Maple Leaf Blog

Merry Christmas... Peace on Earth...

2006-12-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

"Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, and will be fuel for the fire. For unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

--- (Isaiah 9:5, 6)

Tony Blair: Fighting Crime in the 21st Century

2006-04-23T15:11:00.000-06:00

Tony Blair is now on record as being in favour of expelling unrepetent criminals from Britain.
In an exchange of remarkably candid opinion pieces with Harry Porter of The Observer, Blair advocates (among other measures) the removal from Britain of career criminals as being necessary to deal with the realities of modern criminal activity. This exchange of opinions is truly remarkable in its candidness. Well worth reading.

An excerpt from his first letter follows:

From: Tony Blair To: Henry Porter Subject: Liberty

Dear Henry Porter,

Frankly it's difficult to know where to start, given the mishmash of misunderstanding, gross exaggeration and things that are just plain wrong. A few explanatory facts might help.

You say I have 'pared down our liberty at an astonishing rate', then list a whole lot of fundamental rights, as if these had all been drastically curtailed. We are proposing that the right to trial by jury be changed in one set of circumstances: highly complex serious fraud cases. The reason is simple. The cases last for months, sometimes years - they are incredibly difficult for juries for time and complexity reasons; it is over 30 years since Lord Roskill recommended the change because otherwise such cases often collapse at huge expense and the guilty go free. The estimated number of cases per year is around 20, out of a total of 40,000 jury trials.
.......
It's correct that, again in a small number of cases, we have introduced unusual restrictions to combat terrorists. There are 12 control orders in place. But we did suffer the death by terrorism of over 50 of our citizens last July. In common with virtually every major nation in the world, we are tightening our restrictions but there are, in every case, elaborate mechanisms of scrutiny and oversight.
..........
Go and talk to people living on estates blighted by anti-social behaviour. Until the new laws allowed them to put restrictions on offenders, close down houses used for drug dealing, seize dealers' assets, disperse gangs of youths, fine vandals on the spot, the victims had nothing to protect them except the usual process of the criminal law, which was hopelessly inadequate. Recently I visited East Manchester and Camden, where, I am proud to say, Labour councillors had, with the police and local residents used the new laws to put some respect and decency back into their communities.

When we talk of civil liberties, what about theirs, the law-abiding people; the ones who treat others with courtesy and good manners and expect the same back? Don't theirs count for anything?
.............
You can't deal with the levels of sophistication in today's organised crime by traditional methods. That's why we are giving the new agency new powers to force suspects to disclose information, to open up their accounts; to ensure that their advisers can't conceal evidence; and to track their movements not just in Britain but abroad. But look at what these people do. They traffic in human beings, often, as I heard for myself a few weeks back, young girls sold into prostitution; they deal in drugs, with levels of violence unimaginable in the past.

I am sorry to tell you: I want us to go further in all these areas. The alternative is that they, who do not play by our rules or any rules, get away with it.
.........
Ultimately, for me this whole issue is not about whether we care about civil liberties, but how we care for them in the modern world. If the traditional processes were the answer to these crime and law and order problems ......, then we wouldn't be having this debate. But they're not. They've failed. They are leaving the innocent unprotected and the guilty unpunished. That's why we need them changed.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Blair

Who Do You Trust?

2006-04-18T22:26:00.000-06:00

According to Time Magazine, Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the U.S. this week spotlights the world's "most important bilateral relationship".

So is China the largest trading partner of the US? Not yet. In a few years probably. But not yet. As the US government officially admits, trade between the United States and Canada makes it the greatest trade relationship in the world: "Canada is the United States' largest trading partner, conducting an estimated $1.5 billion in business daily".

According to George Bush, there's nothing much that can be done to help Canada with the softwood lumber dispute. According to George Bush, there's nothing that can be done to avoid the risks inherent in imposing visa requirements on everyone - neighbours, citizens and strangers alike - who cross the Canadian-US border in the future.

Are there any other Canadians who get the feeling that we're being taken for granted? Maybe we should just increase pipeline taxes to cover the softwood lumber shortfall instead of wasting our breath.

But no! Not Canada. No matter how badly we get screwed, we always play by the rules and insist on treating our ungrateful neighbour better than anyone else in the world.

The US might be well advised to keep the old saying in mind: Be careful what you wish for.... you may just get it.

Well, at least they should have plenty to talk about if they ever get beyond money and trade. Btw, George, Don't forget to ask him about organ harvesting, slave labour factories, democracy in Hong Kong, Freezing Point, internet censorship, religious freedom in Tibet, and all those other neat things that decent people are concerned about. George? George??.....

Memo to RCMP: How To Bust Grow-Ops Legally

2006-04-14T14:47:00.000-06:00

Once again it would seem that criminals have more rights than they deserve. An Alberta judge has dismissed grow-op charges because the RCMP "... violated the constitutional rights of the accused..." when a device to measure electrical use was secretly attached to the power line. (This is a widely used method to identify grow-ops and consequently, the judge's well-intentioned decision casts doubt on the legality of similar police operations across Canada.)

How's this for a simple solution? One that won't take 5 years and require an appeal to the Supreme Court? (Or perhaps the learned judge would have the police phone ahead to make an appointment with the owners of the suspected grow op?)

1. When police suspect a building is being used for a grow op, 'somebody' makes a call to the electrical utility.
2. It is illegal to steal energy from the utilities. Therefore, the utility has every right to investigate in order to protect its own interest.
3. If the utility can confirm the theft of electricity (easy to do), then the utility files a complaint with the police to that effect.
4. THEN the police have reasonable grounds to get a search warrrant because there is no reasonable explanation (other than a grow-op) for significant undocumented energy consumption.
5. Then the judge will be happy and be willing to do his job. Problem solved.

While I share the judge's concern for constitutional law, it seems a shame that he has felt compelled to put yet another obstacle in the path of common-sense law enforcement, particularly when it relates to organized crime all too often located in residential neighbourhoods.

33,000,000 Sleepwalkers? (Canada Eh?)

2006-04-14T13:15:00.000-06:00

'Fools, he calls them. Well-meaning, but utterly naive fools who one day could pay the price if they don't wake up to the frightening reality of terrorism's tentacles in the world we now live in, no western country safe, and certainly not Dreamland.

He leans across his kitchen table in his apartment. "Have you ever sat in a restaurant and talked about politics with people and criticized the Canadian government?" Yes, I tell him.

"Because you are free," he says. "There is nothing to be afraid of. Could you live in a society where if you did that, you would be killed? Under the Taliban, you would never, never do that. You can't trust anybody. Not even your friends. They might say yes, yes, you are right -- and then tell the Taliban and the next thing there is a knock at your door and you are taken away and killed."

Read this story. See why our soldiers are proud to be in Afganistan. See why all decent human beings should support them.

Wake-up call needed in Dreamland

If you still question why Canadian soldiers are in Afghanistan, then here's another reason to change your mind:

She was married at the age of four into a family where she was treated as a slave, beaten with electric cables, stoned, her limbs broken with an axe handle, starved, burned and doused with boiling water. Once she was used as a human table top. She says her father-in-law tortured her further by literally rubbing salt into her wounds, an experience so painful she says she asked God to let her die.

4-year-old child bride or 4-year-old slave?

Thank God I'm Not A Country Boy

2006-04-05T17:40:00.000-06:00

A recent study by the National Farmers Union found that agribusiness posted record profits in 2004 while farmers shouldered near-record losses.

The farmer's share of revenue from a $3.64 box of corn flakes currently amounts to less than seven cents, says the study.

It costs farmers eight cents to produce (a loaf of bread) and six cents is all they are currently getting back, according to the Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan.

Read complete story here.

Ralph Klein

2006-04-01T01:50:00.000-07:00

Of the best rulers,
The people only know that they exist;
The next best they love and praise
The next they fear;
And the next they revile.
When they do not command the people’s faith,
Some will lose faith in them,
And then they resort to oaths!
But of the best when their task is accomplished,
Their work done,
The people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”

Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
6th century BC

Multiculturalism: An Endangered Species In The 21st Century?

2006-01-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Iraqis Leaving Religiously Mixed Areas

What Wilkins Says Is Nothing New For U.S.

2006-01-27T19:15:00.009-07:00

Backgrounder on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

A Courageous Man Speaks Against Tyranny

2006-01-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

BEIJING Jan 26 (by: By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer)

The chief editor of a hard-hitting newspaper supplement shut down by Chinese authorities denounced the closing as an arbitrary act and vowed to fight it in an impassioned protest letter circulated Thursday.

Li Datong reproached Communist Party officials for shutting down the supplement, Bing Dian, which he founded in 1995.

"This action has no legal or constitutional basis and seriously violated and trampled upon the party's constitution and political standards," Li wrote in an essay circulated on the Internet. "Who gave them that kind of power? They're so disgusting I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Bing Dian, published by the state-run China Youth Daily, won legions of loyal readers through in-depth articles on sensitive topics like rival Taiwan's democracy and wrongdoing by well-connected individuals.

Its shutdown, ordered by the newspaper's owner, the Communist Youth League, was the latest act in a year-old campaign by President Hu Jintao's government to rein in wayward media.

The move drew criticism from Bing Dian fans, who bombarded the Internet with expressions of support for Li and condemnations of the crackdown.

"In the past year, those who can be gotten rid of have been gotten rid of," Chinese journalist Wang Xiaofeng wrote on his blog. "Those who can be disposed of, have been disposed of — all in secret."

Li said he would issue a complaint to the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, the party's internal affairs watchdog, over the closing.

Li said officials gave no reason for the shutdown, but he described it as the culmination of continuing tensions over the content of the four-page supplement.

"As a professional journalist, stopping the publication of Bing Dian is something I cannot understand, something I cannot accept," Li said.

He said Chinese journalists from other publications had been warned against writing about Bing Dian's closure and that some readers terminated their subscriptions to China Youth Daily in protest.

Gagging state media is the main focus of the Chinese government's effort to regulate the flow of information within the country. In the latest campaign, the government has fired aggressive editors and jailed or intimidated enterprising reporters.

Last month, the government forced the transfer of a senior editor at the Beijing News, another daring tabloid.

Li said the party's Propaganda Department came down hard on the supplement several times, notably for a report alleging plagiarism by a scholar favored by high-ranking party members. The supplement was suspended for one issue after that, and Li said they were forced to withdraw a follow-up report.

Bing Dian also got in trouble when it ran an essay by Taiwanese writer Lung Ying-tai highlighting the democratic evolution of the self-governed island in recent years. China considers Taiwan its territory, and state propaganda regularly portrays the island's people as enthusiastic supporters of unification unfairly thwarted by their political leaders.

"Certain people within the Central Propaganda Department accused this essay as being 'against the Communist Party at every step' and their narrow-mindedness was truly astonishing," Li wrote.

Lung rallied to Li's defense Thursday. In an open letter to Hu, Lung warned that the closure risks alienating Taiwan's people.

"People once thought that as a figure of the new era, your mind-set and vision would be deeper and more open than your predecessors," Lung wrote in a half-page commentary in Taiwan's China Times newspaper.

=====================================================================

The Open Letter from Li Datong

(In the matter of the shutdown of the Freezing Point weekly supplement of China Youth Daily, the world was obviously trying to interview the editor Li Datong (see History Textbooks in China). The following is a translation of his open letter. His weblog has been shut down and any posting about this affair at bulletin board systems and forums will probably be deleted within moments of posting. So the principal method of propagation is through blogs and emails. If you have the means and connections, you should forward either the original or the translation to your network.

[here is the English translation of Li Datong's letter]

A public protest against the illegal stoppage of the Freezing Point weekly magazine.

"Dear news media colleagues, intellectuals, legal professional friends and devoted readers of Freezing Point inside and outside of China:

On January 24, 2006, Tuesday, which the deadline for the Freezing Point weekly magazine, the Beijing editorial staff of Freezing Point worked as usual to edit and proof-read the weekly edition scheduled for January 25. At just after 4pm, we were ready with everything and the pages were forwarded to the editor-in-chief for review and print. The unusual aspect was that there was no reaction for a long while. We gathered that all the newspaper leadership had been called to the League Central Office for an emergency meeting and nobody was minding the store. This meant that something extraordinary was about to happen.

Then the skies fell down. The newspaper will be published as usual, because this is our obligation to our subscribers and readers. We looked for any possible errors and we patiently waited for the breaking event. Based on the fact that the Central Propaganda Department never ceased in their criticisms of Freezing Point and most recently the Central Propaganda Department criticism group issued an Cultural Revolution-style critique of Yuan Weishi's essay on "Modernization and Historical Textbooks" on the Internet, I suspected that it was my moment to be dismissed as the editor-in-chief.

But the contemptible level was beyond the imagination of ordinary person. At just after 5pm, the telephone calls from various media friends around the country began to arrive. They told us that they have received the notice from the Central Propaganda Department, the State Council and the Beijing News Office to "not report or comment on the stoppage of Freezing Point," "not attend any press conference given by the editorial and reporting staff of Freezing Point," "not hype," "maintain the distance" and so on. Thereafter, the overseas media reporters called non-stop to ask me to confirm the facts. But until 7pm, nobody had notified me formally. When the newspaper leadership returned from the meeting the League Central, they went into a meeting to discuss matters. I was the last person to know about this affair. All the information proved that this was something certain persons in the upper level of the party dared to risk public contempt and plotted carefully to take this action. This action had no legal or constitutional basis, and seriously violated and trampled upon the party constitution and political standards of the party.

As a professional media worker, I cannot understand the stoppage of Freezing Pont. I cannot accept this. A newspapers is a public instrument. The newspaper has a social contract with the subscribes and the readers, and it is a source of information that the readers pay money for and therefore the newspaper must fulfill its contract no matter what. Therefore, the Freezing Point weekly magazine should be delivered into the hands of the subscribers. Yet for the person who made this decision, what did the social impact mean? What does the broad readership mean? What does the reputation of a mainstream newspaper mean? What do the party constitution and the national constitution mean? What does the image of Chinese reform mean? What does the image of the governing party mean? They regard the social instrument as a personal property to be disposed of at their own will.

At 730pm in the evening, I received a call from the publisher and editor-in-chief to go and speak to them. The decision about me was made by the League Central Propaganda Department. The "decision" gave Mr. Yuan Weishi an uncalled-for label and then announced that Freezing Point will be stopped for reorganization. Apart from the personal attacks against the editor-in-chief and myself, there were also "economic sanctions." Who gave them that kind of power? They are so disgusting that I don't know whether to cry or laugh.

Of course, with the aforementioned background, this conversation was a farce. Obviously, this was controlled by a small number of people "above" in the background and the League Central was just playing the role of the fools. I used reasoning to condemn the "decision" as well as the absurdity of the Central Propaganda Department's News Criticisms. I told the publisher and editor-in-chief that I will formally complain to the party central disciplinary committee about this illegal act.

On the day when Freezing Point weekly magazine stopped publication, the newspaper received a large number of telephone inquiries from readers. I learned that readers are angrily terminating their subscriptions at the postal offices on account of the stoppage of Freezing Point.

A small number of people "above" have plotted for a long time to strangle Freezing Point. On June 1, 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the victory of the anti-Fascist war, Freezing Point published the essay on "Pingyingguan battle and Pingyingguan victory", in which we recorded the historical truth about how the Kuomintang and Communist Party worked together in the face of national survival to win the battle with their blood. This was different from the unification propaganda, because Freezing Point was the first in mainstream media to objectively report on how the Kuomintang army sacrificed tens of thousands of warriors in this battle.

This true historical account attracted the brutal criticism by the Central Propaganda Department's Criticism Group. What is the basis of their criticism? It was based upon the "XX year XX publisher's Chinese Communist Party history about the Pingyuanguan victory." The Freezing Point report "glorified the Kuomintang and debased the Communist Party." In the end, at the memorial meeting of the 60th anniversary of the victory in the anti-Fascist war, Communist Party General Secretary comrade Hu Jintao said in his memorial speech that he affirmed the contribution of the Kuomintang solders in the war of resistance against the Japanese. It was clear that who was right and who was wrong in this case.

When Lian and Soong completed their visits to Taiwan, the renowned Taiwan writer Ms. Lung Yingtai published a long essay at Freezing Point titled "The Taiwan That You May Not Know." The essay used a rich content to objectively and truthfully present to the people of China for the first time the changes and developments in Taiwan over the past few decades. It created a tremendous response and approval among readers and had an important impact on communication between the people on the two sides of the Taiwan strait. But this essay was accused by certain people within the Central Propaganda Department as being "against the Communist Party at every step" and their narrow-mindedness was truly astonishing.

On November 18, the party central held a solemn memorial for the great proletariat revolutionary Hu Yaobang's 90th birthday. Comrade Zeng Qinghong represented the Party Central Committee to pay tribute to Comrade Hu Yaobang's glorious accomplishments and he was warmly received by the people. But certain members in the Central Propaganda Department forbade the media to publish memorial articles of Comrade Hu Yaobang and required that all media can only publish the Xinhua release and nothing of their own creation.

On December 7, 2005, Freezing Point published Comrade Hu Qili's long memorial essay "The Yaobang of My Heart" and drew a tremendous response. The media inside and outside of China carried that essay. Numerous netizens posted comments to say how they had been moved to tears. About that well-received essay, the Central Propaganda Department called the newspaper to complain and claimed that the newspaper had violated rule of "not having any voluntary choice."! For those people, they felt no genuine emotion or grief over Comrade Hu Yaobang!

A small number at the Central Propaganda Department had numerous unreasonable complaints and criticisms against Freezing Point. For example, on November 30, 2005, Freezing Point published a reporter's investigation about the academic plagiarism by Wuhan law professor Zhou Yezhong. When professor Zhou was interviewed by the Freezing Point reporter, he said: "You better not mind this matter! Sooner or later, the Central Propaganda Department is going to come after you! Your editor-in-chief will come after you!" When the report was published, certain people at the Central Propaganda Department came after us and complained that the essay had major problems with editorial directions.

Under these pressures, Freezing Pont withdrew its follow-up report. On December 28, 2005, Freezing Point published a historical first weekly edition of only three pages. We ask just who the small number of people at the Central Propaganda Department were protecting?

Now, they are looking for a final accounting with Freezing Point! The essay of Mr. Yuan Weishi is just an excuse. Professor Yuan Weishi has published numerous works on contemporary history and he has great influence among intellectuals. When Professor Yuan wrote this article, it was based upon historical materials and his theoretical basis is about the rationality of openness. After the essay was published, it generated a great response. On any discussion of historical issues, it is necessary to have materials as well as viewpoints and to exchange ideas in a calm and peaceful manner in order to reach agreement. Of the many Internet commentary, even those netizens who disagreed with Mr. Yuan were very serious and their rebuttals were very solid. I have personally forwarded some of these comments to Mr. Yuan and he replied afterwards that these essays were very rigorous and he would seriously consider their viewpoints and make the appropriate responses. This is a healthy and normal kind of academic exchange. But the Central Propaganda Department Criticism Group used insults and characterizations in the style of the Cultural Revolution and then nothing else!?

This incident exposes the basic flaws in the news control system of our country. A small number of people in the Central Propaganda Department have a narrow worldview and mind and used dictatorial methods to impose controls that deaden what should be a lively political scene in which a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools speak out. These people want obedience and not equality. Which item in the party constitution of the Communist Party lets them do that?

We will write elsewhere about the flaws of our national news control system. Here, we just want to tell our colleagues, readers and friends just what had happened and why it happened. When one does not have the truth, one is afraid of debates; when one does not have the truth, one is afraid of openness. Although certain people in the Central Propaganda Department used their power to lock up all the media and websites, we believe that you will see this letter! You will know the power of truth!"

We thank you sincerely!

China Youth Daily Freezing Point weekly magazine editor Li Datong
January 25, 2006

Read related story: Has Google Jumped The Shark?

Admit 1 - To See The Next Prime Minister Of Canada Give His Victory Speech Tonight!

2006-01-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

(PS: If you're in Calgary, just show up early and you'll get in anyway. But it's a secret. Don't tell anyone.)

"It's A Beautiful Day In This Neighbourhood!"

2006-01-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

We Shouldn't Get Ahead Of Ourselves

2006-01-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

".....If no party wins 155 seats, the leader of the ruling party (the Liberals in this case) gets first crack at convincing the Governor General that he can form a government, even if another party has won more ridings. That's because the prime minister remains the prime minister until his government is defeated by another party that wins a majority of seats in a general election, or he resigns, or his government loses a vote of confidence on a major motion in the House of Commons (for example, on the vote to accept a budget)....."

Do you suppose the GG would say no to the guy who got her fixed for life? Would Martin dare take this course? And if so, could he prorogue Parliament after a speech from the throne and then keep control via order-in-council? A person with integrity would never thwart the democratic process, but in Martin's case can anything be ruled out?

Maybe stop by Walmart and pick up something orange on your way to vote Monday.....

...and by the way Paul, before I forget......

2006-01-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

Taxes & Election Platforms

2006-01-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

If you're still undecided about who to vote for, consider these basic election facts about where each party stands on the GST:

Gilles Duceppe: Keep the GST and send everything to Quebec.
Stephen Harper: Reduce the GST by 1% immediately and by a further 1% (ie total reduction of 28%) within a a couple of years.
Jack Layton: Eliminate the GST on feminine hygiene products.
Paul Martin: We have said since 1988 that the GST was unfair and the first thing we will do when we are elected is to abolish this tax altogether.

So it's fairly easy to see that the (approximate) number of Canadians who benefit under each of these policies is as follows:

Gilles Duceppe: 3 million Quebecers benefit, 30 million Canadians get nothing.
Stephen Harper: 33 million Canadians benefit, none are left out.
Jack Layton: 16.5 million Canadians benefit, 16.5 million get nothing
Paul Martin: a lucky few get a brown paper bag filled with cash, everyone else is SOL.

Seems to me that there is one leader whose policy treats all Canadians absolutely equally and is 100% non-discriminatory, non-partisan, non-sexist and pro-Canadian.
You might even call it a no-brainer.
Unless you live in a big city like Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal where the smog must make it hard to think clearly.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall....Who's The Scariest Of Them All?

2006-01-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

How To Destroy A Vampire

2006-01-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

Common Methods:
Staking: The most commonly used method in the world.
Beheading: Avoid splattering of blood.
Sunlight: Some aged and powerful Vampires are immune.
Cremation: Found throughout the world; scatter the ashes.
Piercing with a sword: A blessed sword should be used.
Immersing in water: A bathtub can be used, but body disposal may prove a problem.
Drenching in garlic and holy water: Large amounts have to be hauled to the graveside to assure a clean kill; oil, wine, or vinegar can also be used.
Touching with a crucifix: Destroys a young Vampire but is normally used only as a repellent.
Trapping in the grave: Iron bits, red peas, rice (for chinese species), roses, garlic, stones, and holy water can be used.
Extracting the heart: Can be very messy.

Less Common Methods:
Stealing the left sock: Useful for only a few species; fill a sock with soil, grave dirt, or rocks, and throw outside of village limits, aiming for a river.
Injecting with holy water: Demands close proximity to Vampire.
Magic: Use only a trainer Sorcerer.
Bottling: Hire a professional Malaysian or Bulgarian Sorcerer.
Breaking the spine: Follow by decapitation or other method.
Using a dhampir: Some dhampirs are disreputable and untrustworthy because of their Vampire lineage.
Using animals: Cocks, dogs, and white wolves recommended.
Boiling the heart: Use in conjunction with heart extraction; vinegar, oil, or wine can be used.
Using Sabbatarians: Only if they wear their clothes in a particular fashion.

(With thanks to lizabet @ http://lizabets-vault.com/killvamp.html
Extracted from: Matthew BUNSON. The Vampire Encyclopedia.Gramercy Books: New York, 1993, p. 66.)

Plus ça change........

2006-01-21T00:51:00.000-07:00

".......What a mess we are in, in this country. As Alice in Wonderland would say, it's getting curiouser and curiouser. How did we get here from there? We are now divided regionally, linguistically, ethnically, Canadian pitted against Canadian, resentment piled upon resentment.

"I love this piece of geography called Canada. I'm a chauvinist. I love my country dearly, deeply and passionately. But who is a Canadian now? Are there any Canadians in this house? Not bloody likely. We've all become hyphenated Canadians, French-Canadians, English-Canadians, Irish-Canadians, Polish-Canadians, Greek-Canadians...

"We have become hyphenated. We weren't always hyphenated, but we now are, on and on into the nightmare of divisiveness. I was born and bred in this amazing land. I've always considered myself a Canadian, nothing more, nothing less, even though my parents were immigrants from Italy. How come that over the past ten or fifteen years we have all acquired a hyphen? We have allowed ourselves to become divided along the lines of ethnic origins, under the pretext of the "Great Mosaic." A dastardly deed has been perpetrated upon Canadians by politicians whose motto is "divide and rule."

"What is needed in Canada is statesmanlike leadership, courageous leadership to control the economy, to balance the budget, to pay off the horrendous debts, to stop the money printing presses, to call a halt to the spending spree and the indexed pensions......

"We desperately need leadership with the starched spine to tell us the sad economic facts, that we have borrowed to the hilt and printed money to pay for the borrowing, and that we cannot go on consuming more than we produce, that we cannot pile debt upon debt to pay for political giveaways, that government mismanagement and waste is at an end"........

Mrs Laura Sabia speaking to the The Empire Club of Canada, 27 years ago on Oct. 19, 1978.

2006-01-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Paul Martin says:
"Stephen Harper is a zealot. All of Stephen Harper’s advisers come from Calgary."
Calgary says to Mr. Martin:

This Time Porn, Next Time Democrats?

2006-01-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

The details of how much information the Bush administration is demanding from Google about its users' search requests were made public in court this week.

From Yahoo News - Jan. 19, 2006:

The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.

Read complete story here.

Are Liberals Morally and Financially Bankrupt?

2006-01-19T10:37:00.001-07:00

Defeat Could Cripple Liberals For Years

And if that isn't enough to seal the Liberals fate for many years to come, remember that Stephen Harper has promised that a Tory government would sue the Liberal party over the sponsorship scandal.

Buzz Off!

