'City is safer' after gang crackdown: T.O. chief

But how long will they be behind bars?

IMO - a little late in the game no?

We'll be watching for the revolving door at the courthouse to get spinning.

How long before the "Activists" get on with the "Oppression" and "Racism" charges. I think I hear the drums banging already!

“Navigata is expected to be cash-flow positive in mid-2004” - 2002 SaskTel Annual Report

“It’s projected to be profitable this year.” - Maynard Sonntag, April 22, 2004

“We anticipated that Navigata would be income positive during this year. I think it is fair to say that we’re concerned that it may not be now.” - Maynard Sonntag, December 2, 2005

“In 2004, this was a company that had 13 business plans in a five month period, a company that had no strategic direction,”

That is from a SaskParty e-mail.

$72 million down the sewer so far.

Former Lieutenant-Governor Louise Thibault is going to be having a high-level meeting...with the cops.

Sharia marches on (aided by an increasing number of idiots):

San Diego Arab public school implements shari'a - forms taxpayer funded madrassah

June 12, 2007

Carver Elementary - San Diego Public School Bows To Sharia

June 12, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Those having doubts that New York Department of Education's proposed Arabic school - Khalil Gibran International Academy - will inevitably turn into a madrassah should consider how a similar experiment in the San Diego Unified School District is turning out.

In September Carver Elementary school [kindergarten - eighth grade] accepted nearly 100 students from a failed charter school which served a Somali Muslim constituency.

The school population now numbers approximately 400.

Though these kids are now being educated within the wall of Carver, they have not been incorporated into the main student population and operate as a school-within-a-school, segregated elite with special privileges.

The controversy became a matter of public record when a substitute teacher Mary-Frances Stevens made a report to the local school board in which she claimed that Carver's Muslim children were being led in Islamic prayer by a teacher's aide. Steven's, who subbed at the school on March 8 stated that the lesson plan she was given included the allotting of one hour for prayer.

The teacher's allegation of religious indoctrination led to an investigation.

In true multicultural fashion, the school has gone to extreme lengths to accommodate its new students; the curriculum features the teaching of Arabic - the language of the Quran - single gender classes for girls as well as organized prayer...for Muslims only.

A new dhimi class schedule - expressly designed to kow tow to Carver's new students - was instituted. It created an extra 15 minute recess period as part of an hour set aside so that Carver's Muslims can pray en-masse while in class. Additionally, the school cafeteria menu no longer serves pork or other foods which conflict with fundamentalist Muslim diet restrictions [halal].

Even Carver's "winter holiday" celebration has not escaped the wrath of this brand of extreme multiculturalism, ripping the heart out of what was formerly the Christmas holiday by injecting extraneous cultural artifacts; as the San Diego Union Tribune notes:

"The school's winter holiday celebration featuring multicultural performances was a big hit. African-American, American, Muslim and other traditions were celebrated.
"Carver has always been sensitive to the different cultures and always looked at the variety of cultures we have as an enrichment, not a problem," teacher Pamela de Meules said." [source "District wants to provide options," by Helen Gao http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20070412-9999-1m12carver.html]

Confronted by an apparent double standard which elevates Muslims over Christian and Jewish students, school principal Kimberlee Kidd attempted to explain, "I think there are so many misconceptions."

The actions taken by Carver's officials have made them agents whereby Sharia [Muslim religious law] has been extended into a region of the public domain where heretofore an ACLU interpretation of church-state separation has prevailed.

On that note, the local ACLU is still "considering" its options in this matter…don't hold your breath.

The unequal treatment on display at Carver is manifest, especially when seen in the light of how requests by Christians who have petitioned to have their prayer needs accommodated are routinely denied by public school officials. It goes without saying that public school cafeteria menus have seldom if ever been modified to accommodate the religious needs of Orthodox Jews who also must not eat pork.

As we have noted in previous articles regarding New York's proposed Khalil Gibran International Academy [The Khalil Gibran School - Government Funded Da'wa, New York Set To Open A "Public" Jihad School, The Khalil Gibran School - Government Funded Da'wa] Islamists across the nation are taking advantage of and in some cases actually working hand in hand with public school administrators whose hostility to American traditionalism is palpable.

