Halloween Week: The Day of the Halloweening

Or something.


Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnny Cash sings of the Apocalypse on this eve of All Saints' Day and don't forget the saints commemorated on this day.



Terrible:

A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers crashed into a mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday shortly after losing radar contact near cruising altitude, killing all aboard.

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt, Sinai Province, said in a statement it had brought down the plane "in response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land", but Russia's Transport Minister told Interfax news agency the claim "can't be considered accurate". 

The Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet, was flying from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in central Sinai soon after daybreak, the aviation ministry said.

"I now see a tragic scene," an Egyptian security officer at the site told Reuters by telephone. "A lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats.

"The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rockface. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside," the officer, who requested anonymity, said.

Both black boxes of the plane had been found, Mohamed Hossam Kemal, the civil aviation minister, told a news conference.

A publisher in Bangladesh is hacked to death:

A publisher of secular books was hacked to death and three other people were wounded in two separate attacks Saturday at publishing houses in Bangladesh's capital, police said.

The attacks in Dhaka come amid fears about the rise of radical Islam in Bangladesh. At least four atheist bloggers have been murdered in the impoverished country this year, while the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for three other attacks.

Both of the publishers involved in Saturday's attacks had published works of Bangladeshi-American blogger and writer Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death on the Dhaka University campus while walking with his wife in February.

The local Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team had claimed responsibility for the blogger killings and recently threatened to kill more bloggers.

It still riles Obama that he can't oust Assad:

The United States ramped up its support for Syria's opposition with a pledge of nearly $100 million in fresh aid on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's top diplomat described the timing of the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the withdrawal of foreign fighters as top sticking points to finding a lasting resolution to the civil war in Syria.

Suck it up, Barry.



Floods in Texas:

Five people have been reported dead and one still missing amid the flash floods that roiled through the Austin area and other parts of south-central Texas overnight, submerging cars, toppling trailers, and leaving more than 32,000 people without power.

And now, a recipe for soul cakes, cakes given to beggars in exchange for prayers for deceased loved ones. This is thought to be the origin of trick-or-treating.

Halloween Week: the Friday Feakout Edition

On the eve of Halloween...



What's in the news...


Will there be a ceasefire in Syria?

The United States, Russia and more than a dozen other nations have directed the U.N. to begin a new diplomatic process with Syria's government and opposition with the goal of reaching a nationwide cease-fire and political transition.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made the announcement at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

Kerry made no declarations about the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia and Iran back Assad; the U.S. and its allies want him ousted.

Kerry said the U.N.-led process should lead to a new constitution for Syria and internationally supervised elections.

(Sidebar: not bloody likely, Kerry.)

 
Well, this must be embarrassing:

Canadians praise cuts to GST, balanced budgets ...

 

The sentiment that Stephen Harper is an average or above-average prime minister will only grow over time, especially as PM-Elect Trulander screws up royal.



Not so fast!

New Brunswick is considering scaling back its new tax on the top 1 per cent in light of federal Liberal plans to adopt a similar tax hike nationwide, a pledge that is raising concern it could hurt Canada’s cash-strapped provinces.

New Brunswick’s Liberal government raised its top tax rate earlier this year after the party successfully campaigned on the issue in the fall of 2014. But federal Liberal plans to also hike taxes on the top 1 per cent have the province rethinking its approach, given that its top earners would end up paying a total of 58.75 per cent, the highest in the country.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, New Brunswick Finance Minister Roger Melanson said prime-minister-designate Justin Trudeau’s victory means his government may have to reconsider the tax hike he announced in the province’s March budget.

“Before any final decision is made, we want to sit down with the new finance minister, federally, when we know who that is … to clearly understand what it is exactly that would be brought forward,” he said. “Based on that, we are open to do some adjustments.

“As much as we need incremental revenues, we also want to be competitive.”

I guess they should have thought that policy through.



No one cares about the religion you adopted just to make your parents mad:

An employer is less likely to be able to fire someone who wears a pentacle to work, and family court judges who use pagan practices as a reason to discriminate in custody cases face challenges from pagan rights groups across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. “It just can’t happen these days,” Cuhulain said in an interview with Yahoo Canada. “And if it does, there’s an organization ready to fight it.”

Pagan organizations for specific professions as well as for general advocacy have ensured that there are fewer legal barriers for pagans to face, in courts or in the workplace.

But that hasn’t stopped the discrimination they still face on social media. Facebook’s “real name policy” is a particularly damaging way that Wiccans and witches are still targeted.

Because Circe Black Raven is a stupid professional name. 

