Mid-Week Post

The molten core of the week.


Last night's debate allowed two candidates to point out McGuinty's crappy record:

On all three counts, Mr. Hudak, the Progressive Conservative leader, and Ms. Horwath, the NDP leader, outscored Dalton McGuinty.

If there was a dominant theme, it was, inevitably, the McGuinty government's track record and the opposition leaders' demands for change.

Predictably, Mr. McGuinty spent much of his time defending his policies.

The problem with that is that when you're explaining, you're losing, and the Premier spent far too much of the debate trapped on the defence to have had any hope of coming out ahead.

Hudak came out stronger which is not hard to do against a known liar.



Why not attach the record of the student's lying and stealing to his or her academic record? Try worming out of that.



Yes, Section 13 should be gotten rid of because it allows certain parties to ruin those with whom they find fault and with the backing of the Crown to do it, it limits free expression and speech, and because hate laws are fluid and not clearly or fairly defined or applied:

A Tory MP plans to introduce legislation as early as Friday calling for the repeal of a section in the federal human rights code banning hate speech over the Internet.

Despite being a backbencher, Brian Storseth is convinced the bill will succeed because nearly every Tory MP opposes Section 13, and he believes the Harper government wants to see it repealed.

"Section 13 suppresses the basic right to freedom of speech in our society that is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms," said Mr. Storseth, who represents the Alberta riding of Westlock-St. Paul.

Hate speech that is truly capable of bringing harm to an identifiable group or individual is already dealt with in the Criminal Code, he said. In those cases, police investigate and the Attorney General has to lay the complaint to ensure the allegation is not frivolous.

"We need to have some reasonable tests of harm in our society and I believe the Criminal Code looks after that and ensures that Canadians aren't targeted by hatred," he said.

"But the difference is that in a court there is the openness and transparency, which you don't have through the human rights tribunal. In a tribunal, a person can lay a complaint, but doesn't have to have their name attached to it. There's no cost or expense to the person putting the complaint forward, no matter how frivolous that complaint might be. And it violates the fundamental right of an accused to face his accuser.

"At the end of the day, all the onus and costs are put on the defendant and this should not be the basis of our justice system."

Suppressing free speech can help drive abhorrent views underground, allowing them to fester and grow, he adds.

"We need to have liberty of free speech and it's ultimately freedom of speech that looks after these issues by allowing the light of day to destroy hateful propaganda."

The bill is expected to come to a first vote in early November, about a month before the constitutionality of Section 13 will be reviewed by a federal court.

Conservative MP Brad Tost is intent on locking horns with Harper. And well he should. Harper should develop a spine and stop funding genocide in other countries.

A Conservative MP has publicly blasted his government’s decision to grant $6-million in new funding to an organization that supports abortion in developing countries.


“People have asked how funding (the International Planned Parenthood Federation) squares with the repeated statement that Canada will not fund abortion internationally,” Saskatoon-area MP Brad Trost said in a statement released on his website on Wednesday. “The PMO attempts to square this circle by only permitting IPPF funding to go into countries that ban abortion.

“Considering that promoting abortion internationally is central to the identity of IPPF, this sort of political hairsplitting only seems to make sense in the Ottawa bubble. This is a position I totally reject.”

Saudi Arabia exports anti-Christian/anti-Jewish textbooks. What a surprise:

Textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools contain virulent forms of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish bigotry that continue to fuel intolerance and violence around the globe, says a new report.

The problem is far greater than the five million students in Saudi Arabia who use these texts every day, said Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom.


“Because of the Saudis’ great oil wealth, it is able to disseminate its textbooks far and wide,” she wrote in the report, Ten Years On.

“[These textbooks] are posted on the Saudi Education Ministry’s website and are shipped and distributed free by a vast Saudi-sponsored Sunni infrastructure to many Muslim schools, mosques and libraries throughout the world.

“This is not just hate mongering, it’s promoting violence,” she said in an interview. It is exporting terrorism through textbooks.

Christians are referred to as “swine” and Jews as “apes,” while being blamed for much of the world’s ills.

She notes in the report that since the Saudis control Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, they can “disseminate its religious materials among the millions of Muslims making the Hajj each year. Hence, these teachings can have a wide and deep influence.”

It was not a coincidence that 15 of the 19 attackers on 9/11 were Saudis, she added.

You know, ethical oil from Canada would put a dent in this sort of thing. Just saying.



Related: Saudi Arabia flogs a woman for driving.



Women aren't flogged in Canada for driving. Just saying.



China is a pit of pollution (as we all know):

A combination of an infrastructure building spree and the ramping up of carbon-intensive industries after the 2008 financial crisis means China is now being catapulted into the ranks of developed world countries when it comes to per person carbon dioxide emissions.

China already emits more carbon per person than France and Spain and on current trends will surpass the United States as early as 2017, according to the report conducted by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment agency and sponsored by the European Commission.

"Due to its rapid economic development, per capita emissions in China are quickly approaching levels common in the industrialized countries," wrote the authors of the report, Long-Term Trend in Global CO2 Emissions.

The reports says, "If the current trends in emissions by China and the industrialized countries including the U.S. would continue for another seven years, China will overtake the U.S. by 2017 as highest per capita emitter among the 25 largest emitting countries."...

"China doesn't want to acknowledge that it's no longer 'just another developing country,' but as its total and per capita emissions rise, it's inevitable that China will have to take a greater degree of responsibility both domestically and in the international arena," he said.

Don't take on the mighty Thor, hippies:

So the politically correct British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has decided to rid itself of the terms BC and AD - given those terms' strong links to the life of Jesus Christ. Yet the network, or the equally socio-culturally correct academia, have not started a move to banish the words "Sunday" and "Monday" (with astrological links to the "sun and "moon") or the words "July" and "August" (with their reference to the dictatorial Julius and Augustus Caesar). These terms, by the same reasoning, bring supposed approval to astrology and tyranny.
If the BBC wants to get rid of BC and AD, it should go all the way.

The Mighty Thor doesn't take kindly to intellectual weakness.

If you're going to talk the Stone Age talk, don't use the Digital Age walk to screw over someone who called you out on your obvious exhibitionism:

THE assumed right of unfettered freedom of speech was trumped by laws protecting against racial vilification this morning after the Federal Court delivered its decision on the controversial "white Aborigines" case of Pat Eatock v Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. 
 
Justice Mordy Bromberg found Bolt and the Herald and Weekly Times contravened the Racial Discrimination Act by publishing two articles on racial identity which contained "errors in fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language".

Speaking outside court, Bolt said it was "a terrible day for free speech in this country".

