"Flee... flee... run away!"

Steffi and company are, with the passing of each and every day, starting to to look less like a legitimate political entity... than an old Monty Python skit.

-- OTTAWA -- The decision of the Opposition Liberals to abstain from Wednesday's vote on the government's multi-billion dollar tax relief package drew taunts and rebuke from all sides of the House of Commons.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said his party will sit out on the confidence vote at 3:15 p.m., as they did earlier for the Throne Speech vote.

I give you, "The Knights that say flee!"

**********

UPDATE: The breathtaking genius of Stephane Dion

Leader Stephane Dion says a Liberal government would consider rescinding Tory government cuts to the goods-and-services tax.

I swear... this guy is just a gift from heaven.

Technorati Tags: Stéphane Dion, Throne Speech, GST

If they can steal a private business...

I guess no one's really gonna worry... about natives flogging contraband cigarettes.

-- Deseronto -- Just outside a gravel quarry here that has become something of a symbol for native land claim unrest sits a spray-painted plywood sign offering bagged cigarettes for sale - cheap.

For about the past month, buyers have been able to approach the entrance to the Thurlow Aggregates quarry on Deseronto Road in Tyendinaga Township - which has been occupied by native protesters since March - and walk away with a bag of native-produced smokes for $10.

Now you might think the law of the land should be brought to bear here... but apparently there is a law-enforcement Bermuda Triangle... which lets aboriginals do whatever they want, in proximity to Mohawk Territory.

While the selling of the contraband cigarettes at a site outside a native reserve doesn't sit well with either health officials or police, neither appear eager to tackle the politically-charged problem.

According to Carol Snell, spokeswoman for the Hastings-Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, the agency's tobacco enforcement team is leaving the issue up to law enforcement agencies to handle - for now.

"We're not dealing with it," she said. "It's a federal issue and up to the RCMP to deal with it at this point."

According to RCMP Cpl. Nancy Mason, the federal policing agency is focusing enforcement on picking off shipments of contraband smokes being transported on Highway 401 between Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and the U.S. side of the Akwesasne reserve near Cornwall, Ont.

Well... at least they're not poisoning MY children.

"Cheap native-made cigarettes can contain dirt, metal filings and other unsavoury ingredients mixed in with the chemical stew of 4,200 chemicals found in all smokes, according to an analysis done by the federal Ministry of Revenue."

Way to strike a blow for freedom, guys!

Technorati Tags: Deseronto, RCMP, Hastings-Prince Edward Counties Health Unit

Poisoners to the World

As it turns out... lead painted toys are probably the least harmful part of the problem.

-- MILAN -- In January, Honor International Pharmtech was accused of shipping counterfeit drugs into the United States. Even so, the Chinese chemical company — whose motto is “Thinking Much of Honor” — was openly marketing its products in October to thousands of buyers here at the world’s biggest trade show for pharmaceutical ingredients.

Other Chinese chemical companies made the journey to the annual show as well, including one manufacturer recently accused by American authorities of supplying steroids to illegal underground labs and another whose representative was arrested at the 2006 trade show for patent violations.

And make no mistake here... the Chinese government is up to it's asshole in this criminal conspiracy.

Also attending were two exporters owned by China’s government that had sold poison mislabeled as a drug ingredient, which killed nearly 200 people and injured countless others in Haiti and in Panama.

Close the border to Chinese imports.

Do it now.

**********

UPDATE: Do they make baby pacifiers?

Because that's the only way... they could make this thing any worse than it is.

**********

LAST WORD: Even "made in Japan" ain't what it used to be.

Akafuku has become the latest Japanese food company to be exposed for lying about the contents of its products, tampering with expiration-date labels and recycling ingredients.

Even as details of a government investigation into Akafuku have come out in recent days, executives at a meatpacking company called Meat Hope were arrested for labeling ground pork, chicken and even rabbit as 100 percent beef.

The nearly daily disclosures have shaken Japanese consumers, who have long been willing to pay a premium for Japanese food products that were, or so it was said, safer than imported goods, especially from China.

Technorati Tags: pharmaceutical ingredients, steroids, merchant of death

It makes me think the Taliban...

Have been watching CTV news.

-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) -- Afghan and NATO forces have killed 50 Taliban rebels in three days of clashes and surrounded 200 others who occupied civilian homes in southern Afghanistan, police said Wednesday.

He said up to 200 militants have also been ringed by the Afghan and international troops, who are battling a fierce insurgency by the Taliban whose Islamist regime was ousted in late 2001 by a US-led invasion.

"They are using civilian homes as shelters. We are carrying out our operations very carefully so as not to harm civilians. Dozens of families have fled their homes to reach safety," he added.

Get ready... here comes the spin.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said on Tuesday that the rebels had "captured Arghandab district".

**********

RELATED: Contrary to New York Times reporting...

The only dancing here... will be on Timmy Taliban's grave.

"That two weeks later they were in there on roofs dancing — and inside his house — is devastating psychologically," Ms. Chayes said. "It’s like a psychological operation on the part of the Taliban, and I think it’s a very effective one."

Rest in pieces, Timmy.

Technorati Tags: Arghandab, Afghanistan, leftwing media bias

The other four people...

Shouted obscenities... slammed the phone down... and went back to eating dinner.

-- TORONTO -- More than six in 10 Canadians say they will try to stop unwanted calls from telemarketers by signing up for Canada's pending do-not-call registry, a new poll shows.

The telephone survey was conducted in August by a group of independent research agencies, including Bristol Omnifacts, Corporate Research Associates and Blue Ocean Contact Centers, Research House, Consumer Contact and Justason Market Intelligence.

**********

RELATED: Tom Mabe strikes back

"Telemarketers tell you that they are just doing their job," Tom says. "But drug dealers and hit men for the mob also tell you they’re just doing their job."

"At least they’re less intrusive."

Technorati Tags: do-not-call registry, telemarketers, irony-challenged reporter

He'll sit and talk with the Taliban...

But even wild horses won't drag Jack Layton anywhere near Ellie May.

-- OTTAWA -- If Elizabeth May gets her way, it could be a long night for Jack Layton.

The Green party leader won a charity auction for a dinner with her NDP counterpart and his wife, NDP MP Olivia Chow, and she plans to invite Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and his wife, Janine Kreiber, as her guests.

Ms. May has often complained that Mr. Layton has refused to meet with her.

Sure enough, the Pinko Platoon has already started trying to weasel out of the "proggie picnic."

Polls and election results suggest the Greens pose an electoral danger to the NDP, and Mr. Layton seems unwilling to do anything to lend legitimacy to Ms. May or her party.

At the end of the auction, Mr. Layton did not even acknowledge that Ms. May was the winner.

A spokesman for Mr. Layton, Karl Belanger, did not sound keen on the May-Dion-Layton dinner. "We didn’t talk about who this person might be," he said. "She won the auction, so we’ll see, but co-ordinating the schedule of three leaders . . . two leaders is already tricky."

Looks like Ellie May's got some moves after all.

Hey Jack, you could always take a trip to Kabul instead.

Technorati Tags: Elizabeth May, Taliban Jack, Jack-be-nimble

Whoa... talk about 'blow me away'

"A study was done on Palestinian Terrorism and Murder and Foreign Aid."

(via Jaeger at SDA)

The Man who would be...

A sort of clumsy, irrational Court Jester...

"It's a mistake. It will not help the productivity of our country, it will not help our families as it should."

"It's a big mistake," Mr. Dion said.

Apparently not enough of a "big mistake" though... to take a principled stand against it.

"We will choose our time when we decide to put this government down," he said.

"It will not be tomorrow."

You think this guy ever watches himself on television?

**********

RELATED: Jason Cherniak, meanwhile, is choosing to celebrate the inescapable genius of his conquering hero.

"As far as I can tell, the Tories are giving the Liberals everything they want."

Well, Jason... I think that borders on the truly delusional... but I'd definitely say they're giving the fiberals everything they deserve.

"They will also increase the basic personal exemption, which I believe to also be reimplementing a Liberal tax cut. I'm not positive on that one, though."

Which actually means, in typical Cherniak fashion... "I have no idea if this is true, but I'll say it anyway."

"My suggestion would be to say that most of the tax cuts are the implementation of Liberal policy. We should vote for it, take ownership and make it clear to the media that this is a combined effort by Liberals and Conservatives to lower taxes."

They just can't help themselves, can they?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

With Stephane's assistance, Harper now has his majority government. And the beauty of it is that it didn't cost the taxpayer a penny for election costs.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, Jason Cherniak, fiberal smoke and mirrors

China loudly threatens...

To keep billions of cheap plastic, lead contaminated toys and foodstuffs all to itself... paralyzes Canadian government... yeah, right.

-- OTTAWA -- The Chinese government blasted formal meetings yesterday between the Dalai Lama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General Michaëlle Jean, warning they will "gravely undermine" the relationship between Canada and China.

China's political counsellor Sun Lushan stopped short of saying what retaliatory steps China might take, noting trade is beneficial to both countries and interruption of it is "the last thing both sides want to see."

The Harper government was quick to reply...

"We value our relationship with China but the Prime Minister has made no secret that we are not going to put aside human rights for `the almighty dollar' – you can pull out that quote," a senior Conservative source said.

It's time to send this "plague ship" packing.

Technorati Tags: China, merchant of death, Dalai Lama

Time in a bottle

Researchers have developed a low-cost, low-power computer memory that could put terabyte-sized thumb drives in consumers' pockets within a few years.

"A thumb drive using our memory could store a terabyte of information," says Michael Kozicki, director of ASU's Center for Applied Nanoionics, which developed the technology.

"All the current limitations in portable electronic storage could go away. You could record video of every event in your life and store it."

(h/t reader bob)

Technorati Tags: terabyte, programmable metallization cell, nano-ionics

Sitting, waiting... for the next big thing

Talk to the people at the CDC... it's not a matter of if... it's a question of when...

The strain of HIV that touched off the U.S. AIDS epidemic and fuelled the global scourge of the disease came to the continent from Africa via Haiti, according to a study released yesterday.

A team of researchers conducted genetic analyses of archived blood samples from early AIDS patients who migrated from Haiti to the U.S.

Their calculations suggested there was a greater than 99% probability that the virus went from Africa to Haiti to the U.S.

Ebola, drug resistant tuberculosis. bird flu... take your pick. It's nature's way of thinning the herd.

And we're totally oblivious.

Coming to a neighbourhood near you.

One Canadian wounded...

During running gun battle in Afghanistan, uh... Toronto's entertainment district...

A gun battle between gangs on a downtown Toronto street had Entertainment District patrons fleeing for their lives early Tuesday.

An innocent bystander “in the wrong place at the wrong time” was struck by a bullet, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening, Det. Peter Karpow said.

We're not just talking lone gunman here either... police apparently recovered 4 different sizes of shell casings...

“I believe there was some form of gang fight,” said Karpow. “The fact varying calibres of weapons were fired ... You’re looking at, at least, four different shooters.

Toronto Police were initially called to the Richmond-Peter Sts. area around 3 a.m. for the report of gunshots. They arrived to find one man wounded on the street and hundreds of people running for cover.

Happy clubbing, Toronto.

**********

RELATED: Yeah... it's that CBC doublespeak again

Wait for the inevitable pleading for "members of the community" to step up and fight the insanity.

Karpow said this type of incident is going to continue to happen "until people step up to the plate and assist the police in these investigations."

Karpow is appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

**********

SIDENOTE: Taxes... what taxes?

As Toronto slides slowly into the abyss...

As Joe Pennachetti, the city's chief financial officer rattled off a long list of numbers that would make a chartered accountant beg for mercy, many of the budget committee brains, including budget chief Shelley Carroll and Kyle Rae talked so loudly it was hard to hear the presentation.

When the 30-minute presentation was done and Coun. Doug Holyday -- the lone right-wing councillor in attendance -- tried to ask a question, Carroll cut him off. She said questions won't be entertained until Nov. 13.

As Holyday mused after yesterday's sham of a budget meeting, the presentation was just a "formality."

"I wanted to ask what's Plan B if the large grants (from the federal and provincial governments) don't materialize," he said.

"My question was politely put down."

**********

LAST WORD: Toronto the Insane

According to Ab Campion, a spokesperson for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, DNA Lounge faces an 18-day suspension in January for a variety of liquor licence infractions including drunkenness.

The club was also cited for overcrowding and allowing the illegal use or sale of narcotics in May of this year. And the club's licence was suspended for five days for overcrowding in March 2006.

In Canada, you have to run and hide...

In the United States, you can "stand your ground."

First enacted in Florida in 2005, "Stand Your Ground" bills are now being considered in 21 states including Georgia, according to the National Rifle Association and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The South Dakota senate approved one just last week.

The article is a little dated... there are now 14 states (see graphic below) where you can stand your ground.

These new measures would push the boundaries beyond the self-defense measures already on the books. Twelve states already allow citizens to shoot intruders in their homes, and 38 states permit concealed weapons in public places.

"These laws send a more general message to society that public spaces belong to the public - and the public will protect [public places] rather than trying to run into the bathroom of the nearest Starbucks and hope the police show up," says David Kopel, director of the Independence Institute in Golden, Colorado.

This makes perfect sense to me. Let's spend a little less time worrying about the rights of criminals... and more about the rights of law abiding citizens.

**********

RELATED: Or you can let "the system" protect you

The Canadian Border Services Agency is investigating how and when a man deported from Canada two years ago sneaked back into the country only to be arrested on the weekend by Toronto police on multiple firearms charges.

Lloyd Demetrius, 28, was taken into custody early Saturday after two men fired several shots into the air in front of a bar on Hymus Rd., near Warden and St. Clair Aves.

In 1999, Demetrius was convicted of pumping three bullets into a man who tried to calm him down after Demetrius demanded to be at the front of a takeout line at a West Indian restaurant at Kingston and Galloway Rds.

**********

SIDENOTE: The Professor strikes back

"What Could Possibly Go Wrong if Everybody Has a Gun"?

Yessir... it's a reprise of soldiers, uh wait... "everybody... with guns... in our streets... I'm not kidding..."

**********

LAST WORD: A very special welcome...

To readers of noted humanitarian and progressive brown-noser "Canadian Cynic"

Make sure you check out his greatest hits.

**********

POSTSCRIPT: I guess the Cynic's a little pissed.

I'm headlined at his blog again today.

Technorati Tags: stand your ground, self-defense, suckass political correctness

Everybody grab on and hold tight

Premier McSlippery is promising "relentless progress" on his "vague agenda" -- at some "unspecified time" in the future.

-- TORONTO -- Premier Dalton McGuinty says he will summon the Ontario legislature before Christmas.

He gave no details about when the house would meet or when a Speech from the Throne would be presented.

“I reminded them that the message we got from voters was not that we were to defend the status quo but rather that we were to make relentless progress on their behalf,” he said.

Hey Dalton... don't strain yourself.

**********

UPDATE: Real estate prices in Caledonia...

Just bottomed out.

Government sources also say former attorney-general Michael Bryant will become the new minister of aboriginal affairs.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Speech from the Throne, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Apparently, Georgia Tech offers...

A major in "unparalleled stupidity."

-- FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- A father wants investigators to pursue fraud and larceny charges against a Panhandle strip club after his son ran up a $53,000 bill in a single night while celebrating his college graduation.

Joe Salter, 52, of Mary Esther, told investigators Club 10 employees took advantage of his 24-year-old son, Tommy.

The younger Salter was at the club Aug. 18 to celebrate his graduation from Georgia Tech.

(h/t reader mikey)

Technorati Tags: Club 10, Tommy Salter, Darwin Awards

Now, let's not rush to judgement...

Maybe those peace-loving Hamas farmers... have a couple of million tree stumps they need to deal with.

-- JERUSALEM -- The militant Islamic Hamas has smuggled 70 tons of explosives into the Gaza Strip since it seized control of the coastal territory in June, a senior Israeli security official said Monday.

Reacting, Abu Obeida of the Hamas military wing called the Israeli claims "lies." He said Hamas has more than 70 tons of explosives, but they originate in Gaza itself and were not smuggled in.

Oh, okay... that makes me feel much better.

Technorati Tags: HAMAS, Abu Obeida, Survivor Gaza Strip

Raising taxes in the GTA...

To pay for the ever expanding welfare state...

Almost 10 years after the fact, Okolo, now a single mother with three young girls aged 2, 5 and 6, is slowly losing hope. She's one of 13,500 families – more than 30,000 people – in Peel Region's affordable housing queue. The wait, probably one of the longest in the province, is 21 years for two- and three-bedroom units.

And here's why David Miller... despite his land transfer and automobile tax grabs... is still gonna be hundreds of millions of dollars behind the eight ball.

In Toronto, more than 67,000 people are on a waiting list for housing. The average wait time for a one-bedroom unit in the city is five to seven years, while a 10-to-12 year wait is more common for units with three or more bedrooms.

Yeah... let's take a few billion more taxpayer dollars... and build another slew of welfare ghettos like Regent Park and Driftwood Ave... because that just worked out so magnificently.

This is why I left Toronto.

Technorati Tags: welfare state, Mayor David Miller, pinko central

Garth gets his business snagged...

In his zipper... and Stephen Taylor catches the whole ugly extrication...

So, Garth is encouraging people to write cheques to "Garth Turner campaign, in trust". What does this mean? As is the general understanding, and confirmed by Elections Canada, funds held in trust become the property of the trustee.

Unfortunately for Garth, resending this money to his campaign is apparently... what's the word I'm looking for here... oh, yeah... illegal.

"...as of June 12, 2007, as a result of changes made by s. 44(2) of the Federal Accountability Act to s. 404.2 of the Canada Elections Act, transfers of trust funds to candidates from registered parties and registered associations will be prohibited."

UPDATE 10/29, 11am:

Garth has changed his website. It now asks cheques to be made out to "Halton Liberal Association - Garth Turner Campaign".

Yeeeouch, Garth... that's gonna leave a mark!

Technorati Tags: Garth Turner, Federal Accountability Act, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Dear China... bite me

If you were hoping to paralyse the Canadian government with your latest round of threats... you're just a couple of years and "one stand-up guy" too late.

-- BEIJING -- The Chinese government has warned that Canada could damage its relations with China if Prime Minister Stephen Harper goes ahead with his plan to meet the Dalai Lama Monday.

Mr. Harper will join a growing group of Western leaders who have deliberately chosen to greet the Tibetan spiritual leader in official venues, ignoring the objections of the Chinese government.

Monday's meeting will be the first time a Canadian prime minister has held formal talks at a government office with the exiled spiritual leader.

No dithering here.

Technorati Tags: Dalai Lama, China, Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Which Liberal critic takes a fall?

-- VANCOUVER -- Liberal MP Blair Wilson has resigned from the federal Liberal caucus over allegations that he didn't disclose all of his expenses during the last election campaign.

Hey... this could happen to anybody, right?

It's not like he's claiming any sort of financial experti... ooh, geez... wait a minute...

Mr. Wilson, who represents the riding of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, stepped down on Sunday from his position as Liberal national revenue critic.

News of Mr. Wilson's alleged improprieties could not have hit at a worse time for Mr. Dion and the Liberals, who have been trying to capitalize on an alleged election expenses scandal involving the governing Conservatives.

So, Steffi... this one could throw a wrench in the works, huh?

The Liberals have hammered away at the issue every day since Parliament resumed earlier this month. Their attack will doubtless be blunted by news of the allegations of election spending irregularities within their own ranks.

Maybe the Dalai Lama could take a minute and explain that whole karma thing to Steffi and friends.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

If I were Dion I'd be ordering a background check on my justice critic.

Technorati Tags: Blair Wilson, Stephane Dion, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Why isn't this guy on Oprah?

Instead of all her sanctimonious, scientology sucking, multi-millionaire movie star friends?

-- SINGAPORE -- The charity runs a World Toilet College in Singapore. Students from different fields, such as architects or development workers, can chose among courses ranging from toilet design to ecological sanitation.

He says 160 million people have intestinal worms because of poor hygiene, and one-point-six million children die of diarrhea each year - often because of poor sanitation facilities, such as pit latrines.

Surprisingly... ego is even involved in promoting the spread and use of the "porcelain pony."

Sim says one of the organization's most important tasks is to train people in slums and rural areas to build toilets themselves. He says he promotes the use of toilets by making them into a status symbol.

"If you are defecating on the roadside you are not very respectable, but if you have a toilet then it's like you have a television or you have a hand phone. So this is a very, very important way of promoting it to them, because the poor are status-seeking people," he says.

**********

RELATED: The opiate of the... uh... dumb-asses

"Mothering advice from a childless egomaniac, diet advice from a fat chick, and cultural indoctrination --all from the self appointed High Priestess of Hedonism."

Technorati Tags: World Toilet College, intestinal worms, diarrhea

The Moose is Loose

If Liberal Attorney General Michael Bryant can't manage to keep violent gangbangers in jail... why shouldn't there be justice for Bob the Moose?

-- TORONTO -- Come pay homage to this majestic king of the Canadian bush, now finally free from the clutches of the Ontario ministry of natural resources. Exclusive but limited engagement. One week only.

Apparently though, this wasn't an easy decision to make. I guess Demetrius had to check with his boss.

Within hours of telling the court that he wanted 30 days to consider an appeal of Justice of the Peace Ann Forfar's decision to dismiss charges against Ken Procyk, owner of the now world-famous Bob the Moose, ministry of natural resources prosecutor Demetrius Antonios Kappos waved his white flag.

C'mon Mikey... I say it's way past time to free all the imprisoned stuffed animal heads... and start going after actual criminals.

Yet another taxpayer funded boondoggle... from the people who brought you, "I won't raise your taxes expectations."

**********

THE STORY:

Two Ontario conservation officers -- complete with field kit of bulletproof vests and sidearms -- show up at Ken Procyk's Aurora home one day and pull out their ID.

"Are you trying to sell a moose head on eBay?" he asks.

"No," replies Procyk. "I've sold a moose head on eBay. Why? Is there some kind of problem?"

And so it began.

**********

RELATED: Uh, guys... over here

One man is dead and two others are in hospital after a violent Saturday night in Toronto. The man's death is the city's 71st homicide of the year - two more than in all of 2006. His name hasn't been released.

Shortly after midnight, another man, 30, was stabbed at a bar in the area of Royal York Rd. and the Gardiner Expressway.

A few hours later, police responded to another west-end shooting. Officers were called to a bar on Albion Rd., near Finch Ave. W.

On the 6 o'clock news there was also another report of a stabbing at a grocery store in Scarborough... but after certain point, you've go to stop counting.

Curiously... not a single word... regarding what part taxidermy may have played in these incidents.

Technorati Tags: Bob the Moose, Michael Bryant, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Your money... their pâté de foie gras

"Please give generously to the Liberal Party or we might be forced to cut back on big blowouts at top-notch luxury resorts in the future."

Compassionate yuppie metrosexuals...

Funding epidemic of child slavery... in the third world...

Amitosh concentrates as he pulls the loops of thread through tiny plastic beads and sequins on the toddler's blouse he is making. Dripping with sweat, his hair is thinly coated in dust. In Hindi his name means 'happiness'. The hand-embroidered garment on which his tiny needle is working bears the distinctive logo of international fashion chain Gap.

Amitosh is 10.

But how can that be true? The GAP is being endorsed by all your favourite "Learjet Liberals"... this must be an evil neocon conspiracy.

With annual revenues of more than £8bn and endorsements from Madonna and Sex and The City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has arguably become the most successful brand in high-street fashion. The latest face of the firm's advertising is the singer Joss Stone.

Last year, the company embarked on a huge advertising campaign surrounding 'Product Red', a charitable trust for Africa founded by the U2 singer Bono and backed by celebrities including Hollywood star Don Cheadle, singers Lenny Kravitz and Mary J Blige, Steven Spielberg and Penelope Cruz.

Yessir... it's another triumph for the mindless, metrosexual, oh-so fashion conscious moonbats.

**********

POP QUIZ: Why do all the lefties pee themselves...

Every time they brush up against some "so called" celebrity?

Bono popped into the Gap at 54th/5th Ave in NYC on Friday morning, much to the excitement of the customers and the staff! He was spontaneously signing t-shirts for customers who bought Product (RED).

Word is that other celebs from the campaign are doing the same in Gap stores across the country to show thier support for this new business model.

This is too cool!

To paraphrase something my mother would have said to me, many, many years ago...

"If Bono told you to jump off the roof... would you do it?"

Technorati Tags: The GAP, child slavery, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Your early morning traffic report

Things are starting to back up around the Gates of Nirvana.

-- KABUL -- U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region, officials said.

Of course, Musa Qala is Smack Central... so the religious warriors may be a little more motivated than usual.

The battle near Musa Qala in Helmand province — the world's largest poppy growing region — is at least the fifth major fight in the area since Sept. 1. The five battles have killed more than 250 Taliban fighters, a possible sign that U.S. or British forces could be trying to wrest the area back from Taliban militants.

Every time these donkeyheads try to "stand and deliver" they get squashed like bugs. If they're smart, they'll go back to booby trapping convoys with IEDs.

The latest fight began when Taliban fighters attacked a combined U.S. coalition and Afghan patrol with rockets and gunfire, prompting the combined force to call in attack aircraft, which resulted in "almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed," the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement early Sunday.

Hey Timmy... where is your god now?

**********

RELATED: There was, of course, a Jack Layton moment...

"A Taliban official in the town denied any insurgents had been killed around Musa Qala and accused foreign forces of dropping bombs on civilians."

Technorati Tags: Musa Qala, opium poppies, heroin

What's next on the agenda...

Issuing pistol permits to convicted felons?

-- WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and New York agreed Saturday on a compromise creating a more secure driver's license for U.S. citizens and allowing illegal immigrants to get a version.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants. But he said there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"I don't endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice," Chertoff said.

Or you could step up tracking and deporting the illegals.

Was that one not on the table?

**********

RELATED: The loony left responds...

We don' need no steenkin' badges!

“What a huge political flip,” said Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

“He’s now embracing and letting his good name be used to promote something that has been widely known in the immigrant community as one of the most anti-immigrant pieces of legislation to come out of Congress,” Ms. Hong said.

She said having separate licenses would amount to a scarlet letter for illegal immigrants. “I know I’m speaking for millions of immigrants when I say I just feel so thoroughly betrayed.”

Scum-sucking bottom feeders...

Let RCMP officer bleed to death...

-- EDMONTON -- At least five people heard gunshots the morning a Northwest Territories RCMP officer was shot to death, but it was more than two hours before anyone found Constable Christopher Worden curled up on the ground with multiple wounds.

The warrant application indicated that various people admitted they saw and heard the events that led to Constable Worden's death, but no one called police.

Old Liberals never die...

They just set their phasers... "on stunned..."

Victor Viggiani has one of the toughest jobs in the universe. The retired elementary school principal spends his time lobbying reporters to blow a massive government cover-up wide open and reveal that extra-terrestrials have been visiting our planet for years.

Viggiani found his champion in Paul Hellyer, who was federal defence minister in Lester B. Pearson's cabinet and then ran for the Liberal leadership against Pierre Trudeau in 1968.

Now that explains a few things.

Dance of the Seven Veils

These hypocritical cowards actually agree that this had to be addressed... but, once again, it doesn't stop them from taking shots at the Conservative's scary, hidden agenda...

But yesterday's response to the government's amendment was greeted with suggestions that the debate was being revived for political gain.

"I'm not going to make policy on the fly," said deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who said he still supports a solution requiring proper identification of all voters. "I'm just telling you my personal opinion, that what I don't like about this whole project is the idea that we take a bunch of women wearing veils and we make a whole big deal about this."

NDP Leader Jack Layton was similarly skeptical about the urgent need to address the matter, but didn't comment on the bill's specifics.

Once again, let's trot out that "Evil Stephen Harper" fairy tale.

The guy who actually... shudder... makes stuff happen.

Technorati Tags: Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, lunatic left

Sorbara Surprise

Liberal Finance Minister bails on McSlippery cabinet...

Governments don't like surprises, nor do they generally like to foist surprises on voters.

When there is a surprise announcement, there is usually a good political story behind it.

And there must be an intriguing story to be told around this afternoon's news that Ontario Finance Minister, Greg Sorbara, has decided to take a pass not only on remaining finance minister, but also on sitting in Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet.

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RELATED: John Tory weighs in

“I think the average IQ around that cabinet table just crashed with his departure, and I’m concerned about that for the sake of the province,” said Tory.

“I just wish he’d announced he was leaving before the election. I think people would have taken a different look at the McGuinty government without the brains of the operation being there.”

Sorbara was considered to be McGuinty’s right-hand man and he has been credited with steering the party to victory in the 2003 and 2007 campaigns.

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RELATED: In other Sorbara news

Two Ontario companies are suing a York region hospital alleging that plans for a proposed urgent health care centre dissolved after former Ontario finance minister Greg Sorbara used his political influence to redirect the proposal.

The plaintiffs further allege that Mr. Sorbara interfered so that the hospital would be moved to a property owned by a company to which he allegedly has ties.

Technorati Tags: Greg Sorbara, John Tory, Dalton McSlippery

Ship of "faith based" schooling...

Hits rocks of hard reality... in the Emerald Isle.

-- LUCAN, Ireland -- While Ireland has maintained an "open door" policy to immigrants, poor planning in the dense suburbs outside Dublin and the nation's longstanding commitment to a faith-based education model have left many new residents on the margins of the education system.

It remains unclear that the Irish government has the vision to accommodate them.

"The battle for integration will be won and lost in the schools," Conor Lehihan, Ireland's minister of state for integration, said when he took the position in June.

The Gathering Storm... UPDATE

You might just wanna start rounding up home medical supplies...

He warmed considerably when he realized that I was a Marine's wife who would have preferred to stitch her own arm could she have but reached her elbow. I assured him that I would not have the same trouble undoing his handiwork.

After an anecdote about dating a veterinary student who neutered a stray on my kitchen table during a few rounds of Cuervo Gold, the conversation turned to why I had such a strong urge to embroider myself.

"Because of the staph colony crawling all over this gurney and every nook of this fine medical establishment.", I said frankly.

Anybody who has had to sit in the local petrie dish slash emergency room for 6 hours knows what this gal is talking about.

He chuckled at my candor but his face turned grim as he related a sad statistic. The cases of anti-biotic resistant staph in this rural hospital had positively exploded on the heels of the Meth-amphetamine boom in the hills just out the window.

Two hundred and sixteen cases in the last year alone. The details he shared with me of the sad state of our politically correct medical system left me deeply afraid.

I glared at the writhing scumbag who had by now been strapped to a bed too nearby.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Ramping up at CFB Trenton

It's way past time someone made a serious effort to turn around all those years of Liberal neglect.

Quinte West Mayor John Williams will meet with a senior defence department policy advisor Nov. 2 in Ottawa to discuss the purchase of 900 acres of land north of CFB Trenton by Public Works Canada.

And this is a pretty good start.

It has been reported the purchase of private property outside currently-owned DND land would be home to a new airborne unit announced in 2006 by then Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor.

Other reports said the Trenton base could become the new home to Joint Task Force 2.

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PARTING SHOT:

"You know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals only eat their enemies."

- Lyndon Johnson

Technorati Tags: CFB Trenton, Quinte West, JTF2

Open the pod bay doors, HAL

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. "

"I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."

Iranian nukes?

Sorry, Mahmoud.... it just ain't gonna happen.

-- JERUSALEM -- The United States has brought forward the planned sale of advanced warplanes to Israel as part of efforts by the two allies to maintain a military advantage over Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday.

Quoting unnamed defence officials, The Jerusalem Post said the Pentagon has agreed to supply the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Israel as early as 2012, when the U.S. air force is scheduled to receive the first of the supersonic radar-evading jets.

Like their Syrian neighbours, Iran is prepared to lie, cheat, steal and kill to get the bomb.

And while the rest of the world, mostly through the ineffectual protestations of the United Nations, has been willing to supply a shitload of carrot... it's obvious that what's really needed here... is "monster stick".

Israel, which is not among eight countries in partnership with Washington in producing the F-35 and had been expected to get the plane in 2014 or 2015, is building up its arsenal for a possible showdown with Iran.

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RELATED: Icy hands gripping economic testicles

Despite the government's insistence that U.S. and UN sanctions aren't causing any pain, some leading Iranians have begun to say publicly that the pressure does hurt. And on Tehran's streets, people are increasingly worried over the economic pinch.

Mr. Ahmadinejad and his allies are likely counting on sanctions to rally Iranians against the United States.

“Hard-liners in Tehran were looking forward for the sanctions. It helps them hide their incompetence behind the embargo,” said political commentator Saeed Laylaz.

Technorati Tags: Iran, nuclear bomb, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Syria gets caught once again...

With its nuclear pants down around its ankles.

-- WASHINGTON -- New commercial satellite images show a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site has been wiped clean since it was bombed Sept. 6 by Israeli aircraft.

Analysts say Thursday that the cleanup will hinder a proposed investigation by international nuclear inspectors and suggests Syria is trying to conceal evidence.

Apparently the Syrians were so caught up in burying all the evidence, they forgot about that big "eye in the sky."

An image taken Wednesday by a DigitalGlobe commercial satellite shows tractors or bulldozers and scrape marks on the ground where the building stood in photos taken before the September Israeli attack.

Had the building not been razed, inspectors would have been able to tell from its construction whether it was meant to house a North Korean-style nuclear reactor, Albright said.

He said that the structure got a roof so early in its construction also suggests that it was a reactor.

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UPDATE: Satellite pictures posted here

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LAST WORD: Here's the real story...

The Iranian military are crappin' their diapers.

Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace.

And guess what happened with the Russian super hyper sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th.

Nothing.

Technorati Tags: International Atomic Energy Agency, Syrian nuclear reactor, Israeli airstrike

A Gathering Storm

Two words you don't wanna see in the same sentence... deadly and synergy...

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that details the link between TB and HIV in the United States. Worldwide, TB is the leading cause of death among people infected with HIV.

Nine percent of all people with active TB in the United States tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus infection in 2005. But HIV infection status remained unknown in 31 percent of TB patients because they refused testing or were not offered a test, the CDC report said.

"HIV increases TB progression and TB increases HIV progression. And they result in a synergy that can be deadly," CDC epidemiologist Suzanne Marks, one of the authors of the report, said in a telephone interview.

Six Hard Questions

Oh, oh, I've got one... "How many starving Haitians could you rescue... if Al Gore cut his electricity consumption in half... and gave you all that moola?"

Only after you've addressed each question in turn can you say something sensible about climate policy. To carry out that program in detail would indeed be a Nobel-worthy achievement.

I don't propose to earn my Nobel Prize in this column space, but I can at least offer a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation to show you how this stuff works.

Hey... just practising my eco-judo.

Unless you're a fanatical vegan...

You should keep your hypocritical opinions to yourself...

It's that time of year.

I'm not a hunter myself, but I've always been a little irked at people who, every fall... run around screaming about animal genocide.

They're usually the same people who insist that anyone, absolutely anyone who dares to own a firearm... is a threat to society.

They're also usually the same people who wear expensive leather coats and order 25 dollar expense account striploins, which somehow... is always excusable.

They'll scream about the cruelty of the slaughterhouse and then blithely run the kids to the nearest burger joint for a quick, convenient, no dirty-dishes fix.

And that, my friends, is the height of intellectual and ethical dishonesty.

I talk to the pigs whenever I’m in their pen, and ever since June I’ve been slowly taming them, getting them used to being scratched.

There are two reasons. I truly love being with the pigs. And taming them means it will be that much easier for the farmer and his son to kill them swiftly, immediately.

If I had no more foreknowledge of my death than these two pigs will have of theirs, I’d consider myself very lucky.

There's no sense being top predator, if you're gonna get all squishy about what constitutes protein.

So pick a side here... and live your choice... but save the yuppie scum hypocrisy for your equally confused circle of suburban sybarite friends.

And let the rest of to go about our business in peace.

Technorati Tags: country life, yuppie scum, give me bbq, or give me death

Kate and I don't always agree...

But I love the pithy commentary...

"Warmer winters, wetter summers, and now - deader rodents."

"I'm failing to see the downside in this."

Not to mention her uncanny ability... to always drill down to the shiniest nugget.

"The only folly more profound than the notion that mankind can 'change the weather', is the folly that argues that we can change it back."

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RELATED: "Scrap Y2Kyoto", says science journal "Nature"

A report in an influential science magazine says it is time to forego the Kyoto protocol because the United Nations treaty has failed to bring about any significant action on climate change.

Not only has the decade-old treaty not delivered cuts in global emissions of greenhouse gases that continue to soar, but it is the wrong tool for the job, say Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and Steve Rayner at Oxford.

The article also explains why the Liberals... and Steffi in particular... were so enamored with the airy-fairy protocol...

Kyoto is a "symbolically important expression" of governments' concerns about climate change, they say. "But as an instrument for achieving emissions reductions it has failed.

Their commentary has top billing in the British science journal this week.

Technorati Tags: small dead animals, Y2Kyoto, science journal "Nature"

Talking with Ezra

The Calgary Sun apparently pulled this story from their website after deciding it was too hot to handle.

I emailed author Ezra Levant to see if he had any reaction.

He... unlike some of his media colleagues... replied promptly and courteously.

**********

Ezra Levant
to me
4:32 pm (8 minutes ago)

Hi there. The Sun obviously approved the story -- they accepted it from me, edited it, laid it out on the page, wrote the headline, sent it to press, etc., etc.

I guess they just didn't like the heat they got from it -- which is really weird, because it was fairly innocuous, and the heat I've seen has been a few hard-left permanent-complainers.

Looks like political correctness has infected even the Sun -- who knew?

They took it off their website; but here is the original (unedited) version that I sent them.

Cheers.

**********

The school bus accident last Thursday that killed a nine-year-old child and wounded others was a sorrowful tragedy. The amount of media coverage of the accident was appropriate: children should never pre-decease their parents.

Calgary’s radio stations, newspapers and TV news covered the event exhaustively – inspecting every detail, and asking good questions about how such accidents might be avoided in the future.

Every detail was examined except one: the woman who was the school bus driver was wearing a Muslim-style head covering that blocked her peripheral vision.

Why was this fact omitted? We read and heard hundreds of words about other elements of the accident. We know all about the truck on the side of the road; we know all about the little bus, and how it "drifted" over; we know all about the ongoing debate about school bus seatbelts. We know about everything detail except the most important one: the bus driver herself.

I saw two fleeting glimpses of the bus driver – once, quickly, in a TV newscast, and the other in a newspaper photo. Both showed her wearing a veil. Not a niqab – the full, cover-the-face veil that some Muslim women wear. But a smaller hijab – a scarf the surround the face. In both glimpses, the bus driver’s hijab was worn far enough forward that it clearly blocked her peripheral vision. It looked almost like blinders on a racehorse.

Is that not an extremely relevant fact in an accident where a bus "drifted" off the road, side-swiping a vehicle parked on the side? Wasn’t peripheral vision a key issue?

This was the leading news story of the day; the CBC even flew in its top TV reporter from Vancouver. Did no-one find it odd that a bus driver whose job requires keen eyesight wore a hood-like scarf?

I can’t believe that, of the dozen reporters there, none had questions about this. Who is the woman? What is her name? Why was she wearing a headscarf? Was the scarf a factor?

Reporters are inquisitive people. They must have asked those questions, at least to themselves.

I think it’s obvious why these questions were not asked: because it is politically incorrect to question a Muslim veil – or even anything that looks like one – for fear of being regarded as politically incorrect.

Maybe the woman wasn’t Muslim; maybe it was just a scarf to stay warm. Why didn’t a single reporter even ask?

Of course, it doesn’t matter if the woman was Muslim or not, or it if was a religious hijab or just a winter scarf. What matters is that a school bus driver was allowed to operate while wearing a hood. Clearly, that is an unacceptable risk – and something that should be banned by common sense.

Ten years ago, to say that head scarves on bus drivers should be prohibited would have been uncontroversial. But to say so today is to be called Islamophobic – even if the bus driver in question was not a Muslim.

The bus driver has been charged; we’ll know what the justice system says caused the crash. But for the dozen reporters there, they’d rather find any other reason than a head scarf – even a non-religious head scarf worn by a non-Muslim – than to admit that there are simply some parts of modern, secular society where it is inappropriate – and even dangerous – to allow politically correct multiculturalism to trump common sense.


Ezra Levant
Publisher, Western Standard

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(first found via "let freedom reign")

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SIDENOTE: Of course, in some parts of the world...

They don't just kill your story.

-- Washington, D.C., October 24, 2007 -- Alisher Saipov, a journalist who reported extensively for the Voice of America (VOA), was killed outside his office earlier today in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Mr. Saipov reported for VOA's Uzbek language service on a variety of sensitive political issues critical to the audience throughout Central Asia.

It's all relative, isn't it?

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LAST WORD: A very special welcome...

To readers of noted humanitarian "Canadian Cynic"

Make sure you check out his greatest hits.

Technorati Tags: Ezra Levant, Calgary Sun, suckass political correctness

Out here in the country...

The farmers refer to it as the three S's... that's short for shoot, shovel and shutup.

The shooting deaths of an Uxbridge family's two dogs by a farmer exemplify the harsh facts of rural life, an animal welfare official says.

Under provincial law, a farmer has the right to kill a dog that's attacking his livestock or even just straying on property where his animals are kept, the chief inspector with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said yesterday.

And there's a perfectly good rationale for doing exactly that.

"I sympathize with the owner," Hugh Coghill said. "I'd be devastated if it happened to my dogs. But I've seen what two dogs will do to a flock of sheep overnight. It's horrifically graphic."

The intention of the decades-old Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act is to protect livestock from harm by stray dogs, Coghill said.

"They don't even have to be in the act of attacking. A dog can actually worry cattle, sheep or poultry to death."

And that's just part of the reason people out here are less than impressed with the fiberal's 2-billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry."

Let's register criminals... instead of chasing down inanimate and useful tools.

Technorati Tags: Livestock, Poultry and Honeybee Protection Act, shoot, shovel and shutup, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

Steffi just doesn't have the stones

Exquisitely tutored... but obviously neutered...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper challenged Liberal leader Stéphane Dion to demonstrate the "courage of his convictions" yesterday and repeat, outside the protection of parliamentary immunity, allegations of election campaign illegality by Conservative staffers.

"If he believes what he said, he should make those accusations outside the chamber where those whom he is libelling and slandering have recourse to the courts to hold him responsible," said Mr. Harper.

Ok, Stef... your move.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, parliamentary immunity, Prime Minister Harper

Anybody who's been through...

Those wild and wooly toddler-raising years... can appreciate to Solomonic wisdom of this solution.

-- JERUSALEM -- Israel has come up with a new plan to deter Palestinians from firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, defense officials said Wednesday — it will cut off electricity to the territory every time one of the projectiles hits Israeli territory.

As with just about any behavioural issue... it's simply a matter of finding your troublemaker's "currency."

Israel provides more than half of Gaza's electricity, and any power cutoff would make life more difficult for residents of the already impoverished territory.

It's one thing to be a glorious martyr for the cause... it's another thing entirely to forgo television or flush toilets.

Technorati Tags: Gaza Strip, Palestinian terrorism, spank the baby

Simple Pleasures

When it comes to beer... sometimes less IS more...

I was sitting at a noisy bar on a beautiful fall afternoon, watching the bartender work, and she was indeed working. She pulled down on the tap, then pushed back, pulled down and pushed up, in rhythmic repetition like a farmhand at a well.

This was beer the really old-fashioned way... unpasteurized and unfiltered. And it was served by muscle power pumping the ale up from its cask into the mug.

Technorati Tags: Cask-conditioned ales, a hammer, a cask and a couple of flasks, Campaign for Real Ale

The thing is, Dalton knows you don't...

Really give a crap...

Local health officials have been left wondering if the average area resident cares that Quinte Health Care could be ordered to cut back on its medical services to balance an estimated $10-million deficit.

That assumption comes after QHC officials called a public meeting to air the scenario and they were greeted by an empty hall.

Just like the dismal voter turnout for the provincial elections, this sends a signal to Premier McSlippery that he can get away with just about anything he chooses to do.

The hospital may also be forced to curb plans to increase the number of beds in its overburdened intensive care unit and put on hold its emergency department expansion to handle the huge volume of patients who do not have a family doctor.

All these measures may occur to help eliminate the deficit.

As well, provincial funding has failed to keep pace with increased costs and there is a shortage of staff nurses and doctors at the four sites, leading to overtime and soaring costs.

Just something to ponder during your next 6 hour wait at the Belleville General Emergency Room.

Technorati Tags: Quinte Health Care, Belleville General Hospital, fiberal smoke and mirrors

CBC steps on its own dick

Yet again...

Peter Worthington on the prevailing leftwing media bias in Canada...

If the CBC had known that a public opinion poll it co-sponsored in Afghanistan would turn out the way it did, you can be assured the CBC wouldn't have had anything to do with it.

Only 15% of Afghans wanted Canadian troops to leave immediately; the greater proportion of 80% wanted them to remain until the Taliban was crushed.

It seems the "think pink" crowd at the CBC are even more delusional than previously suspected.

This one seems like such a no-brainer.

The CBC and others also seem surprised that Afghan women were more positive about the future than men and appreciated the Canadians. Women were also more "negative" about the Taliban than Afghan men.

That's a surprise? Under the Taliban, women couldn't go to school; weren't allowed to be seen in public; were condemned to the burqa; could be beaten if they showed flesh; under Sharia law, adultery entailed stoning to death.

In short, the Taliban, like Islam, is male oriented and male dominated.

The only ones not surprised at the poll were ... wait for it -- Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and, possibly, members of the Harper government who have been to Afghanistan and tested the mood of the country.

So who actually sucks up all of the CEEB's mindless leftbot puke?

Well... that would be "Liberal Man".

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RELATED: Stephen Taylor... fun with numbers

Facebook boasts 7,361,720 accounts in Canada. Of these accounts, 1,340 are at "CBC / Radio Canada".

If one then checks off "Liberal" as a delimiting factor, we're left with 180 accounts. If we uncheck "Liberal" and check "Moderate", we get 40 accounts.

Now, if we uncheck "moderate" and select "Conservative", we get "fewer than 20."

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LAST WORD: Meanwhile, just across the border

The mainstream media's failure to report what's been happening in Iraq frustrates Michael Yon perhaps more than anyone.

He has risked his life to tell that story, and the American media has yawned, apparently preferring the anachronistic pronouncements of a former general who hasn't been in the theatre since the surge began.

Technorati Tags: CBC, leftwing media bias, Environics

Once upon a time

As Conservative poll numbers edge further into majority territory, Steffi and the Fiberals start to dust off all the old fairy tales...

You know just how desperate the PM's enemies have become when they fall back on the threadbare charge that Mr. Harper is harbouring a "hidden agenda" to be unleashed when he gets his majority.

Please: Get a new threat. This one worked well in the Chretien/ Day era. But nearly two years into the Conservatives' mandate, it is unlikely many voters outside downtown Toronto still view Mr. Harper and his caucus as "scary."

Instead of all the smoke and mirrors... why won't the opposition just admit they haven't got the stones to take anything near a principled stand.

The truth is that Mr. Harper has a minority government. If he has unlimited power, it is because opposition MPs are scared of an election.

The opposition could vote this government out of office at any time. If, instead, they are choosing to save their own seats, don't blame the Prime Minister for their lack of principle.

C'mon Steffi... man up.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, fiberal smoke and mirrors, majority government

I think I can, I think I can...

Thirty years ago, Manitoba saw an influx of what was then known as "boat people." Vietnamese refugees.

You want to talk poverty? You want to talk culture? Here were thousands of peasants brought from a tropical rain forest to the coldest city of its size on the planet. Ripped from their cultural roots, living in poverty worse than any Indian reserve.

What happened to them?

Now, if the deluded cheap-ass pinkos...

In the Liberal Party hadn't cancelled those helicopters... maybe there'd be a few less dead soldiers...

A loud bang, the acrid smell of explosives and a blinding cloud of dust indicated the Taliban had struck again – successfully.

Having the right equipment is half the battle... and fortunately, we're getting back on track.

The front end of the Husky was nowhere to be seen but the rest of it, including the driver in his cockpit, were OK.

"He said dammit, I spilled my water bottle," laughed De Wolfe, who was in contact with the other driver over his radio.

Cpl. Pierre Brule, 31, was greeted with applause and laughter when he entered the lead command vehicle later. It was suggested he should have to pay for the damages out of his salary.

Let's give our soldiers the tools they need.

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UPDATE: Talk about perfect timing

Looks like somebody heard my plea.

-- WASHINGTON -- NATO plans to rent helicopters to resupply front lines and remote bases in southern Afghanistan – an unprecedented move that could reduce ground casualties even as it exposes the unwillingness of major European allies to send their choppers into dangerous, Taliban-infested areas.

Defence ministers meeting Wednesday in the Netherlands are expected to approve chartering up to 20 large helicopters, flown by civilian contractors, to provide vital airlift and reduce the number of military convoys exposed to roadside bombs.

Most Canadian casualties this year have been caused by roadside bombs.

Technorati Tags: RSD Husky, NATO helicopters, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Forget about genocide in Darfur...

Or whether Iran gets nuclear weapons... the European Union has bigger fish to fry.

-- BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Commission said Tuesday it will take Finland to court again — and ask for it to pay a €2 million (US$2.8 million) penalty, plus daily fines — for failing to ban chewing tobacco in the Swedish-speaking Aland Islands.

European regulators said all oral tobacco — whether chewing tobacco or snus — is dangerous because it contains "particularly large quantities" of cancer-causing chemicals.

Only Sweden has an exemption to an EU ban on the smokeless tobacco called snus that is usually stuck under the upper lip.

Taliban Jack channels Dirty Harry

Sure Jack... you kick him while he's down, he's an easier target... but where's the sport in that?

-- OTTAWA -- “What effectively has happened is the gift of a majority government has been given by that party (the Liberals) to Mr. Harper.”

“It's going to be very symbolic to watch our members rise in the House — willing to put their jobs, their principles, their commitments on the line — and then to watch the official opposition sit it out.”

Uh, Jacko... you're confusing "symbolic" with "opportunistic" and, more to the point, "totally ineffective."

But hey... the show must go on.

Calling Big Brother

In today's geeky, gadget filled world... you can run, but good luck with that hiding thing.

For teenagers and 20-somethings, who are fond of sharing their comings and goings on the Internet, youth-oriented services like Loopt and Buddy Beacon are a natural next step.

Sam Altman, the 22-year-old co-founder of Loopt, said he came up with the idea in early 2005 when he walked out of a lecture hall at Stanford.

“Two hundred students all pulled out their cellphones, called someone and said, ‘Where are you?’ ” he said. “People want to connect.”

If G.P.S. made it harder to get lost, new cellphone services are now making it harder to hide.

And yeah... I disabled GPS on my phone, shortly after I got it.

Ontario Liberals have a theory...

Bringing private schools under the aegis of the public system would be a bad thing.

The controversy began Wednesday at a Burger King in Montreal's ethnically diverse north end, where a 14-year-old Pearson student was hit by an ice cube tossed by a group of girls from Henri Bourassa.

It seems to me... that the more you encourage people to stay in their own little worlds... the more you tend to foster that "us and them" mentality.

For example, here's a couple of schools in Quebec that are apparently populated mostly along racial lines... and it's starting to look like a war zone

The girl, who is white, has admitted to reacting with a racial slur.

A group of about 15 girls, most of them black, later jumped the student and her friend, punching and kicking her repeatedly in a park. Her beating was filmed and posted on YouTube.

The best solution is one system... of justice and education... for everyone.

Or the inevitable result will be enmity and chaos.

Here's how Dalton's Liberals...

Have been improving health care in Hastings, Northumberland and Prince Edward Counties...

The South East Local Health Integration Network says it is on target to compile a comprehensive list of residents in need of a family physician and to have it operational by the spring.

To date, however, the list hasn't moved past the planning stage.

Lemme see if I understand what's going on here... they're thinking about compiling a list of people who don't have a family doctor. Apparently though... that's a pretty tough nut to crack.

Yeah... we're still talking about making the list.

Brenda Snider, manager of volunteer services with Volunteer and Information Quinte, said she is still "very interested" in working on the project. Though the interest is there there have been difficulties in organizing a meeting among the interested groups due to scheduling conflicts, she said.

"We're just waiting for a meeting," Snider said. "I think it's very, very important that we all sit down and see what can be done."

Thank you very much, Premier McSlippery.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Local Health Integration Network, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Live by the sword...

Die like a dog in the street.

-- TORONTO -- A convicted drug dealer gunned down on a busy residential street in the middle of the day was once investigated for involvement in the murder of Riverdale teen Jane Creba.

Boateng had just finished visting a friend at the Don Jail on Broadview and Gerrard on Sunday when he was confronted on a nearby street and shot in the chest.

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RELATED: Where's my National SUV Registry?

A 19-year-old was run down and killed after an early morning confrontation between two groups in an airport-area bar and grill spilled out into a parking lot.

"It appears that this guy was run down intentionally," said Sgt. Paul Lobsinger of traffic services. "The deceased stands in front of the vehicle, and the guy makes a conscious decision to run him over."

The victim has been identified as Mark Shaba of Etobicoke.

Gagan Deep Singh, 25 of Mississauga, has been charged with impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing death, and fail to stop after an accident causing death.

Now who wouldn't be impressed...

By the latest feeble Fiberal tactic...

If the Liberal amendment were to be approved by Parliament, the government would fall and an election would be triggered.

However, it looks like the amendment has been carefully crafted to ensure that the Liberals will be the only party supporting the amendment, guaranteeing the government won't fall just yet.

Thank you, Stephane "You can't get there from here" Dion.

**********

RELATED: There's blood in the water...

The morning of Aug. 31, 1987, the chief organizer for the federal Liberal youth in Quebec called a press conference in Montreal to announce publicly what Grits everywhere were saying in private -- John Turner was a lost cause as party leader and should resign.

"Canadians have never followed weak, indecisive and inconsistent leaders," the organizer said. "We have to save the party."

That organizer was Denis Coderre, one of the Liberal MPs now stoking the fires of discontent threatening to engulf the Liberals' latest master of misfortune, Stephane Dion.

No one has called a press conference yet to demand Dion's resignation for "weak, indecisive and inconsistent" leadership, but don't rule it out.

The Brothers Grimm...

Would be very proud of Naomi Wolf...

I further reminded her that the Bush Administration would be leaving in fewer than 460 days never to return.

With this in mind, I asked her if she honestly believed that she and the other authors I mentioned would be arrested and imprisoned. Naomi Wolf did not want to answer my question.

She began by talking about Germany in 1931-1932...

Technorati Tags: Naomi Wolf, leftbot lunacy, inconvenient truth

We could try using volunteers...

From Greenpeace instead... but I'm not sure how that'd work out... (well, actually I am).

-- AFGHANISTAN -- Canada's diplomats in Kabul and visiting high-value targets like Prime Minister Stephen Harper are protected by a group of heavily armed gunmen hired by Saladin Security, a British firm with a long history of secretive and clandestine operations.

Similarly... that Liberal Party sponsored experiment with flower-toting employees... had some rather grisly consequences.

Department of Foreign Affairs officials in Ottawa are tight-lipped about the deal struck with Saladin, whose gun-toting employees provide perimeter security, operate checkpoints, serve as bodyguards and form a heavily armed rapid-reaction force designed to move quickly to thwart an attempted kidnapping and rescue survivors of suicide attacks or car-bombings in Kabul.

As for journalists using the very loaded words, "secretive and clandestine", well... that'd be part of keeping the folks they're guarding... what's the word I'm looking for here?

Oh yeah... alive.

It's a war zone folks... suck it up.

Technorati Tags: Saladin Security, Foreign Affairs, suckass political correctness

Neutral is such a vague word

Following in the footsteps of France... Switzerland leans towards tightening up it's immigration policy.

-- GENEVA -- A nationalist party rode an anti-immigrant wave Sunday to the best showing of any party in parliamentary elections since World War I, while the Greens made gains by appealing to environmental concerns, according to projections.

It looks like we're not talking baby steps here either.

In one of the most bitter political campaigns in memory in this usually tolerant Alpine nation, the Swiss People's Party called for a law to throw out entire immigrant families if a child violates national laws.

So, who are these guys and what kind of weight are they throwing around here?

The party became the largest in Switzerland four years ago under the leadership of charismatic billionaire Christoph Blocher.

It was projected to win about 28.8 per cent of the vote, or 62 seats in the lower house -- the largest share of seats any party has won since Switzerland's proportional voting system began in 1919.

Gonna be some sweet deals...

On housing... in North Waziristan.

-- PESHAWAR, 21 October 2007 (IRIN) -- After over a week of fierce fighting in and around the town of Mirali, in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan Agency, lying along the country's mountainous north-western border with Afghanistan, some semblance of normal life is returning slowly.

But the majority of the 80,000 people who have fled Mirali and areas around it as a result of the latest fighting have still not returned, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in the neighbouring North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Perhaps Osama miscalculated a little when he called for jihad on Pervez Musharraf.

If you're gonna back a guy into a corner, maybe you should pick on someone who doesn't have his own military juggernaut on 24/7 combat alert.

The Pakistan military closed off roads leading into North Waziristan at the height of fighting, effectively cutting off the area from the rest of the country.

Pakistan army spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said 200 people had been killed in the clashes, including 45 soldiers and 150 militants. There has been no official estimate on the number of civilian casualties.

And it looks like Pervez is more than a little ticked off.

"We have seen plenty of fighting in our lifetimes, but never anything like the aerial bombardment of the last week."

"Waziristan is no longer a place where one can safely bring up children," said farmer Mohammad Arshad.

Geez... I'll have to keep that in mind.

Technorati Tags: Pervez Musharraf, North Waziristan, payback is a bitch

Great news for Albertans

Coming soon to a suburban neighbourhood... near you.

-- CALGARY -- Canada's youngest convicted multiple murderer could qualify for a rarely used optional sentence when she learns her fate in southern Alberta this week, nearly three months after being found guilty of slaughtering her parents and little brother.

The girl, who turned 14 in prison on Sunday and can't be identified, may be a candidate for the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision sentence (IRCS).

Part of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, it's designed to be an alternative for serious, violent offenders and would break up her sentence between the young offender centre, a forensic psychiatric hospital, a group home and finally back into the community.

I'm sure you remember this poor little princess...

When her five-week trial concluded in July, a jury took only a couple hours to find her guilty on all three counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing and slashing deaths of her mother, father and eight-year-old brother in their suburban Medicine Hat home in April 2006.

Because she was only 12 at the time of the killings, she faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, with no more than six spent in custody.

There is no minimum sentence.

Hey ladies...

Are you looking for a unique educational opportunity?

-- RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- King Abdullah laid the cornerstone Sunday for a new coed science and technology university the government hopes will attract students from around the world.

KAUST will be the first public university in the kingdom to educate both male and female students.

Of course, none of the female students will be allowed to drive a car to get there... so there had better be some kickass public transit too.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who was in charge of developing KAUST, said the university will look beyond national borders to become "an international university that extends its hands and opens its doors to all talented scientists, distinguished researchers and promising students from the kingdom and from all the countries of the world."

It was not immediately clear whether the two sexes would attend classes side-by-side or be separated into groups.

No word yet either, on whether the school cafeteria will be serving bacon and eggs.

Technorati Tags: KAUST, halal menu, RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

By this time next year, these scummers...

Will be begging to be tasered...

The government is to consider allowing staff at young offenders institutions in England and Wales to use batons to control children as young as 15.

Staff are currently allowed to use them only against those aged 18 and over but that policy is to be reviewed.

It seems "suckass political correctness" is allowing the tail to "wag the dog" in British institutions.

Hopefully... that's gonna change.

Glyn Travis, assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), told BBC Radio Five Live that officers often got hurt.

"The injuries vary from broken noses, compressed fractures of cheekbones, fractured eye sockets, ears being bitten off, pens being shoved through people's faces, slashes," Mr Travis said.

Colin Moses, national chairman of the POA, added: "What we want is the deterrent to defend ourselves and defend those in our charge.

"And currently we have no deterrent to intervene."

In one case, staff had to intervene when a group of teenagers was trying to kick an inmate to death.

Of course, we have to have the obligatory "root causes" argle-bargle.

The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform said prisons had created their own problems by keeping young people cooped up indoors without exercise.

"I sympathise with [prison] staff, but they've got to try talking to the children. They've got to increase the activities inside the prisons."

Hey, I'm good with that... how about a daily program of turning big rocks into gravel?

Let's do it for the children.

**********

RELATED: Young offender, my ass...

**********

LAST WORD: A kinder, gentler world... for some

In the staff room, we relaxed with fresh fruit, fresh brewed coffee, croissants (still warm from the oven), and fresh pastry.

Everyone agreed on the need for more spending on education. More teaching assistants, more smaller classes, more free nutritious food, and, of course, more administration to oversee this all, are this weeks final solution.

After we all agreed to spend more other people’s money, we settled into a nice discussion on good retirement locations in rural ontario, those quite places that are so pleasantly far from Toronto.

Technorati Tags: taser, tonfa stick, suckass political correctness

Bad news for smack addicts...

And their Taliban overlords.

-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S.-led coalition soldiers and Afghan forces killed about 50 militants in two days of major fighting near a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan’s poppy-growing belt, officials Saturday.

Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since and is in the heart of the world’s largest poppy-growing region.

Boy... I sure hope this doesn't have a major impact on the leftbot sponsored safe-injection sites.

U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the Taliban fund between 20% and 40% of their militant operations through opium poppies.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium, the main ingredient in heroin.

We don't want anyone to miss their daily fix.

**********

RELATED: A little less Ecstasy...

For your Toronto teen.

An Ecstasy ring has been smashed after police raided a Scarborough home yesterday, seizing 2 million pills in a massive drug haul that could be worth up to $40 million.

The seizure from the Pipers Green Ave. home in the McCowan Rd.-Finch Ave. E. area is almost equal to all of the Ecstasy that Toronto police seized last year.

Shi Yan, 31, Ma Wei Qion, 29, Jian Yao Quan, 20, Wu Shu Qiang, 37, all of Toronto, and Ling Wan Shan, 50, of Brooklyn, N.Y., face numerous narcotics-related charges.

Technorati Tags: Musa Qala, opium poppies, heroin

You call it the Land Titles Registry

Hazel Hill and the Six Nations Confederacy label it "criminal acts by the Crown."

-- OSHWEKEN, ONT. -- On Wednesday, provincial negotiator Murray Coolican told Confederacy representatives that it is illegal for the recently created Haudenosaunee Development Institute to extract concessions or payments from private landowners.

You think you actually own the land your house sits on? Maybe you shouldn't be taking that for granted.

Developer Mr. Corrado called the Coolican statement "encouraging," but said he would have preferred it to come from Premier Dalton McGuinty or Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay.

"We'll see if they put their money where their mouth is and they defend land titles."

Sure... because Dalton has been such a standup guy about about aboriginal terrorism in the past, huh?

If you're gonna dream... it may as well be in technicolour.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The Indian Act should be amended so that no aboriginal can ever hold legal title to any property since they may choose to sell it against the wishes of their progeny a hundred years hence."

Here's another shocker...

Sane people sometimes have a problem working for crazy people...

Iran's chief negotiator with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, Ali Larijani, has resigned.

Mr Larijani had differences with the president over how to proceed with the negotiations, correspondents say.

Apparently Mr Larijani is more concerned about Tehran being turned into a puddle of blackened, smoking, molten glass... than appeasing Madman Ahmadinejad's invisible friend, the "Hidden Imam."

Mr Larijani has favoured further negotiations with the West over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, as opposed to the president's more hard-line approach, our correspondent says.

Which is code for, "How far away do I have to move my family... in order to clear the imminent lethal strike zone?"

**********

LAST WORD: If Iran wants to be dealt in...

They better make sure they've got the chips.

“The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute who moderated a panel discussion before and after Mr. Cheney’s speech, said the vice president also seemed to draw a new red line when, instead of saying it is “not acceptable” for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, he said the world “will not allow” it.

“The first is a condition,” Mr. Makovsky said. “The second is a commitment.”

Technorati Tags: Ali Larijani, nuclear weapon, flat, black, glows in the dark

And awkward, lumbering Hagrid...

Had a bit of a problem with debilitating substance abuse.

-- NEW YORK -- British author J.K. Rowling has outed one of the main characters of her best-selling Harry Potter series, telling fans in New York that the wizard Albus Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts school, is gay.

Speaking at Carnegie Hall on Friday night in her first U.S. tour in seven years, Rowling confirmed what some fans had always suspected -- that she "always thought Dumbledore was gay."

The woman's already made, what... $1.12 billion dollars... but she's just gotta keep bangin' on the pump handle? Sheesh.

Apparently though... what a character in a much-loved children's book does with their genitals... is a pretty big deal to some folks.

The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission -- then erupted into applause. Rowling, 42, said if she had known that would be the response, she would have revealed her thoughts on Dumbledore earlier.

Technorati Tags: J.K. Rowling, Albus Dumbledore, suckass political correctness

We're gonna have a party!

"We'll celebrate it by stealing each other's money, flushing it down the toilet -- then screwing Liona Boyd!"

Slaughter in Surrey

I was sure glad to hear the other day... about the dropping homicide rate across Canada.

-- SURREY, B.C. -- An RCMP homicide team was investigating a mass murder Friday night with up to six people dead in an apartment building.

"We're looking at perhaps a very dramatic homicide scene with as many as six dead," said Sgt Morrow.

We're no Johannesburg... but apparently some folks from BC are looking to "kick it up a notch."

**********

UPDATE: Well... it doesn't look like an accident

-- SURREY, B.C. -- The RCMP says the six people found dead in a Surrey, B.C. apartment Friday are all males and the incident does not appear to have been a random act of violence.

Corporal Dale Carr of the integrated homicide investigation team told a news conference outside the building Saturday that the victims appear to have been targeted.

He described the scene as grisly and said the team is still trying to identify the victims.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I used to live there and my wife was the neighbourhood police contact for "Blockwatch". We never had any crime in our neighbourhood, and my wife complimented the young RCMP Constable on their good work."

"He said, ruefully, that the reason for the lack of petty crime in our area was that one of the houses at the end of our street was home to one of the biggest EI gangs in the Lower Mainland and criminal elements knew better than to try any activities on their turf."

The eyes wide open reality...

Of Nelson Mandela's carefully constructed dreamworld.

-- JOHANNESBURG -- Gunmen shot and killed South African reggae star Lucky Dube in front of his son and daughter in one of the highest-profile murders in the country, police said on Friday.

Dube's killing is one of the most high-profile killings in South Africa, which has one of the world's worst murder rates.

The number of rapes, carjackings and assaults also are high, with some of the most violent types of crime rising last year despite efforts to beef up police forces.

Johannesburg has been the rape and murder capital of the world... for how many years running?

Funny how all the people who can get themselves insane with rage over 4 taser deaths per year... can ignore the hell in South Africa.

There are real and overwhelming issues in this world.

Let's start ranking stuff in order of importance.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Death by proximity is more important news than death by number."

Culinary Jihad raises hackles...

At the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto...

Muslim student leaders are appealing for understanding in the wake of a controversy surrounding the halal menu at a U of T Scarborough campus restaurant.

The controversy began last May when the student-subsidized Bluff's Restaurant, owned by the student union and located in the student centre, began offering halal-certified meat options to cater to Muslim customers.

However because Bluff's serves alcohol, the 500-student Muslim association has refused to endorse the restaurant for its membership.

So let me see if I understand what's happening here.

This restaurant altered its menu to accommodate Muslim students... but because it didn't covert totally... it is still unacceptably "unclean".

Where exactly do we draw the line here?

What about "immodestly attired" waitresses? Hell... what about allowing "unaccompanied women" to attend university, for that matter?

But don't panic just yet... the university has called in the political correctness Commissar.

Nouman Ashraf, the university's cultural diversity officer, said he is working with the Muslim student group to find a solution to what he believes is an equity issue.

See Nouman... I'm thinking this is more of an "I don't live in Tehran any more" sort of thing.

This is Canada folks... you better learn to adjust.

**********

MEMO:

Have to run Mrs Neo into the big city, so I may not be able to respond immediately to the expected flood of loony leftbot hate mail.

Just double up on your meds and be patient... I'll get back to you later today.

Technorati Tags: University of Toronto, halal menu, suckass political correctness

Who could have anticipated that...

Jumping off tall buildings could be hazardous to your health..?

You know, sort of like attacking police officers...

Quilem Registre, 38, died overnight Wednesday in a Montreal hospital.

Police have said the man was intoxicated when they stopped him for a traffic violation last Sunday and that he became aggressive when he was questioned.

Officers used a Taser stun gun to subdue him and he ended up in critical condition in hospital.

Once again... this is a no-brainer scenario.

Even Ghandi would have to admit... that anybody who chooses to deliberately attack a couple of armed men... is a couple of fries short of a happy meal.

In any case, we just finished doing the whole taser argument... if you'll excuse the play on words... to death.

I don't have a whole lot to add to that.

This dumbass called the play and then ran smack into the goal post.

Reality 1... Dumbass 0.

Technorati Tags: taser, Quilem Registre, The Full Moonbat

Just can't get enough of your love

That "Will of Allah" thing... that just never gets old, huh?

-- PAKISTAN -- More than 120 136 people have been killed after two bombs exploded among crowds in Karachi celebrating the return of the former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto.

It's like every single problem in the Islamic world... is a nail sticking up from the surface... just begging to be hammered back down.

Why talk... when killing is so much more, well... economical?

**********

UPDATE: The totally anticipated consequences...

On the eve of Ms. Bhutto's arrival, a provincial government official had cited intelligence reports that three suicide bombers linked to Mr. Mehsud were in Karachi. The local government had also warned Ms. Bhutto could be targeted by Taliban or al-Qaeda.

Earlier this month, local media reports quoted Mr. Mehsud — probably the most prominent leader of Islamic militants destabilizing its northwestern border regions near Afghanistan — as vowing to greet Ms. Bhutto's return to Pakistan with suicide attacks.

**********

LAST WORD: Pay me now, or pay me later

In his first major speech since leaving office, Mr Blair again defended the decision to go to war in Iraq.

He urged continued vigilance by the United States, Britain and their allies in combating the threat of extremism.

Mr Blair - now an envoy for the Middle East Quartet - warned against being "forced into retreat" as the world faced a situation similar to "rising fascism in the 1920s".

Technorati Tags: Benazir Bhutto, Tony Blair, rising fascism

The Doctor is in

"It took me a whole ten seconds to say, 'Replace it.'"

"Attention Grades 7 and 8...."

"The bus to the safe-injection site will be leaving promptly after recess."

-- PORTLAND, Me., Oct. 17 -- The Portland school board on Wednesday approved a measure allowing middle-school students to gain access to prescription birth control medications without notifying parents.

The school principal, Mike McCarthy, said about 5 of the school’s 500 students had identified themselves as being sexually active.

**********

RELATED: Let's head this off right here...

Please save all the vitriolic anti-religious commentary for someone else.

This has nothing to do with religion... if you've read the blog at all, you should know by now... I'm an atheist.

That said... if your 13 year-old child is having sex... you have officially failed as a parent.

**********

LAST WORD: Trust me, I'm an educator

-- ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania -- A former middle school principal who pleaded guilty to selling crystal methamphetamine from his office was sentenced Thursday to two to four years in state prison.

John Acerra, 50, apologized to students, teachers and parents at Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he was arrested in February after he tried to sell meth to an informant.

You wanna know how this dickhead justified his conduct?

"I have a disease called addiction."

Hate mail at 'the Halls'

Now... I'm not sayin' I get as the same volume, or ferocity, of "hate mail" as a Kate McMillan or a Kathy Shaidle... but when a self-labelled Christian starts implying they'd be more than happy to kill your 11 year-old child... it's time to throw a little light in a pretty dark corner.

"It seems to me that with a father with a heart like yours raises a child, they could have some enemies."

That's todays offering.

Anybody else get cowardly shit like this?

**********

UPDATE: And a few minutes after I post this...

Somewhere, some strange person is sitting in front of a computer in an unwashed bathrobe... hanging on my every word.

"then in the after life you will be seperated(sic) from your son and wife, who hopefully and(sic) not the same type of evil as yourself."

**********

UPDATE: So many disturbed and dangerous people... so little time.

And the anonymous, no doubt noisily masturbating freak... just can't keep from coming back for more thrills...

"looks like i hit a nerve with you"

And all it took was threatening to harm my 11 year-old son.

And ten minutes later...

"As for your Mrs. Neo....I can just imagine what kind of woman could ever stand to be around...let alone touch a repulsive, vile, pathetic creature as yourself."

It must be pretty lonely sitting there... glorying in this sort of silly invective... pounding it out on that wet, sticky keyboard.

I guess your parents aren't paying much attention to you either, huh?

Maybe you and your less than literate friends can get some counselling together... and start to do something useful with your lives.

Technorati Tags: hate mail, cowardice, where is your god now?

The strictest gun laws in the world...

Are no match for human beings without conscience...

Murder squad detectives have revealed that a 16-year-old boy killed in a South Yorkshire playground had been shot in the head.

The boy's body was found at a recreation area on Nottingham Cliff in the Burngreave area of Sheffield on Wednesday night.

What works is... every time you catch one of these savages dead-bang... you put him away for the rest of his life.

Geez... that sounds awfully familiar.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

CNN recently did an excuse piece for the younger of the Washington snipers - he was a poor little boy with a stupid mother, influenced by a bad man, blah, blah, blah....

The Reassuring Obvious Agenda

“We will be holding the opposition, particularly the Liberals, to account on this,” Mr. Nicholson said.

“... After basically four months of silence on this issue, if they are serious about fighting crime, they should have no problem of expediting this bill through the legislative process.”

Duck, duck... GOOSE!

Just when he thought it was safe... to come out of the office.

-- OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper brushed past the Liberals' decision Wednesday to abstain from voting on the Throne Speech, staking the government's survival on a new uncompromising stand on crime legislation.

The Prime Minister insisted his government will not accept any amendments to an omnibus crime bill that will revive a series of bills killed when he prorogued Parliament.

Not to worry Stephane...

Garth will be right there with you... to pick up all the pieces...

"I am sure Mr. Dion’s strategists tonight are telling him to swerve around this speech, absorb some slaps, bite his tongue and buy time to gas the campaign machine."

"Wise advice, I’m sure."

"I’m equally sure Mr. Dion’s heart and gut tell him to do the principled and brave thing, to stand up against a bully, defend those who have been betrayed and deceived and fight for the Canada he believes in. He may be behind. He may be bruised. He may be in the company of doubters."

"But he is not one of them."

Now think back to high school...

You remember that drunken voice inside your head that seductively whispered, "Sure it looks like a really long way... from the roof to the swimming pool... but you know you can do it."

Well... that's Garth Turner.

**********

UPDATE: So Garth... you weren't even close

“The speech is so vague, so full of holes, raises so many concerns, that it warrants little faith,” Mr. Dion told Parliament as he opened debate on the response to the Throne Speech.

Hey Steffi, you raging bull... let's not get crazy.

**********

LAST WORD: Let's face it...

Your own guys are laughing their asses off... it's over.

Dion persisted without acknowledging his opponents, who by this time were gobsmacked by a case of the mass giggles.

It was so widespread at one point that even Michael Ignatieff – the Liberals' deputy leader who sits right next to Dion – cupped his face to stifle a laugh.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, Throne Speech, Garth Turner

Everyone is beautiful...

In their own way...

"The message they were promoting was that coercive power is bad; that the state should not use it."

"That sounds familiar; it's the kind of thing you'd hear at an anti-globalization riot."

Before you start celebrating...

You might want to consider the fact that there's a reciprocal correlation between the incidence of "successful" homicide... and the exploding skillsets and expertise of Canadian paramedics...

Statistics Canada reports the national homicide rate fell to 1.85 homicides per 100,000 population but adds that rates for other serious violent crimes – such as attempted murder, serious assaults and robberies – rose in both 2005 and 2006.

The homicide rate has been on a general decline since it peaked in the mid-1970s at just over three homicides per 100,000 population.

Note that the stats for "attempted murder and serious assaults"... the precursor events for "actual homicide"... are up, while the actual deaths are down.

The Level III ALS Paramedics in a big city like Toronto are now equipped with chest tubes, for dealing specifically with sucking chest wounds... and, in addition, follow a protocol that fast-tracks penetrating trauma like gunshot wounds to a special Trauma Team at Sunnybrook hospital.

One of the unfortunate consequences of the protocols is that "Barrington Gangbanger"... who gets gunned down in a drug deal gone sideways... gets faster, more intensive medical care than lifelong working stiff, model citizen and heart-attack victim "Joe Lunchbucket".

Strange, sad and somewhat discouraging.

Paramedics... the unsung heroes of the emergency response triad.

**********

RELATED: Kids these days are so precocious

However, 84 youth aged 12 to 17 were accused of homicide in 2006, the highest rate since data was first collected in 1961.

The increase in the rate of youth accused of homicide parallels the increase in the rate of overall youth crime in the same time period, says the report.

Well, good grief... what's happening with all "the youth" these days?

Technorati Tags: Level III Paramedics, Advanced Life Support, suckass political correctness

Who is Reputrace...

And why are they so interested in CaledoniaWakeupCall.com?
-- per "h'o'm'" sitemeter logs --

Referring URL http://www.reputrace.com/rss/refeed/view.php?
feed=1209&what=new&how=paged
Visit Entry Page http://hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2007/10
/however-you-feel-about-gary-mchale.html
Visit Exit Page http://hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2007/10
/however-you-feel-about-gary-mchale.html
Out Click
Time Zone UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time Oct 17 2007 5:50:27 am

Which is a post related to the aboriginal siege at Caledonia, Ontario that I just put up the other day.

Well, it took about 10 seconds to google up what appears to be a combination of CSIS meets Maxwell Smart...

RepuTrace(TM) - The Corporate Security Intelligence Tool for small to large businesses monitors internal and external threats on blogs, forums,message boards, chat rooms, consumer sites, videos and images.

"Should you suspect an unsatisfied customer is spreading malcontent about your company, use CoreX to zero in on Web-based discussion forums.

You can even monitor developments within your workforce in the event you have difficulties with disgruntled employees or just want to ensure your personnel are generally happy at work.

Well... that certainly sounds like a worthy enterprise.

I guess Gary McHale isn't so paranoid after all.

Technorati Tags: Reputrace.com, CaledoniaWakeupCall.com, Gary McHale

Stand by for a follow-up report...

On the effects of sunshine and precipitation on the agricultural sector...

Almost every UK region has difficulties in housing, health, education and crime because of increased migration, according to an official report.

The findings are contained in a report drawn up to advise ministers on the social impact of immigration.

The Home Office's Migration Impacts Forum is meeting to discuss the effect of eastern European workers.

You dump a whole bunch of unfamiliar non-English speaking people into a previously culturally homogeneous area... you're gonna have issues.

Toss in some criminal activity... and you're gonna have "big issues".

In a first review of the regional picture, the forum received anecdotal reports of pressures across five key areas: crime and disorder, community cohesion, health, education and housing.

The reports were compiled by regional groups including police, health and education officials.

Five out of eight regions told Whitehall they had seen "difficulties" relating to crime and education.

The biggest surprise here, is that... in our, oh so politically correct climate, anyone is actually willing to address the issue at all.

The biggest truth here, is that... "If you're not measuring, you're not managing."

Technorati Tags: Migration Impacts Forum, Home Office, suckass political correctness

Boomin' and Bustin'

The United States celebrates another historical coming of age.

-- WASHINGTON -- America's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits Monday, signalling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post Second World War war generation.

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.

Unfortunately it's not all cake and party hats...

Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer - a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said.

The Social Security trust fund, if left alone, is projected to go broke in 2041, though Astrue said he hopes the U.S. Congress will address the issue, perhaps after the 2008 presidential election.

Technorati Tags: baby boomers, Social Security, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling

Idiots, explosives and falling anvils

No real surprises from Curly, Larry and Gilles...

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion refused to immediately declare one way or the other. Under pressure from within his party, he criticized the speech, especially the "weakness" of the plans for tackling climate change, and predicted the caucus would have a "very lively" meeting Wednesday over what it wants to do.

You've really gotta admire the sheer chutzpah here.

Dion using the word "weakness"... that cracks me up. He'd better be praying his fellow fiberals idea of a "lively meeting" doesn't include tar and feathers.

Taliban Jack, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to lose. He knows Steffi had to bring his kneepads... so Jacko gets to sing and dance about kickin' those troglodyte conservatives to the curb.

Layton took strong exception to the government's plans to ignore the Kyoto targets, and what he said was its failure to address poverty in this country. "We have a mandate to oppose the direction Mr. Harper is taking. It's wrong," he told reporters.

Poor Gilles doesn't know whether to shit or go blind... he was so anxious to start preaching his gloom and doom, he didn't wait to hear the whole thing.

Duceppe, who rushed to speak to reporters before Jean had finished reading the speech, said the speech missed the mark on the environment, the economy, protecting provincial rights, and Afghanistan.

All in all a most satisfactory night.

**********

POSTSCRIPT:

Almost forgot the jewel in the crown....

Earlier Tuesday, the government made clear it was keen to get cracking on its 'tough-on-crime" agenda. It served official notice it would introduce bills to amend the Criminal Code and other unnamed acts.

A likely priority is passage of the Repeat Offender Bill, which would amend the Criminal Code to ensure that those found guilty of three violent crimes would have to convince a judge why they shouldn't be branded a dangerous offender.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, Throne Speech, Stephen Harper

Yeeouch... that's gonna leave a mark

There's no getting away from it... the Throne Speech truly is a "wedgie issue"...

"My bet is that, if Mr. Dion is prepared to emerge from the chamber with his underpants over his head, we will avoid going to the polls, at least until the justice agenda comes to a vote."

(h/t cancon)

**********

TWO WORDS: Iceberg... Titanic...

Turmoil after a byelection disaster has brought down Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's Quebec lieutenant, Marcel Proulx, amid confusion about who will replace him.

Two Montreal MPs, Denis Coderre and Pablo Rodriguez, were said to have been offered the job, with Coderre turning it down and Rodriguez's position unclear, she said.

(via reader richard)

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, Throne Speech, Marcel Proulx

For better or, well, uh... death

Can somebody possibly explain what the hell is going on with these folks?

The authors of a new study say more than one-third of patients in Africa receiving HIV medication discontinue their treatment within two years.

The investigators found that two years after beginning treatment, only 61 percent of people on average were still taking anti-HIV drugs.

Are all of these people simply heading over to the local shaman, or worse yet, Dr. Beetroot?

Gill says the new challenge is to find ways to make sure people who are taking the AIDS drugs continue to do so. "What can we do to reduce the attrition rate from forty percent to ten percent. How do we make it better still?

That is the $64,000 dollar question, isn't it.

If avoiding a horrible, lingering death isn't enough of an incentive... I'm not sure how much further you can push here.

It sure puts 4 taser fatalities per year in perspective.

Technorati Tags: HIV/AIDS, Africa, Dr. Beetroot

Here's an Inconvenient Truth

You really wanna know how Al Gore gets away with all that "truthiness"?

-- LONDON -- Gossip is more powerful than truth, a study showed yesterday, suggesting people believe what they hear through the grapevine even if they have evidence to the contrary.

Researchers testing students using a computer game also found gossip played an important role when people make decisions, said Ralf Sommerfeld, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, who led the study.

Evidence? We don' need no steenkin' evidence.

"We show that gossip has a strong influence ... even when participants have access to the original information as well as gossip about the same information," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

**********

RELATED: More evidence via DMB...

That the human race is doomed.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, “but once you have a story like ‘I had sex with a robot, and it was great!’ appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon,” Levy said.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Nobel Prize, An Inconvenient Truth

Uh, maybe... but on the other hand

Bill Graham dithers about whether Paul Martin dithered...

"I wouldn't describe it as dithering. There was certainly a lot of discussions that went on at the lower levels about where Canada should be committed for a PRT [provincial reconstruction team to assist in rebuilding Afghanistan].

Talking out of both sides of your mouth... if you wanna be a Liberal, you've got to practice, practice, practice.

"And you can make the case for saying that because it took so long other people took other places that were more attractive from a security perspective and therefore there were fewer choices available when it came time for Canada to say yes."

De troot is de troot... the Fiberal motto.

Technorati Tags: Bill Graham, Paul Martin, Mr. Dithers

Sitemeter blip

Anybody else have a problem with Sitemeter last night? Shortly before midnight last night, I was approaching a thousand hits and the counter reset itself to zero. SM also apparently lost the previous two days data... it just vanished off the graph.

My email from last night to Sitemeter tech support has also not been answered, so I thought I'd ask around. Thanks.

**********

UPDATE: 10:55 am -- Saturday, Sunday and Monday stats have been magically restored... but todays numbers have disappeared and been reset to zero.

Have yet to hear back from Sitemeter.

UPDATE2: 11:34 am -- Sitemeter replies...

Thanks for the information. We have restored this data and are now processing logs to bring it current. It should be current within the next couple of hours.

Thank you,

Andy
SiteMeter Support

Technorati Tags: Sitemeter, technical difficulties, daily statistics

The Will of Allah

Somebody care to explain what the Big Guy was thinking here?

-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings, police said Monday.

The would-be bomber had been studying at a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan, and when he returned to his home in Uruzgan province over the weekend announced that he planned to carry out a suicide attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.

So what exactly is the martyrdom protocol here? Mom was actually trying to stop the killer... so does she end up missing the nirvana express?

Surviving family members told police that the suicide vest exploded during a struggle between the mother and her son, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's police chief. The man's brother and two sisters were also killed.

I'd love to know how they play this one out the local mosque.

Such a waste.

Technorati Tags: suicide bomber, Uruzgan, will of allah

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Another criminal is busy working the system.

-- MONTREAL -- A controversial Montreal imam ordered deported last year and without official status in Canada will be in front of an Immigration and Refugee board on Wednesday fighting to stay in Canada.

Last December, Mr. Jaziri took sanctuary inside his Montreal mosque after the refugee board revoked his refugee status obtained in 1998.

Why that poor man... what's his sad story?

The immigration and refugee board claims the Tunisian-born cleric presented false information to enter Canada.

The board has accused him of hiding a criminal record in France and of exaggerating the risks of returning to his homeland.

While yet another "Canadian" is wishing he had never left home...

-- WASHINGTON -- A U.S. military judge has ordered the trial of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr to go ahead as planned on Nov. 8 in Guantanamo Bay.

**********

RELATED: On the homegrown terror front

-- CAYUGA, Ont. -- An aboriginal activist was denied bail Monday on numerous criminal charges, including allegations he tried to run over a provincial police officer while hijacking an undercover police van at Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia, Ont.

Albert Douglas, 32, faces attempted murder, robbery, unlawful confinement and other serious charges arising from the alleged hijacking on June 9.

He also faces robbery and assault charges for allegedly attacking two television cameramen on the same date and counts of obstruct and assault police for allegedly fighting with police when they arrested him on April 20, 2006.

Some "activist."

Technorati Tags: Said Jaziri, Omar Khadr, Albert Douglas

Steffi draws inviolable line in the sand

"If he even thinks about abolishing Parliament and pronouncing himself President-for-Life... his ass is mine", declares defiant Dion.

**********

-- OTTAWA -- The trigger for a fall election will not be pulled this week, provided Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Throne Speech is not outrageous, radical and very right-wing, said Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday.

That is the bar set by Mr. Dion, whose caucus of 96 MPs must decide this week whether to topple the Conservative government.

Who says Steffi doesn't have the "heart of a lion?"

The intensely loyal opposition party was quick to confirm they were standing right behind their stalwart leader.

Said one unnamed Liberal functionary... "The second that Evil Stephen Harper sends those tanks rolling up Rideau Blvd., the entire Liberal caucus is prepared to vote down that dastardly Throne Speech."

"You just see if we don't."

Technorati Tags: Stéphane Dion, Throne Speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper

It is not your imagination...

The health care system, in its current incarnation, is rapidly going down the shitter.

-- CALGARY, AB—A typical Canadian seeking surgical or other therapeutic treatment had to wait 18.3 weeks in 2007, an all-time high, according to new research published today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute.

“It’s becoming clearer that Canada’s current health care system can not meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner, unless you consider access to a waiting list timely and efficient,” Esmail added.

And it isn't just wait times.

Talked to a buddy on the weekend who had a run-in with a power mitre saw.

Despite an injury that both broke a finger and gouged the meat of his hand right down to the bone... he spent eight hours sitting in the local ER waiting to see a doctor.

That's about the amount of time, I spent there last time around, waiting for someone to examine my sick, fevered child.

Simply unacceptable.

Technorati Tags: health care system, wait times, Fraser Institute

It isn't just Toronto...

That has a problem with guns and gangs.

A teenager has died after two gunmen opened fire into a car in south-east London. He becomes the 21st teenager to have died as a result of a knife or gun-related crime in London this year.

Operation Trident, which looks at gun crime in London's Afro-Caribbean community, is investigating the killing.

It is interesting to note that, in the same time period, this figure is over half the number of British soldiers who died from all causes (including accidents) in the current Afghanistan conflict.

Technorati Tags: Operation Trident, gangs & guns, London

Put in a few 'grass traps'...

And you're away to the races.

-- QARGHA, Afghanistan -- Gazing down the valley here on Kabul’s western outskirts, Mohammad Afzal Abdul does not see the sun-blasted sweep of scrubland and rocks apparent to everyone else.

This barren patch of earth is, at least in name and spirit, a golf course.

It isn't St. Andrews... but what's life without a dream, huh?

The nine-hole course is extraordinarily rugged by any standard.

It has no grass and no delineation between the fairways and the rough, and the greens — the course rules call them browns — are a concoction of sand and oil packed with a heavy roller and swept with a broom vaguely resembling those dragged along the base paths at the seventh-inning stretch in baseball.

Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Afghanistan.

Hope is cheap, bro...

Indulge yourself.

"I'm saddened anytime I hear of a hip-hopper being locked up or somehow stunted in his life or his growth," rapper KRS-One told The Associated Press.

"I hope he wasn't into nothing crazy."

Well... crazy is such an imprecise word.

T.I. was taken into custody in a shopping center parking lot where federal officials said he planned to pick up machine guns and silencers he had his bodyguard buy for him.

Technorati Tags: T.I., machine guns, BET Hip-Hop Awards

Crazy Man dies at Vancouver Airport

And predictably... the official, state-owned, pinko media conglomerate is trying to stir up gratuitous outrage...

A man in his 40s died after being tasered by RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport early Sunday morning, police have confirmed.

Witnesses to the incident say the man was acting out, pounding on windows and threw a computer. Police said the man was yelling in an Eastern European language and was out of control.

The cops just can't win here... it's not like the CBC would have supported a decision to calm this guy down with, say... nightsticks.

Airport security called police, who used a stun gun on the man when he ignored orders to calm down.

The man dropped to the floor and police said it took three officers to put handcuffs on him. The man then lost consciousness.

Thank goodness these officers were able to intervene before Mr. Goin' Apeshit got ahold of some innocent bystander, or worse... some child.

Sadly... the "gods of statistical anomaly" just called this guy home.

An unfortunate, but not entirely unpredictable outcome.

Unless, of course... you're the CBC.

**********

SIDENOTE: A warm welcome to all CBC acolytes readers

This is the first time I have been noticed by the Mothership.

For anyone interested in a little further heresy... I recommend a bit of this, this and this.

**********

LAST WORD: A little perspective, folks?

So apparently there have been 16 taser related deaths in Canada over the last four years.

That works out to 4 instances per year.

Four deaths? There are probably more people killed every year in Canada... by lunchboxes falling out of the sky from highrise construction sites.

Remember also, that in each of these cases... those four people initiated some sort of outrageous behaviour that necessitated calling in the police.

So let's all calm down and look at the numbers.

From July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 there were 237,931 deaths in Canada.

One percent of that number is 2,379 deaths. If I had a calculator handy, I'd figure out what percentage 4 people works out to.

But, my oh-so sensitive, socially progressive cohort... if you are truly determined to freak yourself out about tragic, premature death... you might do better to skip over tasers.

In 2004, there were 3,613 suicides in Canada, 28 of those were children age 10 to 14.

You wanna be some sort of "useful engine"... how about you focus on doing something about that?

Technorati Tags: taser, RCMP, The Full Moonbat

It's not like we can really complain

The people of Ontario just gave McSlippery an overwhelming mandate to trot out more dishonesty...

"We're not going to raise taxes," Dalton McGuinty promised.

Well, just like the lies he told us four years ago, that was before the election. This is after.

Like the old saying goes... "Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me."

"Linda, rumour is high in the finance department at Queen's Park that after the federal budget reduces the GST by 1% and cuts personal taxes, the Liberals will introduce a 2% PST increase, with 1% for the municipalities and 1% for public transit," states an e-mail from a reader who will remain anonymous.

And apparently Big Pink himself, Mayor Miller, gets his pound of taxpayer flesh as well.

The e-mail went on: "They say this is why (Toronto Mayor David) Miller laid off in the provincial election."

(via 2 separate readers)

The Prime Minister screwed up

Looks like he put the wrong Liberal in charge of the Afghanistan commission...

-- MONTREAL -- Canada needs to build up its military, buying new helicopters and other equipment, so the country can play a more active role on the world stage defending human rights and preventing genocide, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says.

Sounds like Iggy has decided he's gonna position himself as the Anti-Steffi... and come over to the "dark side."

Canada is already well respected on the world stage, Ignatieff said, and building up the military would only enhance its influence and better enable the country to intervene when human rights are abused.

"It won't come cheap, but we have to be prepared to pay that price," he said, but did not provide any cost elements.

"If we want to have robust interventions, we must have the capability," he said.

Wow, what's next... Cherniak signing up for the infantry?

(h/t reader richard)

The Harper Diaries

A brief peek inside the scary, hidden agenda...

Happy Thanksgiving, diary. What am I thankful for?

My health. My wonderful wife and beautiful children.

And my iron grip on the nation's highest office. Also, the fact the Liberals are fighting like the Hatfields and McCoys. And, of course, the general ineptness of Gilles Duceppe. And how when Stephane Dion speaks English, he still sounds like a snooty French waiter. And Duceppe's bulgy eyes.

Oh, and the chef at 24 Sussex. That man can work miracles with butter.

(via my conservative dreamworld)

However you feel about Gary McHale...

He doesn't deserve the death penalty...

Yesterday, I tried to wave down the OPP 3 tries to get them to stop and close down the smoke shack beside DCE - they repeatedly refused to stop.

What does it take to get the OPP to do their job.

By the way, the event where someone is almost hit by a car is talking about me almost being hit by a truck driven directly at me - caught on video.

(via email from gary mchale)

**********

RELATED: Your money... their police force

-- CALEDONIA -- OPP are asking anyone who witnessed two incidents near the former Douglas Creek estate lands this morning to come forward. Const. Paula Wright said police are investigating the alleged sale of cigarettes without a permit on a vacant lot.

The site is a dozen metres from the edge of the Douglas Creek land and has a sign advertising cigarettes posted facing the road. A trailer, which was vacant as of early afternoon, is also on the overgrown lot.

Wright also said police are looking a report that someone was allegedly nearly hit by a car on Argyle Street South.

Wright would not say if police shut the shop down.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 888-310-1122.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

The OPP did not have the permission of the Natives to take action on the Smoke Shop. The Smoke Shop was well within 5 miles of the Grand River, so it's Native property.

Yes the Utilities are on at the DCE, and being paid for by the Province. There is nothing you can do about it. In the Summer air conditioners were run with doors and windows open.

We thank you for re-electing Dalton.

Now leave Caledonia.

Technorati Tags: Douglas Creek Estates, Caledonia, Ontario, Ontario Provincial Police

If you voted for McSlippery...

You don't get to bitch and moan about what MPAC is doing with your property taxes...

Stella Bruce, 79, a mother of six, moved from Calgary two years ago to the Ontario town of Bancroft with her husband, Carmon, a retired mechanic. The reasons were twofold: Carmon was born in Bancroft, and the couple's son, Glen, had a piece of property at the bend of a street on the outskirts of town on which they could build a home.

And so they did. They ordered a pre-fab home that arrived in two pieces on flatbed trucks, and plunked it down on the property. That single-level home, plus the foundation, cost $125,000, and it remains unfinished.

Yet it, along with the garage their son built next to it, has been assessed by MPAC at a value of $226,000 -- which has them paying annual property taxes of $3,575.

"We are on a fixed income that doesn't amount to much," Stella Bruce says. "We're old. We worry about sudden health costs.

In the wake of the scathing report on how MPAC screws over Ontario property owners, both John Tory and Howard Hampton, promised that they would take concrete steps to redress the inequity and arrogance of the people who administer Ontario's property tax system.

Dalton McGuinty took a pass... he merely said the Liberals would read the report... and that's not good news for Stella Bruce.

"Yet no one can explain to us -- not our lawyer, and not MPAC -- how we can be assessed a value more than we paid for our house," she says. "Not only that, it is certainly more than we could ever sell the house for -- if we are pushed into that kind of corner.

So the next time you get the assessment on your home with it's attendant 30 percent increase, remember... if you voted Liberal... you did this to yourself.

**********

RELATED: Brace yourself... here it comes

Remember how McSlippery dealt with the scandalous MPAC report? He capped assessments... until after the provincial election.

"Dalton McGuinty is putting a cap on a boiling pot, but when it does boil over in 2008, you're talking about three sets of assessment increases which could be somewhere between a 30 to 50 per cent average increase if we see the same pattern continue," said Hudak.

Congratulations Ontario... on hitting yourself in the face with a hammer.

Technorati Tags: MPAC, Dalton McGuinty, property taxes

It didn't work for the...

Wizard of Oz either...

"Pay no attention to the nuclear reactor behind the curtain."

-- NEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) -- Israel's air strike inside Syria last month was directed at a site judged by Israeli and U.S. intelligence analysts to be a partly constructed nuclear reactor, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Citing U.S. and foreign officials who had access to the analysts' intelligence reports, all who spoke under condition of anonymity, the Times said the reactor was apparently modeled on one in North Korea used for stockpiling nuclear weapons fuel.

A senior Israeli official said the attack was meant to "re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power," the Times said.

Several U.S. officials told the paper the strike may also have been intended for the attention of Iran and its nuclear program.

**********

RELATED: Nyah, nyah, Bashar is a big, fat liar

-- BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syrian President Bashar Assad told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday that Israeli warplanes attacked an "unused military building" in his country last month and said Damascus reserves the right to retaliate.

After this incredibly feeble (even by middle eastern Arab standards) denial... you just knew there just had to be some really interesting heaps of smoking rubble somewhere in this thing.

Technorati Tags: Syria, nuclear reactor, flat, black, glows in the dark

Jean Chretien Unplugged

I suppose the subtext here, yet again, is, "biting the hand that bled you."

-- OTTAWA -- "I was damned if I was going to let myself be shoved out the door by a gang of self-serving goons."

"By trying to force me to go, they aroused my competitive spirit, ignited my anger, and inadvertently gave me the blessing I needed from Aline to fight for a third term."

"For that, ironically, I owed Paul Martin a great deal of thanks."

The usual self serving, self-congratulatory, self-absolving, "it was all the other guys fault" political memoir. For maximum schadenfreude, make sure you read the whole article.

**********

POSTSCRIPT:

Almost forgot an interesting little sidenote here.

Chretien also claims that the Liberal government, under his steady hand, was on track to meet Canada's Y2Kyoto committments.

Chretien asserts that his successor Paul Martin... and Martin's environment minister... whatshisname... screwed up and made an irretrievable mess of that whole sacred environmental mission.

Yeeeeeouch... that's gonna leave a mark!

Technorati Tags: Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, ooze and slime

Any time a child dies...

It is truly a tragedy... but, for the love of whatever deity you'd care to invoke... get a grip on reality...

The parents of a County Durham schoolboy, who choked to death on a plastic pen top, are stepping up their campaign to get them banned.

Ben Stirland, 13, from Consett, died in January, after swallowing the pen top while doing homework.

When our son was a baby, through a moment of parental inattention, he managed to get hold of the metal screw top from a bottle of apple juice and stick it into his mouth.

He immediately began spluttering and gagging... and trust me, retrieving that cap was the scariest fifteen seconds of my life.

But that's what babies do. If we had put the bottle top back down within reach... he would have cheerfully hoovered it up all over again.

Despite that fact, it would have been sheer idiocy to mount a campaign, to demand that the bottling industry develop some alternative method of sealing up beverage containers.

Which brings us back to Ben's parents.

My guess is, statistically... there are more British children killed by their own parents backing out of the driveway... than are killed by inhaling plastic pen tops... and yet, no reasonable person would suggest that people stop driving their cars for this reason.

And as difficult as it may be for these people to get over losing their son... they need to get off of whatever fantasy world they are trying to construct... where no one will ever again lose a child for whatever reason... and return to planet earth.

The fact is, while they are entitled to their grief, no amount of campaigning about pen tops will return their son Ben, much less bring any meaning to his tragic, premature death. What this silliness does, is simply moor them to that fateful, unbearable day and multiply their misery.

Some things cannot be made right. This is simply how the world works.

Why hide out in rustic Yemen...

When you can be trippin' the light fantastic in metrosexual Montreal?

-- Le Figaro -- International authorities seeking a fugitive synagogue bomber believe he has been living in the Montreal area, sources say.

He is said to be a 55-year-old who has Lebanese and Canadian citizenship, and who has lived in both Canada and the United States for years.

Funny... I could have sworn we're supposed to be screening for mass murderers.

The infamous 1980 attack – which killed four people and wounded 20 others – prompted immediate rallies against anti-Semitism in France and still-lingering fears of more synagogue attacks around the West.

**********

RELATED: Not to worry though... those uber-diligent Quebec lawmakers are on it

Jean Charest's bill will outlaw guns at schools and daycares, which are not exactly bristling with artillery now, as far as we know.

This measure is unlikely to impress anyone unless they imagine that a Kimveer Gill or Marc Lepine (aka Gamil Gharbi) sits in his basement thinking, "I'd love to go out and shoot a bunch of people in a suicidal rampage, but that would be illegal."

And they're covering all the bases.

Do large but legal fixed-blade knives with flashy movie-inspired features have very much to do with preventing murder, let alone mass murder?

Not really.

You can kill someone just as readily with an ordinary Bowie knife, a machete, a hatchet or the big knife your mom uses to cut up food.

Unless Quebec is going to outlaw camping, hunting and dicing chicken breasts for supper, it is hard to see what practical steps can really be taken to address Mr. Boisvenu's concerns.

Technorati Tags: synagogue bomber, Jean Charest, Anastasia's Law

BLINK

More fiberal argle-bargle.

-- OTTAWA -- Liberals won't bring down the Harper government over next week's throne speech, even if it effectively abandons the Kyoto climate-change pact, the party's environment critic says.

"The Liberal Party of Canada isn't going to be goaded into the boxing ring with Stephen Harper," David McGuinty said Friday. "We're not that gullible or foolish."

Ah, David... you elected a supreme leader who makes Barney the Dinosaur look like a Navy Seal.

You are both of those things... in spades.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, throne speech, Kyoto Accord

Insane with rage

The Federal Liberal Party continues to devour it's young.

-- OTTAWA -- The Prime Minister's appointment of Mr. Manley as head of a five-member group on Canada's future role in the war-torn country beyond February of 2009 prompted deep anger among Mr. Manley's fellow Liberals.

"What gives, John?" one of his former advisers asked. "This was one area of weakness of the Conservatives. And he's just thrown Stephen Harper a lifeline in the form of himself."

One e-mail circulating among the party said simply, "Et tu Manley?"

**********

RELATED: Germany steps up... extends Afghan mission

The lower house of Parliament voted for the extension of the military mandate by a convincing 453 to 79, with 48 members abstaining. The vote allows the German military to keep as many as 3,500 troops and six Tornado reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan, part of a larger NATO force of roughly 41,000 in the country.

The proposal was expected to pass, but the sizable margin of victory was a powerful signal both domestically and to the United States and other NATO allies of the government’s ability to sustain the Afghan mission even in the face of strong opposition.

Technorati Tags: John Manley, Afghanistan, Liberal Party

Would the scoundrel who walked away...

With Stephane Dion's testicles... please return them as soon as possible?

Tough talk on what Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to deliver in Tuesday's throne speech was followed by evasive answers about what tactics the Liberals might employ to oppose the speech but still avoid sinking the government.

Mr. Dion seemed to be full of "piss and, well... more piss."

Mr. Dion also vowed to go deeper than the Conservatives in cutting the federal corporate tax rate, but said specific targets would only be revealed during an election.

All of which begged the question of whether the Liberals intend to trigger an election over the throne speech.

“We don't think it would be reasonable to have three elections in three years-and-a half, on top of the provincial elections,” Mr. Dion said. “But if the throne speech is unacceptable to us, and if there is an election, we'll be ready.”

Taliban Jack meanwhile, was quick to do what he does best... pile on... while his opponent is being hammered from all sides.

The possibility of Liberal members abstaining from the vote raised the ire of New Democrat Leader Jack Layton, who challenged Mr. Dion to either “stand with or stand against” the government's agenda.

“Mr. Dion cannot hide from the responsibility of deciding whether he is with Mr. Harper or against him by ordering Liberals to remain absent or abstain on throne speech votes,” Layton said in a release.

“That's not leadership.”

Yeah... no kidding.

**********

RELATED: It might be time for a booster shot

While none of the Dion staffers was willing to comment on the record, a liberal party insider was quoted as saying there was talk of rushing Mr. Dion back to the "Chretien Center for Mortal Soul Cryonics" located in Shawinigan, Quebec for emergency surgery.

**********

LAST WORD: Ain't nothin' like the real thing

-- OTTAWA -- The federal Conservatives have surged to 40 per cent in the popularity sweepstakes, opening a 12-point lead over the Liberals and moving within sight of majority government, a new national poll says.

"The potential is that if an election was held tomorrow, he (Harper) could form a majority," Bricker said in an interview. In contrast, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, who has been dogged by party infighting, is "a bit on the ropes and headed in the wrong direction."

(via reader richard)

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, throne speech, testicularly challenged

It's not that complicated

You just have to follow the three inviolable rules of gun safety...

-- ONE: ALL guns are ALWAYS loaded.

(never mind you checked it when it went into the gun locker... you pick it up, you check it again)

-- TWO: NEVER let the muzzle cover anything you're not willing to destroy.

(hey, if you have to ask, you're too stupid to own a gun)

-- THREE: BE SURE of your target.

(that'd better be a deer and not the brother-in-law)

While I don't know the specifics of what transpired in this case, it's safe to say that, outside of a frantic, close-quarters gunfight, it's totally inexcusable for a "professional trigger puller" to down one of his squadmates.

The Army has no choice but to send a strong, indelible message to the troops.

The Canadian military said Friday a Canadian soldier charged in the shooting death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan last year will face a military trial on charges of manslaughter and negligent performance of duty.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service issued a brief statement Friday saying it has preferred the charges against Master Corporal Robbie Fraser relating to the death of Master Corporal Jeff Walsh during a patrol on an Afghan highway on Aug. 9, 2006.

A firearm, like a car, or even a screwdriver... is simply a tool... the ultimate responsibility rests with the person on the trigger.

Unfortunately, everybody is a loser here.

**********

RELATED: A father speaks up

Ben Walsh, the father of the soldier who was killed, told CTV Atlantic he doesn't want Fraser put on trial.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Robbie Fraser and his family at this time. We certainly do not want to see this man persecuted in any way," said Walsh.

Technorati Tags: Master Corporal Robbie Fraser, Master Corporal Jeff Walsh, National Investigation Service

Recall: Chinese Playground equipment

"Totally unacceptable, any way you slice it", say outraged parents.

As many a Palestinian has discovered...

You fire a bullet straight up into the air... at some point the physical laws of the universe step in and take over...

If Al Gore is a decent man, thirty years from now, having finally admitted he was wrong about global warming, he will endow a new prize, to be presented annually to a man or woman who tried to undo the incalculable damage done by An Inconvenient Truth.

Surely we must be near the apogee of this politically correct environmental jiggery-pokery.

The average US household consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours of electricity. In 2006, the Gores wolfed down nearly 221,000 kWh.

**********

RELATED: Show me the science

In the wake of a British court ruling that the "documentary" contains material errors of fact, a "call to return Inconvenient Truth Oscar".

Lies, lies and more lies.

**********

LAST WORD: If I had to choose between...

Doris Lessing and dynamite... it wouldn't take 2 seconds

She left home when she was 15, and in 1937 she moved to Salisbury (now Harare) in Southern Rhodesia, where she took jobs as a telephone operator and nursemaid. She married at 19 and had two children.

A few years later, feeling imprisoned, she abandoned her family.

She later married Gottfried Lessing, a central member of the left-wing Left Book Club, and they had a son. When she divorced Mr. Lessing, she and her young son, Peter, moved to London, where she began her literary career.

Let's just rename this the "Pinko Prize" and move on.

Technorati Tags: Al Gore, Nobel Prize, An Inconvenient Truth

Attention Netherlands pleasure seekers

No more hallucinations with your Friday night hooker.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: The Dutch government will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said Friday, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a series of well-publicized negative incidents.

Not to be a nay-saying neocon here, but "negative incidents" appears to be code for bodies flying off the top of tall buildings.

Under the country's famed tolerance policy, marijuana and hashish are technically illegal but police do not bother to prosecute people for possession of small amounts, and it is sold openly in designated cafes.

Possession of "hard" drugs like cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy is illegal. Mushrooms will fall somewhere in the middle.

In a display of that famous Dutch tolerance for public pharmaceutical recreation, the government apparently consulted with the folks who sell this stuff.

In May, the country's health minister, Ab Klink, undertook a study of the problems and called for suggestions from the industry and Amsterdam's city government.

Mushroom vendors suggested stricter ID controls for buyers, and strong warnings against mixing mushrooms with other drugs.

Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen had suggested a three-day "cooling off" period between ordering them and using them.

Yeah Job, that'll work.

There is absolutely no truth...

To the rumour... that Stephane Dion is thinking about renaming his dog Hiroshima...

Liberal MP David McGuinty told CTV Newsnet Thursday that the Conservatives are "playing games" with next week's throne speech.

The comments follow a Canadian Press report that the Tories have drafted a throne speech that could force the Liberal Party to abandon its support for the Kyoto Accord or call an election.

Hmmmm... if you're trying to make a point about taking the "political high road", I'm not sure using anyone with the name McGuinty as your point man... is such a smart move.

CP says that Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes the Liberals are so desperate not to go to the polls they would rather accept a throne speech that states Kyoto targets can't be met rather than trigger a election. The throne speech is a confidence motion that would force an election if voted down.

This should be interesting.

Technorati Tags: David McGuinty, Stephane Dion, throne speech

From the people who brought you...

The sacred and inarguable proposition... that the world's finest, most expensive and delectable cheese... should smell like ass.

-- PARIS -- The French government may have felt it found the key to a new immigration strategy in three letters: DNA.

Last month, an amendment to a sweeping immigration bill proposed the use of genetic testing to verify the bloodlines of would-be immigrants who want to join family members already living in France.

Instead, the initiative has been vilified for contradicting France's protective family and privacy laws and for stirring up memories of the ugliest period of modern French history, the collaborationist Vichy government during the Nazi occupation.

Only the uber-sophisticated, metrosexual French could take a simple, straightforward idea like this and use it to publicly strangle each other.

"This DNA test exists in 11 countries in Europe — including some Socialist ones, like Great Britain," Sarkozy said in a television interview last month. "How is it that it doesn't pose a problem in these countries, but it creates a debate here?"

Initially, the amendment would have authorized French consular officials to offer a would-be immigrant the chance to pay for a DNA test to supplement suspicious or nonexistent documentation and prove close familial ties with a legal resident in France.

In the face of opposition, the National Assembly watered down the amendment, which was weakened further by the Senate and is still under discussion.

