Mid-Week Post

For a crisp fall day...


Two women have cemented their enmity for Canada by not taking the citizenship oath while covered with ridiculous face-coverings:

Since the Conservative government implemented a policy in 2011 stating that candidates for citizenship must remove any kind of face covering when taking the public citizenship oath, only two women have decided to not go through with the ceremony.

Good. No one needs their brand of childish obstinacy and animosity. They can pout in the corner that the rule of law frowns on their emotionally retarded Islamist culture.



But the Palestinians do have a country. It's called Jordan:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of sabotaging U.S. efforts to broker peace and said that Israeli security operations at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem could lead to a religious war.

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly before a ceremony for the raising of the Palestinian flag at U.N. headquarters in New York, Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority no longer considered itself bound by the accords signed with Israel in the mid-1990s.

Repeating what the Palestinian Authority has been saying for at least half a decade, Abbas said the agreements would not apply as long as Israel supports settlements of Israelis in the West Bank and refuses to release Palestinian prisoners.

"You are all aware that Israel undermined the efforts made by the administration of President Barack Obama in past years, most recently the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at reaching a peace agreement through negotiations," Abbas told the 193-nation General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in response that Abbas' speech was "deceitful and encourages incitement and lawlessness in the Middle East."

"We expect and call on the (Palestinian) Authority and its leader to act responsibly and accede to the proposal of ... Israel and enter into direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions," it said, adding that Abbas "does not intend to reach a peace agreement."

More Jew-hating at the UN, I see.


Speaking of which....


How many civilian deaths did ISIS cause?

The U.N. secretary-general says airstrikes by any country in Syria must strictly observe international humanitarian and human rights law.

The spokesman for Ban Ki-moon told reporters Wednesday that all efforts must be made to spare civilians, and reports of civilian deaths must be swiftly investigated.

Stephane Dujarric added that "without genuine commitment by the international community to support a parallel political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, it will not be possible to end the Syrian conflict and ultimately to defeat" the Islamic State group.

...

The leader of the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group is condemning "Russia's military aggression in Syria today."

Wednesday's statement by Khaled Khoja of the Syrian National Coalition accuses Russia of targeting civilians instead of Russia's stated target of the Islamic State group.

Khoja says Russia is "using its military force to support the Assad regime's war against civilians. And it risks implicating itself in war crimes."

The opposition leader urged the international community to call for "the enforcement of a ban on aerial bombardment" in Syria but didn't further specify the scope of such a ban. He also said he was writing to the U.N. Security Council to demand urgent action.

China and Russia have allowed the UN to survive because it serves their purposes. Would there be a North Korea or a Russian-controlled Crimea if the UN had disbanded?

Obama is embarrassed that Putin is ruining his plans to remove Assad (leaving a void which ISIS would completely fill). Despite Putin's over-reaching plans in all corners of the globe, a hasty war against ISIS would allow Assad more wiggle room than what he has had for months.

That the West can't even conjure up a mercenary reason to oust Obama and then ISIS is not just humiliating but a sign of its moral decay.

(Paws up)



Today in idiocy, some fluff converts to a woman-hating religion for some reason (read: mad at dad or taught from the cradle that the West  just isn't worth it) and a gay couple lies to get pizza but won't speak out against people being chucked from roofs for their choice of lifestyle.



Pope Francis visited a Kentucky clerk jailed for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to people who cannot be legally married in her state:

Defiant Kentucky clerk Kim Davis met briefly with Pope Francis during his historic U.S. visit, an encounter she said validates her crusade against gay marriage.

"He held out his hand to her and she grasped his hand," her attorney, Mat Staver, told The Associated Press. "He asked her to pray for him and she said she would; she asked the pope to pray for her, and he said he would."

The Vatican essentially confirmed the meeting: The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, given the opportunity to deny it took place, declined to do so and said merely that he would have no comment. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the meeting was private and that no photos would be released.

Davis, an Apostolic Christian, became a protagonist in America's divisive culture wars when she defied the federal courts by refusing to license same-sex marriages despite the landmark Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized them nationwide. She spent five days in jail until her deputies agreed to issue licenses without her approval.

Davis and her husband met with Francis alone for less than 15 minutes at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, Staver said. He would not say who initiated the meeting with the pope or how it came to be, citing a desire to be "deferential to the Vatican."

They chose to keep the meeting a secret while the pope was in the county, to avoid overshadowing his visit with the controversy that follows Davis, Staver said.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also referred questions back to the Vatican.

"It was really very humbling to even think that he would want to meet me or know me," Davis told ABC News. "Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we're doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything."

I guess he didn't want to make an issue about it.



And now, some happy news:

An animal aid group in India has brought a dog back from the brink of death and her transformation will have you believing in miracles.

Animal Aid Unlimited found the starved and sickly pup on the side of the road in Udaipur, a city in North West India.

The animal was initially wary of human contact and it was clear by the condition of her mange and other severe health problems, she had not had any of it in quite a while.

“She was so exhausted and inward,” Animal Aid Unlimited said.

At the shelter she showed herself to be very defeated. She would simply lie on her mat and stare at the wall, clearly in pain from the infections and hair loss she had suffered from being on the streets. Human touch was also so foreign to the animal, she didn’t understand how to react to being pet.

Her rescuers could see there was still hope both physically and emotionally for sweet Mabel.

They treated her for two months with everything from an IV drip for her infections and medicated baths for her mange, and slowly coaxed her into developing a bond by bribing her with treats.

In the video which shows Mabel’s full transformation, she goes from a terrified and cowering naked dog, to a happy, furry canine companion.

The Danish Cartoon Controversy Ten Years On

Because Mark Steyn...

(Sidebar: one may wish to grab a beverage and/or a snack before enjoying this.)

For A Tuesday

And so on...


A lawyer wants to challenge Bill C-24:

A controversial law that the federal government is using to revoke citizenship from people linked to terrorism will be challenged in court, says a lawyer who represents one of the Toronto 18.

Bill C-24, also known as the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, was passed last June.

So far, half a dozen people are believed to have received letters from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, according to lawyer John Norris who represents one of the Toronto 18 members, Asad Ansari.

One of those letters, to Zakaria Amara — considered the mastermind behind the Toronto 18 group — was to fully revoke his Canadian citizenship, while the others. including Ansari, originally from Pakistan, were informed that they were being considered.

Jason Kenney, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, took to Twitter to respond to the reports.
The Toronto 18 group was accused of planning attacks on Canadian sites like the parliamentary buildings in Ottawa.

Amara was sentenced to life in prison in 2010, with no chance of parole until 2016 after confessing his plans to attack sites around Toronto. He reportedly had his citizenship revoked after receiving a letter in June.

“Theoretically, he could challenge this decision in Federal Court,” Norris told Yahoo Canada News.

Meanwhile, the others have received similar letters from the department, stating that their citizenships were being considered for revocation.  

“The recourse that’s available to him and the others is to challenge the constitutionality of this power to revoke citizenship in the first place,” he says. “We’ve basically tried to stop the process while we go to court to challenge (this).”

What the original Citizenship Act states and what the new law states.

Why should someone whose loyalties lie elsewhere, whose actions are not just contrary but injurious to actual Canadians and who does not even consider himself to be Canadian be allowed to remain?




The francophone oligarchy must be most perturbed:

Oh, dear: 

An independent poll of Albertans shows an overwhelming opposition to Rachel Notley's aborted plans to give high-level government officials massive pay raises, and to send NDP MLAs on a junket to Boston.

The poll, conducted by Torch, surveyed 344 Albertans and has a margin of error of +/-5.3%, nineteen times out of twenty.

According to the poll, 84.5% of Albertans disapprove of the pay raise and Boston trip — and 66.5% of them disapprove strongly.

So it's come to this:

A Mexican councillor has provoked outrage after that homeless people should be put down like animals to keep the number of them on the streets down.

Olga Gutierrez Machorro believes that beggars should be culled with lethal injection, believing it to be in their best interests.

She said: “Yes they’re a little crazy, but they’re harmless.

“Which is why I think to myself wouldn’t it be kinder to just give them a lethal injection?”

The next time someone points out a "slippery slope" argument, just remember this.

 

A father explains why he loves his disabled son to @$$holes who cannot keep their discomfort to themselves:

In almost every way, Jaxon Buell (above, in his father’s arms) is a typical 13-month-old. He says “mama” and “dada,” wakes up smiling and excited to start the day, and is starting to deal with the discomfort of teething.

But something does set Jaxon, who lives in Florida, apart from other toddlers. 

