The World Is Taking Crazy Pills (Pt. 14)

That sounds nice but when will the chiefs be held to account?

A major budget initiative to make social assistance for First Nations youth contingent on entering into a training program is likely to get a rough ride on reserves, the NDP says.

(Sidebar: if there is anyone who can't see the shame in being paternalistic and money-grubbing, it's the NDP.)

The hands are out again.


If North Korea was serious, it wouldn't let China hold it back. It would just attack and become one unified Korea overnight:

North Korea said it would attack U.S. military bases on Japan and the Pacific island of Guam if provoked, a day after leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a mock drone strike on South Korea.

The North also held an air raid drill on Thursday after accusing the United States of preparing a military strike using bombers that have overflown the Korean peninsula as part of drills between South Korean and U.S. forces.

North Korea has stepped up its rhetoric in response to what it calls "hostile" drills between South Korea and the United States. It has also been angered by the imposition of fresh U.N. sanctions that followed its February 12 nuclear test.

Separately, South Korea said a hacking attack on the servers of local broadcasters and banks on Wednesday originated from an IP address in China, raising suspicions the intrusion came from North Korea.

"The United States is advised not to forget that our precision target tools have within their range the Anderson Air Force base on Guam where the B-52 takes off, as well as the Japanese mainland where nuclear powered submarines are deployed and the navy bases on Okinawa," the North's supreme military command spokesman was quoted as saying by the KCNA news agency.

Japan and U.S. Pacific bases are in range of Pyongyang's medium-range missiles. ...

The hacking attack brought down the servers of South Korean broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS as well as two major commercial banks, Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank.

South Korean communications regulators said the attack originated from an IP address based in China.

An unnamed official from South Korea's presidential office was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying the discovery of the Chinese IP address indicated Pyongyang was responsible.

Investigations of past hacking incidents on South Korean organizations have been traced to Pyongyang's large army of computer engineers trained to infiltrate the South's computer networks.

At least one previous attack was traced to a Chinese IP address.

South Korea's defense ministry said it was too early to blame the North but said such a cyber capability was a key part of its arsenal. Experts say thousands of North Korean engineers may have been recruited for the purpose.

"Throughout the world, states that create cyber warfare and engage in those types of activities are precisely the same countries that develop nuclear weapons," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.

"North Korea has strongly stepped up development of asymmetrical strategy with nuclear development and many types of ballistic missiles as well as a special forces of 200,000 strong."

So- when will the rest of the world isolate North Korea from China, its sponsor and owner? If or when that ever happens, how brave will North Korea be? I believe what has been happening as of late is nothing dissimilar from what it has always done- issue threats and rattle its sabre until it gets what it wants. Nothing changes. Until North Korea is completely isolated (ie- completely cut off from China), nothing will.


German scientists have removed themselves from oil sands work. Germany is forced to cancel its "green" programs due to lack of money. Discuss.


For some inexplicable reason, the Department of Homeland Security will give Saudi nationals "trusted traveller" status:

A Department of Homeland Security program intended to give "trusted traveler" status to low-risk airline passengers soon will be extended to Saudi travelers, opening the program to criticism for accommodating the country that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ...

Any Saudi travelers cleared through the program will be able to bypass the normal customs line after providing passports and fingerprints. The status lasts for five years.

The decision is a turnaround, the IPT notes, from when Saudi Arabia was briefly placed on a list of countries whose U.S.-bound travelers would face higher scrutiny, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt in 2009.

But Napolitano spoke highly of "the bond between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" when she announced the change in January.

"By enhancing collaboration with the government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel," Napolitano said.

(Sidebar: this is the same cow who believed that the September 11th hijackers entered the US through Canada.)

Fifteen of the nineteen September 11th hijackers were Saudi nationals. Saudi Arabia has funded and still funds international terrorism. Obama has given Egypt F-16's and has insulted Israel on its soil.

What can possibly go wrong with all of this?


For some reason, men who say they are women can now legally watch children pee:

A bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against transgender Canadians was approved by the House of Commons today.

(Sidebar: WRONG! As franchised citizens of this Dominion, they can vote and get their fetish surgeries paid for by the taxpayer. What was objected to was the invasion of privacy of ninety-eight percent of the Canadian population.)

Yep. Your government voted for it. An emotionally backward sexual subculture has more sway in the House of Commons than the average Canadian ever will.


How can anything not permitted to even be discussed be "non-votable"?

Mark Warawa’s motion to condemn sex selection was declared non-votable Thursday morning in the ongoing joint effort by Canada’s Conservative government and the Opposition to keep the abortion debate out of Parliament.

The question was brought up unexpectedly at the Sub-Committee on Private Members’ Business on the day the government is set to release its budget for 2013, meaning newsrooms across the country are locked up.

The sub-committee vote, believed to be at the instigation of the Prime Minister’s Office, was unanimous.

If I didn't know better, I would think that the Conservatives wanted to lose every election from now until the sun burns out of the sky.

Related:

Notwithstanding Dr. Gosnell’s jest, and the fact that newborns delivered alive are generally regarded as “babies,” the New York Times’ only story on the case is punctilious enough to refer to Gosnell’s victims as “viable fetuses,” and its early paragraphs emphasize the defense’s wearily predictable line that this is a “racist prosecution.” Instead of my Arizona comparison, what about Sandy Hook? One solitary act of mass infanticide by a mentally-ill loner calls into question the constitutional right to guns, but a sustained conveyor belt of infanticide by an entire cadre of cold-blooded killers apparently has no implications for the constitutional right to abortion.

The Internet AND the Canadian political scene are full of cats:

PM’s cat becomes Reddit celebrity as Harper apparently mails glossy feline photo to letter writer

Cat look-alikes

(With thanks)