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FAIRYTALE ENDING
WHY IS NO ONE SUSPICIOUS OF SIMON COWELL'S LATEST CREATION?
By MAUREEN CALLAHAN

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04182009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/fairytale_ending_165066.htm

'US to put conditions on Tarp repayment

'Strong banks will be allowed to repay bail-out funds they received from the US government but only if such a move passes a test to determine whether it is in the national economic interest, a senior administration official has told the Financial Times.

“Our general objective is going to be what is good for the system,” the senior official said. “We want the system to have enough capital.”

'His comments come as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other relatively strong banks are pressing to be allowed to repay their bail-out funds. On Sunday, Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, told NBC’s Meet the Press that repayments could eventually help the government provide further resources to help the sector....

Bourque has a scoop:

"CLINTON & BUSH IN CANADA

"BOURQUE EXCLUSIVE: Bourque has learned that former US Presidents William Jefferson Clinton and George W Bush will meet to debate for the very first time ever. This "very special event", before a live audience, will take place on Friday May 29th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Sources close to the event tell Bourque that speeches and a moderated Q & A session will run from 4 PM to 5:30 PM. A formal announcement is to be made in the coming days. Developing."

http://www.bourque.org

Great violinists have perfect intonation, wonderful fingering technique synchronized to their bowing.

What makes Heifetz such an outstanding artist is his bowing .. yes, how he manipulates the bow to create the string vibrations that are modulated through the violin box itself.

All classically trained violinists and wannabes marvel at his bowing and the resultant sounds .. while musical peasants only look at the movement of the fingers hopping all over the fingerboard and strings.

Itzak Perlman once remarked that people coming to his concerts only 10% come for the music and 90% for the visual appearance ..!!!

According to the Wikipedia link supra, Observant, "Itzhak Perlman, who himself is noted for his rich warm tone and expressive use of portamento, describes Heifetz's tone as like "a tornado" because of its emotional intensity. In creating his sound, Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings. For his entire career he used a silver wound tricolore gut g-string, plain gut unvarnished d- and a-strings, and a Goldbrokat steel e-string medium including clear hill rosin sparingly."

Newsworld is showing "An Inconvenient Truth" tonight with RBC as the lead sponsor. I suggest that if you have a Royal Bank bank account you let your bank manager know that you disapprove strongly and copy the President of the bank as well.

A new cartoon series on Fox is starting tonight. It's called Sit Down, Shut Up.

My first thought was that a Canadian version could be done featuring Liberal Party members and supporters vs. All Other Canadians.

Heifetz is something indeed. There's a shift in a cadenza of the Tchaikovsky Violin concerto that Heifetz does so remarkably - I used to listen to that one specific bit over and over again as a teenager. I never tired of it!!

Revnant Dream - I wondered about that too even before that article. How would some "unknown contestant" make it that far without those three judges having a clue how good or bad she was?

Wouldn't she have made it through qualifying stages, and wouldn't they have "marks" and comments in front of them?

It seems a bit suspicious.

Yeah, but that's ½ hour, Erik, tonight something a little shorter I thought.

Vit - I'm not criticizing at all! Thanks for your wonderful and enlightening postings. I have enjoyed many of the lectures - they have helped stretch my pia mater.

Music is indeed an incredible thing. Mathematically, it is incredible to think about how tonality can recapitulate and invoke such emotion.

Honolulu - Saipan man sentenced for urinating on fellow airline passenger

Full Story

One has to wonder if "Human Rights" Commission Employees throughout Canada aren't angry that this didn't happen on a Canadian flight. For if it had, then surely this man could have claimed a Lack of Multicultural Understanding, successfully suing both his fellow passenger and the airline. With the money he would have been awarded he could have taken a vacation to Hawaii!

Cultural whizzing.?

one of CBCpravdas favourites,- Ashley MacIssac bragged about just such a practice that he did with his underaged boyfriend (at the time) .may have ruined his chance of an order of Canada. or was that Odor of Canaduh.

global warming on mars. yes this time it is getting warm. though it has been cooling for 10 years as well and warming for the previous centurey. Im guessing this one is an orbital thing.

http://planetary.org/blog/article/00001908/

I didn't think you were criticizing, Erik, and I agree with you. Furthermore, this media, this text blog comments media: it stinks. It it not possible to express tonality in it. Thus, my best lines always get misinterpreted. It stinks, I tell ya'.

Ok, now read the supra with a Rodney Dangerfield accent. See?

greenies will wreck it for everyone. putting the fun in fundamentals ?, more like putting the mental in fundamentals.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/03/fast-charging-electric-cars-off-peak-grid.html

a magnificent desolation . sand and CO2 and home for Al Gore

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

Vit - don't you mean "I tells ya"??

I find this medium of exchange interesting. I've written many letters to the editor (National Post subscriber) - and have had some published, once two in one week.

But in the end, the blogosphere is where one can freely express themselves.

Life is all about relationships. I've never met you, nor Robert W, nor ET, nor Atlantic Jim, nor philboy (ahem), nor long signature Hans, yet we develop these weird connections

It doesn't replace real life, but somehow augments it.

No, I meant I tell ya' ;-)

OK, you have my respect

Man, that Tom Thomson today at the Calgary Levis Auction - 350K - I think that's a great deal. The cognoscenti told me it was a 6/10 though. I would have thought objectively it was 8+

Thank heaven for right wingers - a sensible discussion can follow about nearly anything!!

A new short & sweet post by Daniel Hannan.

"Just to reiterate the most important points: Have a well fortified location with food and water supply."

http://www.gcaptain.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11377

"The left is making a mistake in ridiculing the tea parties"

Revnant Dream, as much as I'm enjoying the Susan Boyle rags to riches story (and the woman CAN sing!), the whole thing was staged, I'm sure. As soon as the crowd rose to its feet within a few seconds of her beginning to sing, I figured that the audience's sneers and eyeball-rolling had been staged.

Even the "actress" judge didn't do a very good job of acting surprised, and throughout, Simon Cowell seemed like the cat that had swallowed the canary (rubbing his paws all the way to the bank).

It's all hype, but as far as I can see good-natured hype except for the fact that the poor schmucks that come up against Susan Boyle don't really stand a chance, do they?

As for the New York Post columnist's observation about Boyle "... wearing her low heels and her Sunday best": She was wearing HIGH heels, white ones with dark stockings. Ugh!

I see a makeover in the offing, even though Susan Boyle insists not ...

"Because the would-be genocidaires are out there, thinking about it: whom to kill; how many; how to do it. Whether they can get away with it."

"The Only Way To Prevent Genocide
Tod Lindberg

Have you ever found yourself in the position of asking, on your own behalf or on behalf of others, how many or precisely which people it would be useful to kill in order to secure a benefit for yourself or your cause? And just how to do it? No? Others have. Their answers have ranged from Cain’s original “Abel, with my bare hands” to Hitler’s “all the Jews, mainly by gas,” and the widespread Hutu view in the Rwanda of 1994, “the Tutsis, with machetes.” The question burns today for the government of Sudan and in the Congo."
urlm.in/cdcx
...-

"Socialism is really cannibalism

Apparently in our current political climate "socialism" has become a word that does not convey the horror it actually represents. It has become common and thus meaningless beyond the virtuous idea of "sharing" and "taking care of the poor".

People, especially among the ignorant -- particularly the college educated -- seem proud to call themselves "Socialists" today. And the supremely ignorant -- our politicians -- go a step further, and celebrate the word "Progressive" as though it had a glorious and honorable history.

I refuse to allow "Socialism" and "Progressivism" to be understood as benign, helpful, caring, sharing- as another way of saying "The Brotherhood of Man".

Socialism and Progressivism are cannibalism.

When I work, I use up hours of my life... my limited, mortal, human, physical life. The money I am paid represents the life I expended to earn it. My pay-my wealth-is my labor. It is the expenditure of some of my body's short, precious life on earth.

So when someone takes my money, they steal my hours of labor. They consume not only the fruits of my labor, but my labor itself, that labor which is the very expenditure of my life.

When someone loots and consumes the money I have earned, they consume the part of my life devoted to producing what they have taken.

What is that but cannibalism? A selfishness so profound, so inhuman, so greedy, so barbaric that it encourages and celebrates-and seeks to legally require- the consuming of the life's blood of one human by another.

That is the vicious reality of Socialism.

Don't let the bastards call it anything else."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2232404/posts

"It was unclear what the man's demands were, but it was reported he wanted to be flown to the U.S. or Cuba."
...-

"Jamaican airline standoff enters eighth hour; crew held hostage"

urlm.in/cdcy

"Liberals to target every riding in next election"
(g-m)

Liberal Iggy:

I am not now; nor, have I ever been a gunslinger*.

*urlm.in/cdda

Caroline Glick has a very good article onthe deteriorating situation in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, due to the rapid demise of nuclear-armed Pakistan as a coherent political unit, this nightmare scenario is looking more possible than ever. Indeed, if events continue to move in their current direction, it is more likely than not that in the near future, the Taliban and al-Qaida will take possession of all or parts of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Fixed link

Good link Daniel Ryan...Thanx!

One good quote that's so true and that I personally feel like when I try to talk some sense into people around me now:

..."It can be successfully argued that the neo-Marxist Progressive-Left has become "the establishment" and traditionalist Americans – those who believe in the sanctity of the US Constitution, in freedom, liberty and personal and civic responsibility – have become the "counter-culture.""

Several UN delegates walk out as Iranian president speaks at "racism" conference.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h-NABlEjaGSsDBh_qdpdNmX7V6VwD97M6VTG0

Liberal Iggy:

You thought Dionky was a Joker*?
...-

"Liberals missing from House of Commons votes

Despite leader Michael Ignatieff's vow that his party would no longer sit on its hands during votes in Parliament, Liberal MPs have missed three times as many votes in the House of Commons so far this year as Conservative members.

The Liberals posted the worst record for voting in the House, standing to be counted fewer times on average than even Bloc Quebecois MPs.

And when Liberal MPs did show up, they voted the same way as the Conservatives 79% of the time. By contrast, Bloc MPs supported the government on only 14% of votes."
urlm.in/cddf

*urlm.in/cddg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6132972.ece

Oops... better link

With regard to Susan Boyle, my own view is that it was NOT a set-up by Simon Cowell or anyone else. Nor was it staged.

Certainly, she had been through preliminary vetting (and the backstage comments show that) but as we've seen in American Idol, these preliminary vettings allow many disastrous 'singers' through. In addition any preliminary results would hardly be passed on to either the judges or the audience for that would corrupt the judging process.

I think it was real -naive as I may be - and I hope that she rejects a 'make-over' and rejects the notion that one has to be a botox-primed clone of Pelosi or who/whatever to succeed.

And with regard to the UN Conference on Racism and Iran - hmm. My own view is that Iran wants Israel to attack it, so that it can move into a war in the ME with the imperialist agenda of controlling Iraq, Syria, Lebanon..and even, Saudi Arabia. Israel wants a war so that it can claim title to the West Bank, but without its Palestinian inhabitants. Neither side is interested in a Palestinian state.

Ahmadinejad is sending 'interesting' messages. He's 'interfering' with the judicial system of Iran, to help the jailed US/Iranian journalist. That's unusual and my suspicion is that he's doing that to get the American public on his side.

Meanwhile, at the Conference, he's busy accusing Israel of racism, bashing the US for their support - and accusing the US and Europe of the world's financial crisis. Meaning? He doesn't want the US, or Europe, to get involved in any forthcoming Middle East War.

And of course, Obama's original letter of 'let's be friends' and talk - has opened the door for this kind of double-speak action by Ahmadinejad.

from the Department of Splitting Hairs:

3w.cnn.com slash 2009 slash POLITICS/04/16/us dot torture dot documents/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

I wonder if the hair on their heads splits better when its all wet?

I agree with ET -- Susan Boyle is the real deal. I think cynicism has become the default position in our society -- everything is suspicious. I think everyone should just enjoy her success.

Pakistan -- looking very bad, very scary.

Recently, there was media coverage of an event my student group held on campus. This absolute non-story started off as some guys rant in the student paper, got picked up by the Winnipeg Free Press, and somehow materialized to become the top story on NationalNewswatch.com for almost 12 hours the other day!

Our campus club has officially responded, and the response can be found on our website, www.umcc.ca.

The "Talent" shows are heavily staged but not in the way people think ...

From my understanding these shows have a 2 stage audition process which is (primarily) designed to weed out the average people (in talent and appearance) before they make it to the judges ... The reason why so many of the bad performers have such attitudes when they get insulted is because they went through two auditions where they were told they were "Perfect" for the show before they were told they were absolutely awful.

Now, everyone has become very used to the pattern these shows work on and they have associated everyone who looks unusual as being one of the "joke" acts; primarily because the less-attractive talented people are (mostly) weeded out through the audition process. You see this expectation in the judges face often because even they're getting tired of telling seemingly nice people that their dreams are unfounded and they have no talent ...

The producers of these shows know people have grown used to their pattern and they're looking for odd looking people with talent to mix it up because they know it will have a much bigger impact on people than attractive talented people.

(Via CSP) Robert D. Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography

People and ideas influence events, but geography largely determines them, now more than ever. To understand the coming struggles, it’s time to dust off the Victorian thinkers who knew the physical world best. A journalist who has covered the ends of the Earth offers a guide to the relief map—and a primer on the next phase of conflict.

NoOne- I have some problems with your argument. It's coherent, it's logical, and seems reasonable, but my problem is that it rests on a basic 'dyad'.

The dyad is where beauty and talent are considered an almost genetic bond. You are saying that 'the less-attractive talented people are (mostly) weeded out' prior to the Judges Review. That would transform the show to something which wasn't about musical talent but about performer image.

But we've seen very attractive musical disasters on American Idol. And unattractive musical disasters.

I'm still going to believe, as did Elpis, the goddess of hope, that good things happen because they do and not because they are planned.

Fraser Institute has a short you tube up on Global Warming hype.
www.youtube.com/user/QuestionTheHype

On the scales: Albert the Goreacle; flatulent, fatuous, and CO2obese*.

"Obesity killing the planet, U.K. researchers say

British scientists say the global obesity epidemic needs to be reversed not only to save lives, but to save the environment." (google)

*urlm.in/cddt

"Fargo flooding was not due to global warming, It was a natural event aggravated by a colder winter and more snow

Obama flunks Global Warming 101 on Fargo

By Dr. Tim Ball

“When the freedom they wished for most was the freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and never was free again.” Edith Hamilton.

President Obama used recent flooding in Fargo, North Dakota to push his misguided belief in global warming. His comment, “If you look at the flooding that’s going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, ‘If you see an increase of two degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?’” is speculative and completely wrong.

A two-degree warmer North Dakota would mean less snowfall, therefore less flooding. Spring flooding along the Red River of the north is due to snow melt and the geography of the region. This year the cold winter caused heavy snow in the south basin and all across the northern continental US. Obama’s comments do what the focus on global warming does; diverts us from real issues. In this case it is flooding and people living in naturally high-risk areas.

I was a founding member of the International Coalition, a joint project of citizens from Canada and the US living in the flood plain of the Red River.

Failure of the federal governments on both sides of the border to deal with flooding forced creation of this illegal organization. I won’t forget riding on the bus to the first meeting at the University of North Dakota and listening to the US federal government bureaucrat in the seat in front of me saying to his assistant, “Which way does this bloody river run anyway?” Later I was the first Chair of the Assiniboine River Management Advisory Board (ARMAB) set up to establish management plans for this river, which is the largest tributary of the Red.

