53 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Not something in the news, but: It’s Mozart’s 252nd birthday. I’m going to use the day to get away from all the nasty stuff that happens every day and listen to hours of his wonderful music.

  2. Rex Murphy’s excellent put-down of the Warman=CHRC attacks on free speech:
    http://tinyurl.com/353oe2
    “” A Maclean’s/Steyn confrontation, in tandem with the prairie whirlwind we all know as Levant rampant – this is too much at one time for the meticulous and tidy tribunals that alone are our guardians against every stray thought that might fracture our fabulously delicate Canadian sensibilities. While they are preoccupied with Steyn-Levant, overwhelmed, exhausted and undone by Steyn-Levant, battered, borne-down on and befuddled by Steyn-Levant – who will watch out for us? Who will there be to read before we read, and tell us what is proper for us? Who will be there to edit the editors, to copy check the copy checkers? Who will shield our vulnerable law-students, and who will tend to the commission’s most industrious serial complainant.
    There is one person, so eggshell brittle that he has drummed up a fierce amount of business for the HRCs. Is so loyal a customer now to be ignored because the Steyn-Levant tsunami is about to rumble mercilessly on shore?”

  3. For Jim—Reader Tips @ 3:52 p.m. yesterday—and any others who want to read Rex Murphy’s “Making Fun of the HRCs” in yesterday’s Mop and Pail, but can’t bring yourselves to buy it, you’re in luck! Here’s the article in full:
    “Coming to a human rights commission near you
    Rex Murphy
    From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
    “Our esteemed human rights commissions are so busy these days, it worries me.
    “The number of these gimlet-eyed scrutineers is, after all, finite.
    “There is, therefore, only a limited store of intellectual energy and moral fervour for them to call upon. In a brutish world, righteousness is not inexhaustible; virtue, like oil, has its peak moments and, with their current agenda, Canada’s HRCs may run out of fuel.
    “Alberta’s Human Rights Commission, one of the keenest, a noble avatar of those old censor boards that used to guard public libraries from ‘steamy’ literature and ‘brazen’ language, is trying to contain – I think that is the only proper verb here – Ezra Levant.
    “Mr. Levant has, as the jargon expresses it, ‘gone before’ the commission to answer for the putative crime, offence, tastelessness of his (now defunct) magazine, the Western Standard’s publication of the Mohammed cartoons. But even the sturdiest tribunal can summon forces too large for it to manage. And even the deepest probing commissioner, alert as a tuning-fork to the harmonies of political correctness, should have quailed before the thought of putting Ezra Levant under state-mandated interrogation.
    “His initial hearing is an Internet hit. He videotaped it, you see, and against the urgings of the commission placed in on the World Wide Web.
    “His performance, a marathon aria to free speech, looks to outpace even Jessica Alba beach footage as a web draw. More than 400,000 visitors have YouTubed Mr. Levant (A Daniel, I say, a Daniel come to judgment on Canadian free speech!). He is as a tidal wave breaking against a lone and solitary craft.
    “So Alberta’s HRC is, to put it timidly, busy with Ezra Levant. And now, three others have had the courage, folly, or zeal, or, if you wish, the zealously courageous foolishness, to take on Maclean’s magazine and Mark Steyn. The martyrs in question are, respectively, the Ontario, B.C. and federal HRCs. It’s a busy time in the world of magazine censorship – and a bull market for the litigious and offended. John Donne comes to mind: ‘Lawyers find out still litigious men, whom quarrels move’ and, if you are both, well, Canada is ripe with HRCs that want your business.
    “The question is, of course, does an HRC, or even a pack of them, really want to take on an institution as beloved as Maclean’s? Next only to the Eaton’s catalogue of sacred memory, Maclean’s is a talisman of the Canadian way, it is Tim Hortons in print. For more than a century, Maclean’s has stimulated minds, its back copies have intellectualized many a dental crisis; rolled up, it has been the fly swatter of choice for thousands. Approach Maclean’s at your peril.
    “But, in addition, do they really want – after Ezra’s example, mind you – to call Mark Steyn, the Victoria Falls (‘The Smoke that Thunders’) of prolific columnists – into one of their style-less chambers to ‘explain himself?’ If Mr. Levant contains multitudes, how to describe Mr. Steyn? He is a prodigy of immense resource and industry. Compared to him, Trollope was a slacker, Dickens a wastrel, and Proust a miniaturist. He inundates. Books, columns, blogs and obiter dicta in a thousand venues – if Mr. Steyn goes before one or all of these commissions, he will be firing off columns between questions. He’ll write a column on a question while it is being asked. I urge our guardians to consider their own interests: Stay a while before essaying this profitless and useless venture.
    “A Maclean’s/Steyn confrontation, in tandem with the prairie whirlwind we all know as Levant rampant – this is too much at one time for the meticulous and tidy tribunals that alone are our guardians against every stray thought that might fracture our fabulously delicate Canadian sensibilities. While they are preoccupied with Steyn-Levant, overwhelmed, exhausted and undone by Steyn-Levant, battered, borne-down on and befuddled by Steyn-Levant – who will watch out for us?
    “Who will there be to read before we read, and tell us what is proper for us? Who will be there to edit the editors, to copy check the copy checkers? Who will shield our vulnerable law-students, and who will tend to the commission’s most industrious serial complainant. There is one person, so eggshell brittle that he has drummed up a fierce amount of business for the HRCs. Is so loyal a customer now to be ignored because the Steyn-Levant tsunami is about to rumble mercilessly on shore?
    “Mostly I fear, if the HRCs are tied up, Canadians will be reading, unguided, what they choose to read, deciding for themselves what they like and what they don’t, will discard a book or pass it to a friend, like a column or curse one – lit only by the light of their own reason.
    “The horror! Before we know it, we’ll have an unstoppable epidemic of free speech, free thought, and freedom of the press. And, surely, no one wants that. Otherwise, why would we have human rights commissions?”
    It’s just occurred to me—slow learner, I guess—that the Alberta HRC really didn’t understand what it was getting itself into: velvet bullies in their ivory tower, so far removed from the reality of everyday life, they had not a clue about the public mood. (That might be, of course, because they censor it whenever they can.) Waiting for the comeuppance of our HRCs is one of life’s pleasures!

  4. Sorry, I didn’t see WLMR’s link of the above article until after I posted.
    Yeah, Rex Murphy!

  5. Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f7_O9x65E0
    This video only mocks extremist muslims. If you are n not an extremist you should not be too offended. Also keep in mind it does not encourage violence against Jews. It is mocking extremist muslims. Some of the more PC types might not get that. Full disclosure, I am a Christian who has been mocked by people I consider friends in similar ways. I still love them and wish them no ill. I hope my muslim friends would grant me the same grace. Sorry if this offends some of you, it made me laugh.

  6. Angelo Persichilli gives an insightful analysis of Canada’s dominant leftwing philosophy calling it “reverse McCarthyism”.
    “Meanwhile, many of their left-wing contemporaries remained in academia, monopolizing the culture and turning universities into assembly lines popping out the cloned, ideological grandchildren of Marcuse.
    One day, when my son was attending university, he inexplicably stayed home. I asked him why he wasn’t in class. He told me his professor had taken the day off to demonstrate against George Bush in Quebec City.”
    http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Persichilli_Angelo/2008/01/27/4796413-sun.php

  7. Does anyone know what’s happened to the Bernard Lord cross-country public consultation on bi-lingualism, Apparently it passed through Ottawa this week and held by-invite-only meetings behind closed doors in the Chateau Laurier. Who knew?
    This was a drive-by committee.
    How about elsewhere?
    I know what this report will say: After much consultation with Canadians across the country, everything is just hunky-dory, blah blah blah, the elites are happy. Nothing to see here.

  8. God love you Rex. The man certainly has a gift with words and phrase and he has his head screwed on right unlike most of his CBC compatriots. Terrific article and deserves wide circulation.

