Your Tax Dollars At Work: The United Nations Association In Canada Wants You To Know That White Folk Are All Racists

The United Nations Association In Canada is a "charity" federally funded to the tune of $362,776.00 of your money. It purports to educate the Canadian public on the good works of the United Nations. Good works like the notorious anti-semitic U.N conference on racism in Durban to which it sent "youth delegates", although to anyone reading their account Durban was a resounding success.

One of its principle activities is educating Canadian youth on racism under the banner of their Diversity & Anti-Racism initiative. Under this initiative they provide a resource called "The Kit" . The Kit makes it plain that White Privilege is the root cause of all racism in Canada.

More HERE 

Quantum physics proves that there IS an afterlife, claims scientist

...His theory of biocentrism, however, explains that death may not be as terminal as we think it is.

Biocentrism is classed as the theory of everything and comes from the Greek for 'life centre'.

It is the believe that life and biology are central to reality and that life creates the universe, not the other way round.

This suggests a person's consciousness determines the shape and size of objects in the universe.

Lanza uses the example of the way we perceive the world around us. A person sees a blue sky, and is told that the colour they are seeing is blue, but the cells in a person's brain could be changed to make the sky look green or red.

My pal Mitch Wolfe thinks Rob Ford will have the support of Toronto's YOUNG urban elites

He may have a point: 

...The young urban professional latte sipping, biking habitués of the New Toronto. Who work hard in the Bay Street towers, but party hard and have been known to enjoy the odd brewski and bong hit. They are not as fussed about Ford's personal life issues. They have been there and done that.

These new young Toronto elites are very pro business and pro downtown Toronto development. They love Porter Air for business and pleasure. And they don't like to pay a lot of taxes. They certainly don't want their hard-earned salaries supporting feather-bedding unionists, with jobs for life at City Hall and unlimited pensions...

Ford brothers to host show on Sun News Network

AIRING MONDAY AT 8PM ET - Rogers 142/567, Bell 506, Shaw Digital 177, Shaw Direct 149, Bell Fibe 518/1518

Every TV station wants Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

But it's Sun News Network that has landed the hottest man on the airwaves.

If you have loved or even hated the Ford Show so far, stayed tuned because there's more to come.

The Rob and Doug Ford Show is coming to Sun News Network.

You read it right.

h/t Matthew L.

Toronto: "Diversity is Our Strength" - Except among anti-Ford protesters

Here is a picture from the last Ford Fest is Scarborough:

If you look at other pictures from Rob Ford's annual barbecue, you'll see a reflection of the vast diversity of Toronto.

Here's a picture from yesterday's anti-Ford protest rally at Nathan Phillips Square.

The small gathering, in the heart of the downtown core at lunch time, was a speck compared to huge numbers of Ford supporters who trekked to the far reaches of the city to stand by their man.

But look at something else. The anti-Ford mini-horde is made up exclusively of white people; the pompous white liberal ruling class elites that are so offended by how Rob Ford is an "embarrassment" to them.

These are people whose narcissism and self-focus is astounding.

Referring to inane assertions by Michael Taube that: "Ford’s antics have also turned Toronto, the fourth-largest city in North America, into a laughingstock, which could put the city’s economic viability at risk if this gong show continues for much longer," Mark Steyn shreds his vapidity with:

Toronto’s very “economic viability” could be at risk! Seriously? But apparently Mr Taube means it: The town hasn’t been this unviable since the War of 1812, when the Yanks sailed in and burned it to the ground. L’état économique, c’est moi. The self-importance of the political class captured in that sentence is not only a far bigger threat to “economic viability” but, in fact, the reason Ford was elected in the first place.

The rest of Mr Taube’s litany of complaints is so-called “gaffes” by Ford about various identity groups. Most of them are somewhat bluntly formulated but true-ish enough, and said by ordinary unmonitored citizens with nary a thought: Ladies, lessen your chances of Aids by sleeping with fewer bi-guys, etc. The notion that they’re so “over the top” as to disqualify someone from office is deeply damaging to the very idea of representative government. It requires that the political class speak only within the ever tightening bounds of an effete antiseptic “public discourse” ever more removed from the people they govern, and ever more exclusionary of ever larger numbers of them. It turns the rulers into a class apart. 

A class apart indeed. The people who have always hated Rob Ford are gleeful at the chance to parade their sanctimony. But the voters of the city, the diverse people to whom that class apart pays lip service but doesn't understand, are the people who put Ford in office.

Those peons whom the ruling class claim to care about so much may again ignore the directives of their superiors and return Rob Ford to office in 2014. Now wouldn't that send a message?

