Sunday, October 31, 2010

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!






I wonder how many vampires will be out on the streets tonight looking for blood.

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Got a Blog? Wanna Know How to...

...make the number of hits to it go through the roof?

Get Paul, at Celestial Junk, to link to you. Two days in a row, yet! Thanks Paul.

It pretty much quadrupled. Shows ya how many people visit Celestial Junk.

Even the Sleepy Old Bear directed several of his readers in my direction.

And BTW, guys. I don't want to know how many hits I've directed to your blogs. That would be too embarrassing.
 
Most of the hits were for this entry about CBC bias and a lessor number to this one. The hits came from all across Canada, some from the USA and even a few from Europe.

Me thinks CBC should be paying attention to the community around them. Seems they don't even speak for Torontonians, let alone all Canadians.

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Physician, Heal Thyself

Yemen arrests suspect as parcels confirmed as bombs
"They told Reuters she was a medical student at Sanaa University and believed to be in her 20s."
What ever happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

I guess she gets a pass 'cause she hasn't actually graduated yet.

Still. Gotta wonder what sort of ethics reside in her heart, if she has one.

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CBC: Thick, Dense and oh so PC


"The weather in Toronto is stormy today, heavy winds, thunder storms and a 100% chance of four years of Rob Ford. The penny-pinching city councilor stormed the city's municipal elections last night when he walked away with nearly half the votes."
[---]
"Well you know that your campaign has been compared to Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution, to the Tea Party movement."
As if that's a bad thing.

Well, it is the CBC, after all. Tax payers are irrelevant, you know. 

Notice that she couldn't accept his answers. It doesn't seem to dawn on her that the public chose him based on his promises, not on CBC's pet causes.

I love the way he just blew her off. I'm pretty sure her PC nose is seriously out of joint.

Too bad he isn't responsible for funding the CBC. Are you listening, Harper?

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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Fifty Minutes

Friday, October 29, 2010

Whoopie!!

Canada's court system makes a logical ruling!!!

Remember the immigrant Chinese grocer who was charged with forceable confinement, and whatnot, for tying up a thief/shoplifter and waiting for the police. He's been found not guilty!! I guess judges can put their fingers in the air and see which way the wind is blowing, too.

But there's still more to do:
"(Defense lawyer) Lindsay told the court that Bennett (the thief) has had 43 findings of guilty and the longest term he has been sentenced to has been 90 days."
Anyone wondering about the real reason Stockwell Day is building more prisons?

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Gee, We Even Take Dogs, Too

"The Quaids' dog, a blue heeler, was also released Wednesday. It had been held at the Vancouver city pound and was picked up by the couple after their release."


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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Cartoonists Always Say It Better














h/t American Power who says:

"An important article of faith among faithless Great Satan haters (that for decency's sake shall remain linkless) is that Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed horrific new millennium warmaking on a hapless, helpless populace of a wonderfully despotic illegit Ba'Athist regime and gleefully slaughtered nigh unto a million innocent Iraqis..."

Exactly!!!!!! He's just a skinnier Michael Moore.

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Well, You'll Have to Blame Something Else

...for how your little boy turned out:  Bert and Ernie Gay? Apparently Not

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How Shall I Spin Thee? Choosing a Headline

Best Headline Ever!!!

Latte futures plummet as Toronto contemplates Ford mayoralty

Great way to wake up the morning after. Buy a regular coffee.

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Oh Dear!

UPDATE: Wikileaks paralyzed by civil war

=======ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE========
The unintended consequences of a Likiweaks' document dump:
"...the most significant revelations from the massive WikiLeaks document dump is the apparent extent of Iran’s nefarious role in Iraq. Remember how we were always being told that the Bush administration was exaggerating the extent of Iranian influence with the Shia militia groups in order to push along a neocon plot to attack Iran? Well, an initial reading of the documents conducted by the New York Times indicates there wasn’t much exaggeration at all.

Come to think of it, none other than Vice President Joe Biden said as recently as August:

Iranian influence in Iraq is minimal. It’s been greatly exaggerated.
(Emphasis mine.)

So exactly how does that statement square with this from the NYT?

The reports make it clear that the lethal contest between Iranian-backed militias and American forces continued after President Obama sought to open a diplomatic dialogue with Iran’s leaders and reaffirmed the agreement between the United States and Iraq to withdraw American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011."
That doesn't fit the narrative, does it, Joe.

And Syria, too:
"An Iraqi border patrol unit in Anbar province came across a group of smugglers – what they were smuggling is unclear – near the Syrian border in May 2009. When they gave pursuit, the Iraqi soldiers found themselves drawn into a gun battle with their western neighbours.

5th division border guards chased some smugglers and exchanged gunfire. The smugglers returned back to Syrian territory and the Syrian forces supported them by using med and light weapons against the 5th division border guards.

In his recently-published memoirs, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, claimed the Bush administration was close to invading Syria - in part because of its alleged support for the Iraqi militants. The leaked documents contain hundreds of references to Syria's role in Iraq, most of them suggesting a deep involvement with the armed groups."
[---]
"Syrian border guards were complicit in the smuggling of weapons and people across the border – and that they at times directly engaged the US and Iraqi forces."
There's more:
"The leaked war logs reflect significant progress as well. There has been a dramatic improvement in security since the height of the violence in 2006-07, due to a weakened threat from al-Qaida and an Iraqi population weary of the sectarian bloodletting that once threatened to plunge the country into civil war.
Even so, some experts question whether the fledgling military and police forces are capable of defending Iraq after Washington completes its scheduled pullout Dec. 31, 2011."
[---]
"(Ambassador Ryan) Crocker called it "profoundly important" that the U.S. maintain a military presence in Iraq beyond 2011, despite America's weariness with the long and costly war and pressure to shift more resources to Afghanistan."
Ooops.

And more oops:
By late 2003, even the Bush White House’s staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

But for years afterward, WikiLeaks’ newly-released Iraq war documents reveal, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins, and uncover weapons of mass destruction."
This game was played before, and it didn't work.

Eight days.

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Stubble Jumping Red Neck Puts Julian Assange

...on the psychiatrist's couch, and it looks like I'm not the only one. If this is part of a concerted effort to smear and discredit the guy, he sure is making it easy. I mean, even I can figure out what his psychological profile is.

First, think about what General McCrystal says about Wikileaks. He very clearly lays out the danger inherent in these sorts of leaks, a danger which says a lot about Julian Assange:



And then this:



Typical two-faced coward. He can dish it out, but he can't take it

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GO TORONTO!!!!!

Welcome back!!!!
"The day I knew for sure there must be something good about Mr. Ford was the day Justin Trudeau, the son of the late prime minister and the MP for Papineau riding in Montreal, came flying in to give George Smitherman his stamp of approval and save Toronto “from the politics of fear and division,” as he put it.

Thank you for that, Mr. Trudeau. You may resume tossing your locks."
Best ass kicking I've seen in a long time.

The mainstream media is positively apoplectic. CBC fans, especially.

And how 'bout that feisty ole Hazel McCallion!!

Outside of Mississauga, the GTA doesn't know what hit it.

