The Tyranny Of The Minority

The Tolerant Left 82 Comments

And another victory for “tolerance”;

Campaign records show Scott Eckern contributed $1,000 to a campaign supporting Proposition 8, which wrote a ban on same-sex marriages into the California state Constitution.
Eckern, a 25-year veteran of the company, issued an online apology through the theater publication, Playbill. He is the company’s chief operating officer and has been its artistic director since 2002.

Eckern resigned his position today.
More on “the new blacklist” – “The bullies have published the names of other contributors, too. Welcome to 1984 — 24 years late.”
h/t Dwayne

We Need To Talk About Your Adjustment

Great Moments In Socialism 82 Comments

A reader writes;

[This] is a scanned copy of a brochure used in one of the Ontario schools to teach ‘Social responsibility’.
It is astonishing how much this resembles indoctrination a subject of which I used to be in the USSR. This brochure bears a sticker with a student’s name and they are told not to take it home.
One of the most horrible chapters is on page 20 – Oswald’s reeducation session. Can we afford to remain silent and do nothing about this? But I don’t know what to do and where to go.

oswald.jpg
The full pdf is a bit large (8 megs) to offer up on the server, but I’ll make a copy available to those who request one privately.
From the Is our children lurning? file – “And, isn’t it “Macbeth” without the capital B?”

Support Resolution P-203

Freespeechers 32 Comments

In the past few hours, a joint effort by a number of bloggers has resulted in a flyer that Conservative delegates will be receiving in time for this weekend’s policy convention in Montreal (correction – Winnipeg!).
(You can view and download a copy of the flyer here.)

“We strongly support those members of the Conservative Party of Canada who seek to repeal Sections 13 and 54 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Sections 13 and 54 of the Canadian Human Rights Act are a direct attack on the freedom of expression guaranteed to us under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The provisions of these sections allow the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to prosecute anyone alleged to have said or written something “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt” whether there is a living, breathing victim or not.
Vague concepts such as speech or writing “liable to cause hatred or contempt” are the basis of expensive state-funded prosecution of individuals. The statute provides no objective legal test for “hate” or any objective means of determining what constitutes “contempt”. As a result, the CHRC is used by various groups and individuals, as a risk-free taxpayer funded method to silence their critics and those they disagree with. CHRC investigators have testified that that “freedom of speech is an American concept” and therefore not valid in Canada . Such statements are contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms but are standard operating procedure at the CHRC.
Commissioners of the Canadian s Human Rights Tribunal, who are not judges and are often not even lawyers, have held that “truth” is not a defence against prosecution under Section 13. Intent or fair comment are also not defenses. In fact, there is not a single listed defence under Section 13! Because of the lack of any defenses, the Tribunal has a 100% conviction rate since 1978. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal routinely ignores the principles of fundamental justice, such as the rules of evidence, and these kangaroo courts, even allow hearsay evidence. The CHRA provides for each Tribunal to make up the rules as they go.
Every journalist, writer, Internet webmaster, publisher and private citizen in Canada can be the subject of a Human Rights complaint for expressing an opinion or telling the truth. Given the ambiguity of Section 13, it is virtually impossible for any individual to determine if they might be in violation of Section 13. Arbitrary censorship and punishment are wrong, and cannot be justified in a free society.”

While the hour is late, consider contacting your local Conservative MP to let them know you too, support the resolution which reads as follows:

Modify HRC Jurisdiction
PROPOSED BY VICTORIA AND KELOWNA – LAKE COUNTRY
iii) The Conservative Party supports legislation to remove authority from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal to regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints related to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

“The CBC has some explaining to do”

Radioactive 44 Comments

From the comments;

Follow the Goreacle’s mukunlucky-footprints to the back entrance of the CBC’s HQ in TO. As Rusty says, look down, way down for more on Gore’s Current.

“Current’s plans for an initial public offering are on hold, employees have told CNET News. The company filed for an IPO in January.”

Betcha Current will go into bankruptcy. The CBC has some explaining to do. Your tax dollars are flowing into Gore’s pockets. Fire.Them. All.

“CBC partners with Gore to bring Current TV to Canada 10 Nov 2008 … Current TV, the interactive television network with one-third of its content created by media-savvy viewers, is coming to Canada.”

Layoffs hit Al Gore’s Current Media

“There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
A source close to Current told CNET News on Tuesday that 20 percent of the staff has been cut, and that some of the layoffs will take place now and others in January. Current had announced less than a day ago that it had partnered with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to bring its network to Canada.”

From the indispensable Maz2.

Continue reading →

Y2Kyoto: “September ‘08 is the hottest October on record. Oh, my God!”

Climate Cult 74 Comments

Andrew Bolt;

The Goddard Institute of Space Studies of warming extremist James Hansen has released its latest surface temperature data – and, oh my god, the recent cooling has suddenly ended.

The culprit? A massive heat wave over Russia in October.

