Friday Freakout

Today is Friday and Jack Layton is still dead.


Archbishop Ambrozic passed away this morning and a car bomb exploded outside a UN building in Nigeria but because that has nothing to do with Jack Layton, it doesn't matter.



In other news, the Japanese prime minister stepped down over criticism over the nuclear crisis in Fukushima. It is highly unlikely that he knew Jack Layton or that Jack Layton knew him.

The subdued wrath thereof.

British Columbians have voted to quash the unpopular HST. Not really Jack Layton material, I'm afraid.


Now back to Jack. It seems that's all anyone can talk about.


To be blunt at this time might seem like bad form but it all has to be said.


A sudden death or a death by cancer is a tragedy. There is no denying it. What makes Jack Layton's death of cancer more tragic than others eludes me. Are the deaths of children or young mothers of cancer to be overshadowed because they were never in the political spotlight?


Apparently so. If one were to believe the generous-girthed Libby Davis, Jack Layton "gave his life for his country" (I swear to God, she actually said this). That's laying it on thick, isn't it? What does that make the deaths in all the wars Canada has participated in? If the measure for selflessness is living on the taxpayer dime- as Mr. Layton did- and not helping to repel the advancing Americans, destroy the Nazi war machine, stem the human tide of Chinese communist soldiers along the Korean peninsula or stabilise Afghanistan, then we owe a debt of gratitude not to the battle-fallen but to the overfed civil servant. And what a dreadful thought that is. It's a good thing no right-thinking human being could possibly take Miss Davis' words seriously.



With "everybody's favourite uncle" bus tour winding down before his final repose with the vulgar and and intentionally inclusive funeral trappings that would make any Stalinist funeral pale by comparison, we have the outpouring of public grief. I think I find that more appalling. For however wretchedly opportunistic and opulent these displays for Comrade Jack may be, they are expected. What should not be expected is how grief and mourning have been made into a three-ring circus.


We no longer grieve with dignity. We used to internalise loss not because we feared public self-expression but because loss is so personal. We externalised it with prayer, a few kind words and the proper treatment of the deceased's remains. How can loss be so public? Does the loss of a loved one mean the same thing to other loved ones? Could it possibly mean anything to total strangers? Then why the need to weep and vulgarly so (vulgar can be the only world that comes near to expressing what one is seeing now) for someone one did not know at all? Feeling badly for an untimely death and for the ones left behind is natural. What is not natural is this perverse need for rancid amateur poetry, Chinese-made teddy bears, blubbering and lighting candles. It's a mockery of grief. It's making fun of someone's pain by making clownish gestures. It is scarring the need to understand and come to grips with own's one sense that someone cared about is no longer there. Time is the solace for grief, not quasi-pagan public shrines of mottled wax and scrap paper.



And now, all the stuff Indiana Jones gathered over his years of archeology and ark-finding.

Mid-Week Post

The crease of the week.

When Public Personality Deaths Go Bad

• tell the truth about something and get a backlash
• even in death, Jack Layton will stick it to the taxpayer
• rain washes away maudlin thoughts of random people 
• Jack Layton's "sainthood" 
• the CN Tower lights go orange

Because she's Christie Blatchford:

How fitting that his death should have been turned into such a thoroughly public spectacle, where from early morn Monday, television anchors donned their most funereal faces, producers dug out the heavy organ music, reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name only were proudly calling him “Jack” and even serious journalists like Evan Solomon of the CBC repeatedly spoke of the difficulty “as we all try to cope” with the news of Mr. Layton’s death.

By mid-day, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper had offered a few warm words about Mr. Layton’s death and rued that their oft-talked-about jam session had never happened, Mr. Solomon even expressed sniping surprise that “Jack Layton wasn’t the sole focus” of the Prime Minister’s remarks.

Mr. Harper, who clearly had not spent the day watching the national broadcaster and thus was unaware that the NDP Leader’s death was the only story of note, had gone on to mention the families of the 12 people (including six-year-old Cheyenne Eckalook; now there’s someone who died far too young) who perished in the Arctic plane crash on Saturday and the tumultuous events in Libya.

The PM in fact was one of a very few voices of reason to be found on the airwaves — he remembered Mr. Layton kindly and with evident regard, but he had perspective and did not fawn.

And what to make of that astonishing letter, widely hailed as Mr. Layton’s magnificent from-the-grave cri de coeur?

It was extraordinary, though it is not Mr. Solomon’s repeated use of that word that makes it so.

Rather, it’s remarkable because it shows what a canny, relentless, thoroughly ambitious fellow Mr. Layton was. Even on Saturday, two days before he died, he managed to keep a gimlet eye on all the campaigns to come.

The letter is full of such sophistry as “We can restore our good name in the world,” as though it is a given Canada has somehow lost that, bumper-sticker slogans of the “love is better than anger” ilk and ruthlessly partisan politicking (“You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together with progressive-minded Canadians across the country,” he said in the section meant for Quebecers).

The letter is vainglorious too.

Who thinks to leave a 1,000-word missive meant for public consumption and released by his family and the party mid-day, happily just as Mr. Solomon and his fellows were in danger of running out of pap? Who seriously writes of himself, “All my life I have worked to make things better”?

The letter was first presented as Mr. Layton’s last message to Canadians, as something written by him on his deathbed; only later was it more fully described as having been “crafted” with party president Brian Topp, Mr. Layton’s chief of staff Anne McGrath and his wife and fellow NDP MP Olivia Chow.

Mr. Layton wrote it, as Mr. Topp told Mr. Solomon, “in his beautiful, energy-retrofitted house” in downtown Toronto. These people never stop.

The truth like she can tell it!



Some perspective:

The slobbering over Layton by the media was unseemly but not unexpected. The media loves him, as I noted above, because he has taken out the time to spend with them. But they also love his causes: fadish big government, social liberalism, environmentalism, and the host of left-liberal issues that animate the NDP and the left-wing of the Liberal Party. Long before gay rights were popular, Jack Layton was trying to convince the city of Toronto to offer full spousal benefits for gay employees. That was in 1986. And, he said, if the city wasn't going to do it, it should stop offering any spousal benefits. His proposal didn't succeed at first, but he tried again and again and eventually the city was at the vanguard of gay rights.

