small dead animals

The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein

Michael Totten;

The Iraqi Truth Project has released a DVD documentary called Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein. One of my favorite historians, Victor Davis Hanson, and one of the best up-and-coming documentary film-makers, Evan Coyne Maloney, both had a hand in this film. It will be shown at the war crimes trials of both "Chemical" Ali and Saddam Hussein.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I did watch the trailer. It damn near knocked me out of my chair. I knew right away I had to order this movie at once. I've been back to watch the trailer several times already. It's an incredibly powerful minute-and- a-half of footage and music.

(The link to the trailer is at the top of the Iraq Truth Project page)

Unkind Cuts

The brittle shell.

Via MUSC Tiger

More On The Dither Slither

Bob Tarantino skewers Linda McCuaig's defense of the Dither slither away from BMD that
"standing up to the American empire ... will only improve our standing in a world increasingly alarmed by U.S. unilateralism".

This is one of those fascinating rationalizations that requires a complete suspension of any connection with reality in order for it to make sense. "Improve our standing in the world"? Who is she kidding? Does anyone honestly believe that anyone outside the US military establishment and the incestuous world of the Canadian media and political culture gives a flying hump about this issue? Who is getting fired up about this? Jack Layton. Newspaper editorialists. Some Canadian bloggers. That's pretty much it. The issue was splashed across front pages for a day, and now it'll likely fade away, never to be heard about again. Check Google News, and see if you can even find any non-Canadian, non-US media outlets reporting about the issue. I saw one mention in Australia, one in Borneo and one in India. That's it. If the primary rationale for dodging participation in BMD is to get brownie points with "the world", we're gonna need to do a much better job of selling it.

Joel Fleming weighs in on a similar remark later in the "opinion" column, (we can use scare quotes, too, Linda), that "Canada's gutsy refusal to go along was the right move - and one that, incidentally, will win us higher standing in the world.

Except "incidentally" isn't really accurate, is it Linda? Why else would the title trumpet Canada's newfound "respect"? International popularity was the primary factor in the decision, wasn't it? This is what happens when you extend the Liberals trademark, poll-driven decision-making to foreign policy. Congratulations Canada - North Korea, Iran and Syria like us a lot more today.

Though I'm not sure you could call it "respect."

To repeat something I've said earlier - Canada's role in the world has been reduced to serving as a warning to the US.

The Overthrow Of Marriage

David Frum;

In the province of Ontario, the words "wife," "husband," "widow," and "widower" are now all to be stricken from the law. The words "mother" and "father" cannot be far behind.

Ontario's action is a reminder that same-sex marriage is not just the extension of an existing legal status to previously excluded persons. Same-sex marriage is a revolution in the definition of marriage for everyone - a revolution not just in law, but in consciousnessness.

And one effect of this revolution - and for many proponents, one of the revolution's aims - is to make forever unthinkable the idea that husbands and wives each have special duties to one another, and that a husband's duties to his wife - while equally binding and equally supreme - are not the same as a wife's duties to her husband.

Once we lose that knowledge, we lose the basic grammar of marriage. It is one more reminder that in the same-sex marriage debate, we are debating not marriage's change - but marriage's overthrow.

Cedar Revolution

The dominos continue to teeter towards democracy and reform in the Middle East.

BEIRUT, Feb 28 (AFP) - Two weeks after the assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, some 10,000 people massed in the streets of Beirut early Monday in defiance of a ban as the government faced a tough test in parliament where the opposition planned to present a censure motion to bring it down.

The Lebanese opposition vowed to defy the pro- Syrian regime on the streets and in parliament on Monday, amid claims of ministerial resignations, after a top US envoy upheld demands for an immediate Syrian troop pullout from Lebanon.

Waving the Lebanese flag and shouting "Syria out!" the protesters ignored a ban on demonstrations and converged on the central Martyrs' Square as hundreds of heavily armed but good-natured troops aided by police deployed jeeps and trucks to the main crossroads leading to the square.

Publius is collecting reports, and Caveman In Beirut reports crowds could be as high as 200,000.

It's going to be a rough ride, though, as evidenced by this report of a blogger's arrest in Bahrain. Jeff Jarvis is watching Egyptian bloggers, who have justifiably mixed confidence in election reform under Mubarak.

Update - breaking reports that the Syrian-backed government has resigned.

Via Instapundit this email published at Belgravia Dispatch;

On Friday evening I headed down to the mosque where Hariri and his body guards are buried. A mosque still under construction, the outside protective walls of the site are covered with urban graffiti, people writing condolences and messages for freedom, truth and independence. At the grave site itself, the earth is still fresh over the coffins, and has become home to shrines, covered in flowers, images of christianity, verses of the koran, all of it alight with burning red and white candles. Throughout the evening and during the following day people have been streaming through paying their respects. At the foot of the mosque is the Place des Martyres, a Statue erected by the French. Since the 15th of February, the day after the assassination, a steady number of Lebanese have been setting up tents around the statue and now expanding outward in the square. Essentially a political squat, inhabited by activists making up the faces of the 8 anti-syrian coalition parties have congregated in a similar way to those involved in the Orange Revolution which just took place in the Ukraine.

Update: Photos here.

Blogging The Oscars

Well, time for the Second Annual Small Dead Oscar Live Blog.

(2004 Edition here)

Into the first few minutes of the red carpet. Pretty slow. Annette Bening makes me feel better about how well I've aged. And memo to Rene Zelwiger - I don't think the collagen is supposed to go in the eyelids.

Oh man, this is mindnumbingly boring. I may have to start drinking.

As an aside, with Dan Rather being turned out to pasture soon, wouldn't it be thoughtful to send him a old cow for company?

So far, no sign of Michael Moore... though I don't expect the luck to hold.

Chris Rock is ... strident. Oh dear....There are shades here of Live At The Apollo amateur night. Is Steve Martin in the audience?

(See also - The PW annotated Rock monologue)

Set Decoration: Aviator
ACKKK!! Camera swings wide to catch a glimpse of ALAN ALDA... my eyes... my eyes...

Rene Zelwiger isn't fooling anyone. The "walk" gave her away. She's wearing a corset made with triiple layered molybdenum steel under that dress, that extends to her knees.

Supporting actor: Morgan Freeman

Robin Williams just sucked the big black donkey dick.

*Disclosure Notice*: the only movie I saw this year was Team America.

Animated Feature: Incredibles

Oh look. How clever. A presentation done in the audience to some people for "Lemony Snickets". . Imagine how nice that is to have your life's work recognized and you don't get to set foot on stage.

Beyonce singing in FRENCH, and me, fresh out of sedatives..

This is actually funny. Chris Rock interviewing people who haven't seen any of the nominated movies. Audience is subdued..... (update - a commentor protests that there was laughter. Yes, there was, but I don't think they found it as funny as I did... now, if all those interviewed who said they'd seen "White Chicks" had been white, rather than black, the Hollywood elite have been roaring with "self deprecation".)

Costume Design: Oh. How original. A cartoon character shares the stage with a real prson. Never seen that before. (Aviator)

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchette, Aviator

Now, this was a good idea - stark reminder of how good Carson was. Backstage, Chris Rock is chewing off his paw.

A documentary award. Heh. Still no sign of Michael Moore.

Film Editing: Aviator

Counting Crows perform "Accidentally In Love" and put forward a powerful argument for the merits of lip synching.

Adapted Screenplay: Sideways
Visual Effects: Spiderman II

Roger L. Simon is liveblogging too, and doesn't like Rock any better than I do. Maybe there is something to the f-word being funny, after all.

(I was blog surfing through the lifetime achievment award, so didn't pay attention. It was either that or nap)

Beyonce is now singing a Phantom of the OH MY GOD! Her right breast just fell out of her dress. I'ts caught up in that giagantic necklace.. oh - it's the niple ring that's caught up. Chris Rock is coming to her aid, gentleman that he is... only to ruin the moment with a Janet Jackson joke.

Someone just shot themselves, in the middle of Jeremy Irons' presentation for best Animation Short: Wasp. No stage for you, suckers.

Laura Liney drove to the Oscars with her head hanging out the window...wheeee! Short Film, apparently some Canadian Film Board thing. Typically, everyone got thanked except the taxpayers.

Cinematography: Aviator
Sound mixing: Ray
Sound Editing: Incredibles
Documentary Short AND STILL NO MOORE SIGHTINGS.

Rock finally nailed one with the "next year they'll have the drive-thru Oscar lane" and the "Oprah is so rich, John Kerry has been seen proposing to her".

Original Score: Finding Neverland. Camera catches Johnny Depp, who still needs to cut his bangs.

Hershoflt Awad for humanitarian work to Roger Mayer.

This is a reak struggle, the hardest live blogging I've ever done. It's so unbelievably slow. There haven't even been any really, really bad dresses.

Best Song of a Bad Lot goes to Motorcycle Diaries. Best acceptance speech to the guy who accepted it with a little song.

Sean Penn sticks up for Jude Law, doubling the damage Chris Rock did with his long forgotten "joke".

Actress:Hilary Swank
Foreign Film missed it. Too bored. Went to read Jeff for a while. Just great. He's being especially brilliant today, while I've been sucked into an Oscar blogging quagmire of my own making...
Original Screenplay: Eternal Sunshine of te Spotless Mind
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx. Best speech so far.
Director:Clint Eastwood

Bumfonline is taking this far more seriously.

Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby

And fulfilling my earlier predictions, totally Michael Moore free (outside the insipid attempt at F9/11 humour by Rock early on) And Barbra Streisand and most of Hollywood had the good sense to keep their mouths shut about politics, aside from statements supporting the US Military. Maybe they're starting to catch on....

Unnatural Selection

Pete at Gull Chased Ship;

This has got to be the strangest story yet. They haven't even found a "gay gene", nor will they ever, and yet they're trying to bring in legislation to prevent someone from aborting gay children. You're allowed to be pro-choice, but you're only allowed to abort straight babies.

And male ones.

update - Jonah Goldberg delves into the matter. I suspect that Maine State Rep. Brian Duprey may be one shrewd operator - legislation like this holds the promise of spontanious head explosions for the left.

On a related topic, I stumbled on this post from last December by John C. A. Bambenek, on the cover-up of child sex abuse cases by Planned Parenthood.

A truth the bears telling is that the dirty little secret in town is that it looks like Planned Parenthood covers up for child rape. Yes, you read that right. Here's the scoop.

[...]

Using a combination of public records of abortions on minors (age 12 to 15), Planned Parenthood's own research, and comparing the number of abuse reports made be medical professionals, the following is an estimate of the number of sex abuse cases per state that abortion providers covered up in the year 2000. (Not all states are represented because data was not complete for all 50):

State Number of child sex abuse cases unreported
Arizona 4054
California 25359
Florida 11364
Georgia 9240
Illinois 9792
Indiana 5961
Kansas 2958
Michigan 9432
Missouri 6888
New York 16106
North Carolina 7406
Ohio 10392
Pennsylvania 12989
Tennessee 5534
Texas 18077
Virginia 4911

The things that hide "in plain sight".

Hat tip - North Western Winds.

Not-So-Vanishing Canada

Jeff Jarvis continues a Terry Teachout post on "Vanishing America" - everyday things that are disappearing from our lives. Among them;

Fax machines. I have one, but I rarely use it more than twice a month, both ways.

Typewriters. I disposed of my last one ten years ago.

Newspapers and magazines on paper.

Local hardware stores.

Christmas cards

I really noticed a drop off in Christmas cards this year. Though, I shouldn't admit this, most of the things they list I do still use. Going to the post office to mail packages, corded phones, knobs on public washroom sinks, bar soap, aerosol cans, bank tellers, cassette tapes, ice cube trays, modems..

That's probably not surprising, considering my rural lifestyle. I will add one thing I no longer use, that I didn't see on any lists;

Television news

Any others?

Posted by Kate at 12:12 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Bring Our Al Qaeda Home! PtIII

One Al Qaeda ,
Two Al Qaeda,
Three Al Qaeda,
Four...

One of Canada's most notorious terrorist leaders has returned home to Montreal after serving four years in a French prison for his role in an international jihadist network.

Fateh Kamel, a 44-year-old Algerian-Canadian who headed a Montreal-based extremist cell, arrived in Montreal on Jan. 29 aboard an Air France flight, sources told the National Post.

A charismatic shopkeeper who led a double life as the international terrorist operative "Moustapha," Kamel was dubbed the "Islamist Carlos" because of his remarkable exploits around the world.

"I am GIA," he once said in a conversation intercepted by Italian counter-terrorism investigators. GIA is the French acronym for the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. "Killing is easy for me."

The best-known member of the so-called Groupe Fateh Kamel was Ahmed Ressam, the failed refugee claimant from Montreal who tried to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the dawn of the millennium.

Captured in Jordan in 1999, Kamel was tried in Paris in 2001 and convicted for his involvement with terrorist groups. Although sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, he was released early for good behaviour. He has a Canadian wife and son.

[...]

Born in El Harrach, Algeria, Kamel moved to Canada in the 1980s and married a Quebec schoolteacher. He fought in the war in Afghanistan and later went to Bosnia, where the next international jihad was underway. He was injured there.

In Montreal, he was the boss of an Islamic extremist cell composed of Algerians and Moroccans. The group was a branch of the Algerian GIA, but also developed close links to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

(five, six, seven, eight....)

Blogging For Chickens

As a result of past posts in which I've taken swipes at Canadian political and media types over their ambivilance/ignorance of the blogosphere and internet communication in general, I've been working behind the scenes with a couple of individuals who've expressed an interest in venturing into it themselves.

The learning curve is proving to be steep. For example, when explaining the pros and cons of opening comments, I've found myself explaining what a "troll" is. ("Now that over there, to the left, sir, would be your brake pedal", said the driving instructor). What I wouldn't give for a Usenet Wayback Machine.

I've discovered that explaining the blogosphere to an internet neophyte is rather like teaching a chicken to swim. All the time you're carefully describing paddling technique, the intricacy of the currents, warning about the whirlpools and submerged rocks .... you secretly wonder if you shouldn't just toss the round eyed, blinking thing into the water and offer encouragement from a safe distance.

The same way the rest of us learned.

That said, political types aren't known for their risk taking behavior, so perhaps it's more humane to direct them to this piece by Patrick Ruffini. He provides excellent advice in this post written specifically for politicians;

Blogging by political leaders has the potential to revolutionize campaign communications in this respect: it takes the press out of press releases. Blogs mean that politicians can communicate with constituents directly, without the media filter.

