Friday Post

Quickly now....


There is no punishment in a civilised society fit for these people:

A 10-year-old boy rescued in urine-soaked pyjamas from a squalid bedroom where he had been confined for up to two years expressed hope, authorities say, that he can now attend school.

After receiving an anonymous tip, authorities discovered the boy in horrific conditions, locked in a bedroom of his aunt and uncle's house in the southwestern Ontario city.

"There was a lot of garbage in the house," London Police Insp. Kevin Heslop said at a news conference Friday.

"There was a lot of packaging from fast food outlets. In the bedroom specifically there was feces, urine, the bed was soaked in urine, as was the child's pyjamas when the child was found and there was food waste throughout the house."

The boy had been locked in the bedroom for at least 18 months, possibly as long as two years, Heslop said. He may have been out "for a brief period of time" in 2013, he said. The boy was typically fed twice a day, fast food that was left for him to eat, Heslop said.

"The master bedroom had an ensuite bathroom so the child had access to a toilet and shower, however the room — in fact the entire house — was in squalid condition," Heslop said.

The boy's aunt and uncle have been charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life and forcible confinement. Their names are not being released to protect the boy's identity.

If I were Abe, I'd buck idle American support for the strength in numbers an equally infuriated pan-Asian alliance would offer:

The United States threw its weight on Saturday behind a push by Japan to take a more active role in regional security and bluntly warned China to halt destabilizing actions in support of territorial claims.

Even an American court finds for Canadian earnestness:

An American court has rejected an attempt to block a major Canada-U.S. bridge project.

The Washington, D.C., District Court has denied a request for an injunction to halt a permit for the proposed Windsor-Detroit bridge.

The request came from the private company that owns the aging Ambassador Bridge, which handles nearly one-third of Canada-U.S. trade.

That private company, owned by Detroit's Moroun family, says two national governments are conspiring against its own rival project to build a private bridge.

As it waits for its own permits, the company requested an injunction to block the U.S. Coast Guard from granting a key permit to the public bridge.

In an opinion released today, the court rejected that request — calling it preliminary, and concluding there's no proof the Coast Guard permit will cause irreparable harm to the Moroun family project.

The case is just one battle in the years-long dispute over a replacement for the Ambassador Bridge, pitting the Canadian government and U.S. allies against the Morouns' Detroit International Bridge Co.

The Canadian government is already funding the vast majority of the proposed New International Trade Crossing, and is waiting for the U.S. to fund a customs plaza on its own side.

What? Liberal corruption? I'm stunned:

Ontario's Tories released documents Thursday that they said show the governing Liberals secretly approved a $317-million bailout of a Toronto building project by a private developer and a charity, a charge the Liberals called false.

The province gave $71 million to buy the land to expand the MaRS innovation research centre in downtown Toronto, and a $234-million loan for a new tower, but the documents show MaRS and the developer couldn't repay the money, said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

Premier Kathleen Wynne approved a multimillion-dollar bailout without the public's knowledge, added Hudak.

And now, your Friday freakout: should this guy be Doctor Who? and an eighty-nine year old woman fights off a sword-wielding thief with a golf club.

Mid-Week Mellow

Time to cool off....

Fruit-infused waters might do the trick.

The hamburger: a history.

You're on a picnic (or zombie pile) and you don't have a bottle opener. Never fear....

How movies are better with Godzilla in them.

Mid-Week Post

See inside for details...


Oh, for the love of pie....

A former senior aide to Stephen Harper says the prime minister is prone to fits of anger, that his public dispute with the Supreme Court’s chief justice is ill-advised and that Harper is the kind of leader who would want to have known details of the $90,000 payment to Sen. Mike Duffy.

Bruce Carson, a former senior aide to Harper from 2004 to 2009, also said Tuesday in an interview with CBC News that the prime minister “has always been isolated” and is becoming increasingly so partly because he does not have a regular group of advisers across the country to whom he reaches out for advice. ...

He said he believes Harper when the prime minister says he didn’t know about the payment. Carson said that had he been in the PMO during the Senate expenses scandal, the prime minister “absolutely” would have known about the payment.

Carson also said Harper has a temper and is prone to fits of anger. Asked if the prime minister would dress down people and swear at them, Carson said, “Oh yeah.”

“You couldn’t run a country or take the position that the prime minister has without emotional outbursts, without displaying temper. And certainly it was there,” he said.

Carson, a convicted fraudster, has been in the news because of his new book, 14 Days. He is also expected to be in court early next month for a  pre-trial preliminary inquiry into charges of influence-peddling, which he intends to fight.

What can anyone say other than this is a hit piece arranged by a convicted and disbarred lawyer and, no doubt, distracts one from more foot-in-mouth prone political figures.

I don't believe that Stephen Harper is in any way perfect but I will not believe for one moment that he is either temperamental, stupid or incompetent, save, perhaps, his decision to trust Carson.

Where have we heard this kind of bashing before?

(Merci)


Liberal MP John McKay, having had his displeasure with Justin Trudeau's iron-grip on opinions recorded, has apologised for his remarks:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau promises he won't take any disciplinary action against a caucus colleague who accused him of a "bozo eruption" on the abortion issue.

"Mr. McKay and I spoke and he apologized personally," Trudeau said Tuesday. "For me the matter is closed."

Long-serving Liberal MP and environment critic John McKay was secretly recorded while making the disparaging comment during what he thought was a private conversation, but the recording was released to the media this week.

McKay also suggested on the recording that Trudeau's advisers had "no political sense" if they thought it was smart for the Liberal leader to issue an edict three weeks ago that no pro-lifers except sitting MPs could run for the Grits, and that all MPs would have to vote to support abortion rights regardless of personal beliefs.

