One day Alberta Indians in oil sand country are going to wake up and realize they're being used...

www.thesurlybeaver.ca

BLUE HELMETS: PEACE AND DISHONOUR

I don't usually watch the CBC - too left wing for me. Call it my "they can make me pay for it, bu they can't make me watch it" attitude. But now and then, the CBC produces something interesting. One of these is BLUE HELMETS: PEACE AND DISHONOUR

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

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 on the air now.

The latte crowd down under going to have to find somewhere else to sit around and moan about Bush.

Starbucks is pulling out of Oz.

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24094314-462,00.html

Arab energy giants eye coal imports
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/495344-arab-energy-giants-eye-coal-imports?ln=en

The middle east oil producers are looking at coal to generate electricity because it is cheaper than oil and they are short of natural gas.
Someone tell the liberals so they can get to work on slapping duties on that oil we import form the ME.

Is there nothing Obama can't do?

Good grief! Now the one-term senator is being compared to Winston Churchill.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/barack-and-winston-both-going-all-the-way-for-mom-878237.html

Good music for a hot steamy summer night, sitting on the fender of a 49 Mercury along the lakeshore, with a cool Coors in one hand, a horny broad in the other, and all the while watching the moonbeams dancing on the waves..... OK-OK, it was just a thought....

on the fender of a mercury. gonna buy me a mercury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAbbgSKUZB4

GREAT pick tonight, Vit.
Just what the doctor ordered.

"Officials: Al Qaeda's Mad Scientist Killed

One of al Qaeda's top chemical and biological weapons experts was killed in an air strike by a CIA pilotless drone in a remote Pakistani border region, senior Pakistani intelligence officials told CBS News Tuesday morning.

Intelligence officials investigating the Sunday night missile attack confirmed that Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri was one of six men killed and his remains had been positively identified.

"We now have a positive ID on the body. I can confirm to you that Al-Masri has been killed," a Pakistani intelligence official told CBS News on the condition of anonymity."
http://tinyurl.com/6jhdnc

Belgium has compulsory voting and proportional representation. The last election was 6 months ago. The result: Deadlock.
But, that would have nothing to do with "the death of Belgium?"

"So the fate of Belgium should interest us all, especially those who wish the European Union well. For what is happening in Belgium now could end up happening on a continental scale. Why, for example, should the prosperous Germans continue to have their tax money pooled to assist the Greeks or the Portuguese? It is difficult to sustain any democratic system, whether on a national or European scale, without a sense of solidarity. It helps if this is based on something deeper than shared interests: a language, a sense of common history, pride in cultural achievements. The European identity is still far from solid."
...-

"The death of Belgium?

Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32% of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the nation-state."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2053008/posts

Mao Stlong's nephew, Boob Lae, reader of Canada's Ribelars, lecommends you watch CTV/CBC, aka ChinaTV.
Goody goody smog pictules.
...-

"China's Olympic Cops

Beijing's struggle to deal with foreign journalists covering the Olympics reached a new low Friday. As 30,000 people queued for the last Olympics ticket sales, fist-fights broke out. Police and soldiers tried to keep journalists from recording the mayhem.

A photojournalist for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post was detained for six hours. Two from Hong Kong's Now TV channel were detained, and the station reports that police asked them to delete their footage. All the journalists were from Hong Kong, suggesting police may have been particularly forceful with ethnically Chinese reporters.

Meanwhile, the government continues to block news Web sites such as the BBC's Mandarin site and the Chinese-language, pro-democratic Apple Daily of Hong Kong. That is happening inside Olympic media centers, despite the promise of China's Olympic organizers that Internet access would be unfettered. It was always unlikely that China's media cops would be willing to suspend their censorship habits for the Olympics, and Friday's overreaction to one unfortunate incident will harm China's image far more than any reporting would have."
http://tinyurl.com/5pyaqn (WSJ)

I remember seeing both together,Ella and Satchmo, at the Standish Hall in the old city of Hull. What a night. Mid 50's I think.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2008/07/29/6295351-sun.html

Seems a Canadian forces 26 year veteran, Afghan campaign, multiple tours, can't get the help he needs now that his usefulness to the government is ended.

