Don't Ask Me Why...

...but I guess at my age, it's easier to think back to times past, so I'll close the year with this oldie but goody:

The New Year Has Begun

...for Kiwis and points west.

Being an older type, I will probably be sound asleep when it hits here. So Happy New Year one and all. Lets hope some good things happen in January, and throughout the entire year. Of course, if you know me, I'm an optimistic type, so I tend to see more of the good stuff than dwelling on the negative, like our lefty sorts do. Lighten up folks. The world is still a good place, if you've a mind to see it as so. May sanity reign. May the Mad Mullahs fall. And may Western Civilization pull itself up by the boot straps.

My Last Anti-CBC Rant of 2010

Driving back yesterday from Oil Country I have to confess I listened to the only station my pathetic excuse of a car radio could pull in the whole way - CBC. It always helps to listen once in a while just to confirm it hasn't changed its tune.

This time it was Jian Ghomeshi's Q. You can listen to it here.

Highlight of the broadcast comes at the 16 minute mark with musical artist, Chilly Gonzales. Gonzales believes artists should not receive government funding. Ghomeshi was aghast. Not only was he horrified with the idea, but he was clearly disturbed that it was floated on his program!!

Now, For Some Disappointing News

Billy the Kid will not be pardoned.

Canadian 12th in line to the throne

Drat! She'd probably make a better monarch than Chucky-pooh.

A novel way to improve wait times.

Nothing to see here, folks.

And having just returned from a visit with my two little sweeties and their pregnant mommies, this one really tugs at my heart. My prayers are with the family and the little tyke:

B.C. newborn battles rare leukemia

My third and fourth grandchildren are expected to arrive in early February and late March this coming year, respectively. I hope they are healthy.

You're Not Alone...

...my fellow Canucks. But the question is, do we need to seek help?

Must be those long cold winters. Or maybe it's because we have SDA!

Climate Fraud Continues Unabated

Lawrence Soloman: 75 scientists think humans contribute to global warming

"How do we know there’s a scientific consensus on climate change? Pundits and the press tell us so. And how do the pundits and the press know? Until recently, they typically pointed to the number 2500 – that’s the number of scientists associated with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

[---]

"To their embarrassment, most of the pundits and press discovered that they were mistaken – those 2500 scientists hadn’t endorsed the IPCC’s conclusions, they had merely reviewed some part or other of the IPCC’s mammoth studies. To add to their embarrassment, many of those reviewers from within the IPCC establishment actually disagreed with the IPCC’s conclusions, sometimes vehemently.

The upshot? The punditry looked for and recently found an alternate number to tout — “97% of the world’s climate scientists” accept the consensus, articles in the Washington Post and elsewhere have begun to claim.

This number will prove a new embarrassment to the pundits and press who use it. The number stems from a 2009 online survey of 10,257 earth scientists, conducted by two researchers at the University of Illinois. The survey results must have deeply disappointed the researchers – in the end, they chose to highlight the views of a subgroup of just 77 scientists, 75 of whom thought humans contributed to climate change. The ratio 75/77 produces the 97% figure that pundits now tout.

The two researchers started by altogether excluding from their survey the thousands of scientists most likely to think that the Sun, or planetary movements, might have something to do with climate on Earth – out were the solar scientists, space scientists, cosmologists, physicists, meteorologists and astronomers. That left the 10,257 scientists in disciplines like geology, oceanography, paleontology, and geochemistry that were somehow deemed more worthy of being included in the consensus. The two researchers also decided that scientific accomplishment should not be a factor in who could answer – those surveyed were determined by their place of employment (an academic or a governmental institution). Neither was academic qualification a factor – about 1,000 of those surveyed did not have a PhD, some didn’t even have a master’s diploma.

To encourage a high participation among these remaining disciplines, the two researchers decided on a quickie survey that would take less than two minutes to complete, and would be done online, saving the respondents the hassle of mailing a reply. Nevertheless, most didn’t consider the quickie survey worthy of response –just 3146, or 30.7%, answered the two questions on the survey..."

This one is precious. Be sure to read it all.

In the meantime, for the past two nights, I've had to pile on extra layers of blankets, clothes and socks, and turn up the heat, just to be warm enough to go to sleep. And it's not even January yet.

I'm Baaaaaack!

Just spent several days in Oil Country visiting my two little sweeties and their parents. Christmas with little ones is such fun, although it promises to get even better, since this year they didn't seem to grasp that they should keep digging deeper into their stockings. Oh, well. That's what mommies are for.

I Don't Care What I Eat

...for Christmas, as long as someone else makes it.

A Man's Meal:



I'd even share it with Justin.

h/t Hot Air

I Miss JFK

Iran Just Shipped Missiles to Venezuela. Hello? Is This Thing On

"A massive security threat just blossomed, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an MSM or administration official who cares."

A generation or two earlier, this would have happened.

Will you impeach The One now? Please!? This is serious.

Threaten to Burn a Koran...

...and all hell brakes out. Burn an entire Christian Library and ........

The Muslim Brotherhood

Does any of this sound familiar to you? It should.  If it doesn't, you've got some catching up to do.  Or you might be a leftard.

The Kennedy Clan Strikes Again

Couldn't have happened to a nicer lady. Wouldn't you say?

h/t Ace of Spades

And how about that porn map at Ace's place? Suits Florida rather well, I would say. If you know what I mean.

Drats!!

Don't you just wish the next time the earth opens up in Iran it would just swallow the right people?

Scum of the Earth

This is why we need the death penalty:

Seven-year-old girl rescued from sexual predator after tip

Two children found dead in Edmonton home

The mind boggles while the heart weeps.

Go Britain!!

Prince Charles is too Dangerous to be King:In a landmark essay MAX HASTINGS tells why this increasingly eccentric royal could imperil the monarchy

"The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton has given the British people a welcome fillip in a chilly season. Next April’s wedding will be a big success — even if we make a mess of some things, we’re ­jolly good at royal ceremonies.

The hard part comes afterwards: as the Queen gets older, growing ­attention and speculation is focusing on the ­monarchy’s future. Opinion polls show that most British people would like William to become heir to the throne, bypassing his father, the Prince of Wales."

We already knew the guy's a total crackpot, but if there are any with lingering doubts about that, this article will finish those off for good. If he assumes the throne, the fall of the Once Great Britain will be well nigh complete. It would be enough to make me, and, I suspect, a good many British subjects in the former colonies to go the way of the good ole US of A. There's no need to bow to royality today. Hip! Hip! and Rah! Rah! be damned. I have no stake in a heritage that reveres Mad Monarchs and, alas, chopping royal heads off is so passe these days.

Want to know what I'm talking about? Read the article.

h/t Outremer United

Go France!!!

THE PARIS MANIFESTO: DENOUNCING THE ISLAMIC CONQUEST.......