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Must Read

Considerations of a Canadian Ex-Muslim

That sound you hear is lefty heads exploding.

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Quaint Quaid Tweets

...***

"It's official, Randy Quaid is absolutely bat-shit crazy."

"They should put Randy Quaid's face on every product that has nuts in it."

""Randy Quaid and his wife have fled to Canada to avoid the "Star Whackers." Don't worry. Your career is in the ditch. You should be safe."

"Randy and Evi Quaid fear they are next in a series of star murders. Someone needs to explain to them what a star is."

"First batch of "Free Randy Quaid" t-shirts just about ready"

"i had to use google to find out who randy quaid was."

"Randy Quaid says a mysterious group of "Star Whackers" are out to kill him. The only delusion he has is of him being a star."

"Exactly who does randy quaid think is after him, the manson family?"

"Costume idea for next year: Randy and Evi Quaid."

And from Daily Comedy:  "We finally got back at Canada for giving us Celine Dion."

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Shovel Ready













Just waiting for November 2nd.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Great Article at Pat Dollard

...about Julian Assange. What did I tell you? He's on the run and increasingly alienated.

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Ummm. I Don't Think He Was Thinking About You...

...Nuri. He only thinks of himself, and even then, he's full of shit. But I'll have more on that later on.

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Absurd Story of the Week

Quaids fleeing 'star-whackers' in U.S.

Comments say "send 'em back".

Between weirded out Hollywood stars, war-resisters and stupid politicians, it appears we still have a bit of an image problem down there in the USA. All the more reason to keep the Liberals out of power for the next fifty years.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

CBC Is Watching - Again

Sitemeter is showing yet another visit from CBC in Toronto, this time at 4:55 AM CST, 6:55 at the Centre of the Universe. They looked at this entry and followed the links to The Future of CBC and CBC Bias.

I wonder if he or she agrees with me or disagrees? I wonder if they gossip about me during the coffee breaks? Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

I hope I haven't scared them too much. I know what it must be like to fear that your job might just go poof. But, shit happens and life goes on. As American novelist, Ernest Hemingway said: "The world breaks everyone, but afterward, many are stronger in the broken places." So let me have a little heart to heart talk here.

Look, I know you folks are primarily left-leaning, and, as such, you think of yourselves as our betters, but once that notion is broken and your employer is cut away from the public teat, I trust you will have enough integrity to rise again with lessons learned and a deeper understanding of why state funded media is not a public good. That would be considered a spiritual awakening, and believe me, life goes so much better after you've arrived at the other end of a spiritual transformation. And that's because humility is so much greater a teacher than arrogance.

In the meantime, I invite you to read two more of my entries on the CBC: What to Do About the CBC and What to Do About the CBC - Part II

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On Irshad Manji's Raisins or Virgins Meme



h/t: Vlad Tepes

I find it rather amusing, in a twisted sense, that Muslim men are obsessed with sex and, according to scripture, are entitled to overdoses beyond belief. Women, on the other hand, well, what's a few stones hurled at your head while you're buried shoulder deep.

I wonder if the English word whore has it's roots in the Arabic houris, or alternatively, both words have a common root in some ancient Middle Eastern language?

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NPR, Juan Williams and the CBC

The right side of the blogosphere, at least in the USA, is overflowing with commentary on the NPR's firing of Juan Williams. One of the points repeated over and over is a demand for the elimination of any further public funding for NPR.  At Pajama's Media, Roger Simon has a piece about it focusing on the public funding NPR receives, calling for legislation forbidding public funding of any news organization, with the exception of Voice of America. With a new Congress about to be elected, with the democrats about to trounced, there's a very good chance that this idea will come to fruition. There's this one little snippet in Simon's piece that cries to be heard by our politicians, too:
"It’s easy to understand that government financing of the news is at best unseemly and at worst totalitarian.   The possibilities for corruption are myriad.  I am not one to dwell on what the Founders intended, but I am reasonably certain they didn’t want a Fourth Estate that was bought and paid for by the government, even in part."
I so hope that was an idea discussed at yesterday's meeting with Stockwell Day.There are more reasons than just belt tightening to cut CBC loose from the public teat.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

CBC is Watching

UPDATED AND BUMPED: The link to Minister Day Concludes Roundtable Meetings on the Economy and Deficit Reduction now has a list of those who were present.  Among the assembled notables is Timothy W. Casgrain, Chair of the Board, CBC/Radio-Canada.  The site provides no clue as to why the Chair of the CBC's Board would be among them.  However, this is one quote, attributed to Mr. Day: 
"The stability of the Canadian financial system was one of Canada's assets during the global recession, and I was pleased to hear from a number of people at today's meeting who saw this first-hand," Minister Day continued. "Now we want to make sure that the Government's finances stay on the right side of the balance sheet to ensure Canada's sound economic position for the long term."
I leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions, but let's just bear in mind that appointees to the CBC Board are made by the government and the date of Mr. Casgrain's appointment (2007) would make him a Conservative Party of Canada appointee. I'm not sure if appointments of the Chair, in particular, are made by the government, or if the person chosen to fill that position is something determined by the board members themselves.
====================
So far today, I've had three visits from CBC. Two were from Toronto and one from Montreal. Each of these visitors looked at one of three posts I have made on CBC bias, namely, Where is the CBC Headed?, CBC Bias and The Future of CBC.

Interestingly, occasionally someone using a University of Toronto computer also stops by.  Today, a U of T visitor looked at The Future of the CBC.

Oh, and there was also someone from a Government of Canada agency, namely the Finance Canada and Treasury Board Secretariat.   They looked at Where is CBC Headed?

Interestingly, there are pictures flashing up on the Treasury Board website of the much reviled Stockwell Day, whose major unforgivable sin is being a devout Christian.  The pictures are captioned: Minister Day Concludes Roundtable Meetings on the Economy and Deficit Reduction

Hmmmm. Is that budget cuts I see in my crystal ball? Privatization, perhaps? That's enough to make me vote for the CPC again, even though I'm thoroughly pissed off at Harper. Perhaps the Harper government has assigned someone to read the posts at Inside the CBC and has decided the CBC isn't so sacred after all.

I'm not just a stubble jumping redneck. I'm also a stubble jumping wicked witch. I think I may have inadvertently cast a spell.  We'll have to wait and see how powerful my spells are.

Thank you all for stopping by.

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Brad Wall Rocks!!

BUMPED WITH VIDEO LINK

Listening right now to Brad Wall talk about the BHP Billiton's Potash Corporation hostile takeover bid. He's making a great case and he's GREAT speaker.

BRAD WALL FOR PRIME MINISTER!!!!

I'll see if I can find an audiofile so anyone who missed it can listen to it at their leisure, although I suspect there isn't a set of Saskatchewan ears, and a lot of Canadian ears from other provinces, that haven't been listening.

PS: His speech writer should get a medal of honour.

PS: This could be a negotiating tactic designed to bring BHP Billiton's expectations in line. We'll see.

Here it is:

Brad Wall says Canada should reject BHP's bid

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An Appropriate Sentence

Sadosexual serial killer Williams gets two life sentences

After all, he did live a double life.