Yet powerful institutional obstacles remain, as evidenced by the fact that only 4 Congressional offices have started blogs. If you're a communications director, chief of staff, or even a Member, and you're looking to overcome internal opposition to a blog, consider this post your guide.

Oh. Who's Patrick Ruffini?

Webmaster, Bush-Cheney '04, Inc

Deputy Director of Online Communications, Republican National Committee

Paying attention now?

Posted by Kate at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Online Security

I had something interesting happen today. I tried to use my VISA card to pay for lunch, and it was refused - twice, with instructions to "call for authorization". There wasn't time for that, so I just I paid with a different card, but later I asked a different merchant try it, with the same result.

It made no sense - for once in my life, I actually had the thing paid off and was light years from my credit limit. When I got home, I called to find out what was going on. It seems that dog show entries I'd submitted online on Thursday were responsible - instead of totalling the 7 days entries, they charged the card seven times for $27.50, in rapid succession. Because it had taken place online, the activity was enough to trigger a security alert, and VISA suspended the account. Nice. I guess I should be relieved that they were paying attention, but I wonder why they didn't do a little bit more investigation on their own - that show superintendant would have submitted thousands of credit card transactions for $27.50 US that day.

Oh well. Just something to keep in the back of your mind if you do a lot of buying online.

Cool Pics

These arrived by email today. Not sure where they were taken. Some have speculated that it's Newfoundland, but the server hosting them is in Europe.

update - readers have verified these were taken in Geneva, Switzerland.

More here.

Open Arms

Europe welcomes George W. Bush;

Thousands of Slovaks defied swirling snow and a bitter wind to wait for several hours to hear Mr Bush speak in the heart of their capital, Bratislava.

"We love him," said Arlena Turceanova, a 47-year-old lawyer, bursting with the pride felt by many Slovaks that Mr Bush chose their little country for his third and last stop. "He is president from a great country. It is wonderful that he comes here."

The Slovak prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, set the tone when he introduced Mr Bush to the crowd with an implicit comparison to the late Ronald Reagan, who devoted much of his presidency to combating and denouncing the Soviet Union. For the White House, it was a reassuring reminder that Mr Bush's stock remains high in New Europe, as Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, famously described the more recent East European members of the EU and Nato.

h/t Ezra Levant, who's waiting for the CBC coverage.

Goodale's Military Spending

In the event that you were convinced that Ralph Goodale announced major increases to military spending in the budget, allow Damian Brooks to disabuse you of that notion.

Ralph Goodale's big day has come and gone, and the final numbers for the military are out in the open: $500 million dollars more in the DND budget than last year.

Of the 12.8 billion in increases "promised" in the budget, $11.7 B is 2 years in the future (beyond the likely mandate of this government) and 8 billion had already been announced.

A reader writes;

They took out $20 billion from the military over 10 years and $2 billion from the RCMP, CSIS and Customs and Immigration. So they took out $22 billion and are putting back $13 billion and they call that an increase??

The RCMP, CSIS and Customs and Immigrations (CBSA today) need at least 5000 officers. How many have been hired with this $8 billion. When the government talks about border security, they are lumping in infrastructure such as bridges roads, warehouses which should be coming out of public works not security. When they talk about speeding traffic across the border, that's what they are talking about, not increasing security manpower. Meanwhile the media sleep after being thrown a PR budget document to talk about for a couple of days.

Those Libranos And Their Clever Little Budget Cuts

With the children all safely locked up in Federal Government Indoctrination Centres, who needs to worry about solving crime anyway? To pay for vital Liberal programs like government day care, the gun registry, and Adrienne Clarkson's overseas entourage, the money has to come from somewhere...

The cost-saving measures will see one of six RCMP forensic labs closed ...

Well, let's be practical. So long as the RCMP are short 2500 officers, closing detachments in grow-up regions of Quebec, and a month and a half behind in processing Interpol terrorist alerts, it's just a little silly to get twisted out of shape about backlogs in forensics. It's not as though the Canadian justice system actually locks up criminals when they do bother to convict them.

To boost revenue, the Liberal government will hire collection agencies to recover debts owed to Human Resources, Social Development and Industry Canada.

"CreditScam" has a nice ring to it. Just remember where you heard it first.

The feds will fire armed fisheries officers who enforce habitat protection and the Fisheries Department will ground five of its 27 helicopters and mothball one of three research trawlers.

Maybe they'll cut of some of the Oceans and Fisheries officers inspecting culverts in grid roads in Saskatchewan.

That's not a joke, by the way.

More here

Marine Shooting In Fallujah

The report is in on the highly publicized shooting of an unarmed wounded Iraqi during the battle for Fallujah last November.

Military investigators have decided there is not enough evidence to bring formal charges against Marine who killed an unarmed Iraqi while his unit searched a Fallujah mosque, CBS reported on Wednesday.

The Marines entered the mosque last fall during an offensive aimed at clearing insurgents from Fallujah. They were seeking the source of insurgent gunfire and found several men wrapped in blankets on the mosque floor.

After what he reported as movement, a Marine fired at one of the men on the floor, killing him.

"The insurgents, it turned out, were unarmed," CBS reported. "But investigators say the Iraqi the Marine thought he saw moving could have been going for a weapon."

"At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction," the network reported.

Any decision on punishment within the Uniform Code of Military Justice was to be made by Marine commanders, CBS said.

Good news.

hat tip - Wizbang

Steyn on C-Span

Program note: Mark Steyn will be on C-Span's Washington Journal tomorrow morning.

The Ghost Of Grey Owl

...haunts the halls at the University of Colorado. Though, to be fair, I think even Archie Belaney would have been apalled by this latest installment of the Ward Churchill saga.

hat tip - Kathy Shaidle.

Missile Defense

Readers here won't exactly be sitting on the edge of seat to find out what I think about the quivering, stammering display of Prime Ministerial followship in cowing to anti-Americanism in Ontario and Quebec by turning down Canada's participation in ballistic missile defense.

The Toronto Sun's Greg Weston explains nicely why the decision may really be in everyone's best interests;

IF AVERAGE Americans had been following Paul Martin's stand on U.S. missile defence, they would surely be relieved by yesterday's announcement that Canada will not be part of it. An Armageddon warhead incoming at 4 km per second is no time to be sharing command and control of North American air defence with a dithering prime minister.

Exactly - and consider, if you will, a future prime minister in the persona of a Jack Layton, Sheila Copps or similar creation of the far left.

So, I do not condemn his decision. Instead, I thank Paul Martin for his foresight. I'll sleep more soundly knowing that the political authority overseeing Canadian defense has finally been turned over to saner heads and surer hands.

update: Paul Martin's timing, as usual, is impeccable.

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY, KAUAI, Hawaii, Feb. 24, 2005 /PRNewswire/ -- The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) destroyed a ballistic missile outside the earth's atmosphere during an Aegis BMD Program flight test over the Pacific Ocean. Raytheon Company develops the SM-3. Lockheed Martin develops the Aegis BMD Weapon System.

The Feb. 24 mission -- the fifth successful intercept for SM-3 -- was the first firing of the Aegis BMD "Emergency Deployment" capability using operational versions of the SM-3 Block I missile and Aegis BMD Weapon System.

This was also the first test to exercise SM-3's third stage rocket motor (TSRM) single- pulse mode. The TSRM has two pulses, which can be ignited independently, providing expansion of the ballistic missile engagement battlespace.

The SM-3 was launched from the Aegis BMD cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and hit a target missile that had been launched from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.

via Drudge.

One of David Frum's readers responds to Paul Martin's assertion that ""We would expect to be consulted"prior to a BMD deployment.

In other words, Canada wants no part of missile defense right up until the time of incoming. At that point we can count them in."

Jack Layton's Exploding Organ

Monte Solberg understands blogging.

Jack Layton, sans appendix, was back in the House today and received a standing ovation for ridding himself of that exploding organ. I blame it on all the tofu, alfalfa sprouts and lack of trans fats.

Entertaining writing style, a touch of irreverance, and to the point. All that, and useful information, too. Like this;

We won the vote tonight on our supply motion to have the government implement the Auditor General's recommendations regarding foundations.

(I wrote about foundations a couple of weeks ago, for those of you who don't know what this refers to.)

Fact Checking: More Trouble Than It's Worth?

This Bram Cohen (BitTorrent) piece turns the common complaint about the "lack" of fact checking in media on its head;

After a journalist finishes writing their story, it's generally sent to a fact checker. Fact checkers serve to avoid embarassing gaffes, such as getting a person's name wrong, or saying that they work for the wrong employer, or some other such straightforward, objective fact.

[...]

The fact checker, unlike the journalist, has usually spent no time researching the subject whatsoever, and so as a lay person reading the story they slightly misinterpret it, then paraphrase their misinterpretation and ask me if it's correct. Inevitably this bastardized explanation says something grossly misleading or not quite factual, and though I've long since learned that I really ought to say 'yeah, whatever' and have them leave the story as is, I can never resist the temptation to provide a correction, at which point they go back to the story and rewrite some sentences based on their incorrect understanding of my correction of their paraphrasing of their incorrect understanding of the original explanation. Unsurprisingly, this always makes the explanation worse.

Or, to put it another way - the product of multi-level incompetence.

Prairie Centre Policy Institute

I was invited today to a luncheon debate hosted by the Prairie Centre Policy Institute (which could probably be described as a Saskatchewan based conservative "think tank"), as a guest of a friend who knows of my interest in politics and reads the blog.

The debate, which was on the role of federalism in the Canadian economy, featured well known Saskatchewan entrepreneur Herb Pinder Jr. and left-leaning U of Sask professor Red Williams. Pinder's premise - that Canada has become a "country of mediocrity", due to our culture of entitlement, high taxation, equalization and politically motivated federal infiltration into provincial responsibilities - recieved no rebuttal at all from Williams, which I thought was odd. Instead, he devoted his portion of the debate to defending government involvement in the economy and weakly excusing the excesses by reminding everyone of just how darned hard a job it is to run everybody's lives.

There were a number of business leaders and provincial MLA's in attendance at the small gathering, including former SaskParty leader Elwin Hermanson, Ken Cheveldayoff, Ben Heppner and June Draud, who was seated beside me at our table. Prior to the serving of lunch, she described her frustration at how difficult it is to get a clear message from the SaskParty out through the media - unless the ideas are picked up by the governing NDP, who then get the press and the credit.

She also shared that small local newspapers have recieved threatening calls and subsequent withdrawel of government advertising for giving "too much space" to SaskParty media releases. My ears perked up. What bloggers couldn't do with a story like that.

In the short time available, I tried to explain to her the concept of the blogosphere and how it has become so powerful a force in the US. She seemed to be interested enough and asked if I had a card. I didn't. (An interesting notion, though - who has business cards for their blog?) Shortly afterwards, the speakers began so there wasn't enough time to go into things in more detail.

At the wrap-up, Pinder suggested that we take the ideas presented "back to the workplace, talk to your friends"...

Urgh. How.... 1980's.

When, oh when, are Canadian conservative parties going to wake up and realize that one of the most powerful tools for uniting conservative voices and bypassing the mainstream left-leaning press is already here, is proven to be both powerful and successful, is ridiculously inexpensive and right under their noses?

I dug up the address to the PCPI website from the back of a booklet they provided, entitled "Creating Wealth In Saskatchewan", with plans of linking to the info on the Pinder-Williams debate and adding the site to the permanent sidebar.

There was nothing there. The page hasn't been updated since Christmas.

I can't say that I was surprised.

Where Have The Rivers Of Chocolate Gone?

The Canadian Islamic Congress is now trying its hand at parody.

To date, the American-led invasion of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqis and thousands of Americans. Iraq has been transformed from country with 100% employment and a stable public service infrastructure, into an impoverished nation in disarray, with more than half of its adult workforce jobless. From being one of the leading Middle East states in administration, education and health care, Iraq has fallen to one of the world's most disadvantaged societies.

The CIC is charging that America's aggressive Middle East policies are designed primarily to shore up Israel's military power and economic advantages in the region, while attempting to divert world attention from Israel's territorial expansion into the West Bank through illegal Jews-only settlements.

CIC national president Dr. "Anyone over the age of 18 in Israel is a valid target*" Elmasry can be contacted at np@canadianislamiccongress.com.

Via Uncle Meat.

"Nothing There You Need To Know"

Retired CBS news correspondant, Tom Fenton is going public with criticism of CBS and TV news in general, in his upcoming book, "Bad News." ;

"Once you get halfway through the CBS Evening News, the rest of it you can turn off," Fenton told the News. "There's nothing there you need to know. It's an attempt to entertain people and pump up ratings. If I want entertainment, I'll watch 'The Daily Show.'"

"We have literally dumbed down our public," he continued. "We have trained them to accept the coverage they're getting. We so rarely explain what's going on, there's no context. So, people of course, aren't interested. They have no idea what's going on.

The rest is here.

What We Have Here

...is a failure to communicate.

Out of curiosity, I ran a Google News search.

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,960 for Terri Schiavo right-to-die.

Results 1 - 10 of about 357 for Terri Schiavo right-to-life

The latter look to be mostly op-eds, or include references to "right-to-life" groups or lawyers. The hard news stories are nearly uniform in the "right to die".

Snowball's Chance In Darfur

Damian Brooks is wondering if Paul Martin and Pierre Pettigrew actually, like, talk.

First, credit where it's due: if your strategy isn't working, better to change it than to cling stubbornly to it out of pride or fear of bad press. Good for Martin for realizing Canada's current strategy just wasn't working.

But...GEEZ! What sort of a farm-implement-IQ hack figured Canada's "Walk softly and carry absolutely nothing" Sudan policy had a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding in the first place?

The Canadian Example

The perennial question of defining Canadian identity may have finally been answered. Canadian identity is not, as commonly thought, our socialized health care system, the Trudeaupian mosaic of multiculturalism or even a fanaticism for hockey. At one time any one of those might have been true, but no more. No, we've moved well past that.

Today, our national purpose might best be described as "simply to serve as a warning to the United States".

Via Neale News;

"Please be advised that effective immediately the Ontario region of the Correctional Service of Canada is no longer maintaining an inventory for parole officer applications from the general public.," the Feb. 19 letter reads.

"Due to staffing resources we will continue to accept applications from aboriginal and visible-minority candidates only."

CSC is committed to having a "skilled, diversified workforce reflective of Canadian society," the letter continues, adding that future vacancies may be posted that are open to the "general public."

The depressing part is that a good percentage of Canadians would think this is perfectly reasonable.

Last weekend a woman who was purchasing artwork from me at the dog show began to ask about "what it was like to live in Canada". She confided that they had to sell their house while it was "still worth something" and leave before the country was completely destroyed. Her young son's skills made him very attractive to the military and there was no doubt he'd be drafted. She was enthusiastic about our health care system, and wanted to live in a "more socialist" country.

Sometimes I wonder that there may be some force .... (fate?) .... that places people like myself in just the right place, at just the right time. For a moment I felt a twinge of guilt in the realization that my Canadian citizenship had been twisted into cruel bait for a hapless little moonbat - like savory French cheese perched temptingly in a leg hold trap.

In the end, I let her go - shaken, but unharmed. I've promised to only use my powers for good. But I think I detected a stagger in her walk as she made her way back to safety.

Life In The Rall World

As gifted a writer...

"Bloggers are ordinary people, many of them uneducated and with nothing interesting to say. They're sitting in their rec rooms, regurgitating and spinning what real journalists have dug up through hard work. They don't have sources, they don't report, and no one holds them accountable when they make mistakes or flat out lie. Yeah, there's a new sheriff in town. Unfortunately he's drunk, he's mean, and he works for the bad guy."

as he is a cartoonist.

A Head For Foreign Policy

The head that was removed from Manar had been capable of smiling and blinking but had no independent life, doctors said. 

Canadian Save The Blogger Fund

Here in Canada, where bloggers are so blessed, where simple basics like connectivity and a healthy hard drive are taken for granted, there is a tendency to forget that others are not so fortunate as we.

Miles to the south, in a remote urban jungle, a CITIZEN JOURNALIST sits facing a darkened screen. The hard drive has fallen silent. The electrons vital to blogging that are so often wasted meaninglessly, have been cruelly denied him.

Look into those sad, dark eyes, the pain only partly concealed behind bloodspattered *, yellow-tinted glasses*.

Help end the suffering. Only you can bring back the Martha Stewart Chronicles. Only you can restore Ted Rall's Internal Monologue. Only you can grow the facial hair he so longs for.

Give. So the rest of us can go back to ripping off his best stuff.

Home

Well, the dog show turned out to be a waste of time and effort. I don't get shut out very often, but it happens. I should be more reasonable in my expectations - I do more than my fair share of winning, certainly more than most owner-handlers. However, it does suck to lose. I hate losing, I really hate losing to entries I know are inferior, and I utterly despise driving halfway across a continent to discover the judge has a few "favorites" and favours to hand out.

Yeah, I'm a bad loser. A really, really bad loser. I don't make scenes or get in people's faces, but I bitch and complain with the best of them. I don't apologize for it, either. An aversion to losing is a fundamental ingredient to competitive success.

"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser".

It's true.

Back to regular blogging shortly. I've been out of the loop and have some catching up to do myself.

In the meantime, if you haven't read the updated link on my brief Hunter S. Thompson memorial post below, here it is again. Song of the Sausage Creature is a classic.

Hunter S. Thompson

Some people will tell you that slow is good -- and it may be, on some days -- but I am here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba.... - HS Thompson.

"Rest in peace" has been sent back for a rewrite..

Heavenly Daze

Well, so far the show has been successful, in a communal, if not a personal, sense. Which means everyone who came on the trip has won nicely, to the exclusion of my dog.

So far, high point has been an evening with Jeff Goldstein and friends at a small pub they located after directing me to meet them at one called "Heavenly Daze"... which turned out to be closed. No small feat finding a locked, dark warehouse type of building in a strange city, after dark, having lost the directions and the address. But all's well that ends with several pints of Guiness and shooters.

Jeff is having a hard time remembering events after 10:30.

Heh.

Dinner Conversation

I'm sitting here after dinner, a glass of wine at my side, in a home with automatic gates, servants, and wonderful hospitality, somewhere in Englewood, Colorado. There's a chocolate dish with Tahitian vanilla ice cream on the dessert menu shortly.

It's shirtsleeve weather (at least for a Saskatchewanian). You can be jealous.

Listened to Hugh Hewitt on radio for the first time and it reminded me of how far behind the curve Canadian conservative talk radio is in this aspect. I've been reading him pretty regularly for a year or so, and it reminded me of one of the frustrations of being a Canadian "amateur" blogger. Why isn't Canadian talk radio moving into the world of blogging? Ignorance? Station policy? Laziness?

On his Monday show Rawlco radio's John Gormley mentioned - I believe for the first time - the Eason Jordan affair. That's all well and good - he certainly beat the news department on the "scoop" - but when a medium as immediate as talk radio is two weeks behind the curve, it's pretty stale stuff.

On the other side of the fence, bloggers here dig, work to get reader tips due exposure, and swarm as best we can on stories we believe deserve attention. But there's little chance for momentum to build in a country where television and print media is a virtual house organ of the Liberal party and talk radio has not yet produced a Rush Limbaugh. If they continue to plod along in their insular little regional am wave world, they're pretty damned unlikely to, either.

The blogosphere in Canada will continue to lag behind the US in our ability to coalesce around a story and move it forward, so long as Canadian talk radio plods along in a 90's mindset about the internet as little more than a convenient, but largely unreliable source for out-of-the mainstream show fodder.

C'mon you guys. Get on board. Get your blogs up - and by blogs, I mean the real deal, with trackbacks and a blogroll. See Hugh Hewitt. Hell. he has an email address - ask Hugh Hewitt.

Here's another suggestion - local talk radio has weekly features with regular guests - contests, movie reviews, dvd release shows, "mornings with the mayor" etc. Why not try this - a weekly round-up of the stories perculating in the Canadian political blogosphere?

Stop playing catch up. Get in front of a story for a change.

Reader Tips

A quick and dirty roundup of reader tips, before I leave;

Another good article on the questionable actions of CNN in allowing Eason to "run wild" for so long, by Brent Bozell

DC Circuit Court recognizes bloggers as journalists.

Ezra Levant in the Calgary Sun;

"It is now clear that Canada could never have the kind of accountability first-rank countries demand of their leaders. We could never have a Watergate in this country, never an impeachment.

"Our leaders are above the law. The Gomery Commission would not have been born were it not for the permission of Martin, a witness and suspect himself. As Chretien demonstrated to the delight of our press corps, its an obviously powerless inquiry that exists to whitewash, not to get justice."

Hydro-Quebec tries to block a broadcast that reveals they provide virtually no security for their major power installations. Somewhat surprisingly, a Quebec judge disagrees.

It doesn't pay to be a whistleblower when you work for the federal government.

When I came forward and blew the whistle on the refugee board, a number of negative reactions occurred. They included an anonymous note that I received, calling me a troublemaker and telling me I should quit the refugee board. The executive director took a decision that my access to the office should be denied, and my access card was deactivated. The executive director then wrote me a letter and said, well, we told you that your access card was deactivated and we also told you how you could access the building. In fact, no such directions were given, and through the Access to Information Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Privacy Act, I received that information.

I was assaulted by the regional director in Toronto. I was subjected to a disciplinary hearing for seeking the advice and assistance of a lawyer. I was harassed by IRB managers when I was on sick leave. The IRB engaged in a cover-up sanctioned at the highest level of that organization. My health and dental benefits were cut off effective July 1, 2004, and I have not received any pay from the government since March 15, 2004.

I mention this to you because I thought about you committee members last night and about how important you are, because challenging unethical workplace conduct comes at a price. That price includes threats to one's physical, psychological, and financial integrity. The current system and the proposed system for dealing with these matters are inadequate, and it is you, the committee here, who have an important role to play in terms of giving whistle-blowers who come forward meaningful protection.

A letter from a reader with experts from Hansard. Lengthy, so the rest is in the extended entry. Auditor Generals report on the Liberal government's unaccountable foundations, recent gang violence and the fraudulent gun registry, and the lack of action on filling manpower gaps in the RCMP. The reader (who requests anonymity) comments;

The media don't challenge the Minister on her veracity. It simply doesn't add up.They only have aknee jerk, band aid approach to security for Canadians and she keeps pumping out the bilge. She claims that they are putting $8 billion into security and the media ,like sheep, buy it. How many RCMP and CSIS agents have been hired above those retiring with that $8 billion?

The Senate Report on National security pointed out all the gaps, yet the media sleep.The ports are undermanned, they are closing detachments in Quebec, every unit from white collar crime to drugs, to intelligence are undermanned ,yet she says all is well and the media believe her? The RCMP have 2500 fewer officers today than 12 years ago but everything is under control? The crooks and terrorists are laughing themselves silly.They keep reorganizing, redeploying,with fewer officers and she says that less is more? Where's the media? or security of Canadians is not important.

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

ORAL QUESTION PERIOD

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report you just tabled indicates the government has learned nothing from the sponsorship scandal. That scandal happened because the Liberals stashed millions away from the watch of Parliament. Now, even after repeated warnings, billions of dollars continue to be hidden away in these
unaccountable foundations.

When will the government learn and put foundation spending under the scrutiny of Parliament
and the Auditor General?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the foundations are available to
Parliament. The Canadian Foundation for Innovation, as an example, has appeared over 11 times in
front of parliamentary committees.

The fundamental point the hon. member seems to be raising is he is questioning the validity of
the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and other such foundations.

The Leader of the Opposition should go to the universities and the teaching hospitals in the
country and ask them what they think about the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. He will find
that they support it. They are supporting fundamental research in the country, and that is what is
important.

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am only quoting the
Auditor General who says today, "Given the significant sums involved, I am concerned about the
lack of adequate accountability to Parliament". It is for $8 billion.

The Prime Minister has just finished appearing before the Gomery commission where he could not
remember anything about finance in the last 10 years.

Will the Prime Minister promise the House that this time he will ensure in the upcoming budget
that more taxpayer money is not hidden away in foundations?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, no money is hidden. Public reports
are made. All the hon. member has to do is read them.

If the hon. member would like to call the members of any one of those foundations in front of
a committee, he is certainly free to do so. In fact, I can tell the hon. member that those
foundations would like to appear.

If the hon. member is challenging what the foundations do, saying that the money is hidden,
then why does he not go to the hospitals, go to the universities and go to those who benefit from
what those foundations do and say that to them?

Justice

Mr. Peter MacKay (Central Nova, CPC): Mr. Speaker, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said on the weekend that hard-core, gun-crazed gangsters were perpetrating a frenzy of violence and
bloodshed in Toronto on the weekend. When the smoke cleared, two were dead and six were injured. Seventeen of these 18 crimes involved guns.

Alarmingly, Chief Fantino made a damning assessment that criminals have no fear of the justice
system and that it neither deters nor rehabilitates. He and many others are calling on the
government to take action to crack down and restore safety on the streets. When will the
government legislate mandatory minimum sentences for the criminal use of firearms and end this
ineffective gun registry, putting the money into front line policing?

Hon. Irwin Cotler (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we
care no less than the opposition about the safety and security of Canadians. We made safety and
security a centrepiece of our meetings with federal, provincial and territorial ministers of
justice and we will continue to promote and protect the security and safety of Canadians.

* * *

[Translation]

Public Security

Mr. Peter MacKay (Central Nova, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the CBC is again reporting that the
Liberals are not taking terrorist threats seriously. Our borders are like sieves, and our major
dams are open to attack at any time. The Liberals are cutting back on the number of RCMP in Quebec and ignoring all the alarm signals.

The minister needs to wake up. She needs to tell us what steps she plans to take, without
further delay, to protect Canadians.

[English]

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency
Preparedness, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I have said before in this House, the redeployment of RCMP
officers in Quebec is not reducing the complement in that province. In fact, what the force is
doing is redeploying those officers to ensure they can provide better border protection; for
example, through the creation of more integrated border enforcement teams. In fact, we are
redeploying officers so they can work more effectively with the Sûreté du Québec in the fight
against organized crime, drug trafficking, gun smuggling, people smuggling and so on.

We are redeploying to be more effective and more efficient in protecting the people of Quebec
and Canada.

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

On The Road Again

I'm southbound tomorrow morning and will be gone for about a week. I'll have the laptop but no guarantee of connectivity, much less time to dig up content. We'll see what happens. In the meanwhile, visit the fine folks on the blogroll.

War At CBS

Drudge is currently quoting the New York Observer, that executives who were offered up in lieu of Dan Rather are fighting back and refusing to resign as ordered:

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER will report tomorrow: 'Former 60 Minutes Wednesday executive editor Josh Howard has told colleagues that before he resigns, the 23-year CBS News veteran will demand that the network retract remarks by CBS president Leslie Moonves, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name'...

In the event of a lawsuit, Mr. Howard has told associates that he would like to see Moonves put under oath to talk about his own roles in the network's stubborn, hapless defense of the flawed segment on President Bush's National Guard service.

Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he would subpoena specific CBS documents, including the e-mails of top executives.

As they say ... developing

Work Stuff

The bike I painted last week is finally finished, but the client didn't want to put it back together as there was other work planned. When it is, it'll look vaguely like this original (computer drawn) draft, though some of the actual design details were altered along the way.

It was originally a bright green, with taped flames, etc. There was a considerable amount of refinishing involved - a couple of parts in progress:

The finished fuel tank.

I'll post a pic of the completed bike when I get one.

All Axis Of Evil Nuke Plants Look Alike To Me

In other news;

hat tip - Sean.

CTV News: What Are Blogs?

CTV News has been running a promo this morning advertising a feature on blogs, to be run on Thursday.

Now, as none of the well-known Canadian bloggers I read have mentioned being contacted by CTV (please send me links if you know of any), and the blurb includied the grim voice of a pychologist warning about the dangers of "revealing ones opinions" or some such crap, combined with the abysmal quality overall of CTV news reporting... I'll predict the piece will lean towards a dismissive puff piece, heavy with "risks of" and light on factual integrity.

But I'll be in the US when it airs, so hopefully a few folks will tune in with fisking fingers at the ready. That includes the readers here - even if you don't have your own blog, consider sending me your impressions by email, and I"ll compile them in a followup post.

update - apparently this is a local news item. Doesn't sound like it's worth looking for outside Saskatchewan.

