Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Let's Play...

(update below)

..."What's wrong with that flag?"

This is the Iranian flag. Notice the green strip is on the top.

This is the Iranian flag in the British Embassy in Tehran. Normally, the British flag would be on the flag pole at a British embassy, as is the custom at all embassies throughout the world. But, as you all know, things are different in Iran, and there is currently a gang of thugs holding British diplomats hostage in the British embassy in Iran. But what does it mean that the Iranian flag, now hoisted at the British embassy, is upside down?  The thugs are stupid amateurs, would be my guess.  In any case, I would also say this is an omen of some sort, not a sign of distress, which is usually what an upside down flag is meant to signal.  Perhaps this is the year when the regime will fall.

God save the Queen. Rule Britannia.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn weighs in.

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I Wonder

UPDATE: Somebody from CBC Toronto read this blog entry. Maybe they will warn the Friends. What a racket!
====================================
Is this the survey I was talking about in an earlier blog entry? Morrison does mention Angus Reid, which is the pollster who sent the survey to me via email. I wish there was some way of getting the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to show us the raw data. If they are the agency that commissioned the survey, obviously they wanted to have results that were supportive of CBC and, especially, of better funding of the CBC. Unfortunately, they are an NGO, so may not be accountable the way CBC would be, or the way a government would be. Unless they themselves are funded by government grants.

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Hah!!

Nobody should be surprised about this:

Tories take Attawapiskat finances out of native hands

This is what happens in far too many cases where a *cough* *cough* First Nation takes control of the finances and administration of their own affairs.

Well done, Harper and company. To hell with the bleeding hearts sipping their lattes in downtown Toronto.

Nor should this bit be a surprise (from the article):
"Charlie Angus, the NDP MP whose riding encompasses the community, paid a visit to Attawapiskat on Tuesday. The Conservative solution, Mr. Angus said, “is to blame the community.”

When disasters occur in parts of Canada that are not on aboriginal territory, the government has responded, he said in the Commons. “Why are the people of Attawapiskat treated so differently. Why is it that when it’s a first-nation community in distress, this government’s response is contempt?”"
Snake. The NDP has been in bed with corrupt native leaders for years and years in Saskatchewan, and this is exactly the language they have used. Remember Dwain Lingenfelter's election campaign promise about sharing resource revenue with First Nations? Nobody would see any benefit from such a policy except for a handful of corrupt Chief's and councils who would be able to go to Hawaii more often, or buy a fancy new pick-up truck more frequently, reward his clan, etc., etc., with various monetary perqs.

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hmmmm

I suspect it's even higher than this:
"When the funding is billed only to those 18,329,587 Canadians who actually pay taxes every year, the cost is about $60 per payer."
After all, there are tricks available to married couples whereby the lower income earner can take on some of the taxable income of the higher income earner, and thereby pay taxes on revenue that s/he (it's usually the wife) hasn't actually earned. In other words, she's paying her husband's taxes because her income is so low, and the money to pay those taxes comes from the chief income earner in the family, of which there is only one.

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Good Grief!!

A collection of eye-rolling lunacy and Conservative common sense from today's headlines:

Grim scenario for CBC if ads dropped, study says
"Removing advertising from the CBC would greatly lower the quality of the public broadcaster’s programming and eliminate about 3,600 jobs in independent Canadian television production, according to a new study.

The study, commissioned by the CBC itself, also suggests that removing ads would result in a downward spiral – and increasing questions from Parliament on whether a hobbled broadcaster could fulfill its mandate and provide value for its annual $1.1-billion subsidy."
And besides that, what would the 5% of Canadians who watch the blessed thing do without those bathroom breaks. I mean even CBC lovers have to pee sometimes, and please don't tell me they'd expect the rest of us to pay for their time spent in the loo.

Related: And who would get paid to produce such virulent anti-American bigotry? Heavy sigh.

Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik to escape jail after declared 'insane'
"Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb blast and gun rampage in Norway, is likely to escape jail after a psychiatrc evaluation concluded he had been "psychotic" at the time of the attacks."
So, it's the insanity plea. I wonder how various leftards will feel about that? After all, it's not supposed to be used to let right-wing, anti-Islamist loons off the hook.

Iran protesters storm UK embassy in Tehran

It's deja vu all over again. But I guess there won't be any Canadian Caper this time, since we don't have full diplomatic relations with Iran.

Wheat Board vote means the end of the iron fist

Well, one fist anyway. We've still got the Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act to go. Once we get rid of that bit of nasty, the rest of the Liberal Party legacy dismantling process can take whatever amount of time might be necessary. With free markets and free speech restored, I'm looking forward to a brand new era for Canada. BTW, the article at the link is full of real stories lived by real Canadian prairie grain farmers illustrating the lunacy of the Wheat Board.
"The board still has its passionate defenders, to be sure. But the defenders seem stuck in an ideological time warp. Consider the reaction of board chairman Allen Oberg. “We cannot sit idly by while this government sacrifices farmers’ interests to those of giant American grain corporations.”

Really? That’s your best shot, anti-American, anti-corporate, Depression-era fear-mongering? It’s so outmoded, it’s almost precious, like some museum relic crafted in a superstitious time to ward off evil spirits.

It’s also straight out of Socialism 101: The freedom of the individual must be curtailed for the good of the collective. Farmers in a free country must be compelled to sell their wheat and barley through the CWB for the good of all farmers. Grain on the prairies must be pooled with the CWB so that less-efficient growers and farmers who can’t be bothered learning how to master free-market grain sales nonetheless receive the same price as their more-efficient neighbours.

But as that outdated approach to grain sales dies a much deserved death, it’s important to reflect on just how abusive the board has been in defending its monopoly over the years."
Keep reading.

And speaking of Socialism 101, let's end with this:

Canada won't obstruct others from re-committing to Kyoto at climate talks: Kent
"Environment Minister Peter Kent said Tuesday that Canada won't stand in the way of other countries that want to continue with the Kyoto Protocol."
[---]
"Kent said Canada won't make a second commitment to Kyoto because the accord doesn't include some of the world's biggest emitters, like the United States, India and China.

He reiterated the Conservative government's postion (sic) that Kyoto is the "greatest blunder that the previous Liberal government made.""

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Monday, November 28, 2011

Irony

Few troubles reported, but dividing lines apparent as Egyptians vote

Speaking of dividing lines, read the line beneath the photo:
"A man marks his ballot paper before casting her vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Cairo November 28, 2011"

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And No...

I've Found My New Year's Resolution

I'm going to start praying. I'll begin with this one:

"Dear God,

My prayer for 2012 is for
A fat bank account & a thin body.

Please don't mix these up like you did last year.

AMEN!"
Hey, it's not my fault. It's not even my sisters this time. My cousin sent this to me.

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Go Canada!!

As the next climate scam conference approaches, we have this from our environment minister:

Kent says developing countries need climate deal
"Environment Minister Peter Kent says emerging economies must sign on to a global deal to cut emissions, and says Canada will play hardball with developing countries to get an agreement during climate talks that get underway in South Africa on Monday.

Kent told The Canadian Press ahead of the conference that developing countries in particular should not be allowed to use the emissions records of wealthy nations as an excuse not to agree to lofty emissions-reduction targets.

He also said that all nations must be prepared to demonstrate their progress on whatever emissions targets are contained in any new deal.

According to Kent, Canada will not sign on to any deal that builds on the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire next year, because it excludes major emitters among developing nations, including China, India and Brazil.

"There is a recognition that Kyoto isn't fair, and it's certainly not effective," he said.

Domestically, Kent says, "from Canada's point of view, Kyoto was the biggest mistake the previous Liberal government made," because a plan wasn't devised for Canada to live up to its commitments.

Delegates from 190 countries will attend the climate talks in Durban, South Africa, which are expected to carry on for two weeks."
It's about time somebody called their bluff. Now, if we could just get our politicians to call the environmental lobby's bluff.

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Good News!!

"Middle age does not really exist elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Indeed, it wouldn't make any sense anywhere else in the animal kingdom. We humans usually stop making babies in our early 40s. Any other self-respecting species would take the Darwinian hint and die once that happened.

Yet we humans are exceptional because we don't curl up and die. Far from it. Data from life insurance companies suggests that in the fifth and sixth decades of life you are less likely to die over the coming year than at any other time in your life."
[---]
"...cognitive tests show that apart from brute speed, the brain's abilities are not diminished in middle age. They may be reaching their peak."
[---]
"...the changes of middle age represent a developmental stage of life, as distinct and real as infancy or adolescence. Middle-aged development is programmed into each of us. We each possess the genetic recipe for long, healthy, human middle age. And we owe that genetic inheritance to hundreds of thousands of years of human history, during which - contrary to what you might think - humans frequently lived into their fifth and sixth decades."
And as it turns out, there's not much to the proverbial male mid-life crisis, either. You blokes will have to come up with another excuse.

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Optimism and Egypt's Revolution

Watch this panel discussion. At about 2:20 minutes in Thabit Abdullah channels me. This so called Arab Spring won't happen overnight. Look at previous "revolutions", most notably the French Revolution. They got rid of their king and, eventually, after a lot of gruesome bloodletting, got an emperor in his place. But eventually, democracy prevailed. Look at how long the good people of Prague had to wait following their "spring" (the namesake of this one) before communism fell.

Will the revolution eat its own children? Some of them, perhaps, but ideals and ideas will live on.

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Again, From Facebook...

...where my sister calls it hilariously stupid. I think she's right:



Don't you like Canada's bit, eh?

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I Hope He's Right....

...'cause that's how I feel, and I love being right.

Brad Wall brings ‘Harpertism’ to the provinces
"Is Saskatchewan the new Alberta? Premier Brad Wall’s massive recent re-election victory seems to indicate that conservatism — in particular, populist conservatism — has found a new home in what used to be left-leaning Tommy Douglas country."
[---]
"They earned an astonishing 64 per cent of the popular vote (no Saskatchewan-based party has ever earned a higher percentage), made significant inroads in Regina and Saskatoon (traditional NDP strongholds), and unseated NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter, who then resigned. That’s a rather remarkable achievement, considering Saskatchewan’s long infatuation with socialism, co-operative programs and universal health care."
[---]
"Wall’s measured support for fiscal conservatism and the private sector has real populist appeal in Saskatchewan. At the same time, the urban and rural sectors have both been pleased with their government’s balanced handling of the economy, and the province’s continuing success with potash, uranium, and oil and natural gas."
[---]
"In time, Saskatchewan’s long love affair with left-wing politics may just shut down completely."
[---]
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been doing the same thing. He strategically became the figurehead for Canadian conservatism, adjusted it, modified it, and re-branded it as a moderate — and heavily watered down — version of fiscal conservatism. My belief is this new political phenomenon, “Harpertism,” (which I plan to discuss in greater detail down the road) has changed the way many of us perceive conservatism as an ideological viewpoint. The PM’s informal 10-year plan to establish a conservative Canada is therefore well underway.

Wall’s populist conservatism is limited to one province. But the similarities in building a conservative Saskatchewan to the way conservatism was built in Alberta — and in Canada — are rather striking. Change is in the air, and the political wheat smells sweeter than it has ever been before."
You see, this province, and this country, have been soaking for so long we've turned into socialist pickles. It won't be easy to say for sure that we've rinsed the vinegar and salt right out. But sweet IS better. So much better.

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Politically Incorrect Science

CBC Faces More Music

Friday, November 25, 2011

The Great Climbdown...

A Medical Breakthrough

Cardiologist proves shovelling can kill
"And it took a newcomer from Argentina to figure this out.

Dr. Adrian Baranchuk had heard that shovelling causes heart attacks, and when eight such patients turned up on his ward one day he tried to look up the scientific evidence to get the details. Only there wasn't any."

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This Is Also Cute....And Hilarious....And Embarrassing

I have a book, published by Reader's Digest, entitled Where were you when? It begins in 1939 and ends in 2005 and describes with pictures, timelines and short descriptive articles important and memorable events or themes from each year or from the era in general. Here's part of the entry from 1967, the year I graduated from high school.
"THE SUMMER OF LOVE

In 1967, the year after Time's "swinging" coinage [Ed: referring to the pop culture movement in London, England and the "British Invasion"] popular youth culture became steeped in the Haight-Ashbury hippie outook during what was dubbed "The Summer of Love." The year began with a "Be-In" (Ed: ROTFLMAO!!) in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, in January, billed as the "Gathering of the Tribes," and continued in June with the first major open-air pop festival, at Monterey, California. Some observers described the gatherings as a diluted, commercialized form of hippiedom for America's middle classes, but they set the tone for the Summer of Love, and in August were copied in Britain, with the "Love-In" in Hyde Park, London,and the three-day "Festival of the Flower Children" [Ed: BWHAHAHAHAHA!) on Lord Bedford's estate at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.

The summer's anthems were provided by Scot MCKenzie, with "If You're Going to San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"; Procol Harum, with "Whiter Shade of Pale"; and, of course, the Beatles, with the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the singles "All You Need Is Love" and "Strawberry Fields" - and the hippie theme was then continued into the autumn with the premier in October of the musical Hair off Broadway.

October also saw the year's largest antiwar demonstration: a march on the Pentagon at which organizers and political activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman had promised they would levitate the Pentagon building 300 ft./90 m into the air. The march provided some of the 1960s' most iconic images - of young girls placing flowers in the barrels of soldiers'guns - but did not succeed in lifting the Pentagon or in stopping the war in Vietnam. Flower power, it seemed, had its limits."
I want to apologize to all you Occupy Wall Street nutters. There were nuttier people way back then, being just as stupid - or perhaps stupider - they were dieing of drug overdoses then, too. "Go ask Alice, I think she'll know."

Just remember though. There's a five-sided building in Arlington, Virginia that awaits its levitation. Perhaps you can accomplish something. Lord knows. We didn't. At least we didn't until we "sold out", got dressed in normal clothes, abandoned the communes,  got involved in mainstream culture, got real jobs and gave up childish things. Oh, and some of us "found God".

But the music was great! And if you're wondering "Where have all the flowers gone", now you know.

I was going to include The Bed In, but that didn't happen until 1969. It's all such a big blur.
========================

PS: I was just looking through sitemeter and discovered that someone from the Pentagon had visited my blog earlier this morning. I kid  you not.  They came from SDA where I'd been commenting on this SDA entry.

That's not the first time the Pentagon has visited either. Next time comment, will ya!

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Because It's Cute

Must Be Another Climate Conference Looming

Amazing what sort of scientists our universities produce. Their faculties must be shared with journalism schools.  They certainly seem to be working in conjunction with one another:

Arctic sea ice in longest decline seen over past 1,450 years: study
"Research published in a top scientific journal says Arctic sea ice has declined more in the last half-century than it has any time over the last 1,450 years.

The study, which gives the most detailed picture ever of the northern oceans over the previous millennium-and-a-half, also concludes the current decline has already lasted longer than any previous one in that period.

