July 11, 2006: Prostitution -&- Various

Have you ever heard a child say, "Mama, I want to be a hooker when I grow up"?

Lessons from a German Brothel John Turley-Ewart, National Post, July 07, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas
/story.html?id=dd782587-0801-4275-a1da-904cac2d0664

[....] According to a report released on Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration .... [Check, but I seem to remember this organization is quite leftist and advocates for open migration.]

[....] Prostitution is like any other industry. Make it illegal, and you give criminals a monopoly. Legalize it, and you give law-abiding enterprises a chance to compete.

[....] more than a million men in Germany (a country with a male adult population of about 40-million), seek out the services of the nation's estimated 400,000 sex workers. "This is the reality," she says.

[....] Earlier this year, a National Post editorial criticizing Justice Minister Vic Toews for dismissing decriminalization of the prostitution trade sparked a heated debate on our letters page. Mr. Toews argued that decriminalization would put more women and girls at risk, and strengthen the hands of organized crime. Many letter writers agreed with him.

The underlying assumption of the Minister was that no woman would choose to be a prostitute. But Ms. Zetin says that is nonsense. .... There will always be some women who choose to be prostitutes -- just as she once decided to do -- says Ms. Zetin.

Canada is currently in the same place Germany was in 2001. Brothels are illegal; so is solicitation -- though, technically, the act of having sex in exchange for money is itself not a crime. It is time Canadian politicians realized what their German counterparts did four years ago -- that there will always be men willing to pay for sex and women willing to sell it. We may not like that fact, but it is not something that can be willed away. For all concerned, the best course of action is to bring this business under the ambit of the law. When prostitutes need protection, to whom do we want them to turn -- thugs and mafiosi, or doctors and police?

Does the Minister prepare legislation that might be positive for prostitutes and forget about how that would influence young women? ... that it is just another lifestyle choice as with a gay lifestyle? ... or wanting several wives? ... anything goes?

No little girl aspires to grow up to be a prostitute, as they might aspire to become a doctor, scientist, mother and wife or something else. What turns a girl into a prostitute? I think drugs play a large part in our society. There are always women who aspire to be kept ... so they marry rich men (Marriage does cement a claim on his money, if not on happiness.) ... but I do not think that any young woman starts out dreaming of becoming a prostitute. Something pushes her into it. Do we really want a society with brothels as in Amsterdam? Walk down one of those streets even past just a few buildings ... incredibly sad. Societal sanctions have a purpose in that they teach our young what is unacceptable. Do you really think we should start accepting as normal brothels? Drugs?

A few will always fall through the cracks but I can think of other places to start to fix society more effectively than that suggestion ... like honouring and valuing parenthood ... even paying one parent to stay home and DO THE JOB ... with sanctions--losing that income--for not taking care of their children, though that would become too unwieldy so I am probably wrong in that repect. Still, I believe children and their families are worth helping. Where did society ever get the idea that raising children is not its most important work? Additionally, I would ensure schools were local, smaller, with mixed grades, well supervised and ... but that is for another day.



STONED FOR PREACHING AGAINST ISLAM -- It happened in Nigeria: ........ Michelle Malkin, July 09, 2006


Islamists in somalia threaten to execute muslims who skip prayers == " U.S. officials are alarmed by the "creeping Talibanization" of Somalia through the Islamists, who they accuse of harbouring extremists, including al-Qaeda members." Agence France-Presse, July 07, 2006


A must read

MUSLIM MATRYUSHKA by Amir Taheri, Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2006
www.benadorassociates.com/article/19616

Mr. Taheri is author of "L'Irak: Le Dessous Des Cartes" (Editions Complexe, 2002).

matryushka: dolls within dolls


Sick at the World Bank Roger Bate, July 7, 2006, Economic Affairs Publication Date: September 1, 2006

[....]What is needed is a sober reevaluation of whether the Bank is institutionally suited to disease control. Our view of the evidence is that the Bank lacks medical expertise and so should exit that role. The Bank seems to have forgotten its laudable and true strength in the infrastructural aspects of health, such as to finance the building of laboratories, clinics and medical schools, and to top up the salaries of doctors, nurses and scientists to stem their mass emigration out of poor African countries. The Bank should cede the disease control "turf" to organizations such as the WHO and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, but redouble its necessary efforts on the infrastructural components of health care. Such a division of responsibility is more in line with the Bank's core competence, and the core competences of WHO and the Global Fund also. Both money and lives would be saved.

