Good

I can think of much better uses for that money.

Will The Real Seven Millionth Person....

...please stand up - er - yawn, or something.

Baby  Danica May,  Philippines

Baby Nargis, Lucknow, India and six others..

Too Bad They Don't Allow...

...comments

THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE (WITH AND WITHOUT MAN). 

"Still, skeptics cry foul. They say “Sure, the study shows the Earth is warming, but it doesn’t prove humans are the cause.” 

Point taken.

Now, perhaps questions have to be asked of skeptics. What then is causing the warming? If it’s some kind of cycle, what causes the cycle? Is it just coincidence then that temperature has risen during the same period as global industrialization? What has man added to our precious onion-skin-thin atmosphere during this period of industrialization, say 1850 to now? Take humans out of the equation: What would the atmosphere be like without them?"

Hasn't read much, has he/she/it?

Related:
Scientist whose climate change research on polar bears was cited by Al Gore will face lie detector test over 'integrity issues'

Well, My Jaw Seems To Have...

...dropped right off...

Mahmoud Abbas: Remarkable Revelations In Israeli TV Interview

Not only does he admit to Arabs making a mistake, but it's the big one. The really, really big one!!!

"The Palestinian president, in a remarkable assessment delivered on Israeli TV, said Friday the Arab world erred in rejecting the United Nations' 1947 plan to partition Palestine into a Palestinian and a Jewish state."

So. Tomorrow we can expect a withdrawal or denial from Abbas, or perhaps an assassination. After all, we can't admit to 65 years of stupid, fruitless effort, can we. Blowing shit up just isn't the way, but that's all we know how to do, isn't it Palis. Oh my. What are the anti-Israeli apartheid crowd going to do with this?

Or maybe this is just another round of hudna or taqiyya. Who knows?

In any case, Yassir Arafat's bones are a'rattling.

What's With Bradley Manning...

...and his superiors?

This is an old article but it says a lot:

WikiLeaks accused Bradley Manning 'should never have been sent to Iraq'

None of this will matter of course, but I just happen to have an interest in screwed up people who do stupid things and whether and how they become unscrewed, when the full consequences of their stupidity hits them hard, like a ton of bricks, and he certainly chose the hard route.  But the question is, how hard does it have to be? Is Manning as oblivious as his hero is?

If he gets to experience the full force of what he decided he could play with impunity, will he turn his life around? Maybe. Maybe not. One never knows. And maybe he will have no life to turn around.

But I'm betting if Julian Assange also experiences the full force, that should help. When the narcissistic hero turns out to be little more than a cult leader, and his following disintegrates, as I am sure it will, maybe Manning will finally begin to understand the root of his own tragic culpability. Trouble is, his court martial may be long over before Julian even begins on that voyage of discovery.  Such are the vicissitudes of a life poorly lived, of a f*cked up childhood.

Another old article that shows how screwed up he was/is.

Irshad Manji Speaks In Stockholm

Follow the links.

Another Muslim Apostate

Very Interesting!

As I speculated at the end of this post, the Liberal Party and the liberal philosophy may be done for in Canada (and that's not the only place where I've speculated that). Here's a bit of evidence to show the reality out there in Canadian political-party-land.

The flip side of the orange crush

More on the Angus Reid poll that Steve Janke deals with.

And here's something I'd forgotten about (from a commenter at Angry in the Great White North):

"Have the Liberal candidates paid off their debts yet? It will be more difficult as support drops. :)"

Sure hope not.

Global Warming....

...strikes again - Or - yes, there is a God: New York gets more than inch of snow in October for the first time EVER as early snow storm cuts power to 1.5million

That'd be close to the Occupiers of Wall Street. (I wonder if the power company is on the 1% list?)

Blogspot.com, YOU SUCK!!!

This morning I discovered I have no choice but to use their new interface when composing an entry. Surprise, surprise. It ain't working. There was nothing wrong with the old one. Give it back to us!!

And You Have A...

...problem with that?

Harperization of Canada in full swing with majority, critics say

"Six months after the landmark election of a Conservative majority on May 2, which finally gave Prime Minister Stephen Harper a firm and unfettered grasp on the levers of power in Ottawa, critics claim the Harperization of Canada is in full swing. Over at Heritage, they note, history's on parade like never before. War of 1812 soldiers armed with muskets and bicentennial bayonets (to be followed soon by waves of First World War fighters a century after 1914) are widely seen to be chasing the blue-helmeted, Pearsonian peacekeeper from Canadians' collective imagination. And those back-to-work orders — once used sparingly as a legislative last resort — are now issued or threatened automatically. In the realm of Justice, meanwhile, there's been a juggernaut of tough-on-crime reforms revived from the last Parliament and — despite arguments from most experts that the changes are costly and unnecessary in an era of falling crime rates — promptly pushed toward passage. A royalist rebranding of the military has been carried out at National Defence, part of a governmentwide rekindling of Canada's ties with the monarchy. The flag, too, has been declared off-limits to meddling, patriotism-challenged landlords. And on the world stage, in both Foreign Affairs and Finance, there's a discernible new strut in Canada's stride — lockstep with Israel in the Middle East; a boot aimed squarely at the backsides of big banks in continental Europe."

[---]

"And so the Conservatives, essentially unchecked by political rivals in Parliament, have spent the first 180 days of their majority mandate ticking boxes on an ambitious checklist of change. Scrap the Canadian Wheat Board: check. Begin the end of the long-gun registry: check. Initiate reforms to House of Commons seat counts: check. Award a $35-billion shipbuilding contract; kick the nastiest criminal imports out of Canada; and kick-start government wide cuts to save $4 billion in four years: check, check, check. But do the measures already implemented or set in motion in the half-year since May 2 amount to something more than the sum of the individual parts of the Conservative agenda? Is Canada undergoing a truly transformative shift in character and values — a root-and-branch supplanting of one kind of country for another? In short, are we witnessing the final eclipse of Trudeau's Canada and the rise of Harper Nation?"

And the lefties are crapping in their pants:

""At its heart, it's a government of the radical right that's carrying out its agenda and that's got its majority," interim Liberal leader Bob Rae told Postmedia News. "I really do think they're failing to understand there is a deep concern in the country about this pursuit of an ideological agenda. I think they need to continue to be aware of the very real risk they're taking with some of the basic loyalties and instincts of Canadians." He says the Conservative government's "willingness to throw collective bargaining out the window," the deep-sixing of the gun registry and the dismantling of the wheat board are examples of a hard-right agenda that "points the way to a real break with some of the common threads of the past." Rae described the wheat board in particular as an institution that — by pooling and protecting the market power of Western grain farmers from foreign-owned agri-giants — has served well as a Canada-wide "symbol of our collective capacity to do things together. "I think the Conservatives are making a classic mistake in the arrogance with which they express the confidence that everybody in the country secretly agrees with them," said Rae. Elizabeth May, the Green party's leader and first elected MP, cites the "militarization of metaphor" as the clearest, "most deliberate attempt" by Harper's majority government "to change how we see ourselves" as Canadians. "In the Conservative party election platform, there was more text and detail on plans to celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812 than there was on the climate issue," said May, a tone of incredulity in her voice. "This is going to be a very profound change, to have this notion that we are a 'warrior nation,' that we're tough on crime," she added, quickly noting how opposition members who question the Conservatives' crime reforms are routinely cast as "taking the side of criminals against victims" — much the same way that critics on the Afghan detainee issue were previously dismissed as Taliban sympathizers. "There's a consistent part of the discourse here that says Canadians are — at least this is how Stephen Harper's Conservatives would like us to see ourselves — as judgmental, as basically opposed to nuance, as allergic to complexity and prone to the kind of simple solutions that work on Fox News, but which aren't solutions at all," said May. "The messaging of the Harper Conservatives works to divide us, because that's the way it works to elect Conservatives.""

RTWT There's a lot of interesting commentary which tends to bolster my hunch that Canada is on the road to discarding it's Liberal (and liberal) past. Faster, please!

