Democracy... in the Middle East

Pop quiz... when is a dictatorship actually "a democracy"?

Answer... When Baath Party leader and President Bashar Assad says it is...

Unlike the polls in Nigeria or France, there is almost no contest and voters are not showing much interest.

But in Syria, in effect ruled by one party, there is no room for real politics, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas, a situation reflected in widespread apathy among the electorate.

But they have a parliament... it must be a free and democratic land.

Adding to voter apathy is the mostly nominal role of the parliament - it cannot give or withdraw confidence to the government; it cannot draft laws, only debate those sent to it by the government; and it has no say in foreign policy.

Its first task will be to approve the Baath Party nomination of the president, Bashar Assad, for a second seven-year term.

Mr Assad will be the only candidate in a July referendum.

Okay... I get it. It's one of those "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" democracies the lefties are always holding up as modern day political miracles.

The ones, curiously enough, nobody... including Maher Arar... wants to live in.

Technorati Tags: dictatorship, secret police, Syria

And on the seventh day...

He had a schizoid break...

"First of all, let's stop listening to the goddamn economists. Twenty per cent of the economy will disappear."

"It will cost more than World War I and World War II put together."

"We'll go into a kind of depression we've never, ever had in all of history."

Yup, we all saw it coming... as his apocalyptic pronouncements grew ever more paranoid and delusional.

Not listening to the good doctor would be...

"... a crime against future generations."

As well as his meeting with Baird, Suzuki was to meet with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Saint David is now convinced he is God.

**********

UPDATE: I must confess I lost my faith...

When he smashed the stone tablets.

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LAST WORD: Annointed from on high...

The Almighty Zooker has decided for his devoted sheeple...

Suzuki told CTV's Question Period on Sunday... "I'm telling you, they want carbon taxes."

Technorati Tags: David Suzuki, global warming, hellfire and damnation

If you're a copper...

And some guy tells you he's gonna rob a bank... aren't you under some sort of obligation to keep an eye on him and maybe try to prevent it?

If you've been following the aboriginal rail blockade in Deseronto, in Eastern Ontario this week, you might not necessarily come to that conclusion.

Shawn Brant, fresh off a major disruption of Canada's busiest rail corridor, is promising more of what he likes to call, "economic disruptions" to Canadian citizenry and infrastructure alike... in the near future.

"Believe it or not, it was the first soft step of the campaign," said Shawn Brant around 8 a.m., two hours after the group removed a school bus blocking the tracks. "We have identified three different targets, and we will escalate the degree of severity as is necessary."

Bear in mind this is the very same Shawn Brant who had a spot of trouble with the local constabulary just a little while ago...

-- DESERONTO -- Charged with three counts of uttering death threats are Shawn Michael Brant, 42, of Tyendinaga.

But, you might ask, "Don't the police have to have pretty specific cause before they start keeping tabs on private citizens"?

Well, the enthusiastic, but apparently not especially bright Mr. Brant has obligingly and very publicly announced his criminal intent to the mainstream media...

Those targets are the railway, provincial highways and the town of Deseronto, Brant said as he puffed on cigarettes at the gravel quarry that is the heart of the dispute

The next target has been selected already and plans for the action are being finalized, he said.

I suspect Mr. Brant is feeling quite pleased with himself for the moment... after shutting down, occupying and looting a private gravel pit operation and then, in short order, facing down one of the largest corporate entities in Canada... with absolutely no legal consequences to himself, or his band of criminal brothers.

Not too surprisingly, the aboriginal police force seems to have taken Mr. Brant's side of things... going as far as to join him for refreshments at his illegal siege.

Although I have heard from a reliable source, that local OPP line officers are not very happy about having to stand by and watch these miscreants flouting the law, apparently those higher up the chain of command have no such issues...

"No arrests have been made at this point", said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae.

"We’re pleased that it was a peaceful resolution."

Peaceful, of course, until the day it isn't.

LAST WORD: I have a theory...

... about danger and risk-taking... it goes something like this...

Doing something stupid, or dangerous is like playing the lottery... the more tickets you buy, the better your chances of "winning the jackpot".

Right now, Shawn Brant is on a hysterical spending spree. He's won a few small prizes and now he has gambling fever...

With all the tickets he's been buying lately, I'm guessin' Mr. Brant is due for a big win. And as soon as he oversteps and engages the OPP, or another similar body in his much touted "violent confrontation"... he may find he has hit the jackpot.

Just my two cents.

Technorati Tags: OPP, homegrown terrorism, Deseronto

Everyday Feminine Protection...#2

Lock and load, ladies...

Tough isn't a word necessarily associated with Miss America, but three thieves arrested after their truck tires were shot out by 82-year-old Venus Ramey might beg to differ.

Ramey, who won the elite beauty crown in 1944, confronted one of the three robbers on her farm in Waynesburg, Ky., about 140 miles south of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

"He was probably wetting his pants," said Ramey, who balanced on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

h/t - SDA -

RELATED: It makes me wonder... if anyone ever took Frank up on his offer.

Technorati Tags: .38-caliber, self-defense, whatever it takes

Thank you, Ontario taxpayers...

For handing the world’s largest producer of cereal products millions of taxpayer dollars.

Jeff Chow, Kellogg plant manager in Belleville, said his company has received “great support“ from the province of Ontario, the Quinte region and the City of Belleville. Chow said he can’t wait to start producing Kellogg products at the new plant.

“Construction is well under way and we should be under operation by the fourth quarter of this year.“

When asked whether Kellogg will open with 100 employees as previously stated, Chow replied, “That is still being developed.“

Well, actually you should thank the provincial Liberal government.

