More of these at The Pin up art
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Separating the personal from the political with Rob Ford
A news leviathan that dominated today's headlines across Canada was confirmation, from Toronto's Police Chief Bill Blair, of the existence of the elusive Rob Ford "crack video."
It would be pointless to argue the authenticity of the video. Anything can be faked, but the apparent efforts of associates of Toronto's Mayor to procure the video suggests it was not a fabrication concocted by special effects experts.
That's the bad news for supporters of the embattled chief magistrate.
But for Torontonians who fear the demise of their only mayor to show demonstrable concern for fiscal accountability in over a generation, there is in fact a great deal of good news to counterbalance today's revelations.
Barring some new shocker, there will not be any charges against Ford, and quite reasonably so. A video with a man smoking a pipe with a puff of smoke coming out of it is not conclusive proof of any criminal wrongdoing.
Ford has said he's not resigning. And there's something that the ecstatic media buzzards that despise Ford have forgotten in their current euphoria; the next municipal election is a year away.
A year is an eternity in politics.
Ford has kept property taxes down to the rate of inflation, as he promised. He eliminated the Municipal Vehicle Registration Tax, as he promised. His influence has managed to get federal and provincial funding for subway expansion, as he promised. Ford has saved millions and improved garbage pick-up for half the city by privatizing that service, as he promised. Because the municipal unions knew he would play hardball, Ford was able to negotiate a fair contract with them, staving off any strike. That in stark contrast to his predecessor David Miller who forced the city to endure a prolonged, fetid garbage strike in the hottest months of the summer of 2009. At a point where the length of the strike would have forced union workers subsisting on strike pay to negotiate a deal more favorable to the city, Miller completely capitulated to the unions.
Miller is relevant to any current discussion about Ford. Because if one of Ford's presumptive rivals gets into office, like the straw man candidate David Sonacki, Miller's Budget Chief, to whom all of Toronto outside of the offices of The Toronto Star remain indifferent at best, a return to the fiscal ineptitude and high taxes of the previous administration is virtually guaranteed.
The orgy of sanctimonious revelry at The Toronto Star over the disclosure of the existence of the Ford video will probably turn out to be short lived.
Ford lied about the video. But in terms of lying, The Star also lied about Ford, when during his mayoral campaign, the newspaper published false accounts of Ford having physically assaulted a high school football player he was coaching. Even after the alleged victim of Ford's non-existent assault denied it ever happened, The Star still did not print a formal retraction of their lie.
And we all know that the public is not as inclined as partisan media and partisan politicians to become histrionic about politicians lying about events in their personal lives. Indeed, a hysterical overreaction to personal foibles can backfire in a big way against the people trying to exploit it.
Newt Gingrich thought he had Bill Clinton on the ropes after the lies the former President told about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But in the end, it wasn't the President, but Gingrich, who lost his job. The Speaker of the House role was taken away from Gingrich after the charge he led plummeted the GOP into a disastrous performance in midterm elections, when the public rejected their exaggerated hysteria about the Clinton affair.
Toronto's media mavens have been scrambling over each other to demand the crucifixion of Ford, whose indiscretions have cost taxpayers nothing. Yet strangely, most of them have remained complacent and silent about the billions of tax dollars wasted by the corruption Kathleen Wynne's provincial government.
The public are not as stupid and oblivious to that hypocrisy as the media might hope.
The milquetoast, mushy middle Councilor Josh Matlow and leftist Councilor Joe Mihevc both rushed today to exploit the news about the Ford video to their advantage. That is the same Mihevic whose incompetence and mismanagement of the St. Clair streetcar fiasco cost the city tens of millions only to see a neighbourhood divided, no discernible improvement in transit service and increased traffic congestion in his ward.
"It pains me to see the City of Toronto in the situation we currently face," Mihevic gloated about Ford. No more, I can assure you, than it pained me to see a $40 million project mushroom to over $120 million largely because of Mihevic's ineptness.
A year from now, when Torontonians go back to the polls to select their mayor, the Rob Ford video may or may not be on their minds. But so too will the high taxes, the incompetence, and the paternalistic arrogance of David Miller and his acolytes on City Council. Knowing that horrible stewardship of the city, and union-bosses' and developers' domination of City Hall would return if one of Ford's potential rivals like Olivia Chow, David Sonacki or Karen Stintz should replace him will also be on the minds of voters.
Which weighs more heavily on Toronto's voters in the fall of 2014 remains to be seen. But I wouldn't count out Rob Ford yet. Not by a long shot.
It would be pointless to argue the authenticity of the video. Anything can be faked, but the apparent efforts of associates of Toronto's Mayor to procure the video suggests it was not a fabrication concocted by special effects experts.
That's the bad news for supporters of the embattled chief magistrate.
But for Torontonians who fear the demise of their only mayor to show demonstrable concern for fiscal accountability in over a generation, there is in fact a great deal of good news to counterbalance today's revelations.
Barring some new shocker, there will not be any charges against Ford, and quite reasonably so. A video with a man smoking a pipe with a puff of smoke coming out of it is not conclusive proof of any criminal wrongdoing.
Ford has said he's not resigning. And there's something that the ecstatic media buzzards that despise Ford have forgotten in their current euphoria; the next municipal election is a year away.
A year is an eternity in politics.
Ford has kept property taxes down to the rate of inflation, as he promised. He eliminated the Municipal Vehicle Registration Tax, as he promised. His influence has managed to get federal and provincial funding for subway expansion, as he promised. Ford has saved millions and improved garbage pick-up for half the city by privatizing that service, as he promised. Because the municipal unions knew he would play hardball, Ford was able to negotiate a fair contract with them, staving off any strike. That in stark contrast to his predecessor David Miller who forced the city to endure a prolonged, fetid garbage strike in the hottest months of the summer of 2009. At a point where the length of the strike would have forced union workers subsisting on strike pay to negotiate a deal more favorable to the city, Miller completely capitulated to the unions.
Miller is relevant to any current discussion about Ford. Because if one of Ford's presumptive rivals gets into office, like the straw man candidate David Sonacki, Miller's Budget Chief, to whom all of Toronto outside of the offices of The Toronto Star remain indifferent at best, a return to the fiscal ineptitude and high taxes of the previous administration is virtually guaranteed.
The orgy of sanctimonious revelry at The Toronto Star over the disclosure of the existence of the Ford video will probably turn out to be short lived.
Ford lied about the video. But in terms of lying, The Star also lied about Ford, when during his mayoral campaign, the newspaper published false accounts of Ford having physically assaulted a high school football player he was coaching. Even after the alleged victim of Ford's non-existent assault denied it ever happened, The Star still did not print a formal retraction of their lie.
And we all know that the public is not as inclined as partisan media and partisan politicians to become histrionic about politicians lying about events in their personal lives. Indeed, a hysterical overreaction to personal foibles can backfire in a big way against the people trying to exploit it.
Newt Gingrich thought he had Bill Clinton on the ropes after the lies the former President told about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But in the end, it wasn't the President, but Gingrich, who lost his job. The Speaker of the House role was taken away from Gingrich after the charge he led plummeted the GOP into a disastrous performance in midterm elections, when the public rejected their exaggerated hysteria about the Clinton affair.
Toronto's media mavens have been scrambling over each other to demand the crucifixion of Ford, whose indiscretions have cost taxpayers nothing. Yet strangely, most of them have remained complacent and silent about the billions of tax dollars wasted by the corruption Kathleen Wynne's provincial government.
The public are not as stupid and oblivious to that hypocrisy as the media might hope.
The milquetoast, mushy middle Councilor Josh Matlow and leftist Councilor Joe Mihevc both rushed today to exploit the news about the Ford video to their advantage. That is the same Mihevic whose incompetence and mismanagement of the St. Clair streetcar fiasco cost the city tens of millions only to see a neighbourhood divided, no discernible improvement in transit service and increased traffic congestion in his ward.
"It pains me to see the City of Toronto in the situation we currently face," Mihevic gloated about Ford. No more, I can assure you, than it pained me to see a $40 million project mushroom to over $120 million largely because of Mihevic's ineptness.
A year from now, when Torontonians go back to the polls to select their mayor, the Rob Ford video may or may not be on their minds. But so too will the high taxes, the incompetence, and the paternalistic arrogance of David Miller and his acolytes on City Council. Knowing that horrible stewardship of the city, and union-bosses' and developers' domination of City Hall would return if one of Ford's potential rivals like Olivia Chow, David Sonacki or Karen Stintz should replace him will also be on the minds of voters.
Which weighs more heavily on Toronto's voters in the fall of 2014 remains to be seen. But I wouldn't count out Rob Ford yet. Not by a long shot.
Rob Ford on crack is still better than Olivia Chow on whatever she's on that makes her want to waste public funds
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says he has the Rob Ford "crack video".
However Blair confirmed there is nothing in the video that would form the basis to lay criminal charges against Ford.
Frankly, I don't care. Ford is doing a good job keeping city finances in order and ensuring public funds aren't squandered the way it was under his predecessor David Miller and the way his rivals would should they get the opportunity.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Ewww! Microscopic images reveal details of how a tick bites its victim
Thanks, Live Science, like I really needed to see this...
I\'m not sure if I should link a science item about ticks with sex, but what the heck?... Study finds sex is better exercise than a walk, but not quite as good as a jog.
I\'m not sure if I should link a science item about ticks with sex, but what the heck?... Study finds sex is better exercise than a walk, but not quite as good as a jog.
Reform, Iranian style: Actress jailed 18 months for criticizing government
The Chicago Film Festival is currently showing Ahangarani’s latest film, “Darband,” about a university female student who becomes the roommate with a young woman wrestling with financial problems.Tuesday’s report by the pro-reform Shargh daily quoted Ahangarani’s mother, Manijeh Hekmat, as saying the actress has been sentenced to 18 months.
She said it is unclear who filed the complaint against Ahangarani, but noted the charges including “action against national security and links to foreign media.” Ahangarani can appeal the ruling.In reaction to the verdict, many movie-lovers quickly joined a cyber-campaign urging authorities to reconsider.
Shortly after Rowhani’s election victory, Ahangarani asked him at a public meeting to appoint a culture minister who would be able to deliver promises on “freedom of thought and expression.” She also said “incompetent” officials were the country’s “biggest enemy.”
The amusing transformation of a penguin into a snowboarding astronaut cat
Author David Thorne recounts the steps and reasons why the cover for his book I'll Go Home Then; It's Warm And Has Chairs - The Unpublished Emails started as this:
And ended as this:
And ended as this:
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
"This is my time"? It might be time to realize your York University degree and $3.95 is worth exactly one latte at Starbucks
Blogwrath reports on the latest incidents of organized anti-Semitism at Toronto's York University.
Scaramouche has more
Amid corruption allegations, union members want to know how dues money is spent
OTTAWA - Union funds used to rebuild a biker strip club, false expense claims sometimes totalling $4,000 in a day for a single executive and plenty of connections between top union officials and organized crime. These are just some of the shocking revelations to come out of Quebec's Charbonneau Commission into corruption in that province.
The allegations might also explain why union bosses have fought so hard against disclosure laws that their members support in droves.
More HERE
Monday, October 28, 2013
The good 'ol Japanese dinosaur in the office building prank
When your country is in constant danger of getting mashed by Godzilla, you learn to take dinosaur threats seriously:
Messing up Global Warming predictions, Antarctic Ice Cover reaches new high
WINTER sea ice cover in the Antarctic has grown to its largest extent since satellite records began in the late 1970s, defying most climate models and muddying the waters of the global warming debate.
The latest data from NASA's satellites shows the winter sea ice cover around the frozen continent reached a record 19.47 million sq km last month. That beats last winter's 19.44 million sq km -- itself a record.
According to NASA, it is 3.6 per cent higher than the average maximum between 1981 and 2010, with the sea ice cover in Antarctica growing at 1.5 per cent a decade.
The data runs contrary to the projections of many climate-change models. It also contrasts with observations of this year's Arctic summer minimum sea ice extent, which America's National Snow and Ice Data Centre says was about 30 per cent below levels seen in the early 1980s.
More at THE AUSTRALIAN
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Baird: "We must stop child marriage"
"The simple principle that a woman should be able to choose whom and when to marry is an absolute given in this country. But the sad reality around the world is that millions of girls as young as eight or nine years of age are forced into marriage every year. Some suggest the number could be as high as 38,000 per day, which adds up to a staggering 9.5 million a year. This is utterly wrong, and we have a duty to say so."
More HERE
Someone should tell this to the people at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, who are pushing the idea that adult sexual attraction to children is normal.
It amazes me that there are people who actually take Russell Brand seriously
I like Russell Brand, but the guy is a comedian. I think the best joke he's ever managed to pull is to get political wonks to take the crazy stuff he says seriously. However, insofar as there are those who do, this column in The Spectator deals effectively with Brand's newest lunacy:
..The strangest thing of all is that nothing Brand said on Newsnight is remotely new or interesting. It has always been fashionable to want to chop down the tree in the revolutionary-despotic manner because trimming it effectively (reform/voting) is slow, tedious and unglamorous. And who doesn’t know that there are vast inequalities in the world and that it is in the interests of certain people for things to remain that way? (Those who have looked into this will also be aware that ‘the system’ has dragged 20 million people out of poverty in the past two decades, many of whom understand a bit about revolution).
I certainly believe in a more equal society; which is why I suggest that, if we’re going to have a revolution, we begin with Brand’s new $2.224 million dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills.
But seriously, the central objection to Brand’s desire for ‘revolution’ and ‘an egalitarian system’ is familiar to anyone who has read their George Orwell: how can complete equality become a reality without force? And if there is to be an enforcer, what is in place to make sure that person remains equal to everyone else?
h/t Terry Galvin
Desperate to find new causes of offense, Halloween costume enrages the perpetually offended
Some people find the "Anna Rexia" costume so offensive they want to make sure that no one can buy it anywhere!
Which invites the question, why are there so many stupid people with so much time to waste.?
Or is that self-explanatory?
The costume is available HERE. Ironically, the only remaining size is large.
Which invites the question, why are there so many stupid people with so much time to waste.?
Or is that self-explanatory?
The costume is available HERE. Ironically, the only remaining size is large.
Friday, October 25, 2013
I didn't know there was a specific day for celebrating incompetence and hypocrisy
HAPPY UNITED NATIONS DAY!
Mitch Wolfe predicts Harper will emerge from the Duffy scandal stronger than ever
Mitch Wolfe in the Huffington Post:
After news that Harper intervened in Mike Duffy's expense scandal, I watched CBC's "The National" with Peter Mansbridge. Mansbridge was positively gleeful. He was practically wetting himself with excitement as he reported how Duffy had implicated Harper.
Finally Mansbridge and the CBC had Harper, the bane of CBC's existence, on the proverbial ropes.
But if you look at the facts objectively, rather than through a visceral anti-Harper prism, it becomes clear that Harper is blameless. I predict the prime minister will ride out this Ottawa-centric media blip. And emerge stronger and more politically powerful than ever.
More HERE
The Educrats' 'politically correct' War on Halloween
With David Menzies discussing Halloween and political correctness in the education system:
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The War on Halloween is political correctness run amok
David "The Menzoid" Menzies will be filling in for Michael Coren on Sun News' The Arena tonight.
He and I will discuss the current war on Halloween and the histrionic political correctness that has led to the weird mentality prevailing in the education system.
This article is an example of what we'll be mocking. (h/t Blazing Cat Fur)
He and I will discuss the current war on Halloween and the histrionic political correctness that has led to the weird mentality prevailing in the education system.
This article is an example of what we'll be mocking. (h/t Blazing Cat Fur)
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
5 Surprising Facts About the Oarfish That Has Been Washing Up on Beaches
2. Giant oarfish tastes like gelatinous goo.
Not a lot is known about the conservation status of giant oarfish because they have rarely been observed alive, although fishermen do occasionally pull them up in nets as unwanted bycatch.
People have tried eating them, but “their flesh is flabby and gooey,” according to a NOAA website.
More at National Geographic
And speaking of critters,
Two New Species of Mysterious Scarab Beetles Found in Southern Africa
What Churchill Can Teach Us About the Coming Era of Lasers, Cyborgs, and Killer Drones
By P.W. Singer:
There's a famous (though, as with all great quotes, perhaps apocryphal) line attributed to Mark Twain that is often quoted as a guide to world leaders: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
With that quote in mind, for the last year I've been taking an informal poll of the joint chiefs who lead the U.S. military, asking each of them what period in history they think provides the most apt parallel to today. Interestingly, every single one of them has answered the same: the early 1990s, when the United States sharply pared back its military spending and drew down the personnel size of its armed forces following the collapse of the Soviet Union. These experiences were both painful for the military of that time (side note: most of the joint chiefs were midcareer officers at that time) and in many ways haunted the military a decade later in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the force had to be re-expanded as well as regain many skills and technologies that had atrophied in a procurement holiday.
More at Foreign Policy
Czech Artist Gives Commies the Finger
A Czech artist known for his anti-communist stance has floated a huge statue of a hand making an obscene gesture on Prague's main river.
David Cerny's none-too-subtle artwork was paraded days before parliamentary elections that could give the Communists a taste of power almost a quarter-century after they were ousted.
Palestinian government praising Hitler and terrorists: Why Israel feels it needs settlements in the West Bank to maintain its security
Among the dilettantes who dabble in the extremely complex issue of the Israeli/Palestinian/Arab is the canard that the main obstacle to peace is Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Yes, it is a problem. And there is most certainly an unproductive, extremist attitude among many of the settlers.
But it is a problem that arose from the lethal aspirations towards Israelis held not just by "the street" of Israel's foes but at the highest levels of Arab governments.
Officials in governments of hostile Arab countries and among the Palestinian authority frequently issue platitudes towards peace in English to appease the western media and politicians, while spewing murderous, genocidal rhetoric in Arabic for their own populations.
This week, in Palestinian peacemaking, we have two interesting items.
A Palestinian Authority-linked youth magazine, with the Authority's Deputy Minister of Education on its Advisory Board, has published a list of "sayings of wisdom" claimed to be from Adolf Hitler.
Also, the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Religious Affairs has publicly praised arch-terrorist and Hamas-founder Ahmed Yassin as an "exalted national Palestinian figure," an "icon," and that Palestinian children are taught about his "legacy, Jihad, actions, and morality."
Now, if those aren't confidence builders for peace, what is?
h/t Marvin W.
Yes, it is a problem. And there is most certainly an unproductive, extremist attitude among many of the settlers.
But it is a problem that arose from the lethal aspirations towards Israelis held not just by "the street" of Israel's foes but at the highest levels of Arab governments.
Officials in governments of hostile Arab countries and among the Palestinian authority frequently issue platitudes towards peace in English to appease the western media and politicians, while spewing murderous, genocidal rhetoric in Arabic for their own populations.
This week, in Palestinian peacemaking, we have two interesting items.
A Palestinian Authority-linked youth magazine, with the Authority's Deputy Minister of Education on its Advisory Board, has published a list of "sayings of wisdom" claimed to be from Adolf Hitler.
Also, the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Religious Affairs has publicly praised arch-terrorist and Hamas-founder Ahmed Yassin as an "exalted national Palestinian figure," an "icon," and that Palestinian children are taught about his "legacy, Jihad, actions, and morality."
Now, if those aren't confidence builders for peace, what is?
h/t Marvin W.
"It was a busy weekend for Nothing to Do with Islam"
Mark Steyn:
More HERE
h/t BCF
The "war" part of the war on terror is pretty much over, and we're now fighting it culturally, rhetorically. Which is not something we do well. Take the British prime minister and his traditional nothing-to-do-with-Islam statement, issued in the wake of the Kenyan shopping-mall carnage:
These appalling terrorist attacks that take place where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion: They don't. They do it in the name of terror, violence and extremism and their warped view of the world. They don't represent Islam, or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world.
More HERE
h/t BCF
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Frank and Marty's Halloween Songs
My buddy Martin Gladstone and his partner Frank Caruso will be singing some spooky songs this Friday night at Statlers Lounge on Church Street in Toronto
Foreign influences pushing radical First Nations to domestic terrorism
Worse than foreign environmental groups, the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism has in recent years been making inroads with radical First Nations groups and individuals.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
OISE's Bodies at Play symposium proliferated more faddish nonsense to the school system
A floor of aged, fading, wood-panelled rooms in the University of Toronto's austere, century-and-a-half old University College seems like an incongruous choice to house something called The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. If the decision to place it there was intended to scare away any Victorian-era ghosts lingering in the Gothic structure, what has replaced them is even more terrifying. The college is now haunted by purveyors of poorly-conceived "Grievance Studies" subjects, such as "anti-oppression theory," for which post-secondary diplomas are awarded and its graduates are dispatched to public schools to proliferate.
On Saturday morning, The Centre, along with the University's politicized teachers' training faculty, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), presented a symposium on childhood education and sexuality called "Bodies at Play."
The symposium provoked a controversy for its choice of keynote speaker, James Kincaid, a professor from the University of Southern California. Kincaid has written a number of books which postulate the highly contentious idea that adult sexual attraction to children is normal, or as he expressed in his book Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting,"..most adults in our culture feel some measure of erotic attraction to children and the childlike; I do not know how it could be otherwise."
The TV evangelist and president of Canada Christian College Charles McVety launched a petition and unsuccessful campaign attempting to bar Professor Kincaid's entry to Canada based on the incorrect assertion that Kincaid promoted pedophilia. However, Kincaid has never advocated for sex between adults and children, and has in fact condemned it.
For more serious critics, the issue was not alleged pedophilia on the part of Kincaid. The rancor his hypothesis stimulated is because it is filled with erroneous, unproven assumptions that may indeed give "aid and comfort" to those who see sex between adults and children as acceptable. Making matters worse was that the conference was to be provided to public school teachers of those young children who could easily fall prey to victimizers encouraged by what they perceived as approbation from Kincaid's theories.
The choice of the speaker and subject matter were even more bizarre and problematic, in that co-presenter OISE had only recently been the subject of unwanted attention when one of its senior academics, Ben Levin, was arrested on charges of producing child pornography, for which he is yet to be tried.
Tall, elderly, yet spry and impish, James Kincaid is affable, witty, intelligent and articulate. His ability to engage with an audience and the seeming speed with which his 45 minute speech breezed by suggests he is probably a very good professor.
All of what he said was well thought out, and most of it was rather uncontroversial. But much of it was of a nature that many would find disturbing if it was absorbed by your child's Grade 1 teacher and affected their approach to their students.
Aside from minimizing the threat of sexual abuse to children when describing the demonization of eroticizing children, he argues that the danger is exaggerated in part "to anchor the dubious notion of the nuclear family," and is "a conservative effort to maintain national unity."
Kincaid projects on society an "obsession with kids and sex," then poses the question of why do that and yet simultaneously be fixated on preserving their innocence.
He asked, "how can the sexual attraction (of adults to children) be both freakish and ubiquitous?"
The flaw in Kincaid's position became quite clear through the types of examples he provided to establish the supposed ubiquity of that attraction. Some of the examples he listed were more than a trifle creepy in that he was projecting eroticism onto popular images of children that most people would never think of in that way, and then extrapolating that erotic loading onto our entire culture.
A Professor of English Literature, Kincaid based his premise on the idea that the modern concept of the child was only invented during a period of European Romanticism and developed to its current state throughout the Victorian and contemporary periods. Based on the examples he provided as "proof" of his theories, it became obvious, to me anyway, that Kincaid's opinions on "the child" and child abuse are not derived from any evidence based in science, like biology or psychiatry, or on a wider survey of law enforcement statistics, but came almost entirely from a review of literature and popular culture.
I had a chance to speak to Professor Kincaid over a coffee immediately after his talk and asked him if his ideas were derived primarily from a literature review. Not only did he acknowledge that they were, but he seemed genuinely pleased that someone recognized his sources.
I mentioned to him some of the aspects of biology and zoology that differentiates adults from children in the animal world, as indeed we have them in humans in the development of facial hair in males and enlarged breasts in females. In some species certain spots or markings alter, in an evolutionarily developed signal the young transmit to adults to indicate they were not ready for mating until those changes have occurred.
Professor Kincaid said he was not aware of that.
It was quite odd to hear this. It's as if someone were basing an overview of 1950's culture entirely on reading Catcher in the Rye and watching the TV shows Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy.
I liked James Kincaid. He seems like a very nice man. Many of us would find his ideas silly, wrong, and distasteful, but he comes to them from honest beliefs. The shameful aspect, if there is one, to his engagement by the organizers of the Bodies at Play symposium is not Kincaid's but theirs.
His views would be entirely appropriate at a philosophy symposium, or one for psychology or English literature. But OISE, which is notoriously pushing a hyper-sexualized curriculum, was completely irresponsible in presenting theories in a symposium for teachers that could in any way be interpreted as validating adults' sexual attraction to children.
Kincaid noted the over-inflated fear that our culture has about children being molested by strangers. He correctly noted that most sexual abuse of children comes from people they know; from relatives and friends. The one category of frequent abuser he omitted from his list was in the room.
It would take a lot of space to list the many high-profile cases of educators abusing their authority and position to sexually abuse children we have seen in the news lately. As people in the legal and law enforcement professions know well, that abuse by teachers happens far too often.
Overwhelmingly, public school teachers are deeply committed to the well-being of children and are reasonably intelligent, capable people. But the particular type of teacher that would be attracted to the Bodies at Play symposium and the faddish pedagogical nonsense which is characteristic of OISE's ideological biases is not going to be the sharpest crayons in the box, so to speak.
The conversations I heard among the teachers attending the event did nothing to dispel that concern.
No, the Bodies at Play symposium was not a "Yahoo! Let's celebrate pedophilia event" as the Bonham Centre's Director, Brenda Crossman, used as an example to dismiss the alarm of TV evangelist McVety. It was, however, another example of OISE finding a way of disseminating to the public school system more of its unscientific, inane ideologies that in the end diminish children's education and place them in harm's way. And in some ways, that's almost as bad.
On Saturday morning, The Centre, along with the University's politicized teachers' training faculty, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), presented a symposium on childhood education and sexuality called "Bodies at Play."
The symposium provoked a controversy for its choice of keynote speaker, James Kincaid, a professor from the University of Southern California. Kincaid has written a number of books which postulate the highly contentious idea that adult sexual attraction to children is normal, or as he expressed in his book Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting,"..most adults in our culture feel some measure of erotic attraction to children and the childlike; I do not know how it could be otherwise."
Professor James R. Kincaid |
For more serious critics, the issue was not alleged pedophilia on the part of Kincaid. The rancor his hypothesis stimulated is because it is filled with erroneous, unproven assumptions that may indeed give "aid and comfort" to those who see sex between adults and children as acceptable. Making matters worse was that the conference was to be provided to public school teachers of those young children who could easily fall prey to victimizers encouraged by what they perceived as approbation from Kincaid's theories.
The choice of the speaker and subject matter were even more bizarre and problematic, in that co-presenter OISE had only recently been the subject of unwanted attention when one of its senior academics, Ben Levin, was arrested on charges of producing child pornography, for which he is yet to be tried.
Tall, elderly, yet spry and impish, James Kincaid is affable, witty, intelligent and articulate. His ability to engage with an audience and the seeming speed with which his 45 minute speech breezed by suggests he is probably a very good professor.
All of what he said was well thought out, and most of it was rather uncontroversial. But much of it was of a nature that many would find disturbing if it was absorbed by your child's Grade 1 teacher and affected their approach to their students.
Aside from minimizing the threat of sexual abuse to children when describing the demonization of eroticizing children, he argues that the danger is exaggerated in part "to anchor the dubious notion of the nuclear family," and is "a conservative effort to maintain national unity."
Kincaid projects on society an "obsession with kids and sex," then poses the question of why do that and yet simultaneously be fixated on preserving their innocence.
He asked, "how can the sexual attraction (of adults to children) be both freakish and ubiquitous?"
The flaw in Kincaid's position became quite clear through the types of examples he provided to establish the supposed ubiquity of that attraction. Some of the examples he listed were more than a trifle creepy in that he was projecting eroticism onto popular images of children that most people would never think of in that way, and then extrapolating that erotic loading onto our entire culture.
A Professor of English Literature, Kincaid based his premise on the idea that the modern concept of the child was only invented during a period of European Romanticism and developed to its current state throughout the Victorian and contemporary periods. Based on the examples he provided as "proof" of his theories, it became obvious, to me anyway, that Kincaid's opinions on "the child" and child abuse are not derived from any evidence based in science, like biology or psychiatry, or on a wider survey of law enforcement statistics, but came almost entirely from a review of literature and popular culture.
I had a chance to speak to Professor Kincaid over a coffee immediately after his talk and asked him if his ideas were derived primarily from a literature review. Not only did he acknowledge that they were, but he seemed genuinely pleased that someone recognized his sources.
I mentioned to him some of the aspects of biology and zoology that differentiates adults from children in the animal world, as indeed we have them in humans in the development of facial hair in males and enlarged breasts in females. In some species certain spots or markings alter, in an evolutionarily developed signal the young transmit to adults to indicate they were not ready for mating until those changes have occurred.
Professor Kincaid said he was not aware of that.
It was quite odd to hear this. It's as if someone were basing an overview of 1950's culture entirely on reading Catcher in the Rye and watching the TV shows Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy.
I liked James Kincaid. He seems like a very nice man. Many of us would find his ideas silly, wrong, and distasteful, but he comes to them from honest beliefs. The shameful aspect, if there is one, to his engagement by the organizers of the Bodies at Play symposium is not Kincaid's but theirs.
His views would be entirely appropriate at a philosophy symposium, or one for psychology or English literature. But OISE, which is notoriously pushing a hyper-sexualized curriculum, was completely irresponsible in presenting theories in a symposium for teachers that could in any way be interpreted as validating adults' sexual attraction to children.
Kincaid noted the over-inflated fear that our culture has about children being molested by strangers. He correctly noted that most sexual abuse of children comes from people they know; from relatives and friends. The one category of frequent abuser he omitted from his list was in the room.
It would take a lot of space to list the many high-profile cases of educators abusing their authority and position to sexually abuse children we have seen in the news lately. As people in the legal and law enforcement professions know well, that abuse by teachers happens far too often.
Overwhelmingly, public school teachers are deeply committed to the well-being of children and are reasonably intelligent, capable people. But the particular type of teacher that would be attracted to the Bodies at Play symposium and the faddish pedagogical nonsense which is characteristic of OISE's ideological biases is not going to be the sharpest crayons in the box, so to speak.
The conversations I heard among the teachers attending the event did nothing to dispel that concern.
No, the Bodies at Play symposium was not a "Yahoo! Let's celebrate pedophilia event" as the Bonham Centre's Director, Brenda Crossman, used as an example to dismiss the alarm of TV evangelist McVety. It was, however, another example of OISE finding a way of disseminating to the public school system more of its unscientific, inane ideologies that in the end diminish children's education and place them in harm's way. And in some ways, that's almost as bad.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Rex Murphy on Canada's "genocide" hucksters
...From native protestors and spokespeople there is a vigorous resort to current radical jargon — referring to Canadians as colonialist, as settlers, as having a settler’s mentality. Though it is awkward to note, there is a play to race in this, a conscious effort to ground all issues in the allegedly unrepentant racism of the “settler community.” This is an effort to force-frame every dispute in the tendentious framework of the dubious “oppression studies” and “colonial theory” of latter-day universities.
Then there is also an even more deplorable effort to frame the interactions between Canadians and Canada’s aboriginal peoples as a genocide — an accusation both illiterate and insulting...
Read the whole column at NATIONAL POST
Plus, check out: Selling a fake Canadian "genocide" for fun and profit
David Suzuki has an important new ally in the battle against man-made climate change!
Liars or Idiots? Take your pick to describe John Greyson and Tarek Loubani on their return to Canada
It sounds like it could be a scene from some of the incoherent, taxpayer-financed, homoerotic drivel that John Greyson tries to pass off as "film making." Two dark, lean men, after release from the sweaty confinement of a crowded prison cell, find themselves adulated to the point where they have to towel each other off following a series of sloppy tongue-baths from fawning interviewers.
That scenario did not spring from another dreadful John Greyson screenplay. It was instead scripted by the shallow, uncritical, vapid personalities in Toronto's mainstream news media as they fell over one another to verbally fellate the two Canadians who were imprisoned in Egypt as a result of their own recklessness and stupidity.
Over the last few days, John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have presented to the media what appears to be a well-rehearsed explanation for their presence at a Muslim Brotherhood riot in Egypt that resulted in their arrest, and an unconvincing depiction of themselves as "social justice" activists and humanitarians. Sickeningly, the open-mouthed "journalists" at the CBC and CTV gobbled with absolute credulity everything the pair of extremists offered.
Fortunately, most Canadians are a good deal more insightful than their "intellectual and moral superiors" in mainstream news media who decide what the news is and how it should be carefully filtered to the lesser, non-media public. And a good thing too, because Greyson and Loubani's tale of their Egyptian woes, just like any other John Greyson script, doesn't make any sense.
When asked what they were doing at the protest that led to their arrest, Loubani and Greyson say that they "misread" the situation and that they thought the protest wouldn't have turned violent.
The protest they decided to "observe," the one that they got caught up in and were arrested for attending, was a declared Muslim Brotherhood "Day of Rage." So Lubani and Greyson would have us believe they thought they would participate in that as-of-yet unheard of phenomenon, a non-violent Muslim Brotherhood Day of Rage??
It seems like a particular type of journalist was chosen to conduct interviews with the fanatical duo. Not all journalists at the CBC and CTV are bubbleheads, but did any of the ones selected to question Loubani or Greyson challenge them on what should have been an obvious canyon of implausibility in their tale?
Not a single one.
One can only speculate whether some prearranged agreement with the media to whom they spoke stipulated that any challenge to their unlikely story was off the table.
It's well worth noting that if Greyson and Loubani are to be taken at their word, it means that pair who are fixated with the issue of Israel and Palestine do not, by their own admission, know much about the geopolitical situation in the region around the subject of their pathological obsession.
That's very, very significant.
Because the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma cannot be rationally understood outside the wider context of the much larger Arab/Israeli conflict. So evidently, the idiots Greyson and Loubani have embroiled themselves in a campaign to demonize Israel without any comprehensive understanding of the issue as a whole. That would make them completely typical of most of the vapid characters so embroiled in anti-Israel campaigns.
Oh, wait! As they have insisted from interview to interview, Greyson and Loubani are pro-Palestine but most definitely are not anti-Israel.
In that, they are telling another lie.
The only apparent method Greyson has ever chosen to promote Palestinian national self determination is to try to destroy Jewish national self-determination.
Short of murdering an Israeli child by bashing its head against a rock, a method of activism favored by some highly regarded "pro-Palestinians," it makes one wonder where that enigmatic line is that separates what a deluded character like Greyson does from being anti-Israel. He is a leader of the depraved bigots calling themselves Queers Against Israeli Apartheid that promote the vile slander accusing Israel of being an apartheid state. He hypocritically subjects Israel to double standards and a form of vilification he reserves for no other nation in the world. Greyson has supported a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel that many in even the genuine pro-Palestinian camp regard as transcending the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Exactly what Greyson has done for Palestinians that does not exclusively manifest as demonization of the Jewish State is something more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster, which at least some people claim to have seen.
Loubani's assertion that aid is desperately needed in Gaza is outright ridiculous.
The "desperate" need for aid to Gaza that a lie that narcissistic activists use to justify their adventures as low-risk conflict tourists. Gaza has markets abundantly filled with a variety of foods, luxury malls, fine-dining restaurants and five-star hotels. There is abject poverty in Gaza, but there is also abject poverty in Chicago, Bangladesh and Guadalajara. And unlike impoverished Asians and Latin Americans, the Palestinians are the second highest per capita recipients of international aid in the world, next only to the war-torn Republic of Congo. As far as the "starving Palestinians" go, it is a well known medical fact of which Loubani is or should be aware that Palestinians, including in Gaza, have one of the highest global obesity rates.
Loubani claims Gaza is under "occupation." The occupation ended in 2005. Instead of using the removal of Israeli troops as an opportunity to build a peaceful and prosperous society, Gaza responded with an incessant barrage of missiles against Israel, which have provoked periodic responses. The "siege" Loubani claims Gaza is under is actually a blockade, which would end if the Palestinians stopped shelling Israel and unequivocally recognized its right to exist.
But Gaza, under its rulers Hamas, has done neither of those things as they steadfastly cling to their anti-Semitic Charter which calls for the genocide of Jews. Among its hateful degeneracy which borders on the comical, Hamas actually posits international conspiracies between Jews, Freemasons and (believe it or not!) The Rotary and Lions Clubs.
There is so much that is untrue and absurd in Greyson and Loubani's account, it could take enough space to fill a dozen blog postings.
The most regrettable part of this is that it is to blogs and only one of our national media organizations one needs to look to find the truth about those radicals, since they won't even be asked hard questions by the so-called journalists at Canada's tax-funded state broadcaster.
That scenario did not spring from another dreadful John Greyson screenplay. It was instead scripted by the shallow, uncritical, vapid personalities in Toronto's mainstream news media as they fell over one another to verbally fellate the two Canadians who were imprisoned in Egypt as a result of their own recklessness and stupidity.
Over the last few days, John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have presented to the media what appears to be a well-rehearsed explanation for their presence at a Muslim Brotherhood riot in Egypt that resulted in their arrest, and an unconvincing depiction of themselves as "social justice" activists and humanitarians. Sickeningly, the open-mouthed "journalists" at the CBC and CTV gobbled with absolute credulity everything the pair of extremists offered.
Fortunately, most Canadians are a good deal more insightful than their "intellectual and moral superiors" in mainstream news media who decide what the news is and how it should be carefully filtered to the lesser, non-media public. And a good thing too, because Greyson and Loubani's tale of their Egyptian woes, just like any other John Greyson script, doesn't make any sense.
When asked what they were doing at the protest that led to their arrest, Loubani and Greyson say that they "misread" the situation and that they thought the protest wouldn't have turned violent.
The protest they decided to "observe," the one that they got caught up in and were arrested for attending, was a declared Muslim Brotherhood "Day of Rage." So Lubani and Greyson would have us believe they thought they would participate in that as-of-yet unheard of phenomenon, a non-violent Muslim Brotherhood Day of Rage??
It seems like a particular type of journalist was chosen to conduct interviews with the fanatical duo. Not all journalists at the CBC and CTV are bubbleheads, but did any of the ones selected to question Loubani or Greyson challenge them on what should have been an obvious canyon of implausibility in their tale?
Not a single one.
One can only speculate whether some prearranged agreement with the media to whom they spoke stipulated that any challenge to their unlikely story was off the table.
It's well worth noting that if Greyson and Loubani are to be taken at their word, it means that pair who are fixated with the issue of Israel and Palestine do not, by their own admission, know much about the geopolitical situation in the region around the subject of their pathological obsession.
That's very, very significant.
Because the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma cannot be rationally understood outside the wider context of the much larger Arab/Israeli conflict. So evidently, the idiots Greyson and Loubani have embroiled themselves in a campaign to demonize Israel without any comprehensive understanding of the issue as a whole. That would make them completely typical of most of the vapid characters so embroiled in anti-Israel campaigns.
Oh, wait! As they have insisted from interview to interview, Greyson and Loubani are pro-Palestine but most definitely are not anti-Israel.
In that, they are telling another lie.
The only apparent method Greyson has ever chosen to promote Palestinian national self determination is to try to destroy Jewish national self-determination.
Short of murdering an Israeli child by bashing its head against a rock, a method of activism favored by some highly regarded "pro-Palestinians," it makes one wonder where that enigmatic line is that separates what a deluded character like Greyson does from being anti-Israel. He is a leader of the depraved bigots calling themselves Queers Against Israeli Apartheid that promote the vile slander accusing Israel of being an apartheid state. He hypocritically subjects Israel to double standards and a form of vilification he reserves for no other nation in the world. Greyson has supported a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel that many in even the genuine pro-Palestinian camp regard as transcending the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Exactly what Greyson has done for Palestinians that does not exclusively manifest as demonization of the Jewish State is something more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster, which at least some people claim to have seen.
Though the CBC and CTV reporters were either too uninformed or star-struck to refute any of the preposterous answers, anyone who bothers to check facts will learn that Greyson and Loubani provided their own undoing.
Loubani's assertion that aid is desperately needed in Gaza is outright ridiculous.
The "desperate" need for aid to Gaza that a lie that narcissistic activists use to justify their adventures as low-risk conflict tourists. Gaza has markets abundantly filled with a variety of foods, luxury malls, fine-dining restaurants and five-star hotels. There is abject poverty in Gaza, but there is also abject poverty in Chicago, Bangladesh and Guadalajara. And unlike impoverished Asians and Latin Americans, the Palestinians are the second highest per capita recipients of international aid in the world, next only to the war-torn Republic of Congo. As far as the "starving Palestinians" go, it is a well known medical fact of which Loubani is or should be aware that Palestinians, including in Gaza, have one of the highest global obesity rates.
Loubani claims Gaza is under "occupation." The occupation ended in 2005. Instead of using the removal of Israeli troops as an opportunity to build a peaceful and prosperous society, Gaza responded with an incessant barrage of missiles against Israel, which have provoked periodic responses. The "siege" Loubani claims Gaza is under is actually a blockade, which would end if the Palestinians stopped shelling Israel and unequivocally recognized its right to exist.
But Gaza, under its rulers Hamas, has done neither of those things as they steadfastly cling to their anti-Semitic Charter which calls for the genocide of Jews. Among its hateful degeneracy which borders on the comical, Hamas actually posits international conspiracies between Jews, Freemasons and (believe it or not!) The Rotary and Lions Clubs.
There is so much that is untrue and absurd in Greyson and Loubani's account, it could take enough space to fill a dozen blog postings.
The most regrettable part of this is that it is to blogs and only one of our national media organizations one needs to look to find the truth about those radicals, since they won't even be asked hard questions by the so-called journalists at Canada's tax-funded state broadcaster.
Labels:
CBC,
CTV,
Egypt,
Gaza,
Israel,
John Greyson,
morons,
Muslim Brotherhood,
Palestine,
Tarek Loubani
Friday, October 18, 2013
A review of The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honour and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel Harrington
Frantz Schmidt was employed between 1578 and 1618 as the official executioner (and torturer) of the prosperous German city of Nuremberg. Over the course of his career he personally despatched 394 people, and flogged, branded or otherwise maimed many hundreds more. His life is also a tale of honour, duty and a lasting quest for meaning and redemption.
The penal regimes of pre-modern European states were harsh and violent, heavy on deterrence and the symbolism of retribution. Towns such as Nuremberg needed professional executioners to deal with an ever-present threat of criminality through the public infliction of capital and corporal sentences. Punishing malefactors with lengthy periods of incarceration was an idea for the future, and would probably have struck 16th-century people as unnecessarily cruel. Methods ranged from execution with the sword (the most honourable) to hanging (the least), and from the relatively quick and merciful to the dreadful penalty of staking a person to the ground and breaking their limbs one after the other with a heavy cartwheel. This was not a world of mindless violence: the punishments Schmidt imposed were carefully prescribed by the city authorities, down to the number of 'nips' (pieces of flesh torn from the limbs with red-hot tongs) convicts were to receive on their way to the gallows.
More at Literary Review
and an earlier article about Schmidt by Joel Harrington is at The Berlin Review of Books
Douglas Murray: New Extremist Foxes Welcomed into U.S. Chicken Coop
Obama's Homeland Security adviser with placed a symbol of support for the Muslim Brotherhood on his twitter profile photo |
Say hello again to two of the most over-promoted and sinister figures involved with the current U.S. government: Mohamed Elibiary and Dalia Mogahed. If you were one of those Christian Copts standing in the ruins of your village or church, what message would you take from all this?
Imagine that in recent weeks alone, dozens of Muslims around the world had been murdered by Christian extremists armed with suicide belts and similar paraphernalia.
Imagine that at the same time, around other parts of the world, Christian mobs had set fire to, and burned to the ground, the holy places of some of the oldest and most established Muslim communities in the world.
Do you think there would be a reaction to such events? Probably yes.
Would that reaction be wholly negative and unceasing in its condemnation? Probably yes.
Would it be remotely conceivable that a senior U.S. government official or advisor would have used the opportunity to claim that Muslims who had been targeted had brought it upon themselves? Probably no.
Welcome then to the mirror-image of the real-world persecution of Christians that is going on across the globe today.More at Gatestone Institute
Justin Trudeau and Libby Davies want to give junkies free heroin
Well not free, exactly. You, the taxpayer, will be paying for it:
Hey, at those prices, maybe we should all give it a try...
Hey, at those prices, maybe we should all give it a try...
Brian Lilley in The TORONTO SUN:
Should taxpayers be paying for heroin addicts to get their next fix?
I’m not talking about addiction treatment, I’m talking about taxpayers paying to keep addicts on heroin. Is that where you want tax dollars going?
.. if bureaucrats at Health Canada and some politicians such as Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau or NDP health critic Libby Davies have their way, heroin will be provided and the taxpayer will be footing the bill.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The weird, depraved "Israelis are racist because their soldiers DON'T rape Palestinian women" meme has resurfaced
Hen Mazzig is an educator with the pro-Israel advocacy group Stand With Us. He recounts some of his experiences on US college campuses including these episodes:
Unfortunately, the moronic, misogynistic, mentally depraved suggestion that not raping someone is proof of racism against them has its origins at Hebrew University in Israel. Which proves that not all the imbecile Jews in academia are at OISE.
To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it. And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”
Unfortunately, the moronic, misogynistic, mentally depraved suggestion that not raping someone is proof of racism against them has its origins at Hebrew University in Israel. Which proves that not all the imbecile Jews in academia are at OISE.
Tweets from today's "peaceful" anti-fracking protest by MikMaq First Nations in New Brunswick
anti-fracking idiots...
More HERE
#Rexton village limits right now: pic.twitter.com/LSZJFHKr6w #NB via @01LBrown
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) October 17, 2013
2 more RCMP cars on fire #mikmaqblockade pic.twitter.com/5N7IHUIRhf
— stimulator (@stimulator) October 17, 2013
RCMP patrol cars on fire in #Rexton. One pic.twitter.com/trHpWFsQrr #elsipogtog
— Heather Marsh (@GeorgieBC) October 17, 2013
More HERE
Elizabeth May: stupider than anyone ever realized
Jason Kenney put her in her place:
Looks like the dingbat Green Party head is getting her talking points from the communist morons at rabble.ca
h/t Small Dead Animals
. @ElizabethMay Or perhaps that's because free societies didn't murder tens of millions in gulags,planned famines etc http://t.co/hIXFeCy5c6
— Jason Kenney (@kenneyjason) October 17, 2013
Looks like the dingbat Green Party head is getting her talking points from the communist morons at rabble.ca
h/t Small Dead Animals
You're telling me there actually IS an abominable snowman?
And what makes it so abominable?
Research by an University of Oxford scientist has found a genetic match between an ancient polar bear and samples said to come from the Yeti - suggesting the creature known as the Abominable Snowman is still living in the Himalayas
Toronto Sun's Sue-Ann Levy makes the communist pinheads at rabble.ca explode
You know you're doing a good job when you've written something that makes the communist pinheads at rabble.ca become apoplectic:
"Sue-Ann Levy, the perpetually grotesque enemy of working people that the Toronto Sun pays good money to run down those who actually work for a living, penned an opinion piece recently spouting the Canadian Taxpayers Federation line that Ontario government employees are somehow abusing the system by calling in sick more than do their private sector counterparts.
She spouts a bunch of statistics that, hopefully correctly, show that workers who are able to, do in fact call in sick, though she frames this, of course, as workers somehow "shirking" work because the government or unions "let them"."
and here's Sue Ann's article in THE TORONTO SUN
rabble.ca is almost completely paid for by the big public service unions. Not quite the "independent" media they claim to be.
Did indigenous people lose their homes to keep your Coke and Pepsi sweet?
I can sanctimoniously strut around because I drink diet Coke..
It should be noted that Coke and Pepsi both deny using sugar from the sugar mills in the item that are appropriating land:
More at THE INDEPENDENT
It should be noted that Coke and Pepsi both deny using sugar from the sugar mills in the item that are appropriating land:
Land covering an area the size of Italy has been taken from indigenous communities around the world by suppliers to the biggest names in the food and drinks industry, according to a major new report.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are among the companies criticised by Oxfam for their links to land disputes, with the charity alleging that nearly 800 large-scale land deals by foreign investors have seen 33 million hectares taken into corporate ownership globally since 2000.
More at THE INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
The Panetta Formula
WASHINGTON -- Leon Panetta served in Washington with nine presidents, starting with Lyndon Johnson. He has been a member of Congress, Office of Management and Budget director, White House chief of staff, director of Central Intelligence and secretary of defense -- the last two under President Obama. He is a man who knows Washington, and knows how to choose his words. So Panetta's implicit rebuke of the president's hands-off approach to the budget crisis at a breakfast Monday was striking.
Indeed, implicit may be an understatement. Asked repeatedly whether he was being correctly understood as critical of President Obama, Panetta was careful to assert that "I don't want to put it all on the president" and that there is "enough blame to go around." But he did not back down.
"It's hard to watch what's going on here," Panetta said at the start of the session, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. He noted that there are two ways of governing: by leadership or by crisis. "This town has been governing by crisis after crisis after crisis," he said.
Which raised the obvious question: Was he saying something about the president's leadership?
More at REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Are Democrats more extreme than GOP?
(CNN) -- Damn those extreme Republicans. President Obama and White House press secretary Jay Carney have found Republicans guilty of extortion and blackmail. Joe Biden, per a report in Politico, once christened Republicans as terrorists.
Liberals have led a media assault, calling the GOP anarchists, jihadists, "gun to head" hostage takers, and the political equivalent of the Taliban. White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer has likened Republicans to suicide bombers "with a bomb strapped to their chest."
What could be more extreme?
A fatal crash last month gives a glimpse into the state of Iran's antique airforce
According to eye witness accounts, an Iranian 'F-4E Phantom II' of the 61st Tactical Fighter Squadron crashed on Bushehr air base's runway 31L this past Monday, 23 Sept. The cause of the accident according to my sources is mentioned as "a violent tire burst" that forced the aircraft off the runway. As a result, the crew attempted to eject which resulted in the unfortunate death of the F-4 pilot Major Rezaee and injuring WSO Capt. Salimi (shown in the above photo).
Bushehr is home to two squadrons of F-4E Phantom IIs, and one permanent detachment of F-14A Tomcats originally out of the 8th Isfahan Tactical Air Base. Bushehr is also the same base where the drone harassing F-4E had flown from, which was later interceptedby a USAF F-22 Raptor.
More at THE SPIRIT OF MAN
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Jonathan Kay: Who would have thunk it? Angry Ezra is making media mincemeat of Saint Suzuki
Actually, Jon, a lot of us saw this coming..
..Ezra’s brilliant trick with Suzuki has been to turn the Cult of Suzuki on its head. Cults, after all, are creepy, because their social dynamic typically consists of an all-knowing father figure exercising moral suasion over legions of younger followers. Witness the episode at John Abbott College in Montreal, in which Suzuki’s team suggested that their boss be surrounded on campus by an all-female bodyguard corps.
Cults also usually reek of hypocrisy — because cult leaders, being human, never have the discipline to live by their own precepts.
“There are two David Suzukis,” Ezra writes in his most recent column for the Sun chain. “Most of us know one of the Suzukis. Let’s call him Saint Suzuki. That’s the Suzuki whose TV show on the CBC constantly lectures us about our lifestyle. He says we need to consume less, buy less and use less fossil fuels. But then there’s another Suzuki. Let’s call him Secret Suzuki, because he’s far less well-known...
Read all of Jonathan Kay's column at NATIONAL POST
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