Harper: Laws Against Transporting Booze Across Provincial Borders 'Ridiculous'

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper says laws that prohibit people from taking alcohol across provincial borders are "ridiculous."

He says that's why the Conservative government brought in legislation allowing the practice — a private members bill nicknamed  "Free My Grapes" became law in 2012.

But it requires legislation at the provincial level as well and not all provinces have signed on...

Reaction to Rebel Wilson's VMA bit reminds us that most activists are assholes with no sense of humor

#BlackLivesMatter activists are pissed off at Rebel Wilson's basically innocuous, if a little profane comedy bit on the MTV Video Music Awards yesterday.

There are lots of good reasons why the word "activist" evokes negative reactions from most people.

Their total absence of any sense of humor among them is high on that list.

Obama suffers "embarrassment" when Democratic National Committee doesn't pass resolution supporting his Iran deal

President Obama suffered an “embarrassment” with the Democratic National Committee not passing a resolution over the weekend in support of his Iran nuclear deal, CNN panelists said Sunday.

According to the Washington Post, party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) blocked the resolution at the summer meeting in Minnesota.

“The Obama-controlled DNC could not pass a resolution this weekend expressing support for President Obama’s Iran deal,” New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin said. “It’s a bit of an embarrassment for the administration seeing how it’s his party...

Colin Quinn jokes about PC culture

Adolf Hitler admirer upset Capilano University turfed him as Buddhist meditation instructor

A Vancouver resident who expresses admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis on YouTube says he’s been “fired” by Capilano University as a continuing-education instructor.

Brian Ruhe taught courses on “Mindfulness Meditation for Stress Reduction” and “Buddhist Philosophy and Vipassana Meditation” at the North Vancouver campus as recently as February...

Ruhe also put out a video titled, "UFO Energy Secrets Suppressed by Jewish Power"

My friend Zoldar from Ceti Gamma 3 says this guy is nuts. Zoldar says there's no way the UFO aliens would trust me with their energy secrets.



h/t Jon Kay

"I'm not giving you my energy secrets!
However, I'll trade you a shiny space rock
for another bagel and lox"

Before "The Cat in the Hat," Dr. Seuss' raunchy WW2 cartoons

The recent publication of a long-lost children’s book by Dr. Seuss got a lot of attention — but few of his fans know that as Army Capt. Theodor Geisel during World War II, he scripted a series of raunchy adult cartoons designed strictly for military audiences.

Produced by Oscar-winning director Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life’’) and directed by legendary Warner Bros. animators, these 70-year-old cartoons will be making their belated TV debut as part of a series on wartime propaganda and training films, airing every Tuesday night in September on Turner Classic Movies...

Kensington Market - Canada's great, short-lived, psychedelic band

The Toronto-based band Kensington Market only put out two albums, one in 1968 and the other in 1969. Both were produced, and included musical participation, by the legendary Felix Pappalardi. They briefly reunited for a CD reissue release party in 2008:

Live Science Presents: The World's Greatest Hoaxes

Tawana Bradley, Alan Sokal's academic hoax in which a prominent leftist cultural studies journal published a text of intentional mumbo-jumbo believing it to be serious theory, and more, including the Mary Toft bunny rape! (and by the way, I looked up "dumb oracle" so you don't have to):

In 1726 England, a young woman named Mary Toft told a neighbor that she had been sexually assaulted by a huge rabbit while weeding a nearby field. Her story was dismissed as a bizarre delusion until six months later a doctor was called to her bedside. According to his published report, the woman gave birth to five bunnies! While news of the strange birth spread throughout England and Europe, Toft gave birth to a few more rabbits, astounding many learned men of the day...

The Timothy Hunt "Social Justice" Witch Hunt

In 1983, the British biochemist Timothy Hunt discovered cyclins, a family of proteins that help regulate the life of cells. Eighteen years later, in 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Between June 8 and June 10 of this year, the 72-year-old Hunt went from being a universally respected and even beloved figure at the top of the scientific establishment to an instant pariah, condemned everywhere for antiquated opinions about women’s role in science that he does not, in fact, hold.

In only 48 hours, he found himself compelled to resign his positions at University College London and at the august Royal Society (where Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke once fought petty battles) after being told that failure to do so would lead to his outright firing.

The Timothy Hunt affair represents more than the gratuitous eye-blink ruination of a great man’s reputation and career. It demonstrates the danger of the extraordinary, almost worshipful deference that academia, government institutions, and above all the mainstream media now accord to social media. It is yet more evidence of the way moral panic and (virtual) mob rule can be accelerated and intensified by the minimalism of Twitter, with its 140-character posts and its apparently inherent tendency to encourage snap judgments, prejudice, and cruelty.

Fortunately, the story did not end on June 10. In the weeks following the initial assault, some of Hunt’s most ardent persecutors have been exposed as liars or blinkered ideologues, abetted by cynical hacks and academic rivals on a quest to bring him down or use him as grist to a political mill...