Yet, the satellites seem to have missed the memo.
oct_ice.jpg
The whole, sordid story unravels in the comments here, (while the GISS begins to delete data in real time);

…we have learned that the Russian data in NOAA’s GHCN v2.mean dataset is corrupted. For most (if not all) stations in Russia, the September data has been replicated as October data, artificially raising the October temperature many degrees. The data from NOAA is used by GISS to calculate the global temperature. Thus the record-setting anomaly for October 2008 is invalid and we await the highly-publicised corrections from NOAA and GISS.”

More on the mess at Climate Audit.
Update – NASA acknowledges “some mishap might have occurred… ”
Update – In the comments, John Cross defends NASA’s quality control in response to my criticisms;

“Kate: There is always a trade off between how quickly you get the information out and how much quality control you can run.”

OK then, let’s make this simpler.
As in “Holy heat-seeking-map-missile, Batman! Look at the colour of Russia right next to Alaska there!”

“In the wrecked kitchen we unpacked our recording machines”

Military 10 Comments

Terry Teachout;

On October 9, 1918, an HMV sound engineer named Will Gaisberg set up a primitive piece of recording equipment immediately behind a unit of the Royal Garrison Artillery stationed outside Lille and recorded a British gas-shell bombardment. His purpose in doing so was to preserve the sounds of war before the coming armistice caused them to vanish forever from the face of the earth.”

h/t

The Audacity Of Dope

The One 51 Comments

Nice move, rookie;

Just hours after President Bush and President-elect Obama met in the Oval Office of the White House, details of their confidential conversation began leaking out to the press, igniting anger from the president, sources claim.
“Senator Obama would be wise to keep close counsel,” a top Bush source warned.
“BUSH AND OBAMA AT ODDS OVER AID FOR AUTO INDUSTRY,” splashed the NEW YORK TIMES in an exclusive Monday evening, quoting “people familiar with the discussion.”
The two met at the White House in private, without staff.

But that’s not all…. from Ayers to the IRA to palling around with Hamas. More on that here;

That Malley would be working on Middle East policy for the new administration is troubling enough, but the fact they’ve now repeatedly been dishonest about his involvement in the campaign makes it much worse.

(So, should people speculate as to where this leak came from?)

The Vigil

Military 34 Comments

leg_memorial.jpg
(photo credit Karen P.)
“The Regina Vigil will be presented at the Provincial Legislature situated in Wascana Park, beside the Saskatchewan War Memorial. As with every vigil, it runs for seven nights, starting at 5:00pm each evening, The first name appears at 5:15pm. Each night’s vigil will be 13 hours long, ending at sunrise the following day. The vigil will then recommence at 5:00pm and run another 13 hours. The last name will appear as dawn breaks on November 11th.”
Related – Bring our history home.
Henry Allingham, Britian’s oldest veteran at 112;

“You try to forget, you want to forget, but you couldn’t forget,” he said.
“Those men must not be forgotten ever. They sacrificed everything on my behalf, and your behalf as well.”
Mr Allingham was speaking as the death of another World War I veteran was announced.
Sydney Maurice Lucas, who was born in Leicester, died on Tuesday in his home town near Melbourne, in Australia, at the age of 108.

2 minute recording of a gas shell bombardment.
St. Pauls, downtown Toronto
remday.jpg
(photo credit Doug L.)

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 37 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here are Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing It don’t Mean a Thing if You ain’t Got the Swing (starting at 2:43) and a couple other tunes (8:19).

Mr. Ellington’s piano in the first tune, Mood Indigo, is engaging and delightful. The lead sax in the third tune I also find interesting; I’m not sure I’ve ever quite heard a sax played that way, almost more like a clarinet. Sorry about the lack of provenance on this one, but when it’s this good provenance goes out the window.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

UNIFEM Gala

Little Known Facts 37 Comments

Last evening a request landed in my inbox;

Dear Kate,
I have attached two flyers for the UNIFEM Canada Gala event. This year’s winner is Louise Frechette, former Deputy Secretary of the United Nations. Our Honorary Chair for the event is Carolyn McAskie, former Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations.
The Gala will take place in Ottawa on November 20, 2008. The start time is 18h00.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could mention the event in your
blog.

I had a pretty good idea what something called UNIFEM might be about, but it never hurts to ask – “What the heck is UNIFEM?” The reply;

UNIFEM is the United Nations Development Fund for Women. The global branch
is based in New York. Please see: http://www.unifem.org/
There are branches or offices of UNIFEM throughout the world, including Canada. UNIFEM Canada is run by volunteers to raise awareness of women’s issues in Canada and issues facing women throughout the world (sexual violence, forced marriages, rape as a weapon of war, inequality in the education system and so on ).

My feminist creds know no bounds. But the name rang a bell.

You mean this Louise Frechette from the Volker report?
…there was “a systematic attempt by the Deputy Secretary-General, Canadian Louise Frechette, to block results of audits into the Oil-for-Food program from the Security Council”.
Of course, there weren’t any disadvantaged women in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, so what’s a little corruption between friends?

There went my invite.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation