For a Friday

Lots and lots to talk about ...




Just another day in Europe:

Soldiers in Brussels, Belgium have shot a man after he attacked soldiers with a machete, injuring two.

The incident took place at Émile Jacqmain Avenue in in the Belgian capital at around 8:30, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.

Early reports indicate that the attacker — who is thought to be alive but in critical condition — was a 30-year-old Somalian who shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he launched his attack. One of his victims has been left with a head injury.

There is a heavy police presence in the area and public transport has been restricted.

And:

A man has been arrested outside Buckingham Palace in London, U.K. on suspicion of assaulting police and causing grievous bodily harm.

Two police officers suffered minor injuries while detaining the man, who was in possession of a knife, around 8:35 p.m. local time Friday, Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The pair were treated at the scene. No other injuries are reported.

But if she was in Iran, she would have been beaten if she hadn't worn a hijab:

A group of young men attacked a Muslim woman wearing a hijab in Spain’s capital Madrid on Wednesday, in what police think may be motivated by the Islamist-inspired attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.

My pity meter is at exactly zero.




The Speer family and Layne Morris hope for another bite of the apple:

Canadian lawyers acting for the widow of an American special forces soldier have filed an application in Alberta — essentially duplicating one filed earlier in Ontario — seeking enforcement of a massive U.S. damages award against former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr.

The claim calls on the Court of Queen’s Bench to recognize the judgment from Utah, and to issue a “corresponding” judgment in the amount of $173.88 million — the Canadian value of the US$132.1-million American award made in June 2015.

“Given that Canada has substantially similar legislation in relation to civil actions for victims of terrorism, it is entirely consistent with the fundamental public policy of Canada to enforce the U.S. judgment,” the notice states. “There are no defences to enforcement and recognition that operate in favour of the defendant in this case.”

According to the notice, bringing the Alberta action in parallel with the Ontario case is proper “given the territorial limitations of the respective judgment-enforcement regimes.”

I hope that this works and that this sinks the Liberals, particularly that pansy (though it is said that Emmanuel Macron is a bigger pansy, so ...).




Canadians spend more on taxes than anything else:

On average, Canadian families paid 42.5 per cent of their income on taxes, compared to 22.1 per cent of their income on housing in 2016. With an annual average income of $83,105, that means $35,283 went to taxes, versus $31,069 to housing (rent or mortgage), food and clothing.

In 1961, the report states, the average Canadian only spent 33.5 per cent on taxes versus 56.5 per cent on food, clothing and housing.

“Many Canadians may think housing in their biggest household expense, but in fact the average Canadian family spent more on taxes last year than on life’s basic necessities, including housing,” writes Charles Lammam, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, in a press release.

Case in point:

Quebec will begin handing out welfare cheques to as many as 4,000 asylum seekers next week, the province’s employment minister said Thursday.

“Quebec has responsibilities in immigration,” Francois Blais told a news conference.

“Now they’ll be getting welfare, they’ll be able to rent an apartment and get out of temporary accommodation, which is a good thing because it is pretty costly.”

While the minimum basic monthly payment will be $623, Blais said recipients will have to undergo a “revenue test” beforehand to determine if they are eligible for all of that amount.

There will also be an additional sum depending on the recipient’s family status.

And:

Dr. Rick MacDonald has a patient expecting premature triplets any day now, and he’s worried they may have nowhere to go.

What he calls a “huge” and festering health-care shortage problem came to a head this week as more than half the intensive-care units that treat Ontario’s sickest newborn babies were full up and closed to new patients.

“What on earth are we going to do with three newborns that need level-three nurseries?” asked MacDonald, a pediatrician who serves a trio of hospitals in the fast-growing Halton region west of Toronto. “We don’t have the beds.”

The shortage of space in neonatal intensive-care units (NICUs) already means that tiny infants sometimes have to be shipped across the province or even to the U.S. to find an open bed, he said.

