Carbon Is Just ONE of the Most Common Elements in the Universe

Indeed.


Did we double-check prospective university applicants BEFORE they started classes? Yes? No?


It all starts in the early years:

Is this creature capable of exposing shocking internet illiteracy?

Donald Leu, a researcher from the University of Connecticut, conducted a U.S. Department of Education-funded study of internet literacy among so-called “digital natives,” fabricating the tree octopus to test students’ ability to evaluate information they find on the internet.

Researchers asked students to find out information about the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus. Students had no problem locating a Web site dedicated to the cause, http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/  “but insisted on the existence of the made-up story, even after researchers explained the information on the website was completely fabricated,” according to a press release.

And you wonder why people believe things like the world will come to an end in 2012 or just about anything they read about Sarah Palin (first obligatory reference). We've devolved morally AND academically. Yes, there are parents and teachers who help mould the minds of children with hard work, dedication and the best materials they can get their hands on. There is also any number of people out there for whom higher brain functions serve as a burden which is why they are not exercised. From that to tree octopus, it's not much of a leap.


Second obligatory Sarah Palin reference: First Lady Michelle Obama pitches her anti-obesity program:

First Lady Michelle Obama, meeting reporters on the eve of the first-year anniversary of her "Let's Move" anti-obesity campaign, found herself talking about more than diet and exercise.

She addressed smoking (she's "very proud" the president quit almost a year ago), choosing her wardrobe (she buys dresses, not designers) and keeping her marriage strong (lots of laughing helps).

Obama 's campaign aims to end childhood obesity within a generation. About one-third of children are overweight or obese.

She was asked about criticism from Sarah Palin, who said the first lady didn't want people to eat dessert. Obama would not speak directly to Palin's charge, but said the vast majority of people understand that childhood obesity is a "real issue" and that parents, teachers and pediatricians are "grateful that we're having this conversation."

When asked if the menu for the White House Super Bowl party, featuring kielbasa, bratwurst, deep-dish pizza and cheeseburgers, sent the wrong message, she noted that salads also were served and that achieving "balance" is what's important.

Oh, isn't that cute? She's flirting with the press. Again.


Here is what Sarah Palin actually said:

During an episode of her reality show, the once (and future?) candidate cooked up a mess of hot s’mores and a side of even hotter politics, declaring: “This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”

(See the video at the 2:30 mark. Watch for something touching about Trig at the 1:20 mark.)



Here is what Michelle Obama said:

“We can’t just leave it up the parents.”

Michelle Obama's "popcorn and beer" moment. 


Tree octopus to this.  Five minutes of intellectual effort.


For your reading pleasure,  fifty-seven states. Guess who said that one.


From Sarah Palin to her Wonder Twin, Ezra Levant:

This is an uncomfortable subject for liberals. Equality of men and women is an essential western principle. Acceptance of gay rights is the new liberal litmus test. Teaching historical facts in the face of religious faith is the foundation of secular enlightenment.

But many liberals don't confront bigotry when it arrives in the form of an immigrant, non-Christian visible minority.

Here's a tip for politically correct liberals wondering how to respond to sexist, anti-gay, anti-Semitic demands from new Canadians: Pretend they're old white Christian men.

If the Pope demanded public schools shut down music classes or boys and girls be segregated, you can imagine the outrage. We're well trained in the phrase "separation of church and state."

Well, how about separation of mosque and state? How about promoting Canadian values?

 

Well, he does have a point:

My position is this: Yes, it’s important that Quebec remain a predominantly French-language society. And ideally, everyone in Quebec should be able to speak French. But we should not try to reach this goal by restricting people’s rights and freedom of choice.

French will survive if Quebecers cherish it and want to preserve it; it will flourish if Quebec becomes a freer, more dynamic and prosperous society; it will thrive if we make it an attractive language that newcomers want to learn and use. Not by imposing it and by preventing people from making their own decisions in matters that concern their personal lives.

Francophones are their own worst enemy. Push and someone will push back. Also, know your numbers.


Doctors should also heavily reference Kermit Gosnell, too.


Some North Korean news: Israel gives refugee status to a North Korean couple; the North Korea-Hosni Mubarak connection; is someone defacing pictures of the Kims? (hat tip: OFK)


The Palestinians will use even the birthplace of Christ to get what they want. It's too bad they won't protect it or the people who believe in it.


Even dogs understand the need for blessings.

Tuesday Post

Quick thoughts for Holy Week and in general.


Devolution: morons in Canada and in the US where the decline isn't just financial:

In such a world it becomes more difficult to innovate, and frankly not a priority. When I deposit a New Zealand check at my bank in Montreal, the funds are available to me within two seconds. The last time I deposited a New Zealand check at my bank in the U.S., they sent it for “collection” (an entirely artificial concept in the computer age) to Australia, and by the time it came back it had expired. They couldn’t understand why I was annoyed — c’mon, man, we were in the ballpark! To resolve the issue, I had to go to the bank president, who, on being informed of my Canadian comparison, said, “Well, you must understand smaller countries by their nature have to get used to dealing with the rest of the world. It’s different for America.” 
 

This might have been reasonable enough in 1950, when America was last man standing on a Western world otherwise reduced to rubble. But it seems an odd attitude for a country whose households are entirely filled by products made elsewhere and whose future is mortgaged to foreigners. And it made me wonder if perhaps Ferguson and I are being insufficiently apocalyptic. A gargantuan bureaucratized parochialism leavened by litigiousness and political correctness is a scale of decline no developed nation has yet attempted.

Carbon and stupidity, people. Americans don't get that Canada is its neighbour and Canada is so multicultural and cosmopolitan that they think the Eskimo the Inuit still live in igloos.


Thank you, God, that Sun TV lets Ezra Levant talk and talk. Sarah Palin's Wonder Twin deserves his own mic.


Not everyone likes Sun News, however, principally the people who like their women stupid:

I only watched a couple of minutes of Sun News today so I can’t really comment much on the content except to say it sure ain’t like anything else on Canadian TV which in itself makes me very happy.

What I did want to comment on is the snide remarks being made from Sun News’ media competitors and especially the ones which smack of being misogynistic.

CBC’s Rick Mercer - “Just yesterday SUN TV’s studios was full of dry wall, today it is full of silicone”

Ottawa Citizen’s Dave Dutton - “26 babe shots in intro; still awaiting actual news”

Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair – “If the ratings are as high as the hem-lines, Sun News has a chance”

I’m not normally one to get bent out of shape over stuff like this but imagine the outcry if it was the Sun’s journalists and on-air personalities taking shots at the CBC’s Wendy Mesley or CTV’s Jennifer Ward about how short their skirts are and sneering about their boob jobs?

Tsk-tsk.


Take your "art" and stuff it:

When New York artist Andres Serrano plunged a plastic crucifix into a glass of his own urine and photographed it in 1987 under the title Piss Christ, he said he was making a statement on the misuse of religion.

Controversy has followed the work ever since, but reached an unprecedented peak on Palm Sunday when it was attacked with hammers and destroyed after an "anti-blasphemy" campaign by French Catholic fundamentalists in the southern city of Avignon.

The violent slashing of the picture, and another Serrano photograph of a meditating nun, has plunged secular France into soul-searching about Christian fundamentalism and Nicolas Sarkozy's use of religious populism in his bid for re-election next year.

It also marks a return to an old standoff between Serrano and the religious right that dates back more than 20 years, to Reagan-era Republicanism in the US.

What is worse: the incident or the padding in the article (juvenile, really)? YOU decide. Is the last acceptable prejudice anything like the religion of peace?


It's no Miss America but just as entertaining if halal TV entertainment is your bag.


(hat tips: SDA and BCF)


And now, some historical brass (or copper and silver as the case may be): recordings of trumpets from Tutankhamen's court.

Mid-Week Post

Fantabulous day!


According to the poll, most (almost all) think Ezra Levant is cooler than George Strombolopolous (I'm assuming the vote for him was accidental).


How right you are!


Let me sate your thirst for this particular Wonder Twin with this:







CTV's cowardice and CBC's silence just doesn't scratch Antonia Zerbsias' fatuous attack on the Ethical Oil ad. Perhaps she would like to explain how the ad disgusts her on Ezra Levant's show?



(Kamsamhamnida)



File this under: OBSCENE; MURDER; LAWSUIT:

Canadian researchers have documented a string of cases in which women were misdiagnosed with ectopic pregnancies, then given a powerful drug that led to miscarriage, abortion or the birth of severely deformed babies.

The blunder - causing "significant emotional suffering" - is likely more common than it appears, researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children say, noting that use of the drug, methotrexate, has soared in recent years. Such misdiagnoses are seldom reported to authorities now, likely in part because of physicians' fears of legal problems, said their study, just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The researchers catalogue eight recent cases, in both Canada and the U.S.

In some cases, they say, emergency-department doctors with limited training in analyzing ultrasound images may be mistakenly identifying healthy pregnancies as ectopic, where the embryo develops outside the womb.

The authors argue that the diagnosis should be made only after a confirmatory ultrasound and careful consideration. They also urge that a non-judgmental system be established to encourage more reporting of such cases.

"They all ended up in dire outcomes, they were all desired pregnancies," Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, an emergency doctor and toxicologist at Sick Kids, said about the study he spearheaded. "Our wish was to highlight and raise awareness of this phenomenon.... There is not a lot of incentives for clinicians to report these cases."

No, a blunder is reading the wrong name over an intercom.  These diagnoses classify as inhumanity and incompetence.


I guess being "desired" magically transformed these eliminated offspring into human beings. Biology is best  never brought up in cases like this.



Who will miss this disgusting, evil man when he is gone?



The Canadians are now better friends to Israel than the US. Who saw that coming?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper rallied to the side of Israel on Wednesday, saying the best road for peace in the Middle East lies through negotiations between that country and the Palestinians.


Harper made his move in a meeting at the United Nations with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Under Harper’s leadership, Canada has been an outspoken supporter of Israel in recent years. And on Wednesday, Harper publicly reinforced that relationship with a critically timed message of support.


The international community is gripped this week with debate over the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the UN.

Harper has categorically stated in recent days that Canada will oppose the “unilateral” effort by the Palestinians at the UN — outside of long-stalled peace talks with Israel — because it could actually hamper hopes for peace in the region.

Really? Just one regret? I mean- it's a valid one but I'm sure there are more regrets.



And now, some record-breaking cats.

Mid-Week Post

For the love of scrimshaw.

The Parti Quebecois has won a minority government, ousting Premier Jean Charest from power.

What I care about is when this “distinct society” gets the boot from the rest of Canada, a nation that has had it up to its eyebrows supporting Quebec’s tantrums and privilege.

A shooting at the Parti Quebecois victory event ends with the tragic killing of one person:

A gunman has killed one person and seriously wounded another after opening fire during the victory speech of Pauline Marois, Quebec's newly elected separatist premiere, who was unharmed.

Police said early on Wednesday that the 50-year-old man entered the hall and fired at least one shot, wounding two people, one of them critically.

The suspect was later caught on camera shouting "The English are waking up!" as he was being arrested. Marois was rushed off the stage in Montreal although the gunman's target was unclear.

It’s now time for the Democratic National Convention, something dedicated voters so looked forward to that they had to accept free tickets.

And what a four years it has been!

Sixteen trillion dollars in debt.

Twenty-three million unemployed Americans.

No Keystone Pipeline.

The Vain One can go on expensive trips but not to Israel with her husband.

A weakened America in the eyes of Iran, China, Russia and the Middle East.

An alienated Canada, Israel, eastern Europe and marginalised religious minorities and persecuted Christians who receive no support from a once bulwark of humanity.

A patronising tone toward workers, soldiers, women, Catholics and voters in general.

Sarah Palin’s Wonder Twin said it best:

But Obama has always been unserious. No great accomplishments in life – but two lovingly written autobiographies. No business experience; no military experience; no leadership experience at all, really. Just being wafted ever upward in a series of preparations.

He won the job — that big chair — in 2008. And it was as if he didn’t know what to do with it. He didn’t master events or cause them — they happened to him. He took over at the beginning of a recession — and deepened it. He took over a debt-burdened government, and further indebted it.

The Arab Spring exploded on his watch — he has stood impotently to the side as the Muslim Brotherhood seized it. His solution is what it has always been: Another speech, always on teleprompter; another campaign fundraiser; maybe another golf game. It’s the difference between campaigning and governing; between talking and actually taking steps, actually deciding.

We can go with the media’s love affair with Obama (and his savior complex) and his harridan of a wife but why make you barf?

For any would-be Obama voters out there, let me put the crux of the election in some kind of context for you. You have twenty-three million friends out of work. Each and every single one of them is going to hit YOU up for cash.

These people will defeat the Decepticons for us one day. That is a mark of awesomery.

Translation: Yippee-ka-yay, criminal elements!

Mid-Week Post

Every third letter in this post spells a secret message.

The story so far…

Chief Theresa Spense, who presides over the dilapidated Attawapiskat Reservation, declared she would remain on what she considered a hunger strike (but in truth is actually a fast with access to a hot shower every now and again) until she met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She was the heretofore darling of the media (ie- CBC, CTV and Global and various rags) and unquestioningly praised for her Christ-like mission (Sidebar: the last time someone thought he was as good as God, he was up to his @$$ in bugs). A pseudo-Occupy movement, Idle No More, deliberately clogged roads, buildings and railroads with sympathy for the presumably downtrodden reservation-dwellers who languish under what is really a racialist and racist bit of legislation. Ezra Levant (RE: Wonder Twin of Sarah Palin) painstakingly reviewed Attawapiskat’s financial records and criticised the alleged hunger strike on his show, “The Source”, which airs on the Sun News Network. His reports were decried as racist and even mistaken. The state-funded CBC then ran the story of Attawapiskat’s very faulty financial records in which $104 million is unaccounted for. Now, everyone is on the defensive and Chief Spense will not meet with the press at all. The once trusted popular press is now being forced away.

And now you know the rest of the story!

What is Obama hiding?

President Obama and the White House have stated multiple times that the President is fiercely "committed" to discovering and punishing those responsible for the attack on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya in September of last year which cost the lives of four Americans. However, the President's "committed" administration is now allowing the Tunisian government to release a top suspect in the Benghazi attack without protest or comment.

The "religion of peace" is exempt from liberal criticism:

Many Egyptian viewers were horrified when preacher Hisham el-Ashry recently popped up on primetime television to say women must cover up for their own protection and advocated the introduction of religious police.

"I was once asked: If I came to power, would I let Christian women remain unveiled? And I said: If they want to get raped on the streets, then they can," Ashry told Nahar TV last week.

Introducing a Saudi-style anti-vice police force to enforce Islamic law was "not a bad thing", he said, and added: "In order for Egypt to become fully Islamic, alcohol must be banned and all women must be covered."

 

Slut Walk NOW!

I think the next lesson should be how “redistribution works in other countries and the body count that comes with it”:

That, as you have guessed if you’ve looked at the picture, isn’t the real problem here.  The problem is HOW this government school document teaches the lesson.  The headline at the top of the document reads “Distribute the Wealth.”  And there you have the picture of the pretty little girl with the cute little pony tail.  She’s holding a bag of money in one hand, and giving away some of that money with the other.  Yes!  She’s distributing her wealth!  But if you study the picture you’ll see there’s an even more subtle message.  She’s not handing money away from her wallet or her purse.  No!  That wouldn’t get the real message across!  Why pretty much every little girl has a wallet or a purse.  No .. this little sweetheart has a BAG of money!  Not every little girl has BAGS of money … so this girl must be really RICH!  And since she’s rich her money needs to be redistributed!  So she’s being a good little rich girl  and she’s smiling as she hands her money away.

Charity is giving one's goods or time for the benefit of others, perhaps as to emulate Christ's example whom we cannot mention in the public sphere for fear of incessant nagging. Redistribution is the taking of another's belongings and handing it over to a band of bloodthirsty anarchists (RE: the former Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba....) under the guise of this thievery being just.

And that is your distinction for today.

Thank GOD someone has written about this:

Bick’s have recently ceased operations in Canada – don’t buy them.
 Stienfeld’s Pickles are made in India – just as bad! But many NoName
pickles are made in Canada ..

