Friday Post

This surplus one can blame on the previous government:

The federal government ran a budgetary surplus of $7.5 billion over the first 11 months of its fiscal year — putting Ottawa's books well ahead of its 2015-16 deficit prediction with one month to go.

To wit:

The Tories posted a $1.9 billion surplus before the election. The spend-happy Liberals (who promised three deficits) will add $113.2 billion to the federal debt, four times what they previously said they would.

Remember: everything is about money:

A judge has dismissed charges against a New Brunswick man charged with illegally importing 14 cases of beer and three bottles of liquor from a Quebec border town, in a ruling defence lawyers say has “huge” ramifications.

Judge Ronald LeBlanc threw out all charges Friday against Gerard Comeau, one of four people facing charges after a police “sting” operation in 2012.

“Essentially, Judge LeBlanc’s decision confirms that what tens of thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of New Brunswickers have been doing for the past 40 years is not a crime,” said Mikael Bernard after the ruling in Campbellton provincial court Friday.

Ontario-based constitutional lawyer Arnold Schwisberg, who was part of Comeau’s defence team, said the ramifications of the victory are national: “A decisive win for all Canadians!” he said in an email.

The New Brunswick Liquor Control Act prohibits anyone in the province from having more than 12 pints of beer that wasn’t purchased through a liquor store in the province.

Comeau’s liquor was seized and he was fined $292.50.

On Friday, Comeau said he was “kind of pleased” with the decision, which came after the judge read his 88-page ruling.

“I was kind of surprised because the decision lasted two hours and 45 minutes, so sometimes it looked good, sometimes it didn’t look good,” he said.

The 62-year-old Tracadie man said the case wasn’t just about dodging a fine.

“The way I look at it, I’m a Canadian citizen,” said Comeau on Friday. “I don’t see any reason why I can’t go buy merchandise anywhere in this country and bring it home. You can buy anything else like cars, clothes, everything. Except for beer.”

Someone wasn't getting taxes from this man. THAT is why he was dragged to court.

One will be waiting a good, long while for that list:

Ontario’s Liberal government is under increasing pressure to release a complete list of private companies that were given billions of dollars in grants and loans.

Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk reported in December that the government had committed $2.36 billion to 374 private business projects between 2004 and May 31, 2015, with $1.87 billion in grants and $489 million in loans.

The province has committed another $118 million in corporate subsidies since the auditor’s report was released.

Lysyk found there was no information on which companies received more than $70 million in funding for 60 different projects.

For months, the Progressive Conservatives have been asking for a list of the companies that received what he calls “corporate welfare,” how much they were given, and what the job targets were.

“It’s time the government clears the air on these grants and comes clean to Ontario taxpayers,” said PC economic development critic Monte McNaughton.

Also:

Things just got a whole lot brighter in Canada for the dismal electric-car business. Word has leaked that the country’s largest province is preparing to help buy a plug-in vehicle or hybrid for millions of families across the province — or will at least force those families to buy one. The details of how Ontarians are getting all those green vehicles weren’t clear in the confidential draft version of the Wynne Liberals’ “Climate Change Action Plan” leaked to The Globe and Mail on Wednesday. But the goals are crystal clear: A promise to get 1.7 million low-emission cars on the roads in the next eight years, and pull seven million gas-powered cars off in the next 14.

And:

The situation is sadly reflective of the government’s cynical approach to the issue. In negotiations with other unionized public employees it has bent over backwards to appear co-operative, spending millions on secret payments to cover union bargaining costs for teachers while supposedly seeking “tough” contracts. Disputes with police unions are routinely sent to binding arbitration despite municipal complaints that the process inevitably drives up salaries. Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government seems to reserve its enmity only for a profession that requires years of specialized, and expensive, training but lacks a union to pound tables and make extravagant strike threats.

Big unions win big elections.

Wagging fingers are confused with solid, non-partisan action.

Oh, dear:

Harper had nothing to gain from criminal charges being laid against Duffy. The decision to do so was made by the RCMP and Crown counsel in the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. Anyone who thinks the Conservative prime minister had the ability to manipulate an Ontario ministry that has been in Liberal hands for 13 years is kidding themselves. Staley says he suspected from the start that charges related to Nigel Wright’s $90,000 payment to Duffy would never stick, and warned Harper as much. In other words, Harper knew the charges were probably a losing proposition from the get-go.

Nonetheless, Harper gave explicit instructions that the RCMP should receive full assistance in its investigation. This included access to sensitive documents and emails, and help in arranging any interviews the police requested. Harper also waived lawyer/client privilege to ensure all relevant material was available to investigators. This was a great benefit to Duffy’s defence, and contained great risk for Harper, but he insisted on it anyway. As Staley notes, “it was the right thing to do and was an unequivocal act of integrity and accountability by Mr. Harper.”

