Reader Tips

Reader Tips 40 Comments

Every two years in the southern provinces of Spain teams of fifteen or twenty people or more, known as colles castelleres, compete to build human towers up to nine or ten people tall. Here’s a high-def video (do watch it full-screen) showing the colourfully-attired castellers of Tarragona in action. Clearly, it’s not a sport for the obese.
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40 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Here’s a must-read bellwether of a column by Richard Fernandez about what will be going down in the US in the near future as a consequence of the combination of an entitled g-tit class and massive, untenable debt.
    There will be blowback. Good video at the bottom, too, of a Belgian skater taking care of a chav scum – you reap what you sow, and all that.

  8. ron in kelowna: “Britain goes from Global Warming to Global Dimming via high electrical bills.”
    Is this the same country that couldn’t foresee that if you left garbage in the streets for an extra week that the rat population would increase?

  9. Olberdunce is back on the air……suspension for two whole days…..yeah that showed him alright!
    At least he’s back to remind everybody that BDS is a serious mental disorder, one which leaves people unqualified to run for elected office, let alone be a TV personality

  10. Globe and Mail, Tuesday.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/did-ottawa-bow-to-tobacco-industry-on-warning-labels/article1790616/
    “The federal government is abandoning its responsibility to protect the health of Canadians by failing to introduce stronger warnings on cigarette packages, says a new editorial published in the country’s leading medical journal.”
    Come off it. Insofar as the precious labelling policy actually does protect Canadians’ health, it’s still in place. The difference is a small matter of the degree of gruesomeness.
    “‘The federal government is abdicating its responsibility to Canadians in fighting tobacco,’ Paul Hébert, CMAJ editor-in-chief, said in an interview.”
    “… many consumers have become desensitized to the warning labels, which is why they need to be updated and made stronger, Dr. Hébert said.”
    Yeah, well then they’ll get desensitized to every escalation in turn, won’t they?
    Enough is enough. Don’t you nanny state creeps have anything better to do with your pathetic lives?

  12. Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Margaret Wente.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/let-them-eat-broccoli/article1790640/
    “… the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has declared war on the Happy Meal. From now on, the city’s fast-food chains can’t package toys with meals unless the meal contains fruits and vegetables, is less than 600 calories, and is low in fat and sodium. As one supervisor put it, the ruling is ‘part of a movement that is moving toward an agenda of food justice.'”
    ‘Food justice’.
    Toronto Star, Monday, Stephen Bede Scharper.
    http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/886870–climate-change-prosperity-or-disparity
    “… organizer of a cross-Canada climate justice speaking tour …”
    ‘Climate justice’.
    The anti-concepts are flowing thick and heavy these days, folks. The grand-daddy of them all is “social justice”, that fraudulent non-concept that really means “redistribution of wealth”, “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, or perhaps “totalitarian communism” (a redundancy).
    Throw in ‘economic justice’ (which is not unlike the social version) along with the brand new shiny ones for food and climate, and pretty soon no one will have anything left in terms of either money or justice.

  13. Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Carl Mortished.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/carl-mortished/uk-welfare-plan-saves-money-but-morally-bankrupt/article1790653/
    “The idea is to ensure that a wage will always be worth more than welfare. Henceforth, the long-term unemployed will be forced to pick up litter or do odd jobs for the elderly if they fail to turn up for work placements … Predictably, opposition Labour MPs shrieked that the unemployed were being punished.”
    “… what troubles me is the moral myth. If there is a policy principle that supports this (other than the need to reduce government debt) it is that work is morally good – more than about acquiring food, clothes, shelter and the satisfaction of various cravings.”
    “People in affluent countries work for many reasons – to acquire status, to buy more stuff or to get rich and to show off to our friends and neighbours. We work more than we need and we do that to amuse and entertain ourselves for eight or more daylight hours that we might otherwise struggle to fill.”
    “Will ‘scroungers’ acquire a work ethic picking up litter? They will acquire an urgent need to avoid loss of income but that is different to an ethic.”
    This writer seems rather clueless about morality. If one holds one’s own life as a value, supporting oneself through productive work is completely moral. Looking after “acquiring food, clothes, shelter and the satisfaction of various cravings” is a fair part of upholding one’s quality of life – a highly moral thing to do. I suspect Mortished has fallen victim to the pernicious influence of the Kantian-Hegelian philosophical miasma.
    Workfare may or may not be a good idea; it may be more trouble than it’s worth. But the idea that living off taxpayers can be moral is, well, immoral.

