Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Twelve Days of Christmas shows, here are the York Minster choir performing Good King Wenceslas (1995, 2:51). And for tonight's flip-side, here is Ella Fitzgerald performing It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (3:14).
Also, for those of you interested in reading classic works on the Interwebothique, I can report that I have finished reading Ulysses S. Grant's Personal Memoirs (1885), and I am now half-way through reading an English translation of René Descartes' Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Verité Dans les Sciences, commonly known in English as Discourse on the Method (1637). I can say with some confidence that I find both those works to be excellent reading.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
The other day I spotted Mark Steyn referencing a criticism of himself by a journalist next door to Vancouver in Whistler. So I wrote a little ditty, clearly marking it with the "humour" tag.
Lo and behold, I completely forgot the Primary Rule of the Universe: Radical Leftists do NOT have a sense of humour ... not even a tiny, weeny one.
So I started receiving some hate mail from some fans of the Whistler journalist!!
Lo and behold though, the journalist and I have been corresponding back & forth and he seems like a good bloke.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24833959-5014239,00.html
Australia has gone insane. Now filtering bittorrent? What the heck? I thought Oz was a cool country, but looks like their loony politicians are an order of magnitude more insane than ours.
The link you provided first above
does not lead to a ditty, Robert.
My use of the term stems from the Middle English version of the word.
And trust me when I say that you would NOT want me to sing ANYTHING!!!
Buried in the Senate appts. thread was a tip from Alberta Girl about Lizzie May's newest hypocrisy. I responded to it there but then expanded it here, along with the Mike Duffy video in question.
Beyond hilarious!!!
A literary composition? Um,
ok, Merry Christmas, eh what;
best wishes to your blog, Robert.
Could you hear the sound of me digging ... it wasn't just snow!!! :-)
;-) [And, seriously, I mean that in the nicest way.]
"Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction." - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7796663.stm
When Ezra Levant or Mark Steyn read this story, perhaps they can ask the obvious question: "When this story is reprinted in a Canadian newspaper, will Gay Rights group file a suit with one or more HRCs?"
Top 10 [American] Media Blunders of 2008: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16789.html
I think we all could collectively come up with 25 more!!!
I think, Robert W., you're doing to this blog what no moonbat has been able to do before.
As much as I have admired (and have written about) Pope Benedict's stance on the matter of the roles of faith and reason, Robert, I think that you and he are committing an error, at least at the margin, at least as you have elucidated the facts, at least in this case, as evidenced by your treating the words homosexual and gay as synonyms.
That is, in my opinion, a serious mistake. Homosexuals are a normative phenomenon across all meiosis-based organisms, and normatively they're not a big deal. Historically, in our species, this has often been denied, resulting in recent centuries in a move to recognize that, normatively, human homosexuals do indeed have the same human and legal rights as those otherwise inclined.
The problem, and this is a distinction that needs to be made clear, is that the current Gay movement is a victimhood-based trendy fashion industry. It's a racket, it's a fraud, it's a scam, it's a rip-off. And this is bad news for honest homosexuals, at least as far as the conservative ones I know inform me.
Whoah, whoah, whoah Vitru, I'm not sure precisely what you assumed I said or thought about homosexuals. I simply copied a quote from the BBC website and then offered a little quip about Steyn & Levant. But nowhere did I express my own opinion on the matter.
In any case, I've posted much too much here tonight. Truth be told, I've been somewhat under the weather today and have consumed all too much time on the Internet.
Good night.
Fair enough, point taken Robert, good night to you too, and best wishes.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/DAYWALKER__/bho.jpg
It's a racket, it's a fraud, it's a scam, it's a rip-off.
Hmmm...not unlike Harper's Conservative Party.
Breaking: The Prime Minister of Canada just appointed a judge to the Supreme Court of Canada. This is just a rumour at this point as I am unable to find any mention of it in Canadian newspapers or on Canadian blogs. Developing...
The CBC Edmonton website story on cold weather has these sentences back to back:
"Alberta was the only province where Environment Canada did not issue a weather warning for Monday morning.
Toronto has extended its declaration of an extreme cold weather alert with temperatures expected to drop to -12 C."
Weather graphic in upper left corner at 6:38 am this AM:
Edmonton International airport -33.9C
What's next for TeeOwe?
Getting the army out to shovel sidewalks?
No wait.....
Listening to the Christmas music on the radio, I'm reminded of how at one minute after midnite on the 26th, every station playing Christmas music is going to drop the format like a cheap date.
Before that happens, I'd like to offer a best of, worst of list:
Best versions of:
Silver Bells: Bing Crosby (classic)
It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas: Bing Crosby again (classic)
White Christmas: see above (see above) :)
Do You Hear What I Hear: Carrie Underwood (beautiful voice, no verses omitted)
Baby, It's Cold Outside: Dolly Parton & Rod Stewart (because they sound like they're having fun)
Here Comes Santa Claus: Gene Autry
Sleigh Ride: The Boston Pops Orchestra (from my country childhood)
I'll Be Home For Christmas: Josh Grobin
Worst Versions of:
Silent Night: Stevie Nicks (fingernails on a blackboard)
Jingle Bells: Johnny Mercer (say cheese!)
Songs I haven't heard but really want to:
Seven Joys of Mary: Great Big Sea (love acapella)
The Holly and the Ivy
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Songs I haven't heard and NEVER want to EVER again:
Please Mr. Jesus (emotional porn)
Good selection tower but I would add:
Baby Changes Everything by Faith Hill
Concerned about poor little Omar?
Benjamin Wittes and Zaahira Wyne, The Current Detainee Population of Guantánamo: An Empirical Study
The following report represents an effort both to document and to describe in as much detail as the public record will permit the current detainee population in American military custody at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba. Since the military brought the first detainees to Guantánamo in January 2002, the Pentagon has consistently refused to comprehensively identify those it holds. While it has, at various times, released information about individuals who have been detained at Guantánamo, it has always maintained ambiguity about the population of the facility at any given moment, declining even to specify precisely the number of detainees held at the base...
The result is that despite a debate that has raged over American detention policy almost since the outset of the war on terrorism, the actual detainee population which the debate concerns remains strangely obscure...
"Soldiers mark anniversary with traditional rum drink
Hundreds of soldiers in Afghanistan received a drink of rum, warm water and brown sugar Sunday, to mark the 125th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Royal Canadian Dragoons.
It was the same drink offered to members in 1943 during the Battle of Ortona, one of the fiercest close-quarter battles of the Second World War.
Canadians fought German soldiers in the Italian town, forcing them to withdraw after more than a week of fighting, and at the cost of nearly 1,500 comrades.
On Sunday, nearly 300 Canadian soldiers from those same military units celebrated the anniversary in Afghanistan, lining up for the traditional drink and toasting the occasion."
http://tinyurl.com/a646eo (ctv)
...-
"As the first snows of winter began to fall, the Canadians reached the German defensive line north of the Sangro River."
"The fighting was house-to-house-literally – the Canadians blasted their way through walls to get from building to building. The battle continued over Christmas Day, 1943 but three days later the Germans withdrew."
"INDEPTH: ORTONA
Italian campaign"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/ortona/
The British Wind Energy Association has admitted to cooking the books on its calculations of the amount of carbon dioxide displaced by wind power. According to the report a wind farm industry source offered this bizarre excuse for the inaccurate figures:
"It's not ideal for us. It's the result of pressure by the anti-wind farm lobby."
It's the fault of the anti-wind lobby that the wind farm industry has been forced to tell the truth? Shame on those pro-pollution Neanderthals.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/12/more_hot_air_from_wind_farms.html
*
"Pop Quiz -- The United Nations is best known for..."
*
Stephen Harper was here to participate in lighting the municipal Chanukiah. Can't imagine any of the opposition party leaders doing so.
Rick Richman, The Miracle of Chanukah
Two short videos appropriate to the season.
A few comments:
Can I have a refund for my share of the Big 3 bailout? Nissan is advertising a four door sedan, in the US, for under 10 grand. They beat cretin and mo to the punch(u know, the laughable cherry), and this will kill GM, Ford and Chrysler.
Not sure which commune she will end up at, but I can say for sure where evirowhackjob may will not end up
1. the Senate
2. Mike Duffy show
3. minister of the environment
4. Afghanistan(or any military base, for that matter)visiting the troops
5. the seal hunt
and, finally
6. any position of any importance other than the typical trough wallowing that you can expect from her type
GO ARMY!
VOTE REFORM!
Wesley J. Smith, Euthanasia Comes to Montana
On December 5, Montana District judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in Baxter v. Montana that the state law banning assisted suicide violates not only the right to privacy guaranteed in the Montana constitution but also the constitutional clause that reads, "The dignity of the human being is inviolable." McCarter found here a "fundamental right" for the terminally ill to "die with dignity"--meaning in the case at hand, to commit suicide by drug overdose.
McCarter also ruled that doctors have a concomitant right to be free from "liability under the State's homicide statutes" if they help a patient commit death with dignity....
"Edmonton Human Society to hold blowout sale"(sic)
""It's better for them in the long run to be in a home setting.""
http://tinyurl.com/8xv9oo (edsun)
But don't worry, being judgmental is racist...
Saudi court tells girl aged EIGHT she cannot divorce husband who is 50 years her senior
A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.
The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 135 miles north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.
Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:"The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1099447/Saudi-court-tells-girl-aged-EIGHT-divorce-husband-50-years-senior.html
John O'Sullivan, Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin
I know Maggie Thatcher. The two women have a lot in common.