Fat-assed, Hitler-loving, psycho porn actress kicked off Celebrity Big Brother for loving Hitler too loudly

Does my enormous ass
make this skirt look big?

Tila Tequila is a very, very weird attention whore. The fat-assed porn actress was kicked off Britain's Celebrity Big Brother after only one day. That happened when its producers discovered she was a very big fan of Adolf Hitler and, among other expressions of love for Nazism and Hitler, posted pictures of herself in SS-themed outfits using the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as a backdrop.

Celebrity Big Brother's producers claimed they had no knowledge of Tequila's extremism until it was brought to their attention after the first show was taped. Which, since this was a big story two years ago,  means Celebrity Big Brother's producers are too stupid to have mastered the ability of doing a Google search or reading a wikipedia entry.

This is the leadership the NDP's Linda McQuaig admires: Venezuela’s Food Shortages Trigger Long Lines, Hunger and Looting

LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlier this month, a mob infuriated by worsening food shortages rammed trucks into the smoldering edifice, reducing it mostly to rubble.

The incident was just one of numerous violent clashes that have flared in pockets around the country in recent weeks as Venezuelans wait for hours in long supermarket lines for basics like milk and rice... 

Arrogance and cowardice form Obama's "side of history"

Mainstream media biases, laziness, and incompetence informs Native protest coverage

On July 13 a new caravan of people will be bussed up to the Unist’ot’en Camp, an activist action camp it’s leaders call a “soft blockade”. Like most similar events, the media hasn’t been doing a good job at covering the camp. Movement-friendly media have been publishing misleading information- like Rabble.ca’s post that leaves the reader to believe all of the the Wet’suwet’en people “stand united” against the pipelines, others simply omit the fact that people in the community have opposing views.

Most of the information about the Unist’ot’en camp has been produced by their allies and supporters; many stories come from publications with low moral standards– the result is that there’s been a lot of misinformation circulating around. A prominent activist recently explained his theory to me about why media coverage of these events is often so dismal. Staffing cuts, and the time demands of the 24 hour news cycle can make it difficult for journalists to dig too deep. He suggested to try and encapsulate information for people in the media, “give them some bullet points they can work off, with lots of references”.

In anticipation of a potential conflict at the Unist’ot’en, and in the hope that this will help people better cover the story when it happens, I’ve compiled a list of five things every journalist should know about the camp. It should also be a good guide to those of you who are considering joining the conflict- beware of the risks you take with your dangerous new bedfellows. Not all is as it looks on the surface...

200 retired generals and admirals urge Congress to reject Iran nuclear deal

A group of nearly 200 retired generals and admirals sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging lawmakers to reject the Iran nuclear agreement, which they say threatens national security.

The letter is the latest in a blizzard of missives petitioning Congress either to support or oppose the agreement with Iran, which would lift sanctions if Iran pared back its nuclear program. Letters have come from ad hoc groupings of rabbis, nuclear scientists, arms-control and nonproliferation experts — and now, retired senior military officers, many of whom have worked in the White House during various administrations dating to the 1980s.

The letter, addressed to Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House, is a response to one sent last week by three dozen retired senior military officers who support the nuclear deal.

“The agreement will enable Iran to become far more dangerous, render the Mideast still more unstable and introduce new threats to American interests as well as our allies,” the letter states...

Jimmy Kimmel's How Long? Helping a hurt SpongeBob, eating stew from a shoe, and taking a free pretzel from a sick person

It's sad to see which takes the longest to happen, but it is LA:

ISIS Tot Taught to Practice Killing by Beheading Teddy Bear

Aww,.. isn't he a cute little sociopath in training?



In related news, a controversial movie about the early life of Islam's founder Mohammed is set to open the Montreal World Film Festival.

A Polish journalist describes Hamas' use of human shields

...I was sitting with other journalists in a cafe outside one of the hotels near the beach. During wartime, these hotels are occupied by foreign press and some NGOs. Every hotel is full and in its cafes many journalists spend their time discussing, writing, editing stories or just recharging the phones. Suddenly I saw a man firing a rocket from between the hotels. It was obvious that we journalists became a target. If the IDF would strike back, we all would be dead. What would Hamas do? It would not be surprising to hear about the “cruel Zionist regime killing innocent and free press.”...

NDP candidate for Don Valley East's facebook page listed support for three 2014 anti-Israel/pro-terrorist events

The word came down hard and heavy to every NDP and Liberal candidate in the upcoming federal election to go through their social media accounts and start purging embarrassing posts.

That came in the aftermath of disgraced Liberal candidate Ala Buzreba's resignation following exposure of a series of hateful twitter postings she had made. The 21 year-old originally claimed they were youthful indiscretions, but it soon emerged that as recently as a year ago, she had told Jewish journalist Ezra Levant, whose family has been in Canada for over a century, to "pack up and leave to Israel."

