A Maziar Bahari update

From the Free Maziar Bahari Now! Facebook group:

In recent days, the Iranian President has been directly asked about Maziar's fate and his answer while evasive was somewhat encouraging.Here's an excerpt from the interview:As you know, Iran has been holding a NEWSWEEK correspondent for three months, Maziar Bahari. I know you have been very generous this morning saying you would help release the American hikers. On humanitarian grounds, would you consider releasing Maziar?I would like all prisoners to be released, but I am not the judge. The judge has to decide on this. If I were in charge of this case, I would guarantee that all the prisoners would be released.from: http://www.newsweek.com/id/216040Sadly yesterday marked the 100th day of Maziar's unjustified detention by the Iranian authorities. On that day the Iranian embassy in Ottawa (Canada) received a 155 pages petition baring 8,790 names and asking for Maziar's immediate release.8,790 names is a lot, yet it is not enough. Please keep on spreading the word about Maziar and the on-line petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free_maziar_bahari/signatures.htmland we'll keep on forwarding it to the Iranian authorities.Your support does matter.Thank you!

That dirty racist Irshad Manji

Yeah, she seems positively foaming at the mouth, there. I loved this statement:

Manji knows little, and did not bother to find out much, about her main subject when she sat down to write a book about Islam. In a manner similar to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Manji bases much of her critique on wild, grossly inaccurate generalizations about Islam, and extrapolates from her own personal experiences to construct a generalized, and absurdly and offensively reductive, model of supposedly “Islamic” mentality, practices, attitudes, etc. Not only does this frequently dispense with any distinction between culture and theology (actually what both of these woman do is employ these distinctions sometimes and dispense with them at others according to whim and expediency), it obliterates the heterogeneity of Islam as a social text and replaces it with an imaginary unity, which is generally negative.

Perhaps the author does not catch the irony of engaging in gross generalizations about how other authors engage in gross generalizations...

Just a matter of perspective

My latest blog-post for the Libertas Post, in which I discuss the wacky world of Dutch politics, and Geert Wilders' latest apparent SNAFU:

As you are undoubtedly all aware, there's just nothing quite so exciting as Dutch politics. Don't you agree? No? Well, bear with me anyway.
Geert Wilders, the feisty Dutch MP and leader of the Dutch Freedom Party ( or PVV ), who also happens to be rather opposed to the infiltration of Islam into the Netherlands, has recently landed himself in a whole heap of trouble...again

I thought this was hilarious

Not that there's too much about Gaddafi to take seriously to begin with...

From the Daily Mail:

Colonel Gaddafi's bizarre rant at the UN was met with yawns and disbelief by delegates.
But it was too much for the eccentric Libyan leader's translator who is said to have collapsed with exhaustion during the lengthy diatribe.
The beleaguered interpreter cried 'I just can’t take it any more,' into a live microphone in Arabic after 75 minutes of Gaddafi's ramblings.
He was replaced by the UN’s Arabic section chief, Rasha Ajalyaqeen, who translated the final 20 minutes of the speech.

Read it all here.

My latest

Well, here's my first ever blog-post for the Libertas Post. It's short but sweet, on President Barack Obama's rather strange-yet-now-official cult of personality. I hope it meets the Libertas Post standards - the place is certainly turning into a grab-bag of commentators from the libertarian/conservative end of the spectrum; it's scary how many names and people I recognize and/or know. It's free to sign up for an account with them to add your own material, so I would suggest that for anybody who's looking for a place to write a little bit about this and that.

Meanwhile, here're my latest couple of posts for Heartless and Brainless: Of Democracy and such...; and A very Lori Drew update.

This will be an interesting story to follow

Found this on my morning rounds today: CBC fights Access to Information czar in Federal Court:

By Cynthia Münster

The CBC is taking Canada's Access to Information Commissioner's Office to court over the public broadcaster's fight to keep information about its journalism and programming secret. Interim Access to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault, who told The Hill Times that she has applied for the information commissioner's job, said the case is "precedent-setting" because it will test a new provision in the Access to Information Act. "It's an important case because it's a new provision under the act, so it will be important for jurisprudence in matters of access to information," said Ms. Legault. Since Sept. 1, 2007, the Federal Accountability Act modified the Access to Information Act to include the CBC and 70 other Crown corporations. The CBC has reported the corporation has been swamped by requests and has developed a backlog of cases, which led to, among other things, the Canadian Newspaper Association ranking the corporation as the least transparent of federal agencies in an audit released earlier this year. The disagreement relates to Sec. 68.1 of the Access to Information Act, an exemption created for the CBC, which provides exclusion for information under CBC control that relates to its journalistic, creative, or programming activities. The CBC has been using the exemption in a number of cases and the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) argues that it should be able to review the relevant documents to assess whether the exemption was applied properly. The CBC argues the commissioner has no legal authority to seek access to documents excluded under Sec. 68.1 of the act. The corporation filed a federal court application on Sept. 16, asking the court to rule on whether the commissioner has the right to go through the records and review the decision to withhold them and Ms. Legault said she plans to file the OIC application on Sept. 28. At first the OIC requested the documents and on Sept. 15 the office issued a subpoena for two of the requests. The CBC responded by filing a court application. The court case will also likely raise issues over the protection of journalistic sources and Sec. 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Do you hear a shrill, whining sound?

Why, yes, yes you do. From the Hill Times: May wants back into televised debates, threatens legal action:

By Abbas RanaIf the consortium of TV networks doesn't include Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in the highly-publicized TV leaders' debates in the next election campaign, she says she will call on Canadians to put help reverse the move and is also threatening legal action. "Well, I think I'll have to ask Canadians to do what they did last time and deluge media with the demand that I be included. Court action was possible last time, I suppose it would be possible again," Ms. May told The Hill Times last week. "And I would be of course calling on the other leaders not to make mistake they made last time," Ms. May said. "From their point of view, they were the big losers, the first week of the campaign was dominated by the question of whether I was in the debates or not. If I were Mr. Harper or Mr. Layton, I'd want to make very clear very early that they had no objection to me being in the debate and they should encourage the consortium to make that clear early so that it doesn't have to become an issue."

Permit me to chew on nails for a little while.

Founding Fathers Of Our New Country

By Jim O'Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – George Washington
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” – George Washington
“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” – George Washington


The Great American Republic was shaped by individual events which are now part of American legend. The Battle of Bunker Hill, The Winter at Valley Forge, Washington Crossing the Delaware, the Constitutional Convention, and George Washington stepping aside after his 2nd term as President, evoke pride and honor in the hearts of many Americans, if their public schools still teach about these historic events. The politically correct “history” books today are more likely to concentrate on the impact of Marilyn Monroe on the culture of America. The Founding Fathers, including James Madison, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington, risked their lives to create a republic. These revolutionaries declared their independence from an overbearing oppressive regime. The British Empire had been taxing the colonies to pay for their foreign adventures. The Founding Fathers were willing to risk being hung rather than live under tyranny, when they made the following declaration:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

After risking their lives and fighting an eight year War for Independence against the most powerful military on earth, they came together and drafted the greatest governing document ever conceived. The U.S. Constitution and its Amendments struck the perfect balance, as it constrained the Federal government and allowed its citizens maximum freedom. It was designed to prevent the concentration of power by the Executive branch. Power was balanced between the three branches of government and jurisdiction was delegated to the States. Governance was placed in the hands of the people. This sublime document has served as our guide for over two centuries. Since the early 20th Century, America has gradually allowed this document to become tarnished and trivialized.

Read the rest here.

‘Inglourious Basterds’ Surprises and Connections

By Nate Bloom, via the Jewish World Review:

Quentin Tarantino's WWII action film, "Inglourious Basterds," turned out to be a box-office smash, earning $75 million, worldwide, during its first week.