"The conference on the Islamization of Europe that took place in Paris, December 18, 2010, is a founding act. For the first time, speakers from across Europe have gathered to denounce the Islamic conquest happening on our continent.

[---]

"We invite everyone to join an association or a party that participate in this fight, according to his own philosophy, and to build links between individuals, groups and countries in order to create strong networks. Only thus will they be able to resist the Islamic, sexist and homophobic totalitarianism which seeks, by demographics and intimidation, to eradicate a humanistic civilization. We reject obscurantism, superstition and blind obedience of man to unworthy and deadly precepts."

RTWT

Oh, Give Me a Break!!!

Go read Ezra's latest about Iggy the Idiotic and the Lunatic Liberals.

But, who am I to complain. The more's the better where the Liberal Party is concerned.

And Speaking of Language

How's this for a headline grabber:

Sluttish squirrels don't care about genes

Yay!! Pluto Lives!!

The argument for Pluto: Why the Tiny Dwarf is Still a Planet

All those kids books and science texts will have to be rewritten again. But she's worth it.

Cool!

Harvard, Google map literary trends, seek God

"The word "God" peaked in usage in the world's books about 1830. "Women" overtook "men" in print after 1985. Sigmund Freud has gotten more ink during the past 60 years than Charles Darwin or Albert Einstein.

Researchers at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., teamed up with Google Inc. to survey 5.2 million digitized books -- about four per cent of all the volumes published in any language -- to analyze language patterns and quantify cultural trends from 1800 to 2000."

[---]

"Google, which has digitized 12 per cent of the 130 million books published worldwide, unveiled an online tool that enables users to track the frequency of words and phrases."

[---]

"About 72 per cent of the database's text is in English, followed by French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew."

[---]

"Studying word frequency, the researchers found that "men" was present in books almost nine times as often as "women" during the first half of the 19th century. The gap narrowed until 1985, when both words were used evenly, and by 1994 "women" appeared about 4.3 times for every 10,000 words, while "men" lagged behind at 3.3, according to the data."

[---]

"Members of the clergy produced a greater percentage of what was written in the early 1800s than later, Aiden said. That may help explain why "God" peaked around 1830, when it represented 12.5 of every 10,000 words, he said. By 2000, its prevalence had dropped to 2.6 times.

'God' is not dead, but needs a new publicist," the authors wrote.

Year by year before 1950, the fame of Darwin, the 19th- century evolutionary biologist, was greater on average than that of the psychoanalyst Freud, the physicist Einstein or 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei. Freud then took the lead."

I wonder if the words "me, me, me" followed soon after?

And this is interesting:

"The research team, which included staff members from the publishers of Encyclopaedia Britannica and The American Heritage Dictionary, concluded that the English language absorbs about 8,500 new words each year. From 1950 to 2000, the lexicon grew more than 70 per cent. Dictionaries don't account for the extent of this growth and fail to include an estimated 52 per cent of the language, the authors wrote."

I wonder if "the lexicon" will now shrink, what with our language police and all.

And speaking of the evolution of language, here's a trend that I couldn't care less about:

Languages Are Vanishing. So What?

The sooner we all speak to each other, the better off this old world will be. And it looks like it's going to be English. The language of technology and commerce will win, as usual.

More here.

Do you remember when techie people were predicting the demise of books? Somewhat snottily, I might add.

Well. It ain't happening.

"If you doubt the staying power of books, try this: Put the words "read books" and "use computers" into Google's new database, and you'll find that books come out well ahead."

My personal habits aside, I'm glad to hear that.

PS: I remember reading several years ago that English was the most common language spoken on the earth, either as a first or second language and was the most common language being learned by non-English folks the world over, too. The reason being, people understand it's the ticket to economic prosperity. And that's just the way the cookie has crumbled. It has nothing to do with it being superior in any way. It's just an accident of history. In fact, I've been told it's one of the more difficult languages to learn, being that it has a vastly greater number of words than any other language, in part because it has absorbed so many words from other languages. Thanks go to the British Empire.

Global Warming Washes Up On Florida's Beaches

Millions of Funky Dead Sea Creatures Wash Ashore After Record Florida Freeze

For Next Year at This Time

It's probably too late for this year, but howze about next year each and every member of parliament send out a Christmas card to their constituents in which they and their family are dressed in furs. Not that I want to give Justin a shot in the arm, but that would really, really make the creepy-crawly PETA types come scurrying out from under their rocks. In fact, let everyone who customarily sends a family photo card to others at Christmas time do the same. Heck, even non-Christians could do the same thing somehow in celebration of their special holidays. Maybe put a few pictures dead flies or bug splatter on the card, too.

The possibilities are endless.

When I was a kid attending a one-room country school, we used to catch crickets and have cricket races at recess on the school porch. Great fun. We even published a newpaper called The Cricket Times, which was devoted to the sport of cricket races. Although Tavern Pig Racing should only be done by adults.

But I like this idea even better:



Some chuckles.

Proving Once Again...

...that the boy can dish it out, but he can't take it:



h/t Pat Dollard

Next thing we need is for one of those women to give us his member's measurements.

Cute Story

...emailed this morning from my cousin in Trawna (AKA Toronto).

What can you give the 'givers' in our world?

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

It just doesn't get any funnier than this, the opening paragraph of yet another story about "Poor Julian":

"Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who was released from a British jail late last week, is facing a new challenge: the leak of a 68-page confidential Swedish police report that sheds new light on the allegations of sexual misconduct that led to Mr. Assange’s legal troubles."

Little did he know that he would start a new fad. Everyone who is anyone is now leaking.

I wonder how world-wide sales of Depends are doing. /snark

And Still More....

Can environmentalism be saved from itself?

SUPERWHEAT

Climate Change: It's the Sun, Stupid

Oh well. It's been an interesting phenomenon to have observed. Mass hysteria on a global scale normally isn't sustained as long as this one has been. Glad it's over and I hope they're wrong about global cooling, too. After all, I have grandchildren and I'd like them to survive to a ripe old age and leave some grand kiddies of their own behind. I'm sure they'd rather be warm.

More Global Warming Stories...

UPDATE: Brrr...COLDEST DECEMBER EVER  causes record deaths in London

PS:  If there really is a connection between warmth and CO2, don't you think we might be courting with disaster by attempting to reduce it's prevalence in the atmosphere?
===============================
...from the UK:

Blizzards blast British airports, hit sports

Snow, cold cause chaos across UK and Europe

Air Canada cancels London flights

There's 1,264 stories on news.google.ca about it, but you get the picture, even if the AGW freaks don't.

The Wheel's Still In Spin

Apologies to Bob Dylan, but truer words were never sung. "The Times, They are"  - indeed - "A'Changin'".

Muslim ‘Radicalization’ Is Focus of Planned Inquiry

Religious accommodation in Canada is going too far

Niqab debate: What should Canada do?

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
 
As we enter the tenth year following 9/11, I do believe we have finally arrived at a place where we, the inhabitants of Western civilization, have finally recognized we do have a culture, it's a grand one and it's worth preserving and defending. And political correctness is worth killing and those who promote it should be marginalized.

In fact, I think those Random Acts of Culture taking place in malls all over North America are just that. What a pity that just before Christmas we have to be shown what our heritage is in shopping malls!! I hope this new found pride lasts all year and gets stronger and stronger as the second decade of the third millennium of Christendom unfolds.

And towards that end, I promise to kick up the PC volume on this here blog. Let me begin by saying to the United States of America, contrary to what so many people around the globe are saying, including your own citizens, I do not believe you are going into decline. You've made a mistake in your last presidential election, but you have a system of government that guarantees the capacity for self-correction.

And, although there are a lot of we whiny Canadians who spend our miserable, insignificant lives dissing you and your accomplishments, please know there are many of us who respect and admire you and appreciate what you do in the world.  I have no intentions of kicking you when you are down, and in my own puny way, I hope you will take my message the heart.  You do have friends, even if we like to tease you sometimes and even if some of you fail to recognized that not all 34,000,000 of us are rabid lefties.

We don't believe CNN or MSNBC, nor do we believe our own CBC. And I hope you don't believe a word the CBC or any or your own say, either.

/syrupy but heartfelt sentimentalism

Ah, Shucks

I thought I had another visit from the CIA again, but it turns out it was some internet service provider in Ontario with the URL cia.com. I so want to be a spy!

That Was My First Question, Too!

Yet another PC tale, starting with an article from The Sheaf:

Macleans Magazine Gets Taxpayer Help?

Be careful, now. The Sheaf is the U of S's student newspaper. When I was attending school there, back in the stone age, it was a nasty little left-wing rag. They'll have their hands out soon looking for free money, too.

More on the story that we're supposed to be focused on, though:

Macleans no longer worthy of public funding, senator says

How 'bout you persuade our Heritage Minister to cut it then, as well as funding to most, if not all, of our arts and culture bleeding heart leeches.

'Too Asian' article repeats mistakes

Yah, we've been there before, haven't we, yet after all those years of political correctness and targeted funding, it's still here, ready and waiting to be exploited. Let's try something newer like actually interpreting things in more than one way. I'll give you an example below.

Council asks Maclean's for 'Too Asian' apology

"Toronto’s city council voted at the end of Thursday’s lengthy meeting to request an apology from Maclean’s magazine for publishing an article that raised the question of whether the University of Toronto and other Canadian universities are “too Asian.”

The motion to request an apology, tabled by Councillor Mike Layton, (brother to Jack Layton, by the way) passed easily, 27 votes to 11, without any debate. Though Mayor Rob Ford voted against it, three of his conservative allies — council speaker Frances Nunziata, economic development committee chair Michael Thompson and David Shiner — took the side of the left-wing Layton.

“With no debate, and us passing it with such good numbers, it says that council is not going to stand for this type of article from a major Canadian (magazine),” Layton said at a City Hall news conference on Friday morning. “We’re going to speak out for our community and say, ‘That wasn’t appropriate, we deserve an apology.’ I think there’s a willingness to tackle the issues that come up on occasion that might not be about roads or streetcars or subways.”

I'll bet you not one of them read the article. And further, I'll bet you that's one of the reasons Rob Ford was against it. (Yay, Rob Ford!) Well, I have read the article and I think you could make a case that it actually puts Asian students in a much more favorable light than "white" students, who can't measure up against their "Asian" counterparts. But that's just me. I tend to read the whole thing so as not to get derailed by what isn't there. You know, by focusing on what actually is there. Just goes to show how deep and pervasive PC has become. So, on that note, wanna read the "offending" article yourself and make up your own mind? Go here.

Some examples (emphasis mine.):

"Still, an “Asian” school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun. Indeed, Rachel, Alexandra and her brother belong to a growing cohort of student that’s eschewing some big-name schools over perceptions that they’re “too Asian.”"

Good grief! Affirmative Action was all fine and dandy with the elites, I suppose, until it actually worked. But back to the article:

"Although university administrators here are loath to discuss the issue, students talk about it all the time. “Too Asian” is not about racism, say students like Alexandra: many white students simply believe that competing with Asians—both Asian Canadians and international students—requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they’re not willing to make. They complain that they can’t compete for spots in the best schools and can’t party as much as they’d like (too bad for them, most will say)."

Let's face it, white kids are waaay too pampered. Let's learn something from our Asian brothers and sisters and adapt some of their values, for a change, instead of continually relying on these old worn out charges of political incorrectness and racism.

But to continue with what's actually in the article:

"To quell the influx of Jewish students, Ivy League schools abandoned their meritocratic admissions processes in favour of one that focused on the details of an applicant’s private life—questions about race, religion, even about the maiden name of an applicant’s mother. Schools also began looking at such intangibles as character, personality and leadership potential. Canadian universities, apart from highly competitive professional programs and faculties, don’t quiz applicants the same way, and rely entirely on transcripts. Likely that is a good thing. And yet, that meritocratic process results, especially in Canada’s elite university programs, in a concentration of Asian students.

The upshot is that race is defining Canadian university campuses in a way it did not 25 years ago. Diversity has enriched these schools, but it has also put them at risk of being increasingly fractured along ethnic lines. It’s a superficial form of multiculturalism that is expressed in the main through segregated, self-selecting, discrete communities. It would behoove the leadership of our universities to recognize these issues and take them seriously. And yet, that’s exactly what’s not happening. Indeed, discussions with Canada’s top university presidents reveal for the most part that they are in a state of denial."

[---]

"Among Canadian universities, UBC is one of the few institutions that publishes the ethnic makeup of its student body. Toope says that the university’s Asian student population is not “widely out of whack with the community,” although the stats tell a slightly different story. According to a 2009 UBC report on direct undergraduate entrants, 43 per cent of its students self-identify as ethnically Chinese, Korean or Japanese, as compared to 38 per cent who self-identify as white. Although Vancouver is a richly diverse city, according to data from the 2006 census, just 21.5 per cent of its residents identify as a Chinese, Korean or Japanese visible minority."

[---]

"Alexandra, who chose to go to Western for the party scene, found she “hated being away from home” and moved back to Toronto. In retrospect, she didn’t like the vibe. “Some people just want to drink 23 hours a day.” Alexandra says she still has friends at Western who live in an “all-blond house” and are “stick thin.”"

Yup. Must be culture. Seems we whine when East Asian culture results in a population with superior levels of education, and a commitment to excellence rather than partying, and hence the enhancement of our society and economy, yet Jack Layton's brother calls this racism. Perhaps it is. Just not in the way Layton wants us to believe.

As an aside, I have attended universities and worked in a profession in which I was side by side with many young persons of Asian decent, and yes, folks, they are superior. I have nothing but the greatest admiration for them. We would do well to follow their example. But first, we have to get rid of the Laytoons of this world and I would suggest we quit funding the "cultural" and "arts" "communities", and ask instead why our Asian citizens are so darned successful. We have nothing to learn from Layton and so much to emulate in the South East Asian culture. How 'bout we start on Monday, or at least make this a national New Year's resolution?

