"I'm from the Government..."

"I'm here to help you."

New drivers with a certificate from a government-approved school in Ontario are more likely to be involved in a collision than those who don't take the training course. Unscrupulous operators are selling certificates to students not enrolled in the program, and many instructors have an unusually high number of demerit points.

See, with the Fiberals, the trick is to forget about their promises... and keep a close eye on what they actually do.

These are among the findings in Ontario Auditor-General Jim McCarter's wide-ranging annual report released Tuesday, which raises disturbing questions about the driving schools, the province's inadequate sex-offender registry, and pharmacies overcharging the government for dispensing fees on prescription drugs.

They should have called this thing, "Dalton does Dick All."

**********

RELATED: Boris bails border-buster

An Albanian mother of three who went into hiding to avoid deportation from Canada was ordered released from jail yesterday after Etobicoke MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj agreed to post $12,000 in bonds in a rare move.

Anilda Tabaj, 32, is expected to be freed on Friday from a Brampton jail.

Her husband, Arjan Tabaj, 37, an amputee who's partially paralyzed, won't be released from custody since he's held on an immigration warrant for failing to attend a hearing.

Your Liberal Party in action.

Technorati Tags: Dalton McGuinty, Auditor-General Jim McCarter, fiberal smoke and mirrors

Cutting edge investigative technique

Peel Police try out a little of that "old black magic"...

One of three men accused in a gang-related slaying led an undercover police officer posing as a black magic practitioner to the murder scene, court heard yesterday.

Once there, Peel police Const. Andrew Cooper, a.k.a. Leon the Obeah Man, broke an egg that spilled blood to show off his powers.

I wonder if I could nominate Constable Cooper for a Juno Award... he sounds way more talented than most of the pretenders you usually see on the CBC.

Cooper pretended to be an Obeah Man -- a practitioner of witchcraft and voodoo in Caribbean culture -- to get Collette Robinson and her son Evol to reveal their knowledge of the Oct. 9, 2004 slaying of Youhan Oraha, 22.

Robinson, 22, Ruben Pinnock, 24, and Jahmar Welsh, 24, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Oraha, who was shot 14 times, mostly in his back.

Maybe they should have stuck with a curse.

Technorati Tags: Obeah Man, Youhan Oraha, voodoo

RELIGION OF DEATH

COMPARE AND CONTRAST:

Let's see if all the people who have been losing their minds over tasers... are equally sympathetic... in this case.

"At 7:55 a.m., we received a 911 call from a man claiming that he had just killed his daughter," Constable J.P. Valade of Peel Police said. Some of the teen's schoolmates said the Grade 11 student had rebelled against her parents recently by refusing to wear a hijab.

Funny... the Globe and Mail isn't allowing any comments on this particular article. 

The silence around this thing is deafening.

"Feminists had no response to this tragedy. They were last seen celebrating their victory over a popular doll's exaggerated breast size while advocating the unhindered destruction of unborn babies."

RELATED:  Apparently, almost everybody saw this coming

Aqsa's school chums at Applewood Heights Secondary School say she wanted to break free from the cultural restraints imposed by family. Friend Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, 16, said Aqsa told her something could possibly "happen."

"She was scared to go home," she said. Aqsa had recently been staying with a friend and wanted to return home to get her belongings, friends said.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST:  Dalton fiddles while Ontario burns...

Premier Dalton McGuinty is considering banning smoking in a car with a child passenger, calling the behaviour "reprehensible." McGuinty said yesterday he's "listening" to the debate generated by Liberal MPP David Orazietti's private member's bill that would empower police to pull over vehicles where a child is being exposed to second-hand smoke.

Secondhand smoke - reprehensible... honour killing... silence. 

LAST WORD:  What's behind Door #2.

Ausma Khan, the editor-in-chief of Toronto-based Muslim Girl magazine, said research into the readership of her publication shows that the decision to wear the hijab – the traditional Muslim headscarf – is almost always a choice the girl makes on her own.

AND YET AGAIN: Once again, a very special welcome... 

To readers of infantile, foul mouthed, proggie brown-noser Canadian Cecilia. Remember Cecilia is all about "respect and support" for the downtrodden... as long as you're not the grieving mother of a dead Canadian soldier.

Make sure you check out her greatest hits.

Counterfeiters to the World

Lead poisoning... is only part of what they do...

The Canadian lawsuit is one of 15 Microsoft says is linked to a Chinese counterfeiting syndicate broken up by the FBI and Chinese authorities in July.

The Guangdong-based syndicate allegedly produced and distributed more than $2-billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software.

**********

RELATED: U.S. tackles Chinese "dumping"

A third of the overall United States trade deficit is with China, mostly a reflection of a shift in the composition of industry around the world and the artificially low value China maintains for its currency.

But trade disputes rarely focus on the underlying trends, so China is now the object of nearly a third of the 257 American actions imposing duties on imports from 41 countries.

Apparently Allah changed his mind

There's not gonna be a "fight to the death" after all...

British troops stormed into Musa Qala yesterday as Taleban fighters fled their fortress town.

Soldiers from the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards, pushed into the city with the Afghan army, as president Hamid Karzai revealed many local insurgents had swapped sides ahead of the overwhelming British assault.

"The Afghan Taleban, they met with me. They said that they wanted to swap sides, and that is what has happened."

Yeah... big surprise.

Angry Mob 1 - CBSA 0

Another quaint third world custom... rears its ugly head here in Canada.

-- RICHMOND, B.C. -- The Canada Border Services Agency has stayed the deportation of a paralyzed Indian man after a standoff at Vancouver International Airport.

“For safety and security reasons, Mr. Singh's deportation has been delayed,” Derek Mellon, a spokesman for the agency, said Monday.

Mr. Singh came to Canada on a forged passport in 2003 but suffered a massive stroke three years later that left him a quadriplegic.

