Reader Tips

Reader Tips 86 Comments

It didn’t take long for Michaelle Jean to pick up where Queen Adrienne left off.
When punditry were speculating post election that Harper would wait several months before doing anything substantive in government,it was a sign that they don’t know very much about Harper. Or Albertans. Or Western Canadian conservatives, for that matter.
(Which should come as no surprise – I understand that over the weekend Jane Taber inadvertantly revealed on National TV she hadn’t actually read the Conservative Party platform. Journalism. In Canada.).
Damian Brooks offers good advice on the MCpl Franklin VC medal debate.
My thoughts on this orgy of Hollywood self congratulation? – if you want to know how culturally significant Brokeback is, try counting the number of cowboys in the theatre seats.
Fraud charges are laid in the DND computer billing scam.
Iran announces the end of diplomacy over their nuclear weapons program. Cool. Let’s just get this one over with.
Drop your own in the comments.

86 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Gee, one of the first to post…*gulp*
    1. GeeGee Jean didn’t even wait till her nomination to start the spending spree, one has to wonder how long before that office is either canned or reduced to paperclip shufflers.
    2. DND kickbacks. So what’s new. HP was found overbilling, you know the ‘merican way of $300 hammers. What is more frustrating is now what? The guy is ordered to go on university circuit lectures about ethical billing? Speaking of speaking, what’s happening or has anyone heard of the AdScam whats-his-name professor on business ethics yet?
    3. Uh, a guy is over in some God forsaken desert with a horse, err Mercedes with no name, trying to uphold sanity, law and order and gets attacked
    by psyco-jihadists and isn’t “that brave”. Typical Liberal armchair politicians who ruined this country. I think anyone over there deserves some sort of medal, even more so the one’s flying in SeaKing helicopters…
    4. Brokeback Mountain eh? Gives new meaning to “whoa horsie”…at least Munich didn’t get high in ratings, talk about twisting history to be PC.
    5. Iran “hands” over sensitive documents on how to make warheads. All is well. Hasn’t anyone heard of a photocopier? Peace Peace and we know the rest of the verse.

  5. I think these kind of charges against HM representative are bogus. I expect the GG to live well. She is a bargain at twice the price!. Support fopr the Monarchy is part of the Tory platform.
    So God Save the Queen of Canada. Lets not be like the fiberlas.

  6. Hey Truth: Are these the same “experts” who said we didn’t land on the moon? Or the one’s who said global warming is due to CO2 emissions?

  8. Bombardier was being economical with the truth: “Bombardier denies plan to scrap jet”, Globe and Mail, Jan, 31 (print edition).
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060131/RBOMBER31/TPBusiness/TopStories
    Now, from the online edition a somewhat edited version of the story: “Bombardier scraps $2.1-bln jet”.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060131.wbombardier0131/BNStory/Business/
    Your tax dollars at work. And look who might receive succour (print edition):
    “Flight International also said Bombardier is in talks with Russia’s civil aviation company [Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co.] about participating in its regional-jet program.”
    I wonder how much success Bombardier will now have in lobbying the new government to choose less than optimal tactical transport and search and rescue aircraft for the Air Force, but aircraft with contracts that will benefit Bombardier. Remember they build turboprops in Toronto.
    Mark
    Ottawa

  9. tomax
    can you handle the truth?
    these experts are former reagan administration financial advisor, current congressman and senators, including university professors, this is not your daddies conspiracy theories, sroll down near the bottom of the page (link) and read *the kinds of considerations that these experts and scholar find profoundly troubling

  10. Re: Harper moving fast, decisively and following through on promises as per the campaign platform: This seems to confuse MSM “pundits” because they are still stuck in the past era of Librano MO…it seems inconceivable that a politician whould fulfill election promises…that’s “controvesial”. They’sll probably gag when Harper proceeds to dismantle Librano sacred cows and tossing out “albaross” policies…that too will be too “controversial” and a threat to his government… Meh, our media eh?
    Re:

  12. Re: DND computer contracts. Why does Paul Champagne’s name ring a bell? Was he involved in a certain political party?

  13. I might even watch the Oscars this year just to see John Stewart.
    From what I have read and heard, MCpl Franklin has got to be as tough a guy as there is out there. Award or not, he is an out and out hero.
    Mmmm, do we have an extradition agreement with the Turks and Caicos Islands?
    And, OT, did the size of David Dingwall’s parachute ever come to light?

