Dozens of grand jury subpoenas issued in a terrorism financing investigation of Muslim charities in northern Virginia have spawned a largely secret legal battle before a federal appeals court…
And back in Canada, more slo-mo sharia. Canadian Federation of Students making all kinds of demands for poor, put upon Muslim students, including “considering Islam’s prohibition on alcohol at school-sponsored events.” (A reader wonders if they’re on the Saudi payroll.)
Some journalists have decided, in their relentless quest to keep us “progressive”, that our forces don’t really know who they are killing.
Add yours in the comments.
*
The recent tragic fire in the Bronx, is shining a light
on a previously hidden social issue in the African
immigrant community… the prevalence of
polygamous marriage.
*
Canadian Muslim savages making death threats? No, it couldn’t be.
Death threat lobbed at Muslim group promoting moderate beliefs.
Last Updated: Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 12:24 AM ET
CBC News
A moderate Muslim group that called for a separation of religion and state in a recent documentary has received a pointed death threat.
The Muslim Canadian Congress received the message Tuesday morning. It was left on the Toronto telephone of secretary general Munir Pervaiz.
“I swear on 99 names of Allah, if you don’t cease from your campaign of smearing Islam … I will slaughter you,” the unidentified caller said.
Toronto police and its hate-crime unit are investigating.
The message was addressed to congress president Farzana Hassan and founder Tarek Fatah, and mentioned Allah’s name three times in a row.
“It is scary,” Pervaiz told CBC News on Wednesday.
This is the first time that someone is really swearing in the name of God and it appears that person is taking an oath by announcing the name of God three times.”
‘Proves problem exists’
Pervaiz said the accusation of smearing Islam is a serious one, an offence that some Muslims believe is worthy of punishment.
The death threat comes after the Muslim Canadian Congress took part in a documentary that aired on CBC News on March 6. The piece examined the divides between secular and fundamental beliefs within the Canadian Muslim community.
The congress has been targeted for its moderate beliefs before, but never in such a direct fashion, Pervaiz said. Members have had their homes and cars damaged after sharing their opinions publicly.
“We want as many people to know that such a problem exists in Canada,” Pervaiz said. “People thought we were exaggerating, but this now kind of confirms and proves the problem
great blog story on the student report
http://flaggman.wordpress.com/
march 21st entry (currently at the top)
Islamists, Marxists, a few Trotskyites . . what a frik’n mess.
As for Muslim students insisting that the various university administrations are ‘racist’ if they do not accomodate Islamic requirements for dietary regulations, prayer rooms, special exam times, etc – I think the insistence that the administration fulfill these requirements and our guilt if we don’t do it – are related to our statist welfare society – which considers that all responsibility falls on the administration or state government.
But, with regard to special dietary requests – do Orthodox Jews insist on a special kosher kitchen and kosher meals on campus? What about vegetarians? What about diabetics? What about those with allergies?
The responsible resolution to these requirements is not to insist that Big Government fulfill your needs, but that you yourself fulfill your needs. If you have special dietary requirements, bring your own lunch. Or, get a private business to set up a new ‘special needs’ restaurant. But, don’t insist that IF the administration or government doesn’t provide you with your needs, then, it is guilty of discrimination.
Same with prayer rooms. There is no requirement for a secular university to provide any group with any such area and it has nothing to do with discrimination.
Same with exams. Why should professors have to write and supervise special exams?
Is Afghanistan next? We can only pray!
U.S. House votes to quit Iraq
Last Updated: Friday, March 23, 2007 | 1:29 PM ET
CBC News
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq no later than September 2008.
The vote, 218 to 212, split mainly along party lines, with all Republicans except two voting against the measure. The 14 Democrats who voted against the bill included members on the left, who rejected the proposal because it was deemed too weak, the CBC’s Henry Champ said.
President George W. Bush is expected to use his veto on the measure. He will make a statement later Friday.
The bill is mainly a spending measure to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that part of the legislation is not affected by the vote.
The U.S. Senate also needs to pass similar legislation, probably next week, but supporters have enough votes to get it through, Champ said.
The House bill was debated into late Thursday evening.
“For the first time, we can mandate real and meaningful deadlines that clearly reflect the disgust so many of us have,” Democratic Congressman James McGovern said.
“The stakes in Iraq are too high and the sacrifices made by our military personnel and their families too great to be content with anything but success,” said Republican Roy Blunt.
Iraq must meet Bush’s benchmarks
The bill requires the Iraqi government to meet standards set by Bush in January, when he relaunched the U.S. strategy in the country by committing more soldiers and money.
Bush said the Iraqi government had to stop the fighting between Sunni and Shia factions, disarm the militias and settle on a means of sharing the country’s oil revenues among the regions.
The bill sets two deadlines this year for Bush to certify that Iraq is meeting his benchmarks, but whatever happens, it says U.S. troops are to start to pull out no later than March 2008, and end combat operations by September.