THE STORY

The film is almost completely a historical fantasy and Tarantino doesn't pretend otherwise.
Here's most of the film's official synopsis:
It is an alternate history of WWII in which the top leadership of Nazi Germany, including Hitler, attend a film premiere in Paris celebrating the exploits of a German sniper who had managed to kill 300 American soldiers in Italy. Most of the film's timeframe is set in early June 1944, after the D-Day landings but before the liberation of Paris.
The film tracks separate attempts to kill Hitler by two disparate forces, one being the "Basterds", a motley crew of Jewish American soldiers out for revenge against the Nazis. The Basterds have a modus operandi whereby each man must cut off the scalp of a dead Nazi soldier, with orders to get 100 scalps each. The Basterds allow one German soldier to survive each incident so as to spread the news of the terror of their attacks. However, the Basterds carve a swastika into the forehead of that German. The other force concerns Shosanna, the only survivor of a Jewish family, who plots her own revenge on the Nazis. The Basterds and Shosanna remain unaware of each other throughout the film.
The film opens in 1941 with SS Colonel Hans Landa, proudly known as the "Jew Hunter", interrogating a French dairy farmer, over rumors that he had been hiding a Jewish family. Landa manages to break down the farmer and locates the hiding place of the Jews underneath the floorboards. He orders his soldiers to fire into the floorboards, killing all but the teenage Shosanna.
Four years later, by 1944, Shosanna has assumed a non-Jewish identity, calling herself Emmanuelle Mimieux. She has also become the manager of a movie theater, which is chosen by Frederick Zoller, a sniper-turned-actor whose exploits are celebrated in the Nazi propaganda film, as the setting for the film premiere. He is attracted to Shosanna and convinces Goebbels to hold the premiere in her theater. Shosanna does not reciprocate Zoller's feelings.
Shosanna realizes that the presence of so many high ranking Nazi officials and officers provides an excellent opportunity for revenge. She resolves to burn down her cinema during the premiere and makes a fourth reel in which she tells the Nazis present of her Jewish identity and revenge.
In the meantime, the British have also learned of the Nazi leadership's plan to attend the premiere and dispatch a British officer to Paris to lead an attack on the movie theater with the aid of the "Basterds" and a German double agent.

REAL 'INGLORIOUS BASTERDS'

No such "savage" Jewish revenge unit ever existed during WWII. Nor was a movie theater with high ranking Nazis ever blown up—and, by the way, Hitler visited Paris just once in his life—he took a quick tour of the city in 1940, shortly after France surrendered to Germany.
However, there certainly is a (real) glorious history of Jewish fighting men serving in heavily Jewish; American and British armed forces special units during WWII. These heavily Jewish special units were largely composed of Jews of German or Austrian refugee background. These men had critical language skills and were "a natural fit" for anti-Nazi assignments including commando raids and espionage work. Sometimes their tasks were more mundane—but still critical—such as translation of enemy documents and interrogation of captured Germans.

Read the rest here.

You know things could be bad when...part two

Pursuant to an earlier post. From The Hook: Bodyguards will pack heat at Games:

Guns are banned at the 2010 Winter Olympics, unless you're a biathlon competitor, cop, soldier or a dignitary's bodyguard.
An International Olympic Committee protocol operations document obtained via Freedom of Information from the Premier's Office includes guidelines for protecting dignitaries.
The goals include outlining "entry arrangements at the venues" for dignitaries and bodyguards and detailing "accreditation and weapon permit requirements for the respective protective details."

So um....that's re-assuring. Have fun at the Games, folks.

Why Ignatieff muddles and befuddles us

By Rex Murphy, via the Globe and Mail:

What's the matter with Michael Ignatieff?
He has a great family name – diplomat father, philosopher (George Grant) uncle, and a whole kite tail of Russian aristocrats generations back. He was drafted to return to Canada on the strength of his accomplishments as a writer, journalist and teacher. And, in the very brief time since, he has finessed the leadership of the Liberal Party away from a very formidable array of politicians who thought to succeed Jean Chrétien.
Considering the handicaps he faced – time away from the country being the most serious – this is a stroke of considerable brilliance.
His greatest disadvantage, however, carries an equal weight of advantage. He is truly fresh on the scene; he carries none of the clammy odours of past scandals and feuds. He is not parochial, projects frequently some notion of Canada as a “world player.” These are sentiments many Canadians find very compelling.
So, in sum, what have we here? A fresh, intelligent leader, untainted by association with the Liberal Party's more egregious sins – the wreckage of sponsorship, lingering factionalism from the Martin-Chrétien duel – with a record of high career achievement in the competitive worlds of U.S. and British journalism and academia.
This man should be rocketing upward in every poll, and the party he leads, a vote-vacuuming miracle for the better part of a century, should be randy with confidence over the next election, whenever it comes.
But he's not, not at all. And his party is lamely trailing, in the midst of a recession, the dour, somewhat accident-prone, unexciting Harper Conservatives. This party has just been rescued by the Layton-Harper alliance from being forced to the polls by its own leader. As things stand, the Liberals almost surely would have lost.

Read the rest here.

My latest writings

My latest column in the Cowichan Valley Citizen: Too much change losing the faithful:

Earlier this month, the newspaper of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia (the Diocesan Post) ran some content on declining attendance numbers and rising deficits in their diocese -- which includes Vancouver Island.
It's an increasingly bleak picture: The numbers from 2007 show that the average Sunday church attendance in the diocese was 4,955 people. The numbers from 2008 show that the average attendance was 3,856 people. And while the average congregation had 95 members in 2007, the average had dropped to 82 members in 2008, and the vast majority of churches had an average Sunday attendance of less than 100 people. Weddings and baptisms were outnumbered by funerals. There were only four churches in the diocese showing both a budget surplus and a growth rate of a minimal two per cent. Previous tactics at improving the numbers had failed.
In short, the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia is slowly and steadily dying. And what does the diocese think needs to be done? Well, obviously, the church needs more change! They have to do more, reach out more, transform. Official regional meetings are going to be held throughout the diocese on "What will transformational change look like in our region?" from Oct. 6 to Nov. 7 -- among other official measures.
Now, far be it from me to get involved in the affairs of the Anglican Church. But some humble advice: it's not about change.

Read the rest here.

Meanwhile, I write at Heartless and Brainless: Oh dear, Oh, this is just precious, and Nuts in the grassroots.

Jack Layton on hockey

I must admit, I'm unaware of the opinion of Canada's majority of politicians when it comes to hockey. The folks at the Montrea Mystique podcast have taken the time to find out. So, here's Jack Layton:

On Friday, Montreal Mystique spoke at length with NDP leader and Hudson, Quebec native, Jack Layton about the Canadiens, hockey in the fifties and Layton’s impressions of the NHL and the state of the game then and now. Layton, a thoughtful, informative person, showed his humourous side and kept things light but insightful. Montreal Mystique is grateful to Mr. Layton and to NDP press secretary Marc-André Viau to have had this opportunity to speak to Mr. Layton despite his very busy schedule. We hope you enjoy this, our second podcast interview.

Listen here.

In which I take on ACORN's ridiculous new lawsuit

Extra, extra. Read all about it, over at Heartless and Brainless.

[ Reposted ] Why is the NDP touting ACORN Canada?

[ UPDATE: I sent an email actually asking which ACORN Canada this ACORN Canada was. I recieved a response today: It is the Association of Committee Organizations for Reform Now that's on the list. Just so's you know.

UPDATE 2: Oh yeah, the person whom I sent the inquiring email to actually worked for the Dignity For All Campaign, which I forgot to mention earlier.

Also, welcome Free Dominion readers! ]

My Mom got this in the mail recently, and sent me a copy:

Now, why would the BC NDP be touting a group like ACORN Canada? Certainly, with all of the troubles that ACORN's been having in the States, what with the voter fraud and the tax evasion and the child prostitution and whatnot, the Dippers would want to steer clear?

Well, I was kind of curious, so I dug around just a teensy bit through the magic of Google. Here's what I found:

First of all, there's a group called ACORN Canada that is entirely different than the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. This one is a Christian group:

Acorn Canada is committed to sharing the care and healing presence of Christ with all. We hope that you enjoy using this site and that you find it informative. Please let us know if you have any comments about the site through our 'Contacts' page. Acorn Canada's Mission: Bringing healing to a broken world though Christian Listening

Acorn Canada's Vision: A network of quality Christian Listening ministries in Canada We offer a spectrum of services to church and society, groups and individuals, and exist to demonstrate that Christian healing is a sound companion to modern medicine.

The three strands of Acorn’s ministry are:
Listening to others, to God and to ourselves
Healing of individuals and communities
Reconciliation between individuals and peoples

That doesn't really sound like a group that would lend itself easily to voter fraud and child prostitution.

The second ACORN Canada actually is an Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. But this one says that it's not affiliated with its American namesake:

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Canada, is the nations largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 25,000 member families organized into 21 neighborhood chapters in 4 cities across the country.
ACORN Canada is legally and operationally separate and district from ACORN USA - the community organizing group, Acorn Investments - a Canadian Investment Firm, and Acorn Canada - the Christian religious organization.

ACORN does have a Canadian office, though, so I don't know how 'legally and operationally separate and district' this particular organization is. Perhaps it's en entirely different thing, I don't know.

So then I checked out the Dignity For All: The Campaign For A Poverty-Free Canada website, which, by the way, sounds like a social engineering project:

The campaign has three goals:
A comprehensive, integrated federal plan for poverty elimination: Linked to and in support of current and future provincial and territorial poverty action plans, a federal plan for poverty elimination will provide a pan-Canadian blueprint for reducing and eventually eliminating poverty. The plan will inspire other efforts to combat poverty and to promote a fair and just society. It will require transparency and accountability by the federal government, with inclusion of robust indicators of low income, material deprivation and social exclusion. And it will be comprehensive in its approach, with measures concerning the following and other thematic areas:
Income Security
Food Security
Housing Security
Child Care and Early Childhood Development
Education and Training
Labour Standards
Job Creation including a Green Jobs Strategy
Unemployment Insurance
Health Supports
Particular supports for vulnerable populations
A federal Act to eliminate poverty, promote social inclusion and strengthen social security: Inspired by similar legislation in other jurisdictions, this Act will ensure an ongoing federal role and responsibility for social development, while demonstrating a lasting federal commitment for leadership and for accountability to citizens for results.
Sufficient federal revenue to invest in social security: In order to fulfill its role and responsibility to ensure social security, generally, and to combat poverty, specifically, the federal government must have sufficient revenue, or “fiscal capacity.” The Dignity for All Campaign will promote public understanding of the link between the taxes Canadians pay and the supports and services we benefit from as a result. The campaign will also advance policy proposals for sufficient and fair taxation.

Only some of that sounded mildly creepy. Anyway, I checked out the Campaign Supporters page, and there it was: ACORN Canada. It's also listed under 'Campaign partners'. No link to a website, nuthin', on either page. So without going any further, there's no way to tell. Would the ACORN with the genuine American namesake be more interested in a social engineering project like the Dignity For All campaign than a Christian ministry organization? My guess is yes, but you never know.

Anyway - thus ends my latest bout of citizen journalism. Pretty lame, huh?

Why I like Jason Kenney

Because he says things like this:

Well that wasn't very nice

The Liberal Party of British Columbia is starting to sound just a wee bit defensive:

BC Liberal Government CaucusNEWS RELEASE
For Immediate ReleaseSeptember 18, 2009
Is this leadership?
"To get Vander Zalm and I on a stage together in Vancouver says a lot ..." - Carole James
NDP leader Carole James has made herself a follower of disgraced former Premier Bill Vander Zalm and opportunistic B.C. Conservative leader Chris Delaney. Is this the kind of leadership James and the NDP now endorse?
Is this leadership?: Bill Vander Zalm
* As Premier, Vander Zalm introduced or increased over a dozen taxes in nearly every budget that punished families and small businesses - including introducing the Property Transfer Tax and increasing the Small Business Tax to the highest level ever.
* To end his term as Premier, Bill Vander Zalm mixed private and government business in the sale of Fantasy Gardens, which was deemed a clear conflict of interest.
* He was forced to resign from office in disgrace, paving the way for the disastrous NDP win in 1991 that drove B.C.'s economy from first to last in Canada, raised taxes by over $2 billion in their first two years and drove tens of thousands of people out of the province.
* Vander Zalm has had to self-publish his own memoirs and peddle them on the Internet because no publisher would accept them. Should we really pay attention to someone who does not even spell his own name correctly in his own biography?
* Despite continuing to use every recent appearance as an excuse to promote this book, he has neglected to refer readers to further formally published and edited works on his tenure including:
* Breach of Promise: Socred Ethics under Vander Zalm by Graham Leslie (1991)* Fantasyland: Inside the Reign of Bill Vander Zalm by Gary Mason and Keith Baldrey (1989)* Report of the Honourable E.N. (Ted) Hughes, Q.C. on the Sale of Fantasy Gardens Inc. (1991)
* Even today, he remains out of touch. Just last weekend, Vander Zalm declared on Joy TV that British Columbia was "losing everything" by promoting multiculturalism.
Is this leadership?: Chris Delaney, B.C. Conservatives
* This failed fringe candidate is the only other person who shows up as often as Vander Zalm. In fact, he proudly notes he worked for Bill Vander Zalm as his communications director in the late 1990s.
* Chris Delaney ran as leader of the B.C. Unity Party in 2001. This party failed to win a single seat and garnered only three per cent of the popular vote under his leadership. In 2009, he then ran and lost under the banner of the BC Conservatives.
* But before losing he clearly outlined that the BC Conservative Party would "aggressively" pursue HST for B.C. if elected.
* The party has since removed the position from their web site in an attempt to rewrite policy on the fly in hopes of getting on television.
Is this leadership?: Carole James, NDP
* Carole James just voted against tax breaks for small business, individuals and families. Her party opposed over 100 tax cuts since 2001 and she has proudly told people that "it doesn't work to make tax cuts."
* Who is Carole James trying to fool this time? Her record is one of expedient posturing. She and the NDP have decided to follow the lead of a disgraced former Premier and a hypocritical fringe candidate. And she still has no plan for the economy. Is this leadership?
-30-

A wee bit defensive, but also partially right. I honestly hadn't been following the BC Conservative Party's movements regarding the HST ( I guess I've been out of touch ). In fact, I wasn't even sure that the BC Conservatives were a party anymore. But I guess they've gotten their act together, if not necessarily their message.

But let's look at this in perspective, shall we? After all, the federal Liberals have been sending a mixed message about the HST for a little while, now. So have the BC NDP ( or at least, one would imagine that in a different political climate, they wouldn't be so opposed to the tax ). Meanwhile, the Green Party, both provincially and federally - but especially federally - is probably one of the most opportunistic political movements in the country.

And let's not forget that one of the - undoubtedly - key reasons that the BC Liberals pushed this tax so far so fast was so that they could take advantage of the federal money that came with implementing the HST.

There's enough 'opportunism' going around from all sides, these days. Especially on the HST.

Umm...

Every so often you run across a piece of news like this, and you just have to shake your head:

By Jonathan Petre, via the Daily Mail

A Christian couple have been charged with a criminal offence after taking part in what they regarded as a reasonable discussion about religion with guests at their hotel.
Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested after a Muslim woman complained to police that she had been offended by their comments.
They have been charged under public order laws with using ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words’ that were ‘religiously aggravated’.
The couple, whose trial has been set for December, face a fine of up to £5,000 and a criminal record if they are convicted.
Although the facts are disputed, it is thought that during the conversation the couple were challenged over their Christian beliefs.

Read it here. H/t to Winds Of Jihad.

Donors aid tax battle

By Mark Nielson, via the Prince George Citizen:

A fundraising effort has yielded enough money for Prince George resident Irvin Leroux to hire a lawyer and a tax consultant for his court battle against Canada Revenue Agency over a $1-million tax bill he claims he didn't owe.Leroux, who is seeking in excess of $4.5 million in restitution for the assets he says he lost as a result of the CRA incompetence, is crediting donations to a trust fund established in June to help cover his legal costs.Donations ranged from $4.50 to $500, he said in a statement issued Thursday, many coming from people who've had their own run-ins with CRA."One lady from back east who's family is still being harassed by CRA sent $13, she says it's a dollar for every year I've been fighting," he said. "That's incredible and this family can ill afford any amount of donation because they are still paying lawyers too."Leroux said it all began back in 1996 when an auditor lost his tax and business records -- he said they were accidentally shredded -- and CRA used other methods to determine he owed $900,000 in income tax and $100,000 in GST.In 2005, after several other audits, Leroux took his case to the Tax Court of Canada where the CRA dropped its claim. Instead, it refunded Leroux $24,000 and reduced his GST bill to $20,000.But Leroux said that still falls well short of what he lost because of the CRA's incompetence.

Read the rest here.

Dear Ezra

Denyse O'Leary, writing for her blog Post-Darwinist, posts a letter that she wrote to one Ezra Levant:

Ezra, I wish there was less anti-Semitism among Jews.The current official Jewish support for "human rights" commissions feels like anti-Semitism to me, as a Catholic Christian, but let me explain:The Commissions systematically avoid confronting the biggest source of anti-Semitism in Canada - Islamic fascism.Worse, they actually front these people's causes, as your case and that of Mark Steyn showed.Worse still (given how you yourself have suffered, I hope you will not mind me saying this) are the suspicious deaths of women who become unwanted in a Middle Eastern-origin culture. Why should THAT not be the concern of the Commissions? I am told they are too "busy."Yes, they are, but with what?The Commissions enormously hassle Catholic and Protestant clergy who say - and it happens to be true - that traditional Christianity is not compatible with the gay lifestyle, but I digress.Except, I don't really digress. When all this trouble is laid at our doors, one hardly likes to hear that official organizations of other faiths support it.And remember, we don't even have a choice about being in the fight. The Catholic Church simply cannot teach that the gay lifestyle is appropriate for Christians. If priests must go to jail, so be it, but who will thank anyone for abetting that?I think that the major Jewish organizations need a complete change of top personnel, replacing them with people with modern thinking about the key issues.As things are, they are loafing along, never where the real action is, never where "Death to the Jews" marches are. A Catholic friend went down to protest that. I couldn't, due to a family member's illness, but I wonder how many of these Official Jews showed up?Human rights commissions should get entirely out of the business of policing either religion or the media in Canada, and I would expect the new Jewish leadership to support that.Then they are free to deal with genuine, specific threats to Jews in Canada.That'll be tough for the New Brooms because they won't be dealing merely with basement apartment losers and Internet Nazis.But hey, if you are a Jew and you value your life, it is worth your dime to support a thorough housecleaning.

I thought it worth the read.

You know things could be bad, when...

I saw this on The Hook today: Civil rights monitors to be trained for 2010 Games:

Whether it’s an airport tasering or a free speech clampdown, roving legal observers will hold Olympics powers accountable come 2010. At least, that’s the goal of a new program announced today by local civil rights advocates.
Starting this Sunday, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and Pivot Legal Society will begin training regular people to become their eyes and ears next February.
Come Games-time, the groups hope to arm at least 100 volunteers with video-equipment, cameras and notebooks.
They’ll be deployed down city streets and outside Olympics venues, on the lookout for illegal security searches, restrictions on lawful protesters – basically, anything that violates a civil liberty.

Well, that's not really a good sign, now is it?

Harmonized tax to hit consumers hard

By Karen Howlett and Ian Bailey, via the Globe and Mail:

Consumers will bear the brunt of proposed tax changes in Ontario and British Columbia while businesses reap windfall savings of $6.9-billion, a new report says.
For the first time, economists have put a price tag on the value-added taxes the two provinces plan to introduce July 1, showing that the tax rate on consumption will jump 1.5 percentage points for consumers.
The report prepared by economists at Toronto-Dominion Bank could have caused a political headache in Ontario for Premier Dalton McGuinty. But the impact of its release Friday was somewhat blunted, having come one day after the Liberals sailed to victory in a by-election in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, despite attempts by opposition candidates to turn the race into a referendum on the harmonized sales tax.
Ontario New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath called the timing “awfully fishy.” A spokesman for Revenue Minister John Wilkinson said he was pleased with the report, regardless of the timing.

Read the rest here.

You old charmer, Binks

How did you know that my head had grown so large?

~ A HATEFUL ISLAMOPHOBE and a gentleman– but many thanks to Mark Of Steyn for the mention at the infamous den of narrow-minded anti-American traitors known as NROTC. Link found by nooblogger Walker Morrow, the one with the frighteningly huge cranium …. (NROTC)

A brief review: The TechnicaVita blog

A little while ago ( O.K., more than a little ), someone representing the TechnicaVita blog got ahold of me and asked if I'd like to do a review of the site. So, nice guy that I am, here's the review, albeit a fairly lengthy span of time after I accepted the request:

First, some information on what TechnicaVita is:

TechnicaVita is the creation of John Carnell, founder and Chief Executive of BullyingUK, the UK's leading Anti-bullying charity and Social Media pioneers. I created TechnicaVita as a place to share some of my knowledge around social media and the web, mostly for free!

[...]

I am not a social media consultant; I will leave that to over paid people in suits with shiny shoes. However, if you want real honest and practical help with your social media, from someone with a proven track record in creating powerful social media effects and a long history of creating innovation on the web, get in touch.

So, with that in mind, I read through some of TechnicaVita's content, and through the TechnicaVita blog's content as well.

In essence, the sites reads like a fusion of online social networking tips and info, charities, and how those charities can and/or do use those online social networking sites, media, and tools. There are Twitter interviews with various charities, and explorations of various Facebook and Twitter tips and tools that can be used - especially be enterprising non-profit venturers. I even noticed Squidoo.com getting covered.

It's not quite my bag, so that's probably colored my opinion a little bit, but I think that if you are interested in charity work, and want to take steps to further your goals and your message online, you'll probably find something of interest on TechnicaVita. And the thing is, even if you're not interested in charity work, you can learn something there. Say you're working on a political campaign, and you want to find out how you can create a good, solid online network and presence for your candidate. Try out this site. Say you're a blogger trying to catch a few tips on how you can make your presence more well-known throughout the Internet so that you can direct traffic back to your blog. Try out this site.

The Internet is a new frontier, and the new wave of social networking and media and blogging sites out there are some of the Internet's pioneers. The person ( or people ) running TechnicaVita are doing their part to help the rest of us follow along.

TechnicaVita. Check it out.

A blog to check out: Cogito Ergo Scribit

A little while ago, I recieved a message from the author of a blog called Cogito Ergo Scribit, asking if I'd be interested in doing a review of her site. I said sure, and then left it at that for a period of far too many days, but the review is finally here. I'm sure the excitement is palpable in the room.

In a nutshell, Cogito Ergo Scribit is a writing blog written by, you guessed it, a writer ( also the author of the writing blog Prompt Romp ). It offers up advice on various aspects of the writing craft, from naming and developing your characters, to mixing religion and politics into mainstream fiction ( her advice: don't ), to discussions on fan-fiction. It's a good mix, and it's a thorough mix. The author takes the time to go through topic after topic, one after the other, and doesn't just gloss over several points at once in a general sleu of ideas. Personally, I liked the post on beating writer's block the most.

There's not a huge amount of content so far, but then, it's only been running for a few months - and on average with longer posts, which cuts down on the quantity. And in the future, there will undoubtedly be plenty more to come: especially considering that thoroughness that I mentioned before.

The tone of the blog is light-hearted, and fun, and it doesn't take itself too seriously at the right moments. But that doesn't mean that it sacrifices good advice for humor. Over-all, I would recommend that writers, especially writers just getting started in the craft, read this blog.

Cogito Ergo Scribit. Check it out.

Greed and fear are proving stronger than companies' commitment to free speech

By Anne Applebaum, via the Jewish World Review:

Item One: When it comes out in print soon, look carefully through Yale University Press's book "The Cartoons That Shook the World." The book is a scholarly account of the controversy that surrounded a Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. The author Jytte Klausen argues, among other things, that the controversy was manipulated by Danish imams who showed their followers false, sexually offensive depictions of Muhammad alongside the real images, which she says were not inherently offensive. She consulted with several Muslim scholars, who agreed. Nevertheless, you will not find the cartoons in the finished manuscript.
Item Two: Pick up a copy of the September issue of GQ magazine. Buried deep inside is an article titled "Vladimir Putin's Dark Rise to Power," by Scott Anderson. The article, based on extensive reporting, argues that Russian security services helped create a series of bomb explosions in Moscow in 2000 — explosions that were blamed on Chechen terrorists at the time. But you will not find this article in GQ's Russian edition. As of this writing, you will not find this article on GQ's Web site either: Conde Nast, the media company that owns GQ, has ordered its magazines and affiliates around the world to refrain from mentioning or promoting this article in any way.
Item Three: If your knowledge of written Chinese characters is up to it, type the word "Tiananmen" into Google.cn (www.google.cn). I do not know Chinese myself but am reliably informed that your search will retrieve little or no useful information on this subject, nor will it tell you much about Taiwan or Tibet or democracy. This is not an accident: In 2006, Google agreed to a modicum of censorship in China, in exchange for being allowed to operate there at all.
These three incidents are not identical. Yale Press refused to print the cartoons because the university fears retaliatory violence on its campus. Conde Nast refused to promote an article on the Russian secret service because it fears a loss of Russian advertisers. Google refuses to let its Chinese users search for "Tiananmen" and other taboo subjects because Google wants to compete against Chinese search engines for a share of the huge Chinese market. All three companies exhibit greatly varying degrees of remorse, too, from Conde Nast (none) to the Yale Press (a lot) to Google (ambivalent: Google founder Sergey Brin initially argued that the company would at least bring more information to China, if not complete information).
Nevertheless, the three stories lead to one conclusion: In different ways, the Russian government, the Chinese government and unnamed Islamic terrorists are now capable of placing de facto controls on American companies — something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. In a world that seems more dangerous and less profitable than it did in the past, either greed or fear proved stronger than these companies' commitment to free speech.

