30 June 2010

Obviously the Obama administration...

...likes her "flexibility"...
Ms. Kagan’s responses, during a long and sometimes tense day of parrying with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were similar to those of Supreme Court nominees past.

But unlike her predecessors, Ms. Kagan wrote a 1995 article calling for judicial nominees to be more forthcoming.
And speaking of flexibility... how about McDreamy himself...
Three days after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch government offered to help.

It was willing to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms, and it proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands.

The response from the Obama administration and BP, which are coordinating the cleanup: “The embassy got a nice letter from the administration that said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,'”
But only 70 days in... there's apparently a change of heart...
Tuesday June 29, 2010, 6:43 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hope, change and... "that was then, this is now."

That damn nasty neocon Mike Harr...

...wait a minute...
Not only did Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals place limits on civil liberties without telling anyone – but they also then washed their hands as police misrepresented and misused their new powers.
McSlippery
The government failed to announce its new law. A simple press release could have explained what the regulation, which is worded in such a way that even police claim to have been confused by it, did and didn’t cover.

Instead, the province buried it on a government website, such that nobody heard about it until an arrest was made.
Yessirree... that's why we call him McSlippery.

**********

RELATED: Suppressing free speech...

...it's what nanny-state Liberals do...
"The released documents show that it was Allan Rock — not Houle — who asked that the email be sent. Rock even dictated some of the wording."
Surprise, surprise.

Playing by...

...Chicago rules...
Previous witnesses in the case had testified the governor was seeking a Cabinet post in exchange for naming Obama's friend and adviser, Valerie Jarrett, to the Senate seat.

Scofield testified that, in exchange for appointing Jarrett, Blagojevich wanted to be appointed secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
**********

RELATED: Inside the Sausage Factory...
On another tape just played by prosecutors, Rod Blagojevich is heard talking to John Harris over the phone on Nov. 3, 2008 -- the day before the election.

They are discussing how Barack Obama is sending two representatives -- union leaders Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern -- to visit to talk about Valerie Jarrett.
The real world... it can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

29 June 2010

The next time masked Visigoths...

...start looting, burning & terrorising your neighbourhood... try calling Lisa Laflamme...
"I once had my car pulled over and searched 8 times in three hours by the RCMP. We had a name for that back when I was in high school."

"It was called 'Saturday night'."
Anybody else tired of hearing over & over again... how we live in a police state?

Is that really what sells those commercial minutes?

Stop... or I'll strip!

Gives a whole new meaing to the phrase... improvised explosive devices...
-- SEELEYS BAY -- De Florio has discovered that if she goes out topless, the boy's horrified grandparents rush the child into the house.

She is not breaking the law, because in Canada women are allowed to be topless. "There is not a criminal charge for that ... not since 1996," said Toronto Police Const. Isabelle Cotton.
Hopefully this thing doesn't go nuclear... wait...
De Florio, 60, said a relative Googled her name on the Internet and was astounded to find "more than 70,000 items from all areas of the world" after the story was picked up from the Toronto Sun.
Her 15 minutes of fame.

Giving a whole new meaning...

...to the expression... "take one for the team"...
The woman even said, according to the transcript of her interview with Portland, Oregon police made public on the Internet, that her “Birkenstock Tribe” friends told her to “suck it up” and not tell anyone or the “world’s going to be destroyed from global warming.”
Suck it up?

Seriously?

**********

RELATED: Takes no questions...

...just a quick "in and out"...
Little has been seen of Gore in the past several weeks since confirmed reports of a split with his wife, Tipper, and after allegations surfaced that a 54-year-old masseuse in Oregon reported Gore made unwanted sexual advances toward her in 2006 and accused him of being "a crazed sex poodle."
Guess things really are heating up, huh?

**********

LAST WORD: More planet-saving hypocrisy

28 June 2010

Paging Olivia Chow

I guess one woman's "baseless spy stories"... are another man's espionage trial...
-- New York Daily News, June 28th -- Ten people have been arrested for allegedly serving as secret agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

Eight of 10 were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term, deep cover assignments in the United States on behalf of Russia.
I guess she's just gonna have to go back to weeping for the Taliban.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"Apparently three of them posed as Canadians."

Cherry-picking their Constitutional rights

Scratch a liberal... find a smarmy little hypocrite
Most Court-watchers expected the decision to come out as it did, yet the dissent by the Court’s four liberals speaks volumes. How could other rights in the Bill of Rights be good against the states, but not this right?

Given the quality of their argument, the conclusion that the Court’s liberals are picking and choosing their rights on political grounds is inescapable.
And if President McDreamy doesn't like it... maybe he can write a new constitution.

More here
.

More interminable boo-freakin-hoo

smelly hippy wannabesWell, lemme see... there's still Starbucks, your welfare cheque... the love & admiration of your lesbian support group...

I don't remember actual hippies being such a bunch of whiners... back in the day, you just took your lumps and wore it as a badge of honour.

C'mon mommy... break out the bubble-wrap.

Despite constant anti-G20 MSM rhetoric...

...another fuzzy-bunny G&M poll goes horribly wrong...
-- "Do you support the G20 plan for a new age of austerity that will see governments cut hundreds of billions of dollars in public spending?" --
g20 bullshitHmmm, looks like one third of Canadians still believe in the "Money Fairy"... but for anyone with half a brain... the bottom line is the bottom line.

27 June 2010

I think this time around... I'm with the...

...compassionate, intellectual leftosphere... "burn, baby, burn"...
-- "Given the events on Saturday in Toronto, is the nearly billion-dollar price tag for summit security any more justified?" --
halls of macadamia/And I'm just sittin' here thinking... Darwin was right...
"Any city that stands aside to photograph itself burning - deserves to."

Those damn neo-conservative thugs...

...looking to take away our.. wait a minute...

protest
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch."

The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks.
Hope, Change and... "who's your daddy, now?"

p.s. -- Betcha Barry wishes he'd had a "kill switch" the other day.

Protests? Activism?

Seriously? Hey, Peace Moonbeam... how about you pull out your dictionary and look up the word "riot"?

protest
-- TORONTO -- With no apparent political message, the group’s members smashed windows, vandalized storefronts and burned police cars in their wake.
Here's a thought... next time your boss pisses you off... try smashing the plate glass in the lobby of your workplace... and setting fire to cars in the parking lot.

No big deal, right... it's just a protest.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"They probably don't HAVE bosses, Neo, because THIS is their job."
**********

RELATED: And Marshall McLuhan wept...
"These anarchists are much more organized than people realize."
It's true... the medium is the moron.

ASKED...
Journalist Steve Paikin, host of TVO's The Agenda, said police were overly aggressive during the arrests.

"I can appreciate that the police were on edge today, after seeing four or five of their cruisers burned. but why such overreaction tonight?" he posted on his Twitter account.
AND ANSWERED...
As in Ottawa, law enforcement declined to enforce the law, the OPP remaining in the wings as thugs rushed the stage. “The police, I’m told, were urged not to intervene,” Paikin explained, “lest pictures of demonstrators being hauled off by the cops show up all over YouTube.”
Bias... what media bias?

Two Canadian soldiers killed

Master Corporal Kristal Giesebrecht, 34, and Private Andrew Miller, 21, were attached to a unit that was on its way to deal with a mine that had been found in the doorway of a home when the vehicle they were in detonated an improvised explosive device.

Master Cpl. Giesebrecht and Pte. Miller were both medical technicians attached to the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group.
They will be remembered.

26 June 2010

Yeah, what idiot spent all that money...

...on dealing with a non-existent... wait a minute...

tase them now**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"Sarkozy says that he can provide the same protection for one tenth of the cost."
Yeah, lemme see... World War I, World War II, Vietnam... let's take strategic counsel from the "land of perpetual surrender".

"In his acceptance speech..."

"...he tried to calm the fears of the other 65.3 percent. 'No one has to be afraid of the Best Party,' he said, 'because it is the best party. If it wasn’t, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that'."

"With his party having won 6 of the City Council’s 15 seats, Mr. Gnarr needed a coalition partner, but ruled out any party whose members had not seen all five seasons of 'The Wire'."

25 June 2010

You "question" it? Seriously?

I'm thinking even Rainman could figure this one out.
-- TORONTO -- “We do question whether or not the $11.5 million represents value for money, especially since the shelter beds due to be located at Peter St. have over the past 35 months or so been accommodated elsewhere in the shelter system.”
Hey Hogtowners... just one more thing to think about... you're writing out that cheque to further David Miller's socialist agenda.

Oh-so-enlightened Euroweenies...

...dump "My Two Dads" on their collective asses...
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that countries are not obliged to allow gay marriage, rejecting a bid by an Austrian couple to force the state to let them wed.

A panel of seven judges ruled unanimously Thursday that the couple was not covered by the guarantee of the right to marry in Europe's human rights convention.
I'm looking forward to the inevitable hysterical screamfest... "Queers against Continental Apartheid."