Time to start hiding the cars again, Pierre... in, say... England.

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LAST WORD: What could possibly go wrong?

Technorati Tags: genetic testing, Fadela Amara, Union for a Popular Movement

C'mere boy... there's a good voter

McSlippery tosses a bone... to all his yipping, drooling camp followers.

-- OTTAWA -- It didn’t take long for Premier Dalton McGuinty to issue his first directive after winning the Ontario election Wednesday night.

He said today that the third Monday in February will be a statutory holiday known as Family Day.

Break out the champagne... this is a historic occasion.

Finally... a promise kept.

Something to keep in mind

Remember... if you foolishly voted Liberal last night, you just gave up the right to bitch about...

TAXES:

-"We're not going to raise taxes," Mr. McGuinty told reporters at a Southwestern Ontario pig farm during the last days of the campaign. (Mr. McGuinty also promised not to hike taxes in 2003, but later introduced a $2.6-billion health levy he said was necessary to reduce the previous government's $5.6-billion deficit.)

THE ENVIRONMENT:

-Improve the environment by "eliminating coal-fired electricity plants by 2014, banning the cosmetic use of pesticides and introducing a tough new toxic reduction law that requires polluting companies to reduce their emissions." (In 2003, the Liberals promised to eliminate coal-fired plants by 2007, a goal they later had to acknowledge was unreachable.)

It's just too disheartening to go through the overflowing sack of dishonesty and deception, so let's just shortlist the more egregious sins.

BRIBERY:

A cricket club asks for $150,000 and next day gets a cheque for a cool million. Just one part of the multi-million dollar Liberal "ethnic community" slush fund.

PROPERTY TAXES:

The Conservatives and New Democrats were going to freeze the MPAC assessments pending a revamping of the system. Guess which party is going to "study the report" that called the process extremely flawed?

YOUR MONEY... THEIR FRIENDS

Premier McSlippery came out strongly against public-private partnerships for development of health care infrastructure. Guess which party paid out 1 billion dollars in cost over-runs to their private partners.

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In an interesting aside, Steve Paikin at TVO, last night related how Dalton reneged on a promise back at the provincial Liberal leadership convention.

McGuinty had promised to throw his support to another candidate after finishing fourth on a ballot... and then refused to carry through.

The fact is, as the last four years have shown, consummate political hack McSlippery will lie to anybody, anytime.

Oh, Ontario... wake up and smell the Liberal larceny.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, lyin' sack-o-shit, fiberal smoke and mirrors

It makes just as much sense...

As putting the McSlippery gang back behind the wheel of the bus.

Viktor Vasarajsvik decided to cover his face with a homemade veil when he went to vote yesterday. He wanted to make a point.

Vasarajsvik, 49, thought he would be asked by elections workers at his local polling station to remove the veil to prove he was in fact the same person pictured on his driver's licence.

But nobody did and Vasarajsvik thinks that's wrong.

"I think it's quite wrong because I didn't identify myself," he said. "I could've been somebody else on the street with my ID."

So what do the people in charge have to say about veils?

Jonathan Batty, legal counsel for Elections Ontario, said voters in provincial elections are not required to show photo ID or their faces to an election official.

They are, however, obligated to show proof of identity - or a document showing their name and signature. "There's no requirement under the Election Act for anybody to show photo identification," Batty said.

See, that's funny Jonathan... not only did I have to produce my drivers license... the functionary at the poll insisted that I recite my street address as well. In fact, the guy studied the picture so intently... I thought he was gonna ask for a DNA sample.

What exactly are the job qualifications here?

Technorati Tags: veiled voting, Elections Ontario, Election Act

Fooling a lot of the people...

A lot of the time... I mean, talk about a dumbed-down electorate...

A former cabinet minister, Mike Colle, was re-elected in his Eglinton-Lawrence riding even though he resigned as citizenship and immigration minister after an auditor general’s report touched off a controversy over funding granted to multicultural groups.

Broken promises, blatant misrepresentation, misuse of taxpayer monies... apparently none of that struck a chord with voters.

So the sheeple have spoken.

Well, at least MMP went down in flames...

“This has been an unmitigated disaster,” said Dennis Pilon, assistant professor of political science at University of Victoria and author of The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada's Electoral System.

“I don't think ever so much money has been wasted in educating people so poorly.”

Mr. Pilon said the Liberal government under Dalton McGuinty acted in poor faith by waiting until April in the last year of their mandate to set up the citizen's assembly.

Steve Paikin at TVO was reporting that the 5 ridings that had been reported as favouring MMP were all in downtown Toronto... yup, big surprise.

Unfortunate victim of crime...

Finally gets his day in court.

Toronto Hells Angels biker Carlo Verrelli is suing a Vaughan strip club for $1.1 million, claiming he has suffered permanent psychological and physical injuries from being shot several times by a club employee, who also fatally shot a fellow Hells Angel.

Somebody get me a drink.

Farmers, deer hunters, target shooters...

Totally off the hook... once again.

A Toronto man has died from a gunshot wound suffered in a melee police suspect was linked to rappers who commandeered a stage at a dance competition.

As hard as it may be to fathom... the Liberal's 2 Billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry was, to the absolute surprise and shock of big-city liberals, apparently unable, yet again, to stem Toronto's recent tide of urban slaughter.

Keegan Allen, 18, was taken off life support at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday at St. Michael's Hospital.

Allen was shot in the head around 2:20 a.m. Saturday during an all-ages dance event, billed as Showdown 2007, which attracted 600 people to the Hungarian Cultural Centre on St. Clair Ave. W. just east of Oakwood Ave.

Well, if it wasn't that roving gang of middle-age gun collectors... who is responsible?

Toronto Police said a group of rappers got up on stage for an impromptu performance and began spewing "vulgar and offensive" lyrics at women and others in attendance.

A disagreement over musical tastes?

**********

RELATED: Oops... sorry, I missed one

A young woman is dead and three others are in hospital after a shootout at a backyard party at a townhouse near Jane St. and Finch Ave.

Witnesses say at least 20 shots were fired around 8:30 p.m. last night, leaving four people shot.

Two victims ran into the townhouse. One woman in her 20s was found shot in the stomach in a second-floor bedroom. She was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead.

Another woman in her 30s was found on the main floor, bleeding from a wound to her leg. She is being treated in hospital.

Two others managed to get themselves to hospital.

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LAST WORD: Crime down, huh Dalton?

Toronto Police are warning women to be careful as they hunt for two young men believed to be responsible for a violent weekend sex attack on a 17-year-old girl in an empty government housing unit in Flemington Park.

Police are looking for Jahmar Sweet, 18, who may also go by the name Jahmar Drelle, and they have released his photo in an effort to track him down. He is about 5-foot-10, with a light black complexion, medium muscular build and brown eyes.

The second man, who may go by the name Jonathan, is described as black, 18 to 20, about 6-feet tall, with a muscular build.

Technorati Tags: Keegan Allen, Toronto homicide, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry

If you think the law is gonna save you...

From violent, drug dealing thugs, you'd be wrong... dead wrong.

-- HAY RIVER, NWT and EDMONTON -- Police had suspected Mountie killer Emrah Bulatci in custody on three separate occasions earlier this year on a series of charges, including alleged weapons offences.

Turns out... the law can't even save the cops.

He has been charged in three different Alberta cities with more than a dozen crimes since February. Over the weekend, the Mounties charged him in absentia with the first-degree murder of Constable John Worden, 30.

The suspect, who may have used a 9 mm handgun in the Saturday attack, was described as a “pushy, mouthy little guy” by one man who knew him in the crack-riddled area of Hay River, NWT, where the killing took place.

Not that the local citizenry did much to help the authorities, or even to help themselves.

“As soon as he showed up we knew there would be trouble,” said Wendy, who only wanted her first name used. “He came to town with two friends. They were all very well dressed. A lot of people around here know them and know they're involved with drugs.”

Good call folks... nice neighbourhood you have there.

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RELATED: Yeah, as a matter of fact...

It's way past time to wage war on homicidal, gun-toting crackheads... because they've sure as shit declared war on us.

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LAST WORD: No way... you've got to be kidding

Bronwyn Watters, the Northwest Territories assistant deputy minister for the solicitor general acknowledges the territory has a drug problem.

The territory's rate of drug crime was nearly 770 crimes per 100,000 people in 2006, more than 2½ times the Canadian average.

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BREAKING: Bulatci surrenders to police

-- EDMONTON -- The man suspected of killing a Mountie in Hay River, N.W.T., is police custody tonight.

Emrah Bulatci, 23, was captured by Edmonton city police at 5 p.m.after a tense stand-off in the west-end neighbourhood of Ormsby Place.

Technorati Tags: Christopher John Worden, Hay River, Emrah Bulatci

Toronto "Red Star" wants to...

Buy the world a coke...

The last time Bernadette Lefebvre saw her son alive, the 15-year-old told his mom he was ready to make some changes in his life.

You don't even have to finish that sentence to know you're in for some warm, fuzzy-bunny malarkey from the mindlessly leftbot Star.

Now, it goes without saying that the death of a child is a tragic event for the friends and family left behind... but let's not try to turn these events into something they're not.

See... if you're runnin' around stealin' stuff and joyriding, on a lake no less, at three in the morning, you're nobody's idea of a model citizen.

Wayne, who had just started Grade 10 at Fenelon Falls Secondary School in Fenelon Falls, was found drowned in Sturgeon Lake, near Bobcaygeon, Saturday morning. He and five friends had been riding in a stolen boat Friday night when the vessel capsized, sending all six boys into the cold water.

Note that the Star won't even say these kids stole the boat... apparently, they just tripped and fell into it and it drifted out onto the lake.

The reality is, this kid, who apparently had a history of... let's be generous and call it "unwise decision making"... did this to himself.

So let's call it what it is and hope some other kids learn something from his fatal mistake... because turning him into a choir boy is dishonest... and misleading.

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RELATED: Once upon a time, there was...

Yet another kid who killed himself breaking the law.

Technorati Tags: Wayne Lefebvre-Nangreaves, Shilton Lutchman, Toronto Truthing Star

The Catholic school system...

In Ontario... is feeling the unwelcome glare of the public spotlight... thanks to Dalton McGuinty's insistence on using it as his only election issue...

In Ontario's taxpayer-funded, historically enshrined and suddenly – again – controversial Catholic schools, church and class are never very far apart.

But has Catholic-school funding lost favour with the public?

The Green Party, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and 70 per cent of readers in a recent Toronto Star poll have said they favour one blended, secular school system – and suggest it's time to pull the plug on Catholic funding.

Wouldn't it be sweet to see Dalton's "pet wedge issue" bring about the beginning of the end for separate funding of Catholic schools?

And if his wife lost her job as a Catholic teacher... would Dalton hire her as a special assistant, to say... Ben Chin?

But Dalton wouldn't know anything about karma... that's one of those "segregationist beliefs."

It's not a "War on Drugs"

It's a war on stupidity...

Two West Niagara teens are in critical condition and a third is in hospital after eating seeds from a poisonous plant.

Police say the three boys, ages 14 to 17, were found in incoherent and unresponsive states on Sunday night. They apparently ingested the seeds of the poisonous Jimson weed plant on purpose.

Now, I know the leftbot solution here... would be to set up a "safe-ingestion" site.

Jimson weed, also known as thorn apple, stinkweed, and angel's trumpet, grows throughout the Niagara region. The plant is often used as a recreational drug and can cause hallucinations, delirium, and disorientation.

An overdose can cause seizures, respiratory failure, and death.

I'm thinkin' there has to be a better solution.

Technorati Tags: Jimson weed, recreational drugs, war on drugs

Being Denis Khadr - Update

Of course, the soaring irony of Denis Coderre's latest geopolitical pronouncements will go totally over his already swollen head...

"Governance and corruption within Afghanistan are another major issue."

"We can announce millions and millions, but do we believe that that money is going exactly where it should be?" he asked.

Ah, Denis... isn't this the very question you should have asked your old boss?

Also don't miss the beginnings of Denis' manly, "I'm at the pointy edge of the spear" adventure beard.

He's even starting to look like a Taliban.

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RELATED: Of course, Taliban Denis knows best

Coderre, who is in Afghanistan as part of a two day fact-finding mission, echoed the United Nations position saying he was troubled by the state-sanctioned execution of 15 Afghan prisoners on Sunday night.

Funny... I've never heard Coderre say "word one" about the Taliban executing innocent civilians... apparently "sawing heads off living human beings" gets a pass from our Liberal critic.

The Karzai government responds...

The government's official announcement of the executions came on state television Monday evening, saying Karzai ordered the executions following a decision by a special commission he set up to review rulings by the Supreme Court.

"After all the discussions and after looking back over the cases ... in order to prevent future crimes, such as murders, armed robberies, kidnappings, and to maintain the stability of the country, (Karzai) approved the prisoners' death sentences," the statement read.

Technorati Tags: Denis Coderre, Kandahar, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Being Denis Khadr

No wonder the federal Liberal Party is coming apart at the seams... there seems to be some contagious psychosis ripping through their ranks...

"I have a duty as defence critic to be on the field, to support the troops, support the mission," said Coderre.

Of course, Denis' version of being supportive... may not exactly dovetail with what the troops are thinking.

Speaking to reporters after his arrival at the base, Coderre said he was sticking by his opinion that Canada needs to end its combat role.

Not that Denis isn't a warrior at heart.

Coderre also said he won't travel off the main Kandahar base because of security concerns.

"I don't want to be a burden for security purposes so I'm not going to participate in an operation for now," he said.

Participate in an operation? Yeah... like that was ever on the agenda.

I'm guessing dumpy Denis doesn't participate in anything further... or more strenuous... than a waddle to the Timmy's trailer and a round of apple toffee danish.

The truth is, this dope is probably more popular outside the wire than he is inside... and no amount of play-acting is gonna change that.

Try to imagine what would have happened to young Pierre Trudeau if he'd been allowed to similarly harangue our troops on Juno Beach.

Can you say firing squad?


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LAST WORD: "But what about my scrapbook?"

It was Coderre's misfortune to find few Canadians to talk to when he walked through a recreational area for troops on Monday.

He joined two Canadian soldiers for a coffee, but they refused to have their photograph taken with him.

Go home, you dipshit... the only person you're fooling is yourself.

Technorati Tags: Denis Coderre, Kandahar, fiberal smoke and mirrors

The McLiberal Haze

"Day after day, socialist politicians, of which McGuinty is but a archetypal example, stage events to show how tolerant they are; they appear with different folks of different colours, of different faiths."

"McGuinty hands over $1m to a cricket club, for example, as if he actually knows square leg from silly mid off."

You want success in Afghanistan?

You've gotta speak their language...

A U.S. "most-wanted" list of a dozen elusive Taliban and al-Qaida leaders fueling a surge in bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan, and the rewards offered...

Looks like one of "the faithful" dimed their boy out.

-- October 8, 2007 -- Officials say an air strike by U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 16 militants loyal to a wanted Uzbek warlord.

The police chief of eastern Paktika Province said a militant -- an Uzbek captured after Sunday's (October 7) fighting said the militants were loyal to Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Yuldash was one of five most wanted militants with a top reward of $200,000 in a list released by the U.S. military last month.

Sleep tight, Tahir...we're comin' for you.

Technorati Tags: Tahir Yuldash, Paktika Province, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

What a difference a day makes

It's time to scrap the Youth Criminal "inJustice Act".

-- BRAMPTON -- One of four alleged gang members who are charged with killing Brampton teen Akila Bandhanage was celebrating his 18th birthday on the day of the murder.

Omari White, who turned 18 on Sept. 28 and lost the protection of the Youth Criminal Justice Act by a matter of hours, appeared briefly in court yesterday but was remanded in custody until another appearance Thursday.

Police said all four suspects are known to them and allege they are members of a local Bloods crew.

Looks like we just got this animal by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin. One for the good guys.

Let's face it, though... the only way society can put the brakes on all this savagery... is to exact a harsh penalty.

And anybody, regardless of their age... who doesn't appreciate that savagely murdering an innocent bystander is wrong... should be locked up for the rest of their life.

That isn't going to happen under a Liberal government.

Technorati Tags: Omari White, Youth Criminal Justice Act, Akila Bandhanage