No Problem...

UPDATED AND BUMPED: See, what'd I tell ya?
================
...he'll just hijack the plane. Arabs are good at that.

Oh My

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter gets up to 5½ years in prison

h/t Spirit of Man

Lawyers Get Rich

Conservatives act to end Wheat Board monopoly

Wheat Board files lawsuit against Ottawa

Wheat growers sue wheat board

Hip! Hip! Rah! Rah!...

...who cares?

Now, if they would just survey the Commonwealth commoners about skipping a generation and allowing second sons to climb up onto the big chair....

Ha, Ha, Ha!

NDP is history.

"Saskatoon-based Insightrix Research released results of a new online poll Thursday that found 60 per cent of decided voters say they plan to vote for the Sask. Party, 33.3 per cent for the NDP, three per cent for the Green Party and 2.8 per cent for the Liberal Party."

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

Weird Art

I don't know if I've provided a link to my son's weird art before, but even if I have, he's got some new work posted. Take a look. He's my Salvador Dali, my Picasso, but even stranger. But that's my boy!

And speaking of family, my daughter and her man have decided to have their wedding in Canada, not Las Vegas. Yeah!!

Awe, Come On!

The beaver is so much fun.

Old, but related.

Ouch!! Wouldn't Want To Sit On That

...throne.

Especially if I was of the male persuasion.

Yup. Better Chance Of Survival...

Maybe do a bit of grand standing.

That's The Sound Of...

...lefties going postal:

Canada to invest $477M in U.S. military satellite system

Okay. Now On To The Next Step

CBC takes flak from several angles

"Canada's national broadcaster found itself under fire from several fronts Tuesday, as it was forced to defend its economic value and societal relevance while the country's access-to-information watchdog suggested the broadcaster may be automatically denying information requests.

At a parliamentary committee, CBC president Hubert Lacroix faced attacks from some MPs who slammed the broadcaster, questioning its objectivity, its appeal to the country's diverse population and its worthiness for taxpayers' dollars."

[---]

"But Tory MP John Williamson suggested some Canadian viewers won't benefit from more coverage, noting that CBC News' viewership has steadily declined compared with its competitors.

He pointed to CBC's evening news show, The National, as an example. While Global and CTV have recorded audiences of more than one million people, CBC's viewership has decreased to only half a million, Williamson said.

"Your approach to news tends to be one-sided and viewers are tuning out because they're looking for a good debate and they're not getting it. CBC is, in fact, becoming a caricature of itself. There was a time I think it was better able to hold governments accountable by providing both sides of the debate," he said.

"While families and individuals can choose what not to watch, since CBC is funded by Canadian tax dollars, even if they decide not to watch, they're paying for content they may not value," he said."

Okay. Our politicians get it. Let's pull the plug and get it over with, shall we?

Here I Am...

...fighting back the tears again.

Canadian soldier Pte. Alexander Johnston gets a proper funeral after 93 years

"Lost for 93 years amid the muddy fields of France and the mists of history, a Canadian soldier received a final, proper burial on Tuesday, and the thanks of a grateful nation.

Pte. Alexander Johnston, a 32-year-old conscript from Hamilton, Ont., went missing on the battlefield here nearly a century ago and was presumed dead, one of more than 11,000 Canadian casualties from the First World War with no known grave.

On Tuesday, he was honoured at a poignant funeral, attended by Canadian and Scottish relatives who had not known Johnston — or each other — but whose families have now been reunited by the discovery of a common ancestor."

[---]

"There are more than 28,000 missing Canadian soldiers from both the First and Second World Wars, some whose remains lie in graves with unmarked headstones, and others who have no formal grave at all."

Miracle Babies

Turkey - 2011 earthquake

"A 14-day-old new born has miraculously survived after being trapped for 46 hours in debris after the 7.2 earthquake hit Turkey Sunday, reported the Reuters."

Japan - 2011 earthquake

"From the devastation in Japan, a few miracles: Most notably, a 4-month-old baby pulled from the rubble in the coastal town of Ishinomaki, where she had been wrenched from her parents’ arms when the tsunami hit three days before. Soldiers, whose mission had turned from rescue to recovery after finding at least 2,000 bodies, at first thought they were hearing things. But when they heard the baby cry again, they pulled back wood, slate, and mud to find the little girl. Somehow, she had been spared not only from drowning, but from injury; she was simply cold and wet, and was quickly reunited with her family."

Haiti - baby Elizabeth, baby Redjeson and baby Jenni.

And, if anybody else besides me remembers, the miracle babies of Mexico City. These little ones were newborns in the nursery of a hospital. They had survived a week or more without anything to eat or drink.

Darn! I Wish I Had Known

:-( Went out into the country where you can actually see the night sky. There was a full and beautiful display of stars to behold, but nary a streak of Aurora Borialis.  Oh well.
====================
I would have stepped outside and looked up. If it was this good down in Arkansas, I imagine it would have been spectacular here - as long as there was no cloud cover.

Oh well. Apparently it's happening again tonight. Somebody shoot me an email to remind me, please.

Huh???

Almost every day we're treated to yet more research that pokes holes in "the sky is falling" human caused global warming mantra, yet the warmists are poring it on as though nothing is in doubt:

Did the melting Arctic ice shelf break up once before?

"Images of the Arctic ice shelf cracking up are an icon of the damage wrought by global warming.

But a team of researchers from the Universite Laval in Canada have found evidence that one ice shelf might have broken up before, 1,400 years ago – long before industrialisation had any impact on the planet."

8.5% carbon cut needed by 2020 for Copenhagen goal: study

"Meeting the target for global warming enshrined in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord will require carbon emissions to decline by more than eight percent by 2020 compared to 2010 and then continue their fall, a study said on Sunday."

Yawn.

An Anti-War Activist...

stashing ammo in a well hidden place. Quelle suprise.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now they pull the old washed-up actors out of the bag. Old washed-up actresses are so passe.

Awe, Poor, Poor Julian

He's had to suspend his "whistleblowing" due to lack of funds.

"Assange said in a statement that since December last year, "an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union."

"The attack has destroyed 95 percent of our revenue," he added."

There he goes again, butchering the English language and showing the depths to which hypocricy can go. Apparently the law is for those other guys, not for him.

The view from an Arab paper: Assange's aphorism

"Assange’s adversaries have sought the shield of a Higher Cause—defence of a state in wartime—themselves. The point of this confrontation is moral without prejudice to the personal morality of the activists. Governments revel in revealing what helps their image. They hide, mostly, only what hurts. We do not have to admire Assange in order to admire what he did.

Time for mild confession. I have not read the smartly titled Julian Assange: The Unauthorised autobiography published against Assange’s will by Canongate. I have only read the reviews. But if reviews are like the tasting menu offered by grand chefs, then the flavour is sufficient to indicate that this is enough. I don’t want the full meal. Publicity and adulation have bloated Assange. He has become his own Higher Cause. He is no longer the child who exposed a superpower and went home. He wants to live the rest of his life on a pedestal.

This book project began as collaboration between him and the publisher in December last year, confirmed by a fat fee. In June Assange walked out of the deal after the first draft was written based on interviews he had given. All autobiography, claimed Assange in justification, is prostitution.

This is the sort of pompous aphorism, which has been polished for glitter before an image-enhancing mirror. Assange can no longer see the difference between an autobiography and PR press releases.

His defenders will doubtless argue that you need an unstable sense of self if you have the courage to challenge the Pentagon. Assange is a famous hero, but I wonder if he is more heroic than the American soldier, Bradley Manning who actually stole the documents and passed them on to Assange, and now sits in an anonymous cell rather than on the cover of magazines.

There is a poignant moment in this book. In 1996 Assange was tried in Australia for hacking into Nortel, the Canadian telecom system. When he rose to stand in the witness box he saw the face of a colleague who had turned state evidence against him. “It was the look,” Assange says, “that I would come to know: the look of betrayal, organised on the face to look like a high-minded interest in the truth.”

I wonder whether the American soldier jailed for life would recognise the same look if he were to see Assange’s face right now."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I feel a bit of empathy for Bradley Manning. He was obviously duped - used - betrayed - by someone he worshiped. The leader of THE GRAND CAUSE had discarded him like a used tissue.

Another good one.

Who Pays These Protesters?

That's what I thought.
===============
Wall Street Protester Says He's Getting Paid To Protest

DC Organizer Admits to Paying ‘Occupy DC’ Protesters

Protesters are being paid $650 a week in New York

Occupy Wall Street garners $150,000 in donations

FIGHT TO HOLD WALLSTREET ACCOUNTABLE NOW! MAKE A DIFFERNENCE GET PAID!

That's right. You to can made a "differnence" and get paid at the same time.

Not all of them, of course. With names like Gaia Weiss, you just know some of them are doing this for Mother Earth, which is its own reward.

Have Fun

Occupy Edmonton demonstrators plan to stay

It's going to be -3C tonight. Better ask for some fur blankets along with those condoms and the weed.

Related:

Occupy Vancouver protesters take aim at banks

That old saw about the broad side of a barn comes to mind.

Tunisians Vote...

...today.

"Yamina Guermazi, 45, wore a black headscarf in remembrance of her 18-month-old daughter, Yaquine, who was asphyxiated when Ben Ali’s security forces fired teargas into a hammam, a Turkish bath for women.

“I have been crying since this morning, but I am happy to be experiencing this historic moment. It remains a happy day after half a century of slavery,” she said.

Salem Bouazizi, brother of fruitseller Mohamed Bouazizi whose self-immolation sparked the Tunisian revolution, cast his first democratic vote in the southern town of Sfax at the age of 31."

[---]

"“I am very happy, I feel good,” Ahmed Radali said with a broad smile after voting, wagging his blue-tipped finger.

“No, I won’t tell you who I voted for. Today, there is nobody to point a gun at your temple, to throttle you or to hit you in the ribs,” he said of the voter intimidation practices widely ascribed to Ben Ali’s regime."

I cannot imagine....

More. A 70% turnout.

Here.

"Those who are not versed in Tunisian politics should go and stand in the square opposite the Municipality of Tunis and just absorb the architecture of political Tunisia. This square has no analogue elsewhere in the Arab world.

With the municipality to one's back, the Sadiki school - founded by reformer Khayr al-Din Pasha - symbolises not only Ottoman connections, but also a reformist agenda begun more than 150 years ago. To the right, stands the Aziza Othman hospital, named after a woman who cultivated the earliest forms of civic networks in Tunisia.

Just opposite the Kasbah, the seat of government and the lush manicured trees shading the squares joining the prime minister's office and the ministry of finance, the onlooker sees architectural syncretism at its best. Various shapes of domes and minarets - Tunisian and Ottoman - dot the skyline of Tunis, the country's hub of political power. Some of my pro-democratisation students from the University of Exeter and I brainstormed on how to understand this perennial quest for synthesis in Tunisia.

It is this synthesis which will triumph. The embrace of the Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a mini-Champs Elysees with its open-air cafes, a refuge for all, including the unemployed, and the Medina, the Old City, hints at how Tunisia will vote.

Tunisians champion syncretism, and this is really the crux of Tunisia's "political culture". They do not wish to ditch their Arab and Islamic heritage. Nor do they wish to detach from the brighter spots of reformist politics in their history. French and European inputs into the mix of their culture are now deep-rooted and appreciated."

and here.

"Tunisians turned out in force to vote in the country's first free election, 10 months after vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in an act of protest that started the Arab Spring uprisings.

In some areas where polling booths had shut, people were still waiting to vote. Election officers in the conservative district of Ettadamen in Tunis said some 300 people still queueing would be allowed to cast votes.

"Everyone who is inside will be allowed vote, even if it takes us to midnight," an officer said.

The leader of an Islamist party predicted to win the biggest share of the vote was heckled outside a polling station by people shouting "terrorist," highlighting tensions between Islamists and secularists being felt across the Arab world.

Bouazizi's dramatic suicide, prompted by despair over poverty and government repression, provoked mass protests which forced President Zine al-Abidine to flee Tunisia. This in turn inspired uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain."

They should be just about done by now. It's twenty minutes after eight.

Putting Alberta's Oilsands

...and Greenie Babies hysteria in perspective

The Miracle of Oil From Sand

"When completed, the pipeline could transport 1.3 million barrels of oil per day. Environmentalist groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) not only oppose the oil sands production because of the greenhouse gas emissions, but also assert “the oil industry is transforming one of the world’s last remaining intact ecosystems into America’s gas tank.”"

[---]

"The pipeline would almost certainly be a major economic boon, however. Studies project the creation of as many as 600,000 jobs and a $775 billion boost to the U.S. gross national product by 2035 as a result of importing Canadian oil.

The Keystone XL project has already been delayed for three years. The U.S. State Department now says that a final decision will be reached on the pipeline by the end of the year. TransCanada Pipeline Vice President Robert Jones declared that the pipeline is “shovel ready” and construction would involve hiring as many as 10,000 Americans immediately, with up to 34,000 by 2014. Alberta’s Minister of Energy Ronald Liepert, who was present on my tour, dryly commented that in June Alberta (population 3.7 million) created 22,000 new jobs, compared to just 18,000 for the entire U.S.

The NRDC and other environmental lobbyists are right that mining oil sands does mean ripping up some boreal forest. Let’s put that in context: Canada’s boreal forest covers 2.2 million square miles, an area that is about 60 percent of the size of the entire United States. So far oil sands production has disturbed about 410 square miles of that territory. For comparison, the Chicago metropolitan area covers about 10,000 square miles.

Only 20 percent of Alberta’s oil sands are shallow enough to mine, which means that the other 80 percent must be recovered by other technologies."

Of course, environuts don't bother with facts.

h/t Celestial Junk

Where Does Stubble Jumping Redneck Travel?

Every once in a while I search the name of my blog to see where I show up. I did this yesterday evening, both on Google and Bing.

I showed up at all kinds of strange websites, the purpose of which is beyond me. Like this one:

Proper Respect

...and this.

I'm listed in the blogroll of several fine establishments, like:

Blazing Cat Fur

Marginalized Action Dinosaur

Lynch Mob

Unclemeat

Xanthippa's Chamberpot

Oxygen Tax

Darcy's place: Metis Online

Celestial Junk

and Texas Scribbler

And of course, who could forget Snoopy the Goon.

And gazillions of others too numerous to mention.

And some strange ones:

Stop Harper Abuse (Notice the angry red fist.) Harper is guilty of treason, you know. "he will sell out our nation causing huge poverty." Of course. Why hadn't I noticed that?

And some really strange ones, like this.

But, by far the best, are this entry on Paranoid Saskboy's blog and this one at Stageleft in which Balb Baby refers to me as a "vicious slimebag" (scroll down).

Gotta love it.

Who Cares???!!

Calls for Investigation of Gadhafi's Violent Death

Live by the sword. Die by the sword.

And besides the graphics play well in the rest of the Middle East.

I Can't Help Thinking...

...that little girl that was left to die on the streets of Foshan in China may have been helped if she had been a boy. Is this what China's "one child" policy has wrought?

Related.

Oh Yah!

Strike while the iron's hot, Harper!

CBC running scared

Don't You Wish Scientists Understood Science?

Scientist speaks out after finding ‘record’ ozone hole over Canadian Arctic

"David Tarasick was among four Canadian authors of the international study, published Oct. 2 in the British scientific journal Nature, that reported on the hole — twice the size of Ontario — in the ozone layer that protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful radiation."

[---]

"“We’ve been doing this [for] about 45 years now,” Tarasick said in a telephone interview supervised by Environment Canada officials. “The Canadian stations have been the backbone of the global network [of monitoring] ever since we started measuring ozone.”"

Forty-five years, eh? And how old is the earth? About four and a half billion years, right?

"A senior Environment Canada scientist whose job may be eliminated through budget cuts has highlighted the importance of maintaining the country’s world-leading atmospheric monitoring network after new research showed a record hole in the planet’s ozone layer above the Arctic."

So, your job is on the line.

"Tarasick also indicated that the warning about his job was not rescinded and lightheartedly said that it was increasing his “stress level.”"

Why not give them a good scare? Maybe that'll save your job.

"We started measuring ozone back in the 1950s because we were trying to understand the circulation of the atmosphere better and to improve weather forecasting . . . and it was fortunate that we had a long data set when people started to notice that the ozone was changing.”"

So 61 years out of 4.5 billion. Hmmmm. My calculator won't even handle that, but I do know it's miniscule.

"“It’s really a global problem, which is why there is so much interest in our data from around the world,” said Tarasick. “To be trite, the atmosphere is a global atmosphere.”"

[---]

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government introduced new rules to control interviews with journalists by Environment Canada scientists in 2007, resulting in an 80 per cent drop in media coverage of climate change science, according to an internal analysis that was released in 2010."

Well, they are government employees, after all. If they can't stop the scare mongering, maybe it is time to pull the plug.

"Tarasick said the Nature study also discusses some uncertainties in existing models about global warming in the Arctic. He also noted other research that shows how the increasing concentration of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere is trapping heat in the lower part, and resulting in cooling temperatures in the upper atmosphere, which can contribute to ozone depletion."

Yup. Damned if we do and damned if we don't. The AGW freaks are a moving target, that's for sure. Gotta go back to something that worked in the past. Before long, we'll be back to global cooling hysteria.

"“If we didn’t have the Montreal Protocol (signed in 1987) . . . we would have seen a rather permanent ozone hole, which would have flushed, in the spring, low levels of ozone to lower latitudes,” Tarasick explained. “It appears we really did save the world in 1987.”"

Oh. What would we do without periodic hysteria coming from paid civil servants!

Seriously, folks, how can anyone believe this isn't 9 parts self-serving  and 1 part science?

Don't You Wish Journalists...

...understood science?

You and 6,999,999,999 other people

"If our numbers are beginning to challenge the ecological carrying capacity of the globe, it is only through our own success. Whether we can save ourselves from extinction will depend largely on what got us here in the first place: human ingenuity."

Yes. Yes. Yes. It's entirely possible homo sapiens have reached the max. We may have to deal with the consequences, but we are hardly the first or only species to reach the precipice of the carrying capacity of the eco-niche that sustains us. That does not mean we will become extinct. It only means we may experience a die-off that returns the planet to a more balanced place. That is how species and carrying capacity operate. A species that meets and then exceeds the carrying capacity of it's niche will begin to experience stress and, as a consequence, enough will die that the balance will be restored. It's not the end of the species. Just the end of the stress created by over population. Sheesh, you people. I guess if global warming hysteria hasn't worked you have to dig up some other pseudo-scientific scam in order to keep your jobs. I have a better idea. In order to "save" the planet, or even the species, why don't you volunteer to go first?

All Eyes On Tunisia

Yes We Can!!

Not To Worry

I'm sure there are dozens of spares. It'll be interesting to see what sort of palace intrigue ensues, tho.

Just One Word

Iran.

Hehehehehehehehe!

I was out and about this morning, doing a bit of shopping. Somewhere on the town's main street is the NDP candidates campaign office. Showing the NDP's colour is, of course, essential, so outside the front of the office are several helium filled orange balloons, with string attached so they don't fly away. The strings are anchored to cans of Orange Crush, which are likely filled with sand or something to keep them on the ground. I thought to myself that someone ought to help this poor sot. The symbolism of Orange CRUSH is impossible not to interpret in a rather negative way. Someone in the NDP war room ought to have thought about that. But they didn't. Perhaps they should have sought advice from their SGEU union buds. They've made some slick (or should I say, blatantly self serving) ads. Too bad, so sad. We're gonna crush you.

The Good Ole French/English Mutual Hatred Society...

...is hard at work in the Telegraph's offices.

A baby at last for Carla! Quick, call the hairdresser

"The waiting is over and the First Lady can finally smoke and drink. Oh yes, and she’s had a baby, too. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, 43, who complained, with Gallic bluntness, that being pregnant was boringly abstinent, can celebrate the safe delivery of her little girl, Giulia, with a shrug and a Gitanes. And, of course, a leg wax.

Here, in Britain, the NHS tradition may be a lukewarm cup of tea and a nice cry, but in France the cutting of the umbilical chord is the signal for a woman to seize back control of her pelvic floor and squeeze back into a Chanel pencil skirt."

[---]

"The baby is Madame Bruni-Sarkozy’s second child, so the rather hardline emphasis on immediately reclaiming her feminity and renewing conjugal relations rather than eating mille-feuilles, with cabbage leaves stuffed in her bra, won’t be entirely new to her. Her 10-year-old son, Aurélien, is the product of a previous relationship with a philosopher, which is apparently considered to be a proper job on the Continent."

[---]

"For his part, President Sarkozy already has three sons from his previous two marriages.

And now we are told, he’s coq-a-hoop at having a daughter. She, in turn, has been trumpeted as the first baby to be born to an incumbent head of state in France since Empress Eugénie brought Louis Napoleon Bonaparte into the world 155 years ago.

This historical precedent might explain why the President left the hospital within hours of the birth for foreign parts. Ostensibly, he was attending an International Monetary Fund meeting in Frankfurt, but rumour has it he nipped over the border to Austria in his lunch hour to seal a dynastic marriage alliance with a spare Habsburg."

I must admit, though, the British woman who wrote this has quite the sense of humour when she's jealous.

"Her stern announcement that there will be no pictures was greeted with dismay. Not only is it a shame for all of us, as we want to know if (heaven forfend) she looks like daddy, but it represents a tragedy for Sarkozy père, who was quite possibly counting on a baby bounce to boost his dismal popularity ratings."

RTWT She really skewers both the Sarkozis and the French.

Good Grief!!

A study by global warming "skeptics" proves the planet has warmed by 1 degree C since 1950, and the warministas think they've proven something:

"However, the results are likely to come as a disappointment to groups which helped fund the project, which also support organisations lobbying against action on climate change."

Okay. Just who is it that has denied the earth's climate hasn't warmed and cooled a gazillion times in the past. It's the supposed anthropogenic cause that's in dispute, not the fact of warming or cooling.

Ghadafi Was Hiding In A Drain Pipe?

Shades of Saddam Hussein. Makes me laugh. These lions among men. (Spit!!)

Well, They Haven't Got To...

...him yet. A fresh-faced Canadian kid, probably about 14 or so, who likes George Bush!!



Good for you, kiddo!! It's nice to see a teenager thinking for himself.

If It Was As Cold...

...as it was here last night, that man is probably dead.

The Timing Is Perfect!

Muammar Gaddafi was weird, says 'black flower' of the White House Condoleezza Rice

RTWT The article describes several eerie, creepy encounters and behaviors exhibited by the Mad Man of Tripoli.

Oh, yah...

...that'll work:

"A man who tried to make arrangements with an undercover police officer to have sex with a five-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday in Saskatoon provincial court to 33 months in a federal penitentiary."

As if that will cure him!! At least Saskatoon's children will be safer for 33 months. But they're still be children and he'll still be a pedophile when he gets out.

Bring It On ..

Kadhafi's death spurs Syrian opposition

...I'd Love To see Baby Assad come to the same end.

Who The Hell Cares!

Was Muammar Gaddafi executed in custody? UN rights office wants to know

So the Den of Dictators cares about "rights"? Where were they when the Libyan people were being denied theirs?

They're just cronies trying to protect their own asses.

Some People Think The Arab World Is Condemned To Perpetual Dictatorships

I don't. And here's why. For years and years and years, Europe's capitals have been a second home to many Middle Easterners. I've seen it myself in London more than thirty years ago. They have lived in democracies. They know what it is they are missing and they want it.

It's worthwhile to remember that many of the regimes in the Middle East came to power at the point of a barrel on a tank, during the Cold War, and were supported by one or the other of the two adversaries of that era.

Dictatorships are not deeply rooted in this civilization, but are, rather, a modern phenomena, arising after the fall of European empires and incubated by one or the other of the Cold War advocates as a buffer against the other.

Many in the media agree:

Election in Tunisia key to democratic Arab future

"Despite delays and obstructions, Tunisians anticipate October 23rd with immense hope – a culmination of their revolution, of the struggle of generations of women and men of diverse persuasions against despotism and for freedom, equality and dignity.

TUNISIA IS two days from its first elections for a national constituent assembly. Despite delays and obstructions, Tunisians anticipate October 23rd with immense hope – a culmination of their revolution, of the struggle of generations of women and men of diverse persuasions against despotism and for freedom, equality and dignity."

[---]

"In these elections, Ennahda is, according to several opinion polls, set to win a considerable share of the vote. Our popularity is partly due to the sympathy felt by many towards Ennahda’s suffering over three decades under successive dictatorships. However, this sympathy and Ennahda’s record in the struggle for freedom and democracy are no longer sufficient. Immense challenges call for specific and effective programmes. Tunisia needs a new political system, a decisive break with the past.

We have long advocated democracy within the mainstream trend of political Islam, which we feel is the best system to protect against injustice and authoritarianism. It also provides institutions and mechanisms to guarantee personal and public liberties, most importantly the peaceful transfer of power through elections, respect of the popular will, protection of women’s rights, separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, media freedom, and protection of minority rights. All these in no way contradict Islam, but reflect its principles of consultation, justice and accountability as we understand them."

The Islamists will not rule in Tunisia after Sunday’s vote

"About six parties are poised to gather the majority of the available seats. All are considered progressive or centre-left except one: the Islamic party Ennahda. Though the party has pledged to uphold democracy, secular critics suspect that Ennahda has a secret agenda to impose hard-line Islam.

Ennahda leads in the polls with 30 per cent of the vote. Its closest competitors trail at 15 per cent. Prediction polls have been banned since Oct. 1, but even Ennahda’s opponents agree that unless something dramatic occurs, the party will probably finish first.

In the political program Ennahda presented to journalists during the campaign, the party outlined its plans to create a single-house parliamentary system led by the members of whichever party obtained the most seats in the election. The new prime minister would be the only leader of the country, and would have the responsibility to form a new government.

But the Islamic party will not get a majority of the vote in Sunday’s election. Ennahda will probably win, but it will have to consider forming a coalition government. This is no small task, as Ennahda’s opponents have staunchly refused to ally with it.

Meanwhile, the five most important progressive democratic parties have started to privately negotiate their own future coalition. These parties wish to have a presidential system with a legislative assembly instead of a lone parliament. To be implemented, legislation creating such a system (or a parliamentary one) needs to obtain a majority of favourable votes at the Constituent Assembly. This would effectively end the Islamists’ ambitions to one day claim the presidency. This progressive alliance seems to be shaping up to become a common front against Ennahda.

The main reason a presidential system would be of no help for Ennahda is that normally it requires a candidate to obtain the majority of votes on a popular ballot, and Ennahda’s narrow base is not likely to deliver such a high percentage of votes. Such elections often end in a final-round ballot between two candidates, and Ennahda has almost no chance of attaining the 50 per cent required to win.

Meanwhile, the party’s 30-per-cent share of very loyal supporters won’t stand for the compromises that would be necessary to attract undecided voters.

It seems likely that Tunisia will come out of Sunday’s elections with the Islamic party finishing in first place, but not holding the power. Many of the progressive parties’ representatives have noted (off the record) that they have no intention of co-operating with Ennahda; they rather plan to form a coalition in support of a presidential system."

Tunisians Elect A Constituent Assembly Sunday

"Sarah Johnson, assistant director of the Democracy Program at the Carter Center, said “People are excited to have a peaceful credible election and they are very much looking forward to the polls on Sunday,” said Johnson. “There is perhaps a segment of society that is skeptical of the political process…but [assured] that things could be different and has been turning out in large numbers.”


Johnson said despite short notice, the Independent National Elections Commission has made adequate preparations to ensure transparency. And, she said political parties have launched vigorous but peaceful campaigns."

[---]

"Johnson who is also a member of the poll observer delegation said she’s been monitoring the voter registration drive since July, and that all has been calm.

She expressed hope that Tunisians will have confidence in their electoral system’s ability to organize a credible vote."

From Arab Spring to elections: Tunisia steps into a new era

"The previously banned Islamist party, Al Nahda, is leading the opinion polls and is pitching a moderate, pluralist agenda."

And besides that, the electorate seems ready to assume the role of citizens, not subjects:

"As she browses a wall plastered with photos of election candidates, Ameni, a 21-year-old student at Carthage University in Tunis, is preparing to take on a new responsibility. "It's a major turning point," she says. "I feel like a real citizen for the first time."

For Ameni and more than 10 million other Tunisians, the vote in elections this Sunday is their first experience of democratic election. Decades of despotic rule ended in January this year when Tunisia's revolution brought down President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. This small North African country sparked a string of revolutions in the Middle East – and now it is the first to put democracy to the test at the polling booth.

"I never voted. I never imagined that I would," says 62-year-old Mohamad Ali Mahfoudh, a magazine proof-reader in Tunis. "Before, there was no point [voting] as the elections were faked.""

Tunisians in Canada vote in historic election

"It’s a mixture of hope, pride, tears and trepidation for the thousands of Tunisian expatriates who say they’re voting “for real” for the first time in their lives.

The first comprehensive general election emerging from the “Arab Spring” — the pro-democracy protests that swept through the Middle East this year — is underway in Tunisia, the spark of it all.

A long lineup snaked down the corridors of the downtown building holding Tunisia’s consulate in Montreal, one of three voting locales in Canada.

Several voters feared Tunisia’s Islamists would win a large share of the assembly seats.

“The revolution was brought by the young and the poor. I hope that it will move forward and not backward with the Islamists,” said Sahla Allani, 37."

[---]

"Upon seeing early-Thursday pictures on Facebook of huge lines in Paris, and descriptions of the emotional crowd, Manai said she cried.

“Whatever the outcome of the vote, even if the majority don’t represent (my political views), I am still happy,” Manai said, “because it will still mean the Tunisians have made their choice freely.”"

They get it. Especially the young people. Their intolerance of dictatorships, whether secular or Islamist, bodes well for the future.

You Go, Brits!!

Rein those rascals in.

The least you could get from them is an apology. After all, they do seem to have a fascination with the British royals.

Maybe we should remind them who the king will be in a few years.

God help us. Thank God they're not so powerful these days. They're more like Hollywood celebrities.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What do journalists do when they want you to believe the crowds are massive?

They say "more than a hundred".

Well, I guess 200 is more than 100 and you can rightly refer to it in the plural. But still, this is the lower mainland. They could easily get 200 just from the soup kitchens on the downtown eastside. I'm sure Vandu could help them out.

Hundreds protest Bush visit to Western Canada

It's funny how these numbers are always rounded off to the next higher hundred. Still, I guess if you put in an order for hundreds, why would they want to pay for more than the lowest possible?

Dream On!

Laws For Liars

"On the day the NDP is celebrating the birth of its founding leader, Dwain Lingenfelter released the party’s its full election platform."

[---]

"Since Saskatchewan’s provincial election campaign kicked off on Oct. 10, the promises have been coming fast and furious. Trailing badly in the polls, the NDP have been especially active."

And blah, blah, blah, blah.

Complacency not an option in campaign, Wall

Eighteen days left, then we can turn on our radios and TVs again.

Until then, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

PS: I went for a little drive this morning, to a neighbouring town and out to the valley where I passed through two more. Same signs everywhere. NDP is history. At least in this constituency. But then again, I think they always were.

PPS: I wonder what would happen if aspiring politicians promised to cut back their use of our money and leave more of it in our pockets, instead. Wouldn't that be refreshing!

But no. It's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Man, He Was Just Hungry!

You can't get fresh fruits and vegetables this time of year in the Alaskan wilderness:

And he's just a baby!

It's gotta be Harper's fault. Or maybe Bush's.

Gee, It's Getting To Be....

...a full-time job!

Protesters gather outside Surrey hotel where George Bush is scheduled to speak

"More than 100 protesters, including many from the Occupy Vancouver protest, were gathered this morning outside a Surrey hotel calling for the arrest of George W. Bush who was inside speaking to a business group."

Including, of course, 9/11 troofers.

Shall we do our usual % of population analysis? The City of Vancouver is home to over 500,000 people. The lower mainland, which is a sprawling extension of Vancouver, is north of 2.5 million. Sooooo, the number of protestors on the street is, basically, so small, it's not worth calculating the percentage. Hope you had fun, folks. Hope they paid you well. Hope it didn't rain.

Meanwhile, not far south of there:

Occupy Seattle protester busted for exposing himself to children and a little bit further down the left coast, #OccupyOakland Out Of Control: Rats, Graffiti, Vandalism, Sexual Harassment, Public Sex, Urination… You're in good company. Just stay away from here.

Stubble Jumping Redneck mutters under her breath: "Why couldn't they have had the big one, right about that time?"

Poor CBC...

...We feel soooo sorry for you:

Peladeau defends empire's right to probe CBC; says other media compromised

"Quebecor president Pierre-Karl Peladeau insists his company is not engaged in a vendetta against its CBC competitor, but is instead upholding a public duty to probe the affairs of a government-funded Crown corporation.

The media mogul appeared Thursday at a parliamentary committee hearing into why the CBC is fighting access-to-information laws in the courts.

The corporation says it has been swamped with hundreds of information requests, mainly from Quebecor's many media outlets, and suspects an orchestrated campaign to damage it.

But Peladeau denies that the quest for information is anything more than independent journalists doing their work."

[---]

"The two companies compete head to head in Quebec for television viewers. Quebecor's Sun Media division frequently publishes criticism of the CBC and has urged an end to its public funding.

Opposition critics suspect [Emphasis mine] Quebecor has allied itself with the federal Conservatives, who recently surveyed their members on whether the CBC provides good value for the taxpayer and are now eyeing budget cuts."

No, sweetheart. Quebecor has allied itself with the Canadian people, which ain't such a bad thing, considering how closely allied the CBC is with the Liberals.

Sometimes When You Wake Up...

...in the morning, you find the world has become a better place:

Palestinian envoy is asked to leave Ottawa after controversial tweet

"The Palestinian envoy to Canada has been told she’s not welcome in Ottawa after she tweeted a link to a video that the federal government deemed an offensive diatribe against Jews.

Now, Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata. The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to “limit communication” with her until a replacement arrives."

In the meantime, across the blue Mediterranean, Moammar Ghadafi's rule has come to an end - the same way it started.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

CBC's feeble attempt to fight back against Sun TV has them looking really, really stupid.

CBC fires broadside at competitor Quebecor

"The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has launched a public-relations counter-attack in response to a campaign by Quebecor's media holdings to cut funding to the public broadcaster.

In an unusual move, the CBC posted a "Get the Facts" news release on its website that alleges the Quebecor chain has received more than $500 million in public grants and subsidies over the past three years."

$500 million over three years. Hmmmm. I know math is hard for CBC types, but that's an average of $167 million per year. And what does CBC get? Why, well over twice the $500 million every year.

Looks like they don't understand the mechanism for accountability, either:

"Quebecor has received more than half-a-billion dollars in direct and indirect subsidies and benefits from Canadian taxpayers over the past three years, yet it is not accountable to them."

In the meantime, if you want to see the CBC get off the public teat, or say bye-bye all together, this might help. Rob Anders, Conservative MP from Calgary is leading the charge.

More here.

One Thing The Lawyers Won't Tell You

We've been treated to bleeding heart liberal speak from some criminal defense lawyers crying about the Omnibus Crime Bill introduced to the House of Commons by the Harper government. But here's something not so celebrated by said lawyers:

Canadian Terror Victims Laud Harper Government for Introducing Victims Legislation

"The Canadian Coalition Against Terror (C-CAT), representing terror victims across Canada, commends the government of Canada for introducing The Safe Streets and Communities Act. The omnibus legislation will include the provisions of the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which was passed by the Senate as S-7 in September 2010. This bill will allow Canadian terror victims to launch lawsuits against states, organizations and individuals that have sponsored terrorism."

[---]

"The bill will take aim at the financial sponsors of terror who are rarely prosecuted successfully in criminal proceedings. By harnessing the additional possibility of civil lawsuits, the proposed legislation will open a vital avenue in interdicting and defeating terrorist funding. For unlike suicide bombers, the financial enablers of terrorism seek neither exposure nor martyrdom. They fear transparency and exposure, and are rendered vulnerable to both through civil suits. Civil action can hold them accountable by allowing seizure of their assets; exposing them to public scrutiny and preventing them from accessing Canada’s financial system. This bill will provide both accountability and deterrence – in a court of law."

Perhaps if they specialized in bringing forth civil suits, rather than keeping murderous scum on the streets, they'd be applauding the Omnibus bill.

Who Were The Palestinian Prisoners?

Here's a bit about one of them:

Families of Canadian Terror Victims Upset Over Shalit Deal

"Canadians who lost family members to Arab terrorism are happy for the Shalit family but are upset that the murderer of their family members is being set free.

Shalom Toronto reported on Wednesday on two Canadian families who lost loved ones on July 6, 1989, when Arab terrorist Abdel Hadi Ghanem steered the Egged 405 bus over a cliff, killing 16 people. [Emphasis mine.]

Ghanem survived the attack, was captured and jailed. He was released on Tuesday along with 476 other terrorists in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Two of Ghanem’s victims were Canadian: Shelley Wolochow, a 33-year-old dentist from Vancouver, and Fern Rykiss, a 17-year-old student from Winnipeg.

Fern’s mother, Joyce Rykiss, expressed her sorrow over Ghanem’s release in an e-mail she wrote to the Winnipeg Free Press on Tuesday.

“I was told by two Israeli officials who came to see me after the funeral that he would not be released because he deliberately killed the people,” she wrote.

Fern’s sister, local singer-songwriter Romi Mayes, was also outraged at the news that her sister’s killer is being freed.

“I’m happy for Gilad Shalit and his family, but how is no one thinking about the 1,000 kamikaze(s) . . . that are being set free back out on the streets due to a technicality?” Mayes wrote in a letter to the Winnipeg Free Press. “It’s an embarrassment to any justice system. I’m sure Gilad won’t want any new blood on his hands but I would think the odds of at least one of those prisoners repeat-offending are pretty...good.”"[Emphasis mine]

Those words could have come right out of my mouth.

Shelley Wolochow. She could have been my daughter. Same age. Same big infectious smile.

Uh-Oh!

Chose the wrong city, I guess:

New poll shows Americans blame Washington 2-1 over Wall Street for economy

Come on lemmings. Let's go. It's not that far away.

It's Pretty Hard...

...nay, virtually impossible, to find a journalist who is taking these protests seriously. This is a pretty common theme and oh so dead on:

"I always find it amusing when anti-corporate groups like Occupy Winnipeg rail against big, evil corporations and then whip out their iPhones, BlackBerries and iPads and upload messages, pictures and videos through corporate giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

Where do these people think these products come from? Not-for-profit agencies?"

[---]

"They want an end to “corporate greed” and they’re demanding greater “economic justice” for all. Not sure what that means. They don’t define it on their website. I don’t think they know what it means either.

What I do notice, though, is that while they bash corporate America and everything it stands for, they have no problem benefitting from the very goods and services corporate America provides.

“The social-media savvy group will continue to occupy cyberspace with several livestreaming options, dozens of YouTube videos already posted, Facebook and Twitter activity and a new website at www.occupy-winnipeg.com,” the group wrote Monday in an e-mail to local media.

I wonder if they know Facebook is on track to post $1 billion in profits in 2011, according to several published reports in the U.S. Without those “greedy” profits, there is no Facebook.

What I don’t understand is if corporate profits are so evil, why don’t these groups boycott the products these corporations produce?

Like YouTube, another corporate giant in the world of cyberspace. Occupy Winnipeg has no problem using YouTube to spread its message, even though the popular video-sharing website was acquired by Google in 2006 for a staggering $1.65 billion. Lots of greedy profits there.

I noticed Occupy Winnipeg spokeswoman Louise May uses a Gmail account to communicate with the media. Gmail is another Google product that helps corporate America produce hundreds of millions in profits every year."

Mind you, I haven't checked in at the CBC for much on this story.

More Staggering Numbers

This time from Ottawa:

Hundreds in Ottawa join global occupy protests

The Ottawa region has a population of well over a million. Why do these protests get so much attention?

Oh. And this is cute:

"Most protesters were there to demand higher taxes for the wealthy and curbs on banks, but there were also animal rights activists, people claiming the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. were an "inside job," and homeless people who normally live in the park.

One of the demonstration's leaders was Brigette DePape, a former page in Canada's Senate who was fired on June 3 for protesting on the floor of Canada's upper legislative house during a speech delivered by the Governor General."

Don't worry, Brigette, sweetheart. We figured you out a long time ago.

He's Alive

Even with the news earlier in the month that he would be released, I still thought he could very well be dead. After all, Hamas is a pack of scheming, conniving liars. But it appears Gilad Shalit is indeed alive, and looking quite healthy at that.

His life is worth 1,027 Palestinian thugs, many of whom, I am sure, will return to the same life they practiced before Israel put 'em away.

I Wonder...

...what would have happened in the Middle East if they had gone from monarchy, directly to democracy, instead of Arab Nationalist dictatorships?

Government of Jordan Is Dismissed by the King

"In a statement announcing the change, King Abdullah said, “We have accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, taking into consideration the views of the various sectors of society as well as a letter we have received from the parliamentary majority.”

Mr. Bakhit was seen by many as dragging his feet on political changes. His government also angered Jordanians with a new law that made it a crime, punishable by a steep fine, to falsely accuse someone of corruption. The law is seen as an infringement on the news media and free speech.

Also of concern are episodes of lawlessness, especially by groups thought to be working with the government, who have attacked opposition gatherings. The most recent example was on Saturday when an anticorruption conference, attended by opposition figures and members of four prominent tribes, was disrupted by attackers firing guns and throwing stones."

[---]

"The new prime minister is Awn Khasawneh, 61, who has been a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague since 2000. He is also a former chief of the royal court and was a legal adviser to Jordan when it negotiated its peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

A spokesman for retired military service members, Gen. Ali Habashneh, said, “Awn Khasawneh is known for his integrity, and has no corruption issues in his past like the rest, and more importantly, he has very high legal capabilities, which is essential now in this phase of constitutional amendments, laws and legislation which will define the future of Jordan.”"

Are there better days ahead for Jordan, or is this just the same old, same old? Personally, I've always liked the Hashemite kings of Jordan. They've got a trendy website, just like the House of Windsor, and they're far more forward thinking than anything Arab Nationalism has ever produced.

Just Look At That...

...crowd. Must have been a cold day, eh Saskboy.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Oops. They're Getting A Bad Press

UPDATE: Mangy Mutt, you silly twit. If you think this entry is the best I've got on the CBC, you're sorely mistaken. I've got 142 of them. Funny how it's always the old, worn out leftards that come to CBC's defense, though. Good luck with that.
================
Occupy protesters need focus

"Organizers are ecstatic that several thousand people showed up at the Occupy protest in Vancouver. As protests go, that is not a lot of people."

[---]

"Some of the Occupy protest movement's organizers say their aim is to dismantle the current monetary system.

Yet, the protesters themselves list a smorgasbord of wrongs as reasons for their participation.

Everything from animal research to drug laws to forest practices to smart meters to greedy corporations were the subject of protest signs at the Occupy events."

[---]

"In the meantime, as Occupy organizers insist they're happy with the numbers attending their protest, there's another number that may speak more about where people are at right now: Apple says it sold more than four million of its new iPhone 4S in its first three days on the market (which coincided with the Occupy rallies).

Now, that's an example of a lot of people being occupied!"

But the CBC is focused:

Occupy protests reek of hypocrisy

""Dirty hippies" is not an insult. It's an epidemiological assessment of their week-long war against hygiene at a cramped, garbage-strewn, semen-stained camp. The crowning moment was when one hippie defecated on a police car as some sort of political statement.

Not all the Occupy Toronto protesters are dirty hippies. Some of them are professional protesters folks who go out whenever there's a chance to be counter-cultural. These are the black bloc types who came to agitate in Toronto during the G-20.

Others are union bosses, usually from government unions. That's who created this movement in the U.S. and who promotes it in Canada now.

For them, Occupy Wall Street is a scheme to shift the blame for the U.S. recession away from the White House, and onto someone else other than the Democratic Party."

[---]

"But that sour message isn't clicking in Canada. We haven't had a bank fail.

So not one has been bailed out. Our unemployment rate is 7%. Which is 2% lower than in the U.S. Our national deficit is down to $33 billion. Our credit rating is golden.

Which is why so few people bothered to show up for the Occupy protests across Canada.

By Monday morning, only 20 protesters were left downtown in Toronto's financial district. How did they even know that was a protest? There are longer line-ups at Toronto hot dog carts.

But the CBC, the state broadcaster, went into Olympics-style mega-coverage over the weekend, sending out dozens of reporters and producers to cover the protests as if it were an election. They became a PR agency. They helped organize and promote the events.

One excitable CBC host actually claimed that the protests had spread to "more than 1,000 cities" around the world with "hundreds or thousands" of protesters in each. That's just false; there were protests in a few dozen cities, but in most the number was under 100."

[---]

"Every year well over 10,000 people march on Parliament Hill against abortion. They don't threaten revolution or anarchy. They don't crap on police cars.

But because they are pro-life, the CBC downplays them.

They grudgingly report their rally.

And they do their best to hunt for the nuttiest person in the crowd, and pretend that they speak for the whole mass."

And this one is delish:

"By Monday, the media had converged at King and Bay, where protesters had promised a “large-impact demonstration” when the stock market opened. Alas, nothing happened. “There are only around three people here,” said a CBC reporter mournfully."

Lots of good stuff at Sun TV, too.

One Of These Protests Is Not Like The Other

I Like This Guy

So??!!

Occupy movement has little to protest in Canada

"Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is defending Ottawa's record on banking regulations and economic equality, as Occupy protesters in Toronto plan a "large impact" event for the coming week.

Flaherty said the situation is much different here than it is south of the border, thanks to what he described as a "very progressive tax system," a "generous social system" and strong regulations in the banking sector."

You think they care? They don't understand economics, nor do they wish to. It's just an opportunity to earn a bit of money. Nice work, if you can get it.

Well Thank You...

...for that:

"Jean Beliveau crosses a bridge as he arrives in Montreal following an 11-year walking trek around the world to promote peace Sunday, October 16, 2011 in Montreal."

The world is so much more peaceful now.

Still, it's nice to see a Quebecker who appreciates his country - all of it.

I Presume...

...the Arab Spring is moving right along, whether I pay attention or not. This headline, though, really caught my eye. Back where it all started, it gives me hope:

Thousands rally in Tunisia to back embattled TV station

"Thousands of people marched through Tunis Sunday to support a television station subjected to violent protests last week after broadcasting a controversial film that offended Muslims.

The demonstrators were answering a call on Facebook to demonstrate for free speech, just two days after demonstrations against Nessma TV for its showing of award-winning "Persepolis" degenerated into violence.

While some marchers shouted slogans calling for freedom of speech and tolerance, others had taped over their mouths in a sign of protest at what they see as a growing climate of intolerance in the country."

I have no idea who's going to win in the end, but the young folk seem to want to join the 21st century, and by the looks of it, the Islamists are all old gray haired men, so, IMVHO, the future looks bright.

Yah, Yah, Yah

Too many people? World's population tops 7 billion

I remember when it reached 6 billion. There was screeching and howling about the earth's carrying capacity then. Yet we're still here.

Look folks. Humans are no different than any other species. If we exceed the carrying capacity of the niche that sustains us, mother nature will take care of things, like she does with all other species. Let it happen.

It's utter folly, not to mention supreme hubris, to think we can save the planet from nature's cycles and the natural ebb and flow/boom and bust of species population growth and decline.

Species come and go. The Earth is eternal - almost. We'll go when Mother Earth has had enough with us.

Who Didn't Think...

UPDATE: Make the rich rabble pay:

Occupy protest in Rome hijacked by rioters who cause damage put at €2m

"Italian police have begun viewing dozens of hours of video in an effort to identify the ringleaders of a vicious riot in Rome that left about 100 people injured, caused €2m (£1.75m) of damage and had peaceful anti-capitalist demonstrators seething at the hijacking of their protest by a violent minority."

Tough shit. You want to hold stupid protests, this is what you get. You're an anarchist magnet. Deal with it.
======================
...this was coming?

We All Gotta Be Good At Sumtin

Sin is Canada's 1st medallist at Pan American Games

Oh. I'm evil. I'll betcha this woman gets teased a lot about her name.

Here's A Quiz

Helps to pretend you're a woman, otherwise, honesty may not be the best policy:

What kind of penis do you have?

Gateway Pundit Oh Hell, Everybody Is Covering It

...seems to be offering a regular rundown of the shenanigans occurring in the OWS demonstrations. All you need to know about this motley mob and their brain-dead excuses and behavior.

Multiculturalism Takes Two On The Chin

The second one, by an immigrant himself and a Muslim, Salim Mansur.

Feds want immigrants to provide upfront evidence of fluency in English or French

It's time to undo multiculturalism mistake

"Forty years ago, in October 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced multiculturalism as an official policy for Canada.

Seventeen years later, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservatives turned Trudeau’s policy into the Multiculturalism Act of 1988.

In other words, it was not merely Trudeau but Canada’s political elite, supported by the intellectual and media elites of the country, who adopted without much questioning a policy that was, at best, dubious and deeply flawed as the law of the land.

Canada was the first of the advanced liberal democracies in the West to turn multiculturalism — an idea without philosophical substance — into official policy.

Four decades later, some of those democracies — Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands — have openly expressed regrets as their elected leaders publicly admitted the failure of official multiculturalism in securing social harmony, or advancing national interest.

In my recently published book — Delectable Lie: A liberal repudiation of multiculturalism — I discuss at some length why this policy reflected an act of bad faith on the part of Trudeau and company, and how it continues to be detrimental to the vitality of a liberal democracy.

The bad faith resided in the ridiculous proposition that all cultures are equal. This is the keystone of multiculturalism as an idea, and it is untenable."

[---]

"It takes someone with a college degree to accept silliness of this nature as higher knowledge."

RTWT

Wise Words...

...from Brian Mulroney (spoken in Toronto):

This is no time to give up on the U.S., Mulroney says

"Canada has a privileged relationship with the United States that shouldn't be squandered, even at a time when U.S. world leadership is waning and new superpowers are emerging, Brian Mulroney says.

“The resilience of America should never be discounted,..."

[---]

"“The need for Canada to safeguard and nurture our interests vis-à-vis America will always – certainly in my lifetime and the lifetime of my children – be the top foreign policy priority of the prime minister of Canada.”"

[---]

"In “some corners of this city,” Mr. Mulroney said, a close bond with the United States is viewed with scorn by “supercilious and uninformed” critics."

That'd be Toronto's Occupy Wall Street (or should that be Bay Street) crowd, and Liberals and NDPers and CBC and the Globe and Mail, etc., etc., etc.,...

We've Come A Long Way Babies

Former colonies now run the British crown:

"Sorting out the family inheritance can be a messy business. But it rarely requires an act of Parliament or involves consultation with the heads of Commonwealth governments.

But that is exactly what's happening in the case of the Royal Family, and if British Prime Minister David Cameron gets his way, the male bias would be eliminated when it comes to inheriting the throne."

Well, not quite:

"Cameron wrote a letter to Commonwealth leaders last month outlining his plan to change British law so that a male heir would no longer take precedence over his older sister.

But while that letter came to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Canada's input, this country won't have any legal sway in the matter."

Oh well. How 'bout proposing it skip a generation. Back to sleep, now.

This Has Got To Hurt...

...our arts and broadcasting elites in Toronto:

Calgary named Culture Capital of Canada for 2012

"Calgary-Centre MP Lee Richardson made the announcement Friday on behalf of Heritage Minister James Moore at the Grand Theatre in Calgary.

"Calgary is one of Canada's fastest growing and most vibrant cities, and we look forward to working with the city on its upcoming centennial anniversaries to continue to promote the arts, boost tourism, and grow our economy," said Richardson."

Them's fighting words back in Trawna.

The Good News Is Just Poring In

Ottawa pulls funding for Canadian Environmental Network

Moving Right Along

Harper pledges fair representation for provinces in Parliament

Yup

Iran 'most significant' threat to world: Canada PM

"Iran is the "most significant" threat to world peace and security, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday after the US accused Tehran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

"We have no quarrel with the Iranian people, but the regime in Tehran represents probably the most significant threat in the world to global peace and security," Harper said.

This week, Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird said Ottawa and its partners were considering "consequences" for Iran over the alleged plot."

What sort of consequences will those be, I wonder. Will we stomp our feet and make "strong" statements? I'm pretty sure it won't be what I want.

Man, That's One Dead-Eyed Sniper

2 men shot at Edmonton cemetery from Lloydminster

That's about about 145 miles (232 km).

Wanna Know My Theory...

...about the attempted Iranian assassination of the Saudi diplomat in the US?

The guy looks and acts like he's gay. That's why they tried to off him.

That's probably why the Saudi's shipped him off to the diplomatic corp, too. Big embarrassment for the House of Saud.

A pox on all their houses!

Once Again

The CBC provides free advertizing and information clearinghouse services to promote lunatic protestors.

They did this during the G20 summit in Toronto, too, providing a complete list of all the various NGOs and their contact info.

CBC is not the only media guilty of this sort of collaboration. Numerous times over the past 15 to 20 years, when a big international political or economic summit takes place, all they do is cover the inevitable lunatic fringe protestors that show up.

(It's amazing how many of the same people show up, too. It seems they have the cash to travel all over the continent and, in some cases, even to Europe.)

Not once have I seen or heard an interview with the summit participants, who could actually describe what's going on. Instead, the media caters to the crazy ones and only speculates on what might be on the agenda inside where the meetings are actually taking place. Just once it might be nice to hear from one or two actual participants (delegates) from the countries that attend.

Well, Well, Well

UPDATED AND BUMPED: But they still have stalwart supporters reading the Winnipeg Free Press spewing the usual dumb memes and arguments.

=======Original Post Starts Here========
CBC actually has a personality who takes a stand that reflects the views of millions of Canadians, but that gets him into trouble. Ooooo. It sounds like Fox News. We can't have that at CBC!!!

As usual, the comments bring out the "best".

Oh! Step One In The NDP's ...

...long journey back:

Saskatchewan NDP promises no small business tax if party elected

But what NDPer can keep a promise like that, and still be an NDPer?

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Occupy Sesame Street

And wouldn't you know it:



Anti-Semitism, too, of course.