The bill has been attacked by both liberals and conservatives, and has split both parties. Liberals want a faster end to the war, while conservatives want to give Bush’s new strategy a chance to succeed.
Several anti-war Republicans supported the bill, while a few Democrats with close ties to the military voted for it.
Would you write an exam on Sunday? Public universities are usually very accommodating when it comes to making special arrangements because of religious reasons. And I have never heard of a Muslim students association say that a university is “racist” for not providing halaal food. Your arguments are silly. University administrators usually don’t even have control over which businesses are operated on campus.
In spite of algore’s predictions, the Gulf Stream is _not_ weakening from the increase in cold water and ice from Greenland. Although it is showing fluctuations over a time scale of weeks and months, there is no longer-term change detectable.
In German:
http://www.zeit.de/news/artikel/2007/03/16/96109.xml
Jones: “And I have never heard of a Muslim students association say that a university is “racist” for not providing halaal food. Your arguments are silly. University administrators usually don’t even have control over which businesses are operated on campus.”
Directly from the report:
[Campuses should] …include a requirement to provide halal food and halal practices in any new contracts with food service providers. Modify exisiting contracts to provide both halal food and halal practices.
So, yeah. You’re wrong.
They also want to shut down the gym to hairy, ugly men at times to allow women to work out alone. (There’s plenty of private businesses that do this, but of course, they actually make you pay in accordance to the services you extract from them.)
The modern university is a WMD: Weapon of Mass Distraction.
Also read somewhere that some Canadian university students’ group is asking for “gender-neutral” bathrooms out of sensitivity for transgendered students. What would the total transgendered student population be anyway? Ten?
Is there a more eloquent argument against the mass-subsidization of university education? Or even against the notion that the more university grads the better?
It always amazes me when leftists like ‘Jones’ offer their opinion, despite the fact they are completely ignorant of the issue.
Or, as TS Eliot said,”Nobody has a right to an opinion unless they are in possession of the evidence.”
Also, doofus, check the recent documentary on the Muslim student union group at Carleton. Which you’ll have to look up, if you know how to do that.
Regarding the CJunk post on the use of the term “suspected Taliban”, I don’t necessarily take this as negatively as CJunk does. The enemy combatants likely do not wear unique identifying marks or flags that say “I’m Taliban…take your best shot”. When the bodies are recovered by our troops, they undoubtedly look like any number of Afghani’s…armed Afghani’s mind you. I’m sure they don’t carry their Taliban party membership card in their wallets.
So, without positive identification from someone who knows them, they would be “suspected” Taliban. Maybe instead they were “drug traffickers” and not Taliban.
Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if the use of this term was for nefarious reasons as postulated, but I feel there’s a reasonable chance that it is just an attempt at accuracy.
Russian cottage industry – Big scale
**An attack by a single Trojan variant compromises thousands, circumvents SSL, and uploads the results to a Russian dropzone server. A unique blow-by-blow analysis reveals evidence of cooperation between groups of malware specialists acting as service providers and points to the future of malware’s growing underground economy.**
secureworks.com/research/threats/gozi/
A single attack by a single variant compromises more than 5200 hosts and 10,000 user accounts on hundreds of sites.
it.slashdot.org/it/07/03/22/1318225.shtml
= TG
Gerard Kennedy, Navdeep Bains, and Omar Alghabra serve libel notices to National Post.
w3.nationalnewswatch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8466&Itemid=41
Of interest to me is this line:
“In his notice of libel, Alghabra denies his political and policy decisions are driven by his ethnicity and that he knew of and condoned the vilification of Bob Rae and Arlene Perly Rae, at the Liberal leadership convention,” stated Cliff Lax, counsel for Mr. Alghabra.”
I’ve seen enough of this guy to know that every thing he does is motivated by his Muslim heritage.
Test 1,2,3…
“Leftists”?? have you ever heard anyone say “rightist”? use a term with more meaning. instead of saying “rightists” i say stupid inbred white trash redneck war mongerers. “her her her aint skeered maaww! i like shootin niggers!”
Another desperate move. Kay, of course, will defend himself, bringing facts to light of day, assuming he didn’t make the whole thing up. Of course he will give up his “source.” Not. I don’t like this anonymous source thing either, but taking on a Toronto paper is reckless. This suit sounds more like intimidation or an attempt to out the source, using court’s time. Kennedy should be told if he talks over people in court, he will find him in contempt. This one seems weak to me. We will see.
Ah, the last refuge is nigh.
The freaking Liberal Puritans suing and demanding apologies is further proof of just how bankrupt of anything of substance they are.
Can’t say they’re imploding, they’ve imploded.
Jones – before going public with your ignorance, kindly obtain some facts. As irwin daisy says, check out what’s going on at Carleton.
And, this particular report is we’re referring to in this thread is the Task Force on Needs of Muslim Students. Their web site is triple w dot noracism dot ca.
Hey – how about that? Defining a religion as a RACE????
