Various

Ad Hoc Committee to Review a Nominee for the Supreme Court of Canada -- Rebroadcast link for the statement by Justice Rothstein and the questions of him

CBC and Don Martin are a bit worried -- "Americanization of the courts" is their way of criticizing this process. Actually, Justice Rothstein gives reasonable answers that all of us should be interested in. CBC and some questioners do not want this process and that is quite evident.

There is real concern by those who have a vested interest in this over the fact that Justice Rothstein does not speak French -- the only qualification that counts in Canada for those who would control us. Enough! One language group has been over-represented in every way in Canada; there are other concerns such as crime, guns, security and the separation of powers between the federal government and the provinces ... et cetera.

According to Justice Rothstein, the gun registry is termed a political decision for the legislative/Parliamentary level. A good response.

Diane Ablonsczy asks the best questions -- a good one on the notwithstanding clause which the Justice leaves to Parliamant -- another good one is on balancing individual rights and freedom.

There are questions on freedom of expression, judicial activism in interpreting the law, the poor who need judicial representation, and more. Don't miss this. It is the first time we have had this privilege.




The tip of the scandal iceberg? Larry MacDonald, Canadian Business Online, February 16, 2006

I recently came across some alarming stories about resources being allocated inappropriately within the government sector. They came accidentally, from informal conversations with acquaintances and others encountered during my daily routine.

One was a retiree from a bank. [....]

So, if you want to jump hospital queues, [....]

"He says some recipients were sending their welfare payments to designations in Iraq. He is so appalled that he is ready to go public." [....]

"He says some recipients were sending their welfare payments to designations in Iraq. He is so appalled that he is ready to go public."

I contacted the auditor ... his ardor for whistle blowing [. . . . ]

This weekend while socializing I learned that, generally, amongst those with whom I talked, it is agreed that Canada has become extremely corrupt. They discussed integrity and perquisites for those who "go along" with what they know is wrong. There is need for adequate whistleblower legislation and no Liberal government would ever bring it in, it is quite evident from their so-called whistleblower legislation which was designed to protect themselves. I only hope that Harper's government will pass whistleblower legislation that would allow those who know of the corruption and corrupt individuals involved to come forward without penalizing their families and themselves--loss of pension along with job, public censure and reputation blackened, etc.




China e-lobby: News of the Day (February 24)

From the China Freedom Blog Alliance: The Korea Liberator examines the notion of "reformers" in Communist China, and scores the Enlightened Comment of the Day.

Guangdong party boss calls for more "autonomy": Zheng Liping, party boss in the deeply troubled Guangdong Province (next to last item) has called for villages in his province to have "full autonomy within the confines of the law and constitution" (Asianews). Of course, Communist games with the "law and constitution" are what has lead to Guangdong's troubles - Taishi, Shanwei, Sanshan (fifth item), and Sanjiao (third item) - in the first place. [. . . . ]

On the Communists' Korean colony: [. . . . ]

Able Danger Blog


Read Tony Shaffer's testimony -- Also, on the right there are several links: Able Danger - Latest News



Diana driver was secret informer -- "French police concluded the crash was an accident" David Leppard, Feb. 26, 06

[. . . . ] The inquiry — headed by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner — into the Paris car crash that killed Diana is now trying to obtain the chauffeur’s files from French intelligence but is being delayed by the reluctance of the authorities to hand them over.

Stevens’s team has asked the country’s domestic intelligence service, the DST, to surrender all its “agent handling” files on Henri Paul, the chauffeur, to establish whether he was doing any work for his French intelligence bosses on the night of the crash. [. . . . ]

Rethink recruiting: Top general -- Let landed immigrants who sign up get fast-tracked citizenship, Hillier says Mike Blanchfield, The Ottawa Citizen, February 25, 2006

[. . . . ] Gen. Hillier made some drastic suggestions, including giving military personnel extra holiday time if they bring in new recruits and another novel proposal for the Citizenship and Immigration Department to consider.

"Maybe we want to go and seek with them an agreement that if landed immigrants join the Canadian Forces they have an accelerated route to citizenship in our great country," Gen. Hillier mused. [. . . . ]

Mark Steyn: Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes February 26, 2006, BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? [. . . . ]

What, in the end, are all these supposedly unconnected matters from Danish cartoons to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker to gender-segregated swimming sessions in French municipal pools about? Answer: sovereignty. Islam claims universal jurisdiction and always has. The only difference is that they're now acting upon it. The signature act of the new age was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran: Even hostile states generally respect the convention that diplomatic missions are the sovereign territory of their respective countries. Tehran then advanced to claiming jurisdiction over the citizens of sovereign states and killing them -- as it did to Salman Rushdie's translators and publishers. Now in the cartoon jihad and other episodes, the restraints of Islamic law are being extended piecemeal to the advanced world, by intimidation and violence but also by the usual cooing promotion of a spurious multicultural "respect" by Bill Clinton, the United Church of Canada, European foreign ministers, etc.

The I'd-like-to-teach-the-world-to-sing-in-perfect-harmonee crowd have always spoken favorably of one-worldism. From the op-ed pages of Jutland newspapers to les banlieues of Paris, the Pan-Islamists are getting on with it.

An Open Letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights February 07, 2006

An Open Letter to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
cc the President of the United States of America
02/07/06
webadmin.hchr@unog.ch
comments@whitehouse.gov

[....] I will not, at this time or any future period, accept the jurisdiction of the United Nations nor any agency nor bureau thereof to limit in any manner or form my right to speak, write and publish the truth. As a citizen of the soverign United States of America, and as a free man, I stand on my rights under the Constitution of the United States as amended.

By God, I will not submit to Islam!!!

Benjamin C. Powell, Jr.

Agreed!


Daimnation: Are.You.Canadian? Feb. 16, 06

[. . . . ] Adherents of Islam--or any other religion--cannot in that context insist that the dogmas of their faith are any less subject to doubt, to questioning, or to ridicule than those of any other. Their faith has no more immunity to contention within Canada than any other. Nor should it have anywhere else by our standards; if the religion be true it will conquer spiritually and temporally by virtue alone.

If any Muslims in Canada feel, all things considered, more pain over cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed than they do over Canadian soldiers being killed by fellow Muslims in Afghanistan, then I profoundly believe those Muslims should ask themselves: "Why am I in Canada?" [. . . . ]

U. S. Cartoonists fight back EclectEcon, via Shotgun


It Didn’t Work Feb. 24, 06

"I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes — it is America." The New York Times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a Sunni stronghold in Iraq. "Everything that is going on between Sunni and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America." [. . . . ]

Update to: FHTR Feb. 25, 06, "India & Population Control" which is under this heading: "Bud: Economic Giant, Coren on Mothers, Ice Dancing" -- In "India & Population Control", I discussed "Our own problem with the young and sex:" that was copied and posted at Jack's Newswatch; it drew this response:

Vicki Says:
February 25th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
A few years ago there was a very dynamic group of young people travelling across Canada,US and Britain getting in to schools to encourage kids to ’save sex for marrige’.They were called the ChallengeTeam. Some teachers were very eager to get them in. Supportive people would arrange booking ahead of time for them and arrange billeting. Although the received minimal stipends, it became costly. They applied for charitable status and were turned down by the powers that be (several appeals) because they didn’t teach ‘both’ points of view…???(SO open minded the brains fall out)

Needless to say they are no longer presenting and the kids are not hearing any message about abstinence.(unless the parents are trying to teach it) We are seeing some of the results.


[My response]
February 26th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Try asking our new federal government for funding. We have all had enough of groups that do not support our viewpoint getting funding to preach the opposite, all under the guise of “women’s sexual health” or another euphemism. Families must become active to protect their children, particularly from their ignorance about diseases associated with this “freedom” … which amounts in too many cases to [their] being used and abused. Think of the sex rings operating — the latest news of one being in Newfoundland-Labrador. We must give our young time to be children, then enquiring teens, not regretful ones.

Worldview: The real threat to safety of U.S. ports isn't Dubai Trudy Rubin, Feb. 26, 06

[. . . . ] The irony of this tale is that there is a real threat to port safety, but it isn't Dubai Ports World. If Americans understood the real port threat, they'd be a lot angrier than they were last week.

While we've been "fighting them over there," port security has been sidetracked. Last year, the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security identified 66 of the nation's 359 ports as especially vulnerable to terrorist attack, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The port-safety issue was raised in the 2004 presidential election, but faded. The U.S. government has assigned $18 billion to make airports safer since 9/11, and just $630 million to protect ports. And the system we've set up to decide which shipping containers might be dangerous - says one of the country's top experts on port security, Stephen Flynn - is little more than a "house of cards." [. . . . ]

Rod Dreher: A Crunchy Con Manifesto via Anonalogue

http://crunchycon.nationalreview.com/about/

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”

10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.

--Rod Dreher is a writer and editor at the Dallas Morning News. A native of south Louisiana, he has worked at National Review, the New York Post, and the Washington Times. Crunchy Cons is his first book.

Birkenstocked Burkeans -- Confessions of a granola conservative. -- "You're looking for true quality and refusing to be satisfied with Purina People Chow. You have your antennas up for what is real, original, worthy." Rod Dreher, July 12, 2002


Crunchy Cons: the blog for Birkenstocked Burkeans and those who love them


Photos from the Olympics: Ice Dancing


Sasha Cohen photos


Photo: a spectacular one of Sasha Cohen via Anonalogue



Whistler Mayor Against 2010 Olympics

CNEWS Forum: Discussion sometimes is worthwhile on this forum, except when someone becomes nasty, doesn't answer questions, treats others with disdain or contempt, or uses foul language instead of making points to support an argument.



Al Qaeda Blows It -- This is a lot worse than those Danish cartoons James S. Robbinsm Feb. 23, 06

The bombing of the shrine of Imams Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari in Samarra, Iraq, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, has sent crowds into the streets in protest and led to reprisal attacks on dozens of Sunni mosques. So is Iraq on the verge of the long-expected sectarian conflict that will tear the country apart? Don’t count on it.

The attack was most probably perpetrated by al Qaeda, which has been trying to foment civil strife in Iraq for some time, and declared open war on the Shiites last year. [. . . . ]

Shrine attack deals blow to anti-US unity Syed Saleem Shahzad, Feb. 24, 06

[. . . . ]The presence in Iran of the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as members of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, is well known, as is the presence of other controversial figures related to the "war on terror", such as al-Qaeda members. Security contacts have told Asia Times Online that several al-Qaeda members have been moved from detention centers to safe houses run by Iranian intelligence near Tehran.

The aim of these people in Iran is to establish a chain of anti-US resistance groups that will take the offensive before the West makes its expected move against Tehran. [. . . . ]