Reader Tips

Reader Tips 46 Comments

The great thing about whining is that unlike, say, playing Rachmaninoff on the piano, or running a mile in four minutes, anyone can do it. Tonight’s musical selection, from light and lovely-voiced British songbirds Lois Wilkinson and Andrea Simpson – The Caravelles – tells us something that too many of us – even those who don’t watch the CBC’s victim-of-the-day stories or read the Toronto Star – already know: You Don’t Have To Be A Baby To Cry.
You are invited to victimize your fellow SDA readers with your tips.

46 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Generally, your comments for great music are pretty moronic.
    Get over yourself, and let the music speak for itself.
    You, like I, are not genius. Or we would have written or performed the music.

  2. Speaking of victims, an Iranian woman named Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been sentenced to be stoned to death. There’s an online petition you can sign, even if you’re not as important as Yoko Ono or Arianna Huffington:
    http://freesakineh.org/

  4. “A continentwide study, conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, released in December 2009, found that that 45.7% of the Europeans surveyed agree somewhat or strongly with the following statement: ‘Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.’ And 37.4% agreed with this statement: ‘Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews.’
    “'[There is] quite a high level of anti-Semitism that is hidden beneath critics of Israel’s policies,’ said Beate Kupper, one of the study’s principal researchers, in a telephone interview with the Forward, citing this data and a tendency to ‘blame Jews in general for Israel’s policies.’
    “Kupper said that in places where there is a strong taboo against expressions of anti-Semitism, such as Germany, ‘Criticism of Israel is a great way to express your anti-Semitism in an indirect way.'”

  6. “Preview: Stephen Harper! The Musical
    Musical types head for the Hill
    By DAVID SILVERBERG
    When Canada’s prime minister played a Beatles tune at the National Arts Centre last October, he couldn’t have predicted that his take on With A Little Help From My Friends would inspire a musical based on, well, Stephen Harper staging a musical.
    “That’s when Canadians viewed him as a charismatic character,” says Steven Shehori, who co-wrote the Second City production with his brother Daniel, in an interview. “I remember Canadians being so enamoured of Harper when footage of that performance started to circulate.”
    A title like Stephen Harper! The Musical seems perfect for political humour, but the Shehori brothers weren’t interested in appeasing Parliament Hill junkies.
    “We’re not political people, so there aren’t many insider jokes,” Shehori admits. He says a prime minister musical by non-political writers will give audiences a show that is more “character-driven than policy-driven.”
    You’d think the Shehori brothers, who’ve worked with Second City for years and written for the Gemini Awards, would consider Harper an easy target. Look at how easily he’s skewered on The Rick Mercer Report or Air Farce. Shehori says they didn’t want to go after the same old Harperisms.
    “It wouldn’t be much of challenge for us to break out sweater vest jokes or the Mussolini comparisons,” he says. This isn’t a musical where the music is an afterthought. Shehori says the show’s songs are infectious and the actors can carry complex tunes.”
    http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=175861
    …-
    H/T Wilson:
    http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/07/08/the-wheels-on-the-bus-go-clunk-clunk-clunk/#comment-85374

  8. Margarete Wente’s latest column is beautiful!
    As the heat has risen here in Vancouver I’ve been thinking about the daily hypocrisy of those so-called “Eco-Friendly” Lefties who take advantage of air-conditioning at homes, in their cars, on public transit, in malls, in restaurants, at work, etc.
    But I suppose it’s better to bathe in hypocrisy than to bathe constantly in one’s sweat!

  9. Excerpt from Dan Gardner’s “Progressives Unite, Whoever You Are” in the Ottawa Citizen:
    “In one of the most famous experiments in social psychology, researchers assembled two groups of boys for outdoor fun and games. At first, each group did its own thing, unaware of the other. Later, the two groups were brought together and asked to compete for the coveted prize of a pocket knife. (This was 1954. Boys were given knives in 1954.)
    “Predictably, the two groups formed strong identities. The ‘Rattlers’ and the ‘Eagles,’ they called themselves. Equally predictably, each group loathed the other, and boys who were particularly good at the competitions, and particularly hostile toward the other group, became leaders.
    “Insults flew. Pranks were pulled. Spontaneous food fights broke out. It was Question Period.
    “The researchers then brought the boys together in a non-competitive environment. It didn’t matter. They still hated each other.
    “Then the researchers confronted the boys with crises — such as a truck with supplies that breaks down — which could only be handled with the co-operation of both groups. Almost immediately, name-calling stopped and inter-group friendships formed. By the time the boys went home, the two tribes had effectively merged.
    “It wasn’t so long ago that the opposition parties couldn’t stomach each other. There wasn’t a lot of talk of shared identity. But now, after four years of Conservative minority governments, and with both parties going nowhere, many Liberals and New Democrats perceive co-operation, not competition, to be the only way of achieving their goals.
    “And suddenly they’re all ‘progressives.’ Group hug.
    “I don’t mean this to be dismissive. Tribal psychology is fundamental to who we are. This is primates doing what primates do.
    “But spare me the straw men and rationalizations. ‘Progressives’ are whoever John Baird shouts at. That’s it.”
    (h/t Edward Michael George)

  10. doctor dawg…or as i call him ‘poodledoc’ has been exceedingly hurtful..even beastly to me at times….but i always shrug it off with a fa la la…which leads me to the observation that the more eccentric the hat a man is willing to plonk on his headpiece it naturally follows his notions of right wrong improper indecent or criminal naturally follows..
    ergo the ’tilly cum poodledoc” hat replete with dangling wine corks the poodledoc affects…which not unnaturally bespeaks a certain eccentricity of veering leftwards thought..(the less rigid the shape and the subsequent malformation possible are all indicators of the ‘che’ beret signature…
    the obvious question in everyone’s mind now is of course…..why didn’t the black bloc assume the identifying uniform of tilly hats with dangling wine bottle corks ?
    see how simple deconstructing anarchism can be?

  11. J
    B
    Smith-
    If your comment was sincere,
    and you really believe that internet, electronically, reproduced, bandwidth, u-tube, ipod, music is great,
    then you are the real moron.
    And considering the fact that this is not your website,
    don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

  13. Friends of Ours
    Hells Angels
    High Cigarette Taxes Create Black Market
    The report identifies aboriginal territories in south-central Ontario and Quebec as “Ground Zero” of the contraband trade. * * * The report also reveals the increasing involvement of criminal enterprises in tobacco smuggling. Law enforcement agencies have identified the Hell’s Angels and individuals linked to terrorist organization Hezbollah as prime movers of contraband products.
    http://bitterqueen.typepad.com/friends_of_ours/hells_angels/

  16. JB Smith
    I would concur with only part of your commentary – that being your are not a genius.
    I for one smiled when i read EBD’s intro.

  19. Meanwhile, behind the MSM filter…
    Salah Uddin Shoaib Chouhury at hudson-ny.org:
    “President Barack Hussain Obama’s administration in Washington is secretly establishing relations with the terrorist group Hamas, possibly with the view to Washington’s soon excluding Hamas from its terrorist list.
    “A senior Hamas figure said on June 25, 2010 that official and unofficial US sources have asked the Islamist group to refrain from making any statements regarding contacts with Washington, following report that a senior American official is due to arrive in an Arab country in the coming days to hand over a letter from the Obama Administration.
    “The Hamas figure told the London-based newspapaer Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the Americans fear discussing the talks publicly would ‘rouse the Jewish lobby and other pressure groups in the US and cause them to pressure the administration to suspend all talks with Hamas.'”
    The rest here.

  20. Excerpt from Peter Huessy’s “The New Guards of Auschwitz”:
    “When Helen Thomas melted in front of the Washington political classes, there was much talk of how she was simply an old, confused lady, past her prime, but widely admired for her plucky spirit in asking every President since Kennedy ‘tough questions.’
    “Her proposal that all Israelis—especially ‘Jews’—leave the Holy Land and repatriate themselves to Poland, Germany and the United States, to make way for a ‘liberated Palestine’ received much attention, but the predominant reaction was that no one really agreed with her sentiments. Is this true?
    “Buried in the clips dug up about her previous remarks about Israel was a common theme: Israel was an occupier. Its land was not its own but that of the impoverished and downtrodden Palestinians. Israel was an illegitimate landlord, at best; a cruel ruler at worst. ‘The Jews,’ said Thomas, were ‘responsible for the whole mess in the Middle East.’ Even Thomas’s apology did not really address what has angered many: her statement that the Jews now living in Israel have no right to live there at all. And having described Israel in this way, it was but a short intellectual trip to the position that ‘resistance’ to Israel was not only legitimate but heroic.”

  23. Dear EBD,
    I don’t have a truck right now. I have seen a lot of trucks with “balls” hanging from the trailer hitch (or where the hitch should be) lately. Do you think the ladies would swoon if I attached these to a blue 1992 Ford Tempo (2.3L) with A/C?
    Desperate in Vancouver

  24. Facebook user thinks only Mexicans need greencards. His parents told him so.
    EBD, while the music ain’t my taste, but I usually read your comments, they have yet to make me stupider.

  25. Dear symbol I can’t find on my keypad:
    I’ve seen those balls, and yes, your supposition is correct: ladies can’t resist them. I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve seen women in various stages of undress swarming pickup trucks that sport them, as the grinning drivers wink with a fatalistic shrug at the suddenly-appearing crowd of bystanders.
    To answer your question: while you would certainly find an enormous benefit in attaching those rubber balls to your Ford Tempo, it would be well worth the trouble and expense to purchase a 1971 Gremlin and attach the rubber balls to that particular vee-hickle instead.
    You’ll be the toast of the town. Trust me on this one.

  26. This is, to me at any rate, quite astonishing. The new British coalition government has established a website inviting citizens to log on and tell them what laws and regulations the citizens feel should be abolished.
    http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/

  27. // A continentwide study, conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, released in December 2009, found //
    More from the [2009] attitude survey of Group-focused Enmity by Butner et al
    Prejudices are widely spread in Europe, but vary between countries
    The detailed analyses of the different types of prejudices revealed:
    + 50,4% of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there are too many
    immigrants” in their country. This statement indicates a generalized and blind
    rejection of immigrants.
    + 24.5% supposes that “Jews have too much influence in [country]“. Here, a traditional
    facet of anti-Semitism appears that mirrors anti-Semitic conspiracy myths.
    + 54.4% of the Europeans believe that “the Islam is a religion of intolerance.” This makes
    obvious that many Europeans share a generalized negative image of the Islam (and
    of Muslims as the agreement to additional statements reveals).
    + Nearly one third (31,3%) of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there is a
    natural hierarchy between black and white people”. Thus, they agree to a very blatant
    and direct statement indicating the belief in ethnic hierarchies legitimised by implied
    natural differences.
    +A majority of Europeans of 60.2% stick to traditional gender roles that result in
    economical and power gender inequality as they are demanding that “women should
    take their role as wives and mothers more seriously.”
    +42,6% deny equal value of gay men and lesbian women and judge homosexuality as
    ‘immoral’.
    However, there are remarkable differences in the level of prejudice between the observed
    countries. […]
    http://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/w/files/pdfs/gfepressrelease_english.pdf

  28. “…I, are not genius.” Great tip, J.B. – but I think most of us would have worked that out for ourselves. Don’t be so hard on yourself, though – no one expects you to be “genius”. We’d settle for “civil” and “literate”.

  29. Posted by: Anon at July 9, 2010 12:15 AM
    I didn’t even know he was still alive, let alone still working. Five years plus of having tuned out the media in this country can leave you a bit behind on some things I guess.
    Is the cue ball still working at the other place?

  30. Friday morning chuckles . .
    “YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF…”
    1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.
    2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can’t afford shoes.
    3. You have more wives than teeth.
    4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon “unclean.”
    5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
    6. You can’t think of anyone you haven’t declared Jihad against.
    7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
    8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
    9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.
    10. You’ve always had a crush on your neighbor’s goat.
    Jeff Foxworthy—–

  31. “[Liberal] Ignatieff tones down criticism of China CTV.ca”
    …-
    “Treason of the Intellectuals”
    “The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual.
    It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness.
    For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people’s business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation.
    A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual’s sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman’s sense of worth.
    Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.”
    http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/TreasonV3.HTM
    http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/07/08/the-wheels-on-the-bus-go-clunk-clunk-clunk/#comment-85382

  32. Re “Harper, the Musical”, maz2 @10:36, I highly recommend “Andrew Klavan on the Culture” over at Pajamas TV (PJTV).
    He cites a German play about Obama, called, “Hope” or some such hackneyed label. Klavan’s delightful and side splitting spoof, which takes place, very low tech., in his uncle’s barn, is called, simply, “President Me”.
    It’s a kind of musical and features Pelosi, Reid, Chris Matthews, Katie Couric—and others! It beautifully, and hilariously, cuts Obama, his henchpeople, and media sycophants and toadies down to size—in under five minutes.
    Klavan’s take offs are always worth the price of admission: humour and ridicule are the best way to expose Obama and his administration’s hypocrisy, arrogance, and train wreck ideology.
    I couldn’t locate “President Me”, but here’s another great spoof. (One can access a few of the videos free.) It’s called, “Limp Economy? Flaccid Philosophy? Diagnosis: Electile Dysfunction”. Have fun!
    http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=80

  33. Speaking of linking criticism of Israel to anti-semitism, EBD, isn’t this similar to Obama’s tactic, where he accuses anyone who criticizes him of doing so ..based on their biases?
    That is, Obama cannot handle criticism; he considers it a direct act of aggression against him. His tactics to repel criticism are about three.
    A first one is to suggest you are ‘unintelligent’ and therefore misunderstand him.
    A second one is to suggest that your criticism is based on your own failings: you are biased, whether by political bias, ethnic, racial, religious.
    A third tactic is to simply refuse to acknowledge that you and your questions and criticism exist – as he has done with ‘bipartisan’ meetings with Republicans where in one session they were forbidden to ask follow-up questions.
    Since no country has any ‘essentialist’ or ‘a priori’ right-to-exist, then its existence has to be judged within an analysis of its political and societal behaviour to its citizens and to others.
    As for the ‘real cause’ of the continuous unrest in the Middle East, as I’ve maintained for years, it is due to the dysfunctional political and social infrastructure of the Islamic nations. They use a tribal format, which is two-class, with an authoritarian set of rulers over the mass of the population who have no powers. They have no middle class..with all political and social power vested in that middle class.
    Such a tribal format is great for a population of 10,000 which is no-growth and non-industrial. Increase the population to the multimillions, move into an industrial economy..and power has to be removed from and authoritarian elite and vested in the individual freedoms of the middle class.
    This refusal – is the real cause of the ME problems and underpins Islamic fascism.

  34. EBD
    I like your intro’s, not that it really matters but I do have some concerns with the advice you gave a commenter. Specifically, the fella with the glyphic nic and the 92 Tempo. I offer a word of caution. In Alberta we have a name for those guys sporting balls from their trailer hitch. Steer. Unfortunately being a Steer is rather counterproductive regarding the ladies.
    I also noticed there is a “problem” with the comments feature on the above thread. Were the comments functioning I would have said something about the nude trampoline aficionado being a early riser.
    Oh, I have a reader tip also. The return of Phil Jones:
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geraldwarner/100046524/climategate-reinstating-phil-jones-is-good-news-the-cru-brand-remains-toxic/
    Syncro

  35. Kate – on the trampoline story – the comments thingy is disabled.
    It probably doesn’t matter as the story headline states “I know what you’re thinking”. No need to post comments then.

  36. EBD, that was a great intro to last nights musical selection.
    CO2 @ 1:41 Desperate in Vancouver, no, but it might make them snicker.

  37. Here’s a nice commentary from the National Review on ‘Islamic science’.
    http://article.nationalreview.com/437842/bedtime-stories-for-the-islamic-world/rich-lowry
    A few snips:
    “It’s wonderful to feel good about the work of Ibn Sīnā of Bukhara, who compiled an indispensable medical encyclopedia before his death in 1037, but it implicitly raises the question of what Muslim science has done for us over the last millennium or so”
    “The vast bulk of modern science was of Europe’s making, especially that breakthrough of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that goes by the name ‘scientific revolution.’ Not only did non-Western science contribute just about nothing (though there was more there than Europeans knew), but at that point it was incapable of participating, so far had it fallen behind or taken the wrong turning.”
    The wrong turn that the Islamic world took was to reject reason, objective reality, life and science, in favour of dogma, faith and death.
    “How to react to the Enlightenment’s absence from parts of the Muslim world is one line of division between George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Bush’s freedom agenda aimed to create the predicate for future success in stagnant Muslim countries; Obama’s outreach agenda is much more accepting of the Muslim status quo.”
    Notice that Bush’s agenda was to empower individuals to work and think. Obama’s agenda is to deny them this freedom and keep them subjugated.
    I maintain that Obama’s agenda actually strengthens and fosters Islamic fascism. Facism is a utopian ideology focused on a national, ethnic or religious purity OF THE PAST. The agenda is to ‘get back to that pure past’. Obama’s refusal to acknowledge democratic desires of, eg, Iranians, his refusal to acknowledge the lack of real science in the Islamic world, and his support for this nostalgia of the past, is strengthening Islamic fascism.

  39. “Now I am not as upset with Barack Obama as some others are. I know that people are upset that he bowed to the Saudi king, does this bother you? Isn’t it possible that he didn’t bow? Isn’t it possible that what happened was the teleprompter fell over?”
    Evan Sayet from ‘Right to Laugh’ trailer Right Network
    More at – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/is-it-possible-for-a-us-television-station-to-be-rightwing-uandu-funny-2022136.html

  40. O’left-liberalism: “feelings”, all about “feelings”.
    O’s sole legacy*: “her feelings of betrayal by the Obama administration.”
    “This is his [Obama’s] sole legacy*: a massive post-traumatic stress disorder.”
    >>> “The loudest applause of the morning when she talked about her feelings of betrayal by the Obama administration.”
    …-
    “Teacher union chief raps Obama at national convention
    American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten told her members meeting in Seattle on Thursday that the past two years have been “tougher than I’ve ever seen,” with shrinking school budgets combined with increasing initiatives to punish teachers whose students don’t succeed.
    She urged her audience to fight against what she called the “blame the teacher crowd” by embracing new strategies to reform public education.
    She called it “Fighting Smart”: “searching for solutions we believe will work, even if those solutions force us to think outside the box or initially make us feel uncomfortable.”
    She spoke to more than 2,700 delegates gathered at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center. The loudest applause of the morning when she talked about her feelings of betrayal by the Obama administration.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2549660/posts
    …-
    O’s sole legacy*:
    “The “small people”, the “rank and file”, the “loyal soldiers” of the narcissist – his flock, his nation, his employees – they pay the price. The disillusionment and disenchantment are agonizing. The process of reconstruction, of rising from the ashes, of overcoming the trauma of having been deceived, exploited and manipulated – is drawn-out. It is difficult to trust again, to have faith, to love, to be led, to collaborate. Feelings of shame and guilt engulf the erstwhile followers of the narcissist. This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic stress disorder.”
    “Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?”
    http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections

  41. Straight from the weird world of fashion – bearded, balding models. In all fairness I must add a ewwwww…yuck warning to the link.
    “But Patrick Mohr created the strangest runway collection we’ve ever seen. Period. Exclamation point! At Berlin Fashion Week, Mohr presented an otherwise pretty-wearable collection on bald, whiskered models. Take a look and tell us what you think.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/09/patrick-mohr-craziest-run_n_640647.html#s112026

  42. Barbara Kay: More warnings about the dangers of pot
    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/07/09/barabara-kay-more-warnings-about-the-dangers-of-pot/
    And, in the I-hate-to-say-I-told-you-so category:
    Controversy reignited over benefits of male circumcision
    http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/831884
    ” … recent studies … have shown circumcised heterosexual males are less likely to contract HIV and other sexually transmitted infections than men whose foreskins are intact [which would mean their passing on these infections to their partners would be less likely as well].
    ” … male circumcision is an effective intervention for HIV prevention.”
    A little over 20 years ago, I was benignly ridiculed by my ob/gyn when I said that if my child was a boy, my husband and I wanted him circumcised. None of the three doctors in the practice wanted to do it, so I said I guessed I’d have to bring in a mohel/moyle. As it turns out, I had a girl, but I was really cheesed off to have my doctors tell me “no way” to circumcision if my child had been a male.
    I figured that what was good enough for my husband and Jesus would be good enough for my son.

  44. Whither Al Gore (WAG)? (Formerly AGW)
    They don’t make toasty like they used to.
    MSM digs.
    …-
    “Heat can’t beat records of the good old days
    By JUSTIN SADLER, Ottawa Sun”
    “Contrary to news reports based on readings at the airport, temperatures in recent days have only come close to breaking records.
    Temperatures recorded at the Ottawa airport only go back to 1939, said Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell, but records at the Central Experimental Farm date as far back as 1897.
    “If you look at that site, which is not much farther away, no records are broken,” he said.
    Monday’s temperature of 34.2C didn’t quite reach a stifling 36.1C recorded in 1897. Tuesday hit 34.1C and in 1912 it reached 35C. Wednesday soared to 35C, but didn’t pass the 36.7C mark Ottawans felt in 1921.
    The record temperature on July 8 was recorded in 1897 at 36.1C.
    “I don’t think we’ll break the record (Friday),” Kimbell said.
    Expect temperatures to moderate in the coming days, he said, as a stagnant ridge of high pressure dissipates allowing a cooler front to push through.”
    “Record temperatures
    July 5, 1897 — 36.1C
    July 6, 1912 — 35C
    July 7, 1921 — 36.7C
    July 8, 1897 — 36.1C
    July 9, 1911 — 35.6C ”
    http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/07/08/14654631.html
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/09/modeling-the-big-toasty/#comment-426818

  45. via maz2: “The record temperature on July 8 was recorded in 1897 at 36.1C.”
    I remember really hot summers when I was a kid and we didn’t have central air. A few fans but that was all and being hot wasn’t really an issue.
    I guess we’ve just become a bunch of wimps.

  46. batb, Reader’s tips & circumcision… good one!
    If it’s good enough for Jesus, who am I to argue.

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