Technorati Tags: Canada Border Services Agency, Laibar Singh, mob rule

YEAR OF THE...

"So what else is new?"

-- TORONTO -- When a veteran Toronto homicide detective recently told a mother her son had been shot to death, he was taken aback by her response.

"She was not shocked. It was almost as if she was expecting it," said the investigator.

"It really stuck with me."

**********

RELATED: Check out Toronto's homicide map.

Technorati Tags: Year of the Gun, Toronto, homicide map

Yup... Flying Squirrel

That sounds about right...

“Everybody wants to be the first one to do it,” Mr. Haggard said.

Which leads to an obvious and inevitable question: Why?

“Because everybody thinks that it’s not possible,” Mr. Corliss said. “The point is to show people anything can be done. If you want to do amazing things, then you have to take amazing risks.”

What's life without a dream, huh?

Gonna find out...

Who's naughty or nice.

-- KANDAHAR -- A coalition force led by Canadian soldiers captured a Taliban explosives factory and cleared insurgents operating around a highway in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

Kandahar Police Chief Sayed Aka Fakid claims coalition forces killed 30 insurgents and wounded nine more.

Peacekeeping?

Yeah sure... we can call it whatever you want.

It's a dumbed down world

Reality TV, celebrity worship and a total lack of expectations...

"These days an expedition to Mount Everest attracts less attention than an expedition to mount Paris Hilton."

This should have taken 9 seconds

Instead, nine days and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars later, we've got what... six terrible, unfortunate accidents?

"I don't know what the jury thought except that the Crown didn't prove that these murders were planned and deliberate."

Yeah, right... let's do a little recap here...

"He kept severed heads, hands and feet around... for what... to make soup?"

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

How typically Canadian. We are nothing more than a compromise of conflicting ideologies that serve no agenda, with no purpose, that results in no integrity in our outcomes.

Bali Photo-Op

Apart from burning up thousands of tonnes of jet-fuel... I fail to see what has actually been accomplished here...

At the end of two days of talks involving officials from 32 nations, including 12 trade ministers, a final news conference descended into farce as Brazil and the United States swapped recriminations.

Maybe there weren't enough rock stars.

**********

RELATED: Canada calls for actual measurable results

Which, apparently, don't just involve the renaming of household pets.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, John Baird said Canada hopes to reach a deal within two years but only if it applies targets for the first time to all major polluters.

"Our major economic competition is with the United States," Baird said in an interview before he arrived in Bali this weekend. "You can have unilateral disarmament. Some might call it noble - but it's not very smart."

Makin' a list... checkin' it twice

Just in time for Christmas... the fundamentalist sociopaths in Musa Qala get the ass-kicking they so richly deserve...

British troops were tonight poised to smash through Taleban defences after surrounding the town of Musa Qala and pushing up almost to its outskirts.

Two senior Taleban commanders were captured today as troops advanced to within a mile of the town, the Islamists' symbolic stronghold in Helmand Province.

In an all too rare flow of "cultural transference" back up the diversity mountain, the jihadis are getting an indelible lesson in the difference between "naughty and nice."

Hundreds of rebel fighters in the area have been reported killed in air strikes and probing attacks in the last few weeks in advance of the offensive, one of the most ambitious to be launched in Afghanistan since 2001.

Hey Timmy... where is your god now?

A long way, baby

Well, maybe Canada isn't... as CBC would have you believe... the most unenlightened country in the world...

India's Supreme Court has struck down a 1914 law that prevented women from tending bar. The justices rejected the Delhi government's argument that women bartenders would find themselves in peril at the hands of unruly male patrons.

Better late than never, huh?

It has taken 93 years but India's women have finally won a spot behind the bar. The country's supreme court justices ruled that state laws barring female employees in bars and in restaurants where alcohol is served should be struck down as unconstitutional.

Tasers, my ass

Exactly how many Canadians die every year in alcohol related incidents?

"All five occupants of the car, a 41-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman, girls aged six and nine, and a 16-month-old boy, were pronounced dead at the scene."

To answer the question above... if you were thinking it was more than four or five per year... you'd be right.

About 3,000 people per year die in motor vehicle crashes in Canada. Of that total, 40 per cent (1,200 deaths) are attributed to alcohol.

Canadians are spending up to $25 billion annually in emergency care, rehabilitation and other costs resulting from traffic collisions.

There's a public enquiry I'd like to see.

**********

LAST WORD: Once again, a very special welcome...

To readers of infantile, foul mouthed, proggie brown-noser Canadian Cecilia.

Remember Cecilia is all about supporting the troops.

Make sure you check out her greatest hits.

Magnum Stupidity

The Toronto Sun goes for the easy, sensational headline... rather than the obvious fact of the matter.

Quan said all of the guns police seized this week were loaded when found, five in homes and one in a vehicle.

One of the firearms was a gold-coloured, .50-calibre Desert Eagle made of titanium -- a massive pistol considered by many experts to be among the most dangerous handguns ever made.

The fact that this gun would be more useful for hammering nails than shooting at (well, more to the point... actually hitting anything) has apparently gone right over this reporter's head.

"It's pretty rare," Quan said. "This is the first time I've seen one out there."

Of course, anyone at all familiar with firearms... and by that I mean someone who actually shoots... knows that this hand cannon is all show and no go.

It's rare, my learned Det.-Sgt. Quan... because it's about as useful as an arquebus.

Handguns are notoriously difficult to master and typically require long hours of practice to shoot accurately beyond 10 feet... as evidenced by all the wild shots fired off during a typical drive-by shooting.

The next time you see a police SWAT team on television... note that they are all using long guns... their pistols are simply a backup, close-quarters alternative.

Back to the Sun article... the Desert Eagle is a massive, not easily concealed chunk of metal with a punishing recoil... which makes it one of the least likely and least accurate tools of choice for a gangbanger, never mind a savvy shooter.

