Mid-Week Post

The median point of the work-week...


The RCMP charge a twenty-two year old man for the murder of a two year old girl and her father:

A man has been charged in connection with the deaths of a father and his young daughter — who had been the subject of an Amber Alert — in southwest Alberta.

Derek James Saretzky, 22, of Blairmore, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 27-year-old Terry Blanchette and two-year-old Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette. He also faces a charge of indignity to a body in relation to Hailey’s death.

 
It's time to bring back hanging.



Before I comment on this, here is some context:

Baton-wielding Hungarian riot police unleashed tear gas and water cannons against hundreds of migrants Wednesday after they broke through a razor-wire fence and tried to surge into the country from Serbia. Crying children fled the acrid smoke and dozens of people were injured in the chaos.

With their path blocked, hundreds of other asylum-seekers turned to a longer, more arduous path to Western Europe through Croatia, where officials said 1,300 had arrived in a single day — a number that was sure to grow.

They threw rocks and broke through the fence and they want to know why Hungarian police used tear gas.





A court has rejected a federal appeal regarding a woman who wishes to hide her identity during a citizenship ceremony:

The Conservatives said Wednesday they want the Supreme Court of Canada to consider the issue of whether face coverings can be banned from citizenship ceremonies.

This comes in the wake of a Federal Court of Appeal decision that tried to quickly quash that ban so that at least one woman could get the right to vote next month.

But whether Zunera Ishaq will be able to vote on Oct. 19, as the appeal court justices hoped, remained unclear as the government did not say whether it also intends to seek a stay of Tuesday's decision.

"At that one very public moment of a public declaration of one's loyalty to one's fellow citizens and country, one should do so openly, proudly, publicly without one's face hidden," Conservative Jason Kenney told reporters in Calgary Wednesday.

"The vast majority of Canadians agree with us and that is why we will be appealing this ruling."

 
OPEN CHALLENGE: show up at balloting stations wearing full niqabs and no identification. Apparently, not hiding one's identity is so passe. Just ask unelected judges.



The NDP promise to create more surpluses and eliminate income splitting:

 The federal NDP says it will be able to run four years of budget surpluses and still pay for billions in campaign promises by increasing corporate tax rates.

Those promises include more health-care money for the provinces, payments NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has long vowed to increase after they are reduced next year.

The details are contained in a document the party released today that provides a high-level overview of spending and revenue projections, minus the details of each spending item.

The plan includes a jump in corporate taxes to 17 per cent from 15 per cent next fiscal year, the same year the party wants to eliminate income splitting and the doubling of the contribution limit to tax-free savings accounts to raise almost $7.2 billion in new revenue.

(insert chuckle here)



Syrian President Bashar Assad blames Europe for supporting rebels (read: ISIS) and therefore the refugee crisis:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has blamed Europe's refugee crisis on Western support for "terrorists", as people fleeing his country's civil war stream towards the European Union.

In his first public comments on the mass migration, broadcast on Wednesday, Assad said Europe could expect more refugees.

Countries including the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia want to see Assad gone from power and have supported the opposition to his rule during the four-year-old war, including some of the armed groups fighting him.

Assad said Turkish support had been crucial to the growth of two of the biggest insurgent groups in Syria, Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and aerial bombing by a U.S.-led coalition had failed to stop Islamic State. Turkey denies the accusation.

The Syrian president dismissed Western suggestions that his government's actions in the war had fueled the spread of such groups.

"As long as they follow this propaganda, they will have more refugees," Assad said in an interview with Russian media. "If you are worried about them, stop supporting terrorists."

Meanwhile, Russia supports one of its best customers by making inroads in Syria:

In recent days, Moscow has sent about a half-dozen battle tanks and other weaponry — along with military advisers, technicians, security guards and portable housing units — to Syria with the apparent goal of setting up an air base near the coastal town of Latakia, an Assad stronghold.

 

Obama must be furious. 

What a curious way to phrase this:

A baby who was given just one per cent odds of survival after she was born one week before the abortion limit has defied doctors and is now thriving at eight months old.

Don't let any irony sink in.



And this is why everyone's precious snowflakes will be mopping floors in the near future:

Emily DeCosta, principal at Lahainaluna High School in Maui, Hawaii, has been temporarily transferred to a different role within her local school board after she gave students a not so textbook example of how a school year opening assembly should go down.

She starts off the assembly in a stern tone, telling students to quiet down. A little abrupt, but nothing we haven’t seen before. Things go downhill from there. DeCosta tells students, “please put your phones away...or it becomes mine”, drawing a chorus of jeers and boos from the students. Then, just past the three-minute mark of the footage, things seem to take at least a bit of a positive tone…until the principal starts threatening to take away Senior Banquet and Junior Prom. That was just downright mean. 

How mean was it? So much so that the video now has over 30,000 views and parents have come together to put together a petition with over 1,000 signatures on it to have the leadership at the high school changed on a permanent basis.

(Sidebar: the writer of this article is a hack. Not listening to anyone over thirty is SO fifty years ago.)

Parents should not give out these devices to their kids nor should they encourage such terrible behaviour.

It's like the parents have no idea how to behave themselves. Are their precious little onelings above proper modes of conduct?


Also: what happens when you raise a little $#!%.



Zimbabweans shocked that government is sending elephants to China:

The Zimbabwe Independent reported last week that 24 of the country’s elephants have already reached China and 170 are due to be shipped soon.

And now, finding one's true love based on one's love of bacon:

Sizzl, Oscar Mayer’s new dating app, pairs up singles based on their answers to bacon-themed questions. Users connect through Facebook and answer a brief survey that weighs factors like meat of choice and preferred level of bacon crispiness. The iOS app then couples customers with nearby bacon-lovers. But instead of swiping left or right, Sizzl offers the more subjective option of holding down a button for a certain amount of time to indicate level of interest. (Because does anyone on a bacon-themed dating app deserve a left swipe?)

When Love Bacon speaks, the voice of all the gods Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.