Sarkozy’s contentious bill has been passed:

Lawmakers on Tuesday approved a bill to strip foreign-born criminals of their French nationality and expel EU citizens for certain crimes, part of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s law and order crackdown.

Members of the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, passed the measure after a first reading by 294 votes to 239 in a vote overshadowed by mass strikes and demonstrations against Sarkozy’s pensions reforms.

The law would strip French nationality from foreigners who had acquired citizenship and who were convicted of violent crimes against police and other officials.

So much for the fundamental human right to immigrate to another country and assault police officers.

“Daddy, why does Grandma have that funny look in her eyes?”

A plumber has built the fastest mobility scooter in the world, capable of hitting 69mph.

Colin Furze, 31, spent nearly three months converting the machine which has a powerful 125cc motorbike engine installed under the seat, five gears and twin exhausts.

Attention: ambulance to aisle three…

“You hear lots of people complain about scooters going really slowly around supermarkets and blocking the aisles…”

Teach us tonight, John Doyle: From whence do we get our strongly negative opinions about the CBC, and in particular its flagship newscast The National?

“The idea that the CBC is a left-leaning news outlet is a concoction of the Conservative Party.”

Aw, shoot. We’ve been busted – I thought that was a private conversation between us and the PMO. Okay. But still, aren’t all Canadians forced to watch the CBC every night?

“The CBC is not shoved down anyone’s throat.”

You’ve got us again. The money to pay for it is yanked out of everyone’s wallet, but we’re not legally required to watch it. So, moving on, John Doyle, where does the CBC rank in terms of its relative importance as a cultural institution?

“(The CBC) is Canada’s most important cultural institution. We all pay for it in the same that we pay to have clean water and an education system.”

I don’t think that ever occurred to us. While it’s true that only two percent of Canadians watch The National, for example, and although it’s at least arguably true that clean water is a bit more essential – “important” – than the CBC, we all have to pay for The CBC the same way we pay for clean water – through taxes. Touché. One last question, John Doyle: why are so many people in the media so afraid of Sun TV News?

“Nobody is ‘afraid’ of Sun TV News. Some people are simply disgusted by the ceaseless attacks on existing media.”

Sorry. If you’d have just said so, we would have stopped.

… floating trial balloons for the boss … or going roque?

Maverick Max went rogue again in a Toronto speech on Wednesday by advocating Ottawa get out of transfer payments to provinces while giving legislatures more tax room to finance the health, social welfare and education services they are constitutionally obliged to deliver.
For Jim Flaherty, who rolled out a blueprint on Tuesday showing continued growth in the social transfer envelope well into the next government’s mandate, the notion of surrendering $40 billion worth of fiscal clout over the provinces is a severely alien concept.

… and who can forget this … or this.

I want an electrical engineer and computer programmer and a automechanic to make me a laptop, and I-Pad and a car, and in return I will give them “sociologicizing,” a “lecture on women’s studies,” and some “philosophizing.”
HT and explanation of how leftists don’t understand bartering here.

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… they invented being green:

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A curious turn of events in Holland:

Prosecutors in the trial of anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders say he should be acquitted of group defamation.

Public prosecutors Birgit van Roessel and Paul Velleman now say his comments on the Qur’an referred to Islam and its holy book, and not to Muslim people.

In explaining their call for acquittal on the defamation charges, the prosecutors also explained that statements contained in the MP’s film, Fitna, referred to Islam as a religion and not to its followers. Even though the statements could hurt the feelings of Muslims, that was not the same as defamation of the group.

Positive news, to be sure, but Wilders has not (yet?) been acquitted of all charges:

On Friday, the prosecutors will either press for Mr Wilders to be found guilty on the incitement charges or for him to be acquitted. If they call for a guilty verdict, they will also put forward what they consider an appropriate sentence.

Billion:

The national deficit hit a record $55.6 billion in the last fiscal year, though Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he is confident that the government will be able to balance its budget in 2015-2016.

… in Ontario:

So let’s review. Gas power is good until someone says it’s not, then it’s cancelled. Wind power is hated and expensive and, oh yeah, only works when it’s windy, so you need gas power as a backup … and those are getting cancelled. So we could go to solar power, except McGuinty already backtracked on that, making a lot of potential investors nervous. And our plans to build nuclear reactors to pick up the slack are on hold. Well, then. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that the population is “only” projected to grow a mere 36% over the next generation.

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