David Kirton's DIshonest Reporting

All morning, Rawlco Radio's CKOM has been playing hourly newscasts by David Kirton. His reporting is often tainted by editorial comment; this morning he's characterizing Conservative Jason Kenney's remarks that gays have always had the right to marry in this way;

"Jason Kenney MOCKED same sex marriage...."

Emphasis his. Now, considering that Kenney said nothing less factual or more "mocking" than judges who have ruled against same sex marriage in their decisions, the question arises as to whether Kirton is simply too lazy to bother with basic fact checking, or whether truth takes a back seat to his own bias?

In The Interest Of Full Disclosure

Recent events have convinced me that it's time to confess that the little photo of a woman repacking the mufflers on a motorcycle is well... just a cleverly chosen image to increase blog readership.

So, in the interest of full disclosure.... (nsfw)

Animal Activism

As gay activists mobilize to defend the sexual orientation equality rights of zoo penguins (put a group of male inmates together, and you know... what happens, happens...) - gene therapy is curing guinea pigs that still won't come when they're called.

Something tells me there's going to be hell to pay.

When Dogs Attack

Via Cosh, a bizarre blog entry from a woman who is agonizing over having put down their English Setter after it put 40 stitches in the face of her husband. The post is too lengthy to fisk in its entirety, but I've chosen some key points; (note: link now dead)

Since late last summer Pony snapped twice at children who approached her unexpectedly when she was lying down, and once at me when I was wrestling with her on the floor. Until the first incident last August, we had been completely certain that she was flawlessly trustworthy with children and adults alike, and we'd taken her into the homes of friends who had children and encouraged kids in the park to pet and play with her if they showed an interest.

I wish I had a quarter for every time I witnessed completely clueless people encourage strangers to approach dogs that were telegraphing that they really would rather they didn't. If you're a typical pet owner with your first or second dog, there's a 95% probability that you miss or misinterpret most of your dog's communication signals.

We told people about the breed and that Pony was tolerant and good-natured (if a bit aloof in comparison to a Retriever or a Labrador), and they should have no qualms about approaching and touching her whenever they liked. When she barked and scratched at our friend's son last summer it was an enormous shock and completely rattled our foundation of trust in her.

The dog was an English Setter. English Setter colour is "extreme white", with coloured ticking in a genetic pattern that resembles that of the Dalmatian. This is important - the all-white colouring is thought to be the result of a gene that creates a deficiency of neural crest cells, which differentiate to function in several ways - some important, some not. One of the important functions is the development of the brain and nervous system. The least important function is to produce melanocytes, the cells that create pigment in the skin and coat. If the neural crest cell deficiency is extreme, the dog will be unable to create significant areas of pigment, resulting in white hair coat, with pink skin underlying it.

Why is this relevant? Because if there aren't enough neural crest cells to produce pigment creating melanocytes, there may not be enough for the development of nerves required for normal hearing. This problem is so well known that many breeders test hearing (BAER testing) as part of the veterinary screening protocol before sale. For this reason, it is suspected that (like Dalmatians, Jack Russel Terriers, white Bull Terriers, etc.) that a percentage of English Setters are deaf, or partially deaf. (Which may explain why they seem so tolerant of their own incessant barking.)

So, go back to the top and reread the comments about the dog's snapping when being approached unexpectedly - the context changes a little. Later in the post, she describes the dog's "hairy eyeball and some serious stubbornness". While it's quite possible that this dog had normal hearing, it is not unexpected behavior from a deaf dog.

Then, she made another innocent error - she consulted "dog experts".

Subsequent to that first incident, we were told by every dog expert we approached (and we approached several) and dog loving friends alike that the startle reaction we'd seen in her was completely normal, and it was entirely within the realm of regular and expected dog behaviour.

The actual existence of the creature known as a "dog behavior expert" is open to question. Most of those who identify themselves as such are well-meaning, delusional incompetents who never saw a problem they couldn't solve with owner behavior modification. Many of the worst offenders are veterinarians who confuse their medical training with knowledge about dogs. Mechanics and race car drivers aren't automatically interchangeable. The expert advice continues;

That a small child in an unfamiliar environment was probably seen as another dog infringing on her territory. That the old adage "let sleeping dogs lie" was true and we were naive to think otherwise or expect the breed to be "above" such things.

A dog who cannot tell the difference between a child and a dog is probably dead. That doesn't mean they won't attempt to communicate with a child in "dog sign language", and then discipline them in accordance with their place in pack hierarchy - with devastating consequences.

Nor does a child's size indicate to a dog that they are harmless and trustworthy. We encourage our dogs to discriminate, to consider some humans as threats, to protect the home and family. It's their job to be on guard against suspicious humans, and children are bizarre, erratic, bleating humans with flailing limbs - that stare. Children can scare the living crap out of an otherwise reasonable dog.

As time passed the few incidents began to seem like isolated circumstances that wouldn't recur.

This is the part where every owner who has been complicit in their dog attack injuries reveals themselves to be unthinking idiots. Infrequency of aggression is what permits these animals to remain in homes long enough to complete the final attack. If the aggression were frequent, the dog would have be gone before it had the chance to follow through.

Now, review the previous lesson on "dog experts" before we continue into the other refuge of the unqualified - the "obedience trainer".

We also joined an obedience class and Pony was the star of the show, partly because she would do anything for treats. Since official obedience training involves a food-as-motivation, Pony was a very quick study and came along in her discipline exceedingly well, and was a favourite of the training instructor.

This is not obedience training. It's crossover from the leftist school of thought that introduced the world to "child self-esteem" and "positive motivation" and made spanking a punishable crime. Food training is happy happy joy joy... sit for the wiener ... so long as the dog isn't intent on killing the miniature dachshund across the room, taking off their owners arm or anorexic.

Typically, the owners of problem dogs receive less and less assistance until they give up in frustration. If a dog has serious temperament problems, food incentives may produce focus and response to given commands, but it's just new paint on bad wood. They flake under stress. This dog flaked in the face of her husband.

This afternoon I talked to the mother of the woman here who originally put us in touch with Pony's breeder, the mother herself a breeder of golden retrievers. She suggested that Pony was reacting to my pregnancy, and that she was displaying a protective testy response.

For every "dog expert", and every 10 "obedience trainers", there are a hundred "dog breeders". Generally, the only thing the consultee knows about them is the phone number they were given. For every genuinely knowledgeable breeder in existence. there are about 100 "backyarders" making money off pet store derived purebreds for quick sale. Guess who you bought your dog from?

Sure, me being pregnant might have been a factor. Like I said, we saw that she was having moments of weird edginess in the last while during which we didn't bug her to participate or heel,

Owner behavior modification, as noted earlier....

but in general she was a better, more obedient, happier dog since we settled in at home and started the new disciplines and routines following Christmas. The pregnancy was only one factor and it alone couldn't have caused our dog to attack and take a chunk out of Turner, of all people. Turner: her favourite person in the world, the person for whom she'd dance around and moan and wail when he'd come through the door after being out a few hours, the person for whom she'd come and sit and stay, the only person with whom she'd seriously tug-of- war,

Time to review what I said about dog owners misreading their dog's actions. Tug of war is a contest in which dominant dogs declare themselves the superior.

the person whose leg was the humping instrument of preference

Another obvious display of dominance.

the person who fed her dinner every day and walked her every day and sang to her every day.

Her servant.

She'd snapped at me once, a month ago, but she savagely attacked and maimed Turner. It was not an accident. It was not a startle- reflex. She was not defending me, the pregnant person - I wasn't even home. It's heartbreaking, but our dog was not right, and today she went way, way too far.

No, she wasn't. Neither are the people who rationalize so many warning signs in the delusion that the way to a happy, sane dog is as simple as "showing them love".

A situation evolved in which the subordinate was expected by the dog to show proper deference, according to his lower rung on the family pack ladder, with just penalties for insubordination.

Serious acts of insubordination include leaning over the dog's shoulder area for a "hug" or taking away a toy. In her lengthy explanation, the writer reveals he knew to "discipline" the dog when she misbehaved. An subordinate does not attempt to discipline a superior in the pack without expectation of a fight. Add to this confusion of canine misinformation a dog with possible hearing impairment, poor bite inhibition and matters were not likely to end well.

So, what to do if you're a confused dog owner with an emerging problem, who doesn't know who to turn to? Find a professional show dog handler of at least 10 years experience with a variety of breeds, including large guarding breeds. Unlike veterinarians, obedience trainers and garden variety pet breeders, professional handlers routinely take on strange, adult dogs for training, conditioning, grooming, travel and exhibition from a diverse range of owners. They've seen it all. They're pretty good at evaluating behavior and letting you know if the dog is unstable, or if it's truly reacting to stress according to the normal expectations for that breed. They may also know who to consult about breed specific temperament, vision or hearing problems.

Unlike the garden variety "trainer", they don't send you and your poochie home after an hour of "walkies" chirped in their ears. They live and travel with dogs, have no time for nonsense, and train them to perform in stressful, unpredictable environments - large crowds, intact males, bitches in heat in the same ring, strange judges with funny hats who open their mouths to examine pigmentation and count teeth.

Pro handlers are not that hard to find, if you contact a local kennel club for referral. Perhaps you can arrange and pay for the dog to spend a couple of weeks for evaluation. Then, for God's sake, listen to what they have to say.

CNN Reliable Sources: Jordan Discussed

A transcript worth reading. Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine) does the blogosphere proud, as expected.

JARVIS: We didn't fire him, the bloggers. CNN did. I agree it doesn't fit the crime, because we don't know the crimes that are in CNN's heart here. Something else happened here that we don't know. The story's not over. We have to see that transcript from Davos. There's no reason for that to be hidden still, and CNN has to realize that they have to tell us more of what's going on.

The problem here is that by just asking for the truth, knocking at the doors of the news temple and saying, tell us what's go on, we're being portrayed as a lynch mob. We're not. We're citizens wanting to know the truth. It used to be the job of journalists to report that. So let's get to the truth, let's get to the facts. I think if Jordan had come right out and said, I'm sorry, I blew it, I was wrong, I didn't mean to say that, he wouldn't have made any more friends that he has now, but he still would be at his job.

The NYT is unhappy and shows it by lashing out at bloggers with manipulative editing. Which of course, means it's business as usual.

When Dogs Attack

Via Cosh, a bizarre blog entry from a woman who is agonizing over having put down their English Setter after it put 40 stitches in the face of her husband. The post is too lengthy to fisk in its entirety, but I've chosen some key points;

Since late last summer Pony snapped twice at children who approached her unexpectedly when she was lying down, and once at me when I was wrestling with her on the floor. Until the first incident last August, we had been completely certain that she was flawlessly trustworthy with children and adults alike, and we'd taken her into the homes of friends who had children and encouraged kids in the park to pet and play with her if they showed an interest.

I wish I had a quarter for every time I witnessed completely clueless people encourage strangers to approach dogs that were telegraphing that they really would rather they didn't. If you're a typical pet owner with your first or second dog, there's a 95% probability that you miss or misinterpret most of your dog's communication signals.

We told people about the breed and that Pony was tolerant and good-natured (if a bit aloof in comparison to a Retriever or a Labrador), and they should have no qualms about approaching and touching her whenever they liked. When she barked and scratched at our friend's son last summer it was an enormous shock and completely rattled our foundation of trust in her.

The dog was an English Setter. English Setter colour is "extreme white", with coloured ticking in a genetic pattern that resembles that of the Dalmatian. This is important - the all-white colouring is thought to be the result of a gene that creates a deficiency of neural crest cells, which differentiate to function in several ways - some important, some not. One of the important functions is the development of the brain and nervous system. The least important function is to produce melanocytes, the cells that create pigment in the skin and coat. If the neural crest cell deficiency is extreme, the dog will be unable to create significant areas of pigment, resulting in white hair coat, with pink skin underlying it.

Why is this relevant? Because if there aren't enough neural crest cells to produce pigment creating melanocytes, there may not be enough for the development of nerves required for normal hearing. This problem is so well known that many breeders test hearing (BAER testing) as part of the veterinary screening protocol before sale. For this reason, it is suspected that (like Dalmatians, Jack Russel Terriers, white Bull Terriers, etc.) that a percentage of English Setters are deaf, or partially deaf. (Which may explain why they seem so tolerant of their own incessant barking.)

So, go back to the top and reread the comments about the dog's snapping when being approached unexpectedly - the context changes a little. Later in the post, she describes the dog's "hairy eyeball and some serious stubbornness". While it's quite possible that this dog had normal hearing, it is not unexpected behavior from a deaf dog.

Then, she made another innocent error - she consulted "dog experts".

Subsequent to that first incident, we were told by every dog expert we approached (and we approached several) and dog loving friends alike that the startle reaction we'd seen in her was completely normal, and it was entirely within the realm of regular and expected dog behavior.

The actual existence of the creature known as a "dog behavior expert" is open to question. Most of those who identify themselves as such are well-meaning, delusional incompetents who never saw a problem they couldn't solve with owner behavior modification. Many of the worst offenders are veterinarians who confuse their medical training with knowledge about dogs. Mechanics and race car drivers aren't automatically interchangeable. The expert advice continues;

That a small child in an unfamiliar environment was probably seen as another dog infringing on her territory. That the old adage "let sleeping dogs lie" was true and we were naive to think otherwise or expect the breed to be "above" such things.

A dog who cannot tell the difference between a child and a dog is probably dead. That doesn't mean they won't attempt to communicate with a child in "dog sign language", and then discipline them in accordance with their place in pack hierarchy - with devastating consequences.

Nor does a child's size indicate to a dog that they are harmless and trustworthy. We encourage our dogs to discriminate, to consider some humans as threats, to protect the home and family. It's their job to be on guard against suspicious humans, and children are bizarre, erratic, bleating humans with flailing limbs - that stare. Children can scare the living crap out of an otherwise reasonable dog.

As time passed the few incidents began to seem like isolated circumstances that wouldn't recur.

This is the part where every owner who has been complicit in their dog attack injuries reveals themselves to be unthinking idiots. Infrequency of aggression is what permits these animals to remain in homes long enough to complete the final attack. If the aggression were frequent, the dog would have be gone before it had the chance to follow through.

Now, review the previous lesson on "dog experts" before we continue into the other refuge of the unqualified - the "obedience trainer".

We also joined an obedience class and Pony was the star of the show, partly because she would do anything for treats. Since official obedience training involves a food-as-motivation, Pony was a very quick study and came along in her discipline exceedingly well, and was a favourite of the training instructor.

