"Note to useful idiots..."

"...Update your will; Israel calls all bluffs."

**********

RELATED: A study in contrast

On a day of denunciations and demonstrations, Stephen Harper stood by Benjamin Netanyahu Monday and signalled that Canada’s support for Israel has not wavered, expressing regret at the loss of life during the raid on Gaza-bound ships, while calling for patience.

Hang on a second... where's Waldo?

Across the aisle of the Commons, there was virtual silence on the incident. In his first leadership bid in 2006, Mr. Ignatieff stepped into controversy over the Lebanon war, first saying he wasn’t losing sleep over civilian deaths and then calling the Israeli shelling of Qana a war crime.

Yeah... that's what I thought.

**********

LAST WORD: A short break for facts...

Israel Navy: “Mavi Marmara, you are approaching an area of hostilities which is under a naval blockade. The Gaza area coastal region and Gaza harbor are closed to all maritime traffic.

The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod port. Delivery of supplies in accordance with the authorities’ regulations will be through the formal land crossings and under your observation, after which you can return to your home ports on the vessels on which you have arrived.”

Response: “Negative, negative.”

So, Peace Moonbeam... who actually caused the train wreck here?

Would your father...

... cover up a murder for you?

-- TORONTO -- A six-year-old girl watched helplessly from her carseat as her mom allegedly lunged forward from the backseat with a "large" kitchen knife and butchered her dad as he drove along a residential street near High Park over the weekend, Toronto Police said Monday.

This woman just happens to travel with a large kitchen knife? What's up with that?

The victim, Ludlow Gillespie, 25, was driving north on Windermere Ave., north of Lakeshore Blvd., around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.His common-law wife of seven years, Melissa Lewis, 24, was sitting in the back seat behind the driver.

The couple's daughter was in the back seat beside her mother and the woman's father was in the front passenger seat.

The victim and deceased had "a history of domestic violence" and both are known to police.

And Grampa just disappears into the wind with the little girl.

Chalk up another one for Toronto's "code of silence".

**********

UPDATE: Not just a pretty face

The 25-year-old aspiring Toronto rapper known as Mecca was stabbed in the neck allegedly by his common-law wife as they drove through a quiet west end neighbourhood Saturday afternoon.

And it looks like Grampy is still on the lam.

The first thing we do...

...is hang all the lawyers...
Or, maybe just cut a few extraneous bits off 'em.

That's why they call it war...

...and not "Circle of Friends"...

Senior Israeli defence officials said 10 activists died on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish cruise ship carrying 581 people, after commandos came under fire, including with weapons that the activists had snatched from the boarding party.

Earlier, the military said "more than 10 demonstrators" were killed, while Israeli media had briefly spoken of up to 19 dead.

Funny though... most media outlets, unlike the National Post, don't seem to be showing both sides of the story...

Video from the convoy apparently showed a commando shinning down a rope and clashing with a man wielding a stick. Israeli television showed an activist apparently stabbing a soldier.

One commando told reporters that he came under fire and was attacked with metal bars and knives as he came down onto a ship from a helicopter around 4 a.m. Some activists, speaking Arabic, tried to take marines hostage.

Gotta hand it to the Pals... an incredibly successful "martyrdom operation"... this time, without even blowing themselves... or the usual quotient of innocent bystanders... up.
**********

RELATED: Hey... wait just a minute

Although drone strikes have killed more than a dozen Qaeda and Taliban leaders, they have incinerated hundreds of civilians, including women and children.

When do you think President McDreamy is gonna get put on trial for "war crimes"... for his egregious violations of Pakistani sovereignty and the Geneva Convention?

**********

LAST WORD: Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

"This use of violence against the free press is brought to you by you, the Canadian taxpayer."

Coming soon... to a neighbourhood near you.

Of course, when Robert Heinlein said, "An armed society is a polite society" he was -- like all libertarians, and this is the flaw in their theories -- thinking of an Anglo-Saxon society populated by individuals who were all as intelligent and rational as Robert Heinlein.

And that does not describe the City of Toronto.

Don't say you weren't warned.

I guess stereotypes have to...

...come from somewhere...

-- ROME -- In Italy, you’re nobody if your phone isn’t tapped. Or, as Beppe Grillo, Italy’s leading political provocateur and blogger, put it: “This is a nation where if you can’t be blackmailed, you’ll never get ahead.”

In Italy’s sluggish justice system investigations can take years, and news from leaked wiretaps can often have important political and economic ramifications.

Nice to know.

That damned bloodthirsty murderer...

...George W. Bu... wait a minute...

In Pakistan, drone attacks are Obama’s weapon of choice. He has expanded the use of drones to include low-level targets, such as foot soldiers.

The pace of drone strikes has increased to two or three a week, up roughly fourfold from the Bush years.

Although drone strikes have killed more than a dozen Qaeda and Taliban leaders, they have incinerated hundreds of civilians, including women and children.