Buzreba's fall was only a few days after NDP candidate Morgan Wheeldon was given the heave-ho as the party's candidate in Kings-Hauts for his anti-Israel and anti-Canadian social media postings. All three major political parties have had bozo eruptions from their candidates. But the NDP in particular, both for the number of candidates doing it and the demented viciousness of things they've said or written in the past, has a cache of crazy that beats the others by an order of magnitude.

Jew-hate front and centre at Aug 10, 2014  protest
supported by NDP candidate Khalid Ahmed
(Photo via Blogwrath)

As the election campaign draws closer to its finish on October 19, more and more information about how unqualified and irresponsible Tom Mulcair's potential caucus is looking.

Today's example is the NDP candidate for Don Valley East, Khalid Ahmed, who recently purged from his facebook events page, support for three viciously anti-Israel events last year which were co-organized by the pro-terrorist Palestine House.

In 2012, the federal government ended its relationship with Palestine House because of that organization's support for terror and antisemitism.

The events Ahmed supported were protests outside the Israeli consulate in Toronto at which Israel was slandered as an apartheid state, something the Canadian government considers an antisemitic slur.  The participants at these protests routinely expressed support for terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Indeed the other organizer of the events was the so-called "Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid" a loose grouping of antisemites, academic imbeciles, anti-western socialist extremists, and mentally ill hatemongers.

The events in question also featured accusations of Israel being like Nazi Germany and deranged antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Though Ahmed recently purged the events from his facebook page, they were captured in the screenshot below:

Support for three vicious anti-Israel hatefests
 recently purged from NDP candidate Khalid Ahmed's facebook page

Canada didn't get stolen by Prime Minister Stephen Harper

...Can’t tell you how often on Facebook I’ve seen some variant of this posted: “We have to take our country back!” 

Seriously? How did Stephen Harper steal your country? 

Let’s run through the arguments. 

1. The New York Times doesn’t respect us anymore.

Well … good. 

2. We don’t do a lot of UN peacekeeping.

I would argue the UN — at best a noble failed experiment, at worst a corrupt body whose primary task is promoting hatred for Jews on the world stage — isn’t worth anybody’s time. 

As for the efficacy of peacekeeping, I refer you to the Rwandan genocide.


3. Harper won’t give government employees the unfettered ability to communicate with the public unsupervised.

If you work for a big oil company downtown, are you allowed to call a press conference to discuss global warming whenever you feel like it?

Didn’t think so.


4. Harper doesn’t like the CBC.

Well … who the hell does? It’s not 1955 anymore and genuine Canadian voices in the culture — like Trailer Park Boys — are doing just fine on Netflix, thank you very much.

More... 

The Toronto Star Wants To Promote Retarded Jewish Values

There's an old Jewish joke about a woman asking one of her friends about her three sons.

"My first son is a genius, he's a doctor, he's head of Cardiology at the hospital. I'm so proud of him!" says Sadie about her eldest child.

"How's your second son doing?" asks the woman.

"He's just average, he became a lawyer," Sadie answers.

"And what about your third son?" the woman inquires.

"Him? He's retarded, " shrugs Sadie.

"I'm so sorry!" the woman responds, " How is he getting by?"

"Oh, he's managing," says Sadie, "he's a social worker."

I'm relaying that joke, and offending battalions of "social justice warriors" by using the "r word," (which, by the way, leftie activist types, everyone uses about you behind your back,) because of an article in yesterday's Toronto Star. It was written by a Ben Carniol, who is Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Ryerson University, which by the standards of that joke would make him Grand Duke of the Retards.

The article by Professor Carniol asserts the Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "ideology and attitudes" are out of step with Jewish values. Using the mangled, pompous and, dare I say, retarded reasoning one would expect from a Social Work professor, it basically boils down to the fact that Carniol doesn't like Harper or his policies, Carniol is Jewish, therefore Harper's values are un-Jewish.

Harper being out of step with Jewish values will come as a tremendous surprise to the majority of Jews and rabbis in Canada who enthusiastically support the Prime Minister and his government. Under Harper's tenure as Prime Minister, Canada has taken the firmest stand against antisemitism of any country on the globe. The Harper government has been an exceptionally strong supporter of Israel in its travails against its antidemocratic enemies. Though that support may be galling to Grand Duke Carniol, it is of substantial comfort to the overwhelming majority of Canadian Jews who see the Jewish state besieged both by murderous terror states like Iran and their Hezbollah and Hamas proxies, and hateful western academic bigots who advocate for Israel's destruction.

Carniol is bothered by Harper's support for Israel because of the suffering of the Palestinians. The tragic situation of the Palestinians is indeed troubling and all people of goodwill hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between them and Israel. But the Palestinians' woes are not of Harper's making, nor are they exacerbated by his support for Israel.

