Apparently there was a big debate about LibAnon in the White House before the SOTU address.

Given that “The only requirement for LibAnon membership is the desire to stop being a Liberal” Bush figured there would be a ground swell for membership in this election year give the choice of ‘Rats.

Therefore Bush wanted to include it as part of the Stimulus package because he figures there will be a lot of liberals mugged by reality this year and more self-help outlets like LibAnon are going to be needed if the ‘Rats are to recover. Then Karl Rove said “self-help is self-help” and that was the end of that idea.

Imagine my surprise one sunny morning when I find a very large number of the most intelligent and aware people in Canada discover my little blog at the same time...
Thanks Kate!
Best,
YBM
PS- I am adding you, belatedly, to my link list. No, too late to protest, I'm doing it.

Program alert - CTS Michael Coren Show has announced the guest panel on the subject of Human Rights Commissions for today at 8pm Eastern. Bloggers Kathy Shaidle, Mike Brock, Paul Tuns, and......no, it's not WK. Anyone got the answer as the graphic stayed on too briefly for my aging peepers?

Taliban Rae-Citoyen Dion Liberals: Surrender monkeys.
...-

"Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae says it's time to reassess Canada's goals in Afghanistan and come up with an exit strategy that reflects those outcomes."

News Alert

Canadian Premiers Channeling Al Gore !!

The annual meeting of Canadian Premiers has been interrupted by severe winter conditions and a blizzard that has shut down the city of Vancouver.

Gore does it again.

Update: Vancouver mayor refuses to "go Toronto" and refutes rumours he is requesting the Army be called out to shovel snow.

An amazing article entitled "First They Came for the Gays" about the rise of Gay bashing in Europe at the hands of muslims.

I would suggest that one could expand on that article considerably by simply changing the title to:

"First They Came for Europe"

The Article here:

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/01/first_they_came_for_the_gays.php

The 'character defect' in Liberals is that they don't know they carry the dreaded 'character defect' of being a Liberal to begin with.

So they will never seek help.
They're helpless and hopeless.

MadMacs of Bytown, CTStv.com offers the following program note for the Michael Coren show:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2008
We discuss the latest battle pitting Canada's human rights commissions against some of the country's most vocal freedom of speech advocates with bloggers Kathy Shaidle and Mike Brock, legal expert James Morton and Interim Editor Paul Tuns.

Might be a little too late to put this horse back in the barn.

On January 14, U.S. Representatives Joe Barton (R-TX) and John Shimkus (R-IL) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting an inquiry into the marketing of carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) echoed their concerns in accelerating its green marketing guideline update.

“We don’t want carbon offsets to become the 21st century version of snake oil and patent medicine.”

http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/File/News/1.14.08_GAO_Carbon_Offsets.PDF

Yeah, snowing in Vancouver. About 5CM so far here. Waiting to hear if the schools are closed. Really. It's not like the rest of Canada out here. Forecast is for rain Thursday, so that will take care of it.
In the meantime, read Yaacov's post. Well written and enlightening. Thanks for that.

The socialist pyramid scheme is melting.
Down with marketing boards, down with "medicare", down with the CBC.
All of these are sliding down the slippery slope to oblivion. Push harder.
...-

"They ["some western farmers"] say it's the start of a slope that could see the government do away with marketing boards, medicare and the CBC." (CanPress)

Hugo has a new Evita.

“Cristina Fernández replaced her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as Argentina's president on December 10th, ….. a week later a prosecutor in Miami accused five men of trying to cover up an alleged effort to funnel Venezuelan cash to Ms Fernández's election campaign.

Guido Antonini Wilson, a Venezuelan businessman …arrived in Buenos Aires from Caracas on a private jet chartered by Argentina's state energy company, clutching a suitcase with $800,000 in cash …..”

http://www.economist.com/cities/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10438525

Liberalism is a disease (or according to the latest advanced medical research in this area - a serious addiction with physical, emotional, and other mental debilitating attributes).

That is why it is so good to see groups like LibAnon and their outstanding 13 step program in action.

(My church holds twice weekly LibAnon meetings and it is overflowing. When you hear the testimonials of people overcoming their urges to buy the Toronto Star or watch the CBC - it is so uplifting. Sometimes they talk about the interventions where their colleagues and families confront this bizarre behaviour and get them into a program. Or hear the case of a friend of mine who broke into a Macs Milk and stole a whole rack of Stars - fortunately he was caught - and the judge decided to exempt him from criminal charges provided he completed the LA program and stayed 'sober'.)

People don't realize that this addiction is insidious because it sneaks up on you. You spend years watching NBC or CNN or reading the NYTs and suddenly you can't stop. You start hanging out with 'addicts' in dark alleys and you start hitting rock bottom. You can't take a long flight because you know you'll get the DT's without a Liberal fix - so you always have - at least - an iPod with something by Dion or Layton to play.

Anyway, God love LibAnon and the great work that they do.

If it looks like a vagrant, and smells like a vagrant..(oh wait it's a Green Party Candidate):

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=270367

Gang plotted to behead Muslim soldier 'like a pig'

Four Islamic extremists pleaded guilty today in a plot to kidnap a Muslim member of the Armed Forces from Birmingham City Centre and behead him "like a pig"...

...the jury at Leicester Crown Court was told that Khan was "a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views", and headed a Birmingham-based network gathering money and equipment to send to Pakistan for the use of "terrorists".

Bret Stephens, The Gaza Breakout

What if Gaza were to conquer Egypt? The possibility is not as remote as it may seem just by glancing at the map.

Egypt has more than 50 times the population of its former colony and 2,800 times the landmass. But Gaza is sovereign Hamas territory, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt -- not Israel -- is the country that has most to fear from a statelet that is at once the toehold, sanctuary and springboard of an Islamist revolution...

wsj.com/article/global_view.html

Maz2 “The socialist pyramid scheme is melting”

Your comments remind me of Jack Welch’s theory of management. Neutron Jack took the attitude that if a GE subsidiary was performing well then it would be given more capital, if not performing, then starved of capital.

Ottawa has not performed for half a century. So, PMSH is starving the Capital of capital. Capital is being invested more directly in other subsidiaries .. the Provinces

Without “marketing boards … the CBC” there will be no patronage perks in Ottawa to buy off the identity group supporters of Liberals. Once starved of their smug identity addictions; then they are going to have to go on the wagon and attend LibAnon.

Thanks,Charles MacDonald, for the Coren update.

Gobi Desert - Institution closings due to Vancouver area inclement weather-

http://tinyurl.com/3xsanb

Call out the army!!

Lovely new flap in Ottawa re bilingualism for bus drivers: http://tinyurl.com/332nvd
Ottawa "claims" to have "practical" rather than "official" bilingualism. Strangely this issue is not being reported by the Ottawa Citizen. I wonder why?

Truth about the $4 billion a year black-hole known as CIDA from a Senate February 2006 report:
-------------------

Recommendation #2 stated: "Given the failure of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Africa over the past 38 years to make an effective foreign-aid difference...

[...]

The reverse is true in Canada: Nearly 80% of CIDA staff are employed in office towers in the National Capital Region.

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=270436&p=2

In the meantime, read Yaacov's post. Well written and enlightening. Thanks for that.
Posted by: gobi desert at January 29, 2008 10:57 AM

Amen to that! Referring to lead item on Reader Tips above: Addicted to Sneering: Why The Left Taunts the Tiger

Let's face it: most of us could, at the drop of a hat, come up with a ten bullet list of insanity symtoms of diseased lefty-thinking BUT we usually don't get to the bottom of the WHY -- the payoff. Yaacov presents a very interesting and original theory in which he uses for his raw materials a typical liberal letter to the editor equating the treatment of women in NA to the Islamic world, gamblers, and even that recent zoo tragedy in which a tiger-tormentor paid the ultimate price.

Re: Lib Anon

This is just another example of rightoid rightards failed humour. The failure comes about because of their egotistical superiority complex. I'll call it ESC for short.

ESC on its own is manageable, however its manifestation in the rightoid rightard brain leads to dream like hallucinations.

The wildest hallucination is that they are thinking in a critical manner. While they in their SDA sheeple like mentality think they have solved all the secrets of the world, just the opposite that holds true.

As a liberal this warms my heart because this overtly smug cock-sure attitude makes them vunerable.

Your tax dollars hard at work - we need a study on Islamic banking for Canada.
--------------------
TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress wants the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. to stop a study considering the introduction of so-called "Islamic banking" to Canada.

The organization, which says it represents Muslim moderates across Canada, has sent a letter to the CMHC asking it to abandon the study.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/01/29/4799825-cp.html

The UN-endorsed sleaze just never stops, does it?

Intelligence Service Blasts Spy Story

The Foreign Intelligence Service blasted allegations by a former double agent that Russian spies helped the government siphon $500 million from the UN's oil-for-food program, in a statement released Monday.

Sergei Tretyakov, a former spy at Russia's mission to the United Nations from 1995 to 2000, said he oversaw an operation helping Saddam Hussein's regime manipulate the price of Iraqi oil sold under the program, allowing Russia to skim off some of the profits.

...Tretyakov says as the deputy head of intelligence at the UN mission he recruited spies including a Canadian who became a UN nuclear verification expert, a senior Russian official in the oil-for-food program and a former Soviet bloc ambassador...

Why I won't raise my daughters in Pakistan, either

Zack does the legwork and provides possibly the best summary of women's status in Pakistan relative to other countries in the West, the Subcontinent, and the Middle East that I have ever seen. He uses the invaluable Pew Global Attitudes Survey (PDF) as is source. The results paint a grim picture of Pakistan as generally falling far behind other countries in the comparison, such as Bangladesh and Egypt, on attitudes about whether women should be educated or have a say in their marriage options...

"Egotistical superiority complex", yeah, right. Were you looking in the mirror when that popped into your mind Liberal Ron?
It's tough being a Liberal these days, not much to find humor in, no laughing matter. Well not much aside from your so-called leader who doesn't know his ass from his elbow. It's also fitting his sidekick, leader-in-waiting, is in bird land, so it all fits.

Suicide by tolerance
Lorne Gunter, National Post
[...]

"Call it suicide by tolerance. The Western world with its institutions of democracy and the rule of law, with its advances in science and medicine, its progress in individual liberty, its historic devotion to reason and its developments in culture and the arts will disappear because its own elites could not be proud enough of its achievements to defend it from within."
http://tinyurl.com/3y9bb8

I just put up a piece about gaza at the top of www.darrellepp.com. I hope you can check it out.

Liz J

Dion is not my leader nor will anybody be that's waiting in the wings! Your comment in a nutshell sums up the rightoid rightard brain. Guilt by association is a slippery slope to oblivion.

Just because I'm a liberal doesn't automatically put me in the Lieberal $ocialist camp. In fact just the opposite holds true. I've been a vocal critic of all things contrary to the original tenets of Liberalism.

NOstradamus maz2,

Your full of poop, take a laxative and relax!

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/01/29/isotopes-keen.html

is too high? was too high? still too high?

has it failed, will it fail , can it fail ?

we can all can stop at 1:100 to cross the street.

Until all the liberal appointed department heads are kicking horseturds down the road we will all be held in perpetual fear and liberal loathing of us hoi polloi. die you cancer patients, we have a one in thousand chance of an earthquake, acutually she has way overrated that possibility.

Hey OttRob - the fact that MCC is arguing against the idea is a moderate stance indeed.

Despite the statement that Islam compliant banking in Canada is rare in Canada, this is not the case.