And now, your Friday freakout:

The Power of Christ compels you:

“Demonic possession is real, it does happen, but it is extremely rare. The rise in interest regarding evil and exorcism coincides with a drop in faith in God, especially in the Western world. People seem to be bored with our Christian roots and more interested in things associated with the occult.

He concludes: “I don’t think the devil has upped his game. I just think more people are willing to play his game.”

The Screaming Skulls of England:

In 1791, British historian John Collinson recorded a strange anecdote in his History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset. In one out-of-the-way parish, reported Collinson, residents had been haunted by Theophilus Brome (also spelled Broome), a local man who had requested that after his death his head be returned to his farmhouse rather than buried with the rest of his body. The villagers initially obliged, but when they later attempted to remove Brome's skull from the house, they were met with ear-splitting results: The skull supposedly screamed and moaned, piercing the villagers' ears with “horrid noises, portentive of sad displeasure” until they moved it back into the dead man’s farmhouse. Years later, when the villagers once again tried to dig a grave for the skull, their spade split in two, making it impossible to return Brome’s head to the earth.

Haunted museums:

Wedged between two residential buildings on an unassuming block just east of Manhattan’s Lafayette Street sits the Merchant’s House Museum. You have to ring the doorbell to gain entry to the house, which is still populated by the possessions—and perhaps the spirits—of the Tredwell family, who lived there from 1835 to 1933. ...

“The museum would never come out and definitively say, ‘Yes, we’re haunted,’” Wright said. Yet visitors have matched reported sightings with images of the family, including Gertrude, the youngest daughter, who died in 1933; Seabury, the father; Elizabeth, the eldest sister; and Samuel, the younger brother, as well as several unidentified servants.

A Japanese company used this commercial to sell tires:

(Sidebar: any weak-stomached or hearted persons should avoid this.)




And now, the most frightening thing of them all:

Halloween Week: The Stalking Bread

Trudeau's followers are getting mouldy.

Lots going on at the Fur.



Everyone has their hands out for the favours PM-Elect Trulander promised to grant:

Migrant workers are appealing to Justin Trudeau to change the rules so they aren’t tied to a single employer if they want to stay in Canada.

Ministers in the Quebec government are looking to Trudeau to pressure the Saudi Arabian government to release jailed blogger Raif Badawi before it resumes flogging him under a sentence imposed last January.

Tima Kurdi, the aunt of Alan Kurdi, the little boy whose drowned body washed up on a Turkish beach, wants Trudeau to intervene on behalf of Alan’s father, Abdullah, so he can come to Canada.

Postal workers want Trudeau to quickly signal his intent to block the roll-out of community boxes, so that one-third of the population can continue receiving door-to-door mail service at a loss of $250 million a year.

The local NDP member for Windsor is hoping Trudeau will look more kindly on local projects the Harper government let slide: a bike path on the new Gordie Howe bridge, a new park on Ojibway lands, and perhaps another look at liberalizing laws that restrict betting on sports.

Trudeau hasn’t appointed a single cabinet minister yet, or moved into his new residence at Rideau cottage, and already he has become the Great Benefactor, the bright new hope for causes across the country that felt themselves stymied by the outgoing Conservatives. Even his new home results from an early call on his promised sunny ways: the National Capital Commission is hoping he’ll agree to accept the “cottage” – which isn’t a cottage at all but a 22-room heritage site built in 1867 and renovated in 2013 – in place of 24 Sussex Drive so badly-needed repairs can be made to the official residence.

Chop-chop, Justin.



In fine tradition, PM-Elect Trulander runs away:

Online jihadists are reacting with “elation and a sense of triumph at a perceived defeat of Canada” over last week’s election results as they anticipate the Liberals’ promised end to airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, says a report released Thursday.

The Middle East Media Research Institute study said “known jihadists” and supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were rejoicing at the election of a government committed to halting Canada’s involvement in the international air coalition.

“The reactions generally expressed joy and displayed a triumphalist outlook at this development, including statements such as ‘Canada runs away’ and referring to it as ‘the crumbling of the Crusader alliance,’” said Elliot Zweig, the report’s author.

Flashback time:

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.

That's convenient, isn't it?

Just hours after the release of a report that warns the partial sale of Hydro One will have a negative impact on Ontario's budget balance, the utility announced Thursday it's putting millions of its shares on financial markets.

In a written statement, Hydro One says it will issue more than 81 million shares next Thursday at $20.50 a share.

 
Sure it has:

China will ease family planning restrictions to allow all couples to have two children after decades of a strict one-child policy, the ruling Communist Party said on Thursday, a move aimed at alleviating demographic strains on the economy.