Someday there will be an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank next to an Israeli one. But before that can happen, a full commitment to peace and the bonds of trust must occur. Israel does need to make more effort to engage with the Palestinians in the West Bank. However, that is made exceptionally difficult when Palestinians routinely advocate violence, refuse to participate in sincere, serious negotiations, and they literally name public squares after terrorists who murder Jewish children. If there is blame to be placed for that, it belongs on an abysmal Palestinian leadership and their useful idiot enablers in the west who have embarked on a campaign to isolate Israel, not on the Israeli nor Canadian governments.

Other examples of Harper's out-of-steppiness with His Grand Ducal Highness' values are conflicts with a mushy-headed, nebulous notion of social justice about certain environmental policies and some canards about Harper's dealings with Canada's First Nations. Oddly enough, Harper's reforms and policies towards the First Nations are substantial improvements over those of the previous two Prime Ministers, Chretien and Martin, but only Harper is bestowed the anti-Jewish label by Perfessur Carniol.

Actually, if you look at what Carniol has to say and the politicized nature of his concept of "social justice," it becomes immediately apparent the Social Work professor has determined that "Jewish values" coincide precisely with NDP policy positions. That's amusingly ironic, or more to the point, outright ridiculous, considering that of the three major political parties in Canada, the NDP is easily the most antisemitic and anti-Israel.

Carniol uses the sleazy smear that the pastor of Harper's church claimed, "that the Muslim faith authorizes the persecution of Christians, and that the Muslim world wants to gain world dominance," as another example of why the Prime Minister is out of step with "Jewish values."  Personally, I think it's more of an example of why Professor Carniol personifies that old social worker joke. If Barack Obama shouldn't be tainted by his pastor's declaring, "God damn America," then why on earth should Harper be held accountable for his pastor's comments about Islam?

Beyond that, if Perfessur Carniol wanted to do some real exploration on the subject, he might discover that it's actually the Koran and a vast number of Islamic imams and scholars who authorize the persecution of Christians and who seek world dominance for Islam. But maybe being a retired Social Work professor keeps Carniol too busy to keep up with news about ISIS, Hezbollah, Iran, Christians being sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, and so on.

Using the feeble, subjective term "Tikun Olam" or "heal the world" by which far-left-wing Jews try hide their political activism under the fake mantle of religious obligation, Harper is not healing the world in the way Grand Duke Carniol would like.

But the world Ben Carniol wants isn't necessarily a good one, nor a just one. It's Carniol's own personal idea of a better world.

Not every Jew is a self-hating, kvetching caricature of Woody Allen. And thank God for that. Being a parody of a pop-culture leftist stereotype isn't the same as Jewish values. It's just what The Toronto Star and Ben Carniol would like you to believe they are.

NDP MP as guilty as Duffy: Pat Martin used donations from unions to pay off debt from defamation law suit

For months the NDP has been railing against Mike Duffy for accepting a gift — from Nigel Wright — to pay off his debt for inappropriately claiming a Senate living allowance.

Well, it looks like one of their own has done the same thing — sort of.

According to the Ottawa Citizen, New Democrat MP Pat Martin, received cash gifts from several unions to pay off debts incurred with regard to a defamation law suit against him for accusing an Edmonton call centre of being behind the Guelph robocall scandal...

Reggae singer Matisyahu responds to Spanish Jew-hating terror supporters

Slimy Spanish Jew-haters tried to keep Jewish Reggae singer Matisyahu out of the "Sunsplash Festival." After a tidal wave of outrage, the festival backtracked.

So anti-Israel miscreants tried to harass Matisyahu at the festival. His response was to sing a Zionist song about Jerusalem and the restoration of the Temple.

Good for him. This episode is a reminder that Spain was the last country to have a fascist government, which was run by Hitler's ally, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, and it lasted until as recently as 1975, thirty years after the German Nazis' defeat.

Related: Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik received death threats from "tolerant peace activists" for visiting Israel.

'Tis better to go out with a bang than a whimper...

Vauban Fort (via Wikipedia commons)

A French couple have fallen to their death while having sex at a historic fortress, it has been reported.

The couple in their early thirties apparently fell into the moat from the walls surrounding the castle at the Vauban Fort on the island of Chausey Archipelago in the English Channel.

Reports have said the drop into the moat is 40ft high.

The naked bodies of a man and woman, who were both born in 1984, were found on Thursday morning...

Two Senators reveal that Obama is a liar who arranged secret sanctions relief for Iran

...Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) disclosed in the letter to the State Department that U.S. lawmakers have been shown copies of several letters sent by the Obama administration to the Chinese, German, French, and British governments assuring them that companies doing business with Iran will not come under penalty.

The Obama administration is purportedly promising the foreign governments that if Iran violates the parameters of a recently inked nuclear accord, European companies will not be penalized, according to the secret letters.

Congress became aware of these promises during closed-door briefings with the Obama administration and through documents filed by the administration under a law requiring full disclosure of all information pertaining to the accord.