Join me, Adam Giambrone and others for a free movie and a talk about Social Justice in Education

UPDATE - There have been a couple of cancellations and some new people joining us for the post-film discussion:

Remember Thursday November 14 in the Auditorium at Central Technical School (at the Corner of Bathurst & Harbord Streets) in Toronto, you'll get to join former City Councillor and current NOW Magazine columnist Adam Giambrone, as well as Paul Koidis, Associate Dean of at the School of Media, Art and Design at Durham College and me for a fantastic movie and what promises to be a very interesting discussion about Social Justice and Activism in the education system.

It starts promptly at 6:30 PM, so be sure to be there early!

University of Toronto researchers develop radio invisibility shield

By surrounding an object with small antennas that collectively radiate an electromagnetic flied, a team of researchers have developed a functional invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to different types of objects.

The system does not make its user invisible to the naked eye, but by covering an object in tiny antennas that cancel out radio waves bouncing off the object, the system creates a field around the object that is invisible to radar.

Beyond obvious useful applications in the military, such as hiding vehicles from radar, the researchers say the technology could also be used to eliminate obstacles. Structures that interfere with signals from cellular base stations, for example, could be cloaked by the antenna system, allowing signals to pass freely.

Snortin' coke, smokin' pot, pounding vodka and hangin' with hookers - and he's still a better mayor than Olivia Chow would be

Now I'm really starting to admire Rob Ford - he's a party animal and still doing a fine job running a major city.

Click HERE to buy your Vote for Rob Ford t-shirt

The University of Toronto's free speech Mengeles: "Students Against Israeli Apartheid"

Only the the toxic milieu found at our institutions of higher learning could spawn a "Protocol For Public Event Facilitation". The little Free Speech Mengeles of U of T's Students Against Israeli Apartheid group came up with the notion that only they can decide whether you are Gay or Trans, Black or White and their decision alone determined whether you were allowed to speak at meetings.

Kathy Shaidle was forced to explain Rob Ford to Americans

...As far as the Canada’s establishment elite are concerned, even if Rob Ford had never done any of the things they’ve accused of, he’s committed far more serious crimes anyhow:

He’s not the most articulate guy in public life.

His family owns a pretty successful business.

He talks a lot about cutting taxes and spending.

And worst of all:

He’s fat. (I’m not kidding: Just watch the video below.)

But now Rob Ford has admitted, on camera, on the record, to smoking crack.

Sounds like a game changer, if not ender.

Except that, as foreign and domestic pundits alike delight in pointing out, Ford’s popularity rose a few percentage points after his confession.

CBC rushes to cover up Justin Trudeau's stupidity

US to Destroy 6 Tons of Ivory This Week

In a first, U.S. officials are going to destroy their massive stockpile of illegal ivory this week, hoping to send a zero-tolerance message to elephant poachers.

On Thursday (Nov. 14), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will pulverize nearly 6 tons (5.4 tonnes) of illegal ivory items, from whole tusks to tiny trinkets, which have been seized over the past 25 years as a result of smuggling busts and criminal investigations.

Andrew Coyne: Justin Trudeau’s gaffes reveal the gulf between his intellectual reach and grasp

...the Trudeauvian gaffe generally involves a quite deliberate statement, presented not flippantly or off-hand but in a determined effort to sound provocative or profound. If they instead strike the listener as ill-judged, it is because he seems to have invested so little actual thought in them. It is in the gulf between his intellectual reach and grasp that his reputation as a ninny has been earned.

Mitch Wolfe: Why Ford Is Still the Man to Beat

...a funny thing happened on the way to the "powerful Toronto media" trying to ride Ford out of town on a GO Train rail.

As a result of these papers raging against Ford, Ford's support increased by about 5 points to about 44% approval.

I am not sure what is declining faster -- these papers' circulation numbers or their rapidly declining influence on public affairs.

What is patently clear is that in these papers' rush to judgment, they don't understand Ford's populist appeal.

Read it all at the HUFF PO 

Buy a Rob Ford t-shirt

They are back!

Show your support for the populist mayor the condescending socialist elites are trying to destroy.

Buy a t-shirt from Hollywood Loser.com:

"Vote for Rob Ford - He's not a communist"

also, Rob Ford's office is selling bobbleheads of the mayor for charity. 

Lest we forget...

Today is Remembrance Day.

We have our freedom because many brave men and women fought and died to preserve it.

Let us not disgrace them or ourselves by forgetting or by handing that freedom away.

This is what democracy looks like to the people who hate Rob Ford

Seen at Church and Front Streets in Toronto:

h/t flea

PLUS: Rex Murphy - An early bitter Christmas for the Ford-haters

"..What the elites have not grasped is that, notwithstanding his various lifestyle sins, Mr. Ford has the gift of projecting a very basic and powerful political message: that he understands, and represents, the majority of people who do not have newspaper columns, or well-read Twitter feeds, or morning shows on CBC. " 

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Join me, Adam Vaughan and Carolyn Bennett for a free movie and a talk about Social Justice this Thursday evening

This Thursday (Nov. 14), beginninag at 6:30 pm at Central Technical School in Toronto, on Bathurst Street just south of Bloor, there will be a free showing of the movie Inherit the Wind, the great Stanley Kramer movie based on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, where a teacher was tried for teaching evolution in school.

Following the movie, there will be a discussion and Q&A featuring Carolyn Bennett MP, Liberal Party Critic for Aboriginal Affairs. Toronto City Councillor Adam Vaughan, and me about Social Justice, Activism and Individuality in the schools.

Thanks to Obama's American unexceptionalism, the USA is no longer the leader of the free world

From reader Douglas D.:

"When the French foreign minister says France won't be party to a "sucker's deal," you know the administration has completely lost international credibility.   The Saudi tantrum at the UN last month signaled a tipping point.  US allies are really starting to freak out about a completely feckless and irresponsible US Mideast policy.  France of all nations - stepping up again (Mali, Lybia) despite - or perhaps because of - last week's S&P downgrade."

....French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also said it was not clear the delegations would succeed in nailing down an acceptable interim deal that would begin to defuse fears of a stealthy Iranian advance towards nuclear arms capability.

"As I speak to you, I cannot say there is any certainty that we can conclude," Fabius told France Inter radio, saying Paris could not accept a "sucker's deal".

On winning the war of ideas

The Toronto Star's Marxist dinosaur Rick Salutin is upset that Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn have free speech

The most astounding thing to me about this Toronto Star piece is that Salutin is still alive. I thought he died when he bit off Frodo's finger and plunged into the molten fires of Mount Doom:

...I’d say it comes from failing to make a distinction: free speech as getting to say what you think, versus getting to say it loudly enough to have an impact. It’s about access. Anyone can mutter their true thoughts on a street corner or in an obscure blog. Steyn and Levant have always been able to say what they want, from platforms reaching large audiences, and been paid well enough for it to make a decent living. Those enraged by them, who charge and sue, have little opportunity to respond on that level; so they go the depressive, negative route of trying to shut them down legally. Believe me, if they were offered equivalent access as an alternative, they’d grab it. 

The most painful case I know is Canadian Muslims, especially Arabs, responding to how they’ve been derisively portrayed for decades in major media, with few chances to respond on their own behalf. I cannot portray their frustration. They accost you socially or at their hangdog conferences and plead less for redress than for a simple acknowledgment of how unfair it is. I know many outsiders will reject that and insist “the media” have been resolutely anti-Israel, even anti-Semitic. I don’t know how to address that. ..

Rob Ford on crack is still smarter than Justin Trudeau

Trudeau admires China's 'basic dictatorship'

OTTAWA - So the ladies had questions, after all.

In fact, one of the 100 women who paid $250 to get into the Ladies Night with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau Thursday had a doozy for him. It went like this:

"Which nation, besides Canada, which nation's administration do you most admire, and why?"

It took Trudeau a minute to consider the question.

The marketing of this event had become controversial because it suggested these ladies might want to ask what was in the e-vite like "What's your favourite virtue?" or "Who are your real-life heroes?" Maybe Trudeau was expecting one of those.

Event host Amanda Alvaro gave him some time to think by joking: "Not the fluffy questions some were expecting!"
Much laughter and clapping. Ha! Good one.

But the question at hand, sir, which country's government does the Liberal Party's candidate for prime minister in 2015 most admire?

Trudeau's answer: "You know, there's a level of of admiration I actually have for China ..."

Sideshow Sarah Thomson crawls out from under her rock to demand an apology

I still find it impossible to believe anyone would want to grab Sarah Thomson's ass.

And there were plenty of witnesses that night who said that a) it never happened and b) she was boasting about "setting up" Rob Ford

h/t Matthew L.

How a warm friendship between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush turned to ice

...Bush regaled his guest with stories of aggravating private dealings with Putin that underscored their growing rift. Bush was astonished that Putin had tried to influence him by offering to hire a close friend of the president's and he found Putin's understanding of the world disconnected from reality. "He's not well informed," Bush groused. "It's like arguing with an eighth grader with his facts wrong."

Putin was on his mind because Russia was about to host the annual summit of the G-8 powers for the first time and Bush feared that the session would be dominated by questions about why an undemocratic nation was hosting a gathering of democratic nations. Bush had been trying to get Putin to relax his authoritarian rule to no avail. "I think Putin is not a democrat anymore," Bush lamented a few weeks later to another visitor, the prime minister of Slovenia. "He's a tsar. I think we've lost him."

Whether Bush or anyone else ever actually "had" Putin in the first place is debatable at best. But the story of Bush's eight-year pas de deux with the master of the Kremlin, reconstructed through interviews with key players and secret notes and memos, offers lessons for President Obama as he struggles to define his own approach to Putin and shape the future of the two nuclear powers...

More at FOREIGN POLICY 

The Rob Ford "death threat" video is obviously him joking about a celebrity boxing or wrestling match

Kathy Shaidle at Five Feet of Fury observed that Rob Ford sounded like he was doing a Hulk Hogan impersonation in the latest "scandal" released of the mayor after it was purchased by The Toronto Star for $5000.

That sounds pretty close. The video was made around the time of Ford's celebrity arm wrestling match with the famous pro wrestler.

In the video, you can clearly hear Toronto Mayor Rob Ford talk about being "in that ring" and when he talks about killing and only needing "15 minutes".

He also says if he wins, he'll "donate.." One of the other people in the room talks about how Ford's opponents "are pros."

Now under what circumstances other than a celebrity boxing match/fight does someone talk about donating???

It does sound a lot like it was in the spirit of his match with The Hulkster.

Ford admits being extremely inebriated when the video was made. But is it so terrible to get drink, in private, and joke around about what you'd do in a celebrity fight, and imitate the bluster of professional fighters?

This new "scandal" with which The Star is trying to outrage Toronto is no scandal.

But after they paid for this piece of nonsense it does firmly establish that The Toronto Star is a scandal rag with about as much credibility and integrity as The National Enquirer.

CBC News - afraid to offend supporters of terrorism, but happy to bash conservatives

Compare and contrast these two responses from the CBC Ombudsman:

Talking about terrorists and terrorism

The complainant, Bruce McMinn, questioned why CBC reports on the attack and siege of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya did not refer to the perpetrators as terrorists or the attack as a “terrorist attack.” 

...MANAGEMENT RESPONSE 

Jennifer Harwood, Managing Editor of CBC News Network, replied to your concerns. She explained that it is a long standing practice to use the words “terrorist” or “terrorism” when they are attributed by others. She explained that the practice is “to describe the act or individual, as ‘bomber’, ‘militant’, ‘extremist’ or ‘gunman,’ for instance, and let the viewer, reader or listener make his own judgment about the nature of the event. The purpose of journalism is to reflect reality, to inform, and to give viewers and listeners enough information so that they can reach their own conclusions.” 

She pointed out that the use of the word can be highly politicized and therefore it is preferable that there be a consistent practice to be as specific as possible in describing an event without labelling it. She pointed out that many other leading news organizations also avoid using the words “on their own as a form of description without attribution.” CBC has been following this practice for over 30 years.

Here's a tip that one might think a "journalist" or someone in charge of oversight for a News Deprtment might be aware: "terrorism" is a word. Words have definitions. If a person or persons act meets the definition of "terrorism" than the act is terrorism and the perpetrator is a terrorist.

noun

1.

the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce,especially for political purposes.

It is very clear that what happened at the Westgate Mall was terrorism. But the CBC didn't mention that there are a number of supporters of terrorism among the network's supporters, so offending them is something they wouldn't want to do.

On the other hand conservatives aren't, as a rule, big fans of the CBC, so who cares if the CBC exhibits blatant bias against them? 

Twerking is not a four-letter word

..COMPLAINT 

You felt an analysis column by Neil Macdonald about the politics of the shutdown of the United States government was highly inappropriate. The column, which you referred to as a diatribe, is titled: “Analysis: Republicans twerking for the cameras like Miley Cyrus.” You felt that Mr. Macdonald was “engaging in obscenities” because he used the word twerking and he compared Republicans to the singer Miley Cyrus. You cited these lines from the piece to make the case that the essay contained “mean-spirited, obscene language”:

“Like the utterly shameless woman-child Miley Cyrus, modern Washington understands the mortal risk of banality, and so occasionally needs to make a singular spectacle of itself.
Republicans are doing that now: sticking out their tongue, grabbing their crotch, waggling their rear end and ‘twerking’ for the cameras, to use that awful neologism.”

You said the essay indulged in “rather hysterical name-calling, instead of putting forth rational arguments.”

Aside from the language, you objected to the placement of the essay on the news home page. You said it was the only reference to the situation in Washington you saw on the page. There were no “objective” articles listed, so that you might check on the latest news of the day. “So instead of informing Canadians as to what is happening in Washington, we are treated to an opinion essay lobbing obscene insults at Republicans.” You felt this harmed “CBC’s supposed journalistic integrity.”

MANAGEMENT RESPONSE

The Senior Director of Digital Media, Marissa Nelson, responded to your concerns. She told you that CBC News had been following events in Washington over a period of time and that there was extensive “traditional news coverage”

h/t David M

Weird British Jew hate: Oxford professor blames Muslim persecution of Christians on Jews

What's worse than the silence of Western Christians concerning the Muslim persecution of their coreligionists in the Islamic world? Answer: Cynically exploiting that persecution for a political agenda—in the case of a recent Daily Beast article, to excoriate the state of Israel and its supporters. 

Titled "Why Won't the West Defend Middle Eastern Christians?" and written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, the article touches on the persecution of Christians, but primarily as a springboard to attack American Christian support for Israel. Consider the following excerpt:

… one of the silences which I find most frustrating is precisely the lack of noise from Western Christians about the fate of ancient Christianities in the Middle East. At the heart of the problems in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine… 

Yes, Western silence vis-à-vis the plight of Mideast Christians is as real as it is frustrating, but exactly how is MacCulloch able to jump to the conclusion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is "the heart" of the problem?

More HERE 

h/t Marvin W.

Toronto's media hates you stupid people for liking Rob Ford

"St. Clair Fiasco" Joe Mihevc and other sleazeball responses to the Ford situation

The sleaziness and hypocrisy would be astounding if it weren't so predicable. 

Today I received emails from Toronto City Councillors Joe Mihevic and Josh Matlow dripping with sanctimony and reeking of self-promoting hypocrisy.

The one from Mihevc, the bumbler whose vastly overpriced St. Clair Streetcar fiasco is still used as an example throughout Ontario of how not do to a civics project, is particularly cretinous. As he has before, while professing sympathy and concern for Rob Ford, Mihevc takes every opportunity to insult the mayor while putting on the proverbial hairshirt of " pain for our City and the shame and embarrassment that Mayor Ford has brought upon us."

No sane person who isn't Rob Ford or an immediate family member of the embattled mayor is walking around feeling shame or embarrassment for anything Rob Ford has done. Only one of the notoriously asinine Toronto leftists whose personal self-esteem is tied to municipal politics would be stupid enough to profess anything like that. But that doesn't mean that sleazy municipal politicians can't sink so low as to try to milk as much advantage as they can from another person's personal tragedy.

The tone of these releases from the likes of Mihevic and Matlow is that character matters. Indeed it does. In their current statements, the hypocrites Mihevc and Matlow are demonstrating how their own character is far more reprehensible than Rob Ford's.

When City Councillor Ana Bailao was charged with (and later plead guilty) to drunk driving, Rob Ford didn't call for her head, but said "everybody makes mistakes" and offered her support.

Ironically, now with the tables turned Bailao, who is a convicted criminal, is calling for Rob Ford, who is not, to step down.

Clearly Ana Bailao is not the sort of person you want standing behind you if you don't want to find a knife in your back.

It's also worth mentioning that Matlow himself is somewhat dodgy about his own history of impaired driving.

There are a pack of braying hyenas on Toronto's City Council. While Ford has done a good job of pushing his agenda through and righting the course of the economic disaster upon which David Miller had set Toronto, some on Council think Ford's current perceived vulnerability is a chance to advance their own ambitions or those of their special interest friends.Those would include the union CUPE, which is still resentful about the last agreement that Ford managed to force them to accept and which has a number of Ford's more outspoken opponents in its pocket.

The public will have a choice a year from now. They can choose a flawed but devoted public servant trying to do his best for Toronto's citizens. Or they can choose one of the detestable hypocrites who aren't even trying to hide their glee that Ford's personal issues are hurting him.

When that choice is made, it won't be a choice to decide who is running their personal life best. It's a choice about whom the citizens of Toronto trust most to take care of the public interest. And with politicians like "St. Clair fiasco" Joe, whose ineptness wasted tens of millions of tax dollars leading the charge against Ford, that choice will be an easy one.

From Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow's email today

More fun with idiot protesters

The Rob Ford controversy raises the question: Should it be open season on everyone's private life?

A public official's conduct in office is the only matter about their conduct that should be of public concern.

At least that's what I think.

That's how I felt about Bill Clinton and his Lewinsky affair and that's how I feel about Rob Ford and his crack episode.

Some people say the issue with Clinton was less the affair than the lying about it. His lying about Lewinsky came about because he had to face questions that in all decency should never have been put to him in the public sphere.

Bill Clinton's personal life may have been checkered, but in the execution of his duties as a public official, he was meticulously honest and a person of integrity (though the same isn't necessarily true of his wife).

The same is true of Rob Ford. His personal life may be a mess, but he is inscrutably honest in protecting public interests and doggedly determined to serve the public.

Which isn't to say we can't make fun of them over it, and I have to admit, I found Jon Stewart's recent bit about Rob Ford very amusing.

But trying to destroy a person over these matters crosses the line. Fortunately, as was the case with Clinton, and I anticipate will be with Ford, that effort to destroy them ends up being self-discrediting and self-destructive to those attacking a public person for private behavior.

Ford's lies had nothing to do with his conduct as a public official. Contrast that with the lies from Ontario Liberal Party leaders who lied to cover up their misappropriation of public funds.

Yet over whom has the media has worked itself into near ecstatic frenzy?

If personal foibles are so relevant, does this mean we should be exposing more of them?

What about the married Canadian political party leader who frequented Gay bathhouses and tried to pick up underage boys? Many in the media know of that, but covered it up.

News media has a great deal of public influence, so does that mean their lives are part of the public interest?

Since so many of Rob Ford's vindictive enemies claim that, 'really, we just want him to get help,'
perhaps it would be helpful to expose which Toronto news anchorwoman worked as a call girl. After all, the trauma may be affecting her and the way she does her job still and I just want her to get help.

Or how about those married folk at The Toronto Star and Globe and Mail who are having affairs with their married colleagues, or the married CBC producers having affairs with their junior staffers?

Or what about some of the deviant sexual practices of some members of Toronto's City Council and some of the MPPs at Queen's Park?

That is probably affecting their ability to perform their jobs, so should I start naming names?

All this is to say nothing of the widespread past use of cocaine by many of those same people who are now falling over themselves to condemn Rob Ford for using what is in essence the same substance.

I guess we need to know who those people are too. I know people who were involved with them directly in those activities.

Is that now fair game?

I hope not, because these are games that no one should want to begin.

Toronto mayor Ford admits having smoked crack cocaine

Speaking to reporters outside his office, Ford asked the media to repeat a question asked to him in May.

“Do you smoke crack cocaine?” a reporter said. 

“Exactly. Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford said. “I’ve made mistakes… all I can do is apologize and move on.”

“But, no, do I? Am I an addict? No.”

“Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago.”

After five months of avoiding comment on the crack cocaine scandal, the mayor suggested he was just wasn’t asked about it.

“I wasn’t lying, you didn’t ask the correct question,” Ford said.

More at NATIONAL POST

And for those curious, I don't really care all that much for reasons delineated here 

UPDATE: Flouting all decency and regard for the electoral process, some City Councillors are trying to remove both Ford and the Deputy Mayor

David Attenborough Narrates Miley Cyrus's VMA Twerk-formance

Rob Ford's support numbers means something his obsessive opponents haven't figured out

The recent Forum Research poll, taken after Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair disclosed the existence of a video in which Toronto Mayor Rob Ford puffs on a glass pipe, shows some pretty good approval ratings for the embattled civic leader.

Particularly noteworthy is that Ford's highest approval rating, 55%, comes from Scarborough, for which Ford successfully managed to get funding for subway expansion from Kathleen Wynne's heel-dragging Provincial government.

Ford opponents in politics and government have been insisting how unnecessary the Scarborough subway is and how the eastern borough would be so much better served by what would have been a fully-funded Light Rail Transit system. Much of that attitude is illustrated by The Toronto Star's Urban Affairs columnist Christopher Hume, when he bravely, and obviously painfully, ventured out of his elitist downtown enclave to Scarborough recently to assess the surroundings and reiterate his preformed conclusion about Scarborough's transit needs.

Here's the funny thing, though. Why is it that the people who actually live in and know the Scarborough area best are the ones most supportive of Rob Ford?

Therein lies a clue to much of Ford's success, and why the media and his obsessive detractors have such little success is swaying support away from him.

It's because Ford actually listens to his constituents and tries to give them what they ask for, rather than condescendingly and paternalistically deciding what is best for them, whether they want it or not.

Weird, isn't it, that the public will loyally support a politician who listens to and seems to care about them, even though their intellectual betters and moral superiors in the media and politics tell them they shouldn't?

Rally at Queens Park to Oppose Mass Executions in Iran: Wednesday November 6th 2013, 12:00-2:00 p.m

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 4th 2013

Attention: Assignment Editor, City Editor, News Editor, World News Editor, Government/Political News Editor

Since the [S]election of Hassan Rouhani in Iran, the Islamic Regime has gone on a rampage of mass executions in order to create an atmosphere of fear and terror among Iranians, in an attempt to prevent any opposition against the Regime. The past week alone saw the executions of more than 30 people including a well known Kurdish political prisoner Shirkuh Moarefi who was executed this morning!

Sayeh Hassan an Iranian Canadian lawyer, blogger and pro-democracy activist stated “With the [S]election of Hassan Rouhani not only has the human rights conditions in Iran have not improved but they have become considerably worse. Since Rouhani’s raise to power in June of 2013 more than 300 people have been executed in Iran. Many of the individuals who have been executed are political prisoners of Balouchi and Kurdish ethnicity including well known activists Habibullah Golparipour and Shirkuh Moarefi. There are many more political prisoners who face the imminent risk of execution.”

Ms. Hassan further stated: “It is unfortunate that the Harper Government which has been one of leaders within the International Community in condemning Iran’s Human Rights violations has decided to remain silent in the face of recent mass executions in Iran. It appears that as long as there may be a chance of small concessions by the Islamic Regime regarding the nuclear issue that the International Community including the Harper Government is willing to turn a blind eye on the massive human rights violations committed by the Islamic Regime including the mass executions.”

Ms. Hassan lastly stated: “In the face of total silence of the Canadian Government and majority of the main stream media on the issue of mass executions in Iran, Iranian Canadian activist have organized a rally for Wednesday November 6th 2013 on Queens Park from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in order to raise awareness about the mass executions and to urge the Canadian Government and media to break their silence with respect to this issue. We invite all groups and organizations who condemn the recent executions in Iran to join us on Queens Park and say No to Executions and No to Islamic Regime in Iran!

Media Contact: Sayeh Hassan, Criminal Defence Lawyer, Blogger, Pro-Democracy Activist

Tel: 416-363-9238

Email: Sayehhassan30@gmail.com

http://www.shiro-khorshid-forever.blogspot.ca/2013/11/press-release-rally-on-queens-park-to.html

Reindeer eyes change color in winter darkness

To survive the wintery conditions in the Arctic, scientists have found that one part of an reindeer’s eyes changes color. This adaptation increases the sensitivity of the animal’s vision, helping it navigate the through the darker months.

The change to the color of the eyes of reindeer is one facet of the animals' ability to adapt to changing conditions in the Arctic, especially the move towards the harsh winter. Other changes that take place include developing thick coats with two layers of fur; the pads on their hooves shrink in winter to give them better traction; and they have the ability to detect ultraviolet light, which helps them see in the months of near-total darkness.

More HERE

Joe "St. Clair Fiasco" Mihevc not satisfied with Ford apology

Joe Mihevc, whose oversight of the St. Clair streetcar fiasco saw a neighbourhood disrupted for five years and a $40 million dollar budget triple to $120 million isn't happy with Rob Ford's apology about his personal behavior.

The way I see it, Ford has at least $80 Million dollars worth of mistakes to his credit before he comes anywhere near owing the city as much of an apology as "Fiasco" Joe. And I don't recall Mihevc ever apologizing for what he did to St. Clair Avenue.

Dictator-butt kissing NDP candidate McQuaig calls Canada's Prime Minister a "cornered rat"

Linda McQuaig is a moral imbecile whose facile understanding of economics would ruin Canada if she were ever in a position to implement her ideas.

The Big Rob Ford Announcement came! Ford will not resign or take leave of absence

Listen live to Rob Ford's radio show on CFRB at 1 pm to hear the much anticipated announcement he will make surrounding the recent disclosure by Toronto's Police Chief of the existence of an elusive video containing the mayor.

Click here to hear the show at 1 pm today.

UPDATES:

- Ford calls on police Chief Bill Blair to release video so Torontonians can judge for themselves.

-Ford admits "I am not perfect" "I have made mistakes." Ford apologizes to City, family and Council colleagues and says he wants to move forward.

- Ford will "continue fighting for the little guy, fighting for the taxpayers."

-"There is no one to blame but myself and I take full responsibility for it"

- "Will continue" with his job

- pleads with media to stay away from his home and cease harassing his young family

- commits to exploring privatization of garbage pick-up east of Yonge St.

- His new musical theme is The Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive"



- Will try to get 10% reduction in Land Transfer Tax

 - wants to implement coordinated Traffic Light system and storm water system

- "I am obsessed with customer service"

- "we are going to keep taxes as low as possible"

- Ford pledges to definitely run for reelection in 2014

- Says he supports public housing, but it should not be built at the Waterfront where property value is so high.

-Rob Ford says the cost of living increase for the highest paid City employees is too high. Doug Ford says all city employees should get raises if they meet targets.

-Doug Ford calls David Suzuki one of the best entrepreneurs and businessmen he knows of. Rob accuses Doug of being sarcastic. Doug denies it, but it the irony, if not the sarcasm is pretty clear.

- Rob says he "shouldn't have gotten hammered on the Danforth." Commits to less public drinking.

- The Ford brothers are upset after a caller refers to Doug as Ford's enabler. Both assert that Doug has been consistently tough on Rob over his behavior.

- A caller asks Ford to specify for what he is apologizing. Ford describes "mistakes" and mentions incidents involving public drinking. Makes no mention of issues related to video.

- Ford says he will not stop but will moderate his drinking.

- Ford says that when it comes to fiscal policy, he's the best mayor that Toronto's ever had.

- Rob Ford: "I know a lot of things about a lot of politicians, but I'm not a rat"

The Rape of Iranian Women on Death Row

The hypocrisy of Islamic fundamentalists' patronizing and puritanical worldview is revealed in a plethora of examples, most acutely found in the perverse sexual behaviour of "devout" males who spittle on about sexual morality at the same time that they terrorize women through marital rape, force under-age girls into marriage, engage in prostitution, indulge in pornography, and particpate in a host of other sexual activity that is properly labeled hypocrital and perverse at best, and egregiously violent at worst. But perhaps there is no more cruel and twisted example than the practice in the Islamic Republic of Iran of raping female prisoners prior to their executions. Justice for Iran, an organization dedicating to combatting the systematic sexual abuse of women as a torture method in Iran, has recently released a film about the practice, entitled Final Moments.   

More at The Propagandist 

Kathleen Wynne's nanny state strikes again - forces men's barbers to learn how to do women's hairstyles.

Because Ontario's Liberals don't think they control enough facets of everyday life, they're always looking for new ways of interfering where they are neither needed nor wanted, with increasing costs for the public.

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Just because someone looks like Monica Lewinsky doesn't mean they automatically get "special access" to a head of a democratic state

Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn got all hissy because she didn't get the access to Stephen Harper she wanted at the Conservative Party convention.

@RickARoth Um, doesn't your boss advocate for freedom of the press abroad? Tactics are starting to resemble those of unsavoury nations.
— Jennifer Ditchburn (@jenditchburn) November 2, 2013

CP's Jennifer Ditchburn (L)  & Former Bill Clinton confidante Monica Lewinsky (R)

Anthony Furey: In defence of Mayor Rob Ford

...People are addicted to Ford Derangement Syndrome. It makes them feel high and mighty.

The left is not outraged that Ford might be using hard drugs.

These are the people who think hard drug users are our better equals and should have free drugs and a plush place to inject them.

No, the bottom line is they don’t like that a fat, red-faced football coach with a working-class way about him is mayor. They don’t like that he’s not “people like us.” That’s all it’s ever been about...

Aurel Braun: How Putin Bested Obama

Three weeks after Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad killed more than 1,400 of his own people with chemical weapons, the Obama administration announced the framework of an agreement directing Assad to give up his chemical arsenal—an agreement brokered by Russia, Syria’s ally and arms dealer. The deal has reshaped geopolitics in dramatic ways, most notably by casting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the unlikely role of peacemaker—not to mention the political savior who threw a lifeline to an American president desperately seeking an escape from the military action he had declared would be in the offing. What Putin and Obama enacted was a trade-off in which both leaders seemed to have gotten what they wanted. Obama was looking for a way of addressing the Syria crisis without an American strike. Putin was looking to raise his mythic profile and to assert Russia’s power on the world stage.

More at COMMENTARY Magazine

That sound you hear is heads exploding at The Toronto Star - Ford approval rating goes up after news breaks of existence of video

The popularity of Toronto’s top politico has risen slightly following the announcement that a video that allegedly shows him smoking crack cocaine exists, according to a new poll.

A Forum Research poll conducted Thursday night puts Mayor Rob Ford’s approval rating at 44 per cent – up 5 points from a poll conducted earlier this week.

This is the best laugh I've had this week!

What was that about The Toronto Star being the Wyle E. Coyote of newspapers?

More public masturbation by the Toronto Star over Rob Ford

CBC radio's Q had a panel with three of Toronto's media personalities, including Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank gloating about the Rob Ford video.

More interesting is the obsessive hate and sanctimony that has him in in a ridiculous denial of the obvious vendetta his paper has had against Ford for the last 3 years.

My buddy Jon Kay makes some good points on the panel, but I would add to an important observation he made. Jon says, in essence, that there is a crisis in conservative thought reflected in the election of Rob Ford and his like in a single-minded focus on low taxes and reducing government spending.

There is a lot more to it than just that.

Ford is also a reaction to the paternalistic, sanctimonious social engineering foisted by incompetent politicians on a public outraged by a lack of their ability to simply provide competent management.

We have an incompetent provincial government that has wasted, and for all intents and purposes stolen billions in public funds, while imposing radical nanny-state social policies.

Ford has not wasted any public funds and is someone who is genuinely concerned with the wishes of his constituents, in contrast to wanting to impose a "vision" on them.

Yet The Star is, as it has been, primarily concerned with the superficiality of image. Which is why as a media source, they still have little credibility and as Kay astutely notes, Ford may indeed get reelected.

You can watch and hear the panel below:

Iran tortures women, gays and minorities - why should anyone be surprised by their state-sponsored animal cruelty

Iran claims it will send a tied up monkey into space as an experiment

A seriously impressive bike ride

h/t Jon Kay

Can Hamas Cooperate With Egypt and Israel on Shared Interests in Sinai?

Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, has significant interests in the stability of neighboring Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Like Egypt and Israel, Hamas has a stake in countering the rise of Salafi-jihadi groups in Sinai, some of which originally hail from Gaza. These groups are currently attacking Egyptian forces in Sinai, and they have on occasion attacked Israel from across the Egyptian border; but they also serve as an existential threat to Hamas’ control over the Palestinian enclave. 

As such, and somewhat awkwardly, Hamas shares interests with Egypt, which is currently cracking down on Hamas’ Egyptian counterpart, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Israel, which refuses to legitimize Hamas’ rule—and which Hamas, in return, refuses to recognize or accept as permanent.

More at WORLD POLITICS REVIEW