49 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. About a year and a third ago I wrote some comments on and collected some coverage of Pope Benedict’s Regensburg lecture ~ tinyurl.com/pxb9a ~ which were linked to by Kathy Shaidle and thus became the most viewed article at The Sagacious Iconoclast. Following up thereto I found in the current issue of the Hoover Institution’s Policy Review magazine the following essay, which I think is quite good (I’ve reproduced it at my site because broken formatting in the original makes it almost impossible to read):
    Religion Within Reason
    Pope Benedict’s Critique of Islam
    by Mark Gould ~ Policy Review ~ Dec. 2007
    sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2008/01/religion-within-reason.html

  2. O crap!
    Thanks for that tip, hubby has to fly this route for his job, I’ll insist on another airline for sure.
    He normally doesn’t take AC anyway, but just in case I’ll be bringing this up to him.
    Mind you he’d be one of the ones to help take ANYONE who is a threat.
    From our lousy news sources here, they painted him as having an emotional breakdown…made it seem more of a individual nervous breakdown sort of thing. Now it makes more sense.
    cbc, ctv – can’t be broadcasting truth or courage.

  4. ldd…I got news for ya…It does not matter which airline your hubby takes,if it can be used to cause collateral damage and can be accessed,the brand name means nothing.

  5. For the record LDD, Kathy’s link was back then, not recently. And I will admit up front that you will find that Mr. Gould is a sociologist who does indulge in legitimating and problematizing, though he uses them in their proper clean sense, he doesn’t engage in absurdities like the hegemony of hermeneutics, and he is on the pope’s side (with a couple provisos).
    A quick methodological note: I find answers.com to be the best place to look up words and phrases. If you use the Firefox browser then you can install the Answers extension and then just Ctrl+Shift+Click any word for a detailed definition and discussion in a pop-up window. I find that to be one particular advantage of on-line v. dead-tree reading, as I find looking words up in physical dictionaries to be tedious. Lovely, but tedious.

  6. Damn folks! A guy goes and has a heart attack and you leave him about three weeks worth of reading in only four days!
    Good to be back!

  8. Bias by the Canadian MSM/TO Globe-Mail? Documented here.
    …-
    UN chief gets it
    What will it take for opposition to grasp Afghanistan mission?
    By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN
    If the Secretary General of the United Nations writes a powerful defence of the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan and nobody reports it, is that the same as if he never wrote it at all?
    In Canada, apparently so. Sun reader Pav Penna recently pointed me to a remarkable column written by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the Globe and Mail on Jan. 24, which the paper ran only on its website.
    Penna asked why no Canadian media have reported its contents. Good question. They’re certainly politically significant for Canada, given the ongoing debate about the Afghanistan mission domestically.
    Indeed, to be sure it was authentic, I contacted the UN Secretary-General’s office in New York yesterday, which confirmed the piece was indeed written by Ban Ki-moon.
    http://tinyurl.com/2g8fzg (TO Sun)
    …-
    Toronto Globe-Mail:
    Being in Afghanistan is dangerous, not being in Afghanistan is more dangerous
    BAN KI-MOON
    Special to Globe and Mail Update
    Afghanistan is a potent symbol of the costs inherent in abandoning nations to the lawless forces of anarchy. That alone justifies international efforts to help rebuild the country. Lest there be any doubt, remember Sept. 11, 2001, and its worldwide reverberations. We learned then how a country, shorn of its civic institutions, becomes a vacuum to be filled by criminals and opportunists.
    To continue reading this article, you will need to purchase this article.
    http://tinyurl.com/28fq7h

  9. Gee Jim, I hope it wasn’t SDA that caused you to blow a gasket. Gotta learn to ignor the trolls. Glad you are well enough to grouse about it though.

  11. Retired Judge Who*? praises PM Harper? Judge is in shock?
    …-
    “there’s more concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office than we’ve ever had before, which is quite remarkable in a minority government, but he’s pulled it off.”
    http://tinyurl.com/2wqtms (calsun)
    *Judge Gomery, in his Gomery Report, exonerated/whitewashed Liberal Party/AdScam Chretien-Martin, aka the Librano$.

