton.

-- Iran's authorities have arrested more than 32 women activists protesting outside a courthouse in Tehran.

The BBC's Frances Harrison, reporting from the demonstration, says almost all the leaders of Iran's women's movement were arrested.

Their crime...

The women held up banners outside the revolutionary court, saying: "We have the right to hold peaceful protests".

With his proven track record of pandering to every Tom, Dick and Mahmoud who starts screeching out demands to turn back the clock of civilisation to the mid-fifteenth century... I say it's time for Jack Layton to really pony up.

I'm thinking, if 5000 people kick in a loonie apiece we'll have enough money for TJ's airfare and mad money.

I mean... it's not like we need a return ticket.

Technorati Tags: Jack Layton, Iran, where's your political correctness now?

Towards a carbon neutral death

For the green at heart... there's always the eco-burial.

-- Even death offers no escape from the global warming debate. But as with most things these days, there are eco-friendly alternatives. Woodland burials and wicker coffins are the among the greenest ways to a carbon neutral end.

Families who opt to cremate their loved one in a biodegradable coffin even get a discount.

But if you're really looking to be altruistic, why not donate your body to a medical school?

Technorati Tags: carbon to carbon, dead and buried, the long goodbye

No white men need apply

The Richmond, B.C. fire department is reportedly planning a major overhaul of its hiring policy by populating its ranks exclusively with women and minorities over the next five years.

According to the Richmond Review community newspaper, the department has posted internal bulletins in local fire halls instructing all copies of the document be destroyed.

"I'm from the government... I'm here to help you."

Technorati Tags: affirmative action, quota system, political correctness

The times, they are a changin'...

I probably shouldn't be surprised by this...

TV, as we knew it, is fading to black. After more than seven decades, analog broadcasting will go the way of the vacuum tube in 2009.

Broadcasters have a deadline, in early 2009, by which they must convert to digital broadcasting. And on that day, all the analog TV sets in America will go dark...

Now, if only Al Gore and his eco-disciples can engineer a similar deal with the internal combustion engine...

"Automobile makers have a deadline, in early 2009, by which they must convert to carbonated-water fueled vehicles."

Anybody out there selling a good team of oxen?

Technorati Tags: digital broadcasting, television, analog broadcasting

It is past time

To bring back the Victoria Cross.

The VC was shunned in 1972 when the government created a new Canadian honours system that neglected that the country might be at war again. The new system included military honours for meritorious service and bravery but nothing specifically for rare instances of military valour.

Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau regularly dodged the question of whether the VC would be awarded again, saying only that Canadians should receive Canadian decorations.

Another important difference between political parties.

Conservatives honour the military.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Party, Victoria Cross, Conservative Party

A True Conservative

Doesn't censor comments.

When I post a comment on most of the so-called "progressive" blogs... I have come to expect to see the message that, "comments must be approved" by the owner of the blog. When I see the same message at a "conservative" site... I am always a little surprised and disappointed.

If you aren't prepared for someone to disagree with your point of view... if you are only doing this so all your warm, fuzzy idealogical clonebot friends can assay your brilliant remarks and very publicly kiss your anointed ass... then perhaps you should move on over to rabble, or better yet... ndp.ca.

The whole point of putting yourself out there is to provoke rational thought and hopefully lively, lucid discussion. It's why I'll take a Kate McMillan, or a Kathy Shaidle over a Liberal Catnip or a Me, Me, Me Myblahg anyday.

So take a walk on the wild side.

Go big... or go home.

Technorati Tags: censorship, war on warm, fuzzy, Conservative

Even the UN gets it

**********
UPDATE: 2 Mar 2007 - Let's keep enabling drug use.

It doesn't hurt anyone.

-- MONTREAL -- A major investigation into a suspected cocaine-trafficking ring in the Montreal area ended in tragedy yesterday when a newly promoted detective was shot dead as he and other officers stormed into the home of a bar owner to execute a search warrant.

**********

If the end-game here in Canada is to eliminate addiction to illegal drugs... how does a "safe injection" site make any sense at all. Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't hand out cases of beer.

Hell... even the leftbot United Nations thinks this initiative is screwy.

-- UNITED NATIONS -- The UN's drug control agency is to warn Tony Clement, the Health Minister, that Canada is flouting international drug control treaties by enabling illicit drug use at a safe injection site in Vancouver and through drug-paraphernalia giveaways elsewhere.

