For A Tuesday

Beat that post-Thanksgiving bloat with some reading!


So goes the niqab, so goes whatever face covering one can affix while walking into an early voting station:

Who was that masked voter? That seems to be the refrain around the country as face coverings of all kinds appear to be a growing trend in the Canadian election. 

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, various people in Newfoundland, Quebec and Alberta were photographed in garb ranging from clown costumes to horses heads casting their ballot in advance polls.

 
It's like people are mocking an emotionally backward custom and the authorities that allow it.

Hhmmm...



Never let an opportunity to show what a pretentious tool you are go to waste:

Members of Winnipeg's Muslim community praised supporters who gathered Tuesday outside Winnipeg Central Mosque to send a message about inclusion and tolerance to Ottawa.

"It's amazing the greater Winnipeg community is coming out for this show of compassion," said Nilufer Rahman, a member of the mosque, "The show of compassion here is really heart-warming, "

The My Canada Includes Muslims rally challenged "us and them" thinking that has divided the Muslim and non-Muslim communities this election. 

"Like most other Canadians, I've been listening and watching the news, and I've seen a lot of of things appear to be anti-Muslim," said Shaun Loney, one of the organizers. He said anti-Muslim views were ramped up after the niqab became an election issue, and when the Conservatives pledged to establish a tip line for reports of barbaric cultural practices. 

"I'm infuriated about the kinds of things our government is saying and doing, in regards, particularly, to Muslims," said Nancy Pinnell, one of the participants in the rally, "We're now seeing the kinds of things that happened in Germany to the Jews before the Second World War."

(Sidebar: gratuitous and inapplicable mention of the Holocaust- check.)

That's nice but legitimate worries and criticisms of Islamism are being characterised as the deflecting bug-bear Islamophobia which is morally and intellectually dishonest.  This show of support is as important as issuing out hashtags for Boko Haram to return their under-aged feminine human bombs.


Also: it's the economy while wearing niqabs, not the niqabs themselves, say embarrassed sharmutas:

Three Winnipeg Muslim women are speaking out against efforts to politicize the niqab in this federal election.

The niqab, or veil, that partially covers a woman's face has been front and centre on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

Tasneem Vali said the attention being paid to a piece of clothing that is worn by a small number of women in Canada has come as a shock. 

"This is not a fundamental issue that we must all agree on," said Vali. "It is what you consider to be your personal form of modesty. For me to tell you that you're wrong in thinking that way, that is not what Canada is about. That is not what Islam is about." 

If it's no big deal (as it is not in the Koran), then take it off.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne might drop the controversial pension plan should Justin Trudeau win the election:

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says she would drop the idea of creating a provincial pension plan if Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau becomes the next prime minister.

Wynne says she couldn't convince the Harper government to enhance the Canada Pension Plan, so her government introduced an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan that would mirror the CPP, essentially doubling deductions and benefits.

She says if Trudeau wins the Oct. 19 federal election and is willing to improve the CPP, that would be "the solution" to her concerns about people not having enough money to live on when they retire.

Trudeau has been campaigning on a promise to expand the CPP and to return the age of eligibility for old age security to 65 from 67.

The Ontario pension plan, scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2017, will require mandatory contributions of 1.9 per cent of pay from employers and a matching amount from workers at any company that does not offer a pension.

Wynne is campaigning with federal Liberal candidates in the Toronto area today, and says she's not worried her attacks on Stephen Harper's Conservatives will make it hard to work with them if they're re-elected.

 

Empty promises. She'll keep it whether he wins or not.

If it weren't for Saint Brendan and the Bering Strait, there would be no opportunity to waste everyone's time with this attention-getting stunt. And I thought the whole point was to give thanks for one's food.

It's a movement in many American jurisdictions, and now people in Ottawa's indigenous community want to reclaim Thanksgiving Day — also known as Columbus Day in the United States — to honour the cultures that existed in the Americas long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

Saint Brendan, we thank thee for the turkey.

Tell everyone something they don't know:

A missile launched from rebel-held Ukraine ripped the cockpit from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Dutch investigators reported Tuesday, adding that some passengers may have remained conscious for another minute or so as the airflow tore off their clothes and objects spinning through the cabin killed people in neighbouring seats.

The investigators said in their final report that the Buk missile that downed the Boeing 777 exploded less than a meter from the cockpit, killing the two pilots and the purser inside in an instant and breaking off the front of the plane. While some of the passengers may have been conscious in the up to 90 seconds it took to hit the ground, they probably were not fully aware of what was happening amid the oxygen-starved, freezing chaos.

The tragedy that killed all 298 people aboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur wouldn't have happened if the airspace of eastern Ukraine had been closed to passenger planes as fighting raged below, the Dutch Safety Board added.

The Russians did it. 

The shelling of the Russian embassy in Syria is terrorism, just like shooting down air craft:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday Moscow considered the shelling of its embassy in Damascus as a terrorist act, RIA news agency reported on Tuesday.

"This is an obvious act of terrorism, probably aimed at intimidating supporters of the fight against terrorism," Lavrov was quoted as saying ahead of talks with the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Tuesday.

Two shells were fired at the Russian embassy in Damascus on Tuesday during a demonstration in support of Moscow although there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to the building.

More frightening than any ghost story is baking gone terribly, terribly wrong:

(source)