Who do these folks...

Think they're foolin'... the whole Hollywood machine exists to exploit...

I was walking from my Beijing bed-and-breakfast to a nearby subway station when I was stopped in my tracks by a billboard that made the controversial 1990s Calvin Klein underwear ads look artistic by comparison.

And who's right there in the middle of it?

Staring down at the throngs of shoppers on Beijing's Xinjiekou Nandajie Avenue, a busy commercial thoroughfare about a mile west of the Forbidden City, was a white girl who looked all of 12, reclining in a matching bra-and-panties set adorned with Disney's signature mouse-ear design.

In a particularly creepy detail, the pigtailed child was playing with a pair of Minnie Mouse hand puppets. In the upper left-hand corner was the familiar script of the Disney logo.

Good grief.

(h/t)*

Memo to David Miller

I think we're gonna need a knife ban too.

-- BRAMPTON, Ont. -- A gruesome multiple stabbing at a Brampton strip mall early this afternoon has left two people dead, including a bystander who tried to intervene in what police believe was a domestic dispute.

Both the woman and the Good Samaritan died at the plaza, which was quickly flooded with police cruisers and emergency vehicles and cordoned off with yellow tape.

So some poor brave soul tries to intervene in a domestic dispute... and ends up paying for it with his life.

Habib Syed, who works at the nearby Bestway Food Market, witnessed part of yesterday's violence and recounted seeing a black man try to stab himself in the neck with a bloody knife before slumping to the ground, shouting, ‘My wife is dead. my wife is dead.'

Pizza maker Amarik Mangar also saw some of the fight and described the slain woman as white and heavy-set. The passerby was also white, witnesses said.

Funny... no farmers, hunters or target shooters involved in this one either.

**********

UPDATE: And late Wednesday... another one

A 47-year-old Toronto man is dead after being stabbed in his west end home late last night.

Police were called to the Keele St. and Junction Rd. area, just north of Dundas St. W., shortly before midnight where they discovered a man suffering obvious signs of trauma.

He had been stabbed several times, and although he was rushed to hospital, he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.

**********

RELATED: One for the good guys

It won't bring Jonathan Chambers back... but it's something...

A year-long OPP investigation has led to the arrests of four men in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a Markham man who was executed near Barrie.

Tafari Williams, 28, of Brampton, Terrance Walker, 27, of Toronto, and Gregory Millar, 31, of Mississauga, each face a charge of first degree murder. Andrew Turner, 30, of Brampton, is charged with conspiracy to kidnap.

Police continue to hunt for two other men believed to be connected with the slaying. They have obtained arrest warrants for Lenworth Anthony Spence, 28, of no fixed address, and Robert Henry, 30, of Brampton.

*

MACLEANS SUIT - offer to settle

Well... we're certainly off to a fine start.

TORONTO, April 30 /CNW/ - "The assertion that the editors were prepared to consider a reasonable counter-view article to Mark Steyn's Islamophobic polemic is a complete fabrication," said Muneeza Sheikh, one of the students present at the meeting.

I'm not sure ol' Muneeza fully appreciates the concept of "settling"... in a Canadian legal context... which is odd, because she's apparently a lawyer.

The good news is that no one, except possibly Kathy Shaidle, is talking looting or burning... just yet.

**********

UPDATE: Kathy reports in

At this morning's press conference, held by the Sharia Creeps, we were promised a big "settlement" announcement in the absurd case of Steyn & Maclean's v. A Bunch of Sock Puppets and Their Anti-Semite Master Behind the Curtain.

In a dazzling demonstration of both taqiyya AND hudna, we received no such thing.

The three law students -- or rather, their obnoxious lawyer, who did all the talking -- simply reiterated their original demands: that Maclean's magazine honor the students' imaginary "right to rebuttal" (a right that exists nowhere in English common law or centuries of journalistic and publishing practice) by letting them publish 5,000 unsolicited and unedited words in someone else's magazine.

Yup... a publicity stunt.

*

Gotta have priorities, I guess

So the Fiberals spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire computers and software for the not-especially-functional Farmer Bob Rifle Registry.

Maybe they should have had a bit of a wider perspective...

OTTAWA — The Canada Revenue Agency has extended the deadline for online tax filing to May 6 as a result of heavy traffic that has bogged down its Netfile website.

“If you have difficulty sending or correcting your Netfile return, you have until midnight (local time) on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 to transmit it,” the notice says. “Your tax return will be considered as filed on time.” CRA stressed that if you owe money on your taxes, the usual filing deadline applies.

A software glitch took Netfile offline for nine days in March 2007, but CRA spokesman Jacqueline Couture said the site has not crashed this time.

“It's busy, it's overload,” she said. “For some people it seems to be working fine, for others it isn't.”

Not to worry though... the bureaucrats at the Department of Big Bad Boom... can tell you how many gopher rifles and skeet guns there are in Upper Rathole, British Columbia... they, uh... think.

Just call back in a couple of weeks.

*

Who is Lindsay Stewart?

More to the point... why would anybody care?

*

That David Ahenakew...

Such a kidder...

"But Chief Lawrence Joseph says he doesn't believe his friend and the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations ever meant it when he called Jews 'a disease' in 2002."

**********

RELATED: Too much Chief... not enough logic

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Chief R. Donald Maracle said his council was still trying to keep peace Tuesday.

He said about 20 protesters met him at the band office Monday, where he encouraged them to stay calm, since negotiations for the land claim are underway.

"We've made our position known," he said.

"Making inflammatory comments only exacerbates the tension and only adds to the potential of people being hurt."

Uh, Chief... what about blockading a town and assaulting police officers?

That figure into your equation anywhere?

*

Where's the fire?

When I watch Barack Obama on TV, it seems like he's in a play... he's just acting like he wants to get elected...

"The Illinois senator doesn’t pay attention to the mythic nature of campaigns, but if he did, he would recognize the narrative of the classic hero myth: The young hero ventures out on an adventure to seek a golden fleece or an Oval Office; he has to kill monsters and face hurdles before he returns home, knocks off his father and assumes the throne."

Hillary, on the other hand, is like some demented Terminator... she's been programmed for this mission and she'll do anything, kill anybody... to get it done.

It's an interesting contrast.

*

No Rumours... No Funeral

And the cops who were hospitalised... and the trench the terrorists, er... gentle aboriginal protesters cut across a road with a backhoe... do we blame that on rumours too?

Michael Bryant says both the road barricade of a local highway and the recent blockade of a rail line are being dismantled.

He says the blockade - which was erected in solidarity with aboriginal protesters in eastern Ontario - went up because of rumour and misinformation.

See, Mikey... call me cynical... but I'm thinking your government's policy of "relentless appeasement" has to shoulder some of the blame here.

*

See Iggy, the thing is...

You're confusing "publicity stunts"... with actually helping to run the country... which, as much as it pains me to say it... is what you're really supposed to be doing...

“I find it unbelievable that a governing party in Canada would refuse to support a motion expressing confidence in the institution that keeps our country's elections fair... And I think Canadian citizens will find it unbelievable,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters Tuesday.

Well, my learned friend... maybe Canadians are smarter than you think.

What are you gonna do then?

*

Well, I see from Sitemeter...

That I've been linked to, yet again, by potty-mouthed poseur... Canadian Cynic.

CC is actually my most avid linker, though, strangely, there never seems to be that much resultant traffic from his site. I'm guessing the fact that he feels obligated to use the word c@nt in every other sentence, may be a bit of a gagger for some folks... especially the fairer sex.

With his rudimentary social skills, I'm guessing he doesn't really have much of a social life... but CC has managed to turn even that... being a "rude, moody loner"... into a sort of hobby.

So tonight, as per usual, it seems he's simply winging it... making up offensive cant... and talkin' smack about people (and I'm certainly near the top of his list) he believes may have sullied his name.

Anyway... CC now claims that he has unearthed my identity and, wait for it... that I am actually Richard from No-Libs.com, who I believe, resides in Calgary. He's also saying that people are gonna have to wait for the "punch line"... but you know something, my little friend, it's actually your puerile, uni-dimensional personality... that is the punch line here.

Of course, anyone who has followed my stuff over the last two years knows that I'm a 7 year resident of Hastings Cty., Ontario... and a former (never to return) resident of Toronto. But hey... CC isn't actually that interested in facts.

And that's really the only thing you need to know about him.

**********

UPDATE:

I probably should have just ignored the little pest.

I just went back into Sitemeter and there has been just one additional hit originating from CC's little rathole. So, counting the one I noticed earlier... we have a grand total of two visitors.

Now you really know everything about sad-sack Canadian Cynic.

I almost feel sorry for him.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I'd rather be called a 'c@nt' (cute, tres effective) than a member of 'the fairer sex'."

Right on sistah!!!

You try that out for a day or two and get back to us.

**********

RELATED: Maybe I'll ask Ezra for a legal opinion

In the comments, Langmann points out that Cynic is accusing me of being the person who hacked the wireless router in the HRC case...

Much like Nelly Hechme... I don't much appreciate being accused of breaking the law... or of being associated with the "white supremacist" movement.

But let's ask Cynic's Co-Blogger Lindsay Stewart... who is not so publicity-shy... to back up CC's assertion.

After all, Lindsay likes to express bold opinions on other public forums...

"Written by Lindsay Stewart on 2007-12-13 10:48:56"

"I've been keeping an eye on our site meter over at www.canadiancynic.blogspot.com where I write as pretty shaved ape. About 7% of our traffic this morning has been from government."

"We normally get that many gc hits in a day if we've been totally snotty. I suspect that they are seeing whether we'll let up. And thanks R. Bassett for the "vocal Minority" idea, I'll be including that in my letter to ACTRA later today."

Whaddaya think, Lindsay... you got some time to talk to a lawyer?

*

Oh good, I was a little worried...

They might not be putting those tax dollars to good use...

According to figures obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information, the number of practising Wiccans and Pagans behind bars has tripled in the last five years. In 2002 there were just 25, compared to 77 in 2007, data from the Correctional Service of Canada show.

Apparently it's important to have all the right equipment.

According to an internal CSC manual on religious practices, inmate witches are required to have an altar with candles and incense for worship.

They should also be permitted a wooden wand, robe, tarot cards, figurines, oils and natural objects such as shells, feathers, stones and crystals, the manual reads.

Say, do you think Rastafarians get all their religious needs seen to as well?

I know what altar I'd be worshipping at.

**********

UPDATE: Darcey found the manual

The internal CSC manual is also available online at the CSC website. The Paganism section (under spiritual resources) has been written by one Pashta MaryMoon on behalf of the Pagan Pastoral Outreach and Pagan Federation of Canada.

Clicking through the politically correct bureaucracy is fascinating - did you know that Pagans have their own dietary requirements but which can vary according to their coven and also an individuals conscience?

*

CTV and Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler...

Are both lying through their teeth...

He noted that "an overwhelming majority of Canadians" polled don't believe Khadr will receive a fair hearing in the U.S. and would like him returned home to Canada.

See, that's a little funny... because CTV's sister company, the Globe & Mail, recently ran a poll on that very question...

Should Omar Khadr be tried in Canada as a youth?That's an overwhelming majority all right... just not the way the CTV has chosen to report it... this time around.

But, but, but... poor old Omar, he's a regular Canadian... just like you and me...

Kuebler said Khadr wants to do what other Canadians do -- such as go to school, get a job, watch movies like "Lord of the Rings," and visit the Rocky Mountains.

"They are not the dreams of a dangerous jihadist," he said. "They are the dreams that we can admire and relate to."

Are you relating yet?

*

"I hope Steyn takes the letter..."

"...crumbles it up and dips it in a cup of ketchup and then eats it right there on stage in front of them."

"Oh God, hear my prayer, please let this happen."

Even the collateral damage is pretty pleasing.

...and generally served to marginalize the pro-censorship lobby to the point that its main defender is now a disgruntled former journalist who fills his blog with unhinged conspiracy theories about how everyone who favours free speech is a racist.

Ooooh... that's gonna leave a mark.

**********

RELATED: Paging Richard Warman...

Hey, buddy... you may wanna steer clear of this place for a little while.

A Montreal gay bar, Bar Le Stud, told a woman named Audrey Vachon that she wasn't allowed in -- it was a men-only establishment, and had been happily operating that way for eleven years.

Then the human rights commissions got involved, and Bar Le Stud has copped a plea bargain.

Misguided gay rights activists -- like Darren Lund, and even Richard Warman -- have used the bludgeon of human rights commissions to batter down the real rights of others. But they have laid down precedents that, in this case at least, are being used against gays.

*

BLACKBALLED!!!

Captain Obama forced to cut tow-rope to the good ship... "SS Jeremiah Wright"...

The presidential candidate is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to envelope his campaign.

“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Mr. Obama told reporters at a news conference.

I just wanna know... where was Captain Obama when the entire crew started screaming...

"ICEBERG!!!! DEAD AHEAD!!!!"

**********

RELATED: There's also that yappy spouse thing

"I’m willing to cut presidential spouses a lot of slack. When Senator Obama said Jeremiah Wright was like a goofy uncle, it was pointed out that your relatives are a given but you get to choose your pastor."

"It’s true that you also get to choose your wife, but, unless you’re particularly far-sighted, you don’t always choose them with a presidential run in mind."

I guess "Slick Willie" kinda evens this one up anyway.

**********

LAST WORD: Wheels within wheels

"Of course, Hillary could use Wright to sabotage Obama, and then - with the party roiling - set herself up as the candidate of “unity” by offering the badly injured Obama the veep spot. Which would be profoundly ironic - she’d have taken the party to the brink of destruction in order to steal the “unifier” tag from Obama."

"This is almost a thing of beauty in its perverse way - if it can be pulled off."

*

Pay me now... or pay me later

-- Pop Quiz -- What's flat, black and glows in the dark?

-- Answer -- It sure as shit ain't gonna be Tel-Aviv.

-- Iran -- The sprawling site, known as Natanz, made headlines recently because Iran is testing a new generation of centrifuges there that spin faster and, in theory, can more rapidly turn natural uranium into fuel for reactors or nuclear arms.

Iran is slowly but steadily gaining the industrial experience needed to make reactor fuel, or, with the same equipment and a little more effort, bomb fuel — the hardest part of the weapons equation.

American intelligence agencies say the earliest Iran could make a nuclear weapon is 2009, but consider 2010 to 2015 a more likely time frame.