This explains the left's embrace of radical Muslims.

The latter are intent upon shoving Sharia down the throat of the majority culture and multiculturally bound extreme liberals [which includes many school administrators] are happy to have allies which help them continue the attack on the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of America.

When a gang of 8 was nabbed in Brampton after break and enter and holding up family at gunpoint, one thug was released immediately - an illegal immigrant. It sounds like make work project for police, does not it?

Join the debate: is Harper "ordinary" or not?

Here's a helpful definition of "ordinary" to help the discussion.

Inspired by.

Debate on Danny williams and the Accord at the HFXNews. It's getting lively.
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=37046&sc=89&comments=submit&#thankyou

Yes, if only Prime Mnister Harper was a "reeho" like dion.
BTW, interesting article in the Post recently describing struck-dumb dion's farcical inability to conduct a simple conversation in English at a book signing. On the other hand, perhaps it was divine intervention, simple mercy to those within hearing distance.

Report shows media undermining American Values:

A new survey commissioned by a media watchdog group claims the news and entertainment media are damaging the nation's moral values.

The Culture and Media Institute (CMI) has published a report called "The Media Assault on American Values: The conflict between the media, personal responsibility, and respect for religion."

The report finds that 68 percent of Americans say the media have a negative impact on moral values in this country. In addition, 73 percent say the entertainment industry is having a negative impact.

At an event in Washington to unveil the report, CMI director Bob Knight argued the more a person watches television, the less likely he is to accept personal responsibility for his actions.

"We believe that the figures show clearly that the more TV you watch, the more you want to depend on the government," Knight explained.

"The people who are heavy TV viewers, by 63 percent, think government should be primarily responsible for our healthcare," he continued. "Sixty-four percent believe government should be primarily responsible for retirement. That's a good deal higher than the light TV viewers and the overall findings."

According to the report, "heavy television viewers" watch four or more hours each evening; "light" viewers, one hour or less.

The report also shows the more a person watches TV, the less likely he is to value religious principles and obedience to God. "So there's something happening out there," Knight commented. "If you watch a lot of TV, you think maybe your problems are someone else's problems."

Read all at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/06/report_shows_media_undermining.php

Can someone enlighten me as to the big tadoo on this Atlantic Accordian? I thought it was that that the Atlantic provinces can keep the equalization plan they have now or opt for a new plan. Now all I hear in the MSM is that PMSH broke promises and is ripping off the maritimes. Just what do they want, a third option?

Seems like the Canadian MSM has a bone and they are trying to run with it.

The promise was that any new equalization accord/deal would preserve the cap. That was the promise that was broken.

HARPER TO PAY OUT 2.5 BILLION TO NATIVE EXTORTIONISTS:

http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/topics/harperplan.html

Notice how this blackmail payment heads off the infamous day of native insurrection June 29.

I bet these chicken sXXt Tories were crapping through their teeth fearing having to use a proper marshal solution to Native terrorism....but hey...the public has deep pockets right Steve! Better a payoff than a fight ...or doing your duty to uphold the rule of law.

happy days at CBCpravda.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/06/13/lawsuit-saskatchewan.html

Perhaps someone can help me out here, but I read a story yesterday about the Mayor of Toronto once again blaming gun violence in that city on the US and their culture. I can't find the link again...

Another story on the white-elephant registry: Gun registry just as costly under Tories as Liberals.

And Ted's as full of shit as his leftist house organs.

They have a choice. They can keep the deal they have, or opt for a potentially richer deal, without the same guarantee.

Irwin:

I happen to think that the accords that Martin signed with NL and NS which created the cap were very bad for the country. He sold out equality among the provinces for votes.

But then Harper in the last election and in writing afterwards promised NL, NS and Saskatchewan that they could keep those caps and that if there was any new equalization deal it would preserve those caps. Which he clearly promised in order to win votes.