The 56 page document is filled with terms like ‘Islamophobia’ -and recommendations that there be more courses on Islamic studies, sessions on ‘Islamophobia’ and racism’. And lots of special needs requirements.
Special rooms for prayer. No student loans, because Muslims don’t like paying interest. So, the student loans must become grants. Repayment is without interest. Heh – so, the rest of us must pay interest but Muslims refuse to do so??
And there’s a whole section on halal food requirements. That’s right. Requirements. And complaints that the ‘one building’ at Guelph that served it – well, the food was ‘unappealing’.
Another complaint at Laurentian – that ‘all he can eat is tuna and some chips’. Hey, guy, how about bringing your own lunch. People with allergies, orthodox Jews, diabetics, etc – they all do it. Why don’t you?
Oh- and no ‘wine and cheese parties’ because Muslims can’t drink wine. So – their needs become paramount.
Segregated gym facilities, segregated residences, special exam times.
Do you know how much extra time goes into writing a special exam, getting a room, and supervising?
Why?
And if you don’t do this – then, you are racist. Hmmm.
Get yer “reasonably long” indulgences here. (Suckers.)
…-
Man Group seeks ‘green’ profits ( Carbon Credits )
LONDON: Man Group, the world’s largest publicly listed hedge fund manager, will introduce funds seeking to profit from so-called green investments like carbon-emissions credits, said Stanley Fink, the outgoing chief executive of the company.
“While the science of global warming is quite scary, there are opportunities there.”
Man, which oversees more than $60 billion in hedge fund assets worldwide, joins hedge fund managers like GLG Partners in offering clients the possibility of making money while helping the environment at the same time.
“You should expect a stream of funds from us in the next three of four years from an internal task force that we’ve labeled Green Man,” Fink said.
He said the funds would trade permits for carbon dioxide emissions, which offer a less-expensive way for corporations to reduce their so-called carbon footprints — the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by their activities.
“While it’s possible to stop certain carbon-emitting activities through taxation, that is a blunt instrument,” Fink said.
The funds could offer returns of 10 percent to 15 percent, and the response from potential investors “seems to be quite favorable,” Fink said.
The funds would keep investors’ money in for “reasonably long” periods, he said….-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805759/posts
St. Stanislaus is the patron saint of Poland. …-
Poland sends troops to Afghanistan
Poland has sent 100 troops to join the international mission in Afghanistan. There are altogether 37 countries involved in the mission as of now. A group of 100 Polish troops left for Afghanistan to join the international mission to secure peace and stabilization in the war-ridden country. Among other things, international forces are helping the Afghan government rebuilt administration structures, and are assisting in the training of the Afghan army. The most important task for the Polish contingent, however, will be to secure the strategic Kabul – Kandahar road, which may put Polish soldiers in direct combat with the Taliban.[…]
…-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805740/posts
Muslim Women Required To Show Faces While Voting
Muslim women who wish to vote in Monday’s Quebec election must now show their faces when they cast their ballots, the province’s chief returning officer announced Friday, in a reversal of an earlier decision. (national newswatch)
Libs turning on themselves?
Does Cherny think Bains is an “asshole”?
More on the masks. Direct action by the citizens of Quebec. …-
QUEBEC (CP) – Muslim women will have to remove their face coverings if they want to vote in Monday’s Quebec election.
Quebec’s chief returning officer has reversed an earlier decision and is now telling Muslim women who wear a niqab to show their faces when they vote. Facing threats from ordinary citizens that they would show up at polling stations wearing masks, Marcel Blanchet said in Quebec City Friday that voting day must proceed without incident….-
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
“The subordination of science to politics has a horrendous historical track record. In Russia in the 1930s and 40s, the Stalinists championed the ‘agricultural science’ of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko in order to clamp down on research and advances in genetics, which they viewed as ‘bourgeois science’. That had a dire impact on the forward development of agriculture in Russia for more than 30 years. (Interestingly, Lysenko was celebrated in the slavish Soviet press as a natural, earth-loving ‘barefoot scientist’, a little bit like the Observer’s trendy green columnist the ‘barefoot doctor’, perhaps.) The Nazis, of course, used the science of eugenics to justify their racism and anti-Semitism.
The Stalinists’ and Nazis’ science may have been junk, whereas the consensus around manmade global warming is more respectable. Yet the marshalling of the science of global warming to bolster political campaigns today has echoes of the Nazis’ use of science to back up their poisonous politics of race and the Stalinists’ use of science to stifle research on genetics. Whether your science is right or wrong, respectable or racist, its prostitution for political ends is bad news – both for politics and for science.”
Brendan O’Neil, March 22nd.2007.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2999/
Security camera catches Winnipeg man dropping deuce in flower pot:
youtube.com/watch?v=Kcm6I9M4GIE
Part of a long and detailed reply from US Senator P Murray about some fuel efficiency standards questions I asked about.
