Sunday Post

 Wrapping up this pleasant Sunday....


 But... but... I thought electoral reform was in the hands of people who know better:

Heads up, average (or otherwise) Canadian voter: Have you spent your summer stubbornly tuning out earnest entreaties from your local MP and/or other aggressively civic-minded democratic do-gooders to spend an evening poking through the innards of the federal electoral system in search of a fairer, more representative alternative?

More specifically, have you been holding out for the opportunity to share your views on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledge to scrap First Past The Post the old-fashioned way: by marking an X in the appropriate box on a ballot?

If so, you can take tentative comfort in the fact that, with very few exceptions, virtually every expert witness to testify before the House committee charged with studying the issue seems to agree — albeit reluctantly, in some cases, and only when pressed, with dramatically varying degrees of enthusiasm — that any attempt to change the vote-counting formula without widespread public support would be spectacularly ill-advised and politically risky, although almost certainly not actively unconstitutional.

I doubt that this will stop the Liberals from trying to pull a fast one on the voter.

 




Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne warns that scrapping the controversial sex education curriculum she co-developed with a convicted child pornographer and for which she attacked people who objected to it is a bad idea:

In a letter distributed earlier week, with days to go before a byelection in the riding of Scarborough-Rouge River, Brown wrote that "a PC government would scrap the controversial changes to sex-ed introduced by Premier [Kathleen] Wynne and develop a new curriculum after thoughtful and full consultation with parents."

Speaking to CBC News from the riding Saturday, Wynne says scrapping the curriculum, which was updated last year, "would put kids at risk."

Ahem: 

In August 2012, Mr. Levin initiated a chat with J.B. asking her about the ages of her children. She replied that she had 2 daughters aged 8 and 14. He then engaged in sexualized conversation about the girls, urging the mother to engage in sexual touching. In the same discussion, he claimed that he sexually abused his own daughters and other children when they were as young as 12 years old and encouraged J.B. to do the same. (Here the Crown noted that there was no additional evidence that Mr. Levin sexually abused his daughters or other children.)

Who put kids at risk again, Kathleen?




PM Trulander wants to reset relations with China.


Meanwhile:

According to multiple sources in China close to North Korean affairs, Chinese public announcements on "enhanced border security measures" are ubiquitous in border regions, promising up to 1,000 RMB for those who report illegal border crossings, residence, and employment of North Koreans. Those who personally capture and hand over North Koreans to the Chinese authorities stand to receive 2,000 RMB for their efforts. 

They have also outlined stronger punishments for local residents who enter verbal agreements with North Koreans to help them cross the river or smuggle goods, threatening fines of up to 3,000 RMB for transgressors. Moreover, Chinese border guards have been ordered to shoot North Korean defectors caught illegally entering the country if they resist arrest.

The measures have far-reaching implications. Chinese residents in the border region increasingly shy away from not only helping defectors but also engaging in illegal trade with the North. “Some people are even reporting on others if they know them to be involved in these forbidden activities,” an additional source in North Hamgyong Province.

 

Trudeau's favourite country is killing North Korean refugees.

 

 

Also:

 

Amid the Great Disturbance In The Force that is the North Korean diplomatic corps this week, let’s not forget the 12 brave young North Korean women who defied a dictator, risked their lives — and, it must be said, the safety of their families — and made a break for freedom.  

 

Yonhap reports that the women have now left the care of the National Intelligence Service and “resettled” in undisclosed locations throughout South Korea.  

A child is taken off of life support at the hospital where he was being treated:

On Thursday afternoon, 2-year-old Israel Stinson was removed from a breathing ventilator at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles after a judge upheld the hospital's decision to remove life support, according to the Los Angeles Times. Now, the toddler's parents, Jonee Fonseca and Nathaniel Stinson, are left "devastated," as expressed by Alexandra Snyder, an attorney with the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life group representing Israel's family pro bono. 

For all the talk of individual rights, this all boils down to killing off patients. That's why I refuse to listen to hard case rhetoric or impassioned libertarian blather. No one really means it.




Quelle surprise:

Look closer, especially at the photo taken before the police show up.

One shows the woman seemingly sleeping, alone, lying directly on the sand.

She has no book, no sun cream, no beach bag. Her clothes are not suited to swimming.

Another shows her sitting quietly, looking around, as if waiting for the police to come. Hoping for the police to come?

As one French Muslim journalist, Ahmed Meguini, tweeted under the picture: “It’s 35C! Off to the beach for a nap in the sun in my ski outfit, like, totally normally.”

The pictures — sold worldwide by an agency — are not credited. They are, however, professionally shot.

The photographer was there long before the incident.

Banning the burqa - the sign of creeping Sharia - is picking one's battles, I suppose, but the French should move on to banning terrorism.




Putin's Western supporters often overlook things like this:

A well-known Russian journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin has been found dead in his Kiev apartment with a gunshot wound to the head.

The body of Alexander Shchetinin, founder the Novy Region (New Region) press agency, was found at his flat after friends tried to visit him on his birthday.

A police spokesperson said Kiev forces were alerted of Ms Schetinin’s death at around midnight on Saturday. He is believed to have died a few hours earlier, between 8 and 9.30pm.

Officials have speculated that his death was caused by suicide, after a gun was found near his body along with spent cartridges, and the door to his apartment was said to be locked.

His opponents always seem to magically die somehow.




And now, he is such a brave and very little trooper:

(Kamsahamnida to all)