Funny... you just don't see that story on the six o'clock news.

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

...Jesus forgives... pretty much anything...

The future Pope Benedict XVI refused to defrock an American priest who confessed to molesting numerous children and even served prison time for it, simply because the cleric wouldn’t agree to the discipline.

Wow... talk about "wag the god, er... dog."

80 year-old Veteran - 1...

...degenerate ex-con junkie - 0...

Walking slowly from the police car that brought them home, the couple returned to their home at noon. They slowly climbed the steps to their front door and went inside.

A couple of months ago, the man — a Korean war veteran with three children and six grandkids — had been robbed at gunpoint at his home by three intruders, his son said. The robbers took $150, he said — and his father bought a gun and vowed never to be a victim again.

These scummy criminals fear neither the police, nor the law.

What they need to be taught to fear... are their "victims".

Mayor Miller's office reportedly working...

...on banning non-plastic cutlery within city limits...

-- TORONTO -- A man in his mid-20s, has been stabbed to death in what appears to be a bizarre domestic dispute in the city’s west end.

A man and a young girl apparently witnessed the deadly attack inside a vehicle on Windermere Ave., north of The Queensway and west of High Park, around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“The victim was stabbed in his neck and a woman, who was also in the front seat of the vehicle, was taken into custody,” Const. Tony Vella said.

"If it only saves one life..."

"Queer activism"... boy, did they ever...

...name that perfectly...

"Only when bottoms truly rise will there be genuine social justice."

C'mon now fellas... you don't think there are issues you could be supporting... a little closer to home?

Knowing full well, he will never, ever...

...get his hands on the actual levers of power... Taliban Jack seeks to set a cat among the puffins...Yes, yes, Jacko... "play" and "talk"... because in the final analysis... that's what you're really good at.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Hope Jack is practicing safe coalition."

If it's anything like the last time these mutts tried to hook up... he'd better be wearing a helmet.

Kids in the Crosshairs

More fun & games in Dalton McGuinty's failed socialist paradise...

The single mother of nine kids, who didn't want her name or her son's name used, said seven of her children were home when the gunfire erupted and there were also several cousins inside the Spadina Ave. and College St. house.

The boy's mother claims his son is "a good boy," who loves to play basketball and has "never been in trouble with the police."

No word yet from Mayor Miller's office on which gun club the shooter belonged to.

From the folks who brought you...

...lead-painted baby toys...

Mounties in Vancouver took over the investigation and watched as 352 kilos of ketamine — known as “Special K” or “K” on the street — moved to the Toronto area, LaPorte said.

The drugs accounted for about one million doses worth up to $15 million on the streets, LaPorte said.

James Dong Kim, 39, and Chung Wei Lee, 32, were charged with importing ketamine, possession of ketamine for the purpose of trafficking and conspiracy to import.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"A criminal act should mean instant deportation. Save the immigration lawyers for real cases."

Preachin' to the choir, my friend... preachin' to the choir.

Dear Iggy

-- Q: -- How can you tell when a politician is lying?

-- A: -- His lips are moving.

-- Oops --

"I have rented a property in London, rather than buying one, so I have made no gain from buying a property with help from the taxpayer."

-- Oopsie --

In an interview with the Times newspaper, carried out on Thursday before the revelations emerged, Mr Laws had said he was single.

Stand by for the money quote...

"In some ways it is a relief not to have to go on misleading those close to me about who I am."

You mean that you are a thief & a liar?

Sorry, Mikey... it's obvious that none of you grifters, wherever you are... can be trusted.

If you're spending my money... I want to know it all.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"It seems Tiger Woods played the same card. In Tiger's case his sexual preference is 'lots'."

**********

RELATED: Tell the truth, pay the price...

...if you're in the Liberal Party of Canada...

There were some smirks and sniffs as rookie Liberal MP Michelle Simson told caucus colleagues this week that sometimes it’s easier to do the right thing. It was not a message her colleagues enjoyed hearing.

Rather than praising her and encouraging other MPs to follow her lead, however, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told members not to do what she did.

“Right now, she is not very popular in our caucus,” said the Liberal source. “It’s hard when you go against the grain, especially when it’s the right thing to do.”

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

And Shakespeare wept

Remember when you were a kid... and grown-ups encouraged you to express... your inner gangsta?
>>>>>Yeah... me neither.

But hells bells... that ain't gonna stop anybody...

Can watching theatre really deter youths from joining gangs? The Toronto Police Services Board thinks so, and gave the theatre company a $30,000 grant to create DISS.

Hang on, Sgt. Stedanko... that'd actually be taxpayer benjamins, right?

I think I wanna have a few words with the "Social Media Relations Officer".

**********

RELATED: Never a theatre around...

...when you really need one...

A 19-year-old man arrested in connection with a shooting that injured two young girls in Winnipeg's West End was involved in a shooting death two years ago.

CBC News is not naming the man, in order to report on the previous incident, which happened when he was a youth.

He was charged Friday with attempted murder and several weapons-related offences for two shooting incidents that occurred this week.

Wonder what they'll plead it down to this time.

Murder? Nah, let's just call them...

...involuntary martyrs...Once again the capricious & unknowable "Will of Allah".

Say what you will about Comrade Layton...

...unlike Orwellian aristocrat Michael Ignatieff... Jacko lets you know exactly where... and with whom... he stands.

( -- thx again to reader michael -- )

**********

RELATED: "It's gonna be a party..."
Apparently there's room for everybody down at the big rainbow-coloured tent.

Drugs...

...the victimless crime...

Elham Dashtirahmatabadi was found inside High Times — a book, Internet and drug paraphernalia store she owned with her husband at 187 King St. E. — by a police officer who was flagged down by two customers at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Good gawd... killed for a crack-pipe? You can't smoke a cigarette in a restaurant... but flogging drug paraphernalia is okay?

Welcome to Dalton McGuinty's socialist paradise.

A story you won't see on CBC tonight...

Scratch a Fiberal... find a dishonest little weasel...

The Liberals shielded one of their own Thursday from answering questions about alleged lobbying at the same committee where they have grilled former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer over similar accusations.

Liberals Marlene Jennings and John Mckay, who do not usually sit on the committee, ran down most of the clock at the meeting with long speeches on why Mr. Lee should not testify.

That's not the way they played it for the record though... funny how that works.

The Liberals earlier supported a motion calling for Mr. Lee to appear.

Way to audible, Mikey.

"Look out the left, the captain said..."

..."The lights down there, that's where we'll land..."

David Rosenberg from Gluskin Sheff said the White House appears to have reversed course just weeks after Mr Obama vowed to rein in a budget deficit of $1.5 trillion (9.4pc of GDP) this year and set up a commission to target cuts.

"You truly cannot make this stuff up. The US governnment is freaked out about the prospect of a double-dip."

Hope, change and... whoa, what the f@ck was that?!!

It seems even President McDreamy's most ardent fans are starting to spit up the kool-ade...

“I’m trying to reconcile the stated belief of this president when he was a candidate, what he has said publicly — as recently as a naturalization ceremony last month — and what his actions are,” said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning organization that is a close ally of the Obama administration.

“I think there’s a big gap there.”

"Turn this crazy bird around... should not have got on this flight tonight."

Hey Dalton... bite me

Don't know if most folks are aware of it... but the McSlippery Liberals have done away with the 20 year "rolling" exemption on their Drive Clean pogrom (and no, that's not a spelling mistake).

Oddly enough, it doesn't impact anybody who has an 88 or earlier fire-breathin' big block muscle car... just not so good for the rest of us who don't go out and buy a new sled every few years.

Anyway, had a few tense moments when the N-Mobile (my trusty grandfather of an SUV) didn't get through an initial test.

Happily, after a few not so cheap tweaks and a new O2 sensor... we sneaked through once again.

Funny how the bureacrats chose to penalise folks who actually reduce Ontario's overall energy footprint by reducing conspicuous consumption. I mean, whaddaya figure all those 24 hour auto plants and their subsidiary industries contribute to our pollution problems?

Wait a minute... aren't those the guys getting hundreds of millions of McSlippery taxpayer bucks on a regular timetable?

Hey Peace Moonbeam... stop screamin'... I'm just askin'.

Never a rubber bullet around...

...when you really, really need one...

For University of Toronto adjunct professor Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer who has participated in several trials involving Taser deployments, anything that can stun people or crowds should be considered dangerous.

Hey, Peter... you mean like Michael Ignatieff trying to explain why MP's shouldn't have to make their office budgets public?

Yup... this infernal device oughta scare the crap outta anybody who's never been to a rock concert.

Hmmm... Peter Rosenthal... that sounds so familiar... isn't that the guy who represents uber-spokes-native Shawn Brant?

"Peter Rosenthal, a Toronto-based social justice lawyer representing Brant, argued that conditions now are different from when Brant agreed on May 3 not to plan or participate in illegal protests."

Nice to know the "Red Star" has all these impartial experts at their fingertips, huh?

In other "broad strata" news

-- Dallas, TX -- Smadi admitted that he drove an SUV loaded with what turned out to be an inert bomb into a parking garage under the 60-story Fountain Place on Ross Avenue.

He then got into an undercover agent's car and dialed a cellphone to detonate the bomb. Agents then arrested him.

Now... call me wacky... but I'm thinkin' it's only a matter of time before one of these "holy warriors" decides to target massive public events, like... for instance... Gay Pride parades.

Bet'cha "Queers against Israeli Apartheid" is gonna feel just a little silly then, huh?

Westwind School Board... 0

...Hamish Jacobs... 1

You remember Hamish, right? Our very own homegrown culture warrior.

Bright lights, big city...

...if only there was a law...

A Toronto man is in serious condition after being shot in the stomach Tuesday night.

Police discovered a bleeding man on Pengarth Court, near Lawrence Avenue and Allen Road around 11:40 p.m. He was rushed to Sunnybrook hospital for emergency surgery.

**********

RELATED: The more, the merrier...

A 26-year-old man has been shot in the abdomen in North York.

Toronto medics were rushing the victim to Sunnybrook following the shooting at Parkwoods Village Dr., in the York Mills Rd. and Victoria Park Ave. area just before 6 p.m. Wednesday.

**********

AND YET AGAIN:

The victim, reportedly a man in his 50s, was shot in the torso. He was transported to hospital with serious injuries but police say the victim is expected to survive.

Police say the shooting took place after an apparent dispute between neighbours living in the St. Clair and Dufferin Street area.

No word yet from Mayor Miller's office... on which gun club the shooters belonged to.

Gotta have priorities I guess

“Human rights issues are gay rights issues ... who is Pride Toronto to say what is a legitimate critique and what is not?”

That's all very well & good... but I just have to ask... where are the "Queers against Homophobic Palestinian Terror"?

Civil rights campaigners in Israel are trying to stop the deportation of a Palestinian homosexual back to the Gaza Strip, where they say he faces death threats.

"Nobody wants to take care of them. It is indescribable how bad life is for these people," Shaul Gonen told BBC News.

He warned that if the 21-year-old Palestinian homosexual is deported to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, "there is no way that he is going to stay alive there".

Dear "Queers against Israeli Apartheid"... try having your little "demonstration" in the Gaza Strip.

I dare you.

Ask a Community Organiser

I guess we all have a little unthinking warmonger inside of us...

From 2006 to 2008, President George W. Bush made a larger deployment of Guard troops under a program called Operation Jump Start. At its peak, 6,000 Guard troops at the border helped build roads and fences in addition to backing up law enforcement officers.

Those Guard troops contributed to the arrest of more than 162,000 illegal immigrants, the rescue of 100 people stranded in the desert and the seizure of $69,000 in cash and 305,000 pounds of illicit drugs.

That was then, my friends... this is now...

President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on law enforcement there to combat drug smuggling after demands from Republican and Democratic lawmakers that border security be tightened.

Yup... wave that magic wand.

Never mind pesky facts

Just gimme another sweet chorus... of "Abraham, Martin & Dawg"...

The demography would have shocked the guns-are-for-bigots brigade. The participants were overwhelmingly young, roughly equally split between the genders and decidedly multicultural -- whites likely being in the minority.

There wasn't a camo-clad angry old white man to be seen amidst the hundreds of attendees.

Just another story you'll never see on the CBC.

Dozens killed as systemically racist...

...Toronto Police storm-troopers raid Jane-Finch corridor... no, wait a sec...

Hospitals were offering emergency services only and the government appealed for blood donations after hospitals warned stocks were dangerously low.

Gunmen erected barricades of barbed wire and junked cars in an effort to repel police.

That can't be right, can it? I mean, I've seen all those sunny peaceful travel commercials...

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

Good gawd... how could things possibly get so out of hand?
Say what?

The quid pro quo between criminal and political leaders began 30 years ago, when rival political parties agreed to arm street gangs in return for higher turnouts at polling stations, Mr. Chettleburgh said.

“This is a gang that was really seeded by political forces. And that’s sort of the dirty little secret of Jamaican politics.”

Okay... that certainly explains a few things.

So Dalton... does this mean...

...I catch some degenerate junkie burglar breaking into my house at 2:00am... I get to blow him out of his Air-Jordans... or is killing someone in self-defense only for former Liberal cabinet ministers?I can't wait for the weeks of endless media outrage about the fix being in.

On the Sunday, April 18th edition of The National, the teaser for an upcoming story consisted entirely of these twelve words: "At the end of the day: Rahim Jaffer, Ms. Guergis - Cocaine? Hookers?"

Or is that sort of treatment reserved exclusively for knuckle-dragging Neocons?

"If at first... you don't succeed..."

..."try a donkey-bomb"...PLAN B: Terrorise some little girls.

Two days before the incident, the previously unknown "The Free of the Homeland" group issued a statement criticizing the camp's organizer, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for "teaching schoolgirls fitness, dancing and immorality."

Once again... the capricious & unknowable "Will of Allah".

(h/t reader scott)

Stop thinking.... stop right now...

...just send money...

Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.

Funny how that works, huh?

Even the Al-Jazeera news agency refers to the large reserves accumulated by the Arafat family or hidden in the coffers of the Palestinian Authority itself.

Uh-huh.

So... does that mean we can...

...hang 'em from the yardarm?

-- ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Five Somali men went on trial in a Dutch court for the 17th century crime of “sea robbery” Tuesday in Europe’s first piracy trial since a surge of attacks on shipping off the Somalia’s lawless coast.

Apparently the pirates are pleading "root causes".

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Where's a Russian destroyer when you need one?"

**********

RELATED: And while we're on poverty

"Lots of poor people the world over are poor not because they don't have any money, but because they spend the money they do have on crap."

Oh, good grief... are we allowed to say that?

Another Canadian falls

Trooper Larry Rudd, 26, was killed by an improvised explosive device at 12:30 p.m. local time Monday near the village of Salavat, about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city.

He will not be forgotten.

**********

RELATED: The Taliban's media allies...

...doing their best to sway Canadian public...

The Taliban didn’t send Allah’s warriors with the intent to succeed. No, they were counting on the foreign media to help them with that latter objective.

Not that these shameless quisling hypocrites are any better.

Lowly Canuck v. billion $ spy agency

Mr. Fetter has no formal training and lives at home with his mother, who was surprised two years ago when the international media started calling their home about her son’s discovery.

“She was like, ‘What the hell’s going on?’” he recalled.

And now he's done it again.

A "Social Media Relations" Copper?

Or, Officer Twitter... dare I say it... you got a sociopath with a gun... you don't start comparing playlists... you call in SWAT and they drop him like a crazy girlfriend...

“The only way we’re going to stop someone from getting shot is by convincing the person holding the gun to put it down,” said Const. Scott Mills, the force’s social media relations officer.

It seems, though... Officer Mills is a true believer...

“I couldn’t believe the things they were saying,” Mills said excitedly. “I was just blown away!”

The thing is, Scottie... you keep talkin' rainbows & candied unicorn farts... you could be.

Call me a troglodyte... but I've yet to actually witness the magical, healing powers of (and I use the words loosely) "rap music". Gotta confess, I'm with Chris Rock... I'm just not seein' it...

Women don't care, man. If the beat's all right, she will dance all night! I've seen girls on the floor dancing to the nastiest shit ever made. It's like, "Smack her with a dick, smack her with a dick!"

If you mention to a woman that the song is disgusting and mysoginistic, they all give you the same answer: "He ain't talking 'bout me!"

Yup... it's always somebody else's problem.

Just ask Tupac... wait a minute...

BREAKING: More shocking coverage of...

...gravity holding shit down...

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in recent years; most are released unharmed.

Two Chinese oil workers were freed this month after being kidnapped in the south east of the country.

In another region, however, a German married couple, their infant son and a British man are still missing after being kidnapped almost a year ago.

Geez, idyllic, brotherly Yemen... who could'a possibly seen that coming?

It's true what they say....

..."community standards" do vary from place to place...

Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding has denounced unrest in the capital city Kingston as a "calculated assault on the authority of the state".

He vowed that criminals would not triumph, after supporters of an alleged druglord took to the streets to stop him from being arrested.

One police station has been set on fire and two others shot at by suspected supporters of Christopher "Dudus" Coke.

Yet another rainbow-hued feather in the cap of cultural relativism.

But, hey... that could never happen here in Canad... wait a minute...

"Gabriel's house was burned to the ground and he and his police force fled the community, holing up in a hotel in nearby Laval for two years at a cost of $2 million."

Oh yeah.

**********

UPDATE: Jamaica's lone legitimate industry...

...shoots itself in the face...

Canadian travellers are being advised not to visit Kingston, Jamaica, after at least three people were killed in an outbreak of violence by suspected supporters of an alleged drug lord who faces extradition to the United States.

The state of emergency covered districts of the capital where gunmen shot up or set fire to five police stations Sunday.

As ye sow...

Forget about personal responsibility...

...we've got all those wonderful social workers...

They have begun to authorize teachers or counselors, preferably male, to distribute condoms to students if the teachers complete a 30-minute online training course called "WrapMC" -- for Master of Condoms.

Remember... if you build it, they will, er... come.

Bright lights, big city...

Toronto police pulled an oil drum out of the Toronto harbour today that they believe contains a murder victim encased in cement.

“At this point I’ve got a good idea who’s contained within that barrel, but I’m not at liberty to speculate,” said Det. Vander Heyden.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I suppose the Liberals will be calling for a concrete registry."

Oh gawd... don't give them any ideas.

**********

UPDATE: Barrel body identified

Police believed millionaire loan shark Quang Lu was murdered shortly after he disappeared in October 2007. The discovery of a body in a barrel on Sunday proved the prediction by police specializing in Asian organized crime was correct.

No formal race licence...

...(other than ChumpCar’s) is required, although novices must sit through a two-hour classroom session. “Totally insane and fun, but as safe as possible,” is the series’ motto.

And it offers the following advice: “Go see a shrink before sending in your entry form.”

Globe & Mail shocker...