This is not obedience training. It's crossover from the leftist school of thought that introduced the world to "child self-esteem" and "positive motivation" and made spanking a punishable crime. Food training is happy happy joy joy... sit for the wiener ... so long as the dog isn't intent on killing the miniature dachshund across the room, taking off their owners arm or anorexic.

Typically, the owners of problem dogs receive less and less assistance until they give up in frustration. If a dog has serious temperament problems, food incentives may produce focus and response to given commands, but it's just new paint on bad wood. They flake under stress. This dog flaked in the face of her husband.

This afternoon I talked to the mother of the woman here who originally put us in touch with Pony's breeder, the mother herself a breeder of golden retrievers. She suggested that Pony was reacting to my pregnancy, and that she was displaying a protective testy response.

For every "dog expert", and every 10 "obedience trainers", there are a hundred "dog breeders". Generally, the only thing the consultee knows about them is the phone number they were given. For every genuinely knowledgeable breeder in existence. there are about 100 "backyarders" making money off pet store derived purebreds for quick sale. Guess who you bought your dog from?

Sure, me being pregnant might have been a factor. Like I said, we saw that she was having moments of weird edginess in the last while during which we didn't bug her to participate or heel,

Owner behavior modification, as noted earlier....

but in general she was a better, more obedient, happier dog since we settled in at home and started the new disciplines and routines following Christmas. The pregnancy was only one factor and it alone couldn't have caused our dog to attack and take a chunk out of Turner, of all people. Turner: her favourite person in the world, the person for whom she'd dance around and moan and wail when he'd come through the door after being out a few hours, the person for whom she'd come and sit and stay, the only person with whom she'd seriously tug-of- war,

Time to review what I said about dog owners misreading their dog's actions. Tug of war is a contest in which dominant dogs declare themselves the superior.

the person whose leg was the humping instrument of preference

Another obvious display of dominance.

the person who fed her dinner every day and walked her every day and sang to her every day.

Her servant.

She'd snapped at me once, a month ago, but she savagely attacked and maimed Turner. It was not an accident. It was not a startle- reflex. She was not defending me, the pregnant person - I wasn't even home. It's heartbreaking, but our dog was not right, and today she went way, way too far.

No, she wasn't. Neither are the people who rationalize so many warning signs in the delusion that the way to a happy, sane dog is as simple as "showing them love".

A situation evolved in which the subordinate was expected by the dog to show proper deference, according to his lower rung on the family pack ladder, with just penalties for insubordination.

Serious acts of insubordination include leaning over the dog's shoulder area for a "hug" or taking away a toy. In her lengthy explanation, the writer reveals he knew to "discipline" the dog when she misbehaved. An subordinate does not attempt to discipline a superior in the pack without expectation of a fight. Add to this confusion of canine misinformation a dog with possible hearing impairment, poor bite inhibition and matters were not likely to end well.

So, what to do if you're a confused dog owner with an emerging problem, who doesn't know who to turn to? Find a professional show dog handler of at least 10 years experience with a variety of breeds, including large guarding breeds. Unlike veterinarians, obedience trainers and garden variety pet breeders, professional handlers routinely take on strange, adult dogs for training, conditioning, grooming, travel and exhibition from a diverse range of owners. They've seen it all. They're pretty good at evaluating behavior and letting you know if the dog is unstable, or if it's truly reacting to stress according to the normal expectations for that breed. They may also know who to consult about breed specific temperament, vision or hearing problems.

Unlike the garden variety "trainer", they don't send you and your poochie home after an hour of "walkies" chirped in their ears. They live and travel with dogs, have no time for nonsense, and train them to perform in stressful, unpredictable environments - large crowds, intact males, bitches in heat in the same ring, strange judges with funny hats who open their mouths to examine pigmentation and count teeth.

Pro handlers are not that hard to find, if you contact a local kennel club for referral. Perhaps you can arrange and pay for the dog to spend a couple of weeks for evaluation. Then, for God's sake, listen to what they have to say.

Adscam: Deep Throat Still To Testify

Via a reader tip, Greg Weston has a tantalizing preview in today's Toronto article that may help explain why Chretien went to such lengths - at obvious risk - to discredit Gomery. With the official prime ministerial "mea no culpa's" on the record, the real testimony is yet to come.

SOMETIME OVER the next month, the Gomery commission of inquiry will hear the testimony of an extraordinary witness -- a Montreal ad man whose key role in the sponsorship scandal arguably deserves a national standing ovation. He is the whistleblower of AdScam, one of the honest few on the inside of the sponsorship fiasco who saw wrongdoing and did something to stop it.

Over a period of almost five years, he has secretly steered select journalists, forensic auditors and now police investigators to many of the key needles in the AdScam haystack -- the fraudulent deals, the money trails, the missing documents from hundreds of advertising and sponsorship contracts.

As he said to me with sincerity over lunch once: "At one point I looked at what was happening and decided I did not want my kids to grow up visiting me in Bordeaux prison.

"At the same time, I have no desire to become silt in the St. Lawrence, either. I have some real fears for my safety."

Don't be surprised if the Libranos turn up the heat to have the Inquiry terminated.

Flashback On Media Corruption

In the wake of Eason Jordan's departure from CNN, this flashback from New York Times correspondant John Burns exposing the deep corruption in the media. With a near certain attempt underway by some in the mainstream press to transform Jordan from conspiracy theorist and propogandist into a "victim of the right wing blogosphere", Burns' words bear repeating. Originally published in September of 2003.

Terror, totalitarian states, and their ways are nothing new to me, but I felt from the start that [Iraq] was in a category by itself, with the possible exception in the present world of North Korea. I felt that that was the central truth that has to be told about this place. It was also the essential truth that was untold by the vast majority of correspondents here. Why? Because they judged that the only way they could keep themselves in play here was to pretend that it was okay.

There were correspondents who thought it appropriate to seek the approbation of the people who governed their lives. This was the ministry of information, and particularly the director of the ministry. By taking him out for long candlelit dinners, plying him with sweet cakes, plying him with mobile phones at $600 each for members of his family, and giving bribes of thousands of dollars. Senior members of the information ministry took hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from these television correspondents who then behaved as if they were in Belgium. They never mentioned the function of minders. Never mentioned terror.

In one case, a correspondent actually went to the Internet Center at the Al-Rashid Hotel and printed out copies of his and other people's stories -- mine included -- specifically in order to be able to show the difference between himself and the others. He wanted to show what a good boy he was compared to this enemy of the state. He was with a major American newspaper.

Read it all.

Spanking Spector

When a distinguished author, one-time Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney, and Globe and Mail columnist finds himself in the midst of a flamewar with a lowly "potty mouth" blogger, what does he do?

Why he does what any trained journalist and former Ambassador to Israel would do! He draws on his formidable academic credentials and experience to rally his loyal supporters.

Screenshot of comments thread:

It's just too bad that he didn't enhance those impressive credentials in dead tree journalism with a few courses in web administration.

Screenshot of comment admin page:

I sure hope Warren Kinsella doesn't hear about this...

(Out of respect for the owners of the Shotgun, I won't link to the thread, though I have saved it for future reference, if required.)

Busted

It was the cord that gave him away.

A New Record

I purchased a 350 g bag of Dad's Goodie Rings (chewy, chocolatey cookies made with oatmeal, peanut butter and coconut) at Wal-Mart just under 23 hours ago. All that remains is a sad, crumpled yellow carcass and the empty husk of a cookie tray.

If I could just spread Cheeze Whiz on these things, they would qualify as "Nature's Most Perfect Food".

New Face Of The UN

To better reflect the work done by their missions around the world, The United Nations has undergone an image makeover.

Dean Elected DNC Chair

From the people who brought you this;

"I don't know. There are many theories about it. The most interesting theory that I've heard so far, which is nothing more than a theory, I can't— think it can't be proved, is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis."

The new Chairman of the DNC

update - Sean Hackbarth re-opens duck hunt season....

Root Of Terrorism

This article won't bring any surprises for anyone familiar with Islamic terrorism, but it's not often you hear a Saudi admit it.

Countering the assertion of many in American academia, a Saudi official said extremist teachings, not poverty or unemployment, are the root causes of terrorism in the kingdom, the homeland of billionaire Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.

At a news conference in Riyadh, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi blamed the spread of terrorism on the "indoctrination that teaches young people they can kill justifiably" and training in Afghan camps, reported Arab News, an officially sanctioned Saudi newspaper. [...] "I am not aware that somebody has been driven to terrorism simply because he could not find a job."

Well, unless they're in Quebec, and used to work for Wal-Mart. (Wal-Mart Store recieves bomb threats) Though, this may also be due to indoctrination of a leftist form of fantasy ideology known to some as Militant Unionism;

The union representing workers at Wal-Mart's only unionized store in North America say they are going to continue trying to negotiate a first contract, even though the store is being shut down.

[...]

Henri Masse, the president of the Quebec Federation of Labour, said they still have a right to have a collective agreement imposed by an arbitrator.

Masse added that successful arbitration with a closed Wal-Mart store was likely to serve as a jumping off point for talks with Eatons, Woolco and Canadian Airlines.

See also: Colby's perplexedness.

Most Probably Will

Andrew Coyne returns to the blogosphere, with a much more sensible and browser friendly Blogger software. Today he summarizes the Adscam testimony of Chretien and friends, with a lengthy list of the things "we are asked to believe...."

We are asked to believe that the politicians responsible for a program that was conceived in secret, that appeared in no budget document, that was never divulged to Parliament and of which even cabinet ministers were unaware, should have been surprised to learn that bureaucrats answering to them were allocating millions of dollars in secret, without invoices or receipts.

We are asked to believe, last, that Paul Martin did not know about the existence of the unity reserve until 1996, three years after he had been named Finance Minister; that he did not know what it was used for, ie sponsorships, until some years after that; and that he did not know about the abuses that went on under the program until some years after that. And yet, ignorant as he was as to either the purpose or results of the program, he immediately signed off on the Prime Minister’s request for funds, without question.

If past history is a guide, most probably will.

They Shoot Journalists, Update: Self Inflicted

Breaking news via Drudge - after nearly two weeks of blogosphere driven pressure to keep the story alive, CNN's Eason Jordan has finally resigned;

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Early reaction from Powerline, who predicted on Feb.7th that "Eason Jordan is finished";

I don't know, of course, what tipped the balance, but I wonder whether it might have been this: Larry Kudlow's interview with three influential Senators, George Allen, Jeffrey Sessions and Norm Coleman, all of whom knew about the story, in contrast with many "mainstream" reporters who have been asked about it in recent days, and were incensed by it. This detail may have been telling:

Senator Coleman was not ready to open up an investigation, but he indicated it was worth looking at.

Senator Coleman is, of course, the Chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Larry notes that these and other Senators had to get their awareness of the Jordan affair through blogs.

James Joyner has been compiling a list of blogger response.

update
Howard Kurtz finally writes the column he should have the first time round, though still highly sympathetic to his co-worker at CNN.

Your Tax Dollar Gone Awol

Greg Weston, in the Ottawa Sun reminds us over the past ten years, $9.1 billion has been shovelled by the Federal Government into "independant foundations" which are out of the reach of both the Access to Information Act, and unbelievably - the Auditor General. Weston reassures;

"But not to worry -- our money is in the good hands of foundation boards packed with qualified Liberal appointees. "

Auditor General Sheila Fraser is expected to raise this issue again next week - just as she does every year, where it registers barely a blip (if that) in media coverage.

My advice? Print your report on golfballs, Sheila, so that the idiots behind the cameras and microphones know it's important.

Gwynne Dyer's Unbroken Losing Streak

The latest in the continuing "If Gwynne Dyer Looks Into The Face Of Victor Davis Hanson He Will Burst Into Flame" series, this quote from his new book Future:Tense;

The United States needs to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq. What is at stake now is the way we run the world for the next generation or more, and really bad things will happen if we get it wrong.

Ah. Very thoughtful of him.

Amazon shows a November 2004 publication date. That's the problem with books dedicated to current events - they have to be in to the publisher before anyone really knows the final chapters. In Dyers case, it hardly matters - he soldiers on, gifted with a knack for historical subjectivity and emboldened by a nearly perfect record of failed prognostications of military disaster.

Indeed, there is a case to be made for following Dyer's analysis very carefully, and then, assuming the opposite will occur. He's that good.

Speaking of Mr. Hanson, he does a tidy job wrapping up the "Dyer-isms" of the failed, frustrated left in this post of a few days ago. No one is spared.

(Via a reader, who pointed the way to the story and Damian's take on it.)

Tommy Douglas, Not Dead Enough

I've often said that best thing that could happen for both Saskatchewan highways and health care is for the Premier to have a heart attack 80 miles from Regina. Or, as my brother points out - until every hospital patient were required to survive 2 hours on a vibrating gurney before receiving treatment, there is no such thing as "equal access" to health care in this province.

Today's Great Moment In Socialism;

A critically ill man who needs a life-saving heart transplant was forced to travel 12 hours in an ambulance to Edmonton because no planes were available, the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region said yesterday. On Feb. 3, a Regina man was loaded on the health region's advanced life-support vehicle, which can transport up to 16 patients at one time.

Along with the patient were a perfusionist, respiratory therapist, surgeon, nurse and two paramedics, along with high- tech medical equipment. Twelve hours and 900 km later, the man arrived in Edmonton, where he was still waiting for a transplant yesterday.

Glen Perchie, executive director of emergency services for the health region, said they had to use the ambulance because there were no airplanes available when the patient had to be transported. Perchie added that the health region explored "every option available" with Saskatchewan Health and with other provinces.

Well, every option outside of asking if there was a plane in Edmonton that could come get him.

However, Leslie Beard, vice-president of public affairs for Edmonton's Capital Health region, said planes are usually available.

"The bottom line is that if Regina or anyone else out there ... do not have an aircraft in their community, what they do is phone (the equivalent to Alberta's provincial flight co-ordination centre) ... and we have reciprocal agreements in place, we immediately send out planes," Beard said yesterday.

The medical team shrugged off the long bus ride.

I'm sure they did. Maybe next time they can all make the trip without being paid for travel time, and we'll see how long the laisser faire attitude lasts.

Perchie said the patient was kept alive by the Extracorporeal Life Support machine, which is used when the heart can't pump blood through a patient's body. The patient's blood goes through the pump, which transfers it to a machine which adds oxygen to it and then the blood goes back into the patient's body.

Perchie said this is the first time the region used its vehicle to transport a patient needing a heart transplant outside the city.

No doubt. Usually they just warehouse critically ill patients in filthy wards and ignore them until they die.

QOTD

Still spending much of my time at the shop, on the bike-that-never-ends.... the first five pieces are now basecoated, though, so there's light at the end of the tunnel. (When painters tell you that automotive painting is 90% prepwork, it is not exaggeration.)

QOTD from a radio dj this morning, in a discussion about the latest round of NHL talks, and the impending season cancellation;

"Gary Bettman is the Jack Kavorkian of the NHL"

Better yet, he managed to segue into that from a report on the health of the pope.

This guy should get into blogging.

Carry on in the comments sections, kiddies. I'm too busy to watch what's going on at the moment, but if I come down there and finding someone's being writing on the walls in crayon, theres going to be hell to pay.

(I really ought to start a category on "solvent blogging". Heh.)

Back to the booth.

Unionizing Wal-Mart

First rule of union negotiation in the "big leagues" - never forget that you're just another pin in the map.

Bring Our Al Qaeda Home! PtII

CTV;

Lawyers for a Canadian teenager imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay say it's put up or shut up time for the U.S. government, which they further claim has abused Omar Khadr.

(Put up or shut up? The only thing missing is the "or else..."..)

"One of Canada's children has been tortured by the United States," said Muneer Ahmad, a Washington-based lawyer. He visited with Omar for four days in November.

Thankyou for the update and confirming our fondest hopes. I guess there's no point in sending those clubs, eh? A reader emails;

My favourite line is from his mother "This could happen to any Canadian child". Yeah, right. This could happen to me only if I'd been trained by the Taliban, laid landmines (didn't Canada take a strong anti-landmine position a la Axworthy?), and shot and killed an American soldier. I'm not too worried about landing in Gitmo any time soon. Are you?

Nope.

Crunch Time For The 21st Century

Austin Bay;

Jan. 30 was crunch time for the people of Iraq. The War on Terror is crunch time for the 21st century. We are living in a moment that really matters, when blood, sweat, toil and tears fueled by hope and courage can lay the political foundation for a more just and prosperous century.

Read it all.

via Instapundit

Cheap Trick, Cheaper Reporting

Day-after media coverage of Chretien's testimony before Gomery;

"...golfballs .... took out golfballs ... golfballs ... signed golfballs ... Clinton's golfballs ... Bush's golfballs ... law firm golfballs ... golfballs... "

Now, I ask you - if a commercial artist in the middle of rural Saskatchewan can spot a an intentional ploy to divert media attention from the denial, the obfuscation, the excuse making that passed for testimony from Chretien at the Adscam inquiry, why did every media outlet in the country fall for it?

Legitimate reporting would have ignored the made-for-tv stunt. Competent editorial review would have discarded that portion for more relevant testimony. Intelligent journalists would have recognized that Chretien wasn't playing Gomery - he was playing the media as fools. And today, they look like fools, fawning over his cleverness, his craftiness, his successful attempt to one-up Justice Gomery.

Not one of them - not a single one - stopped chuckling long enough to ask whether it's a wise tactic to attempt to embarrass and humiliate the judge who will be ruling on your involvement in a $100 million theft of public funds - and who may yet have the last laugh.

The Science Of Evil

Via Outside The Beltway, a NYT article on a study into the existance of evil.

In an effort to standardize what makes a crime particularly heinous, a group at New York University has been developing what it calls a depravity scale, which rates the horror of an act by the sum of its grim details. And a prominent personality expert at Columbia University has published a 22-level hierarchy of evil behavior, derived from detailed biographies of more than 500 violent criminals. He is now working on a book urging the profession not to shrink from thinking in terms of evil when appraising certain offenders, even if the E-word cannot be used as part of an official examination or diagnosis. "We are talking about people who commit breathtaking acts, who do so repeatedly, who know what they're doing, and are doing it in peacetime" under no threat to themselves, said Dr. Michael Stone, the Columbia psychiatrist, who has examined several hundred killers at Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center in New Hampton, N.Y., and others at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, where he consults and teaches. "We know from experience who these people are, and how they behave," and it is time, he said, to give their behavior "the proper appellation."

Next up: Scientists review 16 different criteria by which to establish whether or not fish swim.

Adscam Inquiry Roundup

I'm still knee deep in motorcycle bodywork, and don't have much time for indepth blogging, especially on the very blogworthy Adscam inquiry. To add to the difficulty, the radio station of choice at the bodyshop I "borrow" plays classic rock and nothing else.

Did dig up news story on Chretien's testimony (which I understand included bragging about his golfballs and pinning blame on the Treasury board and thus, the current prime minister).

According to the Little Godfather From Shawinigan, the Sponsorship Program was a noble [secret] attempt to save [after the fact] the country [and Liberal party coffers] using the proven methodology [theft of tax dollars] of giving away very expensive neckties [to foreigners].

Damian Penny has a summary and nicely reviews the basics of the scandal.

Greg Staples live blogged Chretien.

updated
Damian Brooks take.

I know there are others who have been following this, too - let me know if you have a post of interest ... trackbacks welcome, of course.

The Voyage Of The Gayflower

Head Heeb has just the place for those looking for relief on school tax;

After Australia's conservative government passed the Marriage Amendment Bill which prohibited Gay marriage, a group of Australian gays and lesbians set sail to the Coral Islands (on a ship called, inevitably, the Gayflower), planted the rainbow gay flag, and declared an independent state.

Let the puns begin!

They Shoot Journalists, Updated

As the blogosphere continues to hammer at MSM stonewalling over the the Eason Jordan - Davos story; Michelle Malkin has useful updates here and here. Most interesting tidbit - copy of an email to Mickey Kaus, from Howard Kurtz;

I have a story in tomorrow's paper. Had you been kind enough to check earlier, I would have told you that I flagged it for The Post on the day that I was crashing on CBS naming Bob Schieffer as Rather's temporary replacement and said we should pursue it. Two other Post reporters pursued it, spoke to Jordan and decided not to write anything based on the fact that what was actually said was in dispute. I had nothing to do with that decision. I've since picked it up, done additional reporting and filed my story.

That sort of calls out for a "harumph!" emoticon.

update - The "narrowly focused" Kurtz piece is now online. Captain Ed is profoundly unimpressed and wonders why Kurtz - who reads his blog - didn't mention that Jordan's words at Davos were part of a long-standing pattern of unsubstanciated accusations against the military.

It took Kurtz over a week to finally get around to publishing this article on Eason's Fables. In that time, it appears that Kurtz did as little investigation as possible on Jordan. My readers and I found all of Jordan's earlier commentary within 24 hours, and we only have very limited access to Nexis and full-time jobs doing other things than media analysis. Worse than that, all of this information has been repeatedly presented on my blog -- in fact, it was all presented on my blog today, and we know Howard Kurtz read my blog sometime this afternoon. Why didn't Kurtz ask about his remarks in Portugal from three months ago, or about his identical accusations against Israel two years ago? Why didn't Kurtz press Jordan on the entire story? Only Kurtz can answer that, and I doubt he will have much more to say to anyone about Eason's Fables from this point onward.

As Glenn Reynolds noted a few days ago,

A story in today's Christian Science Monitor asks, "Are bloggers journalists?"

Perhaps we should start asking if journalists are journalists.

Indeed.

Dinner With Christopher

Michael Totten goes to dinner with Christopher Hitchens and friends. Other than the sound of dinner plates being broken over heads, a good time was had by all.

hat tip - Belmont Club

World's Biggest Prick

Taiwanese sculptors have carved an eight-metre-long wooden penis, hoping to set the world record for the longest sculpture of the male genitalia, Taiwan television reported on Friday.

Eight sculptors in Pingtung, in southern Taiwan, spent half a year carving the wooden penis. Now their artwork - weighing 12 tons - is on display at an amusement park in Pingtung, Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) reports.

The sculptors plan to apply to the Guinness Book Of World Records to have their creation declared the longest in the world, TTV says.

Guinness officials could not be reached for immediate verification of the record, as they are currently on assignment investigating a claim for "Worlds Biggest Asshole".

Police Academy

A decent Toronto Star piece on the training of Iraq police cadets by Canadians, in Jordan. Not without the required reminders of how Canadians are specially gifted with cultural sensitivity, but when you can get anyone at the Star to contemplate both the design efficency and the inadequacy of a Glock, you have to give them a few points for effort.

Causation and Correlation

The caution against linking correlation with causation has been around for a long time. Unfortunately, it isn't invoked as often as it should be.

For decades we've been encouraged by health officials and professionals to exercise regularly, to maintain cardiovascular health. Now, a study released at the University of Michigan involving rats indicates that there may be more involved than just working up the motivation to get off the couch.

Rats that were "born to run" not only outpaced their less-talented cousins but also were naturally less prone to heart disease, a finding that may help explain why exercise prevents heart death, researchers said on Thursday.

The study may be bad news for people who hate to exercise, suggesting that not only laziness but also their genes may put them at higher risk of heart disease.

"The reality of having a genetic determinant of our existence is that there are some people who are born with less ability to take up oxygen and transfer energy than others," said Steven Britton of the University of Michigan.

Britton and colleagues bred rats for 11 generations to be good or poor runners.

Their high-capacity runners can exercise on a little rodent treadmill for 42 minutes on average before becoming exhausted, while the low-capacity runners average only 14 minutes.

Colleagues in Norway examined the rats for heart health factors.

"We found that rats with low aerobic capacity scored higher on risk factors linked to cardiovascular disease -- including high blood pressure and vascular dysfunction," said Ulrik Wisloff, a professor of exercise physiology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

"Rats with low aerobic capacity also had higher levels of blood fat disorders (such as high cholesterol), insulin resistance (a pre-diabetic condition) and more abdominal fat than high-capacity rats," added Sonia Najjar, of the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo.

"Compared to high-capacity rats, the low-capacity rats had lower levels of oxidative enzymes and proteins used by mitochondria to generate energy in skeletal muscle," Najjar said in a statement.

Studies have shown that a poor ability to exercise aerobically -- the kind that makes for heavy breathing -- is a very strong predictor of heart disease, the researchers noted.

Another bit of "conventional wisdom" about health and wellness that may be due for reconsideration - especially in a day and age when governments are busy trying to effect behavior modification through legislation, under the guise of "reducing health care costs".

Rejection Letters

Google News wants no part of Jeff Goldstein. Or Michelle Malkin*. Or Charles Johnson. Apparently, these citizen journalists do not display a strong enough commitment to hard sodomy reporting.

Coalition Of The Weaseling

Debbye has a post worth your time. Here's a taste;

The failure of the electorate to administer a sharp rebuke to the Liberal Party for corruption and mendacity is depressing. Some back home say the American press was too voracious in pursuing the Watergate story and the leads arising from the hearings, but up here I'm seeing the other side of the picture: too many in the media seem almost disinterested in learning the truth and complacently let the government investigate its own wrongdoing with the occasional plaintive bleat that the commission has uncovered little of substance.

It's one of the reasons that blogging on politics is so much more an uphill battle in this country - the media is so uniformly supportive of the Liberal establishment that scandals that should generate front page headlines and news magazine specials, are likely to be quickly buried behind NHL contract talks and the latest Michael Jackson court footage. Canadian media outlets are not in the business of exposing the Liberal underbelly.

Even when the corruption is as staggering as that of Adscam, there is a line they will not cross - the line that might just get a conservative opposition party elected. Witness the performance of the CBC and CTV during the past election campaign. With the LIberal party badly damaged by the continuing revelations coming out about the sponsorship scandal, they quickly pulled the gloves back on to stroke the "social issues" pony, aggressively pushing their campaign coverage towards the burning question of whether Canadians found Stephen Harper "scary".

This afternoon, "broadcaster and investigative journalist" and talk radio host Peter Warren featured journalist Charles Smith of Newsmax and his articles concerning the "blockbuster" revelation that there are Canadian ties - through Power Corporation - to the UN Oil-For-Food scandal.

GASP ... who knew?

Of course, the knowledge of the intricate links between Power Corp. and officials at the highest levels of the UN and the Canadian government has been widely distributed on the blogosphere for months and available to any number of enterprising journalists. (The Newsmax piece cited on Warren's program appeared here at lowly little SDA two weeks ago.) We know that members of the media read a variety of Canadian and US bloggers, so ignorance doesn't explain the silence - the failure to cover the story can only be attributed to malpractice and corruption of basic journalistic principles at the highest editorial levels.

The surprise expressed by callers to Warren's show was genuine and their reponse predictable - they were appalled. We all should be, but not at Power Corp., Chretien, Strong and their peons in the Liberal government - who like any member of the genus Mustela are guilty only of doing what comes naturally - but at a Canadian media establishment that has pledged a higher allegiance to the Liberal Party of Canada than they have to the truth.

Move Over, Medicare

There's a new sacred cow backing out of the government truck. With pre-Medicare generations slowly passing into history, and Canadians fully indoctrinated with the belief that the words "commodity" and "right" are interchangable, it's time to ramp up the process. And so, we welcome a new generation to the concept that "free babysitting" is a societal responsiblity.

I can see how this could work... by the time these babies of 2005 graduate into the work force, the cost of government will have rendered taxation obsolete - Canadians will just go directly from government birthing room to daycare to school into the service of the state, with their basic needs provided and ....

You know... that sounds kinda familiar.

SSM Debate Heating Up

Almost 42 per cent of Canadian voters say they would bounce their MP from office in the next election if they do not reflect their view on the hot-button issue of same-sex marriage, according to a SES poll. The survey of 1,000 voters shows the country evenly split with 46.2 per cent favouring the traditional definition of marriage and 45 per cent who support extending marriage to gay and lesbian couples.

More than 54 per cent of Canadians say they want their MP to vote based on the views expressed in his or her riding. Only 21.8 per cent would respect an MP voting his or her conscience and slightly more than 16 per cent would agree to their MP voting the way their party tells them to.

This quote via Norm Spector;

In reply to federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler's statement that minority rights are never subjected to majority approval, Citizens Centre chairman Link Byfield commented, "That's historically untrue and legally ridiculous. This issue, like all others, will be decided by a majority vote. The only question is whether it will be a majority vote of Supreme Court judges, Members of Parliament, or the citizens of Canada. This referendum campaign is just beginning."