Scum.

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Thank you, Portugal,...

...you have done us a favour. General Lewis MacKenzie pens a brilliant rebuke of the United Nations Security Council.
"Permit me to preface my following comments with a few words to bear in mind while I vent: Somalia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Kosovo, Darfur, Sierra Leone, North Korea, Iraq, Iran -- you get the picture."
[---]
"They decided to call themselves the Permanent Five (Perm 5), agreed they would not fight each other in the future, gave themselves a veto over matters dealing with international peace and security that might draw them into a conflict -- and in the fine print, also over issues of procedure within the Security Council. In other words, they would decide who would share the seats in that hallowed chamber, for how long (two years seemed like a good solution before the upstart rotating members got too much influence) and how votes would be conducted, while they sat back with the ability to shut down any council decision with their almighty single veto.

Did I just hear an echo, "Darfur" and a veto by China with its oil investments and operations in Sudan?

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, symbolizing the end of the Cold War, the Perm 5 were sound asleep in spite of warnings from commanders of UN peacekeeping missions in the field that the paradigm had changed and touchy-feely, lightly armed peacekeeping missions merely perpetuated various conflicts' status quo.

When one of their field commanders suggested that it was pointless calling the UN after 5 p.m. New York time as there was no one there to take the call at the decision-making level (unintentionally smearing the many UN staff working around the clock), the UN knee-jerk reaction was to establish a 24-7 "situation room" with absolutely no decision-making capability."
[---]
"Try as I might, no one at their headquarters in Manhattan could tell me how many Security Council meetings were called outside the cocktail hour at the UN during the past 65 years. In the absence of empirical evidence, I confidently assume I have enough fingers to count them.

In the end, we owe Portugal a favour for wrestling that final inglorious seat from our hesitant hands. Fortunately, port trumps maple syrup."
Wait a minute. Did he just say peacekeeping missions are useless? Don't tell that to our latte sipping "war is not the answer" - "Canada's proper role in the world is peacekeeping" crowd. They may have a emotional breakdown. God forbid, they may even spew their lattes and cocktails all over each other.

Previous. Previouser.

You know. In the real world, in well run organizations, it's customary to sit down once in a while and assess whether or not things are working the way they were intended to work and make adjustments, if necessary. I really think Canuckistanis need to do that now. Lester Pearson had what seemed like a good idea at the time, but it hasn't really worked out that well, has it.  Perhaps it's human nature. But isn't it time we quit congratulating ourselves for inventing the idea of United Nations Peacekeeping Missions? The Pearson family can keep the medal.  After all, no one can anticipate what will happen in the future, and at least it was awarded for something actually accomplished, not like that other one.

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

From the "Science is Settled File": Follow the Money

Another old posting that never got published, but, still a goody, since the media and the politicians seem to be oblivious.
=========================
Global Warming Advocacy Science: A Cross Examination

Climate of Fear, Global Warming Alarmists Intimidate Dissenting Scientists into Silence

Perhaps a conspiracy is unnecessary when a carrot will suffice

Sky Falling...Grant $$$ Increasing



Gore Invests $35 Million for Hedge Funds With EBay Billionaire

Newsweek's Climate Editorial Board Violates Basic Standards of Journalism
"Gore invested the money with Capricorn Investment Group LLC, a Palo Alto, California, firm that selects the private funds for clients and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products, according to a Feb. 1 securities filing. Capricorn was founded by billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, former president of EBay Inc. and an executive producer of Gore's Oscar-winning documentary film on global warming.

Since losing the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, Gore, 59, is best known for focusing attention on climate change through his book and movie, ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' which helped him win a Nobel Peace Prize.
" [---]
"Gore donated his proceeds from the global-warming book and movie to his Alliance for Climate Protection, Kreider added."
[---]
"In the last personal finance report he filed as vice president, Gore disclosed on May 22, 2000, that the value of his assets totaled between $780,000 and $1.9 million. In addition, Gore listed an interest in his father's estate that included Occidental Petroleum Corp. stock worth as much as $1 million."
A man's gotta hedge his bets, I guess.

Beware of climate policy development

In Blizzard, Conservatives Mock Global Warming Alarmists

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CBC Bias

Recently, the CBC released a report on a study of its bias. It was an unqualified farce, and the folks at Inside the CBC took them to task.  So here, for their consideration, is a list of what subjects should be examined. I'm sure the other folks commenting at Inside the CBC could expand upon this list.

1) Topics for examination: How does the CBC treat these subjects? Do they treat them at all, and if so, is the treatment balanced?
  • USA - politics, history, values
  • Science and public policy
  • Education, especially university liberal arts colleges
  • Environment
  • Oil industry
  • Climate change or any of the myriad other names used to motivate scam artistry
  • Any and all things military
  • United Nations and other joint bodies, such as NATO
  • War and peacekeeping
  • Justice system sentencing, parole, recidivism, violent crime, victims versus perpetrators
  • Religion: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, especially violence committed in the name thereof
  • Canada's political parties and leaders
  • First Nations issues
  • Political and social philosophies
  • History, especially over the long term
  • Immigration
  • Media bias (Do they ever examine this, other than to bash so-called "right wing" coverage? Do they ever examine their own bias? Hah! It will be a cold day in hell....)

2) Methods and formats:

  • Exposes: What do they delve into and what do they ignore? How frequently and on what topics do they become obsessive, keeping it in the news for weeks upon weeks at a time?

  • Live Debates: Do they control crosstalk, interruptions, etc.? Give each side equal time? What expertise do the opponents have?
  • Structure: What do they start with? Do they use phrases such as "Some would say..." without reference to who exactly "would say..."? Do they lay down a "preferred/consensus" position first and then bring in "experts" to reinforce it? Do they sum up at the end with their own opinion?
  • Controversy:  Do they allow contrary points of view to be examined in depth without using a "shouting match" debate format, say one point of view in one hour with no interruptions, the other in the next hour, also without interruption? Which view goes first and which goes second? How is that determined? Does the second in line then use it as an the opportunity to rebut rather than present their case? Is the guest espousing the "preferred" narrative the only one given a chance to rebut?
  • Public participation and accountability: Policy versus practice regarding public comments allowed on websites? Screening callers during live debates? Do they ever question why the participating public seems to be primarily from one side of the fence? Have they asked themselves whether this reflects the whole country, or only those who still listen to or watch what they have to offer?
  • Duty of the Board of Directors to consult with the public: Is there an expectation on the part of the Board to do so, and if so, how often do they do it and by what methods?  Do they conduct scientifically valid surveys of public opinion about their services and, if so, how often? Do they make reports readily available to the public and make it know that those reports are available?   Do they ascertain on a regular basis whether the public is aware of CBC's public participation venues and opportunities?  If it is found that the public is aware of these participatory opportunities, but still does not participate, does the Board concern itself with the question of why this is so?  Does the Board have ways of determining their services' relevance and value to the majority of the tax paying public?

3) Staffing and expertise: 
  • What fields of expertise are investigative journalists and broadcasting staff expected to have?  For example, what is a war correspondent expected to know about military strategies, issues, the history of the particular conflict they are reporting or history period, and so on? 
  • Are their guidelines in place to ensure Canadian lives, including those of soldiers, are not put at risk or does the CBC consider this to be of lessor importance than "getting the story"?  
  • Do staff reporting on environmental issues have a related science background, and if they don't, are they expected to seek outside advise from those of who have scientific expertise in relevant fields? Or do they simply seek out those who support a pre-supposed "correct" narrative? (Hint: Bob MacDonald may be qualified to be a high school science teacher, but little more and David Suzuki is way out of his league on anything but genetics.)
Or, for that matter, do any CBC staffers have any expertise on anything but looking pretty in front of a camera or being endowed with a sonorous voice?

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More Razor Edged Clarity from Bill Whittle

Where is CBC Headed?

For what it's worth, I created this entry about a month ago. It's an exchange I had with Paul Mcgrath, the CBC staffer who monitors the comments at Inside the CBC. I don't recall why I didn't publish it at the time, but, even though Teneycke is no longer with Sun TV, it's not too late.
============================
Paul Mcgrath says:

Louise, you created quite the narrative yourself.

To the extent that I created it rather than reported it: Goose - Gander. The MSM's reports are full of speculation when there is no hard evidence, the CBC, no less than any others.

Even leftie bloggers have noticed it: "Sun Sets on Fox News Conspiracy Theory"

And as far as creating a narrative is concerned, take a look at any of the comments threads following any CBC New's website story that has anything to do with Harper and the Conservatives (or Sun TV). Someone working for CBC has approved these comments for publication and a rather large number of them are full of extreme vitriol (and, I might add, rather devoid of reasoned argument). If CBC's approval for publication of these kinds of statements isn't "creating a narrative", I don't know what is.

I can only presume it's also an indication of who CBC's constituency is, since comments on the left side of the so-called "narrative" outnumber comments from the right side by a substantial margin. And that can only mean that CBC speaks for, and reflects, opinion on the left.

And tell me why CBC would pro-actively raise awareness of the Avaaz.org/Margaret Atwood petition?  If they are so neutral on the issue, why raise the subject? Why not just keep out of it altogether?

And by the way, wouldn't it be refreshing to see CBC post a poll asking readers to state how many hours per week they spend watching the real Fox News channel? It would be interesting to see how many are actually using real, current, up-to-date observation and experience over a sufficient duration of time - rather than just repeating what they have been told - when casting their worn out aspersions. To date, most of the comments from lefties I have seen about Fox News south, seems to indicate they have never watched the thing.

And finally, I challenge you or any of CBC's loyal fans to find a single CBC published piece (which includes reader comments) about the proposed SunTV that:

a) Does not refer to it somewhere, either in the article itself, or in the comments, as Fox News North.

and

b) Does not mention Kory Teneycke's name with a reference to his association with Stephen Harper or at the very least the Conservative Party, either in the article itself or in the comments.

I'm prepared to apologize for my mistaken assumptions if any are found, but please provide links to back up your claim. Good luck. I'll be checking back.

Paul Mcgrath says:

As for your bolded words, I can’t clarify them any further than I already explained, anything else would be inference and speculation.

Okay. What's this then? "ok Louise, since you asked, it means we need to stop looking at ratings and dollars alone." (Your words, not mine.) Does that not infer that CBC is now, at least up until today's date, looking at ratings and dollars alone? And if so, then the words "shift the narrative not only to must mean CBC intends to continue looking at ratings and dollars, but not only that.

You see, that's the thing about oracles. They leave open the possibility of multiple interpretations as in "plausible deniability".

But if you really want to know what my speculation is about the oracle's wording, it's that the CBC brass has decided that to ensure CBC's continued existence as a tax funded corporation, it would be better if they were to p!ss off a few of their most loyal leftie fans than continue with the current one-sided 24/7 Liberal-left bias. If that's the case, then hallelujah! They finally admitted it.

Maybe that's why someone at CBC has been reading my blog and maybe that's why they seem to be walking back from their strident attempt to silence and kill the new kid on the block before it's even out of the womb. They've been caught red handed attempting to censor.

Oh. And they've already expressed concerns about the vitriol in the comments. They're starting to catch on. And yes. That is speculation.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Look What the Capital City of Knuckledraggerland...

...just did:

Calgarian becomes Canada's first Muslim mayor

Have trouble pronouncing his name? He's some help:



Click right on through to the YouTube page for more vids on the man.

I especially like this one:

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The Future of CBC...

...is being discussed. Here's a great interview with former CBC CEO, Robert Rabinovitch. Some choice bits:
"We wanted to know what the former CBC CEO thinks of the Corp’s future and were surprised to hear him say that without a complete re-think about what the public broadcaster does, followed by massive changes, Mr. Rabinovitch (pictured) believes the CBC’s future appears pretty grim."
[---]
"I’m concerned about the future of the CBC, deeply concerned. I think what happened this past week (Bell Canada’s purchase of CTV) is a game changer, and I really doubt that the CBC is going to be able to compete in the future. I think they’re going to lose all of their sports properties."
[---]
"I think we’re at a point right now where we may have to ask ourselves the question about where is public broadcasting and why do we still have the public broadcaster?"
[---]
"As it is, CBC Television is no more than 50% public broadcasting. The other 50% is based purely on revenue. Fifty percent of the revenue must come from ads, and ads only come from eyeballs; therefore you have to generate the eyeballs.

And if you’re also going to lose sports now, you’re going to be even more challenged."
[---]
"And with the multiple choices that we have, if we’re not going to fund it well, then we have to ask ourselves why do we have this service. So that’s why I say I’m very concerned. I don’t see a real discussion occurring around “whither the CBC."
And it seems even the Liberals couldn't care less. Read the whole thing. This guy is thinking outside the box. Something the CBC and their groupies sorely need to do. I say, if we can't find a reasonable alternative to public funding, then let the beast die. Keeping it on artificial life-support is pointless.

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Monday, October 18, 2010

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Evil Laugh)

Wikileaks founder Assange denied residency in Sweden
"The founder of the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange, has been denied residency in Sweden, the country's migration board officials say.

They declined to give the reason, saying it was confidential.

Mr Assange, an Australian national, had hoped to create a base for Wikileaks in the Nordic country due to its laws protecting whistle-blowers."
Cue up the usual American/CIA pushing it's weight around or whatever conspiracy theories.

So much for his plans to make Sweden his base for hosting documents. Looks like he would have to have been a legal resident in order to do what he wanted to do.
"The whistle-blower website has a number of servers based in Sweden and the move would have afforded better protection for WikiLeaks' sources under Sweden's press freedom laws.

However, in order to secure legal responsibility as publisher in Sweden, a person must have a residence permit.
And to get residency
"applicants either need to have a job offer from a company in Sweden or, if they are planning to start their own business, the skills needed and a solid plan for the business, Wikstrom said.

"The person also needs funds to cover the start-up costs for the business and to maintain a living in Sweden for the first year,..."
Our heroic boy might have to grow up and look for a real job. But with his history of hacking into computer systems, I wonder who would give him one. What a cruel world!