Or do these guys only target Jews?
It would seem that city officials have also done an about-face. It came little more than a week after the city handed Pride their $123,807 grant cheque — on good faith that any groups violating the city’s anti-discrimination policy would not be allowed to march this year.

The city’s diversity manager Ceta Ramkhalawansingh indicated a month ago that Pride may be in violation of the city’s anti-discrimination policy for allowing QuAIA to march in the parade.

But on Friday she sent the Toronto Sun an e-mail indicating Pride has put “new procedures” in place that ask all participants to sign an anti-discrimination declaration.
What do you suppose a "diversity manager" gets paid?

More to the point... why isn't anybody protesting Dutch apartheid?
The new anti-Semitism is sometimes hard to keep up with.

Or, if you’re a Muslim, and you assault a Jew who is actually a Jew, that’s kind of bad, but if you assault a Jew who turns out to be a decoyeven though you thought he was a Jew — that’s not so bad, because you were tricked . . . or something.
I'm so confused.

Stand by for breaking news...

...on gravity holding shit down...
Adolescents who said their parents were authoritative, meaning they show high levels of both warmth and monitoring, were least prone to report heavy drinking, according to the study by Stephen Bahr, a professor in Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, and co-author John Hoffmann.
Lemme see... two parent families... actually give a crap about what their kids are up to... sheer genius.

Bright lights, big city...

...I spit on your 15,000 extra cops...
Toronto Police are on the hunt for a suspect following a double shooting at a billiards hall on the Danforth near Warden Avenue.

Police are also after a man, believed to be in his 40s, who is suspected of stabbing a woman multiple times in the Lansdowne Avenue and Dupont Avenue area.

24 June 2010

Hey, Peace Moonbeam... you think maybe...

...you could take a break from all that screaming about the sadistic cops and their deadly "sound" cannon?peace activists
"Some weapons were visible to police when the looked in the car, and they eventually removed a crossbow, five arrows, a sledgehammer, a pick-axe, a chainsaw, and a baseball bat."
Oh, c'mon you stormtroopers... it's obvious this guy was just looking to score a little venison and shag some flies... while finishing off a little demolition work.

Fascists.

Unhappy with the way things are going?

Here's a thought... call up a bunch of your buddies and try blocking a four lane highway...halls of macadamia/One small caveat, though... you're not aboriginal... the local SWAT team is gonna show up... with tasers... and drop you faster than a crazy ex-girlfriend.

You don't like it... tough shit. Only "special" people get to break the law of the land with impunity.

That's how it's done in Canada.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"Fun stuff: just talked to someone who is at Princess Margaret, and the van used to take patients to Sunnybrook and back was delayed "only" 20 minutes. Not a long time, unless you've just undergone radiation therapy, and your pain medication is wearing off."
Unbelievable.

I guess it all depends on who you ask...

...an infamous, foreign, fuzzy-bunny pinko broadsheet...halls of macadamia/Or... I dunno... the people who actually live there...
"Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights."
Wake up folks... and smell the propaganda.

23 June 2010

Did the Cold War ever really end?

We're so busy bending over backwards to acknowledge everybody else's cultural identities... we've started to lose sight of our own...
At least five countries are surreptitiously recruiting future political prospects in universities, he said. Middle East countries are also involved.

But China is the most aggressive, funding university clubs that are managed by people operating out of the embassy or consulates, Fadden said in a recent speech to Canadian police chiefs and security experts in Toronto.
**********

UPDATE: Compassionate, intellectual left responds...
If Canada's national spy agency has any concerns about municipal politicians in B.C. being under the influence of foreign governments, it has not shared them with Vancouver Mayor (and former Dipper MLA) Gregor Robertson, his chief of staff said Wednesday.

"There has been no communication from any order of government or law enforcement agency about this."

"It seems preposterous and ludicrous," said Mike Magee.
Yup... nothing here but rainbows & unicorns... move along, folks.

**********

UPDATE2: BC Liberals attack

The fact is though, this isn't about facts... it's about suckass political correctness...
Some insiders argue Mr. Fadden merely expressed – albeit more pointedly – what has worried CSIS for years. “I was surprised to hear his comments – not what he said, but that he said it,” said Robert Simmonds, past RCMP commissioner.
Which, unfortunately, too often carries the day in fuzzy-bunny Canuckistan.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
I've just finished "The Mitrovkin Archive", which is a slim 700+ page tome (with another 100 of notes) that showed how well the Soviet Union infiltrated Western governments, media, universities, research institutes, etc.

It would be a shock if China wasn't doing likewise.

History lesson

halls of macadamia/
When a critic in Congress demanded McClellan’s firing, Lincoln asked who should replace the general. “Why, anybody,” the senator replied.

“Anybody will do for you,” Lincoln said, “but not for me. I must have somebody.”
**********

UPDATE: It's gonna be a bloodbath...

...if McDreamy fires everyone who thinks Biden is an idiot...
President Obama announced McChrystal's resignation Wednesday at the White House following comments the general and his staff made mocking senior members of the Obama administration in a magazine article.
McChrystal's just gotta be breathing a sigh of relief here as he climbs outta this clown car of an administration.

53 strikes... and you're out

On CTV news last night they featured Liberal MP Mark Holland screaming about how Stephen Harper's "tough on crime" agenda was "way expensive, dude"...
Robert Cornish’s life of crime has been put on hold for the next decade.

With 53 criminal convictions under his belt — including a current sentence of four years for a violent jewelry store robbery in Exeter three years ago — Cornish faced the music again Tuesday when he was sentenced in London to serve another 6 1/2 years for a vicious attack on a London truck driver in September 2001.
Funny how nobody ever asks about the cost of letting these unrepentant assholes run amok through the larger field of folk.

Two words... Jane... Creba.

22 June 2010

Federal Court decides it doesn't like...

...cut of Emperor's new suit...
obama suit
Judge Feldman agreed, saying in his ruling the Interior Department seemed to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
**********

RELATED: Playing by Chicago Rules
halls of macadamia/
On another tape just played by prosecutors, Rod Blagojevich is heard talking to John Harris over the phone on Nov. 3, 2008 -- the day before the election.

They are discussing how Barack Obama is sending two representatives -- union leaders Tom Balanoff and Andy Stern -- to visit to talk about Valerie Jarrett.

"Do they think I would just appoint Valerie Jarrett for nothing?" Blagojevich is heard saying of the Obama camp. "Just to make it happen?"

Hey Hans... that "diversity" thing...

...how's that working out for ya?
decoy jews
-- "The city's police already use people posing as pensioners and gay men in an effort to catch muggers and gay-bashers." --
Geez... has anybody mentioned this to poor Helen Thomas?

Meanwhile... just down the road in Stinky Cheese Land...
Jacques: “Sacre bleu! You’re right, Alain. Well, no problem. We’ll just move it to Thursday.”

Alain: “Yes. That should be OK. Let me just first consult my Reuters Guide to Ominous Islamic Grievances and Forbidden Behaviour, Volume IV, chapter 37 … oh, no. Thursday is Indonesian Independence Day.”
**********

RELATED: And Winston Churchill wept...
But it did happen and it will happen again. The longer Her Majesty's government allows riot and disorder to rule the street the more likely a second English civil war.
Our modern world.

Obama... apparently not too busy...

...to declare war on Arizona...
"I met with the president in the Oval Office, just the two of us," Kyl said. "Here's what the president said. The problem is, he said, if we secure the border, then you all won't have any reason to support comprehensive immigration reform."

"In other words," Kyl continued, "they're holding it hostage. They don't want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with comprehensive immigration reform."
Hope, change and... fuck you, I'm in charge.

21 June 2010

Irony-proof Whitehouse tweaks BP...

...do as I say...
"A White House spokesman had a little fun at the expense of BP CEO Tony Hayward at the daily briefing Monday, tweaking him for taking his yacht out on the water for a race off English shores while the waters of the Gulf become ever more polluted."
Not as I do...
"At the same time, Burton defended the president's Saturday golf outing, which has also come in for some fire, saying, 'I don't think that there's a person in this country that doesn't think that their president ought to have a little time to clear his mind'."
Yeah, Barry... I guess the buck stops, well... somewhere over there.

Once again... just totally oblivious.

Another Canadian falls

halls of macadamia/
A Canadian soldier, on his fourth tour in Afghanistan, has been killed by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar’s volatile Panjwai district.

Sergeant James Macneil, a 28-year-old from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, had been recently promoted and honoured as the Top Master Corporal in 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group.
He will be remembered.

A Spoonful of Bullshit

halls of macadamia/
"Entitled 'strong medicine,' the 60-second television spot will run until the tax comes into effect."
You have to give Dalton his due... at least he kept half a promise...
"Liberal strategists clearly decided from the outset that, to minimize the HST’s negative impact on their fortunes, the best defence is a good offence."

