Reader Tips

Reader Tips 48 Comments

Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) edition of SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight we take you back to 1962-era France, where having bad teeth was quite clearly no obstacle to being a national sex symbol. Here’s the nonetheless fetching Sylvie Vartan, dancing up a storm and tormenting non-French-speaking men with the pop-musical question Est-ce que tu le sais?
Say “cheese.”
Feel free to dance your Reader Tips into the comments.

48 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Congressional leaders – read “Democrats” – fight against posting bills online:
    “As Congress lurches closer to a decision on an enormous overhaul of the American health care system, pressure is mounting on legislative leaders to make the final bill available online for citizens to read before a vote.
    “Lawmakers were given just hours to examine the $789 billion stimulus plan, sweeping climate-change legislation and a $700 billion bailout package before final votes.”
    (…)
    “The stimulus bill, for example, was 1,100 pages long and made available to Congress and the public just 13 hours before lawmakers voted on it…”
    “The (Sunlight foundation) has begun an effort to get Congress to post bills online, for all to see, 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them….Nearly every Republican has signed on, but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill…”

  2. Ezra Levant‘s analysis of and comments on his testimony and that of Mark Steyn before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice & Human Rights, in Ottawa on 2009-10-05, are now available in his Why I’m Optimistic essay. It is interesting, I think, to compare and contrast Ezra’s assessment, tone, and style to those of the nattering nabobs of negativity who formed a subset of the commenters here at SDA when the videos of the testimony first became available at YouTube. The various forms of confirmation bias and other forms of intellectual misbehaviour demonstrated by the cranky pessimists in the latter sample are, I think, an excellent example of blogosphere pathology.

  3. I heard on CNN a few days ago that three Americans won the “Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine”. I guess consolidations and mergers are all the rage now.

  5. You complain as much as anybody, Vitruvius, maybe even more than most commenters; your complaint is merely on a different topic, specifically, the commenters at SDA: they’re too negative, they don’t get the point of your posts, etc. Does that make you a nattering nabob of negativity?
    ;>)
    Ezra has his own reasons to express positivity. He needs to sway the MPs, for one thing. Still, I was surprised by his take on Brian Murphy, who seemed entirely uninformed about the abuses that have occurred under the various HRC’s prosecutions under S 13. His mini-speech seemed like something that could have been made 15 years ago before the CHRC’s abuses, and I thought it was quite evident that Murphy’s tack was pre-determined before Mark Steyn spoke, and that he then tried to frame it as if it was a response to Steyn. Steyn had given eloquent testimony about the importance of free speech, and its underpinnings going back to the Magna Carta, and how free speech was the bedrock right through which all other rights are secured; he pointed out that the putatively dangerous-to-Canadians “hate speech” which appeared on Mark Lemire’s site (and which Lemire didn’t write) was read by just eight people in all of Canada, or, as Steyn put it, 0.8 of a Canadian per province, and yet the CHRC spent six years and a large sum of money prosecuting it.
    Murphy responded, amazingly, by saying “you have raised mostly in your twenty minutes procedural matters — the far reaching hand of the state, the inequality…”
    The CHRC’s behaviour — truth not being a defense, accusers/prosecutors having access to, and using in their prosecution, information not available to the defendant, etc etc — these are certainly more than mere “procedural matters;” they fundamentally corrupt the basis of the entire enterprise before the procedure, such as it is, begins. And the moral/philosophical matters of the “far-reaching hand of the state” Steyn talked about, including in an historic context, is also far from a quotidianprocedural matter.
    I also found it offensive that Murphy thought it his place to suggest, in regard to Ezra’s “allegation” of the hijacking of a person’s identity, “I think if you said that about an individual you’d be sued for libel, probably successfully” –as if someone as uninformed as he clearly showed himself to be on the behaviour of the HRCs was in a position to render judgement on the matter in a public hearing.
    There are reasons to be “negative,” if you want to put it that way, when average people – I’m assuming SDA commenters and letter-to-the-editor writers are average people – are more informed about the abuses of the HRCs than the parliamentarians conducting a hearing into the matter are.

  6. [quote] I wanted to forcefully introduce radioactive facts into the discussion, and talk about that.[/quote] Ezra Levant
    I totally agree with his assessment, but hope he tones down the personal part, it will hurt his agruement.. Simply referring to the agent, as the agent, and not using real names.
    The CHRC tribunal is petty & dumb!
    The future of the Internet requires a greater Government commitment & consideration of the process that will very quickly dominate all traditional forms of human communication.

  7. Red McGIffy Alert.
    McGIffy confesses: McGiffy Iffy reveals Iffy’s secret agenda.
    Iffy’s machinations revealed by Himself.
    Tax increase$$$$$$$$ >>> It’s Liberal Ignatieff’s Liberal Red Ink.
    Iffy is a crypto-concealed McGuinty.
    Liberal McGIffy is not Robin Hood? Iffy is not Robin …. Hood? Iffy hopes/plots to rob you and your family and give the loot to his paypals. Think Liberal Ad$Cam Chretien-MartinJr’s Ad$cam + McGiffy Payola = Ignatieff Liberals.
    Bryden/MSM are the moles.
    Speak moles:
    “Ignatieff to talk tax hikes, cost-cutting to tame deficit
    OTTAWA – Michael Ignatieff is preparing to embark on a politically risky “adult conversation” with Canadians about the painful measures necessary to eliminate the country’s ballooning deficit – including the possibility of tax hikes.
    Senior party insiders told The Canadian Press that the Liberal leader is about to launch a blunt discussion of the realistic options available for staunching the flow of red ink.”
    http://www.am770chqr.com/News/National/Article.as…
    P.S. McGIffy wants to have an “adult conver$ation” with you.

  8. Firstly, EBD, you mistake my observations for complaints, and secondly and more importantly, you mischaracterize my behaviour: I am not in any way addressing or characterizing any matter regarding SDA commenters in general; I’m simply observing, as others have, that there is a significantly sized subset (as I clearly stated above) of blogosphere commenters, especially in partisan political contexts, who often have a tendency to amplify moody negativity, ineffective anger, impotent rage, and ante- apocalypticism, often while at the same time deprecating the efforts of those more interested in constructive undertakings such as (as you noted Ezra is doing, EBD) trying to sway our elected political representatives. It is this pessimism amplification effect that I am referring to as the pathology of the blogosphere. Personally, I don’t see that as something so much to complain about, as you would have me; rather I see it as something to be aware of when one is observing and analyzing the phenomenon.

  10. “As Congress lurches closer to a decision on an enormous overhaul of the American health care system, pressure is mounting on legislative leaders to make the final bill available online for citizens to read before a vote.”
    If the Congress think they will steal 500B from the Medicare of senior citizens without blow back, they are as dumb as Obama.
    The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) is a F’ing AARP insurance plan to eliminate Advantage plus choice. It’s blatant Corruption & DOA
    The FREE primary care that has been/and will be provided at the Emergency door for Illegal Aliens & those that could afford but are un-insured will now become the door for seniors.
    The Emergency rooms will be FULL of activist seniors, without identification.. no need for
    part B or Advantage plus

  11. Goreacle Report: To A Mouse*, Men, and Weather.
    Experts say, “A world-first experiment” Goreacle Report.
    …-
    “Weather foils Isles of Scilly energy experiment
    A world-first experiment to try and reduce energy use for the day on the Isles of Scilly was foiled after a turn in the weather caused participants to use more electricity.
    More than 2,000 people on the tiny islands were asked to turn off all unnecessary electrical appliances in a bid to cut power consumption by 15 percent.
    The experts behind the project used Scilly – 28 miles off the coast of Cornwall – as all power reaches the island through just one cable from the mainland.
    Islanders followed a series of guidelines including switching off unnecessary lights and TVs when not in use and only filling kettles with the exact amount of water required.
    But despite the mass power-down red-faced organisers announced they reduced electricity consumption – by just over one percent.
    Organiser Dr Matt Prescott said the experiment was undermined by bad weather – which saw people using more power than usual.
    He said: “Scilly usage fell by 1.2per cent. The weather was horrendous compared to the day before so we were really fighting the conditions.
    “Normally electric use tends to go up on a Tuesday so we were fighting the general trend and the weather.””
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6269718/Weather-foils-Isles-of-Scilly-energy-experiment.html
    …-
    *”To A Mouse”
    “But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
    In proving foresight may be vain:
    The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
    Gang aft agley,
    An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
    For promis’d joy!”
    (H/T Robert Burns)

  12. It’s a Ray Charles tune, I think, dp.
    John Ibbitson, writing in the G&M, invokes the “dispiriting” prospect of Quebec losing its ability to blackmail the rest of Canada.
    He begins by noting sinking Liberal fortunes in Ontario:
    “There have been anecdotal and unconfirmed reports that Conservative support is increasing in the suburban ridings of the City of Toronto, as well as in the Greater Toronto Area. Numbers such as (those in Ontario overall) would bolster that speculation….In the West, the Conservatives outpoll the Liberals by better than three-to-one, 58 per cent to 18 per cent.”
    Here’s the money quote:
    “Which sets up the dispiriting prospect that in the next election the Conservatives could win with virtually no support in Quebec, and the Liberals wiped out west of Ontario, in which case neither major party could claim the title “national,” once again testing the resilience of the nation.” (emph. mine)
    Er, leaving aside for a moment the reality that many Canadians don’t consider the prospect of having a government that isn’t handcuffed in perpetuity to separatist blackmailers to be a dispiriting one, consider the hypocrisy inherent in Ibbitson’s suggestion that if the Conservatives had representation in every part of the country except Quebec, it would mean they aren’t a national party, and that this would “test the resilience of the nation.”
    The Liberals currently don’t have a single MP in the province of Alberta. Has Ibbitson ever suggested that the “resilience of the nation is being tested” as a consequence? Do he and his ilk ever express concern that the Liberals are, by virtue of not having a seat in Alberta, not a national party?
    I’m guessing not.

  13. Matt has just posted a video of Ezra Levant being interviewed by Michael Coren. Thanks, Matt!
    One subtle thing, which is perhaps just Coren poking the eye of the whiny left, is that the title underneath of Levant’s name reads “Human Rights Activist”.
    I very much agree with that label but clearly it’ll have quite a different reaction from the hateful members of the Rabid Left!!!

  16. I was raised in a bilingual home. That song brought back good memories, we listened to her on a Seabreeze HI-Fi turntable, incidentally, Seabreeze Corp. is still in operation today.
    Her teeth were may have been oddly shaped but she had a body to make up for it. In the late 60’s she got a complete makeover. Listen to her song “Qu’est ce qui fait pleurer les blondes?”(What makes blonds cry?)
    She looked good then–she still looks good today at 65 years of age!!
    There were a host of French singers who became popular in the USA. Mireille Mathieu, Edith Piaf, Johnny Hallady, Dalida and Sylvie Vartan were but a few. . Vartan and Halladay were married in ’65, they later divorced in 1980. Believe it or not Vartan cut a Decca record that sold big time in 1964. The title? “Sylvie a Nashville.”
    Thanks for the performance “EBD.”
    PS: check out her story and her photo on Wikipedia.

  17. I enjoyed the clip of Sylvie Vartan and listened to several others including one with Bonnie Tyler–the gravel-voiced diva. That brought me back.
    It has surprised me that our parliamentarians have shown themselves so unaware and uninformed about the CHRC–even after numerous and well-publicized stories about their shenanigans. It makes me wonder what else they’re uninformed about and how carelessly they undertake other decisions they’re entrusted with.

  18. By the way, and for the record, Google currently reports no matches for the phrase “the pathology of the blogosphere”. Which means that I, Vitruvius, hereby get to and do claim in the name of Her Majesty the Queen of Canada and Other Bits of the Planet, the coining and definition (as above) of the phrasing The Pathology of the Blogosphere.

  19. I do think that vitruvius makes a fair point, but do not think that the anger we express, though sometimes overboard, is ever totally ineffective.
    Take for example the print and electronic media, which are, in many cases in free-fall. Leonard Asper’s assurances are no more plausible than is his hair-weave (okay, too personal) because it is not the columnists at the N.P. that are the problem, but other writers at some of the less stimulating journals, and, I contend, Global. And of this I am “positive”.

  21. Excellent, Vitruvius; I think an expanded, annotated and referenced scholarly thesis is now in order. PhDs have been awarded for less; book deals too.
    (BTW I prefer to think of myself as a Prattling Panjandrum of Pessimism. Which I may trademark.)

  23. Alas, Black Mamba, at my age, my heart is pledged to my current work in the field of developing software to help prevent hectare-sized thermodynamic machines processing toxic chemicals from blowing up while you are down-wind of them; fortunately, on the other hand, I am not an intellectual property snob, so I will have no objection if some bright young scholar wishes to use my neophrasism in their work, assuming it is on topic of course. Definitely, though, Black Mamba, grab Panjandrum while you can. You can’t go wrong there.

  25. On Tuesday in the Toronto Star, Linda McQuaig praised a bill from NDP MP Bill Siksay and Liberal Jim Karygiannis that would create a “Department of Peace”.
    There’s no doubt that world peace is in the best interests of every Canadian, and indeed of everyone on the planet. But the Department of Foreign Affairs should be enough to deal with the issue.
    McQuaig claims that there is a “military-industrial-academic establishment”(it’s no longer a “complex” apparently), that a “war-oriented mindset dominates our culture”, and that both Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff, from their actions and/or writings, could be said to belong to a “warrior class” (she’s obsessed with class, of course).
    Let’s cut to the chase. The fundamental moral principle of a civilized society is that no person has the right to initiate the use of force on any other person. That rules out aggression but not self-defense. I personally don’t like to see too much lionization of people who have died in war, or phrases like “glorious dead” used around remembrance services, because it’s not glorious to be dead, it’s tragic. The most avid war buffs sometimes gloss over the difference between aggression and defense, even if they’re remembering those who have died in defense of our freedoms.
    It’s worth noting that the main impetus for war these days does come from academics, namely the extreme left-wing Marxist crowd. Vast quantities of blood were spilled by the so-called “liberation movements” of decades past, yet the leftists who claimed to oppose war enthusiastically supported them. Even today they still wear T-shirts featuring the likeness of the psychopathic, warmongering murderer Che Guevara.
    On a related note, last week the government of Guinea, which is a dictatorship from a “liberation movement” of 50 years ago, went on a rampage in the capital Conakry to crush a protest, with reports of 157 dead. When will the leftists utter a peep about this carnage performed by their own?
    Remember: capitalism is peaceful, socialism is warlike.

  26. In an editorial on the Nobel Prize awarded to Canadian-born scientist Willard Boyle, the Globe and Mail asks a very silly question: “What is Canada’s national research project?”
    Countries shouldn’t have national research projects. Private individuals or companies can engage in research projects, using their own resources, if they wish. Governments shouldn’t even be supporting research; companies should be doing that out of their own profits (these days, of course, profits are eaten away by the taxes needed to support the unproductive bureaucracies of government). Government’s proper purpose is only to protect individual rights.
    Incidentally, Mr. Boyle was home-schooled, until he went into high school in Montreal. There’s further evidence that public education is hardly a necessity for success in life, contrary to all the educational establishment’s propaganda.

  28. In Wednesday’s Toronto Star, Carol Goar discusses the phenomenon of “precarious work”, meaning the ongoing trend toward part-time work, low wages, and little if any job security and few or no benefits. She says that in Canada, the percentage of work that falls under this heading is up to 37 per cent from 32 per cent over the past decade. Goar refers to a campaign by an international coalition of labour unions to promulgate the issue, saying its focus is to “mobilize citizens to demand better employment standards and labour laws”.
    The real problem, however, is taxation and regulation. The vast numbers of government bureaucrats who produce nothing (not all of them by any means, but for example I refer to the thought police of “human rights” commissions, economic analysts, municipal promoters, etc.) are the real drain on the economy that causes the decline of permanent jobs in the private sector.
    Also on the same page, Thomas Walkom writes about a film featuring three families who found themselves in homeless shelters after their breadwinners’ jobs expired. He notes that one of the filmmakers hopes that “it will have some impact on business people who, for reasons of cost, profit and the inexorable demands of shareholders, find it convenient to squeeze wages and contract out work”. No mention of the real problem: the vast portion of government bureaucracy that is unproductive.

  29. ODS Aunty-American ranting at Macleans, Canada’s liberal-left maggie: O’Narcissist is Canada’s # One Enemy.
    …-
    “October 12, 2009: Canada’s Biggest Problem? America”
    http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/08/macleans-covers-gallery/mac_cover_091012/
    …-
    YouTube – Canada Loves Obama
    AS a Canadian i love Obama. AlenaGirly (3 months ago) Show Hide. Marked as spam. Reply. hehe cute video. Jeremy1281988 (3 months ago) Show Hide …
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTc8c_FLTL8

  30. Iffy McGiffy: EeeeeKOS.
    …-
    “Conservatives extend poll lead over Liberals”
    “As the Tories’ support shows signs of growing, disapproval ratings for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff are also going up.”
    “As his party has slipped in the polls, Ignatieff’s disapproval ratings have grown.”
    urlm.in/ddyl

  31. Voodoo GG: No matter what “head of state” Bottom* wears, Bottom is still an ass.
    …-
    “Governor General calling herself ‘head of state’ riles monarchists
    Canadian monarchists and constitutional experts are raising strong objections to a speech given this week in Paris by Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, in which she referred to herself twice as Canada’s “head of state” —a position formally occupied by Queen Elizabeth.” (NNW)
    (*H/T WS)

  33. Robert W
    Thanks for the link to that video of Michael Coren interviewing Ezra. I was chilled though by the woman commenting “if you don’t change with the times, you should be punished”…..Yikes.
    I am not surprised one bit about the NDP especially, or Bloc or Liberals being unprepared for Ezra and Mark in the commons committee. The issue perhaps, in my opinion, lies with their staffers who brief them. Kady O’Malley from ITQ notes that there was only 1 staffer behind the opposition benches taking notes while there were several behind the Conservatives. Make with that what you will.
    http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/10/05/they-are-pundit-hea-them-roar-liveblogging-mark-steyn-and-ezra-levant-at-the-justice-committee/

  34. I didn’t see it mentioned above, so pardon my repetition if I’m doing so.
    From CBC: EKOs poll shows CPC widening the lead.
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/07/ekos-poll-federal-conservative-liberal-ndp-green-bloc.html
    “The EKOS poll, released Thursday exclusively to the CBC, found that 39.7 per cent of respondents supported the Conservatives, while the Liberals had 25.7 per cent backing. The New Democratic Party had the support of 15.2 per cent of respondents, with the Green Party and the Bloc Québécois both at 9.7 per cent.”
    Ouch. That’s going to leave a mark.

  35. Valencia, I agree with you. If memory serves, she was a writer for the Toronto Star – ie. a typical Leftist. She epitomizes what Thomas Sowell calls “Stage One Thinking”, meaning that her thoughts/conclusions don’t extend beyond the immediate.
    If I had been Coren, I would have said the following to her after her ridiculous comment: “Many believe that there’ll eventually be a Charter challenge in favour of Polygamy. There’s a good chance that it’ll be successful. When that change occurs, you will support it and condemn those who don’t?!”
    Have you ever noticed that many on the Left constantly refer to themselves as “intellectuals”. Based on verbal diarrhea frequently exiting from the wrong orifice, it’s no wonder why they need to remind us so often.