Provincial and local health officials say no baby will go without the intensive care he or she needs — and none has recently been sent outside the province — but acknowledged there has been an “unprecedented” spike in demand for the specialized service.

The level-three NICUs in question treat babies who are born with serious abnormalities — and often extremely premature — and need to be on ventilation and monitored by a neonatology specialist. The province also has another 40 or so level-two NICUs that treat less severe cases.

The situation grew particularly dire earlier this week. As of Tuesday night, the level-three NICUs at two hospitals in Toronto and one each in London and Hamilton were closed because all the beds were full. Another Toronto facility and a hospital in Kingston were “restricted” as they had only one bed each available in their units, according to a provincial memo.

But there is money for illegal migrants.




Speaking of whom:

Compassion must greet the asylum seekers coming across the Canada-U.S. border once they arrive, but more must be done to stop them from coming in the first place, Opposition leader Andrew Scheer says in proposing his own solutions to the problem.

(Sidebar: No, what is needed is the rule of law. There is either one rule for everyone or now law at all. See how far that gets one.)

Scheer said Thursday the Liberal government is focusing too much on managing and not solving a situation that's creating havoc within the Canadian immigration system and risks a dangerous backlash against immigration.

"Justin Trudeau had a message of asking Canadians to have trust in our immigration system," Scheer said in an interview.

"The problem is Canadians don't have trust in the Liberals to manage it." ...

Scheer set forth three ideas Thursday, the first two linked to the Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S.

The deal says people can't make asylum claims at official land border entry points between the two countries, though there are some exceptions. That's why around 10,000 people have been apprehended since the start of the year in between official border points.

Scheer is suggesting the two main entry points now being used — one at Lacolle, Que., and the other in Emerson, Man. — be declared formal points of entry. The Liberals should also start the process of applying the agreement across the entire land border.

Trudeau said Wednesday the deal is not up for review.  

Of course that delusional frackwit would rather chew off his arm than enter a debate he knows he will lose. He needs to fast-track these illegal migrants ASAP or he may very well own a defeat in 2019.

(Sidebar: do they have sexless passports, Justin?)

It's not like Justin is operating with a full deck.

Small businesses expect to run smoothly without being crushed by the government:

Is starting a small business a risk? You bet: including the risk that your product is a flop and your business model a bust. Does it come with certain costs? Also true. It’s also potentially highly lucrative, or rewarding in other ways. It’s up to you to decide whether those rewards are worth the costs and risks, not the taxman. Certainly we should not wish the government to discourage risk-taking, but neither should it artificially encourage it: there is such a thing as an optimal level of risk, as we surely learned a decade ago.

Are they doing that by increasing the minimum wage?

 



Standing by and doing nothing while North Korean missiles hit Vancouver is either weakness or a wish for Vancouver to be obliterated. YOU decide:

Ballistic missiles are rockets that fly on high trajectories through space to reach their targets. Fighter jets such as those deployed by NORAD have no capability against such missiles. Dealing with such threats over Canada and the U.S. is the responsibility of USNORTHCOM.

“The decision as to whether to defend or not is a U.S. decision because as you know, by policy, we (Canada) are not a party to the ballistic missile defence mission,” St.-Amand said. “We become observers as the U.S. decides to act or not against a specific threat.”

On Wednesday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again rejected the idea that Canada would join the continental missile-defence shield “anytime soon” despite growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability. The prime minister defended his position by saying “we will always take decisions in terms of what is the best interests of Canadians.”

However, the Liberal government agreed this week to hold an emergency parliamentary committee hearing in September to consider whether Canada is able to defend itself against an attack by North Korea and the question of whether it should join the missile defence system.

If NORAD were invited to the meeting in Ottawa it would probably be asked to provide advice about its mission, how things look outside the North American perimeter, what risks exist and whether it has sufficient resources to address them.

Trudeau will not entertain sending troops back to Afghanistan, either.

