Reader Tips

John Hancock Tower in Boston sold at auction in less than 10 minutes for $660.6 million - with only one bidder. Building was purchased for $1.3 billion in 2006. Owners defaulted on some loans used to buy the building.

Commercial real estate bubble is now bursting.

And look at the numbers - Satan himself was the bidder.

Call for Satan, red courtesy telephone please.

Shaken, interesting factoid for 2 reasons. #1, the only John Hancock Tower I knew of was in Chicago. One learns new stuff all the time on here.

#2, has it made any sense to anyone that people were buying property for 'X' and then a year later it was going for 2X, 3X, etc.? I appreciate the fact that greed is now turning into reality (& humility!)

At the risk of being insensitive, which I truly do not mean to be, can I ask you all a question about this?

Is there something more "hateful" about this than happened to my white male heterosexual friend who was recently beaten up while traveling in New Zealand?

Just the optics Robert.

CTV-Toronto tracks Goreacle.
...-

"Snowstorm expected to hit GTA by morning rush"

"Flurries are also expected Tuesday and Wednesday as temperatures will continue to hover around the freezing mark."
urlm.in/cayc

Here in Saskatchewan Lorne Calvert spent 250,000 dollars of taxpayers money to bring Al Gore to Regina to Speak. This was in the last year of the former Premier's term. Thank God GLOBAL WARMING IS EASING UP. 250,000 dollars would have bought a lot of winter coats for inner city children. The Sask. NDP are losers.

Al Gore is like Santa Claus . . . he can be everywhere !

"All-time Snow Records Tumbling Again for the Second Straight Year"

http://tinyurl.com/cfazus

Vit,

The red courtesy phone is 'residential' real estate transactions. The white phone is for commercial transactions.

Did you forget your medication again?

lol

"*dumb as a bag of hammers"

"No snickering from HuffPo, no acidic Salon snorting, no *"dumb as a bag of hammers" diaries from Wonkette.
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"American President thinks ‘Austrian’ is a language

President Barack Obama made a world-class gaffe in front of the entire planet's press during his news conference in Strasbourg, France. The transcript was released by the White House on April 4:"

"I don't know what the term is in Austrian".

"Obama's ignorance of Austria and what language is spoken there, however, is a unicorn of a different hue. It's on the official White House transcript. It's on video (at the 28:30 mark).

Many people know that German is spoken in Austria, and they didn't have to look it up. So where are the Obama-worshippers on this? They are curiously silent. No snickering from HuffPo, no acidic Salon snorting, no *"dumb as a bag of hammers" diaries from Wonkette. The double standard runs deep and wide, and there's no ceiling, glass or otherwise, limiting the heights to which the Left's hypocrisy can soar."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2223216/posts

Baghdad Bob'O'Narcissist.

O'Dumber than two (2) bags of hammers?

Is O delusional? a liar?

There is no doubt that O is a Narcissist: "me" and "I", said:

>>>> *""Let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not at war with Islam.""

Meanwhile, the war against the murderous Muslim Taliban goes forward:

**"Troop surge makes Afghan war 'winnable,' U.S. general says
Optimism based on 'realistic appraisal on the ground'"

*http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2223212/posts
**urlm.in/cayj

One for the global warming file:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4044370

Robert W - your post at 1:06am - I think it depends on the circumstances. If the gay guy was sucker punched because he's gay and did not provoke the attack and your buddy was in a parking lot fight because he lipped-off some local in a bar then there is a big difference.

One would be a hate crime - the other just a dust-up with a hangover.

What were the circumstances surrounding the beating your buddy got? We gotta have more details before giving an opinion on your question.

The worst Racist,Sexist,Hate Crimes ever committed in Canadian history ends in multiple convictions for First Degree Murder and 10 sex assault criminal convictions!

Note that ALL victims targeted were WHITE WOMEN.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/614215

http://www.thestar.com/article/613975

"Italy muzzled scientist who foresaw quake

ROME, April 6 (Reuters) - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor's anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6566682.htm

Must be some new definition of the word 'thought' at CTV.

"Brian Knight was charged with seven offences, including assault and criminal negligence, after police say he took the law into his own hands when he thought someone was stealing his All-Terrain Vehicle."

snip

"According to a police report, Knight saw three people trying to take his ATV in the early hours of March 26, chased them in his car and ran the ATV off the road, crashing his car in process."

Yup, someone hops on your ATV in the middle of the night and takes off with it, you chase him and run into him on the ATV because you THINK he stole it?

I THINK the CTV reporters are a bunch of morons.

Goreacle's Challenge: A "Duel"?

Goreacle's "COLD FLOW" vs Global Warming, aka "Mild & Moist".

See Goreacle's "COLD FLOW" clobber M&M.
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>>> "Duel(sic) Threat Storm"

"Updated: Monday, April 06, 2009 11:17 AM"
http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=rss&article=0

D-Bob,

My friend was just walking down a street in Auckland and 3 guys came up to him, robbed him, and beat him up.

Was his beating any less significant because he's not gay?

Robert

"US 'may remove bank executives'

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Mr Geithner says that banks may be required to change management

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he is prepared to oust executives and directors at banks that require "exceptional" government assistance."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7984943.stm
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"This is the GPU."

"On the sofa which was my bed I had been trying to sleep.
Suddenly I heard a noise in the house, and loud footsteps.
Something must have happened at the wharf, I thought,
and the sailors have come to get the assistant manager of
the trawler fleet. The poor man never had any peace, day
or night. I listened. Yes, the knocking was at his door.

It ceased. Two hours passed. Then came a loud knock-
ing at my own door. I hated to get up it must be a mis-
take, I thought. Perhaps some drunken sailor has come to
the wrong door. The knocking continued. I got up from
my sofa, and without putting anything on over my night-
clothes went to the door.

" Who's there? " I asked.

" Open! " a voice commanded.

" Who are you, and what do you want? "

" Open! "

" What is this nonsense? Trying to get into a strange
apartment at two o'clock in the morning! Who are you
and what do you want? "

" Open at once! This is the GPU.""

"I SPEAK FOR THE SILENT
Prisoners of the Soviets
VLADIMIR V. TCHERNAVIN
urlm.in/cawe

Here is an excellent article by Victor Davis Hanson on Oobama in Europe.

President 50 50

Some long excerpts - really, it's an excellent article..

"The most successful practitioner of community organizing looks around for what he thinks is a problem, chastises both sides and allots absolutely equal blame, gives exalted moral lectures about compromise and understanding, and then waltzes away well paid, praised for his moderation, but having accomplished nothing."

"So I wasn’t too surprised to learn that President Obama decided to tackle European-American relations—something that has a pedigree going back to our Revolution, and has been analyzed by the likes of Tocqueville and Henry James to contemporary essayists such as Bruce Bawer, Joseph Joffe, Robert Kagan, and Bruce Thornton. But then who needs to read them, when you have the power of ‘hope and change’?

"Had Mr. Obama done his homework, he would have learned that our transatlantic “differences” transcend communication problems, and, yes, even Barack Obama’s charisma.

"To visit Italy or Greece is to be impressed by the sheer human ingenuity of small entrepreneurs who deal mostly in cash, avoid taxes, arrange barter, skirt regulations (half their restaurants would be shut down for safety violations in the states), hire either family or workers off the books without proper papers, and generally try to have some sort of government job that requires no work but income in down times.

"No matter. Obama walks in. He sees a “new” problem (read Bush’s). And as if he’s trying to resolve a renter group’s anger over bad conditions in a city-owned apartment building, he immediately decides his “cool” can relieve the “tension”. So Europe gets 50% of the blame, America 50%—but, wait, in reality more since an American while abroad “courageously” blames first his fellow Americans on the charge of being cowards “arrogant”. Then, presto, problem addressed and solved, Obama goes into campaign mode to wow the crowds with his untraditional heritage.

"If you dare suggest that when he serially announces “I’m more interested in looking forward than backward” it simply means he has just trashed his predecessor; if you let out a peep that the Euros are smiling over no more combat troops sent to Afghanistan; that the Russians are delighted that they got everything they dreamed of; that Sarkozy is preening about his transnational financial czar; that Merkel wasn’t joking when she boasted that she won’t stimulate a penny; that the 50/50 “speech” to the Euros was more like the spring 2008 Rev. Wright effort (Wright had reasons to be racist himself given people like Obama’s racist grandmother, but failed to see we’ve gotten better), then you are “partisan”, “angry” “need to get over it,” and more or less acting like the petulant Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi did the last few years.

And please, no more of those desperate gratuitous cries in the wilderness, “NO! We are not arrogant!” followed by frantic, Hannity-like recitation that we defeated German militarism, Hitler’s Nazism, Italian fascism, Japanese imperialism, Soviet totalitarianism, rebuilt Europe, sent massive aid to the Middle East, allowed gargantuan trade deficits to stimulate the world export economy, offered the most liberal immigration policies in the world (cf. Obama’s auntie), allow billions in remittances to be sent freely abroad, removed Milosevic, the Taliban, and Saddam, helped Muslims in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo, Somalia, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan, and on and on.

"None of that. Instead, listen up and learn—and feel better that your community-organizing President has just organized the world along the transnational principles that we alone will fight the Taliban, go into massive debt to ’stimulate’ exportation into the US market, follow the UN lead on problems from Iran to North Korea, apologize for the neanderthal ‘war on terror’, push the “reset” button on our past terrible policies, borrow and spend well over a half-trillion for ‘cap and trade’ to combat ‘global climate change’—and are to be loved as never before."

I think he's said it all.

The Reagan Revolution, now in the hands of...

"The Obaman Counter-Revolution"

Quote of the day:

"Excessive inflation is a typical outcome in oligarchic situations when a weak (or pliant) government is unable to force the most powerful to take their losses - high inflation is, in many ways, an inefficient and regressive tax but it’s also often a transfer from poor to rich."

http://baselinescenario.com/2009/04/06/inflation-prospects-in-an-emerging-market-like-the-us/

I've heard from several people that Obama got a standing ovation from the international media at the G20. Might anyone be able to provide a link to this [pathetic] revelation?

Written by a HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. Way to go Peter!

Below is the letter I have sent to Greg Gutfeld of FOX network's "Redeye" regarding his comments on Canada's military and which I will be sending to my local newspaper. If you are as incensed as I am, please forward it to others on your e-mail list; if not, or if you are satisified with his apology, feel free to delete it.

Peter

Dear Mr. Gutfeld;

As a Canadian, I find your lame duck apology for your despicable comments on Canada's military to be totally inadequate. Perhaps you and your ignorant, redneck audience would find the following to be just as humourous should you care to share it with them, which I don't imagine you will.

Your comments and those of your "commentators" were not only an insult to the men and women of the Canadian armed forces but also demonstrate once again the appalling arrogance and ignorance of Americans such as yourself. Let's take a quick look at American military prowess as seen from a non-American standpoint.

Invade Canada because they have no army? You tried that back in 1812 and got your American butts kicked. The only significant battle that US forces won in that war was the Battle of New Orleans which was actually fought several weeks after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe. And even in this battle, your Old Hickory (was that a reference to his head) depended on the support of a French pirate and his men who betrayed the British. How's that for an amusing play on Andy's nickname?

Actually, when it comes to winning wars on your own, the only one you can lay claim to is your Civil War, which Americans of one side or the other pretty well had to win, didn't they? In the Revolutionary War you had the French to help you. In the Spanish American War, you had the local indigenous populations to help you. Are you finding this amusing?

You largely took a pass on World War One until it was three quarters over and then sent only a token force most of whom saw no action before the spring of 1918. Canada, by contrast put 10% of its entire population in uniform and these men were invariably given the most difficult objectives which they always achieved, unfortunately with the loss of a full 10% of its force - that's killed, not just wounded. And who were your great heroes? Eddie Rickenbacher who managed to shoot down a total of 26 enemy aircraft in about the same amount of time that the Canadian ace, Billy Bishop, shot down 72. Where did your guys learn to fly? Then there was that hillbilly hick from Bear Creek Hollow, Tennessee named Alvin York. What the hell kind of name is that for a soldier? Alvin's a bloody chipmunk's name! Am I being funny yet?

Of course in World War Two you Americans jumped in when it had only been going on for two years and a quarter years, but you made up for it by taking all the credit. Again, it was mainly the Canadian forces who took the brunt and who were given the toughest assignments in areas like the Italian campaign and at Normandy. Why do we never hear anything from Hollywood about what the Canadians achieved at Juno Beach, generally regarded by most historians, other than Americans, as a tougher objective than Utah or even Omaha Beaches? Why don't you American know that the Canadian Division was held back from entering Rome on June 6, 1944 so that Georgie Patton's ego could be satisfied, his ego and propensity for slapping Privates being his two most outstanding leadership qualities. Are you bozos laughing now? "But we Americans won the War in the Pacific," I hear you saying. Yes, after the Australians and Chindits showed you how to defeat the Japanese at jungle warfare.

Unfortunately, those lessons in jungle warfare seemed to have been forgotten by the time you got to Vietnam where about the only things American troops did were drugs and young Vietnamese women. Isn't this just hilarious?

And now you're going to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan where, given your extremely limited success in Iraq (another war you don't seem to be capable of winning), it's just possible that the Canadian and other lesser UN forces there may feel they would be better off without. You Americans are just a laugh a minute! No wonder the rest of the world loves you so much!