"It is particularly a restriction on the freedom of all Australians to discusss multiculturalism and how people identify themselves," Bolt said....

In the articles, on April 15 and August 21, 2009, Bolt wrote that some fair-skinned Aboriginal people, whom he called "political Aborigines'', had received prominence or indigenous awards because they chose to identify with their Aboriginality.

The Eatock action claimed Bolt's articles - which appeared under the headlines "It's so hip to be black'' and "White fellas in the black'' - had "offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated'' them and were a breach of racial vilification laws.

In court during hearings in April, Neil Young, QC, for Bolt, had argued that freedom of speech "trumped" other rights and was a cornerstone of democracy.

"Everything that's said, even if it's expressed colourfully, is rationally related to a thesis that's a matter of public interest,'' Mr Young had said.

He argued the legal test for racial vilification was how an informed person would interpret the views expressed in Bolt's articles.

But Ron Merkel, QC, for the complainants, said there was no attempt by Ms Eatock or other members of the group to shut down freedom of speech or debate about racial identitity issues.

Mr Merkel said Bolt was free to express his views on the subject but should not have chosen to attack the nine individuals he named in his columns and blog.

In the sometimes heated court exchanges, Bolt took exception to Mr Merkel's comparison of the debate and Bolt's views to Nazi race laws, the Holocaust and eugenics.

Bolt argued those who chose to identify with only one part of their background over another were contributing to racism and came at the cost of less focus on the important issues of education, housing, health and poverty.

The parties were asked by Justice Bromberg to meet and discuss what orders the court should make.

And now, some Sicilian fried food.

A Post For It Is Tuesday

Indeed.



Remember when Obama said he would meet with Iran without any pre-condtions? Yeah...

Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States' Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries.

Just cut Greece off. It's not like this bailout will radically improve the country's spending habits:

 Greece will receive its next batch of bailout loans in time to avoid a disastrous default, the country's finance minister said Tuesday, as stock markets rallied on hopes that policy-makers around Europe were preparing a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis.

Reports that European leaders are considering bolder moves to relieve Greece and other countries of their debt burden have buoyed spirits in financial markets, though officials in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government downplayed such speculation ahead of her meeting later with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

The current plan is to have Greece implement painful debt-reduction measures in exchange for rescue loans. Greece relies on funds from last year's euro110 billion ($149 billion) package, and European leaders have also agreed on a second euro109 billion bailout, although some details of that remain to be worked out.

Greece's international creditors are withholding the next instalment of the first bailout loans until a review of the reforms is completed in the coming days. Without the money, Greece faces bankruptcy in mid-October, potentially sending shock waves through the financial sector in Europe and abroad.

Israel should just go for it. The Hamas-controlled Palestinians will attack them no matter what they do and the US has been less of a friend as of late:

The United States said on Tuesday that Israel’s decision to approve construction of 1,100 homes for Jews on annexed land in the West Bank was “counterproductive” and urged both Israel and the Palestinians not to take steps which could complicate resumption of direct peace talks.

When publicity stunts go bad:

Here’s a modest proposal: Name the “protester” accused of throttling an employee of the Vancouver Club where U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney appeared Monday night. Shame him, like the Stanley Cup looters and rioters were shamed. Too rough? Well, if destruction of property and theft warrant anti-riot vigilante websites — which seem better at protecting public interests than some Vancouver police brass and the Crown, to date — then why not an alleged physical assault?

As this Vancouver Sun photograph of the Monday night brouhaha demonstrates, the alleged attacker lunged at the unwitting employee who, after all, was just doing his job, trying to help registered guests enter the private downtown club to hear Mr. Cheney discuss a new book he is promoting. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir sounds interesting, not just because Colin Powell has claimed it is riddled with “cheap shots,” or because it has raised the hackles of Condoleezza Rice, another former Secretary of State from the Bush/Cheney administration.


Mr. Cheney accepted an invitation to speak in Vancouver from a local book club. Approximately 250 men and women gathered outside the Vancouver Club to protest his visit. “We’re very angry that he has chosen Vancouver as the first location outside of the United States to do a book tour event,” one protest organizer told reporters, “and we feel it’s important that citizens of Vancouver show that we won’t tolerate a war criminal coming and speaking in our town…We hope to set an example that Cheney doesn’t see Canada as a safe haven.”

Just like threatening the Pope with arrest or harm, nothing will come of it. It has always been about the attention.



Things like this are the reason why state-funded broadcasters are losing viewers:

The BBC, Britain's state-funded broadcaster, is facing a backlash from leading presenters over the advice they should use "religiously neutral" terms instead of BC or AD because non-Christians could be offended.

Guidance from the broadcaster's ethics specialists said the phrases Common Era and Before Common Era should be considered as replacements for Before Christ and Anno Domini.

"As the BBC is committed to impartiality, it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians," it said. "In line with modern practice, BCE/CE (Before Common Era/Common Era) are used as a religiously neutral alternative to BC/AD."

James Naughtie, a presenter of BBC Radio 4's influential Today program, told The Daily Telegraph, "Nobody has suggested this to me, and if they do, they will get a pithy answer, which may be too pithy to share with readers of the Telegraph."

His fellow Today presenter, John Humphrys, said he did not see "a problem" with using BC and AD, since the terms were "clearly understood" by most audiences.

During his Sunday morning political program on BBC One, Andrew Marr said he would also continue to use the traditional date descriptions.

"I say AD and BC because that's what I understand," he told viewers. "I don't know what the Common Era is. Why is it the Common Era in 20 AD and it wasn't the Common Era in 20 BC?"

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who presented a BBC documentary on the Romans, described the plan as "puerile, spineless and absurd."

He said, "If the BBC doesn't want to date events from the birth of Christ, then it should abandon the Western dating system. Perhaps it should use the Buddhist calendar, which says that it is the 2,555th year since the nirvana of Lord Buddha. Perhaps it should have a version of the old Roman calendar, and declare that this is the fourth year of the fourth consulship of Silvio Berlusconi. It could say that this year was 13,400,000 or whatever since the Big Bang, or maybe the BBC should switch to the Mayan calendar and announce that 2011 is the year 1 BC - before the catastrophe that is meant to engulf the planet.

"We don't call it 2011 because it is 2011 years since the Chinese emperor Ai was succeeded by the Chinese emperor Ping (though it is); nor because it is 2011 years since Ovid wrote the Ars Amatoria. It is 2011 years since the (presumed) birth of Christ. I object to this change because it reflects a pathetic, hand-wringing, lefty embarrassment about thousands of years of cultural dominance by the West."

The beginning of the Common Era is dated from the same point as the Gregorian Christian calendar, but removes any reference to the birth of Jesus.

There are also no handsome Croatian doctors running about:

The controlled chaos and din of the hospital emergency department make for compelling television drama, but in real life the constant noise can stress out ER staff and threaten the care they give, a new Canadian study suggests.

Things with Sarah Palin can either go in a weird direction or just an ugly one:

 Sarah Palin's family attorney John Tiemessen has written a letter to Maya Mavjee, the publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, that Palin may sue her, the company, and the book's author Joe McGinniss "for knowingly publishing false statements" in his book released last week, "The Rogue," ABC News has learned.

See what happens when you're a lying creep?



Canadian oil may attract some boorish and silly "protesters" but an Egyptian gasline gets more dramatic action:

Unknown assailants blew up an Egyptian pipeline in Sinai on Tuesday that supplies Israel and Jordan with gas, security sources and witnesses said.

A witness told investigators he saw three men jump out of a small truck at a pumping station in an area known as al-Maidan, southwest of the city of el-Arish, and open fire on the pipeline, the security sources said.

This was followed by a large explosion heard across the city and witnesses said 15-meter high flames could be seen shooting up from the pipeline.

(hat tips)


A candidate who really represents America:

Unlike Barack Obama, Herman Cain comes from African-American roots, with slave ancestors, and blue collar parents.  While Obama's Luo ancestors in Africa were slave holders, Cain's ancestors were slaves in America.  Cain didn't attend any elite prep schools or Ivy League universities, he was the first member of his family to attend college and rose on merit in the corporate world, before the era of affirmative action.  He is, to use Al Sharpton's phrase, "authentic."

No wonder the left and its press lickspittles are so worried.

And now, episodes of Star Trek that had to be axed before production.

Sunday Post

For a sunny, warm autumn day.


Those Ethical Oil ads must have been embarrassing:

Saudi Arabia's king announced on Sunday women would be given the right to vote and stand in elections, a bold shift in the ultra-conservative absolute monarchy as pressure for social and democratic reform sweeps the Middle East.


It was by far the biggest change in Saudi Arabia's tightly-controlled society yet ordered by the 88-year-old Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who took power six years ago with a reformer's reputation but has ruled as a cautious conservative.

Or not enough:

In practice, the measure will do little to change how the country is run: Saudi Arabia's rulers allow elections only for half of the seats on municipal councils which have few powers. Only men will vote at the next elections which will take place next week; women will be allowed to vote in 2015.

Watch the attempts at vindication from the Saudi oil apologists.



Vaguely related: what should a bunch of loudmouths do when their street theatre and traffic obstruction  public praying is banned? Blame the Jews, of course!



I'm waiting for the atheists who complained about Rick Perry to show up.



Russia has a history of autocratic dictators. Now is no exception:

Was it ever in doubt that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wouldn't run for the presidency again?

Not really. And since Putin and his stooge, President Medvedev, have effectively destroyed or cowed the opposition since Putin stepped down in 2008, his ascension to the presidency is a foregone conclusion....

The president's term has been changed to six years so Putin will be eligible to serve until 2024. By that time, all vestiges of democracy will have been wiped out - largely because the Russian people want it that way.

The Russian economy is not in very good shape, but we can expect Putin to continue to block America's efforts to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran while opposing us in other vital areas as well. "Reset" or not, Russia is going to be a big problem for the US as long as Putin is in power.

If Putin could be opposed and free elections allowed (I don't think ALL Russians want things the way they are), how much would we worry about Iran or North Korea? Russia may be declining but even a disabled snake can still bite.



Stick a fork in Germany, Your Holiness. It's done:

The pope flew back to Rome from Freiburg in the early evening.

Benedict has closed the door on changes to the Church's opposition to gay marriage, married clergy or women priests, and has indicated he will not ease restrictions on divorced Catholics who have remarried outside the Church.

From highly secular Berlin to former communist Erfurt to Catholic Freiburg during this four-day trip, he has hammered home his view that the Church cannot change merely to suit the whims of the times.

Polls say many German Catholics disagree. A record 181,000 officially quit the Church this year -- for the first time more than joined and more than those quitting Protestant churches.

Some worshippers told Reuters they were happy to have an opportunity to attend mass celebrated by the head of their Church but were frustrated by his opposition to change.

Let's assume the Church- which is called "the Bride of Christ",  has the Mother of God in a seat of great influence and respect, which considers its female adherents equal to men and has made more advances for the rights of women than other groups one could mention- were to adopt these failed experiments people  call "changes". When the pendulum swings the other way and people realise that these experiments were total failures, what will they think of a Church that refused to stand by its principles? Not that these changes would make people go to church, anyway. You either have faith or you don't.



Martin McGuinness wants the Irish presidency. What would it say about a country that would elect such a man?



(hat tips)



And now, how much sushi could you possibly want, anyway?

Owning Your Stance

There are good reasons why I don't use words like "progressive" and "pro-choice". I even bristle when I hear other people use them, particularly when they should know better.



Words have power. They aren't always letters strung together without meaning. To simply use words without thinking is to waste the gift and ability of language. That is why it is important to speak plainly or -if we must be the sophisticates- use words that carry not only the import of our meaning but the truth of it, as well.




When we use words like "progressive" in the Western contemporary sense, we mean someone whose political or social views are considered forward-moving but in actuality are better termed as liberal. Things like anti-racism and feminism are considered embodiments of this political movement (why such things are seen as akin only to one and not the other will be discussed later).



So, then, how are these things "progressive"?

(Sidebar: trust me- those are the least offensive tweets.)



Follow the links for the whole story on both. These tweets are drenched in the kind of regressive hatred so-called progressives claim to eschew and not indulge in. Yet, there they are. The death threats and the bigotry (Stir-fry noodle? Aryan? Really? So unimaginative, but then again, if you're a bigot, you already are). In the twenty-first century, why would anyone be allowed to savage women and racial minorities that way? Aren't such things "regressive", morally and socially? I wonder if, at any point, this ever dawns on these people. It's all crazy- Amanda Marcotte crazy (here's an extra bit of crazy).



It isn't just arrogant to suggest or state outright that virtues of gender and racial equality exist solely in one political group (in this case the group that would call itself "progressive") but an outright lie. What makes this lie more pernicious is that the sort of behaviour that would tolerate vitriolic race and woman hatred is justified. If someone gets angry, well, just resort to ugliness. No one who calls himself a good parent or teacher would tolerate that from a wayward child but in adults still obsessed with no personal responsibility and lots of self-entitlement, the sky's the limit. Will Stephen Hanks ever apologise for his rancid abuse of a young woman? Will Ness Zolanski ever have an awakening and realise that Asian hatred belongs in the past? Let's wait and see.