Of course, that doesn't matter to these budding geniuses... they just wanna look cool.

Charged are Manuel Perera, 25, Ken Yu, 25, Carlos Minero, 28, Daniel Tran, 29, Rina Okimawinew, 26, Karina Guajala, 25, all of Toronto, and Wayne Sicard, 41, and Michael Dibble, 25, both of Brockville.

Like the guy who wrote this silly article.

**********

LAST WORD: The King of Kitsch

With it's gold nitrided "tiger stripe" finish... this monstrosity really is the ultimate stereotypical "pimp gun."

The current Mark XIX measures almost 11 inches overall with a 6-inch barrel and 14 1⁄2 inches with a 10 incher. It's six inches high, 1 1/2 inches wide and weighs four pounds, 6.2 ounces.

It's an imposing piece of hardware--a fact that's not been lost on the motion picture industry as Desert Eagles have been used in scads of thrillers and sci-fi flicks.

I'd be embarrassed just to be in the same room with one of these things.

Another fuzzy-bunny poll goes awry

"In Canada as a whole, multiculturalism is..."

Thank you, Globe and Mail.

Stand and deliver

Despite getting their raggedy-asses severely kicked every time they have chosen to dig in and fight a set-piece battle, the Taliban have chosen to take a stand at Musa Qala...

"The morale of the Taleban is high... We will fight until the death," Taleban commander Mullah Ahmadullah told the Associated Press news agency.

NATO's response to that position was apparently "We're good with that", as British troops "kicked in the door" on Friday.

Predictably, the Taliban have organised their media strategy for maximum effect.

Taleban fighters have been given orders to carry out attacks far more widely than Musa Qala to try to deflect attention, but Nato sources say they have contingency plans to deal with that, our correspondent reports.

The rebels would not comment on a report by the chief of Helmand police that they had hanged a 12-year-old boy accused of spying for the British.

**********

UPDATE: One NATO soldier reported killed

-- KABUL -- A NATO soldier, two children and 12 ‘terrorists’ have been killed in the first day of an operation to retake the southern Afghan town of Musa Qala, the Afghan defence ministry said Saturday.

Two children in a vehicle in front of a Taleban patrol were also killed in a firefight, ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters.

Five other civilians in the car were wounded, he said, accusing the rebels of using the vehicle as a shield.

**********

RELATED: Aussies re-up troop committment

Australian troops will remain in Afghanistan until at least 2010 - doubling the original two-year commitment - in a decision that has not been formally announced or debated.

This was revealed by the Dutch Government, which is extending its Afghan deployment until August 2010, in part because it says the Australians will also extend their stay.

I think I've found...

The perfect Christmas gift for Warren Kinsella.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: The Devil's Handmaid drops in...

"Warren said... Let's have a flame war. I'm bored at the moment, and you should amount to a brief diversion."

He also calls me... how's this for clever... "NeoFascist."

A disappointing little sally from the phraseologist who gave us... "Barnum, Bailey and Schreiber."

C'mon Warren... I expect your A-Game.

**********

LAST WORD: Free speech meets legal screech

So Warren, lemme get this straight... you want to provoke a public cat-fight?

"Warren Kinsella, a prominent blogger and newspaper columnist, sued another blogger for libel last year, but settled the case after the blogger apologized for his remarks and paid Kinsella's legal costs."

China Syndrome

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

One of China's best-known food companies has halted exports of all tinned food, after toxic chemicals were found in canned meat products.

Food safety officials in Hong Kong have discovered a banned antibiotic, nitrofurans, in tins of Maling brand pork luncheon meat and pork ribs.

Analysts say it is going to take concerted effort to prevent unscrupulous businessmen cutting corners, in China's prevailing get-rich-quick culture.

**********

RELATED: Stoking that economic furnace

-- BEIJING -- It's hard to get your head around a figure like $1.4-trillion. Dai Zhi Ping, who makes $500 a month selling the Beijing News from the back of his motorbike, looks perplexed when he is told that China has that much money in its foreign exchange piggy bank.

This guy oughta have...

"Live and don't learn" tattooed across his forehead.

A teen whose dad was murdered 17 years ago has surrendered to face a murder charge in a slaying near Square One Mall in Mississauga.

Tristan Palmer, 19, had been sought on a warrant in the shooting death last Sunday of Husam Dagheim, 27, in a parking lot near Rathburn Rd. and Duke of York Blvd. Palmer was also wanted for robbery, assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats in connection with a robbery of a person last month.

Palmer's father, Delroy George Wolfe, was 23 when he was killed at a house party on Eaglemount Cr. in Mississauga in 1990.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

u think a guy who would be into drugs and all..would try to found an ice-cream business????? that's what i heard husam was doing only recently!!!!

Technorati Tags: Tristan Palmer, Husam Dagheim, Delroy George Wolfe

Salaam Dunk

Another "holy shit, he nailed it" moment...

"Could none of our nuanced, deep-thinking pundits really find their powers of concentration for the five seconds it takes to see why it's a bad idea to establish boards that throw out rules of evidence and give prizes to whoever can cry the hardest about being an oppressed victim with hurt feelings?"

(via FFOF)

**********

UPDATE: Mark Steyn weighs in

"The aim of a large swathe of the left is not to win the debate but to get it cancelled before it starts."

**********

LAST WORD: More nanny-state HRC fun

A group of Toronto-area children are asking the Ontario Human Rights Commission to force their school to launch mandatory lunch-bag inspections to screen out foods to which they have severe allergies, a case which could make all Ontario schools do the same.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Islamic Congress, Human Rights Commission, suckass political correctness

THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON...

Any parent can ever impress upon their wayward child... ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

Parents don't often tell their children what they can expect to get for Christmas, but thanks to some creative parenting, one Toronto-area teen knows exactly what he won't be getting.

That's because his dad is selling what would have been his Christmas present — the popular video game Guitar Hero III — on eBay, after he caught the 15-year-old smoking pot in the backyard of the family home.

Of course, the real kicker here... is knowing your child's currency.

"After I caught him getting high on my patio I did the typical yelling, screaming, kicking out the friends, etc..." the father writes. "But I had not decided on a suitable way to punish him ... Anyways, I am now finding it hard to justify rewarding him with this gift after he so greatly disappointed me."

"I am still considering getting him a game for his Nintendo," the seller writes.

"Maybe something like Barbie as the Island Princess or Dancing With the Stars. These games are in stock everywhere I go, and I know he will just love them."

"Merry Xmas Isaac. I hope you've learned your lesson."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"This is what lefties refer to as child abuse. The government should sue the father on behalf of the teenager. It's not like the kid was convicted in court etc. ad nauseum..."

Now, before I get 6 gazillion emails from aging hippies about the peerless health benefits of sparking up a breakfast doob... please note that this post is not about the morality or wisdom of embracing or rejecting dope.

It's about making choices... and the undeniable consequences of same.

Technorati Tags: Merry Xmas Isaac, Guitar Hero, The Right Stuff

The money is...

The smallest part of the problem...

Councils should be able to translate fewer documents and signs into foreign languages in future, according to new government guidelines.

Having materials converted into other tongues discourages some people in the UK from learning English, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears is due to say.

Last year, a BBC investigation suggested local authorities could be spending £100m annually on the process.

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RELATED: Meanwhile, back at the ranch

For the past decade, statistician Charles Castonguay has been predicting the demise of francophone communities outside Quebec.

Now, with census data showing a continuing slide in native French-speakers outside Quebec, he says it's time to cut off federal government life-support to the shrinking francophone outposts.

A voice in the wilderness

This the the very lonely voice that we so seldom hear... in daily discourse and the mainstream media...

It is often said that Islam has been “hijacked” by a small extremist group of radical fundamentalists. The vast majority of Muslims are said to be moderates.

But where are the moderates?

It suddenly occurs to me... you might also want to ask that same question... about the NDP.

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RELATED: Too many fanatics, not enough sanity

"I trust Irene Mathyssen to know about these things. She is the NDP critic on the Status of Women. Presumably she knows what is disrespectful. No doubt she believes that a woman can wear whatever she wants."

"What she doesn't want is men looking at them.

Hey, Steffi...

You're not gonna jump to this poor guy's defence?

The Supreme Court of Canada has paved the way for the extradition of a Canadian man to the U.S. where he is accused in a decades-old slaying of an aboriginal activist.

Got Swat

Say what you will about Pervez Musharraf and democracy... he's puttin' it all on the line by staying in Pakistan and fighting...

Troops in north-west Pakistan have retaken two Swat valley towns that were strongholds of pro-Taleban cleric Maulana Fazlullah. They have also captured the village of Imam Dehri, which was used by Maulana Fazlullah to broadcast radio messages in support of the militants.

The Pakistani military says nearly 250 pro-Taleban fighters have been killed since an offensive in the Swat valley was launched two weeks ago.

Gamil who?

Every time I see this annual "all men are abusers, let's melt down all the guns" argle-bargle... I have to shake my head...

Amanda Foley with Girl Guides Canada said she began researching the massacre and was stunned to learn more about how Mr. Lepine singled out women simply because of their gender.

Hey, Amanda... maybe you don't have the whole story.

Remember Gamil Gharbi?

Of course, you don't... because it's almost a crime in media circles to mention that name.

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UPDATE: I can't believe it...

The Globe actually accepted my comment.

Technorati Tags: Marc Lepine, Gamil Gharbi, Montreal massacre

Those Naughty Neurophysiologists...

And their quest to get inside your head...

“In these experiments we presented a large database of pictures, and discovered that we can predict what picture the subject is seeing far above chance. So, in simple words, we can read the human thought from the neuronal activity.

Dr Quian Quiroga’s latest research, which has appeared in the Journal of Neurophysiology, follows on from this.

I think we've unfairly typecast these guys... apparently they're not "all work and no play."

“For example, if the 'Jennifer Aniston neuron' increases its firing then we can predict that the subject is seeing Jennifer Aniston. If the 'Halle Berry neuron' fires, then we can predict that the subject is seeing Halle Berry, and so on.

The Abaya Monologues

Vexingly, there are no enclosed Ikea-like diagrams with cheerful balloon people, suitable for all languages. A search online turns up nothing helpful (keywords: burqa abaya hijab how to wear).

I take in the sight of me fully veiled for the first time.

To my Western eye, I look like Mrs. Darth Vader.

America's Most Wanted

Yessirreee... it's about time we went after this vile criminal organisation.

-- Philadelphia -- Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates.

This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.

Thank you... City of Brotherly Love.

Dipper Mathyssen gets her prude on

Hey, Irene... does this mean you're gonna flip out at your next Gay Pride Parade too?

-- OTTAWA -- Conservatives and Liberals duelled today for the favour of women voters but it was the NDP that fired the most sensational shot.

However, it eventually turned out that Irene Mathyssen, a New Democrat MP from London, Ont., was firing blanks.

Mathyssen stunned all sides by complaining that she'd seen Tory MP James Moore checking out a "scantily clad" woman on his laptop computer in Parliament.

Turns out it was a picture of his girlfriend.

**********

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS:

The politician who appeared the least eager to jump on the bandwagon was NDP Leader Jack Layton, even though the issue had been discussed and backed by the party's caucus.

"It's her responsibility to raise this in the House if she sees something that concerns her."

Oh, c'mon, Irene... everybody needs friends.

**********

UPDATE: Conservative MP Moore compared to killer?

