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

...even though I wasn't wearing a mask... the last time I voted... they still had to see my photo id...

Canadians who wear coverings over their faces will not be required to remove them to vote if they swear a special oath to affirm their identity and eligibility, a spokesman for Elections Canada said on Tuesday.

"We offer them a choice," John Enright said of the administrative procedure, which has been in place without incident for the seven federal byelections held since September 2007.

**********

RELATED: This sounds so familiar... hang on...

"Should women wearing niqabs or burkas be required to show their face before voting?"

When's the last time you saw 50,000 plus votes in an online newspaper poll?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"You really are being willfully obtuse. How is it that veil wearers are a "special subset"? Anyone can wear a veil."

"All Canadians have the right to cover their faces, and can still vote."

Well, Nonny... I know some folks who will be absolutely thrilled to hear the news...
**********

LAST WORD: The inevitable evolution...

As a full service consultancy with that boutique touch, our trained Hate Coordinators will help you choose the package that meets your budget and your desired PHQ (Public Hate Quotient).

Not a CHRC recognized victim class? No problem! Our staff of ethno-religious image consultants will dress you up just to take you down!

Need funding? Not a problem! Our business is hate! We'll show you how to milk government agencies like Heritage Canada for your slice of the Multicult Money Pie!

Need a Front Organization so you can pretend to wield an ethnic voting bloc? Leave the paper work to us! Remember we're not satisfied until you're publicly villified by even the most timid of school children!

*

Give it to me...

...one more time...

Homeowners in the GTA are about to get kicked in the assessment.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corp. is in the process of mailing out 4.7 million notices across Ontario that show an average increase in home values of 20%.

*

A Nation of Riflemen

"Whatever happens on Oct. 14, the 2008 election will be remembered as -- among other things -- the collective coming out party for Canada's blogosphere. Amateur Web scribblers have been making their mark on Canadian politics for years, but never on the scale we've witnessed this month."

**********

RELATED: Of course... not everybody agrees...

"What worries me, though, is that we're seeing the "democratization" of politics, in the most literal sense of the word: The people -- the great idiocratic mass of mouth-breathers out there frantically swiping the drool off their keyboards as they Google around for "dirt" -- are running the campaigns now."

Yeah, Andrew... that's the sort of commentary that'll drive subscriptions through the roof.

**********

LAST WORD: The next big thing?

Oh, Lizzie... where art thou?

*

They could always use...

...the "David Miller Solution"... and simply ban religion.

**********

RELATED: Just another victim of society...

He couldn't bow down to Mr. Taylor in public, or run or holler for police because "My career [as a gangster] would have been scattered." So he shot, in that square packed with people.

"As I said, I went through a lot that night."

*

Local Scam-Artist...

...ducks serious jail time... yet again...

-- BELLEVILLE -- The aboriginal protester behind a blockade that shut down Canada's busiest highway during last year's aboriginal day of action was spared further jail time after an unexpectedly speedy trial today.

The Belleville Intelligencer reports that Mohawk protester Shawn Brant was charged for shutting down Highway 401 in eastern Ontario in June 2007 as well as for another blockade in the area on April 20 that year that halted CN Rail's main line.

In an unexpected move, what was to be the start of three weeks of pretrial motions in the case turned into a 30-minute trial.

**********

RELATED: Shawn Brant... aboriginal role-model

You know how ol' Shawn always tells the media he's a cabinet-maker? Well, strangely enough, that's not quite the whole story.

Justice Lynn Ratushny describes Shawn Brant's actions in the dispute as those of a deceptive, self-serving man who played the role of victim and failed to take responsibility for himself.

To his credit, he's an equal-opportunity criminal... no issues at all screwing over his own family, friends and community.

The Brants went ahead and erected a building on the property. Their business failed within one year and none of the $430,000 in loans was repaid.

And that's not all. In the never-ending battle against racist Canadian society... Super Shawn's not afraid to get his hands dirty...

Brant jumped out of his car, grabbed a six-foot-long fishing spear from the rear seat and ran towards the altercation, Lalonde said.

"His eyes were crazy-looking ... he was in a rage," he said, adding Brant ran up to the scene yelling "'Is it on? Is it on?'"

Whoa... a guy with a criminal record attacks someone with a spear... that's serious business right?

After two days of evidence into the matter -- which centred around an April 21 incident near the corner of Bells and Lower Slash roads -- Justice Stephen Hunter said he found "sufficient evidence" to convict Brant, 44, of carrying a dangerous weapon and breaching court-imposed conditions.

So... holy crap... looks like he's finally pushed his luck too far.

Well... not exactly...

Brant was also given one year of probation with strict terms, including conditions that he is not to participate in or plan protests.

Let's not forget the punchline here...

"During his probation, he is banned from participating in or organizing any unlawful protests and owning weapons — with the exception of those used for aboriginal hunting and fishing."

I guess Orwell was right... in Dalton McSlippery's Ontario, anyway... some animals are more equal than others.

*

Courageous Green Party...

...outs “right wing white supremacist”...

...wait a minute...

**********

RELATED: The Wile E. Coyote of political parties...

"Did it not occur to the Green braintrust that White Supremacists would in fact heartily approve of Mays attendance at the Jew Bashing?"

*

Three soldiers killed

-- KABUL -- The U.S.-led coalition says three of its troops have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan.

The coalition did not release any other details, including the nationalities of the troops or the blast's location.

**********

WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

Ah, CC... taking time out from obsessing about the ZOG?

*

Let me count the ways

It's just so hard to say... whose track record should we be looking at first?

When a group of more than 100 Canadian native leaders arrives in China six weeks from now, they will carry a message that is both historic and disarmingly straightforward: China has vast wealth to invest, and Canada's native communities, with their access to timber, coal and minerals, want to do business.

The words "train wreck" just keep floating to the surface here.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade did not comment on the sovereignty issues associated with these proposals, which might pique the interest of those who support foreign ownership caps on natural resource extraction.

*

The central theme of the book

...is that by making guns illegal, criminals will stop using them and the world will become some manner of utopia. But in order for criminals to obey the law and not use outlawed weapons... well, I think you see where this is going.

On second thought, in case Wendy Cukier is in fact reading these reviews, I'll make it more obvious. Criminals don't obey the law! If they did then there wouldn't be a need to outlaw guns! Nice little catch 22 there?

This book is a crime in itself by trivializing the nature of violence by blaming hunks of wood, plastic, and metal instead of the human nature.

(h/t reader pongo)

**********

RELATED: Awwwww... c'mon you guys...

Who said you could go ahead and start up a vast right-wing zionist conspiracy... without me?

I can't wait for Dr Dawg and CC to spring into action.

*

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

..."diversity training at the Mother Corp... oh, please, just stop"...

Partly in response to the outcry, Mr. Cruickshank said CBCNews.ca has plans to soon expand the diversity of voices and opinions expressed online “to better reflect the depth and texture of this country.”

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Um, so that means they are looking for straight, white conservatives now?"

*

And no, I didn't eat it

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

*

Apparently... Tony Rezko just realised...

...there isn't gonna be a commutation from the Governor...

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a convicted influence peddler who was once one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's most trusted confidants, has met with federal prosecutors and is considering cooperating in the corruption probe of the governor's administration, sources told the Tribune.

Rezko's trial this year laid bare a culture of scams, bribes and backroom deals stretching from City Hall to the Statehouse.

But wait... there's more...

It even became fodder in the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, whose fundraising and personal ties to Rezko go back more than a decade.

Rezko was a political supporter of Obama going back to when he was running for state Senate. Obama's ties to Rezko have become a political albatross for the presidential nominee, who has been forced to defend the convicted felon's fundraising activities for him and revelations Obama bought his South Side mansion on the same day in 2005 that Rezko purchased a vacant lot next door.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain has highlighted the ties between Obama and Rezko in a national television commercial.

*

According to the Dippers & Liberals...

...all we really need... are more social workers.

I wonder how Emily Stauffer's parents feel about that theory...

A small community west of Edmonton is in shock after a 14-year-old girl was killed in broad daylight while out for a walk on a wooded path.

Two young boys, believed to be nine and 12 years old, witnessed the attack. They saw a man attacking the teenage girl and rushed to a nearby home on their bikes to get help, but it was too late.

You want action on crime and criminals... you know what to do.

**********

RELATED: Of course, why didn't I think of that...

"All you need is love, er... nice."

*

Now I knew Taliban Jack...

...was a silk-stocking socialist... but I was stunned to hear he's got 52 billion dollars in his back pocket...

"The New Democrats' child benefit will give every middle-class and working family in Canada a raise," he said.

As first disclosed by the Star, families with a household income of $38,000 or less would receive $400 a month per child. Those making less than $188,000-a-household would get $250 a month per child.

And families earning more than $188,000 a year would receive $100 a month per child.

And once they eliminate poverty... I hear the party of Cheech & Chow is gonna be reaching out to our animal friends.

Yup... say goodbye to Cherry Garcia.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I do agree with helping low income families. In fact we should just raise the personal exemption amount so they don't pay the money in taxes and then have to wait to see if they get it back."

"Just let people keep their money."

*

On confusing data with knowledge

Three years ago, after suffering through serial episodes of extremely brief but Hiroshima-like headaches... I had what television paramedics casually and cryptically refer to as a "syncopal episode"... which, believe you me, isn't nearly as much fun as it sounds.

After a brief stop at the always chaotic and overloaded Emergency Room down in Belleville... I was fortunate enough to get assigned to an amazing neurologist at Kingston General Hospital... who immediately ran me and my skull through all the insanely futuristic, particle-emitting medical artillery then known to mankind.

At some point, days later... after being disconnected from the tubes and ancillary machinery and sent home... I got a call from the doctor's receptionist, on a Tuesday I believe, asking me if I could come by his office that Thursday.

Now, this was more than a little unsettling, as I had a friend whose father had recently had to wait 11 months just to see a neurologist up in the Ottawa area. I mean, these folks are obviously up to their asses in medical alligators.

Of course, the only conclusion I could come to was that I was totally smoked... the only real question being... "Well, Doc... how long have I got?" Needless to say, this was the longest 48 hours of my life.

Turns out, the test results were all negative... and I had the one Doctor in the western hemisphere who thought he should share the good news in a timely fashion.

Which is why I could relate so much to this...

Long story short, I ended up in my GP's office getting my neck felt up. Being the ever-cautious fellow that he is, he sent me for a CT-Scan of my head and neck, and set me up with an ENT specialist, which did nothing to allay my fears.

Since the appointment was the day after the scan, they gave me a CD of the scan results to bring with me, which meant I had approximately 14 hours to become an expert at reading CT scans, which is nowhere near as easy as it sounds.

Even though I was easily able to locate the area in question, and learn a lot about bone density, contrast dyes and all 257 slices of my own head, I lacked other potentially useful things such as a medical degree and any clue as to what the fuck I was looking for.

Maybe this isn't something you can appreciate until you've actually been there, but guess what... as you get older... I guarantee you're gonna be riding the "health care" bus with increasing frequency.

See... the thing is, I just can't understand why the medical system is not the top priority in Canada today.

It just blows me away that the Chretien Mafia were able to piss away two billion plus dollars chasing down rifles and shotguns used by farmers, hunters and target shooters.

Just think what rewards a two billion dollar investment in medical research and the health care system in general could have reaped.

Remember... friends don't let friends vote Liberal.

More here and here.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"An article in the TO Sun March 6, 2005 (Lorie Goldstein) reminds us that when Rae was Premier of Ontario he paid the University of Toronto mega bucks so that they would reduce the size of their med-school grad class."

"See... we are still having Rae days... those are the 8 hour waits in ER because you don't have a family doctor."

*

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

...don't forget to put "killing uppity women" on the short list, huh?

Afghan officials say unidentified gunmen fatally shot one of the country's most prominent female police officers.

Malalai Kakar was killed Sunday as she traveled from her home in the southern city of Kadahar. Her son was also wounded in the attack. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Kakar, a mother of six, was the head of the department of crimes against women in Kandahar. She was regularly profiled in international media and known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative and male-dominated provinces.

The NDP... they know what's best for all of us.

**********

RELATED: And the Greens are even worse

"I took up the task and tried to get Ms. May on the record saying just that -- 'Hezbollah is a terrorist organization'."

Alas... no surprises here either.

*

Toronto Sun reveals...

...scary, hidden "TRUTH"... Stephen Harper hates children...

-- AJAX -- Little Betty Chen wanted to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper a letter yesterday but couldn't get it past his security.

The 10-year-old Toronto girl trekked out to Ajax in the rain with her family in a desperate plea to somehow get the Conservative leader's attention and somehow avoid deportation to China.

In fact, he hates them so much... he's rounding them up and kicking them out of the country.

Media bias... what media bias?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"...shades of the little match girl..."

**********

RELATED: Look out... SHE'S GONNA BLOW!!!

More ominous rumblings from Mount Cherniak...

"Liberals really believe that if they just "argue" loudly and long-ly enough, that we poor plebes will see the tragic error of our ways, i.e., relying upon the evidence of our senses and our lived experience to make decisions, and not upon this week's Received Liberal Wisdom talking points."