“When we look at our reconstruction, we can see that the decline that has occurred in the last 50 years or so seems to be unprecedented for the last 1,450 years,” Christian Zdanowicz of the Geological Survey of Canada said Wednesday."
[---]
"“It's difficult not to come up with the conclusion that greenhouse gases must have something to do with this,” added Mr. Zdanowicz, one of the co-authors of the report in Nature. [ED: Here we go again with the so-called scientists pushing correlation as proof of cause and affect.]

“We cannot account for this decline by processes that are ‘natural.’”
"Climate change is thought to be occurring faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth and sea ice is considered one of the main indicators. The ice is crucial in northern ecosystems because it provides habitat for everything from plankton to polar bears.

Its gradual disappearance is also opening previously inaccessible areas to the possibility of resource development, as well as to commercial shipping.

Mr. Zdanowicz and his team combined 69 different data sources to determine the extent of sea ice for every decade going back about 1,000 years and every 25 years beyond that.

The team examined tree rings, ice cores from glaciers and lake and ocean sediments. To check the validity of their approach, scientists compared their calculations for the last couple of centuries with real-world observations from satellites, ship logs and other historical accounts.

They found that by the mid-1990s sea ice had fallen even further than in previous lows such as the so-called Medieval Warm Period between 800 and 1300.

Team members were also able to conclude that sea ice is influenced by more than just temperature. They discovered that ice actually shrank during what's known as the Little Ice Age, a period between 1450 and 1850, due to relatively warm ocean waters moving north.

That's what's happening now, said Mr. Zdanowicz.

“In the last 50 years what has really dominated the changes that we see in the Arctic Ocean is the rise in air temperatures and the rise in temperatures of the waters below.”

His study didn't look specifically at the impact of feedback loops in which open water absorbs more of the sun's heat than reflective ice. But Mr. Zdanowicz said indications are that that is starting to take effect.

“If you take this reconstruction and you put it in parallel with a number of studies that have emerged, the indications are pretty strong that the warming of the Arctic is accelerating.”

He acknowledged that although he has been able to get more detail on ice fluctuations than ever before, the time span considered in the paper isn't very long by geologic standards. [ED: Duh!!]

However, he points out he was involved with a previous paper that went back 10,000 years. [ED: And that is long by 'geologic standards????] That paper found sea ice was lower between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago — and also explained why.

“At the time, due to changes in the Earth's orbit, the northern hemisphere was receiving more solar energy than it does now,” Zdanowicz said.

“That process cannot account for what we are observing now. In fact, we should be heading into a gradual cooling trend right now if our climate was strictly controlled by orbital factors.”" [ED: Who said it is "strictly controlled by orbital factors?"]
So, 1450 years (a millennium and a half, almost) or even 10,000 years is supposed to tell us something incontrovertible about human impact on arctic sea ice. Folks. The Earth is over 4 billion years old. Throughout that time there have been many periods with no polar ice caps at all. And don't forget, only 20,000 years ago most of North America was covered with ice. Those miles-thick sheets of ice have been slowly melting and receding since then, without any help from human beings. [I wonder if he considered the impact of all those underwater super volcanoes and continental drift, two factors that aren't either "orbital factors" or the sun.]

The journalists do their bit to ramp up the scare, and make excuses.

On the other hand, who are ya gonna believe:

Large variations in Arctic sea ice
"For the last 10,000 years, summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been far from constant. For several thousand years, there was much less sea ice in the Arctic Ocean – probably less than half of current amounts. This is indicated by new findings by The Centre for Geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen. The results of the study will be published in the journal Science.

Sea ice comes and goes without leaving a record. For this reason, our knowledge about its variations and extent was limited before we had satellite surveillance or observations from airplanes and ships. But now researchers at The Centre for Geogenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, have developed a method by which it is possible to measure the variations in the ice several millennia back in time.

The results are based on material gathered along the coast of northern Greenland, which scientists expect will be the final place summer ice will survive, if global temperatures continue to rise.

This means that the results from northern Greenland also indicate what the conditions are like in the ocean.

Less ice than today

Team leader Svend Funder, and two other team members and co-authors of the Science article, Eske Willerslev and Kurt Kjær, are all associated with the Danish Research Foundation at the University of Copenhagen.

Regarding the research results, Funder says:

“Our studies show that there have been large fluctuations in the amount of summer sea ice during the last 10,000 years. During the so-called Holocene Climate Optimum, from approximately 8000 to 5000 years ago, when the temperatures were somewhat warmer than today, there was significantly less sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, probably less than 50% of the summer 2007 coverage, which is absolutely lowest on record. Our studies also show that when the ice disappears in one area, it may accumulate in another. We have discovered this by comparing our results with observations from northern Canada. While the amount of sea ice decreased in northern Greenland, it increased in Canada. This is probably due to changes in the prevailing wind systems. This factor has not been sufficiently taken into account when forecasting the imminent disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.”"
[---]
"“Our studies show that there are great natural variations in the amount of Arctic sea ice. The bad news is that there is a clear connection between temperature and the amount of sea ice. And there is no doubt that continued global warming will lead to a reduction in the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The good news is that even with a reduction to less than 50% of the current amount of sea ice the ice will not reach a point of no return: a level where the ice no longer can regenerate itself even if the climate was to return to cooler temperatures. Finally, our studies show that the changes to a large degree are caused by the effect that temperature has on the prevailing wind systems. This has not been sufficiently taken into account when forecasting the imminent disappearance of the ice, as often portrayed in the media,” Funder says."
[---]
"In addition to giving us a better understanding of what the climate in northern Greenland was like thousands of years ago, it could also reveal how polar bears fared in warmer climate. The team plans to use DNA in fossil polar bear bones to study polar bear population levels during the Holocene Climate Optimum."
Settled science, my ass.

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hmmmmm!

CBC must hand over files to information watchdog

The CBC does report on itself after all. But then again, their omission of a story this large would be an even bigger story. They must recognize the bind they are in and are running scared.

NDP accuses Tony Clement of doctoring Hansard

How many Canadians even know what Hansard is? And how could a MP possibly "doctor" it, short of making threats to the folks who write the stuff up. Nice try, Dippers, but you'll have to do better next time.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

BBC Indoctrinates The Kiddies

UPDATE: Guess I spoke too soon. All hell has broken out again. Cjunk and SDA have it covered. Wait for it. The warmists will be in full tilt denial.
=====================
Levels of greenhouse gases higher than ever, says UN
"The United Nations weather agency says more and more of the harmful gases are appearing in the Earth's atmosphere.

The three most common greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Scientists think these gases trap heat in the atmosphere, acting like a blanket and causing the planet to become warmer: the 'greenhouse effect'."
Meanwhile, up in Fort Mac:

Oilsands output apt to triple by 2035, NEB reports
"Oilsands production in Canada will likely triple by 2035, making it the overwhelming source of Canadian crude oil and opening doors to additional energy exports, says a new report from the National Energy Board.

The NEB says the massive growth in oilsands development, coupled with a moderate increase in Canadian energy demand, means the amount of net crude oil available for export will more than triple over the next 25 years — good news for a federal government eyeing new energy export markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Indeed, unconventional energy production — including development of the Alberta oilsands and shale gas — will emerge as the "dominant source of supply growth" over the next quarter-century, according to the NEB, Canada's energy regulator."
All you who voted Democrat and close facsimiles in other countries, can opt out and freeze in the dark, if that's what you want. The kiddies who are being indoctrinated today, will be finished with their teenage rebellion and will have rejected all your attempts to make them believe in fairy tales.

PS: I wonder if we'll ever find out who leaked the stuff? This is sorta like Deep Throat of Watergate fame.

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Holy Camel!

The Egyptian Sandmonkey, whose blog used to be called Rantings of a Sandmonkey (in my blogroll), is running for office in Egypt's elections - that is if the revolution succeeds. This is what you get when you click on his blog. (Sorry, it's all in Arabic.)

Who can forget his Seven Rules of the Arab Parallel Universe?

Godspeed, Sandmonkey. The immediate future doesn't look good, but with people like you coming up, the long term looks a whole lot better - as long as they don't kill you or beat you to a pulp as has been the tradition for far too many years.

PS: He has a pretty good program, too. Things we in the West take for granted.

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Charter Rights And Occupiers: A Judgment From The Bench

The limits to occupation
"On Monday, Justice David Brown of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued a lengthy decision weighing the various rights and interests in play. Ultimately, Justice Brown found that the City of Toronto was entitled to enforce its trespass bylaw and to require the occupiers to vacate St. James Park between midnight and 5 a.m., and to remove the structures they have built there.

His decision likely will figure heavily in other cities confronting this issue."
[---]
"Justice Brown acknowledged that the protesters in Toronto’s St. James Park are engaging in activity protected by the Charter of Rights. Contrary to those who make much of the fact that the Charter nowhere mentions the right to “occupy public parks,” Justice Brown correctly noted that our civil liberties are not defined by specific activities, but the meaning that they hold. Thus, it is not the right to “occupy” that is at issue, but whether by such occupation the protesters are expressing political opinions (freedom of expression), living out sincerely held convictions (freedom of conscience) and attempting to form a common front to influence public discourse (freedom of assembly and association). The Charter guarantees everyone the ability to fashion their expressive and associational activities as they wish. If the protesters believe that their message relies on a particular physical structure (say, a “tent city”) then that structure becomes part and parcel of the Charter-protected activity. If the protesters believe that their message relies on prolonged occupation, then their desire to remain in the park indefinitely (or, at least, longer than the City might wish) is similarly protected.

But that, of course, is not the end of the story. The Charter’s rights and freedoms are protected only to the extent of such “reasonable limits” as are imposed by law. No right or freedom is absolute — that is the price of a civilized society."
[---]
"Justice Brown seemed particularly persuaded by the non-protesters who explained the impact on them of having St. James Park rendered virtually off-limits (although it should be noted that these were anecdotal reports and the protesters disputed that characterization). Strikingly, he spoke of the need to keep urban parks as “oases of tranquility” rather than “battlegrounds of competing interests.”"
[---]
"...the protesters have a difficult argument in the idea that the Charter guarantees them an exclusive right to control the extent and degree of their occupation of a public space designed to be open to and used by all. The decision confirms their right to occupy, but imposes limits on it."
And soooo, sanity prevails:

Canadian Occupy protests on the ropes
"Authorities in Quebec City and Calgary have removed Occupy protesters' tents — all of the tents in Quebec City and the ones that sat empty in Calgary Monday night — but despite the City of Toronto's victory in court Monday, authorities there have yet to make their move.

At 11:30 p.m. Monday, a half hour after Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary had legally closed for the night, bylaw officers began dismantling any tent that didn't have a person inside.

Tickets were issued to the dozen or so people still living in the park space."
[---]
"While police were there to back up bylaw, Bruce said there would be no arrests for those opting to continue to stay at the park.

"We're going to ask them to remove them. If they don't, we'll charge them," he said. "This is exactly what we said we'd be doing.

Loaded to near-capacity was a large Budget moving truck, filled with the unoccupied tents and any materials found inside them.

When the truck left, there was just eight "lived in" tents, a warming tent and an information tent left behind."
[---]
"In Quebec City, officials tore down the remaining tents at the downtown Occupy encampment. The park was cleared by 7:30 a.m. and police say no arrests were made.

City spokesman Jacques Perron said the camp was dismantled in the early morning because many of the protesters were absent.

“It avoided confrontation and it allowed us to clear the entire area,” he said.

Meanwhile in Montreal, Mayor Gerald Tremblay on Monday asked occupiers to leave.

He had originally told protesters they could stay as long as they complied with fire department rules.

However, Tremblay said safety could no longer be guaranteed on the site after a local paper reported on a series of violent altercations at the encampment over the weekend."
[---]
"In Toronto, a judge on Monday upheld the city's eviction order for the protesters camped out at St. James Park.

Some occupiers masked their faces with bandanas, barricaded their ragged, nylon tents with wooden skids, chained themselves to yurts, and bellowed anti-establishment rhetoric as the sun set."
[---]
"Hours after the judge upheld the eviction order, St. James Cathedral, which owns a chunk of the greenspace, ordered them off the church's land. Protesters had considered the property a possible source of sanctuary should police move in.

On Tuesday, the protesters plan to march with labour leaders to Nathan Phillips Square at 4 p.m., where a rally is planned."
Of course, we'd have to have unions involved this way. And hah!! Even the churches are pissed off. Too bad, so sad.

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Monday, November 21, 2011

Things the "99%" Need To Learn

Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders Starts in Phnom Penh
"On Monday the long-awaited trial of three surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge opened in Phnom Penh. This week the tribunal hears opening arguments by the prosecution and by the defense. The three accused are charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
[---]
"The list of alleged crimes is long and includes murder, extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, persecution and willful killing, among others."
Now, if you soft, spoiled, incorrigible little brats occupying various parks here and there were seeking justice for something along those lines, you would have my sympathy. But, sorry, your cause is just as silly as you are. We haven't had this kind of injustice in the West for a very long time, and where it has materialized, most Western nations banded together to eliminate it, removed the regime that was responsible and/or brought the perpetrators to justice. This trial is a case in point. I spit in your general direction.

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School Janitors

Newt Gingrich Says Replace Janitors With Children
"During a speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School on Friday evening, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich attacked child labor laws and proposed that public school janitors should be replaced by children in order to help solve the income gap in America and break unions."
I went to a one-room country school from grade 1 to grade 9. Throughout that time, the "big kids" (those in grades 6 to 9) took turns being janitor. This meant that each of us had one month assigned to us during which we stayed after school and cleaned the place up. We had to move all the desks to one side and then the other and sweep the floor, clean off the chalkboards, and, other than putting the desks back in their proper place, not much else. Since everyone either walked or road a horse, or maybe a horse drawn buggy, to get to school, getting home after janitorial duties had been fulfilled was no problem.

At the end of our assigned month, we had to wash the floor. And that was it. We got paid $20 for the month's work, which would probably work out to about $1.00 a day (a half hour of work every school day), big wages for kids in those days.

No one complained, neither we kids, nor any adult, about child labour or exploitation, and the kids learned some valuable lessons in responsibility and working for money. Somehow, I don't think it would be that simple today.

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BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Reaction To Obama's Decision...

...regarding Keystone XL:

First of all, Obama's old foe, John McCain.

It’s 'legitimate' for Canada to feel snubbed by U.S. moves
"When asked if he agreed that Canadians have been snubbed by their neighbours in an interview on Global TV’s The West Block, McCain said that viewpoint was "legitimate."

"When we do things that seem to take our Canadian friends for granted and take your allegiance and friendship for granted, there’s an understandable reaction in Canada," he said while at the Halifax International Security Forum, where more than 300 politicians, academics and policy-makers from 39 countries met."
[---]
""There’s a strong suspicion on my part and many others that this was a political decision rather than one based on the facts," he said, noting that the refusal to approve the plan appeased environmentalists across the United States."
Hmmmm. Would he say that if he were speaking somewhere else? Heavy sigh. I wish he was the president.

Nebraska's federal politicians, speak:

Politics and tar oil a bad mix, say reps
"Republican Reps. Lou Barletta and Tom Marino charge that President Barack Obama is putting politics ahead of job creation and sound energy policy by delaying a decision on whether to approve the Keystone pipeline."
[---]
"“I am very disappointed by the president’s decision to punt on the Keystone XL pipeline project,” Barletta said. “The extended pipeline and expanded volume of energy that would move through this new system would create jobs and lower the price of energy. President Obama has put political considerations ahead of the needs of the American people and the security of the American economy.”

Barletta and Marino said they worry that if the pipeline isn’t built, the tar sands oil could be sent to China instead.

“This poorly thought decision underscores his failure to lead and makes it clear that the president’s only goal is to be re-elected,” Marino said. “In addition to creating thousands of desperately needed jobs, this pipeline would have helped diversify our nation’s energy sources and would have reduced our dependence on foreign countries, particularly unstable countries in the Middle East.”"

Texans weigh in.

Yes, we can wait, as Obama undercuts jobs rhetoric with pipeline delay
"Only last month, full of populist fervor, President Barack Obama demanded that Congress pass his job-creation bill: “We can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will.”
Obama may have been late to the game but appeared to finally get that nothing was more important to Americans than repairing the economy and bringing down persistently high unemployment. Now, as he launched his re-election campaign, he would “pivot to jobs.”

So how to explain Obama delaying a decision on the Keystone XL, a privately funded 1,660-mile pipeline to move 900,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil to refineries on Texas’ Gulf Coast? Despite clear evidence of increased American energy security and estimates of 20,000 jobs to build it and thousands more to sustain it, Obama wavered.

Caught between two core constituencies — labor unions couldn’t get the work fast enough; environmentalists were aghast — Obama flipped a coin onto its edge. He wouldn’t kill the pipeline, but three years of study and a clean bill of health from his State Department (assisted by his Environmental Protection Agency) weren’t enough?

Even with pipes warehoused in Canada waiting only for U.S. dirt to turn — the very definition of “shovel-ready” — Obama caved to environmental groups that threatened to pull funding and foot soldiers from his 2012 campaign."
And a very interesting take from Nebraska politicians. Best to direct the reader to the whole thing, rather than cut and paste relevant points. It's all interesting:

Speaker: Pipeline deal was 'Hail Mary pass'

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AARRRRRRGGGHHHH!

Stephen Hawking: Colonize space Or else

I think Stephen Hawking has read one too many Sci-Fi novels, or watched too many episodes of Star Trek, and he's not alone. There are lots of people who are anticipating the need to "colonize space" in order to save homo sapiens.

BS, I say. Take the money spent of space exploration and travel and use it to solve the problems here on earth. Makes much better sense to me. We haven't even found a planet out there that would be hospitable, so why take a few lucky ones and pretend you're saving humanity. Either that, or let us go extinct, like so many other creatures have done. Get real.

Now, if you want to permanently rid the planet of a few of the more unsavoury specimens of our species, that method might be worth considering.

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Great Discussion...

...about my favourite subject.

Telling Canada's Story

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Further To...

...this, here's another article about caribou and their habitat:

Scientists find herd of 'lost' caribou in Saskatchewan
"A vast herd of northern caribou that scientists feared had vanished from the face of the Earth has been found, safe and sound -- pretty much where aboriginal elders said it would be all along.

"The Beverly herd has not disappeared," said John Nagy, lead author of a recently published study that has biologists across the North relieved.

Those scientists were shaken by a 2009 survey on the traditional calving grounds of the Beverly herd, which ranges over a huge swath of tundra from northern Saskatchewan to the Arctic coast. A herd that once numbered 276,000 animals seemed to have completely disappeared, the most dramatic and chilling example of a general decline in barren-ground caribou."
[---]
"Nunavut government biologist Mitch Campbell, one of Nagy's co-authors, said early results from a survey of the rediscovered herd suggest Beverly numbers are lower than their peak, but remain healthy.

"There's no indication that the herd is as large as it used to be," he said. "We did find a healthy size caribou population there.

"We saw lots of calves. The animals seem to be in good condition."

While scientists are excited, aboriginal elders are more likely to shrug."
[---]
"Long-term information on caribou was sketchy, but numbers did seem to be declining at the same time as mining exploration and development was expanding. Nobody wanted to be the biologist on whose watch the caribou disappeared, said Campbell.

"We were all freaking out," he said.

"We knew that there was development and things going on in that area. What would be the responsible thing to do -- just keep going until we know, or to say: 'Put the brakes on. We've got a problem?'

"That's what we all did."

Campbell and Thompson agree that the Beverly herd is likely to eventually return and that both calving grounds must be protected.

But for now, it's just good to know the caribou are still around, said Thompson.

"We haven't screwed up and lost a major caribou herd after all.""
But oh no. They sky is falling! The sky is falling!

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Here's Another One

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Is Syria On The Verge Of...

...civil war? I'll bet you baby Assad isn't getting much sleep, nor are the citizens of several other Arab countries, who must be wondering when their turn will come. Their dictators can talk the talk but seem to have a hard time walking the walk.

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Yup. Another Old Man With...

...gray hair. Dig a little deeper and you might be able to find Tommy Douglas. That'll really bring back the glory days. Oh, hell, why not go for J. S. Woodsworth, or something from that era.

Are there any young people in your party capable of performing leadership roles?

Oh. I see. They're all out occupying a park somewhere.

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Thems That Can...

...work for corporations. Thems that can't, go into politics.

"...with Nebraska state politicians now saying they want the State Department to expedite the review process, Obama's hand has been exposed in a way he never imagined.

The mistake was that Obama hooked Keystone XL to the issue of the routing.

If he deferred the decision, he could placate key supporters and voters in both the environmental and union camps until after the 2012 election.

Obama had said in a television interview the risk of water contamination trumped a few thousand jobs.

But with TransCanada coming out with a viable option, backed by Nebraska Democrats and Republicans, the White House has been caught flat-footed."
[---]
"Their (environmental protesters) issue, apparently, was with routing of the pipe through the area occupied by the aquifer. Now that this is off the table, which presumably means the need for protest against Keystone XL has similarly disappeared, one assumes the enviros can go bother someone else - the coal folks, perhaps.

They could start with the emissions generated by coalfired power, which is responsible for 65 per cent of Nebraska's electricity."

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Irony

Keystone XL pipeline protester stands beside a highway and holds up sign saying "No to Keystone XL Pipeline". In the background are at least 14 cars, each, no doubt, with gasoline in the tank.

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Good News No Matter Which Way You Spell It

Qaddafi’s Son Seif al-Islam, Said to Be Captured in Libya

Capture of Moammar Gadhafi’s son Saif 'critical': Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard

Gaddafi son's capture complicates struggle over cabinet

The last of the clan. Now what, I wonder?

Related:

Violence Erupts in Cairo as Egypt’s Military Cedes Political Ground
"Thousands of protesters chanting for an end to military rule battled riot police firing tear gas, rubber bullets and bird shot in Tahrir Square on Saturday as the military-led interim government appeared to soften its demands for special powers and protections in the future Egyptian constitution."
[---]
"The military council, which seized control of the government in the name of the revolution after the ouster of Mr. Mubarak, initially pledged to turn over power to a civilian government before September. More recently it said it intended to retain its control until after the election of a parliament, ratification of a constitution and election of a president, in 2013 or beyond.

In the last two weeks, the military has explicitly sought to impose a “bill of rights” style set of ground rules for the new constitution that would also give the military a permanent right to intervene in politics and protection from civilian oversight."
[---]
"“Down with military rule,” others chanted. “Freedom, freedom.”"

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Friday, November 18, 2011

When There's A Slow News Day...

....you gotta go with whatever you can get and this one will do. The headline is the story:

Canada wins food fight with U.S.

I wonder who had to clean up afterwards. Personally, I'd have sent both to their rooms - without supper.

I'll wait until I see whether the U.S. appeals before I go "Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah!"

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Just Because...

...we don't hear about it from our beloved lamestream media doesn't mean it isn't happening. Rebellion and suppression in Iran is ongoing.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Santa Claus Comes Early?

We've been good.

Hate Speech Law On The Chopping Block

"Canada's human rights commissions could soon be de-fanged.

New legislation would repeal Section 13, the hate speech portion of Human Rights Act.

"Our government believes Section 13 is not an appropriate or effective means for combating hate propaganda. We believe the Criminal Code is the best vehicle to prosecute these crimes," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the House of Commons during question period."
[---]
""No more witch hunts by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, no more persecuting their political enemies", said Levant."

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Famous Quotations

Who said: "I will pull down my breeches and they shall see my arse!"

Why, it t'was the same dude who authorized the version of the Bible that Queen Liz celebrated yesterday.

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Oh, To Be A Fly On The Wall

Something seems to be in the works, but just exactly what is it?

Canada, Israel to bolster military cooperation
"Canada and Israel's defense ministers said Wednesday they hammered out details of "deepening" military cooperation amid growing volatility in the Middle East and North Africa.

Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said he was finalizing with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak "successor memorandums of understanding" that build on an umbrella agreement signed in January.

Details of the pact were unclear. MacKay would only say it would involve sharing information and military technologies."
[---]
"Barak said a defense pact along with details of what it will entail could be announced within days, adding: "We are proud of the deepening defense" cooperation."

As anxiety over Iran grows, Canada forges stronger defence ties with Israel
"Neither Barak nor MacKay would talk specifically about military action against Iran, saying world leaders are in the process of deciding the appropriate response.

But they also identified Iran as the greatest threat to global stability, and continued to hint at the possibility of military action.

"We said all along the way that we recommend to all friends around the world not to remove any option off the table," Barak said. "And I'm glad to notice that many leaders in the world recently just repeating this very phrase.""
Related.

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Inneresting

Bill would ban wearing masks during riots

I wonder if and when a parliamentarian will grapple with Muslima babes and their veils.

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Note To Self...

I must get this book and read it:

Civilization: The West and the Rest

Just the fact that it makes leftards squirm, is enough to ensure sales will be brisk.
"The Harvard historian’s book has become a bitter bone of contention in his native Britain. Critics, quite prepared to single out the West for its particular crimes—racism, colonialism and imperialism—nonetheless object, reasonably enough, to a catchy subtitle that lumps everybody else into “the rest,” making improbable bedfellows out of, say, the Aztec empire and Ming-dynasty China. The larger problem, though, is that neither critics nor supporters seem able to distinguish between a culture’s technical and moral merits—for those on the political left, even Ferguson’s attempt to do so is simply disguised Western triumphalism. Yet the plain facts of Western hegemony are hard to argue." [Emphasis mine.]

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Hmmmm.

I think you'd be hard pressed to blame China for the recent irritant between Canada and the US, but maybe Obama should read this:

China's rise means resource-rich Canada should beware, historian Niall Ferguson says
"China will attempt to drive an economic and political wedge between Canada and the United States as it moves for a greater stake in this country's natural resources, celebrity historian and author Niall Ferguson said Friday.

"It wouldn't be China if it wasn't looking for a chance to detach Canada from its big southern neighbour and to exploit the resentment many Canadians feel about the United States," said Ferguson.

"There will be more friction between China and the U.S. in the next 10 or 15 years and Canada will find itself in the middle if that becomes a rather fraught relationship," he added.

"Imagine if either the United States or China said to Canada, 'You have to choose.'"
Hmmmm. Kinda makes you wonder though. Is China funding environut organizations and occupiers and has Obama fallen for it? He does seem to believe in fairy tales.

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I Know. Why Bother?

But here we go. One more time.

The scientific models behind climate-change 'data' are weak
"I am open (as all scientists should be) to evidence from proper experiments. So far, the evidence is not convincing. As has been reported elsewhere, the IPCC process has been badly distorted and political from its inception. Its reports present much science, but have highly political interpretations, saying what their funders want to see.

I love the scientific method; it is always open to new data. Science is never "settled." Physics Today recently compared climate-change theory to heliocentrism and relativity, two theories widely criticized in their day. But the sun as the centre of the solar system has vast supporting evidence, while climate-change theory is based on unreliable computer models.

Post-hoc models often suggest human impact on climate, because the model-makers seek to find such links. Scientists need to make a living too. They see much governmental funding to explore (and find) climate change. Early researchers saw that finding no carbon dioxide-climate link led to little funding. Funders, as well as researchers, are affected by politics. (I know the system quite well, my research having been supported in Canada for 33 years now; I have been on several Ottawa and Quebec funding panels.) One always has an infinite range of possible experiments to do, but it is human nature to examine those likely to give pleasing results.

My career has focused on the development and use of computer models - not in the area of climate, but IPCC models are very similar to ones I know. One starts a model from basic scientific principles, but then one tweaks the system to "fit the data," as all models are simplifications and researchers rarely understand all phenomena they are examining. Climate models "predict" past data well, in hindsight, by manual adjustment of the models' parameters. The true challenge is to predict future occurrences, and here recent climate models fail badly. Despite carbon-dioxide emissions continuing to rise, temperature has not risen in the last decade or so. Few, if any, models in the 1990s predicted this. Much work remains to be done to achieve good models. We should not rush to spend vast sums of money based on such inadequate models."
[---]
"Science is not settled by majority vote, but by valid experimentation. Most "climate scientists" may well support the alarmists, but just as many meteorologists and geologists do not. Just as it is too important to leave decisions about war to the military, our Earth is too important to be left to those whose careers have been largely funded supporting a popular hypothesis to the exclusion of alternatives.

Climate has always been changing. Why are we now blaming carbon dioxide? The glaciers in the Canadian Rockies have been receding since 1850, the end of the Little Ice Age. There are many factors involved in climate. Carbon dioxide is a minor one."
Tell that to the environuts occupying a park near you, if they haven't already been kicked out.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Question:

Would CBC follow a story like this, if the reporter was one of their own?

Reporter charged with sex crimes in bail trouble

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As They Clean Up The Riff Raff...

 UPDATED AND BUMPED: Occupy Wall Street Blotter
====================
...here's a list of the highlights:

Occupy Wall Street: The rap sheet so far

248 incidents, ranging from public pooping on a cop car to OD-ing, to the point of death, on hard drugs, to shoplifting and fights - you name it. What a fine bunch!

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Another "Makes Me Feel Old" Moment

US space pioneers to get congressional medals
"The US Congress on Wednesday will award the nation's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to four American astronauts including the first man to walk on the Moon, 81-year-old Neil Armstrong.

Other recipients are Buzz Aldrin, 81, who was second man to walk on the Moon, and Michael Collins, also 81, who was the command module pilot for Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon in 1969.

The fourth winner is former senator John Glenn, 90, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.

They were given the nod by Congress in 2009 to receive the award, making them the first astronauts ever named to the honor, on what was then the 40th anniversary of the pioneering US mission to the Moon."
I remember. I remember. T'was amazing. It's one of the reasons it's so easy to admire America. Their inventiveness and accomplishments are literally out of this world.

I'm still waiting for the Americans to invent a fountain of youth pill, though. I'd like to live forever.

Or maybe not.

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Wow!

Anka Warsaw concert cancelled by JFK assassination

"Paul Anka is back in Warsaw to perform a concert he had to cancel 48 years ago following the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy."
Given that this was the height of the Cold War, I'm surprised he was even touring Poland. Looks like he was the among the first:
"Anka was among the first North American singers to have been allowed to tour behind the Iron Curtain at a time when Communist Poland was slowly opening up to Western popular culture."
I'm also surprised he's still going. Like Elvis, he picked the wrong time to become famous and his career just started to soar when the Beatles and Beatlemania knocked everyone else, including Anka, off the charts and the stages.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Another One: Niall Ferguson on the West

The 6 killer aps of prosperty




Yes! Yes! Yes! Enough of multi-culti and cultural relativism.

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Tres Cool

Haven't embedded a TED video for a long, long time. This one is as spectacular and it is mysterious:



Check out the discussion below this video at the TED site (link way down on the side of my blog). A little puke inducing, if you ask me. As for me, I see the hand of a creator at work. Science and nature is like that. The more we know, the more questions we ask that are yet to be unraveled. I suspect it will always be thus. We'll never know everything there is to know. We can only marvel at the hand of God.

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How To Spot A Leftard

Look for what they leave out, what they don't tell you.
"Nevertheless, Sarah Burt, an attorney for Earthjustice, [Ed: Earthjustice???] drew attention to the fact that this area is a nesting site for migratory birds and a home to woodland caribou."
Uhhh, ya. Take a look at the range of the woodland cariboo habitat (scroll down for map).

Same goes for migratory birds.

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Occupy Wallstreet...

...meets Photoshop.

(But being retards, they figured no one would recognize it.)

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This Should Be...

...happening, right about now.

Sure hope we get some coverage of it in the news, but I'm not holding my breath.

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He, He, He, He, He, He

Love, lies and the science of online dating
"Of the romantic partnerships formed in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009, 21 per cent of heterosexual couples and 61 per cent of samesex couples met online, according to a study by Michael J. Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford."
And then they met face to face.
"There are millions of North Americans seeking love on the Internet. Little do they know that teams of scientists are eagerly watching them trying to find it.

Like contemporary Margaret Meads, these scholars have gathered data from dating sites like Match.com, OkCupid and Yahoo! Personals to study attraction, trust, deception -- even the role of race and politics in prospective romance.

They have observed, for instance, that many daters would rather admit to being fat than liberal or conservative, that white people are reluctant to date outside their race and that there are ways to detect liars. Such findings spring from attempts to answer a broader question that has bedevilled humanity since Adam and Eve: How and why do people fall in love?"
Personally, I've always thought those online "dating and matchmaking" websites are rich targets for perverts wishing to find vulnerable people to victimize.

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Headlines That Make You Scratch Your Head

Prostate Cancer may be linked to birth control pills: Study

I know they've been looking for a pill for men to take, but I guess it's back to the lab.

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Gotta Love My Grand Daughter

Her mother relates to me on Facebook an interaction with said little girl (3 years, 9 months old):


Jasmine (mommy): "is so madly in love with her baby girl. the things that comes out of her mouth!"

Me:  Like what?

Jasmine (mommy):"Oh like saying " you can say that again" in perfect context. I never say that. And she was being real squirmy on the couch one night, so I asked her "what do you need, sydney?", and she came over to me and said "love" then cuddled up to me and fell asleep. Or we were leaving the mall the other evening and it was already dark, so she says "it's already dark. That sucks!""

Me: "Wait tell she start rattling off a string of cuss words that you never say in front of her!"

Jasmine (mommy): " Oh she's already mentioned the "s" word a couple of times. We had the "grown ups say bad words sometimes" talk. Now she's saying all sorts of words asking if they're bad words. She's something'."

LOL!!! Nothing like planning ahead! Smart girl.

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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Make The Rich Pay

As If We Didn't Know This

Cause of death announced in Occupy Vancouver fatality
"The BC Coroners Service confirmed on Sunday that the recent death of a woman at the Occupy Vancouver protest camp was caused by a drug overdose.

Owen Court, Vancouver-Metro’s regional coroner, said toxicology tests show 23-year-old Ashlie Gough of Victoria died Nov. 5 of a mixed drug overdose of cocaine and heroin."
[---]
"“Indications are she had been deceased for quite some time,” Mr. Court said in an interview.

The investigation shows Ms. Gough was last seen alive when she went into her tent around 4 a.m., before being found by a friend more than 12 hours later."
Caring bunch of people, those occupiers. Of course, this is somebody else's fault, somebody on Wall Street, of course.

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My Dad...

...claimed to have seen something like this once, but he kept it to himself, for fear of being ridiculed.

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Hey, Don't Blame Us!

1) Older people emit less carbon dioxide than younger people; 2) Aging affects climate change.
[---]
"As someone who has been aging most of his life, I feel ideally suited to comment on this topic. And it strikes me that if Zagheni's research is correct, then old farts can finally start to make amends for all the environmental damage we inflicted on the planet during our younger years when we regularly raced gas-guzzling muscle cars around and around the block, just because we could.

In fact, I'm going to do my part to save the whales (as well as the polar bears and the muscle cars) and reduce harmful greenhouse gases by making a few simple changes to my lifestyle.

From now on, I'm going to a) sleep more b) bathe less, and c) only wear old shirts."

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Good One!

Occupy death count

Maybe we need to get Gilbert Burnham to publish a false report in Lancet about the Tea Party death count.

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Interesting Piece...

...about the ongoing violence in Iraq.

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Ever Wonder Why...

...oil quantity is measured in "barrels". Wonder no more. Here's an excellent overview of how oil is transported each part of the way from taking it out of the ground to delivering it to your car, home, factory and other places such as jets, etc..

Oh, and the barrel thing? Right here.

Personal memory time: When I as a kid, a cross Canada pipeline was built (think Diefenbaker era) to transport natural gas. The pipeline went through my Dad's farm not far from our house. After it was finished and it was up and operational, every once in a while, technicians would open up a valve close by to let some pressure off. What a noise!! But other than that, if you hadn't been there when the pipeline was laid, you'd never know.

PS: It crossed a river, too. Underneath.

Video here.

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More On The Keystone XL Pipeline

Keystone XL pipeline future dependent on shippers

"Contract clause allows pipeline backers to jump ship if project delayed"
[---]
"Further delays to TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline could sound a death knell for the massive Alberta-to-Texas bitumen line if shippers pull out, according to industry observers.

The $7-billion project was dealt a blow Thursday after the U.S. State Department put off a decision on the transborder line until early 2013 to review alternative routes, citing public concerns about XL traversing a sensitive water resource.

At a minimum the U.S. ruling presents a delay, at worse it could see key financial support being withdrawn from the $7-billion pipeline, said analysts."
Reaction here.

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How Ironic!

It's global warming that did them in.  Not to mention a whole suite of stupid behaviour.

Protesters Coming Down With the "Zuccotti Lung"
"With wintry weather poised to swoop into the cramped outdoor quarters of Occupy Wall Street protesters, it may not be long before more campers catch what's being called "Zuccotti lung."

That's what demonstrators have dubbed the sickness that seems to be spreading among them at an unpleasantly high rate these days: "It's a real thing," Willie Carey, 28, told the New York Times.

