It's not... we're not...

And forgive me, Pastor Meikle... you're just nuts...

"It's everybody's responsibility," Audette Shephard, co-chairman of United Mothers Opposing Violence Every where said yesterday. "We are accountable -- whether you're pink, yellow, green or red."

"We've got to find a way to connect with that culture."

It's past time to flush all that airy-fairy politically correct nonsense down the toilet. It most assuredly doesn't "take a village" to figure out what's happening here.

And hey... "that culture"... in case you're forgetting... murders anybody that gets in its way.

I've got an idea... let's ask somebody who's got a firmer grip on reality...

"Young black men continue to kill and, for the most part, shoot young black men at an alarming rate," Toronto Police Staff-Insp. Brian Raybould said. "It's worse than disturbing."

"The beat goes on. Day after day, year after year, we keep having this happen."

Gear up, ladies... 'cos it's pay me now... or pay me later.

**********

UPDATED: SURPRISE!!! -- Grab another body bag

A man was shot and killed in the city’s east end last night.

The shooting occurred in a home on Parma Ct., near Victoria Park Ave. and Eglinton Ave. E., just before midnight on Friday, police say.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Third shooting death... in three days.

Not the Klan... not the cops... who could be responsible?

"Shootings are commonplace, they said, in this close-knit, but rough housing project; two years ago a man was killed a couple of streets away."

A close-knit OK Corral, huh?

It's a mystery.

*

"There's no other word for it..."

"It's a shakedown... as close to extortion as you can get."

He said native protesters have been scaring off developers by blocking construction sites, intimidating workers and referring developers to the HDI. He then quoted a number of fees a developer would have to pay to the HDI for his project to go ahead.

While waiting for a ruling on the injunction application, which could take weeks, Smitheman asked the judge to impose some interim measures to restore the "rule of law" and prevent protesters from interfering with or obstructing workers at construction sites.

*

I'm just a little surprised...

One of the locals didn't try to cut his head off...

A US marine in Iraq has been removed from duty following claims that he handed out coins inscribed with biblical verses in Arabic.

A report from McClatchy News Service carried a photo of a silver coin it said had been distributed in the Iraqi city.

Written in Arabic script on one side of the coin were the words: "Where will you spend eternity?"

On the other side, the news service said there was a Bible verse referring to Jesus: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

Yeah... fighting words.

**********

RELATED: CHRC trots out the O.J. Defense...

Let's go after the "real haters."

"A spokesman for the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has refused to say whether Christian moral opposition to homosexual activity constitutes a 'hate crime'."

Of course, CTV has no such qualms.

"How dare he not show up?"

**********

LAST WORD: Well, he was just about due...

Welcome yet again, readers of Canadian Cynic... my biggest fan.

What I admire most about CC is... he's all about "the rules."

*

Canadian troops...

Spoil Jack Layton's big plans to surrender, er... negotiate... by going on a four day tear through Pashmul...

Code-named Operation Rawa Tander, Pashto for Rolling Thunder, the joint Canada and Afghan military mission was aimed at disrupting insurgent activity in one of Kandahar province's most dangerous areas, Pashmul.

The operation, which involved multiple platoons, started before day-break on Tuesday and, by 6:15 a.m., bullets were already ripping through Pashmul, a collection of small, ancient villages and farmland.

As the week progressed, the fighting intensified, with Friday being the most hard-fought for Canadian and Afghan forces.

It sounds like the "disrupting" part of the op went especially well.

During the lengthy operation, several dozen insurgents were killed or injured.

Only one Afghan soldier was hurt; he accidentally shot himself in the foot. No Canadians were injured.

*

Step II

Take Mr. 'Serial-killer-in training' and dump him in a cell and keep him so pumped fulla' thorazine you can use him for an anvil.

'Cos, mark my words... if you let this freak go... the next thing he tortures and kills, most assuredly... won't be a cat.

And I... truly... cannot even begin to get my head around this.

**********

RELATED: And what kind of sick society...

Collectively turns on itself like this... and more importantly... on its children.

-- PUTIS, Peru -- A team of forensic anthropologists working in this Andean ghost town uncovered Friday the remains of children shot and buried in a mass grave of victims of Peru's 1980-2000 internal war.

More than 100 bodies are feared buried at this remote hamlet in Ayacucho province, the largest known grave of its type in Peru, according to government prosecutors.

Nearly 70,000 people were either killed or went missing during that period, according to government figures.

*

One for the "good guys"

No doubt, Canada's grievance industry -- the race hustlers, the second-rate lawyers, everyone who makes a buck off the system -- will be at any inquiry in spades, arguing desperately, maybe even in tears, for the retention of their meal ticket.

And how about a hand for the Members of Parliament... who have shaken off the oily chains of political correctness... and spoken up already?

They are...

1. Dr. Keith Martin, LPC, Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca
2. Dan McTeague, LPC, Pickering - Scarborough East,
3. James Rajotte CPC, Edmonton Southwest
4. Lee Richardson, CPC, Calgary Center
5. Andrew Telegdi, LPC, Kitchener-Waterloo,
6. Kevin Sorenson, CPC, Crowfoot
7. Bruce Stanton, CPC, Simcoe North
8. Nina Grewal, CPC, Fleetwood-Port Kells
9. Paul Szabo, LPC, Mississauga South,
10. Jason Kenney, CPC, Calgary Southeast
11. John Cummins, CPC, Delta-Richmond East
12. Rick Dykstra, CPC, St. Catherines
13. Rob Nicholson, CPC, Niagara Falls
14. Rob Anders, CPC, Calgary West
15. Russ Hiebert, CPC, South Surrey - White Rock

*

With Revs like these...

Who needs enemies?

"She wasn't the only one crying," he said. "There was a whole lot of white people crying."

Another clergyman rains "friendly-fire" on the Obama juggernaut. Ol' Barack must be wondering what he did to piss off "the powers that be."

**********

RELATED: Celebrating Jason Cherniak

*

Freeze Scumbag!!!

Now put your hands in the air... and step away from the hedgehog.

*

"There's a rose... in a fisted glove..."

"And the eagle flies... with the dove..."

Officials in Yemen say a gunman who opened fire on worshippers at a mosque Friday killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others.

Friday's mosque attack recalled a bomb attack earlier this month outside another mosque in a separate part of northern Yemen, Saada region, that killed 18 people and wounded 45 others.

"And if you can't see... any in-fi-dels, honey..."

"Bomb the one you're with."

A deal with Israel... you must be kidding.

These sociopaths can't even stop killing each other.

*

"I am not fundamentally malicious..."

Says biker babe... as she makes the rounds of media outlets pounding yet more nails into Bernier's political coffin.

Cheer up, Maxime... it could have been much worse...

Mr. Bernier is just the latest of Ms. Couillard's ex-boyfriends to suffer an unhappy fate, and he should perhaps be thankful that all he lost was a Cabinet post.

He could have been murdered, or ended up offing himself... like the last two lunkheads who got tangled up with this woman.

Ms. Couillard said she does not know whether she will be able to fall in love again.

Yeah, baby... we feel your pain.

The Toronto Star reported this week that Ms. Couillard had approached it seeking $50,000 in exchange for an exclusive interview.

What's that called... when you go out and peddle yourself... for money?

Hey, Max... maybe next time you can let the "big head" do the thinking.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Mislaid Max"

**********

LAST WORD: In lieu of actual governance...

"Questions about Bernier's abrupt resignation continued for a fourth straight day in the Commons."

To be fair, there was a brief break from trying to peek inside Bernier's boxers... to attempt to spring a homegrown terrorist.

Your Liberal Party in action.

*

The inevitable destination...

Of Canada's candy-coated, oh-so-politically correct "Magical Mystery Tour"...

And when I said, 'It can't be any danger, what are you talking about,' the agent said, 'Well, it's what it represents.'"

The duel was on and Ms. Norys fired back, telling the agent, "That's censorship, not security."

I dunno, lady... I see that picture, I'm thinkin'... "What's Malibu Barbie gonna do now... if some other punkass doll tries to 'jack' her pink plastic car?"

**********

RELATED: And fuzzy-bunny McSlippery Ontario...

Is at the forefront of a similar, though reciprocal sort of madness...

-- TORONTO -- An MBA student accused of setting up an elaborate terrorism-support network has been awarded a $5,000 prize for his entrepreneurial acumen.

Two years ago, the arrest of the 26-year-old Canadian university student made headlines amid allegations he was known simply as “Waterloo Suresh” to Tamil Tiger figures overseas.

He's an entrepreneur, alright...

Students qualify for the financial awards by nominating themselves and then having their work reviewed by a university committee, he said, adding that the university picks its own award winners, and donors such as CIBC are not involved in the judging.

Only in Canada, you say?

Wait a minute... what do people who aren't on a university committee think?

Who can resist...

A good DNA story?

A 3,000-year-old clump of human hair found frozen in Greenland may have solved a scientific mystery: Where did all the ancient Eskimos come from?

And the hair yielded something extremely rare — the DNA of some of the earliest humans to live in the Arctic.

**********

RELATED: And then, of course, there's Egypt

Dr. Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, long refused to allow DNA testing on Egyptian mummies but accepted it recently on condition that it be done only by Egyptian experts.

He has never disclosed full results of the examinations, sometimes on grounds of national security.

Though Dr. Hawass has never explained the reasons for this, apparently there is concern that the tests could cast doubt on the Egyptian lineage of the mummies.

Which is as perfect a metaphor for the Arab Middle East as you'll likely ever encounter.

Good grief.

*

Does anybody know...

If... "Burning Witches: The case for - and against"... is gonna be on the program at Durban II?

Kenya police have arrested 86 people in connection with killing of 11 elderly people suspected of being witches.

Last week, eight women and three men were burned to death in the western Kisii district, where belief in witchcraft is widespread.

But see... it's not like they didn't have justification to jump into action...

Villagers told reporters that they had evidence that the victims were witches.

They say they found an exercise book at a local primary school that contained the minutes of a "witches' meeting" which detailed who was going to be bewitched next.

Hey, I know Canada is gonna take a pass on the Durban conference... but maybe we should send them that CSC manual on religious practices.

It sure couldn't hurt.

*

Out with the old...

In with the new...

"The American media produce a product of very poor quality," he lectured. "Its information is not reliable, it has too much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty."

"It's flashy but it's basically junk."

*

Screw the two murdered kids...

We'll just go after the legally registered guns...

As Mayor David Miller fights to rid the city of both legal and illegal guns, police raided an east end home and seized dozens of firearms and some ammunition.

Peter Sedge, 56, of Toronto, has been arrested and charged with unsafe storage of a firearm.

That'll show those gangbangers.

**********

UPDATE: My mistake, three shootings...

But this one mostly fell off the media radar... 'cos the kid survived.

*

A glimmer of hope...

For the Canadian judicial system.

-- HAMILTON -- The Ontario government has been denied an appeal in its bid to block a potential class-action suit being filed in Caledonia.

Justice David Crane dismissed the Ontario government's application to kill the lawsuit in December and has now ruled the province cannot appeal his decision for his moral cowardice.

It's about time Premier McSlippery got called to account.

The suit alleges the county, police and province broke laws by allowing the closure of Argyle Street, the closure of the Highway 6 bypass, interruption of hydro in Caledonia, and by failing to enforce court injunctions.

Then again... if McGuinty loses... it's us, the Ontario taxpayer... who ends up payin' the freight.

Sigh... there's just no winnin' this thing, is there?

*

"Just hold up a blank sign..."

"It seems that that's all we're allowed to say about anyone and anything anymore."

*

No more "Junkie See, Junkie Do"

-- OTTAWA -- The Harper government will appeal a decision by the B.C. Supreme Court that saved North America's only sanctioned safe-injection site from closure at the end of June, Health Minister Tony Clement has confirmed.

Now, I'm sure that this decision to appeal is gonna set off all sorts of moaning and crying in the leftosphere about all those poor addicts... but what about the people who are really being impacted here...

The minister said Vancouver has the second highest rate of violent and property crimes of any major city in the United States or Canada. “Law-abiding Vancouverites are beginning to see that what has been presented as a ‘victimless crime' I the drug trade - is not victimless at all,” said Mr. Clement.

Put that in your syringe... and inject it.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Welcome to B.C. -- Doing drugs = Good. Free Speech = Bad.

**********

RELATED: Speaking of "Stupid Judge Tricks"

-- TORONTO -- A judge who will decide if a jailhouse video interview with Paul Bernardo can be released to the public says he's worried about the killer's rights.

“Is it fair to have loops playing on TV saying, ‘Look at this psychopath trying to wiggle his way out of this'?"

Well, your honour... it's fairer than what he did to Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.

Say Judge, while we're talkin' psychos... here's one for you...

-- HAMILTON -- A Hamilton man has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 6-week-old son. Police say 26-year-old Terry Legacy was arrested this morning without incident. Police say they got a 911 call on May 11 from the parents of Cohen Legacy, saying the infant was in medical distress.

The boy was taken to hospital, where he later died. An autopsy later ruled the boy's death was a homicide.

So, your honour... here's my question.

Was the previous assault on the other child... just deductible?

Legacy is also charged with aggravated assault stemming from serious injuries suffered last year by another child.

I don't get it.

*

They stood over his body...

Firing into it.

See, Your Blondeness... I'm just not sure your by-law thing is gonna get the job done.

A man was shot to death late last night in plain view of passersby outside a mall in the city’s east end. At about 11 p.m., a man was gunned down outside the Agincourt Mall near Birchmount Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E.

Although details were scarce last night, the body was reportedly found at the rear of the mall near a branch of the Toronto Public Library. Also, unconfirmed reports suggest a witness at the scene saw multiple suspects firing at the body after it hit the ground.

The victim was the city’s second murder yesterday, and Toronto’s 21st homicide of the year.