Now, you'd think... especially in light of the recent Israeli air raid on the Syrian nuclear reactor... these guys would wanna keep their heads down... but apparently, like a bunch of 7 year-olds with a new video game, they just have to brag it up.

“This is intel to die for,” Andreas Persbo, an analyst in London at the Verification Research, Training and Information Center, a private group that promotes arms control, said in a comment on the blog site Arms Control Wonk.

Dr. Wood of the University of Virginia said the episode smelled of hubris. “It was amazing to me that they put the pictures out there,” he said.

“It’s sort of a cocky thing. I would think they had more to gain by keeping their cards close to their chests.”

Live and don't learn... the story of the Middle-East.

*

Alright, Toronto...

Congratulations on solving that nasty guns and gangs issue...

City council endorsed David Miller's handgun ban yesterday, but left the mayor three votes shy of winning unanimous support.

It's tough to get unanimous support at Toronto council, Miller noted. But he said the city made a "strong and powerful step" towards eliminating guns from the streets.

"Will it put an end to all guns in our country that are used illegally? We know there is more work to do and the answer is sadly no," Miller said. "Will it make a significant impact? The answer is absolutely yes."

In support of his "if you ban it, they will magically disappear" initiative, His Blondeness trots out an impressive statistic...

He said one-third of crimes in Toronto, including the Jan. 12 shooting death of innocent bystander John O'Keefe on Yonge St., are committed with legally registered handguns.

The only problem is... it isn't true.

"Statistics Canada has reported that 2.27% of homicides in Canada were committed with a registered gun and only 1.21% were committed with a registered firearm that was owned by the accused."

But don't tell that to David Miller.

He's livin' the dream.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Dave Hodson suggested... "So, Let's set up a combination safe shooting sites--you can shoot guns and drugs in the same protected environment!"

Langmann replied... "Its called Toronto."

**********

RELATED: Not everyone is celebrating

When I mentioned the handgun ban to Mrs. Neo, she was strangely unenthusiastic...

"It's a pity," said Mrs. N, no doubt thinking fondly of her salad days at U of T.

"I always felt so much safer when we were allowed to walk around Toronto packing heat."

**********

LAST WORD: On the other hand...

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair spoke out enthusiastically in support of the Mayor...

"Thank goodness, someone has finally solved this horrible problem. Toronto police officers were sick and tired of finding hundreds of armed criminals every year and not being able to do anything about it."

"We look forward to starting to arrest these miscreants, from this point forward."

*

Let the Liberals...

Take over rescuing Ms. Congeniality... and the federal government can go back to looking after the other thousand Canadians imprisoned abroad...

"It's a process than can take nine months if both sides agree, yet Ms. Martin could set a record for speedy departures if she's released this week. Not good enough, fumed Ms. Martin after a meeting with two MPs, the Canadian ambassador and a few embassy officials."

"She wants a flight home now, wants to be spared the standard handcuffing while in transit and wants parole upon landing."

Let's not forget, the Canadian government also paid her court imposed fine and you know... sure as the sun rises in the east... she's gonna be suing the government... as soon as her Beauty Queen feet hit Canadian soil.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Talk about the "kiss of death"

"perhaps martin is innocent and has every right to be pissed at the ass clowns in ottawa who hung her out to dry."

Well, Jeffy... I'm sure she'll be happy to have your unequivocal support.

BTW... how's that "problem-drinking thing" coming along?

**********

RELATED: Okay... who's next?

According to the U.S. State Department, Mr. Abdelrazik was “closely associated with Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden's lieutenant responsible for recruiting and for al-Qaeda's network of training camps in Afghanistan.”

*

"Quick, Igor... bring me a brain!"

Well, it's not like we couldn't see this one coming...

Users of the facility provide their own illegal drugs and have access to medical personnel. But they are not arrested because the federal government provides an exemption saying the site is a pilot project for scientific and medical evaluation.

"The relief sought by the plaintiffs has implications well beyond this," said Hunter, the lawyer representing the federal government.

"It seeks to constitutionally protect the illegal use of drugs by drug addicts."

Apparently... much like 9 to 5, child-raisin', mortgage payin' Joe Lunchbucket... junkies are feeling life's pressures and stresses...

Shelly Tomic, one of the two addicts suing to keep the site open, said in her affidavit that she was one of the first dozen people to use the facility.

"It's much less stressful to inject there because you don't have to do it fast."

Call me crazy... but how about we put some money into saving people who actually care if they live or die?

*

Okay, I admit it... I was wrong

Climate change IS killing people...

"In bad years, the killings explode," Professor Miguel said. He believes that if climate change causes more drought years in Tanzania, the result will be more elderly women executed there and in other poor countries that still commonly attack supposed witches.

*

With friends like this...

Who needs Hillary?"

*

Nope... not Polkaroo either...

Guess again...

"I don’t feel very well. I feel dizzy, I feel anxiety, and I am not in a serene state of mind to proceed with this file today."

"I have a lot of things worrying me right now and I don’t want to elaborate… I am not dying, Mr. Chair, I don’t have the flu, but I am not mentally capable of proceeding under these circumstances."

*

Affirmative Action... here I come

I don't know about you... but I'm looking forward to becoming a visible minority...

-- OTTAWA -- The identity of Canadians is diversifying so quickly that at the current rate the majority of the country's residents will be hyphenated Canadians by 2021, a new study by a Montreal researcher predicts.

While only seven million Canadians listed multiple ancestries in 1986, that figure has steadily risen from census to census. In the latest census conducted in 2006 that number jumped to 12.9 million, Jedwab found.

Yeah... that whole "being a Canadian" thing... is so "last century" anyway.

"At this rhythm, by 2021, on the basis of the question on ethnicity, the majority of Canadians will be "hyphenated" -- that is to say they will be reporting more than one ethnic background," he wrote.

"The analysis shows that any attempt by government to strive toward a common identity for all Canadians is "an illusory course."

Man... that'll really screw with the NDP.

**********

RELATED: The flip side of the equation

"Should immigrants have to choose between becoming Canadian citizens and leaving the country?"

LAST WORD: Tom Kent on culture & immigration

"Most of us are proud to belong to a nation that welcomes diverse peoples and accepts many cultures. But present law permits, even encourages, confusion of loyalties and plurality of citizenship."

"The sense of a Canadian identity is increasingly diluted."

"It need not be."

*

Hey, Dalton...

Just for a change... how about you try being Premier of "all of the people?"

-- Caledonia, ON -- A renewed Six Nations blockade of a southern Ontario highway is pushing residents to the brink and is paving the way for a repeat of violent clashes between protesters and town residents, the mayor of the beleaguered town said Monday.

"This shouldn't be allowed," Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer said in an interview. "Enough is enough. Something has to happen. This nonsense can't continue."

*

Have it your way

Don't be too surprised if ol' Baitullah gets turned into something resembling "special sauce" in the near future...

Pakistan's top Taliban commander has suspended rare peace talks with the country's new government.

A spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud said Monday that Mehsud broke off the talks because the government is refusing to withdraw the army from a tribal region bordering Afghanistan. There has been no word from government officials.

Last week, Mehsud ordered his fighters to stop attacking Pakistan forces, as reports surfaced the government had begun negotiating a 15-point peace deal with his group.

I'm not sure why they gave this guy the option... but now he's back at the top of the class.

The United States and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have accused Mehsud of planning last year's assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud denies the charge.

Bye-bye Baitullah.

*

So Jason, does that include...

Killing another police officer?

Ontario Provincial Police can expect "another Oka crisis" should they decide to enter a quarry occupied by native protesters for more than a year, warns a Mohawk leader.

You mean another "manufactured Oka crisis", right Jason?

OPP Staff Sgt. Steve Flynn informed the Mohawks if they remained on Deseronto Road they would be arrested. He advised them to return to the quarry or be charged and taken into custody.

"If you stay here you'll be arrested. If you go back to the quarry you'll have sanctuary."

**********

RELATED: Next time you get pissed off...

Just try digging a trench across one of the roads in your neighbourhood.

-- DESERONTO, Ont. -- The Ontario Provincial Police have removed a roadblock set up by aboriginal protesters on a rural road north of Deseronto, Ont.

The barricade, which was removed at 8:30 a.m., was erected Saturday where protesters had dug a trench across the road.

Provincial police Sergeant Christine Rae says due to the damage caused to the road, it will be some time before it is reopened.

I'm not hearing reports of any more arrests... so apparently the cops are okay with it.

*

Considering the "cultural disconnect"

Obviously... one man's deeper truth... is another man's "crazy as a shithouse mouse."

-- Robert Fulford, NAT POST -- The four men, uneasy comrades at best, exhibit mutual jealousy and sharp policy disagreements as well as passionate hatred of the non-Muslim world. They are often described as thinkers and theorists but an outsider, reading their texts in translation, may find it hard to identify the thought.

They confuse ranting with teaching and clearly believe repetition is a virtue, nuance a vice. As Kepel notes, they all consider history a single narrative.

The Prophet appears, Islam rises and extends its power and then each succeeding generation must accept the task of completing what is so far only a partial conquest of the world.

**********

RELATED:The moral logic of suicide bombing

"Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year … more than double the number in any of the past 25 years … More than four-fifths of the suicide bombings over that period have occurred in the past seven years, the data show."

*

Maybe he went out for a smoke

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

-- BAGHDAD -- American and Iraqi troops killed 38 militants in the fiercest clashes in weeks in Baghdad, including 22 who attacked a military checkpoint in a Shiite militia stronghold, the U.S. military said Monday.

Or maybe that "surge" thing is working.

*

If he's afraid of Hillary...

What's he gonna do the next time Osama comes knockin'?

*

I'm from the government...

I'm here to save you...

-- TORONTO -- A woman caught up in a mysterious Internet hijacking scandal that has sparked a federal privacy investigation into the Canadian Human Rights Commission says she was shocked, angry and confused at suddenly finding herself publicly associated with white supremacists.

Speaking out for the first time, Nelly Hechme told The Canadian Press she was appalled to learn commission investigators might have hacked her Internet connection to post messages on supremacist websites.

*

If TTC drivers get more money...

It's gonna eat into Mayor Miller's ambitious socialist agenda...

Hains was one of about 200 housing and social welfare advocates to attend the meeting to discuss Toronto's 10-year, $469-million-a year Housing Opportunities Toronto (HOT) – An Affordable Housing Framework 2008-2018.

C'mon Toronto (taxpayers)... give til it hurts.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"You're wrong! Being a BIG CiTY. the government of Canada will be called upon to fund their idiocy and taxpayers all over Canada will be paying the bills."

Well... ya got me there.

**********

LAST WORD: Hell... why not "housing?"

We've already got that "affordable progeny" initiative.

*

Game, Set and Match

Say... has anybody seen Jeffy "Bugboy" Davidson lately?

-- LA Story -- So I'm at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I've done my paneling duties, and I'm sitting under a tent to sign books. The (short) queue terminates, and up comes a guy with a videocamera.

"Remember me?" Amd I do - it's the same 9/11 denialist who showed up at a LA Public Library event I did some weeks ago.

"Still think I need stronger medication?" (A reference to what I'd told him at the prior encounter.)

I said: "Actually I regret I didn't tell you what my friend Christopher Hitchens told you - F—- off."

I returned to my conversation with my fellow tent residents. The camera kept on, which bugged me. So I walked over to him and snapped it shut. He was visibly startled, but he turned the camera back on. So I snapped it shut again. He began to shout: "I've been assaulted by David Frum! I've been assasulted by David Frum!"

I was tempted to answer, "Now you see the violence inherent in the system," but I thought the reference would be lost on him. Festival security intervened, and led him away, still shouting.

*

"Nothing says God is great...

...like 00-buck."

*

His numbers may be down...

But George Bush sure isn't sittin' around... feelin' sorry for himself.

-- WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George Bush poked fun at his potential successors Saturday night, expressing surprise that none of them were in the audience at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.

"Senator McCain's not here," Bush said of GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain. "He probably wanted to distance himself from me a little bit."

" You know, he's not alone. Jenna's moving out too."

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile... back at Obamarama...

The difficulty is understandable. Some of the contradictions are inexplicable.

How does one explain campaigning throughout 2007 on a platform of transcending racial divisions, while in that same year contributing $26,000 to a church whose pastor incites race hatred?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Imagine if Harper went to a church that degraded another 'race'?"

"The MSM would be orgasmic."

**********

LAST WORD: Apparently, Hillary is the new Al Gore

"One thing many people haven’t noticed about Hillary Clinton’s 55% to 45% victory over Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary is that it put her ahead of Obama in the popular vote."

*

That flexible Taliban strategy

If we can't nail Karzai... we'll just settle for whoever happens to be sitting around.

-- KABUL -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Canadian ambassador Arif Lalani were among the dignitaries forced to take cover Sunday when automatic gunfire erupted during a ceremony marking 16 years since the overthrow of the country's Soviet-backed rule.

Mr. Karzai, his cabinet and foreign diplomats who were present — including Arif Lalani, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan — were all safe, a statement from the presidential palace said.

But it said a local Shiite Muslim leader was killed and nine others, including two parliamentarians, were wounded.

The capricious, unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

Screw the corn-eatin' third world...

It's not like they can afford cars anyway.

-- California -- WHAT if you could make fuel for your car in your backyard for less than you pay at the pump? Would you?

The first question has driven Floyd S. Butterfield for more than two decades. Mr. Butterfield, 52, is something of a legend for people who make their own ethanol. In 1982, he won a California Department of Food and Agriculture contest for best design of an ethanol still, albeit one that he could not market profitably at the time.

Now he thinks that he can, thanks to his partnership with the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Thomas J. Quinn. The two have started the E-Fuel Corporation, which soon will announce its home ethanol system, the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler.

Hey... homemade backyard fuel production... what could possibly go wrong there?

Just another brainwave from the folks who think replacing incandescent lights with mercury infused compact florescent bulbs... manufactured in China... will solve all our pollution problems.

**********

RELATED: The grass is always greener...

In the Toronto Star.

*

In other homegrown terrorist news...

Wonder what Dalton's gonna give them this time around...

-- Caledonia, ON -- A council of Six Nations men has decided that their ongoing blockade of the Highway 6 bypass in Caledonia will continue until police back off in a Deseronto, Ont. native dispute.

