On The Road Again

Blogging 48 Comments

I’m heading out later today on a 2 week trip (North Carolina, Kentucky), and while I expect to be checking in from time to time, my guest bloggers will be picking up the slack. In the meanwhile, be sure to expand your horizons and check out the many fine blogs on the sidebar!
Open thread, and readers tips in the comments.

48 Replies to “On The Road Again”

  1. Drive with care, keep a close eye on the many morons who inhabit our highways & byways these days, have a safe trip.
    Assuming its dog show related . . best of luck 🙂

  2. Kate:…ditto on the “stay safe”…enjoy the break…you’ve earned it, especially after these past few days…a very invigorating blog site…

  3. Have a safe trip Kate, we will miss you. I have just recently found your blog….I know, it is hard to believe that there are a few of us out there who lived in such darkness before, but I can assure you that I will be here when you return. Have fun and be safe!

  6. ha i thought i was seeing things when i read this ” Tories slammed over race to succeed Klein” in the calgary sun

  7. Have a good trip Kate, and if you really want to put a little thrill in your chill, hop over to Tennessee and check out Bristol, home of the wildest short track racing Nascar has to offer.
    Oops, my redneck is showing….

  8. Seems our unorganized incompeteant government of Canada has sent our guys out to fight on quicksand.
    Be sure to catch the CBC TV News special tonight by Carole Off.
    They talked about it on the Current:
    Listen to part 2:
    http://tinyurl.com/rmpjb
    TG

  9. If you’re through Lexington NC, check out “Lexington Barbecue” for their pulled pork!

  11. Bristol is insane. 1/2 mile oval…like sitting in your backyard.
    Talledaga is the best to me …3 corners.
    boogidy boogidy

  15. OMG, Platty, I’m from Bristol! But I no longer live there.
    Hope you enjoy Appalachia, Kate!

  16. Catherine Swift, Canadian Federation of Independent Business:
    Creating two classes of retirees
    …Those employed in the public sector are set with generous defined benefit plans that use a formula based on salary and years of service. As we have consistently seen, whenever such a plan has a surplus due to successful investing, the union concerned negotiates more benefits for its members. In times when the plan’s investments don’t perform quite so well, the resulting funding shortfall is made up by the employer � in the public sector, that would be the taxpayer…
    …Meanwhile, virtually everyone in the private sector uses the defined contribution plan model where the size of the pension payments depends on how the investments grow, just like with your RRSP…
    …The end result is we have two classes of pensioners: those with defined benefit plans make up an elite group whose retirements are funded by everyone else….
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060307.wswift0301/BNStory/specialSmallBusiness/

  17. Was Brison one of the dunderheads who decided to switch places with the Americans in a loud abrupt manner, instead of phasing in slowly?
    A gradual exchange would have prevented the Taliban bombings of schools the axe incident and the general show of Taliban force. Why not use stealth as they do?
    Seems our unorganized incompeteant government of Canada has sent our guys out to fight on quicksand.
    Be sure to catch the CBC TV News special tonight by Carole Off.
    They talked about it on the Current:
    Listen to part 2:
    http://tinyurl.com/rmpjb
    TG

  21. Seems Warren K. and Akins think Scott Brison is about to be fried… email was sent during a cabinet meeting, and then followed up on.

  25. Just for a change of topic: The Calgary Sun had an editorial by Corbella on March 6th, or 5th, re the cat bylaw coming in. Some woman was quoted as supporting the licencing of cats to cut down population. She said. A breeding pair of dogs would produce (I think) 250,000 pups in 7 yrs, whereas a breeding pair of cats would produce 450,000 kittens in 7 yrs. So, my question is, how many litters/yr can a dog or cat have, the average size of litter, and how off base is she with these numbers. So far, no one has questioned the figures in the editorial via letters etc. Must be a very busy tom cat and a very tired and sore female cat. How do these things get past editors,oh, I remember, by mistake aka the sheath.

  26. Hi Mary , I believe they were talking “exponentially” as in say 5 pups have 5 pups = 25 , then 25 pups have 5 each = 125 , then 125 pups have 5 each = 625 yadda,yadda,yadda….it wouldn’t take long.
    I believe rabbits enjoy themselves most and hit the millions in no time!
    Hope this helps.

