CTV anchor Lloyd Robertson, moments ago – “We’re all getting older, and whether we can all look forward to our golden years..”
The First American Prime Minister In Waiting
Get ready for Michael Ignatieff’s made-in-Washington economic policy;
The Liberal leader will also meet Barney Frank, the powerful chairman of the House Representatives Financial Services Committee to discuss American efforts to combat the global recession and deal with the banking crisis.
“This shows how highly regarded Michael Ignatieff is to leading figures in the Obama administration,” a Liberal insider said.
Barney Frank?
The same Barney Frank who said this[1] in response to Bush administration attempts to bring “the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis”?
”These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ”The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”
Wait, there’s more! In a made-in-Washington twofer, Iggy will have his note-taking napkin at the ready for none other than born-again hawk, Richard Holbrooke;
On Wednesday night, Ignatieff will have dinner with Holbrooke, who is spearheading Obama’s aggressive new policy to defeat the Taliban and crackdown on insurgents using Pakistan as a safe haven.
Aggressive new policy? Well, give Cut-N-Run Richard his due – he learns from his mistakes.
Over at Liblogs, it’s pin drop week.
Update – the acting CFO of Freddie Mac was found dead of an apparent suicide this morning.
Footnotes:
[1] Bloggers – doing the jobs Bob Fife won’t do!
h/t Robert C.
Y2Kyoto: Redefining Renewable
The world is being run by fools and your money;
Environmental goals require denial of reality. Under current state and federal law, hydropower captured [in Washington State] is not “renewable” even if it obviously is, because calling it what it is would counteract efforts to force the Northwest’s electric ratepayers to buy sources of energy in current environmental favor. These sources are notable for their expense and inefficiency, unlikely to attract much investment absent government mandates and subsidies.
It was in 2006 voters approved Initiative 937, which said that all Washington utilities with more than 25,000 customers must obtain 15 percent of their power from “renewable” sources by 2020. But “renewable” was given an intentionally narrow definition. Hydropower, which provides 70 percent of the state’s electricity, was deliberately excluded, except for a bit of added power obtained by recent improvements in dam equipment and operations. If the obviously renewable hydropower was included, then virtually every utility in the region would meet the renewable standard without trying. Since the purpose of the initiative was to force investment in windmills and solar panels, this would not do.
Watch for this to become a trend.
h/t Lee M.
Reader Tips
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Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our weekly wild-card show, here is-a Don Novello as-a Father Guido Sarducci performing his singular Vita est Lavorum (Life is a Job) (5:24).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
She was a soldier, not a doll
Memo to Michael Coren from a serving Canadian soldier:
Sir,
I have just finished a 7 month tour with an Infantry Coy in Zhari, where I patrolled on foot on a regular basis alongside female medics and on a few occasion a female MP. They did the same job, carried the same kit and weapons, marched the same distances, took the same enemy fire and in all ran the same risks as the men. I never saw them flinch, display fear or weakness, and did their work with the same dedication and level of competence as the men present.
I witnessed, on the occasion of a recent deadly IED blast that took the lives of two Canadians, a female medic who was also caught in the explosion be the first to jump up from the ground and administer aid, organise triage and performe her duties in a superb manner despite her injuries from her close proximity to the blast, and knowing well the two deceased soldiers.
After having been in combat alongside Canadian female soldiers, I have determined for direct experience that the women of today make as good soldiers as men.
You, sir, obviously have no direct combat experience with women, and should keep your condescending, ignorant, archaic opinions that have no basis on facts or reality to yourself and resist the temptation to insult the efforts of Canadian women in uniform.
I’ll add my own two cents: I don’t give a rat’s hindquarters what set of reproductive parts you were issued at birth – if you can hack the profession of arms, and if you want to be a soldier, you should be allowed to serve your country according to your qualifications, not your gender. Period.
Death By Good Intention
“We’re from the Nanny State, and we’re here to kill you.”
Canadian researchers have discovered that folic acid consumed during pregnancy can alter the gene function of offspring, potentially affecting their susceptibility to disease.
The finding is part of a growing – and controversial – body of research that raises serious questions about whether long-term consumption of folate and folic acid may increase the risk of developing certain cancers in some people.
The debate is far from benign. Food manufacturers are required to add folic acid to enriched flour and grain products under federal regulations that came into force in 1998. The premise behind fortification, which was also mandated in the United States, is to ensure that women receive adequate levels of folate in order to reduce the risk of birth defects in their offspring.
A decade later, however, new research and scientific studies have found evidence that increased consumption of folic acid may help trigger the onset of colon and other types of cancer.
I have a simple request of those politicians, career bureaucrats, and other professional public policy meddlers who believe they have a special obligation to their fellow citizens to legislate what we eat, what we drive, what we say, how we play, and when to come in from the midday sun – would you please kindly go f%$# yourselves, now?
My only consolation is the knowledge that once in a while, the family member you kill might be your own.
(Note: the comments section at the G&M is particularly critical of the quality of reporting on the article quoted. It’s a fine example of nanny mentality in action – public policy by lowest common denominator bureaucratic consensus, communicated by the best that uncomprehending journalism has to offer.)
h/t nv53
Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough
Another great moment in “universal” health care;
According to Tuesday morning’s Star Phoenix, Saskatoon contractor Ken Olson spotted a man in a hospital gown lying on the ground outside emergency at City Hospital Monday morning.
He ran in to tell staff, but says he was told they would have to call an ambulance to attend to the patient, who was a mere ten feet out the doors.
Olson describes his shock to the newspaper, saying, “What if the man had died while doctors looked on?”
Patti Simonar with the Health Region tells The Star Phoenix that it’s hospital policy to call 911 when there’s a patient found on the grounds.
Twenty Questions
With Paul Burgin.
(link fixed)
Black Like Janeane Garofalo
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz & blues show, here are Mr. Muddy Waters et alia performing Champagne & Reefer (4:37).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Liberal Voting Block
When the concept of multiculturalism was introduced to Canadians, most assumed it meant “more pavilions at Folkfest”.
“25,000 more Tamil protesters to disrupt Ottawa traffic”
Exactly how does a city the size of Toronto end up with a 200,000 strong immigrant community from one insignificant patch on an equally insignificant island on the other side of the planet?
Obligatory Comment On Susan Boyle’s Dream Of Becoming A Professional Singer
If Barbra Streisand could make it, so can she.
Catch ‘N Release Video
At the Torch.
(link fixed – sorry!)
“Thank you, Madame Chair. I don’t know if you recognize me.”
UN Watch; “the rank hypocrisy of Durban II was exposed before the world this week when UN Watch surprised the Libyan chair — by bringing a victim of Qaddafi torture to confront her on Libya’s brutal torture and scapegoating of five Bulgairan nurses and a Palestinian doctor.”
The Sound Of Settled Science
“Does reducing our dependence on fossil fuels justify promulgating scientific lies?”
Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of Saskatchewan’s “The Professional Edge (PDF, pg 10 – 12)
Dwain Lingenfelter, Unplugged
“One can only speculate which camp this came from….”
Update: For context, these remarks were made before a Saskatoon business association in 2001 after today’s unborn-again socialist had left politics -and the province – to take up a position with a Calgary energy company.
Welcome John Gormley Live listeners!
h/t Jim Fodey
We Don’t Need No Stinking Puny Fans
Only 47 windmills to power a household?
A real-world test performed by the Dutch province of Zeeland (a very windy place) confirms our earlier analysis that small windmills are a fundamentally flawed technology (test results here, pdf in Dutch). Twelve of these much hyped machines were placed in a row on an open plain (picture above). Their energy yield was measured over a period of one year (April 1, 2008 – March 31, 2009), the average wind velocity during these 12 months was 3.8 meters per second (slightly higher than average). Three windmills broke.
(more at the link).
h/t Tomax7
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Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Sunday night classical music show, here is the great Jascha Heifetz performing what is almost certainly not Tomaso Antonio Vitali‘s Chaconne in G Minor for violin and continuo (9:44), which as it turns out is the piece that Heifetz opened his Carnegie Hall performance with in 1917, brought to you tonight with organ continuo. From what? That’s not something you hear every day, already!
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
When A “Stop” Sign Just Isn’t Enough
Catch ‘N Release Canadian justice takes to the high seas.
An attempted attack by Somali pirates on a Norwegian tanker was foiled by Nato warships and helicopters after an overnight pursuit in the Gulf of Aden.
Nato said a Canadian warship caught the pirates before releasing them after the gang attacked the MV Front Ardenne.
The alliance said the pirates had been released because they could not be prosecuted under Canadian law.
I trust that when this incident moves from news to mockery on American networks, Canadians will have the good sense to keep their traps shut.
God DAMN America, Redux.
Still voting present;
President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba’s Communist government.
Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here.
This is the same man who “endured” twenty years of hate-America-first diatribes from his “spiritual mentor” Jeremiah Wright. Of course he took notes. You never know when you’ll need a new book title.
(Besides, it’s all Kennedy’s fault).