The policy is a major liberalization of the country's family planning restrictions, already eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow more families to have two children when the parents met certain conditions.

A growing number of scholars had urged the government to reform the rules, introduced in the late 1970s to prevent population growth spiraling out of control, but now regarded as outdated and responsible for shrinking China's labor pool.

For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China, the world's most populous nation, could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich.

By around the middle of this century, one in every three Chinese is forecast to be over 60, with a dwindling proportion of working adults to support them. 

The announcement was made at the close of a key Party meeting focused on financial reforms and maintaining growth between 2016 and 2020 amid concerns over the country's slowing economy.

China will "fully implement a policy of allowing each couple to have two children as an active response to an ageing population", the party said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

There were no immediate details on the new policy or a time-frame for implementation.

 
Too many seniors, too many unmarried men and too many returned North Korean women.




This is what people starved for?

Kim Jong-un has visited a new science and technology centre in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

The North Korean leader declared the new complex would show the world the desire and passion of the North Korean army and people to become well versed in science and technology.

Kim toured the complex with General Hwang Pyong-so and Premiere Pak Pong-ju.

The atom-shaped centre on the Ssuk islet by the river Taedong includes an earthquake experience room, virtual science laboratory and reading areas and is a reminder of North Korea's defiance amid concerns about its nuclear weapons programme.

The purpose of the energy conserving compound is to allow visitors to "deeply grasp the principles and methods of science and technology," according to KCNA, North Korea's official news agency.

Last month Pyongyang said its main nuclear complex is fully operational  and the country is ready to face US hostility with nuclear weapons "at any time".

This is one of my biggest fears:

Hurricane Patricia is currently making it’s way through the Alabama coast, and with it came flooding and a startling surprise for Mobile resident Whitney Constantine, Fox 10 reports.

As flood waters began to recede, Constantine noticed the carcass of a small shark left in her yard, presumably washed ashore from the local river during the Oct. 26 flood.

While used to flooding in the area, Constantine told Fox 10 the flood waters were knee-deep in her drive way after Monday’s flooding.

Constantine and her husband have decided to bury the shark.

Commit its body to the deep.



And now, what your favourite Halloween candy says about you:

Snickers

You have a multi-faceted personality. You don't fit into a box! You like lots of things and you don't care if they match or if they don't. Sometimes people might think that makes you mysterious or complicated, but you're just your own person. You like travel and reading just as much as you like sitting in front of the TV and watching sports. It's all about balance.

You don't say.



Some mood music.

Halloween Week: the Mid-Weekening

Your bump in the middle of the night...


He's probably rushing in case he crashes and burns a lot sooner than expected:

An incoming Liberal majority government will move forward with an ambitious agenda and open Parliament with a speech from the throne before the end of the year, CBC News has learned.

The new agenda will follow next week's swearing in of a new Liberal cabinet, marking the official transition of power after nearly a decade of Conservative Party rule.

The Liberal government's general program for the parliamentary session that will follow is expected to include proposed legislation to lower taxes on the middle class and a plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees, a senior Liberal source told CBC News.

That will happen after Trudeau returns from a busy travel schedule of international events including the Group of 20 summit in Turkey, the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in the Philippines and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Before the Paris meeting he is also expected to attend the Commonwealth meeting in Malta, where he would meet the Queen, whom he first met when he was a child and his father was prime minister.

First of all, taxes: PM-Elect Trulander, who could not tell who was middle-class before the election, has decided that anyone earning over $200, 000 (as is his net worth) will be taxed more and receive fewer child benefits. According to these statistics, 338,960 individuals have an income of $200, 000 and over and 207,050 individuals have an income of $250, 000 and over making the total population of people the Liberals can squeeze for their infrastructure projects 546, 010 (assuming they have not hidden their wealth elsewhere). How much can Trudeau expect to squeeze from seniors' pensions? It will have to be a significant amount because the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) which Premier Kathleen Wynne promised to scrap before the election but now has decided not to will be expensive:

The plan hurts the middle class. Yet, many middle-class individuals will bear much higher tax rates on plan benefits, especially in the $73,000 to $90,000 range as Old Age Security payments are clawed back. ...

The plan provides a poor return to savings for low-income Canadians who will be provided little personal income tax relief for contributions, yet face a walloping personal tax on benefits with personal taxes and reductions in Guaranteed Income Supplements. This can be fixed but not easily. ...

Although it is argued by the Ontario government that the ORPP will increase savings, no doubt there will be a significant reduction in private saving, as many U.S. and Canadian economic studies have suggested in the past, including a recent one by well-respected economist, Francois Vaillancourt and his co-authors.

The timing cannot be worse for the Ontario economy, which faces a weak economy with a falling employment rate this past year (last month was an improvement). Taxes will be paid by a large part of the population with no benefits paid out for several years to come, as existing seniors will not get more money.

Businesses will face a new set of taxes on employees, much of it shifted back in lower wages over time. In the short run, companies facing international competition will face higher costs along with higher Ontario energy costs, property taxes and new levies to pay for infrastructure (the latter is most critical to achieve growth in the long run, unlike the ORPP).

Like the CPP, it siphons money from the worker for a lousy return. It doesn't help those who are self-employed and it's mandatory.

And let's not forget those carbon schemes Trudeau glowed about.

Carbon (read: carbon dioxide) is not a pollutant but it's a convenient tax grab. It raises the costs of goods and services:

But cap-and-trade is just a carbon tax by another name, or, to put it more accurately, a tax on consumption -- consumption by us.

In fact, the Liberals under former premier Dalton McGuinty introduced a carbon tax in Ontario when they imposed the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on us on July 1, 2010.

They didn’t call it a carbon tax, but the reason it was is that the HST extended the 8% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) over the much broader reach of the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The practical effect of this was that as of July 1, 2010, Ontarians began paying a new, additional 8% tax on gasoline, electricity (generated in part by fossil fuel energy) and on heating fuels such as natural gas and oil.

The reason this was a carbon tax, and more accurately a tax on everything, is that it increased the price of everything, not just driving one’s car, for example, but the cost of transporting goods to market.

Similarly, as the price of manufacturing goods and creating services increases because of the rising costs of electricity and transportation, companies pass along those increased costs to us, as consumers, in the form of higher prices.

This explains why cap-and-trade is a carbon tax by another name.

(Sidebar: don't be surprised if the HST goes up.)

So - with a finite number of "high-rollers" and seniors to squeeze for money, added costs and taxes here and there, how exactly is the middle-class saving money?


Then there's those pesky 25, 000 unvetted "refugees" PM-Elect Trulander wants to let in (because prioritising proven Syrian Christian refugees is "disgusting"):

During the election campaign, Liberals said they'd accept 25,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq by the end of the year.

But is that even possible? And how would it work?

Refugee settlement groups in Canada aren't sure it's wise. While they applaud the goal and the good intentions, they fear it's too much, too fast. And they're saying so, as the government consults with representatives of major refugee agencies on how to proceed, based on their current capabilities.

Oh, dear.

But he campaigned on it!

These "refugees" would have to not undergo any scrutiny and municipalities will not only have to pick up several tabs but will be flooded with people they might not be able to help.

I'm sure those who voted for Trudeau thought this through carefully when they cast their ballots.

Uh, no. Over eighty percent of Canadians thought niqabs were an issue and so did the whiners who expected to hoodwink everyone: 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's handpicked parliamentary secretary says the Conservative Party's focus on identity issues — the niqab, stripping citizenship from dual nationals and launching a barbaric cultural practices hot line — was a mistake that cost the party votes among new Canadians.

Graft is the Liberal Party and the Liberal voter way:

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is facing more questions Monday over revelations that her government paid education unions nearly $4 million to help cover negotiating costs that are usually paid for with union dues in recent years.

Education Minister Liz Sandals said last week the multi-million-dollar payouts to unions were to cover costs such as meeting rooms and food during negotiations for new teachers contracts. When pressed for a detailed list of expenses, Sandals said unions weren't asked to provide receipts for the expenses.

"We know what the meeting rooms cost. We know what the food costs. We know what 100 pizzas costs," she said.

In Question Period this morning, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said Sandals's statement falls short of explaining the expenditure.

"I'm not sure where the minister buys her pizza, but the pepperoni must be gold-plated," he said.

Wynne said this year's $2.5-million payments to teachers unions is a special case. Sandals told Brown in Question Period that the Mike Harris government similarly supported unions during bargaining processes when his government was in power. 

"There hasn't been a provincial bargaining system in place before, this is the first time," she said.

Sandals is calling the payouts a "rather large investment" to get them to the bargaining table.

Guaran-damn-tee Ontario Liberal voters will vote for Sandals and Wynne tomorrow if they could.

Let's withdraw from the UN today:

The United States on Tuesday voted against a U.N. resolution condemning its embargo on Cuba, even though President Barack Obama has called on Congress to lift the trade restrictions.

The vote was the first since the U.S. and Cuban leaders agreed to restore diplomatic ties last December, and the U.S. had considered taking the unprecedented step of abstaining.

