When At First You Don't Succeed....

...do what these yahoos do.


Why bail out students who pursue useless degrees or will drop out of university because they weren't prepared in elementary or secondary schools or people who cannot manage their credit card debt? Isn't that how the Americans got into trouble?

The country's political leaders have their sights squarely set on the hard-pressed pocketbooks of middle-class Canadian families on Day 4 of the federal election campaign.

In Oakville, Ont., Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has unveiled a proposed "learning passport," which would provide $1 billion a year in tax-free student grants. to encourage roughly one million Canadian students to attend college or university.

The plan, which would see a Liberal government making contributions to existing registered education savings plans, or RESPs, would provide students $1,000 a year for four years, or up to $1,500 a year for four years for low-income families.

"This is the kind of investment in education which is a game-changer for our country," Ignatieff said, calling it the biggest investment in post-secondary education in Canada's history.

"It's a billion dollars of new money to make us the best-educated society on the planet."

NDP Leader Jack Layton, meanwhile, is promising action on a subject that's long been dear to his heart: capping interest charges on credit cards to help Canadian families ease the growing crush of consumer debt.

The NDP believes financial institutions shouldn't be allowed to charge consumers interest at a rate more than five percentage points higher than prime.

"I believe that you need strong banks in an economy so that you can have a healthy level of economic activity," Layton told a news conference outside a family home in Brantford, Ont., west of Toronto.

"I think Canadians deserve something in return here — just a little bit of fairness. But you know what? Under Stephen Harper, Canadians pay some of the highest credit-card fees in the world — and that's just not right."

Layton says the NDP cap on interest rates would save the average credit-card holder about $60 a month, or more than $700 a year.

Were world leaders willing to oust Gaddafi after the Lockerbie bombing?

International leaders meeting in London, England, agreed to establish a group to co-ordinate all international action against the Gadhafi regime in Libya.

World leaders fell short of a concerted group effort to oust Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than four decades. Instead, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the creation of a loose coalition — known as the Libya Contact Group — that will centralize international action in monitoring the unfolding civil war in Libya.

Chinese spies are stealing Western technology. Time to stop trading with the octopus:

Universities acknowledge the threat from espionage, particularly by Chinese students, and are taking measures to counter it. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, said: "We are very aware this is going on and we are taking it very seriously."

The concerns have emerged just days after Theresa May, the home secretary, watered down plans to slash the number of foreign students in Britain. Dyson said: "Britain is very proud about the number of foreign students we educate at our universities, but actually all we are doing is educating our competitors.

"Foreign governments and businesses are prepared to pay quite a lot of money for people to study at Cambridge, Imperial College and other Russell [Group] universities because they appreciate the value of these research posts.

"They go back home taking that science and technology knowledge with them and then they start competing with us. This is mad - it is madness.

"I've seen frightening examples. Bugs are even left in computers so that the information continues to be transmitted after the researchers have returned home."

A number of such cases have been uncovered at British universities, with leading research institutions the most heavily targeted.

Thievery by any other name....


Good luck with this:

Members of Pakistan's minority Christian community have protested against a senior government officer for allegedly insulting Jesus Christ and the Bible by holding demonstrations in front of the Punjab Assembly. 

The protesters marched from the Lahore Press Club to the Punjab Assembly and demonstrated outside the legislature for several hours on Monday. 

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah requested them to end the protest but they refused and demanded action against Solid Waste Management Managing Director Ajmal Waseem. 

Addressing the protesters, Christian leader Aslam Parvaiz Sahotra said police were not filing a complaint against Waseem and it seemed they were favouring the officer. 

He said the government should immediately remove the officer from his post and register a case against him for committing blasphemy If action is not taken against Waseem, the Christian will launch a protest against him across Pakistan, Sahotra said.

Where are the unsung heroes- the celebrities- raising money and awareness and making movies and such?


Cut. Pakistan. Off.


Take a look at the picture in this article. Did you see it? I'll put it here (all credit here).

It's Lent so I cannot ignore this. The cross, the chief symbol of Christianity, upon which Jesus died (and then ultimately rose) for all mankind will be destroyed by the very man whose divinity is denied by the believers of a seventh century war-monger. Is that right? The Word made flesh who showed compassion to Mary Magdalene and the Samaritan woman at the well (among others) will destroy the means by which He died for all human beings only to follow Mohammad.


Talk about delusions! Hell, talk about stupidity!


Take some lithium, guys. Seriously.


And now, the Stupid Letter of the Day. Sit back and have yourselves a laugh. This is going to be a good one:

Phyllis Chesler's toxic views are out of step with the gains made by the Palestinian-led International Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and solidarity campaigns and actions taking place around the globe.

(Sidebar: "Toxic"? Melodramatic much?  I realise it's fashionable to hate the Jewish state of Israel where people of all religions and sexual inclinations can live without fear of persecution but this is too much. The letter-writers are really over-estimating their importance and inflating claims that everyone feels the same way they do. I suppose low serotonin levels will do that to one.)

Ms. Chesler speaks from a place of entitlement embedded in Zionist ideology. She writes that, "Jewish lesbian feminists . are more concerned with the rights of a country that does not exist, Palestine, than with the rights of real Muslim women who are forced to veil themselves."

This is double-edged racism. With one hand she proclaims there is no Palestine (and we can therefore assume that there are no Palestinians); with the other hand she touts the anti-feminist line that Muslim women have no voice, no agency and no power to choose. Her statement that she has "seen these North American lesbian 'queers' at university-based Israel Apartheid Week events" exposes her lesbophobic discomfort with the power of lesbian and queer activism.

(Sidebar: Three things: "Zionist"? Is there a better way to attack the Jews? "Racism"? Islam isn't a race, nor are homosexuals a race. "Lesbophobic"? Can you actually make up words? Are you allowed to do that? It's obvious the letter-writers have ZERO understanding of what life is like for women, Muslim or homosexual alike. If they do and say nothing, one can measure their moral culpability of excusing or ignoring a backward cults' treatment of either of these groups in spades. But for some people, it's all about them.)

