Updated: Urban Myth--Mulch, Gray Sunday

Updates:

1. New post from Bud, etc. below this section -- This template is being ornery again -- menu at bottom, I suppose.

2. Correction & Source for more information -- correct, I suspect.

Apparently, this is an urban myth "Buying Mulch -- termites" I had posted it below but I've moved it up with the source for correct information.

'Net rumor about mulch revealed as urban legend By Radonna Fiorini, Journal and Courier, Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indiana

[....] Termites live in complex social colonies and Formosan colonies are especially large. For these termites to become established and pose a threat to a structure, most of the colony, including the queen, would have to be moved, Gibb said.

Some colonies have successfully translocated in large, solid pieces of wood such as a tree or a railroad tie, but mulch cannot successfully serve as a place for any termites, not just the Formosan, to nest. [....]

To learn more about the quarantine and related stories, visit

http://
www.lsuagcenter.com/en/environment/insects/
Termites/formosan_termites/

For more information from Gibb, visit www.entm.purdue.edu and click on Extension.

There is much more in the article, as well as links.


Buying Mulch -- termites

I received the msg. below from someone I know. I haven't looked into this--no time, but it looks as though anyone who buys mulch might want to check further. NJC


Subject: FW: Warning.....Mulch Shortcut to:
http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/

If you use mulch around your house, be very careful about buying mulch this year. After the Hurricane in New Orleans many trees were blown over. These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get rid of tons and tons of this mulch to any state or company who will come and haul it away. So it will be showing up in Home Depot and Lowes at dirt cheap prices with one huge problem; Formosan Termites will be the bonus in many of those bags. New Orleans is one of the few areas in the country were the Formosan Termites has gotten a strong hold and most of the trees blown down were already badly infested with those termites. Now we may have the worst case of transporting a problem to all parts of the country that we have ever had. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we have no good control against them, so tell your friends who own homes to avoid cheap mulch and know where it came from.

End of update.

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Blogging Tories Podcast


Blogging Tories Television ready for distribution Mar. 16, 06

Blogging Tories Television is now ready for distribution. The project was certainly educational and involved assembling more than a few novel ideas. At various stages, more experienced programmers, namely Craig (and some other friends) helped this novice out.

[....] Do you want to participate? There are two ways. [. . . . ]

Update: These may be better links. http://www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/000563.html

http://www.bloggingtories.ca/join.php




Boaz Manor, Portus, Diamonds, Hong Kong

Mar. 18, 06 in the National Post there was an article on the diamonds -- still missing but someone is lying. Where they are is unclear. I checked the National Post but could not find the article online. It would be the update to this: Portus & Diamonds under the heading "Diamonds are a Man's Best Friend"



Douglas Fisher: Will the real Tommy Douglas please stand up

The Tommy Douglas movie on CBC last week stressed his leadership of medicare during his time as Saskatchewan’s CCF premier, from 1944 to 1961. The actors playing Tommy and Irma Douglas made a good fist of the roles marked out for them but the emphasis on medicare above all else shortchanged viewers of the enormous and diverse worth of this couple. [. . . . ]

In my long political experience, I have seen only a handful of true “greats.” Beyond doubt, Tommy belongs among them, an extraordinarily gifted man. Unfortunately, that didn’t come across much in the movie. [. . . . ]

Fisher details why he considered Douglas great and thus why on that level, the CBC production failed. Note that behind a great man is a strong woman ... pushing ... or something like that.




Linda Williamson: Hunting monsters

We have figured out how to catch these monsters. Where we fail is in figuring out what to do with them after they're convicted.

Canada's maximum penalty for trafficking in child porn is 10 years. It has never been used. Jail terms are rare -- the usual sentence in a child porn case is house arrest. (By contrast, in 1999, a U.S. child porn distributor was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison.)

Is "privacy" for the victim a part of the problem? These are scum and should be treated as such. Victims, as they grow older, need to see that justice was done.



Top court denies killer's appeal

Top court denies appeal from alleged mob boss -- re: Bonanno crime family

[....] Vito Rizzuto was denied bail by the Quebec Court of Appeal after he was ordered deported to the United States to face charges linked to three mob murders.

[....] Rizzuto's lawyers have a second appeal before the court over the way the case was handled by former justice minister Irwin Cotler.

Get thee to Canada if you don't want to be punished in the US.



Death of a Culture -- Darcey of Dust My Broom makes sense -- re: aboriginals, jail, culture, change, assimilaton, education ... Mar. 18, 06 and Via Darcey: fiddle music from the Red River

Also, scroll down for Darcey: "Letter from Canada" re: Liberal Senator Hervieux-Payette and the CBC. There are 57 comments; this post must have struck a chord.



Memory Lane: Canada's Immigration Minister Elanor Kaplan

Yesterday, I posted an excerpt from this (Traficant expulsion and “Operation Squeezeplay” by The Idaho Observer, October 2002) Later, I came across the following which is relevant to Canadians:

News Junkie Canada, June 8, 2004: Smuggling Rings: A Canadian's True Story

Inside the Dragon's Den July 24, 2002, a review of a book by Charles R. Smith

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/7/23/175619.shtml

Chinese Army Smuggling Into the U.S.

In early 2000, the U.S. Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service executed a successful undercover operation. "Squeeze Play" was designed to break up an Asian people-smuggling ring. The INS operation also uncovered the fact that the Chinese government was directly involved.

In the end, six individuals, including a Chinese general, were indicted by a U.S. grand jury formed in Detroit. The indictment of Chinese Gen. Fhang Wei included videotaped evidence taken by a Canadian undercover operative who managed to penetrate the smuggling ring. For the first time in the U.S., James Leigh, a Canadian currently living abroad at an undisclosed location, today relayed his story of danger inside the dragon's den.

[. . . . ] Ironically, after being indicted in the United States, Chinese Gen. Fhang met with Canadian officials, including Immigration Minister Elanor Kaplan, during a briefing in Fujian on how to combat illegal people-smuggling. The briefing included plans for Canadian security and law enforcement operations to combat smuggling.

Despite the apparent lack of coordination between the U.S. and Canada, Leigh's undercover work for the U.S. government did not end with Operation Squeeze Play. For the first time, Leigh revealed that he also helped the U.S. track North Korean operatives working within Canada and in Asia.

[. . . . ] "The Chinese government has been and still is sanctioning smuggling into the United States and Canada," stated Leigh flatly in an exclusive interview. [. . . . ]

JRNyquist.com -- worth checking



Beijing's 'anti-secession law' still a threat to Taiwan The Edmonton Journal, March 14, 2006



UNSCAM shredder- in -chief -- Riza, a Pakistani via newsbeat1 -- siteinstitute.org

During at least the last two years of Oil-for-Food's seven years in operation, Volcker concluded, Riza — along with Annan and the now [departed] deputy secretary-general, Louise Frechette — was aware of both the smuggling and kickback schemes of Saddam, but withheld information from the U.N. Security Council." [. . . . ]

Memory Lane: RAV Project
Hansard: Procedure and House Affairs Standing Committee

Public transit links: .... Richmond-Airport-Vancouver Rapid Transit Project (RAV Project), British Columbia, 1939(32:1640), 6433(105:1730) Link on the sections in parenthesis at that website.



News Junkie Canada -- Has anyone seen updates? Any further investigations by mainstream media? Why?

* "Drug Smuggler given 'one last trip' before being sentenced" -- What is happening in our court system that Judge Claude Parent would grant a trip out of Canada to convicted Port of Montreal West End Gang smuggler, "part of a $2.1-billion conspiracy to import cocaine, cannabis and hashish"? [....]

* Paul Jackson: Fourth World War -- This is conflict we must win no matter how long it takes -- read the input of then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau [........ ]

[. . . . According to Jackson, ] I myself played a role, as many readers know, when in Ottawa in 1971 a Soviet diplomat tried to co-opt me, but, with the help of our intelligence services, we turned the game against him.

From then until 1978 I used my journalistic credentials to ingratiate myself to all the East Bloc embassies in Ottawa, reporting everything back to our intelligence agencies.

It all came to a head in February, 1978, when I revealed the RCMP had caught 13 Soviet diplomats in a spy ring, but not only had Prime Minister Trudeau (Marxist-Leninist himself) refused to expel them, he had warned the Mounties not to even make it public. [. . . . ]

Memory Lane: President Hu, Sino-French ties, Language Tzar

News Junkie Canada December 14, 2004

President Hu promises to promote Sino-French ties
Xinhuanet / www.chinaview.cn, Beijing, Oct. 9, 04

Active measures should be taken to consolidate and further Sino-French cooperation in aviation, spaceflight, communication and nuclear energy by transfer [sic] more technology and upgrade industrial cooperation, Hu said.

Was there a Canadian connection?

"Minister of Promoting French, Diane Adam, tour Beijing"

That should have been spelled Dyane, I think.



Lau hopes to shepherd Husky to next level

Two years ago at his company's annual meeting, John Lau, the president and CEO of Husky Energy Inc., surprised his shareholders when he hinted he would retire when the $2.35-billion White Rose project offshore Newfoundland was up and running. White Rose kicked in late last year, ahead of schedule and on budget. In January, Husky appointed an executive from London-based oil giant BP PLC, Robert Peabody, as its new second in command. A dozen years ago, Mr. Lau, a Hong Kong-born accountant and turnaround expert, was picked by Asian tycoon Li Ka-shing to lead Husky. Mr. Li holds a 70% interest in the oil and gas producer. Under his leadership, Husky was transformed from a big money loser into a top performer often talked about as a takeover target by a Chinese company. In an interview this week with the Financial Post's Claudia Cattaneo over dim sum at the Regency Palace in Calgary's Chinatown, Mr. Lau, 63, said he won't turn over the company's controls until he's comfortable -- and his board is comfortable -- that Husky is in good hands. [. . . . ]

The first of this series from the previous day featured a female engineer.




Tainted Blood, Homosexuality, AIDS

Tainted Blood and AIDS -- also on William Gairdner -- 29 comments Mar. 17, 06

[....] The more or less true picture on the connection between AIDS and male homosexuality can be obtained from Health Canada, HIV/AIDS Surveillance. They have a website www.aidssida.cpha.ca You can also call them at 613-725-3769 and ask to be sent the “HIV and AIDS” info as a hard copy. [. . . . ]

Manning delivers his political gospel -- Seminar offers advice to religious conservatives -- "Don't just chide the other side for society's failings, take your share of the blame too, he went on." Jenny Jackson, CanWest, March 18, 2006

OTTAWA - Preston Manning has had a long apprenticeship in being ignored. For years, mainstream Canada dismissed his now-defunct Reform party as a gaggle of hayseed Bible thumpers. They even mocked his Alberta twang, a staple gag on CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce [which says more about CBC than about Preston, NJC]. But on a recent Saturday in downtown Ottawa, about 90 suit-and-tie Christians listened in silence as Mr. Manning brought them lessons from the political wilderness: drop the God talk, tone down the righteous indignation, take your time. Issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage will not be resolved in a single vote.

[....] "There is a hostility toward Protestant evangelicals or conservative Catholics trying to say anything into the political arena. Opponents would be reluctant to attack someone of Jewish faith or a Hindu, but they don't seem to have the same reservation about going after others. [....]

It would have been smarter to frame the issue [sex, ssm, homosexuality] in the context of the endemic sexual disappointment and ennui that plagues this generation. People may differ on whether today's sexual mores are good or bad, but they cannot deny that some of the consequences are tragic: AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease, divorce, and abortion.

This seminar (Navigating the Faith/Politics Interface, the brainchild of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy) included "... Liberal MP John McKay, a Baptist who referred to himself as his party's "token evangelical"; Bev Desjarlais, a former NDP member who broke with her party over the same-sex marriage issue, and NDP MP Bill Blaikie ... "


Related: Memory Lane -- Homosexuality, Hooking up, Casual Sex

News Junkie Canada June 25, 2003

Exercising a Woman's Perogative to Change Her Mind [.... I had written on societal boundaries in one part of this: "Give 'em an inch and they'll take an ell."]

Hooking Up: Casual Sex Without Commitment

I couldn't believe this when I read it; I should have. No wonder we have dysfunctional children in dysfunctional or single parent families. There are consequences to the behaviour described here. I quote the article at length because I think it is important.

Into casual sex? Beware of emotional disconnect by Susan Lazaruk in The Province, May 06, 2003

[....] "Sex is a wonderful thing and every time you have sex, it's more than a physical thing, it's a spiritual thing, where you're giving a part of yourself to that person," he said.

"If you just sleep around, I would say the cost of that is higher than the momentary pleasure."

"We are so screwed up in our understanding of love," Porter said. "The movies make it look like such an easy thing."[....]

There is much more worth reading in Susan Lazaruk's article.

Can you imagine having casual sex and waking up, wondering if you might have AIDS?



Women are exercising their choices and deciding to stay at home -- Post-feminist era AFP Mar. 18, 06

More American women are choosing to stay home and raise children, putting the brakes on decades of female advances in the workplace. For the first time in the post-feminist era, the number of working women has begun to retreat, with even graduates from prestigious universities giving up promising careers for domesticity. A new magazine launched in California has seized on the trend: the cover of Total 180! shows a slender, radiant woman balancing her daughter on one hip as she tosses her briefcase into the trash. In 2000, 77% of women between 25 and 54 held a job in the United States. By 2005, the level had dropped to 75%.

[. . . . ]





Terror suspect not entitled to protection from deportation -- Federal court ruling Peter Brieger, National Post, March 17, 2006

[....] But Justice Andrew MacKay of the Federal Court of Canada ruled legal issues swirling around the controversial security certificates must be addressed first. The judge added his ruling is not a deportation order.

"Any legal obligation of Canada to prohibit deportation to death or torture under the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] ... may arise only when the decision to deport is made, and the decision to reject the application of protection does not constitute a decision to deport Mr. [Mahmoud] Jaballah," the judge wrote in his 34-page decision.

Search: a former Toronto Islamic school principal , alleged membership in a terrorist group , in contact with known religious extremists , came to Canada in 1996 from Pakistan , a Saudi relief organization

Note that the decision to deport has not yet been made.




Why do we pay the criminally insane to teach our kids? From the academy, portraits in pathology Jonathan Kay, National Post, March 13, 2006

Four decades ago, conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr. famously declared that he would rather live in a country governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 members of the Harvard faculty. [. . . . ]

He might have been onto something ........



RobertFulford.com links


Chretien in helmet




Re: UN Human Rights Council - Not What It Appears

In Reply to: Minister MacKay on United Nations Human Rights Council posted by Press Relealse [sic]

To balance out the positives about the UN Human Rights Council, the following article by Anne Bayefsky, should give the reader reason to wonder why Canada did not join the US and Israel in voting NO.

The Proposed UN Human Rights Council: The Cure is worse than the Disease

[....] an institution more contemptible than its predecessor

[....] The reality, however, is that the proposed Council represents an enormous step backward for the international protection of human rights and the spread of democratic governance. [....]

Worth reading the details, why it is "an enormous step backward".



Celestial Junk: History, Opulence, and Sacrifice -- "In a time of urgent crisis what would you give? What’s worth fighting for?" Mar. 14, 06



DefendDemocracy.org Mar. 14, 06

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE: This weekend, the Saudis took a two-page, full color spread in the Washington Post. The cost of such an ad is well over $100,000. But to the Saudis, of course, that's chump change, a rounding error.

The purpose of the ad was to publicize the new "Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Program" at Harvard University and the new "Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding" at Georgetown University.

Harvard and Georgetown recently have been the recipients of gifts of $20 million from the Prince. But "gift" isn't really the correct word. "Investment" would be more accurate.

You can be sure that the "scholars" hired for these programs will not be overly critical of Wahhabism, the official Saudi religion/ideology that preaches that Christians, Jews, Shia Muslims and liberal Sunni Muslims are vermin.

You can bet that we won't see many critical studies of Militant Islamism and terrorism coming out of these centers. [. . . . ]

Via a friend -- thanks R.

Daycare

First, contrary to myth, Paul Martin's Liberals never established a national daycare program. They promised one during the 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004 elections, but didn't deliver.

Shortly before facing voters in 2006, they signed individual deals with the provinces to transfer $5 billion from federal coffers to provincial ones over five years, which the provinces could spend as they saw fit, as long as it was related to daycare.

That's not a national daycare program. It had no national goals and set no national standards. Further, Harper is not "breaking" these deals. They allowed either party to opt out after a year. Harper is exercising that option.

Autism Declines As Vaccines Remove Mercury

NewsMax.com
March 4, 2006

A new study shows that autism may be linked after all to the use of mercury in childhood vaccines, despite government's previous claims to the contrary.
An article in the March 10, 2006, issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows that since mercury was removed from childhood vaccines, the alarming increase in reported rates of autism and other neurological disorders (NDs) in children not only stopped, but actually dropped sharply - by as much as 35 percent.

The new study confirms claims made by Dr. Russell Blaylock in the Blaylock Wellness Report that childhood vaccines that contain thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, could cause serious harm to children, including autism. Dr. Blaylock has also warned that vaccines for adults, such as the flu shot pose dangers.See more details [. . . . ]

Late for St. Patrick's Day but maybe worth checking

Music break:

The Essential Chieftains

Do you remember reading that "Irish need not apply"? Related and very interesting.
Irish Famine Unit II Racism