Jaxon Strong, as his mom and dad call him — a nod to this little guy’s resilience and courage — was born with a form of anencephaly, a rare neurological condition that means he is missing part of his brain and skull.

Jaxon’s father, Brandon Buell, took to Facebook on Monday to respond to some critical comments his son’s story received after it was widely shared on social media. “All we ever wanted was to give Jaxon the happiest, most comfortable, and most fulfilling life possible, because we know how precious his days are with us,” he wrote. 

About 1 in 4,859 infants are born with anencephaly every year, and most die shortly before birth. How the condition manifests varies. Jaxon has a brain stem, which controls motor functioning, but he lacks a cerebral cortex, the “gray matter” of the brain that controls thought.

Even so, Jaxon has surprised doctors by thriving and reaching the 13-month mark, which makes his adoring, devoted parents extremely grateful.

Some called Brandon and his wife, Brittany Buell, “selfish” and said they should have aborted Jaxon when an ultrasound Brittany had during her 17th week of pregnancy revealed his condition.

“It’s baffling to hear or see other people’s opinions on our baby that have never met him, that somehow know how he thinks, how he acts, how he feels, how much of what he does is voluntary or involuntary, how he is always in pain, and that we are selfish parents for not choosing to have an abortion, and for having a Facebook and a Go Fund Me page for him,” wrote Brandon.

“Truthfully, I will never understand how choosing to carry Jaxon and give him a chance to survive could ever be considered ‘selfish,’” he added.

The Buells’ Facebook post struck a chord, generating supportive feedback from strangers touched by Brandon and Brittany’s devotion and parents of special-needs kids who know what the Buells are going through.

And while the Buells don’t know what the future holds for their son and are used to the “looks, the stares, the glances” from people who are startled by Jaxon’s unusual appearance, they are overjoyed to have Jaxon in their lives. As Brandon wrote, “Yes, ‘selfishly,’ we love him and never want to lose him.”

So there.

Monday Post

The story so far...


This must be embarrassing for some:

Nearly half of Canadians feel Canada’s diplomatic influence on the world stage has waned over the past decade of Conservative rule, says a survey released hours ahead of a leaders’ debate on foreign affairs issues.

Yet on most high-profile international issues, incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper is viewed as the best suited to represent Canada.

“It’s very contradictory,” says Shachi Kurl, spokeswoman for the Angus Reid Institute that conducted the survey.

For every survey respondent that feel Canada’s reputation is better today than 10 years ago, two feel it is worse — 21 per cent to 41 per cent, respectively. Thirty per cent say Canada’s reputation is the same and seven per cent are not sure.

“I think it does speak to the polarization and division of politics in this country,” Kurl says.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is the choice of the largest proportion of survey respondents when it comes to representing Canada on issues of human rights and climate change.

(Sidebar: why? Was Thomas Mulcair ever a hostage negotiator or something?) 

But asked who would best represent Canada on a world stage, in delivering a speech to the United Nations, on trade and economic policy and on terrorism and security, Harper comes out ahead.

Canada is emerging as a major world power and with that comes the obvious prestige with some and notoriety with others (mainly the genocidal or totalitarian types). If the doubters are sure that Harper best represents Canada on the world stage but still feel that its reputation has waned, ask them who they would want to release them from the darkest Iranian prison: Chretien or Harper?

(Hint: the last guy was a total bust.)


Also:

Trudeau was already on the defensive heading into the contest due to a video, strategically leaked by the Conservative war room less than 48 hours before debate time. In the clip, he said: “And I’ll give you the quote so that you guys can jot it down and put it in an attack ad somewhere that the Liberal party believes that terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship. Because I do. And I’m willing to take on anyone who disagrees with that.”

He didn’t back away from his policy Monday, rather accusing Harper of divisive politics and insisting that “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.” The Conservative leader fired back that, had the government not taken the anti-terrorist measures it has, including C-24, Canada might already have suffered attacks on the scale of 9/11. Hyperbole? Almost certainly. But he made his point.

In total, CBC has reported, at least five people linked to terrorism have received notice their Canadian citizenship has been revoked. The wrinkle for both opposition parties is that the vast majority of Canadians, including many who don’t consider themselves “right-wing,” will see nothing untoward in the notion of exiling a dual citizen found by a court to have declared war on Canada. Indeed it makes a certain kind of sense; better exile, one would think, than feeding and housing them in prison at Canadian expense.

