*

How about, instead, we pick community organizers, union lawyers … and perhaps Acorn defence attorneys:

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., criticized the American Bar Association on Thursday, saying it should “get a new life” in how it rates prospective federal judges, after one of his choices got a mixed review.
In remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reid said the bar association’s ratings board puts too much weight on whether judicial nominees have prior bench experience and overlooks “real world” qualifications.
Reid expanded his criticism to include the Supreme Court, whose makeup, he said, consists of “people who have never seen the outside world.”
“I have asked President (Barack) Obama, ‘Let’s get somebody on the court that has not been a judge.’ They need to do more than thinking of themselves as these people who walk around in these robes in these fancy chambers.”

… the details.

Changing definitions and reality so socialism isn’t seen for what it is.

EUR:

Prof Peter Liss, acting director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), claims sceptics are endangering the lives of generations to come by making unsupported claims. Critics of the science behind man-made global warming theories are playing “Russian roulette with the planet”.
“The evidence is hugely for there being substantial climate change due to man’s activities and if you want to argue against that case you have to produce some evidence,” he said.
Er … excuse me. The IPCC is making unsupported claims. We are pointing that out, all in the context of a demonstrably political process where science, quite clearly, has gone off the rails.
But this is the modern “post science” norm, it would appear. With the benefit of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash, these people make their assertions, and sceptics, from their own resources, are supposed to prove them wrong.
This is a staggering perversion. It is up to the proponents of change to put up their arguments, then to expose them to scrutiny, entering into a debate where the issues are explored and discussed, against a backdrop of the free exchange of information.
[…]
Then, when a much-delayed and fragmented debate begins to emerge, up pops the likes of Liss, indulging in what is known in the trade as “shroud waving”. Do as I say, or people will die … the classic cry of the demagogue and the rent seeker.

Earlier:

Somehow programmed to kill? Murder, rape and our media

Now, excerpts from a piece by Maj.-Gen. (ret’d) Lewis MacKenzie in the Globe and Mail:

Canadian coverage of the military has failed to pass muster
Reporters have made erroneous conclusions from the case of Colonel Russell Williams
Rarely has Canadian news coverage of a high-profile criminal case offered so much misleading speculation and so many erroneous conclusions as in the charges against Colonel Russell Williams. The following assertions are offered as evidence….

COLONEL WAS ‘ON TRACK’ TO LEAD THE AIR FORCE

Oh? Col. Williams’s promotion to the rank of colonel in 2009 at 46 did not put him in the same league as officers who will reach the rank of lieutenant-general and command Canada’s air force. If he was 39 or 40, the odds would be more in his favour. To use a military metaphor, he was on a fast train – but not the express…

PART OF THE ‘ELITE’

What drivel. What constitutes this “elite”? Is there some secret society I was not invited to while serving? Was there some secret handshake I was not aware of? The leaders of the Canadian Forces meet every morning at National Defence Headquarters. Col. Williams was not invited.

A GENERAL’S ‘RESPONSIBILITY’

During an interview with Canada’s top soldier, General Walter Natynczyk, a national television reporter [CBC] asked whether, given that he had placed Col. Williams in charge in Trenton, he had any words for the families of the victims. Midway through his compassionate response, the reporter asked, “Do you feel responsible?”

The question’s innuendo was barely camouflaged – do you feel responsible for the murders and the assaults? That question was the second “body blow” taken by Gen. Natynczyk in the past few days and was contemptible. To his credit, the Chief of the Defence Staff pointed out that he is responsible for more than 90,000 military personnel, regular and reserve. He avoided directly answering the question, which he should never have been asked.

Considering their current high profile and well-earned respect both at home and abroad, our young men and women in uniform deserve better treatment than some in the news media have been dishing out.

A case in point, from Michael Den Tandt in the Ottawa Sun:

…
This man was not simply a senior officer. He commanded 8 Wing and CFB Trenton. There is no more important job in the CF, other than perhaps running Task Force Afghanistan, or being chief of defence staff…

Update: Norman Spector brings us…

…
-A great moment in Canadian journalism
Col. Williams tied to Bernardo
They were pals…

Upperdate: Video here of the CBC’s Susan Ormiston–the reporter referred to by Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie–interviewing harassing the CDS.

Another quietly-passing story from the land of tulips, tolerance, and rosy-pink cheeks:

Regional newspaper De Gelderlander has decided not to publish an interview with a Moroccan woman after the newspaper was threatened by her son. Nonetheless, the editors deny they gave in to intimidation.

Two Moroccan criminals ran over a 50 year old man with their scooter last month while fleeing from the police after robbing a hotel. The perpetrators then went to the hospital where doctors were trying to save the man’s life. He died because they made their work impossible.

The brother of one of the suspects visited the editorial staff of De Gelderlander last Friday and demanded that the newspaper drop publication. The youth also threatened an editor, according to the newspaper….

Meanwhile, Geert Wilders is on trial in Holland for warning about the dangers of radical Islamism.

“We have politicians who hate politics other than that bureaucrats deal with…We have bad politicians because they do not want unpredictable events, and that is what we have right now. This was not predicted by the politicians ten, twenty years ago.” — Torben S. Hansen, in an interview with Asger Trier Engberg

In Britain, two recently released documents paint contrasting pictures, of a particular government’s “social objectives” on the one hand, and an elder stateswoman’s realism and foresight on the other. The first document is a draft report written in 2000 during Tony Blair’s reign. The unedited version, released after a FOI request, shows that “Labour’s migration policy (was) aimed not just at meeting the country’s economic needs, but also the Government’s ‘social objectives.'” Although these so-called ‘social objectives’ were never spelled out, Tony Blair’s former adviser Andrew Neather recently said that Labour’s immigration strategy was intended to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.”
The other document, recently released under the thirty-year rule, shows a quite different mindset: Margaret Thatcher believed that too many Asian immigrants were being let in, and that “with some exceptions there had been no humanitarian case for 1.5 million immigrants from south Asia and elsewhere.” “It was essential to draw a line somewhere,” she said.
Thatcher also expressed her views publicly: during an appearance on a British TV show she said “People are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture. If we do not want people to go to extremes we ourselves must talk about this problem and we must show that we are prepared to deal with it. We are not in politics to ignore people’s worries. We are in politics to deal with them.”

All over Europe you see the electorates moving slowly in a certain direction, and the politicians are far behind, but in the long run they will be forced to confront these problems.

Oh my … they don’t love us anymore:

A new poll says the world thinks a lot less highly of Canada than last year, thanks in large part to our poor showing at the Copenhagen climate change conference and a problematic prime ministerial trip to China.
A BBC World Service poll of public opinion across 18 countries released this week found that people’s view of Canada’s influence has worsened during the last year, particularly in the U.S., Britain and China.
The poll of more than 20,000 people, which was conducted by international polling firm GlobeScan, showed a decline in Canada’s reputation around the world for the first time since tracking began in 2005.

Clearly, the negative vibes from the global community have some of our leaders shaking … but one needs to ask, how do we reconcile it all with THIS?

… a light comes on:

Addressing the Tea Party, Sarah Palin wrote three notes on her hand: “Energy, Taxes, Lift American Spirits.” Why? She already had notes in front of her on the podium. Surely she could remember three simple themes. Why write notes on her hand?
Here’s my take on why: she knew that they would be visible when she gave the speech. And she knew that she would be made fun of — as so stupid that she needs to write notes on her hand. And that’s one of her most effective tactics — to be made fun of. It’s an integral part of her strategy of standing in for hardworking, Middle Americans, derided by the condescending, know-it-all liberal elites.

… keep reading Huffpo.
ht: Horny Toad

VDH:

There is an unfocused but growing anger in this country — and it should come as no surprise. Nobody likes to be lectured by those claiming superior wisdom but often lacking common sense about everything from out-of-control spending and predicting the weather to dealing with enemies who are trying to kill us all.

Luboš Motl, Czech physicist, explains:

As Reuters and the Czech media noticed today, the Czech grid is overloaded and the company in charge of it, ČEPS, is finalizing its plans to solve the situation.
ČEPS urges the electricity distribution companies to halt the connecting of the new solar and wind plants. At the end of 2009, they were giving 600 MW to the grid. However, projects that would add a whopping extra 3,500 MW have already been approved! This is a genuine threat to the stability of the grid.
ČEPS has informed that if the rules won’t be changed to avoid the danger raised by these ludicrously subsidized and hugely irregular sources of energy, it will have to start to disconnect them. This could mean that the green investors could lose their money which would be great.
[…]
Needless to say, billions of dollars are flying and corrupt, green, or otherwise dirty politicians and bureaucrats have helped to distort the market, all the rules, and the stability of the grid, for ideological, irrational, and egotistic reasons (or simply to lick the buttocks of their bigger but even more idiotic EU colleagues), paying no attention to what their decisions would mean to the consumers and the economy at large.
The irresponsibility in the “renewable” electricity subsidies was particularly shocking in the Czech Republic. But I am sure that other countries face similar threats, too. It’s just that they don’t have any responsible people or companies who would dare to mention that the spontaneous explosion of these “renewable” sources is a fast path to hell.

Update:
Giant Fan Cost/Benefit Paper

Addressing the recent murders of two women, allegedly by Col. Russell Williams, Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight has a couple of questions, one for the Canadian Armed Forces and one for Canadians in general:

Is (the Canadian Armed Forces) using the psychopathy checklist, which was pioneered by retired UBC psychology professor Bob Hare, to ferret out psychopaths? I emailed a question to the Department of National Defence, and I received a call back saying the inquiry couldn’t be answered this evening. However, someone will call back tomorrow.

In the meantime, perhaps we should ask ourselves if this is another cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament…

Honestly now…
(h/t blackash)

Elizabeth May on the hidden talents of Stephen Mesmer-Harper:

Murray Dobbin: “Do you think Harper has deliberately set out to discourage people from voting?”

Elizabeth May: “Absolutely. People thought that Harper had become more popular between the 2006 and 2008 elections but not so: 170,000 fewer people voted for a Conservative candidate in 2008 than in 2006. His larger seat count is a tribute to his ability to discourage people from voting.”

Apparently his special powers work best against potential Green Party voters.

Again and again, blogs are not only scooping the MSM, but are in some cases months ahead in research and investigative reporting.
Dr. Richard North:

… on the state of the media. We started pumping stuff into the system in mid -December yet, even though our stories have been replicated in whole or part, thousands of times, it really is quite remarkable how few journalists bring anything new to the table.
Most of the stuff seems to be recycled, very often poorly understood and most often incomplete and behind the curve – and very rarely acknowledging the source. And it came full circle yesterday, with the New York Times finally broaching a story about Pachauri and the IPCC, two months are we started the hare running.

… case in point …Pajamas way out front:

Who is Achim Steiner? A German, born in Brazil, he is a longtime environmentalist, former head from 2001-2006 of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. (Sample of UN climate networking — take a deep breath, don’t even try to follow this, just roll with it: The IUCN has been phenomenally intertwined over the years with the UN cast of climate characters. When Steiner left the IUCN in 2006, he was succeeded there by a sister-in-law of a former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke. This Holbrooke in-law, Julia Marton-Lefevre , in turn, had just finished serving as rector of the UN University for Peace, in Costa Rica, which had been greatly beefed up in the years prior to her arrival by the so-called godfather of the Kyoto Treaty, Maurice Strong – first head of the same UNEP that Achim Steiner now runs).