Saturday Post

The world does not stop...


That was a nice interview about losing your coverage you gave Fox News. It would be a shame if you were audited:

Bill Elliott, a cancer patient who told Fox News' Megyn Kelly his insurance was canceled because of Obamacare, now says he is the target of an IRS audit, The Blaze reported Friday. A health insurance broker who helped Elliot keep his insurance is also the target of an IRS audit dating back to 2003, FrontPageMag added.

Elliott appeared on Fox earlier in November to explain that his plan was canceled due to new regulations because his cancer was considered “beyond a catastrophic pre-existing condition.”

Elliott was given one choice: A $1,500 per month plan to replace the plan he had been paying $180 per month for. Elliott said he decided to pay the fine and "let nature take its course."

After the issue had been worked out with the insurance company, Elliott received a notice from the IRS informing him of the audit.

“Monday I got a certified letter, I went down and got it and it’s from the IRS and they are auditing my books from 2009,” he told Charleston, S.C., station WQSC.

At the time, he said, he worked for the government and didn't own a business. Moreover, he said, he's paid his taxes every year.

The notice also said that “due to federal budget cuts,” the meeting between him and the IRS won’t take place until April 2014.

This truly is a mafia administration with the Teflon Don-in-Chief at the top. It might as well put decapitated horses' heads in people's beds and be done with.


Merrill Newman, an American Korean War veteran who has been detained by the North Koreans for over a month, has been made to apologise for crimes against the North Korean state:

North Korea state media claimed Saturday that an elderly U.S. tourist detained for more than a month has apologized for alleged crimes during the Korean War and for “hostile acts” against the state during a recent trip.

North Korean authorities released video showing 85-year-old Merrill Newman, wearing glasses, a blue button-down shirt and tan trousers, reading his alleged apology, which was dated Nov. 9 and couldn’t be independently confirmed.

Pyongyang has been accused of previously coercing statements from detainees. There was no way to reach Newman and determine the circumstances of the alleged confession. But it was riddled with stilted English and grammatical errors, such as “I want not punish me.”

“I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people,” Newman purportedly wrote in a four-page statement, adding: “Please forgive me.”

What is North Korea's game here? It would not be the first time North Korea forced a false confession out of someone, North Korean or not. This also falls on the heels of China's belligerence over the Senkaku Islands and North Korea's perennial nuclear arms/sanctions dance. It also does not help that aside from the US, there is no real military opposition to North Korea or its boss, China. Kim Jong-Un may very well be attempting to coerce the West into undoing its scant sanctions or just trying to be a bully knowing full well no one will stand up to it. Either way, it is those who enter North Korea, whatever their motives, who will suffer.

What? They are a bunch of heathens!

In the video, Manitoba Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister — who was also a federal Conservative MP — wishes everybody happy holidays, even those "infidel atheists."

Now, let's relax. There is no point in one's taking offense over what is really a flippant remark. I thought someone might wear the "infidel atheist" crack as a badge of honour. I mean- what are you going to do on Christmas Day, anyway? Nothing?

Then chill....


Hey, remember when Pope Francis sent out "Evangelii Gaudium" and no one read it but started accusing the Pope of being a socialist and then the discussion got really, really ugly?

Oops:

Shortly after the document was released, some political and economic conservatives took exception to the pope's comments on how economic systems and politicians fail the poor and vulnerable. Some even characterized his words as an all-out attack on capitalism. Of course, on the other end of the political/economic spectrum, there were those thrilled to apparently have a pope on their side.

Subsequently, there began a trickle of questions about the translation of one of the most contentious passages (click here and here and here for initial skepticism, and here for skepticism about the skepticism, which itself was met with some skepticism and has been since updated with a correction).

Most papal documents are released in Latin, which has been the lingua franca of the multilingual Roman Catholic Church for centuries. But it's not easy to find someone fluent enough in Latin to translate long, complicated documents, laden with religious references and idioms. So, journalists have relied on the Vatican's own English version.

But in the case of Evangelii Gaudium, trusting that translation may be problematic.

Over at the Fur:  pruning the English language to suit feminist double-speak never ends well, Islamic unrest in Russian territories results in burned churches (scorched earth policy to enacted in five, four..), the new Dark Ages, Israel denounces Obama for giving Iran the opportunity to enrich uranium and much, much more!

Mid-Week Post

Quickly now....


The NDP attack Trudeau for using the crafted words of their beloved hypocrite:

Justin Trudeau continues to be slammed by New Democrats for invoking the memory of the late Jack Layton.

On Monday, following four federal byelections, Trudeau took a shot at the current NDP leader for running a negative campaign.

"The [NDP] is no longer the hopeful, optimistic party of Jack Layton, it is the negative, divisive party of Thomas Mulcair," he said at a Bourassa victory party, according to the Canadian Press.

"It is the Liberal party that proved tonight that hope is stronger than fear, that positive politics can and should win out over negative."

"Hope stronger than fear" is, of course an excerpt from Layton's final letter to Canadians.
On Tuesday, Mulcair suggested that the comments were in poor taste.

"That Justin Trudeau would use Jack Layton’s dying words as a political tool says everything that needs to be said about Justin Trudeau’s judgment and character," Mulcair told reporters on Tuesday, according to the Globe and Mail.

Well, Mr. Mulcair, no one accused Trudeau of having character but feel free to spout off one of his dad's arrogant phrases and then you'll be even.


Obama phones his bosses in Saudi Arabia to assure them that his deal with their mortal frenemy, Iran, is cool:

President Barack Obama phoned Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday to discuss the interim deal between Iran and six world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program, and emphasized that it will be important for Iran to follow through on commitments made in the deal, the White House said.

Obama and the king agreed to talk regularly as negotiations continue on a longer-term agreement "that would resolve the international community's concerns regarding Iran's nuclear program," the White House said.

Saudi Arabia had given its qualified approval to the deal earlier this week.

Liar, liar, receipt on fire:

Tip receipt hoax: It turns out that an incident in early November about a gay waitress claiming she wasn't tipped because she's gay, is a lie. The anonymous couple that the waitress served went to NBC 4 New York saying the whole thing was made up. They even had proof -- showing the NBC affiliate their receipt and credit card statement as evidence they did leave a tip...

And now, a happy Thanksgiving Day to the Americans and a happy Hanukkah to all:

Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

And finally, the security in this mall is amazing:

Who Throws Rocks?

The kind of jackhole who has no ruddy idea what Jesus meant by throwing them:

A four-year-old girl received a gash on her temple from a stone that was hurled by pro-abortion counter-demonstrators during a prayerful demonstration against abortion in Nancy, a town in the North-East of France earlier this month. The demonstration took place on Nov. 16 under heavy police protection in one of the city’s main squares while an “antifascist” counter-protest gathered several hundred feet and attempted to disturb the group’s recitation of the Rosary. ...

According to the “antifacist” group La Horde, about 100 activists assembled there for a vegan meal. When the anti-abortion prayers began in early afternoon they started shouting insults, blasphemous slogans and revolutionary chants, and throwing condoms. ...

 (Sidebar: veganism = cruelty to bystanders)

At 3 p.m., while the noise and shouting were at their highest, a little girl who was praying with her parents and three siblings was hit with a stone, leaving her bleeding and in tears, trying to hide in her mother’s coat.

A plain-clothes security officer offered to escort the family, from nearby Metz, to their van, but they refused. The father explained later that he had no confidence in the police, having been manhandled by security forces a few months back during the opening ceremony of the Metz tramway because he was waving a flag of the anti-gay “marriage” demonstration, “la Manif pour tous.” 

For the same reason, the family refused to lodge a complaint over the affair. ...

(Sidebar: damn cops...)


And what happened to the person who threw the rock at the kid? Cops? Anyone?


Douches....

Monday Post

Watching the world go to hell, one hand-basket at a time....


What has been hailed as a "seminal moment" in US/Middle East relations is actually a path to disaster:

Over the weekend, a meeting in Geneva between Iranian officials and representatives from the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China) and Germany reached what amounts to a temporary deal on Iran’s controversial nuclear program. For the next six months, the Iranians have agreed to halt any activity that could boost their ability to build a nuclear weapon and agreed, as well, to what seems to be rigorous new international inspections. In return, the U.S. and its allies will afford Iran some relief—though the roughly $7 billion on offer is not much—to the crippling regime of international sanctions that has hobbled the Iranian economy in recent years.

First of all, the deal was not struck in four days. The Obama administration had been meeting secretly with Iran for two years (SEE: pre-conditions). It is not even accepted widely by most American politicians who fear (and correctly, too) that the deal with Iran could fall through. Secondly, according to the deal, Iran does not have to stop enriching uranium nor does it need to enrich uranium for domestic and industrial energy uses given its vast natural gas reserves and its development of other energy sources. It is, however, being rewarded with lifted sanctions thereby injecting much-needed cash into its coffers. Thirdly, it leaves the oft-threatened Israel in a very precarious position:

The terms of the deal and re-engagement of the West with Iran, after a protracted, volatile standoff, are a setback for Netanyahu, who had demanded Iran be stripped of its nuclear enrichment capabilities altogether.

His military options in confronting Tehran now seem more limited and likely to risk Israel's isolation. A grim-faced Netanyahu said in a statement in English after meeting his cabinet that Israel would not be bound by the accord.

"What was concluded in Geneva last night is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake," he said.

"Today the world has become a much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world took a significant step towards obtaining the world's most dangerous weapon."

Canada is also not convinced:

But Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird insisted that Ottawa would keep its "tough" sanctions "in full force" until negotiators clinch a permanent agreement, because "Iran has not earned the right to have the benefit of the doubt."

None of this will end well (SEE: Munich, 1938).

Here is a very good article detailing the parallels between sanctions on Iran and North Korea:

The consensus today is that tough sanctions forced Iran back to the bargaining table after years of stalling, lying, and obfuscation, yet our North Korea sanctions are a pale shadow of the sanctions we have against Iran. Whether you believe that the purpose of sanctions on Iran was to slow its nuclear progress, open the way to diplomacy, or weaken the regime domestically, you can argue that sanctions were moving us in all of those directions. The question that begs is why we aren’t using sanctions to move us toward the same goals with North Korea.

(Sidebar: North Korea was never on Obama's radar that's why there is no forthcoming deal or tougher sanctions.)

Read the whole thing.

Related: Americans are finally convinced that Obama is a putz:

A growing number of Americans doubt President Barack Obama's ability to manage the nation, according to a CNN/ORC poll released on Monday that reflects the possible larger impact of his administration's fumbled rollout of its healthcare law.

The poll also found that 53 percent of those polled said Obama is not honest or trustworthy, marking the first time that the CNN/ORC polling found a clear majority questioning the president's integrity, CNN said.

Forty percent of the 843 U.S. adults surveyed in the telephone poll early last week said Obama can manage the government effectively, down 12 percentage points from June.

China flexes its muscles over the disputed and Japanese-claimed Senkaku Islands so much so that it demands flight plans from airlines:

Asian aviation officials said airlines would have to inform China of flight plans before entering airspace over waters disputed with Japan, forcing carriers to acknowledge China's authority over a newly declared "Air Defense Identification Zone".

China published coordinates for the zone on the weekend. The area, about two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom, covers most of the East China Sea and the skies over a group of uninhabited islands at the centre of a bitter row between Beijing and Tokyo.

Screw this arrogance.

Why would anyone co-operate with the paper tiger? If China was to shoot down a civilian aircraft, treat it like an act of war and China as an aggressor.

Or ignore China.

Or have Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and the rest of southeast Asia form a coalition against it. Have them keep China occupied while India prepares to march it into the sea.


If the have-not province of Ontario is prepared to hike the minimum wage and therefore pass the cost onto the consumer, it should at least eliminate Wynne's pension and salary entirely:

A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) argues the current rate of $10.25 per hour, which has been in place since 2010, is dragging more people in poverty and preventing, not enabling, economic growth.

The CCPA challenges the argument that paying minimum-wage workers would be a job killer by adding more costs to already burdened businesses across the province.

Instead, it says a higher rate – which it recommends as $14.50 an hour by 2016 - would benefit companies through increased employee retention. A higher rate will also boost employees' purchasing power, which is good for the overall economy, the report says.

Ontario’s current minimum wage is below the poverty line for full-time workers and short of living-wage calculations across the province that range from $18.69 in Halton to $14.95 in Hamilton, the report states.

Never mind that minimum wage hikes aren't possible due to rising costs or that they do discourage employment.


And now, Christmas treats to make with the kids. Enjoy.

Friday Post

Time for the week-end...


Liberal Senator Colin Kenny faces sexual harassment charges:

Sen. Colin Kenny may have resigned from the Liberal caucus over allegations of sexual harassment but questions remain about when Justin Trudeau's office first learned about a young female staffer's complaint.

A former staffer has accused Kenny of making sexual comments to her, touching her waist during conversations in his office and asking her to his house for drinks, among other accusations.

In a statement, Kenny says the allegations are "without merit."

"As per the conditions that govern the investigation, neither I nor anyone else involved may comment publicly until it is concluded," he wrote. "I am very much looking forward to the resolution of this issue."

Kenny filed a letter of resignation Thursday, effective Nov. 13. It is unclear when Trudeau learned of the allegations, but a spokeswoman for his office said the former staffer sent two letters detailing her complaints.

The first was sent to Trudeau's office Aug. 22, with the subject line "Senate Reform." The office said it received roughly 400 e-mails that day with that subject line. As a result, it said, the complaint e-mail "was triaged into a bulk folder of the Senate reform e-mails and was not seen by our office".

On Oct. 24 the former staffer wrote another letter to the Liberal leader in the Senate, James Cowan. Her initial e-mail was then flagged and Trudeau's chief of staff, Cyrus Reporter, said the office followed up "immediately."

Putting aside his guilt or innocence, why did the Liberals, ever quick to dog others about alleged corruption, wait until recently to boot Kenney out of the caucus when they were aware of these allegations since August?

It's only illegal when other people do it.


Omar Khadr, the Canadian-born terrorist who admitted to murdering Christopher Speer, cannot proceed with an appeal to chis conviction as planned:

An American military court has thrown a wrench into an attempt by former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr to appeal his war-crimes convictions, The Canadian Press has learned.

In an order his lawyer called unprecedented, the Court of Military Commission Review has told both sides to file arguments only on whether the court has the authority to hear the appeal.

"It's terribly unfair to Khadr," Sam Morison, Khadr's American lawyer, who works for the U.S. Defence Department, said in an interview Friday.

"The court's supposed to be neutral. That's what's most troubling."

Normally, appeal courts hear arguments on all the issues at play — including the merits of the case — allowing everything to be decided together.

The military court's new tack, however, could see the case drag on interminably if it decides it has no authority to hear the appeal regardless of its merits.

If that happens, Khadr, 27, would first have to ask a civilian court to order the military court to hear the case, and then, if successful, would have to start from scratch to argue the merits.

The process could take years.

Considering that solar and wind power are not only unreliable but more expensive-  between 40 to 80 cents per kilowatt per hour (kWh) for solar power and 13.5 cents kWh for wind power (as opposed to the already reliable and "green" hydro which stands at 3.5 cents kWh)- Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne had decided that already expensive energy and even more expensive gas plant cancellations are not enough to reduce Ontarians to dust; she is planning on shutting down all the coal plants in Ontario:

Ontario could soon become the first place in North America to snuff out coal-fired electricity generation for good, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Thursday.

The minority Liberals plan to introduce legislation on Monday that, if passed, would ensure no Ontario generating station ever burns coal again once it's eliminated in 2014.

Ontario's Nanticoke generating station -- the largest coal-burning plant in North America -- is slated to close soon. Another station in Thunder Bay, Ont., is expected to switch to biomass over the next year.

With environmentalist and former U.S. vice-president Al Gore by her side, Wynne said the proposed ban isn't just a symbolic move in Ontario's fight against climate change.

 

(Sidebar: Man-Bear-Pig is a fraud.)

This is the government Liberal voters wanted.

I hate you.

Related: those against wind turbines counter Wynne:

While attending an MPP's 10th anniversary dinner, Premier Kathleen Wynne was met with about 100 wind turbine protesters in this eastern Ontario city.

Holding signs saying Stop the Wind Turbines and Voters' Rights: Gone with the Wynne, the group booed the premier as she arrived for the event.

Behold, American liberal arrogance!

But at the debate, America’s treatment of Canada came up again, courtesy of Maureen Dowd.

She spent most of her time recycling Dick Cheney and Ted Cruz insults from her columns. If the Rob Ford scandal had not been all over the news, she wouldn’t have made any Canadian reference.

Not only did Dowd not bother to find examples relevant to Canadians, but also her repeated slam against Ted Cruz, a man she clearly loathes, was to call him Canadian. I know she simply hoped to sabotage any future presidential run for the Senator from Texas, but she obviously didn’t consider how it might come off to a Canadian audience when she used their nationality as a slur.

In fact, the participants seemed completely unaware they were speaking to a Canadian audience. They kept using the royal “we” for Americans, as if they were debating in Toledo, Ohio not Toronto, Canada.

One would think that a speaker would be aware of her audience.

Nope!

When Maureen Dowd called Ted Cruz a Canadian in front of other Canadians, it was as a pejorative, as though being a citizen of a functional First-World country with lots of bankable natural resources and not one iota of the self-imploding problems plaguing the US was somehow bad.

Not smart.

She called Ted Cruz a Canadian when she should have said: "Ted Cruz is a CANADIAN! And that's great, just like you guys!"

Like that. It would come off less insulting that way.

Such things have to be explained to liberals, you know.

(Merci)



Just when you thought the very unpopular and unworkable healthcare tax known as Obamacare couldn't get any worse, it does:

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) penalizes married couples by making it more difficult than unmarried couples to receive subsides. Under the new law, couples living together who are not married could save up to $10,000 more than a married couple.

And who was told this was going to be a failure, American voters?



And now, white chocolate raspberry OREO cookie balls. Enjoy.

Mid-Week Post

Where does the time go?


As it now stands, there are over forty offenses in the Canadian Criminal Code for which convicted criminals may have a mandatory minimum sentence imposed on them. Some of these mandatory minimum sentences were instituted by the Liberals, including Pierre Trudeau. The Fils is taking fire for wanting to eliminate the very things Pere helped bring in:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has said several times over the past two weeks that if he ever becomes prime minister, he will consider repealing all mandatory minimum criminal sentences.

He first stuck his toe in the justice-policy waters via Twitter, where 140-character messages exhaust the depth of his intellect on most subjects. Asked whether he would consider rolling back the mandatory minimums brought in by the Tories, Trudeau Tweeted "I (and the Liberal party) trust the judiciary to do their jobs well, so yes."

But Trudeau and his party didn't stop there. Liberal justice critic Sean Casey told the CBC the party stands against mandatory minimums but agreed that maybe the minimums for murder were OK.

Monday at an event at Toronto's Ryerson University, Trudeau even admitted to Sun News reporter Marissa Semkiw that he "wouldn't rule out repealing mandatory minimums for anyone," even sickos who commit sex crimes against children.

No doubt Trudeau and the Grits are against mandatory minimums because they believe such penalties were invented by Stephen Harper, and everything Harper does is wrong.

But according to the criminal law policy section of Justice Canada, there are 66 criminal offences that carry mandatory minimum sentences in Canada, 38 of which were introduced by Liberal governments.

Oops.

Justin Trudeau, hard-pressed to devise an original policy or anything that doesn't involve attacking Harper, because, hey, attacking is easier than being a real leader, would also have to further empower activist judges and re-consider time served in sentencing if he wants this to work.


I don't know why anyone would want to travel to North Korea, anyway:

For some people, visiting North Korea is like dating Madonna — plodding a tired, well-worn, loveless, and morally ambiguous path that gives some people an inexplicable feeling that they’ve entered an unexplored place. Except that Dennis Rodman and countless others already did.

 
Some people sneak in to do the work the UN steadfastly refuses to do. Others, I don't know...

By the way, Kenneth Bae is still in prison so focus on him and not some douche in Russia.

Just saying.

Do read this commentary on Elle magazine's thoughtless article on North Korean military chic. Priceless.

(Kamsahamnida)


I'm sure this was entirely accidental:

Hundreds of pages of detailed information on U.S. government programs to help Cuban dissident leaders may have fallen into the hands of the Cuban regime due to a failure to encrypt documents sent to Havana, a mistake one official called "an amazingly stupid thing to do."

 
Is the NSA STILL spying on average Americans? I'm confident that these guys would be all over this.


Yeah, I'll say:

Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that it was time for his country to look beyond the U.S. as its principal ally, the Jerusalem Post reports. Foreign minister Avigdor Liberman said that the U.S. was too distracted with other problems. However, with talks resuming in Geneva toward a nuclear deal with Iran that Israel fears is too weak, Liberman's statement reflects disappointment in President Obama's policies.

 

The White House is still trying to avoid responsibility for Benghazi.


And now, can you find the invisible cow?