With little sleep in cold conditions, cigarettes and drinks being passed from mouth to mouth, and few opportunities to wash hands, Zuccotti Park may now just be the best place to catch respiratory viruses, norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting virus) and tuberculosis, according to one doctor.

The damp clothing and cardboard signs wet with rain are also breeding grounds for mold. Some protesters are urinating in bottles and leaving food trash discarded throughout the campground, providing further opportunities for nastiness.

“Pretty much everything here is a good way to get sick,” Salvatore Cipolla, 23, from Long Island, told the Times. “It’ll definitely thin the herd.”

Some protesters have refused free flu shots, citing a "government conspiracy," the Times said."
LOL!

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I Guess There Aren't Enough...

...psychiatrists in the world to look after these people.

Good news! Killer solar flare won't destroy Earth!
"The Mayans' "long-count" calendar is set to expire on Dec. 21, 2012, marking the end of a 5,126-year epoch. This factoid has inspired some folks to start girding up for the coming apocalypse — and to start predicting what may bring it about.

One popular theory is that a huge solar flare could do the Earth in. Some fearmongers have pointed out that the sun's activity is ramping up, implying that a killer outburst could be coming next year.

The sun is indeed building up toward the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. But that peak is expected to come in 2013 or 2014, not 2012, researchers said. Also, countless solar maxima have come and gone over the years, and we — and the Earth — are still here.

But that reasoning is all secondary to the main point, which is that a flare's sizzling heat cannot make it all the way to our planet, researchers said."
There's something rather pathetic about all this doom and gloom that comes from some people.

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Obama's Ridiculous Gamble

Ex-ambassador calls U.S. pipeline delay 'catastrophic'
"The U.S. decision to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is a "catastrophic" cop-out by the Obama administration, former U.S. ambassador to Canada David Wilkins said Friday."
[---]
"“This route has been studied and studied and studied," he said. "It’s the longest permitting process in the history of the world, I think. It sends a bad message that we’re not open for business.”

Wilkins was ambassador to Canada during the Republican administration of former president George W. Bush.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday that the delay may kill project and could add momentum to efforts to open up the Asian market for Canadian oil."
[---]
"TransCanada said in a statement Thursday it remained confident Keystone XL would ultimately be approved.

"If Keystone XL dies," CEO Russ Girling said, "Americans will still wake up the next morning and continue to import 10 million barrels of oil from repressive nations, without the benefit of thousands of jobs and long-term energy security. That would be a tragedy.""
It won't kill it. It could be the end of The One's hopes of re-election, though (I sincerely hope). Obama has pissed off a whole bunch of Canadians, and likely a whole bunch of Americans who were anticipating with bated breath the economic shot in the arm that the pipeline promised. Not too smart, Obama.

In the meantime, there's a pipeline to the West coast to build. Better get busy.

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This Will Work Against Them

Arab League ministers hold emergency meeting on Syria, opposition wants Damascus suspended
"They walked past about 100 demonstrators, who echoed calls by Syria’s opposition to suspend the country’s membership in the 22-nation body -- a powerful symbolic blow to a nation that prides itself on being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.

Protesters carried placards reading “Freedom for the Syrian people” and “Arab leaders are garbage” as they chanted for the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad. They were joined by demonstrators from Yemen, protesting violent government crackdowns in their country."
Seriously, how many of the old guard are willing to allow peaceful protest against their administrations?

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Friday, November 11, 2011

One More Time...

...for my Dad and all my Uncles:











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Brilliant Idea...

...especially for the groom:

Southey couple getting married on Remembrance Day
"For Gitte Jensen and Jason Richards, one of the most important factors governing their wedding date was the need to remember their anniversary each year.

Chances are, they won’t have a problem.

They’re getting married on Nov. 11, 2011, at 11:11 a.m."
Well, Mr. Richards, you damn well better not forget.

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Good!

I'm betting they won't be able to do it.

Saskatchewan NDP could take years to rebuild
"The party was in tatters Tuesday in the very province where it was born.

It captured 32 per cent of the popular vote in Monday's election -- the lowest the party has ever received in the province under the NDP banner."
[---]
"The NDP saw 11 of its seats swept away by the Saskatchewan Party and was left with just nine of the 58 in the legislature. It ties the fewest the party or its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, has ever had in the Saskatchewan legislature. That was in 1982 when the Progressive Conservatives swept to power with 55 seats.

"I think this is the end of the old boys club ... the group of people that felt entitled to run the party and felt entitled to make the decisions," said Ken Rasmussen, associate director of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina."
This will be one of the reasons. The old guard has not done the proper thing in allowing and nurturing new "talent" to replace them. They have failed to plan for their own succession. Surprise. Surprise.
""They just need to convince people that they are capable of out-managing the Sask. Party and providing good government. You have to appeal to a large group of voters that have voted now for the Sask. Party two elections in a row. You're not going to do that by drifting further to the left. You're going to have to find a way of convincing people that you are a pragmatic modern, party."

Leadership will be a big issue.

The party needs someone who could challenge Brad Wall, a popular premier whose Saskatchewan Party won a record 64 per cent of the popular vote along with 49 of 58 seats. The largest popular vote in the province before that was 57 per cent by the Liberals in 1912."
[---]
"New Democrat Cam Broten, who was re-elected in Saskatoon Massey Place, said the party's remaining members will take time to sit down and figure out what happened. Broten couldn't say why the platform didn't resonate with voters."
Un-freakin' believable. They have no idea what went wrong and they aren't even going to ask!! As if they can figure it out themselves!! Ha, ha. You're gone.

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Oh Yes

You better believe it will:

Canada's climate stance likely to spark controversy
"Canada has already declared that it will not renew its Kyoto commitment "however acute the international pressure," Kent said during a speech hosted by the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Tuesday."
[---]
"'We will only support climate change agreements that are signed and ratified by all major emitters,' Kent said, making reference to the fact that developing nations had minimal obligations to reduce emissions under Kyoto and the U.S. had signed but not ratified the agreement."
[---]
"In response to questions from the audience, Kent reiterated the federal government's position against imposing a carbon tax in Canada such as the one passed by Australia's Senate on Tuesday. He added that the government also doesn't believe in systems that allow for the capping and trading of emissions "where so many countries have met their commitments by merely buying hot air from depressed Eastern European economies.""
And this guy used to be a journalist. It must have pained CBC to produce this article, but they can always rely on their commenters.

I guess this means the CAGW freaks have failed to convince the government that we're all doomed.

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

That's It!!!

The Liberals have discovered a new scare phrase to describe the Conservative Party. Gone is the "hidden agenda". From here on in, it will be the "stealth agenda"!! Oooooooo, just as scary!!

Liberals launch sweeping revival plan
"The federal Liberal party has officially kicked off a sweeping overhaul of its own house — bluntly declaring that while it’s down, it’s not yet out.

In a document called “Roadmap to Renewal,” the Liberals have embarked on an ambitious effort to change everything from the structure to the culture of the battered political brand."
"There is also a detailed, unvarnished assessment of how the Liberals view their adversaries, with lengthy looks at what it calls the Conservatives’ “stealth agenda” to rebrand Canada and the New Democrats’ efforts to steal the centre from the Liberals."
Here's their proposed renewal plan. [You'll note, at least at the time of my writing this, the link to the French version, doesn't work. But then again, it's only Conservative Party appointments that have to be bi-lingual. But given this statement from the renewal plan: "Our goal is to build a more thoroughly bilingual and multicultural political organization....", I'd say that's rather funny.)

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