I guess I was wrong

Up until very recently, I tended to think of British Columbia as the natural breeding grounds of the infamous soft-shelled socialist... but recent events are revealing La-la Land to actually be the Wild, Wild West...

Police in Metro Vancouver say they rescued an 18-year-old Chinese student, who was kidnapped on Saturday, in a dramatic early morning takedown.

"Members of the VPD … executed numerous takedowns on multiple vehicles and the hostage was rescued uninjured," Deputy Chief Doug Lepard said in a news release.

I'm thinking this has to have something to do with the "target rich environment". Remember when infamous bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks?

Sutton's answer... "That's where the money is."

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RELATED: Coming soon: National Hi-Rise Registry

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LAST WORD: The long wait is over

Finally... a story about someone having a "good hair day".

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When Harry met Sally

My guess is Iggy's "meet & greet Obamagasm"... is gonna blow Meg Ryan's celebrated on-screen fakery right into the method-acting ditch...

On Thursday, the Liberal Leader's image crafting gets a giant boost. TV coverage and media photos of him shaking hands with the popular and powerful Mr. Obama should help Mr. Ignatieff favourably present himself to voters.

“That's the money shot,” said Antonia Maioni, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

“It puts him on an equal level, at least in a visual sense, with an American president, and therefore makes him look like a stand-in for the head of government."

The Liberals hope the visit will cause some of "Mr. Obama's celebrity stardust" to rub off on Mr. Ignatieff.

Yup... "stardust & mirrors."

Of course, that's not the way Iggy's trying to spin it...

Speaking to reporters in Quebec, the Liberal Leader took a swipe at Mr. Harper over the scheduling of the Obama visit, saying he would not let the “Prime Minister's political interests spoil an important opportunity” to talk to the U.S. President.

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RELATED: Who is the real Ignatieff?

...he doesn't just LOOK like a smarmy Vulcan... he talks like one too!

“Nothing is personal in politics, because politics is theater. It is part of the job to pretend to have emotions that you do not actually feel.”

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POSTSCRIPT:

Of course it occurs to me... after the fact... this should have been titled "When Barry met Silly"... damn.

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LAST WORD: Even the Wabbits at CTV...

...are asking Iggy to turn down the noise...

"Should Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and U.S. President Barack Obama meet for at least 20 minutes?"

Fuzzy-Bunny Belleville Leftoid...

...has terrifying encounter with "real world"...

"He didn't hear any of that," Quinlan said of the man she encountered. "He got upset and began mumbling that he would have to rob a gas station so he could get food."

Quinlan said she approached the man and told him there was no need to make such a statement and tried to explain to him that he and his wife would indeed get food but, she said, he did not seem to hear the explanation. Though the man was "irritated" he took a seat in the food bank's entranceway with other clients, she said.

Yeah... that's what I do when I get irritated... threaten to commit a violent felony.

Another client's attempts to lighten the tension with some jokes only further infuriated the man, she said, and he again began to berate staff members and called Quinlan a "bitch." Staff told the man he would have to wait outside as his wife would be served and he again launched into a tirade, Quinlan said.

"I can't even repeat all the filth he said," said the shaken food bank manager.

Apparently... this is a family affair... a multi-generational army of societal leeches. And note, if you will... HE STILL GOT HIS FREE FOOD.

At that point, police were contacted and the man agreed to wait outside. However, before police arrived, the man's son entered the building to help his mother carry the basket of food out and he too threatened Quinlan and other staff members.

The family left before police arrived.

One has to wonder why Quinlan is so surprised though... this sort of thing appears to be the order of the day. And don't call them "crazy-ass grifters"... these folks are "clients."

Tense moments are becoming more and more common at Gleaners due to an increase in demand, Quinlan said. Clients regularly become upset with one another, creating angry encounters with the possibility of violence, she said.

"It gets like this when we're busy. We understand people can get frustrated, but it's like everything else around here, sometimes it just spirals out of control."

Stewart, who had been called to the front of the building during Wednesday's incident, said he has witnessed similar moments in the past.

"I wouldn't say they're uncommon," he said. "Some of them defuse a little quicker, but it happens here."

So this family drives in from out of town to score free food. I sure hope Ms. Quinlan gave this poor man gas money to defray some of his expenses. Or, better yet... maybe they could courier him his free food every week.

Yessirree... build it and they will come... and come... and come...

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dEAr fR. $¢,

"I GotZ dA PhONe. yOO gOTz da $TaKe. If yoo W@Nt 2 seE yr iPH0ne aGaiN, Put da meAt in MY b0WL anD doNt call dA PolEE$, OK?
@nonYmOuS"

[*]

Need a new car?

You might wanna start thinkin' about a KIA...

The federal government has slapped a $500-million charge against Chrysler Canada Inc. as part of a high-stakes tax battle that is complicating government bailout negotiations for the troubled auto maker.

According to Federal Court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail, the Canada Revenue Agency began notifying Chrysler Canada in 2002 that it had been reassessed and owed “substantial increases” in taxes for three years starting in 1996.

Apparently the bailout's been in operation for the better part of the last decade.

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Tonight's CTV Moonbat Moment

Have to admit I'm a little torn here... my first impulse was to go with Lloyd Robertson's simpering... "Nice to have a weatherwise President coming to Canada"... but I've gotta go with the Ottawa affiliate's... "On Obama Eve..."

Yes... blessed be HIS name.

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RELATED: "Uh... Dalton's not here man"

A McGuinty-commissioned report called "Ontario in the Creative Age" was recently delivered to the premier by Roger Martin, the dean of the University of Toronto's business school, and Richard Florida, the "creative class" guru who has written a series of best-selling books.

"Ontario in the Creative Age" says the jobs of the future will be creative so Ontario needs to go big on education and creativity. The premier could have learned this by buying one of Florida's books for $24.95 at Chapters.

Instead, he paid $2.2 million for a 35-page report.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"That's the 'health premiums' of 3,667 Ontario taxpayers."

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Corruption deja vu... all over again

Maybe there's a reason 3 of the last 7 Illinois governors have ended up in the "Crowbar Motel"...

-- CHICAGO (AP) -- At a City Club of Chicago luncheon Wednesday, a fiery Burris asked guests to stop the rush to judgment.

"If I had done the things I been accused of, I would be too embarrassed to stand up here in front of you because you all are my friends," Burris said, adding that during his decades of public service there was "never a hint of a scandal."

Burris then said he would no longer speak with the media.

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UPDATE: Legislators investigate Burris "perjury"

-- CHICAGO -- State and local records show that at least 10 names are missing from a list of lobbying clients U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has given to Illinois legislators.

But a review by The (Springfield) State Journal-Register found that Burris' list doesn't match records kept by the Illinois secretary of state, the Cook County clerk or the Chicago Board of Ethics.

Under oath last month, Burris, through Wright, said he'd give a complete list of his lobbying firm's clients.

Yeah... nominated by the guy you just impeached.

Who could have seen that coming, huh?

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The 15 minute man

Leave it to the Mother Corp. to showcase Michael Ignatieff claiming that he can set things right in Afghanistan... simply by whispering sweet nothings in President McDreamy's perfect cockleshell ear.

And you've just gotta wonder what nonsense the Igster would have had on his "wish list"... if the infamous Coalition of the Swilling hadn't died a horrible ignoble death. Can't you just hear Taliban Jack demanding that Omar Khadr replace Hamid Karzai?

What Ignatieff doesn't choose to admit here is that his 15 minutes is simply a diplomatic courtesy, political theatre if you will... extended to a man who doesn't have a car... never mind a passing acquaintance with the driver's seat.

The reality here is... I've spent more time than this... just takin' a crap.

But hey, pal... it's more than enough time for you and "The One" to go over your resume.

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FROM THE COMMENTS: Oh, my gawd...

...he doesn't just LOOK like a smarmy Vulcan... he talks like one too!

“Nothing is personal in politics, because politics is theater. It is part of the job to pretend to have emotions that you do not actually feel.”

Hey Liblogs... where is your god now?

(via blue like you)

"Not my problem", says McSlippery

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won’t call a public inquiry into an aboriginal land dispute in Caledonia, Ont., that’s dragged on for nearly three years.

McGuinty says it’s a matter of federal jurisdiction, but the province will try to keep the two sides together to help settle the dispute.

After all of his shameful sucking up to the cultural grievance industry and his string of handsomely rewarded, but totally ineffective Liberal "troubleshooters"... it's no wonder McGuinty is looking to kick dirt over this stinking corpse.

Looks like it's up to the Conservatives to shine a light on this disgraceful matter.

The Opposition is tabling a private member’s bill today calling for a public inquiry into the occupation, which began Feb. 28, 2006, and its impact on the southern Ontario community.