Any large, multi-national bank operating in Canada has Islamic compliant vehicles for savings and loans.

Seems the moderates at MCC are acting both with their consciences, and wallets.

and OttRob - you're right. Taxpayer funds being wasted in a 'study', where private enterprise has prosecuted and entered into these markets years ago.

Sad thing is, there is so much money wasted in bureaucracy and government, the sheer size of government and its' myriad of institutions creates massive inertia, and large resistance to change.

For two years now, the Conservatives can't crater an obsolete arm of Central Planning (the CWB) - a vestige of serfdom - that does not apply to all Canadians.

How, do we as a nation, rationalize the shackling of some citizens, but not all, in being free to sell and direct the product of their labour?

One of the symptoms of Alcoholism is that you don't have it. This same symptom would no doubt apply to Liberalism.

Super liberal friends certainly seem in denial of anything that flies in the face of promotion of liberalism. Denial is not a conscious thing, it's not that an individual consciously denies something; it is far more insidious than that.

I absolutely resent that the federal government is being pressured to put our tax dollars into the auto industry to produce gas guzzling vehicles that pollute the environment.
Then, on the other hand they are being pressured to close down the very producers of the gas these guzzlers need and shut down Alberta which gives consumers the salaries to BUY the gas guzzlers Ontarion produces.
I am especially incenced that Ontarion is planning to produce the inefficient muscle car, the Camaro and they want OUR taxes to subsidize this???
What is wrong with this picture????

Liberal Ron,

Good on you for fighting against the leftards that have taken over the Liberal party.

That having been said, I think that Maz2's comment is valid. There seems to be a self-effacing component to the left that is so strong that support of Canadian cultural mores cannot be carried out because of this very self abuse and without support, even the very best will suffer and even die.

Good enough reason not to allow Turkey to join E.U.

Turkish parliament to debate headscarf styles
Relaxed ban does not extend to teachers or burkhas

"PM Erdogan's wife Emine has the right style"

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/01/29/44875.html

The Breath of the Beast is fantastic reading. Thanks for pointing us there, Kate.

Afghan to date;
Military Fatalities By Country:
Country Total
Australia 4
Canada 78
Czech 1
Denmark 9
Estonia 2
Finland 1
France 12
Germany 25
Italy 11
Netherlands14
Norway 3
Poland 1
Portugal 2
Romania 5
South Korea 1
Spain 23
Sweden 2
UK 87
US 482
Total 763

Saudi Arabia - 18 brutal murders so far this year, all commited by the government.

"Saudi beheads Nigerian woman"
AFP Published:Jan 29, 2008

RIYADH - A Nigerian woman and a Pakistani man were executed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca today for drug trafficking, the Saudi interior ministry said.

Ghulam Nawaz was beheaded by the sword after being found guilty of drug smuggling in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. In a separate statement, the ministry said Tawa Ibrahim, the Nigerian, was beheaded for cocaine trafficking.

Their executions bring to 18 the number announced by Saudi authorities since the start of the year, after a record 153 people were put to death in 2007.

Thanks for the stats 'puddin and pie'.

Total 763. Man in WW1 they would have called those the stats for morning tea time!

Obviously still nasty for the families who have lost someone but on a comparative basis night and day.

Cheers

Seems pine beetles are used to justify global warming policy in by the bozo who got left behind:

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=328051b5-3be3-4464-95f0-52e2445ba53b&k=42270

"Just because I'm a liberal doesn't automatically put me in the Lieberal $ocialist camp. In fact just the opposite holds true. I've been a vocal critic of all things contrary to the original tenets of Liberalism."

Liberal Ron is having an identity crisis. In Public. On a Conservative blog.

If I had any hope for the aboriginal people of this nation, this deluge of fecal matter has crushed it...

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/298174

The Indian Industry churns along, screwing the aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike. One for money, and the other to get more money.

I think a comment to Yaacov's blog is worth repeating here for those who didn't catch it.

Irad ben Zvi said...

Excellent essay, Yaacov.

You reminded me of an old childhood friend who graduated from Harvard, then UC Berkley grad school, and finally became a professor of Germanic Studies.

His father is Jewish, and his mother Irish Catholic, although he was raised a secular communist. He proudly proclaims his ideological support of the "underdog" Hamas and the Palestinian "resistance." He refers to Jewish settlers as "jack booted thugs." He compares Israel to apartheid South Africa. He believes in challenging all social norms. He preaches non-violence and is violently opposed to anything military.

He wouldn't set off a bomb, but he believes anarchists are an important part of society. He defends militant Islam because they are always fighting "oppressive occupiers."

He is opposed to organized religion, but he regularly attends candle-light vigils where speakers recite Walt Whitman's "Blades of Grass."

In other words, he is a confused, lost soul who has to invent his own belief system from scratch. His impromptu value system is full of inconsistencies and contradictions.

He started life as a very bright student, but he took a few too many acid trips. His parents never gave him any positive moral guidance, only cynical disdain for all the "corruption" of corporate America and Western civilization. He is a child of Chomsky, full of hate and indignation. He is an arrested adolescent, who only recently became a father himself. Will fatherhood change him? I doubt it. He named his daughter after the founder of the American Communist Party.

So when you send your children off to college, just remember my friend the college professor.
January 9, 2008 12:59 AM

A Global Temperature History of the Past Two Millennia
[...]

Mean relative temperature history of the globe. Adapted from Loehle (2007).

What it means
Loehle notes that "the 1995-year reconstruction shown here does not match the famous hockey stick shape," which clearly suggests that one of them is a poorer, and the other a better, representation of the truth. Because of its simplicity and transparency, as well as a host of other reasons described in detail by Loehle -- plus what we have learned since initiating our Medieval Warm Period Record-of-the Week feature -- it is our belief that Loehle's curve is by far the superior of the two in terms of the degree to which it likely approximates the truth. ...-
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V11/N5/C1.jsp?Print=true
http://www.ncasi.org/publications/Detail.aspx?id=3025

Perfect!
Treat Liberalism like an addiction through the application of a 13 step recovery program.

Just remember that the first step for an addict on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem!
Take it from there.......

According to Israpundit, blogger Lionheart is planning to seek political asylum in the U.S. before Britain can prosecute him for promoting hatred of Islamic supremacists. LOL

For anyone who receives the Calgary CTS station: The Michael Coren Show with Kathy Shaidle et al. is on right now (and apparently won't be repeated tonight). That's channel 51 in Calgary.

Share the love...

a thousand times higher than acceptable, give me a break, then it should have been shut down 20 years ago. is this misreporting or mischief.?

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080129/isotopes_keen_080129/20080129?hub=TopStories

A thousand ... What it is ..... the Defrocked Civil servant confabulating to make her story sound better.

The useless press repeating uncritically as usual.
I watched these hearings today and Keen's statement read like script..... which it was.

The script to the story that justifies her stupidity and supports her theme of "I'm not responsible" for things I did not do.
Typical bureaucrat weasel who won't act when any hint of an excuse is available and won't quit being an ass until forced to.

Independent agency or not .... no executive can be that stupid / irresponsible and keep their job.

Could someone please post tonight's Michael Coren Show on Youtube, or whatever...I'm likely to miss it but don't want to.

Thanks!

Why Antarctic ice sheet is moving
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23088295-30417,00.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080120160720.htm
First Evidence Of Under-ice Volcanic Eruption In Antarctica

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2008) - The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's most rapidly changing ice sheet has been reported. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago (325BC) and remains active.
See also:

The subglacial volcano has a 'volcanic explosion index' of around 3-4. Heat from the volcano creates melt-water that lubricates the base of the ice sheet and increases the flow towards the sea. Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is showing rapid change and BAS scientists are part of an international research effort to understand this change.

Volcanic eruptions were common during the past 25 million years, and coincided with the great period of climatic deterioration that resulted in the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet. Many of the volcanoes show the effects of interaction with ice. BAS has played a major role in describing these effects and modelling their influences on the resulting volcanic sequences. It is important to describe and understand these interactions in geologically recent times in order to predict future configurations of the ice sheet and its role in the global system.

having to live with your mother in law as a bail condition, Id be applying for a reduction too.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/01/29/ot-harkat-080129.html

Locals not worried about threat of Chalk River nuclear accident
[...]

" ... the mayor of Laurentian Hills, which houses the Chalk River facility, appeared unperturbed.

"That's Linda Keen's assessment," said mayor Vance Gutzman.

"As far as I'm concerned, as far as the people in my municipality are concerned, we're fully confident in the continued operations of the reactor.""
[...]
"A worker at the Deep River grocery store said he believes his community has ended up in the news because it's caught in the crossfire of a long-running battle between the AECL plant and the nuclear safety watchdog.

"You've got two groups of people who didn't get along for quite a while," said the employee, who did not want to be named.

"And I think every now and again when they get a chance to stick it to each other, they do.

"A lot of personal friends work there. If there were any concerns, I'd know about it by now.

"They seem to think this is way overblown.""
http://tinyurl.com/2tv9oc (canpress)

Deadly blizzards cause continuing chaos across China

"news broke that the death toll from the worst storms in 50 years had doubled."
http://tinyurl.com/37mwoj (canwest)

Xinhua say: Mao Stlong not available fol comment.

News Alert from the Ottawa Citizen (via bloggers Kady O'Malley and Ellie May)!

[begin quote]

Conservative MPs confirmed yesterday what Green party leader Elizabeth May and Macleans.ca blogger Kady O'Malley reported on their cyberspace sites....

...Photographs of Mr. Harper in various poses, at various sites, are hung throughout the private and cosy government lobby of the House of Commons.

Ms. May and Ms. O'Malley were surprised and a bit speechless when they saw the exhibit recently as guest Commons Speakers during a youth Parliament....

..."When you walk in the door, all you see are pictures of Stephen Harper," said Ms. May...

..."Photos of Stephen Harper in different costumes, in different settings, dressed as a fireman, in Hudson Bay looking for polar bears, meeting the Dalai Lama, even the portrait of the Queen had to have Stephen Harper, but in a candid, behind her."

[End of quote]

'Looks like Misses O'Malley and May have lived pretty sheltered lives. Photos of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the interior of the Conservative lobby room? Horrors! What will those Conservatives think of next?

O'Malley and May were "surprised" and at a loss for words...

Poor dears.

Read the uncut, unadulterated version here:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=9c6b53f6-f0a2-4eca-93bb-559023144731

Hesham Islam*: a name to remember. Born in Cairo, Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood was born, Islam is a Muslim. Is he a mole whose cover is now blown? A Muslim mole named Islam?
It's stranger than fiction.
...-

Unspoken

Claudia Rosett continues to follow the saga of Hesher Islam versus Stephen Coughlin. Coughlin was an expert on Islam at the Pentagon who was allegedly fired because "made it his mission to set aside the feel-good assumptions about Islam which have been guiding U.S. strategy, and take an unblinkered look at facts".

In a thesis accepted last year by the National Defense Intelligence College, entitled “To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad,” Coughlin came up with heavily documented findings that Islamic law, to a dangerous extent, supports the global spread of Islamic extremism, through both violent and non-violent means. In presentations to the military, based in part on court documents connected to the case of the Holy Land Foundation, Coughlin warned of Muslim Brotherhood plans to subvert the U.S. system via front groups, and “destroy western civilization from within.”

And then, Coughlin got the shove. Earlier this month, he was told that his contract with the Joint Chiefs of Staff will not be renewed when it expires in March. Why? According to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, who on Jan. 4 broke the story of Coughlin’s ouster, Coughlin ran afoul of a Pentagon “key aide” named Hesham Islam. ...-
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2008/01/unspoken.html

*Hesham Islam:
Claudia Rosett on National Review Online
Hesham Islam is a native Arabic speaker, a Muslim, born in 1959 in Cairo and schooled in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 1980 he immigrated to the U.S. From ...
article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTQ1ZjE0MWZlYWI2ODVjYzU3MjcyZjBkMzcxNzBjNTQ=

So much for the idea that if PMSH gave the PPG more 'time' and answers' they would be 'nicer'.
Today the media were out in full swing including the 'anony source' for the G&M re Hillier.
Waiting for a retraction on that...waiting...
PMSH handled the situation with grace in QP. But the media very religiosly gives triple time to the Libs. We don't just get Dions blurb...they hang reverently on Iggy and Rae' puffin poo.

Letter on behalf of The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney to Paul Szabo, Chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/01/25/3231743.htm

The Cruickshank Redemption

The CBC is about to learn the fundamental lesson of political scandals---it ain't the crime that kills ya, it's the cover-up.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2008/01/cruickshank-redemption.html

Hey Alberta, don't worry much. Danny's got your back.

http://tinyurl.com/2l3kn6

While the rest of the country takes a dump on AB and screams for it to be punished look who's out in front deflecting barbs from the press toward AB. Notice how gingerly they dance around Williams. Still want to be nice in case Danny makes the Steve comment. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Steady Eddie?

NON

Danny Chavez?

Ci!

Not like Harper will give a rats @ss if it means Carbon Taxing AB in order to get Quebec.

Wake up AB! Ottawa is comin for the cash grab.

Is Ed the man? I supported Snortin Morten. Where's Preston Manning?

Cheers,
Glenn

I watched Michael Coren's show, with Kathy Shaidle. The show was quite good, but as a viewer who has read the Human Rights Act..and the complaints..I knew the background. I wonder if it was all that clear to others.

The lawyer, from the Ontario Bar Association was, in my view, appalling. Smooth, mendacious slithering out of the issues.
He slithered out of the FACT that the complainant to the HRC pays nothing; that all such costs are borne by the taxpayer. He, instead, informed us that, in libel cases, you all pay costs. This isn't the issue here; we are talking about HRC cases.

He also used the old fallacy of 'Appeal to Authority' by telling us that these are Legal Systems, set up by our democratically elected institutions. So what? [That's also a tactic of transfering blame to you, the electorate]. He ignored that their original mandate was about employment and housing, not your opinions.

Then, he tried to tell us that speech can't always be 'free', and his example was of someone in a supermarket telling us that the three-week old ages were really 'fresh'. He was informed by Coren that this wasn't an issue of free speech. But, he tried.

Then, he continued that 'words have meaning' (incredible)..and that therefore, 'words need to be controlled'. Why?

The best was Noa Mendelshon Aviv, a young woman with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. She was clear about the fact that we need to differentiate between ACTS of discrimination, which are already covered by our criminal laws, and the 'experience of discrimination'.

Both she and Kathy were pointed out the fallacy of making a judgment, not on any ACT of discrimination, but on the HRC's assumption that your speech is "likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt". Kathy's term was 'precrime'. You can't convict someone before the crime..but that's what the HRC does.

And Kathy pointed out that 'hatred is a feeling' and feelings can't be legislated. And, the focus on 'identity politics', where the HRC are defining whole groups as 'victims' of speech.

So, a good session, but, a bit unclear. And that lawyer. Holy smokes; he was a caricature of what everyone hates, yes, hates, about lawyers. Unbelievable.

Fine analysis of the Coren Show, ET. Yes, I thought the issue wasn't clearly presented: unless one already knew the various parts of the issue, one would not have been too much the wiser by the end of the show. E.g., I don’t think anyone made the point that virtually all the cases are against more conservative types and that NO ACCUSED has apparently ever won a case.

Yes, the disingenuousness of the smarmy, weasel of a male lawyer was appalling.

I believe Coren should have taken the initiative and listed ALL the major problems with the HRCs in this country and had the list displayed on the screen. That should have been the start of the show—it’s HIS, for heaven’s sake! Then the comments from the others could have begun.

Bless, Kathy. She was so polite, I think she shouldn’t have been! That male lawyer should have been challenged any number of times!

I think the show was too careful on the side of politely tolerating all points of view. I’d have preferred to see some strong debate, and I think more heat should have been put on both the lawyers, including Noa from the CCLU, who, in general, was very reasonable. However, her comments about the Rev. Boisson (sp?) were altogether contestable on more than one count. I was very disappointed that Coren let them go.

P.S. On the Coren show, Mike Brock was very knowledgeable and informative. But all the "good bits" from all sources were scatter gun approach, so, for a newcomer to the issue, it didn't hang together too well.

IMO, the viewer should have come away knowing, in no uncertain terms, what an utter scam the HRCs are and about ten good reasons why--that they could repeat to someone else.

Sadly, I think the show failed to do that.

Yaacov Ben Moshe is an incredible find. Thanks, Kate, for this treasure site.

In trying to understand the job requirements for a regulator on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, one might check out their website.

They are currently seeking staff to fill this position- "Quality and Performance Management Analyst". Closing Date: February 05, 2008

The qualifications are listed, in part, below.

http://www.recruitingsite.com/csbsites/cnsc-ccsn/eng/JobDescription.asp?JobNumber=558944

"Qualifications:

To be considered for this position you must have:
University degree in applied science or engineering or a combination of education and experience in the nuclear industry relevant to the position."

"The role is to advise and assess from a technical standpoint, quality improvement initiatives...."

If a quality and performance management analyst must have this level of education and experience, then why not the regulators, too?

"The mission of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is to regulate the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

*****In addition to nuclear power plants and nuclear research facilities, the CNSC regulates numerous other uses of nuclear material. Some examples include radioisotopes used in the treatment of cancer,***** the operation of uranium mines and refineries, and the use of radioactive sources for oil exploration and in instruments such as precipitation measurement devices.

The CNSC is an independent agency of the Government of Canada and operates in a transparent manner. Its operations are open to formal public scrutiny.

What qualifications for the regulator of the nuclear industry in Canada are in place?

And what qualifications do each of the current commissioners have?

And if the AECL did or did not have their act together, how would the untrained, regulators even know....except to take somebody's word for it?

Is ABC*s Boston Legal an arm of the MSM, misleading their 10 Million viewers?

AutoblogGreen.com

= TG

Kate - Thank you for introducing me to Yaacov Ben Moshe. His article was brilliant and extrememly thought provoking. How wonderful to find a thinker with the ability to introduce and argue a fascinating, original idea. There are too few like him anymore.
I can't wait to read more of his blog.

P.P.S. Re the Coren show: there was not one mention of either the fact that Richard Warman, an ex HRC employee, was responsible for launching an astonishing number of cases at the HRC or the recent allegations against him, that he may have actually planted hate messages at certain blogs before taking them to the HRC because of said messages.

I’m afraid the train wreck—for the HRCs—that I was hoping to see didn’t happen. I’m disappointed.

(I find Coren an unusual fellow and not always reliable. He can be tricky with his guests, e.g., a friend of mine who was on a radio show of his, was told by him that he could—and should—jump in with a comment any time. Then, surprisingly, calclatedly, and not very nicely, Coren favoured this person’s opponent—whose views he was actually against—and chastised the guest when he did jump in. My friend decided he needed to watch his back with Michael Coren, who seems to have a personal agenda of some kind. IMO, he bounces like a football: which direction next? Reasonable predictions often don’t work. That said, I very much appreciate his exposes of all kinds of topics the MSM keeps under wraps.)