  12. maz2: Good on Mr Goldstein (the Globe was decent enough to publish this letter of mine, Jan. 26:
    ‘Pay heed to Mr. UN
    By MARK COLLINS
    Saturday, January 26, 2008 – Page A22
    Ottawa — I find it curious that you chose to publish United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s article Being In Afghanistan Is Dangerous, Not Being In Afghanistan Is More Dangerous (Jan. 24) in the online edition only. Your general readership surely would have been interested in these words of his: “Our collective success depends on the continuing presence of the International Security Assistance Force, commanded by NATO and helping local governments in nearly every province to maintain security and carry out reconstruction projects.”
    In any event, Canadian politicians such as Jack Layton and Elizabeth May – who advocate having the UN take over the international military presence in Afghanistan – should pay close attention to the words of the UN’s own Secretary-General. Though I doubt they will.’
    Mark
    Ottawa

  15. Pretty sad when even the head of a corrupt and useless organization like the UN has more sense than the leaders of 4 parties in opposition to our government.
    Now if Spanky Moon had come out bitching about Canada’s reluctance to pay for all the stuff they want paid for at the UN the G&M would be ALL over it. If Moony had spouted off about some crap from the UN Human Rights circus of HR abusing states then we’d see it all over the front page.
    Of course if some Clown in the LIberal or the Dippers makes ANY kind of allegation or slur against the Prime Minister then it will be headlined as fact in the G&M…. so what’s the bottom line here?
    The publishers and editorial staff at the G&M are no friends of conservatives.
    Neither is most of the MSM.
    File it under Know Your Enemy!

  16. MSM/Canwest/Montreal Gazette spins the headline: It’s BC, Alberta/westerners spoiling the poll on behalf of those bloodthirsty Conservative hangmen.
    “British Columbia, Alberta residents are most likely to agree with new policy”.
    …-
    Majority supports Tories on foreign [read USA] executions: poll
    http://tinyurl.com/2mmazy (canwest)

  17. While we are on ou favourite topic:
    Check out CTV’s picture that accompanies the unimportant headline re: Harper challenging Bush. The media drool and spin on the ‘Harper is Pro Bush’ put downs by the left, but when our PM has the backbone to make a stand it is minor news with a cheesy picture.
    And so far no mention of Dr. Martins motion in the House.
    CTV.ca

  18. (Via CSP) Max Boot, We Are Winning. We Haven’t Won.
    Nine months ago, when I was last in Iraq, the conventional wisdom about the war effort was unduly pessimistic. Many politicians, and not only Democrats, had declared the surge a failure when it had barely begun. Today we know that the surge has succeeded: Iraqi and American deaths fell by approximately 80 percent between December 2006 and December 2007, and life is returning to a semblance of normality in much of Baghdad. Now the danger is that public opinion may be turning too optimistic. While Iraq has made near-miraculous progress in the past year, daunting challenges remain, and victory is by no means assured…

  19. Sorry, folks, the MSM is too busy reporting the Tory slight against Greeks, and their upcoming payback for PMSH. I love this bunch, they get themselves into a p****g contest with Harper, blame him, and then plan their payback.
    They are what they are – incompetetent and irrelevant. Maybe the Tories should float some trial balloon about reducing or ending CBC funding; that way the MSM could report on themselves for he next year, sparing us their unprofessional dribble.

  21. The bylaw to declare the reserve dry failed after the community officials were slow in getting information to the federal Indian Affairs Department, Chief Robert Whitehead of the Yellow Quill Tribal Council told CBC News on Thursday.
    I knew it would be whiteys fault.