Looks like farmers, deer hunters... and yes Mr. Mayor... target shooters... are totally off the hook... YET AGAIN.

**********

UPDATE: Latest shooting victim id'd

Levis Taylor, 17, of Toronto, was pronounced dead at the scene on Bonis Ave., in the Sheppard Ave. E and Birchmount Ave. area, police said.

*

Imagine trying to explain...

The necessity for this type of ad campaign to your grandparents...

Jiggy Conekshunz
bare respect to da person
hu cum up wit dis idea...
at least dere tryin 2 make a diffence.
but afta lukin at dat video n dem soundclips
n jus hearing all da shit on da news all da time...
its dum bare stupid
were smarter den dat

bless

Note to Mayor Miller... you can melt down every gun ever made... and you're still not addressing the actual issue.

So, Super Dave... just grow a pair, already... and do the right thing.

**********

RELATED: Cool ads just might not be the answer

Four people have been charged with the murder of a teenager found dead in a park in West Yorkshire. They are also accused of robbing Amar Aslam, 17, whose body was discovered in Crow Nest Park in Dewsbury, on Sunday night.

Seven males, aged between 12 and 20, were held in connection with his death. Three have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

*

Or... and I'm just spitballin' here...

They could go out and get jobs... ya know, like everybody else in Ontario.

-- DESERONTO -- Court-imposed restrictions against local protesters could mean the local Day of Action may be more about inaction, according to one local Mohawk protester.

"That would probably be the call," he said. "All of our guys are up on charges and conditions and to go on an AFN call and go against those conditions and get us all thrown back in jail isn't something we really want to do."

Yeah, we get it... "Too many bail conditions, not enough Indians."

*

About as useful...

As an unloaded gun... but I just couldn't resist...

This insane montage of (nearly) every instance of "What?" from the LOST series started me thinking about this genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage.

For lack of a better name, let's call them supercuts.

*

Funny how it's the eco-freak types...

Who are rallying around that safe-injection site.

I mean.. being a junkie... how sustainable is that?

And it looks like the federal government is staking out that position.

“We don't consider it the best health outcome to keep people in a position where they continue to use the illicit drugs, to inject the illicit drugs.”

It's as simple as that.

*

Thanks to everyone...

Who has emailed to enquire about my posts not hitting the Blogging Tories aggregator these last few days. I have contacted Stephen Taylor and he got back to me this morning.

Apparently there is a glitch somewhere in the BT wiring... and Stephen is working to sort it out. You can still link to me directly here... or subscribe to the feed by clicking on the square orange button in the sidebar.

UPDATE: Spoke too soon... I guess I'm back.

*

A Public Service message...

For any Vancouverite... who isn't too busy spikin' a little smack... to speak up for free speech...

The Covenant Zone bloggers will be demonstrating in support of Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine, and against the ludicrous operation of "human rights" law in this country, when Mark's hearing in front of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal kicks off, next Monday, June 2.

Nice to know there's a few sane people left in B.C.

**********

RELATED: And from the man himself...

Even if there were no battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if no one was flying planes into tall buildings in New York, even if no one were blowing up trains and buses and nightclubs in Madrid and London and Bali, even without all that, we would still be in danger of losing this thing – without a shot being fired.

*

There's a reason...

They call it dope.

*

"Mixed Review", huh?

So... what sort of grade would you get... if you didn't immolate your neighbours in broad daylight?

But, let's not use 'harsh words' to criticise those 'developing nations'... we wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings...

"And, once again the 2007 human rights report card for the continent is disappointing."

Yeah... "disappointing"... that's the word I was looking for.

Of course, Amnesty has no qualms about pointing fingers at the real culprit... the "so-called war on terror."

Good grief.

**********

RELATED: In other "politically correct" nonsense news...

Dipshit 'activist' unwilling to admit he was wrong.

"This is the first I have ever heard that police can park in a disabled spot during an emergency."

Oh yeah... one small explanatory note.

This dumbstick became an "activist" after amputating his own legs trying to hop a freight train to go to a rock concert.

*

From the H.o.M. mailbag...

Got an email from reader Rich this morning... regarding the disingenuous yappy lapdog tactics of the ever-loony leftosphere...

"MP wants Mulroney back before ethics committee".

Well, much like all the Bernier argle-bargle... no real surprise there. It was the next paragraph that really put things in perspective.

I ran across a site run by a guy called Big City Lib....part way down the first page next to a Komodo dragon picture is this... "My advice to the opposition parties? Follow the ways of the noble Komodo Dragon, which bites its prey once, and then may pursue it for days while it slowly weakens and bleeds to death."

"Patience, brothers and sisters, patience!"

Hmmm... Big City Lib... that sounds so familiar.

*

Well, Mr. Mayor...

That gun ban sleight-of-hand isn't working out quite like you planned... you ready to trot out Plan B?

An east-end school has been put into lockdown after an apparent shooting in front of the building.

A man, who appears to be in his 20s, was found suffering from several gunshot wounds near Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School on Sewells Rd., near Neilson Rd. and Sheppard Ave. E., around 10:40 a.m., Toronto Police Const. Wendy Drummond said.

The victim was rushed to Rouge Valley Centenary Hospital, with life-threatening injuries.

**********

UPDATE: Yup... he's dead.

The victim has been identified as 19 year-old Shammal Ramsey.

And guess what... target shooters at registered gun clubs had nothing... absolutely nothing... to do with it.

And most people aren't stupid... they get that.

I've got a crazy idea... how about we go after the sociopaths who are actually pointing the guns and pulling the triggers?

**********

RELATED: Even City Councillors are kicking back

Councillor Michael Thompson called Miller's actions "political junkfood."

"It's all cosmetic," Thompson said. "He's not willing to deal with the major issues; he deals with all things around gun violence which are very minor in nature."

Minor? How about not even on the table?

'Cos, I'm pretty sure... but please, correct me if I'm wrong... farmers, hunters and target shooters... are totally off the hook here... YET AGAIN.

**********

LAST WORD: Not your mom's Scarberia...

I walked the better part of a mile alone, every day, to grade one in Scarborough. I bet that doesn't happen much anymore these days...

"Stuff like this isn’t overly surprising," said Moe Patel, 18, a Pearson student who had left the school before the lockdown.

"You hear about stabbings every day, every other day," Patel said.

Theo Obeng, 43, and Agnes Ansah, 40, came to check on their 18 year-old son and 14 year-old daughter, who were locked down at Mother Teresa. They said they try to keep their children inside their home as much as possible.

"It’s a bad area," said Obeng.

*

I can see your confusion...

But no... it's not Steffi and Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition... this time...

"Parliament will not allow that such deceptions are made," Mr Larijani said. "If they continue along this path, the new parliament will intervene in the case and set a new line for co-operation with the IAEA."

The comments drew chants of "God is great" and "Death to America" from the audience of MPs.

You think these guys are scary now?

Try to imagine if they got their sweaty hands on an actual nuclear device.

Actually, that problem might take care of itself, too.

*

A couple thousand G-strings...

Show up on my doorstop, I know I'd be impressed...

Canadian women are being asked to send their panties to the Burmese Embassy in Ottawa to protest the actions of the country's military regime.

The call for the underwear is part of the Panties for Peace! campaign, launched by rights activists in Montreal.

Hey... it makes at least as much sense as the rest of that crazy leftbot shit.

*

Tonight's CTV Spy-thriller Moment

Just watched leftwing propagandist Bob Fife outdo himself speculating on whether Maxime Bernier... "SHARED ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS"... with ex-girlfriend Couillard.

Yeah, Bob... that's obviously what Bernier was interested in... her geo-political acumen.

Good grief.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Until I hear the self-centered hypocritical media asking for a cross the board investigation of ALL partners, I don't want to hear anymore about this guy's large breasted ex-girlfriend.

Because this is simply a witch hunt looking to rake muck on one specific political party, and the only thing it is missing is the Dark Ages.

*

Insite now a "health-care" service

So, apparently... being a junkie... is now protected under Saint Pierre's sacred "Charter of Rights."

-- VANCOUVER -- The B.C. Supreme Court says it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to shut down Vancouver's controversial safe-injection site.

Now that there's a precedent... I can't wait for designated "free-fire" zones for gun-totin' gangbangers.

Fortunately, not everybody's comin' off another hit on the judicial bong...

Federal lawyers argued before the court that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn't protect the right of drug addicts to shoot up.

I'm afraid for my country.

**********

RELATED: And in perfectly timed, ironic counterpoint

Shocked Vancouver police have arrested and released a couple who allegedly offered to sell a seven-day-old baby girl on the Craigslist website for $10,000.

You won't see it in the online article... but the television report showed a cop talking about the parent's "drug issues."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Most of the science regarding the Insite program are based upon self reporting by drug users (reliable?).

This is of course not mentioned in the media.

Nor is the recent British Medical Journal study in 2006 that showed no reduction in drug use due to these sites.

**********

LAST WORD: Elizabeth thinks I'm "ranting incoherently"

Well, Lizzy... I'm just not sure I'd be wanna be so reliant on "The Wisdom of Whores."

I mean, do you think they ever really ever get that taste... never mind the potentially life-threatening infectious stuff... outta their mouths?

*

So, you know how the CBC...

Is always screaming about those secretive, controlling Conservatives... turns out they're not so forthcoming themselves...

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is behind an unprecedented flood of complaints to Canada's information watchdog. The latest annual report from Information Commissioner Robert Marleau says his office received 536 complaints about the public broadcaster in 2007-2008, more than any other department or agency of government.

And more than 90 per cent of the CBC complaints that Mr. Marleau has finished investigating were found to be valid.

Most of those complaints were about delays in responding to requests under the Access to Information Act, which for a $5 fee allows ordinary Canadians to ask for government documents and files.

Gotta love the taxpayer-funded hypocrisy.

*

Paging David Miller

Looks like farmers, deer hunters and target shooters... are off the hook, yet again...

Raids carried out across York Region and Toronto this morning are connected to a shooting in East Gwillimbury last month, police have confirmed.

Chanh Duc (Hector) Ho, 21, of Toronto is charged with kidnapping, attempted murder while using a firearm, three counts of possession of an unregistered restricted firearm, possession of proceeds of crime, possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, possession for the purpose of trafficking cannabis, two counts of failing to comply with release conditions and failing to stop for police.

Funny how that works, huh?

**********

RELATED: A message for "His Blondeness"

He can work against lawful gun owners if he chooses but the millions of safe, legal, responsible people who happen to own firearms have a choice too.

But we can vote with our wallets.

*

Trust me... I'm from the government

I'm here to save you... and I won't raise your taxes either.

-- TORONTO -- A drunk driver who killed four people and was banned from driving for life managed to get his licence back in an apparent bureaucratic foul-up, the Ontario government said Tuesday.

He had been given a seven-year sentence and a lifetime driving ban in 1999 after pleading guilty to causing a crash while driving drunk in a stolen vehicle. Four people were killed in the crash and two others were injured.

Mr. Scott was released on parole in 2004 and promptly reapplied for, and was granted, a new driving permit.

So... a la Maxime Bernier... will Premier McSlippery's Minister of Transportation, or Minister of Corrections be tendering his resignation?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Now this is totally unconfirmed, but I heard his request for vanity plates reading "kild4adem" was promptly rejected by the ministry.

Good job guys.

**********

WELCOME READERS OF DUMBSTICK STOOGELEFT

Stooge takes exception to my crack about the over-hyped Bernier tempest.

Well, at least... this time... Stoogie's not trying to stir up sympathy for a rapist.

*

From the folks who brought you...

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion...

In 2003, northern Nigeria stopped immunizing its children against polio. Hard-line Nigerian clerics called for the boycott. They accused Western countries, led by the United States, of contaminating the polio vaccine to render Muslims infertile or infect them with the AIDS virus.

As a consequence, the polio virus spread from Nigeria and reinfected 23 polio-free countries around the world, including nations as far away as Indonesia and Yemen, causing nearly 1500 children to be paralyzed for life.

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile... back at the ranch

"I mean, sorry, he's an idiot."

"And he can't arrest me for saying that because, first of all, it's true, and, second of all, even if it's just my opinion, well, welcome to Canada, buddy."

"We allow freedom of speech."

*

Everybody stand back... I'm goin' in

Well, once again... it's "home repair day" here at the Halls.

Our current bathroom taps... which would not have looked out of place in the home of my distant childhood... will be replaced with a Star-Trekkish Delta faucet from the clearance table mountain at Home Depot.

The shutoffs to the sink appear to be gummed up with mineral deposits (previous owner cheaped out and didn't have a softener), so it'll be an H2O-free zone around here until I'm finished.

If past experience is any indication, I will have at least one equipment, or infrastructure related crisis before I'm through.

Unlike my youngest brother, who, in a display of insane fearlessness... once pulled the the rad and water pump out of his truck in the middle of his driveway in mid-February, I confess to a little trepidation every time I start to "fix" something around here.

Unless Mrs. Neo feels the need to acquire more colourful idiom from my less-civilised bachelor days, she will no doubt head for the hills... or maybe the local library.

Blogging may be light for the rest of the day.

**********

UPDATE: Okay, halfway there...

So, the old fixture, which, of course, had been welded to the underside of the sink by Oxidato, the god of rust... is finally off. Even the supply lines were calcified into their fittings... (note to self... never, ever cheap out on a water softener).

I am also, surprisingly, for once... for all my contorted wrenching on sharpish metal objects... not covered in blood.

There, of course, has to be at least one glitch.

I discover that I have no silicone to bed the faucet and drain ring, so I have to disassemble, CLR & scrub and reassemble the shutoffs... so that we can turn the water back on while the tap is out. An actual plumber would just torch them off and sweat on a new set... but I get a perverse sort of satisfaction out of salvaging stuff... and if you don't count the labour, I'm saving here too.

