Reader Tips

Even though s/he didn't make the list,Spurwing Plover deserves a shout out.

Happy New Year,all,and only the best for 2009!

My New Year's prediction: Warren Kinsella to become the new "Jason Cherniak". Oops, it's already begun!

The Auld Lang Syne was magnificent: so many people in solidarity with one another. 'Sort of like us here at SDA.

G_d bless and Happy New Year!

More lies, incompetence and laziness from CTV.ca,

and some bias thrown in,eh, Kate? ;)

Newsmakers 2008

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081223/absurd_politics_081227/20081227/

"The impressions, however, weren't scripted. Fey used Palin's own words as her script. The performances revitalized SNL's ratings. "

As SDA readers know Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from many points in Alaska.

Tina Fey said "I can see Russia from my porch"

Factchecking is not mandatory for CTV apparently.

I DEMAND a recount!!!!

Happy New Year all.

About 3 1/2 hours to go here.

I own you Mississauga Matt!!!

happy new year Kate! thank you for allowing us to post here. where we speak for ourselves.

Wow! Vit...thanks again for an amazing piece! Very moving, powerful.

Yes lookout, some REAL friends here...

I will twist an Irish toast," May the best of last year be the worst of this new year". Cheers to all that make this blog so damn interesting,informative, and relevant,there are many.Kate,Vitruvius,and the rest,I thank you.

Happy New Year to all from McGregor Ont. Thankyou Kate for letting us vent on your blog - you saved us from valium addiction.

The Queens Christmas speech for those who have not heard it. CLICK Happy New Year to all and congratulations to Kate for the finest Blog in the Realm.

Happy New Year Kate, Vit & all SDA'ers.

DaninVan--"436,000 1,929 new"
and at #20 !!!". What makes this statistic even more interesting is that 'new' has come on under different names many times. I think that he types 'new' into the space where the rest of us type our name.I believe he confuses 'name'with 'topic' . That may be why he appears as 'food-media,isam,hayes',or any of the other names that make us regular folk(who may occasionally wear python boots) tilt our head and think WTF.

Wow. I feel like I did the first time I opened a phone book and saw my name in it.

Happy Hogmanay, Vit, Kate and everyone here. I look forward to reading the edifying posts in 2009.

Church of England invests $200,000,000 with Al Gore's green investment arm. Dumb or what.

Happy New Year und ein Frohes Sylvester Abend mit Andre Rieu!

Es besteht fur deine musikalische Anforderungen Die Johann Strauss Orchester.

Aber bitte ein Marsh und Waltzer!

Radetzky march - André Rieu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlOlG3aV2Mg&feature=related

ANDRE RIEU - the light cavalry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJXjyTdTxrY

Andre Rieu - Walzer-Medley 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh48uaQ_B8U&feature=related

Prosit!!

Cheers and Happy New Year

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

Frankenstein Battalion
2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
Knecht Rupprecht Division
Hans Corps
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North

I love how the threat of an election in December caused the biggest spike in comments to SDA, while the actual election we had in October barely registered a blip. :-D

WOW,Happy New Years to all,Kate,Lance,and Mr.V.Cheers,good night.

Happy New Year to Kate, to all the SDA regulars, and even to the trolls. '08 was a good year, and '09 promises to be better yet. Let it be so.

Happy New Year to Kate, the guest posters, the regulars, and, yes, even the trolls.
All the best in '09.

Eugene, there's a huge difference between an election within the rules and an attempted coup, with the balance of power being handed to a separatist party. E.g., One wouldn't make much of a routine trip to the doctor. But, if one then ended up at the hospital having life threatening surgery, things would suddenly get pretty lively!

Happy New Year (which is likely to get quite lively once again after January 27) and have a great day!

Happy New Year!

Please remember to buy a newspaper, it's your obligation to democracy (rolls eyes).

Government aid could save U.S. newspapers, spark debate

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4BU53T20081231?sp=true

Former Miami Herald Editor Tom Fiedler said that a democracy has an obligation to help preserve a free press.

