Mid-Week Post

The spring in mid-step ...



Kevin O'Leary is out of the race:

Celebrity investor and reality-TV star Kevin O’Leary, who rattled Conservative cages three months ago when he joined the party’s leadership race, did it again Wednesday by quitting a contest observers believe he had every chance of winning.

O’Leary’s stunning news — he’s throwing his support behind Quebec rival Maxime Bernier —  appeared to catch even some members of his campaign team off-guard as they gathered to prepare for Wednesday’s final leadership debate.

Behind the scenes, however, O’Leary been mulling the idea for about a week, say sources, ever more convinced that as leader, he might never be able to rally enough support in Quebec to deliver a majority Conservative mandate in 2019.

 
In truth, he was nothing more than a Liberal in disguise.

Good riddance.





Then it's not really progress, is it?

Canada and the United States have made progress in recent days on a dispute over Canadian lumber exports "but we are not there yet", Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday.

In the 2015 election, the Liberals won key ridings due to the immigrant vote.

It is no surprise, therefore, why Trudeau is rigging the system now:

To block officials from interfering with immigration rules and laws, PM Trudeau’s government is going through an ideological purge that will remove adjudicators from the refugee and immigration board.
 
So far, 14 adjudicators have been removed and it’s expected that at least 39 more members will be let go. Adjudicators, who were removed, were taken in by the last government and these changes are worrying people. Those being removed were called “seasoned decision-makers” and people fear that this purge will throw the system into disarray.  
 
A member from Ontario’s Refugee Lawyer’s Association said that the main concern is the government that is having governor-in-council meeting for the appointments that is discretionary and political. He believes that a transparent process will help appoint candidates who are more competent and suitable, efficient, fair-minded and judicious.


He also said it’s possible that the quality and efficiency of decisions can be compromised if candidates are not judicious or have the right expertise. There are in total 58 positions on the refugee and immigration board and out of these, 23 are unfilled.

Xavier Becerra, the attorney-general for California, believes that Trump is wrong about punishing so-called sanctuary cities:

Xavier Becerra, former chairman of the House Democratic Caucus who was appointed to fill the attorney general's post vacated by now-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), told CNN on Tuesday after a federal judge granted an injunction against the administration's vow to strip all federal funding from sanctuary cities that the White House is "in denial."

"You just have to read the constitution. It's very simple. You can't force states to do things that the constitution lets them do. And public safety is one of those items that a state has the responsibility to take care of, not the federal government," he said.

 
But is entering a country illegally protected by the Constitution?

Nope.




Punish China, cripple North Korea -  as I've often said:

In addition to supporting allies and increasing sanctions against North Korea, he said, "we have to keep pressure on China so that they are serious about putting pressure on North Korea."

What Mr. Panetta does not bear in mind is how often containment does not work and hasn't since 1953.


Related:

Hours after a display of North Korean military power, rival South Korea announced Wednesday the installation of key parts of a contentious U.S. missile defence system meant to counter the North.

South Korea’s trumpeting of progress in setting up the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system, or THAAD, comes as high-powered U.S. military vessels converge on the Korean Peninsula and as a combative North Korea signals possible nuclear and missile testing.

North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People’s Army. On the same day, a U.S. guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea. And the USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier is also headed toward the peninsula for a joint exercise with South Korea.

The moves to set up THAAD within this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China, the country that the Trump administration hopes to work with to rid the North of nuclear weapons. China, which has grown increasingly frustrated with North Korea, its ally, and Russia see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.

Yes, I'm sure China and Russia would see South Korea's self-protection as threatening.


And:

Why, after this eight-year charade, anyone would believe North Korean “commitments” to renounce nuclear weapons is hard to understand. The real problem is that many otherwise sensible people are prepared to believe that agreements constitute reality, rather than actual behaviour. Reporters and diplomats often say things like “the agreement ended (fill-in the blank)’s nuclear program.” Needless to say, no agreement does any such thing, only the verified conduct of the parties themselves.