Once the fittings have been demineralised, I can see they're pristine... I doubt they've ever been turned to the stops. Now, just gotta go get some goop and put 'er back together.

*

"I'm from Warner Brothers..."

"I'm here to save you."

A TOP-SECRET DEAL being ironed out by G8 nations will give the Music and film industry a state-paid force of copyright cops with the same powers of customs officials.

When you arrive in the country the copyright police would be given the job of checking laptops, Ipods, phones and other personal devices for content that 'infringes' copyright laws.

And it doesn't stop there.

"It would be the death of blogging, digg, fark and all sorts of other sites that have sprung up over the years."

(h/t reader bob)

Hey, Joe... where are you?

"My real problem with Stephen Harper is I don't know where he really is... and that troubles me."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Joe has spent his entire political career defining who he WASN'T: first, he wasn't PET. Then he wasn't Brian Mulroney. Finally, he wasn't Stockwell Day...."

"This is pathetic even for him."

*

Technical difficulties

Sorry, folks... for anybody who comes here via Blogging Tories... it appears as though my posts haven't made it to the BT aggregator since Sunday morning. I've just emailed Stephen Taylor.

I'm still crankin' 'em out... feel free to bookmark or link here directly.

Or just click on the orange button in the sidebar... to subscribe to the feed.

*

Everybody wants...

To save the whales... but nobody wants to help mom with the dishes.
That can't be right... Steffi tells us Canadians are willing to pay extra to save the planet.

Let's check again this morning.

**********

UPDATE: Maybe we tattoo a scarlet "C"...

On the foreheads of people who use too much energy...

Every adult should be forced to use a 'carbon ration card' when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, MPs say.

Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven't used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.

(h/t reader rich)

**********

RELATED: In other news from the leftosphere...

-- OHSWEKEN -- Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant offered an olive branch to Six Nations yesterday with $1.6 million to launch a kidney dialysis treatment centre on the reserve.

Might as well cut out the middleman, huh?

And the community was quick to express their appreciation...

"ONTARIO DECLARES WAR ON SIX NATIONS."

*

Which begs the question...

What exactly... are these people worshipping?

"It's not a crime to ban underwear at work. If staff don't like it, they can get a job at a pro-underwear temple."

*

The fairy-tale world of David Miller

"And nobody can deny that that hobby directly results in people being shot and killed on the streets of our city. Those are the facts."

"And they're provable again and again and again."

Well actually, your blondeness... they're not.

Of Canada's two million licensed gun owners, 111, or 0.00555%, used their firearm to murder someone.

On the other hand, in 2005, 64% of accused murderers had a prior criminal record, including 6% for homicide.

So... when the gangbangers have another running gunbattle... Mayor Miller calls for more social workers... but now, he's gonna shut down target ranges?

Let's see... who would that affect?

Toronto shooting coach Patrick Haynes said Canadians who compete in international shooting competitions will be at a loss if the two gun clubs lose their city permits.

Mr. Haynes is coaching his fiancée, Avianna Chao, set to compete at two events at the Beijing Olympics.

He said she qualified for the Olympics after training at the Don Montgomery centre shooting range and now trains at the Union Station range.

**********

RELATED: Toronto "Red" Star asks...

Why can't evil target shooters... be more like this paragon of virtue?

Outlaw biker Francesco (Frank, Cisco) Lenti has been calm, polite and tidy in jail after being arrested for fatally shooting a Hells Angel, and his good behavior has rubbed off on other maximum security prisoners, Lenti's manslaughter trial heard today.

"He is basically a model inmate," Mike Grimson, deputy chief superintendent of the Eastern Ontario Correctional Centre in Lindsay, told Newmarket court today.

**********

LAST WORD: Once upon a taxpayer

Councillors, following an often heated debate, voted 31-5 Monday to spend an additional $2.6 million this year and $4.9 million in 2009 to get panhandlers into housing and social programs through the existing Streets to Homes program.

“They want some choice in their food and they want to deal with their addictions."

Of course they do... that's why they eat out of dumpsters and would cheerfully strangle granny for their next spike fulla' smack.

*

I guess the first couple hundred...

...are deductible, huh Georgie?

Health Minister George Smitherman says there is no need for an independent investigation into the deaths of hundreds of patients in Ontario hospitals from C. difficile bacteria.

The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats insist a provincewide inquiry is needed into the deaths of 260 patients from C. difficile at seven Ontario hospitals.

"You've gotta have priorities!!!"... cries Gorgeous George.

And what's with all those whiny cardiac and cancer guys?

Patients scheduled for bypass surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute had to wait an average of 70 days between January and March 2008, skyrocketing from the previous quarter's average wait of 44 days.

According to a report that will be presented Wednesday to the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), wait times for cardiac bypass and cancer surgeries continue to climb.

*

"A pitcher of warm spit"

"An Obama-Hillary ticket would be everybody's worst nightmare, beginning with the ritual photograph of the running mates and their spouses on stage on the final night at the national convention, where Jimmy Carter chased a reluctant and bemused Teddy Kennedy around the podium, begging like a puppy for his hand."

"The spectacle of Barack, Michelle, Hillary and Bill standing with arms upraised would frighten the millions, hardly the second occasion for Michelle Obama to feel pride in her country."

*

Wake up & smell the species

The fiberals just don't seem to understand... crime is all about, "pay me now, or pay me later."

One reason for the surge in violence is that Mr. Calderón and his public security minister, Genaro García Luna, have upset longstanding arrangements between the police and drug traffickers at every level of government, several experts on crime in Mexico said.

Think it couldn't happen here?

*

Yeah... life is so unfair, huh?

Michele Mandel wants to applaud his "courage and altruism"... I just wanna make sure he doesn't live in my neighbourhood.

-- "The stigma around mental illness is huge in itself. The stigma around killing your own child is amazing." --

You know, David... I'm not so sure that publicly celebrating your "victimhood"... is a very reassuring... or appropriate... sentiment either.

**********

RELATED: Oops... I just hate when that happens

*

I wonder which way this guy...

Would swing... on that confounded taser conundrum.

*

The Land of the Free

And the home of the brave.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Speaking of Memorial day..."

*

Geekin' out

Images from the Mars Lander.

*

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

We get out to the garage and he's got shovels and rakes and coffee cans full of bouquets. And I said, 'What are we doing?'

And he goes, 'We're doing the graves.'

*

See, the part I don't understand...

Is how getting involved, or even sympathising with the Big Circle Boys can be perceived as the classier move...

The frustration on Toronto police Insp. Peter Yuen's face was unmistakable as he addressed the Chinese community two weeks after a hard-working father of two was killed by a stray bullet in east Chinatown.

Two weeks had gone by and police had not received a single tip, he told reporters at a news conference.

"We have yet to receive a single phone call from this community," he said. The January shooting remains unsolved to this day.

And before... yet again... we start into how our racist Canadian system discriminates against non-whites... let's examine that Asian "class" thing...

Karen Sun, the executive director of the Toronto chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said for some parents, becoming a police officer is as prestigious a job as becoming a plumber.

"It's a class issue," she said. "Not that policing is bad but we want our children to have good professional jobs. Policing is seen more as being a lower status kind of job."

Of course, that's not the fallacious "hot-button argument" that's inevitably offered up first...

The police have a less than honourable reputation in China. The stereotype is that the profession tends to attract people who are uneducated and unmotivated to move past their working class stature.

Moreover, police officers are often seen as being corrupt, taking advantage of a stringent regime to exert excessive power over the people.

Hang on a second... if that's an accurate perception of the mindset within "the community"... wouldn't that logically throw suspicion on the motives of every Chinese recruit on the police force?

Whaddaya call that? Oh, c'mon... the word is right there on the tip of my tongue...

P.S. -- Any Chinese readers out there... who care to weigh in here?

*

Fly me to the moon

-- MONTREAL -- The new CBC/Radio-Canada president has asked the federal government to give the public broadcaster a $215-million boost and commit to a seven-year funding plan.

In his first public speech since being appointed CBC president in January, Hubert Lacroix asked the government to fork over $40 more per Canadian in annual funding -- the broadcaster currently receives $33 per Canadian.

Lacroix also asked for an exact dollar figure on how much the government will contribute to the CBC over the next seven years.

*

Another Toronto Star...

"Smell the Diversity" push-poll...... goes horribly wrong...
Time for Ali Hindy to rally the Internet troops.

**********

UPDATE: Well, he huffed and he puffed...

And 1500 votes later... an identical result.

By the zero hour...

Fournier will already have been breathing pure oxygen for two hours to help his body adapt. The balloon will then rise, taking more than two hours to reach its apex before he steps out to pierce the sky in temperatures plunging to minus 65 C and in pressures that, without a special suit, would quickly bring his blood to a boil.

He'll be tracked with global positioning trackers, radar, a helicopter and a Learjet. He expects to land within a 40-kilometre radius south of North Battleford.

If he lands unconscious, his team will have 15 minutes to get to him before his air runs out.

*

Now you see it...

Now you don't...

-- VANCOUVER -- Sweeping changes to Canada's home on the World Wide Web will put the country on the vanguard of Internet privacy.

It's long been standard for website registrars to publicly provide detailed contact information for individuals who own domain names under dot-ca and dot-com through an easy Internet search called a Whois (pronounced who-is).

But all that's about to change.

The Canada Internet Registration Authority says it will buck the trend by June 10, instituting new privacy policies that will protect private information from roaming eyes.

Bringing the Internet authority's policies in line with the law on June 10 will let potential whistleblowers – or those worried their political blog postings will lead to a home visit from a dissatisfied Internet user – breathe a little easier, Mr. Geist said.

*

Matthew's gonna go with...

The Johnny Maudlin defense...

"They claim I was too stoned to remember," Matthew said, adding his school is taking a "holier-than-thou" attitude.

So was he?

"I was, but they don't have it on camera so they can't prove it," he said.

Now, I was actually gonna make a crack about how proud his parents must be... but apparently, well... read on...

Matthew's mother, Delma Bruni, said Matthew wasn't doing anything wrong and he was on his own time anyway.

"Regardless of whether he was high, the school is stepping over the line here."

Well... I guess that explains a few things.

*

Apparently, they've ruled out...

Any sort of extra-terrestrial serial-killer...

Nycki Basra, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told the CBC they are working to trace where the foot came from, and said it could be a result of suicide, accident or foul play.

*

Answering that age-old question...

How close to brain dead can you be... and still manage to live and breathe?

-- BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Police in southern Germany say they have removed a seven-month-old boy from his parents after they tried to sell him for one euro (US$1.57) over eBay.

Krumbach police spokesman Peter Hieber said baby Merlin has been put in care of youth services in the southwestern Allgaeu region and was doing well on Saturday.

On a brighter note... they didn't chuck him down a concrete staircase in the middle of winter and then run away.

*

If you're good with gay marriage...

How can you possibly criticise polygamy?

-- TORONTO -- It was easy. He simply found an imam willing to break a Canadian law, in exchange for upholding an Islamic one.

"Polygamy is happening in Toronto; it's not common, but it's happening," said Hindy, imam at Salahuddin Islamic Centre.

Hindy, hardly a stranger to controversy, is well known for his friendship with the family of Omar Khadr, the young Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay, and his outspoken views on the implementation of Islamic law.

See folks... if you're willing to toss out the thousands of years old definition of marriage as a union between "one man and one woman"... you can't, in good conscience, throw up barriers to other forms of matrimony.

In the past five years, Hindy said he has officiated or "blessed" more than 30 polygamous marriages; the most recent was two months ago. Even some imams in the GTA have second wives, he added.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Does the government have any balls to deal with this issue and this imam in specific who has openly admitted to breaking the law and expressing his contempt of Canadian law?"

Uh... that's some sort of trick question, right?

A controversial Toronto imam warned Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan at a closed-door meeting to stop "terrorizing" Canadian Muslims."

"If you try to cross the line I can't guarantee what is going to happen."

"Our young people, we can't control."

**********

RELATED: In other urban crime news...

A man is in serious condition after being shot twice and left for dead in a field.

Police were originally notified of the shooting on Driftwood Ave. in the Jane St. and Finch Ave. area by Peel police, said Staff Sgt. Steve Tedford.

The victim, believed to be in his 20s, called his mother, who lives in Peel, after being shot. His mother reported the shooting to Peel Regional Police who in turn notified police in Toronto.

And he's not just the victim. Turns out this dickhead is wanted for a string of robberies.

Bright lights, big city.

*

No word yet...

On how many axes he bought this time.

-- MONTREAL -- A man who escaped from a mental hospital where he was confined after killing his daughter with an axe was arrested Friday as he shopped for camping supplies.

A Quebec Superior Court judge found him not criminally responsible for killing his nine-year-old daughter in 2001 during her first unsupervised visit with him. Mr. Masiak had recently separated from his wife.

The girl's skull had been crushed by repeated blows from a hatchet.

And that "escape" that the media is reporting?

A manhunt was started for Mr. Masiak on Thursday when he did not return to Pinel after being out on a day pass.

Oh Canada.

*

Clinton confirms speculation...

She would drown her own grandmother to get the Democratic nomination...

"I ain't quitting while there's still plenty of time for someone to pop a cap in this guy's ass."

Well, alright... I'm paraphrasing.

In an interview with the editorial board of the Argus-Leader, Clinton stated...

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?"

"We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race."

Good, sweet jebus.

*

"Turn this crazy bird around"

"Should not have got on this flight tonight..."

The city of Brantford is asking that the Canadian Forces be put on notice in case of a potential riot by aboriginal protesters. That request is in a court document that goes before the Superior Court today asking for an injunction.

The injunction seeks to prevent aboriginal defendants from protesting at development sites around the city. The motion being filed by the city asks the judge to notify the attorney general that the services of the "Canadian Forces are required".