Three-storey building collapses in Manhattan after explosion, fire -- Two injured Adam Goldman, CP, July 10, 06

NEW YORK -- [....] Six people were injured, including two passers-by, one person in the building and three firefighters, according to Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. The civilian injuries did not appear to be serious.

Scoppetta said the only person inside at the time appeared to have been a doctor who owned the building. He was later rescued alive from the rubble. [....]

June 30, 2006: A Few Late Nights Working With Erasers
And presto! Posted by Kate at June 30, 2006 06:07 PM

Comments from Bob, June 30, 06

Somebody has their figures very wrong:

The Tyee, Feb. 1 2006:

"Another confusing aspect of the call concerned the [Liberal] party’s debt load, which has been the basis of much an internal stress long before a campaign that lasted for 56 days. The financial management committee contended that the Liberal party was only in debt to the tune of $4 to $5 million. This figure came as a shock to most, as according to Elections Canada the final annual filing for 2004 stated that the Liberal Party of Canada was $34,818,257.32 in debt by way of 13 bank loans. Furthermore, reviewing the published fundraising activities of the Liberal Party shows that they reported only $4,194,591.49 in fundraising for the first 3 quarters of 2005."

thetyee.ca/Views/2006/02/01/LiberalsDialE/

Sheila Copps, 6 months ago:

"According to Elections Canada, in their last annual filing, the Liberal Party of Canada was $34,818,257.32 in debt, by way of 13 bank loans."

www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Copps_Sheila/2005/12/24/1366613.html

Hill Times, only 5 months ago:

"Mr. Kinsella, who writes a column for The Hill Times, also acknowledged that he worked diligently to try to defeat Mr. Martin through his popular website and said the party is likely bankrupt, estimating that it's now carrying a $20-million debt."

www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/january/30/libs_story/&c=1

Now, how did they get out of debt? In the old fashioned Librano$ way?



Surveillance cameras in locker room shock man -- Area used by children. Cameras no secret, Calgary centre tells Nova Scotian
Suzanne Wilton, CanWest News Service, July 10, 2006

CALGARY - A Nova Scotia man's complaint from thousands of kilometres away about surveillance cameras in the locker room of a City of Calgary-supported sports facility he has never visited has captured the interest of Alberta's Solicitor-General and sparked an investigation by the provincial privacy commissioner. [....]

Utterly despicable ...

but then, the NDP were considering allowing Svend to run as a candidate. Some of my ancestors must be rolling over in their graves about what the CCF has become in its NDP incarnation.

The vindication of David Oliver -- "on Jan. 10, Mr. Oliver's otherwise unremarkable campaign came into the national spotlight courtesy of a serious allegation made by his NDP opponent."

[....]Mr. Oliver strenuously denied the allegations. Members of his Liberal riding association stood by him. But Paul Martin, then the Liberal leader and prime minister, did not. Mr. Oliver was unceremoniously dumped -- told he could no longer represent the party in Abbotsford and that if he won the election, he would not be permitted to sit in the Liberal caucus. His political career in ruins, he continued the race as an independent candidate, but lost to Mr. Fast.

Mr. Oliver did not give up the struggle to clear his name, and launched a defamation suit against Mr. Hansen-Carlson and the NDP. That litigation is still pending before the courts. But last week, in a stunning development, the NDP and Mr. Hansen-Carlson both admitted they misinterpreted the private conversation at the root of the allegation, and have apologized for doing so. In other words, the scandal they accused Mr. Oliver of perpetrating never happened. Mr. Hansen-Carlson's notarized statement to Elections Canada, his TV interviews during the election and Mr. Layton's smearing of Mr. Oliver's good name in the media have been shown to be baseless.

Notwithstanding the results of the defamation case, which remains before the B.C. Supreme Court, the NDP owes another apology -- this one to the voters in Abbotsford. By launching unfounded accusations, they may well have undermined the democratic process in that riding during the last election.