Sept. 7, 2006: #3

Part of Dion environmental plan changed after blog report (Comment) , Sept. 5, 06
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20060905.wdion0905/BNStory/National/home

Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion's campaign hastily changed part of the candidate's environmental platform as posted on his Web site today after a blog reported that parts of it were almost identical copies — without attribution — of a David Suzuki Foundation paper published the previous week.

Ooh, that's not kosher. Maybe he forgot. Liberal MP's are honourable; I read that yesterday somewhere in the MSM, so it must be true.



Very good -- worth reading

Paul Wells on the press and Harper -- key points, via rosemarie59
www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/
viewtopic.php?t=201&mforum=elwoodpdowd


Full series of three articles: Shop Talk: Paul Wells on the Ottawa Press Corps
weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/archives/
week_2006_09_03-2006_09_09.asp#002579



Addicts are not criminals , Adam Radwanski, National Post, Published: Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Actually, yes, each is taking part in a criminal act he/she first decides to take illegal drugs such as heroin ... or have I missed the latest legal interpretation from some Canadian court?

[....] "So long as the drug laws remain on the books, the government cannot simply do as it likes, selectively enforcing prohibitions here while openly ignoring them there," Marni Soupcoff wrote in these pages last year. "At least not without a price." That price, she argued, is the authorities encouraging a disrespect for all laws by itself flouting the ones that it finds inconvenient.

[....] The numbers from that one facility alone suggest it has already saved its share of lives. While too early to know just how many AIDS/HIV infections it's prevented, an RCMP report found that it's helped addicts learn how to inject themselves more safely and to prevent overdoses. For those who have overdoses while at the facility -- 453 of them over a two-year period in which it averaged 607 visits daily -- Insite has had the wherewithal to ensure that not a single one of them died. And the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that users who go there are more likely to go into rehab -- analysis born out by the 4,083 referrals handed out by Insite over that same two-year period, 40% of which were for addiction counselling.

If every city had its own version of Insite -- or ideally, several versions of Insite -- fewer Canadians would be killing themselves with drugs. [....]

Obviously, addiction is not their fault ... and I always thought it was they who chose to try drugs. How old-fashioned of me. So many of us are just not au courant with the latest theories on why evil happens to really good people. We still think everyone has free will ... As any confirmed smoker will tell you, it's not their fault ... Fiddlesticks! They/We are weak and self-indulgent! Some even want to divorce themselves from reality--can you imagine?-- with strange and imported drugs. ... They're hurting, obviously. We must do something.

Now, if government really wants to help, perhaps it could open non-drug, non-smoking camps for those who want to quit ... somewhere with cabins and a lake, a fishing pole and a boat, a little libation to get us over the hard parts ... Oh, just let me plan it. It would be in the wilderness ... with red-neck luxury.




Staying alive is a good reason not to trust Muslims

Muslims feel like victims. The West feels guilty. Is the world going mad? -- It takes courage for leaders to expose flaws in their society. But some are willing to do it, Gerard Baker, The Times, September 01, 2006
canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/18718.shtml

[....] It takes courage for leaders to expose the weaknesses in their own society. But there are some willing to do it. Last week their ranks were augmented from an unlikely source. No less a figure than Ghazi Hamad, the spokesman for the terrorist-supporting Hamas Government in the Palestinian Authority, wrote in an Arabic newspaper about the real causes of the mayhem in Gaza since the Israeli occupation ended last year.

"We're always afraid to talk about our mistakes," he said. "We're used to blaming our mistakes on others. What is the relationship between the chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, indiscriminate murders, theft of land, family rivalries, transgression on public lands and unorganised traffic and the occupation? We are still trapped by the mentality of conspiracy theories, one that has limited our capability to think." [....]

And the blind will lead us ...

Motorist who navigated British roundabout had no eyes, police officer says -- Omed Aziz, who lost both his eyes in a bomb blast and is also deaf ... , NatPost, Sept. 5, 06

Is this an improvement over the leadership of the imam they call The Hook (Al Hamza)?




Gold May Rise for Second Week as Jewelry Demand Outpaces Growth in Supply, Bloomberg, Sept. 4, 06, Pham-Duy Nguyen
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082
&sid=a7UXPZhkhGmA&refer=canada

Gold may rise for a second straight week on speculation demand from jewelers and investors this month will recover, outpacing production from the world's mines.

[....] The metal has fallen only nine times in the month of September since gold began trading on public exchanges in 1975. [....]

Jailed Bank of China Managers Say They Were Framed (Update1), By Matthew R. Miller, Sept. 5, 06 (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=
20601109&sid=a20epNwPxZKQ&refer=home

Two former managers at Bank of China Ltd., jailed in Las Vegas on racketeering and money-laundering charges stemming from the alleged theft of $485 million, say they're being framed to cover up corruption and incompetence at the state-owned lender.

``The Chinese government made up evidence and used it to make me look responsible,'' Xu Chaofan said in an Aug. 10 jailhouse interview. ``We feel we're scapegoats,'' said former colleague Xu Guojun, who's in a separate detention center. ``The bank's management was in turmoil and there were huge losses to account for.''

The two men, in their first interviews since fleeing China five years ago, said they're being blamed for lax supervision at China's second-biggest lender. Their trial will offer a rare look inside a banking system that has been plagued by inadequate internal controls, graft and theft, said Victor Shih, a China scholar at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. [....]

Parents opting for private over public schools, Caroline Alphonso, G & M, Sept. 5, 06
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20060905.wxmiddle05/BNStory/National/home

[....] There's smaller classes, and it's more challenging and it's all girls."

That's exactly what her parents want to hear. With the onset of puberty, seismic social pressures and emotional changes that occur in the late preteen years, the Wells family and some others are turning from the public-school system.

If you have a child, consider this. It is not a panacea but there is a chance that some or all of this may help your child avoid life-long repercussions from their hormone-driven teen years.

* smaller classes -- more individual attention and there is the possibility that non-performing teachers might be fired, instead of given tenure -- not always in reality, but a bit more likely especially if parents are involved and complain.

* one sex only -- fewer distractions, hopefully, the idea being that inability to see / talk with the opposite sex will enable the student to concentrate on the work at hand -- not foolproof but better than the alternative in some ways and for a time

* strict(er) discipline -- People who pay for something appreciate it more and the child who wants to attend the school, generally, co-operates -- not fool-proof but it has a better chance than public schools which must keep all, no matter how distracting they are to children who want to learn. The need to make money causes some administrations to accept behaviour from certain students that they should kick out! But life is a series of compromises ... even in schools.

* emphasis upon learning and high standards in education -- the assumption being that those who pay "want" an education, are not being forced, and are going on to tertiary schooling; therefore, the student knows he/she needs to work and will co-operate. There is greater emphasis upon taking personal responsibility for learning, as opposed to having fun. Teachers won't be exhorted from all sides to make learning fun. (ideally but reality is somewhat different) Children who learn feel successful; that is fun. The other is a sham.


I used to believe in public education but now, it is social engineering and, in too many ways, is failing to educate ... except in "correct thought". The object seems not to produce an individual who is able to read and think for himself. Schools and universities too often indoctrinate, but do not educate ... at least, not from what I can find out. Only motivated individuals within the system educate themselves, despite the system.



From J. Thanks and perhaps it fits in here.

Political Science for Dummies, new version

DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.

RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.

IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.

POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.

BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.

CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegals.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.


Which corporation are you?