Six Nations protest spokesperson Brian Skye said the Caledonia blockade, which has slowed traffic in the town, could last a long time.

Geez... there's a shocker.

**********

UPDATE: Well... they talk a good game

-- CALEDONIA, Ont. -- Tensions over First Nations protests in two Ontario communities have largely subsided, the head of the Ontario Provincial Police said early Sunday.

"It's a very quiet situation right now,'' Julian Fantino said in a phone interview from Caledonia. "We're on the ground still....we'll keep on doing what we have to do."

**********

UPDATE: Blockade is up again

Six Nations protesters are continuing to block the Highway 6 bypass today after police backed off an attempt to clear the road last night. The road is now barricaded with a downed hydro tower, wires and a telephone pole.

The situation has angered some area residents, who are complaining police treat native and non-natives differently. “If any of us blockaded a road they would come in full force,” said Bill, a Caledonia resident who did not want his last name used.

C'mon Bill... special rights for special people.

**********

LAST WORD: "Run, Forrest, run!!!"

Stoogeleft wants to know... "What is a land claim?"

Well, Stooge... is it when the grandson of a Mohawk chief sells off... presumably for a profit... the land he inherits from his family... and 170 years later, some unrelated people want it back?

"Oh yeah... this wily Culbertson dude who supposedly perpetrated the horrendous fraud on the poor aboriginals... was the grandson of John Desorontyon - the Mohawk chief to whom the entire eastern land grant to Mohawks was made."

"Funny how nobody ever mentions that in their manifesto."

More Deseronto from local paper

If you live here in Ontario... you should thank your lucky stars... these people aren't your neighbours...

As Barnhart was meeting with reporters, OPP Staff Sgt. Steve Flynn informed the Mohawks if they remained on Deseronto Road they would be arrested. He advised them to return to the quarry or be charged and taken into custody.

"If you stay here you'll be arrested. If you go back to the quarry you'll have sanctuary," Flynn said.

Flynn's comments led many Mohawks making their way slowly toward the quarry, though some remained behind and hollered at the approximately 20 officers gathered at the intersection of Deseronto Road and Bridge Street.

And what sort of sociopaths feel entitled to threaten other people, never mind police officers, like this...

"I can't guarantee your officers safety if they come on Mohawk land," one protester said. As one woman walked past the officers, north to where her vehicle had been left parked, she looked toward police and said, "Get your guns ready."

Happy jihad... you freaks.

*

Sheppard and Keele gets the nod...

As Canada returns to the good ol' days of segregation...

Canada's first Africentric alternative school will be a school within a school – not a free-standing building – and is being proposed for a wing of sprawling Sheppard Public School near the northwest corner of Sheppard Ave. W. and Keele St.

The pilot program, which Sheppard principal Ira Applebaum called an "exciting opportunity" in a letter last night to parents, would be open to children of any background across Toronto, from junior kindergarten to Grade 5, who would wish to enrol in September 2009.

**********

RELATED: Will these kids all transfer?

Just north of Bathurst and Lawrence, in a patch of subsidized housing projects collectively known as the Jungle, sits Sir Sandford Fleming Academy -- the worst high school in Toronto in the eyes of the Fraser Institute, and its national ranking of academic performances.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

What if they "build it and no one comes"?

**********

UPDATE: Welcome, yet again, readers of Canadian Cynic

This time, uber-compassionate, freedom rider CC refers to me as a "really, really creepy racist." That, of course, is what CC does. His blog is simply one giant accusatory troll.

On the other hand... CC is just really, really creepy.

**********

LAST WORD: Ask a Black Activist

"I do not believe that an all-''black'' school will serve our communities well. It is divisive and the ''black'' community is not a homogenous group in this province or in this country," said Payne.

"Martin Luther King Jr. wanted all children to succeed based on their character, not by the colour of their skin."

Of course, Stephanie and myself... don't always see eye to eye.

*

There's a burning question

Tehran's former police chief Reza Zarei attempted suicide in prison yesterday, a month after being arrested for consorting with six naked women in a brothel.

In the aftermath of the scandal, the Times, the Associated Press, and the BBC all reported that prostitutes are becoming more visible on Iranian streets.

Given the Islamic dress code, how do Persian prostitutes signal their trade?

*

You take all your tactical cues...

From HAMAS... don't be too surprised when the roof falls in on you...

"If we don't get this settled down soon, this is going to make Caledonia look like nothing," said one native protester who asked that his name not be used. "Six Nations protesters are on their way and so are the people who have been at Caledonia. This has nasty potential."

You just have to love the chutzpah here.

Even hardened, gangbangin' drug dealers in Toronto's west end... usually just fire a few shots and scamper back down their ratholes. Aboriginal protesters, in direct contrast, actually wade in and start beating police officers and threaten to bring out the heavy artillery, a la Oka.

These folks aren't entirely oblivious. They have to realise that, in the end, they are gonna be both outnumbered AND outgunned. The obvious strategy here... as in Gaza and at Ipperwash... is to provoke a heavy response. It's a chess game and the natives are hoping to exchange a pawn for the bishop of media outrage.

And hey, it works. There's no denying that Dudley George accomplished far more for "aboriginal causes" in death than he did in life.

And there is already a gathering storm.

Several witnesses confirmed the OPP had up to 150 officers and 50 vehicles already on site in this town, 50 kms west of Kingston, near the Mohawk Territory.

Sun Media's Pete Fisher said he was told by police that "they couldn't guarantee my safety" and he reported that he had never seen a bigger native protest scene. A whole field was set ablaze.

So far, with the OPP detachment in Napanee being their main opponent... the Mohawk protesters have managed to get away with, well... not quite murder. But the troops are massing and the rules of engagement are gonna twist and turn as things heat up.

They might wanna reconsider their HAMAS-based strategy.

Because that can get real ugly, real fast.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"You don't mean that when a situation involves the well meaning government and the granting of land to a "collective" where there is no real establishment of property rights that one native guy higher up on the social-ladder might actually rip the lower ones off?"

"That would never happen in Canada."

*

I think I've actually found the answer...

To that age-old question... "Who died and made you King?"

Private Property

4) An inspector who is carrying out their functions may enter on or pass through or over private property without being liable for doing so and without the owner of the property having the right to object to that use of the property.

Hey, Inspector... I'm with Mike on this one.

Unless we're talking about "hot pursuit" of... I dunno... alien life forms... you ain't coming in through my front door.

*

I guess SCC Judges...

Don't ever get on planes to go anywhere...

"The Supreme Court has ruled the use of sniffer dogs in random searches is unlawful. Do you agree with the decision?"

(poll at ctv)

Deseronto... the guns come out

It's past time to shut these sociopaths down.

-- DESERONTO, Ont. -- Mohawk protesters and provincial police officers were involved in a tense standoff in Deseronto, Ont., on Friday after officers said they spotted at least one gun among the demonstrators.

Police say they spotted a ‘long gun' being pointed at them from a location inside an occupied quarry, which protesters have controlled since March, 2007.

An order was issued to all police personnel on the scene to take cover, and guns were drawn by officers crouching behind their vehicles, but no shots were fired.

Spokes-native Jason Maracle is apparently threatening another Oka...

“We're not moving anywhere,” he said. "I guess if they want another 1990 scene, then OK, I guess we'll have one.”

A Quebec provincial police officer was shot and killed when a SWAT team stormed the barricade.

It's the sort of thing only aboriginals can get away with in Canada.

Don't believe me? Try this experiment some time yourself... occupy someone else's property by force... and then point a rifle at some cops... see if the local SWAT Team doesn't drop you like a crazy ex-girlfriend.

Earlier in the day, half a dozen protesters were arrested, including Shawn Brant, who led a protest last June on the aboriginal national day of action.

Also arrested was Dan Doreen, the leader of a group that erected a blockade Sunday on Deseronto's main road.

Okay... that's a start.

**********

RELATED: Live and don't learn

**********

LAST WORD: Globe & Mail wusses out

Eighteen comments and the Globe shuts off the tap. That free speech thing is apparently just too scary.

Of course, that still beats the CBC. They have polygamy, polar bears and police corruption... but as of midnight Friday... not a word on Deseronto.

*

Ask a Toronto Taliban

Okay... has anybody got the phone number for CSIS handy?

-- Q -- You reject democracy, you support the Taliban and you believe that fundamentalist Islam is the only way to live.

So why do you choose to live in Canada, a democratic nation with freedom of religion that is at war with the Taliban?

Isn't it hypocritical to say you believe what you do, while you sit in Toronto enjoying all the benefits of Western society?

Apparently not.

If you have a Facebook account you can send Naeem a message.

*

The IAEA...

About as useful as grease nipples on an emu...

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has criticized the United States for withholding intelligence the U.S. says shows North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor.

He also condemned Israel for destroying the suspected site during an airstrike last September, but said the IAEA is taking the intelligence seriously and will investigate the matter.

Syria today denied U.S. allegations it has been involved in secret nuclear activities with North Korea and accused the United States of aiding Israel in the attack.

*

Riding the d'uh train

Hey, Gomer... they catch you handin' out syringes, or crackpipes... in this neck of the woods... somebody's gonna hand you your ass...

"I just don't think it's helping," said RCMP Chief Supt. Derek Ogden, director general for drugs and organized crime.

"If you're just experimenting with cocaine and people are handing out crack pipes at will, really I think it sends the wrong message, and could actually encourage the rate of crack cocaine use in the community."

Screw rehab... we'll just make sure it's a nice clean habit...

Both former police chief Vince Bevan and Mayor Larry O'Brien have spoken out against the program, suggesting it promotes illegal drug use while doing nothing to provide help to addicts.

"Giving out loot bags of crack pipe packages to facilitate the use of a tool that can lead people to this lifestyle is not appropriate," O'Brien has said.

"It's foolishness."

*

Just one more example...

Of what happens when you don't aggressively enforce the law of the land... against everyone equally...

"The majority of contraband tobacco seized by the RCMP from B.C. from Newfoundland do come from the American side of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory," Sgt. Michael Harvey said Thursday as the RCMP prepared to dispose of enough tobacco to make 3.7 million cigarettes, seized from the reserve straddling the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York state.

So what does happen when you have "special laws" for "special people?"

Harvey alleged that 90 per cent of illegal cigarettes sold in Canada — mostly in Central Canada —come from Akwesasne, and police are now seizing in one week the number of cigarettes that they used to confiscate in a month.

*

New "improved" Bob Rae

Yeah... I remember how he fixed Ontario...

What Rae is saying (if one is generous) is that no matter how despicable China's record of abusing its own people, of killing its own citizens, of harvesting the organs of dissidents for sale to rich foreigners, and its continued abuse of minorities, we shouldn't say so because the Chinese might not like it and might not buy our natural resources.

Bunk, of course, but that's the socialist mind-set of people who think like Bob Rae, and who want him to replace Stephane Dion as Liberal leader.

**********

RELATED: Real crimes... real people

Sources said the RCMP is hoping to go higher up the Liberal hierarchy than Mr. Corbeil, the former director-general of the Liberal Party's Quebec wing, who is accused of taking a bribe from a businessman and defrauding the party.

Another source said the RCMP is hoping to obtain more information on the inner workings of the party in coming months.

"If everything goes well, a bunch of people could spill the beans at the same time."

*

Blast from the Past

Though pinball has roots in the 1800s game of bagatelle, these are by no means simple machines.

Each one contains a half-mile of wire and 3,500 tiny components, and takes 32 hours to build — as the company’s president, Gary Stern, likes to say, longer than a Ford Taurus.

*

Save us, oh wise Dalton

Hey Premier... whatever happened to that proposed, lifesaving ban on sharp pointy objects?

-- Scarborough -- A 22-year-old man has become the city's 15th murder victim of the year.

Police were called to an apartment on Cougar Ct. - in the Markham Rd.-Eglinton Ave. area - just after midnight this morning.

They found the man inside suffering from a single stab wound to the chest. He was rushed to hospital, but later pronounced dead, police said.

If it only saves one life.

**********

RELATED: Hey, Dalton... maybe basketball courts...

...are the problem.

*

The Guy Who’s Where He Is...

Only Because He’s Black...

"Frankly it’s a lot better than my last two gigs, The Guy Who Left the Seat Up and The Guy Who Took the Last Beer."

*

C'mon... who're ya gonna believe...

The North Koreans and the Syrians... or your lyin' eyes?

-- BBC -- North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor, US officials are to tell lawmakers in a closed session.

Unnamed officials told a number of US newspapers that the US had video footage of the Syrian facility with North Koreans inside.

Syria has repeated denials that it has any nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea.

The claims follows an unexplained air strike by Israel last September on a target inside Syria.

Whaddaya mean "unexplained?"

It was explained plenty.

But Syria is apparently sticking to their, er guns...

Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, denied the links.

"There was no Syria-North Korea co-operation whatsoever in Syria. We deny these rumours."

And apparently... the video evidence.

Yeah Bashar... go with that.

*

More horrible, scary, sort of guns

-- GATINEAU, Que. -- For the first time in its history, a weapon was fired inside a courtroom at the Gatineau courthouse yesterday.

Of course... it turns out that this was actually an air-gun... which would really only be classified as a weapon by, say... a squirrel being stalked by a 10 year-old boy.

Just don't try tell that to the newspapers.

To everyone's surprise, first and foremost the judge, the gun went off, with the ammunition landing on the ground near the judge.

The incident caught the entire courtroom off guard and after the initial shock wore off, Lapointe put the weapon and the ammo back into a plastic evidence bag.

Note that, the ammunition landed by the judge... because it bounced off the ceiling of the courtroom.

The "AMMO" huh? You mean the tiny copper bb's?

Good grief.

**********

RELATED: Most CTV stories should start...

"Once upon a time..."

**********

LAST WORD: In actual firearms news...

Hunters, farmers and target shooters... totally off the hook... AGAIN.

A Toronto man who was driven to a remote area of York Region, stripped to his underwear, shot several times in the legs and lower body, and then left to die in the woods was recovering in hospital yesterday, police said.

Cops want to hear from anybody who may have seen a dark BMW with tinted windows, possibly a 300 series, in the East Gwillimbury area around the time of the shooting.

Police said the driver was an Asian male with a mohawk-style haircut. His two passengers included an Asian male and a black male.

