Reader Tips

Reader Tips 92 Comments

Open thread for your tips.
Blog notes – many of you awoke this morning to discover you were “forbidden” from accessing the site. I was dealing with a persistent troll late last evening, and placed a block on a large range of numbers from the isp to deal with him. It’s been removed now – my apologies for the inconvenience.
But a request – again. When you read a comment written by an obvious troll, do NOT RESPOND IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER. You simply make my cleanup more time consuming. The site has search functions that allow me to pull all comments made by an individual up at once and mass delete them. But when you reply, you force me to go through threads one at a time to delete the orphaned replies.
So, just don’t. If you have something to say on a specific topic, simply say it. It is not the intended function of this site to provide a forum for chat or extended debates with other readers.

92 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Amb. John Bolten reveals *secrets* that throws light in dark places.
    herzliyaconference.org/Eng/_Articles/Article.asp?ArticleID=2028&CategoryID=248
    Credit goes to a SDA commenter in a previous thread. Sorry, I forget who that was. = TG

  5. Why ‘Global Warming’ is Not a Global Crisis
    Special to the Hawaii Reporter
    By Christopher Monckton, 1/22/2008 8:06:23 AM
    I earned my Nobel Peace Prize by making the United Nations fix a deliberate error in its latest climate assessment. After the scientists had finalized the draft, UN bureaucrats inserted a new table, but with four decimal points right-shifted. The bureaucrats had multiplied tenfold the true contribution of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets to sea-level rise. Were they trying to support Al Gore’s fantasy that these two ice-sheets would imminently cause sea level to rise 20ft, displacing tens of millions worldwide?
    How do we know the UN’s error was deliberate?
    http://tinyurl.com/3bjm3p
    …-
    Nunavut residents dig out from ‘granddaddy’ seven-day blizzard
    By THE CANADIAN PRESS
    “… Paul Waye, chief administrative officer for the community of Rankin Inlet.” [said]
    “I’ve been living in the Arctic for 30 years and I can’t remember weather like this.”
    “It’s not unusual for the region to get blizzards that last for days at a stretch, but seven in a row was one for the books, said Yvonne Bilan-Wallace, meteorologist with Environment Canada.”
    “”This (blizzard) was three times as long as they could have normally expected to cope with.
    “And those temperatures were cold – even for them.””
    http://tinyurl.com/38u7cn

  6. But, but, I thought we were all going to either bake to death or drown by now.
    So much for me stocking up on short pants, sunscreen and scuba gear.
    Someone lend me some stanfields, it’s freezing cold outside!

  7. I live in Saskatoon and travel the same route to work every day. Last November/December metal poles appeared in the ground along open areas of the bald ass prairie. I have patiently waited all winter for the SNOW fence to be installed. Well to my surprise the City in all it’s wisdom has now installed in late JANUARY a couple sections of fence out of a mile or so total. Fn’ geniuses. I will patiently waite for them to remove the poles in the SPRING. Another MONUMENTAL waste of TAXPAYERS MONEY brought to you by THE CITY OF SASKATOON. This reminde me of the summer student a few years back employed by the City of Saskatoon. He came forward years later and told a story of being told to cut the same lawn twice in one day as he ran out of work. People should be outraged.

  8. THEY’RE USING THE ‘R’-WORD:
    http://tinyurl.com/2trn5t
    I take no pleasure in saying I told you so:
    “A full-blown, prolonged recession in America is now inescapable, with the rest of the world set to be dragged into a severe global slowdown despite yesterday’s emergency US interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, leading economists said in Davos this morning.
    A darkening outlook for the global economy looked set to dominate the week-long World Economic Forum, as plunging stock markets and the Fed’s drastic and dramatic reaction overshadowed the opening of the annual gathering of political and business leaders.
    Some of the world’s most prominent economic pundits told an opening session this morning that the Fed’s surprise three-quarter-point cut in US official interest rates was already “too little, too late” to stave off recession in America.””
    As was predicted by the “money watcher” a year ago, this will probably end up being an 18 month long valuation correction of the US dollar and will last as long as it takes the fed to effect a currency contraction.

  9. Former Green party candidate Beverley Woodfield of Cow Bay, Nova Scotia whose own son Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield died in Afghanistan in 2005, is leaving the party.
    “Ms. Woodfield, who has unsuccessfully run for office provincially and municipally, said the federal Greens disrespected Canada’s troops when Ms. May said Tuesday that “the (report’s) recommendation of more ISAF forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a jihad. This, in turn, may feed the recruitment of suicide bombers and other insurgents.”
    “I fear that with the words (Ms. May) used, that she’s painted a target on the back of every uniformed member of NATO that’s over” in Afghanistan.” said Ms. Woodfield.
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1033601.html

  11. A conference of racism
    The Ottawa Citizen
    Published: Thursday, January 24, 2008
    The Canadian government showed real courage yesterday by pulling out of the United Nations’ second World Conference Against Racism.
    Doing so demonstrated the kind of clear moral leadership the Conservatives promised to show when they were elected in 2006.
    http://tinyurl.com/3ytzlb …-
    Canada: Durban II Promotes Racism
    The 2001 Durban conference on racism turned into such an anti-Semitic rantfest from Muslim nations that the United States and Israel walked out in protest. The decision to leave created a storm of criticism here against the Bush administration, especially when Canada decided to stick around and scold the participants instead of leaving. Next year, the Canadians won’t even bother to appear, calling Durban II a “circus” (via CapQ reader Blaise MacLean):
    Canada has withdrawn its support for a UN anti-racism conference slated to take place in South Africa next year, the federal government announced Wednesday.
    The so-called Durban II conference “has gone completely off the rails” and Canada wants no part of it, said Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.
    “Canada is interested in combating racism, not promoting it,” Kenney told The Canadian Press. “We’ll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance.
    “Our considered judgment, having participated in the preparatory meetings, was that we were set for a replay of Durban I. And Canada has no intention of lending its good name and resources to such a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry.”
    Canada has made the correct decision. This UN hate-fest only derogates anyone connected with it, as Durban I did. Obviously, the UN has not done anything to eliminate the influence of anti-Semites within its organization, even while staging events like Durban II to scold the world for racism. Perhaps the critics who lashed out at the Bush administration for its refusal to endorse such a despicable event will consider Canada’s rejection as evidence that the White House got this right in 2001.
    http://tinyurl.com/2r9jce (captained)

  12. I am wondering why all reports on the faux ‘palestinians’ blowing up the wall between Egypt and Gaza, are claiming that Israel built that wall? I am quite certain that the ONLY wall the Israelis built, was between their land and the lands they gave up to the ‘palestinians.’ And that Egypt build this particular wall…

  13. While the MSM has made passing references to the housing mortgage crisis in the US, to get a real idea of how bad it is, you have to go the city newspapers to find out for sure.
    Detnews.com reports 0ver 70,000 foreclosures in the last year.
    San Francisco Gate reports 31000 foreclosures for just the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 207 in SF area.
    The state of California (population 35 million) had over 80,000 for the same 3 months.
    A map of Cleveland shows much of the heart of Cleveland is tainted by a foreclosure rate of 50% to 100%.
    And SOCGEN, Societe Generale, the 2nd largest bank in France is declaring a loss of $7,1 billion due to a rogue trader, who they are now looking for. (CNBC)
    Clearly the excesses of the last 10 to 20 yrs that has built up in the world financial system will take more than a few good days (months?) on the stock markets to work it out.
    And no matter who gets elected President, the USA is in for an austerity program to get their national finances in order.

  14. I think Green leader Betty May has a political death wish. First her Nazi comment and the defence of same, now her Crusader comment. When will the Libs override Dion’s decision and break up the Red Green coalition.
    I know she has a gammy leg so it takes real skill to step in that many piles in such a short time.