Is this more of the fine tradition of Canada's treatment of it's veterans? We support the troops, maybe our government should, too.

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Citizen Obama

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's single most illuminating statement in the course of a just-completed overseas tour was his self-description during the stop in Berlin as a "citizen of the world." Widely interpreted as nothing more than an innocuous expression of solidarity with his adoring, post-nationalist hosts, this declaration is actually just the latest indication that Senator Obama embraces a vision of his own country and its role in the world that should be exceedingly worrisome to America's citizenry...

MLK on Obama

judge not a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character

i'll take the older experienced candidate, over flash, celebrity and charisma

(Via Israpundit) FoxNews Special, 26 July 2008, Murder in the Family: Honor Killing in America

http://somebodyhelpme.info/foxnews/honorkilling.html

Seth G. Jones and Martin C. Libicki, How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida

All terrorist groups eventually end. But how do they end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that most groups have ended because (1) they joined the political process (43 percent) or (2) local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members (40 percent). Military force has rarely been the primary reason for the end of terrorist groups, and few groups within this time frame have achieved victory. This has significant implications for dealing with al Qa'ida and suggests fundamentally rethinking post-9/11 U.S. counterterrorism strategy...

[Summary and full report in PDF only].

Bicycle bombs and the ubiquitous Pakistani ISI:

ICT Global Terrorism Brief: India Bombings - Ahmedabad and Bangalore

See also Sadanand Dhume, India's Counterterrorism Failings

'Maria judge charged with assault'
One of the judges from the cbc-tv production How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? has been arrested by toronto police.
Simon Lee,46,was charged with assault and forcible confinement.Lee appeared in court Mon,and was granted bail.
TO police confirm Lee was arrested Sunday night in a hotel room in Yorkville,where it is alleged that a person was hit and kept from leaving.

Muslims torture other Muslims?
Each side tortures the other side's Muslims?

Their motto? GetMo.
It's in The Book.
GetMo.
...-

"Palestinian rivals 'use torture'"

"Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, said torturing detainees was widespread in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank under Fatah."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7530700.stm

Read the headline and marvel at the duplicity/wilful amnesia of the MSM and "Amnesty International", a communist front.

Here is *"China's human rights record", aka laogai, aka Chinese Gulag.
...-

"Beijing Olympics: China’s human rights deteriorate"

China's human rights record has deteriorated in the run-up to the Olympics and risks "permanently sullying" the legacy of the Games, Amnesty International has warned. A damning report by the charity highlights the use of "re-education through labour", the suppression of rights activists and journalists and the use of arbitrary imprisonment."
http://tinyurl.com/5ouyhd
...-

*Introduction to China’s Laogai
http://www.laogai.org/hdbook/hb_intro.htm

We killed these people in Tennessee, according to a serious political commentator, because of our rhetoric encouraging violence against liberals:

http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/2008/07/murdering-liberals-its-conservative.html

In other news, Tory spokesman Kory Teneycke deserves to be whacked with a tire iron. But that's *different*.

http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/2008/07/kory-teneycke-meet-my-tire-iron.html

More news on biofuels from non-food sources...

http://www.physorg.com/news136471253.html

The Muslim Taliban do not torture each other; the Muslim Taliban kill each other.
The Muslim Taliban motto: Getmo and Mo and Mo and Mo and ...
It's in The Book.
...-

"Pakistan: Taliban split into two factions in Bajaur Agency

KHAR: Taliban in the Bajaur tribal district split into two factions after infighting between two militant organisations in Mohmand Agency led to the killing of eight members of one group on July 18.

Pro-Baitullah Mehsud Taliban leader Umer Khalid killed eight members from the Shah Sahib militant group, including its chief and deputy chief, on July 18."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2053146/posts

Edward Luttwak, A Truman for our times

The received wisdom is that President Bush has been a foreign policy disaster, and that America is threatened by the rise of Asia. Both claims are wrong—Bush has successfully rolled back jihadism, and the US will benefit from Asian growth

Richard Reeves, A question of character

The idea of "good character" sounds old-fashioned and patronising, but it may be the key to some of our most entrenched social problems. Politicians across the spectrum are starting to realise this

Chicken Little's AGW story of the day:
==========================

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080729/wl_canada_nm/canada_arctic_col_1

Another wondrous victory against homophobia... Snickers ad with Mr. T gets nixed

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/28/video-the-forbidden-mr-t-snickers-ad/

Looks like there is a whole lot of shakin' going on in LA.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,393781,00.html

No word on if the anointed one will tour the damage in Hollywood & Beverly Hills yet.

Michael J. Totten, From Counterinsurgents to Peacekeepers

Associated Press Baghdad Bureau Chief Robert Reid and his chief military reporter Robert Burns published a dispatch from Iraq over the weekend that should have made banner headlines. “It's not the end of fighting,” they wrote. “It looks like the beginning of a perilous peace.” This is exactly right, but millions of Americans still have no idea. Coverage from Iraq has diminished as much as the casualty rates since General David Petraeus implemented an effective counterinsurgency strategy in early 2007. At least we’re finally seeing a media consensus emerge after a year and a half of looking at the data as though it were inkblots on a Rorschach. It’s nearly impossible to work in Iraq anymore and deny what has happened...

"Killing for religion is justified, say third of Muslim students"

(telegraph.co.uk) A third of Muslim students in Britain believe killing someone in the name of religion is justified, a new poll claims.

The survey found that extreme Islamist ideology has a profound influence on a significant minority of Muslims on campuses across the country.

The findings will concern police chiefs, the security services and ministers, who are struggling with radicalisation among Muslim communities.

The YouGov poll found:

40 per cent support the introduction of sharia into British law for Muslims

a third back the notion of a worldwide Islamic caliphate (state) based on sharia law

40 per feel it is unacceptable for Muslim men and women to mix freely

24 per cent do not think men and women are equal in the eyes of Allah

a quarter have little or no respect for homosexuals.

Although 53 per cent said that killing in the name of religion was never justified, compared with 94 per cent of non-Muslims, 32 per cent said that it was.

A little cheerful pick me up. Crystal Gayle and the Muppets

Islam.
...-

"Love, blackmail and rape – how al-Qaeda grooms women as ‘perfect weapons’

A woman pretending to be pregnant walks up to a hospital in one of Iraq’s most dangerous regions and blows herself up.

Minutes later a man, also laden with explosives, attacks the rescue workers who rushed to the scene in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. Thirty-two people are killed and 52 wounded.

The co-ordinated bombings that ripped through the town of Baladruz in May are one of twelve attacks involving thirteen women suicide bombers to strike Diyala so far this year – a huge jump, signalling a new tactic by insurgents. US officials suspect that al-Qaeda has built a network of cells that recruit women and turn them into killers."
http://tinyurl.com/6qrb9b (times)

Just in case anyone needs a job for the summer....... :-)

http://jasoncherniak.blogspot.com/2008/07/now-accepting-applications.html

dmorris: "Is this more of the fine tradition of Canada's treatment of it's veterans?"
Had a chance to tune into Adler this evening and the way the veteran and the reporter put the story it sounds like a typical case of bureaucratic lethargy and foot dragging in our hallowed halls. I am first to blame Liberal appointments as there must be more than a bit of loathing toward the new CPC masters in the ranks. However, one mustn't concoct conspiracy theories where inefficiency or ineptitude are likely the case. The tradition of stinginesses in aid to Veterans is long standing and the Harper Govt. is not going to fix these small irritants without at least three terms of Majority Government.
God help us if the electorate anoints Dion this Fall.