Andrew Nikiforuk’s review of “THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WAR ON CANCER” for the Globe and Mail gets off to a rollicking start,

…the cancer establishment has retreated from the truth faster than Canada’s commitment to a greener country … propaganda hit men … persistently foul pattern of deceit … I often wanted to throw it against a wall and scream … lingering, Disney-like fantasies … She shines, in short, with a burning indignation…

If not an altogether coherent one.

Her angry history of the way free and open discourse on cancers in the workplace has become as elusive as meaningful political debates reveals the rot with the bluntness of a chemo treatment.

There are many damning studies, and many shameful villains…

Damning studies on the health of asbestos workers couldn’t find a home in the 1930s, and to this day, Canada shamefully remains an exporter of the lung destroyer.

A mistake we were determined not to make with our water, in the knowledge that innocent people are drowning the world over.

Many of Davis’s findings simply stunned me.

Andrew attempts a valiant recovery, but the forces of stun are too powerful.

Now ponder this stunner: “Modern America’s annual exposure to radiation from diagnostic machines is equal to that released by a nuclear accident that spewed the equivalent of hundreds of Hiroshimas across much of Russia and Eastern Europe.”

And inversely proportional to the critical thinking skills on display.
And oh! Oh! Here come visits from old friends!

… Donald Rumsfeld

And…

… Nazis

The real tragedy is that none of us are likely to live long enough to read it, what with the…

… hidden hydrocarbon holocaust

We’re told how the author “celebrates tough, rural, blue-collar mothers” and advises that “Ritalin rearranges chromosomes”. Rearranged how? I suppose you have to read the book. Though, you really don’t need to – Mr. Nikiforuk has managed to provide the Hysterics’ Digest Abridged Version, courtesy of the Globe and Mail.
But I’ve saved the very best for last…

While China now leads a global economic boom, it’s also exploring new opportunities for cancer. Even its secretive, Ottawa-like government now concedes that the country’s industries use the nation’s rivers as industrial urinals.

Give the man his due. “Moonbat” just isn’t done any better than this.
(h/t to sharp-eyed reader Michel !)

Further to this post (and since I’ve not got much energy for blogging today), a little contest – come up with your best impersonation of a Bush -hating member of the intellectual left.
I’ll start things off:

on the internet “bush” rhymes with “rush” … did you just feel the hair go up on the back of your neck like I did ???!!

Tips: Keep them short, and don’t bother with “subtle” – it’s not convincing. (And please observe the usual rules about profanity, threats of violence, etc.).
Have fun. I’ll pick some “winners” on the weekend.
Update …
Speaking of Hollywood, this gets my vote for Quote Of The Week: “It’s like watching Sean Hannity debate Jane Fonda after they both spent the whole day together sniffing glue. “

Peter Berkowitz tackles Bush Derangement Syndrome for the WSJ;

It’s not that this time members of the intellectual class have been swept away by passion and become votaries of anger and loathing. Alas, intellectuals have always been prone to employ their learning and fine words to whip up resentment and demonize the competition. Bush hatred, however, is distinguished by the pride intellectuals have taken in their hatred, openly endorsing it as a virtue and enthusiastically proclaiming that their hatred is not only a rational response to the president and his administration but a mark of good moral hygiene.”

The “intellectual class” beg to differ…

“How can you calmly accept a retarted warmongering coporate…whore like Bush?”

h/t Maz2

Finally, a role for the Canadian Wheat Board that I can get behind!
From the comments – “Apparently George Bush can’t be trusted with weapons but Ken Ritter, now that’s a different story.”

“That’s some happy-headed Santa there.”

Welcome lizardoids – be sure to check out the full story here.

In September….

“The motion was passed to clarify a policy amendment passed 10-1 by the last UVSS board of directors in April.That board amended the society’s policy on military issues to include, “The Society is opposed to the militarization of Canadian Society, and is unsupportive of a Canadian military establishment that violates international law and human rights.” […] “The ban voted in on Sept. 10 means that the Canadian Armed Forces will be unable to attend the annual recruiting fair put on by UVic’s Career Services in the SUB every January. The Armed Forces attended last year’s recruiting fair.”

Graham Noyes sends a final update; The Nightmare is Over

In a true display of democracy in action, 400 UVic students crammed into the conference room at the Student Union Building (SUB) to vote in the Annual General Meeting. The issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind was that motion passed by the Board of Directors last month banning the Canadian Forces from recruiting in the SUB, a motion submitted by the organization Students Against War (SAW) who used lies, paranoia, and unproven allegations of war crimes to push it through without the knowledge of the student body at large. Following the very successful board meeting on the 10th, the ban was rescinded, and moved to a formal vote at the AGM earlier tonight, much to the dismay of SAW, who argued for the “democratic sovereignty” of the board to make decisions for the UVic Student Society as a whole. These are the same people who verbally assaulted an Afghanistan veteran, vandalized university property in their propaganda campaign, and tore down posters from the anti-ban group my friends and I organized.
The movement to oppose the ban grew out of a random Facebook group set up by my now good friend Jon Fox. What started as an off-the-wall webpage for those enraged by the UVSS board’s initial decision spontaneously transformed into a massive political force, peaking around 700 members in less than 2 weeks. Our membership went beyond the political divide of left and right; liberals, libertarians, conservatives, socialists, social-democrats, anarchists and moderates all concerned with the state of freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and freedom of choice at UVic actively took part in our organization.
Despite this, SAW continued to deride us “a right-wing minority” within the Student Society over the past month since this issue first surfaced. Well it would seem this right-wing minority covered enough of the political spectrum and carried enough supporters to win the vote against the ban by *a landslide victory of approximately 95%*. In the 2 hours leading up to the vote, SAW tried every dirty parliamentary trick in the book, attempting to filibuster the motion, purposely muddling the issue by attempting to amend motions and debate procedural challenges during the meeting, and even attempting to have the CF recruitment ban motion tabled so it would be sent back to the Board of Directors who passed it in the first place. Those Stalinist autocrats who said we were “uninformed about the issues” were sent packing with their tails between their legs. As for the 7 board members who allowed this ban to go through originally, their days in politics at the University of Victoria are numbered.
So, after over a month of shame and frustration with the state of this institution, this issue has finally been put to rest. We students can all get back to our lives, especially we dozen or so of the core group who have campaigned long and hard to get this result. The victors here are not only the students of UVic, but the men and women of the Canadian Forces, and those among us who seek to join them, myself included. The military recruiters will be at the career fair in January after all, and I’ll be one of many present to shake their hands.

Well done, Graham!
(Previous)
Update: Video of the vote.

“Is it OK to question their Patriotism yet?”

I won’t requote the whole sorry Canadian Human Rights Commission mess. Except for this;

• 0% of respondents have ever won a section 13 case before the tribunal. • 100% of cases have Whites as respondents • 98% of cases have poor or working class respondents • 90.7% of respondents are not represented by lawyers • So far, $80,500 has been awarded in fines and special compensation since May 9, 2003. • 72.4% of complaints specifically identify “jews” as victims. • 48.8% of all cases (Past and active) are by Richard Warman

Just go here for all the sordid details.

Oslo taketh away;

[T]here is little systematic empirical evidence that resource scarcity and changing environmental conditions lead to conflict. In fact, several studies have shown that an abundance of natural resources is more likely to contribute to conflict. Moreover, even as the planet has warmed, the number of civil wars and insurgencies has decreased dramatically. Data collected by researchers at Uppsala University and the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo shows a steep decline in the number of armed conflicts around the world. Between 1989 and 2002, some 100 armed conflicts came to an end, including the wars in Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Cambodia. If global warming causes conflict, we should not be witnessing this downward trend.

“People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway.”

Bum-run San Franciso gets what they need.

Has there been a more appropriate Nobel choice.

Oops – In the wake of a British court ruling that the “documentary” contains material errors of fact, a “call to return Inconvenient Truth Oscar” A nice gesture, if altogether empty. After all, Michael Moore still has his.
Pajamas Media has a roundup of reaction. My favourite – “Just goes to show you that the Nobel Peace Prize is about as authentic a recognition of achievment in the field of peace as a winning lottery notification via email.”
(Via Shaidle) ….GORELERO – by Hugh Hewitt. “It began when Al Gore was a young man…”

A woman complains about how police treated her son:

“They don’t know if they are mentally ill or the things they go through. Evidently, if you see him running around in his shorts smoking dope behind a church, something is wrong with him, even if they do buck up. They should use something different than those Tasers. Tasers kill,” said the man’s mother.

Well, yes, it’s unfortunate the man died. I wonder if she could think of a way her son could avoid getting tasered, though?
Just saying “Don’t tase me, bro” doesn’t seem to be effective, but maybe not running around in his shorts behind a church smoking crack would be a better plan.

Big Copper.
Big Aluminum.
Big Tungsten.
All of their prices have increased as fast if not more so than oil.

An update to the UVic Students’ Society ban on the military story;

It’s interesting. In the past few days, my feelings have run the gamut from shame, to anger, to excitement, to pride, to hope.
Today was a victory for democracy and freedom of choice. In an overwhelming display of disapproval for the UVic Student Society board of directors’ paternalistic and elitist attitude toward the student body, we packed over 100 students into the upper lounge of the Student Union Building (SUB) for the UVSS meeting. Many spoke of their frustration over the motion passed earlier this month, students abhorred by the decision of the board to give in to the demands of a small faction of the student body who wished to “send a message to the military” by banning them from recruiting in our SUB and condemning our men and women in uniform as “war criminals” on nothing but allegation.
At the beginning of tonight’s meeting, a motion was added to the agenda to put the matter of the ban to a student body-wide referendum at the annual general meeting, a movement which was passed. What ensued was more than 2 hours of speeches from students, both for and against overturning the motion from earlier this month to ban the Canadian Forces, though admittedly, we outnumbered the UVic Students Against War (SAW) group by an extremely wide margin.
The SAW crowd claimed that they were not suppressing freedom of speech or freedom of choice. They brought forth their usual tirades about “imperialism”, “militarism of Canadian society”, “allegations of torture”, etc, which they felt justified them in campaigning to the board on September 10th, even without a representative of the military present to defend the CF. One anti-war activist stood up and accused us of attempting to intimidate them by organizing and rallying our numbers to the meeting, saying that in fact it was US who were in the minority. I sincerely doubt that. They had just as much warning about the meeting as we did, organized appropriately, and brought out everyone who supported their argument. It just so happened we did the same thing and brought nearly ten times their numbers. One of them even played the race card, denouncing our side as “mostly white” privileged and upper-class students. When one member of our side, a student-soldier who had served seven months in Afghanistan, spoke of the merits of the Canadian Forces’ work in that country as well as emergency responses in crises at home, the minute SAW crowd interrupted with cries of “whatever!” “bullshit!” and “shut up!”
The motion to overturn the ban until the vote at the AGM was carried easily. Most of the board members who voted in favour of the ban abstained, while the remaining directors unanimously voted to overturn it.
So, for the next few weeks at least, the Forces are still welcome in our Student Union Building. The matter will go to a popular vote, as it should have in the first place. If the movement to permanently ban the military should win, I will of course be disappointed, but so be it. What counts is that the student body as a whole now has the opportunity to decide for themselves, not a board elected by 8% of all, manipulated by leftist radicals and voting on their own politics, rather than the voices of those who elected them in the first place.
This has become a movement which transcends the political spectrum of left and right. It is a matter of freedom of choice and the right to hear a pro-military voice in this institution, as well as pursue a career in the armed forces should we so desire. We = have the momentum, and I believe we will win the vote at the AGM in the end. If I am wrong, then at least the matter will have been settled by open democracy.
Graham Noyes
3rd year Political Science and Military History student, University of Victoria.

Update – Graham Noyes was interviewed by Charles Adler today. You can download the segment at the CJOB audio vault (beginning at 3:44).

Islamic Republic News Agency;

Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scheduled address at Colombia University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.
On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.
Before President Ahamadinejad’s address, Colombia University Chancellor in a brief address told the audience that they would have the chance to hear Iran’s stands as the Iranian President would put them forth.
[…]
The audience on repeated occasion applauded Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.

More from this equally legitimate source; – “Columbia University promised a full investigation into charges of police brutality after today’s reported Tasering of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had come to the Ivy League school to give the annual Adolph Hitler Memorial Peace and Tolerance Lecture.”
For all the fawning over Bollinger’s introductory remarks, Al Jazeera and Time are both giving Ahmadinejad the win;

It’s an faculty lunch speech dispatched against a man accustomed to command the secret police, rockets, EFPs, sophisticated propaganda and disinformation cells. Bollinger was game, but not only is he not in the same ring, he doesn’t even know where the fight is scheduled to take place. If this is what our intellectual leaders think is effective resistance against the Islamic Revolution then we are in serious trouble.

And who’s kidding whom? The University of Toronto would be first in the lineup behind them.
More – “What is moral blindness but the inability to tell right from wrong, friend from enemy, love from hate? And what is moral deafness but a man who can hear words and never understand their meaning?”

Before she kills us all;

Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists found that the use of biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised. The research team found that 3 to 5 per cent of the nitrogen in fertiliser was converted and emitted. In contrast, the figure used by the International Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the extent and impact of man-made global warming, was 2 per cent. The findings illustrated the importance, the researchers said, of ensuring that measures designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are assessed thoroughly before being hailed as a solution.
[…]
It was accepted by the scientists that other factors, such as the use of fossil fuels to produce fertiliser, have yet to be fully analysed for their impact on overall figures. But they concluded that the biofuels “can contribute as much or more to global warming by N2 O emissions than cooling by fossil-fuel savings”.
The research is published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, where it has been placed for open review. The research team was formed of scientists from Britain, the US and Germany, and included Professor Paul Crutzen, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on ozone.

Jonah Goldberg;

In 2004, at the height of the Dan Rather Memogate story, I wrote in National Review: “Across the media universe the questions pour out: Why is Dan Rather doing this to himself? Why does he drag this out? Why won’t he just come clean? Why would he let this happen in the first place? Why is CBS standing by him? Why … why … why?
“There is only one plausible answer: Ours is a just and decent God.”