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