Updated: Monday Morning Rain

Update map: "Silk Road -- The Silk Road's History, Development, Operation and Significance"















Silk Road -- "The Silk Road's History, Development, Operation and Significance"

[....] How much more treacherous would travel along the Silk Road have been two millennia ago? The monk, Faxian, traveling along it at the end of the fourth century, gives us an inkling:

"The only road-signs are the skeletons of the dead. Wherever they lie, there lies the road to India."

Such were the perils of voyaging along one of the world's oldest distribution systems. Like many good ideas, its roots lie in the military. [....]

What if the military had been peacekeepers, not warriors?

Note: I moved the article up to go with the map. NJC



"Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition."


New funding rules put off aspiring Liberal leaders -- Cash shortage could spell disaster in next election, says Rudyard Griffiths Mar. 5, 06

While it might be good for the Liberals to take their time selecting a leader and developing new policies, they have a pressing need to raise a war chest to fight an election that they themselves have said could come at any time.

Money, after all, is the oxygen of politics. If the Liberals tarry too long in the financial and organizational "dead zone" created by the new Elections Act then, rather than renewing their party through a leadership contest, they could end up signing their death warrant for the next federal election. [....]

Consent and new refusals to condemn pedophilia By Anthony Oluwatoyin, March 1, 2006

War is brewing. And not just in Iraq. Culture wars. And, did I say, not just in Iraq? Conservatives are set to fulfill a pre-election pursuit. To raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16. And liberals are more determined than ever to expose themselves like something that is the very reason for wanting to raise the age of consent in the first place. [....]

You would think they were trying to squeeze out whatever legitimacy is possible for NAMBLA. That is the odious North American Man/Boy Love Association which explicitly advocates for pedophilia. [....]

Editor of U.S. Arabic Newspaper: Religious Extremism is Spreading Among Muslim Youth in the U.S. March 3, 2006

In an article published in the London Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Dr. Muhriz Al-Husseini, director of the Center for Dialogue and Research and editor of the U.S.-published newspaper Al-Minassa Al-'Arabiya, warns that religious extremism and ignorance are spreading among the young generation of Muslims in the U.S.

The following are excerpts from the article: [1]

Some Imams Brainwash Muslim Adolescents and Plant Bogus Ideas About Islam in Their Minds [....]

Hillary Didn't Know Bill Was Coaching the UAE on Ports Deal? via Newsbeat. PyjamasMedia to http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/161672.php
March 04, 2006

Guess Hill missed the giant deposits going into their bank account. From MSNBC:
Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.

But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United [....]

Dick Morris: Clinton on Dubai Payroll March 4, 2006 2:02 p.m. EST

Former President Bill Clinton is up to his eyeballs in dealings with Dubai, his former top political adviser has revealed. According to Dick Morris, author of the best-selling book, "Condi vs, Hillary," Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai, now involved in a firestorm over its deal to take over some of the operations at six major U.S. ports. "Bill Clinton is a senior adviser - a paid adviser - to a company called Yucaipa which recently set up a relationship with a group called the Yucaipa Investment group to set up a new company called DIGL," Morris said on "The O'Reilly Factor." "DIGL Inc. is in charge of managing the investments of the crown prince of Dubai throughout the world. Bill Clinton is paid by Yucaipa a percentage of the profits it makes, and Yucaipa said its profits have exceeded 40 percent in recent years. [....]

Hillary apparently is as blind to Bill's source of money as she was to his women.



W-5

I just finished watching the first half-hour of CTV's W-5 program. It dealt with the failure of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to deport criminals (even multiple-repeat criminals) from Canada who are under a deportation order.

A recap of the program can be read at http://tinyurl.com/h9oux.

[.... ] Basically, the situation is this: It is much more difficult to deport criminals – even repeat criminals - than it is to deport technically illegal immigrants who are carving out an honest living.

Since the Department is on a quota system, guess who gets deported. [....]

To make your views known, write:

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-4516
Fax: (613) 992-6181
E-Mail: Solberg.M@parl.gc.ca



Criminal Immigrants W-FIVE, Updated Sat. Mar. 4 2006
[ http://tinyurl.com/h9oux ]

[....] Quota system

Kurland's theory is backed up by an internal Immigration report obtained by W-FIVE that states: "…removal officers also reported that they are required to meet quotas … the number of removals … comes first, not the quality of the work they do."

W-FIVE tried to find out how many criminals are at large in Canada waiting to be deported. Immigration wouldn't tell us. And we asked for an interview with Alain Jolicoeur, president of the Canada Border Services Agency and the man in charge of deporting criminals. But he refused. [....]

Something To Ponder

[....] The article comes from Australia....a Commonwealth Country.

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," [....]

Congo army soldiers mutiny, ransack U.N. camp David Lewis, 02 Mar 2006, Reuters

KINSHASA, March 2 (Reuters) - Congolese army soldiers fighting alongside U.N. peacekeepers against ethnic militiamen have mutinied, ransacking a U.N. camp in the east and firing on a U.N. helicopter carrying top commanders, U.N. officials said.

The mutiny began on Wednesday and forced the suspension of a joint U.N. and Congo army operation to retake the eastern town of Tchei in Ituri district from an ethnic militia which U.N. staff says is using thousands of villagers as human shields. [....]

Some listings on federal government online job bank become lost in translation NatPost, Mar. 3, 06



Woman faces eviction over Internet innuendo The Whig-Standard, February 28, 2006 via newsbeat1



Public shouldn't fund medal incentives -- "some commentators are calling on Ottawa to immediately introduce financial incentives for amateur athletes who win Olympic medals."

[....] Yes, it’s true other countries offer cash prizes for medals. Italy gave each of its gold medallists the hefty sum of $150,000 US. The Czech Republic gave its gold medal winners $42,000, while Japan and the U.S. gave $25,000 apiece.

Silver and bronze medallists were also awarded cash prizes by these countries, albeit on a sliding scale. [....]

Students upset at proposed book ban -- Boards given discretion on book Mar. 5, 2006, Tess Kalinowski

[....] One passage in particular, in which a child talks about joining her sister, a suicide bomber, in heaven, has some adults wondering about the message it sends to kids.

"What you're left with is a book where in a fair number of instances you have kids saying maybe suicide bombing is a viable alternative, or maybe it's understandable or maybe it's a career choice for me," the CJC's Len Rudner told the Star. [....]

Evie's stepfather, novelist Lawrence Hill, fears there's another result of debating the suitability of powerful children's books. It weakens children's literature and kids end up with bland, safe and uninspired books, he said.

The last statement is so true. Have you ever read some of the "safe" stories to which children have been exposed in school? Boring, bland, blah! This is probably one of those situations where a parent should read with the child and talk about what is presented. When you see what the taxpayer funded CBC is presenting on television (gutter language, sexual situations in family hour, scenes of urination), frankly, the topic might as well be out in the open and discussed. CBC sinks ever further into either the gutter, into obvious political bias -- leftist political views -- pro Palestinian, pro-Arab, pro-Muslim, as a general rule. Why not bring reasonable adults into the school to discuss it? Or would it devolve into extremism? Children are interested in what is real. They don't appreciate stories of pukey pantywaists.



Canoe poll on kirpans -- various views and comments -- kirpan -- Students wear a small one, I believe.



Teen's kirpan still sparks anger -- Despite ruling, parents adamant dagger does not belong in classroom Ingrid Peritz

MONTREAL -- He won a ringing victory before the judges of Canada's highest court, but a Sikh teenager named Gurbaj Singh Multani still cannot seem to win over the hearts of parents at his former Montreal school. [....]

Google, Google, Google by M.Makina, January 30, 2006

Any idea what to do about this censorship saga besides writing letters, boycotting, or taking them to Congress (!?)

This is how one guy has been dealing with it for a while now. [....]

"DIT's mission: to study how Communist China implements internet censorship and develop new technologies immuned to their stragegies." [....]

Let's look at some alternatives shall we?

Have you tried the search engine: http://clusty.com? The buzz is that this search engine gives consistently BETTER results than Google. [....]

There are others listed -- worth reading.



"Currently, in some parts of the country, in some animal markets, animals are skinned alive, like cats and dogs. It's individual cases taking place at individual markets," he said.



A good time to get out Barbara Kay, National Post, March 01, 2006

[....] Ariel Sharon got it right in 2004 when he told you to leave France. From de Gaulle to Chirac, France has for too long been politically invested in pleasing the Arab world -- which means neglect of Jewish interests at home -- to disengage now. [....]

