Canada: Political "Refugee" Connected to Bomb Suspect, UN: Bolton, Friedman: Drugs, Natives, North & Language, Bud: Film Review

Bomb suspect has brother in Canada: police CTV.ca News Staff

[. . . . ] Osman Hussain, an Ethiopian-born British citizen, has a brother living in Canada, according to Italian police.

Police say Abdulahai Isaac, one of the suspect's four brothers, went to Canada in 1996 from Italy. He was reportedly given landed immigrant status as a political refugee. [. . . . ]

Canada's undocumented aliens don't lie or use false documents

. . . so we're safe.

No checks as fugitive fled UK -- Hussain Osman aka Hamdi Isaac. . ." Robert Winnett and David Leppard, July 31, 05

Britain's border controls were under fire last night after it emerged that one of the suspected July 21 suicide bombers fled abroad five days after the attempted attacks.

[. . . . ] The Italian interior ministry said Osman, who lived in London with a girlfriend and three children, had an Italian residence permit that had expired in 1996. On the form he had specified his nationality as Ethiopian. Ethiopians are not normally eligible for asylum in Britain. [. . . . ]

Unfortunately, Britain had stopped checking the passports of those exiting.




John Bolton: Bush makes US Ambassadorial Appointment

Tough? A straight shooter? Going to work to reform the UN? All reasons for the Parrish mouth to open and CBC to criticize? Check the reports today. Also, check Claudia Rosset's latest news on the UN.




Milton Friedman on Drugs July 30, 2005 -- an excerpt of the interview published in The Queen's University Journal: ("Friedman and Freedom") Shotgun

The War on Drugs

Peter Jaworski: In a 1972 Newsweek article, I'm shifting topics here, you compared alcohol prohibition to the current prohibition of drugs. Now you wrote then that the War on Drugs has caused more problems than it's solved, and that drugs should be legal. Do you still feel this way?

Milton Friedman: Absolutely!

PJ: Even hard drugs—cocaine, heroin? [. . . . ]

See the comments, for example, (Legalizing dope in an otherwise out-of-control-welfare state . . . . When cocaine and opium were legal)

There should be honest, open debate, not an effort to buy votes by appealing to those, mostly youth, who would like marijuana decriminalized.

Just for the record Michael Cust, it was the Democrats in the US and the Liberals in Canada who made marijuana a criminal offense in the first place.

[. . . . ] This is the History of Marijuana Prohibition Law in the US and it's [sic] motives:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm

Liberty on the long weekend Stephen Taylor, July 31, 2005 and there are several comments worth reading.

[. . . .] I remember thinking, when I was younger, that stores that sold items promoting marijuana use (pot lighters, pot t-shirts) should face sanctions. After all, these stores, in my opinion, were promoting a lifestyle that is arguably detrimental to society. When I grew up, I realized that individual choice (of adults) in a truly free society trumps what any tyrannical child might impose otherwise. In the end, if we wanted to benefit society, the government would raise our children in state-run daycares, give us all government jobs, ban alcohol and caffeine, and would mandate daily exercise. But then in what kind of country would we live? It all sounds rather socialist to me. . . .

Sounds like Canada, to me. The government just hasn't got around to banning alcohol yet. Give them time.

A comment from maz2, July 31, 2005 from the Shotgun

All's not equal in realm of religion

When Canadian Islamic leaders called a press conference at the Masjid Mosque in Toronto last week to issue a joint statement denouncing terrorism, the woman who is president of the Muslim Canadian Congress was prohibited from entering the mosque by the front door...

So much for women's equality, even in Canada. Then, of course, there is the fact that women cannot become RC priests. I have heard an explanation -- that women don't have to join the RC Church if they don't agree; however, women lose their families when they choose to go their own way, in many cases, just as Muslim women do. Then there is the "death" in the family which comes after some Jews choose to marry non-Jews; I believe this is limited and does not apply to all Jews. For Muslim women today and for Roman Catholic women of the past, leaving the family's church and beliefs means losing the family and community in the sense of one's social group. It's more complicated for those with children.