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Still???@@###$$%%%???

9/11 terrorists did not come from Canada, ambassador tells Republican

Note to my Yanky readers: Please tell your stupid politicians and stupid aspiring politicians that this sort of ignorance doesn't help the conservative cause in Canada, except when it's from someone as high placed as Janet Napolitano, of course.

Rather interesting that both Angle and Napolitano come from states near the Mexico border, Nevada and Arizona, respectively, right next door to one another, in fact, a wee bit far away from the Canadian border. I wonder who Angle got her "facts" from?

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Hmmmm. Seems I Chose the Wrong Career

Some First Nations chiefs earn more than premiers: Records
"It can be more lucrative to lead a native reserve in Canada than to run an entire province, according to newly-released federal records on First Nation salaries.

The elected chiefs of at least 30 aboriginal communities were paid more than $110,000 — all of it tax free — in 2008/09. That's more than the average, after-tax income of $109,983, paid that same year to Canada's premiers, says the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

For months, the federation has been lobbying the federal government to publicly disclose what aboriginal chiefs and band councillors are paid, in the name of improving accountability and transparency among reserve governments.

It recently received, under the access to information law, a list of salaries and honoraria paid in 2008/09 to the chiefs of more than 500 First Nations across Canada.

The highest individual salary in 2008/09 was $247,100, while 45 other unnamed chiefs earned at least $90,000.

But the records also reveal how little other chiefs are paid. More than 80 chiefs received less than $30,000 in salary that year, while five were paid no salary or honoraria at all."
[---]
"The Taxpayers' Federation says band chiefs and councillors are the only politicians in Canada whose pay levels are still kept secret. It says Ottawa should be required by law to publicly disclose all band salaries, regardless of whether the money comes from the government or from band-owned enterprises.

Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block has a private member's bill before Parliament aimed at making reserve governments more transparent. If passed, the bill would require the federal government to fully disclose the details of band salaries.

The bill is supported by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, but opposed by the Assembly of First Nations, which represents the country's more than 600 band chiefs"
Should have gone into the bitching and whining industry instead.

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More "Warmist" Tactics Revealed

Global warming 'propagandist' William Connolley Purged from pages of Wikipedia
"William Connolley, arguably the world’s most influential global warming advocate after Al Gore, has lost his bully pulpit. Connolley did not wield his influence by the quality of his research or the force of his argument but through his administrative position at Wikipedia, the most popular reference source on the planet.

Through his position, Connolley for years kept dissenting views on global warming out of Wikipedia, allowing only those that promoted the view that global warming represented a threat to mankind. As a result, Wikipedia became a leading source of global warming propaganda, with Connolley its chief propagandist.

His career as a global warming propagandist has now been stopped, following a unanimous verdict that came down today through an arbitration proceeding conducted by Wikipedia."
LOL! The floodgates just keep widening and widening. It's almost Biblical.

h/t I Hate the Media

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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Zudhi Jasser Says What I Want to Say

...but I would go further...

What the Muslims in America Can Do
"The last 12 months have seen the most arrests and attacks of radical Islamists on Americans since 9/11. This was confirmed to Congress last month by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who also finally acknowledged the growing homegrown threat of radical Muslims.

Sadly, many of my co-religionists called on by media to speak for American Muslims too often wallow in denial simply deflecting any responsibility by distancing themselves from radicals or myopically equating Muslim radicals to those of other faiths. They willfully ignore the main ideological conveyor belt towards radicalism - political Islam."
[---]
"Most Americans no longer accept these detached irresponsible dismissals from leading American Muslims. They see so many examples of American Muslim clerics who condemn terror out of one side of their mouth while deceptively amplifying victimology, Islamophobia, anti-Americanism and morally vacant justifications from the other."
Make that most Canadians, too.
"In our conversation at Drake University this week, I hope we focus on the fact that at the center of the growing threat to our national security is this battle within the House of Islam. American Muslims need to accept and spread the meme that it is time to get shariah (Islamic law) out of government and bring the ideas of modernity and Enlightenment to the Islamic faith we love.

We need to take the offense in ending the ideas of jihad, the "ummah" as nation, and the "salafi" dream of returning everything to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Until we Muslims take on the responsibility of separating history from religion and mosque from state, the threat will not dissipate."
You got that right, Mr. Jasser, but as I said, I would go further. Your co-religionists have had nine years to get their act together, but the strategies they have used to date have had no impact whatsoever. It's time to take it up several notches, so here's some tips.

This notion that any criticism of the silence of the so called moderates amounts to  "Islamophobia" is just a joke, and here's why. The worst thing so called "moderate" Muslims do is allow frothing at the mouth, raving mad leftists, like Dr. Dawg and Balulican, to speak on their behalf. Surrendering your voices to others, of that ilk especially, has done you far more harm than any image the genuine Muslim radicals have created. How are we to distinguish between moderates and radicals if you are silent, or have failed to make your voices heard, on the issues of Islamic extremism? If you sit back and let far-left pariahs from the host societies speak for you, what are we to believe?  You have to come out from the shadows, else there is no reason for us to believe that you exist.


Your fear of reprisals from the radicals is a non-starter. We have opened our borders to you and allowed you to become citizens of our countries, and meanwhile, our young men and women are sacrificing their lives in foreign lands to give Muslims a better life.

What we need to see are rallies in the streets, similar to the Glenn Beck Rally of a few weeks ago  We need to see you taking a far more aggressive and proactive approach to the media to force them to give you a voice, to take notice.  If you want us to help you, then you must stand shoulder to shoulder, metaphorically at least, with us. If you aren't willing to do these things in a manner that is both obviously and transparently sincere, then I'm sorry, I can have no sympathy whatsoever with the constant whining about Islamophobia. It's just that simple.

That Drake University conference of which you speak took place last week. We'll have to see if this is only the first of such strategy meetings and whether it gets off the ground.  The first thing you need to do is tell the leftards of the west to butt out and stop speaking on your behalf, unless of course they really are speaking on your behalf, in which case, then there are no moderate Muslims.

Nine years. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11 will we see you in the streets protesting against political Islam? Will you stand up and be counted? Will you take back the voice that belongs to you and only to you? I'll be watching. Don't disappoint me.

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Hell No. We Won't Go...

...there.

Drop war-resister policy: rights activists

Amazingly, the CBC comments section is almost entirely against the "rights activists" position. Or at least the first few pages are. I haven't read them all.

For all you younger folk and older deluded ones, the Vietnam war draft dodgers were not in the American armed forces. There was a draft. They had received a letter ordering them to report for duty. Do you understand the difference? Apparently not.

Oh, and the title of this post is a slight variation on the 60's anti-war movement slogan "Hell no. We won't go." That's right. "We won't go." They weren't in a theatre of war. They were refusing to obey the order to sign up.

There is no draft today. All members of the American armed forces today volunteered to serve. They weren't ordered to join the armed forces.

These weasels think that their oath means nothing. Send them back. All of them. Our boys are dieing in Afghanistan and that gives me the right to spit on you.

