For A Monday

Yep.


The PQ has been shut out:

Philippe Couillard's Liberals have won a majority government in the province of Quebec.

As of 9:45 p.m. (EST), Liberal candidates are leading or elected in 72 ridings, compared to the Parti Quebecois in 31 ridings, the Coalition Avenir Quebec in 19 and the Quebec Solidaire in three.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

One month ago, PQ leader Pauline Marois met with her province's Lieutenant-Governor to dissolve the National Assembly in an effort to turn her minority government into a majority.

But after a campaign full of missteps and unfocused messaging, which included a lot of talk about a referendum that Quebecers weren't interested in, PQ support plummeted in the opinion polls and now they're on the outside looking in.

Not much of a difference, really.

Speaking of douchebags:

Trudeau condemned Canada’s decision to shut down its embassy in Iran. (At the same time, Canada kicked out Iranian diplomats in Ottawa.) Iranian refugees in Canada had reported they were harassed by Iranian agents directed from there. ...

And then Trudeau talked about the Jews.

When he’s courting donations in Montreal, Trudeau claims to be a friend of Israel. He appointed one of Montreal’s richest Jews, billionaire Stephen Bronfman, to head up his fundraising.

But when he’s alone in a room with an Iranian newspaper, he nods along as his hosts bad-mouth Canada’s foreign policy, including Harper’s pro-Israel stance. And then he says this: “whether it’s his positioning around Israel, or position around working closely with the United States, he’s very, very much focused on what is going to play well at the ballot box.”

Yes, there are people who want to vote him in.


Wait. Seriously? This is a real question:

Call it the million-worker mystery. 

A large chunk of American adults are no longer in the labor force. That has left economists divided over how many of them are voluntarily not working-or even looking for work-because they wanted to retire, go to school or take care of family members, versus how many have been forced out because they couldn't find a job.

This might fill in a blank or two:

The CBO report concludes that the equivalent of 2.5 million jobs will be lost due to Obamacare, primarily because of decisions made by workers. But, like Holmes's dog that didn't bark, the report may be even more damning because of what isn't there.

The CBO minimizes -- and even willfully ignores in some cases -- decisions that employers will make about jobs because of Obamacare provisions that punish them: penalties for not providing insurance, or insurance that doesn't carry the Obamacare stamp of approval; higher costs to provide expanded, and sometimes unnecessary, coverage; costs of maintaining and reporting Obamacare documentation, etc.

And this:

The math is depressing. In March more than 9 million native-born Americans were unemployed. At the current rate of job creation it will be 7.5 years before all these native-born unemployed find jobs. By then, of course, the population will be larger. And we haven’t even considered the millions who have avoided unemployment by dropping out of the labor force.

Another Great Wall of China:

Thousands of Christians have formed a human shield around a newly constructed church in Zhejiang province in China after authorities earlier this week threatened to demolish the building. The Sanjiang Christian Church reportedly cost more than $4.8 million to construct and was built over a six-year period in Wenzhou, one of China's most Christianized cities.

Friday evening, the Telegraph reported that hundreds of Christians, including elderly and disabled church members, had stationed themselves inside the church to block access to demolition teams during the night.

Over at the Fur: Obama insists on abusing his ability to issue executive orders (rather like George III) and demand that government contractors reveal salary by gender and race (because that is the most pressing issue of the day, Race huckster-in-Chief); Russian troops amass along Ukrainian border; also, the corruption of Putin; why no compromise can be reached with the left; while everyone is mad at Brendan Eich, Egypt jailed four homosexuals (bake a cake!); the Trial of Ezra Levant; some common sense from Arab groups who don't mind Easter egg hunts for children, and much, much more!


An uplifting story:

22-year-old Errol Samuels from Queens, New York, who lost the use of his legs in 2012 after a roof collapsed onto him at an off-campus house party near where he was attending college in upstate New York, walks with a ReWalk electric powered exoskeletal suit during a therapy session with Alexandra Voigt, a clinical research coordinator and therapist, at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City March 26, 2014. Made by the Israeli company Argo Medical Technologies, ReWalk is a computer controlled device that powers the hips and knees to help those with lower limb disabilities and paralysis to walk upright using crutches. Allan Kozlowski, assistant professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hospital, where patients like Samuels are enrolled in his clinical trials of the ReWalk and another exoskeleton, the Ekso (Ekso Bionics) hopes machines like these will soon offer victims of paralysis new hope for a dramatically improved quality of life and mobility.