The General Assembly voted 191-2 to condemn the commercial, economic and financial embargo against Cuba, the highest number of votes ever for the measure. Only Israel joined the United States in opposing the resolution, and when the vote lit up on the screen many diplomats jumped to their feet in a standing ovation.

General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding and unenforceable but the annual exercise — now in its 24th year — has given Cuba a global stage to demonstrate America's isolation on the embargo and its Cuba policy.

(Sidebar: everything is non-binding yet a demonstration with the UN, like "Food for Oil" and the Rwandan genocide.)

This must be embarrassing for Obama. Not only did the US still support the embargo against a country that brutalises dissidents but Israel (which the UN hates with a passion) supported the embargo, too.

What a world.



Well, it's not like the US is ever going to mount a serious challenge to China or anything:
 

China is not afraid of fighting a war with the US in the South China Sea, a newspaper with close links to the government said on Wednesday, after Washington sent a warship near artificial islands built by Beijing.

An American soldier killed during the Korean War is returned home:

The remains of a formerly missing U.S. soldier have been returned to California nearly 65 years after he is thought to have died, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.The remains of Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, a 20-year-old Bellflower man missing since the Korean War, were returned earlier this week to his sister Laverne Minnick, 82 ...

Minnick, who lives in Huntington Beach, told the newspaper: "I am so happy. He's going to be home, where he belongs, with his family."

Witt will be buried with full military honors at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier on Friday.

And now, the horrifying ways in which cakes can go wrong:

 

And the awesome ways they can go right:

 

CMP Video: Harvesting Intact Fetal Heads “Will Give Me Something to Strive For”

Another video put out by the Center of Medical Progress.

(Other videos here)



Further proof: that abortionists have no souls, that Planned Parenthood is complicit in this butchery and that abortion supporters will defend anything.

Halloween Week: The Revenge

On what, I am unsure...


Now that Stephen Harper has been unseated, plans to erect a memorial to victims of communism are dead. The new communist in charge won't like it, anyway:

It’s “highly unlikely” the Memorial to the Victims of Communism will ever be built on the proposed site near the Supreme Court of Canada now that the federal Liberals have swept to power, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson bluntly told the memorial’s backers when he met with them last week.

Watson has been an outspoken critic of the proposed monument’s location on Wellington Street and said Ludwik Klimkowski and Anna Dombrovska — officials from Tribute to Liberty, the charity behind the controversial memorial — clearly knew where he stood when the three met Friday in the mayor’s boardroom.

“I told them in very blunt terms that this project should be put on hold,” Watson said Monday in an interview with the Citizen. “We should have a proper consultation with the broader public, not just inside government, and seek greater consensus on where the monument should be placed.”

“I said, ‘I think you’re going to have to take a little water with your wine and come back with a scaled-back version at a different location that is more acceptable to the community.’”

(Sidebar: does he mean one that is never built?)

These North Korean children won't get food or a memorial.

If there is anything Justin Trudeau will make sure is the prime minister's residence:

The Liberals announced Monday that prime-minister-designate Justin Trudeau and his family won’t be moving into 24 Sussex Dr. any time soon. Instead, they’ll be living across the street in a home called Rideau Cottage, on the 36-hectare grounds of Rideau Hall.

The announcement suggests that Mr. Trudeau will allow the National Capital Commission to make repairs to the prime minister’s official residence at 24 Sussex, though the Liberal Leader’s office said no final decision has been made.

Government officials have long recommended that the building be vacated for about a year to allow for repairs. However, the potential negative political optics of approving renovations worth millions of dollars meant the work has been repeatedly delayed.

 
First thing's first, eh, Justin?


Like this:

First up, of course, is Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau’s choice of defence minister. The chatter in industry circles in recent days has been about whether or not Andrew Leslie, former commanding general of the Canadian Army, gets the nod. He seems a shoo-in. Not only has he long been Trudeau’s senior adviser on defence matters,  he was also a key architect of the Grits’ defence platform and their winningest candidate nationwide on election night, garnering 46,542 votes in his Ottawa riding of Orléans. Both Leslie’s grandfathers were Liberal defence ministers. It’s tough to imagine anyone but him being offered this job.

This Andrew Leslie:

“Israelis [are] using very heavy weapon systems, firing indiscriminately onto Palestinian women and children,” Andrew Leslie, a foreign affairs advisor to Justin Trudeau, is heard saying in the recording. “You know what the body count is now. So Israel has actually lost the war.”

I think one can guess how that appointment will go.