  29. There’s a big pic of Brison on the front pg of my local paper. Have y’all seen his hair lately? Big pompadour and long sideburns? Perfectly tailored suit? Hint of makeup?
    Can y’all say “narcissism”? I’ll accept the utterance of “Liberal”.

  30. Horror story at Gitmo:
    Over at lgf are descriptions/links to some statements outlining the unimaginable horrors of the torture treatment to which detainees are subjected, including one poor soul’s description of the despicable inhumanities dealt to him (Caution: graphic content).
    Gee, no wonder they want to decapitate us all:
    […]
    “Finally, and in all honesty, it’s my duty to add that another former detainee, Feroz Abbasi, is not nearly as happy with the treatment that he received. In lengthy handwritten statements, included with the newly-released documents, Mr. Abbasi – who “left Britain to either join the Taliban or fight for Allah in [Indian-occupied] Kashmir”, being driven by “pure hate” for Americans – details the extent of the torture to which he was subjected.
    The list of abuses (set 5, page 14) makes for unpleasant reading, to say the least – but the whole thing must be included, for the sake of completeness.
    During his time in Guantanamo, Mr. Abbasi (writing in the third person) alleges that he was:
    -subject to [unspecified] “mental stress and pressure”
    -“willfully misdirected … to pray north”
    -deprived of “comfort items”
    -subjected to an [apparently failed] “attempt to withdraw Qur’an”
    -able to hear two guards having sex, while they “assumed he was asleep”
    -distracted from his prayer by the “sharp intake of breath” of a female MP who’d been “sexually fondled”.
    -offered a plate of pork
    -the object of a conspiracy “to keep detainee ignorant of detainee’s allotted Tuesday recreation”
    -subjected to a “partially successful” attempt to administer injections “under the guise of immunisation”, designed to “unhinge detainee’s mental and emotional stability”
    While all of these acts are undeniably horrifying, being on a par with the worst excesses of Torquemada, even their totality pales in comparison with the most extreme of the tortures to which Mr. Abbasi was subjected.
    Of course, countless abuses have been committed against war prisoners throughout the ages – no one denies that. But, while not downplaying their suffering, it must be admitted that even the most unfortunate of these victims can only breathe a sigh of relief that he was not subject to what Mr. Abbasi was forced to endure when he:
    -had his peanut butter eaten by a guard “right in front of him”.
    One needn’t be a bleeding heart to shudder at the inhumanity thus displayed.”
    […]
    Moral of the story…don’t ever, ever come between an Islamic terrorist and his peanut butter…

  31. I just visited the Socialism Web site listed further up on this thread.
    Here is a quote from one item regarding the commie high school teacher that Bill O’Reilly had been drilling for anti americanism.
    Several organizations nationally have been organized to pursue a McCarthyite witch-hunt by �outing� leftist professors.
    Where there is a witch hunt there are usually a few witches to be found. I am so happy that the backlash against theh Left is finally in full bloom. It may not have happened without that fabulous FOX News and guys like O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Makin and others.
    They don’t call the right, right for nothing.

  32. Launch 12 & 1/4 Petitions; Launch a Class Action
    Sooot; Call In El-Misery; Recall Martin;
    Send Brison 34 e-mails all beginning with Income Trust Tipping;
    The Presstitutes are revolting. Aye, Billy, they is revolting. +
    Press Gallery accuses PMO of impeding freedom of the press
    by Romeo St. Martin
    [PoliticsWatch Updated 5:30 p.m. March 8, 2006]
    Press Gallery reporters wait outside a cabinet meeting room on the third floor of the Centre Block Tuesday for perhaps the last time for a while.
    OTTAWA � The Parliamentary Press Gallery is accusing the Prime Minister’s Office of impeding the freedom of the press to access decision makers after a decision to move the location for scrums with cabinet ministers.
    On Tuesday, reporters were told by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staff that they would no longer be allowed to hold scrums with cabinet ministers at two microphones in a hallway outside of the cabinet meeting room on the third floor of the Centre Block.
    Under the new procedures, ministers could choose to speak to reporters at a microphone a level below in the foyer outside of the Chamber. +
    http://www.politicswatch.com/gallery-mar8-2006.htm
    via nealenews

  33. I bidded $100 Canadian Tire money for Liberal Leadership. e-mailed Rick ’cause ebay! doesn’t recognize Cdn Tire money.

