GG & JC Houses, Jonas: "Stagnant corruption is constipation", Ahenakew & Another Chief, Palestinian 'Honour' Killing, Islam & Women

Fit for a queen -- G-G CLARKSON, HUBBY RALSTON SAUL DROP $2.74M FOR HOME IN THE ANNEX April 13, 2005, Linda Leatherdale, Business Editor, Toronto Sun

Oobviously, from working for CBC to GG, Adrienne Clarkson has cultivated "champagne taste on a taxpayer budget", in Leatherdale's words.

Jean Chretien has bought a new and expensive place; I think I heard that it was bought in his wife and someone else's names. Her sister? Check. I may be wrong.




George Jonas on Sponsorship 'Bombshell'

A bombshell? Hardly George Jonas, National Post, April 11, 2005

[. . . . ] In my vocabulary, "bombshell" denotes something unexpected: not merely explosive, but surprising. What was surprising about Mr. Brault's allegations and admissions? Very little. They confirmed suspicions about corruption in the Liberal party -- the very suspicions that caused the Gomery inquiry to be set up in the first place.[. . . . ]

I'll switch metaphors. All nutrition ends up as waste, but a healthy body politic, like a healthy body, requires cycles to function. Stagnant corruption is constipation; circulating corruption is relief. Elections may be as unglamorous as going to the bathroom, but they're just as necessary. At one point, eliminating incumbents becomes a matter of personal hygiene.

Bank thieves take 75 computers, no cash in 30 Quebec break-ins -- It makes sense to get the credit card information, I suppose. The bank(s) said that, once removed from the bank, the computers would be useless. So, why were they stolen?




House adopts motion for Air India inquiry CTV.ca News Staff

Parliament has voted in favour of a Conservative Party motion calling for an inquiry into the Air India disaster, an inquiry Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan says may or may not happen.

The motion was approved in a 172-124 vote. [. . . . ]

April 12, I caught on CTV late night news, an item concerning natives and a massive drug scandal involving prescriptions. Check.




An embarrassment to Roseau River -- the chief
-- Another native chief & Ahenakew

Pay Attention, Dave by Kate MacMillan

Further to the Ahenekew hate speech trial; to Time For A Showdown In Palestine

This horrifying story is from the Jerusalem Post, via Little Green Footballs:

Hamas has begun operating a "vice and virtue commando" in the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post.

The new force, called the Anti-Corruption Unit, is believed to be behind the gruesome murder over the weekend of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the northern Gaza Strip.

Her "crime" was that she was seen in public with her fiance.

[. . . . ] To their credit, PA policemen have arrested two suspects. "This does not represent Islam," a student said. But he didn't dare give his name, and [. . . . ]

Arab Feminists on Women's Rights: Cats and Dogs in the Developed World Have More Rights than Women in the Arab and Muslim World Special Dispatch Series - No. 890, April 12, 05, MEMRI

Marking Valentine's Day and International Women's Day, the Arabic press published numerous articles dealing with the status of women in the Arab and Muslim world and the denial of their rights, on the part of both governments and public in general. The progressive websites www.metransparent.com and www.elaph.com published articles by feminist authors harshly critical of the state of women's rights in these countries.

Wajiha Al-Huweidar: "Covert Animosity and Open Discrimination Against Women Prevail in Arab Countries"

Writing in Elaph.com on March 7, 2005 Saudi author Wajiha Al-Huweidar explained: "All of the Arab regimes are U.N. members and have ratified the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly establishes justice and equality in the rights and obligations of all citizens. Despite this, women in our chauvinist countries are still considered the property of their relatives. All Arab countries, without exception, harbor covert animosity and open discrimination against women. To this day, all official bodies reject any scientific discussion of a solution to women's problems – while on the other hand the men, who benefit from women's oppression, continue to regurgitate [the mantra] that 'women are respected' [in Arab and Muslim societies]…

[. . . . ] Wajiha Al-Huweidar: "Discrimination Against Arab Women Begins in Utero"

[. . . . ] Dr. Iqbal Al-Gharbi: "Any Misogynist Can Find What He Seeks in a Partial Reading of Islam's Teachings"

[. . . . ] Dr. Munjiyah Al-Sawaihi: "I Look Beyond the Horizon and See Nothing but the Tightening of the Noose Around the (Arab) Woman"

[. . . . ] Dr. Raja bin Salama: "If You Look at a Woman Enveloped in the Hijab, You Will Read on it: No Courting. No Loving. No Looking. No Touching"

Read the details and see the documentation.




Is the Forcible Removal of Israelis from Gaza Unprecedented? or here Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMagazine.com, April 11, 2005

My column last week, "Ariel Sharon's Folly," noted the likelihood that more than 8,000 Israelis living in Gaza will soon be removed by their own government, with force, if necessary. I called this step historically unprecedented and then challenged the reader to name "another democracy that has forcibly removed thousands its own citizens from their lawful homes." [. . . . ]

De Gaulle let the French citizens in Algeria decide their own future, whether to stay or leave; this is a policy, incidentally, that I have recommended to the Israeli leadership for Israelis in Gaza.

The best analogy proposed was the razing of Africville, Nova Scotia. The authorities in 1965 bulldozed this, Canada's oldest and largest black settlement, to the ground, but it was done in the name of slum clearance, not relocation.

Reviewing these replies to my challenge confirms me in my view that what the Israeli authorities are about to do to their citizens in Gaza has no historical precedent.

Conservative Professors Hard To Find Daniel Pipes, New York Sun, April 12, 2005

[. . . . ] Conservative complaints about "liberal homogeneity in academia deserve to be taken seriously," the authors conclude. They also state that their findings "suggest strongly that a leftward shift has occurred on college campuses in recent years, to the extent that political conservatives have become an endangered species in some departments." [. . . . ]

It is rather like conservative, 'appointed' justices on the SCOC, I suppose.

Having 'appointees' available when government--or the one who appointed them--runs into problems such those that keep cropping up in the current sponsorship investigation could prove useful, too -- in my opinion.