August 27, 2005

The intrinsic fallacy of Middle Eastern policy, Big Brother's Snoop Law, CBC

As much as I would wish a Western-style democracy on the Middle East, reality points to the opposite. In the 21st century it is almost impossible to imagine the carnage and implacable hostility that has infused this region throughout history. No matter how dysfunctional their societies have become, the Muslims cling to their various sects, all of whom seem to despise each other as apostates. I have even observed this among second generation Islamic immigrants in Canada. The number of unbelievers who have been killed in the last two decades is dwarfed by the numbers that have been slaughtered inter-faith. This fact has been shoved to the background by our Muslim critics in the West. Somehow Saddam's massacre of the Kurds and the Shi'ites in Iraq has been forgotten in the need to cleanse Iraq of the "crusader". Of course, the fact that they are even Muslim which is predicated on Mohammed's crusades out of Saudi Arabia has been conveniently forgotten.

The exquisite irony (Iraq is loaded with irony) of this fact has been seemingly lost on al-Qaeda. The nonsense that if the Western allies left Iraq, then there would be be a peaciful kingdom is sheer delusion. What would replace it would be uncontrolled sectarian / religious mayhem. All pretense of a unified democratic Iraq would be buried. So the American / British contigent is caught in the quagmire of religious ambitions. Anarchy is the name of the game here. Wishful thinking is not going to change that. Already, the Iraqi constitution is bogged down in how much Islamic sharia law will gain a stranglehold on the civil law. The slightly more female-positive Kurds, who also like their arrak, are in conflict with the fundamentalist Shi'ites and Sunnis, who see booze as forbidden.

Then there is the really big question of who gets to control the oil revenues. The Iranian-influenced Shi'ites have, until now, held off their vengance against the Sunni suicide bombers; however there are now reports that they have begun to act. A Westerner can only shake his head in seeing what possible advantage al-Qaeda and the Baathists can gain in their homicidal attacks on the majority Shi'ites. Between the Kurds and the Shi'ites they could annihilate their enemy. Perhaps we in the West should simply pull out and let it come down. Even in the more Westernized Lebanon, the roots of internecine violence is only briefly hidden. A statement made to me by a guide in a trip to the Beekas Valley of Lebanon years ago still rings loudly. As we were passing the Shatila Palestinian camp in Beirut, he said, "Look down there. Those bastards will destroy our country." A year later, he was proved right, as they helped pull the cork on the bottle of religious violence. I think I know what Bush et al wanted to accomplish, but a depraved religiosity will defeat that aspiration every time.

© Bud Talkinghorn



Big Brother's Snoop Law

Even an innocuous e-mail is now going to be subject to government interdiction if the Liberals have their way. The Justice Minister wants to bring in a blanket snoop law which would allow the authorities to tap any internet communication--to catch the terrorists you understand. Of course, by accident, they will be able to track any anti-government correspondence as well. Hello Big Brother.


CBC -- seems to be unloved and unwanted

Lately, the only bright sign is that CBC TV--the mouthpiece of the Liberals--has been closed down by strike. While I miss the best of it, the endless loony-left crap I don't miss at all.

© Bud Talkinghorn




Ironic, isn't it Bud? Most letters to the editor and the scuttlebutt I hear show that people are fed up with CBC-Liberal Propaganda Organ's Liberal / leftist slant on everything. This has turned away what few were supportive of the mothercorps in the past. We might like some CBC productions but we have had enough of the blatant politicking for the NDP/Librano$.

Wouldn't it be delightful to watch so much without the play by play from some CBC type? Without the anti-American, anti-religion, anti-conservative, et cetera slant?

When I hear terrorists or terrorist supporters treated with that uniquely CBC respectful tone reserved for those CBC is directing us (not too subtly) to support, I turn away, cut it off, say I want better. I get better from several radio stations over the net. NJC

August 23, 2005

Updated: Election Pork $$$, Refugee Turks, China, Oil, PetroKaz, Methamphetamine Abuse, HIV Infection & Brain, Peace Mom

Update 2:

Fixed: I had misspelled Isautier (as Isaultier) -- Sorry. I should have checked.

Additional information:

Presidential Planet -- top managers' remuneration -- original article from Le Devoir here Jean-Robert Sansfaçonm Le Devoir, 05 May 2005

[. . . . ] The Globe and Mail has calculated total remuneration for the bosses of 198 of the 245 companies that make up the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Index.

[. . . . ] Robert Gratton, President de Power Financial Inc., a subsidiary of the Desmarais family holding company. . . . 173 million dollars!

Bernard Isautier, of PetroKazakhstan, is in second place (93 million), followed by Gerry Schwartz, of Onex (76 million), and by Frank Stonach, of Magna International (52 million). As for the President of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Alain Bouchard, he came in 11th (with 11 million), the president of the Banque Nationale, 34th (seven million), and Pierre Karl Péladeau, 65th, with barely 3.4 million dollars....

Faced with such a hemorrhaging of millions, we must ask what brings a Board of Directors to offer so much. [. . . . ]

Another weakness is that of the public regulatory authorities, such as the Québec Market Authority. The bigger a company is, the closer are its ties with expert consulting firms and the political milieus, sometimes even to the point of incestuousness.


Search: bonuses and stock purchase programs , Paul Tellier, Jean Monty and John Roth

Is there any pattern here that you may deduce? Probably not.


End of Update 2.


Update 1:

* Links from the Financial Post, Aug. 23 05

The first two articles relating to PetroKazakstan and oil were mentioned in posts previously today; here are the links.

State-owned CNPC shakes up oilpatch


Isautier rides to the jackpot


New Eastern bloc will send Caspian oil to West, bypassing Russia, papers say


Banking on bands: Native communities, flush with cash from land claim deals, find the big banks beating a path to their door -- How fortunate that Minister Scott bypassed Parliament for the Labrador land deal signed this spring for now, who knows what may happen?


Empire buys 27 theatres



The Federal Surplus: two points of view

* From the Financial Post

Projected federal surplus 'staggering'


* From the National Post, Aug. 23, 05

Martin dismisses forecast of big surplus

Overheard: "Hello, the politician lied" -- sotto voce.


End of update 1.





Election Pork $$$ Ready?

Financial Post: "Projected federal surplus staggering -- up $4.8B in three months -- massive level of overtaxation in budget, critics say" by Paul Viera, Aug. 23, 05, FP6

Well, folks, you voted for PM and this . . . and now, he's got to buy the West, the East, and identifiable voting blocs with their / your own money.

By the way, three Turks who fled their ship in Quebec have applied for . . . refugee status. Others are still loose but just wait at your local refugee claims office. They'll come out of the woodwork shortly for all those tax $$$ you won't get back and then, to support them and those who will come, you will have to be taxed more. It's da Canajun way!

Update: I just heard PM and Min. Goodale porking up the Saskatchewan voters on television.



China kickbacks create trouble for U.S. firms -- Lure of profits tempts some foreign companies to adopt unethical practices -- Why, I'm shocked! Shocked! Peter S. Goodman, The Washington Post, Aug. 22, 05

In interviews, China-based executives, sales agents and distributors for nine U.S. multinational companies acknowledged that their firms routinely win sales by paying what could be considered bribes or kickbacks -- often in the form of extravagant entertainment and travel expenses -- to purchasing agents at government offices and state-owned businesses.


Search: such payments are usually funneled through , Studwell, author of "The China Dream" and an articulate skeptic of business prospects in China

Don't miss the articles in the Financial Post today on the sale of Calgary-based PetroKazakhstan to a subsidiary China National Petroleum Corp. and an interview with Bernard Isautier, "the French oilman who rescued the company from an Alberta bankruptcy court in September of 1999". Isautier came out of retirement during the era of JC and what was formerly Hurricane Hydrocarbon's bankruptcy troubles to lead it to the promised land. Companies which had foreign holdings are doing well and Hurricane had them. Now named PetroKazakhstan, it has come a long way since then. There is a bit of info on other companies -- Paris based Total SA, Kinder Morgan, Terasen Inc. , Deer Creek Energy, India's ONGC, Talisman, Nexen, Niko and Husky.

Claudia Cattaneo and Jon Harding "China scoops up PetroKaz in US $4.18B cash deal . . ." Financial Post, FP1 and FP4

FP Questions and Answers -- interview with Isautier 'This is a very firm and solid transaction' -- also on FP4

If only the rest of us had known, think about the money we could have made. What other Canadians were so precient?





MethResources.Gov -- Note what happens to the brain Last week, I posted a link to photos of what happens to kid's mouth after taking meth for a short while. Now, read this and reconsider whether, if you have chosen to have children, you really need to be at home watching out for them or earning more money to buy more "genuine junque".
"Methamphetamine Abuse, HIV Infection Cause Changes in Brain Structure -- State(s): Federal National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), August 2005. This article highlights recent research, which indicates that methamphetamine abuse and HIV infection cause significant alterations in the size of certain brain structures, and in both cases the changes may be associated with impaired cognitive functions." [. . . . ]



'Peace Mom's' marriage a metaphor for Dems Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 21, 05 via Newsbeat1

The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect."

Ah, well, they're not immediate family, so they lack Cindy's "moral authority." But how about Casey's father, Pat Sheehan? Last Friday, in Solano County Court, Casey's father Pat Sheehan filed for divorce. As the New York Times explained Cindy's "separation," "Although she and her estranged husband are both Democrats, she said she is more liberal than he is, and now, more radicalized." [. . . . ]


Does anyone just quietly grieve any more? What has happened to a dignified silence? To private mourning? Or is the 15 minutes of media attention worth it?



World Health Organisation Warning & Attempt to Halt Lethal Pandemic

Europe steps up attempt to halt lethal pandemic August 23, 2005, Charles Bremner in Paris and Roger Boyes in Berlin via Newsbeat1

European worries about bird flu have mounted with evidence that H5N1, the latest strain, found in western China last month, has been moving steadily westwards. It has now reached Siberia and experts are saying that migratory fowl could bring it to Western Europe this autumn.

Discovered in China in 1997, bird flu has infected 112 human beings since 2003, killing 57 in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. So far human beings who contracted the disease got it from handling birds, but the World Health Organisation fears that it might mutate into a human strain that could cause a global pandemic.

[. . . . ] WHY ARE SCIENTISTS WORRIED?

When H5N1 has infected human beings it is exceptionally lethal — of 112 confirmed cases, 57 have died. The concern is that this strain will mutate so that it can be easily passed on from one person to another — if this happens, the result could be a pandemic as serious as the 1918-19 “Spanish flu” that killed between 20 million and 40 million people.



******* again, in the Maritimes -- LNG & $$$

Democracy in the US actually encourages dissent and moneymaking. Companies court . . . while in NB, powerful businesses demand, threaten and . . . well, read all about one example.

Protest building in N.B. to proposed LNG facilities -- "Developers are already offering local communities in Maine millions of dollars in incentives to allow the LNG plants to go ahead.

That's in marked contrast to the situation in New Brunswick where Irving Oil demanded tax concessions"
Chris Morris, Aug. 22, 05

How does delicately put this . . . other than scr**** again in the Maritimes?

ST. ANDREWS, N.B. (CP) - Growing opposition to proposals for liquified natural gas projects in Maine could fuel a fight between Canada and the United States over access to the pristine waters off southern New Brunswick.

Two companies are looking to build LNG facilities . . . .

Greg Thompson, the Conservative MP for southwest New Brunswick, has called on the Canadian government to refuse the supertankers access to the tricky Canadian waters leading into the [Passamaquoddy] bay. [. . . . ]


There is only one overriding fact of life you have to know about NB; there is one family who always get what they want. You know, the port facilities built supposedly for the orimulsion from Venezuela, which included an LOU but NO written contract, $35-million taxpayer dollars toward the port facilities for the import of the orimulsion which will not be coming to NB and, by golly, guess who can use that port for LNG? Why, what a piece of luck! The port won't go to waste. The same family wrangled a massive tax concession out of St. John City council so it wouldn't take its LNG ball and go elsewhere to play, at least so I assume, since it was a quickly handled done deal before the good citizenry knew much about it. Other businesses will pay more. Now, you know all you need to know about business in NB . . . oh, except for the fact that, if you need $$$, speak with MP Andy Scott and ask about an ACOA grant. Suggestion: Find out first what Liberals you might bring onto your team. Oh, they're already there? How fortunate! But what do I know? Just guessing. Still, it makes sense considering past government "business" loans / grants / forgiveable loans to largely Lib-friendly firms in the Maritimes.

Oh, and why am I writing this when you should be able to read it in the NB newspapers? Why, because this same family owns most, if not all, the newspapers and so I've been told, most of the radio/TV stations, too. Check.


Owning most of the media outlets in NB means never having to say you're sorry. NJC


CFP: Security, Jackboot Liberals, Martin's Courageous Stand, al Qaeda Attacks

Gaps found in border database -- Dangerous individuals not red-flagged -- link for the rest of it. Adrian Humphreys, National Post, August 16, 2005

Five suspected terrorists with links to Canada -- including three facing US$5-million bounties and another wanted in the bombing of the World Trade Center -- are not flagged as wanted or dangerous in the computer system used by front-line officers at Canada's borders.

[. . . . ] The checks were done on dozens of men on the PALS database this summer. Included in the search were five men wanted by the FBI in relation to terrorism investigations, including:

- Abderraouf Jdey, [. . . . ]
- Faker Ben Abdelazziz Boussora [. . . . ]
- Amer el-Maati, [. . . . ]
- Adnan El Shukrijumah, [. . . . ]
- Abdul Rahman Yasin, [. . . . ]





Jackboot liberalism Klaus Rohrich, Monday, August 22, 2005

Historically, leftists and socialists account for substantially more totalitarian measures (including deaths) than fascists. I would not put it past the likes of Paul Martin and the rest of the felony section of parliament to someday find the need for elections to be redundant. It seems to me that their progressively more undemocratic actions over the past year or so could be a dress rehearsal for a complete Soviet-style takeover. And the way this country’s voters are behaving is one of the main ingredients that could make it possible.





Our Dithering Disaster: "Martin to Canadians: don't even think about helping Iraq" Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor, Monday, August 22, 2005

[. . . . ] It’s an overused cliché, but telling Canadians who are in or who plan to go to Iraq to turn tail and run means the terrorists have won. Martin and his government should be ashamed of themselves for the way that they have portrayed Zaid Meerwali.





al Qaeda Attacks: A Flash Presentation -- or Trackback Bill Roggio at July 12, 05

The following visual presentation is a compilation of the major al Qaeda attacks since the creation of the International Islamic Front and their subsequent declaration of war in February of 1998.




Video: "The purpose of the presentation is to graphically demonstrate al Qaeda’s ability to conduct mass casualty assaults on a global scale."


Multiculturalism, Britishness, Innu, Islamists -&- RSS

Search the archives, Aug. 13, 05 for "ENOUGH WITH THE AGONISING" Mark Steyn, The Spectator

[. . . . ] Britishness was far more of a genuinely multicultural identity than the yawning we-are-the-world nullity of modern multiculturalism.

[. . . . ] The only thing these guys have going for them is our undervaluation of ourselves and perverse boosting up of them. By pretending that all cultures are equal, multiculturalism doesn’t ‘preserve’ traditional cultures so much as sustain them in an artificial state that ensures they’ll develop bizarre pathologies and mutate into some freakish hybrid of the worst of both worlds. [. . . . ]


Lengthy, full of detail and definitely worth reading -- if only to find out who is/are "kookier than the most in-bred backwoods up-country yakherd."

Steyn is not pc and I love him for it.

Via Jack's Newswatch -- Also, see in the same post, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aug. 22, 05. It sounds useful.




All men are not equal -- There should be no agonised debate: Britishness is best Mark Steyn, The Spectator, July 30th 2005

‘If you’re looking for “root causes” for terrorism, European-sized welfare programmes are a good place to start. Maybe if they had to go out to work, they’d join the Daily Mirror and become the next John Pilger. Or maybe they’d open a drive-thru Halal Burger chain and make a fortune. Instead, Tony Blair pays Islamic fundamentalists in London to stay at home, fester and plot.’

I wasn’t the first to notice the links between Euro-Canadian welfare and terrorism. [. . . . ]



Do not Mention the Obvious -- Truth is No Excuse, One Must Read Paragraph

The "Peaceful, Tolerant" Ones are at it again.

Free Speech, CAIR and Political Correctness

It is time for all of us to protect the right to free speech. I don't think this is the last we'll hear from Graham.

Well, they got me... Michael Graham, August 22, 2005

[. . . . ] The whole point of the Michael Graham Show is what my listeners and I call the “natural truth,” those obvious facts about modern life that the p.c. police and mainstream media believe should never be discussed. That includes the tragic, but undeniable relationship between terrorism and Islam as it is constituted today.

The conversations my listeners and I had on this subject were not offensive or bigoted in the least. [. . . . ]

The people who most need free speech and open dialogue on the issues facing Islam today are America's moderate Muslims. These are people of good will who have the difficult job ahead of reforming and rescuing their religion. They need all the help they can get.

The decision to give CAIR what it wants—a group with well-publicized ties to terrorists and terror-related organizations--will make it harder for the reformers to successfully face Islam's challenges. Still worse, silencing people like me will make it easier for Islamist extremists to dismiss all sincere calls for reform as mere "bigotry." [. . . . ]


Radio-talk host Michael Graham is a political commentator and author of Redneck Nation.




Unbelievable! Link for the one paragraph which you must not miss.

Cowed by CAIR: DC talk station fires host Joel Mowbray, Aug. 23, 05

After a three-week suspension, mid-morning host Michael Graham was fired over the weekend for his comment on July 21 that “Islam has, sadly, become a terrorist organization.” According to a formal statement issued by the host last night, Disney-owned WMAL terminated him for the original remarks and his refusal to apologize for them.


Search: Here are Graham’s remarks, with full context:


Arab Intellectual: Why No Fatwa Against Bin Ladin? -&- Disengagement

Arab Intellectual: Why Has There Been No Fatwa Against Bin Laden? Special Dispatch Series - No. 965, Aug. 23, 05, MEMRI

In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa, Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi, a Jordanian intellectual who resides in the U.S., asks why Islamic religious scholars haven't issued a fatwa against bin Laden. [1] The following are excerpts:

Terrorism in the Arab World Has Been Encouraged by Islamic Legal Scholars

[. . . . ] Is It Right To Condemn The West For Its Aggression Against The East And Not To Condemn The Muslim Who Murders His Muslim Or Non-Muslim Brother?

[. . . . ] Al-Qaeda Interpreted the Islamic Legal Scholars' Silence as an Endorsement of their Crimes

[. . . . ] "Who is more dangerous to Islam today, and in the past: bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, or Faraj Foda, Hussein Muruwwa, Mahmoud Taha, Al-Sadeq Al-Nayhoum, and other contemporary Arab intellectuals? Why were fatwas issued to kill them – and they were indeed murdered – and to date no fatwa has been issued against bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda leaders?…"




Disengagement

Confessions of a Once ‘Hopeful Leftist’ or How ‘Disengagement’ Reveals the True Character of the Proposed Arab State in the West Bank and Gaza by Jared Israel, [Posted 22 August 2005]

[. . . . ] There is much evidence that the so-called Palestinian movement is not an outgrowth of the history of some Palestinian people, but an artificial creation of the Arab states, with much help, at various times, from Great Powers, such as the former Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and others. [1] [. . . . ]

So let us look at ‘disengagement’ in terms of this question: is the PLO involved in a movement for national liberation? Or against Jews? [. . . . ]




Check this photo; it should tell you.

I believe that there is no reasonable agreement possible with people like this. The West is at war with madness.


Rejection of Materialism -- Leftists, Family, Freedom & More

The rejection of materialism (Part XXI) Dennis Prager, August 23, 2005

Have you not wondered "why the materialist leftist world so often celebrated and continues to celebrate communist regimes"?

[. . . . ] The Left regards itself as morally elevated because of its preoccupation with materialism. Yet religious Americans who reject materialism are far more likely than left-leaning parents in the same socio-economic condition to sacrifice materially in order to have one parent be a full-time parent. And Judeo-Christian values explain why a religious woman is far more likely to sacrifice materially by giving birth to, rather than aborting, an unplanned child.

Even freedom is a higher value to one who holds Judeo-Christian values. [. . . . ]

Freedom, too, has no material value.



August 22, 2005

Bud Talkinghorn: Reefer Madness 2, Cotler & Privacy, Michaelle Jean, In defense of less is more

Reefer Madness 11

Is it possible that America's new Drug Czar is really Harry Ansinger the second? I wait with anticipation for the sequel of that famous short film pushed by the first Drug Czar himself. You know, the one where the weasel-looking dude axes his better half, because she threw out his stash. And when he is sentenced, he is rolling his eyes crazily as the judge gives him the Ole Sparky. What superb casting! But imagine if they could get Brad Pitt to play the bad guy and Jennifer (Garner, Lopez, Aniston) to play the virtuous wife. Boffo effect, I tell you. The only proviso of the contract being is that none of them has to undergo a drug test. In the director's cut, they could have Marc Emery as Mr. Big, He could be shown as a Goldfinger type, plotting to destroy Halliburton's will to carry on the war in Iraq or some other patriotic theme. Perhaps in one of Charlton Heston's more lucid moments, he could be hear intoning, "If those Canucks just had a sensible gun policy, they could have blown these grow-op b*****ds away." As a counter balance, to woo the more liberal crowd, you could have Michael Moore suggesting that Dubya's real crime was puffing the wacky weed, not snorting cocaine. "What's he really growing down there in his hidden farm in Crawford?", might be a key tag line innuendo.

You simply can't cast the paranoia net too wide when you are fighting drug fiends. Just because we failed to defeat demon rum during Prohibition--and incidentally brought in the Mafia, which has never gone away--doesn't mean we should give up the good fight. I ask for only one no-no. Don't include asking the students, as in the past, to bring in a suspected marijuana plant to the teacher, as they might have been infected by this hideous addiction as well.

© Bud Talkinghorn--The only thing I can say about that Emery boy is that he certainly saved the Coast Guard and the airforce a whole lot of a lot of money trying to stop those ships loaded with ditch weed from Colombia and Mexico.

No comment on the inimitable Bud and the wacky weed. Gimme that old time . . . stuff that pours.




Big Brother wants to read your blogs and e-mails

It is ironic that Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who was advertised as "a prominent civil rights advocate" by the Liberals, now wnats to trample the most basic of privacy rights. He wants to grant the police and CSIS the sweeping authority to intradict anyone's correspondence in the name of national security. Yet he is the same man who always champions the right of undocumented 'refugees' to enter Canada and who often simply disappear into the cities' ghettoes when their claims are to be judged. Under the Liberals' watch we have even seen 36,000 deportees disappear thusly.

Would such draconian legislation really ferret out the Ressams in our midst? I highly doubt it, as there seems to be a plethora of al-Qaeda agents who happen to be computer experts. Through coded messages and advanced encryption these terrorists would probably foil any attempts to intercept their plans. On the other hand, it would be a fine tool for the Liberals to harass their opponents. Look at how Chretien used the police to falsely accuse Beaudoin in the BDB scandal. Then there was the infamous example of how Nixon used the Internal Revenue in the States to attack his detractors. That action was strictly illegal, but he managed to use it anyway. Giving this viciously corrupt government such a weapon is unthinkable. If they have suspicions of terrorist activity on the internet they can get a judge's permission to tap it. Cotler should turn in his badge for even suggesting such an abomination.

© Bud Talkinghorn




Will the real Michaelle Jean please stand up?

The spin on Ms. Jean is making me dizzy. The separatists feel cheated. After all, didn't she salute their cause in camera? Didn't she and hubby get down with the FLQ brothers? The Liberals are in a huff because she finally did make a weak statement disavowing any allegiance to the separatists, but those d*** "smear campaign" people aren't buying it. As though that isn't enough, the media is now reporting that her ascendence was primarily due to the former Heritage Minister, Helene Scherrer, rooting for her. Ms. Scherrer is now a secretary to Paul Martin--nobody ever loses their pay check because the public voted them out--and she vouched for Jean. According to Scherrer, Jean is the epitome of what Canada needs as a G-G. For one, she went out to Calgary to speak and, by gum, she gave her initial speech entirely in French. So if most of the rednecks couldn't understand it, that's their problem. Besides Trudeau gave them decades to get with the bilingual mandate. On top of that she really likes the fact that Jean is "very, very much a Quebec nationalist", just as Scherrer has always been herself. That Jean is a woman plays well to the feminist voters as well.

The fact that Michaelle Jean is a nobody to most of English Canada is of no importance. If they were part of the 6% who watch CBC they would be better informed. Well, I have watched Jean in action and find it hard to be overly impressed with someone who spends a couple of minutes introducing (never analyzing) the subjects of Roughcuts and The Passionate Eye--documentaries relentlessly left-wing.

Anyway, we are told that her real import is with Radio Canada, the CBC's Quebec wing. That fills me with more trepidation than admiration. Radio Canada has been a fortress of separatist foment for decades, even though it has existed purely through Canadian tax money. A small accomodation we are expected to make so Quebecers will feel wanted. One further consideration about Jean is her dual Canadian-French citizenship. This is also problematic. Outside of Quebec there is no country that has meddled in the separatist issue as much as France. It goes beyond Charles DeGualle's "Viva le Quebec libre" speech in Montreal. There is evidence that the French Secret Service in the past (and present?) was/is? actively engaged in encouraging Quebec separtation.

David Frum in The National Post (Friday, Aug. 19) did a beautiful job of showing the blatant hypocrisy of the Liberals and the NDP when it comes to "the hideous threat posed by the separatists". Martin chastised Harper for trying to call a early election, which would only "suit the separatist cause", while Layton mouthed the same platitudes for supporting a corrupt Liberal administration. Perhaps the best though, was Belinda Stronach claiming that her opportunism was motivated by the need to keep Canada united.. However, when it comes to nominating a possible separatist supporter to the Governor-General post that is all forgotten.

The republicans amongst us should rejoice because this appointment will only drive another nail in the coffin of the monarchist connection to Britain. From a CBC left-wing elitist like Adrienne Clarkson, to a separatist-leaning Jean, the route to irrelevance is fully established. So maybe we should raise a glass to this absurd appointment.

© Bud Talkinghorn



If we allow Sharia law to be introduced into Canada, then it is only fair to allow the Catholics to reinvigourate the Inquistion and to applaud the Protestants' for bringing back the Salem witch trials.

© Bud Talkinghorn



In defense of less is more

In our multi-tasking, hyper-consumerist society we have lost the ability to quietly reflect on the reason for living. While America is the paramount example of a go, go, go society, there is no question that Canada is catching up. It is not just the neo-cons that believe in the deadly sin of sloth, it is their lefty brethren as well. One has only to see how Sunday as the day of rest has been transferred into a frenzy of mall hopping. Thousands must work that day so that millions can spend the day bustling through the malls' almost identical shops. And these malls might have a ratio of leisure spots to shops of 1:20. Clothing of the body certainly out-distances the clothing of the mind. Now if I saw ecstasy radiating from the faces of these shoppers, I might be converted to materialism; however, more often I see a sullenness reflecting a dissatisfaction with their purchases. And as the malls grow ever more gargantuan, there is a sheer exhaustion from the lengthy trudge necessary to nail that 20% discounted $145 pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans.

Mind you, if many of these people stayed home, they would be watching television programs that are so fragmented by twenty commercials per hour that they resemble kaleidoscopic entities. We wonder why so many kids have ADHD, yet forget the thousands of shifting images they are exposed to in a night of television consumption--interspersed with their hyper-active nintendo games. Forget ritalin; some of these kids are so juiced they need a healthy dose of thorazine tranquilizer / sedation.

Rolling along with this avarice for ever more goods are a host of looming disasters. The depleted savings accounts of North Americans have put us at the mercy of foreign lenders, including some quite unsavoury ones like the Chinese communists. The three car families and their McMansions contribute to gridlock and urban sprawl. Who is going to buy a tiny Smart Car, when being hit by a leviathan-sized SUV or pick-up truck would turn your car into a metal coffin? However these are minor problems compared to the restless acquistion of the (often useless) things which require vast air pollution and the stripping of the land of its natural resources. Ironically, as we reluctantly embrace the Kyoto Accord in the West, our plethora of cultural trade items have become a siren song for the developing nations. The rapid increase in vehicle ownership in China has turned their cities into smog hells--and that increase is going to gallop along at a swift pace for the near future.

There is no need for us to lead a monastic existence; however, we must temper our rapaciousness. How many pairs of shoes do we really need? Maybe what we need is an ethos that encourages keeping down with the Joneses. Perhaps we should invest in more open sports areas instead of food courts for our increasingly lard-a**ed kiddies.

© Bud Talkinghorn


The Advantages of Being Gerry Schwartz in Liberal Canada's Film Distribution

So you would like to support the Canadian film industry . . .

Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, March 22, 05 -- "The theatres are now majority owned by a Canadian, Gerry Schwartz", a good Liberal, but that had nothing to do with the business advantages, did it?

[. . . . ] Warner Brothers cannot distribute Canadian films in Canada; they can only distribute them outside of Canada. Why is that?


Mr. Douglas Frith:
It's the law. That's what we were saying in our brief, that this is a barrier we really should revisit. It stems from, I think, 30 years ago.

If you look at the distribution in the theatres now, it's over 50% Canadian owned. It's Gerry Schwartz; it's Cineplex Odeon. That's Canadian owned. I'm talking about the theatres. The theatres are now majority owned by a Canadian, Gerry Schwartz. As far as I understand, Paramount has put up for sale Famous Players, and I understand that the most interested party is a Canadian as well. So it goes beyond who owns the theatre; it's still a business decision as to how they locate.

Trust me, they're no more generous to American films than they are to Canadian. If an American film doesn't sell enough popcorn on the opening weekend, it's gone by the Tuesday of the following week. It doesn't matter whether it's Canadian, Dutch, German, or American. It's a business decision. [. . . . ]

Ms. Susan Peacock: It's the law. It's policy at CAVCO. It's in the regulations--“regulations” may not be technically the right word--at CAVCO, and I believe Telefilm. I'm not certain about CTF, but I think so. It goes back to a time when, to be blunt, it was to protect Canadian distributors. It was cloaked in rhetoric that suggested that Canadian distributors, of course, would always be motivated first by patriotism and secondly by filthy lucre. That of course is not true. They're in business too.

The 95% is a number that has been making me crazy for about 20 years. First of all, the number floats. It floats from 3% to 5%, depending, and it's often given as the percentage of screen time. I think you said percentage of theatres, but it's a made-up number. Nobody is collecting that data. Nobody has ever collected that data. It's one of the founding myths that informs all discussion of Canadian film policy, and it keeps getting repeated. The Minister of Heritage from time to time puts it in a speech, the Globe and Mail publishes it, the staff of the Minister of Heritage reads it in the Globe and Mail, puts it in a speech, and it just keeps going.

Mr. Douglas Frith: In the mists of time, this has all changed, and Alliance Atlantis is doing exactly what the big, bad, ugly American studios do. They're vertically integrated, and they're there to make money--quelle surprise! [. . . . ]


Has government interfered with normal business to protect good Liberal business to this extent? Or is it just Schwartz' luck?

Get government and government regulation of everything in our lives. Incidentally, I hate the smell of popcorn in theatres, and I would like Canadian films to be readily available if we want to see them. If we don't, that's life and the business will fail. But let us choose.


C'est Fini? CQ: "NDP Splits With Liberals: Radio Canada", Poll-Vote! & Tougher Sentences? Yes

"It appears all Harper has to do is show up once Parliament returns next month"

Who says there is no good news?

NDP Splits With Liberals: Radio Canada August 22, 2005 -- or Captain's Quarters Blog Trackback

Radio Canada reports in its French-language news service that Jack Layton and the NDP have abandoned their partnership with Paul Martin and the Liberals, just two months after winning a major tax concession in exchange for propping up Martin during the Adscam scandal (via CQ reader SpaceNeedleBoy):

Le chef du Nouveau Parti démocratique, Jack Layton, a confirmé au quotidien Le Devoir, que l'alliance entre sa formation politique et les libéraux de Paul Martin était terminée.

In other words -- c'est fini. If this gets confirmed, the Liberals will suddenly be vulnerable to a Tory/BQ no-confidence motion as soon as Parliament comes back into session. [. . . . ]

UPDATE: The first Anglophone report comes from 580 CFRA (via CQ reader SpaceNeedleBoy again):


Also, check CQ for "The Gorelick Wall Encompassed Defense, CIA, And State (Updated!)"


The NDP is running scared that they will be lumped in with Paul Martin / Jean Chretien Liberals. One of my dearest departed relatives whose membership in the CCF was signed by the original CCF head honcho would be rolling over in his grave at what has happened to his CCF which morphed into the NDP and supported a continuation of this Lieberal / Librano$ regime. He joined the CCF because he believed the working man needed a fair shake; he had come to hate the Liberals, their deceit and corruption even then, and he would have been appalled at what has transpired since. He was a good and decent man who worked, asked only to work hard and be paid a reasonable and decent wage. He was a Liberal until he saw through the system and joined the precursor to the NDP, the CCF. He would be appalled at the Layton socialist NDP today. In fact, he would be a Stephen Harper supporter now.




