Sunday, May 31, 2009

Nine Weeks Old

Last remaining survivor of the Titanic dies, aged 97

Apparently, she was only nine weeks old when that fateful voyage took place.
On April 14, four days into the voyage, the ship struck an iceberg and Millvina’s father told his wife, Georgette, to wrap up Millvina and her one-year-old brother, Bertram, and take them up on deck. Here, among scenes of chaos and panic, the infant Millvina was placed with her mother and brother aboard Lifeboat 10 and lowered into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, leaving her father behind on the dying liner.
---
Even as a baby on the Adriatic which ferried her back to England she attracted attention. The Daily Mirror reported that she “was the pet of the liner during the voyage” with “rivalry between women to nurse this lovable mite of humanity”.
Okay. Here comes those sentimental tears again.

Latinas and White Guys

Great rant.

This teapot tempest about US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer is basically a big bore. About the only point that I think deserves a headline is her supposed belief that courts make policy rather than just interpret the law. Of course, I'm sure The One chose her because, among her many impressive attributes, there is an "identity politics" card that can be played here.

Hey folks. There's a Democrat in the Oval Office. He needs Latino votes. Expect him to appoint fellow Democrats with an eye on a list of politically correct Democrat criteria. The Repubs will do the same thing, except if they have any balls the criteria will have a politically incorrect flavour. Just don't pretend that Sotomayer's life has been any more challenging and therefore heroic than the lives of millions of other ordinary Americans like the dad who tells his story in the rant above.

So hats off to the ordinary White Waynes and Palefaced Patricks whose hands gets greasy and whose backs ache at the end of the day, yet who still find time to play with the kids, volunteer as a Boy Scout leader, mow the lawn and help out the neighbour whose Latino husband may be off doing a second tour in Afghanistan or dying of leukemia. You are my kind of man and you are the salt of the earth.

Sick, Sick, Sick

US abortion doctor is shot dead

I don't care what you think of abortion, taking a man's life because he performs abortions is murder. How can anyone with any sort of brain square a deliberate act of murder with a right-to-life cause. Personally, I have serious issues with mid- to late term abortions, but I know of many women whose lives and families would have come unraveled had they not had the procedure done. No one can walk in her shoes and only she can decide and only she has to live with the long term consequences of her decision. Most of the women - no - virtually all of the women who I know who have had abortions have never, ever regretted it.

I have much more of a problem with teenage girls popping babies out every two or three years and thinking they can properly raise them on their own. The first scenario leads to happier, healthier families. The second, too often is a disaster for everyone. Of course, I would much prefer abstinence be practiced instead, but in our hyper-sexualized society where girls are subjected to images and role models that can only be described as tarts, what can we expect. We would also do well to remember that it's not just teens that get pregnant and want abortions. Many times it is married women who already have children for whom one more child would be a tipping point into serious social chaos for herself and all her older children.

In the meantime, expect hypocrisy.

/rant

All Together Now,

UPDATE: Another shining example of Islamic tolerance gets life. Good. His sister didn't fare so well.

----------------------------------------------------------
...lets whine about all this flagrant Islamophobia.

"After more than 15 years of investigation and two trials, the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas....Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges."

And now, in a decision made earlier this week, two of the principals of the Holy Land Foundation will "spend the rest of their lives in behind bars..." ---
"The government acknowledged that the former Richardson organization, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., did provide aid to Palestinians. But the evidence showed that they sent money to Palestinian charity offices controlled by Hamas. U.S. law prohibits any aid, even humanitarian, going to any designated terrorist group.

Hamas, the evidence showed during trial, parlayed that aid into support for its violent agenda to destroy Israel. That included funneling aid to family members of suicide bombers, ensuring a steady stream of new suicide recruits, testimony showed
."
Well done, my American friends.

Now we know why George Galloway will never set foot in Canada, since we too have the same law on our books. Giving money to a terrorist organization, no matter how many ribbons and bows and buckets of disinformation you wrap it in, is against the law.

Andrew Breitbart

Speaking of John Howard the next series of interviews at NRO TV's Uncommon Knowledge program features Andrew Breitbart (May 25th to 29th). Great stuff about the fascists in Hollywood. Godspeed to him. I hope he achieves his dream.

Best line in the whole thing is very close to the end:
"I'm not even a social conservative. I just want those people to be able to make movies that affirm their point of view and they can't right now. And when I see those people being able to do it without the retribution that you're seeing right now by the left writ large, I will not stop this crusade."

