Reader Tips
The Voice of the Martyrs chronicles Christian persecution world wide.
Record amounts of warming fall in Juneau.
Obama to Iraqis: Don’t come looking for “hope” here.
Which came first … the gangbanger or the racist?
Yours in the comments.
Y2Kyoto: Our Warming Oceans
Spotted at the Weather Network, and sent along by a reader who notes, that ” Al Gore must be visiting Newfoundland. The first of two pictures from Bay Roberts shows no ice in the harbour on 21 January 2008, while the second shows the harbour full on 2 April 2008.”
Shunned By The British
“My grandfather was a sophisticated man, but in some ways a very embittered man. He never wanted me to go to America, because he recalled the injuries and humiliations that had piled up during British rule, and he held these against the white man. From this I realized something quite startling. I realized that although colonialism had been bad for the people who had lived under it, such as my grandfather, it had been good for me. As a consequence of colonialism, I was exposed to the ideas and traditions that inform the Western understanding of freedom. I learned about separation of powers, democracy, human dignity, and equal rights. I learned the English language. Much of what I am and believe today has evolved out of the benefits I received from the colonialism that injured my grandfather.” – Dinesh D’Souza
It’s 2008 and “no one has taken the slightest interest in South Africa, apart from a handful of botanists and zoologists who reckon that the country’s flora and fauna rank as one of the largest unspoilt areas in a polluted world….”
h/t
As The Aryan Guard Parades Down A Calgary Street Under Police Escort
Scratch a leftist… you know the rest.
The resolution states that CUPW will work “… with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.” The resolution also calls on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian aid to Palestinians who have been affected by the conflict, and commits CUPW to research on Canadian involvement in the occupation.
Reader Tips
Tips thread open.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Taylor: I guess it does, although I’m not a big fan of the way that term has been used. You know, Richard Feynman, one of the greatest American physicists, once said that the finest scientists were always trying to prove themselves wrong.
In science, we should all be skeptics, especially of our own work. I’ve been wrong enough in the past to know I might be wrong now.
SL: Do you believe Gov. Kulongoski purged you for your views?
Taylor: I don’t believe the governor purged me. I decided to retire, and it was a personal decision.
SL: But did anyone ever tell you to back off or you might lose your job?
Taylor: I’m not prepared to comment on that.
h/t Icecap.
Great Moments In Breaking Radio News
650CKOM’s David Kirton (breaking from Storm of the Century Forecast!! coverage); “Would you describe the scene as a war zone, Brent?”
Reporter Brent Bosker, in Nipawin; “Well no, I wouldn’t say that.”
Update – From the comments:
I live in Nipawin. I saw first hand the destruction of the blast and resulting fire. I knew the two men killed and the others hurt. I saw the panic in the people who had been in the buildings that were hit with the shock wave and my daughter’s friend was in the gym and her mother frantic search and then extremely happy when she found her daughter was not physically hurt.
The media no longer reports, they sensationalize. They look for the bad not the good. Our local emergency response teams, fire fighters and the hospital all did a fantastic professional job. The synchronization of services was flawless. A testament to the professionals and the small town caring as everyone knows everyone. I have not read or heard of one report about this aspect of this disaster. MSM is starting to become irrelevant, reports should be factual, emotions should be the follow up and reporters opinion should never form the basis of any report.
There is a move afoot to greatly reduce the services at the Nipawin Hospital and relocate them to the community of Melfort (punctuated by a political group supported by the Finance Minister and holding secret meeting with the Sask. Health Minister), which is not even central to the Kelsey Trail Health Region. Disasters like this do occur sadly (Nipawin has had a number over the last few years), without the service who knows what the results would of been.
Y2Kyoto: Bomb Kyoto!
Time managing editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC April 17 and said the United States needed to make a major effort to fight climate change, and that the cover’s purpose was to liken global warming to World War II.
“[O]ne of the things we do in the story is we say there needs to be an effort along the lines of preparing for World War II to combat global warming and climate change,” Stengel said. “It seems to me that this is an issue that is very popular with the voters, makes a lot of sense to them and a candidate who can actually bundle it up in some grand way and say, ‘Look, we need a national and international Manhattan Project to solve this problem and my candidacy involves that.’ I don’t understand why they don’t do that.”
He does realize the Manhattan Project culminated in the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima?
(*post title amended, courtesy commentor Garth Wood.)
Tony Blair’s Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and “Two-thirds of British residents fear violence as migrant tensions rise”;
A quarter of those questioned agreed that, because of immigration, “my area doesn’t feel like Britain”.
This was up from 12 per cent in 2005. Some 58 per cent said parts of Britain feel like a foreign country.
During the past three years, between 800,000 and one million Eastern Europeans have arrived in the UK to work.
