Video: We covered everything from gun grabbing bureaucrats to the situation in Ukraine and the state of conservatism.
They Took All The Rights, Put ‘Em In A Rights Museum
The federal government is spending $22 million a year to support athletes and coaches who leave us bursting with pride, win or lose, at their dedication and sportsmanship. At the same time they are spending nearly the same amount, $21.7 million, on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, whose only goal is to make Canadians hate themselves…
In the Mail
I received a peculiar e-mail this morning:
The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft at Bergen, Norway
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.
Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt, the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.
By the way, I apologize; I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post – 91 years ago.
Snopes h/t Maxine K.
Death of a word
Business reporter Zachary Goldfarb, on the front page of the Washington Post:
“With the 2015 budget request, [President] Obama will call for an end to the era of austerity that has dogged much of his presidency..”
Related: “Uncontested arrival” has now officially joined “man-caused disasters” in the lexicon of newspeak.
Reader Tips
In tonight’s amusement en route to the tips west-coast tenor Johnny Tortorella, who has perfect pitch, sings Don’t Push Me.
The comments thread is open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Palin & Romney – So Stoopid!
“The 80’s called, they want their foreign policy back.” – Barack Obama, to Mitt Romney
From the Telegraph, in the UK:
Wow. Mrs Palin not only got the country that Putin would threaten right, she also predicted the reason behind it. Obama’s “indecision and equivalence” over Iran, Egypt and, most importantly, Syria, has probably encouraged Putin to believe that there would be next-to-no Western response to an attack on Ukraine.
Power to the consumer
@codyincalgary Thanks so much for your feedback. We support Alberta and those that live there, but we do not support the #tarsands.
— LUSH Cosmetics (@lushcosmetics) December 19, 2012
#standwithEzra
Get more information here. (Warning: auto-play video)
Follow @ezralevant on twitter or on Facebook.
Cars, Status and Phone Numbers
High status car – 23.3% success with women.
Mid status car – 12.8% success with women.
Low status car – 7.8% success with women.
Still not worth crippling your finances.
Y2Kyoto: Water mains
This weekend, temperatures dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius with the wind chill overnight, causing the ground frost to move even deeper. The ground frost level is deeper than normal, and the colder the temperature is, the more pressure it puts on the underground pipes, causing them to shift. If there is already a weak spot in the pipe, caused by age, corrosion or previous work, it can break.
A high number of water main breaks occurred this past weekend, keeping staff extremely busy. From Friday evening at 9:00 p.m. until Sunday evening at 9:00 p.m., 15 water main breaks occurred. In addition, a break occurred on the connection pipe at Brevoort Park School, requiring a private contractor for the repair. This activity is well above the average of one-two per day for this time of year.
Related: CITY OFFERS SHOWER FACILITIES AT LEISURE CENTRES DURING WATER MAIN BREAKS
Related: Seventeen years, six months.
Coffee is a staple
Via, Instapundit we learn that Keurig is going to use tech to restrict what coffee pod manufacturers will work in their machine. I’m sure the licensing agreements will be impressive. More power to Keurig for trying to increase their revenue. It will fail though, as IBM learned in the 90’s, proprietary assembly of commodity items doesn’t work. There are enough “Keurig compatible” machines to make using Keurig’s machines redundant.
I don’t mind the coffee out of the single cup machines, it’s way better than a drip machine, but have you run the numbers?
A 900g bag of roasted coffee beans is between 11 and 14 dollars. That’s about the same as a 16 pack of pods. In a french press, 45g of beans, ground, makes about 4 cups of comparable coffee. So, for the same price, you get 80 cups. This isn’t rocket science.
Addendum: I would be very remiss in not mentioning the Areopress. One was sent to us by a concerned reader after the attempt to float the van in the slew last summer. This thing is awesome, following the directions and you only need a cup of that in the morning and you’re set for the day.
A virtual currency
Backed by paper currencies, backed by nothing more than the belief in the paper, operating within a rule-less realm.
Nah, no one saw this coming.
Carbon exchange, anyone?
Backwards!
From an Edmonton Journal report about the most urbane, progressive premier in Alberta’s history:
Premier Alison Redford signalled Monday she wants to repair strained relations with Alberta’s big cities, revive faith in her progressive agenda…
Related: “Premier’s approval rating has ‘dropped off a cliff,’ survey finds.”
Sieg…Forward!
Some facts are just waay more inconvenient to the left than to the right.
h/t maz2
Related. As in, directly related.
Reader Tips
6’7″ tall Sleepy LaBeef didn’t cry when they spanked him on the day of his birth, and in lovin’ or fightin’ he’d give ’em their money’s worth, but a little bitty woman weighing ninety-nine pounds beats Two Hundred Pounds Of Hurt.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
The Upside
TIME notes that the repercussions of the Ukraine incursion aren’t exactly rosy for Putin, either.
I think, however, that TIME isn’t thinking it out as long term as they should. Unlike some alarmists, I don’t see an escalation by the Russians as an end game. I think Putin’s end game is already here.
- Polls change, especially if you’re deemed the ‘winner’,
- He’s secured the warm water ports,
- As TIME notes, his ‘red line’ was enforced,
- Obama’s reputation is in tatters,
- He’s realigned eastern European influence,
- The Ukraine is effectively a satellite state of Russia now.
Pushing further (aside from peaceful assimilation of Ukraine) would invoke treaties, real treaties. Putin isn’t stupid and he isn’t backed into a corner. War with the West wouldn’t end well for anyone.
Overnight Criminals
“Not Criminally Responsible”
Meanwhile:
Punishment
(2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1)
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of
(i) in the case of a first offence, three years, and
(ii) in the case of a second or subsequent offence, five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.
Don’t stop contacting your MP’s. When you do progress like this happens.
OTTAWA – Owners of popular rifles that the RCMP has re-classified as “prohibited” will be protected by a new federal amnesty.
“I will bring forward an amnesty to ensure that individuals in possession of these firearms can continue to possess their property without threat of criminal charges,” Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Monday.
Of course they do.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “China has always upheld the principles of diplomacy and the fundamental norms of international relations.
“At the same time we also take into consideration the history and the current complexities of the Ukrainian issue.”
That would be code for Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Ukraine
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has told Ukrainian forces in Crimea to surrender by 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday or face a military assault, Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Ukrainian Defence Ministry as saying.
(If you Google “current GMT” it will show up in large bold print at the top of the page.)
From Ukraine Live at the Telegraph, which is a good source for updates:
“(Putin) smiled as he walked towards the command centre where he watched tanks, barely visible in thick fog, and listened to artillery fire. It is the first sighting of Putin in several days.”
Russia has said China is largely “in agreement” over Ukraine, after other world powers condemned Moscow for sending troops into the country.
Telegraph editorial: It is time for the West to stand up to Putin.
Feel free to add your own links/updates and comments as the situation unfolds.
We Need More Dusky People in Sector G
Quotas are intrinsically divisive and discriminatory (in the worst possible sense) because the number of categories into which humanity can be divided is infinite: only some categories, therefore, can be favoured, leaving others resentful and liable to seek political redress as their supposed salvation. Quotas therefore not only politicise life but embitter political life itself. They formalise favouritism, thus reinforcing the very problem they are meant to solve. They necessarily inflate the role of government, for someone has to enforce them. Before long, the demand for equality (of a kind) undermines freedom because private associations are no longer able to make the rules they wish, a necessary condition for a truly liberal society in which government is not overweening or preponderant. The imposition of quotas is founded on the belief that everyone is a bigot unless forced by administrative fiat to be otherwise.