Another reason why one should not capitulate to the ease of certain words or terms is because of control. For so-called progressives, there is a need to physically and culturally control aspects of others' lives, including debates (if this seems like a generalisation, just exercise your freedom of speech and see what happens). By choosing the words and framing the arguments, "progressives" (READ: liberals) claim the issue at hand is theirs. No. The debate is open. We believe either people have opinions and can express them freely or we don't. By controlling the words and distorting them in their favour, liberals seek the home-field advantage. By saying they are "progressive" or forward-thinking, "compassionate", ect., liberals appear to the outsider as one who has taken the higher ground in the argument. Spewing out racist epithets is hardly the higher ground but the sludge from the very bottom of the sewer (see above).



One debate where liberals would rather certain parties never speak is abortion. I feel that abortion is such a political monolith for those who support it (heretofore called pro-abortion or pro-abortionists) that the perimeters of the debate must be so restricted that only a handful can comment on it. Why pro-abortionists can be called such is articulated here:

Now, would you oppose a law requiring that a pregnant woman see ultrasound images of her fetus before she gets an abortion? Or let's make the law weaker: it merely requires that she be given the option of seeing those images. If you oppose such laws, then how are you pro-choice rather than pro-abortion? Again, is it because you think that many women would be swayed from having an abortion? But then either you are imposing your views on them (because you have decided in advance what sorts of considerations they should take to be important), or you are pro-abortion rather than pro-choice (because you think that the most important thing is that the women get abortions, not that they choose to get them on the proper ground). 

And why isn't your position manipulative and deceitful? In general it is deceitful to withhold information from someone, if you know that, if you released it, the other person would act very differently. For example, if I am a physician and I know that a certain operation has some chance of causing paralysis, and I know that my patient may very well not agree to have the operation, if he knows this, and I don't tell him, then I have deceived and manipulated him. And this seems to be how pro-choice people act, who are opposed to informed consent.

Indeed.



Who has consistently battled defunding abortions (which, apparently, are not men's business), parental consent laws, ultrasound viewings and pro-life demonstrations? I don't think it was the pro-life side, which has always maintained what biology and common decency have laid out for us- that human gametes, once joined, are a human being in growth and, as such, must be cared for and protected. Where is the "choice" in anything if a pregnant woman has no access to full medical facts, or for compulsory funding of abortion when- by their own admission- pro-abortionists insist such a thing is elective (choice, after all)? Wouldn't the logical conclusion be that pro-abortion people support abortion and are, therefore, pro-abortion?



Another reason why "progressives" and "pro-choicers" should not be called such is for the pure fact that calling them what they truly are- liberals and pro-abortionists- fries them. It angers them. I've seen people go red over stuff like this. But why should I coax their ego? Why should people who are blatantly racist and stand for the state-funded elimination of offspring be called something softer so as not to appear unappealing or even monstrous? You are what you are if you attack young women, hate Asians and defend a form of genocide.


Own your stance. If there is nothing wrong with it, you would have stood by your principles.



Even if your principles are antediluvian and just plain wrong.

Friday Post

What a glorious first day of fall!


What's in the news?


Ask yourselves: would the Palestinians truly be happy with a state of their own? Not with leaders like this:

Israelis reacted coolly on Friday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s UN quest for statehood, and some said his impassioned speech at the United Nations had only harmed the chances of peace.



Telling the UN General Assembly he wanted peaceful relations with Israel, Abbas painted a bleak picture of life for ordinary Palestinians under occupation.

Israeli analysts said his words would not create an environment of trust conducive to fruitful negotiations.

“He blamed Israel for all the Palestinian problems and it showed that bilateral talks now cannot be resumed,” said Uzi Rabi, a professor at Tel Aviv University and a Middle East analyst.

There is no "Israeli occupation" and the lot of life for the average Palestinian under Hamas is abysmal. Give the Palestinians whatever strip of land you want and they will still be poor and under the thumb of terrorist dictators.


"The rich must pay their fair share." Okay. Start with yourself, Mr. Obama, and your supporters. Pay your fair share.



Benedict XVI's visit to his German homeland is not without a laughable source of intellectual dissonance:

The reasons behind this have been expressed in various publications. The pope is the “head of the only explicitly anti-democratic state in Europe”; the Vatican “cooperated closely with German and Italian fascists” in the past; the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger headed for many years, is “the successor of the Inquisition, which in the Middle Ages was responsible for the persecution of witches”; and the position of the Catholic Church is anti-sex, anti-woman and homophobic while its stance on condom use in the era of AIDS is “criminal.”
No, when it comes to rabble-rousing, there’s really no difference here at all. German leftists stir up fears about Catholicism in almost the exact same way that right-wing populists do against Islam …
Criticizing religion is fine, but damning Catholicism while at the same time denouncing critics of Islam reeks of hypocrisy.

Don't worry, Germans. When the Muslims include your bauhaus staat of lazy liberal tolerance, you won't have time to complain about women's issues or child abuse. It simply won't be allowed.


I don't believe for one minute people truly care about women's rights, child abuse OR the Church itself. The Church is an easy target and a staunch bastion of traditional morality in a world which has forgotten it. How it must aggravate liberals!



Somewhat related (the anti-Catholic troll's comments are so worth laughing at):

Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday afternoon, Gionet declined an interview. He did, however, provide a written statement.

In a letter in French he provided to the The Daily Gleaner, Gionet wrote the sermon was about the destruction of the church and the need to seek forgiveness for past sins:

"I said: ... 'Today, it is we Catholics who are destroying our Catholic Church. We need only look at the number of abortions among Catholics, look at the homosexuals, and ourselves.' (That's when I pointed at my chest - through that action I wanted to say, we the priests) and I continued saying: We are destroying our church ourselves. And that's when I said that those were the words expressed by Pope John Paul II. At that point, in the St-Leolin church only, I added: We can add to that the practice of watching 'gay' parades, we are encouraging this evil ... What would you think of someone who seeing what was happening on (Sept.) 11, 2001, the crumbling of the towers, had begun clapping? We must not encourage evil, whatever form it takes."

(hat tip)


Sit back and have a laugh. What comes around goes around, squealer:

The autobiography of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be released Thursday despite efforts by the Australian anti-secrecy campaigner to suppress the book, its British publisher said.

Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography reportedly includes his first direct comments on allegations of rape in Sweden that led to the former computer hacker fighting an extradition battle in Britain.