Read the rest here.

Cool new blog

Kinsella Watch, which is all about our favorite Liberal spin-doctor. Check it out.

H/t to Blazing Cat Fur.

President Obama, live and uncensored

Obama says a dirty word! Read all about it over at Heartless and Brainless.

Meanwhile, I cover just a little bit of the ACORN scandal,

What HST? That HST.

Federalies start to get involved in the provincialies' wondrous new system of taxation. From Public Eye Online:

Last month, The Canadian Press's Maria Babbage reported federal Conservative parliamentarians have been "playing down Ottawa's role in convincing Ontario and B.C. to move towards tax harmonization, saying the federal government had nothing to do with the decision even though it's kicking in billions of dollars to ease the transition." And the party's Esquimalt Juan de Fuca candidate Troy DeSouza pushed back even further against the harmonized sales tax in a letter published in The Times Colonist over the weekend. "The HST program was started by the federal Liberals. Yet another tax grab is being made at the worst possible time for small businesses and average citizens."

But Troy DeSouza isn't the only one. The Liberals seems to be doin' the good old flip-flop dance. From Full Comment:

Ontario under Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is planning an HST, as is Gordon Campbell's government in British Columbia, and the federal Conservatives are helping with the transition. This has not stopped federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff from trying to score some political points by blaming the tax on the Tories:

The federal Liberal Leader sought to put the 12 per cent HST, introduced after a provincial election in which the B.C. Liberals ruled it out, in play as the "Harper Sales Tax."
He said his party is concerned the Tories have "pushed" sales tax harmonization across Canada at a time of recession, and "is now walking away from it, saying 'It has nothing to do with us.' We think that's dishonest. They're fully implicated in this decision, and they should take responsibility for it."

But now Mr. McGuinty tells us Ignatieff is fully implicated in his decision:

The Ontario government has federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's support for the sales tax harmonization, Premier Dalton McGuinty said today.
"We've secured Mr. Ignatieff's commitment to moving ahead with the single sales tax should he ever earn the privilege of serving Canadians in government," McGuinty said this morning. "We have approached Mr. Ignatieff in that regard and we've secured his support for this."
The premier said he hadn't personally spoken to Ignatieff on the issue but officials from his office have had discussions with the federal politician's staff.

Oh, so Ignatieff has his staffers assure Dalton McGuinty that the harmonized tax would be supported by a Liberal government.
I wonder if anyone had the sense to ask that staffer if Ignatieff could guarantee support in the case of a Liberal-NDP coalition?

But wait. A little bit later:

Michael Ignatieff has been busy attacking the tax in public, trying to tie to the federal Conservatives (even though the two provincial governments about to adopt it are both Liberal). McGuinty let slip that Ignatieff's bluster was all for public consumption, and behind the scenes he was fully on board. Oops! Time for a "clarification":

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was forced to backtrack yesterday after saying federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had pledged to support an unpopular new tax in the province. "Earlier today during a media availability, I indicated that Michael Ignatieff was supportive of the HST [Harmonized Sales Tax] in Ontario," Mr. McGuinty said in a statement. "This is based on my understanding derived from a number of conversations between my office and Mr. Ignatieff's office. In fact, there has been no formal agreement." Ignatieff spokeswoman Jill Fairbrother said, "We're in no position to make any arrangement with any government, nor any person -- nor would we. We're the Opposition." McGuinty insiders insist the two offices had communicated many times on the issue.

No formal agreement. Just an informal assurance between like-minded pals. McGuinty should have been able to tell, because the Ignatieff folks were whispering when they promised their support. Besides, the Liberals aren't in government, and thus no agreement can be formal.

I love it when these sorts of things develop.

Bruce Bawer, live tonight

Check it out. Thanks to Blazing Cat Fur for the tip.


Online TV Shows by Ustream

Burn!

This made me laugh out loud:

The Deputy Speaker: Order. The Speaker is having a very difficult time hearing the question, and I would appreciate some assistance from my colleagues.

The hon. member for Toronto Centre. Hon. Bob Rae: Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Prime Minister a very simple question. Does the government plan to launch a significant defence of the Canadian system in light of the attack that is being made on it in the United States of America?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper Mr. Speaker, we intend to let the United States make its own decisions on domestic debates.I will say that the Canadian health care system will not only survive attacks by right-wing commentators in the United States but will even survive one by left-wing incompetents in Ontario.

Coalition!

The fearmongering seems to be going both ways, this time. From the Nexus of Assholery:

Today NDP leader Jack Layton suggested he'll support the Conservative government, at least on a case-by-case basis.Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who took offense to the Conservative party's plans to run against the spectre of the Liberal-NDP coalition, has accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper with forging a coalition with his former political blood foes."I find it curious that after weeks of berating the idea of a coalition, the prime minister seems to be hard at work forming one himself and with people that he referred to until this morning as socialists," Ignatieff mused. "I'm just wondering whether the prime minister could confirm his new-found love for socialism."That's Ignatieff's recent take on the aborted Liberal-NDP coalition that finally managed to force former Liberal leader Stephane Dion out of office.See, Ignatieff's take on the coalition is that it was a bad thing."Let me be very clear," Ignatieff said last week. "The Liberal party would not agree to a coalition. In January, we did not support a coalition. And we do not support a coalition today or tomorrow."Of course, this wasn't the time when the coalition agreement was signed.“I support the accord because it’s fiscally responsible,” Ignatieff said at the time, appearing alongside his fellow leadership candidates, Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc. “I've also made it clear that we are at one, the three of us, that the only person who can lead the country is the dually elected leader of the party, Mr Dion.”Apparently, Ignatieff's thoughts about who could lead the country at the head of a coalition government haven't changed much. Ignatieff apparently decided that he himself couldn't lead the country at the head of a Liberal-NDP coalition.

[...]

Jack Layton, on the other hand, seems to see the willingness to try to make Parliament work as the benchmark of good leadership."If Parliament is working, and we are getting things done ...I'm sure Canadians would prefer there would not be an election and we got results for them," Layton said."The [EI] announcement today appears to be a step in the right direction," he added, and noted that the Conservatives will have to keep moving in what the NDP deems the right direction in order to emjoy their support. "Make no mistake about it, we have no intention of giving this government a blank cheque like Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals did. We will be studying the bill and considering it very, very carefully."

First of all, as Patrick Ross pointed out, a 'case-by-case basis' is by no means anything close to the Coalition deal that Dion's Liberals were willing to get into with the Bloq and the NDP.

Second of all, Jack Layton isn't supporting the Conservatives at all. He's still using the political instability being introduced by the Liberals to try to get his way with the Conservative government. He's just being a shrewd politican - he's holding the government 'hostage' just like the Liberals are.

And quite frankly, considering how Jack got burned during that last Coalition deal, I'm not surprised that he's avoiding the Liberals in the first place.

I don't get it

So, this guy supposedly collects 'Nazi memorabilia'. Why should I care?

Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch says Marc Garlasco is being suspended "pending an investigation." The suspension was first reported Monday by The New York Times on its Web site.Bogert said Tuesday the organization knows that Garlasco collects German and American World War II memorabilia, but officials have questions about whether they've learned everything they need to know.Garlasco's collection was revealed last week on Mere Rhetoric, a pro-Israel blog.Bogert says Garlasco has never expressed any anti-Semitic views, and the group has no evidence that his hobby affected his analysis.

Just to be clear, this is the blog in question, although it seems that Elder of Ziyon did a lot of the heavy lifting, too.

Now, don't get me wrong. I would care if his collection actually meant more than historical interest, but what proof of that do we have so far? I mean, someone might collect Roman coins, or Spanish dubloons and flags from the 17th century - does that mean that they condone the Roman brutality against the Christians, and the Spanish brutality against, well, everybody who wasn't Spanish?

I'm just sayin'. I'm not saying that collecting Nazi memorabilia isn't a bit...strange. Just that I'm not sure it should be worthy of total political estrangement.

[ UPDATE: More on this from Breath Of The Beast.

UPDATE 2: it seems I may have been a bit hasty in my assumptions about Mr. Garlasco. ]

Good on 'er!

This woman gets it:

In the October issue of The New Criterion, we will publish a letter responding to our September Note from the classicist Sarah Ruden. Yale published Ms. Ruden’s much praised translation of the Aeneid and her translation of Apuleius’s The Golden Ass is on press. So outraged was she by Yale’s behavior that she calls upon fellow YUP authors to show “solidarity” and protest Yale’s censorship and announces that she is henceforth banning YUP from bidding on any future books by her

Thank you, Sarah Ruden. Censorship is not to be rewarded, and social estrangement of censors is a fitting end, even though it may cost you, at least in the short term.

That's gotta be just a little bit painful

From CTV:

CALGARY -- The big blue juggernaut of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party was breached in unexpected fashion Monday night when the ruling party lost a Calgary seat it had held since the 1960s.
Paul Hinman, outgoing leader of the upstart Wildrose Alliance, took Calgary-Glenmore in a narrow victory over Liberal contender Avalon Roberts, a psychiatrist.
While being cautious about declaring victory while the last few polls were being counted, Hinman couldn't contain his excitement at the prospect of beating what he calls "the PCs -- the phoney conservatives."

[ UPDATE: Kevin Libin wrote a very good article on this for the Post: There's rebellion afoot in Alberta ]

Hittin' Iggy on all sides

Thanks to Susannah for emailing this to me:




To be honest, I thought this ad just made him look a little more bad-ass, but maybe that's just me.

As Susannah pointed out, this seems both anonymous, and coming from the Left end of the political spectrum, indicating that Iggy is going to be getting attacks from all sides if he decides to call an election ( Or even if he doesn't ).

Meanwhile, Alberta Aardvark has dug up a couple of very interesting comments on Michael Ignatieff, from a surprising source:

An absolute must read on Michael Ignatieff. Who is the author you ask. Well you will find that out at the end of the post.

"It is not very often that one gets to witness a "leadership frontrunner" immolate his own candidacy so blithely, so recklessly, but if you click here and you peer inside, you will see the corpse of Michael Ignatieff’s vaulting ambition. He is done – and if he isn’t, he should be. Now, it is true that I objected to the learned professor before reading this essay, posted over the weekend on Pierre Bourque’s site. I objected to the manner in which his supporters trampled on democracy in a Toronto riding – literally locking out opponents. I objected to his support of George W. Bush’s illegal war in Iraq. I objected to the fact that he mocked Canada (Link dead) during the three decades he was abroad, and that he likened Israeli policy to the fascism of apartheid. I objected to what I perceived to be breathtaking arrogance – calling Canada a "herbivorian boy scout" one day, then jetting up here to run it the next. And then came this essay. Below I have culled a representative sampling of some the things Ignatieff says about torture in his just-published tour de force. His Kool Aid drinkers – and he has many already, rest assured – will bombard me with emails, braying and screeching that I quoted him out of context. But the fact is that they are his words. And the fact is that, in politics, voters and reporters are not patrician Harvard students, willing to keep quiet until the very end of the great man’s hour-long treatise, or until the end of a 10,000 word essay in the New York Times Magazine. They can be counted upon to object right away to the objectionable. Up here in the frosty herbivorian Boy Scout camp, all that it takes is a few sentences, usually, to permit a glimpse into what passes for a soul. We have that skill, boy scouts that we are. That said, here’s Michael Ignatieff on torture. If you don’t read them now, you’ll be reading them enough during the next election campaign. "…torture is not served by collapsing the distinction between coercive interrogation and torture. Both may be repugnant, but repugnance does not make them into the same thing." "…necessity may require the commission of bad acts…" "An outright ban on torture and coercive interrogation leave a conscientious security officer with little choice but to disobey the ban." "…it must be the case that other acts of torture occur because interrogators believe, in good faith, that torture is the only way to extract information in a timely fashion…" "The argument that torture and coercion do not work is contradicted by the dire frequency with which both practices occur." And, finally, the epitaph: "I am willing to get my hands dirty." "I am willing to get my hands dirty." That much, it seems, is true."

Wow. There is a lot of info there to digest including the "herbivorian boy scout" comment which I have not heard of until reading this.
If you were thinking that the author of this is not big fan of Michael Ignatieff you would be wrong because today he is in fact a big booster of Ignatieff, but back on March 27, 2006 when this first appeared on his blog, it was obvious that the author Warren Kinsella was not the fan that he is today.

Underline my own. Here's another one, also from Alberta Aardvark's site:

SUBJECT: ZZZZ
-----Original Message-----From: Hxxxx@aol.comTo: Liberal ConventionSent: Fri Dec 01 20:00:13 2006Subject: CTV cut away from IGGYCTV NewsNet cut away from Iggys speech.Were they bored too?Posted by Warren Kinsella on 12/1/2006 9:27:05 PM
Feeling lonely? Me too.
As a former Chrétien staffer and I agreed yesterday, you always feel a bit, well, alone in the circumstances in which Michael Ignatieff has placed us.
In the initial handshaking and glad-handing, one wonders (fleetingly) if one shouldn't just get onside and join the frat party. It's truly that seductive, this devolution stuff - and, to be honest, it conforms with our national personality: to compromise. To try and be conciliators. I've seen it before at Meech, and Charlottetown, and any other time a politician wants to write him or herself into the constitutional history books. The elite consensus is so strong, and so pervasive, you start to question yourself.
You shouldn't. As before, as with Meech and Charlottetown, the elites are way, way behind the people. In both of those cases - as now - the people will eventually take notice, and rise up, and put an end to it.
-------
Source. (it looks like it has gone down the memory hole but it is a good thing I have most of the good stuff copied)

It seems Iggy's takin' it from all sides already. Even the head of his own war-room doesn't think he's up to the task. Poor guy.

Wish You Were Here

By Jim O'Quinn, via TheBurningPlatform.com:

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” – George Washington
“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.” – Patrick Henry
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Half a truth is often a great lie.” – Benjamin Franklin
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln

As I survey what passes for governance in this country today, I yearn for the days past when truth meant something. The supposedly “progressive” politicians who call themselves leaders of this country would not know truth if it dropped from heaven into their laps. The men and women who fought for and founded this Republic were driven by the aspiration for liberty, justice and truth. They fought to get out from under the tyranny of an arrogant, overbearing government and unjust taxation. The Founders of this Republic believed in the truth. Their actions were pure and true. The definition of truth is:
Sincerity in action, character, and utterance
Is there anyone in Washington DC, besides Ron Paul, who is sincere in action, character, and utterance? Truth is no longer practiced in Washington DC. Political agendas are forced upon American citizens through the exercise of lies, deception, half-truths, and fear tactics. These agendas don’t bother to get bogged down in the truth. That would make these agendas impossible to implement. It is much easier to allow corporate lobbyists who have contributed millions to their political campaigns to write the bills, public relations firms to create the lies, and the mainstream media to spread misinformation and lies. The interchangeable political parties pay in excess of $100 million per year to public relations firms. The Pentagon spends $4.7 billion per year and employs 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations. The job of public relations firms is not to tell the truth. The truth doesn’t need to be spun and massaged. Only lies,

Read the rest here.

Saanich-Gulf Islands

Just got more interesting.

A hit list for Richard Warman?

Geez. I extremely dislike the guy, but that doesn't mean I want to see him dead:

Ontario Superior Court of Justice, October 21, 2008 For two years, Edmonton resident William Grosvenor engaged in a virtual campaign of terror against Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman. Grosvenor bombarded the Internet with calls to murder Warman while providing his home address, and links to pictures of him and Google maps on how to get to his home. Combined with this were hundreds of online postings attempting to destroy Warman's personal and professional reputation.
Now a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has granted an injunction to put an end to it and has awarded Warman $50,000 in damages for defamation and assault, the latter stemming from Grosvenor's death threats and incitement to violence. These threats of violence repeatedly called for Warman's murder, described him as a "Dead Jew walking", and said: "I AM GOD AND I HAVE A RUGER P-90 AND IT'S BULLETS HAVE YOUR NAME ON THEM FAGBOY WARMAN?." [sic]

Undoubtedly, this'll be tied in with the Speecher crowd by those with too much time on their hands, and too much space between their ears.

[ ED NOTE: A Clarification:

I am in no way endorsing death threats against Richard Warman, nor am I endorsing the behavior or the words of some of the more out-of-hand posters on the forum which this post links to. I was simply trying to point toward the fact that there actually were death threats against Richard Warman; and if one follows the link, they'll find that what I am quoting are the words of Ken McVay, a famous Jewish anti-hate activist. At any rate, I don't want to see somebody kill Richard Warman; if that is the impression that one receives from reading this post, let this serve as a clarification. If Richard Warman himself believes that I was endorsing a death threat or threats against his person, let this serve as both a clarification and apology: I wasn't. ]

That's some pretty expensive toner

From the Victoria Times Colonist:

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM (OF INFORMATION)-- For those who think the new harmonized sales tax will be an expensive hit on their pocketbooks, take a look at the bill we got for asking to see government records about the tax.
A Freedom of Information Request by the Times Colonist for government records about the HST came back with a hefty fee estimate this week: $3,500.
For that price, the province would let us see copies of all government correspondence about the HST since January.
The Times Colonist, like dozens of other media outlets, is requesting the documents to see whether the Liberal government is telling the truth when it says it never considered implementing the HST before the May election. It introduced the tax less than two months after winning a new majority government.
The Press Pass crew did a quick count of its pennies and determined it didn't have anywhere near $3,500. We're currently negotiating with government to lower the fee by narrowing the search parameters.
We wonder, though, why are numerous media outlets being charged thousands of dollars each for what is essentially one set of records? Those are hefty photocopy fees.
Nobody said freedom of information was free.

Ahh...gotta love an open government.

Goin' to court

Geert Wilders' trial date is set: January 2010. Read all about it at Defend Geert Wilders, where there will be more in the next few days as well.

A brief round-up

I moved this from a post below, because it wasn't quite on topic, and it was getting large enough to warrant its own post.

So, who all has picked up my last article on the NDP, on top of the Cowichan Valley Citizen, who I originally sold it to? The Nanaimo Daily News, the Victoria Times Colonist, Global News, the Vancouver Province, and CHTV. Also the Ottawa Citizen, Dose.ca, Global Calgary, The Montreal Gazette, CHCH News, The Vancouver Sun, Global BC, and the Regina Leader-Post. In all cases, I'm sure it was probably just in the online versions, like on the websites, but still...

You know, Can-West is supposed to be goin' broke, but I think I have a solution. Just pay a small freelance fee for all of your articles, then syndicate the hell out of them throughout your vast media empire. There. Problem solved.

By the way, Binks says I'm getting a big head ( scroll down about a third of the page ). What do you think? I think it could stand to get a little bigger.

Finnish blasphemy

As I've written before, I consider blasphemy to be the only product of hate speech laws. Take this latest prosecution for hate speech/religious defamation/blasphemy in Finland. The only loser, aside from all members of the Finnish culture and society, has been language itself, because that much meaning, and that much context, and that much tact, has been taken from it by force.

Latest Walker column

Here it is, courtousy of Canada.com: Meat error taken to ridiculous end:

You know, despite my general tendency toward criticism, doom, and gloom, I try to think of myself as a fairly positive guy; I think this world is slowly getting better; I tend to think of people as being generally decent; I even believe that yes, Quentin Tarantino continues to produce good movies.
The first and the third -- especially the third -- are debatable, but every so often, certain people will come along who make me question my belief in the second, the basic, unselfish good of my fellow humanity. And normally I could probably try to ignore the bad apples -- but sometimes it's just really, really hard.
For instance, as reported by the Vancouver Sun, a couple by the name of William and Micheline Issa recently complained to the BC Human Rights Tribunal on the grounds that a deli in a Coquitlam-based Real Canadian Superstore discriminated against their religious beliefs (they're both Muslim) by mixing pork in with their salami orders. Or rather, one order. A year ago. Due to an admitted mistake on the part of the deli server, who was corrected in her mistake by the couple.

Read the rest here.

I wonder if anybody will pick up this article?

[ UPDATE: And here it is, via Global Lethbridge. ]

Carole James: last days?

Well, first of all, can I just say that it seems rather, well, stupid of Carole James to assume that she'll be leading the party in the 2013 election? I mean, come on! Considering the gawd-awful job she did with the last election, she should have resigned immediately, and appointed an inter-rim leader until the next leadership election.

But no matter. The election be comin'. From Public Eye Online:

Pundit and former provincial New Democrat MLA David Schreck has rejected a suggestion he's fired the first shot in a possible future battle to unseat Carole James. Despite flagging personal poll numbers, Ms. James has said she intends to lead her party in the 2013 election. But Mr. Schreck is looking for a constituency association to sponsor a resolution directing the New Democrats' executive and provincial council to "develop and ratify, no later than December 1, 2010, appropriate regulations for the election" of a leader using the one-member, one-vote system that was approved at the party's 2003 convention. Among the reasons listed for that resolution: "many members and supporters of the BC NDP would like to see a leadership election."
But, in an interview with Public Eye, Mr. Schreck said the purpose of the resolution "is to make sure - when and if a leadership race is held - the rules are in place. Right now, the constitution calls for one-member, one-vote. But it leaves it up to the executive to set the rules. And this has never been done before. We could end up with an election that makes the Afghan election look honest. So there are a lot of challenges to be resolved and they need to get on with the work."
"If I wanted to call for a leadership race I would make an explicit resolution doing that," he said when asked if this was part of an attempt to oust Ms. James. "I think that issue needs to be dealt with two years from now. It's too early to deal with it now. If circumstances are - two years from now - the way they are now a leadership race will be necessary. But Carole could end up tremendously increasing both the party's position - which is already 14 points ahead of the Liberals and her own standing in the next two years. But I just want to make sure the rules are in place so, if a leadership race is necessary, people know what the rules are."
If Mr. Shcreck finds a sponsor for his resolution, it could be debated at the party's upcoming November convention. The following is a complete copy, which was obtained by Public Eye.
***
WHEREAS the New Democratic Party of British Columbia has never elected a Provincial Leader through a ballot of all individual members of the party;
AND WHEREAS Article X11 of the Constitution provides that the Provincial Leader shall be elected through a ballot of all individual members of the party subject to appropriate regulations developed by the Executive and ratified by Provincial Council;
AND WHEREAS many members and supporters of the BC NDP would like to see a leadership election;
AND WHEREAS potential candidates need to know the regulations for an election prior to deciding whether to run;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Executive and Provincial Council be directed to develop and ratify, no later than December 1, 2010, appropriate regulations for the election of the Provincial Leader.

Read it here.

It'll be interesting to see who steps forward as a candidate for the next BC NDP leader, considering that, until now, there's not really been anybody lobbying against Mrs. James...that I'm aware of, at least.

A Maziar Bahari update

I received this from the Free Maziar Bahari Now! group on Facebook, which I’m a member of:

Maziar has been detained for 82 days now.
There are reports that the Iranian courts abandoned the lesser charges of political upheaval and movement last month however Maziar is still being detained incommunicado with no release in sight.
In a communique yesterday, the CPJ called for "humanitarian release as Ramadan ends".
http://cpj.org/2009/09/iran-cpj-calls-for-humanitarian-release-as-ramadan.php
The on-line petition now boasts 8,500+ names and will again be forwarded to the Iranian authorities.
Please take a moment to invite your networks (family, friends, work, sports teams, etc) to sign the petition by simply forwarding this link:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free_maziar_bahari/index.html
You can also remind The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada) that Maziar's release matters to us all.
He can be reached via: mina10@international.gc.ca
Please use the following e-mail Subject line: "Maziar Bahari"
In an effort to give our e-mails more visibility.
Thank you all for your support and efforts.

Oh CanWest - that's not very nice

Well, I guess it is, in a way. Here are three more pick-ups of my article on the New Democratic Party, from the Leader-Post, Global TV Calgary, and Dose.ca.

OK, seriously. I really am flattered, but I'm really going to have to try and re-negotiate my agreement with the Citizen on this. I like having my articles picked up, but I'd also really really like getting paid for it, even if it's just a token fee. If I got paid, oh, let's say even five bucks per pick-up, I'd be laughin' right now.

as B'nai Brith goes...

In which I talk all about the Canadian Jewish Congress's Mark Frieman for Heartless and Brainless. Check it out, huh?

Meanwhile, take the money!

I'm just sayin' - you don't know what you're sayin'

Canadian Cynic, in an apparent show of...let's call it wit...seems to feel like he's written THE stumper of all questions for all the Speechers in the room out there:

Has anyone else noticed that the people who are currently screeching about the fascist, Nazi powers of Canada's Human Rights Commission and how the CHRC is crushing the right to unfettered free speech are the same folks who start howling relentlessly about the evils of "anti-Semitism" at the slightest provocation and how something should by God be done about that kind of bigotry because no one should have to listen to that kind of ugly swill?Has anyone else noticed that? I've noticed that. Have you noticed that?

Um...no, actually. I hadn't noticed that. In fact, what I had noticed, because, you know, I was paying attention, was that most of the people who are 'currently screeching' about Canada's HRCs also think that most anti-semitic hate speech measures are out of line.

Although, I think there's a distinct possibility that Canadian Cynic is honestly that confused about the issue; or rather, he simply can't understand morally disagreeing with something without calling for a law to be passed against said something.

It's not that difficult, if you just take the time to think it through, mate.

[ UPDATE: link didn't work, but I hope it does now. ]

Burn!

Oh, this is just painful. Jeffrey Simpson, writing for the Globe and Mail on the next round of election debates ( whenever they might be ):

The networks have to establish criteria about who should be invited to debate and why. It's not an easy decision, because no precise tradeoff exists among fairness to all, representativeness of voice and effectiveness.
Last year's debate showed that the addition of a fifth voice was not based on any sensible criteria, apart from Ms. May being a woman and therefore breaking into the boy's club, which isn't a criterion but an emotion. (The next party leader might be a man, and other party leaders might be female.)
With five leaders sitting around the table, in English, viewers/voters were subjected to a debate in which leaders with no seats in Parliament (Ms. May) or no candidates outside Quebec (the Bloc's Gilles Duceppe) were given equal time with the Prime Minister, or the one leader who might have replaced him (Stéphane Dion).
Ultimately, elections are about who will govern us, and there were only two leaders, realistically speaking, who were going to do that. The same will be true this time. Either Stephen Harper or Michael Ignatieff will be prime minister. Any pretensions from another leader about becoming prime minister are ridiculous.

Now, that's just painful. For Elizabeth May, that is. Jeffrey's right, of course. Not so much because Elizabeth May was too small-time for the debates, but because Elizabeth May isn't a legitimate political candidate to begin with. If she was, she wouldn't have thrown the support of her party behind the Liberals on the promise of a cabinet position.

Meanwhile, did you know that the Greens finally have a platform with detail? 'Cause I didn't, really.

Huh.

Acer Netbook a Net Gain for Travelers

By Mark Kellner, via the Jewish World Review:

ABOARD BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 264 — Usually a trans-Atlantic flight while seated in coach means a loss of productive computing time. But the arrival on the market of various micro-notebook computers boasting Internet connectivity of some stripe, popularly dubbed "Netbooks," is changing things, at least for this road warrior.
I'm in the first leg of what will likely be a total of 20 hours in flight to reach my destination, the southern Zambian city of Livingstone. That's a lot of time in the air, and it's nice to have computer that's smaller than my 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro to place on the tray table. (As wonderful a system as the MacBook Pro is, I don't know if I'd open it in flight unless I were sitting in first class.)
Accompanying me (and the MacBook Pro) on this trip is the Acer Aspire One, which features what the Taiwan-based computer maker calls a "HD" screen, measuring 11.6 inches diagonally. The color LCD is quite nice, and the computer itself runs on an Intel Corp. Atom processor, has built-in Wi-Fi, and a Webcam which, the firm claims, adjusts to low-light situations.
The unit boasts a 160 Gigabyte hard disc drive, and — are my eyes trustworthy? — 1 GB of RAM. I'm guessing the weight is about 3 pounds. Overall, this isn't a machine on which you'd want to edit video for public television, but it certainly is a functional computer for many purposes.

Read the rest here.

Aw, racism!

The South African government is all sad because Canada has granted refugee status to one of its citizens, on supposedly racist grounds.

Johannesburg - The decision to grant a white South African refugee status in Canada because he feels he will be oppressed if he returns to the country, "borders on racism", says Jacob van Garderen, director of Lawyers for Human Rights. The Canadian immigration and refugee board ruling regarding Brandon Huntley, 31, is also not in compliance with international refugee laws, Van Garderen said on Tuesday.

Well, forgive me if I don't lend a sympathetic ear. That poor, poor government of South Africa. I mean honestly, what are they? Seven years old?

[ UPDATE: More on racism from South Africa, from the Jewish Daily Forward:

One month before this, many Jews were also unsettled when then-deputy foreign minister Fatima Hajaig told a cheering crowd, “The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money.”
Hajaig apologized to the Cabinet for her statement after the Jewish Board of Deputies lodged a complaint of hate speech against her with the South African Human Rights Commission. Due to the legacy of apartheid, South African constitutional protections of free speech do not extend to hate speech. The board of deputies then withdrew its complaint.
But Zuma, in contrast to such instances of hostility, altered his original schedule on the night of his speech before the Jewish Board of Deputies in order to stay for the entire evening’s program. As a consequence, the line-up was altered so that other speakers appeared earlier, in accordance with protocols that call for the president to always conclude an event.

UPDATE 2: Ian Robinson, in the Calgary Sun:

Well, thank God it's politically correct to beat up on white guys.
A refugee board in Ottawa last week granted asylum to a white South African male because he said black folks kept kicking the crap out him, taking his money and calling him racist names, and that black-first affirmative action policies hampered his chances for employment.
The roar of outrage across the nation and from South Africa has been deafening -- particularly given the earlier silence from Canadian pundits on refugees and immigration.
While it's interesting to hear the Canadian perspective on this debate, the South African government and its representatives to Canada should shut their traps.
When South Africa can offer safety and security to its own people, then they can have opinions worthy of attention.
Canada, a nation of 34 million, records fewer than 600 murders a year.
South Africa, a nation of 44 million, records around 19,000 per year.
It has a murder rate second only to that of Colombia, and Colombia's murder rate at least makes sense, because they're killing each other over huge dope profits and have a dandy little insurgency going in the bush.
In South Africa, they apparently do it for fun.
How bad is the overall crime rate in South Africa?
Well, at one point, an entrepreneur was legally marketing a flamethrower for your car at a price of under $1,000 that put out a fireball designed to engulf carjackers.
All without harming the paint of the vehicle. He sold about 1,000 of them.
Imagine living in a place where it's considered socially acceptable to have a freaking flamethrower on your car because the crime rate's so bad. (Note to every red-blooded, car-owning male reading this: Yeah. I know. I want one, too.)

Read it all here. Meanwhile, in the comments, someone points out:

The problem in SA is not so much racism as its about culture and finance. Its the "haves" that say its a wondeful country, they can afford the protection of security and life is good for them, some are white, indian or black. But the "have nots" have to compete for survival, with Affirmative Action and racial laws, poor blacks gets first pick. Poor whites and poor blacks both fight for a limited work pool, african only bursaries and more. These hostilities seem to breed in poor who feel there is no where to go. So talk to the common man on the street and you see a racial tension that just doesn't exist up in the wealthy areas, where life is good. So the people that says South Africa Doesn't have a problem doesn't live in the real south africa but in the South Africa of milk and honey.

So, um...South Africa. Can't imagine someone would prefer Canada. ]