Mid-Week Post

Wheeeeeee!

It may be the least surprising confirmation in American politics this year — Sarah Palin is considering a bid for the White House in 2012.

Although Palin has been dropping broad hints for months about a possible presidential campaign, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee has told the New York Times that she is in active discussions with her family about mounting a campaign.

“I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here,” Palin told journalist Robert Draper in an interview for an article to be published Sunday.

Family considerations aside, Palin said another significant consideration is whether Americans believe she has enough experience to run the country.

“I know that a hurdle I would have to cross, that some other potential candidates wouldn’t have to cross right out of the chute, is proving my record.”

Ms. Palin is among a crowded group of potential GOP contenders, several of whom have more extensive records in government — including Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

A Gallup poll released this week found Romney holding a narrow lead among GOP hopefuls, with 19 per cent support of party members. Palin and Huckabee tied for second with 16% support.

Mrs. Palin has to raise that number in order to make a successful run.




Even the Americans know Harper has gotten it right:

It's an odd time we're living in. Canada, the semi-socialist state may have just taken over the U.S as being the biggest supporter of Israel, morally speaking

The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his subordinates have taken a consistently admirable stance when it comes to defending Israel, and recently the prime minister gave a solid speech upping Canada's commitment to the bastion of civilization in the middle east....

 We've gotten to the point where Canada has become the sole vocal government in North America to morally defend Israel's right to exist? What's more shocking in a tragic way, is Canada is being punished both by the U.N (not surprised) and the United States (tragically surprised) for taking their courageous stance against the thugs attacking Israel.

This defense of Israel coming from Harper couldn't have come at a better time. The U.S government which has historically been Israel's greatest and most outspoken ally has all but abandoned them morally. The Obama administration has been spiting on Israel's right to exist through its consistent pandering to the Islamic world, which has always held the dream of seeing Israel stamped out of existence. This coupled with the abusive treatment he has given Israel and its leadership makes it clear that at least for the mean time, the U.S government won't be arguing for the Israeli side in the world's stage.

In world affairs, Canada's played the supporting role with the U.S for some time now. But in this case, let there be no doubt, Canada is the hero. In this time where Israel is being abandoned and disrespected by the Obama administration, and being constantly attacked by its enemies both through violence and denunciations, this North American country is taking a stand in the side of righteousness. And is willing to pay for it too. Just like a hero. Just like America not too long ago.

Once again, Christie Blatchford:

The government and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) had one thing in common: an enemy, Gary McHale, who was coming to town with his “March for Freedom” rally.

He had a standard message: “We’re having a rally. There’s no swearing, no racial slurs, no violence allowed, no criminal behaviour.” Yet, in short order, McHale had managed to offend just about everyone — every level of government, natives and their supporters, the OPP and the Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA).


McHale and his wife Christine had just come off Highway 403 and turned onto Highway 6 south, heading for Caledonia, when they were approached by an OPP cruiser with lights flashing. It was about ten thirty in the morning.

One of the officers got out of the cruiser, walked up to McHale’s open window, and said the purpose of the stop was to advise him that if he attempted to raise a Canadian flag at the rally, he would be arrested.

The officer, Detective Sergeant Bernie Cowan, and his partner, Detective Sergeant Doug Cousens, had attended a “special briefing” about the planned McHale stop earlier that morning, where they were directed by Detective Sergeant Greg Walton to tell McHale that “raising flags in a certain location would be considered a breach of the peace because of the situation.”

The have-not province McGunity built will rely on hookers to tax dollars:

With just over one week to go before sex workers can openly do business in Ontario, the federal government is warning that the province will become Canada’s prostitution hub and there will be legal uncertainty in other provinces unless a judge stays a court ruling that struck down anti-prostitution laws. 

The Justice Department, in a written legal brief, asserts that “one single judge of one single superior court” should not be able to ravage Canadian law.

Failure to suspend Justice Susan Himel’s ruling, pending an appeal, will cause “irreparable harms to the public interest,” says the federal factum, filed in the Ontario Court of Appeal in advance of a Monday court hearing on whether to grant the stay.

Not surprising:

Only slight improvement has been made on cutting wait times in five priority health-care areas, according to an annual report, and governments are failing to apply targets to a broader range of specialties.

The 2009 report card released Thursday by the Wait Time Alliance, says there remains “much unfinished business,” in improving the amount of time between when a patient is referred by a family doctor to when treatment is provided by a specialist. The WTA is made up of 13 medical associations including the Canadian Medical Association.

The report also notes that patients are still having a hard time accessing information about wait times.

The winds they doth blow...onto McGuinty's car:

Tuesday's rainstorm and high winds caused a portion of a construction wall to fall onto Premier Dalton McGuinty's car, his press secretary said. The storm, with its heavy rain and wind gusts of at least 50 kilometres an hour, lashed the city for most of the day, beginning in the afternoon. In an interview, Jane Almeida said Mr. McGuinty's car was parked on the east side of Queen's Park around 6:15 p.m. when a wind gust knocked a piece of scaffolding onto the Toyota hybrid. Mr. McGuinty, pictured, was still in his office at the time of the accident. The provincial legislature is undergoing repairs. "Basically, because of the high winds some of the scaffolding fell on the car," Ms. Almeida said. "I've been told that it's minor damage. There were no injuries."

Something disturbing:

Increasing the legal age of sexual consent does not protect youth most at risk, as children 12 years old and younger have reported sexual experiences with adults, new British Columbia-based research suggests. 

In the first study of its kind in Canada, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University researchers studied data of more than 29,000 students between Grade 7 and Grade 12 and found that some respondents had sex before they were 12 with partners who were at least 20 years old. 

"The law was changed to protect 14 and 15 year olds from adult sexual predators. But it turns out they're not the ones at greatest risk," said lead investigator Bonnie Miller. "We found children under 13, already protected by the existing law, were the ones most likely to report first sex with adults age 20 years or older."
Her team's findings were published on Tuesday in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. 

Legal age of consent increased in 2008 to 16 years old from 14 to protect younger teenagers. But the study shows the change clearly isn't helping children, said Elizabeth Saewyc, a UBC professor. 

She said Canadians need to work on preventing the sexual abuse children and teens are facing, first by making sure youth understand they need to tell a family member or guardian if they encounter sexual abuse.

Sexual activity has been normalised, even celebrated, and this is the result- perverts targeting children. We don't need more pamphlets or social workers. We need stronger penalties for mongrels who prey on children.

The shadowy underbelly. Or something:

In the past year, I've written roughly 5,000 pages of scholarly literature, most on very tight deadlines. But you won't find my name on a single paper.

I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability, municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture, anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online universities. I've completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else.

You've never heard of me, but there's a good chance that you've read some of my work. I'm a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists.

Who is worse- the miscreant who is willing to pay for a paper he or she claims to have written or the one who writes it?

Finally! Someone admits it!

South Korea's peaceful "Sunshine Policy" toward North Korea failed, a government report has found, saying there have been no positive changes to Pyongyang's behavior despite a decade of mass aid and encouragement.

Aid shipped to the North during the administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun from 1998-2008 also failed to make a difference to the lives of destitute North Koreans, said the Unification Ministry white paper, seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The policy review by current President Lee Myung-bak's government pointed to North Korea's pursuit of nuclear arms and the sinking of a South Korean navy ship in March that killed 46 sailors as key examples of Pyongyang's deceptive nature.

"The attack on the Cheonan proves that despite the qualitative growth in inter-Korea ties, North Korea has not changed," the report said.

See! Appeasing your enemies doesn't work!




And now for something completely cool.

Tuesday Post

For it is after Monday.


It just gets richer:

dan kellar on Nov 13, 2010 at 05:51 PM
i would not say the audience lashed out on protectors, there was about 4 old white men yelling, a few old white ladies, but more of the audience were supporting the protests, and the blocking of racist propaganda being spit at our school by an uncritical hack journalist who apologizes for racists, and nazis and writes xenophobic things.
the facts were presented in hand-out form for those who would take them. the integrity of the school was put at risk by allowing the event to be announced.

Let me see if I understand this. This alleged student contends that people supported his childish outburst against a columnist whose book I'm sure he hasn't read and he did it for the good of his school? I've heard lots of delusional things before and this is no different. If I were the dean, I would find a legal way to cut this dead-weight loose. It's clear he hasn't learned the basics of English grammar, the art of civil discourse and hasn't read Miss Blatchford's book.


Ladies and gentlemen, Christie Blatchford:

On February 28, 2006, a handful of protesters from the Six Nations reserve walked onto the Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) construction site in Caledonia, Ont., and blocked workers from entering. It was the start of a lawless occupation that is now in its fifth year, with no resolution in sight....

 

Almost overnight, officers stopping cars without licence plates or with invalid tags, or making other arrests, found themselves being asked, when they first called in the information over the radio, a single shocking question: "Are the occupants white or non-white?" If the answer was "non-white," meaning native, the reply from the command post would be, "Get their names, disengage and if there are any charges to be laid, you can lay them later." 

This rule of non-engagement also affected officers from the Six Nations Police, the first stand-alone Aboriginal police force in Canada and a proud, tough and professional unit. Before the occupation, the two forces had an agreeable working arrangement: If the local OPP was short, Six Nations would lend a hand, and vice versa. But now, Six Nations officers who came into town to back up the OPP also learned when to walk away. 

An infamous incident happened early one night behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Argyle Street, where there was a bit of a dustup involving both Six Nations and Caledonia kids. A Six Nations Police officer arrived to find a Six Nations youth "all but spitting in the face of this OPP officer," who was, in the first officer's view, "standing there and doing nothing." The Six Nations officer later told a colleague about it, saying, "He's not on [Douglas Creek Estates (DCE)], he's not on the reserve, he's a fucking ass-hole, arrest him!" But, like his OPP colleague and against every instinct in his body, the Six Nations officer also left without making an arrest. 

Sidebar: Have you purchased Helpless for a loved one this Christmas? You should.

 

Related: Carleton University bans pro-life club. It is time to stop subsidising universities.


Groping the friendly skies:

So here are your airport choices: submit to sexual molestation or spread your legs, hands over head, and get radiated while some TSA guys down the hall check out your naked body.

 To use the overused line, the terrorists have won.

Somewhere, wherever, Osama bin Laden revels in how he’s cowed and humiliated all of us once tough, brave, freedom-loving Americans. I just can’t believe we’re letting the government get away with this baloney.

Think about this, you fools who actually believe naked scanning and crotch grabbing will prevent future terrorists attacks. Think about your 15-year-old daughter’s breasts being squeezed by some stranger.

Think about your pregnant wife being X-rayed, which damages the unborn. Many scientists insist scanners will also increase cancer risk in small children and adolescents. Think of those already sexually molested now facing a public, government-sponsored molestation anytime they take the shuttle to New York.

It's bad enough terrorists have made passengers nervous and we have to remove practically anything packed on or off our person but now we have given the politically correct busybodies the power to grab our bums. No. Way. Either do what the Israelis do or start issuing Xanax to all airport workers because after being made to unpack bags, remove shoes and belts and then being grabbed inappropriately, I'm sure there will be a lot of rage-filled passengers.


Stupid comment of the day:

Grope sessions? LOL! I know a few people who'd line up over and over for this -- without a ticket to go anywhere!

Bottom line, folks: if you're stuck on "modesty," then don't travel. Your choice. 

Where do I start with this bit of stupidity or should I even bother? I might as well. Perhaps this sad little person is so desperately lonely that any human contact might do. Maybe, I don't know and I don't want to know. Or maybe the frustrated adolescent doesn't understand that grown-ups need to go on those big flying machines in order to get to places where Barbie cars can't go.


I've parsed this enough.


Fertility agency president is a total cow. Who knew?

Canada’s controversial fertility agency is headed by a president who intimidates the board members overseeing her work, makes disparaging remarks about fertility patients and seems eager to undermine the very law she is supposed to enforce, a parliamentary committee heard on Tuesday.

Three former directors of Assisted Human Reproduction Canada offered their first, in-depth account of why they quit the body earlier this year, pointing their fingers jointly at Elinor Wilson. They painted the agency’s CEO as a domineering bureaucrat who brooks little dissent and appears to question one of the most basic tenets of reproductive law: the criminal ban on selling sperm, eggs and embryos.

The former board members also complained that Ms. Wilson often balked at divulging details of how the organization was spending millions of tax dollars, failing even to vet the 2008-09 budget with directors.

“Through various acts of omission and commission, the agency either failed to promote the principles outlined in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, or appeared to actively undermine those principles,” said Prof. Françoise Baylis, a bioethicist at Dalhousie University.

Making and selling designer babies is an industry. None of this should come as a surprise, really.

Stop the bullyyyyinnnnggggg!

 

 

So, I got up and walked across to the douche’s table. I startled him. I asked him if he was making fun of a baby with Downs on the phone and I inquired to whom he was speaking.

“Is that your mom? Are you and your mom mocking a baby and talking about how his mother should have aborted him? Are you using the fact she chose to have that little guy as a reason to claim his mother is stupid? Is this what you and your mom are talking about, really?”.

“For your information, this is a private conversation. I was not talking to you. I am talking to my boyfriend”.

“Well, stud, you are having this conversation in public, in my presence, so for your information it became my business when you started making fun of a two year old..."

 

There is going to be a special episode of "Glee" about this, right? 

 

If someone willingly sells out Jews to the Nazis, he is given an award but if someone is forced to join the Hitler Youth or get his kneecaps blown off, he is a monster? Okay.

 

A blockbuster. Who knew?

 

If this woman is a Christian, I'm sure this will be for nothing:

 

 

Indonesia's president wants justice for a domestic worker who was allegedly tortured by her employers in Saudi Arabia.

 

The 23-year-old maid, Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa, has been hospitalized in Medina since Nov. 8, with burns all over her body, a fractured middle finger and cuts around her lips, reportedly made by scissors.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday in Jakarta that the "extraordinary torture" needs to be investigated.

"I want the law to be upheld and to see an all-out diplomatic effort."

More than 80,000 Indonesian domestic workers flock to Saudi Arabia every year. Rights groups say they, and other migrant workers, at times face slavery-like conditions and sexual abuse.

 

And now for something completely bizarre.

Monday Post

For it is Monday.



I watched "Sarah Palin's Northern British Columbia Alaska". I wasn't the only one.


Apparently, there are other sphinxes:

Egypt's antiquities department says archaeologists have unearthed 12 more sphinx statues along the ancient avenue connecting Luxor and Karnak temples.


The discovery was made in a newly excavated section of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, most of which is buried beneath the modern city of Luxor in southern Egypt.

The sandstone section of road dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Nectanebo I, from 380-362 B.C., and was used in religious processions.

When stoning isn't enough, humiliation must suffice for the mean time:

Iranian state television has broadcast a purported statement by an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in which she calls herself a "sinner."


The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been put on hold and is now being reviewed by Iran's supreme court. The case has raised an international outcry, embarrassing Tehran.

A woman identified as Ashtiani said in the state TV report shown Monday: "I am a sinner." The woman's face was blurred and her words were voiced over in what the TV report said was a translation into Farsi from Azeri Turkish, which is spoken in parts of Iran.

Something we knew already:

A newly released intelligence report says hardline Islamist groups want to build a “parallel society” in Canada, which could undermine the country’s social cohesion and foster violence.

The de-classified Intelligence Assessment obtained by the National Post says extremists have been encouraging Muslims in the West to reject Western society and to live in “self-imposed isolation.” The report focuses on groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which do not advocate terrorist violence but promote an ideology at odds with core Western values.

“Even if the use of violence is not outwardly expressed, the creation of isolated communities can spawn groups that are exclusivist and potentially open to messages in which violence is advocated,” it says. “At a minimum, the existence of such mini-societies undermines resilience and the fostering of a cohesive Canadian nation.”...

“While the issue of violence by Islamist groups has continued to be a counter-terrorism priority for Western governments and particularly security services for many years, Islamist social ideology appears to have gone unstudied, precisely because the use of violence is either unsupported or understated,” it says. “Nevertheless, several Islamist movements advocate a rejection of Western society and mores, and encourage self-imposed isolation of Muslims in the West.”

It says Islamists believe that Islam should govern all aspects of society and that Sharia law and state law should be “synchronized.” Extremists forced to flee Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt now preach these beliefs in the West, it says, adding, “By definition, their world views clash with secular ones. A competition for the hearts and minds of the diaspora Muslims has hence begun.”

“Some Islamists advocate isolationism and the establishment of a parallel society,” it says. “Isolationism can lead to conditions where extreme messages can incubate and eventually become the catalyst for violence. At a minimum, isolationism undermines a multicultural and democratic society.”

No, multiculturalism (the forced, Trudeau multiculturalism) has created an environment of isolationism. Why learn either of the official languages when the government will pay for a barely satisfactory translator? Never mind that an immigrant will be cut off linguistically and, therefore, unable to take part in ANY aspect of society at large. Why emphasise the customs and laws of the country when one can adopt a laissez-faire attitude? Why not go one step further and demean a culture which has worked in the favour of ALL immigrants? If a company wishes to adopt an Asian corporate culture rich in nepotism and gender bias, so be it. Who are we to judge? If one culture declares Jews and Christians to be inferior, who are we to point out how wrong they are? We won't be able to pat ourselves on the back when nothing of the culture we have taken for granted is gone.



Related: the Keystone Cops of terrorism.

Someone is angry at Christie Blatchford:

University of Waterloo is the latest school to fall victim to these self-proclaimed activists. Christie Blatchford was set to give a talk to a small but enthusiastic crowd of people about her new book, Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us. 

Some of the usual suspects decided that Blatchford and her audience were – you guessed it – filthy racists who don’t deserve to have an event.

So they decided to come in before the event, calmly hand out some literature, and engage any willing audience members in a rational discussion about the merits of Blatchford’s work, and the Caledonia crisis. They then sat through the event like mature adults, and posed some detailed and insightful questions to Blatchford after she was done speaking.

Haha, just kidding. They stormed in, put up a huge sign with a swastika on stage, locked arms, and refused to leave. They yelled and screamed at the audience and accused them all of being racists who weren’t welcome on “their” campus. When one man tried to ask them exactly what they wanted, the heavy-set female in filthy jeans exclaimed that she would not engage in discussion with “Nazis”.

What a bunch of nauseating little peasants. Seriously.  The awful formulaic references to Nazism and racism in hopes that doing such things would shut down dialogue, the screaming, chanting, singing, filthy dreadlocks, pansy-boys desperate to date activist girls furious that their fathers would dare pay for their cell phones. If these college "activists" were sticking up pro-life posters, the cops would actually get off their duffs and arrest them. Christie Blatchford was right then- the police are impotent. Willfully, in my opinion.

And now for something completely cuddly.

Saturday Stuff

Aung San Suu Kyi is a free woman:

Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, walked free Saturday after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression.

Waving and smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared outside the crumbling lakeside mansion where she had been locked up by the military rulers, to huge cheers and clapping from the waiting crowds.

“We must work together in unison,” she told thousands of waiting people, suggesting she has no intention of giving up her long fight for democracy in what is one of the world’s oldest dictatorships.

“I’m glad that you are welcoming me and supporting me. I want to say that there will be a time to come out. Do not stay quiet when that time comes.”

Though her cause was fashionable among the celeb elite, it would be appropriate now to release others who have been imprisoned by corrupt governments.


No:

With her rent-free $2.5-million mansion, two nannies, a chef and a chauffeur, Lola seems an unlikely champion of downtrodden single mothers.

But the 35-year-old woman Wednesday won what is being hailed as a major legal victory for common-law spouses, who under Quebec’s Civil Code have enjoyed no right to alimony in the event of a break-up.

The Quebec Court of Appeal ruled unconstitutional a clause of the Civil Code that blocked common-law spouses from seeking alimony after the end of a relationship. The three-judge panel found that the provision discriminates against common-law spouses, perpetuating a prejudice that such relationships are “less durable and serious” than those sanctioned by marriage.

Get married or don't, but don't act as though you deserve the same titles and benefits as real adults who take the marital plunge.


One never thought this would happen in Norway:

Siv Jensen, the 41-year-old leader of Norway’s Progress Party, is something of a curiosity in socialist-inclined Scandinavia.

Her parliamentary office in Oslo sports a bust of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and a small Israeli flag. She brags that her chief political hero is former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

“I think she is one of the toughest politicians ever,” Ms. Jensen, who has been dubbed a “Norwegian Thatcher,” told the National Post this week, as she toured Toronto after attending an international conference in Ottawa on anti-Semitism.

“She handled some serious reform work in Britain. She may not have been popular at the time, but her reforms still stand.”

A breakthrough politician in her own right, who came within a whisker of seizing power in Norway’s September 2009 elections, Ms. Jensen appears poised to transform politics in her homeland.

With 41 seats in Norway’s 169-seat parliament, she heads the country’s second-largest party and led the Progress Party to winning its highest percentage of votes ever — 22.9%.

She recently changed her formal party title, from the more male-oriented “foreman” to “leader.” But, more importantly, she intends to overhaul Norway’s cradle-to-the-grave welfare system.

I think the  European political arena is as the North American one: tired of socialism.


A South Korean court has punished a woman for possession of pro-North Korean music:

South Korea's top court ruled Monday that possession of instrumental music with titles praising North Korea violates a tough national security law.

The supreme court upheld a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, given to a female activist identified only as Song.

Song was charged in 2008 with storing 14 MP3 music files with titles praising North Korea on a USB storage device.

State prosecutors accused her of violating the law banning distribution of pro-North Korean material.

A district court acquitted Song, saying the titles alone could not define the songs as praising the communist North.

But an appeal court ruled that the songs written by North Korea to praise its leadership contained "enemy-benefiting" expressions and threatened the South's security -- regardless of their lack of lyrics.

The supreme court supported the appeals court, saying it took into consideration "motivation" and various other circumstances.

South Korea bans distribution of publications or other material praising North Korea and unauthorised contact with its people. Offenders can face heavy jail terms.

There could be any number of reasons why this woman downloaded this music. Right now, I don't care what they are. She could have been curious as to what North Korean propaganda music sounded like or just really liked music with a strong backbeat. My point is that anyone can defend North Korea but it takes a special idiot to praise North Korea or play into its hands, as the court has done. Banning something, particularly for flimsy reasons, only bolsters leftist claims of an authoritarian South Korean rule. Hardly factual these days, perhaps. If the abomination of North Korea's government is so offensive, perhaps the South Korean government can step up its efforts to ensure North Korea's totalitarian demise. (hat tip: OFK)


And now for something completely crazy.

Friday Freakout

Accents from all over the globe.


Iraqi seafood.


Spirit in the sky.


Kitty destroys lunch.

We Shall Remember Them

Fitting, actually.

Yet Another Mid-Week Post

Because two are better than one.


Harper is in Seoul (it's a hell of a town):

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen stepped off the plane in South Korea on Wednesday, and into a raging debate about how to revitalize the global economy.


In two Asian summits this week, Harper is pushing for bold, co-ordinated economic action — first at the Group of 20 summit in Seoul, and then at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting in Yokohama, Japan.

The Canadian leader has set a high bar for success at this week's G20 summit _ one that looks increasingly hard to reach.

Harper wants to see concrete commitments from the world's key economic actors this week, to stabilize the global economy and set the path for steady growth in the years to come.

 But momentum for a deal on how to stabilize the global economy at the summit in Seoul is flagging.

"We must continue to avoid the temptation of unilateral action in response to the current pressures now weighing on the global economy," Harper pleaded with his G20 colleagues in a letter sent last week.

"I strongly believe that co-operative and co-ordinated actions are both in our national interests and will lead to a stronger global economy."

An earlier consensus that the world's economic powers should frame an action plan around a U.S. idea to constrain extreme surpluses and deficits is unravelling.

And now, surplus countries are chastising the United States for launching another round of so-called quantitative easing -- this time, a $600-billion bond purchase by the Federal Reserve that amounts to printing money.

China, Germany and Brazil, among others, are concerned that the U.S. move will devalue the American dollar, sending waves throughout the world, and especially to those countries that hold a lot of U.S. dollars.

"The dollar's strength ultimately rests on the fundamental strength of the U.S. economy," President Barack Obama wrote to G20 leaders in a letter this week, urging them to understand the state of the U.S. economy and the need to work together.

Printing money is a stupid thing to do, by the way, and Harper would do well to make sure the cretin running the US into the ground knows that.


Related: Harper is seen as trustworthy. Seen.


In some way, Kanye West apologises to George Bush.


Iran is not seen as a bastion of women's rights. I wonder why.


Obama campaigns in the Islamic world even though one member of that world had "ethical" qualms about shaking his wife's hand.


What a maroon. If an Indonesian minister would rather drink a bowl of wax than shake the hand of the wife of Indonesia's "greatest export", why in the name of Chewbacca would you want anything to do with it? Why? Is Obama fed up with his wife's opulent lifestyle? Does he care that Indonesia persecutes Christians? Is he looking for somewhere to retire in 2013?


Yemeni bomb set to go off over the US.


We owe Japan an apology (in a way):

British Prime Minister David Cameron resisted a request from Chinese officials yesterday to remove his poppy during a visit to Beijing. 

The flower, a symbol of remembrance since the First World War, when the flowers grew on battlefields, has a different resonance in China, which fought and lost two Opium Wars with Britain in the 19th century. Those resulted in Britain forcing the Chinese to open their borders to trade, including in the narcotic derived from the poppy. 

British officials said the Chinese had asked the Prime Minister and his delegation to remove the poppies from their lapels before they arrived yesterday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where Mr. Cameron was greeted by Premier Wen Jiabao. 

The British government refused, on the grounds that the symbol was important to Britain.

Good for Cameron. Perhaps someone should remind the Sino-ingrates of the British and Canadian lives lost defending the Chinese during the Second World War. This kind of undeserved sense of entitlement and insensitivity grates on me as much as "Islamophobia" does.

What is wrong with these people?

A Minnesota judge has rejected a request to dismiss charges against a former nurse accused of encouraging the suicides of two people he met in online chat rooms, one of whom was 19-year-old Carleton University student Nadia Kajouji, pictured. Ms. Kajouji died in March 2008 when she jumped into the Rideau River in Ottawa. The other person allegedly counselled by William Melchert-Dinkel was British citizen Mark Drybrough, 32, who hanged himself in 2005. Judge Thomas Neuville rejected a handful of defence requests yesterday, including a key argument that Mr. Melchert-Dinkel is protected by free speech rights from being prosecuted with counselling suicide. The decision contained previously unseen police evidence against Mr. Melchert-Dinkel, including an email exchange in which the former nurse -- who posed as a woman -- attempted to persuade Mr. Drybrough to hang himself in front of a webcam while he watched. He made a similar attempt in online chats with Ms. Kajouji. He is scheduled to enter a plea on Nov. 19.

 

A strong case for corporal punishment:

A series of false 9-1-1 calls has landed a 13-year-old boy in hot water with the Regina police. On Monday, a teen called 9-1-1 to say he had witnessed a person being fatally stabbed. Six officers and an ambulance were dispatched to the address provided, but there was no evidence of a fight or a body. The residents of the house were unaware of any call. Two more suspect 9-1-1 calls were received within an hour, indicating an assault in progress and an assault with a weapon. At 8:47 p.m., a fourth call reported someone had been shot in the leg. That 9-1-1 call -- like the earlier ones -- was made from a cellphone so the exact location of the caller was not available, only an approximate location. However, when police went to the area, they found two boys, ages 11 and 13. Public mischief charges were laid against the 13-year-old.

Not only should you never give a brat a cell phone, you should make sure he regrets even thinking of doing this sort of thing. Where are the parents?

The thirty-fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.


Ladies and gentlemen, Gordon Lightfoot.




 
Baghdad Christians are targeted:

A string of anti-Christian bombings has cost six more lives in the wake of a Baghdad church bloodbath, sowing panic in Iraq's 2,000-year-old minority on Wednesday, many of whom now want to flee.

"Since Tuesday evening, there have been 13 bombs and two mortar attacks on homes and shops of Christians in which a total of six people were killed and 33 injured," a defence ministry official said. "A church was also damaged."

The attacks come less than two weeks after 44 Christian worshippers, two priests and seven security personnel died in the seizure of the Baghdad church by Islamist gunmen and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops.

On November 3, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking at the capital's Syrian Catholic cathedral and warned it would step up attacks on Christians.


The UN Security Council said it was "appalled by, and condemned in the strongest terms, the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq, including today's."

(Sidebar:  this is the same UN that did nothing in Rwanda and allows China and Russia to sit permanently on the security council.)

The campaign of violence against Christians "potentially poses a threat to diversity in the Middle East, which was one of the fundamental bedrocks of stability," said British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, reading the council statement.

French ambassador Gerard Araud said Al-Qaeda's bomb and shooting attacks were part of "a deliberate will to destroy the Christian community."...

Monsignor Pius Kasha, also of the church in the hostage-taking at the end of last month, said a four-month-old baby was among three people wounded in bombings of Christian homes in Baghdad's Mansur district late on Tuesday.

"We don't know what is the aim of these criminals but what is certain is that this will push even more Christians to emigrate"

(Sidebar: Dear Monsignor, the aim of these "criminals" is to drive you out and/or kill you.)

A senior Iraqi clergyman based in London said at the weekend that Christians should quit Iraq or face being killed at the hands of Al-Qaeda.

But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday cautioned foreign governments not to encourage Christians to abandon their homeland, after France took in dozens of people wounded in the cathedral attack.

Related: the silence is deafening:

The non-Muslim world is increasingly not surprised and unmoved by the depravity of Muslim jihadis committing outrage, one after another without end in sight, and what can only be explained, unsatisfactorily, as a pathological wish to cause pain to the living by random acts of terrorist violence.

The murderous attack on the church in central Baghdad last Sunday by Muslim terrorists, if we go with the news reports, was merely another not unusual blood-soaked event in the daily cycle of news from Muslim countries.

But if such an atrocity was not just another criminal event in a "normal" day across the Arab-Muslim world, then we should have heard of a special meeting being called at the UN, or in one of the capitals of member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to express outrage against those who killed innocent worshippers inside Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad.

We then should have heard of Muslim political and religious leaders expressing their grief over the dead and wounded — there were some 120 Iraqi Christians in attendance at the Sunday evening mass when Muslim terrorists attacked the church and left 58 dead with only a dozen escaping unhurt.

Instead, we have deathly silence of the Muslim leadership as non-Muslim minorities inside the Arab-Muslim world are routinely abused, their homes and places of worship under daily duress, and their hearts filled with fear of violent death in the hands of Muslim jihadis.

The silence signifies the abdication of any responsibility by governments of the Arab-Muslim world to protect non-Muslims in their countries, and severely punish those who target them.

Then there is the ignoble silence of Muslims here in Canada, and across the West, over the repeated atrocities committed against non-Muslim minorities in places like Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, or Sudan.

This silence of Muslim minorities in the West is even more despicable than that of Arab-Muslim governments. It reveals how little they understand, or respect, the political culture of societies where they have made their homes.

On the contrary, there is shrill denunciation by Muslim governments, and organizations representing Muslim minorities in the West, of the manufactured problem of "Islamophobia."...

The simple truth is Muslims are among the worst perpetrators of crimes against non-Muslims, and penalties based on obsolete jurisprudence of Shariah implemented in Muslim states violate the UN Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights, to which they are signatories.

Some would like to think this is some sort of "faux-persecution", an embellished incident or something to deflect from the "real problem" of "Islamophobia". It is insulting in every respect that someone would even think the aforementioned but there you have it.

Muslims kill each other. They even target mosques in which Korans are burned. Apparently, burning a book is worse than killing a family in the midst of daily worship so cheap is human life in some circles that it is scarcely noticed. The targeting of Christians in the Middle East by Islamofascists is not as shocking as the silence surrounding it. Of course it is horrifying and saddening that adherents to Christ are so persecuted. It is, since early Church times, expected. In the West, Christians deal with more ideological troubles, not so much bloodbaths. Why the silence and the deflection? Are we so removed from the pain of others that we ignore it or is there a deep-seated hatred of Christ and the Church that these kinds of atrocities would be acceptable to others?

I'd really like to know.


Shocked!

A British TV channel aimed at Muslims has been censured by the media watchdog Ofcom for allowing its presenters to encourage violence against women and advocate marital rape. In one program on the Islam Channel, the presenter of a discussion of sex within marriage said, "It shouldn't be such a big problem where the man feels he has to force himself upon the woman." In its decision, the regulator acknowledged some TV channels "will broadcast programming that will derive from a particular religious or spiritual viewpoint" and "such advice might cause offence to different sections of the audience." But it added advocating any form of violence was "not acceptable."

Laughing when you are not supposed to is "not acceptable". This  is just plain wrong.


Lest we forget:

'Never underestimate the ability of powerful people to convince themselves that what they are doing is right, even when it's wrong." This was the family motto by which brothers David and Leo Heaps lived their lives, and which obliged them both to enlist during the Second World War. 

Born and raised in Winnipeg, the Heaps brothers earned the unique distinction of being the only Jewish Canadian brothers to both win the Military Cross. "They felt absolutely compelled to join the effort and to be in the centre of the action," says Toby Heaps, Leo's grandson and the editor and cofounder of Corporate Knights magazine. Public service was in their blood, and "they felt a really strong sense of duty to fight for what, for them, was a clear war against evil."

Mid-Week Post

A quick recap of the world's wackiness.


An Indonesian minister balks at shaking Michelle Obama's hand:

A conservative Muslim government minister admits he shook hands with first lady Michelle Obama in welcoming her to Indonesia but says it wasn't his choice.


Footage on YouTube shows otherwise, sparking a debate that has lit up Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere.

"I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched," Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring told tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

While Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, the vast majority practice a moderate form of the faith. But Sembiring has flaunted his conservatism and says he avoids contact with women who are not related to him.

Normally, I would understand but really, the Islamofascist paradise of Indonesia (cradle-school of the current president) is just that- an Islamofascist volcano zone where women belong under the heel of the man. Do not make friends with this country, is my point. Not even the president's spouse gets deference.


Hamas burns down a water park:

All is quiet on this autumn morning at the Crazy Water Park, a couple of kilometers south of Gaza City. There are no children splashing around in the shallow kiddie pools, no men cheering as they shoot off the slides into the deep end of the pool. Wives and mothers are also missing from their usual spots under the umbrellas, where they normally sit, fully dressed, chatting and watching their children and husbands play in the water.

The Gaza Strip's only water park opened last spring but -- thanks to around 30 members of Hamas -- it was shut down in late September. One night at 3 a.m., these men appeared out of nowhere, tied up the park's 10 security guards and got to work with gas canisters and lighters. 

The ensuing fire consumed the café and the building housing pool-related equipment. The stand where pool-goers could rent water pipes was a particular target. After a few incidents of modern-minded women openly smoking water pipes on the park's grounds, Hamas had issued the Crazy Water Park two warnings. When it happened a third time, an angered official from Hamas, the radical Islamist organization which controls the Gaza Strip, ordered more drastic measures to be taken. Not long later, the flames engulfing the water park's buildings could be seen from as far away as Gaza City.

Really? A water park? Children's summertime amusements are "unIslamic"? I'm sure there are those who would vehemently disagree.


Dalton McGuinty wants to be voted out of office:

Since Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced 75 new scholarships for foreign PhD students in China last week, paying their way has turned into a provincial battleground.

The initiative will cost the province $20-million over the next four years, supplemented by $10-million more from universities.

It is Mr. McGuinty’s latest attempt at a precarious political balancing act: driving an outward-looking innovation agenda while trying to soothe rattled voters ahead of an election next year.

Why is he coaxing the Chinese octopus? Surely, there must be at least one Canadian student in need of grants? Not even one? Or, like Kent Brockman, is Mr. McGuinty looking for others who will toil in underground sugar caves?


Sarah Palin enters the ring:

The former Alaskan Governor showed sound political and economic instincts by inveighing forcefully against the Federal Reserve's latest round of quantitative easing. According to the prepared text of remarks that she released to National Review online, Mrs. Palin also exhibited a more sophisticated knowledge of monetary policy than any major Republican this side of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.

Stressing the risks of Fed "pump priming," Mrs. Palin zeroed in on the connection between a "weak dollar—a direct result of the Fed's decision to dump more dollars onto the market"—and rising oil and food prices. She also noted the rising world alarm about the Fed's actions, which by now includes blunt comments by Germany, Brazil, China and most of Asia, among many others. 

"We don't want temporary, artificial economic growth brought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings," the former GOP Vice Presidential nominee said. "We want a stable dollar combined with real economic reform. It's the only way we can get our economy back on the right track."

It was a cage match. An awesome cage match.


"White privilege"? Please. Instigators much?

A group in Edmonton is promoting an end to racism by promoting racism.

Well, that’s how some are interpreting a campaign by a group paid for by the city, local police and the federal government.

From the Edmonton Sun,

“Controversy is brewing over a city-sponsored anti-racism campaign that calls on Caucasians to recognize their “white privilege”....

A spokesman for the Conservative government thinks the campaign has it all wrong as well.  Alykhan Velshi, director of communications for immigration minister Jason Kenney denounced the language of “white privilege.”

“It’s jejune, sophomoric, retro class warfare. Do you want to know how generations of immigrants have succeeded in Canada? They worked hard and played by the rules. They didn’t blame “white privilege” and “whiteness” for any setbacks they might have experienced,” Velshi said.

Why don't we stop muddying the meaning of racism or padding special-interest groups' wallets with public money? We have racism of soft expectations, racism felt by groups other than white people and we couldn't care less about Third World countries' cheap labour. Who feels guilty about that?


A woman in Pakistan is sentenced to death for "blasphemy":

Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, denies blasphemy and told investigators that she was being persecuted for her faith in a country where Christians face routine harassment and discrimination.

Where is the UN? Where are the women's groups or special-interest groups? Are we too cowardly to face an injustice like this?


Unsung heroes:

During both World Wars and the Korean conflict, Indians and Metis enlisted in numbers far greater than their treatment merited. Educational requirements prevented many from joining the RCAF in the Second World War as did a regulation -- quietly dropped early in the war -- barring those from commissions who were not of "pure European descent." The Royal Canadian Navy had a more sweeping restriction. Among its prerequisites for service in any rank was a condition that an applicant "be a British-born subject of a white race." Until that regulation was rescinded in February 1943, the Navy seemed content to limit things native to naming its Tribal Class destroyers after Indian bands. 

Most native Canadians served in the infantry. They fought exceptionally well, suffering heavy casualties and earning the lasting respect of their comrades.

And now for something completely different.

Mad Lib (erals)

Have you heard things like these:


* "...white privilege.."


* "...(I) am angry and frustrated at your refusal to acknowledge my issues, and I could have bought a gun. NOW will you pay attention?" 


* "...I don't think you grasp the trends that the next generation of voters is showing. Like any dying movement, there will be the inevitable death gasps and denial, but (like the efforts to put government into the bedroom and to deny equal rights to same-sex couples) you're on the wrong side of the long-term voting trends."


* " This is the exact same garbage that those who guilt, shame, and berate homosexuals are now raising in response to the effect that has had on gays and lesbians... justifying their own bigotry by assuming the social atmosphere they work so hard to create is a natural consequence of the very things they're demonizing; essentially blaming the victim."



"And here we have another example of the patriarchal-centric view of history that discounts, ignores, and denies the contributions of anyone but the white male."


"Guilt is a feeling, invented by people who need to suppress and control other people through their very real emotions. You can't have guilt without outside influence. Therefore, if there is guilt, there had been intervention of some kind."



Sure, you have. It's all a part of the leftist vernacular, a template for spiting all the things they don't like or understand.

And it's tiresome!

But don't let it get you down. Have fun with it. Why not Mad Lib it?! Predict and have fun with euphemisms and fabrications so transparent a child could see through them. Just fill in the blanks with some choice phrases and watch the hours fly by!


"As a  (name of a glorified occupation or hobby- not a real one), I am (strong emotion) that (conservative, religious or non-profit personage or group) has (verb). This is clearly an example of (overly embellished societal wrong). I have (indefinite article- spelling is not important) (racial, cultural or perceived marginalised descriptor) (relationship to- not less than zero but not exceeding one) and I can tell you that (overly embellished societal wrong) is a (word for something bad). I blame this on the following: (a country south of Canada but north of Mexico), (a religion of Judeo-Christian) and (a country that rhymes with Bisrael). Their (word for something bad) policies have (verb) for (period of time). (Percentage- number doesn't have to be accurate) of people agree with me and not with (subject personage or group). I will (verb) to my (activist or special-interest group) and see if we can get the (nationality) government to (verb) (noun indicating policy or law) to (verb) this (overly embellished societal wrong)."


Use this game for weddings, birthdays or traveling to one's favourite holiday spot. It's hours of fun for the whole family.

Mid-Week Post

How do you take your tea, Democrats? With lemon? Because it is bitter? Bitter like defeat!

The Tea Party movement: Winner. After shaking up the Republican establishment during the primary season, Tea Party activists put their anger and energy to work and helped dozens of conservative Senate and House candidates get elected on Tuesday night. The Republican leadership will ignore Tea Party calls for deep spending cuts at its peril.

While many attacked the American electorate as "stupid", "not appreciating what was done for them" or "fearful", it's more than likely that unemployed, over-taxed Americans no longer buy the hype that helped get Obama into office. His olive branch sentiments after these elections now fall on deaf ears. Two years of waste can't be forgotten or forgiven.

Gordon Campbell resigns. Oh well.


Mark Steyn on "The Michael Coren Show" recap: the West is a decayed, decadent shadow of itself that needs to recover what made it great before Islamofascists and their sniveling apologists ruin it for good. Words to that effect. Just watch.

November 1st

Monday.


Noticeable chill in the air.


All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, mid-term elections in the US, Remembrance Day, American Thanksgiving  and Advent are right around the corner.


Gamil Gharbi was the son of an ineffectual Canadian woman and an Algerian Muslim who battered him and his mother. When his parents divorced, he moved from house to house, seeing his mother whenever possible. An academic failure, he placed the blame of his inadequacies on others. He later killed fourteen people.


Was there ever an effort to rehabilitate him? Would anyone want him in a halfway house?


Would anyone like to resurrect Marc Lepine from the dead?


Then why bring Omar Khadr back?

Opposition critics blasted Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Monday for saying that the government will "implement" an agreement between U.S. military prosecutors and Omar Khadr's lawyers that calls for his repatriation to Canada in one year.


Cannon did not offer additional details on how the government would treat the controversial case if Khadr actually files an application to come back to Canada.

"The U.S. government agreed to have Khadr come back to Canada and we will implement the agreement that was reached between Mr. Khadr and the government of the United States," Cannon told the House of Commons in French.

"We will implement the agreement and we will ensure this agreement between the U.S. government (and) Omar Khadr is followed up on."

Cannon maintained that the Canadian government was not involved in Khadr's plea deal, reiterating his government's line that it was a matter between the 24-year-old Toronto man and the U.S. government.
That position continued to draw sharp criticism from federal opposition parties over the government's handling of the only Canadian and last Western national to be held at the infamous U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

NDP MP Wayne Marston said he hoped the government keeps its word and allows Khadr to return to Canada.

It baffles me that someone would claim this mongrel and want him to re-integrate into Canadian society, upon whom his worthless mother and sister sponge.


Let us not forget Chretien's involvement with Papa Khadr.


Fifty-two dead after an Iraqi church was attacked:

Fifty-two hostages and police were killed when an attempt by Iraqi security forces to free more than 100 Catholics held in a Baghdad church by al Qaeda-linked gunmen turned into a bloodbath, officials said on Monday.


Church officials described the attack, which began when gunmen seized the Our Lady of Salvation Church during Sunday mass, as the bloodiest against Iraq's Christians in the seven years of sectarian war that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The Islamic State of Iraq, the al Qaeda-affiliated group which claimed responsibility, also threatened the Christian church in Egypt over its treatment of women the group said it was holding after they had converted to Islam.

Egypt condemned the threat to its Christian community, which makes up about 10 percent of the country's 78 million people. It beefed up security around churches.

Iraqi Human Rights Minister Wijdan Michael, a Christian, said at the scene of the Baghdad attack: "What happened was more than a catastrophic and tragic event. In my opinion, it is an attempt to force Iraqi Christians to leave Iraq and to empty Iraq of Christians."

Lieutenant General Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, said 52 hostages and police were killed and 67 wounded in the incident, which ended with police storming the Assyrian Catholic church to free more than 100 hostages.

 The death toll was many times higher than that given overnight in the hours after the raid.

At least one bomb exploded at the start of the siege. Sporadic gunfire rang out for several hours over the Karrada neighborhood near the heavily fortified Green Zone district where many embassies and government offices are located.

"The attackers were among children, armed with weapons," a federal police source who declined to be identified said of Sunday's rescue effort. "Most of the casualties were killed or wounded when the security forces raided the place."

Officials say some of the attackers blew up explosives vests or threw grenades during the raid. Security sources said many of the victims died in gunfights between police and insurgents.

Iraq's Christians, who once numbered 1.5 million out of a total Iraqi population of about 30 million, have frequently been targeted by militants since the invasion, with churches bombed and priests assassinated. Many have fled.

Compare this to the freedom and security other religions throughout the West enjoy.


Cuba can no longer afford to pay its cockroaches so it is now releasing one of its longest-held prisoners:

 Cuba will free its longest-held political prisoner, jailed since 1985, and send him to Spain as the government continues to ship opponents out of the country.

The Catholic Church said on Monday that Cuba had agreed to release three more prisoners, including Adrian Alvarez, 44, who has been serving a 30-year sentence for stealing rifles while in the Cuban military.

He was allegedly taking the weapons with plans to launch a military action against the government.

The three prisoners were not included among 52 that Cuban officials agreed to let go in a July deal with the church.

So far, 39 of those original 52 have been released, and most of those still behind bars are said to be resisting the government's demand that they go to Spain.

In the meantime, Cuba has agreed to release 11 other prisoners, bringing to 50 the total number freed since July.

The releases have relaxed international pressure on Cuba that followed the February death of jailed dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died during a hunger strike for improved prison conditions.

Tourists could not be reached for comment.


Proof that the popular press has other people do the thinking for them:

Americans to vote on lesser of two evils

 

Americans face an unenviable choice Tuesday as they vote in this year's hotly anticipated mid-term congressional elections: casting a ballot for the party that caused much of the financial mess that's left one in 10 U.S. citizens jobless, or choosing the one that has failed to clean it up.

 What a heavy-handed title. Perhaps the writer should have done her homework. Who implemented these disastrous economic policies? Who controlled the House? The same people who are currently tanking the American economy.


And now for something completely different:

British tea planter Gyles Mackrell organized one of the most remarkable rescue missions during World War II — by using elephants when nothing else would do.


Now researchers have released new information that tells, for the first time, the full story of Mackrell's successful effort to use the animals to evacuate hundreds of desperate Burmese refugees stranded by a rain-swollen river. On Monday, Britain's Cambridge University put online a video shot by Mackrell, which together with his diaries and other documents brings to life a feat that with time had faded from public memory.

The material explains how Mackrell, who spent most of his life working as a planter for a tea company in British India, came to the aid of masses of people desperate to escape Burma as the Japanese army advanced. Through his work, he had access to elephants — the only safe way to cross the roiling Dapha river at the Indian border.

Tens of thousands of the refugees — many sick and starving — had trekked for hundreds of miles through dense jungle in the hope of reaching the Indian border. But by May 1942, those who made it to the border were trapped by monsoons that had turned the Dapha into a torrent.

Mackrell's diaries show that he collected some elephants to travel to the river soon after receiving a call for help from a group of refugees on June 4, 1942. His party rode the elephants for about 100 miles (160 kilometres) before finally reaching the river bank — only to find themselves helpless as they saw that fierce flood waters had trapping Burmese soldiers on river islands.

"On reaching the bank on a big tusker I discovered a number of men on an island surrounded by high and very fierce water," Mackrell, aged 53 at the time, wrote in his diary. "They signalled wildly and made signs to show us they were starving. I made several attempts to get over but it was utterly impossible."

The video shows Mackrell's elephants flailing against the power of the river, up to their eyes in water and struggling to move forward.

Mackrell and his men were about to give up when, the next morning, the waters retreated briefly and he saw an opportunity for his elephants to transport the men to safety.

We love you, Babar.