His decisions in this regard almost certainly hurt his own interests. Harper couldn’t have spent almost a decade in power if he lacked the political skills to recognize he was handing opponents material to use against him. As Staley writes: “Contrary to the views expressed by some commentators, no one could believe that my client’s interests were served by criminal charges against Mr. Duffy that were certain to play out through the 2015 federal election.”

But... but... Duffy and Harper...!

It was part of the UN. It is no loss:

A Canadian-supported hospital in Syria was destroyed Friday in what an aid agency said was a deliberate air strike that has forced other hospitals in the area to shut down. ...

While Canadian aid agencies and hospitals provide medical supplies, the centre is funded by the French government and the United Nations.

Oh, my God! Did you forget Zahra Kazemi?!

The mother of four Canadian kids abducted and taken to Iran wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to back up his talk of concern for her children with some action.

North Korea sentenced an American citizen to ten years in prison:

North Korea on Friday sentenced a U.S. citizen of Korean heritage to 10 years in prison with hard labour after convicting him of espionage and subversion, the second American it has put behind bars this year.

Kim Dong Chul was sentenced after a brief trial in Pyongyang by North Korea's Supreme Court, which found him guilty of espionage and subversion under Articles 60 and 64 of the North's criminal code.

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies in an attempt to overthrow its government. Outsiders say North Korea seeks to use its U.S. detainees to wring concessions from Washington.

It's time to put a bounty on Kim Fatty's head. 

Also:

North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch two suspected powerful intermediate-range missiles on Thursday, South Korean defense officials said, bringing the number of apparent failures in recent weeks to three.

An apocalypse cannot happen soon enough:

Forget maternity, this woman’s all about MEternity, arguing that women who intend to stay child-free deserve the same perks as their pregnant colleagues.

Meghann Foye became fed up with her co-workers heading off on maternity leave, and decided she wanted a bit of a career break herself.

Dubbing it “meternity” leave, Meghann quit her job as a magazine editor aged 31 to spend 18-months travelling and working on her aptly-named novel, Meternity - about a woman who fakes her pregnancy.

 

New parents aren't granted leave for a holiday. They have a miniature crying and pooping machine to mind. They have no week-ends off whereas selfish people like the half-wit writer have every week-end off. Lots of "me-ternity". 

Baffled that a good deal of people find mocking Alzheimer's Disease suffers distasteful, Will Ferrell has finally decided to drop out of a project making fun of late US president Ronald Reagan's struggle with the disease:

Will Ferrell has backed out of a planned comedy that depicted Ronald Reagan’s dementia.

The comedian was in talks to play the former president in a political satire that dealt with Reagan’s Alzheimer’s condition, but will no longer be moving forward with the project amid the ensuing controversy.

Hollywood waits for political winds to blow before it makes a decision on what is beyond the pale.

What a vile industry. 

Once again, dogs prove what great humans they are:

A nine-year-old girl lost in the bush overnight returned home safe and sound thanks to the warmth and protection of her three pet dogs.

“When I started asking her about her night, she indicated that she was there with her three dogs, and that when she laid down all the dogs huddled around her and kept her warm,” said Sgt. Barry Larocque with the Elk Point RCMP, who called this a “heartwarming” end to what was a very scary situation.

“I have no doubt that those dogs kept her safe from maybe some animals that might have been in the area, in addition to laying down beside her, keeping her warm. It shows how dogs can be very loyal to their owners and companions.”

$113.2 billion

$113.2 billion

So -  one could say that it was a three dog night?


Ladies and gentlemen, Three Dog Night.

Mid-Week Mellow

Time to relax...


Could there be a bigger soccer fan than this dog?

I often ask myself: what would Jesus drink?

In Israel, one brewery decided to recreate the beer that Jesus would have sipped, using a 2000-year-old wheat strain identified by geneticists at Tel Aviv University. Herzl Beer, a Jerusalem-based brewery, brewed five gallons of what they called the “biblical” beer for six months as an experiment. 

Let's hear it for the holy spirit!

An historian from Cambridge University and a musician have revived music that has not been heard in centuries. Have a listen:

The beauty of hummingbirds as caught on Instagram:

 

Mid-Week Post

Damn muting qualities of terry cloth...


Several Canadians have joined ISIS' propaganda ranks (not that this is news):

The propaganda wing of ISIL, known for its gory videos and exploitation of social media, has recruited several Canadians into its ranks, a former senior counter-terrorism official told a security conference Wednesday.

Andy Ellis, who recently retired from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, where he was Assistant Director of Operations, said not all of the roughly 100 Canadians who have converged in the region are active in combat operations.

“Many of the Canadians, for example, found their way into the propaganda wing of Daesh,” the 30-year-veteran of CSIS said, using another name from ISIL, in a speech at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto.

“I would argue that would be equally as dangerous, maybe more, than someone who is joining the military wing. A lot of these young Western adherents to Daesh are put on the frontlines and die very quickly. Someone who is working in the propaganda wing can hurt us over and over and over again.”

 
But... but... shared values and if we kill them, they win!



Also:

For one thing, in recent years, more than $200 million in ransom payments have poured into the treasuries of al-Qaida, the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant (ISIL) and their various offshoots and allied terror fronts around the world, including the ragtag, kidnap-happy Abu Sayyaf group that beheaded Ridsdel. Most of that revenue has come from Western governments, including Canada.

In 2011, leaked U.S. State Department cables revealed that despite former prime minister Stephen Harper’s denials, money changed hands in the release of two former Foreign Affairs diplomats, Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, who were kidnapped in 2009 and held for five months by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. Roughly $1.1 million was paid to free the pair in a complex set of arrangements involving European embassies and African go-betweens. The bargain enraged American and African diplomats, who complained the deal would encourage more kidnappings and boost al-Qaida’s reputation and revenues.

Trudeau’s remarks also appeared to directly contradict what Gar Pardy, the former head of consular services at the Department of Foreign Affairs (now Global Affairs Canada), told the Ottawa Citizen’s Lee Berthiaume the day before: that all this talk about never negotiating with terrorist kidnappers is, well, it’s just something governments say. “But the simple rule is: you always pay,” Pardy said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Following Trudeau’s unequivocal we-don’t-pay-ransom remarks, Pardy appeared on CBC’s Power and Politic and told host Terry Miliewski that ransom had been paid in more than 100 hostage cases during his tenure with consular services, and that 68-year-old John Ridsdel is the first Canadian hostage to be killed by his captors.

Well, so much for the 'not giving in' sentiment.



And:

An overwhelming majority of Muslim Canadians have a strong attachment to their country and feel that Canada is heading in the right direction, according to a new survey.

Is that so?

What mosque will host the "Jewish-Islamic Friendship Day"?

Look at those values!

Speaking of Jew-hating douchebags:

The Nazi-era and Adolf Hitler’s devastating rule are among the most extensively researched themes in German historiography. Now a new book, published this week in Berlin, has traced the whereabouts of the world’s most infamous dictator from his birth in 1889 until his death in 1945.

In a staggering 2,432 pages, “Hitler — The Itinerary. Whereabouts and Journeys from 1889 to 1945,” paints the picture of a highly mobile politician, who seemed to be everywhere at once, didn’t keep regular office hours and, in fact, seemed to shun offices most of the time. It also portrays Hitler, to some extent, as a regular person who liked to eat bread soup (a local Weimar specialty), got haircuts and took his future wife, Eva Braun, out to the opera. And that’s exactly the problem for some.

“There’s a certain danger to overemphasize Hitler’s human side and to thereby make him more relatable,” says Arnd Bauerkämper, historian at the Free University Berlin, adding he still appreciates the book as a work of reference.

 
One can characterise Hitler as the nice neighbour next door until one is blue in the face. The bigger problem is moral relativism. If there is no absolute good or evil, if such quandaries are a matter of opinion at the moment, what difference does it make what colours one paints the tyrant?





Suspect in French attacks is "falling apart", says his lawyer:

Frank Berton, who announced before the transfer was disclosed Wednesday that he would represent Abdeslam, described his client as a young man “falling apart” and ready to co-operate.

Then the fifty hour long Barbra Streisand marathon will not be needed.




This pretentious twaddle on why aboriginals feel reluctant to leave the ever-dilapidated surroundings of Attawapiskat manages to be both self-indulgent and self-defeating at the same time. The residents of Attawapiskat have two choices (as so many others on this globe have had, as well): they can fix the mess that they are in or leave. If neither choice is palatable, then they can stop complaining. They've made their bed. If leaving for better climes is presumptuously white (despite oodles of Asians and Africans having left their decrepit and war-torn nations), then what does it say about their refusal to survive in even their supposed native stomping grounds?

And don't assume that leaving is easy for anyone. There are songs of Irish immigrants lamenting their emigration. Like, tons of them.

Damn their pasty hides for surviving!

The bones of my ancestors aren’t buried beneath my feet. My culture and language wasn’t shaped by the land and climate around me. I’ve never had to fight to defend this soil — and I’ve never even considered that it could be taken away. 

I, like many non-indigenous Canadians, will probably never fully appreciate why someone would be reluctant to desert their family, friends and homeland in order to seek prosperity.