Is Canada doing enough to monitor homegrown terrorism? 83% say NO! -- Link and vote. CTV.ca Aug. 22, 05



Mom of shot T.O. boy wants tougher sentences

I suspect PM might as well skip the West; he's snubbed his nose at the West for so long. Of course, buying Canadians' good will is his stock in trade. The government has overtaxed and squirrelled away so much money to pay off the regions . . . to be re-elected, then to siphon money to keep the regions vying for advantage while paying particular attention to . . . the usual.



Just how politicized the appointment of the GG really is

From the National Post, Aug. 22, 05, letters to the editor

If Micaelle Jen was suspected of having voted Conservative, would she have even been considered for the GG job?

Rob Manders, Toronto


The most telling comment about the state of Canada's government and governance yet. There is to be no recognition of the legitimacy of conservatives nor conservative thought. A weak man needs to be seen as exercising total control; a statesman would do what is best for Canada. NJC


Al Qaeda Nerve Gas Attack on UK Parliament Foiled, Turkish ship jumpers, RCMP/Gov. Personnel to Kandahar, Why is Top Sniper Leaving the Military? &

"RCMP officers and government development personnel are arriving in Kandahar this week to bolster an experimental force that mixes civilians, the police and military." -- "an integrated approach." threatened, however, by the instability




So why is he leaving the military?

Tarred with ugly brush -- Top Canadian sniper quits in frustration -- "he shot an al-Qaida fighter in Afghanistan from 2,430 metres, a world record." Jeremy Loome, Edmonton Sun, Aug. 21, 05 via Jack's Newswatch

[. . . . ] His unit was so effective that their American counterparts wanted to work with them whenever possible, and some observers have credited them with almost single-handedly getting Canada onto the list of countries targeted for al-Qaida revenge.

Perry said he just has a natural talent for gathering intelligence and killing from distance. There's not much call for that in Canada so he is looking abroad for work.

"My passion is the military and what I was doing. I would want to carry on with that kind of role somewhere in the world, maybe in security or mercenary work," he said.


Link for why he is leaving. What do you think? One ex-military man (John Davis, I think) who knows something about mercenaries and who was interviewed by Ann Medina after the film, "The Dogs of War" reported that the film is a fairly accurate portrayal of the lives of a group of mercenaries, who in the film staged a coup in a small, vicious, dictator-controlled African country. I hate violence and normally I would have turned it off but I'm glad that I didn't. I actually became interested in it. As Davis--I think it was--remarked, mercenaries do the work that legitimate governments need to have done but don't want to be seen to do. So, Master Cpl. Arron Perry will become a mercenary.

[. . . . Perry] was accused of discreditable conduct

[. . . . ] The investigation was eventually dropped and no charges were ever laid, but Perry's reputation was left in tatters.


Put yourself in the place of one who has seen what he has seen of death, blood and dismemberment; then ask yourself what you would have felt, perhaps done. Dispassionate killing? No human emotions, perhaps even 'actions unbecoming'? Perhaps we do not want to know what is unleashed when societies "cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war".



Nothing will happen here?

Al-Qaeda chemical bomb attack foiled by British police

LONDON - British police believe they have foiled a nerve gas attack by the al-Qaeda terrorist network on the British Parliament, the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper said the plot to target the House of Commons was prepared last year and had been discovered in coded e-mails on computers seized from terror suspects in Britain and Pakistan. "Police and [domestic intelligence agency] MI5 then identified an al-Qaeda cell that had carried out extensive research and video-recorded reconnaissance missions in preparation for the attack," it said. [. . . . ] the plot involved a gas or chemical "dirty bomb" attack against Parliament. "The House of Commons was one of their targets as well as the Tube [Underground subway network]," [. . . . ]





Zero Hour: Decode al-Qaeda nerve gas links -- "a gas or chemical "dirty bomb"attack targeting the House of Commons and London’s subway system"? Aug. 21, 05, Times of India

LONDON: The police believe they foiled a potential al-Qaeda gas attack on British Parliament, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Sunday Times said the plot -- hatched last year — to unleash sarin, a deadly nerve gas, on Britain’s House of Commons — was uncovered through coded e-mails on computers seized from terror suspects in Britain and Pakistan.
The newspaper said the e-mails were decoded with the help of an al-Qaeda operative working with police. [. . . . ]

The Sunday Times said the plan involved a gas or chemical "dirty bomb"attack targeting the House of Commons and London’s subway system. [. . . . ]




Turkish ship jumpers

Hunt on in Quebec for five Turkish ship jumpers -- potential "refugees"? -- No problem. Get in that line for benefits and $$$ to help you survive, compliments of Canadians who keep voting in the Lieberal/Librano$ -- party of diversity, multiculturalism, and terrorist enablers. Being polite Canadians, we won't even ask about possible terrorist connections. Step right up and WELCOME!


350 Bombs in an Hour – A Vision of the Terrible Future? August 18, 2005

Admittedly, the bombs were small affairs and Bangladesh is a country few outside its region pay much attention to. But still – as reported by Shafiq Alam and Helen Rowe in the Australian – the bombing campaign on August 17 was extraordinary and presumably without precedent:...





Al-Qaeda eyes a 9/11 for satellites

Experts are warning that al-Qaeda has the desire -- and the knowledge -- to take out satellites. Dawn Rae Downton reports on the devastating impact such an attack would have on business, communications -- and the American military. [. . . . ]




'Major al-Qaeda attack foiled' BBC, January 24, 2003

"[The police] have broken up a major terrorist network... linked in this case to the Algerian Salafist group, a splinter of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which has clear connections with the criminal organisation of Bin Laden," he said.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said suspicious resins, fuels and other chemicals were being examined, along with electronic equipment, detonators and remote controls for use in bomb-making.

Mr Acebes said the suspects were divided into two groups, both led by Algerians.

A suspect named as Mohamad Tahraqui was said to be in charge of the Barcelona-based group, while the other operated out of Banolas in neighbouring Gerona province under the leadership of a man named as Bard Eddin Ferdji. [. . . . ]





"Russia's Turning Muslim, Says Mufti" August 6, 2005

That's the startling headline in the Times of London today. Ravil Gaynutdin, head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, announced that Russia's population of 144 million contains 23 million ethnic Muslims – and not, as the census indicates, 14.5 million, or, as the Orthodox Church estimates, nearer to 20 million. An estimated 3-4 million Muslims... [. . . . ]


Haven't I heard of the revenge of the cradle somewhere else? Unfortunately, with the advent of feminism, the demise of "the church" and its control of behaviour through a believing community's disapproval, and the allure of freedom from the traditional job of mothering in favour of work and consuming, it is now necessary to import people who will breed. Be careful what you wish for.


Updated: PetroKazakhstan, CP Ships, TUI, CNPC

Search: PetroKazakhstan triads Li ka shing

Start with Kazakhstan, PetroKazakhstan in this post
PetroKazakhstan shares soar on news of US$4.18B takeover by China firm



Some people are aware: Be afraid, be very afraid -- Check snakebite's "Celebrate Diversity" pix under his name--which tickles my funny bone 08/ 17/ 05

End of updates.



The Financial Post headline today is "TUI bids US $2B for CP ships"

"TUI AG, owner of the world's fifth-largest shipping line Hapag-Lloyd, has agreed to pay more than US $2-billion to purchase London-based CP Ships in an all-cash transaction" -- CP Ships trades on the TSE.

China's CNPC in $4.2bn Canada bid BBC


Gay in Iran? No Way!

This reminds me of a Nigerian student who told me "There were no gays in Africa before the white man came." Ah, so.

GayMiddleEast News 22.8.05

The P.G.L.O. (The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization) has announced via it's website that on August 27, 2005 another two Iranian homosexuals are scheduled to be executed in Arak, Iran. The organization's website claimed they will be executed after a man named Ali, a student in the town of Arak, claimed that the two homosexuals raped him.

The accused men, Farbod (Amir), and Ahmad (Men), 27 years of age each, who did not have even enough money to hire the help of a lawyer, were arrested by the Iranian authorities and sentence to death as per Iranian law. The P.G.L.O. organization explained that they received this information from both friends and family of the accused. [. . . . ]


Do you believe that -- or is it a trumped up charge, given the attitude toward homosexuals in that area of the world? A fair trial, in the Western sense, does not exist in Iran, obviously.

I remember being told that there was a whole town in Iran that was where homosexuals congregated but I remember nothing more about it so check. It seems that it was the one place gays could go and live without much harassment. The story came in the context of someone telling me why I wouldn't want to go since I am not gay. Perhaps the story is not true.


Jews in High Profile Positions, Blacks, CAIR, CIC & Profiling

Do Canadian Islamists Approve Profiling or Not? August 17, 2005, Daniel Pipes

Two parallel but opposite press releases just emerged from the Islamist swamps of Ontario.