Of course, if you have to bribe a manufacturer of anything to entice them to your city, it's only a matter of time before they find someone who can top your bid... or provide lots of amigos who'll work for peanuts.

Look what happened with Hershey in Smith Falls.

At least the community gets something back this time... unlike Dalton McGuinty's other recent payoff.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Liberal Party, same old, same old

Shssssh... it's a secret

Go to CTV.ca and you'll see the title for an article that reads, "Demonstrators block Ontario rail crossing"... but wait a minute... something's not quite right.


Oh shoot... looks like they forgot to mention it wasn't seniors supporting "leash laws" or something like that... it was another illegal "aboriginal blockade"... of the most heavily travelled rail corridor in Canada.

Boy... are they ever gonna be embarrassed.

UPDATE: Native blockaders blink...

But Shawn Brant promises more criminal activity will follow.

“I don't think they should expect an apology,” said Mr. Brant, who suggested the blockade was prompted by government inaction on the Mohawk's land claim.

Mr. Brant vowed that the occupation of the quarry would continue and that the group would mount further protests. “The disruption on the CN line was a first in a series of economic disruptions, the first in a campaign,” he said.

“We've been occupying the quarry and we have said we will never relinquish it... we will use it as a staging ground for further action.”

And why wouldn't he be willing to do it again and again... if he gets to walk away scot-free here.

Sgt. Kristine Rae, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Provincial Police, said the tracks are being inspected before rail traffic is allowed to resume.

Although the injunction ordered the protesters off the rail tracks and stated anyone who didn't comply would be arrested, Sgt. Rae said no arrests were made.

It's a dynamic a toddler would understand.

Technorati Tags: native blockade, homegrown terrorists, Deseronto

Never mind Empire...

Should Brits worry about the country itself flying apart?

Following hard on the heels of a reported shift to the right in French politics, the United Kingdom is apparently coming to a fork in the road on its immigration policy...

Immigration could lead to the political break-up of Britain, according to think-tank Civitas.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "We know that unchecked immigration is putting pressure on housing and local services. "Now this report shows that its effects are potentially even more serious."

"Given the limited number of schools, hospitals and houses, the government must apply a limit on the amount of people entering the country," he concluded.

Ministers had also announced a new tough Australian-style points system for immigrants, he added.

The report warns of a "tipping point", beyond which it conjures up a very chaotic situation...

"Once such a point is reached, political disintegration may be predicted to be not long in following," the report said.

**********

RELATED: 22 Apr - Sarkozy blows the doors off socialist Ségolène Royal

Mr. Sarkozy appeared to hold a clear advantage. Preliminary results from the Interior Ministry, based on a count of 21 million votes — or more than 50 per cent — had him leading with 30 per cent, followed by Royal with 24 per cent.

Once Sarkozy picks up Le Pen's 11 percent hard right support, this one should be a lock.

Au revoir Commie Mommie.

Technorati Tags: United Kingdom, immigration, immigrant

Preem admits, "I'm no leader"

"Please save my bacon, Oh Wise Federal Leader", cries Dalton McGuinty.

-- Deseronto, Ont. -- Aboriginal protesters vowed Friday to maintain their planned 48-hour blockade of eastern Ontario's main rail corridor despite a court injunction ordering them off the railway crossing.

The tense situation prompted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to urge the federal government to intervene at the “earliest possible opportunity” to help resolve the issues behind the blockade.

Having made a major-league mess of the year old, as-yet-unresolved aboriginal standoff in Caledonia, Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is apparently now at his wits end... over a similar situation developing in Deseronto.

See, here's the question Dalton... if I go down the road and commandeer the local lumber yard and threaten to take over the neighbouring town, how long do you think it would take an OPP SWAT team to stand me down... one way or another?

These terrorists are shutting down country-wide commerce.

What's your problem here? Dalton..? Dalton?

Technorati Tags: native blockade, homegrown terrorists, Deseronto

Is it still racist...

If a black man says it?

"The Beckles shooting was a defining moment for us," recalled Staff Inspector Dave McLeod, who, less than 72 hours later, took the helm of what was dubbed the black intelligence unit.

Its focus: the black-on-black shootings that were fuelling the worst wave of gun crimes the city has ever seen.

So what happens a black police officer from Toronto takes an assignment on a "crime-washed island that has long produced one of the world's highest homicide tallies?

Staff Insp. McLeod went to Jamaica, where a Globe and Mail reporter conducted a series of exclusive interviews during the officer's last days on the job in Kingston — the crime-ravaged capital city where pockets are ruled by fearsome gangs whose reach extends clear to the streets of Toronto.

There's an interesting comparison to be made between the city of Toronto and the country of Jamaica itself...

High as its homicide total was in 2004, it was higher still in 2005, reaching a record 1,674 among a population of 2.7 million people, surpassing the rates of both Colombia and South Africa.

By comparison, Toronto, with almost the same population, witnessed 80 homicides that year, 52 of them gun deaths.

Of those shootings, more than half involved first- or second-generation Jamaican Canadians, most in their late teens or 20s.

A compelling read.

RELATED: Who is Cleveland Downer?

More importantly, why is he still in Canada?

Technorati Tags: Toronto the Good, black-on-black homicide, Jamaica

Justice - Aboriginal style - again...

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LATEST GESTURE: Oh yeah, that'll solve things...

"CN has obtained an injunction from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that has been served on the protesters by the sheriff's department requiring them to dismantle the blockade forthwith," said CN Rail spokesman Mark Hallman.

**********

Hey, big surprise... another aboriginal terrorist action.

The train tracks at Deseronto Road, west of Kingston, have once again been blocked by a group of people who police said are affiliated with the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte.

Just listening on the local radio station to professional spokes-native Shawn Brant trying to justify closing down the CN tracks at Deseronto.

Brant was spouting the usual "we are victims" argle-bargle about the racist Canadian regime... while his band of merry men was shutting down all rail traffic between Toronto and points east.

A spokesman for CN came on and was very careful not to offend native sensibilities by mentioning the effect on commuters, or the cost to businesses waiting for just-in-time shipments. Wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings, would we.

Funny... no one available to comment from the OPP.

Again.

**********

UPDATE: Speak OPP, speak...

Just heard a Napanee OPP constable on radio station CJBQ say that the CN rail lands are, "the jurisdiction of the CN police".

Whew, that was a close one guys... see you back at the Tims.

Here's the party line from the OPP...

"Currently the situation is peaceful," police said in a news release around 8 a.m. "The O.P.P. and the C.N. Police are working closely together.

The O.P.P. are at the scene rerouting traffic around the blockade."

So much for "law enforcement". Well, I guess we'll have to settle for traffic cops.

No problem here... move along folks.

**********

RELATED: Occupation and thievery...

First they shut down and occupy a private business... then they start stealing the inventory.

Mohawk demonstrators make no apologies about trucking gravel out of the Thurlow Aggregates site for use on driveways and potholes on the Tyendinaga reserve, says one protester.

Demonstrators have been using their own equipment to truck some of the existing gravel to benefit people on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, said Jason Maracle, who has been on the scene since the occupation began March 22.

So where are the OPP and Tyendinaga police on this?

The protest blockade at Deseronto is a decidedly laid-back affair, as shown in this photo from Loyalist Pioneer's Christopher Clarke.

Here, Tyendinaga Mohawk Police Senior Const. Marcel Maracle, left, relaxes with protest organizer Shawn Brant as the pair waited for a pot of corn soup to heat over the campfire.

I guess we know why nobody's getting arrested.

Technorati Tags: native blockade, homegrown terrorists, Deseronto

Like federal like provincial...

It's the same old Fiberal story... your money - their friends...

An Iranian community group, whose members include Ontario Liberals, received a $200,000 immigrant aid grant from the provincial government only three weeks after it was registered as a charity.

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

Its directors include the Liberal candidate for the new riding of Richmond Hill in the Oct. 10 provincial election and the riding association president, whose North York law office is listed as the charity's mailing address.

Thank you Dalton McGuinty.

UPDATE: 21 Apr - McGuinty lets bribe to Iranians slide...

"I think we can do a better job and I think that we have to do a better job," Mr. McGuinty told reporters yesterday. "We're going to have to look at it."

The government says the unnamed spending program is designed to enhance diversity and settlement projects for new immigrants.

While the Fiberals "look at it", Conservatives call for an investigation...

Conservative opposition leader John Tory called for an investigation by the auditor general into the matter and said he planned to introduce a motion compelling officials to testify before a committee on the matter.

Technorati Tags: corruption, Liberal Party, same old, same old

Genealogy Friday 3

For anyone searching for ancestors in the province of Ontario, you should check out the searchable marriage records at the Ontario Vital Statistics Project.

It is by no means a complete record, but it is a good place to start a search, especially if you aren't familiar with searching through microfilm at libraries or the local archives.

All the trancriptions are done by volunteers, out of their own pocket, on their own time. Also, even though as of July 1, 1869, all births, marriages and deaths were required to be registered, compliance was nowhere near 100%

A goldmine of easily accessible data.

Technorati Tags: Ontario Vital Statistics Project, marriage registrations, Genealogy

Legal footnote regarding...

Sharia Law.

-- TEHRAN -- The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered “morally corrupt.”

The last victims, for example, were a young couple engaged to be married who the killers claimed were walking together in public.

Iran’s Islamic penal code, which is a parallel system to its civic code, says murder charges can be dropped if the accused can prove the killing was carried out because the victim was morally corrupt.

This is true even if the killer identified the victim mistakenly as corrupt. In that case, the law requires “blood money” to be paid to the family.

Are these people insane?

Of course, that may just be my "reluctance to accept the Islamic perspective" speaking.

Technorati Tags: sharia law, media bias, International Zionist Conspiracy

Klepto-dipper Svend to France...

If only we could get Peru to take Buzz Hargrove...

Peru's striking coca farmers have given the government a 24-hour ultimatum to negotiate with them, threatening to continue their roadblocks indefinitely.

The protesters refuse to accept the government's toughened eradication programme and their leaders say any attempt to enforce it will result in violence.

Cause it sure sounds like the inmates have taken over the asylum.

Technorati Tags: Peru, cocaine, Buzz Hargrove

Too many victims...

Not enough chiefs...

This might explain the soft ride the Deseronto native occupation has been getting.

-- BELLEVILLE, Ont. (CP) Canada - Thursday, April 19, 2007 Updated @ 3:04:52 PM --

The chief of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police Service in eastern Ontario has been suspended over allegations he made of police racism.

Larry Hay reportedly told a college newspaper on the weekend that the RCMP is a racist organization, and that the Ontario provincial police service is no different.

The Loyalist College newspaper, The Pioneer, quotes Hay as saying the racism is “deep-seated” but the RCMP “will do all kinds of things to show that it isn’t so.”

Unbelievably...

"Hay was a Mountie for 20 years."

Not a word online in the Belleville papers.

Thanks to Mike at Rideau Reflections for the email alert.

Technorati Tags: Tyendinaga Mohawk Police Service, homegrown terrorists, Deseronto

The Angry Reporter is back...

And that takes courage after the beatdown she took lately... so I'm willing to give her a chance.

From the latest comments at the "halls"...

I'm a woman who earns a living as a journalist, and I don't have a loyalty to anyone except my profession. And I don't like how some of it plays out, which is why I feel that an anonymous blog is the perfect safety valve to express the daily irritants of my job.

Don't look for a conspiracy, there isn't one. Read what I wrote my my blog in the last couple of days, and you'll understand where I'm going.

UPDATE: That said, we're still not buddies...

It will also give ammos to Neo-conservatives who already despise the media for not giving Israel a systematic free ride in their coverage.

Hmmm... nothing like a blatant fallacy, following on the heels of a sweeping generalisation. I guess you can take the reporter out of the CBC, but...

Sigh.

**********

RELATED: Say Angry... got a minute?

Or does the Muslim community "get a free ride"?

In a horrible incident in Mississauga, Ontario, a journalist for a Canadian-Pakistani paper was savagely beaten by two Muslim men who demanded that he "stop writing against Islam."

I guess the jackboot is on the other foot now.

Technorati Tags: CBC, media bias, can take a punch

If we pass the hat around...

Will he take Jack Layton with him?

-- VANCOUVER -- Former Burnaby Member of Parliament and confessed ring thief Svend Robinson is leaving Canada for France.

In an e-mail passed on to The Canadian Press, Mr. Robinson says he is both sad and excited to take on a new job with Public Services International, based in France.

Technorati Tags: NDP, Svend Robinson, Jack Layton

Cooking out... Islamic style

Only that ain't burgs and dogs they're tossin' on the barbie.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in a string of attacks in Iraq's capital, Baghdad.

One witness told the Reuters news agency that many of the victims were women and children.

"I saw dozens of dead bodies," the man said. "Some people were burned alive inside minibuses. Nobody could reach them after the explosion.

"Religion of Peace..?"

I'm speechless... I got nothin'.

Technorati Tags: Religion of Peace, sunni side of life, up shi'ite creek

Dion and Fiberals calling for...

A National 'Meat Cleaver' Registry.

-- MONTREAL -- Montreal police are sorting through body parts after arresting a man found carrying them in bags. Police spokesman Constable Laurent Gingras says a 44-year-old man is being questioned.

There will, of course, be no 'Cleaver Registry'... but just as nonsensically, this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech has Steffi and the Wild Bunch renewing their cries for reinstating the two billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry.

Which overlooks a few small details...

A gun didn't drop out of the sky and start blasting away on its own. This was the act of a madman.

The killer used two perfectly legal handguns, not a rifle.

In Canada, handguns have been classified as 'restricted firearms' and have required registration since the 1930's.

People knew this guy had major issues and still didn't stop him.

The fact is, if this nutjob, like Gamil Gharbi and Kimveer Gill before him, hadn't been able to get a gun, he would have run these people down with a car, or beaten them to death with an ashtray... because he was mentally ill.

The salient fact here is that people knew (and I despise the prissy politically correct terminology) he 'had issues', yet no one at the university thought to wall him off from these innocent victims.

Amid the cries echoed in the recent Dawson College shootings in Montreal of, "who could have seen this coming?"... it turns out, the answer was, well... plenty of people.

Plenty of people had also seen Kimveer Gill's demented death wishes and even pictures of Gill with guns on the internet. No one said a word, or alerted the police.

Not so, in the case of the Virginia Tech shootings. There were plenty of warnings and it turns out, plenty of people were concerned enough about the shooter's mental stability to voice their concerns.

Lucinda Roy said that in October of 2005 she was contacted as head of the English Department by a professor who was disturbed by a piece of his writing.

Ms. Roy, rebuffed by Mr. Cho, contacted the campus police, counseling services, student affairs and officials in her department.

Who exactly... claims they didn't see this coming? It couldn't have been the cops, they took him to the "Mouse Factory" on at least one occasion.

-- BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The gunman blamed for the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history had previously been accused of stalking two female students at Virginia Tech and had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday.

But again, nothing was done to head off this tragedy.

And those responsible for ignoring those warnings should take a minute to examine the "liberal sensibilities" that stopped them from taking appropriate action.

I hope they're having some sleepless nights.

Because this very sad day should have been averted.

RELATED: More Liberal lies...

"We have requested of all political parties on Parliament Hill that they adopt tougher sentencing provisions for gun-related crimes, and that's something they can act on immediately."

Dalton McGuinty can't even deal with the aboriginal terrorists who have been holding Caledonia hostage for over a year.

And why is Mr. Law and Order taking mentally ill rapists "out to the ball game"?

I don't remember voting for that.

Police are searching for a mentally ill man who wandered away during a group outing to a Blue Jays game last night.

Mylvaganam Vaasuhan, 31, was found not criminally responsible in 2001 for sexual assaults on two girls.

Amazing.

And his Liberal cronies in the Senate have vowed to reject the Conservative's "Tough on Crime" legislation. These guys have more nerve than Madman Ahmadinejad.

Don't let yourself be fooled again.

Technorati Tags: Virginia Tech, Liberal Party, Gamil Gharbi

A "culture of impunity"

Allows a young girl to be kidnapped, tortured and murdered... and then lets the killer skate away on a fabric of lies...

Representing the family of Rebecca Middleton, Ms. Booth, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said the fact that the courts believed one of the accused when he testified that the Belleville, Ont., virgin had consented to have sex with him only 30 minutes after they had met, highlights the country's lenient stand on sexual-assault cases.

"She is assaulted, she is threatened with a knife, she is restrained, she is sodomized and she is raped."

"All of that and we're asked to believe it was consensual," she told Chief Justice Richard Ground.

The accused in this case made a deal that absolved himself and pinned the blame on another man. He claims his sperm, identified by DNA testing and found all over the victim... was from consensual sex.

And the courts in Bermuda bought it hook, line and sinker.

“This case is so fundamental, not only for Becky but for Bermudian women,” she said.

Statistics from the Bermuda Women's Resource Centre show that of the 204 sexual assaults reported to Bermudian police from 2000 to 2004, only 16 (or 8 per cent) have resulted in a conviction in Supreme Court.

And the flip side of the story...

“The pulse of public opinion in this country already has my client convicted of murder,” he said. Mr. Mundy has served his five-year sentence for being an accessory in Ms. Middleton's case.

He is serving the remainder of a 16-year sentence for robbery, after which he will likely be deported to his native Jamaica.

A lovely man... who wouldn't believe him?

Another place I'll never be vacationing.

Technorati Tags: Bermuda, homicide, corruption

Surrender Monkeys no more?

Christopher Hitchens on France...

There is a reason why the French Communist Party, which used to dominate the working class, the unions, and much of the lumpen intelligentsia, is now a spent force that represents perhaps 3 percent of the electorate.

And that reason, uncomfortable as it may be, is that most of the Communist electorate defected straight to the National Front.

UPDATE: Playing the "gender card"

-- PARIS, April 18 -- At an outdoor rally just days before the French are to cast their ballots for president, Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate, came with a special message.

“I want to address myself to the women,” Ms. Royal declared in the town of Achicourt in northern France on Sunday. “I need the women’s vote.”

Technorati Tags: France, National Front, Communist Party

"Classic Hits" Ensemble...

Kicks off their "Bullets, Bombs and Burkas Tour 2007" -- in Nigeria...

Armed members of a Nigerian Islamist group known as the Taleban have stormed a police station in the northern city of Kano, killing at least 13 people.

A police source told the BBC there were between 300 and 500 people, some of whom were heavily armed.

Technorati Tags: Nigeria, Spring Offensive, Taleban

I used to walk to grade one...

...when we lived in Scarborough.

Now I'd be afraid to drive down the street.

A man being hunted for a Scarborough murder was already being sought on warrants for assault and a weapon charge.

Granzille Tucker, 22, also known as Rickey, is now wanted for second-degree murder in the shooting death last Thursday of Bradley Frank.

But in David Miller's "Oh, so politically correct" world... the solution isn't to fight crime... it's to hide crime.

What's really frightening is...

You know it's gotta be even worse than they're admitting...

Large parts of China's longest river, the Yangtze, have been irreversibly polluted, state media quotes a report as saying.

A huge reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam - the world's largest hydro-power project - had also been seriously polluted with pesticides, fertilisers and sewage from passenger boats.

Where's an eco-freak when you need one?

Technorati Tags: China, Kyoto accord, Yangtze River

Because you can't legislate sanity

Hey Globe and Mail... way to not exploit a tragedy...

In light of the horrific shootings at a university in Virginia, which claimed dozens of lives, does Canada need to enact stricter gun controls to prevent similar incidents here?

Apparently though... readers weren't biting.

Still, not even near as crass and blatant as Lloyd Robertson's bogus-reverential prologue to the CTV News program's photo-montage finale... that featured police officers unceremoniously carting an apparently lifeless body away from some buildings.

Top that... oh ye exploitative merchants of grief.

Technorati Tags: Virginia Tech, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, nanny state

Pondering the eternal question...

"To what extent do you go to alleviate stress for a millipede or a toad?"

New CBC "Blogger/Reporter" in town...

And she wants to know if I'm part of the International Zionist Conspiracy.

The Angry Reporter/Reporter en Colère said... You seem to take the Israeli issue to heart. Are you Israeli? It could explain your reluctance to accept the Arab perspective, no matter how much you think it's fraudulent.

Am I Israeli?

I guess that's "reporter code" for, "are you one of them"..."are you a Jew?"

Because, apparently, in her world... only a racist Jew would be reluctant "to accept the Arab perspective".

I do have to confess, my best friend of twenty odd years was born Jewish, but alas... he's even less religious than I... and oh yeah, Ms. Cranky Pants, his family have been Canadians since the late 1800's.

Who is the Angry Reporter anyway?

From the single post she has made at her own blog thus far, you get a few hints...

I've been a news reporter for some 20 years for several news outlets, but mostly for a large Canadian public broadcaster whom I won't mention (duh!). I'm quite proud of what I do for a living.

I also hate conspiracy theorists and people who accuses us of having hidden agendas and systematic liberal biases.

You get a further whiff of her "character/agenda" from the dozen, that's right, twelve comments she has left so far at my post on the Media Vultures circling the bodies of dead Canadian soldiers at CFB Trenton.

Oh yeah, one last thing. If the Angry Reporter had taken a few moments to actually look at my previous blog entries... what is known in industry as "due diligence"... she would have seen that I am Scots/Irish and a failed Catholic.

She wouldn't have had to ask if I was "one of them", you know... "a Jew".

One of those "filthy conspiracy theorists" that she has to do battle with.

Which explains quite a few things about the CBC.

(note: all pronouns changed to "the feminine" as "Angry" has now felt compelled for some reason to bring my alleged gender bias into the exchange)

UPDATE: "Let the speculation begin"

From the comments...

Brian Lemon said...

Let the speculation begin . . .
Former CBC reporter - perhaps Radio Canada - as is bilingual.
No indication that it is a man, could be a woman.
Recent departure from CBC / RCI as a political reporter.
Quick Google search??

The Angry Reporter replies...

"PS, you say you're Scottish-Irish."

"Can I assume you're already drunk?"

Oh please, please, please Cranky... keep digging.

Technorati Tags: CBC, media bias, International Zionist Conspiracy

"No worries" about political correctness...

In Australian government circles...

Aids charities have reacted angrily to Australian Prime Minister John Howard's opposition to HIV-positive immigrants moving to Australia.

Howard was obviously reacting to...

Infection rates rose by 41% between 2000 and 2005.

Technorati Tags: Prime Minister John Howard, HIV-positive, Australia

Green Party MP wannabe...

Confuses uncouth with tough mindedness.

-- Ottawa -- Green Party Leader Elizabeth May lashed out yesterday at NDP counterpart Jack Layton for refusing to co-operate with her party in the next election...

"What the hell is wrong with Jack Layton that he can't answer a phone call?" asked Ms. May on CTV's Question Period.

Perhaps this outburst was meant to demonstrate that Lizzie can go a round or two with the big dogs... but she ended up coming off more like a bitter, alcohol-soaked ex-lover than the leader of a national political party.

I sure hope that's not her A-game.

RELATED: She loves me... she loves me not

"I spoke with Kevin and realize this has been difficult for him. He is a community leader, a father and an engaged citizen. He plays a very helpful role in his community.

"However, his views are antithetical to Green Party values. We have irreconcilable differences. I will not sign his nomination papers and he will not be a Green Party candidate."

I wonder if she learned that from Steffi.

Technorati Tags: Elizabeth May, Green Party, Liberal Party

I just don't understand...

Why Muslims, of all people, can't appreciate that "the rules are the rules."

-- Longueuil, Que. -- A Tae Kwon Do team of mainly Muslim girls withdrew from a tournament after they were barred from taking part with their hijabs, another example of the ongoing debate in Quebec about accommodating religious minorities.

“The equipment that is allowed under the world Tae Kwon Do federation rules doesn't include the hijab,” international referee Stephane Menard said Sunday.

That seems fairly clearcut to me. There is, of course, another larger consideration...

Quebec, a French minority within North America, considers itself a secular society that encourages immigrants to integrate into its francophone culture.

I appreciate that Muslims are supposed to live by a strict set of rules laid out in the Koran. What I don't understand is, why it's so hard for Muslim immigrants to appreciate that their new home might also have rules that have to be obeyed?

I mean, if everything is so peachy-keen and perfect in Muslim countries, why would anyone want to come to horrible, racist Canada anyway?

It's a mystery to me.

Technorati Tags: Quebec, Muslim, hijab

Talking Turkey

Fresh off the Turkish military's threats to move against Kurds in Iraq... a large, very public protest, shows that not everyone in Turkey is completely bonkers.

-- ANKARA, Turkey -- Some 300,000 Turks protested against their pro-Islamic prime minister Saturday, draping themselves in flags and pouring into streets and squares in a demonstration of the intense secular opposition he will face if he runs for president.

Protesters called on the government to resign and chanted: “We don't want an imam as president!”

A hopeful sign in a troubled part of the world.

Technorati Tags: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Turkey

Brave Jihadis shred women & children

What was Allah thinking... when he willed this?

At least 36 people have been killed and more than 160 hurt in a suicide car bomb attack in Iraq's holy city of Karbala, officials say.

The attacker detonated explosives at a crowded bus station in the city close to a shrine holy to Shia Muslims, at around 0915 local time (0515 GMT).

Many of the casualties were said to be women or children.

**********

UPDATE: Iran curiously quick off the mark

The Iranian government "news agency" has already pronounced this to be the work of a Sudanese national, apparently way ahead of any similar statement by an Iraqi investigatory body.

I'm smelling grassy knoll here...

"There is no doubt that such a crime has been masterminded by mercenaries and aliens who are involved in making rifts among Iraqi people by targeting their unity and Islamic sanctities," he said.

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, will of Allah, are you insane?

No "War on Anything" here

For anyone who has any doubts left whatsoever, about the Liberal neutered Justice system in Canada, I give you Madame Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson... appointed to the Federal Court of Canada in, note the date, January 2002.

An Egyptian terrorism suspect has been released from years of jail, but the Federal Court judge yesterday expressed strong security concerns and a lack of confidence in the man's main bail surety, his wife.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Jaballah was a senior member of Egyptian al-Jihad who acted as a communicator among terrorist cells of the AJ and al-Qaeda” during the time of the deadly 1998 al-Qaeda bombings in Africa.

So why, in this case, you have to ask yourself... did the judge then put Jaballah's wife in charge of securing his movement and communications.

Now released, Mr. Jaballah will find that his wife is effectively his warden. Yet the court has serious reservations about Husnah Al-Mashtouli.

She “previously lied to the court” about her husband's associations and travels, according to Judge Layden-Stevenson. “My confidence is lacking in relation to Ms. Al-Mashtouli,” she noted.

Defying any reasonable notion of common-sense, or showing the least regard for the security of ordinary citizens, Justice Layden-Stevenson has now set a wolf among the sheeple.

Move along folks... no War on Terror here.

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, Liberal Party, are you insane?

This might actually work...

With town council and your local "poop and scoop" bylaw.

You wanna negotiate with serial-murdering sociopaths... I suspect you're gonna have to dig a little bit deeper.

An online petition calling for the release of the BBC's Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, has now gathered more than 30,000 signatures.

The reporter is presumed to have been abducted when he disappeared on 12 March after leaving his Gaza office.

You have to marvel sometimes at the delusional Peter Pan worldview of the looney left.

This reporter didn't get lost on his way to the corner-souk for a box of cous-cous... he was snatched off the street by terrorists.

You think if you ask nicely... they'll let him go?

Someone please tell me these freaks can't reproduce.

UPDATE: 15 Apr - Couldn't have seen this coming...

Palestinian Jihad and Tawheed Brigades say Alan Johnston has been executed, blame British, Palestinian governments. (h/t... SDA)

Maybe we didn't "make nice" enough.

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, progressive, are you insane?

That sounds vaguely familiar...

"I do not have a choice... I have to collaborate.”

This brilliant political gambit is already paying huge dividends... for Stephen Harper.

"Is the deal between the Liberals and Green Party a bad thing for Canadian voters?"

And another...

What do you think about Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May working together to unseat Peter MacKay?

**********

UPDATE: Dion facing Palace revolt?

A Liberal strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is widespread anger at the deal in caucus, which Liberals feel could be used against them in a federal election.

The strategist said the decision was another strike against Dion, whose leadership has come into question in recent months.

**********

LAST WORD: Could May be Dion's "Judas Goat"?

It's the only way this thing even remotely makes sense.

On the face of it, that makes it hard to jibe May's endorsement of Dion as her preferred choice for prime minister with the fact that her party will be running candidates against nearly 100 Liberal incumbents in the next campaign.

If that endorsement is as heartfelt at is sounded yesterday, she has now turned them into needless sacrificial lambs.

At the end of the day, the common interest of the Green and the Liberal parties in bringing down the NDP is as least as strong as their common concern for the environment.

Which might explain why Taliban Jack's kaffiyeh was in such a knot... at a very public "presser".

The article also got me thinking that, if this type of "deal" had occurred between May and the Prime Minister, the press would have been all over "Evil Puppetmaster" Harper and his diabolical master plan.

Interestingly, everyone, except perhaps Chantal Hebert, just assumes Dion is a lightweight who doesn't have the chops to get a couple moves ahead of the opposition.

Which sounds ominously like his death-knell to me.

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, Green Party, Liberal Party

Lisa LaFlamme can kiss my ass

I don't know if anyone else caught CTV's Lloyd Robertsons' over-the-top mugging for the camera, as reporter Lisa LaFlamme sneered at the Canadian Forces for not acknowledging what was, in her vast military experience... the start of the Spring Offensive.

What Ms. Flamer was referring to was just another cowardly booby trap that took the lives of two Canadian soldiers.

Back in the real world, this is what actually happens when NATO soldiers knock boots with the Islamotards...

-- KABUL (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops backed by aircraft clashed with suspected Taliban insurgents in volatile southern Afghanistan, leaving more than 35 rebels dead, the coalition said Friday.

To paraphrase WWII General George Patton...

"Our goal isn't to have our soldiers die for their country... it's to make those other sad bastards die for theirs."

And Lisa you dumb bunny... it's working.

UPDATE: Lisa, think of it this way

The Taliban are basically opportunistic cavemen, who, in between terrorising unarmed civilians... sneak up on an enemy and try to crush the back of their head with a big rock. Then they run away.

A British soldier in Afghanistan has died after coming under small arms fire, the Ministry of Defence has said. The MoD said the attack happened after troops challenged a five-man Taleban team attempting to set-up an ambush.

The MoD said the initial confrontation gave way to a firefight involving a larger Taleban force equipped with mortars, rockets, and heavy machine guns.

Note the constant theme here.

After each and every contact with real soldiers, one of two things happens to the Taliban... one, they get zipped into body bags, or two, as I said earlier, "They run away."

Those tactics serve a limited purpose, but they won't win a war.

Not under a Stephen Harper government anyway.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Spring Offensive, search and destroy

You play with fire...

There's a pretty good chance you're gonna get scorched.

-- ATLANTA -- U.S. health officials are recommending wider use of a new drug to treat gonorrhea because the sexually transmitted disease is steadily becoming resistant to the long-time standard antibiotic.

The CDC estimates that more than 700,000 people in the United States acquire gonorrhea each year through sexual contact. It is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, the infectious disease society says.

The highest rates of infection are among sexually active teens, young adults and African Americans.

It would be pointless to simply put up a prohibition against people, especially people I have fathered, being interested in sex, but with all due respect to the CDC... I'm gonna recommend an alternative remedy here.

"Don't sleep around like an ownerless mutt."

That oughta take care of 95% of new cases right there.

Technorati Tags: drug-resistant gonorrhea, common sense, man on fire

Genealogy Friday 2

Anyone doing genealogy online knows about Rootsweb.com.

For those just starting their family research, I'd like to point to their searchable "WorldConnect Project" database.

Worldconnect is an ongoing compilation of over 400,000 user-submitted genealogy projects... encompassing a mind-boggling 487,539,113 surnames, which allows you to actually talk to the person who put up the data.

You can also submit your own research, which lets relatives worldwide get in touch with you. I recommend it highly, but as always... this is the internet, so "trust but verify" all information.

Best of all it's free. Happy hunting.

Technorati Tags: WorldConnect Project, Rootsweb, Genealogy

Evil Stephen Harper refuses...

To protect Canadians from themselves.

Despite outraged pleas from Liberal Party cognoscenti, Prime Minister Stephen Harper today refused demands to set up a "National Nail Gun Registry".

-- TORONTO -- The number of nail-gun injuries among consumers has spiked dramatically as more and more do-it-yourselfers arm themselves with the powerful tools for home renovation projects.

A report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that about 37,000 people sought treatment in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2005 after getting shot or shooting themselves in the hands, arms, legs, head or eyes with nail-guns.

Reached at a speaking engagement in Moosefart, Northwest Territories, Opposition Leader Stephane Dion was quick to attack the Harper decision...

"Dis is so unfair... dere is so many heartbreakings, wen dese guns is shooting de peoples."

A spokesman for the Conservative Party replied to Dion's accusations by commenting...

"Our position on home use of power tools remains clear and steadfast... any dufus who nails his hand to a roof truss is probably too stupid to cope in today's increasingly complex world."

"To this end, the Prime Minister has said he would be willing to look into the possibility of creating a network of sheltered workshops for anyone like Mr. Dion... who feels he cannot cope with this sort of esoteric technology."

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, nanny state

No sense... no pain

He's polling neck and neck with Taliban Jack..., but Steffi just sees clear sailing ahead...

“Liberals all over are mobilizing and working very hard,” he said after a speech in Montreal, telling reporters he wasn't worried about the future.

“I do not feel the fears that you are referring to.”

As the chairs slide off the deck of the Titanic.

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, Liberal Party, Stephane Dion

Half cooked Turkey...

Looking to torch the unscorched half of Iraq...

The head of Turkey's powerful military has said Ankara should launch a military operation in northern Iraq to target Kurdish guerrillas based there.

Gen Yasar Buyukanit, chief of Turkey's general staff, urged the government to approve a cross-border incursion.

The United States has repeatedly warned against any such move against the PKK, arguing it would destabilise the only relatively calm region in Iraq.

Not so surprising behaviour from a country whose last military "stroke of genius" was to side with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914.

This last brainwave is, at least, on a par with Turkey's apparent recent willingness to tear Pope Benedict, that's right -- THE POPE -- limb from limb...

Never mind the usual assortment of nutbag religious extremists... Pope Benedict had pretty much already pissed off every Tom, Dick and Kemal by telling the whole country they weren't good enough to come to; and here's the good part... somebody else's party.

UPDATE: Talking Turkey...

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday that Turkey can not remain silent unless Iraq responses to the diplomatic nota of Turkey in a way that corresponds with Turkey's expectations.

Underlining that Turkey advocates Iraq's integrity, unity and tranquillity, Gul said, "We want stability in our region. But if neighboring countries attempt to cause damage to Turkey, we do whatever is necessary to prevent it.

LAST WORD: Of course, if the military is busy...

Staging an internal police action against Turks themselves...

Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit will organize a press briefing today, said the General Staff authorities yesterday.

It is expected that he will make comments on military take over allegations and memorandum that was leaked to press. General staff announced that Gen. Buyukanit will make comments on the issues that directly related to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

It may have to put an Iraq invasion on hold.

Technorati Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, Iraq, Turkey

Never mind firearms...

When are the Leftbots gonna get workin' on a "Soup Registry"?

The maker of Pot Noodle is recalling some types of the snack, after discovering cracks may have developed in the product's plastic containers.

That one issue, unfortunately, is the least of the problem.

This soup is also racist.

Last year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 81 complaints about a Pot Noodle advert featuring Welsh miners, accusing it of racism.

"Save me, oh wise nanny state, from the demon soup!!!"

Technorati Tags: willful self-deception, Farmer Bob Rifle Registry, nanny state

Shakespeare and Sharia

"First we kill all the lawyers... in Bangladesh."

-- DHAKA, Bangladesh, April 11 -- Matiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a religious party, and nine other leaders of the group were among those charged with killing activists during street campaigning on Oct. 28.

In another development on Wednesday, a lawyer who prosecuted seven Islamist militants, six of whom have since been hanged, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in a southern Bangladesh town, the police said.

The lawyer, Haider Hossain, was killed near a mosque in Jhalakati where Islamists killed two judges in late 2005.

The Islamists are trying to introduce Shariah, the Muslim legal code based on the Koran, into Bangladeshi law.

Let the beheadings for Allah begin.

Technorati Tags: sharia law, Bangladesh, up shi'ite creek

And Tralfamador wept

Kurt Vonnegut 1922 - 2007...

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

Buhlinda bails...

Just watched CTV uber-spinner Craig Oliver reading Belinda Stronach's political obituary.

On the exalted altar of "progressive" political history, Craig places her right between Joan of Arc & Marie Curie.

Most other commentators were less effusive... somewhere along the lines of, "Put her in a Tim Horton's uniform... you'd never look twice."

In a statement, Stronach said that after assessing the best role she can play in public life, and, "after being encouraged by members of the corporate leadership at Magna to return, I have decided that the timing of my return to the business should not be delayed."

As far as... "being encouraged by members of the corporate leadership at Magna" goes... that means Daddy Warbu... I mean Daddy Stronach... has once again arranged a multi-million dollar soft-landing at the family conglomerate for his pampered princess.

Hey Steffi... you could always run Lisa LaFlamme.

RELATED: The National Post weighs in...

The irony is that by so calculatingly defecting to become the minister responsible for democratic renewal, Ms. Stronach may have sealed the Liberals’ fate in the ultimate act of “democratic renewal,” the January, 2006, election that bounced her new party from power after 13 years.

LAST WORD: Magna shares...

Fell 55 cents to $89.44 on the TSE.

Technorati Tags: nepotism, Magna International, Belinda Stronach

Here's another reason...

Why you don't trust shitheel junkies... EVER...

Anyone who is a regular reader here, already knows how I feel about so-called "safe injection" sites.

This is just another brick in the wall...

A mother whose baby son died from an overdose of the heroin substitute methadone has pleaded guilty to causing his manslaughter by gross negligence.

In October, the court was told that Mitchell, whose parents were both said to be heroin addicts, was given methadone to keep him quiet.

Where is the justice for this murdered child?

Granting Fennelly bail, the Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox said: "You should understand my giving you bail now is no indication whatsoever of your sentence on 3 May."

Obviously not anywhere around here.

Technorati Tags: methadone, safe injection site, murder