Long time SDA readers may have noticed that I seldom mention Jack “Cindy” Layton. There’s a reason for that (beyond the NDP’s fourth party status). I’ve concluded that there are only a few explanations for why Layton says the things he does, and none of them are curable. He’s not worth the time and effort. For example:

Layton urged the Conservative government to grant sanctuary to young soldiers, noting Canada became a safe haven for Americans seeking to avoid the Vietnam draft more than 30 years ago.
“We should be looking at it,” he said. “These young people are courageous individuals. They’ve made a decision of conscience.”

However, there are others willing to waste electrons on him – including Damian Brooks;

What did you say? “Conscience?” You’re a little late to the party there, aren’t you?
I mean, ask Bev Desjarlais what following your conscience gets you in the Jack Layton NDP.

Indeed.
And sticking with that theme: the Globe and Mail’s latest “news story created by a poll commissioned to create a news story” provides the pretext for pollster Allan Gregg to openly long for the day when Canadian Forces leave Afghanistan and return to helping little old ladies cross streets. No, really!
Mark Collins, guest blogging at Daimnation is onto them. Check it out.
Monday morning update – As if on cue, more Laytonesque Logic on display. He wants Canadian troops pulled from the battle against a fundamentalist Islamic government in exile and redeployed to battle a fundamentalist Islamic government in power. His military strategy is impeccable – because the polls tell him so!
Flashback – Back in 2004, the National Post’s Robert Fulford fixed on one of those incurable traits I alluded to.

He’s not quite up to the job. Layton in print differs from Layton on TV. The guy with the moustache, impressively confident if too glib to be quite plausible, can’t be found in this book. In his place we meet a good-hearted, simple-minded chap, a writer without skill and a man without humour.

Emphasis mine.

Liberal leadership candidate Carolyn Bennett, (Liberal MP for St. Pauls, Toronto) addresses Canada’s number one root cause of crime – parents.

“There’s actually no plan for early learning and child-care spaces. So it’s a good job they’re putting more money for prisons in the budget, because we’re going to need them if we don’t get this early childhood right.”

It’s times like this that I really regret not having the comments open – just to showcase the pop-criminology apologists just itching to jump in and defend her.

In the mind of almost-always-Oscar-ignored Richard Dreyfuss, two 110 story office towers collapsing in the streets of Manhattan at the hands of Islamic terrorists don’t create a need to react – pictures do

“The falling Twin Towers — pictures that produced anger, a lot of anger that were sent instantly around the world, they created a need to react.”
“People in Kansas could see the Twin Towers fall at exactly the same instant as in Nigeria and Cairo. Such an instantaneous knowledge of a situation leads to an instantaneous reaction which creates demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response.

As Dreyfuss explains;

“You have to encourage prose, analysis and detail — otherwise people will go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without really knowing why.”

Translation: “You have to ask yourself why they hate us, then understand that (other) white Americans deserve to die.”

Dreyfuss is eager to point out that he is not anti-technology: “I’m not in love with technology and speed but I don’t want to sound like a luddite.

Little danger of that – “idiot” trumps “luddite” every time.

A caller to David Kirton this afternoon related a story in which a restaurant’s card scanner malfunctioned. After several minutes of failed attempts, he offered to go to his bank and get the $16 in cash. The cashier (the owner’s wife) asked;

“Which child would you like to leave behind?”

Which makes one wonder – what did they expect to do with the kid if he didn’t come back with the 16 bucks?

Previously Unknown Neil Young Songs .
Quote Of The Week goes to Richfisher;

“First Ken Dryden, now Neil.
I hope supermodels never learn to talk.”

(*title updated)

There’s no small degree of irony in this story – the same “violent mob” of Students Against War who chased military recruiters from the UC Santa Cruz campus last week are now crying foul because Michelle Malkin has published their press release, complete with contact information of the organizers.

UPDATE: SAW has removed the contact information from its press release and is now lying about the fact that it made the info publicly available on the Internet. I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility.

With all the momentum of a lead zeppelin.

Senator Russell Feingold was a lonely man yesterday.
Of his seven Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, only two showed up for the committee’s hearing on Feingold’s call for a censure of President Bush. One of them — Feingold’s fellow Wisconsin Democrat, Herb Kohl — ducked out early without uttering a word.
So Feingold sat amid a sea of empty chairs in the hearing room, withstanding a withering Republican barrage. GOP lawmakers took turns branding Feingold’s resolution ”irresponsible,” ”inappropriate,” ”excessive,” ”perverse,” ”false,” ”surreal,” ”beyond the pale,” and ”destructive.”
”I can only hope that this constitutionally suspect and, I believe, inflammatory attempt to punish the president for leading this war on terror will not weaken his ability to do so,” declared Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah.
Feingold’s resolution has no chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Congress. Only two Democrats have signed on as cosponsors, and party leaders, fearful of rallying Bush’s supporters with direct attacks on the president, have resisted the GOP’s offers to bring the resolution to the Senate floor.

Via Wizbang, where there’s more.

It’s not the price that’s the problem – it’s the “best by date”.

Personally, I lean towards the “she’s drunk most of the time” theory.

I guess she’s not getting enough attention in the US anymore, so she’s doing a roadshow. Or is she? Shame? Her? I find that hard to believe, but apparently she won’t be showing up, although her friends say they will.
Or will they?

“The snow started early Friday morning. Road conditions on post went from Amber, to Red, and finally to Black. Luckily I had arrived in Kaiserslautern the night before.
When conditions are Black, all non-essential personnel are sent home and the buses from Kleber to the hospital and the PXs stop running.”

I have no idea of the layout, so don’t know if it will affect the demonstrations. So what can we do? We can put a comment in encouraging them, that’s what we can do. Don’t know what to say? A simple “ignore the moonbats” would probably suffice, but feel free to pontificate.
UPDATE: It’s the middle of the night there, so although I’ve sent an email about the “Spam Blocker” (?), you can still get to the links by clicking on the highlighted “bypass this message”

TRUTH ALERT: IN RESPONSE TO DRUDGE REPORT STORY ABOUT MISSPELLINGS IN MEMO.

With another little yelp from my friends.

“With a little yelp from my friends.”
(mp3 courtesy Rawlco Radio)

Some stories just make me proud to be Canadian…

I hadn’t posted here in a while, because just after the last post, I got a call from an excited park ranger in Hawaii that “a nice Canadian couple reported that they found your camera!” She gave me their name and number, and I eagerly called to reclaim my camera.
“Hello,” I said, when I reached the woman who had reported the camera found, “I got your number from the park ranger, it seems you have my camera?”
We discussed the specifics of the camera, the brown pouch it was in, the spare battery and memory card, the yellow rubberband around the camera. It was clear it was my camera, and I was thrilled.

A heart warming tale, complete with sick child.

My thoughts, too.

If this isn’t the quote of the day….

“Words and images have the power to wound and hurt and, sometimes, kill.”

Perhaps someone should remind Mr. Kinsella that Harry Potter is not a documentary.

Star Phoenix;

The latest edition of the Western Standard will not reach magazine stands at any McNally Robinson Booksellers stores, owner Paul McNally confirmed Monday.
“We obviously are fervently in favour of freedom of expression but looking at this one, we don’t see anything as being expressed except a kind of hurtfulness toward Muslims,” he said in an interview from Winnipeg.”I don’t know if there is anything to be learned or communicated by publishing the cartoons.”

$23
Oh no! A fatwa on Chapters – Indigo!
More commentary from David Warren
update – Colleen Boschmann, General Manager McNally Robinson responds to an email complaint;

“In a nutshell, the McNally’s stand is: yes to freedom of expression, no to freedom of gratuitous provocation.”

Emphasis mine.
(full response in extended entry)
More offensive finds – Damian Penny notes McNally-Robinson has no problem with The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion.
And for the low, low price of $39.95!

Continue reading →

If you have to read this twice to be sure that it says what you think it says, don’t feel alone;

Islamic Congress Warns Of Emerging Police State As P.m. Harper Appoints “most Feared Five” To New Cabinet — New Ministers Day, Mackay, Cannon, Toews, And Solberg Could Be Bad News For Canadian Rights And Freedoms.

For more information, contact Dr. Mohamed “Anyone over the age of 18 in Israel is a valid target” Elmasry.
(I considered doing a cartoon parody of Mohamed, but thought better of it.)

Glenn Reynolds comments on the latest ramblings of our own poor man’s Jeanine Garofalo…

[A]ccording to some on the left, raising concerns about Muslim extremism, death threats, and censorship just proves that you’re — a right-wing extremist!
Antonia “Notice Me!” Zerbisias of the Toronto Star, — best known in the blogosphere for attributing an anonymous commenter’s remarks to blogger Stefan Sharkansky and making the bizarre claim that warbloggers have “fallen silent” — is now claiming that the whole thing is about Muslim-hating Westerners. Riiight.

Kathy Shaidle;

She — and remember, this is a salaried journalist at Canada’s largest paper, who, on every other issue, like allowing Al-Jazeera on Canadian tv, is all for free speech — explains that publishing the cartoons in North American papers “was not necessary to understanding the story. As many editors have explained, merely describing the cartoons is sufficient for making the point.”
What. A. Dumbass.
She goes on:

As for violence, I would guess that Muslims are more victims than perpetrators.
After all, when Irshad Manji published her controversial “The Trouble With Islam: A Wake Up Call for Honesty and Change” in 2003, no harm ever came to her despite so many � again right-wing � bloggers’ musings that it would. That said, their fears helped Manji move a lot of books around the world.

Well, maybe no harm came to her because, unlike Theo Van Gogh, she travels with a bodyguard, had her windows replaced with bullet proof glass, and so forth. This is the same sensitive Zerb who, while recently chiding a commentor on her blog for daring to use the “offensive” phrase “WASP”, once referred to Manji as a “professional lesbian.”

I liked her in World Police, though. Garofalo, I mean.