One's mileage may vary on that issue but here it is irrelevant. Trudeau refuses to maintain a satisfactory fighting force. Trump is unlike other presidents who obliged themselves to Canada's defense. What will happen when Canada needs armed forces and does have them?




Because leftists are good chants and other forms of repetition but not original and workable ideas, the leeching of American outrage-and-vandal-chique goes unabated:

The union representing Ontario’s public elementary school teachers is calling on all elementary schools in the province to pull the name of Canada’s first prime minister from their buildings.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario passed a motion at its annual meeting last week calling on all school districts in Ontario to rename schools and buildings named after Sir John A. Macdonald.

That's right. The anti-Catholic father of Confederation should not have any venue in the public square according to publicly-funded troglodytes.


Voter junkie Kathleen Wynne weighs in:

In her statement Thursday, Wynne acknowledged the union is "coming from a good place," but said she disagreed Macdonald's name should be removed from schools in the province.

'We need to teach our children the full history'

It's not coming from a good place at all, but she is right about teaching history.

Do they still do that in Canada? 

Also - this is why teachers' unions need to be abolished:

An Ottawa Catholic School Board teacher who sent inappropriate messages to female students — including confessing his “crush” on one of them — faced a 24-day suspension, with pay, before being cleared to work again.

Speaking of creeps, one creep who married another creep and wishes that she wasn't a political failure talks smack behind her erstwhile opponent's back:

"This is not OK, I thought," Clinton says in her audio narration of "What Happened," set for release Sept. 12. "It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable he was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled."

Clinton says, "It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, 'Well, what would you do?' Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly, 'Back up you creep, get away from me! I know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up.'"

And yet she walked all over the stage. Hhmmm ...





ISIS pushes back against Syrian forces:

A Syria monitoring group says militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have successfully pushed back government forces advancing on one of the last towns still in ISIL hands in the province of Raqqa.

Pro-abortionists are emotionally retarded:

Quite unassumingly, the post read, “Stanton Healthcare would recommend to all crisis pregnancy centre’s the new baby powder yankee candle. It just smells like a new born baby. #lovelife #lovebabies #protectthemboth #loveyankeecandles”

Shocked that a pregnancy center that serves—well—pregnant women, would dare light a candle that smelled like a baby and then have the nerve to encourage others to do likewise, Broadly was able to connect with The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a pro-abortion group that has made a habit of demonizing Stanton Healthcare and other alternatives to abortion in Ireland.

Naturally, BPAS was outraged.

“Not only is this a rather cruel attempt to manipulate women who may be in incredibly desperate circumstances, it is also profoundly patronizing,” BPAS spokesperson Katherine O’Brien told Broadly. “The majority of women who have an abortion are already mothers—they know perfectly well how a newborn baby smells, and the idea that any woman could be convinced to have a child by the mere presence of a scented candle is just insulting.”

Yeah, that's what they must be doing.


Also - check the map. This isn't North Korea:

Graphic images depicting bloodied and dismembered fetuses have been appearing on giant placards all over downtown Toronto and on flyers in people's mailboxes, and now some politicians are taking a stand against them.

Sarah Doucette, a city councillor in the city's west end, has received hundreds of complaints from upset residents. She calls the images "disturbing" and says she plans to propose a bylaw to ban the gruesome anti-abortion signs.

"These are big blown up images. There's blood, there's gore, there's a lot of things there which should not be in people's faces on their local street," said Doucette.

The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) is the Calgary-based organization behind the protests and flyers.

This summer its members have been seen on major intersections like Yonge and College streets, standing on all four corners with placards. The group also hands out pamphlets on the street. 

'I wouldn't want my grandchildren seeing this.

"It's gross but I understand what they're doing, they're doing it for the shock value," said Teresa Furnari, after seeing the image of a dead fetus. "But I wouldn't want my grandchildren seeing this."

The group's flyers are also ending up in mailboxes across the city, something NDP MPP Peter Tabuns wants to stop.

He, along with two Toronto city councillors, Paula Fletcher and Mary Fragedakis, and Toronto District School Board trustee Jennifer Story, is asking Ontario's attorney general to seek an injunction against the mailbox flyers, as well as the signs the group displays.

"People have a right to protest," said Tabuns. "But it's a different thing to thrust these images onto people who could be traumatized by them." 

 And:

The Montreal man charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed his pregnant wife and caused the death of their unborn child renounced his right to a bail hearing on Friday. 

**

Tonight I am preparing to celebrate a funeral for someone (let’s call him “H” to protect his privacy) who, while suffering from cancer, was admitted to hospital with an unrelated problem, a bladder infection. H’s family had him admitted to the hospital earlier in the week under the assumption that the doctors there would treat the infection and then he would be able to return home. To their shock and horror, they discovered that the attending physician had indeed made the decision NOT to treat the infection. When they demanded that he change his course of (in)action, he refused, stating that it would be better if H died of this infection now rather than let cancer take its course and kill him later. Despite their demands and pleadings, the doctor would not budge from his decision. In fact he deliberately hastened H’s end by ordering large amounts of morphine “to control pain” which resulted in his losing consciousness as his lungs filled up with fluid. In less than 24 hours, H was dead.

Let me tell you a bit about H. He was 63 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two daughters who are both currently working in universities toward their undergraduate degrees. We are not talking here about someone who was advanced in years and rapidly failing due to the exigencies of old age. We are talking about a man who was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. We are talking about a man who still held onto hope that perhaps he might defy the odds long enough to see his daughters graduate. Evidently and tragically, in the eyes of the physician tasked with providing the care needed to beat back the infection, that hope was not worth pursuing.

 Again, let me make this point abundantly clear: It was the express desire of both the patient and his spouse that the doctor treat the infection. This wish was ignored.

Who said anything about individual choice?

Not Soylent Green!




Speaking of emotional retards:

Australia’s former human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs says Sharia law should be allowed in Australia.

The former law professor likened the Islamic legal system to Catholic diktats from the Vatican.

‘There are various ways in which religious law affects the private lives of people,’ she told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday night, after sharing a stage with Iranian-born Labor senator Sam Dastyari.

‘The views of the Vatican affect the lives of Catholics in this country.’

Yes, about that, Catholic women aren't relegated to the backs of churches, forced to marry older men to settle debts or strapped to bombs and made to detonate themselves in markets. Anyone who equates sharia law with Church teachings is the sort of imbecile who looks for moral and/or cultural equivalence in order that he or she may never have to defend what he or she thinks. He or she knows that he or she simply cannot muster such intellectual effort.

More idiocy from the Land Down Under:

Captain James Cook’s role in Australian history has come under the spotlight as Aboriginal leaders call for a 138-year-old statue of the explorer in Sydney to be changed to remove the claim that he “discovered this territory.”

Wow. They have to wait for idiot Americans to set a trend. 

I would actually be surprised if someone wasn't drunk:

Australia’s prime minister has confirmed that his predecessor and intra-party rival Tony Abbott had once been too drunk to vote in Parliament, an incident that’s been a poorly kept secret in political circles for eight years.

Australians like their beer.

That is not a generalisation. I have seen this with my own eyes.

It's raining diamonds on Neptune:

Consider this your daily reminder that the solar system is even more awesomely bonkers than you realized: On Uranus and Neptune, scientists forecast rain storms of solid diamonds. 

The gems form in the hydrocarbon-rich oceans of slush that swath the gas giants’ solid cores. Scientists have long speculated that the extreme pressures in this region might split those molecules into atoms of hydrogen and carbon, the latter of which then crystallize to form diamonds. These diamonds were thought to sink like rain through the ocean until they hit the solid core.

It's like Tiffany's but in space!