  9. CTS Michael Coren Show to have a debate on Human Rights Commissions, 8pm Eastern, Tuesday, January 29/08 (repeats next day at noon). As per formula, should know make-up of the panel, as an unannounced graphic, toward end of the Monday program.
    Outside of the obvious, possible panel make-up??

  10. Socialist-RedGreen voodoo economics.
    Surprised? CFLs, anyone?
    …-
    The high cost of using less water (“Conservation is killing us.”)
    Bud Harris, 78, and grandson David Moreira, 27, obeyed the message to conserve but it will soon mean higher water rates at their Mississauga home.
    “Durham Region’s works czar, Cliff Curtis. Asked about declining water consumption, he told the Star:
    “Conservation is killing us.”
    (TORedStar)

  11. Silicon Valley: Mozart. Slow movement of Piano Concerto No. 21 (Elvira Madigan sp?).?
    Something on TV recently: 1) He did NOT die a pauper and 2) while he was buried in a communal grave that was standard practice for most folks.
    Died at 35 though eh?

  14. Listening to CTV’s QP with Giggles Taber and Owl Oliver one would get the impression we have now the most incompetent government in the history of Canada. The Liberals can do no wrong.
    Question is how can the misinformed and uninformed filter through this crap and see it for what it is?

  15. Hey, CTV even managed to find more pictures of Dion and his Puffin Man sidekick in Army camos.
    Fine pair of pseudo soldiers, they’re ready to cut and run before the battle is won, leaving all the deaths of our soldiers and all the work they’ve done for naught.
    We’re in deep trouble in this country from within. There is an ongoing push by the media to overthrow our government and we better take heed and fast.

  16. Daily driving for 40 years and more in congested Vancouver , the Fraser valley, Victoria, and up and down Vancouver Island, WITHOUT an accident. Except for one where I could not move ahead to escape a drunk driver through his stop sign to my rear fender.. $500.
    Most important habits to avoid crashes.:
    Following distances: Don*t run up on my bumper because you think there is too much space between me and the guy ahead. That is my safety zone and it keeps you out of my trunk if I have to cut speed for something up ahead. [ Don*t be hot headed please.]
    Always follow a truck or van farther back so you can see what is shaping up in front of that vehicle. Focus one and two blocks ahead, not on the bumper in front of you. [ Don*t lose your temper, please.]
    That*s it kids. Not a very long list at all. . . Eh? Problem is, you can not do the above because one has to talk these ideas to oneself until they become habit. If you are in the habit of letting yourself get steamed and emotional, stomping on the gas, flashing your brights to the driver ahead because YOU THINK he has TOO MUCH room in front of him, then you are still an infant .
    These words do not offend wise and mature drivers. Are you offended? If the shoe . . = TG

  17. Socialism = communism = nazism = cannibals.
    …-
    “On the advice of his secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria, Stalin ordered them executed.”
    “Wajda’s movie, as his Polish audiences will immediately understand, is very much the story of “Katyn” in this broader sense. Its opening scene, which Wajda has said he has had in his head for many years, shows a group of refugees heading east, crossing a bridge, fleeing the Wehrmacht.[1] On the bridge, they encounter another group of refugees heading west, fleeing the Red Army. “People, where are you going, turn back!” the two groups shout at one another. Soon afterward, Wajda shows Nazi and Soviet officers conversing in a comradely manner along the new German–Soviet borders—as surely they did between 1939, the year they agreed to divide Central Europe between them, and 1941, when Hitler changed his mind about his alliance with Stalin and invaded the USSR. On the bridge, Poland’s existential dilemma—trapped between two totalitarian states—is thus given dramatic form.”
    Katyn
    a film directed by Andrzej Wajda, written by Andrzej Mularczyk and Andrzej Wajda
    The ruins of a Russian Orthodox monastery, 1939: paint peels from the walls, light filters in from the cracks in the ceiling, cigarette smoke whirls through the air. Primitive wooden camp beds are stacked up high, one on top of the other, for the monastery has been turned into a prison. The prisoners, soldiers in khaki-brown wool uniforms and black boots, are gathered in a large group. Craning their heads forward, they listen to their commanding officer make a speech. Solemn and tired, he does not ask them to fight. He asks them to survive. “Gentlemen,” says the general, “you must endure. Without you, there will be no free Poland.”
    The scene ends. The audience—at least the audience in the Warsaw theater where I watched the film—sighs, rustles, collectively draws its breath. Those watching know, as they were meant to know, that the soldiers, the flower of Poland’s pre-war officer corps, did not survive. And without them, there was indeed no free Poland. …-
    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21012