The NDP government in Alberta simply doesn't realise how important oil is to the economy:

The $48-billion budget projects a $6.1-billion deficit this fiscal year due primarily to a collapse in resource revenue. Deficits will continue, wiping out by the next fiscal year Alberta’s contingency fund and forcing the province to borrow after that to cover operating expenses. ...

For all its efforts lately to position itself as investment friendly, Alberta’s NDP government seems unable to appreciate that 42 per cent of the provincial economy is related to the energy sector, according to a Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimate, because that is its competitive advantage. No government-induced diversification drive will ever replace that and that if the energy sector doesn’t perform, no provincial government job is safe.

New Brunswickers deserve the government they voted for:

New Brunswick is giving up its status as a "have-not" province and is becoming a "will-not" province, according to the province's largest manufacturers group.

Joel Richardson, the vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters in New Brunswick, told a business luncheon on Monday the province's reputation is slipping as it fails to move forward on various job creation opportunities.

Richardson specifically pointed to Premier Brian Gallant's decision to put a moratorium on the development of the shale gas industry until more studies can be done on its safety.

"We believe that there is a tremendous opportunity to move our province to becoming a have province and not a will-not province," he said.

New Brunswick's jobless rate fell to 8.8 per cent in September, after remaining above 10 per cent for several months. The number of people employed in the province was 351,400, according to Statistics Canada.

By comparison, in October 2009, when the recession began to hit, Statistics Canada figures show there were 369,400 people employed in the province and the jobless rate stood at 8.5 per cent.

The Gallant Liberals won the 2014 election campaign with a promise to put a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial mining technique.

The manufacturing industry official said the natural resource industry could generate new jobs in the province. But he said that is not the only option.

Richardson pointed to the proposed Sisson mine near Stanley, the potential refurbishment of NB Power's Mactaquac dam, as well as other opportunities in the manufacturing sector.

"Many projects hit the table but no one is hitting the green light to say let's get going, let's get people back to work," he said.

The recent election of Justin Trudeau's Liberals could signal a new shift in job creation strategies, according to the industry official.

Bullsh--.

Brian Gallant has had over a year in office and the only thing he has done successfully is cripple a viable industry.

Justin Trudeau can't even dress himself.

Expecting Liberals to be miracle-workers because their dads were wealthy is expecting a climb up Mount Everest to be trouble-free and without risk of death.

 

One can't help but feel sorry for Chris Alexander. Once Aylan Kurdi's bloated little corpse served to turf Alexander from office, he was quickly forgotten and Alexander was left with unsubstantiated blame:

And Alexander takes issue with the way his opponents characterized the Tories’ stance on immigrants and refugees, especially in the wake of a photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi lifeless on a Turkish beach, which focused the world’s attention on a refugee crisis many feel Canada and other countries have failed to act on with urgency.

 
The government of Ontario is serious about violence:

As Ontario moves to legislate some of the reforms in its strategy to combat sexual violence, the blueprint is already making the province a leader in Confederation.

A Russian soldier has apparently committed suicide in Syria:

The body of the first Russian serviceman confirmed dead in four weeks of air strikes in Syria was delivered on Tuesday to his parents, who said they were not convinced by the military's account that their 19-year-old son had hanged himself.
In an interview with Reuters at their home in southern Russia before they received the body of their son Vadim, Alexander and Svetlana Kostenko said their son had sounded cheerful over the phone as recently as Saturday, the day he died while working at an air base on the Syrian coast.

Because Mark Steyn:

For the most part, the Continental media are content to downplay stabbed Jews. But what happens when all the Jews are dead or fled, and there's no one left to stab but Pierre and Fritz?

Not man's best friend?

This past weekend, a chocolate Labrador retriever named “Trigger” accidentally shot an Indiana woman in the foot during during a hunting trip, according to news reports. An Indiana woman had left her loaded shotgun on the ground with the safety off. Trigger stepped on it, inadvertently pressing the trigger. The woman took a shotgun blast to her left foot at point-blank range.

After getting patched up at area hospitals, she is expected to make a full recovery — joining a short list of Americans who apparently have been shot by their dogs, according to news reports — five others since 2011, and ten total since 2004.

And now, fourteen facts about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark:

2. THE TALES WERE BASED ON FOLKLORE.

Research was a huge part of Schwartz's process for all his books. When writing his book Witcracks, Schwartz turned to the archives at the Library of Congress and those of the president of the American Folklore Society, using that research and his connections for Scary Stories. Among his sources were books like American Folk Tales and Songs and Sticks in the Knapsack and Other Ozark Tales. He also drew from publications like The Hoosier Folklore Bulletin and interviewed folklorists.

The illustrations for these books were outrageously creepy.

Some mood music.

