With all the attention the Toronto AIDS conference received this week, one wonders why this didn’t receive the widespread media coverage it merits.
Well, actually, one doesn’t wonder.

Progress is being made in the fight against AIDS in Africa, thanks in no small part to the president’s aid program. But that’s not what some people want to hear.
FIVE YEARS AGO, in Jos, Nigeria, a city on the country’s central plateau, Dr. John Idoko regularly made rounds in a hospital packed with people dying from AIDS because they couldn’t pay for the antiretroviral drugs necessary to keep them alive. Three years ago, as the price of the drugs plummeted, the Nigerian doctor was able to deliver the life-extending medication to 700 patients-until his government’s supply ran out for several months.
Today, the change for the better is astonishing: Idoko now treats nearly 6,000 HIV-positive patients. He has expanded his clinic three times in five years, and his waiting room once again is too crowded. “Now, we are eyeing an abandoned building nearby,” he said last week, chuckling.
The major reason for Idoko’s success is the Bush administration’s AIDS program, which in the last three years has sent billions of dollars to Africa and helped save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. When I moved to Africa three years ago, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was just getting off the ground. As I return to Washington this month, the $15 billion program is just hitting its stride, and many Africans believe it has become the single most effective initiative in fighting the deadly scourge.
“The greatest impact in HIV prevention and treatment in Africa is PEPFAR-there’s nothing that compares,” Idoko said.
Only you wouldn’t know it in America-or Canada, or Europe, for that matter-given the tenor of the AIDS debate in Washington and the nature of the international media coverage.

h/t

“Time for my own poll. Is there any question so wacky that one-third of the population will not answer it in the affirmative?“

And a few ricochets too.

A letter from a reader alleges;

Saw your comments [re] Irwin Cotler. He claims to have defended Nelson Mandela.
Well, I have news for you, Nelson Mandela has no recollection of him. Proof: I asked him! Guess you have to take my word.
George Bizos SC, one of the South African Advocates who defended Mandela, did not remember Cotler.
Here is what happened. At the time of the Mandela trial, known as the Rivonia Trial, many well meaning lawyers from the UK and the Common Law world attended. Cotler was one of them. Just about all of them used the occasion to take their names onto Mandela and boast, “I was Mandela’s lawyer”.
That is what Cotler did. The court transcripts make no mention of Cotler. At the time he was not admitted to the South African Advocates Roll – or the local Bar. In short, he was an eager and enthusiast [sic] bystander and, many say, keen to make a name for himself. Smart man. He used this experience to do just that.
My law prof at the Universtiy of Witwaterstrand – a strong Mandela supporter, used to joke about this saying that Mandela was pleased to be in jail just to escape the bills that these thieving parasitic lawyers who affected to have represented him might be sending.
But give Cotler his due. He made many trips to South Africa in later years and got to meet Mandela and ‘create’ the ‘I was Mandela’s lawyer’ image.

An item for history buffs among you;

The Doomsday Book, a survey of England conducted nearly 1,000 years ago, became accessible online Friday. The book is the oldest record in Britain’s National Archives and one of the most valuable documents in England.
King William I ordered the survey in 1085 to determine the taxable value of the land he ruled. William had become the king of England in 1066 after he defeated the Saxon king, Harold, at the Battle of Hastings.
Officials traversed William’s kingdom to assess who owned which pieces of land and what was on it. They compiled a detailed record that lists over 13,000 places with estimates of the number of freemen, indentured peasants and slaves on each estate.

There’s more background and some tips on using the site at Digital Lifestyles.
You can access the “Domesday Book” website here.

Ripping into John Barber over crime stat dishonesty.

Normally, I wouldn’t waste me time demolishing a stupid column in the Globe and Mail. There are so many.

Now, if we could just get media to criticize each other over dishonesty in news reporting, we might actually get somewhere.

At IMAO:

Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon. Their main platform: Kill the Jews.

The power of tax cuts;

Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent? In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion, an output add-on that is roughly the same size as the total Chinese economy, and much larger than the total economic size of nations like India, Mexico, Ireland, and Belgium.

As he points out, you’re probably reading it here first.
More – Ed Morrissey notes some accuse Kudlow of “overplayed a winning hand”. He makes further points worth checking out.

