Imagemaker preps minister

OTTAWA -- Taxpayers shelled out to pay a private image consultant to coach Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn for his televised appearance before a Commons committee in Ottawa yesterday.

http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/01/17/4777781-sun.html

Every society contains people who are seething with resentment against some individual or class -- sometimes with cause, and often without it. The creation of any quasi-legal bureaucracy to purge notional sins, plays into their hands. If that bureaucracy also subsidizes complaints, and strips all defendants of due process, of course it will be used for execrable motives. The complainant can't lose, the defendant can't win, under such a system. Canada's "human rights" commissions were designed to be abused.

From David Warren. It's an obvious one and my apologies if it's been linked to before.

Good evening, ladies & gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio.
Tonight, Mr. Sean Lomax. He whistles. Does he whistle. Check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_6xcPDHKMs

Mr. Levant now has two new items up:

How the complaint came about:

ezralevant.com/2008/01/how-the-complaint-came-about.html

Media coverage:

ezralevant.com/2008/01/media-coverage.html

Thanks for the Warren link, GDW.

A great article in Foreign Policy Magazine exposing how the European high school curriculum poisons kids against capitalism and retards the development of start-ups and holds their companies back.

In totally unrelated news, the BC government has a new course on the provincial curriculum - "Social Justice 12"

This course will teach kids that among other things, injustice is caused by the "ideology of competition".

Global warming protest frosted with snow

It snowed, but they still came. A heavy snowfall blanketed a global warming protest outside the State House in Annapolis this morning, but it did not dampen the shouts of about 400 activists who urged lawmakers to pass the nation's toughest greenhouse gas control law. [...]
Many of the protesters who endured the cold to chant "Stop Global Warming!" said they
didn't think the snowfall conflicted with their message. Davey Rogner, a 22 year old
student at the University of Maryland College Park, beat on an African Djembe drum to rev up the crowd. He said the snow was a "gift" to remind eveyone about how rarely Maryland has been blanketed with beautiful white in recent years as temperatures have increased. ...-
http://tinyurl.com/2b27p4 (baltimore sun)
http://tinyurl.com/2374w3 (.jpg)

Just think Iberia how much we could use all those millions wasted by Liberals on the sponsorship scandal. Man could we ever afford to pay for more consultants. Add a "L" to the start of your handle (as in "Liberia") where Paul Martin registers his shipping fleet so he doesn't have to pay Canadian taxes. Think of all the consultants we could afford if Canada had that tax money. You are part of a "tax and spend" organization. Canada finally has responsible government. It is laughable in the extreme for a leftard to castigate a conservative on spending money.

Geez, a different Bob, you need to read a bit closer. You are not addressing "I" beria, you are addressing "L" Beria...as in Laventry Beria...as in the murderous Russian (sorry, Georgian) enforcer of Stalin.

Hopefully this gives you a bit more insight into how to respond to him...someone who takes on the name of someone who killed thousands (or was it millions, lberia?) in cold blood.

Not that he's all that bad, as trolls go...I don't mind his moronic opinions...at least he TRIES to debate/inform, unlike some others.

SLY STALLONE TELLS WHY HE TOOK RAMBO TO BURMA INSTEAD OF IRAQ:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35279

""The phrase ‘politically correct’ is basically a euphemism for bold face lying because unfortunately, lies keep society functioning. The day we have our politicians actually tell us the real truth, we’d have anarchy in the streets. So we’re told what they think will pacify the masses not inflame them. So getting back to your question..I thought the idea of Rambo dealing with Al-Qaeda, etc. would be an insult to our American forces that are actually dying trying to rid the world of this cancer. To have at the end of a 90 minute movie the character of Rambo seizing Osama bin Laden in a choke hold then dragging him into the Oval Office then tossing him in the President’s lap declaring “The world is now safe, Chief” would be a bit insulting. We’ve seen today every film that deals with the Middle Eastern situation has failed because it is a subject people find incredibly painful to sit through while it is ongoing. Maybe ten years in the future a good film will be produced on the subject. Right now I believe revealing a situation like the ongoing genocide in Burma provides a compelling story simply because it is true and is the longest running civil war in the world – 60 years against a small group of Christian peasants called The Karen. Also, I wanted to keep Rambo in the Far Eastern jungles, where cinematically it would reflect his days in Vietnam.""

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Seems Rambo has become a reasoning sensate man in his old age...I applaud Stallone for publicising a subject that is discomfiting to the MSM as it is the US state department...a 60 year genocide by a brutal communist regime in Burma against the "Karen" people who are largely Christian...it is their faith and their independent nature that has made the communist regime enslave and murder them.

a different Bob: Intereesting that the standard response by Conservatives and their sycophants is "But, but, the Liberals...".

Eeyore: it warms my heart to know that you don't mind my "moronic opinions". I'm here to learn from the masters of moronic opinions.

(Via IsraPundit) More blog coverage of the Ezra Levant-Syed Soharwardy HRC complaint:

Heather Cook, The Suicide of Reason in Canada

Libby Purves, And God said, let there be Photoshop

Here's a fluff David and Goliath article for the end of the week:

Sparkling idea saves home of Perrier water

The French village that is home to Perrier water is celebrating a court victory over the brand's multinational owner.

Nestlé, owner of the sparkling water since 1992, is bristling over the cheek of a legal ploy devised by the council at Vergèze, near Nîmes. A court in Nîmes has rejected Nestlé's demand to annul a council vote to add Perrier to the place name Les Bouillens, where the spring is tapped. The existence of “Source Perrier-Les-Bouillens” effectively prevents the company from using the name Perrier to market water from anywhere else...

Islam: the veil is a jail.
...-

Saudi women's tales horrify UN

Hearings examine standard of rights. Committee accuses country of failing to meet international norms that guarantee freedoms
STEVEN EDWARDS, Canwest News Service

Members of a United Nations women's rights panel sat aghast yesterday as women in a Saudi delegation defended their status in their country without a hint of irony.

Marking Saudi Arabia's first appearance before the panel, the team seemed oblivious to the fact the testimony flew in the face of internationally declared standards.

"Women are flourishing in different areas ..." said Dr. Lubna Al-Ansari, one of the many women Saudi Arabia dispatched to testify before the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

"We can travel on our own. For instance, for me, I have permission from my husband, so I can move freely and go wherever I want."

Another delegate defended Saudi Arabia's ban on driving for women by saying it's a legacy of history.

"In ancient times, there were no cars. Women used to ride camels and donkeys. They used to participate in all kinds of transportation," the delegate explained. "When mentalities are ready, women will be able to drive cars."

A male member of the Saudi delegation focused on Saudi laws allowing polygamy, saying they restrict the number of wives a man can take to four.

"A man who is not confident about treating his women fairly should marry only one woman," he said. "One reason for polygamy is that the husband may have a strong sexual desire, and maybe just one woman will not necessarily fulfill all his desire."

He also described polygamy as "humanitarian" because it gives more women opportunities to marry and "covers the expenses" of more of them. [...]

With a team of more than 45, the Saudi government made its case with one of the biggest delegations ever to turn up for such a hearing. ...-
http://tinyurl.com/37mh3v

On the morning radio news broadcasts today there was a report about a Canadian arrested and charged in the US ... apparently seeking to contacts minors after luring them on the internet.

The newswire piece also included the information that the man is a CBC employee ....

Now I've been searching for this story on the wires and the net and can't find anything on it.

Curious.......

AIDS experts wonder if some money should be shifted to basic health issues
By Maria Cheng, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://tinyurl.com/3xedxl

Where are the "articulate and piercing tones" from" Avi Lewis' father? ...-

Kudos: Stephen Lewis - AIDS Matters
Stephen Lewis Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, doesn't mince words. In articulate and piercing tones, he consistently calls for more ...
www.aidsmatters.org/archives/136-Kudos-Stephen-Lewis.html

The struggle over the hijab reopens in Turkey:

Erdogan challenges ban on headscarf

Turkey’s Islamic-oriented prime minister on Thursday challenged a ban on women wearing Islamic-style headscarves in universities and public offices, saying there is no need to wait for a constitutional change to remove the ban, the state-run media said.

The attempts to lift the ban have alarmed secularists who fear the government is raising the profile of Islam in this Muslim but secular country.

...Erdogan insists that lifting the headscarf ban is merely a question of individual liberty but the country’s secular establishment, including the military, regards it as a political statement aimed at undermining the nation’s secular principles.

That's incredible maz2.

Will the women's rights panel buy this complete rubbish? Will they accomodate a different set of anti-women's rights for Muslim women and non-Muslim women living in fascist Islamic theocracies?

Appeasement does not work with Muslims. Criticism and exposure of their ideology and culture is vital. And then making it perfectly clear that the Islamic ideology including shariah is against international human rights and is completely unacceptable.

Anti-human rights shariah does not just affect Muslims in Islamic theocracies, it affects non-Muslims as well. Obviously, there's not an opt out clause.

If they want to join the human race, it is not the rest of the world who should accomodate a separate set of barbaric and savage laws from the 7th century. They must change.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/01/18/bc-nofreepastesting.html

we need to run out a new coin like the breast cancer one, but instead of a little ribbon on the back, lets send out a special tooney with the center removed.

Imprisonment for three years in a high-security facility after conviction for "hate speech" is only excessive?

OSCE protests jailing of Belarus editor who printed Muhammad cartoons

There seems to be an inability, in Canada, for our legal and bureaucratic system to accept or assign responsibility.

Today, the legal case against the head of the Canadian Red Cross, Dr. Perrault, was dropped. He was in charge during the 'tainted blood scandal' which saw 1,000 infected with HIV by his unscreened donors, and over 20,000 infected with Hepatitis C. This means that there is no-one to whom responsibility is assigned or accepted for this disastrous effect. Is that 'the Canadian Way', of relativism, which rejects individual responsibility?

The Liberal Party was involved in a massive money laundering scenario, which was them transfer millions from the taxpayer to the Liberal party, to pay for election campaigns. Again, the real culprits escape responsibility; the money remains lost to the taxpayer.

The Air India bombing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. After decades, Canada cannot assign responsibility.

Somalia. Nothing. No-one is/was responsible for nothing/something.

Caledonia - a mess of hearsay, relativism and no solution.

An enormous, hugely expensive 'long guns registry', which has no effect on crime but does provide wellpaid, securely unionized jobs with many benefits and pensions to many Maritimers. Meanwhile, since no respectable criminal is going to register his gun, gun crimes are increasing across Canada.

Oh- and Dalton McGuinty in Ontario, who campaigned fiercely against funding FaithBased Schools, insisting on a public and common school system, has, a few months after being reelected, changed his mind. He's now promoting Black-Only and 'afro-centred curriculum schools in Ontario.

iberia: Are you only now discovering that ALL politicians overspend/waste our tax dollars????

Obviously any sane person wants to minimize the waste (you can't stop it). And you're also surprised that people think "Liberals" when they think about government waste and corruption???? All governments engage in this. It's just that the Liberals have got it down to a fine art...

Dalton McWimpy - Enabler of Indian extortion:

----------------

Developers in a wide band of Ontario's economic heartland claimed by aboriginals say they have been left to fend for themselves by the provincial government, forced to choose between seeing their projects blockaded or paying a little-known, self-proclaimed First Nations bureaucracy to leave them alone.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=244786

Wonder how much taxpayers will pay to make over Dion's image for the coming debates. How much are we paying for his english lessons-seems a waste of money.
Listening and reading to his defenders re Pakistan, I think it is time to get a subsidy for spinning wheels. Who was it that promised to spin gold from something. Impossible to improve that Dion.
Could someone explain the new rules for mileage for cars. Will that be 35 mph in ideal conditions, or 35 mph is speeding or bucking a strong headwind or bad road conditions.
Bet that is another prediction, sorta like Y2K, Global cooling/warming, that will get lots of press but fall short of expectations.

Here we go again, Mayor Miller is on TV demanding a ban on all hand guns in Canada. Says PMSH must work with the US re this.
He does not mention how he will keep handguns out of criminal hands.
Maybe putting the young punks in jail instead of giving them bail would be a start. Maybe giving these punks long jail terms would help also.
Maybe quit being so politically correct, and admit that there is a gang problem in TO and most of these gang members are from the same country.
Maybe deporting the little darlings would help.
Maybe he should look in the mirror to see where the problem starts and ends.
And maybe the voters of TO should start to realize that they are a big part of the problem by electing these people.

Goreacle denies: nyet, nyet, nyet, aka no, no, no. Weather replies: da, da, da, aka yes, yes, yes.
...-

"neighbor Georgia, whose climate is subtropical, already plunged to as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius. Lake Paliastomi in the western Georgia froze for the first time in 50 years, reports Rustavi-2 television."

Russians Brace For The Big Chill

Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russians are bracing for temperatures of as low as minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit) in Siberia as Russia's emergencies ministry warns on Wednesday of its impending dangers in the coming weeks. [...]

Bloomberg reports that worst hit will be the Siberian region of Evenkiya, while neighbor Georgia, whose climate is subtropical, already plunged to as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius. Lake Paliastomi in the western Georgia froze for the first time in 50 years, reports Rustavi-2 television.

Average temperatures in large Siberian cities in January usually range between minus 15 degrees Celsius and minus 39 degrees Celsius, according to data from weatherbase.com. ...-
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009739004

National Post editorial on Dalton McWimpy
-----------------

Dalton McGuinty's pathetic response to Caledonia is an embarrassment. The Premier is so petrified of being accused of launching into another Ipperwash-type confrontation -- where, God forbid, an aboriginal, and not just a white real-estate developer building a home for his daughter, might get hurt -- that he is willing to risk turning large parts of his country into a lawless enclave.

Mr. McGuinty is endangering Ontarians, and undermining the rule of law. He should instruct his police force to take back Caledonia for its rightful owners -- working with the military if necessary -- and deal with any shakedown artists working under colour of the HCI as the criminals they are. The rule of law must take precedence over the PR needs of a gutless government.

Scores dead in Afghan cold snap
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kabul [...]

"Local people are saying the winter conditions have been the most severe in decades.
The cold spell is also affecting neighbouring countries." [...]
"At the other end of the country, the north-east, people say recent snowfalls have been the heaviest for 20 years." ...-
http://tinyurl.com/ywlzay (bbc)

Canadian Human Rights Investigator Posts at Stormfront

Wow. We’ve discovered a new form of troll, as Mark Steyn reveals that Canadian Human Rights Commission “investigators” are posing as “hate crime” perpetrators—by posting comments at the neo-Nazi site Stormfront: SteynOnline - Agent provocateur.

Yes, really. I wonder if we have any of these human rights trolls here at LGF?
...-

However, as it happens, the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission controversy is not short of agents provocateurs. Want some names?

Okay, step forward, senior CHRC “human rights investigator” Dean Steacy, last heard from in these quarters explaining that “freedom of speech is an ”American concept“. Mr Steacy likes to hang out at the ”white nationalist“ website Stormfront and post under the name ”Jadwarr“, as the CHRC quietly conceded just before Christmas:

1. Do any investigators post on Stormfront.org?

I am not aware of any investigator other than me, who has posted on Stormfront.

2. Getting back to Jadewarr, do Commission employees sign up accounts on Stormfront, under pseudonyms such as ”Jadewarr“?

I used the Jadewarr email address to create an account on Stormfront. I am not aware whether or not other investigators have created other accounts on Stormfront. ...-
http://tinyurl.com/242lyl (LGF)

I wonder, if someone like Dean Steacey, who is a member of the Canadian Human Rights (sic) Commissars, and also, posts on a white nationalist website under another name, is acting as such an 'activist' for white supremacy, because he believes in such an agenda.

I wonder if it's a valid claim that he is doing it, to 'smoke out' people who believe in that agenda. After all, the website is based on such an agenda; it's hardly hidden.

Does he simply want to drum up business for the HRCs? Does he have someone who will file a complaint, based on what he goads people into saying?

Or is he, like so many of our leftist friends, a hypocrite, who behind the posing front of relativism and 'tolerant' condescension, actually has a darker side of intolerance?

Can someone straighten me out here? This a.m. I read in the Ottawa Citizen that 2007 tied for the second hottest year on record: http://tinyurl.com/ypgl7d. Last week I thought I read that the earth has not actually warmed in the last ten years. So which is true, or am I missing something?

Beria: " Taxpayers shelled out to pay a private image consultant to coach Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn for his televised appearance" -- they all use image consultants for TV appearances and other public performances. We live in an age of a media saavy public and if you don't pay attention to image (if you are in the public eye), you won't be taken seriously. That's just the way it works.

Mid-East suffers rare cold snap
By Crispin Thorold
BBC News, Amman
[...]
" ... temperatures in the region have fallen to exceptional lows." [...]
"The Middle East is a region used to extremes of temperature - but not ones like these."
[...] "This cold snap has been caused by a weather system that began in Siberia."

From comments: "Have you been affected by the cold weather in the Middle East?"

"This week the ice has not thawed on our goose pond as we have had nights of -3 to -6 and the winds have been 35-48 kmh clear and cold at 740 meters
Nathanael Kinstein, Eli Shomron, West Bank Israel"

"I have lived in Kuwait for the past 26 years and I can say this is the coldest yet. Also, no rain has fallen which would make the weather milder. This is the first time people are actually staying indoors at night!!! Of course sales of heaters, blankets and quits has quadrupled so there is benefit for retailers (the past years have been very mild and no winter colthes were worn!)
Mayada Homad, Kuwait"

"I haven't seen snow like this since I was a child growing up in the heart of Damascus. It is spectacularly cold outside, a welcome sight amid all the heated conflicts in the Middle East!
Hazem Bard, Damascus, Syria"

"I live in Riyadh and the weather has been the coldest I remember! I love it!
Majed, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"

"It seems that God decided to turn the Holy Land into a big refrigerator about 10 days ago. I use to go outside, late at nights, for years, to do some excercise and the cold strikes you now in the face, even if you are well-covered.To add salt to injury,the wind sarted blowing. Only one thing I don't understand: how Shackleton and his friends survived much much longer and in much much colder conditions.
Simcha, Hod Hasharon, Israel" ...-
http://tinyurl.com/265dvq

But, it's only one stuffed envelope. But, it's a brown envelope, contains Canadian taxpayers' money and a Librano$ brochure. Angry is waiting for more. But, Angry says, "One is enough, though.".
Deja vu, again.
...-

Are Stephane Dion's supporters stuffing partisan Liberal pamphlets into Universal Child Care Benefit envelopes?

This is simply shocking.

The Universal Child Care Benefit is the program brought in by the Conservative government that issues monthly payments to every family with children under the age of 5, amounting to $100 per child per month.

The Liberals, of course, offered a universal daycare program, funded through tax increases, but in all likelihood only available to eligible families based on income.

We receive our benefit by direct deposit, but many Canadians receive their benefit by cheque sent in the mail.

This month, one person is reporting that his envelope was stuffed with partisan Liberal Party material, issued by the office of the leader of the opposition, Stephane Dion.

Allegedly, someone is using the bureaucracy to distribute partisan Liberal pamphlets and to use a government program to target specific Canadians with tailored Liberal Party messaging. ...-
http://stevejanke.com/archives/252437.php

SomeGuyInOttawa, LindaL and Sowhat:

Like I wrote to a different bob at 10:37, it seems that the standard Conservative (or sycophant) response has now become "But, but,the Liberals...". Ethics and accountability from "Canada's New Government" are surprisingly similar to those of "Canada's Old Government".

Latest Stephane Dion video: Don't take a chance on Dion
http://stevejanke.com/archives/252415.php#respond

el Reuters has this story at the moment:

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Israel has a right to respond to security threats but should not collectively punish the Gaza population for rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory, the U.N. humanitarian affairs chief said on Friday.

Let me see now. Palestinians rocket Israel 110 times in the last three days and the UN says closing the border is too strong? Well, if WWII we just bombed every German who moved; is that better?

This is what happens when you try to be nice to your enemies.

Is it too much for us to expect that the chair of the Ethics Committee would know something about Ethics. First, one of the questioners is being sued by the person he is questioning.
Next, the chair Szabo is asking for many documents that he can't have access to without going thru certain hoops.
For many weeks I posted that nobody can get your tax information without that person giving you permission. Now we see, (nnw) that Szabo has asked the auditor general to review Brian's tax returns and guess what, he has been told SHE CAN'T DO IT, without Brian giving her permission to access them. And, it is only necessary for a person to keep their tax records for 6 yrs back from your last assessment. These records might no longer exist at Rev Can. Would you give Szabo permission to look at your tax returns.
Jan 28 the committee starts up again. Wonder what cbc reporters are writing their questions.

Scores die as messianic cult attacks religious pilgrims

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/19/iraq.violence/index.html

I don't get it, isn't that like Catholics slaughtering Baptists to celebrate Easter?

Ha - funniest line about Citoyen De-Yawn yet on his inability to grasp the concept of armed force versus diplomacy:

Asked about the NDP spending their retreat in a nice resort....

"A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to comment on the issue.

"We're all constantly watching out the window in case (Liberal Leader Stephane) Dion decides to use NATO forces on Parliament Hill," said Harper's spokesperson Dimitri Soudas. "As for your question, you should direct it to the NDP. It's their event."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=cdb0e31e-73fd-47c9-86bc-d1dc0619aecc&k=14846

Read this on the background behind the Chalk River mess.
A real eye-opener and of course this was going on under the libs; incredible!
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/295589

Lots of flak out there re a manual listing the US as a place that endorses torture. Has anyone got information on when this manual was written/drafts/etc, and when it was printed. Were any changes made during the process in another effort to embarass the conservatives.
Stranger things have happened. Just think of all the attempts by the mainly liberal civil service to twist things. I expect the media to do as much to report what should have been printed instead of what was printed, sort of like what Dion did say re Pakistan and the spinners telling us what he meant to say. After all, fair is fair.

MSM fails to do basic fact checking