This time it's personal

There have been times lately when I've been put off by comedian Rick Mercer. I've wondered how much of his leaning on the Conservatives has been influenced not simply by its comedic heft, but by his being gay... or because he's working for Pravda Canada, as the CBC is affectionately known around here.

So it really surprised me to read his response to a columnist in the Newfoundland & Labrador Independent, regarding his remarkable friend, Corporal Paul Franklin.

The “poor sod” in question, Noreen, has a name and it is Cpl. Paul Franklin. He is a medic in the Forces and has been a buddy of mine for years. I had dinner with him last week in Edmonton, in fact. I will be sure to pass on to him that his lack of legs caused you some personal discomfort this Christmas.

I was not surprised to discover that the woman who wrote the original column, Noreen Golfman, works in Memorial University’s women’s studies department. No real surprise either that Noreen was indignant that Mercer had the temerity to visit Canadian troops in Afghanistan. She petulantly asks, "When did the worm turn?"

Mercer replies...

Well I hate to break it to you, but in my case this worm has been doing this for a long time now. It’s been a decade since I visited Canadian peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and this Christmas marked my third trip to Afghanistan.

So anyway... I was wrong about Rick Mercer. I made a judgement about his motives, without having all the facts. His defence of his friend Cpl. Paul Franklin was heartfelt and moving. And he hasn't obviously closed his mind about the struggle in Afghanistan, like so many of the so-called progressives.

Mercer wraps it all up neatly...

You end by saying you personally cannot envision that peace can ever be paved with military offensives. May I suggest to you that in many instances in history peace has been achieved exactly that way.

The gates of Auschwitz were not opened with peace talks. Holland was not liberated by peacekeepers and fascism was not defeated with a deft pen. Time and time again men and women in uniform have laid down their lives in just causes and in an effort to free others from oppression.

Now, this doesn't mean I'm going all soft, but I'm gonna try take a page from Rick Mercer... and expand my appreciation of folks I don't agree with and to be honest, very seldom understand.

We'll see what happens.

h/t to Triple C

Technorati Tags: Rick Mercer, Afghanistan, stepping back

The mouths of babes

Got an email from my baby brother... he'd be good at this.

A couple guys I used to work with ,, one ultra right wing, and the other polar opposite,,, (I think he's gay and he just doesn't know it) ,,,

"Could you imagine what a utopian paradise we'd be living in ,, if the government actually resolved every priority they had ,, and were legitimately at "toboggan safety" on their "to-do" list,,, "

That's a country ,, I'd like to live in.

Do you know someone with cancer?

I have, on more than one occasion, used the phrase "heads up their ass", regarding the Liberals marked tendency to make decisions based on optics and polls, rather than the greater good.

I have also railed at the waste and stupidity of the Lib-sponsored, "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry."

Interestingly enough, and forgive me if you've heard this before, the convergence of these two sentiments has a tie-in to an alarming medical statistic...

Colorectal cancer – the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Canada and the United States – accounts for 10 per cent of all cancer deaths. In 2006, an estimated 20,000 Canadians were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, which kills about 8,500 a year.

On the one hand we have the "black hole" waste of spending over a billion dollars and counting... to register the rifles (not handguns, mind you, which have required registration since the 1930's) of farmers, deer hunters and gun collectors.

This program has, to date, done absolutely nothing about crime, criminals or illegal use of firearms.

On the other hand we have 8,500 Canadians who die every year, from just one of the many forms of cancer.

Just think what a billion dollars could have done, for example, in the fight against cancer... instead of being used in a crass, opportunistic Liberal publicity stunt.

Let's take a real look at saving lives.

RELATED: What do the experts say?

OTTAWA -- Experts from the frontlines of the fight against organized crime gave their support yesterday to the controversial Conservative bill to toughen sentences for people who commit crimes with guns.

"It is difficult to see this legislation as extreme," said Randall Richmond, a Quebec prosecutor who specializes in organized crime cases. "I believe it is a way of attacking a growing problem, i.e. the use of firearms."

Technorati Tags: Liberal Party, tax and spend, politics as usual

Maybe it's not all George Bush...

Even the comments at SDA are more thought provoking than most Liblog happy-happy...

Anthropologists have long tried to close their minds to the plentiful evidence for murderous tribal warfare.

When they encountered tribal wars, they pointed out that not many people seemed to get killed in any fight --- forgetting that raiding one's neighbors is often a weekly sporting event, like Monday Night Football.

So war death rates go to thirty percent over a lifetime, not counting injuries, rapes and ethnic cleansings. And it turns out that even the "peaceful" peoples, like Bushmen, boast of their human kills.

"They justify killing by explaining that they just get really mad."

RELATED: Peering into the political crystal ball...

Sheila Fraser announces another whopper theft by liberals, largely facilitating or complicit in the crime will be more scummy media people.

Election is called soon after the discovery, and the libs are decimated, Harper gets a majority, and takes a freakin buzz saw to the top third of the Death Trap Nanny State in a glorious one week bureaucratic bloodbath for elitist leftard entitled fatcat cheque cashers.

Three seconds after doubling the staff of the Auditor General and opening the once secret financial records of all the foundations set up by the liberals, it is discovered that the federal Liberals are in fact the mafia.

Technorati Tags: nature of the beast, SDA, George Bush

The Kinsella Seal of Approval

I'm not sure how I managed to scoop E-Talk on this breaking story... but it seems that "Special K" has graciously agreed to the request of Liberal Catnip, to be the Supreme Arbiter of the "Ten Smartest Female Canadian Bloggers" extant.

Mr. Kinsella was chosen, in no small part, because of his endearing tendency to constantly refer to himself on his own webpage in the third person... a personality quirk traditionally reserved for British Royalty.

Headlining her own humility in an email to WK, Catnip gushes...

As Michelle points out [link] there certainly are many "smart female [Canadian] bloggers" out here and yes, I will toot my own horn and consider myself among them.

And so my friends... the game is afoot... with one small Libnippian proviso.

I will tell you this, however (and here's where I disagree with one of Michelle's choices), 'smart' does not include bloggers like Kate who defame politicians by supplying fake, libelous quotes just to create hysteria.

That decision is not open to debate. Period. Anyone who attempts to dispute that decision will have their comment removed since I'm not interested in wasting my time reading any defences of her behaviour.

So, to recap... Libnip and Kinsella, the self anointed judges of all that is good, smart and female in the Canadian Blogosphere, will soon grace us with their decision about the very smartest Canadian womyn bloggers.

As long as it isn't that unspeakable Kate at Small Dead Animals... you know... the hands down winner of the Best Canadian (male, female, gay and I daresay transgendered) Blog at the 2006 Weblog Awards.

And please don't try to email Ms. Libnip... because she has made her final decision on this... so that's that.

She really means it.

Really and truly.

**********

UPDATE: Kateland, aka TZH saw this one coming... last year

I have never met the other Kate (of Small Dead Animals) or Lisa (of The London Fog) or Canadianna, but I have met Kathy Shaidle and Girl on the Right but there is not a penis in the lot.

But there are far more quality conservative female voices out there churning out punditry everyday then you allow for in the narrow confides of your liberal belief system.

And here’s a tip – we are all punching far beyond our weight, which is more than I can say for more than a few liberal girlie-man bloggers.

**********

2ND LAST WORD: Who cares what Evil Kate says anyway?

Oh... them.

**********

KINSELLA SPEAKS: It is... because he says it is.

This being the blogosphere, some folks are of course being deliberately obtuse, and suggesting I wanted to be arbiter of the resulting discussion.

That's crap, of course.

**********

But Sire... I referred to you as "Supreme Arbiter"... surely that counts for something.

Technorati Tags: Liberal Catnip, Warren Kinsella, hubris

Iran has been a busy little beaver

An ongoing quest for nuclear weapons, fomenting revolution in Iraq and now, wait for it... diplomatic assassination?

CAIRO, Jan. 28 — A front-page article in Egypt’s semiofficial state newspaper on Sunday accused Iranian intelligence of involvement in the 2005 killing of Egypt’s ambassador to Iraq.

In 2005, in an effort by Egypt to support Iraq’s newly elected, Shiite-dominated government, Ihab Al Sharif was sent to Iraq in June as the first resident ambassador from a Sunni Arab state.

One month later, Mr. Sharif was abducted, and he was killed four days later.

Interesting timing on the release of this story, what with the United States taking off the kid gloves, regarding Iranian nationals in Iraq.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Egypt, religion of peace

And democracy wept...

Nova Scotia held a special by-election yesterday for the African-Nova Scotian seat on the South Shore regional school board.

No one voted.

Peter Loewen dropped by to comment on a post I made recently. Unlike a lot of the mostly anonymous "hit and run" name-callers, he made a calm, lucid, non-partisan argument... and sat back and waited for a response.

He's worth the read.

Political scientists have spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out why and when people vote. This book is a great overview of the research, this article is rather pathbreaking, and this argument is quite compelling.

At the risk of trashing my rep as a lowbrow, kneejerk, 'shoot-em-all, let god sort 'em out' Neo-Conservative, I just have to quote Peter, one more time...

I am generally of the mind - and it's due to my training - that a lot of what we find in the world we find because we want to and not because it is "true".

Technorati Tags: Peter Loewen, a shrewdness of apes, worth the read

No rush to judgement here

Lately, there's been a whole lot of moaning about "Willie" Pickton not getting a fair trial. If there was a "rush to judgement" here... I sure wouldn't want see what a meticulous investigation involves...

Police would eventually take 400,000 swabs from furniture pieces and from inside Mr. Pickton's buildings, Insp. Adam told court. At one point, the Pickton probe had used up the country's entire supply of white suits.

Eventually, the property was divided into 216 grids and, by the end of the investigation, approximately 382,00 cubic yards of soil passed through police conveyer belts.

I'm guessin' 400,000 DNA tests alone, translates into mucho taxpayer dinero.

RELATED: The purpose of the justice system

Over at Damian's, they're gettin' down to it...

So let's state this without ambiguity: the criminal justice system exists to protect the law-abiding individual from the criminal.

Anything else that it may try to do, such as reforming delinquents, treating drug addicts or addressing social deprivation, however admirable in itself, will be largely pointless if it fails in that primary purpose.

Technorati Tags: DNA, predator, Robert Pickton

Do the Leftbot

Kathy Shaidle captures the essence of that loony leftomatic dance craze...

Speaking of criticism: I'd be impressed and possibly even delighted if all the Kathy haters would at least mount actual counterarguments to my observations.

Instead, they just quote me verbatim, huff and puff, toss in the word "racist" (the modern day version of "Burn the witch!") and hit "post".

If that's the best you can manage, it says more about the paucity of your dearly held beliefs and easily hurt feelings than it does about my candid, albeit "shocking" opinions.

You just know Warren "Rabbler-in-Chief" Kinsella has to be somewhere in this puppy-pile... because facts aren't as important as hurt feelings.

Hoist by their own petard

Attack ads... you mean like "GUNS IN OUR STREETS?"

Nah, looks more like a gang of inept Liberal suicide bombers to me... or maybe Steffi, Iggy and Moe.

They said it... let them wear it.

One ad features Mr. Ignatieff criticizing Mr. Dion on the party's environmental record during a Liberal leadership debate. “We didn't get it done,” Mr. Ignatieff says. Ken Dryden, another former leadership rival, adds: “What stopped us? Why didn't we do better?”

The ad concludes by saying: “The Liberals had 13 years to get it down. Let's not go back.”

In the interest of fairness, let's hear from Steffi himself...

Another ad shows Mr. Dion lashing out at Mr. Ignatieff's criticism during a leadership debate, saying: “This is unfair ... do you think it's easy to make priorities?”

A voiceover says: “Leaders set priorities. Leaders get things done. Stéphane Dion is not a leader.”

Check out all three here.

RELATED: As usual, AGWN has the goods

That was when the Liberals rolled out their attack ads, claiming Stephen Harper was going to put "soldiers in our streets". It was absurd, and it backfired.

The point is Telecaster, run by Jim Patterson, didn't censor them, even though they used images of Stephen Harper without his permission.

But when the Conservatives produced a response to those attack ads -- showing video clips of Liberal MPs admitting their own attack ads had gone too far -- Telecaster censored the ads. Telecaster ordered the Conservative ads off the air.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, politics as usual, Liberal Party

Good news from... uh, Iraq?

No, the 200 insurgents smoked by our guys isn't what I'm talkin' about... although that's undeniably a bonus.

This is an important shift that reaches across Iraqi society...

Few are aware just how important technology has become in this conflict. I'm not talking about American laser-guided weaponry and their all-seeing drones flying above Baghdad 24 hours a day.

A quiet revolution has occurred since Saddam's overthrow. You didn't have broadband under the Baath party. You do now.

Millions of Iraqis own mobiles. Despite the violence, the phone companies have gradually expanded coverage - although their security budgets are astronomical.

There are still major problems in Iraq regarding safety and security, but this is a hopeful sign... once you let that hi-tech, free speech genie outta the bottle, it isn't that easy to stuff it back in.

A taste of freedom goes a long way.

RELATED: "Soldiers of Heaven" get their wish

Except instead of creating martyrs... the 'soldiers' made the donor list.

The insurgents planned to attack Shia pilgrims and clerics during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shia calendar commemorating the seventh-century death of Imam Hussein.

S.O.H. leader, a total squirrel... even by Iraqi standards

This religious romp was intended to take the lives of Shia pilgrims, but the good guys managed to change the erstwhile messiah's horoscope...

"He claimed to be the Mahdi," said Mr al-Waeli, adding that that the man used the full name Mahdi bin Ali bin Ali bin Abi Taleb, claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

"One of the signs of the coming of the Mahdi was to be the killing of the Ulema (Islamic clerical leaders) in Najaf," he said.

Hey Jack... let's see you negotiate that.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Soldiers of Heaven, religion of peace

Somebody tell me...

Which part of the Koran permits, nay, encourages... murdering children?

If it's not in there... then why does this ever increasing internecine slaughter go on and on?

Cementing their place firmly into history as the worlds most cowardly people, Islamic insurgents in Iraq turned their weapons on young girls....

-- Baghdad -- Mortar shells rained down Sunday on a girls' secondary school in a mostly Sunni area of western Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20, witnesses and police said.

The rest of the article goes on to describe unceasing slaughter that would make Robert Pickton sit up and take notice.

Backshooting, bombs on buses and slaughtering children.

Way to go Religion of Peace.

GAZA UPDATE: They shoot babies, don't they?

A Fatah loyalist, a Hamas member, a teenager and a two-year old child were among those killed yesterday and two Hamas supporters died in an attack the previous night.

THE POINT: Libnip thinks I'm a meanie

In the comments... Liberal Catnip mewls that I'm being unfairly critical of the Religion of Peace.

I'm thinkin' it may not just be hardass, conservative me.

Right under the Globe and Mail headline article on not-so-peace lovin' Iraqitards mortaring a girls school... is, lo and behold... the same insane behaviour from their Gazan confreres...

Gaza City, Gaza Strip — Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other in the streets Sunday, having sent civilians fleeing from their homes in an increasingly bloody power struggle that left more than two dozen Palestinians dead over the weekend.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, murder, religion of peace

C'mon, can't you guys take a joke?

There was an initial report out of Iran this evening, about a substantial ramping up of the country's nuclear capability...

Tehran — Iran is currently installing 3,000 centrifuges, a top legislator said Saturday in an announcement underlining the country will continue to develop its nuclear program despite UN sanctions.

Legislator Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the installation underway at an Iranian uranium-enrichment plant "stabilizes Iran's capability in the field of nuclear technology," Iran's IRNA news agency reported.

This story is now suddenly being repudiated via the Pakistani press, as someone upstream realises poking a stick through these particular bars might have serious consequences...

TEHRAN: An Iranian nuclear official has denied the statement of a senior Tehran parliamentarian as he was quoted as saying the country has begun installing 3000 new atomic centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

The Iranian nuclear agency official told a state news agency that no new centrifuge machine has been installed.

Those Iranians are such kidders... hey Alaeddin, you wanna hear a joke?

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

UPDATE: Experts fall from the skies like manna

Another source with familiarity with the Iranian programme said: "Iran has put all this money into this huge hole in the ground at Natanz; it has put a huge amount of money in these P-1 centrifuges, the model rejected by Urenco."

"It is like the Model T Ford compared to a Prius."

Technorati Tags: Iran, nuclear bomb, religion of peace

Welcome to the Alamo

Under new directions from the administration, American soldiers in Iraq are now getting "up close and personal..."

The outpost sits on the fault line between Sunni and Shiite enclaves: Ghazaliya to the south, where fighters with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have moved in among the Sunni population, and Shula to the north, a base for Shiite militias that have been raiding this neighborhood for months.

The expression "rock and a hard place" just doesn't do justice to this little corner of hell.

A few minutes after setting out, the soldiers passed a school that, like the other two in the area, was closed. Two months ago, American officers say, a teacher was raped, mutilated and strung up by her feet outside the building, left to hang for days.

It was unclear whether the killing was conducted by Shiites or Sunnis. But American officers said women were increasingly being attacked, especially by elements of Al Qaeda in the southern part of the neighborhood.

It's an eye-opening read.

It also speaks to the courage and dedication of American soldiers... who are doing their best to make this part of the world a better place... for everyone.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, courage, religion of peace

Happy Anniversary Pop Quiz

What political party celebrated its one year anniversary by littering the streets with dead bodies... I mean, they ACTUALLY had... GUNS IN THEIR STREETS...?

As much as it will disappoint Steffi and the Fiberals... it wasn't the Harper Conservatives.

-- Fifteen people were killed in the Gaza Strip yesterday, including a two-year-old child, in the deadliest single day of fighting between rival Palestinian factions since Hamas came to power a year ago.

Remember the Liberal election ad that showed a handgun slowly being turned out to point right at viewers from their television sets... and the quick cut as it fired into your livingroom?

Those scary, hidden Conservatives never did get around to flooding our cities with dead bodies and guns, did they?

Unlike those Islamobots from Hamas... you know, the guys the Libs and Dippers are so quick to defend these days.

It was just another Liberal lie.

Technorati Tags: tough on crime, Hamas, Stephen Harper

Going to the front of the bus

The state of Michigan has adopted legislation banning affirmative action...

That momentarily threw a wrench into the "quota system" at Wayne State University, but university officials were quick to end run the new law.

Last month, the faculty adopted his policy, eliminating any mention of race, but broadening the factors the admissions office may consider.

Those include being the first in the family to go to college or graduate school; having overcome substantial obstacles, including prejudice and discrimination; being multilingual; and residence abroad, in Detroit or on an Indian reservation.

This sort of thing could become a higher profile issue in Canada, as spaces in colleges and universities become scarcer as enrollments climb.

Should gender or race be factors in admission to university?

What about proficiency... what about merit?

MEMORY LANE: Stop me if you've heard this before

It's like the old saw about gender equality in other occupations... if my house is on fire, I don't give a crap about the male/female thing... I just want the biggest, strongest, most stubborn S.O.B. goin' up that ladder to pull my kid out the window.

Similarly... if my kid is goin' in for surgery...

Technorati Tags: affirmative action, quota system, Michigan

I can wait a week...

If it means there really is more to this story...

After a heated exchange in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales promised to release more information about the Maher Arar case.

Asked when that would be, the attorney general said he was hoping to get the information next week.

This has been one sensational media ride, but I think I must have missed the coverage of Arar publicly renouncing his Syrian citizenship.

It seems obvious, now that he's a wealthy man, he'll need to protect himself against any "misunderstanding" from the Syrian Rubber Hose Brigade when he's travelling anywhere in the future.

MEMORY LANE UPDATE: Are Bill and Annie gonna apologise too?

LAST WORD: Poll at Global NATIONAL

Technorati Tags: Maher Arar, Bill Graham, Ann McLellan

Something I've wanted for years

In our house, my better half has designated the upstairs bathroom as the "girls room". My young son and I are relegated to the facilities on the main floor.

Now, I should say right up front, my son has come a long way from the good old days, when peeing standing up was a novel and dynamic experience... the apogee of which saw him loudly and gleefully proclaiming, "Look daddy, sideways pee...", but this little beauty would probably go a ways to brightening up my life.

If an increasing number of men are looking to bring the amenities of a football stadium into their high-end homes, manufacturers now seem ready to oblige.

“This is found business,” said Tim Schroeder, president of Duravit U.S.A., adding that residential clients are more receptive to the idea now that they have seen fancy versions in boutique hotels and restaurants.

It might be time to do a little shopping.

Technorati Tags: home comfort, eco-friendly, gender war

Terrorists in T.O.

It's here...

The appearance of a man carrying a box and walking into a nearby intersection goes unnoticed by civilians.

He heads for a police officer at a checkpoint in the centre of the roundabout, ignoring orders to stop. Pulling out sticks of explosives, he lobs them at the officer before detonating a bomb strapped to himself. They both disappear in a cloud of smoke.

Welcome to Pretendahar.

Technorati Tags: suicide bombings, Toronto, Canadian Forces

Kinsella on Pickton

Here's why you don't ever want a Liberal government again... these guys can rationalise anything.

Robert Pickton cannot receive a fair trial anywhere in Canada. It is possible, in fact, that he can't receive a fair trial anywhere on the planet.

Ah... Warren... he had severed heads in his freezer.

Let's keep in mind here, Willie's only expression of regret so far, is that he didn't get to pencil in number 50 on his scorecard. It's also important to remember we're talking about murdered women... not golf strokes.

So Warren, what part of "psychopathic serial murderer" are you not feelin' here?

UPDATE: Kinsella sure knows how to pick 'em

If you were gonna set yourself up as a spokes-rocker for truth and justice... bearing in mind that nobody is disputing that dishonesty and injustice are legion in this wicked world... you might not want to kick it off by defending poor ole' farmboy "Willie" Pickton...

The most damaging witness is a woman named Lynn Ellingson, Staff Sgt. Adam says, who has told police she saw Mr. Pickton "skinning a girl hanging on a hook."

Technorati Tags: death penalty, predator, Robert Pickton

A great big steaming turd

Opposition Leader Stephane Dion stepped in it the other day, by offering to reinstate Libranos caught up in the Sponsorship Scandal... so today he's channeling Mr. Dithers...

"I am not seeking to reopen that issue and there's not an application from Mr. Côté as far as I know. There is a procedure we follow," Mr. Dion said, asserting that party officials would handle any such case. "I'm not recommending anything."

During the fiberal leadership race, I became convinced that Bob Rae was a gift to Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

Well, I admit it...I was wrong.

Steffi is the real icing on this political cake.

UPDATE: Dion "loses" a key endorsement

LAST WORD: So a criminal endorses a party that is soft on crime. Gee, I wonder why.

OH NO... Not the environment too

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, politics as usual, Liberal Party

Deseronto developer speaks up

**********
CALEDONIA UPDATE: Did Dalton cave for nothing?

Land claims made by the Six Nations Confederacy near Caledonia, Ont. will not hold up in court, the federal government has said.

A Department of Justice report presented to the Six Nations Confederacy earlier this week made the statement.

**********

Is Dalton McGuinty gonna shell out another 35 million dollars on this native protest too?

A Kingston developer at the centre of a native land dispute pledged Tuesday to forge ahead with his $35-million development plans for this waterfront community.

"No one has got a dime (invested) in there but me," he said. "We've had lines of credit in place since Nov. 15 and now the government is dragging its feet...

"So who is the only one losing money in this deal? It's not the town of Deseronto - they flip-flop day-to-day. It's not the County of Hastings. It's not the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. I'm taking the loss here.

"The Indians don't have a dime there, they're just coming after what we've got."

McGuinty has already set the precedent by purchasing the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia and essentially handing it over to the aboriginal protesters.

Why would this be any different?

UPDATE: Enough with the death threats already

A third Tyendinaga Territory man is facing criminal charges in connection to a Nov. 15 demonstration regarding a disputed land claim in Deseronto. Charged with two counts of uttering death threats and one count of mischief is Jerome Barnhart.

Earlier this month, two other men who were involved in the protest were arrested on charges including uttering death threats and assault.

Technorati Tags: Deseronto, Dalton McGuinty, political correctness

Who cares about the damn kids...

The homosexual express is highballin' through town, so they'd better just get outta the way...

Not being a member of an organised religion since my teens, I care less about the rights of the Anglican and Catholic Churches... than what happens to the 32 percent of adoptions that are being jeopardised here.

The 12 Catholic adoption agencies in England and Wales handle 32 percent of voluntary sector adoptions, according to Murphy-O'Connor's letter. Those agencies currently refer applications from gay couples to other non-Catholic agencies and he argued that should continue. "If forced to consider gay couples the Catholic agencies may have to shut," he said.

"It would be an unnecessary tragedy if legislation forces the closure of these adoption services," he said. "The outcome is wholly avoidable."

Is there a point at which we consider the harm political correctness can inflict on totally uninvolved third parties?

What about these children?

UPDATE via Kathy Shaidle: Church-Smurch... what does the American College of Pediatricians have to say about all this.

Technorati Tags: adoption, gay rights, political correctness

Bring back the death penalty

There's an eyewitness to at least one murder... he gave it up to an undercover cop planted in his prison cell... he kept severed heads, hands and feet around, for what... to make soup?

-- Defence lawyer Peter Ritchie later urged jurors to keep an open mind. He said they should not make any conclusions until they hear all the evidence.

Ya know what Petey... I'm thinkin' you and the rest of the defense team are probably the only people in the country who think this dog and pony show needs to last a whole year. That must be some taxpayer funded payday.

Euthanise this piece of shit. Do it now.

UPDATE: Who is Peter Ritchie?

Think of him as a Philosopher-Prince of Justice...

Unless the B.C. government quickly agrees to fund lawyers for accused serial killer Robert (Willy) Pickton, the Port Coquitlam pig farmer could be representing himself at next month's preliminary hearing.

Pickton's lawyer Peter Ritchie said Friday that he will withdraw from the case in a week if the attorney-general's ministry has not offered money to pay for a defence team. He said he needs four additional lawyers to go through tens of thousands of pages of evidence disclosed by the prosecution.

Ritchie said his client, who jointly owns land valued in the millions of dollars, is broke and needs assistance to cover the cost of his defence on 15 counts of murdering women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

To which, Attorney-General Geoff Plant responded...

"I am not working according to the timetable set by Mr. Ritchie's threat in the media," Plant said. "Mr. Ritchie has a $375,000 lien on Mr. Pickton's property. Mr. Ritchie accepted this case a long time ago knowing he was responsible for making his own arrangements for an appropriate retainer and now in this stage in the proceedings, he wants government funding."

To balance his karmic debt, I hope that Peter Ritchie never, ever gets the banjo music from "Deliverance" out of his head... for as long as he lives.

As for Pickton, there's no working off his sins. Ever.

Technorati Tags: death penalty, predator, Robert Pickton

Screwing over John Q. Public...

Again...

CARP study reveals politicians and bureaucrats are enjoying full coverage of drugs while failing to provide the same in public plans.

-- OTTAWA, January 22, 2007 – While politicians and bureaucrats make critical decisions on which drugs to cover in public drug plans, they themselves already enjoy full coverage of these same drugs under their own plans, CARP, Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus, revealed today.

They're even totally covered for drugs THAT ARE STILL UNDER REVIEW.



You might want to email, write or fax your Member of Parliament... and ask them them why, in addition to their gold-plated pension plans, they voted themselves and members of the uncivil service medical benefits denied to their constituents.

Technorati Tags: Member of Parliament, politics as usual, drug plan

Balls... or brains?

They say courage is simply "grace under pressure."

The 41-year-old professional diver from Eden, on the NSW far south coast, had gone head-first into the mouth of a 3m great white shark.

As his head, left arm and torso were inside the fish, he used his free right arm to punch the shark in the eye. His thrashing caused the shark to spit him out and gave him entry to an exclusive club: those who have been inside a great white and lived to talk about it.

This prescence of mind is not only what separates "the men from the boys"... more importantly, it separates "the men from the snacks."

Technorati Tags: courage, shark attack, one cool customer

Hooked on Quack

My wife is a birdwatcher, with a special affinity for ducks... and I can't resist a good "overcomes all odds" story...

A duck in the US state of Florida has survived gunshot wounds and a two-day stint in a refrigerator.

The hunter's wife got a fright when she opened the fridge and the duck lifted its head, a local veterinarian said.

A veterinarian at the sanctuary said he thinks the duck will live, but will probably never be well enough to be released into the wild.

Hmmmm... I'm just waiting for the local branch of the ACLU to sue the hunter for "fowl support." Still, you have to admire the tenacity of this bird.

"This is an extremely tough duck with a lot of spirit to live," he said. "This shows how tough and adaptable wildlife are."

SIDENOTE: Speaking of cute animal stories... Kate at SDA forks up an "homage to ever more liberal values."

"The love that dares not speak it's Neigh'mmm."

Technorati Tags: birdwatching, one tough duck, hunting

Where is Stephane Dion...

On a National Sword Registry..?

• Quinte Health Care emergency departments treated patients for 4 gunshot wounds and 479 wounds inflicted by "knife, sword or dagger" in the year ending March 31, 2006. •

Maybe I just happen to live in the wrong part of the county, but I've yet to run into any of these swashbucklers.

Nevertheless if you're almost 500 times more likely to be skewered than shot... I can't believe the Liberals are missing another chance to "save Canadians from themselves."

Where's that Liberal "nanny state" when you really need it?

RCMP are the real terrorists

It is only natural that a father would want to defend his son... but Tariq Abdelhaleem is crossing over into paranoid fantasy land...

"Why would he do that if he has a convertible BMW?" he asked, during an interview with The Globe at a suburban Tim Hortons. "If there is any homegrown terror, it is the RCMP," Dr. Abdelhaleem said.

Abdelhaleem can't imagine where his son might have picked up any sort of antipathy towards his fellow citizens...

"These are sub humans, these [police informants] and people like [Mississauga MP] Wajid Khan," said Dr. Abdelhaleem. "They all sold their soul to the devil for a job. For money. Because in real life they are losers.".

Apparently Abdelhaleem doesn't need an opposing point-of-view to have a debate on the larger issues... he's prepared to supply the questions AND the answers...