**Prompted by the oil embargo and ensuing spike in gasoline prices, in 1975 Congress implemented minimum standards for fuel efficiency of passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks. Vehicle manufacturers were responsible for meeting the new standards, known as corporate average fuel economy (CAFE), over a gradual phase-in period. Set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the current CAFE standard is 27.5 mpg for passenger vehicles and 20.7 mpg for light-duty trucks. For model year 2007, the light-duty truck CAFE standard will be increased to 22.2 mpg.
To meet the needs of our increasingly precarious energy market, as well as concerns over the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions, SUV manufacturers will soon be required to meet higher CAFE standards. In August 2005, the NHTSA issued a proposed rule for a restructuring of the CAFE program. Under the new system, in which SUVs would be evaluated on size as opposed to weight, manufacturers would be required to meet CAFE standards of at least 23.5 mpg by model year 2010. With the technology readily available, improving SUV fuel efficiency is an important effort that will serve us all in the long run**. ======== Patty Murray US Senator
Progress, but gradual progress. No mention of any incentive for EV or Hybrid.= TG
Citoyen Dion is a Wiener, er,a Wheener,… a Whiner.
Citoyen’s Whine list is made from sour grapes.
Dion’s sommelier, STOPIGGY, is down to the lees.
Dion Sec Blanc 2007 is not a vintage year. …-
The Code of the Centre Block Schoolyard
“The Prime Minister should apologize” whines Her Majesty’s Loyal Official Opposition in reaction to Stephen Harper’s latest attack on the sensibilities of the Liberal Party. …-
http://www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/000811.html
Allah has the cure and Mohammed is the enforcer. Asthma, too. Free AIDS cure; paging Steve “Mr. Condom” Lewis . …-
Gambia: Another Plus for Jammeh (Jihadi “cure” for AIDS)
President Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, the Gambian leader continues to receieve more felicitation, following his break through in the discovery and treament of Hiv/Aids and asthma in The Gambia.
In a letter to the Gambian leader, Amat Tijan Jallow of Bollywood Ke Dosto Association, Latrikunda, said “Allow me to use this media to thank His Excellency the President of The Gambia, Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, on behalf of the above named association for his tremendous treatment of the Gambian people from HIV/Aids without any payment.
Your Excellency, it is with pride that we congratulate you for being the first person to cure HIV/Aids and other illnesses.This is a true conviction on us and the entire Gambian for the love, sympathy and concern you have for the Gambian people.
Your Excellency, the members of the above named association wish to assure you and your government of their loyalty and unflinching support.
We pray to the Almighty Allah to give you long life, health and strength in order to continue raising the name of The Gambia”. …-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805799/posts
Now that is seems that this whole Gore/Suzuki/Strong thing has really jumped the shark, next thing to ponder is, how it may all hit the fan. Consider;
# Two decades have been spent promoting the folly called Kyoto.
# Billions upon Billions have been “doled’ out.
# The media is staring at one big sucker.
# 10s of thousands have pinned their career hopes on a hoax. Some are now middle aged.
# Some school children have been taught nothing but Gores lies on climate through out their education.
# Thousands in the climate field have been savaged and had their careers ruined by those faithfully following the scam. The scamers hoarded the grants, research money and coveted gov’t positions.
# Politicians have been made fools of. (Martin, Dion, Anderson)
How will this all play out in the coming months, years ?? Depression ? Anger ? Strikes ? Lawsuits ? UN collapse ?? Major Media bankruptcy ?
What of the huge ‘black eye’ that science has received ?? Universities ??
IMO there is hell to pay. Some could be paying, big-time.
Studenta Against the Canadian Federation of Students.
http://www.studentsagainstcfs.com/
We’re not all braindead CFSers.
David Orchard to Run in Saskatoon-Wanuskewin?
Stéphane Dion speaks out for the Western farmer
In his first major public meeting in Saskatoon since winning the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada Stéphane Dion will reply to Stephen Harper’s ongoing attack on prairie farmers and the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).
Date: Sunday, April 1, 2007
Time: 2 p.m.
Place: Bessborough Hotel (Battleford Room) 601 Spadina Crescent E., Saskatoon
Over the past decade and a half, the Canadian Wheat Board has endured a dozen trade challenges from the U.S. industry seeking — unsuccessfully — its demise. Now, Stephen Harper and his government have joined in. For months, the Harper administration has been attacking, undermining and threatening to destroy the power of the Canadian Wheat Board.
According to Saskatoon-Wanuskewin Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott:
“The Canadian Wheat Board is the last bastion of socialist thought in western Canada. It is the only instrument remaining that owes its birthright to the Regina Manifesto and remains an instrument of eastern domination of western agriculture.” (Letter from M. Vellacott, http://www.ken.farmersforjustice.com/letter.htm)
FACTS:
• The Canadian Wheat Board was introduced by a Conservative government, that of R.B. Bennett, in response to farmers’ demands for an end to exploitation by the large grain companies.
• Starting from zero in the 1930s, the Canadian Wheat Board has grown to become the largest marketer of wheat and barley in the world.
• The CWB is one of Canada’s largest earners of foreign currency and has a reputation as the world’s most prestigious marketing board. This international respect puts dollars in western pockets.
• Based in Winnipeg, the CWB is a multi-billion dollar Canadian success story that gives the western farmer some clout.
Since its inception, for seven decades, the Canadian Wheat Board has been supported by every Canadian government. Until now.
If the Wheat Board is destroyed, as the Harper government intends, control of Canadian grain marketing will quickly move from the hands of Canadian farmers to those of the giant American grain companies. The east-west transportation links, built by Canadians, and the big grain terminals in ports from Prince Rupert to Quebec City, including Churchill, our only prairie seaport, will be crippled. The direct out-of-pocket cost to western farmers will be hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Don’t miss this chance to hear Stéphane Dion take on Stephen Harper on behalf of the west. Bring your friends, one and all!
For further information, contact: Saskatchewan Liberal Association tel 306-522-8507, saskliberal@accesscomm.ca and/or David Orchard tel 306-652-7095, davidorchard@sasktel.net
What really peaked my interest was when I scrolled down the second time I caught David Orchard’s name as a contact for the event. Then I twigged to the fact that the one MP they chose to quote in the notice was none other than the infamous Mr. Vellacott, current MP for Saskatoon-Wanuskewin (the riding that Orchard lives in and is rumored to be interested in running in). It then hit me that the Bessborough Hotel is physically located in the riding of Saskatoon-Wanuskewin.
Finally, the event isn’t until April 1st. Honestly folks, I have never seen a Liberal event in Saskatchewan advertised so soon in advance (10 whole days!). Which tells me that this event isn’t being organized by the “usual suspects” but is, in fact, a David Orchard production.
So stay tuned…but my spidy sense tells me this might be more than just a Wheat Board announcement, but in fact a campaign launch for Orchard.
From Prairie Fire blog (Liberal)
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harpers’ Conservatives have surged to 40% in popular opinion and entered majority government territory, a new poll says.[…]
“The big news is they hit the big four-oh,” pollster Darrell Bricker said of the Conservatives’ numbers. “They’ve hit the magic number. When you get to 40 [per cent], you can start talking about forming a majority government.” […]
[Then, Bricker talks politics: Stick to your stats, Bricker…]
t means that if Mr. Harper wants to force an election, he will have to find another issue. Mr. Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, says that could put the Conservatives in a bind.
“They have made such a strong case about their desire not to have an election that to go back now and try to instigate one makes them look a bit hypocritical. Plus, they also have a bill in the Senate right now [calling] for fixed election dates.” …-
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=bff02afd-8227-46cc-a86e-a2677de945bf&k=0
Ughly, Kemo Sabay?
Ugly left-liberal-socialist disease, Tonto.
…-
Rudeness mars peace message [antiwar protestor DEFECATES on burning US flag]
If the cause of peace is worth supporting — and we believe it is — then peace protesters must demonstrate the values they promote. The vast majority of the estimated 15,000 protesters who took part in a peace march Sunday in downtown Portland did just that. They were well-behaved, well-intentioned and serious about their cause.
But then there was a smaller group of demonstrators — if they can even be called that — who engaged in numerous actions that violated the sensibilities of ordinary people and damaged the very cause the activists claimed to endorse.
This splinter group of protesters showed its support for “peace” by burning a U.S. soldier in effigy. It exhibited its supposedly pacifist nature by knocking a police officer off his bike — an action that brought out the police riot squad.
Perhaps the most disturbing scene of the afternoon, however, involved the man who pulled down his pants in front of women and children and defecated on a burning U.S. flag. This disgusting act actually elicited cheers from some members of the crowd, but we hope that the emotion it produces in the community is one of revulsion….-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1805889/posts
> Subject: British newspaper salutes Canada
>
> A British newspaper salutes Canada . . . this is a good read. It is funny how it took someone in England to put it into words…
> Sunday Telegraph Article From today’s UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation – Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON –
>
> Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
>
> It seems that Canada ‘s historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.
>
> Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.
>
> That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:
> It seemed to be a part of the Old World, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
>
> Almost 10% of Canada ‘s entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.
>
> Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it’s unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the “British.”
>
> The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world.
>
> The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated – a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.
>
> So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality – unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British.
>
> It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.
>
> Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves – and are unheard by anyone else – that 1% of the world’s population has provided 10% of the world’s peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half-century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth – in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
>
> Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace – a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.
>
> So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
>
> It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
Christopher Hitchens has a must read article about a trip to Kurdistan he took over the Christmas break.
——
It wasn’t my first trip. That took place in 1991, in the closing stages of the Gulf War. With a guerrilla escort, I crossed illegally into Iraq from Turkey and toured the shattered and burned and poisoned landscape on which Saddam Hussein had imprinted himself. In the town of Halabja, which has now earned its gruesome place in history, I met people whose hideous wounds from chemical bombardment were still suppurating. The city of Qala Diza had been thoroughly dynamited and bulldozed, and looked like an irretrievable wreck. Much of the area’s lavish tree cover had been deforested: the bare plains were dotted with forbidding concrete barracks into which Kurds had been forcibly “relocated” or (a more accurate word) “concentrated.” Nearly 200,000 people had been slaughtered, and millions more deported: huddling in ruins or packed into fetid camps on the Turkish and Iranian frontiers. To turn a spade was to risk uncovering a mass grave. All of Iraq suffered terribly during those years, but its Kurdish provinces were among the worst places in the entire world—a howling emptiness of misery where I could catch, for the first time in my life, the actual scent of evil as a real force on earth.
Thus, I confess to a slight lump in the throat at revisiting the area and seeing thriving, humming towns with multiplying construction sites, billboards for overseas companies, Internet cafés, and a choice of newspapers. It’s even reassuring to see the knockoff “MaDonal,” with pseudo–golden arches, in the eastern city of Sulaimaniya, soon to be the site of the American University of Iraq, which will be offering not only an M.B.A. course but also, in the words of Azzam Alwash, one of its directors, “the ideas of Locke, the ideas and writings of Paine and Madison.” Everybody knows how to snigger when you mention Jeffersonian democracy and Iraq in the same breath; try sniggering when you meet someone who is trying to express these ideas in an atmosphere that only a few years ago was heavy with miasmic decay and the reek of poison gas.
….
Americans have more responsibility here than most of us are aware of. It was President Woodrow Wilson, after the First World War, who inscribed the idea of self-determination for the Kurds in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, a document that all Kurds can readily cite. Later machinations by Britain and France and Turkey, all of them greedy for the oil in the Kurdish provinces, cheated the Kurds of their birthright and shoehorned them into Iraq. More recently, the Ford-Kissinger administration encouraged the Kurds to rebel against Baghdad, offering blandishments of greater autonomy, and then cynically abandoned them in 1975, provoking yet another refugee crisis and a terrible campaign of reprisal by Saddam Hussein. In 1991, George Bush Sr. went to war partly in the name of Kurdish rights and then chose to forget his own high-toned rhetoric. This, too, is a story that every Kurd can tell you. However the fate of Iraq is to be decided, we cannot permit another chapter in this record of betrayal. Meanwhile, you should certainly go and see it for yourself, and also shed a tear for what might have been.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/hitchens200704?currentPage=1
Omar AlGhabra has much baggage from his ties to CAIR,the Arar’s ,Palestine House, and the position he held at the CAF.
CAIR now adimts to terrorism support, CAIR’s Nihad Awad is on a video praising the money Maher got for the “Alleged” harm outside of canada and Awad claims CAIR has supported Arar since 2002 .
CAIR’s Ahmed Bedier is on video declaring Irshad Manji and Tarek Fatah as Apostates and enemies of islam according to Sharia law, Bedier failed to denounce the Saudi torture and Sharia law for females,CAIR’s Ibramhim Hooper will not call Hamas and Hezbollah Terror Organizations , CAIR has only denounced the 9/11 style attack and not the actual Muslims that used Quranic verses to justify it.
The Canadian Arab Federation took sides with Hezbollah last year and stated on a radio show that about 90% of Arabs and Lebanese in Canada support Hezbollah , the CAF defended the use of Hezbollah flags in Peace marches in Montreal, Toronto,Winnepeg,Ottawa and any other anti-Israel protest in the guise of “Peace” rallies.
Palestine House is a hub for pro-Hamas Muslims in canada, it by-passes the building codes for
Religious Temple by calling the Mosque portion of the building as a “Prayer room” for visitors on Fridays , this tactic allows Palestine House to engage in Political protests and have a Charity Status or get Tax dollar funding as a minority group.
As for the Arar’s , Maher’s wife not only ran for the NDP in Ottawa, but she and Alexa McDonough were at a WAO ( Women Against Occupation) meeting where Hamas is praised and suicide bombers are not condemned , the WAO website has endless attacks on jews and it’s in the guise of the new code-word “Israel” to denote “The Jooooos” .
Maher Arar was not grabbed off the street and deported to Syria as many Islamic Org. love to say just to incite hatred against the USA and Israel , he sold his house and fled to Tunisia
with his family because Monia had relatives there to stay with after the RCMP was closing in ever since his house was searched and turned up hard drives and CD data discs hidden in the walls and attic.
Maher was also caught trying to return to Canada with a undeclared LapTop computer and refused to give the Password for Customs to check what was on the Hard Drive , Maher got a gun permit just after coming to canada and after the Montreal massacre by Gamil Gharabi who was on a Jihad to punish Canada for offended Allah .
When the Tunisian Police closed in on the Arar’s since Monia relative had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood that is a banned group there , Maher claimed he got a phone call about a Job in the USA and he fled Tunisia and his family to board a plane by himself .
When the plane landing in NY at JFK he was pulled aside to check because of his Home near the Boston Airport and the ties to suspected Jihadists in America, with all the bogus Passports from canada and Maher still being a Syrian Citizen and a Draft-Dodger flying alone and being a Sunni-Muslim male , what did people expect jsut after the 9/11/01 slaughter which CAIR blamed on the USA for NOT screening visitors or foreign Muslims travelling alone.
He was denied entry as many other canadians can suffer at a border point if they think your motives are false and you plan to stay or work illegally , when Tunisia wouldn’t take him back for fear he would claim asylum status and never leave , the USA found that Jordan would let him land there to meet up with his family to fly directly to canada.
But Maher’s own statement in a LawSuit in 2003 against Jordan for $25 Million dollars put his Torture allegation right on the backs of the Kidnappers in Jordan that later drove him to Syria , when that LawSuit failed it was then that he turned on Canadian taxpayers in 2004 and with CAIR’s helped launch a $400’000’000.00 claim which was settled for $12 million to avoid Legal costs from a dragged out Trial like the Air India farce .
Justice O’Connor concluded that there was no evidence to prove the USA relied solely on canada’s information to remove Arar as a risk , he also said that the Arar’s have not broken any laws in canada and no direct link to terror groups was presented as evidence during the Inquiry.
The scam of the Century and all someone has to do is Allege they were harm outside of canada and then Sue us for not protecting them as a draft-Dodger wanted by Syrian where they still have Citizenship.
Omar should keep his mouth shut because once the MSM delves into his CAIR links and CAF support for Hezbollah, he’ll find little support from canadians if he uses the “Racism/Islamophobia” angle to defend himself and play the victim.
From American Thinker Blog
“So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan?”
Oh come on, give me a break.
Anyone who has read my posts for a number of years has seen me compliment Canada up one side and down the other on many occasions.
But let’s face it. The Canadian left has practically created a cold war between the US and Canada.
Until Stephen Harper was elected, virtually every syllable that floated across the border was insulting the the US.
Chretien and Paul Martin would regularly run against the US in political campaigns.
Carolyn Parrish would cuss us out, stomp up and down on figures of our president, and the Canadian media treats the US as if it’s an international parriah.
Thank God Harper was elected and the much-neglected Canadian military was finally enlisted once again in a noble cause.
But to this day, unless one comes up to sites like Kate’s, Americans perceive Canadian opinion as extremely negative to the US, capitalism, our military initiatives, and the way we brush our teeth.
I thank God that I have learned that at least among American and Canadian conservatives, there in fact is nothing but friendship and mutual respect. It could be said that in a manner of speaking, our ideological compatibility and mutual respect transcend national boundaries.
BTW , did you read the Inquiry Transcripts to hear why Maher chose JFK to connect for a flight back to Ottawa rather than directly to canada.
He said that his AirMiles reward points forced him to book the flight with a connection at JFK to get to Ottawa.
The man felt his Job opportunity was so good that he left his family in the Middle East , but somehow he wanted to scrimp by using Airmiles
and forcing a change of planes in JFK when he already admitted the job offer was in the USA .
Arar has never taken the Stand in a Legal Trial so he can be cross examined and have his claims tested or contested , and Canada’s $12million dollars was not a admission to guilt and responsibilty for his plight , only a out-of-court settlement to save three times that in lawyer fees for the Crown .
He was refused entry to the USA and legally removed to Jordan as a non-Citizen or tourist which suffer the same problem every day at US entry points, and Arab kidnappers tortured him and took him to Syria and not canada or the USA as CAIR and the NDP love to claim as sending him there.
We all know that if another Arar-case came up and the USA allowed that person to board a flight to canada from JFK and the plane gets hijacked and used as a bomb to murder canadians , CAIR and MP like Omar and Layton will demonized the USA as allowing it or secretly puting a CIA agent in Arar’s place to blame Islam and invade Iran .
Alberta 40 years from now
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~ngirdner/Sinai/Sinai_wilderness_02.JPG
Greg in dallas:
Canada’s MSM give way too much time to the anti-west Peace-marches that usually turn violent and have that portion editted out , we are dealing with a well organized Pro-Sharia law band of Jihadists and Hezbollah supporters that use the DownTown population in Toronto and Montreal
as the backdrop to make it look like 10’000 people showed up.
In Toronto , the Yonge & Dundas Square is a favourite on a Saturday just from the shear volume of shoppers and tourists , the protestors
claim thousands came out but after they march over to the US Embassy it becomes obvious that they are the standard “Rent-A-Mob” jew-bashers that blame Israel and the USA for all the social ills in islamic nations.
What’s very revealing about the leftist is how easy it is to fool them with hollow rhetoric
and victimhood envy , even the Global warming yahoos that claimed most people suport them could only manage to drum up less than 200 people on a Saturday at Yonge & Dundas .
The Federal NDP keeps saying they are the voice of the people , yet they stay at about 12% of the seats in Parliament and insist their suporters
are forced to vote Liberal to stop the NeoCon from destroying Canada.
Except , even when Liberals had a big majority
and the Conservatives were no threat, the NDP still sat at about 10% of the Seats.
Most people I talk to support the USA and will not side with the Islamofacists trying to impose Sharia law on canada , and this week when the Liberals took sides with the Taliban terrorists
and infered our troops committed war-crimes against captured Taliban memebers , we now see the latest Poll for harper and it jumped 7 points to a majority range .
Several Liberals are now leaving the party over issues that appear to be against canada for the stance taken by the leader dion , and others have retired to bow out and leave on good terms .
Don’t rely solely on the CBC for your news about canada, I don’t even watch it other than Hockey Night In Canada and the odd factual documentary .
The Coming Ice Age – Scientists “Almost Anonymous” in their predictions. Booga Booga.
http://neoconexpress.blogspot.com/2007/02/newsweek-1975-scientists-predict.html
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Those brainiacs at CTV are at it again…
The poll question, “Should Muslim women be required
to show their faces while voting?” is currently running
at 86 percent yes to 14 percent no.
Make sure you drop by and vote.
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More on David Orchard considering to run for Liberals in Saskatchewan:
http://seansaskatchewan.blogspot.com/2007/03/david-orchard-considering-run-for.html
Peer-reviewed global cooling
A large portion of physicists in Russia, especially solar physicists, have reached a “scientific consensus” – as others would call it – that the Earth will enter a period of global cooling in a couple of years and the temperatures will drop to the minimum sometime in the middle of this century.
If they’re right, a period of deep freeze will start around 2055-2060 and last for 50 years or so. These predictions are based on a detailed analysis of internal dynamics of the Sun. 2007 is the International Heliophysical Year so you’re not supposed to dismiss this science without reading it. Unfortunately, I cannot verify all these statements.
In the West, it has become popular for many activists such as Naomi Oreskes to claim that there is no peer-reviewed literature that contradicts the fashionable theory of the so-called global warming.
Well, that’s very far from reality as everyone who is familiar with basic research directions in this field knows very well. Whether or not we think that all these papers are right or not, it’s a fact that there is even peer-reviewed literature that argues that we’re gonna experience global cooling.
More…
http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/01/peer-reviewed-global-cooling.html
“Harper is by all accounts completely humourless. A notoriously ‘cold fish’, his idea of a ‘family photo-op’ was taking his young son to his first day of school in Ottawa and solemnly shaking hands with him at the door.”
newint.org/columns/worldbeaters/2006/11/01/stephen-harper/
Knut has been neutered by the Global Warmites. Knut is a double captive now. Jawohl, mein furrier. Socialismus uber alles. …-
“Gabriel called Knut a political symbol in the climate change debate: “Hardly any animal symbolizes the consequences of climate change as clearly as the polar bear,” he said. “No ice, no polar bear.” …-
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,473551,00.html
Greg in Dallas:
Here are the bonds which unite our peoples: Our Anglo-Saxon heritage.
SIX BELLS: PRINCIPAL ADDRESS
“As Light as Air, as Strong as Iron”
Burke’s words remain as true today as they were 226 years ago
by Sir Christopher Meyer KGMG
HM Ambassador to the United States
Six Bells: ‘As Light as Air, as Strong as Iron’ – The Churchill Centre
Third, Churchill was a passionate believer in the fundamental friendship and partnership of the British and American peoples. …
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=326
Ut exemplar ad omnia eminet.
For over a thousand years Muslims have contributed nothing to the advancement of civilization. No science, no medicine, no technology, no humanities and no secular laws. More books are translated into Spanish each year than have been translated into Arabic in those thousand years.
As their culture rejects knowledge of any sort tell me again what purpose Muslims have in going to university in the first place.
Has anybody wondered why Andrew Coyne has been unusually negative, and downright “liberal” in his recent attacks on the Harper budget.
Coyne, usually referred to as “conservative” although he prefers to call himself a “libertarian” has a lovely sister…
Coyne rises from defeat in Last Election To Run Again for Liberals in Toronto
‘Star’ Candidate
National Post
Published: Saturday, March 24, 2007
Constitutional lawyer Deborah Coyne will today be officially nominated as the federal Liberal candidate for Toronto-Danforth. Ms. Coyne, who has a master’s degree in international law from Oxford, among other credentials, ran in the last election, losing to NDP leader Jack Layton by 7,000 votes. At the time, observers suggested the battle would serve more as a training ground to give Ms. Coyne the profile and experience she needed to be a serious contender during a second campaign. The Liberals consider Ms. Coyne a star candidate and have proudly rolled out her history (and her status as the mother of Pierre Trudeau’s daughter) as proof she is a worthy contestant.
“Deborah is currently a policy analyst with an international consulting practice focusing on innovation, trade and finance, federal governance and public sector regulatory reform,” her official Web site states. National Post