The contemporary lessons are plain. In the past, while American true believers were kneeling in prayer and lighting incense candles to fanciful agreements with North Korea, Iran, Syria and their ilk, these rogue states were committing (as T.S. Eliot entitled his play) murder in the cathedral. Time to face reality instead.

Again: he revealed that because he is simultaneously a moron and an @$$hole. It's a genetic trait he got from his dad:

Mulcair took aim at Trudeau for his assertion that he wants to make things fairer for those facing pot-possession charges once marijuana becomes legal next year — a comment he made during a segment with Vice Canada on Monday. ...

“When you’re of that background and you’re privileged and you’ve always had everything given to you and you are treated differently, that’s what he is used to, isn’t it?” he said.

“He doesn’t find it at all abnormal that he can admit to smoking marijuana while he was a member of Parliament and at the same time say, ‘The law is the law and you will be prosecuted if you smoke marijuana.’

“That is abject hypocrisy by Justin Trudeau.”

Trudeau also shared a story during the Monday interview about an incident in which his late brother Michel faced marijuana possession charges.

Trudeau said his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, was able to bring the family’s resources to bear on the problem, including turning to friends in the legal community to help make the charges go away.

Also:

Catherine McKenna was trying to mark World Penguin Day with a simple tweet accompanied by a cute video of penguins frolicking in the wild.

Problem is, those weren't penguins in the video, but puffins — the squat, distinctive-looking seabirds that make their homes on islands and coastlines in the north Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Oops.




Diversity is strength ... or some such thing:

Canadian women immigrants from India whose mother tongue is Punjabi are aborting their daughters in favor of sons, a bias so entrenched it doesn’t change no matter how long the women have lived in Canada, a new study reveals.

(Sidebar: feminists will decry this practice soon. Where did all of these crickets come from?)


Also - Planned Parenthood employees are a strange mixture of stupid and evil:

A new Center for Medical Progress (CMP) video shows a Planned Parenthood senior executive haggling over pricing for aborted babies' body parts, which she says she's "committed" to selling.

The video is of a conversation CMP investigators had with Dr. Mary Gatter at a Planned Parenthood conference evening reception. Gatter, who in another CMP video, joked, "I want a Lamborghini" when negotiating prices of baby parts, explains that she's "committed" to selling the bodies of aborted babies and "I think it’s a great idea."

This woman's idiocy and wickedness is matched by morons who insist that the overwhelming proof doesn't exist.




The same country that gave light sentences to three men who gang-raped a woman and broadcast it on Facebook is incredibly hard on a pro-life midwife:

Swedish midwife Ellinor Grimmark has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over Sweden’s hard line on conscientious objection.
The Swedish Appeals Court decided earlier this month that the government can force medical professionals to perform and cooperate in abortions, or else be forced out of their profession. Because the ruling in Grimmark v. Landstinget i Jönköpings Län appears to contradict international law protecting conscientious objection, Grimmark wants to appeal to Strasbourg.
Three different medical clinics denied her employment because she will not assist with abortions. In Sweden, midwives are essentially nurses who specialize in pregnancy and child birth and seldom do abortions. It would have been relatively easy to find a way to accommodate Grimmark’s preferences.
However, the clinics’ intransigence has meant that Grimmark and her family have had to move to neighbouring Norway. “In the beginning, I was hoping to stay in Sweden,” she told Fox News. “But we have now made Norway home. I have a job here where they are not concerned with my beliefs.”
- See more at: https://www.mercatornet.com/features/view/swedish-midwife-opposed-to-abortion-appeals-to-european-court-of-human-righ/19694#sthash.ckTwtDaR.dpuf

Swedish midwife Ellinor Grimmark has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over Sweden’s hard line on conscientious objection.

The Swedish Appeals Court decided earlier this month that the government can force medical professionals to perform and cooperate in abortions, or else be forced out of their profession. Because the ruling in Grimmark v. Landstinget i Jönköpings Län appears to contradict international law protecting conscientious objection, Grimmark wants to appeal to Strasbourg.

Three different medical clinics denied her employment because she will not assist with abortions. In Sweden, midwives are essentially nurses who specialize in pregnancy and child birth and seldom do abortions. It would have been relatively easy to find a way to accommodate Grimmark’s preferences.

However, the clinics’ intransigence has meant that Grimmark and her family have had to move to neighbouring Norway. “In the beginning, I was hoping to stay in Sweden,” she told Fox News. “But we have now made Norway home. I have a job here where they are not concerned with my beliefs.”

 
Priorities, eh, Sweden?




If the medical community wants to be taken seriously, then it can start telling the whole truth:

But HPV is not just another communicable disease, like those against which pre-teens are currently vaccinated in the US. They can’t pick it up from the soil, like tetanus, or from other kids coughing around them, like diphtheria and whooping cough; it is transmitted by skin to skin contact, typically through sexual intercourse or behaviour leading to or imitating sexual intercourse.
Parents who wish to protect their adolescent children not only from STIs but from the emotional and moral harms of premature sexual activity would no doubt appreciate hearing all the facts about HPV from their doctor before they agree to vaccinating their 11-year-old.
- See more at: https://www.mercatornet.com/features/view/the-truthiness-behind-the-hpv-vaccine-campaign/19697#sthash.E2zDtPbj.dpuf

But HPV is not just another communicable disease, like those against which pre-teens are currently vaccinated in the US. They can’t pick it up from the soil, like tetanus, or from other kids coughing around them, like diphtheria and whooping cough; it is transmitted by skin to skin contact, typically through sexual intercourse or behaviour leading to or imitating sexual intercourse.

Parents who wish to protect their adolescent children not only from STIs but from the emotional and moral harms of premature sexual activity would no doubt appreciate hearing all the facts about HPV from their doctor before they agree to vaccinating their 11-year-old.

Caving into bullies empowers them. It's especially humiliating when these bullies are as stupid as bags of hammers:

Coulter was invited to speak by the Berkeley College Republicans, Young America’s Foundation (YAF), and a student dialogue group called BridgeCal. The event was set for April 27, but the UC Berkeley administration canceled the event. It offered alternative dates, ostensibly because they would be more manageable from a security standpoint. But Coulter refused to bow to the “heckler’s veto” — or, more accurately, “rioter’s veto” — over when she would speak.

Now, Coulter is planning to show up on campus Thursday regardless. She is expected to speak outdoors in Sproul Plaza, which is a designated free speech area on campus, and the site of the 1964 demonstrations that launched the Free Speech Movement. (No time has yet been set for the speech.) Fox reports that police are bracing for riots by leftists, anarchists, and so-called “anti-fascist” activists, whether or not Coulter actually appears on campus and tries to speak.

Iran's dissidents:

Fariba Kamalabadi. Jamaloddin Khanjani. Afif Naeimi. Saeid Rezaie. Mahvash Sabet. Behrouz Tavakkoli. Vahid Tizfahm. 

On May 14, these seven people will mark the beginning of their 10th year in prison for the crime of being leading members of Iran’s viciously persecuted and harmlessly devout Baha’i community.

These seven people formed the entirety of the Yaran, the “Friends,” in Persian, a group that that looked after the needs of Iran’s Baha’is — in the Baha’i tradition there is no clergy. The Friends served as the successor group to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran, an administrative group whose several members were “disappeared” during the Khomeinist revolution of 1979. The last eight members of the Spiritual Assembly were executed by firing squad on Dec. 27, 1981.

And now,  growing brain circuits:

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have successfully grown the first-ever working 3D brain circuits in a petri dish. Writing in the journal Nature, they say the network of living cells will allow us to study how the human brain develops.

(Paws up)