The issue of sanctions on Iran has become a major issue on Capitol Hill in the weeks since the Obama administration agreed to a deal that permits Iran to enter the international community in exchange for temporarily constraining its nuclear program.

Iran will receive more than $150 billion in sanctions relief as part of the deal and many of its military branches will be removed from international sanctions designations...

What really goes on at a Harper press conference

Brian Lilley explains what goes on at press conferences for the Prime Minister, including the previous three Prime Ministers, and why Stephen Marche is full of crap:

Actress Ellen Page tries to nail Ted Cruz in "gotcha" moment. She ends up sounding like an idiot

Ted Cruz to Ellen Page: "Does that trouble you at all that you draw a moral equivalence between Christians in Jamaica and radical Islamic terrorists in ISIS that are beheading children?"

No, it does not trouble her at all.

"Hip" Vice Sports shitcans article by Norm Macdonald because it wasn't "hip" enough, so he relays it and backstory via twitter

Vice Sports has got to be one of the lamest sports sites on the entire Interweb.

To give you an idea about what their "professional" sports stories are like, one of their featured articles is about a transgendered high school athlete. And it is not about a young Bruce/Caitlin Jenner.

Vice Sports commissioned comedian Norm Macdonald to write an article. They didn't publish it, because what they really wanted him to do was interview "naturally funny" professional athletes, which they expected Macdonald to find through his own personal contact list.

As it turns out, Macdonald didn't happen to have the phone numbers of any "naturally funny" professional athletes. 

Anyway, I had a fine talk with the Vice editor on how difficult it is to get the phone numbers of hilarious athletes.

— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) August 21, 2015

NDP radicals deserve same scrutiny as Conservatives

...NDP candidates all over the country are supporting radical ideas and showing disdain for everyday Canadians...

NDP candidate Aaron Paquette, for instance, wrote in 2013, “Don’t kid yourself. Canada wasn’t born of debate but of slaughter, treachery and theft. The Charter is written in blood.”

That’s not some random crazy person barging in front of cameras at an NDP rally. This is from a current NDP candidate in Edmonton. Thomas Mulcair wants us to vote for a guy who seems to believe that Canada was engaging in a massacre as recently as 1982, when the Charter of Rights was passed.

Yet no one has bothered to ask Mulcair whether he agrees with his candidate. If he doesn’t agree, why is he asking us to vote for the guy?

In 2004, the media did its job and held the Conservative Party’s feet to the fire. They asked the hard questions and scrutinized local candidates for saying absurd things.

In 2015, the rest of the media seem to be asleep at the switch when it comes to NDP candidates and their whacky ideas...

Jewish Defense League to picket private fundraiser for Justin Trudeau

This could prove to be interesting:

The Jewish Defence League (JDL) says it’s planning to picket a private fundraising event featuring Liberal party Leader Justin Trudeau and York Centre candidate Michael Levitt at the home of businessman and philanthropist Barry Sherman.

The Aug. 26 protest “is absolutely going to be peaceful” and participants hope to engage contributors to the Liberal party as they enter Sherman’s home, said JDL leader Meir Weinstein.

The JDL is protesting the Liberal party’s position on the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the United States and other western countries, he said.

The deal has been described as “catastrophic” for Israel and will see Iran receive $150 billion in previously withheld funds, some of which the country will use to fund terrorist organizations worldwide. “That will heighten difficulties for Jews,” Weinstein said, adding no one in the Jewish community should back the Liberals, given the party’s support for the deal and its position that Canada should reopen diplomatic relations with Iran.

Weinstein said the JDL picketing Sherman’s residence is unprecedented. “We don’t go out and picket Jewish leaders. It’s a very difficult decision.”

He said the JDL took the step in the wake of an email exchange between Sherman and Gabriel Erem, the CEO of Lifestyles Magazine...

An in-depth documentary on the Battle of Hoth

Sen. Bob Menendez' Full Statement Opposing Iran Nuclear Deal

A critical speech. Listen to the whole thing if you can. Sen. Menendez (D-New Jersey) makes it clear the Obama administration lied both about "anytime, anywhere" inspections and the ability to impose "snapback sanctions."

...“If anything is a ‘fantasy’ about this agreement it is the belief that snapback, without congressionally-mandated sanctions, with EU sanctions gone, and companies from around the world doing permissible business in Iran, will have any real effect.

“The Administration cannot argue sanction policy both ways. Either they were effective in getting Iran to the negotiating table or they were not. Sanctions are either a deterrent to break-out, a violation of the agreement, or they are not.

“In retrospect, my one regret throughout this process is that I did not proceed with the Menendez-Kirk prospective sanctions legislation that would have provided additional leverage during the negotiations and would have also provided additional leverage in any possible post-agreement nullification by them or by us.

“Frankly, in my view, the overall sanctions relief being provided, given the Iranian’s understanding of restrictions on the reauthorization of sanctions, along with the lifting of the arms and missile embargo well before Iranian compliance over years is established, leaves us in a weak position, and – to me – is unacceptable.