In the first, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reacted to the suggestion of a (black) Toronto city councilor, Michael Thompson, that the police should as a temporary measure "pull over young black men in their problem communities to ask questions to determine whether or not those young black men are armed, carrying weapons." CAIR responded with utter horror, issuing a press release that calls Thompson's statement "alarming" and fears it sets "a dangerous precedent in legitimizing racism."

In the second, the Canadian Islamic Congress reacted to the appointment of what it called "two influential pro-Israel Liberals to high-profile federal government roles" with a press release announcing that these appointments have the effect of making Canadian Muslims feeling "nervous." The CIC also announced that it wrote "letters of concern" urging a re-thinking of these choices. One went to Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew (about Jonathan Schneiderman as Middle East advisor) and one to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McClellan (about Leo Kolber as chair of her advisory council on national security matters). In a follow-up interview, the National Post paraphrases the CIC head, Mohamed Elmasry saying that Kolber "should be replaced" on the advisory board with a Muslim. Frank Dimant, executive director of B'nai B'rith, responded by noting that the Elmasry "is effectively saying that Jews ought to be automatically excluded from holding positions of influence." (On this point, see the concept of dhimmitude.)

Comment: So, which is it, Islamist organizations? You against profiling or you for it? Or do you disapprove of it for potentially gun-toting blacks and approve of it for potentially pro-Israel Jews? (August 17, 2005)


Aside from that, it is extremist Muslims who are the currently most active terrorists and jihadis. The Jews are not terrorizing the world and claiming that their god wills it. Check further for the actual words of the believers on jihad.

There are several other articles of interest on Pipes' website; for example,

* How a Young British Muslim Was Tempted into Jihad

* How Islamist Killers Dissemble


Palestinians, UN & UNRWA "Refugees" -- Who is a Palestinian refugee?

"How can a self-respecting academic press, in this case I.B. Tauris, publish a book co-edited by an accused terrorist who remains on the lam?" -- i.e. Basheer M. Nafi, Co-Editor of Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century Daniel Pipes Weblog




Why Palestinians Still Live in Refugee Camps -- good question August 14, 2005 by Alex Safian

• Why do Palestinians in Gaza still live in refugee camps? Did the Israelis force Palestinians to stay in the squalid, overcrowded camps?

Palestinians still live in refugee camps, even when the camps are in Palestinian Authority controlled areas, because the PLO opposes and prevents refugee resettlement. As the PLO slogan goes, A Palestinian refugee never moves out of his camp except to return home (ie, to Israel).

[. . . . ] Israel even started a heavily subsidized “build-your-own-home” program for Palestinian refugees. [. . . . details of the Israeli program and what happened]

It’s not surprising that the PLO vehemently opposed this program – after all, former residents of a refugee camp, now living in a nice home in a new neighborhood, would have a stake in supporting peace and opposing violence, exactly the opposite of the PLO’s strategy.

What is perhaps surprising is that the United Nations also opposed the program, and passed harsh resolutions demanding that Israel remove the Palestinians from their new homes and return them to the squalid camps. For example, UN General Assembly Resolution 31/15 of Nov. 23, 1976: [. . . . ]

Similarly, UNGA Resolution 34/52 of November 23, 1979 declared that: [. . . . ]

Perhaps thanks to this support from the UN, the PLO began threatening to kill any refugee who would move out of the camps. After a few such attacks, the build-your-own-home program died, and that is why there are still Palestinians refugee camps in Gaza.

• How does the UN define just who qualifies as a Palestinian refugee? And are the UN’s figures for the number of Palestinian refugees accurate?

The UN’s figures are notoriously inaccurate, first of all because of the organization’s curious definition of who qualifies to be considered a Palestinian refugee. According to the UNRWA website:

Under UNRWA's operational definition, Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than four million in 2002, and continues to rise due to natural population growth. (emphasis added)

There are serious problems with considering descendants of refugees to be refugees themselves. [. . . . ]

In addition, the UN definition contradicts international law, under which descendants of refugees are not considered to be refugees. [. . . . ]

There is no room under this definition for a descendant of a refugee to be considered a refugee. The UN got around this problem by creating a loophole – the usual refugee conventions do not apply to people receiving aid from UNRWA (and only Palestinians receive aid from UNRWA).

• Whatever the definition, are the UN figures for the number of Palestinian refugees accurate?

No, as the UN itself has admitted. For example, in the Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – 1 July 1997 - 30 June 1998, the UN concedes that:

UNRWA registration figures are based on information voluntarily supplied by refugees primarily for the purpose of obtaining access to Agency services, and hence cannot be considered statistically valid demographic data; the number of registered refugees present in the Agency's area of operations is almost certainly less that the population recorded.


Since the refugee figures are based on “voluntarily supplied” information given for the purpose of obtaining services, such as financial aid and food rations, there is obvious incentive for people to falsely claim to be refugees to get services to which they are not entitled. Especially since, as previously stated, refugees don’t actually have to live in refugee camps.

There is also incentive never to report deaths of people considered to be refugees – since the rations for the deceased would be discontinued.

The results are predictable: sacks of rice and flour with the UNRWA logo are resold everyday by merchants in Arab marketplaces in, for example, Jerusalem and Gaza.


There is more under these subheadings:

• Do most of Gaza’s residents live in refugee camps?

• Is Gaza “the most densely populated place in the world”?

Check the table of population densities at the end of the article. Surprising.


August 21, 2005

Criminality, Governance & Control -- Drugs, Criminal Gangs, Guns, Violence, Terrorism & Its Funding, and What to Do About Them

"There are no borders when it comes to crime."

The Long Arm of Uncle Sam -- A growing number of U.S. crimebusters are operating in B.C. in a cross-border crackdown Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun, August 20, 05

The U.S. Attorney prosecuting three Canadians in the cross-border drug tunnel case will ask a Seattle judge next week to seize the B.C. property on which the tunnel was constructed.

A court order would mean the little piece of Canada on Zero Avenue would be surrendered to the U.S. government if property owner Francis Devandra Raj is convicted on trafficking charges, regardless of whether individuals or banks in Canada have an outstanding claim on the Langley land.

[. . . .] In July, B.C. pot activist Marc Emery and two associates were arrested at the request of U.S. authorities who accuse him of selling marijuana seeds over the Internet to Americans. The arrest came despite the fact that Canadian police had ignored Emery's activities for years.

[. . . .] "The Emery case is a telling case in this sense -- there were DEA agents on Canadian soil operating purportedly with the approval or under the supervision of the Vancouver Police Department, but when it became necessary to record phone calls placed by U.S. agents to Emery's seed store, the U.S. agents returned to American soil in order to record those conversations. Perhaps the reason is because those agents would be prohibited by law from doing so on Canadian soil."

RCMP Staff Sergeant Paul Marsh said from Ottawa that it is natural to have more cross-border cooperation when crime has become more global.

"Criminals are more networked than ever before,"
Marsh said. "Obviously we are going to maintain Canadian sovereignty. Investigations that are conducted in Canada are Canadian investigations. We will provide support to our American counterparts and that is extremely important that we support each other . . . .

There are no borders when it comes to crime. [. . . .]


Search: sovereignty issues , under the direct supervision of Canadian , smart border accord

Criminals have no borders. If they get caught in Canada, they receive only a slap on the wrist and off they go. This liason seems to be a good thing when it comes to cross border crime. Crooks should know they won't have a safe haven.

In Canada, the penalties are less severe, or not really used (get less jail time than they could by law), or the ones involved get out early, et cetera. Of course, if our government ever admitted there is a massive criminal/drug/grow-op/gang problem in Canada, maybe they would actually make certain actual sentencing--as opposed to talking about it--had a negative effect on this. Until then, well, if I were a parent trying to protect my child from drugs and gangs, I probably wouldn't have a problem with this. Our government is remiss in not actively working to end the present situation with drugs / gangs / criminal gangs and a related problem, funding terrorism. International terrorism is funded by drug money. Osama bin Ladin apparently is funded by money from Aghani heroin trafficking. I have read this but the link was part of something I lost in a computer crash so you'll have to search for it.

There are two related articles in the newspaper:

* Cross-border war on fraud: U.S. and Canadian officials cooperate in battle against telemarketing scams. A4

* Drugtunnel to be sealed The tunnel linking the U.S. and Canada will befilled with dirt and gravel next week. A4

I realize that there is room for debate here concerning that fine line over which a sovereign nation must not allow others to step, and that debate will occur, I suspect; however, until our government gets serious about the dangers of violent drug gangs and what is happening with our young (Think Toronto's guns and gangs, for example), I can go along with this, with two provisions:

* It is given a time limit after which it would be reviewed

* That a Parliamentary oversight committee with equal numbers of members from the governing side and from the official opposition be charged with monitoring it and reporting to Parliament with any dissenting opinion noted in the report so that real debate could occur

* That the committee not have the governing party (Liberal, at present) gerrymander the committee by choosing the chairman, and making other adjustments they have learned and use(d) to their advantage

* That this committee be able to investigate and to respond to citizens who believe they are being targeted by a government which may to be using this to target citizens who are simply voicing dissent or opinion, especially against the government

I would prefer a government which cared about something other than being re-elected, Canadian government(s) which would admit what is happening in our country, and take strong action against it.

Is the problem with Stephen Harper that those (of and related to governing) who have ignored the obvious criminal activity and insecurity of our borders, if it would mean they had to admit there is a problem and if it would detract from money making, see a change if he becomes Prime Minister? That Harper might actually change this situation? And so they enlist the usual suspects to blacken Harper? I suspect so.



Report: Bad guys using tech to increase profits... Global National, August 19, 2005

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC), the federal agency that updates Canadian cops with the latest in criminal trends, has released its annual report, citing the increased use of technology by criminals to increase profits.

Not to be confused with CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service -- Canada's spy agency), CISC is a network of criminal intelligence experts from police and government.

With the release of today's annual report, CISC says it will also be monitoring Canada's natural resources industry for possible criminal infiltration, after warnings that Canadian organized crime figures may potentially exploit Canada's diamond industry for criminal purposes.

It also says organized crime is using the latest in computer technology to increase profits. [. . . . ]


CISC report


Videos worth watching and listening to:

Organized crime and knockoff goods video


You may have to use just this for the link:
http://www.canada.com/toronto/video/GN050819ohb.html


Organized crime and street gangs
or
http://www.canada.com/toronto/video/GN050819johal.html


Organized crime and port security or
http://www.canada.com/toronto/video/GN050819lord.html




Gangs joining forces -- Sharing territory, tactics is more productive: report -- "swapping gang colours for business suits" James Gordon, CanWest, August 20, 2005

[. . . . ] RCMP Deputy Commissioner Peter Martin said criminal elements are less territorial now, and instead are operating as "businesses" that exploit "market niches" wherever they are found.

While stereotypical crimes such as drug and gun dealing are still prevalent, they are increasingly supplemented with less obvious illegal activities such as DVD counterfeiting, environmental waste dumping and child pornography distribution.

"There is some turf war going on, but you'll find more co-operation as [groups] do that," Deputy Commissioner Martin said. "It makes them more effective, and it's much more challenging for law enforcement to address that."

In addition, some criminals have learned that blending into society is the best way to avoid attention from both the neighbours and police.

"Gone are the days when organized crime ... figures were recognized by the fedoras and trenchcoats," said Ottawa police Chief Vince Bevan, adding the new uniforms often consist of business suits and T-shirts.

Rapidly changing technology is another issue that continues to dog law enforcement, Chief Bevan said.

"[Organized criminals] spend lots of money, they have the technical expertise, and they hire people who are very tech-savvy to keep ahead of us in that regard," he said. He called current legislation governing police ability to snoop online "archaic."

His comments came a day after Justice Minister Irwin Cotler announced the federal government will soon introduce "lawful access" legislation, which would force Internet service providers to turn over clients' personal information and allow law enforcement to intercept encrypted e-mail, text messages, voice-over-Internet communications and other advanced technologies.

While Canada's spy agency, CSIS, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have been lobbying hard for lawful access for years, privacy advocates argue it puts far too much power in the hands of officers.

Chief Bevan called on Mr. Cotler to bring forward the legislation as soon as possible and put police and criminal gangs "on even footing."


Of course, I want police to have access to the bad guys and to put them away, BUT, think of how the governing power has used power inexorably over the last 30-40 years to consolidate the Liberal Party and its friends in power and positions, to destroy individuals' lives. Think of whistleblowers such as Robert Reid, Brian McAdam, Beaudoin of the Business Development Bank, et cetera.

Do you trust this government with this kind of power?

I suspect the answer is a resounding NO, NO, NO! I think this is the kind of wide-ranging power that will simply consolidate the Liberal government's control and give it the power to destroy all who question it, all who write negatively about it, all who cross it. Think of their own Stephen LeDrew, for example. (Search this site: LeDrew and CCRA )

This government cannot be trusted with power. It is too corrupt -- in spirit, if not in fact. But other views have validity also. Read and form your own.

As for access to everyone's email, check Small Dead Animals for a link to how to protect your privacy -- another link I lost in a pc crash. However, it was from Aug. 20 or 19 and should be easily found.




How to prevent the germ collections and biological know-how from being sold or stolen.

Soviet Germ Factories Pose New Threat -- Once Mined for Pathogens in Bioweapons Program, Labs Lack Security Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Aug. 20, 05

ODESSA, Ukraine -- For 50 years under Soviet rule, nearly everything about the Odessa Antiplague Station was a state secret, down to the names of the deadly microbes its white-coated workers collected and stored in a pair of ordinary freezers.

[. . . . ] After decades of operating in the shadows, the labs are beginning to shed light on another secret: How the Soviet military co-opted obscure civilian institutes into a powerful biological warfare program that built weapons for spreading plague and anthrax spores. As they ramped up preparations for germ warfare in the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet generals mined the labs for raw materials, including highly lethal strains of viruses and bacteria that were intended for use in bombs and missiles.

The facilities' hidden role is described in a draft report of a major investigation by scholars from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The main conclusions of the report, which was provided to The Washington Post, were echoed in interviews with current and former U.S. officials familiar with the labs. Most scientists who worked in antiplague stations in Soviet times knew nothing of their contributions to the weapons program, the report says. [. . . . ]

[Pneumonic] plague, caused by breathing the bacteria into the lungs -- is highly lethal and is considered a weapon of choice for germ warfare or bioterrorism


Search: lack of modern biosafety equipment , located in downtown areas , "Sonia Ben Ouagrham, who coauthored the Monterey study with Zilinskas and Alexander Melikishvili." , "David Franz, panel chairman and director of Kansas State University's National Agricultural Biosecurity Center." , Plague, or black death , scores of interviews and visits to more than 40 antiplague institutes and field stations

Subsections:

Growth of a Secret Soviet System
A Steady Supply of Virulent Strains
Under-funded, Under-staffed and Unsecured




MLAs disclose investments By Russ Francis, Publish Date: 18-Aug-2005 or Google's cache
or
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=12260

[. . . . ] In her April 13 statement, [BC] Finance Minister Carole Taylor revealed owning shares in Canfor, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, HSBC Holdings, U.S.-based restaurant chain P.F. Chang's China Bistro, and Toyota, as well as five mutual funds. Although she disclosed no sources of income, Taylor did reveal an interest in a property on Heron Place in Whistler. [site of the 2010 Olympics]

[. . . . ] And Environment Minister Barry Penner revealed in his statement, which he filed last March 18, that he held shares in Telus, along with gas company Terasen Inc. As well, Penner disclosed owning shares in Vancouver-based mining company Garibaldi Granite Corporation, and in two oil-and-gas income trusts, Enerplus Resources Fund, and Shining Bank Energy Trust. [. . . . ]


Did you ever wonder why a politician would spend so much--think Belinda and what she spent, reported variously but running as high as $3.7-million--to get a job in Parliament which pays, relatively, so little? Of course, it would not be access to knowledge of future development plans in areas the average person is not thinking about. It wouldn't be access to the big money individuals who, for a little knowledge, will cut you in in some way? I am not stating this is the case with these MP's but it does seem that the most successful MP's and MLA's somehow make money, lots of money.

Is it time to limit election spending and advertising severely? To end the temptation to use money to determine the result? To end it all? Start afresh. End the ability for candidates to use exorbitant amounts of money to get elected so we might have decent, ordinary Canadians elected to public office. Good people cannot afford to run at present. (I've been told it costs $25,000 just to run for a chance to run for local office. Check. I may have mis-remembered. )

Instead of scripted media /media controlled presentation of candidates, end it too; it is too politicized at present. Mainstream media who live off advertising from whoever wins and gets to hand out government advertising contracts, have a vested interest in helping to elect whoever will keep them getting the government contracts. The same applies to business contracts salted by government with taxpayer money. End all tax and taxpayer $$$ giveaways to preferred businesses which create an uneven playing field.

For electioneering, have each candidate prepare a website with nothing but text (maybe 1 or 2 pictures) in which the candidate presents his philosophy and leanings, his plans for when he is elected and let him bring to the public's attention any information he wishes to share. No fancy graphics, no videos, no way to spend money other than on a text page. Let him visit his own community functions but let the rest of the country learn about him/her by their own efforts.

Let citizens, who care enough to study the issues and proposed action from each candidate, read and then vote. Our system is much too corrupted by money. Then institute a strict two term system (See post on "nannyism" below which does not agree. It is debatable, certainly.), with all the candidate's assets placed beyond his/her reach in a blind trust run by an equal number of supporters and opponents. That might clean up the potential for corruption.

Make the over 3000 appointments (scroll down for article), which are now the purview of the PM, subject to Parliament, to Parliamentary oversight and interviews with the prospective candidates, including court appointments which are, presently, highly politicized, IMHO. That's just for starters. The citizenry need to take all the potential for corruption out of elections and governance. Now, you suggest something better. I am sure mine is not the answer but at least we should be allowed input and debate.




Nannyism

Here we are confronted by the dreaded social disease of nannyism, the irrepressible urge toward do-good coercion. The nannies are all around us now, attempting to ban smoking in outdoor areas, including New York's vast Central Park, working to eliminate one schoolyard game after another, including dodge ball (too violent), tag (hurts feelings by turning kids into targets), and just about any game with winners and losers (competition douses the cooperative ethic, and losers can be traumatized for life). 8/29/05, John Leo

Do you ever get tired of being told what is good for you and then some agency/government uses coercion/force/control to make you behave the way they want?

"Every man's dies a suicide", I believe Winston Churchill said. Well, I want to do it my way for myself. So do others.

If I want to drink/eat/smoke/whatever myself to death, leave me alone to do it. As for the pervasive extension of the rights of those who, for example, do not drink or smoke (but don't want you to smoke, so work to ban smoking), what about the junk food they consume? Do I have a right to say they cannot because I can't stand the sight of it, the greasy smell of it in malls, and furthermore, they leave the litter around -- maybe on my property?

MADD sounds fine in theory -- at first -- but I prefer the idea of the individual using common sense and suffering the consequences which has a tremendous hindering effect. If I know that I may kill someone by drunk driving, I will probably drink at home. I don't want MADD who are unelected to have so much power to coerce as they seem to have.

Nor should municipal governments be able to tell a private businessman whether or not he may have smoking in his establishment; they always decide NO, it seems. Let individuals choose their own poison and places where they consume it.

As for gambling, personally, I hate gambling for money with a passion now, though I did win ten dollars in a poker game once, so I am not against a friendly family or friends game with pennies or nickels or the like. With the advent of government and global / international gambling companies, however, I have begun to hate it for the harm that I see is the result, to families and even those within my acquaintanceship sphere. Gambling alone at poker machines has no redeeming social / bonding qualities that I can see. Church bingo games used to cost very little and provide older people with a reason to get together and to support the church at the same time. Now, big money and big governments are involved. Gambling as it is today is simply a means of fleecing those too addled or naive to realize that the only ones who really win are the companies who own the machines, the venue, the online resources, and the governments who tax them. Too many families are negatively affected.

However, I could probably be persuaded that a fool should be able to lose his money in any way he chooses IF SOCIETY DOES NOT HAVE TO PICK UP THE TAB and IF GOVERNMENTS ARE NOT INVOLVED and IF GOVERNMENTS ARE NOT IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE BUSINESSES INVOLVED. That last part is almost impossible to stop, I suspect, given the expertise so rapidly learned by those who wish to make money enough to be corrupted.

The present situation allows gambling to be too readily available to the average citizen and it is so easy for those in power to be corrupted by the money to be made. I have no answers that make sense to me.

Maybe if the government actually plowed the tax money into something of value for all citizens, it would be minimally acceptable, but you know it goes to . . . well, you fill in what you think.

In view of what I wrote about term limits above, note this sentence from the above article: "Hidden nannyism would include all sorts of political uplift, including term limits . . . ." So am I a nanny? Probably. Many of us likely are. But we do need more people to tell us so, to question the overweaning power of those who want to "help" us which inevitably involves curtailing someone else's freedom to do what that particular "helping" group is not interested in doing or taking part in.




Control, Control, Control

Fear for Grit White North -- Powerful Liberal ruling regime menace to freedom of ordinary Canadians Licia Corbella, Aug. 21, 05 via Newsbeat1

"Any needless concentration of power is a menace to freedom."
-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower


[. . . .] According to Duff Conacher, coordinator of Democracy Watch, an Ottawa-based watchdog agency, says Canada's prime minister has the power to appoint more than 3,000 people to positions, including to the federal and supreme court, to tribunals, agencies, key watchdog positions, the head of the RCMP, presidents of Crown Corporations, immigration and refugee board members, senators, and of course, our head of state, the Governor General.

[. . . . ] In other words, the entire Supreme court will consist of Liberal party appointees pushing through a Liberal agenda, even though the ruling Liberals have never won more than 41% of the popular vote.

According to Larry Gordon, executive director of Fair Vote Canada, never did Canadian voters' wishes become so distorted as during Jean Chretien's three elections.
[. . . . ]


Search: the day before the now-disgraced George Radwanski , federal tax department , "The ruling-party members, supporters and donors,"

Link for the rest.




Irwin Cotler, Min. of Justice and "what the Liberal vision of justice is in this country"

Liberals firing blanks on crime Linda Williamson, Aug. 21, 05 via Newsbeat1

[. . . . ] Police tell us their efforts against gangs and guns are constantly hampered by courts that release the gangsters back to the streets with just a slap on the wrist. If the laws already on the books, which call for "mandatory" time for firearms offences, aren't being enforced, the obvious question becomes, why not make them tougher and make them stick?

Well, Sun reader James Osborne, of Innisfil, took the trouble to put that question to federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler himself. I'm indebted to Osborne for forwarding Cotler's response to me -- it offers a highly revealing glimpse into the mind of the Liberals' top legal man in Ottawa; so much so that I'm reprinting it here: [. . . . ]

Next time you wonder what the Liberal vision of justice is in this country, turn back to this letter for handy reference.


My personal opinion of the Liberal concept of justice is that they decide much ad hoc and how it will impact on them and their grasp on power. They appear not to have much in the way of principles that are enduring. (See Gomery/ADSCAM/Sponsorship fund for a start. There is more.)

And, by the way, why is a teenager's name so sacred that it cannot be associated with horrendous crimes in the news but the name of any man who is "accused", not convicted yet, mind you, of sexual assault, which may range from an unwanted pat on the butt to actual rape, gets his name revealed in the newspaper for all to see immediately? No matter that later he is found innocent, the mere association of his name with this charge means his reputation has been ruined. I have read of male teachers faced with this from very aware teenaged girls who know how to use it or threats of it to blackmail . . . and other women are not unknown to have used this, as well.




Truth is the issue John Crosbie, Aug. 21, 05

[. . . . ] In his [pollster Allan Gregg] view, the Liberal strategy of doing everything they had to do to weather the crisis -- making a budget deal with the NDP, handing a cabinet job to Tory defector Belinda Stronach, announcing billions in additional spending -- appears to have paid off. The poll shows the Liberals at 36% support, the Conservatives 28% and the NDP 17%.

[. . . . ] Are Canadians prepared even to contemplate the return of Martin's government to office with this record of failure and lack of care about the need for honesty, truthfulness, morality, ethics and idealism in public service and political life?


There is meat in the middle. Search: the RCMP reported

Personally, I feel a world-weary cynicism about this government and those associated with its continued hanging onto power.




Why is OPEC immune? Ariel Cohen, Aug. 21, 05

Ariel Cohen is a senior research fellow and William Schirano is a researcher at the Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

It's a move anyone outraged by high gasoline prices would applaud -- a nonprofit labor group suing the Organization for Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC).

That was in 1978, though -- and the lawsuit failed. A U.S. appeals court threw it out three years later, noting that OPEC's member states enjoy immunity from prosecution under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Congress recently had a perfect opportunity to change that -- and wasted it.

In June, the Senate approved an amendment to let the federal government sue OPEC. It was a welcome first step toward reestablishing the free market in this strategically important sector. Indeed, this long-overdue move could have pointed the way to a second step: allowing private antitrust suits against OPEC. But the amendment failed to survive House-Senate negotiations over the energy bill.

The real losers are American consumers. [. . . . ]


Search: NOPEC