2006-01-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Buzz Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, stirred controversy Wednesday by urging voters to stop Stephen Harper "any way they can" - even if that means supporting the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

He also accused Harper of fomenting separatism by wanting to give more power to the provinces.

Hargrove, campaigning with Martin in London, Ont., called on NDP supporters to vote Liberal in ridings where the New Democrats don't stand a chance of victory.

When asked if Quebecers should choose the Bloc over the Tories, he replied: "I would urge them to stop Stephen Harper in any way they can."

This is a pretty ominous statement. In many countries, such a statement by a person in his position would be tantamount to condoning physical violence. Mr. Hargrove appears to have taken the Liberal 'mentality' too much to heart.

The Band Wagon Heads West

2006-01-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

"This is the week when columnists have to decide where they want to be on election night to be on hand for the post-victory news conference of the winner. Until further notice, I am headed for Calgary."

- Chantal Hébert - Toronto Star - Jan. 13, 2006

Attention! All Canwest Global Editors: New Marching Orders From David Asper

2006-01-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

"January 11, 2006

Dear friend:

Peter Kent is applying for the job as Member of Parliament for St. Paul's riding in the federal election. It's not unusual for someone applying for a job to ask employers and friends to provide a letter of reference and Peter has asked me to do so on his behalf.

I've known Peter for many years both within the employment context and on a personal level. I've never really been able to discern his politics but I know that we think alike on most of the issues most of the time. Having voted Liberal myself more often than not in the past, it kind of surprised me that Peter offered his name for the Conservatives. But when he explained why, I fully understood his motivation.

The truth is, however, that in the case of Peter Kent, it actually doesn't matter which party he runs for because if elected, what constituents will get is a fine, decent, honest and hardworking Member of Parliament. I don't mean that in a trivial way. I have worked with Peter personally on very significant projects and I am confident that he can and will make a difference if you send him to Ottawa.

The need for a man of Peter's integrity became even clearer to me after hearing the Prime Minister say, during the last English language debate, that 'we've got to have a more intelligent debate. Enough is enough: this idea of drive-by smears doesn't make it true.', and then the next day he launched a series of advertisements that are some of the most insulting, base attack ads I have ever seen.

The Prime Minister is correct. Enough is enough. It's time for change and Peter Kent is someone who represents not merely change but, change for the better. I hope you will seriously consider supporting him in the upcoming election."

(Signed) David Asper

Update (Jan. 19): Izzie Would Be Turning In His Grave

The Chrétien Factor

2006-01-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

As recently as 3 weeks ago, the notion of a Conservative majority government seemed ridiculously far-fetched. Not so any longer. Not only have the Conservatives run a virtually flawless campaign to date, but the Liberals seem hellbent on self-destructing. The reasons for this dramatic turn of events are not hard to find.

The Conservative success has to be in large measure due to lessons learned from the last election, particularly with regard to strategy and communication. As well, Stephen Harper has demonstrated a willingness to acknowledge his personal shortcomings and deal with them.
Then we have the separatists who released their book on Option Canada at a moment which was undoubtedly meant to create the most trouble for the Liberals in Quebec, thus hopefully (at least in the authors' eyes) guaranteeing at least 50% of voters supporting the Bloc. Such a level of support would be seized on by the pur laine to demonstrate that another referendum would be a mere formality.
At the same time, the Liberals themselves - and the Canadian public - had become so (complacent?) accustomed to sleaze and misdoings, that it seemed to be almost a "taken-for-granted" non-issue. At least until the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission acknowledged that they were investigating the Income Trust situation. Given their past (lack of) performance, it's reasonable to presume that the RCMP would never have done anything, had the SEC not begun investigating. (And whatever happened to Bernie Shapiro anyway? Is he still collecting a paycheque for heaven's sake?)
Whether any of these issues would have significantly affected the outcome of the election (which seemed most likely to be another Liberal minority) is a moot point.
The real turning point at which all hope of a Liberal victory was lost was the appearance of the "Chrétien factor".

During the Gomery inquiry and also during the budget debate, it seemed that the Liberals were invincible. No matter what they did, somehow they excaped relatively unscathed. Yet in a few short months, this invincibility which was built up over many years has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared to reveal a party of the incompetent.

Why the sudden and dramatic change? Simple. Because Paul Martin won the battle but lost the war with Jean Chrétien. Undoubtedly there were many Liberals who never accepted Paul Martin being their leader, but they kept quiet knowing they would suffer the same fate as Allan Rock, Sheila Copps and other Chrétien loyalists, if they tipped their hand. And anyway, if Martin were to lead them to a majority government, then they could hold their noses and live with him for awhile.
But when they realised that the Conservatives were fighting a determined battle, and it became apparent that the best the Liberals could hope for was another minority government, they decided to pull the plug on Martin. By leaking information like a rusty sieve, they are hoping to guarantee total defeat in this election. Who will be blamed? Paul Martin of course. Why? Because it makes it that much easier to force him out and have a leadership review immediately, rather than allowing him to retain the leadership and continue to cause problems for months and perhaps years to come. Bite the bullet, get a new leader and prepare asap for the next election. A surgical operation designed to ensure that the Conservatives have the least opportunity to recover from the inevitable screwups of a young and inexperienced government before the rejuvenated Liberals take back their "rightful" position as the government of Canada.

Imagine Frank McKenna leading a (publicly, at least) thoroughly contrite Liberal Party of Canada before Harper has a chance to prove himself. He's reasonably bilingual, has lots of charisma and could conceivably be another Trudeau in the eyes of many wishful thinking Canadians. The Conservatives had better hit the ground running because they'll have a very short window of opportunity, perhaps 6 months to a year, before the Liberals are once again able to focus on ending Stephen Harper's tenuous honeymoon with the Canadian electorate.

(Meanwhile, what about the separatists? Ironically, it never occurred to them that the Liberals could fade so fast that kicking them when they were falling down would result in Quebecers supporting the Tories - at least to the extent that the separatists will fail to get their cherished 50% of the Quebec vote. How perfectly ironic. And who but a Liberal could have tipped them to the Option Canada documents after Sheila Fraser and the RCMP failed to find them? If Paul Martin had been doing better, would the documents have mysteriously appeared nevertheless?)

A Vote to Save Canada?

2006-01-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

The wisdom of David Frum's column in today's National Post cannot be overstated:
"A Liberal defeat would be a unifying moment for Canada, a moment that brings together Canadians from every region and every province to uphold norms of integrity and decency in Canadian politics.

"Another Liberal victory, however, will put Canada back on the path to a third Quebec referendum and other grave threats to national unity.

"The blunt fact is that Quebec elects separatists as a protest against Liberal over-centralization. The sequence of events tells the story.

1974: Liberal majority.
1976: PQ elected in Quebec.

1984: Conservative majority.
1985: PQ defeated.

1993: Liberal majority.
1994: PQ returned to power.

"The next Quebec election will probably occur in about a year's time.

"Nothing -- nothing -- would strengthen the separatist cause more than the re-election of the Martin government. If Martin still holds power when Quebecers next vote provincially, the separatists will be free to run against Liberal corruption, Liberal perversion of democracy, and the Liberal refusal to answer such basic questions as: "Who received the improper Adscam funds?"

"But if the Liberals have been defeated by English-speaking and French-speaking voters acting together, the separatists will face a much tougher problem. They will face in Ottawa a new, dynamic and honest government, fully committed to investigating and punishing wrongdoing. Electing a Conservative government would deprive Quebec separatists of their best issue. Electing a Liberal government would wrap the issue up for them and tie a bow on it".

There is no guarantee that Stephen Harper will succeed in solving the "Quebec question." In fact, odds are that he won't. But a federal government representative of all parts of Canada, which clearly demonstrates to the majority of Quebecers who are not hard-line separatists that their concerns are being taken seriously, will go a long way to thwarting the separatists' short-term success in the next Quebec election.
There is no reason why constructive dialogue between an honest federal government and the provincial government of Jean Charest should be seen as either a "sell-out" of English Canada or a repudiation of the reasonable expectations of the vast majority of Quebecers.
The trust of both sides has been violated for many years by opportunistic politicians and social engineers on both sides of the issue. That trust will have to be rebuilt slowly and carefully. In that light, it would seem that Mr. Harper may turn out to be the real Mr. Canada.

It seems remarkable that so few political analysts are seeing this election in such stark terms.

Read the complete column here.The Real Threat To Canadian Unity.

Second Book Says Martin Was Involved in Adscam

2006-01-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Radio Canada, in a story on the publication of the "Secrets of Options Canada" book, reports that a second book has been published claiming that Paul Martin was more involved in Adscam than he has admitted.

This second book, "Le déshonneur des libéraux", by La Presse journalist Gilles Toupin, describes the battle waged between the Chrétien and Martin camps during Adscam.
He says that Justice Gomery had no choice but to clear Martin due to a lack of hard evidence linking Martin directly to Adscam.
However, Toupin claims that Martin misled the Gomery Inquiry with respect to the extent of his relationship with the Everest Group principals, Boulay and Deslauriers.
According to Toupin, written warnings of the Adscam situation, which were received by Martin while he was Finance Minister were ignored.

The implication is that these letters which would have proven Martin's knowledge of Adscam were somehow kept from the Gomery Inquiry.

(Perhaps one of Stephen Harper's first acts as Prime Minister will be to extend Judge Gomery's mandate.)

Read complete Radio Canada report here.

Cleaning Out The Closet

2006-01-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

Who better to find all the old Liberal skeletons than the people who put them there?
- Greg Weston, (Sun Media, Sat. Jan 7)

Let George Do It (or Bernie, It Looks Like You're Out of a Job!)

2006-01-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

(See next post.)

The Elephant's Revenge?

2006-01-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Now we know why the RCMP is investigating Dingwall's department. They had no choice. Imagine their humiliation if the news of the US investigation had surfaced while they were still sitting on their hands.
What would they have done then? Asked for a copy of the US investigation's report along with the extradition requests?

Looks like Conrad Black may have some company when he takes up residence in the US.

Memo to Paul: Next time you give someone the finger, make sure no one's looking.

Vancouver Adults Insult Visiting Kids

2006-01-05T12:35:00.010-07:00

Imagine being 17 years old and travelling to another country to play hockey. What must you think when adult spectators shout insults about your country?

I remember an incident that happened to me when I was 7 years old, visiting New York City with my parents and a salesman yelled at me for trying to "steal" a toy by giving him "play" (Canadian) money. I will always remember that. Though it happened many years ago, I'm simply unable to forget the shock and the hurt of being blamed for something I didn't understand.

The treatment of the American kids at this hockey tournament was something all Canadians should be ashamed of. They haven't even had a chance to vote for God's sake. Why blame them for anything? Why hurt them? And even if the kids are able to forgive, and hopefully forget, it's a fair bet that their parents will hate how we treated their children for a very long time.

What a perfect opportunity for our self-proclaimed proudest Canadian, Prime Minister Paul Martin - to put his money where his mouth is - and apologise to all Americans on behalf of all Canadians.

Want To Get Away From It All?

2006-01-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

Been working hard lately? Need a break? Want to get away from it all and just lie on a quiet, peaceful beach far from the madding crowd? Well before you spend your hard-earned money on that dream vacation, you might want look at Mapquest and see exactly where that peaceful, sunsoaked beach is located.

Do You Like Your Hair Parted On The Left Side Or Right Down The Centre Line?

Bias In The Media? Say It Ain't So

2006-01-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

The following is a letter I've written to the Ottawa Citizen in response to the most outrageously unobjective "news" story I've ever read in a Canadian paper. In fact, I checked and rechecked its position to satisfy myself that it was being presented as news and not as an editorial or opinion piece. (It's in the column entitled "Local News").

"Re your news article of Jan 4, 2006: MP Must Explain Her Use Of Voters' Private Data,
"Although the questions raised are most serious and deserve to be answered by the individuals involved, you do your paper and your readers a great disservice by allowing your reporter to demonstrate a:) that he/she is unable to maintain a professional detachment in carrying out her assignment or b) fails to see a distinction between reporting and proselytizing. (I refer specifically to the final several paragraphs in which the "news" becomes a thinly disguised opinion piece).

"Perhaps, a bit of oversight is in order on the editor's part. Or a remedial course in reporting news. As well, a self-examination by this reporter might be in order, before accusing someone else of lacking professionalism in their job.

"Surely this apparent display of partisanship and voter manipulation under the guise of 'news' is not a sign of a hidden agenda on the part of your paper. To allow it to go unremarked would certainly entitle readers to conclude otherwise".

To Blog Or Not To Blog (or if only I'd been a hockey player...)

2006-01-04T19:29:00.004-07:00

A Florida teenager wrote in his online blog that he was responsible for his best friend's death in a car crash. (Ironically, the guilty teenager was in the back seat at the time of the crash, but interfered with the driver who then lost control.)

Police used the blog as evidence to convict the 18-year-old of manslaughter. In spite of a plea deal which allowed him to dodge a 15-year sentence, he has been sentenced to 5 years in prison, 10 years probation and banned from driving for life.

Too bad the kid wasn't a hockey player.........

Read complete story here.

On a similar note: As a couple of politically-minded bloggers in Canada have recently learned to their chagrin, one should never lose sight of the fact that anybody, anywhere in the world can read your blog entries from now until Hell freezes over.

Doing my Part

2006-01-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Toronto Star is asking readers to tell them which party leader they prefer.

Hopefully, my letter will cause a few Liberal supporters to reconsider their opinions.

"Stephen Harper does not use emotion to communicate. He relies on facts. The best leaders, business, political or otherwise, all have this quality. If they're blessed, they also have charisma.
The more a person tries to win me over to their way of thinking by appealing to my emotions, whether it be a used car salesman or a prime minister, the more I resent their Trust-me-I-know-what's-best-for-you attitude.

"Historically, leaders have been held to account for the actions and consequences of all those who reported to them. Just because Paul Martin accepts responsibility for more gaffes than his predecessor, doesn't make him less responsible for everything else that's been done in the name of the party he leads.
He, of all people, should be aware of the seafaring tradition that the captain goes down with the ship.

"Jack Layton reminds me of a motion sensor light - put a TV camera or microphone in front of him and he lights up. The NDP needs someone who comes across as sincere rather than as a political opportunist - someone like Ed Broadbent for example.

"Gilles Duceppe is obviously a sincere and committed separatist - ie. a person who can sleep well at night, even though he is devoting his life to destroying the very thing that has provided him with a career.
What sort of person can be proud to say that he has spent his life trying to destroy what millions of other people have spent their lives to improve and living off it while doing so? Perhaps direct deposit allows him to disregard this fact when he receives his very generous paycheque every month.
Working to get a better deal for his province is one thing; working to destroy a country is another.

Sound Familiar?

2006-01-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About half of U.S. adults believe most members of Congress are corrupt, a poll released Tuesday suggests.

Congress' image could emerge as an election topic, with 55 percent of respondents saying corruption will be "the most important" or a "very important" issue to consider when voting in November.....

Read complete story here.

Here's a Great Toy For Political Junkies

2006-01-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

This site interprets each opinion poll about the upcoming Federal election and shows how the results would translate into party standings in the House of Commons. When you go here, click on each poll under the "Latest Prediction Polls" to see how many seats each party would get according to the results of that poll.

It also allows you to create your own "What If" scenarios. A terrific toy for political junkies!

Youth Crime: You Be The Judge

2006-01-03T11:39:00.001-07:00

Youth crime, guns, drugs are on everyone's mind lately. What should be done? Ban hand guns? Three strikes and you're out laws? Limit immigration from certain countries? Punish the parents of juvenile offenders? What's your choice?

Here is a link to a typical court appearance (bail hearing) by young (apparent) members of a Toronto street gang. Read the background information about their family situations and their previous criminal activity, then multiply them by thousands of similar youths in similar circumstances across Canada. If you were the judge, what would you have done?

What Would You Do?

(If your first reaction is to condemn the judge for being lenient, check out The Youth Criminal Justice Act and see how it restricts and directs judicial decisions.)

And last but not least, imagine what the cost of this single court appearance (just a simple application for bail) must be.

Confused by it all? Not sure what to think? Then try a dose of reality.

The Final Judgment

2006-01-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

".........When I was young, I practically lived here in the Parliament Buildings. My father was a cabinet minister in four Liberal governments. He taught me that those who serve in public office have a duty to protect the integrity of government.

My pledge to you tonight is that I will live up to that ideal. I went into public life because I believe in the good that government can do. And I will do my all as Prime Minister to make sure that your government is worthy of your respect.

The final judgment on whether I have done that will be yours.".

-Prime Minister Paul Martin - April 21, 2005

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before....

2006-01-02T13:31:00.003-07:00

Are you still wondering why Ralph Goodale refuses to resign? Well, wonder no longer. Here is yet another example of present-day Lieberals having learned from the past masters of Jean Chrétien's reign.

Defence Minister Refuses To Resign

The Medium Is The Message

2006-01-02T11:36:00.001-07:00

This story in today's Toronto Star is entitled: A Subtle Difference. It describes how the Stephen Harper of this election campaign has evolved from the Stephen Harper of the previous campaign. However, that's not the real story here.

The real story is the subtle but pathetically obvious difference in how stories about Stephen Harper and the Conservative campaign are now being handled by the Toronto Star. There are still obvious signs of gratuitous disdain - holding their editorial noses if you will. For example, "After spending a good part of the day travelling (an old political axiom holds that you can't do any damage to yourself when you're in the air)..... "

And the piece is entirely cosmetic - God forbid that they should actually examine Conservative policy even though their blood brothers in the Liberal party have provided virtually none of their own.
Nevertheless, recent pieces by various TS scribes are undoubtedly a bellwether of the political pulse of the all important Ontario electorate and therefore, its significance cannot be overstated.

In plain English, the political tide is finally turning in Ontario and the media types, like a herd of cud-chewing cows, are heading one by one for the grass on the other side of the political fence.

A subtle difference indeed.

A Refresher Course For Voters: Bald-Faced Lying - 101

2006-01-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

Excerpted from
The Fraser Institute: LIBERAL PROMISES AND A CONSERVATIVE BUDGET (from 1996)

Chrétien Promises To Get Rid Of GST In 1993

Even before the 1993 federal election campaign and before the Red Book, Jean Chrétien had made a pledge to replace the (GST) tax. For example, on the January 22, 1993 "CTV News," Lloyd Robertson reported: "Jean Chrétien has confirmed his Liberals will scrap the GST if they win the election coming up this year. But he said in Regina today, the tax would have to be replaced by some other measure and the party is looking at alternatives." Chrétien's statement on CTV that day was: "But the commitment we've made to the public is we want to get rid of the GST. I've always said that the GST will go."

On February 11, 1993, CBC "Prime Time News" confirmed that he had made this promise. Brian Stewart introduced a story on the subject saying: "If there was any doubt that Jean Chrétien might back away from his pledge to get rid of the GST, he pretty much put that to rest today. The Liberal leader said that's a promise he will definitely keep, no ifs, ands, or buts. And Chrétien said voters should toss him out of office if he doesn't get rid of the tax during his first year in power." A clip of Chrétien was provided in which he said: "Our objective is very clear-that the GST be replaced by a system which generates equivalent revenues. There's no misinterpretation there . . . . I say we replace the tax. This is a commitment. You will judge me by that. If the GST is not gone, I will have a tough time, the election after that. It's the only specific promise that I'm making very clear, and it is going, it's gone."

In the same story, Sheila Copps took a swipe at the Tory leadership candidates. In doing so, she made this prophetic statement: "Any pretender to the throne right now has literally been part and parcel of all of his [Mulroney] policies-the GST, the trade agreement.
You can change the leader, but you can't change the party's policies.
" What the media have failed to point out is that apparently the party can also be changed with little shifting of the policies.

Liberal accountability

The most famous commitment, and indeed the most famous promise of the 1993 election campaign, was to eliminate the GST. To be sure, replacing the GST was not the only promise of the 1993 Liberal campaign. The larger issue, and one upon which the Liberals hinged their electoral fortunes, was that their promises would be kept. For example, Chrétien said on the September 15, 1993 "CTV News": It's all written here, so you can come with this book in front of me every week after I'm the prime minister, and say, `Where are you and your promises, Mr. Chrétien?' and we'll do the checking. And I'm telling you that everything that is written there I intend to implement."

To my way of thinking, Chrétien and Martin were cut from the same cloth, which explains perfectly why they loathe each other: It takes one to know one. They're both inveterate, pathological liars. The only difference is that Mr. Smalltown-Cheap was not known to use the phrase, "Let me be very, very, clear about this".
Martin learned from the master and learned very well. The same cannot be said of Canadian voters - who make Charlie Brown look like an all-star, when year after year Lucy pulls the football away and yet again, Charlie Brown ends up flat on his back.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it". - George Santayana

Liberal Mantra: Do As I Say - Not As I Do

2006-01-02T03:22:00.000-07:00

Recently, the Liberals brought an 8 year old speech by Stephen Harper to the media's attention with the obvious intention of scaring voters away from the Conservatives.

Unfortunately for Alex Munter, a former Ottawa city councillor and well-known gay rights activist and his apparent Liberal coconspirator, Brian Guest, who just happens to be one of Paul Martin's closest advisers, an unusually intrepid reporter uncovered the setup.

In attempting to deny that there was any ulterior motive involved, Munter said: "What's relevant here is the content of the speech, ..... Let's have it on the table and let people decide what they think of that. People have a right to know.'' (This about a speech that was given 8 years ago before the party Harper now leads was even founded.)

Curiously, there appears to be a (yet another) double standard at work here:

Last August, in response to the reasoned concerns voiced by several provincial premiers that the new Governor-General might have voted yes in the 1995 referendum, Martin's Quebec lieutenant, federal Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre, echoed Martin's praise for Jean and her husband, saying that "the attacks on their past are irrelevant". (Not wrong, not rude, not untrue .... but "irrelevant attacks" - which choice of words can only be regarded as purposely pejorative.)

So much for letting "people decide what they think...". So much for the "right to know".

Blogging Recipe: Add 1 Cup of Brown Sugar Daily

2006-01-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Spending time on this blog was NOT a New Year's resolution for me. Actually, I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm too old, too cynical, too busy to see this as anything but irrational behavior. If I had anything to say that isn't being said by many others, if there were more than a handful of people reading this, if I was getting paid to do it, if i even liked feeling compelled to pull out my little electronic soapbox in the pathetic hope that my words might somehow assure my immortality, then I would be at peace.

But of course that's not the case. Nothing original, nobody notices, no money changes hands, no immortality, no nothing except the house is a mess, work is ignored, bills are forgotten, friends aren't called, the dog is getting fat while he waits patiently, hoping that I'll remember that I've promised him a hundred times already today (it's now nearly midnight) - we'll go for a walk, just wait a minute for God's sake why are you so impatient? .....

I quit smoking years ago. I've been able to abstain from (other) drugs and even alcohol since my university days. It was all so easy compared to this blogging thing.
I managed to hold out for all of 8 weeks. I had it beat! There was an election but I didn't care. There was bullshit flying everywhere but did I give a damn? Not a chance! I was saved! Until... 3 days ago....

I sneezed as I was clicking on the Globe & Mail bookmark to get my daily dose of methadone for bloggers and in an instant, my newfound salvation had dissolved - undone by the one blogging bookmark I had forgotten to delete - Captain's Quarters! Suddenly, it all came rushing back as if it were only yesterday: What the hell do they mean by telling me that I don't have a right to know... publication ban .... hmmm.. google on 'Gomery Inquiry American Blogger' there! found it!

Little did I realize that fateful day how my life would be consumed due to my reckless curiosity. If only I had stuck to the MSM, I would be blissfully unaware of all these things that voters shouldn't trouble themselves about..... Sigh....

Insidious, reckless, a waste of time, of money, everything......
Well, on the bright side, there is one thing about blogging that makes it different from other drugs: at least you can't get arrested for blogging..........

[Leastwise, not until we post election returns before all the polls close on election night! ;) ]

Happy New Year to all

Hey Paul: It IS The Law Stupid!

2006-01-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

News item: Martin backs effort to keep gun-crime suspects in jail

This sounds like a great idea doesn't it? Mr. 25-watt-light-bulb has figured out a way to improve the justice system: Put the accused in jail before they have a chance to plea bargain. What do you suppose will happen? Of course!
The Innocent-until-proven-guilties will be falling over themselves to plead guilty, get sentenced to time served so they can get back to business as fast as possible. No need for plea bargaining now! Lawyers will find themselves out of work. (And don't forget that criminals are traditionally credited with double time off their sentence for jail time prior to conviction! So actually what will happen is they'll spend even less time behind bars than they do now!) What a win-win-win situation: The crooks are happy, the government looks good, justice is seen to be done in a timely manner and who needs lawyers! Wow Paul - absolutely brilliant!

Just one minor detail - in the case of Toronto for instance: How many empty cells do you suppose there are in the Don Jail? What's that you say? It's already filled to overflowing because of budget cuts for so many years? No Prob! That's what early parole is all about.
Yessir, Paullie has an answer for every voter. Just give him your vote and he'll give you an answer. That's the Lieberal way!

Serious question #1: Isn't there a single investigative journalist in all of Canada who can find a quote unquote "legal/constitutional expert" who will explain in plain English to Canadian voters before the electionwhy this simplistic bullshit pre-election rhetoric is exactly that?
The Canadian federal government (aka the Liberal Party of Canada) has spent the last 25 years since Trudeau repatriated the Constitution, trying to ensure that the legal system would come to a complete standstill before the rights of a single accused could ever be compromised. Not to mention the effect that all the Liberal judicial appointees will continue to have for years to come, in spite of any democratic protestations on the part of law-abiding citizens.

The problem has NEVER been the laws. It's the enforcement of them as you so well know , you multi-millionaire control freak.

Bill C-1 of Canada's 39th Parliament? Dare We Hope?

2005-11-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Friday, November 04, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper says a Conservative government would immediately introduce sweeping ethics legislation to ban corporate donations to political parties, restrict lobbying, and hand more power to the auditor general.

The Tory leader released details Friday of his proposed Federal Accountability Act, which he says would be the first piece of legislation introduced by his government.
Harper told a gathering of his MPs they should leave the party if they plan to replace the Liberals without changing Ottawa's culture.

"This exercise will be meaningless unless our government is different. We must do nothing less than replace the culture of entitlement with the culture of accountability. . . . We are going to change the way government works, not just change colour on the letterhead."

His proposed accountability act would:

-Set a $1,000 limit on personal donations to a political party, and ban corporate and union donations.

-Ban cash donations of more than $20: "This means no more big interests lobbying the prime minister behind closed doors at $5,000-a-ticket cocktail parties."

-Ban former cabinet ministers, ministerial staffers, or senior public officials from lobbying government for five years.

-Require all ministers and senior officials to keep records of their contacts with lobbyists.

-Set out penalties that would enforce the Lobbyists Registration Act and make the lobbyists' registrar an officer of Parliament: "Politics will no longer be a stepping stone to a lucrative career lobbying government."

-Create a public-appointments commission to set merit-based requirements for appointments to government boards, commissions and agencies.

-Broaden the auditor general's role, allowing her not just to investigate government spending but also to follow the money trail to political parties.

-Hire a new procurement auditor to monitor government contracts.

-Ban trust funds for individual candidates' campaigns.

-Establish cash rewards for whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing or save taxpayer dollars.

-Extend the Access to Information Act to cover Crown corporations, and review the current exemption of cabinet secrets from the act.

Harper repeated his promise that a Tory government would sue the Liberal party over the sponsorship scandal.

Harper Appears on MSM Radar

2005-11-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

I can't remember ever seeing a CP story which actually enumerated Harper's proposals to the exclusion (for the most part) of hack flak from Liberal bots and mouthpieces. Not only the reporter, Alexander Panetta, deserves some credit; it's perhaps all the more amazing that this story was carried in The Montreal Gazette, which has been one of Harper's most persistant crtics in the past.
We can only hope that this is a sign of more balanced reporting that Canadians have a right to expect and news media has a responsibility to provide.

The "CSI" Effect

2005-10-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

A DNA expert is warning the public about what she calls the "CSI Effect."

TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation are giving juries unrealistic expectations about DNA evidence, Janne Holmgren told a justice conference in Calgary.

Holmgren, a consultant who specializes in DNA, cited a case in the United States of a man who shot his wife in front of witnesses at a fast food restaurant.

Police took his fingerprints off the gun and tested the bullet to confirm it came from the same gun. She says jurors still didn't convict the man because they wanted DNA evidence linking him to the scene.

DNA Expert Warns About CSI Effect

Remote-Controlled Humans: (The Next Generation?)

2005-10-27T17:33:00.000-06:00

Wearing a headset, the Associated Press business writer Yuri Kageyama leans to her left as she is remote-controlled by a technology that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Japan's top phone company, is developing during a demonstration at an NTT research in Atsugi, near Tokyo, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2005. Called galvanic vestibular stimulation in scientific jargon, it means electricity is messing with the delicate nerve tissues inside the ear to maintain balance and make people move to the left or right against their will.

Remote Control Device 'Controls' Humans

Could there be a connection between that story and this story?

Weather patterns, environmental change and military and industrial underwater seismic testing have all been blamed for whale strandings.

Last week, a coalition of environmental groups sued the
U.S. Navy over the use of sonar, saying that the ear-splitting sounds can cause mass whale and dolphin strandings and internal bleeding.

Disorientation seen in mass Australia whale deaths

Jack Gets Early Start On Christmas Shopping

2005-10-25T12:18:00.000-06:00

NDP Leader Jack Layton and Prime Minister Paul Martin will hold talks Tuesday about the future of health care and what legislation will be handled in this parliamentary session.
"We're not sitting down to bargain," Martin told reporters Monday. "What we're doing is we're going to sit down to ensure, as I would hope, between the two parties, how we can make Parliament work."

".....how we can make Parliament work"! Wow! For a man with the balls to say that about how he manipulates Parliament as shamelessly as he does, it's a wonder he doesn't have at least 32 children, all with brown eyes.

The last time they sat down to "talk", it cost Canadian taxpayer $4.6B

Read complete story here.

Democracy: Buffet Style

2005-10-24T19:13:00.000-06:00

It occurred to me as I was reading about the B.C. teachers voting to return to work, that this was a 'textbook' example of the old cliché: do as I say not as I do.
They respected one mainstay of democracy - the democratic vote - in order to decide whether they would continue to disrespect another mainstay of democracy - the judicial system. Seems a bit ironic to me. Role models indeed.

Canadian Government Helps Syrian Killers

2005-10-22T15:04:00.000-06:00

The United Nations investigation of the killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has found "the brother of Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, and other members of his inner circle" responsible for the assassination. Apparently the U.N. intended to withhold the names of those actually believed responsible, but due to a computer/email gaffe, the complete report including the names of those deemed responsible has become public knowledge.
Read complete story: UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri (h/t to NealeNews)

One of the Syrians found responsible for the murder was identified in the U.N. report as General Bahjat Suleyman, who "was until June, the head of the internal affairs section of the powerful General Security Department, the main civilian intelligence service".

On June 24th, the CBC reported that: "Canada has issued visitors' visas to the daughter and daughter-in-law of a hard-line Syrian general so they could give birth to their children in Canada, says a published report.
Zeina Khair, daughter-in-law of Syrian Gen. Bahjat Suleiman, left Canada this spring after giving birth to a girl in Montreal, the Globe and Mail reported Friday.
Suleiman is the former head of Syrian interior intelligence and a key figure in the country's dictatorial government.
His seven-months pregnant daughter Randala Suleiman has also received a tourist visa and intends to visit Montreal to give birth, said the Globe.

According to the report, which cites sources close to the situation, it's common for the children of senior Syrian officials to deliver their children in Canada to give them citizenship and a place to receive a low-cost education.

The two women, Khair and Suleiman, had previously delivered babies in Canada, in 2002 and 2003 respectively, said the Globe.
Those visas were issued by the Canadian Embassy in Damascus following a request from the Syrian general. The ambassador in Damascus at the time was Franco Pillarella."

And what does Canada get for this? Remember Mr. Arar, the Canadian citizen who insists he was tortured in Syria?
Looks to me as if the patronage and corruption in our government is more pervasive than even Ms. Fraser realizes.

Wouldn't it be neat if the U.S invades Syria and these guys show up in Canada claiming dual citizenship and/or refugee status? I'm sure they'd be perfect candidates to become model Canadians, thankful to live in a free, democratic country, and thankful to have the jobs that no one else wants!

Syrian hardliner's family given visas for Canadian births: report

If you have a strong stomach, here is a picture of the body of Mr. Hariri at the scene of his murder. (Warning: The picure is graphic) Our government helps the dictator who did this.

Shouldn't decent people feel a sense of outrage? Read the comments of the Lebanese citizens which accompany the picture. What do you suppose they think of Canada and Canadians for supporting these killers?

What do you think of your tax dollars being spent to make life better for their families while legitimate refugees can only dream of getting this kind of preferential treatment from our government?

Rapist Caught After Forcing Victim To Write Cheque

2005-10-22T13:12:00.000-06:00

Ever watch those 'Dumb Criminal" shows on TV? Ever wonder how they can be so stupid? (My favourite was the security guard who put a bag over his head while robbing his own store after it closed, figuring nobody would recognize him in his uniform). Anyway here's another contender for idiot of the year. As the story points out, the penalty for rape in Florida is life in prison!

Read Complete Story Here.

The Smell of a Rat

2005-10-20T10:09:00.000-06:00

When I first heard the Toronto Star story claiming that the preliminary Gomery report would blame Chretien and exonerate Martin, a little voice somewhere instantly said 'Bullshit'. How extraordinarily coincidental, I thought, that the Toronto Star , of all sources, should be the one to break this 'story'.
Lorne Gunter's blog in today's National Post puts words to my instinctive hunch.

We already know, or at least we should accept, that the Toronto Star is one of the most politically biased sources of Liberal propaganda in the country; what else is new?
The real story here is the secondary propaganda 'tools' which picked up this 'story' and simply parroted the Star's version - not for an instant feeling any compunction to source the story or otherwise vet it.
This is the real travesty of Canadian MSM - that so much of it has lost all appreciation for objective reporting that they now are mindless accomplices in the production of partisan political propaganda.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for any of them to admit they've been had like bunko victims. Only they're not the real victims - we are.

Phew! Made It!

2005-10-19T21:10:00.000-06:00

I'm relieved to be back home (from my trip to Florida) and apparently I'm back just in time too. The latest hurricane, Wilma, is shaping up to be potentially even stronger than Katrina. Barometric pressure readings on Wednesday have been below 900mb all day which only occurred momentarily with Katrina while it was a Cat 5.

I really feel sorry for those people in the affected areas. Much of last year's hurricane damage in south Florida hasn't been fixed and as if that wasn't enough, Katrina caused much more damage than the media has reported - due to their preoccupation with New Orleans.

The past 2 weeks have reminded me just how fortunate I am to live in Canada - and especially Alberta: no earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes - just the occasional tornado. No disease, famine, civil war, minimal crime and poverty, and one of the highest standards of living in the world. Sometimes, issues like Paul Martin's (lack of) integrity seem utterly trivial to me.

I have a lot of work to take care of, so I probably won't have time to post again until the weekend.

2005-10-05T22:29:00.000-06:00

I'll be away from my computer until approximately Oct. 18th on a business trip to Florida (recklessly tempting fate by ignoring my own doomsday posts on hurricanes.)
Thanks to all who have ever stopped by and a special thank you to anyone who has done so more than once.

In the meantime, here's a site that you might want to bookmark. It's called the Darwin Awards and is dedicated to those selfless souls who have made the ultimate sacrifice to the human genome by removing themselves from it with dramatic and creative flourish.
In order to qualify, death must be accidental, but self-inflicted, meaning that in most cases, noone ~~was~~ would have been more surprised at winning a Darwin Award than the award winners themselves.

The Darwin Awards

Honda Designs Dog-Friendly Car

2005-10-05T09:35:00.000-06:00

One more reason to have a dog! As a dog 'owner', I'm thrilled at the prospect of being able to stay home when the weather's bad but Rover insists on going out anyway. Not to mention him having no excuse for not getting a 6-pack on the way home.
And although Albertans have known for years how to get home safely after a night on the town, this new car certainly promises greater comfort for both the driver and passenger.

Read complete story here

Game Over on Called 3rd Strike at CBC! WP: Don Cherry, LP: Robert Rabinovitch

2005-10-04T12:37:00.000-06:00

It appears that contrary to all the 'logic' of Canadian cultural gurus, Don Cherry is in and Robert Rabinovitch is on the way out. Apparently 3 strikes during his relatively brief tenure at the CBC are too many for even the Liberanos to swallow any longer.
Read Three Strikes And You're Out!

And if you're wondering why there had to be a third strike at the CBC (when there had already been two confrontations that clearly demonstrated his lack of qualification for any administrative job), read this story from Nov. 4, 2004 (when he was given a new 5 year contract):
Prime Minister Martin Gives Ringing Endorsement of Rabinovitch

Here's a highlight of PMPM's effusive endorsement: "Mr. Rabinovitch is well-known for his outstanding career achievements in both the public and private sectors, and for his long-standing commitment to Canada's cultural industry. He is admired and respected by his peers, and I am very pleased that he has agreed to continue his work at the CBC", Martin said in a statement.

Free Speech and Justice: Chinese Style

2005-10-04T00:28:00.000-06:00

From the BBC - Oct. 3, 2005 (h/t to Yahoo News!):

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has accused Yahoo of being "a police informant for the Chinese regime", following allegations that information supplied by the company helped jail a journalist.
"Rather than accept everything the Chinese authorities say, the big players could find a common position saying they will stick to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their own values," said Julien Pain, head of the Internet Freedom desk for Reporters Without Borders.
"It is a myth that China is so powerful that it is impossible to discuss anything with them," he added.

Human rights watchdog Privacy International has called for a worldwide consumer boycott of Yahoo.
"A boycott would send a clear message to Yahoo shareholders and other companies which cheerfully sacrifice human rights in return for a cut of the Chinese market," said Privacy International director Simon Davies.

Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist at the centre of the Yahoo controversy, was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for sending, via e-mail, the text of an internal Communist Party message to foreign websites.
The message warned journalists about the dangers of social unrest as a result of the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

In essence then, Shi Tao forwarded an email which had been distributed by the government to members of the Chinese media, the content of which was a 'reminder' to the Chinese media that they should be careful not to encourage social unrest through their reporting of the return of the dissidents. Keeping this in mind, read and marvel at the court's intrepretation of this 'crime' which it is important to remember, was the simple act of passing on a government warning which, it may be assumed, was freely available due to it's very nature:

"This court finds that, in order (to) leak information to hostile elements outside of the country, defendant Shi Tao intentionally and illegally provided information that he knew to be top-secret level state secrets to an entity outside of the country. Having endangered state security and involving especially serious circumstances, his actions constitute the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.
Therefore, the court accepts the prosecution’s charge that Shi Tao’s actions constitute the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities. Defendant Shi Tao argued in his defense: “My criminal act of providing state secrets to foreign entities did not involve especially serious circumstances.” This was investigated and it was found that, according to Item 1 of Article 2 of the Supreme People’s Court’s “Explanation on Certain Questions Regarding the Specific Application of the Law when Trying Cases of Stealing, Gathering, Procuring, or Illegally Providing State Secrets or Intelligence Outside of the Country,” stealing, gathering, procuring, or illegally providing state secrets are crimes with “especially serious circumstances.” The state secrets that defendant Shi Tao illegally provided outside of the country were verified by the State Secrecy Bureau as being top-secret level state secrets, and his actions should be considered to involve especially serious circumstances. Therefore, the defense argument cannot be accepted by this court.

Once they made the quantum leap where a press advisory became a 'State Secret', Shi Tao's fate was sealed. Presumably the same ingenious logic could be applied to a laundry list or a 'secret' recipe for wonton soup, should it suit their purpose.

The complete text (with English translation at the end) of the court's 'decision' is in a pdf file here.

Read complete BBC story here.

And here is a second article: Web companies too cozy with China, from the Anniston Star.

Afterthought: If you read the actual proceedings, you'll find that the person to whom Shi Tao was found guilty of betraying "State Secrets" was "overseas hostile element Hong Zhesheng from China’s Taiwan Province, resident of New York in the USA".

Question: How did the Chinese Court decide that this Taiwanese resident of the USA was a 'Hostile Element'? Doesn't the U.S. State Department have anything to say about this? If things are so cozy between the US and China, then why is this subversive element tolerated in the US? If not, why isn't the US speaking up for Democracy in China?
Let's get this straight: If you have strategic supplies like oil, then the US Armed Forces are right there beside you. But if you're one of the largest trading partners of the US, then you can say anything you want and you don't even get a crummy press release expressing indignation at the implied connection between the US and "Hostile Elements".

And here is the trial evidence provided by Yahoo which helped convict this newspaper editor of (essentially) treason: "4. Account holder information furnished by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd., which confirms that for IP address 218.76.8.201 at 11:32:17 p.m. on April 20, 2004, the corresponding user information was as follows: user telephone number: 0731-4376362 located at the Contemporary Business News office in Hunan; address: 2F, Building 88, Jianxiang New Village, Kaifu District, Changsha" (ie- Shi Tao's newspaper office).

Actually, being jailed for 10 years might be considered a light sentence by many Chinese. Last week, I posted this:

"If his bicycle were red, or black, he'd be alive today......"

The next time you think of going here, consider this.

Daisy's Quack Doesn't Echo - Or Does It?

2005-10-02T13:15:00.000-06:00

In response to the huge number of readers who have begged me to investigate this ethereal question, I am pleased to report: Mission Accomplished!
A British acoustics firm has exhaustively analyzed Daisy's quacks and provides the definitive answer here.

Are Bank Charges Excessive?

2005-10-02T12:54:00.000-06:00

I thought the banks I deal with charged usurious fees for various types of account activity. You'll be thankful for small mercies after reading this story about how much British banks charge for some 'services'. (Keep in mind that a British pound is worth more than $2.00)

Bank Charges Face Regulation in Britain.

And while I'm on the subject, why do politicians and activist groups in Canada become so self-righteously indignant when the price of gasoline goes up? While it's true that oil company profits are stupendous, at least they reinvest billions of dollars in exploration, research and development. By comparison, bank profits make the oil companies look like pikers and the only thing banks seem to invest in is ever-increasing automation of services in order to cut payroll costs. I'd rather get a paycheque from an oil company than a bank any day. (As a fellow Albertan blogger would say: WTF?)

New-car Smell Emerges As Safety Issue

2005-10-02T09:56:00.000-06:00

From the Montreal Gazette - Oct. 2, 2005:
"Anyone who's pulled away from the dealer's lot in a shiny, new sedan knows the seductive scent of fresh plastic, paint and upholstery that evokes a rush of pride and consumer satisfaction.
The new-car smell emanates largely from chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that leach from glues, paints, vinyls and plastics in the passenger compartment. The fumes can trigger headaches, sore throats, nausea and drowsiness. Prolonged exposure to some of the chemicals can lead to cancer, though there's no evidence linking that to concentrations in cars.
Critics liken the problem to so-called sick-building syndrome, which traces some illnesses to similar agents seeping from the walls, carpets and fixtures of new buildings.
Just sitting in a new car can subject riders to toxic emissions several times the limits deemed safe for homes or offices by some health authorities, though the problem tends to dissipate after about six months, according to a 2001 study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
'We find new car interiors have much higher VOC levels than any building we've researched,' research leader Steve Brown said."

New-car smell emerges as safety issue

National Post Insults Readers With Wilkins Story

2005-10-02T01:33:00.000-06:00

'Ambassador David Wilkins "respectfully disagreed" yesterday with undiplomatic comments by his Canadian counterpart Frank McKenna, who called the United States government dysfunctional.'

The National Post ran this story with the headline: 'U.S. Envoy Says Insults Hurtful'

The story aside, I'd like to know what creative genius decided to use the word 'insult' in this headline. Nowhere in the reporting of Mr. Wilkins comments is he quoted as calling Mr. McKenna's remarks 'insults'.
Apparently, this is a textbook example of the CanWest approach to news 'reporting': make sure readers are suitably manipulated before they even have a chance to form their own opinion.
Izzy Asper would be so proud of what his boy has 'accomplished' with the National Post.

To their credit I suppose, the National Post did allow this reader's letter to be published:
So Much For Diplomatic Discretion.

OH WAIT!!! How about this for coincidence??? (h/t to Wikipedia!)

Following the announcement of his appointment as Canadian ambassador to Washington, Frank McKenna resigned his position as ..... interim chairman of the board of CanWest Global Communications, a post he assumed upon the death of its founder and chairman Israel Asper.

How subtle, how devious, how disgusting - 999/1000 readers will never realize they're being manipulated. How effective.

Yet another interesting link: Here is a bit of background on Frank McKenna which includes the fascinating fact that both he and former US Ambassador to Canada, Frank Carlucci are members of the Carlyle group, along with relatives of Osama bin Laden. What an incredibly small world. No doubt another trivial coincidence. Damn! The bottle of Kaopectate is empty again.

First Time: Biologists Observe Wild Gorillas Using Tools!

2005-10-01T00:50:00.000-06:00

For the first time, biologists have documented gorillas in the wild using simple tools.
Until now, scientists had seen gorillas use tools only in captivity. Among the great apes, tool use in the wild was thought to be a survival skill reserved for smaller chimpanzees and orangutans.

Read complete story

Newest Strain of Bird Flu is 'Resistant to Main Drug'

2005-10-01T00:12:00.000-06:00

A strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus that may unleash the next global flu pandemic is showing resistance to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that countries around the world are now stockpiling to fend off the looming threat.

Read Complete Story

For a different perspective (and a sobering reminder of just how mortal we all are), go here: Why Bird Flu Won't Matter Either Way.

"Many humans are worried about this, and rightly so. After all, what if ...(you die)..? There’s still so many nice things to buy!"

So You Think The Red Cross Does What? .....Sorry. Guess Again!

2005-09-28T14:02:00.000-06:00

From Newsday (Sept. 27, 2005):

"The (American) Red Cross reports it spent $111 million last year on fundraising alone. Its fundraising vastly outruns its programs because it does very little or nothing to rescue survivors, provide direct medical care or rebuild houses. After 9/11, the Red Cross collected more than $1 billion, a record in philanthropic fundraising after a disaster. But the Red Cross could do little more than trace missing people, help a handful of people in shelters and provide food to firefighters, police, paramedics and evacuation crews."

What Does The Red Cross Actually Do?

This Hurricane Season Has Damaged More Than Buildings

2005-09-28T10:45:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how numbing television news images can be. No matter how horrible they are, no matter how compassionate viewers may otherwise be, it takes but a few minutes to become immune to human suffering - as long as you're on the receiving end of a television signal.
When I was watching the long line of people waiting to enter the Superdome before Hurricane Katrina, I was struck by two things: the peoples' apparent willingness (or more likely resignation) to make the best of a bad situation as well as the inane questions and behavior of the news media.

What I completely missed picking up on was the blanket violation of civil rights that was taking place in front of the entire world. Judging by the tone of this op-ed piece, it will be a long time before "The Shame of the Superdome" is forgotten by many Americans:

"This is the real story of the Louisiana Superdome. Hurricane Katrina can certainly destroy the environs of Louisiana and her neighboring states, but that can all be rebuilt. What will never be rebuilt is the dignity of the poorest citizens of that region, since the government acted with a greater destructive force than a hurricane. The lamp of freedom has been blown out by force-five bureaucrats, their sycophants and their head-embedded media enablers who will insure that it will never get re-ignited".

Meanwhile, it was barely a year ago (Sept. 16, 2004) that The Superdome was used to provide shelter during Hurricane Ivan. How soon they forget. A night in the Superdome: 'This is the best I've eaten in a while'

Everything Has a Price

2005-09-28T10:29:00.000-06:00

"If his bicycle were red, or black, he'd be alive today......"

The next time you think of going here, consider this.

Katrina May Have Freed Willy's Evil Twin

2005-09-27T23:28:00.000-06:00

In addition to causing mayhem and death, Hurricane Katrina might also have released up to three dozen specially trained US military dolphins.

There has been speculation that the supposed missing dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are dangerous and could be armed with poisonous darts. The navy has said there is no such thing as "killer dolphins."

From Der Spiegal, see complete story and 9 photos

And here are some tips from the U.S. Navy on how you can teach a dolphin to do tricks. (Let me know when they've mastered flyball.)

Virtual Birdflu? A Precursor of the Real Thing?

2005-09-25T14:37:00.000-06:00

If You're Poor, Stay Away From Hurricanes

2005-09-23T00:44:00.000-06:00

Like most people, I've allowed myself to be reassured by the talking heads on MSM TV that lessons have been learned from Katrina and that everyone's being taken care in advance of Hurricane Rita. Or so I thought until I came across this story from the Galveston (Texas) Daily News: No Way Out

For some reason, reading this story reminded me of a businessman I knew who lived very well by carrying on the business his father had created. Whenever the subject of welfare and poverty came up, his response was always along the lines of: "Make them a get a job. They're just too damn lazy. Why should we give them anything?"

He couldn't have cared less about hurricane victims or these people if his life had depended on it. The real question is: who's willing to help them?

The Enemy Within

2005-09-22T21:07:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post reported recently that:

in the United States, approximately three out of every 1,000 people are HIV-positive (less than ½ of 1 percent). In the nation's capital. however, the rate of infection is closer to 50 out of 1,000. That means 5% of the population of Washington, D.C. has AIDS. Or to put it another way, on average, in any group of 20 people, whether it be at school, church, restaurant or university, 1 person in each of these groups has AIDS.

Based on CIA statistics, if the District of Columbia were a country, it would rank 11th in the world in HIV prevalence, between Mozambique (1 in 14) and Tanzania (1 in 23).

Read complete article here.

Don't Say You Weren't Invited!

2005-09-22T13:10:00.000-06:00

When the Alberta government announced a few days ago that all Albertans would get a dividend cheque for several hundred dollars, there were many Canadians who complained about being left out. Well, as a (in)famous Canadian likes to say: Let me be very, very clear about this - you needn't feel left out any longer!

For all Canadians (indeed anyone, anywhere) here's your chance to share in the rewards that Albertans are reaping for enduring years of belt-tightening and penny-pinching. The Alberta government is giving away - with no strings attached - $400.00 to every man woman and child who is a resident of Alberta at any time during 2005. So come one, come all, everyone, everywhere is invited to share in our good fortune.

For those of you who might find it inconvenient to actually come to Alberta for a free vacation here's a link that tells you how to redirect your mail to anywhere in Canada ....wink, wink ...nudge, nudge.....

And please, next time you talk about Albertans, how about saying something nice?

Gas Prices: The Worst is Yet to Come

2005-09-22T11:29:00.000-06:00

Hurricane Rita is headed directly towards facilities that provide almost 25% of the total US oil refining capacity. Analysts are now saying that if these facilities are significantly affected by Hurricane Rita, gasoline prices may hit 5.00$US/gal which would be more than double the price in July.
This would translate to gas prices from 1.33$C/litre to 1.60$C/litre in Canada.

These huge increases in transportation costs will materially affect everyone's life within a short period of time. Anyone who thinks that only drivers of gas guzzlers will suffer is delusional. Obvious everyday things that will be affected include travel: air travel, taxis and public transit, and transportation of virtually all consumer goods including food. One of the greatest impacts will be on those who rely on home heating fuel - which will affect home owners and renters alike - particularly those on fixed incomes.
I can't imagine how this won't lead to overall inflation rates not seen in a generation. Ultimately, increased fuel prices will result in greater class distinction: the 'haves' (who can absorb the additional costs) and the 'have nots' who will perceive the 'American Dream' to be just that, a dream.

Update:
In the time it took to finish this post, gas prices in Ontario have already exceeded my estimates. Good luck to all, especially truckers and taxi drivers, who have no control over how much they're allowed to charge for their services.

(I notice that this pic is becoming more 'popular' as the day goes on......... I'm flattered. Thanks guys.)

This is NOT a Misprint!

2005-09-22T11:15:00.000-06:00

From the latest advisory issued by the the National Hurricane Centre:

"RAINFALL TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 25 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE AFTER RITA MOVES INLAND.

