61 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Oh look, we have a shiny new thing. Hi folks, it’s Vitruvius here. Since our server farm in Ohio was down due to a SNAFUed ATT/MCI upgrade yesterday afternoon, and thus I was looking for something to do while I waited for them to get their act together so I could perform some upgrade deployments I had scheduled for today, I decided to entertain myself by writing a little Perl program to spider and scrape the SDA main page for articles, and then spider and scrape said articles for comments, and then report the Top 50 SDA Commenters by number of comments, by total length of comments, and by average comment length (not that I was billing for such time, of course). So without further ado, ladies & gentlemen, current survey says:
    sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com/2008/02/sda-commenter-statistics.html

  3. Are you saying that some of us should shut up, Vitruvius? LOL
    David Aaronovitch, No retreat from the War on Terror
    Here are the likely consequences of such a pattern [of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan]. The Afghan Government would collapse, to be replaced by an overt civil war fought between the Taleban and local governors in the various provinces. A million or more Afghan refugees would again flee their country, many of them ending up in the West. Deprived of support from the US, as recommended by our commentators, President Musharraf or a successor would effectively withdraw from the border regions, leaving a vast lawless area from central Afghanistan to north central Pakistan. Al-Qaeda and other jihadists would operate from these areas as they did before 9/11. This time these forces – already capable of assassinating a popular democratic politician – would seriously impact upon the stability of Pakistan, which is a nuclear state.
    Jihadists everywhere, from Indonesia to Palestine, would see this as a huge victory, democrats and moderates as a catastrophic defeat…

  4. (Via CSP) John R. Bolton, Our Politicized Intelligence Services
    Today, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee (and Thursday on the House side) to give the intelligence community’s annual global threat analysis. These hearings are always significant, but the stakes are especially high now because of the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.
    Criticism of the NIE’s politicized, policy-oriented “key judgments” has spanned the political spectrum and caused considerable turmoil in Congress. Few seriously doubt that the NIE gravely damaged the Bush administration’s diplomatic strategy. With the intelligence community’s credibility and impartiality on the line, Mr. McConnell has an excellent opportunity to correct the NIE’s manifold flaws, and repair some of the damage done to international efforts to stop Iran from obtaining deliverable nuclear weapons…
    wsj.com/article/SB120217061766442685.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

  9. Don’t bother.
    From lberia’s commie leaflet
    … Isn’t the world-wide health of citizens more important than
    the commercial interests of 1 or 2 Canadian companies?”

  11. I see that wingnut Michael Byers is meddling in the Schreiber extadition hearings,and it’s not going well for him.See NN under ‘same old same old’ Just another Lib.mouthpiece sticking his foot in it.

  13. Any sightings of Paul Martin around Parliament Hill? He’s still an MP for LaSalle-Emard so he must be earning his money working for the folks in that riding. Maybe he’s clearing driveways for them, lots of snow in those parts.

  15. Conservative Party of Canada: “Do as we say, not as we do.
    A federal Conservative political aide sent members of the Chinese media a list of questions for Raymond Chan just before the Liberal parliamentarian was scheduled to hold a press conference. […] But, four hours before that conference, former Fairchild Radio AM 1470 producer and host Ronald Leung – the special assistant to British Columbia political minister Stockwell Day – sent an email to “five or six” of his friends in the Chinese media.” […] And he included in that email a list of fourteen questions, such as “Why was Raymond Chan never involved in all-party negotiations on the successful Comfort Women motion? Why was his party represented by other Liberal MPs, while Chan was nowhere to be seen?” Asked about the perception he was feeding questions to the media, Mr. Leung responded, “You can look at it different ways. But those are my friends in the media. And I was just trying to say, ‘I worked in the media before. So I would ask those questions if I was in the media.'”

  18. It’s true, Weston is obsessed with Harper.
    He’s had his ass in a sling since he was not invited to a little party at 24 Sussex many months ago.

  19. ted, I know you don’t know the difference, but a political aide to ask media personnel to ask questions of an MP appearing in a MEDIA INTERVIEW,
    is NOT the same as a media reporter asking an MP to ask questions of a witness appearing before a Parliamentary Ethics Commission.
    And remember, the questions that reporter wanted the MP to ask of the Witness had NOTHING to do with the mandate of the Ethics Commission.
    Try again, Ted.

  21. Mark Steyn: ‘Why don’t you sue me?’
    National Post Published: Tuesday, February 05, 2008
    In their latest missive to you, Naseem Mithoowani, Khurrum Awan and Muneeza Sheikh refer to the excerpt from my book published in Maclean’s, as a “defamatory article”. OK, if it’s defamatory, why don’t you sue me? Cue crickets chirping.
    It’s precisely because the article is not defamatory that the “plaintiffs” have had to rig the game by going to (at last count) three of Canada’s many “human rights” pseudo-courts. In none of their plaintive reprises protesting that they’re only looking for a chance to “start a debate” have they or their patrons at the Canadian Islamic Congress questioned the accuracy of a single specific fact, quotation or statistic. If they wanted to “start a debate,” they could start one, via a blog, column or book. Instead, they started a “human rights” complaint, which is what people do when they want to end the debate.
    (He nails Warman and the CIC Islamofascist Elmasry. The word on these creeps is getting out)
    nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=286209
    Also, “Marcus Luttrell’s noble ‘Christian soul'”
    If you want to know the difference between Islamofascist terrorist ‘freedom fighters’ and a western soldier, this is a must read. Lizzy May be shamed.
    nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=f8d8cbbe-ca0b-4b17-882c-e1470e780a7e&k=40370

  23. Leftist historical revisionism and immigration a toxic mix in Britain. 23% of the ‘British’ believe Churchill is a myth:
    LONDON (AFP) – Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.
    The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.
    And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.
    Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain’s most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.
    Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.
    Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns’ fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.
    UKTV Gold television surveyed 3,000 people.
    (Little wonder Islam is a ‘religion of peace,’ then. Black is white, up is down, etc.)

  24. Irwin Daisy: your thoughts? Please explain Islam’s
    “doctrine of abrogation”.
    …-
    Muslim Responses to Unpleasant Islamic Facts
    When Muslims are told about scores of horrendous facts contained in the Quran, Sunnah and the Sharia, they will typical respond as follows:
    1. Accuse the person of lying and ignorance. […]
    2. Accuse the person of racism or Islamophobia (This is one of the best tactics!). […]
    16. If all else fails, assume a zombie-like attitude and start saying the Qanoot-e-Naazilah prayer in a low, intense voice (in Arabic!). Hiss a little between lines. Let the infidel know you are more than just a little crazy. If you have a knife take it out and start testing the blade with your thumb. Roll your eyes, foam at the mouth (twitching is good, too!). Stand up suddenly and start yelling “Allah Akhbar”. Do this ten times as loud as possible……… You have won the argument!
    http://tinyurl.com/ywwfvs (islamwatch)

  25. Re: Ted not knowing the difference
    Doesn’t seem to help. You can explain all you want. Some concepts are just too complicated for Ted et al…

  26. re: Top 50 SDA Commenters
    Why thank you Vitruvius. I’d like to thank the academy, my mom & dad, our hostess Kate and of course all those leftoids out there who supply us with a never ending supply of BS to disect and disprove.
    Seriously, this site is one of the most interesting and thought provoking sites around.

  27. (Via CSP) Space the next frontier, says military body
    Triggering a fresh debate on weaponisation of space, an organisation under the Ministry of Defence has backed the use of space for military purposes.
    The suggestion is bound to cause embarrassment to the government, which has called for strengthening international legal regime for peaceful use of outer space.
    VRS Natarajan, chairman, Society of Defence Technologists (SODET) told HT, “India has to get going and use space technology for military programmes. Our neighbours are taking strides. We have to exploit our expertise in the civilian space programme for defence purposes.”

  29. The insulted, ever victimized Muslims are attempting to define the world’s speech laws again…
    they’re demanding that Wikipedia stop violating their delicate sensibilities and remove the offending images, with an online petition that’s already gathered 82,783 signatures:
    “Removal of the Pics of Muhammad from Wikipedia”
    “Target:To tell wikipedia editors to respect other peoples religion”
    “Sponsored by: Faraz Ahmad”
    “In Islam pictures or Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other holly figures are not allowed, but on wikipedia they has published some pictures that are showing not only a body with white face but an image that has a complete face.. that is even not allowed by SHITAT fact of Islam.”
    “i request all my brothers and sisters to sign this petition so we can tell wikipedia to remove them.”
    —————-
    Most of the world are not Muslims, so why should anybody care if pictures of the Muslim so-called prophet, yet confirmed mass-murdering pervert are not allowed in Islam? Horror of horrors, they’re showing “not only a body with white face, but a complete face…”
    “so we can tell wikipedia to remove them.” Arrogant and pompous. It’s in the DNA of the ideology.
    It’s time the world told these losers to do what they do best and go screw a farm animal (hey, if you think that’s bigoted, ask Khomeini – he gave them official, allah sanctified instructions on this).
    I know that’s not nice and it’s not meant to be.