Publisher Canongate said Wednesday it was the first draft of Mr. Assange's autobiography as delivered to them in March, and they were going ahead with publication, despite his attempts to prevent them.

It's a good thing schools are jumping right into anti-bullying programs instead of math:

Canada's public schools are doing a poor job of teaching basic math skills and shortchanging a generation of children, says a study by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The study concludes that public schools need to go back to basics with math education, stressing memorization on fundamentals such as multiplication tables versus the current system that is more exploratory and discoverybased, placing emphasis on the child to try different instructional techniques that are "in vogue" right now.

After all, who needs math or anything else people can use in their lives?



We've devalued human life to such an extent that even the parents will openly admit in court that they hate their son and wished he wasn't born. Read and be disgusted:

It seems that Ana Mejia and Rodolfo Santana, the parents of a young disabled boy named Bryan Santana, have received a $4.5-million court victory over a doctor and ultrasound technician they accused of malpractice.
 

What makes this story uniquely disturbing is the alleged offense of the two medical professionals.  According to the Palm Beach Post, "[the parents] claimed they would have never have brought Bryan into the world had they known about his horrific disabilities ... the West Palm Beach couple said they would have terminated the pregnancy."  In other words, since Bryan was born with only one limb, his life isn't worth as much as it would be if he had all of them.  Therefore, the doctor and ultrasound tech are responsible for Bryan being alive rather than in a trash bin, and so they should have to pay for him.


The $4.5-million decision is half of what the parents requested, allegedly to help pay for Bryan's lifetime medical costs.  That two individuals could be so shameless as to even publicly attach their names to a lawsuit of this nature, that our court system would even hear such a case, and that a jury of citizens would disgracefully reward the plaintiffs with anything but a callous lecture on their own moral degeneracy amount to a shocking commentary on how far our culture has fallen in terms of its respect for the value of human life.

Someone wears their iron guts on the outside:








A woman-hating piece of trash is just that: a woman-hating piece of trash.  This is your typical leftist male pig who thinks proper decorum is shouting slurs about women to even younger women. There is no justification for it unless you are a social and emotional retard the way that guy is.



And now, cat vs. dinosaur: the fight of the century.

Mid-Week Post

Fantabulous day!


According to the poll, most (almost all) think Ezra Levant is cooler than George Strombolopolous (I'm assuming the vote for him was accidental).


How right you are!


Let me sate your thirst for this particular Wonder Twin with this:







CTV's cowardice and CBC's silence just doesn't scratch Antonia Zerbsias' fatuous attack on the Ethical Oil ad. Perhaps she would like to explain how the ad disgusts her on Ezra Levant's show?



(Kamsamhamnida)



File this under: OBSCENE; MURDER; LAWSUIT:

Canadian researchers have documented a string of cases in which women were misdiagnosed with ectopic pregnancies, then given a powerful drug that led to miscarriage, abortion or the birth of severely deformed babies.

The blunder - causing "significant emotional suffering" - is likely more common than it appears, researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children say, noting that use of the drug, methotrexate, has soared in recent years. Such misdiagnoses are seldom reported to authorities now, likely in part because of physicians' fears of legal problems, said their study, just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The researchers catalogue eight recent cases, in both Canada and the U.S.

In some cases, they say, emergency-department doctors with limited training in analyzing ultrasound images may be mistakenly identifying healthy pregnancies as ectopic, where the embryo develops outside the womb.

The authors argue that the diagnosis should be made only after a confirmatory ultrasound and careful consideration. They also urge that a non-judgmental system be established to encourage more reporting of such cases.

"They all ended up in dire outcomes, they were all desired pregnancies," Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, an emergency doctor and toxicologist at Sick Kids, said about the study he spearheaded. "Our wish was to highlight and raise awareness of this phenomenon.... There is not a lot of incentives for clinicians to report these cases."

No, a blunder is reading the wrong name over an intercom.  These diagnoses classify as inhumanity and incompetence.


I guess being "desired" magically transformed these eliminated offspring into human beings. Biology is best  never brought up in cases like this.



Who will miss this disgusting, evil man when he is gone?



The Canadians are now better friends to Israel than the US. Who saw that coming?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper rallied to the side of Israel on Wednesday, saying the best road for peace in the Middle East lies through negotiations between that country and the Palestinians.


Harper made his move in a meeting at the United Nations with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Under Harper’s leadership, Canada has been an outspoken supporter of Israel in recent years. And on Wednesday, Harper publicly reinforced that relationship with a critically timed message of support.


The international community is gripped this week with debate over the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the UN.

Harper has categorically stated in recent days that Canada will oppose the “unilateral” effort by the Palestinians at the UN — outside of long-stalled peace talks with Israel — because it could actually hamper hopes for peace in the region.

Really? Just one regret? I mean- it's a valid one but I'm sure there are more regrets.



And now, some record-breaking cats.

800

Eight hundred posts.


It wouldn't be possible without wonderful visitors, readers and posters like you.


Thanks.


Give yourselves a round of applause.

Tuesday and the Light Is Not Yet Dimmed

Or something....


What better way to open a post on the feast day of the Korean martyrs than with this:

The judicial chastising of the way an Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator tried to ferret out bogus refugees stems from the case of a man who fled China saying he fears persecution for being a Roman Catholic. He was refused because of his answers to questions about Catholic tradition.


The Federal Court of Canada expressed dismay at the level of knowledge expected from the recent convert, who knew Mary was the mother of Jesus but didn’t know Jesus’ grandmother’s name; and who knew Jesus was baptized by John but didn’t know John’s mother’s name.

(The answers are Anne and Elizabeth, respectively.)

“He had little knowledge of the Bible’s characters,” Rose Andrachuk, an IRB adjudicator who previously was chairwoman of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, concluded following the quiz she gave Mao Qin Wang, prior to the court’s intervention.

Mr. Wang, 26, says he turned to religion after his father was seriously injured in an accident and a friendly Catholic said he was praying for him. When his father improved, he started attending his friend’s underground church in 2007, he says.

When he was a lookout at an illegal service in 2008, Chinese police raided the gathering, he told Canada’s immigration officials. He fled, but the next day police went looking for him, accusing him of engaging in illegal religious activities, he says.

He came to Canada in 2008 after paying a smuggler $30,000, settled in Toronto and filed for refugee protection, claiming he fears arrest, jail and maltreatment because of his religious beliefs if returned to China.

At his hearing before the refugee board, Mr. Wang was asked several questions about Catholic liturgy and history, through a translator.

Ms. Andrachuk was dissatisfied with his answers.

