National Post;

Inmates in a Japanese jail found about 300 marijuana plants in the exercise yard, but instead of getting high, they reported the discovery to the authorities. […] Takashi Nomura, a prison guard, said inmates are allowed to cultivate vegetables and did not appear to have added marijuana. “We only grow potatoes and beans here,” he said. In physical checkups, prison officers found no sign any inmates had taken advantage of the wild marijuana.

Via reader Larry, who asks “perhaps we should do a prisoner exchange?”
I vote for a prison system exchange.

A gun control campaign I can endorse.

“China may be growing even faster than you previously thought.”

Let the debate begin. (Not here, but there, please).

Fodder for the engineers in the audience;

Investigators have found what may be a design flaw in the bridge that collapsed here a week ago, in the steel parts that connect girders, raising safety concerns for other bridges around the country, federal officials said today.
The Federal Highway Administration swiftly responded by urging all states to take extra care with how much weight they place on bridges when sending construction crews to work on bridges. Crews were doing work on the deck of the Interstate 35W bridge when it gave way, hurling rush-hour traffic into the Mississippi River and killing at least five people.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation is months from completion, and officials in Washington said they were still working to confirm the design flaw in the so-called gusset plates and what, if any, role it had in the collapse.
Still, in making public their suspicion about a flaw, the investigators were signaling they consider it a potentially crucial discovery and also a safety concern for other bridges around the country. Gusset plates are used in the construction of many bridges, not just those with a similar design to the one here.

I don’t know that gusset plate failure can really stand up against the more compelling global warming theory.
via Drudge

I have friends in Burnsville, MN, and I can’t count the times I’ve crossed this span. No point in duplicating what is readily available in the mainstream, but if you’re interested in blog coverage, my recommendations are Powerline and Captain’s Quarters, both based out of Minneapolis.

More from Minneapolis: Captain Capitalism is alive and has the pie charts to prove it.

How do all those UFO’s get in and out without being noticed?

A note from a reader;

The local newspaper’s editor is in bed with mayor as the editor’s wife is the mayor’s personal assistant and chief of staff. To speak out against the mayor is suicidal . MP Brian Masse and his NDP thugs with the help of cityhall are running a campaign of ruin against all businesses. Kate, I know you are extremely busy but I hope that you might get other consrvative bloggers to aid us and help bring an investigation to our municipality . Windsor has the highest unemployment,property taxes, utilities, water and sewage plus being next to Detroit our insurance rates are astronomical. Windsor has achieved socialist utopia with almost everyone living off a social program controlled by the left.

This is the type of local story that’s a bit outside the usual realm of SDA, but interested readers can bookmark these three Windsor blogs. Reading some of their entries, it sounds a bit like Saskatoon under previous administrations, or as John Gormley describes them – “Citizens Against Virtually Everything”.
Chirs Schnurr
Windsor Municipal Shadow
Windsor City Blog

The French Will Never Forget
h/t

To Enlarge.
h/t

More.

Really lucky.
More here
(h/t to reader Maple Stump)

Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature.

To the most generous, forgiving and thick-skinned nation on earth – and the best friend a country ever had: it’s an honour to number so many of you among my regular readers.
Have a safe and happy holiday.

(Spotted by Sean)

h/t

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is taking some drastic steps to address rampant child abuse in Aboriginee communities in the Northern Territories. Here’s a list of the measures being taken:

• Alcohol will be banned in some regions for six months, and X-rated porn
  outlawed in communities and on public computers.
• The need for outsiders to have permits to get into townships and roads on
  indigenous land will be scrapped.
• Every Aboriginal child under 16 will be required to have a medical
  check-up at federal expense.
• States have been asked to donate 10 police officers each to boost the
  uniformed presence in each community, working alongside federal bureaucrats
  who will be sent to live in selected regions as town managers.
• Centrelink will immediately begin quarantining 50 per cent of welfare
  payments to people in the communities, which can only be spent on food and
  other essentials. Further money can be docked if children fail to attend
  school, and to pay for meals for the children.
• Welfare recipients will be forced to help clean up homes and streets to
  ensure safe and hygienic living conditions, with managers able to inspect
  houses.

Full article available here.
Discussion?

So… Which provice has been fingered by both RBC and the BMO to lead the rest of the country in economic growth this year? Hint: it’s not Alberta.

Grab a spray can.

Institutional-style group homes across the province should be replaced with more family-oriented foster care, says a new report by the province’s child advocate.
Judy Finlay, who leads the Office of Child and Family Service Advocacy, is recommending that the “family-like” system be expanded to replace the group homes, which have been operating for years with numerous complaints and no standards forcing them to give good care.
“We have to re-examine group care – it does not work,” Finlay said in an interview.
The group home system in Ontario has had long-standing and well-documented problems. There have been reports of children in group homes being tied up or restrained for emotional outbursts, police being called to handle minor disputes, and an overall structure more institutional than family-oriented. — The Star

When I was growing up I had a friend from a nearby group home. He had a new (and very fashionable) winter jacket every year. He had a new bike every year. He went to Disneyland every year with the other kids from the group home. He got to eat good food every night (they BBQed lots of steaks and chicken breasts, as I recall).
I, in the meantime, was being raised by a single, unwed mother on assistance. My “previously used” winter jacket was half silver from the amount of duct tape needed to keep the remaining down from escaping. My bike was built from other bikes I salvaged from dumpsters. I’ve yet to visit Disneyland. I remember eating puffed wheat with skim milk from powder for weeks at a time because it was the only food in the house. When we did occasionally get meat, it was usually something along the lines of pork hocks (which made those dusty three year old tins of escargot that came in the food bank hampers look pretty exotic to me).
I would respectfully suggest that when Ms. Finlay is done investigating group homes she should start investigating single unwed mothers and the effect they have on their offspring. I’m guessing that what she finds will make the whole group home thing look pretty tame.