*

So much for Olympic glory

You poison tens of thousands of babies... who's gonna remember all the rest of that glitzy hoop-la?

In Hong Kong, Heinz Foods this week recalled its vegetable formula baby cereal after some samples of it tested positive for melamine.

In Taiwan, Pizza Hut said it had found cheese packets similarly contaminated. Officials in Macao, a Chinese territory, said Friday that the chemical had turned up in koala-shaped cookies made by a Japanese-owned company.

And several African nations moved to ban imports of Chinese dairy products this week.

And it's spreading beyond the third world...

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday that some instant coffee and tea drinks, all containing a nondairy creamer made in China, had been recalled for fear of contamination.

It is the first recall in the United States growing out of the melamine scare.

So much for China's economic miracle.

*

Deal? Or no deal?

-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. congressional leaders Sunday said they had reached the broad outline of a deal to put in place a $700 billion financial system bailout but were awaiting details on paper before declaring it final.

Fear-wracked financial markets had lent the talks urgency and lawmakers were striving to reach a deal by Sunday before Asian markets open.

*

Remember Guy Earle?

"When Lenny started there were no stand-up clubs. He did his socially-driven commentary (remember the jester bending the king’s ear?) from the stage at strip clubs."

"Unbelievably, he performed for, by definition, the worst audiences known to humankind. He ended up marrying a stripper named Bunny, and after endless battles for our right to fight, offend, and question, he died on his bathroom floor, naked and completely, fatally depressed."

"Now that is standing up for your art."

(via shaidle)

I guess "Elephant Balls"...

...was already taken...

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

*

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

...if you're a gun-toting sociopath... you can, uh... "acquire"... a camera, or anything else for that matter... any time you want.

**********

UPDATE: So far, so good...

Three people were injured in two shootings in Rexdale early Saturday morning, including one in which a 17-year-old girl was struck by a bullet fragment as she slept in her bed.

*

Trust me, Chantal...

...dry, flaking skin is the least of their problems...

The "Toronto 18" trio being held in solitary confinement have turned down offers to leave their cells for time in the Don Jail exercise yard.

The Toronto Sun has learned the three inmates were each offered yard time more than 100 times this year. They have only accepted offers to go outside a handful of times, a source familiar with the case, who spoke to the Sun on condition of anonymity, said.

That's certainly not the way the fuzzy-bunny left is spinning it...

Civil liberties groups claimed the men, who can't be identified because of a publication ban, have developed health problems from lack of sunlight.

Speakers from the Presumption of Innocence Project claimed the men were given such little time outside they had developed a vitamin D deficiency and their skin was flaking due to lack of sunlight.

Project spokesman Chantal Sundaram said yesterday that relatives maintain the men have not been given a chance to go outside since April.

When asked if the inmates have denied yard time, Sundaram was adamant they have not refused to leave their cells. "That's not happened," she said. "They haven't had the opportunity to deny it."

Hey, Chantal... maybe they should just apply for a transfer to Guantanamo... plenty of sunshine there.

*

Canada... land of endless opportunity

For absolutely anyone...

A fugitive sex offender was ordered extradited today accused of the brutal murder-rape of a California woman more than two decades ago.

But guess what... that's just part of the story.

In 1986, Su Go pleaded guilty to assaulting and attempting to rape another woman in Costa Mesa, Calif. While on $50,000 bail on that charge, Su Go, also known as Gerald Sugo and Gerald Su, fled to his native Philippines leaving an outstanding warrant in the U.S.

Turns out the Canadian government aided and abetted his escape.

In 1990, he applied for and was granted landed-immigrant status in Canada and moved to the GTA and five years later, became a Canadian citizen.

Unbelievable.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Wasn't there a Charles Ng who also played that game for over a decade? He was also a murderer and serial rapist."

*

Yakkity-Yak

Well, doesn't look like anybody made the big gaffe...

The stakes were high as the two rivals walked on stage. The polls gave Mr. Obama a modest lead and indicated he was viewed more favourably than his rival when it came to dealing with the economy. But the same surveys show Mr. McCain favoured by far on foreign policy.

And now that that one's in the can... everybody's looking forward to Round Two...

Sarah Palin is the anti-Obama: not a victim, not a poser, not riding a wave but rather swimming upstream — and most of all, not having run for president her entire life.

It'll be interesting to see what "amazing stories" her opponent will bring to the table.

I can't wait.

*

There's a picture...

...I can't get outta my head... uber-pollster Peter Donolo thrashing around helplessly as he bleeds from his ears.

-- OTTAWA -- The Liberals are projected to lose virtually all 45 tight ridings being tracked by the Strategic Counsel polling firm, according to new seat projections conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV.

The seat projections show the movement of seats from the Liberals to the Conservatives will come largely from B.C. and Ontario regions in the 519 and 905 area codes.

In the 20 Ontario ridings being tracked daily, the Conservatives are projected to win 17 and the NDP three.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: More brilliant socialist repartee...
Hey, Phillip... "first they came... for the idiots."

*

When will they ever learn?

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

*

Toronto Police Chief sacked...

...apparently replaced by Miss Manners...

"There are some young men who are exchanging gunfire, sometimes in very public places and putting a lot of people at risk, so naturally this is of concern to us."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Miss Manners wouldn't be so mealy-mouthed."

Damn... she's got me there.

*

Just doing their part

Tim Burns from Calgary, Canada writes: "Thank god for the Khadr family."

* Posted 26/09/08 at 11:18 AM EDT

[*]

Absolutely 100 percent, not guilty

FREE IGGY... so he can get out there and find the real mutineers...

“I am looking you in the eye and I am telling you a true statement,” he said from across a coffee table at a downtown hotel before heading to one of several engagements in his B.C. tour.

“I have absolutely no idea. Nobody associated with me. Nobody associated with my campaign."

"I think that people should shut up, get back to work and try and win this election.”

*

A Reader writes...

...this is the response my bro in Florida received when he tried to order a McCain/Palin T-shirt for me.

Dear GOP Trunk customer,

In the past few weeks, we have seen a large surge in orders since the nomination of the McCain-Palin ticket. We are working around the clock to fulfill the orders as quickly as possible and ask for your patience. Some items on your order may have been on backorder at the time of your transaction. Your orders will ship with all in-stock items and backordered items will follow at a later date.

We apologize for any inconvenience and, again, appreciate your patience. Thank you for your business and your support of John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Sincerely,

GOP Trunk
(877) 542-1426
customerservice@goptrunk.com
www.GOPTrunk.com

**********

WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

And look what "anonymous" comment mysteriously shows up here as well.
Yessiree... that CC is one class act.

And guess what?

It gets even better...
Kinda makes you wonder how "sjwalter" of Waterloo must feel... about having his name come up... even peripherally... in association with this sort of thing?

If it was me, I'd be more than a little upset.

But Mr. Walter's been strangely silent so far... well, except for corresponding with, yes... you guessed it... Canadian Cynic.

Seems the two of them have worked something out.

*

Ezra told me not to come

Want some whiskey in your water...
Sugar in your tea...
What's all these crazy questions...
They're askin me...
This is the craziest party...
That could ever be...
Don't turn on the lights...
Cause I don't wanna see

**********

RELATED: Canada's kangaroo courts...

...somebody oughta write a book.

You know, somebody close to the action... wait a minute...

"I just got back from a luncheon on the HRCs, with Alan Borovoy, Leo "I don't debate liars" Adler and David Matas, B'nai Brith's lawyer."

"Shorter Adler and Matas: as Mel Brooks says in Blazing Saddles: 'Holy underwear! We've got to protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen! Harrumph harrupm!!' PS: Holocaust. Zundel. Rwaanda. Zzzzzz."

"Borovoy was outstanding. He really 'gets' it. He is also about 120 years old, so he won't be around to 'get' it forever and help others understand. He got big rounds of spontaneous applause."

"Matas mentioned this new case and more or less said 'now that we're being sued we've changed our minds about this whole HRC thing. Gee, the HRC procedures are so weird -- they won't tell us who filed the complaint, etc.'"

"Well, welcome to Earth, Dave. Duh."

*

Hogtown... or Bogged Down Town

People sometimes ask me if I've ever regretted leaving Toronto... and moving out into the sticks...

Thousands of commuters poured out of subway tunnels and crowded onto sidewalks and streets yesterday after two separate incidents shut down the Toronto Transit Commission’s two main lines at the height of afternoon rush hour.

An electrical cable came down onto the track at Eglinton station on the Yonge Street line, shorting out signals and shutting down the subway line between Bloor and Lawrence stations.

Adding to the commuter confusion, TTC was also forced to close a large section of its east-west line after two men boarded a subway train with a knife soon after the Yonge Street line shut down.

Oh yeah... the answer would be "not even for a second."

*

And if you owned...

"...an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him."

"And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover'?"

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Katie Couric and Joe Biden? Wow, that's like dueling banjos of stupidity."

**********

RELATED: Democratic Congressman warns of pogrom

"If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," said Hastings.

"Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

"So, you just think this through."

*

Harper belts another one outta the park

“It's ‘I like it, I like it, give me more.' It's red hot. It's red meat, in Ontario and in B.C.,” he said.

Importantly for the Conservatives, the policy is appealing to Liberal voters, 61 per cent of whom said they would agree with toughening sentences for young offenders.

*

Spirits are said to be...

...especially buoyant at the XBOX "'Gears of War' Party" headquarters...

Austria makes history in the European Union on Sunday by becoming the first member of the 27-nation bloc to give 16-year-olds a voice in national elections.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Lowering the voting age gives them representation without taxation - and that is grossly unfair to the responsible people who pay the freight."

*

To paraphrase Willie Nelson...

"Mama... don't let yer babies grow up to be lawyers"

-- BRAMPTON, Ont. -- When it was pointed out his client appeared to be taking the ruling in stride, and even appeared to be smiling, Mr. Chernovsky said "he was probably happy that it's finally coming to an end."

**********

RELATED: From the "it could never happen here" file...

It ain't over 'til the fat lady gets shot in the throat.

*

I sure hope the Toronto Sun...

...has a separate fuse panel for their switchboard... because Peter Worthington just did it again... yeah, the simple truth...

Toronto -- Canada, in fact -- has had an effective ban on handguns since 1934, when mandatory registration was imposed and ownership made relatively strict and selective.

And for most of those 74 years of handgun registration, abuses were manageable, with indiscriminate and organized shootings relatively rare -- unlike today, when weddings, funerals, parties, nightclubs, and school functions have become dangerous.

Is it not valid to assess which elements of the city's population are using guns to settle disputes, or are using them as status symbols and causing unimaginable grief and misery to families whose kids are having their lives cut short or irreparably damaged due to being shot?

Do these people not deserve protection from the gunslingers?

The police know the tenderloin areas, the danger spots. They may even know, or think they know, individuals and gangs that do the shooting -- but are unable to act because, well, because that could be called "profiling" or discriminatory.

If the excessive use of guns is a disease in some cities, surely the disease needs to be diagnosed before a cure can be found. And a diagnosis will inevitable raise the question of drugs, territorial disputes, intimidation, revenge, ethnicity and cultural background.

Instituting a ban of handguns will change nothing. It is not even treating the symptom of the disease. As has been said before, banning guns because innocent people (and some not so innocent) are being shot, is like blaming pens and pencils for spelling mistakes that people make.

Okay, everybody get under their desks... this is gonna get ugly.

**********

RELATED: "If only there was some sort of law..."

-- TORONTO -- A man is facing multiple drugs and weapons charges after a brazen afternoon shooting in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Shots were fired at Yonge and Alexander Streets at around 5:30 p.m., at a time when people were heading home from work and school for the day.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Here's one for you, complicated for the left to understand, but one that will work."

"Less leftist cuddling criminals = less criminals."

**********

LAST WORD: Wake up... and smell the moonbats

*

And the sky grew darker...

...as the vultures began to discern the ugly smell of death...

“Liberals win elections when they have the edge with women voters,” said Peter Donolo, a pollster with the Strategic Counsel. “Right now, they're not enjoying that edge.”

“I think the No. 1, 2 and 3 answers are Stéphane Dion and his communication skills.”

*

You live in Woodbridge or Oshawa...

...chances are... you know someone who hunts...

"L4L (Woodbridge) leads this map of 2007 provincial hunting permits, with 24.2 residents per 1,000 having bought one last year."

"The fishing and camping maps showed that Oshawa and nearby towns lead the region in outdoor recreation, and the hunting map shows the same pattern. Three of the top six FSAs for hunting permits are in Oshawa (L1H, L1G, L1J)."

*

Well... except for Cherniak, I guess

“Not one, not a single serious Liberal is talking about Stéphane Dion becoming Prime Minister,” a long-time Liberal said. “This is not about beating Harper as PM."

"This is about living for another day.”

**********

RELATED: The socialists are eating their dead...

...and I just can't look away.

*

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

...you're gonna need something a little stronger than hope this time around...

In a statement, Mr. McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former president Bill Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.

The move put Mr. Obama in a bind.

Rejecting the idea would allow Mr. McCain alone to appear above politics, but agreeing to suspend campaigning and the debate could make Mr. Obama look like he's following Mr. McCain's lead.

**********

UPDATE: Obama thrashed and wriggled...

Obama initially dismissed the gesture as unnecessary. "It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once," he said at a late afternoon news conference called in response to McCain's appearance.

In the end, however, it seems he was unable to spit out the hook.

After Obama agreed later in the day to return to Washington today, spokesman Bill Burton said the Democrat has been working all week with congressional leaders and administration officials "to improve this proposal, and he has said that he will continue to work in a bipartisan spirit and do whatever is necessary to come up with a final solution."

*

Good ol' Iranian Cynic

Well, on the bright side... it's nice to know exactly where everybody stands...

Israeli officials are describing the speech by Iran's president at the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday as a notorious manifestation of anti-Semitism. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to "deceitful" Zionists who are manipulating Americans and Europeans and who control the world's financial system.

Officials here say it is reminiscent of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - an anti-Semitic book from the early 1900s that described a Jewish plot to take over the world.

Boy... that sounds so familiar.

*

Sure, let's increase the subsidies...

...for artists... the day after I no longer have to sit in a hospital emergency room... for seven and a half hours... with a sick fevered child in my lap.

**********

RELATED: Whaddaya mean... they already did it?

That amount is $660 million or 19.7 per cent more than was spent in fiscal 2006, the last year when the Liberals controlled the purse strings.

So this whole artist's protest is a sham?

Good grief.

*

From the people who brought you...

...lead-painted baby toys...

-- CALGARY -- China's tainted-milk scandal has made its way to Canadian supermarket shelves for the second time in as many days.

“This is a wakeup call for a lot of us,” said Rattana Sum, vice-president of Thai Indochine Trading Inc. of Markham, Ont.

Sure, Rattana, not to mention... "a death sentence"... for a whole lot of others.

*

A mystery revealed

Holy crap... I think I finally understand what the U.N. is actually all about.

-- PARIS -- They ate and drank their way through a three-hour strategy session recently to help their country face the daunting task before it: to persuade the United Nations to declare French gastronomy a world treasure.

"Genocide in Darfur? Yeah, yeah... we'll get to that next week."

*

Another big similarly...

...between Barack Obama and Stephane Dion... they both do better when tightly scripted...

“Mr. Layton already has a coalition, I understand. He has a coalition with the nudist party and a coalition with the marijuana party.”

Mr. Dion had been less direct in his answer yesterday when asked about Mr. Layton's comments.

Today, aides said, he came to the media scrum prepared with the answer he gave.

*

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

...pretty soon you're talkin' serious taxpayer-funded scratch...

-- TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY -- The installation of a new police building here has been delayed “until further notice,” after a group of band members set up a blockade Tuesday to protest its arrival.

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte officials were preparing to have a 4,635-square-foot building shipped from a Hamilton-area manufacturer this week and put together on a gravel pit on York Road, just west of Quinte Mohawk School.

But a group of about 50 people began squatting at the site Tuesday afternoon, vowing to block officials from entering to install a building they feel the community was not consulted about.

The band is contributing close to $980,000 toward its costs, with the final $900,000 coming from the provincial and federal government.

Another stunning victory for aboriginal freedom fighters.

**********

RELATED: Who's actually in charge here...

...Chief Peewee Herman?

The Brants went ahead and erected a building on the property.

Their business failed within one year and none of the $430,000 in loans was repaid.

*

Macleans magazine...

... reveals the horrifying truth...

You can almost smell the Guyanese jungle.

**********

UPDATE: Bad news for Macleans magazine...

...apparently folks are just too smart to swill the "socialist koolade."

An exclusive Nanos Research-Sun Media poll shows 30.4% of people surveyed think the Tories will honour their commitments -- more than double the 14.5% who think the Liberals will deliver and 14.1% who put their trust in the NDP.

*

Government officials...

...said to be considering a nationwide ban on "rebar"...

"Police have charged 63 former workers with murder."

**********

RELATED: A little closer to home...

...Toronto "lead-poisoning" update.

Police have named Darnell Grant, 31, shot down Monday night in the Driftwood area near Jane and Finch, as the city's latest shooting victim.

The post-mortem examination of Grant showed he died of a gunshot wound to the torso, the Toronto Police Service said Wednesday in a news release.

*

Have your say at G & M poll...

"Should courts be able to impose a life sentence on a 14-year-old convicted of murder?"

**********

POSTSCRIPT: But Mom... he followed me home... again

My nameless little troll just keeps screaming, "Look at me, look at me!"

It's so sad.

*

In the end, it all comes down...

...to one thing...

Getting soldiers, at least the male ones, to switch to digital camouflage wasn’t easy, Dr. O’Neill says, because for many men camouflage is less about invisibility than fashion.

Some soldiers hung on to the old-fashioned designs because of what Dr. O’Neill called the C.D.I. factor: Chicks Dig It.

Good grief... it's true.

We ARE idiots.

*

I know Dawg... I know

We're supposed to pretend none of this is happening.

-- TORONTO -- Police have arrested two men in the city’s latest Jane and Finch gun slaying. The victim was shot at Driftwood Court and Driftwood Ave around 9:16 p.m. last night.

This is the second murder in the area in less than a week. On Sept. 16, William Junior Appiah was gunned down in what police described as a targeted shooting while playing basketball at 4400 Jane St.

**********

RELATED: How about enacting a ban...

...on crazy people...

The head of the police investigation, Jari Neulaniemi, said: "In the note he said he hated mankind and the human race."

"And that he had been planning this since 2002."

*

Fewer feather boas... more David Sedaris

As someone who has never gone particularly out of their way to embrace the gay community, here's a thought I'd like to share with my homosexual brethren... and, uh... sisters... (there's very likely a grammatically appropriate word, which I can't think of right now).

This is, of course, just my own circumscribed "breeder" opinion... but if you're really interested in bridging the oft-yawning chasm between gay and straight society... I'm thinkin' you might be further ahead toning down the way-public naked-watergun party... and buying your non-gay neighbours and co-workers anything written by David Sedaris.

He's not everybody's cup of tea, but what he is... is all too recognisable... and virtually impossible to dislike.

“My hands tend to be full enough dealing with people who hate me for who I am.

Concentrate too hard on the millions of people who hate you for what you are and you're likely to turn into one of those unkempt, sloppy dressers who sag beneath the weight of the two hundred political buttons they wear pinned to their coats and knapsacks.”

I just finished reading "When you are engulfed in flames" and I was totally blown away.

But hey... don't take my word for it.

Sedaris's caustic gift has not deserted him in his fourth book, which mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood in North Carolina, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France.

Though his anarchic inclination to digress is his glory, Sedaris does have a theme in these reminiscences: the inability of humans to communicate.

The title is his rendition in transliterated English of how he and his fellow students of French in Paris mangle the Gallic language.

In the essay "Jesus Shaves," he and his classmates from many nations try to convey the concept of Easter to a Moroccan Muslim. "It is a party for the little boy of God," says one. "Then he be die one day on two... morsels of... lumber," says another.

And like everybody else... he's got family baggage...

Other essays explicate his deep kinship with his eccentric mom and absurd alienation from his IBM-exec dad: "To me, the greatest mystery of science continues to be that a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests."

Now... this is probably gonna elicit a whole lot of "look at the knuckle-draggin' hater" noise from uber-enlightened souls like CC and Dr Dawg... but I thought I'd put it out there.

Maybe affirming the similarities between our two worlds... rather than the differences... would go a ways toward mending broken fences.

And no... I'm not saying it's your fault, but if you want... it could be your move.

*

(p.s. -- gotta run some errands this a.m., remember... this is just one man's opinion and you can look to the sentiment behind the literal word. everybody try play nice in the comments 'til i get back)

QUICK LIKE A FUZZY-BUNNY!!!

Somebody has to rush over to Cherniak's house... and remove all medications and sharp objects...

“To know him, for most Canadians, is not to like him better,” said the Strategic Counsel's Peter Donolo, pollster for The Globe and Mail and CTV.

*

Leadership Debate: Question #3

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

*

Buckle up, baby

It's gonna be a wild ride!

-- NEW YORK -- Oil prices leaped more than $25 (U.S.) a barrel Monday — the biggest one-day price jump ever — as anxiety over the U.S. government's $700-billion bailout plan, a weak dollar and an expiring crude contract ignited a dramatic rally.

Phil Flynn, analyst and oil trader with Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said the late-session surge in oil appeared to be the result of a large investment fund scrambling to cover its short positions, or bets that prices would fall.

“When people sense that someone is short, it's like blood on the streets. It just accelerates the rally.”

*

More gnashing of teeth...

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

And behold... a star...

The only thing missing from the Globe's fawning article... are the three wise men.

There is but a single mention of a fly in the fiberal ointment...

A weak spot, however, is Liberal assumptions about how much extra cash there will be in federal coffers for pay for their plan over the next four years.

The party is basing their expectations of growth in government revenue on seven-month-old estimates in the Harper government's February budget.

Sure, Steffi... don't trust the scary, hidden Conservatives.

Except when you're constructing your own election-driven policy plank.

*

Sealing the Deal

A step in the right direction...

-- OTTAWA -- Conservative leader Stephen Harper promised to scrap Canada’s young offenders law and replace it with a tougher version under which youth who commit serious violent crimes will no longer be able to keep their names out of the news.

The new law would impose automatic, stiffer sentences for people 14 years of age or over who are convicted of serious violent crimes, such as murder or manslaughter. Upon conviction, the names of these individuals would be made public.

No more "free lunch" for teenage thugs.

It's a start.

*

Bringing down the house

Sounds like the slaughter in Islamabad... could have had much larger geo-political implications...

Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed venue at the last minute, officials say.

Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have been there.

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

Deja Vu... all over again

-- WHITE RIVER, ONT. -- A young man was stabbed Sunday as he slept aboard a Greyhound bus travelling through Northern Ontario, a second stabbing incident in as many months.

The victim, believed to be in his 20s, was stabbed by another young passenger near the town of White River, about 300 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., an unnamed passenger told The Canadian Press.

**********

ASK A GHOST:

"Yes, if only there was some blindingly obvious step we could all take when we see somebody being stabbed."

**********

LAST WORD: In Dalton McSlippery's Ontario...

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

A man who killed his wife and two children with a meat cleaver, believing them to be evil, has been declared not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.

Huc Minh Chau, with black hair unkempt, bowed his head and trembled in the prisoner's box as a judge pronounced him "not criminally responsible" for their near decapitations.

*

"He called in the spooks"

Can waterboarding be far behind?

Once again, with a little help from the Globe... Canadian Press unmasks the scary, tyrannical villain...

One of the messages suggests Mr. Harper's recognition of Kosovo's independence could lead to Quebec sovereignty.

And, of course, the guy who actually perpetrated the fraud... why, he's just a loveable prankster...

The "jokesters" would not necessarily have needed to hack into government computers to perform their stunt; all they would have required was the listserv's e-mail address.

Media bias... what media bias?!

Steve Janke takes a look at it from another angle.

*

Remember the good old days...

...when Steffi said the Liberal Party would not resort to negative campaigning?

Conservatives pointed to the online writings of Ms. Finch, the Liberal candidate in the riding of Dufferin-Caledon, on a site called metaball.ca, where she is listed as an editor.

In March 2008, the Tories allege, Ms. Finch compared Mr. Harper to Adolf Hitler.

“Let's start with the really nasty stuff, though, the stuff that conjures up comparisons to Hitler or Stalin,” reads a post on the metaball.ca website written by Ms. Finch.

“Let's talk about a damaged psychology, a malevolent personality disorder, and lessons that we, the discerning public who are ultimately affected by these characters, should have already learned.”

So Stephane... is this acceptable behaviour for a Liberal candidate... or not?

And no, my fuzzy-bunny friend... renaming your dog "Harper"... is not gonna make this one go away.

*

I suppose I should be flattered...

...that I have my own personal troll.

Not only that, he's apparently such a fan, he has even come to imitate (well, the purple is actually his idea) the very format I use when replying to comments. If he wasn't so obnoxious, it'd be kinda cute.
Of course, there's a pretty fine line between hero-worship and, well... let's just call it what it is... obsession...
See Nonny, if all you can think about on your 15 minute break down at the widget factory... is to get on the internet and leave smarmy typo-laden trolls hoping to get my attention... it might be time to, I dunno... get a hobby?

And yes... after all the references to Nazis and "poison gas"... I'm gonna continue to delete whatever silliness I please....
And...I guess "Eleanor Rigby" isn't just a song.

"Where do they all come from?"

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"If he wants to post about how much he loves Nazism, why doesn't he go post on CC's blog where he will be welcome, or on Dawg's where he will be excused?"

*

Getting soft on drugs

You know... the victimless crime.

-- EDMONTON -- With his young wife slain and his brother charged with murder, NDP candidate Mike Butler knows the issue of violent crime more intimately than many Canadians.

On April 7, 2007, Butler's life began to crumble when his father-in-law telephoned to let him know that Butler's wife, Stephanie, had been bludgeoned to death in their home.

Then the news got worse. His brother, Ken, who Butler said was once addicted to methamphetamine, was charged with the crime.

Just one question here, Mike... why are you running for the Dippers?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"It sounds like he is not holding his brother accountable for killing his wife. It was the drugs that did it."

"He must be out of his mind with grief."

And...

"It's being reported on the news here that the man with the knife was actually put on the bus by the police."

**********

RELATED: Maybe after Jack sorts out the Taliban...

...he can negotiate with these guys...

-- MONTREAL -- Over 450 marijuana plants were found on the property where a Quebec provincial police officer was shot during a drug raid Saturday.

Police say the plants where found with drug production material on a building annexed to the property in the town of Saint-Lin-Laurentides in Quebec's Lanaudiere region.

**********

LAST WORD: That Giant Flushing Noise

“The downward tide of leftism is “tolerant, diverse, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, egalitarian, politically correct, multicultural, globalist, and collectivist."

"It insists that there are no rights and wrongs, no moral absolutes. It turns everything upside down in its looking glass world."

"It denies the correctness of all that produced what our culture revered before the deconstruction of the world in accordance with the tenets of cultural Marxism.”

*

This sounds so familiar

Wasn't there something like this... in one of those bizarre David Suzuki commercials?

Emily Oster, an economist at the University of Chicago, has tried to gather systematic data on the link between witch trials and the weather.

The results look striking: Between 1520 and 1770, colder decades go hand-in-hand with more trials.

*

I guess it's true what they say...

Allah is in the details.

" -- ISLAMABAD -- The attack on the hotel is a message to the Pakistani leadership: End all co-operation with the Americans or pay the price."

**********

RELATED: Is cold-blooded murder really the answer?

The Marriott's owner, Sadruddin Hashwani, said he was heartbroken to see the loss of human life.

"Allah gave me all this and I am not disturbed at the material loss, but I am really disturbed over the loss of innocent people's lives," he said. "Most of the people inside the hotel were there to earn livelihoods for their families."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Time to make a choice

"We may have reached the proverbial tipping point. Many of the moderate Muslim faithful are getting tired of this shit."

"In the end the majority will rule."

*

Unlike his more popular...

...Easter-centric cousin... the "Gun-Bunny" tends to keep a low profile. So it was an especially pleasant surprise to cross paths with him earlier today.

By way of explanation... after a little bit of running around earlier this afternoon... I ended up over at my buddy Bob's place. Now, as it happens, Bob and Mrs. Bob... in a display of self-discipline I one day hope to possess... are paring down their worldly goods in anticipation of moving house. It was this process that rained such good fortune down on me, or more specifically, on my son and heir.

Anyway... Bob casually asks me... "You think Neophyte might have any use for an air-pistol?" He goes on to explain that it is a particularly well-made, rather robust shooter and that he has a scope for it as well.

I take a second to visualise my son hugging me and leaping into the air making triumphal noises... before accepting Bob's generous offer.

"Well, what about that other one?", asks Mrs. Bob. "If you pop off suddenly, I'm gonna be stuck with the damn thing."

Turns out she's referring to a lovely Mossberg .22 bolt-action rifle that Bob has just finished showing me. Now, I'm sorta flabbergasted to find out he's looking to get quit of that as well... but when I express a willingness to take it off his hands... Bob puts that into the goody bag too.

So I get home and as anticipated, Neophyte is one happy little trooper. He is, in fact, so thrilled... he gets Mrs N to take his picture with the rifle out on the porch. He then borrows a screwdriver set and carefully screws the scope onto the air pistol.

Anyway... I decided to look the rifle up on the internet... and I came up with this...

"My Dad was 14 years old when he made this particular purchase (Eek! A child with an unnumbered gun!). And where did he get it? From his pediatrician (Eek! Doctors with guns?!). The good doctor kept it in the office, and my Dad came in (alone), gave him the $25, and walked out of the office and back home through his neighborhood with his rifle over his shoulder (Eek! Children buying guns unsupervised, unrestricted, and unhampered!)."

"Now what would a 14-year-old boy want to do after buying a new rifle? Shoot it, of course! So his Mom (my Grandmother) drove him from their home in Arlington, Virginia down to the NRA headquarters at 16th and Rhode Island in Washington DC (Eek! Guns in DC?!), where they had a small range in the basement. She then went home."

"When he was done shooting (only after running out of .22 ammunition, I bet) my Dad needed to get home. So he slung his new rifle over his shoulder, walked outside (Eek! Carrying a gun in DC?!) and caught a city bus back to Arlington, and raised no eyebrows in the process."

"Just a kid taking his rifle home."

Ah, yes... the good old days.

And thank you, yet again, Saint Bob of Northumberland County.

You will not soon be forgotten hereabouts.

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile, back in TCOTU...

No word yet... on exactly which gun club is responsible for the latest carnage...

In another wave of gunfire in Toronto, four young men were being treated in hospitals last night after separate non-fatal shootings in North York. Ironically, the second wounding -- of a 23-year-old man's groin on Driftwood Court in the Jane St.-Finch Ave. area -- occurred around the time of a memorial for reputed drug dealer William Junior Appiah.

About five hours later and 1 km west, police had to order a group of youths away from Driftwood Court after the 23-year-old man was shot in the groin. Reported conscious and breathing, he was transported to a trauma hospital.

Shortly after that 9:40 p.m. shooting, two men with gunshot wounds arrived at the Finch branch of Humber River Regional Hospital. No details were available and officers two hours later were trying to determine where they were wounded, including a possible connection to the Driftwood gunfire.

Don't look at me Dawg... I've got an alibi.

**********

LAST WORD: Paging Mayor Miller...

Say, Yer Blondeness... what part of targeting farmers, hunters and recreational shooters... is gonna deal with repeat offenders like these two guys?

Two loaded pistols and cocaine were seized after two men were arrested in south Etobicoke, police say.

One of the suspects had been banned from having a firearm. The other suspect has a record of firearm offences following the August 2005 shooting of a man in the neck.

Maybe we can "double-ban" them, huh?

*

See Dick and Jane...

See Jane kick ass... and fracture the loony leftosphere...

"Which party do you think won the first two weeks of the federal election campaign?"

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Hey Neo, I clicked on your link to the results first. Then I decided to go to the globe site to vote and it said I had already voted, which I had not. You may actually be lowering the conservative tally with your link to the results page."

Oops... my bad.

Link fixed to point to main Globe webpage.

*

Globe "puff piece" canonises...

...Lucy Warman... totally skips over "abuse of process" issues...
And if that isn't skewed enough for you... here's the money quote...

“It's a little bit like counting the rats in the New York City sewers,” said Mr. Warman, a one-man crusade to eradicate racists and neo-Nazis from cyberspace. “You never know whether you are seeing the same rats or whether it is a new one that has stuck its head out the hole.”

Lots of emotionally loaded verbiage from Lucy... but no serious attempt at dealing with the huge "free speech" implications... or Warman's unsavoury tactics.

Unbelievable.

(h/t bcf)

**********

RELATED: Hey, Lucy... you missed one

**********

LAST WORD: Fakin' Makin takes a shit-kickin'

"Your feature on Mr. Warman didn't ask any of the hard questions that should have been asked. It is a puff piece, a whitewash: a modest contribution that adds little to the overall debate on this important issue."

And...

"This doesn't make sense. Kirk Makin has been reporting on court matters for years without, to my memory, committing anything this puerile to paper. Somebody's called in a favour (or held a gun to his head)."

And...

"Uh...you should have asked him how MANY others he is currently suing! A long list that includes notorious anti-Semites like the National Post and Ezra Levant."

"You were suckered, Mr. Makin."

*

Dave's not here, man

More madcap antics from the party of Cheech and Chow...

-- VANCOUVER -- The federal New Democrats have lost their second pro-marijuana B.C. candidate in a matter of days.

Vancouver-Quadra candidate Kirk Tousaw, a lawyer and former campaign director for the B.C. Marijuana Party, resigned Friday afternoon.

Online videos aired on Friday evening news broadcasts showed Tousaw smoking pot with marijuana activist Marc Emery.

**********

RELATED: In other "peecee" news...

"The question of how, exactly, a bunch of warring, pre-literate aboriginal hunter-gatherer societies can claim credit for the creation of a modern, democratic, capitalist, industrial powerhouse built entirely in a European image is one that, alas, I must leave for others."

I fear for my country.

*

Funny how the television networks...

...decided to constantly gloss over this part of the story...

Justice Lynn Ratushny describes Shawn Brant's actions in the dispute as those of a deceptive, self-serving man who played the role of victim and failed to take responsibility for himself.

And, in this instance, it's not just the wily white man that Brant is at war with. This time he gave his aboriginal brothers a royal screwin' over, too.

The long-running dispute between the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte community and the Brants involves a piece of land where the men started a cabinet-making business in 1992. They received $430,000 in loans from an aboriginal financing company and Industry Canada for the start-up. Despite the sizable loan, Shawn Brant scoffed at the $8,700 purchase price his father negotiated for the land and instead offered $1,500.

"With the benefit of hindsight, it is evident that his initial reaction of trying to get something for less or for nothing was a foreshadowing of what was to come," Judge Ratushny writes.

The band refused the offer and a deadline for the purchase passed without event.

But even that wasn't gonna stop this noble native entrepreneur.

The Brants went ahead and erected a building on the property. Their business failed within one year and none of the $430,000 in loans was repaid.

"At times during the last 16 years, therefore, the Brants have used the lands and building almost for free, for their own purposes," Judge Ratushny writes in her decision.

"They have used hundreds of thousands of dollars from lenders for their own purposes. Shawn Brant has purported to sell that which he never did purchase and knew he did not purchase and he has kept the sale monies, for his own use."

And he's still not in jail.

Amazing.

*

Say, Yer Blondness...

What say you start working on that NEW law to ban sociopathy?

A woman suffered slash wounds to the neck in an apparent random attack at a grocery store this afternoon, Toronto Police say.

The woman was heading to her car, parked in the Great Canadian Superstore parking lot at 51 Gerry Fitzgerald Dr., around 12:12 p.m. when she was approached by a stranger, Const. Tony Vella said.

"The male struck up a conversation with her asking for directions and while the women was giving directions he pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the neck," Vella said.

*

Somehow... "more than once"...

...just doesn't seem to quite cover it...

Watching the CTV news the other night and almost fell off my chair when the always politically-correct talking head casually remarked... "China has experienced this sort of thing... more than once."

It was a rapid expansion of a scandal that began with tainted baby formula at a single company and soon spread to 21 other producers. Thousands of frightened parents flooded into Chinese hospitals yesterday to seek medical tests for babies who had consumed the tainted products.

There was growing evidence that Chinese authorities knew of the scandal in early August but failed to announce it publicly for fear of embarrassment during the Beijing Games.

The government did not update its toll of children sickened by the milk powder, but on Wednesday it said more than 6,200 babies were ill, including 1,327 who were still in hospital and 158 with acute kidney failure.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

A senior dairy analyst said Chinese farmers were cutting corners to cope with rising costs for feed and labor.

"Before the melamine incident, I know they could have been adding organic stuff, say animal urine or skin," said Chen Lianfang of Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co. "Basically, anything that can boost the protein reading."

But he and others expressed skepticism that so many farmers would know to add melamine to milk. The chemical is not water-soluble and must be mixed with formaldehyde or another chemical before it can be dissolved in milk.

"Farmers can't be well-educated enough to think of melamine," Chen said. "There must be people from chemical companies contacting them and telling them it's a good idea."

*

Clearly Stephane Dion...

...hasn't fully considered all of the implications of his... "So what, if I'm an awkward, geeky, socially-isolated, egghead kinda guy" initiative.

That useful, productive, socially beneficial stuff... is way over-rated.

**********

UPDATE: That Steffi... what a kidder!

-- WINNIPEG -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said today that his Green Shift plan featuring a controversial carbon tax is not a major part of his election platform.

"You have said it was but never me," Dion told reporters.

His surprise declaration follows by a day campaign appearances in the Toronto area where he failed to mention it once in his speeches.

You can alsmost see the Toronto Star Editorial board start to bleed from their ears over... "Dion’s slight change in approach."

(h/t reader rich)

**********

LAST WORD: In other "shifty green" news...

"Unfortunately, just saying 'Green Collar Jobs' and clicking your heels together won’t buy groceries and pay the mortgage."

*

"Dear Lefties..."

"...all your heroes are scumbags..."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Castro, Sacco & Vanzetti, Alger Hiss, Michael Moore, Mumia, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, the Rosenbergs, Leonard Peltier, Angela Davis, Tom Hayden, Ward Churchill, Che..."

*

"Live and DON'T learn"

And die...

“Our soldiers are trained to take all appropriate steps to minimize civilian casualties. However, they must take action to protect themselves when they believe they are being threatened.”

**********

RELATED: He was "gentle", he was "fit"

Well then, we're obviously dealing with an unrepentant police "death squad", huh?

The family of a "gentle" Brampton man who died hours after being Tasered by Peel police are demanding answers.

Sean Reilly, 42, died Tuesday less than 12 hours after being shot with a stun gun during a struggle in a cell at a Peel Regional Police station. He had been arrested earlier "without incident" at a Mississauga home on a charge of assault with a weapon.

Yesterday, Reilly's family released a statement through their lawyer, Ian Smith, describing him as a non-violent man who was well-liked by all who knew him.

Well, you know... "everybody"... except the person who was assaulted and called 911.

*

Well... imagine my relief

It turns out he wasn't drinking after all...

The medical history of a former school bus driver charged with impaired driving was laid out in detail in court yesterday, as the defence tried to explain Jerry McNeill's erratic behaviour.

McNeill's psychiatrist, Dr. Leslie Kiraly, took the stand in a College Park court, and said his patient suffered from bipolar disorder, evident through bouts of depression, mild mood swings, and "hypomanic" episodes..

So why is this case even on anybody's radar?

He was pulled over by police after he picked up nearly 40 children from a water park in Toronto's east end and drove them down the Don Valley Parkway.

Good grief.

*

The good ol' days...

A team of Canadian researchers has unearthed the most ancient ice ever found in North America – 700,000-year-old wedges that didn't melt when the Earth was much balmier than it is today.

The scientists say their discovery means the permafrost that covers a quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere may not release its vast stores of carbon as quickly as some experts fear.

**********

RELATED: But not everyone is 'blinded by science'

"They called me foolish and laughed at my predictions. Yet even now, the Midwest is flooded, the ice caps are melting, and the cities are rocked with tremors, just as I foretold."

Yeah, yeah CC... we know.

**********

LAST WORD: What the doctor ordered

We have this Green Shift theory which sounds interesting, but what we don’t have at our finger-tips is the shapes of those curves I drew above.

We could easily make greenhouse gas output worse, we could have no effect at all. We could cause a depression, we could cause the worst outcome possible: stagflation.

Therefore, it seems it would be stupid to manipulate the Canadian economy so drastically at this time, that is, when one considers the peer reviewed Economic evidence.

Hmmmm... you'd think Prof. Steffi might have heard of the "Law of Unintended Consequences."

Apparently not.

*

Media bias? Whaddaya mean?

Apparently, according to CTV's Robert Fife on the Thursday night news... Stephen Harper doesn't just refute an argument - he...

"...firebombs their credibility."

No word yet, on whether he does this in concert with his "Conservative Warlords."

*

Dear Dr Dawg

This one's for you...

He is described as white, approximately 1.8 metres (6') tall and 84 kilograms (185 lbs) with a full beard and shoulder length grey hair. He wears glasses and was last seen wearing a brown or tan jacket.

Hey, Dawg... it even happened in a "trailer park."

That make you feel better?

**********

UPDATE: Oh-oh... the racist Toronto Star...

...just had to rain on Dr Dawg's parade...

The 23-year-old Humber College student died from a gunshot to the head fired by one of two men who walked up to his car Tuesday afternoon in Malton as he waited outside a Reindeer Dr. home for his girlfriend.

The men demanded drugs and cash he was carrying and Dhinsa was shot point-blank when he refused to deliver, a source said.

The portrait of a young man dead in a drug deal stood in stark contrast to the picture of an eager student without enemies painted by his grieving family.

**********

UPDATE2: Now... the racist Toronto Sun...

...is piling the injustice up higher and deeper...

A court order was issued today allowing for the identification of a 16-year-old Toronto boy for alleged shooting of a crony during the attempt robbery of another teen at a Scarborough high school Tuesday.

Jermaine Williams is wanted by Toronto Police for robbery while armed with a firearm and discharging a firearm, endangering life for the botched heist of another teen outside Bendale Business and Technical Institute on Midland Ave.

Quick... somebody fill his water dish and get the Dawg a bone!

**********

LAST WORD: Yeah, sure... more social workers...

That's been working out so well.

The Harper government's Tackling Violent Crime Act increases mandatory jail sentences to five years for gun use during an attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery or sexual assault, not to mention a reverse onus for the accused to show why they shouldn't be kept in jail waiting for trial.

*

The Puffin Papers

"In order to be a good liberal you have to believe... that there were no charities before welfare... that there was no art before federal funding... that taxes are too low - but ATM fees are too high... that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding... that there is no such thing as a "sovereign citizen" - in fact, there is no such thing as "inalienable rights," only permissions from government..."

Read it all.

**********

RELATED: Honestly... the dog ate my cerebral cortex

"The old line on imprudent debt went something like: If you owe the bank a thousand dollars, you have a problem; if you owe the bank a million dollars, the bank has a problem."

"We seem to have casually accepted the extension of the paradigm: If the bank loans you a million dollars, the bank has a problem. If the bank loans you a billion dollars, the US government has a problem."

*

Dead and gone

Here's a sobering statistic... as bad as things are in Hogtown... it's only about 1 percent of the victims that will fall, countrywide, to this killer...

"Colorectal cancer will claim about 50,000 lives this year in the U.S. and 8,500 in Canada."

**********

RELATED: Paging Mayor Miller

"Regulating law-abiding citizens will do nothing to stop these atrocities from happening. These crimes are clearly being carried out by thugs and criminals who have no respect for human life or the law."

"Focusing on the object, rather than the individual, has diverted scarce resources in the wrong direction."

*

Section 13

Barbara Kulaszka, a lawyer for Mr. Lemire, told the tribunal that the mainstream media paid no attention to unfairness of Section 13 complaints until Macleans magazine columnist Mark Steyn was targeted by a Muslim group earlier this year.

“Every religion is going to start using it,” she warned. “Just look at the first Muslim complaint in 30 years. Everyone went nuts. The media woke up, and said: ‘It isn't just Ernst Zundel and his creepy right-wingers being attacked. They are going to come after us.'

“You're going to be caught in the cross-hairs,” she cautioned.

**********

RELATED: A singular lack of trust...

...in his fellow Canadian citizens.

*

Instant Karma's gonna get you

Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin'
Join the human race

**********

RELATED: The Globe & Mail weighs in...
I'm not exactly sure who's supposed to be surprised here... certainly not anybody who knew this family.

Shssssh... don't wake the Dawg.

*

Hmmm... poisoning babies

How could you possibly make that any more reprehensible than it already is?

Critics have claimed the problem had been known of for weeks, but had been hushed up because China did not want bad publicity during the Olympics.

Shoddy and fake goods are common in China, and infants, hospital patients and others have been killed or injured by tainted or fake milk, medicines, liquor and other products.

Yup... that'll do it.

(h/t reader rich)

**********

RELATED: And the hits just keep on coming

Hong Kong authorities said Thursday they had found the industrial chemical melamine in drinks, ice creams and yoghurt from a Chinese firm involved in a deadly food safety scandal.

*

So, this week...

...I've been out back cutting wood. The bugs are down, the wind is blowing... the sun is shining.
I've come to think of it as "chainsaw therapy."

Anyway, this morning I'm sitting at the computer typing away and suddenly the volume on the radio in the kitchen goes way up.

Turns out some 55 year-old guy in Prince Edward County got himself killed when the top of a dead tree he was felling... suddenly and unexpectedly broke off and nailed him to the ground.

See, Mrs Neo is actually too polite to say... "And don't you die out there, dumbass!"

Not out loud, anyway.

But you know what? There are worse ways to go... like being tied to a bed in a chronic care facility for years... like my old man.

Life is good. Enjoy it while you can.

P.S. -- for anybody who is interested, that's a Stihl MS290 Farm Boss... and yes, I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

My previous saw, which I acquired before I knew anything about cutting wood, was a whiny little toy I bought at Crappy Tire... more suited to pruning hedges than actually biting into trees.

As always... you get what you pay for.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"That's sweet. A lot of women would have turned the radio down."

*

"You can't get tough on crime..."

"...without cracking down on criminals," Mr. Harper said.

"When we put down in the House of Commons tough-on-crime measures we ran on, they will go through."

Looks like "His Blondeness" however... is gonna go with noted crimebuster Lizzie-May...

"Well, so far the Green party has addressed city issues and I say, 'Good for them.'"

*

In other... cough, cough... "News"

Islamic holy warriors miss actual target... yet again... slaughter mostly Muslims...

Among the dead were six attackers and four bystanders, while the rest were Yemeni security forces. All the dead were Yemeni, with the exception one Indian woman who was walking past when the attack happened, the official added.

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

"So if you'd like..."

"...to turn your living room into the waiting room of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman or some sort of moon-bounce/opium den, JC Penney has you covered."

*

BREAKING METAPHOR ALERT!

The Liberal campaign's airplane was forced to make an unexpected landing in Montreal on Tuesday evening.

About 15 minutes after taking off from the small airport in Sherbrooke, Que., the plane's lights went out in the cabin, said CBC's James Fitz-Morris, who was aboard the plane.

"A few of us noticed that we never really got up to cruising altitude. The plane was quite low for the duration of the flight."

*

The Audacity of Specificity

-- MADISON, WI -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) fell deathly silent in the middle of a speech on education before the Wisconsin Teachers Union Tuesday, his failure of words reportedly a result of the Democratic nominee's forward-looking tendencies suddenly bringing him a harrowing glimpse of a future world shaped by madness and horror.

**********

WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

Yup, CC... like all the other scary, hidden Conservatives... I have no idea what the Onion actually is...

"Oh, God, no. They're sentient. Every last one of them is sentient!"

BOO!!!

*

What, what?!?!

BREAKING NEWS ALERT:

Next up: Us Weekly and company investigate Sarah Palin’s eyebrow waxing appointments, Todd Palin’s beard grooming preferences, and the children’s dental hygiene habits.

*

When France starts to step up...

...you know the tide is turning...

-- PARIS -- French commandos stormed a sailboat to free two French tourists who were being held for ransom by heavily-armed Somali pirates, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday.

One pirate was killed and six others taken prisoner in the pre-dawn assault by some 30 troops. The freed hostages and the captured pirates were put on a French navy vessel sailing towards Djibouti, where France has an army base.

“These are not isolated cases but a fully fledged criminal industry. This industry endangers our fundamental rights, freedom of movement and of international trade,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The world must not remain indifferent or passive."

"I call on other countries to take their responsibilities as France has done twice.”

Nicolas, my friend... well played.

**********

RELATED: And Canada... is on deck

-- DUBAI -- Al Jazeera television on Tuesday aired a video showing a Canadian and an Australian journalist kidnapped in Somalia last month, and said the pair were appealing to their governments to work for their release.

Canadian Amanda Lindhout, 27, Australian Nigel Brennan and Somali reporter Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, working as their translator, were seized on Aug. 23 by gunmen near Mogadishu.

*

Don't get me wrong...

...I'm all for Science... and Law and Order... but I think we're crossing a line here...

Authorities in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, are setting up a special DNA database of local dogs. They will use the data to match dogs' droppings to owners - and punish those who do not clean up after their pets.

**********

RELATED: While we're on "stoop & scoop"

A look back at the October, 2007, Vision Green document reveals just how much Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion borrowed from the Greens to come up with his carbon-tax plan, which he released in June.

Whereas the Greens promised a “Green tax shift,” Mr. Dion labelled his plan the “Green Shift.” Mr. Dion also repeatedly uses a version of a sentence that appears in the Green Party document: “The Green Party will reduce taxes on things we all want, like income and employment, and we will increase taxes on things we do not want - things that harm people and our environment.”

Mr. Dion has also copied the Green Party's plan to direct carbon-tax revenue toward measures aimed at reducing poverty.

*

All in the Family

Maybe Toronto isn't so terrible after all...

The Doghmush are widely feared in Gaza, with some elements said to have links with both criminal and extremist jihad activity.

One report said the 11 dead included two bystanders, one of them a young boy, one Hamas policeman and eight members of the Doghmush family.

Forty people were reported wounded.

**********

RELATED: "Just gimme some money..."

"...and we'll call it a wash."

"If Canadians will not support me now, I am compelled to join the Taliban and take revenge for my two innocent children," he told the Canadian Press.

**********

LAST WORD: The Dumb-pire Strikes Back
(via shaidle)

The solution here is so obvious...

...just blame it on Mike Harris...

Despite ample evidence that secrecy tends to compound safety problems, companies and local officials still appear determined to minimize or cover up problems in the food supply rather than alert the public.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Following suit, tonite on Duff Live (primetime) lefty-Lib loon Carolyn Bennett (a DR) was blaming... and I kid you not... today's shootings in TO on "Mike Harris cancelling homework programs".

See... it's easy.

*

Chaos reigned

"Chaos and madness reigned. Everybody ran, away from the shots."

Well... not exactly everybody.

**********

WELCOME, YET AGAIN, READERS OF CANADIAN CYNIC

Watch how CC attempts to skew the conversation, this time surprisingly, without actually throwing in the N-word...

=====>>

=====>>

Well, CC... that's so interesting. I sorta imagined you'd be the last person on earth to be an advocate of censorship.

Looks like I was wrong, huh?

Boy... I'm really looking forward to your outraged letter to the editor of that racist Globe and Mail.

Sooooo, anyway... what other things are people not allowed to talk about? You must have a list or something, right?

Hey... if you're not too busy ironing all your brown shirts... maybe you and Dawg had better stick with what you know and love.

**********

UPDATE: Hey, CC... impeccable timing...

...are we allowed to talk about this one?

Globe and Mail Update - September 16, 2008 at 1:52 PM EDT

An unidentified male is in serious condition in Sunnybrook hospital and police are hunting at least one gunman after a mid-morning shooting inside a Toronto high school.

Reports said he had been shot in the abdomen and that a second student had also been stabbed.

Police from Scarborough's 41 Division were manning a command post outside Bendale Business and Technical Institute, on Midland Avenue near Lawrence Avenue.

And, oops... wait a minute...

A shooting in the Malton area of Mississauga has left one man dead, in a day of gun violence.

The incident occurred before 4 p.m. on Reindeer Road, a residential area north of the intersection of Airport and Derry Roads, Patterson said.

I guess this one's off limits too, huh?

**********

UPDATE2: Holy crap... more gunplay in Hogtown...

A shooting at the playground area of an apartment building in the Jane and Finch area has left two people wounded, one with life-threatening injuries.

Toronto Police Service Const. Tony Vella told ctvtoronto.ca on Tuesday that the call came in about 5:12 p.m.

More racist news coverage... Dawg and CC are gonna be so pissed.

*

Fool you twice... shame on you

“You wave it. You don't read from it, you don't refer to it,” said the source about what the pollster told the national Liberal caucus."

“You wave it and say, ‘This is our plan, we have a plan, we've got the people, we can make a difference. ... I share your values, I share your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations…'.”

**********

RELATED: Going, going... GONE!!!

A Liberal news release said the ads draw "a clear contrast between the divisive partisanship of Stephen Harper and the progressive leadership of Stephane Dion."

Yet the Grit leader doesn't even get a mention.

"It would seem to me that if they're going to put an ad out questioning leadership styles, they shouldn't leave their own leader out," said Conservative campaign co-chairwoman Marjory LeBreton.

Steffi Who?

*

"It's a very dangerous game..."

"...for Iran, a Shia state, to be supplying Sunni extremists, like the Taleban."

Obviously though, as evidenced by their continued defiance on the nuclear fuel issue... dangerous games are still Iran's favourite hobby.

Among the Taleban, Iranian-made weapons are greatly sought after in the fight against the government of Hamid Karzai and the Nato and US-led forces deployed to support him.

They are considered to be reliable and particularly destructive. For example, an Iranian-made Kalashnikov rifle can be adapted to fire grenades. It costs $200-$300 more than one made in Pakistan, Russia or China.

Iranian-made weapons, one commander told me, had really improved the Taleban's ability to attack the American military deployed in his area. "There's a kind of mine called Dragon. Iran is sending it, we have got it," the Taleban commander said.

*

Given all that... I'm still thinkin'...

...you could do worse than the guy... with the Masters degree in Economics...

Unfortunately for politicians, despite their best or worst efforts, if this recession comes along when they’re in charge, they will get blamed, and it will be their fault.

Could Stephen Harper stop the subprime crisis? Clearly not. Could Stephen Harper stop the manufacturing sector from crashing due to high fuel prices and cheap labour overseas? Not in the slightest.

Could someone have stopped these things from happening? Possibly, but 6 months, 12 months down the line, something else would have happened, there is always the potential for something to happen.

**********

RELATED: Let's run these numbers...

Whaddaya figure it costs taxpayers to have stuff like this clogging up the judicial system for five years...

For years, the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino in Port Perry, Ont., had a simple policy when it came to cleaning the casino's bathrooms – male employees cleaned the men's rooms and female staff the women's.

That might have remained the case were it not for Joanne Seguin, a part-time washroom attendant who complained that the policy was discriminatory. Her complaint has turned into a five-year battle and so far she's winning.

Last year, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ordered the casino to give her back pay plus $10,000 for “loss of dignity.”

Another landmark Human Rights triumph for Dalton McSlippery's nanny-state Ontario.

*

Live long and prosper

"This might be a powerful motivator for many people to beneficially change their diet and lifestyle."

"Lifestyle can affect your telomeres."

*

Good ol' Canadian Cynic

You're fresh off attacking the "International Jewish Conspiracy"... what can you possibly do for an encore?

Of course... the Pope.

**********

UPDATE: A reader writes...

"That's nothing... how on earth did you miss this?
**********

RELATED: And what does race-warrior Dr Dawg say?

He's gonna stick with the venerable O.J. defense... "Free CC... so he can find the real racists."

**********

LAST WORD: Paging Dr Dawg...

Hey, dumbstick... better rally the troops... the racist Globe and Mail is at it again...

-- Kinshasa -- Accusations that a soccer player was using witchcraft during a local match in eastern Congo sparked a riot that killed 13 people, a UN-funded radio station reported Monday.

Most of the victims were between the ages of 11 and 16, Radio Okapi said. They were suffocated during the mayhem Sunday in Butembo in eastern Congo's North Kivu province.

*

"Heh. In his dreams."

"Y'know, politicians are in it for the money, but the Media are True Believers and thus much more dangerous."

"One should never leave themselves to the tender mercies of avuncular anchors."

*

Okay, Vancouver... listen up

"It's the tourists who mess things up. Yeah, hallucinogens tend to get dangerous when ingested while already on cocaine and a load of alcohol."

"But guess what? It says so on the package."

"The problem isn't the drugs, the problem are stupid tourists who think drugs are toys."

**********

RELATED: Ok, Jack... I'm starting to understand

"How about getting back to basics and enjoying some magical mushrooms with your loved ones this solstice?"

"What better gift can a family share than a little piece of love and enlightenment?"

*

A dirty job...

...but somebody's gotta do it...

No... not scrubbin' out the expresso machine... guess again...

Hey, wait a minute... isn't that...

EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!.

*

Damn... that sounds so familiar

I must have seen it on TV... or something.

-- MELBOURNE -- A jury Monday convicted a Muslim cleric and five of his followers of forming a terrorist group in Australia that allegedly considered assassinating the prime minister and attacking major sporting events.

*

You think disco sucked?

Check out the new, "improved" Sitemeter.

Now... if the purpose of this little makeover was to convert users of the "free" product to paying subscribers... the Sitemeter people just shot themselves in the face.

I got a brief peek at the new interface before somebody hit the kill switch and it was a real stinkeroo. Their mistake, I think, was to pull some of the functionality from the gratis version... to nudge people towards a pay subscription.

The fact that there were all kinds of technical issues was just the rancid icing on the rotten cake.

Poor planning... worse execution.

I bet the people at Statcounter are tap-dancing on their desks.

**********

UPDATE: Sunday 23:55 - it's still duffed

Looks like there may be a few "technical issues" with stuffing the genie back into the bottle.

Hey, buddy.... you think we're so evil...

...I bet... without too much effort... we could pony up a pair of first-class plane tickets to Morocco... and solve all your problems...

The father of the child brought him to hospital on Sunday morning and was joined by Ms. Caines. Yet the couple once again refused to hand over the baby, leading to a two-hour standoff with police and doctors.

The standoff ended with the parents' arrest, but not before the man believed to be the father of the baby made cryptic remarks suggesting racist officials had overreacted.

“His eyes are bright,” the man said of the baby, in an interview with CITY-TV.

He added that hospital officials reacted as they did because they believed the couple was Jamaican.

But he said they were in fact “indigenous Moorish Americans” with "divine traits."

Globe and Mail reporter Colin Freeze apparently had no trouble choosing sides...

Around noon, the mother used her mobile phone to text her spiritual leader. “They have ETF here,” reads the message that still remains on Mr. Suk Tekh El's cellphone.

While negotiators with the "armour police squad" known as the Emergency Task Force were called in, the matter was resolved peacefully, albeit with the arrest of the parents.

Yup... good thing ol' Colin was able to point out the real bad guys here.

Good grief.

**********

RELATED: "Code Red... paging Dr Lithium..."

The question was asked to Minister Louis Bey the founder of TNOMA.

What is TNOMA?
He responded by saying, "TNOMA is the acronyms for The Nation Of Moorish-American."

It was asked. Why is there a need for TNOMA in the United States Of America?
"The Moorish people set up the United States of America. For North America belongs to the king of Morocco."

If this is so, why there is no Muslim senator, nor congressperson, nor president in America.
"The first president was a Muslim by the name of Yahya Hasoan, who is known as John Hanson, but we will not discuss him."

"TNOMA is not about being Black."

Nor, apparently... being sane.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The good news is, wacky cults like this tend to be self-defeating. The bad news is, sometimes they take innocent people, in this case children, with them."

**********

LAST WORD: The Cheech and Chong...

...of Canadian newspapers enters the fray...

The local "spiritual leader" for the Moorish "Science Temple" of America, a small sect with members in Canada and the U.S., stood outside the station to offer support to the parents, and said the group preferred holistic medicines over conventional treatment.

You're actually gonna try defend this kooky, unconscionable cult?

Seriously?

*

“The Liberals must find a way..."

"...to improve his appeal or make clear that they offer an appealing team of capable and experienced people."

"But there is no doubt that as of now, Mr. Dion's image is the single biggest obstacle the Liberals face.”

**********

RELATED: It looks like Iggy might be...

...made of sterner stuff...

"So I'm sitting here writing my next FrontPage article when I hear a loud knock at the door. I get Arnie in case it is some crazy, I dunno, Amish person out to kill me. Turns out it's a Liberal guy with a flyer."

"No thanks, we're voting Conservative..."

"Well," the young guy says, "I just happen to have Michael Ignatieff right here."

"Would you like to talk to him?"

*

Obviously, with the opening...

...of the six hip new Virunga Park Starbucks... things are gonna change...

The exact population status of the elusive species is unknown, largely because access to its natural habitat is limited by poor infrastructure and the presence of armed groups.

*

Leadership Debate: Question #2

"So, Mr. Layton... who exactly, were you thinking of negotiating with?"

As if Afghanistan didn't have enough problems, the Taliban have spawned yet another: an epidemic of ransom kidnappings. Such crimes used to be rare, and the perpetrators were usually common thugs who stuck close to Kabul. That's changed in the last couple of years, as the Taliban learned to abduct foreigners and Afghan business people instead of killing them.

Since then, kidnapping has become one of the guerrillas' main revenue sources, second only to facilitating and protecting the country's $4 billion-a-year narcotics trade.

**********

UPDATE: The capricious and unknowable...

..."Will of Allah."

Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide car bomb attack has killed two Afghan doctors working for the United Nations.

The two doctors worked for the United Nations World Health Organization and were traveling to Spin Boldak to vaccinate people against polio.

*

Ugly?

You mainlanders don't know nuthin' about ugly.

"Premier Williams didn't like the last government. He doesn't like this government. And I don't think he'll like the next government, whoever that would be."

**********

UPDATE: "Lard Tunderin' byes... she's run aground!!!"

"My father-in-law has been involved in municipal and provincial politics in NL for over 20 years and he has told me many times that businesses and political volunteers (of all colours) are constantly threatened by Danny and his crew."

"It's been this way since Danny captured a majority, and it is fairly common knowledge that PC coercion was responsible in part for the party sweep in the last provincial election."

"Yes, Williams does wield that much power. I assure you, Lance, that Mr. Fife's report is accurate and no stretch of the truth whatsoever."

*

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Stephane Dion apparently suddenly locates missing testicles...
"You go girl!"

*

From the folks who brought you...

...lead-painted baby toys.

-- BEIJING -- China on Friday vowed to punish those responsible for contaminating baby milk powder that has killed one infant and sickened dozens, as it emerged the producer knew about the problem a month ago.

Media reports said dairy farmers were suspected of lacing milk used in the Sanlu brand formula with melamine, an industrial chemical which can cause kidney stones, to boost its protein content.

Melamine, a chemical used in making plastics, glues and other products, was at the centre of a U.S. recall of pet foods containing Chinese-made additives last year.

Now, I know what you're thinking... "This has to be some sort of sociopathic criminal gang at the fringes of Chinese society."

Well... guess again.

The group is a leading state-owned dairy company based in northern China's Hebei province that had plans to list on the Shanghai stock exchange this year.

The company's public relations office did not answer phone calls on Friday, while no notices about a recall or apologies were posted on its website.

*

Well, I'm stumped

Maybe Dr Dawg... or one of his compassionate, progressive comrades... can explain to me, how a mother can starve her own child to death...

Somewhere in this city a nine-month-old baby is dying.

The boy is about half the weight of a typical nine-month-old baby and only a few pounds heavier than an average newborn. The two may be travelling in a late 90s model, red, two-door, Acura, police said.

**********

UPDATE: There's another child in the mix...

A young woman who fled a Toronto hospital with her severely malnourished baby has another young child police are worried about.

And it appears, the oft-vaunted "community solidarity" is a factor here...

Caines was with a friend, who hasn't provided police with a lot of information, Leone said. It's unknown if her other son was with them at the time.

It's unknown where she resides, as she only lives with her family "at times," and it appears her and the father of her children aren't together, Leone said.