  22. Charles MacDonald,
    Your comments are well focused on what is REALLY important to our continued free and civil lifestyle.
    With things turning sour in Pakistan it seems amazing that Nato is so slow in building strength in Afghanistan.
    The Pakistan military speak of getting rid of Musharif because they say he is an error prone incompetent. Who is next?
    Low level service jobs provide the Taliban a way to get men into the Pakistani nuclear complex.
    CBC says 3200 Marines are headed there in March. I was hoping for more, sooner. = TG

  25. MSM repeatedly designates the “expert”, aka appeal to authority. Find the disgraced “expert” who was not an authority at all.
    Even when Smith has been disgraced, MSM continues to say,:
    “a conviction based largely on the [>>>] expert witness
    testimony of Dr. Charles Smith.”
    …-
    Smith gives tearful apology to wrongfully jailed man
    TORONTO – A disgraced pathologist gave a tearful apology Thursday to an innocent man who spent more than a decade in prison for the death of his niece, a conviction based largely on the expert witness testimony of Dr. Charles Smith.
    http://tinyurl.com/23gy3z (canpress)

  29. For those wondering what’s been going on with the ‘Toronto 18,’
    Thomas Walkom has his ‘slant’ on it:
    “Toronto 18′ suspect has good point”
    Jan 31, 2008 04:30 AM
    Toronto Star, Thomas Walkom
    Zakaria Amara called up the other day from the Don Jail. He’s one of the alleged leaders of an alleged terrorist ring known colloquially as the Toronto 18. He’s been in solitary confinement for the last 19 months awaiting trial and says that’s beginning to drive him crazy. But what drives the 22-year-old Canadian even crazier is that the deck seems so stacked against him.
    Which is why, for the first time since his arrest in June 2006, he decided to talk to a reporter.
    “I don’t want sympathy,” he says. “I don’t want a get-out-of-jail card. I just want to be treated fairly.”
    Amara has a point. Who knows if he is guilty of the charges against him, all of which are linked to an alleged plot to behead the prime minister?
    (Yup, that’s the whole crime right there, planning the beheading the PM only)
    That would be just fine if everyone the Crown ever charged were absolutely guilty. But for those who are innocent, or at the very least not as guilty as the government insists, the new laws are hardly fair.
    In particular, they give the government the right, on so-called national security grounds, to withhold information that might exonerate defendants. The government insists this is necessary to protect the country. But in instances where the courts have ordered the Crown to release such information, most notably the public inquiry into the torture and imprisonment of Maher Arar, it has been clear that the state’s real motive was to avoid embarrassment.
    (Check, it’s all about the Tories avoiding embarrassment)
    All of this gets Amara down. He doesn’t understand why he’s being treated to a lesser level of justice. He also doesn’t understand why the Crown keeps him and two others in solitary confinement. He can clearly telephone anyone he likes. He regularly associates with his fellows during their court appearances. How would national security be compromised if the three were allowed to talk to one another in jail?
    (Hey, why not allow them a fully paid vacation in Hawaii?)
    He also insists that he is not a bogeyman.
    Born to a Cypriot mother and a Palestinian father, he was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church. His parents were resolutely secular. Eventually, Amara says, he gravitated to Islam for theological reasons: Like many Christians, he found the concept of the Trinity (which holds that God has three separate personas) difficult to swallow. But he believed in God. So Islam made sense.
    (“Like many Christians, he found the concept of the Trinity difficult to swallow?” Many Christians? I don’t know any Christians with that POV)
    “I’m just an objective person,” says Amara. “I’m not as black and white as many people think. I’m not an extremist – and that word `extremist’ is an extremely relative word. I’m not a hard liner. I read.”
    (I just like to keeeel infidels. It’s a hobby, ok?)
    Citing Plato’s Republic to make his point, he says he fears that Canada is following the United States into tyranny. “People take their rights for granted,” he says.
    (Here’s an islamofascist being quoted by a so-called journalist calling the US a tyranny? And, a proponent of Shariah saying, “People take their rights for granted?”)
    His aim? “All I want is a fair trial … I’m not asking for back flips; I’m not asking for miracles. Just treat me like everybody else.
    (“All I want is a fair trial…” Just like the one you had planned for hundreds, perhaps thousands of civilians?)
    “If I’m guilty I’m going to have to pay for it. But what if I’m innocent?”
    (I don’t know. In the big lottery, which happens to be our court system, perhaps you just have to pick the right scumbag reporter to help roll the dice for ya)

  30. “Arbour backs away from endorsing Arab charter
    Document assailed as anti-Semitic”
    UNITED NATIONS – Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, backed away yesterday from what appeared to be unqualified support for a new pan-Arab human rights charter that includes a commitment to eliminate Zionism.
    The former Canadian Supreme Court justice had said in a statement that she welcomed the Arab Charter on Human Rights, a document critics say equates Zionism with racism, and some believe seeks the destruction of Israel.
    In a new statement, Ms. Arbour said her Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has long been troubled by several of the “rights” enshrined in the charter, which goes into force in mid-March.
    “Throughout the development of the Arab charter, my office shared concerns with the drafters about the incompatibility of some of its provisions with international norms and standards,” the new statement said. “These concerns included the approach to the death penalty for children and the rights of women and non-citizens.”
    Right. The anti-Semetic racist and pro-Islamic fascist was leaned on.

  32. Thank you elizabeth for the link to babble… I realize that you did this because you felt guilty because it was all your fault. /sarc off
    In all honesty, I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how the same words/story/facts can be read by some people and have them jump to an entirely different conclusion.
    It is hard these days being a white anglo-saxon male monogamous heterosexual christian middle aged conservative minded baby boomer these days. it’s always my fault.

  33. WOW – those comments at Rabble have given me a whole new perspective.
    It is truly amazing stuff. From the one issue wonders (natives are treated as less than human) to the everyone is a victim bunch (hey – I’ve had some drinks before, stuff happens).
    I am honestly surprised that these people are Canadians, presumably raised in one of the greatest nations on earth – with opportunity and choice; education and freedom – available to those who simply want to aspire, and work hard to achieve their dream.
    I mean, really. This bunch is not of the same nation. They are pathological.

  34. Many of us think Islam oppresses women. Guess what? We’re just wrong:
    H.A., Letter from Saudi Arabia
    Hello Caroline Glick, I am a 20 year old female living in Saudi Arabia. My family and I used to live the United States for 13 years, until we decided to move back to be closer to our relatives. The other day, I was searching for articles on Google and I came across your op-ed on Laura Bush’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
    I am sorry to say but I was very disappointed with your article. You said things that are not true about my country. For instance, you mentioned that women in Saudi have no choice on who they marry, and that men can marry up to four women and divorce them just in a matter of words…

  35. National Newswatch has had this up for hours as their “Lead Story”.
    Their disclaimers are worthless; their bias is naught but a mirror of the leftist MSM.
    …-
    “…saying their shared Greek heritage should not be used against them”

  36. Saudi Women See a Brighter Road on Rights
    Buoyed by recent advances in women’s rights, advocates for the right of women to drive in Saudi Arabia — the only country in the world that prohibits female drivers — say they believe the ban will be lifted this year…
    Saudi Arabia follows a strict form of Islamic law that does not allow women self-guardianship, mandating a male guardian for women of all ages. A woman cannot travel, appear in court, marry or work without permission from a male guardian, sometimes her own son.
    Until recently, women were also barred from checking into hotels and renting apartments unless they were with a male guardian. But a royal decree announced this month now allows women to stay in hotels and furnished apartments unaccompanied…

  37. It is obvious Pat Martin did not get any nice pills for Christmas. He was just on Newman, and the CWB is in the news again. Conservatives are introducing a bill to give farmers more choice re barley. Liberals countered with another bill to give the CWB more power. NDP will support liberal bill, and Pat want the conservative bill to be a confidence motion, and liberals to vote against it. What will Ont and Que liberals think of the government falling over the CWB.
    It will soon be seeding time in the prairies, and farmers need to know what will happen before they seed Malt Barley. Maybe all those beer drinkers in the rest of canada should be told, liberals want to take away the right of farmers to grow the main ingrdient of beer. And, with US farmers growing crops for biofuel, you might end up with a beerless summer.

  39. A legal notice has been sent to Stephane Dion, dated January 31, 2008, accusing him of defamation against the Conservative Dimitri Soudas, over remarks Dion made that Soudas was ‘a party to extortion’.
    It asks for a full public apology, to be read outside the House of Commons by Wednesday Feb 8/08.
    Now, can anyone explain to me how this letter, which has a heading of Personal and Confidential, and was delivered to Dion by courrier – how is this letter now public on the internet on numerous sites?

  40. Update: Mao Stlong’s weathel adviso;y.
    Mao say: Plomises, plomises.
    …-
    China advises millions to abandon travel plans
    […]
    “Brutal winter weather has pounded China’s central, eastern and southern sections since January 10. The China Meteorological Administration forecasts more snow and sleet with freezing temperatures for southwestern, eastern and southern China. Northern China will stay clear but windy.”
    ” “First we’ll fix the electric grid. After that, the trains will run again. … Then all of you can go home for the Chinese New Year,” the premier said, bringing applause from the crowd.
    Two days later, the wait continued. …-
    http://tinyurl.com/2sylj4 (cnn)

  41. Bill Clinton has said to fight global warming we have to slow down our economy. Isn’t that what a recession is, and isn’t Bush being blamed for it.
    Gee, imagine the media saying, PMSH is fighting global warming by slowing down our economy.
    Would May praise him.

  42. From CBCpravda- proof that whitey is to blame- insuffient funding. this from the frozen kids story. you know if you spread the $hit around far enough and thin enough it looks like brown paint.
    Then bylaw comes into immediate effect once it is enacted by the chief and council in a quorum, but a copy of the bylaw must be mailed to INAC within four days.
    Guy Lonechild, executive vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, raised concerns over how dry bylaws get approved.
    He also called on Health Minister Tony Clement to intervene to ensure mental health services needs in the communities are met.
    Many questions
    The success record for the dry community bylaws has been “hit and miss,” Lonechild said, but could be improved with more federal help for programs such as counselling and treatment

  44. Now here is a sense of humor.
    ‘The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask them how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.’ – Thomas Sowell, one of the great thinkers of our time.

  46. “Harper accused of insulting ‘entire Greek Community.'” – CBC
    Not a surprise, really. When Dion is attacked over his comments regarding comments he made that NATO forces should invade Pakistan, the CBC was one of the few “news” organizations that attempted to mitigate the damage against him – running a clarification campaign on TV again and again last week because, you know, we all got him wrong and the CBC had to let us no such. Damage control.
    Just Google “CBC Dion Pakistan” and the only reference you get is to this mitigating headline…
    “Dion clarifies Pakistan comments”
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cbc+dion+pakistan&rls=com.microsoft:*&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1
    No “Dion under fire for…” or “Dion criticized for…” or “Dion under attack for…” as would be the case had Harper, or any conservative, made the same comment.
    You can subsitute “CBC” with a any other news organizations using “Pakistan Dion” and you’ll get a more harsh descriptor.
    Not from the CBC, though. Again. There job is to “correct” us on “our” misinterpretation.
    The upcoming election is going to be FASCINATING to watch from a CBC bias-analyzing standpoint. They have – and will during the election – attempt to play damage control for him, as they are now.
    The self-implosion of Stockwell Day, Paul Martin, and John Tory combined will be DWARFED in comparison by the implosion of Dion’s campaign – one that will be of MONUMENTAL proportions … He’s going to blow up like a DEATHSTAR and the CBC knows it!

  48. From Dan Cook’s Blog
    http://tinyurl.com/37fu6e
    [Elections Canada: Fourth Quarter Financial Returns]
    Conservative Party
    Fourth Quarter: $4,892,921.63 from 44,324 contributors
    Fiscal 2007: $16,990,765.90 from 159,122 contributors
    Liberal Party
    Fourth Quarter: $1,944,946.11 from 13,618 contributors
    Fiscal 2007: $4,537,966.46 from 35,783 contributors
    NDP
    Fourth Quarter: $1,424,524.23 from 15,698 contributors
    Fiscal 2007: $3,979,736.63 from 53,110 contributors
    Green Party
    Fourth Quarter: $414,274.84 from 3,390 contributors
    Fiscal 2007: $984,605.30 from 12,003 contributors
    Bloc Quebecois
    Fourth Quarter: $336,384.80 from 3,888 contributors
    Fiscal 2007: $430,061.48 from 5,038 contributors

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