The art of juggling is one I’ve long admired, perhaps because I can’t come close to doing it! Here’s a demonstration of some amazing juggling acumen.
Your Reader Tips are most welcome in the comments.
The Reeking Stench of Insincere Apologists
Video kindly uploaded by Matt from Mississauga
The “apology” that galls me the most is that of of Camille Cacnio. You can read it here. Call me old fashioned but in times past, the apologies I viewed as sincere & heartfelt didn’t go on & on & on scolding others about how *they* should feel about one’s own terrible actions. Sorry, but I don’t detect ANY real remorse in Ms. Cacnio’s tirade. Even the [generally] far left readers of the Georgia Straight can’t buy into what she wrote.
At least one of her paragraphs shows promises of a future job writing satire on SNL:
As many of you already know, I am majoring in Conservation Biology at UBC. I strongly belirve in ecological conservation and sustainability. That night, I saw a few people that were trying to knock trees down. So what did I do? I yelled at them, saying “Pleaaseee, not the treees!!!!” And what did they do? They stopped. And I felt like a hero.
Narcissists like Cacnio are the poster children of the entitlement generation. Their parents failed to do their jobs properly and now society & the judicial system has to clean up their mess. In this 24 Hours Vancouver article, her mother was interviewed and said, “I’m not condoning what she did … She’s not a really bad kid (but) they’re labeling her as a criminal. [The people on the social media sites] have the same mob mentality (as the rioters).”
Dear Mrs. Cacnio, your daughter was videoed fleeing a Black & Lee clothing store with stolen merchandise. She has publicly admitted to the same. What about that doesn’t make her a criminal?!? Yet you have the arrogant audacity to call outraged citizens, who are demanding that justice be served, as having “the same mob mentality” as the rioters. “Rioters”, such as Camille you mean?! Can anyone say “Parent of the Year” award . . . on The Onion, that is.
Whether it be Vancouver 2011 or Toronto 2010 or wherever, we have a SERIOUS problem in our country. It involves the entitlement mentality, lack of real parenting, and complete unaccountability. And I’m not just talking about our politicians!
Update: Someone has taken the time to create a parody apology that rightfully mocks Camille Cacnio’s complete insincerity. h/t Blazing Cat Fur
Operation Gunwalker
Mega-Scandal: Was ‘Gunwalker’ a PR Op for Gun Control?
Fast and Furious, also known by the more accurate “Gunwalker,” allowed known straw purchasers to buy large quantities of firearms — often a dozen or more semi-automatic rifles — at a time with the full knowledge of ATF agents and executives. The guns were then smuggled into Mexico, as frustrated front-line ATF agents watched, under strict orders to do nothing.
ATF agents testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee could not explain how the operation was supposed to succeed when their surveillance efforts stopped at the border and interdiction was never an option.
ATF Agent John Dodson, testifying in front of the committee, said that in his entire law enforcement career, he had “never been involved in or even heard of an operation in which law enforcement officers let guns walk.” He continued: “I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.”
The obvious answer is that Gunwalker’s objective was never intended to be a “legitimate law enforcement interest.” Instead, it appears that ATF Acting Director Ken Melson and Department of Justice senior executives specifically created an operation that was designed from the outset to arm Mexican narco-terrorists and increase violence substantially along both sides of the Southwest border.
Something tells me this is getting zero coverage in Canada.
Funniest Headline?
I took this photo yesterday because I found something endlessly amusing about it. If you were a headline writer, how would you introduce the photo?
Do You Like Cats?
For the schadenfreudists out there, I present to you a hilarious Rationalization Hamster piece.
A very “I pre-warned you it was crass” hat tip
Do Women Really Earn Less Than Men?
For years we’ve heard that if a man and a woman are hired for the same job, that statistically the woman will make less money than her male counterpart. It’s a great talking point for feminist organizations but is it true? The evidence says no.
Y2Kyoto: Our Disappearing Wetlands
Saskatoon Star Phoenix – June 15, 2006
Following is the opinion of the writer, a geography professor at the University of Saskatchewan and director of the centre for hydrology. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change.
Streams, sloughs and wetlands may not be sustainable under climate change, and the slightly milder winters anticipated under global warming may dry out the Prairies.
[…]
On June 5, the United Nations Environment Programme announced a study that shows the world’s desert and arid regions are at risk of becoming even more parched. Research at the University of Saskatchewan supports this, showing the Canadian Prairies could be drying out due to more moderate winters.
As evidenced by the following desert photographs:
…but it’s a dry cold.
G.L.E.O.C. vs. S.P.H.R.M
It’s kind of like “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” but the agents are economists.
The CRTC Wants Your Thoughts on the CBC
The licenses of CBC Television and Radio are coming up for renewal.
The CRTC is welcoming comments from the public on the matter. Do share them!
h/t Mike in Calgary
Chris Wallace VS Jon Stewart
Y2Kyoto: We’re Winning
What must they be thinking down at the CBC?
Much of what the world bizarrely allows to be called climate “science” is a closet-game, an in-group referring to and reinforcing its own members. The insiders keep out those seen as interlopers and critics, vilify dissenters and labour to maintain a proprietary hold on the entire vast subject. It has been described very precisely as a “climate-assessment oligarchy.” Less examined, or certainly less known to the general public, is how this in-group loops around itself. How the outside advocates buttress the inside scientists, and even — this is particularly noxious — how the outside advocates, the non-scientists, themselves become inside authorities.
Via Instapundit, (where there’s lots more winning developments.)
Reader Tips
One of Canada’s less well known musical gems is Stratford, Ontario based Loreena McKennitt. Here she is performing The Lady of Shalott, which is based on a Lord Alfred Tennyson poem of the same name
Your Reader Tips are welcome, as always, in the comments.
The Media Party: Math Is Hard
Matt from Mississauga has kindly posted this hilarious discussion between John Robson and Brian Lilley:
Miller & Klavan on Israel
“If the Arabs lay down their arms there will be no more war, but if Israel lays down its weapons there would be no more Israel.” — Benjamin Netanyahu
Dennis Miller defends Israel’s Right to Keep its Existing Borders.
Andrew Klavan provides an alternative idea for Israel that you wouldn’t typically hear around the water coolers at the UN.
Overlapping Layers of Incompetency
Vancouver political insider Alex Tsakumis has published a most stunning indictment in & around the recent riots. Here are some snippets:
Despite the warnings, the brooding, simmering cauldron of booze, drugs and anarchy, Penny Ballem and Gregor Robertson wouldn’t budge. They were joined by the Premier who, as only she can, exclaimed, “It’ll be GREAT! Imagine when we win it all!” Notice the word ‘we’ and the wholly transparent efforts to identify with the winning team–well, what should have been the winning team. So desperate was Clark to hitch her wagon to the Canucks’ championship destiny (a rapidly fizzled proposition) that her every public speaking engagement of late was on the Canucks or ended with some typically dim-witted Clark reference to the Cup. Her press scrums ended with increasing references to the same thing. It was the ‘prom queen’ routine–all heels and hypocrisy.
In Vancouver, the police begged for help and were ignored by the pot-smoking, nirvana-loving, socks and sandals set running the city. It’s beyond pathetic.
Then there’s the Mayor. No one contributed to the potential for such a disaster and eye sore than Gregor Robertson. His insistence that public disobedience and intoxication was somehow a sign of a “fun city” have the anarchists and hooligans a platform on which to perform. He is singularly reposnisble for not reigning in Dr. Bedlam and firing her and for not coming clean on the plain and simple fact: He screwed up. Robertson has spent three years turning Vancouver into a commune; a public toilet and ashtray. His policies of chicken coops and unnecessary bike lanes have siphoned tens of millions of dollars which should have gone towards needs like policing.
Listen Up, Mr Harper et al. (and Mr Hudak)
Janet Daley in the Sunday Telegraph:
…The Big Secret – the conspiracy that dare not speak its name – is the understanding that is shared by all those members of the political class who are not halfwits or ideological zombies.
Yes, it’s true: everybody knows – and has known for quite a long time – what needs to be done. And almost nobody is prepared to tell it straight. Even though many voters know it, too, and would almost certainly be ready to accept that their own instincts were sound if a political leader enunciated them with the kind of unblinking conviction that inspires confidence.
It is not just passion or demagoguery that is called for here, but fearless, trenchant argument. Why cave in the face of vested interests who caricature your health policies as an “American-style market free-for-all” when you could make it clear that there is an alternative European model of mixed public and private provision that delivers better outcomes than the NHS? Why not make the case that our rationed state-monopoly health care is out of step with more competitive and patient-centred systems in countries such as Sweden, Germany and Denmark? Why not talk to the country in the honest way that you talk to each other and to your trusted confidantes?
There is an obvious and depressing reason why not: absolute terror of the axe-grinding lobbies and their friends in the media, who have no scruples about whipping up unfounded fears and amorphous resentment in the public mind. This is a politically (if not ethically) justifiable worry, but it must not – cannot, for the sake of the country – be allowed to run the show…
Indubitably.
Update thought: Consider also that in Britain, unlike Canada, there is an extensive private “second tier” of health care for medically necessary services, mainly accessed through private health insurance, e.g., Bupa.
Mr. Straight to the Point
h/t Dennis Miller
Reader Tips
Perhaps not as famous as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, Yosh & Stan Shmenge could still delight a crowd whenever they played. Here they are being interviewed.
Your fabulous & interesting Reader Tips are most welcome in the comments.
Nathan Kotylak Issues a Public Apology
Remember the now infamous Nathan Kotylak? He issued a public apology today:
Open Questions:
1) Do you believe he’s sincere?
2) Do you sense that him coming forward like this was his own idea?
3) Does this change your views on what punishment he should face?
4) If your answer to #3 is ‘Yes’, what do you think would be a fair punishment for him?