Saturday Roundup

Update: the link for the Supreme Court members and their political and provincial backgrounds was out of place yesterday; they have been moved. See the list below, by "TrustOnlyMulder".


Update: witty Navel-gazing shocker Re: Are These Our Future Leaders?, letter to the editor, Feb. 17 from Daniel Fuchs, St-Leonard, Que.



Muslims burn Italian consulate, at least 11 killed ! -- "In Libya, 11 reportedly die in cartoon protests", Posted by Ron, 2006/02/17

[....] Trupiano speculated that the consulate was targeted because it is the only Western consulate in the city. However, many of the protesters said they were angry because Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli recently flaunted a T-shirt displaying one of the controversial cartoons on state TV this week.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked Calderoli to resign. [....]

Fearful? Or gutless?



Editorial: Offending selectively NatPost, Feb. 18, 06

[. . . . ] Most of the Western media responded to Jyllands-Postens with "yes, but." Yes, it was the newspaper's legal right to publish the images. But it was bad editorial judgment, since the cartoons constituted a gratuitous provocation to Muslims who reject any depiction of the Prophet.

But then, why are all these champions of self-censorship not tut-tutting at Salon? Indeed, Salon is hardly alone. [. . . . ]

Search: providing grist to the jihadists , What explains the different responses?

Check the examples given.



Aid to Hamas & Palestinians

Richard Gwyn, in Star, says: don't cut aid to Hamas CCD, Posted by Ron on 10:55:09 2006/02/17

We should not cut aid to Palestinians
Feb. 17, 2006. 01:00 AM
RICHARD GWYN

For how long is it likely that Canadians will be content to watch Palestinians starve? A couple of nanoseconds, at a guess. For even shorter than that, at a further guess, once the Palestinian leader whom we like, as do all in the West, namely President Mahmoud Abbas, appeals for food and money to be sent in to keep his people from starving.

Early this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared that all future Canadian aid to Palestine would be "reviewed" in the light of whether the incoming Palestinian government, which will be dominated by the extremist Hamas party, is prepared to renounce violence and recognize the state of Israel. [. . . . ]

There's simply no way we can resist appeals such as that just made by UN official Ehab Shanti: "It's really essential that at this critical juncture the world does not abandon the needy." Even less could we resist the pictures of emaciated Palestinian children that might soon fill our television screens. [. . . . ]

Mr. Gwyn, do read on. I have an answer below for your first question. Just watch me ... if I ran this whole shebang.


Follow up comments:

Hamas was not elected out of thin air. The majority of Mr. Gwyn's ordinary Palestinians are hardly ordinary when they vote for a party openly committed to the destruction of Israel by engaging in terrorism to harm and murder Israelis until Israelis can no longer defend their own country. Bill Narvey


Canadian aid cutoff would cost Hamas millions MICHAEL DEN TANDT AND CAROLYNNE WHEELER

Please note that Paul Martin's "announcements" are simply that; no budget was passed so trying to act as if this disbursement were a foregone conclusion is a shuck ... Paul Martin was running for election, remember. He could make all kinds of promises, have any number of priorities ... or have you forgotten?

OTTAWA, JERUSALEM -- The West Bank and Gaza could lose $25-million in long-term annual funding and $37-million more in aid announced by the Martin government last year unless the Islamist group Hamas renounces violence and accepts Israel's right to exist, Ottawa's foreign aid arm said yesterday.

More than 20 humanitarian projects [I might differ on whether all that CIDA does is humanitarian, as might others. Often, it is self-serving. ]... are at risk. The projects at issue are listed in a dossier compiled by the Canadian International Development Agency. [That agency has been very active; maybe they need a hiatus to re-think who is being helped with all their projects.]

[. . . . ] However, a CIDA spokeswoman said Mr. Harper's position is unequivocal and that all Canadian aid projects are under review, including those disbursed through secondary donors and non-governmental organizations.

"The Prime Minister's statement is the final statement of the Canadian government,"
CIDA spokeswoman Eleonora Karabatic said. "These programs are under review, all of them are under review."

[. . . . ] Among the Canadian aid projects that could be cancelled:

$3-million for trauma counselling and other health services for Palestinian children, from 2004 through 2007. [Through what agency? Not named, strangely enough.]

$1-million for improved living conditions for refugees, disbursed through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine.

$1.5-million to promote human rights and good governance, distributed through Oxfam Quebec.

$3-million for new homes in the West Bank and Gaza, disbursed through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The Palestinian Authority receives about $1-billion (U.S.) annually in foreign aid, money which Israel is now lobbying to have stopped once the Hamas-led parliament is sworn in. [. . . . ]

My Comments: Not "nice" -- Consider yourself forewarned.

It is amazing how quickly hunger focuses the mind on what is really important. The Palestinians chose their poison; let them live with it. We must allow them the chance to see what they have accomplished and perhaps to change. Why support them in their choice of Hamas?

The leadership, whether Arafat or Hamas, have relied on the reasoning of the Richard Gwyn's of this world (keep throwing guilt geld) and the UN global guilt gang who need poverty and refugees, world conflicts and all the rest to keep them in business (think of the style in which they travel, where they stay and who pays, the university symposia and speaking tours to get even more money from those who obey laws and work, who do not riot and call for death and destruction at the sight of a cartoon, whether offended or not, etc.).

With all the aid money siphoned to Swiss bank accounts and to representatives of UN thug states who live very well in NY, Geneva, Paris and wherever the gang congregate, what has changed with the aid agencies' involvement? Personally, if I were PM Harper, I would get out of the UN which seldom manages to really help anywhere (Rwanda, Darfur).

I agree with Al Gordon of Canadian Coalition for Democracies; Palestinians can stop killing Israelis and get fed, housed, doctored, et cetera or accept the consequences. We would do Palestinians a disservice by interfering with this opportunity for reassessment and learning.

Otherwise, try life without aid. Suffer the consequences of your voting choice. Stop relying on the rest of the world's guilt and soppy, sentimental stupidity (Suffer little children ... who grow up to be suicide bombers in that utterly crazy education system which teaches the glories of jihad and shaheed.). Let the Palestinians have a dose of reality.



Close Down the UN Now -- in poetry kilkee, 2/16/2006 16:54:05. I agree with him.



Terence Corcoran: Two telecom truths --

[. . . . ] The story of the CRTC withdrawal from most telecom regulation, while hugely beneficial to everyone, isn't over yet. We learned that clearly on Thursday when the agency announced that it planned to act as minister of finance by redistributing $650-million from consumers to the telephone companies.

Give the CRTC top marks for political self-preservation. The money, said the commission, would be used to expand broadband service to rural and remote communities and "improve accessibility of telecommunications services for persons with disabilities." [5%]When imposing suspect policy, slip a few dollars to some under-privileged group and people won't care about what you're really doing. [. . . . ]

What is clear, however, is that the CRTC is keeping itself in business by acting as controller of the purse strings on $650-million. One CRTC commissioner, Barbara Cram, said that's not the CRTC's job. [....]

As part of an aging society, you may find this article to be of interest. My personal bias is against warehousing the elderly. They lose hope without family around them. Besides, there are responsibilities that come with being part of a family. At a point, it may not be possible, but that should be at the end, not before. Grandchildren keep the elderly interested. My fondest memories of my childhood are of five elderly ladies sitting under a linden tree teaching me to knit and crochet. None of them were related to me but all were surrogates. One's husband even took me to first day of school; he was on the Board and would introduce me. They were so much a part of my childhood that I could not imagine not having them. That is what the elderly do so well, teach and talk with children.

A childless culture

[. . . . ] "If you check housing today you will notice a very interesting phenomenon -- we have smaller families but larger homes. We're increasing the level of comfort," says Prof. Friedman, who teaches architecture and whose book examines how our neighbourhoods and houses will reflect the coming demographic change.

He envisions a future where these fewer children are showered with the more plentiful resources of their families and afforded more "comforts" in their daily living, and where neighbourhoods are filled with a blend of "life-cycle" homes equipped to support people as they age, large "bi-generational homes" big enough to accommodate families and ageing parents, homes for the multiple family dwellings favoured by some ethnic groups, and clusters of condos or townhouses where good friends congregate in their old age. [. . . . ]

John Major voices a real concern; remember the Clarence Thomas hearings? However, if Justice McLachlin is against, I am probably for it. Let's give it a try.

Allowing top court justice appointments to be politicized unwise -- judicial leaders John Major and Beverley McLachlin

In a speech to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce this month, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said: "I think in order to preserve the public confidence in the impartiality of the courts we should avoid politicizing it." [. . . . ]

Is there anyone who does not think the court has been highly politicized already? Check the list of Supremes here:

The Supreme Court has been readied for whatever is needed

How Much Do You Know About Your Supreme Court? from TrustOnlyMulder

Check the political party associated with each; note 5 from Quebec.


Book

Considering that PM Harper (with the help of Min. Toews, I would guess) is about to choose a Supreme Court Justice ... from a list already prepared for the Liberal government, this might be timely reading. Why not expand the list? Add a few non-liberal justices for fairness and a different approach.

Charles Willis Pickering: Supreme Chaos: The Politics of Judicial Confirmation and the Culture War via RightWingNews

Hardcover, January 2006
Publisher: Stroud & Hall Publishers
ISBN: 0974537659

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The judicial confirmation process is in a state of chaos. America’s culture war has set the stage for a power struggle reaching to the highest court in the land-the Supreme Court. Integrity and ability are no longer the criteria for evaluating the caliber of a judge. Rather it is one’s position on hot-button social issues. Without control of the White House, the House, or the Senate, the Left looks to liberal activist judges rather than to the American voters or their elected representatives to create new rights. [. . . . ]

ACCREDITATION

CHARLES W. PICKERING SR., retired federal circuit judge, knows firsthand the chaos of the broken judicial confirmation process.

After unanimous Senate confirmation, President George H. W. Bush appointed Judge Pickering United States District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi on October 2, 1990. In May 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Judge Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. When asked to evaluate his ten years on the bench, the American Bar Association gave Judge Pickering its highest rating, "Well Qualified." Nevertheless, a minority in the U.S. Senate obstructed and blocked Judge Pickering’s confirmation for more than two and a half years.

Elizabeth Thompson: Arar inquiry will call government conduct into question, lawyer says -- 'Focus for good debate' -- "we have had access to all of the information the government had -- whether it be confidential or can be disclosed to the public."

[. . . . ] the inquiry being headed by Judge Dennis O'Connor is likely to cost $27-million. More than $1.6-million of that amount is to cover fees and expenses for Mr. Cavalluzzo's firm. [. . . . ]

While initial estimates of the cost of the inquiry were around $8.7-million, the commission's costs are now expected to total $15.8-million. .... and $775,068 has gone to cover fees and expenses for the Arar lawyers.

Who is paying for that? The report will be released in April.



Sask Party tells NDP not to bully aboriginal group CBC News, posted as "SASK NDP tries to bully Native Group?" by casper34, 2/16/2006

Last Updated Feb 16 2006 10:20 AM CST A Saskatchewan Party MLA says the NDP is bullying the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations after a senior government official rebuked the leader of the aboriginal group for saying he could work with the opposition.

June Draude is demanding that deputy premier Clay Serby apologize to Alphonse Bird, chief of the FSIN. Serby made an angry phone call to Bird after Bird said publicly he thinks he would be able to work with a government headed by Brad Wall. Wall is the leader of the Saskatchewan Party. [....]

John Hawkins: Right Wing News: The Hard, Cold Reality About Money And Blogging via newsbeat1.com




Excerpt Of The Day: Warrantless Wiretaps And FISA by Ed Morrissey -- "The authority to conduct wartime surveillance on one's enemy, regardless of whether one terminus of the communication was located in the US, has never been questioned until now."

Cartoons

Editorial cartoons & articles



New Christian think-tank expects to be heard by new government -- The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada -- an offshoot of Focus on the Family, a faith-based advocacy group



Canadian companies won't get to buy credits under Kyoto



Geoffrey Miller: How it all ends -- physical reality vs virtual entertainment NatPost, Feb. 18, 06

[....] Fermi's Paradox became, for a while, a cautionary tale about Cold War geopolitics.

I suggest a different, even darker solution to Fermi's Paradox. [....]

We have already shifted from a reality economy to a virtual economy, from physics to psychology as the value-driver and resource-allocator. We are already disappearing up our own brainstems. Freud's pleasure principle triumphs over the reality principle. [. . . . ]

Heritable variation in personality might allow some lineages to resist the Great Temptation and last longer. Those who persist will evolve more self-control, conscientiousness and pragmatism. They will evolve a horror of virtual entertainment, psychoactive drugs and contraception. They will stress the values of hard work, delayed gratification, child-rearing and environmental stewardship. They will combine the family values of the Religious Right with the sustainability values of the Greenpeace Left.

Link to "OUTRAGED MUSLIMS! OH MY!" posted by mmaxx on 14:21:18 2006/02/16

I posted some of this the other day because someone sent it to me but I had no link.
Thanks to mmaxx for the link.

For humour, also, thanks for leading me to the greatest laughs I have had lately. Maybe it is recognition? A "friend" sent me the dog photo which I posted with a comment from another friend. FHTR Feb. 11, 06: "It has been suggested that I choose which of these Appalachian Redneck Bird Dogs is really me; after all, the Applachians do end in the Maritimes."

Redneck Scrap Book which I just loved.


Defining a Redneck -- one of the more positive aspects casper34, 2/16/2006

[. . . . ] James Webb (former US Secretary of the Navy) uses this thesis to suggest that the character traits of the Scots Irish, loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and military readiness, helped shape the "American identity." Fiercely independent, and frequently belligerent, "Rednecks" perpetuated old Celtic ideas of honor and clanship. [. . . . ]

Despite the teasing from those who know me, I do not think I fit into what I read as the definition of redneck, though I am hardly objective, but I enjoyed it, never having considered what other people think a redneck is. If you can laugh at the Redneck Scrap Book, does that make you one? The rednecks I know--by my definition--are the salt of the earth, unpretentious, and generally, they are straightforward and self-sufficient. They do not belong to groups, especially politically correct ones lining up at the trough or the porkbarrel. For that alone, I have high regard for them. Also, they are often self-taught, know how to fix a thing like a vehicle (I have learned the word metal fatigue lately; need I say more?) or are able to do something else needed by those who sneer; they often grow and make things which I preserve ... the kind of people I appreciate. Some even know about stills but, despite an offer to try one, I have decided I really like living too much to ever try the product or to make it ... but it does go to demonstrate their ingenuity. Those are only a few of their skills and they have the best stories of their shenanigans. They are not averse to expressing a political opinion ... when the elites spout some politically correct bilge ... something along the line of "b***sh**!" which covers the situation perfectly, in my humble opinion. I appreciate those who cut through it all with their own assessment delivered in few words. As I said, they're the salt of the earth; they have substance, have little need of artifice, and when you need them, they're the best people to turn to. They have honour and dignity ... and may wear a peaked cap.