Saturday, July 31, 2010

Okay. I Lied.

One more post before I go. (h/t Indigo Red, via FB)

Egyptian Journalist Describes 'Absolute Prosperity' in Gaza

(Quoted in full. Emphasis mine.)
"With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in Gaza, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl has added his report to others who were surprised to discover a “prosperous” Gaza in which prices are low and luxury businesses are booming. Al-Houl's story of his trip to Gaza and his realization that “in actual terms, Gaza is not under siege” was written up in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

"A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza's coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me,” he reported.

Concerned that his initial impression of prosperity may have been misleading, “I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and to prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic,” Al-Houl said.

Gaza's markets are filled with a “plethora of goods,” he wrote. Prices on many items, particularly food, are much lower than they are in Egypt, he said. With goods entering Gaza from both smuggling tunnels to Egypt and humanitarian aid shipments coming in via Israeli crossings, “supply is much greater than demand,” he stated.

The evident prosperity is not enjoyed by all, or even most, of Gaza's residents, according to Al-Houl. The problem is the vast differences in the distribution of wealth. The luxury resorts and wide range of consumer goods are enjoyed by “only a few groups,” he said, primarily those who own smuggling tunnels to Egypt and those who work for international organizations such as the United Nations' UNRWA and who do not include or aid the rest of the population.

Most of the new resorts “are owned by members, or associates, of Hamas,” he reported. “In addition, the Hamas municipalities charge high fees, in Gaza terms, for the use of public beaches,” he added.

Al-Houl quoted political activist Mustafa Ibrahim as saying that while Gaza's rich invest in the leisure industry, 80% of residents rely on UNRWA, and unemployment is approximately 45%. “This creates a distorted picture,” Ibrahim explained.
Yup. This is what Rachel Pancake died for.

PS: I wonder what Mr. al-Houl would say about his own country, if he could?

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Friday, July 30, 2010

On the Road

I'll be away for a week or more. Don't expect to be able to blog much, if at all. See you in two weeks.

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Sarko is at it Again

First, he makes those parents responsible for their bratty kids.  Now he's gettin' ready to strip those immigrant lawbreakers of their French citizenship and boot them right out of the country.
""French nationality should be earned. One must know how to be worthy of it," the president said. French nationality should be revoked "from any person of foreign origin who voluntarily threatens the life of a police officer" or other public authority, he said."
Of course, human rights organizations have their knickers in a knot. They seem to be rather silent when the cars are burning, though.

And BHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Over on this side of the pond, we have a Flop and Flail reader who is "a highly respected educated civil rights activist in Toronto's Afro-Canadian society" who fights "racism in all it (sic) forms in it's many venues" who has "worked as a immigration consultant..." who seems to think "Immigrants foreign born or not have a right to break the law, when the law is based on a eurocentric value system. We need to reform the law to incorporate multicultural values, specifically pertaining to drug use and spousal relations. Too often young men from the Caribean are the target of eurocentric drug laws, and Muslim men targeted by spousal abuse laws for simply discipling their wives."

O'course there's no telling whether this guy is legit or just egging readers on with a hefty dose of loonytoon facetiousness. Sure sounds like a typical Torontonian dose of Multi-Culti explication, though. You can always count on these folks to make a multi-culti-cartload of excuses for criminal behaviour among selected special victim groups.

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Wanted: Dead or Alive

I sincerely hope there is an arrest warrant out via Interpol for one Julian Assange.  I'm not sure what the appropriate charge should be, but anyone with more than a pea-sized brain could have seen this coming, and in fact, have already stated so.

"Wikileaks Afghanistan: Taliban 'hunting down informants'"
The Taliban has issued a warning to Afghans whose names might appear on the leaked Afghanistan war logs as informers for the Nato-led coalition.
[---]
"Robert Gates, the US Defense Secretary, warned that sources identified in the documents now risked being "targeted for retribution" by insurgents in Afghanistan."
Oh well. They're just brown-skinned people. They have no value to the lefties of the world, if they aren't fighting Western imperialism.

The good news is, the hunt is on for Assange's accomplices.  I think treason might be the most likely charge for them, and as someone said on one of the blogs I read in the last few days, a charge of  espionage against Assange might be the right ticket.

Faster, please.

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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Why is the Liberal Party So Eager to Self Destruct?

Who would think that circulating something like this would convince Canadians that the Liberals are a serious party? Seems almost every day, we have another example of catty, adolescent backstabbing akin to the conversational style of junior high school girls hanging out in the washroom at recess.  Oh well, who am I to complain?  If they want to turn off more Canadians, that's just fine with me.

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The Left and Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Reason #1,259 Why We Don't Need the CBC

VERY LATE UPDATE: There's a dude/dudette from Somerville, Massachusetts who keeps coming back to this post, almost on a daily basis. Who are you?  Weigh in so I can say hi to you. If you like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, you're a friend of mine. If you hate the MSM, you're a friend of mine. Don't be afraid.
---------------------------------------------

Here's a forty-five minute segment of Q, a CBC radio program hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, a Muslim by birth, a Canadian by birth, an Iranian by ancestry. He's as quintessentially Canadian as they come.

Perhaps the most influential force in his life, as evidenced by his radio and TV roles, may be the Torontonians' uber-liberal apologist mindset that makes him a natural for the CBC.

As usual, Hirsi Ali is brilliant and handles his asinine questions with finesse. Around the 40 minute mark I'd be more inclined to loose my cool and start shouting at him, if I hadn't done already, but Hirsi Ali adeptly, calmly skewers him.

Ghomeshi gives us a peek into the cultural relativist's mindset.  It illustrates the left's existential panic. To think that a member of one of those specially designated victim groups, so carefully indoctrinated, so meticulously groomed, would actually begin to speak for herself, and when she speaks it is the language of the right she uses.  I mean, she works for The American Enterprise Institute!  OH THE STARK RAVING HORRORS!!!!

Really, its funny.  She gets away with saying things that the left can barely utter without choking and blushing; things which, when the right puts them out there for public debate, are roundly and hysterically expunged from the lexicon.

Worst part of it, Ghomeshi is one of the milder of the CBC multi-culti lapdogs. Listen to it.

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Feminists, Mel Gibson and Political Correctness

Irshad Manji nails it.

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Oh My God!! Another BWHAHAHAHAHAHA From Iran

It was only a few days ago that Iran's ruling Mullahs declared it was illegal to engage in sexual intercourse during the day.

I joked at the time that it would be one more thing to do on the roofs at night. Looks like I wasn't that far off.

Now they want them to start procreating like mad.

Gotta do something to keep them off those roofs at night.
"The program would be especially attractive to the lower income segments of the population formed the backbone of Ahmadinejad's support in the 2005 and 2009 elections.

Throughout his tenure, the president has promoted populist policies in Iran, where 10 million people are estimated to live under the poverty line.

It is unclear, however, where the funds would come from as the government is already having trouble paying for basic infrastructure projects."
[---]
"Under the new plan each child born in the current Iranian year, which began March 21, will receive a deposit of $950 in a government bank account. They will then continue to receive another $95 every year until they reach 18. Parents will also be expected to pay matching funds into the accounts.

Under the initiative's rules children can withdraw the money at the age of 20 and use it for education, marriage, health and housing.

Iran's official unemployment rate is about 10 percent, but estimates say there are 3 million unemployed people of working age in the country.

Following the 1980s baby boom, some 26 million Iranians are between the ages of 15 and 30."
And they are the ones out in the streets protesting today. Yup. Off the roofs, off the streets and into the bedrooms.

This regime is filled with idiots.

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Another Place to Look

Green Exodus

From Joanne Nova

ht: Dr. Roy

And from Climate Depot a list of the growing number of left leaning scientists who are climbing down from the AGW scare (scroll down). It took them a while, but they finally came up with a way to save face. Blame it on corporations.

Listen to an interview here.

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Back to Ian Plimer and the Great Flood

Not quite week ago, I promised myself I would dig around and find out more about Ian Plimer's reference to a great flood that happened about 7,600 years ago. I tried various permutations of search terms on Google and all I came up with was leftie ridicule accusing Plimer of being a Bible thumper. Surprise. Surprise.

Only last night did I have a Duh! moment when it occurred to me to actually check out Plimer's book Heaven and Earth itself, which I am slowly reading through (Ya, I know. I spend way to much time in the blogosphere). And sure enough, he deals with it on pages 296 to 298. Sorry, it's a long one, but here it is (emphasis throughout is mine):
"During an exceptionally cold period 8500 to 8000 years ago, the Anatolian highland people moved to a lower altitude. The Anatolian highlands were deserted and populations shifted to a 160,000 square kilometre basin with a warmer wetter climate. This basin is now occupied by the Black Sea. This protected basin was serviced by melt water rivers (Don, Dnieper, Danube) and comprised two large freshwater lakes and fertile plains. It became the breadbasket of the ancient world.

Almost 25% of the floor of the modern Black Sea is flat and less than 100 metres below sea level. During the last glaciation, the Sakarya River drained the basin into the Mediterranean Sea via the Gulf of Izmit and the Sea of Marmara. This kept the Marmara Sea out of the basin. However, the post-glacial sea level rise meant that the Marmara Sea level was about 100 metres higher than the floor off the Black Sea basin. At that time, there was no Bosphorus, just a low valley with a rock outcrop at its headwaters that protected the basin from inundation by the Marmara sea.

However, the area is at a plate boundary where Africa is colliding with Europe, and the North Anatolian Fault regularly moves. The last movement on 17 August 1999 caused 20,000 fatalities. Movement along the North Anatolian Fault 7600 years ago resulted in the breaking of the rocks and a rush of water down from the Marmara Sea into the Black Sea basin. This process of forming the Black Sea took no longer than two years. Seawater poured into the basin with the force of 200 Niagara Falls, sea level rose by 15 cm per day and the shoreline advanced kilometres per day.

Marine sediments deposited from turbulent waters were deposited on fertile soils, dense salty water filled the bottom of the Black Sea displacing fresher water to the surface, and the bottom waters of the Black Sea became oxygen-poor. This was fortunate as it allowed the preservation of wooden village structures that were built on the shore of the former freshwater lakes.

This must have been a terrifying event. People and livestock perished, populations dispersed and the survivors carried with them their language, culture and knowledge of agriculture, animal husbandry, craftsmanship and metallurgy. It is no surprise that many cultures have myths about a great flood. Post-glacial sea level rise of 130 metres over the last 14,000 years, floods and catastrophic events such as inundation of the Black Sea basin were passed down as stories whereas the comings and goings of daily life were not.

Drill cores from coral reefs from the same period show that the great flood that formed the Black Sea was not a global event. Attempts to interpret the Black Sea flooding event were passed down from generation to generation. These appear as culturally and linguistically transposed stories. They appeared as a fragmentary Sumerian story written some 2000 years later in 3400 BC, the Mesopotamian myth of Athrahasis, the Bablyonian tale of Ut-napishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Greek stories of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the story of Dardanus, and the biblical story of Noah and the great flood.

These changes to what was considered a static world were so rapid and incomprehensible that the great flood to form the Black Sea was interpreted as the action of a god who flooded the known world in order to rid it of evil. So too with the modern world, which many interpret as static. The slightest change in Nature is viewed as a message that we humans are changing the climate, that this is evil and that we must rid the world of this evil. To many, it is incomprehensible that Nature can change the planet or that humans are an insignificant short-lived recent terrestrial vertebrate living on a planet where natural forces are many orders of magnitude greater than any human force. The amount and rate of measured modern changes in temperature and sea level are far slower than post-glacial processes. This is not in accord with the beliefs of many who claim that humans are driving global warming and sea level rise
."
Funny isn't it. Before science was able to explain events like this, humans interpreted such events as the act of a vengeful god. Nowadays, we have a group of humans who have replaced such "archaic" notions as God, and have accorded humans (Westerners, exclusively, of course) the equivalent status.

Plimer, BTW, is my new god. I'm a polytheist. My gods come and go with incredible speed.

(A previous entry about another event with equal or even greater catastrophic results.)

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What Have We Got Here?

Cody LeCompte

How many articles here are from CBC? Take a look. I scanned through the first 20 pages and found two, both from CBC's Mark Kelly's program. The first one says (emphasis mine):
"By viewer request, the mother of Cody LeCompte also joins us. Her 19-year-old son is trapped in Cuba following a car accident, which is considered a criminal act in the country."
That's it. That's all. And guess what? It links to a Toronto Star article.

The second hit from CBC's Mark Kelly program is nothing more than a comment from a relative of the LeCompte family.

So okay. So CBC doesn't consider a story about a Canadian arrested in Cuba and about to go on trial because he was involved in a traffic accident worthy of coverage.

Almost a year ago to the day, a similar story occurred about a Canadian woman who was visiting relatives in Kenya. Remember the Suaad Mohamud story?

The CBC featured numerous stories on it.

So did the Liberal Party of Canada.

Leftie bloggers were all over it, too.

Admittedly, there are significant differences between the two stories, but only one is being milked for all it's worth by the Canadian left. Cuba. Communist country. Fidel Castro, best friends with Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his sons. Pierre Elliot Trudeau and his sons, best friends of the CBC. Hmmmm.

Suaad Hagi Mohamud. A woman "of colour". Hmmmm.

Cody LeCompte.  Just a white male. Hmmmm.