Campaign Life Coalition has video from the tumultuous days of pro-life rescues in front of the Morgentaler Clinic in Toronto in the 1980s. The footage shows Layton, then a city of Toronto alderman, directing police to make arrests (and the police doing so). At the time, freestanding abortion facilities like Morgentaler's were in contravention of criminal law. A city politician should not be ordering police to make politically motivated arrests and a city politician definitely should not be working with police to defend an outfit like Morgentaler's that was clearly violating the law. The fact that the Supreme Court would later throw out the Criminal Code provisions on abortions does not exonerate Layton's interference in a police matter.

If is mandatory that the obituaries acknowledge Layton's passion and persistence and indeed he had these traits in spades. But it must be noted to what use he put these qualities, namely policies that advanced a left-wing agenda: diminished freedom, the promotion of social envy through progressive taxation and he redistribution of wealth, radical environmentalism that disguises opposition to private enterprise as concern for the planet, support for abortion and other assaults on traditional values. Based on his actions and policies, he hated other people enjoying freedom. As city councilor, there was never a cause he didn't back that didn't diminish the liberty of Torontians, from recycling programs to indoor smoking bans. All that seems perfectly sensible today because Layton and his ilk won the argument but it is folly for us to forget that we, mere citizens, homeowners and entrepreneurs, are less free today because of his actions at City Hall. If the NDP won power in May, all Canadians would be poorer and have less freedom tomorrow. The popular word for Layton's policy preferences is "progressive" but that's just socialism in a nice dress and lipstick -- kinda like Jack's Asian masseuse.

Missing from the obits are any tidbits of criticism. The fact that he and his wife were making city councilor salaries and living in subsidized municipal housing while there were tens of thousands of poor people on waiting lists. The whole Asian massage parlour incident has been buried, even though reporters in Toronto suspect that the events reported by by Sun News in May ("soiled" towel and all) is just the tip of the iceberg of his sexual follies. Christie Blatchord mentioned it, but few others have: Layton was obsessed with politics. Even good stories about him -- how he met his wife and they spent their first Christmas making political signs -- focus on his obsession with politics. It is so damn unseemly. Those who continually seek political office, which is all he did in his adult life, are power-hungry. But you can't say that because he has the "common good" in mind. It is funny how socialist policies are always equated with the common good. 

North Korean professors study at the University of British Columbia:

North Korea has dispatched six professors from Kim Il-sung University to the University of British Columbia in western Canada to study capitalism and the market economy for six months from July, according to sources close to North Korea. 


The professors are enrolled in the university's MBA program, a degree widely considered essential to achieving success in business in the United States and other Western countries. 

North Korea started dispatching students in the 1990s to capitalist countries such as Switzerland to learn about the market economy, but had never allowed them to stay for more than several weeks over fears that their experiences could adversely affect Pyongyang's ideology of controlling its people.


This time around, an extended stay by the six professors from the nation's top school is expected to have a significant influence on North Korean students after they return home. 

During their stay in Canada, the professors will learn about business management theories and market economy systems while living in a college dormitory. Their expenses are being financed by contributions from supporting organizations in Canada and elsewhere. 

Who are these organisations and how can they be penalised? 


South Korea and Japan are threatened right now. People are starving right now. We know from the experience with China that planting sweat shops in the countryside does not democratise the country but lines the pockets of a dictator and those corporations willing to do business with him.

I think the caption says: "You're not the only communist regime UBC cares about, China!"

Michael Coren plugs his new show, "The Arena". Come for the gladiatorial games, stay for the commentary! 



(Sidebar: there might not be any gladiatorial games.)



(Enormous thumbs-up)

The Israelis got shelled and all the Palestinians got was some lousy food:

Since Aug. 18, Gaza terror organizations have fired 150 rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles at civilian targets in Israel.   One Israeli was killed and 13 others were injured, including one severely.  The rocket barrages followed a series of terror attacks by Gaza killers near the Israeli sea resort of Eilat, in which 8 Israelis were killed, including 6 civilians.

During the same four-day period, while Israel retaliated against Palestinian terror cells, it also moved the following into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border crossing -- even as the crossing came under rocket fire:

--46 tons of cooking gas.

--13 truckloads of fruits and vegetables.

--5 truckloads of meat and fish.

--3 truckloads of dairy products.

--23 truckloads of mixed grain for animal feed.

--9 truckloads of mixed food products.

--21 truckloads of construction materials

--6 truckloads of flour

In addition, 100 Gaza patients and their companions exited from Gaza through the Eretz Crossing for medical treatment in Israel.  Plus, 56 staffers of foreign organizations moved through the crossing -- despite two rockets launched in its direction.

Where are the flotilla people in all of this?





Because he's Mark Steyn:

China has our bonds, and thus in a certain sense they have our soul. Or at any rate Joe Biden’s. The big theme of my book’s prologue is that it starts with the money but it never stops there. For three decades, U.S. foreign policy “realists” have assured us that China’s economic liberalization would inevitably lead to political liberalization. As Biden’s wretched remarks suggest, the inverse was always more likely: The reality of China’s economic dominance is Western acquiescence in its repulsive politics.

A poster for the Chi-Com Sadie Hawkins dance. I think.

Somewhat related and incredibly refreshing to hear:

Michael Jenkins criticises the Pope and Catholic Church ("Church that cares a lot about money", Letters, August 24). They are "corrupt, immoral, unethical". And of course, there's "the history of the Inquisition".
Spaniards have demonstrated against the recent visit of the Pope to their country.
So what's going on here? An outbreak of "Cathophobia"? Or is it "Popeophobia"?
Of course not. The Pope and the Church are expected to take criticism on their collective chin.  Why is it that only with Islam does justified criticism get dismissed as "Islamophobia", or "far-right xenophobia"?
Clearly there is some hypocrisy here.  

Thank you!




And now, some bears.

It Happened On a Tuesday

Occasionally, it does.