The numbers, adjusted for inflation, are already compelling. The eleven-quarter period that Kudlow highlights ranks well in the last quarter-century. The Clinton administration had a run of such periods, starting in 1998Q1 through 2000Q3 (with each quarter showing this type of growth). Reagan had a similar run, between 1984Q3 and 1986Q3.
As King Banaian pointed out during our radio show, however, the Bush administration’s run has some remarkable differences. First, neither Clinton nor Reagan had a shooting war going on during these periods, allowing for more stable economic environments. Second, oil prices dropped during these periods for Clinton and Reagan, while they have increased considerably during the Bush expansion. Yet the Bush expansion, fuelled by the tax cuts, has shown remarkable stability and consistency. In the past eleven quarters, the only one below an annual rate of growth of 3% was 2005Q4, which reflected the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina. Also, we should recall that the Clinton era coincides with the dot-com bubble and the bulk of the investor frauds of Enron, Global Crossings, and Worldcom.

h/t

Donald Sensing revisits the nuts and bolts of alternate energy sources – solar cells, biofuels, electric cars, hydrogen – from an engineering standpoint, with the help of Stephen Den Beste’s posts in 2002. On hydrogen;

…hydrogen is a fuel but not an energy source. Gasoline is both. But there’s no substantial natural source of hydrogen which we can tap, so any hydrogen we use can only be created by utilizing energy from some other energy source. Hydrogen is like electricity, a way of moving energy from one place to another. That’s why discussion of conversion from internal combustion engines to fuel cells in vehicles may well be important when you’re concerned about air pollution or changes in industrial policy but isn’t when you’re talking about energy sources.

Good reading, as expected and good commentary in the discussion.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy – asked those who live on Indian reservations what they think about their governance;

In the last thirty years, government spending on aboriginal Canadians has increased by 3000%, yet the data on native incomes and standards of living show little improvement. Many reserves report unemployment rates as high as 90%, and urban natives face rates as high as 50%. Other indicators of social development often associated with entrenched poverty – welfare dependency, involvement with the criminal justice system, family disintegration – also lag when applied to First Nations. No other ethnic group reflects this persistent lack of progress.
[…]
As he researched and discussed these problems, we came to appreciate that some First Nations communities were in much better shape than others. We wanted to know why. If some Indian reservations were experiencing good governance, in spite of the significant barriers common to all, why couldn’t they all? That led us to propose this experimental project. How adequate are the institutions of governance in Canada’s First Nations? When measured by commonly accepted standards of the quality and effectiveness of ruling institutions, how do these semi-autonomous units of governance measure up? How can we find out?

So, are we really, really sure about velociraptor?

Power Ties – the clean energy source!

Are wreaking havoc on the timetable to get the US deficit under control;

Aided by surging tax receipts, President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 — three years early.
Tax revenues are running $176 billion, or 12.9%, over last year, the Treasury Department said Monday. The Congressional Budget Office said receipts have risen faster over the first eight months of fiscal ’06 than in any other such period over the past 25 years — except for last year’s 15.5% jump.
The 2006 deficit through May was $227 billion, down from $273 billion at this time last year. Spending is up $130 billion, or 7.9%.
The CBO forecast in May that the 2006 deficit could fall as low as $300 billion. Michael Englund, chief economist of Action Economics, has long expected a deficit of about $270 billion this year. Now he thinks there’s a chance the “remarkable strength in receipts” will push the deficit even lower.
With the economy topping $13 trillion this year, a $270 billion deficit would equal less than 2.1% of GDP, easily beating the president’s 2.25% goal. Bush made his vow when the White House had a dour 2004 deficit forecast of 4.5% of GDP, or $521 billion. The actual ’04 deficit came in at $412 billion, or 3.5% of GDP, before falling to $318 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, in 2005.

Typically, the only economic news we’re receiving from the mainstream press is “market jitters … threat of inflation … interest rate hike”. Canadian political pundits are particularly misinformed – commentary on US politics nearly always assumes;

an extremely expensive campaign in Iraq
When you hear a professional opinion shaper introduce one or more of those “facts” into their commentary, it ought to tell you how seriously to consider what follows. Not only are those common media assumptions false, all are easily researchable. For example;

On to the consequences of those crippling Bush tax cuts;

A CBO analysis last week noted that withheld individual income and payroll taxes are up 7.6% from a year ago, with the gains picking up in recent months.
“Those gains suggest solid growth in wages and salaries in the national economy,” CBO said.

And lest we forget! The rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer!;

While gains are broad, those at higher-income levels are enjoying bigger salary hikes. Because they pay higher rates, federal tax revenues soar when they do well.
Those making over $200,000 now pay 46.6% of total income taxes, presidential adviser Karl Rove recently said. That’s up from 40.5% — despite Bush’s tax cuts.

h/t Instapundit

Reader Allan T. writes;

CUPE has been kind enough to tell us that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario carries more than 30 Israeli wines.
I shall be buying some on my next trip there.
Perhaps you could start a thread where your readers would tell us what other Israeli products are available in the stores.

Consider it started!

CFRA;

An Ontario Superior Court judge has ordered the OPP, Ontario Attorney General, First Nations leaders and developers to a special court session on Thursday.
Justice David Marshall wants to know why his order to remove barricades near a housing development in Caledonia haven’t been enforced.

Pretty good question, eh?
Shere Khan has more.
(h/t Maz2 in the comments)

Being filmed on the University of Ottawa campus. Like Williard, but with big bad profiteering corporations, I guess. (I say guess, because I’ve never seen Williard).

From: xxx
Sent: May 29, 2006 3:59 PM
To: Professeurs de Physique (TOUS) – Physics Professors (ALL)
Subject: Film crews in Bioscience
Hi everybody, xxx and I have got quite a few questions about the movie being filmed in the Bioscience labs. Here is the info we have got from the producer of the movie.
For all those interested here is a little background on the movie being filmed in BSC.
“Trace Evidence” is a Canadian film being made for CTV and the US women’s network Lifetime. The Ottawa production company is Sound Venture Productions which has been in operation for over 25 years. Although this is a low budget production, it provides employment for local film technicians and actors.
Aside from the two lead performers, all of the actors, producers, & crew members are Canadian; and many are from the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Story: The lead character Christine is a geneticist who makes a significant and profitable breakthrough when she discovers what gene causes drug addiction. When Christine announces to her husband Chuck that she plans to funnel the profits back into her research he sees his dreams of easy living going down the drain. Bored with his marriage, and eager to move on financially, Chuck and his friend Sam plot the demise of Christine. In the end, good triumphs over evil and Christine lives happily ever after with her drug addicted rats while Sam and Chuck rot in prison.

Sorry about the spoiler.

Reuters confirms that which may be seen for oneself by simply driving from Winnipeg or Saskatoon to Fargo, North Dakota;

The U.S. economy shot forward at an upwardly revised 5.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the fastest growth in 2-1/2 years, as companies built up inventories and exports strengthened, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.
First-quarter growth in gross domestic product was more than triple the 1.7 percent annual rate recorded in last year’s fourth quarter, though still slightly below Wall Street economists’ forecasts for a 5.7 percent pace.

That’s a higher growth rate than the province of Alberta. (Under Clinton, the average year-over-year gross domestic product growth was 3.7 percent.)

One wonders if the news networks took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up, not in New Orleans, but on a Hollywood movie set.

Remember the dozens, maybe hundreds, of rapes, murders, stabbings and deaths resulting from official neglect at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina? The ones that never happened, as even the national media later admitted?
Sure, we all remember the original reporting, if not the back-pedaling.
Here’s another one: Do you remember the dramatic TV footage of National Guard helicopters landing at the Superdome as soon as Katrina passed, dropping off tens of thousands saved from certain death? The corpsmen running with stretchers, in an echo of M*A*S*H, carrying the survivors to ambulances and the medical center? About how the operation, which also included the Coast Guard, regular military units, and local first responders, continued for more than a week?
Me neither.

More here from Jonah Goldberg;

[I]t is difficult to think of a bigger media scandal in my lifetime than the fraudulently inaccurate coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

Read them both, and then file for future reference the next time those who ride the microphone ponies stand before the cameras to bring us “on the scene reporting”.

But as insurance – invest in mobile laboratories…

Subject: Investment Plan for the year 2003
In regards from the letter singed with you on 12/10/2002 regarding our company investment plan to the year mentioned above, included is the technical report according to the letter showing its details below:
1. Develop and enlarge existing laboratories, 178,000,000 Dinars
2. Prepare MOBILE LABORATORIES , In Iraqi Dinar 128,413,00 + 273,445 Euros with 10 Dinar/Euro, 27,344,500, 155,757,500 Dinars.
Total 333,757,500 Dinars
Remark: The cost of the vehicles related to the Mobile Laboratories is not determined yet.
Please review and do what is necessary… with regards

Another Hussein document translated, up at Captains Quarters.