Canada – “The national beer glass half full” perspective

What He Said 27 Comments

As we enjoy this national day off, John Robson has penned a patriotic column that almost brings a tear to the eye:

I would like to be more positive. But I cannot do a Maple Leaf Forever kind of column, not least because that aspect of our heritage is not exactly popular with the smart set. Americans generally lay aside their grievances on the 4th of July because they regard their history as fundamentally glorious. But here the official view is quite different. Our statesmen were bigots, our industrialists rapacious, our scholars hegemonist, our soldiers war criminals, and our past a shabby nightmare from which we are only now awakening.

Okay, I said almost.

“As these graves were being unearthed, more bombs were found in London.”

Terrorism 28 Comments

Michael Yon;

Captain Clayton Combs has been fighting hard in Diyala for about ten months, much of it side-by-side with Iraqi soldiers from the 5th Division. Each time I’ve come into contact with the 5th, they seem far better than most. American officers and sergeants who work with the 5th have good things to report about them, saying that although the 5th still has far to go, and cannot sustain itself logistically, it can fight.
Captain Combs said this particular Iraqi unit, the 3-25, has never run away from combat, and never refused to close on the enemy. Combs said, “I’ve fought with 3-25 for 10 months in Diyala and they have always come when I am in trouble. They always go on patrols when I ask. They never back down.”
I asked Captain Combs to repeat what he said, making sure he knew I was planning to quote him directly. A veteran like Combs would be unlikely to append his name to such words if he weren’t dead serious. Captain Combs repeated his words and stuck by them. He then demonstrated that faith when we took off deeper into the danger zone with nine soldiers from 5th IA: just Captain Combs, Iraqi soldiers and me. As we passed through the village, Captain Combs pointed out the nice houses, saying the people had been simple farmers with comfortable homes and lives.
Until al Qaeda came.

When you’re finished, these thoughts from Michael Ledeen.

An Honourable Senator

Political Animal 16 Comments

Ottawa Citizen;

Senator Dan Hays may best be remembered as the parliamentarian who finally got the ball rolling on change at the Senate by vacating his Liberal seat today, about seven years before his official retirement date.
As the Trudeau-appointed senator admittedly suspected, his resignation has allowed Prime Minister Stephen Harper to announce that he is filling his vacant seat with senator-elect Bert Brown — a move that is sure to shake up the appointed members of the sleepy chamber in the fall.
Ensuring that his commitment to changing the Senate didn’t go unnoticed, Mr. Hays followed up his departure announcement with the release in late May of his paper, Renewing the Senate of Canada: A Two-Phase Proposal, which proposes a royal commission on Senate reform — much like the one held in Britian.
But in his last media interview from Parliament Hill this week, the well-liked 68-year-old lawyer denied his resignation is meant to act as a catalyst for change to what has been his working home away from Calgary during the past 23 years. The former Senate speaker and onetime leader of the opposition said he felt it was simply a good time to leave after holding virtually all the top jobs in the upper house.
He admits he knew what would happen next: “I wasn’t surprised that the prime minister went to the list (of senators-elect) given his previous statements … and I’m pleased for Bert Brown. Probably no one in Canada wants to be a senator more than him.”

Possible Airport Attack In Glasgow (UPDATED)

Terrorism 104 Comments

CTV;

GLASGOW, Scotland — Witnesses have told the British news media that a motorist tried to ram a Cherokee Jeep in flames into the main terminal building of Glasgow airport today.
The British Broadcasting Corp. says witnesses described an SUV driving at full speed toward the terminal building with flames pouring out from the car.
The BBC says the airport was evacuated and all flights suspended.
SKY News television says another witness reported that the car was stopped by security barriers and police tackled a man who fled from the car.

As noted, this item is derived from third hand media sources, so it may turn out to be just an accident.
BBC has more.
Update The incident is now being considered a terrorist attack. (Fox News)
More details are coming out and it’s thick with read-between-the-lines fodder;

One of them is in critical condition from severe burns and detained in the hospital. There was a “suspect device” found on him, and as a result the hospital had to be partially evacuated. Police were asked whether the device was a “suicide belt” but declined to answer beyond saying the device was “removed and brought to a safe place.”
The other suspect is in police custody.
The SUV used in the attack is still at the airport and still deemed very unstable. Police will not be able to examine it until the specialists give them the high sign. Until then, the airport is considered unstable. The vehicle contained materials that were flammable and that continues to be the continuing concern—police are not saying there are chemical components. As a result of the instability, there are still passengers stuck on the tarmac because it is deemed to be safer to keep them where they are at the moment than to move them.

Environmental Ideology

What He Said 20 Comments

Václav Klaus, at the CATO Institute, March 9, 2007;

Environmentalism only pretends to deal with environmental protection. Behind their people- and nature-friendly terminology, the adherents to this ideology make ambitious attempts to radically reorganize and change the world, human society, all of us and our behavior, as well as our values.
There is no doubt that it is our duty to protect rationally the nature for the future generations. The followers of the environmentalist ideology, however, keep presenting to us various catastrophic scenarios with the intention to persuade us to implement their ideas about us and about the whole human society. This is not only unfair but extremely dangerous. What is, in my view, even more dangerous, is the quasi-scientific form that their many times refuted forecasts have taken upon themselves.
What belongs to this ideology?
– disbelief in the power of the invisible hands of free market and belief in the omnipotence state dirigism;
– disregard for the role of important and powerful economic mechanisms and institutions – primarily that of property rights and prices – for an effective protection of nature;
– misunderstanding of the meaning of resources, of the difference between the potential natural resource and the real one, that may be used in the economy;
– Malthusian pessimism over the technical progress;
– belief in the dominance of externalities in human activities;
– promotion of the so-called “precautionary principle“, which maximizes the risk aversion without paying attention to the costs;
– underestimation of the long-term income and welfare growth, which results in a fundamental shift of demand towards environmental protection (this is demonstrated by the so-called Environmental Kuznets Curve);
– erroneous discounting of the future, demonstrated so clearly by the highly publicized Stern-Report a few months ago.
All of these views are associated with social sciences, not with natural sciences. This is why environmentalism – unlike scientific ecology – does not belong to the natural sciences but is to be classified as an ideology.

Y2Kyoto: Saving The World Postponed

Climate Cult 16 Comments

And a big shout out to Saskatchewan premier Lorne Calvert for prompting SaskTel’s first-ever contribution to a US presidential campaign;

Al Gore visit postponed. Former US vice president Al Gore will not be able to make it to Taiwan this September to address the issue of global warming, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin said yesterday. Tien, who invited Gore to visit Taiwan to promote awareness on global warming, told reporters yesterday that she received an e-mail from the Harry Walker Agency, which has the exclusive right to arrange Gore’s speeches, saying that Gore had canceled all his scheduled events in the next six months. The visit to Taiwan had been postponed to next year, she added. Tien said the reason for the cancelation was that Gore was considering a presidential bid.

By the way – since the blow by from the Goracle, it still hasn’t warmed up around here properly.

PIccadilly Bloodbath Averted

Reader Tips 31 Comments

From a round up on the attempted London car bombing at Pajamas Media;

Intelligence sources in London said they were keeping an open mind on who was responsible for the car bomb. But Islamic extremists are a likely suspect, particularly since a nightclub has been targeted and considering previous terrorist plots to blow up clubs.

Watch for vacuous references by media to “homegrown terrorism”.
Wrong. Islamic extremism has been imported to Britain, and is promoted and financed by foreign interests. The individuals recruited to carry them out are mere delivery agents, their citizenship irrelevant. The London train bombings and this event (should early suspicions be confirmed) are about as “home grown” as a date palm taking root in a London greenhouse.
More details here.
UPDATE – A second bomb rigged car has been discovered.

Daughter of the Nile

Religion Of Submission 15 Comments

“It is, I suppose, deeply ironic that I was told that I was not allowed to live in Egypt when I was a girl and now as a grown woman I’m told, in part by people from Egypt, that I shouldn’t come to Canada either. As for Israel, they’d like that to disappear,” she says, more bemused than bitter. “Where ought I to go? No matter. The story has to be told, the true story of how Islam has treated and still does treat its minorities.”

Shutting Down Canada’s Busiest Highway

Great Moments In Socialism 278 Comments

For a moment there, I was worried they were cutting off Fort MacMurray;

Ontario Provincial Police shut down Canada’s busiest highway early Friday morning west of Kingston due to native protesters in the area, who had earlier blockaded a section of secondary highway and a stretch of nearby railway track on the eve of the National Day of Action.
Friday morning, the Ontario Provincial Police closed Highway 401 both ways between Napanee and Belleville and were diverting traffic north onto Hwy 7 due to native protesters “being in the direct area, for safety reasons,” said Sergeant Kristine Rae of the Smith Falls detachment.

Mark my words – the moment is approaching when a bandana prowling these police protected barricades will end up in the crosshairs of someone’s high powered rifle.
And right after that, Dalton McGuinty will blame Americans.
h/t.
Update: At the BBC, forum comments that go horribly wrong.
Related: Speaking of stereotyping and double standards – note the photograph chosen to illustrate this post. Bigot, heal thyself.
Astonishingly, Dawg responds with this: “I’d say some folks do a pretty good job of stereotyping themselves.”
Stereotype? When I see a cowboy hat, I think “cattle industry”.
In Dawg’s “progressive” world, cowboy hat means “racist”. Because, as we all know, western rural culture is synonymous with intolerance.

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