Major small hail storm in Sydney Australia. It looked like snow on the grounds, the kids were thrilled. Sydney has not seen snow since 1873. Yep Global Warming.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/snow-business-overrated/2008/07/27/1217097059732.html

I do enjoy the Baroque composers and it was certainly a joy to listen to Mr. Whiteley's performance. Simply delectable.

But, of course, the most important thing that I noticed pursuant to last night's thread is that you know how to spell.

Atheism, the new religion of peace:

************************************

The man accused of a mass church shooting this morning was described by his Powell neighbors as a helpful and kind man, but one who had issues with Christianity.
...
"He had his own sense of belief about religion, that's the impression I got of him," said neighbor Karen Massey. "We were talking one day when my daughter graduated from Bible college, and I told him I was a Christian, then he almost turned angry.

"He seemed to get angry at that."

www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/27/neighbors-accused-shooter-everyones-friend-hated-c/

Get used to this, folks. Your Christian friends and family might be next.

If atheists blow, do theists suck? And besides, you can't suck
a pipe organ, and they were built by theists. Perhaps it would
be more accurate to say that atheists suck, and theists blow.

thanks for staying with "your delectation and pursuant to..."

Obama's Trip: Some Questions Katie, Brian and Charles Should Ask

By Larry Elder

Q: Before your trip to Iraq, you said that you intend to give the military a "new mission" — all of the combat troops withdrawn within 16 months. Why bother traveling to Iraq and consulting with commanders on the ground, if you've already decided on a new mission?

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder072408.php3

"If atheists blow, do theists suck?"

We're joking about mass murder now? Sweet. Hey, how 'bout the hero who took a shotgun blast to save lives? Hi-larious, eh? It would be even funnier if some of the dead were children; sadly, they were adults.

Stay classy, Vit.

I wasn't joking, I was patronizing.

Given the strong emotional response from the public to the video, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae cautioned that Khadr's fate should not be subject to a "popularity contest."
Cool , maybe Mr. Boob Rae has picked his mountain to die on.

"He was brainwashed and sent in to fight NATO troops. I think we all recognize that's deeply troubling to Canadians," said Rae.

"We have our troops there, obviously it's deeply troubling to all of us. The issue is not that. The issue is, isn't it appropriate for Canada to take responsibility for Mr. Khadr

Go For it Bob. We will help you.

Perhaps I should be more clear to the gentleman who conjuctures that atheists blow. My point, sir, is that your conclusion in relation to the news item you referenced, namely that atheists blow, is simply not supported by the evidence at hand. I would have had the same reaction to your dangerous overgeneralization had you conjectured that christians suck. Now if you had said, some atheists blow, then I wouldn't have mentioned it. But speaking as a scientist who only needs one counter-example to invalidate a hypothesis, and speaking as an atheist who sucks: I invalidate your hypothesis (well, speaking as an a deist really, but if we're gonna' split hares, we might as well make rabbit στιφάδο).

The Telegraph spanks James Hansen:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/07/27/do2708.xml

a c&p from one of those gazillion web forums out there:

From: bgolds
Date: 26-Jul-2008 19:00

Totalitarian State.
Communist Regime.
Abortion on Demand.
State-Mandated Abortion.
Human-Rights Abuses.
Occupies Neighboring Nations.
Developing Long-Range Nukes.
Slaughtered Advocates of Democracy.
Outlaws Christianity.

And...

Our friend and trading partner!

If you wanted any more proof that virtually every war in which the modern U.S. has engaged has been about money and trade, look no further than China.

Every flimsy justification for war and unilateral action is carried on in China to an exponential degree. Think of the half-assed excuses you retards swallowed to invade Iraq:

Human rights abuses? China's got 'em.

Used weapons on own people? China did.

Torture and rape rooms? They got em'.

Not free to practice religion and Democracy? China.

The pathetic thing is that China probably had more to do with September 11th than Iraq.

But for some reason they are our FRIENDS....

Hmmm...

This will explain how is it possible for free people to demand to be controlled by AWG aparatchiks or any other control measures devised by unelected, faceless, bureaucrats.
It comes from the top expert in the process.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/4A0E696E713A4E859913539B41CC75BA/yuri-bezmenov-the-kgb-and-th.aspx

"...but one who had issues with Christianity."

Sorry, confused here. Then why did he shoot up a Unitarian Universalist Church?

Check out the CBC Web site, where the top news story is about the suicide bomb blast in Baghdad which killed at least 28 and injured 92, the majority of the dead being women and children.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Then, listen to the 7:00 a.m. CBC newscast. What's the story that leads? "Canadian soldiers kill two children in Afghanistan." As it turns out, the car they were in, driven by their parents, came within 10 metres of a Canadian convoy and did not stop when signaled to do so.

What were the soldiers supposed to do? What if the car was booby trapped? It wouldn't be the first time.

We don't need a Bagdad Betty or a Kandace Kandahar. We've got the CBC to bash the troops. Every day. All of the time. 'Never stops.

tenebris: "Sorry, confused here. Then why did he [the guy with issues with Christianity] shoot up a Unitarian Universalist Church?"

The guy probably had no idea that Unitarians aren't Christians. People think that Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians when they're not.

Confusion reigns.

"Spiderman in Tehran
Asharq Alawsat ^ | 7-25-08 | Amir Taheri"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2052394/posts
...-

Do not read this from the bottom to the top. Read from the top to the bottom.

"Waste No Tears on Khadr"
Mark Bonokoski-Toronto Sun
Sunday July 20/2008

Although iam a weak late reading this, It is good to see that there are still a few columnist writing in a Cesspool of Liberal Media How Canadians actually feel on this subject.

"We’ll be back soon...

Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity.

Thanks for your patience."
http://www.cuil.com/info/unavailable.html

To the Canadian Press/MSM: We hate you.

Here is the reason we hate you; your headline as seen below.
Your headline is execrable. Do you in the Canadian Press/MSM hate your fellow Canadians? Do you hate Canadian soldiers? Do you hate yourselves?
Do you, Canadian Press/MSM, love Muslim Islamic murderers?
Are you a mouthpiece/propagandist for the Muslim Islamic murderers?

We hate you, Canadian Press/MSM.
...-

Headline:

"Canadian troops kill two children in Afghanistan
By THE CANADIAN PRESS"

Spengler, Why Do Nations Exist?

Why do nations and peoples exist, and why do particular nations exist in particular forms? Under the principle of national self-determination, more sovereign nations raised their flags during the past century than at any time in history. Many of them will not survive the next century. The old national states defined by language and ethnicity are in steep decline. Each of the world's three most populous countries, China, India, and the United States, defies conventional definition in its own way.

I too find Canada's media less than palatable.

May a nasty Royal Commission, replete with poseur politicians, be in their very, very near future!

David Frum, Mixed Metaphors and Soggy Logic

Obama's vague language is the product of an unrealistic mind. He denies the reality of conflict--and flinches at the obligations of self-defence. Obama has risen to power by using a soothing cloud of meaningless words to conceal displeasing truths and avoid difficult choices. His more worldly supporters will quietly whisper that Obama thinks more incisively than his speeches suggest. Let's hope so. Yet the speech in Berlin should cause us all to wonder: Maybe Obama's mind really is as foggy as his language.

Political Correctness

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

This year’s term: “Political Correctness.”

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

(Via JCI) Nick Cohen, Why Bush has been a liberal's best friend

...A panting BBC presenter interrupts the rolling news to tell the nation that Obama's flight has actually touched down at Heathrow, not because of the senator's race or charm, but because Obama is riding the crest of the global wave of relief that Bush is leaving. A wave that is about to break. It doesn't know it, but the liberal-left in Europe and North America has been lucky to have Bush.

By building him up into a great Satan, the oil man who invades countries to seize their reserves and the Christian who orders bloody crusades, they have hidden the totalitarian threats of our age from themselves and anyone who listens to them. Bush allowed them to explain away radical Islam as an understandable, even legitimate, response to the hypocrisies and iniquities of American policy. Even those in the European elites who do not buy the full 'America has it coming' package believe that Bush is a cowboy who doesn't understand that the postmodern way to end conflict is to compromise rather than fight.

In January, Bush will be history, leaving liberals all alone in a frightening world...

What is the latest panty count for Obama now?
Who's the next journalist to throw their underwear at him?
Tom Jones must be getting jealous.

Back to pipe organs, this is one time that the size of your organ makes a difference. (Sorry, I just had to say it:-)

Seeing that Hildibrandt reminded me of the Grand Organ at the Sydney Opera House. What a monster! over 10,000 pipes. My only regret is not being able to hear it in it's full glory.

For those Discovery Channel followers there is an episode on Dirty Jobs where the host helps to clean a pipe organ, or rather a pipe or two of an organ. It definitly isn't a one day job.

In January, Bush will be history, leaving liberals all alone in a frightening world...

He most certainly will not!

If he's 1/2 the tyrant the left says he is in January he will send the marines into congress to help get them to vote on a bill making him el presidente for life.

Advertising slowdown weighs on media groups
By Joshua Chaffin in New York

Published: July 27 2008 18:48 | Last updated: July 27 2008 18:48

Advertising weakness is spreading from newspaper and radio groups to the rest of the media and casting a shadow over a year that was supposed to benefit from the Beijing Olympics and a high-spending election season, analysts warn.

The biggest threat to the industry from big advertisers such as car dealers, banks, retailers and airlines, among others, as they tighten their belts.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fe3188a8-5bff-11dd-9e99-000077b07658.html

Mob of bicyclists attacks, injures driver in Seattle

Cars vs. bikes - Two riders are arrested in the incident during a Critical Mass
demonstrationSunday, July 27, 2008 The Associated Press

SEATTLE -- A mob of bicyclists riding in Seattle with the monthly Critical Mass demonstration injured a motorist after an altercation Friday.

Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said between 100 and 300 bicyclists were riding down a street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, blocking traffic in both lanes, when a man and a woman in a Subaru station wagon tried to pull out of a parking spot.

But some of the bicyclists blocked them, sat on the car and began banging on the vehicle, police said. Words were exchanged between the male driver and the bicyclists.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1217125532184040.xml&coll=7

Watch for this to appear in/on the Canadian Press/MSM.
TBA.
...-

"Al-Qaeda weapons expert believed killed in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A top Al-Qaeda expert on chemical and biological weapons is believed to have been killed Monday in a suspected US missile strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, security officials said.

Egyptian militant Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a five-million-US-dollar bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Officials earlier said that three Arab militants and three Pakistani boys were killed when missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a house attached to a mosque in the South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan.

"We believe he was killed in this strike," a senior intelligence official based in the northwestern city of Peshawar told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It was his hide-out and information that has been shared with us says he was targeted in this strike.""
http://tinyurl.com/5wzy4e (AFP via Free Republic)

Could this be proof of ancient advanced civilizations existing on earth millions of years ago? They would have been advanced enough to have invented SUV's, n'est pas?

http://www.physorg.com/news136466771.html

"Snapshot of past climate reveals no ice in Antarctica millions of years ago"

My tip is a bit late, but please try to get over to the National Defence site and Write to the Troops. You can write on the same site in both French and English and send a short message.

Jokes are good too.

Not too many messages from la belle province - grouillez-vous les gars!

Just think how hot it is over there and no swimming pools in sight.

"he [Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand] has yet to rule on an extension request from [Liberal] party leader Stephane Dion."
...-

"Special deal

Electoral chief gives Liberal contenders more time to repay campaign debts"

"Had the Liberals not received more time, it would have put the party in the embarrassing position of attacking the Tories over alleged election wrongdoing while the most senior Liberals were in default of their own financial obligations on the leadership debts. And it would highlight the fact that even top Liberals are having trouble raising money, while the Conservatives swim in cash."
http://tinyurl.com/5sh2d9

Stephen Taylor is reporting that Krista Erickson (the CBC reporter caught colluding with the Liberals) has been reinstated by the CBC. She has returned to Ottawa and is again a Parliamentary reporter.

Citoyen Dion Who?
...-

"Stephane Dion's Leadership is Merely a Formality

There is more evidence that Stephane Dion is not really in charge of his party anymore?

Today's Hill Times contains an article reporting on scheduled meetings that Dion has made with top Liberal next month. The discussions will be about bringind down the Harper government, and triggering an election this fall . However, for an article supposedly about Liberal planning for an election, the topic quickly turns towards the question of how forces within the Liberal Party are already planning for a new leadership race.

An anonymous Liberal MP is quoted in the article as saying:

"The MP said he was surprised by the question, but also said it appears that Liberals have accepted that Stéphane Dion's presence at the top of the party is just a formality and that activities for positioning in anticipation of the leadership convention are becoming more and more evident."

There you have it, Stephane Dion's position as Leader of the Liberal Party is merely a formality at this point.

Supporters of both the Ignatieff and Rae camps are now moving against one-another, trying to position their candidates for a leadership race."
http://rightoncourse.blogspot.com/2008/07/stephane-dions-leadership-is-merely.html

More news from that other perpetually offended group:

"In a statement, Nike said the company would drop the ad campaign "to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace."

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=685917

B. Hussein Obama:

See me.
Feel me.
Touch me.
Heal me.*

Peter Wehner, Obama In Iraq's Quicksand

To listen to Barack Obama attempt to explain his views on Iraq and the so-called surge is becoming, for those of us who have followed his responses over the last 18 months, something of a spectacle. With every effort, it seems, he is compounding his mistakes in judgment with intellectually dishonest answers, ones which melt away under even minimal scrutiny.

The latest example is Obama's appearance yesterday on Meet the Press...

*Apologies to The Who.

Truthy headline of the day, courtesy CP:

NDP using every tool to 'put an end' to the Harper government: Layton

Every tool? That'd be the whole party!

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g0CJmJNGnrAsQItpUgV8zCOSld0w

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7494640.stm

A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office - by naming a sewage plant after him.

I find this really fascinating, not that someone would think of this, but that someone spent the time necessary to gain over 12,000 signatures for this.

(h/t Adler online)

Read Naumetz/CanPress/MSM's headline; then, read the first and second and third and fourth paragraph.
The MSM trusts that no one will read further than the headline.
...-

"Ex Grit leadership candidates to repay debts
Dion plan under review
By Tim Naumetz, THE CANADIAN PRESS"
http://tinyurl.com/6dlmft
...-

Jack asks:

"So who is the real killer here?

The Taliban or the western media who support them with outrageous stories that belittle our troops and lie to us?"

Be sure to read Brian S's comment below.
...-

"Jack: The “Left”

Today I was attacked by a “mickey mouse blog” because of a note I left in an earlier post. I was berated because I was unsympathetic to the fact that two children were killed by a Canadian weapon triggered by a nervous soldier when the vehicle was about 20 feet away and had ignored all signals to stop.

Had I been in that soldiers place with all the years of experience dealing with violence I have under my belt I would have done exactly the same.

“Poof”, you’re gone!

I would have been much more concerned about the people in the convoy I was protecting and the people we were trying our level best to to help. We’ve seen to many bodies come home lately and I note that at first it was a really big deal with CTV and the Star…but not anymore. They are following my lead for the most part and report a death but not much more than that because they know they are helping the enemy and are responding to our need. They are getting smart about it all."
http://jacksnewswatch.com/2008/07/28/jack-the-left/
...-

"Brian S Says:

Despite all evidence to the contrary, most sheltered western lefties naively seem to believe that freedom and prosperity are the natural state of the world, and if we would just leave world affairs to the diplomats they would settle everything over a spot of tea and then we could all just get along like one big happy global family.

Freedom however has never been the natural state of the world, and ours is but an anomaly. In this the 21’st century, still only a small minority of the worlds population live in free democratic countries. Our freedom came at a very high cost as it was hard won over many terrible wars, and it seems we must continue fighting in order to maintain it precisely because the natural state of the world has always been competition between ideologies that devolves into anarchy, tyranny and ultimately war.

War is tragedy, and despite the fine job that our soldiers do and all the risky precautions they take to avoid such tragic accidents, they are going to happen, especially given the Muslim extremist’s preference for terrorist tactics. However, Muslim extremists have not only created a tragic environment in Afghanistan, but in other terrorist hotspots all around the world. Even the Chinese have their Muslim extremists to worry about so this war cannot be about how the west has treated Muslims, or about our unwillingness to make peace with them, it can only be about the unwillingness of Muslim extremists to get along with anyone who is not willing to adhere to their ideology of domination over other cultures.

In reality, freedom is so valuable and such a rarity that it is the single most important thing we can help those that don’t yet have it try to achieve, and I have no doubt that when Canadian troops prepare to leave Afghanistan in 2011, the Afghanis will beg them to stay on longer, especially now that they are beginning to understand what is at stake. I also have no doubt that once our troops have finally left the theater, the people of Afghanistan will fight extremely hard to maintain their freedom, because they have recently had so many terrible experiences with the natural state of the world."

I rarely watch the CBC because it's usually too far to the left. Call it my "They can make me pay for it but they can't make me watch it" attitude. But every now and then the CBC produces something worthwhile.

Do we really know how peacekeepers behave abroad?

Their blue helmets symbolize hope. They are sent to countries where entire populations have been destroyed by deadly conflict. Soldiers from every corner of the world serve as representatives of their countries and work on behalf of the United Nations. Their role is to protect civilians and keep belligerent parties at bay. At least, that is their official mandate.

Observers have been increasingly asking a pivotal question: what if peacekeepers are part of the problem, instead of the solution? A steady stream of accusations has been directed at peacekeepers in Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Haiti, ranging from paying for sex, sexual abuse and rape of underage girls, to the abandonment of thousands of newborn babies. Do we really know how peacekeepers behave abroad? And who has turned a blind eye to these abuses for all these years? Shouldn't the peacekeeper's impunity be questioned? A Canadian lawyer and a team of Quebec police officers are instrumental in both helping the victims and tracking down some of the men accused of these crimes.

It's a repeat from last November. On the air right now.

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/feature_261107.html

One day Alberta indians in oil sand country are going to wake and realize they are being used.

http://www.thesurlybeaver.ca/