Like I've been saying since Deceivin' Stephen announced his cabinet which included an unelected and unaccountable senator despite promises... meet the new boss same as the old boss. Or put another way, meet the federal boss same as the Ontario boss.

Please Kate, don't ever lead us over to rabble/babble again. I feel stupider just typing it here.

*
Man gets house arrest for baby beatdown...

"A Madoc man who attacked a four-week-old girl..."

I'm gonna be sick.

*

TO Red Star editorial board endorses PM Harper.

This is a major event for the Canadian MSM. The left-liberals-socialists have taken a big hit.
Go, PM Harper.
...-

Toronto Star | Editorial: New Atlantic deal is more than fair

To understand the war of words now raging between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, it is necessary to go back two years to the time that former prime minister Paul Martin caved in totally to demands from the two Atlantic provinces to have their cake and eat it, too.

At that time, the premiers insisted their provinces not only keep all the money they were collecting from the offshore oil and natural gas fields, but that Ottawa also pay them the full equalization payments they would have received had they not had oil and gas.

In the end, Martin acquiesced after Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams removed the Canadian flag from all provincial buildings. ...-

Comments:
#1.

Harper has to be in the right if the Toronto Star is supporting him.
It looks like the ROC is finally getting annoyed with the Maritimes. This will definitely make things interesting.

Comment by Dan | June 13, 2007

#2.

Frame it. It may be a long time before you see another like it.

Comment by Jack | June 13, 2007 ...-
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2007/06/13/daily-column-190/#comments

Purdue Researchers Create Scientifically Accurate Animated Simulation of 9/11 ...-

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849679/posts

Commenter asks:

Does it show all the joooos not showing up for work that day?

"Harper has to be in the right if the Toronto Star is supporting him."

Hold on. Better give that some more thought. I would have presumed the opposite.

Here is the sneering rhetoric from Canada's national broadcaster, aka Pravda. It's complete with the "gutting" image.
CBC has, however, eschewed the use of: Harper is a bully.
Notice the words: "once against".
...-

Offshore bargaining not over, MacDonald insists
CBC.ca - 8 hours ago
Premier Rodney MacDonald is once against [sic] trying to come up with a way to rescue the offshore accord after lobbying against his federal Conservative cousins for effectively gutting the deal....-
google news

Re: Equalization: As I understand it the premiers met four times to thrash this out and had no agreements.

The Conservatives said if the Premiers could not agree they would have to step in and come up with a plan themselves.

The Liberals had appointed a guy named O'Brien. The Conservatives wanted to exclude resource revenues; O'Brien wanted to exclude only 50% of the resource revenue and 7 out of 10 provinces voted against excluding 100% of the resource revenue as the Conservatives had proposed.

So, the Provinces voted down excluding 100% of the resource revenue - thereby nixing Stephen Harper's election plan.

O'Brien also wanted to nix the Atlantic Accords outright. The Conservatives fought to keep them intact thereby keeping those contracts but also allowing NL & NS the option to opt into the O'Brien forumula - whichever is best for them.

So - who broke the promises? The Premiers themselves voted down 100% exclusion of resource revenue.

So maybe Lorne Calvert should sue the other provinces who voted this down?

Ted:

"promised NL, NS and Saskatchewan that they could keep those caps"

You're wrong.

Firstly, there's no "Saskatchewan" accord, and the last time I checked, Saskatchewan isn't in the Atlantic and thus not covered by the Atlantic Accords.

The basis of the lawsuit ISN'T about a broken promise or contract, as there isn't one. Calvert is launching a constitutional challenge. He's claiming that the new equalization formula isn't fair to his province. You see Ted Saskatchewan, because of it's plethora of natural resources, has become a have province. And the point of equalization is to bring the have-nots up to the level of the haves. It's pretty hard to justify that a have province has an ENTITLEMENT to equalization (welfare) when it is a have province.

Lorne, like Dannyboy, has won the lottery and wants to keep collecting his welfare cheque.

Reid is correct on SK but Ted, you are still incorrect on NFLD and NS.

They are pissed at having to choose between Martin's bastardized accords with NO CAPS or the new formula more money but WITH CAPS.

Danny Millions and the "I'm entitled to my entitlement" welfare queens want no cap on the amount they can earn and still hoover what doesn't belong to them. It's scummy and wrong and disgusting. What is even worse it the A$$holes in those provinces seem to be backing the idea that you should be entitled to free money from Ontario and Alberta no matter how much they're earning.

I'm so pissed at that lot of deadbeat welfare leeches I'd like the whole lot thrown out of confederation.

Now that idiot dipper in SK is trying to pretent he's entitled to other people's money as well. At least he's going to be decimated next election. Danny millions is sitting at 70% approval. I guess every good, responsible NFLD'er is in Alberta and only the degenerate A-holes are left on the rock.

Kyle, here's one: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/06/11/gun-mayors.html?ref=rss.
Just love CBC's choice of words "America's well-financed and influential gun lobby". Never mind the millions of gun owners.
There must be some sort of genetic trait for big-city mayors. They sound remarkably similar.

Regarding the Toronto police department's crackdown on 'gangstas':
Any chances of photographs of these vermin- just in case some of them are living next door?
(Nope- they got 'rights'.)
Any chances of seeing the taxpayer paid legal aid bills to defend these maggots?
(Haha- in yer dreams.)
Previous convictions?
(None of yer bizness)
How many of their baby-mommas are on welfare?
(That's client confidentiality).
Ya Smucks! (And you are worried about Muslims?)

Regarding the Toronto police department's crackdown on 'gangstas':
Any chances of photographs of these vermin- just in case some of them are living next door?
(Nope- they got 'rights'.)
Any chances of seeing the taxpayer paid legal aid bills to defend these maggots?
(Haha- in yer dreams.)
Previous convictions?
(None of yer bizness)
How many of their baby-mommas are on welfare?
(That's client confidentiality).
Ya Smucks! (And you are worried about Muslims?)

Regarding the Toronto police department's crackdown on 'gangstas':
Any chances of photographs of these vermin- just in case some of them are living next door?
(Nope- they got 'rights'.)
Any chances of seeing the taxpayer paid legal aid bills to defend these maggots?
(Haha- in yer dreams.)
Previous convictions?
(None of yer bizness)
How many of their baby-mommas are on welfare?
(That's client confidentiality).
Ya Smucks! (And you are worried about Muslims?)

Ted: As one of the minority here at SDA who appreciates the contrarian view you bring to this blog, on the issue of Harper vs. the Maritimes we will agree to disagree.

I refer you to Coynes weblog and his take on the issue. I wholeheartedly agree with AC. They can take the Accord or they can take the latest budget offering, either way NS & NL win. That being siad PMSH is being taken to task for comments he made as opposition leader, a job that your beloved leader would give up at the first opportunity, when his reason'd'etre (sp?)was to oppose.

As a conservative I am not happy with the performance of this (his?) gov't but when we continually cave to the whims of the provinces where is the strength of what we call a Federation?

Ken

Here is a great rant from a Brit on the Trouble with Islam.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=418_1176494781

Worried about contracting West Nile?

"If you get bit by a mosquito infected with the West Nile virus, there’s a 20 percent chance that you’ll develop West Nile fever. Even if you bit by a mosquito infected with the West Nile virus (not likely) and you develop West Nile fever (even less likely), there’s just a one in 150 – .67 percent – chance of developing a severe illness!"

http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/022246.php

happy days at CBCpravda

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/06/13/lawsuit-saskatchewan.html

RE: " Gun registry just as costly under Tories as Liberals."

They also seem as happy to stage police raids on the homes of owners for paperwork errors:

http://www.thepolitic.com/archives/2007/06/04/harper-stelmach-register-this/

Texas Canuck:

The News Media Wacko Wags are attempting to create a crisis over the Atlantic Accord.

Gormless Calvert, Premier of Saskatchewan, thinks he's in on the Accord deal too, though he's not close to the Atlantic. Anyhoo, he's going to sue the Government of Canada, we the people. The kicker is Harper did suggest to the Easterners if they feel their deal was broken, they can sue so looks like old Forlornie is taking the bait.

Makes for silly politics and nothing more.

Also on the dumb moves by Lorne Calvert today subject..

Apparently he doesn't get it, farmers voted to get RID of the CWB...

"Sask Backs Wheat Board Suit
June 13, 2007

Equalization isn't the only legal fight the province is picking today.

The Government of Saskatchewan is also joining in the fight to keep the Canadian Wheat Board from losing its monopoly over barley marketting...

And, it's putting up $30,000 to back the suit organized by the "Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board" against Ottawa. Starting in August, western barley producers will have marketting choice -- this, after a plebiscite that critics felt was set up by the federal government to be one-sided, in order to end the monopoly.

Sask Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman calls it money well spent, fearing Saskatchewan producers stand to lose $40 million a year, by having barley removed from the wheat board."

Source: Newstalk650.com

According to CTV "Friends of the CWB" is 12 barley producers.

http://unclemeat.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/how-about-a-little-golden-shower/

Liberal senators may defy Dion on budget bill

Joan Bryden, Canadian Press
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=0ec9d422-ed0a-436f-8b9a-d69306f44cdf&k=61063&p=1

Citoyen Dion says, ""It's even the law," Dion said of the Senate's responsibility not to block budget bills."

The western MSM did not use the words "civil war" re the civil war in the Gaza strip until about 12 hours ago.

Now, the western MSM asks the question below.

Who would stop this internecine slaughter between Muslims? Let them fight on to the death. ...-

Can the West Stop a Civil War Between Palestinian Parties?

ABC News - 1 hour ago
A Palestinian woman pleads with a gunman from the Fatah movement as he stands on top of an armored vehicle during a demonstration against the factional fighting in Gaza City, Wednesday, June 13, 2007....-
google news

Sad to say this about another human, but humanity is better off without Rorty's sophistry.

Suicides surpass executions on death row
AP via LA Times ^ | 06-132007 | AP Staff

Posted on 06/13/2007 4:09:14 PM PDT by Amerigomag

SAN FRANCISCO — With the latest death at San Quentin State Prison, suicide has supplanted execution as the second leading cause of death on California's death row. The leading reason for inmate deaths is natural causes.

Tony Lee Reynolds' death Sunday was the 14th suicide — one more than the number of condemned inmates executed in California since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

There are now 666 inmates on death row, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Executions have been halted for 16 months by a federal judge who ordered prison officials to revise lethal injection procedures to ensure that inmates don't suffer unnecessarily. The moratorium will stay in place at least until construction of a new death chamber designed to address the judge's concerns is completed.

San Quentin Prison spokesman Lt. Eric Messick said .. the average stay on death row is 17 1/2 years, ...-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849761/posts

I don't know about it being the law, but Senate defeating any part of budget implementation legislation will be a disaster for the Liberals, so they won't do it.

If they do there will be an election, not because it is a matter of confidence; rather the government will argue it can't function without the ability to carry out its fiscal plan. That's an election Libs don't want, despite their bluster of late, and they will prove it again.

*
hile the Pope's busy takin' out a fatwa on Amnesty International...
Mexico decides to see if they can slip one in.

" -- MEXICO CITY, June 13 (Reuters) -- Mexico City's leftist
lawmakers plan to legalize prostitution..."

*

Political Correctness

This is nothing short of brilliant.

Following is the winning entry from an annual contest calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term: Political Correctness.

"Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Canada Post wins NAFTA challenge:

3w.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070613.wupss0613/BNStory/Business/home

Now I wonder if Emerson and Harper will change the law so that Canada Post will lose the next time it gets taken to court.

Border still being blamed for drop in U.S.tourists here

June 13, 2007

By Justin Holmes

Ask Tom Pearson, owner of Camp Narrows Lodge and former president of the North Western Ontario Tourism Association, about what’s keeping tourists out of the area and he won’t hesitate to speak his mind.

“As past president, our major issue was the border,” he said Tuesday. “And that’s from everybody. You go to any meeting and that’s the number-one thing that comes up.”

Pearson said the major reason American tourism has taken a hit in the region in recent years is that many anglers and others are turned away for “minor criminalities”—crimes committed by young men that are held against them in their middle age at the border.

“Some people are crazy when they’re young,” he remarked. “If they started doing the same thing at the other side of the border to Canadians, it would be a big Canadian issue. . . .

“Think about it this way—if you couldn’t bring your family to Florida when you’re 45 for something you did when you were 20, there’d be a problem here...

http://www.fftimes.com/index.php/1/2007-06-13/31193

what your national news media things is a top story. CBCpravda "All Khadr ,All the time"

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/06/13/khadr-release.html

AS ANYONE who has tried it will know, unrequited love is no formula for happiness. Albania loves America—but does America love Albania?

It should, if it values courage and loyalty. Albania has sent troops to Iraq, and to Afghanistan. It has accepted former prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, the only country to do so, and now plays host to a handful of Chinese Uighurs and two North Africans.

It has done this, and welcomed George Bush, despite being a majority-Muslim country—thereby disproving the stereotype that Islam equals anti-Americanism.

One young Muslim Albanian told me of her pride that Albania stood side by side with America in the war on terror. The world sees all terrorists as Muslims, she said, but Albania shows that a Muslim country can be part of the struggle against terror.

Some 70% of Albania's 3.6 million population is Muslim—Sunnis, or followers of the Bektashi Sufi sect. The Bektashis are gentle mystics, influenced by Shia Islam, and have their worldwide headquarters in Tirana.

Economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9321421
==================== Economist.com
= TG

Grok makes a good point at 4:03 above, about 18 comments down.

26 Muslim Islamist murderers (taliban), including several commanders, killed by Afghan police.

More, and, faster.
...-

26 militants killed in 2 southern Afghan operations, Interior Ministry says (AP)
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2007/06/14/4259570-ap.html

"If it were an animal it would be something squirming and hairless, something that burrows maybe, with no eyes and too many legs."

"The American left has turned into a skittish, hysterical old lady who lives in the past, falls for pseudo-intellectual garbage, and runs from real conflict or responsibility..."
(arts&lettersdaily)

The American Left's Silly Victim Complex

The biggest problem with modern American liberalism may be the word itself. There’s just something about the word, liberal, something about the way it sounds – it just hits the ear wrong. If it were an animal it would be something squirming and hairless, something that burrows maybe, with no eyes and too many legs. No child would bring home a wounded liberal and ask to keep it as a pet. More likely he would step on it, or maybe tie it to a bottle-rocket and shoot it over the railroad tracks.

The word has a chilling effect even on the people who basically agree with most of what it stands for. I myself cringe, involuntarily as it were, every time someone calls me a liberal in public. And I’m not the only one. When I called around for this article about the problems of American liberalism to various colleagues who inhabit the same world that I do – iconoclastic columnists and journalists who’ve had bylines in places like The Nation – they almost universally recoiled in horror from the topic, not wanting to be explicitly linked in public with the idea of the American left.
“Fdgk that,” responded one, when I asked if he wanted to be quoted in this piece. “I’d rather talk about my ...-
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/71/The_American_Lefts_Silly_Victim_Complex.html

We owe failed immigrants no apologies
Daphne Bramham, The Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007

...For years, the Indo-Canadian community has been demanding a formal apology and a memorial and a commemoration of what happened to the passengers. And documents recently released to CanWest News Service indicate that the Conservative government is considering doing that, along with apologies and redress for dozens of other ethnic communities with historic grievances....

...In today's parlance, the Komagata Maru passengers were illegal migrants. They may have couched their arrival in political terms, but they were no different from the Chinese who came by the boatloads in 1999 and no different from Koreans who arrive in Vancouver and pay someone to smuggle them into the United States...

...But Canada cannot accept everyone who shows up at our doorstep and nor could it 90 years ago. It's unfortunate, but it's not something we need to apologize for.

http://tinyurl.com/3dqgae

Afghanistan's silenced female voices
Khorshied Samad
National Post
June 14, 2007

...The statistics are staggering. Afghan women still suffer the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with an estimated one Afghan woman dying in childbirth every 30 minutes; one out of four Afghan children will not live to see their fifth birthday; illiteracy levels hover around 96% for women in the rural areas; the average lifespan for an Afghan woman is 44 years, 10 years younger than the average for women in the region; Afghan girls continue to be married off at puberty due to poverty and cultural traditions; and domestic violence is a rising social problem, reflecting the wounded psyche of a traumatized nation. The latest statistics may have improved slightly, but conditions still wear away at the hope and optimism people felt when the Taliban were driven from power in late 2001.

And yet some Westerners -- including some politicians and activists right here in Canada -- want to abandon the Afghans once again, as the West did in the early 1990s, to the poisonous agenda of extremists...

tinyurl.com/29nrnu

Afghanistan's silenced female voices
Khorshied Samad
National Post
June 14, 2007

...The statistics are staggering. Afghan women still suffer the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with an estimated one Afghan woman dying in childbirth every 30 minutes; one out of four Afghan children will not live to see their fifth birthday; illiteracy levels hover around 96% for women in the rural areas; the average lifespan for an Afghan woman is 44 years, 10 years younger than the average for women in the region; Afghan girls continue to be married off at puberty due to poverty and cultural traditions; and domestic violence is a rising social problem, reflecting the wounded psyche of a traumatized nation. The latest statistics may have improved slightly, but conditions still wear away at the hope and optimism people felt when the Taliban were driven from power in late 2001.

And yet some Westerners -- including some politicians and activists right here in Canada -- want to abandon the Afghans once again, as the West did in the early 1990s, to the poisonous agenda of extremists...

tinyurl.com/29nrnu

FBI sponsors Axis of Evil show in funny attempt to recruit Muslims

..."It's so nice to be standing in front of the FBI and not be handcuffed," quipped Ahmed Ahmed, an Egyptian-American comedian and one of the performers at an FBI-sponsored comedy show during an American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee convention.

"Today's FBI. It's for you," said posters promoting the law-enforcement agency at the annual event attended by 1,000 people in a ballroom at a Washington, D.C., hotel on the weekend....

tinyurl.com/24k52h

Axis of Evil Comedy Tour
axisofevilcomedy.com

Regarding the Duke rape case:

This week's issue of the New Yorker (www.newyorker.com) has a fairly long article describing the conduct of the prosecution. The alleged victim offered ten different versions of her story, was unable to identify the men from a photo array that included other men who were not at the party, and only made an identification when she was shown a photo array that only consisted of members of the lacrosse team - a process inconsistent with correct police procedure.

One of the boys identified by the woman was able to produce cellphone and ATM records that showed he was not at the party at the time of the alleged assault. The other woman hired denied any assault had taken place. No DNA evidence was found for any of the team members. The medical exam did not find any evidence of rear penetration, which the victim insisted occurred. The victim was so intoxicated as to be nearly passed out when police picked her up.

But by god, they were rich white boys who were drunk, so they must be guilty. The inconsistencies in the evidence, credibility of the witness (who had placed a false rape charge some years ago, which she later withdrew), and errors in procedure were all known to Nifong, but he plunged ahead, motivated by political correctness and a desire to win re-election.

This is what infuriates me about the PC crowd; if you're rich, white, and male, you're automatically guilty of something.

Mind your own affairs, war museum boss tells senators
Don't start meddling in cultural institutions, Rabinovitch says

..."Hopefully, they haven't told us what to do because if they were to go down that path, of course, today they would tell the museum and tomorrow they would tell the CBC and then who knows what next," Victor Rabinovitch, president of the war museum's parent organization, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, told reporters yesterday...

tinyurl.com/23z94e

Another Rabinovitch. Is he related to Robert Rabinovitch, CEO of CBC?

Anyone here actually read Rorty?

*crickets*