Hey, Irene... you know a good lawyer?

MPs are protected from legal action for anything that they say in the House based on the principle of parliamentary privilege. But Mathyssen repeated her allegations against Moore outside of the House to reporters.

Speaking to reporters, the image of the scantily clad woman she had described to her fellow MPs turned into "soft porn, Playboy-type stuff."

"I have very good vision. I know what I saw," she said.

Noting government cuts to a number of women's programs, Mathyssen said that Moore's actions added to the impression that the Conservative government is no friend of women.

It was even worse, she said, that it was coming up to the 18th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, in which a lone gunman killed 14 women at a city college.

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LAST WORD: Two faced Double Dipper

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife cited a report in Friday's online version of the London Free Press, in which Mathyssen vowed to stand by her claims. The MP told the paper she would only apologize for failing to speak to Moore before raising the issue in the House, not for making the accusation.

Fife said it's clear Mathyssen's party pressured her to offer up a full apology.

"She will probably have to explain to her local newspaper why she said one thing to them and another thing in the House of Commons," Fife told CTV Newsnet.

Technorati Tags: Irene Mathyssen, James Moore, suckass political correctness

If only he'd used a gun...

Or lived in a big city like Toronto... he'd have been walking the streets years ago.

-- METCHOSIN, B.C. -- Sitting with his green prison coat bunched on his lap, Rob Latimer sat silently as the National Parole Board turned down his bid for parole in the life sentence that he his serving for killing his severely disabled daughter.

The board members said they were left with the feeling Mr. Latimer has not developed sufficient insight and understanding of his actions.

**********

RELATED: Meanwhile... real criminals roam free

"In 2006 alone, more than 70% of all people charged with murder were on some sort of judicial release."

Yup... let's concentrate on Robert Latimer.

There's the real danger to society.

**********

UPDATE: There's a poll at the Globe



FROM THE COMMENTS:

Keep Latimer locked up, let this guy out unsupervised ... what a system.

- In 1995, upset about those same voices, he waited in the CJOH parking lot and plugged two shots into the first person he recognized -- who turned out to be popular Smith, a former NHL player who left work early because he was on his way to a charity event.

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LAST WORD: Focus on the criminals...

Is that too much to ask?

A teen suffered multiple stab wounds at an Etobicoke highrise in a suspected gang attack today.

Toronto Police said the victim, around 16, was found alone and bleeding profusely in an elevator by tenants at 2777 Kipling Ave., south of Steeles Ave., at 4:23 p.m.

He suffered two stab wounds to the chest and another to the head. He was rushed to Sunnybrook for emergency surgery. His condition was not immediately known.

Technorati Tags: Robert Latimer, National Parole Board, mercy killing

I don't know about Lady Justice...

But it sure looks like the OPP is blind.

Ontario's top cop, Julian Fantino, got his job only half-right at a violent protest in Caledonia this past weekend. Which means the Ontario Provincial Police commissioner got things half-wrong -- and big time.

Now, call me naive... but I thought the police weren't allowed to cherrypick... they were supposed to ENFORCE ALL the laws of the land.

There he was, talking tough, talking blunt and promising to crack down on a protester he felt had gone too far in opposing the alleged illegal sale of cigarettes by natives.

But when it came to subject of the protest itself -- a native tobacco trade that is apparently breaking the law by depriving governments of millions of dollars in taxes -- Fantino strangely enough didn't say boo.

If Julian Fantino is not prepared to enforce the "law of the land"... he's not the right man for the job.

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RELATED: Gotta love that selective enforcement

A man hurt during a weekend confrontation in Caledonia says he will take legal action against the OPP for not stepping in when things got ugly.

The protesters encountered a group of 100 natives. About 16 uniformed OPP officers were present, McHale said. McHale and another protester were hurt.

Technorati Tags: homegrown terrorists, Julian Fantino, suckass political correctness

Well... it could be worse

They actually used to burn "the heretics" along with the books.

-- CALGARY -- The Roman Catholic school board in Calgary has followed the lead of a Catholic school board in Burlington, Ont., in pulling the children's fantasy book The Golden Compass off school shelves.

"Our children are exposed to a wide range of information," said board spokeswoman Judy Mackay. "One of our responsibilities is to help them understand how that fits with their belief system and to equip them with the skills so that they understand how they can fit that into their own belief system."

I'm not exactly clear on how "banning" this book is "equipping anyone with skills".

Coincidentally, neither is this guy...

Not everyone in Calgary's Catholic community was jumping on the book-banning bandwagon.

Calgary Bishop Fred Henry said there are more pressing issues facing Catholics than debating a children's fantasy novel.

Technorati Tags: The Golden Compass, Halton Catholic District School Board, Calgary Catholic School Board

You don't need a weatherman...

To know which way the fallout's blowin...

When is a nuclear program a nuclear weapons program?

The open secret of the nuclear age is that the line between civilian and military programs is extraordinarily thin.

Enriched to low levels, uranium can fuel a reactor that produces electrical power — which is what Tehran says it wants to do. But if uranium is purified in spinning centrifuges long enough, and becomes highly enriched, it can fuel an atom bomb.

Yup... that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... he's just all about the electricity.

Indeed, the most difficult part of building a bomb is not doing the secret military design work but rather the part of the process that is also crucial to civilian nuclear power — producing the fuel.

This one's a no-brainer.

Standing by and doing nothing here is like letting your labrador retriever drive the kids to school.

Technorati Tags: Iran, nuclear weapons, Ahmadinejad

A pimp, not a simp

The rap world mourns the passing of yet another musical giant...

"I'm trill working the wheel. A pimp, not a simp. Keep the dope fiends higher than the Goodyear blimp. We eat so many shrimp I got iodine poisoning."

The changing face of urban Canada

However you might feel about it... it's not your parent's Toronto any more.

-- TORONTO -- One in every five Canadians is now foreign-born, the highest proportion in 75 years, a shift likely to have profound consequences for Canada's economic and cultural future.

Canada is becoming ever more diverse, Statistics Canada's 2006 census shows. The country's foreign-born population soared 13.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006 — four times higher than the Canadian-born population.

I should mention here... in the interest of heading off any more virulent, offensive comments... my parents were immigrants.

Jihadi Operating System

Seems this "suicide bomber" kept going off in the wrong neighbourhoods...

Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.

The so-called "kill switch" is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.

But the tool has suffered from glitches since it was introduced with many Windows users claiming that legal copies of Vista had been disabled.

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RELATED: Speaking of little glitches

"This is exactly how identity theft happens," said Carlisle Adams, an Internet data security expert and professor at the University of Ottawa.

"If you want to take out a mortgage, for example, this is the type of information the bank is going to ask for to make sure you're really the person you're claiming to be. Then all of a sudden there's a mortgage in someone else's name."

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista, kill switch, Microsoft

Schreiberfest

I'm not sure this dog and pony show is turning out exactly the way Stephane Dion envisioned.

Meanwhile, the Ontario Court of Appeal has agreed to release Mr. Schreiber on $1.31-million bail. CBC News is reporting that former Liberal cabinet minister Marc Lalonde is among those posting bail, as is Mr. Schreiber and his wife, Barbel.

Liberal cabinet heavyweight André Ouellet waged an intense backroom fight in the mid-1990s to rescue the project, according to federal documents obtained by The Globe.

So that's what some Liberals were gibbering about recently... when they said they wanted "a focused inquiry."

I'm trying to imagine possible headlines later this week...

"Can we just dig up 'some' of the bodies?", pleads Dion.

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UPDATE: Globe and Mail's schizophrenic coverage

"Karlheinz Schreiber says he never talked to Brian Mulroney about money while the former prime minister was still in office, although the pair agreed to work together on future business, he told a parliamentary committee."

But what's this further down the page?

"Mr. Schreiber alleges that he struck a financial deal with the former prime minister while Mr. Mulroney was still in office."

Make up your mind, willya?

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LAST WORD: Steffi... keep diggin... please

Yesterday's testimony Mr. Schreiber mentioned three bank accounts yesterday - the Frankfurt account, the Britan account and the Mark account.

The Marc account, Mr. Schreiber said, was for Marc Lalonde, a former Liberal cabinet minister who is on retainer as his lawyer, dispensing friendly advice more than legal services. Mr. Lalonde helped post bail for Mr. Schreiber in 2000 and again yesterday.

Marc Lalonde, who apparently "forgot" to register as a lobbyist, replies...

In testimony before a Commons committee on Tuesday, Mr. Schreiber said that one of a Swiss bank account containing $500,000 — one of the accounts associated with Airbus "grease money" — was earmarked for Mr. Lalonde.

Mr. Lalonde said in an e-mail Tuesday that he doesn’t know why that might be.

"As to the $500,000 account you refer to, I have no knowledge what kinds of accounts he maintained and under what name," he said.

"I can only repeat that bills were sent; they were sent by my former firm under my signature and they were regularly paid to the firm. I can say, however, that the total never amounted to $500,000."

Technorati Tags: Karlheinz Schreiber, Stephane Dion, Airbust

No Suspect Left Behind

Apparently David Miller and the city of Toronto have charged into the trenches of the war on terror.

-- TORONTO -- Mahmoud Jaballah has been banned from unsupervised communications with the outside world for nearly a decade, ever since he was accused of relaying messages for al-Qaeda before the deadly 1998 African embassy bombings.

They just might want to reconsider which side they're on.

But last month, in a breach of the Egyptian's bail conditions, a City of Toronto program for needy families installed a new high-speed Internet connection in his home.

In late August, high-school student Afnan Essayyid, one of Mr. Jaballah's six children, qualified for the City of Toronto's Kids@Computers scholarship program, which gives free Internet connections to families on welfare.

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RELATED: But Mahmoud needs his DSL

-- RIYADH, Dec 4 (Reuters) -- There are now about 5,600 Web sites spreading al Qaeda's ideology worldwide, and 900 more are appearing each year, a Saudi researcher told a national security conference on Tuesday.

"The real battle with al Qaeda is no longer on the ground, but rather a media battle, and it is a real threat to national security," Faram told Reuters. "For al Qaeda media coverage is more important than the actual operations," he said.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

Jaballah's son Ahmed was one of the people behind the hoohah at the U of T Scarborough campus halal food issue.

Yeah... I remember that one.

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LAST WORD: Meanwhile, over at Leftbot Central...

The socialist McGuinty government is policing people's Christmas gifts.

-- SARNIA -- Political correctness has been taken to an absurd level by the people who decide what can and can't go on Ontario's personalized licence plates, a Sarnia woman says.

Technorati Tags: Mahmoud Jaballah, Ahmed Jaballah, suckass political correctness

It gets cold, or wet...

I stop changing the oil in the vehicles and let Crappy Tire do the dirty work... so this kinda thing just blows me away.

-- GREENBELT, Md. -- It’s the last roundup for the People’s Telescope.

Next August, after 20 years of hype, disappointment, blunders, triumphs and peerless glittering vistas of space and time, and four years after NASA decided to leave the Hubble Space Telescope to die in orbit, setting off public and Congressional outrage, a group of astronauts will ride to the telescope aboard the space shuttle Atlantis with wrenches in hand.

That, at least, is the plan.

Outstanding karma debt...

Repaid in full...

Recently a Taleban commander in Musa Qala told visiting journalists that they were ready for an assault, claiming they had more than 2,000 Taleban fighters in the town.

The shoot gets underway and... I'm sad to report... Mullah Sainy ain't gonna make the wrap party.