  34. And when you “check out the many fine blogs on the sidebar,” make absolutely certain to pay homage to the Mensa logo and be impressed …

  35. Just to lighten things up a bit, here’s a brand new song:
    “Gay midget transgendered cowboys”
    Well, they have big hearts and they have big minds
    They have big dreams and they have big smiles
    But they don’t have the stature that some of us do
    But they live and they love all the day through
    CHORUS
    They’re gay midget cowboys standin’ tall in the sun
    With small chiseled chests and tiny, tight buns
    Cute little boots that cover their toes
    Searchin’ for cowboys, love, and nice clothes
    In the wide open space and the fresh, clean air
    They dream of an hombre to style their hair
    The dust on the trail makes ’em dirty and such
    But bathin’ with other cowboys is their stroke of good luck
    Repeat Chorus
    Wearing small buttoned shirts and tight little jeans
    Ain’t a gun in their pocket when a cowboy they sees
    They ride the trails lonely mile after mile
    Each does the work of two men and they do it with style
    Bridge
    Well, the trail is dusty and the day is long
    In their heads they pass the time singin’ old Cher songs
    But the chaps get tighter as the day grows hotter
    And the passion for man-meat only gets stronger…
    Repeat Chorus to fade

  36. “ANGRY” has an excellent posting on the gun registry. Not only did it not work and was the cause for massive overspending, it appears that it was capable of providing info on gun owners to hackers. (In place of hackers, substitute gangs.)
    Be sure to read the “more” section;use the clickable link immediately before the ‘comments’ at the end of his post ie:-“more… “Dangerous guns or dangerous gun registry?”
    Is there any possible way in which this program could be more messed up? The mind boggles.
    Thank you LPOC….the reincarnation of the Monty Python Show .

  38. Here’s one for you,hope you all enjoy….
    Subject: FW: The ant and the grasshopper 2006
    > CLASSIC VERSION:
    >
    > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
    > his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a
    > fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant
    > is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter,
    > so he dies out in the cold.
    >
    > THE END
    >
    >
    > THE CANADIAN VERSION:
    >
    > The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building
    > his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a
    > fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant
    > is warm and well fed. So far, so good, eh?
    >
    > The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why
    > the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less
    > fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.
    >
    > The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper,
    > with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table
    > laden with food.
    >
    > Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor
    > grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.
    >
    > The NDP, the CAW, and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in
    > front of the ant’s house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural festival
    > special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them singing “We Shall
    > Overcome.”
    >
    > Svend Robinson rants in an interview with Pamela Wallin that the ant
    > has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate
    > tax hike on the ant to make him pay his “fair share.”
    >
    > In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic
    > Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of
    > the summer.
    >
    > The ant’s taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for failing to hire
    > grasshoppers as helpers.
    >
    > Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed
    > retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
    >
    > The ant moves to the U.S. and starts a successful agribiz company.
    >
    > The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of
    > the ant’s food, though Spring is still months away, while the government
    > house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles
    > around him because he hasn’t bothered to maintain it.
    >
    > Inadequate government funding is blamed, Roy Romanow is appointed to
    > head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.
    >
    > The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star
    > blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of
    > despair arising from social inequity.
    >
    > The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders,
    > praised by the government for enriching Canada’s multicultural diversity, who
    > promptly set up a marijuana grow op and terrorize the community.
    >
    Have a safe trip Kate, good luck with the dog’s

  39. The sanctimonious “left” make me ill. Thinking they know all the answers and looking down their long noses at the “right”.
    The sanctimonious “right” make me ill too. Thinking they know all the answers and looking down their own long noses at the “left.”
    It is interesting that both groups compares the other to nazis in the heat of battle.
    Moonbats on the left look for the cause that is he flavour of the month” to support – pick one – natives, animal rights, disabled. No thought to actually understanding issues.
    Good ol boys and gurls on the right look for the cause that is the “flavour of the month” to call down – pick one – natives, animal rights, disabled. No thought to actually understanding issues.
    There is actually sometimes some good discussion on this blog. Unfortunately it is usually overshadowed by the great big circle jerk of righties telling each other how right they are.
    Maybe someone should start a blog that promotes intelligent discussion. OK — I’m dreamin’

  40. A bit superficial on the Harper comments but aimed in the correct direction. How about some comments on the McKenzie pipeline deal for Imperial
    D.ATL