  15. More doom and gloom from the “Experts” in Toronto.
    The City of Toronto is bracing for an exodus of “environmental refugees” who may flee here because of flooding or extreme heat in their homelands due to climate change.
    Six climate change experts gathered at City Hall also called on a parks and environment committee to ban private vehicles from downtown because of air pollution.
    “There is a problem with air pollution in Toronto,” Dr. David Pearson said yesterday. “I think there has to be a ban on private cars from the downtown.”
    ‘GETTING URGENT’
    Pearson told about 150 people at City Hall that immigrants will be flocking here to stay with family or friends as other parts of the world face flooding or soaring temperatures.
    “Toronto will be seeing more environmental refugees,” he said. “The problem is getting urgent. We just can’t put our heads in the sand,” Pearson, a Laurentian University professor, said.
    The experts warned there will also be flooding in Toronto as the climate warms, and that there will be periods of extreme weather with temperatures hitting 40C, a decrease in Lake Ontario water levels and fewer salmon running upstream.
    ‘MORE ILLNESSES’
    Toronto Public Health Dr. Monica Campbell said climate change is a global issue that touches everyone. “The temperatures in Toronto have been rising for 150 years,” Campbell said. “There will be more illnesses and disease when things get warmer.”
    Councillor and committee chairman Paula Fletcher said the recommendations will be used to help city officials develop a climate change, clean air and sustainable energy action plan.
    “We, as a city, need to plan and adapt for climate change,” Fletcher said.

  16. “The experts warned there will also be flooding in Toronto as the climate warms, and that there will be periods of extreme weather with temperatures hitting 40C, a decrease in Lake Ontario water levels”
    Let’s see – this so called “expert” warns of flooding in the same sentence as he predicts dropping lake levels?????
    Hmmmmm – and we are supposed to take him at his word! I guess this is called “covering all bases”
    The world is full of idiots….

  17. Alberta Girl~ Apparently he hasn’t noticed the record snowfalls all across the northern half of Ontario.
    And where does all that water eventually end up…?
    You’d think they would notice such a thing as ‘cycles’ by now….

  18. Quotes from a CanPress Drama Queen: “on the neighbourhood’s [Vancouver] Dickensian streets.
    GG Jean: “very moving”.
    “shared by orders of government.”
    “Orders of government” = the collectivist socialist state.
    The Fraudulent Homeless Industry: More from the socialist’s infamous Pyramid Scheme.
    NDP Fiacco’s math: $3.35 billion/year/each year for 10 consecutive years = $33.50 billion.
    From where would this Midas fortune come from?
    Your pocket.
    Meanwhile, GG Jean has returned to her home in Ottawa from Vancouver where she was visiting the homeless.
    …-
    National housing plan needed: Fiacco, FCM
    Angela Hall, Leader-Post
    There shouldn’t be anybody without a roof over their heads in a country as rich as Canada, says Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco.
    But statistics that show just how many people are without adequate, affordable housing justify a call by Federation of Canadian Municipalities on Wednesday for a national housing plan, said Fiacco.
    In a report released Wednesday in Vancouver the FCM suggests a strategy over 10 years to end “chronic homelessness” at a cost of $3.35 billion a year to be shared by orders of government.
    http://tinyurl.com/2oma3m (reginaleaderpost)
    …-
    [Beware: misleading headline from MSM].
    Protest over poverty, violence in Vancouver downtown east side as Jean visits
    By Steve Mertl, THE CANADIAN PRESS
    Governor General Michaelle Jean bows her head as she is heckled while taking a tour of Vancouver’s downtown eastside with her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
    Jean, on a tour of British Columbia this week, knocked her schedule off the rails with a 90-minute closed-door meeting inside the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, one of the few havens for female drug addicts and prostitutes on the neighbourhood’s Dickensian streets.
    She emerged to say she found what she heard “very moving.”
    Men are normally barred from the centre – though Jean’s husband and some aides were allowed in.
    http://tinyurl.com/2c8dc4

  19. Al’s meds must be failing, or he is off them entirely.
    ” Climate change is occurring far more rapidly than even the worst predictions of the UN’s Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, Al Gore said on Thursday.
    Recent evidence shows “the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had warned us,” climate campaigner and former US vice-president Gore said.
    There are now forecasts that the North Pole ice caps may disappear entirely during summer months within five years, he told a gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos. ”

  20. The Société Generale de France has the biggest trader fraud in history, with one trader responsible for 7.14 billion dollars of losses. This is not good news for banks, as confidence will again drop.
    It is not good news for risk managers either. My husband is in this field and he says he can hardly get his regular work done with all the red tape and auditors that have quadrupled since the Enron scandal, not to mention the expense.

  23. ‘Holland dominated by fear of Islam’
    A Dutch politician cautioned that the government of the Netherlands was dominated by a “fear of Islam,” after it delayed the release of a short film he had made attacking the Koran. In the film, Geert Wilders, the leader of the conservative Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) compares the sacred Muslim text to Hitler’s Mein Kampf…

  24. Q: What does a person have to do to collect paycheque for 2 1/2 years w/o showing for work, then resign and receive severance package?
    A: You have to shoot someone in the guts.
    http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=91c6357a-28fd-4d3a-bede-5dd0b984bb01&k=6166
    I lived long enough to understand what actually happened. I contend that it was the way for police to reward the officer for doing the right thing to a right man, and to shield the officer from the financial loss which would certainly result from the scumbag suing him, but as a Canadian taxpayer I cannot allow that to happen. Transparency and accountability goes out of the window when methods like that are used.
    Even if that was done with noble goal in mind, that ruins public trust in law enforcement.

  25. Defections have Started
    A former canidate for the Green Party has quit over May’s comments on Afhganistan.
    National Newswatch jan.24/08
    The looks on Oliver & Weston when asked by Duffy last nite were one of those Priceless Moments.
    Comparing this Mission to the Crusades, My Gawd! Now this definatly shows that this women is completely off her stick & she leads a political party. I think she should resign and join the Rhino Party.

  26. The morons in Brussels have an extortion plan to extract money from the non-Kyoto signers.
    Commission President José Manuel Barroso says that the EU will essentially impose its own rules on other countries. If the U.S. and other nations don’t sign up for the Kyoto Pact or its successor, or fail to follow Europe’s lead on emissions, Brussels will, he said, “look at other options, such as requiring importers to obtain allowances alongside European competitors.” In other words, the Commission wants to impose a tax on products made in countries that don’t have carbon-emissions limits. American imports, for example, would thus be less competitive in Europe because the U.S. doesn’t think such regulation is the way to save the planet.
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120112814141311361.html?mod=opinion_main_europe_asia

  28. People love their trolls. Asking them to stop feeding teh trolls is like asking them to stop thinking about poor, poor, Brittany Spears.

  31. Wow, troll-free, so far.
    Should I bait them?
    Hey Commie Pinko trolls…..George Bush and the SAUDIS!

  32. Sharia at work to keep Afghans safe from freedom:
    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28704_A_Death_Sentence_for_Blasphemy_in_Afghanistan&only
    What obscure page in the New York Times would this story make? I’ve said it before that unless Afghanistan brings in a constitution that guarantees individual rights the West will not be successful in its’ mission. Without individual freedom nobody will fight for themselves and the Taliban will rise again.

  33. More on the Hamas invasion of Sinai:
    Mubarak pulls Egyptian border forces out of N. Sinai, Washington evacuates US MFO unit from El Arish
    Announcing that Egypt would not expel the hundreds of thousands of Gazan Palestinians who continue to crossed the broken border fence into N. Sinai, President Hosni Mubarak redeployed his special border force from the Gazan border to points south of El Arish, Bir Lahfan and Abu Aweigila. This step effectively handed over to the control of Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist organizations and al Qaeda a northern Sinai enclave of roughly 855 sq. km., twice the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
    Early Thursday, Jan. 24, American forces and equipment withdrew from the Multi-force Organization base at Al Gura northeast of al Arish…

  34. (Via The Times Comment Central) Sadanand Dhume, Is India an Ally?
    The [Indian Islamic] community has also given birth—via Deobandism, the subcontinental cousin of Wahhabism—to an outlook whose purest form is embodied in the Taliban. Moreover, Abul Ala Maududi, who along with the Egyptians Sayyid Qutb and Hasan al-Banna was one of the founders of modern Sunni Islamism, spent more of his life in India than in Pakistan, the country with which he is usually associated.It was in India that Maududi formulated and expounded many of his ideas about a society and state run strictly according to the dictates of shari’a. In a survey of Indian Muslims conducted by the U.S.-based Pakistani scholar Akbar Ahmed, a majority picked as their contemporary role models Maududi, the 19th-century Muslim supremacist Sayyed Ahmad Khan, and an influential Bombay-based cleric named Zakir Naik, who publicly praises Osama bin Laden and calls for all Indians to be governed by shari’a.
    Not surprisingly, then, Indian Islam has not gone untouched by the jihadist trends in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh…

  39. charles macdonald – interesting comments. I suspect, and it’s pure speculation, but I think that Israel would welcome the breakup of the Rafah Wall.
    To my understanding, that wall was built by both the Israeli and Egyptian governments about 20? years ago; it was managed, I think, by Israel until 2005, and then, by the European Union..and then… I can’t figure out its history (see one outline in Wikipedia).
    I’m speculating, but, I wonder if Israel would welcome this breakup, with the speculation that Gaza would become a kind of suburb of Egypt. That would remove it from any part of a future Palestinian state.

  40. ET~ Just came from Captain’s Quarters blog.. there are Israeli officials suggesting that they should let Egypt take up the care for all these faux ‘palestinisans’.
    I say Go For It.

  41. Bust of man who saved over 5,000 Jews unveiled in Hungary
    BUDAPEST, Hungary – Italian and Hungarian officials on Wednesday unveiled a bust in Budapest of an Italian man who helped save the lives of more than 5,000 Jews near the end of the Second World War.
    Giorgio Perlasca, who acquired Spanish citizenship in Budapest after the Nazis expelled diplomats from the Hungarian capital, set up safe houses around the city and issued documents to Jews placing them under Spanish protection.
    “As long as he was around, we always felt safe and confident about surviving,” said poet Eva Lang, who as a 19-year-old spent three months in one of the safe houses.
    Perlasca was one of several people, including Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg and Switzerland’s Carl Lutz, who saved the lives of thousands of Budapest Jews in 1944 and early 1945.
    They did it with few resources but with much courage and cunning.
    http://tinyurl.com/2fnb2u (canoenews) …-

  42. But Kate, a troll like Warren K is absolutely necessary for us to have some fun and practise on.

  44. Steyn says:
    “Suppose I decide to countersue, say, the Canadian Islamic Congresss and the Osgoode Four – Elmo’s kids – because they’ve exposed me to “hatred and contempt”.
    Well, that and assassination.
    Mohammad was notorious for assassinating anybody who supposedly mocked him. He put out orders to kill writers, poets and singers. A veritable dead poets society of his own making.
    Here’s a couple:
    March 624: Uqba bin Abu Muayt
    Uqba harassed and mocked Muhammad in Mecca and wrote derogatory verses about him. He too was captured during the Battle of Badr, and Muhammad ordered him to be executed. “But who will look after my children, O Muhammad?” Uqba cried with anguish. “Hell,” retorted the prophet coldly. Then the sword of one of his followers cut through Uqba’s neck.
    Source: Bukhari, vol. 4, no. 2934; Muslim, vol. 3, nos. 4422, 4424; Ibn Ishaq, p. 308 / 458.
    March 624: Asma bint Marwan
    Asma was a poetess who belonged to a tribe of Medinan pagans, and whose husband was named Yazid b. Zayd. She composed a poem blaming the Medinan pagans for obeying a stranger (Muhammad) and for not taking the initiative to attack him by surprise. When the Allah-inspired prophet heard what she had said, he asked, “Who will rid me of Marwan’s daughter?” A member of her husband’s tribe volunteered and crept into her house that night. She had five children, and the youngest was sleeping at her breast. The assassin gently removed the child, drew his sword, and plunged it into her, killing her in her sleep.
    Source: Ibn Ishaq, pp. 675-76 / 995-96.
    Of course, there’s also the Quran:
    Make war on them [non-Muslims] until idolatry shall cease and God’s religion shall reign supreme. (8:40)
    Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God’s religion reigns supreme. (2:193)
    The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan. (4:76)
    We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:150)
    I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. (8:12)
    When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. (9:5 – the verse that abrogates 124 lesser ‘nice’ verses)
    Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe in neither God nor the Last Day, … until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued. (9:29)
    Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. (9:73 and 66:9)
    Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. (9:123)
    When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads. (47:4)
    Unlike section 13, where a “Human Rights Officer” is allowed to convict based on some sort of foggy notion of potential victimization – the Quran and Hadiths can be proven, with mountains of evidence, to incite hatred, violence and murder. Theo Van Gough’s death would attest to that fact. Not to mention the hundreds murdered during the motunes fiasco.
    So, I’d say Mark Steyn not only has an excellent case, but his life may depend on it.

  45. ET, Otter — Egypt wants nothing to do with Gaza or Hamas:
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1201070782921&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
    It is a nightmare for Mubarak to have an enclave controlled by Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood (to the extent there’s any difference). Egypt tolerated the infamous smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip as long as the materiel was used against Israel. The calculus has changed as Egypt reaps the whirlwind.

  46. Keep an eye on this story. Holland is bracing for retaliation and violence when Geert Wilders releases to the internet his anti-Koran video. He’s been on FOX today.
    Mr Wilders has reacted by announcing he will delay release for two weeks and accepts he may have to leave the country. Dutch Embassies around the world have been put on alert and the Dutch counter terrorist services have held emergency meetings with the Government. Most politicians in the Netherlands believe Mr Wilders is being inflammatory and insulting, but are sticking to the principle of freedom of expression.
    http://martinstanford.typepad.com/foreign_matters/2008/01/dutch-braced-fo.html

  47. Nothing of great import or even a surprise…
    CTV News has been giving the Economic Forum in Davos double time coverage this morning.
    Of course what they are covering is Al Gore and Bono
    for all the usual reasons …. the theme and lead in … celebrities turning heads at Davos.
    Yep …. on the other hand I found BBC had ONE article on the World Economic Forum..
    discovering Economic Roots … apparently with big concerns over global economic problems from the fallout of the US Credit meltdown at least a few people have decided to ignore the sideshow freak activists and snake oil hucksters!
    Kissinger is always a big draw and I sure would like to hear him speak.

  50. Worth quoting from Chuckercanuk: And Amen to this:
    Year 2 of Pax Harpernia
    I can’t believe the day nearly slipped away without a formal acknowledgement that it marks two years of the Harper government.
    Canada has never been so united in its history and our voice on the world stage hasn’t been as firm or heeded in almost two generations. We have saved ourselves from cash-gulping social engineering projects and seen our taxes and debt fall.
    With soaring approval ratings, the Prime Minister has set a standard of leadership that will be difficult for future heads of government to match: there are few issues on which the Prime Minister hasn’t a very subtle, considered view. A rare feat for a politician, he can answer a question he is asked without resorting to a cheap platitude or, as with his major opponent, the promise of invading a country to reduce everyone’s carbon footprint.
    http://chuckercanuck.blogspot.com/2008/01/year-2-of-pax-harpernia.html

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