Handbook For Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents

2005-09-22T09:38:00.000-06:00

From Yahoo:
"A Paris-based media watchdog has released a free guide with tips for bloggers and dissidents to sneak past Internet censors in countries from China to
Iran.
Reporters Without Borders' "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" is partly financed by the French Foreign Ministry and includes technical advice on how to remain anonymous online. It was launched at the Apple Expo computer show in Paris on Thursday and can be downloaded in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, English and French".

Here is an excerpt from Reporters Without Borders website:

"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.
Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles".

Fill your Tank With Virgin Oil?

2005-09-21T09:26:00.000-06:00

According to this story, Richard Branson, the "Virgin" tycoon, is giving serious thought to building a "2 billion dollar" oil-refinery somewhere in the world - ideally "near the biggest market which is North America." He claims to have been approached by the government of Newfoundland to build it there.
Which makes me realize that Newfoundland is probably even better situated than Alberta to separate from Canada, if their oil reserves are as large as anticipated. After all, Newfoundland has only been part of Canada for 56 years and the Federal government hasn't made any friends there with the incompetent handling of the fisheries industry which was the lifeblood of Newfoundland for hundreds of years.

Honour Among Thieves

2005-09-21T01:56:00.000-06:00

The following was reported by CTV in an interview with Stephen Lewis, following the publication of Peter Newman's 'exposé of Brian Mulroney.
How remarkable to hear these words of praise for Mulroney coming from a committed dipper like Lewis. As hard as I try, I can't imagine Jack Layton saying such things about any Conservative, except maybe Joe Clark.

"If you think about it, the Mulroney position on South Africa and the opposition to apartheid was a far more principled position than had been true of (former prime minister) Pierre Trudeau," said Lewis, who was speaking in Edmonton Saturday night.
"What the Liberals were prepared to tolerate ... this outrageous evisceration of a people, Mulroney was not prepared to tolerate."
Lewis, who is currently the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, also said the Conservatives under Mulroney were more generous in their approach to foreign aid. In 1989 the Tories gave 0.5 per cent of the Gross National Product to foreign aid.
The Liberals under Prime Minister Paul Martin contribute only 0.32 per cent of the nation's GNP.
"It was the Paul Martin budget of the 1990s that brought us down to 0.23 (per cent of GNP),'' Lewis said.
"Looking at those international issues, Mulroney was much better than the Liberals. Those were issues of real principle and he took a very important position on all of them."

Ah, the good old days, when there was honour among thieves.

How Many Cities Can They Afford to Rebuild?

2005-09-21T00:02:00.000-06:00

Despite all the brave rhetoric about building New Orleans bigger and better, the harsh reality is that the cost of rebuilding any modern city is, for all practical purposes, beyond human comprehension. In economic terms the rebuilding of New Orleans is now estimated to be at least 200 billion dollars. Even the US economy cannot absorb such a cost without some pain somewhere, whether it be increased taxes, postponed government spending or perhaps even a minor recession due to lower consumer confidence. (Undoubtedly, the Iraq campaign will be given extremely close scrutiny in the near future.)

In a previous post, I questioned the wisdom of rebuilding New Orleans because for all anyone knows, subsequent hurricanes might cause even worse damage in the future. In fact, some forecasters are predicting that this is only the beginning of a recurring 20-year cycle of increased hurricane activity.
Of course it only took a few days for political emotion to prevail so that every politician from the president on down (with the notable exception of Bill Frist) was mouthing the requisite promises to make everything right.
Well, it now appears quite possible that Hurricane Rita will pick up where Katrina left off. At this time, the most likely point of landfall will be near Galveston Texas, a city which, if you can believe it, is even less able to cope with a severe hurricane than New Orleans was. Not only that, but Galveston was destroyed once already by a Hurricane in 1900.

Galveston is built on Galveston ISLAND, averages about 10 feet above sea level and is connected to the mainland by ONE causeway, which is closed whenever winds exceed 39mph! It has a population of 65,000 people who require approximately 40 hours to evacuate to the mainland - before the causeway is closed by 40mph winds!. (Whoever is left in Galveston when a hurricane hits, is like a rat on a sinking ship - literally- or as the Galveston Director of Emergency Preparedness puts it: "We call those people (who haven't evacuated) statistics."

So at this point, Mr. Bush might be excused for wondering whether he will have a second billion dollar catastrophe on his hands within a month. If Rita should hit Galveston as a category 4 or 5 hurricane, there is no doubt that the city will be significantly damaged.

If that should happen, Mr. Bush will be facing the following tough dilemmas: Can his government afford to commit to rebuilding 2 cities (keep in mind that the hurricane season won't be over for another 10 weeks!), can he rebuild one city but not the second (in his own home state of all places), will he be accused of favouritism in allocation of disaster relief, will he be forced to leave Iraq (which would be the most wonderful propaganda gift that Allah could ever bestow on Islamic terrorism - not unlike leaving Saigon in the 70s), would isolationism take hold as a result, would all the troops coming home at once precipitate a recession and possible social unrest due to lack of job opportunities which are being permanently lost overseas, would the destruction of a second city in one month provoke serious discussion about the merits of establishing a 'no-build' zone along the Gulf of Mexico?

Link here to local news in Galveston, Texas.

Update: And speaking of complaints of favouritism (or more likely political opportunism), no sooner did I finish the original post, than I find this news item:
Democratic critics said the preparation for Rita seemed to exceed those for Katrina, and called anew for an independent panel to investigate why.

"It's nice to have the Bush administration recognize the importance of a federal response to Rita, but why weren't they proactively mobilizing and organizing like this for Katrina?" said Rebecca Kirszner, a spokeswoman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"These are the questions that need to be asked by an independent commission," Kirszner said.

Gone Phishin'

2005-09-16T13:13:00.000-06:00

Accu-Weather Forecast (For The Rest of Your Life)

2005-09-15T00:06:00.000-06:00

(See Update at end of original post: Sept 15th)

Here are some intriguing weather predictions which come from a somewhat improbable source. The author is not, as you might expect, Greenpeace or David Suzuki, but rather Munich Re, one of the largest insurance companies in the world. If this analysis is anything to go by, it would appear that the insurance industry is not waiting for the rest of us to decide whether or not global warming is a serious issue.

From their website:
"Munich Re Group is one of the world's largest reinsurers and the second-largest primary insurer in Germany. 5,000 insurance companies in around 160 countries rely on Munich Re's expertise and financial strength.
Among other things, we reinsure the risks of oil rigs, satellites and natural catastrophes, and those arising from the use of genetic engineering and information technology or from corporate management."

Here are some excerpts from their assessment of the effects of global warming (published before Hurricane Katrina):

The effects of climate change:

It is indisputable that a warmer climate will lead to the atmosphere having a higher water vapour content. The upshot will not only be larger amounts of precipitation generally but also extreme rain intensities in regional or local severe weather situations especially during the summer, as observations in many places have confirmed over the past few years in particular.

The costs that arise from flood events and in connection with them must therefore be expected to increase dramatically. Particularly over dense urban areas — i.e. areas with high concentrations of values — the more intense convection may lead to local severe weather events that induce extreme precipitation intensities.

These often involve a high density of lightning strokes, hailstorms, and gale-force gusts, sometimes even tornadoes. On account of the large proportion of impervious surfaces in urban areas, the torrential rain runs straight into the drainage systems, which are not designed to cope with such volumes, with the result that underpasses, cellars, and sometimes subway tunnels are flooded with water.

Much milder and wetter winters expected:

At the same time, the trends observed in recent decades and the climate models lead us to expect much milder and wetter winters in many regions. This will have a substantial impact on the flood risk because precipitation will come in the form of rain rather than snow.

Without the buffer that snow provides, the precipitation runs off directly into rivers and streams. This effect is intensified by the fact that in winter — when the level of evaporation is low — the soil is almost completely saturated so that the surface acts as a natural impervious cover.

Furthermore, for about 30 years now, Europe has seen a distinct increase in westerly weather patterns during the winter; these are very rainy low-pressure systems that often trigger floods.

This development is due at least in part to anthropogenic global warming and is likely to continue and even accelerate in the future. As it will be impossible to reverse for decades to come, design assumptions must take into account that (the risk of) a 100-year discharge will be higher in the future.

The state (governments), the emergency services, the population, and the insurance industry must come to terms with the fact that there will be more frequent and more catastrophic events with generally greater losses.

The full assessment is on Munich Re's website.

If you've got a strong stomach and you'd like a bit more in the same vein, you could order this book online at their website:
Weather catastrophes and climate change - Is there still hope for us?

Update to this post - Sept. 15:
TimR commented: "Munich Re lost much of its credibility when it jumped on board with the environuts in pinning blame for the Dec. 26th tsunami on climate change."

Thanks for raising this point which I have referenced and linked to here:

"The company (Munich Re) called for measures to be taken to counter the climate change that in Munich Re’s opinion was responsible for the (tsunami) disaster".

On the face of it, blaming earthquakes on global warming certainly seems to be completely assinine. However, when you dig a bit deeper, you discover yet again, the fine hand of MSM incompetence. In this case, it appears that the arbitrary condensation of Munich Re's statement, made them look like idiots to any reasoning person. In fact, the Munich Re statement actually said:

"Stefan Heyd, member of Munich Re's Board of Management stated: 'We are shocked at the scale of human tragedy in southern Asia. Many thousands of people have died, as in the devastating earthquake that hit Bam (Iran) exactly one year ago to the day. The terrible effects spreading all around the Indian Ocean and reaching as far as the Horn of Africa are a further reminder of the global threat from natural catastrophes.'

Heyd, whose responsibilities on the Board include corporate underwriting, commented on the weather extremes of 2004 stating: 'They underline our long-standing demand for prompt and rigorous measures against global climate change. After the disappointing outcome of the recent climate summit in Buenos Aires, time is running out.' "

I'll agree that insurance companies are likely to project the worst-case scenario if only to hedge their bets but it's equally obvious that insurance claims due to natural have increased dramatically in the last few years. The vast majority of economic loss is due to wind, water and fire - not earthquakes so it certainly seems to me that outright denial of the possibility of global warming as being a serious issue is somewhat shortsighted. In this case at least, incompetent journalism only makes the task that much harder.

If anyone can provide additional clarification by providing documented sources, please send it along.

Corporate America Bowing to Kyoto Accord Pressure

2005-09-14T21:50:00.000-06:00

I no sooner finished posting the previous item about Munich Re's environmental statements than I find a Reuters report that many large American corporations are preparing to meet Kyoto standards, even though the Bush administration did not sign it! Wonders will never cease. Of course there is a reason: they're afraid that they'll be at a competitive disadvantage in the rest of the world unless they join the parade.

"Growing numbers of U.S. companies are beginning to shape emissions plans for many reasons. Either they have operations in other developed nations subject to carbon regulations, they are preparing for possible future state or federal U.S. regulations, or they are worried about 2012, when current Kyoto regulations could be expanded to developing countries."

Read complete article here.

God?....... God who?

2005-09-14T14:21:00.000-06:00

Ever hear the old expression: It never rains but it pours? Well after just finishing a post where I referred to the erosion of Christian faith in Canada, this news item shows up, which might as well be entitled:
Canadians in the lead but Americans rushing hard to catch up.

Criticising the Critics

2005-09-14T13:43:00.000-06:00

From today's Calgary Herald:
The Klein government's pledge to hand out dividend cheques was assailed Tuesday by political analysts and economists across Canada, who said the move is "short-sighted" and will only spark further acrimony toward Alberta.
I notice that the so-called 'analists' are from across Canada as opposed to across Alberta. Well that explains it right there, doesn't it?

I don't remember Alberta ever telling any Canadian that they couldn't move here if they weren't happy where they were. Which probably explains why Calgary has doubled in size in less than fifteen years.
"......But Alberta is cold, they're all redneck, religious fanatics, it's too far, I've got a pension, I've got a house, I can't afford to move, who'd want to live there?, I'd have to update my resumé, I might have to take a pay cut...." (feel free to add your own excuses here).

Well I'm one of the people who said I'm willing to risk everything by moving to Alberta and that's exactly what I did. And at a rough guess, I'd say half the people in Alberta today moved here from other parts of Canada to get away from the kind of bullshit attitudes that keep this country from being one of the greatest countries in the world.

I moved here with my whole family, and we helped our parents, brothers, sisters and friends to move here over the years (not one of whom has moved back east by the way).
I went broke, my family suffered for many years but we've made it. I'm now starting my third company since moving to Alberta and so far have created jobs for close to 20 people. I'm damn proud of what I've done and if I could have changed anything, I would have moved here 20 years sooner.

So to all you critics who call us selfish, greedy, etc, my question to you is:
Where were you when I was busting my ass to grow a business to employ Canadians in spite of some of the worst taxation and corporate regulations in the world? )Not to mention the unfair competition from Maccompanies which YOU are bankrolling with your pension funds!)
I'll bet you were sitting on your fat asses in Toronto, worrying about your vested pension contributions and spending the day talking to your financial advisor instead of contributing to the GDP like we were. Would you like us to send your share of the rewards for our hard work and sacrifice to to your comfortable homes in Rosedale?
Treat us like shit one month and then covet our hard-earned successes the next month? I think not.

And a special btw to Ontarians whose shorts are in a knot about this: Remember how Ken Dryden brought you a little bit of loose change in May for day care funding? Actually, it was hundreds of millions of who's transfer payments??? Tell you what: I'll send my refund cheque to a food bank in Toronto if someone in Ontario will send an equal amount to a bankrupt beef rancher in Alberta. Deal?

Oh yes, one more thing: No wonder Christianity is frowned on by so many in our society these days: little details like the 10 Commandments would make hypocrites of so many of you.
The 10th Commandment; Verse 17 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house .... nor any thing that is thy neighbour's."
(Note: "Covet" is a word that is gradually going out of usage. One set of definitions of the word is:
1. To wish for enviously.
2. To desire inordinately or culpably ~ vi: to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another.)

Personally, I'm a bit partial to another Christian concept which seems to be falling into disfavour amongst the trendy latté crowd: God helps those who help themselves.

Where Are The Banks?

2005-09-14T13:18:00.000-06:00

As I was finishing up my previous post: "Criticising the Critics", I realized that I forgot to mention the role of the banks in my Alberta success story. Always give credit where credit is due I say.

So I say thanks for nothing to the banks which did sweet tweet to help me and so many other entrepreneurs who had vision but limited capital. And most especially, I curse the Federal Business Development Bank - or whatever they've most recently changed their name to. What a useless bunch of political tools; they get paid with taxpayers' money to screw everyone's dreams, then turn around and give millions to people whose only asset is political connections and whose only experience is how to "work the system".

But I digress. Has anyone else marvelled at how one particular industry is so conspicuous by its almost total absence from the list of corporate donors to hurricane relief in the US?

Is Anyone Paying Attention?

2005-09-14T12:01:00.000-06:00

Updated Sept. 15, 2005

Two things I've learned from studying hurricanes the past few months:
The first is that no matter what happens, no matter what warnings are given, some people won't take hurricanes seriously and the second thing I've learned is that the MSM does very little to earn its money.
The first is no doubt due primarily to basic human nature - the belief that "it happens to other people but it can't happen to me".
The second is primarily due to corporate greed which has left news organizations staffed with talking faces who couldn't find a news story on their own if their lives depended on it.
I mention these two points now because for almost 2 weeks Hurricane Ophelia has lingered off the coast of the southern U.S. yet very few people have paid any attention to it.
And for at least a week, the United States National Hurricane Center has been predicting with amazing accuracy (just as it has been doing with other hurricanes including Katrina) the path of Ophelia as it moves up the Atlantic coast.
What I find truly remarkable about all of this is that for over a week the NHC has consistently projected the path of Ophelia as passing over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Why have we not heard a word of concern from our governments, the Canadian weather service or the Canadian media about this?
Oh right. Of course. Canada doesn't have hurricanes. Just like New Orleans didn't need to worry about Katrina.

Update: The Hurricane Weather Centre of Environment Canada began issuing Canadian storm warnings for Hurricane Ophelia this morning.

2005-09-05T21:20:00.000-06:00

Blogspam: The Final Frontier?

It's Not My Fault; I Just Do What I'm Told

2005-09-05T12:12:00.000-06:00

Last Updated Sept. 5, 2005

Here are some examples of apparent mishandling of responsibility which seem to be all too representative of how the Katrina disaster has being handled by more than a few government officials at various levels of authority. These individuals are all getting paid good money to perform vital duties, and now, in the moment of truth, it would appear that the things they're really good at are blowing smoke and pointing fingers.

That being said, it's questionable whether anything less catastrophic would have forced the powers-that-be to do anything concrete to determine what has gone wrong and actually (maybe) fix it.
And even though the New Orleans mayor and Louisiana governor may not be the sharpest tacks in the drawer, at what point does the federal government's mandate (Homeland Security or FEMA) kick in and override the lower levels of authority because it is clearly a national disaster. Surely it's possible to define a mandate that specifies action within hours of mass destruction and widespread casualties becoming apparent, rather than days later. As President Bush himself is reported to have noted, the affected area is bigger than all of England!

It seems to me that any national government has the obligation to step in when circumstances demonstrate that, for whatever reason, lives are in imminent danger and lower levels of government are unable (again for whatever reason) to prevent it. Seems to me that in the 'old days', this would have been called common sense.

Excerpt from a news report, Sunday Sept. 4th:
On television, (Homeland Security Secretary) Chertoff was omnipresent, dispatched by the administration to appear on all five Sunday news shows after FEMA Director Michael Brown's damage-control efforts met with little success last week.

Chertoff echoed the White House line — saying the time to place blame will come later, but he also said federal officials had trouble getting information from local officials on what was going on. For instance, he said, they hadn't been told by Thursday of the violence and horrible conditions at the New Orleans convention center.
Today's editorial (Sept. 4th) in the Times-Picayune calls this claim "...a baldfaced lie...."

I find this to be a particularly amazing claim considering the graphic 24 hour news reports which have been watched around the world from the moment the hurricane struck three days previously. Perhaps nobody in Washington watches CNN, FoxNews or BBC World News, to say nothing of the other major networks.

..............

From Redstate:

..... Perhaps Mayor Nagin ... (could) ... have used the over two-hundred school buses at a depot in New Orleans (....to evacuate thousands of the less mobile people during the mandatory evacuation preceding the hurricane).
Days later, Nagin complains to CNN, "Right now we are out of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses. We need buses." ......

..............

A second example from a news report on Sunday Set. 4, 2005:
CNN reports that:

... nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina.
Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.
Steve Beaumont, a retired contract manager for Homeland Security's Prepositioned Equipment Program, said the gear would be helpful for fire departments wiped out by the hurricane. Each pod has 200 radios, including sophisticated equipment to make radios inter-operable, tying different communications systems together.

Read complete story at CNN: Firefighting gear stockpile unused

..............

From AP Sept 5,2005:

Beth Sharer, CEO of Washington County Memorial Hospital in Salem, Ind., said she was frustrated by a federal plan to create 40 new emergency medical centers with 250 beds each.
"It's not any one person's fault, but the system failed," she said.
Hospitals around the country were standing by with empty beds, staff, triage centers and air transportation to fetch patients, she said. But they couldn't launch the rescue flights without requests for help, and those requests never came.
"These victims could have been here a week ago, and now they're spending a lot of time and money making triage centers? In situations like this every minute counts, not every day counts. Why not get them to these open beds?" she said.

..............

Frank Russo of the Chicago Ambulance Alliance said his organization was ready to send help immediately. But the request didn't come until Thursday, three days after the hurricane struck.

..............

In New Jersey, Gov. Richard Codey said he had a task force of 105 police officers and 55 vehicles and a medical task force of 55 physicians and 43 nurses standing by. But so far, no request for assistance has been made.

..............

Sen. Trent Lott berated both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and his own state's emergency management, MEMA, for being mired in red tape at a time of urgent need given the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.
Lott said he has been trying to get FEMA to send 20,000 trailers "sitting in Atlanta" to the Mississippi coast, and he urged President Bush during a meeting Monday to intervene. He said FEMA has refused to ship the trailers until contracts are secured.

Times-Picayune Editorial

2005-09-04T15:04:00.000-06:00

".....Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially......."

What About the Animals?

2005-09-04T13:13:00.001-06:00

(NEW ORLEANS - Mary Foster, Associated Press Sept. 3, 2005)

At the front of the line, the weary refugees waded through ankle-deep water, grabbed a bottle of water from state troopers and happily hopped on buses that would deliver them from the horrendous conditions of the Superdome.

At the back end of the line, people jammed against police barricades in the rain. Refugees passed out and had to be lifted hand-over-hand overhead to medics. Pets were not allowed on the bus, and when a police officer confiscated a little boy's dog, the child cried until he vomited. "Snowball, snowball," he cried.......

Although the human misery caused by Hurricane Katrina is virtually incomprehensible, the plight of the animals which have been left behind is equally tragic. The people will eventually receive help. That is a given. Unfortunately, the animals have no such assurance that they will be given a second chance.

There will be billions of dollars in relief aid, of which virtually nothing - apart from private donations - will go to the animal shelters, ASPCA, or other animal rescue groups. Yet these organizations are also overwhelmed by the magnitude of this disaster, with the only possible outcome being the euthanising of tens of thousands of animals; animals which only last week were inseparable companions of families, children, the sick and aged.

It is no exaggeration to say that a donation of only ten to twenty dollars to organizations such as the ASPCA will mean one more animal can be fed and kept alive long enough for a new home to be found.

Link to people and organizations involved in saving the four-legged victims of Hurricane Katrina.

A 4-legged survivor of Hurricane Katrina

Pet rescue plans underway in wake of Katrina

New Orleans couple mourns fate of their dogs

Wildlife will require time to bounce back - Houston Chronicle

Sign of the Times in New Orleans

2005-09-02T23:08:00.000-06:00

Internet Scammers Target Hurricane Donors

2005-09-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

Hurricane scams are the latest example of Internet fraud by individuals and organized criminals in the USA, Eastern Europe and Africa, says Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at computer-security giant Symantec.

Bogus charities and scams divert money from legitimate charities that need all the money they can get, watchdog groups say.

Cybersecurity experts have several tips for consumers who want to help hurricane victims without getting ripped off. They urge donors to ignore e-mail asking for money and contribute only to organizations they are familiar with.

(And never, ever click on, or copy and paste, a link in an unsolicited email purporting to come from - or appearing to come from - a well know organization such as the Red Cross. You can be redirected to a fraudulent website having all the appearances of the legitimate organisation. Always type the name into the navigation bar.)

Don't get ripped off by hurricane cyberscams

New Orleans Fatally Undermined by Political Correctness

2005-09-02T09:32:00.000-06:00

New Orleans was ripe for collapse. Its dangerous geography, combined with a dangerous culture, made it susceptible to an unfolding catastrophe. Currents of chaos and lawlessness were running through the city long before this week, and they were bound to come to the surface under the pressure of natural disaster and explode in a scene of looting and mayhem.

Read Complete Story: The Masques of Death

Maple Leaf Blog EXCLUSIVE! New Photo Radar in Calgary, Alberta!

2005-08-31T21:24:00.000-06:00

Latest Update: I have been assured by several Calgarians that these are pictures of real photo radar garbage cans and they really are being used in Calgary. Maybe the Calgary Police Service got the idea from the internet pictures Sheila refers to in her comment. Believe it or not...

Update: I hate to admit that I've been had, but Sheila has commented that this is apparently the pictorial equivalent of a chain letter. It came to me from a close friend who saw it circulating in her office. Someone familiar with Calgary had included details which only a Calgarian would know. It also looks very much like Calgary. As a Calgary driver who has been photographed more than a few times by our infamous photo radar police (who use all sorts of vehicles), I'm somewhat surprised that they haven't thought of this. Apparently they've never received the chain letter!

Original post:

Here at the centre of Canada's high-tech universe is an example of technology gone berserk.

Thanks to the creative genius of the Calgary Police Service they will be able to collect even more money for our beloved city. This brings to mind how popular casinos became once provincial governments realized how much money they could make without doing anything to earn it.
Notice in the 3rd and 4th pictures how the "garbage" can is skillfully hidden behind an average-size tree.I would like to offer a bounty to the first person who steals one of these. Just kidding! - But if you run one over (accidentally of course), that should be worth a gift certificate or something.
Hopefully, I'll encounter one while taking my dog on his constitutional. He loves to 'mark' everything and surely a bag or two of doggie doo wouldn't be out of place either. (Another blogging scoop for Mapleleafblog!)

2005-08-31T13:38:00.000-06:00

UN: Birdflu will Spread to Europe and Africa

2005-08-31T13:28:00.000-06:00

Heartbreak and Destruction

2005-08-31T13:03:00.000-06:00

New Orleans Mayor: Thousands Dead, City to be Evacuated

Police officers were asking residents to give up any guns they had before they boarded buses and trucks because police desperately needed the firepower: Some officers who had been stranded on the roof of a motel said they were being shot at overnight.

2005-08-31T12:49:00.000-06:00

Online Journalists Struggle to Fill Post-storm Information Gap

2005-08-31T11:55:00.000-06:00

Experts: More Katrinas Coming

Re New Orleans: Ottawa Should Act Immediately

2005-08-30T03:28:00.000-06:00

It is absolutely imperative that the Canadian Federal Government not play politics for a single minute with the catastrophe in the United States. It is exactly that - a catastrophe with hundreds of thousands of people in dire need. It's a situation that demands neighbours act accordingly.
There must be no question but that our federal government offer concrete and substantial assistance immediately. Let there be no talk of a trade war.
This is a tragedy of immense proportions which will continue to get much, much worse before it gets better. This is a God-sent opportunity for Ottawa to repair some of the damage that has been done for years to our relations with our greatest friend and neighbour.

Canada has one of the most generous and unrestricted immigration policies anywhere in the world. The least we can do is offer 6 month visas to any of our NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOURS who can stay with relatives living in Canada. Please everyone, let's get this going today. Spread the word anyway you can.

NOTE TO RALPH KLEIN: This is a God-given opportunity for Alberta to directly forge a closer relationship with the US. Show Americans that Alberta cares. Today.

Read story:Americans Open Homes to Katrina Refugees