The jokes keep coming at the 2012 White House Correspondents` Dinner

My strange Israeli Independence night

About a dozen years ago, a friend of mine who was then president of a north Toronto Synagogue said that Stephen Harper had come to speak to the congregation and had impressed them with his strong commitment to the security of Israel. My friend said the young political leader was markedly sincere about a friendship based on the shared values of Canada and the middle east`s sole liberal democracy.

Years of ethnic pandering by the Trudeau and Chretien Liberals, who would make all the right noises to whichever minority they were addressing at the moment, while meaning very little of what they said, made it easy to be cynical about a politician professing any such commitment. Now, six years after Stephen Harper became Canada`s Prime Minister and almost a year into his first majority government`s term, nobody doubts that sincerity.

The absolute seriousness of the bond between Canada and Israel was strikingly evident in the speech delivered by federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver at a Yom Ha`atzmaut (Independence Day) celebration hosted by Toronto`s Israeli Consulate at the Liberty Grand Ballroom at Exhibition Place on Thursday night.

The cavernous, quasi-palatial venue was filled with over a thousand luminaries from the local political, diplomatic, business and social worlds. And somehow I got invited, probably the same way Hrundi V. Bakshi got invited to the party in that eponymous movie. After a mostly cloudy, intermittently wet morning and afternoon, the clear sunny early evening was too beautiful to waste in a car, so I roller bladed town to the complex near Dufferin Street and the lake shore. Fortunately the evening was cool enough so that, despite wearing a suit, I wasn't all sweaty on my arrival, unlike the circumstances of my last appearance on Sun TV's The Arena with Michael Coren.

Remarkably, I was the only person to have travelled there that way, providing a bit of a surprise to the security people and the coat check girls. The invitation I received said it was a desert reception, and in retrospect, using a travel method requiring exercise for the trip home proved to be a good idea, given the calories I packed on in the three hours of the gathering.

There must be only one decent kosher desert caterer in Toronto because the assortment of mini cheesecake tarts with three blueberries on each, the iced cake balls impaled on sticks, the lemon meringue tarts and a variety of other carbohydrate laden items looked extremely familiar. In fact, I would be surprised if I don't see them again at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center's Spirit of Hope debate and fundraiser at the end of May.

There was a surprisingly palatable kosher red wine, full glasses of which kept finding their way into my hand. A friend of Jewish Tribune reporter Joanne Hill, who was there covering the event, had the temerity to ask me how many I'd had, necessitating an etiquette reminder that one doesn't ask such questions in polite company.

And the company was indeed polite despite the assortment of characters ranging from mushy Liberal censorship advocate and rumoured-to-be new Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Bernie Farber to Mark Steyn fan and uber-Zionist blogger Laura Rosen Cohen. Plus there was a healthy smattering of citizenry from around the world with consulates in Toronto representing their nations.

Outgoing Consul General Amir Gissin looked almost Hefneresque as he was flanked on stage by two very attractive, young, shapely, short-skirted consular officials while delivering his speech and presenting awards to local philanthropists. As it turned out, the beautiful consular employees were more than just eye candy. The Consulate's Communications Director, a stunning blond named Natalie Weed, was an articulate, poised mistress of ceremonies for the presentation. Her onstage female colleague, Cultural Affairs Director Simone Blankstein, who spoke briefly, was equally impressive. She is a raven-haired beauty who wore a frilly, low-cut, high-hemmed frilly black dress that made her look like a Bond girl dressed by the wardrobe mistress on a Gothic Tim Burton movie. Frankly, I don't remember much of the awards, because the two female presenters were far more appealing than the recipients and my empty wine glass was making me impatient for an opportunity to escape. There was a noteworthy, unusual moment when Astral Media's Sidney Greenberg declined to speak after being presented with a totem pole shaped, glass mosaic award statue.

Consul Gissin's  remarks combined an emotional personal farewell, a celebration of Israel, and a heartfelt expression of affection towards the Canadian government which has become Israel's best friend and most steadfast supporter.

The affection was enthusiastically reciprocated by Joe Oliver, who spoke on behalf of the government and described the Canadian relationship with Israel in the most effusive terms. His speech was much more than the usual tribute to a friendly nation. It reflected an understanding possessed by leaders in a world besotted by undemocratic Islamic radicalism that remains elusive to an archaic media and educational hierarchy  - that democracy  requires vigilance in the face of implacable enemies. While Canada is firmly committed to the defence of liberal democracy, Israel stands guard on the front line of a battle that is far from over.

That idea is a significant component of the new reality of Canada's relationship with Israel. The academic and media domination by useful idiots devoted to a neo-Marxist world view who see Israel as a "capitalist, imperialist outpost in the Middle East" is starting to give way to the sensibilities that the truth presents. The enmity towards Israel was an outlook that was and is promoted by the likes of radical dinosaurs such as Judy Rebick, who has admitted in a biography that her and her fellow travellers' activism is as much as anything else motivated by their own emotional and psychological deficiencies.

But Rebick and her outdated bigotry didn't make the invitation list on Thursday, and the evening was one of pure celebration.

After it was over, with my roller blades retrieved from the coat check and back on my feet, I snaked my way through the city's streets. Loud music and a friendly vibe made me pause outside a funky, very narrow bar on Spadina south of Richmond Street with what I assume is the ironic name Wide Open. A voluptuous blond woman in her 20's who had stepped outside for a cigarette decided she should help me to a bench because she thought I looked unsteady on my wheels. I wasn't, but I took the help anyway because as a matter of principle, if hot blond women want to take hold of me and guide me somewhere, I think it makes sense to say 'yes.'

She suggested I come inside the bar, and as a corollary to the aforementioned principle, I took her advice, and the night just got stranger from there. All-in-all, it was a rather entertaining Yom Ha'atzmaut in Toronto.

Motel Hell: the camp horror classic you have to see!

Here it is, you lucky people - the whole movie in a beautiful HD print -

"Meat is meat, and man's gotta eat"

One of the weirdest horrors ever made..Farmer Vincent is putting a secret ingredient in his sausages to give them that special flavor. Enjoy!

The Dilemma of Mark Steyn

Government intrusion into our most basic rights was the meat and potatoes of the buffet of opinions, oratory, evangelizing and musical theatre presented by Mark Steyn and friends last night at his Steynamite show at the Toronto Convention Centre.

Readers of the National Post know that its columnist and editor Jonathan Kay is witty and insightful, but his introduction of Steyn was a reminder of his comedic gifts. And comedy was the medium through which the clarion call for defense of free speech was delivered throughout the two hours of the event. That indeed was Kay's explanation for Steyn's ability to convey his blunt, controversial and necessarily insensitive messages to the public - that rare ability to make people laugh while hearing about matters both serious and disturbing.

Sun TV's Krista Ericson and Michael Coren added to the levity with their interpretive dance gestures spoofing Ericson's infamous contentious interview with Canadian performance artist Margie Gillis prior to Steyn taking the stage.

The large hall was filled to near capacity with Steyn fans and they got everything they came for and more. Steyn, a native born Torontonian (like Omar Khadr, as he pointed out) had the audience simultaneously outraged and guffawing at local, national and international government abuses of individual rights through so-called Human Rights mechanisms. He spoke of the kangaroo courts that subjected hapless citizens to years of turmoil and exorbitant legal costs over frivolous cases. One of the most egregious examples he gave was of the St. Catherine's health club owner who was brought before the Ontario Human Rights Commission because he wouldn't let a pre-op transsexual woman, meaning he/she still had a penis, use the woman's changing room. Even more outrageous was the case of an Ontario Bar owner who was brought before a the Human Rights Commission for not allowing a customer to smoke medical marijuana in the bar, while at the same time being told by the Liquor Licensing Board that he would lose his license if he did allow it.

Steyn's scatter-gun attacks on censors, social engineers, totalitarians and hypocrites inside the government and out hit an array of targets including "Hatefinder General" Richard Warman, Muslim wife beaters, Sharia law proponents, and those who practice genital mutilation along with their stupid western enablers. Among the additional victims of Steyn's ire were the Immigration form required for travelers entering the United States, the ridiculous gang of hypocritical misfits called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, and plenty of others.

The essential point of Steyn's sermon, delivered both as a lecture and in song parodies, was that by trying to make society more "civil" through restriction of free speech and free thought and the loss of individual property rights, the medicine is 1000 times worse than the disease.

The message he delivers, particularly in the ironic and thought-provoking way he presents it,  is one that is critical for the generation coming of age in Canada and the west to hear.

And that's where the dilemma of Mark Steyn lies. There's a great moment in the TV cartoon series Family Guy where Peter Griffin shows up at a party riding an elephant and says to his wife, "Hey look, Lois, here are the two symbols of the Republican party, an elephant and an overweight, middle-aged white guy who's afraid of change."