Reader Tips
Building a Zombie-Proof LED Light.
The worst part of this air safety record is that should you be fortunate enough to survive, your fate is in the hands of Congolese first responders.
The Humane Society of the United States came up in an earlier thread. This is not your grandma’s humane society – they do not run a single shelter. Think PETA, with much better press and a much bigger bank account.
Yours in the comments.
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
Torstar Corp said on Thursday it will cut about 160 jobs in its newspaper division as the book and newspaper publisher copes with a declining newspaper market.
Y2Kyoto: Your Saskatchewan Weekend Weather Forecast
Sat-Tue: Windy, widespread rain and snow changing over to all snow Sunday. Snowfall will be heavy at times with considerable blowing and drifting of snow likely. Blizzard or near blizzard conditions will develop in parts of the province Sunday and Monday. Moisture totals will be 15 to 40 millimeters with local totals of 50 or more. Snow accumulations will range from of 12 to 30 centimeters with potentials for up to 40 centimeters if the storm is as intense as some model data suggests. Western and northern Saskatchewan will get the greatest snow.
Highs: 3 to 6 southwest and west central, 9 to 12 southeast, 4 to 7 east central, and 0 to 3 north; Daily high temperatures will be falling during this period especially in southern areas.
Lows: -11 to -8 southwest, -13 to -10 west central and north, and -8 to -5 east central and southeast
Winds: North wind 20 to 30 km/hr with higher gusts Saturday increasing tothe range of 25 to 50 km/hr with gusts to 65 km/hr Sunday and Monday. Winds will turn to the west northwest and diminish back to 20 to 30 km/hr Tuesday.
May His Next Project Be A Self Portrait
While this story may yet turn out a hoax, the following isn’t.
Warning. This is an extremely disturbing link. Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas Habacuc starves a dog to death in a gallery exhibition of “installation art”.
He has been asked to recreate the installation for the prestigious Biennial of Central America. Information here, but this really requires more action than a petition.
Al and Mike Show
Yours truly is scheduled as a guest at 8 EST this evening.
“This will lessen the pressure against us”
Intercepted al-Qaida Letter Reveals Tactics, Strategy
Page 8 of the document focuses on instigating fights between coalition forces and Iraqi groups, especially Sunnis who have rejected foreign extremism and terrorism in droves in what has been referred to as “Awakening Groups.” Safyan suggested infiltrating the Sunni cadres before planting and detonating mines “in their villages and streets.”
Bergner said the author’s call for violence against the Awakening movement typifies the kind of extremism many Iraqis have turned against. The confiscated document also reveals the threat such groups present to terrorists, he added.
“These writings are further examples of the corrupt ideology that Iraqis are broadly rejecting,” he said. “We have seen about 100,000 men choose a different path and join local volunteer groups like the Sons of Iraq instead.”
Later in the briefing, Bergner told reporters that coalition forces had captured or killed 53 al-Qaida in Iraq leaders since his most recent news conference early this month.
Doing The Job The Mainstream Doesn’t Want
I’m going to Baghdad next week to embed with the 2/1 Stryker Cavalry Regiment operating in and around Sadr City. The showdown between the Mahdi Army and US and Iraqi government forces is currently the most important story in Iraq being covered (and miscovered) by the mainstream press, and I’d like to provide an accurate, on-the-ground perspective.
You can help out at the link.
(*error corrected)
The Audacity
As The Aryan Guard Parades Down A Calgary Street With Police Escort
Yalden wants readers to believe the Nazis were able to come to power and perpetrate the Holocaust in part because of “unfettered” free speech when in fact the opposite is true. Suppression of civil liberties in Germany, especially free speech, was essential to the Nazi’s successful acquisition and consolidation of power.
It’s a myth that Weimar Germany was a bastion of freedom and civil rights before being taken over by the Nazis. The Weimar Republic was no respecter of civil liberties and the rule of law – at least not consistently. Weimar “liberals” shut down newspapers when it suited them, they spied on political parties, they used plainclothes police or other surrogates to break up political meetings, they outlawed political parties – including the Nazis for a time, and they not only tolerated armed militias but in many instances encouraged their existence and activity while the judiciary turned a blind eye.
There is a lesson to be learned here, but it’s not the lesson that Yalden and his ideological compatriots are teaching. National Socialist Germany is not an example of what happens when hate is tolerated – it’s an example of what happens when hate is empowered. The uncomfortable fact is that the Nazis didn’t invent the apparatus of power or culture of repression in Germany, they merely took control of, and perfected, an apparatus and culture that had already been created and used by “liberals” to combat extremism.
RTWT.
Previous.
Update – Joseph C. Ben-Ami has dropped by to share further thoughts in the comments.