48 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  6. Mark Steyn & ilk in CBC Film Review:
    ….There are 2.7 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany today – the massive front line of what right-wing commentators like Mark Steyn term “Eurabia,” a demographic surge of young, vital Muslims that is changing the tenor of the Christian Old World. The Ottoman Empire once clanged its scimitars against the gates of Vienna; Steyn and his ilk would argue that what Turkey could not achieve through war, it has won through immigration and birth rate…..
    http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/05/22/f-edge-of-heaven-review.html

  9. Proof, as if many of us needed any, that carbon credits and the like will be a cesspool of corruption not unlike “oil for food”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/26/climatechange.greenpolitics
    key grafs:
    The market for CDM credits is growing fast. At present it is worth nearly $20bn a year, but this is expected to grow to over $100bn within four years. More than 1,000 projects have so far been approved, and 2,000 more are making their way through the process.
    A working paper from two senior Stanford University academics examined more than 3,000 projects applying for or already granted up to $10bn of credits from the UN’s CDM funds over the next four years, and concluded that the majority should not be considered for assistance. “They would be built anyway,” says David Victor, law professor at the Californian university. “It looks like between one and two thirds of all the total CDM offsets do not represent actual emission cuts.”

  10. Wondering if there is any interest in discussing how much of an embarrassment ex Prime Minister Joe Who is but maybe its better to just leave his stupid comments to himself.

  11. Re: Iggy going balistic because Bermier’s ex girlfriend’s former company put in a bid for airport security cards. To Iggy THIS was the worst of all security breeches, even worse than cleavage he says. And, of course, the media gives Iggy’s feigned outrage lots of exposure.
    However, the REAL question on this would be: This security contract bid was made in 2004 when the Liberals were in power. So, Iggy, you should be demanding that proof be made that the Liberals did a Security check on this lady when they were considering granting her company this senstive contract and providing her with sensitive information related to airport security.
    So, Iggy, Liberal media – do you want to bring this up? After all, according to Iggy THIS is the most distrubing aspect of all – and under the Liberals.????
    Sweep, sweep, sweep the Puffin excrement indeed.

  12. Emperor’s green clothes:
    UN’s IPCC preying on people’s ignorance
    By Dr. Tim Ball
    In previous parts of this series (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), I identified the deliberate process by which climate science was hijacked to establish a political agenda of undermining developed industrialized nations. Maurice Strong and then others used UN agencies to control the science and the politics by proving the byproduct of those nation’s industries, specifically CO2, was causing catastrophic global warming and climate change. The urgent need throughout was not to understand climate but to find a clear human signal in the scientific data.
    While the political and propaganda campaigns were successful, the science continued to prove defiant. But that wasn’t a concern for the cabal functioning through the IPCC because they knew the public didn’t understand the science. Now the exploitation of lack of knowledge could proceed.
    A few brave scientific souls resisted the political pressure.”
    http://canadafreepress.com/printpage.php

  13. An actual headline from the Toronto Star:
    “Backbenchers increasingly reluctant to express views
    Only 2 of 41 Tory MPs agreed to talk to Star”
    This, of course, begs the question… how many would actually talk to the Toronto Star before?
    Not surprising though, considering the top stories on NNW beside this one were about Maxime Bernier’s ex-girlfriend and Garth Turner saying that MPs are afraid to speak out in Harper’s Ottawa.

  14. Andrew says “An actual headline from the Toronto Star:
    “Backbenchers increasingly reluctant to express views
    Only 2 of 41 Tory MPs agreed to talk to Star”.
    The Star seems to think that it is of some importance. The real question is “would ANYBODY other than a radical left wing nutbar agree to talk to the Star?” The Star has shown repeatedly that it is completely incapable of anything approaching objectivity.

  15. Here’s another dandy in todays Globe and Mail.
    Headline says “Harper government baffles former PM”. The “story” then goes on to say “Joe Clark doesn’t get Stephen Harper, saying his real problem with the Prime Minister is that he doesn’t know “where he really is” on certain issues.”
    For the record, pretty much EVERYTHING baffles Joe Clark. Joke Lark…..Probably one of the most ineffective Prime Ministers this country has seen.

  16. (Via Spengler’s Forum) Steven Plaut, How ‘Nakba’ Proves There’s No Palestinian Nation
    Over the past few years, the term nakba (also spelled naqba) has become the favorite nonsense word of the Anti-Israel Lobby. Meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, it has been embraced by anti-Semites all over the planet to refer to Israel’s creation, which supposedly imposed a “catastrophe” upon the “disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs.”
    Of course, the real catastrophe that befell the Arabs in 1948-49 was that they failed in their attempt to annihilate Israel and exterminate its population, and for that they paid a price…

  17. Spengler, Book Review: Life and death in the Bible
    Theology was dethroned as queen of the sciences two centuries ago. This splendid book supports the case for restoration. How are we to make sense of a world in which the raw issues of life and death – secular society’s failure to endure life, and traditional society’s embrace of death – overthrow the trifling calculus of political science? The world has buried Karl Marx’s economic man and Sigmund Freud’s libidinous man, and the shovel is ready for Martin Heidegger’s “authentic” man. Levenson and Madigan show instead Biblical man in his confrontation with death, and in so doing hold up a mirror to us.
    Resurrection is among a handful of recent theological texts that radically affect our view of the world, including works by Michael Wsychogrod [1] and Fergus Kerr [2], as well as a new translation of Franz Rosenzweig’s chief work [3]. It is doubly remarkable as the joint effort of a Jewish and a Christian scholar…

  18. The socialist Ban List tally grows/expands.
    Latest additions to the socialist TallyBan List:
    >>>> “Toronto plans ban on handguns, gun clubs
    National Post – 2 hours ago
    TORONTO – David Miller, the Mayor of Toronto,”
    >>>> “It’s bring your own bag as LCBO bans plastic
    Toronto Star, Canada”
    Previous bans include:
    “McGuinty considers ban on gadgets while driving”
    (ottawacitizen)

  21. Lawrence Wright, The Rebellion Within
    Last May, a fax arrived at the London office of the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat from a shadowy figure in the radical Islamist movement who went by many names. Born Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, he was the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad, and known to those in the underground mainly as Dr. Fadl. Members of Al Jihad became part of the original core of Al Qaeda; among them was Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant. Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda’s top council. Twenty years ago, he wrote two of the most important books in modern Islamist discourse; Al Qaeda used them to indoctrinate recruits and justify killing. Now Fadl was announcing a new book, rejecting Al Qaeda’s violence…

  22. United Nations and NGOs: perverted criminal organizations.
    …-
    “Charity: Aid workers raping, abusing children
    LONDON, England (CNN) — Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6zowmz

  23. andrew and john luft – yes, the Liberal politboro are busily engaged in smearing the Harper government.
    I think there’s a clear agenda to define Harper and the only image they seem able to come up with is: ‘control freak’.
    They’ve certainly tried other smears, particularly of corruption – that was what they attempted to do by trying to link him with Schreiber-Mulroney, with Cadman, with Nafta. Didn’t work.
    So their fall-back image is ‘contro freak’. That’s the term Dion used in one of his first tirades in the House just after he was elected leader of the Liberals.
    They’ve got that ridiculous junk in the Toronto Star about ‘backbenchers not willing to talk to the Star’. Hmm. Is the cause Harper or is it the Star? Or is it that no backbencher is supposed to chatter nothings to anyone?
    The MSM-Liberals now have Bernier’s ex-girlfriend working for them, declaring that he ‘ruiner her life’. Ahh, the tragedy; her life is all over for her…I suspect she’s getting a lot of money out of her tale of woe to the newspapers..After all, she apparently contacted the Star asking for 50,000 for an interview with her; they declined. I wonder what the real amount was.
    Oh – and she says that there was a ‘listening device’ placed in her mattress. Sure.
    And not to be outdone, Garth Turner is doing his bit, repeating yet again his tale of woe about why he was kicked out of the Conservative caucus.
    Do you know what? I suspect this girlfriend idiocy will HELP the image of Harper’s govt. Heck, the Liberals are desperately trying to get the public to view him as straight-laced and cold…and one of his ministers dates a girl who claims that there are ‘listening devices’ in her mattress???? Not even Garth Turner can come up with a story like that.

  24. Regarding Joe Clark:
    How does a former politician from a different party get headline news about a current PM?
    You could ask every former PM about a different PM, from a different party, and you would get the a negative reaction.
    it’s not news it’s normal and certainly not worthy of being on the ticker on Canada AM

  25. ET:
    Ms. Couillard has become Canada’s “Mata Hari” stealing state foreign affairs secrets.
    Putting an emphasis on “AFFAIRS” back into “Foreign Affairs”.
    Cheers
    Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht
    Commander in Chief
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  26. Regarding Joe Clark:
    How does a former politician from a different party get headline news about a current PM?
    You could ask every former PM about a different PM, from a different party, and you would get a negative reaction.
    it’s not news it’s normal and certainly not worthy of being on the ticker on Canada AM

  28. Jonathan Kay has a nice article in the National Post, differentiating the US-Republican from the Canadian-Westminster mode of governance.
    The former allows the Government leader to select unelected people to key positions. These people are of course vetted by the full Congress; the power doesn’t rest in the hands of the President alone. The point is, the holder gets selected due to merit. Not simply because they were elected in one small riding in the country.
    Harper is reduced to selecting, eg, for his foreign minister, someone like Bernier, who is appointed because he was elected as an MP and..who knows, because he’s from Quebec, and. But he has no special expertise in the subject.
    After all, the majority of people who take the time out of their careers to run for parliamentary office are not experts in various fields.
    I think Kay has a strong point. Again, the focus is on expertise and merit for certain positions; the appointment is approved by the electoral group (Congress) – or may not be approved (eg, some of Bush’s various choices).

  29. I think Joe Clark is a good example of the Red Tory Strain of idiocy that remains and lurks within Canadian ‘Conservatism’.
    You see them around alot today – whether in Jim Prentice/Bev Oda/Tony Clement etc. etc. I’d posit that the current CPC is simply a conglomeration: an echo that remains of the united party that formed. I’d speculate that it’s a brokered ‘deal’ – that is, on law and order, Nicholson and Day got the point on it. For health, Clement, and for pork bagmen and previous leadership types, Fortier & McKay get the nod on spreading cash around.
    This would explain contradictory, and often inconsistent policy actions by the current government. In Day’s (conservative) arbitrary death sentence policy and strong support for biometric cards, versus Clement’s toss the cash at health care – instead of reform. Or Prentice’s $20 billion a year in subsidies given to business, or rolling over on the DCRM to exclude copying – while Nicolson’s seeking expansion of law enforcement without coherent regard to existing court enabled Charter protections, as well as hawkish defense spending increases.
    Or ultimately, why Harper is using taxpayer cash to fight Cabinet Minister disclosures he argued so strongly for before he got power. I’d posit that the whole CPC government is a business deal, segregating specific areas of governance to those who worked their way into it. And the Reds didn’t like disclosure. Game over.
    Why subvert democracy, and appoint a Quebec party bagman (Fortier) to control $30 billion a year in government spending? Because the red tories in Quebec needed their guy in there.
    But to the point (and aside from the jaw grinding embarrassment that Joe Clark causes to most Albertans), I think it’s an inevitability that Red Tories will keep popping up, continue to drive funding decisions where they got the levers, and ensure that Liberal policies are a strong part of governance. After all, they are 50% of the Conservative Party.
    Anyone who doesn’t like Joe Clark shouldn’t be happy about that. Partisans have no choice but to eat it, no matter what they may actually feel.

  30. I agree, hardboiled, that the Red Tories are still a strong force in today’s Conservative ranks. You can’t get rid of them just by a vote!
    Furthermore, this type of half-liberal, half-conservative will always be with us. Being middle of the road is a lot easier than taking a stand.
    And remember, Canadians are middle of the road, due to their unique economic situation of being non-competitive in the world, being primarily dependent on the US consumer to purchase Canadians goods, being dependent on US science and innovation industry (we copy their drug inventions and sell them cheaply and praise ourselves for our compassion ignoring that we don’t pay the enormous costs of research and development). And so on.

  31. After all, the majority of people who take the time out of their careers to run for parliamentary office are not experts in various fields.Posted by: ET at May 27, 2008 2:03 PM
    I’ll call bull on that. Take a look at the composite of MP’s in the House, you’ll see that the vast majority are party workers, bagmen, and assorted panhandlers. The largest single profession in the House is that of teachers. Wow. While nice people I am sure, I would not trust the ones I know to understand mezzanine financing or debt repos.
    Government does not attract talent. Ask Gwyn Morgan. And what accomplished professional would drop into a 50% pay cut to deal with bureacracies and inertia that would make you seeth at how your taxes are spent. And offer chronic meeting after meeting – where process is the product.
    Government can no more appoint unelected bagmen than they can hire talented high performance people – because the parties own the apparatus and that apparatus is run by the PMO & Privy. And they certainly don’t want that to change.

  32. This MSM headline could be misleading. The CBC was not “behind” the complaints.
    The “surge in info complaints” was about the CBC.
    “more than 90 per cent of the
    CBC complaints that Marleau has finished investigating were found to be valid.”
    …-
    “CBC responsible for surge in info complaints: report
    By THE CANADIAN PRESS
    OTTAWA — The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is behind an unprecedented flood of complaints to Canada’s information watchdog.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6khnmx

  33. Posted by: ET at May 27, 2008 2:24 PM
    I agree completely. I really, really hope and dream that we would aim higher.
    To me, politicans and political parties using pork barrel politics, buying votes, and runaway spending limits the people of this nation by creating victim mentalities and envy.
    Leadership – the way I see it – actually challenges and takes people forward for the benefit of the nation – not a political party.
    HB

  34. hardboiled – I don’t know why you are ‘calling bull’ on something with which you seem to agree..however.
    That’s exactly my point. Government doesn’t attract qualified and quality people. Not only the drop in salary but the drop in productivity. As you note, who wants to deal with the deadbrain morass of bureaucracy.
    However, I don’t think that the cause of not appointing people is due to the ‘parties run the apparatus’ and the ‘apparatus’ is run by the PMO and Privy’. You are making it appear as a private agenda of the political parties and Harper (PMO).
    It’s the basic infrastructure of our Westminster parliamentary system. Absolutely nothing to do with any political party or the PMO or the Privy Council. It’s our constitutional infrastructure that does not allow such appointments.

  35. Greg Beato, The Birth of the Nuppie:
    High-end designers target nomadic urban professionals
    At 31 inches long and 48 inches wide, weighing approximately 300 pounds, Casulo may be the largest, heaviest gadget in the history of gee-whiz technology. And yet for a few days in February, as news of its existence traveled from one trend-spotting blog to the next, the bulky rectangular box captivated the attention of those normally preoccupied by much tinier fare…

  36. It’s the basic infrastructure of our Westminster parliamentary system. Absolutely nothing to do with any political party or the PMO or the Privy Council. It’s our constitutional infrastructure that does not allow such appointments. Posted by: ET at May 27, 2008 2:35 PM
    Ever hear of Michelle (party bagman) Fortier?
    And since the PMO controls over 5,000 appointments in the government (not vetted btw, despite promises, and no, that is not the Libranos fault).
    The Party in power, and the PMO run the nation. Not the electorate.

  39. “United Nations and NGOs: perverted criminal organizations.
    …-
    “Charity: Aid workers raping, abusing children
    LONDON, England (CNN) — Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6zowmz
    Posted by: maz2 at May 27, 2008 11:28 AM ”
    I find that the msm is quick to print when it’s a priest…. but this news never seems to make the rounds.
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358585,00.html

  40. hardboiled – I don’t know how to get it through your hardhat, but my point is that our Westminster parliamentary system is the fault. Not the PMO or the Privy Council.
    Don’t you understand??? Our system won’t permit appointments to Ministerial rank from outside the government. Our system doesn’t enable the PM to vet the appointments via the electorate.
    It isn’t any particular party’s fault. It isn’t the fault of the PM or the Privy or…It’s our particular structure of governance!
    I’m against it. I think that positions should be made outside of government, ie to the best and most meritorious. I also think that each senior appointment should be vetted by the House.
    But – our system doesn’t permit that.
    I fully agree with you that the ‘party in power’ runs the system but it’s not the fault of the political party. It happens to be the Westminster Parliamentary system. That’s what needs changing – and it’s a thorough constitutional change.
    And by the way, you are forgetting the massive power of the civil service, whose heads may be appointments – but these can be made by previous govts and can’t be readily overturned. And the civil service bureaucrats are there forever. Same with the Senate; also appointed; also there forever. So, don’t overestimate the power of the PMO.

