I’m a little behind on things today – spent the last several hours disassembling a Yamaha sportbike. Until my energy levels are somewhat back to normal, I’m taking the lazy way out tossing out a few links of interest – some of my own, some from readers.
Bruce Garvey has the quote of the day in the National Post, in a column that nails the ” The liberal intelligentsia ” for their silence in post-election Iraq;

Canadian Liberals these days like to claim that if Stephen Harper were prime minister Canadian boys would be getting blown up by car bombs in Iraq. It’s equally true that if Jean Chretien, the international statesman from Shawinigan, had prevailed, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be running their murderous circus in Baghdad.

We need to hear more of this, and we need to hear it from Canadian Conservatives. How about this for starters – a statement from Stephen Harper congratulating the “Coalition of the Willing” and the Iraqi people, and expressing regret that Canada did not play a significant role in the success … that ought to launch a right lovely Martin stammering fit.
Only in Canada, would a few Chinese made lapel pins emerge as a national “scandal” demanding wall-to-wall coverage… while the communist Chinese are quietly buying up the goddamn Alberta tar sands under a virtual media blackout.
And today’s new feature – a POP QUIZ!

Yup, your first instinct was correct.

I’ve been lax in keeping abreast of the tips readers have sent – partly because of an erratic schedule lately and there being only so much time to follow up on them all. And mood, frankly. Some days I’m not in the mood (or energy) to do hard news.
That said, these items are worth looking at;
I’ve said it before – Halliburton is a mere lemonade stand compared to the unbelievable network of poltiical/business associations of a host of characters that include Jean Chretien, Power Corporation and Maurice Strong. Now it’s the burial of the findings of “Operation Sidewinder” – Chinese infiltration into Canadian resources and technology. The usual players make an appearance. It’s too interesting to exerpt. Go read it all. Then send a copy to your MP.
Speaking of Power Corp, here’s an item on the Lead Fox in the UN Henhouse Investigation
Today’s twofer: Jesse Jackson’s darkest hour – plus! Feminist heads explode!
There’s been considerable buzz on the blogosphere about this report from the Center for Religious Freedom, about Saudi funded hate propoganda that has been gathered from mosques in the US. Damien Penny has a useful summary and link to the pdf, plus this update on Islamic criticism of certain Dutch politicians.

“He is an enemy of Islam and he should be beheaded,” the narrator of one video clip posted on the Internet says in Arabic, against the crackle of gunfire. Behead him, “and you will earn a place in paradise.”

As always, the Canadian media is following the Dutch situation closely. Stay tuned for breaking news on tulips.

The letter from one LTC Tim Ryan that got wide distribution on the blogosphere, was published by the World Tribune. They got letters.
While everyone else is counting the “freedom” appearances, Rich Richman is more interested in the fire in George Bush’s inauguration speech.
The Intifada continues, complete with baby martyrs.
A documentary about Iraq without the input of a fat socialist weasel.
The National Post editorial could have saved someone a lot of typing by just cutting to the money quote: “Mr. Cotler must do all in his power to convince his colleagues that this is one instance in which there are bigger issues at play than a few ethnic votes. If they don’t agree, perhaps he should rethink whether this is a Cabinet he belongs in.”
A little sympathy for the devil at Rolling Stone Magazine – he’s on the payroll in the advertising department.

Catching up on a few of the links sent my way that I haven’t had time to do justice to:
How much longer will it be, before the critical mass of Middle East immigrants tips the electoral scales just enough to have the Government of Canada delist al-Qa’ida as a terrorist organization? It’s certainly worked for the Tamil Tigers. Why let a few unfortunate mistakes (like the invention of the suicide bomb, 60,000 dead and assassination of two heads of state) get between you and a quarter million Liberal-voting constituents?
In an attempt to fact check my post about the new and yet-to-become-airborne A380, J.M. Heinrichs does not offer how many lawnchairs will fit in the hold of this Russian taxi.
You can’t keep a good blogger down. Welcome back, Rasky.
And now for something completely different. First, turn up the volume.

Crime may not always pay, but it’s probably less risky than mutual funds…

“Now in Canada you have to consider conditional sentences to be a jail sentence,” she said in an interview, It’s the same thing.”

Well, except for the part where you get to be the new bitch of a lonely tattoed biker type. Rest assured, things are different for those who take a life. Well, not much – a day really isn’t long enough to get to know someone.
Something you won’t hear on the news today – a US federal budget surplus of $1 billion, for the month of December.
Ralph Goodale, on the federal budget surplus in Canada; “Wolf!”
The Emergency Bandage – simple technology that is saving lives on the battlefield.
More questions are being asked of the UN, this time regarding overpayments of around $5B in compensation to Kuwait for the 1992 invasion and occupation. Say it isn’t so!
Good question – why is it left up to inquiries to probe into scandal and misconduct in the federal government when we have a few hundred MP’s on the payroll?
Thanks to all who sent tips.

