For A Tuesday

 The long week-end is over...


This child needs your prayers.


Today is Draw Mohammad Day.

Go nuts (like, artistically).

(Draw here.)

An excellent summation of this day can be found here:

To recap, Molly Norris drew this rather nice and funny cartoon 'way back in 2010. That's like four years ago, dude. It went viral, because its damn clever, frankly. Then the death threats started rolling in, and Molly Norris has completely disappeared. Vanished, poof. And she's still gone, four years later. 

Artist's conception of the above polemicist.

Five Chinese military officers have been indicted over charges of industrial espionage, further highlighting the need to protect both national and industrial secrets:

The United States and China are now embroiled in a spirited spat over cyber-espionage.

Over the weekend, a U.S. grand jury indicted five Chinese military officers for hacking computer systems of American companies. Specifically, U.S. officials are alleging that these individuals were stealing trade secrets for the benefit of China's state-owned companies.

The United States isn't alone. Other countries, including Canada, have allegedly been victims of Chinese cyber espionage.

In January 2012, CBC News reported that that foreign hackers from China gained access to highly classified information at the Finance Department, Treasury Board, and Defence Research and Development Canada.

There has also been allegations of Chinese hacker attacks on private Canadian companies. Remember Nortel?

In an interview with the CBC's As It Happens in February 2012, Brian Shields, the former senior systems security adviser at Nortel, said spying by hackers was constant from about 2000 until 2009 and was a "considerable factor" in that company's bankruptcy.

"When they see what your business plans are, that's a huge advantage. It's unfair business practices that really bring down a company of this size," Shields said.

There's more.

In 2013, according to the Financial Post, a report by U.S. internet firm Mandiant claimed that one of China’s cyber espionage units hacked the computer systems of at least seven organizations with operations in Canada.

The same article cites reports of Chinese hackers gaining access to law firms involved in the takeover bid for Saskatchewan’s Potash Corp.

Despite those attacks, a cyber security expert suggests that Canada won't follow the U.S. lead and press charges against the perpetrators.

"Canada has many of the same issues, and has been hurt in many of the same ways by Chinese industrial espionage," Queen's University David Skillicorn told Yahoo Canada News in an email exchange.

"But two problems have prevented us from doing much about it: (1) attribution -- who is responsible?

"(2) Effective response — what could you do even if you knew who was responsible? (and the US response is little more than naming and shaming)."

Stop trading with the b@$#@%^s. That's what. Is it worth it to lose not only natural resources but innovation and inventions, as well?


To answer one's question: no because North Korea is one of the world's most secretive totalitarian states that is propped up not only by China but also by the outside world's indifference:

On Sunday, North Korea state media announced that an apartment building had collapsed in the capital city of Pyongyang. The remarkable official response to the disaster suggests that it is being viewed as a national tragedy, and reports in the South Korean news media indicate that the death toll could be in triple digits.

The building didn't actually collapse on Sunday, however. In fact, the disaster occurred May 13. For almost a week, the world was in ignorance of a huge disaster in one of the most obsessed-over places on the planet. It's worrying to wonder whether we would have ever heard of it if the North's official Korean Central News Agency hadn't decided to reveal it.

This, of course, is just the latest illuminating example of how little we actually know about North Korea. ...

One problem with understanding North Korea is that few outside journalists can get any access. The Associated Press is the only Western new organization with a bureau there, yet it was unable to report on the apartment collapse until Sunday and was apparently forced to source much of its report to KCNA. The apparent failure of the AP to get on this story has prompted at least one angry response, from Joshua Stanton at the Web site Free Korea (where he makes the same reference as I do in this headline, albeit with more crude language).

I'd like to know how the AP even operates there. This tragedy could even be worse than the South Korean Costa Concordia for all one knows yet any information is scrubbed and filtered before one gets it. Furthermore, what we do know of North Korea is handled with such moral posturing one wonders why going through the pantomime anymore. Are there hashtags for every global catastrophe now?

(Kamsahamnida)


On the home-front, there should be no reason why the Tories and the province-destroying Liberals are in a lock until one remembers how little the Ontario Liberal voter empathises with others:

It's a dead heat.

With three weeks to go before the June 12 Ontario election, a new Abacus Data poll shows the Kathleen Wynne Liberals and the Tim Hudak Progressive Conservatives are tied with 33% support among committed voters.

The object should be to unseat Wynne. That is the best a voter can hope for this June.


In other news, Justin Trudeau is still a douchebag just like his dad:

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau pleaded with supporters to stick with the party despite his edict that Grits "will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills."

Trudeau issued a letter to party members Monday to try to ease the concerns of anyone "troubled" by his May 7 order to reject the candidacy of any Liberal who doesn't support abortion.

"I believe firmly in your right to hold your views, and that under my leadership there will always be a place for you in the Liberal Party of Canada," Trudeau said.

However, he also reminded Grits they can't act on their views if they would restrict abortion. ...

Trudeau also argued he's following the example of his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in setting aside personal beliefs.

But the elder Trudeau took a different stance in a 1981 letter to the then-archbishop of Toronto.

He told Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter if a court ever establishes a right to abortion, "Parliament will continue to legislate on the matter by overriding the court's decision" by using the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

There one has it. Freedom to dissent is permissible as long as one agrees with the leader.

Iranian actress Leila Hatami, co-star of Asghar Farhadi's 2011 Oscar winner A Separation, has become the target of outrage in her home country, after photos surfaced of her greeting Cannes Film Festival head Gilles Jacob with a kiss on the cheek, as is the French custom. ...

"Those who attend intentional events should take heed of the credibility and chastity of Iranians so that a bad image of Iranian women will not be demonstrated to the world," Noushabadi was quoted as saying on the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

"Iranian woman is the symbol of chastity and innocence," he said, adding that Hatami's presence at the festival was "inappropriate" and not in line with the country's religious beliefs.

... says the deputy culture minister in whose country women are stoned to death and nine year old girls can be married to old men.


Macklemore isn't an anti-Semite. He's just an accidental bigot:

Rapper Macklemore claims he wasn’t going for a “Jewish caricature” when he cobbled together the disguise that has accusations of anti-Semitism zipping around social media.

(Sidebar: this douche's fifteen minutes are up.)

The issue isn't (only) what Macklemore did or why but the nature of the knee-jerk reactionary behaviour of the heavily-infantilised left who seem oblivious to their actions and even more stunned when they are turned on. It's a sight to behold. One could have a rigorous discussion on anti-Semitism, freedom of expression or the appropriate reaction of what is deemed truly offensive but you can't have a discussion with people like this (not safe for work or even just watching this horrendous idiocy):




"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." 



See what's going on at the Fur. You'll be glad you did.

 

And now, we can re-build him. We have the technology:

Buttercup is an amazing duck, hatched with a deformed left foot. This new design features a movable ankle with plastic springs for support, tread on the bottom for grip, and a new sock retainer on the back! This entire foot is printed on a 3D printer unlike his 1st prosthetic prototype which was made using a hybrid 3D printing/urethane molding process.

Thursday Post

Quickly now....


According to this:

"Mr. Speaker, CBC/Radio-Canada currently has approximately 730 employees who earn more than $100,000 per year."

Making this:

According to Postmedia News, the document noted that the maximum salary scale for CBC News' chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge was $80,485.22. Radio host Jian Ghomeshi and TV host Amanda Lang were said to be making between $60,844.32 and $77,390.42.

... total bunk.


The tragedy of Walkerton has nothing to do with the Tories' proposals during this election but everything to do with typical Liberal dirty tricks.

Read that tripe if you want. It's repugnant on so many levels.


Why the attitude if you have nothing to hide, Monsieur Mulcair?

Tom Mulcair stood his ground Thursday throughout an unprecedented two-hour grilling by a Commons committee over the NDP's allegedly improper use of parliamentary resources.

The NDP leader was at times contemptuous of his Conservative and Liberal tormentors, but managed to keep his temper in check as he insisted — repeatedly — that New Democrats have done nothing wrong.

Nothing he said persuaded Tory and Liberal MPs on the procedure and House affairs committee, who continued to allege the NDP has been using taxpayers' money to pay for partisan activities, in violation of parliamentary rules.

Oh, I think I know what he's hiding.


The Nigerian government rejects the proposed exchange of kidnapped schoolgirls for prisoners:

Nigeria's president has rejected an offer from Islamist rebel group Boko Haram to exchange schoolgirls it abducted for imprisoned militants, but the government is open to broader talks with the rebels, a visiting British minister said.

President Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to crush the rebels who have killed thousands in their campaign for an Islamist state and to free the girls whose abduction a month ago has sparked global outrage.

Government officials initially said they were exploring all options with respect to the swap proposal and later said they were willing to negotiate with Boko Haram without specifying whether any putative talks might include an exchange for the girls.

Jonathan further refined that position on Wednesday during talks with Britain's Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds.

"He (Jonathan) made it very clear that there would be no negotiations with Boko Haram that involved a swap of abducted schoolgirls for prisoners," Simmonds told reporters after meeting Jonathan.

Why should Vietnam cede its territory to China?

A top Chinese general on Thursday defended the deployment of an oil rig that has inflamed tensions in the disputed South China Sea and triggered deadly protests in Vietnam, blaming Hanoi and saying China cannot afford to "lose an inch" of territory.