“The claimant was asked whether the consecrated wafer or the bread represents the body of Jesus or whether it is the body of Jesus. The claimant responded that it represented the body of Jesus, which is incorrect,” Ms. Andrachuk wrote in her IRB decision.

She continued: “The claimant was asked to tell the panel what happens at mass from the beginning to end. The claimant listed introductory rites, liturgy of the Word, liturgy of Eucharist and conclusion rites, which is correct. The claimant was asked to explain introductory rites. He replied that it is sprinkling of water and priest’s blessing. Neither are essential parts of introductory rites.”

He knew Mary was Jesus’ mother and that John baptized him but not the names of Mary’s and John’s mothers; correctly answered questions about the rosary and the seven sacraments; named books of the Old Testament but was uncertain what they were about; failed to note that 2009 was dedicated to St. Paul by the Catholic Church, and gave other answers that fell short of Ms. Andrachuk’s expectations.

“I find, on a balance of probabilities, that the claimant is not and never was a genuine practicing Roman Catholic,” Ms. Andrachuk wrote. “I find that the claimant’s level of knowledge of the Catholic faith is not commensurate with someone who has been a Roman Catholic for three years.”

The case was appealed to the Federal Court of Canada, where Justice Michel Beaudry overturned the decision, declaring that Mr. Wang was held to “an unreasonably high standard of religious knowledge.

“The board erroneously determined the applicant’s knowledge of the Catholic faith by way of ‘trivia,’” Judge Beaudry wrote, adding Ms. Andrachuk wrongly expected Mr. Wang to know as much about the Catholic faith and tradition as she did.

Mr. Wang will now have another hearing before a different IRB adjudicator.

Shelley Levine, Mr. Wang’s Toronto lawyer, said the arcane test would exclude many lifelong Catholics in Canada, let alone a recent convert from an underground church in China, where the communist government restricts religious practice.

“What they really ought to be determining is an issue of faith rather than an issue of knowledge. There are some people who sit in the front row of church every Sunday all their lives but probably couldn’t tell you very much about where to find things in the Bible,” Mr. Levine said.

“The questions got so detailed that, really, only someone in the business of studying the religion may be familiar with them.”

We need to expand the scope of this. A refugee from communist China whose catechism and English language skills are probably not up to par has done a fairly superlative job of explaining the Faith as he knows it, a rather difficult task considering that religious adherents of any stripe are persecuted in China and that learning a language whose alphabet and syntax are totally different from Asiatic languages isn't easy.



Let's put it this way. If I had to hire a native-born Canadian teacher who never went to church and pronounced "contrition" as "kon-TRIT- ee-ohn" or Mr. Wang, I'd ask Mr. Wang to show up Monday, 8 AM sharp.

This guy is better suited to teach at Catholic schools. Three guesses why.

Moving on....



I guess we owe the Danes an apology:  Ex-Afghanistan president Burhanuddin Rabbani killed by 'turban bomb'



Sarah Palin's Wonder Twin challenges the Saudis on censorship:








This is Ezra Levant's double-finger to the Saudis. In Canada, you're allowed to do that.






Further:

Is Saudi Arabia losing its cool over Canada’s growing oil sands? It certainly seems that way, based on the Middle East kingdom’s bizarre over-reaction to television commercials that promote Canada’s “ethical oil,” in contrast to oil coming from Saudi Arabia, a regime that oppresses women.

The commercials are sponsored by a tiny grassroots organization based in Toronto, EthicalOil.org, that encourages consumers to favour “ethical” oil from Canada over “conflict” oil that comes from undemocratic regimes, where most of the world’s oil reserves are located.


EthicalOil.org ran the commercials on the Oprah Winfrey Network in Canada in late August. The Saudis responded by hiring lawyers to tell the Television Bureau of Canada, the advertising review and clearance service funded by Canada’s private broadcasters, to withdraw approval of the ads.

The group was so outraged by the Saudis’ “intimidation tactics” it started running the commercials again this week on the Sun News Network and was planning to run them on CTV, until the network backed out, said Alykhan Velshi, executive director of EthicalOil.org.

In an e-mailed statement, CTV’s director of communications, Matthew Garrow, confirmed CTV News Channel received an order for an ad from Ethical Oil: “As the ad in question is the subject of a legal dispute between Ethical Oil and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at the advisement of our legal department we will not accept the order until the matter is resolved,” the statement says.

The Saudis’ pressure went further. The Saudi government also approached Canada’s oil industry to express its concerns over the ethical oil campaign, just in case it had a role in it, industry sources confirmed.

It doesn’t. The oil sands industry’s communications strategy has focused on talking up its efforts to address oil sands challenges, rather than criticizing competing energy sources, since it believes all will be needed in the future to meet growing energy demand.

Still, the unprecedented approach from the Saudi embassy raised eyebrows. Saudi engagement with Canada’s oil community has been minimal, ranging from visits to the oil sands to sponsorship of CO2 carbon capture and storage research at the Weyburn oil project in Saskatchewan.

The country’s heavy handedness seems out of character and shows a lack of appreciation for Canadian values such as freedom of speech. It also shows a lack of appreciation for how the world sees its archaic treatment of women — a treatment that is unworthy of its place in the Middle East and its leadership in the world of oil.

It’s an indication the oil sands are getting under its skin. Not long ago, the Saudis downplayed Canada’s unconventional oil as its poor cousin — as hard to produce and costly next to its deposits, which it could produce for $2 a barrel.

But they underestimated Canada’s resolve to grow market share in the United States, largely at the Saudis expense, diminishing their influence over a country they counted on for military and political support.

Once American’s largest oil source, Saudi Arabia has dropped to fourth after Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. Canada, the only non-OPEC member among the world’s five top oil reserve holders, now supplies almost twice as many barrels to the U.S. as Saudi Arabia — nearly 2 million barrels a day in 2010, next to Saudi Arabia’s 1 million. Those volumes will increase further if the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast is approved by the end of the year.

And here's my double-finger to the Saudis.  


Censorship is not "bizarre" or "out-of-character" for a country ruled by an obscenely wealthy oligarchy and where women are not allowed to drive, leave the house without a male or where Jews simply cannot enter or reside. Relying on domestic oil is just as good speaking one's mind or simply telling the ugly truth about this misogynist, anti-Semitic oil-producing state. You can't appeal to emotional retards the way you can with ordinary people who have souls. If letting school girls burn to a crisp is considered "proper", then we have absolutely no business buying their oil, especially when we can produce our own. CTV should have- on principle- run the ad day and night. No foreign interest- particularly Saudi Arabia- has any right telling a news agency or TV channel what they can or cannot run. To let Ezra Levant and SUN TV News swing in the wind with this serves only to bolster that network's mission statement, darken the image of CTV and cement what the West already knows to be true about Saudi Arabia.






Speaking of Sarah Palin.....





Wow. Some people just scratch the bottom of the barrel.  I think people will look back on things like the 2008 election and wonder why they drank the Obama Kool-Aid and never vetted him the way they should have. They will hang their heads in shame when they think of how they hounded Sarah Palin and how this witch hunt ended so ignominiously. 




(thumbs up) 






"Designer babies" are yet another sign of how we have devolved as a culture:

We're rapidly closing in on the ability to design babies the way we design cars, says one of Canada's top researchers into reproductive medicine, but we haven't set any ground rules. 

Dr. Roger Pierson, director of the Reproductive Biology Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan, says new techniques are allowing scientists to screen for an expanding number of genetic diseases, making it easier for parents to decide what future baby they want to bring into the world.

"We desperately need a national think-tank on how we're going to accept or reject or implement the changes that are coming," Pierson told Postmedia News. "Instead, we're still focusing on problems as old as the technology itself.

Because he's Mark Steyn:

With defense like this, who needs enemies? The designation of the "war on terror" was the first equivocation, and one that hobbled its strategists: For, in the absence of "terror," where was the "war"? As I note in my new book, over the course of the decade, the more alert the security state was to shoe-bombers, panty-bombers, implant-bombers, and suppository-bombers, the more indulgent it grew of any Islamic initiative that stopped short of self-detonation. What, after all, is al-Qaeda's end game? They want the West to live under Islamic law. Hey, take a number and get in line. So does Imam Rauf, the Ground Zero Mosque guy, who was in Scotland the other day at a "Festival of Spirituality and Peace" arguing that sharia should be incorporated into U.K. and U.S. law. He's such a "moderate Muslim" that he's subsidized with your tax dollars: The State Department bought thousands of copies of his unreadable book to distribute at U.S.-embassy events throughout the Middle East, and they paid for his book tour, which they've never offered to do for me. Flying Imam Rauf to the United Arab Emirates to talk to other imams apparently comes under State's "multifaith outreach" program. Wait a minute: He's an imam, they're imams. Where's the multifaith? If we have to have taxpayer-funded outreach, why can't we send 'em Jackie Mason, or that gay bishop the Episcopalians are hot for? 

And now, a rabbit and kittens.  Enjoy.

Friday Freakout

Something lighter for the week-end.



This is cool for MANY reasons. What stunning pieces of architecture just for cats!



This actually existed. How awesome is that?



I guess Tattooine DOES exist.




I think by the 8rd cake, you'll be laughing.

A Public School Primer

Sidebar: If the public schools had the guts to be honest.



Attendance Taking: Rattle off names that have Ys when they don't need them, ethnic names your liberal white-bread tongue cannot pronounce no matter how multicultural you think you are and the four girls named Madison



First on the curriculum: White Skin and How It's Bad



Followed by: Will These People Ever Shut Up About Stuff That Happened AGES Ago?



After recess: The One Percent Seven Year Itch

Don't stare at the freaks, children.

Followed By: Snitching on Your Relatives, Rifling Through Bookbags That Aren't Yours and Other Fascist Activities You Can Do With Your Little School Friends



Lunch: peanut-sugar-salt and carbs-free (give detention to anyone with ham or other tasty food after sufficient group brow-beating)



After lunch: Did You Know the Chinese Make Your * Christmas Toys, Pollute Their Own Countryside and Endanger Orangutans?



* (Find another word for Christmas like "Winter Day" or something. Yes, the kids will furrow their brows in vain and give you other weird looks like when you called Halloween "Orange and Black Day" but you've run out of acetaminophen and that "equity" loser has been on your case since you pointed out that no one EVER has put up a "holiday tree" for Valentine's Day)

Why does China hate these baby monkeys?

Next class: Not Being Able to Pee Right and Other "Joys" of Female Circumcision



After recess: French (throw in some gay or multicultural terms. Whatever.)



Last five minutes of the day: Math. No, that's too hard. Make sure they know their left from right. They need that for Islamic Studies class.



(Thumbs up)

Mid-Week Post

The buttercream frosting middle of the week.



(Mmmmm....buttercream....)



Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley make a point of exposing excess and are awesome for doing it.



Doctors in Canada get paid far less than in the US:

Despite recent fee hikes, Canadian doctors still lag dramatically far behind their American counterparts in income, according to a new study that underscores the wide pay gap in both countries between front-line "primary-care" physicians and much-wealthier surgical specialists.

Orthopedic surgeons in Canada make less than half the $440,000 average net income of colleagues in the States while doing more procedures, two U.S. health-policy professors concluded in one of the most detailed looks yet at the differences in doctor compensation between nations.

Because working for an MD in Canada is a revolutionary struggle against the bourgeois  masses who think they deserve to be compensated for their years of training and all-hours attention to patients in need.


Or something like that. Let the NDP explain it to you.



Tell me what's wrong with this picture.

A New Brunswick appeal court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of assault for spanking his 6-year-old, saying it is not clear unreasonable force was used.

The case of a four month old aboriginal boy who died while under the watch of 16 social workers and in the custody of an alcoholic relative exposes the gaps in British Columbia's child protection system and a major flaw in its family courts, a new report says.

I would be far more concerned about a pattern of abuse and deliberate inaction due to racism of lowered expectations than about a parent at the end of his tether.


Yes, teach this as opposed to useful things like engineering or medicine:

University College at the University of Toronto this fall offers first-year students a new course, UNI10471: Sex in the City, taught by Dr. Scott Rayter, the school's associate director of sexual diversity studies. Students enrolled in a full-year course called UC One: Engaging Toronto, whose lecturers will include former mayor David Miller and Ontario's minister of research and innovation, Glen Murray, can choose Sex in the City among four spring-session seminars.

The Sex in the City course description elaborates: "Students will learn about the sexual politics of the city and how cities and their neighbourhoods become sexualized spaces. How and why do certain spaces become 'gay ghettos' or villages? How some spaces are designated or coded as 'safe,' 'dangerous,' or 'sexual,' and how are these designations inflected by racial and class markers?"

Because God knows we need more white liberals who see sex everywhere they go than people who know how to construct a bridge or remove an inflamed appendix.