"9/11 is debatable. Let's agree on this. So based on this debatable fact, you kill and destroy all these people?" he said during the interview.

In the end it all comes down to one last bit of pretzel logic...

"Because in real life they are losers. They are not like my son (who has, as papa proudly noted earlier, a convertible BMW)," Dr. Abdelhaleem said, then left the Tim Hortons in his new Lexus.

Anybody feel like chipping in on airline tickets... so that poor Mr. Abdelhaleem and family can go have a shot at living that much talked about and splendiferous "Egyptian dream?"

REALITY CHECK: Damian Babbling Brooks finds a dissenting opinion...

"I am not in politics to represent some overseas group or government. Yes, I am a Muslim, but I cannot be held hostage by self-appointed community leaders who have their own hidden agendas."

Technorati Tags: Salafism, RCMP, homegrown terror

A poor career choice...

If you weren't gonna be able to lay hands on half the population...

LONDON — Police said Sunday that a Muslim woman officer had refused to shake hands with London's police chief during a graduation ceremony last month due to her religious beliefs, fanning a debate in Britain over the assimilation of Muslims into society.

So unless she's arresting her husband or a close male relative... this woman is useless as a front-line officer. How the hell did she manage to get through psych testing and police college?

Political correctness trumps common sense yet again.

Speaking of political correctness, in 2005, this same Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, "'hung out to dry' three white detectives - who were accused of rudely mispronouncing "Shi'ites' - to prove his anti-racist credentials."

RELATED: Hamas foreign minister freaks out on Peter MacKay

Later in the interview, he suggested that there should be a single Islamic state stretching across the Middle East, adding that there was plenty of space in Canada to establish a Jewish homeland.

Sounds like Hamas has a "final solution" to that pesky Jewish problem... hmmmm, that sounds sort of familiar.

Technorati Tags: muslim, police officer, political correctness

That wonderful porcelain pony

Quick, what's the the greatest medical breakthrough since 1840?

Give up? Try sewers.

Sewage disposal and clean water supplies, among other aspects of sanitation, were chosen over 15 key medical advances named in an international poll by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

For all you cynics out there, yelling about DNA or antibiotics, I propose an experiment... try living for a month or two without, (a) your electron microscope, or (b) your indoor plumbing.

Let me know which you find more indispensable next month... if you're not lying in a coma in your own filth.

Waterborne disease, through inadequate sanitation and hygiene, is responsible for about 80 per cent of all sickness in the world, killing around 14,000 people each day.

As a result of sewer systems built by the Victorians, the infant mortality rate decreased to about 1 per cent over the next 100 years. In countries such as Bangladesh it is still as high as 12 per cent.

My wife's grandfather was born on a farm thirty minutes from here without plumbing or electricity. He made his way to the big city, got a university degree, married, taught highschool, eventually becoming principal... and never once, in my wife's memory, spoke of his rural salad days.

Call me spoiled, but the older I get... that punishingly hot twenty minute shower every morning becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity.

I thank all that is holy for indoor plumbing.

Technorati Tags: medical breakthrough, indoor plumbing, good old days

If you're a boring horse's ass...

You can still be a legend in your own mind.

Just make shit up...

Worth the read, if only to see the Globe and Mail NOT fawn over Stephane Dion.

“We had a neighbour named Gaston Moisan, a biologist who was a deputy minister of natural resources. He set traps for the rabbits, to band them, and used to take me with him. He was 5-foot-7, but he was a giant for me.”

A charming childhood anecdote — except, according to Mr. Moisan, it never happened. “I don't know how he could have imagined that,” the retired bureaucrat and university professor says. “I had nothing to do with Stéphane.

Yeah, sure Steffi...it's okay, I believe ya.

If anyone thinks Dion is popular in Quebec, they're in for a big shock...

When he appeared on the Télé-Québec public affairs show Les Francs-tireurs last fall, interviewer Patrick Lagacé asked him to prove that he has a sense of humour.

Mr. Dion replied by asking whether he was familiar with the world's shortest bedtime story.

“Do you know Bam, The Dog?”

Mr. Lagacé admitted he did not, so Mr. Dion recited it for him: “The car goes by, and bam, the dog. Now go to sleep.”

Mr. Lagacé was incredulous. “It's not funny,” he said as Mr. Dion laughed almost uncontrollably and, it turned out, viewers squirmed.

We're talkin' "invisible friend" scary over here.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, politics as usual, Liberal Party

It isn't going to bring him back

While I understand the parents need here, to hold on to some vestige of their son's life... this still seems wrong...

The lawyer of an Israeli couple who won the right to use their dead son's sperm to inseminate a woman he never met says the case is a boost for family rights.

The dead man, soldier Keivin Cohen, was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2002.

No mention of the legal status of the "donor uterus" in all of this... and I wonder, rightly or wrongly, what sort of expectations the grandparents are gonna be placing on this child.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think every child has the right to be born into a family whose primary motivation is that, well... they wanted a closely-knit loving family. It seems that this baby is going to be the equivalent of a spare part, a field replaceable unit if you will, for some entire other human being.

I don't know about "family rights"... but this seems like a boost for irresponsible use of technology.

Talk about burdened from birth.

Technorati Tags: technology, grief, Keivin Cohen

The honesty imbalance

Got cancer? You might wanna move to Quebec.

Remember Dalton McGuinty? He was the guy who wasn't going to raise your taxes. Well, except for when he did... like the OHIP "health care premium."

So what has he done with his "it's not a tax" premium. He hasn't improved diagnostic medicine... that's for sure.

As of Oct. 31, 408 Ontario patients had obtained PET scans through the registry and 926 patients had scans as part of the clinical trials.

Quebec provides the broadest access to PET machines; this year, it plans to do 21,000 scans. Patients can access PET scans in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick.

Never mind patient access... doctors have to be sent outside the country, just to be trained on the potentially life-saving machines.

Yesterday, Conservative health critic Elizabeth Witmer called the relocation of nuclear-medicine residents an "embarrassment." She said she is concerned they may not return to Ontario.

MEMORY LANE UPDATE: Hmmmm... sounds familiar...

So... twenty months and 2 million privately raised dollars later, the McGuinty Liberals have yet to get back to the hospital board about this lifesaving piece of equipment.

The Chief of Staff, Dr. Barry Guppy has another concern.

Guppy said the hospital needs at least two radiologists to clear a backlog of people waiting for MRI or CT scans. Non-urgent cases have had to go to hospitals like Cobourg and Kingston to have the scans done.

Technorati Tags: George Smitherman, Dalton McGuinty, Liberal Party

No wonder there's a brain drain

Turns out Iran isn't just cracking down on student protest... they're purging universities of dissident professors...

The new chancellor forcibly retired 45 teachers from Tehran University. He said they were past the retirement age, although they were younger than him.

"It seems this is the start of a project to clean the slate - to get rid of those intellectuals who are secular opponents of the government," says student activist Abdullah Momeni.

I guess Madman Ahmadinejad is just tidying things up for the coming Islamic rapture.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad, religion of peace

NEWSFLASH... Dion renames his dog

In lieu of actually promoting any living, breathing women in liberal political circles, Stephane Dion has instead renamed his dog Germaine Greer.

-- Stéphane Dion managed not to disappoint any of his MPs today by giving 54 out of the 100 a critic assignment. So the Liberal shadow cabinet is larger than the Conservative, uh, light cabinet.

-- Yet even with all those bodies to work with, Dion managed to give the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship of every caucus committee to a man. Dion's vaunted eagerness to promote women in politics?

That begins later.

Again, don't look too closely at the magician's hands... just listen to the patter.

It's simply amazing.

Technorati Tags: Stephane Dion, politics as usual, Liberal Party

For that special someone

Here's an idea that pretty much screams, "I can't live without you."

“In our society, we don’t have objects that deal with death,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s a subject that is so ethereal and evanescent. Urns provide a reference point, allowing death to become a little less abstract.”

Of course, not everyone is gonna be impressed...

Ron Hast, the publisher of Mortuary Management magazine and the Funeral Monitor newsletter, regards urns like Mr. Rashid’s as “an oddity."

"They’re trying to get hundreds of dollars for a ginger jar."

Technorati Tags: death, urn, art

Better 'Club Fed' than dead

Remember Kuldip Singh Samra?

You should... you've been paying for his holiday at Club Fed...

A gunman who executed two innocent men in a courtroom slaying has spent almost six years in a minimum security facility dubbed Club Fed for its golf course, tennis court and organic farm, a Superior Court jury heard yesterday.

Lawyer Oscar Fonseca, 51, and Bhupinder Singh Pannu, 31, both died. Amarjit Singh Tatla, whom Samra had targeted for death, survived but was paralyzed from the waist down. Samra fled and hid in his native India before being extradited back to Canada in 1992.

Now that he's tuned up his golf game, Samra thinks he should be put back on the street.

It's time to retool this whole corrections thing.

Technorati Tags: Oscar Fonseca, Bhupinder Singh Pannu, Amarjit Singh Tatla

That's some spiritual connection...

To the great mother Earth...

Last May, 11 B.C. men were charged in connection with the poaching and trafficking of bald eagles after an investigation that began with the discovery of 50 dead birds in North Vancouver in 2005.

Eagle parts, including feathers and talons, were sold to buyers across Canada and the United States.

Or maybe these guys were just really, really hungry.

However, aboriginal rights set out by the Supreme Court of Canada allow First Nations to harvest eagles for social, ceremonial or sustenance purposes.

Technorati Tags: aboriginal, bald eagle, Cowichan Tribe

We have a "National Microbiology Laboratory?"

Canadian scientists are examining the 1918 H1N1 Spanish Flu... to determine what it can tell us about H5N1 Avian...

-- Then, in a maximum "biosafety" facility at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory they reconstructed a fully functioning virus, and infected macaque monkeys to see what would happen. --

It sure ain't pretty, but it's important to know what happens...

-- This ability to alter the body's immune response is shared with the most recent candidate for mutation into a pandemic strain, the H5N1 avian flu.

I only have one question.

Where exactly is this lab?

Winnipeg huh? Okay, I'm good with that.

Technorati Tags: avian flu, pandemic, H5N1

Dion is green all right...

With envy...

CITYSLICKER UPDATE: From the comments...

"AQuantumLiberal said... urban dwellers are often higly educated..."

I guess I should read slower

DION, yeah, yeah... DION!!!

-- Oh hang on... I thought you said dropkick.

-- Damn...

h/t to SDA...

Technorati Tags: CTV, political correctness, Liberal Party

"On Ya Neez Bitch..."

Jerome Almon, the owner of Murdercap Records... says Canada just isn't playing fair...

-- Mr. Almon also said that guards often appeared concerned about his music. He believes their reaction was part of a broader Canadian government desire to crack down on rap lyrics, which critics say glorify violence and misogyny.

Asked whether the criticism is valid when applied to his music -- said to include songs such as On Ya Neez Bitch and How Stella Got My Backhand -- he was dismissive.

Mr Almon, who, with the help of the President of the Detroit ACLU, is suing two former federal ministers and 95 border guards for 900 million dollars, leaves us with his raison d'etre...

-- "Art always reflects the society. Detroit is a city that is extremely black, extremely backward, extremely violent and extremely misogynistic," he said. "I can't create art without reflecting the reality. -- I don't live in a Brady Bunch world."

As Harry Truman once said, "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot." 

UPDATE: Rolling Stone Magazine weighs in

Further, he alleges that while Canada profiles U.S. rappers, it protects known Muslim terrorists responsible for U.S. casualties.

He also claims Canada has a Rap Intelligence Unit that employs information-sharing with the FBI.

Which also serves up our Oxymoron of the Week...

"Rap Intelligence Unit"

Nato bats are hot this week

**********
UPDATE: 19 Jan 2007 - Talib prisoner dimes out Omar

A TOP Taliban official's claim that the movement's leader, Mullah Omar, is living in Pakistan under the protection of the ISI spy agency has threatened a new crisis in relations between Kabul and Islamabad.

Of course, if you're being interrogated by Afghan Intelligence, chances are you'd confess to shooting JFK from the grassy knoll.

**********
It's been a pretty crummy week for the Taliban... as NATO scoops up a couple more high value targets...

-- “This seizure of a Taliban commander once again shows that there is nowhere to hide for insurgent leaders,” said Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, a NATO spokesman.

-- The operation came a day after Afghan agents arrested Mohammad Hanif, a purported militant spokesman as he crossed through an international border checkpoint from Pakistan.

Hot on the heels of last month's vaporisation of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani... these latest captures will no doubt have an effect on the bad guys morale.

I imagine the two prisoners will also be doing their best to please their Afghani interrogators. I know I would be.

THIRD WORLD UPDATE: Charter of what?

Scene: A small brightly lit room with a bucket of water and a hand cranked generator sitting nearby. A dapper interrogator talks to a blindfolded suspect tied naked to a chair.

"Goodness gracious my friend, I must be having some co-operation about this matter. I am just getting off the telephone with my good friend George Bush and he is most angry with you... veddy, veddy angry."

Technorati Tags: Taliban, NATO, Afghanistan

The Wild, Wild East

If we just stop talking about crime... it'll go away...

-- Scarborough's reputation is now in the hands of Mayor David Miller. -- Toronto Councillor Norm Kelly had issued a call for city council to ask the media to sign a "protocol" in which news outlets would agree to stop identifying Scarborough as the location of crimes occurring east of Victoria Park Ave.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Toronto area, Scarborough is known these days for its large ethnic population. It also gets a considerable amount of ink in the local papers for rampant criminal activity. 

I remember when I lived in the city some years back, the issue of crime stats came up at City Council. Councillor Bal Balkissoon was quoted as saying then, "We'll just have to come up with a new set of numbers." 

It appears that the commissars of political correctness are back. In David Miller's "Oh, so politically correct" world... the solution isn't to fight crime, it's to hide crime. I say we're better off with the facts, whatever they are.

Are there any hot chicks in this one?

It'll be just like "Cool Hand Luke", I promise...

Gotta confess... I'm having a bit of trouble gettin' past the naked part...

-- Vandermaas revealed yesterday that McHale spent that night naked in his cell, refusing to wear the clothes the OPP offered him.

-- This time McHale and Vandermaas hope they'll be joined in jail by 50 or so Caledonia residents.

-- "Can you imagine the headlines when 50 people are arrested for trying to put up the Canadian flag? I don't think there's even ever been 50 bikers arrested at one time," he said excitedly.

Geez guys, as appetizing as that sounds...

Technorati Tags: Caledonia, OPP, Gary McHale

A message from...

The Anonymous Friends of Dennis Kwame Oppong...

Please inform us when someone in your family gets hurt or killed so we can judge and slander them...

-- "You know what they say, goat dont make sheep." --

Dennis Oppong, a man who had served time for homicide in Toronto, was recently murdered himself.

His friends think he got a bum rap...

I don't know what goats and sheep have to do with anything... but, in the interest of fairness and equal time, you can see what they have to say.

Oh yeah... if they really want to know when "someone in my family gets hurt or killed", they'll have to leave me an email address.

UPDATE: Granted he was provoked by another commentator, but it just goes to show you... racism is a two way street.

Are you jealous because anything you can do we can do better? is it that our women have natural beauty that's why a 50 year will look 35. are you so upset because we hold our culture close and you Mr. cracker don't have one anymore because you've forgotten where you come from. Ignorant fool! name you time and place and I'd be more than happy to repeat my comments to your face!

With this kind of big-talk bravado... it's not too hard to see why so many young black men are both shooters and shootees in the big smoke.

Technorati Tags: Dennis Kwame Oppong, murder, Syl Apps Youth Center

No cutlery for you

I can't wait for Steffi and company to call for a ban -- (or at the very least, a Sharp Objects Registry) -- on knives and forks...

-- Toronto -— A new study shows that injuries from guns and knives account for more than 40,000 trauma visits to Ontario emergency rooms each year.

-- The study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Services found that knives or sharp objects account for the vast majority — 98 per cent — of trauma visits.

Think of the lives and suffering that could be saved, if we just had mandatory plastic cutlery...

Because, you know.... that 2 billion dollars the Liberals flushed on "The Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" has worked out so well.

UPDATE: What about going after criminals instead?

“The sad truth is that every shooting reported by the media proves the Liberal’s firearms program isn’t working. If the gun was unregistered – it failed! If the gun was registered – it failed!"

Technorati Tags: firearms registry, tax and spend, Liberal Party

No broad strata BS here

Unlike the namby-pamby politically correct yipyap we have become accustomed to in Canada, the Brits say what they mean...

-- Six men planned "murderous suicide bombings" on public transport in London on 21 July 2005, a court has heard.

-- The prosecution has told Woolwich Crown Court of their alleged "extremist Muslim plot" targeting the capital - 14 days after the 7 July bombings.

In this particular case, the devil was indeed in the details...

The prosecutor told how six bombs were made using a mix of liquid hydrogen peroxide, chapatti flour, acetone and acid.

Each bomb was placed in a large plastic container and screws, tacks, washers or nuts, were taped to the outside to "maximise the possibility of injury", Mr Sweeney said.

If these freedom fighters are found guilty, they should get an Iraqi necktie party... maybe it'll make the next lot of jihadis think twice.

MEMORY LANE: Tim Blair nails it...

The Toronto Star reports:

"In investigators’ offices, an intricate graph plotting the links between the 17 men and teens charged with being members of a homegrown terrorist cell covers at least one wall. And still, says a source, it is difficult to find a common denominator."

-- We now cross live to the set of CSI Toronto, where filming is underway:

-- Sgt. Warren Bollard: (staring in bewilderment at an intricate graph) I just can’t find any common denominator! It seems as though these 17 men and teens have absolutely no point of commonality at all!

Technorati Tags: suicide bombings, London, religion of peace

More Lunacy from Leftbot Central

Forced out of their own homes... by outrageous taxes... sound familiar?

-- His pension does not go far. His clothes are tattered and grimy. So why does René Massé, a retired farmer of 80, have to pay wealth tax? Les rosbifs, it seems, are partly to blame for a gross injustice that could weigh in France’s looming presidential election...

The "tax and spend" leftbots are at it again... but even commie-pinko France may be ready to kick back...

Technorati Tags: France, tax and spend, Liberal Party