And by the way, didn't anybody tell you before you volunteered that war is hell? The naive and yellow-bellied are not welcome in our country, not as long as we have a volunteer force ourselves, who are willing to lay down their lives for our country and our allies.

Go fuck yourselves.

PS: Okay. Finished reading all 112 of them although there will probably be a lot more before they close comments. I didn't actually count them, but I'm pretty certain a large majority are opposed to allowing the "war resisters" to stay in this country. Most are arguing they broke the law and should be treated as criminals, which renders them inadmissible to Canada.

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More Refreshing Op Eds

After several days of blaming, gnashing and lamenting, there are finally some actual informed and intelligent articles on this story published in our mainstream press:

An indictment of the UN, not of Canada

UN puts the blocs to Canada

See also this one.

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A Passage from Israel's Declaration of Independance, 1948

h/t Simply Jews

"THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews and for the Ingathering of the Exiles from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace as invisaged by the prophets of Israel; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

If this is Apartheid, let's have some more of it in other areas of the Middle East.

They might want to strike that last little bit about the United Nations, though.

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At Last...

...a reasoned piece, by David Warren, on Canada's failed bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.

Canada stands tall
"So let us not miss this opportunity to praise the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper. He cost Canada a coveted seat on the UN Security Council, by refusing to sell out Israel. He withdrew our candidacy when it became apparent that the bloc vote of Arab and Islamic states (about a third of the UN membership) had been turned against us; thereby conceding the seat to Portugal, with her more flexible policy of moral appeasement."
RTWT He minces no words for Ignatieff, either, and a whole slew of other shady characters and sums it up with a zinger of a conclusion.

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Forty Years Ago

Canada recalls Quebec separatist violence 40 years on
"Mr Trudeau explained his actions in a televised statement.

"Violent and fanatical men are attempting to destroy the unity and the freedom of Canada," he said, adding that he would not tolerate "intimidation and terror"."
[---]
"Meanwhile, Mr Trudeau came under severe criticism from his political foes. The Parti Quebecois leader accused Mr Trudeau of "a panicky and altogether excessive reaction", while the leader of Canada's third party, the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP), accused Prime Minister Trudeau of using "a sledgehammer to crack a peanut".

But the public seemed to approve overwhelmingly of the tough approach.

Claude Belanger, a Quebec historian at Marianopolis College in Montreal, says that several polls at the time showed about 90% of Canadians - including those in Quebec - backed the measures."
[---]
"James Cross was released in exchange for Cuban exile for his kidnappers - led by Jacques Lanctot. They eventually returned to Canada, and served short prison sentences.

Pierre Laporte's killers, led by Paul Rose, were found by police.

Rose and a fellow FLQ member were convicted of kidnapping and murder charges, with another member convicted of just kidnapping charges.

All were out of prison by the early 1980s. Now, all play roles in Quebec society as writers, film-makers and commentators."
Bring on Sun TV!!
"Since the crisis, separatists have sought, and failed, to achieve independence through two referenda - narrowly losing in the last one held in 1995.

The appetite for an independent Quebec now seems on the wane.

Some 60% of Quebec residents feel the issue has been settled, according to a recent poll, while former separatist leader Lucien Bouchard recently admitted that independence was unachievable."
Somebody should tell that to Duceppe.

PS: More from Pierre Laporte's son.
""Every 10 years there are news stories and each time it's a little more painful, each time the story changes," he told QMI Agency.

"They try to rewrite history, making the FLQ more acceptable, but in reality, they kidnapped a man and that man was my father."

One former FLQ member, now a prominent newspaper columnist in Quebec, is just one of many who have recast the violence 40 years ago in a softer light.

"We were responding to repression," Jacques Lanctot said in September. "We didn't want to kill anyone. We were radicals who wanted to wake the consciousness of Quebecers."

Laporte said that isn't a good argument.

"How can it be an accident when you kidnap someone? You're responsible," he said."


PPS: How Trudeau turned the October Crisis
"In Mr. Trudeau, the separatists chose the wrong opponent. The prime minister would not easily be intimidated. He had a strong sense of the dramatic and the theatrical: in 1968 he showed his contempt for a howling separatist mob, standing virtually alone on a reviewing stand as other dignitaries fled a shower of rocks and bottles. Asked to put troops on the streets by Montreal's municipal authorities, he did. Determining that sympathy for the terrorists was spreading among Montreal's volatile student population, he acted to seize back the streets using the War Measures Act to arrest almost 500 people - anyone who could "get more than five people on a street corner," one observer quipped. The 500 were put on ice not for what they had done, but what they could do.

The terrorists and their near sympathizers got the point. Radical separatist enthusiasm moved from frenzied to frozen. By the time the detainees were released, the moment had passed and the crisis was over. Better still, the moment for terror had passed.

Moderate opinion - the vast majority - was repulsed by the kidnappings and the murder of Mr. Laporte by his captors. Public opinion craved a leader who would stand firm, and in Trudeau Quebecers and Canadians found the man of the hour."
Some day I might recount my experiences with Trudeaumania and my opinion of the man. It differs from the view held by most of my fellow right of centre Canucks, especially those from Western Canada. For years I've felt I must be the only person west of the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border who admired the man and I still do. One of the reasons for my dissenting opinion was his steely resolve in dealing the the FLQ crisis. But then again, I was only twenty-one years old, and like the vast majority of twenty-somethings during that era and all before and since, I was naive and starry-eyed. But, even now with my gray hair and perpetually aching bones, I still think he did the right thing. We need a man like him as our next Conservative Prime Minister.

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Still as Classy as Ever

Well, at Least the Conversation has Begun

And it's not a bad start, either:

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Friday, October 15, 2010

Important Update

...from the Mayor of Mitchieville:

Burning Margaret Atwood

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Is This the Beginning of the End?

Petreaus: NATO Facilitated Safe Passage of Taliban
"The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan says NATO has facilitated the safe passage of Taliban leaders to Kabul for talks with the Afghan government"
Cjunk draws the clear distinction between Taliban Jack's bankrupt idea and what is currently happening.

And from the BBC:
"Afghanistan is facing its bloodiest year since the US-led invasion of 2001.

During his address to a defence think tank, Gen Petraeus said there were "several ongoing initiatives" to try to get the Taliban to the negotiating table"
[---]
"Painting an upbeat picture, Gen Petraeus also said Kabul was now a secure place to live; education and literacy had surged; and businesses were thriving while people were returning to Afghanistan."
Or just another example of hudna?

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Holy Schmoly!!

Prosecutors of Dutch MP Geert Wilders Ask Court to Acquit on All Charges

This outta be worth a few riots in Muzzielands and perhaps another murder in the Netherlands.

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Don't Let the Door..

Report This, CBC! Will you?

Paging Dr. Fruitfly.
"German born chemist, Dr Klaus L. E. Kaiser has published evidence that proves the Royal Society (RS), London, has been caught out making schoolboy errors in mathematical calculations over the duration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere. Backed up by a review by a leading Swedish mathematics professor the revelation is a serious embarrassment to the credibility of the once revered British science institute and a major setback for its claims about climate change.

A gaffe in their own basic calculations led the RS to falsely find that CO2 would stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years rather than a dozen or so as per peer-reviewed studies show. Global warming skeptics have been quick to condemn the error and demand an apology and immediate correction."
[Emphasis mine]

Dr. Fruitfly.... Bob MacDonald.....helloooooo! Anybody there?

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Must Read for This Morning

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Superb Debate: Islam is a Religion of Peace


ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE from Intelligence Squared US on Vimeo.

Transcript is here.

What I find amazing is the "before" and "after" ratings. There must have been a lot of people in the audience who knew very little about Islam before they listened.

41% "for" the motion before hand, 36% after.

25% "against" before hand, and it looks like many of those "for" went over to "against" after as it then stood at 55% "against".

34% were "undecided" before the debate, but only 9% were still "undecided" after the debate. It also looks like most of those "undecideds" went to "against" the motion, once the debate was finished.

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On Canada and the UN Security Council

I'm glad we lost our bid and I'm pissed off at Harper for even trying. The best and only thing we should be doing at the United Nations is what we have already done, namely, walking out on or boycotting all together, speeches by petty dictators and anti-Semites like Ahmadinejad and nearly all the other non-democracies like China or Russia or Saudi Arabia, or the AGW scam artist bagmen who want our money while they continue to develop their fossil fuel industries, when graft and incompetence doesn't get in their way, that is, with far less regulation that is expected of us. And I have felt this way for YEARS!!

What surprises me is the response from the left to the steady droning stream of these kinds of revelations and, most especially, their belief that sovereign countries, such as the United States, should surrender their sovereignty and abide by UN resolutions.  Even more absurd, when you consider the number of resolutions coming from groups like the OIC, which are totally disingenuous, that Israel should do so.

I'm tired of scams, like the IPCC. Rwanda sickened me. The appointment of Libya to the Human Rights Council was pure theatre. The oil-for-food scandal did not surprise.  I'm tired of Western Democracies shouldering the lions share of the financial burden and nearly all of the blame. This fixation our lefties have with old, no longer working (if they every did) ideas like peacekeeping have been shown time and time again to be worthless, hamstrung by corruption and deceit and should have been disbanded a long time ago.

The United Nations is a farce. Initiatives like this are not going to help. An even better thing we should do, and should have done a long time ago, is announce our departure from it and withdraw our money forthwith. The organization will be sixty-five years old in a few days and to the best of my knowledge, hasn't accomplished a single thing worthy of its original objectives.

We should get out. We should put all our development energies and resources into agencies with proven track records, or at least those with the potential to make a difference in the world, like this one, and kiss the UN good-bye.

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Oh Crap!

Darcy Draws the Line

Louis Riel was no Che Guevara.
"Che Guevara had Fidel Castro to help build the falsely romantic image sanctioned by leftists and dirty hippies all over the world and Louis Riel has the modern Metis movement which bridges on the spiritual making both characters handy artifacts of symbolic breeding emotionality with the end resultant being a whitewashed history.

The only thing they truly have in common is a fistful of unfortunate dreamy untruths."

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Oh, Man!

The face of a child tells the whole story.

Second picture in the second row.

Chi! Chi! le! le!

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Taquila! Taqiyya,!

Very interesting post and discussion at Pajamas Media today about Saddam Hussein. I especially like this comment.

To all those practitioners of taqiyya out there, I propose a toast:
"May your taqiyya have swarms of juicy live worms in it."

Allahu Snackbar!

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Canada Kicks Islamist Ass...

...again!
"Muslim witnesses wearing a face-covering niqab must remove it to testify if the covering would truly jeopardize a fair trial, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled today."
France and Australia, too!

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tell Me Something

Is there anyone in the world who is not crying along with that little boy and his father?



Live coverage from BBC.

TV audience estimated 1 billion.

From BBC: "The miners' story is reaching all corners of the world. Kelvin Kamang in Kalulushi, Zambia, writes: "I am a miner at a small copper mine called Chibuluma Mine. We felt so bad when we heard that our brothers where trapped in Chile. The good news about their likely escape has brought much joy and happiness to every miner here.""

From a rescued miner: "I have been with the devil, but I grabbed God's hand..."

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HEHEHEHEHEHE!!!

Latest Sitemeter sighting: Someone just used the search terms "stubble jumping bitch" to find my blog. I think I know who it is. I'm pretty sure he inhabits Inside the CBC. Be that as it may, let me just say I'm a proud stubble jumping bitch and don't you forget it!

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Lightning Bolt Icon

If this isn't a iconic depiction of the awakening of liberty in the U. S. of A., I don't now what is.

How will the leftards interpret this? Sure won't be an "Act of God". Maybe "catastrophic climate change" can be pressed into service.

21 days

h/t: American Power

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Well I'll Be Darned

Now Here's a Story...

...that should melt the heart of even the coldest and cruelest leftard on the planet:

Bibi Ayesha honored with Enduring Heart Award in California

God bless the Yanks.

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"Where's Monica?"

hehehehehehe

The Democrats are so dead.

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Further to This Post...

... regarding my personal history and the descendants of Cuthbert Grant, I give you a picture of the bridge from the vantage point of a spot close to where Allyre Grant's daughter and grandchildren lived:


If you look closely in the distance, roughly in the centre of the picture, you'll see the double arched bridge that spans the river, which is flowing away from the camera man/woman. Further east (to the left) the river has taken a sharp 90 degree turn from its flow from the east end of Katepwa Lake.

The house I grew up in has been torn down, but if it was still standing it would be a short distance from the right side of the bridge, just beyond the right border of the picture. My dad used to turn that grass into hay every summer.

Tell me you're not jealous of where I grew up. I always consider myself blessed to have grown up in this beautiful valley - the Qu'Appelle. And you thought Saskatchewan was flat and boring. Hah!

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Great Talk By Melanie Phillips

Monday, October 11, 2010

Weirdest Search Terms

According to sitemeter some dude/dudette from Manilla located my blog using the search terms "scary aunt with two nieces and one nephew in the loomy lake". What's really weird, is that it brings up the whole month of October, 2008, but darned if I can find those terms in any of the entries.

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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ayaan Hirsi Ali...

...on Geert Wilders' trial. Some interesting/nauseating details of which I hadn't been aware:

In Holland, Free Speech on Trial
"Imagine if a leader within the tea party movement were able to persuade its members to establish a third political party. Imagine he succeeded—overwhelmingly—and that as their leader he stood a real chance of winning the presidency. Then imagine that in anticipation of his electoral victory, the Democrats and Republicans quickly modified an existing antidiscrimination law so that he could be convicted for statements he made on the campaign trail.

All of this seems impossible in a 21st-century liberal democracy. But it is exactly what is happening in Holland to Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders
.
[---]
"But since splitting from the Liberal Party six years ago, his star has only risen. In the national elections held in November 2006, his party won nine seats in parliament. When the Dutch government fell again this year, June elections saw his party take 24 seats in the 150-seat body.