Con Lie #74 (sec.2.iii) - less taxes? Hardly. The partisan morons in here will be thankful it's the Cons shaking their wallets down rather than the Libranos - because we all know the Libranos are the 'tax and spend' bunch:
Canadians paid more taxes in 2007: StatsCan finds average household spends more on pets than on child care
By Eric BeauchesneDecember 23, 2008
Canadian families pay more in personal taxes than they do on either shelter or food, and spend more on their pets than they do on child care.
Those are among the revelations in Statistics Canada's latest annual report on household expenditures.
Despite the tax-cut boasts of governments, Canadian families paid six per cent more on average in personal income taxes last year, which remained the single largest expense for families, even ahead of keeping a roof over their heads.
In total, households spent an average of $69,943 in 2007, up 3.3 per cent from 2006, Statistics Canada said yesterday in its report on family expenditures, noting that the increase was also more than a full percentage point above the 2.2-per-cent increase in the cost of living last year....."
Suzanne Sataline, In Hard Times, Houses of God Turn to Chapter 11 in Book of Bankruptcy
During this holiday season of hard times, not even houses of God have been spared. Some lenders believe more churches than ever have fallen behind on loans or defaulted this year. Some churches, and at least one company that specialized in church lending, have filed for bankruptcy. Church giving is down as much as 15% in some places, pastors and lenders report.
The financial problems are crimping a church building boom that began in the 1990s, when megachurches multiplied, turning many houses of worship into suburban social centers complete with bookstores, gyms and coffee bars. Lenders say mortgage applications are down, while some commercial lenders no longer see churches as a safe investment...
Raise a glass to Vaclav Klaus.
The Czech nation's patron saint is Prince Wenceslas, or Vaclav*.
More crafty, more contrary, more climate skeptic, please.
...-
"CRAFTY, CONTRARY, CLIMATE SKEPTIC
Czech President Klaus' Thirst for Power
Czech President Vaclav Klaus persistently denies climate change is caused by people and rails against the European Union. Even though his fellow Czechs don't share all of his views, his prospects for re-election on Feb. 8 are good."
http://tinyurl.com/78trur (spiegel)
*http://www.radio.cz/en/article/58592
I suspect many here have built stairs for an elderly pooch, as I have. But I guess it wasn't a trend sufficient to attract MSM attention until now. Another illustration of journalistic detachment from reality, even at good papers like the WSJ.
Kevin Helliker, The Rise of Beds, and Falls of Dogs
Without fanfare or marketing, the bedding industry has been raising the altitude of its products, satisfying customer preferences for ever-thicker mattresses. Yet that preference is creating a hazard for a tall bed's shortest occupant: the dog.
Anecdotally, veterinarians across the country report among house dogs a rise in such disorders as elbow and shoulder arthritis, hip dysplasia and degenerative disk disease. As the lifespan of pets rises thanks to better food and medicine, the old dog that once leapt with abandon now hesitates on the edge of bed -- or jumps and hurts itself...
The peril is too new to have generated peer-reviewed veterinary research. But the problem is evident in the white-hot popularity of a relatively new product: pet stairs, specifically designed to lead Fido from bed to floor by land rather than air...
New York Times published an editorial by Obama's friend Bill Ayers but refused to publish one by a FBI informant who infiltrated the weatherunderground and who tells the truth about Bill Ayers,
so Pajama media did it,
Read it here
Having done the 19% growth in spending since being elected - the Cons need to find space for all those new civil servant jobs for life.
Or better yet, spend billions on 'green' retrofits and start creating a carbon tax - to combat global warming. Libranos want a green shift?
The Cons are doing it for them....
Government sets stage for possible move of key departments
Scope of Public Works' call for information on office space is unprecedented
By Kathryn May, David Pugliese and Bert HillDecember 23, 2008
Public Works and Government Services Canada has issued a request for more than three million square feet of office space in Ottawa and Gatineau, including in the suburbs of Orléans, Kanata and Aylmer.
The space could include new construction or existing buildings and the government would be interested in signing leases between 15 and 25 years, starting in the fall of 2011.
All this movement of public servants could deliver a strong jolt to the economy, with the private sector standing to gain from the renovation of buildings to accommodate new federal tenants....
Public Works spokeswoman Lucie Brosseau said the request for information is part of the department's National Capital Area Accommodation Strategy, which aims to address key issues such as the need to renovate aging properties, the replacement of expiring leases, and the implementation of the latest standards for "green" buildings and accessibility in federal government offices...."
Billions in spending on 'greening' buildings and civil servants.
Boy, good thing we have a conservative government, and not a bunch of wound up socialists appointing partisans to the Senate, ramping up the size of government, and creating a brand new carbon tax...
More brrrrreen shift from NOAA.
"annual ice" "will continue to form each winter".
Thas a relief. Sure feel better now.
The ice worms are not end-angered.
...-
"“Our scientists have reviewed climate models that project that annual ice, which is critical for ribbon seal reproduction, molting and resting, will continue to form each winter in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk where the majority of ribbon seals are located,” said Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s acting assistant administrator for fisheries."
"NOAA Determines Ribbon Seals Should Not be Listed as Endangered"
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
Re: Ortona
May I recommend a fine book by Mark Zuehlke called "Ortona" This battle possibly the bloodiest of WWII was one week of furious, hand to hand,fighting in the town,from Dec. 20 to Dec.27, 1943.
When the battle ended 2339 Canadians were dead or wounded. The book is 383 pages of riveting narrative and additional pages of bibliography, notes and abbreviations.
Liberal PEI Senator hopes Duffy will live in PEI in order to be a Senator.
Mmmm that brings back memories of the Liberal Senator Thompson that lived In Mexico!
OH MY GOD THE AMERICANS ARE STEALING OUR WATER!
Detroit has been since 1964, the intake pipe is on the Windsor side of the river.
The comments are hilarious.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/23/water-detroit.html
I have noted this on the thread about Friends of Canadian Broadcasting in reference to the CBC, but it probably belongs here.
The MSM have been making a big deal about the report by the Afghan Human Rights organization criticizing the coalition forces. I guess they were too busy to look at the report by the same outfit about the abuses by the Taliban. It can be found here:
http://www.aihrc.org.af/2008_Dec/PDF_Anti_G/Eng_anti_G.pdf
Stan re water
Wait until Joe Comartin NDP MP gets ahold of this. And of course it will be Stephen Harpers fault & the NDP should be asked to Govern.
Ortona This battle possibly the bloodiest of WWII...........c'mon get real - the battle for Stalingrad claimed 1.5 million
Ctv.ca Poll 12/23/08
What do you think of the Prime Minister's Senate Appointments?
Savy 4861 60%
Short-sighted 3194 40%
Video of the Muslim Riots:
http://europenews.dk/en/node/17701
Woeman of the Year Award:
"now-former Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who was chosen by 35 editors."
(canpress)
"Santa Claus declared a Canadian citizen
Santa's a Canadian, according to the federal government.
Jason Kenney, the minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, has formally awarded Canadian citizenship status to Santa Claus, the government announced Tuesday."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/12/23/7839571.html
...-
Boob Lea, he of the Separatist Coalition, swore there were no Canadians in Iraq.
What a schmuck.
Here He is in Iraq:
"Santa and his helpers stand under palm trees at Baghdad's first public Christmas festival."
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6wpt4x
"Good heavens! Galileo goes from heretic to hero
VATICAN CITY - Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero."
http://tinyurl.com/8ynlcv (asspress)
...-
Next up:
Giordano Bruno:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/9tlebc
Ken Dryden replies to a letter by an economist, Dr Zerker, about why he supports the coalition. Caution, he writes the way he speaks, long-winded. Good read though.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/12/23/undemocratic-coup-or-working-together-economist-sally-f-zerker-and-mp-ken-dryden-debate-the-coalition.aspx
My comment to the letters: Interesting reply from Dryden where he says "This is NOT a Liberal-NDP-Bloc Quebecois Coalition" yet goes on to write "The Coalition represents 163 seats". Sounds like the Bloc is part of the coalition. No reply on this coalition circumventing our democratic process of citizens voting for their government not a palace coup. Of course Iggy was appointed to his riding and now appointed as their leader so they are a little thin on democratic procedures anyway.
Dryden cries that Harper can't be trusted and won't play fair with the other parties. As Dryden states the other 3 parties have a majority, then work together with the Conservatives to reach compromises to advance better solutions to these serious problems and just get on with it. Dr. Zerker is right that Canadians do not want socialists running our country as we have seen the damage they do as in Ontario, Saskatchewan and BC.
Amazing ,as always with the Liberals, they have no concrete plans of their own but they sure don't like yours. They are as bankrupt with policies as they are with their party's finances yet somehow Canadians should welcome them back into power, which as Dr Zerker writes is really what the Liberals want.
>>> "What’s now coming to light is another tale: about the moment the Press had decided to become a political player in itself: it would not only report the news, but make the news."
The MSM makes the news? G'wan; that's a whopper that only the NYSlimes would print*.
...-
"All of Hoover’s Men
Stratfor has a long essay about how Woodward and Bernstein — and Deep Throat, now identified as then FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt — may have brought down not just Richard Nixon, but, over the longer term, journalism itself."
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/12/23/all-of-hoovers-men/#more-1563
...-
*New York Times publishes fake letter, apologizes
22 Dec 2008 ... NEW YORK — The New York Times admitted today it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy's ...
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6177573.html