Is Olivia Chow nuts? She endorsed a TDSB candidate who was a speaker at a pro-Hezbollah rally

The NDP establishment in the downtown ward of Trinity-Spadina is pushing out an extremely troubling figure for Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee.  The candidate, Ausma Malik has been endorsed by high-profile NDPers including Mike Layton, Joe Cressy, and former MPP Rosario Marchese.  She's also sharing a campaign office with Layton and Cressy.  In fact, so close are the three that they appear to consider themselves an allied slate, as opposed to three individual candidates.

Who is Ausma Malik?

According to The Varsity, Ausma Malik played a major role in a crooked student union election at the University of Toronto - which is located in the very ward in which she is now running for TDSB trustee...

More HERE

 

Blogwrath is crowdsourcing support for a book about the media vs Rob Ford

You can read more and support him HERE

eBay/Participant Media's Jeff Skoll endorses Toronto School Board Candidate Richard Klagsbrun

Participant Media's Jeff Skoll

TORONTO, Sept 16,2014 /CNW/ - World-famous Canadian philanthropist, entrepreneur, and Hollywood movie producer Jeff Skoll has done something unprecedented for him this week. The eBay innovator who was both its first employee and first president, took a public position in Toronto politics by endorsing Richard Klagsbrun for Public School Trustee in Toronto's Trinity-Spadina district.

Skoll's eponymous Skoll Foundation is one of the premier catalysts for Social Entrepreneurship in the world and his Skoll Scholarship program has awarded millions in education grants. Among Skoll Foundation awardees is Sal Khan'sKhan Academy, whose highly effective methods Klagsbrun has proposed utilizing to a greater extent in the Toronto District School Board.

Said Skoll, "I have personally worked with educators in both Canada and the US at a systems level.  Amongst other partners in education, the Skoll Foundation has been a long-time supporter of Free the Children in Canada and the US and as such we have had great visibility into both country's systems.  While the Canadian system in many respects is superior to that of the US, both systems suffer from bureaucratic logjams.  It takes someone like Richard Klagsbrun, who is passionate, knowledgeable and fearless, to break these logjams and help our kids get the best possible education to prepare them for the modern world."

Klagsbrun was one of the first employees at Skoll's Participant Productions, where as a Strategic Planning and Creative Executive, he helped formulate the organization's unique model of tying social action campaigns to the company's films in partnership with legislators and social action groups.  That model is considered one of the main reasons of the tremendous success of Participant's Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

A writer and consultant who has been a fierce critic of the decline in standards in public education, particularly inToronto, Klagsbrun has been featured in national publications and as a television commentator.  He also served for a year as co-Chair of the School Council at Central Technical School, the largest school in Trinity-Spadina.

"We need a complete overhaul of the way education is delivered in Toronto's public schools, where our kids are becoming victims of a politicized curriculum,"  said Klagsbrun. "The current political establishment will only make things worse. The NDP is trying to impose a candidate on Trinity-Spadina who represents deplorable aspects of identity politics. She was a speaker at a rally that supported the terror group Hezbollah and at a pro-Marxist conference, and according to the University of Toronto newspaper, The Varsity, as a U of T union official, colluded in a corrupt investigation of a crooked student election. The other ward candidates have offered nothing but meaningless platitudes. This election is an opportunity for Trinity-Spadina voters to choose between real change or the dismal status quo."

Among Klagsbrun's other endorsers are author and CFRB radio host Tarek Fatah,  Harvard University professor Aurel Braun, broadcaster Michael Coren, and Toronto FC Goalkeeper Chris Konopka.

Added Skoll, "I have known Richard Klagsbrun for over 20 years and he is thoroughly knowledgeable and passionate about public education and the need to improve it. Ward 10 couldn't hope to have a better representative at the TDSB.  As education standards are declining and the curriculum is becoming increasingly politicized, Toronto needs Richard, who will fight for the next generation's right to an education that provides them with the tools they will need to succeed."

SOURCE Campaign for Richard Klagsbrun

 For further information: The Campaign for Richard Klagsbrun at voltaire@hotmail.ca, Website: www.klagsbrun.ca

Not the kind of education we hope for: London children as young as ten being 'trained to be junior jihadis,' warns Deputy Mayor

London children under the age of ten are being “trained to be junior jihadis” in a disturbing new sign of the growing extremist threat in the capital, City Hall’s policing supremo warned today. 

Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh said that the way some children were being radicalised was  “horrendous” as he revealed that both he and Boris Johnson have been briefed on cases in which primary pupils have been subjected to propaganda and “extremist ideology” by their families.

His comments, ahead of a counter-terrorism summit at City Hall today, came as a new report added to the concerns about terrorism by warning that at least 40 British fighters involved in the conflict in Syria and Iraq are likely to attempt “blowback” terrorist attacks when they return to this country...

More at the London Evening Standard 

The Gaza War in 5 Minutes: Thoughts from Col. Richard Kemp

A phony NATO flap

One would think from the recent media outburst regarding Canadian defence spending that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had endorsed the Iceland paradigm (no standing army) as Ottawa’s new security model.

The garment rending view with alarm was prompted by the recent NATO summit desire that NATO members spend at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product on the military.

Ho-hum. One recalls the cynical NATO definition, “No Action: Talk Only.”

There has never been a NATO defence review that didn’t call for greater spending by alliance members.

It has been NATO’s constant drumbeat for well over a generation.

NATO defence spending has never reached the objectives sought in its annual defence planning questionnaires, a review of every member’s military spending.

Then, as now, Canada spends significantly less on defence and security than objective reviews of its economy suggest is possible.

Hectoring simply doesn’t work.

Canada has not spent affordable amounts on defence since the Korean War (1950-53).

Essentially, Canada came to an implicit conclusion about defence spending.

That is, that it could never defend itself against a hostile USA, regardless of defence expenditures.

But that any other threat powerful enough to concern Canada would also threaten the United States — and it would have to address it and thus defend Canada.

Hence, Canada could be poorly defended at great cost or poorly defended at relatively little cost.

Actuarial assessment drove the conclusion money not spent on defence in Canada could be spent on social and health benefits.

Nevertheless, even minimal defence expenditures can be costly. And easily politicized.

It is useful to recall the disconnects between the three major Canadian political parties on this issue.

In contrast to the U.S., where Democrats and Republicans agree it should have the best defence/security forces and bicker only over how excessive expenditures should be, Canadian political parties are defined by their differences.

More HERE

h/t BC Blue

Sunday afternoon movie treat: Caesar and Cleopatra

From the play by George Bernard Shaw. Starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh.

Climate hysteric Michael Mann disavows his own résumé

From the fantastic Mark Steyn:

...the graph that has "absolutely nothing to do with Dr Mann" is listed on Dr Mann's own CV as one of his published works. And, when Mann's lawyers (John Williams and Peter Fontaine) state baldly that "Dr Mann did not create this depiction", he is, by his own admission, one of the co-creators of said depiction.

One is inclined to be generous. My old friend Irving Caesar, lyricist of "Tea For Two" and "Just A Gigolo", had a legendary Broadway flop with a show called My Dear Public. The reviews were scathing, and singled Caesar out particularly, as he was the show's producer, and lyricist, and co-author and co-composer. The following morning he bumped into Oscar Hammerstein and said, "So they didn't like it. But why pick on me?" That's Mann's attitude to the 1999 hockey stick he co-authored: So it's misleading and over-simplified. But why pick on me?

Justin Trudeau's deep thoughts...

Doug Ford taking over Rob's ballot spot throws a monkey wrench at the Tory and Chow strategies

The message from Toronto mayoral candidate John Tory was that he would be Rob Ford without the personal scandals.

Rob Ford's brother, Etobicoke Ward 2 Councilor Doug Ford, is Rob Ford without the personal scandals, right down to their shared DNA. Doug is neither a drinker or a partier and is every bit the fiscal conservative that Rob Ford is.

Tory, relying on Ford voters fed up with the mayor's antics to form the bulk of his support,  now is faced with voters having a new alternative as Doug replaced Rob as a mayoral candidate yesterday. With Rob Ford's unshakable support likely to stay in place for Doug, Tory will have to fight hard to keep his voter base from hemorrhaging to the Ford camp.

Olivia Chow faces the same problem with Doug Ford's entry into the mayoral race. Chow, who is childless, based her election platform on the inane mantra,  "Rob Ford is not a good role model for my grandchildren."

But Rob Ford isn't running for mayor anymore. Now the inarticulate, inept Olivia Chow will have to run on her merits, and being the widow of Jack Layton, as her steady decline in the polls suggest, isn't going to be nearly enough to make her a serious contender.

Chow may try to hammer away at Doug Ford for having stood by his brother Rob during his travails. Should she do that, it would likely backfire in a big way. All Chow attacking the elder Ford brother would accomplish would be to highlight that Doug is a loyal and devoted friend while Chow is not.

Less than a month ago, when Chow's top strategist Warren Kinsella sent out a foolhardy twitter "tweet" implying that John Tory was a racist, Chow immediately distanced herself from him in the most dishonest way possible. It was widely understood that Kinsella was running Chow's "war room"  rapid response team, yet Chow implausibly claimed that he was just "one of thousands" of her volunteers. (I won't go into the implausibility of Chow having "thousands" of volunteers for now.)

I'm not always a fan of Mr. Kinsella nor his tactics, but one thing that can be said in his favor is that while he is working for a candidate, he is fiercely passionate and gives it his all. Chow could have said that Kinsella was being over-enthusiastic, point out that he had already apologized for the tweet, and left it at that. But instead she insulted the intelligence of Toronto's voters by being obviously dishonest about Kinsella's role on her team, and threw a dedicated supporter of hers to the wolves.

Contrast that with Doug Ford, who stood by a campaign volunteer who stupidly assaulted a halfwit who decided to trespass at the Ford campaign office the other week. While the action of the volunteer was idiotic, the episode reminded people that Doug Ford is loyal to his supporters and Chow is not.

Beyond that, Chow's claim to restoring integrity to the mayor's office is belied by her continuing to lie about having lived in a federally-subsidized co-op apartment.

Election day in Toronto is six-and-a-half weeks away, on October 27. The only thing that's certain between now and then is that municipal politics in Toronto will have some interesting moments to come.

PM not an ‘entry-level job': NDP joins Conservatives in attacking Justin Trudeau’s credentials

EDMONTON — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair launched a spirited offensive Thursday against Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, echoing the governing Conservatives’ mockery of the inexperience of the man who leads opinion polls a year away from a federal election.

Mr. Mulcair, who has started framing the next election as a choice based on experience, riffed off of the “getting ready to lead” slogan used in the most recent Liberal ad.

“With just a year to go to the election, Canadians are being asked to sign another blank cheque to the Liberals. They won’t tell us what they’ll do, but they think it’s reassuring to tell us that their guy is getting ready,” Mr. Mulcair said...

Tarek Fatah: Prime Minister Harper of Canada was right – Islamism is a threat

“Islam is not a religion of peace. It’s not necessarily a religion of war, either, but it would be a lie to deny that its history and literature are seeped in armed jihad, assassinations and bloodshed that simply cannot be swept under a carpet.”

 

More HERE

Bernie Farber comes across as an idiot and a hypocrite

Former Canadian Jewish Congress boss and current attention-seeker Bernie Farber likes to characterize online writers who criticize his vacuous uttering as "bully bloggers."

Today, he tried to evoke an analogy between ailing Toronto mayor Rob Ford and neo-Nazis.

Irrelevance can breed a certain type of desperation in some people, but Farber's column in the city's chief advertising outlet for prostitution, NOW Magazine, is a particular low.

Bill Maher on Charlie Rose

Slow-down in blogging and weird Toronto International Film Festival audiences

Faithful readers of this blog will have noticed that there have been fewer posts as of late.

I am very grateful to all of my readers and want to let you know what's going on.

As many of you may know, I'm running for Public School Trustee in Toronto's Ward 10, so that's been placing additional demands on my time, and I had a pretty busy non-blogging life before that.

This week is also that of the Toronto International Film Festival and some of my industry friends have been in town and we've been catching up.

Film festivals in general are very strange, pretentious events and the Toronto festival, while not as bad as some, is no exception. And TIFF audiences are very weird.

A lot of people don't necessarily realize is that the vast majority of movies in film festival are absolute crap.

Movies go into festivals to try to create a buzz and sometimes get distribution and exposure.

If a movie is good, has wide distribution and appeal to more than niche audiences with low expectations, odds are it will already have a distribution deal and doesn't need festival exposure to get good press.

Sure there are exceptions, and some outstandingly so, but the odds are, when you see that movie that no one's ever heard of, there's good reason why no one has ever heard of it.

Toronto, the navel-gazing"World Class City," has the unfortunate, insecure habit of comparing itself to, and labeling itself whatever "North" when it is trying to seem important (e.g. "Hollywood North".. I mean really..does the New York film industry call itself "Hollywood East"? University of Toronto calling itself "Harvard North"...does Yale University call itself "Oxford West"?)

And TIFF audiences seem so thrilled to get a taste of Hollywood and sit in a now world-famous festival, that they will give a standing ovation to practically any piece of garbage that flickers on the screen in front of them.

And then there are the documentary audiences.

Documentaries are a regular feature of film festivals because that is more often than not the only time some of them will ever be seen.

But movies calling themselves documentaries these days frequently aren't really that, but polemics on film, that rather than document, cherry-pick information to try to reenforce a particular political point of view.

So, naturally the tend to only attract audiences already predisposed towards believing the argument they make, or in other words, they are just preaching to the converted.

Having been invited to some documentary premiers over the years, that 'preaching to the converted' term seems particularly apt for the weird TIFF documentary audiences. That's because, sitting among them, it felt to me like being in a secular tabernacle for fundamentalist nuts. One woman in her 60's sitting next to me kept saying a shocked "wow!' about every 12 seconds at a movie pontificating about an issue that is in the news every day. Other audience members were talking to the screen, as if they thought a digital projection of recorded images needed the endorsement of live people.

It's nights like that that make Netflix such an appealing alternative.

Anyway, that's what's been going on with me lately. I'll try to post from time-to-time still, but at least you know why there's been the slowdown.

There will be a very interesting endorsement of my TDSB Trustee campaign coming up in the next week or two, so stay posted. There's a great group who have already come on board!

Godwin's Law vs Klagsbrun's Law

Godwin's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism."

Klagsbrun's Law: "Anyone who claims to have won an argument by invoking Godwin's Law is probably an idiot."

Too much math education is based on pet theories

...In response to a petition signed by over 17,000 parents, the Alberta government included times table memorization in its curriculum this September. Manitoba added the same requirement one year ago but went a step further to include standard methods like long division and declared JUMP Math, developed by a Canadian charity, a recommended resource. The forward-thinking Winnipeg School Division, which is the largest division in Manitoba, will be adopting JUMP Math in many classrooms this fall. Last spring, Ontario Minister of Education Liz Sandals announced that children in Ontario should be required to memorize times tables, but the Ontario government has not taken formal action to ensure this...

Obama may be to western democracy what Gorbachev was to communism

The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens believes America will survive and thrive beyond the incompetence of the Obama administration. I'm inclined to agree, but two more years of the current leadership in the White House is deeply worrying.

Read Stephens' article on Obama's meltdown HERE

TDSB Counsel rejects TDSB Education Director Quan's politicized witch hunt of Trustee Sam Sotiropolous

Whether or not one agrees with TDSB Trustee Sam Sotiropoluos' opinion about transexuals, he is an elected official with a responsibility to represent his constituents and be forthright about his views. That is particularly true with a municipal election coming up in a matter of weeks. If his constituents feel he is wrong, they will soon have an opportunity to replace him, or alternatively endorse him if they agree.

Toronto District School Board Education Director Donna Quan, under whose influence the curriculum has become increasingly politicized, to (in my opinion) the detriment of every student in Toronto's public school system, seems to feel that her ideology should trump the right to free speech guaranteed in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Thank God we live in a country where she doesn't yet have her way. But with the conditioning that the TDSB's students are receiving, we should be very concerned about the future.

More at Socialist Studies

We Canadians may be all cute and furry, but don't mess with our territorial waters...

...The beaver approached Skerry, who said it seemed intent on attacking him.

“He was swimming much too close to me, and seemed to be zeroing in for a bite,” he said. “So I pushed him away with my flippers.”

The beaver obliged, and took up Mr. McNaughton as his victim. It pushed past Skerry, launched itself at McNaughton and sunk its teeth into him, ultimately gouging a 2-inch cavity into McNaughton’s thigh.

Initially unaware of the attack, and believing the beaver had only charged him, McNaughton realized the extent of the damage when blood began to surface.

“I looked into the water and saw all the blood,” Skerry said...

William Shatner on blogging

This was filmed just recently; last week recently at the Fan Expo in Toronto. I've seen Shatner in real life. He's 83 years old. He's frickin' 83 years old! What you see in the video is how he really looks. He's got to be the best looking, most vibrant 83 year old in the history of the planet. I mean this planet. Earth.

Michael Coren talks about terrorism and its enablers

Bee deaths must fuel focus on ecosystem

It’s as simple as the life-cycle lessons taught in elementary schools: The plants grow flowers; the bees, the butterflies and other creatures pollinate the plants.

Fruit is produced, feeding other creatures, and the cycle goes on.

Take the bees out of the mix, and it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out there’s a problem.

Out of the hive and into a courtroom comes an environmental crisis that dares to shake the fragile ecosystem and, some say, ultimately jeopardize the food supply.

This week, Canadian beekeepers launched a $450-million class-action lawsuit against seed/insecticide companies Bayer and Syngenta. With London law firm Siskinds LLP leading the charge, the apiarists allege that neonicotinoids, a family of pesticides applied as a coating on corn and soybean seeds and now banned by the European Union, is killing bees at an alarming rate...

'Eminent' prof of Gender and Sexuality studies pleads guilty to sex with underage boys overseas

...Walter Lee Williams, 65, admitted engaging in illegal sexual contact with minors in foreign places, entering the plea during a brief appearance before U.S. District Judge Phillip S. Gutierrez.

As part of a plea, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend that the onetime eminent professor of gender and sexuality studies serve no more than five years in a federal prison. He also would be subject to 10 years supervision upon release and must pay $25,000 in restitution to his seven victims. Williams will be sentenced Dec. 15...

The media rats are abandoning Olivia Chow's sinking ship

You know Olivia Chow has serious problems when even The Toronto Star, which practically dragooned her into entering Toronto's mayoral race in the first place, has now all but abandoned her campaign.

From The Star's Royson James today:

Olivia Chow is in trouble. The candidate for mayor is not connecting with voters. Her campaign appears disjointed and out of ideas that inspire. The entire enterprise is out of steam, crumbling just when it must soar...

...A reasonable calculation concludes it will take a miracle to salvage an unimaginative, lacklustre seven-month campaign seven weeks from voting day.

As Toronto turns its attention to the contest for mayor, post-Labour Day as anticipated, desperation has replaced smug confidence among the supporters of the candidate who led the polls for some six months.

More than one poll now positions Chow in third place among decided voters...

And this from The Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee:

...the problem with Ms. Chow’s campaign goes beyond policy and even politics. Her personal performance on the public stage has been lacklustre.

Jewish Museum murder suspect was ISIS captor and torturer in Syria

A freed French hostage has claimed that one of the Islamists who held him captive in Syria was the suspect in the Jewish Museum shooting in Brussels.

Nicolas Henin told Le Point magazine that Mehdi Nemmouche regularly tortured captives in Syria in 2013.

Four people were shot dead in the attack at the museum in May this year.

Mr Nemmouche was arrested in France shortly afterwards and extradited to Belgium for questioning. He faces a hearing on his detention next week...

Actor Bill Murray's in Mayor Rob Ford's corner

..."I haven't met him personally, but he's running again, he's running right now, but he's in the lead, right?" Murray said.

Upon learning that the incumbent mayor is actually in second place according to latest polls, he said, "Well, he's still got a shot at it. You know, sometimes, St. Paul was a tough guy for a long time and he turned out OK. I hope the best for Rob Ford."

The 63-year-old star, cool as a cucumber, also encouraged people to celebrate his special day in a more chilled way.

"I think they should just take it easy on themselves a little bit," he said. "I think they should just realize we're just flawed from tippy-toe, so rather instead of reacting, just watch a little bit and look at ourselves without any kind of judgement."

U.S teen arrested for writing story about shooting pet dinosaur

Alex Stone's school year is off to a rough start. The South Carolina teen was arrested on his second day of school on Aug. 16 after writing in an assignment about shooting his neighbour's pet dinosaur with a gun he bought to "take care of business."

The 16-year-old was charged with disorderly conduct and suspended for several days in the wake of a confrontation with school authorities.

Stone told a local television news station in Summerville that students had been instructed to write a few sentences about themselves as though it were a Facebook status update. Stone said he wrote a fictional story about killing his neighbour's pet dinosaur and that he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

His teacher obviously did, because the school's authorities were notified and police were called. Stone's school bag and locker were searched and police say the student was "irate" when school officials were asking him about the assignment. He was placed in handcuffs and was later charged because of his behaviour, not because of what he wrote, according to police. 

Stone's lawyer calls the arrest "absurd," in a statement on his website, and said he looks forward to defending his client in court. "This is a perfect example of 'political correctness' that has exceeded the boundaries of common sense," David Aylor said.

The Dismal State Of Public Education: Ontario Education Minister Admits Some Teachers Can't Do 3rd Grade Math

...when teachers go to OISE to study Marxism, critical race theory, and radical gender politics, it kind of pushes some important stuff (such as the knowledge of how to multiply two-digit numbers together) out of their brain...

More at Socialist Studies

It's Obama opposite day!

The fabulous Joan Rivers - dead at 81

Goodbye and farewell

They don't hate the Jews because of Israel, they hate Israel because of the Jews

At Cornell University, the anti-Israel crowd lets the veil fall to reveal their anti-Semitic hatred.

The weirdest and funniest dash-cam road rage video you'll ever see

Only in Russia!

Indian states on alert after al Qaeda announces India wing

India ordered several states on Thursday to be on increased alert after al Qaeda announced the formation of a wing of the militant group in India and its neighbourhood, a senior government official said.

In a video posted online, al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahri promised to spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the "Indian subcontinent".

The government believes it is authentic and has warned local governments, said an official who attended a security briefing in which the video was discussed with the home (interior) minister.

"This matter has been taken very seriously," the official told Reuters. "An alert has been sounded."

However one feels about Rob Ford, his transit plan makes more sense than Tory's or Chow's

Ford's Transit Plan is about "subways, subways, subways!"

Toronto is growing and the city will need subways to handle that growth.

And like it or not, subways aren't something you can wait until you need them to start building. We need to start now in order to prepare for the obvious, coming requirements for the future.

It turns out that between Rob Ford, Olivia Chow and John Tory, Ford's plan is the most visionary.

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford is rolling out his subway-heavy transit plan on Wednesday.

The eight-page "Toronto Subway Expansion Plan" was posted briefly on Ford's campaign website before his announcement and shows the embattled incumbent will be continuing his "subways, subways, subways" mantra in the lead up to the Oct. 27 election.

Ford is proposing to build 32-kilometres of subway at an estimated cost of $9 billion. Those numbers include burying the 8.2 km stretch of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT that would run at street level in Scarborough.

Gender Politics And Radical Activism In The Math Curriculum

The use of mathematics curriculum to push ideology has been going on for some time in the Toronto District School Board.  Wrote Richard Klagsbrun (Ward 10 TDSB candidate) two years ago:

The so-called social justice aspects of the curriculum frequently reflect a subjective and highly politicized interpretation of the word “justice”. As such, the way it is approached needs a very serious review, and in my opinion a complete overhaul.

More at Socialist Studies

Crowded, chaotic classrooms hurt Ontario full-day kindergarten push

Some full-day kindergarten classes in Ontario are crammed with as many as 40 students, so many that the children can’t fit on their classroom carpet for group time, raising questions about the Liberal government’s ambitious program.

As Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government rolls out full-day kindergarten to all schools this fall, documents obtained by The Globe and Mail through freedom-of-information legislation show the Ministry of Education has been inundated with complaints from parents and educators about large classes impeding learning.

Ontario has staked its reputation on the success of the program, even though critics have characterized it as an expensive form of government-subsidized daycare that the Liberals, facing a $12.5-billion deficit, can ill afford... 

Phew!..I'm glad I managed to stay off this list again this year...

Naked Mole Rat

Top 10 World's Ugliest Animals

h/t  @CatWhispurrer

The self-loathing of the British Left

It’s often been observed that a certain type of British Lefty hates Britain – and that they reserve particularly hatred for Englishness. Back in 1941 George Orwell made this acute remark:

England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution.

So what’s new? The difference today is that this shame and self-hatred now dominates Left-wing thought, whereas it was once balanced by the decent Left: who were proud to inherit the noble traditions of radical English patriotism.

Evidence for this disease is all around us...

Ziohass in the Toronto Star

Scaramouche's letter exchange with The Toronto Star.

Yeah, this Toronto Star.