It goes on to say that tensions in the city are mounting due to "the defendants' unlawful activities" and a confrontation "or riot is inevitable and imminent."

The result of the McGuinty government's unwillingness to to uphold the "law of the land."

Pay me now... or pay me later.

*

C'mon, really... what did you think...

Apart from funding sex-change operations... Dalton was gonna do with that OHIP tax surcharge?

-- QUEENS PARK -- Thousands of Toronto welfare recipients could soon be able to cash in on their belly bulge.

While it would be certain to cost the province millions, the McGuinty government says it will consider the controversial proposal to redefine the obesity boundaries. Welfare recipients with a body mass index (BMI) above 40 currently get a special diet allowance of $20 a month.

Under the plan, the $20 monthly allowance would expand by more than 150% to nearly $51.

The number of Toronto welfare recipients collecting the meal ticket has grown by at least 20% since 2005, despite a supposed provincial clampdown.

About 31,000 social assistance recipients (those on both the Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support programs) were cashing in on the special diet allowance in August last year.

**********

RELATED: Baby Angelica-Leslie update

Looks like Ontario taxpayers, again courtesy of Premier McSlippery, were paying the shot here, too...

-- TORONTO -- The disturbing tale of a baby girl found abandoned in a freezing north Toronto stairwell four months ago took a further grim twist yesterday as police announced the arrest of her biological parents on multiple charges of child neglect and assault.

Both aged 30 and unemployed, the pair were married about six years ago and had moved to Kitchener last month, Detective Keith Moxley told a news conference.

During the couple's brief court appearance later in the day, it was learned they have three other young children, all of whom have been in the care of the Children's Aid Society since their parents were arrested Wednesday night.

Asked if he understood the charges, the father nodded. But his wife, who appeared to be pregnant, seemed confused, telling the court she did not want legal representation from duty counsel Brad Bechard, and that "I don't know what the procedures are."

*

Whaddaya mean fight back?

That's so un-Canadian.

City council is moving to stem the flow of development dollars from the community by hitting native protesters with an injunction that includes a request for $110 million in damages.

But the city of Brantford has decided not to take it anymore.

Mayor Mike Hancock said Wednesday that council started a court action against the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, protesters Floyd and Ruby Montour and other individuals.

"We, as a council, felt we had no option, given the damage being done to the city and the reputation of the city," said Hancock.

Of course, if the provincial government was the least bit interested in upholding the law of the land, it wouldn't have come to this point.

The mayor said the economic impact of the protests and work stoppages is comparable to the city's loss of the Massey farm equipment manufacturing plant in the 1980s.

"It could take 10 years to recover from what's been done already."

So, yet another stand... against fuzzy-bunny political correctness.

Twice in one day... "be still my heart."

*

There must be a rip...

In the space-time continuum...

-- QUEBEC -- Quebec Premier Jean Charest rejected a key symbolic recommendation of the much-anticipated report on the integration of immigrants Thursday, a sign that the accommodation of religious minorities is still a matter of contention in the province.

The recommendation called for the removal of the crucifix from the National Assembly in a bid to reassure religious minorities of the secularity of the legislature.

Looks like the forces of political correctness are taking a smack in the teeth.

Mr. Charest immediately tabled a motion reaffirming Quebec's attachment to its Catholic heritage and pledging to keep the crucifix that hangs over the chair of the legislature's president. The motion was adopted unanimously.

“We can't erase our history,” Mr. Charest said. “The motion speaks to our history and the strong presence of the Catholic Church.”

*

He's not a criminal...

He's just another victim of our horrible rule obsessed society...

-- MONTREAL -- A former chef who goes by the nickname “Big Mike” has had his sentence for drug trafficking reduced because the provincial jail where he's incarcerated can't deal with his 430-pound weight.

And it's just not fair that we aren't bending over backwards to accommodate his unique personality and needs.

“He's only 37 years old but now his health situation has deteriorated to the point that now he has to walk with a cane,” Mr. Monterosso said. “He's been asking for a better diet but of course they refused that to him, telling him he's in jail, he's not in a hotel and there's only one menu.”

Mr. Monterosso said the problem accommodating special-needs convicts is particular to Quebec provincial jails and Mr. Lapointe would get better treatment in a federal prison.

Apparently there's no such thing as a bad boy anymore.

Introducing special-needs convicts.

**********

RELATED: How would we get along...

Without all those smooth-talkin' defense lawyers?

A jury now deciding whether Josh Mfizi transformed a straight-A high school student into a high-end call girl never heard that the accused faces six pimping-related charges in Alberta, including a similar procuring charge.

A national warrant was issued by Edmonton Police Services for 27-year-old Mfizi, also described in court documents as an associate of both the West End Jamaicans and the Get The Cash criminal networks. Both organizations operate within the Edmonton area.

Defence lawyer Michael Webster said in an interview yesterday the information kept from the jury would have violated his client's fair trial rights. He argued in court that the smart, manipulative teen is lying and she wanted to become a prostitute and lived in a relationship with Mfizi.

*

For the love of crazy people

Apparently Canada isn't the only country... with these wacky Human Rights Commissions...

His name is Matthew, he is 26 years old, and his supporters hope to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

But he won't be able to give evidence on his own behalf - since he is a chimpanzee.

Don't expect the court to be injecting a note of sanity here... they're gonna go with a very literal interpretation of the law.

In dismissing the activists' request to get a guardian for Matthew, a lower court ruled that the chimp was neither mentally impaired nor in danger - the legal grounds required for a guardian to be appointed.

It did not directly address the issue of whether a chimpanzee can be considered a person.

Well, thank goodness for that... I'm not sure I'm ready for the inevitable tumultuous debate on the pros and cons of "same-species marriage."

(h/t reader rich)

What kind of sick freaks...

Throw a baby down a stairwell in the middle of winter?

Well... thanks to Ontario's fuzzy-bunny, hug-a-thug legal system, you're never gonna know their names... but at least they've been arrested.

At just about eight-months of age she was left in a frozen stairwell at a North York plaza and now, nearly four months later, police say they've arrested two people in connection to the abandonment of the youngster known as "Baby Angelica-Leslie".

Sterilise these two... then lock them up.

**********

RELATED: And while we're at it...

How about a little electroshock therapy for this guy?

The random attack occurred Wednesday around 6 a.m. at College Station, police say. A 46-year-old man was standing on the subway platform waiting for a train when he was suddenly pushed from behind by a stranger down onto the tracks.

Of course... what we'll actually get... is a plea for more social workers.

*

More Islamic 'Crush, Kill, Destroy'

Over stupid Koran shooting incident.

-- KABUL -- Officials say a NATO soldier and two Afghan civilians have been killed in a protest over the shooting of the Koran by a U.S. sniper in Iraq.

NATO spokesman Major Martin O'Donnell said the alliance soldier was hit by gunfire, and it is not clear who had fired. He said the two civilians were killed when police opened fire on protesters.

Only three dead?

And you call yourselves a "bloodthirsty jihadi mob?"

Paaah... lightweights.

*

Something tells me...

Ol' Marty's major malfunction has absolutely nothing to do with insects...

"He said he developed a phobia about flies, cannot sleep, is irritable and his sex life has suffered."

To be scrupulously fair, Mrs. Neo points out the possibility... that Mr. Mustapha may originally be from one of those totally bug-free countries... and thus hyper-sensitised.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Verdict is in. SCC says "get stuffed."

**********

LAST WORD: Marty... better refill that prescription

"The appeal court also ordered Mustapha to pay Culligan’s legal costs of roughly $30,000 to that point. He will also be hit with the bill for legal costs at the Supreme Court under the standard “loser pays” rule that applies to most such cases in Canada."

*

TOTAL EQUALITY NOW

I'm thinkin' these womyn just aren't going far enough. How about, no more silly half-measures like separating all sports events by way of gender?

And never mind ski-jumping... let's start with the NFL.

Integrate or abolish.

**********

RELATED: Hey, it's Canada, let's just make shit up

The aboriginals will turn him into a hero... and nobody else will care enough to dispute it.

**********

LAST WORD: Save us... "oh caring, compassionate liberals"

"The senate exists to protect the electorate from itself when they make major mistakes (e.g. electing Harper). I do not trust the ignorant masses to tie their shoes nevermind elect senators."

*

The first thing ya know...

Ol' Jed's a millionaire...

J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., said profits have been huge “in absolute terms” but must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of the industry.”

He asked Mr. Simon what his total compensation was at Exxon, a company that made $40-billion last year. Mr. Simon replied it was $12.5-million annually.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Exxon's annual profits increased from $11.5-billion to $40.6-billion in the past five years and there was no explanation for “why profits have gone up so high when the consumer is suffering so much.”

*

"If the UN is an institution...

"...where principle must be left at the door, where the only way to gain advancement is to toe a party line dictated by Muslim dictatorships, where our Western allies are fodder for committees and agencies dominated by rogue states … then maybe the question isn’t why we aren’t more popular at the UN." "

"It’s why we’re a member there at all."

*

So... tell me again

How Toronto is such a wonderful place to live...

A woman was rushed to hospital last night after being brutally stabbed in a random attack in Toronto.

At around 8:30 p.m., Nicole McDonald, 26, was stabbed several times in the arm and abdomen in what Toronto Police describe as a random attack by a man while waiting at a bus stop near the busy intersection of Broadview St. and Danforth Ave.

I'm just waiting for Mayor Miller to make the obligatory call for more miracle, er... social workers.

Samad Dabiri, 47, of Toronto, was arrested near the scene and faces several charges in relation to the attack, including attempted murder.

Dabiri - a landed immigrant from Iran who has been in Canada for 11 years - was previously convicted of a similar random attack with a knife at Dufferin Mall in 2003.

So... unless your first "assault with a deadly weapon" in Toronto is now deductible... can someone tell me why Samad Scissorhands wasn't slumped in a cool, dark cell somewhere in Crazyland... so pilled-up, the staff could use him for a doorstop?

Or, better yet... on a plane back to Iran?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Samid's inability to control his temper goes back much further: He had also been accused of uttering a death threat and carrying a weapon, a knife and a steel pipe, in 1999, but the charges were dropped."

P.S. -- That's funny... the Toronto 'Red' Star somehow fails to mention the two other attempts to slice & dice his fellow Torontonians.

**********

UPDATE: Cops weren't even notified

Det. Laing said Immigration Canada officials are following the case closely. Asked if Mr. Dabiri, a former Iranian police officer who came to Canada in 1996, should be deported, Det. Laing said: "I would drive him to the airport."

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile, in the badlands of Scarberia...

A 22-year-old man suffered a minor gunshot wound to the chest when he allegedly drove his rented car at a York Regional Police narcotics officer who was trying to arrest the motorist in Scarborough yesterday.

The alleged incident is similar to how York Det.-Const. Robert Plunkett was killed during an arrest last year. The 22-year veteran was was killed while trying to arrest an accused car thief in Markham last Aug. 2.

*

The thing is, Johnny...

I'm beginning to suspect... that sparkin' up a shitload of dope... may not actually "make you smarter."

*

Well, I know my wallet...

Is about forty dollars cleaner.

Had to go get one of my vehicles drive-cleaned this morning. As usual, despite being a 15 year-old high-miler SUV... it came back cleaner than a shark's tooth.

I guess Dalton's smiling though... because he apparently pockets almost 75% of that fee. The garage where I got it done says they make about eleven dollars a pop on these things... a far cry from the 60 bucks an hour they could make if that drive bay was available for general repairs.

Now, being the suspicious character that I am... I went to the Drive Clean website and found...

"How will I know if the test results and repairs are fair?"

"First, to be accredited, Drive Clean facilities have computerized, tamper proof equipment approved for the Drive Clean program, and staff that are certified for emissions testing and/or repairs."

Now, that's funny... like so many of the government's iron-clad assurances... this one seems a little over the top.

A buddy of mine, whose son-in-law is in the business... tells him that some entrepreneurs down in Scarberia have found a way around the skimpy profit margin thing.

For an extra twenty or thirty bucks, you can go to one of the many hole-in-the-wall car dealerships that blot out the Scarborough landscape and they'll run their shill car through the machine with your VIN number. Apparently, you can also do stuff like pour a litre of ethanol into the tank and fool with the timing, or have the garage duct tape an extra catalytic converter to the exhaust pipe to achieve a pass.

I also heard that the McGuinty government collects over 50 million dollars a year from the program, so don't expect it to end anytime soon.

Anyway... best not to dwell on the bad stuff. I'm done for a while.

**********

RELATED: Promises, promises... Dalton's "green world"

Ontario won't shut down its worst polluting power plant as early as it planned because it still needs the power the old, coal-fired generator produces.

The province's coal-fired plants cause up to 668 premature deaths, 928 hospital admissions and 1,100 emergency room visits each year, an analysis released in April said.

The Nanticoke announcement may add to the image of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty as a promise-breaker. His Liberal government budget last year broke a pledge not to raise taxes.

*

No Sugar Tonight...

Love the pejorative term used here... but I'm guessing the teams with the Customs & Immigration raid jackets weren't having much success.

-- OTTAWA -- The Harper government is deploying ***clandestine teams*** to fan out across foreign countries and gather raw information about elaborately staged phony weddings aimed at duping Canadian immigration officials.

The teams, which comprise up to five people, are part of a wider bid by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to crack down on marriages of convenience as immigrant communities warn that thousands of foreign fraudsters are leaving lonely Canadians broke and broken-hearted.

Clandestine teams, huh?

Kinda conjures up images of... oh, i dunno... "soldiers with guns"... "in our streets."

**********

RELATED: Investigating? Those damn neocons, huh?