On the other hand, the Liberals and the loony-left have no such qualms about enabling destructive and indeed, often fatal, behaviour.

In its 2003 report, the board noted that the Canadian government, then under a Liberal administration, had approved setting up the Vancouver facility, Insite, which was billed as a "safe, health-focused place where people can go to inject drugs."

In the latest report, the board expresses much greater alarm over the continued existence of the facility and reports of drug-enabling programs elsewhere, such as a crack pipe distribution initiative in Ottawa.

It's time to draw a line in the sand, over so-called "hard drugs" like cocaine and heroin. Let's have hellish penalties for selling any quantities of these poisons... as well as a tough love policy for addicts. Scooping up junkies every time you see them using and having them go through a cold-turkey withdrawal will serve to reinforce the message.

There will some short term pain as these measures are implemented, but in the long run, everyone will benefit.

It's time to take a stand.

Technorati Tags: United Nations, war on drugs, junkies

Making the Grade...

Ontario's Best Public Schools: An Update to Signposts of Success

There are about 4000 publicly funded elementary schools in Ontario. Can we determine which do the best job of educating students? Yes – but not through the measurement methods that have been prevalent until recently.

Each spring, for the past eight years, Ontario students in Grades 3 and 6 write assessments administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).

Technorati Tags: Ontario, elementary school, publicly funded

It depends who you ask...

After all, wasn't it a former Liberal Immigration Minister who characterised importing strippers from Europe... as simply "supporting a strong industry" with "lots of customers."

-- TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday there is no evidence Japan coerced Asian women into working as sex slaves during the Second World War, backtracking from a landmark 1993 statement acknowledging that tens of thousands of women were forced into prostitution for the military.

Historians say that up to 200,000 women, mainly from Korea and China, were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers in brothels run by the military government as so-called "comfort women" during the war.

So much for Judy Sgro's lofty ambitions for our daughters.

Maybe Shinzo Abe is similarly saying... this was simply progressive economics.

Technorati Tags: Japan, comfort women, sex slaves

Canadian killed in Iraq

Decorated U.S. Army Sergeant John D. Rode was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honours yesterday.

Twenty-four-year-old Sergeant John D. Rode was one of three soldiers killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Baqubah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Rode was on his second tour in Iraq when he was killed.

Rode was a Canadian citizen whose family came to North Carolina from Nova Scotia in 1999.

He will be remembered.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, war on terror, Nova Scotia

C'mon baby, light my fire

-- I double dare you. --

I don't know how many times I've already said this, but it bears repeating... "There will be no Iranian nuclear bomb."

Appearing before the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, Mr Lieberman said: "Israel has the capability to deal with the Iranian threat even in the worst-case scenario in which our friends throughout the world stop dealing with the threat and we are left on our own."

Technorati Tags: Iran, religion of peace, Apocalypse Soon

Gearing up... Down Under

When Steffi and the Fiberals rose up to shut down the anti-terror legislation enacted after 9/11... I thought -- "the whole world is going mad" -- but it looks like that doesn't include the Australians...

-- CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Immigrants can have their Australian citizenship applications vetoed by the national spy agency under tough new laws passed by the Parliament on Thursday.

The new laws also double the time immigrants must live in Australia before they can become citizens to four years. The changes also enable the government to revoke a new Australian's citizenship if it were obtained by fraud.

The changes come amid public outrage about overseas-born radical Islamic leaders who gain Australian citizenship despite preaching against Australian society.

If Canada ever chooses to revert to being the Liberals Happy, Happy Fiefdom, it sounds as though Australia might be a beacon of sanity in a topsy-turvy world.

RELATED: More dual-citizenship shenanigans

Perhaps it's time someone corrected the perception that dual Canadian citizenship is a get out of jail free card...

"I call on the Canadian government to give me a lawyer and to prove my innocence," Mr Attar told reporters clustered around his cage before proceedings began.

A transcript of his confession seen by a Canadian newspaper said he had recruited gay or impoverished Arabs in Canada for Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence branch.

Mr Attar denies being homosexual, although it was cited as a reason for an application he made for refugee status with the United Nations.

Technorati Tags: Australia, Stephane Dion, terrorist