"I truly believe that no democracy can remain healthy without an equally healthy press," said Fiedler, now dean of Boston University's College of Communication. "Thus it is in democracy's interest to support the press in the same sense that the human being doesn't hesitate to take medicine when his or her health is threatened."

Bonne annee, tout le monde!

Here's to another year of making the left and the MSM sit up and take notice that they don't speak for us--or a vast majority of all-too-quiet Canadians. Let's take back the political agenda!

Up to now, Kate and SDA have been doing a more than admirable job. Here's to an even better year in 2009. Onward and upward!

Happy New Year every one.
Man caused the little Ice Age
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=315533893763712

AGW's Footprints:

"Freezing Britain rings in the New Year" (timesuk)

"Gazans fight cold and hunger" (timesuk)

"Blizzard blasts Maritimes, causes travel delays
CTV.ca"

Happy New Year and all the best to SDA, Kate, Vitruvius, EBD, guest bloggers - and everyone else who comments.

I note that Warren Kinsella's predictions are actually election slogans; his agenda is to create an election in 2009 to return the 'Natural Governing Party'..etc.

And his new Adored Master is now Ignatieff. It used to be Chretien who Could Do No Wrong. Now, it's Ignatieff who is the Sovereign Leader. Kinsella likes Sovereigns; he's not that much in favour of democracy.

Note his comments about Ignatieff: 'supersmart, accomplished, decent, extraordinary ability to bring people together'. Heck, those are the same characteristics of Harper. Except that Harper's accomplishments are in actual governance not in the seminar room - and there's an enormous difference between the two realms. Harper created a new political party out of two quite disparate perspectives; Ignatieff still has the two sides in the Liberal Party despite Kinsella's refusal to acknowledge such.

Then, Kinsella goes on to boast about the great team of the Liberals, and mentions Rae (the disastrous NDP leader); Trudeau (the unaccomplished Name); Dryden (hockey); LeBlanc (oh?); and Hall-Finlay (enough said). He boasts that no-one in Canada can name a single Conservative MP (oh?)...

And insists that the Conservatives will lose this forthcoming election because of the economy; ie, the Conservatives will be blamed for it. There's something Kinsella is ignoring - the internet, the web, the blogs. People don't get their information in the same manner that they did in Kinsella's adored Chretien era.

Note the policies that Kinsella favours; they are all Big Government centralist policies. And he defines the Conservatives as 'Western'; a serious error because Kinsella thus places himself, politically, back in the old Ontario-Quebec centralist era, an era that ignored the West. That's an ignorant error right there.

Then, Kinsella shows his agenda of Big Government. The Liberals reject tax cuts and privatization as positive measures but people, in the majority, like tax cuts. It's only the left in the three big cities that accept taxation because they consider that these taxes 'take care of the riff-raff (poor or immigrants or others) and keep them Out Of My Neighbourhood. Real people, which include the poor, immigrants and others, appreciate tax cuts.

Privatization? In health care, it's creeping in from the bottom up.
Oh, and Kinsella insists that the Conservatives are 'indifferent to the weak and the poor'. Just like the Liberals with their Adscam, their cronyism, their 'I'm entitled to my entitlements'; their insistence that the taxpayer pay for their political party rather than going out and fund-raising...

And one thing Kinsella doesn't even whisper about. The Coalition. Not a word. Nothing said that Ignatieff, his supersmart, decent, accomplished hero, actually signed a document that denied the people of Canada any voice in their government. Nothing. Not a word about this violation of our democratic rights. Nothing.

Happy New Year to Kate and the entire SDA-nation. My wish for the new year is that sanity returns to the Canadian electorate and decency and democracy returns to the Parliament and Canada in general.

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb." Winston Churchill

Happy new year to Kate and all SDAs.

no doubt, Warren is in love again.

Stand your ground, Sammy.
...-

[Northern Ireland] "Environment minister Sammy Wilson: I still think man-made climate change is a con"

"The DUP minister has been heavily criticised by environmentalists for claiming that ongoing climatic shifts are down to nature and not mankind.

But while acknowledging his views on global warming may not be popular, the East Antrim MP said he was not prepared to be bullied by eco fundamentalists.

“I’ll not be stopped saying what I believe needs to be said about climate change,” he said."
http://preview.tinyurl.com/8snsoy

http://www.judaicawebstore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=MT-01

get yours now! I'm not sure if I'm breaking a rule of Kate's for posting to a commercial link although I've re-read the "comments policy"

It just seemed an interesting t-shirt to have in my closet of t-shirts that are guaranteed to offend, or make you stand a little bit more straight.
You never know when a local protest will break out over some perceived slight in the M.E. Possibly a collectors item too if President poopy pants of Iran prevails. and of course it's a great foil to those "Che" shirts everywhere.

"Thirty years of sea ice data. The record begins at 1979, the year satellite observations began (Source: Arctic Research Center, University of Illinois)"

"Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago.

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards."
http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834

cEEbEEccc reporting; Peeter say, Dewnut beelieve this itss sda preproganda.
...-

"Iraqi troops take control of Green Zone

Reporting from Baghdad -- As Iraqi schoolchildren sang their country's praises and a band played, the United States formally handed over military control of the heavily fortified Green Zone to Iraqi troops today, a first major step in the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

For Iraqis, the Green Zone, a walled-off 4-square mile community in Baghdad's core, has come to symbolize the U.S. occupation of their country. Home to about 30,000 residents -- including 14,000 U.S. and coalition forces -- it also encompasses Saddam Hussein's opulent Republican Palace, which was captured by American troops in April 2003 and was, until last month, the site of the U.S. Embassy."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157206/posts

Yes, Kinsella has found his new Savior Sovereign; he's moved on from Chretien to Ignatieff.

I think the 2009 Liberal agenda is quite clear. They want an election. Not this January for it's too soon and the electorate will accuse them of, heh, partisan politics. But not too late because they want two things to exist: a depressed economy and they will put the entire blame for this on the Conservatives; and, (and Kinsella is quite specific), they also want an environmental disaster; that will be the Second Evil Thing Wrought by the Evil Conservatives.

They can't let their election campaign requirement go on too long, for they require a depressed economy. Once it starts to recover, the Liberals will have lost their foothold.

In the meantime, Ignatieff will be set up in the Liberal propaganda as The Sovereign, ordering his underling staff, the PM and the Conservatives, to carry out his Rule. That is, the Liberal propaganda will set up Ignatieff as the King - and the failures won't be due to the King - who after all, ordered his staff to Fix the Economy. It will be the fault of the Staff, the underlings, of the King. Get it?

The problems with this tactic is that it's great for a pre-internet era. But in this modern world, with information in the control of the electorate rather than the King, this same King might just come off as a blowhard pompous bully.

Then, the Liberal requirement for a depressed economy, which of course shows how much the Liberals actually care about their own power rather than the people - well, the economy might not be that amenable to the Liberal agenda. Same with the Liberal need for environmental disasters. Ah well.

And, there's the NDP. And the Bloc. Neither Layton nor Duceppe will sit back and allow the Liberal agenda to reduce their seats in the House. They will actually want a later election rather than an early one and I suspect the NDP will move closer to the Conservatives to ward off any Liberal gains. No, I'm insane to make that suggestion, but..

Kate and Vit, ET, Maz, Texas Canuck, lookout and Hans:
Thank you for SDA and to all of the intelligent posters here. (I know that I missed some....) I start my morning reading SDA, probably check back at least a couple more times during the day. Since I found this site, I found "like thinking minds" that are so tired of the MSM and their slanted views on just about every subject. Thank you for the freedom of expression that is allowed at SDA, thank you for allowing us to feel like we really do have a voice.
Happy New Year and the best is yet to come for SDA in 2009! Have a safe, relaxing day everyone. Hopefully, your not getting snowed in like we are here today in Kelowna!

One more for the "nuke the CBC" file:

Scheduled to air tonight on my local CBC station at 8:00 PM primetime... yes, today, New Year's Day, when all the stores are closed and Canadians are most likely to have their arses parked in front of the boob tube nursing their hangovers and processing turkey... what to air for this captive audience to start off 2009, to pull Canadians together in the face of what is likely to be a most challenging period in our history?

