Author: Kate

UN High Commissioner for Hypocrisy

It’s tempting to write something uncharitable about this

Arbour, a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, was not hurt when rockets landed a few hundred metres away from her entourage at a factory, but a worker at the facility was seriously injured.
After Arbour’s group heard a loud explosion and saw plumes of smoke, Israeli rescue officials immediately rushed to the scene.
“I was on the outskirts of a factory immediately after it was hit,” Arbour said.
“I understand somebody was seriously wounded and so I think first of all I want to express my deepest sympathy for the people, for the family of the person who was wounded and say how much I share their sense of hopelessness, and vulnerability and frustration, frankly, to have been so exposed.”

No. she doesn’t. And Israelis know it.

She started her tour Monday in the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun, where she met with the families of 19 Palestinian civilians killed by errant Israeli artillery fire.
She angered Israeli officials by condemning Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip and told Palestinians that the world has not abandoned them.
On Tuesday, after the rocket attack, she expressed sympathy for Israelis in Sderot, a town that Israeli officials say has been targeted by at least 1,000 Palestinian Kassam rockets since the start of the year.
Arbour, who continued her tour with the mayor of Sderot, got an angry reception from a few residents who believe the United Nations is biased against Israel. Some people pounded on her car, while several workers at a chicken-slaughtering plant threw stones at her vehicle and shouted curses when she came to see the result of Palestinian rocket fire firsthand.

Update: For all the coverage her “close call”, this development seems to have received coverage only in the Israeli press; – “Louise Arbour has decided not to meet with the families of the kidnapped soldiers during her visit to Israel . The families of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit have approached the commissioner two weeks ago already, but after a series of evasive answers, the negative and final answer came Tuesday.”
h/t to Maz2 in the comments.

Pro-Harper Rally In Toronto?

Via True North, a comment that originally appeared at Free Dominion on Nov.19th;

I was in the city of Toronto today. Around 2:00pm I was at Spadina and Dundas. On the south west corner hundreds, maybe thousands, of Chinese were standing there holding fabric banners that measured approx. 36″ x 30′. One read “Thank you Mr. Harper”. Another supported the government in general. I won’t assume the press will draw people’s attention to it, so I thought I would.

Can anyone confirm this? Kathy Shaidle can’t find anything on Google news, nor can I. Of course, absence of media coverage means nothing – this rally supported the PM. Now, had the event drawn numbers in the double digits, been organized by Friends of Hezbollah or the World Worker’s Party… well, you get the drift.
Update – from the comments, Bob Tarantino;

Well, I was there, I walked through the crowd, I picked up the pamphlets, even got a DVD which I haven’t watched yet. I would put the numbers at around four or five dozen (with the caveat that I’m terrible at guesstimating crowd sizes). As someone else pointed out, it’s pretty much logistically impossible to corral hundreds or thousands of people at the corner in question, regardless of the time of day. All that being said, the lack of media attention, compared to, say, protests being attended by even smaller numbers of people but espousing double-plus-goodthink, is… well, I was going to say “a sad comment on the state of our media”, but that would imply that I had any expectations of them whatsoever to begin with.

Searching For Katrina

Pieter Dorsman learns the truth of an old Chinese proverb – “the man who believes what he reads in the newspaper Is the man who has never been interviewed“.

The power outage is continuing over here, in fact it got worse this morning when another storm knocked out numerous trees and power lines. Of course, this has attracted media attention and on Friday night we got a visit from a local TV-crew interested in how we were making out.
They came the right time, we had just grilled some great chicken on the BBQ, opened up an Australian Shiraz and getting ready to enjoy our dinner in front of the fireplace. The interviewer was trying hard to find bad news or some discord over our predicament, but even our children confirmed that we were doing fine when the camera lights were directed on them. I’ve not been interviewed on TV much, but it occurred to both me and Irene how hard some of these media outfits thrive on the negative rather than the positive. Only this afternoon some other journalists were in town soliciting quotes about how poorly the local power utility was doing in restoring services, but the contrary is true: they’re working around the clock to make things work again.

(OK, so it’s an old Saskatchewan proverb. Just remember where you heard it.)

Iraq Roundup

Via Belmont Club (where there’s more from Bill Roggio).

I’m getting word of a major battle last week in Iraq last week, between terrorists and elements of the 82nd Airborne, east of Baghdad. One U.S. officer described the engagement as “one of the five biggest battles” between U.S. troops and insurgents in recent years. Other reports indicate as many as 100 terrorists were killed in the fighting, which lasted for several days. American casualties were described as “light.” The engagement reportedly began when the 82nd discovered–an attacked–an apparent terrorist training camp. So far, no confirmation of this operation from the “western press” in Iraq, nor the Multi-National Forces in Iraq (MNF-I) public affairs office.

A comment there points to this briefing, which may refer to the same engagement . Worth your time, it includes progress reports on infrastructure projects to this update on Fallujah;

The people in Iraq are showing tremendous perseverance in fighting these foreign influences that seek to destroy their goal of a unified Iraq. Last week, I was in Fallujah and had the opportunity there to see some different examples of this.
Fallujah just was under assault from foreign fighters and terrorists two years ago this very month. It was a city without security, stability or even any hope. The situation was so bad that we mounted a massive rescue effort for the people of that city. In October of 2004, coalition forces launched Operation Al-Fajr, named after the Iraqi word for “dawn.” Led by American Marines, coalition forces took on an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists who had driven out the legitimate residents of their neighborhoods. The population of Fallujah had largely fled the city, reducing the number of residents to somewhere in the figure of 50,000 to 60,000.
Last week, I saw a city of about 300,000 people, who have made incredible progress over these past two years. I witnessed a city council meeting, where a democratically elected mayor and city council led the deliberations and talked about the people’s business. I saw Iraqis policing their own neighborhoods, enforcing their own laws and transitioning to responsibility for their own security and growth. I saw an Iraqi army that cooperates with an Iraqi police force, a situation few would have believed achievable in Fallujah just one short year ago. I even saw a processing center where Fallujah welcomes persons displaced by instability elsewhere in Iraq.
In the aftermath of Operation Al-Fajr, as late as September of 2005, there were still 3,000 United States Marines and only 300 Iraqi security forces in Fallujah. Today the people of the city are protected by 1,500 members of their own Iraqi security forces, and there are approximately only 300 U.S. Marines.

Taking the historical long view, a food for thought piece – “The Human Calculus”;

As things stand, the conflict with Islamic radicalism involves the lowest average daily military fatality rate of any long run national security era. It may worsen, it may improve. If Congress had been asked on September 12, 2001, to endorse a national defense posture against Islamic radicalism that traded up to 2 military fatalities per day over the subsequent five years in return for no additional homeland attacks, the deposing of terror friendly regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ending of Libya’s nuclear program, what would they have done? Would Congress accept that bargain today?

Finally, this at In From The ColdLabouchere of Arabia.
That should keep you busy for a while.

Interview With A Swedish Policeman

From the city of Malmö, via Gates of Vienna. 40% of the city’s population is immigrant ;

“The number of cases involving rough violence against individuals on public property has risen sharply since the beginning of the ’90s, when I started my work in Malmö. The perpetrators of robbery and bodily harm on public property are almost always immigrant youngsters. This is well-documented, but the authorities responsible prefer not to report it. It would be against the country’s integration propaganda, so they prefer to remain silent.
“The fact that also the number of rapes in Malmö has grown sharply is related to the fact that 40% of Malmö’s inhabitants have a different ethnic background, and where the men’s power over the women is total. Their view of women is so totally alien to us Swedish men, and they continue to live according to their culture without regard to the fact that they are in a different country with different laws. Unfortunately, this attitude is being reinforced by Swedish authorities and courts who show regard for the suspect’s culture when making decisions.”
This police officer confirms also the negative reception which police and emergency services encounter in Malmö’s immigrant suburbs.
“Many immigrants have not the slightest respect for Swedish cops. You’re often treated like a trashman. Immigrants have so far only met representatives of the immigration and social services. They have been treated very friendly and seen all their demands met.
“Certain routine matters, such as a driving license check with an immigrant in Rosengård, get easily out of hand and develop into a major incident, where all patrol cars must intervene to re-establish order. Thanks to cellphones, many ‘supporters’ gather when we intervene in Rosengård. If we stop a car for a routine check, the entire clan shows up to work against the police.

Tip Jar

First of all, let me thank again those of you who have helped support SDA with your private donations by mail in the past few months.
Until today, my attempts to set up a functioning PayPal account had been tangled up in a catch-22 of red tape over an old, misaddressed account. After over 4 hours of work online, followed up by calls to their help center, backed up by a few choice expletives … the problem was finally rectified and a new account established. I’ve added a “donations” button on the sidebar for your convenience. The form it generates is self-explanatory.
Other blog notes:
Re: the problems in commenting last week. It turned out to be a combination of spam attacks – plus our usual traffic! The hosting company has moved SDA to a new, upgraded server in an effort to relieve those problems. (We were causing load issues for other sites as well). So far, things appear to be better. But if you do encounter your attempts to post “hanging” or generating an error page, just sit tight – it’s due to the server being under heavy demand. The comment has probably gone through just fine.
If you’ve any other questions, or concerns, drop them in the comments.

He Just Forgot Where He Was

An embarrassing lesson plan mix up?

Khalid Chahhou, who was in his first year of teaching in Johnston County, gave students a worksheet in which they were to translate words and find them within a word-search puzzle.
Some students started uncovering strange words in the process.
“There were words like ‘kill,’ then I saw it said ‘destroy America,'” Eric Herrera said.

Chahhou resigned after being suspended from his job teaching Spanish at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School (North Carolina).
He’s not completely out of work though. Chahhou also teaches Arabic (pdf) at a religious school associated with the Islamic Association of Cary.
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Beyond Same-Sex Marriage

Stanley Kurtz;

Will same-sex marriage open the door to still more radical redefinitions of the family? The argument against a “slippery slope” has largely come down to the claim that there is no constituency for family radicalism. Logically and culturally, the notion that “love makes a family” opens the door to an infinite variety of family forms, polygamy and polyamory included. Yet consider the massive cultural and political effort that’s been required to bring civil unions to several states, and formal same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. Now imagine how much more effort it would take to finally secure same-sex marriage in the nation as a whole. How could a few college professors and radical family activists hope to equal that “mainstream” effort?
So goes the argument against a family-structure-slippery-slope. Yet the argument is flawed. As I showed in “The Confession,” and “The Confession II,” the core constituency for a radical deconstruction of marriage (polygamy and polyamory included) will be largely the same activist community that is pushing for same-sex marriage right now. After all, until a moment ago, same-sex marriage was itself considered a radical idea pushed by a bunch of college professors and marginal activists. That was before gay marriage was taken up as a cause by weighty mainstream institutions like The New York Times.
Well, The New York Times has once again placed itself on the cutting edge of family radicalism, with a Sunday magazine cover piece on the three- and four- person extended families created when gay men donate sperm to lesbian couples. (See “Gay Donor or Gay Dad?”) These families are at the center of the radical agenda put forward this past summer in the “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage” manifesto. (For more, see my “Confession” articles, linked above.) It will be next to impossible to recognize such families without also opening up the way for heterosexual polygamy and polyamory, which is exactly why all of these family forms, and more, are on the menu put forward by the “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage” manifesto.

Black Light Timmy’s

I’ve never much cared for stopping at the Tim’s location on 22nd and this information simply confirms the reasons why. Over the past 10 years, residents have witnessed the steady transformation of Saskatoon’s 22nd Street from major commercial corridor to gang hangout and check-cashing district. I suppose the aboriginal-art-on-light-pole urban renewal solution is just around the corner. It certainly worked its magic on 20th.

CNews Poll Rigged?

A commentor wonders;

Check out the poll at canoe.ca re: the US losing its moral high ground in Iraq. I have revisited to and seen the number of votes increase from around 4000 to 5000 and now over 6000 and the percentages have not changed (24%, 12%, 17%, 47%). The source code appears to me to be fixed, but my html knowledge is lacking for me say for sure.

Here’s the link to the poll. I have no idea whether this is the case or not, but it’s worth a test. For once, I’m going to ask that readers vote “no”, only because the answer represents the lowest percentage and is most likely to be affected by an influx of votes.
(Also, a quick look-see at the page source by someone with better knowledge of coding would be useful.)
UPDATE – test over. It took quite some time, but we’ve managed to move the “no” vote from 12% to 13%, so unless it was manually changed, it looks as though the poll is functioning properly.
It is worth noting , that the poll questions have essentially provided two possible responses for those who would vote “no” to the specifics of the question – “does the guilty plea by a Marine diminish the US moral ‘high ground’ in Iraq’.

All Your Weather Are Belong To Us

Just as skeptics are beginning to note that the troublesome “global warming” mantra is being quietly replaced by the more meteorologically inclusive “climate change” – along comes a new catch phrase. Remember where you heard it first.

But the meeting has delayed until next year a decision on who should run funds to help poor countries adapt to climate change.
“Rich countries should have achieved more at this conference and made more firm commitments to combat climate injustice,” said Sharon Looremeta of environmental group Practical Action.

Climate “injustice”.
To my friends concerned with the legitimate environmental debate: that’s code that even you should be able recognize.
“Justice” is an construct of human social interactions. No scientist with a sliver of intellectual self-respect would be caught dead using the word in that context – it suggests that a natural climate unmolested by mankind’s activity would be more considerate in how it applies its effects to human populations.
When someone promotes concepts like “climate injustice” they’re not talking about the environment. They’re talking about your money and mine, and how to get their hands on as much of it as possible.
Remember: socialism isn’t a political ideology – it’s a pyramid scheme.
The rich get richer, and the poor end up in unmarked graves and re-education camps.
“Environmentalism” was hijacked by the hard left at least a decade ago, and some of us are starting to wonder what it’s going to take for you to figure that out. And the Kyoto Protocol? Just more UN-brokered “politics of envy” in hemp and Birkenstock disguise.
Related.

Next Time – Let ‘Em Drown

Less than two years after the US Navy came to the fore as first responders in tsunami ravaged Indonesia;

Jakarta, Nov. 19 (AP): Anti-American protests intensified on Saturday ahead of President George W. Bush’s coming visit to the world’s most populous Muslim country.
“Bush is a terrorist!” chanted 300 Islamic hard-liners, students and ordinary citizens who gathered outside the U.S. embassy in the capital, Jakarta, the target of near-daily protests all month. “He is guilty of killing Muslims!”
Bush was scheduled to visit Indonesia briefly on Monday.

I think the time has come to turn the needs of people like this over to the UN.

Floats Like A Butterfly

Stings like a AT-2 Swatter;

Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
The flying robot, nicknamed the “bionic hornet”, would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.
It is one of several weapons being developed by scientists to combat militants, it said. Others include super gloves that would give the user the strength of a “bionic man” and miniature sensors to detect suicide bombers.

The Last Great War Veteran – Update II

An email response sent along by reader Bob, from Saskatchewan MP David Anderson (Cypress Hills – Grasslands). Dated Nov. 15

RE: Call For State Funeral for Last Great War Veteran
Dear Bob,
Thank you for your e-mail. Canada’s New Government is very proud of our three known surviving veterans from the First World War. John Babcock, Lloyd Clement and Percy Dwight Wilson are three remarkable men.
These brave men remain a living link to what has been called our Greatest Generation. Canadians are indebted to these heroes for the sacrifices they made and for their remarkable bravery displayed on behalf of Canada. We should not forget these men, and the others of their generation, who gave so much for their country.
Veterans Affairs Minister, Greg Thompson had the privilege and honour of meeting all three men, and was moved by their continued devotion to their country. They remain as committed to Canada as they did when they wore the uniform.
Canada’s New Government is developing a strategy to mark the passing of Canada’s last surviving First World War Veterans in consultation with Veterans’ organizations, the Department of National Defence and Canadian Heritage.
Thank you for your comments; I will pass them on to Veterans Affairs Minister, Greg Thompson.
Sincerely,
David Anderson, MP

Previous.
Meanwhile, over at the Saskatchewan NDP convention, the ever-opportunistic Jack Layton is proposing … a state funeral for the last surviving WWI veteran!
The Layton Lightbulb Moment seems a recent one, too – at time of posting, a search of the NDP website reveals no results on the topic. There’s nothing mentioned under “today’s headlines”, either.
Neither this CP item, nor audio clips on local radio indicate Layton has given credit where it is due – to the folks at the Dominion Institute whose petition started the ball rolling.

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