...apparently Canadians no longer give a crap about their kids...Hmmm, that doesn't sound right... let's pick this apart...

Statistics Canada figures reveal that Nunavut has the highest number of infant deaths – 15.1 per 1,000 live births in 2007.

Manitoba has a high rate of infant mortality, at 7.3 per 1,000 live births in 2007, due in part to a larger aboriginal population.

And... as disturbing as that is... there appears to be a correlation with, among other things... Canadian homicide numbers.

Heck, even when nobody dies... the child welfare numbers tell an appalling tale.

Call me crazy... but maybe Canada's aboriginal communities have something to learn from the wiley white man, after all.

From the people who brought you...

...annual bills for OHIP...

In addition to all of that, the new HST imposes taxes on taxes. The province already charges us 14.7 cents a litre in gas tax. The HST will be charged as a tax on that tax.

Similarly, our electrical bills contain a repayment of debt accumulated by years of mismanagement of the provincial hydro utility. Yes, we're going to pay tax on the debt payment, too.

That's why we call him Premier McSlippery.

He's 12 going on .38

While Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals try to defend 2 billion dollars spent chasing farmers, duck hunters & skeet shooters... GTA pre-teens are packin' heat...

Further investigation tied the boy to a Wednesday night robbery involving at least three males at a Food Basics on Westney Rd. N., Selby alleged.

“It’s interesting that we (allegedly) get him with a gun the next day.”

The boy was slapped with 19 charges, including robbery, several weapons-related offences and eight counts of failing to comply with recognizance in connection with previous charges.

If only there was a law.

You ride the bull...

...don't be too surprised you get gored and trampled.

Of Kirpans, Burqas, Turbans & Kilts

Can we assume they're all similarly prohibited?

-- ALBERTA -- Hamish Jacobs is fighting for the right to show a little leg.

The Raymond, Alberta high school student wants to honour his Scottish-Canadian heritage by wearing a kilt to his school’s graduation ceremony, but his principal has told him to wear pants like everyone else.

Of course... the kilt... that's where we absolutely have to draw the sartorial line.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Out of curiosity: where would you draw the sartorial* line?"

Okay.. I'll bite...

CHICAGO -- just a bong hit away...

...from total anarchy...

"Even I was a bit taken aback this morning when the mayor grabbed a rifle and threatened to shoot me." --

Damn... there's never a Community Organiser around when you really, really need one.

That's a fatwa...

...on you & you & you...

Coming right up, after the commercial...

...more breaking news about gravity holding shit down...

Sweeping accusations of impropriety are being levelled against the B.C. Liberal Party and Premier Gordon Campbell's administration at the BC Rail corruption trial.

In the first week of evidence in the prosecution of three former bureaucrats, the defence has portrayed the governing Liberals as fostering a political culture of dirty tricks and deceit.

Yeah... I'm shocked.

"One of these days, Alice... to the moon!"

More empty rhetoric from Shrillary & the McDreamy administration...

While it was “premature” to discuss exact options or actions that will be taken in response, Ms. Clinton said it was “important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences.”

Yeah, listen up Crazy Dwarf... you guys don't stop doing bad things we're gonna tell Uncle Bunky on you... again.

It's a crude analogy... but after years of ineffectual "statements" & "warnings"... the fractious offspring of the United Nations do indeed have Daddy's number.

Don't believe me? I've got 800,000 Tutsis that'll testify... wait a minute...

**********

RELATE: Speaking of cheap theatrics...

...maybe unions should stick to picketing...

"Here's a bulletin for all you union boyos and gals: We taxpayers don't pay taxes so you can have jobs. We pay taxes to obtain services."

"If someone other than unionized public employees can deliver those services cheaper, that is better value for money. I say go for it."

Amen, brother.

I'm not crazy... and so am I

The statesman is considered a close affiliate of the Iranian president and has previously caused a stir by saying that Iran was "a friend of the Israeli people".

He later retracted this statement and issued a contrary one saying Israel should be destroyed.

I guess we'll just have to wait... for the capricious & unknowable "Will of Allah".

Hey, Toronto

Just something to think about... you're writing those cheques to David Miller for your municipal taxes...

Toronto will pump more than $11 million into two failing pensions this year and is likely on the hook for similar payments over the four years.

“It’s $50 million over the next five years,” Celine Chiovitti, the city’s director of pension, payroll and employee benefits, told the government management committee Thursday.

Hey, don't blame me... I didn't vote for him.

Hanoi Jane Taber trots out...

...the O.J. defense... "Free Michael Ignatieff... so he can find the real bullies"...

“Canadians have to say, ‘Yeah he’s not so bad. They’ve written all this bad stuff about him. He’s not so bad. He’s a human being."

Just spitballin' here... but if the high-water mark of your campaign aspirations is simply to be recognised as "a human being"... I'd say this one's already in the crapper.