Nicely said.

I wonder how many other Canadians are as insulted as I am by the implication that ordinary citizens are too stupid and bigoted to be trusted with a question so fundamental to the fabric of society.

If this is the case, if the collective intelligence and wisdom of the Canadian people can be replaced by a handpicked panel of Liberal-appointed judges, if the majority of the electorate is so incompetent and ignorant that our views must be categorically rejected - then there really isn't much argument remaining for preserving the Canadian democratic system.

Why not save ourselves a lot of trouble and money by just allowing the current Prime Minister to appoint future ones, and divest ourselves of the whole "representative government" charade.

They know better, my fellow Canadians. So just shut up and be told what's good for you.

Reagan Tribute

February 6th is the 94th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. Trey Jackson has created a comprehensive tribute.

Embrace Hollywood

"Democrats need to embrace Hollywood because this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story." - Michael Moore*

Janeane Garofalo salutes Iraqi voters

They Shoot Journalists, Don't They?

Powerline is reporting that Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has finally broken media silence on the Eason Jordan story that has been the buzz of the blogosphere for several days*;

The scandalous remarks of Eason Jordan, CNN's top news executive, last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the failure of the major media to report them suggest the distortions are deliberate.

Mr. Jordan told a panel that the U.S. military had killed a dozen journalists in Iraq, and that they had been deliberately targeted. When challenged, Mr. Jordan could provide no evidence to support the charge, and subsequently lied about having made it, though the record shows he had made a similar charge a few months before, and also earlier had falsely accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists.

Mr. Jordan's slander has created a firestorm in the blogosphere, but has yet to be mentioned in the "mainstream" media.

Gee, I wonder why not.

Jeff Jarvis has been following it closely too - apparently a tape of Jordan's statement is on its way from the event organizers, at the request of Sisyphus.

Updates: The Washington Times
is commenting, and Captains Quarters is catching other "cracks in the dam" of the mainstream media.

Death To Bin Laden: New Saudi Initiative

Breaking: Saudi leader refuses to acknowledge right of Osama Bin Laden to exist;

Speaking at a meeting of Saudi leaders in preparation for the kingdom's international conference on counterterrorism, Defense Minister Prince Sultan referred to Osama bin Laden as being "sent by the Jews."

The prince was quoting a poet who said, "Long live security - may its men hold their heads high on every corner. [Bin Laden], whose ideology is sick, who was sent by the Jews, who is the architect of theft, was treacherous and sent us the criminals. This traitor of the nation tried to harm us, but his efforts boomeranged back upon him."

Pure genius.

Cheerleading

Still on the other side.

Via Mystery Achievement

Diplomad

Disappointing news - the decidedly undiplomatic and highly entertaining Diplomad blog is shutting down.

It's been fun; the postings from the readers have been great (except for the idiot trolls -- the same ones who collapsed our hotmail account and made it useless.) But for a variety of personal and professional reasons it's time to stop (we might blog again under a different name; might not.) Lest any of you think so, we have not been threatened or shut down; the State Department goons are not knocking at the door. It's just time to do something else.

The archives will remain up.

Hat tip - Right Thinking People, where the grief and sense of loss is translated into a nice smackdown of National Post "columnist" Sheila Copps. There's the spirit, guys - take it out on someone unsuspecting, I always say!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Well, if you'd just left a flaming bag of cow shit like normal kids, none of this would've happened.

It Might Pay To Increase Their Word Power

Here's a deal for my same-sex marriage advocating friends - let's keep the definition of "marriage" away from Paul Martin and his Band Of Merry Votewhores until they get a handle on simpler concepts like "give back the money you stole" ....

From Hansard;

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the smoking gun has been found. It has now been revealed that a top Liberal organizer, Jacques Corriveau, whose bills were unpaid received millions of dollars of taxpayer money via the sponsorship program. It is hard to believe that this information was not known by the government a long time ago.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Why was this not revealed to the public accounts committee before the election, as he promised?

Right Hon. Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would have thought the Leader of the Opposition, having stood up in the House numerous times with information that was incorrect, taken out of context and contradicted the next day, would learn that fundamentally the Gomery commission should be allowed to do its job. There should not be obstruction or interference by the hon. member simply because he has had it wrong so many times.

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, this is the biggest scandal in Canadian history. We see millions of dollars being funnelled to a Liberal organizer out of public funds and the Prime Minister tries to hide behind the police, the RCMP and a judicial inquiry. It is a gutless lack of integrity.

When will the Prime Minister order the Corriveau money to be repaid to the public treasury?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, once again the Leader of the Opposition is trying to interfere with the Gomery commission by commenting on day to day testimony. As we have learned repeatedly, we have heard testimony contradicted, in some cases the same day, if not perhaps the next, by the same witness. That is why we have an independent inquiry that ought to be allowed to do its work and report back to us so that we have the truth. That is what Canadians want. I am shocked that the hon. member is interfering with the Gomery commission.

... and "terrorist".

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan--Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the Tamil Tigers are world leaders in terrorism. They perfected the art of suicide bombing. They have done more suicide attacks than al-Qaeda. They have assassinated world leaders, including India's former prime minister Gandhi. They recruit children into death squads.

Other countries have banned this organization and all of its support groups within their borders. Why will our Prime Minister not ban the Tamil Tiger organization and its support groups within our borders?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we take very seriously our obligation to protect Canadians and to protect our allies from terrorists whether they may attempt to raise money here in this country for their activities around the world, or elsewhere.

We have a very rigorous listing process. We constantly review that process. We are constantly making determinations based on the best information we have and the risk assessments we have as to who should be listed and who should not be listed.

Mr. Stockwell Day (Okanagan--Coquihalla, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the leader of the political arm of the Tamil Tigers worldwide has looked at our process. When the Prime Minister was overseas he said that Canada was the Tamil Tigers' great ally. This is unacceptable.

Other allies, true allies, the United States and Great Britain, have shut down this organization and its support groups. A previous high commissioner to Sri Lanka has denounced the Prime Minister for not shutting them down. The good people of the Tamil community in Canada want this terrorist organization and all its support groups shut down.

Why will the Prime Minister not shut down this international gang of murderers?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I have said, we take our responsibilities very seriously in relation to listing terrorist entities. We will continue to review entities. We make regular risk assessments in relation to a host of organizations. We take our obligation seriously. Listing is obviously a serious act; it carries serious consequences. We will continue to review these
situations, and we will list as we deem appropriate.

You bet "listing" has serious consequences - like alienating the quarter million Tamil immigrants concentrated in Liberal held urban Ontario seats.

update - Greg Staples has a transcript of Chretien aide Scott Reid in the sponsorship headlights... (link fixed)

Charles Johnson Profile

An interview with Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs).

Via Damian Penny

Look Into The Eyes Of An NHL Player

For only $20,835 a month you too, can sponsor an NHL hockey player in need.

Motor City Eloquence

The Motor City Madman is back from a trip to Iraq.

Well, it was a glorious celebration, particularly as life is good, bad, and ugly. It was the greatest of good, and it was the most gut-wrenching of bad and ugly, but the irrefutable conclusion is that good must hammer relentlessly - and good is hammering relentlessly - to eliminate the bad and the ugly, and the spirit, the soul, the attitude, the piss and vinegar, the fire, the passion, the American Dream firestorm of every man and woman of the Armed Forces, everybody in the Army, the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, the cavalry, everywhere we went, playing acoustic guitars in some hell zone of a tent outside of Fallujah, sharing C-130s and Chinook helicopters with flag-draped coffins, it was an intense - I believe - y'know, I'm a pretty intense guy anyhow, but I've never witnessed nor felt deep in my guts an intensity of confidence and certainty that was fortified there like never before in my life, that the whole world sucks but America sucks less, and the more America can get freedom and liberty and a hint of these God-given rights that are guaranteed in our Constitution and our Declaration and our Bill of Rights - the more that we can bring that to people, the better chance they have of having a quality of life - most of them for the first time in their lives, so my spirit is soaring on eagle wings right now, and it'll never come down because of that experience.

(Hat Tip - Bill at INDC.)

updated Some Iraqis are getting in on the spirit.

The Iraqi police have investigated a case in the village of al-Mudhariya, which is just south of Baghdad. The villagers there say that before the election insurgents came and warned them that if they voted in last weekend's election, they would pay.

Now the people of this mixed village of Sunni and Shia Muslims, they ignored the threat and they did turn out to vote.

We understand that last night the insurgents came back to punish the people of al- Mudhariya, but instead of metering out that punishment the villagers fought back and they killed five of the insurgents and wounded eight. They then burnt the insurgents' car. So the people of that village have certainly had enough of the insurgents.

Reader Tips

I'm a little behind on things today - spent the last several hours disassembling a Yamaha sportbike. Until my energy levels are somewhat back to normal, I'm taking the lazy way out tossing out a few links of interest - some of my own, some from readers.

Bruce Garvey has the quote of the day in the National Post, in a column that nails the " The liberal intelligentsia " for their silence in post-election Iraq;

Canadian Liberals these days like to claim that if Stephen Harper were prime minister Canadian boys would be getting blown up by car bombs in Iraq. It's equally true that if Jean Chretien, the international statesman from Shawinigan, had prevailed, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be running their murderous circus in Baghdad.

We need to hear more of this, and we need to hear it from Canadian Conservatives. How about this for starters - a statement from Stephen Harper congratulating the "Coalition of the Willing" and the Iraqi people, and expressing regret that Canada did not play a significant role in the success ... that ought to launch a right lovely Martin stammering fit.

Only in Canada, would a few Chinese made lapel pins emerge as a national "scandal" demanding wall-to-wall coverage... while the communist Chinese are quietly buying up the goddamn Alberta tar sands under a virtual media blackout.

And today's new feature - a POP QUIZ!

The following multiple choice question is for illegal immigrants in Canada. To avoid deportation, which option is most advised? a) Get busted for coke in your 46th year as a landed immigrant. b) Claim to have delivered pizza to the Immigration Minister's campaign headquarters. c) Admit to past employment at Osama bin Laden, Inc. d) Advise immigration officials that your work as a women's rights activist in Iran could result in execution.

Yup, your first instinct was correct.

Monte Sol-Blog

Monte Solberg (Finance Critic and MP for Medicine Hat) has started a new blog, named:

Well, no.... But I think we should all write him and suggest he consider it.

(I was going to go with "Paul Martin Has Poopy Pants", until I realized that Warren Kinsella has already taken that.)

Good luck, Monte, and welcome to the blogosphere.

Tall Tales, Small Men

Hugh Hewitt has his BS meter on high;

[L]et me underline two recent media events which deserve more scrutiny than they have thus far received.

The first is the genuinely scandalous assertion by CNN's Eason Jordan, made at the World Economic Forum, that the United States military has targeted and killed a dozen journalists. The account of Jordan's remarks - including his backpedaling and the crowd's reactions--is available at ForumBlog. Thus far no major media outlet has demanded an accounting of Jordan, but the idea that a major figure from American media traffics

in such outlandish and outrageous slanders on the American military deserves attention and criticism, not indifference. It is no wonder that anti-American propaganda gains traction in the world when American news executives set fantasies such as this one in motion. If Jordan had no grounds for peddling this grassy-knoll garbage, he should be fired. If he did have even the flimsiest of grounds, he ought to share his evidence and let the public decide whether his judgment is as flawed as it was when he covered for Saddam all those years.

Well as Hugh points out - this is the man who confessed that CNN had become the "Voice Of Saddam in America " during the years leading up to the war to ensure access ... and there's been no news he's undergone an integrity transpant since then ...

THE SECOND SUBJECT for mulling is John Kerry's extraordinary interview with Tim Russert last Sunday. There's a lot to absorb here, including Kerry's assertion that he did indeed run guns and CIA men into Cambodia on secret missions--and to aid the Khmer Rouge no less!

What is really remarkable is not Kerry's whoppers--he couldn't have meant the Khmer Rouge, right?--or his almost certain not-to-be-fulfilled pledge to sign the form 180. It is the set of questions Tim Russert posed.

Russert is generally regarded as the toughest interview in television, and he did bleed Kerry a bit during the campaign; afterwards Kerry never again came close to Russert's set before November 2.

But if the questions posed by Russert on January 30, 2005--on Kerry's fantasy life in Cambodia, on the sequestered records, etc.--were legitimate and useful inquiries after the votes have been cast, why then did no one pose them to candidate Kerry when they might have made a difference in the election? The blogosphere and the center-right media were full of such demands from August 1 forward, but not a single reporter from mainstream media bothered to pose even one of the Russert questions prior to the vote.

The Russert interview with Kerry is simply jaw dropping. I am beginning to suspect that the reason media power brokers like Russert steered so far clear of the Swift Boat accusations wasn't so
much a matter of fearing the questions were legitimate, but that Kerry may come unglued if he were pressed to answer them. Catching his exaggeration a military resume is one thing - uncovering his grave incompetence - quite another.

Training Them Young

A glimpse into the process by which young reporters are indoctinated from the lowest levels in the food chain to conform to formulaic "if it bleeds, it leads" news coverage. The problem is, when you're at the bottom of the food chain, you tend get bottom of the food chain assignments. There's not a lot of blood to be found in dry, boring government press releases. Solution? Reach for the ketchup.

Case in point - this evening on the CTV local news (Saskatoon affiliate), reporter Shannon Spring began her segment by revisiting two particularly tragic multi-fatality crashes that occured in the province in 2004. The first involved a carload of pre-driving age teens, the second a horrific crash in which 6 died, caused by a multiple-offender drunk driver with a revoked license.

What was the story?

Transport Canada had announced a 24% decrease in highway fatalities in Saskatchewan over the past 5 years, attributing the improvement to a road safety program and increased police surveillance of rural highways. We also learned that Britain leads all countries in terms of lowest highway fatalities, while Canada is fifth, and that more emphasis is needed on preventing car-pedestrian fatalities....

Of course, just holding up a pamphlet and talking about that is pretty mundane stuff. What's a reporter to do?

The story needs a "hook", something to make it more palatable to an audience .... what better than a little hemoglobin on the plate? So, off to the film archives, dig up some corpses, arrange the wrecks to create a pleasing backdrop and voila! Your Transport Canada release is taking on life!