Whoever accuses Stephen Harper of throwing a temper tantrum or ignoring the French clearly has no idea what lurks outside the walls of his studio apartment:

Since then, the Québécois have gradually been turned off by Harper, beginning with the infamous blunders of the 2008 election when, trying to appeal to their core base in the gun-toting crowd to get out the vote, and others who, like Harper at the time, hated "extravagant galas," the Conservatives promised to cut wasteful spending on arts and culture and get tough on young offenders.

It's been downhill ever since for the Tories in the province, a steady and slow slide capped with those 59 seats going to the NDP last May. Harper, while appearing characteristically without emotion on the outside, must have been broiling inside.

He is not going to waste time there anymore and, with those 30 new seats in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., why bother?

Yes, indeed. Why bother? It's not like French is the language of commerce anymore or that the number of francophones in this country is going to one day exceed the anglophones or allophones or that stock phrases like "gun-toting crowd" aren't just retarded reactionary sputterings.



Only lesbians are allowed to humiliate children online:

A six-year-old boy in Australia was removed from his lesbian foster parents after they posted a photo of him dressed as a girl onto Facebook, a Supreme Court judgment revealed last month.

Related: the landmass of Australia is on drugs:

Australian passports will now have three gender options — male, female and indeterminate — under new guidelines to remove discrimination against transgender people, the government said Thursday.

You could be tying your kangaroo down, sport, but then again you could be attacking your neighbour's dog. You're so high, you don't even know anymore.


The New Zealanders are right, I'm afraid.



Ssshhhh.... George Jonas is talking:

If multiculturalism is being re-examined in Canada today, it's due in no small part to its supposed beneficiaries, immigrants. They have as many reservations about Canada's official policy as the host population, and are less reluctant to express them. I've been fuming about multiculturalism for decades - but fuming about things too soon is like trying to pluck unripe fruit.

Now the fruit is beginning to ripen.

Immigrants who question multiculturalism range from a Korean lady I know in her 70s, whose English is still marginal after 40 years, to learned scholars such as Salim Mansur, a political scientist at the University of Western Ontario, whose latest book, Delectable Lie: A Liberal Repudiation of Multiculturalism has just hit the bookstores.

To understand why Professor Mansur, a Muslim who came here from Bangladesh more than 30 years ago, considers multiculturalism a "delectable lie," it's sufficient to read his book, but the Korean lady's reservations require interpretation. Her idea of what was "Canadian" came from meeting some Canadian soldiers as a child during the Korean War. Her dream was to live among them, and she eventually realized it. When the ethnic composition of her Toronto neighbourhood started changing, she felt cheated.

"What happened to all the nice white people who used to live here?" she asked my wife plaintively one day.

My wife, also of Korean extraction, wondered herself. "Yes, what did happen to those nice WASPy people?" she asked me. "Did multiculturalism get them?"

Once again, the Koreans get it. They wanted Canadians. They wanted Canada. Now, we have a failed Marxist experiment (paraphrasing here), nothing that resembled the unity, the consensus, that the aforementioned newcomers once saw.



Read the whole thing.


From Chris Alexander:

In Afghanistan, as elsewhere, al-Qaeda's attacks on the U.S. mainland were recognized as a catastrophe, but the aftermath of the American invasion at least held the prospect of an end to the country's isolation and civil war. Afghanistan had been without a national army or police force since 1992. It had known no peace since 1978. It had lacked a legitimate government since 1973. For nearly three decades, Afghans had been hungry for sustained engagement from the international community. And then came 9/11: The ashes of Ground Zero had thrown up a phoenix of hope for a beleaguered country hemmed in by a phalanx of evils - from poverty and warlordism to impunity and heroin production.

A new era of stability for Afghanistan never seemed so tantalizingly close as in December 2001, when prominent Afghans hammered out the Bonn Agreement, which envisaged both a transitional government for the country and the fielding of a NATOled International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The Taliban had fled Kabul, Kandahar and every other provincial capital. In the old royal palace in Kabul, used by all Afghan leaders since the 1880s, Hamid Karzai was inaugurated as chairman of the interim administration - president in all but name - under the watchful gaze of ministers and diplomats from abroad. The seal of legitimate rule had been restored.

When one puts it that way, it seems like a moral imperative to temporarily occupy the nation even if to give the inhabitants a brief taste of peace.



Ssshhhh... Sarah Palin is talking:

Yeah, the permanent political class – they’re doing just fine. Ever notice how so many of them arrive in Washington, D.C. of modest means and then miraculously throughout the years they end up becoming very, very wealthy? Well, it’s because they derive power and their wealth from their access to our money – to taxpayer dollars.  They use it to bail out their friends on Wall Street and their corporate cronies, and to reward campaign contributors, and to buy votes via earmarks. There is so much waste. And there is a name for this: It’s called corporate crony capitalism. This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk. No, this is the capitalism of connections and government bailouts and handouts, of waste and influence peddling and corporate welfare. This is the crony capitalism that destroyed Europe’s economies. It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest – to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners – the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70% of the jobs in America, it’s you who own these small businesses, you’re the economic engine, but you don’t grease the wheels of government power.

The Mama Grizzly luxuriates in a bath of her total rightness.

Artist's conception

But seriously, she IS right. The economic situation in the US is dire. Forty-six point two million people are living in poverty. No new jobs were created in the month of August this year. The American electorate needs to remove itself from the shadow of those whose vested interest lies in keeping themselves in power, not empowering the people.



(Muchas gracias)



Quick, somebody get the special-interest groups involved!  Oh wait... Christians....

Last week, five Iranian Christians were sentenced to a total of 5 years in prison despite the fact that they were exonerated of all charges by a lower court. They were retried because the prosecutor had objected to the initial verdicts.

There may be Iron Man suits in the future? Too awesome....

High-tech robotic suits, similar to the one portrayed in the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster Iron Man, could become a reality within 30 years, says a University of Victoria neuroscientist.

Paul Zehr said while the technology will have practical benefits, like helping people with spinal-cord injuries walk, it will also have military applications, too.

So Zehr, the author of the just-released book "Inventing Iron Man: The Possibility of a Human Machine," said now's the time to talk about the practical and moral implications of the technology.

"I think the main conclusions are that we have to think in advance about some of the places we are headed to here," said Zehr in an interview.

He said if researchers are going to create technology allowing people to control "suits of armour" with their minds, then safeguards will have to be put in place to ensure those machines can't be taken over and controlled by others.

 Society will also have to address moral questions related to military, he added.

"I don't know? Is that where we want to go with society as well when it comes to warfare?"

While the suit worn by Iron Man's protagonist Tony Stark is still decades away, society is "on the trajectory" for the technology, said Zehr.

I want one for me.


And in a nice blue colour.