(Place Title Here)

Make it snappy.


Middle ground or buying time before they can attack it again?

In the midst of all the 'unite the left' chatter, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae is reminding Canadians why his party might still be relevant.

Rae waded into the oilsands debate last week, giving Canadians an alternative option to the Tories' "drill baby drill" plan and the New Democrats' environment-first mantra.

"I don't think it's just a matter of saying 'I'm pro-development' or 'I'm anti-development,' I think everybody recognizes it's a huge resource for Canada. The question is: Can we do it in a sustainable way?"

Attempting to strike a middle ground, Rae told CBC Radio's The House that "the key word in all this is balance."

"You can't just grow a development from 100,000 people to a quarter of a million people in 10 years or 15 years without really thinking through all of the social and economic implications as well as the environmental ones. . . . We have to recognize that we are, in part, a resource economy — we're also a manufacturing economy . . . and a service economy — but, to deny the fact that we are a resource economy strikes me as ludicrous," he said, according to the National Post.

It seems that in an ever-increasing polarized political environment, the Liberals are trying to nudge the other parties to the sides and re-brand themselves as Canada's party of 'balance.'

You decide.


Whether one likes it or not, oil is the primary resource for the next twenty years. If you shut down oil production, especially in a First World liberal democracy like Canada, the entire globe would be reduced to an eighteenth century existence by the end of the week. Surely the NDP and the Liberals must see this even in the corner of their eyes.



Muslim Lutheran street preacher says women must cover up in order to avoid sexual assaults:

Canadian laws should be changed to require women to "cover themselves" to prevent sexual assaults, an Islamic street preacher in Toronto says.

Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, 33, an Islamic convert, called for legal change in response to recent sex attacks at York University.

Atangana is connected with a group called Muslim Support Network and is one of a number of street-corner clerics commonly seen at Yonge and Dundas Sts. in the heart of the city.

In an e-mail to the QMI Agency, Atangana said "the reason ... these sex attacks are continuously happening is because (of) Canadian laws, which give too much freedom to women" when it comes to how they dress.

"You should take your example from the way Muslim women dress," he wrote. "Why does (sic) Muslim women who wear long dress and covers her head aren't targeted for sex attacks?"

The clash between Western culture and values and the beliefs of some Muslim adherents has been a source of controversy and conflict across North America.

(Sidebar: because women who wear body bags aren't noticeable at all nor do they get beaten, abused, punched, raped or killed.)

Atangana, who plans to distribute his views on paper in the coming weeks, went on to state that "the reason ... a woman gets raped is because of the way she (dresses)," and suggests that "Toronto (become) the first city in North America to introduce laws that would make it illegal for women to dress provocatively."

If Toronto did this, Atangana said in an interview, other Canadian cities would follow suit.

"If (women) want to prevent being sexually assaulted, they should cover themselves," Atangana said, adding that while he doesn't expect Western women to dress as Muslim women do, they should have a "dress code" and take note of the burka, the head scarf and face veil some Muslim females wear.

Thus is the mindset of the Muslim Lutheran imam who cannot fathom willpower, self-control, morals or cultural plurality.



Related: SlutWalkers walk... the other way (at the 3:05 mark). There's your white liberal courage.

The Slut Walk co-ordinator blames everyone else for this imam and their willful silence on this issue.

 (with enormous thanks)



We remember the words:

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

No, not those words. Those are the words of a real leader. I meant these ones:

“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

One could parse the ways in which this arrogant beneficiary of affirmative action and political cluelessness is wrong (like self-made people able to thrive in a liberal democracy and a capitalist economy don't need their ingenuity and hard work underscored by a man who would have starved to death ages ago had it not been for some heavy financial backing and dishonesty, nor do they need to hear that only a government headed by the likes of him is the only way to succeed- as if- but I digress....) but he also doesn't understand how hypocritical he really is.

I guess there are fat cats in the White House.

Not to worry.


Some ingenious examples of "successful" people who weren't dazzled by Obama's burnished glow at all can be seen here, here, here and here.

Ingrate!

(Gracias)



If I may be allowed to paraphrase, if Kim Jong-Eun was successful in his purges, it's because some assassins in his army helped him along the way:

North Korea's ruling party has removed a top military official close to the center of power, suggesting new leader Kim Jong-un and his closest advisers may be purging the ruling elite to strengthen their grip on the secretive state.

Related: Hyon Yong Chol is the new vice marshall.



Sarah Silverman nearly ruined "Future's End" for everybody.



(again, gracias)



Shut up, China:

An uproar over the U.S. Olympic team's made-in-China uniforms is a blasphemy on the Olympic spirit which is supposed to separate sports from politics and a show of pure ignorance to boot, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

With U.S. unemployment hovering just above 8 percent, U.S. politicians have spoken out against the uniforms for the London Games, which start later this month, and six Democratic senators said they plan to introduce legislation requiring the ceremonial uniforms be produced in the United States.

But Chinese government-run Xinhua said in a commentary that it was hard to believe such hysteria over the matter could come from the mouths of such senior U.S. politicians.

"The Olympics spirit is all about separating sports from politics, but these U.S. politicians are going too far and trying to force a political tag onto the uniforms," it said in the Chinese-language commentary.

"This is a parochial nationalistic attitude, a blasphemy on the Olympic spirit and a show of ignorance," Xinhua added.

Go sniff Bethune's corpse or something.



Palestinian children's drawings are lies, apparently. Fake states make fake drawings, I guess.



And now, the real answer to our electoral problems is a mayor cat:

Stubbs, a part-manx cat with a short tail, has been the mayor of Talkeetna since he was elected shortly after his birth, KTUU-TV reported.

Back then, several of the town's 900 residents didn't like the human candidates who were running for mayor so they encouraged everyone to vote for Stubbs the cat as a write-in candidate. The cat won the election and has been mayor ever since, the station reported.