**********

WELCOME READERS OF DR DEMENTO, uh... DAWG

I think the Dawg... needs a good worming.

*

Feelin' Geeky?

Drive away a new Ubuntu...

The version has also been designed to make installation simpler and give users the chance to try the OS without making radical alterations to their current computer set-up.

"This is the first version that you can install under Windows.

"Instead of re-partitioning your hard drive and taking some fairly risky steps, effectively you can now install under Windows without modifying your system."

C'mon... I dare ya.

**********

RELATED: Bye-bye Windows XP

-- LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium -- Microsoft could re-think plans to phase out its Windows XP operating system by June 30 if customers show they want to keep it but so far they have not, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said.

"XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments."

*

"When you care enough..."

"...to share the Scary Test."

Once you've located the necessary e-mail addresses, ISIS invites you to choose one of six specially designed e-cards.

Each one can be forwarded to up to six lovers, friends with benefits, or "tricks" to break the bad news as gently as possible.

If you wish, you can make your greeting more medically specific by choosing your particular disease ("Chlamydia, Crabs & Scabies, Gonorrhea," etc.) from a pull-down menu.

Hallmark, eat your heart out.

The NDP starts making...

Some sort of sense... you know we're really in deep muck...

The province will soon unveil a "comprehensive strategy" to unclog emergency rooms by reducing the number of patients who are taking up hospital beds when they can receive the needed care at home, Health Minister George Smitherman said today.

Smitherman wouldn't provide any details, but promised the plan would look at adjusting the level of services that such "alternate level of care" patients can receive at home, such as nursing and homemaking.

Of course, there's just one small problem here Georgie...

Smitherman's speech was just another "superficial photo op" that paints a false picture of health care in Ontario, said NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

"The reality that's happening out there is, in fact, the opposite," he said.

"People who need home care now can't get it and therefore wind up in hospital in an acute care bed, which then backs up into the emergency room."

*

You're pissin' off the stripper lobby...

You must be doin' something right.

-- OTTAWA -- The RCMP have beefed up security around Immigration Minister Diane Finley in response to threats from criminal groups that oppose her efforts to block foreign strippers from entering Canada, federal officials said yesterday.

Officials said the extra security flows directly from Bill C-17, which would limit the number of work visas given to foreign strippers.

Under the previous Liberal regime it was full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes... despite the unsavory nature of the business.

In 2004, then-immigration-minister Judy Sgro cancelled a blanket authorization for work permits to strippers after it was revealed that her office granted a visa extension to a Romanian stripper who had worked on her election campaign.

Another former Liberal immigration minister, Joe Volpe, said that criminal groups are involved in strip clubs and have “aggressively lobbied” federal civil servants to obtain work visas for foreign strippers.

Yeah... I don't think I'd put extra strippers at the top of my agenda.

But then again... I'm a Conservative.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Now the Conservatives plan to stop moving strippers to the front of the immigration line and try to prevent exploitation. Again, the Liberals are against this?"

"We've got immigrant doctors driving cabs and badly needed tradespeople not even able to get into the country. But Liberals want to ensure the flow of new strippers and exploited sex trade workers continues!"

"I guess that group must form a core part of their voter base?"

And another...

"The Conservatives should leave well enough alone and let foreign exotic dancers into Canada and out of countries where they face regular exploitation, says Guidy Mamann, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in immigration issues."

Yeah sure, Guidy... "Let my clients go!"

**********

UPDATE: Darcey has some background.

*

It was June 6, 1944...

And all up and down the fearsome "Atlantic Wall"... Field Marshal Rommel's stunned troopers sat down in their trenches and cried... "Ach du liebe, Hans... are they allowed to do that?"

-- DESERONTO, ON -- Many of the protesters, including spokesman Dan Doreen, were visibly upset after encountering such a strong show of manpower by OPP, whom Doreen said appeared to "want to fight."

Doreen decried the use of OPP "SWAT teams" and said the demonstration was "not a fight with the OPP, but it is a fight with Mr. Nibourg and ... for him to stay off our goddamn land."

"I want every developer ... that plans to develop in Deseronto to stay the hell out or we're going to go through this again and again and again and again until it's done," he said in an interview with Quinte Broadcasting.

"We're sick and tired of having to come down to Deseronto every week and protect our land. We're sick of it."

Well, Danny... maybe you should call 1-800-CRY-BABY.

'Cos you've pretty much used up all our sympathy this week.

*

The amount of money donated...

By local Wiccans, Sun Worshippers and various stripes of "activist" were not available at press time...

The largest endowment in its history - $100,000 - has been given to the Belleville General Hospital Foundation by the Women's Christian Association.

That the WCA should show such largesse to the foundation should come as no surprise - it was the organization that founded Belleville hospital in 1886.

Besides the $100,000, the WCA also gave $50,000 to the Tri-County Foundation Imagine campaign to help purchase state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging equipment for the hospital.

Damn Christian showoffs.

*

Hey Dawg... it's all good

Yeah... let's just trash all those stoo-pid, outdated "socially conservative values", huh?

-- LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- A Florida teenager is facing a charge of elder abuse after he allegedly made his senile grandmother wear a black mask and hold a handgun for a video.

Police in Lake Worth, Fla., say the 85-year-old woman is seen and heard on the video threatening to shoot "all the pigs."

Yessirree... out with the old... in with the new.

Authorities say 18-year-old Michael Alfinez was arrested Monday and charged with abusing an elderly person, discharging a firearm in public and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon.

*

Shaazaam!!!

"Section 3(2) is legal pixie dust, declaring that if any freedom of expression is infringed, the law will just "deem" that it never happened."

"Keep moving, nothing to see here."

"After all, who are you going to believe -- section 3(2), or your lying eyes?"

*

Immaculate Perception

Yeah... who could have possibly seen this coming?

-- SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Rescuers scoured the waters off Brazil's southern Atlantic Coast yesterday looking for a Roman Catholic priest who disappeared after floating into the sky strapped to hundreds of helium-filled party balloons.

Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua Sunday wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, waterproof coveralls and parachute in a bid to break a record for the longest time in flight with party balloons.

Hey... screw that "ministering to the poor" thing... I'm gonna be famous.

A cluster of balloons was found last night, floating in the sea off Brazil's Santa Catarina state.

And now... I guess he is.

*

Fantastic Voyage...

Coming soon to a computer near you...

The original Kodachrome slides, carefully preserved, still provide images of tremendous clarity.

Blood vessels cluster in a cobwebby tangle along a spinal column, and pelvic bones stand out like butterflies against a stark black field.

The back of a man's head, its layers of flesh and bone sliced away, shows the excavation from the scalp down to the brain as if looking at a stratified canyon wall.

Everything old is new again.

*

The public gets wise...

To the propaganda machines... it's not just print media that's taking the hit...

"On Tuesday CBS received ratings results that put an exclamation point on its troubles: the “CBS Evening News” recorded the worst five-night run in its history last week."

**********

RELATED: Oh gawd... we're all gonna die...

...again.

*

Setting the Islamic record straight

"That was OUR MASS MURDER"... screams al-Qaeda...

In response to a question about persistent rumours in the Middle East that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks, Zawahiri said the rumour had begun on the Hezbollah television station, Al-Manar.

"The purpose of this lie is clear - to suggest that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history," he said.

"Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it."

Settle down now, Ayman... we all know you're a bloodthirsty savage.

*

C'mon, it was a nice day...

The sun was shining, the birds were birding... I mean, it's not like they drove all the way to Winnipeg.

That makes sense... right?

*

Farmers, hunters and target shooters...

Totally off the hook... yet again...

A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old face a total of 18 charges in robbery of two city restaurants at gunpoint. Last Wednesday, a restaurant on Overlea Blvd. was robbed by a masked gunman who walked behind the counter and demanded cash.

Then, on Saturday, a restaurant on Danforth Ave. near Coxwell Ave. was also robbed at gunpoint by a young suspect while another young suspect kept watch outside.

And again...

A 25-year-old man is in hospital after being shot several times in the leg downtown, then taken to Newmarket and dumped.

The victim, who was found by police around 3 a.m. Tuesday near the top of Hwy. 404 in Newmarket, claims he was abducted by the suspects near Queen and Lansdowne and then dumped in York Region.

If only there was a law.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Oh those poor children! FORCED by Conservatives to steal guns and shoot people! Where are the social workers? Where are the basketball courts?"

**********

LAST WORD: That's some "Justice" System

*

Whistle while you work

Jay Currie gets busy...

And, Lying Jackal and Bernie Farber: let’s get cracking. This is a real live Holocaust Denier. Where is the CJC when you need them?

You must remember "Hero Administrator Rehmat."

*

Yeah, yeah, we get it...

You guys are even bigger jerkoffs than we suspected...

-- DESERONTO -- Native protesters who seized a major portion of this small Hastings County town pledged yesterday to maintain the disruption for a week to send a message to any would-be developers of disputed native lands.

Fresh from their victory over the folks who were gonna renovate a local senior citizens complex... the Mohawk Warriors are declaring another war on the long-suffering residents of Deseronto.

Does this silly shit ever end? And where are the local cops?

Oh yeah... this wily Culbertson dude who supposedly perpetrated the horrendous fraud on the poor aboriginals... was the grandson of John Desorontyon - the Mohawk chief to whom the entire eastern land grant to Mohawks was made.

Funny how nobody ever mentions that in their manifesto.

**********

RELATED: Ask a resident...

"What gives them the authority to block that road? This is bullshit as far as I'm concerned. This doesn't do any good," Webb said.

Webb said he does not understand why the natives can block a road and prevent traffic from passing and not be arrested.

He said if he were the one to do it, the police would immediately lock him up.

**********

LAST WORD: McSlippery finally finds his balls

DESERONTO, ON, April 22 /CNW/ - On April 22, 2008 at approximately 9:45 am, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Public Order Unit, in support of Napanee OPP detachment members, attended the protest/road closure site on County Road 2 and Deseronto Road.

OPP officers trained in the safe, orderly removal of protesters advised those present at the road closure site to leave or be subject to arrest and criminal charges. Upon police intervention, the protestors dispersed without any physical altercation.

See Dalt... was that so hard?

Now clean up Caledonia.

*

Who's zoomin' who?

It's nice to be noticed... I think...
Trifecta.

*

Why use scientific instruments...

That actually measure sound... when you have all these under-utilised "motion picture electricians?"

Davidson Tate, another neighbour who lives about 1,500 metres from the range, said he knows from his own work as a motion picture electrician that the sound of handguns and semi-automatic weapons will be considerably louder than OPG has claimed.

He estimated the shooting range could affect the lives of about 100 residents and said he and his neighbours believe OPG could find a better location.

Well, if that's his "estimate"... we'll just have to start shutting things down.

*

Before teeing off on democracy...

Try imagine living without it...

Mr Putin spent the eight years since he was first elected president building up the powers of the office. He neutered the once-combative legislature and appointed prime ministers distinguished only by their loyalty: Mikhail Fradkov and, since last year, the even duller Viktor Zubkov.

Now Mr Putin is reversing the process, robbing the presidency of its omnipotence.

As prime minister and party leader, he will have a tight grip on the country's finances and its regional elites.

*

They stab it with their steely knives...

But they just can't kill the beast...

"I want to eat better, feel better, and help offset the damage that Al Gore is doing to the environment by eating meat."

"By signing my name, I pledge to explore a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days, which will prevent more than 270 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the Earth's atmosphere."

**********

UPDATE: An Inconvenient Fraud

SAM CHAMPION (ABC NEWS)

(Voiceover) Wait a minute, that shot looks just like the one in the opening credits of "The Day After Tomorrow."

KAREN GOULEKAS (VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR)

Yeah, that's, that's our shot. That's a fully computer generated shot. There's nothing real in there.

Yeah... no kidding.

*

A budget shortfall, you say?

If only this facility had been adequately staffed...

The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre says 326 cancer patients received a lower dose of radiation treatment than prescribed to them over a three year period due to a calculation error.

The cancer centre says patients who received radiation treatment between November 2004 and November 2007 got a dose of radiation up to 17 per cent less than the dose prescribed to them.

The head of the Ottawa Hospital says a staff shortage was likely one of the factors that led to the mistake.

Hey... would 32 million bucks have helped?

*

I never went to law school...

But doesn't this sort of thing usually qualify as... what's that technical term the lawyers use..?

And I'm not the only person who's wondering...

"First, he explicitly denied, under oath, that he'd ever signed up at the Freedom Site message board, on the grounds that, "I could access everything I needed to as a guest".

Two minutes later, when his secret identity of "Lucy" the hate-message poster was revealed in court, he revised his answer: "Sorry. I stand corrected.""

Hmmm.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Question - "What's that technical term the lawyers use..?"

Answer - "Business as usual"

*

Remember when you were a kid...

And people just used to fly out of cars in a rage... and beat other people with metal bars?

Yeah... me neither.

And what about all those kidnappings in broad daylight?

Uh, no... that never happened either.

**********

RELATED: It's a unique culture alright

Constable Gingras said police has the situation under control. The burned-out shells of at least five Montreal police cars littered the city's downtown early Tuesday morning.

Montreal recently had a spate of so-called anarchist violence, including the torching of six police cars in a station parking lot in March.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"If Boston had won would it be an angry riot instead of a 'happy' riot? Hope they've arrested enough 'joyful fans' to pay for the cop cars."

*

More McSlippery slope

Sweet charity... unhorsed... again...

The Sikh group was one of the multiculti outfits that got money -- a quarter of a million dollars to be exact -- from the McGuinty government, as part of the $32-million ethnic slush fund that was run out of the province's ministry of citizenship and immigration until the media got wind of it in 2007.

(via the broom)

**********

RELATED: Speaking of fiberal-friendly charities

Remember the Iranian Animal Shelter?

"The opposition parties have questioned a $200,000 grant a year ago to the Iranian-Canadian Community Centre, a group that is yet to build a community centre and has raised just $15,000 in other funds."

"The centre was first listed with the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency as a charitable organization in the category "protection of animals," but later was changed to the category "recreation, playgrounds and vacation camps."

*

Will Oba-mania be enough?

Hey, it worked for Saint Pierre...

The crowd of a couple thousand in the Reading High School gymnasium probably didn't take note of Obama's little slip about the GOP nominee. They seemed incapable of seeing any flaws in the man. Even by Obama standards, they were frenzied.