"So rather than act as if they have something to apologize for, they’ve bent over backward to convey that the reform is something they’re proud of."
Fees for OHIP... more taxes... who couldn't get behind that?

Besides... without Joe Lunchbucket subsidising the McSlippery agenda... where's all that progressia gonna come from?
"My doctor asked for a cancer screening lab test at my latest medical. Not covered by OHIP, but sex change operations are?"

"Does OHIP have enough money for one and not the other?"
Hmmm... that's sure what this sounds like.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
halls of macadamia/

But it worked out so well...

...for Neville Chamberlain...

halls of macadamia/
"There was no immediate comment from the Taliban about the prisoners’ release but the militant group has repeatedly dismissed all peace overtures, saying it will continue to fight until all foreign forces have left."
But hey... that's not what regular Muslims are... wait a minute...

Wake up and smell the fission

Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it will not allow two of its inspectors to enter the country, state media report.

The decision comes two weeks after the UN Security Council voted to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran.
Yup... anybody who has small children can tell you exactly where this one is going.

Thank goodness we don't have to rely on President McDreamy.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan...

...the backstory...
"The missive — one of tens of thousands of pages of Kagan's e-mails released Friday — shows how as an aide to President Bill Clinton, Kagan's job was often to place political considerations ahead of her policy views."

"Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a willingness to make legal decisions based not on the law but instead on her very liberal politics."
Yeah... I'm shocked.

19 June 2010

Those damn knuckle-draggin' neocon...

...wait a minute... this was the peaceniks?
-- OTTAWA -- Cops seized military-grade sniper ammo during the investigation into a trio of anarchists charged in the firebombing of a Glebe RBC branch.

A cache of 50-calibre and 7.62-calibre ammunition was discovered by police along with incendiary materials.
I wonder if CUPE or PSAC is gonna be kickin' in for a lawyer...
Clement is a retired public servant, whose last job was at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Or maybe they're just too busy defending the good ol' boys in Hamas.

No worries though... there's alway Legal Aid.

**********

UPDATE 16:45: Not .50 cal after all
"Editor's Note: This story originally reported the Ottawa Police statement that 'sniper-style' ammunition had been seized. They have since corrected the statement, saying the 7.62 ammunition was stored in box with 50 caliber markings."
Well... that's a relief.

Nice dress...

...shame about the brain...
dizzy lizzie
“I got there and they said ‘what the hell is that woman wearing? It looks like a leisure suit.’ So I figured out … they want you to go to Calgary and spend money at a western outfitter’s store. I got it now.”

In 2009, she was elected best-dressed leader.
If Canadian voters continue to have a say... it's the only position Lizzie will ever hold.

Well, boo-freakin'-hoo

Hang on a sec... if I get drunk and roll my car into a ditch... will the federal government spot me a new ride? --

halls of macadamia/Call me crazy... but whatever happened to personal responsibility? More to the point... why should I pay... for your roll in the hay?

Of course, that's not how they see it on Planet Pinko...
"Young women are being forced into a situation where they can’t do anything about their pregnancy."
Hey Peace Moonbeam... here's a thought... you're not responsible enough to use birth control... or good judgement... maybe you shouldn't be doin' the crazy monkey.

18 June 2010

Maybe a couple unscripted years...

...being somebody's personal cigarette bitch at Millhaven... will teach these guys some valuable life-lessons about anarchy...
halls of macadamia/Yessirree... idiots, explosives & falling anvils...
Police arrested Claude Frederic Haridge, 50, on his way to work near Hunt Club Road Friday.

Roger Clement, 58, was also arrested and faces arson charges. Clement is a retired public servant, whose last job was at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Matthew Morgan Brown, the youngest of the trio, and believed to be in his early 30s.
Happy trails, you morons.

Now... and I'm just spitballin' here...

...over 10 percent of your population has a terminal, sexually transmitted disease... maybe money stuff isn't your biggest issue...
-- JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Thousands of South African protesters marched on the U.S. consulate Thursday to demand the U.S. increase its AIDS funding for Africa, weeks after U.S. officials said their biggest AIDS fund would not substantially rise.
Yeah... it's like nobody cares, huh?
Officials from the international program, known as PEPFAR, say this year's budget had increased only marginally, from $6.8 billion in 2010 to nearly $7 billion for 2011.
So... just for the record... when the U.S.A. is acting as the "world's policeman"... that's evil.

But you don't have a problem with them being the "world's urologist"?

How exactly does that work?

**********

RELATED: Gotta have priorities, huh?
The world invests $8-billion to $10-billion (U.S.) into AIDS every year, more than 100 times what it spends on clean-water projects in developing countries.

Yet more than two billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation, and about one billion lack clean water.
Unbelievable.

17 June 2010

Ronnie... those two "MISTAKES" you made...

...they're both still dead, right?
Decades later, Mr. Gardner now says he is calmer, wiser and remorseful.
Yeah... I guess 25 years in the Crowbar Motel can do that, huh? So let's have it... let's hear about what a model citizen you've turned out to be...
He claims his desire is now to help young people avoid making the kind of mistakes that landed him on death row.
Mistakes!?!? That's what these people were to you?
He and his brother would like to run a 160-acre organic farm and residential program for at-risk youth.
Yeah, you dumbass... and I wanna be an astronaut.

It's just a shame they can't execute him twice.

**********

RELATED: More death row boohoo...

...just ask a Liberal.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: The compassionate, intellectual left responds...
halls of macadamia/
"I have never threatened you, and you know it Jim. You are the one making threats to shoot me with your Glock."
Does anybody else get this kind of crazy?

Just wondering.

**********

LAST WORD: Horrible rush to justice...

...only took 25 tears...
The five executioners, certified police officers who volunteered for the task and remain anonymous, stood about 25 feet away, behind a wall cut with a gunport, and were armed with .30-calibre Winchester rifles.
One thing we do know about capitol punishment... Ronnie Lee Gardner won't ever murder anyone again.

As one commenter eloquently put it...
"The man wasn't executed to teach him that killing was wrong. He knew it was wrong. He was executed to punish him for killing people and to stop him from ever doing it again."
Just so.

The black hole of Sears

Yes folks... it's that time again.

Our Sears Kenmore water heater has once again blown an element. That's three times in the 9 years we've been here.

And this wouldn't be such a horrible ordeal, if you could simply drive down to Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a replacement part... but guess what... Sears uses a proprietary thread to stop that from happening.

To make things worse... Sears no longer stocks these parts locally. The closest heater element is... or so I am told... in Toronto or Ottawa (and that's a lie, see update below). You'll have to forgive my skepticism here, as the Sears parts people were unable, despite having the model of this Kenmore branded appliance, able to locate a part number.

So now I get to call the 800 number and do another interminable dance with some miserable minion who gets minimum wage to deal with unhappy people all day.

This oughta be fun.

Moral of the story... deal with Sears at peril of your sanity.

**********

UPDATE: Why am I surprised?

Just got off the phone with Sears after checking their parts website which claims to have an inventory of 7 million items. Unfortunately... just like the parts depot, it didn't even recognise the model number of my water heater.

And... as expected... dealing with their call center was just another complete fuck-around.

I am told that not one of their parts depots in Ontario carries this item. Robo-Tele-Serf claims that this heater element must be ordered from the manufacturer, sent to a central warehouse and then shipped to the Belleville parts outlet.

That was gonna take 6 days. Without hot water.

I can overnight shit to Uzbekistan... but Sears needs a week to get this part to the backwater of Belleville, Ontario? Seriously?

Oh yeah... here's the best part... it was gonna cost 62 bucks plus tax & whatever... double the cost of the most expensive replacement heater element I saw on my rounds of Canadian Tire, Lowes & Home Depot.

Kudos to the clueless bimbo who... in the middle of my rant about their miserable service... asked me if I wanted to participate in a customer satisfaction survey.

Anyway... I'm gonna have to go buy a water heater... any recommendations from handy readers will be appreciated.

Your money... his friends

Ah yes... once again Dalton McSlippery's bottomless socialist teat...
"The turning point in the talks came when Ontario government officials agreed to grant the exemption, according to sources close to the talks."
We just keep stepping further & further away... from "one people, one law."

*********

RELATED: And across the pond...
Ponder that last statement for a minute: a group of French people announce that they're going to eat French food in public, in France, and it's deemed a "serious risk to public order."
The Brave New World... closer than you think.

"Whatever the reason..."

"...Barack Obama gave the most depressing Oval Office speech since Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech. He didn’t just embrace defeat, he wore it on his suit as a substitute for an argyle sweater."
**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"It's time for a site called 'Shitmypresidentsays'."
It seems President McDreamy is even losing infamous lefty comedian Jon Stewart.

Not an auspicious sign for the Dems.

16 June 2010

Betraying the Badge

If you can't trust a brother officer... who exactly can you trust?
A Toronto Police officer is charged with stealing from a fellow cop.

Const. Ganesh Balaganthan, 38, is charged with two counts of theft under $5,000, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime, careless storage of ammunition and two counts of careless storage of a prohibited weapon.
Well... maybe this guy was just really needy... wait a minute...
Records show Balaganthan earned more than $100,000 in police salary last year.
Now that's just sad.

Memo to overwhelmingly discredited...

...thoroughly disrespected Members of Parliament -karlykurls- Wanna earn a huge bag-o-voter-goodwill? --
"In order to get the changes passed before Ms. Homolka becomes eligible to apply, Parliament would have to unanimously agree to keep sitting."
C'mon boys & girls... time to sack up and actually serve the greater good.

**********

UPDATE: Well whaddaya know
halls of macadamia/

Canada's very own Helen Thomas...

libbytankMeet Libby the Tank Engine.

**********

UPDATE: Runaway Libby shut down
“No member of our caucus, whatever other title they have, is allowed to invent their own policy,” said NDP deputy leader Thomas Mulcair.

“We take decisions together, parties formulate policies together, and to say that you’re personally in favour of boycott, divestment and sanctions for the only democracy in the Middle East is, as far as I’m concerned, grossly unacceptable.”
So, in the end... I guess Israel actually owes Libby a thank you.

Gotta love that.

15 June 2010

Scratch a Liberal... find a...

...well, you know...
-- BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Premier Gordon Campbell’s chief of staff said Tuesday he could think of no good reason why Patrick Kinsella was hired as a well-paid consultant by BC Rail just four months after Mr. Kinsella co-chaired the Liberals’ successful election campaign in 2001.

“I would have asked ‘why?’ because I don’t know what value he would bring to BC Rail and the optics are not good. Unless there was a reason that was publicly explainable, certainly it wouldn’t be good optics.”

Documents released before the current trial began have disclosed that Mr. Kinsella, co-chair of the 2001 Liberal election campaign with former MLA Christy Clark, was paid $6,000-$7,000 a month by BC Rail for consulting work.
Nice work if you can get it, huh Gordo?

Sounds like somebody couldn't wait...

...for their 72 virgins...
A member of the Khadr family in Toronto has been charged with sexual offences allegedly involving a minor.

Police say Abdulkareem Ahmed Khadr, 21, is charged with one count each of sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
Holy Jihad... it's more than just explosives & decapitations.

P.S -- Abdulkareem is the one in the wheelchair.

14 June 2010

Another culturally appropriate solution?

Sure... let's ask Aqsa Parvez...
A Quebec judge has ordered a mother who allegedly stabbed her teenage daughter in the head and chest to undergo a psychological evaluation. The defence lawyer recommended the woman — a native of Afghanistan — be sent to hospital for a 30-day evaluation. Montreal police say the incident has all the hallmarks of a so-called honour crime.
Hang on a second... what was it that the CIC had to say about this stuff?
"I don't want the public to think that this is really an Islamic issue or an immigrant issue," said Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress. "It is a teenager issue."
Sorry, Mo... I'm gonna have to call bullshit. I can't speak for anyone else... but in my childhood home... the punishment for this sort of stuff usually didn't involve the death penalty.

FROM THE COMMENTS:
"In my family we got grounded...not undergrounded."
Once again, we see the perils of "cultural relativism." 

BREAKING: Guilty plea in "honour killing"
In a stunning development, Aqsa Parvez’s father and youngest brother admitted on Tuesday they strangled her in her bedroom.
So much for Mo Elmasry's... "teenager issue."
The agreed upon statement of facts contains an interview with Aqsa's mother, Anwar Jan, who attempts to explain why the murder happened. In an interview with police, she says her husband told her he killed his youngest child because "this is my insult."
"My community will say, 'You have not been able to control your daughter.' This is my insult. She is making me naked."
Police asked if things would have been different if the family had stayed in Pakistan. "He would have killed her there too," she says.

All the money in the world

Yes... of course.

Hamid Karzai would lift Afghanistan out of abject poverty & misery... the same way Robert Mugabe did for the former "breadbasket of Africa"...
halls of macadamia/Because that's the way the third world usually works, right?

**********

RELATED: Wacky world of Hamid Karzai
-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible.

Relations with Mr. Karzai have been rocky for some time, and international officials have expressed concern in the past that his decision making can be erratic.

Last winter, Mr. Karzai accused NATO in a speech of ferrying Taliban fighters around northern Afghanistan in helicopters. Earlier this year, following criticism by the Obama administration, Mr. Karzai told a group of supporters that he might join the Taliban.
"Houston... we have a problem."

Remember when you were a kid...

...you had a beef with somebody... you'd settle it with cold steel?
-- TORONTO -- “Words were exchanged” and one teen attacked another, Vruna said. The 17-year-old victim was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name wasn’t immediately released.
ARTICLE UPDATED:
"The victim was identified Monday as Justice Ferrigno of Toronto."
**********

UPPERDATE:
Jonathan Cioppa, of Toronto, is now charged with second degree murder.
**********

RELATED: In other dead children news
A 15-year-old girl found dead in her family's Brampton home is now Peel Region's second murder victim of the year.

The death was immediately considered suspicious, but detectives only concluded foul play was involved two days later.
**********

BREAKING: Parents charged in teen death
-- BRAMPTON, Ont. -- The father and stepmother of a 15-year-old Brampton girl found dead in her home over the weekend are now accused in her killing.

Peel police say Frederick Gayle, 42, and his wife Elizabeth will be formally charged with second-degree murder in court Wednesday.
Unbelievable.

Closing credits

So... it's been a whole week since Mrs Neo's Dad died. We're still prone to spontaneously blurting out our favourite G-Dad stories... but more often these days with a smile than a tear.

The whole family traveled to Toronto and retrieved G-Dad's ashes the other day and he currently sits... once again uncomplainingly... in his favorite chair looking out on the bird feeder. Even that brings a smile to my face... because despite the fact that it was a fairly expensive custom-made motorised lift chair... G-dad, in his year and a half plus with us... resolutely refused to even once use that feature.

That was, you see... for old guys... and he was having none of that.

We have also since learned that the last independent act of G-Dad's life was to redo his will and, amazingly, climb into his car and drive to a former law-partner's home to have it witnessed. Given his horrendous physical condition, which we discovered just two days later (6'2" and 125 lbs.)... which prompted us to travel to Toronto, kidnap and bring him back here to live with us... it was an errand of heroic proportions.

It's obvious to us now that G-Dad was feeling so physically precarious that he just had to tie up this one last loose end. While you or I would have been dialing 911, or looking for someone to drive them to the hospital... G-Dad just had to perform his last lawyerly duty.

It's just so typical... so utterly him.

I'm sure he had no idea that, with a little medical intervention, he had any significant amount of time left.

I'm just grateful that we got to spend it with him.

13 June 2010

Family values?

Hastings-Prince Edward County Liberal candidate Ken Cole has apparently walked away from the party...
Cole cited personal reasons in his decision to step aside. Cole, a father of two sons, said he wants to spend more time with his family.

"These decisions are personal," he said. "For me, family comes before country. At this time, with everything that's going on, I need to focus on my family."
Well... in todays hurry-hurry, gotta get mine world... that's a pretty damned admirable sentiment... wait a minute...
Cole said his decision gained more steam following his re-marriage and the birth of his now 10-month-old son.
Not to be a nitpicker here, Ken... but is there a reason the first family had to play second fiddle?

**********

UPDATE: 20:37

It has just occured to me that... given the sometimes dubious standard of journalism at the Belleville Intelligencer... Mr Cole may have been done an injustice.

It is possible that, despite the use of the word "re-marriage" in the Intell article... that Ken Cole has simply renewed his vows. I await word from any local reader who knows what the actual story is here.

11 June 2010

Just something to think about...

...if you can spare a few moments from weeping for poor, little Omar Khadr...
Taliban militants took terror to a new low by accusing a 7-year-old boy of spying - and hanging him.

Nor is this the first time the Taliban has killed kids. Three years ago, they strung up a 70-year-old woman and a child in the Musa Qala district on trumped up spying charges, Ahmadi said.
That's some "Religion of Peace".

CBC reconsidering...

...previous hasty stance on "don't ask, don't tell"...
Would you watch a Fox News-like channel?
halls of macadamia/**********

RELATED: Fox News doesn't "hire" people...

...it traps them like wild animals...
fox trapJust ask a rabid dipper...
Outspoken NDP MP Pat Martin, however, said he thinks Fox News is a bad model for news. “God help us if the neo-cons get their own network to bombard Canadians with their outdated ideology,” he said. “Can you imagine Ezra Levant ranting at you around the clock?”

Mr. Teneycke laughed off Mr. Martin’s criticism, retorting: “Ranting, done right, can be quite entertaining. Pat Martin is living proof of that.”
Indeed.