  41. Thanks cdn observer. The lady said one pair of breeding cats, so I never thought of the results of the breeding would also breed. Still think the figures are out to lunch. Reminds me of a call I made 5 yrs ago to Stats Canada. After 3 days of experts on a talk show, stating how many women had died of breast cancer the preceeding yr, and other cancer deaths, my question was: How many people died of cancer last year. The answer was that 292,783 people died,in Canada, of all causes,from all ages, and by calling Prov Statistic offices, I could get a total break down of causes. 5000 cases of cancer had been diagnosed (all kinds) throughout Canada the previous year.
    My next question was Where are all the bodies, as one expert said 80,000 women had died of breast cancer, lung cancer claimed about 100,000. Another 200,000 had died of other cancers. All caused by smoking of course. No one had ever called to question figures spouted by these groups, and we spent about 30 minutes discussing numbers thrown out by media sources. If you want a fun time, take any topic or figures spouted, and call Stats Can. Amazing what you can find out, from number of gun owners, to how many car accidents. Sure are a lot of liars out there distorting facts, and most of them are doing this on government grants.

  42. John Demerais; thanks for that tip. Very surprising. I’d venture a guess that Klein doesn’t reciprocate any level of respect for TAFT. I agree on the contenders, esp after the Colleen Klein incident. Mike Duffy was asking lately about a rumour he’d heard about Preston Manning being in the running for Ralph’s job. An interesting possibility.

  43. Was this overheard at the Eaton Centre in TO?
    Meet ya at Jane & Finch.
    No way, man. Not me, man. They’s anarchy dere, man. +
    Jamaica: Creeping closer to anarchy
    The Gleaner (Jamaica) ^ | March 9, 2006
    Posted on 03/09/2006 2:03:49 AM PST by Stoat
    Creeping closer to anarchy
    published: Thursday | March 9, 2006
    THE SEEMINGLY random slaughter of our people, including children in the full bloom of youth; the violent attacks on citizens from all walks of life across the length and breadth of Jamaica, and the apparent inability of the security forces to halt or even retard the rate of killings are raising public anxiety and the feeling that the society is moving closer to anarchy. +
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1592963/posts

  44. “The jihadis want our souls; the rule in warfare is that we will want theirs.”
    The Cult
    The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported an item of news unlikely to get much attention in the American and European press: the expansion of “deprogramming” techniques, which have already proved successful in Indonesia, Pakistan and the UK to terrorist malefactors caught in Australia. At a stroke the story reveals the outlines of a hitherto unreported endeavor waged without much notice in the back corners of the War on Terror.
    Commissioner Keelty [of the Australian Federal Police] says the process of “deprogramming” extremists has been successful in countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and the UK. He says the technique involves using respected clerics or people previously connected with terrorist organisations to convert extremists and provide information to police.
    …
    … Huk’s confession. By dawn, the entire village of terror-stricken peasantry had evacuated! In a few days, the Huks were forced to descend the mountain in search of food. [owing to the disappearance of the support village] They were quickly captured and/or killed by the army unit.
    In his early counterinsurgency career, Landsdale extensively used counter-terror as a weapon. Huks were bayoneted in full view of their supporters. Enemy casualties were piled in trucks, their arms and legs artfully made to overhang the edges of the truck, and the vehicles were ostentatiously driven though rebel strongholds. He created hit squads to take out key enemy cadres. After he had gotten the upper hand and Magsaysay was elected to the Presidency, the counterinsurgency campaign cleaned up its act. But today’s readers will find it astounding and not a little disturbing to realize at what price the Cold War victories were won while civilians slept unmindful in their beds. Landsdale described the mayhem in a private diary whose account read differently from his subsequent sanitized history of events.
    All this killing during a peace is getting rather sickening. Bondoc, the accused mayor . . . was captured by Major Napoleon Valeriano’s commando force of Philippine MPs. Valeriano is a friend of mine who heads a special headquarters intelligence team for MPC (PA) [Military Police Command (Philippine Army)]. These Filipinos run around Central Luzon with skull and crossbones flags flying from their jeeps and scout cars…. Cruelty and lust for murder are commonplace. Philippine Army MPs take but few prisoners. They merely shoot their newly captured Huks, often in the back of the head. It is hard to prove sedition, the true crime, against these folks, so why waste time with legal proceedings. On the other hand, MPs live but a few agonized moments after the Huks capture them. Both MPs and Huks have told me they learned to kill during the Jap occupation.
    Commentary
    Leafing through history, one realizes that it is possible to write an account of warfare without mentioning a single weapons system other than the human mind. The reader can try to expunge from the tale all reference to the human heart, but in vain: for man is at the center of warfare. His will is its ultimate prize; his broken body its ultimate currency. In that light the “deprogramming” efforts of the Australian Federal Police in the dingy corners of the world are simply a return of warfare to its roots. The jihadis want our souls; the rule in warfare is that we will want theirs.
    posted by wretchard at
    http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

