The Milla Vanilla of the bagpipes @ 1:16

Was EBD fired?

I have been reading alot of the media reporting on our projected deficits that are forthcoming.

I keep reading about how the Liberals left us in surplus and all that jazz. Good stuff. IMO, Harper would be a fool to run a deficit, he would be only giving Iggy and WK punch lines for the Libs ads come next election.

As a fiscal conservative all I hear in the back of my mind is ...CUT CUT CUT...

Cut the civil service, especialy the higher end personnel.

Cut spending.

Cut transfers to the province (increased by 11 billion since 05/06).

Cut income taxes or raise the basic living allowance to 20,000 before any taxes are paid federally.

Just cut.
Cut some and when finished, cut some more.

Just cut it. (swoosh)

Obese have right to 2 airline seats --Canada court
"Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada"
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssAirlines/idUSN2039776920081120

Ridiculous.

For your reference, PiperPaul, here's the memo
which it would appear you may have missed.

complimentary music for tonight selection

Interesting pipes. Only one long drone it would appear? Just for comparison lets try some a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5b3e8ivvM&feature=related">Great Highland Pipes
Please note the configuration. Three drones, one long and two short. The bag is carried under the arm and I believe is squeezed in play. Perhaps someone here is more knowledgeable than I.

what is sextilion?

1 sextillion = 10²¹

Obese have right to 2 airline seats --Canada court
Amazingly stupid but understandable in to days world. Maybe the airlines should either tell them to bugger off as they exceed the weight safety regs or have one seat for wide butts next to the washroom so they don't clog the aisles should anything serious happen. Inconsiderate, callous, you betcha, and more so everyday with the stupidity the average guy is forced to tolerate these days.

Here's something mildly more interesting than small dead mohammads:

National Intelligence Council report: sun setting on the American century

(The National Intelligence Council (NIC) is the center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking within the United States Intelligence Community (IC).)

Article and full text at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5202497.ece

www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html

Full text of report (120 pages) also available through the BBC website. Its an interesting read. Certainly better than peanuts ;).

"The killer frost for global warming

Turn up the heat, somebody. The globe is freezing. Even Al Gore is looking for an extra blanket. Winter has barely come to the northern latitudes and already we've got bigger goosebumps than usual. So far the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports 63 record snowfalls in the United States, 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month. Only 44 Octobers over the past 114 years have been cooler than this last one.

The polar ice is accumulating faster than usual, and some of the experts now concede that the globe hasn't warmed since 1995. You may have noticed, in fact, that Al and his pals, having given up on the sun, no longer even warn of global warming. Now it's "climate change." The marketing men enlisted by Al and the doom criers to come up with a flexible "brand" took a cue from the country philosopher who observed, correctly, that "if you've got one foot in the fire and the other in a bucket of ice, on average you're warm." On average, "climate change" covers every possibility."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/21/the-killer-frost-for-global-warming/
...-

"Obama Out-Gores Gore at Climate Summit

Barack Obama managed to say all the wrong things at this week's Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles -- without even showing up. The President-elect appeared to the green faithful on Tuesday in the form of a mammoth video image, and opened his pre-recorded pledge to "take the lead" in addressing global warming with these eerily familiar words:

"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading famine and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season."

Now from whom have we heard such an arrogant concentration of misinformed alarmist hokum before?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135777/posts

Steve Janke's Defence Fund.
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"Help Fund My Defence
Against Blair Wilson"

"And for my troubles, I'm being sued as being part of some sort of Liberal-media-blogger conspiracy. It's absurd, it's groundless, and it's an attack on the role of the press (both the mainstream and online media) in bringing information to Canadians that they need to know. But it'll also be expensive to defend against.

So I'm turning to you, my readers, for help in building up a war chest. My goal is $10,000 for the retainer, and then $5,000 or more for costs not paid directly to my counsel. This blog has carved out a place in Canada's media landscape. In the last election, I was responsible for throwing the Liberals off their environmental message by analyzing the fuel consumption of their leased airplane. I started the ball rolling that saw (now former) Liberal MP Garth Turner taken to task by CPAC for having manipulated a media event. I published the recording of the Liberal platform conference call, clips of which became the lead-ins for media reporting on the Liberal platform instead of the carefully scripted press conference that was immediately forgotten.

And I'm not done yet. I got a lot of blogging left in me, and I'm certain the best is yet to come. But to get there, I need to deal with Blair Wilson and his lawsuit, and to do that, I need your help."
http://stevejanke.com/donations.php

"Michael Jackson converts to Islam"
(Press Trust Of India)

London: Pop singer Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel.

The 50-year-old star pledged his allegiance to the Koran in a ceremony at a friend's mansion in Los Angeles, the Sun reported.

Hey Kate, looks like the AP are finally starting to put their foot down regarding doctored photos:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7738342.stm

Red Orympic Fraud: Downhill From Whistler to TO.
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"Olympic torch to illuminate Ontario towns
Toronto Star - 4 hours ago
VANCOUVER–The Olympic relay likely will touch down in Ontario for several weeks as the flame makes its way to the home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Windfall hopes could backfire in Whistler Vancouver Sun"

Ebla - there's another aspect to the 'extra seats' for the obese and/or the disabled. The disabled, who require an assistant when they travel, will have that assistant provided with a free seat. No charge.

Now, in some, and I'd say, the smallest percentage, a disabled person will require an assistant on the actual plane, as well as before and after that flight. But I wonder how many free tickets will be given out for an assumed self-designated 'caregiver'?

Will this be similar to the many thousands of 'handicapped parking stickers' on the cars of people who park and then, run out of their cars into the mall? Will two ride for the price of one, just because one individual is now legally able to assert that he/she requires assistance?

Checkout the Globe's front page - under Canadian Politics. "Manitoba to boost spending, attack bad driving - Throne Speech promises ban on smoking of cellphone use while driving..."

Re the deteriorating world economy.

'Forget Bretton Woods II. We Need a Gold Standard".
At www.csmonitor.com/2008/1115/p09s01-coop.html

And news that over $30 trillion has disappeared from the world equity markets and over $5 trillion of property value in the US housing market alone has disappeared has put most fear of runaway inflation on hold for awhile.
Deflation, on the other hand, is another question.

Did any of you Prairie folks see that?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081120/canada/calgary_alberta_meteor

Apparently there's a chance some may have hit the ground.

Has this report been seen in the MSM?

Thank you, President Bush.
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"Iraqi Soldiers Send Aid to California Fire Victims (Caring for others)
American Forces Press Service

BESMAYA RANGE COMPLEX, Iraq, Nov. 20, 2008 – A group of Iraqi soldiers stepped up to help California residents victimized by recent wildfires raging throughout the state. Iraqi army Col. Abbas Fadhil, Besmaya Range Complex commander, and his team of “Abbas’ Eagles” raised $500 for wildfire relief.

“We want to send a message to the American president and the American people,” Abbas said. “We feel that we are a family — one body. When one part of the body suffers, the other parts suffer, too.”

This is the fourth donation the soldiers of Besmaya have sent to the American people recently. In September, they raised $1,500 for victims of hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The Eagles also donated $500 to the National Sept. 11 Memorial.

(From a Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq news release.)"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135594/posts

"I was let go because I'm a Jew."?
Einstein's father's name was Hermann, the quintessential German name: army man, warrior, the German equivalent of Arminius.
...-

"e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right

PARIS (AFP) – It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.

A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France's Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world's mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms.

According to the conventional model of particle physics, protons and neutrons comprise smaller particles known as quarks, which in turn are bound by gluons.

The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five percent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 percent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081120/sc_afp/sciencephysicseinstein_081120235605
...-

*Einstein's father
Einstein's father, Hermann, ran an electrical technology business, ... Image © The Albert Einstein Archives, The Jewish National & University Library, ...
www.aip.org/history/einstein/ae2.htm

ET: A couple of years ago, my boyfriend and I flew to Mexico and there was a couple that were each around 500lbs. It was our luck that we ended up with the man sitting next to us. My boyfriend was the unlucky one. He is 5'7" 170ish. The over sized man had to sit with his hand on the seat in front of us so that he wasn't "overlapping". Little good that did, the arm rest was actually pushing in towards my boyfriend, he was like a squished sardine. The wife was so big that it she had to try to go down the isle sideways. A lot of good that did, either her a$$ or her belly was bumping into people as she went down the isle. To top it off, they ate all the way. This was only a 4 hour flight, one would think that they were packed for a ten hour journey. Where were our rights? We paid for a seat, which was shared by an over sized person. To top it off, they must of complained because on the flight back (yes we were on the same flight back!) they were seated in first class and living the high life on the food and drink. Made me sick to my stomach. Either the planes should have to change their seating policy, make room for some over sized seats or make the over sized people pay for two seats. I am claustrophobic, usually sit by the window to see out, I would have lost my mind if it was me that had to sit like that for 4 hours. I would have been the one drug off of the plane for loosing it. We have rules on weight for luggage, maybe we should be paying per pound per flight per person. It really started and ended our holiday terrible.

ET: That's interesting (the disabled's assistant flying free). In this PC-mad world, who would dare question the disabled?

A couple sorta-related items: In that big $700 billion bailout bill stateside, an earmark was quietly added -- and not commented upon very much -- which, for the first time, permitted mental illness to be claimed against employer-provided health insurance for approx. 113 million Americans. To be sure, genuine mental illness deserves the same respect as physical illness; however, the huge danger now is an explosion of bogus claims that will be hard to disprove.

In BC recently (according to what I could glean from the Vancouver Sun through the newspaper box window), a man received damages for trauma after witnessing a 3-death car crash on a Vancouver area bridge.

As libertarian economist Walter E. Williams recently opined, "we are a nation of thieves".

Muslims vs Muslims; to the death.
Have you read the book?
No, I'm waiting for the movie.
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"Radical group says it will fight Somali pirates

A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million US worth of crude oil."

"I don't really think about anything too much. I live in the present. I move on. I don't think about what happened yesterday. If I think too much, it kind of freaks me out."
Pamela Anderson. From the brainyquote website.

Pamela Anderson gives advice to President-Elect Obama on fixing the world .

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=b182054a-4b42-432c-92e3-a2dc3ddd3a40

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/540938

Among decided voters, the poll finds Liberals would receive 24 per cent of the vote if Ignatieff were leader, with the Conservatives at 38 per cent and the NDP at 18 per cent. With Rae as leader, the Liberals would receive 21 per cent, with the Tories at 39 per cent and the NDP at 18 per cent. Under LeBlanc, the Liberals would get 17 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives 41 per cent and the NDP again at 18 per cent.

A better prescription for our democracy...

"Duff Conacher, of Ottawa-based Democracy Watch, wasn't surprised that the peace on Parliament Hill was short-lived. Politicians have always yelled and misled in the Commons, and the atmosphere gets even nastier in a minority setting, he said.
Conacher suggested politicians must be held to a higher standard by imposing fines for dishonesty. MPs should also be stripped of the "parliamentary privilege" that allows them to make false claims and outright lies in the Commons with impunity."

Lying and misleading statements by politicians actionable? On the upshot, most of them would be in jail fast.

On the downside, none of them would ever speak again. Hey....come to think of it, is that a downside?

Damm Global Warming

Here in Grey/Bruce we have had snow squalls off Lake Huron & Geo. Bay, Local radio is reporting cars off the road along Hwy21 over in Port Elgin & hwy26 Owen Sound to Barrie whiteouts & very slow going.
Owen Sound itself has so far been spared as the squalls are staying to the West & East of us, I think it has been along time since we have seen squalls like this in November.
My phone has not stopped for Snow Tires here, Iam sold out & my distributors are slim pickins.

*If you have to travel any distance drive safe & carry emergency items such as flashlight, shovel, emerg lighting, blankets, a charged cell phone w/charger, thermos, chocolate bars and/or crackers & Dress warm, winter boots, spare socks, gloves & hat/tooque. Make sure gas is topped, check windshield fluid(carry extra) & antifreeze. Have your oil changed to a 5w or consult your manual/service dept., Battery is in top cond..
*And remember have 4 snow tires installed.
BTW: i have been recommending that long before Cdn.tire or even Quebec making it mandatory.
take care all

On the obese-friendly situation,there is a flipside to this coin. Would the Olsen twins be able to share one first class seat? Why not,they would probably be less trouble for the air crew,with one or the other nodding off at any given time,and it's not like they will be demanding two meals, I doubt if they could finish one between them.Us regular folk,who might wear an occasional python boot,are getting the shaft again.

Welcome Bill to re-Education by the State.

Training Day
In which a lunatic has an aneurism over apparently nothing.

By Bill Whittle

Next April, I’m going to turn 50. I’ll be 50 years old.

Somehow, I’ve managed to get this far without working in a large corporate office. So today I got my first taste of a world that most of you are already much more familiar with than I am: the world of modern American big business. So what lit me up like a Fourth of July skyrocket was something that seemed to mean nothing at all to the other 23 people in the room, because today, for the first time, I had to attend a mandatory sexual-harassment training course.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2QyMzQ2ZjdhMmEwZDU3YWEyYTgyMjc3ZGUxOWQ1OTY=

>>>>> "The hunters have been on the ice slaughtering the whales since Thursday and are likely to accomplish their task over the coming days,"
Slaughtering? Tchtchtch.
This is a task for AGWoman; only AGWoman can put a stop to the sl .... Videos, anyone?
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"Over 200 narwhal trapped in Canadian ice (only Global Warming can save them now...)

At least 200 narwhal whales in Canada's Arctic, trapped by winter ice that is setting in around them and facing starvation or suffocation, must be culled, officials said Friday.

Hunters from the village of Pond Inlet on Baffin Island discovered the animals trapped near Bylot Island, about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from Pond Inlet, on November 15, and checked on them periodically.

The local hunters are allowed to harvest only 130 whales each year for food, according to standards set by the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans.

But department spokesman Keith Pelley told AFP: "It's unlikely the animals are going to survive the winter, so the hunters have been given authorization to cull them."

The hunters have been on the ice slaughtering the whales since Thursday and are likely to accomplish their task over the coming days, he said.

Narwhal are found mostly in the Arctic circle, and are renowned for their extraordinarily long tusk, which is actually a twisted incisor tooth that projects from the left side of its upper jaw and can be up to three meters (10 feet) long.

"A couple of weeks ago, when the ice was still moving, there were quite a few narwhal seen out there in the open water," Jayko Allooloo, chairman of the Pond Inlet hunters and trappers organization, told public broadcaster CBC."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2136212/posts

Cullen Cullen? Where are you?
AGWoman is hiding; come out AGWoman.
Heidi no goody.
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Weather Channel nixes “Forecast Earth”, possibly Cullen
21 11 2008

I’ve been following this story since yesterday, but the details kept being somewhat nebulous. Since WaPo has it, I’ve decided it is safe to consider reasonably accurate now. It looks like TWC has ditched their entire environmental unit, and possibly also host Heidi Cullen, who once said:

“If a meteorologist has an AMS Seal of Approval, which is used to confer legitimacy to TV meteorologists, then meteorologists have a responsibility to truly educate themselves on the science of global warming.” “Meteorologists are among the few people trained in the sciences who are permitted regular access to our living rooms. And in that sense, they owe it to their audience to distinguish between solid, peer-reviewed science and junk political controversy.” “If a meteorologist can’t speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn’t give them a Seal of Approval.”

Needless to say, I and many other current and former TV meteorologists took exception to the issue. I posted on it almost two years ago here"
http://wattsupwiththat.com/