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

CTV:

On Friday, a seal hunter fired a rifle into the air shortly after three helicopters carrying anti-sealing activists and photographers landed near a sealing boat.
A group of six sealers aboard the boat began yelling at the dozen or so observers, some of whom were members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The protesters, who are allowed to observe the hunt but must�keep�at least 10 metres from the sealers, were then approached by a least one sealer who was swinging a gaff, a 30-centimetre stick with a hook.

I can’t blame the sealers for fighting back. The seal hunt is no more or less inhumane than any other species harvest – wild or domestic, or the ways that seals die in the wild.

This type of media coverage can’t get much better for the activist organizers. The ultimate hypocrisy is that the organizations the protesters represent are the largest beneficiaries of all – whatever the worth of a seal’s fur, it’s dwarfed by its value as an animal rights fund raiser. At the Humane Society of the United States ($85 million in assets), along with other members of the animal rights scam industry, they’ll be raising a glass of seal blood today to toast their good fortune.

When I was in North Carolina (just returned home last night at midnight), I caught a brief interview with Jerry Falwell on Fox News about the Terry Shiavo case, where he mentioned he had been on life support earlier this year. He also added that if he had a relapse, he did not want his “plug pulled” and jokingly stated that the interview should be considered his living will. Ironically, only a few days later he is back in the hospital, in critical condition.
I haven’t followed Falwell that closely, though I’m aware he had become the favoured whipping boy of the political and media left for his activism and outspoken views. In a world where provocative and offensive views from the religious left (both Christian and Islamic) are cloaked under terms like “progressive”, “diversity”, “dissent” – or even rewarded politically (see Al Sharpton) I pretty much concluded that most of the criticism of Jerry Falwell had more to do with frustration at the electoral success of the religious right, than it did any genuine outrage over his statements or fundraising activities.
Angry In The Great White North has a selection of comments from Democratic Underground that provide illustration.

“Nah, let him rot on a bed for fifteen years. Then after 15 years of being a veggie, maybe, just maybe, there will be a miracle. Nah.”
“Spunge him, spunge him”

Pathetic. But predictable.

Washington Post;

College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.
By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.
The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.
“What’s most striking is how few conservatives there are in any field,” said Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and a co-author of the study. “There was no field we studied in which there were more conservatives than liberals or more Republicans than Democrats. It’s a very homogenous environment, not just in the places you’d expect to be dominated by liberals.”
[…]
The liberal label that a majority of the faculty members attached to themselves is reflected on a variety of issues. The professors and instructors surveyed are, strongly or somewhat, in favor of abortion rights (84 percent); believe homosexuality is acceptable (67 percent); and want more environmental protection “even if it raises prices or costs jobs” (88 percent). What’s more, the study found, 65 percent want the government to ensure full employment, a stance to the left of the Democratic Party.

The BBC asks readers; “What Are Your Hopes For Iraq parliament?”
A response that reveals what passes for thought in the anti-American, “morally superior” Canadian left.

I hate to say this to Iraqis, but I pray for chaos and civil war: it’s the only way to stop Bush’s policies and show that peace can never come through force. If Iraq gets peace, Bush wins credibility. It cannot be allowed to happen.
Nina, Toronto, Canada

It could have just as easily been written by any number of Liberal or NDP members of parliament.
hat tip Belmont Club

In 2000, America dodged a bullet in Al Gore. In 2004, they dodged a bullet and a flowerpot throwing crazy old aunt in the attic.

“Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States,” Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as “hard-right” Republicans. She argued that it is “very easy to hack into the mother machines.”
“We in the United States are not a banana republic,” added Heinz Kerry. She argued that Democrats should insist on “accountability and transparency” in how votes are tabulated. “I fear for ’06,” she said. “I don’t trust it the way it is right now.”

(Via Drudge)
James is on it too.

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.”

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.

I don’t believe I’ve expressed my views on feminism.
This bit at I Could be wrong has prompted me to share.

If there are prejudices in Universities against women in science, they are remarkably subtle. The prejudices against men are institutionalized and overt. Concerning institutional restrictions against any speech the feminists don’t like: these restrictions are massive, overpowering, and virtually 100% intimidating. On the rare occasion such speech is uttered by a professor in a prominent university, it tends to be national news.

I speak as a woman who has worked in a male work setting for all of my adult life. I can say with some authority that the time has come to dismantle organized feminism.
Allow me to first acknowledge the pioneering work of those who did break ground in the struggle for equality rights for women – the right to vote, the right to equal opportunity in politics and employment and property rights. I have gratitude and the deepest respect for the accomplishments of those who were, at the time, considered little more than legal property, subject to the authority of male family members.
As they say, though – “that was then, and this is now”. The “then” that “was” has been consigned to the dustbin of history for quite a long time. What loose threads remained in women’s equality were tied up a long time ago.
If women were the rational, thinking human beings our acronymed advocates claim we are, “organized feminism” could even choose to commemorate the moment of the movement’s modern obsolescence��- if “organized feminism” wasn’t such a monotonously predictable leftist waste of female flesh.

The moment occured in 1979. It came in the person of a woman named Margaret Thatcher.

Alas, in the eyes of organized feminism, this didn’t “count”. Margaret Thatcher’s ascent to the Prime Ministerial post in Great Britain – and two time re-election? Meaningless. An irrelevant footnote of history not worthy of true feminist recognition.
You see, Maggie Thatcher was a conservative, which unfortunately, made her a man.
(Had the grand “Iron Lady” only had the good sense to be a lesbian, the feminist movement would have died a natural death in an uncontrolled chain reaction of spontanious head explosions – but such was not to be.)
25 years have now passed, and Maggie Thatcher has lived long enough to see her accomplishments safely consigned to history. If her tenure as three-time Prime Minister of Great Britain are not sufficient to put the feminist movement to bed with a warm pat and a “well done”, well, this whole “equality” thing was just not meant to be.
Though women of today have demonstrated the ability to accumlate vast wealth and govern great nations, while women represent, numerically, the majority of humankind, we must accept that true “equality” can never be ours. The feminist movement has failed, through no fault of our own. It’s just that the goal wasn’t valid to begin with.
There’s no way around it, girls. It is time to throw in the towel and accept our inferiority to men.

“All of those who still don’t believe that Women’s Studies, Gender Studies and other absurd programs are just a front for extreme-left, pro-terrorist groups raise your paw.”

Joel Fleming is a student at a Canadian university. Perhaps this is why he doesn’t identify which one.

I am an atheist. I don’t believe in any divine presence, or any organizing force. That being said, I’m bowled over by the mental toughness it takes to be openly religious at university. In tutorial today, we were discussing from where morality is derived. One girl in the class was a devout Catholic and made cogent, reasonable arguments from her theistic perspective. The ridicule, vitriol and scorn poured upon this girl by the class, and especially by the TA, was, to my mind, disgraceful. I’ve participated in class discussions where students have advocated communism, defended shari’a and dismissed democracy as “one Western type of system.” Their views were opposed in a respectful, non-judgemental manner without a hint of personal acrimony or contempt. Where the fuck was that respect today?

It’s been missing a long time, Joel.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Michael Moore was a guest on SUNDAY MORNING SHOOTOUT, for which I am the editor. I recused myself from that taping. There are, to my knowledge, only five people that I fear may cause me to lose control enough to become (progressively) embarrassed, fired, arrested or executed. O.J Simpson is one; the second is the absolutely execrable Ted Rall, and the final three are Michael Moore.

The editor in question? Bill Whittle. I cannot imagine….

(I am only quoting from memory here, so it will be burned-neuron verbatim, believe me. His voice is echoing in my head like the endless fugue of screams and rudely spat-out cries of Sex Dwarf! in that classic old Soft Cell song – pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.)

‘Tis a miracle the universe lived to see the morning.

It took them two days, but Greenpeace has found a way to tie the tsunami in Southeast Asia to global warming. You see, it’s all about the mangrove swamps!

A creeping rise in sea levels tied to global warming, pollution and damage to coral reefs may make coastlines even more vulnerable to disasters like tsunamis or storms in future, experts said Monday.
Few coastal ecosystems are robust enough to withstand freak waves like the ones that slammed into Asian nations from Sri Lanka to Thailand Sunday, killing more than 22,000 people, after a subsea earthquake off Indonesia.
But global warming, poorly planned coastal development and other threats over which humans have some control are weakening natural defenses ranging from mangrove swamps to coral reefs that help keep the oceans at bay.

I notice that “human overpopulation” is seldom cited as a problem in the wake of such events. Even Greenpeace knows when an argument becomes an oxymoron.
(ht – Powerline)
update – Juan Cole (one man Al-Zarqawi fan club and professional conspiracy theorist), gets in on the act.

Charles Johnson connects the dots and finds they lead from Saddam Hussein to who else?

LONDON (AFP) – Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is preparing a legal challenge in the United States to his trial for war crimes, a newspaper reports, citing leaked papers prepared by his defense team.
Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer, has prepared a 50-page brief which contains advice to take the case to US courts to ensure he receives a fair trial, the Sunday Times reported after saying it had seen the document.
The action is to ensure that Saddam receives the basic legal rights given to those tried in the United States, such as full access to his defense team and an independent judge and jury, the newspaper said.
It said the leaked brief is entitled “The Iraqi Special Tribunal as Victors’ Justice – the Inherent Illegality and Bias of the Whole Process.”

George Soros.
Via Powerline

Global warming is threatening the future of parody.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – Severe weather caused by global warming can pose greater physical danger to women than men, a Canadian attending a UN conference on climate change said Friday.
“For instance, often women don’t know how to swim, so in a flood situation that can lead to a higher instance of death or injury,” Angie Daze, a program manager with a Canadian group called Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, said.

Angie Daze? Figures.
Via Craig Brett.

Powerline thinks it’s time for the Oslo folks “to hang it up”. This week they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Kenya’s Wangari Maathai. In addition to her qualifications as a world class tree planter, she’s been pretty good at watering conspiracy theories.

“Do not be naive. AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists.
“I may not be able to say who developed the virus, but it was meant to wipe out the black race.”

She later claimed the quote was taken out of context. As Hindrocket notes, “If so, it must have been quite a context.”

Is there a left-wing enviromoonbat in the “mandatory” column of your Christmas holiday gift list, that you just don’t know how to buy for?

Problem solved.

(And a whole lot cheaper than an SUV.)

Applauding successful African-Americans can get you fired at the NAACP.
Via Outside The Beltway.