Technorati Tags: Musa Qala, Mullah Sainy, leftwing media bias

Million Dollar Babies

You didn't actually think this charade had anything to do... with holding Karlheinz Schreiber to account... did you?

" -- OTTAWA -- We're a parliamentary committee. We're not a commission of inquiry. We want to get his testimony, we don't do interrogations and we don't extort the information from a hostile or recalcitrant witness," she said.

"At the end of the day, if someone doesn't want to respond, or tells us lies, it's public opinion that will judge them."

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RELATED: Boy... that sure explains a lot

-- TORONTO -- A new Statistics Canada survey reveals that one out every seven people in the country is living with a disability.

An estimated 4.4 million Canadians reported having a disability in 2006, an increase of more than 750,000 people over the past five years.

Technorati Tags: Karlheinz Schreiber, Stephane Dion, Airbust

This one goes out to...

Poor, overworked, under-appreciated Uncle Mike...

"On my fourth day of telecommuting I realize that clothes are totally unnecessary."

The Teddy sounds a lot smarter

What exactly does this woman teach... fingerpainting?

-- Khartoum -- Gibbons issued a statement saying she has great respect for Islam, and apologizing for any distress she had caused to the people of Sudan. She is expected to leave the country as soon as possible.

Anybody know... what happened to the poor bear?

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UPDATE: Bad news on the Teddy front.

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RELATED: The smelly armpit of Africa

Thanks to the Gillian Gibbons saga, Sudan has managed to transform its public image from pariah state to something approaching a laughing stock.

Technorati Tags: Gillian Gibbons, sharia law, suckass political correctness

Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge

Hey, it's not my my fault... the local library refuses to burn all the Richard Dawkins books...

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Flame away... I'm certainly prepared to listen to the other side of the equation.

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RELATED: Need another opinion?

Email the Pope

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

For nature or the physical laws of the universe to arrange things such that one of the byproducts (me) is a being that can believe its actions are meaningful and also comprehend its own complete insignificance seems like a bad joke to me.

I think there might be a joker.

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LAST WORD: You're not gonna riot, are you?

"Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages -- but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive."

A strategic withdrawal

It looks like RCMI will live to fight another day.

-- TORONTO -- The stately home of the Royal Canadian Military Institute, a city landmark that has graced University Avenue for 100 years, is facing voluntary demolition to make way for a high-rise condominium.

The plan, quietly approved by the private institute's members, calls for the building's Edwardian facade--currently flanked by two 19th-century cannons -- to be saved as a nod to its rich heritage.

Given present circumstances... this appears to be the best possible solution here.

Despite the membership's love of history, the financial case was compelling, said several institute members, speaking on condition they not be named.

"It is quite a huge proposal. It is an innovative and startling idea. It was difficult to get comfortable with but there seems no other way," said one long-time member.

Another put it more bluntly: "Sad to say, there's not a hope in Hades of whipping this place into shape without help."

Often imitated... never duplicated

You bring your rose-coloured glasses over to Kathy Shaidle's house... she'll shove 'em up your ass...

Let's face it: other Africans don't care much about starving Africans, or they wouldn't steal foreign aid from the mouths of their fellow citizens. The Great White Liberal doesn't really care, otherwise they'd never have banned DDT or fertilizer... He's just indulging in masturbatory/circle jerk moral exhibitionism.

Africa is a basketcase and that isn't my problem. Christianity was probably helping, but they seem to prefer Islam, with predictable results.

RELATED: C'mon, some Torontonians really, really care

Sheila Ward probably did not expect her final public meeting as Toronto District School Board chair would mostly involve pounding her gavel, clearing the room and finally calling the meeting off. But that is what happened this past Wednesday night after mother Vickie McPhee, a social rights activist, took over the floor just after the meeting started, backed by supportive shouts from some of the 100-or-so supporters of a proposal to start an Africentric school next fall.

While others obviously don't...

And over at Toronto's Catholic board? While the TDSB's meeting was being shut down, the same night Catholic trustees quietly acclaimed their new chair, Catherine Leblanc-Miller.

Riot... or quiet... the new standard of caring.

Cirque de Stephane

No matter how many times they wheel out that tiny fiberal clown car... I never get tired of all the little bozos spilling out... and tripping all over themselves.

"I'm not a potted plant. I'm not going to go to that kind of process," said Greenspan, who didn't appear at Thursday's hearing.

"It's not a fair process ... it's a political circus."

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RELATED: Speaking of lack of due process

First, they came for the seniors...

"For the drug gangs they have to get a warrant before they go into their houses, and yet the Firearms Act allows them to come into our house when we've never committed a crime in our life."

Uh, officer... after you've finished frisking Grampa... you might wanna head on over to Scarborough.

A stabbing that critically injured a man left Christmas shoppers outside and empty-handed at Scarborough Town Centre last night, when some stores were abruptly closed. Police were called to the mall at 6:30 p.m., after a man was stabbed outside the Foot Locker.

Shoppers were forced out of parts of the mall and the Wal-Mart, many forced to abandon what they'd gathered before paying for it. Some weren't surprised by the violence.

"Every day you see that," said Ravi Subraman, 32, who was shopping for toys for his children. He said he's seen "three or four" fights in the area recently.

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UPDATE: No biggie... gotta have shoes, right?

A man was seen running from the scene through Wal-Mart. The store was shut down and an 18-year-old was arrested soon after.

A Foot Locker employee said yesterday the stabbing wasn't having much affect on holiday shopping. Facing several charges, including attempted murder, is Kareen King, 18, of Toronto.

Now, you just hang on...

One taser-pickin' minute.

Despite narrow, focussed support...

Within the particular "community" itself... it seems Canadians aren't actually too keen on segregation.

Apparently, unfortunately... not every place in the world is similarly enlightened.

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LAST WORD: Ok, I admit it...

I was wrong about Julian Fantino.

Toronto... just another reason

Try not to get sick or injured in the east end of Toronto...

Scarborough General Hospital has the highest rate of deaths in the Toronto area – and the third highest in Canada – according to a watershed report that makes hospital death rates public for the first time.

Unfortunately... things are even worse in the west.

How bad, you ask? Seems they won't even say.

The only hospital in the Greater Toronto Area that CIHI did not release figures for was the Humber River Regional Hospital.

"For this report we got our preliminary results back and when we saw them we said, `Hold on – we've got some concerns here,'" said Gerrard Power, a hospital spokesperson.

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UPDATE: Lucky Number 80

A 16-year-old has died after he was shot at a townhouse complex in the Morningside and Sheppard Aves. area early this morning.

The boy was shot around 1:40 a.m., Toronto police said. He was taken to hospital where he later died.

It is Toronto's 80th homicide of the year.

But don't blame the shooter... the Toronto Star fingers the real killers.

Henry, Campbell and several other Malvern youth were featured in EMPz 4 Life, an acclaimed documentary that made its debut at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie is really about how the odds are stacked against the kids, and how "police, the schools and social agencies, seem perversely determined to keep the kids locked within the very patterns which doom them to failure, despair and marginalization," the Star's film critic, Geoff Pevere, wrote in 2006.

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UPDATE2: Meanwhile, just down the road

A drug deal that went sour may have sparked the slaying of a Mississauga man near the busy and popular Square One Mall, Peel police say.

Husam Dagheim, 27, was shot dead shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot near Rathburn Rd., and Duke of York Blvd.

Police are looking for three black men wearing dark-coloured clothing. One suspect is believed to be between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-9, about 125 pounds and in his late teens or early 20s.

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LAST WORD: Once again, a very special welcome...

To readers of infantile, foul mouthed, proggie brown-noser "Canadian Cecilia"

Make sure you check out his greatest hits.

Dion calls Prime Minister a "saboteur"

After batting zero at the Schreiber charade... the Fiberals have decided to amp up the rhetoric...

Mr. Dion repeatedly charged that Mr. Harper not only has weakened domestic efforts to address climate change, but “sabotaged” international talks aimed at having countries agree to take action.

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RELATED: Speaking of sabotage

A large number of locally nominated Liberals losing in Quebec is bad enough. But Stephane Dion might be remembered as the Liberal leader who personally selected the most number of losing candidates of an leader in Liberal Party history, forced to do so by his promise to field 33% women candidates.

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LAST WORD: Bring out the Codetalker himself

"2008 will be another ball game," he said. "You cannot keep alive forever a government who wants to die."

If my street name was Scruffles...

I'd probably be pissed off at the whole world too.

A man police fear is armed and dangerous is wanted for shooting up a North York home in broad daylight, nearly killing an innocent man.

Known on the streets as "Scruffles," John is described as black, 6-foot-1, 165 pounds, with a slim build, short black hair and thick eyebrows. At the time of the shooting, he wore a black 3/4-length coat and black running shoes.

I guess "Bozo" was already taken.

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RELATED: Ok, everybody settle down

It's not like they tasered him.

-- OAKVILLE, Ont. -- The province's Special Investigations Unit is probing an early-morning incident in Oakville, Ont., in which police fatally shot a man following a brief confrontation.

Looks like this was a "good shoot".

The name "Steve Remian" surfaced at the Robert "Willie" Pickton murder trial in New Westminster, B.C., last March, when jurors were told that Remian's name – with a Burnaby, B.C., address – was on the label of a suitcase packed into a box found in Pickton's workshop.

Once upon a time...

"OOOOH, OOOOH... I wanna play too... is he holding a pitchfork?"

-- Chilliwack Progress -- "Imagine our prime minister on a tall building and passively watching a young baby crawling towards the edge."

Follow the Yellow Brick Toad

I don't know what Steffi needs more... courage... or a brain.

-- OTTAWA -- Stéphane Dion says Canadians didn't want an election this year but “2008 will be another ballgame.”

And when his MPs return to Ottawa in late January from their Christmas break, they, too, may be in a “different mood, indeed,” he said in a wide-ranging interview this week reflecting on his first year as Liberal Leader.

Asked if that means he will try to trigger an election as early as February, he said, “We'll see.”

Bold words indeed... I bet the rest of the Fiberals will follow him "to the very shores of heck."

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

SD considers his fellow Quebecers to be slightly smarter than fence posts. It seems they thought they were voting for a LPC candidate when they elected Thomas Mulcair.

Rumor has it that all liberal candidates will be outfitted with surplus Santa suits in the new year so as to erase any voter confusion along party lines.

And Justice for None

A sweetgrass deal... if you can get it.

A man who murdered his best friend while serving a conditional sentence for a robbery bragged to police that he was "21-1 in court" because of the native diversion program, a judge heard yesterday.

Hang on... I thought justice was supposed to be blind... not stupid.

In the past five years, Beausoleil had 10 charges, one for a weapons offence, diverted because of his native ancestry, said his lawyer Anthony DeMarco.

Under the native diversion program, the accused acknowledges responsibility for his actions, but doesn't plead guilty and no criminal conviction is registered.

Now, if this guy hadn't been able to use his perpetual aboriginal "get out of jail free" card... maybe, just maybe... he wouldn't have gotten around to murdering his best friend.

That, of course, is beside the point...

Which actually is... how about we just go back to "One People... One Law"?

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LAST WORD: Funny... no diversion here

"There's no problem with that, no way, there never was. Nobody ever thought of him as actually a criminal or anything," Woodrow said. "He's just your everyday person-next-door type and that's always stood. He still will be. That hasn't changed. He doesn't deserve to be in there, no way."

Because, you know, he might have run around killing everybody's kids.