For A Monday

Oh, what a lovely day....


The premier of Ontario has placed a disastrous cap-and-trade tax on the province:

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Monday she’s going to price industrial carbon dioxide emissions through a cap-and-trade market, without telling us the price.

She said it would be irresponsible to estimate how much more we’re all going to have to pay for virtually all goods and services, because the Liberals haven’t yet designed their cap-and-trade system.

This is very hard to believe.

The Liberals have been planning cap-and-trade for seven years.

It’s true they can’t come up with an exact price, because it depends on how quickly they plan to reduce emissions and what the market price of a carbon credit will be (more on that in a moment).

But for Wynne to claim she has no idea of the cost is absurd.

For heaven’s sake, someone in her government told the Globe and Mail recently the Liberals expect increased government revenues of up to $2 billion annually.

Don’t be fooled into thinking the one added cost the Liberals provided — about three cents more per litre of gas — is either accurate, or the only cost hike we’ll face, or that it will stay at three cents.

Fossil fuel energy, produced by burning oil, natural gas and coal, is responsible for modern civilization.

Industrialized societies like ours use it to grow, manufacture, create, produce, power and transport virtually all goods and services.

That’s why cap-and-trade increases the price of virtually everything, as opposed to a carbon tax which increases the tax on almost everything.

Also:

And:




(Paws up)


Some aging cow and Marco Rubio have declared that they will run for president:

Lines stretch around the block as people are spending hours waiting outside the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, where Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will announce he is running for President at 6:00 p.m. ET Monday.

Many in attendance have supported Rubio since even before his national headline-making 2010 Senate race, back when he was Speaker of the Florida House and a state representative; some even before he entered politics. There is a definite sense of homecoming and celebration. The Cuban-American community is extremely proud that one of its own is running for the highest office in the land, and Florida Republicans are excited that their state will have two major presidential contenders, Rubio and (it’s assumed) former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Wow! Look at that young guy unencumbered by tons of scandals running for president!


Hey- remember when people said that removing sanctions from Iran was no big deal?

President Vladimir Putin on Monday sanctioned the delivery of a highly capable Russian air defence missile system to Iran, a game changer move that would significantly bolster the Islamic republic's military capability and fuel Israel's concerns.

Also:

Ukraine's military accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of using heavy weapons that were meant to have been withdrawn under a ceasefire deal, after one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and six wounded in rebel-held territories.

With fighting intensifying once more, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were due to meet in Berlin later on Monday to discuss the next steps in implementing a ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February.

"The rebels have not stopped firing at Ukrainian positions ... Over the past day, the enemy has used weapons banned under the Minsk agreements," Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said in a televised briefing.

Russia never fails to disappoint:

A gallery in central Russia has cancelled an exhibition of World War Two images by US and British photographers, sparking claims that the event was pulled for political reasons.

Yekaterinburg's House of Metenkov said the closure was a "technical" matter.

Russians would have had a chance to see 150 images from war episodes less familiar to them, such as the Battle of Britain and 1944 Normandy landings.

Stark photos from Nazi concentration camps were to be shown too. 

The exhibition had been titled "Triumph and Tragedy: allies in the Second World War".  

(Sidebar: but not really.)



What monitoring?

Beefing up international monitoring of Iran's nuclear work could become the biggest stumbling block to a final accord between Tehran and major powers, despite a preliminary deal reached last week.

As part of that deal, Iran and the powers agreed that United Nations inspectors would have "enhanced" access to remaining nuclear activity in Iran, where they already monitor key sites. 

But details on exactly what kind of access the inspectors will have were left for the final stage of talks, posing a major challenge for negotiators on a complex and logistically challenging issue that is highly delicate for Iran's leaders.

ISIS murdered ten doctors who refused to treat their wounded:

Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq have savagely executed 10 doctors who refused to treat wounded members of the terrorist organisation. 

Bangladesh has hanged a war criminal:

Bangladesh hanged Islamist opposition leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Saturday for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, a move met with an angry reaction from his supporters who called for a protest strike.

Kamaruzzaman, 63, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide and torture of civilians during the war.

