60 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  3. Is there nothing that China can’t fake?
    “China’s state news agency published a dispatch from the country’s three latest astronauts describing their first night in space before they had even left Earth.”
    http://tinyurl.com/3u78vq

  4. that was “so very China” Cal…
    exactly as expected, I laughed until I realized we still import food from these people..

  5. Thanks Vit…recently saw an amazing production of Fiddler by some local talent, mostly high school students….if there was some federal arts money arts in it, they deserved every cent! Hard work and talent…great costumes, acting and singing, dancing. Our town is still buzzing about their accomplishment.
    And aren’t we all Fiddler’s on the roof? Trying to make our best music for God, but afraid of ‘falling off the roof!
    Ahhh…if I were a rich woman….

  6. I don’t know how reliable this info is,but la presse has published an article that says that Lizzie May WILL ask her devotees to throw their vote to the libs in ridings where the greens cannot win. Which is, basically all of them. Should she be in the debate after this revelation? Should she be in the debate because she made a deal with a disgraced liberal who may still be under investigation? I don’t think so.Do you? And don’t you wish that we had a major news station that would ask these questions? The CRTC will give Al-Jezeera a slot but not Fox,hmmm,ever wonder why? I’ll tell you why.The same % of people that care about the country is about the same that believe that 9/11 was an inside job. Keep most on SOMA and you can do what you want.Most are happy with a full belly and protection from the elements,we could have so much more.

  8. recently saw an amazing production of Fiddler by some local talent, mostly high school students….if there was some federal arts money arts in it, they deserved every cent!
    If there was no self-centred shrieking, splattered bodily fluids or blatant lefty politicizing displayed how could it possibly have had federal arts funding involved?

  9. Stephane Dion answers students’ questions about Israel.
    Must be seen to be believed.
    I have a feeling that turnout is going to be a serious problem for the Liberals on election night.

  10. Be nice EBD, non-voting high school students have been his biggest crowds. Of course it was listen to Dion or study…………

  11. “Defeatist Liberals should ‘shut up,’ Ignatieff says”*
    …-
    Behold the Lord High Executioner
    A personage of noble rank and title —
    A dignified and potent officer,
    Whose functions are particularly vital!
    Defer, defer,
    To the Lord High Executioner!
    Defer, defer,
    To the noble Lord, to the noble Lord,
    To the Lord High Executioner!”
    (H/T G&S The Mikado)
    *http://tinyurl.com/3jhyfz (g-m)

  12. “What to do when your party turns against you”
    http://tinyurl.com/3kphzm (g-m)
    “Gerald Caplan (former NDP campaign manager):
    >>>>> As I’m sure everyone concedes, the milk of human compassion flows through the veins of all socialists.”
    “I believe Mr. Dion to be an honourable man”
    ..-
    “For Brutus is an honourable man;”
    (H/T Mark Antony)

  13. Sarah Palin is being slaughtered by the media after her interview with Katie Couric, apparently she bombed and in the next breath of the report Obama is surging in the polls. So, on just one interview, Obama and Biden are the real tickets for the US. Hope one of them have a handle on economics and have ALL the answers to ALL the tough questions.

  14. Any links liz?
    Media interpration of ‘bombed’ is relative you know.
    Haven’t seen any comments from Canadian MSM about Dion bombing in front of those students.

  15. Mockely and Lidicule, the Twins; the laughter, the laughter; it’s Goodnight, Irene for Honey-Do Citoyen Dionky.
    MSM is mocking/laughing at Dion.
    “It’s not fair.”
    …-
    “Mrs. Dion is a mighty, bad help
    She buys his undies and pays the bills, but when it comes to boosting the Grit leader’s image …’
    “Janine Krieber, the academic wife of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, is probably getting a bad rap in media circles over a comment that’s been dragged out in this campaign from an interview she gave a magazine last year that made her husband seem like a “yes dear, anything you say, dear” doofus.”
    ” In the magazine interview, Boss Krieber said that, at home, she, not her spouse, does all the book-keeping, income taxes, and she picks out and buys all his clothes, and that includes his underwear.
    ‘YES, DEAR’ SYNDROME
    His underwear?
    Yeah. His underwear.
    She chooses his underwear.
    Now short of his underwear being sexy, satin crotchless underwear from Fredericks Of Hollywood that she knows ahead of time he likes, that part alone definitely feeds into “yes dear, anything you say, dear” syndrome because a man’s underwear is the last line of masculine independent choice.
    But wait. Boss Krieber added something else as part of it. She said about her husband: “He’s colour blind. You don’t leave him in the house alone.”
    Ahh. Right.”
    http://www.ottawasun.com/canadavotes/news/2008/09/26/6883106-sun.html

  16. Why is common sense (paging Mike Harris) in such short supply in our governments. Of course if we did testing it would be racist or discriminatory in some way in Hotel Canada.
    “The Australian panelist, Lesleyanne Hawthorne, recently wrote an illuminating paper comparing the labour market integration rates of economic migrants in Canada and Australia.
    She found that economic immigrants in Australia performed “indisputably better” than those in Canada over the past decade.
    Why? Australia tightened its selection criteria in 1999 to exclude people likely to have difficulty finding work. Pre-migration English language testing is mandatory and bonus points are awarded for high-demand occupations. As well, professionals must have their credentials pre-screened by licensing bodies before they arrive.
    In contrast, Canada accepts newcomers with limited language skills (no testing required) and doesn’t cherry-pick people with high-demand skills, Hawthorne noted in her paper. The consequences are stark. In Australia, more than 80% of main economic applicants are employed within six months, with 60% using their credentials and skills. In Canada, however, it could take 20 to 30 years for economic migrants to catch up with comparably qualified Canadians, according to Hawthorne.
    No wonder many of our brightest immigrants leave. It’s a big, wide world out there. Why sweep floors in snow-smothered Canada when you can be an engineer in sunny Australia?”

  18. The Rev:
    We are gathered here together in ‘membrance of our late, dear Brothers: Hazen, Tommy, and Jimmy.
    Pass the plate. Amen.
    But, questions abound:
    A:Which riding will host the prayer meeting?
    B:Which speaker has the halitosis?
    C:Which speaker is a Newfy?
    …-
    “Provincial NDP Leader Lorne Calvert is trying to convince Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams to come to Saskatchewan and this riding in particular, McDaid said. If he comes, he may be part of a Ritz smackdown triple bill with NDP Leader Jack Layton and Calvert.”
    (Which Sask/MSM rag is this from?)

  19. Dave – and something else constructive about Australia. They have a sense of the importance of identity and values.
    Every immigrant and visa entrant to Australia, since 2007, must read a booklet Life in Australia, and sign a values statement that states that “Australian society values respect for …the individual, freedom of religion, ..the rule of law…parliamentary democracy..equality of men and women…mutual respect..equality of oppotrunity…theEnglish language as the national language.
    And, the individual signs that they will respect these values…and..if they become a citizen..that Australian citizenship is a shared identity, a common bond which unites all Australians while respecting their diversity…and citizenship involves rights and responsibilities..”
    How different the above is, from the Canadian Hotel. Canada rejects a ‘shared identity’ and ‘common bond’.
    Canada doesn’t ask its newcomers to respect the equality of men and women, the English language, (Quebec handles its own immigration and insists on French)…democracy, the rule of law.
    In Canada, under Liberal politics, immigrants were shovelled into Canada using the ease of ‘sponsor all your family’ and the joke that is ‘refugee claimant’. Then they were deliberately set up as isolate blocs, funded to remain isolate and unchanging – and to vote for the Liberals. No integration, no sense of ‘being Canadian’.
    No sense of integrating into the economy. Remember – the Liberal social structure is class-based; its elite class doesn’t include immigrants – the immigrants are kept isolated in ‘homogeneous as-they-were-blocs’. So, a lot of immigrants remain on social assistance, or move into dead end jobs.
    Australia has also reformed its Senate, making it elected and accountable. It has taken charge of its economy, making its businesses competitive in the world market; Canada rejects this, instead relying on only one consumer of our goods – the USA.

  20. When the CPC form a majority government, maybe they could adopt the Australian approach to immigration.
    I’d vote for that.

  21. Re: EBD’s link to Dijon answering students questions… OUCH! That was almost painful to watch. He might very well be a “nice guy” but he couldn’t lead a one man party to a two hole outhouse.
    It is easy to predict a lieberal junta in November.

  22. John R. Bolton, A Wakeup Call on Iran’s Nukes
    Iran is now closer than ever to achieving its long-held strategic objective of obtaining deliverable nuclear weapons. Why has Iran succeeded and the United States failed in this struggle? What does it tell us about the options available to our next President, in this increasingly dangerous situation? Will Iran be a centerpiece of the first presidential debate?

  23. If I had first called the man before me and interrogated him, things would have got into a confused tangle. He would have told lies, and had I exposed these lies he would have backed them up with more lies, and so on and so forth. As it is, I’ve got him and I won’t let him go. –Is that quite clear now? But we’re wasting time, the execution should be beginning and I haven’t finished explaining the apparatus yet.
    –Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony

    The latest lies from Obama as he tries to hide his treason:
    Melanie Phillips, Dirty Politics From Camp Obama
    Earlier this week, I wrote about the dirty tricks campaign against journalist Amir Taheri following his revelation that, in a private meeting in Iraq last July with Iraqi leaders, Barack Obama tried to persuade them to delay the agreement being hammered out with the US government on a draw-down of the American military presence…

  24. Yeah, batb,agreed but that was John Howard’s policy for Australia, not sure if it was ever actually adopted since he was defeated soon after.
    We certainly need to guard against what’s happened in Britain too. If we need any example of what not to do, in our case what not to continue to do, there it is.
    On the heels of Lee Richardson apologizing for telling the truth we hear of a kid attacking other kids with his “ceremonial” Kirpan. Nice stuff.

  25. Caroline Glick, Column One: A road paved on reality
    …the Israeli Left’s insistence on peace “now” and a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict “now” has placed Israel on a strategic trajectory that has brought it, and will continue to bring it only bloodshed and danger. Israel’s enemies in the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria and Iran view Israel’s insistence on finding immediate solutions to the threats it faces as a sign that Israeli society is collapsing.
    As a consequence, every step that Israel has made toward appeasing its neighbors – from recognizing the PLO and bringing Arafat and his legions into Judea, Samaria and Gaza; to retreating from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005; to failing to properly prosecute the Second Lebanon War in 2006; to doing nothing to combat Hamas’s regime in Gaza since 2007; to embracing the false paradigm of peace at Annapolis last November – has strengthened their conviction that Israel can and will be destroyed…

  26. Which headline tells the REAL story?
    CTV RSS News feed –> Dion pitches vision to sparse nursing-home crowd
    CTV web story headline –> Dion pitches vision to nursing-home crowd in TO

  27. I see Michael Byars is once again proving he is an utter incompetent on many issues. Now he is arguing tar sands must be shut down (effectively, given NDP platform he says). Egad, there will be no more polar bears for his kids to frolic with.
    What a twit. Now he is a tar sands expert, fresh from his expertise on Canadian soldier war criminals.
    We don’t need uninformed idiots like Byars on the political scene; there are enough already.

  28. liz j- it’s Australian policy. Newcomers must read and sign that Declaration of Australian values. It’s on their immigration web site.
    http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/index.htm
    Go to ‘Australian Values Statement’.
    Canada gets more immigrants per year but we don’t integrate them; we isolate them into ‘identity blocs’. Sealed and confined and actually funded to remain ‘as they were’ – whether that is a cultural mode of a century ago, or whatever. That is the deliberate policy of the Liberals, setting them up as huge blocs of votes in the three urban cities of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Immigrants only go to those three cities. They’ve helped keep those cities Liberal.
    But the harm that such a policy has done to the immigrants – preventing them from integrating – is another story.
    The GDP of Australia is 4%; that of Canada is 2.7%. And as I said, Australia has deliberately set up a competitive economy, while Canada relies primarily on the American consumer. Over 85% of our goods go to only one country; the USA. There is no such unbalanced reliance on another country anywhere in the world.

  29. I thought Palin was weak on her interview with Couric but Dion was truly painful as he obviously doesn’t understand English as he had to have his handlers explain the very simple questions to him. Then he didn’t answer the direct question but blathered on around the subject.
    ET here is some more statistics as Ontario slides deeper into the socialist camp.
    Linda Leatherdale, Toronto Sun: Since 2004 Ontario has lost 228,000 manufacturing jobs and 16,300 agricultural jobs while Queen’s park has hired 41,000 new public sector jobs since the 2007 election alone.
    And McSquinty has the nerve to criticize Flaherty when he accurately pointed out Ontario’s destructive financial slide. Let’s see, wealth creating private industry being replaced by wealth consuming high paid public jobs…sounds okay to me, should work out fine, what could go wrong.

  30. OTTAWA — The RCMP are pursuing a politically charged investigation into the Bernier-Couillard affair in the midst of the federal election campaign, The Globe and Mail has learned. The revelation about the probe came as sources said Thursday that Conservative official Bernard Côté helped Ms. Couillard’s mother obtain a federal patronage appointment last year, after he dated Ms. Couillard…..Ms. Couillard will release her autobiography on Oct. 6, eight days before the federal election. The publisher pushed up the release date to coincide with the campaign.
    Ms. Couillard’s mother, Diane Bellemare, was appointed last year to the Employment Insurance Board of Referees. Conservative officials said yesterday the nomination process started in the office of Michael Fortier, the minister of public works at the time, and was initiated by Mr. Côté.
    “Yes, he had a relation with [Ms. Couillard], and months later, her mother’s candidacy was submitted to the cabinet and approved,” a senior Conservative official said. “The c.v. ended up on Mr. Côté’s desk, and it was processed.”
    Mr. Côté refused to comment on the matter Thursday. He resigned from Mr. Fortier’s office three months ago, after revealing he continued to work on the Quebec City project after Ms. Couillard lobbied him on behalf of Kevlar.
    At the time, Mr. Fortier publicly chastised Mr. Côté for failing to recuse himself, but did not mention Mr. Côté’s involvement in the nomination.
    Government officials have defended Ms. Bellemare, saying she had a perfectly acceptable résumé for the part-time position.“All government appointees are qualified, as is the case with Ms. Bellemare,” Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan said.
    Guess it is different under the Tories than the Liberals. With the Libs, it was “who you know in the PMO.”
    With the Cons, “it isn’t who you know, it’s who you blow….”
    Van Loan defending this is pathetic. The greasy wheels of party patronage and grease roll on. Con supporters should be sick about this. But no, you hypocrites…’as long as it’s not THEIR people dahling….’

  31. Thanks,ET.
    Got to thinking, a long time ago, what the Liberals have done to this country is bordering on criminal.If they get power anytime in the next two decades we’re doomed,
    With 85% of our goods going to the US we’re sure to feel the pinch of their current dire straits.

  32. WOW – This goes beyond “Moonbattery”. Need a new term.
    ——————–
    Calling it a “major step forward” in relations between Iran and the United States, leading activists Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans of CODEPINK Women for Peace — along with more than 150 other U.S. peace group representatives — met Wednesday afternoon with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
    […]
    The CODEPINK women proposed inviting American and Iranian artists to build a “peace park” in Tehran, a memorial dedicated to people-to-people commitment to peace and diplomacy between our two countries. …
    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31367_Code_Pink_Meets_Ahmadinejad

  33. hardboiled – your ‘illogic’ boils down to this:
    1) IF you know someone in the government, THEN, you may not apply for or accept a position in that government.
    The only people who may apply for and accept a position in government, are those who know no-one in that government.
    Hmm. Not very democratic, are you? I wonder how many bureaucratic jobs are held by people who don’t know anyone…anyone..in the govt.
    2) You define appointed positions as ‘patronage’ appointments. This is untrue. ‘Patronage’ appointments are those made by a govt for their political advantage.
    The fact of our Westminster system is that the majority of govt work is done by people who are not elected but appointed. For you to suggest that
    IF someone is appointed, THEN this is a patronage appointment, is false.
    dave – I fully agree with you. What McGuinty has done is set himself up a electoral powerbase, with his indifference to the Ontario economy (which he will blame on Ottawa)..and his plumping up his power base of govt workers.

  34. ET:
    I’ll be more impressed with this “values statement” when it becomes some kind of contractual agreement, non-compliance with which will be grounds for deporation. For example: when open advocacy for sharia law will be considered treason and the perp is given the choice between execution and deportation.
    As it stands now, I take it about as seriously as I take a corporate “mission statement”, which is not at all. Fluffy bumpf.

  36. come now, me no dhimmi – you are moving into totalitarianism.
    Are you seriously suggesting that IF someone openly advocates Sharia Law – that this is an act of treason – and the individual should be executed?
    So much for freedom of speech. Freedom of debate, freedom to examine, question, explore – and accept or reject.
    Lizj – exactly. We, under the Liberal economic infrastructure, set up Canada as economically dependent on one country and its consumers: the USA.
    The Liberal taxation meant that Canada couldn’t develop its own investor class and finance the devt of its own industrial infrastructure.
    The Liberal taxation meant that Canada couldn’t develop its own research base and develop new technology; it is reduced to copying the technological devts of the US and Europe, as franchises.
    Why, we even do that with our ‘culture’! How about our TV shows, which are exact copies of American shows: Canadian Idol; Are you Smarter than a (Canadian) 5th grader.
    This taxation base also led to that two-class societal infrastructure about which I so frequently rant. The Liberals set up Canada with an elite professional class, primarily employed in govt professions, and in the three big cities.
    [Another factor in establishing a two-class system in Canada was bilingualism, which means that 80% of the population have minimal roles in key govt offices.]
    These govt people, with secured and high benefit cocooned jobs, are quite willing to be taxed so that the govt keeps the ‘rabble’ (the self-employed, the small business, the immigrants) isolated and quiet.
    But, an economy such as this, focused around a massive govt employer, remains dependent – on selling those franchised products back to the US consumer. That’s fragile – esp with globalization and Chinese and Indian goods moving in.
    The Conservatives are focused around enabling the middle class to emerge and strengthen. This is the class of the independent small and medium size business, the competitive market. You can see this in all their tax cuts and incentives and infrastructural devt.
    For example, reducing corporate taxes from 22.12 to 15% by 2012. Reducing small business from 12 to 11 for this year. Capital gains exemption for small business increased to 750,000 from 5000,00. The first change in twenty years!
    Hardboiled: Grow up.

  38. “Now sweets caught in China milk scandal
    Independent – 2 hours ago
    By Clifford Coonan in Beijing China’s children love their “White Rabbit” sweets, a traditional reward for good behaviour or a school-time treat, but confectioners Guanshengyuan yesterday stopped domestic sales of the creamy candy after it was found to …”

  39. “Canada says oil sands exports to Asia could be hit
    CALGARY, Sept 26 (Reuters) – A Canadian plan to ban the export of tar-like bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to countries that do not match Canadian efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases could affect shipments to Asia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday.
    Canadian company Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is proposing to build a pipeline to Canada’s west coast from Alberta to allow oil sands derived crude to be shipped to Asia.
    Asked by reporters whether the plan could affect future exports of bitumen oil to Asia, Harper replied: “Well, it could, it absolutely could.””
    http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSOTW00015320080926

  40. Shamrock: I think Michael Byers has that typical academics’ inferiority complex. Ordinarily we think of academics as being very capable people (intellectually anyway), but in the context of their work, most of them do not stand out because everyone else is smart too. They feel inferior and threatened. Things get very competitive. Academic departments are among the nastiest environments to work in. Some go to great lengths to draw attention to themselves. Some go off the deep end. I believe Byers has.

  41. Good book about Canada’s foreign policy and how under the longstanding Liberal government foreign policy has been directionless and misguided: Dreamland by Roy Rempel.

  42. “Jewish city feared by Stalin is rediscovered
    The ruins of a lost Jewish city that vanished 700 years ago have been found, it has been claimed.”
    “It was mentioned in medieval travellers’ accounts but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin banned any research into the city and the Khazars, fearing it would prove Russia was descended from a Jewish state.”
    “The study of the Khazar empire was discouraged in the Soviet Union. Stalin detested the idea that a Jewish empire had come before Russia’s own. He ordered references to Khazar history removed from textbooks because they “disproved his theory of Russian statehood,” Mr Satanovsky added.”
    http://tinyurl.com/5yhlgd (telegraphUK)

  43. So, a mob-connected biker humps her way through a good piece of cabinet, scores Mom an inside gig of free money, and allegedly peddled influence on an inside land deal worth millions – which remains under investigation by law enforcement.
    Talking to partisans is like talking to a drugged out hippie. Except with the hippie, you know they’ll eventually return to reality.

  44. Hardboiled — give it up. When I read about this originally, the story indicated that the mother was well qualified for the job and that it is hard to find people who are. The players are all second and third teir. MOST people get jobs because of who they know (it’s called networking), and it is only a problem when the person is not qualified or when patronage is rampant and used to exclude other legitimate contenders. I don’t see that that has happened here.

  45. (PDF warning) Peter Dahl Thruelsen, Counterinsurgency and a Comprehensive Approach: Helmand Province, Afghanistan
    The situation in Helmand Province in the summer of 2008 is characterised by uncertainty. Although progress has been made and a number of small- to large-scale reconstruction programmes have been implemented, the local population is still waiting to see which is the stronger and more determined party – the insurgents or the counterinsurgents. At the moment large-scale military operations are ongoing in the province; corruption and opium production are flourishing; local militias are still armed; and the legitimacy of the central and local administration is low. However, at the provincial level the recent appointment of Governor Gulab Mangal has shown a positive progress. Local governance at this level is improving and is now showing positive nascent signs of increased influence at district level…

  46. Philip Carl Salzman, Anthropology and strategic studies
    In the light of my analysis—that there were no legitimate governments in the Middle East, and that in many regions, including urban areas, only tribal or sect-based organization was regarded as legitimate by the local population—I replied that the counter-insurgency handbook’s position that counter-insurgency should always be directed toward supporting the legitimate government was a rationalization meant to justify our intervention in our own eyes according to our own values.
    The emphasis on a legitimate government might not be a rational response to our practical interests in a particular region. For example, if we want to counter an insurgency, we might need to collaborate with non-governmental, even anti-governmental organizations, such as tribes. This is what happened in al-Anbar province of Iraq, where the U.S. Army gave support to the Sunni tribes when they rebelled against the impositions of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and in turn the Sunni tribes gave the Americans support as the Americans pursued Al Qaeda…

  47. New Numbers out from Nik Nanos
    Virtualy no change in party numbers, the leaders numbers have seen a change with Dions dropping again, Now at 10% for best PM. If these keep going the way they have been going he should be Joining his Running Mate soon as she(may) is at 5%

  48. Speaking of McGuinty, run very fast and far from anything that liar says. He broke every promise he made to get elected the first time around and got elected over one issue the second time around. Not much to brag about for the people of Ontario, explains why it’s brain free Liberal voting country.
    His brother David is another poor choice for voters and is expected to win his seat again in Ottawa South.
    Dalty has been so puffed up and high on himself he thinks he can make it to Prime Minister.

  50. Warning: Not for those with weak stomachs. This may be an even more effective emetic than ipecac.
    Lew Daly, What Would Jefferson Do?: How Limited Government Got Turned Upside Down
    In the fall of 1964, Ronald Reagan went on national television to tell the American people about a growing tyranny in their midst, “subtler, but no less dangerous” than Soviet communism. He also told them to cast their presidential vote for Barry Goldwater, who was ready to tame this new political beast and put a stop to those people who would “trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state.” Now known simply as “The Speech,” it was a performance that launched the extreme right wing of the country from the political margins into the highest seats of government. The resulting political realignment sharply affected how wealth and power are distributed in our society…
    The new laissez-faire of the Reagan-Bush era was not a revival of the founders’ vision of limited government; nor did the New Deal liberalism so despised today tear up the roots of our country in expanding the role of government, as conservatives argue. To the contrary, the kind of society the founders envisioned had no hope of survival without such innovations in government.

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