McKay stayed out of public view Tuesday, but he is only the latest in a long line of Liberals who have publicly criticized Trudeau's decision to tell MPs how to vote on abortion.

McKay should have never apologised. Not only did he violate his principles by backing down to the Fils, he cowered to the twit. How could Justin Trudeau be right not only about an issue but in how he handles agreement or dissent?

Justin Trudeau isn't fit to lead a parade of ants let alone mount a competent and principled charge into national leadership.

Thanks for having the voters' backs, McKay.


Khadr supporters aren't the only ones ignoring Tabitha Speer, widow of Christopher Speer whom Omar Khadr murdered:

How about America’s leaders? AWOL. The reason Khadr is in Canada, in case you didn’t know, is that Obama freed Khadr from Gitmo after intense lobbying from the “compassionate” social justice crowd. He was repatriated to Canada just weeks before America’s November 2012 election. Leading the pressure campaign on Obama: the Center for Constitutional Rights, which also crusaded for the release of former Gitmo jihadist Abu Sufian bin Qumu, a primary suspect in the Benghazi consulate attacks.

Canadian conservative writer and activist Ezra Levant, who has advocated tirelessly for the Speers and for other victims of jihad, noted recently that the liberal Canadian press has mentioned the Speer children a scant six times as Khadr milks leftist sympathies.

But what does it say when the Canadian government shows more compassion for the fatherless children of a U.S. soldier than their own government?

(Sidebar: yeah, I wouldn't go that far, Michelle Malkin.)

(Gracias)


Americans must be ashamed of their leader:

"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being." - We know this to be untrue because he once professed to believe otherwise. An administration that took American exceptionalism seriously would not give up unilateral control of the Internet, would not submit domestic policy to scrutiny by the dictatorships of the Human Rights Council, and would not apologize over a phony YouTube video outrage.

Yes, about that:




Obama's foreign policies have been disastrous. There is no one who can take him seriously now given the mistakes of Russia, Libya, Egypt, China, Iran, Israel and even Canada.

I don't know what he is reaching for. His legacy will be one of failure. Someone else will have to clean up his messes.


Hashtags are only as powerful as the idiots who tweet them:

As the #YesAllWomen craze spread, a woman was stoned by her family in Pakistan for marrying someone of her choice as opposed to someone of their arrangement. While the #YesAllWomen crowds talked about the unbearable horror of being whistled at on the street, annoyingly being told to smile, and being given gendered McDonald’s toys, more than 200 Nigerian girls remained in slavery to Islamist extremist rebels. While we turn the murder of six into a narcissistic contest of victimhood, a Sudanese Christian woman married to an American Christian man gave birth to a daughter in prison. She awaits her martyrdom for supposedly converting from Islam (because her father, who left her family, had been Muslim). While we complain that women are expected to be considerate, Saudi women aren’t legally allowed to drive cars. While we are outraged that people treat us poorly if we’re wearing a sheer shirt and short shorts, 100 million girls have been killed in utero for the crime of being female. A bit of perspective — which I found hard to find in my visits to the #YesAllWomen hashtag — is in order.

So where is the space in the hearts of the moral poseurs in the Twitterverse? Surely a Sudanese Christian woman deserves attention, does she not? Is her being chained to a wall while being pregnant almost the same as- oh, let's say- hearing a naughty comment?

One can intellectually sum up the lack of character of the "Me-Me-Look-at-Me" generation but it's still confounding how the alleged problems and the infantile decisions of the post-modern Westerner are even similar to ones in a Third World hellhole.

Just... wow...

Monday Post

As the universe spins... or turns... or something....


Oh, look- another hashtag!

Following news of Friday's shooting by Elliot Rodger, men and women alike took to Twitter to share their stories of misogyny uniting around the hashtag #YesAllWomen.

Days later, #YesAllWomen is still one of the top trending topics, having generated nearly a million tweets on the topic.

Maybe I'm missing an enormous clue but aside from people seeming like they are doing something constructive and being profound, when, in fact, they are not, but how would hashtags stop spoiled rich kids from killing innocent people, especially in countries where murderers are tried and convicted all the time and where even the loudest slut-walker gets protection under the law, quite unlike the "sluts" in Islamic countries who get acid thrown in their faces for their brazen forehead exposure?


Go to hell:

A national Muslim council is proceeding with a lawsuit against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his chief spokesman for allegedly linking the organization to a terrorist group.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims has filed a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court after failing to get an apology from the Prime Minister's Office.

The council is seeking a public retraction, damages of up to $100,000 and a permanent injunction preventing the words from being republished, the statement of claim says.

The claim quotes Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald as saying, "We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas.''

The popular press is quite happy to give this stunt exposure, however....

June 1994 – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was established by three leaders of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP): Nihad Awad, Omar Ahmad and Rafeeq Jaber. The IAP was a front group for Hamas in the United States in the eighties and nineties. In a video archived by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Nihad Awad expresses his support for Hamas at Barry University in 1994. In 2002, an American judge presiding the case Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development v. Ashcroft concluded that the « Islamic Association for Palestine (« IAP »), has acted in support of Hamas.” ...

1996 – Creation of “an informal network in Canada to work with the Washington-based CAIR”

Well, that's embarrassing.

(Merci)


Oh, sure, he "accidentally" did it:

The White House mistakenly identified the Central Intelligence Agency's top official in Afghanistan on Sunday, during President Barack Obama's short, surprise visit to troops at Bagram Air Base.

Just like he forgot where his office was the night Ambassador Stevens was killed in a planned attack.


The NDP is a union boss/political flunkie party, not one with the competence and fortitude to lead a country:

Last Friday, a rather scathing letter to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath — written by 34 NDP insiders — was leaked to the media. In it, the NDP members complain that the party was losing its progressive roots....

(Sidebar: there is nothing "progressive" about welfarism.)


The so-called "chocolate king" of Ukraine hits the ground running:

Ukraine's new president-elect wasted no time Monday immediately focusing on the top issues at hand — promising to negotiate an end to a pro-Russia insurgency in the east and saying he was willing to begin talks with Moscow.

Russia quickly welcomed the offer from 48-year-old chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko, raising hopes that his election will indeed ease the protracted crisis that has fueled tensions unseen since the end of the Cold War.

Poroshenko, known for his pragmatism, supports building strong ties with Europe but also has stressed the importance of mending relations with Moscow. Upon claiming victory in Sunday's vote, he said his first step as president would be to visit the Donbass eastern industrial region, where pro-Russia separatists have seized government buildings, declared independence and battled government troops in weeks of fighting.

I can see that Poroshenko is tired of the bloodshed and realises that Russia cannot be wished away but it also cannot be dealt with as any other country, either.

Trust as with adders fanged, is my point.


And now, a summer to-do list.

For A Thursday

Omar Khadr is being sued by Tabitha Speer, Christopher Speer's widow, and Layne Morris, who lost an eye when Khadr threw a grenade at him, for over $40 million:

The American victims of convicted terrorist Omar Khadr are suing him for $44.7 million.

The suit was filed in a Utah court Wednesday, on behalf of Christopher Speer, the U.S. Army combat medic killed by Khadr in 2002, as well as his wife and young children, and another soldier, Layne Morris, who was injured and blinded by a grenade thrown by Khadr in Afghanistan.

Morris is asking for $2.5 million. He lost sight in one eye after shrapnel from a grenade tossed by Khadr severed his optic nerve.

Laura Tanner, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, said there is precedent for civil suits against terrorists.

"We sued (Omar's) father 10 years ago and were successful in getting a similar amount of money," she told QMI Agency. "This is based on the international terrorism statute, a remedy for victims of crime for behaviour conducted as a criminal terrorist."

According to documents filed with the Utah court: "Speer was placed in severe and prolonged extreme apprehension, suffered extreme fear, terror, anxiety, emotional, physical and psychological distress and trauma as a result of his injuries before his death."

Omar Khadr cannot profit from selling his story as a part of the plea deal he made. However, if he receives a settlement from the Canadian government for leaving this admitted terrorist in American custody, that will likely be used as compensation for his victims.


Justin Trudeau: hasn't read his dad's charter and still a douche:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau wouldn't try to talk a woman out of a sex-selective abortion - aborting a child based on gender alone - because it is a "charter right."

This is no coincidence. This is a partnership that has existed for decades:

China signed a landmark deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia.

Price negotiations on the 30-year deal continued into the final hours of a two-day visit by Putin to China, during which both sides had said they hoped to sign an agreement.

Putin was in Shanghai for an Asian security conference where China's president called for a new model of Asian security co-operation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the United States.

The gas deal gives Moscow an economic boost at a time when Washington and the European Union have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on dozens of Russian officials and several companies over Ukraine. It allows Russia to diversify its markets for gas, which now goes mostly to Europe.

The agreement "opened the door for Russia to enter into Asia's gas market," said Keun-Wook Paik, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Politically, the deal has provided "a breathing space for Russia," Paik said. "Russia, and Putin, can demonstrate it's not completely isolated because of the Ukraine crisis. Russia has demonstrated that they have a very reliable strategic partnership with China."

Of course Russia and China have a "reliable strategic partnership".  There have been few times when they haven't. It's no accident that they agree to veto action against any Middle Eastern or North Korean foe. With the fingers in as many pies as they do, they are poised to be the big boys on either side of the globe.


Trash:

A 43-year-old woman from Surrey, B.C., is likely to face assault charges after she allegedly threatened to kill a mother and her three children on board a bus.

A video of the altercation has been capturing attention on YouTube. 

According to RCMP Const. Holly Marks, the incident began around 10:20 a.m. PT on Tuesday when the 43-year-old woman boarded the bus heading from Surrey to Langley, and ended up arguing with the bus driver over non-payment of fare.

"A number of the passengers were actually perturbed by the profane language she was using so they asked her to stop swearing," said Marks.

"Sadly, that caused her to divert her anger toward them, including this one woman, who she threatened to kill both her and her children."

The 43-year-old woman allegedly threw a drink at a baby.

 
How about: no, not ever, there is not enough brain bleach, you're obviously nutters:

A London, Ont., teenager is challenging their school’s dress code, arguing that banning them from wearing their lycra bodysuit to class is more a human rights issue connected to their gender identity than a matter of appropriate fashion.

Maxwell Stewart, 17, said the school's decision to ban their made-to-measure bodysuit was about their identity. Stewart recently came out as androgynous – which means Stewart doesn’t identify as strictly male or female but rather gender-neutral.

Stewart was told the bodysuit didn’t adhere to the dress code of London Central Secondary School.

Yet another reason for the following: home-schooling, never caving in to the clearly mentally ill and/or permanently aggrieved and sensible dress codes.


And now,  a shark-shaped system has engulfed parts of the US:

Each day, the meteorologists at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma issue severe thunderstorm outlooks for the U.S. These outlooks give people a heads up as to whether or not to expect a tornado outbreak or a dreaded "derecho" event. On Wednesday, however, it seems that whomever drew the map took a bit of artistic license in delineating the possibility of severe thunderstorms from Colorado to Virginia.

Based on this map, not only is Washington, D.C. in for some potentially severe thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon, but it is also about to be eaten by a shark.

Mid-Week Mellow

Because the world is a confusing and chaotic place...


