"Lady Liberty" says that commitment to freedom is fine, but sometimes it requires more than simply blaming politicians:

"Commitment issues?"

There's an old saying that goes, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong." Lately I've taken that as my personal motto.

That's because everything about our government seems designed to make me feel paranoid. They want my guns. They want my money. They want to dictate my lighting options. They want to microchip my livestock. If I attend a tea party protesting our trillions in deficit spending, or if I am against abortion, or if I object to illegal immigration, I'm lumped with terrorists. If I stare at a man dressed in drag – even though he's dressed in drag in order to be stared at – I'm guilty of a "hate" crime.

So what's a paranoid housewife to do?

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106255

Kate, you'll appreciate this:

"Dogs as intelligent as 2-year old children"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5994583/Dogs-as-intelligent-as-two-year-old-children.html

Re today's David Olive article in the Toronto Star. The header is "So far, banking industry lobbyists winning battle against being regulated". However, I suspect the banking industry is already heavily regulated (this is the United States industry we're talking about, although the same comment would apply to the Canadian one).

Olive starts right out with "You would think that after global financiers triggered the current, unprecedented worldwide recession and credit crisis, they might embrace inevitable reforms that their reckless conduct made necessary." Later he calls the failed mortgages "predatory".

However, it was the US government that put the gun to the banks' heads and forced their hand regarding "reckless" loans. So the government, not the banks, deserves the blame.

The fundamental moral principle of a civilized society is that no person has the right to initiate the use of force on any other person. The mortgage/financial crisis is an example of what happens when the government can violate that rule. Any way you slice it, it's vicious to blame the victims of government coercion, as Olive is doing.

It's a standard leftist tactic to blur the distinction between things that are coerced and things that are not. Calling lotteries "a tax on the poor" is a longstanding example.

Jimmy Kimmel discovers that a movie is being made about Bill Clinton's rescue of those reporters in North Korea. Here's the trailer:

President Humpy Saves the World

All I can say for this woman's kids is "Thank God She isn't Bankrupt!"

Fury after hospital sends heart attack mum home to die

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/08/03/exclusive-fury-after-hospital-sends-heart-attack-mum-home-to-die-86908-21567473/

For the "here's something that no-one could have foreseen (sarc)" files:

"Long debate ended over cause, demise of ice ages -- may also help predict future"

"Researchers have largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years - they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused by predictable changes in Earth's rotation and axis."

www.physorg.com/news168791411.html

This is what Rush means when he calls them "The State-run Media."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRJ1oyhTZAQ

Absolutely amazing. I still think Schiff got his point across in spite of the a$$hole interviewer.

a winnipeg free press poll on electric cars that has the potential to go horribly wrong

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Did anyone actually attend Hizb-ut-Tahrir gathering in Mississauga Valley community centre?

Did anyone actually contact the city council and mayor and got anything back?

Posted by: tim in vermont at August 10, 2009 7:00 AM

The very clot buster drug they mention in the article is what saved my sorry behind 18 months ago. Thankfully the paramedic that was taking my vitals etc on the way to the ER decided that none of my symptoms were making sense so he hooked up the ECG. Ten seconds later the sedate drive to the ER changed to lights on, siren wailing race. That clot buster is an amazing advance. Thirty minutes after arriving in the ER, I felt absolutely normal, just extremely tired.

You would think that with 1,400,000 employees that the NHS could at least diagnose a heart attack. One single paramdeic in Halifax managed the feat.

We are from the government, we are here to kill you.

Peel Police - Police Remind Citizens to Exercise Caution Around Bodies of Water

If you see someone in distress:

    * call 9-1-1 immediately;

    * never rush to the person to assist;

    * look for someone readily available to go for help, then stay with the person (at a safe distance) and offer encouragement to survive;

Glad you're okay, AtlanticJim. The douchebag-to-worthwhile people ratio in this city is dire enough without you checking out.

Just got back from a driving tour of the Maritimes. Apparently seat belt use and car inspection expiration dates are terribly ,terribly important issues these days. Important enough that regular police roadblocks of major and minor highways are required at all times of the day.
Typical govt inefficiency. Block captains checking as you leave the neighbourhood would be much more efficient. Canadians... seeing the world from their knees.

Why oh why is it that the leftist nuts must waste money on half baked ideas constantly?

www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1680461

There was a recent vid that went viral of three clowns shooting ducks on a pond with a .22. It has come out they moved from Toronto a year ago. OOOH that is going to smart in court. Loss of car, loss of gun, loss of money. Call it a stupid tax.

Revnant Dream,

Bingo.

Thanks for posting that article - well worth the read - truth is like that - you know it when it comes into a room.

A poll that has already gone horribly wrong.

[Recent surveys show Americans cooling to global warming, and they're even less keen on environmental policies they believe might raise power bills or imperil jobs. Those sentiments could mean a tougher road ahead for elected officials looking to fund investments in renewable power or install a carbon cap-and-trade system.]

["I think there's a huge amount of skepticism among the public. They've heard all these claims, and now they've been informed that there isn't any recent warming," Ebell said. "The public, without having a lot of information about it, is pretty astute. I think the alarmists are having a hard time making the case for global warming simply because reality is against them and the public has figured it out."] reviewjournal.com

No $$it Sherlock.

Q: How did you meet the Minister?
A: Well, I opened my wallet, and there he was.

Jim Flaherty, November 27 - "We cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts during tougher times without looking in the mirror. Canadians have a right to look to government as an example. We have a responsibility to show restraint and respect for their money. Canadians’ tax dollars are precious. They must not be spent frivolously or without regard to where they came from. Canadians pay taxes so governments can provide essential services. They trust the people they elect to serve society with that money, not serve themselves … Canadians pay their own bills and for some Canadians that is getting harder to do. Political parties should pay their own bills, too, and not with excessive tax dollars. Even during the best of economic times, parties should count primarily on the financial support of their own members and their own donors. Today our government is eliminating the $1.75 per vote taxpayer subsidy for politicians and their parties effective April 1, 2009. There will be no free ride for political parties. There never was. The freight was being paid by the taxpayers. This is the last stop on the route. There will be no free ride for anyone else in government either."

Stephen Fletcher, August 10. Mr. Fletcher also defended the Ten Percenter program, saying that people might not like the content of the flyers but they contribute to the “public discourse.”

The natural end result of the religion of socialism/communism: Death.
...-

"Lenin statue collapses on man in ex-Soviet Belarus, kills him

MINSK, Belarus —A massive statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin collapsed on a man who was hanging from it Monday, killing him on the spot, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man was drunk when he climbed onto the five-meter (16-foot)-high plaster monument and hung from its arm, the Emergency Situations ministry said. It then broke into pieces and he was crushed.

The statue in the southeastern Belarus town of Uvarovichi was built in 1939.

“The monument’s heavy head tumbled on him,” said Nataliya Bolbas, a principal at a school in Uvarovichi facing the monument.

President Alexander Lukashenko is a staunch admirer of the Soviet Union, and the nation still has numerous Soviet-era monuments to the revolutionary leader."
http://blog.taragana.com/n/lenin-statue-collapses-on-man-in-ex-soviet-belarus-kills-him-135766/

"From the latest Angus Reid poll:

"In testimony provided to a House of Commons ethics committee and to the Oliphant Inquiry, Muldoony and The German have offered differing accounts on the amount of money that exchanged hands. About one-in-four Canadians (23%) believe The German is telling the truth when he claims to have paid Muldoony $300,000, while one-in-ten Canadians (10%) think the former prime minister is being honest when he says he received $225,000 from The German. Still, a large proportion of the population (44%) finds neither man credible."

You know, the people are always right.

Goreacle Report.
...-

"Britons fume over faulty 'BBQ summer' prediction

It’s the phrase that haunts Britain’s weather forecasters — “barbecue summer.”