  30. The Parti Quebecois and the Liberal Party are at it again. Following some stupid articles in The Journal de Montreal about stores hiring a person who couldn’t speak French, both parties are supporting giving more funds to the Office de la Langue Française (The Tongue Troopers as we call them).
    Everyone tries to appeal to the soft and hard nationalists here and we anglos and allophones are treated as menaces. Meanwhile the anglos continue to vote for the Liberal Party who takes them as acquired votes.
    The latest deal is the fact that nationalists are complaining that allophones speak English or other languages AT HOME!

  31. Introducing MEMRI’s Urdu/Pashtu Media Blog: http://www.thememriblog.org/urdupashtu.
    MEMRI is launching today a new project – the Urdu and Pashtu Media Blog. The project will include translations and analysis from Urdu and Pashtu media. This project comes as a timely addition to the monitoring, translation, and analysis of media in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish that MEMRI has conducted for the past decade. MEMRI will be taking its media coverage to the heart of one of the focal regions of Islamism and jihad and will be reporting directly from the world’s fault line: the Pakistan-Afghanistan region.
    More from MEMRI: Coffee with Colleague Lands Woman in Trouble. Ah, those Saudis.

  32. maz2, did you visit ‘sonsofapesandpigs.org’ by chance?
    The Islamic principle of abrogation is essentially that the earlier and less violent Meccan verses in the Quran are abrogated by the later hyper-violent verses from the Medina period. The Quran is divided into those two periods.
    In chapter 2:106, the Qur’an plainly says,
    “Such of our revelation as we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring (in place) one better or the like thereof.”
    For example, Quran 9:5 abrogates no less than 124 less violent verses: (USC)
    009.005
    YUSUFALI: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
    Mo used this convenient ‘revelation from allah’ to benefit himself as well, ie. he could have as many wives as he wanted, even marry his son’s wife, while normal Muslims were limited to up to 4 wives.
    Equally, a really bizarre and alien tennent in Islam is dualism. That means two opposing verses can be held to be true. Especially when deceiving the kaffir, as in taqiyya and kitman.
    Therefore they can say to you, “see, the Quran says there’s no compulsion in religion.” At the same time knowing that a huge number of verses in the Quran, Hadith and Sira promote death to infidels and apostates.
    Islam is an ideology that’s not just foundationally violent, it’s fundamentally based on lies and promotes pathological lying amongst its adherents.

  33. Hey SomeGuyInOttawa – I’m one of the et al of whom you speak.
    Talking points, ‘questions’, fact feeding, are all part of the game. Politicians stroke media who stroke politicians.
    As Thibault said yesterday he gets fed all the time, from every special interest that’s around.
    The same way that the Con staffer fed the media. It doesn’t matter the forum, it’s the fact that these gerbils manufacture the communications that’s the issue.
    Just because the Libs are the ones caught out for a one way on committee, doesn’t make a lick of difference.
    And pointing out the transgression is of less importance is bad reasoning. Try ‘ignoratio elenchi’ for a start.
    Grease is grease is grease.
    All on your tax dollars. Just like the Libranos.

  35. The Pentagon’s Islamofascist, ‘Islam’ loses, Coughlin back in:
    “Stephen Coughlin will be retained by the Defense Department!
    So says Congresswoman Sue Myrick in a statement:”
    I decided to vet this matter personally. I met with Members of the House and Senate, Pentagon officials, and even Major Coughlin himself. Major Coughlin told me that he has had a great working relationship with the Joint Staff and that he did not believe there was any conspiracy to remove him from his position. In fact, he was already planning to leave the Joint Staff at the end of his contract. Lest the rumors persist, Major Coughlin will be associated with another office program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he will continue to spread his message.
    Coughlin’s thesis is available on line.

