For fans of of NYT columnist Maureen Dowd, the results of the first ever Drudgereport caption contest!

It is reported that Mexican hurricane victims in Cancun have begun eating kitchen appliances to survive.

Glenn Reynolds quotes leftie Kevin Drum in answer to a challenge from a reader;

“In other words, democracy is nice � eventually � but the bigger issue is kicking over the status quo in the Middle East and forcing change. And the hawks would argue that this is happening. Slowly and fitfully, to be sure, but let’s count up the successes so far: Iraq and Afghanistan are better off than before, Libya has given up its nuke program, Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution is a sign of progress, Egypt has held a more open election than any before it, and the Syrian regime is under considerable pressure.
Did the invasion of Iraq precipitate these changes? I think the hawks considerably overstate their case, but at the same time they do have a case. Even if Iraq is a mess, it might all be worthwhile if it eventually produces progress toward a more open, more liberal Middle East. At the very least, it’s an argument that needs to be engaged.”

Glenn adds;

I think the critics overstate their case, and rather consistently ignore the good news that Kevin notes. My anonymous emailer thinks that U.S. casualties are proof of a quagmire. That’s an odd formulation, since it means that any war in which troops are killed, which means pretty much any war generally, is a quagmire. There’s no question that some antiwar folks think that’s true, but pardon me if I’m unimpressed with that argument. (What I said here in 2003 about antiwar folks being disappointed that things had gone so well seems to remain true, as people keep making every effort to portray Iraq as Vietnam). Saddam’s on trial, Iraqis are counting ballots, and as noted above we seem to have shaken things up — though I’d argue not enough yet — throughout the mideast.
If Bush’s effort here fails, it won’t be because the antiwar critique of bloodthirstiness and warmongering is correct. It will be because Bush hasn’t been vigorous enough in toppling governments and invading countries in the region. What happens with Syria in the next little while may answer that question.

If it’s the number of US casualites that the antiwar set is hanging their “quagmire” definition on, then it’s pretty safe to say their arguments are largely disingenuous – or historically dyslexic.

The Canadian Taxpayers Fed’n is starting a class action suit against striking BC teachers.

“Once again, the province is being held hostage by a government union. Over 600,000 students have been shut out of their classrooms, parents are scrambling to find daytime care, and the BCTF continues to flout the law and remain off the job. It’s time taxpayers stood up to these unions and their bullying tactics,” said Sara MacIntyre, BC director for the CTF.

MacIntyre will be on Charles Adler this afternoon at 2 pm Pacific.

I can’t wait to see what the tinfoil hat brigade has to say about this:

A senior U.S. official rejected calls on Thursday for a U.N. body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the Internet, reiterating U.S. intentions to keep its historical role as the medium’s principal overseer.

“We will not agree to the U.N. taking over the management of the Internet,” said Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy at the State Department. “Some countries want that. We think that’s unacceptable.”
[link — h/t: Neale News]

Any minute now we’re going to see Cindy Sheehan starting a vigil outside Verisign prostesting all those poor TCP packets that died in transit because of American occupation of the Internet.

Toronto Star;

The RCMP conducted a “review” of fraud allegations relating to Hollinger International Inc. more than a year ago but found nothing to warrant further investigation in Canada.
An RCMP spokeswoman confirmed late yesterday that a team specializing in securities crime looked at the allegations in February 2004 but decided not to pursue them after about a month of work.
“After conducting a thorough review, it was determined that no Canadian investigation was required,” said RCMP Corporal Michele Paradis.

Yet, according to the Globe, David Radler – Conrad Black’s “long-time lieutenant” – is in hiding in his posh Vancouver home.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago yesterday indicted Lord Black’s long-time lieutenant, David Radler, his former corporate lawyer, Mark Kipnis, and private Toronto holding firm Ravelston Corp., alleging that they fraudulently diverted $32-million (U.S.) from Chicago publisher Hollinger International Inc.
[…]
The criminal charges are the most serious of any of the legal fights that have enveloped the Hollinger empire for the past two years. If convicted, Mr. Kipnis and Mr. Radler could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of seven counts, and substantial fines.

Brace yourself for the coming storm of outrage on the Canadian horizon…

Any day now.

Normally, a photoshop and comments posted at a forum wouldn’t be worthy of mention, especially ones deleted by admin (at the request of Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East).

“NEOCON-KAPO irwin cotler is signing depotation orders for CANNABIS CULTURE people wanted in the united states because he is secretly trying to get israeli spy Jonathan Pollard out of jail in the united states…. “

But, in this case, they seem to have received marching orders;

“I thought the term Jewish-Nazi, or Nazi-Jew, was an oxymoron until Cotler became the Injustice Minister.” Marc Emery, BC Marijuana Party jail “blog”

The Prince of Pot is no prince of peace, either;

Mosca, volunteer president of the Grandview-Woodlands Community Policing Centre, told me yesterday she’s been harassed unmercifully since complaining to a Vancouver TV reporter that the city was allowing the Da Kine cafe to sell pot a block away from a local elementary school.
And it’s little wonder this is happening, given the bullying e-blast she received soon after on the Marijuana Party’s website from the blogging Emery (who got her first name wrong).
“I noted that there is a person called Irene, of the Grandview/Woodlands community policing centre, and she must be picketed at that policing centre,” Emery wrote. “Two people should be there with signs every day, saying that she is a Nazi, or having a swastika by her name, or some kind of strong, anti-prohibitionist sentiment, as she is clearly trying to shut down one of our temples for the cannabis culture, with absolutely no grounds or basis whatsoever other than her hatred . . .”

Don’t you just feel the love.
Update via Thrasymachus in the comments – “Feel the love”, indeed. (graphic content)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a national animal rights group, posted giant photographs of people, mostly black Americans, being tortured, sold and killed, next to photographs of animals, including cattle and sheep, being tortured, sold and killed.
“I think it is an apt comparison,” said Josh Warchol, 26, of Wallingford, president of the Southern Connecticut Vegetarian Society, which is aligned with PETA.
PETA officials said they had hoped to generate dialogue with the shocking photographs.

… and dialogue they get.

“Sportswriters are clearly entitled to their opinions. Like the Dixie Chicks. And Sean Penn.”

Hugh Hewitt throws fastballs at a little leaguer.

… but can any of you data-spouting, expert quoting Kyoto supporters in this thread interrupt your debate long enough to cite a single example in which humans have been successful in changing the weather?
I’ll settle for something simple – like a local news item about meteorologists altering the course of a small tornado.
Or a thunderstorm.
A cumulous cloud?
(Has anyone even tried reducing average windspeed in Medicine Hat? A worthy project, if ever there was one.)
Didn’t think so.
So, eh… until you pro-Kyotos can demonstrate that “technology” is ready to tackle the little stuff, let’s not indulge in this absurd fallacy that shovelling money to the bank accounts of other nations under a CO2 emmision credit system has the capacity to “reverse global warming”.
Because while you’re all busy arguing, your pro-Kyoto friends in the EU have been hard at work exceeding emissions.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A cold winter and increased coal- burning power production raised carbon dioxide emissions in 15 EU states by 1.8 percent between 2002 and 2003, the EU environment agency said on Tuesday.
The European Environment Agency said an extra 59 million tonnes of CO2, which represents 80 percent of all EU emissions, were released into the atmosphere in the 15 EU states, measured before its expansion to 25 states in 2004.
The EU has agreed to cut total greenhouse gas emissions by 8.0 percent of their 1990 levels by 2012 to fight global warming as part of the Kyoto treaty.
Green group Friends of the Earth said the figures showed the bloc was far behind in meeting its target and emissions should have dropped by 5.2 percent in 2003 compared to 1990 for western Europe to be on track.

Oh, and New Zealand, too.
Admittedly, where technology fails, one can always fall back on old-fashioned elbow grease. “Think globally – act locally” with the Rick Mercer[tm] One Tonne Jumpstart Program.
One last thought… has anyone besides me noticed that with all this “new” weather instability created by recent global warming, we keep breaking old weather records?
Why aren’t they recent records?

Cavalry 1, Anarchists 0

At a moment in time when government pollsters inform us that “Canadians believe U.S. President George W. Bush is almost as great a threat to our national security as Osama bin Laden”, and Time magazine has chilling accounts of Gitmo puppet theatre “torture” of the 20th hijacker, this pictorial essay is timely. Inspired by this quote of well-known US lefty blogger, Markos Moulitsas ‘Kos’ Zunigas;

“The torture that was so bad under Saddam, is equally bad under U.S. command. And Dick Durbin had the balls to say it so on the Senate floor.”

Indeed

This Calgary Herald editorial argues that gay activists have “tipped their hand”;

One might suppose gay marriage extremists would wait for the Liberals’ contentious same-sex legislation to pass before uttering triumphalist comments about the next round in their battle with the churches.
Apparently, some can’t, and Toronto gay rights activist Kevin Bourassa has confirmed the suspicions of religious opponents to same-sex marriage. A partner in one of Canada’s first same-sex wedding ceremonies, he said churches opposing same-sex marriage — while free to be “promoting bigotry” — should lose their tax exemption.
“If you’re at the public trough, if you are collecting taxpayers’ money, you should be following taxpayers’ laws.”
It is curious to think of tax exemption as a gift from taxpayers. In any case, churches have been equal opportunity promoters of bigotry against adulterers, thieves and bearers of false witness for thousands of years. Why should the gays complain?

The editorial also notes something that didn’t get much mention in our oh-so-sophisticated media last week – that Paul Martin is again making promises he’s not empowered to keep.

Prime Minister Paul Martin last week promised dissident Liberal MPs increased religious protections in Bill C- 38.
But, he promises what he cannot deliver. No politician can control how courts or commissions will rule in the future. Gay advocates are well aware of that. That’s what enables Bourassa to boldly articulate what amounts to an anti-church strategy, without even the reasonable caution of waiting for Martin’s bill to pass.

I suspect that activists like Bourassa are making a tactical error when working to remove tax-exempt status from churches. Although they proceed under a theory that such a change would result in weakening church finances, and by extension, religious opposition to their agenda – in practice, a tax-exempt church is a politically hobbled church.
There’s a saying about being careful what one wishes for.
Removing tax exempt status would untether organized religions to fully engage in the political process – and in so doing, the ability of churches to raise money to fund their new, more powerful position in the public policy debate would expand exponentially.
In today’s current political climate, it could be the best thing that ever happened to them.

I’m going to write a sequel to the children’s story The Emperor Has No Clothes. It’s going to be called The Electorate Has No Brains. Gaaaaah. What utter stupidity.

Casting his eyes internationally, Angry notes that American bloggers are doing bang up job of tearing Amnesty International apart for calling on nations to start detaining American officials, from the president on down, for the “gulag” that is Guantanamo Bay.
But he wonders that with Irwin Cotler’s oh-so-uncomfortably close ties with Amnesty International’s sister organization, the Parliamentarians for Global Action, and the PGA’s active support for the International Criminal Court, in front of which Amnesty International would like to George W. Bush in shackles, should Canada warn the Americans of our intentions to start arresting their officials if they cross the border?
Or will Cotler go on record as saying his support of the PGA and the ICC is qualified, and that he has no intention of following up on accusations of crimes against humanity leveled by Amnesty International or anyone else against the Bush administration?

A further thought: When Democratic women are empowered to openly discuss their stories, it may give us the key to empowering some Republican women to talk about theirs.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay to teach a woman to type.

Expanding on discussion in the comments in the post below, it may be time to remind ourselves there is no such thing as a politician who functions at arm’s length from their personal religious beliefs. Even those who claim to leave their individual religious principles “at the door” when they enter the halls of government have accomplished little more than to trade them in for someone else’s.
Even the atheist must take the same leap of faith before declaring that no God exists as the person who declares that He does – it’s merely the path taken and the conclusions drawn that differ.
Thus, in any discussion involving religion in politics, it is a mistake to allow the self-defined “secular community” to assume the default position against which all others are measured, because, in so doing, we are permitting nothing less than the raising one religious belief system to reign supreme over all others.
With the precedent set, it is simply a matter of time before the secular default is replaced or modified to suit the political ownership of the day. Indeed, it’s not hard to make a case that the phenomenon is already in progress, and that we are witnessing signs of the emergence of “extremist secularists” in Canada and the bastardization of the core ideology into a movement that is increasingly repressive and dogmatic.
In modern democracy, all religious viewpoints must be provided a place in the public policy debate without fear of reprisal or official scorn (so long as they are not intent on undermining the very democracy that permits them to speak – there is a difference between religious tolerance and societal stupidity.) It is our duty as citizens in a liberal democracy to condemn the secular intelligencia and their voices in the media in the same matter we would any other extremist group who would silence other religion based opinion – for any system that would disallow an evangelical Christian or orthodox Jew or devout Buddist a voice in the political process, including the right to cast a vote in Parliament with the full respect of all members, is putting their own rights to religious freedom – including the freedom not to “believe” – in jeopardy.

Since his name seems to be popping up in relation to recent political events, may I just offer this gentle reminder?
David Orchard is to Conservative politics what Weird Al Yankovic is to diesel engine rebuilding.
Now, please, people – start treating him with the relevancy he deserves.
Update – Orchard letter to editor, Toronto Star.

I love Raskolnikov;

[…] In that broadcast, White Bird made the statement that he faces racism everyday, in fact, on his way in, a security guard called him “Chief” and told him he could walk by the security check.
Then he fell silent, allowing this to settle in.
See, calling an Indian “chief” is stereotyping and racist.
Even when the person being called it is the “Grand Chief” of the Manitoba Assembly of First Nations.

Press Release

On April 13th, 2005 Caterpillar Corporation invites residents of Chicago and area to join our company in commemorating the 30 year anniversary of Evel Knievel’s successful 1975 jump over 14 buses at King’s Island in Ohio. A variety of family friendly events are scheduled, with the highlight a special appearance by the son of the 1970’s motorcycle daredevil, Robbie Knievel. There is no charge to attend.

With the assistance of a ramp, Robbie Knievel will be attempting a jump in our own company provided D11R tractor.
The demonstration will take place at 50 South LaSalle Street from 12 noon until 3 PM.

Via LGF