Terence Corcoran: The unhealthy rise of fake capitalism March 04, 2006, Financial Post

[....] There's no way of knowing how big a role state-owned multinationals play in global economic activity. Nobody tracks them. The United Nations, NGOs and anti-corporate activitists and intellectuals spend vast amounts of time mapping and dissecting private multinational corporate activity, but none plotting the operations of state players on the global market.

The laissez-faire approach to state corporations .... [....]

DP World is only one of a number of government-owned operations that are gathering headlines and creating conflict around the globe. In France, the government is in the process of creating a new state-controlled (70% ownership by law) energy giant by merging Gaz de France with Suez, the country's electricity giant. The objective is to stave off a takeover from a private Italian firm. State corporations from China are constantly active and on the prowl abroad, in energy and other fields. [....]

Memory Lane

Why Handset Giants Are Dialing Up India -- Taxes have dropped, there's less red tape, and the market is booming May 9, 05,

But for the execs, from Finland's Elcoteq Network Corp., the performers were a mere sideshow. The two dozen men and women were on hand for the inauguration of a facility that will churn out as many as 6 million phones a year for customers including Nokia (NOK ) and Sony Ericsson (ERICY ). "India is one of the rare countries with a huge commanding market as well as a sound base for technical education," says Elcoteq Network Corp. Chief Executive Jouni Hartikainen. "It's an ideal place for us." [....]

Memory Lane

China telecom co plans R&D centre in Bangalore March 19, 2004

Charting out an aggressive strategy for India, Chinese telecommunication equipment company ZTE Corporation on Friday said it expects to set up a research and development centre in Bangalore by the year-end, and has also decided to establish a manufacturing unit in the country.

"We wish to set up a research and development unit in India. The proposal is being worked out, and we hope to have the centre before the end of this year," Ye Wei Min, vice president of ZTE Coporation, said in New Delhi.

Min said that the new unit would be based in Bangalore but did not divulge the investment plans [....]

ZTE: "communicate and exchange"

India, ZTE´s Promising Target Market -- "Ms Fang Rong, Vice President of ZTE Corporation, delivered a speech. "The 12th Convergence India 2004, as an international telecommunication exhibition, offers India Telecom Industry and ZTE excellent opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas and experience." ZTE Presented Its Powerful Strengths at 12th Convergence India 2004 2004-03-22

[....] ZTE Corporation, China´s largest listed telecom equipment manufacturer and network solution provider, participated in the event as a Diamond Sponsor, with the theme of "Global Solutions, Local services", and caught eyes of the global operators. [....]

Other News:
2006-02-09 ZTE to expand Mali´s CDMA WLL Network
2006-01-30 ZTE to showcase 3G handsets and HSDPA data cards at 3GSM Congress
2006-01-16 ZTE to showcase UMTS/HSDPA equipment and IMS converged services at 3GSM World Congress 2006
2005-12-14 ZTE first with CDMA video services in China
2005-12-01 ZTE becomes the largest CDMA vendor of Telecom Egypt
2005-11-11 ZTE Clinches WCDMA Contract in Tajikistan
2005-10-31 ZTE Strengthens African Market Position with Big Nigerian CDMA Contract
2005-10-25 ZTE Wins National Sri Lanka CDMA Deal
2005-07-27 ZTE advances African telecommunications with first CDMA2000-based fixed next generation network (NGN)
2005-07-11 ZTE shows commitment to India



Amazon email -- Have you ever tried to email Amazon before placing an order? This page may be useful -- no guarantees. I called a book/music store Saturday to try to order some music in Canada. Forget about that kind of service, it seems. Order from the US or do without.

Phone toll-free in the US and Canada: (800) 201-7575

CLIOPATRIA: A Group Blog posted by maz2 --
Block the Offensive Internets Manan Ahmed, posted March 3, 2006

News report states that the Supreme Court has ruled that all websites which display the Danish cartoons should be blocked in Pakistan. The Supreme Court observed that this is a matter for the entire Muslim world and no technical limitations will be accepted as an excuse. I will try to find more sources and update this.

In the first salvo, Blogspot is blocked in Pakistan. [....]

via instapundit http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/22450.html

Update: The block is at the ISP level. Not all internet traffic is routed through the Pakistan Internet Exchange, so the govt. must have ordered local ISP's to block certain websites. All the major ISP's in Pakistan are blocking weblogs hosted at blogspot.com.

http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=3621#p3621

[.... maz2] Let's see.....

Dosanjh good, Grewal bad
Murphy good, Grewal bad
Belinda good, Emerson bad
Brison good, Emerson bad
Keith Martin good, Emerson bad
Paul Martin good, Harper bad
Anyone see a pattern here?
The WET NOODLE strikes again.
Too bad Ed Broadbent wasn't successful in turfing the guy for incompetence. ...

Harper to be investigated by ethics commissioner CTV News, Posted by: maz2 at March 3, 2006


Jail takes glint off £300m 'bling bling' drugs gang Andrew Worden, Mar 3 2006

TWO drug smugglers are starting lengthy jail terms this week for their roles in one of the biggest cocaine gangs the country has ever seen.
Jason Miranda, from South Croydon, and Amy Farrow, from Wallington, were part of a global drugs cartel known as the Bling Bling Gang, which dealt £300 million worth of the drug.

The syndicate smuggled cocaine paste and liquid from the Caribbean into the US, Canada, Europe and the UK, before it was transformed into vast quantities of highly-addictive crack.

Believed to be one of the most significant international crack cocaine and money-laundering rings of its kind, the gang made up to £3 million a week over a two-year period. [....]

Progressive

Open Letter to John Ryan March 03, 2006

Dear John,

Thank you for your efforts in creating a digest of all the fear, hatred and stupidity that passes for political thought among the champagne socialist knee jerk anti-American set these days. I am also a long time supporter of “progressive” political policies. Progressive, of course, as we both well know, means nothing more than simply “moving in a direction I favour”, so this area of agreement between us is probably not as promising as we might have hoped. [....]

TransCanada warns it must build Canadian leg of Alaska gas pipeline March 6, 2006

JUNEAU, Alaska - A Transcanada Corp. executive on March 2 warned Alaska lawmakers that his company has exclusive rights to build the Canadian portion of the proposed pipeline that will carry natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope to the U.S. Lower 48. "TransCanada does not want to obstruct this project," said Tony Palmer, the company's vice president for Alaska Business Development. "But at the end of the day, we think we have the right to build this project."

Pipe Lines, a company now owned by TransCanada, was granted certificates by the Canadian government to construct the Canadian portion of the project in the 1980s. Foothills TransCanada officials say its permits and rights of way are still valid. [....]

See: Index to Vol. 7, No. 3 (March 2006):
3. Enbridge proposes $1.8 billion 'Alberta Clipper' line to Wisconsin
4. China may invest in Enbridge Alberta Clipper oil pipeline to U.S. Midwest



Gun Registration - Canadian Tax Dollars At Work -- Canada's billion-dollar gun registry employs 1800 bureaucrats, who spend their days tracking down duck hunters and farmers.




Susan Lazaruk: Injured soldier a writer -- "Lt. Trevor Greene: Afghan ambush victim an author and entrepreneur" NatPost, Mar. 4, 06

[....] Biographic information on the Web site [Closing Bigger] says Lt. Greene is a graduate of the University of King's College journalism program in Halifax. He worked for several years in Japan as a journalist for the Bloomberg news agency before writing a book on Japan's homeless residents. He then moved to the United Kingdom, where he worked as a research editor with an investment bank.

The site says Lt. Greene returned to Canada in 1995, where he joined the Canadian navy. [....]

And what has the Taliban member who killed him accomplished in life? What have any of the Taliban accomplished?



Made for metal Drew Hasselback, Financial Post, March 06, 2006

[....] As copper prices trade near record highs, Chile's economy is booming, and the company's mineral fortunes will be one of the hot topics being discussed at this year's convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, which starts today in Toronto. The event will attract 13,000 miners, investors and executives from all over the world. They'll be gathering at Toronto's metro convention centre to pick up tips on the latest geological discoveries. [....]

This covers more than Chile -- worth reading on mining and stability in various South American countries.



Saskatchewan couple evade bandits in Costa Rica car chase NatPost, Mar. 4, 06



Loo and behold the truth on ice Pierre Lachaine, National Post, March 06, 2006

[....] Bilaal visited four fast-food restaurants in Toronto and collected ice and toilet water from each. He then deposited the samples in agar (bacteria food) and watched them grow.

He discovered there was more bacteria in each ice sample than the toilet samples -- proving right a 12-year-old girl from Florida. [....]

Conservative MP consults concerned groups about whistleblower protection NatPost, Mar. 6, 06

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre is busy meeting with interest groups and union leaders to figure out the best way to beef up Canada's whistleblower laws. The reforms will be part of the Federal Accountability Act, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned on during the election. The plan to protect whistleblowers is supposed to give the Integrity Commissioner power to protect whistleblowers and stop the government from suppressing any wrongdoing or rewarding whistleblowers with money, Mr. Poilievre said in a statement. He has met with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, Democracy Watch, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Allan Cutler, a whistleblower who tried to report government wrongdoing during what's now known as the sponsorship scandal. [....]

'Chinese Putin' gets tough on Internet's 'dangerous ideas By Willy Lam*, World Tribune.com, March 2, 2006

Willy Lam, whose column, "Inside China" begins this week in East-Asia-Intel.com" is a Hong Kong-based China scholar and journalist specializing in Communist Party politics and foreign policy.

[....] “We must redouble efforts to counter attempts [by the West] to infiltrate China and wreak havoc on the political and moral standards of party members and intellectuals,” Hu said. “We must counter attempts by hostile forces in the West to transform China into a capitalist country via a process of peaceful evolution.” [....]

Hu and company’s most efficacious weapon against alleged efforts by hostile Western powers to spread democratic ideas in China is, of course, the “tools of the dictatorship of the proletariat.” While central authorities have since the early 1990s sought to streamline the government bureaucracy, units such as the paramilitary People’s Armed Police (PAP), the Ministry of State Security and the police have vastly expanded their staff and modernized weaponry, including high-tech equipment to keep track of dissident intellectuals as well as non-CCP affiliated trade unions. [....]

Toronto and GTA - 'Threat not viable' Mar. 4, 06, Ian MacDougall

BRAMPTON -- The man who allegedly wanted former prime minister Paul Martin dead was on the board of a Liberal riding association and was once charged for trying to run down a former defence minister's assistant.

The RCMP also had information he was acting as a middleman in arms shipments to Tamil groups.

[....] Brown is trying to have the charges thrown out of court because he says the RCMP broke the promise they made when he gave them information about a 2003 plot to assassinate Paul Martin. Brown said he was offered $300,000 by Augustine D'Souza, who once sat on the board of Scarborough-Rouge River MP Derek Lee's riding association, RCMP Const. Eric Rebiere testified. [....]

3rd man pleads guilty in drug-smuggling tunnel case -- BC

[....] Timothy Woo faces at least five years in prison and a maximum fine of $2 million US when he is sentenced for conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, as do Francis Devandra Raj and Jonathan Valenzuela, who previously entered guilty pleas.

The three, all from Surrey, B.C., were arrested last July. Authorities said they had just finished the 110-metre tunnel north of Lynden, which ran from the living room of a home on the U.S. side to a boarded-up Quonset hut on the Canadian side. [....]

Extradition backlog builds Hundreds of foreign requests to return accused criminals on books Kathleen Harris, Ottawa Sun, March 4, 2006 posted by Sensaregreat, 3/04/2006

Canada has hundreds of outstanding requests to ship out accused criminals wanted in foreign countries for murder, fraud, kidnapping, assault and drug crimes. [....]

Documents obtained through Access to Information by the Sun show Canada receives about 200 extradition requests each year and the case load has mounted over the years.

Canada makes comparatively few requests to have other countries extradite alleged criminals here.

By the end of 2004, there were 423 active cases in which Canada had received or made requests for extradition. In that year, the U.S. issued 130 requests, while Canada made just 20 applications to our southern neighbour. [....]

Did anyone watch Mark Emory, purveyor of marijuana seeds, on television last night? He has operated openly in Canada but the Americans were not amused that he was selling into the US since they consider selling seeds to be criminal. How this will play out will be interesting.



Michael Coren: Leave it to readers

[....] It’s acceptable to say that men can marry men and women marry women, that we should kill the ill and elderly or even that we should do nothing as African children starve to death.

But if one dares to revere motherhood and argue that children deserve to have mom at home if at all possible, that it simply not to be tolerated. [....]

As for choice, it’s an illusion. Mothers and their husbands are forced to pay massively high levels of taxation to fund such delights as daycare, abortion and a state broadcaster that routinely parodies the traditional family. [....]

I would add that perhaps we want too much; we expect to have what our parents had after working a lifetime. We live on debt and credit. It looks as though the cost of credit is going to rise now, too.