  41. ET – my mis-understanding – you have clarified a couple of things for me.
    I do not agree that the US form of appointments is neccesarily better – there is enough examples from down south on that. It may be….
    I do agree about your point of the civil service – they tend to sneer at the brevity of political life, and tut-tut any kind of change, and wink-nudge the new guy. In contrast, the PMO does have power over 5000 appointments, and Harper has made over 900 already. 4100 to go.
    To expand on your last point though, the Westminster tradition makes it simple to appoint cabinet without vetting – place them in the Senate, then appoint. ba-da bing ba-da bam. There is enough open Senate seats now…

  42. More of: “Not the kind of stuff you read about in the Western media.”
    Islam’s takkiya:
    “Al Qaeda plays down the impact of this, calling the Moslem victims “involuntary martyrs.””
    …-
    Al Qaeda Discusses Losing Iraq
    Al Qaeda web sites are making a lot of noise about “why we lost in Iraq.” Western intelligence agencies are fascinated by the statistics being posted in several of these Arab language sites. Not the kind of stuff you read about in the Western media. According to al Qaeda, their collapse in Iraq was steep and catastrophic. According to their stats, in late 2006, al Qaeda was responsible for 60 percent of the terrorist attacks, and nearly all the ones that involved killing a lot of civilians. The rest of the violence was carried out by Iraqi Sunni Arab groups, who were trying in vain to scare the Americans out of the country.
    Today, al Qaeda has been shattered, with most of its leadership and foot soldiers dead, captured or moved from Iraq. As a result, al Qaeda attacks have declined more than 90 percent. Worse, most of their Iraqi Sunni Arab allies have turned on them, or simply quit. This “betrayal” is handled carefully on the terrorist web sites, for it is seen as both shameful, and perhaps recoverable.
    This defeat was not as sudden as it appeared to be, and some Islamic terrorist web sites have been discussing the problem for several years. The primary cause has been Moslems killed as a side effect of attacks on infidel troops, Iraqi security forces and non-Sunnis. Al Qaeda plays down the impact of this, calling the Moslem victims “involuntary martyrs.””
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022123/posts

  43. “his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles – What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?”
    “‘My answer is it is our freedom and, I might add, and our prosperity,’ he [Klaus] said.”
    …-
    “Czech President Klaus ready to debate Gore on climate change
    Washington – Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms.
    ‘I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he’s not too much willing to make such a conversation,’ Klaus said. ‘So I’m ready to do it.’
    Klaus was speaking a the National Press Building in Washington to present his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles – What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?, before meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday.
    ‘My answer is it is our freedom and, I might add, and our prosperity,’ he said.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6yt9bx (mandc)

  44. whiskey_199 said
    “The ability of the Canadian Human Right Commissions to “punish” Mark Steyn or people like him exists only so long as *Canada is fat, comfortable, wealthy, and feeling secure from any threat.”
    …-
    “See you in court”
    Here’s the opening of Mark Steyn’s speech at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver on the subject of the hate speech charges brought against him by British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal for criticizing Islam. It’s a Gangbusters type curtain raiser, but the longer we read the more apparent it is that the speech is less about radical Islam than something else.”
    http://tinyurl.com/57onaj (belmont)
    …-
    *”A modest proposal for curing a whiny nation”
    […]
    “This is why I have come to believe that what Canadians need most at this moment in our history is a good famine.”
    http://www.katewerk.com/modestproposal2.html

  45. I’m “new” Canadian since 1985.
    I’m reading that it looks like we are divided in Canada by Sask border with Manitoba.
    Why we have to endure those people from east?
    We are not the same anymore.
    I think differently then them.
    Sometimes even they remind me where I came from……there are commies.
    And good commie is a dead one!
    I hate them with passion!
    For my children.
    Why we cannot join USA?
    The same people as us!!!!

  47. And Right you are, R.O.C,
    No normal or balanced media would give any notice of ANYTHING Joe Clark has to say, unless it was pushed to do so with promises of a flood of business when the LIEberals get back into running the ship. = TG

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