Canada declines an offer to attend Expo 2012 in South Korea because "it can't afford it":

Canada has officially declined an invitation from the South Korean government to participate in Expo 2012, saying it can't afford to attend the World's Fair.

Officials at the Korean embassy in Ottawa confirmed Tuesday they received a letter last month from Heritage Minister James Moore sending his regrets that Canada will not participate in the event.

Korean embassy spokesman Heon-jun Kim said the Republic of Korea tried its best to convince Canada to attend Expo 2012, but was not successful.

"We tried very hard to persuade them to participate in the event next year, but we have to respect their decision making," he said. "We are really sorry about that. We really worked hard to invite them."

Moore's July 14 letter said the federal government is committed to other things.

"At this time, our government is committed to a number of key domestic priorities, including a return to a balanced budget through stringent fiscal discipline that will prevent Canada's participation," said Moore's letter.....

James Maunder, Moore's director of communications, issued a statement about the government's Expo 2012 decision on behalf of Moore.

"Canadians elected us on our promise to return to balanced budgets," said the statement. "This requires difficult decisions. One of those decisions was Canada's participation in Expo 2012. We carefully reviewed the proposal and will not be participating."

A Harris-Decima report commissioned for Heritage Canada following Canada's participation in Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China indicated that Canada is not a top draw at world expositions.

Expo 2010 was attended by 246 countries and international organizations, including a record 73 million visitors, but Canada was not viewed as a priority stop for visitors, said the report.

The pavilions for Japan, United States, France, Germany and England were the major draws, said the report.

Interest in the Canadian pavilion did increase, however, when world-renowned Canadian performers Cirque de Soleil arrived, the report said.

"The shallow understanding of Canada, of Canadians and what is unique about Canada hinders top-of-mind interest in visiting the Canadian pavilion," said the report.

(Sidebar: Really? Would it be Trudeau or those Canadian flags douchebags sew on their backpacks?)

Vancouver businessman David Sinclair said he is working with Korean and Canadian business officials in an effort to overturn the decision.

He says Korean officials he has talked to are offended Canada has rejected the invitation, but are holding a spot for Canada at the fair grounds until next month in case the government changes its mind.

Sinclair builds pavilions for major events, including World's Fairs.

Sinclair said he finds the decision counterproductive at a time when Canada is negotiating a free-trade deal with South Korea and working to improve trade ties with Asian countries.

Oh really? You can afford to give an extra $60 million to the CBC (with a1.7 billion dollar operating budget) and a state funeral to Jack Layton. Way to screw an Asian trading partner that ISN'T China, Canada!

The Koreans: they know how to defeat the Decepticons. Find out how and more at Expo 2012!

Somewhat related: Christie Blatchford on the glorification of an ex-NDP leader and the sad, sick parody post-modern civilisation has made out of grief and sadness. Remember when things used to be dignified? Now we have some quasi-pagan, vulgar display of false grief, teddy bears and really, really bad poetry.



Now, some good poetry by Emily Dickinson.



File under STUPID CRIMINALS:

Graffiti targeting Mayor Rob Ford stopped the new Toronto Rocket in its tracks on Tuesday.


The TTC had to take one of the new Toronto Rocket subway trains out of service after someone spray painted “F*** Rob Ford” inside the train.

Once the graffiti was done, the vandal also spray painted an on-board security camera. When TTC staff were alerted, the train was taken out of service.

We can't all be DB Cooper.



There is a reason why Obama doesn't let Biden out often:

Under fire from angry Republicans, US Vice President Joe Biden's office said Tuesday that he firmly opposes "repugnant" Chinese population control practices like "forced abortion and sterilization."

"The Obama Administration strongly opposes all aspects of China's coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization," Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told AFP by email.

"The Vice President believes such practices are repugnant," she said after Republican White House candidates blasted Biden for recent comments he made about Beijing's "one-child" population control policy during a visit to China.

Biden told an audience at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, Sunday that "your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I'm not second-guessing -- of one child per family."

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican nod to take on President Barack Obama in November 2012 elections, on Tuesday accused Biden of "condoning" a "gruesome and barbaric" policy.

"There can be no defense of a government that engages in compulsory sterilization and forced abortions in the name of population control," he said, charging that Biden's comments "should shock the conscience of every American."

Tough German lady fights off burglars with a cane:

A feisty 90-year-old German woman chased away three would-be burglars from her rural farmhouse with her cane, police said on Monday.


The retired farmer was moving around her house with the help of a walking frame and spotted the intruders -- two men and one woman.

She grabbed her cane and started beating the burglars with it. The trio fled the house in a town outside Muenster.

Nicely done.

Monday Post

The journey of a thousand steps.


Or something.


Jack Layton is gone.


What should have happened ages ago is happening now: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is missing after rebels assume power in Tripoli. What is important now is that he is not allowed to seek asylum in a friendly country, allowed to stew in a comfortable prison while waiting for a trial that may never come to completion at the Hague and that a power vacuum not occur. It's not like there are loads of sane, erudite leaders in the Middle East willing to lift their countries out of the dark ages.



Related: What Qaddafi’s Fall Means for North Korea




(hat tip)




When the themes of comic books become far less about adventure, action and exceptionalism and more about throwing out the canon AND the baby with the bathwater:

“Having a half-black/half-Hispanic Spider-Man is hilarious, because his origin story is quite simple: Horrible rates of black and Hispanic crime in New York City can only be dealt with by a half-black/half-Hispanic hero. A white hero would be called racist for dealing with these thugs, so having [a biracial hero] don the red and blue tights makes absolutely perfect sense.”

What made heroes like Spiderman, Superman, Batman and Wolverine exceptional and attractive to the reader wasn't just the action but that as orphaned, rejected, lonesome outsiders, they found their niche in the world by using their abilities for the benefit of others. These heroes (or anti-heroes, if you will) didn't have to live up to a standard set by those who feel a nagging need to represent the racial/cultural/political rainbow and wear their politics on their sleeves because there was no need. Peter Parker was the geek-turned-hero. Superman was the orphaned alien who took to his new home. Neither of these heroes are representative of the non-clique kids or the immigrant classes? Are these heroes even fascinating to read about as a diversion? For this brand of political vision to permeate once-good comics is to remove what made them enjoyable and exceptional to begin with.

