May 15, 2006: Kids' Poker, Sex Sells, Bargains -&- Other Outrages

Don't buy orchids; plant a lilac instead.


















An outrage!

Gambling industry focusing on new markets -- a poker tour for kids -- just what they need By Amy Carmichael, CP, May 11, 2006

VANCOUVER - The gambling industry is focusing on new markets with a poker tour for kids and bookies taking bets on the sex of Britney Spears's next child.

Kids can learn the fundamentals of Texas Hold'em at a two-day event planned for June in Vancouver, and organizers claim math and communications skills are beneficial byproducts.

"We're busy trying to keep up with the amount of inquiries,'' says Larry Klatt, a spokesman for Nevada North's Kids Poker Tour, who is based in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, the number of women betting on celebrity and pop culture events is spiking, say marketers in Vancouver's tony Yaletown neighbourhood. [. . . . ]

Just what Canadians need. At this point, you might want to read this -- to the end:

May 14, 2006
Happy Mother's Day

Scroll to: "Why didn't you save the school children at ?"



Fostering

Everything you ever wanted to know about fostering children and what the Department of Community Resources and Employment does not want you to know. Injustice Busters, May 7, 06, via Small Dead Animals

The following account by Donna Jones is just the beginning of a series of Kafka-esque experiences she had from the time she was approved as a foster parent until all her foster children were illegally removed from her and she brought her story to injusticebusters. [....]

It's all about departmental employees' need to, well, protect themselves ... CYA ... and if you don't know what that means, you are fortunate.

As an aside, in offices--government offices--it is that same need to CYA, for example--to have evidence on paper of what you actually wrote--that may account for the use of more paper than was expected in the computer era. With corruption, politicization, and the desire to keep a job, CYA by making a paper copy is a survival technique in what was expected to be the paperless office, where computer files may be altered at the press of a mouse. It's as though the truth of the matter never existed, once the evidence has been erased.




Double Standard

By the way, if the film, The Da Vinci Code were about Mohammed marrying a harlot, how many bombs would go off? How many people would die? How much media hot air would be wasted?

What is there about this film based on fiction that has the media so exercised? I suppose it covers time that could be spent investigating really interesting stories, now that the Liberals are not in office giving the media their spin for the day to be regurgitated.



What do the prominent feminist spokespersons think of this?

Social activism's sexy images send wrong message, media watchdog says -- Animals are more important than women's dignity: critic Siri Agrell, National Post, May 13, 2006

There's provocative ... and then there's provocative in the service of non-profit groups........ "More and more non-profit groups are using such sexually explicit tactics in their actions"




The Chretien Bargain

Greg Weston: Submarines sinking in a sea of red ink -- "As if Canadian taxpayers could ever forget, these are the four used rust buckets that Jean Chretien's government cleverly bought from the British navy for $811 million in 1998." May 14, 06

[....] As if Canadian taxpayers could ever forget, these are the four used rust buckets that Jean Chretien's government cleverly bought from the British navy for $811 million in 1998.

In the exact words of then Liberal defence minister Art Eggleton: "These submarines are a great purchase for Canada."

Unfortunately, Canadian defence officials apparently never questioned why the Brits were so eager to unload their barely-used vessels at such bargain-basement prices.
As usual, we got what we paid for. [....]

Last August, for instance, the [Paul Martin] government issued the second of two contracts totalling more than $15 million, not to actually repair the Chicoutimi -- just to draft the plan to fix it. [....]

Why, isn't that the same thing as so many promises that the media purport to be a done deal? ... Promises made, never actually passed into law, but now the subject of much noise from media and the Lib/leftist activists?



Mark Steyn- to connect dots , you have to be able to see the dots........ via newsbeat1, May 14, 06

[....] His murderers were Algerians traveling on Belgian passports who'd arrived in that part of the world on visas issued by the Pakistani High Commission in the United Kingdom. That's three more countries than many Americans have visited. The jihadists are not "primitives". They're part of a sophisticated network: They travel the world, see interesting places, meet interesting people -- and kill them. [....]

Don't Speak ... Hide it forever

National Arts Centre asks for life-long secrecy -- Union refusing to sign -- most intriguing Paul Gessell, CanWest, May 13, 2006

The NAC officially has both a policy to encourage in-house whistle blowing and to discourage release of information to outsiders.

The controversial letter states that a person's employment at the NAC is conditional upon honouring an agreement not to convey "any personal and confidential information" to outsiders.

Silence must be maintained even after leaving employment at the NAC. [....]

Illegal Aliens, CBSA & the Ineptitude of the Media in Interviewing

Lately I have noticed that CBC TV has revealed itself to be quite sympathetic to illegal aliens in Canada. The message? Bring back the Liberals and all you illegals will be able to stay. Remember the strippers? Need I say more? But read on ..... about CitiyOnLine on Citytv and Ann Rohmer.

How not to conduct a media interview by Arthur Weinreb, May 10, 2006

[....] The lack of balance would not have been as important were it not for the fact that [CityOnLine on Citytv] Ann Rohmer’s interviewing style makes Larry King look like Bill O’Reilly. Not once did she ever question or confront Zeheri as to anything her guest said.

The subject matter of Monday’s show were the recent events in which immigration officers used children in school as bait in order to flush out their illegal-immigrant parents. Rohmer sat silently by while Zeheri [Simi Zeheri of the group No One Is Illegal-Toronto] accused "the government" of these actions. The actions were undertaken by a few enforcement officials of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and not the government and this distinction is important in light of subsequent events.

[....] Rohmer never questioned Zeheri’s statement that these children were in school "legally". They weren’t. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents have a legal right to attend school; others must obtain permission to do so. [....]

CIA

Four years of the condor Powerline, May 13, 2006 comment Posted by Scott at 07:01 AM via newsbeat1

[....] John and I have been writing on matters related to Steve's article for a while. I devoted a Standard column to the subject in "Three years of the Condor." John took it up in his Standard column "Leaking at all costs." The CIA's war against the Bush administration continues, though it has somehow escaped the attention of the mainstream media over the past four years. Steve's article makes an important contribution to the story.

JOHN adds: The criminals in Milwaukee who slashed tires to try to get John Kerry elected were sent to jail. Why isn't the same thing happening to the criminal leakers at the CIA?