  45. With millions of intact dogs and cats around the world at just this very moment, it makes one wonder why we aren’t positively swimming in them.
    Don’t get me started on animal “rights” groups – which are little more than the furry wedge of the far left.
    See you kids later…

  46. My God! I just thought of something. Spaying and neutering weren’t even introduced on a wide scale until about 30 years ago. How did humans survive at all in that 7 foot deep sea of cats?

  48. New Fallaci Book Released
    TigerHawk has a lengthy excerpt from Oriana Fallaci�s new book, The Force of Reason. (My copy is on the way from Amazon.) +
    Excerpt:
    I don’t like to say that Troy is burning. That Europe is by now a province of Islam or rather a colony of Islam and Italy an outpost of that province, a stronghold of that colony. Saying this amounts to admitting that the Cassandras really do talk to the wind, that in spite of their screams of pain the blind remain blind, the deaf remain deaf, consciences reawoken soon relapse into sleep, and the Mastros Cecco die for nothing. But the truth is just this. From the Strait of Gibraltar to the fjords of Soroy, from the cliffs of Dover to the beaches of Lampedusa, from the steppes of Volgograd to the valleys of the Loire and the hills of Tuscany, the fire is spreading. In each one of our cities there is a second city. A city superimposed and equal to the one that in the Seventies thousands and thousands of Palestinians set up in Beirut installing a State within a State. A government within the goverrnment. A Muslim city, a city ruled by the Koran. An Islamic expansion’s stage. The expansionism that no-one has ever managed to overcome. No-one. Not even the armies of Napoleon. Because it is the only art in which the sons of Allah have always excelled, the art of invading and conquering and subjugating. Their most coveted prey has always been Europe, the Christian world, and shall we run a rapid eye over the History that Mr. Doudou would like to control or rather cancel?
    It was in 635 AD, that is three years after Mohammed’s death, that the armies of the Crescent Moon invaded Christian Syria and Christian Palestine. It was in 638 that they took Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchure. It was in 640 that after conquering Persia and Armenia and Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, they invaded Christian Egypt and overran Christian Maghreb. That is, the present Tunisia and Algeria and Morocco. It was in 668 that for the first time they attacked Constantinople and laid a siege that would last five years. It was in 711 that after crossing the Strait of Gibralter they landed in the most Catholic Iberian Peninsula, took possession of Portugal and Spain where despite the Pelayos and the Cid Campeadors and the other warriors engaged in the Reconquest they remained for noless than eight centuries. And whoever believes in the myth of *peaceful coexistence that marked the relationships between the conquered and the conquerors* should reread the stories of the burned convents and monestaries, of the profaned churches, of the raped nuns, of the Christian or Jewish women abducted to be locked away in their harems. He should ponder on the crucifixioins of Cordoba, the hangings of Grenada, the beheadings of Toledo and Barcelona, of Seville and Zamora. (The beheadings of Seville, ordered by Mutamid: the king who used those severed heads, heads of Jews and Christians, to adorn his palace. The beheadings of Zamora, ordered by Almanzor: the vizier who was called the-patron-of-the-philosophers, the greatest leader Islamic Spain has ever produced). Christ! Invoking the name of Jesus meant instant execution. Crucifixion, of course, or decapitation or hanging or impalement. Ringing a bell, the same. Wearing green, the colour exclusive to Islam, also. And when a Muslim passed by, every Jew and Christian was obliged to step aside. To bow. And mind to the Jew or the Christian who dared react to the insults of a Muslim. As for the much-flaunted detail that the infidel-dogs were not obliged to convert to Islam, not even encouraged to do so, do you know why they were not? Because those who converted to Islam did not pay taxes. Those who refused, on the contrary, did. +
    http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-fallaci.html
    via LGF

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