Saturday, May 30, 2009

John Howard

..in conversation with Peter Robinson:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

I like this man. I can see why the Aussies kept him in for 11 years.

Pals and Peace. Ya, Right!

Abbas's Waiting Game
"Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank -- though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees -- something no previous Israeli prime minister had done -- and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further.

Abbas turned it down."


From the comments at ITM:

Again, give a Palestinian almost everything he wants, and he walks away. Do Arabs not know the meaning of the word compromise?
Kafir | 05.29.09 - 7:22 pm | #

Kafir | 05.29.09 - 7:22 pm |

They do. But the Palestinians cannot make the decision for peace or war as they are not their own men. They are like puppets and blue tack in the hands of their funders. Saudi Arabia, and others in the Arab /Muslim camp and of Course Iran. they mauld them at will to suit their political aims. And as tyrants and dictators, they must keep an outside enemy alive to continue to suppress their own people and prevent form asking for regime/system change for example to be like Iraq; democracy, freedom, the rule of law and the human rights.

They are not reasonable or even care about their own people. They do not need them for the elections, they do not them for taxes, as they don't have any. They rule by decrees and not consent.

They are tyrants and dictators, worse than Hitler and Mausoline. They are police States.

So how could we get through to these rulers who do not respect or care about their own citizens?

The people have no say who could/should govern them, they do not have free elections as we know them.

Even Abbas and Yasser Arafat are equally as dictatorial as the rest of the Arab rulers.

Change the current Regimes into freedom and democracies and Peace will break with no time at all.

Free and democratic countries deal in compromises and talk to each other peacefully. Tyrannical States don't. They understand Force and domination only. It is in theri DNA's

Give Iran and Syria an Inch and they will demand a mile, watch my lips at the end of the year, you will go away with nothing? Time will tell.

Obama's overtures to Iran and the Arab world will fail, they do not understand his motives and /or indeed will trust him , trust me.

Kind regards

Hameed Abid | 05.30.09 - 3:24 am | #

Waiting For This to Come to Canada..

Outrage: American Indian-Run Charter Schools Indoctrinate Students in Bizarre, Out-of-the-Mainstream Ideologies and Discredited Theories
"Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."

That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education."
RTWT

Jamie Glazov On the Left-Islamist Alliance

Glazov really gets to the point in the second video, but for anyone who doesn't know who Jamie Glazov is or where he comes from, or even if you do, it's best to view both videos in order, as the first one, especially the part about his family's history, gives invaluable context to the second.



\

h/t Gates of Vienna

Friday, May 29, 2009

All Those Indian Act Consultations That Never Happened

Here's an interesting article by Joseph Quesnel that says a lot about the moral bankruptcy of the Indian Industry. Note the comments where both champions and clients of said Industry are calling foul. The notion that Indians are not consulted with respect to changes made to the Indian Act is one of the most long-standing of the legions of utterly false memes developed by the Indian Industry over the last thirty years or so. But it persists. It's another one of those Ever Ready Bunny myths that keeps going and going and going.

To get the real scoop, you might want to start by reading the three volume tome which is the Proceedings of the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on Indian Affair held between 1946-1947. There's a copy of it available at the University of Saskatchewan's library. Or, take a look at Calgary's Glenbow Institute's holdings of the papers of the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA), which contains briefs and correspondence from the Association to that Committee. Briefs and correspondence from the IAA to subsequent Parliamentary Committees dealing with Indian Affairs are also there. The IAA, sister organizations across the country, and individual Reserves, including many from Saskatchewan, appeared before the 1946-1947 Committee and submitted written briefs and letters. The result was a major amendment to the Indian Act in 1950, from which, contrary to the theme presented in the Saskatchewan Indian April 1978 edition linked above, most of the more egregious sections, such as the ban on Indian ceremonies and meetings to organize politically were removed.

As both links in the preceding paragraph attest, the notion that Indians are never consulted with respect to the creation or revision of legislation is not supported by the documents that Indian organizations themselves produce. In addition, I have in my own possession a booklet produced by the Saskatchewan Indian Federation in 1973, a supplement to The Saskatchewan Indian, advising Saskatchewan's Indian people of the upcoming proposal to revise the Indian Act. The very first sentence reads as follows:
"The purpose of this special supplement is to provide the Indian people of Saskatchewan with information concerning some of the issues they will have to consider in their deliberations about the Indian Act. "
It was obvious they knew that changes to the Act were being considered and obvious, too, that they intended to have an input.

Since the 1960s there has also been a permanent Standing Committee in Parliament dealing with Indian Affairs. You will often see the deliberations of this Committee on CPAC. Anyone with reasonably good eyesight and hearing will be able to see that First Nations members of the House of Commons and the Senate not only frequently sit on that committee but prominent Aboriginal organizations and individuals are regularly invited to appear before it to give testimony and submit their position papers. In fact, there's a brief little history of the parliamentary Standing Committees dealing with Indian Affairs since the 1960s here.

So folks, save those easily refuted memes for the easily duped among us. If you want to find an excuse for the backward development on some First Nations, look elsewhere. I suggest you might start by re-reading Joseph Quesnel's article and pondering its essential truths. In the meantime, changes to the Indian Act to protect the rights of women are long, long overdue. The old boys club is just going to have to suck it up.

La What?

I've never even heard of the word before. Way to go, girl!! You bring sentimental tears to my eyes.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Fantastic Interview on Pajamas TV

Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem, both former Palestinian terrorists, speak about their conversion away from terrorism and what they want us all to know. Highlights are too many to list, but pay special attention to what they have to say about the spin created by university professors, Islamic racism, the status of Palestinians in the Arab world, American prisons as recruitment centers for radical Islam, Gitmo and the threat of the next "9/11". Someone needs to sit The One down to watch this interview from beginning to end.

Only 179 Weeks Left

According to my calculations there are still 179 weeks left in the Obama administration and according to his own words, they've already run out of money. Good luck, my American cousins. The Canadian dollar might be looking fairly good before too long. /sarcasm

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Right Royal Sarko Shenanigans

Sarko is in the news a lot these days.

For one thing, there seems to be a bit of a Royal snit going on between France and Britain. The Queen, "the only currently living head of state to have worn a uniform during WWII", was not invited to France's commemoration of the 65th anniversary of D-Day, leading to some rather snarky statements:
"In Britain, commentators have suggested that Mr. Sarkozy did not want to share the telegenic moment when he hosts Mr. Obama. This was all the more so, the British commentators have said, because the queen’s presence might risk turning the occasion into a celebration of the Anglo-American alliance, whose troops carried out the landings, losing about 37,000 men in the battle for Normandy. French troops played no part in the June 6 landings."
delirious digging for juicy scandal and delicious satire by the press:




On the other hand, he's been prancing around the Middle East, eager to reclaim for France the glory days of Napoleon Bonaparte, only this time with military bases, er, arts and peace camps, rather than conquest and empire. Very strategic move, there, Sarko. Right across the Straits of Hormuz, within spitting distance of the Mad Mullahs in Tehran. Yup. The Arabs are courting the West and there's a firmer noose tightening around Iran. Can't say I really blame Sarko for forgetting about the Queen and blowing off the nude pictures of his wife. This seems a little bit more important at the moment.

At least I'm not ready to get all huffy with him, even though I admire old Liz for all her years of loyal duty. Heck, who can be mad with a man who does all that and appoints a climate change skeptic as head of the super-ministry of industry and innovation to boot?

Occidental Soapbox Update

Earlier this week I wrote about the blogger Occidental Soapbox and his YouTube vids on Islamic history in which I pondered when the next video in the Islamic Crusades series would be posted. Well, voila!



One of the main reasons I like this series and the companion one - Islam, History and Geopolitics - is that they provide excellent material to refute the notion that the US and/or the British Empire are responsible for all the troubles in the world today and nothing bad ever happened to the poor peoples under their domination before 1492, etc., etc.. This blows that lefty thesis apart. I wrote on a similar theme here: The Trouble With Aboriginal Rights.

I have a fond spot in my heart for India. As daughters of the British Empire, I think we have a lot in common. During the height of their empire the Brits considered India to be the jewel in the crown and, despite the connotations of empire and colonialism, in my opinion, it is still a jewel. It is the most populous democracy in the world, which, despite its problems, has achieved much since the day they received independence from Britain. One doesn't hear a lot of whining and moaning from them about how colonialism is to blame for all their woes. Good on ya, India! That's what independence really means - being responsible for yourself and dealing with the world as it really is, not as some never-never land that leftards want it to be.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Iraqi Kurd Puts German Politician In Her Place

Forgetting Saddam's Victims
"If Ms. Däubler-Gmelin had had her way, Saddam would still be sitting safe and sound in one of his palaces in Baghdad and no changes would have been possible in this country. For the woman who led the German parliamentary delegation is the very same person who as the then German Minister of Justice in September 2002 sharply attacked the later liberator of Iraq, George W. Bush, and even compared him to Hitler."
---
"I must admit that I was astonished when I recently read in the newspaper that a German parliamentary delegation was visiting Iraqi Kurdistan and that the head of the delegation, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, had made critical remarks about the situation of human rights in the region. I was equally astonished that our Kurdish politicians accepted this criticism without protest.

As someone who survived the Iraqi army’s poison gas attack on Halabja and who has been working for a German aid organization for the last eleven years, I may be permitted to make some comments on Ms. Däubler-Gmelin’s visit..."
The whole essay reminds me of one written by Adam Michnik regarding the grotesque stance of the anti-war crown at the beginning of the Iraq war, which I wrote about here and which is still available for reading here.

RTWT

Monday, May 25, 2009

Stop Islamization Of Europe: SIOE

Conference About the Euro-Mediterranean Project

I just discovered this at Occidental Soapbox's website. Citizens of Denmark are hosting the conference in their parliament, of all places. Maybe the halls of government in Europe aren't completely dhimmified yet, at least if their citizens have their way. More about the Euro-Mediterranean Project here and here. The conference takes place tomorrow. I'll have to keep my eye open for any reports about it.

Occidental Soapbox

I'm not quite sure when or how I discovered Occidental Soapbox, but I'm reasonably certain it was on YouTube. This man has produced some very educational videos. He must be a historian. I'm viewing a series of ten under the general title of History, Islam and Geopolitics. You can find a list of this and others of his series here. The one called Islamic Crusades sounds interesting. I think it will be next on my viewing list. I think I might make Occidental Soapbox a regular read, too. I have other favs on YouTube of the well documented, highly interesting history genre. But I'll leave those for another day.

Never mind. I just finished watching Islamic Crusades and all I gotta say is Halelujah!!! Finally, there is a balanced portrayal of history to counter balance the idiocy of the leftist university professors and their anti-everything-Western-especially-America. Don't miss it. Especially number 6. It sounds like the series is a work in progress, as he says the next episode will deal with the continuing efforts of Islam to reconquer India.

Good Job!! Bad Job!!

Canadian sailors uncover biggest weapons haul
"That skiff and its six crew members were hiding a significant cache of automatic weapons, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers and an aluminum ladder with makeshift grappling hooks — clear evidence of pirating intent."
---
"But, the frigate's crew is still sensitive about the fact the alleged pirates cannot be charged if all they are doing is transporting weapons and other materials or devices that could be used in piracy.

Those caught in an act of piracy may be charged, but it is unclear in whose court and under which jurisdiction. It is also unclear what kind of evidence would be needed to link a specific skiff to a specific attack.

This complex task is aggravated by the fact that the international community has been fixated on the decision by warships serving in the Gulf of Aden to avoid having to arrest and try the suspected pirates. Currently, the U.S. and the Netherlands are the only nations that have bucked that posture."

---

"Baker said when he approached the first skiff, one member of the Somali crew started talking in English about how excited he was to be stopped by a Canadian warship: "They knew we were Canadian because I guess they recognized our flag. One of the things they said in English was that they really wanted to go to Canada to get jobs. I don't think he was that worried about being arrested."
Boy oh boy. Do we have a problem.

Tony Burman - CBC Bias Exposed

He openly boasts about his and Mother Corpse's blatant anti-Bush pro-Democrat agenda. He also openly admits that the Canadian government considers CBC to be "its broadcaster". He claims Al Jazeera does not interfere with his work. Well, duh!! Why would they interfere with someone who so willingly does their American bashing for them. He also says he knows Canadians want a diversity of views. They are sure not getting it from CBC, his former employer. And this guy considers himself to be a journalist. Hah!!!



Canada's other Al Jazeera darling, Avi Lewis, has also gained international prestige as a rabid anti-American idiot for this little gem:



They both left CBC at about the same time. Kinda makes you wonder if they were given an ultimatum - resign or be fired. I'm pretty certain those two contributed the lion's share of Canada's disgust with their national broadcaster. Is it little wonder that Al Jazeera snapped them up? Great catch, as far as they're concerned.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Groping Mismatch?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

United Nations Human Rights Council

Still a farce, but at least it lacks the power to enforce it's edicts.
"The goal was simple: to infiltrate and weaken secular democratic covenants and institutions from within, in a manner reminiscent of revolutionary Marxist groups’ “entryism” into the British Labour Party in the seventies and eighties. The OIC’s plan for implementing its Islamist agenda hasn’t succeeded on all fronts, of course. But it has succeeded spectacularly on one: the United Nations Human Rights Council.

A subsidiary of the General Assembly, the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) was reconstituted from the ashes of the previous Commission on Human Rights. The 60-year-old commission had long been criticized for ignoring atrocities and allowing membership to notorious human rights violators—most notably, Sudan at the height of the Darfur genocide. In 2006, the General Assembly, backed by then–secretary general Kofi Annan, voted to scrap the commission."
---
"The HRC was formed that March by a UN resolution, though the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands, and Palau voted against it. The U.S. at present does not occupy a seat on the council because of the Bush administration’s skeptical view that the HRC would prove just as ineffectual and biased as the former commission."
---
"In its three-year existence, the HRC has failed to show any improvement over its predecessor—an unsurprising outcome, given its equally lax membership standards. Of the HRC’s 47 member states, only 23 live up to Freedom House’s definition of “free” countries. Fourteen qualify as “partly free” and ten are “not free,” with three of these—China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia—earning a spot in Freedom House’s special report The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies. China, Cuba, and Pakistan haven’t even ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the primary legally binding human rights instrument in international law."
---
"The HRC has no legal authority. It passes nonbinding resolutions on what it decides are human rights abuses and can only make recommendations to the General Assembly. Nevertheless, its resolutions enjoy the UN imprimatur, and it can legitimize barbarities simply by ignoring them."
When Ibn Warraq speaks, we should listen.

Not to worry though, in Canada at least. We have our own various and sundry Human Rights commissions, which are apparently above the law and which are willing to do the the UN's Human Rights Council's bidding.

One More Mass Grave

Kurdish mass grave discovered in Iraq
"The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry announced that a mass grave has been discovered in southern Najaf, containing the bodies of 3,000 Kurds murdered by the Saddam Hussein regime. It should be noted that about 100,000 Kurds were murdered by this regime, and that, even six years after its fall, the bodies of thousands of murdered civilians remain undiscovered. In Najaf alone, 48 mass graves have been found."
We haven't heard much about mass graves in quite a while. Of course mass graves are only part of the story. For the full monty, go here. By far the worst story I have yet to read is this one, first written by the brothers at Iraq the Model.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Awwwwww. How Sad.

Boo hoo hoo.

Already facing $171-million shortfall, Ottawa forces public broadcaster to trim another $50-million in budget fat.

Hmmmm. Let me see now. Trim $221 million and they would still have an operating budget??? Man oh man. I can just imagine the shrieking and howling and anti-Harper hysteria CBC listeners and viewers will be subjected to. If Harper sticks to his guns, this and this alone will be enough to win my vote for his party in the next election. Of course, complete unabashed privatization would be even better. If they do that, I might even campaign for them.

Written by Jennifer Ditchburn. Quoting Ian Morrison. Not a single statement from media darlings in support of the cuts. No media bias here, of course. Bletch. Nothing but self-interested panic.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Iraqi Bloggers Central Closes Shop

One of the earliest and at the same time one of my favourite bloggers dealing with Iraq and the Middle East was one run by a New Yorker, Jeffrey Schuster. Well, Jeffrey, the Sicko Psycho American at Iraqi Bloggers Central is signing off. He and his pals have posted the last entry and there's a long, slow goodbye party happening in the comments section. Check it out and stroll through some of his "best of" selections, too.

It was a great ride, Jeffrey. You probably don't know this, but I have mentioned your blog right here on this one on more than a few occasions. Jeffrey documented the rough ride of the Iraq war, through the writings of a wide range of Iraqi and other bloggers, both when things looked pretty grim and when there was much to celebrate. The comments section was always roiling and tumultuous. Iraqi Bloggers Central and Iraq the Model were THE places to go for the latest news about the conflict. It was a great ride Jeffrey. Thanks for letting me be part of it.

The 57 State Solution

King Abdullah: "This is not a two state solution, it's a 57 state solution"
"What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese. And with the Arabs and the Muslim world lined up to open direct negotiations with Israelis at the same time....So it’s the work that needs to be done over the next couple of months that has a regional answer to this — that is not a two-state solution, it is a 57-state solution....That is a very strong statement when we are offering a third of the world to meet them with open arms. The future is not the Jordan river or the Golan Heights or Sinai, the future is Morocco in the Atlantic to Indonesia in the Pacific."
There's a wee small part of me that believes it might actually happen. Sixty plus years, though, is a long time to wait. A long time to remain hopeful. So good luck with that, your majesty. May you do your father proud.

Wind Energy Pipe Dreams

Here's an excellent article about the true cost and effectiveness of wind energy.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Another View of Pakistan

This one from a Canadian academic and columnist who I greatly admire, Salim Mansur. Wish I could say the same for some of the comments. One manages to get in an anti-George Bush swipe with not a single, even feeble argument in support of his thesis. Another drags out the old "racism" canard. Intellectual mice. I must say.

h/t Dr. Roy

Legit or Classic Case of Hudna?

Former Algerian Terror Chiefs Call for Insurgents to End Jihad
"The three were formerly members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, one of the armed factions that battled Algerian authorities in the 1990s. Up to an estimated 200,000 people have been killed in the violence that erupted in 1992 — now sporadic but deadly.

They called on militants not to "blindly follow the actions of Al Qaeda" in the message published Saturday by Algerian newspapers — an unprecedented appeal by such high-profile leaders."
And in other news,

Karzai Advises U.S. to Protect Local Leaders From Taliban

Notice he mentions "India's model of a robust and independent bureaucracy based on "a civil service unaffected by politics."

India definitely has a dog in this fight.

Al Qaeda No Longer in Afganistan

...according to General Petraeus.
"Though Petraeus said nobody can provide an accurate location for either terrorist, he said Al Qaeda senior leadership clearly is now rooted in the border region of western Pakistan."
[---]
"He said that the Taliban's effort to extend their territory beyond the northern Swat valley seems to have "galvanized all of Pakistan" against the group.

"There is a degree of unanimity that there must be swift and effective action taken against the Taliban in Pakistan," Petraeus said, warning of the dire consequences of a Pakistan defeat.

"This is not a U.S. fight that Pakistan is carrying out at this point ... This is a Pakistani fight, a Pakistani battle, with elements that as we've mentioned threaten the very existence of the Pakistani state."
Pakistan has nukes. Let all nations with any sense whatsoever rally around the Pakistani army and the duly elected Pakistan government. Will this change the tense relationship between Pakistan and India? Kinda hard to believe that Indians have no dog in this fight.

Why yes! Maybe it will.

I said it before and I'll say it again. God bless George Bush. He got the ball rolling.

Great News From Iraq

via my favourite commenter at Iraq the Model, Mr. Hamid Abid:

"This is an interesting article about the son of our president Mr. Gobad Talabani attending- note attending - in Washington a conference with American congress men and women amongst others supporting Israel.

The news media in the Arab world has gone up in arms and creating so much fuss about this attendance. As if he defaced their bloody faces with his shoes? What hypocrites?

Why do not they object to King Abdulla of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt and the Emir of Qatar and other Arab dignitories, when they meet with the PM's and ministers and President of Israel,

Why this free and independent Iraqi Kurd?

The mind boggles. These morons with theri double standards picking on Iraq, because it is free and because it has opened up to the rest of the world. All countries of the worl including Israel.

The Palestinian Cause has no longer become the prime Iraqi cause or concern, liek whe it was used a propagandas to win over the Arab Masses to live gloriously aloft above the clouds as did SH. The Iraqis are worried about the interrupted Electric currents in their daily lives, so many nights over the past six months, when I lived in Baghdad in the Dark and suffered? sometimes in the middle of an email I was sending to muy colleagues in USA?UK or my family. They are worried about their daily bread. So many of them are unemployed, the youth specially. So many of them are without drains, without shelter and without proper homes or beds to sleep in or running water, they are worried bout their safety and about the terrorists car bombs and EID's. They are worried about being kidnapped or a group of armed terrorists descending on them at night and taking away their possessions. Who the hell is worried about the Palestinians?

So those of you who are reading this and worried about Gobad Talabani sitting in The USA mingling with the Americans who support Israel, Offski, please. Leave the kid alone and mind your own business.

Kind regards
Hameed Abid | 05.09.09 - 4:05 am "
Emphasis mine.

Note he has the Arab world's longstanding relationship with the Palestinian Israeli conflict pegged for exactly what it is, too.

The Poor Oppressed Gazans Strike Again

Hey, Dino!

...I wish I had been there.

Marginalized Action Dinosaur got to attend an "Ezra" event (book signing, probably, but he doesn't actually say that). In the interests of spreading the word to "every Kanuckistani", here's some of his take on Ezra's talk:
"I liked when Ezra brought up that he thought cartoon violence was about Wiley Coyote."
"Ezra compared himself to a murderer and told little things like how if the police went to Clifford Olsons house without a warrant all the evidence would have been thrown out and the public up in arms. However if you run a magazine and they set their big government sights on you they can show up take your hard drive, take your dog and whatever else they want as they have kind of infinite rights. who cares about all the legal protections that evolved after a thousand or so years since the Magna Carta."
"Yet there were other more nefarious trials see if you are a criminal and don’t get a speedy trial they will be forced to drop all charges and they have let people walk. Not so fast with the human rights commissions. One grilling took 7 years. Where someone didn’t take the shake down and they gunned for them for almost a decade. Then another that went on for 20 years can you imagine being on trial long enough to have children and have them move out?"
"Essentially at all levels the law says you cannot print or say or do anything likely to expose someone to hatred or contempt.

So like if this worked for all Canadians the CBC should be shut down because they hate the word Christmas, well I don’t even want to count the number of socialist groups who hate and revile Christians they will never ever suffer for that."
And to that I would add that the CBC should be shut down for exposing Americans to hatred or contempt.

Since They All Look Alike

...what I want to know is how are they gonna tell which ones are the Taliban.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Saddam Hussain's Favourite General

Listen to the audio clip to understand what happened in Iraq.

Further to the Free Speech on University Campuses

which I wrote about here, I give you a great interview with David Horowitz.





UPDATE: Did I ever tell you how much I love former lefties who have seen the light? Melanie Philips' talk about the state of affairs in Britain is nothing short of horrifying.

































More on Pakistan

Mark Steyn Rips 'Em a New One

Iggy and, by extention, his Liberal Party's Indian Industry legacy, as expressed in his vapid statement about Christopher Pauchey, is taken to task:
"To be sure, one could argue that it is “about us” in the sense that Christopher Pauchay wouldn’t be taking his daughters for 50-below midnight strolls in diapers had the white man not unloaded the boat half a millennium ago. Or, alternatively, it’s “about us” in the sense that the lavish government “compassion” and neo-segregationism of the last half-century have inflicted far more damage on Canada’s Aboriginal population than the bead-sellers, mythical smallpox bearers, Victorian imperialists and Christian missionaries could have accomplished in their wildest dreams. I naturally incline to the latter view, which is no doubt “racist.” But isn’t the real racism Ignatieff’s? In seeking, by his weaselly language and revolting argument, to burden all of us with Pauchay’s actions, the Liberal leader is being the quintessential New Racist: he and I are sophisticated human beings who are accountable for our actions, but Christopher Pauchay is excused. To Ignatieff, Pauchay is not fully human, but something closer to a lame animal whom one cannot reasonably hold responsible for his moral choices. If I had to be on the receiving end of whitey’s condescension, I think I’d rather be a “noble savage” than an incorrigible one."
H/T Dr. Roy

Friday, May 08, 2009

Then There's the Other President

A Pope and a President

Two stories in the news have caught my attention.

First, the Pope's visit to Jordon can only be seen as a welcomed gesture. King Abdullah is among the more moderate and respectable leaders in the Middle East. Pope Benedict no doubt chose his destination deliberately.

The second is this item from Pakistan. Let's hope the new president has the balls and the capacity to carry through with his threat, and if needed, will accept assistance from Western democracies. Note there are already folks whining about civilians being killed by Pakistani bombs. That's what you get when you are dealing with Islamofacism, folks. Time to put those lofty post-WWII principles on the back burner. Groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda couldn't be more pleased to see civilians killed if it makes for usable propaganda with leftards in the West.

Rainbow Coalition Against Islamofascism

Remember this?

It didn't get much coverage by the MSM. Nor did this: A rally on May 3rd in New York City.
"The Rainbow coalition protested the violation of human rights by political Islam and shariah law. Though drenched in the rain, 300-500 decent and good people made their way to Times Square in NYC and stood up to the Islamic violence and oppression of free men across the world. Spectacularly diverse but unified in our purpose - life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and an absolute end to jihad."
Pics and vids at the link.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Ezra Levant

Not only does he have a good cause, but he's a very entertaining speaker:





Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Swine Flu

...affects the brains of bigoted
"But then an Egyptian health official admitted "the authorities took advantage of the situation to resolve the question of disorderly pig rearing." More likely, as the country's Coptic minority was quick to suspect, was that health and sanitation were merely pretexts to extend anti-Christian bigotry into matters of livelihood and diet."
and opportunistic
..."What Russia's chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko refers to as "the danger of swine flu proliferation to Russia" is in fact a good formal pretext for the hysteria stepped up around a relatively ordinary condition. This flu is neither new nor "swine." It is another horror story that sells well in breaking news, just like bird flu or red mercury, and can yield profits at a time when regular businesses are seeing losses due to the tight economic situation.

Every day adds entries to the Russian government's list of countries and U.S. states and Canadian provinces whose pork is banned from Russia. Every day Russian pharmaceutical companies sent out news releases full of commercial offers aimed at fighting the "terrible disease" that has so far killed 30 people and contaminated slightly over 1,000 around the globe.

Panic in a globalized world has long become an effective financial and political tool
."
dictatorships ...

...and of journalists. How many cases do we have now in Canada? Fifty, perhaps? All of the mild form. But 50 cases out of 33,000,000 people is enough to cause a media frenzy and a whole lot of really, really stupid statements issuing from a whole lot of really, really stupid people.

Funny how many of the comments at CBC's website address CBC's willingness to contribute to this hype. Our state funded broadcaster doesn't get enough money from the taxpayer, so they have to engage in the hysteria to increase the audience from among the very people who pay their wages. We deserve better than that.

Margaret Wente

...speaks truth to power.

Keswickians and the Karate Kid


A 15 year old with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do uses his skills in an act of self-defense and gets kicked out of school for his trouble and is charged with assault.
"Not surprisingly, the Karate Kid's parents have been wondering what kind of nutty country they've landed in. The entire system has piled on their son, and even though 400 students turned out to denounce the school and the police for punishing the wrong guy, from their point of view, Canada hasn't exactly given them the warmest welcome."
Sheesh!!

But there's more. Barbara Hall, head of the Ontario Human Rights Gestapo, has poked her nose in. We can drum up some business here, Barbara, can't we.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Free Speech on University Campuses

and other oxymorons.

A Huge Serving of Academia Nuts
"Physical assaults against conservative spokespeople have become common practice, whereas, he [David Horowitz] continues, 'I don’t know of a single leftist speaker among the thousands who visit campuses every term who has been obstructed or attacked by conservative students, who are too decent and tolerant to do that.'"
[---]
"Horowitz estimates that 10% of the American professoriate, or 60,000 academics across the country, preach ideology rather than teach scholarship. Horowitz may have underestimated. In its 2009 report on campus speech codes, “The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses,” the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education recorded that 77% of public universities and 67% of private universities were in violation of the First Amendment of the American Constitution, restricting the constitutional right to freedom of expression."
[---]
"Former Muslim and founder of the Arabs for Israel website Nonie Darwish would surely agree: sorting through the hate mail she receives, she finds that “the worst comes from university professors.” No longer disseminators of truth and centers of impartial scholarly research, American universities — and Canadian and European universities as well [emphasis mine]— have become strongholds of a left-wing cultural anthropology."
A review at Amazon.com of a book by the author of this piece has this to say about him:
"In the coming weeks [following 9/11], Solway relentlessly scrutinized the values and beliefs he accepted as gospel. As a member of the approved Left, educated in the roiling universities of the Student Revolution in the utopian Sixties, Solway was duly anti-colonialist, anti-corporatist, anti-Zionist, and postmodern. But his stance, he admits, was founded in "ignorance and laziness" and was no longer tenable. A fresh point of view was necessary."
He sounds a lot like me, except my awakening to the scam taking place on North American Universities took place a long time before that.

Some Good Reads

..on the usual subjects.

Tarek Fatah, via the National Post, on Muslim on Muslim racism. Fatah also takes a well deserved swipe at the recent Durban II conference.

From Gates of Vienna, Immigrants Tell the Truth to Swedes and Manifesto Against Sharia

Monday, May 04, 2009

Jon Stewart Skewered

...as only Pajamas Media can.

Let's kill the MSM as soon as we can. We need a Canadian version of Pajamas TV. Any communications techies out there know how to get started?

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Mucky Shows Up in Turkey

He seems to have slimmed down a little, too.

Terry Glavin on CUPE

If you do nothing else today, listen to the interview of Terry Glavin on Ron Breakenridge.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Steyn's Demographics in Graphic Detail

Terry Glavin's Take

...on the utter failure of CUPE's leader, Syd Ryan. Don't miss it.

If I was ever offered a job in which I had to become a member of CUPE I would turn it down. I would rather starve than have my union dues go to an organization that will use my money to champion causes that are so abhorrently unjust.

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Cool Dude

I like this guy, Alfonzo Rachel, or Zobama.

Zonation