Surveillance State: “The Post reviewed roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts.”
Standing up Against Political Correctness
Brigitte Gabriel gives a young woman a little history lesson:
Free Ethical Oil!
More proof Tom Steyer is a hypocritical snakeoil merchant: Coal profits fund his anti #kxl activism #cdnpoli #ableg http://t.co/rlr2grWXzG
— Kevin Libin (@kevinlibin) July 5, 2014
Reader Tips
Summertime Sweethearts / Where do they go in the faaall? ♫
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
He the People
From Gene Healy’s review of F.H. Buckley’s The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America:
Presidents can isolate themselves in a cocoon of sycophants, even putting protesters in “Free-Speech Zones,” where their signs can’t offend the liege. And his role as head of state “tends to make criticism of a president seem like lese-majeste“–as Justice Samuel Alito learned when he dared mouth the words “not true” while Obama pummelled the Court in his 2010 State of the Union.
“Thin-skinned and grandiose” characters do better in presidential regimes, Buckley writes, whereas “delusions of Gaullist grandeur are fatal for Prime Ministers.” In the UK, they have to face the music in person every week. The aforementioned Harold Macmillan, British PM from 1957 to ’63, admitted that the very prospect used to make him physically sick.
The PM’s Question Time is but one facet of the superior executive accountability offered by parliamentary systems, Buckley argues..
It is difficult to imagine Obama (for example) facing Trey Gowdy-esque questioning, on camera, and on an almost daily basis, and surviving with his pomposity – or his policies – intact.
The whole review here.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
The Turnip Princess, one of five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany.
It’s Probably Nothing
Via BCF: Despite denials by Hamas, there is growing evidence that the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] — also known as “The Islamic State” — has begun operating in the Gaza Strip.
The Selective Reporting of the MSM?
Alex Tsakumis is a well known media personality in Vancouver, known for stirring up the pot and refusing to conform to the narrative that the rest of the media herd often follows. Yesterday he had an interesting post on his Facebook page about Vancouver’s mayor, Gregor Robertson:
A quick search of this story revealed absolutely no other reports to confirm Robertson’s alleged affair with a city hall staffer. When Tsakumis was asked whether this story was 100% accurate, he responded thusly: “I’m 1000% sure.”
Many would argue that infidelity between a couple is entirely between them. Fair enough. But ask yourself whether the media would have been so incredibly silent if the same had occurred with Rob Ford or Brad Wall or Danielle Smith or Stephen Harper?
Binding Nemo
Hey, keep an eye out for that airplane: 99% of ocean plastic has gone missing.
More.
Planes, Trains, and Boats
QOTW
Some people want to banish this conversation from polite company, but doing so does not ban the conversation from occurring; it just bans polite conversationalists from adding their influence to the debate. The greatest beneficiaries of this approach are groups at the fringe who live to incite people to violence. – Jerry Bowyer
h/t EBD
More Pavilions At Folkfest
Reader Tips
In tonight’s entertainment en route to the Tips the late Eddie Cochran performs his 1958 hit Summertime Blues.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Happy Freedom From History Day
I Amuse Myself
If you "oppose gender stereotypes" while condemning women who hunt – you might be a Liberal. https://t.co/GuF88GypnW cc @FaithGoldy
— Katewerk (@katewerk) July 4, 2014
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
Hear my prayer. (h/t peterj)
It’s Time To Elect Our Judges
As they’ve decided they run the country anyway;
This morning, Federal Court of Canada Justice Anne Mactavish delivered a sharply worded judgement slamming a decision, made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, to deny some refugee claimants the benefits of Canada’s publicly funded health care system.
Except that they aren’t “refugees”.
And they’re “benefits” not available to us.
Here’s her contact info.
How’s That Hopey Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?
The Quinnipiac poll showing that Obama is now considered the worst president since World War II offers him no silver lining. There were 12 choices and the voting wasn’t close — he got the highest “worst” vote, 33 percent, with George W. Bush the next worst, at 28 percent.
Jimmy Carter, routinely mocked as a disaster, drew only 8 percent. Even Richard Nixon did better, seen as the bottom of the barrel by only 13 percent of those surveyed. And we know how Nixon’s tenure ended.
Too bad America didn’t come to its senses sooner. Indeed, the Q poll shows a huge amount of buyers’ remorse, with 45 percent saying Mitt Romney would have been a better president, while only 38 percent think Obama was the right choice in 2012. Mulligan, anyone?
And half of those work in media.
h/t EBD, north of 60
Fighting Back Against Nanaimo’s Anti-Christian Bigots
h/t Wally J.
Those Moderate Muslims!
Rome will be conquered next, says leader of ‘Islamic State’
“This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills.”
Having claimed the title of “caliph”, Baghdadi appealed to “judges and those who have military and managerial and service skills, and doctors and engineers in all fields.”
He also called on jihadi fighters to escalate fighting in the holy month of Ramadan, which began on Sunday. “In this virtuous month or in any other month, there is no deed better than jihad in the path of Allah, so take advantage of this opportunity and walk the path of you righteous predecessors,” he said. “So to arms, to arms, soldiers of the Islamic s, fight, fight.”
We’re “Rome”, by the way.
h/t JB, who adds: “The following caught my eye in this story — it about sums up what we need to know about this movement!‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the ‘Islamic State’ stretching across Iraq and Syria, … holds a PhD in Islamic studies'”