To hell with agony revisited by friends and family who may be watching, and to hell with the dignity of those who lost their lives - the scenes now reduced to a few images to be employed in lieu of your own creativity. Its all part of the hard "reality" of professional journalism.

Nice work. Shannon Spring. You'll go far.

SOTU

For those of us who don't get cable (it's true, we do exist) here is the full text of the State Of The Union address.

Wizbang is your one stop shopping center for blogger reaction, which seems to be pretty favourable. Even Kevin Drum managed some admiration of the foreign policy portion.

Democratic response: The high-tensile nature of Nancy Pelosi's face appears to be the high point.

Friends Of Democracy, Postscript

Just a reminder that Friends of Democracy is continuing overage of the post-election in Iraq, at least through this weekend.

Hats off to Michael Totten and friends on a job well done.

Punxsutawney Arianna

Oh well. It is Groundhog Day. In the time honoured tradition of crawling out of a hole.....

And So It Begins

(Note: I've done a slight revision in construction, not content of the original post.)

Globe And Mail;

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has just finished hearing Ms. Chymyshyn and Ms. Smith's claim that the Knights, a Roman Catholic men's fraternal and philanthropic society, discriminated against the couple by refusing to rent the hall to them after learning it was for a same-sex wedding reception.

The Knights, adhering to church teaching, which is against homosexual marriage, cancelled a rental contract that had been signed, returned the couple's deposit and paid for both the rental of a new hall and the reprinting of wedding invitations after Ms. Chymyshyn and Ms. Smith complained that invitations listing the hall's address for their reception had been mailed.

That was in September, 2003. In October, the couple complained to the Human Rights Tribunal, which heard the case last week. A decision is not expected for months.

I like this part;

Both sides agreed that freedom of religion could be a "bona fide and reasonable justification to discriminate" but lawyer barbara findlay, representing Ms. Chymyshyn and Ms. Smith, says it wasn't operable in this case.

Ms. findlay, who does not use capital letters in the spelling of her name...

(Sounds like Ms. findlay has some "issues" ... is there some exotic pheromone that draws moonbats to argue these cases?)

I hold no particular religious beliefs. My support for preserving the traditional definition of marriage is rooted in basic anthropology and solidified by a suspicion that same-sex marriage has more to do with forwarding the agenda of the extreme left than it does with concerns about minority rights. If minority rights were truly the issue at stake, there would be full-out legislative war between the Federal Government and province of Quebec over minority language rights.

The secular left advancing same-sex marriage legislation in Canada purports to have a deep commitment to protecting religious freedom from erosion by homosexual rights advocacy. In reality, that commitment amounts to little more than a winking promise to allow people to "believe in something that doesn't exist".

So, when push comes to shove, the "truth" of state-defined equality rights will always trump the "false" God-defined morality. For those who are merely unconvinced of the existance of God, it's a conclusion based on logic. For the left, however, the question of religion is much more problematic, for it strikes at the heart of their own belief system. Freedom of religion acknowledges the possible existance of an authority higher than that of the state, and as far as the left is concerned, that's a notion dangerous to their own ideology.

When one views religious freedom as nothing more significant than "tolerance of those who believe in something that doesn't exist", it goes a long way in explaining why the secular left sees no contradiction in public policy makers who claim to be devout followers of their faith, and in the next breath declare it is possible - even preferable - to "set aside their personal religious convictions" to enact legislation that is in flat contradiction to the teachings of their church.

To a person who holds strong moral principles - be they based upon divine teachings, or be they based on a profound sense that certain principles are fundamental to a stable and just society - such a contradiction is not possible. One does not compromise on one's core moral values. You either adhere to them, or you didn't have them in the first place.

When an individual's principles come into opposition with the demands of public office, one of two options are available. The honourable one is to fight to uphold them in the debate over public policy, and if the two prove to be incompatable - to step aside.

The dishonourable, and far more common solution is to declare that core principles are subject to a public policy time clock - that they can be punched out at the door and punched back in when you leave, that devotion to one's religion can be toggled like the on/off switch of a church organ.

It is not by accident that we have in public office a preponderance of individuals of the latter variety, whose principles are conditional - conditional on the party whip, conditional on the latest polls and focus group findings, conditional to the pressure of lobby groups and party fundraisers.

Just some advice from this ambivalent atheist - it is folly to trust such people with your religious freedoms. If they'll set aside their own fundamental beliefs for political gain - they'll set aside yours.

The Carnage On The Freeway

Events of this past week remind me of the first time I drove to Los Angeles.

I was 19, just out of college and living in northern Alberta on my own, trying to grab a piece of the first tar sands exploration boom. My younger brothers and sister were still at home, and our parents decided that a last "family vacation" was in order. Disneyland would be the destination. For the sake of comfort, we took two cars - the family Plymouth and my new Ford Pinto, complete with rather gaudy trick paint.

The journey was not undertaken lightly. Saskatchewan drivers are well equipped mentally for long distance driving - crossing the vast open spaces of the Dakotas, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada was a breeze. I can still recite verbatim most of the Steve Martin comedy tape Cruel Shoes.  ("Put them on me.")

However, like everyone else, we knew that the infamous Los Angeles freeways were among the most dangerous places on earth. We knew that merely touching a brake pedal at the wrong time could transform 8 lanes of racing Detroit metal into a screeching, twisted, burning mass of death. The cars travelled "bumper to bumper" at high speed, only inches from one another in a death defying race, only moments from chaos. One blown tire and many dozens could die - and God help you if it rained. Carnage. Pure carnage.

We knew this to be fact, because every week or so we saw news reports and grisly film footage of multi-car pileups on smog obstructed, rain-soaked California freeways on CBC news.

California "hundred car pileups" were a favoured bleed-lead of the 1970's, like the role played by giant snowstorms, floods and hurricanes on the networks today. Plenty of death, destruction and distraught onlookers. In fact, much like coverage in Iraq over the past two years.

We were determined to make the journey and set our concerns aside until that bridge had to be crossed. The plan didn't include much LA driving, anyway - Disneyland, Marineland, Capistrano, San Diego, a day trip by bus to Tijuana.

After a couple of days doing the sights as a family from our small motel in Anaheim, my younger sister and I struck out on our own in my Pinto. We bought a simple freeway map, and headed to Long Beach, downtown LA and Hollywood. We went window shopping on Rodeo Drive, discovered (by chance) the mansion where the exterior shots of the "Beverly Hillbillies" were filmed, cruised around in the Hollywood hills, marvelling at the homes.

It was when we decided to return to the motel that we reailzed our timing was not so good. Deep in the evening "rush hour" and to make matters worse, the unthinkable - it started to rain. We were facing the most dangerous stretch of California freeway destruction of all; the Santa Ana.

To our relief and amazement, we discovered that the drivers on LA freeways were actually quite sensible. Contrary to what we had been led to believe, they did not plow into the cars before them at the first touch of a brake - they slowed down in an orderly fashion. The clogged lanes were capable of slowing to a full stop, then accelerating, which we did on multiple instances without so much as a dent to show for it.

It was nothing like we had been led to believe.

We returned to the motel safe and sound, with a newfound confidence in our driving competence - and a newly planted seed of skepticism about the CBC news.

Today, after an election in "war-torn" Iraq that will be forever remembered for confounding the dire predictions, defying the threat of violence, and exceeding popular expectations, as the anti-war left and Bush critics begin to concede (however grudgingly) that liberating the Iraqi people may have been the right thing to do - I'm taken back to that news footage we used to see of freeway pileups in California on the CBC.

The difference today is that some of us - a minority, admittedly - were not relying on the CBC, CNN, or CBS to get our information about the Iraq war and their prospects for democracy. We read Chrenkoff and 2Slick and Healing Iraq and knew that for all the horrific pictures and body counts on the nightly news, that there was a chance - even a good chance - that things were not quite as bad as our televisions would have us believe.

Just as California freeways of the 70's weren't one long demolition derby, most cars in Iraq were not full of explosives, most ordinary Iraqis, military and security forces left for work and arrived at their destinations, and returned home for dinner after an uneventful day.

I wonder how many of those who are seeing for the first time a larger picture of Iraq that suggests under-reported success and stablity, are reviewing what they were told in the days leading up to the election and considering the credibility of those who did the telling.

Despite the frustration of watching positive news being supressed by a media that was not so secretly hoping for a "Republican failure", in the final analysis the mainstream media may have done the Bush administration, the Iraqi people and most importantly - the western world - a huge, unintended favour.

They oversold their case.

In days to come, there will be return to partisan business as usual, to bad news and negative spin. The glow of a successful election will wane and the Media Left will again try to bury progress under failure, to forecast grave outcomes, to second guess, to challenge the motives and intelligence of those leading the war against Islamofascism. They are, after all, slow learners. I suspect it's just not going to matter as much as it used to. They threw everything they had at Iraq - and failed. Bush did not flinch, the American people held firm, and the Iraqi people threw it all back at them.

Like Dan Rather writ large, the credibility and influence of the mainstream media over public opinion has been dealt a crippling blow in Iraq. That it was self-inflicted just makes it all the more satisfying.

We Have Your Filthy Occupier Infidel!

Boston Globe:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The U.S. military said it was investigating, but the claim's authenticity could not be immediately confirmed.

The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants' statements, included a photo of what that statement said was an American soldier, wearing desert fatigues and seated on a concrete floor with his hands tied behind his back. The figure in the photo appeared stiff and expressionless, and the photo's authenticity could not be confirmed.

A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and behind him on the wall is a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, ''There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet.''

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Marine Sgt. Salju K. Thomas, said he had no information on the claim but ''we are currently looking into it.''

hat tip - Stephen Taylor

More at OTB.

UPDATE - Girlfriend pleads for soldier's release

MORE UPDATES - Bin Laden captured, Zarqawi renounces and the reaction pours in...

UPDATED: AP and Reuters to edit headline:
"Gigantic Terrorists Threaten to Behead...".

Heh.

Change Of Address

The website of The Hon. Reg Alcock, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South has moved from www.regalcock.ca to www.reg-alcock.ca .

Please update your jokes accordingly.

Open Wide, Canada

News Release Jan.13, 2005;

Carol Skelton, Member of Parliament and Official Opposition Public Health Critic welcomes the announcement of a new Health Officer as initiated in her Private Members Motion.

"Following discussion with constituents, primarily Taxpayers, and consultations with lower digestive tract health professionals, I felt the time had come for Canada to have a Chief Proctological officer to monitor and assist in the improvement of anal health in Canada.  I'm pleased the government has chosen to move so quickly on my request," remarked Skelton. 

"Lower intestinal health is administered by the provinces, but the federal government is responsible for the majority of the screwing over of Taxpayers.  It is my hope that a co-ordinated effort in the areas of research and information will benefit all Canadians.  Taxpayers often don't have protection plans at a time when they are busy bending over the proverbial chair. Failing anal health leads to complications with other health matters.  If we improve anal health, we can better assist the fiscal health of all governments, thereby ensuring that the creation of ever more highly paid, completely useless government appointments.

\

Reader Tips

I've been lax in keeping abreast of the tips readers have sent - partly because of an erratic schedule lately and there being only so much time to follow up on them all. And mood, frankly. Some days I'm not in the mood (or energy) to do hard news.

That said, these items are worth looking at;

I've said it before - Halliburton is a mere lemonade stand compared to the unbelievable network of poltiical/business associations of a host of characters that include Jean Chretien, Power Corporation and Maurice Strong. Now it's the burial of the findings of "Operation Sidewinder" - Chinese infiltration into Canadian resources and technology. The usual players make an appearance. It's too interesting to exerpt. Go read it all. Then send a copy to your MP.

Speaking of Power Corp, here's an item on the Lead Fox in the UN Henhouse Investigation

Today's twofer: Jesse Jackson's darkest hour - plus! Feminist heads explode!

There's been considerable buzz on the blogosphere about this report from the Center for Religious Freedom, about Saudi funded hate propoganda that has been gathered from mosques in the US. Damien Penny has a useful summary and link to the pdf, plus this update on Islamic criticism of certain Dutch politicians.

"He is an enemy of Islam and he should be beheaded," the narrator of one video clip posted on the Internet says in Arabic, against the crackle of gunfire. Behead him, "and you will earn a place in paradise."

As always, the Canadian media is following the Dutch situation closely. Stay tuned for breaking news on tulips.

"What If We Were Wrong?"

Mark Brown, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and opponant to the war in Iraq;

[A]fter watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?

It's hard to swallow, isn't it?

If you fit the previously stated profile, I know you're fighting the idea, because I am, too. And if you were with the president from the start, I've already got your blood boiling.

For those who've been in the same boat with me, we don't need to concede the point just yet. There's a long way to go. But I think we have to face the possibility.

I won't say that it had never occurred to me previously, but it's never gone through my mind as strongly as when I watched the television coverage from Iraq that showed long lines of people risking their lives by turning out to vote, honest looks of joy on so many of their faces.

Some CNN guest expert was opining Monday that the Iraqi people crossed a psychological barrier by voting and getting a taste of free choice (setting aside the argument that they only did so under orders from their religious leaders).

I think it's possible that some of the American people will have crossed a psychological barrier as well.

Update - Another worldview implosion? One can only hope.

99 Bottles Of Vodka On The Bus..

Via Instapundit, (who like me, would like to think this story is true.)

"Eastern Ukraine is heavily ethnic Russian. The main industry is coal. The miners are rough, tough, and hate Yushchenko for wanting to take Ukraine away from Russia and toward the West," writes Wheeler. "It was arranged for more than a thousand of them to be taken from Donetsk, the capital of the coal-mining region, by bus and train to Kiev, where, armed with clubs and blunt tools, they would physically beat up the Orange Revolutionaries. Such mass violence was not only to disperse the demonstrators but serve as an excuse for the government to declare martial law, suspending the Ukrainian Parliament (the Rada) and elections indefinitely."

Now comes the secret weapon: vodka.

"When the miners got on their buses and trains, they found to their joy case after case of vodka – just for them. When they arrived in Kiev, trucks awaited them filled with more cases of vodka – all free provided by 'friends' of the Donetsk coal miners. Completely soused, they never made it to Independence Square. Too hammered blind to cause any violence at all, they had a merry time, passed out and were shipped back to Donetsk."

Available only to subscribers of To the Point, Wheeler's column goes on to explain who provided the liquor: teams of Porter Goss' CIA working with their counterparts in British MI6 intelligence.

Well, it certainly sounds plausable... the rest is here.