Oct. 18, 2006: Various

I have too many commitments and too little time. These are only a few items; there are more, when time allows. FHTR



Maurice Strong's apologia for North Korea ...

What North Korea wants
It's all about international recognition and security guarantees, says MAURICE STRONG

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20061017.wxcokorea17/BNStory
/specialComment/home

Maurice Strong, the former special envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for North Korea, is currently residing in China and working on the Korea issue at the recently established Institute for Security and Sustainability in Northeast Asia at Peking University.

Why is Maurice Strong in China? ... Think Koreagate ... a cheque ... A must read



N. Korea's (Non-Nuclear) Threat , Oct. 17, 06, posted by starboardside

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=624&mforum=elwoodpdowd

PopularMechanics.com, Oct. 16, 2006 — Watching the United Nations Security Council grind its way to a compromise resolution on North Korea, it's hard to avoid returning to one question: What took them so long to do something about North Korea's weapons of mass destruction? Over the past 45 years, North Korea has assembled a huge arsenal of mass casualty weapons - namely biological and chemical weapons. Yet it is only when North Korea gets as far as possible nuclear capability the U.N. rouses itself from its slumbers and waddles into action.

I've been writing and researching the subject of biological and chemical warfare on and off for six years. The extent of North Korea's completely operational biochemical warfare program is widely known and frequently assessed by the U.S. and its allies, as well as many non-proliferation organizations such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague in the Netherlands. North Korea’s program has been in development since the '60s under the control of the fabulously Orwellian Fifth Machine Industry Bureau. In that time, North Korea's Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) program has assembled a formidable array of poisons, toxins, chemicals and weaponized germs. [....]

Liberals anti-Israel bias -- The party of "None is too many" , by Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, October 14, 2006, via newsbeat1

www.canadafreepress.com/2006/wajsman101406.htm

[....] The only words this week more hypocritical and egregiously offensive to the civility of political discourse in Canada than Michael Ignatieff's declaration that "war crimes" were committed by Israel at Qana were the puffed-up false pieties of Bob Rae defending the Liberals and demanding an apology from Prime Minister Harper for accusing the former Natural Governing Party of an anti-Israel bias.

Rae, and the chattering-class talking heads around him, even had the temerity to state that because Rae had a Jewish grandfather and his wife is Jewish Rae could not possibly have an anti-Israel bias. Yet it has been Rae, and the salon liberals of media and academe who remain his most ardent defenders, who have for years argued that being critical of Israel does not imply that one is necessarily anti-Jewish. Therefore one would think that a former Rhodes scholar like Mr. Rae would easily understand the corollary. That being Jewish does not necessarily imply that one is free of anti-Israel bias. Noam Chomsky and Prof. Norman Finkelstein are just two examples that prove the latter point. Blood doesn't get you a get-out-of-jail free card on this one. [....]

Now Michael Ignatieff has decided to join the "party". He condemns the discovery of 28 bodies in a bombed out building in the village of Qana as an "Israeli war crime". I am choosing my words carefully here. As carefully as Ignatieff should have. Michael Ignatieff knows full well that the Israeli bombing of Qana stopped 8 hours before that building collapsed. Mr. Ignatieff also knows that the Lebanese government itself reduced the original estimates of 69 dead to 28. He also knows that independent international investigators have discovered something very curious about those 28 bodies found in that building. No blood. No crushed skulls. No severed limbs. Quite a feat if these unfortunate souls had indeed been in the basement of a four story concrete building that collapsed on them. Well-nigh impossible. And if Mr. Ignatieff does not know these facts it is because he doesn't want to know them. [....]

The Piranha are in a feeding frenzy -- "Sparks fly among frontrunners during final Liberal leadership debate" , Joan Bryden, Oct. 15, 06, posted by AnnieO

Sparring reveals candidates' soft spots , Juliet O'Neill, CanWest, October 16, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.ht
ml?id=5c9cbde3-f7b6-4e96-a267-87b78de774d9&k=44100

And the winner: Harper by default -- Liberals fail to debate why they deserve to be given power again, Don Martin, National Post, October 16, 2006


www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=eec951ef-7aba-4e13-88d4-feafed6d89f8



Prison ombudsman accuses prison system of ‘institutionalized discrimination’ , Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest, October 16, 2006

www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.ht
ml?id=e2e2c6b5-872a-4a8f-9eca-c092601d5a96&k=96633

OTTAWA -- Canada’s jail system routinely discriminates against aboriginal offenders, according to the federal prison watchdog. In his annual report released Monday, ombudsman Howard Sapers outlined a number of concerns but chose to focus on aboriginal Canadians, saying they are over-represented in the justice system and treated unfairly within it.[....]

Aboriginal offenders are more often placed in maximum security prisons and in segregation than non-aboriginal offenders, Sapers reported, and that "severely limits access to rehabilitative programming and services." He also said aboriginal inmates are not always given the same chance at parole as non-aboriginal offenders.

Sapers said Canada’s correctional service is not responsible for the social conditions and the policy decisions which contribute to its offender population, but it is responsible for ensuring that all offenders are treated fairly. [....]

If individuals committed crimes and are incarcerated, is the problem not with them? This attempt to paint the whole society as so racist they would incarcerate people who must not have committed crimes if they shouldn't be there ... is ridiculous. The society should be looking at why these individuals are committing crimes in such numbers. Has lawlessness been growing? Has the society been too understanding, too tolerant? Stop telling the law-abiding that they are at fault. I'm not. Speak for yourselves, people.



Aussies running short of water., via starboardside

www.theaustralian.news.com.au
/story/0,20867,20576814-601,00.html



BBC Suing to Suppress Critical Report on ME Coverage, LGF, Oct. 16, 06

littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog
/?entry=22971_BBC_Suing_to_Sup
press_Critical_Report_on_ME_Coverage&only

The BBC is using British taxpayer money to try to keep a report on their disgustingly biased Mideast coverage secret: BBC mounts court fight to keep ‘critical’ report secret.

The BBC has spent thousands of pounds of licence payers’ money trying to block the release of a report which is believed to be highly critical of its Middle East coverage.

The corporation is mounting a landmark High Court action to prevent the release of The Balen Report under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the fact that BBC reporters often use the Act to pursue their journalism. [....]

Mr. Rabinovitch, have you submitted the report on the CBC yet to the Minister concerned?



Dept of Interior Blocking Conservative Blogs?

littlegreenfootballs.com/
weblog/?entry=22919_Dept_of_In
terior_Blocking_Conservative_Blogs&only

Baron Bodissey forwarded this email today; is the US Department of the Interior following the lead of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and blocking American anti-jihad sites? [....]

Gates of Vienna is now blocked, as are all sites with a .blogspot URL. Also blocked are other conservative blogs, such as [....]

Link for a list and more information.



Important

YouTube, Google, and the Liberal Bias Virus -- "YouTube refused to say why her videos were “offensive” and there was no avenue available to challenge the decision." , Posted by Noel Sheppard on October 16, 2006 - 10:17.

newsbusters.org/node/8355

The following is a collaboration with Marc Sheppard originally posted at The American Thinker.

Five months ago, the Internet’s top search engine Google was accused of banning conservative websites from its news crawl. Last week, the e-behemoth offered to purchase YouTube, the preeminent provider of videos over the Web that has recently been implicated in censorship of its own. With their pending merger, serious questions arise about the future of the most powerful telecommunications medium on the landscape, and who if anyone is trying to control its content.

As reported by American Thinker on May 22, Internet search king Google eliminated a number of conservative e-zines and blogs from its news crawl earlier this year. In all of the cases cited, the alleged offense was the dissemination of “hate speech.”

After closer examination, the tie between all the banished websites was the publishing of articles about radical Islam and its relation to international terrorism. Yet, sites that actually were more specifically involved in such activities – like Hezb’allah’s propaganda arm in Lebanon, al Manar – were unaffected by Google’s “hate speech” policies, and continue to be a part of its news crawl. [....]

Read more

If it bothers the usual easily disturbed ones ...




Link from this CTV.ca webpage for the videos on the Liberal convention -- Mike Duffy Live: Panel discusses Middle East conflict 6:41

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews
/20061013/ignatieff_speech_061013/20061013/



Was taxpayer money used improperly? , Linda Diebel, Oct. 15, 2006. 03:42 AM -- The gift that keeps on giving.......... , via newsbeat1

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar
/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid
=1160862646485&call_pageid=970599119419

Joe Volpe's campaign people and staff at a federally funded charity are at odds over campaign's questionable use of charity clients and their pay. [....]

Three managers at the charity, in Volpe's riding and formerly within his purview as a federal cabinet minister, formally complained to executive director Colin Morrison about the assignment.

They argued they weren't a recruitment centre, that it was unethical for a non-profit to be involved in partisan politics, and that clients could be put at risk of losing government benefits. There were also complaints about the foundation issuing the cheques. [....]

Muslims angry at London Olympics falling on Ramadan -- via Starboardside

www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news
/news.html?in_article_id=410439&in_page_id=1770

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=607&mforum=elwoodpdowd


"Getting off Easy"---Terrorist Enabler gets 28 mon , By Ben Johnson, FrontPageMagazine.com, October 17, 2006

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=626&mforum=elwoodpdowd

[....] Lynne Stewart took the risk, and a Democratic president’s judicial appointee saw to it the risk paid off. With terror-enablers as with the terrorists of whom they are so enamored, this will guarantee more of this behavior in the future.

Convert or die , By Michelle Malkin, September 02, 2006 11:18 PM

***updated: Spencer and Pipes respond...***

R.S.V.P, infidels

Watch the new al Qaeda video to see what an "invitation to Islam" sounds like. I've transcribed a sample of American al Qaeda Adam Gadahn's rant:

"Islam is the only religion acceptable to God and came with the revealed book, the Koran, which abrogates all previous revelations, like the Torah and Evangel... God recognizes no separation between religion and state..."

"To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next..."

"If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die."

Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired: This WAR is for REAL!

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=621&mforum=elwoodpdowd

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

[....As usual, the devil is in the details -- worth reading.]

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.

They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. [....]

Symposium: Romancing Opiates , By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com October 13, 2006

Theodore Dalrymple has sparked a heated controversy with his new book Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy. His argument that the official doctrine concerning drug addiction is mistaken and self-serving has provoked much criticism from various quarters. Today we invite Dr. Dalrymple to face some of his critics and we also invite a supporter of his views. We are joined by:

Theodore Dalrymple, a contributing editor to City Journal and the author of his collection of essays Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses. He is the author of the new book that serves as the topic for this discussion: Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy. [....]

Dalrymple: My general thesis is simple: that addiction is not an illness and treatment is therefore metaphorical rather than real. Mao Tse Tung threatened addicts with dire consequences if they did not stop, and they did stop. This suggests that there is a category difference between addiction and, say, cancer of the bowel.

Addiction is one answer to perennial existential problems - in my view not a very good answer, but I don't claim to have a perfect one - and so-called medical treatment is beside the point. It often does tangible harm, and in my view does harm in an intangible way as well by persuading addicts that they 'need' the help of professionals to stop. This, of course, is all to the advantage of a group of professionals. [....]

Dalrymple: I do not agree that conditioning makes people automata. If it were true that addicts really cannot help themselves, that they lose all volition in the matter, it would justify the most illiberal measures to help them, to prevent them from destroying themselves and so forth.

But the fact that millions of addicts, not just of opiates, have given up, merely by taking thought, suggests that conditioning is not very important.

As to various drug treatments, they all suffer from very similar drawbacks. Readers will be interested to know that in a recent edition of the Lancet, [....]

Prime Minister Harper welcomes new Commissioner of Official Languages, October 17, 2006, Ottawa, Ontario

www.pm.gc.ca/

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today welcomed Canada’s new Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Graham Fraser, whose appointment was recently approved by the Senate and the House of Commons. This appointment is effective immediately.

The Prime Minister took the opportunity to thank Dyane Adam [....]

GRAHAM FRASER

A well-known and respected journalist and author with close to 40 years of journalistic experience, Mr. Fraser was educated at the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in History. Since 2000, Mr. Fraser has been a National Affairs Writer with the Toronto Star. Over the years, he has held positions of increasing responsibility with various newspapers as well as with MacLean’s magazine, including Québec Bureau Chief with the Montréal Gazette; Montreal Bureau Chief with MacLean’s; and Parliamentary Correspondent, Ottawa Bureau Chief and later Washington Bureau Chief with the Globe and Mail. He was a weekly columnist for Le Devoir from 2000 to 2005 and has been a regular commentator on the TFO public affairs program “Panorama”.

During a long and distinguished career which has straddled the language divide, he has reported in both official languages on issues affecting Canada and Canadians, including cultural and foreign policy, constitutional debates and negotiations and national, provincial and international politics. He has been invited to speak on official languages issues to minority organizations in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario, as well as national minority language organizations, and has lectured on language policy as an adjunct professor at the Carleton University School of Journalism.

Mr. Fraser is the author of “Sorry I Don’t Speak French”, which was published in March 2006, and which has helped stimulate renewed public discussion of language policy in Canada, as well as “PQ: René Lévesque and the Parti Québecois in Power”, which dealt with Quebec language policy and which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 1984. In 1979, he helped found the Centre for Investigative Journalism, the bilingual precursor of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and served on the Centre’s board for two terms. He is the first recipient of Public Policy Forum’s Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy Journalism.

What about our right not to have him in Canada at all?

Case against Jaballah upheld, Oct. 17,06

www.canada.com/topics/news/story.ht
ml?id=09d4191f-c688-41ec-af5f-10b73031c72e&k=46026

The Federal Court of Canada has upheld the government's case against an alleged Egyptian terrorist caught in Toronto, but said deporting him to a country that practises torture would violate his human rights.

In defence of Whiteness Studies , Bruce Baum, National Post, October 17, 2006

Last month, National Post columnist Barbara Kay used a facile discussion of the academic field of Whiteness Studies as a means to decry the "toxic ideologies" being foisted on students at leading U.S. universities.

As someone knowledgeable of this field, [....]

To confront the challenge posed by whiteness scholars like U.S. historian Noel Ignatiev demands, at minimum, that we understand what they mean by whiteness and white skin privilege. Ignatiev, as Kay noted, provocatively claims that the "key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race -- in other words, to abolish the privileges of the white skin." Yet to assess this claim requires careful consideration of the scholarship that supports it, something Kay avoids. [....]

I see the problem as a cultural problem. It isn't colour; it is that some groups have become associated with guns, violence and drugs. The colour may be beautiful but the association with violence or drugs influences how people feel about some groups.