A Brampton woman charged with conspiracy in the murder of her Canadian ex-boyfriend in India brought her brother – also charged in the murder – to Canada with the aid of a fake passport, an assumed name and a fraudulent marriage, Indian police are alleging.

**********

LAST WORD: Sounds stupid... but it worked

When Canadian immigration officials in New Delhi began to notice the same guests appearing in photos of different weddings submitted as evidence for sponsoring overseas brides and grooms to Canada, an alarm went off.

"At a price, you could get packaged services with a wedding ceremony where people stand in as guests and relatives, posing for photos as in a real marriage."

*

Adding up the numbers

And guess who comes out on top...

Short... Sweet... Simple

"I've got a three-word action plan when it comes to the CHRC: Fire. Them. All."

**********

RELATED: Britannia drools...

"In case anyone is still not connecting the dots: In England, the police can now decide if your speech is abusive or insulting - whatever the hell that means, confiscate your property and issue you a court summons."

*

You think you're discouraged?

Try imagine how the cops and the crown attorneys must feel...

Cases in adult criminal courts are taking longer to complete. In 2006/2007, it took on average eight months to dispose of a case in adult court. This was considerably longer than the average of six months five years earlier.

Longer times to complete cases may be in part due to an increase in the proportion of cases involving multiple charges. Cases involving multiple charges represented 60% of the adult caseload in 2006/2007, compared with 57% five years earlier and 53% a decade earlier.

Think Paul Bernardo. After that video tape surfaced, it should have been all over. Think Willy Pickton and the eyewitness testimony and the various piles of body parts.

There's gotta be a way to streamline this mess.

**********

RELATED: And... speaking of messes

Another child-welfare agency in Manitoba is under review following allegations of questionable financial practices, the provincial government revealed Thursday.

The Cree Nation Child and Family Caring Agency has been under review since last 2007, but Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh only made it public Thursday.

*

The fatal crash...

"Follows a long holiday weekend in which nine people lost their lives on Ontario roads and waterways."

Now, that's nine in Ontario alone... whaddaya figure the total was... all across Canada?

*

Fierce debate, huh?

Well then, thank goodness people in Quebec are so open-minded about this kind of thing...

A Montreal English-language newspaper has sparked fierce debate over what it says are leaked portions of a report from Quebec's commission on the reasonable accommodation of immigrants.

So, what sort of things are up for debate?

According to articles in the Montreal Gazette published over the weekend, chapters of the final report of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences recommend Quebec francophones open their minds, get informed and learn more English.

Yup... excuse me... while I go get my debating helmet.

**********

RELATED: Speaking of "opening things up"

"The federal Conservative Party of Canada, like the two major parties in the U.S., will put some bloggers on the same footing as the mainstream media for their fall policy convention."

(via natnews)

Toronto... the sky's the limit

Yup... Mayor Miller's socialist nirvana is attracting all sorts of entrepreneurs...

Downtown cops were informed of a 15-year-old girl who was forced into prostitution before raiding a small motel on The Queensway, west of Kipling Ave., just before 6 a.m. Sunday, Toronto Police Staff-Sgt. Deb Abbott said.

During the raid, police found two men — Dwayne Powell, 26, of Ontario, and Tarik Foster, 26, of Bermuda — along with two other “young girls in need of protection,” a police news release said this afternoon.

I dunno, your honour... how about we take some of that taxpayer loot... and maybe invest it here.

**********

RELATED: It could always be worse... I suppose

Paging Nelson Mandela...

"If they have a gun, they'll shoot you, and if they don't, they will take some fire and put it on top of you," said Mr. Cosa, a 32-year-old bricklayer.

Just down the road, a mob set another Mozambican on fire here yesterday morning, and laughed while he burned to death. They burned another immigrant alive the day before.

The attacks have overstretched South Africa's police force, which was already struggling to respond to one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.

And the government of President Thabo Mbeki has done little to quell the crisis.

*

Your petrie dish or mine?

-- LONDON -- Britain's Parliament Monday backed the creation of human-animal embryos, which some scientists say are vital to research cures for diseases but critics argue pervert the course of nature.

The vote means Britain retains its status as a world leader in stem-cell research. Human-animal embryo research is banned in some countries including Australia, France, Germany and Italy.

Parliament defeated an amendment to ban inter-species research – in which human DNA is injected into cells derived from animals – by 336 to 176 after hours of impassioned debate on ethics versus science.

**********

RELATED: This DNA shit makes people crazy.

I'm with you future-boy... I can't wait for an ape-human hybrid that can wash cars, fetch beers and run a lawn tractor.

*

Uber-compassionate Canadian Press...

Apparently really, really feels poor ol' Joe Clark's... "alleged non-pain."

"Clark says he had expected the prime minister to be there but understands the unpredictable nature of the job."

But CP, of course... gets inside the former Prime Minister's head, to reveal... he's actually just hiding his bitter, wounded tears.

"He (Clark) swears there are no hard feelings."

There is, of course, only one way to interpret that remark.

That cold, heartless bastard, Stephen Harper.

Just thank your lucky stars for the Canadian Press.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"It's a familiar technique. I often hear Fife 'n Ollie tell us how the PM and cabinet 'really' feel, or what they 'really' meant."

*

So our horrible, scary military...

Despite the Globe and Mail's ominous... "Military drug tests find one in 20 using" headline... is actually about half as likely to be baked... as, say... your neighbours?

And, the military notes, the results are still lower than the drug usage rates in the general Canadian population. Col. Noonan said the use of illicit drugs in the general Canadian population is about 12 or 14 per cent.

“So we are less than half of the prevalence rate of the Canadian population.”

*

Postcards from the left

"As a technological Neanderthal, I can think of a far safer and cheaper alternative to the Taser: The lasso."

(h/t mike at rr)

So, lemme see if I understand...

Mayor Miller's latest multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded initiative... we just give all the junkies free housing... and, hey... it's a miracle!!!

"Patrick called and said he was ready and wanted to get help. I dropped everything and drove straight there. I brought him back to Collingwood. I called the detox in Owen Sound and they had a bed. I took him straight there."

He spent four days there before calling his mom. "He begged me to come get him from detox. ... He kept phoning and phoning. Finally, I said, 'You can stay here (in Collingwood) until you get into a long-term residential treatment centre.'"

Well... there's a brainwave.

This messed up scarecrow can't hack detox... but mom figures he'll be just fine with a longer-term of enforced cold-turkey confinement.

Patrick, then 20, agreed to that and other conditions, including that he stay in the house and have no visitors. But the plan soon failed.

"I brought him home. I left the room to make a phone call, and when I got back he had vanished and stole my $1,500 Tag watch," Rasmussens said.

So what part of "junkie"... do all you folks not understand?

*

Just another reason why

We need to scrap these so-called "Human Rights Commissions."

Liberal Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best...

"With respect to medical marijuana ... the cases are very isolated ... I don't see people smoking medical marijuana anywhere around generally so I don't believe that's an issue that I would have to address."

Conservative Interim Leader Bob Runciman...

"We think the ruling of the human rights commission is mind-boggling -- it's just nuts," Runciman said. "The individual who's been accused is sort of left out there to twist in the wind."

What's all the fuss about... you ask?

For Gater Teds Tap and Grill owner Ted Kindos, that grey area has settled around the front door of his establishment.

The restaurant and pub owner was taken to the tribunal after he refused to allow a customer to smoke medical marijuana in front of his establishment.

Good grief.

*

When's that Durban conference, huh?

Peace, Truth and Justice... in Nelson Mandela's socialist paradise...

Some 6,000 people have fled a wave of attacks on foreigners in South Africa, which has left at least 22 dead, aid workers say.

The front page of several South African newspapers on Monday shows a horrific image of a man being burnt to death.

The police say they have made more than 200 arrests for crimes including murder, rape and robbery.

Let's just drop the politically correct pretense.

We are tempted to compare the first World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) -- organized by the United Nations in Durban, South Africa in 2001 -- to a circus. But that would be unfair to circuses.

Far from a forum promoting tolerance among peoples and nations, as it was billed, the WCAR became a festival for hateful screeds against Israel and the West by some of the most repressive regimes in the world, cheered on by NGOs from Europe and North America.

*

Two days before the crash...

Derry posted a message to Taylor on her Facebook site about their plans for Friday night: "Not going to do the whole lets(sic) get killed thing haha but fri you are coming adn(sic) we are getting loaded."

And...

-- RICHMOND HILL, Ont. -- Two young men are feared dead after a canoe capsized on Lake Wilcox in Richmond Hill overnight.

York Regional Police say they were called at around 1:30 a.m. this morning about three young men who got into trouble after going out on the waters.

And...

Police say alcohol might have been a factor in a crash that killed an 18-year-old boy as he was walking along the sidewalk of the Pont des Allumettes Bridge, near Pembroke, early yesterday morning.

*

O-SLAMMA

You can't say he isn't an equal-opportunity hater.

-- CAIRO -- Osama bin Laden released a new message Sunday denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the Palestinians. He singled out the head of Shiite Hezbollah, saying he did not really have the strength to take on Israel.

Wouldn't you just love to see the jihadis start to guzzle each other?

“Those [Arab] kings and leaders sacrificed Palestine and Al-Aqsa to keep their crowns,” Mr. bin Laden said, referring to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites. “But we will not be relieved of this responsibility.”

His 22-minute audiotape was posted on an Islamic militant website where al-Qaida leaders have issued past statements.

*

Just another reason why...

It's important for Canada to stay the course.

-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for insulting Islam denied the charges before an appeals court Sunday, saying he only confessed to questioning the religion's treatment of women because he was tortured.

During an hour-long hearing, a judge read aloud a transcript of the Jan. 22 proceedings against 24-year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh at the primary court in northern Balkh province.

It was the first time the public and the media heard full details from the closed-door trial, which highlights the influence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan's still-nascent justice system.

Not too surprisingly, one doesn't make the jump from medieval theocracy to full-fledged democracy, overnight.

A week after Mr. Kambakhsh was sentenced, lawmakers in the upper house of Parliament lauded the verdict. Conservative clerics and tribal elders have demanded that the government support the court's decision.

Strange... how Steffi and Jack and the supposed parties of "more women, right now"... can't seem to get their heads around the importance of our involvement in this region.

**********

RELATED: Hey, Jacko... negotiate this.

*

Saving face vs. saving lives

And, much like Burma... China refuses western assistance that could have saved lives...

Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged rescue teams to reach remote villages battered by the earthquake where the level of damage remained unknown, according to Xinhua.

That was reinforced by a group of about 15 people who surrounded an Associated Press reporter at a gasoline station in Mianyang city Sunday, appealing for help for their village, Xiushui.

Screw it, says China, we've got plenty of spare people.

"The government is doing nothing to help us," said one man, who identified himself only by his surname, Chen. "If I gave you my complete name the government would track me down."

Chen did not say how many people lived there. He handed over a note signed "by the people of Xiushui," reading: "Please go to our village of Xiushui to cover the situation. The government is doing nothing to help us get water or housing."

**********

RELATED: It's all about sharing the love

Go Mugabe.

*

Let the feeding-frenzy begin...

Who says crime doesn't pay...

“We have people out there that, realistically, this could be their job,” said Sgt. Zachary Self, who answers Crime Stoppers calls for the Macon Police Department.

“Two or three arrests per week, you could make $700, $750 per week,” Sergeant Self said.

“You could make better than a minimum-wage job.”

I say we double the "reward money."

*

The flight, the room and the drinks...

Aren't the only things that are cheap.

Live and don't learn, huh?

*

So, of course...

The story about shooting the book... gets more prominent billing... than the story about shooting the people.

**********

RELATED: Hey, this is Toronto...Don't you know... guns only have one purpose?

**********

LAST WORD: Apparently... a slow news day at the Globe

CBC predicting...

End of life as we know it... again...

Dining out regularly may become less appealing for many Canadians as higher food prices are passed on from restaurateurs who have to pay more for basic staples like flour, rice and just about anything in their kitchens.

I'm not so sure the usually unfailingly amazing predictors at the Ceeb have got this one right.

Based, admittedly, on my personal observations while threading my way through masses of hippo-sized consumers at the local mall food court... I'm guessing most of these folks would give up a kidney before taking a pass on the many and various iterations of deep-fried whatever.

The boys at the Mother Corp., however, seem pretty determined to find a way to blame this on Big Oil.

Andrew Laffey, owner of the Hot House Cafe in downtown Toronto, says the first indication that prices are rising is that suppliers are adding fuel surcharges to their deliveries and "some have a flat fee per delivery and are charging so much per case."

"This is not even to do with food prices. It is interconnected with the fuel crisis, and they are all using fuel as the catalyst to increase food prices," he says.

Of course... ol' Andrew does go on to say...

So far, he hasn't seen a decline in reservations — "not at this stage."

Good grief.

**********

UPDATE: Good news, Ceebers...

The PM-in-waiting is on your side.

"Oh, what a mighty cheer must have gone up from the governing federal Conservatives when Liberal Leader Stephane Dion revealed plans to impose a carbon tax should he ever become prime minister."

"The chance of that happening has all but disappeared."

*

Well, Barack...

Truth be told... he's done a lot more for some folks... than others...

"As I've said many times before, Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history. He's done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history," Mr. Obama told reporters during a visit to a hospital in Eugene, Oregon.

(via ffof)

Gotta pay for those...

Taxpayer funded sex-change operations somehow...

About 120 jobs will be cut at hospitals in Ajax and Scarborough as part of a plan to bring the Rouge Valley Health System back into the black.

Rouge Valley notified the Canadian Union of Public Employees Thursday that it has identified 71 clerical, maintenance, housekeeping and registered practical nursing positions – 48 full-time and 23 part-time – for elimination as the hospital struggles to balance a deficit blamed on years of mismanagement and ignoring budgets.

The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) was notified that 40 full-time and seven part-time registered nursing jobs are to be cut.

And hey, Dalton... nice work on screwin' over those... totally unworthy autistic kids.

A court ruling ordering the Ontario government to pay for an expensive autism treatment for children over age six will be appealed, the province said Monday.

"Every time a court says we require that you spend money in this way, they don't tell us where we're supposed to get the money,'' Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters on Monday.

I mean, what are we... made of money?

The Ontario government is creating a $25 million fund to help aboriginal communities hire lawyers and other advisers to "level the playing field" in treaty and business negotiations with Ottawa, the province and resource firms.

*

When it rains...

It pours...

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake has struck China's Sichuan province, five days after a massive tremor caused widespread death and destruction there.

Wonder if they're still too proud to accept outside assistance?

*

See, Sheri... here's what you're missing...

Someone who deals this kind of misery and death... SHOULD rot in hell...

A Belleville woman doesn't dispute that her sister should serve time if guilty of drug trafficking in Pakistan. But Sheri Gonyea hopes her sister serves that time in Canada rather than in Pakistan, where she was arrested.

When Gonyea first spoke to The Intelligencer last fall she called the incident "a set up" and proclaimed her sister's innocence. Having learned all the details of Kerr's arrest, Gonyea has changed her view.

Gonyea said in her discussions with government officials here in Canada it appears her sister could serve between five to 20 years for her involvement in what appears to be a drug smuggling ring. Also charged is Saleem Khan, the father of two of Kerr's children.

Regardless of the sentence, Gonyea hopes if Kerr is found guilty she will be transferred to a Canadian prison rather than serving the time in Pakistan.

*

If you love this planet...

You will cancel your subscription to the Toronto Star.

**********

UPDATE: Welcome, readers of Canadian Cynic

Oh boy... yet another link from the "Prince of Pottymouth." Lemme see, no actual argument, he just calls me a name and runs away.

In the interest of lowering my carbon footprint, I think I'll just recycle my response from the last time.

*

Paging Romeo Dallaire...

Yup... you've gotta admire how Steffi and the Fiberals are willing to stand up... for that poor, persecuted Khadr family...

The RCMP say they have uncovered a treasure trove of al-Qaeda files from a computer once held by Abdullah Khadr's sister, including "some sort of military operational plan to infiltrate Burma," according to court files seen by The Globe and Mail.

Looks like all the Khadr kiddies were interested in the "family business."

In February, 2005, Zaynab Khadr left Pakistan to return to Canada, where she has never been arrested or charged with a crime. Still, the Mounties claim she left behind "two large metal containers" in Pakistan that they searched once they were shipped to Canada on June 15, 2005.

Court documents filed in one of her brother's cases show the Mounties say they found a hard drive that includes "material dealing with bomb making, ricin, techniques of assassination, chemicals, poisons, silencers, etc; incoming and outgoing e-mails of Zaynab Khadr."

**********

RELATED: Apparently brilliant Michael Ignatieff...

Has an "evil twin".

(h/t reader rich)

**********

LAST WORD: Do the wrong thing

-- ST. THOMAS -- The former treasurer of an area federal Liberal riding association was sentenced yesterday to 12 months' house arrest and strict curfews for committing a fraud a high-level party official tried to cover up.

Suzan Pawlak, 50, now of Toronto, pleaded guilty to a single count of defrauding the Elgin-Middlesex-London riding association of $13,047 between September 2005 and April 2006.

When her deceit was uncovered by the association, she'd moved to Toronto, where she was working as a Southwestern Ontario organizer for the Ontario wing of the Liberal party.

When he learned of it, her boss there, interim director of the provincial wing David Pretlove, offered to cover the loss of missing funds if local officials would consider the matter closed.

The Liberal Party of Canada... standard operating procedure.

*

Remember when you were a kid...

And bumping into someone... was a "death penalty" offense?

Yeah... me neither.

-- Brampton -- He also wasn't present at the Calypso Hut 2 earlier in the evening where Singh had been with her brother and cousins. One of her brothers accidentally bumped into one of Manickavasagar's friends and words were exchanged.

Manickavasagar returned with a gun because he felt he had been insulted. He followed the Singhs home where the shots were fired.

**********

RELATED: Brampton... is for lovers

A fatigued jury convicted Ontario chiropractor Kirk Klymchuk of second-degree murder yesterday after deliberating for five days over whether he had bludgeoned his 27-year-old wife, Maria, to death with an axe on Easter Sunday, 1998.

*

Quality obviously isn't Job One

That's where Dr. Gilks comes in.

-- VANCOUVER and TORONTO -- For Canadian medical labs under fire for bungling tests and misdiagnosing cancer, there is a simple $600 solution.

That's where Dr. Gilks and his B.C. colleagues come in. Under their watch, rates of accuracy in B.C. are hovering around 95 per cent.

“Any process that involves human endeavour is going to have a certain error rate … we need to strive to bring it as close to zero as possible.”

*

"The pain was so excruciating..."

"I said to myself, ‘He's eating my brains.'"

*

Sorry Poindexter...

We're a decade gone... and you still can't fire this puppy up... maybe splittin' atoms just isn't your thing...

AECL, a 4,800-employee federal Crown corporation, had said that the reactors would upon completion "be able to provide a reliable, uninterrupted supply of radioisotopes for decades to come."

Thank goodness somebody's willing to throw the brakes on here.

"After 12 years, these reactors have never worked and never produced medical isotopes," the federal government said in a joint news release from Health Minister Tony Clement and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

And it isn't just the politicians that were worried.

"These reactors tended to race out of control, so you simply couldn't operate on them," said Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

Edwards called the shutdown inevitable since "the reactors have never worked," he said.

"It seems to be just a waste," he told CBC News from Montreal.

Funny... it never seemed to bother the Fiberals.

*

See, where I come from...

People get arrested for shit like this...

The Six Nations' Haudenosaunee Development Institute won't be getting any money from the Ancaster Fair.

Ancaster Agricultural Society manager Kathy Smith says her board of directors has voted not to comply with HDI's demand for a development fee for the new Ancaster Fairgrounds. She says the directors voted unanimously to take no action on HDI's request, pegged at $500.

Tony Soprano's got nuthin' on these guys.

The vote comes a month after a small group of Six Nations protesters stopped construction for about two days at the Highway 2 and Trinity Road site on behalf of HDI, claiming the land is under dispute.

*

So what's next on the agenda, guys?

You gonna boobytrap babies and leave them at the side of the road?

-- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A boy possibly as young as 10 was used in a suicide-bomb attack against a joint Canadian and Afghan army patrol in Afghanistan on Friday.

Two Canadian soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were wounded in the attack about 40 kilometres from Kandahar city, the military said.

That's some religion of peace you've got goin' there.

Insurgents launched an estimated 140 suicide bombings last year, when more than 8,000 people, mostly militants, died in insurgency-related violence.

At least 1,200 people have died so far this year.

**********

LAST WORD: Actually... that baby boom reference...

...is old news.

*

Another Fiberal Gasbag...

Goes down in flames.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: What uber-Liberal apologist said...

"For Grits, it means it's cut your losses time: retract, apologize, offer a donation to charity. And quietly deal with the three staffers who made the "bribery" allegation in the first place."

**********

RELATED: Avoiding Dalton's worst nightmare

Try imagine what would happen, if an inquiry actually started pointing fingers back at this guy after they've already let him go...

“I've concluded that another inquiry into this case will not provide additional information to strengthen the administration of justice beyond what we are doing,” Mr. Bentley said in an interview.

They just can't take that chance.

Oops... can you hear the scrabbling of little clawed feet? It must be Red Tory and his puerile overlord Canadian Cynic... running for the flamethrowers, because... you know... they're all about "the justice."

**********

POP QUIZ: What Liberal Premier...

"... gives 20G's to fight "Hate Crime" to the Canadian Arab Federation?"

"Yes, that's the same Canadian Arab Federation headed up by Khaled Mouammar."

*

Rosie writes it wrong

Oh, the poor widdle kiddies...

“The principle of fundamental justice at issue here is that young people are entitled to a presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness or culpability flowing from the fact that, because of their age, they have heightened vulnerability, less maturity and a reduced capacity for moral judgment.”

Let's be clear... we're not talking about a kid who shoplifts a couple of CD's at the mall.

This is about violent, often homicidal offenders.

A bad decision... a sad day.

**********

UPDATE: What... me worry?

The study, which gathered statistics from police forces across Canada, reports the rate of violent crime among young people increased 12% in 10 years, and 30% since 1991.

Both the number and rate of young people accused of homicide in 2006 reached their highest point since data were first collected in 1961.

Youth homicide rates have risen 41% since 1997.

**********

UPDATE2: Yeah... they're obviously just misunderstood

A 15-year-old boy suffered life-threatening injuries when he and two other Good Samaritans went to help another teen being mugged behind the Castle Frank subway station.

The victim's condition has improved since the Tuesday afternoon attack and the boy expected to recover but it's still unclear if the injuries caused any permanent damage, Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Myron Demkiw said.

**********

RELATED: Speaking of flawed decision-making...

What's up with Rob Nicholson?

One reporter -- to his credit! -- didn't even believe the memo was real, asking me for corroboration that it wasn't a "forged document".

That's exactly how I reacted to so many of the insane details about the CHRC when I first encountered them: I simply didn't believe they were real.

I think the problem has spread from the CHRC into the Justice Department. I think it's becoming an embarrassment that can't be sloughed off on others.

HRCs are becoming denormalized -- and if Nicholson doesn't do something about them on his watch, he risks having his own government become tainted by them.

**********

LAST WORD: Every refuge has its price

"Were you shocked to find out that the Justice Department's own filings said truth and fair comment are no defence?"

*

I want one of these

-- TOKYO -- A Japanese man who developed the world's smallest helicopter plans a demonstration flight in the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci later this month.

Seventy-five-year-old Gennai Yanagisawa says he will fly his one-man helicopter in the city of Vinci, near Florence, Italy, on May 25. Yanagisawa describes the demonstration as a tribute to the Renaissance-era visionary's original idea of an "aerial screw."

More here.

*

Liberals bring the pain

Launch yet another bloody sitzkrieg...

-- HALIFAX -- While the outcome was hardly in doubt, Nova Scotia’s minority Conservatives were smiling broadly Thursday after easily surviving a confidence vote on their $8.4-billion budget.

The fiscal plan, tabled April 29, passed third reading in the legislature by a vote of 31 to 20 with the support of the third-place Liberals.

The Liberal support means the Conservatives, who are approaching two years in power next month, will have at least another year to govern.

*

Red... get a girlfriend...

Get a boyfriend... get a cat... get help.

We're all worried about you, buddy.

*

Big...

Big balls...

Once in full flight, Rossy can reach speeds of up to 300km/h, but he can only stay in the air for a maximum of 10 minutes due to the small fuel capacity of his jets.

*

I, Robot

Anybody who hasn't been living in a cave in Waziristan is probably familiar with the story about the Tim Hortons gal who got fired... for giving a Timbit to a baby.

Well, I've got a Tim Hortons story of my own.

Mrs. N and I, as is our wont... took our regularly scheduled trip into Costco in Kingston today. When we first started doing this, we used to pop into Tims near Gardiner on Princess on the way home... and grab a coffee and BLT for the ride. It didn't take too long before we ended up skipping the sandwich, after discovering it had a whole lot less "B" than other stores we frequented. No biggie really, Costco has sandwiches and makes a decent slice to boot.

So we still stopped at Tims for coffee, but even that became less appealing after Mrs. N kept running into Timmy's resident lounge-lizard-cum-server. To be fair, he apparently didn't single her out... he would be... what could be characterised as "inappropriately familiar"... with each and every lady who passed through the door. Mrs. N was a little hesitant to say, at first... but finally shared the fact that this guy also had a wonky eye... which, for her, really put the "eep" in creepy.

Anyway, thinking I would spare her the encounter with Kingston's own "Leisure Suit Larry"... I decided today I would hit the drive-thru. After a ten minute wait... I ended up being distracted and went 10 feet past the mike where you order. Unfortunately, the guy behind me also moved up... so I decided to just proceed... and order my single coffee at the window.

I get to the window and Donut-Boy is apparently thrown for a loop when I tell him I'm just ordering a single coffee. Apparently I have thrown a huge wrench into the smoothly oiled Tim Hortons machine. DB earnestly tells me he has no way to take my order and that I'll have to do another lap around the building and go through the process all over again.

At this point, I'm both speechless and pissed off. I could explain to him that he could take my toonie and get the cashier behind him to ring it in... whenever... or ask to speak to a manager... but this is the straw idiot that breaks the camel's back.

Now, I'm not sure... this being Kingston and all... whether this particular Timmys has some sort of day parole arrangement with the penitentiary... but mounting evidence suggests it may not be the best place to buy anything you're planning on ingesting.

So, I hold my tongue... put 'er in drive... and vow to share this story with everyone I meet for the rest of the year.

There. Now I feel better.

**********

UPDATE: A number of readers have also emailed...

To defend their local Tim Hortons. My generic reply to them would be as follows...

I get that there is a system. I get that fast food places want machine-like obedience. And I definitely understand that... you pay peanuts, you get chimps.

This was just the last in a long line of little cosmic indicators that said... if you continue to patronise this particular store... you will very possibly end up with a pus smeared bandaid in your beverage.

And, my friend, you have to spend another ten minutes in an idling car waiting for it.

My local Tims is just fine. They'll still get my business.

*

No kidding... people lie

"We definitely know we have a problem," Margot Shields, a senior analyst at Statistics Canada, said yesterday. "Researchers and local health units have to be aware that the prevalence of obesity based on self-reported data is an underestimate."

C'mon Margot... you can say it... l-i-e... lie.

*

The scary, hidden agenda...

Of that scheming control-freak... Dalton McGuinty...

Premier Dalton McGuinty "read the riot act" to Liberal MPPs in a tense closed-door meeting after some of them grumbled about him to the Star.

Sources say McGuinty ordered staff members out of the government caucus room on Tuesday afternoon, then "lit into" cabinet ministers and backbenchers over a Saturday Star story.

Quoting Liberal MPPs, who asked that their names not be used, the article disclosed a growing concern that too much power is concentrated in the premier's office.

McGuinty was unhappy to read that some in his cabinet and caucus feel he freezes them out on issues as disparate as revamping the legislative schedule, reconsidering the reading of the Lord's Prayer in the House and scrapping regional political ministers' posts.

It all comes around... doesn't it?

*

Once upon a time...

In a mythical land beyond the borders of reality and reason...

The former heroin addict, who was suffering severe withdrawal symptoms after being refused methadone, had choked himself.

Days earlier the 40-year-year-old reportedly told guards at Toronto's Don Jail, where he was awaiting trial on driving and drug charges, that he would kill himself without medication.

Unfortunately... there would be no happy... or even remotely plausible... ending here.

This week a five-person jury refused to rule the death a suicide, concluding instead that it was accidental.

Just another reason why...

*

Okay Romeo, I think I get it now

It's not the government that are terrorists...

"Suffice to say that I in no way intended to equate Canadian or U.S. authorities with the terrorist organization al-Qaida," Dallaire said in a written statement Wednesday.

It's all the rest of us...

The decorated military veteran went on, however, to stand by the position he articulated at a parliamentary committee Tuesday that if Canada doesn't act to protect Khadr's human rights, the country is no better than terrorists.

*

Try not to have a stroke...

In Trenton, or Belleville, Ontario... because, well... it's too expensive...

Ambulances take stroke victims directly to Kingston because a drug that minimizes the effect of strokes is not available at Quinte Health Care.

Dr. Mohamed Gaber, chief of staff at QHC, said the drug will one day be available at QHC, but there just isn't the manpower to do that now.

If tPA is to be given to a patient, it must be administered by a doctor with "special knowledge," Gaber said. The four QHC sites do not have such qualified personnel available at all times to treat stroke victims with the drug.

"You need 24-hour service, seven-days-a-week," Gaber said.

I guess that's just a little too expensive, huh?

But heck, I guess it's not that big a deal... I mean, how many people are there in the "senior citizen community"?

**********

RELATED: How old is your doctor?

-- TORONTO -- The Ontario Medical Association says there are still 850,000 people in the province who do not have a family doctor.

OMA president Dr. Ken Arnold says Ontario is short about 2,500 doctors, and notes that 2,600 physicians currently working in the province are over the age of 65.

He says if those physicians decide to retire, Ontario would lose about 10 per cent of its family doctors and about 13 per cent of its specialists.

*

Invoking the hallowed name of...

The Canadian Human Rights Commission... CJOH, the CTV affiliate in Ottawa... is reporting that Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman is going to re-establish taxpayer funded sex-change operations.

The report made prominent reference to Smitherman's... and I quote... "...outstanding promise to the queer community."

I guess now that Dalton and George are billing Ontarians for OHIP... he's got money to burn.

I dunno, George... aren't you supposed to be health minister for all the people?

Oh well... as long as it's about human rights.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Maybe fixing these peoples' mental illnesses would be a better use of taxpayers money as opposed to surgery?"

"If I argue that I 'feel' I should be more handsome than I already am, would I get free plastic surgery?"

And...

"Granny can't get a new hip, but you could get a new DICK!"

*

Paging Michael Moore...

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

"They’re not the Minutemen any more, Mike. They’re the Minutelittlegirls."

*

So, you think Ma Bell's traffic throttling...

Has nothing to do with you... well, babycakes... you'd better think again...

CIPPIC has filed an official complaint with Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, asking her office to investigate Bell Canada's use of DPI (and we're flattered to be quoted as an expert source in the complaint).

In addition, the group would welcome a wider investigation into possible DPI use at cable operators Rogers and Shaw, as well.

How would you have felt about Canada Post opening up all your "snail mail"?

Because DPI can drill down into packet headers and then further into the actual content being pumped through the tubes, it raises all sorts of questions from privacy advocates concerned about the easy collection of private personal information.

It just might be time to run out and get a copy of PGP...

Current gear is so sophisticated that it can reconstitute e-mails and IM conversations out of asymmetric traffic flows and it can essentially peek "under the hood" of any non-encrypted packet to take a look at what it contains.

*

We're not talkin'...

About losing your car keys...

In a scenario similar to the movie “Home Alone,” the toddler was wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates, said Angela Mah, an Air Canada representative.

Good grief.

They didn't even know the baby was gone... until the cops located them.

*

Yeah, yeah... we're all in shock

The real question is... what do we have to do to get rid of the rest of them?

-- TORONTO -- Tony Burman, the one-time head of CBC news, has been appointed managing director of Al Jazeera's English operations.

Burman, 60, takes over from Nigel Parsons, who has held the position since the network's launch two years ago.

**********

RELATED: Couldn't have seen that coming, huh?

The BBC World Service has taken a policy decision not to describe the attacks on the US as "terrorism".

Tony Burman, executive director at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, said the US coverage of the crisis had failed to take account of the international perspective: "It's depressing to see the jingoism which is lamentably part of the culture and spirit of the coverage."

He said US networks regarded the attacks on Afghanistan as a football match with Washington as the home team.

I guess our loss is Al-Qaeda's gain.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Let's hope McDonald, Mallick and Tremonti are not far behind. Burman's comment about bias shows just how utterly blinkered that crew really is.

And...

"At least now he doesn't have to pretend he's not working for them."

I'd trade 10 Burman's for one Hussayn.

*

"They're done apologizing."

"They didn't want a fight; they did everything reasonable to avoid one, even swallowing their pride and accepting Warman's incredible denials at face value."

"But now that Warman's suing, they're fighting back."

***********

RELATED: So, apparently, is Johnny Maudlin...

"For the record (one more time into the breach) I suppose I should never have made a comment about Kathy's weight challenge. Although she does not seem to be troubled making reference to my brain damage challenge. Still, I should rise above and all of that..."

But, of course, ol' Johnny can't actually do that...

"What I wrote is that Kathy is miserable. Now, I cannot prove that scientifically, so I won't ask for grant money to further my research."

You mean your "Smoking Dope Does Make You Smarter" project?

Hey Johnny, a little advice from Keith Richards... only take as much as you need -- not as much as you want.

*

That sort of thing...

Could never, ever happen here... right?

Seven bombs exploded Tuesday over a 12-minute period in the capital of Rajasthan state. The attacks happened during the evening rush hour near a Hindu temple and several crowded markets.

Indian authorities have blamed similar attacks in recent years on Islamic militants. Police described Tuesday's blasts as a terrorist attack.

The country's Home Minister Sriprakash Jawiswal told reporters there might have been -in his words- "some foreign hand in the blasts."

Dream on.

*

Sure you are, Floyd...

A scary, alcohol soaked, crime ridden nation... whose leadership unfailingly and unceasingly soaks up 10 billion Canadian taxpayer dollars per year...

"We're a nation," Floyd Montour said in an interview Tuesday. "We can make our own laws and we're stepping up to the plate to do that.

"If they can't understand that, I don't know why. That's what we have to do."

Montour and his wife, Ruby, have been at the forefront of actions aimed at stopping development in the city and elsewhere along the Grand River. They say the land belongs to Six Nations.

**********

RELATED: You want that in unmarked twenties?

-- SUDBURY -- An Ontario First Nations group is seeking $550 billion in compensation from the federal government and more than 101,000 hectares of land.

"It's not about displacing anyone or asking the government to expropriate anything from anyone. I think here we've got a positive history of good relationships between all the different communities in the Sudbury region."

That may be about to change, my friend.

**********

POLITICALLY CORRECT MOMENT:

Oh yeah, here's a sad little postscript to the tragic story of the aboriginal boy with leukemia, whose parents want to save him from the agony of chemotherapy (a circumstance I am not unsympathetic to) and put him on natural herbal remedies instead.

Global TV reported last night, this child has fetal alcohol syndrome. Yeah... he's brain-damaged because his mother drank during pregnancy.

Funny how nobody else seems to be reporting that.

Although the chemotherapy will continue, friends and family members who attended court Tuesday, including an aunt dressed in a woven poncho and an uncle transported in a wheelchair with flat tires, were jubilant as they left the courtroom.

“We won!” shouted one family friend.

What planet are these people from?

*

The Experts aren't always right

EXPECT the unexpected. That has long been a useful guide to the Balkans, as the election in Serbia on Sunday May 11th proved. Preliminary results show a big swing in favour of parties campaigning to continue on the path of European integration.

This was totally unforeseen.

Analysts relying on usually accurate polling data had predicted that Serbs would vote for a government which would halt or even reverse Serbia's efforts to join the European Union (EU).

*

Weird? Well actually no...

It's about par for the leftbot course...

"I imagine, for outsiders, it looks kind of weird to be having a couple of Jewish lesbians supporting someone who is supposedly a crazy fundamentalist Islamic terrorist."

And they're not just 'offering support' here... it kinda looks like they wanna adopt him...

"We put the carpet in, nice, thick carpet, 'cause he prays five times a day, and we don't want him to get cold, or his knees to hurt like they were hurting in jail," Hanson said.

*

Go Hillary

-- WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Almost as many of Hillary Clinton's West Virginia supporters would vote for John McCain as would for Barack Obama, exit polls show.

If Obama were the Democratic nominee, 36 percent of Clinton supporters would vote for him in the fall, the polls found. But 35 percent said they'd cast their vote for McCain instead.

A big win for Clinton in West Virginia could raise doubts about Obama's electability in the general election.

*

No... no pandering here

Just chalk it up to an intense, lifelong affection for edged weapons.

**********

RELATED: Maybe he SHOULD... just stick to dress-up

Stephane Dion is again musing about a carbon tax. During his bid for the Liberal leadership in 2006, he called it "bad policy."

Then, last spring, he suggested a carbon tax was a good policy, but not so good that the Liberals should adopt it.

Now, Mr. Dion appears to be saying that a carbon tax may be the right policy for the Liberals after all.

Steffi... the gift that keeps on giving.

*

Kathleen Wynne is gonna go...

With the Chappaquiddick defense...

The former chair of the Toronto Catholic board has appealed to police to look into unscrupulous spending by trustees – a move Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne says is unnecessary.

She also said a call by newly appointed trustee Rob Davis for an integrity commissioner to watch over spending isn't helpful.

Of course, Kathleen... because the last thing you need when somebody commits a crime... are all those pesky police officers mucking things up.

Scratch a Liberal... find a... well, you know the rest.

**********

RELATED: Uh, Dalton... one small detail here?

It's not your money.

"Premier Dalton McGuinty says he doesn't regret giving General Motors $250 million of Ontario taxpayers' money, even though the company is closing its Windsor transmission plant."

*

It's all relative, isn't it?

Funny, she didn't seem too surprised to hear... that he was dealing arms to terrorists.

It seems the fig doesn't fall too far... from the tree...

According to a court-produced transcript, when the RCMP asked Abdullah Khadr whether he was a member of al-Qaeda, he responded “No, I only buy and sell weapons for al-Qaeda.”

**********

UPDATE: Yeah, Romeo... we're the terrorists

-- OTTAWA -- If Canada doesn't act to protect human rights in the case of Omar Khadr, the country is no better than terrorists, Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire told a parliamentary subcommittee Tuesday.

“Is it your testimony that al-Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated is the moral equivalent to Canada's not making extraordinary political efforts for a transfer of Omar Khadr to this country?” he asked.

“Is that your position?”

"If you want a black and white, and I'm only too prepared to give it to you."

"Absolutely," he said.

Even Steffi is apparently furiously backstrokin' to get away from this one.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he disagreed with Dallaire's choice of words, and hinted the senator could be disciplined.

"This is a matter to deal with the party whip, and we'll deal with that," Dion told reporters.

**********

RELATED: In other Toronto terror news...

Davies also recounted a disturbing day last month when the suspect returned home from a court appearance. "He stayed at the table, talking to himself. He bought new clothes for about $2,000. He cut these clothes to pieces.

He said, `I'm going to kill myself with a knife.' When he comes home from school, he holds his head and cries out loud."

Interesting.

I'm pretty sure I've never owned $2000 worth of clothes in my life, but... and maybe this is just me... I'm pretty sure the verdict was already in, when this dumbstick was talking about circumsising himself.

*

"So, sorry, substituting 'Jew' for 'Muslim'...

"...does not make the idea any more equivalent than replacing 'Muslim' with 'Shoebox'."

"It just doesn't make sense."

**********

WELCOME READERS OF SUAVE INTELLECTUAL RED TORY

I see... in his link... ol' Red calls the Blogging Tories... "a sniveling bunch of hypocritical douchebags."

That Red... what a card. Let's see what else he's got.

"What a gutless scumbag you are."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 8:37 PM, February 24, 2008

"You're a retard Neo. Not even worth the keystrokes it takes to comment here. You should just carry on wanking in glorious isolation, nurturing your bizarre obsession with Canadian Cynic and fixating on the offended vulva of Wanda Watkins."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 1:18 PM, December 26, 2007

"RA — Neo’s sentient matter could be easily accommodated in the bowels of a hamster, so it’s a complete waste of time even attempting to discuss anything reasonably with him.

He’s too self-absorbed and hopelessly mired in his vituperative world of solipstic nihilism to move beyond being an embittered, angry crank with a persistent diaper rash."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 2:45 PM, December 26, 2007

"You're a profoundly stupid man."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 4:47 PM, December 26, 2007

"Pathetic. Is that what passes for wit amongst your dreary gang of addlepated whackjobs?"

