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There is a year end review by Dave Barry. If you are familiar with his writing, you know how funny can it get, at times it does.
Like:
…..United Nations nuclear inspectors note, however, that ``Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'' can be rearranged to spell ``Had Jammed a Humanoid'' and ``Hounded a Jihad Mamma.''

Or mentions “hikes on Appalachian trail” by Mark Sanford and the likes of Letterman and Woods.

Or “….Vice President Joe Biden…. would not recommend traveling by commercial airplane or subway……. later, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs……. he is ``not aware of any `Vice President Joe Biden.”

Barry is shooting more barbs than a porcupine in heat. (Don’t know if porcupine does that, though it sounds snappy, something the occupant of the White House may have proclaimed.)

It is quite long.

If you want to read it, it’s right here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/v-fullstory/story/1397654.html?pageNum=4&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container

jeepers Lev. are you sure you would dare cite a source from the hated MSM here at SDA?

link's very busy now anyway, gonna hafta wait. just like the right wing gonna hafta wait before The B.O. is voted out of the white house.

an excerpt:

Political news continues to dominate in . . .

JULY

. . . when Sarah Palin unexpectedly announces that she will not complete her term as elected governor of Alaska, explaining, in a prepared statement, that she has a hair appointment. Asked by reporters if she plans to seek the Republican presidential nomination, she replies, ``You leave my personal life out of this.''

POOF !!!! it goes, eh Vit?

What are you talking about?

Seems, the curious character is deep into the sauce.

Vit:
curious has his knickers in a knot somewhat like the panty bomber.

more hilarity from Lev's link:

[Please do not post extended quotes from copyright material. Lev's link is right there. ~ Vitruvius]

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North"

If you kill enough people then the powers at be on Canada's Left Coast will have art created of you. :-(

No reasonable person believes that terror screening can ever be foolproof. But Americans need full confidence that their government is addressing the problem as vigorously as possible.

This would require Obama to order two basic changes in anti-terror policy:

* Captured terrorists need to be treated as such -- and not as common criminals. Abdulmutallab needs to disappear down a black hole somewhere, and stay there until the war on terror is over. No criminal trials for terrorists.

* Homeland Security needs to quit pretending little old ladies from the heartland pose a security threat and institute an intelligent traveler-profiling policy that targets Middle Eastern males.

Certainly, Abdulmutallab's attack was instructive: Who knew it was so easy to waltz through security with high explosives stuffed down one's pants?

But while odds are that some equally imaginative jihadist will someday succeed

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/on_planet_janet_sNrAqiRNKUbjnNnxFUYhoL#ixzz0b8r7lPTv

Good music--the harmonica player is tops!!

Re: Attempted bombing on Flight 253

I've noticed that Richard Colvin has suddenly disappeared from Cbc.Ca! Wonder why??

This is what The Anchoress wrote in an essay on being Obama:

“I suspect that what Obama wanted was to be the King, not the President.”……..

Read on, a rather perceptive observation, hit the bulls eye right in the centre,

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/12/29/obama-and-doing-vs-being/

Wander what ET would have to say.

Dirtman, you're right, of course. But Bush wouldn't implement common sense policies in terms of TSA screening. There's ZERO chance Obama will allow it.

Perhaps what we need are two kinds of flights:
- conservative flights (& screening)
- liberal flights (& screening)

I'm formulating a blog posting to differentiate what's involved with each. And then we can let the marketplace decide who opts for what.

http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/013371.html

Via Kathy Shaidle (doing jobs that Canadian men won't do).

I think this explains why I'm now wearing a cross around my neck - it's not particularly a spiritual symbology for me - but again more related to cultural affirmation.

I was very sad to hear of Kim Peek's death. Don't recognize the name? Here's the first in a five part youtube series on him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2T45r5G3kA

He had, or rather has, an amazing and dedicated father. I feel very bad for him.

How2 about some more good music to "Shake the Sillies Out".
SFO Sampler I promise you will love this.

one for PETA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcGXhu6wjSY&feature=related

The World is on drugs!

Danish magazine: Obama’s greater than Jesus

Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus – if we have to play that absurd Christmas game. But it is probably more meaningful to insist that with today’s domestic triumph, that he has already assured himself a place in the history books – a space he has good chances of expanding considerably in coming years.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/29/german-magazine-obamas-greater-than-jesus/

I just watched (online) A Conversation with the Prime Minister. That was a VERY good interview. I missed the original broadcast -- and then re-broadcasts have been at odd times. Why has there been no print news coverage of the interview? I am sure many Canadians have missed it and some would not be aware of its availability online. Is not what the Prime Minister says important news for Canadians?

LindaL - did he talk about Michael Jackson? Meeting Obama? Britney Spears? No? Never mind then.

Eric Larsen,
that's an amazing story...

marc in calgary - assume you're referring to my Kim Peek post - as opposed to my other BS posts - here is another post worth watching, re mathematical ability. Humans can be amazing, given the right circumstance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbASOcqc1Ss

Daniel Tammet, part I of V

PS - parenthetically, Ramachandran is an amazing guy . . . . .

Some great reading - thanks for both links, Lev. Your link for Peta made me laugh until tears ran down my face, Cal2

yes Eric... I should perhaps be more specific.

Cheers marc - the vids on Daniel Tammet are amazing. And check out Derek Paravicini!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kwjDLHX92w

Why do we not hear about savants from other countries? Are they killed? Whatever.

Open Question

As the year comes to a close, I've seen lots of criticism of Harper from the Left. Most of the attacks focus in on the fact that the federal gov't now has a large deficit.

I absolutely do not like the fact that this deficit exists but then I've been consistent all along: No bailouts and cut gov't spending until the budget is balanced or in a surplus.

The same cannot be said for ANY politician on the Left. Back at the start of the year they were clambering ad nauseum for Harper to stimulate more, invest more, pretty much any term except "spend". Though it all amounts to the same thing.

Now that he has done what they asked (though perhaps not to the volume of spending they demanded) we are where we are.

Here's the question: What credible comment can ANY of them make about our current fiscal situation? Please note: I did use the word "credible".

WE HAVE A DEFICIT BECAUSE OF A LIBERAL, NDP, SEPARATIST COUP ATTEMPT LAST YEAR!!!!
Does anyone really believe Harper believes in Global warming or going in debt will get you out? No thats a Toronto-Montreal idea.
See they never have paid the ferocious taxes that keep so many in the life they have chosen. Not to work but live off of others. Just like the Government.
JMO

Very interesting profile of John Mackey, the founder of "Whole Foods" in this week's New Yorker. Among the great quotes "Unions are like herpes. They won't kill you, but they're inconvenient and unattractive."

The whole thing is online and free at newyorker.com.

"Harper's quiet wisdom at a time of shrillness

Relentlessly hounded by all the usual howling mobs, Mr. Harper proved himself in all of these ways in Copenhagen

'Everyone in the world was beating their chest," Prime Minister Stephen Harper observed, speaking of the Copenhagen global summit in one of his year-end interviews. "I never saw so much grandstanding in my life."

Quite so. In contrast, Mr. Harper was himself never more eloquent than in the three days he spent in Copenhagen - when he said absolutely nothing. Surrounded by a madness of politicians (that is, by the fevered rhetoric of the leadership of 160 countries), tormented by the mendacity of environmentalists (that is, by the absurd naming of Canada, which produces less than 2 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, as Fossil Fuel Country of the Year), Mr. Harper kept his head, a remarkable performance that proved him again - however else he may be judged - an authentic leader.

Rudyard Kipling once described this kind of self-control in poetic detail. If you keep your head even as everyone else loses theirs, you prove yourself. If you trust your judgment even as everyone else doubts it, you prove yourself. If you wait without getting impatient, you prove yourself. If you restrain from making yourself "look too good," or making yourself "talk too wise," you prove yourself. Relentlessly hounded by all the usual howling mobs, Mr. Harper proved himself in all of these ways in Copenhagen."

urlm.in/dwkm (Globe&Mail)
Neil Reynolds
...-

"Major northern hemisphere cold snap coming
30 12 2009

Cold event setups in atmospheric circulation patterns are aligning. Two days ago I brought to your attention that there was a strong downspike in the Arctic Oscillation Index and that the North Atlantic Oscillation Index was also negative. See The Arctic Oscillation Index goes strongly negative

Yesterday, Senior AccuWeather meteorologist Joe Bastardi let loose with this stunning prediction on the AccuWeather premium web site via Brett Anderson’s Global warming blog:

What is facing the major population centers of the northern hemisphere is unlike anything that we have seen since the global warming debate got to the absurd level it is now, which essentially has been there is no doubt about all this. For cold of a variety not seen in over 25 years in a large scale is about to engulf the major energy consuming areas of the northern Hemisphere. The first 15 days of the opening of the New Year will be the coldest, population weighted, north of 30 north world wide in over 25 years in my opinion.

The Climate Prediction Center discussion for their forecast also concurs with both of the above:"
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/30/major-northern-hemisphere-cold-snap-coming/

"French Revolution! Carbon tax ruled unconstitutional just two days before taking effect
29 12 2009

This new French carbon tax was scheduled to go into law on Jan1, 2010. The tax was steep: 14 euros per ton of carbon dioxide (USD $20). In a stunning move, and surely a blow to warmists everywhere, the tax has been found unconstitutional and thrown out. Originally found here (Google Translation).

Lord Monckton was kind enough to assist me in deciphering the meaning of the ruling and writes:

In France, if at least 60 Deputies of the House and 60 Senators appeal to the Constitutional Council, it has the power to pronounce on the constitutionality of a proposed law – in the present case, the 2010 national budget of France, which contained enabling provisions (loi deferee) for a carbon levy. The Council found that these enabling provisions were unconstitutional on two grounds: that the exemptions contained within the provisions for a carbon levy vitiated the primary declared purpose of the levy, to combat carbon emissions and hence “global warming”; and that the exemptions would cause the levy to fall disproportionately on gasoline and heating oils and not on other carbon emissions, thereby breaching the principle that taxation should be evenly and fairly borne.

The Press release from the French Constitutional Council is here in English (Google Translated) and in original French

Here’s a Deustch-Welle news article on the reversal."

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/29/french-revolution-carbon-tax-ruled-unconstitutional-just-two-days-before-taking-effect/

LindaL, that was a great interview on CTV with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He was statesmanlike, unflappable, and knew what the Hell he was talking about, unlike a few other politicians blowing only hot air.

Here's the link:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091226/harper_yearend_091226/20091226?hub=QPeriod

I'm confused.

The headline in the Globe and Mail:

"Harper to shut down Parliament," with the opening sentence: "Prime Minister Stephen Harper will prorogue Parliament Wednesday for a two-month break."

Further down the article, there are two quotes from Ralphie Badbeer: “if the government attempts this manoeuvre, it's a shocking insult to democracy,” and from Flubber Davies, that there's no legitimate reason to prorogue Parliament and to do so would be a “political scam.”

So, the Probe and Fail says the proroguing of Parliament is a fait accompli on the part of PMSH and the Opposition parties are making comments based on IF it happens.

What's actually going on?

Link to PMSH's proroguing Parliament:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-to-shut-down-parliament/article1414830/

Headline in the Probe and Fail: “Toronto airport tops list of worst delays” with no mention of the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference, 8th Convention, held in Toronto from December 25 – 27, which was attended by thousands of Muslims from around the world.

Would not the fact of at least hundreds, if not thousands, of Muslims flying out of Toronto at a time of this security emergency be a major factor in the delays at Pearson International Airport?

But who would know?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-airport-tops-list-of-worst-delays/article1414543/

Good pic 'Vit'. There is nothing like swing music.

Socialism: communism = nazism.

"The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" first appeared not in Auschwitz but on the Nikolsky Gates of the Solovetsky Kremlin. And but for one man, it could have become the first place with gas chambers for killing the innocent."
...-

"Closure of Soviet Concentration Camps Where ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ First Appeared Recalled

VIENNA – The theft of the sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which hung over the entrance to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz has not only sparked international outrage but also called attention to the place where those words first hung at a place of detention of the innocent in the 20th century – the Solovetsky Camps of Special Assignment in the USSR.

Seventy years ago this month, Yury Brodsky writes in today’s Novaya Gazeta, Stalin’s secret police chief Lavrenty Beria shut down the Solovetsky camps – but not before they both destroyed much of Russia’s intellectual and political elite and established the horrific precedent that Hitler drew from.

The Solovetsky Camps of Special Assignment – known by the Russian acronym “SLON” – were established in February 1920 in the prison in a monastery in northern Russian first erected and used by Ivan the Terrible to imprison anti-Soviet White Russian officers and men, Brodsky reports.

The name the Lenin-era officials chose is significant, he points out. “A priori, Solovki was intended not for people who had committed crimes. The obvious enemies of the Bolsheviks were usually killed immediately.” Instead, the SLON was “in the first instance for questionable people who represented a potential threat for Soviet power by the very fact of their existence.”

Among these “victims of the class struggle” sent there without trial were “lawyers who knew the basis of classical Roman law with its presumption of innocence, … historians [who knew a history that the Bolsheviks denied], … [and] officers capable of taking part in uprisings and clergy of all confessions, bearers of an ideology alien to the Bolsheviks.”

The Solovki prisons were "a forge of cadres" and "a school of advanced experience" for future concentration camps of the 20th century, Brodsky writes. The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" first appeared not in Auschwitz but on the Nikolsky Gates of the Solovetsky Kremlin. And but for one man, it could have become the first place with gas chambers for killing the innocent."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416377/posts

"Background: Last year our moronic socialist Legislature enacted "Islam Day" as a state holiday to honor the supposed contributions of The Religion of Peace (TM) to Hawaii. They added insult to injury by making the holiday September 24 of each year, right after 9/11."
...-

"No More Hawaii Islam Days
Hawaii Reporter ^ | December 29, 2009 | State Sen. Sam Slom (R)

Okay, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it. The latest airline bomb attempt by a radical Islamic terrorist flying to Detroit is the last straw. And the response by President Barack Hussein Obama vacationing in Hawaii today, and Secretary of Homeland Defense Janet Napolitani\o is a disgrace and embarassing. Daily, the evidence mounts that our intelligence and security is clueless. Despite spending more billions, inconveniencing American travelers more, the system and the process are flawed.

At the center of the failure is the continuation of giving Muslims a free pass in these terror episodes. And bureaucrats like Napolitano who should be fired. (Jailed if I were in charge)."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417754/posts

Thanks to 'batb' for posting the Harper Year-End interview video. If memory serves, interviewer Bob Fife has long ago deeply inserted himself up the sphincter of the Liberal Party of Canada. He was somewhat civil here but I wonder if underneath his facade was a deep hatred of the fact that he was talking with Harper rather than a Liberal PM.

Here's a powerful column by Christopher Hitchens about the current state of flying in the West.

This comment really struck a chord with me:

A while back, I was traveling internationally and I experienced some airport security that actually impressed me.

It started off in the check in line before I even got my ticket. I was approached by a sergeant in the national military and was asked a series of questions while he went through my bags. And I do mean went through my bags. He asked the usual ones about did I pack it, blah blah, and then he asked me

"What color is the bag on the inside?"

"When did you buy this bag?"

"Why did you buy this bag?"

He did the exact same thing for each and every one of my checked bags and my carry on. After that, I went and got my ticket and went through a metal detector and x-ray machine. Then I went through passport control, then another metal detector, then another passport control, this time with a brief frisk. After that, it was a third metal detector (not x-ray this time) and finally a full on frisk by another representative of the national military. Let me tell you, this was not a friendly pat, pat like what TSA gives you. This was a full on search like I was an enemy prisoner that they were concerned had a knife hidden somewhere on me.

After all of that, they stuck me in a windowless room with all of the other passengers until our flight was ready to board (About 1/2 an hour). There were no shops, no bathrooms, and only one room with men and women with automatic rifles posted at the exits.

What it gave me the impression of was people who had had issues with hijacking and terrorism before and REALLY didn't want it to happen again. People who didn't give a shit if I was inconvenienced or annoyed because they knew that it would be far more of an inconvenience for me if some asshole blew the plane up over the ocean somewhere.

When I think about the TSA procedures and I think about the procedures at this, foreign, airport I have to laugh at the TSA. The TSA are people trying to make us feel better without actually doing anything. The TSA are, as one person put it, "security theatre". As evidenced by the most recent episode.

By the way, in case you were wondering, the airport I was flying out of was the one in Maricaibo, Venezuela.

Yer AGW ticket, please, to the asinine MSM Headline: "New Parliament".

"New Parliament shut down
By THE CANADIAN PRESS"
...-

"A Cold and Snowy January (2010 ) in Store

A big chill across the northern and eastern half of country will lead to plummeting temperatures over the next few days.
Arctic air will push from Canada into the northern Plains by Thursday,

(Excerpt) Read more at accuweather.com"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417774/posts
...-

From the former Bishop of Rochester:

Michael Nazir-Ali, We Must Not Leave Afghanistan Yet

Not since the demise of Marxism has the world been faced with a comprehensive political, social and economic ideology determined, by force if necessary, to achieve hegemony over large parts of the world. I mean, of course, the rise of radical Islam, in its various manifestations, with its claim to be the only authentic interpretation of the religion. I am aware that there are many Muslims who reject such an interpretation of their faith and, indeed, there are secular forces in the Muslim world prepared to resist such programmatic extremism. We should not, however, underestimate Islamism's capacity for disruption and destruction and its desire to remake the world in its own image.

In the face of such an ideology, the international community must not lose its nerve. Any withdrawal from a political, military and even intellectual engagement will be seen by the Islamists as capitulation. Instead of leading to containment, it will only encourage even greater attempts at the expansion of power and influence of movements connected with this ideology...

No more AGW stuff, please, Mr. Forecasters.
This weather stuff is not funny; not fair, either.
BTW, is Choo-Choo in Calcutta?
...-

"India Meteorological Department: “It could turn out to be the coldest Calcutta winter ever.”

It’s 11.4 degrees and dipping

A STAFF REPORTER
The Telegraph, Calcutta, India, December 28, 2009

Calcutta is galloping towards the 10-degree mark with the Celsius on Sunday dipping to a decade’s December low of 11.4 degrees.

The minimum temperature touching three degrees below normal, the weatherman was eyeing the coveted cold reading “within 48 hours”.

An official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in Delhi said: “It looked a little uncertain on Saturday, but Sunday’s further fall seems to have sealed the deal, with the minimum temperature likely to be around 10 degrees Celsius by Wednesday. It could turn out to be the coldest Calcutta winter ever.”"

http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/india-it-could-turn-out-to-be-the-coldest-calcutta-winter-ever-%E2%80%9D/

Why is PM Harper shutting down Parliament for two months.... for the *Olympics*? Why hand the Opposition something else to use against the Conservatives? Makes no sense to me.

Many BCers are already irate at the cost of the Olympics, while our rural communities are struggling.

Perhaps we need a new federal conservative party, one that will get the job done and stop the political gamesplaying.

Slackers.

Perhaps we need a new federal conservative party, one that will get the job done and stop the political gamesplaying.

Kate, take note of the new "BECAUSE I AM A GIRL" campaign. CTV just ran an ad seeking sponsors for girls in developing countries. I did some Googling on this after our local supermarket handed out Viva magazine free at the checkout counter a week ago. A full-page ad in Viva: "BECAUSE I AM A GIRL." At the bottom, "a one-time donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill....etc...Donations are collected for the benefit of Plan Canada by the Mobile Giving Foundation..." If you start reading, get what comes up...the Copenhagen summit and Climate Change.

Mobilizing young female recruits for the cause.

As an aside, isn't this discrimination based on gender?

Re. the BECAUSE I AM A GIRL campaign:

http://www.becauseiamagirl.ca/

video of the Iranian police pulling a Dziekanski:

http://www.breitbart.tv/video-captures-iranian-police-using-vehicles-to-plow-into-protesters/

RobertW: "The TSA are people trying to make us feel better without actually doing anything."

'Exactly my feelings about the "security" at Pearson this past summer: Our bags were summarily scanned, while the "security" personnel chatted with one another, then we were summarily searched by the metal detector we had to walk through, again, while the "security" personnel seemed distracted and, frankly, unsure of exactly what they were doing. It didn't inspire my confidence. I prayed for a safe journey.

At the hairdresser today, I sat beside a former airline attendant. She admitted that most security checks are a joke. She figures that the only thing that would even begin to work is absolutely no liquids on board and thorough baggage checks.

The future of air travel isn't looking very good.

"Climategate on Finnish TV

As a couple of Finnish readers have reported, there is an excellent Finnish Climategate documentary with English subtitles available on Youtube. (I have a couple of cameos from my pre-Climategate interview)."

http://climateaudit.org/2009/12/29/climategate-on-finnish-tv/

"Transcript in English"

http://ohjelmat.yle.fi/mot/viime_viikon_mot/transcript_english

Hey Steve, who do we contact at CBC/Pravda to get them to air that documentary?

As if that'll ever happen!!!