Sometimes a passage of the speech that might not seem that exciting would cause a member of the crowd to stand up and wave and flap his arms like he'd been called to be a contestant on The Price Is Right.

That comparing yourself to JFK thing... that might be gettin' a little stale...

The Obama pitch has been remarkably consistent over the months. Without notes, he can now produce it with very little deviation from stop to stop.

Depending on how he does in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, he may finally get a chance to write a new speech.

Go Barry.

*

Oh, good grief...

That's the best example you could come up with!!?

"Belinda Stronach's brief foray into federal politics wasn't exactly smooth sailing. But no one has ever doubted her ability to run Magna International."

Sure, Kate, I mean... overlooking the inconvenient fact... that her Daddy just gave her the job.

(h/t reader rich)

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Yeaaaaah that's the role model for young women. Betray your principles and your friends for what amounts to a non-opportunity. Oh and then toss aside the one you supposedly love without even a backwards glance."

"Good times."

*

Funny how these guys are...

Always available, day or night... to scare up a howlin' lynch mob...

-- DESORONTO, Ont. -- About 75 Aboriginal protesters have sealed off a main street through Deseronto, Ont., due to a land dispute with a Kingston-based realtor.

I just loved how they kicked ass last time out.

Go Warriors.

**********

UPDATE: Mob rule carries the day

A second press release issued this morning, came from Nibourg Developments at about 10 a.m. It states: “Nibourg Developments is not entering their land (in question) today, for fear of public safety. It is time for the federal and provincial government agencies to become involved and take responsibility for the land claim disputes."

"We want to state again that the federal government cannot accept the validity of the land claim and at the same time not deal with private landowners… today’s large protest and occupation of our land, proves that this explosive situation will only intensify without government action.”

*

I don't get all the fuss here...

Tony Soprano has been doin' this for years...

"A green funeral typically means the body is not subjected to chemical embalming, there are no oversized, ornate caskets made of expensive wood and metal, no grave liners or protective vaults are used, there are no fancy headstones on the grounds, and no toxic emissions are released - as is the case during cremation."

I actually believe that after you die... what's left is just a slab of "soon to be spoiled meat" that should be cleaned up in fairly short order.

Anybody who's ever lost a Swedish meatball down the back of the stove knows exactly what I mean.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The ultimate green funeral is running Gramma through a thermal depolymerization plant and turning her into bio fuel."

**********

LAST WORD: No whore like an eco-whore

*

Not just Canada...

Afghanistan has a few censorship problems of their own...

An Afghan television station has pulled an Indian soap opera from the airwaves on the orders of the government.

Kumkum had already raised the ire of conservative clerics in the country, who had called it "un-Islamic."

"Under pressure from the Ministry of Information and Culture, we had to stop running one of our famous shows, an Indian drama," Abdul Qadir Mirzai, chief news editor for leading private station, Ariana, said Sunday.

*

Irony-challenged Clinton, Obama...

Viciously attack each other for being too negative...

"The charges and countercharges aren't limited to the candidates' stump speeches. Over the past three days, both launched negative robo-calls, tough mailers and attack ads alleging special interests influence their opponent."

"And on dueling conference calls, surrogates used some of the race's harshest language to date."

Oh, please, please, please... keep diggin'.

*

CTV stacks the deck...

Still manages to go bust...

"What was the most damaging political story of the week?"

Note also, that despite their sister-ship... the Grope & Flail... publicly tagging a Conservative Cabinet Minister this week as "Mad Max"... Mr. Bernier is barely on the radar here.

'A' for effort... 'Bupkis' for results.

*

Show tunes in the elevator...

And apparently, special on-site gay health care...

A seniors home for gays and lesbians in the East Vancouver neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant could be the first of its kind in Canada.

The plan is for a condo development featuring living units, a communal dining room, a fitness centre, a lounge and cabaret.

Surely there's a burgeoning market here for, I dunno... a 24-hour Liza Minnelli satellite channel.

Joan Ford and her partner, who hope to eventually buy into the development, see it as an investment in their future well-being, since, like many gays and lesbians, they regard health care as one area where they still face discrimination.

"I don't want to have to face going back into the closet because there's someone looking after me who's homophobic," said Ford.

Yup... gotta get away from those nasty "breeders."

Segregation... there's the answer.

**********

RELATED: Not that there's...

"Anything wrong with that."

"This requirement is related to the risk of the activity and not a person's lifestyle or sexual orientation," said Carole Saindon, a spokesperson for Health Canada, in a statement e-mailed to CBCNews.ca.

"The organs can still be used provided the recipient is aware of the risk and gives consent."

*

Figured it out yet, Goober?

What kind of dickhead brings a lump of plastique... to an airstrike?

Israel doesn't bluff.

**********

RELATED: C'mon Mookie, you bring it

Lt. Col. Steve Stover says the deadliest strike was when seven militants attacked a U.S. checkpoint this morning in Sadr City.

He says U.S. troops killed the heavily armed men, then killed two other snipers firing at them from a rooftop.

Adding insult to injured Muslim feelings, Mookie also gets spanked by a girl...

"I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said.

"I guess that's the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he's in Iran."

*

McSlippery Slope

"Zoophobia needs to be stopped so our youth can live productive lives without fear of discrimination based on sexual orientation."

"We anticipate that such initiative when properly funded and executed will result in a huge boost to rural Ontario economy as we envision that you would include in our program urban youth as well and bus them to designated farms."

*

As some famous wag once said...

It ain't braggin'... if you can do it.

While the games people play at Kahnawake technically violate Canadian law, for the last decade they've enjoyed a hands-off approach by government and police, who clearly aren't eager to walk into the absolute hornet's nest of shutting them down.

So, if I'm following the logic here... the various levels of government have apparently decided... "We're only going to enforce some laws -- against some of the people."

The fact that Kahnawake doesn't collect taxes and has been allowed to operate outside federal gambling law rankles the Woodbine Entertainment Group, who argue their market share is being eroded by illegal online gambling.

Some folks have decided to do something about that.

Liberal MP Roy Cullen, whose Etobicoke North riding includes Woodbine, met a week ago with Justice Minister Rob Nicholson – who also has the Fort Erie Race Track in his riding – to talk about the online gambling issue.

If no action is taken, he vows to introduce a private member's bill so that the issue will be debated and dealt with in Parliament.

One people -- one law.

**********

RELATED: And while we're on the law

Ralph Power, incorrigible cold-blooded killer living and breathing today just like the rest of us, should never be released from prison. And our taxpayers dollars should not be frivolously wasted on parole-hearing "rights" for the Ralph Powers of society, and panels of so-called "experts" who, history has shown, have at times shown their vaunted expertise by approving the "rehabilitated" for parole only to have them kill again.

So, if you, YES YOU... wanna make a difference in some small way... here is how to do it...

Carolyn Gardner says it's important the public "keep the heat on" the legislators. "We now want to approach the Opposition critics in this area to get them on board."

And, you, the public, can do your needed team bit through www.powernoparole.ca and The Canadian Resource Centre For Victims of Crime (Heidi Illingworth, executive director): 613-233-7614; toll free at 1-877-232-2610.

(via reader rich)

A failing grade

The worst 50 schools in Toronto are clustered in five of the city's neediest neighbourhoods, a Sunday Sun review of school performance statistics shows.

Not a single high school among the bottom 25 met provincial averages on standardized tests, and in some cases, not a single student managed the "standard" test score expected of all students across the province.

*

"What's next...

"...girl focused schools where girls can learn proper girl things like home-ec and nursing?"

**********

RELATED: Take your "affirmative action"

And shove it up your exhaust pipe.

*

His 15 centimetres of fame

To steal a line from Cyndi Lauper...I guess "Guys just wanna have fun."

-- MANILA, PHILIPPINES -- A Philippine hospital recommended penalties Friday, including possible dismissal, for three doctors and a nurse who conducted a rowdy operation on a patient that was videotaped and posted on YouTube.

*

Just another reason...

You don't want a fundamentalist regime pulling levers and pushing buttons... in Pakistan.

-- ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan successfully test-fired a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead on Saturday, the military said.

The Shaheen-2 missile was launched from an undisclosed location and has a range of 1,245 miles. The military said the missile has the capability to carry conventional and non-conventional warheads.

*

Sadr, but certainly no wiser...

Mad Mullah jams gun in own mouth... threatens to pull trigger...

-- BAGHDAD -- Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is threatening a new uprising if an American-Iraqi crackdown against his followers continues.

The cleric says he is giving his final warning to the Iraqi government to stop working with the U.S. military against him or he will “declare an open war until liberation.”

Saturday's statement has been posted on Mr. al-Sadr's website.

Yup, it's "Mookie - the 2008 'Completely Lost my Mind' Tour."

For a limited time only.

*

Another leftbot poll goes sideways

"Do you agree with Phil Fontaine when he draws parallels between the plight of Canada's native people and the people of Tibet?"

"Fat camp for Muslim boys?"

You know you're in pretty deep muck... when even the Toronto "Red Star" is having trouble with your story...

"These guys were like religious people who just wanted to practise, y'know, their faith," the then-18-year-old is seen telling RCMP Sgt. John Tost, the day after a police swoop resulted in the arrests of the so-called Toronto 18. "I don't think they were planning to do something towards Canada or anything."

"Basically we were just chilling, reading the Qu'ran," the teenager recalled of the activities at the 12-day camp that took place in December 2005 near the town of Washago, Ont. "Some guys are lazy, y'know, they're gaining weight."

"For two weeks we just kind of worked out."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Halal Fat Camp (Sung to YMCA)

Omar, there's no need to feel down.
I said, Omar, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, Omar, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

*

Notorious Taliban thug...

Has fondest wish granted... hey, Ahmad... say hi to Allah for us.

-- Peshawar, Pakistan -- Security forces have killed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Ismail, also known as Ahmad Shah, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

Intelligence officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity that Mullah Ismail was killed in a police shoot out in the Badhabher area about 10 kilometers from the provincial capital Peshawar.

'After kidnapping an Afghan businessman from Shamshato refugees' camp, the notorious Taliban commander was trying to escape to Pakistani tribal areas when he was intercepted by police in Baghwanano dheri near Peshawar,' the official said.

*

Safe-injection, my ass

If Steffi really wanted to save some lives, he'd get behind this idea...

-- LONDON (AP) -- When Jill Bracey Cowley was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer eight years ago, doctors told her she had two years to live. So she decided to take a gamble and try new drugs that hadn't yet been approved.

As a bonus, we'd be trying to save people who actually cared whether they lived or died.

In Britain, there are now 19 centers where terminally ill patients can apply to try untested drugs. While clinics in France, the Netherlands and Italy offer cancer patients experimental treatments, no other European country has such a national network.

And if the Fiberals hadn't pissed away that 2 billion dollars on the "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry"... we'd already have the money to do it.

*

As Warren Jeffs is finding out...

You get to federal prison, chances are... your horny psycho-biker bunkie... is likely indifferent to your wishes too...

“He encourages marriage,” Mr. Walsh said. “In some ways, he's indifferent to their age.”

After a long day of testimony, Texas District Judge Barbara Walther ordered that all 416 children taken from the polygamist compound remain in state custody and be subject to DNA testing.

Of course, it's awfully easy to pass judgement here.

Much better to get some context from someone who has lived there...

Escape, a memoir published last fall, offers a more detailed portrait of life with the FLDS.

In the book, Carolyn Jessop, a sixth-generation polygamist describes her life as the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, who ran the recently raided Texas compound.

*

Of course, he got fired...

For having the nerve to actually say it...

"Columnist David Bullard made a good point, and one we have made here in the past: compared to the stone age - or to anything else, Western civilization is a gift."

*

ACLU takes huge ass-kickin...

Shortly after the verdict was rendered, a spokesman for the Supreme Being issued this statement... "Trust me... you don't wanna make him mad."

-- INDIANAPOLIS -- A judge has upheld the issuance of Indiana license plates bearing the message "In God We Trust," dismissing a constitutional challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

"Courts are not to second-guess the Indiana General Assembly when it comes to calculations of this sort," Miller wrote, contrasting the `In God We Trust' plates with other specialty plates that require the payment of administrative fees.

**********

RELATED: In other fuzzy-bunny tales

"The good news is that HRCs won't shut up. They can't. Because they can't understand why the public -- and journalists -- aren't grateful for their attempts to politically reeducate us."

*

To the pigheaded, go the spoils

Wikipedia's "War on Truth"...

As I'm writing this column for the Financial Post, I am simultaneously editing a page on Wikipedia. I am confident that just about everything I write for my column will be available for you to read.

I am equally confident that you will be able to read just about nothing that I write for the page on Wikipedia.

Meet "Tabletop"... eco-warrior par excellence...

Tabletop, it turns out, has another name: Kim Dabelstein Petersen. She (or he?) is an editor at Wikipedia. What does she edit? Reams and reams of global warming pages. I started checking them. In every instance I checked, she defended those warning of catastrophe and deprecated those who believe the science is not settled.

Now... nobody is gonna try make an argument that Wikipedia is anything more than a loosey-goosey online approximation of Readers Digest... but still, it pops up when you do any sort of online search on any topic.

And if we've learned anything from commercials on TV... it's that bombarding people with information, of any kind, or calibre, works...

While I've been writing this column, the Naomi Oreskes page has changed 10 times. Since I first tried to correct the distortions on the page, it has changed 28 times. If you have read a climate change article on Wikipedia -- or on any controversial subject that may have its own Kim Dabelstein Petersen -- beware.

Wikipedia is in the hands of the zealots.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

One specific NDP supporting gay activist basically ensures that CBC and Canada culture pages are sanitized of criticism.

*

Hands down winner...

Of headline of the week...

"A BUTTERFLY DID IT"

*

War doesn't care...

How smart you are, or how good-looking... or who your parents are.

-- AMSTERDAM -- The son of the new head of the Dutch military and another Dutch soldier serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan were killed on Friday when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

It's important to remember though, that like Canada... the Netherlands doesn't have conscription.

This young man chose to serve, chose to be larger than just himself, in pursuit of a greater good.

He will be remembered.

*

Turning the bus around

Registering and tracking criminals is a good place to start...

With 282 murders last year among a population of 630,000, Baltimore was one of the most violent cities in America. But since last summer, the killing has slowed.