So... a baby is starving to death, and nobody... neighbours... or even the woman's family... has the sense, or decency to speak up?

Nice.

**********

WELCOME ST. STOOGELEFT & SIDEKICK DR DAWG

The Katzenjammer Kids of the demented leftosphere claim to be baffled by this post. For once, apparently, they're not gonna try blame a random newsworthy event on that "evil Stephen Harper."

But that's okay... Deputy Dawg can always play the "race card."

"Neo is a racist. He enjoys posting an on-going rogue’s gallery of mean-looking Black folks to make a point–he’s been doing this for years."

Hey, Dawg... that's a pretty rich accusation... from someone who's totally on board with this hater.

And seriously... you really figure pulling a Tawana Brawley... is a tactical master-stroke? Did Stooge help you out here... or did you come up with this all on your lonesome?

And looky here... in all the excitement... you seem to have forgotten the perennial cry of the leftbot loon... "More social workers... more social workers."

Well, buddy... you just knock yourself out.

P.S., Dawg... is there anything else we're not allowed to talk about?

*

More innovative social policy...

...from the oft-celebrated "Religion of Peace."

The most senior judge in Saudi Arabia has said it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV channels which broadcast immoral programmes.

He was speaking in response to a listener who asked his opinion on the airing of programmes featuring scantily-dressed women during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

So it looks like we're down to... "Kill 'em all... let Allah sort 'em out."

"There is no doubt that these programmes are a great evil, and the owners of these channels are as guilty as those who watch them," said the sheikh.

"It is legitimate to kill those who call for corruption if their evil can not be stopped by other penalties."

Given his position as the country's most senior judge, the sheikh's views can not be easily dismissed, says BBC Arab affairs analyst, Magdi Abdelhadi.

C'mon you sleepyheads...

Wake up and smell the Liberals...

MONTREAL — The RCMP has struck an immunity deal with disgraced adman Jean Brault in exchange for information on other players in the sponsorship scandal, notably money man Jacques Corriveau, court records show.

Mr. Corriveau frequently asked for money on behalf of the Liberal Party, according to Mr. Brault, the document said.

“Corriveau told him: ‘It doesn't go in my pockets, it goes to our cause,'” the document said.

Mr. Brault told the RCMP that in order to get the money, Mr. Corriveau submitted “fake invoices … for services not rendered.”

*

Re: The "Hope is not a strategy" deal

Alright... did somebody forget to send Stephane the memo?

-- Burnaby, B.C. -- At an overcrowded town hall meeting later Friday, the so-called Green Shift program took centre stage.

"Aren't we going to take an unfair double hit?" asked one concerned resident.

Dion responded that "he would seek" to find a solution.

*

"Q: What’s the difference..."

"...between Dr Juan Cole and a pitbull?"

-- A: You don’t generally point and laugh at a pitbull.

**********

RELATED: If it was a setup...

"...Obama fell right into the trap."

*

CTV proving yet again...

...they know jack-shit about life... outside of the centre of the universe.

"So, you like handcuffs?"

Who says Stephen Harper doesn't have a sense of humour?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Q - 'Who says Stephen Harper doesn't have a sense of humour?'"

"A - The media that wanted to portray him as cold and calculated."

*

The New Entrepreneurs

In these tough economic times... you've just gotta "think outside of the box"...

A Brampton man has been given a six-year prison sentence for subjecting a college student to what a judge described as a terrifying "night of torture."

Roman Stehniy, 36, led the nightmarish persecution of a bound Milin Janic, 26, in the basement of his home for more than five hours – cutting off a baby toe, striking him with a baseball bat and threatening to set fire to him.

**********

RELATED: In other Brampton business news...

Four men have been arrested after a 58-year-old Mississauga man was abducted and held at ransom in a horrific three-day ordeal.

The victim's family received several threatening phone calls after the man failed to come home Monday evening. The kidnappers demanded money in exchange for his safe return.

Guramrit Sidhu, 45, of Mississauga, Tarinder Saggi, 32, of Markham, and Manpreet Padda, 25, and Balbir Thind, 45, both of Brampton, are all charged with kidnapping.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Quoth the Toronto "Red" Star...

"The facts of this case are that you carried out a night of torture purely for commercial gain."

I guess if it was torture 'just for fun' that he would have only got 3 years.

Sigh.

*

So Dawg... I've just gotta know

It looks like the mask has finally totally slipped... he's decided it's time to go after the Jews.

Anyway... how do you like your pal Canadian Cynic now?
And to no one's surprise, obsequious little uber-troll Ti-Guy is there to back the hoary, old... "Jews secretly rule the World"... play.

Don't worry Ti-Guy... the Cynic has all sorts of undesirables on his list. He knows what to do with "these people."

You might, in fact, call it CC's "solution."

Well... that certainly seems a little harsh... but considering the Cynic's usual foul, misogynistic stew... not especially surprising.

In fact, you've just gotta love how adroitly CC plays both sides of the Nazi equation... like when he goes after the administrator of the Blogging Tories.

Incredibly, none of this seems to bother ol' Dawg...the truth is, he's more than a bit of a CC cheerleader.

And that puts the allegedly compassionate, progressive Dawg and me on opposite sides of the rusty, ideological chainlink fence.

For which I am forever grateful.

**********

RELATED: Kateland has a question for the Dawg

Like the Jews, Dr. Dawg?

"If CC is to be believed, Stephen Harper is now the tool, bought and paid for, by a Jewish organization."

"An old libel for a new political age."

**********

LAST WORD: A rose by any other name...

"It's old news that anti-semitism's new home is to be found among todays laughably self-labelled "Progressive" community."

"It bubbles just below the surface among the pseudo-left in Canada, generally masked by the use of code words such as 'anti-zionist'."

**********

UPDATE: The Dawg barks back

"If you don't like some of my friends, I loathe some of yours."

Yeah, Dawg... we can see that.

You and CC both.

Shalom.

*

Learning disability, huh?

Well, he's obviously not the only one with a problem.

-- OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has restored a Nova Scotia youth's acquittal in a dangerous driving case because he likely did not understand what he was doing when he waived his right to have counsel and remain silent.

On a videotape watched by the Supreme Court bench, L.T.H. repeatedly said that he understood each right, and that he declined to exercise it.

He even signed a document to that effect.

Sorry... not good enough.

This is Canada.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"You mean he's pleading 'public education'?"

**********

RELATED: And justice for none...

-- GUELPH -- A Guelph woman who admitted killing her two sons was acquitted of two counts of murder yesterday, prompting an angry outburst from one victim's father and tears of relief from the other.

*

Leadership Debate: Question #1

"Ahem... so Ms. May... is it really official Green Party Policy to 'spit on our troops'?"

***

Green Party "Shake & Bake" MP vows to continue noble fight against Canada's... "role as an aggressor"... in Afghanistan.
(read it all at unambig)

The NDP Smorgasbord

They've got it all... from soup... to nuts....
You remember Elmo, right?

*

The perfect day...

...to hork a loogie in Iran's cornflakes...

The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian shipping company and 18 of its affiliates over its alleged support for Tehran's nuclear programme.

Last month, the European Union approved new measures against Tehran after it missed a deadline to respond to a proposal from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to suspend uranium enrichment.

*

"The repercussions of the attack...

"...swiftly spread across the nation."

"Hey, Osama... f@ck you... and the jihad you rode in on."

**********

LAST WORD: Lest We, uh... Remember

"The Canadian blogs really intrigued me. Those of us on the right: Shaidle, Dust My Broom, Blazing Cat Fur, Small Dead Animals and more all had tributes to those who died that day."

"The blogs of the left: Scott Tribe, Canadian Cynic, Dr. Dawg and Warren Kinsella all write entirely about the Canadian election and why Stephen Harper is eeeevil."

"Kinsella even adds a very important post about his band’s party tonight - September 11th."

And, of course, there's this.

(via shaidle)

Down the rabbit hole... yet again

British Columbia streamlines its justice system... by taking punishment out of the loop...

Located in a former remand centre in the Downtown Eastside, the court, which is still under construction, has teams of social workers, drug counsellors and other experts standing by in triage teams. The idea is to provide immediate support to offenders who want to change their lives and get out of the criminal justice system.

The community court is designed to hear cases involving minor crimes committed in the downtown area, such as theft ranging from auto and shoplifting, mischief, assault and drug possession.

Steal a car... beat someone down... no problem.

In Lotusland... they know it's not your fault.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"So I guess if I ever see Gordo Campbell in the downtown core, the first kick is deductible?"

**********

RELATED: Dalton McSlippery has his own version...

...of the "catch and release" initiative...

A little digging and you'll find that not only did the man known as Tizzy spend time incarcerated for an armed robbery, but he was also hit by the court with a 10-year prohibition on possessing a firearm.

He is on probation for that robbery and was on his own recognizance after being charged in April with drug offences.

In other words, the system had him -- and the system set him free.

He allegedly, you are probably not surprised to hear, didn't seem to follow the court's declarations. Now police allege that he, along with Tristan Francis, 20, who was also on bail for a robbery, was involved in the fatal shooting of Masih.

And, wait a minute, I hear something...

-- TORONTO -- An 18-year-old Toronto man is to appear in court Thursday on a second-degree murder charge after the shooting death of a man at a bus stop earlier this week.

Damion Sinclair was charged Wednesday afternoon, Toronto police said.

He was already in police custody at the time of his arrest because he had originally been picked up for unrelated drug and weapons charges, police say.

It's a Liberal thing.

*

SAFETY BREAK!!!

Nobody works... nobody gets hurt...

Government sources confirmed Wednesday the decision not to recall the legislature until February, when Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberals will introduce a throne speech followed by the provincial budget.

Liberal house leader Mike de Jong said there is no need for an additional session to deal with any extraordinary legislation, even though the Liberals are under attack over their controversial carbon tax.

*

I remember it well

My father bought a Honda Civic the first year they were available in Canada.

A pretty bold departure for a guy who had... with the exception of a lone Chevy Belair... been an unswerving devotee of British-Leyland.

This blurb in the Globe brought it all back.

The Honda Civic was introduced in 1973 as a car for the masses, targeted to meet the needs of a global market. More than 16 million units later, the Civic is still going strong, produced today in 11 countries and sold in 160 nations and regions worldwide.

I learned to drive stick in that little brown bomb, before graduating to a series of motorcycles... all of them, incidentally... also Japanese made.

A few years later I ended up buying one myself... and it was a solid, reliable choice.

If only North American vehicles had been as well made.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I got mine in Van for 10000 even - fast forward 17 years, 375000 klicks, same carb, starter, alternator, no major problems other than brakes, mufflers things that just plumb wore out - I got 1000 cash for it when it was time to replace it."

That's what I'm talkin' about.

*

The first thing we do...

...is take the legally-registered firearms away from perfectly law-abiding citizens... and that should stop all the homicidal thugs... HEY... wait a minute...

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he's had enough of the violence and agreed with Miller by saying that no one should be able to possess a gun unless they are a police officer.

McGuinty said that a handgun ban would help distinguish Canada from the so-called gun culture south of the border.

"I think we should aspire to be a handgun-free society."

**********

RELATED: If McSlippery actually got a ban...

...he'd end up crapping himself...

Sure a ban won’t make any difference. The gangs won’t care in the slightest.

But then at least Mayor Miller and Mr. Dion and Premier McGuinty can stop falling back on the same tired old demand, and concentrate on programs that might actually do some good.

*

Hey, boys and girls...

-- "Meet the Khadrs." -- Well... the ones that aren't dead... or in jail.

"Our father was killed, two of us have been shot in the back, four of us have been captured, two have been tortured."

"But still we stand."

**********

RELATED: Slow news day at the Globe

"I've got an idea... let's ask Al-Jazeera..."
Yeah... not like that seething, raging hotbed of democracy... the Middle East.

I'm not sure...

...that telling the Taliban how long they have to hang on for... is such a good idea...

The statement is a change for Mr. Harper, who had acknowledged in April that it was possible down the road that Canada's NATO allies might ask Ottawa to extend its Afghan commitment beyond 2011.

**********

RELATED: Speaking of "surprises"...

...looks like Lizzie-May's gonna get a seat at the table.

The political path has been cleared for Elizabeth May to participate in the televised leaders debates after first NDP Leader Jack Layton and minutes later Conservative Leader Stephen Harper withdrew threats to boycott.

This decision will actually split the vote on the left... so I'm not sure why the Liberals are celebrating here...

Liberal Senator Jim Munson said the announcements showed his party had been correct to accept the Green presence.

“Let the record show we were on the side of the angels.”

*

Pakistani government-in-waiting...

...goes with "Sergeant Shultz" defense...

Tribal leaders with links to militant groups say the four Arab men known as Abu Qasim, Abu Musa, Abu Hamza and Abu Haris were killed near a home and seminary of a Taliban militant leader with ties to al-Qaida.

U.S. officials have not confirmed carrying out the alleged missile strike and the Pakistani military continues to refer to the incident as "explosions" from unknown causes.

Hey... they can call it "Mr. Golden Sunshine" for all anyone here cares.

The proof is in the DNA pudding.

*

Just give 'em enough Mallick...

...to hang themselves...

A subtle, pervasive leftwing tilt in news coverage is one thing -- CBC viewers and listeners are used to that. But over-the-top, hateful anti-American speech, coming on top of Neil Macdonald's disgraceful spouting of debunked Sarah Palin conspiracy theories on The National last week, is another.

Why, exactly, should Canadians be paying $1-billion for agitprop they can get from DailyKos.com or Rabble.ca?

Of course, Mallick should be at liberty to spout such nonsense: All speech -- including hate speech -- should be free.

But Canadian taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize it.

**********

UPDATE: Go ahead... shove another foot in there

"I called Palin 'white trash' (why? because she is white and she is trash, and she thinks raped incest victims should bear their dad's baby, don't get me started ...)"

Oh, Heather... you're way past "started."

**********

UPDATE2: Dems decide to go with vagina politics

South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

**********

RELATED: And St Barry's halo... starts to slip

Later in the day, Obama used a variation of the lipstick line, though he was clearly talking about the McCain-Palin reform rhetoric.

‘You can put lipstick on a pig,’ he said. ‘It’s still a pig.’”

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Yes, he was too-clever by half and tried to use a rhetorical flourish to get his crowd going."

"Of course, there are other rhetorical phrases, as well."

"What are the chances that anyone will ever say that Obama is just "one of the boys" for instance..."

*

It's all over kiddies

Today's the day they turn on the Large Hadron Collider...

In a small black hole—like the one predicted by the LHC doomsayers—this dissolution would occur almost immediately.

In fact, for all but the largest black holes, dissolution would happen before a person even crossed the event horizon, and it would take place in a matter of billionths of a second.

Kaboom!

**********

RELATED: Looks like we get to live after all

And it wasn't just black holes they were worried about...

Mr Myers has experience of the latter problem. While working on the LHC's predecessor, a machine called the Large-Electron Positron Collider, engineers found two beer bottles wedged into the beam pipe - a deliberate, one-off act of sabotage.

The culprits - who were drinking a particular brand that advertising once claimed would "refresh the parts other beers cannot reach" - were never found.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Humourless, robotic... and yet testy

"FFS, learn to read science. Like Brian Cox said (paraphrased), 'Everyone who believes the LHC will create a black hole is a twat'."

Well, there's some insightful commentary.

Lemme guess... just another big fan of Canadian Cynic.

*

Some gaffe, huh?

Before the Democratic National Convention in late August, Mr. Obama held an 8 percentage point lead among white women voters – 50 per cent to 42 per cent – but after the Republican convention earlier this month, Mr. McCain was ahead by 12 points among white women, 53 per cent to 41 per cent, the poll found.

“Yes, it's about Sarah Palin, but not just putting her on the ticket,” said Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“It's about what the choice of Sarah Palin did for McCain's image.

*

Dion demands immediate ban...

...on every last gold-coloured Lexus in Ontario...

A man was shot and dumped out of a moving car in a brazen act of violence on Hwy. 401 near Keele this afternoon.

Initial reports say the man was leaning out of the eastbound Lexus when he was shot in the neck and pushed out of the vehicle around 2:44 p.m.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

And we're not done just yet

A North York woman is the city's 48th homicide of the year after being found dead in a Finch Ave. W.-Weston Rd. area apartment building.

Toronto EMS officials confirmed they responded to a call where a women in her 20s was found with obvious signs of trauma. She had no vital signs when paramedics arrived.

Early reports indicate the victim had been stabbed.

And when it rains... it pours

An area resident called police just before 4 p.m. after finding the body in a wooded area in front of a townhouse complex at 2585 Jane St, south of Sheppard Ave. W.

Based on the decomposed condition of the body, believed to be that of an adult male, police say it has been there for more than a week.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Only 48 murders? You guys are just like the Leafs... almost rans."

**********

LAST WORD: Reading, writing and penetrating trauma

A 16-year-old was rushed to hospital after a vicious attack at a Don Mills school this afternoon.

The victim was hit on the head with a hammer and slashed on the back around 12:30 p.m. at George S. Henry Academy, according to Toronto Police. The attack took place on school grounds, in front of the main building.

*

The "Sporty Spice"...

...of Canadian politics...

Big City Liberal returns fire

Scratch a Liberal... find a Rainman.

Ask a Big City Liberal

Like his pal in hippie-tude, the infamous butt-sniffer Dr Dawg... and fearless, er... clueless leader Steffi D... BigCityLiberal thinks taking perfectly legal firearms away from law-abiding citizens... is the answer to all our recent "bodies in the streets" issues.

Well... it's certainly easier than trying to deal with the various factions in the GTA who are using smuggled, illegal weapons to conduct a bloody insurgency against each other.

-- TORONTO -- "We're appealing for members of the community to come forward," Det-Sgt. Peter Moreira said.

"It happened in the middle of the day and there's lots of people around. We're confident a great number of people saw what happened." But even the youths who charged past the police tape refused to speak with officers.

The area has become increasingly violent over the past few years, with gunfire becoming more and more frequent, area residents said.

Just over a month ago, during Jamaica Day celebrations, Dominic Shearer-Hanomansingh was shot in the head outside an apartment building a block down the street.

But, we're not allowed to talk about that... are we guys? Especially not about that "refusing to talk to cops" thing. Because that'd be racism.

Nothing to see here folks... move along.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Far too many criminals have been given far too many second chances."

"What the hell do "progressives" think would happen? That a thug will turn into a Mohandas Gandhi after his 30th conviction or something?"

And...

"If poverty caused violence, why isn't Newfoundland, Cape Breton or Northern Ontario a war zone?"

**********

UPDATE: From Dr Dawg's cold, dead hands...

"I'm with Stephen Harper on this one."
Well, perhaps this Dawg will hunt after all.

**********

UPDATE2: Dr Dawg clarifies his clarification

"I have never posted directly on the subject, but I alluded to the gun registry..."

Okay, let's try this again... the Dawggie once "alluded" to his opposition to the "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" and... oh yeah... "Stephen Harper is still the Devil."

**********

UPDATE3: JAGWIRE spanks the Dawg

"YOU are accusing others of parsing? Good goddess, that's a ripper, that is."

"In a post where you accuse McCain of not doing enough research you took the word of a guy who used wikipedia, retracted two statements, were wrong on another and uninformed on the fifth."

"Not a good batting average really."

**********

UPDATE4: Speaking of bodies in the streets

Sorry, Dawg.

*

Stephane Dion...

...should really start off all his pressers... "Once upon a time..."

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion wants to prohibit assault weapons if he becomes Prime Minister and says Stephen Harper is “soft on crime” because he refuses to do the same.

A couple of small points here, Stef.

Actual assault rifles, like those used by our troops in Afghanistan, are already prohibited in Canada. More to the point, this gun is no more an assault rifle than you are.

The firearm used by Kimveer Gill... (you know... the guy with a psychiatric history who waltzed past the Fiberals two-billion dollar "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry")... was actually more of a glorified pistol with a shoulder stock.

Sure it looked dark and menacing in all those tv spots... but it fires 9mm pistol ammo... as opposed to the Nato standard .223 Remington rifle cartridge that can rip through walls, vehicles and kevlar vests... like Jason Kenney through... well... you, for instance.

And guess what Stef?

Even if this firearm had never existed, Krazy Ol' Kimveer was gonna find a way. He would have run people down with his car... or set their house on fire... or stove in their skull with mom's meat tenderiser.

And the sad truth of this situation is that you can't legislate sanity. What you could do though, is stop making up scary stories and exploiting a tragedy to win yourself some votes.

I know you're getting a little desperate these days... but maybe Stephen Harper shouldn't be your biggest concern right now. I'm thinkin' that horse has already left the barn.

Say... what are Bob and Iggy up to these days?

Steffi... Steffi...

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Yes, dead people are such a hoot. Typical far right "I was just joking" routine."

You mean like your compassionate, progressive, fellow-traveller Canadian Cynic...
A hoot indeed.

**********

POSTSCRIPT: Anybody else getting feedback...

...from the Imperial Romulan Empire?

A bid to save...

...Britain's computing heritage has been given a $100,000 (£50,000) boost by a joint donation from hi-tech firms IBM and PGP.

The donation will help curate and restore exhibits at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, Bucks.

Exhibits include Colossus, thought by many to be the world's first computer.

*

What exactly...

...are we looking for here... he drinks red wine with fish?
-- 'Cos... and admittedly, maybe this is just me... I'm thinking we had this one nailed back at decapitation and cannibalism. --

*

Toronto Mayor stumped again

"I just can't understand it," says Mayor Miller... "I shut down all the evil, nasty target shooting ranges."

"It's like people are running around the city with unregistered guns."

-- Canwest News Service -- Five Toronto schools were locked down Monday afternoon after a man was shot and killed in the area, police said.

Police said one man was pronounced dead of apparent gun shot wounds on Eglinton Avenue West, just east of Keele Street.

Police said they were looking for a suspect they described as a black male with a light complexion. He's believed to be about 6'2", between 17-20 years of age, with his hair in cornrows and wearing a bright blue shirt.

"Paging Dr Dawg..."

*

Big celebration in Waziristan...

...as Allah calls ol' Jalaluddin home...

Residents in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area say a suspected U.S. missile strike hit a house and a seminary linked to a top Taliban commander, killing at least 10 people.

Witnesses said the apparent missile strike hit a home of longtime militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who U.S. military officials say oversees one of the deadliest Taliban networks in Afghanistan. Locals said some foreigners were among the dead.

Since the end of August, there have been at least five reported missile strikes against targets in North and South Waziristan as well as a suspected U.S.-led raid on a Pakistani village near the Afghan border.

The capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah."

*

The thrill of victory...

...the agony of being Lizzie-May...

“In the interest of Canadians, the Consortium has determined that it is better to broadcast the debates with the four major party leaders, rather than not at all.”

Ms. May had earlier in the day rejected accusations that she is a Liberal in disguise, and staking a claim to a debate berth.

Sure, Lizzie... you and Caspar Milquetoast and your little side deals... who do you think you're fooling here?

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper predicted the Green leader will ultimately endorse the Liberals during this campaign and should not be allowed to take part in the leaders debates.

But even as Ms. May vehemently denied she is co-operating with the Liberals, an email surfaced showing Ms. May cheering on a Liberal candidate.

Uh-huh... I never thought I'd ever actually see a case of "Dion-lite."

You go girl.

*

It's about time somebody...

...cracked down on those gun-happy Albertans...

-- Calgary -- "In all of these things we can find connections [to gang activity], but right now it's more in that bigger world of other criminals," Insp. Pollock said. "The deceased is known to us and may have some enemies."

Well, begging your pardon, Inspector... not any more, he doesn't.

When approached outside the community centre, the family of the victim declined to speak to reporters. One member of the group, several of whom were wearing traditional Somali head scarves, indicated that the family was visiting from Ottawa.

The fatal shooting is the 30th homicide in Calgary this year, as a rash of gang-related violence has hit the city.

"Paging Dr Dawg..."

**********

UPDATE: Murder victim identified

"The dead man is being identified by friends as 20-year-old Abdullah Hussein, who also went by the nickname Stylez."

*

C'mon Steffi, thinking good thoughts...

...just isn't gonna do it...

Stephane Dion's Green Shift provides no details about how we get from our present A to his desired green B, just lots of fluffy bon mots about how simple a journey it will be.

It's the magic-wand device: No specifics, no logic, just unflinching faith that if governments merely provide enough incentives and speak the right good wishes (read: chants and incantations), then private industries and university scientists will pull alternatives out of their -- ahem -- hats and jolt us all to the fantasized eco-nirvana.

Friends don't let friends... vote Liberal.

*

It sure don't take a Weatherman

I had meant, the other night, to highlight a CTV non-moonbat moment... but was too rattled by the event itself to commit anything to print. A less war-weary person might have characterised it as "a breath of fresh air"... but I remember thinking... "What the hell are they up to now?"

Basically, it came down to the various left-leaning talking heads acknowledging among themselves that Stephen Harper was indeed "scary smart"... and that, this time around, to paraphrase LBJ... the Liberals apparently "couldn't pour piss out of a boot, if the instructions were written on the heel."

Of course, these guys are all privy to a little media peekaboo... and they're all desperately trying to get ahead of the next pitch... which last night, came screaming right across home plate...

“The bottom line is that the Conservatives are in significantly better shape in these battlegrounds in the three provinces than they were in the election,” said Peter Donolo, a partner with polling company the Strategic Counsel.

“People who reside in these ridings think the country is on the right track.”

I have to confess right here, to a moment of unadulterated glee... imagining Peter Donolo, Teflon Jean's former Director of Communications... bleeding from his ears... as he contemplated releasing the results of this latest poll.

The fact is, only diehards like Cherniak still think Stephane Dion has a chance of weathering, never mind overcoming, the rising storm. It could be, that things are even more volatile than folks have previously imagined.

It oughta be an interesting five weeks.

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile, south of the border

According to Safire’s Political Dict