 Another example is canned mushrooms. NoName brand came from
Indonesia… Next to them were President Choice brand… Product of
Canada!!

 Also check those little fruit cups we give to our children. They used
to be made here in Canada in the Niagara region, until about 2 years
ago…..They are now packaged in China!

 While the Chinese, export inferior and even toxic products, dangerous
toys and goods to be sold in North American markets, the media wrings
its hands and criticizes the Obama Administration and the Harper
Government for perceived errors. Yet 70% of North Americans believe
that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be
suspended!! Well, duh. Why do you need the government to suspend
trading privileges?

I would like to know how China's filth and slave labour system are somehow more consumer-friendly and safe than producing even food in Canada. The Chinese poisoned their own children with melamine. Why the hell would they care about the health, safety and satisfaction of North American consumers who are either too physically or morally lazy to care where their products come from?

Shop local and screw the Chinese communist slave labour state.

 

Observe the Victim Pyramid in disarray:

A Minnesota-based publishing house has dropped one of its authors for calling a black conservative woman an “Aunt Tom” and “ignorant c–t” on Twitter.

Author Scott Colbert has since deleted the Friday tweet to Crystal Wright, known as “@GOPBlackChick,” and locked his Twitter feed, but not before conservative commentator and bestselling author Brad Thor highlighted it on his own Twitter account. Thor, a frequent Glenn Beck television and radio guest, replied to Colbert: “Did you just hurl a racial slur at my friend?”

Thor then proceeded to tweet Colbert’s publisher, KHP Publishers, Inc., and many of Colbert’s followers a screenshot of his epithet.

By Saturday, KHP had posted a message on its website announcing it had terminated its contract with an author, whom it did not name, due to an “inexcusable” incident.

“[T]he author made a racial slur at the person with KHP material plastering his Twitter page’s background. This involved the company, and we saw the results of this on our own Twitter page this morning,” KHP wrote. “[W]e find this inexcusable. In sticking to our own ‘zero tolerance’ model, we terminated our contract with this author immediately and his book is in the process of being removed from stores.”

I’m detecting a pattern here….

The Victim Pyramid works thusly: a special-interest group or subculture can claim it is a victim of some sort of human rights abuse, whether it is an assault or simply getting one's feelings hurt. It doesn't really matter because all that is necessary for the pyramid to work is for the claim to be made. Gay trumps straight and Muslim trumps gay and so forth. A conservative of whatever ethnic heritage or gender is nowhere on this pyramid. That is why Mr. Colbert thought he could attack Miss Wright. He thought that past racism was magically the same as disapproving of same-sex marriage, the opposition of which can- in the eyes of the militant political left- legitimately be met with vitriol, as the Victim Pyramid allows. The purpose of that pyramid is not to define what is just or fair but who can be offended the least or the most. Funny that the pyramid was kicked right out when Mr. Colbert was. I say good. We as a society have gotten rid of the code of conduct that kept us in moral and civil check. Its inadvertent re-introduction was just the kick in the pants people like Mr. Colbert need to snap them out of their vile and immature behaviour and undeserved sense of entitlement to be total jackholes to those whose opinions are different to theirs. Mr. Colbert's bullying was never cute or acceptable. But racism never is.

Enjoy unemployment in Obama's America, Mr. Colbert. You deserve it.

There is no secret message in this post.

(With thanks to one and all)

 

Back

Leave the desk for a few days and see what piles up.


Sam Donaldson is a uni-browed fossilised cretin:

ABC's former White House correspondent Sam Donaldson told the Huffington Post Saturday, "Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there – they oppose him not for his polices [sic] and political view but for who he is, an African American!"  

Yes, I'm sure Obama's questionable connections, lack of experience, willingness to allow infanticide, appeasement of Iran, alienation of both Canada and Israel and complete incompetence as a leader have absolutely nothing to do with anything. Right....



NDP leader, Thomas Muclair (the Betazoid infiltrator) wants Canada to go down with help Greece:







Ezra Levant was accused of excesses... or something... I was just stunned by the hypocrisy of his unaccountable detractors.



Related: Sarah Palin, Ezra Levant's Wonder Twin, defends the right to blog without fear.

"Nobody fracks with fracking or my right to free speech and own very big guns."

The British Columbia Supreme Court opens the floodgates to euthanasia:

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has declared Canada's laws against physician-assisted suicide unconstitutional because they discriminate against the physically disabled.

In a 395-page ruling released Friday, Justice Lynn Smith addressed the situation faced by Gloria Taylor, a B.C. woman who was one of five plaintiffs in the case seeking the legal right to doctor-assisted suicide.

I know people are thinking this has to do with personal autonomy but think that this hard case- which will become law- doesn't change the fact that we will die but who will kill us.


And who is someone to kill me?



The Toronto District School Board considers ed Che Guevara, the Argentinian son of leftist parents and who was sexually aroused by the execution of boys, worthy of note in elementary class calendars (look at the 24th):

From TDSB text:

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a leader in Latin America who was born in Argentina.  He was a doctor.
 
When he was young, he travelled through South America on his motor bike and wrote in his journal.  While travelling, he was saddened by how poor people were wherever he visited. 

No mention of his sadism. Hhhmmm.....



Related- from this:

The way I understand it, you can't pick and choose which laws you would like to obey. Ms. Gibbons made a conscious decision to not obey the law. There are consequences. Period. She is trying to portray herself as a martyr, which she is not.

BTW this has nothing to do with Karla Homolka. Karla committed her crimes, did her time. She did not go back out repeatedly and break the law (that we know about.) 

To this:

Why do people need to know this? Having Ezra's name attached to it takes away any credibility.

For leftism/liberalism, lack of moral vision isn't a bug, it's a feature.



Moving on....



The UN promoted Zimbabwe as a tourism ambassador. Zimbabweans use their own worthless currency as toilet paper. Discuss.



It has been bandied about that extremely graphic and extensively pushed sex education programs are in fact grooming aids for the more perverse of the species. That theory may be right:

Parents in a small Washington State community are infuriated after their 11-year-old children were given graphic descriptions of oral and anal sex during a sex education class led by an elementary school principal.

Fifth-graders at Onalaska Elementary School were supposed to get a lesson about HIV-AIDS, but the class discussion turned graphic when a child asked about other forms of sexual activity. The principal, who happened to be teaching the class, then told the children about oral and anal sex.

“I’m one pissed off cowboy,” parent James Gilliand told Fox News Radio. “I didn’t appreciate them teaching my daughter – who is innocent of that – at all.”

Gilliland and his wife, Kadra, were among the moms and dads in Onalaska, about 73 miles south of Tacoma, demanding answers from their local school system – and so far – they are still waiting.

“I was just shocked because I trusted my little country school,” Kadra Gilliland told Fox News Radio. “I didn’t think they were going to talk about such things. I trusted by school – that’s the bottom line and they crossed the line.”
School officials did not return calls seeking comment.

However, Superintendent Scott Fenter defended the principal’s action to local media and said that the lesson did not go too far.

“I think the principal handled it appropriately at the time; she only gave factual information, no demonstrations,”...

 Toronto is not our cosmopolitan or moral superior:

Has everyone forgotten that Toronto councillor and would-be mayor Adam Vaughan is simply channelling former mayor David Miller in his call for banning guns and bullets in the wake of the Eaton Centre shooting?

Four years ago, Miller -- whose political base is the same as Vaughan's -- called for a ban on guns following a similar outbreak of gun violence.

While Miller didn't include banning bullets, he wanted legal gun owners to store their guns (and, presumably, their ammunition) at a central depot.

Of course this never happened given its impracticality and the fact only the feds can ban guns, which not even Jean Chretien, creator of the long-gun registry, attempted.

Miller's "war" on guns, which, like Vaughan's, was political, not practical, eventually settled on irrelevant symbolism that had nothing to do with addressing violent urban street crime.

Miller's council banned the Sportsmen's Show from Exhibition Place because of its hunting rifle displays, (a decision the present council recently overturned, meaning the Sportsmen's Show will return there next year) and closed two gun clubs on city property, one at Union Station, the other in Scarborough.

Coun. Josh Colle, whose ward includes Lawrence Heights, where the vast majority of law-abiding black citizens are often victims of the small minority of black gangsters, has accurately described stunts like banning the Sportsmen's Show as a way white downtown politicians pretend they're doing something to fight gun violence.

Except it's even more cynical than that.

Vaughan, like Miller, isn't stupid. They know their proposals won't reduce urban gun and gang violence.

That would involve addressing the inability of our criminal justice system to apply and enforce the laws we already have against gun crime (we don't need new ones), and the horrendous breakdown of the nuclear family in the black community, which leads directly to the proliferation of black gangs.

Implementing these measures would require major spending by federal, provincial and municipal governments and focus a spotlight on the huge social problem of absentee fathers in the black community, which politicians today don't want to discuss, because their brains are so addled by political correctness, they think talking about problems honestly is racist.

What Vaughan's doing, as did Miller, is changing the channel from taking on gangsters to harassing legal gun owners, such as hunters.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty takes a step back from ruining everyone's summer:

There were signs of a resolution Sunday to a budget crisis in Ontario that threatens to trigger a summer election just eight months after the last campaign.

Premier Dalton McGuinty appeared to step back slightly from his threat to go to the polls over changes the opposition parties made to the budget, but again demanded the NDP live up to agreements to let the fiscal plan pass.

"The budget must remain intact," McGuinty wrote Sunday in a letter to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
"You need only ensure your caucus lives up to the agreements you have already made."

On Friday, McGuinty said he would call an election if portions of the budget that were removed at committee on Thursday by the NDP and Conservatives were not restored before Wednesday's final vote.

But in Sunday's letter, McGuinty said those sections would be brought back in the fall as a separate bill. He urged Horwath to honour her promise not to block passage of the budget legislation.

This time, said McGuinty, he wants the NDP to put it in writing.

"Specifically, I ask you to commit yourself and your party, in writing, to not alter the intent or block passage of any more schedules of the budget bill," he wrote."

"And, of course, I will also need your written assurance that you will not block passage of the budget bill in the legislature."

The budget faces two more days of opposition-dominated finance committee hearings Monday and Tuesday, before the legislature is recalled Wednesday for the final vote, a confidence motion that could defeat the minority government and trigger an election.

I think McGuinty is worried that voters won't be fooled again.




What a surprise: the emotionally and culturally retarded Taliban ban an anti-polio drive in Pakistan:

 

Pakistani militants in a Taliban and Al-Qaeda infested tribal region Saturday banned anti-polio vaccination teams, to protest US drone strikes saying the attacks were killing civilians.

"Anti-polio vaccination teams will not be allowed to administer polio drops among children in North Waziristan," local warlord Gul Bahadur said in a statement.

Bahadur, who is allied with Afghan Taliban fighting US-led troops across the border, said the ban will remain effective until the US stops drone attacks in the tribal region.

"On the one hand they are killing innocent women, children and old people in drone attacks and on the other they are spending millions on vaccination campaign," the statement distributed in the region's main town Miranshah said.

It said "the day and night US drone flights in Waziristan are causing mental illness in the local population which is more dangerous than polio."

Residents said people would respond to the call as Bahadur commands influence in the region.

First of all, this isn't the only time the Taliban has done this:

 Militants in northern Pakistan have triggered a medical emergency by refusing to allow health officials to conduct a polio vaccination campaign. 

Taliban militants in the former tourist destination of Swat Valley have obstructed officials from vaccinating over 300,000 children. 

Militants have seized control of most of Swat and its capital, Mingora, and have extended their rule since striking a peace deal with the government and army earlier this year. 

“There is a real emergency there. It is urgent to go in and vaccinate children,” said Dr Nima Abid, the Polio Team leader from the World Health Organisation in Pakistan. 

Extremist clerics have used mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations to spread the idea that the vaccinations cause infertility and are part of a US-sponsored anti-Muslim plot. 

Secondly, we can disregard that nonsense that drones are the real threat here. The real threats are the Taliban, Islamism and the useful idiots whose cries of Islamaphobia seldom go unheard.



(With immeasurable amounts of thanks and props)