Ms. Chesler asks: "Why are so many 'Jewish lesbian feminists' in solidarity with the Free Palestine movement?" She provides an explanation, with a quote from Jews Against the Occupation-NYC: "The demonization and dehumanization of Palestinians under occupation resonates loudly for queers, as do other forms of racism and militarism." Ms. Chesler herself adds, "They do not view Palestinians as 'terrorists' but as freedom-fighters."

(Sidebar: Palestinians are demonised because they do things like behead three month old baby girls and then hand out candy. What do they think the Palestinians will do to the letter-writers? Welcome them? Fat chance!)

She's got that right.

(Sidebar: don't flatter yourselves.)



Not quite the rocket-propelled chainsaw but good enough.

Monday Post

Back to regularly scheduled programming.


Michael Ignatieff wants a coalition to help bring down a functioning government. Canada's Obama is hard at work.


Heather Mallick, if Harper were to win a majority, people like you would still wrap your heads in tin foil.



Because Kim Jong-Il cares...about himself:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent half a million dollars to aid Korean expatriates in Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, Pyongyang's official news agency said on Thursday.


Decades of tightly controlled economic policy that has seen North Korea channel much of its scarce resources to arms development has left the country acutely short of cash although its leaders continue to live lavishly, according to South Korean news reports. Food is also reportedly scarce.

Japan, formerly Korea's colonial master, is frequently lambasted as a "war monger" in North Korea's state-controlled media along with South Korea and the United States.

"Leader Kim Jong-il sent (a) relief fund of 500,000 U.S. dollars to Korean residents in Japan who suffered from the killer quake and tsunami happened there," KCNA news agency said.

Half a million U.S. dollars is equivalent to the annual average income earned by 520 North Koreans in all of 2009, according to Bank of Korea data.

 U.N. sanctions in 2009 imposed for its nuclear and missile tests that defied international warnings have further cut into North Korea's finances, choking off much of its lucrative arms trade.

The North's Red Cross has separately sent $100,000 in disaster relief to Japan, KCNA said.

What prompted this act of "generosity" on Kim Jong-Il's part? Forgiveness or compassion for Korea's former foe? Hardly. Why not show everyone what truly humane man he is? If this meaningless stunt was meant to avert the world's gaze at his atrocities, no one is buying it!



Because he's Ezra Levant:

Saturday was so-called Earth Hour, a publicity stunt created by the World Wildlife Fund where enthusiasts were supposed to stop using electricity for an hour. Only a rich, luxuriant society would fetishize poverty and want. Japan is still rebuilding; there are still parts of that country where electricity is not back on. They are in a permanent state of Earth Hour deprivation — not as some fashion statement but because of a tragedy. How is that state of despair a morally commendable situation?

It was human development, industry, capitalism, electricity — and in Japan’s case, safe nuclear power — that has made the difference between their more modest death toll and the 230,000 who died in Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami in 2004, or the 220,000 who died last year in Haiti. Haiti’s earthquake was less than 1% as powerful; it was their lack of industrial development that made it so deadly.

Is that really the state of affairs we want to be worshipped on Earth Day? For centuries, guilty, rich, white liberals have professed their admiration for the “noble savage” — an unspoiled man, typically in a pre-industrial civilization, not yet spoiled by our modern ways or troubles.

It’s a fantasy, it’s condescending, it’s political psychotherapy for the idle rich who feel guilty about how easy their own lives are, and who are clearly looking for some spiritual meaning they themselves lack. But in a world where there are enough natural threats to man’s happiness and longevity, fetishizing primitive economies is a suicidal fetish.

Yes!


Would any of the "thoughtful" eco-bots care to trade places with the poor people of Japan? They live in the dark; they are now destitute and hungry. Isn't that what Earth Hour is all about- being without the necessities of life like ready electricity and running water?



Just ONE of the reasons why Earth Hour and its fetid cousin, Earth Day, are a joke.



Why speaking skills matter.



Hideaki Akaiwa: Last Action Hero.

Celebrity Apartheid Week: the Wrapping Up

What a perfect way to nix the utterly pointless Earth Hour than with a special announcement: it's Leonard Nimoy's birthday.

Live long and prosper. Predictable but heartfelt.

Have we learned anything from Celebrity Apartheid Week? Probably nothing more than what we already knew but still bears repeating. Celebrities have, for whatever reason, put themselves on a pedestal with the help of people who can't see beyond what the famous are truly like.


Maybe next year, there will be something more to say.


Bit it won't be nice.

Celebrity Apartheid Week: Celebrities and the Stupid Things They Crusade For

This is where we see celebrities' stupidity shine.


Whether it's "winning without war" or  boycotting Israel, celebrities must enjoy being on the wrong side of things because they usually are.


As there are SO many examples (like Palin-baiting, not being a doctor but playing one on TV and palling around with dictators), I'll have to gloss over a few.


It's irrelevant to mention one's right to express one's opinion, even if it is outrageously stupid. This is not at issue. The issue is using one's status as a reason for validity and ultimately adoption. Why should I support saving rain forests because a celebrity read an article about it and now thinks he or she is an expert? Can I not form an opinion on my own? Or simply, I'm not paying for a movie ticket or using up an hour of my life watching some TV show just to be cluncked on the head by some hack writers' liberal politics and the face that utters their illogical dreck. When I form an opinion, I do so on my own. My upbringing gave me the wherewithal to do so. The arrogant presumption that I can learn only from some flash-in-the-pan is most galling. Yet, for some reason, the vapid masses cling to a celebrity's misguided sentiment as a commandment of sorts.


At least try to look to a higher being.


And there is a being much higher than Hollywood wags.


Cases in point (the wags, that is):


Artists United to Win Without War and its folly:

It is in the very heart of Hollywood, as misguided and self-serving as it is, to march in the streets, to make movies about their positions, and to yell like banshees: “War is not the answer!” The problem with Hollywood celebrities shouting anti-war babble is their inability to ask the question, “Without war, where would Hollywood be?”

War IS money.


Does anyone really believe celebrities banded together and pooled their knowledge of  international military engagements and conflict management to form one cohesive and well-informed group of valid political action? NO!  These are celebrities, not members of a think tank. If they actually lived where everyone else did, they wouldn't say half of the stupid things they do! Armed with their naivety and liberalism (or is liberalism a form of naivety? Another topic for another time), their dashed hopes pinned on one man must have put them in a spin.