Here's my suggestion for a slogan to define 2011: "Down with political correctness. Up with meritocracy."

Exquisitely Incorrect

From the same guy that brought you this.

The connection between Muslim inbreeding and terrorism

Well, Hallelujah!!!

The Ontario Appeals court makes a sane - and groundbreaking - decision, and some of our media does a good job of reporting it (emphasis mine). 

From the Globe and Mail:

Ontario court sends tough message on terrorism

"Ontario’s highest court has shown that it was serious about curbing homegrown terrorism, dramatically increasing prison sentences for a collection of jihadists who were plotting terrorist attacks.

In a series of groundbreaking decisions Friday, the Ontario Court of Appeal sent two men to prison for life and hammered home a message that terrorism is very much alive on Canadian soil. It said that harsh sentences are vital to deter misguided individuals from throwing in their lot with terrorists."

How refreshing! The leftards among us will be howling. After all, it's supposed to only be those paranoid right-wingers who take the threat of home grown terrorism seriously, and here we have the court agreeing with us.

"Ottawa terrorist Mohammed Momin Khawaja was one of those imprisoned for life, as well as being given a 24-year concurrent sentence, partly in recognition of his refusal to relinquish his diehard beliefs.

“He was obsessed with the cause, fanatic in his determination to establish Islamic dominance seemingly at any cost, and eager to assist in bringing about the destruction of Western culture and civilization,” the judges said.

Saad Khalid, a member of the so-called Toronto 18 who masterminded a plot to bomb the CN Tower, CSIS headquarters and a military base, saw his 14-year sentence elevated to 20 years. One of his confederates, Zakaria Amara, failed in a bid to have a life sentence imposed at his trial reduced."

[---]

"A third member of the Toronto 18, Saad Gaya, saw his sentence raised from an equivalent of 12 years to 18 years. The court flatly rejected his plea for leniency based on his not having known in advance where he would be delivering a truckload of explosives."

[---]

"In two other rulings Friday, the court ordered the extradition of two Sri Lankan terror suspects to the United States. The men – Piratheepan Nadarajah and Suresh Sriskandarajah – face trial for allegedly assisting the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam to purchase surface-to-air missiles and AK-47s from an undercover police officer in Long Island, New York.

The judges rejected arguments that the charges against them were unconstitutional since the pair were unaware specifically which terrorist acts they were contributing to.

“Parliament had ample evidence before it, indicating that sophisticated terrorist operations depended on the existence and functioning of discrete units, each of which engaged in various acts intended to facilitate and culminate in the kind of mass murder that has become all too commonplace,” the court said."

Indeed! Just a few short days after the terror visited upon Sweden.

"The court also rejected arguments that key sections of the federal anti-terrorism act should be found unconstitutional because they allow the Crown to furnish evidence of a defendant's motives."

[---]

"The Court of Appeal cautioned that, in deciding whom to investigate and searching for evidence of motives, authorities must take great care not to fall back on racial and religious stereotypes.

“This kind of state conduct is not only unacceptable, it is unconstitutional,” it said. “There is, however, no evidence of any connection between these abuses and the motive clause.”

It also emphasized that the promotion and facilitation of violence is the last thing the Charter of Rights was intended to shelter.

“Violent activity, even though it conveys a meaning, is excluded because violence is destructive of the very values that underlie the right to freedom of expression and that make this right so central to both individual fulfilment (sic) and the functioning of a free and democratic society,” it said."

And also, in the Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford reports,

"...this young country just did a whole lot of growing up.

In a series of six linked decisions, the highest court in the province dramatically upped the sentences for three convicted Canadian terrorists (to life in prison, in the case of Ottawa’s Momin Khawaja) and urged judges to ditch their “business as usual” approach with terrorists.

More than that, the decisions in total reflect a hardnosed realpolitik remarkable in a country where sentences rarely match the judicial thunder that often precedes them.

“Terrorism, in our view, is in a special category of crime and must be treated as such,” Justices David Doherty, Michael Moldaver and Eleanore Cronk wrote in the Khawaja case.

With terrorism offences, they said, “sentences exceeding 20 years, up to and including life imprisonment, should not be viewed as exceptional.

“That may not be the traditional approach to sentencing,” the court said, “but it is the approach we believe must be taken to repudiate and deter terrorism and denounce it for the insidious crime it is.”

The judges noted that though Canada’s “sentencing and correctional philosophy also places a premium on the notion of individual dignity and it accepts redemption and rehabilitation as desired and achievable goals,” these hallmarks of the justice system “may be seen by those who reject democracy and individual freedom as signs of weakness.


“Terrorists, in particular, may view Canada as an attractive place from which to pursue their heinous activities.

“And it is up to the courts to shut the door on that way of thinking, swiftly and surely.”

The panel found that in sentencing Mr. Khawaja, the first person tried in Ontario on terrorism charges, the trial judge had imposed a “manifestly unfit” sentence of 10 and a half years by failing to consider three key factors – the special danger terrorism poses to Canadian society; the threat Mr. Khawaja himself poses and “the need for the sentence imposed to send a clear message to would-be terrorists that Canada is not a safe haven ...”

The judges’ message to the lower courts was unmistakable: There is a “need to let would-be terrorists know that they will pay a heavy price if they choose to pursue their deadly activities in Canada.”

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!!!

"Mr. Khawaja’s lawyers had argued that the goal that motivated him to develop a detonator he called the “Hi-Fi Digimonster” and to enthusiastically embrace violent jihad was “to kill Western soldiers in Afghanistan and local troops that support them, not innocent civilians” and that his punishment should be mitigated accordingly.

The judges smacked that argument away. Mr. Khawaja’s “own writings belie” it, they said. “Beyond that, we reject outright the notion that the lives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan should be somehow treated as ‘less worthy’ of protection when fashioning sentences…”"

Wow. Just wow. I hope that's it for these cases and there are no further appeals.

And three cheers to the Globe and Mail for allowing comments on both those stories, unlike the chicken-shit politically correct CBC.

Same story from other media outlets:

The Canadian Press provides a concise summary - and allows comments.

The Toronto Sun gives a summary as well, as do The National Post, the BBC and the Washington Post. All told, though, the Globe and Mail has outdone itself and most of its major competitors.  Well done, Canadian media and well done to the appeals court of Ontario.

How to Choose a Headline

If you're CTV, this works: Harper won't push for an election in new year

If you're the Hamilton Spectator, you might go with something like this:

PM says he'll shuffle cabinet but won't roll the dice on election

Or, if you're the National Post, you could decide to phrase it like this:

Harper promises not to 'cause' an election

Another possibility is to go the Globe and Mail route:

Opposition won't have reason to vote down budget, Harper says

and of course, if you're CBC, you take his words out of context and come up with:

No time to 'screw around' with an election: PM

Of course, you'll have to read the story to find that the "screw around" bit has been taken from it's original context and - ahem - adjusted somewhat, in order to invent one more in line with their role as the Liberal Party's propaganda arm.

They were quoting the CTV interview, part of which is at the first link, so you can go look and listen yourself to get a pretty good idea of what the context was.  The interview will be broadcast in full on Christmas Day.  But this is our beloved CBC.

Well, Well, Well

In addition to the Tea Party, here's another movement that would probably be welcome in Canada:

American Redneck Society forms to advocate for rural American

I think I might qualify for membership. I've already got the brand.

Hypocrisy = Julian Assange

Portrait of the hacker as a paranoid and secret young man

"But if Assange revelled in obtaining other people's confidential information, he took a different view if he suspected someone was revealing confidential information about him.

The information Assange sought to protect was the fact he had told Lowenstein that he ''technically'' faced ''290 years inside'' if convicted on charges he then faced of hacking into academic, government and telecommunications computer systems.

Lowenstein, in turn, had told an associate, who relayed the information back to Assange.

Incensed at what he saw as a breach of confidence, the young hacker sat at his computer in the early hours of a Melbourne spring morning, 16 years ago.

Assange composed a formal lecture to the filmmaker, on the subject of ''Non-disclosure - lack thereof''. ''It has come to my attention,'' Assange wrote, ''that you have been disclosing not only the contents of some of our recent conversations, but also the nature of my association with them. DON'T.''

He said the information he had given Lowenstein was ''off the record'', designed to assist the filmmaker in his research into computer crime, given by someone who is ''familiar with the field''.

''Mentioning a source's information is one thing. Mentioning a source's name is another. Mentioning the association between the two to ANYONE is likely to get you into deep water.''

Assange, of course, is now the one in deep trouble - specifically in Sweden for alleged sexual offences, but more broadly for revealing sources, their information and the association between the two."

It's Enough to Make Me Endorse

...Justin Trudeau.

No only does this have PETA in a fit of pique, but CBC is actually polling its readers on the issue, no doubt in an attempt to ascertain whether PETA and their cockamamie cause is worth endorsing in an attempt to shore up the Corpse's pathetic ratings.

And Another "Today in History"

The Boston Tea Party

Iced Tea, anyone?

And Speaking of Frozen Trees

How about frozen lighthouses on Lake Erie?



h/t Hot Air (no pun intended)

Speaking of History

Twelve years ago today:



But it took George Bush to finish the job.

OOPS!!

UPDATE: 2-million year old 'mummy-trees' reveal harsh climate

This is precious:

"His group's discovery in Ellesmere Island National Park represents the northernmost mummified forest site in Canada."

Do you folks know how far north Ellesmere Island is???

"The site sits in an upper Arctic region that changed to a scrubby, treeless landscape about 2 million years ago, and so researchers know the mummified trees must be at least that old. There are also no signs of the previously common Metasequoia redwood trees that vanished in the area around 10 million years ago, which gives the tree mummies an upper age limit."

================================
Mumified forest discovered in Arctic Circle

Explain that one, AGW freaks.

You still haven't properly accounted for your spin of this one, short of considering it weird.

Weirdos.

I wonder how many of you will show up for the next chapter of Copenhagen-Cancun? Canada should live up to its reputation and boycott the thing, or better yet, show up with bottled water from freshly melted glaciers - with bark in it.

In other news, this is cool:

Winter solstice to coincide with lunar eclipse for the first time in 456 years.

How much do you want to bet there will be heavy cloud cover caused by all those melting glaciers and ice caps?

Trivia moment: The last time this happened, Sir Walter Raleigh was two years old - and after nine days on the throne, Lady Jane Grey was executed. I have a book that records important events that took place each year/era for the past seven millenia. I promise none of those Arctic trees were used to produce the paper upon which it was printed. /snark

Science has come a long way since then, until climate change freaks took over. Woe betide Western Civilization and save us from these progressives against progress.

I've written about the Canadian Arctic before, but this is my all time favourite. Note the passage quoted from explorer Samuel Hearne's journal.

""I have observed during my several journeys in those parts that all the way to the north of Seal River the edge of the wood is faced with old withered stumps, and trees which have been flown (sic) down by the wind….Those blasted trees are found in some parts extend to a distance of twenty miles from the living woods, and detached patches of them are much farther off; which is proof that the cold has been increasing in these parts for some ages. Indeed some of the older Northern Indians have assured me that they have heard their fathers and grandfathers say, they remembered the greatest part of those places where the trees are now blasted and dead, in a flourishing state.""

Damn it. Next thing you know, those AGW freaks will be out to destroy the Hudson's Bay Company archives.

Related.

Get 'Em While They're Young

...and naive.

Why is it always the Liberal/NDP types who advocate lowering the voting age to 16?

You don't suppose it's because young folk tend to be attracted to leftie ideologies due to their inexperience with real life?

Nah, of course not.

Canada-US Love Hate Relationship Part II

More on superiority complexes here.

No Holding Back Urge to Laugh

h/t Tarek Fatah

Irrepressible Urge to Laugh

Don't leak my address: Astonishing plea from WikiLeaks boss as he tries to get bail

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tried to hide his bail address from the public in an astonishing move for the man responsible for leaking thousands of diplomatic secrets.

Assange's lawyers argued that the location - a 10-bedroom stately home (emphasis mine) - should not be disclosed on grounds of privacy during yesterday's hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.But the move was dismissed by District Judge Howard Riddle, who ruled not to reveal the address would conflict with Assange's commitment to open justice."

But wait. There's more.

"It came before Assange, 39, was granted £240,000 bail, including £200,000 in cash and two sureties of £20,000 - but then had his release blocked when the Swedish authorities lodged a challenge"

[---]

"Despite a string of millionaire and celebrity backers, who include a list of luvvies, lefties and 'internationally renowned' backers, he has yet to raise the £240,000 bail money."

Interesting Interview With Danish Psychologist

...about criminal behaviour and mind-set of young Muslims.

Among Criminal Muslims

Reproduced here.

Awe, Poor Liberals/Dippers

Clifford Olson inspired bill to strip prisoners of government benefits passes senate

Liberalism. Slip-sliding away, after all these years...

Canada-US Love-Hate Relationship

I've been curious about this phenomenon for a long time, so I've been searching on the net for answers to explain it. Haven't found much yet, but I did run across a really funny joke that sorta sums up a lot of Canuckistanis' feelings on the issue. Behold:

"How many Americans does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One. But he just stands there with his arm in the air and waits for the world to revolve around him."

I don't care, but think that's funny. Now pardon me while I duck for cover.

Interesting Take on Syria, Iran and Israel

...also via WikiLeaks:

Cable: Syria told Iran it would not join war with Israel

The Resistance Bloc's Weak Point

Muslims Save Jews...

...in Untold WWII Story

An interesting read, until you get to the comments.

h/t Instapundit

Global Warming Strikes Again

Blizzard cripples Midwest with 20 inches of snow

Warmists must be revising their predictions right about now. Wait for it. Very soon now they'll be telling us how this all factors in to their previous prognostications about impending catastrophe. Time is of the essence, of course.

Unemployed? Looking for an Interesting Job?

Be in your own James Bond movie. The CIA is hiring.

Secret decoder ring, included.

Tell 'em I sent ya.

Can't Get Enough of Those Random Acts of Culture?

Go here.

Another Damaging WikiLeaks' Factoid

WikiLeaks: Saddam Hussein told to 'go to hell' before execution

Oh, the humanity!!

h/t Iraq Pundit

Yet Another Mass Grave

...found in Iraq:

Mass Grave Yard of former regime's victims discovered in Basra

h/t Iraqi Mojo

Kids! Gotta Love 'Em (and Maybe Lock 'Em Up)

...Or Vladimir Putin

Not to be outdone, Vladimir "Fats" Putin belts out his rendition of "On Blueberry Hill":



Next thing you know, it'll be Ahmadinejad and the Mad Mullah's singing "Hangman":

Next Up

Well, now that that's solved, why don't we set to work stopping the tides. Apparently old Cnut was wrong.

Excellent Discussion About the Impact of WikiLeaks

Guramit Singh EDL Speech Nuneaton 27/11/10 - LivingScoop

Guramit Singh EDL Speech Nuneaton 27/11/10 - LivingScoop

WikiLeaks Ad Nauseam

Julian ASSange answers your questions

The WikiLeaks vindication of George Bush

Julian ASSange, Information Anarchist
WikiLeaks Founder on the Run, Trailed by Notoriety

Turn Yourself In, Julian ASSange

WikiLeaks Commentary Worth Reading: The Best One Yet

WikiLeaks, Stuxnet, Cyberwar, and Obama

"The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is something that ought to be more widely known than it is. Starting in the 1980s, advances in cybernetics and communications began having a dramatic impact had on military operations. Such innovations as Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) and high channel capacity communications systems not only increased the effectiveness of individual weapons systems, but, acting as force multipliers, they also boosted the capabilities of entire units to a point where they could take on and defeat enemy forces that in the past would have been considered far superior.The impact of the RMA became apparent in the First Gulf War of 1990-1991. Most of the two-thirds of a million Coalition troops deployed in Saudi Arabia never engaged with enemy forces. The Iraqis were defeated by a handful of spearhead units so technologically superior to the Warsaw Pact-type Iraqi units that there was no contest. In 2003, a much smaller Coalition force routed the Iraqis, utilizing all the technological advantages that had appeared in the ensuing twelve years."

[---]

"But despite all the speculation surrounding the RMA, few foresaw the arrival of a second phase in which the breadth, execution, and very definition of warfare would be transformed. The new technology empowered not only military forces, but also intelligence agencies and even non-state actors. Utilizing communications and cybernetics innovations, the new combatants can, under the right circumstances, have an impact rivaling that of entire nation-states, causing serious turmoil and damage with a minimal outlay of effort. In 2010, we have been introduced to this mutated form of warfare by two distinct events: Stuxnet and WikiLeaks."

This article goes on to say some veerrrrry interesting things about Stuxnet, including a contrary theory to the one posed by Michael Ledeen on who killed the Iranian scientists last week.

And about the WikiLeaks revelations themselves:

"There have been loud gasps in some circles at the "news" that Hillary instructed her diplomats to seek out intelligence. This is asinine. Diplomats have been low-key intelligence agents as long as they've existed. For centuries they were often the only intelligence force many states possessed. The practice was not invented by Hillary, or Condi, or even Talleyrand, for that matter. It's part of the job description."

That's kind of what I think, too. And with this, too:

"The damage is minimal. There has been a lot of concern expressed over damage to the U.S. as a whole, to American diplomacy, and to the international community. I don't see it.""

And there's lots more, especially about Assange groupies, or the "lumpen-individuals" and their ilk, so go read it.

This Reads Like a New Year's Resolution

Good News From WikiLeaks: Sky is Falling in Iran, North Korea

At the beginning of 2010 I predicted the Iranian regime would fall before the end of the year. They've got just a little over three weeks.

Jumpin' Jack Flash?!!

I think I'd like to party with Stephen Harper.

But, damnit. I didn't get my invitation.

He's pretty good on the ivories, but the voice needs a little more training.

Still, you gotta like his choice of music.

Best Comment Evah on the WikiLeaks Fiasco

"When my boys were little and had wicky leaks, I just changed their diapers"

Atlas Shrugs on WikiLeaks

WDM program existed in Iraq

Read the whole story here.

But we knew that.

The Noose Tightens

Wikileaks' Visa payments suspended

MasterCard, Visa Europe Halting Payments to WikiLeaks

Global Warming Hits Ontario and Quebec

Extreme weather hammers large parts of Canada

London to receive more snow this week than all of last year

London Ontario plans to pull buses off the streets due to massive snowfall

Remember, folks. Global warming is supposed to produce droughts.

And lest I have to remind you, this past summer parts of Saskatchewan received record levels of rainfall.

Oh, to Be Fourteen Again

Yuja Wang - Mozart-Volodos
Uploaded by cfun. - Explore more music videos.

When I was fourteen and about to enter high school my mother made the mistake of letting me choose whether or not to continue with piano lessons. Every year for several years prior to that I took lessons from a private instructor. Every year I won the top award at the annual recital. Of course, I made the decision that every fourteen year-old would make. I blame my mother. /sarc

Sigh.

More WikiLeaks Stuff (will be updated as needed)

UPDATED AND BUMPED:

December 7, 2010:

ASSange behind bars in London

"US Republican congressman Pete King, the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called for Assange to be extradited to the US to face court there, too.

"Sweden is obviously a democracy and they have the right to pursue whatever legal acts they have against Assange," he said.

"But ultimately, and really sooner rather than later, I think it's important that he be extradited from whatever country he's in to the United States because his conduct to me clearly violates the US Espionage Act.

"It's putting American lives at risk throughout the world. Clearly what he's done is wrong and he has to be punished.""

 WikiLeaks founder Julian ASSange arrested

"Those leaked files have turned Assange into an international figure, vilified by the U.S. and governments around the world for spilling official secrets but lionized by activists demanding a free flow of information. In Washington, the Obama administration blames Assange for recklessly damaging U.S. relations with other countries and even aiding terrorists."

US could face hurdles in extradicting ASSange from Sweden

"U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that he has authorized "significant" actions related to a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks. The site has been under intense pressure from the United States and its allies since it began posting the first of more than 250,000 U.S. State Department documents November 28."

The case against Julian ASSange

"His lawyers are likely to argue that in Sweden he will be vulnerable to extradition requests from other countries including the U.S., which has had an extradition treaty with Sweden since the 1960s."

London Court Denies WikiLeaks Founder Bail

"Assange is an Australian citizen and while the country's attorney general said Assange has a right to consular support, Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, says the country is investigating whether a crime was committed in Australia.

"The foundation stone of it is an illegal act. Information was taken and that was illegal. So, let's not try and put any glosses on this. It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken.""

Good! This will give the Yanks enough time to build their case.

December 6, 2010:

Turkish PM Threatens to Sue Over Wikileaks Claims

""Those who have slandered us will be crushed under these claims, will be finished and will disappear," he said."

A grand game of Russian Roulette has been unleashed. Who will be the first to get him? And how will we know?


============================

Ongoing:

Reactions to the United States diplomatic cables leak

December 6th:

Something good coming out of the WikiLeaks docu-dump?

Leaked cable details Canadian sites 'vital' to U.S.

...and Fort Mac ain't on it!!

Swiss bank freezes Julian Assange's account

Scotland Yard has the papers. Send in the lawyers.

Wikileaks reveals ugly truth about Iran appeasers

"OURS is the great age of the autobiographical alibi.

So it seems fitting that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's mother should really be to blame. According to an indulgent profile in The New Yorker, Assange suffered a chaotic childhood in the artistic-bohemian community of NSW's Byron Bay, where young Julian was home-schooled following his mother's doctrine that formal education inculcates "an unhealthy respect for authority" and dampens a child's "will to learn".

No doubt all this explains how Assange, having been taught to resist each and every exercise of authority, could resolve to defy all the authorities of the world simultaneously, thus condemning a poor confused 23-year-old US security analyst to a life in prison, and all without the slightest hint of responsibility.

By the same logic, it would be interesting to guess at the excuses of those many foreign policy analysts whose pretexts, alibis and downright falsehoods about "constructive engagement" with Iran have come rather awfully unstuck in the past week, in the light of Assange's latest Dadaist escapade. Who knows: perhaps they too suffered the privations of an artistic-bohemian childhood in some seaside shack on Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard?

These past two years it has become received wisdom in influential sections of the foreign policy community that, in the wake of the Bush administration's foreign policy excesses and errors, the chief imperative of US foreign policy is to avoid any further foreign entanglements. In the pursuit of this shimmering transcendent goal, however, it soon enough becomes necessary to use any and every argument that comes to hand, no matter how implausible."

[---]

"Yet these are the same Leveretts who insisted, 18 months ago in The Washington Post, that Iran's elections were not only free and fair, but actually freer and fairer than those of their own country. Even though, as the WikiLeaks cables have now clarified, US diplomats knew all along that the result was fixed; and further knew that the actual election figures were very similar to those revealed by a brave young official in the Iranian Information Ministry, Mohammad Asghari, who paid for this act of heroism with his life, only to have his information greeted with pure white silence in Washington."

RTWT It gets down to the blunt and ugly truth about the Obama administration, progressives and Iran's brutal Mullahocracy.


December 5th:

Charge against Wikileaks founder 'not political': Sweden Buried deep in that article is this interesting factoid:

"Among the latest revelations was one document that said Saudi Arabia was the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas.

Gulf states Qatar and Kuwait were also lax in pursuing locals who donated to the groups, said the cable, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated December 30, 2009."

Yawn. As if we didn't know that.

And this:

"And as fresh leaks of US diplomatic cables heaped more embarrassment on Washington, one report suggested that the revelations would force a major reshuffle of their diplomatic, military and intelligence staff.

The US news website The Daily Beast reported Sunday that the leaks might have made it "dangerous" if not impossible for those found to have been strongly critical of corrupt or incompetent governments to do their job.

"We're going to have to pull out some of our best people... because they dared to report back the truth about the nations in which they serve," a senior US national-security official told the website."

Assange hunt 'political stunt': lawyer

Wikileaks archives - China's battle with Google

Wikileaks bank account in Switzerland under scrutiny

"GENEVA: Bank officials are looking at shutting down an account opened by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Switzerland, media reports said Sunday.

Postfinance spokesman Marc Andrey told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper that in order to keep a regular bank account open, Assange would have to prove he obtained Swiss residence, owns property in the country or has business dealings in Switzerland."

Not looking good, is it dear Julian.

This next one is really good.

Diplomats gossip; don't be shocked

"We're all familiar with gossip, which has been described as the dishing of the dirt, to "wag one's tongue; speak about others and reveal secrets or intimacies.

Lawyers do it, farmers do it, truckers do it, journalists do it and housewives do it. So why is everyone so surprised, dare I say even aghast, that diplomats do it?"

[---]

"Most of the comments contained in all those gazillions of pages of U.S. diplomatic cables dumped on the world this week by the brain surgeons at the website WikiLeaks amount to little more than gossip.

Because of this, world leaders seem much less disturbed by the leaks than are members of the media and the everyday gossips of the world-which would include all the rest of us."

[---]

"Gossip or not, much of what was spoken and/or written, of course, contains a lot of truth-sometimes too much for our comfort.

For example, our own former CSIS Director Jim Judd told a Washington contact that Canadians have an "Alice in Wonderland" attitude towards terrorism. True in spades.

In reference to a video of Omar Khadr he also lamented our "knee jerk anti-Americanism and paroxysms of moral outrage," which he called "a Canadian specialty." There's another truism about Canadians that we all should consider carefully.

At least one of our "beloved" institutions comes in for some heavy criticism in the dispatches."

Guess which "beloved" institution that is? You probably already know, but, just in case, the answer is in the tags at the bottom of this post."


December 4th:

Wikileaks struggles to keep its site active online

"WikiLeaks, according to former members, has servers in different countries precisely to avoid the sort of trouble it is facing now. But its release of the cables has so angered some governments that they are seeking ways to silence WikiLeaks by prevailing upon the largely invisible providers whose services make the Internet work."

'Pretty harsh stuff'

WikiLeaks site's Swiss host dismisses pressure to take it off line

Afghan finance minister warns leaked cables will damage relations with US

Spanish PM helped GE Rolls Royce to helicopter deal

Wikileaks founder sends out 100000 copies of secret files

WikiLeaks website stopped again; shifting to Sweden

Meet WikiLeaks likely first victim

December 3rd:

A good one translated from Russian @ Simply Jews - Julian the Almighty.

Cyber attack forces Wikileaks to change web address

Wikileaks Fights to Stay Online Amid Attacks

"WikiLeaks became an Internet vagabond Friday, moving from one website to another as governments and hackers hounded the organization, trying to deprive it of a direct line to the public"

WikiLeaks diverts to European websites amid U.S. fury

WikiLeaks faces donations blow as it fights for survival

November 30th:

WikiLeaks' boss living on borrowed time

Capitalism 1, Socialism 0 - The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire

Medvedev orders regions to adopt privatization plans by July

When is Russia's next election? Medvedev for President!! Putin probably has a strategy already in the works. Poison radio active pill, anyone?

And again, what exactly has WikiLeaks told us that we didn't already know?

Perfect Target

Where was that bullet?

Great, Great Rant About the CBC

...from Charles Adler, broadcast yesterday. If you heard it, why didn't you tell me!!!

If you missed it, go here. Select Monday, December 6, 2010 and 1:00 PM. It's right at the top of the broadcast.

More Student Protests

...in Tehran.

Oh, Oh

How did he let that out?

Another PEW Study About

...those Peaceful Muslims.

Woot!!

Canada gets more recognition.

We already got the fossil award. Now there's this:  Canada among top climate-change culprits

"Canada is the fourth worst out of 57 countries evaluated for their performances in helping halt climate change, according to a report released Monday."

The bad news is:

"Last year, Canada ranked 56th out of 57 countries evaluated."

We're moving up.

But it's only because of:

"...the slipping performance of Australia and Kazakhstan."

Curious Omission

Listen to the Iranian spokesman, Sadegh Zibakalam, beginning around 9:27 through to 10:12 or so. He lists all the countries that supported Saddam Hussein, providing money for the development of chemical weapons which he used during the Iran-Iraq war.

Conspicuous by its absence is the one funder that the leftards of the world like to keep hammering away on, to the exclusion of all others. Is it significant that Sadegh Zibakalan did not mention that country? Might the WikiLeaks revelations showing the Gulf States pleading with the USA to attack Iran have something to do with that omission? Would the tone of the dialog have been different if not for WikiLeaks revelations? Would there even be conciliatory language, had there not been the leak of the words of Saudi King Abdullah and others?

Call in the Clowns - er - Lawyers

Julian Assange's lawyers say they are being watched

"Lawyers representing the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, say that they have been surveilled by members of the security services and have accused the US state department of behaving "inappropriately" by failing to respect attorney-client protocol."

Threats to WikiLeaks 'damages Australia

"AUSTRALIA'S political leaders are risking long-term damage to the nation's freedom of speech by accusing WikiLeaks and its founder of breaking the law by releasing US diplomatic cables on the whistleblower website, a human rights lawyer says."

A lawyer is a lawyer is a lawyer.

Mia Culpa, Mia Culpa

"The WikiLeaks scandal has turned the world press into a big global gossip magazine, but instead of celebrity gossip it's political gossip."

And some blogs, too.

Read the whole thing. It's quite hilarious.

ALRIGHT!!!!!

Canada joins Russia, Japan in opposition to extending Kyoto Protocol

Way. To. Go!!!

Is that why you quit, Prentice?

"Prentice made the strategic error of committing himself to a politically correct but nonsensical stance on climate change.

He obviously felt that he had to say the right things at UN conferences and whenever quizzed by David Suzuki or else there would be trouble with reporters and hence the electorate."

Suzuki and "reporters" be damned!

And look, Harperites. Only mad dogs and Liberals/Dippers still believe in CAGW. Glad you've got the right stuff and you're strutting it where it counts the most.

Okay. I Know...

UPDATE: Australia has abandoned me

More like you've abandoned her, Julie.
====================================
...I'm obsessing about Julian Assange, but there's one more article (for now) that I want to comment on, if only because it expresses my thoughts so well:

"For a man at the forefront of the full-disclosure business, Assange is remarkably reluctant to reveal anything much about himself. The rare interviews he gives are notable for the feinting and weaving deployed to avoid questions he doesn’t want to answer. Prominent among these are inquiries about his early life, his finances, why his hair went white at the age of 25, and what exactly happened between himself and two women he met on a visit to Sweden last year.

To those who like what WikiLeaks does, the Australian-born Assange, 39, is rock-star glamorous – a vagabond warrior wreathed in deadly cool. Give him a sombrero and replace his BlackBerry with a smoking carbine, and it isn’t hard to imagine him holed up in the hills with the compañeros, waiting for the corrupt citadels of concealment to fall. To those who don’t, he’s a slippery, self-aggrandising charlatan, running what amounts to a criminal enterprise. (That would include me.)

[---]

"Many of the people who knew Assange in these formative years now find it advisable to remain anonymous. Even so, a picture of his strange, obsessive life has emerged. One woman who shared a house with him in Melbourne in the time before WikiLeaks was launched told the Sydney Morning Herald about his living arrangements. Glued to the computer, he would usually neglect to eat, sleep or change his clothes, while the doors and walls of his room were decorated with dense mathematical formulas. Only red light bulbs were permitted, on the grounds that early man, upon waking, would see only the comforting red glow of a campfire. “He was always extremely focused,” she added.

The nomadic life continues. Assange claims to have no real home or base of operations; to move constantly between friends in Britain, Scandinavia and Africa, carrying little more than a rucksack and a laptop. Given such meagre resources, it’s hard not to admire the global attention he has attracted."

[---]

"Yet the biggest problem for Assange, his International Man of Mystery image, and his ambition to free the world of censorship may be his failure, in this latest episode, to uncover anything terribly interesting. The hype surrounding last week’s revelations soon gave way to derisive headlines along the lines of “WikiLeaks latest: Pope a Catholic; Bear seeks relief in woods”. Perhaps soon to be followed by: “Whistleblower all out of puff”."

Yup. I hate to tell ya this, Julie, but you're not just creepy. You're boring, too.

Anyone Want to Know Why the Violence Continues in Iraq?

Read this, and understand that Iran has an interest in making the American effort to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq a failure. And until America, and the rest of the free world, understand this, we are in for a grim future.

"It tells the heartbreaking story of an Iranian university professor–Vahid Ebrahimi–whose family has been singled out for attack by the Iranian regime (I don’t know why), who crossed the border into “free Iraq” to seek asylum. He was arrested and jailed in an Iraqi prison, within which there is an Iranian government office. So that officials of Iran determine the fate of Iranian refugees in Iraq."

[---]

"...there will never be decent security in Iraq so long as the mullahs rule in Iran."

[---]

"The same goes for Afghanistan, and if the Western world continues to dither about supporting democratic revolution in Iran, this dreadful state of affairs will spread to Lebanon, and thereafter to other Arab lands. You know, the ones whose leaders keep begging us to do something…"

Read Arash Irandoost's comment, too.

WikiLeaks' Latest

...reads like a gossip magazine.

Canada's Inferiority

hehehehehe

Really, Julian!

What did you expect, you freak!?

PM has betrayed me

Australia has abandoned me

WikiLeaks founder: U of C Flanagan's comments criminal

PayPal blocks WikiLeaks

Proud to Be Canadian

Cancun Protesters Target Canada, U.S. Over Oil Sands Pipelines

AVAAZ?? Where have we heard that before?

It's not gonna stop us.

Canadian syncrude production rose 45 percent in November to 356,800 barrels a day from 245,400 barrels a day in October