We`re really getting desperate for controversy

Western liberals with too much time on their hands and not enough to think about are upset about the `inherent sexism` in this Chinese Coca-Cola campaign.

What's the controversy? Isn't being a Communist Party member in the NDP like being an NRA member in the Republican Party?

For some strange reason, there are people who seem shocked that an NDP candidate was a Communist. 

Conrad Black, Mark Steyn, John Crosbie and Nigel Farage walk into a bar...

A meeting room at swanky, newly-built towering Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto held about a hundred expensively-tailored middle aged men, a handful of poised,elegant women and a few oddball stragglers (like me)  for the inaugural night of the Byron Talks speakers series. The Byron in question not being the late English poet and adventurer but a Canadian capital markets firm.

The unusual assembly of notable speakers who came together last week were Conrad Black, Mark Steyn, John Crosbie and Nigel Farage  for what was billed as a discussion about Canada's Place in the World. For many in the audience, it turned out to be a very surprising evening.

I was fortunate to have been invited through a business associate of Mark Steyn's, but the presence of a plebeian like me at a soiree for the upper crust usually raises a few eyebrows. Canadian media innovator Moses Znaimer, who clearly forgotten having been introduced to me at a business meeting a while back, looked like he was contemplating whether to call security to have me ejected when I said a brief hello to him. You know you're among the haut monde when the closest thing to the "common man" was the National Post's erudite Managing Editor Jonathan Kay.

Sun TV's stunning Faith Goldy was standing around in a colorful, wildly patterned dress that was a vision of what you'd see if you walked into a florist while peaking on LSD. She explained she was wearing it because she came from work. I assumed work was being an extra in a time-travel segment of a new Austin Powers movie, but it was unimportant as Faith was beautiful enough to carry it off.

All of the evenings featured speakers milled about in the bar area before the talk. United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage and I had a jovial chat at the bar while waiting for an overwhelmed bartender to take our orders. He is as witty and affable in private as his public persona suggests, and expressed tremendous optimism about his party's chance to do better in the next British elections than current governing coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats.

To many, if not most, at the gathering who came to hear media stars Black and Steyn, Farage was unknown, but there is a considered sense that will change soon. But first to the other speakers.

Currently promoting his memoirs (and getting into public arguments in the process), the venue and the subject matter was an ideal reminder that Conrad Black is a remarkably eloquent and brilliant, if somewhat garrulous speaker. Acting as host from the dais, his remarks were salient reminders of the state of current affairs and as a thoughtful and serious historian, he provided critical context. Despite his recent difficulties in the United States, he observed that not only is it the most important country in the world, but it is the beneficiary, through its own virtues, of two unprecedented historical features. Those being the only peaceful transition of dominant power from one empire to another (British-to-American following World War 2) and that America's rise was the fastest ever, having taken place over the course of what amounts to just three lifetimes.

Black also had cogent and non-partisan praise for Canadian governance, saying that over the last dozen years, through both Liberal and Conservative administrations, Canada has been the best governed nation in the world.

At 81, former federal Progressive Conservative Finance Minister and current Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland John Crosbie has lost none of his humour and wit. About Black's profundities, he quipped, "Conrad's had three and a half years to think about what he's going to say." Most of Crosbie's talk recounted  amusing anecdotes from his many years in politics, such as the time a feminist researcher asked for a list of federal judges broken down by sex. Crosbie's reply was that he didn't know how many judges had been broken down by sex, but he did know some who had drinking problems. He also spent quite a bit of time telling Newfie jokes to the gathering, my favorite of which is the following:

A Newfie who just moved to Toronto are driving down the Don Valley Parkway with their empty U-Haul they just unloaded. A guy at the side of the road waves them down and the Newfie pulls over next to his broken down truck. The guy tells him, "My truck conked out and I have a truckload of penguins I have to get to the zoo, but now with the time I lost I won't be able to see my girlfriend tonight. You look like honest; I'l give you five hundred dollars if you take the penguins to the zoo for me." The Newfie  agreed, loaded the dozen penguins into the U-Haul and drove off with them.   

That night the truck driver is out with his girlfriend walking down Yonge Street when he sees the Newfie herding the dozen penguins down the street ahead of him. He runs up to them and shouts, "what's going on!? You said you were going to take these penguins to the zoo for me! I gave you five hundred bucks !" 

The Newfie responded, "I know. I took 'em to the zoo and I had three hundred bucks left over, so now I'm takin'  'em to the movies."

Popular author and radio host Mark Steyn spoke about subjects he addresses frequently, America's decline and the potentially devastating consequences of the astronomical national debt.  With his usual wit and command of terrifying data, Steyn delivered a message that would make the most optimistic believer in western democracy shrink in gloom.  He railed against an American government that is "looting the future to pay for the present" and  "can spend everything and do nothing." He exprssed outrage that while spending 41% of the entire world's military budget, America has a Commander-in Chief unwilling to use it when it's needed, like the terrorist attack on the US Mission in Bengazi.

One of the absurd ironies that Steyn pointed out is that the while the United States pays enough in interest on its debt to them to finance the entire Chinese armed forces, America's government continues to donate foreign aid to China, to improve their factories. All this while American jobs continue to be lost to those American subsidized factories in The People's Republic.

Steyn's famous humour and perspective, Black's gravitas and knowledge, and Crosbie's wisdom and insight into government were the reasons just about everyone attended the Byron Talk. Virtually no one there had heard of Nigel Farage. He was the last speaker and as someone who has seen him (on video) perform in the European parliament, it was a pleasure to see the other people discover Britain's most exciting, witty, acerbic, and forthright politician since Winston Churchill.

He had Black wiping away tears of laughter when recounting his hilarious conflicts with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, whom Farage refers to as "Rumpy-pumpy." The danger of the current European Union structure is that it is undermining democracy. Indeed, leaders of the European Parliament has been livid in their condemnation of those countries who dared to hold elections to validate (or refute) their adherence to Euro-policies. Farage recounted how former European Council President Martin Schulz had said, on the possibility of Ireland's rejection of a European fiscal treaty that "we will not bow to populism." When Europe`s leaders define populism is the democratic will of a nation and they stand ready to oppose it, Farage`s fears are certainly justified. Particularly so when, as he noted, current British Prime Minister Cameron showed his willingness to defy populism by reneging on his promise to hold a similar referendum in England.

Farage`s excited, eloquent speech was punctuated with hilarious personal observations, such as that `the achievement gap opened up between Germany and France was made worse by the election of a total idiot as France`s President` and that Germany`s Chancellor `Angela Merkel in private is even more miserable than Angela Merkel looks in public.`

One of the solutions to the current crisis faced by western nations that Farage offered is that the Commonwealth countries, India, Canada, Australia, and so on, put a concerted effort to re-engage with each other but under a different name and structure than the old Commonwealth.

There was a lot to digest that night in the way of ideas and what was said portends of times ahead that if not managed properly, could lead to a decline from the greatest heights of human achievement. And if anyone says that decline is impossible, they should consider that the Romans at the height of their empire said the same thing.

Shades of Luka Magnotta! - Cannibalism in China

Forgotten amid western fears of domination by the juggernaut of the Chinese economy is that modernity has not yet reached most of the one billion plus people in the People's Republic.

Other than business news and the occasional human rights story, there is little occidentals hear about internal Chinese goings on. But the proprietor of a local restaurant who keeps up with news from home told me about this story that a Korean news service broke about the Chines government warning people off capsules that supposedly have invigorating powers and are made from human flesh.

Keep in mind that tigers and white rhinoceroses have been hunted to near extinction because of eastern belief that their body parts were essential for traditional remedies and aphrodisiacs.

Apparently, human flesh is believed by some in China to have similar properties.

The story reports that there are "deadly super bacteria" in the human flesh capsules being sold there.

If true, this sort of thing could explain why such devastating viruses have originated in that part of the world.

The link to the Korean News Service item is here (use google translate, which unfortunately is poor for that item, but you'll get the gist of it).

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In other horrifying news from abroad, four students at the Nigerian University of Port Harcourt were tortured and burnt alive after being accused of stealing laptops and cell phones. The video can be viewed here, but be warned,  it is extremely graphic and disturbing.

Norman Bethune - A National Film Board of Canada documentary

This documentary about Norman Bethune was directed in 1964 for the NFB by Donald Brittain.

Many colleagues and people who knew him were interviewed.

A very interesting subject as Bethune's support for Mao Tze Dong has become a controversial matter regarding the Canadian government's involvement with a Bethune Memorial.

It is worth noting that Bethune went to help Mao well before the Chinese Communist leader became the mass murdering dictator that history remembers. Bethune was an ardent fighter against fascism and a physician whose support for socialized medicine came about at a time when the poor were denied essential medical treatment because they were unable to pay for it.

Terry Glavin on Oil Sands, the Pipeline and China's stealth control of Canada's oil

Our friend Terry Glavin has a very interesting take on the Oil Sands controversy and the largely unspoken aspect of the vast Chinese investment in Canada's natural resources:

.. if we’re seriously supposed to be going all villagers-with-torches about foreign outfits with weird ideologies undermining Canada’s national economic interests, let’s review what’s really going on, shall we?

The $5.5-billion Enbridge pipeline project is all about sending Alberta bitumen in huge oil tankers to China. Beijing’s own state enterprises are among the project’s major backers, and Beijing has been buying up Alberta’s oilpatch at such a dizzying pace lately it’s hard to keep up. In the spring of 2010, China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp. took a $4.65-billion piece of Syncrude. Then the China Investment Corporation, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, took possession of a $1.25-billon share of Penn West Petroleum. Last summer, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation gobbled up Opti Canada for $2.34 billion. And so on.

Then, last month, Sinopec spent $2.2-billion to take over Daylight Energy Ltd., and last week, Petro-China, with the final push of $1.9 billion, became the owner and manager of the MacKay River oilsands project. This is what Ottawa doesn’t want you noticing.

Full article at the National Post

Diary of a wimpy president

December 12, 2012

Wow, I''m taking a lot of heat for wimping out on the Iran drone. The military guys told me to send in missiles or planes to destroy the thing, but that would have made the Iranians, really, really mad!

Those creepy mullahs look like evil wizards from fairy tales. They might have used some of their dark magic on me! I'm not going to run that risk.

To make everyone happy, I've politely asked Iran to return the drone to us. I'm sure if I ask nicely, we may get a few pieces back after Iran and China are done examining it. That should make those mean old Republicans happy.

B.O.

Democrats should consider running Felonious Munk in 2012 - he knows how to pay his bills

h/t Dodo Can Spell

Things going on..

Canadian universities partner in religious discrimination

Want to help make criminals rich? Keep supporting idiotic drug prohibition policies. It worked great for alcohol in the 1920's

The campaign to get Bert and Ernie to marry fails to recognize they aren't humans..they're puppets!

Iranian government employee George Galloway denies Tiananmen Square massacre

88 year old first-time debater, Henry Kissinger kicks butt at Munk Debate

The poll of the audience at last night's Munk Debate over the proposition, "Will the 21st Century belong to China?" was split right down the middle prior to the debate. The ballots showed that 39% agreed  and 40% disagreed with 21% being undecided.

The debate subject was a bit odd in that it required the participants to prognosticate and as Yoggi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions. especially about the future."

Nonetheless, debaters David Daokui Li and Niall Ferguson for the pro side and Henry Kissinger and Fareed Zakaria for the con, despite presenting opposing positions, were all very convincing about their ability to see into the future as far as China's role in the world is concerned.

Doug Donderi's and my debate for the Head-to-Head contest won us seats on stage, a few feet from Kissinger, who as Munk Debate moderator Rudyard Griffiths informed the audience, was participating that night in his first public debate ever at the age of 88.

The audience was clearly there to see the legendary former Secretary of State, but if the debate had a star, it was Harvard professor and Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson. Combining a remarkable command of information about the extent of China's global economic reach he also hilariously beat up Kissinger and Zakaria with quotes from their own works where they predicted China's global dominance.

Kissinger, famous for leading the move to establish relation between Communist China and America had a special insight into the evening's subject.  His view was that the political upheaval that China has in store from a growing middle class that will demand more political rights and freedoms combined with the shift from a rural to urban population, will keep China too busy internally to capitalize on its current economic trajectory.

The evening had a bit of an intimidating moment in the form of a warning from Professor Li. He cautioned the West that China is growing stronger and stronger and it would not tolerate interference in its interests from the outside. Ferguson revelled in that moment, using it as an example of growing Chinese confidence and power. I just found it kind of scary.

It wasn't until the end of the debate that I was convinced that China may indeed be the world's single dominant player for the bulk of this century until Ferguson made a concise and fascinating point. He discouraged the idea of thinking of democracy in American/Western terms. Democracy has different, yet functional approaches through the world, and he suggested that the Chinese model would look like a giant Singapore.

That swayed me. But I was in the minority among the audience. It was Fareed Zakaria's emotional  'mom and apple pie' closing appeal to the audience not to give up on the free west, free markets and free societies that won the argument for the con side.

The event itself was quite an evening with a number of notable attendees. Former US Defense Secretary William Cohen was in the audience and posed a question during the debate. Brian Mulroney was there as was Canada's current Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird.

Very Attractive
American Academic

Poor Mr. Baird was minding his own business, having a night off, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to accost him to ask what he thought about The Sea Hitler. He's intelligent and good humoured, and I could practically see the thought bubble appear over his head saying. "here we go...on the clock again." But he was adamant in his distaste for the effort by Canadian Islamists and radical leftists to break Israel's arms embargo of Gaza. I referred to them as silly and he corrected me, calling them `dangerous` and added a few other choice words.  But I had brought a very attractive American academic I met at the Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education to the debate with me and Baird quite sensibly redirected his attention to her.

With Friday`s debate and the previous one with Tony Blair debating Christopher Hitchens over religion, the Munk Debates series has established itself as one of Toronto`s premier intellectual happenings, and whatever the next one offers should be fascinating.

Will China dominate the 21st Century? Vote on the debate!

On Friday, June 17, The Munk Debates at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto will present Niall Ferguson and David Daokui Li arguing that China will be the 21st Century's dominant force while Henry Kissinger and Fareed Zakaria will take the opposing view.

Now at the Munk Debate website, you can see Douglas Donderi debate Eye on a Crazy Planet's Richard Klagsbrun about that proposition.

See it through this link and remember to vote on who you think won the debate.

Baluchistan: The one part of Pakistan we should be embracing?

While doing less elsewhere in Pakistan, the United States should do more to support anti-Islamist forces along the southern Arabian Sea coast. First, it should support anti-Islamist Sindhi leaders of the Sufi variant of Islam with their network of 124,000 shrines. Most important, it should aid the 6 million Baluch insurgents fighting for independence from Pakistan in the face of growing ISI repression. Pakistan has given China a base at Gwadar in the heart of Baluch territory. So an independent Baluchistan would serve U.S. strategic interests in addition to the immediate goal of countering Islamist forces.

You can read all of this fascinating piece in The National Interest
To learn more about this intriguing region, you can check out this information

The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics

"The problem with her book is that it's 500 pages long and she absolutely fails to support anything." Johan Norberg



reason.tv presents Johan Norberg's debunking of Naomi Klein's incompetent polemic, The Shock Doctrine




In this next video, Norberg discusses how Klein got everything ass-backwards in her most emphasized example, the supposed introduction of "Disaster Capitalism in China" following the 1989 massacre in Tienanmen Square. Except it was the anti-capitalists who ordered the massacre and the Chinese Free Market Special Economic Zones were introduced 10 years earlier in 1979. Even the ultra-leftist Guardian observed her incompetent polemics.

"The only Chinese source she cites is the new leftist Wang Hui, who is interesting, but has a particular line to strike - rather like writing about America and quoting only Michael Moore." Jonathan Fenby in The Guardian

 

Norberg wrote a devastating critique of Klein's book for the Cato Institute which can be viewed here.