Aug. 2, 2006: Indifferent citizens -&- More

The link above is only for the first item.

50,000 problematic Canadians -- The scandal isn't a tardy evacuation; it's that we've fostered so many indifferent citizens Mark Steyn, Aug. 1, 06, Macleans
http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard
/columnists/article.jsp?content=20060807_131246_131246

[....] The question is: Why are they "in harm's way"? How did "50,000 Canadians" come to be in Lebanon? Is it one of our major trading partners? Has Bombardier opened up a Ski-Doo plant there? Is Beirut where the Quebec Nordiques wound up? 50,000 Canucks out of a total Lebanese population of 3.8 million works out to about 1.3 per cent of the population. Hezbollah claims 400,000 supporters in Lebanon after 20 years of diligent recruiting and investment by Iran, but Canada has managed to amass an eighth of that figure with nary a thought. Despite significantly smaller populations than our G7 colleagues, we have more citizens in Lebanon than the Americans, British and Germans. [....]

A must read. No-one writes like Steyn.




Anti-U.S. leaders Chavez, Ahmedinejad pledge mutual support Nasser Karimi, July 29, 06, CNEWS
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/07/29/1709518-ap.html

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Anti-U.S. leaders Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad met in Tehran on Saturday, pledging to stick together in their frequent clashes with the United States.

[....] arms agreement with Russia ...

Chavez boasted in Moscow ... fighter planes and helicopters ...

Chavez is also hoping to set up Kalashnikov weapons plants and ammunition plants in Venezuela under Russian license.

During his visit to Qatar, which began Friday, Chavez said Venezuela could eventually export guns and ammunition to Bolivia and other allies once these plants were built. [....]

He also visited Belarus and met with the anti-US President Alexander Lukashenko. I find much that is happening in South America ominous.




David Frum: Mel's Calling Jul. 30, 2006, National Review Online
frum.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmEw
ODc3N2QzZDNkNmVkYTMxMzBiNDlhZGNlM2ZhZGE=

If a drunken Mel Gibson did indeed call out, "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," then there can be only one possible place for a man who believes such things: as the next Secretary General of the United Nations.

Bingo!



Good morning Mrs. Hashmi -- A Muslim scholar is here illegally -- teaching an extreme brand of Islam -- She has set up a school, the al-Huda Islamic Centre of Canada, Mississauga Nicholas Kohler, July 17, 06, Macleans
www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/
article.jsp?content=20060724_130714_130714

A controversial Pakistani scholar living in Canada who, critics charge, teaches her female students a fundamentalist brand of Islam promoting polygamy and subservience to men, remains here illegally some nine months after immigration officials demanded she leave the country, federal court documents obtained by Maclean's reveal.

Farhat Hashmi arrived in October 2004 on a visitor's visa [....]

She was invited by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); her students come from as far away as Australia. She and Mohammed Elmasry share views on husbands taking more than one wife ... a good thing. Get her and the rest of the extremists out of this country.



Making the world safe for dictatorship DJ McGuire, Shotgun, July 31, 06
westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/07/making_the_worl.html


RightGirl, that's enough
westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/08/rightgirl_thats.html

DJ McGuire is informative on the variety within Islam--on various threads such as the Sufi Muslims Uigurs of China ...

Also, look for Ezra Levant's articles:
So that's what a UN ceasefire looks like
Chinese observers in South Lebanon




Gitmo guards often attacked by detainees John Sullivan, AP, July 31, 06
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060731/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe
/guantanamo_prisoner_attacks;_ylt=Av3.QpwauoWQq1H9W00aeses
0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM-

WASHINGTON - The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons.

Pentagon incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press show Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners. [....]

"When you see a group of detainees taking their Quran and putting it away, you know something is about to happen." [....]

Not only are they good boys who attended mosque, but surely, they would never act like that.



With photos: CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) Rally Against Israeli War on Lebanon and Palestine -a report by ciaospirit --
hourglass1941.com/

[....] Anti Israel Rally-Part 2b. In this segment, I asked a protester if he had any condemnation for Hizballah starting the war and hiding amongst civilians. He said those are lies and Israeli propaganda. [....]

After 9/11, a Muslim acquaintance denied that it had anything to do with Islam. Politicians and the mainstream media keep saying the same thing ...




Re: suggestion by PC leader John Tory last week that bail in Ontario is a "catch-and-release" program, "AG: We are tougher on bail" Christina Blizzard, July 30, 06
www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Blizzard_Christina
/2006/07/30/1709707.html

[....] "More generally though, it seems to me we are only innocent until accused," .... persons seeking bail are merely suspects; they are not convicted.

The facts of law

"Judges' decisions may not always find support with politicians, but to maintain the integrity of the judicial system they absolutely must act without partisanship or political motivations. It is simply inconceivable that a justice on a bail hearing would be influenced by anything other than the facts of law before them," he said.

Judges have to treat an accused as innocent, which places the onus on the Crown to convince a judge to hold an innocent person behind bars. "This is an area where the court of public opinion can diverge from the court of law, because the court of law can only make decisions based on the law and facts made available to them."

Acting only on facts might be the ideal but the citizenry no longer buy judicial impartiality, if they ever did. The writer makes the assumption that judges are never influenced by their personal views. That is not so. Consider divorce and child custody; there are men who would dispute judicial impartiality. Consider Louise Arbour's statements on which country has committed a war crime, as opposed to a defensive retaliation. Her political and UN views are obvious. Is it only on whether to grant bail that they are always impartial?



Heirloom vegetables: My grandpa gave me this tomato -- Epicureans are rediscovering zebra-striped tomatoes, red carrots and purple string beans Nancy MacDonald, July 27, 2006
www.macleans.ca/topstories/life/article.jsp?content=20060807_131221_131221

Given all of the recent talk of genetically modified "Frankenfoods," people could be forgiven for running screaming from a lime green cauliflower, a black-and-yellow watermelon, or purple string beans. But what they may not realize is that these "heirloom" fruits and vegetables reveal what produce used to look like -- before we started standardizing it. [....]

Fruits and vegetables are now primarily bred for specific traits to facilitate mass production. Farmers have preferred uniform ripening in tomatoes, for example, enabling mechanized harvesting. Also, they've bred them for a hearty consistency to ensure they'll survive transcontinental transit. What's sacrificed, however, is taste. [....]

Touchscreens raise questions -- Pima County staff responds to community debate Opinion by Ann Brown, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona, 07.30.2006
www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/139872

[....] The Brennan Center for Justice, a New York City-based think tank, identified 120 security threats to the three most commonly purchased electronic voting systems. Have the security risks identified by this study been addressed with the county's new equipment? [....]

What really happened to the bombed UN base, letter, NatPost, July 31, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters
/story.html?id=97aab086-e635-4296-8638-89a39dc35e77

[....] The reason the UN observers didn't bug out from an indefensible position when the bombs started flying had nothing to do with ridiculous conceits about UN resolutions and a "sense of honour." They stayed, and died, because they took orders from the same people (Kofi Annan, et al.) who, in 1994, ordered Belgian "peacekeepers" to lay down their weapons as a show of good faith to machete-wielding African tribesmen, only to be slaughtered for their adherence to the UN ideal.

Let me walk through this for the good Colonel. Hezbollah directed fire on Israel from the vicinity of Patrol Base Khiyam with the same sense of honour that it shows when it fires from densely populated civilian areas. Israel, in accordance with international law and, more importantly, common sense, defended itself by striking back at the attackers. Sadly, in the fog of war, UN non-combatants were killed.

Gary McGregor, Delta, B.C

Farewell to the United Nations?, Fjordman, 2006-07-28, via LittleGreenFootballs
www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1224

Historian David Littman is a representative to the United Nations (Geneva) of the Association for World Education. He has spent years tracking the rise of Islamic influence at the UN. According to him, “In recent years, representatives of some Muslim states have demanded, and often received, special treatment at the United Nations.”

[....] “A sensible policy requires that the American government every day make efforts to promote among Infidel countries and peoples an understanding of how the UN has been infiltrated, and essentially commandeered, by the forces of Islam: the Islamintern, it might be called. And then to minimize the power, the respect, and the legitimacy still accorded to the UN, this most corrupt and corrupting of institutions. And finally, it must seek not to do the impossible – to truly reform this organization – but to treat it as it should be treated: as hopeless, useless, and irrelevant as was the League of Nations when confronted with the Nazi-Fascist attacks in Spain, Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia, and Nazi Germany’s annexation of the Saarland and re-militarization of the Rhineland.” [....]

Excellent: Antisemitic Crimes - Put up or Shut up Time Cynics Unlimited, July 29, 06
www.cynicsunlimited.com/2006/07/29
/antisemitic-crimes-put-up-or-shut-up-time/

The latest outbreak of war in the Middle East has finally resulted in an unprovoked hate crime against Jewish citizens: [....]

While the US killings can be attributed to radical Islamacists, the stateside pro-war brigade, whose hawkish tendencies in order support their own geopolitical and theological goals surpass that of even Israelis, must share some blame for these types of attacks. In column after blog after interview, pundits recklessly advocate death against “Muslims” (which inevitably encompasses a large number of people from non-Muslim middle easterners to unrelated cults), presumably in the name of Israel and the Jewish people, without any regard for repercussions.

Drugs fuel big rise in organised crime -- New report shows gangs enjoy easy access to guns and judicial corruption Mark Townsend, July 30, 2006, Observer
observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1833472,00.html

Organised crime in the UK is increasing rapidly, with firearms and drugs easily obtained by underworld syndicates which are also moving into child pornography to swell profits, a government report reveals tomorrow.

[....] the influence of major crime networks, [....]

[....] 'unlikely to have difficulty in acquiring a firearm [....]child pornography [....]

[....] major organised criminal networks are starting to move into child pornography. [....].

[....] continued fall in the price of drugs [....]

Over the past year, intelligence officials recorded a growing number of trafficked prostitutes from Lithuania and Africa, notably Nigeria, entering the UK. .... attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants into the UK are still being made through the French ports of Calais, Coquelles and Dunkirk, with Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul, Sarajevo and the Balkans identified as key points en route to the UK. The number of criminal gangmasters involved in finding work for illegal immigrants in the UK stands at 10,000. [....]

Rumors of War -- Hezbollah is losing friends and influence at home. , by Lee Smith, 08/07/2006, Volume 011, Issue 44
weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles
/000/000/012/513vuhgv.asp

THE LEBANESE MEDIA are the best in the Arab Middle East, and perhaps the freest, not because of any noble principles but because they are so competitive. Every Lebanese media outlet represents a political interest, sometimes several political interests, and all the major political parties own TV stations. (In this regard, Hezbollah really is just like every other political party, though no one else does "martyr kitsch" like the Party of God.) And the people of Lebanon take their cue from the media. Insofar as rumors are also a medium, they, too, represent political interests. My friend Fawaz called last week from Lebanon with reports of a rumor.

"There are lots of stories going around Beirut that Hezbollah M.P. Mohammed Raad is dead," says Fawaz. "And get this--more than 500 Hezbollah fighters have been killed and are lying around area hospitals. That's a lot of virgins on call."

Whether or not such rumors are true, they indicate something about the state of affairs right now in Lebanon. There are many Lebanese imagining, fantasizing, hoping against hope that Hezbollah will be wiped from the face of the earth. [....]

Photos that damn Hezbollah Chris Link, July 30, 2006 12:00am, Herald Sun, Australia
www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,19955774-5007220,00.html

[....] Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.

The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.

[....] The images include one of a group of men and youths preparing to fire an anti-aircraft gun metres from an apartment block with sheets hanging out on a balcony to dry.

Others show a militant with AK47 rifle guarding no-go zones after Israeli blitzes.

Another depicts the remnants of a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket in the middle of a residential block blown up in an Israeli air attack.

[....] "Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets," he said.

"Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.