Reader Tips

Reader Tips 43 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, pursuant to our Sunday night classical music show, we have a majestically powerful, spiritually uplifting, and emotionally draining performance; here for your delectation are the University of Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Gdansk Music Academy Strings performing Baba Yaga’s Hut on Hen’s Legs and The Great Gate of Kiev from Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky‘s Pictures at an Exhibition, Thüring Bräm conducting (2005, 9:50). To the degree that it is possible for you to listen to this through a proper hi-fi, as opposed to teeny-weeny computer speakers, and to view it full-screen, I highly recommend it.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

43 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. This is the interview:
    http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=5571606&page=2
    Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil talking to Charlie Gibson.
    TILLERSON: Everything we do, the numbers are very large. I saw someone [Barack Obama] characterize our profits the other day in terms of “$1,400 in profit per second.” Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost. We spend $1 billion a day just running our business. So this is a business where large numbers are just characteristic of it.
    Via Rush http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081508/content/01125110.guest.html
    No kidding, as usual they omitted to mention the little thing about taxes.
    Other than that, seems it is only a matter of time before they find SUV wrecks in the Sahara Desert.

  3. I highly recommend that commenters here take the time to read the entire PDF transcript, linked to by Ezra at the bottom of this post,
    http://ezralevant.com/2008/05/i-accuse-the-canadian-human-ri.html
    of the CHRT and Buttercup W’s case against Mark Lemire. Even after all that’s been written about the HRTs it’s an eye opener, particularly the willingness of Dean Steacy to dissemble about timelines and the identities of investigators at the HRC.
    Steacy testifies, early on, that he signed up to Free Dominion under a pseudonym, in the interests of investigation because a complaint had been received:
    KULASZKA: Now, when you joined, there was a complaint against Free Dominion?
    STEACY: Yes, there was.
    KULASKA: By who?
    STEACY: That complaint’s since been withdrawn.
    KULASZKA: Are you referring to the complaint by Marie Lynn Gentiles?
    STEACY: Yes.
    After a protracted session of straightforward questions that were met with objections, and evasive answers mixed with memory loss whenever helpful, it was determined through Barbara Kulaszka’s examinations that contrary to his testimony, Steacy’s investigation of Free Dominion started before the complaint was filed: Gentiles’ complaint was filed on September 29, 2006 on the basis of content that had been posted on Free Dominion on April 19, 2006, but Steacy joined Free Dominion on April 5 — two weeks before the complained-about content had been posted, and five months before the complaint had been laid. He was pressed on the matter, and responded:
    STEACY: Well, the information could have come in pre hence to this and then that was — I don’t know why there’s a difference in the date.
    KULASZKA: Well, what was the subject of the complaint? Wasn’t it a posting by a man named Bill Wutcotte…about Muslims or homosexuals; what was it about?
    STEACY: I don’t recall.
    KULASZKA: Do you realize that (Wutcotte posted on April 19)?
    STEACY: If you say so.
    The entered evidence *showed* so; it wasn’t based on Barbara Kulaszka’s say-so. When she asked him again why he would sign on to Free Dominion before there was a complaint, he said “To the best of my recollection it was because there was the potential for a complaint to come in.

  4. “To the best of my recollection it was because there was the potential for a complaint to come in.”
    And so with that, Babs Hall will now carry the torch onward, to sleuth out, then have her comrade busy bodies, file complaints on their own. Ethics will be relegated to the trash bin of history in the 21st century.

  5. Chinese say they are not confiscating bibles, just holding them.
    http://ezralevant.com/2008/05/i-accuse-the-canadian-human-ri.html
    The officer, who would only give her last name, Xiao, denied confiscating the Bibles. She said authorities were just “taking care” of them and provided no further details. She later said she was not authorized to speak to the media and referred questions to the national customs headquarters in Beijing, which did not answer phones on Sunday.

  7. Robert Kagan, History’s Back
    One wonders whether Russia’s invasion of Georgia will finally end the dreamy complacency that took hold of the world’s democracies after the close of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union offered for many the tantalizing prospect of a new kind of international order. The fall of the Communist empire and the apparent embrace of democracy by Russia seemed to augur a new era of global convergence. Great power conflict and competition were a thing of the past. Geo-economics had replaced geopolitics… As Francis Fukuyama famously put it, “At the end of history, there are no serious ideological competitors left to liberal democracy.” And if there were an autocracy or two lingering around at the end of history, this was no cause for concern. They, too, would eventually be transformed as their economies modernized.
    Unfortunately, the core assumptions of the post-Cold War years have proved mistaken. The absence of great power competition, it turns out, was a brief aberration…

  9. Did anyone catch the Obama/McCain Saddleback forum? It was very interesting. Candidates were interviewed with the same set of questions back-to-back. Also Saddleback is a church in California and the primary audience for this (apart from anyone who watches CNN) were evangelical Christians. I was impressed with the pointed and sometimes personal questions. It was a great opportunity to gain insight into the two candidates. There is general agreement that McCain did very well, while Obama was o.k., but seemed to do a certain amount of cerebral obfuscating. He was o.k., but did not connect with the audience as effectively as McCain. A feeling is emerging that McCain will be a formidable opponent for Obama. The forum was also fascinating because it did reveal some central differences between the two candidates. McCain seems more focussed on the terrorist threat — Obama on fixing things in America. I think that in this particular forum McCain communicated a more positive mssg. to Americans about themselves. Another curious bit (at least from a Canadian perspective) were the questions and responses to “What it means to be a Christian.” Obama went on at length (relatively speaking) about his religious convictions, while McCain seemed not to want to dwell on this. What I thought was interesting here is that although there is overwhelming approval for Obama in Canada, Canadians would have been much more comfortable with McCain’s appearing to want to relegate religious stuff to a more private realm. Watch for another cliff-hanger election.

  10. “Unfortunately, because of sloppiness on my part, several readers came to the conclusion that Dr Harrister, PhD’s paper was satire. That is to say, a joke. Far from it. That paper was just as rigorous and valid as the dozens that now appear monthly in scientific, peer-reviewed journals the world over.”
    …-
    “Stop making babies to reduce global warming
    The other day, as a favor, I posted a scientific article from a friend of mine, Dr H. Harrister, PhD, who conclusively showed that fitter people have larger carbon footprints than do fatter people. You might remember Dr Harrister from his famous paper showing that zombie attacks will increase due to global warming.”
    http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/08/18/stop-making-babies-to-reduce-global-warming/

  14. (Via CSP) Calling in faster airstrikes, digitally
    A joint terminal attack controller called in an airstrike around noon Aug. 5. Minutes later, a 500-pound bomb obliterated the target — a ranch house outside Baghdad that gunmen had used as cover to fire on an Army unit.
    It has happened in Iraq hundreds of times over the past five years, but this airstrike was still a first — from start to finish, calling it in was all digital…

  15. (Via Comment Central) Douglas McCollam, Sulzberger at the Barricades
    The assorted financial difficulties and declining stock price have increased shareholder agitation about Times management, particularly about Sulzberger, still referred to as “young” Arthur by some though he is fifty-six and has been chairman of the company for more than a decade. Sulzberger’s youthful qualities—notably his zeal—have been something of a double-edged sword. Though admired for his passion in defending the cause of journalism, that same fervor has at times been seen as pushing him to damage the very institution he sought to defend. In some precincts, it has fueled his reputation as a mercurial man not quite up to leading the country’s most esteemed news organization. Sulzberger has demonstrated an admirable capacity to stick by reporters and editors in tough times, but has also shown he can quickly change course and turn his back on them…

  16. Spengler, Americans play Monopoly, Russians chess
    Russia is fighting for its survival, against a catastrophic decline in population and the likelihood of a Muslim majority by mid-century. The Russian Federation’s scarcest resource is people. It cannot ignore the 22 million Russians stranded outside its borders after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, nor, for that matter, small but loyal ethnicities such as the Ossetians. Strategic encirclement, in Russian eyes, prefigures the ethnic disintegration of Russia, which was a political and cultural entity, not an ethnic state, from its first origins…

  17. Theodore Dalrymple, Childhood’s End
    Britain is the worst country in the Western world in which to be a child, according to a recent UNICEF report. Ordinarily, I would not set much store by such a report; but in this case, I think it must be right—not because I know so much about childhood in all the other 20 countries examined but because the childhood that many British parents give to their offspring is so awful that it is hard to conceive of worse, at least on a mass scale. The two poles of contemporary British child rearing are neglect and overindulgence…
    This nonjudgmentalism surely helps explain why British youth are among the Western world’s leaders in such indicators of social pathology as teenage pregnancy, violence, criminality, underage drinking, and consumption of illicit drugs…

  18. Yes, Russia is heading for a disaster, demographically speaking.
    But the thought of declining populations in a ‘lot’ of countries is downright scary – economic, social, health care, pension plan. But good news for the environment, food supply.

  21. Headline: Chretien Blasts Harper for not attending Olympic Opening Ceremonies.
    Dear Liberal brownnosing Media headline writers – could you please research exactly how many Olympic Opening ceremonies Mr. Chretien attended?
    Thank you.

  22. Actually, I am sick of people carrying on about how Harper should have attended the Bejing Olympics. He has asthma for peat sakes, and I think it is risky to go to a place like Bejing where the air quality is very poor. In the context of a diplomatic meeting, hopefully some less polluted place in China could be selected. Harper should not have to explain this, and there is no diplomatic slight in not going. People like Chretien are being insensitive Neanderthals.

  23. No words from Taliban Jack Layton-NDP?
    …-
    “Deputy Emir Of Pakistani Taliban Killed In Bajaur District(Maulana Faqir Muhammad)
    Via MEMRI:
    Maulana Faqir Muhammad, the Deputy Emir of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, has been killed along with eight other Taliban militants, according to a report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Khabrain.
    According to the report, the Pakistani officials confirmed that Maulana Faqir Muhammad was killed during the fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani security forces in the tribal district of Bajaur Agency.
    Big news if true….Muhammad is friend and protector of Ayman Zawahiri.”
    http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/193642.php

  25. The following is Press TV’s exclusive full-length interview with former US treasury official Paul Craig Roberts.
    Press TV: Paul Craig Roberts, you served with the US government. Tell us a little bit about the National Endowment for Democracy. Because I understand that, you believe they had a lot to do with the relations between these two former Soviet states and the United States. Roberts: The National Endowment for Democracy is a neoconservative organization funded by the United States government and its purpose is to buy and rig elections in the former constituent parts of the Soviet empire. It is the tool of the neoconservatives for establishing American puppet states in Eastern Europe, in the Caucuses, and of course, its money and election rigging was instrumental in what they call ‘the Rose Revolution’ in Georgia. And of course they interfere in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe. The neoconservatives who have controlled the Bush regime in Washington their plan is to bring Russia along with the entire Middle East and Iran under American hegemony so that whatever happens in the world is dictated from Washington. And so these puppet states such as Georgia are part of the surrounding of Russia with American military bases and American missile systems such as the one they are going to put up in Poland. They hope the Czech Republic and Kosovo. So this is all part of the expanding American empire, the neoconservatives say the American empire is much more powerful than the Roman one. So the American’s have the power to dominate the entire world. That is what this is about. The assault on South Ossetia by the American and the Israeli trained Georgian army, both trained and equipped by the Americans and the Israelis the purpose of that assault was to ethnically cleanse that province of Russians. So that there woulld be an end to the separation movement the separatists would simply be driven out or killed. That was the main purpose of this whole exercise. Press TV: What cards has the Bush administration got left to play with? You said every state in the world is tired of war and perhaps the United States is not. However, with the Bush administration facing economic problems at home, do you really think the Bush administration thinks it can outplay Russia in the Caucuses? Roberts: Yes, the neoconservatives are insane. They certainly think they can outplay Russia and they certainly think they can outplay Iran. They have two more naval armadas steaming there. People in the world need to understand that the regime in Washington is the most dangerous regime that has ever existed, it is capable of anything. Here we have a regime who has invaded two countries, a regime that has been bullying Iran and the President of the United States announcing that bullying and using intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century. What has he been doing all these years? We had Condi Rice say the same stupid things and John McCain the Republican nominee for president say that in the 21st century nations do not invade other nations. Well the United States has just invaded two nations and has oppressed them for six years and they talk this way. This has got to be insanity, this is disconnected from all reality. What they mean is that no one but the United States can invade other nations. Press TV: What should we be expecting in the next couple of days with Condoleezza Rice going to Brussels? Paul Craig Roberts from your view if neocons in such power earlier we talked to Bill Christison a former senior CIA official who said there are placement in all institutions after six years or more of the Bush presidency. What, is it going to go nuclear? Roberts: Yes, I think there is a great danger. I did not say anything about the Republicans, I said the neoconservatives. They controlled the Clinton administration too. That is why you had all those bombings of Serbia. I think your correspondent in New York is correct this is American foreign policy. It is not going to go away. I think it is most dangerous with Bush because he is essentially a moron. Cheney is too. It is more dangerous in their hands but I agree its American foreign policy and yes, they are capable of going nuclear, because they are full of hubris. Press TV: So you think they are ready to go for a war with Iran, with Russia. Some people are saying that Defense Secretary, Robert Gates does not answer to those neoconservatives that you were talking about. Roberts: No he tries to resist it and I also know that many senior officers in the American military have put their foot down. Nevertheless, there is a very powerful movement, the fact that they thought that Russia would sit there and do nothing while Russian citizens, people with Russian passports, were murdered, the capital destroyed and 30 or 40 thousand of them, which must be pretty close to half the population of South Ossetia, driven out into Russia and people thought Russia would do nothing. How can you make such a miscalculation? Anyone who could make that miscalculation can make far more dangerous miscalculations. They are perfectly capable of attacking Iran. The next point of trouble would be the Ukraine. The Americans would rush in there, stir all that up and cause another crisis.

  26. From the comments over at HotAir about an Obama story.
    “When a woman that spent her wedding night in the Lincoln bedroom thinks that you’re an elitist, you’re sending out some bad vibes.
    Canadian Infidel on August 18, 2008 at 1:29 PM”
    Absolutely priceless!!

  27. Shawn, have you HEARD of those fancy new things called links? Trying to read unpunctuated masses like that is annoying.

  28. Full Stop for MSM hacks, aka whiners.
    …-
    “Journalists of Color Hit in Tribune Layoffs (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)
    Paper “Is Where Minority Reporters Can Go to Die”
    The Chicago Tribune laid off more than 40 newsroom employees on Friday, including a disproportionate number of journalists of color, according to newsroom employees there.
    “Coupled with last week’s voluntary exit of more than 30 journalists,” the additional cutback “means the paper has cut 80 people from its editorial staff as part of cost-cutting campaign at all of parent Tribune Co.’s newspapers,” Phil Rosenthal wrote on the Tribune’s Web site.
    Among those called in Friday and told their jobs were eliminated was Ray Quintanilla, a 14-year Tribune veteran. “It’s sad because if you look at the list, it’s heavily minority. It looks bad,” he told Journal-isms.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2063838/posts

  31. If Harper did go to the olympics we would be hearing the usual ‘lockstep with Bush,Bush’es puppet,lapdog,where George goes Steve follows’. The only thing that will plaese the lefties is a liberal gov’t.Thankfully,Mr. Dion will assure that will not happen.

  32. “China jails dissidents.”
    Ad$cam Chletien not in jair say, Mao Stlong.
    Ad$cam Chletien win gord at Red Orympics.
    …-
    “Brave Old World
    FrontPage Magazine ^ | Victor Davis Hanson
    Russia invades Georgia. China jails dissidents. China and India pollute at levels previously unimaginable. Gulf monarchies make trillions from jacked-up oil prices. Islamic terrorists keep car bombing.
    Meanwhile, Europe offers moral lectures, while Japan and South Korea shrug and watch – all in a globalized world that tunes into the Olympics each night from Beijing.
    “Citizens of the world” were supposed to share, in relative harmony, our new “Planet Earth,” which was to have followed from an interconnected system of free trade, instantaneous electronic communications, civilized diplomacy and shared consumer capitalism. But was that ever quite true?
    In reality, to the extent globalism worked, it followed from three unspoken assumptions:”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2063884/posts

  33. Poor old Grope and Flail NOT getting the comments they were hoping for with the Chretien slagging PMSH story!Wonder how long they’ll stay up???

  34. Mao Stlong say, Ad$Cam Chretien goody goody.
    You wan 2 blibes, 3 blibes? How many you wan?
    “And he [Chretien] deliberately chose to meet Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on his [Chretien’s] final day in office on Dec. 12.”
    …-
    “Chrétien builds links with Chinese conglomerate
    Beijing — Less than two months after stepping down as prime minister, Jean Chretien is moving quickly to forge a relationship with China’s wealthiest and most powerful business conglomerate.
    Making a surprisingly speedy entrance onto the global business stage, Mr. Chretien will arrive in China this weekend with a team of Power Corp. executives to meet some of China’s most influential business leaders.”
    “He’ll be accompanied by his son-in-law, André Desmarais, the president of Power Corp., who is a director of CITIC Pacific Ltd., the Hong Kong affiliate of the CITIC group.
    The subject of their meetings is unknown. But Power Corp. has extensive business interests in China, including property development in Shanghai’s booming Pudong district and a joint venture with Bombardier to manufacture railway cars in the coastal city of Qingdao.
    Sources say Mr. Chrétien is expected to arrive in Beijing on Sunday, attend a cocktail reception with the Canada China Business Council that evening, spend two or three additional days in Beijing, then travel on to Shanghai and the northeastern city of Shenyang, near the border with North Korea.
    By moving so quickly into the Chinese business world, Mr. Chrétien will be able to capitalize on his extensive political dealings with Chinese leaders over the past decade. As prime minister he visited China six times, led two Team Canada trade and investment missions to the country and met frequently with its top leaders.
    Barely three months ago, he toured China for three days on his final Asian trip as prime minister. And he deliberately chose to meet Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on his final day in office on Dec. 12.”
    http://tinyurl.com/6botzu (g-m)

  35. “Attention on Olympics, Dissident Goes Missing in China
    Missing Dissidents and Arrests of Protesters Have Gone Largely Uncovered As Games Steal Headlines
    As the headlines from China focus on Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin, other stories have gone largely uncovered such as the disappearance of a human rights advocate and her baby daughter.”
    http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5603830&page=1
    …-
    “Chinese Executions
    Viewer Discretion is Advised”
    http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/popup?id=4297045
    (ABC News)

  36. Hmmm…’wonder what le p’tit gar is doing in China? With Power Corp? And mean-mouthing Prime Minister Stephen Harper ’cause he’s not schmoozing with the Chinese?
    ‘Guess he’s just doing what Librano$ do best: chasing after the latest money grab which, somehow, will implicate the Canadian taxpayer if the Libs get back into power. Where he gets off criticizing PMSH who, as far as I know, hasn’t become monumentally rich while in the office of the PM–nor has his party robbed the taxpayer blind–is beyond me.
    A few other questions: A week after the propane explosion, do we have any idea what happened? Do we have any idea who Parminda Saini is or why he was studying at Sheridan College for one year while being employed at Sunrise Propane?
    These are all questions that Torontonians have a right to know the answers to.

  37. Did you know this? It’s the rast Orympics fol CBC-RedChina.
    Dat’s why Jeancula Chretien is verbal dieareeing. Da proof is da proof.
    “This is the CBC’s last Olympics and that’s probably a good thing–if only to save us from more “positive outcomes.””
    …-
    “Stop sugar-coating the stink
    There’s no positive outcome emerging from the Olympic-calibre sidestepping of the truth”
    http://tinyurl.com/5oqa4h (sun)

  38. So Chretien says he would have attended the opening of these Summer Olympics if he were PM. Of course he would, THEY’RE BEING HELD IN CHINA, ONE OF HIS FAVOURITE PLACES. Wonder why?
    The Olympics is not supposed to be political but the Libranos will make it political if they think they can gain any ground politically. That’s the game now, every bloody one of them is harping on it.
    Never in our history have we had a party more
    desperate for power that the media is seeking out a former Liberal leader for his opinion.
    Talk about low down politics!
    Talk about low down journalism!

  39. “Beijing Olympics: Now Argentina’s footballers photographed making ‘slit-eyed’ gesture
    A photo showing four members of Argentina’s Olympic women’s football team making “slit-eyed” gestures has emerged on the internet, just days after two Spanish sports teams were criticised for pulling similar poses.”
    http://tinyurl.com/5ur4kw (telegraphUK)

  42. War within Islam.
    Stand back.
    “Resurgent militant extremists have in the past 10 days reduced 28 girls’ schools to rubble as they work to destroy an education system that was once the pride of Pakistan.”
    …-
    “300,000 flee as jihadis attacked
    ISLAMABAD: A human tide of more than 300,000 civilians has fled the al-Qa’ida badlands, amid indications that the fighting there has reached unprecedented levels, with the Pakistani army using massive firepower to attack jihadi militant strongholds.
    Helicopter gunships, fixed-wing strike aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery have been used in the onslaught that followed the visit last month by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Washington, where he was berated for Pakistan’s failure to wipe out the militants.
    The offensive runs counter to perceptions that Pakistan’s new civilian Government is “soft” on Islamic extremism.
    This will reassure Washington, whose ally in the war in terror for the past nine years, President Pervez Musharraf, was given by the Coalition Government until midnight last night (4am today AEST) to resign or face impeachment proceedings beginning tonight in the National Assembly.
    Pakistani television showed thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire streaming out of the Bajaur, Mohmand and Kurrum agencies during the fighting estimated to have killed more than 500 militants. Tens of thousands of people are camping on the perimeter of Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, and some have reached Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad.”
    http://tinyurl.com/59cmzk (australiannews)

  43. “The Library of Babel
    Stanley Kurtz at the National Review Online describes how he was first granted and then denied access to the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a fund worth $50 million led by Bill Ayers and chaired at one point by Barack Obama. Kurtz’s research purpose was to discover the extent of Barack Obama’s relatinship with Ayers, and the part the Candidate played in Chicago educational politics. The Wikipedia entry notes that the Challenge suggests that its story and the role it played in the politics of education in Chicago promised to be an interesting one.
    The Collaborative’s responsibility was to help identify potential grant recipients, prepare requests for proposals and develop other means for the Challenge to intervene in supporting the local school council-led reform process in Chicago. In 1995 the mayor of Chicago succeeded in the first of several efforts to undermine the power of these councils. But the Challenge fought back by funneling millions of dollars into the councils and associated reform groups, including $175,000 to the Small Schools Workshop. The Workshop had been established in the early 1990s by William Ayers who hired Mike Klonsky, a Chicago cab driver who had earned a Ph.D. in education from the University of South Florida, and former activist with Ayers in Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. Klonsky had achieved limited notoriety in 1977 when he traveled to Beijing to seek the endorsement of Communist China for a political party he had helped establish in the United States, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist).
    At times the attempt by the Challenge was controversial. An effort to funnel $2 million to the Local Schools Councils was criticized by one Challenge board member, Arnold Weber, a business sector representative and former President of Northwestern University, who saw the Councils as a potential “political threat” to school principals. Of course, the councils were formed precisely to provide parent and political activists with the power to influence schools. Board chairman Obama offered to meet with the Collaborative to resolve the concerns raised by Weber.
    The answers to many of the controversies may be contained in the CAC’s own voluminous records, which Kurtz had been granted permission to inspect. He wrote of the trove with same anticipation as Edmund Dantes might have felt when he found the cave of jewels beneath on his fated island:”
    http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/08/18/the-library-of-babel/

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