This has spooked Dutch parliamentarians, particularly those wedded to multiculturalism. That's why, in the fall of 2009, they modified Article 137C and 137D of the Penal Code to make it possible for far-left organizations to take Mr. Wilders to court on grounds of "inciting hatred" against Muslims."
[---]
"Historically, the Netherlands has insisted on the idea of "consensus." Though on paper this means compromise, in practice it has meant conformity of thought and a refusal to rock the boat on controversial issues."
[---]
"The bill used to prosecute Mr. Wilders is the national version of what OIC diplomats peddle at the U.N. and EU."
Wow! This is dirtier than I thought, and that says a lot. Read the whole thing and note the parallels with our Human Rights Commissions. Scary, scary, scary.

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Further to "Oh, Yes!" (Below)

Here's an interesting piece from The Guardian about the English Defense League. (H/T Pat Dollard)

Using the language of the discombobbulated left, The Guardian makes liberal use of terms such as "extremist" and "far-right" while describing contacts that have been made by the EDL and groups in America. One of the themes of Gates of Vienna's thesis about the English Defense League and its "working class" roots (see previous entry), was the need for the movement to form alliances with Middle Class groups with the same concerns. This article seems to suggest that such contacts are being forged as we speak.
"The English Defence League, a far-right grouping aimed at combating the "Islamification" of British cities, has developed strong links with the American Tea Party movement.

An Observer investigation has established that the EDL has made contact with anti-jihad groups within the Tea Party organisation and has invited a senior US rabbi and Tea Party activist to London this month. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a regular speaker at Tea Party conventions, will speak about Sharia law and also discuss funding issues.

The league has also developed links with Pamela Geller, who was influential in the protests against plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero. Geller, darling of the Tea Party's growing anti-Islamic wing, is advocating an alliance with the EDL. The executive director of the Stop Islamisation of America organisation, she recently met EDL leaders in New York and has defended the group's actions, despite a recent violent march in Bradford."
According to the article, Geller is bringing "Islamophobia to the Tea Party Movement". It's a "progressive's" worst nightmare, I tells ya'.
"The EDL's website relaunched briefly last week with new US links. Currently shut down for "maintenance", the site featured prominent links to a site called Atlas Shrugs, which is run by Geller [ED. in my blogroll, btw], and another US-based site, Jihad Watch, which compiles negative news coverage of Islamic militancy."
Riiiight. Why doesn't that wascally Jihad Watch website look for positive news coverage of Islamic militancy. Obviously, they are consumed with irrational Islamophobia.

All told, the news that EDL is forging links with disaffected Americans is a good thing. Even better, though, is the bald-faced, head-on exposure of the old guard Lamestream Media's sleeping habits. It couldn't be more obvious who the Guardian, a lefty newspaper, if there ever was one, is in bed with. Nor could their lame attempts to disguise their slander of a movement with which they disagree as news be more transparent. I have a feeling that this too, will backfire on them.

In any case, there is no doubt about it, The (dull-witted) Guardian is appropriately lily-livered and is casting guilt by association aspersions wherever it can make them:
"Another Tea Party-associated grouping, the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which campaigns against Sharia law, confirmed that EDL leaders have made "contacts with members of important organisations within the American counter-jihad movement". A statement said: "It seems now that America and Europe are acting as one, and united we can never fail."

With the Tea Party said to benefit from millions of dollars of funding from conservative foundations, experts warn an alliance between the EDL and extremist elements within the US movement could allow the English group to invest in wider recruitment and activism."
Yup. The leftie elites are running scared and the more they throw their scatter shot in all directions, the less effective they'll be.

23 days

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Oh, Yes!!

What is your initial gut reaction to this video?



And I could add some names.

So, what was my initial gut reaction to this video? Total sympathy to the actor's position.

h/t Gates of Vienna, which you MUST read, as the Baron provides some analysis of the meme, specifically, about who imposed this on the "working class" Brit, and particularly, how the film backfires on the elites who imposed it. But who are these elites?
"Make no mistake about it: this was an MSM production, and its target audience — politically correct middle- and upper middle-class British viewers — received it as intended, as a put-down of those benighted, atavistic, racist, nationalistic proles. The use of Enoch Powell as an iconic inspiration is proof of this fact — I remember quite clearly how Mr. Powell was reviled and ostracized for his “Rivers of Blood” speech. My cohort, the generation whose apparatchiks now control the levers of state, media, and social power, regard Enoch Powell as an emblem of racist fascism, a worthy heir to Sir Oswald Mosley.

But, as with so many MSM efforts, the real message gets through, despite the producers’ intentions. The writers, producers, actors, and target audience are deaf to the underlying significance behind what they portray, yet an ordinary Englishman experiences a thrill of recognition, and is heartened by it. The self-appointed guardians of multiculture may not realize it, but Enoch Powell is admired and respected by the EDL and other modern English nationalists. His presence in the TV program sends a totally different signal from what was intended."
[---]
"The truth of what the EDL is doing is all but impossible to convey via the MSM. The media will hide the vile behavior of Muslims, and will choose its sound bites from the EDL (or its UAF infiltrators, who provide the best material) in such a way that the “racist” and “fascist” meme will come through loud and clear to the intended audience.

If the EDL’s message is to be successfully spread, it must do so despite what the media oligarchs intend. It can sneak in through vehicles such as the “I am an Englishman” clip, or be conveyed via entirely different means, such as internet forums and social networking sites."
It's funny, or maybe not funny, but I get the same feeling every time I visit a CBC website where comments are allowed. The vast majority of commenters are uber-liberal elites who look down their noses at those who hold contrary views, yet the vilest comments, those that come the closest to visceral hatred and bigotry, are invariably from the uber-liberals and they never fail to reveal complete and utter ignorance of the positions of those whom they oppose. Same goes for the two clowns at Jay Currie's place.

But to continue, from G of V:
"When the actor tells the audience that “we were never asked”, who were “they” who never did the asking?

The social context of the clip — the accent, the Bermondsey background, the use of Enoch Powell — convey the clear message that this is a conflict between the classes. “They” were the upper and upper middle classes, and they foisted upon “us”, the lower classes, the immigration which has destroyed us.

But this is not true. The meme is false.

Much of the destruction of modern Britain was carried out by the post-war Labour Party, many of whose leaders were thoroughly working class. It was a bolshie operation, and immigration was an integral part of the plan, because it helped destroy the “bourgeois” culture which they so detested.

The Marxist strategy has always been to destroy those things that the English nation — or any nation — holds dear. Tradition, custom, culture, religion, history, a distinctive language and dialect — all of these had to be deconstructed in order that the New Socialist Man could be constructed and usher in the Utopia."
And now we know why Murray Dobbin and so many of the MSM groupies, CBC's especially, are so dead against the new Sun TV. THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE OFFICIAL MEME ANY MORE!!!! Funny that this should happen so soon after the 10:10 video fiasco. Even when they try, it will flop.

Question: Will there be a civil war in Britain? When this all ends, will there be anything left of the leftist/Marxist/elitist meme spewing poseurs at work in any Western society? Will there be any Western society?

PS: If you are curious about Enoch Powell and the frenzy that his speech whipped up, go here.

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