Tonight, we witness one of those breathtaking, mesmerizing, awe-inspiring natural phenomena that reconnects us, for a moment, with our god-given sense of wonder, and sends an electric chill up our spines: here’s A bird ballet.
h/t Missy T
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
How crazy is thomas friedman? Judge for yourself, as he sees carbon taxes as a tool to fight islamism.
As Frontpage wonders, “If Thomas Friedman went stark raving mad, how would anyone tell?”
mhb23re
Obviously fake.
Anyone navigating a busy sidewalk will attest. Usually the 4th encounter will be of the nature “may I have this dance?”
Dwellingpole hits home . . .
“The EU has been the global laboratory testing the green agenda to see how it works. Today’s story means that the guinea pig died; the most important piece of green intervention in world history has become an expensive and embarrassing flop. It’s hard to exaggerate the importance of this for environmentalists everywhere; if the EU can’t make the green agenda work, it’s unlikely that anybody else will give it a try.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100212713/time-to-shoot-the-husky-dave/
Wow, EBD, the bird ballet is sublime. And what original, evocative music. Who are they?
And btw, many thanks for that website recommendation: American Digest, which I now visit regularly for some different fare. Conservative content with a bit of a liberal sensibility?
Does Canada have “in kind” donations?
http://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/trudeau-ad-shot-on-tv-set-of-degrassi-high-shows-producer-liberal-donor/
Justin needs to be saved! He’s being cyber-bullied! He might kill himself! Intervention now!
We are trying to catch California. Pray the greens never get elected
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bcvotes2013/story/2013/04/25/bc-green-party-poverty.html
mid island mike
California, the promised land..
Dianne Feinstein’s husband is doing well in the new high speed railway for California… $35 mil / mile from Madera to Fresno.
Note: this will be the cheapest, sorry, “least expensive” section of this bridge to nowhere.
http://www.maggiesnotebook.com/2013/04/dianne-feinsteins-husband-wins-big-california-contract-35m-per-mile/
“And that doesn’t include the cost of rolling stock (that’s engines and cars to the normal among us). Nor does it include the cost of electrifying the route. Does it at least include the cost of land acquisition? No, it does not.
As this fiasco progress, remember that this $35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it will be the cheapest.”
one of the many things that cannot be explained scientifically
“Senior Mounties told not to meet MPs without prior approval.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/25/pol-milewski-paulson-rcmp-mp-senator-meetings-approval.html
Check out this story on CBC.Ca, My comment merely stated that the CBC was putting a political spin to this story. The RCMP is, theoretically, a military unit. My guess is that they (Mounties) don’t want the press, especially the CBC, misinterpreting meetings and jeopardizing the safety of investigations such as the one that led to the arrest of the two Via Rail terrorists.
Needless to write, my comment never got printed
an older youtube posting, first part of a 7 part interview with Dr. Thomas Sowell. One of the questions he answers is “Are you an intellectual?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtzCjNKCLHE
I’m shocked to hear that he was once a Marxist. He sure grew up well. “It sounds better, but it just doesn’t work.”
Undead Reckoning
http://www.steynonline.com/5527/undead-reckoning
April 25 (Reuters) – Heavy use of the world’s most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson’s, infertility and cancers, according to a new study.
The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates that residues of “glyphosate,” the chief ingredient in Roundup weed killer, which is sprayed over millions of acres of crops, has been found in food.
Those residues enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease, according to the report, authored by Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant from Arthur D. Little, Inc. …
“Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body,” the study says.
We “have hit upon something very important that needs to be taken seriously and further investigated,” Seneff said.
Environmentalists, consumer groups and plant scientists from several countries have warned that heavy use of glyphosate is causing problems for plants, people and animals.
Thursday, Apr. 25, National Post. Dana Wagner, “consultant with the International Organization for Migration”.
The problem? The upcoming Munk Debates will feature all men, for the fourth year in a row.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/04/25/wagner-munk-debate/
DW: “… the failure by organizers to locate a single woman expert over seven debates either signals that women have nothing interesting to say, or there are no competent women with a profile to rival past guests.”
No, it just signals that the organizers chose only men this year, for whatever reason. Since it’s their bucks, they have the right to do it.
DW: “[In a recent article] Anne-Marie Slaughter highlighted the fault lines in good decision-making that excluding women creates. Without women, she argues, the conversation changes and is made poorer by omitting their different perspectives and approaches to global challenges. Following Slaughter’s logic, women are likely to hold distinct views on the upcoming tax debate.”
DW: “… the super-rich are overwhelmingly men. Women are therefore the relative have-nots, and would by definition differ from men in their views on redistributing wealth.”
Surely wealth should be distributed to those who earned it, and this position should be held by men and women alike?
DW: “A woman may also have a stronger sense of duty to her co-nationals, or her local community, again altering the perspective on how wealth ought to be spread. In notable contrast is the super-rich, mostly male, class that reports feeling stronger ties to foreign counterparts among the global elite than to less wealthy co-nationals, as recently detailed by reporter (and incidentally, a woman) Chrystia Freeland.”
DW: “This logic does not take sides on whether certain characteristics are innate to men or women, but rather assumes differences because of current, distinct gender roles both at home and in the workplace.”
In that case, perhaps a woman might have a weaker sense of duty to “co-nationals”.
If women have a “different perspective” on things, might that not in some cases include more interest in raising children and less in a career? Even feminists sometimes claim that women are more nurturing, which so far as I know is consistent with psychological observations over the years. So surely then it’s no wonder that there are fewer women in high positions in business or politics?
Like most leftists, the feminists contradict themselves at practically every step.
As for Chrystia Freeland, from reading her Globe columns one gets the impression that she’s a class-baiting, envy-promoting airhead.
George Jonas (in another article): “On most issues of public policy a debater’s sex is about as important as his blood type.”
The Jonas link, mentioned at the end of the previous post (which is caught in the filter at this moment):
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/04/25/jonas-2/
This flock of birds (Starlings?) looks pretty, but did anybody noticed, what is it, really?
It is a run for their life, escaping an attacking predator! You can see one if you try.
Just one of those facts of life…
Those starlings simulate what traffic on Yonge St. will be like after the Leafs win the Stanely Cup.
From the demented left file:
CHICAGO TEACHER SUSPENDED FOR BRING GARDEN TOOLS TO SCHOOL
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/teacher-suspended-for-showing-gardening-tools-to-class/
Madness fills the halls of pedagogy these days. Much as madness is the norm in policing-
NO-KNOCK SWAT RAIDS FOR MISDEMEANORS OVER 70,000 A YEAR
http://apainfultruth.com/the-issues/no-knock-warrants/
Then again both these trends may not seem to make any sense until you realize this overreach of authoritarian power is to condition you into accepting excessive abusive force when it comes from “authority”.
“Japan turns back to coal-fired power plants”
“The Japanese government is moving to speed up the environmental assessment process for new coal-fired power plants as its power sector struggles with a surging energy bill in the wake of the forced idling of much of the country’s nuclear power plants following the Fukushima power plant meltdown in 2011.
At present, it can take up to four years for approvals for new plants to be processed.
According to Japanese media reports, the government intends to make 12 months the maximum period for assessing and approving new coal-fired power plants as its utilities seek to develop more power stations to stem surging energy supply bills.”
http://www.smh.com.au/business/japan-turns-back-to-coalfired-power-plants-20130425-2ihb0.html
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/26/newsbytes-japan-kills-climate-agenda/#more-84942
Recommended: Vanderleun’s re-post of his 2011 essay Presence of Malice: Against the Conservative Portrait of the President.
Even more valid today than it was in 2011.
Our CBC Okonomics Glass: 1/2 full.
Reuters Badonomics Glass: 1/2 empty.
…-
“US economy expands at faster pace
CBC.ca 2 hours ago”
…-
“TSX slumps as U.S. economic data, resources weigh”
“market sentiment turned negative following U.S. economic growth data that fell short of expectations.” (reuters)
“Trudeau striptease should be praised, charity auctioneer says”
Headline on CBC.Ca this AM. My comment was, “Can you imagine if Peter Mackay would have stripped for charity what the headline would read. It’s also interesting to note that the great Pierre Elliot, in his many years as PM, never legalized stripping across this great nation.”
My comment will likely not get published.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/26/pol-conservative-trudeau-ads.html
Re: Starlings.
I deal with starlings with a 1200 FPS .177 cal air rifle. They are the worst pest in Canada, next to Liberals.
“SNC-Lavalin barred from bidding on Canadian foreign aid projects”
“over allegations of bribing officials in Bangladesh.”
http://www.windsorstar.com/news/national/Lavalin+barred+from+bidding+Canadian+foreign+projects/8296565/story.html
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“My moment with Moammar”
“dozens of the ungainly creatures, sitting, standing, and yes, fornicating.”
“Of course, Martin was also there representing Canadian interests in the region. SNC Lavalin …”.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/02/my-moment-with-moammar.html
“Syria warned over chemical weapons”
“Obama says US allies ‘could not permit the use of chemical weapons’ but stops short of saying red line had been crossed”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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“obsidian”
“Muslim slaying Muslim with poison war gas…….I have no problem with that.
Stay out of Syria let them kill each other.”
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2013/04/25/the-thin-red-line/#more-28722
“Current Ontario Wind Output”
“350 Megawatts”
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/marketdata/windpower.asp
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“Cold leaves EU crop development one month behind”
“Europe’s cold start to spring, marked by one of the chilliest Marchs on record, has caused a “very strong delay” to the development of winter grains, of more than one month, besides slowing spring sowing, officials said.”
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/cold-leaves-eu-crop-development-one-month-behind–5752.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/george-jones-country-superstar-has-died-at-81/article11568299/
Damn. One of the true greats of country music has died.
RIP George Jones. 1931- 2013