The Red River is the largest and one of very few rivers that start in the US and flow north into Canada. This is not an accident but a result of history. The 49th parallel in western North America was a simple geometric boundary that effectively approximated the divide separating water flowing south into the Gulf of Mexico or north into Hudson Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company was granted land draining into Hudson Bay and that land became part of Canada in 1870 under the British North America Act.

Rivers usually create their own valleys but the Red River runs through lowland formed and occupied by Glacial Lake Agassiz. This lake was created by the meltwater from the Wisconsin ice sheet. Figure 1 shows a reconstruction of the ice at an early stage of lake development, but the middle stage of ice sheet melting."
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10390

Good link maz2 !

Question: Why are flakes such as Obama elected instead of reasonable people ?

Because the Media likes heroes. Makes a better story. Doesn't matter if the hero is warped. Same deal as Hollywood. Tinsel Town would not survive either without the Media's pushing the hero thing. No of any flaky types in Hollywood ?

[“Johnny Carson smoked, and for 30 years he was never pictured smoking a cigarette,” Schmidt says. “Today that would be impossible.”

“It’s fair to say that there will be no heroes,” Schmidt says. “Heroism requires understanding the person in the absolute best light. I’m not sure this is good. What was Barack Obama like in elementary school? ‘Oh, yeah, here’s a picture of him picking his nose. God, he’s no longer a hero.’ ”] NYT

DINOSAUR (the media) AT THE GATE by Maureen Dowd

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/opinion/15dowd.html

Meet the panhandlers, beggars, wheedlers.
...-

"Friendly panhandler brings in bucks
If he's not Ottawa's wealthiest panhandler, he must be close to it, and yesterday, riding his bike as usual, his life's belongings hanging from the handlebars in two plastic bags, he got me again as I headed toward my car outside a west-end mall"
...

"Pay more to get clunkers off the road: car dealers
The country's cars dealers say the federal government should beef up its program to get old clunkers off the road and encourage new auto sales"
(canoenews)

tranio, or anyone else - RBC's sponsoring of Gore's fiction on CBC Newsworld: the Presidents, CEO email addys, phone #s ect ??

"Muslim" pirates only holiday is Ramadan.
For one month, as directed by Moh, they stop, cease, and desist from their unisex cavorting.
It's in Moh's book.
...-

"As I’ve written many times before, it is a mistake to think that “Muslim” pirates in the Philippine South are to be found praying five times a day in the mosque. You are going to have better luck wherever ladies and liquor are in more abundant supply. Although there are doubtless men who are motivated primarily by religious texts, I think they are outnumbered by those who have found religion to be the perfect cover under which to advance simpler ambitions for power and worldly desire.

This rarely comes as a surprise to the police. But it often comes as a complete shock to academics who believe what they read. Having found a reference to a Quranic text in a terrorist screed, they find it impossible, on aesthetic grounds, to imagine that the line might have been inserted into the communique in a dimly lit nightclub, mostly as a joke on academics and media anchormen, rather than on a windswept, desert mountain top."

"The universe of low life"

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2009/04/19/the-universe-of-low-life/

"Serenity Thru Haiku: Surviving the Obama Years"

National Review linked to this site. Love it.

http://serenitythruhaiku.wordpress.com/

Sample:

Dictator du Jour

Quite telling I think:
Barely a nod to the Queen.
With Hugo? Sheer joy.

Another:

Universal

Free health care for all!
Then rations, bad docs, no meds.
Waiting . . . dying . . . dead.

Enjoy!

LindaL, despite my sense that there was more to Susan Boyle's audition than meets the eye, I still think she's the real deal, and like you and ET, I wish her only the best. She's got real talent and seems totally natural and down to earth.

I don't want to see a total makeover, just a new hairdo (and not the ones being shown on the Internet) and some clothes that aren't as tight-fitting. Plus, I hope she never wears dark panty hose with a light dress and white shoes EVER again!

Go, Susan, go!