“As the largest State Sponsor of Terrorism, Iran – who has exported its revolution to Assad in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and directed and supported attacks against American troops in Iraq -- will be flush with money, not only to invest in their domestic economy, but to further pursue their destabilizing, hegemonic goals in the region.  If Iran can afford to destabilize the region with an economy staggering under sanctions and rocked by falling oil prices, what will Iran and the Quds Force do when they have a cash infusion of more than 20 percent of their GDP -- the equivalent of an infusion of $3.4 trillion into our economy?

“If there is a fear of war in the region, it is fueled by Iran and its proxies and exacerbated by an agreement that allows Iran to possess an industrial-sized nuclear program, and enough money in sanctions relief to continue to fund its hegemonic intentions throughout the region.  Imagine how a country like the United Arab Emirates – sitting just miles away from Iran across the straits of Hormuz feels after they sign a civilian nuclear agreement with the U.S., considered to be the gold standard, to not enrich or reprocess uranium?  What do our friends think when we give our enemies a pass while holding them to the gold standard? Who should they trust?...

What Really Happened in Iran: The CIA, the Ouster of Mosaddeq, and the Restoration of the Shah

Back in 2009, during his heavily promoted Cairo speech on American relations with the Muslim world, U.S. President Barack Obama noted, in passing, that “in the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.” Obama was referring to the 1953 coup that toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and consolidated the rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Obama would go on to remind his audience that Iran had also committed its share of misdeeds against Americans. But he clearly intended his allusion to Washington’s role in the coup as a concession -- a public acknowledgment that the United States shared some of the blame for its long-simmering conflict with the Islamic Republic.

Yet there was a supreme irony to Obama’s concession. The history of the U.S. role in Iran’s 1953 coup may be “well known,” as the president declared in his speech, but it is not well founded. On the contrary, it rests heavily on two related myths: that machinations by the CIA were the most important factor in Mosaddeq’s downfall and that Iran’s brief democratic interlude was spoiled primarily by American and British meddling. For decades, historians, journalists, and pundits have promoted these myths, injecting them not just into the political discourse but also into popular culture: most recently, Argo, a Hollywood thriller that won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture, suggested that Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution was a belated response to an injustice perpetrated by the United States a quarter century earlier. That version of events has also been promoted by Iran’s theocratic leaders, who have exploited it to stoke anti-Americanism and to obscure the fact that the clergy itself played a major role in toppling Mosaddeq.

In reality, the CIA’s impact on the events of 1953 was ultimately insignificant. Regardless of anything the United States did or did not do, Mosaddeq was bound to fall and the shah was bound to retain his throne and expand his power. Yet the narrative of American culpability has become so entrenched that it now shapes how many Americans understand the history of U.S.-Iranian relations and influences how American leaders think about Iran. In reaching out to the Islamic Republic, the United States has cast itself as a sinner expiating its previous transgressions. This has allowed the Iranian theocracy, which has abused history in a thousand ways, to claim the moral high ground, giving it an unearned advantage over Washington and the West, even in situations that have nothing to do with 1953 and in which Iran’s behavior is the sole cause of the conflict, such as the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program...

This week in Arab paranoia: Terror group Hamas claims to have captured Israeli "spy" dolphin

The Palestinian daily Al-Quds claimed on Wednesday that Hamas has captured a dolphin used by the Israeli navy to attack members of its armed wing, Eziddin al-Qassam.

Quoting sources in the Gaza Strip, the paper said that the Israeli dolphin was captured off the shores of the Gaza Strip a few days ago.

The sources said that Hamas naval commandos noticed “suspicious movements” of the dolphin... 

This is part of a long tradition of demented Arab paranoia about Israel that is so ridiculous it sounds like a bizarre joke. But in that part of the world, Jew-hate has reached the level of state-sponsored mass dementia. 

The Delusions of the Canadian Mind

The Australians call it “the colonial cringe,” and it may explain why the most influential newspaper in Canada is The New York Times. The New York Times is likely more influential in Canada than it is in New York. So when The New York Times published last weekend a long and harsh attack on the personality and record of a Canadian prime minister, that fact alone ranked as news in Canada, all the more so since it came in the opening days of a federal election (Canadians vote on October 19).

The long and harsh attack by the Canadian novelist and political commentator Stephen Marche, titled “The Closing of the Canadian Mind,” claims the following: “The nine and half years of [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of [Canada’s] reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.”

And there’s more: Harper is “classically Orwellian,” his tenure characterized by the “active promotion of ignorance” and a “peculiar hatred for sharing information.” Worst, Harper “seems to think that his job is to prevent democracy.”

Yikes. That sounds awful! So what did Stephen Harper actually do? How precisely did the Canadian prime minister silence debate, suppress information, and squelch democracy? In which dungeon do his critics languish? What are the secrets he has concealed?