I mean... Holy Elephant Man... for gawd's sake, FREE IGGY!!!

Remember when you were a kid...

...somebody pissed you off... you'd up and blow 'em away?

Yeah... me neither.

Toronto police have arrested and charged a man in connection with the shooting death of a teen in the west end around two weeks ago.

Police arrested Lavare Williams, 18, on Wednesday and charged him with first degree murder in the death of Mitchell Leton Celise, 17, of Toronto.

Police have also issued a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Chael Mills, 19, who is still at large. He faces a first-degree murder charge.

If only there was a law.

Easy, easy... no need to panic, folks...

...Michael Ignatieff can do all the "hard thinking" for you...

Main Street, say hello to Harvard Drive, Chicago Place, and Berkeley Boulevard. The latter are roads that begin in the elite universities and bring "someone better than you" to power in Washington, D.C.

It's okay to be ordinary, a "swiller of beer," Berkeley Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. says, but it takes a "superior intellect" like that of Barack Obama and his taxpayer-paid faculty, Ivy Leaguers most, to understand the needs of Main Street.

It's so nice to have one of "our betters" spell this out for us beer-swilling louts.

No wonder the Tea Party is growing by leap & bounds.

Derailing the Gravy Train

The call for oversight & accountability gets markedly louder...

A former auditor general is asking why members of Parliament are refusing to permit a special audit of their expenses, saying they are acting as if they have something to hide.

"Well, I'm mystified," said Ken Dye, Canada's auditor general from 1981 to 1991.

"Why are they being reluctant to being transparent? I think they’re condemning themselves, telling the world, 'We’re afraid that you’re going to find something, so we’re not going to let you find it.'"

C'mon, Prime Minister... do the right thing.

He was gonna, what... make soup?

C'mon Gil... Ol' Willie got caught with a pail full of, well... human head... and you're shaking the technicality tree?

-- VANCOUVER -- Defence lawyer Gil McKinnon argued Pickton's six second-degree murder convictions should be overturned, because a B.C. Supreme Court judge made an error during his charge to the jury and while answering a question by the jury during the 2007 trial.

And what's up with this "second degree" bullshit?

Can't we just assume that, after the first five corpses... (never mind that the unofficial bodycount is somewhere on the dark side of forty)... there was an element of premeditation here?

No wonder lawyers are so popular.

**********

LAST WORD:

Imprisoned mad-dog bikers...

...demand equal say in revamping Corrections Canada policy manual...
Sure... that could happen.

Is it just me, or does anybody else see the inherent contradiction in this "unanimous motion"? Aren't these the folks (or a goodly number of them, anyway) who have sworn to break up the country?

Call me crazy... but the PM taking advice from Gilles & company? That's like Kim Jong-Il calling in the Marine Corps to shore up his security detail... or getting dating advice from your ex-wife.

No, Mr Harper... you just keep on doing what you're doing. When ol' Gilles gets his own damn country... he can start making up his own rules.

**********

RELATED: Do it right now
Don't let politicians pick your pockets.

"I'm from the government..."

"...I'm here to save you"...No one can say the McGuinty government doesn't have priorities...

"Mr. Aykroyd gets a kick out of telling Americans it’s banned in his home province of Ontario, where the Ghostbusters and Blues Brothers star maintains a summer residence."

Scary dogs... scary bottles... your Liberal babysitters in action.

THE PLAN -- Kill all the soccer players

THE BACKUP PLAN... kill everybody else...

"If we were not able to reach the teams, then we would target the fans." --

Of course, Abdullah... that only makes sense.

In another election...

...that sent waves of anxiety through political leaders here in Washington, Rand Paul, one of the early leaders of the Tea Party movement, won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky on Tuesday night.

More bad news for President McDreamy... it seems the herd may be veering right...
"Oh, say can you see..."

Too many Chiefs...

...not enough sanity...

-- WINNIPEG -- Terry Nelson, the well-known chief of a southern Manitoba First Nation, is accused by a band member of arming himself with a rifle during an altercation last weekend.

Hmmm, wait a minute... Terry Nelson... that name sounds so familiar...
Curiously, the CBC seems to have totally missed Terry's latest adventure.

**********

RELATED: In other "truth to power" news

-- OTTAWA -- A group of anarchists has claimed responsibility for firebombing a Royal Bank of Canada branch in the Glebe early Tuesday, going as far as posting a video of it online.

Darn anarchists... I wonder what they're upset about this time.

You get exactly the type of government...

...that you deserve...

If anything should bring politics into disrepute, this decision is it. Forget Rahimelena or Afghan detainees. Neither scandal hits Canadians where it counts – in the wallet.

If the House of Commons were a business, MPs would be either facing a shareholders’ meeting from hell, a meltdown of its stock price, or a lawsuit.

Indeed.

The answer to that age-old question...

...who shoots a 15 year-old kid in the face...
Meet Sheronnie Thomas.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Makes you happy he's black, eh?
Posted by Anonymous to halls of macadamia at 3:13 PM, May 18, 2010

Ah, yes... the compassionate, intellectual left... once again, in the person of Mr. Anonymous... responds with the usual charges of... surprise, surprise... racism.

This gentleman was also kind enough to send me a dozen variants of his argument above... including pictures of 90 year-old lynchings in the deep south. I did ask him if he had sent any of these thoughtful comments & pictures to the various media who also covered this terrible event... but have yet to receive an answer.

I guess we're supposed to just pretend this isn't actually a problem. Nobody's disputing that shooting kids in the face is a bad thing... it's just that you aren't supposed to talk about it.

Yes, Nonny... I violated "the code".

Maybe you could do us all a favour... and take your nasty, little race-baiting mouth down the road. I bet they just love you over at Liblogs.

-- Deleted, yet again --

**********

LAST WORD: Forget anonymous trolls...

...ask an actual African-American...

The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said "On the line!" The Reconstruction said "Get set!" and the generation before said "Go!"

I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me.

It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it.

What do you think Zora Neale Hurston would have to say about Sheronnie Thomas?

Dear Michael...

...you just keep on campaigning for defenseless little Omar Khadr and those poor Taliban prisoners... I dare you...Once again... the capricious & unknowable "Will of Allah."

**********

UPDATE: Canadian soldier identified

Col. Geoff Parker, 42, was a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment, and hailed originally from Oakville, Ont.

He will be remembered.

**********

RELATED: Better than the rest...

Count Ignatieff lectures the serfs...

"Wait, wait … stop the speech, sir."

"You are more Canadian than whom, pray tell? The crowd you were speaking to? The Prime Minister?"

"Exactly how much of the Canadian population gets pushed to second-class citizenship in your new elitist concept of super-Canadiandom?"

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

DATELINE: France

We do not negotiate with... oh, never mind...

"A French court has ordered the release of an Iranian convicted for the 1991 murder of Iran's ex-Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar."

Funny how this stuff actually works.

Harvard Egghead resorts to...

... venerable "I know you are, but what am I" strategy...And Michael Ignatieff... apparently forgetting earlier promises about taking the political "high road"... is just getting started...

“Our opponents attack us without ceasing and, occasionally, they pretend to run the government of Canada.”

Hmmm... constant attacks, culture wars... that sounds so familiar...

Mr. Graves went on to say that polling data shows the Conservative Party “does seem to provide a haven” for people with xenophobic or homophobic views."

Hey... isn't that the guy... who was advising Michael Ignatieff, just weeks ago, to start a... well... "culture war"?

I guess desperate times... and plunging poll numbers... require desperate measures.

**********

RELATED: Yup... surprise, surprise...

...the usual G&M cheerleader springs into action...
You get paid for this, right Janie?

The end of personal responsibilty...

PART XXXIV -- Woman with round heels seeks $600,000 corporate payday for personality flaw...

“The plaintiff wept uncontrollably at her workplace . . . and became incapable of performing her employment duties,” reads the statement of claim.

Our modern world.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Anyone who carries on an affair, does so with the full knowledge of the possibility of the spouse finding out in any of a number of ways, none of which would carry a $600,000 payoff."

What's that old saying... "Cheaters never prosper"?

Let's hope, in this case, it turns out to be true.

**********

RELATED: Poor dear has a point...

...time to take away the weight pile.

'Cause Marci said so!

Turning lemons into lemonade... or maybe water into wine...

"If I were him, and had been falsely called a Baptist minister in a book, I promise you I would not stop lording it over all my friends, insisting that they call me The Reverend Ezra."

Oh, c'mon now... the Toronto Star just loved this book.

Of course... the "Usual Suspect"

Hanoi Jane Taber... the Sherlock Holmes of political journalism...

“I sincerely believe that the Giorno letter is at the heart of this thing because it will show the true nature of Stephen Harper – because he obviously approved it.”

See, the thing is, Janie... you don't really need a mysterious, unnamed "senior Ignatieff official"... to know which way the bovine emissions, er... wind is really blowing...

-- OTTAWA -- Michael Ignatieff is drawing a link between disgraced former cabinet minister Helena Guergis and organized crime.

“I don’t want to make false accusations but you don’t get cocaine at a corner drug store, right? You have to get it from somewhere, from someone and usually that means organized crime.”

But Stephen Harper is the villain here? Funny how that works, huh?

**********

RELATED: Janie jumps again...

Helena Guergis’s career was destroyed by a parliamentary process run amok and a Prime Minister who is out of control, Liberal Party President Alf Apps says.

Curiously... Ms. Taber forgets to mention that, at one point, Alf Apps was Nazim Gillani's lawyer and was, in fact, described as Gillani's "getaway driver" before a paliamentary committee.

You can almost smell the journalism.