So tell me again... why is it that...

...even though I wasn't wearing a mask... the last time I voted... they still had to see my photo id...Canadians who wear coverings over their faces will not be required to remove them to vote if they swear a special oath to affirm their identity and eligibility, a spokesman for Elections Canada said...

Give it to me...

...one more time...Homeowners in the GTA are about to get kicked in the assessment.The Municipal Property Assessment Corp. is in the process of mailing out 4.7 million notices across Ontario that show an average increase in home values of 20...

A Nation of Riflemen

"Whatever happens on Oct. 14, the 2008 election will be remembered as -- among other things -- the collective coming out party for Canada's blogosphere. Amateur Web scribblers have been making their mark on Canadian politics for years, but never on the scale we've witnessed this month."**********RELATED: Of course... not everybody agrees..."What worries me, though, is that we're seeing the "democratization"...

They could always use...

...the "David Miller Solution"... and simply ban religion.**********RELATED: Just another victim of society...He couldn't bow down to Mr. Taylor in public, or run or holler for police because "My career [as a gangster] would have been scattered." So he shot, in that square packed with people."As I said, I went through a lot that night...

Local Scam-Artist...

...ducks serious jail time... yet again... -- BELLEVILLE -- The aboriginal protester behind a blockade that shut down Canada's busiest highway during last year's aboriginal day of action was spared further jail time after an unexpectedly speedy trial today.The Belleville Intelligencer reports that Mohawk protester Shawn Brant was charged for shutting down Highway 401 in eastern Ontario in June...

Courageous Green Party...

...outs “right wing white supremacist”......wait a minute...**********RELATED: The Wile E. Coyote of political parties..."Did it not occur to the Green braintrust that White Supremacists would in fact heartily approve of Mays attendance at the Jew Bashing...

Three soldiers killed

-- KABUL -- The U.S.-led coalition says three of its troops have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan.The coalition did not release any other details, including the nationalities of the troops or the blast's location.**********WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNICAh, CC... taking time out from obsessing about the ZO...

Let me count the ways

It's just so hard to say... whose track record should we be looking at first?When a group of more than 100 Canadian native leaders arrives in China six weeks from now, they will carry a message that is both historic and disarmingly straightforward: China has vast wealth to invest, and Canada's native communities, with their access to timber, coal and minerals, want to do business.The words "train...

The central theme of the book

...is that by making guns illegal, criminals will stop using them and the world will become some manner of utopia. But in order for criminals to obey the law and not use outlawed weapons... well, I think you see where this is going.On second thought, in case Wendy Cukier is in fact reading these reviews, I'll make it more obvious. Criminals don't obey the law! If they did then there wouldn't be...

Oh gawd... cramping up... need air...

..."diversity training at the Mother Corp... oh, please, just stop"...Partly in response to the outcry, Mr. Cruickshank said CBCNews.ca has plans to soon expand the diversity of voices and opinions expressed online “to better reflect the depth and texture of this country.”**********FROM THE COMMENTS:"Um,...

And no, I didn't eat it

"I stabbed it a few times, though, just to be on the safe side."...

Apparently... Tony Rezko just realised...

...there isn't gonna be a commutation from the Governor...Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a convicted influence peddler who was once one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's most trusted confidants, has met with federal prosecutors and is considering cooperating in the corruption probe of the governor's administration, sources told the Tribune.Rezko's trial this year laid bare a culture of scams, bribes and backroom deals...

According to the Dippers & Liberals...

...all we really need... are more social workers.I wonder how Emily Stauffer's parents feel about that theory...A small community west of Edmonton is in shock after a 14-year-old girl was killed in broad daylight while out for a walk on a wooded path.Two young boys, believed to be nine and 12 years old, witnessed the attack. They saw a man attacking the teenage girl and rushed to a nearby home on...

Now I knew Taliban Jack...

...was a silk-stocking socialist... but I was stunned to hear he's got 52 billion dollars in his back pocket..."The New Democrats' child benefit will give every middle-class and working family in Canada a raise," he said.As first disclosed by the Star, families with a household income of $38,000 or less would receive $400 a month per child. Those making less than $188,000-a-household would get $250...

On confusing data with knowledge

Three years ago, after suffering through serial episodes of extremely brief but Hiroshima-like headaches... I had what television paramedics casually and cryptically refer to as a "syncopal episode"... which, believe you me, isn't nearly as much fun as it sounds.After a brief stop at the always chaotic and overloaded Emergency Room down in Belleville... I was fortunate enough to get assigned to an...

So Jacko... you sit down with the Taliban...

...don't forget to put "killing uppity women" on the short list, huh?Afghan officials say unidentified gunmen fatally shot one of the country's most prominent female police officers.Malalai Kakar was killed Sunday as she traveled from her home in the southern city of Kadahar. Her son was also wounded in the attack. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the shooting.Kakar, a mother of six, was...

Toronto Sun reveals...

...scary, hidden "TRUTH"... Stephen Harper hates children... -- AJAX -- Little Betty Chen wanted to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper a letter yesterday but couldn't get it past his security.The 10-year-old Toronto girl trekked out to Ajax in the rain with her family in a desperate plea to somehow get the Conservative leader's attention and somehow avoid deportation to China.In fact, he hates...

So much for Olympic glory

You poison tens of thousands of babies... who's gonna remember all the rest of that glitzy hoop-la?In Hong Kong, Heinz Foods this week recalled its vegetable formula baby cereal after some samples of it tested positive for melamine. In Taiwan, Pizza Hut said it had found cheese packets similarly contaminated. Officials in Macao, a Chinese territory, said Friday that the chemical had turned up in...

Deal? Or no deal?

-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. congressional leaders Sunday said they had reached the broad outline of a deal to put in place a $700 billion financial system bailout but were awaiting details on paper before declaring it final.Fear-wracked financial markets had lent the talks urgency and lawmakers were striving to reach a deal by Sunday before Asian markets ope...

Remember Guy Earle?

"When Lenny started there were no stand-up clubs. He did his socially-driven commentary (remember the jester bending the king’s ear?) from the stage at strip clubs." "Unbelievably, he performed for, by definition, the worst audiences known to humankind. He ended up marrying a stripper named Bunny, and after endless battles for our right to fight, offend, and question, he died on his bathroom floor,...

I guess "Elephant Balls"...

...was already taken...Known as "Fusionman," he was aiming to follow the route taken by French airman Louis Blériot 99 years ago when he became the first person to fly across the English Channel in a plan...

See, Scooby... here's the thing...

...if you're a gun-toting sociopath... you can, uh... "acquire"... a camera, or anything else for that matter... any time you want.**********UPDATE: So far, so good...Three people were injured in two shootings in Rexdale early Saturday morning, including one in which a 17-year-old girl was struck by a bullet fragment as she slept in her be...

Trust me, Chantal...

...dry, flaking skin is the least of their problems...The "Toronto 18" trio being held in solitary confinement have turned down offers to leave their cells for time in the Don Jail exercise yard. The Toronto Sun has learned the three inmates were each offered yard time more than 100 times this year. They have only accepted offers to go outside a handful of times, a source familiar with the case,...

Canada... land of endless opportunity

For absolutely anyone...A fugitive sex offender was ordered extradited today accused of the brutal murder-rape of a California woman more than two decades ago.But guess what... that's just part of the story.In 1986, Su Go pleaded guilty to assaulting and attempting to rape another woman in Costa Mesa, Calif. While on $50,000 bail on that charge, Su Go, also known as Gerald Sugo and Gerald Su, fled...

Yakkity-Yak

Well, doesn't look like anybody made the big gaffe...The stakes were high as the two rivals walked on stage. The polls gave Mr. Obama a modest lead and indicated he was viewed more favourably than his rival when it came to dealing with the economy. But the same surveys show Mr. McCain favoured by far on foreign policy.And now that that one's in the can... everybody's looking forward to Round Two...Sarah...

There's a picture...

...I can't get outta my head... uber-pollster Peter Donolo thrashing around helplessly as he bleeds from his ears. -- OTTAWA -- The Liberals are projected to lose virtually all 45 tight ridings being tracked by the Strategic Counsel polling firm, according to new seat projections conducted for The...

When will they ever learn?

Another "Red" Star... my bad... CTV poll goes sideway...

Toronto Police Chief sacked...

...apparently replaced by Miss Manners..."There are some young men who are exchanging gunfire, sometimes in very public places and putting a lot of people at risk, so naturally this is of concern to us."**********FROM THE COMMENTS:"Miss Manners wouldn't be so mealy-mouthed."Damn... she's got me ther...

Just doing their part

Tim Burns from Calgary, Canada writes: "Thank god for the Khadr family."* Posted 26/09/08 at 11:18 AM EDT...

Absolutely 100 percent, not guilty

FREE IGGY... so he can get out there and find the real mutineers...“I am looking you in the eye and I am telling you a true statement,” he said from across a coffee table at a downtown hotel before heading to one of several engagements in his B.C. tour.“I have absolutely no idea. Nobody associated with me. Nobody associated with my campaign.""I think that people should shut up, get back to work and...

A Reader writes...

...this is the response my bro in Florida received when he tried to order a McCain/Palin T-shirt for me.Dear GOP Trunk customer,In the past few weeks, we have seen a large surge in orders since the nomination of the McCain-Palin ticket. We are working around the clock to fulfill the orders as quickly...

Ezra told me not to come

Want some whiskey in your water...Sugar in your tea...What's all these crazy questions... They're askin me...This is the craziest party... That could ever be...Don't turn on the lights... Cause I don't wanna see**********RELATED: Canada's kangaroo courts......somebody oughta write a book. You know, somebody close to the action... wait a minute..."I just got back from a luncheon on the HRCs, with...

Hogtown... or Bogged Down Town

People sometimes ask me if I've ever regretted leaving Toronto... and moving out into the sticks...Thousands of commuters poured out of subway tunnels and crowded onto sidewalks and streets yesterday after two separate incidents shut down the Toronto Transit Commission’s two main lines at the height of afternoon rush hour.An electrical cable came down onto the track at Eglinton station on the Yonge...

And if you owned...

"...an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him.""And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover'?"**********FROM THE COMMENTS:"Katie Couric and Joe Biden? Wow, that's like dueling banjos of stupidity."**********RELATED: Democratic Congressman warns of pogrom"If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is...

Harper belts another one outta the park

“It's ‘I like it, I like it, give me more.' It's red hot. It's red meat, in Ontario and in B.C.,” he said.Importantly for the Conservatives, the policy is appealing to Liberal voters, 61 per cent of whom said they would agree with toughening sentences for young offender...

Spirits are said to be...

...especially buoyant at the XBOX "'Gears of War' Party" headquarters...Austria makes history in the European Union on Sunday by becoming the first member of the 27-nation bloc to give 16-year-olds a voice in national elections.**********FROM THE COMMENTS:"Lowering the voting age gives them representation...

To paraphrase Willie Nelson...

"Mama... don't let yer babies grow up to be lawyers" -- BRAMPTON, Ont. -- When it was pointed out his client appeared to be taking the ruling in stride, and even appeared to be smiling, Mr. Chernovsky said "he was probably happy that it's finally coming to an end."**********RELATED: From the "it could never happen here" file...It ain't over 'til the fat lady gets shot in the throa...

I sure hope the Toronto Sun...

...has a separate fuse panel for their switchboard... because Peter Worthington just did it again... yeah, the simple truth...Toronto -- Canada, in fact -- has had an effective ban on handguns since 1934, when mandatory registration was imposed and ownership made relatively strict and selective.And for most of those 74 years of handgun registration, abuses were manageable, with indiscriminate and...

And the sky grew darker...

...as the vultures began to discern the ugly smell of death...“Liberals win elections when they have the edge with women voters,” said Peter Donolo, a pollster with the Strategic Counsel. “Right now, they're not enjoying that edge.”“I think the No. 1, 2 and 3 answers are Stéphane Dion and his communication skills...