To this rule there is one notable exception. Hats off to Liberal Party member and former Dipper, Bob Rae.

But even he, traitor that he is, doesn't get any coverage from the CBC on this file.

CBC. J'accuse.

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Monday, July 26, 2010

Oh Really?

And this is news? Iran gives Taliban money, arms and training

I don't think anyone is surprised.

And from Matthew Fisher via Terry Glavin:
"There is anger and disappointment, mixed with a sense of disbelief, among western supporters in Afghanistan’s second largest city over Canada’s decision to bring its troops home next summer.

"People are very upset about this. Why leave us?" said Jalani Hamayoun, the former deputy governor of Kandahar and a candidate in parliamentary elections in September.

"It is important for western countries not to repeat the problems of the past. You left us in 1990 and we ended up giving our problems to the world. If you leave Afghanistan, and especially Kandahar, again, there will be more problems for us and for the world."
[---]
""If Canada had asked the question, our government and most of our people would have said, ‘Yes, you should stay,’ " Raee said. "That is why Canada didn’t ask us. That was not the answer they wanted to hear.""
[---]
"While some Afghans fret over the departure of Dutch troops next month, of the Canadians next year, and of U.S. President Barack Obama’s stated desire to start withdrawing his nation’s forces in 2011 and what all this may portend for NATO’s mission here, the Taliban have gloated over these developments and reminded wavering Afghans that they are far more likely to stay the course than the West is. Implicit in their propaganda is that when NATO is gone, there will be a violent reckoning for those who have sided with the enemy."
Let's hope the the Mad Mullahs in Tehran have been swept away with the tides of history by then.

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Revolutionary Guards Internal Unrest

Can a real revolution be far behind?
"German Radio reports: Mohammad-Ali Jafari, Chief Commander of the Revolutionary Guards has for the first time admitted to the support of a number of their agents’ support for the leaders of the opposition movement. He said that it is better to convince them back than to have to have a physical confrontation, whereby they would have to be eliminated."
[---]
"It is worth mentioning that this is the first time where any Iranian regime official has admitted to such discord within the ranks. What Jafari did not admit to however was the number of agents and the issues that have lead to dissent."
Hmmmm. Afraid they might lose to the rebel faction, perhaps?
"On June 12, 2010, the Yaaraan Coalition Movement operatives which is comprised of trained members of the IRGC, several members of the armed forces, and agents of the intelligent forces, all dressed in civilian clothes, forced their way into the National Radio and TV station, and after confronting the security guards (without bloodshed), took control of several key offices and the building security. The takeover led to a disruption of the regular programming including the 7 o’clock News hour."
Sounds like it to me.  Taking over the national broadcasting utilities was a tried and true technique in many a revolution in the coup and counter-coup era of the 20th century.

And it was on the anniversary of the faux election, too, June 12th.  Expect more murders and disappearances, if it hasn't already happened.

And where is Obama? Why, he's busy soaking up some more of his celebrity status.

Meanwhile, Russia steps in where Obama fears to tread.
"Russia turned on Iran, accusing it of "fruitless and irresponsible rhetoric" and adding its voice to a diplomatic assault Monday which included unilateral sanctions from both the EU and Canada, as well as warnings from Iran's opposition party that Ahmadinejad's regime could suffer the same fate as the deposed Shah.

The Russian remark came after criticism from Tehran over Moscow's support for UN sanctions last month. In the past, Iran had depended on allies Russia and China — and their veto power at the Security Council — to block tough penalties, but Russia sided with the US and its allies and endorsed the sanctions, levied in a bid to force Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions."
It's looking more and more like the regime will fall, maybe this year, as I predicted.

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Julian Assange is a Fucking Tool

Well, Time to Go Golfing Again!

Obama secretly supported release of Lockerbie bomber before he opposed it

Angry Pakistani Officials deny leaked documents' suggestion of ties to Taliban
"Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, said in an interview in Kabul that regardless of how the documents emerged, they cast a poor light on the Obama administration."
You're gonna have to wear these ones, Obama. Bowing and scraping hasn't done the trick.  Perhaps a shiny new pair of golf shoes will do it. Or maybe a guest appearance on The View.

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One More Thing For Which Iraqis Can Be Grateful

Their genocidal monsters got what they deserved.

Tears and disbelief at Duch verdict
"The idea that a man who admitted overseeing the torture and murder of thousands of people might be free in 19 years was too much for some people who lived through the horrors of the Pol Pot era.

At least one man left the court in disgust on hearing the sentence.

Chum Mey has more reason than most to feel bitter. He was held in the S-21 detention centre which Comrade Duch ran, and suffered regular torture; his wife and children were killed.

Now he is one of only three confirmed living survivors of around 15,000 inmates.

On the steps outside the court, he vented his frustration.

"I ask if Cambodians are happy and the world is happy that millions of people died, a lot of money has been spent on the court - and the perpetrator is free [in 19 years]? I am not happy with that," he said."

Background here and here in full view:


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Sunday, July 25, 2010

And Now for Your Bedtime Story

Installment III of Poor, Poor Pals.


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Circle Jerkos

Iran's Economy Shutting Down...

Foreign firms are scaling back and closing up shop, according to communication received by Winston (refer to "updates").

The sanctions are starting to have an impact.

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The "Colonialism" Bogeyman Should Be Just About Dead

India was Britain's jewel in the days of Raj. Now it is our partner.
"The India that Cameron is seeing is the New India: the country of 8, 9 or 10% growth rates year after year, of billionaires at the top of the Forbes lists, of globally competitive IT firms hoping to be carbon-neutral soon, of the famous "Indian middle classes" who, it is hoped, will not only power their own country's economic growth in the coming decades but prop up that of ageing western economies as well."
[---]
"Cameron's visit is emphatically not about culture – though an inter-museum exchange agreement will be signed – but cash. Issues such as aid – the UK's £371m aid budget to India is being reassessed – or the Indians' deep concerns about the new western strategy in Afghanistan, which they think will allow their hostile neighbour Pakistan too much influence – are marginal. Climate change and Indian foot-dragging on key international agreements are low on the agenda. It is the businessmen flying in with the prime minister who are key.

Britain and India are each other's fourth-largest investor; trade between them was worth £11.5bn in 2009. "We could do much better," say Delhi-based diplomats. The visiting businessmen are from key fields where it is felt Britain can do deals in India: infrastructure construction, education and security. Then there are the contracts that will head the other way. Many flagship British firms are now owned by Indians. Indian firms are floated on the London stock exchanges. For many Indian technology firms, the UK can act as a portal to Europe..."
Failed states to blame for own misery
"The Afghan-Pakistan border, or the Durand Line drawn by the British towards the end of the 19th century, tells quite a story of colonialism that few are willing to explore.

