Reader Tips

I just don't even want to know why...

My very favorite scene of that movie. I so miss John Candy. Never be another like him. RIP - John.

They were so ahead of their time. Now every movie coming out of Hollywood has the mandatory gay scene. As a gay person once told me, "the cream eventually rises to the top". I told him "so does pond scum". Believe it or not, he took it personal.

World War 3.0

[...]

[ Although they may feel a certain kinship with one another, they are not an organized group. Their main point of agreement is that the Internet has changed the world forever, in ways we are only beginning to understand. They know that Order is impossible and that Disorder is unacceptable. They understand that the world is a messy place whose social arrangements come and go. But they are united in the conviction that what must be preserved and promoted at all costs is what the forces of Order and Disorder, in their very different ways, are both intent on undermining: the integrity of the Internet itself as a reliable, independent, and open structure.] Michael Joseph Gross

Judith Curry comments: I found this article to be fascinating, and it triggered some insights re the climate blogosphere. Our little slice of the internet is rife with hackers, anonymous characters, and a classic battle between control and chaos. Although in this context, the Smartian version CONTROL and KAOS often seems more apt :) The internet is enabling a substantial challenge to control of the climate dialogue by the IPCC and its defenders. I will seek to position Climate Etc. as an agent of controlled chaos.

http://judithcurry.com/2012/04/16/the-internet-world-war-3-0/

I almost had to take a shower after watching that (smile)

Oh ,Georgia, Crackerbarrel's and blackened catfish,and Ray Charles;

http://youtu.be/UMSQBfNVh0o

ron in kelowna.....that is why Curry is trusted by neither side. There is no such thing in the universe as "controlled chaos". Any true scientist knows there is only entropy. She flip-flops more between alarmist and sceptic than the sun rises and sets.

But why would the "Planes,trains and automobiles" scene come to mind?

Kate

Can you swing through Alabama on your way back and pick up a case of crackers? We're running short here in the Alberta election...

April 17 is the 30th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In honour of that, here's a list of proposed corrections for some of the errors in the Charter (cut and pasted from the original in Reader Tips on Jan. 9, 2010, with minor modifications):

- add a clause stating the fundamental moral principle of a free society, namely that no person has the right to initiate the use of force on any other person

- add a clause stating that the proper function of government is to protect individual rights, and that all legal judgments must reflect this

- add a clause stating that government itself must conform to the fundamental moral principle, and only use force to assist with individual self-defense, or in retaliation through the justice system against those who use it first

- s.1, the "reasonable limits" clause, should reflect the above three points

- add a clause noting that those who violate the rights of others stand to lose some of their own rights

- put the clauses in the correct order, i. e., define the proper hierarchy of rights starting with the right to life

- the rights listed in s.7 are fundamental rights, not "legal rights"

- in s.7, change "principles of fundamental justice" to "due process of law"

- in s.7, add a clause protecting property rights; given the current realities, there should be an exemption for taxes levied by governments that each must re-invoke every five years (in a similar manner to s.33(4))

- in s.7, add freedom of voluntary trade and of contract

- s.2(b) (freedom of expression, of the press and other media of communication) must be respected, with an end to government bodies that violate it, such as the CRTC

- in s.2(b), freedom of expression, speech, etc., must explicitly include the right to utilize one's own resources in the exercise thereof, and the right not to subsidize (including through taxation or other government revenue) those with whom one disagrees

- where s.1 is to affect s.2(b), any reasonable limits on expression or speech will generally involve threats of violence by a speaker

- in s.2(d), freedom of association must be respected, including the right not to associate with certain other individuals, which is clearly part of it

- s.3 should include a definition of a "free and fair election"

- in s.3, the right "to be qualified" to run for office should include clear instruction that only nominal obstacles may exist to election candidacy

- in s.6(1), the "mobility rights" clause must be explicitly subordinate to liberty in s.7 (e. g., people in jail outside this country cannot claim the right to enter Canada until they are freed)

- in s.6(4), scrap the affirmative action clause

- abolish s.15(2), the affirmative action subsection in the equality rights section

- in s.15(1), "equality rights" means that we all have the same rights, that the law must not discriminate between people on non-essential characteristics, and that government officials in the performance of their duties must not do so either; and a list of these characteristics should be added (race and sex obviously included) to prevent "reading in"; also, government should not hire (or fire) in a discriminatory manner

- scrap s.27, the clause requiring multicultural "interpretation" of the Charter (the remnants of s.15 should suffice)

- scrap s.28, the male-female equality clause (the remnants of s.15 will cover it)

- in s.23, all parents should have the right to have their children educated in either official language

- in s.24(2), the clause regarding remedies for bringing the administration of justice into disrepute should apply to s.8 and possibly the remainder of ss.7-14

- in s.24, remedies for violations of one's rights may include compensation (where circumstances warrant) but should rarely entail throwing out good evidence

- in s.33, the scope of the notwithstanding clause should be better defined; it should not apply to s.11(d), the right to a fair trial, for instance

- s.11, the legal rights section should cover not just persons "charged with an offence" but all proceedings in which a person or organization stands to suffer legal penalties imposed by a government body

- in s.11(d), the above point must explicitly apply to the right to a fair trial, which should be defined

- in s.11(d), the right to a fair trial does not potentially infringe on any other rights and can never be overridden

- s.11(g) should be understood to explicitly reject retroactive law, in criminal, civil and any other legal matters

- there should be one justice system, not a hodgepodge collection of real courts, phony tribunals, regulatory agencies, etc.

- in s.16(3), scrap the clause that says government may advance the use of official languages

- replace s.16(2) with a clause that states a province may choose one or more official languages

- combine the sections dealing with aboriginals, i.e., 25 and 35

- the Charter should be recognized to apply to the actions of all individuals, for themselves and on behalf of organizations, which includes government; in other words, the notion that "the Charter applies to government while human rights codes apply to private individuals" must be repudiated

- contradictory clauses must be resolved by the removal or modification of one or another (referring to the 2005 Gosselin Supreme Court case in which a judge said that one Charter clause cannot be used to invalidate another Charter clause - thus implying they contradict one another, an untenable situation)

@Kate:  As I make my way back from Georgia this evening, I'm reminded of this classic scene...   Hopefully your alleged and/or current travel experience wasn't too traumatic for the dogs on this latest excursion?   ;-)
.

@ nv53 under s.7 under property rights include the right to own and use firearms for hunting, sport or protection subject only to confiscation due to criminal conviction or mental deficiency....

The PM was shakin things up in Chile , apparently -- http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

Friday, Apr. 13. Jonathan Kay, whose columns used to make a lot of sense, until a few months ago.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/12/jonathan-kay-on-the-thrift-paradox-how-a-little-old-93-year-old-lady-from-florida-threatens-american-capitalism/

The story is about an elderly woman who had her 1964 model car repaired multiple times rather than buying a new one.

Kay: "The 93-year-old lady epitomizes what John Maynard Keynes called the 'paradox of thrift': Acting penny-wise is great for the Veitches of the world, but terrible for everyone else, since stingy behaviour reduces the high levels of aggregate demand on which a mass-retail capitalist economy depends. Not to mention the jobs of people who work for car, TV and sofa companies."

There is no such thing as a "paradox of thrift". All progress comes from individuals who find ways to make better or cheaper or more numerous products. A lot of their work is enabled through savings, i.e., unconsumed production, people putting money in the bank (where it is loaned out) instead of spending it. Keynes was a charlatan; reputable economists of the day declared that his General Theory contained nothing that was both true and original.

Saturday, Apr. 14. A reader named Zach Martin gives Kay some Econ. 101:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/14/todays-letters-vimys-legacy-defines-modern-canada/

"This article presumes the broken-window theory, a well-known economic fallacy. To carry Mr. Kay’s argument further, maybe it would be good for the economy if, once per year, we each set fire to our own house so that we have to buy everything again? That is foolish, because it destroys precious resources."

"In truth, long-lasting products are good for all of us. If we can make cars run for 50 years, those resources (materials, real estate, labour, etc.) that would otherwise be used to make new cars can now instead be directed toward other useful purposes — whatever the market desires."

@ nv53 at April 17, 2012 1:51 AM
" whatever the market desires."

Agree but there is one little problem. Whatever the market desires has been outsourced to other countries.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html

nv53

Sounds about what Dr. Dave should have been about if he wasn't a 10th level maggot.

When you say Georgia I tend to recall "The Night That The Lights Went Out", although now I'm kind of curious about Kate's "pillows".
How is the price of gas down there? Safe trip y'all.

According to the local TV news, Chilliwack RCMP on highway patrol stopped a guy driving 150 km/hr eastbound on Hwy 1, the limit being 110. The car was impounded. No big deal, right? A few hours later, they followed two high-end cars racing at 170 and 260 km/hr westbound. Somehow they got both to stop and impounded them. Turns out the driver of the first (slow) car mentioned was now a passenger in one of these other cars. Also turns out (no surprise here) all concerned were on student visas and were reportedly "19 to 21 years old" -- no doubt from a fellow member of the Pacific family of nations.

260 km/hr -- think about that next time you pull out to pass a truck at No. 3 Road. Those distant headlights in the passing lane ... yeah right.

Ted rips the dems a new one....

http://youtu.be/06XVt6zEr9E

Wondering why the CPC hasn't framed Mulcair in TV ads the way the did Dion & Iggy? Why they are letting the NDP hit the airwaves first?

Maybe because they want Mulcair/NDP to establish him as "Tom" and then contrast him with his record . . . catching him out as a two faced skank whos says one thing in French and another in English

"And then there’s Thomas Mulcair, the New Democrat who is the new Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. Ten years ago, he was a Liberal member of the National Assembly. On April 17, 2002, then Premier Bernard Landry put this motion to the National Assembly:

THAT the National Assembly reaffirm that it never acceded to the Constitution Act, 1982, whose effect was to lessen the powers and rights of Québec without the consent of the Québec Government, of the National Assembly, and that this Act is still unacceptable for Québec [PDF].

Mulcair — along with current Liberal premier Jean Charest, current PQ leader Pauline Marois and current CAQ leader François Legault — all voted in favour of Landry’ s motion.

So an important question for Mulcair — who will be presenting himself to Canadians in 2015 as an alternative to Stephen Harper for prime minister — Why does he think the Constitution Act “is still unacceptable for Quebec?"

http://blogs.canoe.ca/davidakin/politics/happy-anniversary-thomas-mulcair-why-do-you-hate-our-charter-of-rights-and-freedoms/

We had this thing called "The Sponsorship Scandal":

via Instapundit: Harry Reid urged government to allow conferences in Vegas.

Money quote:

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson defended the Majority Leader’s 2009 actions today, saying that the government fraud and abuse demonstrated in the GSA scandal could have happened in any city.

Heh.

"Wondering why the CPC hasn't framed Mulcair in TV ads the way the did Dion & Iggy? Why they are letting the NDP hit the airwaves first?"

The first thing I thought when I saw the ads was, "There is no election for over 3 years. WTF?". The second thing I thought was, "Why is this in English?".

AliBama's "Vive Quebec Libre!" moment.

Another reason for the ads, is that the corpse isn't cold yet, so Jacko gets dragged around for a bit longer, despite the 'best before' date is long past.

The Dippers are shameless.

Did you know the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has a SWAT team?

Did you know they just used that SWAT team to perform not one but two (2) raids on pig farms this week? No-knock raids, I might add.

http://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.ca/2012/04/put-down-porkchop-and-come-out-with.html

The farmer's crime was having the wrong kind of pigs. For real.

Lots of American regulatory agencies are quietly constructing SWAT teams and deploying them on smaller and smaller pretexts. This is not a salubrious development, you axe me.

Why commercials when there aren't elections?

So Mulclair can get his kick back a la Adscam.
He learned the grift when he was a liberal.

I don't have a link to hand, but Gary Bobrovitz of Global Calgary was reporting on Twitter (@garybtvnews) that Colleen Klein has purchased a Wildrose membership in response to recent critical comments about her ailing, institutionalised husband from our moral and intellectual "superiors" in the AB PC party.

Another Calgary Marc, I heard it as well, on 630 CHED radio news late yesterday evening. She is obviously not impressed with her now former party.

thanks to the moonbats, this will be coming here too eventually...wait for it and take solace in the fact that everything the mindless enablers of radical islam take pride in will be what the Norht American taliban attack first.

Afghan schoolgirls poisoned in anti-education attack
By Mohammad Hamid, Reuters

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2012/04/17/19642266.html

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday after drinking contaminated water at a high school in the country’s north, officials said, blaming it on conservative radicals opposed to female education.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/524443_10150693510708844_375117678843_9267090_1133934546_n.jpg

DOJ cell monitors and assists Trayvon Martin protesters:

___

Under President Obama, the group’s mission has expanded substantially. Officials are permitted to take on a more aggressive role, moving from a “reactionary” to a “preventative” stance, CRS Director Ondray Harris told the website Main Justice. And the categories that can bring in The Peacemakers now include gender, “gender identity,” sexual orientation, religion, and disability.

Martin’s killing set off vocal protests – led by Al Sharpton – demanding the arrest of Zimmerman. Faced with threats of escalating fury from the protestors, Florida officials arrested Zimmerman last week. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have both suggested sympathy for the protestors or for Martin himself.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, The Peacemakers have ended up offering advice and assistance to the protestors.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/04/17/secretive-doj-force-watces-trayvon-protests/

Just following up on the Tim Armstrong apologia for Bob Rae's government that was linked yesterday, I thought this might be of interest. The Globe article linked below is quite favourable to Rae, but it does document the resistance of the Ontario business community, the Toronto Police Dept. and some of the media to his government. The article concludes:

"There are lessons to learn here about the limits of left-wing politics in Canada. None of them are encouraging if you are a left-winger."

The article - and its encouraging conclusion - were written fairly recently (October 2010). I think most readers would be skeptical of that conclusion, given that McGuinty seems to have found a much more friendly habitat in Ontario than Rae found back in the 1990s.

Oh, and the image beside the headline of the article is priceless!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-hidden-history-of-bob-raes-government-in-ontario/article1749515/?cmpid=rss1

I found a link at the cbc about Colleen Klein joining the Wild Rose party.(:--)

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2012/04/20120417-080702.html

" to 80 per cent of their population is hooked on prescription painkillers, and they’re looking to the land to bring healing before it provides riches".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/04/17/tby-first-nations-healing.html

This will cost lots and change nothing,they hit on all the talking points. Jobs bring self worth,but that can wait because their inner native must be appeased first. Good luck with that. You won't find self-esteem on the back of a government cheque.

I would like to hear feedback from anyone who has been listening to the newscasts on AM770 Calgary Tuesday and how they are presenting the Danielle Smith "climate science" story.

Your moral and intellectual superiors.

here's a look at what will be giving the orders once the moonbats force the gov't to implement shar'ia law here...the picture hardly does him justice...and the Afghans won't either..he'll just wait around for the next mass escape.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/taliban-commander-turns-self-in-for-reward-on-wanted-poster/2012/04/17/gIQAbVjqNT_blog.html

Mohammad Ashan, a mid-level Taliban commander in Paktika province, strolled toward a police checkpoint in the district of Sar Howza with a wanted poster bearing his own face. He demanded the finder’s fee referenced on the poster: $100.

Afghan officials, perplexed by the man’s misguided motives, arrested him on the spot. Ashan is suspected of plotting at least two attacks on Afghan security forces. His misdeeds prompted officials to plaster the district with hundreds of so-called “Be on the Lookout” posters emblazoned with his name and likeness.

When U.S. troops went to confirm that Ashan had in fact come forward to claim the finder’s fee, they were initially incredulous.

“We asked him, ‘Is this you?’ Mohammad Ashan answered with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, ‘Yes, yes, that’s me! Can I get my award now?’”

4 Ways My Moviegoing Habits Changed After I Grew Up

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/04/16/4-ways-my-moviegoing-habits-changed-after-i-grew-up/

"I am so in," Michelle Obama said toward the end of her remarks. "I am going to be working so hard. We have an amazing story to tell. This president has brought us out of the dark and into the light."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/michelle-obama-president-has-brought-us-out-dark-and-light_640374.html

Louis Farrakhan may beg to differ.

Neo-AGW PR Report.

H/T Liberal Citoyen Kyoto Dionky.

...-

"The Green Page"

"Environmental group gives up charitable status to take on federal Tories"

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/environmental-group-gives-up-charitable-status-to-take-on-federal-tories-147806445.html

...-

"Canadian green group splits, thumbs nose at Ottawa"

"ForestEthics Canada also announced that high-profile lawyer Clayton Ruby will be a director of the new ForestEthics Advocacy."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/canada-environment-forestethics-idUSL2E8FHGY720120417

Levon Helm in "final stages" of battle with cancer:

"Please send your prayers and love," reads note on the Band drummer-singer's website.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/levon-helm-in-final-stages-of-his-battle-with-cancer-20120417#ixzz1sLWWMVC3

The cbc has a story up about how 'white' men are given lenient sentences compared to non-whites when involved in 'crimes of passion'. Unfortunately the researchers that produced the study count murders such as the 'Shafia slaughter' as crimes of passion,as well as other hounour killings. IMHO,that negates any findings. Honour killings are premeditated,not crimes of passion.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/17/ethnicity-killings-provocation-shafia.html

However,while looking up the people involved with the study,I came across this from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and the cbc have a very cosy relationship,about 85 redacted pages of coziness.

http://taxpayer.com/blog/02-02-2012/friends-benefits-ctf-finds-friends-canadian-broadcasting-cbc-payroll

I stumbled across this page and thought this was too funny. Very symbolic of this campaign.

Maybe this could be titled "Not your father's PC party"

http://www.alisonredford.ca/blog/

redford.votepc.ca BLOG

We're sorry, there are currently no posts available at this time.

With regards to Ron Leech, the wild rose candidate who said he had an advantage because he was 'white':

It's too bad he wasn't black; he would have gotten away with it then.

Mark Steyn,Onar Khadr,cbc,WTF. Happening now !!!

"I loath this charter"

We need this Canadian back.