A map of the disputed area:

(With thanks)

It's not so much that China has no sense of territory but a boldness. It knows the biggest navy in the world is not coming to Vietnam, the Philippines or Taiwan's defense.


And now, an underwater archeological find:

The pristine skeleton of a teenaged girl who lived about 13,000 years ago, discovered in a deep, water-filled underground cavern in the sprawling cave system in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is providing archeologists with an unprecedented glimpse into the history of the early inhabitants of the Americas.

Given the name Naia, Greek for "water nymph," the remains of the 15- or 16-year-old girl were found at the bottom of the boulder-strewn, underwater chamber dubbed Hoyo Negro — "black hole" in Spanish — along with the scattered bones of 26 large animal species, among them sabre-tooth tigers, giant ground sloths and cave bears.

"Sealed off by water and darkness for over 8,000 years, it is a time capsule of the environment and human life in central America at the end of the Ice Age, when glaciers across the globe trapped massive amounts of water as ice and sea level was far lower than it is today," said American paleontologist Jim Chatters, head of an international research team investigating the site and its archeological treasures.

Chatters, the first scientist to study the prehistoric skeleton known as Kennewick Man that was found in Washington state in 1996, described Hoyo Negro as being like a miniature of California's La Brea tar pits, "only without the tar and with considerably better preservation."

At the time of Naia's death, the caves would have been dry and accessible, he told a media teleconference. "Perhaps seeking fresh water in the dark passages, animals and at least one human fell into this inescapable ... trap."

Naia's remains were discovered in 2007 by three Mexican cave divers exploring an underwater cavern, deep in the Yucatan jungle about eight kilometres from the Caribbean coast. In a 50-metre-deep sinkhole within the cavern, the girl's skull was resting on a boulder, "laying upside-down with a perfect set of teeth and dark eye sockets looking back at us," said diver Alberto Nava.

Mid-Week Post

It's time....


In case one forgets, former Ontario premier Mike Harris made the cuts he did because of former Premier Bob Rae's stunning incompetence, just as Tim Hudak may have to do:

It's from a very different decade, but Ontario Progressive Conservative party leader Tim Hudak seems to borrowing — heavily — from the playbook of former Premier Mike Harris and his so-called Common Sense Revolution.

Fear-mongering: the popular press' go-to plan. This is Ontario's debt clock. Who is to blame for this, I wonder?


Well, that didn't take long:

South Korean prosecutors indicted on Thursday four crew members of a ferry that capsized in April killing more than 280 passengers for manslaughter, a senior prosecutor said.

The prosecution also indicted all 11 other surviving crew members of the Sewol for negligence. The crew has been under criminal investigations after they were believed to have escaped the sinking vessel before many of the passengers.

This will not end well:

Nigeria's government signalled a willingness on Tuesday to negotiate with Islamist militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls, a month after the kidnapping that has provoked global outrage.

If the Nigerian government thinks it can reason with Boko Haram, it should prepare for future massacres and kidnappings.


This is a failure of morality and education:

If you're under 35, chances are you're unaware of the Holocaust. So says a new global survey released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday, which found less than half of respondents (48 percent) under age 35 knew about it.

By contrast, 61 percent of those over 50 said they knew about the Holocaust, during which 6 million Jews and as many as 5 million Roma, gays, political and war prisoners, and others were murdered by the Nazi regime in Germany from 1939 to 1945.

The poll, which included 53,100 interviews in 96 languages in 101 countries, found about a quarter of the world's population believes some negative stereotypes about Jews are "probably true," including "Jews are more loyal to Israel than [their home] country" and "Jews have too much power in the business world."

If it's any truly sad consolation, no one is bothered by the ghastly spectre of communism, either.


It's called "courtesy" and liberals are allergic to it:

When introduced to pupils as ‘Professor’, she may not have expected them to appreciate her academic achievements – but she did expect them to address her accordingly.

Instead, Jennifer Coates says she was ‘demeaned’ by the youngsters simply calling her ‘Miss’.

Professor Coates described it as ‘a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status’.

Now the emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at Roehampton University has called for the traditional titles ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ to be banished from schools to stop sexist views taking root among pupils.

What an anachronistic cat!

And now, anatomical diagrams of animals that help you determine what is the cutest part of a bunny and the angriest part of a wasp. Enjoy.

 

For a Monday

On the home front: Ontario is sinking in a red sea and all Andrea Horvath can think of child care no one wants nor can pay for:

New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath says licensed child care needs an immediate one-time cash infusion of $100 million in order to keep centres open. 

I don't think the NDP wants to win an election. I really don't. It's like the party has to be guided into thinking the way regular people think. Why do currently unemployed people need day-care? Factories that were once their workplaces have been shut down. They now can look after their kids themselves.

Why not focus on that, Andrea Horvath?


Ezra Levant talks to some smelly hippies with funny results.


Hey, UN, how's that North Korean thing working out? Did you get that sorted out yet?

The United Nations special envoy on the rights of indigenous people confirms he will publish on Monday his findings on the conditions in Canada's aboriginal communities, following a nine-day cross-country visit last fall.

“The report will be made public on Monday,” James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, told CBC News in an email on Saturday.

Anaya’s initial assessment of the conditions facing aboriginals in Canada was grim.

“From all I have learned, I can only conclude that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous peoples of the country," the UN fact-finder said last October.

Speaking of North Korea:

A rhetorical battle between the rival Koreas intensified Monday with a South Korean official saying North Korea "must disappear soon."

The comments, which will likely draw a furious response from Pyongyang, followed a series of sexist and racist slurs by North Korea against the leaders of South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang's state media likened South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an "old prostitute" and U.S. President Barack Obama to a "monkey" in recent dispatches.

If these insults are the straws that break the camel's back- not the kidnappings, not the human right violations, not the sinking of the Cheonan, or the shelling of Yeongpyeong Island- I shall be most disappointed.



In other news, Boko Haram, who burned and/or shot to death fifty-nine schoolboys, kidnapped, threatened to sell and may have mutilated two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls and which Hillary Clinton refused to label as a terrorist group, now wants to swap prisoners for them:

Shehu Sani, who has previously brokered face-to-face peace talks with Boko Haram, said he believed that the video in which its leader threatened to sell the girls as “slaves” was proof that it planned to use them as bargaining chips rather than kill them.

The video released earlier this week showed Abu Bakar Shekau gloating that he would sell the captives “in the market” to anyone wishing to take them as wives.

But while the broadcast appalled the captives’ families and provoked worldwide outrage, Mr Sani saw it as a veiled attempt to reach out for a trade with the Nigerian government.

(Sidebar: if the Nigerian government were to agree to this, it can call each week-end "Girl Swap Saturdays" because these emotional retards will not stop doing this until they are blown to bits by unmanned drones.)

I shudder to think that the Nigerian government may be entertaining this idea.

What is also cringe-worthy is this, expressed with the acidic eloquence of Mark Steyn:
 

It is hard not to have total contempt for a political culture that thinks the picture at right is a useful contribution to rescuing 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by jihadist savages in Nigeria. Yet some pajama boy at the White House evidently felt getting the First Lady to pose with this week's Hashtag of Western Impotence would reflect well upon the Administration. The horrible thing is they may be right: Michelle showed she cared - on social media! - and that's all that matters, isn't it?

Just as the last floppo hashtag, #WeStandWithUkraine, didn't actually involve standing with Ukraine, so #BringBackOurGirls doesn't require bringing back our girls. There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama's hashtag is just a form of moral preening.

#DAMN!

I imagine it has never occurred to the emasculated brain-trusts in the West to stop acting like a bunch of insulated giggling thirteen year old girls and be proactive like the Israelis:

A statement from the Nigerian president's office in Lagos later on Sunday said that Jonathan had "briefed Mr Netanyahu on actions already being taken by Nigeria's armed forces and security agencies to locate and rescue the girls, saying that Nigeria would be pleased to have Israel's globally acknowledged anti-terrorism expertise deployed to support its ongoing operations."

The Lord is my shepherd and Israel's wing man.

Putin's dirty work is still being done:

Pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukraine declared independence Monday and sought to join Russia, undermining upcoming presidential elections, strengthening the Kremlin's hand and putting pressure on Kyiv to hold talks with the separatists following a referendum on self-rule.

Russia signalled it has no intention of subsuming eastern Ukraine the way it annexed Crimea in March. Instead, Moscow is pushing to include eastern regions in negotiations on Ukraine's future — suggesting that Russia prefers a political rather than a military solution to its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.

The next time there is a war, we don't rescue Europe:

Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst, popularly known as "the bearded lady," won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with the James Bond-theme-like ballad "Rise Like a Phoenix", before a global TV audience of about 180 million people in 45 countries.

To get your mind off of that, here's a wombat.

Happy Mother's Day

Thanks for keeping all the ducklings in a row.

Where Did the Love Go?

Right here:

President George W. Bush left the White House as one of the most disliked presidents in our nation’s history. With approval ratings struggling to hit 30 percent, he was an albatross hanging over fellow Republican John McCain during the 2008 presidential election. Even four years later, as President Obama ran for re-election, the majority of voters thought Bush was more responsible for economic problems in the United States than Obama.

But over the past year, polling data has begun to suggest that Bush is no longer quite the liability he once was for the GOP, and that most Americans no longer see the current economy as something Obama inherited.

Since April, Bush’s favorable rating has averaged 49.3 percent. His unfavorable rating has averaged 46.3 percent. More Americans now like Bush than dislike him. Of course, 49.3 percent is far lower than Jimmy Carter’s 58 percent favorability rating, recorded in April 2013, but Bush has seen a moderate improvement over the past four years. In his last weeks in office, Bush’s favorable rating averaged just 37.3 percent; his unfavorable rating averaged 57.8 percent.

Moreover, the percentage who believe that Obama inherited the nation’s current economic conditions has dipped below 50 percent for the first time. According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, it’s just 46 percent of Americans. Although that’s only one poll, it’s far beyond the prior low of 56 percent recorded by the NBC survey. And nearly 50 percent is not that low considering that Obama has been in the Oval Office for more than five years. The percentage who believe Obama is responsible is also at an all-time high: 39 percent in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

That must hurt.

For A Thursday

.traB pu kciP


Twenty-three thousand people attended the March for Life in Ottawa.

Quite the number in Alberta. More info to come.

Stick it, Trudeau.

As of this writing, the Liberal Party mouth-piece, CBC, has some blather about two unimportant chicks, not the monumental number of people witnessing for life. I won't link to it.  This is why the CBC should be de-funded now. A better network actually covered the March for Life in more detail. When you have thousands of people converge on the nation's capital, one would think a news agency would cover it, not focus on twits who couldn't flash their way out of a paper bag.

Whatever.


Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne hopes that pitting herself against PM Stephen Harper will make people magically forget her lies and incompetence:

And Wynne made the link to the provincial Conservatives clear.

“How can Ontarians trust Tim Hudak to confront Stephen Harper when he shares so many of his values, ideals and policies?” she asked.

Did either Hudak or Harper lie to Ontarians about cancelled and costly gas plants, Miss Wynne?


Moving on...


Even the Chinese are thinking ahead:

Contingency planners from China's People's Liberation Army have formulated a set of emergency measures to cope with the ramifications of a collapse of North Korea's regime for the border area, including a possible massive influx of refugees, according to internal PLA documents.

The documents -- which Chinese military sources say were compiled in the summer of last year, or several months after North Korea carried out its third nuclear test -- call for boosting China's monitoring capacity along the two countries' 1,416-kilometer-long border.

They also call for setting up camps on the Chinese side of the border to handle any influx of North Korean refugees.

The crisis management plans do not mention North Korea by name but refer to it otherwise, such as "our country's northeastern neighbor."

Among the scenarios deemed possible is an attack on North Korea by foreign forces leading to the collapse of political control and triggering a massive outflow of refugees and military personnel across the border into China.

In such an event, the plans call for special groups be sent to border areas to ascertain the situation, investigate new arrivals, block entry to any deemed dangerous or undesirable, and counter oppositional forces.

To cope with an influx of refugees, camps with a capacity of 1,500 people each should be set up in counties along the border, the documents say.

According to the documents, any important North Korean political or military figures who could be targeted for assassination should be given protection. But at the same time, they should be placed in special camps where their activities could be monitored to prevent them from directing military operations or engaging in other activities that could be detrimental to China's interests.

If accurate, this wouldn't surprise me. China is desperate to contain North Korea. It must know that a crisis, either humanitarian or military, is imminent.


A "tactical error" is moving your car into the express lane that just experienced a greater and slower influx of badly-driven cars. Boko Haram's kidnapping of girls and murder of boys were monstrous acts the world just didn't care about until now:

Boko Haram, the militant group that denounces Western education and wishes to establish an independent Islamist state in northern Nigeria, has been waging violent attacks in the country for the last five years.

But some analysts believe the group's recent kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls — coupled with a pledge that they would be sold into slavery — was not only outrageous but a tactical error that has been denounced even by prominent Sunni Muslim authorities.

FYI:

Islam institutionalized slavery.  Muhammad began to take slaves after he moved to Medina, and had power.  Slaves were usually taken in raids on nearby Arab tribes, or war, either through offensive or defensive actions.  Islam allows the taking of slaves as "booty", or reward for fighting.  This has led to numerous "jihads" by Muslim states and tribes to attack other non-Muslim groups and obtain slaves. 

And now, some news on a rare shark:

The Japan Daily Press reported Thursday that scientists performed an autopsy on the 1,500-pound female shark in front of onlookers at the Marine Science Museum in Shizuoka City. The shark was reportedly caught from a depth of about 2,600 feet. It's unclear precisely when it was nabbed, according to the report.

Mid-Week Post

The crucible of the week...


March for Life: it's happening, so screw you, Trudeau.


Author Farley Mowat has died. He was ninety-two.


It's Ontario. It's not like one has to choose between MacDonald or Laurier here:

It will be a little easier being Green after the June 12 provincial election, Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner says.

Schreiner said he expects the party to pick up one or two seats in this campaign, despite past shutouts.

But the Nigerians already have the Islamist-removing equipment. They're called guns. What good would a milquetoast response do? I mean- it's not like people are going to point out that Islamism is the problem or anything:

The federal New Democrats are calling for an emergency debate in Parliament over Canada's response to the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian teenage girls by Islamic extremists.

The request comes amid reports that Nigeria is asking Canada to supply surveillance equipment to battle terrorism in the wake of the April kidnappings by the Boko Haram rebel group.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar made the request Wednesday in a letter to House of Commons speaker Andrew Scheer.

"These girls were taken while writing a high school physics exam, an indication of the extent to which Boko Haram terrorists seek to undermine the education of young Nigerians, particularly girls," Dewar wrote.

(Sidebar: says the guy who thinks terms like "Islamist terrorism” are harsh and that we can work with "moderates"in Islamist-run countries.)

"Hundreds of young innocent lives are at stake, along with the political and social direction of a country and the region. Parliamentarians need an opportunity to discuss an appropriate Canadian response to this crisis."

Nigeria's vice-president reportedly issued a statement Wednesday after meeting with Canadian Development Minister Christian Paradis in the Nigerian capital of Abuja a day earlier. It said Vice-President Namadi Sambo asked for Canada to supply "surveillance equipment and other vital security hardware" to help Nigeria battle the Boko Haram insurgency.

Though the Canadian government did declare IRFAN a terrorist entity, so...


Also:

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird promised assistance from Canada to help rescue more than 250 Nigerian school girls who were abducted by Islamist group Boko Haram more than a week ago.

"I think I speak for all members of the House that strongly stand up and condemn actions by Boko Haram," Baird said in the House of Commons Tuesday. "Quite simply, their actions are repugnant. Our hearts go out to these young girls and to their families."

Baird said International Development Minister Ed Fast "recently offered Canada's full assistance to Nigerian authorities as they work to secure the release of these young girls."

He didn't explain exactly what that assistance could include.

I wouldn't call this a "breakthrough" but a re-grouping. Putin has been overwhelmed with roving mobs and sanctions. When things cool, Putin will be as iron-fisted as ever.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine to postpone a vote on secession just five days before it was to be held, potentially pulling Ukraine back from the brink of violent dismemberment.

It was the first sign the Kremlin leader has given that he would not endorse a referendum planned for Sunday by pro-Russian rebels seeking independence for two provinces in the east, and Russian analysts said they believed the rebels would heed Putin's call to put off the vote.

In what could be a breakthrough in the worst crisis between East and West since the Cold War, Putin also announced he was pulling Russian troops back from the Ukrainian border.

However, NATO, the Pentagon and the White House said they had not seen any signs of a Russian pull-back from the frontier, where Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops, proclaiming the right to invade Ukraine to protect Russian speakers.

"We call on the representatives of southeastern Ukraine, the supporters of the federalization of the country, to postpone the referendum planned for May 11," Putin said.

He said this would create conditions for dialogue between the Ukrainian authorities in Kiev and the separatists.

"Emergency meetings" wouldn't be necessary if the following were the happen-  parents got off their duffs and paid attention to what their children were learning and who was teaching what; curricula were based on academic excellence, not absurd and inflammatory exercises; teachers and other staff were carefully selected for their skills, not their ability to read from textbooks and spout out political crap; and finally, school board trustees were so afraid of this kind of crap that they saw to it that nothing like this would ever happen:

Rialto school board members will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday in response to widespread criticism of an eighth-grade writing assignment that asked students to consider sources that contend the Holocaust never happened.

A group of teachers and the district’s educational services division created the assignment, in which students were asked to research and write an argumentative essay about whether the Holocaust actually occurred or whether it was "merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth." ...

In the aftermath of the blowback, a spokeswoman for the Rialto Unified School District told The Times that interim Supt. Mohammad Z. Islam was not aware of its topic until school officials received an email about it.

Syeda Jafri said he was “deeply disturbed” by the assignment and acted swiftly, but declined to comment on whether the teachers involved faced any disciplinary action, citing confidential personnel matters.

Gee, one would think one wanted to put this beastly Benghazi business behind one:

Secretary of State John Kerry will be traveling to Mexico later this month, making him unavailable to testify before a congressional committee hearing on Benghazi that he has been subpoenaed to attend, the State Department said Wednesday.

Kerry will be in Mexico for two days, starting on May 21, the department said. That means he will miss the scheduled hearing that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has set for the same day. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., last week issued a subpoena for Kerry to appear.

Kerry said Tuesday he would comply with "whatever responsibilities" he has to Congress. It was not immediately clear whether the committee had rescheduled the hearing or other arrangements had been made for Kerry's appearance.

 

And now, boat-jousting: it's on.

Monday Post

A merry Cinco de Children's Day to you all.


Children's Day is not a happy one this year:

Twelve more bodies were retrieved from the sunken ferry Sewol on Monday, raising the death toll to 262 and lowering the number of those missing to 40, 19 days after the ship sank off South Korea's southwest coast. ...

Mourners, meanwhile, visited memorial altars across the nation to pay their respects to the dead. Children could be spotted with their parents as Monday was a public holiday. May 5 is celebrated as Children's Day in South Korea.

When your empire is currently helmed by a moron and held in siege by greedy unions that have backed said moron, this kind of thing was bound to happen:
  

China is set to overtake the U.S. as the world's number one economy, while India has jumped into third place ahead of Japan, according to a new study from the world's leading statistical agencies.

  
Also, mismanagement, slave labour, and currency manipulation don't help.


Vietnam claims China is illegally exploring the South China Sea for oil:

Vietnam demanded China stop oil drilling operations in a disputed patch of the South China Sea, saying on Monday that Beijing's decision to deploy a deep sea rig over the weekend was illegal.

China's move was the latest in a series of provocative actions aimed at asserting its sovereignty in potentially oil and gas-rich waters that have raised tensions with Vietnam, the Philippines and other claimants.

The thing is this Boko Haram moron will probably get himself killed. I'm guessing accidentally getting shot.


Doing the dirty work Putin won't do:

Pro-Russian rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicopter in fierce fighting near the eastern town of Slaviansk on Monday, and Kiev drafted police special forces to the southwestern port city of Odessa to halt a feared westward spread of rebellion.

Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists", would replace local police who had failed to tackle rebel actions at the weekend. Its dispatch was a clear signal from Kiev that, while tackling rebellion in the east, it would vigorously resist any sign of a slide to a broader civil war.

Odessa, with its ethnic mix from Russians to Ukrainians, Georgians to Tatars a cultural contrast to the pro-Russian east, was quiet on Monday. Ukrainian flags flew at half-staff for funerals of some of the dozens killed in clashes on Friday.

But in the east, fighting intensified around the pro-Russian stronghold of Slaviansk, a city of 118,000, where rebel fighters ambushed Ukrainian forces early in the day.

On the home-front...


The election campaign in Ontario begins Wednesday:

While the official campaign doesn't start until Wednesday, the leaders of Ontario's three major political parties have hit the ground running.

They spent the weekend touting their platforms and exchanging jabs while attending community events.

Chief Shawn Atleo has resigned:

The government is putting its First Nations education bill on hold until the Assembly of First Nations replaces Shawn Atleo, who resigned as national chief last week.

Atleo declined to take questions after he announced his resignation, but there was plenty of speculation his decision had something to do with significant tensions within First Nations communities over his support of Bill C-33, the First Nations Control over First Nations Education Act.

It's time for Pam Palmater to step up. No one understands the plight of the screwed-over aboriginal like a shrill activist.


And now, things to cook in the merry month of May.

But Wait! There's More!

There usually is...


Didn't I say this?

The budget calls for $130.4 billion in spending on programs and debt repayment in 2014-15, up $3.4 billion from the previous year.

The revenue that the treasury takes in will rise to $118.9 billion, up $3 billion, leaving a shortfall of $12.5 billion including a $1 billion reserve.

The government is predicting significant increases in revenue to bring the deficit down to zero by 2017-18.

Annual interest payments for paying off the province's ballooning debt will grow to $11 billion this year, $12 billion next year and $13.3 billion in 2016-17.

The debt -- the total amount Ontario owes -- will hit $317.2 billion in two years, which is $21,019 for every person in the province.

In 2003-04, when the Ontario Liberals first took over government, the net debt was $10,971 per person.

As previously announced, the government will retire the debt retirement charge bill as of Jan. 1, 2016, but with the end of the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit at the same time, average hydro customers will pay just over $120 more a year.

There are hydro cost breaks for low-income families and for more industrial users.

Ontario government plans to spend more than $130 billion over 10 years on infrastructure such as roads, bridges and public transit paid for with new borrowing, redirected taxes, the elimination of a small business tax deduction for large corporations and proceeds from high occupancy toll lanes.

Where does Wynne think all this money is going to come from? Where does she think industry is going to come from?


One would think that with childhood vaccinations and medical advances, the average person would get a clue. If they did, mandatory vaccinations wouldn't be an issue:

Canada's long, drawn-out series of measles outbreaks continued this week when Alberta health officials declared not one, not two, but three outbreaks in regions across the province.

The trio of declarations are just the latest instances of measles that have hit various parts of the country in recent months. Almost every province has had to address measles on some level. Save perhaps Quebec, where vaccinations are mandatory, and apparently quite effective.

Clayton Lockett raped, kidnapped, shot and buried alive Stephanie Nieman, as well as raped, beat and kidnap two other people as well as a baby.


People also thought Stalin/Khrushchev/Brezhnev/Gorbachev were right, too:

Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era on Thursday, with workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin after the seizure of territory from neighboring Ukraine.

Thousands of trade unionists marched with Russian flags and flags of Putin's ruling United Russia party onto the giant square beneath the Kremlin walls, past the red granite mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.

Many banners displayed traditional slogans for the annual workers' holiday, like: "Peace, Labour, May". But others were more directly political, alluding to the crisis in neighboring former Soviet republic Ukraine, where Russian troops seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula in March, precipitating the biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

"I am proud of my country," read one. "Putin is right," said another.

Unlike Kremlin leaders in Soviet times, Putin did not personally preside at the parade from atop the mausoleum. But he carried out another Soviet-era tradition by awarding "Hero of Labour" medals to five workers at a ceremony in the Kremlin. He revived the Stalin-era award a year ago.

I don't understand (particularly people who call themselves conservative) why people cannot see what an autocrat Putin is and how bad he is for Russia.


Speaking of autocrats, why not read up on Pyongyang's homophobia, manufactured famine and much, much more?


A video captures the last moments of teen-agers trapped on a sinking South Korean ferry:

Soon after the ferry began to tilt, there was nervous laughter, jokes about the Titanic and talk of selfies and Facebook posts from the doomed high school students huddled below deck.

But the lighthearted atmosphere soon turned serious as the listing worsened. Fear began building, and one student asked, "Am I really going to die?"

The shaky video (http://apne.ws/R7iRbX ) — at times poignant and heartbreaking as the teens said last words to their loved ones — was found on the cellphone belonging to 17-year-old Park Su-hyeon when his body was recovered after the disaster on the morning of April 16 off South Korea.

The boy's father, Park Jong-dae, provided it Thursday to The Associated Press, saying he wanted to show the world the conditions aboard the Sewol as it sank. He earlier released it to select South Korean media. Information such as video can be recovered from micro SD cards in cellphones even if the device is submerged.

More than 300 people are dead or missing in the disaster, which has plunged South Korea into mourning and touched off anger and shame. About 220 bodies, mostly from inside the submerged vessel, have been recovered. More than 80 per cent of the victims were students from a high school in Ansan, south of Seoul, on their way to the tourist island of Jeju for a school trip. ...

At the start of the video, a message blared from the ferry's loudspeakers: "Don't move away from your places and brace for any possible accidents."

In subsequent announcements, passengers were again told to stay put, even as some questioned whether they should flee.

The last message from the bridge came at 9:08: "We're again announcing: For passengers who can wear life vests, please wear them now. Never move away from your places."

That warning came eight minutes after a Sewol crew member told a marine traffic official, "The body of the ship has tilted, and it's impossible to move," according to a transcript of communications with the ferry.

After the passengers were ordered to stay in their cabins, Capt. Lee Joon-seok took at least a half-hour to order an evacuation. It is unclear whether that order was ever relayed to passengers. Lee has said he delayed the evacuation because of worries about sending passengers into cold waters and fast currents before rescuers arrived.

Lee could be seen in a separate video released by the coast guard leaping from the ferry in his underwear onto a rescue boat while many passengers were still in the sinking ship.

A Canadian filmmaker has been found dead in Cambodia:

The family of Dave Walker, a Canadian filmmaker who went missing in Cambodia in February, says he was found dead today.

A statement issued on behalf of Walker’s family says his body was reportedly discovered by a child at the Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Cambodian law enforcement officials told the family it appeared Walker had died several weeks ago.
The statement says a doctor at the site was unable to determine a cause of death and an autopsy will be held to try to determine how and when Walker died.

Forensic officer Pheng Pich says authorities are waiting on DNA tests before an official confirmation of the body's identity can be made, but he says there are no initial signs of foul play.

Tith Narong, a senior officer with the Siem Reap provincial police, says friends and acquaintances identified Walker on the basis of his clothing.

Walker, who was 58, had been living in Cambodia for the past year and a half. He was staying at a guesthouse on Feb. 14, when he stepped out while a housekeeper tended to his room and was not seen again.

The disappearance baffled family and friends, who said Walker spoke the language, knew the streets and was familiar with the local culture. His phone, laptop computer, passport and other belongings were left behind at the guesthouse.

Walker and a partner had set up a film company in Siem Reap in July 2012 called Animist Farm Films. They had recently been working on a documentary about the Khmer Rouge regime, which left close to two million people dead.