East of the Durand Line inside Pakistan, anything that barely works — from the poorly administered government to the crumbling infrastructures for health, education, agriculture, railways, road system, etc. — has to do with the colonial legacy. How valid this view is can be assessed by observing the state of affairs west of the Durand Line inside Afghanistan.

Hence, blaming western colonialism will not do. On the contrary, it can be said India’s relative success in the contemporary world in contrast to the Middle East has much to do with the duration of Britain’s presence in the subcontinent.

Nor can the West be blamed for not being supportive of countries that were once under its stewardship. In the past half-century, more than $2 trillion of western aid has been given to the third-world countries as developmental assistance.

Pakistan has been a major recipient of western aid. But Pakistan’s record in every category of the human development index is dismal. The country is a nuclear weapon state that cannot feed, educate, clothe or house its bulging population of nearly 170 million people.

But worse, Pakistan is a terrorist state and the corrupt military-civil elite that has ruled the country since independence is hugely responsible for pushing it to near economic and political bankruptcy.

And, as the crisis deepens, those responsible make safe exit for the West. They wash their hands of the mess they made and reside in Toronto or New York, while displaying little shame or gratitude and endlessly speaking ill of the West.

Failed states, such as Pakistan, are the products of dysfunctional cultures and corrupt elites who will beggar the population and ruin their countries without qualms to steal for themselves and their tribes."
These two countries were once part of a single nation - the crown in the jewel of the British Empire. Look at them now. Anyone with a smattering of historical knowledge should know the key difference between the two and the key reason for their separation in 1949 was conflict between Hindus and the Religion of Peace.

There is more than one meaning to the word "culture", and I'm sure the reference to culture in the first article is about more than Bollywood, museums and the like. We're talking here about a religion of joy and optimism, of values that encourage one to excel and follow ones dreams, a religion that fosters entrepreneurism and creativity, versus a religion of brutality, backwardness and oppression which is constantly looking for excuses. Give me India and the Hindu culture any day.

Now, if we could just get the North American Indians to stop using colonialism as a never ending excuse for their failures.  The North American Indian Movement began in the 1960s, with its eye on the decolonization that had taken place in the Third World.  I suspect the realization that the movement is bankrupt will follow upon the observation of what has actually happened in the Third World in the interim.

So many Third World countries went through spasms of coups, counter-coups and coups to counter the counter-coups, and on and on, all the while holding fast to the myth that the colonial era was still the cause of all their dysfunction. Pakistan is only one of a multitude of poster children that illustrate the fruits of that game. I suspect the game is up, not just in the Third World, but in the so-called Fourth World as well.  Perhaps some big changes are coming.

"There's a political twist to any hint that reserves are emptying. The federal Conservatives have increased the focus on off-reserve needs, most visibly by aligning themselves politically with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

The congress says it represents off-reserve people across Canada, but its membership is disputed by rival groups like the Assembly of First Nations that are more closely identified with reserves."

"Conservative reaction to the census was predictable, said Wilson of the AFN. He cited newspaper comments by Tory MP Rod Bruinooge that public funds are too skewed toward reserves.

"We're proposing ... what we see as being major systemic reform before massive new investments are made," said Bruinooge, parliamentary secretary to the Indian Affairs minister.

"You need to fix the broken system or you're going to simply have the same results over and over again."
"Major systemic reform..." Are we talking only the way stats are collected, or are we talking something much greater?

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Sometimes All You Can Do Is Laugh

Flopping Aces Takes on Old Memes

I don't remember when or why I stopped reading Flopping Aces on a regular basis. It was a great blog. Perhaps there were just too many. In any case, I'm glad I accidently stumbled upon him yesterday, cause today I discovered a list of oldies but goodies on his front page. They are goodies that competently address several of the questions that became controversial during the Iraq war. Here they are:

The Truth On The Iraq/al-Qaeda Connections

Saddam's WDM Program and Site 555

KEY POINTS Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Phase II investigation report on pre-war Iraq Intel

Did President Bush link Saddam Hussein to 9/11?

Were We Greeted As "Liberators"?

Anywho, today Aces is going up on my American Blogs list. It's time for an overhaul and clean up of that list in any case. And I shall not ignore him again.

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

America's First War with Islamic Terror

Here's an old posting I stumbled upon at Flopping Aces. (Don't ask me how.) Still timely today, four years and a tiny bit later.

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Iran Near the End?

Poor, Poor Pals - Installment II

The Palestinian victims no one talks about.
"When was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?

How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the United States and Canada that call themselves “pro-Palestinian” remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?

The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.

How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?

And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?

Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.

A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers."

RTWT

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Republicans Send Message to Iran

Not that it will get anywhere, with the Dems lock-hold on power. But I'm sure Iranians will notice, and the average Iranian citizen on the streets and rooftops are probably the intended target of the message anyway. At least they'll know there are some people in the USA who want them to be free.

It's a good way to bring the Arabs onside, too, and maybe thereby nudge a bit more reform out of them. I'm pretty sure they see the writing on the wall for the Dems in this fall's elections, no less than the Dems themselves do.

The Repubs have much greater savvy when it comes to global issues and politics than the current crop of Dems by a long shot. I suspect the Dems haven't even noticed that bowing and scraping before potentates hasn't produced the desired effects. Or maybe it has, but that's just too frightening to contemplate.

ht: American Power

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Mohammed. Mohammed Ali.








You had to be there to understand. The Mohammad Ali mystique was ubiquitous. His little impromptu poems, his one liners, and his defiant sense of self were as much a part of it as was his performance in the ring.

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.""

"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."
And hey, he even understood Aristride Briand's famous quip:
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."
proving that just about everybody wises up in their old age.

He won a gold medal in the Rome Olympics but later allegedly threw it into a river in response to an act of racism he had encountered. He worked tirelessly in the Civil Rights movement and in 2005 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush. He lost only 5 of the 61 fights he was in. No one can deny his claim to be "the greatest".(Wikipedia)

And who can forget him lighting the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics!



And nobody knew until the very last moment it would be him.

I was never much of a boxing fan, either before or since. It was just that Ali, the man who floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, was a fighter and a winner in life as well as in the ring:



His personal life was anything but saintly, but this was before the era when the private life of every celebrity and high profile politician was considered fair game for gossip mongerers. How I long for those days!!

ht: The Iceman who's got that song floating around in my head now. "Mohammad. Mahammad Ali. He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee." Somehow, I don't think "Cassius. Cassius Clay" would sound the same when put to music.

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One Way for Canada to Get on the News

From around the world:



The whole world is watching as one lucky pilot with a horseshoe up his ass goes Eject! Eject! Eject!

Even the blogosphere takes note.

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Blast From the Past

I love going through my sitemeter reports. It shows what parts of my blog people have hit and somethings it digs up some gems.

