Dan Henninger wrote an editorial in today's Wall Street Journal explaining the left's particular reaction to the Arizona mass murder by Jared Loughner. It's a very insightful perspective.
Hillbuzz summarizes it as follows:
Henniger says two things:
(1) Leftist writers like Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Jonathan Alter, and the rest who have been shamelessly using this tragedy to score political points for Democrats do so because they don’t know how to write any other way: they are just programmed to turn anything that happens into something that they think will help Democrats and hurt Republicans. They are purely agenda driven in all their content.
(2) The Leftist writers, and the Left in general, genuinely believe the lies they tell. And they are terrified of the Left being banished to the political wilderness for another three decades or so, the way it was after Carter’s disastrous presidency. They must, thus, stop at nothing to destroy the things they know will bring the Left down…and that is personified in Governor Palin and the Tea Party movement.
EYE ON A CRAZY PLANET
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Jared Loughner of nations is among us
A crazy, belligerent exhibits warning signs for years.
Violent rhetoric and threats are a routine characteristic. There are clear signs of mental instability marked by incoherence with desultory and delusional outbursts. There have even been actual incidents of violence perpetrated from this source.
When a vicious, pernicious maelstrom of death inevitably occurs, there is outrage directed towards those who seemingly should have recognized the dangers and yet did nothing.
No, this isn’t just a description of Arizona mass murderer Jared Loughner. It’s also a description of something far more dangerous: the leadership of The Islamic Republic of Iran.
Amazingly, some of the people who are so upset at the supposed instigation of Loughner by right wing vitriol are among those who are acting as apologists for, if not proxies of the murderous Iranian regime.
The leadership of Iran are Holocaust-deniers who have repeatedly threatened violence. They are responsible for international terrorism. They deny their people the right to free speech and political dissent. They actively persecute religious minorities, like the Bahia's whose only crime is to believe that a prophet lived after Mohammad. Iran's religious police imprison women for immodesty and then rape them in jail.
If the Iranian leadership were a single person living in the US, it would have been given a death sentence a long time ago.
Iran's theocracy is far more dangerous than a crazed lone gunman with a pistol. It's a crazed ideological movement that is about to acquire a nuclear weapon.
The opportunity to prevent that still exists, but will pass soon.
President Obama attended a memorial service Wednesday for the victims of a single madman. People look at this tragedy and say, "If only we would have acted when we had the chance."
Unless Obama finds the courage and determination to effectively confront Iran, there may be thousands upon thousands of memorial services for Americans and others as a result of his inaction.
Violent rhetoric and threats are a routine characteristic. There are clear signs of mental instability marked by incoherence with desultory and delusional outbursts. There have even been actual incidents of violence perpetrated from this source.
When a vicious, pernicious maelstrom of death inevitably occurs, there is outrage directed towards those who seemingly should have recognized the dangers and yet did nothing.
No, this isn’t just a description of Arizona mass murderer Jared Loughner. It’s also a description of something far more dangerous: the leadership of The Islamic Republic of Iran.
Amazingly, some of the people who are so upset at the supposed instigation of Loughner by right wing vitriol are among those who are acting as apologists for, if not proxies of the murderous Iranian regime.
The leadership of Iran are Holocaust-deniers who have repeatedly threatened violence. They are responsible for international terrorism. They deny their people the right to free speech and political dissent. They actively persecute religious minorities, like the Bahia's whose only crime is to believe that a prophet lived after Mohammad. Iran's religious police imprison women for immodesty and then rape them in jail.
If the Iranian leadership were a single person living in the US, it would have been given a death sentence a long time ago.
Iran's theocracy is far more dangerous than a crazed lone gunman with a pistol. It's a crazed ideological movement that is about to acquire a nuclear weapon.
The opportunity to prevent that still exists, but will pass soon.
President Obama attended a memorial service Wednesday for the victims of a single madman. People look at this tragedy and say, "If only we would have acted when we had the chance."
Unless Obama finds the courage and determination to effectively confront Iran, there may be thousands upon thousands of memorial services for Americans and others as a result of his inaction.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Pakistan becomes beacon of religious tolerance!
A Pakistani court only gave life sentences, instead of the usual death sentence, to two men convicted of blasphemy.
That makes them practically a liberal democracy (for an Islamic republic).
That makes them practically a liberal democracy (for an Islamic republic).
Let Toronto Police know you appreciate them!
The last 24 hours have been bad ones for Toronto Police officers and for the city.
Toronto Police Sergeant Ryan Russell was killed and another constable injured when trying to stop a manic who stole a snowplough and took it on a rampage through a number of downtown neighbourhoods.
The night before, a Toronto police officer was injured by a radical leftist thug at a protest against the Jewish Defence League.
Toronto police officers are good men and women doing a difficult job. They spend their days and nights working to help the citizens of this city and often risk their lives to do so.
It's a hard job because a huge percentage of the people they deal with are distressed by crimes perpetrated against them, or are aggravated and in many cases are violent. Think about how often you have to deal with something like that at your workplace. If you're the average person, the answer will be rarely or never.
Having to deal with that kind of pressure and responsibility is a difficult burden, and Toronto's cops overwhelmingly bear it with courage and grace.
As a young child, I grew up with cops around. My father had many friends on the force in 51 Division and they were friendly, wickedly funny men who were uniformly (no pun) decent, honorable Canadians. One of my favorite childhood memories is when my dad's friend, Officer John Little, a large man known by the moniker of his reverse namesake from Sherwood Forest, much to my shock, actually let me hold his service revolver when I asked him.
I used to ask him just about every time I saw him and the refusal was so consistent that the whole question of, "Can I hold your gun?" was more of a ritual than a genuine inquiry. But for some reason, on this occasion, he decided I was ready.
For a five year-old, it was an ebullient thrill to watch him remove the bullets and then pass the revolver to my anxiously waiting hands. In my mind, I was going to be Steve McGarrett and wield the gun like an expert TV show cop. What happened was that as soon I took hold of the gun, both my hands dropped to an immediate 180 degrees. The real thing was a heck of a lot heavier than the gun from my Lone Ranger cap gun set.
Like any other kid, I grew up on TV shows and movies where police shootouts were weekly, if not daily occurrences, at least in that fictional world. In the real one, it was surprising to hear that most of the policemen I knew never fired their weapons once in the line of duty. Most had only had to remove their pistols from their holsters only once or twice over lengthy careers.
Toronto was a smaller, safer city back then.
When I was a kid, police I knew used to encourage me to say hi or at least smile at passing cops. They said they appreciated the friendly gesture from the people they were there to protect and serve. It's something I still do and think we all should.
There are some miscreants who view the police only as impediments to their ability to commit crimes. Incredibly, there are still narcissistic, nitwit cultists who think of police as "fascist pigs who are instruments of state oppression."
The policemen and women of Toronto are honourable, brave individuals who are risking their lives for us and who deserve our appreciation. Today's events were a tragic reminder of that.
Toronto Police Sergeant Ryan Russell was killed and another constable injured when trying to stop a manic who stole a snowplough and took it on a rampage through a number of downtown neighbourhoods.
The night before, a Toronto police officer was injured by a radical leftist thug at a protest against the Jewish Defence League.
Toronto police officers are good men and women doing a difficult job. They spend their days and nights working to help the citizens of this city and often risk their lives to do so.
It's a hard job because a huge percentage of the people they deal with are distressed by crimes perpetrated against them, or are aggravated and in many cases are violent. Think about how often you have to deal with something like that at your workplace. If you're the average person, the answer will be rarely or never.
Having to deal with that kind of pressure and responsibility is a difficult burden, and Toronto's cops overwhelmingly bear it with courage and grace.
As a young child, I grew up with cops around. My father had many friends on the force in 51 Division and they were friendly, wickedly funny men who were uniformly (no pun) decent, honorable Canadians. One of my favorite childhood memories is when my dad's friend, Officer John Little, a large man known by the moniker of his reverse namesake from Sherwood Forest, much to my shock, actually let me hold his service revolver when I asked him.
I used to ask him just about every time I saw him and the refusal was so consistent that the whole question of, "Can I hold your gun?" was more of a ritual than a genuine inquiry. But for some reason, on this occasion, he decided I was ready.
For a five year-old, it was an ebullient thrill to watch him remove the bullets and then pass the revolver to my anxiously waiting hands. In my mind, I was going to be Steve McGarrett and wield the gun like an expert TV show cop. What happened was that as soon I took hold of the gun, both my hands dropped to an immediate 180 degrees. The real thing was a heck of a lot heavier than the gun from my Lone Ranger cap gun set.
Like any other kid, I grew up on TV shows and movies where police shootouts were weekly, if not daily occurrences, at least in that fictional world. In the real one, it was surprising to hear that most of the policemen I knew never fired their weapons once in the line of duty. Most had only had to remove their pistols from their holsters only once or twice over lengthy careers.
Toronto was a smaller, safer city back then.
When I was a kid, police I knew used to encourage me to say hi or at least smile at passing cops. They said they appreciated the friendly gesture from the people they were there to protect and serve. It's something I still do and think we all should.
There are some miscreants who view the police only as impediments to their ability to commit crimes. Incredibly, there are still narcissistic, nitwit cultists who think of police as "fascist pigs who are instruments of state oppression."
The policemen and women of Toronto are honourable, brave individuals who are risking their lives for us and who deserve our appreciation. Today's events were a tragic reminder of that.
Lebanese govt falls as Hezbollah's Grand Poobah Nassrallah unhappy about being fingered for Hariri murder
From The Globe and Mail
Hezbollah topples Lebanon’s government over Hariri probe
A Lebanese official says Hezbollah ministers and their allies have resigned from the Cabinet, forcing the government to fall.
Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told a news conference Wednesday that 10 ministers are pulling out. Soon after, one more minister resigned in order to force the government to fall.
The ministers are stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet over tensions stemming from a United-Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Hezbollah topples Lebanon’s government over Hariri probe
A Lebanese official says Hezbollah ministers and their allies have resigned from the Cabinet, forcing the government to fall.
Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told a news conference Wednesday that 10 ministers are pulling out. Soon after, one more minister resigned in order to force the government to fall.
The ministers are stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet over tensions stemming from a United-Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The incredible, non-credible, conspiracy-filled world of Jenny Peto
It all started here. This is the blog that brought national and international attention to Jenny Peto's masterpiece of paranoia, "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education."
Her work was a Master's thesis for the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto that alleges mainstream Holocaust education programs are part of an evil Zionist conspiracy to, in her words, "obscure Jewish privilege, deny Jewish racism and promote the interests of the Israeli nation-state."
On the surface that sounds pretty idiotic. She doesn't further her credibility with bizarre contentions like:
"Having shown that Ashkenazi Jews are now privileged white people, I will then work to expose some of the tactics that are used to perpetuate the idea that Jews are inherently and forever victimized." (pg.8)
Many people aside from me, including Professor Werner Cohn and Robyn Urback at Maclean's have commented at length about how OISE's acceptance of Ms. Peto's incompetent scholarship, which used no primary sources, was replete with factual errors, absurd speculation and personal reflection unrelated to the subject, made a mockery of of the concept of academic rigour. So much so, that it called the credibility of OISE as a faculty into question.
Ms Peto and Sheryl Nestel, the academic supervisor for her polemic, have kept a relatively low profile since the public exposure of its existence, with the exception of a love note Ms Peto sent to me via the National Post.
Until now. Yesterday, the University of Toronto's student newspaper, The Varsity, published an interview with Ms Peto and Nestel where they are back on the big conspiracy bandwagon.
As Robyn Urback described it today, "her paper was attacked simply because she was purporting unpopular ideas. “I think that this is about who I am as a pro-Palestinian activist and what I have to say,” she said, “which is very critical of Israel, very critical of mainstream pro-Israel institutions in Canada, and critical of what I see as an abuse of Holocaust memory to justify Israeli apartheid.” In other words, all of that talk of misleading claims and spreading hate was really just a guise for mainstream intolerance of pro-Palestinian ideas."
As far as I'm concerned, this all brings together an interesting thread that comes from a variety of media sources. Perhaps it is not so strange that there is such a close link between conspiracy theorists and anti-Semitism. Part of the whole anti-Semitic proposition is a "world-wide conspiracy" of Jews.
Ms. Peto denies she can be an anti-Semite. But how else can one characterize statements from her thesis like, ""Worldwide, the organized Jewish community works tirelessly to support the racist Israeli state and in doing so, aligns itself with oppressive forces in their own countries." and "a mainstream Jewish community that is dominated by racist and Zionist ideologies"
Ms Peto's usual refrain is that she can't possibly be anti-Semitic because she is a Jew and a descendant of a Holocaust survivor. That assertion is, of itself, demonstrative of her lack of insight. Anti-Semitism is an ideology and prejudice, being a Jew is a matter of birth. Being of a particular ethnic group does not preclude the ability to hold any idea. But then, her inability to understand such a basic concept may be reflective of uncritical acceptance of the racialist theories taught amongst the pseudo-academic psychobabble of OISE's Sociology and Equity Studies in Education program.
But there is a common thread between Peto, Nestel, and a world where Egyptians accuse sharks of, and Saudi Arabia arrests a vulture for being an Israeli spy. It's also no coincidence that conspiracy theorists like 9-11 oddballs Joshua Blakeney and Michael Keefer have aligned themselves with Peto's cause.
This all reflects a paranoid, incompetent mindset that seeks to blame their own failings on others. It suggests a lacks of the introspective ability to question themselves and their own failings, and is so obsessed with attributing blame to an enemy that they create it where it doesn't exist.
Of course, it's so much easier to blame the "Zionists" or the "neo-Cons" than to look at yourself. It wasn't so long ago that it was all "the blacks' fault."
Incompetent scholarship endorsed by a major university that receives public funds is a serious problem. It doesn't require a conspiracy to explain why there is public criticism of something so detrimental to the University of Toronto's reputation. It does require a conspiracy for the people responsible to try to excuse themselves.
Her work was a Master's thesis for the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto that alleges mainstream Holocaust education programs are part of an evil Zionist conspiracy to, in her words, "obscure Jewish privilege, deny Jewish racism and promote the interests of the Israeli nation-state."
On the surface that sounds pretty idiotic. She doesn't further her credibility with bizarre contentions like:
"Having shown that Ashkenazi Jews are now privileged white people, I will then work to expose some of the tactics that are used to perpetuate the idea that Jews are inherently and forever victimized." (pg.8)
Many people aside from me, including Professor Werner Cohn and Robyn Urback at Maclean's have commented at length about how OISE's acceptance of Ms. Peto's incompetent scholarship, which used no primary sources, was replete with factual errors, absurd speculation and personal reflection unrelated to the subject, made a mockery of of the concept of academic rigour. So much so, that it called the credibility of OISE as a faculty into question.
Ms Peto and Sheryl Nestel, the academic supervisor for her polemic, have kept a relatively low profile since the public exposure of its existence, with the exception of a love note Ms Peto sent to me via the National Post.
Until now. Yesterday, the University of Toronto's student newspaper, The Varsity, published an interview with Ms Peto and Nestel where they are back on the big conspiracy bandwagon.
As Robyn Urback described it today, "her paper was attacked simply because she was purporting unpopular ideas. “I think that this is about who I am as a pro-Palestinian activist and what I have to say,” she said, “which is very critical of Israel, very critical of mainstream pro-Israel institutions in Canada, and critical of what I see as an abuse of Holocaust memory to justify Israeli apartheid.” In other words, all of that talk of misleading claims and spreading hate was really just a guise for mainstream intolerance of pro-Palestinian ideas."
As far as I'm concerned, this all brings together an interesting thread that comes from a variety of media sources. Perhaps it is not so strange that there is such a close link between conspiracy theorists and anti-Semitism. Part of the whole anti-Semitic proposition is a "world-wide conspiracy" of Jews.
Ms. Peto denies she can be an anti-Semite. But how else can one characterize statements from her thesis like, ""Worldwide, the organized Jewish community works tirelessly to support the racist Israeli state and in doing so, aligns itself with oppressive forces in their own countries." and "a mainstream Jewish community that is dominated by racist and Zionist ideologies"
Ms Peto's usual refrain is that she can't possibly be anti-Semitic because she is a Jew and a descendant of a Holocaust survivor. That assertion is, of itself, demonstrative of her lack of insight. Anti-Semitism is an ideology and prejudice, being a Jew is a matter of birth. Being of a particular ethnic group does not preclude the ability to hold any idea. But then, her inability to understand such a basic concept may be reflective of uncritical acceptance of the racialist theories taught amongst the pseudo-academic psychobabble of OISE's Sociology and Equity Studies in Education program.
But there is a common thread between Peto, Nestel, and a world where Egyptians accuse sharks of, and Saudi Arabia arrests a vulture for being an Israeli spy. It's also no coincidence that conspiracy theorists like 9-11 oddballs Joshua Blakeney and Michael Keefer have aligned themselves with Peto's cause.
This all reflects a paranoid, incompetent mindset that seeks to blame their own failings on others. It suggests a lacks of the introspective ability to question themselves and their own failings, and is so obsessed with attributing blame to an enemy that they create it where it doesn't exist.
Of course, it's so much easier to blame the "Zionists" or the "neo-Cons" than to look at yourself. It wasn't so long ago that it was all "the blacks' fault."
Incompetent scholarship endorsed by a major university that receives public funds is a serious problem. It doesn't require a conspiracy to explain why there is public criticism of something so detrimental to the University of Toronto's reputation. It does require a conspiracy for the people responsible to try to excuse themselves.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Explicit calls for political violence come from the radical left in Canada
Any mass murder in North America has ramifications beyond the transparent tragedy that accompanies the death of innocents in a society that is comparatively among the safest in the world.
In trying to make sense of the incomprehensible, there are some who will try to find a culprit beyond the obvious, sometimes without any rational basis. The atrocity perpetrated by demented killer Jared Loughner over the weekend in which six innocent people were murdered and Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded has, what seems to be, an obvious explanation. The perpetrator, whose public pronouncements suggest an incoherent, unbalanced madman, was mentally ill and acted out out of psychosis.
But one of the tragedies in this case, that compounds the original one, is that there are no shortage of people who are happy to exploit these deaths for political and ideological motives.
Because the central victim in is a Democratic legislator whose district was identified by Sarah Palin as a "target" for Republicans to take, Democrats and others on the left, both in the US and in Canada, have ebulliently grasped the opportunity to lay blame on the former Republican Vice Presidential candidate,the Republican party and "right wingers" in general for allegedly creating a climate filled with violent rhetoric that supposedly created these events.
Nothing could be more absurd.
Despite preposterous suggestions from people like Paul Krugman in The New York Times, there is no evidence whatsoever establishing that anything Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh said that played any role in Loughner's deranged violence. Sarah Palin may be a bit of a buffoon more famous for celebrity itself than for political adroitness, but her use of political rhetoric never called for violence of any kind and it falls within the scope of discourse that typifies much of American politics.
Responsible conservatives are as opposed to violence as much as responsible liberals. We live in a democratic society where change can be achieved through persuasion and elections.
Sane people are appalled by and reject the idea of initiating transition by terror.
But what may be shocking to some is that in Canada, explicit calls for violence to achieve political ends are coming from none other than the radical left.
Or perhaps not so shocking. The most recent acts of publicized political violence in Canada came from The Black Bloc during Toronto's G20 conference. It was radical leftists who rioted and caused millions of dollars in damage to make a political statement.
But it doesn't end there. Prominent Canadian leftist Judy Rebick founded a Marxist-leaning website called rabble.ca. It's now published by the spouse of the NDP's Deputy Leader, Libby Davies and is mainly funded by Canadian unions like CUPW and CUPE. That site's discussion forum recently hosted a thread entitled, "When is the time for violent revolution?" in which its contributors made comments like:
"I was wondering when it would be ok to overthrow a government, violently if need be."
"Perhaps the reason the ballot box isn't working is because the ballot box isn't the way to the solution."
"I think 9/11 was just a test run. The people failed with flying colours. And I think it's an example of what's in store for the future if fascists back themselves into another corner."
"How many more decades should we wait? It appears that Canadians arent catching on, so should we suffer in silence for 30 more years? maybe a generation or three? Dont the better people of our society have a responsibility to the stupid?"
and worse.
Beyond that, CUPE, CUPW, Independent Jewish Voices (an anti-Israel group) and the NDP's Socialist Caucus were all endorsers of a recent rally where one of the speakers called for violent revolution in Canada.
At a Toronto rally in support of convicted American cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamar, one of the speakers was an organizer from the Communist newsletter BASICS. Following a rambling speech about conspiracies and praising violent revolutionaries, he said "we haven't had any threat of insurrection or any, you know, revolutionary uprisings in Canada quite for, for quite some time, right? But that that doesn't mean that operation is not still in play."
This suggests that the Canadian radical left is not only advocating violence, but planning it.
This type of organized insurrection against democracy is far more dangerous than a lone madman. Violence for political means is deplorable, and no ideology or political movement has a monopoly on it. But its strongest proponents these days are not the "right-wingers" and "neo-Cons" but their opponents.
In trying to make sense of the incomprehensible, there are some who will try to find a culprit beyond the obvious, sometimes without any rational basis. The atrocity perpetrated by demented killer Jared Loughner over the weekend in which six innocent people were murdered and Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded has, what seems to be, an obvious explanation. The perpetrator, whose public pronouncements suggest an incoherent, unbalanced madman, was mentally ill and acted out out of psychosis.
But one of the tragedies in this case, that compounds the original one, is that there are no shortage of people who are happy to exploit these deaths for political and ideological motives.
Because the central victim in is a Democratic legislator whose district was identified by Sarah Palin as a "target" for Republicans to take, Democrats and others on the left, both in the US and in Canada, have ebulliently grasped the opportunity to lay blame on the former Republican Vice Presidential candidate,the Republican party and "right wingers" in general for allegedly creating a climate filled with violent rhetoric that supposedly created these events.
Nothing could be more absurd.
 |
| From The Democratic Leadership Council website |
Responsible conservatives are as opposed to violence as much as responsible liberals. We live in a democratic society where change can be achieved through persuasion and elections.
Sane people are appalled by and reject the idea of initiating transition by terror.
But what may be shocking to some is that in Canada, explicit calls for violence to achieve political ends are coming from none other than the radical left.
Or perhaps not so shocking. The most recent acts of publicized political violence in Canada came from The Black Bloc during Toronto's G20 conference. It was radical leftists who rioted and caused millions of dollars in damage to make a political statement.
But it doesn't end there. Prominent Canadian leftist Judy Rebick founded a Marxist-leaning website called rabble.ca. It's now published by the spouse of the NDP's Deputy Leader, Libby Davies and is mainly funded by Canadian unions like CUPW and CUPE. That site's discussion forum recently hosted a thread entitled, "When is the time for violent revolution?" in which its contributors made comments like:
"I was wondering when it would be ok to overthrow a government, violently if need be."
"Perhaps the reason the ballot box isn't working is because the ballot box isn't the way to the solution."
"I think 9/11 was just a test run. The people failed with flying colours. And I think it's an example of what's in store for the future if fascists back themselves into another corner."
"How many more decades should we wait? It appears that Canadians arent catching on, so should we suffer in silence for 30 more years? maybe a generation or three? Dont the better people of our society have a responsibility to the stupid?"
and worse.
Beyond that, CUPE, CUPW, Independent Jewish Voices (an anti-Israel group) and the NDP's Socialist Caucus were all endorsers of a recent rally where one of the speakers called for violent revolution in Canada.
At a Toronto rally in support of convicted American cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamar, one of the speakers was an organizer from the Communist newsletter BASICS. Following a rambling speech about conspiracies and praising violent revolutionaries, he said "we haven't had any threat of insurrection or any, you know, revolutionary uprisings in Canada quite for, for quite some time, right? But that that doesn't mean that operation is not still in play."
This suggests that the Canadian radical left is not only advocating violence, but planning it.
This type of organized insurrection against democracy is far more dangerous than a lone madman. Violence for political means is deplorable, and no ideology or political movement has a monopoly on it. But its strongest proponents these days are not the "right-wingers" and "neo-Cons" but their opponents.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Adolescence can be a time of sexual discovery, but this is like discovering a toxic waste dump
From The Toronto Star:
read the rest of the article by Rosie DiManno here
Below are some of Ms Kooger's MySpace picures. Ironically, her MySpace name is Koogerbabe.
I guess she decided the name Kooger was a license to be a "cougar." As to the "babe" part, evidently a great deal of license was taken.
UPDATE: And in the Strange but True department
There was a time when Lori Kooger was head over heels in love with Paul Bernardo.
He was her celebrity idol.
These days, the now 44-year-old widowed mother of three is herself accused of being a sexual predator and stalker of underage boys.
From courthouse groupie to jailhouse custody, awaiting trial on charges of sexual interference, sexual assault and invitation to sexual touching involving two youths, one of whom is only 12.
read the rest of the article by Rosie DiManno here
Below are some of Ms Kooger's MySpace picures. Ironically, her MySpace name is Koogerbabe.
I guess she decided the name Kooger was a license to be a "cougar." As to the "babe" part, evidently a great deal of license was taken.
UPDATE: And in the Strange but True department
Arizona Rampage Reaction Round-up
The (alleged) crazed murderer, Jared Loughner, who killed six people over the weekend and shot U.S. House Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) in the head, leaving her in critical condition has shocked America and much of the world.
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey cautioned against jumping to any political links in the shooting and said "the answer will come from psychology, not from sociology or political science."
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has called for a thorough review of security measures.
According to a readout of the conference call, Boehner said he had asked Larson and House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) to arrange the "in-depth security overview."
In addition, the sergeant at arms and Capitol Police will conduct a bipartisan security briefing for district directors. "This is a time for the House to lock arms, both in condemnation of this heinous act, and in prayer for those killed and wounded in this attack," Boehner said. "At a time when an individual has shown us humanity at its worst, we must rise to the occasion for our nation and show Congress at its best."Paul Krugman, in a New York Times blog, blamed the shooting on a climate created by the rhetoric of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Ruch Limbaugh.
Also on Wednesday, Congress will meet to consider a resolution honoring Giffords and the other victims of the shooting. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that Congress will only meet pro forma on Tuesday, with no votes scheduled.
We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist. (Her father says that “the whole Tea Party” was her enemy.) And yes, she was on Sarah Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” list.
Just yesterday, Ezra Klein remarked that opposition to health reform was getting scary. Actually, it’s been scary for quite a while, in a way that already reminded many of us of the climate that preceded the Oklahoma City bombing.
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard suggested that comments like Kriugman's amount to "McCarthyism."
He said there is no proof that Jared Loughner, the suspect, was a fan of Palin nor went to her website, which had labeled Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and other Democrats a political target last year; it was illustrated with a graphic of a crosshairs that has triggered a political debate.
Federal authorities on Sunday filed murder charges against Loughner.
Kristol said those who are blaming Palin, such as Paul Krugman of The New York Times, are practicing "McCarthyism."
"The attempt to exploit this tragedy is distasteful," Kristol said.
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey cautioned against jumping to any political links in the shooting and said "the answer will come from psychology, not from sociology or political science."
"The fact of the matter is, we still have extremely important critical issues of public policy that must be sorted out," Armey said on ABC's "This Week." "Now, hopefully this will be done in a more civil way. But this incident is no basis by which anybody who sees their duty to America to stand down from that duty, but to redouble it, perhaps with a greater degree of caution, and hopefully with a greater degree of civility. "We've always wanted that," he said. "But still, nevertheless, we must do our duty and defend our liberties in this great country."
Sunday, January 9, 2011
An idea isn't a good one unless you share it
From a Scientific American review of Steven Johnson's book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Protecting our ideas from others may mean they never see the light, according to Steven Johnson in his new book, Where Good Ideas Come From. By sharing these thoughts, however, we can connect with our peers and contribute to powerful networks that “shape the flow of information and inspiration.” Take the invention of GPS. This handy navigation system was originally invented because scientists were trying to determine the precise location of the Russian satellite Sputnik at any moment as it traveled.
Johnson argues that although we tend to think that good ideas emerge from our mental prowess, our environment provides an equally crucial influence. If we isolate ourselves from the intellectual influence of others, good ideas rarely develop. Johnson illustrates this point by discussing research by psychologist Kevin Dunbar, who studied how scientists work in the laboratory. Dunbar set up cameras to watch and listen in and found that the most important ideas were not generated by individuals but by groups of scientists who exchanged information in lab meetings.
Johnson also tells us that eureka moments are rare. The best new ideas develop by gradually adding bits of complexity to older ideas. For instance, the Web has become increasingly complex since it was invented 20 years ago. From just a few thousand Web sites, the network has ballooned to more than 100 million sites with 25 billion pages of information.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Off with their heads! (Pt. 2) Researchers have documented yet another health benefit for circumcision
(Reuters) - Researchers have documented yet another health benefit for circumcision, which can protect men against the AIDS virus, saying it can protect their wives and girlfriends from a virus that causes cervical cancer.
Wives and girlfriends of circumcised men had a 28 percent lower rate of infection over two years with the human papilloma virus or HPV, which causes warts and cervical cancer, they reported in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday.
"Our findings indicate that male circumcision should now be accepted as an efficacious intervention for reducing the prevalence and incidence of HPV infections in female partners. However, protection is only partial; the promotion of safe sex practices is also important," Dr. Maria Wawer and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore wrote.read the whole article at Reuters
The Devil's Rain
I actually saw The Devil's Rain when I was a kid and got to thinking about it when I was reading a post on Blazing Cat Fur about the United Church of Canada, an organization that has elevated itself to "co-creators with God." I don't buy it, but that belief does explain a lot about them.
The blog Things That Don't Suck provides a very funny rundown of this movie (loads of spoilers!)
that involves, well.. an evil cult, the devil and rain. But it's the Devil's Rain!
And if that isn't enticing enough, how about a cast that includes William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, John Travolta, Keenan Wynn and Ernest Borgnine as Satan!
And the technical advisor was none other than notorious High Priest of the Church of Satan,George Galloway Anton Lavey!
As a special treat, until YouTube removes it, here's the whole movie!
WARNING! This movie is seriously weird and once you've seen it, you can't unsee it! Enter at your own risk.
The blog Things That Don't Suck provides a very funny rundown of this movie (loads of spoilers!)
that involves, well.. an evil cult, the devil and rain. But it's the Devil's Rain!
And if that isn't enticing enough, how about a cast that includes William Shatner, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, John Travolta, Keenan Wynn and Ernest Borgnine as Satan!
And the technical advisor was none other than notorious High Priest of the Church of Satan,
As a special treat, until YouTube removes it, here's the whole movie!
WARNING! This movie is seriously weird and once you've seen it, you can't unsee it! Enter at your own risk.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Campbell's Soup sponsors website that approves of the murder of blasphemers against Islam
TheMuslim.ca an Islamist website based in Canada, has just posted an editorial that supports the murder of "blasphemers against Islam"
And who is TheMuslim.ca's marquee sponsor?
Campbell's!
mmm..mmm Jihadi good!
I think I'll be switching to Heinz and Knorr's!
h/t Blazing Cat Fur and Scaramouche
UPDATE Jan 11: This post has been making the rounds and reader Sanwin reports that Campbell's have pulled their ads from TheMurder TheMuslim.ca
And who is TheMuslim.ca's marquee sponsor?
Campbell's!
mmm..mmm Jihadi good!
I think I'll be switching to Heinz and Knorr's!
h/t Blazing Cat Fur and Scaramouche
 |
| I keep stealing Blazing Cat Fur's artwork - I hope he doesn't sue me! |
UPDATE Jan 11: This post has been making the rounds and reader Sanwin reports that Campbell's have pulled their ads from The
The Palestinian Proletariat
British Prime Minister David Cameron recently called Gaza a “prison camp.” Former President Jimmy Carter has called it a “cage.” At first glance, these characterizations of the Hamas-ruled province seem like rhetorical excesses designed to cast Israel in the role of the unjust jailer blockading the strip. But Cameron and Carter have got it right, in a way. Gaza is a totalitarian paramilitary camp at war with its neighbors and other Palestinians. It is a paramilitary camp because it is a unique type of refugee camp. The narrow confines of the 139 square miles of the Gaza district—surrounded by Israel to the north and east, Egypt to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west—feature eight separate Palestinian refugee camps, plus dozens of surrounding ghettos. Altogether, they combine the features of a refugee camp and a military camp and, cut off from the world, look to some extent like the cages Carter mentioned.
These camps were established in 1949 and have been financed ever since by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Yet far from seeking to help residents build a new and better life either in Gaza or elsewhere, UNRWA is paying millions of refugees to perpetuate their refugee status, generation after generation, as they await their forcible return to the land inside the State of Israel.read the rest of the article by Michael Bernstam at Commentary Magazine
Naomi Wolf wants sexual assualt victims to be named
Feminist author Naomi Wolf is now arguing in Britain's socialist-leaning newspaper, The Guardian, that sex assault victims, whose identities courts have shielded for the last generation, should now be revealed.
And why this sudden turnaround?
Because Wiki-leaks Julian Assange is the subject of sexual assault charges!
Also: On rape, the left still doesn't get it
And why this sudden turnaround?
Because Wiki-leaks Julian Assange is the subject of sexual assault charges!
Also: On rape, the left still doesn't get it
"It's been known for some time that Assange was accused of using his body weight to force sex on one woman, ignoring her demand that he use a condom, and penetrating the other woman while she slept, also without a condom, despite her wishes; yet writer after writer has treated the whole thing as a big joke. It was "sex by surprise" – some arcane Swedish thing – wrote Dave Lindorff on Truthout. Also, Assange didn't tell the second woman about the first and didn't return her phone call. Hell hath no fury like a groupie scorned.
Appearing on Keith Olbermann's show after he put up $20,000 to help bail Assange out of a British jail, Michael Moore – apparently an expert on Swedish rape law – called the case "a bunch of hooey"
The right to free speech is not the right to force people to listen to you
While claiming to speak "for the people", communists and Marxists uniformly behave as if they are the sole custodians of "the people's will." They think they know better than you what is in your interest, which is why they act as if views they disagree with should be barred while their own should be imposed.
Even when operating in democratic countries, communists never seem quite able to manage a fundamental understanding of democratic principles and only seem to grasp their trappings. In countries where there is a free press and free speech, radical socialists and communists complain that they are unable to get their message out. If that's true, it's not because of any concerted effort to suppress what they are saying. It is, of course, due to their own ineptitude and their lack of having anything to say that people want to hear. There are any number of means of mass communication, via blogs, a competitive mainstream media, social media, publications and so on. The average Canadian has more access to diverse media now than any previous society in world history.
If a message isn't taking hold it isn't because there aren't means of disseminating it. It's because people don't find the message compelling.
But some (e.g. communists and Islamist Human Rights Commission complainants) demand that they should be able to impose their opinions on others while claiming their right to free speech is being denied.
Which is pretty stupid.
Free speech is the right to say or write what you like. It isn't the right to demand that others listen to you or have to broadcast your opinion.
But Canadian communists are like the ugly, bitter wallflower who handles rejection badly.
A recent outburst involves Canadian communist Kimball Cariou (how's that for an alliteration!).
Offended that colorful Hockey commentator Don Cherry is expressing support for Canadian soldiers fighting against totalitarians in Afghanistan, Cariou, joined by Sea Hitler (Canadian Gaza boat) swabbie Derirck O'Keefe are demanding Cherry change his ways or that they should be able to appear on Hockey Night in Canada to debate him.
They have formed a group, absurdly calling themselves "Hockey Fans for Peace" - a misnomer since there are too many exceptions to their peace activism to mention; Afghan women, Lebanese being persecuted by Hezbollah, religious minorities in Iran, Jews in Israel, Christians in the Muslim world plus plenty more would all seem to be exempt from the peace interests of these people. "Warmongers Against the West" has a better ring to it and is a better description, but I doubt they'd take my suggestion. However, I digress..
The point is that in democratic Canada, you have every right to say what you want about Cherry and the war. But until the Stalinists run the show here, people like Cariou and O'Keefe don't get to tell anyone what they have to hear.
Even when operating in democratic countries, communists never seem quite able to manage a fundamental understanding of democratic principles and only seem to grasp their trappings. In countries where there is a free press and free speech, radical socialists and communists complain that they are unable to get their message out. If that's true, it's not because of any concerted effort to suppress what they are saying. It is, of course, due to their own ineptitude and their lack of having anything to say that people want to hear. There are any number of means of mass communication, via blogs, a competitive mainstream media, social media, publications and so on. The average Canadian has more access to diverse media now than any previous society in world history.
If a message isn't taking hold it isn't because there aren't means of disseminating it. It's because people don't find the message compelling.
But some (e.g. communists and Islamist Human Rights Commission complainants) demand that they should be able to impose their opinions on others while claiming their right to free speech is being denied.
Which is pretty stupid.
Free speech is the right to say or write what you like. It isn't the right to demand that others listen to you or have to broadcast your opinion.
A recent outburst involves Canadian communist Kimball Cariou (how's that for an alliteration!).
Offended that colorful Hockey commentator Don Cherry is expressing support for Canadian soldiers fighting against totalitarians in Afghanistan, Cariou, joined by Sea Hitler (Canadian Gaza boat) swabbie Derirck O'Keefe are demanding Cherry change his ways or that they should be able to appear on Hockey Night in Canada to debate him.
They have formed a group, absurdly calling themselves "Hockey Fans for Peace" - a misnomer since there are too many exceptions to their peace activism to mention; Afghan women, Lebanese being persecuted by Hezbollah, religious minorities in Iran, Jews in Israel, Christians in the Muslim world plus plenty more would all seem to be exempt from the peace interests of these people. "Warmongers Against the West" has a better ring to it and is a better description, but I doubt they'd take my suggestion. However, I digress..
The point is that in democratic Canada, you have every right to say what you want about Cherry and the war. But until the Stalinists run the show here, people like Cariou and O'Keefe don't get to tell anyone what they have to hear.
Helen Thomas is back!
The only question is: does she still eat the brains of the living?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Ontario Human Rights Commission investigating whether to make crackheads and alcoholics* a protected category
* I meant "cocaine-challenged and alcohol-deprived citizens"
No, I'm not making this up:
No, I'm not making this up:
Toronto - The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) launched a survey today to learn more about the human rights issues and barriers people with mental health and addiction disabilities face. The survey kicks off a broader consultation process on human rights and mental health-related issues.
The questions are aimed at learning how discrimination because of a person’s mental health issue or addiction may affect their ability to find and keep a job, get an apartment or connect with education and health-related services.
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