An Inconvenient Truth

Heh.

Agenda? What agenda?

A Very Happy New Year to Kate and her extraordinary lieutenant Vitruvius, to ET, and to all the great patriots like lookout, and all regular posters -- too numerous to list without risk of unintended neglect -- from whom I learn so much, and to the trolls who are, alas!, peeking in here with their noses against the monitor glass, seeking warmth and wisdom.

I really don't think there's a blog on the planet with the depth and variety of commentary that small dead animals has developed due to Kate's magical je ne sais quoi.

And may we all adopt resolution #1 for 2009, and restore 'Vit's' true nom de blog which, is after all, not that hard to type: Vit-true-vius. (drop the 'e' and dashes).

Wow, I made it to # 20 on the Top 100 Commentors at SDA in 2008. Like dp, it feels neat to have my "handle" up there and like dolly, I have too thank Kate for allowing me to vent 747 times and thereby greatly reducing the amount of valium ingested.

Happy New Year to all and especially Kate who allows us to speak our minds here at SDA. This site can be most stimulating, on many levels.

Even Conservative Politicians can be wrong ... very, very wrong! Video here

Tomorrow (Friday), Mark Steyn will be:

Hosting America's Number One radio show. Join him coast to coast at 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific on the Excellence In Broadcasting network for Open Line Friday, and the first live 2009 edition of
The Rush Limbaugh Show

ET: "And, there's the NDP. And the Bloc. Neither Layton nor Duceppe will sit back and allow the Liberal agenda to reduce their seats in the House. They will actually want a later election rather than an early one and I suspect the NDP will move closer to the Conservatives to ward off any Liberal gains. No, I'm insane to make that suggestion, but.."

ET, there was a time I thought the NDP and Conservatives could work together, particularly on a common sense approach to the environment.

But, but ... as long as Jack Layton is their leader, with his Marxist sloganeering about banks and oil companies, reform in the NDP to more commonsense policies, and thus cooperation with CPC, is impossible.

Jack Layton has managed to pull his party into the Grit sphere of influence without picking up (indeed losing) any votes, or getting any of his "policies" passed. No cabinet rep, nothing - just personna non grata status west of Toronto and east of Montreal.

He has also turned people who vote NDP, who presumably would only change their vote to Liberal, Green or Bloc, into Conservative voters.

He did all of this with his ill-planned and executed coalition attempt. Mr Ignatieff has failed to properly distance himself from this agreement, which he signed and has never publicly criticized.

Thanks to Ignatieff's and Layton's terrible miscalculation, Harper's electoral prospects have significantly improved (despite MSM blathering), with left of centre vote morphed into one. Sorry, folks, no 62% majority there.

Once their bluff of coalition passes, once the sabre rattling about "bringing Harper down" subsides, the Grits will be back to where they were under Dion leadership, with an academic in charge who has no experience in running a political party, in preparing it for power with policies and fundraising - as Harper did for CPC.

Yes, Grits will likely force election in 2009; their problem, as you identified ET, is that economy will start to recover, likely in 3rd quarter, or perhaps 4th, so Harper will get kudos for getting us through "worst financial crisis since 1929." Yes of course, see the trainloads of young men travelling around the country seeking work (more likely tramelling off to their local EI office).

Harper is sitting pretty right now, but it does not serve his interests to say so. He will bide his time, govern (something Grits have completely forgotten how to do), and let coalition (oh yes, they will be defined that way, make no mistake) fight it out for what's left of the left vote.

So, on balance, a very good 2009 awaits Harper and CPC, and that drives Kinsella types mad, even though he personally has affinity for Harper whom he defines as an "everyman" that Canadians want leading them right now. What a contradictory fellow this Kinsella is. He may be forced to break out the Barney dolls any time now.

Pajamas media has a report on the various Muslim protests throughout America. They are becoming more rabid and bold, shouting outright death threats, as they do in their own countries:

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA. December 30, 2008

“This is not Gaza, or London, or Paris, or even Detroit. This is downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.”

Tom Trento is describing the intense demonstration against Israel that just took place. He made the video by quietly and bravely circulating among the pro-Palestine demonstrators so that we can easily hear their chants. At red-hot levels of screaming rage, about 200-300 demonstrators, many in kaffiyehs, wearing or holding the Palestinian flag, some wearing “Obama” baseball hats, many women in serious hijab and men in Islamic prayer clothing, chanted “Nuke Israel–there is no Israel,” “Occupation is a Crime,” “Go to Hell, Israel,” “Free Palestine.” One fully bearded African-American man in Islamic clothing proselytized. He said that Islam is wonderful, that it’s in our very natures, that we had best accept this.

In the video, shot by Trento, one Hijabbed Muslimah shouts, "Back to the ovens!"

NEWSFLASH: First report in from San Francisco. My informant, Melody Bier, writes:

“There were about 500 or so of the Hamaslovers and about 75-100 of us.The papers exaggerated so much it was ridiculous. As usual the SFPD allowed them to cross the barricades and break into our ranks. They pushed and stated things like “a bullet will get you right between the eyes” with the gestures to the forehead (said to me personally). Others shouted “there will be no peace as long as Jews are alive.”

pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2008/12/31/gaza-comes-to-america-hate-demonstrations-against-israel-on-the-east-and-west-coasts/

These representatives of the 'vast majority of moderate Muslims' are organized. It's time the rest of us confronted them and shouted them down. One commenter suggested that enrolling the Sikhs in full regalia would really freak the Muslims out.

Perhaps hundreds of cameras taking pictures, with the pictures posted to law enforcement and immigration websites might as well.

shamrock, I think it would be a tactical error to equate Ignatieff with Dion, ie, that they are both academics. There's no comparison.

Dion is a creature of the single university, tenured to its secure familiarities, confined to his regular classes and the seminar room, rarely venturing outside this safe island of people and thoughts.

Ignatieff is a creature of the international invited conference, guest lecturer and special lectures set, travelling from country to country, expecting accolades and applause and deference. He's not a creature of the 'same classes year after year' but someone 'special'.

His role, therefore, is as a Sovereign. He and the Liberal Party are setting him up as the Supreme Ruler, while Harper and the government, are only his staff. Read/listen to what Ignatieff is saying - he's speaking as if he were the one with the Agenda, with the Intentions, and that the actual government, are merely hiw lowly staff who are expected to obey the Sovereign's Agenda.

Ignatieff's words are that he is 'instructing Harper to do such and such'; that he is telling Harper that he 'won't tolerate such and such'; that Harper has been 'told in no uncertain terms'..etc.

This is setting up an image of Ignatieff as the Sovereign and Harper has his 'lieutenant'. Watch for this imagery to continue. A downside of this, of course, is that Ignatieff will appear as a pompous puffed up blowhard.

But, the key fight in Canada is the slow, slow superstructural reorganization of the infrastructure of Canada - which has changed from its old structure of Ontario-Quebec, to one which is now regional. The North, the West, Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland.

You can't, any longer govern from an Ontario-Quebec centrist model, viewing the other regions as peripheral hangers-on. But, this centrism, this focus around Ontario-Quebec, that's still the model of the Liberals. What the Liberals are now trying to do, is push the Conservatives into a 'you only represent the West' public perception. This is untrue, of course, but they'll try that. The dipside of this is that the Liberals now represent only three cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. Hmm.

A very good video. Not for Athiests though. This Rabbi is a good speaker.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qgbWMEedJM&feature=related

I need a little help here folks. Saw a quote attributed to Iggy and I really, REALLY need the the video if one exists. Quote went something to the effect "Harper is a man that looks to the next day the Liberal party has to look over the hill for tomorrow." If Iggy actually said this then its money in the bank for the CPC.

Spenser at jihad watch warns about anti-Israel demonstrations pending. One in Canada:

CANADA
Montreal, QC
Sunday, January 4
12:30pm - 3:30pm
Location: carré Cabot: metro Atwater
Street: corner St. Catherine and Atwater

Good opportunity for a counter protest.