Even after reading all 17 paragraphs of Marche’s indictment, it’s hard to say. As so often happens with anti-Harper invective, the accusation combines intense outrage against the man with gaseous vagueness about the man’s offenses. You’re supposed to just know. If you don’t know already, it won’t be explained to you...

ISIS murders a brave Syrian archeologist

Islamic State militants beheaded a renowned antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his mutilated body on a column in a main square of the historic site because he apparently refused to reveal where valuable artefacts had been moved for safekeeping.

The brutal murder of Khaled al-Asaad, 82, is the latest atrocity perpetrated by the jihadi group, which has captured a third of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared a “caliphate” on the territory it controls. It has also highlighted Isis’s habit of looting and selling antiquities to fund its activities – as well as destroying them.

Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said Asaad’s family had informed him that the scholar, who worked for more than 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra, was killed by Isis on Tuesday...

Goodbye to the galaxy's sexiest alien. Yvonne Craig passes away at 78.

Yvonne Craig, best known for her role as Batgirl in the iconic 1960s television series Batman, died Monday. She was 78.

Craig died at her home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., as a result of complications from breast cancer that had spread to her liver...

Iran nuke side deal revealed: Obama to let Iran do its own nuclear inspections

Only an idiot or someone in the pay of Iran could possibly vote for this idiocy that guarantees Iranian nuclear weapons capability, plus gives them access to $150 Billion for terrorism-sponsorship.

Associated Press reports that they have seen one of Obama's side nuclear deals and it allows the Iranians to do their own inspections. So much for verification and "anytime, anywhere."

Obama a liar who is making Neville Chamberlain look like George Patton.

VIENNA (AP) — Iran, in an unusual arrangement, will be allowed to use its own experts to inspect a site it allegedly used to develop nuclear arms under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.

The revelation is sure to roil American and Israeli critics of the main Iran deal signed by the U.S., Iran and five world powers in July. Those critics have complained that the deal is built on trust of the Iranians, a claim the U.S. has denied.

The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal...

As if to rub their contempt for the Americans and Obama's weakness in their faces, Iran has also threatened physical harm to the Chief nuclear inspector:

It was like the local Mafia collector dropping by just to say "it would be a shame if something happened to you." Iran warned the UN's chief atomic watchdog he might come to "harm."

Never mind "The Audacity of Hope." In Iran, the audacity of hate seems to have no limits.

How much nerve does it take to go so far as to issue a vague physical threat — during "peace" negotiations — to the head of the agency charged with inspecting nuclear facilities where cheating could be going on?

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, briefing Iranian lawmakers Monday, boasted that its government sent a letter threatening Yukiya Amano, the chief of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency...

Another Democrat Senator, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, yesterday announced that he will oppose Obama's nuclear capitulation to Iran deal. 

Vote Rhino! Their candidates aren't as vile as the NDP's!

The satirical Rhinoceros Party is back on the scene, and it much needed relief.

Their policies are intentionally absurd. however, they still aren't nearly as crazy-sounding as some of the sincere positions from NDP candidates.

It's tough to top the stupid of people like Linda "I've got a crush on socialist dictator Hugo Chavez" McQuaig.

...The Rhinoceros party has been on and off the election trail since 1963 and it’s ready to run again.

This time, it’s promising, among other things, to move Canada’s capital from Ottawa to Kapuskasing, Ont. — because it’s in the middle of the country.

If the satirical Rhinos win a majority, they also have a big pilot project in their 2015-3015 election platform: the privatization of the Canadian army and the nationalization of Tim Hortons.

Party leader Sebastien CoRhino Corriveau was hoping to make the announcement Monday at a news conference in a Timmy’s in east-end Montreal, but he was thrown out...

An NFL Player who is smarter than all of OISE's faculty combined

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison may be the last person you want to take life lessons from, given his history of violence on and off the field. But his announcement Sunday that he was giving back his 8- and 6-year-old son's "participation" trophies because they hadn't earned them was dead on, and that message shouldn't be discounted simply because he was the one delivering it...

Sen. Bob Corker convincingly argues that Obama, who has ignored red lines he's set, can't be trusted to enforce the Iran deal

By passing the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act with enough votes to overcome a veto, Congress ensured that it would have the opportunity to review and vote on the nuclear agreement with Iran.

Now that the Obama administration has reached what it believes to be an acceptable agreement, it is Congress’s responsibility to determine whether this agreement will be in our national interest, will make the United States safer and will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons program. I do not believe that it will.

Rather than end Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, over time this deal industrializes the program of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

For a deal that must be built on verification and not trust, the inspections process is deeply flawed. Through verbal presentations regarding possible military dimensions, many in Congress are aware of the unorthodox arrangements agreed to by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the administration and our negotiating partners to keep from upsetting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Those actual agreements remain secret, but we know that at best they are most unusual and speak to the P5+1’s low commitment to holding Iran’s feet to the fire...

University of BC creates mutated mice that are smarter than NDP voters

Vancouver, BC - Scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have created unusually intelligent mice by causing a mutation to a single gene. While the research is a long way from reaching human trials, it helps researchers identify a target for improving memory and cognitive function in people with dementia.

The study, led by Dr. Alexander McGirr, a medical resident in the Department of Psychiatry at UBC, along with colleagues at the University of Toronto, University of Leeds and MRC Harwell, an organization that studies the links between genetics and disease, was published today in the journalNeuropsychopharmacology. In this Q&A, McGirr talks about his results.

How did you create intelligent mice?

We identified a mutation in the gene that codes for an important protein in the brain, Phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B). Though our study is in mice, this protein is very important in the human brain as well.

Mice with the mutation performed remarkably well on many memory and problem-solving tasks. For instance, they were able to remember where they had already been in a maze, find a platform hidden under water, and they had better social memory, meaning they remembered meeting other mice. What was really interesting is that even when we made some tasks that are impossible for normal mice, the ‘brainy mice’ continued to perform well....

Opposition to Kathleen Wynne's pension tax growing as support for scheme softens, provincewide poll finds

As the Liberal government reveals more details about the Ontario pension plans, a new poll shows an upswing in disapproval of the scheme.

Last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled more details about the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP), an alternate to expanding the Canada Pension Plan and a federal election campaign sideshow Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears to relish.

As voters in seat-rich Ontario take a closer look at the ORPP, a new Forum Research poll shows their support is softening and opposition is growing.

A survey conducted August 12 and 13, the two days after the ORPP details were released, shows 44 per cent of respondents approve of the ORPP, a slight drop from the last time Forum polled the issue in November 2014, when 52 per cent supported the plan. In May 2014, 48 per cent supported the pension scheme.

At the same time, outright disapproval is growing: 40 per cent of those surveyed last week disapproved of the ORPP, compared to 28 per cent in November...

Stephen Harper wins 'world statesman' award for being a champion of democracy, freedom and human rights

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being hailed as “World Statesman of the Year” by an American organization that previously feted Jean Chretie, British prime minister Gordon Brown and and Korean president Lee Myung-bak.

The award, for his work as “a champion of democracy, freedom and human rights”, comes from an organization called the Appeal of Conscience Foundation,

The organization paying tribute to Harper was founded in 1965 by Rabbi Arthur Schneier. Its website says the Foundation has worked on behalf of religious freedom and human rights throughout the world.

Its board includes former U.S. president Bill Clinton and former U.S. secretaries of state Madeleine Albright, James Baker, retired general Colin Powell and George Schultz...

Comedian Norm Macdonald is the new Colonel Sanders for KFC

Really.

Chicken chain KFC has unleashed a new ad campaign featuring ‘Saturday Night Live’ veteran Norm MacDonald as brand founder (and mascot) Colonel Sanders.

Four new slots to air during autumn from Wieden + Kennedy underline the $5 (or $20) Fill Up meal and the "reboot" of the iconic mascot.

Kevin Hochman, chief marketing officer KFC US, said: “Other than not quite looking like him, his voice being different, and his inability to cook the world’s best chicken, we thought Norm was the perfect choice to play the Real Colonel..."

Canadian schools finally starting to use Khan Academy methods

When I ran for School Trustee, which I lost, coming in a close 8th place out of 9 candidates, I was the only one in the campaign in the city advocating this technique, which was first used by Sal Khan. Its success is substantial, since it allows kids to review lessons uninterrupted, at their own pace, and utilize class time much more effectively :

TORONTO -- As Canadian kids prepare to head back to school, there's a growing movement gaining traction across the country that involves students learning their lessons at home and doing their homework at school.

It's called the "flipped classroom" -- students watch an online video of a lesson as homework, and then work on problems during class time.

The method is becoming more prominent as technology in schools allows for videos to be accessed easily, either on custom-made sites, on YouTube or downloaded to a device....

Jeff Flake’s ‘no’ dims Barack Obama’s hope of bipartisan support on Iran

It doesn’t look like President Barack Obama will get to claim “bipartisan support” for the Iran nuclear deal, either.

On Saturday, Sen. Jeff Flake, possibly the only Republican in Congress open to supporting the agreement, said he won’t.

The Arizonan, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a lengthy statement explaining that he could not back the internationally negotiated deal because he believed it constrains the United States’ ability to punish Iran in the future for its non-nuclear aggression in the Middle East.

“While Congress has received assurances from the administration that it does not forfeit its ability to impose sanctions on Iran for behavior on the non-nuclear side, these assurances do not square with the text of the [Iran agreement],” Flake said.

The White House declined to comment on Flake’s decision, but said it would continue to seek opportunities to persuade other Republicans to back the deal. At this stage, however, it appears as if the Iran agreement will fail to muster a single GOP vote in support — at least not in the Senate and likely not in the House...