Today, this is one of the entries uncovered. (I think it may have been my pal, Indigo Red, who was searching.) The "Sean" I am referring to is Sean Shaw, who used to have a blog that I visited from time to time. Sean was/is a graduate of an Environmental Science program from some university in Ontario who found himself transported to Saskatchewan and was living in Saskatoon. I believe he was either a student or a faculty member at the U of S. He was a staunch NDPer/Green freak. In any case, he had swallowed all the usual leftie nonsense about every bleeding thing in the universe.

I still think my response to him, of which the link is only a part, is one of the best I've ever written.

PS: You also get to learn a lot about geography. Did you know there was a place in Texas called Sugar Land? Kinda evokes a bit of that sweet southern drawl, don't it. (Which I love, BTW. Lefties like to ridicule it, but I like it.)

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The Importance of Being a Journolister

The "naked, blatant" truth about journalists. They're in the news suppression and smearing - even violence against - opponents business.

Andrew Klavan:
"They are so convinced that they own the news; that they have a right to tell us what to think; and what attitudes..."
Bill Whittle:
"All of this is a collusion among people who are providing the information that the citizens of a free republic base their voting decisions on. All of this is a giant collusion with the worst kind of childishness and bitter vitriol and the suppression of critical facts. If that's not worthy of being known, what is!"
Andrew Klavan:
"In these emails they discuss the ideas of isolating Fox News, of yanking their White House credentials, saying it's not a news organization. The Obama administration tried to do exactly that. And to their credit, the mainstream networks said "No. If you don't include them, then don't include any of us." And they did stand up, so there is obviously a conscience still running through parts of this Main Stream Media. Surely they have to begin to see that they have gone astray."
[---]
"..I don't think they have the people any more to do this."
Bill Whittle:
"The information delivery system is so badly corrupted - right? - that it's simply shocking, but will the news of the corruption get out, because it is, after all, the information delivery system that's got the problem."
Listen to the whole thing at PJTV here and here. (You might have to register, but it's free.) CBC is even worse. It's funded by the taxpayer.

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Friday, July 23, 2010

More On the Census Debate

Read this and ask yourself whether the Libs and Dippers are at the cutting edge or whether it's the CPC that is.

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Interesting Article On Origins...

...of Canadian values and our never ending central versus western culture wars.

I'd never thought of it this way, but I guess there is a reason why folks down in Southwestern Ontario think the way they do and why we Westerners are so different.  Never the twain shall meet?
"Writing in 1972, Margaret Atwood asserted that whether it was early explorers, the French vis-à-vis the English, or English Canada in the 20th century in relation to the United States, “the central symbol of Canada is undoubtedly survival.”

Atwood’s interpretation of her Canada came from the Loyalist experience of what is now southern Ontario (though Montreal and parts of Atlantic Canada can also be included). That culture was born in fear after the American Revolutionary war of 1776 that forced many Loyalists north; it was added to by the War of 1812. The result was a central Canadian narrative, one literary critic Northrop Frye labelled as the “garrison culture,” where one is constantly on the defensive and expects an attack.

The survival narrative makes sense in central Canada. It doesn’t apply in the West..."
RTWT

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Census Kerfuffle

Brilliant analysis from Stephen Taylor.

END OF THE DAY ADDENDUM

If Stephen Taylor is right, and Harper et al have begun to dismantle the welfare state, then surely this is another step in that direction:

Affirmative action set for Ottawa overhaul

Affirmative action has been around long enough to accomplish whatever it was intended to do. A good twenty-five to thirty years is enough for any social engineering initiative to accomplish its goal. Any of the multitude of special victim groups who haven't pulled themselves up and made it into the mainstream economy by now, just ain't gonna do it.

The kind of blatant discrimination that existed forty or more years ago, simply does not exist today. Believe me. Mine is the generation that grew up inspired by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. I know.  Mine was also the generation that watched the 1979 White Paper on Indian policy spark a revolution in Canada's Indian country, a revolution that within a decade had become an entrenched industry based on the ability of goons to intimidate folks into submission with political correctness and so-called "reverse" racism.

Their time is up and it's now time for these groups to play by the same rules as anyone else. (Meaning no more "Hire me just because I'm aboriginal.", or "Too bad, you're a white male. I can't hire you.") You either get the job based on your merit, or take a good long look at why you're not employable and do something to improve your employment prospects.

Well done CPC.

It's looking more and more as though there will be an election this fall. The CPC has started to speak to their base again.  The various race huckstering industries that have been feeding off the public teat for all these years will have to get real jobs and do something that is actually beneficial rather than exploitative.

Maybe that's why the decision to re-examine the need for compulsory fulfillment of the  long census form has been made. At some point we have to ask ourselves, what does it matter whether you are of the Hindu or the Buddhist faith; of Croat or Filipino ancestry? And why should the government care if you speak a language other than French or English in your home. That's your business and you're welcome to keep your language alive through your children if both you and they care enough about it. If you are here, if you are employed, or running a successful business, then we have achieved our aims. Onward!

Now let's tackle the Canadian Human Rights Gestapo.  Let's get rid of it and restore our basic freedoms, the ones that attracted immigrants here in the first place.

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More From Plimer

Here he is being interview by Australia's answer to Chris Matthews.



And a radio program.

Part 1

Best line: "The easiest way to reduce global population is to make everyone wealthy, and that means in the third world you won't want to have thirteen Children, hoping one will keep you alive in your old age."

Part 2

Best line: "We hear with this current blog global hysteria that there is no refereed literature out there saying the contrary view. Well that's just rubbish. ... "If you dig deep into the scientific literature there is a huge amount of contrary information. It just doesn't reach the airwaves."

Part 3.

Best line: "Every time the climate has got cold the vegetarians have become extinct."

I'm reading Plimer's book Heaven and Earth right now and it is replete with footnotes and citations from the scientific literature. I'd like to see one climate hysteria blogger go head to head with this and come out alive.

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Reason # 1,258 Why You Don't Need CBC

Having listened to this video from Fora TV, I was intrigued to learn more about Ian Plimer's remark that there is geological evidence of a great flood some 7,400 years ago. So a quick search on YouTube dug up the series below.

Not withstanding an annoying reference in a couple of places to "growing" wine, what's interesting about this series is the combined use of history and archeology. The film uses Biblical (and Torah) accounts as historical records, but also looks at earlier written records from ancient Sumeria, the Gilgamesh stories in particular.

These stories show how very similar stories exist in the legends of neighbouring cultures (Gilgamesh, in particular) throughout time and that subsequent stories, such as the flood story in the Bible is so similar in many ways to the Gilgamesh stories, but also greatly embellished (ie. exaggerated) kinda like the Indian version of the treaties in Canada.