Behold, the rescue of a baby bear by its mother:




Tara the hero cat throws the opening pitch at a local baseball game:




War can make bad@$$es out of any man, including this one:

The first thing the Nazi garrison on Vågsøy Island, Norway, would have heard when the British No. 3 Commando battalion landed on December 27, 1941, was the sudden blaring drone of bagpipes. One commando stood at the fore of the landing craft, facing the impending battle and playing the peppy, martial “March of the Cameron Men.” Upon coming to a halt onshore, the soldier jumped from the craft, hucked a grenade at the Germans, then drew a full sword and ran screaming into the fray.

That maniacally fierce soldier was 35-year-old Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, and his stunts at this battle, known as Operation Archery, were hardly the most bizarre and semi-suicidal of his life. Over the course of World War II, “Mad Jack,” as he came to be known, survived multiple explosions, escaped a couple of POW camps, captured more than 40 Germans at sword point in just one raid, and in 1940 scored the last recorded longbow kill in history. And that’s just the CliffsNotes on his wartime rap sheet.

Mid-Week Post

Look! A squirrel!

He mocks you.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is a good sport as she lies answers a question from voters:





Residents in Ontario used to pay 4.3 ¢ per kWh. They now pay 13.5 ¢ per kWh during on-peak periods, plus fees, surcharges and HST. Things like wind energy (unreliable) cost consumers millions. Wynne is as likely to abandon these failed policies as she is to throw in the towel.


I think I would be more at ease with leftists' notions of a better world if I knew for a fact that they owned the consequences of their actions:

On Tuesday, a coalition of First Nations, environmentalists and lefty think-tanks vowed to fight the $12 billion Energy East pipeline to take oilsands oil from Alberta to refineries and ports in eastern Canada.

Have these foreign-funded special-interest groups developed a new form of affordable and applicable energy no one knows about? Because that would be handy.


A sixty day sentence for a man who killed his daughter:

A Quebec man whose teenage daughter died after he slapped her because he wasn't happy with a chore she had done was sentenced Wednesday to 60 days in jail.

Moussa Sidime, 74, will be incarcerated on 30 consecutive Mondays and Tuesdays.

He had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his 13-year-old daughter Noutene in October 2010.

The court heard Sidime struck her because he didn't like how she'd completed a chore and because she had been disrespectful.

It was Sidime who called 911 himself after finding the girl unconscious minutes later. She died after a few days in hospital.

The Crown had been seeking a prison sentence of two years less a day, while the defence had requested a suspended sentence.

 
That's the Canadian legal system for you.


Even rats know when to leave a sinking ship:

After weeks of internal debate, reluctant House Democrats chose Wednesday to engage in the GOP-led Benghazi select committee and seat a full roster on the 12-member panel.

I suspect the Democrats will do their best to stymy these proceedings. 

If the American electorate doesn't get that their Loser-in-Chief and his cohorts are willing to cover up murder, then they have the government they voted for.

Sometimes, I think Nigeria wants to fail:

Nigeria bought Israeli surveillance drones years ago that might have been used to hunt for more than 200 girls held by Islamist rebels, but poor maintenance has left them grounded, two official sources and the aircraft's manufacturer said.

"To the best of our knowledge, these systems aren't operational," Tsur Dvir, marketing officer for Aeronautics Defense Systems, a firm based south of Tel Aviv that supplied Nigeria with Aerostar unmanned aerial vehicles, said on Tuesday.

A Nigerian government source and a former military attaché to Nigeria both confirmed the information, although they said details were sketchy owing to the secretive nature of Israeli-Nigerian military cooperation.

The Nigerian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the disclosure could further embarrass President Goodluck Jonathan's administration, which has been criticized for its slow response to the hostage crisis.

Israel last week sent intelligence and hostage-negotiation officers to Nigeria to work alongside U.S., British and French experts helping the Nigerian authorities in the search, an Israeli official said on Tuesday.

"These are not operational troops, they're there to advise," the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The April 14 abduction of the girls by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, and the inability of the military to locate them after more than five weeks, have stirred a global outcry.

Failure to maintain equipment is seen as one reason why Nigeria's military has been unable to quell the militants. Nigeria argues counter-insurgency is something it never had to deal with until the Boko Haram uprising five years ago, and so is having to slowly learn.

One would think that given what a valuable (and controversial) piece of equipment a drone is, one would maintain it.

If you are a petro-state with illiterate Islamist child-rapists kidnapping and murdering children and blowing up innocent civilians, I guess not.

This, the hastags and Hillary Clinton's complete failure as a human being just compound this tragedy.

Oh, it gets better and by better I mean mind-numbingly awful:

A State Department official struggled to discuss the religious import of Boko Haram’s ideology, despite the group’s repeated attacks on Christians, a rhetorical hesitancy that created tension during a rather bipartisan House hearing on the threat from the terrorist group.

Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., asked whether Boko Haram specifically targets Christians.

“I wish there was such discrimination in Boko Haram attacks,” State Department undersecretary Sarah Sewall replied during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “Boko Haram attacks everyone who is Nigerian. Boko Haram is an equal-opportunity threat for all Nigerian citizens.”

Yes, Boko Haram does target Christians and no, it isn't a joke. If the American lackey Sarah Sewall wishes to deny, whitewash or laugh at this, remind me not to feel badly for her when she is thrown under the bus.

That's the US State Department for you.


Another "equal opportunity" victim:

An eight-months pregnant woman is being kept shackled to the wall of her cell as she awaits hanging, her husband has said after visiting her in prison.

Mariam Ibrahim (26) was sentenced to death in Sudan last Thursday for refusing to recant her Christianity and for marrying Christian Daniel Wani – a Sudanese man with US citizenship who lives in New Hampshire

The court found her guilty of apostasy – leaving Islam – even though Ms Ibrahim testified that she was never a Muslim, and was brought up as a Christian by her Ethiopia-born mother.

The case was drawn to the authorities' attention in August, when Ms Ibrahim's father's family said that she had been born a Muslim and renounced Islam. Fatih Izz Al-Deen, Sudanese parliament speaker, said Ms Ibrahim's brother had denounced her.

"I was never a Muslim," she told the court. "I was raised a Christian from the start."

Her Muslim father, she said, left the family when she was a child.

Ms Ibrahim's husband, American citizen Daniel Wani, is disabled and was in the US at the time of the verdict.

"I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do," he said. "I'm just praying."

He uses a wheelchair and "totally depends on her for all details of his life," said Jar Elnabi, her lawyer.

On travelling to Khartoum he was only allowed to visit her on Monday.

"He originally was not allowed to see her until this week," said Tina Ramirez, executive director of Hardwired, a US-based advocacy group against religious persecution.

She told FoxNews.com: "Once he was able to, she was shackled and her legs were swollen."

Mr Wani married Ms Ibrahim in 2011, and the couple run several businesses, including a farm south of Khartoum.

Ms Ibrahim's sentence will not be carried out until after their baby is born.

But in prison with her is the couple's 18-month-old child, Martin.

Another reason why stunts like these are best ignored:

A unique "Peace Run" initiated by an Australian extreme athlete to promote coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Judea and Samaria was dealt a severe blow Sunday, after the Palestinian Authority objected to the presence of Jewish runners.

A group of six Israelis were asked to refrain from participating in Australian ultra marathon runner Pat Farmer's Peace Run, as it passed the Jewish communities of Eli and Shiloh in Samaria, north of Jerusalem. The group - which was organized by the Yesha Council in conjunction with Regavim - had coordinated with Farmer's team ahead of time to ensure that Jews and Palestinians could run together in a true show of coexistence.

However when Ari Briggs, director of Regavim - which advocates for Jewish land rights - arrived along with his group to participate they were asked to stop running after just one kilometer.

Apparently, the news had reached the Palestinian Olympic Committee in Ramallah, which threatened to pull out of the Peace Run if Farmer continued to run with the Jewish well-wishers. Although Farmer was "not happy" about the move, which essentially undermined his campaign, the Jewish group were "politely" asked not to participate.

Has peace been achieved?

I don't think so.


Speaking of kangaroo-riders:

My compatriot David Suzuki, CC, OBC, was on PBS with Bill Moyers the other day and re-iterated for Americans his previously stated position in Canada that climate-denying politicians should be jailed:

"Our politicians should be thrown in the slammer for willful blindness!" he asserted. "If we are in a position of being able to act, and we see something going on and we refuse to acknowledge the threat or act on it, we can be taken to court for willful blindness."

Suzuki seems to be willfully blind to his own ignorance: after his spectacular know-nothing performance on the ABC's Q&A Down Under last year, I'm amazed his minders still let him do TV, even with tongue-bath interrogators like Moyers.

(Gracias pour le tout)

For A Tuesday

 The long week-end is over...


This child needs your prayers.


Today is Draw Mohammad Day.

Go nuts (like, artistically).

(Draw here.)

An excellent summation of this day can be found here:

To recap, Molly Norris drew this rather nice and funny cartoon 'way back in 2010. That's like four years ago, dude. It went viral, because its damn clever, frankly. Then the death threats started rolling in, and Molly Norris has completely disappeared. Vanished, poof. And she's still gone, four years later. 

Artist's conception of the above polemicist.

Five Chinese military officers have been indicted over charges of industrial espionage, further highlighting the need to protect both national and industrial secrets:

The United States and China are now embroiled in a spirited spat over cyber-espionage.

Over the weekend, a U.S. grand jury indicted five Chinese military officers for hacking computer systems of American companies. Specifically, U.S. officials are alleging that these individuals were stealing trade secrets for the benefit of China's state-owned companies.

The United States isn't alone. Other countries, including Canada, have allegedly been victims of Chinese cyber espionage.

In January 2012, CBC News reported that that foreign hackers from China gained access to highly classified information at the Finance Department, Treasury Board, and Defence Research and Development Canada.

There has also been allegations of Chinese hacker attacks on private Canadian companies. Remember Nortel?

In an interview with the CBC's As It Happens in February 2012, Brian Shields, the former senior systems security adviser at Nortel, said spying by hackers was constant from about 2000 until 2009 and was a "considerable factor" in that company's bankruptcy.

"When they see what your business plans are, that's a huge advantage. It's unfair business practices that really bring down a company of this size," Shields said.

There's more.

In 2013, according to the Financial Post, a report by U.S. internet firm Mandiant claimed that one of China’s cyber espionage units hacked the computer systems of at least seven organizations with operations in Canada.

The same article cites reports of Chinese hackers gaining access to law firms involved in the takeover bid for Saskatchewan’s Potash Corp.

Despite those attacks, a cyber security expert suggests that Canada won't follow the U.S. lead and press charges against the perpetrators.

"Canada has many of the same issues, and has been hurt in many of the same ways by Chinese industrial espionage," Queen's University David Skillicorn told Yahoo Canada News in an email exchange.

"But two problems have prevented us from doing much about it: (1) attribution -- who is responsible?

"(2) Effective response — what could you do even if you knew who was responsible? (and the US response is little more than naming and shaming)."

Stop trading with the b@$#@%^s. That's what. Is it worth it to lose not only natural resources but innovation and inventions, as well?


To answer one's question: no because North Korea is one of the world's most secretive totalitarian states that is propped up not only by China but also by the outside world's indifference:

On Sunday, North Korea state media announced that an apartment building had collapsed in the capital city of Pyongyang. The remarkable official response to the disaster suggests that it is being viewed as a national tragedy, and reports in the South Korean news media indicate that the death toll could be in triple digits.

The building didn't actually collapse on Sunday, however. In fact, the disaster occurred May 13. For almost a week, the world was in ignorance of a huge disaster in one of the most obsessed-over places on the planet. It's worrying to wonder whether we would have ever heard of it if the North's official Korean Central News Agency hadn't decided to reveal it.

This, of course, is just the latest illuminating example of how little we actually know about North Korea. ...

One problem with understanding North Korea is that few outside journalists can get any access. The Associated Press is the only Western new organization with a bureau there, yet it was unable to report on the apartment collapse until Sunday and was apparently forced to source much of its report to KCNA. The apparent failure of the AP to get on this story has prompted at least one angry response, from Joshua Stanton at the Web site Free Korea (where he makes the same reference as I do in this headline, albeit with more crude language).

I'd like to know how the AP even operates there. This tragedy could even be worse than the South Korean Costa Concordia for all one knows yet any information is scrubbed and filtered before one gets it. Furthermore, what we do know of North Korea is handled with such moral posturing one wonders why going through the pantomime anymore. Are there hashtags for every global catastrophe now?

(Kamsahamnida)


On the home-front, there should be no reason why the Tories and the province-destroying Liberals are in a lock until one remembers how little the Ontario Liberal voter empathises with others:

It's a dead heat.

With three weeks to go before the June 12 Ontario election, a new Abacus Data poll shows the Kathleen Wynne Liberals and the Tim Hudak Progressive Conservatives are tied with 33% support among committed voters.

The object should be to unseat Wynne. That is the best a voter can hope for this June.


In other news, Justin Trudeau is still a douchebag just like his dad:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau pleaded with supporters to stick with the party despite his edict that Grits "will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills."

Trudeau issued a letter to party members Monday to try to ease the concerns of anyone "troubled" by his May 7 order to reject the candidacy of any Liberal who doesn't support abortion.

"I believe firmly in your right to hold your views, and that under my leadership there will always be a place for you in the Liberal Party of Canada," Trudeau said.

However, he also reminded Grits they can't act on their views if they would restrict abortion. ...

Trudeau also argued he's following the example of his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in setting aside personal beliefs.

But the elder Trudeau took a different stance in a 1981 letter to the then-archbishop of Toronto.

He told Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter if a court ever establishes a right to abortion, "Parliament will continue to legislate on the matter by overriding the court's decision" by using the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

There one has it. Freedom to dissent is permissible as long as one agrees with the leader.

Iranian actress Leila Hatami, co-star of Asghar Farhadi's 2011 Oscar winner A Separation, has become the target of outrage in her home country, after photos surfaced of her greeting Cannes Film Festival head Gilles Jacob with a kiss on the cheek, as is the French custom. ...

"Those who attend intentional events should take heed of the credibility and chastity of Iranians so that a bad image of Iranian women will not be demonstrated to the world," Noushabadi was quoted as saying on the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

"Iranian woman is the symbol of chastity and innocence," he said, adding that Hatami's presence at the festival was "inappropriate" and not in line with the country's religious beliefs.

... says the deputy culture minister in whose country women are stoned to death and nine year old girls can be married to old men.


Macklemore isn't an anti-Semite. He's just an accidental bigot:

Rapper Macklemore claims he wasn’t going for a “Jewish caricature” when he cobbled together the disguise that has accusations of anti-Semitism zipping around social media.

(Sidebar: this douche's fifteen minutes are up.)

The issue isn't (only) what Macklemore did or why but the nature of the knee-jerk reactionary behaviour of the heavily-infantilised left who seem oblivious to their actions and even more stunned when they are turned on. It's a sight to behold. One could have a rigorous discussion on anti-Semitism, freedom of expression or the appropriate reaction of what is deemed truly offensive but you can't have a discussion with people like this (not safe for work or even just watching this horrendous idiocy):




"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." 



See what's going on at the Fur. You'll be glad you did.

 

And now, we can re-build him. We have the technology:

Buttercup is an amazing duck, hatched with a deformed left foot. This new design features a movable ankle with plastic springs for support, tread on the bottom for grip, and a new sock retainer on the back! This entire foot is printed on a 3D printer unlike his 1st prosthetic prototype which was made using a hybrid 3D printing/urethane molding process.

Thursday Post

Quickly now....


According to this:

"Mr. Speaker, CBC/Radio-Canada currently has approximately 730 employees who earn more than $100,000 per year."

Making this:

According to Postmedia News, the document noted that the maximum salary scale for CBC News' chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge was $80,485.22. Radio host Jian Ghomeshi and TV host Amanda Lang were said to be making between $60,844.32 and $77,390.42.

... total bunk.


The tragedy of Walkerton has nothing to do with the Tories' proposals during this election but everything to do with typical Liberal dirty tricks.

Read that tripe if you want. It's repugnant on so many levels.


Why the attitude if you have nothing to hide, Monsieur Mulcair?

Tom Mulcair stood his ground Thursday throughout an unprecedented two-hour grilling by a Commons committee over the NDP's allegedly improper use of parliamentary resources.

The NDP leader was at times contemptuous of his Conservative and Liberal tormentors, but managed to keep his temper in check as he insisted — repeatedly — that New Democrats have done nothing wrong.

Nothing he said persuaded Tory and Liberal MPs on the procedure and House affairs committee, who continued to allege the NDP has been using taxpayers' money to pay for partisan activities, in violation of parliamentary rules.

Oh, I think I know what he's hiding.


The Nigerian government rejects the proposed exchange of kidnapped schoolgirls for prisoners:

Nigeria's president has rejected an offer from Islamist rebel group Boko Haram to exchange schoolgirls it abducted for imprisoned militants, but the government is open to broader talks with the rebels, a visiting British minister said.

President Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to crush the rebels who have killed thousands in their campaign for an Islamist state and to free the girls whose abduction a month ago has sparked global outrage.

Government officials initially said they were exploring all options with respect to the swap proposal and later said they were willing to negotiate with Boko Haram without specifying whether any putative talks might include an exchange for the girls.

Jonathan further refined that position on Wednesday during talks with Britain's Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds.

"He (Jonathan) made it very clear that there would be no negotiations with Boko Haram that involved a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners," Simmonds told reporters after meeting Jonathan.

Why should Vietnam cede its territory to China?

A top Chinese general on Thursday defended the deployment of an oil rig that has inflamed tensions in the disputed South China Sea and triggered deadly protests in Vietnam, blaming Hanoi and saying China cannot afford to "lose an inch" of territory.

A map of the disputed area:

(With thanks)

It's not so much that China has no sense of territory but a boldness. It knows the biggest navy in the world is not coming to Vietnam, the Philippines or Taiwan's defense.


And now, an underwater archeological find:

The pristine skeleton of a teenaged girl who lived about 13,000 years ago, discovered in a deep, water-filled underground cavern in the sprawling cave system in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is providing archeologists with an unprecedented glimpse into the history of the early inhabitants of the Americas.

Given the name Naia, Greek for "water nymph," the remains of the 15- or 16-year-old girl were found at the bottom of the boulder-strewn, underwater chamber dubbed Hoyo Negro — "black hole" in Spanish — along with the scattered bones of 26 large animal species, among them sabre-tooth tigers, giant ground sloths and cave bears.

"Sealed off by water and darkness for over 8,000 years, it is a time capsule of the environment and human life in central America at the end of the Ice Age, when glaciers across the globe trapped massive amounts of water as ice and sea level was far lower than it is today," said American paleontologist Jim Chatters, head of an international research team investigating the site and its archeological treasures.

Chatters, the first scientist to study the prehistoric skeleton known as Kennewick Man that was found in Washington state in 1996, described Hoyo Negro as being like a miniature of California's La Brea tar pits, "only without the tar and with considerably better preservation."

At the time of Naia's death, the caves would have been dry and accessible, he told a media teleconference. "Perhaps seeking fresh water in the dark passages, animals and at least one human fell into this inescapable ... trap."

Naia's remains were discovered in 2007 by three Mexican cave divers exploring an underwater cavern, deep in the Yucatan jungle about eight kilometres from the Caribbean coast. In a 50-metre-deep sinkhole within the cavern, the girl's skull was resting on a boulder, "laying upside-down with a perfect set of teeth and dark eye sockets looking back at us," said diver Alberto Nava.

Mid-Week Post

It's time....


In case one forgets, former Ontario premier Mike Harris made the cuts he did because of former Premier Bob Rae's stunning incompetence, just as Tim Hudak may have to do:

It's from a very different decade, but Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader Tim Hudak seems to borrowing — heavily — from the playbook of former Premier Mike Harris and his so-called Common Sense Revolution.

Fear-mongering: the popular press' go-to plan. This is Ontario's debt clock. Who is to blame for this, I wonder?


Well, that didn't take long:

South Korean prosecutors indicted on Thursday four crew members of a ferry that capsized in April killing more than 280 passengers for manslaughter, a senior prosecutor said.

The prosecution also indicted all 11 other surviving crew members of the Sewol for negligence. The crew has been under criminal investigations after they were believed to have escaped the sinking vessel before many of the passengers.

This will not end well:

Nigeria's government signalled a willingness on Tuesday to negotiate with Islamist militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls, a month after the kidnapping that has provoked global outrage.

If the Nigerian government thinks it can reason with Boko Haram, it should prepare for future massacres and kidnappings.


This is a failure of morality and education:

If you're under 35, chances are you're unaware of the Holocaust. So says a new global survey released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday, which found less than half of respondents (48 percent) under age 35 knew about it.

By contrast, 61 percent of those over 50 said they knew about the Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews and as many as 5 million Roma, gays, political and war prisoners, and others were murdered by the Nazi regime in Germany from 1939 to 1945.

The poll, which included 53,100 interviews in 96 languages in 101 countries, found about a quarter of the world's population believes some negative stereotypes about Jews are "probably true," including "Jews are more loyal to Israel than [their home] country" and "Jews have too much power in the business world."

If it's any truly sad consolation, no one is bothered by the ghastly spectre of communism, either.


It's called "courtesy" and liberals are allergic to it:

When introduced to pupils as ‘Professor’, she may not have expected them to appreciate her academic achievements – but she did expect them to address her accordingly.

Instead, Jennifer Coates says she was ‘demeaned’ by the youngsters simply calling her ‘Miss’.

Professor Coates described it as ‘a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status’.

Now the emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at Roehampton University has called for the traditional titles ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ to be banished from schools to stop sexist views taking root among pupils.

What an anachronistic cat!

And now, anatomical diagrams of animals that help you determine what is the cutest part of a bunny and the angriest part of a wasp. Enjoy.

 

For a Monday

On the home front: Ontario is sinking in a red sea and all Andrea Horvath can think of child care no one wants nor can pay for:

New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath says licensed child care needs an immediate one-time cash infusion of $100 million in order to keep centres open. 

I don't think the NDP wants to win an election. I really don't. It's like the party has to be guided into thinking the way regular people think. Why do currently unemployed people need day-care? Factories that were once their workplaces have been shut down. They now can look after their kids themselves.

Why not focus on that, Andrea Horvath?


Ezra Levant talks to some smelly hippies with funny results.


Hey, UN, how's that North Korean thing working out? Did you get that sorted out yet?

The United Nations special envoy on the rights of indigenous people confirms he will publish on Monday his findings on the conditions in Canada's aboriginal communities, following a nine-day cross-country visit last fall.

“The report will be made public on Monday,” James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, told CBC News in an email on Saturday.

Anaya’s initial assessment of the conditions facing aboriginals in Canada was grim.

“From all I have learned, I can only conclude that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous peoples of the country," the UN fact-finder said last October.

Speaking of North Korea:

A rhetorical battle between the rival Koreas intensified Monday with a South Korean official saying North Korea "must disappear soon."

The comments, which will likely draw a furious response from Pyongyang, followed a series of sexist and racist slurs by North Korea against the leaders of South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang's state media likened South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an "old prostitute" and U.S. President Barack Obama to a "monkey" in recent dispatches.

If these insults are the straws that break the camel's back- not the kidnappings, not the human right violations, not the sinking of the Cheonan, or the shelling of Yeongpyeong Island- I shall be most disappointed.



In other news, Boko Haram, who burned and/or shot to death fifty-nine schoolboys, kidnapped, threatened to sell and may have mutilated two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls and which Hillary Clinton refused to label as a terrorist group, now wants to swap prisoners for them:

Shehu Sani, who has previously brokered face-to-face peace talks with Boko Haram, said he believed that the video in which its leader threatened to sell the girls as “slaves” was proof that it planned to use them as bargaining chips rather than kill them.

The video released earlier this week showed Abu Bakar Shekau gloating that he would sell the captives “in the market” to anyone wishing to take them as wives.

But while the broadcast appalled the captives’ families and provoked worldwide outrage, Mr Sani saw it as a veiled attempt to reach out for a trade with the Nigerian government.

(Sidebar: if the Nigerian government were to agree to this, it can call each week-end "Girl Swap Saturdays" because these emotional retards will not stop doing this until they are blown to bits by unmanned drones.)

I shudder to think that the Nigerian government may be entertaining this idea.

What is also cringe-worthy is this, expressed with the acidic eloquence of Mark Steyn:
 

It is hard not to have total contempt for a political culture that thinks the picture at right is a useful contribution to rescuing 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by jihadist savages in Nigeria. Yet some pajama boy at the White House evidently felt getting the First Lady to pose with this week's Hashtag of Western Impotence would reflect well upon the Administration. The horrible thing is they may be right: Michelle showed she cared - on social media! - and that's all that matters, isn't it?

Just as the last floppo hashtag, #WeStandWithUkraine, didn't actually involve standing with Ukraine, so #BringBackOurGirls doesn't require bringing back our girls. There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama's hashtag is just a form of moral preening.

#DAMN!

I imagine it has never occurred to the emasculated brain-trusts in the West to stop acting like a bunch of insulated giggling thirteen year old girls and be proactive like the Israelis:

A statement from the Nigerian president's office in Lagos later on Sunday said that Jonathan had "briefed Mr Netanyahu on actions already being taken by Nigeria's armed forces and security agencies to locate and rescue the girls, saying that Nigeria would be pleased to have Israel's globally acknowledged anti-terrorism expertise deployed to support its ongoing operations."

The Lord is my shepherd and Israel's wing man.

Putin's dirty work is still being done:

Pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukraine declared independence Monday and sought to join Russia, undermining upcoming presidential elections, strengthening the Kremlin's hand and putting pressure on Kyiv to hold talks with the separatists following a referendum on self-rule.

Russia signalled it has no intention of subsuming eastern Ukraine the way it annexed Crimea in March. Instead, Moscow is pushing to include eastern regions in negotiations on Ukraine's future — suggesting that Russia prefers a political rather than a military solution to its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.

The next time there is a war, we don't rescue Europe:

Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst, popularly known as "the bearded lady," won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with the James Bond-theme-like ballad "Rise Like a Phoenix", before a global TV audience of about 180 million people in 45 countries.

To get your mind off of that, here's a wombat.

Happy Mother's Day

Thanks for keeping all the ducklings in a row.

Where Did the Love Go?

Right here:

President George W. Bush left the White House as one of the most disliked presidents in our nation’s history. With approval ratings struggling to hit 30 percent, he was an albatross hanging over fellow Republican John McCain during the 2008 presidential election. Even four years later, as President Obama ran for re-election, the majority of voters thought Bush was more responsible for economic problems in the United States than Obama.

But over the past year, polling data has begun to suggest that Bush is no longer quite the liability he once was for the GOP, and that most Americans no longer see the current economy as something Obama inherited.

Since April, Bush’s favorable rating has averaged 49.3 percent. His unfavorable rating has averaged 46.3 percent. More Americans now like Bush than dislike him. Of course, 49.3 percent is far lower than Jimmy Carter’s 58 percent favorability rating, recorded in April 2013, but Bush has seen a moderate improvement over the past four years. In his last weeks in office, Bush’s favorable rating averaged just 37.3 percent; his unfavorable rating averaged 57.8 percent.

Moreover, the percentage who believe that Obama inherited the nation’s current economic conditions has dipped below 50 percent for the first time. According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, it’s just 46 percent of Americans. Although that’s only one poll, it’s far beyond the prior low of 56 percent recorded by the NBC survey. And nearly 50 percent is not that low considering that Obama has been in the Oval Office for more than five years. The percentage who believe Obama is responsible is also at an all-time high: 39 percent in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

That must hurt.