Watch this brainless shrew throw a hissy fit because a shop-keeper sells both Israeli and West Bank dates.





Had she pulled this stunt anywhere else other than the Christian West, she would have been dragged out into the street and stoned to death. She doesn't get that opening her mouth is a privilege (nay, a right) to be enjoyed in the West, that the consumer doesn't need her atrocious and shrill commentary and not everyone shares her nutbar values.




(yet another hat tip)





And now, this is awesome for many reasons.

Saturday Night Special

A few things to ruminate on a rather cloudy Saturday evening.


Now, some people who enjoy pontificating and walking everywhere they go but hate activating their brain cells:

With the U.S. State Department expected to release within days its final environmental analysis of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, environmentalists are cranking up their protest efforts by employing Hollywood star power while descending upon Washington to stage White House sit-ins.

Mark Ruffalo, the Oscar-nominated actor, is the latest Hollywood figure to get involved in organized opposition to Alberta's oilsands, asking people to participate in the sit-ins that begin on Saturday and continue to Sept. 3.

Organizers say some 1,500 people have signed up to participate in the protests.

Ruffalo won't be at the White House on Saturday, but "is likely to join some time in the following two weeks," a spokesman for Tar Sands Action, the environmental group behind the protests, said Friday.

In a YouTube clip posted earlier this week, Ruffalo calls on Americans to "put your principles into action."

"Up north where the tarsands are located, native people's homelands have already been wrecked," says Ruffalo, who has also opposed "fracking," a controversial process for extracting natural gas, in upper New York state, where he has a home.

Bill McKibben, a journalist and environmentalist who writes about climate change issues, is among those who will risk arrest on Saturday. He described the next two weeks as "the biggest organized civil disobedience protests of the climate change movement."

"We've got people coming to get arrested from all 50 states," McKibben said in an interview Friday.

That includes Margot Kidder, the Canadian-born actress who's now an American citizen living in Montana.

Kidder will travel to D.C. with three other Montana women, all of whom describe themselves as concerned grandmothers, early next week.

In a recent interview, Kidder didn't have much good to say about the environmental record of her native land, alleging there are few regulatory standards in Canada.

"There is basically no governmental control, environmentally, in Canada over the oil and gas industry, far less than there is here," Kidder said in an interview this week with the Livingston Weekly, an alternative Montana newspaper.

"The tar sands is the biggest carbon emitter on the planet ... it's using up something like 20 per cent of Canada's allowed emissions alone."

(Sidebar: oh, really, Miss Kidder?)

Alberta Environment spokesman Mark Cooper disputed Kidder's claim, citing the coal industry as a far dirtier culprit. In 2009, a single coal plant in China produced roughly the same greenhouse gas emissions as the entire oilsands industry, he said.

"The most recent Environment Canada National Inventory Report shows the oilsands are responsible for 6.5 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions ... and they represent approximately one-tenth of one per cent of global emissions," Cooper said.

"The claim that they are the largest emitter in the world is even more ridiculous. The U.S. coal industry emits some 60 times as much."

How do Mark Ruffalo and Margot Kidder travel, anyway? Perhaps they would like to try a similar protest at Tienanmen Square?


What these guys said:


Rex Murphy:

For that, Mr. Gore himself has a lot of blame to carry. His own “sputtering righteousness” and his adolescent barks of “bulls–t” to his critics may be a reverse of the Obama declaration. Gore’s meltdown might just be the moment when the people of the planet saw the carney show for what it was.

Thank you, George Jonas. It needed to be said. Well said:

On the face of it, 1951 looked better for the democracies of the West than 2011. Sixty years ago the enemy that instigated the attack had been defeated, annihilated, and ground into the dust. Imperial Japan’s military regime had been toppled, its leaders tried, imprisoned or executed, their ideas discredited and discarded. Even more importantly, the defeated enemies had been resurrected and rehabilitated, or rather assisted to resurrect and rehabilitate themselves. By the end of the anniversary year, America’s $13-billion effort to rebuild Europe, the Marshall Plan, could be declared a success and allowed to expire. Nation-building worked 60 years ago — provided a nation wanted to be built.

In contrast, as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the Islamist enemy, far from being annihilated or discredited, let alone ground into the dust, is alive and kicking. Some of its heads have been cut off, including one named Osama bin Laden that stuck out its hideous neck more than the others, but like the monster Hydra of Greek mythology, Islamism continues to grow new ones. Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists managed to launch other urban attacks after 9/11 in London, Madrid, Moscow and Mumbai, even if on a smaller scale. The Taliban hasn’t only fought the Western coalition to a standstill in Afghanistan, but seems on the verge of taking the country over again. Nation-building, a hit in post-war Japan, Italy and (West) Germany, is a flop in Mesopotamia and the Hindu Kush.

Robert Fulford:

Last Saturday about 40 people with anti-Assad banners held a peaceful demonstration outside the embassy of Syria in Ottawa. They all appeared to be Syrians, according to the Ottawa Citizen reporter. They were talking about the monstrous government that’s ruling their homeland and the attempts by pro-Assad operatives in Canada to intimidate them.

But on that occasion, where were all the Canadian-born experts on the Middle East, those vociferous and self-righteous moralists, who come out of the woodwork every time Israel appears to be in violation of some UN resolution or strikes back against an outrage like the killing of the bus passengers on Thursday near Eilat?

Where, during the Syrian protest, were the massed student armies from York University and Concordia and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education? Where were the legions of academics and trade unionists who are always ready to declare what policy should be followed by the wise and the virtuous? Where, for that matter, were Dykes and Trans People for Palestine, who make such a great noise in Toronto and whose website proudly declares they support everyone’s rights?

It happens that the answers to these rhetorical questions are the same in each case: They were all at work on their next Israeli Apartheid campaign. The truth is that leftish Canadians have only one interest in the Middle East, the struggle between Palestinians and Israelis. That appears to be their entire foreign policy. They insist they are not prejudiced; they are devoted to human rights, nothing more.