It's explosive no matter who says it:

Pope Francis on Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of the slaughter of Armenians by calling the massacre by Ottoman Turks "the first genocide of the 20th century" and urging the international community to recognize it as such. Turkey immediately responded by recalling its ambassador and accusing Francis of spreading hatred and "unfounded claims."

Francis issued the pronouncement during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica commemorating the centenary that was attended by Armenian church leaders and President Serge Sarkisian, who praised the pope for calling a spade a spade and "delivering a powerful message to the international community."

"The words of the leader of a church with 1 billion followers cannot but have a strong impact," he told The Associated Press.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey, however, denies a genocide took place. It has insisted that the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Francis defended his words by saying it was his duty to honour the memory of the innocent men, women and children who were "senselessly" murdered by Ottoman Turks.

"Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it," he said.

He said similar massacres are under way today against Christians who because of their faith are "publicly and ruthlessly put to death — decapitated, crucified, burned alive — or forced to leave their homeland," a reference to the Islamic State group's assault against Christians in Iraq and Syria.

 

According to Turkey, this never happened.

Why Celebrity Apartheid is important:

Gwyneth Paltrow is slashing her food budget to raise awareness about hunger. But sometimes even the best intentions are met with criticism, eye rolls and sarcasm.

Last week, the Oscar winner announced that she had accepted The Food Bank for New York City challenge to live on food stamps for one week, with a grocery budget of $29 or about $1.38 per meal.

 
When this wealthy scion of  Hollywood parents is finished with this publicity stunt, what happens to those who are truly struggling? Do they feel better about themselves because she does?


They're not worried because they're stupid:

Asked how they expect to fare compared with their parents’ generation, most Canadians aged 18 to 35 surveyed by Abacus were upbeat. Less than one-quarter of them said they believe their age cohort will fail to live up to their parents’ overall level of happiness or standard of living. Nearly half, 46 per cent, expect their own generation’s standard of living to rise above that of their mothers and fathers, while about a third, 32 per cent, anticipate roughly matching their parents’ living standards.

Ask them how long they expect public sector jobs to keep getting the big bucks.


And now, the movie one has long been waiting for:

Also making an appearance: Thomas the Tank Engine. That’s right, your favorite choo-choo train from childhood throws down with Ant-Man in a climactic rumble. Apparently Yellowjacket doesn’t know who he’s messing with. 

Mid-Week Post

The intermission of the work-week...


Dzokhar Tsarnaev (America's Omar Khadr) has been found guilty on all counts:

Nearly two years after two pressure-cooker bombs ripped through a crowd of unsuspecting spectators near the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, a federal jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts for his role in the deadly attacks, which killed three and injured nearly 300.

"We unanimously find the defendent Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev guilty," the court clerk said, again and again.

Tsarnaev, 21, offered no visible reaction to the charges, which were announced in a courtroom packed full of victims and survivors.

The decision came a day and a half after seven women and five men began deliberations in the first phase of the trial and after 17 days of emotional and often gruesome testimony and evidence in the case. Jurors repeatedly saw horrific photos and videos of the bloody aftermath of the bombs. They also heard heart-wrenching testimony from survivors, including the father of the youngest victim of the attacks—8-year-old Martin Richard--whose body was literally blown apart by the second bomb.

Federal prosecutors painted Tsarnaev as a heartless killer who conspired with his older brother, Tamerlan, to maim and kill Americans in retaliation for the country's wars on Muslim countries overseas. "This was a cold, calculated terrorist act. This was intentional. It was bloodthirsty. It was to make a point," government prosecutor Aloke Chakravarty told jurors Monday. "It was to tell America that ‘We will not be terrorized by you anymore. We will terrorize you.'"

Tsarnaev faced 30 charges for his role in the bombings, the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil since September 11, 2001. He was also charged with shooting and killing Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier days after the attacks and hours after the FBI released photos of him and his brother identifying them as suspects in the bombings. Though prosecutors acknowledged they were unsure which brother pulled the trigger, both were "equally guilty" of Collier's murder.

Tsarnaev has yet to be sentenced. His defense will attempt to portray him as a dupe of his elder brother. Apparently, nineteen years-olds have no idea what they are doing.

Do not extend the vote to teen-agers.


An Afghan soldier has killed an American soldier:

An Afghan soldier was shot dead after opening fire on American troops - killing one and wounding several other people.

The default disposition there is homicidal.

For some insight:

What France, and the West in general, face today is a war waged by a part of Islam against the democratic world. The most effective way for the West to deal with this situation, and eventually win this war, is to mobilize the resources of its nation-states for facing the challenge on all fronts -- political, economic, and cultural and, when needed, military. The silly slogan "this has no military solution" is self-defeating, if only because it is based on a denial of the reality that the Western democracies and their allies in the Muslim world are being challenged and attacked in a veritable multifaceted war.

Once the Western democracies have admitted to themselves that this is a war, they would be in a position seek allies in the Muslim world by posing the only question that really matters in a state of war: Are you with us or against us?

Today, they cannot pose that question because they are dancing around the issue, talking of social injustice, education, colonial heritage, racism, ethnocentrism and other fashionable shibboleths already mentioned.

The unwillingness of Western democracies to agree on a common analysis of the situation, enables opportunist Muslim powers to hedge their bets by helping or at least tolerating the terrorists under the banner of Islam. And that is bound to prolong the deadly struggle, which terrorism in the end cannot win.

I find it mind-boggling that of all religious and socio-political systems, the one that the left defends without reservation is Islamism. It has no reason for doing so. Intellectually, one understands the the leftist position is a contrary one.  The left will embrace whatever is opposite to its ideology. Pragmatically, embracing anything antithetical to the West is self-destructive. Communism didn't work. Now, its more insane mirror image of Islamism is poised to fail the left once more.


Archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte has passed away at age seventy-eight:

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, who oversaw the funerals of NHL great Maurice (Rocket) Richard and former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau during his 22 years as archbishop of Montreal, died early Wednesday after a lengthy illness. He was 78.

(Sidebar: I can understand the Rocket but Trudeau? That must have taken the stiffest of drinks for that fiasco.)


Families of murdered and missing aboriginal women do not have confidence in the police:

Police departments across Canada get a failing grade for their efforts at solving cases of missing and murdered indigenous women, according to CBC interviews with more than 110 family members.

CBC News has embarked on an exhaustive search for families who have lost a relative either to an unsolved killing or whose loved one still remains missing. 

So far, more than 110 families have responded to questions ranging from the efficacy of police investigations to the need for a national inquiry.

Families were asked to rate the quality of the police investigation in each case, on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being excellent. The average rating was 2.8.

 
Yes, about this:

According to an RCMP report released in May, the vast majority of murdered aboriginal women were not killed by strangers, they were killed by spouses, boyfriends, family members or acquaintances of the victims.

"Female homicide victims generally know the person who kills them -- more than 90% had a previous relationship with them," said the report. "This is true for aboriginal and non-aboriginal female victims."

A Pakistani national accused of terrorism has asked his government for help:

A Pakistani man the federal government accuses of plotting to bomb downtown Toronto has reached out to his country for help in securing his release from detention.

The request by Jahanzeb Malik comes in a letter to Pakistan's consulate general through his lawyer.

"As a Pakistani national, Mr. Malik has asked us to reach out and secure any assistance you may be in a position to advance," Anser Farooq writes on behalf of his client.

"This assistance can be in the form of financial, and/or bonds person's required to secure his release from detention."

Canada Border Services Agency arrested Malik, 33, on March 9 following an undercover investigation amid government accusations that he supports the Islamic State and planned to attack the U.S. consulate and other financial district buildings.

The permanent resident of Canada remains in detention in expectation the government will move to declare him inadmissible and deport him — a process that could take months — rather than prosecute him.

At previous detention reviews — in which no one came forward to act as a surety — the government's lawyer declared Malik to be a flight and security risk.

"The outcome of Mr. Malik's inadmissibility hearing should be of the highest priority to your government," Farooq wrote in the letter sent to the consulate last month.

No one from Pakistan's consulate general in Toronto nor its high commission in Ottawa returned calls seeking comment.

Perhaps Mr. Malik's government does not want to deal with him.

Culture- it matters:

A Toronto-based dating website for married people seeking affairs has dropped its lawsuit against the government of South Korea after a court in that country overturned a decades-old law banning adultery.

Ashley Madison filed the suit last year after its newly launched Korean website was shut down by authorities who alleged it incited immorality.

At the time, adultery was illegal in South Korea.

The company denied the allegations in its statement of claim, describing itself as "a social networking website facilitating communication between like-minded adults."

A spokesman for the company says the website has now been restored following a February decision by the Constitutional Court of South Korea to strike down the more than 60-year-old statute.

The CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company Avid Life Media says the website's presence in South Korea — and its challenge of the ban — helped speed up changes to the legal landscape there.

Noel Biderman says he believes the data Ashley Madison collects on adultery will help "change society's perception about non-monogamous behaviour" around the world.

(Sidebar: what a presumptuous butthole.)

How it must stun the clueless citizens of the politically multicultural post-modern West that not everyone is into their brand of decadence and to believe that their little crusades matter a damn is just gob-smacking.


An American aid worker has been expelled from North Korea on charges of conspiring against its state:

North Korea said on Wednesday it was expelling an American aid worker for engaging in what it said was a conspiracy against the state, just weeks after the country ejected a German aid worker.

The North's official KCNA news agency said the U.S. citizen it named as Sandra Suh had "produced pictures and videos with an aversion to the Republic under the disguise of 'humanitarianism' and used them" in a propaganda campaign against the country.

"Sandra Suh admitted ... her criminal activities and apologized, seeking generous forgiveness. Out of generosity, the related agency took into consideration her age and decided to expel her from its territory," KCNA said.

What? No ransom?

This seems weird to me.


Copies of "The Interview" are being air-lifted into North Korea:
 

Thousands of DVDs of a Hollywood film about a plot to assassinate the North Korean leader have been sent into the country via helium balloon.

North Korean defector-turned-activist Lee Min-Bok said he had undertaken four launches since January, the last being on Saturday.

Each time, he tied bundles of The Interview DVD and anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the balloons, and then released them from the back of a lorry.

"I launched thousands of copies and about a million leaflets on Saturday, near the western part of the border," Mr Lee told AFP news agency.

Pyongyang has described the comedy about a fictional CIA plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, as a "wanton act of terror" .

(Sidebar: is the acting that bad?)

It's a good thing no one pulled the plug on him:

On July 11, 2011, then-22-year-old Matthew was heading to work on his motorcycle when he collided with an illegally parked car while merging onto a highway.

He suffered a long list of serious injuries, including multiple fractures of the femur, multiple jaw fractures, a fractured rib, lacerated liver, fractured collar bone, skull fracture, and a severe traumatic brain injury.

He was in a coma with only a 10 per cent chance of ever regaining consciousness. His chance at a full recovery was even smaller, just 5 per cent.

About a week after Matthew’s horrific accident, doctors told Danielle to consider taking her husband off life support.

She refused.

“I prayed a lot and chose not to take him off of life support,” she wrote on their blog. “The next day Matthew opened his eyes. Exciting as this is I later learned that eyes open without consciousness is typical of a vegetative state.”

Matthew was transferred to a rehabilitation centre in an attempted to “wake up” his brain. While his eyes started tracking the people in his room, he showed few other signs of movement or response to commands.

Danielle had him moved to her mother’s home where she could care for him in a familiar space.

At home, Matthew began what has become a remarkable recovery. First, he regained some movement in his limbs. Then he started grunting. After three weeks of around-the-clock care from his wife and mother-in-law, Matthew “emerged from the coma” and began a nearly three-month rehabilitation program that included hours of daily speech, occupational and physical therapy.

Tuesday Post

Something for after Easter Sunday....


The trial of Mike Duffy has begun today:

Suspended Senator Mike Duffy faces a maximum of 212 years in potential prison sentences in addition to possible fines if convicted on all 31 charges.

First of all, no one in Canada ever serves a sentence like that. It's laughable to even mention it. Not even murderers get sentences like that and they've actually killed people.

Secondly, as appalling as these charges are, the former and current premiers of Ontario have bankrupted the province, hired people to delete incriminating details and continued a controversial sex education program partially developed by a convicted child pornographer. The NDP owes the Canadian taxpayer 2.7 million dollars. Two of its members went against Canadian interests when they appealed to the Americans to stall on the Keystone Pipeline.

Don't even get me started on how the Fils plans on destroying this country.

Is political corruption only wrong when some people do it?


It's time to de-fund the United Nations:

Palestinian fighters clashed with Islamic State militants in a heavily contested Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital on Monday as a United Nations official described the situation in the embattled camp as "beyond inhumane."

Since ISIS' capture of major Iraqi cities last year, thousands of Christians have fled their homes. In November 2014 alone, ISIS murdered 2, 206 people. Eight thousand rare books have been destroyed in Mosul.

Yet the UN is more concerned with Palestinians not even other Arabs care about.

Wow.


Just as in Kenya, Islamists murder Christians:

Islamist Boko Haram militants disguised as preachers killed at least 24 people and wounded several others in an attack near a mosque in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, a military source and witness said on Monday.

With these atrocities in mind, reflect on Obama's words this past Easter Sunday to remind one's self what a horrid douchebag he truly is:

“On Easter I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian I am supposed to love. And I have to say that sometimes, when I've listened to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned. But that's a topic for another day,” the President said to a laugh from the audience.

Was it Christians who separated Muslims from Christians and then proceeded to murder the former?

Obama is wasting no opportunity in being vile and petty in the last two years he has in office. The Americans are too weak-willed to remove him from power.


Rand Paul has thrown his hat into the ring:

Sen. Rand Paul launched his 2016 presidential campaign Tuesday with a combative message against both Washington and his fellow Republicans, declaring that "we have come to take our country back."

Good luck with that.


And now, while skate-boarding here is insufferable, it's liberating in Afghanistan:

When Australian skateboarder Oliver Percovich first visited Afghanistan in 2007, he knew he had to do something.  Wheeling through the streets of Kabul, he was struck by the number of kids working the roads, begging for money. As he saw it, the youth of Afghanistan had clearly been hit hard by the country’s 30 years of conflict. He was also stunned by how restricted the young girls were—they couldn’t play sports or ride bikes due to their prohibitive clothing.

(Sidebar: you don't say.)

But skateboarding, he realized, could provide a solution. So he and his friend took their three boards and started letting the kids play, teaching them to carve sidewalks and do kickflips. That’s how he started Skateistan, a non-profit that uses skateboarding as a hook for education and empowerment. ...

The most heart-warming example I found was from Fulford-Dobson’s first photo. She spotted this beautiful 7-year old determined to master the board gripped in her “tiny hennaed hands.”

(Sidebar: henna is for brides. Carry on.)

But that ferocity resonated in other ways as well. One year after attending Skateistan’s Back to School program, she had not only advanced three grades—enough to enter public school with her peers—but was still coming back to ride in her free time. The story makes me so happy. Since Skateistan launched, skateboarding has become the #1 sport in Afghanistan with female youth. And just reading the quotes from other girls at the facility, like this one, should warm your heart:   

 “When I’m up there, I feel free, like I’m flying. I like that feeling a lot.” – Hanifa, 14, Afghan Skater

 

Holy Saturday

I remember a sermon given during an Easter Sunday Mass quite some time ago.

I will paraphrase it heavily here.


There was a boy named Peter who attended Sunday school. He was a weird little kid who had an odd way about him, not making eye contact and such. No one thought too much about him.

On Palm Sunday, the kids attending Sunday school were given Easter eggs in which they were to place an item relating to Easter or spring.

The next Sunday - Easter Sunday - the kids presented their eggs to the class. One girl placed a flower in her Easter egg because flowers started blooming in spring. Another boy placed a rock in his Easter egg to symbolise the boulder moved from Jesus' tomb.

When Peter's egg was opened, the teacher, the parents and the other kids saw that he had put nothing inside it. Eye-rolls could be detected on the Richter Scale. Peter had either fundamentally misunderstood the directions or had not bothered to do the assignment.

"Okay, Peter, why is there nothing inside the Easter egg?"

Peter looked up.

"Because when they opened the tomb, there was nothing inside it."


Think about it.

 

Friday Post

On this solemn Friday...


The much-lauded Iran deal changes nothing:

None of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including the Fordow center buried under a mountain — will be closed. Not one of the country’s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be “reduced” but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state.

Even easing up on the sanctions gave Iran billions of dollars to put into its attempts to conduct clandestine wars in the region. They’ve shipped arms to Hamas, spent a fortune bolstering Hezbollah in their attempts to keep Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria, and also to threaten Israel from its north. Now the Iranians have used the Houthis and Ali Saleh to conduct a coup against the Yemen government that had been cooperative with the US and Saudi Arabia against al-Qaeda, giving Iran a potential opportunity to choke off shipping through the Suez Canal if they so choose.

What happens when that economic containment ends? Iran will have plenty of cash to fund Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any number of proxy groups to further its ambitions of regional domination.

Not that stopping Iran was ever Obama's aim.



Hey- remember when some Muslim guy walked into a university, separated some people into two groups, killing one group and letting the other group live and everybody made a big deal about it?

Why so silent about this?

Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing 147 people in the group’s deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk. Some of the Christians were targeted for beheadings, according to several reports.

The shocking massacre came during “Holy Week,” the solemn week before Easter on the Christian calendar.

The masked attackers – strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s – singled out non-Muslim students at Garissa University College and then gunned them down without mercy, survivors said. Others ran for their lives with bullets whistling through the air.

Jesus would be spinning in His grave:

The latest #BlackLivesMatter protest took to the streets today using the hashtag #ReclaimHolyWeek.

Christ's sacrifice is nowhere near this ideological abomination.



This is the same president who blocked the Keystone Pipeline repeatedly:

The Obama administration on Friday finalized its recommendation to expand protected areas of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling on Congress to block about 12 million acres (5 million hectares) from oil and gas drilling.

Like Obama cares about Alaska's natural beauty.



Hhmmm... why would Lithuania raise its defense spending?

Lithuania, spooked by Russian military assertiveness, outlined plans on Friday to raise defense spending by a third in 2016, contributing the highest share of its economy to defense since it joined NATO in 2004.

The Baltic country has never met the informal NATO rule of spending 2 percent of its economy on defense and curbed its defense budget during the 2009-2010 financial crisis. By 2013, Lithuania was spending just 0.8 percent of GDP on defense, the second smallest share of NATO countries after Luxemburg.

The attitude changed in 2014, however, when Russia took over the Crimea peninsula and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin denies sending troops and weapons to the region.

The Lithuanian Defence Council, a defense policy setting body, on Friday proposed raising military spending by 149 million euros ($164 million) in 2016, to 574 million euros, or about 1.46 percent of the economy, the Defence Ministry said in an e-mail.

Lithuania has already upped defense spending in 2014 and 2015, and its political parties have promised to reach the 2 percent of GDP goal no later than in 2020.

"This will get our army to a whole new level, it will be ready to ensure defense and deterrence, both in its own right and together with the allies," Defense Minister Juozas Olekas told reporters about the defense proposals.

The minister did not mention Russia by name on Friday, but Lithuania's leaders have frequently referred to the threat from its huge non-NATO neighbor and former Soviet master.

Most Russians think Stalin's purges were justified:

Nearly half of all Russians think the sacrifices made under dictator Josef Stalin were justified by the Soviet Union's rapid economic progress during his rule, a poll published Tuesday showed, reflecting a boost in Stalin's popularity in recent years.

Forty-five percent of those questioned by independent pollster the Levada Center said they definitely or to some degree thought that the sacrifices made by the Soviet people under Stalin's rule were justified in light of the country's rapid development. Two years ago, that figure stood at only 25 percent, according to the report.

The pollster also found that while a large number of respondents (46 percent) thought Stalin's death put an end to mass repression and terror, that figure was higher (56 percent) two years ago. During that same period, the number of Russians who saw Stalin's death as a great loss grew from 18 percent to 24 percent.

In a summary of its findings, the Levada Center said its latest poll indicated a growing shift in public perceptions of Stalin since the turn of the 21st century.

"If the prevailing attitude toward [Stalin] was negative at the start of the millennium, now a large proportion of respondents (39 percent) now evaluate him positively," the Levada Center said. While 25 percent said they viewed the Soviet leader negatively, a further 30 percent identified their feelings as neutral, the pollster added.

A Levada Center analyst said the findings were the result of the policies of the current government.

“[Stalin is being rehabilitated because] the current Russian authorities and [President Vladimir] Putin in particular seek the legitimization and justification of their actions by resorting to the past. It gives them a certain endorsement,” Alexei Levinson, head of the Levada Center's social and cultural studies department, told The Moscow Times on Tuesday.

Granted, these are the people who weren't starved, bombed, sent to the gulags or somehow un-purged themselves, so...

Please gaze upon these beautiful huskies to forget the love most Russians have for totalitarianism.



Gerry Adams proves what a sack of crap he is:

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has described the notorious abduction and murder of Jean McConville as 'what happens in wars'. 

(Sidebar: yes, housewives somehow associated with you somehow end up dead, don't they?)

The comments have angered relatives of Mrs McConville, whose abduction, disappearance and subsequent murder became one of the most shocking events of The Troubles.

She was 37 when she was taken by a masked gang from her home in Belfast in front of her children. She was accused by republicans of being a British Army informer, suffocated with a plastic bag and shot dead.

Her remains were eventually discovered by a dog walker buried in a dune on Shelling Hill Beach in County Louth in 2003, ending decades of torment for her relatives and enabling them to finally give her a proper burial.

Last year Mr Adams, who has long denied he was even in the IRA, was arrested by police investigating Mrs McConville’s murder. He denied any involvement and was released without charge.

But then last month, the influential American magazine the New Yorker named Gerry Adams as a former IRA commander who personally passed ‘death sentences’ on its enemies. It published a damning 15,000-word assessment of allegations against him and claimed that Adams himself issued the order to ‘disappear’ Mrs McConville. …

In the preview of the interview, which will be shown in full on Sunday, CBS presenter Scott Pelley said: ‘It was known to the IRA and you’re saying you didn’t know?

Mr Adams said: ‘Yes’

Mr Pelley asked: ‘How do you orphan 10 children? What kind of depravity is that?’

Mr Adams said: ‘That’s what happens in wars, Scott.

 
Leave her there:

A 19-year-old British woman, one of a group of medical students that includes seven Britons, an American and a Canadian thought to have traveled to join the Islamic State group, has told her family she wants to go home, a Turkish lawmaker has said.

"A female student, 19-year-old Lena, sent a message to her family saying she wanted to go back. We will try tomorrow to bring her and those who are with her back, if we can persuade them," opposition CHP lawmaker Mehmet Ali Ediboglu said in an interview with Reuters television late on Wednesday.

Okay, this happened:

ABC-57 reporter Alyssa Marino’s editor sends her on a half-hour drive southwest of their South Bend studio, to the small town of Walkerton (Pop. ~2,300). According to Alyssa’s own account on Twitter, she “just walked into their shop [Memories Pizza] and asked how they feel” about Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Owner Crystal O’Connor says she’s in favor of it, noting that while anyone can eat in her family restaurant, if the business were asked to cater a gay wedding, they would not do it. It conflicts with their biblical beliefs. Alyssa’s tweet mentions that the O’Connors have “never been asked to cater a same-sex wedding.”

Then this:

Christian-owned Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana has at least temporarily closed after a firestorm of social media criticism and threats:

And this:

It looks like Memories Pizza won’t have much trouble making up for any lost income after yesterday’s lib-fueled hate fest. Over $100,000 raised on this GoFundMe page, and climbing!

And now this:

CBS employee reports #MemoriesPizza GoFundMe for fraud — ‘just in case’

(sigh)

What started out as an unsolicited opinion on the right of private businesses to exercise their beliefs has meandered into extortion, then moderate fortune and then some sad, old cow's accusations of fraud.

Just as with Chick-Fil-A, Memories Pizza (and I suspect other businesses, as well) will come out swinging not simply because people have the right to their beliefs and practices against manufactured crusades that go on in the First World but because leftism truly is a mental illness that reduces its sufferers to violent, delusional, petty little creatures not unlike Gollum.

We don't likes normal people.

When homosexuals are thrown from roofs, how on Earth can a cake (or pizza, as the case may be) be of the utmost importance?


And now, a message from His Holiness, Pope Francis:

Mid-Week Post

 

Easter is coming....


Canada's mission against ISIS is to be extended for a year:

Canadian fighter jets will soon be launching airstrikes in Syria now that the House of Commons has approved the federal government’s plan to expand and extend its military mission in Iraq.

Federal MPs voted 142-129 in favour of a motion extending the mission for up to a full year and authorizing bombing runs in Syria against targets belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The original mission deployed six CF-18 fighter jets, one CC-150 Polaris air-to-air refuelling aircraft, two CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft. Some 600 aircrew and other personnel are currently deployed.

Up to 69 special forces advisers will also remain in the region to advise and assist Kurdish peshmerga forces in their efforts to beat back the advance of ISIL militants.

Needless to say, neither the Liberals nor the NDP support this extension.


ISIS seizes part of a Palestinian refugee camp:

Islamic State fighters seized most of a vast camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Damascus from other insurgents on Wednesday in a bid to capture a major foothold close to President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power.

In a separate advance, rebel groups that have received backing from Assad's Arab and Western foes captured a border crossing with Jordan, the first time Damascus has lost it since the start of the conflict, sources on both sides said.

The gains by groups at opposite ends of the insurgent spectrum show the pressures still facing Assad, who has sought to shore up his control over western Syria including the border zone with Jordan and Israel - the last notable foothold of the mainstream rebels who have largely been eclipsed by jihadists.

(Sidebar: why is Assad still the issue? Has everyone been asleep since ISIS began its rampage of rape, thievery and artefact-smashing?)

Is Saudi Arabia angry enough to launch airstrikes to defend Palestinian sandbags refugees? Palestinians are good as political props but not good enough for legal residence anywhere in the Islamic world. Muslims are more likely to be victims of apathy and violence at the hands of other Muslims. ISIS is still in operation despite the "degrading" campaign against it.

Is anyone serious about wiping out ISIS?


A BC man accused of plotting a terrorist attack believed killing women and children was acceptable:

An accused British Columbia terrorist calmly dismisses the killing of women and children as "collateral damage" while he and an undercover police officer drive around Victoria scoping out possible targets to attack.

In a video recorded May 2013 and played for a jury on Wednesday, John Nuttall says the slaying of bystanders is OK as long as it is not done on purpose.

"Muslim women and children, they get killed (by Western forces) all the time in the holy lands," says Nuttall, a recent convert to Islam.

The recordings were part of a months-long undercover RCMP sting involving more than 240 police officers.

For some wider context:

“Syrian Cleric Sheik Muhammad Badi’ Moussa: We Ruled It Is Permissible to Kill ‘Alawite Women and Children, but Advised the Free Syrian Army to Warn ‘Alawites before Raiding Their Villages,” ...

Because that would be the considerate thing to do.


I find it it adorable that someone thinks he can derail Iran's nuclear ambitions:

With stubborn disputes unresolved, nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers went past a self-imposed deadline and into overtime as negotiators renewed efforts to hammer out the outline of an agreement.

Don't forget Passover.


And now, a mother dog saves her pups from fire by burying them:

A mother dog saved her nine puppies from burning alive in a forest fire in Chile by digging a deep hole and placing her babies inside where they were later found untouched by the flames, according to rescuers.

Necessity is the mother of invention, I suppose.


Maybe something to make for Easter.