For some, it has been worth it. There's nothing like a little spate of no family and no community to put one's priorities and liberty into perspective. It's not necessarily a loss; some discover the advantages of the solitary life when they realize what "belonging" to anyone or any group entails. . . in rounding one's corners.




Advantage, China -- In This Match, They Play Us Better Than We Play Them James McGregor, Sunday, July 31, 2005; B01

[. . . . ] Chinese pity comes from their belief that we are a country in decline. More than a few Chinese friends have quoted to me the proverb fu bu guo san dai (wealth doesn't make it past three generations) as they wonder how we became so ill-disciplined, distracted and dissolute. The fury surrounding Monica-gate seemed an incomprehensible waste of time to a nation whose emperors were supplied with thousands of concubines. Chinese are equally astonished that Americans are allowing themselves to drown in debt and under-fund public schools while the media focus on fights over feeding tubes, displays of the Ten Commandments and how to eat as much as we can without getting fat.

China is all about unity, focus and leverage. Chinese officials and business executives are obsessed with a single question: What advantage do I have over you? No surprise then that Chinese officials are delighted to be funding ever larger portions of America's budget deficit. [. . . . ]

Failed marriage costs man $10,700 a day -- 'Good investment' for women: lawyer July 30, 05, Catriona Davies The Daily Telegraph

You just have to read it. Unbelievable. The moral of the story is: to protect your wealth, don't marry, and forget about having anyone live with you. It's all the same now.

Mr. Miller's lawyer said his client would have been better off if he had knocked her down with his car. "If she had suffered severe injuries -- brain damage and losing the ability to have children -- at the most the damages would be (ps)2-million [$4.3-million]," Lewis Marks told the court. [. . . . ]

Activist justices not in Canada alone, it seems. Remember the case of a man forced to support a disabled or severely ill ex-wife? A father (doctor?) forced to pay for expensive schooling after a divorce when the case was re-visited. Nothing ends, now. Check on the details but divorce and even parenthood have responsibilities long past the end of what you thought was a clean-cut divorce or a child had reached majority. Then there are the natives . . . . .


Update: Yesterday, I posted

Arctic Sovereignty, Self-Government in the North, Climate Change Migration, Political Correctness & Security -- Hans Island the tip of iceberg in Arctic claims -- "what's really at stake is Canadian sovereignty over more important sites in the Arctic." CTV.ca News Staff -- and related items

http://frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005/07/
arctic-sovereignty-self-government-in.html

See:

climate change-driven migration

natives' "self-government" under "The Return of the Vikings -- New Challenges for the Control of the Canadian North" by Rob Heubert Ph.D

I wonder how much native programs are costing Canadians, as programs burgeon.

Language -- Nunavut . . .

Innovation -- Aboriginal Literacy Programs -- Learning Aboriginal Languages -- Inuktitut in Paris? June 29, 05

As for the revival of northern native languages--those implemementing this have had to search for elders and the few who still speak them, even prepare dictionaries. What is the purpose and for whose benefit? Is it expected these will better the lives of natives in the face of the horrors particularly for the children of lives that begin surrounded by drink and drugs? Follow the language czar and the language industry. Then, there is the development of the North.

In the section: "Security: Food & Pandemic, Torture, China Spies--Threats & Intimidation in Canada -- Kyoto-North, PM, Business -- Inuktituk & Global Commerce? & More" search Inuktituk & Global Commerce?, see articles:

"Canada's North and Security Global warming opens Northwest Passage Levon Sevunts, Washington Times, June 13, 05"

Canadian Research in the North -- "international cooperation"

CHAPTER 8 - SUPPORTING SCIENTIFIC, EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL COOPERATION IN THE ARCTIC

The Canadian North: Embracing Change -- pdf -- Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC) -- Search: "promoting of the Inuktitut language and culture"

You might want to look at the photos linked to from: "Would you do business with these guys?" while you're at it.

Canada's Aboriginals:

Another Idea Killing natives with good intentions editorial, Feb. 27, 2004 with links to other articles.

On Tuesday, bureaucrats announced $10-billion in additional federal spending. Among the increases: $800-million for aboriginal programs, bringing the total native allocation to $8-billion. [. . . . ]

Quit terror war base, Uzbekistan dictator orders US special forces Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 01/08/2005)

Tashkent has given American forces 180 days to leave the Karshi-Khanabad base, a key staging post and hub for American troops fighting in Afghanistan and trying to track down al-Qa'eda fighters. [. . . . ]

Canada accepted dozens of Communist defectors Jim Bronskill, via Newsbeat1

Canadian officials did not agree on a formal definition of a defector until 1958.

It was decided that a Soviet or satellite bloc citizen who, "without the knowledge and approval of his government," sought admission to Canada and was deemed to have "considerable intelligence value" could be accepted as a defector - either to exploit his knowledge or as a means of co-operating with a friendly intelligence service. [. . . . ]

Does this have relevance in the situation of the defectors from China in the last month or two?




What ever happened to Bill Murray?--Somehow his acting got lost in the translation.

I gave Bill Murray one last chance when I watched Lost in Translation. "Two thumbs up!" was the general tenor of the numerous critics, who touted this complete yawn of a movie. One did say, "Murray is even better than he was in the Rushmore film. That should have been a tip-off, as that frilm was a bigger fraud than this one. They did have in common the same stupifying performance by Murray, but the plots were totally different--albeit as devoid of energy as the wooden Murray. Forget Murray (see, that was easy) and realize that Tokyo was the star. Draped in neon, the city took on a surrealistic aura. It was like a being inside a giant pinball machine. Occasionally, Scarlette would visit some nook of tranquility to remind us that this was the home of Zen. Nevertheless, her big scene was her bouncing around in her panties. Damn good thing too, as her acting was as vacuous as Murray's.

So how did a movie that should come with a health tag saying: "Video may also be used as a sleep aid.", gets such great critical hype? Were all those critics as jet-lagged, and besotted as Murray? Or are their own lives so top-heavy with ennui, that it seemed like the story of their lives? Did they all have crashing hang-overs when they reviewed it, and give it accolades because it contained no nerve-jangling tension whatsoever? It can't be that they could read any drama into the film. The shots of Murray being directed by the Japanese guy were mildly amusing, but not much to hang a movie on. I would like to make some cuttting edge comparisons between Lost in Translation and Rushmore. However I can't, because the latter film left not a trace of its plot; only the vague memory of a deadpan Murray saying nothing of interest. I consider myself a chap who can get some of the nuances of a "subtle" film. However, a mockumentary of insomnia is not nuanced. Moreover, I've had more jet-lagged symptoms in Honolulu than Murray displayed in Tokyo (I've been jet-lagged there too). Jet-lag where your waking hours are 4 p.m. to 6 a.m -- By the afternoon, the rains had ruined the beach scene, but you sure get to observe some strange folk at 3 a.m. in Waikiki. Anyway, Murray looked more bagged than jet-lagged to me.

I am now much more leery of the "Ten best movies of the year" lists. Some are complete duds. The latest (and my last) Murray film is an example of a frightful trend in the arts. It was right up there with the last Turner Art Prize, where the winning "artist" rigged up a light bulb that went on and off in a bare room. The year before it went to a a woman who showed us an unmade bed after a wild sex romp. The Turner Prize is the art equivalent of the Academy awards. -- My final critque of Lost in Translation. "Two thumbs down! Way down!"

© Bud Talkinghorn--If you are terminally bored and want imaginary company, than rent this movie. If you really enjoyed it, then let me recommend that classic eight hour Warhol movie, Sleep.

Comment

I wish another film would come along as evocative of the era as "The Last Shooting Party" set in a UK country house pre-World War 1 -- but my taste still is stuck more in the nineteenth century, along with twentieth century gems such as this one. Many of the best films I watch are on the History Channel, Vision TV (yes) or a product of Bollywood. Try "Monsoon Wedding". I loved "Bend it like Beckham" which is not Bollywood -- simply delightful. -- A young UK Indian woman who wants to be a soccer player, a really good one, and her family who want her to be a traditional woman, marry in a traditional wedding . . . the usual parental wishes, with the clash of cultures that ensue and a melding of the two. NJC

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