Halloween Week: The Curse of the Were-Blog

... or something....


Right now:

A massive earthquake struck remote and impoverished regions of northern Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 263 people as it shook buildings across South Asia and knocked out power and communications to already-isolated areas.

The 7.5-magnitude quake was centred deep beneath the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan's sparsely populated Badakhshan province, which borders Pakistan, Tajikistan and China, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul, buildings shook for up to 45 seconds, walls cracked and cars rolled in the streets as electricity went out. Frightened workers who had just returned from lunch also rushed from swaying buildings in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and to the south in the Indian capital of New Delhi.

Obama's band of "rebels" don't like Russia's bombing them:

An alliance of Free Syrian Army-related insurgent groups said on Monday it was skeptical about a Russian proposal to help rebels, and that Moscow must stop bombing rebels and civilians and withdraw its support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday the Russian air force, which has been bombing insurgents in Syria since Sept. 30, would be ready to help the "patriotic" Syrian opposition.

"Their words are not like their actions. How can we talk to them while they are hitting us?" Issam al-Rayyes, spokesman for the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters.

Russian warplanes have bombed a number of FSA-affiliated groups in northern areas of Syria since intervening in the war on the side of Assad. The Russian air force is providing air cover for several major ground offensives being waged by the Syrian army and allied Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

Rayyes added that there was no contact between the rebels and the Russians, clarifying an earlier remark to the BBC that the rebels had not turned down a Russian offer. "There is no offer, there is no communication," Rayyes said. 

"We don't need the help now, they should stop attacking our bases and then we can talk about future cooperation," Rayyes said in his earlier BBC interview.

His comments echo the views of other Syrian rebels towards the Russian statement, with Assad's opponents suspicious that Moscow is working purely to shore up its ally.

It's probably because the Palestinians kept stabbing people:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a review of the status of certain Palestinian neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, an official confirmed Monday, a decision that could potentially strip tens of thousands of Palestinians of their Israeli residency rights.

Such a move is unlikely to overcome Israeli legal hurdles, but the very prospect has unnerved Palestinians in the city. The review comes after weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence, much of it concentrated in east Jerusalem, the section of the city claimed by the Palestinians for their future capital. Many of the Palestinian attackers involved in deadly assaults came from east Jerusalem neighbourhoods. Any move to change the status of the city's Palestinians would threaten unleashing new unrest and draw international condemnations.

Yes, throw another tantrum, Jordanians Palestinians. 

It's what Liberals do. Why be surprised?

The Ontario government is struggling to explain whether it’s really normal practice to pay teachers’ unions millions in compensation for negotiating costs.

Since 2008, the province has paid out a total of $3.7 million to cover negotiating costs for teachers’ unions — $2.5 million of it paid just this year to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association and the small, French-language union AEFO. But ask different officials why that money was spent, and they’ll give different answers.

The Ontario Liberals can’t seem to say whether the payouts were routine practice or a symptom of new bargaining legislation — even as Education Minister Liz Sandals says the payout won’t be necessary in future talks.

“I think they’re saying they’re not going to do it going forward because they got caught,” PC leader Patrick Brown said. He wondered during question period what negotiations cost $2.5 million, as most expenses are usually hotel rooms and pizzas. Brown said “the pepperoni must be gold-plated.”

Regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership and copyright:

Copyright holders already control reproduction, public performance and execution, modification, and distribution of works, and can decide where, when, and how distribute their works. However, in some countries, they are not able to control the importation of a legitimate acquired work from another country -- a practice known as parallel trade, one example of the principle of the exhaustion of rights, or the first sale doctrine. 

If the US proposal to the TPPA IP chapter is accepted, right holders would be able to prevent third parties from importing legitimacy copies of works from one country to another, without authorization.

Currently, no multilateral international instrument on intellectual property grants to copyright holders an exclusive right to control the importation of works, so parallel importations are possible. Indeed, the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) specifically eliminates the possibility of litigating dispuites over parallel trade, or any other aspect of the exhausion of rights.

What activists want Prime Minister-Elect Trulander to do:

Copyright activists say Canadians could face lawsuits, fines or worse for ripping the latest Justin Bieber CD or uploading an animated GIF of Jose Bautista's bat-flip under a new trade deal, and they're calling on the newly elected Justin Trudeau to act.

And now, scientific explanations for ghosts:

2. INFRASOUND

Infrasound is sound at levels so low humans can’t hear it (though other animals, like elephants, can). Low frequency vibrations can cause distinct physiological discomfort. Scientists studying the effects of wind turbines and traffic noise near residences have found that low-frequency noise can cause disorientation, feelings of panic, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and other effects that could easily be associated with being visited by a ghost [PDF]. For instance, in a 1998 paper on natural causes of hauntings [PDF], engineer Vic Tandy describes working for a medical equipment manufacturer, whose labs included a reportedly haunted room. Whenever Tandy worked in this particular lab, he felt depressed and uncomfortable, often hearing and seeing odd things—including an apparition that definitely looked like a ghost. Eventually, he discovered that the room was home to an 19 Hz standing wave coming from a fan, which was sending out the inaudible vibrations that caused the disorienting effects. Further studies also show links between infrasound and bizarre sensations like getting chills down the spine or feeling uneasy.

 

Halloween Week: the Beginning

... or something.


Lots going on at the Fur.

For example:

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien advises PM-Elect Trulander to do as his father did and "talk to everybody":

Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien says he hopes Justin Trudeau will engage in a dialogue with a variety of international leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During an interview with CTV's Question Period, Chretien suggested the incoming prime minister's father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, maintained an open approach when speaking to world leaders including Cuba's Fidel Castro.

"Mr. Trudeau could talk to anybody because he kept his independence," he said.

Chretien also advised Justin Trudeau to "talk to everybody."

Former Prime Minister Chretien was the head of Ad-Scam, the scandal that brought in the Harper government in the first place, and took a lucrative job with a petroleum company after abandoning Zehra Kazemi.

As for Pierre Trudeau, well, let's just say he never met a dictator he didn't like.

The future Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau came in 1960 and co-wrote a starry-eyed book, Two Innocents in Red China, which rejected reports of famine.

(Chung, Jung, and Jon Halliday. Mao: The Unknown Story. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, Borzoi, 2005. 460.)

Riding the coattails of the successful collectivization of 1955-1956 and the plentiful harvest of 1957, Mao announced a five-year plan (i.e., The Great Leap Forward) to the People’s Commune in 1958. Mao continually increased the agricultural production quotas due to early bountiful yield of crops. Whereas the early bounties were produced by sound pre-Maoist agricultural methods, the farming methods imposed by Mao, which included natural collectivization— growing incompatible seeds together—, were an unmitigated disaster that led to mass starvation. The five-year program, which only lasted three years, ended in utter catastrophe, inducing a famine that produced an estimated twenty to forty-three million deaths. This manmade famine was a result of Chairman Mao and his commissars implementing policies based on their ignorant notions of farm production. Mao was under the false impression that nature could be run in a non-symbiotic fashion. Indeed, Mao once quipped that “Happy plants grow together.” It was this utopian naivety that grounded Mao’s five-year project, and the manmade famine that followed.

With scant regard for [Hubert] Matos' previous exemplary conduct as a freedom fighter, [Fidel] Castro subjected him to a Moscow-style show-trial in Havana and intervened personally against his former ally. Castro stood up in court and brought tremendous pressure to bear on the judges, say: "I'm telling you that you must choose: it's Matos or me!" He also prevented witnesses for the defense from testifying. Matos received a twenty-year sentence, which he served to the last day. Several people close to him were also sent to prison.

(Fontaine, Pascal. The Black Book of Communism, 3rd printing. Harvard. 2000. 653)

Like father, like son.



Does anyone remember when Alberta was an economically viable province?

The collapse of crude oil prices that had former Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice warning Albertans to brace for a $7-billion hole in provincial revenues will result in his NDP successors tabling a budget Tuesday that forecasts the largest-ever deficit in the province’s history.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci hinted this week the deficit will be just shy of $6.5 billion — nearly $1.5 billion more than Prentice forecast last March in a budget that was never passed.

NOW she'll get the wrath:

Ontario elementary school teachers and some support staff engaging in work-to-rule campaigns could soon see their paycheques docked, Premier Kathleen Wynne says.

The one thing Liberal-voting, heavily-unionised teachers love above all else is money. Kathleen Wynne has put her foot in it by threatening teachers' wallets.



Culture matters, Quebec:

Since puppy mills and the mistreatment of pets are one of the main concerns of the new law, activists have speculated that it will do little to change the treatment of animals raised for food. The bill, however, is spearheaded by Quebec agricultural minister Pierre Paradis, who according to the CBC said he expected to hear from groups concerned with kosher and halal slaughtering techniques. He believed at the time that kosher ritual practices would not break the new law, but that some halal slaughters would. "Slow death is not acceptable under the new legislation,” the minister said. “That will have an impact on those who don't find the equilibrium between religious beliefs and respect for animals.”

And now, listen to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" as read by nine different celebrities.

For one's listening pleasure, a Russian lullaby: