Saint Patrick's Week: The Life of Pie

A merry Pi Day to all y'all...

Enjoy some pie... 

 

North Korean workers in Malaysia will be deported:

Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Tuesday that the body of Kim Jong Nam, who was killed last month, has been embalmed to better preserve it, and that about 50 North Koreans whose work permits have expired will be deported.

News of the deportations was a surprise as the countries have barred each other’s citizen from leaving amid a diplomatic standoff over Kim’s death.

 
If the Malaysians were wise and compassionate, they would renew the visas of these slaves workers and use them for good publicity.

Malaysia doesn't kill North Koreans. North Korean leaders do.



Also:

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson faces a tough first trip to Asia this week when the former oil executive will seek to reassure nervous allies facing North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threat and press China to do more on perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting President Donald Trump.

Tillerson will visit Japan and South Korea before heading to Beijing, where he is expected to firm up a U.S. visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping next month to meet Trump as the leaders of the word's two largest economies.

But the chances of Tillerson persuading China to do more to curb North Korea's weapons programs while in Beijing appear scant, given China's anger at the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea last week, and Trump's repeated threats to impose punitive tariffs on Beijing to correct a large trade imbalance.

Tillerson faces a delicate task in South Korea, which is in political turmoil after former President Park Geun-hye was ousted last week in a corruption scandal.

The prospects of a victory by South Korea's liberal opposition in elections to be held within two months, has raised questions about the future there of the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, which China objects to as its radar can penetrate China’s territory.

Beijing has sought to pressure Seoul to drop THAAD. 

Beijing will convince North Korea to behave the way a fly will convince a spider not to consume it.

No one is willing to treat China as the instigator of global ill will, an exploiter of slave labour (which even those in the West turn a blind eye to) and an octopus. Even Japan is launching its largest warship in a sabre-rattling gesture against Chinese militarism. This as China continues building bases on islands in the South China Sea. As long as Asian countries rely on cheap Chinese labour and trade, they can expect more belligerence and a staunched economy as China's paper dragon inflates.



And:

Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday turned down senior presidential aides' resignation offers, citing the need to address urgent security and economic issues facing the nation.

That guy has a full plate.




Trust the Russians to deflect blame from themselves to anyone but them.

Who had a revolution again, one spearheaded by bloodthirsty tyrants?

The First World War was going badly (given the nature of that conflict, that is an understatement). Russia was in the midst of upheaval and Germany was in a stalemate. One way or another, Germany wanted Russia to withdraw.

In came Vladimir Lenin, financed by a bank in New York, hated by some of the people who shared his ideologies, who then went on to be one of the worst butchers in Russian history and then died of syphilis.

But don't let Russian Orthodox believers dissuade one from seeing this atheist butcher for what he was and the Russian people's culpability in letting him assume power:

Religious leaders have denounced Russia's 1917 communist revolution as a “Western plot” to destroy the country.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), an autonomous branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, claimed that Russian elites brain-washed by “Westernism” plunged Russia into political turmoil.

“[Western-educated elites] pushed Russia into the abyss with suicidal persistence,” the ROCOR bishops' synod said in a statement. “They persuaded the Russian people to renounce their faith, their king and their homeland."

The church also called for the body of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin to be removed from Moscow's Red Square as “a symbol of reconciliation” to mark 100 years since the revolution.

It said Moscow should be “liberated” from the body of “the greatest persecutor and tormentor of the twentieth century.”

The church isn't alone in suspecting the 1917 revolutions were part of a western plot. In an online poll conducted by Russia's Komsomolkaya Pravda newspaper, 32.7 percent of respondents said they believed that Western agents were the main cause of the 1917 February revolution, which triggered the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.

ISIS commander killed in Mosul:

Iraqi government forces killed the Islamic State commander of Mosul's Old City on Tuesday as the battle for the militants' last stronghold in Iraq focused on a bridge crossing the Tigris river.

If people were serious about how their governments spent money, they would make politicians' pensions and payouts conditional to their service. That means someone like Justin Trudeau would still have to rely on daddy's money:

Capital gains taxes are imposed on the sale of assets, like stocks and property other than a principal residence, that have increased in value in non-registered accounts. Currently, 50 per cent of gains are included in taxable income, so that the rate is effectively half the marginal rate. The speculation is that the inclusion might be moved to 75 per cent, resulting in an alarming 50-per-cent increase in the tax rate. If it were increased instead to two-thirds, that would drive up the tax by one-third, still a brutal hike.

You would think that a government that professes to be concerned about the adequacy of retirement savings would avoid discouraging savings. Yet a capital gains tax does precisely that. The Liberals clearly prefer government pensions and income supplements to private savings, the nanny state over the private sector. Furthermore, a capital gains tax unfairly taxes appreciation resulting from inflation. People will see their net worth decline in inflation-adjusted terms because of a government whose profligacy has pushed up prices. Taxing capital gains also imposes double taxation. Alienating investors and job-creators is rarely conducive to economic growth.

The Liberal government is earnestly searching for funds for its ever-escalating social programs and much ballyhooed and elusive infrastructure spending, much of which has not been for infrastructure at all. The deficit has almost tripled from the “modest” $10 billion promised in the election platform. The Finance Department projects deficits continuing past mid-century, with debt ballooning to $1.5 trillion by 2045. Meanwhile, growth remains modest, in spite of the stimulus spending. So the minister of finance is in a squeeze and is looking avariciously at anyone who may want to realize a gain on their investments.

You voted for it, Alberta:

Fifty-eight per cent of Albertans think the government’s handling of the economy is “poor” or “very poor,” according to the poll for Postmedia by Mainstreet Research. The “very poor” category is fully 47 per cent.

Yes, Mrs. Kay. This is Islamophobic. Report to Nathalie Desrosiers and Iqra Khalid for corrective punishment:

Wood, an Arabic-speaking scholar of Islamic history, has spent years immersed in extended relationships with Islamic State (ISIL) jihadis in their “diaspora” — places like Egypt, Australia, America, England and Norway. In this instructive and often entertaining book exploring his experiences (an elaboration on his feature 2015 Atlantic magazine article, “What ISIS Really Wants”), Wood shares his impatience with the ostrich-like approach to contemporary jihadism exemplified in M-103.

Wood writes: “The reality is that the Islamic State (IS) is Islamic. Very Islamic.” The strain of Salafist Islam jihadists embrace derives “from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.” Salafis — all jihadis are Salafist, but not all Salafists are jihadis, who represent, it bears emphasizing, tens of  thousands out of 1.4 billion Muslims — “read the Koran attentively, and on certain matters, they occupy ground at least as solid as that of their opponents.” It therefore won’t do, he says, to pretend jihadists are misrepresenting their religion.

Unrepentant terrorist and scumbag Omar Khadr has Canadians pay for surgery on his shoulder, a shoulder he injured while killing American and Canadian soldiers:

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr is recovering from a 19-hour operation on a shoulder that was badly injured in Afghanistan 15 years ago, his lawyer said Monday.

Putting a bit of perspective on how the government sees useless air-thief Khadr and children with autism:

Fourteen days. A Mississauga family believes if their son was born just two weeks earlier, he would be getting treatment for autism. Instead he’s receiving nothing.

Arman Baig turned five on April 28. Exactly two weeks later — after having to wait six months before he could see a specialist — he was diagnosed.

The timing is critical; if Arman was diagnosed before his birthday, he could have been put on a waiting list for Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI). Instead, he was put on a list for Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), a less intensive therapy.

“We were left with no choice. So, he was put on the ABA list,” said his father, Sajjad Baig. “The wait time for that is at least two to three years. Now, there is no therapy for him.”

Arman’s parents can’t afford to pay for ABA on their own. His mother Snovia Jamil said there is no way the family can cover the cost which is about $3,000 a month.

Teen "cured" of sickle-cell anemia:

Doctors at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris achieved these results by first draining the 13-year-old’s bone marrow. They then “infected” the marrow with a virus containing genetic instructions to correctly manufacture healthy red blood cells, instead of the deformed ones that blocked blood flow.

After the insertion of the edited bone marrow into the teenager 15 months ago, the youth was able to stop taking medication and has shown no symptoms of sickle cell disease since.

Specialists are reluctant to call this procedure a “cure” since more tests need to be conducted, however the triumph has raised hope for millions of people suffering from the same disease.

Really? How is that working out for one?

Well-intentioned donor organisations working to assist the disabled often adopt an approach that is ineffectual in Cambodia, according to the doctoral research of Cambodian scholar Monyrath Nuth.
Based at RMIT University in Australia, Nuth authored an extensive case study examining whether the “rights-based” approach to disabilities promoted by international donors is applicable in developing countries like Cambodia. His research concluded that the situation of disabled people in the Kingdom was not effectively improved due to the prioritising of Western concepts of human rights and inclusion. 

“This unconscious privileging of Western assumptions embedded in policy practice resulted in program outcomes that were not sustainable and produced limited opportunities for Cambodians with disabilities to thrive,” Nuth wrote, adding that this “thwarted any hope Cambodians with disabilities may have had for realizing their rights and equality”. 

In developed countries such as the United States and Australia, an approach to disabilities known as the “social model” has been widely endorsed and adopted. This approach aims to separate the concept of disability from a person’s physical impairment, and instead focus on changing the ways relationships and interactions fail to enable the participation of disabled people in society. 

The UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which came into force in 2008, obliges signatories to adopt this approach. 

But Nuth argues that traditional beliefs in Cambodia are often at odds with this agenda. 

For example, religious belief in Cambodia has helped form an understanding of disability as a limitation to physical or cognitive functions alone. A longstanding belief that disabilities arise from bad karma permits people to accept their impairments as fate, and to accept this as an abnormality. 

This belief also obligates family members to care for their disabled relatives. 

Hoping to shield their relatives from shame or judgment, many family members believe it is immoral to allow disabled relatives to engage in complex physical activities in public. 

“This view contradicts the dominant Western conceptions of social inclusion that put emphasis on employment and accessibility to all public spaces as a key aspiration relating to inclusion,” Nuth writes. 

Instead of lobbying for accessibility, some Cambodians instead perform ceremonies for their disabled relatives in order to improve their karma.

 
I respect that people draw on faith for comfort and strength but reason helps, too. A disability usually is the result of an injury or illness and should be treated as such, not something to be hidden.



 
People will believe anything:

 Pope Francis didn’t say that God had told him to revise the Ten Commandments as claimed in a widely shared story. Francis never made the purported comments and has not changed or added to the Ten Commandments. He has no authority to do that, given that the core moral teachings of Christianity and Judaism were said to have been revealed to Moses by God and are written in the Bible.

The story said Francis made the announcement July 6, 2015, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, during his first Mass at the start of a three-nation South American tour. It said Francis had revised the biblical teaching to cover children raised by same-sex parents and removed prohibitions on adultery. It said Francis had added new commandments to forbid genetic engineering and self-glorification and said the Vatican was having a new set of commandments etched into marble.

The pope did indeed celebrate his first Mass in Ecuador on July 6, 2015, but his homily focused on the Virgin Mary and the joy of families. At no time during the trip, or at any other point in his four-year pontificate, has Francis changed the Ten Commandments.

The story appeared on a site called Real News Right Now, which is listed on media watch lists as a hoax site. The purported author, R. Hobbus J.D., is identified on the website as an investigative journalist who has won awards that don’t exist, including the “Oscar Mayer Award for Journalistic Excellence.”

And now, finding your birthday in Pi:

Like, say, your birthday. To verify this, we wrote a program to scan the first million digits of Pi and identify the first instance of all 366 days of the year, represented like "314," with the month followed by the day ("704" for July 4th for example, or "1225" for Christmas Day"). The program found the final date — Dec. 3, or "1203" — beginning at the 60,873rd digit. 

 

Saint Patrick's Week: Trek Into Greenness

Lousy Smarch weather...

 
I'm sure that this is nothing to be concerned about:

Canada's government said on Monday that it shut down its website for filing federal taxes after hackers broke into a web server at the nation's statistics bureau last week by exploiting a newly disclosed software bug. 


Statistics Canada, which said it stopped the intrusion before hackers stole any data, is the first high-profile organization to say it was hacked due to a new security bug in software known as Apache Struts 2. The software is commonly used in websites of governments, banks, retailers and other large organizations.

Other victims have not yet come forth, although security firms said they expect more attacks to surface after details on the easy-to-exploit vulnerability were posted on security forums and hacking websites last week.

Who is running this zoo exactly?


Also:

Stoltenberg’s report said Canada saw a small bump in defence spending in 2016, which pushed the percentage of its GDP spent on defence to 1.02 from 0.98.

The increase helped Canada move up to 20th from 23rd in terms of spending among NATO’s 28 allies, putting it in a three-way tie with Hungary and Slovenia.

But it was still the smallest share of GDP that Canada has spent on defence since 2012, while only Belgium, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg and Spain spent less.

The figures have taken on new importance following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has complained about NATO allies not spending enough on defence.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to all but dismiss the two per cent target during a visit to Germany last month, saying: “There are many ways of evaluating one’s contribution to NATO.”

 
Cheapskate.

Just like dad. Let the Americans do the heavy lifting.




Why? Because the logical dissonance of the electorate borders on complete brain removal. That's why:

People like to be stroked. Provincial leaders enjoy having Ottawa put on a show of respect, even while working feverishly to outflank them. It’s probably far too late in the game for Tories to start presenting themselves as boy scouts ever on the lookout for kittens to rescue. They’d probably never be able to maintain the sincere visage needed to put across the ruse in any case. The Liberals got there long before them, and are so skilled in the performance that most of them probably believe they really mean it. That’s the sort of deception that’s really hard to beat.

Trump to meet Merkel:

President Trump is set to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week at the White House, marking the first face-to-face encounter between the new U.S. commander in chief and the woman known as “Europe’s decider.” When they meet, the two leaders with little in common will find themselves belatedly moving to forge a relationship that could determine the future of transatlantic ties.

Trust me - this will still be trotted out time and time again. When you have no theological, historical or academic leg to stand on, this is the go-to:

The news about the Houses of Life is only surprising because the truth about the Church and the Jewish people in the Second World War has been suppressed. Several aides of the wartime pope, Pius XII, acknowledged that they had worked to rescue Jews on his direct instructions. They included two future popes – Mgr Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII) and Mgr Giovanni Battista Montini (Paul VI). Pius XII himself sheltered Jews both in the Vatican itself and at Castel Gandolfo.

This is a good moment to mark the Church’s witness against Nazism. Eighty years ago, on March 14, 1937, Pope Pius XI issued Mit Brennender Sorge (“With Burning Anxiety”), an encyclical, pointedly written in German, condemning Nazism. “Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the state, and divinises them to an idolatrous level, perverts an order of the world created by God,” the pope wrote.

Many insisted that Putin was just there to help:

Russia appears to have deployed special forces to an airbase in western Egypt near the border with Libya in recent days, U.S., Egyptian and diplomatic sources say, a move that would add to U.S. concerns about Moscow's deepening role in Libya.

The U.S. and diplomatic officials said any such Russian deployment might be part of a bid to support Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, who suffered a setback with an attack on March 3 by the Benghazi Defence Brigades (BDB) on oil ports controlled by his forces.

Rather, Putin is extending his reach.




Perhaps Turkey should be reminded that the Netherlands, despite its faults, feeds and houses many Turkish migrants and doesn't want Erdogan's g-d- opinion:

Turkey said on Monday it would suspend high-level diplomatic relations with the Netherlands after Dutch authorities prevented its ministers from speaking at rallies of expatriate Turks, deepening the row between the two NATO allies.

The sanctions - which include a ban on the Dutch ambassador and diplomatic flights from the Netherlands but do not appear to include economic measures or travel restrictions for ordinary citizens - mark another low point in relations between Turkey and the European Union, which it still officially aims to join.

President Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking Turkish voters' support in an April 16 referendum on boosting his powers as head of state, has previously accused the Dutch government of acting like "Nazi remnants" for barring his ministers from addressing expatriate Turks to drum up votes. ...

On Sunday, Dutch police used dogs and water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags outside the consulate in Rotterdam. Some protesters threw bottles and stones and several demonstrators were beaten by police with batons, a Reuters witness said. Mounted police officers charged the crowd.

"The Turkish community and our citizens were subject to bad treatment, with inhumane and humiliating methods used in disproportionate intervention against people exercising their right to peaceful assembly," a statement attributed to ministry sources said.

The Dutch government barred Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam on Saturday and later stopped Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish consulate there, before escorting her back to Germany.

Protests then erupted in Turkey and the Netherlands.

Several European countries have stopped Turkish politicians holding rallies, due to fears that tensions in Turkey might spill over into their expatriate communities.

Some 400,000 Turkish citizens live in the Netherlands and an estimated 1.5 million Turkish voters live in Germany.

On Monday evening Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said he would try to prohibit Turkish ministers from campaigning in his country too for "reasons of public security".

The Dutch government said the visits were untimely ahead of a national election on Wednesday, in which polls suggest it may lose about half its seats due to expected big gains by the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders.

Speaking of whom:

Even if Wilders is barred from power by the wide range of parties that are refusing to cooperate with him, he already has tugged his nation’s political discourse toward a far harder line on immigrants. Anxious to capture Wilders voters, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said this year that immigrants needed to work harder to fit into Dutch society or they should leave — a stark departure from a centuries-old Dutch tradition of acceptance.

The article might as well have been written by Wilders' opponents for all of its negativity towards the wildly popular Dutch politician whose major faux pas has been the audacity to insist that those who immigrate to the Netherlands blend in, something that has caught on in Canada but far too late:

Three Canadians out of four believe immigrants to this country should be tested for “anti-Canadian” values, a survey conducted for Radio-Canada suggests.

The findings of the survey, carried by the CROP polling for the French-language service of the CBC, indicate that despite criticism from the media and within political circles, the controversial position taken by Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch that immigrants be tested for an appreciation of “Canadian” values has traction with 74 per cent of Canadians. Inside Quebec, support for testing immigrants stood at 75 per cent.

The poll also suggests that 60 per cent of Canadians — and 67 per cent of those polled in Quebec — believe immigrants should put aside their own cultures and adopt that of Canada once they settle here.

In case people are still wondering why any of this is a discussion, it must be said simply: culture matters. Political multiculturalism might hold that all cultures are equally wonderful but that is demonstrably false. Nor does it bear away the simple fact that cohesion though language, custom and law create stable and prosperous environments. No one cares what food one makes at home; one does care when one believes some members of society deserve to be second-class citizens because some archaic belief says so.


Also:

The RCMP does keep track of the people intercepted crossing the border irregularly, but not all of them necessarily are asylum-seekers. With that caveat, here are the number of irregular border crossers caught by the RCMP this year:

290 in Quebec (Feb 1 – Feb. 21)
202 in Manitoba (Jan. 1 – March 8)
51 in B.C. (Feb. 1 – Feb. 21)

Just return them.




If he does, I do not blame him:

Trump’s immigration policies appear to be working. That’s great for the majority of Americans who are opposed to open immigration, and for Trump’s re-election prospects, which depend on his delivering on his campaign promise to control illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. border.

But that isn’t great for Canada. Trump’s immigration policies — and our government’s response to them — point to peril for us. The peril includes harm to our trading relationship, ill will towards Canadians by Americans and the prospect of a wall on America’s northern border.

But... but... the polar bears!

Over the past year or so, First Nations residents living along the James Bay coast in northern Ontario have reported an alarming rise in polar bear sightings. Experts suspect climate change and the related change in ice flows and currents are likely driving the phenomenon.

Uh, weren't they all supposed to be drowning and dying off?


Also:

Great white sharks are discovering what tourists have known for years: Cape Cod is a great place to spend the summer.

The latest data from a multiyear study of the ocean predators found that the number of sharks in waters off the vacation haven appears to be on the rise, said Greg Skomal, a senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the state’s top shark expert.

But that’s no reason to cancel vacation. The sharks are after seals, not humans, and towns are using the information from the study to keep it that way.

But sharks often confuse bathers with seals, so, you know - caution.




And now, a place where each day is Valentine's Day even on Saint Patrick's Day:

John Sprat was an Irish Carmelite that was known for both his abilities as a preacher and dedicated work with the destitute in the city of Dublin. While visiting Rome, his fame had apparently preceded him, and he became hot on the Jesuit circuit, giving sermons and receiving tokens of esteem from his peers.

One of the more impressive tokens he was gifted was the remains of Saint Valentine by Pope Gregory XVI, which had recently been uncovered during grave restorations. Sprat brought the Reliquary containing the relics to his Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, where they remained popular until the death of their popular procurer. With the death of Sprat, the relics went into storage and were not venerated until the church went through restorations in the 1950’s/1960’s. Both an altar and shrine were created and are now watched over by a statue depicting the saint holding a crocus (carved by Irene Broe).

Today the shrine is popular with couples who come to pray for St. Valentine to watch over their lives together, and to celebrate the feast day of February 14th which includes the Blessings of the Rings for those about to marry. The reliquary is placed on the high altar and venerated at the Masses.

 

Saint Patrick's Week: Green One

Quickly now...


After a South Korean constitutional court finally removed (now) former president Park Geun-Hye from power, many are not at all pleased:

Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed defiance toward the corruption allegations against her as she vacated the presidential palace and returned to her home on Sunday, two days after the constitutional Court removed her from office.

In her first public comments since the court’s ruling, Park said in statement, “Although it will take time, I believe the truth will certainly come out.”

Park will likely face a direct investigation soon by prosecutors who already consider her a criminal suspect over suspicions that she colluded with a confidante to extort money and favours from companies and allowed the friend to secretly interfere with state affairs.

Upon her return home, Park was greeted by hundreds of supporters who thunderously chanted her name and waved the South Korean flag as her bodyguard-flanked black sedan slowly rolled into a path near the house. Park, dressed in a dark blue coat and her hair tied in a bun, smiled and waved from inside the car. She then stepped out and shook hands and exchanged brief words with members of her political party before going inside the house.

In her statement, which was read to reporters by Min Kyungwook, a lawmaker from her conservative party and her former spokesman, Park also expressed gratitude to her supporters and apologized for “failing to fulfil my duty as president.”

If she had been anyone else, she would have blamed people by now.




PM Gerald Butts Justin Trudeau has an irrepressible belief that he is winning when losing:

In the House of Commons, a newly muscular Liberal backbench had just voted against the wishes of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau not once, but twice in the same night.

Meanwhile, in a reception hall in Montreal, grassroots Liberals were overruling the wishes of the party brass by refusing to nominate Trudeau’s preferred pick to be the candidate in a byelection to replace Stéphane Dion.

Was a caucus revolt underway? Were the grassroots rebelling against Trudeau and his “sunny ways” approach to politics?

Hardly.

“All in all a strong day for democracy in Canada. In Parliament and on the ground,” wrote one of Trudeau’s closest confidants, Gerald Butts, on Twitter. “Promises kept.”

Indeed, in on-the-record interviews at the end of the week with several Liberals, there was a clear message: This was a feature, not a bug. Liberals had campaigned in the past election to allow more free votes in the House of Commons, and Trudeau himself had committed to allowing the grassroots to choose local candidates rather than have candidates forced on them by party HQ.

But there have been more than a few Liberals — in Parliament and on the ground — who have been grumbling privately that Trudeau, his close advisers and the party brass have not been living up to their own rhetoric.

Just a little over a week ago, in Markham, Ont., Mary Ng had won the Liberal nomination in Markham—Thornhill. Ng had quit her job in the PMO and had been parachuted into the riding over the objection of many local Liberals.

There were angry accusations that the party had rigged the process in favour of the leader’s favourite rather than the riding’s favourite.

(Sidebar: corruption? NO!)


Also:

The Trudeau government is in the bizarre position of preparing to go to the Supreme Court to argue against a federal law passed with the support of its own MPs.

That’s the result of Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s announcement that the government intends to seek the top court’s advice on the constitutionality of a bill aimed at preventing genetic discrimination.

More than 100 Liberal backbenchers joined Conservatives and New Democrats to give final approval to the bill Wednesday, despite warnings from Wilson-Raybould and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that it is unconstitutional.

Brexit reignites tensions in Northern Ireland:

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, a border poll can only be called if it’s clear that a majority of representatives want one. The unionists aren’t about to grant that and Adams knows it. But he figures it’s worth pressing: Northern Ireland voted nearly 56 to 44 to remain in the European Union in the Brexit referendum. Of those who consider themselves nationalists, 88 per cent voted to stay in the EU. That presents an added layer of complexity and uncertainty to sectarian issues.

I'd think EU or public service issues like pensions would be a bigger problem.




Oh, this is terrible:

A Marmora, Ont. mother says she will sue Quinte Health Care after her infant fell – fracturing his skull – while a nurse at Belleville General Hospital was feeding him.

Apologetic hospital officials say they are investigating the “unusual and unfortunate incident” involving a “very experienced, highly-qualified, great nurse.”

Only in SOME countries can one be considered a hero if schoolgirls are killed:

A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls has been freed after serving 20 years in prison, with many Jordanians celebrating his release and calling him a national hero, witnesses and family sources said on Sunday.

Japan aided Malaysia in the investigation of the murder of Kim Jong-Nam:

Japan provided Malaysia with fingerprint data for Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, needed for the investigation into his murder last month at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

The data was obtained when the Japanese immigration officials detained him in 2001 at Narita International Airport when he tried to enter the country on a false passport. He told Japanese authorities at the time he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

The disclosure marks the first time that Japan’s assistance has come to light in the investigation into the fatal poison attack, which is widely believed to have been orchestrated by North Korea.

And now, a guy with too much time on his hands:

For Today...

Odds and ends...



Never under-estimate how big an @$$hole Trudeau can be. Ever:

 
Trudeau is a walking joke whose mouth should have been the ruin of him but has not, thanks to thirty-nine percent of Canadians who don't have a problem with his idiocy and vacuous rudeness.

Someone recovering from a stroke probably doesn't have time to skim through Trudeau's stuttering repetitious platitudes or cope with the way he avoids answering questions directly at all (why aren't we electing judges the way the Americans do as opposed to letting that awful Peter Pan or secret select group appoint them?). It might have something to do with recovering from a debilitating condition.


Also: apparently "Nazi" hair cuts are a thing according to an unfunny screech-bot who mocked a man with a stage four brain tumour.




As usual, no one knows why a man attacked people with an axe in Dusseldorf:

A man wielding an ax rampaged through the main train station in Düsseldorf, Germany, on Thursday, injuring seven people before he was arrested after jumping off an overpass, police said. 

I bet I do.




The Vancouver School Board released a redacted report stating that certain members were bullying others:

A redacted report released by the Vancouver School Board singles out members of the left-leaning Vision Vancouver party in an external investigation that blames trustees for creating a toxic work environment in which staff were bullied and harassed.

The "tipping point" was a September meeting during which Vision's Patti Bacchus, a trustee at the time, put forward a motion asking the Vancouver mayor to review enrolment projections that had been prepared by board staff, says the report, which was written by lawyer Roslyn Goldner.

"I do not find the explanations provided by Vision trustees related to the motions proposed at the Sept. 26 meeting credible," Goldner wrote in the 44-page document, which was released Tuesday in response to a freedom-of-information request.

"The evidence supports the claims that their interest was in pursuing a political agenda rather than supporting the prior decision of the board and the recommendations of the senior staff."

Some leftists can't bring themselves to go full Nazi but they do try.




And now, this is straight out of an Indiana Jones movie:

The unassuming hole leads to caves which are hidden less than a metre beneath a farmers field.

Legend has it that the Caynton Caves, near the town of Shifnal, date back to the 1300s, when they were used by the Knights Templars – an order of Christian missionaries that fought in the crusades.

Historic England thinks not, however, saying the caves were most likely constructed as recently as the late 18th or early 19th century.

The body responsible for England’s historic environment says the site – or grotto – appears to have been used for black magic rites in recent times.

Cleanliness is close to dogliness:

Call him friar pup.

A stray schnauzer mutt has been taken in by a monastery in Bolivia, where he received not only a new home but a Franciscan habit as well.

His life is all about playing and running," Friar Jorge Fernandez told The Dodo website. "Here all of the brothers love him very much. He is a creature of God."

The silver-and-black dog had been living on the street before a local animal rescue organization called Proyecto Narices Frias (Cold Nose Project) picked him up and made him available for adoption to the monastery. 

  

The brothers posed for photos of the animal, clad in a tiny brown habit with a rope belt, and one friar posted them to Facebook, where they were liked more than 2,000 times.

Mid-Week Post

 

Nineteen year old kid beats the odds and hangs on to his nomination:

Ontario’s youngest ever MPP Sam Oosterhoff fought off a challenge from within his party to earn the right to represent the Progressive Conservatives in next provincial election.

He defeated Grimsby regional Coun. Tony Quirk for the Niagara West nomination at the packed Smithville Fairgrounds building Tuesday night.

The political parties in this country are primordial sludge and would stab anyone even remotely principled in the back.




Speaking of primordial sludge:

The federal government plans to spend $650 million over three years for international sexual and reproductive health projects, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today as he marked International Women’s Day.

(Sidebar: International Women's Day is a fake holiday, like Kwanzaa.)

He said far too many women and girls around the world see reproductive rights violated and, in many cases, are subject to gender and sexual-based violence and “harmful practices” such as female genital mutilation.

Women run a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, he added.

(Sidebar: oh, really Justin? Did that bother you when you refused to call honour-killing and FGM "barbaric" and when you offered victimised Yazidi children parkas as rape repellent? And how did Yazidi girls and women fare getting raped before you were shamed into let them into Canada? Shouldn't you be defending your tone-deaf wife?)

Unless those minorities are making cheap t-shirts, painting toe nails or voting Liberal, they're not much use, eh, Justin?

Just stick to letting Trump make you pick up the tab for cleaning the Great Lakes. There's a good boy.




"Useful idiots" is putting it mildly, sir:

The term “useful idiot” has been attributed to the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who toppled the czar in October, 1917.

Lenin’s exact word in Russian was “simpleton” to describe people in the West who served his purpose, but were neither truly aware of who was using them, nor the cause they served.

On Sunday, a blatant exhibition of “useful idiots” was on display at Toronto City Hall.

This time, they came not to serve Trotsky’s Fourth International, the Sandinistas or the Viet Cong.

This time they came to serve the cause of Islamofascism.

White youths in bandanas and facemasks roughed up Canadians, including their Muslim Canadian allies, who were protesting Liberal MP Iqra Khalid’s “Islamophobia” motion, M-103.

Among the bullied victims of the supposed anti-racist activists, who included communists and Arab Islamists, were Muslim Canadians who were pushed and kicked, their placards seized and torn, with close-up pictures of them taken by a counter protester.

“We fear our pictures were being taken to be passed on to the Pakistani Consulate in Toronto,” said Imtiaz Baloch, a small business owner who escaped Islamic tyranny three decades ago.

Said another protester named Ahmad: “I escaped Pakistan because of the jihadist threat there to liberal values. I never thought that the (jihadi) mindset I escaped, would chase me to Canada.”

Most media did not report on this bizarre nexus of communists working hand-in-hand with Arab Islamists and white anarchists. ...

Khalid, who is the sponsor of M-103, has largely avoided the media, other than to say in Parliament that she has received Islamophobic, racist and threatening messages from opponents of M-103.

But where are the voices of Liberal Muslim MPs who know about the tyranny of Islamism, such as federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi?

Gentlemen, now is the time to show real character and integrity and to stand up against the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jihadi Islamism.

Face masks? Thuggery?

And the budget is set to be discussed on the same day as this dreadful motion.

It's all a slimy plan.


(Merci beaucoup)




Saudi Arabia funds terrorism. Why take their oil when we can use our own?

The Kingdom has much to offer Canadian companies, with major social infrastructure projects underway, a vibrant business community, and an increasing openness to foreign direct investment. By 2030, the Kingdom plans to privatize hospitals, attract mining investment, adopt new technologies, build new manufacturing facilities in the automotive industry, construct new logistics centres and transition to a green and clean economy that is less, if not at all, dependent on fossil fuels. All of these emerging growth sectors present commercial opportunities for Canadian industries but Ottawa needs to develop a comprehensive Canadian engagement strategy for Saudi Arabia or else Canada will continue to remain a non-priority in Saudi Arabia.

Moving on ...



China is still pulling strings:

Malaysia has warned that an investigation into the murder of the North Korean leader's half brother "may take longer than what we hope," as Pyongyang ally China said on Wednesday that no international action should be considered until it is finished.

It baffles me that no one has a problem with China and its puppet strings. 

Does Trump ask Queen Elizabeth to speak to Trudeau? 

Of course not.

China is an impediment to peace, not an independent arbiter.



Also:

Since 2006, China has voted for seven U.N. Security Council resolutions (1695, 1718, 1874, 2087, 2094, 2270 and 2321) and proceeded to violate all seven of them almost immediately. Why? Probably because China’s long-term strategic objective was to use North Korea to intimate South Korea, drive a wedge into the U.S.-South Korean alliance, push U.S. forces out of Korea, and then apply the same strategy to Japan. China probably realizes that by backing Kim Jong-un it’s riding a tiger, but it still prefers coddling a Caligula with nukes to allowing one free Korea to arise on its border. China’s grand strategy stands a strong chance of succeeding. Many South Koreans would sacrifice some of their personal freedom and national independence for fear of war or recession. Right now, the people of South Korea are looking to us. They wonder if they can still count on us. 

I hope so. 


(Kamsahamnida)




And now, a medical marvel:

Researchers have worked for years on methods to improve and even automate blood glucose monitoring and insulin/drug delivery. For example, insulin pumps make drug delivery easier, and recently designed artificial pancreas systems offer closed-loop monitoring and drug delivery. Now, researchers in Korea have just developed a wearable, and potentially disposable, glucose monitoring and drug-delivery system that uses sweat, not blood, to determine glucose levels.

What you didn't know about Iditarod: 

THERE'S A JAMAICAN DOG SLED TEAM.

Inspired by the Olympic Jamaican bobsled team, a Caribbean tour operator started a Jamaican dog sled team to compete in various races. (It was sponsored by Jimmy Buffett.) In 2010, team member Newton Marshall became the first Jamaican to compete in the Iditarod—he competes independently as Mushin’ Mon Newton. In 2014, he made Iditarod news when he helped rescue another musher who had broken his ankle chasing a loose dog.

 

 

For a Tuesday

Lots going on...




Extortion or abduction? How is this different from the usual modus operandi of North Korea?

North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of "effectively holding our citizens hostage" and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council.

Also:

In a surprise move, South Korea and the United States began deploying the highly controversial anti-missile system here, just hours after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles that it said were aimed at US bases in Japan.

The allies confirmed Tuesday that two launchers of the US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system arrived in South Korea’s Osan Air Base late Monday via the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.

They are the first batch of the missile defense system designed to enhance the allies’ capabilities in countering North Korea’s growing missile threats. The deployment will be completed as early as next month, Seoul officials said.

It's time for South Korea to nuclearise.




Two Jewish centres in Toronto received bomb threats:

Leaders in the Jewish community are condemning a rising tide of anti-Semitism after two more Canadian Jewish centres received bomb threats on Tuesday. 

In Toronto, toddlers and young children attending a daycare at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre in the downtown core were evacuated after the centre’s school received a robo-call of a bomb threat shortly after 10 a.m. At almost the same time, the Jewish Community Centre of London, Ontario, received an identical threat — the second time that centre has been threatened in two months, according to the The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

That organization cites over 120 bomb threats against Jewish community centres across North America since the start of 2017.

“The Jewish community unfortunately is being targeted quite extensively now here in Canada. We saw it in Calgary as well, and it’s follows what’s happening in the US,” said Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

This follows a spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centres in the United States in recent weeks and months, as well as a number of incidents on this side of the border. A Jewish community centre in Calgary was evacuated Feb. 27.

 For Benlolo, the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)” movement is not just against Israel but fuels anti-Jewish sentiments, but so too has the rise of President Donald Trump.

 (Sidebar: oh, really? And how old is the BDS movement, Mr. Benlolo? As old as couple-months long Trump presidency?)




Again - Wynne is a symptom of a greater problem, one of stupid people continuing to vote for her:

Wynne isn’t reducing hydro bills 17% on June 1 because of her prudent financial management of the electricity system.

She’s doing it by making provincial taxpayers subsidize hydro ratepayers, which accomplishes nothing because taxpayers and ratepayers are the same people.

In the past decade that saw electricity rates double in Ontario, while two provincial auditors general documented how they were wasting billions of dollars on green energy through reckless planning, the Liberals were indifferent to the suffering their electricity policies caused.

When their constituents appealed to Liberal MPPs for help, many were ignored, or received form letters. Some even got back snarky replies from Liberal MPPs.

Wynne and the Liberals didn’t come up with their “Rob Peter to pay Paul’ hydro subsidy plan because they suddenly care about Ontarians forced into energy poverty because of their inane policies.

They came up with it to save their hides.

Oh, dear:

Researchers spoke with 450 children, adolescents and adults in seven of Syria’s 14 governorates.

Adults said the main cause of psychological stress is the constant shelling and bombardment that characterize the war.

Schools and hospitals have been regularly targeted, destroying the very institutions that can support traumatized children when they need it most.

According to the report, 80 per cent of those interviewed said children have become more aggressive and 71 per cent said children increasingly suffer from frequent bedwetting and involuntary urination — “both common symptoms of toxic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder among children.”

The researchers also found that two-thirds of the children had lost a loved one, had their houses bombed or shelled, or suffered war-related injuries.

Are there red lines for this?




And now, the best restaurant in Antarctica:

Life in the kitchen is never easy—being a chef is a profession that involves an incredible amount of precision, creativity, and the ability to keep your cool in this uniquely stressful environment, even in the best of conditions. In a place like Antarctica's Concordia Station, one of the most isolated research facilities in the world, where day and night can last months on end and temperatures generally hover between -30 and -60 Celsius, the already stressful task of being a chef begins to sound downright hellish.

This however, is not the opinion of Luca Ficara, who has been serving as the base's resident chef since November. ...

Ficara, affectionately referred to as "the David Copperfield of the kitchen" by his crewmates, hails from Sicily, where he spent five years training as a chef in the IPSSAR Hospitality School in Catania, Italy. At 30, Ficara has spent years working in kitchens in Australia, England, and Spain, although working in a kitchen on the white continent was always little more than a dream.

"To be honest, [going to Antarctica] was not in my plan," said Ficara, laughing. "It was like a lottery—you just buy a scratch card, and if you're lucky, you're going to win. You always dream about it, but you never think you will be the winner."

Each year, the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (which maintains the base along with the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor) holds a lottery to determine who will be spending the next year as the resident chef at Concordia. This lottery system has won the station something of a reputation for its food, which received a nod in the Lonely Planet as a place "considered by many to enjoy Antarctica's best cuisine, with fine wines and seven-course lunches on Sundays."

 

"I could go for some Pinot Grigot about now."

Sunday Post

Lots going on....




Syrian representatives accept UN principles at peace talks:

The Syrian opposition has provisionally accepted 12 principles given to delegates by the United Nations at the end of an eight-day round of peace talks, chief negotiator Nasr al-Hariri said.


The general principles on the future of Syria were derived from points set out by U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura last year, Hariri told reporters after the final meeting of the round of U.N.-led talks in Geneva, the first in 10 months.

He said the round had ended without clear results but for the first time issues related to political transition had been discussed in acceptable depth.

 


Malaysian authorities have released a suspect in the murder of Kim Jong-Nam:

Malaysia released on Friday a North Korean suspect in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader and prepared to deport him, while police issued an arrest warrant for another North Korean wanted in connection with the killing.

Kim Jong Nam was murdered on Feb. 13 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, after being assaulted by two women who Malaysian police believe smeared his face with VX, a chemical classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

The women, one from Indonesia and the other from Vietnam, were later detained and were charged this week with murder.

A North Korean man, Ri Jong Chol, was also arrested days after the murder, but he was released from police detention on Friday. He was taken from detention to an immigration office wearing a bullet proof vest to be processed before being sent back to Pyongyang.

"He, accompanied by two representatives of the North Korean embassy, are scheduled to depart to their native country today," Mustafar Ali, director general of the Immigration Department said in a statement.

Malaysia's attorney-general told Reuters on Thursday he was being released due to insufficient evidence.

God help us:

Voting at 16 years old. Giving some non-citizens the vote. A preferential ballot.

New Brunswick's Commission on Electoral Reform issued 24 sweeping recommendations Friday to the way people vote in the province.

One commission member suggested a preferential ballot could be in place by next year's election, but Premier Brian Gallant said he won't make major reforms without first putting it to a referendum or seeking a mandate from voters in an election.

Under a preferential ballot, voters choose their favourite candidate and then rank their second, third, and further choices. Those choices would come into play if no one was able to get 51 per cent of the vote on the first ballot.

Commission member Bev Harrison said such a system tends to take some of the nastiness out of elections.

"This is an opportunity for candidates to be more civilized in their approach, because you are trying to get second and third ballot support in case you don't make it the first time," he said.

 
There are fifty year old people I wouldn't let vote let alone sixteen year olds!





Speaking of Liberal rigamaroles:

A candidate pulled out of a Liberal nomination fight for a federal byelection in Ontario on Thursday, days after she said the race was set up to favour one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s aides.

Juanita Nathan issued a statement saying her efforts to appeal to the party’s leadership have fallen on deaf ears and that she won’t try for the nomination in the Toronto-area riding of Markham Thornhill.

“Given that the nomination process in Markham-Thornhill is neither open nor fair, I am unable to validate the process as it stands,” the statement said. “Therefore, I have no choice but to withdraw my candidacy.”

Nathan was competing for the party’s nomination against Mary Ng, one of Trudeau’s senior staffers.

Earlier this week she complained about the cutoff date to register new party members for a nomination vote that was to take place this Saturday.

She said more than 2,000 people she has registered as Liberals are considered ineligible because the party retroactively set the registration cut-off date for Feb. 14 — the day before she started entering names into the system.

Ng’s campaign has said it learned of the deadline on Feb. 20, the same as everyone else, and also lost out on registering hundreds of supporters. Another candidate, Nadeem Qureshi, shared similar concerns with the Hill Times newspaper.

Trudeau was asked about the controversy earlier Thursday before Nathan’s announcement, suggesting conflicts are part of an open nomination progress.

“People will try and speculate and create conflicts, but ultimately I have a tremendous amount of faith in the local Liberal membership,” Trudeau told a B.C. news conference.

I'll bet you do.





The reason why this will be a costly generational farce is because people are determined to make it so by voting in the same corrupt lot as before:

Trusting Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals to fix the hydro mess they’ve created is like trusting rabbits to guard the lettuce patch.

It requires an unshakeable belief, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that the same people who caused today’s runaway electricity prices know how to fix them.

And that the Liberals will keep their promise to lower hydro rates if they win next year’s election, the same party which came to power under Dalton McGuinty in 2003 solemnly promising not to raise our taxes.

McGuinty even signed a pledge during that election not to do so.

And we all know what happened next.

His boldness and adherence to reason makes him a very good candidate for the position:

A University of Toronto professor known for his controversial views against genderless pronouns will face off against far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and others in a race to become the next rector at Scotland’s largest university. 

A group of 10 students at the University of Glasgow nominated Jordan Peterson to replace Edward Snowden as the school’s rector in an election to take place among students on March 20-21. As rector, Peterson, Yiannopoulos or one of the 10 other candidates put forward by students would be responsible for representing the student population and bringing their issues to the school’s management in a role that dates to the 17th century. 

The clinical psychology professor insists he can represent the entire student population — including the university’s LGBTQ community — despite his refusal to acknowledge his students by pronouns preferred by the trans community. 

“I’m a reasonable person and I’m certainly willing to listen to people as long as they don’t babble ideological nonsense at me,” Peterson said. “I would rather talk to a person than a puppet who is possessed by ideas I already understand and isn’t offering me anything of their personal experience.”

Peterson used a lecture posted on YouTube to take a stand against the use of pronouns such as “ze,” “zir” and “they,” arguing that a person cannot be anything but male or female. He said he would not use such pronouns, even if it was requested by a non-binary student, and being forced to do so would rob him of freedom of speech.

As a result, members of Canada’s transgender community continue to protest Peterson’s public appearances, recently vying to have a March 8 appearance at the National Gallery of Canada cancelled.

(Sidebar: I don't know about Milo...)





Pretending that Christendom's past crimes are on par with Islamist violence in the past and present does a great disservice not only to adherents of either religion but to the keen scrutiny of history and religion, as well. Nothing in Christianity advocates or excuses such blanket violence. Christianity has also inhabits a different place in post-modern society. To pretend that it is a bloodthirsty octopus simply reveals one to be a narrow-minded reactionary rather than a serious student of history and culture:

The Christian secular and religious leaders were not blameless, but they were authentic and distinguished defenders of the civilization Nazism assaulted, and it is not the place of Dr. Sussman or anyone else to assimilate them to the Pagan and diabolical evil of Nazism, under the spurious rubric of them all being Christians of different factions. Nor does a glance at Islamic history or a perusal of the Koran and the New Testament sustain for an instant his preposterous claim that Christianity is more violent than Islam. Not that it is particularly relevant, but when the Jews had their own jurisdictions, before being overborne by more numerous neighbours, they were not averse to violence themselves, including David and Solomon. And the Christians were subject to a good deal more violent (and relatively unprovoked) oppression than were the Jews by the Romans, until most of the Romans, and most of the Jews, chose to become Christians. The Christian democratic leaders of the West in the 20th century secured the destruction of Nazism and the implosion of international Communism, the liberation of occupied Europe, the salvation of the Jews, and the redemption of Germany from Nazi evil. Canada played a distinguished part in all of this.

Because hucksters lace themselves with Teflon. That's why:

All of which should really and finally put some skepticism into reporting on green plans and the visionaries who tout them, they who threaten doom and promise paradise, and then get the terms of each reversed so perfectly. The politicians who gave Canadians the one tonne challenge and the tacky boy scoutism of one million acts of green have never been called to account for the feeble results of either. As for Ontario’s latest $25 billion debacle — you could shut down a lot of gas plants for $25 billion! — they won’t be around when that explodes either.