Like fun he has:

"I have been crystal clear for years now on pipelines. One of the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian prime minister — and this goes back centuries, from grain on railroads to fish and fur — is to get Canadian resources to international markets," Trudeau said.

Yes, about that, Justin:

“The government is actually injecting more uncertainty into the process and undermining the credibility of the regulatory institutions charged with that responsibility. There is a growing risk that, due to protracted delays, mounting opposition, escalating costs and the lack of distinct political support, essential pipeline projects may die stillborn — just like the ill-fated Mackenzie pipeline — with severe damage to a vital sector of the economy that is already reeling from depressed prices.”

You don't say:

Anonymous hook-ups arranged on social media are the major reason for a "dramatic" spike in sexually transmitted infections in the province, Alberta health officials say.

And who imposes taxes?

Women in Canada pay a "pink tax" premium of more than 40 per cent over what men pay when it comes to personal care products, according to a recent study.

In case one forgot:

Taxes are compulsory payments by individuals and corporations to government. They are levied to finance government services, redistribute income, and influence the behaviour of consumers and investors.

I don't know, Ted. The last time someone had a woman as a vice-presidential candidate, people went all emotionally retarded:

Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz has tapped former technology executive Carly Fiorina to serve as his running mate.

She draws her power from the rays of the yellow sun.

So, Obama, when the situation on the Korean Peninsula finally hits a critical point, at what golf course will you be?

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday said his country has the military means to destroy North Korea but it will not do so due to the humanitarian cost and the impact on neighbor South Korea.

Obama was interviewed by CBS presenter Charlie Rose during a trip to Germany. Obama said North Korea is "erratic enough" and the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, is "irresponsible enough that we don't want them getting close."

"We could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals… But aside from the humanitarian costs of that, they are right next door to our vital ally," South Korea, he added.

More regarding the Korean Peninsula:


North Korean authorities are shutting off the few avenues of escape of defectors:

According to a report by the Korea Institute for National Unification on Tuesday, the regime has sent people caught trying to flee for the first time directly to labor camps for three to five years since 2014. Until 2013, the regime only sent would-be defectors to labor camps for about six months.

The report is based on interviews with 186 North Korean defectors who arrived here from late 2014 to 2015.

Defectors account for 70 percent of the inmates in labor camps in South Pyongan and North Hamgyong Province.

In order to prevent people from escaping, the regime has tightened border controls and crackdowns on mobile phone use. In the border town Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, the regime has announced it has planted landmines along the Duman River.

Sixty percent of North Korean defectors feel that they are "low class":

Six out of every 10 North Korean defectors in South Korea feel they are part of the lower classes, according to a study. 

The Unification Ministry and Korea Hana Foundation surveyed 2,444 defectors last year, and 61.4 percent said they consider themselves low class, 35.8 percent saw themselves in the middle class and only one percent felt they were part of the upper class.

This contrasts with South Korean society at large, where according to Statistics Korea 53 percent believe they are low class, 44.6 percent middle class and 2.4 percent upper class.

Thirteen North Korean defectors escaped while their supervisor was away in Beijing:

Thirteen North Koreans who defected from a restaurant in China apparently fled while their supervisor was away in Beijing. 

Other staff from the same restaurant have apparently been taken to a safe house and are waiting to head to South Korea.

Restaurant staff from the North who are stationed overseas are watched over by state officials, managers and other agents often disguised as regular workers. 

A source said the 13 succeeded in their daredevil escape because all staff worked together while the supervisor had left town on business.

 
See where time off gets you! 


A Russian filmmaker takes secret footage and further exposes North Korea's propaganda machine:

"Under the Sun" by Russian director Vitaly Mansky opens in theaters here on Wednesday to shine an unprecedented light on the North Korean propaganda machine.

"I wanted to make a film about North Korea, but there's no real life in the way that we consider," Mansky told the Chosun Ilbo in Seoul on Tuesday. "There is just the creating of an image of the myth of a real life. So we made a film about fake reality." ...

Mansky swiftly changed focus to the propaganda machine itself, surreptitiously recording every staged shot as it was being set up.

He was born in the Soviet Union. "I wanted to make a film in North Korea because of my curiosity about Russia's past," he said. "But I encountered scenes that were completely different than what I expected. If there's anyone who believes North Korea is a good place to live in, I would like to tell him to try living there."

The film makers had no say in the locations and interview subjects, and any answers were scripted by North Korean minders. Mansky and his film crew were under constant surveillance by North Korean authorities and had to submit each day's footage to the censors.

But North Korea's extreme isolation from the outside world ended up helping the director, because authorities were unfamiliar with digital cameras and did not know they were being constantly filmed.