Obama, why hast thou forsaken us?!

Case two: Israel is the whipping boy of the uninformed:

Kiss’ Israeli-born singer-musician Gene Simmons is shouting out loud at the string of musicians who refuse to perform in his homeland.


“They’re fools,” the legendary bassist told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, on his first return to Israel since leaving the country as a child more than 50 years ago...

Simmons had harsh words for musicians like Elvis Costello and the Pixies who have recently canceled concerts to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has gone further, joining an organized movement dedicated to boycotting Israel and its exports, though he appeared in Israel in 2006.

“The countries they should be boycotting are the same countries that the populations are rebelling,” he said. “People long to be free ... And they sure as hell don’t want somebody who’s a ruler who hasn’t been elected by them.”

It's bad enough that someone like Ryan Murphy doesn't realise how damn lucky he is not have gravel shoved in his mouth by a bunch of child-killing morons, it's quite another when other artists just jump on a band wagon. The Palestinians have Gaza and Jordan, rely on Israeli doctors to heal the children they will soon turn into walking bombs and Israel has the problem? How rich!



Then we have the self-esteem mavens:

Lady Gaga's mission to create a more tolerant culture extends to everyone, even much-maligned YouTube sensation Rebecca Black.

Black, a 13-year-old whose heavily Auto-Tuned single, ' Friday,' has generated an overwhelmingly negative response from Internet users across the world, is getting some unlikely support from Mother Monster herself.

During the Q+A section of 'Google Goes Gaga,' the 'Born This Way' singer said, "I say Rebecca Black is a genius and that anybody telling her she's cheesy is full of s**t."
Countless critics have panned 'Friday,' penned by Ark Music Factory, calling it everything from the "worst song ever" to "the most appalling thing on the Internet," leaving Black feeling "cyber-bullied."

Gaga, who has been outspoken in her anti-bullying efforts, admitting that she herself was bullied at school, said of the dangers of our highly critical and tech-savvy culture, "I, too, am a child of the dot-com era... That's the thing about fame that is difficult because if you screw up ... Google. It's there."

Well, Lady Gaga, we can't all be Ella Fitzgerald or Astrud Gilberto. You know, people who could actually sing. Maybe telling this girl to keep on trucking with a fledgling singing career is a bad idea. A really bad idea. Perhaps it would be better if she directed her abilities in another direction. Maybe she's good at science. I don't know. I'm just saying you're as bad at being a careers counselor as you are a fashion model wearing discarded pizza boxes while attempting to belt out an entirely forgettable tune.


This might seem like a convenient answer but, really, the dissolution of older and tried and true values only to replace them with the decadence and stupidity is the root of what we are seeing now. How else could mediocre talents earn fabulous but fleeting fortunes or actors turn themselves into idols?

Celebrity Apartheid Week: The Happenings

Already in medias res.


First, some good news: it's William Shatner's birthday.

The bad news, Elizabeth Taylor has passed away.

Just one of her sixty-five costumes. (sigh)

Celebrity Apartheid Week: Some People Aren't Big Bullies....

... just big girls' blouses.


Case in point: Ryan Murphy, progenitor of the truly awful show, Glee. What amount of time would a right-thinking individual spend watching scrawny teen-agers belt out crappier versions of crappy songs on a weekly basis? And why? It's not reflective of reality and it certainly isn't enjoyable. Remember when Jane Lynch was in Best in Show and A Mighty Wind? Why did she sell out? What did Ryan Murphy promise her? It can't have been the hilarity of the movies she's been in.


What a hack Murphy is!


And an insolent whiner and a cringer, apparently. Ryan Murphy thinks that not only should everyone watch his show (the UN-mirror of the real teen-aged world) but self-respecting artists should donate their hard work for his audio butchery. This article says it best:

Glee is the worst show on television, and its creator Ryan Murphy is the most unabashed bigot in television.  We saw Kathy Griffin portray an egregious Tea Party stereotype last week (and, remember– this character was supposed to highlight Murphy’s “inclusiveness” toward conservatives), and Murphy has continued this winning trend by making friends and influencing people mouthing off about artists who have actually created the popular music he parasitically exploits.  I’m sensing a pattern here; anyone who dares to challenge Murphy gets publicly insulted, even with hateful portrayals on his show (including shockingly racist ones– but more on that later).

I will admit, when it was first announced, I looked forward to the show, because it was promoted as an offbeat comedy featuring Jane Lynch, who’s normally hilarious, but it’s nothing of the sort.  This is a soap opera of the worst kind– it’s the ultimate wet dream for the kind of people who actually believe that gays should be more outraged at high school bullies than Shariah-ordered executions.  

(Sidebar: tell me about it)

It’s nothing but blatant wish fulfillment for TV executives who are at the top of the world but can’t get over some hangup from high school. Your glee club wasn’t that great and didn’t get any funding in school?  Aww, poor baby, let’s make a show where everyone in the glee club would be a final contestant on American Idol! You got picked on in high school?  That’s okay, you can write a show where the homophobic bully is secretly gay!  Don’t like Christians opposing gay marriage? No worries; we’ll just create a stupid, belligerent, superstitious, overweight, violent black character to mock them...

And, even worse, it’s a musical.  Not a musical in the sense that characters express themselves through songs– it’s a musical where the characters extraneously break into glammed-up, severely auto-tuned covers of hit pop songs.  It’s all about leeching off the success of those who create in the music world…
… and some in that world have begun to publicly denounce it.

When the band Kings of Leon quietly rejected a request to license their music to the show, Murphy shot backhim “arts education.”  Slash of Guns ‘n’ Roses rightly dissed the show as an insult to musicals, and Murphy tactfully declared, “people who make those comments, their careers are over; they’re uneducated and quite stupid.”  That’s odd, because the rather popular and prolific Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz didn’t have nice things to say about Glee, either.  Nor does Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters:  ”f— that guy for thinking anybody and everybody should want to do Glee.” by telling the band “F— you,” calling them “self-centered a–holes,” then accusing them of the unforgivable sin of neglecting


I’m glad that a Glee backlash is building in the music community; Murphy is little more than a bully with simultaneous messiah and victim complexes.  A normal, well-adjusted adult would recognize that not 100% of the music community is going to want to hear its work turned into pitch-corrected teenybopper jams and accept the fact that not 100% of his licensing requests will be accepted.  However, Murphy interprets these as insults, not only against him but against his mission, as if a vapid primetime soap opera is crucial to “arts education” in America (“Allow me to butcher your songs… it’s for the children!”).

Wow. Just wow. The show is not satire, it's outright insulting. Satire involve wit and subtlety. Where is the satire in lampooning an angry black Christian who hates math (because, apparently, all Christians hate math)? That's just a disgusting caricature. No, it's worse, actually. She is, however, just one in a gallery of travesties. It's like lining up duck decoys to shoot. "Don't like that one- bang."



Oh no! Gun imagery! Even the word "gun" kills!



The show and its desecrated songs are not amusing. It's electronica noise. And it's helmed by some annoying twit of a person who is simply incapable of adult behaviour. An adult (assuming he was stupid enough to even conceive of this show in the first place) would just accept rejection and move on. Not Murphy, though. I can just see an enormous infant pumping his fists into the air and yelping until he turn purple. If there is anyone who deserves acidic backlash, it's Ryan Murphy.

Celebrity Apartheid Week

Why not start a new tradition, a new week and the seven hundredth post with Celebrity Apartheid Week?

Don't look directly at it!

Is there any one group of people who deserve a week more than celebrities? You know celebrities - the people who, by pure virtue of their seemingly flawless features, demand some sort of regard for being in a TV show or movie, or having the most downloaded MP3. For one or all of those reasons, they believe they deserve respect for being the intellectual giants they aren't and wonder why people aren't chiming onto their alleged political prowess. Don't give me this nonsense that so-and-so gave money to this or that charity, and that you read so in a magazine. Yes, the celebrity in question got his or her reward. This person was in a magazine being seen doing something humanitarian by a vast and vapid audience. That sense of emotional warmth is not from digging a well, I can tell you.


Yes, there are good performers but there are also divas who crave attention like the cat that sits in front of the computer. But at least you can shoo the cat away.

Is that Jennifer Aniston's new hair do? No, it's just another cat.

Why do we value celebrities? Rather, why do we elevate celebrities above people and things that actually matter (ie- God, family, health, major world events)? Surely a major world occurrence is far more important than how this tart starlet does her hair or what some talentless hack with the voice of a choking hamster is wearing this time. This goes above and beyond admiring a well-made film. We've replaced higher and more sophisticated things with them.



How awful we are for giving them the time of day.


Let's start with something timely: where is Hollywood's overly visual relief for Japan?

The entertainment industry has rallied en masse following some of the world’s most devastating recent tragedies, organizing relief efforts for survivors of 9/11, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina, and last year’s earthquake in Haiti. The latter crisis alone prompted — mere days after the disaster — a star-studded charity telethon spearheaded by George Clooney and Wyclef Jean and which raised $57 million for the stricken nation. So why, in the wake of last week’s 9.0 magnitude Japan earthquake — and its resulting tsunami and nuclear crisis — have we heard so little from Hollywood this time around?

A week after the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami claimed over 6,000 lives (over 10,000 people are still reported missing), destroyed entire cities and ravaged a nuclear power plant to meltdown, no concerted group relief effort has been made in Hollywood. 

Instead, we’ve witnessed individual efforts varying from sympathy tweets to calls for donations via text message (which totaled $2.8 million by Wednesday, according to the American Red Cross) to personal contributions on the part of filmmakers, actors, musicians and corporations. Some celebrities got creative with their support: Lady Gaga began selling “We pray for Japan” bracelets soon after disaster struck, and has raised a reported $250,000 to date. Director Chris Weitz announced early in the week that  he’d donate $1 for every Tweet he posted in the month of March — and he’s been Tweeting up a storm. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda designed two charity T-shirts, one of which is emblazoned with the words, “Not alone.” And even before Sandra Bullock stepped up yesterday to publicly announce a personal pledge of $1 million to the American Red Cross, Charlie Sheen promised that $1 of every ticket sold for his upcoming “Violent Torpedo of Truth” tour (which has sold out all of its dates, often in a matter of minutes) would go to the Japanese cause. A number of media corporations including Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. have pledged their support as well.

But in the general populace, as in Hollywood, there seems to be a hesitation to collectively jump to arms. Does America have relief fatigue?
 
Consider that in the wake of Haiti, dozens of celebrities announced significant personal contributions to charity, leading the cause by example. With her $1 million pledge to Red Cross, Bullock remains the lone major Hollywood figure publicly doing the same for Japan. Veteran publicist Michael Levine points to differing perceptions of Haiti and Japan on the scale of global power — i.e., Japan isn’t some poverty-stricken, underdeveloped country — as an explanation as to why image-conscious celebrities haven’t stepped up as urgently.

Aren't the Japanese "Katrina" enough? Is there no George Bush to hate?



Anyone in need is a charity case, whether at home or abroad. Japan, as a First World nation of non-looters, doesn't seem dramatic enough. I would consider losing one's home, freezing and starving in the dark, and a possible meltdown to be pretty dramatic. The support so far is quite generous and certainly needed. But there is no sense of urgency, no sense of cause celebre. Where are these moral vanguards of Hollywood when you need them?


Indeed, what would happen to Veena Malik (hat tip: BFC) if she pulled this stunt again? We know from the South Park debacle, 24, indeed, virtually any TV show or movie how apologetic Hollywood is to Islamofascists.  Who would have her back? Who is brave enough to risk a starring role in a soon-to-be panned sequel and say: "I stand with Veena Malik against Pakistani imams who preach lunacy and hatred"? I don't mean saying anything politically correct or innocuous. Where is their courage (unlike here and may I say it's about time)? I mean really give Islamofascists a black eye (figurative because anything else would be "barbaric"). If one can "bravely" attack the Catholic Church, Sarah Palin or George Bush, surely one can go toe-to-toe with prudish imam.


Speaking of Sarah Palin (they made her a celebrity when they tried looking up her skirt), she was in Israel:

Former American vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin expressed support for Jews praying openly on the Temple Mount on a visit to the Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday, officials who accompanied Palin said.

Palin and her husband Todd arrived for a two-day visit on Sunday afternoon and toured the Western Wall and its adjacent tunnels. They will visit the Old City again on Monday, tour Gesthsemane and the Mount of Olives, and have dinner with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara at their official residence in Jerusalem.

  

(Sidebar:  two Sarahs are better than one.)




Further:

World Likud chairman and Likud MK Danny Danon and Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz served as Palin’s tour guides on Sunday night. Palin was told that Jews were not allowed to pray openly on the Temple Mount and about the Arab riots that accompanied Netanyahu’s decision to authorize the creation of an exit from the Western Wall tunnels in 1996.

“Why are you apologizing all the time?” Palin asked her guides.

Palin expressed regret that she would not be able to visit Nazareth or Bethlehem during her brief stay in Israel, but promised that she would soon come back for longer.

“It’s overwhelming to be able to see and touch the cornerstone of our faith,” Palin told reporters upon exiting the tunnels. “I’m so thankful to be able to be here, and I’m thankful to know the Israel-American connection will grow and strengthen as the peace negotiations continue.”

Rabinowitz said that Palin prayed at the point closest to the Holy of Holies and left a note with a personal prayer. Unlike the incident that occurred when then-presidential candidate Barack Obama visited the Western Wall in July 2008, nobody removed her note from the Wall and gave it to the press.

“She said that she absolutely supports Israel and that America is the biggest friend that Israel has,” Rabinowitz said.

When Rabinowitz shared the story of Purim with Palin, she told him it was especially meaningful to be at the Kotel on Purim.

Danon said that Palin’s visit to the Western Wall Tunnels was very exciting.

“She really connected to the story of the Jewish nation,” Danon said. “She knows the material but there’s nothing like standing in front of those big stones and hearing about the connection. I know that she loves Israel, and after a visit like this, she has a personal connection to the Western Wall.”

 

(hat tip: this guy)




Oh look- an  American politician who loves Israel. If only the man in charge did.




Mrs. Palin asked: "why are you apologizing all the time?"  Indeed. Why are they? Why does Obama apologise for America? What  is there to apologise for? 


And finally....



No, you can't make sense of the earthquake:

Hundreds of people at a Vancouver church offered prayers and donations Sunday for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, as they were told not even religion could explain the unspeakable tragedy that has befallen the east Asian country.

The 130-year-old Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in downtown Vancouver held a service Sunday afternoon that alternated between English and Japanese, bringing together Japanese-Canadians, members of other local Anglican congregations and people from outside the faith — many still coming to grips with the devastation unfolding across the Pacific.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami have together killed at least 8,600 people, with nearly 13,000 still missing and another 452,000 living in shelters. They have also sparked a continuing crisis at the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant which has been leaking radiation since the natural disasters.

Sunday's service began with the thunderous rhythm of a Japanese taiko drum as a candle-lit procession entered the packed cathedral. Next to the pulpit at the front of the church stood a cherry blossom tree adorned with dozens of colourful, hand-made paper cranes.

Bishop Michael Ingham told the audience that disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are examples of "natural evil," which happen randomly and can't be explained by any divine plan.

"Natural evil is the result of things over which we have no control — earthquakes, tsunamis," Ingham said during the 90-minute service.

"We call them evil because they are evil. They wreak havoc upon the innocent and the defenceless. ... Natural evil is random. It is not planned. It afflicts us without reason and without human deserving."

No wonder people are leaving in droves.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

A wonderful, glorious day when only a few are Irish.



Just the facts.


What "Riverdance" would look like if it had teddy bears.





A little light reading before the heavy drinking.


Enjoy.

An Open Letter from Japan to China

Dear China,


It's been a while since we've last written but you'll understand since we've been up to our knees in human misery and flood water. I mean- it's not easy cleaning up after a horrific earthquake and tsunami. Most of our buildings are built to withstand earthquakes and your schools aren't.


Anyway, we'd feel awfully amiss if we didn't comment on this (trust us- the emphasis is all ours):

China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.

When MGM decided a few years ago to remake "Red Dawn," a 1984 Cold War drama about a bunch of American farm kids repelling a Soviet invasion, the studio needed new villains, since the U.S.S.R. had collapsed in 1991. The producers substituted Chinese aggressors for the Soviets and filmed the movie in Michigan in 2009.

But potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies, not to mention other U.S. products.

As a result, the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from "Red Dawn," substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake.

The changes illustrate just how much sway China's government has in the global entertainment industry, even without uttering a word of official protest. Although it's unclear if anyone in China has seen "Red Dawn," a leaked version of the script last year resulted in critical editorials in the Global Times, a communist party-controlled paper.

 


Are you kidding us?


Seriously.


North Korea- a nation of about 22 million starving people, save Kim Fatty and the chubby lad he wants to replace him, a nation with either a non-existent or rusty infrastructure, is the lead villain, the invading force in the remake of Red Dawn.



Next thing you'll be telling us is that you are nothing like the despots in the Middle East and northern Africa or that you won't be selling pirated copies of this anywhere.



Now, we can tolerate a remake or two and there is the willing suspension of disbelief but this takes the cake and steps on it. There is NO way you can convince even the most bovine teen-ager that North Korea is a viable or realistic movie villain. Do you think no one has seen Team America? And that you're willing to let your lapdog take the fall for you says so much about your opinion of them. Tsk-tsk.



What it must be like to have the power to censor something without lifting a finger.


We suppose it's more Hollywood's fault than yours but you are still not off the hook (not that we expect anything out of Hollywood).



We'll come up with something. That's the great thing about living in a free (albeit somewhat innovatively-stunted) country. You can come up with anything, produce it, sell it and make a billion yen.



Tell that to your slave-drivers who own the factories.


Yours' in celluloid,


Japan

We think that says: "America, we have better posters than you do." We're not sure.

Saint Patrick's Day Week: The Dawn of Green

The dawn of something yet to come.


Like drinking.


A biography of Saint Patrick.


Moving on....


Please note the wording of this:

One of three mail bombs sent to Indonesians blamed for "sins against Islam" wounded four people when police detonated it, a new threat coming as religious intolerance rises in the world's most populous Muslim country.

