No, it’s not Kansas … it’s Manitoba:

“A while back, Kathy, I had an email exchange with Lawrence Martin from the Globe about how the media and press is left wing. He disagreed…”

Moving on from the discussion HERE, a tip from SDA reader Wimpy Canadian led to THIS:

If you listen to the global warming alarmists working for the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or folks like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore, sea levels across the globe are rising at a rate that will eventually doom us all.
According to Swedish paleogeophysicist Nils-Axel Mörner, who’s been studying and writing about sea levels for four decades, the scientists working for the IPCC have falsified data and destroyed evidence to incorrectly prove their point.
Mörner was recently interviewed by Gregory Murphy of Executive Intelligence Review, and began by making it clear that the sea level claims made by the IPCC are a lot of nonsense (emphasis added throughout, h/t Eduardo Ferreyra):

crossposted @ Cjunk

Note how frequently “progressives” from Obama on down (to, say, a Toronto Star writer I argued with recently) now use the word “divisive” as a prejorative.
Why is divisiveness a bad thing? Why is “unity” always a good? Aren’t the “issues that divide us” precisely where our principles and passions lie?
Obama’s right: Jerry Falwell was a divisive figure. So was Abe Lincoln (and NO, I’m not equating the two…)
Are progressives trying to smuggle a more insidious concept into public discourse by using the word “divisive” as an insult?
I’ve yet to hear a conservative employ the word. Why not?
What can I say? I feel it’s helpful to keep watch on leftists’ words de jour, even though I probably give their “deeper meaning” more thought than they do themselves. Your mileage may vary.

“According to a new study by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s sociology department, Americans are generally positive — even optimistic — about the word ‘diversity,’ but when asked, even those working in the field of race relations have trouble describing diversity’s value and stumble when giving real life examples.”

From Ted Byfield:

The second goal was far more devastating. It came with a book just published by Henrik Svensmark, director of the Centre for Sun Climate Research at the National Space Centre in Copenhagen. He calls it The Chilling Stars: A New Theory on Climate Change.
Like Patterson and the Russians, Svensmark contends the sun is a major factor in climate change, but he has been working for eight years to back this up with experimental proof. He has established a laboratory in which the sun’s rays and Earth’s atmosphere have been set up in model, and the cosmic effects on the Earth thereby observed.
The results, detailed in the current issue of Discovery, the highly respected magazine of science, are startling. They show solar activity affects cloud formations on Earth, which in turn determine the Earth’s climate. Paradoxically, it seems meteorological conditions do not determine the cloud formations; rather, cloud formations determine meteorological conditions.

Commentary on the Harper Connection @ Cjunk

Muslims in general are incredibly silent on matters of terrorism and Islamic totalitarianism; so much so that the main voices heard are those of the radicals. The “noise” created by Muslim violence the world over is nowhere near being countered by Muslims who oppose it.
So it comes as a surprise to find that a Tulsa Muslim is pushing back at Muslim supremacists … and he’s doing it in the most typical of American fashions; he’s suing them:

23 June 2007: Jamal MIFTAH, a Muslim who attended the Islamic Society of Tulsa, Oklahoma is now considered “public enemy number one” in the Tulsa
Muslim community. His crime? He openly condemned the terrorist actions of Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists in a letter to the editor (reprinted
below) that was published in the Tulsa World daily newspaper on 29 October 2006. In his op-ed piece, MIFTAH urged Muslims to stop killing in the name of Islam, called bin Laden and other top Islamic terrorist cowards and stated that “some mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. and around the world have become tools in their hands and are used for collecting funds for their criminal acts.”
What happened to Mr. MIFTAH following the publication of his letter is the focus of a lawsuit he filed against the Islamic Society of Tulsa and several other related defendants. (A transcription of the lawsuit is published in its entirety below). According to Mr. MIFTAH, on or about 18 November 2006, he attended prayers at the mosque as he had normally done in the past. Following the prayers, Mr. MIFTAH alleges that the Iman of the Mosque and a defendant named in the lawsuit, Ahmad KABBANI, confronted him in an aggressive manner – forcing him to retreat against a wall inside the mosque and told him that he “should be ashamed” of the letter he wrote, claiming that it was “anti-Islamic.”
At the same time and while being nearly pinned against the wall, mosque members and named defendants Houssam ELSOUESSSI, Abdullah ROE and Nooruddin DOE also confronted Mr. Miftah, screaming and shouting allegations that Mr. MIFTAH is “anti Muslim” and a “traitor” to Islam. ROE also removed his shoe, waived and swung it at Mr. MIFTAH’S face, shouting that he was “anti Muslim” and a “traitor.” Mr. MIFTAH was ultimately assisted by another member of the mosque who observed these activities and accompanied him outside, away from his aggressors.

Read it all: CLICK
Related: The Moderate Muslim Minority
crossposted @ Cjunk

It’s difficult to discuss Canadian Aboriginal issues without emotions tipping the scales. It’s with caution therefore that I present the following, taken from Cjunk.

Who needs to go to Latin America to find tin-pot dictators … try visiting some of Canada’s reserves instead, or pay attention to how the aboriginal elite in Canada conduct business.
The hallmark of Latin American dictatorships has been the ruling family … entrenched in power either through military bullying or through the approval of wealthy patron families. The hallmark of Canadian Aboriginal politics is not much different. Those of us who work on the periphery of “First Nations” see it all the time … the entrenched family group lording it over the others while pealing off millions of dollars of Federal funding and kicking it over to those who are “in favor” or part of the “family”.

And, from Joseph Quesnel:

As National Aboriginal Day ends, aboriginals should take stock of what has been achieved in recent years.
It has become accepted wisdom from the aboriginal leadership elite that the current government is the worst thing to happen to First Nations in a long time. Of course, this idea filters to the masses who repeat it.
While not perfect, the government has achieved much on the aboriginal file. It is just they are the changes the aboriginal elites do not like because they empower individuals and reduce their collective power.

Discussions on this topic tend to go ballistic, so I kindly ask that you stick to the topic and keep it civil. To keep the discussion focussed I simply ask, “What should the Harper government do different from the previous Liberal Gov. in regards to Canada’s Aboriginal people … if anything?”

She just underwent a mastectomy and breast reconstruction. I’d invite readers to put politics aside this morning and wish her the best.
Stupid comments are most unwelcome at this time.