http://steynian.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/steynianism-430/
Steynianism 43.0

Oh look, we have a shiny new thing. Hi folks, it's Vitruvius here. Since our server farm in Ohio was down due to a SNAFUed ATT/MCI upgrade yesterday afternoon, and thus I was looking for something to do while I waited for them to get their act together so I could perform some upgrade deployments I had scheduled for today, I decided to entertain myself by writing a little Perl program to spider and scrape the SDA main page for articles, and then spider and scrape said articles for comments, and then report the Top 50 SDA Commenters by number of comments, by total length of comments, and by average comment length (not that I was billing for such time, of course). So without further ado, ladies & gentlemen, current survey says:

sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2008/02/sda-commenter-statistics.html

Are you saying that some of us should shut up, Vitruvius? LOL

David Aaronovitch, No retreat from the War on Terror

Here are the likely consequences of such a pattern [of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan]. The Afghan Government would collapse, to be replaced by an overt civil war fought between the Taleban and local governors in the various provinces. A million or more Afghan refugees would again flee their country, many of them ending up in the West. Deprived of support from the US, as recommended by our commentators, President Musharraf or a successor would effectively withdraw from the border regions, leaving a vast lawless area from central Afghanistan to north central Pakistan. Al-Qaeda and other jihadists would operate from these areas as they did before 9/11. This time these forces - already capable of assassinating a popular democratic politician - would seriously impact upon the stability of Pakistan, which is a nuclear state.

Jihadists everywhere, from Indonesia to Palestine, would see this as a huge victory, democrats and moderates as a catastrophic defeat...

(Via CSP) John R. Bolton, Our Politicized Intelligence Services

Today, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee (and Thursday on the House side) to give the intelligence community's annual global threat analysis. These hearings are always significant, but the stakes are especially high now because of the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.

Criticism of the NIE's politicized, policy-oriented "key judgments" has spanned the political spectrum and caused considerable turmoil in Congress. Few seriously doubt that the NIE gravely damaged the Bush administration's diplomatic strategy. With the intelligence community's credibility and impartiality on the line, Mr. McConnell has an excellent opportunity to correct the NIE's manifold flaws, and repair some of the damage done to international efforts to stop Iran from obtaining deliverable nuclear weapons...

wsj.com/article/SB120217061766442685.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

A manufactured crisis:

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.080154

Corporate greed over safety.

Yesterday, American Enterprise Institute held a forum on The Battle for Cyberspace: Blogging and Dissidence in the Middle East. Among the participants is Mohammed Ali from Iraq the Model. Audio and video webcasts of the event are available under "Event Materials".

vitruvius. It is Tuesday. The day of good behaviour whence we must dig for the truth. Behave.

Oh no, there goes Nova Scotia, cast adrift into the North Atlantic!

http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=105315&sc=89

Don't bother.
From lberia's commie leaflet

… Isn't the world-wide health of citizens more important than
the commercial interests of 1 or 2 Canadian companies?”

How the markets really work.

* Warning - British humor

I see that wingnut Michael Byers is meddling in the Schreiber extadition hearings,and it's not going well for him.See NN under 'same old same old' Just another Lib.mouthpiece sticking his foot in it.

Dang it all...looks like the media sucks and blows as much as the politicians who visit their brothels.

http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/002866.html

Let me guess...this activity was 'not sanctioned by the Minister'...

Any sightings of Paul Martin around Parliament Hill? He's still an MP for LaSalle-Emard so he must be earning his money working for the folks in that riding. Maybe he's clearing driveways for them, lots of snow in those parts.

Anyone know if there is a Canadian version of this:

http://www.kcnn.org/legal_risk

Not entirely relevant for Canadians, but a good start...

Conservative Party of Canada: "Do as we say, not as we do.