The bomb that exploded was addressed to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the founder of the U.S.-funded Islamic Liberal Network, which has long promoted a tolerant, open form of the faith through radio shows, the Internet, discussion groups and publications.

The low-intensity devices delivered Tuesday were placed in a hole carved into a heavy book titled: "They should be killed for their sins against Islam and the Muslims."

A note with the bomb asked Abdalla, who was not in his office at the time, to name those who should top the "hit list."

The explosion wounded four people, including the policeman who lost his left hand trying to defuse the device....

"This is clearly a terror attack," said Anton Bachrul Alam, spokesman for the national police, after video of the officer's attempt was aired on local television.

"We're still investigating to see who was behind this," he said, refusing to speculate if Islamic hard-liners were to blame....

Hard-liners seeking to carve out an Islamic state in the secular nation of 237 million have in recent months targeted Christians and other minorities, sometimes beating people with bamboo sticks and machetes.

Indonesia, home to more than 210 million mostly moderate Muslims, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks blamed on the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah since 2002, when suicide bombings on Bali island killed 202 people.

I am confused. I thought Islam was already a tolerant, open religion hijacked by only a few extremists. Who would send a mail bomb? A rational person? Did the report not say that: "They should be killed for their sins against Islam and the Muslims." Did a Buddhist group send this? Attacks against foreigners and Indonesian Christians have been common in the world's most populous Islamic country which, by some accounts, is secular and open, or were those reports wrong?


When our attention was diverted, four journalists went missing in Libya and supporters of the current regime in Yemen "peacefully" attacked demonstrators.


It's called a private business. Find someone else to decorate your circus.


And now, some happy news from Japan:  a man is reunited with his dog (and it feels so good), dog friends don't leave dog friends behind and a woman is pleased to see her cat again. This proves the strength of human/pet bonds, the humanity we should feel for our fellow man and how Japanese cats and dogs are above looting, just like Japanese humans.

Saint Patrick's Day Week: The Clovering

Saint Patrick at the party.

Uh-oh.



However....


And....

Perhaps more successfully than any other people of the world, the Japanese have evolved a social system capable of ensuring order and good behavior. The vast reservoir of social strength brought Japan through the devastation of World War II, compared to which even the massive problems currently afflicting it, are relatively small. Japan has sustained a major blow, but its robust social order will endure, and ultimately thrive.

Read the whole thing.



If female mutilation and honour killings are not barbaric, then what are they?

An updated government information pamphlet for newcomers to Canada, “Discover Canada,” warns against such “barbaric” practices as honour killings, forced marriages and other immoral or criminal practices. Federal Liberal Immigration critic Justin Trudeau yesterday made it known that he is “uncomfortable” with the word “barbaric.” “You could say it’s absolutely unacceptable as a phrase,” says Trudeau, adding that the word could have the effect of making newcomers “defensive.”

Reaction from the blogosphere, as well as from Conservatives, to Trudeau’s reflexive political correctness was swift and uncompromising. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney responded that the language in Discover Canada is deliberate and accurate. “There’s nothing more brutal than killing a woman because of some perceived slight to family honour,” Mr. Kenney observed.


Taken aback by the kerfuffle, Mr. Trudeau backtracked. In an email to The Globe and Mail, he wrote: “Perhaps I got tangled in semantic weeds in my comments, particularly in view of the Conservatives’ cynicism on these issues. I want to make clear that I think the acts described are heinous, barbaric acts that are totally unacceptable in our society.”

I’m puzzled by Trudeau’s logic. Both Justin Trudeau and the Conservatives believe that honour killings are “barbaric.” But according to Mr. Trudeau, the Conservatives’ views on immigration are “cynical.” Therefore, actually identifying honour-motivated crimes as “barbaric” in an official document is unacceptable to people like Liberals, who are not cynical about immigration, and who are therefore made uncomfortable by accurate adjectives pointing to unpleasant realities.

This Trudeau is a disaster just like his dear, old dad.


Why one would have to explain things like killing is wrong is still a mystery to me.



The sharks are eating each other. By that I mean the couple accused of elder abuse want separate lawyers and a bail review:

The Scarborough couple accused of keeping an elderly woman in a barely heated garage for months this winter have hired separate counsel and could end up blaming each other for the charges, according to one of their lawyers.

Kwong Yan, 43, and his wife, Qi Tan, 28, appeared via video link Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom.

The two face charges of failure to provide the necessities of life and criminal negligence causing bodily harm after Mr. Yan’s 68-year-old mother was found this month suffering from pneumonia and frostbite in the garage.


Ms. Tan’s lawyer, Haiyun Wang, said Ms. Tan and her husband decided to have their own lawyers in the case because of a possible conflict of interest when the matter goes to trial.

Unbelievable.


If Christopher Pauchay and Caledonia have taught us anything, it's that aboriginals can get away with crime:

Sentencing of a Winnipeg woman who admitted smashing a baby's head on a sidewalk has been adjourned pending a report into her background, including her native ancestry, which could be used by her lawyers to argue for a more lenient penalty.

Nikita Solange Eaglestick, 22, has admitted snatching a stranger's baby and causing the girl's injury in 2009.

Eaglestick was set to begin her trial Monday but instead struck a deal with justice officials. She pleaded guilty to abduction, assault causing bodily harm and failing to comply with a court order to abstain from intoxicants stemming from the attack in Winnipeg's north end.

In exchange, the Crown agreed to drop a more serious charge of attempted murder.
The background report, which could be used to argue for lenciency, is based on a previous Supreme Court ruling.

Forget about the kid who was nearly beaten to death. Forget about the greater interests of justice. Hell, forget about treating every single person the same.


Why elevate the aboriginal person to the status of a human being with flaws and perfections when one can easily excuse their behaviour as one might shake his or her head at a puppy who gnaws on shoes?

"...Like all savages they are liars, and certainly would not scruple at the utterance of any falsehood which might, in their opinion, shield them from the vengeance of the white man."

There, that's better. Continue perpetuating the myth of the "noble savage". Why be progressive and treat them the same as anyone else who would batter a child? Why be progressive and afford aboriginal children the same protections as other children?


No. That's asking too much. It's just easier to carry on with soft-serve racism, especially at the expense of justice for all.


Someone needs to be air-lifted to a reservation:

A beautiful house and a new car or truck are considered by many Canadians to be basic necessities. Unfortunately, First Nation people have been relegated to the worst areas of their territories and denied a rightful share of their own resources as well as the royalties. Band councils instituted by governments are but mirror images of those imperialistic institutions and do not reflect traditional First Nation leadership roles, where the respect of the people was earned by selfless acts of service and sacrifice.

Monetarily inflated bureaucracies spawned these puppet-government band councils. When it comes to accusations of serfdom, let's connect the dots properly. We need to set a proper example for our First Nations. Only then can we expect First Nation leaders to be accountable to their own people.

So the reason why aboriginal chiefs stole from and exploited their own people is because "the white man" didn't offer a better example.


Okay.


Because he's Mark Steyn:

On Friday night, twelve-year old Tamar Fogel came home to find both her parents, Ruth and Udi Fogel, two brothers Yoav (11) and Elad (four), and her three-month old sister Hadas murdered in their beds. They had had their throats cut and been stabbed through the heart.

That’s not shocking: There is no shortage of young Muslim men who would enjoy slitting the throat of a three-month old baby, and then head home dreaming of the town square or soccer tournament to be named in their honor.

Back in Gaza, the citizenry celebrated the news by cheering and passing out sweets.

That’s not shocking, either: In the broader Palestinian death cult, there are untold legions who, while disinclined to murder Jews themselves, are content to revel in the glorious victory of others.

And out in the wider world there was a marked reluctance to cover the story.

What is everyone waiting for? We can't wait to give the Palestinians a state of their own. Surely we can comment on the murder of a family.


While no one was looking, the UN introduced a no-fly zone over Libya resolution. Russia, of course, has "misgivings". There should be some punitive measure every time Russia defends its customers allies to the impediment of the rest of the thinking, feeling world.



And now, penguins can fly, have heart, and freaky gloves.

Celebrity Apartheid Week

The people have spoken (please see the poll).


Celebrities deserve their own apartheid week.


Next week will be Celebrity Apartheid Week.


Let everyone know that next week, we normal people will take back the night or fight on or wear ribbons or whatever it takes to raise awareness about the utter evil and banality or banal evil of celebrities.


Don't worry, normal people. You're not alone.

It's not always about you, you know.

Saint Patrick's Day Week: the Greening

Just think- in three days we'll celebrate the feast day of just one of the saints who rescued Ireland from darkness and illiteracy.


Awesome.


Things really don't look good for Japan right now.


Some happy news: a tsunami victim is rescued 10 miles out to sea:

A 60-year-old man has been found on the roof of his floating house nearly 10 miles out at sea, two days after the tsunami that devastated the north-east coast of Japan.

Hiromitsu Shinkawa must have resigned himself to his fate when he was swept away by the retreating tsunami that roared ashore in his home town of Minami Soma in Fukushima prefecture.

As the wave approached, Shinkawa took the fateful decision to return home to collect belongings. Minutes later he was out at sea clinging to a piece of the roof from his own home.

Incredibly, he was spotted by a maritime self-defence force destroyer taking part in the rescue effort as he clung to the wreckage with one hand and waved a self-made red flag with the other. He had been at sea for two days.

Something to think about:

Japan is not Haiti, and how do I know? Well, I was living just outside of Kobe when the monstrous jishin (earthquake) hit in January 1995 and virtually destroyed the center of a major Japanese city, killing 6,600 people covering a 20-mile swath. I was right in the middle. Down the street from where I lived, a seven-story apartment building ended up being four stories. My next door neighbor died from a collapsed roof. When the quake hit, I thought it was a bomb going off.

Here's what didn't happen:

~There was no looting or breaking into food stores.
~There was no time for trying to blame anyone.
~There was no one cutting in the front of the line to get water.
~There were no calls to lawyers.

Here is what did happen:

~The people in the Kobe area were not waiting around for a US aircraft carrier.
~The military was deployed immediately to dig and search.
~The Yakuza (Japanese mafia) were the early suppliers of medical supplies and food (they had the connections and the means to get the materials to the folks).
~Within days, temporary housing was being constructed all over the area.
~Within days, portable showers and toilet facilities were set up all over the area.
~Within days, supermarkets were opened, and the queues stretched endlessly as they could only let a few people in the stores at a time. There was no anger, yelling, blaming, looting, or cutting-in-front.
~Within hours, clean-up began by everyone— students, teachers, seniors, Yakuza, politicians. Everyone seemed to be contributing in some way.

As a foreigner, I was treated like everyone else, and by the time I left Japan four years later, I would say 90% of the entire city of Kobe had been rebuilt (and consider that New York has been unable to erect a couple of building at Ground Zero now for going on 10 years).

So like I said, Japan is not Haiti— nor New Orleans. They don't need us…That is not to say they would not be unappreciative of any assistance, but probably the best thing we can do is provide portable medical facilities, staffing (if requested), and search-sniffing dogs.

Japan has avoided mob rule and the Kanye West babbling moron mode.

"George Bush doesn't like Japanese people."

Related:


Japan's Resilience.


Also related: South Korean soap opera actors care about their afflicted fans in Japan (that's nice of them).


Canadian doctors are shocked that parents would choose what they think is best for their ill child.


I have an idea: let's cut Pakistan off:

The UK’s most senior Catholic has hit out at the British Foreign Secretary for operating an “anti-Christian foreign policy”. Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s comments come as the UK Government announced plans to double overseas aid to Pakistan to more than £445 million, without requiring any commitment to religious freedom for Christians.
Earlier this month the only Christian in the Pakistani government’s cabinet, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot dead by gunmen in Islamabad. He had previously spoken out against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Noting the various attacks on Christians, the Cardinal said that conditions should be attached to any aid payments, requiring a definite commitment to protection for Christians and other religious minorities – including Shia Muslims.
Cardinal O’Brien’s comments come on the day a new audit of human rights reveals that;

75% of all religious persecution around the world is now directed against Christians.
 
100 million Christians around the world are now facing persecution

Now.


Because we can't forget Sarah Palin:

Politico's lead story on the Monday following Japan's earthquake leads with "Al Sharpton, Alaska version," and goes on to attack the former Alaska Governor for defending herself from the relentless mud-slinging thinly disguised as enlightened political rhetoric.

Did Politico forget about the devastating earthquake in Japan? How? Seriously- it's on, like, every channel. Is attacking one American political figure more important an enormous seismic event?


Unreal.


And now, bad St. Patrick's Day cakes. Really bad.

Saint Patrick's Day Week: The Greenhouse Effect

Not really. (though some sure thought it)

Not only did Japan suffer one of its worst earthquakes since it recorded them but now a volcano has erupted.


Pictures of the devastation.


The recent earthquake in Japan actually shifted the Earth four inches on its axis.


Just so we remember, Israel has its own apartheid week and the Palestinians who murder families in their sleep and hand out candy after the fact want a state of their own.


The world has taken crazy pills.


The Khadrs can take their brand of terrorism to people who value human life a lot less than we do:

A terrorist collaborator is walking the streets because a Canadian judge wrongly decided to stay extradition proceedings against him, the federal government asserts.

In documents filed with Ontario's highest court ahead of an appeal hearing, Ottawa maintains Abdullah Khadr should be handed over to the United States to face terror-related charges.

Instead, by ordering the stay, Ontario Supreme Court Justice Christopher Speyer put Canada's security at risk and damaged the fight against terrorism, the government argues on behalf of the U.S.

"Because of the extradition judge's errors, an admitted al-Qaida collaborator walks free," the documents state. "The security of Canada and the international community is put at risk, Canada's fight against terrorism is undermined, and the interests of justice are not served."

The U.S. wants to try the Ottawa-born Khadr, whose younger brother Omar is serving time in Guantanamo Bay for war crimes, on charges of supplying weapons to al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Unbelievable.


Because he's Rex Murphy:

IAW — as, alas, most know — is the annual festival of scorn and propaganda against the world’s only Jewish state, a yearl attempt to depict Israel as being in the same moral sewer as South Africa in the days of apartheid.

IAW tries to do much with big words like apartheid and genocide and racism, where they really do not apply at all. Israel is not perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinians. Nor is Israel a racist state.

Yet in cases where some of those big words might actually have applied — such as Saddam and the marsh Arabs, which is why I summoned the example — these campus activists forwent anything like a campaign equivalent to their tireless, annual, and at times feral denunciations of Israel.

Did I miss Saudi Arabian Gender Apartheid Week? Or let’s take another example: This very week in Libya, there is a zealous tyrant turning fire on his own people. Is there, or has there ever been, a Gaddafi Apartheid Week or its equivalent anywhere?

Even as injustices multiply against Christians in various Middle East countries, as Egypt roils with sectarian outrage, why is there not the same righteous fury that grips all the groups who annually appoint themselves scourges of the “Zionist entity” against the perpetrators of those depravities? Their moralism is so singular.

Rumsfeld obviously doesn’t deal with Israeli Apartheid Week in his book. But his whole way of thinking, as exemplified in the memoirs, shows a pattern of seeking contrasts and posing questions to highlight inconsistency or failed logic. By just such a method may we diagnose the brittle hysterias of anti-Israelism now on display.

It is an inverted moral calculus that tries to persuade the world to demonize one state that tries its civilized best to abide in a difficult time and place, and rides merrily by the examples and practices of dozens of states and leaderships that drop into brutality every day without a twinge of regret or a whisper of condemnation.

What he said.


Letters to the editor:


An example of a pampered fool with a useless degree:

Three waves and 100 International Women Days later, and I am continually disappointed by those who say that the feminist movement is an unnecessary thorn in our collective sides. Feminists are either accused of destroying families with their radical agenda or of being divisive, interfering with "larger" progressive goals.

The problem being that, while the fights (and wins) of our first-and second-wave sisters were relatively perceptible -allowing for women today to exist within a seemingly liberated state -these freedoms exist almost as a veil which works to hide enduring inequity.

Today, feminists fight for choices that may not be as tangible as the vote, but are imperative to our freedom. 

We fight objectification, the racialization and feminization of poverty, victim blaming and violence against women. And we still fight for Women's Studies programs.

More than ever, we need feminism. After 100 years, feminism's reputation is, simultaneously, a cause for celebration as well as a significant challenge, as we fight stereotypes and vicious attacks. Yet it is not a hangover I feel, but rather the energy and inspiration that comes from a century of fighting for our lives and still believing that we can win.

I seriously feel that some people need to be air-lifted to one of the globe's hot-spots to either shake them out of their stupid illusions or just to let them fester from the rest of the thinking population. The above writer is one of those people.


I am not saying people should or shouldn't own guns, only that people should apply the higher brain functions their species possesses before declaring that someone is "GI Joe":

Re: Self-Defence Vs. GI Joes, letters to the editor, March 9; Or Will It Just Turn Middle-Aged Men Into GI Joes?, letter to the editor, March 7, Taking a stand against the home ownership of army-style weapons is bound to get certain people up in arms. However, may I suggest the Post is guilty of "piling on" by running four letters in response to mine? I don't know which study Gary Mauser uses to come up with his preposterous claim that "Canadians use firearms to defend themselves or their property against threats from humans or animals approximately 66,000 times per year" but I bet it doesn't emanate from that left-winginfiltrated organization, Statistics Canada. Perhaps I don't live in the same Canada as these guys do, but I want to remind them that the original GI Joe did not wield his weapons in a home setting. Any Canadian, without a criminal record, can go to a firing range and fire Joe's army rifles to his heart's delight.

Bingo:

I have just returned from working for a few months on a fly-in-only native reserve in northern Ontario. Most houses there were no better than one might expect to find in a Third World community, yet some were beautiful. Most that were beautiful had families living in them with close ties to band council members. In February, the council stopped the lunch program for the elementary school. Funds were not available.

Yet the band's council liaison had just brought back on the ice road a brand new four wheel drive truck. Knowing the cost of the lunch program, it was not hard for me to connect the dots. That new truck could have easily financed the lunch program for many months to come.

The average First Nations person most certainly needs taxpayers' funding, if not only to get them out from under the control of their elite band councils, but also to help them become part of our modern Canadian society and rid the reserves of what can best be described as a serfdom.

Transparency will simply be a first step.

And now, do cats dream of paper fish?