  14. And from Der Spiegel, Jan. 31: “MUSLIM PROFILING:
    A German State Quizes Muslim Immigrants on Jews, Gays and Swim Lessons”.
    http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,397482,00.html
    Excerpts:
    ‘Since the beginning of the year, the German state of Baden-W�rttemberg has been testing would-be citizens on their attitudes to the constitution. The only problem? The quiz itself might be unconstitutional…
    At issue [in the Federal Parliament] was whether to ban a new immigration test that went into effect in the southern German state of Baden-W�rttemberg on January 1 this year. The test — referred to derisively as the “Muslim test” by its opponents — ostensibly seeks to determine the attitude of citizenship applicants to the German constitution and to western values. Questions such as: “Some people accuse the Jews of being responsible for all that’s bad in the world. … What do you think of such accusations?” and “Your daughter applies for a job in Germany but she gets a negative response. Later you find out that a black woman from Somalia got the job instead. What do you do?” are used to determine whether applicants should be further interviewed. Should subsequent behavior of these citizens demonstrate that they lied on the test, the state reserves the right to withdraw their citizenship [granted by the states in Germany, not the federal government]…
    But despite the voluminous critique — and the fact that no other German state seems interested in introducing the concept — Baden-W�rttemberg is sticking to its guns. While presenting the test before parliament earlier this month, the state’s interior minister, conservative Christian Democratic Union member Heribert Rech, insisted amid loud scoffs and interjections that the test wasn’t just for Muslims but would be given to others too. He also defended the principle behind the test.
    “Until now, we have always asked what the immigrants know about our constitution,” he said. “But there’s a big difference between what one knows and what one believes or identifies with.”..
    Mark
    Ottawa

  15. Brokeback is a Hollywood fabricated issue.
    The screen actors guild snubbed it at their awards,
    yes the people actually making movies didn’t think it was an issue or merited an award. I would love to see it snubbed at the oscars, if it was then there would be another “conspiracy theory” out there. Maybe M.M. could make a movie brokeback911.

  16. “conspiracy theory”
    people at one point in time believed the earth to be flat, people who said it was round were ridiculed and persecuted, until something extraordinary happened, the tilting point of critical mass happened, and the minority became the majority and the rest is history my dear watson

  17. Queen of Canada?
    Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. This means Canadians recognize The Queen as our Head of State. Canada’s Governor General carries out Her Majesty’s duties in Canada on a daily basis and is Canada’s de facto Head of State.
    Like many other democracies, Canada has clearly defined the difference between the Head of State and Head of Government.

  18. how did you know my name is “Watson”
    do you have cameras, listening devices, key loggers.
    sorry i have burn down my safe place and relocate further into the mountains – hope i don’t run into any of them gay cowboys….later

  19. WHAT? You say they don’t know much about Harper? Welll….a lot you know! Why, they already figured out his wife’s real name! Sorta. Bout half anyway. Some of them, that is!

  21. ” Iran has turned over documents to the UN’s nuclear watchdog that describe how to cast uranium into the shape of warheads, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. ”
    Whew, let’s hope they didn’t make copies before they
    turned them over, eh…..

  22. Ahh, the “9/11 was faked” ideas come up again. We debated it for a while at the office (I work within the Aviation industry) – arguments like the dissapearing track from flight 77 just don’t hold water with anybody who knows the workings of SSR (Secondary Surveillance Radar – the radar system that gives Air Traffic Controllers knowledge of which aircraft is represented by each specific track).
    Through my job, I’ve had the opportunity to see a bit of stuff that isn’t publically available – even those that are committed conspiracy-theorists, after seeing all the evidence, pretty clearly shows that many of the theories are, plainly put, BS.

  24. RE: Brokebackside Humpin’
    I’m a film exhibitor in a rural location and I went through hell with the scheduling of this film. I’d like to reveal more details about our particular case, but let’s say that the citizens of my town had a vested interest in this film.
    The Hollywood marketing/distribution machinery is pure cut-throat capitalism. They see $$$$ in gay cowboys. End of story. It’s not conspiracy with critics who laud the film, it’s collusion. The critics get to bash “core values” and Hollywood reaps in the bucks. Plain and simple.
    I’m mostly puzzled over why Ang Lee was chosen to direct this film. I suspect to add some element of credibility. The cinematography was quite good. The film itself was tedious, ponderous, the acting was wooden (what do you expect from a bunch of 20-year olds?) and the music was non-existant. In all, it was a waste of time. But ask the gay values crowd and they will all chime together in chorus: THE MESSIAH HAS ARRIVED.
    and on theat troll tooth-seeker….
    Ya know, some trolls are cute and it’s fun to feed them and watch them eat sh*t. Others are just so damn ugly and stupid it’s pathectic. In that case–LET THEM STARVE!

  25. “I expect the GG to live well. She is a bargain at twice the price!”
    Don’t worry. she will be twice the price soon enough, she was just testing the waters with this one.
    GG – Gotta Go!!

  26. Greg Phelan
    “after seeing all the evidence, pretty clearly shows that many of the theories are, plainly put, BS”
    BS you say, here’s your chance to prove it, start by giving us one fact that is BS, in the mean time look at this, first minute in, collapse of tower, can you say that there wasn’t any controlled explosives planted in that building
    http://fpidocument.blogspot.com/2005/12/call-911.html

  28. Truth Seeker – I’m not sure of your point, in suggesting that the 9/11 was a ‘hoax’. Steel may melt at approx 1300 C/2500F. But, it loses 50% of its structural strength and sags at the mere heat of 550C..which is 1022F…far less than the heat of the airplane fuel oil.
    It happened; it’s not a conspiracy of the Bush gov’t!

  29. RE: Iran
    I know the rucus is about nukes…but has anybody been following the plan of Iran to begin selling oil directly, rather than through the london or new york market? Seems like no big deal?…guess again. They are not only selling oil on their own, but in Euros, not greenbacks….and if you do some reading on that subject, you’ll start to understand that the nukes are more of a smokescreen than the real issue. I was amazed at the implications connected to the Iran oil Bourse, as its called. Scary times ahead, indeed!

  30. hey doug
    i’m no troll, scared? can’t handle the truth
    it’s about dicovering the truth,
    not about right vs left
    it’s about right vs wrong

  31. Truth Seeker: 911 issue
    The pdf version of your “news release” has this at the end:
    James Fetzer
    UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
    http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org
    My very first real job carried the title “physicist” and I worked in a university physics department. Nothing about being a professor truly impressed me other than that some of them were very smart in their fields an at least half were morons outside it. (IMO).
    The group pushing this drivel has a large ideological buffalo chip on its shoulder and is not to be trusted.

  32. ET
    assuming your right about the steel loses 50% of its structural strength and sags at the mere heat of 550C..
    OK, the plane hit the top stories of the building, and much of the fuel was burnt up in the fireball, and only apx 10 stories would have been weakened (not all 110 stories), and there are pictures that clearly show people at the opening where the plane hit the building, so obviously the fire was not that hot!

  33. I think we need to address this “Mulroney Conspiracy” crap coming from the left. I knew it wouldn’t take long before the vultures were out blaming the 18th Prime Minister for the warm weather we’ve been getting.
    Check this out, she let me post once, but I came back with a real zinger (that we were “stuck” with Free Trade, even though there’s a clause that either party can back out on 6 months notice.)
    Like Meech and Charlottetown weren’t a Trudeau conspiracy, please.
    Furthermore, wouldn’t Harper want to obtain advice from someone who knows what they’re doing? From someone who wouldn’t go running off to the press and blab their gums?
    Check this loon out: It’s raining outside, blame Mike Harrie and Brian Mulroney. It’s not like the Liberals did a bunch to beat themselves.
    http://www.acanadianleaf.blogspot.com/

  34. I have found that engaging the 911 trolls to be a fruitless exercise. They are usually right on the ragged edge of having to be medicated for their own safety.
    This is a thread that has some substantial meat to it, it would be a shame if it was hijacked by a loony. Don’t feed it. Kate will be along soon to shovel its mess up, I think.
    Don’t feed the trolls. ignore it.

  35. …hope i don’t run into any of them gay cowboys….later
    Shifty charactors. Always shifting uncomfortably in their saddles.