You live in Woodbridge or Oshawa...

...chances are... you know someone who hunts..."L4L (Woodbridge) leads this map of 2007 provincial hunting permits, with 24.2 residents per 1,000 having bought one last year.""The fishing and camping maps showed that Oshawa and nearby towns lead the region in outdoor recreation, and the hunting map shows the same pattern. Three of the top six FSAs for hunting permits are in Oshawa (L1H, L1G, L1J)...

Well... except for Cherniak, I guess

“Not one, not a single serious Liberal is talking about Stéphane Dion becoming Prime Minister,” a long-time Liberal said. “This is not about beating Harper as PM.""This is about living for another day.”**********RELATED: The socialists are eating their dead......and I just can't look awa...

Hey, Barack... I've got a feeling...

...you're gonna need something a little stronger than hope this time around...In a statement, Mr. McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former president Bill Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.The move put Mr. Obama in a bind. Rejecting the idea would allow Mr. McCain alone to appear above politics, but...

Good ol' Iranian Cynic

Well, on the bright side... it's nice to know exactly where everybody stands... Israeli officials are describing the speech by Iran's president at the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday as a notorious manifestation of anti-Semitism. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to "deceitful" Zionists who are manipulating Americans and Europeans and who control the world's financial system.Officials here...

Sure, let's increase the subsidies...

...for artists... the day after I no longer have to sit in a hospital emergency room... for seven and a half hours... with a sick fevered child in my lap.**********RELATED: Whaddaya mean... they already did it?That amount is $660 million or 19.7 per cent more than was spent in fiscal 2006, the last...

From the people who brought you...

...lead-painted baby toys... -- CALGARY -- China's tainted-milk scandal has made its way to Canadian supermarket shelves for the second time in as many days.“This is a wakeup call for a lot of us,” said Rattana Sum, vice-president of Thai Indochine Trading Inc. of Markham, Ont.Sure, Rattana, not to mention... "a death sentence"... for a whole lot of other...

A mystery revealed

Holy crap... I think I finally understand what the U.N. is actually all about. -- PARIS -- They ate and drank their way through a three-hour strategy session recently to help their country face the daunting task before it: to persuade the United Nations to declare French gastronomy a world treasure."Genocide in Darfur? Yeah, yeah... we'll get to that next week...

Another big similarly...

...between Barack Obama and Stephane Dion... they both do better when tightly scripted...“Mr. Layton already has a coalition, I understand. He has a coalition with the nudist party and a coalition with the marijuana party.”Mr. Dion had been less direct in his answer yesterday when asked about Mr. Layton's comments. Today, aides said, he came to the media scrum prepared with the answer he gav...

A million here... a million there...

...pretty soon you're talkin' serious taxpayer-funded scratch... -- TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY -- The installation of a new police building here has been delayed “until further notice,” after a group of band members set up a blockade Tuesday to protest its arrival.Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte officials were preparing to have a 4,635-square-foot building shipped from a Hamilton-area manufacturer...

Macleans magazine...

... reveals the horrifying truth...You can almost smell the Guyanese jungle.**********UPDATE: Bad news for Macleans magazine......apparently folks are just too smart to swill the "socialist koolade."An exclusive Nanos Research-Sun Media poll shows 30.4% of people surveyed think the Tories will honour...

Government officials...

...said to be considering a nationwide ban on "rebar"..."Police have charged 63 former workers with murder."**********RELATED: A little closer to home......Toronto "lead-poisoning" update.Police have named Darnell Grant, 31, shot down Monday night in the Driftwood area near Jane and Finch, as the city's latest shooting victim.The post-mortem examination of Grant showed he died of a gunshot wound...

Have your say at G & M poll...

"Should courts be able to impose a life sentence on a 14-year-old convicted of murder?"**********POSTSCRIPT: But Mom... he followed me home... againMy nameless little troll just keeps screaming, "Look at me, look at me!"It's so sa...

In the end, it all comes down...

...to one thing...Getting soldiers, at least the male ones, to switch to digital camouflage wasn’t easy, Dr. O’Neill says, because for many men camouflage is less about invisibility than fashion. Some soldiers hung on to the old-fashioned designs because of what Dr. O’Neill called the C.D.I. factor: Chicks Dig It.Good grief... it's true.We ARE idiot...

I know Dawg... I know

We're supposed to pretend none of this is happening. -- TORONTO -- Police have arrested two men in the city’s latest Jane and Finch gun slaying. The victim was shot at Driftwood Court and Driftwood Ave around 9:16 p.m. last night. This is the second murder in the area in less than a week. On Sept. 16, William Junior Appiah was gunned down in what police described as a targeted shooting while...

Fewer feather boas... more David Sedaris

As someone who has never gone particularly out of their way to embrace the gay community, here's a thought I'd like to share with my homosexual brethren... and, uh... sisters... (there's very likely a grammatically appropriate word, which I can't think of right now).This is, of course, just my own circumscribed "breeder" opinion... but if you're really interested in bridging the oft-yawning chasm...

QUICK LIKE A FUZZY-BUNNY!!!

Somebody has to rush over to Cherniak's house... and remove all medications and sharp objects...“To know him, for most Canadians, is not to like him better,” said the Strategic Counsel's Peter Donolo, pollster for The Globe and Mail and CT...

Leadership Debate: Question #3

"So, Ms. May... what sort of foreign policy will you be promoting... apart from your vigorous public support for Hezbollah...

Buckle up, baby

It's gonna be a wild ride! -- NEW YORK -- Oil prices leaped more than $25 (U.S.) a barrel Monday — the biggest one-day price jump ever — as anxiety over the U.S. government's $700-billion bailout plan, a weak dollar and an expiring crude contract ignited a dramatic rally.Phil Flynn, analyst and oil trader with Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said the late-session surge in oil appeared to be the...

More gnashing of teeth...

...and beating of breasts... as another "Red" Star poll goes horribly wro...

And behold... a star...

The only thing missing from the Globe's fawning article... are the three wise men.There is but a single mention of a fly in the fiberal ointment...A weak spot, however, is Liberal assumptions about how much extra cash there will be in federal coffers for pay for their plan over the next four years.The...

Sealing the Deal

A step in the right direction... -- OTTAWA -- Conservative leader Stephen Harper promised to scrap Canada’s young offenders law and replace it with a tougher version under which youth who commit serious violent crimes will no longer be able to keep their names out of the news.The new law would impose automatic, stiffer sentences for people 14 years of age or over who are convicted of serious violent...

Bringing down the house

Sounds like the slaughter in Islamabad... could have had much larger geo-political implications...Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed venue at the last minute, officials say.Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have been there.The capricious and unknowable "Will of Al...

Deja Vu... all over again

-- WHITE RIVER, ONT. -- A young man was stabbed Sunday as he slept aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through Northern Ontario, a second stabbing incident in as many months.The victim, believed to be in his 20s, was stabbed by another young passenger near the town of White River, about 300 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., an unnamed passenger told The Canadian Press.**********ASK A...

"He called in the spooks"

Can waterboarding be far behind?Once again, with a little help from the Globe... Canadian Press unmasks the scary, tyrannical villain...One of the messages suggests Mr. Harper's recognition of Kosovo's independence could lead to Quebec sovereignty.And, of course, the guy who actually perpetrated the...

Remember the good old days...

...when Steffi said the Liberal Party would not resort to negative campaigning?Conservatives pointed to the online writings of Ms. Finch, the Liberal candidate in the riding of Dufferin-Caledon, on a site called metaball.ca, where she is listed as an editor.In March 2008, the Tories allege, Ms. Finch...

I suppose I should be flattered...

...that I have my own personal troll.Not only that, he's apparently such a fan, he has even come to imitate (well, the purple is actually his idea) the very format I use when replying to comments. If he wasn't so obnoxious, it'd be kinda cute.Of course, there's a pretty fine line between hero-worship...