  14. How many colles castelleres does it take to change a light bulb? As amazing as it seems, I don’t think it will catch on in North America, especially with the kiddies climbing higher than banned monkey bars at the playground.

  15. JAKARTA, Indonesia – President Barack Obama has criticized Israel construction plans in East Jerusalem, saying they’re unhelpful to the pursuit of peace.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_israel
    Uh huh. Obambam says it’s just fine for Muslims to build a mosque at Ground Zero — never mind, that this is a move “unhelpful to the pursuit of peace” — but slams the Jews for planning to build apartments in a disputed part of the city.
    This guy’s “transparency” is turning him into a total lightweight. We can see right through ya, Barry!

  16. Even though the “average” MP in Ottawa spends $469,000/year of taxpayers’ dollars, last year Jack Layton claimed $629,000 and Olivia Chow, $530,000.
    http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/11/09/lorne-gunter-duke-layton-and-duchess-chow-at-least-owe-us-transparency/
    I thought these two were supposed to be champions of “hardworking, working-class” families. My family’s hardworking, despite the fact that we don’t vote NDP, and I am more than a little resentful that the Duke and Duchess of Downtown Toronto (touche, Lorne Gunter) Chowed down on $1,159,000 of Canadians’ tax dollars last year.
    Hey, Olivia, I’d like to be able to afford that snazzy suit you’re wearing in the photo.

  17. > Clearly, it’s not a sport for the obese.
    Hate crime! I expect Lucy will be filing a HRC complaint any second now on behalf of all those fatties who you have subjected to hatred through your callous post. Words have power, don’t you know?

  18. Of A Hill to die on and Liberal Iggy’s O’Harvard buddy, O’Nero.
    “Indonesian students protest against Obama’s visit
    ‎Nov 8, 2010‎ – Economic Times”
    “Obama wows Indonesian students with slang and reform message
    ‎6 hours ago‎ – Economic Times”
    “Obama to reach out to Muslims
    BBC News”
    …-
    “Obama fiddles while the Christians burn”
    “Folks, I read this hard-hitting essay by Fr. Raymond De Souza and published by the Catholic Education Resource Center that you all ought to read: His wrath upon their heads: The blood of Baghdad screams out to heaven and earth. These are some excerpts:
    On Sunday, an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group stormed into the cathedral of the Syriac Catholic Church, Our Lady of Deliverance, during the evening Mass. They immediately killed the priest offering the Holy Mass – three priests in all were murdered. They began shooting members of the congregation, and held hostage others who took refuge in a locked room. When the security forces stormed the church, the jihadists killed as many as they could, and some of them set off the suicide bombs on their belts…
    …Close to 60 Catholics were killed. In their cathedral. At Mass. It has now come to this, where Christians are killed at prayer by Muslim fanatics…
    …the international community issued the usual boilerplate condemnations, most of them refusing to identify those responsible. The same statements could have been used had the Rotarians decided to massacre the Salvation Army. In the Church, too, there is often a reluctance to support vigorously Christians under attack, and to call things by name…
    …The jihadists respect neither man nor God, not even their own. They have killed their fellow Muslims and bombed mosques. The Christians killed on Sunday were Iraqis, their fellow Arabs, their fellow citizens, their neighbours. They kill because they are seized with a murderous hatred. The least we can do is to summon a righteous anger in return…
    Commentary. I went to check the reaction from the US government, from the White House. This is what I found:
    Statement by the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the Baghdad Hostage Situation
    The United States strongly condemns this senseless act of hostage taking and violence by terrorists linked to al Qaeda in Iraq thatoccurred Sunday in Baghdad killing so many innocent Iraqis. Our hearts go out to the people of Iraq who have suffered so much from these attacks. We offer sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and to all the people of Iraq who are targeted by these cowardly acts of terrorism. We know the overwhelming majority of Iraqis from all its communities reject violence and we stand with them as we work together to combat terrorism and protect the people of our two nations.
    Though in the White House they knew who did it, why, and where, how, and who died, and how many, the White House didn’t deem it worthy of mention. Nor have there been any follow-up communications or condemnation, or condolence sent specifically to the Iraqi Catholic community or the Iraqi security force members who gallantly die trying to rescue the hostages.
    I find the White House’s boilerplate statement appalling in its indifference and callous in its vagueness. It’s like the President doesn’t give a damn about the situation. He seems to be sending the message out that Christians can die by the hands of Muslim terrorists with nary a criticism.
    But if Catholics had killed Muslims in a mosque while in prayer the entire world and the Hollywood cabal would be up in arms demanding a papal intervention ; the Muslim street would be screaming and perhaps burning cars in the streets of Paris; and the Holy Father himself would be labeled an instigator because of his Regensburg Address – which, ironically, proves nuanced point Pope Benedict was making regarding Muslim irrationality. But when Catholics die because of a rumor out of Egypt that Coptic Christians are kidnapping Arab women and imprisoning them in monasteries, we hear background crickets and must be happy to read boilerplate statements oozing with utter indifference.
    Don’t you see the hypocrisy here?
    I applaud Fr. De Souza for his anguished words and think, hope, and pray, with him:
    The Christian always hopes for conversion and offers forgiveness. There must also be justice and prudence, and prudence demands that those who would kill in the name of God are best despatched quickly to their judgment.
    Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. So Scripture teaches us, and so it must be for us, leaving vengeance to the Lord, and imploring the grace of conversion and reconciliation. But let us not blanch from raising our voices to the Lord, with righteous anger and hot tears, that He might visit His vengeance upon those who did this, bring down His wrath upon their heads and exact upon them a terrifying justice in full measure.
    Amen.”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2624460/posts

  19. nv53, climate justice and social justice are just sucker buzz words meant to mask a Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist social engineering agenda.
    batb @ 6:59, in the socialist paradise some are more equal than others.

  20. Canada’s *Carney (not Art) & Folly Show:
    Don’t confuse me with the facts.
    >>> No risk-Idiots: “to strengthen their efforts to make the financial system safer,”.
    …-
    “Bernanke’s Folly”
    Posted on November 10, 2010 by Jack
    The chairman made it official that the Fed will be implementing QE2 (Quantitative Easing) in the form of buying back $600 billion in U.S. treasuries. For those who need clarification, this translates in to monetizing our debt, which, by the way, Mr. Bernanke had testified to the Congress that he would not do.
    The intended purpose of this foolish act is to nudge interest rates lower, make credit even cheaper, and consequently (it is hoped) jolt the faltering economy back into health by providing excess liquidity to the credit markets. Unfortunately, the unintended consequences, as Bill Gross of PIMCO — manager of world’s largest mutual fund company — speculates, is 20% or more devaluation of the dollar.
    This decision, which even some Fed members apparently disagree with, once again demonstrates Fed Chairman Bernake’s incompetence/deviousness (the latter for those who are “audit the Fed”-type conspiracy buffs).
    For any hypothesis (a proposal intended to explain certain facts or observations — in this case, the alleged effectiveness of QE) to be tested for reasonableness, principles surrounding it and facts in the form of empirical evidence must bear it out with a great degree of certainty.
    First, let’s examine the premise itself, based on the following series of facts:”.
    http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/bernankes_folly.html
    …-
    “*Carney backs Fed on massive bond buying”
    “Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has publicly backed the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest move to stimulate the U.S. economy, despite a growing controversy about it that threatens to bog down this week’s Group of 20 meeting in Seoul.
    After a speech in Geneva Tuesday about the need for policy makers to strengthen their efforts to make the financial system safer, Mr. Carney was asked about the Fed’s plan to buy $600-billion (U.S.) in government bonds in a bid to bring down longer-term interest rates and spur spending. “We have absolute confidence in the measures taken by the Federal Reserve,’’ he said.”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/carney-backs-fed-on-massive-bond-buying/article1791707/

  21. mouth – you are ignoring the facts. Matt Lauer’s Monday interview was on MSNBC. No-one watches MSNBC.
    Try the interviews on Tuesday on FOX. Oh, and on Oprah on Tuesday. Come back with those facts and start your rant all over again.
    You see, mouth, facts are more important than fiction.

  22. Right Maz2 – the recent attempted murder of Kamloops Bishop David Monroe quickly disappeared from the news, with everyone shaking their heads and agreeing it was a mental disorder and the implicit assumption that the attacker being Native there may have been more to it or that it was somehow justified. I would suggest it has more to do with the diabolical than mental illness. I know Father David Monroe, and believe me he would have fought back. It seems everyone, even his family is calling for forgiveness and understanding. Not so much me!

  23. Another thing, it’s interesting that Bush chose for his first interview, Matt Lauer, a known anti-Bush TV pundit. Obama, who unlike Bush rarely goes before the press, sticks to the sycophant interviewers.
    It’s the cable TV interviews where the ratings explode. No-one watches MS or NBC.
    Another thing to note, Bush never said a word against Obama; that’s class. But he never even said his name.
    Meanwhile, Obama is frittering around the world, giving his usual Teleprompter Speeches, whose content remains on the teleprompter, alienated from reality. What will Obama do now, when it’s becoming clear that his role as president is confined to the world of the Teleprompter? What will the Democrats do, now that they have been taken over by utopian radicals and alienated the mainstream Democrats?

  24. Despite its leftish slant and its connexion with the execrably bad A New Way Forward: Rethinking U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan, New America Foundation occasionally publishes something worthwhile. Anand Gopal has been consistently one of the most capable reporters covering the Fourth Afghan War:
    (PDF warning) Anand Gopal, The Battle for Afghanistan: Militancy and Conflict in Kandahar
    As Afghanistan’s cultural and political heartland, Kandahar is a province of key strategic importance for foreign forces, the Afghan government, and the insurgency. A sizable chunk of the Taliban’s senior leadership hails from the province, and the cultural and political dynamics of rural Kandahar shape aspects of the movement’s character to this day. This study attempts to understand the Taliban of Kandahar by looking at the factors that spurred their rise and the networks and structures through which they operate….

  28. *
    “irony-deprived mouth-breather spews… ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”
    won the hour with nearly 19 million viewers”
    obviously, the compassionate, intellectual left has loftier concerns than the
    flow of history.
    please, please, please, you dumb bunny… keep digging.
    *

  29. Benedict Wilkinson, Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula: A Changing Strategy
    In the last twelve months, the threat of terrorism perpetrated by Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) located in Yemen has undergone something of a radical change. Following the unsuccessful attack of Umar Abdulmutallab on 24 December 2009, Yemen hit the headlines as the ‘new Afghanistan’, the ‘new staging ground’ for Al-Qa’ida and a ‘mortal threat’ to western security. More recently, AQAP has been described as a critical and emergent terrorist threat in recent speeches by the Home Secretary and the heads of both MI5 and MI6. Further proof for this assessment was provided by the events of last weekend – in which ink-cartridges loaded with explosives were found on cargo planes whose final destination was the US. But despite the media frenzy, which witnessed the Chief of the Defence Staff refusing to rule out the possibility of military invasion, little has been said about the reasons behind the rapid emergence of AQAP as a significant threat outside the Arabian Peninsula….

  30. A photo winner that provokes metrosexuals in the same way that Piss-Christ provoked Christians.
    Huntress with Buck
    I, a meat-in-the-freezer (rather than thrill of the hunt) hunter am biased but, beyond that, compare and contrast the expression of the girl hunter with the women in the other photos. The majority of the other photos winners show women as passive, sad and pathetic.
    Anyway, the comments, coming form the Brits, are pretty much what you would expect.

  31. The Conservative government of this country is fast-tracking Bill C-389, a bill which enshrines the “rights” of the transgendered and transsexuals. Of course, this means they will have special rights that the rest of us don’t have, e.g., the “right” to use the washroom of either sex, as they choose. Six foot four, well built male with bass voice, enters Women’s washroom: “I think I’m a woman, so I get to use this washroom. ’You have a problem with that? ’Human Rights Commission for you.” And that’s just the beginning of the rights they’ll negotiate, at huge expense, through the courts and other, quasi-judicial and non-judicial institutions. (Of course, Muslim space will be sacrosanct, and exempt from the draconian rules to which the rest of us will be expected to buckle under.)
    Are secular, western societies crazy? (Rhetorical question.)
    Johns Hopkins used to do hormone treatments and surgeries for the sexually confused. ’No more because the Johns Hopkins physicians now admit that this sexual confusion/dysfunction (as in pathology) is akin to mental illness. These scientists found that the recipients of the hormones and surgical gerrymandering were as confused and dysfunctional with their new bodies as their old ones.
    Paediatricians are on record as being against “normalizing” transsexuality because many young people with such confusions grow out of them and, as a result, go on to lead happier, less stressful, more “normal” lives.
    Going against the time tested, biological grain (and a whole lot of other ones) is a pathology of this age. “Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” Methinks we’re at the reaping stage.
    (That’s bad enough, but why do the Conservatives go along with it so often? And why are they aiding and abetting Bill C-389?)
    But, I’m still going to vote Tory because the alternative would be exponentially worse. Really.

  32. “rights” of the transgendered and transsexuals.
    Now we have the right to self mutilation. Have to Love the lefts definition of tolerance.
    Just like assisted suicide along with killing babies.
    All for death, not so much for life.

  34. Update: Liberal Iggy’s O’Harvard buddy “Reaches Out” to AlMoh while AlMoh murders Christians.
    …-
    “Video: Obama Reaches Out to Muslims in Indonesia
    The Associated Press”
    …-
    “Blasts target Iraq Christians; 3 dead, dozens hurt”
    “Attackers detonated bombs or fired mortar rounds in more than a dozen attacks on Christian targets in the Iraqi capital late on Tuesday and early Wednesday, the security sources said.”
    “”What can we do? They are chasing Christians in every neighbourhood in Baghdad,” Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, told Reuters in a telephone interview, his voice shaking. “We can’t do anything to stop them, but to pray to God they stop these crimes.””
    http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6A91EF20101110
    Wed Nov 10, 2010
    http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/11/10/dear-helena/#comment-55168

  36. Yeah mouth, you are pretty sad.
    How much you wanna bet that’s not a milk mustache mouth is sporting this Movember?

  37. Yeah mouth, you are pretty sad.
    How much you wanna bet that’s not a milk mustache mouth is sporting this Movember?

  38. btw
    regarding EBD’s link
    Just last week I beat-up a man in front of his wife. For two weeks this woman(with her husband standing-by) harassed my 15yr old daughter while she was on her flier route. It started without provocation when the woman (40-50 yrs) called her a ‘slut'(and other things) for her outfit and he and she followed my daughter for a block. This happened the next week, and the next; but, this time I was down the street observing.
    I beat that f’er down in front of his wife and told her that “you’re dog is next!”. The police showed-up and let all of us on our way. This guy is scum for abiding by his wife while she intimidates and bullies my daughter.
    It’s time we stand-up to these creeps! I can guarantee that these f’ers will not be walking that street on Wednesdays and Fridays for a long time. THAT…is how you deal with a bully!
    BTW, no trouble from the police. They understood very well the necessity to protect you children from creeps.
    True story.

  39. mouth/bleet – you seem rather dim. You are ignoring that MSNBC doesn’t get any viewers, regardless of who is being interviewed – while O’Reilly on FOX is the top show on cable.
    Oh, and Obama hasn’t been on O’Reilly since he became president. Instead, Obama has reviled FOX and all its staff – quite the presidential ‘classy’ behaviour, eh?
    I repeat, Obama avoids the press. Do you know what a press conference is? It’s where the individual (president) meets the WH press (or other set of many journalists) and accepts their unscripted questions. Bush did that all the time. Obama has held none for a year. He has confined himself to scripted interviews with interviewers who are, for the most part, sycophants.
    Stick to the facts, bleet/mouth.

  40. Update: Liberal Iggy’s O’Harvard buddy.
    O’s footprint: O cuts’n’runs.
    “Volcano prompts president to cut short trip to Indonesia
    Washington Post”
    …-
    “Mount Merapi SO2 plume headed for Australia
    Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano put a lot of ejecta into the air; ash, CO2, and SO2. Here’s a recent news report showing the eruption:
    Tracked by satellite, now the Sulfur Dioxide plume is headed for Australia.
    From Spaceweather.com :
    A plume of sulfur dioxide from Indonesia’s deadly Mount Merapi volcano is swirling through the upper atmosphere over western Australia. This 7-day movie from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) onboard Europe’s MetOp satellite shows the plume in motion, and it could soon swirl across the entire continent. Sky watchers in Australia should be alert for volcanic sunsets.”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/10/so2-plume-headed-for-australia/#more-27685

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