  37. The MSM in good old North America, gets caught up in olds not usually news.
    Hollywood is whining over declining box office numbers. Gee, last cowboy movie I went to was great, Open Range, but between the two seats, popcorn, and drinks, the tab was over $30.00.
    I bought the DVD, and the next time we watched it, it was in the comfort of home. The popcorn was tastier and the butter was real.
    Meanwhile, over at the UN, the UNDP plans a $7 trillion plan for a brave new world, where all our problems would be solved.
    The world remains an interesting place.
    TIZ

  39. Now that the RCMP have laid charges against the DND computer scam, I’m wondering when they will turn their attention to the government relocation contract. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled on 11 Jan 2006 that competing bid was not properly evaluated and that monetary relief be paid to the competing bidder. What happens to the team who evaluated the bids in favour of the winning contractor.? Will they be investigated as to WHY they acted in the way they did? Does anyone know the procedure for this?

  40. Truth seeker
    Did you know that the sinking of the Titanic was also a hoax?
    It was perpetrated by Alexander Cameron so that one day his grandson could make it into a Hollywood blockbuster.
    Alexander understood that movie goers want to watch heroic uplifting stories that they can relate too.
    This is a concept that seems to be lost on today’s Masters of Hollywood.

  41. Fuck it, lets do Iran. They’ve had it coming for 35 years. Lets just bite the bullet and frag the buggers… when we finish with them, lets do Syria next. Knock off all these tinpot dictators, set these countries on a course for democracy,and watch them screw it up. It will be messy, but at least we’ll get a decade or so of sleep before they get themselves organized again.
    Between the Nato members and Isreal, we should just burn their friggin houses down. We (as in the western world) can’t fix anything there. We can’t help, we can’t buy a fix… they do not trust the west in the Middle East. Hell, I’ll be dead and buried and they still won’t trust the west.
    My old man alway’s told me “when you fucked, what does it matter, put your head down and damn the torpedo’s”. Sounds like a plan to me.
    Iran with nukes. No way man, let’s blow them to hell before they do unto us as we’ve alway’s done unto them.

  42. Joe,
    Oh, boy. Where do I begin?
    First off, Iran’s been a tyrannical terrorist regime for 27 years, not 35. Please try to get your facts straight.
    Secondly, on what are you basing “set these countries on a course for democracy,and watch them screw it up”?
    Palestine? I’d be careful. Everyone’s been so busy with their pet ideological answers for why-Palestine-voted-for-terrorists that they have ignored the simple one: they had no choice. Hamas, the PFLP, and Fatah (ALL terrorist-backed parties) were the only major parties on the ballot; the rest were, literally, caught in the terrorist crossfire that best describes current life in Palestine.
    Iraq? The Iranian-tinged party (UIA) was actually denied a legislative majority, and even the non-Iran backed factions within it are talking about bolting.
    Iran? You call that a democratic election?
    “No way man, let’s blow them to hell before they do unto us as we’ve alway’s done unto them.”
    You mean when we liberated Kuwait, liberated Iraq, and the political shock wave liberated Lebanon?
    I say we keeping doing “what we’ve (sadly, far from always) done to them.”

  43. about the GG…..what % of the Canadian electorate would like to see an end to this gross overspending appointment.what a waste of taxpayers dollars…..when everything is free the pigs at the trough eat and drink all they can and no less the BEST…I have never in my lifetime even considered spending $200 a nite for a room let alone $1800…(and I can afford it)but why would anyone except when it is free……….how sickening….when are we taxpayers going to have enough of al this BS?????????? we do not need the queen nor the GG..I am sure we would survive just well thank you and have money to spend on all Canadians not just a chosen few who have never had to work a day in their lives………..WELCOME TO CANADA….isnt it a great “free” world

  44. is it just me or does the premise of Brokeback Mountain seem more than a little cliched? i mean gay cowboys? could there be a more cliched gay fantasy than that? does it come close to reflecting anything like the reality of the cowboy culture? i don’t think it does. but i guess we’re all just supposed to ignore that, in order for the social normalization of the gay lifestyle to continue unabated.
    any cirtics of the movie (Gene Shalit) are immediatly shouted down as anti-gay, and homophobic, mean while hollywood types are tripping over themselves to sing its praises. its funny that the organizations like GLAAD defend free speech rights to get their own message across, but when someone like Gene Shalit, a respected movie critic, excersizes his own right to free speech it isn’t such a sacred thing.

  45. The new GG’s spending spree is just one more in the long list of reasons why the monarchy should be abolished.

  46. I don’t suppose the Goofball General has an e-mail address? Would love to express my gratitute to Mrs. Jean for prudent use of my tax dollars.

  47. i mean gay cowboys? could there be a more cliched gay fantasy than that? does it come close to reflecting anything like the reality of the cowboy culture?
    What next? Banning pickup trucks?

  48. I don’t think the monarchy should be abolished. The Queen, as head of state, would have to be replaced by another head of state since the Prime Minister technically isn’t that. In other words, we’d become the United States. Secondly, it’s what makes us, US! No way. Whether it weilds any real power is irrelevant. I take pride in what we are.

  49. Geesh – that conspiracy theory could be put in the rack alongside the Conservative’s Hidden Agenda!!!!! If people believe that crap then I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if they believe the SCARY STEVEN HARPER bunk!

  50. Look RJ,
    Bear in mind the shit didn’t hit the fan with the Muslims until the Catholic crusades started butchering them by the baker’s dozen. In fact, the Muslim faith co-existed quite happily with the Jewish and Christian faiths right up to the crusades.
    Arab’s are fundamentalists, and traditionalists with long memories, and very little reason to trust anyone not an Arab.
    And yes, you can fall back to the “well they invaded Byzantium and Spain, and Southern France”, but even then, they weren’t killing people out of spite, unlike us God fearing Christians.
    We fucked them over, plain and simple.
    We will never, ever be forgiven by the fanatic Muslims for that single fact. Even up to 100 years ago they were still relatively peaceful towards the west. What did we do, the west sent in people like T.E. Larwence, dropping promises like loose change, and then we had people like Winston Churchill go behind the T.E. Larwences of the world, and break those promises.
    We have stolen from them, we have tricked them, we have used them, we have stolen their wealth, lied to them, placed puppets on the thrones of their Kingdoms, and now the reality of our actions is coming back to haunt us.
    They remember everything. Cripes, they are still pissed about the crusades for bloody sakes. How do you negotiate with people like that. You don’t, because they don’t want you to. They want you to get the fuck out of their countries and out of their lives.
    So what do we do?
    We, as in the western controlled UN, carve a friggin nation out of the middle of Palestine, which just happens to have the most significant religious site in the Muslim world dead smack in the middle of it, and we screw them over in the process. We give them kings they don’t want, neighbors they detest, and then we arm one to beat up another, and then arm the other to beat up the one we armed the first time. On and on and on and on.
    Get this and get it straight… they hate our fucking guts.
    They hate us so much that they turn their children into bombs to use against us. It doesn’t matter what we say, or do, they will still hate us.
    If it takes the fanatic Muslim a day, a week, a month, a year, a century, they don’t give a shit. They will continue fighting us until they are dead, or we leave them alone.
    If you think 9/11 was the big show, think again. Time is on their side, and they know it. Look what one incident has done to the world since 9/11, and ask yourself if it’s a better, happier place now.
    I think the answer is fairly obvious.
    We should have never let Jerusluem become anything other than an independent city-state, open to the world. Well, hind-sight is alway’s 20/20 isn’t it.
    Hamas is another good example… Every one is so upset about Hamas, yet none of the western nations bother to remember that they were nothing but a handful of freaks in the 80’s, and instead of blowing them up then, and saving everyone some serious headaches, we all packed our bags and left Lebanon to its own devices. Hamas could have been dealt with easily then, and now, good luck. Their not just a liberation army, their a friggin movement.
    There is only one true option left to the Western world, and we are simply procrastinating on it. We need to send a million men in there, go door to door, bunker to bunker, shithole to shithole, and take every gun, bullet, bomb, and knife over 6″ long away from them and as a last act of contrition for what we done to them, we need to clean out as many of the nut-bars as we can before we go, and then put a big frigging fence around the Middle East and leave them the hell alone (Except Isreal of course, them we need to give even more guns and bombs too).
    You let Iran learn how to build a nuclear bomb, and the West is so screwed it isn’t even funny. People who send their children to die, and children who cheerfully blow themselves up, are not going to be to put out about blowing up a major western city.
    Do you want to risk that. I sure as hell don’t.
    No, I’m sorry, I know it sounds even worse to say, but the only way we can solve the Middle East now is blow it up and then stand back and let it find out about itself in the aftermath, with no interference from us.
    Sucks, but the alternative sucks even more.

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