But when they consider the world beyond Canada, and choose which cause deserves their energy, they usually select the Palestinians. Their chronically narrow focus on a single conflict is self-blinding. It produces a weird aberration of opinion.

Where is your show  of support, leftists?



Conrad Black (shut up! He has a point!):

The only public disturbances that motivated police actually find difficult to stop are those of desperate people who will continually risk death in their hatred of the regime, like the brave Syrians who have been killed by the hundred every week, and still fight on. They cannot be far from victory....


The recent British mobs and the so-called hockey rioters in Vancouver are just morally impoverished malcontents taking an opportunity to exploit the altruism and indulgence of decent societies. The same is true of the rioters in Paris and Athens — who are objecting to rather modest efforts by the governments in those places to take a minimal first step toward the avoidance of bankruptcy, a fate that would inflict a good deal more and deeper hardship than the claimed cause of the disturbances.

Mark Steyn:

Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:

"I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can."

This will be grand news to Schylar Capo, 11 years old, of Virginia, who made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days, and for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535 fine. If the federal child-abuser has that much time on his hands, he should have charged the cat, who was illegally transporting the protected species from his gullet to his intestine.

So 11-year-old Schylar and other middle-schoolers targeted by the microregulatory superstate might well appreciate Gov. Perry's pledge. But you never know, it might just catch on with the broader population, too.

 
Michael Coren:

If the British riots disaster is not to be replicated elsewhere, here is a manifesto of advice. Ignore it at your smug peril.

1) Reduce the role of the state and, as a balance, increase the role of the family.

For many years in Britain, parents have been told their children’s social, sexual, moral and cultural formation was better achieved by schools and social workers than mothers and fathers. Not only is the notion flawed philosophically, in practical terms it emasculates parents and enables children to act out every aggressive and narcissistic fantasy imaginable.

In West Indian families, for example, there are numerous cases of poor but good and responsible parents who, in trying to discipline their children, are prosecuted by white, middle-class lawyers for spanking a kid who goes on to join a gang and spend years in prison. Equally, parents are not informed by law if their underage daughters tell doctors or teachers they are sexually active, but they are left to face the consequences when teenage pregnancy or STDs occur.

2) State-supported education and health care may, arguably, serve a purpose, but state-supported welfare and social services have become so all-embracing that individual self-reliance has evaporated. The balance is important here. Neither the fanatical libertarian nor the obsessive socialist model works.

3) Stop the war on religion. Whatever your view of faith and God, the massive decline of religious observance and community in Britain has removed one of the glues that held the country together.

When churches disappear, the vacuum is filled by gangs or tribes. Beyond this is the disappearance of moral standards and ethical absolutes. Witness how in the black community it is the Christian evangelical youths who are least touched by the anarchy.

Apparently, children DO deserve to have their chances at happiness and normalcy destroyed by special-interest groups:

The state of Illinois is about to throw the foster care system in chaos because a large provider - Catholic Charities - opposes placing children with same sex couples.

The 2200 children placed by Catholic Charities will now be transferred to other social welfare agencies. The state says they will try to keep the kids with the same foster parents, but there are no guarantees that this will occur during the transition.

Tow the line or the kids get it is the order of the day for whiny exhibitionists.



When questions are too hard to answer, they must be ignored:

Reduction destroys this distinction. It combines, in a single pregnancy, a wanted and an unwanted fetus. In the case of identical twins, even their genomes are indistinguishable. You can't pretend that one is precious and the other is just tissue. You're killing the same creature to which you're dedicating your life.

So how does this humanity thing work? Where is the answer? For pro-abortionists, there is none. The question will be ignored.



If the Japanese experienced Hurricane Katrina, the place wouldn't be a craphole and there would be more Engrish:

Since Japan's earthquake, almost $78 million in cash (3.7 billion yen) has been found in the rubble — and returned.

About $48 million came from wallets and purses found in the debris. Another $30 million was found in safes — over 5,700 of them washed ashore — hauled to police stations by rescue crews and good Samaritans.

By mid-July, 96 per cent of the safes' contents had been returned to owners, thanks to bankbooks, legal documents and addresses found inside. Police says that about 85 per cent of the loose cash from wallets and handbags had also been reunited with its owners.

And now, a glazed fruit tart with vanilla cream filling.


Enjoy.

Mid-Week Post

Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.


Or something.


The BC Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to challenge Canadian Criminal Code provisions against assisted suicide:

The B.C. Supreme Court has rejected one of two attempts to challenge Criminal Code provisions that ban assisted suicide in Canada.

The Farewell Foundation was seeking to set up non-hospital centres where teams of counsellors and advisers could help people end their lives.

However, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith ruled Wednesday that anonymous members do not have standing to challenge Canada's federal laws.

What is in it for people who want others to commit suicide, with or without help? It's not a matter of personal liberty otherwise the afflicted persons in question would have ended their lives on their own. It is the outright rejection of life and the agenda that says human life has no moral or personal gravity.


Unbelievable:

After examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both.

The losses underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration's strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country's economy.

But until a special task force assembled by Gen. David Petraeus began its investigation last year, the coalition had little insight into the connections many Afghan companies and their vast network of subcontractors had with insurgents and criminals — groups military officials call "malign actors."

In a murky process known as "reverse money laundering," payments from the U.S. pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel and other services to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents obtained by the AP.

"Funds begin as clean monies," according to one document, then "either through direct payments or through the flow of funds in the subcontractor network, the monies become tainted."

The conclusions by Task Force 2010 represent the most definitive assessment of how U.S. military spending and aid to Afghanistan has been diverted to the enemy or stolen. Only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups, said a senior U.S. military official in Kabul. The bulk of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers, said the official, who declined to provide a specific breakdown.

Vaguely related:

Wylie, the Afghan mutt, was rescued in February by a convoy of British soldiers on patrol in a Kandahar bazaar, where a dog-fighting crowd was beating the smaller dog with lumps of wood to force the last fight out of him.....

Remarkably he did but his torments were far from over.

Two weeks later Jensz received another call. Local dog fighters had cut off Wylie's ears and had scalped him in the process, before using the same homemade knife to cut his muzzle wide open from his nose to under his eye. He was patched up again by Jensz and a team of Australian Defence Force doctors only to return from his perilous forays outside the base with new injuries -- a stab wound to the chest and a savagely docked tail.

Then, horrifically, one day he limped back to the camp after Kandahar locals -- many of whom despise dogs only marginally less than they do coalition soldiers -- had tried to sever his penis. Three times Jensz and ADF doctors had to restitch the wound. "Once we stitched for 90 minutes without anaesthetic," she said. "I can't fathom how much pain he must have been in but he just lay there motionless, looking up at us. He didn't bite or growl once."

Wylie's refusal to submit became legendary around the Kandahar base.

But when he was grabbed again by local thugs and thrown under a passing car it seemed his luck had finally run out. "It was the first time I felt defeated because Wylie had become a symbol of Kandahar," Jensz said. "So many soldiers identified with him but I just couldn't work out how to keep this dog alive. That was the day I decided I had to take him with me."

With the help of a British and a US soldiers' animal companion fund, Wylie was evacuated to London via Kabul six weeks ago to begin the long road of quarantine hurdles that Jensz hopes will eventually bring him to Australia and her wildlife rescue property just outside Canberra.

How could anyone hate a face like this?

Come with me if you want to live... and talk about  ".... potentialities of the dominant technology narratives in education in a time of neo-colonialism, global capitalism and global warming."



Remember Obama's "Buy American" policy.  I bet you do now:

President Obama is barnstorming the heartland to boost US jobs in a taxpayer-financed luxury bus the government had custom built -- in Canada, The Post has learned. 

The $1.1 million vehicle, one of two that Quebec-based Prevost sold the government, has been tricked out by the Secret Service with state-of-the-art security features and creature comforts. 

It's a VIP H3-45 model, the company's top of the line, and is used by major traveling rock bands.

"That's the more luxurious model," Christine Garant of Prevost told The Post.

Canada: it was underestimated.

Remember- "...that's because humans are sexually repressed and exceedingly curious about it, not being "allowed" the satisfaction of normality, thanks to religions and their multitude of sexual taboos."

Researchers from several prominent U.S. universities will participate tomorrow in a Baltimore conference reportedly aiming to normalize pedophilia.  According to the sponsoring organization’s website, the event will examine ways in which “minor-attracted persons” can be involved in a revision of the American Psychological Association (APA) classification of pedophilia.  


B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile activists and mental health professionals, is behind the August 17 conference, which will include panelists from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Louisville, and the University of Illinois.

B4U-ACT science director Howard Kline has criticized the definition of pedophilia by the American Psychological Association, describing its treatment of “minor-attracted persons” as “inaccurate” and “misleading.” 

I'll give you a few minutes to throw up.


Now, one doesn't have to go into great length to stress how completely bad this would be if the floodgates were opened to this sick evil.


And it all starts with the normalising of the weird stuff.


We know it's true.


(hat tips)


Not even David Letterman is safe:

A frequent contributor to a jihadist website has threatened David Letterman, urging Muslim followers to "cut the tongue" of the late-night host because of a joke the comic made on his CBS show.

The Site Monitoring Service, a private intelligence organization that watches online activity, said Wednesday that the threat was posted a day earlier on the Shumuka al-Islam forum, a popular Internet destination for radical Muslims.

The contributor, who identified himself as Umar al-Basrawi, was reacting to what he said Letterman did after the U.S. military announced on June 5 that a drone strike in Pakistan had killed al-Qaida leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

Al-Basrawi wrote that Letterman had made reference to both Osama bin Laden and Kashmiri and said that Letterman had "put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter."

"Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi ... to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?" 

Al-Basrawi wrote, referring to El Sayyid Nosair, who was convicted of the 1990 killing of Jewish Defence League founder Meir Kahane. Letterman is not Jewish.

I await those who defended the creators of South Park to defend Mr. Letterman.



And now, the history of spices.

Mmmm....Pork.....

I found this recipe here.

Indonesian Pork Curry

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 750g/1½lb pork strips or pork shoulder steaks, diced into 2cm/1in squares
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 2.5cm/1in piece root ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 stick fresh lemongrass, sliced thinly
• 6 tbsp red or green Thai curry paste
• 300ml/½ pint creamed coconut
• 350g/12oz pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2.5cm/1in cubes
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander, coarsely shredded
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, coarsely shredded
• 300g/10oz fresh spinach leaves, picked and washed
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

1. Heat the oil in the wok or heavy based frying pan until smoking.
   
2. Cook the pork in batches until browned all over and golden, remove, keep warm.
   
3. Add the onion and garlic and cook over a gentle heat until softened.
   
4. Add the pumpkin, ginger, fennel seeds and lemongrass and cook for 5 minutes on a low heat.
   
5. Stir in the Thai curry paste and cook together until fragrant.
   
6. Return the pork to the pan with the coconut milk, bring to the boil, simmer for 10-12 minutes.
   
7. Finally stir in the spinach, herbs and season to taste, stir in the lime juice and serve with fluffy steamed or boiled rice.
   

Enjoy.

Monday Night

In the waning hours of Gwangbokjol.


They lost the war. Deal with it:

Japan marked the 66th anniversary of its surrender in World War II on Monday with sombre remembrances across the country and a memorial in Tokyo led by the emperor. The ceremonies come as the country struggles to recover from this year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Was there an article about the end of Korea's long nightmare?


Oh. Here it is.


That Liberation Day also falls on the Feast of the Assumption....


From this lady:

Ms de la Calva says her son, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, is innocent of the charges and was caught ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

But she says even if he is found guilty, she and her eight-year-old daughter Revecca should not be penalised.

Spanish-born Ms de la Calva said: ‘We, as parents, are not responsible for the decisions our children make. I am the householder and it is my name – not my son’s – on the tenancy agreement. 

‘I have lived here for five years and I get assistance with paying the rent because I am working part-time and my daughter is so young....

A letter from Wandsworth Council, signed by deputy housing manager Tom Crawley, to Ms de la Calva, a former professional dancer who has lived in Britain since 1986, says Daniel’s alleged behaviour may mean the family have breached their tenancy conditions under the Housing Act 1985. 

The conditions state that no one living at the property should ‘do anything which causes or is likely to cause a nuisance’ or commit ‘an arrestable offence’. It  also points out that the  family is £1,806.09 in arrears with their rent.

To this lady:

A mother who turned her own daughter into police after discovering she was allegedly involved in rioting, has urged other parents to do the same.

Adrienne Ives, 47, said the decision to tell detectives she had spotted her 18-year-old Olympics ambassador daughter Chelsea taking part in this week's riots  was 'gut-wrenching'.

The talented athlete was stripped of her role as 2012 Olympic ­ambassador after being charged with burglary, violent disorder and hurling bricks at a police car.

However, Adrienne, 47, said that she had no choice but to contact officers.

She told the Daily Mirror: 'Any parent who loves their child should find the courage to do what we did.'

'If parents keep their mouths shut these kids will keep rampaging through the streets.

'As a mother, I love my daughter. It’s not easy, but we hope we’ve done the right thing. 

It was a hard decision to make but it was a decision that any good parent would do. 

These riots happen because good parents do nothing.'

Chelsea, 18, is in custody accused of taking part in the disorder at Enfield, North London.

Mrs Ives was at home in Leytonstone, east London, on Sunday night with her husband Roger, 54, watching the scenes of anarchy unfold on the streets of Enfield, just six miles to the north.

'Roger and I were watching the TV news and it was absolutely sickening,' she said. 'And then we saw our daughter. I could not believe it. For a minute we did not know what to do. 

'But then, what could normal honest parents do? How can you sit there and see that and say, "That's OK"? We were watching people lose their homes and businesses. As parents we had to say, "She can't get away with that".

'I will be portrayed as a bitch – but what are you supposed to do? I had to do what was right. She won't thank us.'

And why I think it's perfectly acceptable to punish the former mother in question:


Because, as a subsidised mum, her excuses are self-serving, her son still lives with her, she isn't going to jail- her son is, she will always find subsidised housing and they violated housing and tenant acts. The latter mum actually acknowledged her daughter's rotten behaviour and, instead of making excuses, did the right thing and turned her in. How many times have we heard: "He was always such a good boy"? You won't get an argument from me that adults should should face the music but I will defend the punishment of all parties involved.


Further....


It's not so much an apology as it is filler material:

"A column by Heather Mallick on July 28 contained a number of inaccurate statements about the well-known British journalist and author Melanie Phillips.

Ms. Phillips has expressed her horror at the slaughter at Utoya, Norway in a clear and unambiguous way, writing “there can be no excuse, justification or rationale whatsoever for the atrocity perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik.”

The column made reference to Ms. Phillips’ writings in an entirely misleading and inappropriate manner.

The defamatory article has been removed from our website.

The Star and Ms. Mallick regret the errors and apologize to Ms. Phillips."

(Hat tip)


Drink this in:

Everyone is sexualized in commercials, not only children. And that's because sex sells. And that's because humans are sexually repressed and exceedingly curious about it, not being "allowed" the satisfaction of normality, thanks to religions and their multitude of sexual taboos. 

Whenever someone says anything like this, stop them. You're doing yourself a favour not listening to this insane tripe. The defense of anything wrong and just plain nasty is just one more sign that liberalism is a mental illness. I refuse to believe that heterosexual marriage is abnormal but shoving things up one's bum is "the satisfaction of normality".



And now for more appetizing thoughts:

Sprinkle a little paprika on your eggs. Add cinnamon to that coffee. Order the curry. A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition has found that a diet rich in spices like turmeric, cinnamon and paprika can counter the damaging effects of fatty foods.

Down that curry! It's good for you!

For Sunday

A few things to quickly think about.


Perhaps there IS justice, after all:

Rioters to Be Stripped of State Benefits in Britain's Online Petition

It's what you deserve, rioters.

This is priceless:

A suspected looter in this week’s riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home.

In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat....


But Sartain-Clarke’s mother said her human rights had been ‘taken for granted’.

Spanish-born Maite de la Calva, 43, said: ‘I understand there are people who have got to face justice because all this has been madness and savagery.

‘But, I believe our human rights have been completely taken for granted. Daniel was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘As a mother, I’m not responsible for my son’s actions and they are penalising me for his actions.’

Why should her crappy parenting be to blame?


If she was any kind of mother, she would help convict him.



An Australian with quite a few ounces of sense:

What have been the most sickening responses to the riots in England?

Contender number one is the left-wing writer who could not even stomach the very respectable efforts by certain middle-class whites to organise a clean up of the mess in the wake of the riots. These broom wielding members of the public alarmed Mr Lefty to the point that he described their tidy up efforts as:

the closest thing to popular fascism that we have seen on the streets of certain 'leafy' bits of London for years.

Some of his fellow lefties agreed with him:

Wit: This is really very good. Thanks for writing this. The Left needs to defend the riots; not to valourise the burning of grannies’ cars, but to make clear that we reject the whole bourgeois construction of events, that we stand in solidarity with the oppressed and that, when it comes to it, we will, without hesitation, join the “rioters” to overthrow the legitimised exploitation, state-sanctioned violence and sham “democracy” that oppress us all.

Polly: Agreed. I’m concerned how cowed the Left is currently by the backlash which is patently more frightening than the actual events.

So some on the radical left see the riots as a legitimate uprising against the bourgeoisie which the left should "without hesitation" join in; the middle-classes who stand in their way with broom sticks are, in this view of things, "fascists".

Will these pampered leftists feel the same when the "rioters" steal their cell phones, belt them in the face, force them to strip in broad daylight and set fire to their apartments?


Reap what you sow, morons.


Are you an elitist douchebag? Take the test and find out.


You would think these people are OECTA or something.


Distorting words and meanings, one leftist at a time.