National Post: “[I[t is somewhat galling to hear Paul Martin and other Canadians brag about how our tsunami response serves to showcase “the Canadian way.” While the United States and other Western nations were using their helicopters, planes, navies and other “hard power” assets to save lives, our cash-starved troops were cooling their heels in the departure lounge.”
Surprisingly, the Coalition of the Actually-Own-Military-Stuff seem to be getting their due;

Mr. Annan praised the efforts of the so-called core group, the United States, Australia, India and Japan, as “absolutely crucial.”
“They have the logistical capability to be able to come in and ensure that, despite the lack of infrastructure and logistics, we will be able to get things [done],” he said. “And they helped with heavy equipment, they helped with the airport and now, of course with the helicopters and all other [things], they’re also helping with distribution, getting the food to the needy. And they are working with the UN team and others, and the government.”

Well, not so surprisingly. Translation: “Please don’t fire me.”

Iraqi officials have recently implicated more U.N. staffers in bribe taking during the oil-for-food program in a development that could dramatically escalate pressure on the world body.
[…]
Investigators from the House International Relations Committee said several current and former officials in Iraq’s Oil, Health and Transportation ministries have told them that U.N. staffers assigned to the “661 Committee” — the U.N. Security Council group that oversaw sanctions and approved oil-for-food contracts — regularly took bribes and kickbacks from suppliers of aid to Iraq during the program.

After all, where does one go after serving at the highest levels in the UN?
Well, if you’re Maurice Strong, architect of Kyoto, one goes to China, one does – to save the environment through cheaper SUV’s.
And the circle is unbroken;

Long before he found fame as a Canadian politician, Paul Martin went out and borrowed tens of millions of dollars to buy a company called Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). This was circa 1981, and there is no doubt that he already knew the influential Maurice Strong, of United Nations fame. It was Strong who hired Martin to be his personal assistant at Montreal’s Power Corporation-even before he had left university and it was Strong, who later helped Martin get his stake in CSL.
As the public record shows, Martin is still getting boosts for CSL from the scandal-ridden Canadian government.

Some CSL employees make as little as $2.20 an hour. Of course, they’re Ukranians, sailing under foreign flags.
(Thanks to all who sent tips.)

B Raman, in the Asia Times;

It is not without significance that almost all countries – even those which were critical of the US-led intervention in Iraq – have been in favor of going ahead with the elections as planned, however unsatisfactory they may turn out to be. The holding of the elections will not turn out to be the end of – or even the beginning of the end – of jihadi activities, but it will demonstrate to the jihadis the determination of the international community not to let jihadi terrorism succeed.
Such a demonstration is necessary, whatever the cost of it. It needs to be recalled how India’s determination to hold periodic elections in Jammu & Kashmir in the face of an escalation of terrorist violence by Pakistan-supported jihadi terrorist organizations ultimately broke their morale and made Pakistan amenable to reason.

An open letter from The American Thinker to those campaigning for the enemy on this side of the Atlantic.
Also, in Iraq, Ali has moved from Iraq The Model, to set up his own blog titled “Free Iraq”.
More on failed European policy and the growth of radical Islam in the Netherlands.
Canada’s Paper Airplane , DART – a concept, not a capability.

More blog awards – these for Islamic and Jewish/Israeli blogs.
It was tribalism that finished Rome, and it will finish Brussels, too.
More studies reveal that there are genetic differences between races, that render some medical tests and treatments inaccurate or inappropriate.
ABC NEWs has named bloggers “People Of The Year” – managing somehow to ignore Rathergate.
The CBC and plush toys. Warm and fuzzy.
Thanks to readers Charles MacDonald, JM Heinrichs, and Craig Brett and others.

Police admit defeat in the battle to control marijuana grow operations. (Really?? I wonder… other cities seem to have the legal capacity and manpower to demand entry to homes to search for unlicensed pets. )
“China uses visiting students, scientists, business people and delegations to obtain industrial secrets and high-technology that will benefit Chinese companies and its military-industrial complex, said the source, who asked not to be identified for national security reasons.”
Well, look on the bright side – at least they’re not going to spirit away any new military technology.
Muslims are winning the war against free speech and Zionists in Britain, according to Hani Mohammad at Islam Online – a must read article.
Naivette this profound must be painful. Memo to Salim Mansur – try doing a little google searching. You’ll figure out why the Canadian government has been mute on UN corruption – they’re in it up to their Desmarais.

Go over to Proud To Be Canadian and nominate your pick for Canada’s Most Annoying Liberal of 2004. (You’ll have to register, at which point you can vote for Most Annoying Nominating Process of 2004).
My choice is Tommy Douglas, for crawling back from the grave to remind us all that he is not dead enough – first, by being selected by viewers of the CBC as the “Greatest Canadian”, then (adding insult to insult) by getting a day named after him in Calvert’s Cuba.
Bush, democracy and the Middle East – the wind at their backs.
Lefty bloggers who saw a right wing conspiracy in the persons of two Iraq bloggers – the wind between their ears
More on Sharia Law. Why let a little thing like subjugation of women stand in the way of cultural equivalence?
Victor Davis Hanson delivers a reality bitchslap. (Tip for trivia buffs – it is a well known fact that if Gwynne Dyer ever looks into the face of Victor Davis Hanson, he will burst into flame.)

And a few quick links of my own. Being the leadup to Christmas, it seems like half the goal masks in western Canada have landed on my doorstep, and they all need to be ready to fit under the tree. So, it’s long days of inhaling solvents and frozen fingers in a very cool body shop for me. And not much energy left for blogging.
So, without further adieu;
Sing along with Paul Desmarais: “The Annan bone is connected to the Strong bone, the Strong bone is connected to the Desmerais bone.The Desmarais bone is connected to the Chretien bone, and the Martin bone, and the Volker bone and the…”
Brought to you by the chief architects of the Canadian Gun Registry; office renovations at the Useless Tit Wing of the Department of Perpetual Indecision at the low, low price of $400 a square foot.
That does it. I’m starting my own damned religion and invoking Kate-ia Law for the parking tickets God forbids me to pay.
Right after I find my long-lost Indian grandmother.

I spent much of the day in the paint booth, working hard on a headache – due more to ingestion of chocolates and Christmas cookies than inhalation of solvents. Not a lot of energy for blogging, so I’ll pass along these reader tips.
A round up of links on the Spirit of America tour featuring Iraqi bloggers Mohammed and Omar Fadhil. Lots of new stuff.
Toronto Sun;

A VETERAN Toronto cop blasted Canada’s immigration system yesterday after the weekend arrest of a twice-deported career criminal. “To me, the fact this guy should have been deported from this country a long time ago says a lot,” Det.-Sgt. Wilf Townley said. “This isn’t the only (case). There’s lots of other ones.
“They should be getting rid of these people. How does somebody get out on a bond who’s committed 27 criminal offences in this country?

Rand: “Ways to Cut Support for Radical Islam and Terrorism”. Charles MacDonald notes, “As always, the problem will be telling the moderates from the closet suicide bombers.”
A laundry list of geopolitical predictions from the Washington Times.
Also;

This, of course, is the sad situation in which we now live. A huge majority of Americans and our legislators believe that the federal government may legislate on any topic, at any time, for any reason, period — so long as the legislation does not offend the Bill of Rights. We used to have all the rights contained in the Bill of Rights, plus untold scores of others. Now, as the framers predicted, we have only those rights contained in the Bill of Rights. This is a disaster, not a blessing.

In Canada, it was the intent.
While Chretien fiddled, subs rusted. “Total bullshit news. Total bullshit.” cries the forlorn vestigial twin. He’s also been asked by the Post to write “1,000 words on Chr�tien’s amazing legacy. “ None of them “sponsorship”, as it turns out.
Thanks to Charles Macdonald, Craig Bett, King Richard the Rednec, and others.

Canada is becoming a preferred route for the loose security travel industry
Rachel Ehrenfeld in National Review – “Had the U.S not gone ahead with its plan to liberate Iraq, we would have never discovered the extent of the corruption in the U.N.’s Oil-for-Food program. But while Oil-for-Food is the biggest, scope-wise, of any known corruption in an international organization, it is merely the culmination of years of corrupt U.N. practices.”
Juan Cole, Professor of History, Middle East Commentator, Idiot.
Craig Brett looks at a bit of disingenuous poll spin by the Canadian media on the success of the Bush visit. Say it isn’t so!

I’m trying a new category here at SDA – reader tips. Always appreciated, I feel badly when I don’t have time, space or the angle to use them. So, instead, I’m just going to offer up some of those I don’t steal for my own use on a periodic linkfest. Chances are, if one of the regulars here thinks something is worth reading, it is. I’ve been “on to” these guys for a while now – most of them are way smarter than I am, but too goddamn lazy to do their own blogging….

“This quasi-medical condition afflicts a nation in the following way. Most people just shut up. They don’t say anything, even when the loudmouth minority around them are saying the most outrageous things.”
Rich Richman is tracking the Sharansky/Bush democracy dialogue.
“Listen, friends, you have to face the truth. You are never going to be rich. The chance of that happening is about one in a million.” – Michael Moore
“With a little bit o’luck, with a little bit o’luck“- New Official National Security Jingle
Insurgents target power grid with explosives. There are ties to the French.

For this inaugural post, I’m just going to say thanks to “everybody” who provided the links. In the future, I’ll list names, unless there’s a specific request not to.