Say Dalton... what are you gonna do about Caledonia Part II... or III, or IV...

Look out Ontario... 'cos this ain't over.

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RELATED: Gotta have priorities, huh?

Funny how some things just get lost in the shuffle.

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Who needs the auto sector?

Our business is blood... and business is booming...

York Region police say they discovered numerous dead and live roosters and rounded up 70 people at the home. Police returned the following day and found six dead roosters and 74 live birds, which were euthanized by a veterinarian.

Hugh Coghill, the chief inspector for the Ontario SPCA, says cockfighting is a “truly heinous crime, involving unimaginable cruelty.”

Police allege Danilo Patawaran, 52 and Deanna Patawaran, 46, organized the cockfights and the charges against them include causing unnecessary suffering, keeping a cockpit and keeping a betting house.

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So Dawg, Stooge et al...

...you've gotta help me out here...
Why is it okay for President McDreamy to make the children and grandchildren of American taxpayers buy houses... for people who were too stupid to realise they should have stuck to renting in the first place?

Yes, yes, by all means... let the outraged howls of racism commence!

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RELATED: But, but, but... Barack promised

“This bailout is likely to simply delay a day of reckoning for the banks, at great cost to taxpayers and little obvious benefit to homeowners,” warned Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

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When we first moved out here...

...to the country, Mrs. Neo had but one request... there MUST be a working dishwasher. Mrs. N, and rightly so, regards dishwashing as a sort of cosmic punishment akin to endlessly rolling an enormous rock up a steep hill. (There had been a dishwasher installed when the house was built... but alas, no water softener... which had rendered said machine into a pile of mineral-constipated junk.)

So, to that end we went out to Sears and surveyed the field. We ended up buying a slick, shiny, totally cool, totally black contraption, which was... if not the Mercedes Benz... certainly the Cadillac of dish-cleansing apparatus. It had enough buttons & lights to resemble the control panel of a nuclear missile silo and would be classified, by my standards anyway, as a "smart machine."

Of course, it ended up demonstrating just how smart it was, by committing seppuku, shortly after the warranty expired.

So, as we had called in a repair guy to minister to our stove... also Sears, btw... which had apparently started to have a sympathetic nervous breakdown... we also had him scope out the ailing dishwasher. The tech, who could have made a shitpile of money replacing the innards of said machine, informed us that it would be far cheaper to simply buy another dishwasher. He advised us to buy a low-end Moffat, a very simple and reliable machine that, he assured us, would last forever. So we did.

Now almost a year later, the Moffat, being a distinctly "less smart" variant of the species... decided to give up the ghost while still under warranty.

The repair guy this time, has informed us that the bearings in the pump are kaput. He also removed some gunk from the pump itself, admitting that the filter in these machines is not as effective as one might wish.

So anyway... there'll be a week or two wait for the new pump... but at least Mrs. Neo won't be leaving on an extended vacation.

Now, if I can only find someone to fix the washing machine.

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RELATED: Not the "Mike Holmes" show

"I am also, surprisingly, for once... for all my contorted wrenching on sharpish metal objects... not covered in blood."

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Sad news for British jihadis

Another small pothole in the bloody road to Sharia Law...

-- LONDON -- The Law Lords have ruled that radical cleric Abu Qatada can be deported from the UK to Jordan where he faces jail for terrorism.

Qatada, 48, who is one of Europe's most influential extremists, had alleged that his conviction in Jordan was based on evidence extracted by torture.

But wait... there's more...

The five Law Lords who unanimously backed Qatada's removal also supported the deportation of two Algerian terrorism suspects, know as RB and U, whose cases covered similar grounds.

Maybe the battle isn't over after all.

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Objects in the mirror...

...may be closer than you think...

Writing as Ashraf from his home in central Quebec, Mr. Namouh submitted 1,075 postings to the site about a year.

Ms. Katz said he was responsible for distributing hundreds of videos of terrorist propaganda through direct copies and Internet links.

The productions included instructions for making a suicide bomber's vest, a kidnapping video of BBC journalist Alan Johnston and a threat directed at Germany and Austria warning them of terrorist attacks if they failed to withdraw from Afghanistan.

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RELATED: The New Entrepreneurs

"We are glad to bring good tidings to our Islamic nation about the success of the mujahedeen in carrying out two quality operations in Niger," a Maghreb Qaida spokesman said on an audio recording aired by the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television.

To analysts, the al-Qaida reference to applying Shariah law is tantamount to a threat the hostages will be killed if the group's conditions are not met.

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POP QUIZ: Which federal political party...

..has pledged to bring violent, irredeemable killers back to Canada?

-- ANSWER: It ain't Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

-- VANCOUVER -- Canada's public safety minister is calling on the Opposition to stop preventing his government's efforts to get tough on gang-related crime.

"What we really need is for the people of British Columbia and Canadians to send a clear message to other parties that the time has come to rebalance our justice system and support our agenda on tackling violent crime," Conservative MP Peter Van Loan told a news conference in Langley, B.C.

"I'm not trying to cast blame, I'm trying to get everybody to work together."

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BREAKING: Another one bites the dust

Vancouver MP Ujjal Dosanjh was five blocks away when gunfire erupted. He raced to the scene.

"This is completely out of control," Dosanjh said. "Whatever we are doing now to stop gangs is not working."

Hey... maybe Ujjal can have a word with the Liberal Senators who were blocking the Conservative crime bill.

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More social workers my ass

Who goes out gunnin' for a woman and a 4 year old child?

-- METRO VANCOUVER -- RCMP Cpl. Dale Carr identified the woman slain Monday in Surrey as 23-year-old Nicole Marie Alemy of White Rock.

The Cadillac she was driving was registered in the name of her husband, who is cooperating with police.

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Watch PETA turn around...

...and start campaigning FOR tasers...

The victim, Charla Nash, 55, was in critical condition from the biting and mauling attack Monday, said Captain Richard Conklin, a spokesman for police in Stamford, Connecticut, a New York City suburb. Her injuries were life threatening, he said Tuesday.

The chimp’s owner Sandra Herold, 70, tried to stop her rampaging pet, Travis, by stabbing him with a butcher knife and hitting him with a shovel, but the chimpanzee fended off the attack and then stormed a police car that had responded to the scene, Conklin said.

The ape ripped off the side-view mirror of the police car, banged on the car and opened the driver’s side door, leading the officer to shoot the chimp several times with his pistol, Conklin said.

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So, now we're just gonna...

...hand over the gavel to every cultural "shoe thrower" that comes along?...

-- QUEBEC -- Commission head Andre Juneau says there are too many safety and security issues to take a chance on holding the event.

Quebec sovereigntists promised to protest outside the re-enactment and there had been threats against organizers.

How do you say... "Bend over & grab your ankles"... in French?

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Someone on Chucker's blog suggested we scrap the re-enactment and go for the best two out of three."

I remember back in the 90's I was at Ryerson, at a book reading by P.J. O'Rourke and someone asked him what he would do about the Separatistes.

P.J., never at a loss for words said... "Sure, you wanna go... go. But first... you pay your share of the national debt... and by the way, we're gonna need all those tanks, planes and guns back too."

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LAST WORD: But wait... all is not lost

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From the voluminous...

..."Shouting at the TV" files...

"Apparently I'm looking forward to Obama's visit!"

"I didn't even know I was looking forward to Obama's visit until the CBC and CTV told me. What would I do without them?"

"Yesterday I was worried about the radiation from the two subs that collided and I didn't know it either. I'm sure glad they are here to tell me what I think and what I'm worried about."

"Thank God for the nanny state and the MSM!"

Posted by: Stan at February 17, 2009 10:22 AM

And please... Lloyd, Peter... if I really wanna know about the inner workings of the exciting life of Pop Princess Mandy Moore... trust me, I'll just google it.

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Finally, someone has the smarts...

...and more to the point... the stones... to stop funding the revolution.  

RELATED: La Shaidle weighs in...

"A group that gets government funding insults members of the government that funds it. The government turns around and threatens to slash their funding because the group said something mean about the government."

"Then the same group and groups like them, meanwhile, use another government agency -- the Human Rights Commission -- to take others to court for saying mean things about them."

"And this name-calling & "I'm gonna beat you up after school" circle jerk is funded by your hard earned tax dollars in the middle of an economic meltdown."

As usual, Kathy manages to distill the whole thing into two short sentences...

"Canada shouldn't have 'communities'."

"It should have Canadians."

LAST WORD: Enough is enough

Last year, the National Post editorial board hosted Mouammar and a CAF colleague for an editorial board meeting. To our collective shock, they laid blame for virtually every problem the world faces on Israel — including the alienation of Arab-Canadian children in Canada's public school system.