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 7:14 PM, December 26, 2007

"Thanks, sockpuppet. I'll take that as a back-handed compliment. I realize your other hand is most probably busy with other activities."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 8:20 PM, December 26, 2007

"Ejaculation. There you go, five whole syllables! That should do the trick. And the folks at Kleenex® thank you for your continued patronage."

Posted by Red Tory to halls of macadamia at 10:43 PM, December 26, 2007

Red... get a girlfriend... get a boyfriend... get a cat... get help.

We're all worried about you, buddy.

*

I have just one question...

What exactly do they do with drug dealers... where these people come from?

-- TORONTO -- The lawyer for a North York couple accused of growing and trafficking marijuana says he fears the Crown will try to take their home if they are found guilty.

Tam Ngoc Tran, 60, and Lien Thi Pham, 55, are charged.

It is alleged 490 plants -- some almost a metre high -- were found when officers from the Toronto drug squad raided their Driftwood Ave. townhouse in January 2007.

More to the point... why does Tam Ngoc Tran think he should be exempt from the law of this land?

**********

RELATED: Dope... the victimless crime

After six passersby stumbled upon the grow-op near an ATV trail last October, they were beaten, robbed and held captive for hours by the suspects, police said.

"They were accosted at gunpoint ... one individual was shot at," OPP Det. Insp. Ken Leppert said at a news conference on Tuesday.

"All of these six victims were forcibly confined in one way or another for several hours and robbed of their identification and cellular phones."

**********

LAST WORD: Prostitution... the other victimless crime

Or so saith the loony left...

Police believe it's one of the first human trafficking convictions since legislation was enacted in November 2005 to deal with offenders caught placing others under their control and living off the avails of prostitution.

In pleading guilty, Nakpamgi admitted he was well aware the girls he put to work were juveniles, aged 14 and 15, court heard.

*

Help me out here, General

The first couple hundred people here, are what... deductible?

The Lebanese army has said it is prepared to use force to disarm gunmen and restore order across the country. It follows a week of clashes between supporters of the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

At least 60 people are believed to have died in the violence.

Judging from his lack of action and impotent statements, General Suleiman is apparently confusing the Lebanese Army with the United Nations...

An army statement issued late on Monday said: "Army units will prevent any violations, whether by individuals or groups, in accordance with the law even if this is going to lead to the use of force."

Sure it will... in your dreams, Michel.

Now, that's Jack Layton's kind of war.

**********

RELATED: Yip, yip... yap, yap, yap...

-- UNITED NATIONS -- As the authorities in Myanmar raised the cyclone death toll to nearly 32,000 and admitted one American military aircraft, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pressed the junta on Monday to accept international assistance.

He expressed “deep concern and immense frustration” with what he called “the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis.”

And then he went and had lunch at a five-star restaurant in Manhattan, no doubt.

Another wonderful piece of political theatre from the people who eagerly elected Libya to chair the U.N. "Commission on Human Rights."

What countries could see value in undermining human rights? Commission members such as China, Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Zimbabwe spring to mind.

No doubt Libya can count on their eager support in quashing investigations into true human-rights abuses, instead focusing the Commission's resources on issues like the death penalty in the United States -- a cause sure to elicit support from human-rights groups while leaving the far worse records of repressive governments carefully cloaked.

*

So, just to follow up...

On my latest adventure in home repair, there were... not surprisingly... a couple of flies in the ointment.

When I went to remove the lower element from the water heater... it was so badly corroded it simply cracked and butterflied... inside the tank.

This also happened the last time I did this job and I was able to brute-force it out... but this time the element actually broke off as I was reefing on it... and for a second there, I thought it was irretrievably lost inside the tank and I was into a new water heater.

Fortunately, the thin wire heating element was still intact, so I was able to reel in the corroded, splayed remnant to the access hole to grab it. The hole though is only 2 inches in diameter, which doesn't give you a whole lot of tool options.

I ended up having to head to a local retail outlet to pick up a set of needle-nose vise grips (the only robust gripper that had a chance of fitting through the small hole) and after another 40 minutes of tugging, crushing and manipulating... finally extricated the rest of the element.

The moral of the story... I suppose... is never give up.

Kinda like right here.

*

Another Subway Shooter arrest

Police have made a second arrest in a TTC subway shooting earlier this year.

A youth, 17, was arrested last night in the Islington Ave. and Duncanwoods Dr. area, after police sought special court permission and broadcast his name last week, Toronto police said.

Of course, now he goes into the largely ineffectual "young offender" system.

The young man arrested over the weekend faces four charges, including attempted murder. The court order allowing him to be identified has expired, preventing the police or media from republishing the teen's name or photograph.

Police are still hunting Emmanuel Boakye, 20, who is believed to be the third man seen running from the scene of the shooting.

**********

RELATED: Another "young offender" charged...

With first-degree murder. So he'll be out, in what... 3 years?

-- CORNWALL -- A 16-year old boy is dead and a 17-year-old is in custody after a vicious stabbing Monday at T.R. Leger alternative school, located on the campus of St. Lawrence College in Cornwall.

Here's a question... at what point in your life should you be able to recognise that murdering people... is totally unacceptable.

Time to ditch this useless legislation.

*

So what's the problem here?

I'm sure Omar would appreciate the company...

According to a court-produced transcript, when the RCMP asked Abdullah Khadr whether he was a member of al-Qaeda, he responded “No, I only buy and sell weapons for al-Qaeda.”

The same transcript indicates he further implicated himself, by saying that he had used a GPS device to map out co-ordinates for Pakistani jihadists who were plotting to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.

**********

RELATED: It's a Liberal thing

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"While the Globe and Mail crows about their little release of information triumph, the U.S. thinks twice about revealing state secrets to Canada ever again."

"Yep lets keep kicking the Americans because unlike the bomb-plotting, children killing terrorists, the real enemy is our largest trading and economic partner to the south."

*

And yet... unless she produces...

A picture of Barack Obama french-kissin' Louis Farrakhan... she's going down the shitter anyway.

*

Pierre Trudeau must be...

Spinning in his grave...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a 20-year, $30-billion renewal of the Canadian Forces in a broad plan that coalesces several previously announced defence initiatives.

“If a country wants to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, it needs to have the capacity to act."

I... of course... expect loud, prolonged, derisive noises from the Liberals... you know... the guys who starved our troops of resources AND THEN dropped them into combat in Afghanistan in the first place.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Said noises being the precursor to voting in favour of the plan or being absent during the vote."

"Either way, it's a form of 'sitzkrieg'."

*

Save The Planet

Eat a squirrel...

It tastes like lamb, duck and wild boar, it's low in fat and completely free range.

Meet the new It Meat: grey squirrel.

Simpson likens the taste to wild boar. Ridley thinks it is more a cross between duck and lamb. 'It's moist and sweet because, basically, its diet has been berries and nuts,' he said.

Both believe its new-found popularity is partly due to its green credentials. 'People like the fact it is wild meat, low in fat and local - so no food miles.'

*

I can't wait for Dalton McGuinty...

To introduce the TeleCop program...

"When you have a general health question and nowhere to turn, call Telehealth Ontario," the website promises. "Within minutes your questions will be answered, providing you with peace of mind."

Or we could take some of those taxpayer billions and train a few more doctors and nurses.

I'm just sayin'.

**********

RELATED: Toronto "Red" Star, yet again...

Wants to "buy the world a coke."

"Turning Ontario's vanishing blue-collar manufacturing jobs into stable, well-paying "green-collar" employment in the emerging green economy should be central to poverty-proofing the province, says a new report."

Yeah, Dalton... get out that magic 'green' pixie dust

General Motors Corp., said Monday it would close its Windsor, Ont., transmission factory in 2010 after its current production mandates are finished, leaving as many as 1,400 people out of work.

This is the second major cutback announced by GM in less than a month. On April 28, the automaker said it would cut a shift at its Oshawa pickup plant, eliminating 900 jobs.

*

Remember when you were young...

And violent, kidnapping carjackers roamed the streets of Toronto?

Yeah... me neither...

Parm took the wheel. But just as he was ready to turn onto the Gardiner Expressway, the BMW and a Land Rover forced him off the road and to the entrance of the Air Canada Centre underground parking garage.

"My friend got out and they started hitting him and he ran, took off," Parm recalled. "They hit me and pulled me out of the car."

"One guy was telling the other guys to shoot me," he said. "Lots of thoughts were going through my mind. At one time I wanted to run, but then I had no place to run."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Hey, come on now. Don't you realize that there are root causes that compel these punks to act like that?"

*

It's all relative, isn't it?

So... you thought your adolescence was a nightmare?

-- RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Asking a woman for her number can cause a young man anxiety anywhere.

But in Saudi Arabia, getting caught with an unrelated woman can mean arrest, a possible flogging and dishonor, the worst penalty of all in a society where preserving a family’s reputation depends on faithful adherence to a strict code of separation between the sexes.

Allahdamn... that's harsh, dude.

Of course, if you need to get your yahyahs out... there's always holy jihad...

“Jihad is not a crime; it is a duty,” Enad said in casual conversation.

“If someone comes into your house, will you stand there or will you fight them?” Enad said, leaning forward, his short, thick hands resting on his knees. “Arab or Muslim lands are like one house.”

Would he go fight?

“I would need permission from my parents.”

Good grief.

**********

RELATED: Of course, Canada is far from perfect

"This is kinda weird, though, because a) Canada seems to have been more or less secure for hundreds of years before they passed that wacky law a few years ago, and b) "the entire country" has never charged anyone under Section 13."

"Only one guy actually ever seems to use Section 13 at all these days."

*

Has anybody else seen...

That Peak-Frean's commercial with all the women acting out in various ways? One woman flushes the toilet while her husband is in the shower... another puts a "kick me" sign on her kid, before sending him off to school.

They've also got "Bad Girls" playing in the background, which, I guess... is supposed to reinforce the "naughty mommy" theme here.

It's nowhere near as amusing as the advertising agency obviously thinks it is... and at one point in this little ditty... a woman in a bathrobe flashes a FedEx guy in her front yard.

Now, I should probably explain right here, that... despite my age... I am not without a sense of humour... and remain relatively enthusiastic about both cookies and scantily clad women.

However, it just occurred to me, that... if a commercial anywhere on this politically correct continent featured any man... however friendly and attractive... flashing a woman in a very public venue... there would be leftbot-supported riots in the streets.

Funny how that works, huh?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Yep, been happening for years. As I've said, feminists don't want equality as much as they want REVENGE."

And...

"It's so nice to see women portrayed as equals to men. However, to the feministas, this means equal to the lowest common denominator for males."

*

Me... I destroyed ALL the evidence

One of the bravest things... I've ever seen a blogger do.

*

Sunday night CTV moonbat moment

You won't see it on their website... but the CTV 11 o'clock news managed to dig up some middle-eastern commentator who characterised the murderous Hezbollah raids in Lebanon... some sort of miraculous Arab political renaissance... unlike, and I'm quoting here, the "violent policies of the Bush government."

-- BEIRUT -- "Thirty-eight people have died in the fighting, which began Wednesday after tensions between the government and Hezbollah-led opposition hit a boiling point."

"It has been the country's worst instance of sectarian violence since the 1975-1990 civil war."

They just never miss an opportunity... even when it has nothing to do with what's actually going on.

**********

RELATED: Say it enough, it becomes the truth

Beirut was calm over the weekend as Hezbollah withdrew its gunmen shortly after capturing the western half of the city.

However, fighting flared up Sunday in Tripoli, in the north of the country, and in the villages of Mount Lebanon, to the southeast of the capital. At least 53 people have been killed and more than 150 injured since fighting broke out in the middle of last week.

“Our fight is not Sunni-Shia. It is between the resistance and America and its spies and agents in Lebanon,” said Abu Ali Zain.

That evil, supernatural George Bush... he's everywhere.

*

From the people who brought you...

Lead coated childrens toys...

Chinese state media says Beijing has established a company to manufacture passenger jumbo jets.

The Xinhua news agency says the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China was established in Shanghai Sunday.

Thanks... but no thanks.

"Rip-Offs Include Everything From Golf Clubs to Van Gogh to Airplane Parts"

*

It seems as though...

Hillary isn't just some liar-come-lately...

A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.

**********

RELATED: Never mind the sniper story...

For the past month, the New York senator liked to tell the tale of a pregnant woman who was denied health care from an Ohio hospital because she did not have $100 the hospital demanded to treat her.

After being turned away, the woman was brought back to the hospital days later with severe complications. She had to be rushed to another facility for advanced treatment, but it was too late. Both the woman and the baby died, Clinton told her audiences.

For Clinton, the story was an example of how everyone should have universal healthcare. It is a powerful tale and always drew gasps from the audience.

The hospital, which was never named in Clinton's speeches, objected this weekend, saying it wasn't true and demanded that Clinton stop telling it.

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Cheap lawn furniture is one thing

If it's gonna go in my mouth... that's another thing entirely...

If financially pinched Americans opt for the cheapest (and the least healthful) foods rather than cook their own, the food industry will continue to reach for the lowest common denominator.

To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic bid to revert to the agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look toward the future, leapfrogging past the age of heavy machinery and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun’s free energy and use the waste of one species as food for another.

Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously. We never bought into the “bigger is better” mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat.

The future belongs to the gourmet.

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RELATED: Of course, not everyone agrees

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LAST WORD: The cost of cheap food

In the biggest workplace immigration raid this year, federal agents swept into a kosher meat plant on Monday in Postville, Iowa, and arrested more than 300 workers.

The authorities said the workers were suspected of being in the United States illegally or of having participated in identity theft and the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

Of course... there's also the migrant workers that pick the crops... but that's a post of its own.

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Why is this even news?

Show me somebody, besides OJ and his lawyer, who says he didn't do it.

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