  36. Whenever I think of the “left”, I think of Animal Farm. Among the well-meaning but naive individuals, there are clever, self-serving types exploiting their goodwill, and presuming to speak on their behalf. It is a betrayal to take all that altruism and desire to make a positive difference and perverting it into some sort of victimhood culture which ultimately benefits those who are of least benefit to society. There are entire industries that cater to victims who have an interest in keeping a large stable of victims.

  37. From the “providing your own answer unawares” department, EKOS president Frank Graves:
    “Graves said it is difficult to pinpoint why Ignatieff’s popularity has plummeted in such a short time.
    “‘Perhaps some of the framing that was put in place by the Conservatives and some of the so-called negative ads have stuck with Mr. Ignatieff,’ he said. “‘Because it’s hard to line up anything he’s said or done specifically.‘”
    (Link in Johann’s 10:39)

  38. “‘Because it’s hard to line up anything he’s said or done specifically.'”
    I guess the whole election thingy flew under his radar.

  39. Sylvie’s Wikipage states her to be ethnic Bulgarian/Armenian/Hungarian, which would explain her smokin’ figure, and most possibly also her Max Schreck in Nosferatu teeth.

  43. The alleged Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at work:
    “Alleged Toronto 18 ringleader pleads guilty”
    “Amara, 24, has been alleged to be one of the ringleaders in the plot to recruit and train extremists to carry out the attacks, which never transpired.”
    “The offences allegedly took place between March and June 2006 in Mississauga and a rural township near Orillia, Ont.”
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/10/08/toronto-18-plot-guilty-plea.html
    Look we know they are on the side of the terrorists, but couldn’t they make it a little less obvious?

  44. More CBC fun:
    Last June leftist would-be-dictator Manuel Zelaya violated a hard rule in Honduras’ constitution by attempting to extend his rule, ala Chavez, and was turfed. The CBC’s Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed him recently and — surprise! — had nothing but sympathy for him. She was very concerned about his feelings:
    “You are currently inside the Brazilian Embassy. Can you tell us your mood today…?”
    “And as you wait for this, you are holed up in another country’s embassy. Are you going stir crazy? Are you angry about this? Is there a humiliation factor to the fact that you must hide behind those walls?”
    To hell with the Honduran constitution, or Zelaya’s violation of it; in Tremonti’s CBC world, Zelaya is still the leader:
    “You were forced out of the country, and you snuck back into the country. As the leader of the country, give us a sense of how you see this crisis, and I’m guessing you must be pretty outraged that you have to hold out in someone else’s embassy?”

  45. Berlin police under siege from the loving left, anarchists, and immigrants.
    Note Professor Christian Pfeiffer’s gaseous emanations about “root causes”:
    “The underlying problems have to be tackled, the conditions which lead to their wanting separation from society to follow their own lifestyle….”
    Any notion that enforcement of the law will solve the problem is, he advises, “a total illusion.”
    Yeszz, talking academics can solve the problem. In the meantime, those entrusted to keep the peace – i.e. the police – will apparently have to keep getting their heads bashed in…

  46. Sunstein: Americans too racist for socialism
    Defends communism, welfare state but says ‘white majority’ oppose programs aiding blacks, Hispanics
    JERUSALEM – The U.S. should move in the direction of socialism but the country’s “white majority” opposes welfare since such programs largely would benefit minorities, especially blacks and Hispanics, argued President Obama’s newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein.
    “The absence of a European-style social welfare state is certainly connected with the widespread perception among the white majority that the relevant programs would disproportionately benefit African Americans (and more recently Hispanics),” wrote Sunstein.
    The Obama czar’s controversial comments were made in his 2004 book “The Second Bill of Rights,” which was obtained and reviewed by WND.
    In the book, Sunstein openly argues for bringing socialism to the U.S. and even lends support to communism.
    http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112243

  48. Cass Sunstein is an idiot, as if we didn’t know. Where’s Glenn Beck when we need him?
    Racism and socialism both stem from the same philosophical base, namely collectivism — two sides of the same counterfeit coin.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation