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Kate...the political scene has settled down to all things boring and predictable this week.

How about some pix of your prize winning Schnausers?

PETA hijacks both VANOC and IOC Olympic symbols for their anti seal hunt campaign. Can anyone say copyright infringement?

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/seal_hunt_09

Announcement ...

Some conservatives who would like to see a political alternative including a stronger commitment to free speech, climate realism, and various other issues, will be meeting for a discussion on line at Free Dominion on Sunday, March 8th, at 8 pm EDT.

If you're not currently a member of Free Dominion, but you're interested, then you might be wise to register as a member before Sunday. The meeting will be in a forum to be entitled Free Dominion Alliance -- open meeting.

The name is a placeholder and will probably be changed by the new association once it elects a board. The discussion will be about options, for example, a lobby group, a political party, an association that can run candidates and endorse existing candidates, etc.

There's no point in pretending that the CPC will "snap out of it" at some mythical future point. Their attitude to climate change probably tells us everything we need to know about their hidden attitudes to the Section 13 and free speech issues as well. Somebody's been drinking the Strong kool-aid, methinks.

No point in whimpering about it, a new approach is obviously needed. The CPC have chosen their path, and that's fine, but it may not be for everyone. If you don't like the way they are heading, consider joining the discussion.

March 8th, 8 pm EDT.

anada: a beacon to the world
Steynposts
Thursday, 05 March 2009

...of what not to do.

Writing in The Australian on what Pakistan should do in the wake of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, in the middle of a serious analysis of a critical geopolitical issue Ramesh Thakur nevertheless finds time to take a passing swipe at Commissar Hall and the Lynch Mob:

Building on anti-terrorism co-operation, South Asians also could look to foster common institutions such as regional human rights commissions (they should avoid Canadian-type Frankensteins that mock the rights they should protect), press councils, a common peacekeeping doctrine for UN deployment, joint tourism promotion, combined protection from abuse of nationals working as labourers and domestic help in the Middle East. More At:

http://www.steynonline.com/content/blogsection/14/128/

The Globe takes on the nefarious rightwingers and the HRC's who stand up for our rights in Canada!

No comments allowed of course.

"In a 2004 affidavit that precipitated the CRHC's original action against Mr. Tremaine, Mr. Warman accused him of posting virulently racist hate material on Internet websites that could expose blacks, Asians, Aboriginals, other non-whites and persons of the Jewish faith to hatred or contempt."

No mention that Warman did the same thing.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090305.wcontemptregina0305/BNStory/National/home

Tory defeated in by-election
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090305.welect6/BNStory/politics/home

Thank God. We need a credible conservative in Ontario for premier instead of this Red "John" Tory garbage.

Ace...do you think Clement or Flaherty will go provincial?

Personally I say Bring Back Harris!!
Time for another Common Sense Revolution.

What ethics watchdog oversees PETA, and other frings groups?

They are fundraising against seal PUP hunting. That hunt was long since stopped.

While I'm at it I was going to buy my wife a small Canadian diamond. Think I'll change that to a sealskin jacket instead....

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/seal_hunt_09

I am ashamed and embarassed to be Canadian tonight. The American radio shows have picked up on the Vince Li scandal.

I watched him being transported to court, on TV. He had quite a smirk on his face. He's pulled the wool over the eyes of our entire legal system. He'll likely get a multi-million dollar settlement because he was misdiagnosed last year.

I realized tonight that I have an old wornout Remington 22 that I bought in 1972, in my storage unit. I forgot to register it, and now I'm more of a criminal than Vince Li.

He'll be out in 5 years. Maybe he and Miranda Richardson will become friends.

Ashamed & embarassed? Wait a minute, let me get this
correct: are you sure you aren't shocked and appalled?

"Vince Li"

The question is how did her get into Canada?????

what the English used as protection before John Wayne arrived on scene.

http://bloodandsawdust.com/sca/targets.html

when an advanced ironage culture meets a stone age culture .

For those who were wondering what Obama's gift to the Queen would be, the answer should be coming soon:

"Private meet for Queen and Obama"

Interestingly, it's not an official "State" visit.

Now that oil has collapsed, Chavez is seeing gold in them thar Venezuelan hills:

"Chávez hopes for Midas touch"

A Canadian company called Crystallex has a Venezuelan gold property, hung up by Venezuelan environmental restrictions. Given "Hurricane Hugo"'s usual MO, I wouldn't hold out much hope. Not even for the Russkies, come to think of it...

Well PM Gordon Brown got that fancy DVD box set. I figure Her Majesty will rate at least a signed copy of both of this 48 year old's auto-biographys.

The FDIC is getting in on the borrowings-for-bailouts action: "Bill Seeks to Let FDIC Borrow up to $500 Billion."

"Liberal MP Gurbax Malhi speaks at a rally in support of terrorists"

Gurbax Malhi, the Liberal MP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton, attended a rally today in support of the Tamil Tigers terrorist group. The violent insurrection led by the Tamil Tigers has claimed more the 60,000 lives in Sri Lanka; they were declared a criminal organization in Canada by the Conservative government shortly after their election in 2006.

Maybe Malhi was sick that day in Parliament and missed the news.

Here's a brief video of this dangerous buffoon. Note the forest of flags adorned with tigers and bullets; listen to the screeching man who grabs the microphone right after Malhi, who ends his rant with the phrase "freedom fighters -- Tamil Tigers!"

And what does Malhi -- the pride of Michael Ignatieff's caucus -- have to say?

"You're here today for a great cause... I am helping you guys, I'm behind you because you're fighting for the right cause."

A great cause, eh?

Malhi was obviously "re-educated" by someone in his party later in the day, because the central party issued this hilarious statement about his terrorist-loving ways. Let me fisk it, with my own thoughts interspersed:

Today I attended a rally on Parliament Hill in support of a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Sri Lanka.

A peaceful resolution? Is that what the flags with all the bullets were about?"
http://ezralevant.com/

"Italy Pulls Out Of UN Racism Summit [Durban II; joins US, Israel, Canada]"

Antisemitic phrases in draft document 'totally unacceptable'

(ANSA) - Brussels, March 5 - Italy has decided to withdraw from an upcoming United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday.

Frattini said ''aggressive phrases of an antisemitic nature'' in a draft declaration were behind the decision to withdraw from the conference, known as the Durban Review Conference, which is a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

The minister said the phrases in the draft declaration were ''totally unacceptable'' and stressed that they would have to be removed before Italy considered participating in the summit.

Israel, Canada and the United States have also pulled out of the conference, which is due to take place in Geneva on April 20-24."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200238/posts

Well if Queen Betty were of a certain mindset after the treatment her PM received from Owe about the only thing she should give him is the finger.

The big Owe, setting diplomatic president for the new millennium.

Thank you so much Owe I'm not sure that the USA will be able to afford much more than plastic helicopters for gifts after a few more months of your reign of errors. On the bright side, once the Owe induced inflation kicks in those plastic helicopters will be worth million$.

Now where did I hide my wheelbarrow, the good wife wants me to get a loaf of bread.

Insiders at the Caisse de Dépôt et du Placement the Quebec Pension Fund are now saying that the Caisse may have up to $50 billion in losses to date. Meanwhile the Toronto-based MSM is ignoring the whole thing because it is the Quebec Pension Fund and not Canadian.

Mario Dumont steps down today - the only Quebec leader who warned about this speculative use of our pension funds and who was rewarded with less seats in the Quebec election since the media and Charest painted him as scaring seniors and too negative.

Leftists infected with BDS desert O.
BDS = ODS.

"Obama's Wars".
...-

"Group says Obama not seeking peace

The newly organized Students of American Liberty at East Tennessee State University held a pro-peace and anti-war lecture Wednesday night titled “Obama’s Wars.”

“I feel it’s a shame that since President Obama has been elected, all talk and speaking out against the war has stopped,” SAL President Matthew Adam Jeffers said. “It’s a shame because he is actually perpetuating the war by bombing Pakistan and sending 17,000 of our troops into Afghanistan."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200301/posts

O'Narcissist*.

O: "Though he repeatedly emphasized the need to compromise, Obama said he would not stand for a stalemate, which he said threatens the "very foundation of our economy."

"Those who seek to block any reform at all . . . will not prevail this time around," he said."
"Obama steadfast on healthcare"
urlm.in/buti
...-

*"But they are incapable of team work because they cannot tolerate setbacks. They are easily frustrated and demoralized and are unable to cope with disagreement and criticism."
"Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?"
urlm.in/butj

Vancouver City Council has gone completely nuts with this fowl decision:

Back-yard chickens allowed in Vancouver.

Have they forgotten about avian flu? Will Customs and Health officials be installed at airports to ask: “Have you recently visited a back-yard in Vancouver?”

(Via SWJ; PDF warning) Thomas A. Drohan, Clausewitz for Complex Warfare

Current interpretations of warfare offer plenty of broad frameworks, but they are not holistic enough. Arguments range from the potential of operational domains, such as space and cyberspace, to emerging forms of “Fourth-Generation Warfare.” New domain arguments tend to be clearer about new technological capabilities then in connecting them to broader desired effects and political goals. Warfare-type arguments generally present blends of old and new capabilities as if tactics and strategies change in historical shifts to the next gear, or phase. Both approaches are limited to the extent they deal with how, but not why, war is waged. Other perspectives on warfare distinguish among observed characteristics of war, such as unconventional, asymmetrical, irregular, and various hybrids thereof. These viewpoints would be sufficiently holistic if they described a full dimension or range of variation. Whether these interpretations of warfare involve domains or characteristics, they can help us fathom constants from variables -- if we seek both aspects. Without such inquiry, our understanding of war is incomplete, which can lead to overdependence on familiar factors, from favored weapons and intelligence collection platforms to predicted patterns of behavior. For a more complete approach, we need to explore classic, arguably unchanging, elements of warfare...

"Mario Dumont steps down today - the only Quebec leader who warned about this speculative use of our pension funds and who was rewarded with less seats in the Quebec election since the media and Charest painted him as scaring seniors and too negative."

Dumont's mistake was that while he forwarned he was'nt "wise" enough to blame it on Ottawa and/or Stephen Harper or Bush (If it was today, it would not be Obamas fault of course).

The Caisse is a Quebec institution created and ruled by Quebecers. It is superior to any other financial institution in the universe dont ya know. If it has problems, it's got to be the fault of a non Queerbecer.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090305/canada/canada_us_economy_canada_provinces

TORONTO (Reuters) - Only four of Canada's 10 provinces will record economic growth this year, while a steep slowdown in the United States will hamper overall expansion, the Conference Board of Canada said in its winter economic forecast on Thursday.

Jane Macartney, Chinese fight internet censors with "Grass Mud Horse" cuddly toy

From unprintable curse word to cuddly children’s toy: that has been the voyage charted by an imaginary beast invented by Chinese internet users to poke fun at a new nationwide crackdown against on[snip] content deemed vulgar.

The saga of the “Grass Mud Horse” is in fact one of the many puns in which the Chinese language is so rich. It began at the start of the year when China’s cyberpolice launched a campaign to cleanse por[snip]raphic and other content regarded as unseemly from sites viewed by the world’s largest on[snip] population...

*
"When Warhol commented that 'everyone would be famous
for 15 minutes', that didn't mean it was a GOOD thing."

*

David Brooks, the NYTimes opinionist, a long time ardent supporter of Obama, wrote a piece the other day strongly critical of Obama's economic policies. He wrote that the Obama 'now' was quite different from the 'moderate' that he thought he was electing.

Result?

He got a phone call from not one but four white House 'goodfellas' who, kindly, 'set him straight'. David Brooks has now written a column, or rather, one should say, had it written with the goodfellas standing over him, which suggests that, heck, he, David Brooks..what does he know? And what's more important is to believe What He Is Told By the White House Goodfellas.

Here's Hot Air's take on our new Goodfella Regime.

White House Rules What You Think and Say

I predict we'll see more and more of this. If the opinionist is not amenable to Four Men From The White House calling up and chatting, then, that individual will be blackballed, derided, accused of everything from not putting out his recyclables to insidious thoughts. No criticism is allowed.

Go Saskatchewan!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090306/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_saskatchewan_1

Mao Stlong say, Canada big lat.
...-

"UN 'peer review' becomes Beijing booster

But Canada, Australia aim criticism toward Chinese human rights record

A number of countries attending a United Nations review of China's human rights record yesterday lauded Beijing for maintaining the death penalty, encouraged it to tighten Internet controls, and described it as "ethical and moral."

Canada was among Western countries that took an opposite view, and China was so perplexed by what Australia said about Tibet its ambassador complained about Canberra's "politicized statement.""
urlm.in/bu

Charles MacDonald at March 6, 2009 10:51 AM,

Thanks for the great link; typical of the Chinese, exquisitely punny.

weSwinger has Fear in his voice. Why?
But, O didn't rise by himself. He rose on a wave of adulation and hope.
O was chosen.

Commenter weSwinger:

"Obtuse (see previous thread) and tone deaf.

Symptoms of advanced narcissism in our feckless leader.

At least Clinton, that narcissist of the first degree, was not only charming, but would deal with whatever problem the polls told him concerned the electorate at that time."
...-

"As time goes by

In the middle of last year, presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in Germany which caused a controversy among its pundits. The International Herald Tribune reported that his choice of site was less than inspired. Indeed, Obama had chosen to speak at the base of a monument associated with the Nazis.

BERLIN: The decision by Senator Barack Obama to speak at a landmark monument in Berlin this Thursday has opened up yet another controversy, with conservative and opposition politicians saying the site recalls Germany’s Nazi past and Prussia’s militaristic tradition."
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/03/06/as-time-goes-by/#comments
...-

Cassius:
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

My pleasure, glasnost. It reminded me of one of my favourite science fiction novels: Damon Knight, The Rithian Terror (1965). Aliens plant weapons sufficiently powerful to destroy Earth, then tell Imperial security where to find them. But the clues are so full of puns as to make them unintelligible to the totalitarian, literal-minded Earthmen...

are you sure you aren't shocked and appalled?

Posted by: Vitruvius at March 6, 2009 2:06 AM

No, I'm ashamed and embarassed. I feel some resposibility for allowing my country to slip into such a sad state of affairs.

How could any of us be shocked? We've seen this coming.

Hope:

"*Does the experience of the Great War and the years that followed it give us reasonable hope that, if some new war started, that would end war any more than the last one did?"
...-

"S Korea diverts jets over threats

About 30 flights a day pass through the North's airspace to and from the South

Two airlines in South Korea are to re-route flights after North Korea said it could not guarantee their safety."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7927520.stm
...-

Flashback:
"*How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing."
*http://www.historyguide.org/europe/munich.html

Obama is going to have to start giving out T-shirts with 'I coulda been there' on them for failed and withdrawn candidates. Man it was never this tough on "The White House" but they had better writers.

Jeepers!
As if Vancouver backyards didn't smell bad enough?
I guess it's a tough call. I mean which would you rather smell..addicts vomit or chickensh$t.

Tough choice isn't it?

Re: Brooks and the Goodfellas

"I don't approve of your methods.
Yeah, well you're not from Chicago"

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/06/revolt-over-white-house-puts-brooks-back-on-the-leash/

This is enough to put a new spin on the fear of litigation in the ER's.
I say new spin because I sense the high cost of health care right now is pushed by the fear of litigation by ER docs..."What if I miss something?"
Now the poor docs will have to decide: "Will he sue if I save him?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4944419/Man-who-tried-to-kill-himself-sues-hospital-that-saved-him-for-compensation.html

Brain food caused humans to evolve.

Crawford teaches at the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the London Metropolitan University in London, England.

He said the brain of early humans developed, and allowed them to become a dominant species, after they started living near water and eating fish and other seafood.

Crawford referred to a study in the United Kingdom which followed 14,000 pregnant women and tested their children when they were eight years old.

"The more seafood that the mother ate during pregnancy, the better the intelligence of the child at eight years of age," he said.

"And, conversely, the less seafood the mother ate, the worse behavioural abnormalities they found in the children at eight years of age."

Crawford is advocating governments increase funding for farmed seafood and fish, and says Canada - with the world's longest coastline - could be a major player.

Driver "asleep at the wheel".

Really? In Mugabe's socialist Zimbabwe?

"The AFP news agency quoted an MDC minister as saying the driver of the lorry had been asleep at the wheel."
...-

"Tsvangirai's wife dead in crash (Prime Minister injured but not critical condition)

The wife of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in which he was also hurt, party officials say.

Susan Tsvangirai was travelling with her husband south of the capital, Harare, when the crash happened.

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, formed a unity government with President Robert Mugabe last month.

The two had been long-time rivals before agreeing a power-sharing deal."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200828/posts

I doubt if that Zimbabwe driver was asleep at the wheel; he was more likely paid by Mugabe's henchmen.

For your weekend reading pleasure:

(PDF warning) Thomas A. Drohan, Clausewitz for Complex Warfare

Current interpretations of warfare offer plenty of broad frameworks, but they are not holistic enough. Arguments range from the potential of operational domains, such as space and cyberspace, to emerging forms of “Fourth-Generation Warfare.” New domain arguments tend to be clearer about new technological capabilities then in connecting them to broader desired effects and political goals. Warfare-type arguments generally present blends of old and new capabilities as if tactics and strategies change in historical shifts to the next gear, or phase. Both approaches are limited to the extent they deal with how, but not why, war is waged. Other perspectives on warfare distinguish among observed characteristics of war, such as unconventional, asymmetrical, irregular, and various hybrids thereof. These viewpoints would be sufficiently holistic if they described a full dimension or range of variation. Whether these interpretations of warfare involve domains or characteristics, they can help us fathom constants from variables -- if we seek both aspects. Without such inquiry, our understanding of war is incomplete, which can lead to overdependence on familiar factors, from favored weapons and intelligence collection platforms to predicted patterns of behavior. For a more complete approach, we need to explore classic, arguably unchanging, elements of warfare...

(There is a very interesting article along similar lines in the Australian Army Journal, Summer 2008, pages 87-126: Justin Kelly, Future War -- Future Warfare. Unfortunately, the AAJ issue is just too large to link).

Mao Stlong not avairabre. Solly.
...-

"Grim New Report

China's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Threaten to Double

Can a climate catastrophe still be averted?

Scientists voice pessimism in a new study, which concludes that no matter what the Western industrialized nations do, China's greenhouse emissions will be hard to stop.

It sounds like wishful thinking: The United States, under new President Barack Obama, forges an alliance with China to combat emissions. The world's two largest sources of carbon dioxide finally face the problem. The treaty crowns the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, when a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol -- which, as everyone knows, the United States never ratified -- will be adopted. Third World countries and emerging economies never had to do it, but in Copenhagen rising economic powers like China make a binding commitment to curb their emissions.

It probably is wishful thinking. It has almost nothing to do with reality."
urlm.in/buut (spiegel)

This is from an article, about Obama's budget, reprinted at NRO, by Michael Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

“. . . New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.

“From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan, to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history . . .

“On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible, step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run economic stagnation is not.”

It's pretty obvious that the judgment and sentencing of Vince Li was all about Vince Li, pseudo-victim, and very little about Tim McLean, real victim.

Vince Li: pseudeo-Victim: Chinese immigrant, schizophrenic, visible minority.

Tim McLean: real Victim: Murdered in cold blood, beheaded, body desecrated in full view of officers of the law

The verdict in this case has proven, once and for all, Canada's status as the Deranged Dominion (thanks, Mark Steyn). Vince Li murdered another human being, in the most horrendous scenario possible, which is a criminal act. If he had been sentenced as "criminally insane," OK. But to be sentenced as not guilty at all, is a travesty.

Why was this trial, verdict, and sentencing all about Vince Li and not about the murder of Tim McLean? Was it to take the heat off the "officers of the law" who stood by and watched Tim McLean's head being hacked off and his heart eaten by Li?

Something's really rotten in Canukistan.

And another thing:

Vince Li had better never be released. He was off his meds when he committed this horrendous crime and who's to say he won't go off them again? No assurance by any psychiatrist or parole board could convince me that he would never do something like this again. After all, before he murdered Tim McLean, he'd been institutionalized and released.

'Any chance we could incarcerate some of the psychiatrists who continue to send whackos back onto our streets to either kill or maim? Some of their salaries should be garnisheed to pay the families of victims of the crimes perpetrated by the guys they let out of prison or psychiatric institutions.

THAT might lessen the incidence of this kind of thing happening.

Amen, batb.

I was recently in a public school, specially set up for victims. The adults allowed the most appalling license and the kids were arrogant, ill mannered--RUDE, DISRESPECTFUL--preening (any time they felt like it), self-referential, spoiled brats.

Canada's not producing responsible citizens--those we have are actually punished--but entitled, me-first leeches. We're in big trouble--and it's not just the economy.

Peter Schiff on BNN speaking on the US economy. He predicted the market long before it tanked.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ff1_1236285295