A federal Conservative political aide sent members of the Chinese media a list of questions for Raymond Chan just before the Liberal parliamentarian was scheduled to hold a press conference. [...] But, four hours before that conference, former Fairchild Radio AM 1470 producer and host Ronald Leung - the special assistant to British Columbia political minister Stockwell Day - sent an email to "five or six" of his friends in the Chinese media." [...] And he included in that email a list of fourteen questions, such as "Why was Raymond Chan never involved in all-party negotiations on the successful Comfort Women motion? Why was his party represented by other Liberal MPs, while Chan was nowhere to be seen?" Asked about the perception he was feeding questions to the media, Mr. Leung responded, "You can look at it different ways. But those are my friends in the media. And I was just trying to say, 'I worked in the media before. So I would ask those questions if I was in the media.'"

Is it just me or is Greg Weston becoming obsessive over Stephen Harper and the CPC?

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2008/02/05/4827429.html

Sandy: The Harper government record!
Updated: February 5, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2krmv5 (jack's)
...-

"Broken promises piling up for Harper"
(TO RedStar)

It's true, Weston is obsessed with Harper.
He's had his ass in a sling since he was not invited to a little party at 24 Sussex many months ago.

ted, I know you don't know the difference, but a political aide to ask media personnel to ask questions of an MP appearing in a MEDIA INTERVIEW,

is NOT the same as a media reporter asking an MP to ask questions of a witness appearing before a Parliamentary Ethics Commission.

And remember, the questions that reporter wanted the MP to ask of the Witness had NOTHING to do with the mandate of the Ethics Commission.

Try again, Ted.

Thanks for saying that ET

Mark Steyn: 'Why don't you sue me?'

National Post Published: Tuesday, February 05, 2008

In their latest missive to you, Naseem Mithoowani, Khurrum Awan and Muneeza Sheikh refer to the excerpt from my book published in Maclean's, as a "defamatory article". OK, if it's defamatory, why don't you sue me? Cue crickets chirping.

It's precisely because the article is not defamatory that the "plaintiffs" have had to rig the game by going to (at last count) three of Canada's many "human rights" pseudo-courts. In none of their plaintive reprises protesting that they're only looking for a chance to "start a debate" have they or their patrons at the Canadian Islamic Congress questioned the accuracy of a single specific fact, quotation or statistic. If they wanted to "start a debate," they could start one, via a blog, column or book. Instead, they started a "human rights" complaint, which is what people do when they want to end the debate.

(He nails Warman and the CIC Islamofascist Elmasry. The word on these creeps is getting out)

nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=286209

Also, "Marcus Luttrell's noble 'Christian soul'"

If you want to know the difference between Islamofascist terrorist 'freedom fighters' and a western soldier, this is a must read. Lizzy May be shamed.

nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=f8d8cbbe-ca0b-4b17-882c-e1470e780a7e&k=40370

http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/men-of-valor-part-viii-of-viii.htm

Leftist historical revisionism and immigration a toxic mix in Britain. 23% of the 'British' believe Churchill is a myth:

LONDON (AFP) - Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.

(Little wonder Islam is a 'religion of peace,' then. Black is white, up is down, etc.)

Irwin Daisy: your thoughts? Please explain Islam's
"doctrine of abrogation".
...-

Muslim Responses to Unpleasant Islamic Facts

When Muslims are told about scores of horrendous facts contained in the Quran, Sunnah and the Sharia, they will typical respond as follows:

1. Accuse the person of lying and ignorance. [...]
2. Accuse the person of racism or Islamophobia (This is one of the best tactics!). [...]
16. If all else fails, assume a zombie-like attitude and start saying the Qanoot-e-Naazilah prayer in a low, intense voice (in Arabic!). Hiss a little between lines. Let the infidel know you are more than just a little crazy. If you have a knife take it out and start testing the blade with your thumb. Roll your eyes, foam at the mouth (twitching is good, too!). Stand up suddenly and start yelling "Allah Akhbar". Do this ten times as loud as possible……… You have won the argument!
http://tinyurl.com/ywwfvs (islamwatch)

Re: Ted not knowing the difference

Doesn't seem to help. You can explain all you want. Some concepts are just too complicated for Ted et al...

re: Top 50 SDA Commenters

Why thank you Vitruvius. I'd like to thank the academy, my mom & dad, our hostess Kate and of course all those leftoids out there who supply us with a never ending supply of BS to disect and disprove.

Seriously, this site is one of the most interesting and thought provoking sites around.

(Via CSP) Space the next frontier, says military body

Triggering a fresh debate on weaponisation of space, an organisation under the Ministry of Defence has backed the use of space for military purposes.

The suggestion is bound to cause embarrassment to the government, which has called for strengthening international legal regime for peaceful use of outer space.

VRS Natarajan, chairman, Society of Defence Technologists (SODET) told HT, “India has to get going and use space technology for military programmes. Our neighbours are taking strides. We have to exploit our expertise in the civilian space programme for defence purposes.”

2nd coldest January for the planet in 15 years??!!

http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/rss-satellite-data-for-jan08-2nd-coldest-january-for-the-planet-in-15-years/

The insulted, ever victimized Muslims are attempting to define the world's speech laws again...

they’re demanding that Wikipedia stop violating their delicate sensibilities and remove the offending images, with an online petition that’s already gathered 82,783 signatures:

"Removal of the Pics of Muhammad from Wikipedia"

"Target:To tell wikipedia editors to respect other peoples religion"

"Sponsored by: Faraz Ahmad"

"In Islam pictures or Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other holly figures are not allowed, but on wikipedia they has published some pictures that are showing not only a body with white face but an image that has a complete face.. that is even not allowed by SHITAT fact of Islam."

"i request all my brothers and sisters to sign this petition so we can tell wikipedia to remove them."

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

Most of the world are not Muslims, so why should anybody care if pictures of the Muslim so-called prophet, yet confirmed mass-murdering pervert are not allowed in Islam? Horror of horrors, they're showing "not only a body with white face, but a complete face..."

"so we can tell wikipedia to remove them." Arrogant and pompous. It's in the DNA of the ideology.

It's time the world told these losers to do what they do best and go screw a farm animal (hey, if you think that's bigoted, ask Khomeini - he gave them official, allah sanctified instructions on this).

I know that's not nice and it's not meant to be.

The Parti Quebecois and the Liberal Party are at it again. Following some stupid articles in The Journal de Montreal about stores hiring a person who couldn't speak French, both parties are supporting giving more funds to the Office de la Langue Française (The Tongue Troopers as we call them).

Everyone tries to appeal to the soft and hard nationalists here and we anglos and allophones are treated as menaces. Meanwhile the anglos continue to vote for the Liberal Party who takes them as acquired votes.

The latest deal is the fact that nationalists are complaining that allophones speak English or other languages AT HOME!

Introducing MEMRI's Urdu/Pashtu Media Blog: http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu.

MEMRI is launching today a new project - the Urdu and Pashtu Media Blog. The project will include translations and analysis from Urdu and Pashtu media. This project comes as a timely addition to the monitoring, translation, and analysis of media in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish that MEMRI has conducted for the past decade. MEMRI will be taking its media coverage to the heart of one of the focal regions of Islamism and jihad and will be reporting directly from the world's fault line: the Pakistan-Afghanistan region.

More from MEMRI: Coffee with Colleague Lands Woman in Trouble. Ah, those Saudis.

maz2, did you visit 'sonsofapesandpigs.org' by chance?

The Islamic principle of abrogation is essentially that the earlier and less violent Meccan verses in the Quran are abrogated by the later hyper-violent verses from the Medina period. The Quran is divided into those two periods.

In chapter 2:106, the Qur’an plainly says,

"Such of our revelation as we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring (in place) one better or the like thereof."

For example, Quran 9:5 abrogates no less than 124 less violent verses: (USC)

009.005
YUSUFALI: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

Mo used this convenient 'revelation from allah' to benefit himself as well, ie. he could have as many wives as he wanted, even marry his son's wife, while normal Muslims were limited to up to 4 wives.

Equally, a really bizarre and alien tennent in Islam is dualism. That means two opposing verses can be held to be true. Especially when deceiving the kaffir, as in taqiyya and kitman.