Apparently the Koran also includes the story of Noah's ark, but this video gives no clues as to how similar or dissimilar it is to these earlier versions. This is nothing new, of course. The Koran has many of the Biblical stories in it, each of them somewhat different than the traditional Bible stories.

Also fascinating is Plimer's statements about geological evidence of a great flood in that area of the world.

Oh. And there's beer, too. Old Noah and his passengers may have survived on it and Noah himself could well have been a heavy drinker, if not an outright drunkard. Have you ever wondered how Noah's sons went on to repopulate the earth? There are sooo few daughters mentioned in the Bible, but somehow they managed to "repopulate" the earth. But I guess if you can believe in the virgin birth, you can believe in anything.











Stay tuned. I'm gonna look for more on Plimer's "geological" evidence of the Great Flood.

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Missed This Yesterday

Forty one years ago, the Eagle landed. I remember like it was yesterday, I just didn't think of it yesterday. Old brains, ya know.

Almost as amazing as the flight itself was the video camera on the Eagle used 16mm film. Anybody out there remember winding and rewinding film on a 16mm projector? Cripes, I'm old.



Love it. "One small step......"

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Who's Your Favourite Bitch?

America has Ann Coulter. Canada has Heather Malick.

Give me Coulter any day.

AND DISMANTLE THAT MONSTROSITY WE CALL THE CBC!!!

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Sex Crazed Mullahs

It is now illegal to have sexual intercourse during the day in Iran.

One more thing to do on the roof tops, I guess.

Oh. And it's America's fault.

Look at these people. Will they be nothing but skin and bones by the time the regime falls?

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Busted: Catastrophic Climate Change Cash Cow

Or, the MSM is lying to you. (Updated)

The other day I was arguing my position on the global warming scam with a committed warm monger in the comments at Inside the CBC. If you've never been to that website and you want to take on CBC's loyal lefties, go for it. You'll have great fun. The lefties have been under serious and heavy attack about all sorts of CBC shenanigans. You'll notice that they all belie a deep seated fear that CBC could not make it as a privately funded network, but they are loath to come right out with it. But I digress.

In one particular thread, one of the warm mongers put forth the tired old meme about climate skeptics being in the pocket of big oil. I challenged him to look into the sources of funding that drives the warmest camp. I know he won't, so I've done a bit of investigating for myself.

Enjoy:

Climate of Fear, Global Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists into Silence Richard Lindzen, April 2006
"Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes. After all, who puts money into science--whether for AIDS, or space, or climate--where there is nothing really alarming? Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today. It can also be seen in heightened spending on solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol and clean coal technologies, as well as on other energy-investment decisions.

But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves labelled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."
Great global warming funding scheme Marc Morano, August 2007
(Newsweek) "Reporter Eve Conant, who interviewed Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, was given all the latest data proving conclusively that it is the proponents of man-made global warming fears that enjoy a monumental funding advantage over the skeptics. (A whopping $50 BILLION to a paltry $19 MILLION and some change for skeptics – Yes, that is BILLION to MILLION)"
[---]
"...but the Magazine chose instead to focus on how skeptics have reportedly received a paltry $19 MILLION from ExxonMobil over the last two decades.
[--]
"The U.S. alone has spent $30 billion on federal programs directly or indirectly related to global warming in just the last six years, according to one estimate.  ($5.79 billion in 2006 alone) Adding to this total is funding from the UN, foundations, universities, foreign governments, etc. Huge sums of money continue to flow toward addressing climate fears. In August, a State Treasurer in California "proposed a $5 billion bond measure to combat global warming," according to the Sacramento Bee. Even if you factor in former Vice President Al Gore's unsubstantiated August 7, 2007 assertion that $10 million dollars a year from the fossil fuel industry flows into skeptical organizations, any funding comparison between skeptics and warming proponents utterly fails."

[---]
"Gore to launch $100 million a year multimedia global warming fear campaign. Gore alone will now be spending $90 million more per year than he alleges the entire fossil fuel industry spends, according to an August 26, 2007 article in Advertising Age."

[---]
"“[Newsweek] alleges that a few scientists were offered $10,000 (!) by Big Oil to research and publish evidence against the theory of manmade global warming. Of course, the vast majority of mainstream climate researchers receive between $100,000 to $200,000 from the federal government to do the same, but in support of manmade global warming,”"

[---]
"Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up.

Environmental organizations globally, such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Defense Fund, have raked in billions of dollars. Multi-billion-dollar government subsidies for useless mitigation schemes are large and growing. Emission trading programs will soon reach the $100 billion a year level, with large fees paid to brokers and those who operate the scams,..."

"In other words, many people have discovered they can benefit from climate scares and have formed an entrenched interest."
[---]
"The [climate] alarmists also enjoy a huge financial advantage over the skeptics with numerous foundations funding climate research, University research money and the United Nations endless promotion of the cause. Just how much money do the climate alarmists have at their disposal? There was a $3 billion donation to the global warming cause from Virgin Air’s Richard Branson alone. The well-heeled environmental lobbying groups have massive operating budgets compared to groups that express global warming skepticism. The Sierra Club Foundation 2004 budget was $91 million and the Natural Resources Defense Council had a $57 million budget for the same year. Compare that to the often media derided Competitive Enterprise Institute’s small $3.6 million annual budget. In addition, if a climate skeptic receives any money from industry, the media immediately labels them and attempts to discredit their work. The same media completely ignore the money flow from the environmental lobby to climate alarmists like James Hansen and Michael Oppenheimer. (ie. Hansen received $250,000 from the Heinz Foundation and Oppenheimer is a paid partisan of Environmental Defense Fund) The alarmists have all of these advantages, yet they still feel the need to resort to desperation tactics to silence the skeptics." (Dr. Fred) Singer June, 2007.

Climategate: Follow the Money Bret Stephens December 2009
"Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of the CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents hacked from his center, between 2000 and 2006 Mr. Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he'd been awarded in the 1990s.

Why did the money pour in so quickly? Because the climate alarm kept ringing so loudly: The louder the alarm, the greater the sums.

Thus the European Commission's most recent appropriation for climate research comes to nearly $3 billion, and that's not counting funds from the EU's member governments. In the U.S., the House intends to spend $1.3 billion on NASA's climate efforts, $400 million on NOAA's, and another $300 million for the National Science Foundation. The states also have a piece of the action, with California—apparently not feeling bankrupt enough—devoting $600 million to their own climate initiative. In Australia, alarmists have their own Department of Climate Change at their funding disposal.

And all this is only a fraction of the $94 billion that HSBC Bank estimates has been spent globally this year on what it calls "green stimulus"—largely ethanol and other alternative energy schemes—of the kind from which Al Gore and his partners at Kleiner Perkins hope to profit handsomely."
The Money Trail Joanne Nova, March 2010
"For all the smears of big money funding the "deniers", the numbers reveal that the sceptics are actually the true grassroots campaigners, while Greenpeace defends Wall St."
[---]
"The big-money side of this debate has fostered a myth that sceptics write what they write because they are funded by oil profits. They say, follow the money? So I did and it's chilling. Greens and environmentalists need to be aware each time they smear with an ad hominem attack they are unwittingly helping giant finance houses."
[---]
"Money for the Climate Industry: The US government spent $79 billion on climate research and technology since 1989 - to be sure, this funding paid for things like satellites and studies, but it's 3,500 times as much as anything offered to sceptics. It buys a bandwagon of support, a repetitive rain of press releases, and includes PR departments of institutions like NOAA, NASA, the Climate Change Science Program and the Climate Change Technology Program. The $79 billion figure does not include money from other western governments, private industry, and is not adjusted for inflation. In other words, it could be…a lot bigger."
[---]
"For direct PR comparisons though, just look at "Think Climate Think Change": the Australian Government put $13.9 million into just one quick advertising campaign. There is no question that there are vastly more financial rewards for people who promote a carbon-made catastrophe than for those who point out the flaws in the theory."
[---]
"What the US Government has paid to one side of the scientific process pales in comparison with carbon trading. According to the World Bank, turnover of carbon trading reached $126 billion in 2008. PointCarbon estimates trading in 2009 was about $130 billion."

Ultimately the big problem is that there are no grants for scientists to demonstrate that carbon has little effect. There are no Institutes of Natural Climate Change, but plenty that are devoted to UnNatural Forces."
[---]
"Unpaid sceptics are not just taking on scientists who conveniently secure grants and junkets for pursuing one theory, they also conflict with potential profits of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, and every other financial institution or corporation that stands to profit like the Chicago Climate Exchange, European Climate Exchange, PointCarbon, IdeaCarbon (and the list goes on… ) as well as against government bureaucracies like the IPCC and multiple departments of Climate Change."
[---]
"Greens don't appear to notice that they fight tooth and nail for a market in a "commodity" which isn't a commodity and that guarantees profits for big bankers. The public though are figuring it out."
"Commissioner Bart Chilton, head of the energy and environmental markets advisory committee of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has predicted that within five years a carbon market would dwarf any of the markets his agency currently regulates: "I can see carbon trading being a $2 trillion market." "The largest commodity market in the world." He ought to know.

It promises to be larger than the markets for coal, oil, gold, wheat, copper or uranium. Just soak in that thought for a moment. Larger than oil.

Richard L. Sandor, chairman and chief executive officer of Climate Exchange Plc, agrees and predicts trades eventually will total $10 trillion a year." That's 10 thousand billion dollars."
[---]
"Those resorting to this vacuous, easily refutable point should be shamed into lifting their game. The ad hominem argument is Stone Age reasoning, and the "money" insult they throw, bounces right back at them — a thousand-fold."

Fraudsters. All of them. When the whitewashing inquiries are done, after a class action suit against the blacklisters (which is sure to come) is over, it's time to get serious about the misuse of all that money.

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Morning Roundup

Fate of Franz Kafka's literary heritage turns into nightmare ruled on by judge
"Four desposit boxes were prised open. Inside were manuscripts, drawings and letters from the Czech writer that had been locked away for more than 50 years, as Kafka experts around the world waited with baited breath. But the expectant Kafka enthusiasts, historians and critics will have to wait longer, after two Israeli sisters who insist they own the papers by inheritance from their mother banned all reporting of the boxes' contents."
[--]
"Today's unlocking at Zurich's UBS bank of safes sealed since 1956 was attended by lawyers representing, on one side, Eve and Ruth Hoffe and the German literature archive, and, on the other, the state of Israel and its national library"
[---]
"Shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1924, Kafka wrote to his friend Max Brod: "Dearest Max, my last request: everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters ... [is] to be burned unread.""
IMHO, this is state intrusion of the worst kind. I hope the family's wishes are respected. But really, even the family betrays their famous ancestor.

Journalist Sokratis Giolias gUnned down in Greece
"According to colleagues, he had been about to publish the results of an investigation into corruption."
"Police said ballistics tests tied the killers' guns to previous attacks by the Sect of Revolutionaries."
[--]
""Journalists, this time we came to your door, but next time you will find us in your homes," SR said."
Lefties and their endearing ways.

New family laws to help combat domestic violence
""This addresses an important gap in the current law and recognizes that violence -- even if directed exclusively at the spouse -- can still be harmful to a child," the government wrote in a white paper on family law changes released yesterday."
Hey, a Liberal Party government that does something right!! How refreshing! Good on you, Gordon Campbell.

And now from the ridiculous to the sublime:

Mexico arrests man with 18 monkeys around his waist

Say what???


Now, if you haven't got tears in your eyes after you've seen/read this, you're a cold-hearted SOB:

Life-changing surgery

Toddler has second tumor removed from face

God bless him and his parents, Dr. Waner, the thousands of Canadians that donated money to the cause and, especially Edmonton Oiler, Gilbert Brule!!
"Edmonton Oiler Gilbert Brule happened to be in New York this weekend and met up with the family. Brule, like many others, was touched by Maddox's story and donated $10,000 to the trust fund."
(Watch the video)

And hey! Hats off to the Yanks for their medical miracles.

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Hey, If the Syrians Can Do It...

...why can't we?

Islamic Scarf That Leaves Only Eyes Exposed Is Banned
"from its private and public universities"

In fact, why not from all public places.

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Monday, July 19, 2010

Proportionality Explained, Again

I've written on this before, myself. But here's an excellent article about the doctrine of proportionality in war.
"The notion that a lopsided casualty ratio between the IDF and Hezbollah or Hamas militants is sufficient evidence of some moral failing on the part of the IDF so radically departs from any recognizable understanding of the requirements of proportionality and so evidences a lack of moral seriousness that one cannot help but wonder whether something even more pernicious was involved."
 [---]
"Although the jus in bello principle of proportionality has to do almost entirely with the foreseen but unintended harm to noncombatants, there is one exception — although even that exception does not give Israel’s critics a leg to stand on. Scholarly discussions of proportionality often mention the avoidance of gratuitous harm"
[---]
"...the law of war requires that gratuitous harm against enemy combatants be avoided. This principle, explains Cohen, rests on the fundamental premise that “it is not the destruction of enemy forces, but the imposition of the nation’s will on the enemy that is the ultimate goal in warfare, and this can sometimes be accomplished by neutralizing enemy forces without destroying them.”"
[---]
"Why didn’t Annan and the other critics who claimed that Israel’s actions were not proportionate explicitly condemn with at least as much vigor Hezbollah’s systematic endangerment of civilians? Or do Annan and company believe that the hostage-shield tactics of terrorists and insurgents are required by “military necessity”? Walzer is right to suggest that before discussing issues of proportionality we should ask questions about responsibility; the matter of just who put noncombatants at risk in the first place is logically and morally prior to questions of proportionality."
[---]
"...when Hamas or Hezbollah fighters choose to fire rockets from heavily populated areas, when they deliberately choose to make a response to their rocket attacks morally difficult by hiding among civilians, or seek to ensure that a response will be condemned throughout the world, or decide to use civilians as human shields, “the primary responsibility for [civilian] deaths then falls on the Hezbollah or Hamas militants who were using them.”"

[---]
"This challenge to the laws of war on behalf of irregulars connects back to the issue of proportionality. The same argument that “military necessity” permits irregulars to eschew uniforms can be extended to operational behavior; perhaps it also allows irregulars to use babies and noncombatants as shields. By this topsy-turvy reasoning, a non-state actor would escape moral censure even though he completely disregards the principle of discrimination, but a military force that abides by the principle of discrimination both in refusing to target civilians and in refusing to use civilians as hostage shields would be subject to censure because its collateral damage is deemed disproportional. As Cohen remarked two decades ago,
'It is one of the striking oddities of contemporary politics and values that military necessity, so indignantly and unanimously rejected when it is brought in to justify the behavior of regular troops, should be so timidly readmitted through the back door when it is guerrillas who have come to call.'"
[---]
"...even if many of the victims were civilians, ... When non-state fighters and militants hide among civilians, they may well bear a greater responsibility for civilian deaths.”
[---]
"“the crucial means for limiting the scope of warfare is to draw a sharp line between combatants and noncombatants.”"
[---]
"...terrorism is “a concerted effort to blur this distinction so as to turn civilians into legitimate targets.”"
[---]
"Israel or any other country’s opposition to terrorist tactics can be vindicated by not engaging in terrorism. It can be vindicated by condemning without equivocation those who do. It can be vindicated by not using civilians as shields."
[---]
"Israel’s military actions in Gaza were preceded by “widely distributed warning leaflets, more than 150,000 warning phone calls to terrorists’ neighbors, and nonlethal warning fire — unprecedented efforts in every respect.”"
[---]
"...it is radical, indeed morally perverse, to claim that an army that strives to forewarn civilians fails, like terrorists hiding behind civilians, to behave morally."
[---]
"Walzer “encourages and enhances terrorism” in a practical sense by insisting that moral state actors assume new operational obligations to protect civilians, by providing a greater incentive for terrorists and insurgents to hide among civilians, and by even providing an incentive for terrorist sympathizers to offer themselves up as hostage shields."
[---]
"...those who willingly offer themselves to terrorists and insurgents as human shields, remains exactly where the traditional doctrine of double effect locates it: Never attack them directly. Never attack them as means to get at the enemy. And limit the unintended harm likely to fall upon them to that which is proportional to the just tactical and strategic objective. For the law of war to seek more than this is to incentivize what Paul Ramsey called the “wickedness” of using noncombatants as shields — and even the wickedness of terrorism itself."

ht: Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

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Obama's Priorities

UPDATE: Well, looky here.  I spoke too soon!

National Guard to Deploy to Southwest Border Aug. 1

Let me see now.  That brings it to two, maybe three things The One has done right.  Took him too bloody long, though. IMHO.
----------------------------------------------------------


ht: Occidental Soapbox

You have to wonder about that Arizona border thing, too. Why is The One so reluctant to do anything about it?

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The Family That Snores Together...


...Well, some people can sleep through anything.

That's my cute little Sydney with her daddy.  Mommy swears they both snore.

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Blogroll Update (Bumped)

UPDATE: I see that Darcy at Dust My Broom may be shutting it down. It appears he's had a stroke and his brain ain't functioning too well at the moment. Godspeed, Darcy. My prayers (for what they're worth) are with ya'. My sister, the baby in the family, had a stroke about three years ago and she's very nearly fully recovered (still has a limp, but that's about all).  Not yet 50 when it happened, she was waaaaay too young for that shit. She still had (has) two kids at home and has worked like a dog for most of her life to keep body and soul together.  Divorced, single mom. Nothing but high school matriculation to draw upon. Paying a mortgage and keeping the house in good repair. But she was and is a fighter. And you are, too.  Dust My Broom was a riot.  Always good for a laugh.  You'll be missed.
===========================
I've added a list of satirical blogs under the heading ROTFLMAO!

I could have put The Mayor of Mitchieville there, too, but he's already under my Canadian Blogs list, and that's where he'll stay. Another Canuck blog which is also pretty funny, The Iceman, deserves a ROTHFLMAO! award, too. Ya gotta love his surveys.

The Yankee blog, Knowledge is Power also deserves a spot, but she'll stay where she is.

I could have put an assortment of leftie blogs there too, since they are unintentionally laughable in the sickest of ways, but, I got standards, ya know.

Anyway, the ROTFLMAO! list is a work in progress. Expect more as I find them.

PS: I've also removed a couple of Canadian blogs which have either closed up shop or gone "by invitation only".

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Canada's Silliest Boy Blogger...

...has his knickers in a knot about this news and this.

An long overdue update of Canada's aging military vessels, whether aircraft or navy, while welcomed, should also be an embarrassment. Thank God our current government understands the implications of the Liberal era indifference to our national interests. Not only does Canada have domestic needs as far as military equipment goes, but we also have contractual obligations via NATO to come to the defense of our allies, not to mention moral responsibilities. The time has long passed when we should be sending our men and women into harms way armed only with pitchforks and peace signs. It's high time we pulled our weight. Peacekeeping has its place. (Thank you, Lester Pearson.) But that place is where there actually is a peace to keep.

A nation of wimps gets trampled upon in the real world. Bring back the days when our country knew how to fight wars. Canada used to have aircraft carriers. The last was decommissioned nearly forty years ago.

And thank God for this: Canadian soldier found not guilt in battlefield death

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Horse 7, Cowboys 0

But victory came at a cost.

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This Is Me

Every time I do this little quiz, I come out in a slightly different place. Does that mean I'm not sure who I am or is it that I'm influenced by events of the day? In any case, I'm always in the Libertarian territory and close to the Conservative side, which I think is what real conservatism is all about. To be free, we need "law and order".

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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Global Warming Brings Peace and Happiness

"A study correlating economic and political changes in China's Middle Kingdom has found that warmer climate benefited society. By contrast, a fall of temperature of 2C was correlated with conflict and famine.

"The collapses of the agricultural dynasties of the Han (25-220), Tang (618-907), Northern Song (960-1125), Southern Song (1127-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) are closely associated with low temperature or the rapid decline in temperature," say the academics led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing."

Climate change did the Mayan Civilization in, too.

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Yet Another AGW Skewer