Mid-Week Post

No, THIS is Sparta.


Another reason why Wynne should be fired out of a cannon:

Ontario’s transportation agency is releasing a final report today that will recommend new fees to fund public transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Premier Kathleen Wynne will use it to determine which levies she’ll choose to raise the $2-billion a year she says is needed to fund transit.

Metrolinx put out a list of 11 possible fees last month, which include a sales tax hike, a new payroll tax, a half-cent-a-litre tax on gasoline and parking levies.

It also floated a new charge for every kilometre a vehicle travels in the region and allowing drivers to pay to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes even if they have no passengers.

Omar Khadr is transferred to an Edmonton prison:

Former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr woke up in an Alberta prison Wednesday after months stuck in isolation at a penitentiary in Ontario where an inmate had threatened his life, The Canadian Press has learned.

Khadr was flown to the Edmonton Institution Tuesday, potentially ending a situation in which he had been deprived of prison programming that complicated efforts to seek parole, his lawyer Dennis Edney confirmed.

“Hopefully, this is a positive step in his long journey to freedom,” the Edmonton-based Edney said.

His ticker tape parade will be put on hold due to the death some other murderer who never once volunteered his time or fortune to operate on children, cure diseases or sit up with the elderly but was every bit a back alley quack.


Obama wanted Christopher Stevens dead:

This week, PJ Media reported that a State Department whistle blower is about to come forward to divulge new information about the September 11, 2012, al-Qaida attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US personnel were murdered in the attack. The whistle blower will reportedly reveal that Stevens was sent to Benghazi in a secret State Department effort to buy back anti-aircraft Stinger missiles that al-Qaida received from the State Department during the 2011 US-led NATO campaign to overthrow the regime of longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

(Merci)


Remember the myth that Obamacare would be inclusive and beneficial?

State insurance regulators say many people who buy their own health insurance could get surprises this fall: cancellation notices because their policies aren't up to the basic standards of President Barack Obama's overhaul.

Obama sounds like he is really worried about China's cyber-theft that could render the US useless in the Pacific:

"We've been clear in our concern about cyber-security, and our concern about the fact that there have been cyber-intrusions emanating from China," said Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney.

That showed them!


Vaguely related: China admits cancer villages exist:

The Chinese government has reluctantly admitted the existence of “cancer villages,” rural areas in China marred by unusually high cancer rates.

"China has been producing and utilizing toxic chemical products,” reads a government document obtained by CNN. “Many places experienced a drinking water crisis and pollution caused serious social issues like the emergence of cancer villages.” ...

As one farmer told CNN, “We complain and petition, but it is pointless, ordinary people can never fight officials and win.”

Why do we trade with these people and why can't we have more pipelines?

 
 Japan believes that a deal can be reached with North Korea regarding Japanese abductees:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday he believed North Korea's young leader was capable of making the right decision to resolve a dispute over kidnapped Japanese citizens, repeating he was open to a summit if it would settle the row.

Abe made his remarks in a television interview two weeks after a surprise visit to Pyongyang by his aide, Isao Iijima. That visit upset South Korea and the United States, both of which feared Tokyo might do a deal on abductees without addressing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

I understand Abe has a fire lit under him but he of all people should know that Kim Jong-Un, who is not dissimilar from his father, has no reason to co-operate with him regarding abductees (whether alive or dead) as they stand as bargaining chips. Kim Jong-Un is not that green. He will string the Japanese and South Koreans along as much as he can. This kind of naivety will bear no fruit.


Insert red herring here:

The mother of the Chinese newborn trapped in a sewer pipe in a stunning ordeal caught on video had raised the initial alarm and was present for the entire two-hour rescue but did not admit giving birth until confronted by police, reports said Wednesday.

The state-run, Hangzhou-based newspaper Dushikuaibao said police became suspicious when they found baby toys and blood-stained toilet paper in the 22-year-old woman's rented room, in the building where Saturday's rescue occurred in eastern China.

The woman, whose name was not revealed in state media reports, confessed to police when they asked her to undergo a medical checkup.

The woman told police she could not afford an abortion and secretly delivered the child Saturday afternoon in the toilet. She said she tried to catch the baby but he slipped into the sewer line and that she alerted her landlord of the trapped baby after she could not pull the child out, the state-run, Jinhua-based Zhezhong News said.

None of that makes sense. More than likely, she knew she could not get away with it.


Love of chocolate begins before birth:

Italian researchers who set out to test whether female and male fetuses respond differently when their mothers eat chocolate found that female fetuses react much more strongly than males to chocolate.

That's science, baby.


This is why you should regularly organise your bookshelf:

An Italian professor said on Wednesday he has identified what he believes is the world's oldest complete scroll of the Torah, containing the full text of the first five books of Hebrew scripture.

Mauro Perani, professor of Hebrew at the University of Bologna, said experts and carbon dating tests done in Italy and the United States dated the scroll as having been made between 1155 and 1225.

The scroll, which has been in possession of the Bologna University Library for more than 100 years, had been previously thought to be from the 17th century. It had been labeled "scroll 2".