Therefore they can say to you, "see, the Quran says there's no compulsion in religion." At the same time knowing that a huge number of verses in the Quran, Hadith and Sira promote death to infidels and apostates.

Islam is an ideology that's not just foundationally violent, it's fundamentally based on lies and promotes pathological lying amongst its adherents.

Hey SomeGuyInOttawa - I'm one of the et al of whom you speak.

Talking points, 'questions', fact feeding, are all part of the game. Politicians stroke media who stroke politicians.

As Thibault said yesterday he gets fed all the time, from every special interest that's around.

The same way that the Con staffer fed the media. It doesn't matter the forum, it's the fact that these gerbils manufacture the communications that's the issue.

Just because the Libs are the ones caught out for a one way on committee, doesn't make a lick of difference.

And pointing out the transgression is of less importance is bad reasoning. Try 'ignoratio elenchi' for a start.

Grease is grease is grease.

All on your tax dollars. Just like the Libranos.

'xactly, Hardboiled.

Meet the new boss...

The Pentagon's Islamofascist, 'Islam' loses, Coughlin back in:

"Stephen Coughlin will be retained by the Defense Department!
So says Congresswoman Sue Myrick in a statement:"

I decided to vet this matter personally. I met with Members of the House and Senate, Pentagon officials, and even Major Coughlin himself. Major Coughlin told me that he has had a great working relationship with the Joint Staff and that he did not believe there was any conspiracy to remove him from his position. In fact, he was already planning to leave the Joint Staff at the end of his contract. Lest the rumors persist, Major Coughlin will be associated with another office program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he will continue to spread his message.

Coughlin's thesis is available on line.

Irwin Daisy: thank you.
...-

Three al-Qaeda leaders killed in US attack (the Libi raid)

Kuwait City, 5 Feb. (AKI) - The US air raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Layth al-Libi in Pakistan is reported to have also killed three other leaders from the terrorist network.

According to the Kuwaiti daily, al-Watan, two Kuwaitis and a Libyan also died in the missile attack conducted by a Predator aircraft on January 25 in Mir Ali, in North Waziristan on the border of Afghanistan.

The daily said the attack was aimed at what was believed to have been an al-Qaeda summit meeting. Abu Obeida Tawari al-Obeidi and Abu Adel al-Kuwaiti were reportedly there with al-Libi.
...-
http://tinyurl.com/2on4vn (adnkronos)

Actually, no, ted-hardboiled.

Pointing out that a reporter providing a Liberal MP with a question to ask in a Committee Meeting - and a question outside the mandate of that Committee - isn't 'ignoratio elenchi', ie, an irrelevant conclusion. It's highly relevant and points out your false analogy in attempting to compare the two situations.

You know, ted-hardboiled, but facts matter. What are the facts? A reporter has no business defining the mandate of a Commission, no business defining the questions. I bet you didn't know that ted-hardboiled. You're a Liberal, eh?

But all a reporter, a professional reporter, ought to do, is, heh - report. Not manipulate.

Now, an MP or anyone else, can ask a reporter to ask questions of another MP during a media interview. I bet, ted-hardboiled, that you don't know the difference between a media interview and an official commission of inquiry!

Heh - did you know that a Commission of Inquiry requires the witnesses to take an oath to tell the truth? You don't have to do that during a media interview.
Oh - and did you know that a Commission of Inquiry has a specific mandate for its inquiry? Gosh, media interviews don't have mandates.

Oh- and did you know that media interviews are carried out by reporters? Gosh. Commissions of Inquiry are carried out by MPs. And lawyers.

Gosh, ted-hardboiled. Facts do matter. That's why false analogies are, well, they're false.

Have fun, and try again.

"did you know that a Commission of Inquiry requires the witnesses to take an oath to tell the truth?"

Untrue. In fact, Mulroney wasn't under oath, ET.

Gosh, ET. Facts do matter. That's why untrue facts are, well, they're untrue.

Have fun, and try again.

"Pointing out that a reporter providing a Liberal MP with a question to ask in a Committee Meeting - and a question outside the mandate of that Committee - isn't 'ignoratio elenchi', ie, an irrelevant conclusion.

I used the latin description of drawing a false conclusion to refute the following:

"I know you don't know the difference, but a political aide to ask media personnel to ask questions of an MP appearing in a MEDIA INTERVIEW,is NOT the same as a media reporter asking an MP to ask questions of a witness appearing before a Parliamentary Ethics Commission" Posted by: ET at February 5, 2008 1:07 PM

The proposition is that the source and forum of the media/political parties is not relevant to the fact that political parties and the media feed each other - in information, in leads/tips, and generally try to manipulate and manage that relationship to each other's benefit.

I argue (and state) that this is not relevant. That managed communications strategies exist at all is an affront to genuine discourse, and that the media is offloading workloads because they are lazy.

The forum and channel are moot points. That's why the latin reference.

Trust this clarifies.

BTW - it was a standing ethics committee Erickson fed, not a Commission - that's coming up.

Actually, ted, my dear, Mulroney was under oath. He didn't need to be re-oathed, because, as a PM, he had already taken The Oath when he became PM. There was no need, the Commission felt, for him to do it again.

Now, ted, do try to get your facts up to par. And, stop with the false analogies.

Again, a media interview, carried out by reporters, of a MP, is ..well, it's made up of any and all questions. No mandate, no perimeters on the nature of the questions. So, anyone including another MP, can suggest to a reporter that they question so-and-so, about his such-and-such activities during when-and-where.

But, a Commission of Inquiry - heck, ted, despite your hopes and mopes, it's completely different. The witnesses are bound by their oath(s) to 'tell the truth'; the questioners are not, unfortunately, your Liberal pals in the MSM, but are MPs and lawyers. Oh, and there's a mandate of inquiry.
So, your favorite Liberal MSM reporter has no right to interfere and suggest a question to be asked.

Why not? Because that dishy reporter isn't part of the Commission. While in the media interview of the MP, that reporter IS validly there. Heck - I bet you didn't know that.

Try, try again, ted.

Dr. Keith Martin was on the Adler Show (radio) about 2:30 p.m. Feb 5. re his HRC motion.

His presentation was not at all strong so it seems that Stephi and Co. may have been grinding on him. He played his motion down and apparently it really is only a motion to pursue a Liberal motion to have "it" (whatever it has become now in his framework)presented in the House is a long way off.

Oh, well. At least a flare-up did occur and every little bit helps to get freedom of speech issues out of the HRCs.

Actually, hardboiled, context IS relevant. What you are trying to do is delete the context from a situation and make ALL situations identical.

I'm afraid that redefining situations from their differences to merge them into universals, is invalid. That's, if we want to stick to the fun of Latin, called 'dicto simpliciter' or..sweeping generalization, where you try to reject the features of a particular situation.

Now, the particular situations, or contextual realities, of these two Events, are completely different. So, you cannot, logically, merge them.

One, as I've said, is a media event, where reporters ask open questions of an MP. Where they get their questions from, whether from the internal delights of their own cognitive processes, or the external ramblings of friends and whoever..isn't relevant. The context is: media event; questions of an MP by any and all reporters; open perimeters.

The other, is a commission or committee (I'm generalizing; both have double letters in their names). It's official; it's set up by the govt with specific committee members who alone are allowed to ask questions, and the focus is specific. The questioners are MPs and lawyers; the witnesses are under oath; the mandate of examination is closed.

This means that an eager reporter has no business in this situation. No business suggesting questions - because the agenda and intentionality of the event is supposed to be defined by the Committee members.
The context is: govt event, questions of Oathed Witnesses by MPs, closed event.

Sorry, hardboiled, but the two can't be subsumed under the same theme. Try again.

"Actually, ted, my dear, Mulroney was under oath. He didn't need to be re-oathed, because, as a PM, he had already taken The Oath when he became PM. There was no need, the Commission felt, for him to do it again."

