May 17, 2006: #1

Balm for the spirit: animals and hummingbirds

Australia's animals

Simply delightful!

Hummer Nest '05 via cside

Birth of a hummingbird

Hummingbird Nest '03



Ending Addiction -- a must read

Robert Marshall: Dithering pusher is yesterday's news -- "It's about time Canada got the monkey off its back. It's about time the needle was pulled from its arm. Put the cap on the bottle."

And watch in the rear-view mirror as dust collects on Canada's so-called natural ruling party. [....]

Canada was addicted to philosophies where dedicated work was swapped for grants and life was uninspired. Liberal axioms ignored personal responsibility, honour and trustworthiness as pre-requisites for good citizenship.

Like the junkie, subservient to the pusher, Canada allowed those in charge to use its citizens as doormats. Year after year, credibility was given to the governing party as they were sanctioned and showered with power and tax dollars. Entitlements galore were the order of the day. Legitimate only because the rules of the natural party allowed a skewed definition of legitimacy without so much as a thread of moral fibre. [....]

Inco: Xstrata makes $16B bid NatPost, May 17, 06
Who are involved in Xstrata?



Doug Fisher had the courage to speak out ... in the face of the Court Party's outrage.

By the way, there is an excellent article on the Court Party today but I have no more time. Check CNEWS and the National Post.

Blundering criticism masked a realistic complaint May 14, 06

Vellacott is an earnest Protestant clergyman who represents a Saskatchewan riding with open Christian piety and much solicitude. He had criticized a speech in New Zealand by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. It is unfortunate that he made a mess of what she said. Why?

Because he was on sound ground in criticizing her. Our Supreme Court has become too "active" in instructing governments. The promotion of judicial activism in her New Zealand speech is eminently criticizable.

In fact, the Court has been openly criticized since at least 1985 (see the Singh decision, written by Justice Bertha Wilson) for "activist" rulings which force governments to create costly new agencies (for example, the Refugee Review Board).

Critics have included law professors and several MPs of several parties who believe, as I do, that such activism usurps Parliament's authority, with the court gradually taking over the ultimate prerogative from democratically elected MPs. [....]

Liberals hid costs of gun registry, Fraser says Updated Tue. May. 16 2006, CTV.ca News Staff

The former Liberal government went to great lengths to hide the true costs of the controversial gun registry, Auditor General Sheila Fraser said in a scathing report released Tuesday.

[....] "It is more than simply a disagreement between accountants," Fraser told a news conference, in reference to the 2004 decision that hid nearly $22 million in overspending by the Canadian Firearms Centre that year alone.

"We believe that decision did not respect the government's own policies nor the Financial Administration Act. So this is a serious matter." [....]

Myles Higgins: Living on the Edge - Newfoundland & Labrador in Confederation CanadaFreePress.com, May 16, 2006

[....] I believe a lot of the dissatisfaction is due to two primary reasons:
1. Being ignored by Ottawa on a regular basis because of the current structure of the centralist Canadian government.

2. When the smaller provinces find themselves at odds with larger provinces like Ontario or Quebec, they generally end up on the losing end, even when in the right, simply because politicians know they need to keep the larger provinces happy if they hope to remain in power.

Have you noticed the media going on and on about whether X candidate for Librano$ leadership is able to speak the only language that will get a person into contention? ....... Well, what about Newfie speak? Who's talking about that, eh? Or Gaelic for the Cape Breton crowd? ....... Or oil revenues and oil not being siphoned off to be shipped to the WalMart suppliers while Maritimers pay through the nose for a gallon? .......... And .......



Joe Warmington: Street robberies have Chief William Blair worried -- Crystal meth and crack May 16, 06

Eng might want to look at the statistics sent over by Toronto Police's Meaghan Gray, which show steady increases in robbery over five years. In 2001, there were 4,943 robberies. In 2002, 4,654. In 2003, it was 5,293. In 2004, 5,341 and 2005 got to 5,647.

Quick math indicates that's an average of 15 robberies a day in 2005. It could happen to you. It has to others.

The numbers so far in 2006 were not available, but one look at this week's police blotter and it's scary the amount of purse and wallet snatchings, swarmings, bank robberies, and medications, jewelry and electronics stolen.

Whose court is it, anyway? -- Canadian miner with Mongolian assets in jurisdictional squeeze Julius Melnitzer, Financial Post, May 17, 2006

[....] "Property rights are at the heart of the court's decision," he says. "All nations, including developing nations, should have the right to control property rights in their territory, and it's respect for those rights that will make Canada an attractive jurisdiction for raising capital."

But Khan Resources Inc. v. WM Mining Company may not play well in the junior mining world, of which Toronto is the international financing capital. And Toronto's reputation is precisely what brought Mr. Mays to Ontario from Colorado to raise money for his mining ventures.

As Justice Kathryn Feldman, who wrote the Court of Appeal's decision, noted ....

Update: a different spin ... or what?

Ntional Arts Centre drops demands that staff say threatened their right to free speech NatPost, May 17, 06 -- I wrote about this May 16, 06, I think.

The dispute began earlier this month when the NAC told employees they would be asked to sign a letter acknowledging they could be fired for contravening the arts centre's policy to protect personal data about employees and business information such as the credit card numbers of ticket buyers.

EXCLUSIVE: M15 INFILTRATED BY AL-QAEDA -- Muslim recruits suspected By Vincent Moss Acting Political Editor, 14 May 2006

TERRORISTS from al-Qaeda have infiltrated Britain's security services, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

Bosses at M15 believe they unwittingly recruited the Muslim extremists after the July 7 suicide bombings in London last year which killed 52 people.

They were signed up as part of a drive to find more Muslims and Arabic speakers to work as spies to help prevent future attacks by Osama bin Laden fantatics. [....]

Doesn't that fall into the we told you so category?




Interview with Attorney Gao Zhisheng

Say no to revolution: spread the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party Between Heaven and Earth, May 02, 2006


On the cartoons and terrorist hypocrisy (the short version) -- or the long version china-e-lobby, February 26, 2006

[....] Yet the Chinese Communist Party - a regime that specifically places itself in Muhammed's place as Allah's last prophet, has occupied a Muslim nation for over 56 years (East Turkestan), and has killed over 210,000 Muslims within that occupied nation through open-air nuclear tests (yes, you read that right) - gets a pass. [from media /leftists]

[....] So why would a bunch of violent killers claiming they murder in Islam's name try to remind everyone of the medieval Crusades while staying silent on an occupation during which more Muslims have died than during all eight Crusades combined?

If your answer had something to do with the Communists' aid to terrorists, you're right.

Book: Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror




David Canton: Copyright safety law flawed -- "EFF's review is entitled Unintended Consequences: Seven Years under the DMCA. The full text of the article, including numerous examples to back its claims, can be found at eff.org." London Free Press, May 16, 06

[....] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently released a scathing review of the effects of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act that should be considered before passing this type of law in Canada.

[....] The EFF argues the anti-circumvention provisions in the act have been used to stifle legitimate activities that have nothing to do with copyright infringement. It perceives the DMCA as a threat to several public policy priorities.

The EFF argues the act chills free speech and legitimate research. [....]

The Right Side Of The Blogosphere's Reaction To Bush's Immigration Speech In Quotes May 16, 06

After the speech last night, I took a look around the right side of the blogosphere to get a sense of what people thought. The reaction was probably -- oh, let's say somewhere between 75-90% negative and to be truthful, as often as not, I got the impression that the bloggers who said they liked the speech were reading out of the old "root, root, root for the home team playbook" rather than genuinely being enthused about what Bush had to say. [....]

DUBYA'S BORDER BLUES May 16, 06, NY Post, via newsbeat1

[....] But, post-9/11, border security cannot be made a political football. Terrorists are desperate to penetrate the country any way they can, and everything must be done to stop them.

Make no mistake: America's greatness stems heavily from the new blood that, for decades, has been brought in by immigrants, year after year. As Bush said, quite correctly: "We must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples."

But the "American tradition" is also based on respect for law - and assimilating folks who have not come here legally only serves to undermine that. [....]