It was used in April by the country’s chief weather forecasting body when it predicted the summer would be warm and sunny.

After a soggy July, Britons are miffed.

Meteorologists have been forced to defend their science — and their bonuses. The government-funded Met Office has paid more than 1 million pounds ($1.7 million) in annual bonuses to staffers for meeting targets, including the accuracy of forecasts.

“That was for last year,” Met Office spokeswoman Sarah Holland said Monday.

The Met Office’s April forecast said there was a 65 per cent chance the summer would be warmer and sunnier than average.

“Odds on for a barbecue summer,” it said in an ill-advised phrase that was repeated endlessly by the media.

Britain suffered through miserable summers in 2007 and 2008, so predictions that this year would be drier were greeted with joy."
urlm.in/cwkj
...-

"'Weather variations, not global warming cause glacier melt'

New Delhi (PTI): Himalayan glaciers, including the world's highest battlefield Siachen, are melting due to variations in weather and not because of global warming, Jammu University scientists have claimed.

"The field studies from other glaciers in India also corroborate the fact that inter and intra-annual variations in weather parameters have more impact on the glaciers of northwest Himalayas, rather than any impact due to global warming," they said.

Geologists R K Ganjoo and M N Koul of Jammu University's Regional Centre for Field Operations and Research of Himalayan Glaciology visited the Siachen glacier to record changes in its snout last summer.

"To our surprise, the Siachen glacier valley does not preserve evidences of glaciation older than mid-Holocene, suggesting that the glacier must have advanced and retreated simultaneously several times in the geological past, resulting in complete obliteration and modification of older evidences," they said reporting their findings in 'Current Science'.

Ganjoo and Koul dubbed as "hype" some earlier studies which suggested that the Himalayan glaciers were melting fast and caused serious damage to the Himalayan ecosystem.

There is sufficient field and meteorological evidence from the other side of Karakoram mountains that corroborate the fact that glaciers in this part of the world are not affected by global warming, they said.

"Overwhelming field geomorphological evidences suggest poor response of the Siachen glacier to global warming."
urlm.in/cwkk (via Bourque)

Damage to ecosystem = Arrogance of homo sapience, who thinks they should decide which creature to give preference over another.

Hardboiled: re your edited post of a recent AngusReid poll

You failed to point out the main issue's of the poll.

66% believed it was an utter waste of money
80% believe we will never get to the bottom of it
64% said they are tired of hearing about it.

The nanny state run amok?

One of the buildings at the government complex I work at has recently been gutted and renovated after 40 years. Nothing strange in that.

In accordance with government policy, any new bathrooms are to be handicap accessable. Again nothing strange there, we have all seen the larger than normal toilet stalls and grab bars.

The "run amok" part? The urinals have grab bars on either side????????

Now, I ain't even gonna get into the logistics of using a urinal while holding onto two grab bars, but there is no way on this earth, I am going to grab onto a handle that sits one inch from a urinal in a public washroom............

I know PBS is a cuss word in these parts but that's where this very poignant turn-of-the-previous-century-type-sound tune got its popularity. can you guess which series?

hint: Ken Burns Executive Producer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1jaUkWw9zU

Our Enemy, The State.
...-

"North American Leaders Pledge Action on Swine Flu, Economy, Security
Voice of America"

"http://thestar.blogs.com/politics/2009/08/ignatieffs-new-chief.html". I came across this article that tells us that Ian Davey is replacing Paul Zed as Ignatieff's chief of staff. Now,I was away from the news for a while,so I don't remember hearing anything about his resignation. Could it have anything to do with the 'wafergate' debacle? Was it for the all-encompassing 'spend more time with the family'?

I know that it is wrong to feed the trolls but sometimes it is irresistable. New has weighed in on the 'dissolvable bikine/burqini' post from yesterday. This is part of it,---- "plus

Muslim women with cover more dress code

are get more attracted eyes from men

because if you cover so much and if you reveal so much skin
both is down ward feeling toward men

Good for you new,I hope you have some photos that you can post for us." --There is more.