  36. Irwin Daisy: thank you.
    …-
    Three al-Qaeda leaders killed in US attack (the Libi raid)
    Kuwait City, 5 Feb. (AKI) – The US air raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Abu Layth al-Libi in Pakistan is reported to have also killed three other leaders from the terrorist network.
    According to the Kuwaiti daily, al-Watan, two Kuwaitis and a Libyan also died in the missile attack conducted by a Predator aircraft on January 25 in Mir Ali, in North Waziristan on the border of Afghanistan.
    The daily said the attack was aimed at what was believed to have been an al-Qaeda summit meeting. Abu Obeida Tawari al-Obeidi and Abu Adel al-Kuwaiti were reportedly there with al-Libi.
    …-
    http://tinyurl.com/2on4vn (adnkronos)

  37. Actually, no, ted-hardboiled.
    Pointing out that a reporter providing a Liberal MP with a question to ask in a Committee Meeting – and a question outside the mandate of that Committee – isn’t ‘ignoratio elenchi’, ie, an irrelevant conclusion. It’s highly relevant and points out your false analogy in attempting to compare the two situations.
    You know, ted-hardboiled, but facts matter. What are the facts? A reporter has no business defining the mandate of a Commission, no business defining the questions. I bet you didn’t know that ted-hardboiled. You’re a Liberal, eh?
    But all a reporter, a professional reporter, ought to do, is, heh – report. Not manipulate.
    Now, an MP or anyone else, can ask a reporter to ask questions of another MP during a media interview. I bet, ted-hardboiled, that you don’t know the difference between a media interview and an official commission of inquiry!
    Heh – did you know that a Commission of Inquiry requires the witnesses to take an oath to tell the truth? You don’t have to do that during a media interview.
    Oh – and did you know that a Commission of Inquiry has a specific mandate for its inquiry? Gosh, media interviews don’t have mandates.
    Oh- and did you know that media interviews are carried out by reporters? Gosh. Commissions of Inquiry are carried out by MPs. And lawyers.
    Gosh, ted-hardboiled. Facts do matter. That’s why false analogies are, well, they’re false.
    Have fun, and try again.

  38. “did you know that a Commission of Inquiry requires the witnesses to take an oath to tell the truth?”
    Untrue. In fact, Mulroney wasn’t under oath, ET.
    Gosh, ET. Facts do matter. That’s why untrue facts are, well, they’re untrue.
    Have fun, and try again.

  39. “Pointing out that a reporter providing a Liberal MP with a question to ask in a Committee Meeting – and a question outside the mandate of that Committee – isn’t ‘ignoratio elenchi’, ie, an irrelevant conclusion.
    I used the latin description of drawing a false conclusion to refute the following:
    “I know you don’t know the difference, but a political aide to ask media personnel to ask questions of an MP appearing in a MEDIA INTERVIEW,is NOT the same as a media reporter asking an MP to ask questions of a witness appearing before a Parliamentary Ethics Commission” Posted by: ET at February 5, 2008 1:07 PM
    The proposition is that the source and forum of the media/political parties is not relevant to the fact that political parties and the media feed each other – in information, in leads/tips, and generally try to manipulate and manage that relationship to each other’s benefit.
    I argue (and state) that this is not relevant. That managed communications strategies exist at all is an affront to genuine discourse, and that the media is offloading workloads because they are lazy.
    The forum and channel are moot points. That’s why the latin reference.
    Trust this clarifies.
    BTW – it was a standing ethics committee Erickson fed, not a Commission – that’s coming up.

  40. Actually, ted, my dear, Mulroney was under oath. He didn’t need to be re-oathed, because, as a PM, he had already taken The Oath when he became PM. There was no need, the Commission felt, for him to do it again.
    Now, ted, do try to get your facts up to par. And, stop with the false analogies.
    Again, a media interview, carried out by reporters, of a MP, is ..well, it’s made up of any and all questions. No mandate, no perimeters on the nature of the questions. So, anyone including another MP, can suggest to a reporter that they question so-and-so, about his such-and-such activities during when-and-where.
    But, a Commission of Inquiry – heck, ted, despite your hopes and mopes, it’s completely different. The witnesses are bound by their oath(s) to ‘tell the truth’; the questioners are not, unfortunately, your Liberal pals in the MSM, but are MPs and lawyers. Oh, and there’s a mandate of inquiry.
    So, your favorite Liberal MSM reporter has no right to interfere and suggest a question to be asked.
    Why not? Because that dishy reporter isn’t part of the Commission. While in the media interview of the MP, that reporter IS validly there. Heck – I bet you didn’t know that.
    Try, try again, ted.

  41. Dr. Keith Martin was on the Adler Show (radio) about 2:30 p.m. Feb 5. re his HRC motion.
    His presentation was not at all strong so it seems that Stephi and Co. may have been grinding on him. He played his motion down and apparently it really is only a motion to pursue a Liberal motion to have “it” (whatever it has become now in his framework)presented in the House is a long way off.
    Oh, well. At least a flare-up did occur and every little bit helps to get freedom of speech issues out of the HRCs.

  42. Actually, hardboiled, context IS relevant. What you are trying to do is delete the context from a situation and make ALL situations identical.
    I’m afraid that redefining situations from their differences to merge them into universals, is invalid. That’s, if we want to stick to the fun of Latin, called ‘dicto simpliciter’ or..sweeping generalization, where you try to reject the features of a particular situation.
    Now, the particular situations, or contextual realities, of these two Events, are completely different. So, you cannot, logically, merge them.
    One, as I’ve said, is a media event, where reporters ask open questions of an MP. Where they get their questions from, whether from the internal delights of their own cognitive processes, or the external ramblings of friends and whoever..isn’t relevant. The context is: media event; questions of an MP by any and all reporters; open perimeters.
    The other, is a commission or committee (I’m generalizing; both have double letters in their names). It’s official; it’s set up by the govt with specific committee members who alone are allowed to ask questions, and the focus is specific. The questioners are MPs and lawyers; the witnesses are under oath; the mandate of examination is closed.
    This means that an eager reporter has no business in this situation. No business suggesting questions – because the agenda and intentionality of the event is supposed to be defined by the Committee members.
    The context is: govt event, questions of Oathed Witnesses by MPs, closed event.
    Sorry, hardboiled, but the two can’t be subsumed under the same theme. Try again.

  43. “Actually, ted, my dear, Mulroney was under oath. He didn’t need to be re-oathed, because, as a PM, he had already taken The Oath when he became PM. There was no need, the Commission felt, for him to do it again.”
    ET, dearest, if you don’t know what you are talking about, then you are best served to admit it or just remain silent, not to compound your errors by trying to spin. It doesn’t look good on the government or any politician and it doesn’t look good on you.

  45. Misleading Headline Time
    “Montrealer Held in Iran freed Without Canadian Help”
    CTV.ca feb05/08
    It’s interesting that this women holds a Dual citizenship of France/Iran & became a permanent resident of Canada in 2004, So she was Canada’s problem?
    Read the comments after the article.

  48. Canada won’t build, run Afghan jails,
    [Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime] Bernier says
    (CP) …-
    Liberal Citoyen Dion said 24, April, 2007:
    “We should find another solution. We may bring them in [sic] Canada. We may keep them under our control in Afghanistan.”
    What is Citoyen’s policy today?

  50. Norman Specter was on the hot seat being grilled by the committee today..
    Did any one see that. Very dramatic!
    Norm sidelined questions by bringing up a wide variety of gripping inside information.
    ** This group should really be looking into the TEN $Million$ that Shreiver either kept or spread around to influence peddlers** he said.
    And lots more far more volotile stuff like the RCMP investigations into governments Federal as well as Provincial, like BC.
    He alluded to three major ..my word=[coverups], and that was just BC, never mind Ottawa.
    The vein on Specter*s neck was really standing out and I thought he should have been less intense, thereby looking less *Guilty*.
    The session went for some time and was first quality CanadiaN Drama.
    Specter as much as suggested the RCMP had become corrupt and he would help in any way possible to *Get to the bottom of things*.
    This is the opening of a can of worms folks. . . unless the Aspers et all decide to give it the Canadian Smooooth Over.
    Specter mentioned dark suits of mystery who would meet with the PMO, who he mostly did not know except for one Conrad Black, that is.
    Lots more I can not recall. Wish I had taped it. = TG

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