“If President Obama intends to find common ground with the Mullahs in Iran”

Not Quite News 38 Comments

“He can certainly find a way to appease Rush Limbaugh.”

Related (from a one-time six figure donator to the Democratic Party) – “If that makes me an enemy of the White House, then call me a general of an army that Obama may not even know exists — tens of millions of people who live in fear of having no money saved when they need it and who get poorer by the day.”

“This Revolution Means Business”

Great Moments In Socialism 90 Comments

President Hugo Chavez seized a unit of American food giant Cargill on Wednesday and threatened to take over Venezuela’s largest private company, renewing a nationalization drive as the OPEC nation’s oil income plunges.
Chavez’s clash with the food companies, demanding they produce cheaper rice, came less than three weeks after he won a referendum on allowing him to run for reelection and marked his first nationalization in seven months.
“I warn you this revolution means business,” said Chavez, whose government has struggled with lower oil income and minor food shortages this year.
The anti-U.S. president, who has nationalized swaths of the economy, is popular among the poor for pressuring companies to produce cheap goods and for government programs that provide subsidized food in city slums.

More here.
You know,there once was a time that the lefties would rush to the defense of Chavez when I published that bulldozer image. They’re kind of scarce lately – as they always are when confronted with the real life consequences of their own ideology.

“Ich Bin Ein Beginner!”

The One 53 Comments

Joe Biden got it wrong when he said “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”
All they had to do was stand back and wait for the One to manufacture his own.

This is smart diplomacy? This is a debacle. The Russians dismissed it contemptuously.
Look, if we could get the Iranian nuclear program stopped with Russian’s helping us in return for selling out the Poles and the Czechs on missile defense, I’m enough of a cynic and a realist to say we would do it the same way that Kissinger agreed to delegitimize and de-recognize Taiwan in return for a large strategic opening with China.
But Kissinger had it done. He had it wired. What happened here is it was leaked. The Russians have dismissed it. We end up being humiliated. We look weak in front of the Iranians, and we have left the Poles and Czechs out to dry in return for nothing.
The Czechs and the Poles went out on a limb, exposed themselves to Russian pressure, and we have shown that Eastern Europe is not as sovereign as it appears if the Russian influence is there, and we will acquiesce in what they consider their own sphere of influence.
This administration has prided itself, flattered itself on deploying smart diplomacy. “Smart diplomacy” is a meaningless idea, but if it has any meaning at all, it is not ever doing something as humiliating, amateurish, and stupid as this.

Unfortunately, this time there’s no Khruschev to save us.

Hate On The Taxpayer’s Dime

Freespeechers 41 Comments

For example;

… 536 CBC.ca readers clicked on the link to recommend a comment by ‘sandy411’ in which he/she compared Israel’s assault on Hamas to the Holocaust and added a reference to Israel wanting “pounds of flesh,” like Shylock the Jew.
‘Sandy411’ added: “How many tons of Palestinian women and children will settle your account, Israel?” It was the most popular comment of the day.

Via Mark Steyn who suggests the obvious. “it turns out the Canadian “human rights” secret agents who spend untold hours lurking on unread U.S. “white supremacist” sites in case some hapless loser from Manitoba shows up can find all the hate they want on the taxpayer-funded message boards of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “
Beauty! Hate speech hosted by government, prosecuted by government, and defended by government – a taxpayer-paid triple header!

Another Tip ‘O Hat To The Closet Liberal Gov’t In Alberta

Gopher News 53 Comments

We couldn’t have done it without you!

On Tuesday, the Conference Board of Canada released a report that said Saskatchewan will likely continue to lead the nation in economic growth in 2009 because of the infrastructure investment and tax reductions.
The province has also been reaping the benefits of an influx from nearby Alberta. When the government in Alberta decided to raise the oil royalty rates, oil exploration and expedition companies decided to move their operations to Saskatchewan in hopes of making more money.
With the province’s growing opportunities, David Montgomery, president of Calgary’s Qwest Haven Relocation Services, said he is moving more people to Saskatchewan each day.
“Alberta has always been the gravy train of oil,” said Montgomery, who is also a former resident of Regina, the capitol and second-largest city in Saskatchewan. “But with the new royalties, oil companies are saying ‘Why stay here and make less when the opportunities right next door are even better?’ Many other companies may start to follow suit.”
Montgomery said people looking to move have said that cheaper land and insurance prices are among the other reasons they are headed to Saskatchewan.
“There, government insurance is cheaper than anywhere else in the country and it comes with your license plates,” he said. “With the amount of jobs, cheaper opportunities and great way of life, the government there has made it very attractive to move there.”
That means more business for Wall’s province and more jobs coming to the area.
Not that there’s a shortage of jobs. On Tuesday night there were nearly 6,000 private- and public-sector jobs on the Web site Saskjobs.com. [Editors note – should be saskjobs.ca]

Next? If I were Premier, Saskatchewan would eliminate corporate taxes completely and send the announcement across our southern border, addressed to John Galt.
(h/t Allan)

The First Harvard Trained Agriculture Minister In Waiting

The Libranos 46 Comments

There’s only one thing that chills a farmer more than being forgotten by urban Liberals – and that’s being remembered. Thoughts on agriculture from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff: International Man Of Questions…

How do we as society build together, not apart?
As a politician, I must ask myself: How can we make better government policy to build bridges between urban and rural Canada, instead of drive wedges between us?
A real concern of mine is how could a Liberal government build on these bridges to bring urban and rural Canada closer together?
What are the tools that need to be put in place to enable Canada’s farmers to be successful and profitable in the 21st-century economy?
In the future, farming can also be the foundation of providing the renewable energy, fuels and materials needed in the 21st century. How do we seize those opportunities?
And how can we reward farmers for the work they have done to make our agricultural sector more environmentally sustainable?
Finally, how do we help young farmers get back into agriculture?

Seven questions. Zero answers.
A bullet dodged, that.

“Ich Bin Ein Beginner!”

The One 47 Comments

Berlin….

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century

It must seem like a lifetime ago.

…on this side of the Atlantic the whole business looked pretty demeaning. The morning papers and TV last night featured plenty of comment focused on the White House’s very odd and, frankly, exceptionally rude treatment of a British PM. Squeezing in a meeting, denying him a full press conference with flags etc. The British press corps, left outside for an hour in the cold, can take it and their privations are of limited concern to the public.
But Obama’s merely warmish words (one of our closest allies, said with little sincerity or passion) left a bitter taste with this Atlanticist. Especially after his team had made Number 10 beg for a mini press conference and then not even offered the PM lunch.

Or as Glenn Reynolds might say – “They told me that if I voted for McCain relations with Europe would continue to sour – and they were right!”
Related – I guess some people just can’t take a hint…

Phoenix, Mexico

Little Known Facts 69 Comments

The long arm of the lawless;

The spillover of violence from Mexico began some time ago in border towns like Laredo and El Paso in Texas, where merchants and wealthy families face extortion and kidnapping threats from Mexican gangs, and where drug dealers who refuse to pay “taxes” to Mexican cartel bosses are gunned down. But now, the threat posed by Mexican criminals is beginning to spread north from the U.S.-Mexican border. One location that has felt this expanding threat most acutely is Phoenix, some 185 miles north of the border. Some sensational cases have highlighted the increased threat in Phoenix, such as a June 2008 armed assault in which a group of heavily armed cartel gunmen dressed like a Phoenix Police Department tactical team fired more than 100 rounds into a residence during the targeted killing of a Jamaican drug dealer who had double-crossed a Mexican cartel. We have also observed cartel-related violence in places like Dallas and Austin, Texas. But Phoenix has been the hardest hit. […]
The kidnapping gangs in Phoenix that target illegal immigrants have found their chosen crime to be lucrative and relatively risk-free. If the flow of illegal immigrants had continued at high levels, there is very little doubt the kidnappers’ operations would have continued as they have for the past few years. The current economic downturn, however, means the flow of illegal immigrants has begun to slow — and by some accounts has even begun to reverse. (Reports suggest many Mexicans are returning home after being unable to find jobs in the United States.)
This reduction in the pool of targets means that we might be fast approaching a point where these groups, which have become accustomed to kidnapping as a source of easy money — and their primary source of income — might be forced to change their method of operating to make a living. While some might pursue other types of criminal activity, some might well decide to diversify their pool of victims. Watching for this shift in targeting is of critical importance. Were some of these gangs to begin targeting U.S. citizens rather than just criminals or illegal immigrants, a tremendous panic would ensue, along with demands to catch the perpetrators.

Related;

Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend. The city – just across from El Paso in Texas – has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.

Mexico is on the brink of becoming a failed state. (link fixed) But never mind that, we have our trusty betters in media alternating national news coverage between developments in the relationship of a hip-hop artist and his punching bag de jour, and envy of the First Lady’s toned arms.

Sharon Begley, On “Science”

Media 43 Comments

From Newsweek “science writer” Sharon Begley, whose medical background appears to begin and end with a bunch of awards from other journalists and a B.A. from Yale University – “Why Doctors Hate Science: Scaremongers warn that ‘effectiveness research’ threatens the lives of Americans”

Thank God doctors in the United States are free to treat patients as they deem best, free from interference by faceless bureaucrats. If bureaucrats were in charge, physicians might have to prescribe the newest hypertension drugs as a first-line therapy, do MRIs to diagnose back pain and give regular Pap tests to women who have had total hysterectomies. Oh, wait—they do. All these medical practices are common, despite rigorous studies showing how useless or wrongheaded they are. Definitive studies over many years have shown that old-line diuretics are safer and equally effective for high blood pressure compared with newer drugs, for instance, and that MRIs for back pain lead to unnecessary surgery. And those Pap tests? Total hysterectomy removes the uterus and cervix. A Pap test screens for cervical cancer. No cervix, no cancer. Yet a 2004 study found that some 10 million women lacking a cervix were still getting Pap tests.

Well, thank God doctors in the United States don’t take their marching orders from journalists – yet. Among the real live doctor responses in the comments…

Her snarky comment “no post-hysterectomy pap smears needed because pap smears are for cervical cancer and there’s no more cervix, duh!” is only true for women who have had hysterectomies for benign problems. For women who had hysterectomies because of a prior malignancy, her advice could prove fatal–because ‘fatal’ is what an undetected recurrence of an invasive cancer in the vaginal cuff would likely be. Similarly her assertion that “diuretics should be first line anti-hypertensive therapy” ignores mucho evidence that diuretics (and beta-blockers) come with significant problems, including a vastly increased risk of triggering diabetes; in light of such evidence, many of the recommendations of JNC 7 are now being reexamined. In short, diuretics are absolutely appropriate therapy for many patients. For others, they’re not so great, and even down right dangerous in some case.

Of course, the purpose of the article has little to do with either science or the practice of medicine – the money quote:

It’s hard not to scream when you see how many physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical-device makers and, lately, hysterical conservatives seem to hate science, or at best ignore it. These days the science that inspires fear and loathing is “comparative-effectiveness research” (CER), which is receiving $1 billion under the stimulus bill President Obama signed.

Taking the doctor out of treatment… is there nothing that Obama – and his allies in media – can’t do?
Related suggestions – Science 101 for journalists
Via email –

The following is the (scientific) guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada:
Screening can be discontinued in women who have undergone total hysterectomy for benign causes with no history of cervical dysplasia or human papillomavirus (C-III). Women who have undergone subtotal hysterectomy (with an intact cervix) should continue screening according to the guidelines. – Cancer Care Ontario Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada
Please post this in your main post. As well I would advise that this woman be charged with practising and providing medical advice without a medical license. You can write that it comes from me. I have a real medical license to practice in Ontario.
Dr. Caillin Langmann MD PhD
McMaster University Div. Emergency Medicine

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