Mansky submitted only 30 percent of his footage to the censors. Asked how he managed to smuggle out the rest, he declined to elaborate.

Late last year, North Korea wrote to the Russian Foreign Ministry demanding a ban on "Under the Sun" at the Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia and called for the film makers to be punished.

Manksy said North Korean authorities sent three more letters to the Russian government afterwards and asked him to come to Pyongyang "for an important talk," But he told them he was not dumb enough.

But he still wants to show the film in North Korea one day.  

North Korean workers in Kuwait rebel against unpaid wages:

The workers reportedly shouted out at the foreman and demanded their back pay instead, and some tried to assault him. According to sources, the state security agents at the site were able to stop the workers from lynching the foreman, but North Korea’s Ambassador to Kuwait So Chang-sik was apparently furious at the North Korea construction firm for not being able to contain them. - See more at: http://freekorea.us/2016/04/26/report-100-north-korean-workers-in-kuwait-protest-unpaid-wages/#sthash.hUEo6Wuq.dpuf

The workers reportedly shouted out at the foreman and demanded their back pay instead, and some tried to assault him. According to sources, the state security agents at the site were able to stop the workers from lynching the foreman, but North Korea’s Ambassador to Kuwait So Chang-sik was apparently furious at the North Korea construction firm for not being able to contain them.

 

(Kamsahamnida)




And I thought butter was bad for you:

For years, butter – chock-full of fat and calories – was the Donald Trump of the food pyramid: regulated to the fringes, inexplicably popular in the South and a trigger for old, white guys at risk for heart attacks. Shunned by the nutrition establishment, butter was rejected in favour of “waist-friendly” alternatives like margarine and faux butter spreads.

But now, those who shelved butter have to eat their words (and saturated fat). Suddenly, hipsters are putting butter in their coffee, grocery stores can barely keep up with butter demand and Kourtney Kardashian drinks clarified butter for breakfast. One of the most vilified foods in recent history is staging a major comeback as a health food valued for its ‘realness’ and lack of additives.

“Not all fats are created equal. You have to think about the type of fats that you’re eating,” says Catherine Sugrue, Ottawa-based holistic nutritionist, CNP. “The right kinds of fats to boost your metabolism, help your brain, your nervous system and your joints.”

Don't listen to any of it. Butter is good. Butter brings flavour. Reduce your intake if you're worried about the fat.

How could this little guy be bad for you?

(Insert Own Title Here)

 

After the murder of John Ridsdel by Islamists in the Philippines (the guys who say they are doing all of this for Allah), PM Trulander claims he is "outraged" and will not pay ransom to terrorists:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making it clear that Canada “does not and will not” pay ransom to terrorists.

Trudeau is responding to more questions about the death of Canadian John Ridsdel, who was killed Monday by Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines after more than six months of captivity.

The prime minister says ransom payments are a key source of funding for terrorist groups like Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim insurgent group.

He says they also endanger the lives of the millions of Canadians who live, work and travel in various parts of the globe.

B!#ch, please.


From the start, Trudeau has always been supportive of Islamist endeavours and reluctant to criticise Islamism.

Many people call this his conversion:

He did not hide the fact that he visited a mosque that had known ties to al Qaeda.

Anything for a vote, eh?

He refused to call the mutilation and subjugation of women "barbaric" and attacked the use of the word in a guide for new immigrants.

After the terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon, when asked how one should respond to such an attack, he sighed heavily and pondered whether finding the "root causes" was the way to go:

In an interview with the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge that aired Tuesday night, Trudeau was asked how he would have responded to the attacks that killed three people and left about 170 injured.

Trudeau said he would offer the American material support “and at the same time, over the coming days, we have to look at the root causes.”

“Now, we don’t know now if it was terrorism or a single crazy or a domestic issue or a foreign issue,” he said. “But there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded. Completely at war with innocents. At war with a society. And our approach has to be, where do those tensions come from? ..."

 

He made a crude joke regarding Canada's involvement in the fight against ISIS, offered parkas to forcibly exiled and raped Yazidis and Iraqi Christians and called their prioritisation as refugees "disgusting".

When he was finally and inexplicably elected as prime minister, one of his first actions was to withdraw Canada from the fight against ISIS.

Trudeau is no more outraged or adamant in fighting this scourge than one is have one of those deadly Australian spiders as pets.

Tremble with fear...

He offers lip service.

That's what failed substitute drama teachers like him do.

Given his past behaviour, empty promises and willing electorate, one wonders why Trudeau even bothers.



Also: the group Trudeau ran from is so cash-strapped that they can only afford to pay their rapists fighters $50 a month (but slightly more if they have their own sex slaves):

The base salary offered to the worker named al-Jiburi was a pittance, just $50 a month. But even the cash-challenged Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) knew it had to do more to sustain the loyalty of a man with nine mouths to feed.

A crinkled wage voucher breaks it down by family member: For each of his two wives, al-Jiburi would receive an extra $50. For each of his six children under age 15, he would get another $35. Any “female captive” — sex slave — would entitle him to an additional $50. For al-Jiburi, described in the document as a service worker for the terrorist group, the monthly total came to $360, payable in U.S. greenbacks.

Salary details and other minutiae of life in the Islamic State are contained in a series of unusual documents released on Friday by a scholarly journal. The records, all official documents from inside the group’s self-declared caliphate, collectively reinforce the prevailing impression of an organization under strain, struggling to compensate its fighters and workers and forced to ration electricity, fuel and other resources.

In the rush to broom anything associated with Harper, unelected judges from British Columbia forget that there were already mandatory (and lenient sentences) for dealing drugs. The mandatory year in prison for dealing dealing drugs to minors or in an area where minors frequent is soft in retrospect:

The former Conservative government's tough-on-crime agenda has suffered another blow as British Columbia's highest court strikes down two more mandatory-minimum sentencing laws, ruling them unconstitutional.

On Monday, the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned compulsory two-year minimum sentences for drug trafficking convictions that involve someone under the age of 18 or that occur in a public place frequented by youth.

A unanimous decision from the three-person panel says a minimum sentence of two years in such instances may be at times "grossly disproportionate" to the crime committed, and therefore amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

You knew what you were doing during the last election, Albertans:

Moody's Investor Service announced Monday it has downgraded Alberta's long-term debt rating to double-A1 from triple-A and has given it a negative outlook.

It's the second downgrade from a rating service since the province released its budget on April 14 that included removal of its debt ceiling and a forecast of $58 billion in debt by 2019.

Moody's says the downgrade "reflects the province's growing and unconstrained debt burden, extended timeframe back to balance, weakened liquidity, and risks surrounding the success of the province's medium-term fiscal plan given the outlook for subdued growth."

It also says the province forecasts oil prices to be higher than what Moody's is predicting.

Also:

The Poloz analysis had sailed into the archives of history until the other day when economist Ted Carmichael noted, among other things, that it flies in the face of previous theory and experience. In a posting on his blog ...  Carmichael recalls the work of Nobel economist Robert Mundell, who in 1963 concluded that Canada — with a floating dollar and open economy – is in no position to boost long-term growth with more government spending.

Mundell said that increased government deficit spending crowds out private sector investors, boosts interest rates and drives up the dollar, thereby offsetting the alleged benefits of government investment. “Fiscal policy thus completely loses its force as a domestic stabilizer when the exchange rate is allowed to fluctuate and the money supply is held constant.”

Even Bank of Canada research supports Mundell’s theories. Worst of all, as Carmichael argues, Canada is not in a recession. At best the impact of government spending — on green public sector projects, for example — will shift investment away from likely more productive projects such as pipelines that are stalled by regulation. The result will be more government debt and, likely, no gains in productivity or growth.

One wonders, as does Carmichael, how an allegedly independent Bank of Canada suddenly came to be a cheerleader for government deficit spending that could send Canada into a new era of unmanageable debt.

The answer may be found in the increasingly coordinated storylines flowing from the international institutions that seem to be clamouring for a new global round of fiscal stimulus. At the International Monetary Fund, the new edition of its fiscal monitor — titled Acting Now, Acting Together — calls for concerted fiscal action to stimulate a global economy it says is growing too slowly.  “With policy rates near zero … fiscal policy should stand ready to support demand and bolster monetary policy where needed and where fiscal space is available.”

At the same time, however, the IMF said “fiscal risks are rising almost everywhere.” In other words, every other country is going broke and Canada is being asked to stand alone and run up debt because it is not as badly in debt as others.

According to the Mundell analysis, the new debt will do nothing to boost the Canadian economy and it certainly will have no impact on the world economy.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump cares not if American liberals leave for Canada:

Donald Trump has a message for some of the celebrities musing about leaving for Canada if he's elected president: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

The billionaire candidate expressed delight Tuesday when asked about the phenomenon of famous Americans talking about becoming political exiles if he's elected.

He said he'd be glad to make it a reality.

"Well, now I have to get elected," Trump told the morning show Fox and Friends.

"I'll be doing a great service to our country. I have to (win). Now, it's much more important. In fact, I'll immediately get off this call and start campaigning right now."

 

I hate to spoil this for you, Donald, but they won't leave. They'll stick around for Cruz's presidency.

 

But... but... wedding cakes!

The Bangladeshi branch of al-Qaida claimed responsibility Tuesday for the killing of a gay rights activist and his friend, undermining the prime minister’s insistence just hours earlier that her political opponents were to blame for the attack and for a rising tide of violence against secular activists and writers.

Also: as there will never be a country in a million years called "Gayistan", it's not like one should treat the torching of this piece of cloth with the same gravity they would the Canadian flag:

A charge of mischief under $5,000 has been laid following the burning of a rainbow Pride flag at the University of British Columbia.

Court documents show Brooklyn Marie Fink was charged last Monday in connection with the Feb. 6 incident at the Point Grey campus.

Fink is slated to appear in provincial court in Richmond on Tuesday.

The flag burning sparked outrage in February, during the university’s annual OUTweek celebrating gender and sexual diversity.

University officials condemned the vandalism as an act of hate violating the school’s deeply held values of equity, inclusion and respect.

Concern for participants’ safety prompted OUTweek organizers to cancel a march just days after the burning, but other events went ahead as planned and no further violence occurred.

South Korea warns of North Korea's further nuclear testing:

South Korea's president said Tuesday that North Korea has almost completed preparations for a fifth nuclear test, and the country has reportedly placed a new midrange missile on standby for an impending launch.

North Korea said two days ago it had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in a continuation of its weapons tests during ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills. Seoul officials said they could not confirm whether Saturday's test-firing was a success.

Meeting with senior South Korean journalists, President Park Geun-hye said South Korea believes North Korea can conduct a nuclear test anytime it decides to do so. She didn't elaborate on why South Korea made such an assessment.

Other South Korean officials have made similar recent comments without elaborating amid media reports of increased activity at the country's main nuclear test site. Park said last week there were signs North Korea was preparing for a new nuclear test.

One would think that their corrupt wealthy dads would buy them some manners:

Police in southern China have detained three airline passengers after they were caught on video slapping, verbally abusing and throwing food at ground staff in anger over a delayed flight, state media reported Tuesday.

And now, over seventy years later, film from the Second World War has been developed.

Sunday Post

For a quiet Sunday afternoon...



Eight murders in Ohio:

At least eight people were killed in “execution-style” shootings in southern Ohio on Friday, authorities said. As many as four young children were found alive at multiple scenes of the shooting, officials added.

What is wrong with people?




After North Korea fired a submarine-launched missile off of its east coast  (though an apparently botched test, it won't be long before someone gets it right; has anyone forgotten the bombardment of Yeongpyeong Island?), it now says it will halt nuclear tests if the US stops drills:

North Korea is ready to halt its nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea, the North Korean foreign minister told The Associated Press in an interview in which he also warned that his country won't be cowed by international sanctions.

Extortion, thy name is North Korea.


Also:

A former North Korean female military officer says male superiors raped all the women in her squad.

In an interview with a media outlet, North Korean defector Lee So-yeon, 41, said 20 male officers sexually harassed 100 lower-ranking female soldiers in the squad.

"Those who got pregnant were sent to a hospital in the city of Haeju, South Hwanghae Province, the only hospital in the vicinity of the military base," Lee said, according to the report. "Medical personnel in the hospital who found out about the incident divulged the fact after two years."

Rape targeting female soldiers is frequent at North Korean military bases and those responsible are rarely punished, she said. Victims are often dishonorably discharged from the military.

"Authorities, aware of time and money invested in nurturing high-ranking male officers, are reluctant to punish them, although they are responsible for the crime," Lee said.

Another set of cruelties to add to the widespread abuse of women in North Korea.

I'm sure the "mattress" crowd will be all over this.


(Kamsahamnida)




The Liberal government wants to bolster a waning industry:

Canada's Liberal government is prepared to overhaul the country's laws governing broadcasting, media and cultural industries to support local content, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly told the Globe and Mail in a report on Saturday, announcing a new policy direction in what she called a broken system.

Canada's broadcast regulator has long had requirements for networks to carry certain amounts of local content. But it cut that quota drastically last year under the Conservative government, after the industry was shaken up by the arrivals of online media services such as the streaming site Netflix.

Joly told the Globe she was willing to change laws such as the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act and modify the mandates of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) broadcast regulator and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp public media organization. She added the government would also create new laws or agencies, as needed.

Joly's Canadian Heritage federal department on Saturday announced a public consultation on how to support and promote Canadian content in the current digital climate. The department said in a statement it has made available a pre-consultation questionnaire on media consumption habits and expectations that will be open until May 20. The department said Joly will lead the next phase, which will begin in the summer, though it did not give further details.

 
I'm waiting for any politician to have the wontons to privatise the CBC and to shut down the CRTC.

Now that would revolutionise things.




It's only money!

Taxpayers forked out almost $150,000 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his 30 cabinet ministers to hole up for several days at a swanky, seaside New Brunswick resort where they pondered weighty matters of state.

And now they're poised to do it again, this time at a mountain resort in Kananaskis Country, 85 kilometres west of Calgary.

Speaking of money:

The gap is growing between the amount of money First Nations children receive for basic services compared to other Canadians, according to documents filed at an inquest into First Nations student deaths in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Spending information from the Department of Indigenous Affairs shows the impact of the two-per-cent cap on annual increases to First Nations budgets, put in place in 1996 by the previous Liberal government.

The document compares and tracks funding for First Nations people versus other Canadians on a per-person and inflation-adjusted basis dating back to 1994. It shows that funding for First Nations dropped by almost 30 per cent during that time, while funding for other Canadians rose during the same period.

"If we allow things to continue as they are, then we as a people are accepting racial discrimination against children as a fiscal restraint measure," said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

Justin Trudeau said his government will lift the two-per-cent cap on funding, but it's not clear when First Nations budgets will be adjusted.

 
It's not discrimination when band chiefs are clearly corrupt and fat off of the taxpayer's dime.

Not that I expect Trudeau to hop to it. He already has aboriginal votes. Anything else would be as meaningless as his refusal to call the murder of Christians and Yazidis genocide.




In May, the territory of Nunavut will hold a plebiscite on private land ownership:

Nunavut is considering changing one of the most basic facts of economic life for its households and businesses by allowing them to buy the land their homes and buildings sit on.

On May 9, the territory will hold a binding plebiscite on whether municipalities should be able to release land for fee-simple ownership of the kind almost all Canadians in non-aboriginal communities take for granted.

Advocates say allowing people to buy instead of taking out long-term leases will make it simpler and cheaper for Inuit to buy homes and bring more money into a housing market that desperately needs more construction. Others say the government hasn't done its homework on the issue and fear private land ownership won't benefit the average Inuk.

"Looking across Nunavut, I do not see a lot of Inuit being positioned to take benefits from the sale of land," said Cathy Towtongie of the land claim group Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which opposes private ownership.

"I do see a lot of non-Inuit that have the capacity, the capability and the dollars to buy land."

The plebiscite asks all Nunavut voters whether municipalities should have the power to release land they now hold for private sale. Most Nunavut land tenure is currently regulated by long-term leases.

It's not like these guys are finding cures for diseases:

Oklahoma is just a signature away from revoking the licenses of most doctors who perform abortions.

This guy:

An Australian politician has set fire to a river to draw attention to methane gas he says is seeping into the water due to fracking, with the dramatic video attracting more than two millions views.

Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham used a kitchen lighter to ignite bubbles of methane in the Condamine River in Queensland, about 220 kilometres (140 miles) west of Brisbane.

The video shows him jumping back in surprise, using an expletive as flames shoot up around the dinghy.

"Unbelievable. A river on fire. Don't let it burn the boat," Buckingham, from New South Wales, said in the footage posted on Facebook on Friday evening, which has been viewed more than two million times.

"Unbelievable, the most incredible thing I've seen. A tragedy in the Murray-Darling Basin (river system)," he said, blaming it on nearby coal-seam gas mining, or fracking.

Australia is a major gas exporter, but the controversial fracking industry has faced a public backlash in some parts of the country over fears about the environmental impact.

Where has one seen this before?

Fox’s new film, Gasland Part II, features a powerful scene showing a Texas landowner lighting the contents of a garden hose on fire. The incident is presented as evidence of water contamination from a nearby hydraulic fracturing operation.

According to a Texas court, the scene was actually a hoax devised by a Texas environmental activist engaged in a prolonged battle with a local gas company to falsely inflate the supposed dangers of the oil and gas extraction technique, also known as fracking. ...


Gasland Part II, a sequel to Fox’s Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary Gasland, will premiere on HBO on Monday night.

Like the first Gasland, which showed a Colorado landowner setting his tap water on fire, the sequel appears to falsely inflate the dangers of hydraulic fracturing to local groundwater supplies.

The iconic flaming faucet scene from the first Gasland was criticized as misleading by some who noted that area residents had reported flammable tap water for decades. When asked why he did not inform viewers of that fact, Fox said he didn’t think it was relevant.

Now the Condamine River and related waterways are diverse in their makeup and use. Any leaks of methane into the river were due possibly to floods and deemed not a major risk to people or the environment according to a Queensland governmental investigation. Indeed, the presence of methane can be quite overblown.

This seems like a lot of hot gas.

(See what I did there?)



And now, an owl uses a mushroom as an umbrella.