Mid-Week Post

Where's my shadow?

Your middle-of-the-week joy...


Waiting for the spring to come...



If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Or the House of Commons.

You wussied out of killing ISIS, is my point:

Conservative MP Jason Kenney went on Twitter to explain why he shouted in question period that he needed an “English to English translation” to understand Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. 

Kenney, a former minister of defence, directed the heckle Monday at Sajjan as he was answering a question about the government’s plan to deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 

Conservative defence critic James Bezan and associate defence critic Pierre Paul-Hus both asked questions on the Liberals’ election promise to withdraw Canada’s fighter jets from the U.S.-led mission in Iraq and Syria. 

​ Bezan accused Sajjan of suggesting that Canada’s allies were to blame for the spread of ISIS, referring to Sajjan’s speech at an event organized by Canada 2020 on Friday. 

“Why are the Liberals lecturing our allies on how to fight terrorism while at the same time befriending [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Iran?” asked Bezan. 

“It’s about consulting our allies and having a dialogue,” replied Sajjan. “These lessons, as I stated, were learned while working with our coalition partners, and that’s the plan that we’ll be putting forward and making sure that we get this right so we don’t make the mistakes of the previous 10 years.“ 

After question period, government House leader Kevin Lamoureux rose in the House of Commons and called for Kenney to apologize for his "inappropriate comment." 

"I’m wondering if the member would do the proper thing and apologize or at the very least explain his comments,” Lamoureux said. 

Kenney refused to apologize for his remarks, saying Sajjan's answer was “totally incoherent," prompting shouts of "shame” from Liberal MPs.

Playing the (insert own identifiable group here) card is a weaselly way of backing out of explaining one's self, Sajjan.




Yes, he is one of the good guys, Australia:

A Canadian who said he fought alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State in Syria has been detained while trying to enter Australia and told he will be deported, his father said on Wednesday.

Another reason to love Rachel Notley:

Alberta’s finance minister quickly moved to quell any suggestion that the province’s New Democrat government will implement a provincial sales tax after a group of academics wrote an open letter to the premier calling for one.

Well, duh:

What, then, explains the premier’s obsession? A line buried in a recent budget perhaps holds a clue. By “encouraging more Ontarians to save through a proposed new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan,” it reads, “new pools of capital would be available for Ontario-based projects such as building roads, bridges and new transit.” It’s not about “helping” retirees: it’s about financing the premier’s infrastructure ambitions. How strange they do not make this point clearer.

A Chinese defector blows the lid off of Beijing's real intentions:

Ling Wancheng, the defector, has been undergoing a debrief by FBI, CIA, and other intelligence officials since last fall at a secret location in the United States, said officials familiar with details of the defection who spoke on condition of anonymity. The defector is said to be a target of covert Chinese agents seeking to capture or kill him.

Among the information disclosed by Ling are details about the procedures used by Chinese leaders on the use of nuclear weapons, such as the steps taken in preparing nuclear forces for attack and release codes for nuclear arms.

Other secrets revealed included details about the Chinese leadership and its facilities, including the compound in Beijing known as Zhongnanhai. That information is said to be valuable for U.S. electronic spies, specifically for cyber intelligence operations targeting the secretive Chinese leadership.

But... but... the videos were doctored!

On the day before David Daleiden turns himself in for allegedly trying to purchase human organs, the investigator has released a new video compilation showing Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to sell fetal organs.

The Center for Medical Progress had released the full video featuring Melissa Farrell, director of research at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC), discussing how PPGC could word its billing to make it appear its activities were within the law.

In a new extract, CMP features Farrell discussing payment terms that may violate laws against trafficking in human organs or tissue.

The undercover investigators catch Farrell describing the terms of a previous contract to provide "specimens" for medical research in exchange for money.

"Based on what I'm reading here, it looks like [the client is] paying for the specimen itself," she said. At the time of the budget she looked at, the consent fee was $25, she said smiling as she mentioned the dollar amount.

"There's margin," she said, adding that her department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here.”

Pig:

Rev. Brent Hawkes, 65, of the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto, has been charged with indecent assault on a male and gross indecency. He was summoned to court in Kentville, Nova Scotia yesterday to face the charges. Local police have refused to provide further details.  

A box of Kleenex could beat  the eternally lacklustre Trudeau in a debate. I'm surprised that Ted Cruz didn't cause the Hair Apparent to literally disintegrate:

While the details are a bit hazy, Trudeau recalls an opponent who came prepared to dominate — and, apparently, Cruz did.

“If I recall correctly it was about an obscure monetary policy element that he had done an awful lot of research on,” Trudeau said in that pre-election interview.

“His poor opposition had no real capacity to rebut. It was a focus very much on winning the debate, rather than on any sort of fair chance to have a good and robust debate. But that’s the way university debating was played at that particular moment.”

(Sidebar: the mating call of a loser, Justin.)

Powered by the yellow sun, y'all...

Also: it's not Trudeau's cash so why should he care? Nothing seems to stop him.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a meeting Wednesday with a formal commitment to fast-track $700 million in previously committed federal infrastructure money to the struggling province.

Notley ruined that province overnight. Why encourage her to ruin it some more?




Personally, I think only God should play God. He's awfully good at it:

Scientists in Britain have been give the go-ahead to edit the genes of human embryos for research purposes, using a technique that some say could eventually be used to create "designer babies". 

When secular commentators have a problem with this, then one should not claim that this is strictly a religious issue.




And now, a cop saves a puppy:

And the history of Japan in nine minutes: