Czech President Zeman blames Islam for terror attacks

Islamic ideology rather than individual groups of religious fundamentalists is behind violent actions similar to the gun attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels that killed four people, Czech President Miloš Zeman said Monday at the Israeli Embassy in Prague.

Two Israeli tourists and a member of the museum staff were killed by an unknown shooter Saturday, and another staff member died of his injuries Sunday.

Zeman's speech sharply condemning "the hideous attack" was posted on his official website today. Zeman took part in the celebration of the 66 years of independence of Israel.

"I will not be calmed down by statements that it is only small marginal groups. I believe, on the contrary, that this xenophobia and this racism or anti-Semitism stem from the very nature of the ideology on which these fanatical groups rely," Zeman said.

He said one of the sacred texts of Islam calls for the killing of Jews.

Zeman said he would also sharply criticize fanatics who planned to kill the Arabs.

"However, I have heard of no movement calling for the massive murder of Arabs, but I know about an anti-civilization movement that calls for the massive murdering of Jews," he said...

A Canadian athlete from the 1972 Olympics speaks out against Ottawa's tax-funded tribute to terrorists

...I was surprised, incensed and even pained to hear that the City of Ottawa’s public arts program is hosting Rehab Nazzal’s Invisible.

The art exhibit includes a video in which the names and faces of “assassinated Palestinian figures” are flashed on screen, while an accompanying booklet explains that the images consist of “lost artists, activists, writers and leaders.” Among those memorialized are a number of notorious terrorists responsible for the murder of dozens of civilians. One of the terrorists is Abu Iyad (also known as Salah Mesbah Khalaf) — a founder of Black September, which masterminded the Munich massacre. In fact, Iyad’s face and name appear on the cover of the exhibit’s booklet just inches away from the City of Ottawa’s logo...

Saturday morning cartoon fun!

Who says video games are bad for kids? "Impotent Rage - the liberal superhero" is a cartoon Grand Theft Auto V players can watch on their in-game TVs

Sexist print ads from the 50's and 60's

Ah, the good old days...






















h/t Jon Kay 

Setting the bar for Justin Trudeau

He's shallow, gaffe-prone and possesses, at best, average intelligence. But Justin Trudeau is also the leader of "Canada's Natural Governing Party." And those quotes are not there for the purpose of irony. They may have been out of power since 2006, but the Canadian Liberal Party is the New York Yankees of politics. They've been in power longer than any other political party in a democracy over the last 100 years and they can never completely be counted out.

It is also, since the retirement of Trudeau pere, a party that eats its young and, like the ancient Carthaginians, will not allow its failed leaders to survive.

So I thought I'd shoot off a couple of quick thoughts about where I think the bar for Prince Bonehead is in the next federal election.

The Liberals have been in decline since the palace coup that Paul Martin and his supporters pulled on Jean Chretien, and their fortunes have plummeted further under both Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. Under Mr. Ignatieff, the unthinkable happened and the Liberals sunk to unprecedented third-party status.

But while Justin Trudeau's intellect may be a small fraction of  Michael Ignatieff's, one thing that can be said for the walking haircut is that he is more of natural politician than his predecessor. (That, by the way, considering my views of politicians, is far more of a compliment to Mr. Ignatieff than to Mr. Trudeau fils.) So the question is whether, should he not become the next Prime Minister of Canada, the Liberal Party will jettison Justin Trudeau the way it has its other losers.

My opinion on this is that it depends on whether he can bring them back to Official Opposition status. The Liberals are almost certainly going to make gains in the next election, most of which will come from Quebec, where a lot of people are feeling buyers' remorse after their protest votes made the NDP the province's main parliamentary representatives.  But it won't be a cakewalk for Trudeau either. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is a very skilled, smart politician, completely fluent in French, and extremely well attuned to attitudes in his home province of Quebec.

Prince Bonehead also has the advantage of changes made to the Liberals' leadership selection process. The new rules, where anyone with party membership can vote in the leadership convention, would have meant that had he run for it, Justin Bieber rather than Justin Trudeau would be the current Liberal leader. Since winning his party's leadership, the unmusical Justin has imposed considerably less democratic conditions for riding nominees than he himself used to attain his position. That isn't necessarily a bad long-term political move, but it most definitely is ironic.

In the person of Marc Garneau, the Liberals have a next leader-in-waiting. He has a position favoring proportional representation that I find absurd, but Garneau is honest, extremely intelligent, can carry Quebec, and has national appeal. Also, unfortunately, while he may be the epitome of decency, the former astronaut has less charisma than an otter playing a keyboard. 

Taking all those conditions into account, my prediction is that if Prince Bonehead can take the Liberals from third to second party status in the next election, he'll be given one more shot at the crown. That means the bar is pretty low compared to previous Liberal leaders from whom the expectation was either victory or death. But if Trudeau can't get over that small hurdle, I'd get ready to see a new Liberal leader within the next couple of years.

Sci-fi becomes real and cool! SpaceX unveils reusable space capsule

Like something out of Space 1999 (which was made in the 70's and like lots of sci-fi of that era, overestimated the advances in space travel mankind would make by the end of the millennium)  Elon Musk's privately held spacerocket company, Space X, has unveiled its new Dragon V2 capsule which is reusable and will be able to make soft landings back on Earth.

I wouldn't go so far to say he's a close buddy, but I've hung out with and partied with Elon a few times with a mutual friend and like him. He's definitely a visionary and a fun guy. Elon gave me a tour of the SpaceX facility a few years ago and he thinks the future of the human race lies in space exploration. I don't disagree with him.

Interview: The Muslim Brotherhood's infiltration of Canadian institutions

The author of a recent report on the Muslim Brotherhood's infiltration of Canadian institutions is interviewed by Brain Lilley.

This interview is important to watch. The Brotherhood is present on every major university campus in North America through the Muslim Student Association, which is its North American student arm. A number of MSA student leaders have gone off to become wanted (and drone-killed) terrorists.

Tom Quiggan, the author's report, notes that while countries like Canada and Australia are leading in recognizing and pushing back against Muslim Brotherhood, the US under the Obama administration has become more slack.

Another notable aspect of the interview was Mr. Quiggan's speculation that the defamation suit that the National Council of Canadian Muslims have brought against the Prime Minister's Office in Canada for referring to it as a group "with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas" will never see the light of day.  In Quiggan's opinion, the ties between the NCCM and Hamas' parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, are very obvious.



h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Canada's Trade Deficit shrinks by $3.3 billion to $12.4 billion

Yay.

But our national debt is still around $1.2 Trillion.

And now, for your listening pleasure, otters playing an electric keyboard

There aren't a lot of people other than Christopher Lee who could get away with this

It seems that since hitting his 90's a couple of years ago, venerable British actor Christopher Lee has discovered his inner metal head. To celebrate his 92nd birthday earlier this week, Lee released a mini album of old standards, including a pair of songs from the Broadway hit Man of La Mancha, done in Heavy Metal style.

Lee has had an amazing life that features not only an acting career with some immortal roles that has spanned over half a century, but also a Second World War record with British Intelligence that remains wrapped in mystery and intrigue. 

A pro-Israel Arab crashes an anti-Israel event at St. John's Wood Anglican Church

"I bought my degree, now I want my job!"

As a co-founder of a tech firm, our company employed the best people we could get in the field from nationalities and backgrounds that reflected the world's diversity. Our only criterion was whether or not the employee had the technical skills to do the job.

I remember having a laugh at the time when I saw a University of Toronto Woman's Studies professor claim in a TV interview that her students weren't getting good jobs "because of racism and sexism."  The U of T professor obviously couldn't comprehend that her students weren't getting good jobs because their degrees were in Women's Studies.

The discussion in the video below about 'grade inflation' is quite accurate. I briefly dated a U of Toronto Law professor a number of years ago and back then, she talked about how she was afraid of how her students rated her, as the university considered that in their evaluation of professors. To maintain that favorable student rating, she would make things easier for them. Long gone are the "Paper Chase" days when it was the students who feared the professors.



More at National Post

Ontario Liberals announce election platform of things they could have easily done before now

From the jokey Beaverton News:

THUNDER BAY, ON - At a campaign stop on Sunday the provincial Liberal party announced what they would do if elected to govern Ontario for the next few years, pretty much all of which they could have done during their last 11 years in power.

“I am proud to reveal the policies that our party will put in place if elected,” said Premier Kathleen Wynne. “We believe these policies are crucial to the prosperity and security of Ontario, but are also not important enough to have done anytime in the last decade.”

The plan includes a cap on hospital parking fees, investment for crumbling transit lines and a plan to trim the provincial debt, “all of which only became problems since the election was called in April. “

h/t Carolyn Z

Liberal MP complains about Justin Trudeau's "bozo eruption"

Apparently in private, Justin Trudeau's own caucus, like much of the public, thinks he's an idiot:

Toronto Liberal MP John McKay was secretly recorded criticizing party leader Justin Trudeau over his edict that prospective MPs must follow the party’s pro-choice position on abortion.

McKay says on a recording obtained by CTV News that he thought Trudeau had a “bozo eruption” and didn’t think about what he said when he declared that anti-abortion candidates won’t be allowed to run for the Liberals.

What’s even more disturbing is that his brain trust might have actually thought about this,” McKay can be heard saying on the tape.

“And if they did, it just scares the hell out of me because if you don’t know that this is a toxic issue for the population then you really have no political sense whatsoever.”

Trudeau's new ad campaign, "Getting ready to lead"  I'm glad he's getting ready. Let me know when he gets there.

Why America's Military Must Be Strong

British historian Andrew Roberts examines the consequences of a weak America versus a strong America and what each means to the peace and prosperity of the world.

The most shocking thing about young Ukip supporters: they’re normal

Close your eyes and imagine a young Ukip voter. Let me guess: mustard trousers, swivel eyes and foaming mouth, ranting furiously about the European Union, socialism, ‘lib-tards’ and so on.

Now meet Dayle Taylor, a young Ukipper working at McDonald’s in Accrington. He’s no fruitloop, just a typical modern student who grills Big Macs to pay his way through university and feels that none of the major parties speak for him. What distinguishes him from your average British youth is a lack of apathy about politics. ‘I’m always encouraging Ukippers at McDonald’s,’ he says, ‘and I build up a rapport with the regulars who say they haven’t voted before but will lend their support to Ukip on 22 May.’

More at The Spectator

Discussing the Decline in Ontario's Education Fundamentals

With Brian Lilley on Byline last night:



More on OISE here

New Security Report Details the Muslim Brotherhood's Infiltration of North American Institutions

A new report written by Tom Quiggan, a senior researcher at Carleton University's Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, details some of the extent of the Muslim Brotherhood's infiltration of North American institutions and society. The Brotherhood is a pro-terror, jihadist, Islamist organization. Among the reports main findings are:

KEY JUDGEMENTS:

• Canada has a significant presence of Muslim Brotherhood adherent individuals and organizations. Their values and actions are frequently the antithesis of the Canadian Constitution, values and law. Despite statements to the contrary, the Muslim Brotherhood considers itself above local laws and national constitutions.
• The Muslim Brotherhood’s use of settlement and the “process of civilization jihad” has proven effective. The long term aim is to globally impose a virulent form of political Islam to the exclusion of other faiths or systems.
• Internationally, the Muslim Brotherhood is realigning under pressure as old alliances crumble and opportunities arise. An aggressive posture is re-emerging which has used extensive political violence in the past.
• The policy and process of denial is deeply rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood.
• Muslim Brotherhood adherent groups should not be given governmental accreditation, access to public grants nor should they have charity status.
• Canada’s stance against Muslim Brotherhood adherent organizations in recent years has been more aggressive than the USA, especially in financial areas.

Interestingly, one of the Muslim Brotherhood adherent groups the report lists is the National Council of Canadian Muslims, which is currently suing Prime Minister Stephen Harper for comments from the Prime Minister's spokesman saying the group had "links to a terror group such as Hamas."


More on this and links to the report are available at Blazing Cat Fur

Plus here's an informative talk about the nature of terrorism by Tom Quiggan:



Related: On Memorial Day, Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood-linked CAIR acts as a 5th column in America

Omar Khadr's Useful Idiots

Ezra Levant covered this too, but I've posted Faith Goldy's piece because, well, frankly Faith is many degrees of magnitude hotter than Ezra. 

The National Council of Canadian Muslims' propaganda for people incapable of fact checking

Back in mid-January of this year, a kerfuffle erupted when Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman responded to criticism by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) for including Rabbi Daniel Korobkin as part of an official Canadian delegation to Israel. Korobkin's unpardonable offense in the eyes of the NCCM was having introduced anti-Islam activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer at a Toronto event.

In response, PM Harper's spokesman Jason MacDonald said about NCCM, "We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas."

A publicly outraged NCCM threatened to sue the Prime Minster's Office for libel. Months have gone by and that libel suit has now been filed with the court. But its success or failure will be affected by whether an abundance of information establishes that its links to Hamas are not nearly as far-removed as NCCM would want the Canadian public to believe.

In its most recent PR effort, the NCCM has produced a somewhat lengthy video to try to make out that its links to Hamas are tenuous, like the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game which indicates that everyone is eventually linked to everyone if you are willing to stretch long enough.

Except the stretch between Hamas and NCCM is not all that much of a stretch. No, the NCCM is not smuggling bombs to Hamas, nor is it advocating suicide bombing as an organization. But despite the misleading information in the NCCM video, one of the directors of its previous incarnation, CAIR-CAN, has in fact advocated "combative Jihad" (read suicide bombings) against Israel.

NCCM webpage redirected to CAIR-CAN

That director, Jamal Badawi, who was listed in a directory of members of The Muslim Brotherhood,  Hamas' parent organization,  was listed as a Director of CAIR-CAN as recently as recently as four months ago, when the NCCM was still redirecting visitors to its website back to the old CAIR-CAN site.

According to investigative journalist Patrick Poole, former CAIR-CAN Board Member Badawi "was a featured speaker at a conference in Qatar honoring Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi, where Badawi shared the speaker’s podium with Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas and a designated terrorist by both the U.S. and Canada."

Another factor in the links between Hamas and NCCM are that as CAIR-CAN, the Canadian group was the northern branch of the US-based CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) which was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land terror-financing trial. Naturally, the NCCM is trying to downplay its relationship with the CAIR claiming in the video that they were completely independent of one another and that the use of the CAIR name was only related to a verbal agreement for trademark purposes.

But is that NCCM claim true?

Only if former CAIR-CAN boss Sheema Khan was lying in an affidavit filed with the Ontario Supreme Court.

As the Point de Bascule blog reported:

In 2003, (former CAIR-CAN leader Sheema) Khan swore an affidavit for the Ontario Supreme Court in connection with a trademark dispute. In the affidavit Khan, (former CSIS Strategic Planning Head David) Harris testified, “states categorically that CAIR-CAN is under the direction and control of the American CAIR organization.” Moreover, Khan, while a senior official of CAIR-CAN, also served on the board of CAIR.

Part of the obfuscation the NCCM is offering in its video is its mocking of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's suggestion that Canadians can "Google the group in question, and do some research on their own and come to their own conclusions."

via Point de Bascule

The NCCM video would have you believe that information on the Internet is so unreliable that it's effectively worthless.

Yes, there are a lot of falsehoods and deception online, as the NCCM video itself is an ample example. But it's also a research tool filled with credible sources providing information that can be verified. So when the NCCM tries to mock a Canadian government Minister for telling people to "research on their own and come to their own conclusions," and instead mindlessly accept what the Muslim advocacy group tells them, it's not hard to figure between the two which is the more credible and honest.

In the "I told you so" file: 'Toxic' Marine Le Pen blamed for Geert Wilders defeat in Netherlands

France has its own special set of conditions, including a massive problem with its inability to integrate an ever-growing Muslim population, which has created enclaves around Paris in which even the police are afraid to enter.  The French government's inability to deal with that ongoing issue, and certain historical sympathies for ultra-conservative extremism in France has created a regrettable but understandable backlash resulting in the growing popularity of the reprehensible far-right in that country.

But not all of Europe is in the same condition as France and while the public is seeking a more prudent and conservative policy outlook, the racist far-right is not the solution that the public in places like the Netherlands want as an alternative. So as I predicted, Dutch Freedom Party's Geert Wilders' alliance with the racist National Front in France was a catastrophe for him and his political movement.

A disastrous European Union election vote for the Dutch far-Right has been blamed on a "toxic" Marine Le Pen and is seen as vindication of Nigel Farage's refusal to work with the French Front National.

The result is a blow to Miss Le Pen and will be widely seen as the consequence of her failure to break from the Front National's extremist past, a legacy embodied by her father Jean-Marie who remains an MEP and honorary president of the party.

His close alliance with Miss Le Pen is seen as the key factor in the unexpected defeat of Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV) on Thursday night after Dutch exit polls put him in fourth place behind all the pro-EU Dutch political parties.

UKIP storms European elections

The UK Independence Party has won a national election for the first time, taking the most votes and seats in the European Parliament elections.

The Ukip victory came as anti-establishment parties advanced across the European Union, with the racist National Front winning in France.

The win for Ukip, which was only founded in 1993 and does not have a single MP or council leader, is the biggest challenge to Britain’s main parties for decades. Ukip gained ten new MEPs and finished taking 27.5 per cent of the vote and 23 MEPs...

The result was the first time since 1910 that a national election was not won by either the Conservatives or Labour.

 Plus, in France: Hollande holds crisis talks on record far-Right win

Tarek Fatah: Muslims must be honest about Qur’an

In the aftermath of Islamic jihadis — the Boko Haram — enslaving Christian school girls in Nigeria, the Muslim intelligentsia, instead of doing some serious introspection, has chosen to exercise damage control.

Columns by my co-religionists have appeared in newspapers ranging from the Toronto Star to The Independent in London and on CNN.com, where they avoid any reference to Sharia laws that permit Muslims to take non-Muslim female prisoners of war as sex slaves.

The fact is Muslim armies throughout history have been permitted under Islamic law to make sex slaves of non-Muslim prisoners...

1,000 TDSB Students Encouraged To Fight For Minimum Wage Hikes; Were Told Nigerian Kidnappings Had Nothing To Do With Islam

This couldn't be done on a weekend?  They had to pull students out of school for this?

The dumbest leader of a major Canadian political party - ever...

Moron of the Year Award goes to MSNBC's Touré

It's only May, but the hands down winner of Moron of the Year for 2014 goes to MSNBC's imbecile host Touré for his tweet about the 'white privilege' of Nazi concentration camp survivors.

If Touré really wants to talk about racial privilege, he should discuss imagining what would happen if a non-visible minority who hosts a network show was as much of a bigoted public idiot as he.

Another example of the power of whiteness according to @Toure pic.twitter.com/ZdRptlHDBy
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) May 24, 2014

h/t Kathy S.

A kangaroo petting and playing with a rottweiler

This is the most insufferably cute thing I've seen this year. Nothing is this cute! Nothing!!!!

Why I wouldn't invest in the Corner Gas movie (but am anyway)

An article in the National Post a few days ago with the headline "Corner Gas movie’s $8.5M budget is 75% from government funding despite success of the original TV series" implied that it was surprising and unnecessary for a successful Canadian TV series to require public funds for its film incarnation.

In reality, that requirement is neither surprising nor unnecessary. What it is, however, is probably the equivalent of flushing public money down the toilet, or handing it to the already affluent Brent Butt, which might be even more offensive to Canadian taxpayers.

Movie people tend not to like to make public predictions about the commercial success of movies, for the obvious reason that if a prediction is wrong, it could come back to haunt them. I worked in Hollywood for a production company which garnered about a dozen major Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture and two for Best Original Screenplay, for movies I was involved with during my time there. With all due modesty, I was very good at my job and one of the things I did extremely well was to predict at the development stage whether a movie would be able to perform at the box office.

Most Hollywood executives would have you believe that such a thing can't be done. They'll tell you predicting movie performances is "like trying trying to capture lightning in a bottle."

That's not true. While it can't be done without any margin for error, and it is actually hard to predict whether something will be a runaway hit like Star Wars, or a fluke success like The Blair Witch Project, it's not hard to tell whether a movie has the basic elements of a success or failure. The rather obvious reason that Hollywood execs don't want you, or in particular their bosses, to believe that it can is because most of them just aren't very good at it. But if anyone is worse at predicting success than a Hollywood executive, it's a Telefilm Canada executive.

Yes, Corner Gas The Movie absolutely does need government funds, and I'll tell you why I think the movie, which has not yet gone into production, will never come close to making it all back.

As its producers and fans like to remind us, Corner Gas was the most successful Canadian television series ever. In Hollywood terms, that's only slightly less impressive than being the most successful Ukrainian television series ever. It's like saying you've got the world's third smartest tree frog. That's all very interesting to those few people who are interested in that sort of thing, but really, who cares? And outside of Canada, no one cares about Corner Gas.

I've watched the show a few times and I don't hate it. It had the usual "let's laugh at the antics of silly hicks" formula that's been around since before I watched Green Acres reruns as a little kid. Corner Gas'  writing wasn't very clever and had no edge to it, but it wasn't the worst thing on TV. Although that's an easy bar to get over, particularly when the main Canadian competition was CBC's painfully unfunny Little Mosque on The Prairie.

So let's look at Corner Gas The Movie's potential for success. First of all, movie versions of TV shows with the original cast are very rarely hits. Star Trek is the notable exception, but it took 10 years after cancellation and massive worldwide cult status already in place before that happened. In Canada, as an example of how these things don't work, we have the precedent of Red Green: Duct Tape Forever.

We also have the example of The Trailer Park Boys movies, but there is a substantial difference. Those movies are made on lower budgets, less of which is government-funded, and unlike Corner Gas, the Trailer Park Boys have an edge and a natural audience among a desired movie-going demographic, (kids in their mid-teens to late twenties and stoners), where Corner Gas has none.  And even then, on the $5 Million budget that The Trailer Park Boys Movie cost, it still lost money, which doesn't leave much hope for the Corner Gas movie.

Who will be starring in Corner Gas The Movie? That's right - no one that anyone outside of Canada has ever heard of, and other than Brent Butt, no one that most people in Canada could name. Which means that all of Corner Gas The Movie's receipts will be from the Canadian domestic box office, and that isn't exactly for the movie business what Saudi Arabia is for oil.

If you're wondering how much a movie has to gross to be profitable on an $8.5 Million budget like that of Corner Gas The Movie, the answer is a hell of a lot more than $8.5 Million. There are advertising costs, which are massive for movies, plus distributors' and exhibitors' fees involved. There may be some variances, depending on marketing strategies and other factors, but in general, the rule of thumb is that a movie needs to gross three times the production budget to break even.

So even giving it a break on estimates for some of those factors and giving it a generous estimate on TV and DVD sales, on an $8.5 million budget, Corner Gas The Movie would need to make at least $20 million at the box office just to stay out of the red.  Since it is a virtual certainty that all of that money will have to come from a Canadian audience, it means that, just to break even, one out of every 22 Canadians will have to pay to see Corner Gas The Movie in a theater.

What do you think the odds are of that happening?

Based on those figures, I wouldn't put a dime into producing Corner Gas The Movie. Although I am anyway, as are you, courtesy of the choices made on our behalf by the Canadian government.

UN Watch presents annual Moral Courage Award to Jason Kenney

Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch presented its annual Moral Courage Award to Canadian cabinet minister Jason Kenney, one of the country’s most influential national figures, a decision that drew strong praise from the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Tibetan spiritual leader who sent a special envoy to the Geneva ceremony attended by UN officials, ambassadors, and community leaders.

“UN Watch honors Minister Kenney for demonstrating the courage to lead in upholding the founding principles of the United Nations, and defending the true principles of human rights,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“When others have been silent while serial perpetrators of human rights abuses like Iran and Syria seek to hijack the UN’s human rights and anti-racism causes, Minister Kenney has been a clear and consistent voice for their millions of victims, opposing tyranny, hypocrisy and injustice.”

In an emotional moment, the Dalai Lama’s envoy placed a traditional Tibetan scarf upon Kenney to recognize his outspoken defense of oppressed Tibetans.

These solar freaking roadways sound pretty interesting

They will probably cost a freaking huge amount of money to install too, but would probably be worthwhile as a long-term investment. At the least, I'd love to see a trial of one or two up here.

If gay guys talked to straight guys like straight guys talk to gay guys

Canadian al Qaida terrorist Omar Khadr sued for $50 million by his victims

Since convicted terrorist Omar Khadr is suing the Canadian government for $20 million, should he ever be awarded anything, I won't feel so bad if he never sees a cent of it and it's all transferred to the family of the man he murdered and the other that he maimed for life.

TORONTO — A U.S. soldier who lost an eye in Afghanistan and the wife of a late army medic are suing Omar Khadr for at least US$44.7-million, alleging in a court document the Canadian’s “unlawful conduct” cause both men’s wounds.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Utah on Thursday by Sgt. Layne Morris and Tabitha Speer, whose husband Sgt. Christopher Speer, was fatally injured during the capture of Khadr, son of Canadian Al-Qaeda figure Ahmed Khadr.

Mr. Morris and Mrs. Speer have already won a large court judgment against the father, who was killed by Pakistani military forces in 2003, but their lawyer said they felt it was time to seek redress against the younger Khadr.

UKIP makes major gains in British Council elections

The Tories and Labour alike were reeling today from a series of defeats at the hands of Ukip in early results from the local council elections.
 

Nigel Farage’s party shrugged off a campaign blighted by revelations about some of its candidates to pick up a succession of seats in Conservative and Labour heartlands.

With just one-third of the local election results declared, it had already exceeded its target of making 80 gains.

Farnoud and his penis keep it real, live on Iranian kids' TV

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Nigel vs the Lunatic Mainstream

Today Britain goes to the polls to vote in the European elections. Nigel Farage has had a rough ride, to the point where a casual observer might easily assume the election was being fought between Farage's UKIP and a Tory-Labour-Liberal-Media coalition. That's apparently not the case. There are four main choices for voters, notwithstanding the media's wish to make it a referendum on Farage's "racism". According to some of the public polling, that may have done some last-minute damage. According to the internal polling,maybe not:

Labour and Conservative polling is showing that attacks claiming Nigel Farage is a racist have backfired since voters do not regard him as such and see the assaults as a sign members of the political establishment are ganging up to undermine him.

Well, we'll see. Farage himself is sounding a bit more safe and minder-operated than usual, as if conscious that one "gotcha!" soundbite could blow it. Then again, the three "mainstream" Westminster parties sound less and less as if they represent anybody real, other than various factions of an inbred metropolitan tribe.

More at Steyn Online

Lone Wolf and Cub

Many are familiar with the Japanese movie Lone Wolf and Cub, about a rogue Samurai, the Emperor's assassin, who has to go on the run with his young son while avoiding being murdered by his former master's minions.

But there was a TV series from which that movie and its sequels were culled, and they're available on the Japanese Classics YouTube channel! (And they're great!)

Hollywood anti-fracking hypocrites happy to take money to keep America dependent on Arab oil

Check out this sting - it's very revealing about Hollywood's anti-fracking elite:




The full, unedited video is available HERE

New Evidence Suggests OJ Simpson's Son Was The Real Killer

In 1994 and 1995, like many people around the world, I was fascinated by the O.J. Simpson murder trial. While many observers were outraged at the Not Guilty verdict he received, I was not one of them.

I have to admit some biases. I was a big Buffalo Bills fan and OJ was probably that team's greatest player. I also enjoyed OJ's movie performances, such as in the Naked Gun series, and always thought of him as a very likeable guy. But trying to put those feelings aside, based on the evidence I watched being submitted at trial,  if I were on the jury, I too would almost certainly have voted to acquit him.

The main factor for me that argued against conviction, as I recall, was the timing required for OJ to have committed a double murder, cleaned himself up from a bloody struggle, and then have calmly boarded an airplane bound for Chicago that night. While the prosecution may have established that it was theoretically possible, it would have required perfect planning, precision timing, ideal traffic, and the cold-blooded, rational, dispassionate calculation of a practiced killer. It did not seem to me that OJ was that type of person and his behavior before the trial only reinforced that opinion.

Beyond that, of course, there was the inept investigation by LA police in which the chain of evidence was compromised and one of the main investigators was a racist cop who was biased against OJ. There was also the bumbling prosecution whose crucial miscalculation of getting Simpson to try on a glove found at the murder scene led to defense lawyer Johnny Cochrane's immortal phrase, "if it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Well, it didn't fit and OJ was acquitted. But his life after the trial became a ruin. Now, two decades later, an investigation suggests very strongly that OJ may have been another victim of the terrible events that began with the murder of his ex-wife Jessica and Ron Goldman.

In an exhaustive new book titled "O.J. Is Innocent And I Can Prove It," private investigator William C. Dear details his 18-year investigation of the June 12, 1994, murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Dear concludes that O.J. didn't kill his wife and her friend — but he did visit the scene of the crime shortly after it occurred — and that evidence suggests his son Jason (who was 24 at the time) did it in a rage killing.

h/t Kathy S

Pakistani forces kidnap and torture Baloch student leader

Mr Baloch, who heads the separatist Baloch Student Organisation (Azad), was picked up in a security raid in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on 18 March.

Soldiers from an official paramilitary force, the Frontier Corps, are said to have held him at gunpoint. He was blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back.

He was then pushed into a vehicle by men in plain clothes thought to be from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), say his colleagues.

The alleged abduction took place in broad daylight, in front of three of his female colleagues and several people in the local area.

Two months on, no-one knows where he is.

Stairway to Heaven: The Song Remains Pretty Similar

Stairway’s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when Conde Nast Portfolio magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million. It was so profitable in part because Led Zeppelin refused to release the song as a single, forcing fans to shell out for the entire album, which is untitled but known as Led Zeppelin IV. In the U.S., the album has sold more copies (23 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America) than any save Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-75). To this day, Warner Music Group cites the song in its annual reports as an example of its publishing portfolio.

For live audiences, Stairway’s power starts with its introductory notes. “Can you think of another song, any song, for which, when its first chord is played, an entire audience of 20,000 rise spontaneously to their feet, not just to cheer or clap hands, but in acknowledgment of an event that is crucial for all of them?” Observercritic Tony Palmer wrote in a 1975 profile. Dave Lewis writes in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music that “Stairway has a pastoral opening cadence that is classical in feel and which has ensured its immortality.”

But what if those opening notes weren’t actually written by Jimmy Page or any member of Led Zeppelin? What if the foundation of the band’s immortality had been lifted from another song by a relatively forgotten California band?

You’d need to rewrite the history of rock ’n’ roll...

H/t Kathy S

Democrat Senator Bob Menendez Threatens to Scuttle Key Congressional Iranian Nuke Deal Oversight Bill

Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) is threatening to scuttle a newly authored Senate measure that would give lawmakers a final say on any deal the Obama administration strikes with Iran over its contested nuclear program, according to Senate insiders tracking the debate.

Menendez is seeking to stop a vote on a new measure authored by Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) that would give Congress the authority to reject any agreement signed between the Obama administration and Iran regarding its nuclear program.

More HERE