More on Trudeau's gaffe-tastic support for the more "restive" persons here and how the niqab has become the covered elephant in the room for its political supporters here.

Also: most Canadians oppose eased restricted on convicted murderer Omar Khadr:

On removing the tracking bracelet on Khadr’s ankle, 67% of Canadians disagree, 45% strongly. On removing the police software on his computer to allow them to monitor what he’s doing, 71% of Canadians disagree, 49% of them strongly. And 60% of Canadians oppose his right to fly on jets ...

So much craziness....



Humiliated that resource-hungry Putin is ardent in his efforts to stop ISIS, Obama attempts to deride him in the UN:

U.S. President Barack Obama blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach to other countries Monday, suggesting in a speech at the UN General Assembly that the world’s nations must uphold international order in Syria and Ukraine or risk global instability.

But at the same time, Obama made an overture to its sometime adversary, saying the U.S. would work with any nation to try to bring an end to fighting in Syria that has dragged on for four and-a-half years.

As in draw a red line?

Obama will never eliminate ISIS but Putin will do so for a pipeline.



You don't say:

Moving among the tens of thousands of Syrian war refugees passing through the train stations of Europe are many who are neither Syrian nor refugees, but hoping to blend into the mass migration and find a back door to the West.

There are well-dressed Iranians speaking Farsi who insist they are members of the persecuted Yazidis of Iraq. There are Indians who don’t speak Arabic but say they are from Damascus. There are Pakistanis, Albanians, Egyptians, Kosovars, Somalis and Tunisians from countries with plenty of poverty and violence, but no war.

It should come as no surprise that many migrants seem to be pretending they are someone else. The prize, after all, is the possibility of benefits, residency and work in Europe.

This will never cease being funny because it's true:

No stampede there.

What? Too soon?


(Merci)



And now, a graph indicating Pope Francis' daily performance:





 Happy dogs and further proof that dogs just love to help:

But Wait! There's More!

There often is...


A Hamilton school board trustee was shamed into being acquainted with the notorious death camp, Auschwitz:

A Hamilton school trustee running in the federal election for the New Democrats has apologized for making a crude reference related to Auschwitz, reportedly saying she had no idea that it was a notorious Nazi death camp.

In a Facebook note, Alex Johnstone conceded she should not have made her remarks.

"Attention was recently drawn to a comment I posted on social media seven years ago," Johnstone said. "While never intending any malice, this comment was clearly inappropriate. I would like to offer my unreserved apology."

The controversial remarks surfaced via the satirical web-based publication The True North Times which said it had been delving into Johnstone to get a better feel for how the "NDP candidate for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas" speaks when the cameras aren't rolling.

The publication turned up a Facebook posting from April 2008 featuring a friend's photograph of part of the electrified fence and its curved, concrete supports at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

"Ahhh, the infamous Pollish (sic), phallic, hydro posts," Johnstone commented underneath.

"Of course you took pictures of this! It expresses how the curve is normal, natural, and healthy right!"

Someone actually gave this woman various degrees and eventually an office.

Just... wow...



Charges have finally been laid against Gerry Lougheed for attempting to bribe a candidate:

Ontario's governing Liberals were rocked Thursday when police laid criminal charges against a veteran party fundraiser in connection with bribery allegations in a Sudbury byelection last February.

The Opposition immediately demanded Kathleen Wynne step down, saying "this case strikes right at the heart of the premier's office."

Gerry Lougheed, 61, a prominent Sudbury Liberal, was charged with one count of counselling an offence not committed and one count of unlawfully influencing or negotiating appointments.

The charges follow an Ontario Provincial Police investigation launched after Andrew Olivier, the Liberal candidate in the 2014 general election, said he was offered an appointment to step aside in the Feb. 5 byelection for Wynne's preferred candidate, former New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault. 

Olivier released recorded telephone conversations with Lougheed, whom he describes as "a Liberal king maker," and with Wynne's deputy chief of staff, Pat Sorbara, in which he said he was offered a job or appointment to step aside.

Both Lougheed and Sorbara denied the allegations. Lougheed issued a release saying he "will be vigorously defending these charges in the courts."

Lougheed also resigned Thursday as chair of Sudbury's Police Services Board and as chancellor of Huntington University until the case is resolved.

Liberals being Liberals.



As motherhood and fatherhood are vocations and each person serves a particular function, how wise is it to diminish and then erase those two distinct and very important roles?

Ontario has become the first province to consider moving all government documents toward gender neutral language to refer to parents.

A motion from a Liberal backbencher to replace references to “mothers” and “fathers” on all government forms to “parents” and “guardians” received all-party support Thursday afternoon. The initiative is non-binding, but Cabinet ministers spoke in its favour and MPPs said it’s about creating a more “inclusive” environment in a world where there are many kinds of families.

First, there was a crane accident killing one hundred and eighteen people. Then seven hundred and seventeen people are killed during a bizarre ritual that has in the past caused many injuries and deaths:

At least 717 pilgrims from around the world were killed on Thursday in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi authorities said, in the worst disaster to strike the annual haj pilgrimage for 25 years.

At least 863 others were injured. Saudi King Salman said he had ordered a review of haj plans after the disaster, in which two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the "stoning of the devil" ritual at Jamarat.

Does lightning strike twice?



Trust me, Americans- with Obama and scores of cheap labour he's allowed in, no one wants to go to your country:

Failed Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker may feel some vindication in this number: 41 per cent of Americans say that if a wall is built along the Mexican border, one should also be erected on the Canadian one. And yes, the same percentage favors a wall erected along the nation’s southern border.

These colours don't run to the border.

Pope Francis became the first Pontiff to address Congress:

Dear Friends,

I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility. ...

The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development. ...

His rather lukewarm and unspecific pleas for immigrants must have been the only thing that did not make the more rat-like of the Congress bristle.

And I trust Pope Francis is not fooled by Obama one bit:

The fate of those Iraqi Christians who had fled from the Islamic State only to be incarcerated in the United States has finally been decided by the Obama administration: they are to be thrown back to the lions, where they will likely be persecuted, if not slaughtered, like so many Iraqi Christians before them.

Fifteen of the 27 Iraqi Christians that have been held at a detention center in Otay Mesa, California, for approximately six months, are set to be deported in the coming weeks. Some have already been deported and others are being charged with immigration fraud.

Many of the Iraqi Christian community in San Diego -- including U.S. citizen family members vouching for the refugees -- had hopes that they would eventually be released. Mark Arabo, a spokesman for the Chaldean community, had argued that "They've escaped hell. Let's allow them to reunite with their families." One of the detained women had begged to see her ailing mother before she died. The mother died before they could reunite, and now the daughter is to be deported, possibly back to the hell of the Islamic State.

Why are Christian minorities, who are the most to suffer from the chaos engulfing the Middle East, the least wanted in the United States?

The answer is that the Obama administration defines refugees as people "persecuted by their government." In other words, the only "real" refugees are those made so due to the actions of Syrian President Bashar Assad. As for those who are being raped, slaughtered, and enslaved based on their religious identity by so-called "rebel" forces fighting Assad -- including the Islamic State -- their status as refugees is evidently considered dubious at best.

One hopes.


Because Mark Steyn:

Twelve years ago, it was said that the western armies in Iraq would be welcomed as liberators. (They were - for a while.) Today in Germany, another conquering army are being welcomed as liberators - liberators from the residual moral stain of what remains of ethnic nationalism and cultural identity. Watching European news broadcasts right now is like an insane demotic inversion of the Emperor's new clothes. "To a fool these thousands of fit young Muslim men appear well dressed and well fed. But a wise man such as Your Majesty can easily see that they are desperate starving refugees in rags." And so as the trains pull in to German railway stations to disgorge men who meet no known definition of "refugees" they are greeted on the platform by volunteers offering food and second-hand clothes. The cameras do their best to alight on a telegenic moppet or a covered woman, but, even when they do, you notice that they're surrounded by a sea of confident vigorous males - who, according to the UN, make up 75 per cent of the "refugees".

Also: oh, I'm totally sure this was spontaneous:

As Francis drew nearer and nearer in his open-sided popemobile and the crowd in Washington whooped, squealed and quivered, the little girl with black pigtails spotted her chance.

Her name was Sofia Cruz, and her story soon went around the world: how a five-year-old had the bravado to deliver a message to the pope on behalf of the United States' millions of undocumented migrants.

In a flash, Sofia clambered over a metal barrier, darted out onto stately Constitution Avenue and headed straight for the pontiff -- Secret Service agents be damned.

Guards nabbed her about half-way there, but the pope waved for them to bring her to him. For her trouble, she got a gentle hoist, a hug and a kiss from Pope Francis himself.

"The police wanted to move her aside, but the pope asked for his car to stop," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.

As the crowd roared with surprise and excitement, Sofia slipped the pontiff her letter.

 
Kids always pen letters and sneak past security to deliver them.



And now, what to eat for Chuseok.

Mid-Week Post

Glorious fall....

Thomas Mulcair defends wearing an identity-squashing garment designed by emotionally-retarded men a niqab during citizenship ceremonies:

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair said he supports the current requirement that women show their faces at some point in the citizenship process but that they should not be forced to remove a face covering while taking the oath of citizenship.

"I am in agreement with the existing rule under which anyone seeking citizenship must uncover their face to identify themselves before swearing the oath, in accordance with their religious beliefs," he said during a speech Wednesday in Montreal, adding that he understands some people may see the niqab as a symbol of oppression.

"If some of those women are oppressed, we need to help them, and it's not going to be depriving them of their Canadian citizenship and rights that will do that."

(Sidebar: by letting them wear that ridiculous covering?)

No.

Any Islamic head covering is un-Canadian, a thumb in the eye of the popular culture and a tacit endorsement of a backward, misogynist culture.


Also:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s remarks about violence against women came under fire online for appearing to blame certain Canadian communities and for not addressing what’s really behind the fact that one in two Canadian women will experience sexual or physical violence in her lifetime.

“Anyone who wants to end violence against women has to look at equality as a root cause,” Anuradha Dugal, director of violence prevention programs for the Canadian Women’s Foundation, tells Yahoo Canada News.

That involves seeing all women as equal partners in employment, relationships, leadership and other arenas of society, Dugal says.

During Monday’s Up for Debate program — which featured Trudeau, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe — Trudeau was asked about why violence against women by younger men persists when other moves towards gender equality have been made.

“I don’t know where exactly to point my finger,” Trudeau said in the videotaped segment. “I think there’s probably an awful lot of factors that come together to shape societal behaviours, whether it’s certain types of music — there’s a lot of misogyny in certain types of music.

“There’s issues around pornography and its prevalence now and its accessibility, which is something I’m really wrapping my head around as a father of kids who are approaching their teen years.

"And there’s also the shifting parental roles; there’s a lot of communities in which fathers are less present than they have been. There’s a need to have more engaged, positive role models.”

(Sidebar: wow. It's like he's cherry-picked wisdom from somewhere.)

 It's fun watching sharks eat sharks.



The court has spoken: life for two convicted would-be VIA Rail bombers:

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier, the men convicted earlier this year on terrorism charges for plotting to derail a Via passenger train, were both sentenced to life in prison today in a Toronto courtroom.

In passing sentence, Superior Court of Justice Judge Michael Code said the unusual gravity of terrorism offences means he had to send a strong enough message to deter others considering carrying out similar crimes. He said there was little evidence presented that mitigates the presumptive sentence of life in prison.

"These are the most serious of terrorism offences, designed to result in indiscriminate killings of innocent human beings," he said.

"I am satisfied that life imprisonment is the appropriate sentence," the judge added, noting that the men would receive credit for time already spent in custody.

He said both men have not renounced their violent, jihadist ideology and have shown no remorse.

An American commander denies telling soldiers to cover up child abuse in Afghanistan:

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Tuesday he expects U.S. personnel to report to military superiors any allegations of sexual abuse of boys by Afghan forces, after claims that soldiers are being told to 'turn a blind eye'.

The statement from Gen. John Campbell, who heads U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, came in response to reports that Afghan forces who worked with U.S. military personnel sexually assaulted locals boys and that U.S. troops were told to ignore suspicions of abuse because it was not the 'priority of the mission'.

According to the father of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr, 21 - who was gunned down on Helmland Province in 2012 by a 17-year-old Afghan 'tea boy' for local police chief Sarwar Jan - the alleged 'blind eye policy' was the reason his son was killed.

'As far as the young boys are concerned, the Marines are allowing (the abuse) to happen and so they're guilty by association,' Gregory Buckley Sr told the New York Times.

'They don't know our Marines are sick to their stomachs.' 

Child abuse in Afghanistan is not unheard of, nor is something like this isolated.



Who cares? It's not like she'll be president:

The prospects dimmed for the Keystone XL pipeline ever seeing the light of day, with a significant development Tuesday in the years-long debate over the Canada-to-Texas oil project.

The cause: Hillary Clinton.

Taking a shot at what she called dirty oil, the current frontrunner in most U.S. presidential election polls made the long-awaited announcement about where she stands on the pipeline.

Her verdict: "I oppose it," Clinton told a town-hall-style meeting in Iowa. "I oppose it because I don't think it's in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change."

Pope Francis canonised Saint Juniperro Serra in a Mass held in Washington, DC:

Pope Francis made history Wednesday by performing the first-ever canonization on U.S. soil, of St. Junipero Serra.

St. Serra, a Franciscan missionary from Spain, founded nine Catholic missions in California, most of which would go on to become the centers of major cities in the state.

The trail-blazing life of this priest, Pope Francis said in his homily at the Sept. 23 Mass of Canonization said at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., should be a call to all Christians to never grow complacent, and to always go out to proclaim the Gospel with joy.

“He was the embodiment of ‘a Church which goes forth’, a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God,” the Pope said.  

Saint Junipero Serra was born in 1713 on the Spanish island of Majorca in the Mediterranean. He left his position as a university professor to become a missionary to the New World, helping to convert to Christianity many of the indigenous community, and teaching them new technologies.

The priest’s mission work often took place despite a painful ulcerated leg which is said to have been caused either by cancer or a spider bite soon after his arrival in Mexico. He died in 1784 at Mission San Carlos Borroméo del Carmelo in what is now the state of California. St. John Paul II beatified Father Serra in 1988.

A pleasant upcoming Chuseok to all y'all.


Speaking of which...

On Sunday, the Blue House announced that President Park Geun-hye is granting all lower-ranking military servicemen two days of leave and “bestowing” special snacks for military personnel on the occasion of Chuseok.

There is no doubt that the nearly 560,000 military servicemen who will get the unprecedented extra holidays will welcome the surprise gift. The holidays are being given in recognition of the efforts of the military servicemen during last month’s heightened inter-Korean military tension, according to the Blue House.

In keeping with the spirit of Chuseok, the presidential office said that Park would be “bestowing” special snacks to all servicemen. This is in addition to the Chuseok food provided by the military. The set of traditional snacks will be distributed along with a card bearing a message from the president. ...

Military servicemen deserve gratitude from the nation for their service. However, such recognition should be made within the established systems and procedures, not through special gifts created at the whim of the president. Such impromptu programs set precedents that successive administrations and presidents may be pressured into following. Special programs may boost popularity, but they come at a cost, ultimately, to the public.

Fair enough. There is no point in sticking it to the taxpayer unless granted.



I thought China was at odds with North Korea:

China has built two high-speed railways along the border with North Korea.

Fast trains can now reach Dandong on the Apnok River near North Korea and Hunchun on the Duman River, the entrance to the North's Rajin-Sonbong Special Economic Zone.

Whatever boondoggle has the potential to pad Chinese wallets, I guess.



Don't leave cheese out for mice:

HalaTrip.com, an online travel platform operated by Singapore-based Crescentrating, said together with the Jeju Tourism Association, it has published a 12-page travel guide on Jejudo Island for Muslim travelers.

Titled “Experience Jeju Island, A Traveler’s Haven,” the guide, which is available in English and can be downloaded from HalaTrip.com, introduces the island’s landscapes, culture and activities.

It also shows Muslim travelers the best places to visit, shop, dine and pray on the Korean Island.

Did the South Koreans forget this?

U.S. soldiers found the body of Kim Sun Il, 33, at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday on the side of a road between Baghdad and Fallujah, the city west of Iraq's capital where Kim was abducted last Thursday. The South Korean Embassy in Baghdad confirmed that the body was Kim's.

Besides, these guys would make horrible tourists. Even refugees are throwing back food.



Um, why wasn't this thought of before?

South Korea is seeking to create a special unit in the Army tasked with destroying North Korea’s nuclear weapons, long-range missiles and other strategic assets should an emergency break out, military officials said Wednesday.

The brigade-level organization will be installed within the Army’s Special Warfare Command, with its primary mission being to “strike the enemy’s core strategic targets,” the command stated in a report submitted to the National Assembly’s defense committee for a parliamentary audit.

“(The plan) is intended for operations in North Korea,” Commander Lt. Gen. Chang Kyung-suk said during the audit at the Army headquarters in the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province.

“Work is underway to transform one of the six brigades forming the special forces into a unit that will run independent operations.”

While operable in the North on its own, the envisioned brigade may engage in joint actions with the U.S. such as for combat service support that requires infiltration tools, Chang noted. 

Israel, South Korea. Israel.



And now, Canada faces some difficult choices this election. Here are some of the candidates voters must choose:

Search your feelings. You know this to be true.   (source)

Monday Post

The summer wanes...

(sigh)


In a way, it should be no surprise that Justin Trudeau said this:

Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said on Sunday his party would scrap a program to buy advanced F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin Corp if it wins power in the Oct. 19 federal election.

Coming from a guy who promised to withdraw from liquidating ISIS, this is the sort of empty election promise that appeals to fan-girls and is not a serious criticism of a new aircraft.

Even if ISIS was destroyed (not contained- destroyed), in order for Canada to be a major global player, it needs serious armaments.

No one takes pea-shooters seriously.

Also: the Justin Trudeau interview no one wants you to see.



Oh. Maybe he meant to do that:

The brother of an aboriginal protester shot dead by police 20 years ago has been injured while protesting a settlement deal for lands in southwestern Ontario that were appropriated by the federal government during the Second World War.

Witnesses say Pierre George was injured when he accidentally set himself ablaze while pouring gasoline on a fire that had been set by the protesters to get the attention of people marching to celebrate the return of Camp Ipperwash. He was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Israel and Russia talk about Syria:

Israel and Russia agreed on Monday to coordinate military actions over Syria in order to avoid accidentally trading fire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Moscow.

Recent Russian reinforcements for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which regional sources say include warplanes and anti-aircraft systems, worry Israel, whose jets have on occasion bombed the neighboring Arab country to foil suspected handovers of advanced arms to Assad's Lebanese guerrilla ally Hezbollah.

Briefing Israeli reporters after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu said he had come with the goal of "prevent(ing) misunderstandings between IDF (Israel Defense Force) units and Russian forces" in Syria, where Assad is fighting Islamist-dominated insurgents in a civil war.

Netanyahu should trust Putin as an adder fanged. 

While no one was looking, the House of Representatives voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood for one year:

In a 241-187 vote on Friday, members of the United States House of Representatives voted to freeze funding for Planned Parenthood for one year, following months of political debate surrounding information revealed in a series of undercover videos on the abortion provider.

Why not forever?

That's nice but if Ontario's experience has taught anyone anything (and it clearly hasn't), the "green" industry is a boondoggle at best:

Climate change is a divisive issue.

Fossil fuel fans tend to deny it exists. Supporters of alternative solar and wind energy shout that the world will end if humanity doesn’t change course.

The stakes are high. Confrontation doesn’t appear to be helping.

So, why not just side-step it?

From the counter-intuitive science desk comes an intriguing new study out of UC Berkeley.

Researchers say the best way to move forward may be to stop cracking down so hard on carbon emissions, and hugely step up investment in clean alternatives instead.

New technologies and discoveries are made all the time. Putting more money into expensive, ineffective and wasteful projects is not going to conserve the environment or save a the consumer money while giving him or her essential power.



Pope Francis subtly pokes at communism while in Cuba:

As Cubans finally face the prospects of calmer relationships and greater ease of communication and commerce with the United States, Pope Francis told the Cuban people that love and service, not anyone's ideology, are the keys to their happiness.

"We do not serve ideas, we serve people," the pope told hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Havana's Revolution Square for Mass Sept. 20.

 
(Sidebar: I don't know. Saint John Paul II would have had the Castros spitting up blood.)

It's easy to accuse Pope Francis of being utterly silent, useless or even complicit (as people who have never read anything he said often do) but he has been fulfilling his mandate as a man of the cloth speaking out against the atrocities committed against Christians in Syria and Iraq and welcoming the only refugees who matter.

Even if his views on "climate change" are skewed.



And now, twenty-two outlawed baby names. Because naming your baby something stupid is abuse:

3. ANAL

New Zealand has no time for anyone’s bizarre baby-naming shenanigans. Parents have to get all potential names approved by the government, and if officials deem something too wacky, it gets added to the ever-growing list of banned names. There were many questionable entries on the list they released in 2013, “Anal” being a particularly horrifying offender.