Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Mid-Week Post

Ten more days until Easter.

The United States made it clear Canada's precision-guided bomb arsenal and expertise would be welcome in Syria, Jason Kenney said Wednesday — a narrow glimmer of clarity in the Harper government's murky reasons for expanding its Middle East campaign to include the war-torn region.

The defence minister would not go so far as to say the Americans asked Canada to expand the scope of its airstrikes outside of Iraq, but did indicate that Washington left the option open for consideration.
 



Accused B.C. terrorist John Nuttall promises to do better after an undercover officer chastises him for proposing a poorly researched plan to hijack a Via Rail passenger train in Victoria that no longer exists, his trial has heard.

Covert police video played in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday shows the undercover officer telling Nuttall he will help track down whatever supplies are needed but that Nuttall must be realistic.

"This thing has to be prepared. It has to be researched," says the officer, posing as an Arab businessman and whose identity cannot be revealed.

"I'm here to make what you have in your head become true, what you want in your heart to be reality. That's what I'm here for."

Just... wow....


 
Footage has emerged showing terrified tourists fleeing as Islamic State gunmen launched a deadly assault on a museum in Tunisia.

Italian tourist Maria Rita Gelotti was filming during a guided tour of the Bardo Museum in Tunis when a first explosion rang out, quickly followed by another.

Ms Gelotti is heard asking her husband Marcello Salvatori "did they shoot?" as gunfire echoed through the building and holidaymakers and staff ran for cover.

The couple hid in a fire escape while three gunmen attacked the renowned Tunis museum, killing 21 people, the deadliest attack on tourists in Tunisia in 13 years.


"Food insecurity", as in food is insecure or prone to theft or seizure? It's a clever distracting term for the problem of food inaccessibility in Canada's North:

About 1.1 million Canadian households did not have enough food to eat in 2012, says a new report from Statistics Canada.

Five per cent of Canadian children and eight per cent of adults experienced “food insecurity,” meaning they could not afford enough nutritious food, says the report released Wednesday.

“We weren’t surprised by the results that we got. They have been consistent,” analyst Shirin Roshanafshar tells Yahoo Canada News.

In Nunavut, almost 37 per cent of households reported going without. That’s more than four times the national average of 8.3 per cent.

“Nunavut had the highest rate of food insecurity amongst all Canadian provinces and territories,” Roshanafshar says.

The report by Roshanafshar and analyst Emma Hawkins looked at data from 65,000 Canadian Community Health surveys filled out annually from 2007-2012, focusing on 2012.

While Nunavut reported the highest rate of food insecurity, all the territories were hit harder than their provincial counterparts to the south. ...
Almost 14 per cent of households in the Northwest Territories reported that they’d been unable to afford the quality or quantity of food they needed at some point in the previous 12 months. A little more than 12 per cent of Yukon households reported the same.

In southern Canada, Maritime provinces had the highest rates of hunger: Nova Scotia 11.0 per cent, Prince Edward Island 10.6 per cent, New Brunswick 10.2 per cent.

The report notes that food insecurity is highest among single-parent families with children under 18, with almost 23 per cent reporting that they could not afford enough nutritional food.

“Among various household types in 2011–2012, lone-parent families reported the highest rate of food insecurity, while couples with no children reported the lowest,” it says.
 
It might have something to do with the fact that one lives so far up north that food must be transported a farther distance, or that one lives in an economically depressed area or that single-parent households just don't have the financial security two-parent households have.

And there is the dependence on government services.

I wonder who pays for those?


We don't need to trade with China, not even our oil:




Did Miss Freeland forget Harper's pandering to China?


Also: Rebel Scum:

Star Wars fans aren't thrilled the popular nerd destination of Tataouine is now a backdrop in Tunisia's struggle to keep ISIS terrorists out.

According to CNN, “This struggling town on the fringes of the Sahara still draws a few fans of the movie but now finds itself part of a real conflict, as a way-station for jihadists crossing the Libyan border 60 miles to the east.”


Over at the Fur: wearing niqabs during non-segregated citizenship ceremonies is a right only in Canada, historians eager to preserve a gulag- part of the former Soviet Union's dreadful past- have been removed from their museum, but... but... multiculturalism, increased benefits for the public sector in Ontario, leftism and all its rancid manifestations race to the bottom of the barrel, Yemeni rebels steal secrets files on American spy operations, Russia questions Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands and much, much more!

(Paws up)


The human body is meant to crave, eat and digest meat. Eating meat has been a mainstay of human culture. Veganism, on the other hand, is contrary to biology and human custom and doesn't even seem individually sustainable or pleasurable:

“A lot of my friends read my blog and ask, ‘Are you vegan now?’ It’s how I eat most of the time, and it’s how I enjoy eating, but it doesn’t mean I can’t eat a bite of chicken now and then, when I want. I was vegan for a little while, and I just realized it wasn’t for me. I still craved meat sometimes! I’ve been trying to stay away from the word ‘vegan,’ because it’s like a huge lifestyle choice and people take it very seriously.”


And now, a happy story from ISIS-controlled Syria:



In the initial panic to flee the besieged city, one Kobani resident who fled with his family had to make the painful decision to leave his beloved cat behind.


Merrof Ekary had rescued his cat from the city’s streets when it was only a few days old, he told BuzzFeed News through a translator, local freelance journalist Jack Shahine, who is also Ekary’s neighbor.


Ekary named the cat Gewre, which is Kurdish for “the white one,” and fed her milk and fish oil until she put on weight.


Shahine said his friend was devastated to have to leave Gewre behind in Kobani when he fled in mid-September, but that he needed to concentrate on getting his family out of the city. …


Shahine said Ekary returned to the city a few days after fleeing to rescue Gewre and bring her to Turkey, but found she had since given birth to a litter of three kittens.


“ISIS was close to the city and it was chaos and everyone was frightened, including us,” Shahine said. “When we saw the cat had babies, we couldn’t bring it with us, so we left her behind and my friend was very upset.”


In making the painful decision, Ekary rationalized that the cats’ best chance for survival was if they remained together.


Months later, after Kobani had been liberated, Ekary returned to his home in early February to inspect the damage, but found someone waiting for him.


“He loves her so much and he was so relieved to find her,” Shahine said, noting how agonizing the original decision had been.


“The connection between Merrof’s three children and Gewre was very strong,” Shahine told BuzzFeed News from Kobani. “He was always telling us that the whole family was so close to the cat and that she was just like person, except she didn’t talk.”


Gewre is now being cared for by Ekary’s brother in Kobani, as the city is still too devastated for Ekary to return with his family.
 

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