As I suggested at the outset, I doubt if this will be shared with your audience (which, by the way, doesn't and never will include me), but if you do, I'm sure you will all take it in the humorous vein in which it is intended. Excuse me now while I extract my tongue from my cheek.

Peter Salter

A justifiably proud Canadian

Your buddy was the victim of a robbery with violence. It is not any less significant than the gay guy getting beaten but there is a distinction to be made.

Your buddy was beaten up for what he HAD. The gay guy was beaten up for what he IS. In the one instance it was a crime, but nothing personal, mate. Once your buddy got cleaned out of his money there was no other reason the perps would have to beat on him some more.

The gay guy got beat up for being gay. Tomorrow he will still be gay. He could get beat on every day of his life because of his sexual orientation.

Your buddy got beat up because of the robbery. That is a crime.

The gay guy got beat up because he is gay - that is a hate crime.

Both are reprehensible in the extreme.

rube,

A day (ok two weeks) late and a dollar short.

rube - I think that Peter Salter is, himself, betraying his high school ignorance and arrogance - and shows how ignorant our own Canadians are about US and world affairs. Also, quite anti-American, true to our Canadian upbringing. Furthermore, his name-calling, his insults, are as childish as those of the newscaster he is chiding.

First, the 1812 war wasn't 'an invasion' by the US, which suggests irrational agenda but had some valid foundation in British provocation in its trade war with the US - which was trading with France. And Britain was at war with France -remember the Napoleonic era? And there was also the Indian quesion - as the US expanded westwards into native territory. And it was, militarily, essentially a draw, with both sides having gained and lost a bit. Stalemate. Not "American butts kicked".

As for WWI and II, this young boy ignores that Canada was a legal part of the British Commonwealth, and when the 'Mother Country' was attacked, so too were its colonies and commonwealth. Therefore, it wasn't any individual national decision to be, right from the start, part of these wars.

Furthermore, WWI was largely a European battlefield and one based on European colonial power. This war broke up those empires - again, something this young boy ignores. Again, he ignores that the US provided supplies right from the start until its entry in 1917, and that the US was not involved in both the creation of and the massive break-up of the European colonial empires. This boy should read up on the fact that the US voted in Wilson to keep them out of what they saw as an imperial war - and what happened to bring the US into the war.

With regard to WWII, again, this boy has his blinkers on. Again, Canada was part of the British Commonwealth and therefore, was in the war right from the start. The US, again, isolationist against what was viewed as originally yet another European conflict, set up massive supply shippings.

And this time, the US DID save the allies. Britain couldn't have lasted without the US. France, of course, fell immediately. And no, Canada didn't 'save the day'; Canada performed magnificently, but so did the British, the Australians, and the Americans. Oh - and if we are talking about images of 'who enters the fallen city', well, the Americans held back so that the Russians could enter Berlin.

And no, the American's didn't need to wait for the Australians and 'Chindits' to show them how to win the war in the Pacific. Yet again, ignorance and insulting terms.

His references to Vietnam are pure juvenile insults.

Equally, his ignorance about Iraq, his ignorance about how justified it was, how successful it was, how Iraq now has a constitution and rule of law and is moving itself out of tribalism - this ignorance is shocking.

His letter is an embarassment to Canada and to Canadian students, for it shows not only ignorance of the facts, but 'socialized bias'.

Danny is manic/depressive?
ABD.
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"Eastern Health 'should be shot' over cancer test handling: Williams
Premier Danny Williams lashed out Monday at the province's largest health authority, accusing Eastern Health of downplaying revelations that it had missed dozens of breast cancer patients in a massive retesting exercise" (nnw)

Melanie Phillips (melaniephillips.com) has a fine, recent article about Western appeasement in the face of secular humanism and Islam, "The church's lost leader" (March 30/09). Here's an excerpt. (BTW, Melanie Phillips is Jewish.)

“The resignation of Michael Nazir-Ali as Bishop of Rochester is a terrible blow, not just for the Church of England but for Britain.

“The bishop says he is resigning so that he can work for endangered or beleaguered Christian minorities both abroad and in the UK . . .

“Only five out of the church’s 44 bishops back the plan [to ring church bells on St. George’s Day] while the rest have scuttled for cover . . . the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds murmurs faintly: ‘I am not sure assertiveness is a Christian value.’

“As a result [of the church’s cowardice and of secular humanism], it [the Anglican Church] stopped doing God and spirituality and holding the line for Biblical values and mutated instead into a branch of nonjudgmental social work — a kind of Guardian newspaper at prayer. The resulting moral vacuum now threatens not just the church but the nation itself.

“Although most people may no longer be churchgoers, Christianity infuses all this country’s institutions, traditions and values.

“These have been systematically attacked by a secular culture of unlimited self-indulgence and self-destructive behaviour, resulting in the collapse of the married family, rising crime, drug and alcohol abuse and a grievous erosion of the sanctity of human life.

“With the church refusing to assert itself, this vacuum has allowed radical Islam to promote itself as an influential force in public life. Indeed it is rubbing its hands at the opportunity. And in the longer term that risks destroying our basic values of individual freedom and equality . . .”

IMO, this is a pretty good description of Canada, the "deranged dominion", in Mark Steyn's words. As William Gairdner would say, "Oh, oh Canada"!

Roomers say Teddy the Kennedy will buy 14 windmills for his cottage at Hyannis Port as his contribution to AGW.
...-

"Salazar: Eastern wind could replace coal for power (estimated number of windmills unknown)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday."

"Salazar could not estimate how many windmills might be needed to generate 1 million megawatts of power, saying it would depend on their size and how far from the coast they were located."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2223591/posts

Obama apologizes to Europeans for America's "arrogance" ... and did so in France no less.

Can someone please wake me up in 3.5 years when our planet has exited from the Twilight Zone!

Our Enemy, the State.
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"UK launches massive, one-year program to archive every email

In a move that even the most nonchalant of privacy advocates is crying foul over, the UK has put into effect a European Union directive which mandates the archival of information regarding virtually all internet traffic for the next 12 months. The program formally goes into effect today.

The data retention rules require the archival of all email traffic (the identities of the sender and receiver, but not the contents of the messages), records of VOIP telephone calls (traditional phone calls are already monitored), and information about every website visited by any computer user in the country. The rules are being pushed down "across the board to even the smallest company," as every ISP large or small will be required to collect and store the data. That data will then be accessible -- to fight "crime and terrorism," of course -- by "hundreds of public bodies" to investigate whatever crimes they see fit.

Technically the new directive applies to all countries of the EU, but individual nations appear to be complying with the rules to various degrees. Privacy-obsessed Sweden is reportedly ignoring the rule completely, for example.

The privacy implications of the rule are enormous, as everything UK citizens do online will now be under the watchful eye of EU's powerful Home Office. One privacy advocate, whose anger is clearly barely being held back, called it "the kind of technology that the Stasi would have dreamed of." Naturally, the government counters that this kind of information has already proven invaluable in tracking down criminals, including the killer of an 11-year-old boy a couple of years ago.

Privacy concerns aside, another issue becomes one of how exactly to manage all this data."
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/136610

Well Ignatieff in Calgary letting Albertan's know how much he supports the oil industry. Power Play interview with Martha Hall-F. She dismisses NEP saying that was ten years ago and everyone has moved on . . . well, I guess she was not familiar with Mr. Dion's Green Shift. How easy it is to forget. If I were an Albertan, I would not trust the Liberals to show respect for anything Western. They are a Toronto/Quebec and largely Central Canada Party. Maritimers would be wise to drop them as well -- remember Digby Wharf?

"Teddy the Kennedy will buy 14 windmills for his cottage." Oh dear, I see a lot of bird corpses showing up at Hyannis Port.

An Iggy original....think about it.
Would you trust your country to a party whose leader espoused this?
"Ignatieff suggests North Pole should be protected as global 'public park'"

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2009/04/06/9032286-cp.html

ET: "I think that Peter Salter is, himself, betraying his high school ignorance and arrogance." -- Given that he is still in high school, I nevertheless give him a lot of credit for showing pride in his country. The Fox thing was a bit below the belt -- and nevermind that many of the details are arguable, his points would probably give someone in the U.S. pause -- I'll bet many are not at all familiar with the War of 1812. I really admire young people taking time to express their views. And I like the fact that he is passionate about Canada -- good to pass this letter on to Fox.

Quite frankly, you can take any episode of history and find very different view of exactly what happened. Also -- if Obama does not know what language is spoken in Austria, I think we can forgive a high school kid for having his own set of assumptions -- which he probably got from a history teacher.

Robert W.: "Obama got a standing ovation from the international media at the G20." -- Whatever for?

lindal - No, I'll continue to disagree. I don't admire someone expressing their ignorance of basic history - and the wars of 1812, and both world wars are pretty basic - coupled with insulting language.

Ignorance of one's own history coupled with insulting the contribution of other countries isn't the way to show 'pride in one's country'.

I don't admire biased and ungrounded opinions; after all - that was exactly what the FOX reporter provided! So, to answer back in exactly the same mode of ignorance and bias and insults is hardly commendable.