The six months to March this year saw an impressive 28% fewer murders than the same period a year earlier. Mr Bealefeld credits smarter policing, and says he is cautiously optimistic that the trend will continue.

*

I'm bracing myself...

For the deafening Miller/McSlippery chorus... demanding an immediate, all-encompassing ban on sharp metallic objects...

Bystanders looked on helplessly this afternoon as a 29-year-old Toronto man was repeatedly stabbed and killed outside a west-end film studio. Police were questioning a suspect tonight in Toronto’s 14th slaying of the year.

Plania said the attack, with what he described as a 15-cm. hunting knife, was swift and brutal, felling the victim instantly.

No knife... no funeral.

That's how it works... right, guys?

**********

UPDATE: Arrest in latest murder

On Friday, police announced Shahin Pirouzi of Toronto was charged with second-degree murder. He was to appear at the Old City Hall courts later in the day.

**********

RELATED: In other knifing news...

A man has been taken to hospital after being slashed in his head in the city's northwest end.

Emergency crews found the victim, in his mid-20s, in front of a Jane St. apartment building, just north of Sheppard Ave. W., with a "laceration to his forehead," just after 1:30 p.m., Toronto Ambulance duty officer Connie Christie said.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I'll look forward to the inevitable "Ban Knives" Facebook page... that'll teach them."

*

According to CTV...

The government was an unindicted co-conspirator...

The trial of three former Canadian Forces reservists charged in the beating death of a homeless man came to an abrupt halt Thursday when the three men agreed to plead guilty to lesser offences.

Now, this was an appalling crime, but it seems CTV wasn't satisfied with reporting on the men who were actually convicted in court.

In a soundbite at the end of their television reporting... which does not appear anywhere on their website... CTV interviews a man who worked at a homeless shelter and apparently knew the murdered man.

This guy mentions the victim's mental illness and his paranoic belief that the government was trying to kill him, ending with the statement... "and at the end of the day he was right."

Un-freakin-believable.

**********

RELATED: I can hear Lloyd now...

He'll be praising the Liberal Party for thinking... "outside the box."

However, millions of dollars went to Liberal-friendly advertising and communications firms without proper accounting and often for fictitious work.

*

Jamaican authorities perturbed...

About influx of deadly violence from Canada...

"A bitter feud that began in Toronto's east-end has led to deadly gunfire on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica -- leaving two Scarborough men dead and police there on the trail of an international killer."

"Ainsley "Cat" Coore, 39, a barber, and Christopher Lyons, 36, were killed in gunfire Monday evening in the Omara Rd. area, Jamaican police said yesterday."

"He said the men, who returned to Jamaica frequently, arrived last Thursday and on Saturday staged a large party, which the celebrators paid to attend."

*

During especially slow periods...

They're working on solving that thorny "flat-earth, round earth" conundrum.

*

A billion here... a billion there

Sure sounds like a Liberal government to me.

Bruce Power now estimates the cost of returning two idle reactor units to service at between $3.1 billion and $3.4 billion, up from an original 2005 cost projection of $2.75 billion.

Just another McSlippery slope.

*

Apparently, she's looking forward...

To heading back to primary school...

A Yemeni court has annulled an eight-year-old girl's marriage to a man in his 20s, after she filed for divorce. The girl, Nojoud Mohammed Ali, took a taxi to a judge’s office on her own, after running away from her husband.

Her former husband, Faez Ali Thameur, told the court the marriage was consummated, but he denied Nojoud's claims that he beat her.

The father apparently felt he just had to go with the Yemeni flow here... again.

Her father, Mohammad Ali Al-Ahdal told the court he felt obliged to marry off his daughter after receiving repeated threats from the would-be husband and his entourage.

He said was frightened because his oldest daughter had been kidnapped several years earlier and had been forced to marry her abductor.

His "entourage?"

This guy is some sort of Yemeni Puff-Daddy? Do they "roll?"

What's up with that?

*

Paging Stephane Dion

Hey, Steffi... still looking for suitable female Liberal candidates?

"Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages."

"Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process."

The process, huh?

(h/t reader rich)

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I'm sure this project will look great on her resume. Years of expensive 'education', and she'll be qualified to do what when she graduates? Oh, but for students like her, it's not about the qualifications; it's all about the 'experience'."

**********

UPDATE: Some folks are asking questions...

If it’s a hoax, it’s an abhorrent and disgusting one. If it turns out to be true, it’s of course all the more so and far worse.

Either way, where are the adults at Yale?

**********

LAST WORD: Yup, it's official... it's a HOAX

The student, Aliza Shvarts, told three senior Yale University officials, including two deans, that she did not do the things she claimed in her art project, according to the statement.

"The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body," said Helaine S. Klasky, associate dean and vice president for public affairs in a statement sent to FOXNews.com. "Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials."

"She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art," Klasky wrote.

*

The mouths of babes...

"I miss him. When he went away he helped Iraq and other countries. I am proud of my dad because he seems like the bravest person ever to live." - Sean Callahan, age 7

*

See, Chief... there's your problem

Apparently, you didn't recognise there were, well... issues... "BEFORE" the baby got shot...

The chief of a First Nations reserve in northern Alberta declared his community to be in a "state of crisis" Tuesday, "AFTER" a bullet struck a toddler in the stomach during a drive-by shooting.

Geez... if only there had been some indication that something was afoot.

"Just over the past three weeks, we've had 12 firearms-related complaints. And just over the last two weeks, we had two individuals who were shot at different times," he said.

Yeah... who could have seen this coming?

*

Curiously absent...

Was any description of the shooters...

Shots rang out at a Chinese food restaurant in the city's west end Wednesday night, leaving one man with a wound to his groin.

Toronto Police say the gunfire erupted at Cho Ming's Restaurant, near Jane St. and Lawrence Ave. W., at about 8 p.m.

Emergency Task Force officers flooded the Black Creek area looking for two or three men seen fleeing from the area, possibly on bicycles.

Maybe it's some sort of "broad spectrum" of society thing again.

I guess half a story is better than nothing, huh?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: It's not always that way

They said the man then tried to seize another vehicle from a female motorist. When that attempt failed, he fled again on foot.

The suspect is described as a white male with shoulder-length, black, greasy hair. He has bad acne and was wearing a long dark coat.

*

"You’re going to Baghdad?"

"Oh, there’s a shitload of them there, dude. Just, like, drive around the town and, like, tell them. Sierra Deuce is on Bug. We’ll be here for an hour."

"We want to play."

"Tell them to quit being pussies and cowards, and come out and shoot at us. We haven’t had any action since we’ve been out here."

"It’s crazy."

(via sda)

**********

RELATED: Guess they've just been too busy

*

Bury my Wallet at Wounded Knee

I don't very often post a newspaper article in its entirety... but if you actually have any vestigial illusions that we are living in a free, democratic, capitalist country... do read on...

A Kingston-based realtor says construction crews will return to property owned by his family in Deseronto next week, despite a confrontation with natives there days ago.

Emile Nibourg told The Intelligencer he plans to have crews return to the site April 21 to finish cleaning brush there, even though one of his employees was approached by Mohawks who questioned what he was doing on what one native termed "my" property. The situation quickly escalated to involve "40 to 50 native warriors," as Nibourg called the men, members of the Ontario Provincial Police and Nibourg and his father.

The event ended peacefully when Nibourg, his father and the employee agreed to leave the property with police.

Nibourg has since written a letter to the area's MP and MPP, explaining his frustrations and promising a crew of "25 to 30 guys" will return to the site next week.

"The problem is we have legal ownership to it, but the government doesn't seem to want to do anything," Nibourg said. "They don't even want to talk to us."

Nibourg said it is frustrating that his father - who holds title to the land - cannot access it. In a letter to Prince Edward-Hastings MP Daryl Kramp, Nibourg said "between property taxes, interest and other expenses with the property we are spending in the vicinity of $100,000 per year."

The property in question is partly in the Town of Deseronto and partly in the Town of Greater Napanee. The property is approximately 18 acres with 1,300 feet of waterfront.

Nibourg said his father's company, Nibourg Developments, was ready to develop the property two years ago, but when land claim disputes erupted surrounding the Culbertson Land Tract, plans came to a halt. Two years later, he said, the waiting continues.

"What am I supposed to do? We have a very, very large sum of money tied up in that property and we own it, but we can't do anything with it? We're entitled, as owners of that land, to do work there," he said.

Deseronto Deputy Mayor Clarence Zieman said he had not heard of Nibourg's intentions to return to the site next week, but expressed concern about a potential showdown.

"That does not sit well," he said after hearing Nibourg's plan. "I don't disagree with him, it's his property."

Zieman also sympathized with Nibourg's frustrations over the government's claim that it is business as usual. He said it obviously is not and pointed to the planned expansion of the Parkview Apartments senior complex as an example. A protest disrupted a site meeting the County of Hastings held at the Deseronto home on March 31 for contractors interested in bidding on repair work.

The county opted not to proceed with any work for fear of causing further protests.

"We cannot do any development at all until this thing is settled," Zieman said. "Mr. Nibourg has a nice piece of property that he wants to develop. It would help our town and it wouldn't hurt the Mohawks one iota."

But the deputy mayor said if Nibourg stays true to his word and sends a crew to the site Monday, "it's going to end up as a major problem."

Nibourg has a meeting scheduled later this week with Insp. Patt Finnegan, detachment commander of the Napanee detachment of the OPP, to discuss the situation, but said he has already made plans for crews to revisit the site.

Such moves have cost developers in the past.

It's been just over a year since Mohawk protesters erected a make-shift village on land owned by Thurlow Aggregates owner Terry Kimmet. Thurlow Aggregates is the Deseronto Road quarry business that spurred several demonstrations last year after protesters learned it was operating on disputed land. A group of Mohawks are blocking entrance to the site, vowing to stay until its licence is revoked.

Nibourg said he's hoping the same doesn't occur on his property.

"I really hope it doesn't," he said, adding he has no plans in place in case his actions Monday erupt into a similar circumstance.

In the interim, Nibourg has mailed his letter to government representatives and has met with Kramp to discuss his concerns. He said the federal government is telling everyone it is "business as usual" but that's far from the truth.

"We do not have clean title. We do not have the luxury of business as usual. We don't even have the right to go onto our property," he said in his letter.

Nibourg said he is not blaming the Mohawks. He said the federal government has accepted the claim as valid giving the natives the right to say the land is theirs but, he argued, so does his father. The government must take action to alleviate the "volatile situation."

"If it's their land, fine. They could come talk to us and compensate us but for the government to say it's business as usual... It's not."

Though Kramp's office said the MP was not available for comment, his legislative assistant, Jessica Maga, said Kramp is looking into the issue.

"He is working on it. It's an important file and he's giving it a lot of attention," she said.

MPP Leona Dombrowsky was not available for comment on the matter.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The government of Upper Canada granted ownership of +/-800 acres to John Culbertson (a part Mohawk) in 1837. Culbertson was the grandson of John Desorontyon - the Mohawk chief to whom the entire eastern land grant to Mohawks was made."

"Culbertson's descendants subsequently sold the land to others for currency. And now it is being claimed back (an action not being led by other Culbertson descendants but by third parties of indistinct genealogy)."

"If Culbertson did not have clear title to sell the property, than a fraud was committed when he did so."

**********

RELATED: Going anywhere this May?

Shawn Brant has something to say about that...

"Now we're in another nose-to-nose situation. What I've been hearing from the communities and leadership is that people who stood relatively quiet last year, like B.C., are committing big-time to this initiative.

"Certainly locally, ones that demonstrated and held rallies are talking about stepping it up and maybe going out on to the highways and railways."

**********

LAST WORD: Visit beautiful Deseronto...

The town the law forgot.

*

Step II - feed him to the dogs

"He's got," said Kim Robinson, the hunter credited with catching Mr. Schoenborn, in a brief interview Wednesday with The Globe and Mail.

Asked about the fugitive's condition, Mr. Robinson, a trapper and wilderness guide, would only say: "He's a hurting unit."

Other folks in the area were a little less laconic...

“They have him down on the highway now, last I heard,” Ms. Smith said. "The bloodhounds got him, just about chewed his arm off."

"Kim caught him and tied him to a tree."

Hang on... doesn't this Kim guy belong to one of the "Big Three" high-risk groups the Liberals were targeting with their Farmer Bob Rifle Registry... farmers, hunters and target shooters?

We certainly can't celebrate that... this is Canada.

**********

UPDATE: Kim Robinson speaks up

"He was curled up in a ball like a whipped little man. His dog came after me and my big ugly dog was trying to kill him," said hunter Kim Robinson, referring to his bull mastiff.

"I tied my dog up and the guy woke up, thinking his dog was in a wreck. I didn't shoot his dog, because it was just doing what it was supposed to do."

It's all relative, I suppose...

"I've dealt with wounded grizzlies and shit. The guy didn't mean anything to me," he said, standing in the kitchen doorway of the trailer where he lives with his family just outside Merritt, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans.

Sticking out of one pocket was a curved grizzly claw, about eight centimetres long. Mr. Robinson said it was a reminder of a bear that hurt him once. He hurt the bear more.

And finally...

Asked how the suspect managed to survive in the wild, Robinson snorted: "He didn't 'survive.' He looked like anyone else who had gone for 10 days with no food and was too stupid to drink."

*

CTV, once again, cherrypicks the news

On our way back from a foray into Belleville yesterday, Mrs. Neo and I happened to come across Red Star reporter Emily Mathieu and her camera guy on the River Road south of Foxboro...

-- BELLEVILLE, Ont. -- The city remains in a state of emergency today, with more water potentially on its way.

Now, you should note that, unlike the previous day, the city of Belleville was no longer blocking access to rubberneckers like myself... and, of course, Emily... which seems to imply, to me anyway... that this horrible emergency was getting better, not worse.

And what disaster epic would be complete without a reference to firefighters?

"Last night members of the Belleville Fire Department and several volunteers handed out bottled water and advised residents on how to deal with contaminated wells."

Which advice... and I confess I'm just speculating here... was, in all likelihood... "Don't drink from them."

Emily then goes on to quote...

"They also told people how to safely handle electrical equipment after a flood."

Again, I'm no engineer... or firefighter... but I'm thinking this may have been something along the lines of... "If it's immersed in water, don't, for heaven's sake, turn it on."

The "money shot" here, though... has to be canoe lady.

"I haven't done this since I was 7 years old," said neighbour Mariane Quarrie as she serenely paddled a canoe through the front yard of her river road home.

Of course, what your average Torontoid may not realise is that a flat-bottomed, one occupant canoe... actually has a draft of 3 or 4 inches.

Oh yeah... did I mention Emily and Cam-boy were able to simply walk up to the houses to get their interviews and pictures?

Emily sure didn't.

*

Yrs, etc, Mark Steyn

Dear Sir,

In his letter, Imam Delic of the Canadian Islamic Congress says that, in my Maclean’s columns, I “allege” that “Muslims believe in drinking their enemies’ blood” and that “contemporary Islam condones sex with minors and animals” .

Er, no. It was not I who “alleged” that.

The latter “allegation” was made in the 1980s by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, a quite famous Muslim in his day, and the former “allegation” was made by Sheikh Omar Brooks, a British Muslim, in a well reported debate at Trinity College, Dublin, the oldest debating society in the world.

**********

RELATED: Uh, Quebec... right over here

"No such dedicated Islamist critics grace the francophone media. In particular, while hostile francophone Islamists such as Imam Al-Hayiti exploit the Internet to the hilt, there is a dearth of francophone Web-based sites that expose Islamist agitprop."

"So PdB fills a significant gap in francophone Canadians' knowledge of the multiple threats Islamism poses to Quebec."

*

Be the first person on your block...

To set a "blazing cat" among the pigeons.

**********

RELATED: Just another reason why...

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favour Wednesday of Ali Tahmourpour, a 33-year-old Muslim who dreams of being a Mountie.

The Tribunal ordered the RCMP to pay up for lost wages and pain and suffering.

*

There's stuff like Ubuntu...

But you've gotta admire this guy's enthusiastic pitch...

ReactOS is an effort to create a Free Software replacement for Microsoft Windows(TM) that is compatible with existing hardware and software!

"'Free' as in 'free speech' and as in 'free beer'"

ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system based on the Windows NT architecture design, providing support for existing applications and drivers and an alternative to the current dominant consumer and server operating systems.

(h/t reader bob)

Hillary "Brings the Black"

"What I believe Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called ‘Jerry Smith’ and he says I’m going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?"

"And the answer is, probably not."

"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial … it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."

Hmmm... maybe Obama can play the "NRA card."

*

Uh... where was I, man?

Yeah, yeah... gotta call up my broker... buy a couple thousand shares of Frito-Lay...

What're those dumbass cops thinking?

Harrassing innocent people engaging in two insanely popular Islamic activities...

"It was just winter camping and the paintball, you heard that in court," Mr. Jamal said outside of court at noon.

"Everybody is allowed to do that," the father of four added, flanked by his lawyer.

Oh, yeah... apparently these poor boys were abused as well.

”I've been tortured, I've been racially profiled because I was older, I was abused” Mr. Jamal said. ”...I was beaten, I was kicked. I was pushed by the guards. ... They thought I was responsible.”

The hilariously misnomered "Red Tory"... better known in BT circles as the "Pink Dink"... has apparently linked to this post... but the single hit I saw in my sitemeter doesn't actually warrant the effort to see what he's yammering about this time.

Later... Pink.

*

No more Caledonia-in-Training

Looks like Brantford has decided to push back...

Mayor Mike Hancock says enough is enough - the issue was discussed in a council closed door session.

If Dalton's gonna pay the aboriginal freight... why shouldn't the city get in on the action?

At next Monday's meeting, one councillor will bring a resolution forward calling for the provincial and federal governments to pay compensation to Brantford for lost development due to unresolved native land claims.

*

Jack and Steffi will be happy...

But dammit, Rick... the rest of us are gonna miss you...

"General Hillier enjoys most recreational pursuits but, in particular, runs slowly, plays hockey poorly and golfs not well at all."

Those are gonna be some big shoes to fill.

**********

RELATED: He said what he meant

His blunt talk made headlines, for example, when he referred to the Taliban as "detestable murderers and scumbags."

He also raised the ire of some Liberals when he described the period of budget cuts to the military that began in 1994 as the "decade of darkness."

*

With the price of gas skyrocketing...

You might wanna take a look at Canada's two cheapest new cars.

*

No Cowboys Required... UPDATE

The 23-month-old toddler shot on the Samson First Nation Reservation remains in critical condition in an Edmonton hospital.

"We have 13 gangs here that are operating in Hobbema, so as a result of that, they're all jockeying for a piece of the pie with regards to the drug trade," RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Bruno said yesterday.

It appears as though residents here are basically living on a raging battlefield.

"If we speak out, there's gang retaliation. They'll come against your families. That's just how out of hand it is," she said.

"People are saying we should bring the army in. What do you do? What can you do? These people that are in gangs, there's no fear of the law there," she said.

But, hey... never fear... there's gonna be a meeting.

Marvin Yellowbird, chief of the Samson Cree Nation, said a community meeting on gangs and violence is planned in the next few days.

"I'm a grandfather and I have little ones," said Yellowbird. "We are in the process of establishing a committee to address the gangs and violence in our community."

C'mon now, Marv... give yourself a slap.

They start shootin' babies.... it's time to bring in SWAT.

**********

UPDATE: Who are these baby-shootin' freaks?

Twenty-three-month-old Asia Saddleback was shot Sunday night by a stray bullet during a drive-by shooting. The bullet tore through the wall of her house, hitting her in the liver and spine as she ate dinner with her family.

*

Yeah, those'll do just fine...

It's not like anybody'll ever notice...

"Many of the rivets studied by the scientists — recovered from the Titanic’s resting place two miles down in the North Atlantic by divers over two decades — were found to be riddled with high concentrations of slag."

"A glassy residue of smelting, slag can make rivets brittle and prone to fracture."

**********

RELATED: Fast forward

The more things change... the more they stay the same.

**********

LAST WORD: Canada bucks the trend

The conclusion by Health Canada that BPA is a possible threat, expected to be announced as early as Wednesday, will amount to one of the most important regulatory decisions regarding a single chemical in decades, and will put pressure on its counterparts at both the European Union and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reconsider their approval.

“If this chemical is listed as toxic by Health Canada, it will be an internationally significant decision,” Mr. Smith said.

U.S. tests have found that more than 90 per cent of the population carries in their bodies trace residues of the chemical, whose molecular shape allows it to mimic the female hormone estrogen.

*

Hey, Benny... look sharp

Those killbilly sh!tkickers from Hamas... they're a comin' fer ya...

A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.

"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," he added.

And this guy isn't just some "crazy come lately."

Al-Astal last June preached how it was the duty of Palestinian women to martyr themselves by becoming homicide bombers.

"The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom."

**********

RELATED: Makin' a list, checkin' it twice...

More than 50 people have been killed in car bomb explosions in two Iraqi cities, police say.

At least 40 people were killed and another 70 were injured in a blast outside a restaurant opposite a court building in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

Shortly afterwards police said a bomb in the city of Ramadi, further west, had killed 13 people. That also targeted a restaurant. About 14 people were reported injured.

However, there have been several attacks already this week. At least 17 people were killed in two bomb attacks near Mosul on Monday, including one which killed 12 members of the Kurdish Peshmerga security force, now part of the Iraqi army, near the Syrian border.

The capricious, unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

More Grope & Flail

"Was the RCMP right to seize the anti-sealing vessel Farley Mowat?"

At her latest staged photo-op...

Hillary Clinton slams a shot & a beer -- and calls Obama... "Elitist, out of touch and frankly, patronizing."

-- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton report nearly $109.2 million in income for seven years in newly released tax data.

The "money shot" in all this however... had to be when she tried to suck up to gun-owners...

"I disagree with Sen. Obama's assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration," she began.

"You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl," she said.

Asked Sunday when she last fired a gun or attended church services, Clinton said the query was "not a relevant question in this debate."

Hey, Hillary... were there any snipers?

*

Decoding CTV...

The media conglomerate whose motto is obviously, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Alrighty, everybody saddle up.

"Belleville, Ont. remained in a state of emergency Monday as officials predicted the impending overflow of a nearby river."

Now, I know you want to grab people's attention right off the hop... but this is complete and utter hogwash. Declaring a "state of emergency" might allow Belleville to stick Dalton McSlippery... and by extension Ontario taxpayers... with the cost of having the volunteer Fire Department fill sandbags for the next couple of days... but that's really it for this screamin' CTV Defcon I.

The swollen Moira River is only affecting a small group of homeowners between the hamlets of Foxboro and Cannifton... a group, I might add... who rather unwisely choose to reside on the floodplain of the Moira River. They call it a "floodplain" because, well... it floods. The fact is, even in a non-flood situation, some of these folks have sump pumps that run 24 hours a day... a couple of facts that will likely not be overlooked by their friendly insurance adjusters.

More than 150 buildings have already fallen victim to the Moira River.

"Fallen victim" also seems a little over the top here. Some folk's basements are undeniably awash in water... but so far, that's it.

No one, I repeat, no one... has died.

Many homeowners near the river have lost their driveways to flooding in recent days.

Again... a little hysterical. There are driveways that are, yes... covered with water. None... that I know of anyway... are lost.

Although he says residents should have received hand-delivered notices of the imminent flood threat, some residents told CTV News they received little warning.

Sorry, Gomer... if the 15 inches of water in the basement wasn't enough of a clue... you are truly too stupid to live. What's next... you won't leave your burning home until you get a call from the Mayor?

The Moira River, which stretches from Stoco Lake south of Tweed to Highway 401 in Belleville, is carrying twice its normal volume for this time of year.

Unless there has been a major shift in a geological fault line somewhere... the Moira River, which I drove past today... still empties into lake Ontario.

Now apart from all that... the article was fine.

**********

UPDATE: Ask a local newspaper

Officials blocked parts of River and Harmony roads plus Ashley Street because of unwelcome spectators.

"It's like a Hollywood show here with all the cars coming," said Dan Russell, glancing toward River Road.

Foxboro resident Stephen Edwards wasn't surprised by onlookers' presence. On Friday, as he helped lay sandbags at neighbour Colleen MacLeod's home, he recalled the last major flood in the early 1980s.

Back then, he said, crews removed the handrails from a bridge on Harmony Road so that ice could pass over the road, and motorists watched as residents worked to save their homes.

"Someone went to the Foxboro sign and spray-painted, 'Tourists go the hell home' on it,'" Edwards said. "They'd sit there all day and watch you work, and never get out of their cars to help."

**********

RELATED: I'm from the television news...

I'm here to save you...

Cruickshank says "a public broadcaster endorses a form of speech hatred, by showing it". Again, that's like saying actors who play murderers on TV endorse murder, or reporters who report on earthquakes are pro-earthquake.

Cruickshank obviously doesn't believe that -- I don't think anybody could -- but it's a way of marginalizing those who want to see controversial news that doesn't fit into the CBC's "Little Mosque on the Prairie" view of Islam.

*

No Cowboys required

C'mon you guys... let's go out and have another game of "Indians and Indians."

**********

UPDATE: Same old, same old...

Two male suspects, aged 18 and 19, are in custody but no charges have been laid, said Cpl. Darrel Bruno, with the Hobbema RCMP.

Bruno wouldn't say whether gangs were responsible for the latest incident, but he did say this is the 12th shooting in the area in the last three weeks.

I wonder if they'll try to blame this one on Stephen Harper too.

*

While the media...

Loses its collective mind over the medical marijuana program... Steffi and the fiberals get a free pass on their proposed nanny-state initiative to set up a country-wide chain of taxpayer funded shooting galleries for degenerate junkies...

-- OTTAWA -- Medical marijuana users are on the hook for more than $500,000 in unpaid bills for government-certified weed, raising questions about the effectiveness of Health Canada's troubled dope program.

Now, the blurb I heard on CTV news the other night... stated that most of the people on the pharma-pot train were also unemployed... so I guess the dope is actually just part of the equation here.

But the actual cost of this program pales in comparison to other similar initiatives. Consider the cool quarter-mil the McSlippery government is shelling out in Ottawa alone... to give junkies daisy fresh spikes to mainline heroin.

Or how about the millions being pissed away at the "safe"-injection site in Vancouver?

The annual operating cost of Insite is $3 million or $14 per visit in the year ended August 2007. The 500 most frequent users went more than 400 times at an average cost per person of $13,100.

Multiply this idiocy across the broad spectrum of government-funded social programs and you'll soon see why we don't have the money to pay for adequate health care for people who choose to work for a living.

Just something to ponder, the next time you're killing a few hours at your local hospital emergency room.

*

I've never really understood...

The commercials showing noted enviro-whore David Suzuki, apparently breaking into, or better yet... sawing holes through... peoples houses.

The message seems to be that we're all just too stupid to figure things out by ourselves.

You have to ask yourself, what exactly are these people selling?

The commercial opens with snow-capped mountains and pristine alpine lakes. It ends with a claim to be a green company, selling green goods to green-minded consumers.

But is the firm really environmentally friendly, or are they engaging in greenwashing -- the false or misleading practice of advertising green but operating dirty?

"It's an area in which we are expecting complaints to increase," says Janet Feasby, vice-president of Advertising Standards Canada. "The more green claims we see, the more complaints we get."

As always, my friends... buyer beware.

**********

RELATED: Remember... "The Internet ate my poll?"

*

The 'Butt-Nekkid' Principle

Two in the x-ring... it's why we love her...

"I wonder, though... if a Harley owner were to file a HRC complaint that I'd refused to paint two nudie nymphetes making out on his bike tank, would they accept the case?"

Bonus riff...

"When the Communists show up to protest the Nazis, you're supposed to pray for an asteroid, not pick a favourite."

*

Plan B

Apparently Liberal Party strategists are still praying for that one fortuitous bolt of lightning... but if that doesn't happen...

If the Liberal plan holds—and the "if" is necessary considering the twists of the last few months—the final vote against the budget will take place during the first half of May and Canadians would go to the polls in June.

"Of course the best for the Liberals," a party strategist told The Hill Times last week, "would be the removal of Dion before the vote and, even if this development is highly unlikely, it doesn't mean that some Liberals have completely given up their hopes."

(h/t reader rich)

Having failed to completely torpedo...

Obama's presidential aspirations last time around... Reverend Wright takes another kick at the cat...

Wright, who is on sabbatical before retiring from Trinity United, said America’s mistreatment of blacks is the result of the founding fathers, who “planted slavery and white supremacy in the DNA of this republic.”

First reported by The Chicago Sun Times, Wright told mourners at the funeral that Thomas Jefferson, who partook in “pedophilia,” would also be considered unpatriotic these days because he wrote, “God would punish America for the sin of slavery.”

**********

RELATED: Still better than Hillary, but...

"What does this mean for Obama’s presidential prospects? He’s disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois America. He’s usually good at disguising this."

"But in San Francisco the mask slipped."

*

What's a Sunday night in Toronto...

Without a little "lead poisoning?"

Police were looking for three suspects after a teen was shot outside an Etobicoke townhouse complex Sunday night.

Police received information that one of the suspects goes by a street nickname of “Skinny.” They were looking for the spot where the shooting occurred and found a van with a bullethole at Shendale Dr. and Bemberg Crt., with drops of blood discovered nearby.

**********

RELATED: Break out the party hats

While nobody has died in Toronto in recent weeks, that doesn't mean there's been no bloodshed. Shootings occur almost daily.

"That's a credit to our medical service," Lee said. "I think the reason homicide numbers are as low as they are, is the excellent care they get from paramedics and at Sunnybrook, St. Mike's and other hospitals."

*

I guess "human rights" rules...

Don't apply to Dalton McGuinty's new "bestest friends."

-- TORONTO -- Premier Dalton McGuinty's closed-door meeting with a Chinese business delegation, days after his trade minister departed on a controversial visit to Beijing, proves Ontario's government is hiding its dealings with China amid international outrage over government crackdowns in Tibet, critics say.

The Liberals, who have been under fire all week over the trade mission, are “sneaking around on every front” instead of being open about their plans with Chinese officials, said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.

Looks like this meeting won't be as secret as "No-Fault Dalt" hoped it would be...

"Reporters may not be invited to the lunch, but the Premier can rest assured that it will be well attended by Tibetans."

Dozens of people were killed and many others arrested in March after anti-government protests erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking massive demonstrations by pro-Tibetan activists.

Bon appetite Mr. McSlippery.

**********

UPDATE: Let the spin begin...

Canada is offering to help “nurture dialogue” with China on the Tibet issue to help resolve the current Tibet crisis, an Ontario cabinet minister said in Beijing today.

*

Paging Barbara Hall

Not terribly surprisingly... law students at a second Canadian university... have discovered yet another weeping wound of injustice for investigation by a "human rights" commission...

A group of students from the University of Windsor is filing an application with the Ontario Human Rights Commission this week alleging that racism influenced the city police force's handling of a campus party.

The group Students Against Anti-Black Racism is requesting that the commission conduct an independent investigation into the decision by police to use more than two dozen officers and a K-9 unit to break up a Caribbean-themed dance party held on campus in late January.

Now, I know we have a few lawyers and law students here on the BT aggregator... so maybe someone can tell me... do you get some sort of extra credit for drumming up your own investigations?

Good grief.

**********

UPDATE: U of W... part of "the conspiracy"

“This is part of a larger pattern of discrimination perpetuated by the administration - the inaction on the dress code [at The Basement], the hysteria surrounding Windsor Sports Weekend, and now this incident."

"Why is it when racialized students are targeted that the senior administration remains silent?”

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: No need to actually reply...

KC hits me with the Vulcan Mind-Meld

"So either 1) you are comfortable with police racism whether it happened or not and thus there is no need to investigate or 2) you are comfortable with having no oversight of police action all together."

**********

RELATED: In other "racist conspiracy" news

Only one rap artist was awarded a grant: Vincent Letellier, otherwise known as Freeworm, who raps evocatively about environmental causes.

The judges need to look beyond creativity and realize that hip-hop music is now popular culture, said Mils Knight (DJ Mils), who represents the group Eekwol.

See, Mils... that's where you're sorta steppin' on your johnson here.

If "popular culture"... particularly as expressed by hyper-hormonal teenagers... were really any sort of all-around measure of societal worthiness... wouldn't there be a few more folks from the general population walkin' around with baggy, fallin' down trou and their hats on backwards?

"It's not like we are making crazy money, driving crazy vehicles, and flying in private jets,'' he said. "I still got to pay for rent and I got mouths to feed, I have bills."

Well, maybe my friend, if, in this bastion of free-market capitalism, you aren't able to leverage your amazing talent into some sort of profitable enterprise... instead of lookin' for a taxpayer subsidy... you oughtta think about finding an actual paying job.

You know... like the rest of us.

*

See, it's sorta like...

That ominous silence, right after the plumber announces... "I think I see what your problem is."

-- BAGHDAD -- Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

But they met fierce resistance and the attack quickly ground to a halt as fighting flared across the Shiite south and Baghdad.

Since then, government officials have revealed that about 1,000 members of the security forces — including an entire infantry battalion — had mutinied, on some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to the militias.

*

Well, lemme tell ya Mookie...

That "last drop of blood" thing?

That can be arranged.

In his statement on Saturday, Moqtada Sadr said: "I heard the statement of the terrorist American defence minister and I feel compelled to give a decent response to such a terrorist."

"I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier."

**********

RELATED: Uh, Mooks... that "no enemy but you" shtick?

I'm thinkin' that just might be a bit over the top...

After all, the Shiites suffered horribly under the reign of the deposed dictator. Among the highly prominent Shiite ayatollahs killed by Saddam’s men were the revered Mohammed Bakr Sadr, executed with his sister in 1980, and his cousin Mohammed Sadiq Sadr (the father of Muqtada al-Sadr), who was assassinated in 1999.

But Shiite loathing for the Sunni elite that oppressed them under Saddam does not translate into sympathy for the US occupiers.

“We cannot push the Shia to accept any of the Westerners in our country,” Asadi says while leaning forward for emphasis, “Because they are the tail of the American snake.”

*

You wanna know how far...

The once mighty British Empire has fallen... you need go no further than this...

They serve the same Queen, fight the same foe and lay down their lives with equal valour and sacrifice.

But when the fallen heroes of Canada and Britain come home, the welcome is very different.

*

The 'Red Star' Lefto-weeny chorus...

Kicks you to the curb... you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's time to hang it up.Hey, Steffi... how about we just use some of that loot... to put a few more cops on Canadian streets?

That way, we could protect more than just "some of the people."

At least four men were injured — two are still in hospital — following unconnected stabbing incidents early Sunday.

At about 3:15 a.m., a group of five men walking near Queen St. and Spadina Ave., were attacked by assailants brandishing knives or box cutters.

In another incident, a man was slashed on the head shortly before 1 a.m. on Kennedy and Merrian Rds. — a block south of Eglinton Ave.

*

Chickens. Home. Roost.

But, but, but... Iran is usually such a hotbed of peace & goodwill... I mean, who could have possibly seen this coming?

-- TEHRAN -- A bomb explosion in a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers in southern Iran killed at least nine people and injured more than 100 Saturday, local media reported.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the explosion in the city of Shiraz went off as a cleric was delivering his weekly speech against extremist Wahhabi beliefs and the outlawed Bahai faith.

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

Whoa, imagine my relief...

When I read the blaring headline... "South African President Says 'No Crisis' in Zimbabwe." Of course, he's also on record as stating that, "he believes AIDS is part of a conspiracy to murder blacks."

Oh, Thabo.

*

With health care like this...

Who needs enemies?

The last time I went to the Belleville General Emergency Room... I spent seven and a half hours sitting on my ass with a sick, fevered child.

Thank goodness, I wasn't having heart trouble...

The night before her fatal heart attack, Amanda Trujillo spent seven hours in a London hospital emergency room, complaining of a strong pain in her left arm as she waited for a doctor who never came.

"At that point, we figured it was not a heart attack, or even serious. Maybe it was just muscle pain," says Trujillo-Murillo.

"If anybody at the hospital thought it was serious, the doctor would have come by now."

(h/t reader rich)

But hey... that's just one inconsequential person, huh?

Dont'cha know Dalton & Georgie have much bigger fish to fry?

Ontario's Liberal government has paid out almost $1 billion to private companies to cover new hospital construction overruns, a coalition of community health organizations said Friday.

"But every single privatized P3 hospital is vastly over budget and every single one is late," she said.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I am a physician. I work at both the patient care level and the hospital budget level. I tell you with no fear of contradiction that the system is unsustainable and will collapse in some way or another within 20 years.

Whether the cause of collapse will be the baby boomers finally hitting the ICUs, or a rash of costly infectious disease imported from outside the country (drug resistant TB, bird flu, etc) I can't say, but the system is going down."

"Count on it."

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Call me wacky, but...

How about we try going with... "one people -- one law?"

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Another Steffi... 'in training'

There is no problem so big... it cannot be run away from...

Has the province just called "uncle," tapped out, admitted defeat?

Unfortunately, that is the message it has just sent to native protesters in Brantford and surrounding areas. The province might as well have said "we give up!"

If it were April 1, I would have shrugged it off as a joke, however reading it in the April 9 edition of the Teka news,(a Six Nations newspaper ) it was stated that while at a Confederacy chiefs council meeting, the lead provincial negotiator, Murray Coolican, has come up with a dim witted plan to freeze development along the Haldimand Tract, for a minimum of two years in return for natives to stop their protests.

This proposal from the McGuinty government has just yelled out loud and clear to native protesters, "you're winning, keep it up!"

Another predictably shameful performance from the lunatic left.

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RELATED: It's usually called "aiding & abetting"

The Tekawennake quotes Coolican saying: "We need to turn the heat down right now. It can be turned up at any point again."

Coolican could not be contacted Friday.

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If Kathy Shaidle...

As I so recently characterised her... is a "bag of feral cats"... then Kate from SDA is most assuredly... "a cold-blooded sniper"...

"In case you haven't noticed, there's really no way for me to lose. I may shell out a few dollars over this complaint, but the precedent will be a gold mine."

"The Canadian left have provided me the fodder for a full time career as a plaintiff."

Perhaps the leftosphere should reconsider... before breaking out the champagne & caviar over news of Richard Warman's latest lawsuit.

You really think a legal precedent here couldn't cut both ways?

Be careful what you wish for.

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Dear Mayor Miller

How many social-workers, you figure you'd have to hire... to make this guy fly right?

-- TORONTO -- He was Toronto's most wanted and after nearly a month of chasing him, police finally have him in custody. Cops have confirmed they've arrested Owen Anthony Smith, the man they allege fired a gun multiple times at a group of young men at a housing complex in the Lawrence and Dufferin area on March 14th.

The accused was out on bail at the time of the murder, after being charged in an assault on a police officer in 2007.

Well... at least he won't be too lonely... back at the Crowbar Motel.

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RELATED: Speaking of street justice

A young man charged in the stabbing death of a Brampton high school student is the latest victim of rolling gunfire in the GTA.

For the third time in a week, bullets flew from one car to another early yesterday morning, this time striking 19-year-old Kulvir Grewal as he, his parents and aunt made their way along Goreway Dr.

The four were on their way to a Sikh temple at 6:40 a.m. to celebrate a high holiday before driving to London, Ont. to resume Grewal's trial.

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Canadian Leftosphere Rejoices

Apparently God IS... on their side...

"Twenty-three centimetres of snow in about five hours,” emails Calgary’s Brett F. “No snow outside the city in any direction - it’s like we were targeted."

"I guess that’s what we get for so openly mocking the gods of Earth Hour.”

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RELATED: Who says kissing commie butt...

Doesn't get results?

China has unblocked the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's websites, a week after the broadcaster's president formally complained to Chinese officials.

"We have today heard that access to CBC/Radio-Canada's English and French websites in China is no longer blocked," said Hubert T. Lacroix in a letter to China's ambassador to Canada, Lu Shumin.

"I am writing to thank you personally for what I assume was your expeditious assistance in this matter."

Another proud moment in Canadian broadcasting.

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Toronto Sun's Don Peat...

Hits another one right out of the park... "Uh, Donnie... let's put this thing in its real world, politically incorrect context... Karen Kain is 'a dancer'."

And yes... I absolutely expect StoogeLeft, or one of the usual leftards... to drop by and start screaming about "blaming the victims."

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RELATED: Don Peat shoots for Pulitzer

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LAST WORD: Ask a Liberal MP...

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Sadr but wiser

U.S. and British forces stepped up their successful "Missiles for Maniacs" exchange program this week... enabling another dozen "holy warriors" to realise their life's ambition of sitting at the foot of the Prophet...

Basra has been relatively quiet since Sadr called his fighters off the streets of Iraq's second largest city nearly two weeks ago. In the early morning hours of Friday, however, Iraqi troops were fired upon when they tried to enter the northern Basra district of Hayaniya, a Mehdi Army stronghold, police said.

A U.S. aircraft retaliated with an air strike that killed six people and wounded one, a military spokesman said.

"We had our eyes on an enemy mortar team which was firing on Iraqi armed forces on the ground," said British Major Tom Holloway, spokesman for U.S. and British forces in southern Iraq. "The mortar team had been engaging Iraqi ground forces."

That's 2 for 2 this week.

U.S. soldiers operating a drone plane over Sadr City, an eastern Baghdad Shi'ite slum, fired a Hellfire missile late on Thursday at a group of men carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers, killing six, the U.S. military said.

Hey, Mookie... might be time for another Iranian vacation.

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RELATED: Yeah, right... the Iranian Space Agency

Dr Forden said that the Kavoshgar launch did not demonstrate any significant advances in ballistic missile technology. “But it does reveal the likely future development of Iran's missile programme,” he said.

At a meeting on February 25 between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Iranians, UN inspectors confronted them with evidence of design studies for mounting nuclear warheads on long-range missiles. The Iranians denied any such aspirations.

However, according to Jane's Intelligence Review, the satellite photographs prove that the Kavoshgar 1 rocket was not part of a civilian space centre project but was consistent with Iran's clandestine programme to develop longer-range missiles.

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Stand by for reports of...

No flying saucers either...

Actual headline from the Belleville Intelligencer:

"No Jumper"

"Belleville police received numerous calls around 11 p.m. Wednesday about a man on the Norris Whitney Bridge who was looking over the railing and acting "suspicious."

"Officers spoke to the 20-year-old man who said he was just looking at the water and enjoying the view."

"Police advised him to do it safely."

Don't worry guys... maybe the bullets will start flyin' tomorrow.

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