Looking around at the audience at Steynamite, I didn't see any elephants. But it was also clear that Steyn and his cohorts spent an evening preaching to the converted. The people most in need of the message weren't there to hear it.

Another dilemma that Steyn presents is the way that some of  his admirers interpret him. One of his core messages is that while racism is bad, but depriving people of their ability to express any thought, even a deplorable one, goes against the fundamental principles of individual liberty which provide the bedrock of western civilization. Unfortunately, a few too many of Steyn's audience seem to be under the impression that being needlessly racist is somehow striking a blow for free expression.

One of the most important points of the night came up during the brief question and answer session at the end. A woman asked what people can do in their daily lives to protect the freedoms that are government is consistently eroding. The answer that Steyn and Michael Coren provided was an interesting one. They noted that even if governments change, social engineers in our civil service and education bureaucracies are so deeply immersed that acting to reform them is extremely difficult. Deprivation of liberty is something that has become embedded in our culture, and so we have to act to change culture so that popular attitudes and eventually laws will follow.

That presents a massive challenge. But with great talents like Steyn and others tackling it, this challenge may yet be overcome.

This is why CBC is actually useful on occasion

Today, April 24, on CBC radio's webstream, it all Gordon Lightfoot day.

Hook up the big speakers to your computer and enjoy a day of tunes from Canada's best singer/songwriter. 


(If the link doesn't take you right there, go into the web radio stations tab, click genre streams, and it's right on top today)

Last chance to get seats for Steynamite

My all-time favorite podcast is a tribute to one of the greatest film composers by a man who is known primarily as a cantankerous political and social commentator. Mark Steyn and guests like David Arnold and Tim Rice provided a remarkably entertaining, informative retrospective and commentary on the works of John Barry, who wrote the music for most of the James Bond films and other classics like The Lion in Winter, Born Free and many more.

Music, as far as I know, is not on the agenda for Steynamite tomorrow at the Toronto Convention Centre, where Steyn will do what he's known for best - talk about the decline and fall of western civilization. Steyn will be joined by Sun TV host and author Michael Coren for a strictly non-musical duet of straight-up, politically incorrect talk which is ironically billed as "Mark Steyn violates your human rights."

The irony being that such talk isn't a violation, but an assertion of human rights, those being the most basic rights of free speech and free thought, which Canada's political and social elites have been eroding for the last 35 years.

You can still get tickets for Steynamite through this link. Do it now, before what you hear there does become a Canadian thought crime!

Jane Fonda doing a striptease in space

For some reason, this seemed about right for a cloudy Sunday morning:

The Elephant in the Classroom

On the basis of legal decisions and relatively recent traditions, Christianity and the Bible in particular are informatis non grata in Canadian schools. The reasoning behind Christianophobia derives from equity policies that strive to remove preferences accorded to what are seen as dominant, privileged forces. People familiar with the system understand that "equity" policies are not designed to create equality. If that were the case than the word Christmas would not be banned from December school "Holiday Concerts" while  celebration of Hanukkah, Eid, Diwali, and a variety on non-Christian holidays are classroom topics. Equality would not prohibit Christian school prayer while allowing school cafeterias to be converted to gender segregated mosques during class time.

So in practical terms, the goal of school Equity policies is clearly not to remove all religion from school, but to take Christianity, the dominant religious force in Canada since the nation's inception, down a peg or two while trying to raise the beliefs of oppressed minorities. At least minorities who are viewed as being in the oppressed class within the framework of the oppressor/oppressed binary equation by which radicalized education policy makers view the world.

But here's the problem with taking the Bible out of schools: you can't really understand anything about western civilization, be it history, literature, politics or culture, without a reasonable familiarity with the Old and New Testaments. Writers like Shakespeare, Melville, Dickens, Twain, C.S. Lewis, even Mordecai Richler and Margaret Atwood cannot be fully understood without familiarity with the Bible. European, and by extension, Canadian and American history, as well as the conquest of New Spain cannot be understood without knowing the religious conflicts that drove events forward, based on differing interpretations of the Bible.

The value system and to a great extent the legal system upon which Canada was founded is based on principles and ideas expressed in the King James translation of the Bible.

But school children are not allowed to be taught that all-important key to knowledge in public schools for fear that they may actually believe what they read.

If only the texts in university courses that produce education policy makers were scrutinized as closely. If they were, we might not have the idiocy that prevails in school boards throughout this land.



Thanks to SDAMatt for the video

Terrorist applies to come to live in Canada

Islamist terrorist and convicted murderer Omar Khadr has officially applied to be transferred to Canada from Guantanamo May.

If you have concerns about an unrepentant and probably non-rehabilitatable killer living in Canada, you can email Public Safety Minister Vic Toes at Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

Bob Rae's next moves will determine whether Canada's Liberal Party sinks or swims

On of the interesting facets of the distortions of reality put forward out of political partisanship is that the politicians who speak them seem to have no idea how badly they can backfire.

Liberal leader Bob Rae's recent claim that the New Democratic Party's new supremo Thomas Mulcair is a "mini-Harper" could be just one of those watershed indicators of just how much trouble Canada's "natural governing party" is in these days.

Canada's federal Liberals used to be the New York Yankees of politics. They were in government more than any other political party in a democracy during the 20th Century. They managed that through a combination of factors, including the good luck to face weak and divided opposition parties for many years. But the one thing that spelled success for them most was their positioning themselves as centrists.

That has changed in the last few years since the defeat of Paul Martin's government in 2006 by current Prime Minister Stephen Harper. If centrism was their defining characteristics, then power was their defining motivation. It worked to the Liberals' advantage that while their opponents of the left and right were hampered by guiding ideologies and principles that prevented them from being too flexible in what they could promise voters.

The Liberals felt no such constraints and would tell audiences whatever they wanted to hear, often contradicting themselves from message to message. The justification being that they were the most capable and sensible party, therefore if the public had to be misled in order for them to be sensibly governed, so be it. That was the thought process behind outright campaign lies, like Pierre Trudeau's promise not to impose wage and price controls when he ran against Bob Stanfield, (and broke that promise within weeks of being elected)  or his forcing an election to supposedly fight Joe Clark's proposal for an excise tax on gasoline, and then, once elected,  rapidly impose a higher one than Clark had proposed. And who could forget Jean Chretien's infamous campaign lie that he would abolish the GST?

These are tough days for the Liberals. After Martin's palace coup against Chretien, they have struggled to find that centrist voice and abandoned the territory to a shrewd Conservative leadership. Somehow, the leadership of the Liberal Party has deluded itself into thinking that most Canadians despise the Harper Conservatives as much as they do. That comes across in just about everything they say, and as part of their fantasy that Harper represents the "far right wing," the Liberals have positioned themselves out of the centre into a leftist stance that has alienated them from their natural voting base.

The two Liberal leaders before Rae proved the folly of that approach, and he seems to have learned little or nothing from their failures. Stephane Dion's "Green" policies and his own "not up to the job" image led to a major defeat for the party. It wasn't just Michael Ignatieff's inability to connect with voters, but his show of taking the Liberals further to the left that resulted in their worst defeat ever, putting them for the first time in 3rd party status.

Now, by calling Mulcair a "mini-Harper," Mr. Rae seems to be flailing about positioning the Liberals to even the left of the socialist New Democrats.

So how can the Liberals correct the disastrous course on which they are currently headed?

They obviously, and with good reason, fear that Mulcair has the image of an intelligent leader who is going to move the NDP to a more centrist and for voters, more palatable position.

That may be true for Mulcair, but Bob Rae needs only to draw upon his experience as the first NDP Premier of Ontario to know that Canada's socialist party has no bench strength beyond the leadership, and that their ineptitude and radicalism are fertile grounds for attack.

Mulcair has surrounded himself with incompetents like Libby Davies, who embraces 9-11 conspiracy theorists, violent radicals, and anti-Semitic forces out to destroy Israel. He has Joe Comartin, who associates with Khomeinist hatemongers like Zafar Bangash and George Galloway. Add to the mix, Peggy Nash who shows no capacity for economic management and a host of other embarrassments, and that is what the real NDP has to offer. And this represents the top of the party. One doesn't have to go much further down the list until you get to the NDP's inept Miss Las Vegas.

If Bob Rae and the Liberal Party want to reposition themselves for Canadian voters, he needs to turn off the left turn signal and realize that he is not going to successfully rebuild the Liberals and  differentiate himself from Stephen Harper by leading a party that is more radical than that of Libby Davies.

If this is true, then Mel Gibson is crazier than anyone ever realized

Basic Instinct screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, once the highest paid screenwriter in the world, and Mel Gibson, who once wasn't thought of as the craziest person in Hollywood, are embroiled in a very public spat.

Gibson has decided not to proceed with Eszterhas' script for The Maccabees, the story of the biblical hero Judah Maccabee and the Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greeks. Eszterhas says the reason is because Gibson hates Jews and the project was just a smokescreen. Gibson says the project is on hold because Eszterhas' script sucks.

Where things get really weird is the 8 page letter Eszterhas made public through the Hollywood gossip site The Wrap, in which he alleges aside from Gibson being a crazed anti-Semite, he is prone to hysterical, uncontrolled outbursts of anger that seem mild compared to the South Park parody of the Braveheart star.

Among other claims made by Eszterhas, Gibson blurted out things like (in reference to ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva) "I want to f**k her in the a** and stab her to death while I'm doing it." and plenty more

More on the feud here and see Gibson's response to Ezterhas here.

North Korean slaves held in Russian gulag labor camps

Vice TV did this expose on the shocking, ongoing use of North Korean slaves in Russia.

The late, great Mike Wallace

The Apocalypse must be coming!!

Could this be the sign that the reign of man on earth is ending?  I can't think of another explanation for why Heather Mallick has written another column in the last year that isn't characteristically completely bat sh*t crazy.

First she was quite reasonably opposed to the sexism of the Valley Park Middle School Mosqueteria.

And now she actually agrees with federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney about the need for immigrants to have command of one of Canada's official languages, as well as saying that charges should be dropped against an Indian restaurant owner in Toronto who threw spices at a thief.

But perhaps we can breathe a little easier knowing not all the signs of the End of Days is yet upon us.  Comfortingly, Haroon Siddiqui is still as stupid as ever.

Is Canada finally going to get sane immigration policies?

From the Globe and Mail:

“It frustrates the hell out of me,” the Immigration Minister told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board on Wednesday. “We're bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the country to end up, many of them, unemployed or underemployed in an economy where there are acute labour shortages.”

...Ottawa wants to transform the immigration system within a year and a half to allow international companies and Canadian professional organizations to assess the education and credentials of any would-be newcomer. Under the new system, employers, not bureaucrats, will decide who comes to Canada.

“Employers are going to do a much better job at selection than a passive bureaucracy,” he said, “because they can’t afford to recruit people to come to Canada who can’t work at their skill level on arrival.”

Bad police work, a rock solid alibi, and an ID based on a facebook picture

Lizz Aston of Toronto was stuck with a $3000 legal bill after being charged based on being fingered by a barroom brawler from a thumbnail facebook photo on a bar's "like" page.

According to the Toronto Star,

The Nov. 19 incident at The Piston (a bar on Bloor Street West in Toronto) began when two couples were involved in a dispute over a coat. Several blows were struck...

On Jan. 5, after returning from a visit to Cuba with her boyfriend, Aston received an email from an officer pointing out that the victim identified her as the woman who struck her.

The first clue of sloppy police work could have been that Aston was notified that she was a suspect by email.

According to the Toronto Sun, Aston said:

“I told the officer I was at an art opening for a friend, then went home with my boyfriend because he injured his knee. We stayed in for the rest of the night and I did research on the computer for an art installation I was working on. The officer didn’t care ... I don’t think the police looked into it further.”

Aston said, the officer “read me my rights. I was searched, finger printed and processed.”

She retained a lawyer “had numerous court dates and spent thousands of dollars to right this wrong.”

Eventually, the charges, filed by Const. Kristal McCullough of 14 Division, were dropped, but not after an arrest, fingerprinting, a number of court appearances, and a legal bill that Aston had deal with.

The Toronto Sun's Joe Warmington has accused the Toronto Police of outright lying in trying to cover up their incompetence in this case.

Toronto's Police have a hard job, but when a few bad police shirk their responsibility to tell the truth and damage public confidence by trying to cover up their ineptitude, it makes the job harder for all of them.

UPDATE: Toronto Police seem to be spending more time arresting innocent people than criminals. The question is whether this is a result of police laziness or stupidity. (update h/t Blazing Cat Fur)

NDP Leader Mulcair flip-flops on marijuana decriminalization

More here

It's an interesting world where NDP leader Mulcair is siding with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on this issue while Liberal Leader Bob Rae is on the same side as TV evangelist Pat Robertson

Save the EnviroPigs!!

Genetically modified Canadian pigs that poo less phosphorus, and make less pollution, are on the chopping block, literally, as no government has approved it for human consumption. According to the New York Times, "The 16 pigs in the herd, some of them representing the 10th generation of transgenic animals, will be killed."

Isn't there a petting zoo or wildlife farm that can take in the little porkers, dubbed EnviroPigs, who were engineered by adding E. Coli bacterium and genetic material from a mouse?

And speaking of Canadian pigs on the chopping block, it seems 650 jobs at the CBC are going to be axed as a result of cuts coming from the new government budget.

The weird look of crime in Orlando

It was just a minor open container charge
but I feel a lot safer knowing I won't
run into this guy at a Black Mass

Arrested for Grand Theft - anything less would be ironic

Orlando, Florida Station WKMG regularly publishes mug shots of people arrested locally.

This must be as big a tourist attraction for them as Walt Disney World

Arrested for prostitution:
"Arrgh, matey! I'll shiver yer timber
fer half a doubloon!"

"Are you lookin' at me funny?"

This guy (above) is my favorite..if you're going to intentionally
make yourself permanently look like The Riddler (below), you have to expect
the cops (or Batman) to pick you up

It saves criminal identification time when you wear police tape as a fashion accessory 

"C'mon - I needed the money to get my spaceship repaired so
 I can return to my home planet"

Now which Star Trek episode do I remember her from?

"You may not recognize me, which is why
I always carry an American Express Card..
and have words tattooed all over my face"

It might help your criminal career not to
advertise that you're a heroin dealer on
your forehead

And they come in women's versions too!

That giant neck tattoo sure makes it easy to pick 'em out of police line-ups

The Liberals are in big trouble when they have to resort to this

Canada's federal Liberal party hasn't had much to cheer about since Jean Chretien retired, so they can be forgiven for using any excuse they can find, no matter how minor, to boost their spirits.

Justin Trudeau's amateur boxing victory over Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau provided such an excuse this week. Trudeau deserves credit for beating the boastful Brazeau with his fists, while maintaining an uncharacteristic dignity and modesty outside the ring during the lead-up and aftermath of the event.

But the Liberal Party never seems to miss an opportunity to overplay its hand and make itself look stupid in the process..

Financial Post's Lawrence Solomon praises bloggers for telling the truth about Global Warming

The world would have to drastically realign its outlook if the three countries with the world's largest oil deposits were the United States, China and Israel. That realigned world may be ours in less than a decade if new technologies can fulfil expectations of exploiting known oil shale deposits.

At the Advocates for Civil Liberties' Canada and the New Middle East conference last week, Financial Post columnist Lawrence Solomon discussed the amazing possibilities presented by newly developed technology that can produce fuel from oil shale at $40 per barrel. Within as little as five years, these deposits may be fully actualized, meaning energy self-sufficiency and profits for countries like the US and China, which have the world's largest and second largest identified oil shale deposits. For countries like Israel that ranks 3rd with it' deposits amounting to as much as 500 billion barrels, there is the potential to become one of the world's major petroleum exporters.

The result would be a massive shake up of the Middle East's geo-political reality. Oil prices would likely plummet, and middle eastern countries ruled by despots propped up by oil revenues would see their economies collapse along with those nations' social cohesion.

Islamist terror is for the most part funded by oil revenue, particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia. In a unsavoury deal between two devils, Saudi Sheiks fund Wahhabi Islamic extremism abroad as a form of protection pay-off that sees their rule at home face little challenge. Iran uses its petro-dollars to fund its Revolutionary Guard Corps that brutalize the domestic population and proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah who engage in terrorist activities throughout the middle east and Latin America.

If oil shale from the US, Canada, which also has major deposits, and other free countries becomes a major source of energy and revenue, it would see the leaders of countries like Venezuela and Iran without the means to stir up trouble outside their borders, while having to face new ones within them.

The new reality posed by this development makes it all the more clear why environmental groups are so closely aligned with groups who advocate for Iran and are so sympathetic to Islamists. They have common interest in trying to sabotage the West's ability to achieve energy independence.

One of the interesting aspects that the Financial Post's Solomon observed is that while much of Global Warming alarmism is a sham, you would never know that from reading most mainstream media, like Canada's most popular dailies the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. If one had to rely exclusively on those media, one might not realize that there are as many climate scientists (as opposed to fruit fly geneticists) who disagree as agree with the theory that global warming is the result of human activity.

Solomon noted that it is actually through blogs that the most accurate and balanced information about Global Warming science is available. It must be that bloggers are less intimidated by the prospect of falling into disfavour from the likes of Al Gore and David Suzuki. Of course, bloggers generally have less to lose, as they are already unlikely to receive invitations to caviar and champagne parties at Sundance, so the threat of having them withdrawn is not particularly intimidating.