ET, dearest, if you don't know what you are talking about, then you are best served to admit it or just remain silent, not to compound your errors by trying to spin. It doesn't look good on the government or any politician and it doesn't look good on you.

Apropos of nothing at all, here's an article by Diane Francis in the National Post from a while back entitled, of all things coincidental, "Mulroney: Why no testimony under oath?".

Misleading Headline Time

"Montrealer Held in Iran freed Without Canadian Help"
CTV.ca feb05/08

It's interesting that this women holds a Dual citizenship of France/Iran & became a permanent resident of Canada in 2004, So she was Canada's problem?
Read the comments after the article.

137 miles of wall - by 2010? Or by December....

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0206/p06s02-wome.html

And ET...if you'd like to discuss further, leave a comment on my blog. I think you'd benefit from a less partisan perspective...

The scam, the lawyers, the lobbyists.
Beats da AdScam; ask, AdScam Liberals, Chretien/Martin/Citoyen Dion.
...-

Lawyers Charge Top Dollar For Climate Change Work
http://tinyurl.com/27yroe (environmentalleader.

Canada won't build, run Afghan jails,
[Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime] Bernier says
(CP) ...-

Liberal Citoyen Dion said 24, April, 2007:
"We should find another solution. We may bring them in [sic] Canada. We may keep them under our control in Afghanistan."

What is Citoyen's policy today?

irwin daisy: Thanks for that update re: Coughlin being in, Islam out. Here's a good piece on this cat's phony bio. NUTS.

Heh, you said 'Mo' again!!!

Norman Specter was on the hot seat being grilled by the committee today..

Did any one see that. Very dramatic!

Norm sidelined questions by bringing up a wide variety of gripping inside information.

** This group should really be looking into the TEN $Million$ that Shreiver either kept or spread around to influence peddlers** he said.

And lots more far more volotile stuff like the RCMP investigations into governments Federal as well as Provincial, like BC.

He alluded to three major ..my word=[coverups], and that was just BC, never mind Ottawa.

The vein on Specter*s neck was really standing out and I thought he should have been less intense, thereby looking less *Guilty*.

The session went for some time and was first quality CanadiaN Drama.

Specter as much as suggested the RCMP had become corrupt and he would help in any way possible to *Get to the bottom of things*.

This is the opening of a can of worms folks. . . unless the Aspers et all decide to give it the Canadian Smooooth Over.

Specter mentioned dark suits of mystery who would meet with the PMO, who he mostly did not know except for one Conrad Black, that is.

Lots more I can not recall. Wish I had taped it. = TG

While we worry about the polar bears some in Sweden are worrying about the reindeer. Too much snow!

The Sami people of northern Sweden celebrate their national day on February 6th and Lappland is a hive of activity getting ready for the party of the year. Reindeer shoes are being made, handicrafts sculpted and party frocks designed and sewn up.

This year the party has a darker undertone with catastrophe looming for the region's reindeer. Almost all the reindeer grazing grounds have been declared a disaster zone. All but two Sami villages across the region have been forced to apply for catastrophe aid from the Sami Parliament of Sweden (Sametinget) to feed their animals.

The problems with pasture land for the reindeer are diverse with an excess of snow in the north to bare ground south of Östersund. According to the Sami parliament the situation has not been this bad since 1936 with much of the winter pasture land inaccessible to the herds.

http://www.thelocal.se/9886/20080205/

Ed Stemach, getting things done well.

Even though I live in BC, [ not an Alberta voter], Ed Stelmach very kindly had his minister send a loooong Email reply to my AB-HRC complaint .
===================

Dear Mr. Robinson,

Honourable Ed Stelmach, Premier, forwarded your e-mail of January 13, 2008 regarding human rights commissions. As Minister responsible for human rights issues in Alberta, I appreciate the opportunity to respond.

[ Body = Loong general policies …..and stuff],

To date, all that has occurred in the complaint against Ezra Levant is the first step in an investigation to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with the complaint. It is important to not prejudge the outcome of the complaint against Levant. Additional information on complaint processes as well as information about panel hearings is available at www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/complaints/ .

That being said, I recognize the importance of reviewing all legislation from time to time to ensure it is meeting its intended purpose in the most efficient and effective way possible. I will keep your comments in mind in any discussions I may have with my colleagues about the Act.

Thank you for taking the time to share your views.

Sincerely, Hector Goudreau

Minister of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture
MLA, Dunvegan-Central Peace

cc: Honourable Ed Stelmach, Premier
============================
Very impressive. Those folks are busy, elections and all. Pleasant surprise. = TG

" ... I have always told my fellow workers that someday Chretien will end up in jail. I still believe that."
Comment by Jack | February 5, 2008

Jack: “Le Worm Wriggleth”

Today, Canada’s “Ethics” committee started again and as “Ethics” committees are known to do from time to time, they pursued their investigation in a highly ethical fashion. And recieved a verbal broadside from Norm Spector for their efforts. If there’s someone out there that can outshout Norm I don’t know who it would be offhand.

Highly entertaining as he slammed the RCMP for a shoddy investigation and then clammed up. Mounties would be interested in that I think but it didn’t escape me that the Chair was trying to burn up limited time in order to try and protect the real prize of the day — one Allen Rock. ...-
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2008/02/05/jack-le-worm-wriggleth/#comments

Can anyone help me here? I seem to have mislabelled some pics, and if any of you could help, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to get sued:

http://thejagwire.blogspot.com/2008/02/clones.html

I didn't see this anywhere else (apologies if this has been posted and I missed it)

This was a comparison between the Canadian Health Care system with Eurpoean systems

The punchline was that Canada came in 23 our of 30 countries based on a series of metrics.

When the amount of money spent on health was also considered, the study reported Canada came in dead last (30th out of 30)

Report is here
http://www.healthpowerhouse.com/files/ECHCI_2008_Full_Report_final.pdf

Press Release is here
http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=2034

Canada's Healthcare System Compares Poorly with Europe
Medical system lags far behind in many areas

The release this week of a major new health-care "report card" provides us with the opportunity to refocus the debate that surrounds the effects of Canada's ongoing health-care woes on consumers.

The focus of the debate so far has been on how health care is financed, how to budget for it and, most recently, how to fill the doctor gap. We have seldom considered the system from the more important perspective of the health-care consumer.

The Euro-Canadian Health Consumer Index (ECHCI), which was released on Monday, takes a fresh look at how medicare serves Canadians. The results are dismal. Of the 30 countries studied, Canada ranks 23rd for consumer sensitivity in health care.

Ted and Hardboiled (AKA, et al).

Come on now! There's a significant difference between a media interview and testifying before a Parliamentary Commission. End of debate.

Dave:

Another "unbiased" study on health care by a right wing think tank. Haha.

Ib:

Hey, if you feel like puting data on the table, feel free to post any links from any think tank arguing that Canadian healthcare is superior to Europeans.

Nothing is going to get fixed if we keep get stuck up on the labels. Unless you honestly believe that our system is perfection and cannot be improved. Or your're just trolling.

Get Germany*s blueprint for healthcare and get twice the service for half the cost. = TG

Dave, I made no reference to what is superior. However, since you ask for a study:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?k=47702&id=09bda0df-0da6-4fd7-9cf9-cf0e1b292686

Not the best, but not the worst either.

Ted and Hardboiled (AKA, et al).

Come on now! There's a significant difference between a media interview and testifying before a Parliamentary Commission. End of debate.
Posted by: Jimbo at February 5, 2008 9:41 PM

Hey Jimbo - having political staff, paid by taxpayers, pushing pre-fabricated talking points to media, is crap.

As is the media pushing pre-fabricated questions to politicians.

Same street, two ways.

These people are sleaze, on both sides. They are lazy, and manufacture opinion and outcome.

The activity limits debate, contrains thought, and produces decisions that are not completely discussed and debated by society.

No matter the forum, pretend questions from pretend reporters is as injurious to a democracy, as pop-tart Erickson slipping Pablo the toungue.

Now that buddy, is the end of debate.