JAWS and Peanuts in a delicious combination of hilarity.

Mid-Week Post

It's like the caramel centre of the week.



North Korea- belligerent because it can be- fired twice at South Korea:

North Korea twice fired shells near the flashpoint Yellow Sea border with South Korea Wednesday, prompting warning shots from the South's marines in response, Seoul's military said.

The incidents fuelled already high tensions along the disputed sea border, which saw bloody naval skirmishes in recent years and a deadly shelling attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island last November.

(Sidebar: in legal parlance, that is referred to as "murder".)

The North denied shelling, with its state news agency saying Thursday that Seoul was "faking up" the latest incident after "normal blasting" took place as part of construction work, but linking the events with joint US-South Korean military drills set for this month.

(Sidebar: North Korea is not trying. The Soviets were awfully good at deception but these guys just suck at it.)



This isn't the first time North Korea has so threatened South Korea. It is akin to a dangerous crack addict threatening an enabling relative with a huge shard of glass. It's time for an intervention, particularly one without the Chinese.



Only vaguely related: if the restive are unhappy with Rob Ford, they can try their luck in North Korea where political descent is as tolerated as a tarantula in one's underpants.



You can thank OECTA for this:

With less than two months to go before the Ontario election, a poll released Wednesday suggests that although Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak still remains ahead in popularity, Premier Dalton McGuinty is narrowing the gap.


The Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for Postmedia News, Global Television and CFRB NewsTalk1010 found 38% of respondents think Hudak would make the best premier out of all the of party leaders, compared with 33% who believe McGuinty should be re-elected for a third term. These latest numbers indicate a four-point jump for the premier, an improvement from an eight-point gap a year ago.

Hudak only gained one point....

Those surveyed also believed McGuinty only fared better than Hudak in one leadership quality: someone who has a hidden agenda.... 

Wait until teachers' unions are abolished, OECTA.



I'm sure more money is needed for this:

Two teenage girls have been charged with manslaughter in connection with the gruesome death of a woman from Sandy Bay First Nation.


RCMP said Wednesday that after Roberta Dawn McIvor, 32, fell asleep in her car in the early hours of July 30, the car was stolen. McIvor was removed from the vehicle, and fatally injured when it drove away, RCMP said.


McIvor’s dismembered body was found later that morning.

Two girls, aged 17 and 15, both from Sandy Bay First Nation, have been charged with manslaughter.

What happened to rosy, old England?



Are you kidding me?

Islamist extremists are trying to capitalize on the riots engulfing Britain, calling on their followers to help incite further violence so that a terror attack can be launched amid the chaos.


Via “jihadist” websites, the extremists say English-fluent Muslims should infiltrate social media with messages that encourage the rioters so that the police remain “preoccupied” by the disturbances, according to the Washington-based monitoring group SITE.

The extremists are characterizing the violence as “useful” for London-based terror cells, saying the rioters are young and impressionable, and can be easily manipulated if the messages appear to be the sort of things they would write.

The extremists reason that by extending the violence, the police will drop their guard against jihadist terror planning.

They never miss a beat, do they?



In the meantime, as Nanny Crown is either unable or unwilling to look after mushy pea eaters, people are forced to rely on themselves:

From shopkeepers and middle-class writers to Sikh communities and right-wing soccer “fans,” Londoners are ready to take action to protect their homes and businesses from rioting.


After four nights of violence, many are saying enough is enough and they will stop the looters themselves if the authorities cannot.

Police have warned that vigilantes are putting their own safety at risk and could make matters worse. The risks were highlighted by the death of three Muslim men run over by a car while protecting their area in the central English city of Birmingham on Tuesday.

Critics say taking the law into your own hands can be an excuse for more thuggish behaviour which could inflame racial and social tensions.

Even chefs are defending themselves and others with nothing more than pans (because, as we ll know, the pan is mightier than the sword).


I can rely on the English authorities to be useless which is why I say "get stuffed" to them. If a riot lasts for more than an hour, you've lost complete control. If you have what Melanie Philips refers to as "feral children" and "feral parents", your entire country is up the loo. Yes, families matter, my limey brethren. Well-raised kids don't trash the place. Your nanny state, which has cost billions of pounds, is a complete failure. Even the entitled feel a need to smash:

From an organic chef and an opera house steward to a university student, a surprising picture emerged on Wednesday of some of the alleged troublemakers behind Britain's worst riots for decades.

While many involved seemed to fit a picture of youngsters from broken families marginalised by society, the first court appearances of some of the more than 1,000 people arrested suggested a broader cross-section took part.

In London alone, a total of 770 people have been arrested over the violence and at least 105 have been charged. Reports said at least 40 appeared in court Tuesday as authorities seek to fast-track suspects to clear the backlog.

We wouldn't want to put all the blame on the welfare junkies, now, would we? The post-modern yobs who have an undeserved sense of entitlement can also share the blame.



You were a country that used to kill people simply because they were Irish or Indian or Saint Thomas More. Why can't you transfer that bloodlust to the people who truly deserve it?



I bet you feel bad for sending the Irish to Australia now, suckers!



Saint George didn't kick some dragon's @$$ just so you could ruin the place. Any moron who thinks smashing the windows of shop-keepers is "redistributing the wealth" or belting people in the head is "justice" doesn't deserve a response short of leaving their well-heeled fat, pasty bums in the midst of a savage crowd and let them negotiate their way out of it.

Don't feel bad for that dragon. He was a filthy heretic rioter.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Sid Vicious.


In other news, a Vietnamese math teacher is imprisoned for belonging to a pro-democracy blog:

A French-Vietnamese math professor was sentenced Wednesday to three years in a Vietnamese prison for belonging to a banned pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-Communist blog, his lawyer said.

Pham Minh Hoang, 56, was found guilty of trying to overthrow the government by posting 33 articles against the one-party Communist system, as well as of holding membership in the banned Viet Tan group and recruiting others to join it. It was the second high-profile dissident trial in just over a week.

We really don't need Vietnamese shoes.



Guess who is still getting a paycheque?



And now, some natural awesomery.