  19. Yes, LizJ, Craig Oliver in particular was quite pathetic on QP with his “this goverment is aspyxiating itself.” Huh? Of course classified information should be passed on; maybe we could give the positions of our forward operating units in Afganistan. That would be good news! Maybe, just maybe, Tories don’t want to talk to partisan a**holes like Oliver, Taber and Weston.
    Meanwhile Canadians could care less about latest “scandal” where CF on ground made decision to not hand over Taliban prisoners. Maybe the soon to be voting public actually trusts our military and doesn’t need daily briefings to be spun as “scandal” by these twits.
    They along with Dionsky, Puffin and Separatista shoot their yaps off, inventing public outrage, which, of course, doesn’t exist. Well fine, let’s have an election, if only to end this gong show, where Oliverites try to screw Harper up (oh right, they’re just giving him “advice.”) Then we’ll see who asphyxiates themselves. Yeah, I bet the Tories are reeeeeal scaaared!

  20. A reply to the left- liberal socialists, such as Mr. Magoo, and his ilk: “Craig Oliver in particular was quite pathetic on QP with his “this goverment is aspyxiating itself.”
    “How dare you, intrude on my life to such an extent that I can’t breathe anymore.”
    …-
    “How Dare You!
    How dare you, intrude on my life to such an extent that I can’t breathe anymore.
    How dare you, try to make me think that freedom of speech should be restricted, because some religion tells you, their feelings were “hurt”.
    How dare you, tell me that abortion is a “women’s choice”.
    How dare you, call me a “denier” because I do not believe in “global warming”, yet you do.
    How dare you, tell me that criminals should have more rights than the victims.
    How dare you, restrict my personal freedoms with your endless laws against everything, from trans fats to smoking, but I must be silent about the lack of any abortion law.
    How dare you, presume to know what is best for me.”
    [More]
    http://climbingoutofthedark.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-dare-you.html

  21. Question:
    If I had seen a former Liberal Cabinet Minister getting a car he purchased in Minnesota (and thereby taking money out of local dealers’ hands) saftied, would that be news? Or, would me releasing that info just be snark for the sake of snark? Who am I to say who should buy what and where, right? Or should I?
    Bah. This is difficult.

  22. Liz J wrote, “We’re in deep trouble in this country from within. There is an ongoing push by the media to overthrow our government and we better take heed and fast.”
    I altogether agree but, now that so many Canadians, especially the Lizzie Mays, Taliban Jacks, and other jackasses of our elites are hacking away at the very roots of our heritage, the prognosis isn’t good.
    In that regard, G.K. Chesterton’s prescience is worth noting. About 100 years ago, he said that, while man has always lost his way, “modern man has lost his address”!
    This quote is from a book by George Weigel, the respected biographer of John Paul II. He goes on to write, “That address is the kingdom of God . . . ” I know many here don’t agree with me on this, but, a propos maz2’s comments about Katyn, it’s a fact that the Catholicism of Poland was instrumental in giving her people the hope and the courage to fight Communism. The blood of many Christian martyrs, many of them, young friends of Karol Wojtyla—better known as John Paul II—was spilled in the events which led to the fall of Communism in that most Catholic of countries. (Google Father Jerzy Popielusko for the story of a humble modern day martyr. His life of courageous service and sacrifice, fighting the socialist evils our lefties revere, make the Lizzie Mays and Jacks of Canada look like great big, soothers in mouths crybabies.)
    As far as I’m concerned, modern Canada has definitely lost its address. It’s staked its future on such utopian ideals as “equality, diversity, and tolerance”, which has led to the exact opposite of all three. With no solid foundation—official Canada has turned its back entirely on our Judeo-Christian roots—we’re being blown around like chaff. 2 Timothy 4:3: “For the time will come when they [the people] will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires . . .”
    I think that time has come. Right here. In Canada. I’m not making this up.
    Until we find our proper address—that is, where we’ve come from—we’re groping in the dark—and about to fall down the stairs. I hope it’s not too late.

  23. Yukon Gold, that is news. Name some names please.
    The eastern media (CTV,CBC) is frustrated with the CPC. It started before they were elected.
    Their behaviour has come to haunt them, now that Harper chooses not to engage them.
    Save it for the next election, when the voting public pay attention.
    Otherwise it’s just this week’s headline.
    Afghan detainees
    Chalk River/ CNSC / isotopes
    Mulroney Schrieber
    high dollar
    yada yada

  24. *
    “Blazingcatfur says… Warren K publish those e-mails.”
    I’m with BCF here, Warren… don’t be a tease,
    let’s have the whole story.
    And don’t forget to dish about how you got to
    be such a “good shooter”.
    *

  25. (Ukrainian: Данило Шумук.)
    A communist in his youth, Shumuk’s eyes were opened. He survived socialism, nazism, communism. He died a free man in Ukrainia.
    …-
    Danylo Shumuk: a prisoner for 42 years
    Danylo Shumuk was born in Boremschyna, Volodymyr Volynskyi county, Volyn, on December 30, 1914.
    […]
    Arithmetic of repression
    Danylo Shumuk was imprisoned by Polish authorities for a total of five years, six months. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Nazis for at least two months. Mr. Shumuk was then incarcerated by the Soviets for 36 years, five months and 25 days. All told, he spent 42 years, one month and 25 days of his life in prisons, concentration camps or exile.
    http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1997/429704.shtml
    “Say not the struggle naught availeth,”
    H/T Arthur Hugh Clough. 1819–1861

  26. Re: “a former Liberal Cabinet Minister getting a car he purchased in Minnesota safetied…”
    If I’m guessing correctly, said former Liebral Cabinet Minister probably had to go out of the country to find a car sturdy enough to cope with both his vast physical weight and his huge inflated ego.
    Am I close?

  27. Felis, I’d say you’ve got a pretty firm grasp of the situation.
    For the record, it was a Honda Pilot or CRV… I’m thinking Pilot, but I wouldn’t take the stand on it. By the way, the place he took it for the safety was mere blocks away from Winnipeg Honda, where I bought my Civic…

  28. “Mr. Wissner makes no money from his activism, though when he speaks he takes up a collection to cover his expenses.”
    In a World Short
    Of Oil, Provisions
    Must Be Made
    Mr. Wissner of Middleville
    Stocks Up on Rice, Gold;
    No Faith in a ‘Techno Fix’
    http://tinyurl.com/3bpvyc (wsj)
    Elmer Gantry: “I don’t go to prayer meetings. I mean… unless business is bad or I get sick.”

  29. Ding-Dong! The witch is dead?
    Do the South Carolina results signal a fatal blow to Hillary? What do the astute among us say.

  30. Re: CANADIAN BLOG AWARDS
    Voting on the second and final round closes Jan. 30th. Small Dead Animals is in the running in three categories: Best Blog, Best Political Blog and Best Conservative Blog.
    Climate Audit – the only one of several blogs dealing with AGM that avoids silly arm-waving invective and cheapshot character assasination – is in the running for Best Blog in the Sci/Tech category.
    To vote, go to
    http://www.bestcanadianblog.com
    Yeah, I know that this is trivial stuff but, if SDA doesn’t come out on top, the moonbats and night crawlers at bigcitylib and similar sites will crow for weeks.

  31. A propos Liz J’s and my comments about how we’re being led down the garden path by our overlords in the Brave New Canada, another thought from the incomparable Chesterton: tradition is the democracy of the dead.
    Then George Weigel (in the book I’m reading) goes on to say, “To cut ourselves off from the civilization that produced something as beautiful as [Chartres Cathedral] is to lobotomize ourselves culturally.”
    This is a fine image of official, secular, socialist Canada: a country that’s been lobotomized. Stupid us.

  33. Canadian Blog Awards got me to the site and I’ve voted in Round 2 for Kate in the categories where SDA’s on the ballot.
    Go SDA!

  35. lookout…I agree and would add that some pew warmers are the problem here….get out on Sunday to get that tickle and forget about their ‘Identity’ the rest of the week…hence Canadians have lost thier way and the address.
    MM of Bytown…Gwen Landolt! She can tackle the HRC’s with one hand behind her back!
    Yukon…did that Minnesota buyer go for some good ale after his big purchase?Snark on!

  36. You’ve got it, bluetech. That Gwen Landolt is something else! She’s one class act: lawyer and founder of REAL Women, she’s been on the tail of the HRCs for decades: ‘way ahead of her time.

  38. Just when you thought the MSM/Oliveridiot show couldn’t get dumber, this gem:
    http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080127/ignatieff_qp_080127/20080127?hub=TopStories
    Yeah, the Puffinman says Tories not showing leaderhsip in Afghan campaign!! BTW Puffin, what is the Grit position on Afghan today. Don’t look at your watches folks. Stick to the seminar room Mikey, you’re not making it in the real world.
    And this too:
    http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b88cf29c-ff2f-42c7-873b-d3d3de22f405
    The Tories are doing so badly in latest Ipsos Reid poll. Why? Because they aren’t getting 40% in their poll. Egad, they only lead the Gritpuffins by 8%, and Grits lead only in Sask and Atlantic Canada. Tories must be scared, with only 8% lead nationwide, before an election call, before Dion goes on campaign trail and has to open his mouth again, with Dizzmay and Puffinman in tow.
    Freakin hilarious.

  39. lookout…when one ignores their ancestors(history),they are like a stream without a source,or a tree without roots(old Chinese proverb). Exactly what Canukistan is becoming.

  40. Silicon Valley: Mozart. Slow movement of Piano Concerto No. 21 (Elvira Madigan sp?).?
    Something on TV recently: 1) He did NOT die a pauper and 2) while he was buried in a communal grave that was standard practice for most folks.
    Died at 35 though eh?
    Oh, yes, the second movement is extraordinarily beautiful. I’m sure that you know that the nickname “Elvira Madigan” comes from the fact that the second movement was used in a movie of that name released in 1967 or so, but I’ll mention it for those who didn’t know that. I own the LP from which the movie music was taken; has a picture of Elvira Madigan (from the movie) on the cover.
    Absolutely right about Mozart’s financial circumstances and his burial. He made a lot of money, but didn’t manage it very well.
    Died December 5, 1791, about two months short of his thirty-sixth birthday. Not uncommon for composers, actually. Pergolesi made it only to twenty-six; Schubert, to thirty-one; Mendelssohn, to thirty-eight, Chopin, to thirty-nine.

  42. Shamrock @ 8:09 PM – “and Grits lead only in Sask and Atlantic Canada”.
    Now we have proof of the biased/slanted/BS polling work done in this country by the MSM and their little helpers.
    Grits leading in Sask?? Bullshit.

  44. The Clinton’s are giving us the X version of “ The Griswold family goes to Washington”
    I can’t wait for the station wagon scene, with Monica tied to the roof and Hillary explaining all the Road Kills.
    BTW: Ever had a bogger you couldn’t get out of your Nose

  45. justthinkin, you’ve got it. Those who don’t are getting sucked in.
    G.K. Chesterton again, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” That sounds like a lot of Canada to me.

  47. “Yukon…did that Minnesota buyer go for some good ale after his big purchase?”
    No, because he was a complete dick. A total weenie. Remember: FORMER liberal cabinet minister.
    But I don’t know how that swollen head could have fit into a Pilot or a CRV.

  48. Ex-Liberal MP buys wheels in USA. Cheats Canadian workers.
    Ex-Liberal PM hires Central American ship crews. Cheats Canadian workers.
    Registers ship fleet offshore. Cheats Canadian tax system.
    Liberals are. . . Ooops! No names / labels. = TG

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